The "I Just Watched..." Thread

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

Are you fucking kidding me?

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Would "dramedy" be a better term? I don't really know how you're even arguing this unless you're nitpicking.

Wikipedia, IMDB, and the movie's own site all refer to it as a comedy, Jaques Tati pretty much exclusively did comedies, and it's obviously playing for laughs, as well as for bittersweet allegory for parenthood. I just feel like the former fell flat and the latter wasn't the kind of thing that could carry the film.

Maybe my expectations are colored by Tati and Chomet's other works, but I don't think it worked as well as either a Chomet or a Tati film, you know?

I also feel like the kind of father-daughter allegory, while poignant, would have worked better with an actual father and daughter and not just some weird girl who can't speak the same language and follows a stranger home like a lost puppy.

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Originally Posted by Compass

I've had this queued for a while; I'm scared it'll be super boring.

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I think you'll probably figure out if it's for you pretty early in the movie. It's pretty consistently paced. I didn't find it boring, but definitely slow and ambient. YMMV, but you'll know by the time you get an hour in.

I just thought it was depressing as fuck at times. "Kind of sad" doesn't even begin to accurately describe the movie, if you ask me.

Yes it was still funny, charming and beautiful at times. And I didn't think the father/daughter stuff was supposed to be... healthy? I dunno. I just thought the movie was pretty hopeless overall, which was a good thing, to me at least.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I also feel like the kind of father-daughter allegory, while poignant, would have worked better with an actual father and daughter and not just some weird girl who can't speak the same language and follows a stranger home like a lost puppy.

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I thought the movie was written for the daughter he abandoned as a newborn? Kind of defeats the purpose to make it an actual father and daughter

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Originally Posted by dave is ok

I thought the movie was written for the daughter he abandoned as a newborn? Kind of defeats the purpose to make it an actual father and daughter

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There's some debate about this actually, but I don't think it's important, since it's not telling a story of a neglectful father, but of a daughter who doesn't comprehend the challenges of parenthood.

But either way it's just a weird relationship as it is that you expect to take some The Professional-like turn that never happens. Maybe if the girl and her family had a little more backstory or something.

I didn't hate the movie btw, it just seemed to be less than the sum of its parts and not nearly as good as Triplets of Belleville or Mon Oncle.

It was better than both times 3. It was the best, because it's so good.

The clown and the ventriloquist are on some Fry's dog next level of sadness, IMO.

That part with the hill and... the rabbit.
it's the saddest scene of all time, forever.
Also free. What a heartbreaking movie. It wasn't supposed to be very funny. Hell, Tati's movies are never very funny, they're just amusing and charming. This one was different because it was also really depressing, which could be why he never made it happen. It didn't involve Monsieur Hulot, either.

the film rewards people who watch the background. I like that.

When you see the dummy in the pawn shop

FUCK.

I WANT TO SEE IT SO BAD

I SAW IT TWICE!

It's worth seeing. I just didn't think it was as awesome as it should have been. Nor did I find it as depressing as you did. It's sad, bittersweet, but not a tear jerker. Not for me anyway.

Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I'll watch it again at some point. I wanted to love it.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Nor did I find it as depressing as you did. It's sad, bittersweet, but not a tear jerker. Not for me anyway.

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That's because you cold-blooded, Frog. You cold-blooded.

Red.

It is okay.

"Secrets of Interrogation" from Discovery. This was great because they show a bunch of actual police interrogations and have ex FBI type guys breaking down the game film and pointing out different strats and stuff. I just wish it was a series and not a one time thing.

Saw Grave of the Fireflies for the first time last night.

Damn.

Damn, son.

5/5

Started watching Modern Family. Decent, but not as amazing as I was led to believe. Very safe, predictable humor.

Alex is definitely adorable. However, I'm real tired of Hollywood slapping pants and glasses on a chick and thinking that makes them geeky and unattractive. Or not even bothering with the glasses. The girl in Easy A is like a super model, and we're expected to believe she gets no attention from dudes until she turns explicitly whoreish? Not buying it.

