Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[The Fake Shemp]

Sounds like nobody will pay to see it

[Ichirou]

Sounds like nobody will pay to see it

You're right.  I'll just steal your title.  I mean, there's been two Crash movies, why can't there be two Blood on White Snow movies?

[The Fake Shemp]

Because you can't copyright a verb, however I can copyright a phrase.

[Ichirou]

I'll copyright YOU.

[The Fake Shemp]

Try it.

[Ichirou]

There's already a mystery novel called Red Blood on White Snow, apparently.

Willcowned.

[The Fake Shemp]

That would suck, if it weren't for the fact that my film is called Blood on White snow. The color of the blood is left to the imagination. I win again.

[Mandark]

I've already contacted Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer about writing a screenplay for Blood On Yellow Snow.

[Ichirou]

I already bought the rights to Red Blood on White Snow and we're going to begin shooting next week.  We'll beat Willco to the punch and he'll look like a johnny-come-lately when "Blood on White Snow" comes out.

It'll be like when those two competing Truman Capote movies came out one after the other.  Does anyone even remember the second one nowadays?

[Cormacaroni]

It was fun, but it is largely stuff aped from superior films. I dug the look of the film; blood on white snow is something that I've been recommending for Friday the 13th for about the past eight years.

Blood on White Snow would make for a great horror movie title.  Sounds like an Italian Giallo.

Blood on Yellow Snow might well be more horrific in reality though.

[Raban]

Saw Clash of the Titans. Fucking awesome.

[The Dark Shake 3000]

Saw a new print of this flick a few days ago at Film Forum here in NY, great great flick. Upcoming Criterion too!

http://vimeo.com/6162664

Close-Up (1990)

Pretending to be Mohsen Makhmalbaf making his next movie, Ali Sabzian enters a well-to-do family in Teheran. The actual people involved in the incident re-enact the actual events, followed by the footage from the actual trial that took place.

One of the best movie-movies of all time

[WrikaWrek]

How to train a Dragon - Lol, reminds me of Disney of old. Meaning, fucking awesome. It was fun, it was exciting and it really made me laugh at times (like laugh laugh, not just smiley face), nervous at others. Loved it really. Best 3D yet too.

I wish Pixar went back to the fun party too!

[fistfulofmetal]

Wages of Fear

Batman: Mask of Phantasm

The Girlfriend Experience


enjoyed all three.

[Raban]

Saw Clash of the Titans.  Fucking terrible.  Transformers 2 was better. 

Why? It was a really fun, classic action film. Nothing was overdone or ridiculous, it was just a really cool and fresh remake of a hilariously bad film from the 80s. I'm quite pleased that they didn't stay extremely faithful to the original, and the lack of any kind of 300 aping is by itself an impressive feat.

EDIT: Or are you just trolling me? Sometimes I wonder why I keep coming back to EvilBore.

[The Dark Shake 3000]

Adventureland was one of the best of last year

[The Dark Shake 3000]

I was expecting a droll version of Superbad in an amusement park. I got an awesome coming of age story.

[Bebpo]

Wages of Fear

Intense car driving action.  Was good and the whole omgomgomg tension helps the movie hold up today, though at 2:30 it still feels about 30 mins too long for genre.  I thought the very end was bad though.  It could give modern horror films a run for their money in SUDDEN SHOCK ENDING.  Still, besides that, great movie.

[Eric P]

watched An Education.  Loved it.  Didn't expect it to be so damn funny.  I hated the end though.  Once the big finale happens, the film compresses the living fuck out of itself and then it just stops.

[Ichirou]

Wages of Fear

Intense car driving action.  Was good and the whole omgomgomg tension helps the movie hold up today, though at 2:30 it still feels about 30 mins too long for genre.  I thought the very end was bad though.  It could give modern horror films a run for their money in SUDDEN SHOCK ENDING.  Still, besides that, great movie.

That is an AWESOME movie.  William Friedkin did a remake of if it in the '70s called Sorceror, I've been dying to watch it but I think the only DVD is pan and scan.

[fistfulofmetal]

That is an AWESOME movie.  William Friedkin did a remake of if it in the '70s called Sorceror, I've been dying to watch it but I think the only DVD is pan and scan.

wtf.
when i saw the poster art from Wages of Fear I thought one of the dudes was Roy Scheider (knew it wasnt but it looked like him). Now I look up this remake and.... IT STARS ROY SCHEIDER.

