movies

[ghostrunner]

The Lookout - the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun is grown up and plays a former high school hockey star who has an accident, suffers some brain damage and has to write notes to remind himself to do routine things. He works as a janitor in a bank and gets seduced by a girl to be in their gang and help rob the place. Jeff Daniels plays his blind roomate and is great as always. Otherwise the movie is just okay.

The Dreamers - i think this has been discussed here before. Best Bertolucci movie I've ever seen, though I've never seen the Conformist, and it's been years since I've seen Last Tango in Paris (didn't like it much at the time, but I may not have understood it). Loved it.

Shoot Em Up - Clive Owen shoots everything. Ridiculous, ludicrous, stupid and awesome.

9 Songs - an arty porn movie, with basically no artistic value. Lots of (real) sex which you don't get to enjoy, interrupted by concert footage you don't get to enjoy, interrupted by shots of Antarctica which make no sense whatsoever. The girl in the movie is annoying as all get out. Michael Winterbottom directed it. I've only seen two movies of his and they're both awful. When I say the sex is real, there's even the proverbial money shot.

Lie With Me - another movie with lots of sex. Not real, but still 100 times better than anything in 9 Songs. The lead actress is great, and it's nice to see sex treated so well in a movie. This one's from Canada.

Doomsday - ridiculous post apocalyptic Mad Max style movie. I knew it would be over the top, but I was hoping to be surprised. The cast actually does a pretty good job with what they've been dealt.

Next up: Persepolis

[JL21]

The Dreamers - i think this has been discussed here before. Best Bertolucci movie I've ever seen, though I've never seen the Conformist, and it's been years since I've seen Last Tango in Paris (didn't like it much at the time, but I may not have understood it). Loved it.

I've been meaning to see this one for awhile. While I haven't seen it, I have seen The Conformist and thought it was fantastic.

Then, in the hopes of going on a huge Bertolucci roll, my 2nd Bertolucci film was Partner. That one was annoying enough to kill all the momentum that The Conformist gave me.

[Popeye_Card]

Watched "The Deer Hunter" for the first time last weekend. the movie is 30 years old now.

great actors - including younger Deniro, Streep. the actor who was "Fredo" from the Godfather played the same great role in this film.

Overall, the movie was a bit of a disappointment. because

[SHOW]

it spends a lot of time showing the relationship of these guys and their background in the steel town. but overdoes it IMO -The wedding and reception seemed eternal, after an hour or so of this, I was saying to myself "OK they are steeltown buddies, I get it." then they move onto Vietnam, and the movie morphs into a bit of action/thriller mode, which is ok. The whole deal with Russian Roulette seemed like a reach. Nicky (Christopher Walken) could have been portrayed as messed up and AWOL for other more realistic reasons provided by Vietnam War. Then the last scene- not that great.

Glad I've seen it now though.

I too watched it for the first time last year, and had similar thoughts.

[SHOW]

After 30 minutes of wedding crap, I was beginning to think to myself, "should I skip forward? Am I really going to miss anything here?" Similar thoughts to the Russian Roullette stuff. It began to conjure up memories of the underground world of cat juggling from The Jerk.

[omaha_red]

zombie lake - a really great nazi-zombie/father-daughter story.. very touching

they saved hitler's brain - worth it to see hitler's head in a mason jar.. the rest was boring

the bunker - another nazi zombie movie.. better production value than "zombie lake".. but
pretty boring

hard rock zombies - fantastic zombie movie where a rock band gets killed.. comes back
to life to rock the town.. and to kill the nazis that made them zombies.. nice hitler cameo too..

exorcism - cheesy jesus franco movie about a priest that murders S & M performers..
lots of full frontal nudity though..

children shouldn't play with dead things - pretty terrible late 70's horror movie.. no nazis or
nudity.. 2/10

[Freed Roger]

Watched "The Deer Hunter" for the first time last weekend. the movie is 30 years old now.

great actors - including younger Deniro, Streep. the actor who was "Fredo" from the Godfather played the same great role in this film.

Overall, the movie was a bit of a disappointment. because

[SHOW]

it spends a lot of time showing the relationship of these guys and their background in the steel town. but overdoes it IMO -The wedding and reception seemed eternal, after an hour or so of this, I was saying to myself "OK they are steeltown buddies, I get it." then they move onto Vietnam, and the movie morphs into a bit of action/thriller mode, which is ok. The whole deal with Russian Roulette seemed like a reach. Nicky (Christopher Walken) could have been portrayed as messed up and AWOL for other more realistic reasons provided by Vietnam War. Then the last scene- not that great.

Glad I've seen it now though.

I too watched it for the first time last year, and had similar thoughts.

