Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)

[jbissell]

I thought the Miami one was the only stinker of the bunch. Most of them were about an interesting topic, but The U just ran like one of those "your team just won the championship DVDs" that Sports Illustrated gives out for subscribing to their magazine.

The Iverson and Reggie Miller episodes run like 95 minutes if I remember correctly.

Yeah, those were my two favorites so far, along with the Ali one.

[Sam the Cinema Snob]

I try to play catchup...and understand the male psyche.

Dr. No (1962)

I know I don't get women, I think I might not get men either.

[jdc]

The New Daughter

Last weekend a few of us were sitting around a friend's apartment during the afternoon as it was just too damn hot out.  Looking for a movie, one of my friend's grabs this from a pile of DVDs to suggest to watch.  I look at it and think... this going to be very bad.  One, it has Kevin Costner, two, it has a big name star and I never heard of it and it looks like it went straight to DVD, three, it has g*d damn kevin Costner.

Against my protests, as everybody else thinks Kevin Costner is a good actor, they decide to watch this.

It lives up to my expectation, it sucked.  At least by the end the others were agreeing with me that Kevin Costner is just not interesting.

Shutter Island

I will finally start getting around to watching some 2010 films now that they are starting to be released on BD and DVD.  Well, I think this is a 2010.  I think I expected something more from Martin Scorsese but overall I enjoyed the film.  It just didn't stand out as something I expected from him.  I pretty much manage to not know anything about the story so it was still new to me.  And at least Leo is not Kevin Costner.

[Corndog]

At least by the end the others were agreeing with me that Kevin Costner is just not interesting.

I disagree with that. I know he is not a good actor, but I am always interested in the projects he is a part of; they always seem to be interesting to me.

[smirnoff]

Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003) The first half hour of this movie was pretty rough, I considered turning it off because I didn't see much potential. Thankfully once the story is properly set up and they quit with the flashbacks, the film gets much better. There's two separate stories here and they're both quite interesting. I had no trouble staying engaged once things got underway. If there's just one thing that needed fixing with the movie it was the book-ish dialogue. It's pretty cumbersome. The cast manages to muddle through it, just. It's hard enough doing a southern accent when you don't have lines like that, so I don't blame the actors at all. I shudder to think what the movie would've been like without the talant they had. Anyways, they whole film feels like the adaptation that it is, but it's perfectly watchable in spite of that. A good movie, certainly not great.

IMDB link

[jdc]

At least by the end the others were agreeing with me that Kevin Costner is just not interesting.

I disagree with that. I know he is not a good actor, but I am always interested in the projects he is a part of; they always seem to be interesting to me.

That is how I feel about Brad Pitt, though I maybe he is not a bad actor, I at least think he makes interesting choices in projects.  I looked through Costner's movies and just can't find anything that looks interesting unless I go back 20 years. 

I guess I shouldn't rag on him, I was just frustrated that I got out voted and had to watch this movie

[FLYmeatwad]

Toy Story 3

As a refinement of Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3 works on just about every level. As a successor to Toy Story, this film falls incredibly short. As an entry in Pixar's catalog, Toy Story 3 is, like many of the studio's films, a middle of the road feature that contains flashes of enjoyment and even brilliance, but is held back by so many paint by numbers story telling techniques, irritating characters, and flat jokes that these features seem lesser by comparison.

Read the full reflection at Processed Grass

[ses]

The Weight of Water (directed by Kathryn Bigelow, 2000)

The Weight of Water is actually two films in one.  The first being a story in the present about a photojournalist (Catherine McCormack) investigating the brutal murder of two women (one woman survived) that occurred on a small island of the coast of Maine in 1873.   The journalist and her husband (Sean Penn) are staying with his brother (and his girlfriend) on his brother's boat while she is researching the murders.  The other story occurs in the past, and it is the story of the times leading up to the murders.  Sarah Polley plays the survivor of the murders, and she is very intriguing as the wife of a Swedish fisherman. 

I found the story in the past to be more interesting than the story in the present.  It could have have been a film all on its own I think. The story in the present felt like something I had seen many times before, and the climax really isn't enough to overcome that.   So overall, I think my feeling on this film is pretty middling, but I would probably still recommend it.  Bigelow does some interesting things with her direction, but I wish I would have gotten more out of the story as a whole. 

[GothamCity151]

The Last Picture Show



Texas night part 2. Yesterday was George Stevens' Giant, and tonight was Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show. And once again, I loved this film. The story focuses on high school senior Sonny Crawford looking for sex, love, and just making it through the day. It is a perfect portrait of high school of a not so perfect life. The film is filled with infidelity (a lot of it), teenagers faced with sex, and dealing with tragedy. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of this film is the acting, which is unbelievable. Everyone is great in Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges (who miraculously has had the same exact voice for 40 years), Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, and Sam Bottoms as the silent Billy. I want to single out three performances here, so bare with me. Cloris Leachman, who won an Oscar for her role in this, elevates the humanity in every scene. She cuts to the core of everyone, and the film is worth seeing purely for her, but luckily, there is more greatness in the film than just that. Ben Johnson as Sam "The Lion" is subtle, subdued, and brilliant. He is can hit the comedic notes and melt your heart. Also, this is the film debut of Cybill Shepherd, who proves she can actually act. Her character, I think, is the most interesting. She is the naive girl who thinks at every moment she knows what she wants, but obviously doesn't, and she pulls it off beautifully. Every scene she surprises you. One of my favorite things of the movie is the black and white cinematography. I think the film would have lost a lot had it been shot in color. I applaud Bogdanovich for making that decision. The script hits all the right moments, from witty dialogue to pure drama. I just want everyone to go out and watch this movie.

Grade: 5/5 or A+

[flieger]

[REC] (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007)
Not bad zombie-cum-possession-cum-biohazard single-cam horror flick. The exposition is laboured, especially two egregiously stupid moments - the little girl, the tape recorder - and took me out of the film for a little bit. But hey, you've got to keep the narrative moving along somehow. The ending is great, where the camera literally becomes the eyes not only of the audience, but of the protagonists (cinema theory field day!), and the Catholics-and-kiddies netherworld/black-ops thematics and a final Aphex Twin nightmare being make me think more highly of this than I really should. Some good stuff in there, just begging to be whipped into proper shape.