The Raid: Redemption – Swat team attacks an apartment block run by gangsters. State of the art as far as these things go, I suppose, but I found it a touch repetitive. 3/5

Race with the Devil – 70s B Movie – two couples are terrorized by a cult. 2.5/5

[Edited 1/2/13 4:21am]

I saw The Hobbit on New Year's Eve - and let's just say I've had an assful of Middle Earth. Good lord - three hours of fighting Trolls, Goblins and Orcs. How they are going to make nine worthwhile hours worth of film out of a 150-page book is beyond me. I could read it in half the time.

damosuzuki said:

Race with the Devil – 70s B Movie – two couples are terrorized by a cult. 2.5/5

[Edited 1/2/13 4:21am]

Wow! How did you ever find THAT movie? It was awesome! I remember seeing it at the drive-in when I was in my early teens.

SPOLIER ALERT - IIRC, the ending was awesome. They fought and fought and ran and ran and at the end, the camera pulls back and the RV is surrounded by devil-worshippers, right?

It reminded me of "Macon County, Georgia" where at the end the kids finally get away from the cops, get out of Macon County and are celebrating as they go over a railroad crossing and get creamed by an oncoming train. LOL.

The Departed 4/5 I should take away a half of star since DiCaprio's character got shot, that upset me. I'd watch it again though.

Doom 2/5 I only bought it because of Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson outside of that it couldn't hold my attention.

morningsong said:

The Departed 4/5 I should take away a half of star since DiCaprio's character got shot, that upset me. I'd watch it again though.

Good movie, more plot driven than most Scorsese films. I was a little iffy about the mirror images of the DiCaprio/Damon characters, though

4/5

[Edited 1/4/13 19:05pm]

RodeoSchro said:

damosuzuki said:

Race with the Devil – 70s B Movie – two couples are terrorized by a cult. 2.5/5

[Edited 1/2/13 4:21am]

Wow! How did you ever find THAT movie? It was awesome! I remember seeing it at the drive-in when I was in my early teens.

SPOLIER ALERT - IIRC, the ending was awesome. They fought and fought and ran and ran and at the end, the camera pulls back and the RV is surrounded by devil-worshippers, right?

You got it right - impressive memory! I wasn't crazy about the movie overall, but it is a perfect drive-in movie, and it does have a pair of really good chases.

I'd rented it years ago (came bundled with Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry) but didn't get around to watching it so I burnt a copy of it, where it then sat gathering dust until new year's day. I was browsing around that day and stumbled across one of those movie lists - top 10 forgotten horror movies or something like that - and they named this one, and I went 'holy crap, I think I have a copy of that.'

[Edited 1/3/13 4:27am]

THE HOBBIT 3/5

I agree with the mixed/decent reviews: it's Peter Jackson at his worst = CGI obsessed and out of control

and there were waaaaaaaaaaay too many last minute/out of the blue rescues; and some of the jokes fell flat...

it's not a bad film, and it's nice to get back to the Middle Earth once again, but, unlike the previous LOTR trilogy, I must say that, this time, well "THE BOOK IS BETTER"

and I don't get why this had to be a new trilogy, a two-part film (a la Kill Bill 1-2 or Matrix Reloaded-Revolutions) would have been perfect; if they ever do the Silmarillion, will that be a 9 films saga??

Morvern Callar (2002) - Following the suicide of her boyfriend on Christmas, supermarket clerk Morvern Callar passes off his unpublished novel as her own and uses his funeral money to go on holiday.

This film made me fall in love with Samantha Morton.

Noame Cantabile: The Final Score

A Japanese romantic comedy based on my favorite anime/soap opera, about two classical musicians struggling to connect to each other outside of their musical partnership. an acquired taste for those not into the original series, classical music, or the subtleties of Japanese culture, but lovely all the same to me. This series and it's subsequent movie sequels could likely appeal to those who liked the film style employed in the movie " Amelie". It's always colorful with short action vignettes to accentuate humor and help the storytelling along, and unabashedly manipulates your romantic emotions.

If you are a fan of classical music on top of all that, well then- even better. Anything associated with this franchise always gets at least a 4 /5 for me.

Hunger Games

Likely the best blockbuster since The Dark Knight. Jennifer Lawrence is in a zone.

4.0-5.0

The Hobbit 4/5

Take away one point for being unnecessarily broken into three long parts, and for overdoing the battle scenes, and for making dwarves & hobbits seem virtually indestructible. The Hobbit (book) doesn't quite have the weight of the LOTR, and while they tried to give it more weight, it didn't entirely work for me.

All in all, well acted, well directed, and quite amazing to look at.

Not Fade Away (2012) - Set in suburban New Jersey the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big.

