There Will Be Blood—Finally finished this. Amazing acting. DDL is, of course, fantastic. But I was particularly impressed with Paul Dano. His sermon scene blew me away. I did think the overall structure of the film could have used some work. 4/5 stars

Into The Wild—Liked this a lot too. I read the book a few years ago and I think they copped out a bit. One of Krakaur’s main points was how ignorant and unprepared this guy was for what he got himself into. The movie didn’t really hit on that topic. But it held my interest for the 2 ½ hour run time. Great acting by all involved, especially Emile Hirsch and Hal Holbrook. 3.5/5 stars

Scratch—Documentary about the history of DJs and turntablism. I found it to be pretty boring, and that’s kind of strange considering how much I used to be into this type of music. The only really interesting part was the footage of DJ Shadow showing everyone the basement where he got the samples for Endtroducing. 2.5/5 stars.

Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)—American documentary about Brazil. Specifically, political corruption and the kidnapping trade. The best documentary I’ve seen in a long while and I watch a lot of them. Absolutely fascinating. Also has a great soundtrack that I’m going to try and track down. 5/5 stars

Hype—Doug Pray’s documentary about the Seattle grunge scene. Most of you have probably seen this. I thought it was pretty weak. A lot of performances from bands I don’t care about. It didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know. Also, it had Eddie Vedder at his most annoying. 2/5 stars

I finally watched Juno last night. I didn't think the dialogue was as bad as I was expecting. It was no worse than the drivel in Napoleon Dynamite that everyone quoted for quite sometime.
I thought that Jason Batemen was the perfect image for the Obnerian dad until he bricked on adopting the kid.
I generally enjoyed it, but I have a soft spot for sappy indie films.

Just won tix for the midnight show of the new Narnia flick!

Saw Juno and Charlie Wilson's War over the weekend and both of them were better than I thought they would be... especially CWW.

Juno I could still take or leave but I expected 250 tons of shit.

I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End on Saturday. I didn't go into it with high expectations since the second installment was so muddled and this was about the same, overly long and a bit confused.

This was pretty damn good. Not much I can think to say other than I enjoyed it.



Re-watched this, love this movie, so creepy...I wish that that spider crawl scene would have made the cut in movie..

Saturday -- saw Young @ Heart. Had no idea going in the Seniors Choir featured in the film is from Northampton, Mass. Makes me think ayah knows the fifty-one years old who leads it, & either loaths him or can't get enough of him. (There is no middle-ground with you Obners & your opinions.)

Sunday -- What happens in Vegas. All I can say is I enjoyed this more than Baby Mama, but then again, Kutcher & Diaz actually had better screen chemistry than Poehler & Fey.

a view to a kill was pretty boring, outside of the theme song.


i'm gonna watch the orphanage later on.

I'm Not There - Not as bad as I thought it would be. Quite tolerable actually.

Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story - Pretty bad. Thought it would be good for a few cheap laughs but even those were hard to come by.

Iron Man - Good but not great. Maybe my expectations were a little too high. I thought it was good but the ending was kind of anti-climatic.

Thanks for the rec, Drinky, this was great.

I watched Lars and the Real Girl and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, both were pretty light-hearted and entertaining.

I just finished Into the Wild. It was a quality film, but I wasn't quite ready for the bummer ending. I probably should have read the book before going into it or knew about the spoilers.

Juno was like 50,000,000,000,000 times worse than I thought it would be and I was expecting the most annoying movie I've ever seen.

the orphanage was the creepiest movie i've seen since session 9.

The Golden Compass - Considering how popular the books are, they sure as heck better be better than this movie. Seriously... its sad when the only truly interesting character is a CGI alcoholic bear.

Akira - An anime classic. I've seen this quite a few times over the years, and each time I'm left wondering "why?" I mean, I love anime... particularly recently I've been on a big kick. But this movie goes absolutely nowhere. Influential? probably. but that is no reason we should still be aware of its presence!

Glad you liked it, man!

Seriously, everyone should see this.


...And I shouldn't even mention this in the same post, but we watched The Mist last night. I like cheesy Stephen King movies for some reason, and while this was full of total ridiculousness (including bad dialogue, totally unbelievable characters, bad CGI, and a vague, silly premise), it was pretty fun. But then, I enjoy Dreamcatcher for similar, so-bad-it's-good reasons, and most people seem to just hate it. While watching this, I was continually perplexed by how many people had told me they really liked it. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't go around recommending it.

I haven't seen session 9, but I thought El Orfanato was pretty creepy. I saw it with my friend and every now and again I try and make that whistle noise just before the creepy kid with the bag over his head knocks momma over and locks her in the bathroom (i think I am remembering that correctly). The title sequence of the film was awesome as well.(the wallpaper being torn, etc.)

Also, Shiv, what is the deal with you watching all of those Bond films? I thought I was the only crazy one. All I can say is: Don't. Do. It.

People recommended it to me, almost highly, and I absolutely hated the ridiculous fucking ending. It made me mad. I don't like leaving theaters, or tv rooms as it were, angry and that's what The Mist did for me. After the end I said out loud, "Why? Why would you end a movie like that"? haha

My wife totally called the ending to that movie. That made it kind of funny.

Smart People:

Squid and the Whale + Juno + Sideways < sum of parts.

What did you think Monty? Debating on seeing it, the new Mamet flick Redbelt, or The Visitor this Friday.

I have seen each of these, & would recommend Young @ Heart, since we're all music buffs here. Redbelt, I think, will be the Lebowski of MMA (in a few years). The Visitor is a solid flick, but it depends on if you are burnt out on typical Participant offerings.

i bought the first 2 box sets of them and i'm trying to watch all the crappy ones first.

i love this poster for el orfanato but can't find it anywhere.





re: the mist. the ending of the book just has them drive off into the mist and that's it so i kinda like the ending of the movie better.

That is a cool poster. While looking for it on ebay I found this photo: