Recently viewed movie thread - Rental Edition (3 Viewers)

[El Floppo]

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, .... and Spring:

Interesting mediation on the stages of manhood. This fit nicely in my week after watching some Malick for the first time. Beautifully shot movie with very little dialogue. Starts of with a young child and his Buddhist master, and follows him as he learns lessons about how to view/treat the world, lust, redemption, etc.. Couple scenes I am not sure that I fully understood, but I am thinking about it 4+hours after watching it. Wouldn't mind PMing somebody who has seen this one.

This was the start of my random list of foreign movies that I wrote down to catch up on. Know very little about most of these. Next up will be 4Months, 3Weeks, and 2 Days, followed by Yesterday and The Class.

interested to hear your thoughts on this. very well received by critics, as i recall.

I got about 1 hour into it and it was skipping badly. Sad when I have to take in my netflix and library movies to the store and fix them. Should be able to finish it up tonight, but it was great up to that point.

literally every netflix movie we get has this problem.

Agree. It didn't seem to be so bad a year or so ago, but I guess they care less and less about their DVD service as time goes on, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Still pretty damn annoying to constantly ship out movies that don't play.

I've actually never had a problem with a Netflix disc besides the couple that have came snapped in half. We are talking like literally all but 5 discs out of at least a couple thousand.At the local family video everything I get that's more than a few weeks old skips like crazy. The "Free Kids" section is the worst, even though they do make it a point to try to clean the each kid's disc if they aren't super busy.

I said "literally" before, right? Literally. We bought a new DVD player- so I thought those days were behind us- and inaugurated it with a netflix disc, which of course was completely ####ed... but only at the critical points of the movie. I wouldn't mind it so much if it just started off jumpy, but it's always after it's sucked you in and hitting a crescendo. I'm certain the ####ers do it on purpose. Literally.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Repulsion:

Rosemary's Baby gets all the hype as far as Polanski's films go, but this was far more effective to me. What a fantastically tense film. From the opening shot you feel that something isn't right with Carol and by the end of the movie you feel like you were trapped in the apartment with her and wanting to get out. Might be blasphemy, but this might even one-up Psycho as far as movies from the 60s. Seen them both recently and Repulsion got under my skin a bit more, but maybe that's because I had not seen it before. Definitely could can see influences from this film in Lynch, Cronenburg, and even recently out of Aronofsky's Black Swan. Highly recommend this film to any who haven't seen it. 9/10 or higher.

I had this in my queue for ages but never got to it. I'll have to see if it's available instantly now. By the way, for early Polanski, see Knife in the Water if you haven't already.

It's on deck for later this week.

Maybe it was my cold medicine haze tonight, but I had a hard time getting into Chinatown tonight.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Repulsion:

Rosemary's Baby gets all the hype as far as Polanski's films go, but this was far more effective to me. What a fantastically tense film. From the opening shot you feel that something isn't right with Carol and by the end of the movie you feel like you were trapped in the apartment with her and wanting to get out. Might be blasphemy, but this might even one-up Psycho as far as movies from the 60s. Seen them both recently and Repulsion got under my skin a bit more, but maybe that's because I had not seen it before. Definitely could can see influences from this film in Lynch, Cronenburg, and even recently out of Aronofsky's Black Swan. Highly recommend this film to any who haven't seen it. 9/10 or higher.

I had this in my queue for ages but never got to it. I'll have to see if it's available instantly now. By the way, for early Polanski, see Knife in the Water if you haven't already.

If you're going to rent Repulsion, you might as well rent Dementia 13 and make it a double feature. Dementia 13 is a fantastic horror thriller directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Apollo 18: Not bad. I was expecting a lot worse from the reviews. I really don't like this type crappy camera work but it worked better for this than the other turds that use it. Some tense moments and I'm glad we finally know what actually happened with this mission. 3/5

 

[saintfool]

By the way, for early Polanski, see Knife in the Water if you haven't already.

i remember it being a bit meh. i was clearly a polanski film even if it was his first but it wasn't especially impressive to me. he didn't hit his tride until a little later.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Apollo 18: Not bad. I was expecting a lot worse from the reviews. I really don't like this type crappy camera work but it worked better for this than the other turds that use it. Some tense moments and I'm glad we finally know what actually happened with this mission. 3/5