Easy A was pretty good, btw. No Mean Girls but entertaining. I like how Ema Stone is self-conscious about her manly voice in realsies (as seen in the extras).

Her voice is ultra sexy.

It's husky.

Never Let Me Go

Another movie I knew nothing about and had no memory of why I'd queued it by the time it hit my mail box. Tossed it in blind. (Eventually I realized the fantastic Carey Mulligan from An Education was almost certainly the impetus behind said queuing.)

Great! Bleak and subtle sci-fi with an important message. Novels and film have the unique ability to argue and distill potentially complex ideas in ways anyone can easily understand, and more importantly point to when humanity starts getting too big for its britches. Lord knows the world we'd be living in without 1984's cautionary tale. Yeah, yeah, Patriot Act. Exactly. Look at where we are even with such dire warnings.

Video games will have their own breakout contribution at some point. Hopefully in my lifetime.

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Originally Posted by Compass

Easy A was pretty good, btw. No Mean Girls but entertaining. I like how Ema Stone is self-conscious about her manly voice in realsies (as seen in the extras).

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My ex-girlfriend went to school at the place Mean Girls was based off of a few grades under the person/people it was loosely based on. It showed in many ways, much as she tried to hide it.

I think every ex-girlfriend went to the place Mean Girls was based off of.

Tapped

This shit is hilarious. It shows the bullshit marketing that went into marketing normal water.

So yeah, I got around to watching Antichrist a little while back.

NEVER AGAIN

Just finished watching The Sunset Limited. It was an HBO film, around 80 minutes and is Tommy Lee Jones, and Samuel L Jackson sitting in a room arguing about religion. There isn't anything other then dialogue to the film but was really powerful. Its got Samuel L Jackson, what more do you need to see it ?

A few more commas might persuade me.

I watched Salt and really liked it, one of the better action movies I've seen in awhile actually. I really dig Angelina Jolie so that may make me bias.

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Originally Posted by Chemist

Just finished watching The Sunset Limited. It was an HBO film, around 80 minutes and is Tommy Lee Jones, and Samuel L Jackson sitting in a room arguing about religion. There isn't anything other then dialogue to the film but was really powerful. Its got Samuel L Jackson, what more do you need to see it ?

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Probably the biggest selling point is that it's based on a Cormac McCarthy play.

Catfish

Suspenseful. This is a few nips and tweaks away from a being a great horror movie.

Poltergeist - What a ridiculous and silly movie. There was some stuff they went for that was neat, but this was mostly somewhere between a Warner Bros. cartoon and a public access show about ghosts.

Bah. It was plenty creepy back in the day when watched as a young'un.

First climax of the movie:

Old lady: I'll go, you've never done this before!
Wife: Neither have you!
Old lady: ...You're right, you go.

Any tension that might've existed: Eliminated.

I don't think any movies scared me as a child. Porcelain clown figures and a two-faced life-sized Grinch doll, on the other hand, gave me nightmares I still remember vividly.

The Lovely Bones - premise should have led to a better movie. Crap.

I liked it. The chair in front of that safe. Disturbing shit! The part where the sister is upstairs trying to lower the floorboard back into place quietly. Major tension!

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

First climax of the movie:

Old lady: I'll go, you've never done this before!
Wife: Neither have you!
Old lady: ...You're right, you go.

Any tension that might've existed: Eliminated.

I don't think any movies scared me as a child. Porcelain clown figures and a two-faced life-sized Grinch doll, on the other hand, gave me nightmares I still remember vividly.

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I think there was a movie called "it", or something of that nature? I remember that freaking me out a bit when I was young, although I was like 5 or 6.

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Originally Posted by Anthony

I think there was a movie called "it", or something of that nature? I remember that freaking me out a bit when I was young, although I was like 5 or 6.