[Disposable White Guy]

Saw Clash of the Titans last night, and my date and I agreed that with a little more over-the-top action sequencing it would have been a pretty awesome homage to God of War rather than just being a totally meh remake of a great 80s movie.  I also couldn't get over the fact that fucking Le Chiffre was some big burly badass legionnaire teaching Perseus how to be a man, and that Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were so out of place in this movie that I couldn't help but giggle every time either one was on screen.

[Bebpo]

watched An Education.  Loved it.  Didn't expect it to be so damn funny.  I hated the end though.  Once the big finale happens, the film compresses the living fuck out of itself and then it just stops.

yeah, I felt it really needed another 30 mins at the end to do it properly.  Either that or take it in another direction where they can just end it in 5-10 mins like that.

[Cheebs]

I saw The Ghost Writer for the second time on Friday. Great movie, my second favorite of the year so far next to Shutter Island. Probably Polanski's most enjoyable movie in like a decade.  A fun old-school little mystery movie.

watched An Education.  Loved it.  Didn't expect it to be so damn funny.  I hated the end though.  Once the big finale happens, the film compresses the living fuck out of itself and then it just stops.

I just saw that too. I really liked it. Nick Hornby translates well as a writer from novels to screenwriting (he wrote some great books like High Fidelity and About a Boy). It is a crime that Carey Mulligan did not win best actress. She was amazing in An Education.

[Solo]

I finally saw The Hurt Locker....fairly gripping thriller/action flick, but how in the hell did this win Best Picture?

[Cheebs]

I finally saw The Hurt Locker....fairly gripping thriller/action flick, but how in the hell did this win Best Picture?

It was a good action/thriller movie but all the awards it has gotten has caused it to get far too over-hyped which will cause a lot of people to be disappointed. I can't imagine I'd enjoy it as much as I did if I didn't see it back in the summer before all the hype. Although it was a far better movie than Avatar of course, but that goes without saying.

[The Fake Shemp]

The Ghost Writer is a lot better than Shutter Island, especially from a storytelling standpoint. Shutter Island is a very flawed, but good film. The Ghost Writer is the most compelling film Polanski has made in eons.

And no, I'm not a big fan of The Pianist.

[Solo]

Im just trying to understand it beating Inglorious Basterds or even Up In The Air.

[The Fake Shemp]

The Hurt Locker was better than Inglourious Basterds, but I can't speak for Up in the Air. I find it difficult to believe it was better, though. I heard A Simple Man is the overlooked one.

[Solo]

The Hurt Locker was better than Inglourious Basterds, but I can't speak for Up in the Air.

I can't think of a single criteria by which I'd agree.

Also, Shutter Island was just alright. Might be the worst of the DiCaprio/Scorsese collaborations. On the flip side, I watched The Aviator once again the other day, and its better each time I see it.

[Phoenix Dark]

Inglorious Basterds was so good.

[Cheebs]

The Ghost Writer is a lot better than Shutter Island, especially from a storytelling standpoint. Shutter Island is a very flawed, but good film. The Ghost Writer is the most compelling film Polanski has made in eons.

And no, I'm not a big fan of The Pianist.

I probably need to see Shutter Island again, Ghost Writer might very well be better looking back at it. And yeah I wasn't a fan of the Pianist. I knew Ghost Writer was getting a lot of praise but I really haven't enjoyed a Polanski movie in forever so I wasn't sure what to think but it really surprised me.  I mean Pierce Brosnan was actually acting instead of doing the smug Brosnany thing he always does.

I am looking at Polanski's imdb now and wow, this is probably his first movie I throughly enjoyed since Frantic which was over 20 years ago. Might even be his best since Chinatown that I have seen.

[cool breeze]

Im just trying to understand it beating Inglorious Basterds or even Up In The Air.

I agree that both those were better movies but whatever.  I'm sure the people who say it is the "iconic movie of today's war blah blah" or something like that have the right idea about why it won.

[The Fake Shemp]

Eh, I really like The Tenant.

I was also kind of blown away by Brosnan's performance; he managed to pull off that aloof, but credible political attitude of arrogance. Normally when actors try to mimic a politician, it just comes off as ridiculously satirical and/or over the top.