 

[Kenny Powers]

Tron: Legacy....For sure, this had cool action scenes, great special effects and light/color schemes, and a soundtrack that keeps the movie rolling with its basslines, but outside of that there's not much to see here. Explaining things in the circuit about how it worked, the beings, etc felt half assed at best. Actual Bridges ending every other sentence with "man" was far more distracting that even CGI-Bridges. Michael Sheen's character was eye-gouge worthy and I dont think he had more than 5 minutes of screen time. Thinking back, Im not sure how this was about 2hrs long since once they get to Tronland, its pretty much straight action followed by 5 minutes of poor plot progression, followed by action scene. If they cut out scenes here and there to make it a half hour shorter overall, I think this wouldve been much more enjoyable even in the backstory still wasnt more fleshed out...2.6/5

It helps to have proper expectations when watching these types of movies. I think for a movie like Tron, the bolded is the best you're going to get. I thought it did that most excellently.That's why I liked the most recent Transformers movie. I want to see big robots smash each other and the environment around them in cool ways. That movie delievered.

Tron is just cool to experience. Who cares what the plot is (and it is really weak, no doubt)?

I watched this fairly intoxicated a few nights ago and was surprised how much I liked it. I watched it again sober the nest day and realized why my drunk self liked it so much: cool action, effects, music, and bright lights.Watching it sober was a much more difficult struggle to finish it.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Tron: Legacy....For sure, this had cool action scenes, great special effects and light/color schemes, and a soundtrack that keeps the movie rolling with its basslines, but outside of that there's not much to see here. Explaining things in the circuit about how it worked, the beings, etc felt half assed at best. Actual Bridges ending every other sentence with "man" was far more distracting that even CGI-Bridges. Michael Sheen's character was eye-gouge worthy and I dont think he had more than 5 minutes of screen time. Thinking back, Im not sure how this was about 2hrs long since once they get to Tronland, its pretty much straight action followed by 5 minutes of poor plot progression, followed by action scene. If they cut out scenes here and there to make it a half hour shorter overall, I think this wouldve been much more enjoyable even in the backstory still wasnt more fleshed out...2.6/5

It helps to have proper expectations when watching these types of movies. I think for a movie like Tron, the bolded is the best you're going to get. I thought it did that most excellently.That's why I liked the most recent Transformers movie. I want to see big robots smash each other and the environment around them in cool ways. That movie delievered.

Tron is just cool to experience. Who cares what the plot is (and it is really weak, no doubt)?

I watched this fairly intoxicated a few nights ago and was surprised how much I liked it. I watched it again sober the nest day and realized why my drunk self liked it so much: cool action, effects, music, and bright lights.Watching it sober was a much more difficult struggle to finish it.

Tron looks great, and the soundtrack is top notch. But it's a poor movie.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

 

[Kenny Powers]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

Its worth watching if youve never seen it. Its not great, but its solid and better than most movies of a similar genre that were coming out in the late 80's

 

[El Floppo]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

Its worth watching if youve never seen it. Its not great, but its solid and better than most movies of a similar genre that were coming out in the late 80's

It's one of those movies I completely forget about, but then nod my head pleasantly- oh yeah, that one- whenever somebody brings it up. I just did the head-nod thing just now in front of my keyboard.The latest Liam Neeson thing- Unknown?- reminded me of Frantic... at least the basic story-arc.Oh right- yeah... worth a watch.

 

[netnalp]

Miracle at St. Anna

I liked most of it. Some scenes though like where they talked about if there's a God why does he let bad stuff happen; have been done to death and are kinda hack nowadays. The ending was very cheesy, overacted and the bad prosthetic make-up didn't help. It looked like when Jamie Fox would dress up like an old man on In Living Color.

It's 2 1/2 hrs long with a bad ending. Can't recommend it.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Tron looks great, and the soundtrack is top notch. But it's a poor movie.

No. It has a poor (actually, I like it well enough) story, but it's a good movie because it entertains.

