re: avatar - yeah saying that "it's only good for the visuals" may be true, but it's understating a bit what the movie accomplished. it was eye candy 2.0. i've never seen anything like it.

edit - oh yeah and if you thought Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest was a decent movie, this was pretty much the same exact story.

that being said, i also watched Primer recently, and liked that too.

The Wages of Fear. there aren't many movies that don't even get into plot until an hour in. this is one. i get that the first hour is meant to develop characters and whatnot, but it just seems a bit bloated. the excellent extensive action sequence(s) are tense without being overbearing; very well done. i'd rank some of those scenes just below the rififi heist. it didn't amaze me, but i found it very enjoyable. my only problem was the last scene (not in the bar). it didn't make sense to me why someone would do that, even if "cheated death so many times, might as well keep at it" was clearly on his mind. oh, and véra clouzot... wow.

Gar, I'd venture to say this is different. I've hated many a movie with a bad plot and good special effects. For me, the scale of the thing is amazing.

It certainly takes a while to get into the action, and the very last scene was a mistake for sure, but I LOVE this movie.

Man now I'm kinda jealous of people who have ended up liking Avatar. I want to believe!

I actually have a plan behind this laptop watching angle. I wanted to get past the story's shortcomings *first* and then perhaps truly enjoy the cinema experience. We'll have to see.

Avatar has to be a theater experience. It's too easy to pick apart the formulaic, predictable plot. You have to be bewitched by all the visuals, and even with that, I found the spell wearing off by the end.

I don't get this idea of getting "past the story's shortcomings *first*" and then hoping to somehow hoping to enjoy it in the theater later. If anything, you're just going to ruin every single popcorn action flick this way, and you'll only end up wasting your time on what are obviously their weakest aspects - plot and dialogue. Either watch them in the theater or don't bother.

She's Out of My League. this was all right. it followed a typical pattern for certain comedies over the last few years. alice eve was gorgeous. pittsburgh was represented well. there were a lot of funny scenes. but, as my two friends said as we left, it was totally disposable.

I inherited this from my father-in-law. Still have yet to watch it. You do need to watch the US remake with Roy Scheider--Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin.

I don't why I've never seen this, I've always heard about it. Exorcist and French Connection are two of my favorites, so I'm not sure why this won't I wouldn't enjoy this, thanks for the heads up.

I watched Zombieland last night. It was pretty funny, not as great as my friends were making it out to be, but still good. Bill Murray scene was fucking awesome though.

anyone see shutter island yet? i'd like to hear what people thought of it. i thought it was underwhelming.

A Place in the Sun. this is a pretty good movie. someone said the original is better, but i haven't seen it yet. top-notch performances from supporting cast, but i wasn't terribly impressed with montgomery clift after all i've heard about him. it's a bit predictable and somewhat dated (what was controversial then isn't nearly as so now), but it's shot really well.

I think we're going to see it this weekend. It looks like one of those "Off" Scorsese movies ala Kundun or Bringing Out the Dead, that will be good and imminently watchable, but not exactly the best work of his oeuvre.

Anyone seen The Crazies yet? That looks awesome.

it was good but i was just a little disappointed that i figured out what was going on halfway through and it kind of tainted the rest of the movie for me.

i think i'm going to see the crazies tonight.

I just finished watching Gomorrah. Unfortunately, it just never clicked for me, mostly due to the fact that there were too many random characters doing random things, making it a pain in the ass to follow. Some good moments but overall, a disappointment.

I think i agree with this. It's certainly nowhere near the top of Scorsese's body of work, but that's all relative. It's still a good movie--I enjoyed watching it--but it's not outstanding.

I love Clift in From Here to Eternity. Don't even remember his performance at all in A Place in the Sun, so maybe that's telling.

I'll tell you what I think tomorrow. I finally got around to watching Frost Nixon and the DVD I got from Netflix went FAIL. Got to the interview parts and it won't play.

I still have Gomorrah, but that will produce TEARS from Femgar if I try to watch it tonight.

Anyway, when I turn in Frost/Nixon I will get Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Spy.

Watched Inglorious Basterds last night. Violence Porn at it's finest. The guy who played the badass Nazi was fucking awesome.

Best movie I've seen in quite a while. Who is this Tarantino fella?

It's never a good sign when my mom figures out the twist halfway through.

Things I've seen lately:

Crazy Heart- There will be inevitable comparisons to "The Wrestler" on this. The broken down central character, the mixed up love interest, the failed parenthood, and the abuse of substances. Still, I thought this was great; especially as a music geek. There are enough great faux-outlaw country tunes here to make Kris Kristofferson blush. Bridges may not beat out Colin Firth in actuality this year but he 100% deserves the Oscar this year for sheer perseverence. "I Don't Know" and "Fallin and Flyin" are better than the songs up for Oscar. Props to Ryan Bingham. A career making move.


An Education - Who the fuck are these people?? Peter Sarsgaard is a pedo??? Still, even thoughts like that aren't enough to suppress Carey Mulligans performance. I have no idea how old she is but she is certainly NOT old enough to pull off this kind of mature/innocent role. So brutal yet so timeless. We all have to grow up sometime. Although I couldn't help but keep thinking what fucking horndog shitheads these guys were preying on this young girl (and jealous). Greatness.


Children Of Men- Been a few weeks since I've seen this but it still resonates. Such a great movie. Part warning, part action flick, and part philosophy lesson. A friend had told me this sucked so my expectations were low but it exceeded them in every way. An important piece of cinema.


A Serious Man To quote Variety magazine "this is the kind of movie you get to make after you win an Oscar". I mean, seriously??? This was the most boring, un-entertaining movie I've ever sat through by an Oscar winner (director/actor/writer/whatever). I read up on it afterwards and it became much more interesting to me. In fact, I watched it again with this knowledge and it was actually more interesting but I still couldn't escape the idea that this was a movie to be discussed rather than be enjoyed. This movie may be cited in senior thesis papers in the future but it will never get back it's chance to entertain me again.

The Lives Of Others- Easily the best movie I've seen since I sat through "Slumdog Millionaire". It never goes for cheap thrills or cheap action. Just a slow burn that wraps it's web around you until you are fucking paralyzed watching it. I wish I spoke German. Incredible.


Twilight - WTF???? I mean...............WTF???? I really tried and I really liked Kristen Stewart in "Adventureland" but WHAT.........THE.............FUCK?????? Awful. Pattinson should be anally raped immediately.

I thought it fucking sucked a donkey dick.

Great costume design, well shot, well acted, horrible fucking movie.

It's shame on me, I guess, as I count another Lehane based movie, Mystic River, among the worst I've ever seen.

I haven't seen Mystic River. Have you seen Gone Baby Gone? Even though it was directed by Ben Affleck it was pretty good. Better than Shutter Island, I'd say I guess.

I liked Gone Baby Gone. I had very low expectations with Affleck involved, but it was a pretty decent movie and probably would have gotten more respect if Affleck would have used a pseudonym.