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I think it was a TV miniseries. I read the book as a kid and the parts that creeped me out were the flying leech latching onto the kid's eye and the photo album that kept changing. Not sure how old I was at the time, it might've been as late as middle school.

Paper Moon*

I've heard so much about this movie, that I was half expecting it to fall far short of the hype it gets.
What a fantastic film. Ryan O' Neil is almost Newmanish in his role, and Tatum is awesome. If you like movies at all, check this out.

*I'd mention it's on Instant Watch, but I don't want to steal Dunlap's thing.

Found a 5$ 3 pack of the first 3 puppet master movies at walmart. I watched the third one because I remember it being more than a horror movie. It was pretty good for what it was (weird scifi movie about a puppeteer killing nazies for killing his wife). Oh and there are titties in it. Like two or three sets. I had forgotten that. Its puppies killing nazies. Watch it if you want to see that.


The Baader Meinhof Complex

This is one of those movies that everyone needs to see, imo. It details events in Europe that framed how that part of the world views terrorism. There were a lot of young Germans in the late 60s and early 70s that were afraid that the new German government was becoming just as fascist and oppressive as the nazi government. And being the late 60s/ early 70s they turned into "revolutionaries." To put it bluntly, they killed the shit out of people and blew shit up. Today we'd call these people terrorist (the German government considered them this at the time). The whole movie is based on real events and real characters. It is worth watching if you even kind of care about current events or history. Or if you want to see charismatic/dick-headed 70s youths kill and blow shit up. Either / or.

I'm probably not doing a good job of making people want to see the movie. Trust me, it is good and worth your time.

So, what's The Baader Meinhof Complex really about?

Your mother.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

Its puppies killing nazies. Watch it if you want to see that.

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I do want to see that.

SS child soldiers were given dogs at the beginning of their soldier/snitch training. At the end of the program years later the final test was to have them strangle their own companion dog with their bare hands. If there is a scene in that movie where a dog strangles a nazi to death I'd watch it on repeat.

god damn auto-correct

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Originally Posted by dave is ok

So, what's The Baader Meinhof Complex really about?

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The German Terrorist group known as the RAF.

Puppet Master's theme song is the jam.

just watched Dogtooth



It was pretty amazing.

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Originally Posted by Drewbacca

SS child soldiers were given dogs at the beginning of their soldier/snitch training. At the end of the program years later the final test was to have them strangle their own companion dog with their bare hands.

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Interesting. That was the penultimate test of the elite eunuch army in the Song of Ice and Fire books. (I think the final test was cutting a baby's throat in front of its mother, which by then most of the puppy-murderers had no problem passing.) Apparently a Nazi reference, then? GG, G.R.R.

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Originally Posted by Compass

Apparently a Nazi reference, then?

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I believe it's just a long-standing legend for demonizing the enemy. It's been applied to a lot of "evil" cultures for a long time.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

just watched Dogtooth

It was pretty amazing.

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I watched it a few weeks ago, it really is something. Fuck yeah, Greek Unsimulated Incest Sex Scenes.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

No, it really isn't. I'd settle for an interesting one, though. Or even one that wasn't as hamfisted as a fat nerd at a medieval LARPing banquet. No? Ah, well.

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Originally Posted by Compass

Catfish

Suspenseful. This is a few nips and tweaks away from a being a great horror movie.

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Just watched this. I had no idea which way this movie was going to go. When they pulled up to the farmhouse I was hoping it would take a different turn, but it didn't. I think what ended up happening was much more disturbing though.

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Originally Posted by Mr-K

Fuck yeah, Greek Unsimulated Incest Sex Scenes.

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SIGN ME UP

Also Mezz was tweeting about watching Resident Evil Afterlife. I found myself with a few hours in between changing and feeding Lily so I watched it. The shot for shot fight against Wesker from RE5 was neat.

I really enjoyed Afterlife. It finally got the series in line with the games.

Too bad Jill was just there for the credits

Yeah. I knew she was in the movie beforehand and kept waiting for it. Then we got like 5 seconds. The chick that plays her is pretty hot.

I'd eat a 4 course meal off of her ass as it were.

Is that the one with my dreamboat, Michael Scofield? Might have to watch just for him.

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Originally Posted by Dyne

Just watched this. I had no idea which way this movie was going to go. When they pulled up to the farmhouse I was hoping it would take a different turn, but it didn't. I think what ended up happening was much more disturbing though.

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My brother told me to watch, so I did. I knew absolutely nothing about the movie going in. Still, from the main dude's very first line, I could tell this was a Blair Witchy thing. He just wasn't a good enough actor. I didn't mind, though. I think that formula has tremendous potential. The farmhouse scene was the best part, at least if you don't know what to expect. Incredibly suspenseful. Apparently a lot of people were led to believe it was a totally different movie than what it was, and so were disappointed. I had no preconceived notions, so I was fine with how it turned out.

But yeah, when they finally gain admittance to the house, and the two retarded kids are there, it could have taken such an awesome turn for the grimiest horror movie ever. Would have loved that, personally.

That's the one.

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Originally Posted by Compass

Interesting. That was the penultimate test of the elite eunuch army in the Song of Ice and Fire books. (I think the final test was cutting a baby's throat in front of its mother, which by then most of the puppy-murderers had no problem passing.) Apparently a Nazi reference, then? GG, G.R.R.

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Sounds pretty much the same thematically. Can't wait for Game of Thrones to hit HBO even more!

Naked Gun - Haven't seen this in over a decade, and while a lot of jokes really show their age or are just too predictable/not funny there's still a lot of gems in here. Thankfully, they have at least as many jokes which aren't shoved into the viewers as ones that are, and helped make it a lot of fun to see again.

Spaceballs: The Animated Series - I went searching on Netflix to queue up the movie only to find this horror of 15 episodes on instant view, which apparently came out a couple years ago and was made entirely in Flash. I only made it through the first three episodes (and by "made it through" I mean skipped around to random times to watch for a minute or two) and god lord is it horrible. The first two were just a really shitty retelling of the movie, and the third was original material and even worse.

I am so sad to have found that, and sadder that my morbid curiosity got me to watch part of it.

Airplane II - A young Rip Torn! And he has reddish hair! This is so weird to me. I like the look of the old Rip Torn way better.

Winter's Bone. I don't get the hype.

Scott Pilgrim - Hilariously bad.

Tried watching that "I'm Still Here" farce. Pretty lame!

Tron Legacy. LOL CGI Bridges.

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Originally Posted by Josh

Tried watching that "I'm Still Here" farce. Pretty lame!

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I have a theory that Charlie Sheen watched this movie and decided he could do it so much better.

Never Let Me Go

This movie was pitched to me as "The Island with a brain," which is an awfully near-sighted comparison. It's so much more than just another Orwellian tale of caution. Whereas The Island sets its sights on organ-farming and ultimately impales itself on the premise, NLMG uses it to skewer its real target: the education system. It's about organ-farming and the ethics of cloning as much as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is about the meat industry. Like with all good sci-fi, the "fi" is the vehicle, not the destination.

Its message: We're all raised to be Donors; to throw our lives away to keep the economy humming. Almost from birth, we're indoctrinated to accept this as normal. There are no exemptions and no condoling pats on the back for the sacrifice (note how the recipients of the film's Donations are never even referenced, let alone shown). It's been a long time since I've seen anything tackle this theme so confidently, without once second-guessing itself or cagily comforting the viewer with hope for the future.

The only miscues keeping Never Let Me Go from excellence are a couple of hammy scenes, a pedestrian score and an undercooked love story. It becomes, at times, too lean as a consequence of its slick efficiency. That said, it's always better to leave a film hungry than overfed.

Highly recommended.

4/5

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

Winter's Bone. I don't get the hype.

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It's easy to over hype that movie.

There's really not a whole lot to it. I still loved it but I'm not sure what one could say to really hype it up.

IT'S THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR IT GOT ROBBED OF THE OSCAR R))#*$)*$()#*)($#*_$_*

I just saw Patrice O'Neal's Elephant in the Room comedy special. I love this guy.

I tried to watch Paul McCartney Really Is Dead on Netflix instant. Maybe the worst "documentary" I've ever seen. I can't tell if it's meant to be funny or if it's a sincere attempt at a hoax, but it fails miserably on both counts. What a fucking trainwreck.

Agreed. I made it about 15 minutes in.

Dude is doing the worse George impression I've ever heard.

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Originally Posted by Josh

Agreed. I made it about 15 minutes in.

Dude is doing the worse George impression I've ever heard.

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Not only is the impression not good, he can't even stay consistent with the accent. You couldn't at least find a British dude to lie and say he's George Harrison?

I'm watching Hook again. What a good, fun movie this is :)

Bangarang, IMO.

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Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

I just saw Patrice O'Neal's Elephant in the Room comedy special. I love this guy.

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If you get the chance, check out the DVD version of this. The TV version is literally half the full special and there's some great stuff they cut.

It really is a breakthrough special for Patrice. His old specials never did his live show justice but this one comes close.

Nowhere To Run

New jcvd2me. Van Damme is an escaped convict camping arbitrarily outside of a house that hosts a troubled marriage. The boy who lives there discovers JCVD bathing outside. It is here that we are treated to the obligatory baren ass scene. The kid asks his mom if he can keep the nude frenchman he found in the swamp. The mom agrees and promptly bones him in a skin-crawlingly graphic sex scene wherein Frank Dux twice suckles a boob.

The owner of that boob is facing pressure to sell her house from a company looking to forward their insidious agenda of...building...better houses. She won't, so they pistol whip everybody. Van Damme comes out of the swamp and ruins their shit. Then the cops come and take him back to jail to serve time for an unnamed crime. The end.

174/5

Best review I've ever read.

I am going to watch that movie based on the review alone.

Edit: It is apparently up as one thing on youtube, randomly.





Ahhh I can't attach it because it needs age verification or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzfV6...has_verified=1

It's on IW, too. It's actually one of the weaker JCVD movies. Your time would be better spent with, say, Hard Target (421/5) or Double Team (1,399/5).

Double Team was awesome. I need to see that again.

Top Secret - Man I've watched a lot of Zucker bros. lately, I should probably queue up BASEketball next. This movie was fairly close to Naked Gun in terms of pacing and joke integration, though the material isn't as good. Still pretty enjoyable.

Dark City - Haven't seen this since it came out in theaters. I had forgotten how silly the final battle was and they sort of gloss over all the new problems that are introduced to the populace, but aside from the cheesy special effects it's still a nice little stylized sci-fi movie. Definitely has a bonus in not trying to over-explain everything.

Man, that final battle is cringe-inducing in 2011.

I watched the new Psycho Blu Ray last night. That's a movie that most certainly does not have the bonus of not trying to over-explain everything. What is with that prolixly expository psychologist scene at the end? Did the duality of Bates have to be spelled out for the stoned moviegoers of the '60s? Was it maybe because rudimentary psychology hadn't yet penetrated the main stream? Whatever the reason, it's a chore to sit through the end of Psycho today.

Exquisite transfer on that Blu Ray though.

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. Sure does take a long time for nothing to happen. I'm not up for this right now at all.

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Originally Posted by A Robot Bit Me

Was it maybe because rudimentary psychology hadn't yet penetrated the main stream?

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This is pretty much the reason, I think. My grandparents took my 5 year old mother and siblings to see Psycho in theaters because they had never heard the term "Psycho" before. My mom still talks about it, apparently they hid beneath the seats before they ultimately left.

That critique is valid though, it really could have ended at an earlier scene, but I'm not particularly bothered by it. It's a good performance and it sets up that pretty awesome shot of Norman staring into the camera.