 

[hooter311]

Miracle at St. AnnaI liked most of it. Some scenes though like where they talked about if there's a God why does he let bad stuff happen; have been done to death and are kinda hack nowadays. The ending was very cheesy, overacted and the bad prosthetic make-up didn't help. It looked like when Jamie Fox would dress up like an old man on In Living Color.It's 2 1/2 hrs long with a bad ending. Can't recommend it.

Thought the whole thing was awful.

 

[JZilla]

Brain dead drooler edition

Hangover 2 was even worse than I expected. My God. Could they have put in any less effort?

Quickly growing to hate Galifinakis and Helms. Stale, stinky shtick.

On the superhero front, Captain America was pretty solid. Thor, however, was dog ####.

 

[hooter311]

High Life

Thanks for posting about this Kenny Powers. Totally slipped my radar and I'm a big Olyphant fan. Really impressed by this. I would go so far to say as its one of the best post Pulp Fiction indi crime flicks. It's missing depth and rings in awfully short at about an hour and 15 minutes, but this is a great film.

4/5

Continue with the risks Timmy, you have had one of the better Hollywood careers recently.

 

[saintfool]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

Its worth watching if youve never seen it. Its not great, but its solid and better than most movies of a similar genre that were coming out in the late 80's

It's one of those movies I completely forget about, but then nod my head pleasantly- oh yeah, that one- whenever somebody brings it up. I just did the head-nod thing just now in front of my keyboard.The latest Liam Neeson thing- Unknown?- reminded me of Frantic... at least the basic story-arc.Oh right- yeah... worth a watch.

it's not bad but i wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. it's boring considering polanski was ape-ing hitchcock really with the film.

 

[Chaka]

Tron looks great, and the soundtrack is top notch. But it's a poor movie.

No. It has a poor (actually, I like it well enough) story, but it's a good movie because it entertains.

It does?

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

Its worth watching if youve never seen it. Its not great, but its solid and better than most movies of a similar genre that were coming out in the late 80's

It's one of those movies I completely forget about, but then nod my head pleasantly- oh yeah, that one- whenever somebody brings it up. I just did the head-nod thing just now in front of my keyboard.

The latest Liam Neeson thing- Unknown?- reminded me of Frantic... at least the basic story-arc.

Oh right- yeah... worth a watch.

I liked Unknown

 

[KarmaPolice]

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days:

Got my replacement disc and finished this up. Will echo Krista's statement that it is a good movie that is hard to watch. I am in no hurry to ever watch it again, but I am still glad I viewed it. Really impressed with the direction and the amount of long shots in the movie. Puts you in the situation with the characters and makes you feel like you were in the room with them, which really added to the uncomfortable viewing experience.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Tron looks great, and the soundtrack is top notch. But it's a poor movie.

No. It has a poor (actually, I like it well enough) story, but it's a good movie because it entertains.

It does?

Yeah, I agree. A movie that looks this beautiful would have been good with a halfway decent script.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Since I am on Polanski flicks, is Frantic worth a watch?

Its worth watching if youve never seen it. Its not great, but its solid and better than most movies of a similar genre that were coming out in the late 80's

It's one of those movies I completely forget about, but then nod my head pleasantly- oh yeah, that one- whenever somebody brings it up. I just did the head-nod thing just now in front of my keyboard.

The latest Liam Neeson thing- Unknown?- reminded me of Frantic... at least the basic story-arc.

Oh right- yeah... worth a watch.

I liked Unknown

Unknown is a solid thriller. Nothing unique, but worth a rental.

 

[jdoggydogg]

The Green Hornet

Wow. What a piece of ####.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

 

[Chaka]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

I love his work, and more power to him for his method, but that boy ain't right.

 

[sports_fan]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

I love his work, and more power to him for his method, but that boy ain't right.

According to John Van Peppen, Day-Lewis noshed on their featured meat, a Braveheart filet mignon served with Brussels sprouts and broccoli rabe.

Thought I read that Lincoln was a vegetarian.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

I love his work, and more power to him for his method, but that boy ain't right.

There's no doubt.

 

[bryhamm]

Happen to catch my daughter watching The Roommate the other day. No idea if this is a good movie or not, but Minka Kelly is smoking hot.

That is all. Carry on.

