Sherlock Holmes

I'd say overall I enjoyed it. Not sure what people were expecting of this but it was pretty much what I thought it would be. Sherlock Holmes type stuff with a little action thrown in. The whole "Sherlock Holmes is now an action hero" criticism seemed a little overblown to me. The character was basically classic Holmes to me.

I believe I had heard/read somewhere that Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes was closer to the books than most other interpretations.

I've given my take about this movie somewhere in the deep recesses of this thread.

For me it works as some sort of intellectual exercise on religion rather than anything particularly entertaining. Lot of deep reflection going on here and I could see this movie gaining an afterlife on campuses everywhere as an assignment for religion classes or "themes of religion in cinema" film class or something. Hell, I could see jewish theological seminary schools showing it to students.

Basically, I felt it worked on that level. I didn't find it particularly funny or entertaining.

thought it might be good because of frank henenlotter (basket case, brain damage) but then you have r.a. the rugged man as a co-writer/director/producer. i mean, it sounded sort of interesting...



but the acting is really bad (surprise!). it's basically a porno masquerading as a horror flick.



really good. a cross between Hardcore with George C. Scott and Dead Man's Bones with Paddy Considine. i wished it was a little gorier but that wasn't a big deal.

That synopsis of Bad Biology was intriguing enough for me to look up a review on imdb.com. Here's my favorite part of a shockingly well-written user review.

"The film also includes "stop motion" effects, mostly involving the ambulatory penis, and while effects like that were acceptable back in the days when Basket Case was made, now they look pretty archaic. And in this case, not very well done."

Oh how I long for the days when computer graphics are able to do justice to the concept of an ambulatory penis.

i believe Beyond Re-Animator also has an ambulatory penis.

The baby went down for a nap right as 500 Days of Summer came on. I liked this more than I should have. It went up to, but very rarely over, the line of cute/quirky for cute/quirky's sake, which was a very difficult line to skirt considering it starred indie muse Zooey Deschanel and features them meeting because she hears him listening to The Smiths.

But it got a lot of the key elements of getting your fucking heart ripped out right.

I loved this film. One of my favorite Coen brothers works. The "message" for me was intriguing. It stunk of a rather hefty dose of postmodern nihilism but in stark contrast remained quite hopeful: "stop worrying about shit and enjoy life (because we're all gonna die anyway). And, I'd argue there are some rather loose tie-ins to the book of Job as well--at least maybe as a reference point for the brothers Coen (God as a whirlwind, etc).

I am still unsure which end of the two spectrums the author's may have intended with it, but it struck me as irrelevant because I enjoy both potential meanings with a level of equality.

That and the interactions with the Korean student and his father were wonderfully done and to me quite humorous. "Accept the mystery".

Finally got around to seeing Inception this weekend.

While it was intriguing and kept my attention the entire time, the film really didn't live up to all the hype that critics and fanboys are giving it. While critics like Ebert reveled in the fact that Nolan is a straight-shooter and a literalist, I think it hurt this film to not go outside a little more. Don't get me wrong, the concept was great and completely fresh on a cinematic level. But, some of the action scenes/dreams seemed a bit benign and boring at times. I got really excited when Ellen Page's character is realizing her potential, only to have that be the only real skewing of reality we had. I think I lean more towards the Duncan Jones mentality of dreams--without going that far--but looking at almost an absurdist view of dreams. The rotating hallway scene was amazing, and placing this into a heist genre was a brilliant move as well.

Also, if the snow scene wasn't a reason to hand the keys over to Nolan for the Bond franchise, I don't know what is. It was obviously an homage to earlier Bond films with the secret lairs of evil bosses.

On netflix I gave this a 4/5. Its flawed, but has enough concept and execution to make it worthwhile despite what I hoped it would be (I imagined Pan's Labyrinth mixed with the Matrix). The real positive here is hopefully the studios will try their hand at fresh ideas than rehashes and sequels. Which probably won't happen unless it has the Nolan name attached.

I enjoyed the film a lot, but it has a couple of nagging problems that I have an issue with. I won't go any further, so as not to spoil anything for anyone who plans to see it in the future. Overall, the issues I have with it are outweighed by the good aspects of the film. And, by changing one of the two issues I have with the film, it might have lowered the impact of the overall work.