Tom Wilkinson manages to steal the movie, in my opinion - but Ewan McGregor does his thing and is a total pro. I was a little saddened by Eli Wallach's cameo. He just looks horrible, I thought he was going to keel over on camera.

But the cinematography was just awesome, and what a fantastic script. They way it builds up to that fantastic ending, just - wow. This is the best script Polanski has handled in decades. Just great shit.

[Phoenix Dark]

On a 10 point scale of justified rapes, where does this fall?

[The Fake Shemp]

I feel this should probably clear of him all current rape charges, and we should give him a pass for sodomizing a minor. Anything beyond that should get reduced jail time.

[Cheebs]

Right on every single account.  I really feel this was Chinatown era Roman Ponlanski.

If I had one problem with the movie, and it is only minor it would be it seemed like Kim Cattral had no reason to be there. She seemed to just hang around and not really move anything forward. But overall everything was great.

So many small things in it I liked, like I loved the fact Ewan McGreggor never was named he was always just the ghost.

I feel this should probably clear of him all current rape charges, and we should give him a pass for sodomizing a minor. Anything beyond that should get reduced jail time.

Well if he is unable to ever do a movie again this is a great one to go out on.

[The Fake Shemp]

As for the case against Inglourious Basterds vs The Hurt Locker, I felt the latter pretty much mopped the floor against the former in terms of acting, writing and directing. Not that Inglourious Basterds is bad, but it's just a popcorn flick that has its share of bad acting and needless Tarantino-isms. It's balanced by Waltz's incredible performance, some great dialogue and a few superbly directed sequences - but Tarantino just couldn't keep it in his pants.

My feelings upon leaving the theater after watching Inglourious Basterds was that Tarantino fell short of making a truly great film and all the flaws were manageable - which made me a little irked. The only thing I think hurts The Hurt Locker (hyuk, hyuk) is its length (it could be shorter). Bigelow was able to convey more with less; something Tarantino could learn.

Didn't see Up in the Air, but my opinions on Reitman are well documented.

[Cheebs]

Basterds was too Tarantinoy to ever win major awards (although I loved it). Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if PRECIOUS BASED ON THE BOOK BY SAPPHIRE got more votes than Basterds did in the end.

[Solo]

As for the case against Inglourious Basterds vs The Hurt Locker, I felt the latter pretty much mopped the floor against the former in terms of acting, writing and directing.

And I feel the opposite on all three areas. On top of that, IB did suspense better than The Hurt Locker did (two different scenes, in fact, were more suspenseful than anything in THL - the opening scene and the pub scene), which seemed to be THL's bread and butter.

[The Fake Shemp]

Right on every single account.  I really feel this was Chinatown era Roman Ponlanski.

This film has an edge that he has lacked in recent years. I really dug The Ninth Gate, but what a fatally flawed film. I feel like he's learned a lot of lessons from that endeavor.

If I had one problem with the movie, and it is only minor it would be it seemed like Kim Cattral had no reason to be there. She seemed to just hang around and not really move anything forward. But overall everything was great.

Eh, I felt she was kind of critical in diverting the audience's attention from Brosnan's wife; giving credence to our initial belief that his wife is a victim of a marriage rapidly falling apart (courtesy of Cattral's character) and creating the illusion that his wife was a bit player in the grand scheme of things.

It also gives Polanski an excuse to film another scene full of adultery, which is par for the course as far as he goes.

[Cheebs]

Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't think about that aspect. He couldn't have used that asian lady who was in like every scene bringing people sandwiches constantly I guess.

[The Fake Shemp]

I'd also like to take this opportunity to declare that I would still hit it. How much of that is due to my childhood crush on her from Big Trouble in Little China and my rose-tinted nostalgia goggles is best left to you all.

My producer pal in Los Angeles is boycotting The Ghost Writer - not on the grounds that Polanski is a pedophile, but that he worries that the imagery will make him homesick for the Northeast.

[The Fake Shemp]

It didn't have a chance, and it shouldn't have won. I put it squarely in the realm of popcorn flicks that were elevated to Oscar nominations in a year that the Academy was trying to recapture some kind of mainstream audience.

It was certainly a lot better than The Blind Side, Avatar, Up, etc.

[Great Rumbler]

The Hurt Locker was better than Inglourious Basterds, but I can't speak for Up in the Air. I find it difficult to believe it was better, though. I heard A Simple Man is the overlooked one.

Having seen The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Up, and A Serious Man, I'd go with the latter. A Serious Man is really the only one of those that I'd like to see again just to get back into it and work my way through all the layers of meaning and metaphors, I can't really say that about any of the other movies as they are mostly simpler movies with obvious motives.

[Cheebs]

Of the A ____ Man duo from last year I gotta say I preferred Serious over Single.

A Serious Man Although in a Single Man's favor I'd still fuck Julianne Moore. My god, I can't believe she is 50.

[Great Rumbler]

I read my post again and noticed that I put "A Simple Man", instead of "A Serious Man". There's not even a movie from this past year called A Simple Man!

[Dickie Dee]

What'd y'all think about the opening scene in A Serious Man, you think it added anything to the movie?

[The Dark Shake 3000]

A Serious Man is the Coen Bros' masterpiece

And even though the Coens have claimed in interviews etc. that the first scene is pointless and just put in there for fun, I think it's clearly intended to mean something.

[Solo]

A Serious Man Although in a Single Man's favor I'd still fuck Julianne Moore. My god, I can't believe she is 50.

She has a great little sex scene with Amanda Seyfried in Atom Egoyan's Chloe 

[Great Rumbler]

What'd y'all think about the opening scene in A Serious Man, you think it added anything to the movie?

I think of it as sort of the full movie in a nutshell. The wife

spoiler (click to show/hide)

is so convinced that the old man is an evil spirit that she's willing to stab him just to prove that she's right. Instead of just realizing that the reports of his death were simply mistaken, she looks for some complex answer whereby the reports are correct. It's similar to how Larry is constantly trying to find some complex, divine answer to his problems, rather than accepting that his problems are earthly problems and most likely have earthly answers. His spends most of his time listening to men that know no more of his problems than he does and ultimately gets nowhere at all. Of course, with the ending, perhaps there IS more to his problems after all.

[close]

[The Dark Shake 3000]

I was thinking more along the lines of it being "you reap what you sow".

[Dickie Dee]

And even though the Coens have claimed in interviews etc. that the first scene is pointless and just put in there for fun, I think it's clearly intended to mean something.

I can see that. I think it was that I had just watched Burn After Reading, which I enjoyed, but I have no frigging clue why that movie was made. I was kind of obsessing over whether the Coens just threw some useless thing in for the fun of it.

[The Dark Shake 3000]

And even though the Coens have claimed in interviews etc. that the first scene is pointless and just put in there for fun, I think it's clearly intended to mean something.

I can see that. I think it was that I had just watched Burn After Reading, which I enjoyed, but I have no frigging clue why that movie was made.

I felt the same way the first time I saw it, and it made me dismiss the flick as a one-off curiosity piece more than a real film. After seeing it a few more times though I've come to appreciate it on it's own terms. It doesn't really have any concrete reason for existing, but then most films don't. Doesn't change the fact that it's well made, funny as hell and interesting, though. When you think about it Big Lebowski doesn't really have any reason to exist, either, but I'm glad as hell that it does.

[bud]

wilkinson is an amazing actor. i remember watching micheal clayton and immediately, during the opening, i knew that that was going to be a fuck awesome performance.

[The Fake Shemp]

The Ghost Writer, oddly enough, reminds of Michael Clayton. If I had to pick a corny Hollywood log line for The Ghost Writer, it'd be, "It's like Michael Clayton meets *The Manchurian Candidate."

* The good one, not the mediocre remake.

[Solo]

Wilkinson can be fantastic, or he can ham it up Carmine Falcone style.

[The Dark Shake 3000]

Wilkinson can be fantastic, or he can ham it up Carmine Falcone style.

Hammy Wilkinson > most other actors

[Cheebs]

Wilkinson can be fantastic, or he can ham it up Carmine Falcone style.

Hammy Wilkinson is still a joy. Like his hammy performance is one of the few really great parts in Guy Ritchie's Rock'N'Rolla.

[The Fake Shemp]

Yeah, when Wilkinson chews scenery, he makes me hungry for salad - that's how good he is.