 

[netnalp]

The Right Stuff - good movie, still holds up and makes me want to re-watch From the Earth to the Moon. The only thing is the "fireflies" John Glenn saw. In the film they did the thing with the Aborigines. Why? The source of the Fireflies were identified in the next Mercury mission, Aurora 7, with astronaut Scott Carpenter on board in May 1962.

http://www.universetoday.com/82211/the-mystery-of-john-glenns-fireflies-returns/



Robin Hood - the Russell Crow one. Disappointing, they changed the 2 major parts of history that are known about (Magna Carta and war with France)and completely change them. Seems like rather than developing a story from history, they chose to fictionalize actual history to conform to the story. Odd choice since they seemed to put much effort into having the look historically accurate. Such as the shorter horses.



The Kings Speech - This one was good and deserves the buzz that surrounded it. I was worried it would be another over-hyped like The English Patient. That movie was long and boring.

 

[hooter311]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

I love his work, and more power to him for his method, but that boy ain't right.

There's no doubt.

By the accounts of Abe I've read outside of History class, we should get something extremely interesting here. There is a kind of crappy doc on instant watch from History channel. Lincoln: Untold Stories or something.

There is no way a guy like him would become president these days, which is probably why most of our leaders these days suck.

 

[sports_fan]

This is pretty cool. You guys have probably already seen it though.

 

[cstu]

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Daniel Day-Lewis was spotted today in Richmond, Virginia in character as Abraham Lincoln. Day-Lewis is set to play the Great Emancipator in a 2012 biopic being directed by Steven Spielberg. According to one snoop, Day-Lewis has apparently been in character since March, and is so committed to the role that "[h]is real name doesn't even appear on the call sheet."

I love his work, and more power to him for his method, but that boy ain't right.

There's no doubt.

By the accounts of Abe I've read outside of History class, we should get something extremely interesting here. There is a kind of crappy doc on instant watch from History channel. Lincoln: Untold Stories or something.

There is no way a guy like him would become president these days, which is probably why most of our leaders these days suck.

It will be interesting to see how they handle Abe's views on black people. He's put up on a pedestal for freeing slaves but his opposition to slavery was primarily based on the negative effect it had on poor white people's wages, which he knew well from how he grew up.

 

[saintfool]

The Right Stuff - good movie, still holds up and makes me want to re-watch From the Earth to the Moon. The only thing is the "fireflies" John Glenn saw. In the film they did the thing with the Aborigines. Why? The source of the Fireflies were identified in the next Mercury mission, Aurora 7, with astronaut Scott Carpenter on board in May 1962.

http://www.universetoday.com/82211/the-mystery-of-john-glenns-fireflies-returns/

i love this movie. it is so successful in romanticizing the space program that it never fails to inspire me in some way. my inner science geek always gets the power boner.

 

[Anonymous Internet User]

Super 8:

Ended up disappointed in this one. Wished I hadn't heard anything about it before popping this in tonight. Kept hearing comparisons to 80s movies like E.T. and Goonies and how it was so refreshing to have that again. Really? To me it felt like War of the Worlds meets Battle: LA with splash of Close Encounters. Maybe started off centered around the kids, but it quickly turned into a typical loud action/sci-fi movie. Might have liked it more if they fleshed out the kids a little more, but they were happy to have them as one-note characters for the most part. Does the one kid with the fireworks have any dialogue that doesn't have to do with setting some off? Of course we have the Chunk of the group that has to stop in the middle of the action to steal a soda out of the fridge. Just had a hard time caring about any of them. Then we have the ending of the movie:

Spoiler

The alien could have made a spaceship to go home at any point, but he had to wait until a kid yelled at him to do so? Just terrible

Spoiler

IMO this was a cool concept, but wasn't executed very well. Thought it was slightly above average, but I am in no hurry to watch it again. 5/10

Spoiler

This was one of those movies that I watched for entertainment and enjoyed it like I was 12 years old again. I probably could be critical, but that never occurred to me.

Spoiler

Really liked this movie

Spoiler

Cool. I am just curious what people saw in this that was above and beyond other summer fare. Seems like people got ET and Goonies out of this when I got War of the Worlds and Cloverfield. I guess it hinges on how much you liked the kids?

