Recently Viewed Movies Episode 2: The Vampire Bites Back

[Frostillicus]

Identity Thief - Fucking terrible. I wish I could get back the time I spent watching this garbage. Avoid at all costs, unless consistent, incredibly low brow humor and gaping plot holes truly are your thing. I like the main actors, and some of the secondary ones as well. They were all wasted here.

Kiki's Delivery Service - Never saw this before. Just catching up on older Miyazaki works. It is a good movie with likeable characters. Looking back on the whole thing, not a lot really happens overall, but it's still a good story. It's kind of refreshing in that the only real antagonist is Kiki's doubt in herself. I believe this is a good story of inspiration and confidence that would be good for rug rats.

Secret World of Arietty - Pretty much an original anime adaptation of The Borrowers. It's a sweet film. Almost too sweet at times, but thankfully, it pulls back before it actually crosses any sugary lines. Good characters, good story. Well, the sick kid is kind of a douche, but his actions directly drive the plot, and are well explained later. The ending of the film tugged on these heart strings just a little.
Studio Ghibli really shines here. No doubt they are an incredibly talented staff of animators. They really did a great job showing the difference in how the humans and borrowers perceive their respective worlds.
EDIT: I like the instrumentation of the soundtrack. It's actually fantastic, IMO. The woman's singing voice sounds like an annoying little gnome, though...

[Dice]

^ That's why I don't really get this really strong love Ghibli usually gets.  They're good, better than many in fact, but it still feels slightly over-rated.  At least their recent efforts have been a bit...soft.  The slower films I find are just really pleasant, and nothing wrong with that, but I do think a few more scenes could make the film more valuable.  I wish Kiki had one more "client" to interact with, or Arietty chatted with Sho one more time (I felt that each time they did, it was more of an anxious meeting than a friendly one; so I wasn't too sold by their fond farewell at the end since I didn't feel they developed much as friends than just 'partners' with a new lease on ...life?).

Eat, Pray, Love
 Not really a good movie, and I hate how a lot of big actors in their 40's-50's seem to act like they've acted in all their bigger movies over and over (I also watched The Descendants where it's George Cloony acting like ...George Clooney).... but I dunno.  HMMM  I think the fact the movie takes you on a "vacation" to Rome, India, and Bali took me from "movie critic" zone to simply enjoying the sights and sounds as you watch a woman deal and heal over what's bugging her.  So I wanna go travel!  And that's what this movie "inspired" me to say and I'll stick with that as my review.

[Tooker]

Finally saw Man of Steel.  What a weird movie.  Not necessarily a bad one, but weird.

[Klutz64]

Finally saw Man of Steel.  What a weird movie.  Not necessarily a bad one, but weird.

Yeah, I saw it this week too. I agree, I don't think it was as bad as people were claiming but there were a lot of weird directing choices. For instance the fight choreography felt like a turn-based battle system. Clark hits bad guy, bad guy hits Clark, Clark hits bad guy again, and on and on for far too long without either side really showing any signs of actually being affected by the fight. Then there was the washed out film look throughout the movie. I didn't hate the movie, but I can't say I have a lot of confidence if this is the start of a new Superman franchise.

[Tooker]

And now I'm watching Freaked. Obviously, it means that Man of Steel is not the weirdest movie I've seen today.  I'm enjoying it.

[Yoda]

So hulu+ is awesome for having the Criterion collection. But last week I started watching Yojimbo, one of my favorites, and now it's not on there.

What the hell?

Sanjuro instead I guess, tonight.

[Dincrest]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was rather good.  The new director did a great job with it.  The acting was more emotive and the overall vibe was less campy and more gritty and had that "things just became real" vibe.  I also liked that, unlike the first movie, enough was explained that you didn't need to have read the books to figure out what was happening.  In the first movie, the lack of explanation of the mockingjays was criminal.  The first movie didn't make me want to read the books, but this one made me want to read the books.  

EDIT: Often, I have something to say about a movie's musical score, but I have nothing to say here.  The music was just kinda there.  Definitely the film's weakest point. 

[Dice]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was rather good.  The new director did a great job with it.  The acting was more emotive and the overall vibe was less campy and more gritty and had that "things just became real" vibe.  I also liked that, unlike the first movie, enough was explained that you didn't need to have read the books to figure out what was happening.  In the first movie, the lack of explanation of the mockingjays was criminal.  The first movie didn't make me want to read the books, but this one made me want to read the books.  

EDIT: Often, I have something to say about a movie's musical score, but I have nothing to say here.  The music was just kinda there.  Definitely the film's weakest point. 

Was it better than the first film's weird, hollow "Eeeeeeeee eeee eee...!  Eeee eee eeee.....