The music is definitely the highlight in this film--especially appealing I think to anyone who is a fan of 60s rock 'n' roll. 1/2

[Edited 1/10/13 5:03am]

I was hoping this would be funny as hell. Sadly, the trailer was much better. 4 out of 10 stars!

NDRU said:

The Hobbit 4/5

Take away one point for being unnecessarily broken into three long parts, and for overdoing the battle scenes, and for making dwarves & hobbits seem virtually indestructible. The Hobbit (book) doesn't quite have the weight of the LOTR, and while they tried to give it more weight, it didn't entirely work for me.

All in all, well acted, well directed, and quite amazing to look at.

oh yeah, that's true

what do you do when an army of Orcs and the Nâzgul are laying siege to your city (Gondor)? EASY= just hire a group of fuckin' dwarves. Who needs the friggin' elves?

lol

Prometheus - 0.5/5. 2nd viewing didn't improve things for me. The opening shot of the lifeless planet and the ship crash were visually great, but otherwise I again found nothing to enjoy and a lot that really bothered me.

An American Rhapsody (2001) - A young Hungarian girl struggles to find her place in the world when she's reunited with her parents in the USA years after she was left behind during their flight from the communist country in the 1950s.

I only watched it for Scarlett Johansson. Bleh.

[img:$uid]http://www.iceposter.com/thumbs/MOV_f0cf189f_b.jpg[/img:$uid]

I liked this movie a lot. Excellent action, lots of thinking, plenty of great fights. But there was one giant, huge plot hole.

SPOILER ALERT

Jason Statham killed Donald Sutherland over the Cape Town affair. But Sutherland knew that was why Statham was killing him. He said so as soon as he realized he'd been set up to be murdered.

BUT, since Sutherland really didn't steal the Cape Town money, and in fact was the guy that smelled a rat, then (a) he didn't deserve to be murdered for the Cape Town affair and should have protested that; or (b) he assumed Statham - his best and only friend in the world - was actually part of the Cape Town Bad Guy Club.

Given the flow of the movie, neither (a) or (b) makes sense. And if you watch the extended scenes on the DVD, Sutherland opens up even more to Statham in the diner. It turns out Sutherland has cancer, which could have been a reason for not caring he was going to die, EXCEPT that Sutherland clearly says his prostate cancer is treatable.

But other than that inconsistency, I loved the movie and give it 4 out of 5 restored Jaguars.

Drive - 4.5/5 - Just about a perfect movie in my world. The only reason I didn't rate it 5 is because it builds up to and climaxes with the elevator scene and it never quite scales that height again, and because I find the lyrics of that College song a little annoying.

Take This Waltz 1/5 I was so bored. Watching people sitting around thinking deeply. I knew from the trailer I'd be bored but I thought I'd step out of my comfort zone. I think from now on I'll just trust my instincts.

360 3/5 It was a pretty good movie or rather premise, but it definitely could have been meatier, and the ending connection tighter. But I like movies were several stories link to each other.

morningsong said:

Take This Waltz 1/5 I was so bored. Watching people sitting around thinking deeply. I knew from the trailer I'd be bored but I thought I'd step out of my comfort zone. I think from now on I'll just trust my instincts.

I love this movie. I'm strongly considering buying it to own. It was adorable seeing Margot and her neighbor dance around each other before the inevitable outcome. And the ending was beautifully bittersweet. I will never hear "Video Killed The Radio Star" the same way again. 4.5/5

And now the Oscar run begins:

Flight (2012) - An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.

I am not a big Denzel fan, but he hit a home run with his performance in this film.

West of Memphis (2012) - An examination of a failure of justice in the case against the West Memphis Three.

What is different here from the three HBO documentaries also about the West Memphis Three is a bigger budget with more celebrities, even more facts pointing to one of the murdered boys' stepfather as being the possible real killer and more of a complete epilogue to the entire story. Very well done. 1/2

sexton said:

morningsong said:

Take This Waltz 1/5 I was so bored. Watching people sitting around thinking deeply. I knew from the trailer I'd be bored but I thought I'd step out of my comfort zone. I think from now on I'll just trust my instincts.

I love this movie. I'm strongly considering buying it to own. It was adorable seeing Margot and her neighbor dance around each other before the inevitable outcome. And the ending was beautifully bittersweet. I will never hear "Video Killed The Radio Star" the same way again. 4.5/5

Yeah, I think I developed the attitude of the older black lady in the shower. "The new gets old" and a host of other sayings that were playing in my head while watching it.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

It was deceptively sweet--which is what made it so good.

3/5 we guessed early on what the deal was though

I'll watch anything with Don Cheadle, he has the best worried face!

3/5 Not what I expected Main character changed personality at some point but otherwise really good.