Spoiler

Possibly. I thought the kids were arguably the best part so at least for me that was a big reason why I really liked it.Havent seen Cloverfield but I didnt get a WotW feel at all. WotW felt like people were running to stay alive, Super 8 felt more like trying to figure out what exactly was going on and for those who knew there was an alien, finding out more about that.

Just watched this and I agree with Kenny.To me, this is a top-to-bottom homage to Spielberg and not much more. Everything from the music to the editing to the camera-work, art-direction, writing, and even acting and casting seemed like it was pulled from 70s and early 80s Spielberg; it was uncanny, especially when we weren't seeing the monster and the action revolved around the townspeople. Hell- he even chose to make it a late 70s period piece. Mash-up ET, Goonies, Close-Encounters and even a little Iron Giant (I know, not Spielberg) and that's pretty close in feel to what this was. In feel though- I enjoyed the movie, but it felt a little bit bereft of the emotional sledgehammering Spielberg typically piles on and this actually suffered a bit from it's lack (along with some plot holes/choices that seemed weak). Also, once I saw the trainwreck the "mystery" of the movie became immediately evident and boiled down to one of two options: who is the antagonist- the monster or the air-force? Getting there was pretty cliched, but still enjoyable- again, when seen as stictly an homage piece.

I agree that the characters were a little flat (outside of the main two kids), but that didn't bother me much- I wasn't watching this for a great character study and I enjoyed the kids friendships and the way the love-interest played out- all in a nostalgic kind of way (which is true of why I enjoyed the Spielberg homage- brought me back to being that age and enjoying the larger than life, non-subtle ways Spielberg made movies that hold less appeal to me now as an adult).

fwiw- I guess the monster looked like it was designed by the same folk who did the Cloverfield monster.... but I don't see WotW in there at all, or anything else from Cloverfield (which I hated) other than having monsters in the storyline.

and KP- regarding your spoiler issue:

Spoiler

The way I saw it, the monster had been a prisoner so couldn't make the ship until it escaped... and I think they mentioned it needing some more things for it while still a prisoner. So after it escaped, it was busy gathering up all the things it needed for its ship which coincidentally culminated after the encounter with the boy. The boy's necklace was the final piece the thing needed before it was finished- very Spielberg right there, but kinda fell short for me.

My main issue was this- wtf was the air force doing? they seemed like a big, loud plot device to get in the way of the rest of the plot with explosions and not much else relating to reason. did they hvae a plan to catch the alien? if not, then what were they doing- trying to kill it 30 years after catching it? why? jst because it had escaped?

Just watched this movie and:

Spoiler

I assumed the Air Force killed them all afterwards to continue the coverup.

Oh, and Elle Fanning was 11 years old when this was filmed.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Frantic:

Wrapped up my Polanski triple feature with this one. I will echo other sentiments in the thread - I was a decent movie, just nothing great. Not one of my favorites of his, and basically felt like he was going through a Hitchcock phase instead of being himself. 6/10



Gates of Heaven:

The next director on the list is Errol Morris. I have seen a few of his main films, but not all. This one did not disappoint. A lot of interesting characters and brings up a lot of questions and feelings of death and how people view their animals. One of the better docs that I've seen in a bit. Maybe it just hit home since my wife is a vet. 8/10

Next up are Vernon, Fla. and Standard Operating Procedure. After that it's on to Richard Linklater. Absolutely love Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but still haven't watched Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, or A Scanner Darkly.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Cowboys & Aliens:

Do yourself a favor - watch the first 10 or 15 minutes of this and stop. Was enjoying it up to that point, and then it went into the ####ter. To me this felt like they just liked the idea of having cowboys and aliens in a movie, but had 0 clue what to do with it and it just ended up a messy bore of a movie. Maybe with the title I was expecting at least a fun summer blockbuster like Independence Day or Men In Black. While D.Craig was one of the few things I liked, it seemed like he was playing it too seriously. Combine that with the reveal with Ella, lasso toting, gold ranglin' aliens, and other dumb ideas and nothing worked. 4/10

On a side note, when was the last time you actually enjoyed seeing Harrison Ford in a movie? He used to define cool, and now he is just miserable old fart in all his movies. Just stop doing movies if you hate it that much.