I'm looking forward to the movie myself.

But this friday I'm seeing Frozen with my mummy as a "Semester Over" present! :D
We haven't watched a Disney flick since like...Pocahontas I think.

[Tooker]

Have you seen Disney movies since then on DVD, or not at all?  Because there have been some good ones since Pocahontas...

[(Tunnels)]

Session 9-

What a wonderfully creepy film. I watched it around 11PM at a friend's place, and I felt very unsettled for the rest of the night after watching it. The acting was okay, but damn, the cinematography, editing and especially the use of sound were amazing. Both the soundtrack and the amazing work they did on the session tapes blew me away and creeped me the fuck out. Seriously, the voice for "Simon" was just perfect. Probably the scariest movie I watched all year, and I don't remember a single "jump" scare.

[GrimReality]

Yeah, Session 9 is great. I need to see that again.

Flight -
Wow, this turned out a bit different than I was expecting. First, I didn't realize it was rated R, so when I see a naked woman walking around, and then a bunch of "filthy" language, I was surprised.
I figured out where it was headed pretty early on, but found it quite powerful, regardless.
Denzel blew me away here. I've always liked him, but never found him to be an amazing actor. He really pulls off this man with serious addiction issues very well. I don't recall if he was nominated for this, but he should have been.
The actual flight of the title happens right in the beginning. The crash sequence is pretty harrowing and tense. Very well done. Denzel comes off like a freakin' superhero, and I liked that. To see everyday people do amazing things.
By the time we get to that culminating moment at the end, so much has built up inside us, that when he says those words, it's an emotional rush. Very well done.

[Aeolus]

Got around to watching Thor yesterday night. Solid movie for the most part, Loki steals the show whenever he's on the screen, the fight scene at the end between Thor and the 9th Doctor was handled well enough for what it was trying to do, and it was nice to see more focus on Asgard this time around rather than more Earth. Only issues was that the 9th Doctor felt overshadowed at times compared to the Aether infused guy and Loki and that most of Thor's posse didn't really see a lot of action. Silf had enough screen time and maybe Obi-wan (or is that Bilbo Baggins?), but the rest only really showed up in the early fight and during the escape scene (except for the Samurai lookin dude who only showed up after the fight for a reaction shot during the Convergence).

[Dincrest]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was rather good.  The new director did a great job with it.  The acting was more emotive and the overall vibe was less campy and more gritty and had that "things just became real" vibe.  I also liked that, unlike the first movie, enough was explained that you didn't need to have read the books to figure out what was happening.  In the first movie, the lack of explanation of the mockingjays was criminal.  The first movie didn't make me want to read the books, but this one made me want to read the books.  

EDIT: Often, I have something to say about a movie's musical score, but I have nothing to say here.  The music was just kinda there.  Definitely the film's weakest point. 

Was it better than the first film's weird, hollow "Eeeeeeeee eeee eee...!  Eeee eee eeee.....

Are you referring to the music?  If so, the music was just generic brassy/classical-inspired film music.  The soundtrack was acceptable, nothing more. 

[Dice]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was rather good.  The new director did a great job with it.  The acting was more emotive and the overall vibe was less campy and more gritty and had that "things just became real" vibe.  I also liked that, unlike the first movie, enough was explained that you didn't need to have read the books to figure out what was happening.  In the first movie, the lack of explanation of the mockingjays was criminal.  The first movie didn't make me want to read the books, but this one made me want to read the books.  

EDIT: Often, I have something to say about a movie's musical score, but I have nothing to say here.  The music was just kinda there.  Definitely the film's weakest point.  

Was it better than the first film's weird, hollow "Eeeeeeeee eeee eee...!  Eeee eee eeee.....

Are you referring to the music?  If so, the music was just generic brassy/classical-inspired film music.  The soundtrack was acceptable, nothing more.  

I'm a huge Thomas Newman fan myself.  I like knowing that it's his music when I watch a film and usually his tracks stand out -- they're *aren't* that generic "classical film music" (I know too damn well with what you mean there)

http://youtu.be/luiStmEJCD0  Reptile Room, from A Series of Unfortunate Events
http://youtu.be/Bu33ASyD4o0  Chicago, from Road to Perdition
http://youtu.be/lYGald0tFro And of course, the Shawshank Redemption Theme

EDIT: *nudge nudge* if u know someone, always looking for good tracks/composers :)

[Tooker]

The Man With the Iron Fists: if it were better, it'd be a kind of steampunk Kung-Fu Hustle or a more martial-arts oriented (haha) Kill Bill.  It's not awful, but it's not great.  It's just kind of stupid.  A pale imitation of better movies.