Oh, and I also saw The Girl Who Played With Fire, and unlike the overall reviews by critics which seem to favor the first chapter in the trilogy by far over the second, I actually enjoyed it as much as I did The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Heard a review for this one on NPR that got me interested. I'll probably see this with the wife when it comes out on DVD because we never hit the theaters alone together anymore.

i'd like to hear what you thought about it.

SPOILER ALERT

My main issues that bug me about it are that Julianne Moore's character cheated not only with a man, but with the kids' sperm donor. I just don't find that storyline realistic at all, and it may just add to homophobic views that "see... lesbians just need a man to set them straight." Granted, it's a movie, and the storyline heightens the emotional impact of the entire film... but, I'm just afraid how it may reinforce negative viewpoints of some who don't agree with gay marriage and gay parenting. Of course, on the other hand, most likely, most homophobic people will never see the film and have such closed minds that a film won't help open it anyway.

My other issue was a small one... what's up with the gay man porn? I guess I'm sure some lesbians enjoy gay male porn (I mean, everybody enjoys different things), but it just seems unlikely. I think it was thrown in as a comedic element more than anything else.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film and I see why the reviews have been so great. I'm just wondering what the majority of homosexuals think about it.

Interesting Inception video from YouTube found by AV Club:





http://www.avclub.com/articles/great-jo ... sou,43518/

the only thing that really bothered me about the when i first saw it was how they left things with ruffalo's character but i guess there's not going to be a lot of closure between him and bening & moore.

I agree with your first paragraph. But damn, that arctic storyline was godawful. It reminded me of some of the worst Bond scenes ever made.

Overall, I think this is being greatly overrated. It will win the Oscar.

This review sums up my thoughts pretty well:

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movi ... /inception

saw dinner for schmucks last night

really, really funny

loogar's recurring steve carell is an NTAC rant in 3...2...1...

I went to a screening of Dinner for Schmucks last week and I thought it was awful...played way too broad, thought it was pretty tedious.

on the other hand, saw Micmacs yesterday and it was the best film I've seen in recent memory...can't say enough good things about it

I watched this recently and it bored the shit out of me. I had low expectations given it was directed by Guy Ritchie so it did not disappoint in that regard.

Just watched this yesterday. Agree with Derris. The whole time I kept thinking about how this movie would be great to show in the "Cinema and the Jewish-American Experience" class I took in college. It's interesting for that aspect, but as a narrative I was kind of disinterested.

Just got back from this and enjoyed it. Wanted to weigh in here. SPOILERS

1)husker, I agree that it happened quick with Ruffalo/Moore's characters but I think she kind of establishes how neglected she felt (and even says so in her apology later) and I could easily understand her finding comfort in him; emotionally and physically. I don't think it's a stretch that she'd hook up with a man. There are a lot of lipstick lesbos out there.

2) Agree about the kind of idiot with a view of "Lesbians just need a man to set them straight" isn't seeing this movie. They're at the multi-plex seeing "Grown Ups" or "Cop Out".

3) I worked next to a lesbian at my last job for 6 years and can say the gay man porn thing isn't uncommon. I even busted her once with some in her truck. I also think she explains that to the son, humorously, with the whole "human sexuality is a strange thing........" speech.

4) shiv, yeah, as the credits rolled my first thought was "what about ruffalo" but upon further reflection with Femderris, the movie isn't about him. It's about family. Bennings character sums him up in Ruffalo's last scene as an "interloper" in their family. He is a great guy but in the end he gets to go home and not have to put the work in the make their family work. At least that was our take.

Good movie.

Wow, what a movie. I saw Cache and was impressed with Haneke's abilities, but the look and feel of this movie blew me away. The creepiness factor of the parents and the little kids was off the charts.

haven't seen this one but I started to watch all of haneke's movies. I only knew funny games which I saw totally unprepared in the cinema years ago. it ruined my day.
I watched benny's video and 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls recently. the latter was great, though haneke really has a strong message in all of these movies which tends to be a bit too much or better too much on the surface.

still recommended.

Winter's Bone is now near the top of my list of movies I've seen this year. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely terrific in the leading role.

And I'm really excited about this...

August 21 - Midnight One-Night Only Showing of Evil Dead at the Oriental in Milwaukee!!!

yeah dinner for schmucks was a whole lot of boring.