 

[cstu]

Cowboys & Aliens:

Do yourself a favor - watch the first 10 or 15 minutes of this and stop. Was enjoying it up to that point, and then it went into the ####ter. To me this felt like they just liked the idea of having cowboys and aliens in a movie, but had 0 clue what to do with it and it just ended up a messy bore of a movie. Maybe with the title I was expecting at least a fun summer blockbuster like Independence Day or Men In Black. While D.Craig was one of the few things I liked, it seemed like he was playing it too seriously. Combine that with the reveal with Ella, lasso toting, gold ranglin' aliens, and other dumb ideas and nothing worked. 4/10

On a side note, when was the last time you actually enjoyed seeing Harrison Ford in a movie? He used to define cool, and now he is just miserable old fart in all his movies. Just stop doing movies if you hate it that much.

This movie didn't know what it wanted to be - serious or an over-the-top action flick. It was neither and it sucked, other than the cinematography. 4/10 is generous.

 

[BigTex]

Ides of March.................not really sure what to say really

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

Little Darlings

This movie could never be made today.

Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal play girls at a summer camp who become rivals, then friends, then rivals again as they compete to lose their virginity.

McNichol spends the entire movie chain-smoking Marlboro's. A vicious fight happens on a schoolbus; an overweight girl is repeatedly taunted for her weight.

A young Matt Dillon, and a really young Cynthia Nixon have roles.

 

[bonesman]

High Life

Thanks for posting about this Kenny Powers. Totally slipped my radar and I'm a big Olyphant fan. Really impressed by this. I would go so far to say as its one of the best post Pulp Fiction indi crime flicks. It's missing depth and rings in awfully short at about an hour and 15 minutes, but this is a great film.

4/5

Continue with the risks Timmy, you have had one of the better Hollywood careers recently.

Thanks for that one.

That scumbag excon dude was pretty scary.

 

[SmoovySmoov]

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - Finally got to watch this one last night, and Holy Crap! that was hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I thought it was a pretty funny and original take on the "College kids get hunted down by redneck yokels" genre. Definitely worth a watch. (5/5)

 

[Kenny Powers]

Super 8:

Ended up disappointed in this one. Wished I hadn't heard anything about it before popping this in tonight. Kept hearing comparisons to 80s movies like E.T. and Goonies and how it was so refreshing to have that again. Really? To me it felt like War of the Worlds meets Battle: LA with splash of Close Encounters. Maybe started off centered around the kids, but it quickly turned into a typical loud action/sci-fi movie. Might have liked it more if they fleshed out the kids a little more, but they were happy to have them as one-note characters for the most part. Does the one kid with the fireworks have any dialogue that doesn't have to do with setting some off? Of course we have the Chunk of the group that has to stop in the middle of the action to steal a soda out of the fridge. Just had a hard time caring about any of them. Then we have the ending of the movie:

Spoiler

The alien could have made a spaceship to go home at any point, but he had to wait until a kid yelled at him to do so? Just terrible

Spoiler

IMO this was a cool concept, but wasn't executed very well. Thought it was slightly above average, but I am in no hurry to watch it again. 5/10

Spoiler

This was one of those movies that I watched for entertainment and enjoyed it like I was 12 years old again. I probably could be critical, but that never occurred to me.

Spoiler

Really liked this movie

Spoiler

Cool. I am just curious what people saw in this that was above and beyond other summer fare. Seems like people got ET and Goonies out of this when I got War of the Worlds and Cloverfield. I guess it hinges on how much you liked the kids?

Spoiler

Possibly. I thought the kids were arguably the best part so at least for me that was a big reason why I really liked it.Havent seen Cloverfield but I didnt get a WotW feel at all. WotW felt like people were running to stay alive, Super 8 felt more like trying to figure out what exactly was going on and for those who knew there was an alien, finding out more about that.

Spoiler

Just watched this and I agree with Kenny.To me, this is a top-to-bottom homage to Spielberg and not much more. Everything from the music to the editing to the camera-work, art-direction, writing, and even acting and casting seemed like it was pulled from 70s and early 80s Spielberg; it was uncanny, especially when we weren't seeing the monster and the action revolved around the townspeople. Hell- he even chose to make it a late 70s period piece. Mash-up ET, Goonies, Close-Encounters and even a little Iron Giant (I know, not Spielberg) and that's pretty close in feel to what this was. In feel though- I enjoyed the movie, but it felt a little bit bereft of the emotional sledgehammering Spielberg typically piles on and this actually suffered a bit from it's lack (along with some plot holes/choices that seemed weak). Also, once I saw the trainwreck the "mystery" of the movie became immediately evident and boiled down to one of two options: who is the antagonist- the monster or the air-force? Getting there was pretty cliched, but still enjoyable- again, when seen as stictly an homage piece.

I agree that the characters were a little flat (outside of the main two kids), but that didn't bother me much- I wasn't watching this for a great character study and I enjoyed the kids friendships and the way the love-interest played out- all in a nostalgic kind of way (which is true of why I enjoyed the Spielberg homage- brought me back to being that age and enjoying the larger than life, non-subtle ways Spielberg made movies that hold less appeal to me now as an adult).

fwiw- I guess the monster looked like it was designed by the same folk who did the Cloverfield monster.... but I don't see WotW in there at all, or anything else from Cloverfield (which I hated) other than having monsters in the storyline.

and KP- regarding your spoiler issue:

The way I saw it, the monster had been a prisoner so couldn't make the ship until it escaped... and I think they mentioned it needing some more things for it while still a prisoner. So after it escaped, it was busy gathering up all the things it needed for its ship which coincidentally culminated after the encounter with the boy. The boy's necklace was the final piece the thing needed before it was finished- very Spielberg right there, but kinda fell short for me.

My main issue was this- wtf was the air force doing? they seemed like a big, loud plot device to get in the way of the rest of the plot with explosions and not much else relating to reason. did they hvae a plan to catch the alien? if not, then what were they doing- trying to kill it 30 years after catching it? why? jst because it had escaped?

Just watched this movie and:

Spoiler

I assumed the Air Force killed them all afterwards to continue the coverup.

Oh, and Elle Fanning was 11 years old when this was filmed.

Dakota Fanning is legal next year

 

[Kenny Powers]

Next up are Vernon, Fla. and Standard Operating Procedure. After that it's on to Richard Linklater. Absolutely love Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but still haven't watched Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, or A Scanner Darkly.

 

[Kenny Powers]

On a side note, when was the last time you actually enjoyed seeing Harrison Ford in a movie? He used to define cool, and now he is just miserable old fart in all his movies. Just stop doing movies if you hate it that much.

What Lies Beneath, which was probably 10 years ago.He is about to turn 70, so its within reason for him to be a miserable old fart

 

[Chaka]

Next up are Vernon, Fla. and Standard Operating Procedure. After that it's on to Richard Linklater. Absolutely love Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but still haven't watched Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, or A Scanner Darkly.

No doubt. That one is "Run, don't walk!" worthy for me.

 

[netnalp]

Easy Rider - I think this is one of those movies where you had to be there, living in the time when this movie came out. It was interesting to see what was once considered shocking and made conservatives uncomfortable at the time. A modern version would probably have the Fonda and Hopper roles as homosexual males. Seems the hate towards the hippie types back then was comparable to the hate voiced for gay people in the 80's & 90's.

Overall I was disappointed. I'd only heard people speak highly of this movie so I expected it to be great. It doesn't have the same impact that it must have had when it came out I think. The Graduate came out around the same time and I really liked that movie. It held up, Easy Rider doesn't.

Recent reviews I've found say the film today should be looked at as a historical piece and changed cinema by showing Indie films can be hits and is an example of a realistic, documentary type style. I can accept that. The film shows a realistic image of the hippie culture and not the satire/stereotype like Cheech & Chong. I still wish it had more of a story.

I'm going to have to start asking if these '60s & '70s are worth watching. Is Dog Day Afternoon any good?

 

[wazoo11]

There will be blood- awesome flick

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Dog Day is kind of weird but any Pacino fan needs to see it.

 

[Anonymous Internet User]

There will be blood- awesome flick

There was hardly any blood

 

[KarmaPolice]

Next up are Vernon, Fla. and Standard Operating Procedure. After that it's on to Richard Linklater. Absolutely love Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but still haven't watched Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, or A Scanner Darkly.

I have a feeling that I have seen most of the movie from bits and pieces, but I have never sat down and watched it from beginning to end.