Watched some of season three of the old Transformers cartoon. Man, what a cluster fuck. Either the animation is bad, or the writing is bad, or something. I stand beside saying that the 80s TF gets most of its praise because of the movie and the old comic. And I've ultimately fallen asleep before any of the disk end. I already know the endings, and I'm drinking, sooooooo

I also watched return to OZ. It was pretty cool. And the wheeled people are freaky looking. I don't remember the ending. I fell asleep again.

The animated movie is the end-cap on anything Transformers. The animation was really well done for the most part, has all the characters you'd want (even though they mostly die but Grimlock doesn't so it's a wash), and the story's a good enough Star Wars riff for what it is.

The Star Wars riff is a pointless critique to make of Transformers TAM. It was made in the 80s. Everything copied Star Wars or Star Trek if it was scifi. Double so far cartoons. Pointing that out is like pointing out that 75% of 80s fantasy novels copy a lot from TLOTR. That is just the nature of those beasts. Or look at the video games of the day, they all borrowed from SW, TK, Aliens, the Terminator and maybe rambo.


There are some goofy huge story problems in the old series. Like, how is cybertron this hugely populated planet, and yet we only see 30 or so of the people? They dealt with this in the first and second seasons by limiting the scope of the show to these random characters that were stranded on earth. But after the movie, everything is back on cybertron. Cybertron is suppose to be populated by all of the universe's autobots. They won the war in the movie and they all came home. But....no. The show just kind of falls apart in the third season. And it is kind of sad. Because they reach for some interesting "big" plot lines after the movie. Like with the quintasans, and the history of the transformers...but it never really fully comes together.

And when they do try to do something epic, it isn't fleshed out. Like in one episode, they are suppose to have the whole autobot fleet. Well...it is like 20 ships...and they are drawn like shit.

And I know, people might say "its an 80s cartoon, what do you want" Well, I remember Robotech too. It was possible to do "big" battles and not have them border on shitty absurdities.



It would be interesting if someday someone takes the franchise to some place respectable. It is possible imo. You could either explore the idea of thinking robots and make something meaningful OR make a good action movie and use the transformers as simlple avatars for "human" characters.


But you're right Yeller. The 80s animated movie was the best thing we've gotten. Things looked awesome. The dialog was A-Ok for an 80s action/kids movie. Nothing was smack you in the face shitty or retarded. And as SW copied scifi goes, it was pretty good.

You could have just said "You're right, Yeller". :lol:

and orson welles played a huge toy that ate other toys!

how awesome is that?

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

You could have just said "You're right, Yeller". :lol:

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you shut up. I wanted to talk about things! I HAVE OPINIONS

127 Hours.

I mean, you know how the story ends, but it was a very chilling performance Franco made. It was also empowering to see what a man would do when faced with his own demise. I would have pussed out and just died in that canyon, to be honest.

Watched black swan again. Best horror masturbation flick ever

Optimus Prime was Jesus.

Hobo With Shotgun - Delivers all that u see in the trailer and then some.

Deadwood Season 1.

Bullock's a snazzy dresser. I like how he walks without bobbing at all. Just kinda glides around.

The preacher stuff made me so damn sad.

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Originally Posted by Josh

Optimus Prime was Jesus.

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and rodimus prime was Paul.

And like Paul, he ruined everything and most sensible people don't like him.

People are making me watch the second season of Avatar. This show is so bad.

Right now the cast is battling giant badgers with the power of music. What the fuck is this shit?

Mech is dead inside.

I watched Source Code. In an empty theater on opening weekend. Because people hate good movies.

It's kind of Groundhog Day with a Philip K. Dick bent to it. Definitely a bit of an Inception vibe, too, but not as melodramatic. It wasn't as good as Moon, but I'm definitely liking where Duncan Jones' career is heading. Why is there no thread for this movie?

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that my cousin starred in that movie so you should all go see it right away.

/shameless famous family member plug

The trailer made it look pretty awful, but its getting some solid reviews. I'll check it out when it comes out here.