[SHOW]

After 30 minutes of wedding crap, I was beginning to think to myself, "should I skip forward? Am I really going to miss anything here?" Similar thoughts to the Russian Roullette stuff. It began to conjure up memories of the underground world of cat juggling from The Jerk.

Popeye, I just looked up the message board on IMDB and first thing I came across was this. I tend to concur, but i I liked it a small bit more than that reviewer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/boa ... 1#96469105

[SHOW]

by sidema77 (Thu Jan 31 2008 20:08:41) Ignore this User | Report Abuse


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Heres a new concept... the dehumanizing effect vietnam had on soldiers. But instead of sticking to our tired cliche that at least has some gravity, lets devote a three hour picture to the effects of russian roulette, a practice that was not even a part of vietnam in any way. I felt nothing for these characters, There was almost no war scenes or anything really related to the war at all. Christopher walken's character was unconvincing in that he "just couldn't snap out of it" and in the final roulette scene I was expecting exactly what happened to happen. This film broke no new ground, suffered from bad pacing issues,and brought nothing new to the table that wasn't surpassed by the likes of apocalypse now and plattoon. And then to top it all off we have the sickeningly sentimental and corny singing of "God Bless America" at the dinner table. What deep, bold, message was the director trynig to convey through this? I'm not even sure that this amateur could answer that himself. This is one of the most highly overrated films that I've wasted three hours on.

[JL21]

zombie lake - a really great nazi-zombie/father-daughter story.. very touching

Zombie Lake is like the Lawrence of Arabia of pseudo-porn movies featuring nazi zombies.

hard rock zombies - fantastic zombie movie where a rock band gets killed.. comes back
to life to rock the town.. and to kill the nazis that made them zombies.. nice hitler cameo too..

You forgot about the ravenous zombie midgets. And the werewolf married to Hitler that becomes a zombie.

[omaha_red]

zombie lake - a really great nazi-zombie/father-daughter story.. very touching

Zombie Lake is like the Lawrence of Arabia of pseudo-porn movies featuring nazi zombies.

hard rock zombies - fantastic zombie movie where a rock band gets killed.. comes back
to life to rock the town.. and to kill the nazis that made them zombies.. nice hitler cameo too..

You forgot about the ravenous zombie midgets. And the werewolf married to Hitler that becomes a zombie.

oh yeah.. and the little dwarf zombie monster that completely eats itself.. that's movie
magic right there..

[heyzeus]

I finally watched Apocalypse Now (the Redux version) over the weekend. The horror. That's 3.5 hours I'll never see again.

It would've been enjoyable even at 2.5 hours. Ho well.

[Hungary Jack]

Religulous opened last week at the nearby Century Landmark cinema, which is a great place to watch a film. This is Bill Maher's satirical documentary-style examination of religious extremism and its role in society.

I generally cherish anything that points out the absurdity of religious extremism, especially the kind of obsequious, unthinking right-wing evangelical thinking that has bastardized the conservative party over the past two decades. But I left Religulous a bit disappointed. The film provides a multitude of laughs, and some of the scenes are hysterically funny, but Maher wastes most of his sharp wit on low-end targets that are easy to ridicule. These include attendees of a religous theme park that re-enacts the crucifiction with choreographed song and dance; an evangelical Senator who confesses that being a Senator does not require passing an IQ test; and a guy in Amsterdam who thinks smoking a lot of pot is a form of piety. Maher basically ends up shooting fish in a barrel.

This all would be fine if Maher did not conclude the film with his own soliloquy on the perils of religious fundamentalism that crowds out science and finds its way into politics and government. But his closing message is diluted by the slapstick-like scenes that precede it.

Verdict: See it for the laughs

[Arthur Dent]

Religulous opened last week at the nearby Century Landmark cinema, which is a great place to watch a film. This is Bill Maher's satirical documentary-style examination of religious extremism and its role in society.

I generally cherish anything that points out the absurdity of religious extremism, especially the kind of obsequious, unthinking right-wing evangelical thinking that has bastardized the conservative party over the past two decades. But I left Religulous a bit disappointed. The film provides a multitude of laughs, and some of the scenes are hysterically funny, but Maher wastes most of his sharp wit on low-end targets that are easy to ridicule. These include attendees of a religous theme park that re-enacts the crucifiction with choreographed song and dance; an evangelical Senator who confesses that being a Senator does not require passing an IQ test; and a guy in Amsterdam who thinks smoking a lot of pot is a form of piety. Maher basically ends up shooting fish in a barrel.

This all would be fine if Maher did not conclude the film with his own soliloquy on the perils of religious fundamentalism that crowds out science and finds its way into politics and government. But his closing message is diluted by the slapstick-like scenes that precede it.

Verdict: See it for the laughs

Agreed with all of that. Extremely funny though.