Dr. Movie Reviews; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Jason Isaacs

[Reply #680 on:]

It Might Get Loud
Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White meet up for some lols about guitars and guitaring.
Pretty cool documentary, with one or two good jams between them. Must see for any blues rock and roll fan.
A-

[Reply #681 on:]

Avatar

In the first few seconds the movie started, I WISHED I could have seen it in 3D, it really is perfect for that, too bad our cinema doesn't have that .
Anyway, the movie was kickass, although the story was a tad weak in some areas, creature design was awesome, I loved it! One of my favourite movies seen at the cinema this year.

10/10

[Reply #682 on:]

Avatar in superawesome 3D (hahaha Bianca)
Visually stunning, epic action, cool characters, some weak and cheesy dialogue and the whole corporation destroying nature thing has been done to death, so it's not exactly fresh, but the story is one Cameron had lying around for years so that's fair enough.
Totally worth it though, Jim didn't let me down!

A-

[Reply #683 on:]

Heathers

How did I make it to the ripe old age of 18 without having seen this movie? It's hilarious; Winona Ryder is great, and Christian Slater's okay once you get past the wannabe-Jack-Nicholson thing. The ending's a little too much, but I can overlook it because the rest of the movie is so dark and brilliant and just plain awesome.

A

[Reply #684 on:]

"I love my dead gay son!"

[Reply #685 on:]

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

That was so much fun.

The End.

Oh and PS: I would like ice cream snow, please.

[Reply #686 on:]

[During an "Ice-cream" snowball fight]
Sam: Even Steve is throwing chocolate snowballs.
[Takes a closer look]
Sam: Oh.

Show spoiler

STEVE!

[Reply #687 on:]

I was just thinking about that exact quote before I clicked this thread.

That movie has made me very hungry.

[Reply #688 on:]

Heathers

How did I make it to the ripe old age of 18 without having seen this movie? It's hilarious; Winona Ryder is great, and Christian Slater's okay once you get past the wannabe-Jack-Nicholson thing. The ending's a little too much, but I can overlook it because the rest of the movie is so dark and brilliant and just plain awesome.

A

Buy the DVD and watch the alternate ending. It works so much better.

[Reply #689 on:]

New Moon
As part of our Christmas party, we had a two hour mystery destination which ended up being the cinema. The movie? Well, yeah. I have never read or seen anything Twilight related before, and after that abortion of a film, I never will again. If I wanted to watch morose teenagers whine and act terribly, I'd hang out in a mall food court.
No, it wasn't even worth it for the 17 year old werewolf and his pectoral muscles. It was worse than I imagined, and I had really, incredibly low expectations.
Even the easily achievable details, like good makeup and costuming were a massive fail. The vampires had uneven drawn on brows and you could see the powder sitting on their faces. I've done better touch up jobs drunk, slumped over the sink in a bar.
On the plus side, the girl who organised the christmas party got a hilarious win over everyone giving her shit for her Robert Pattison poster all year.

Z-

[Reply #690 on:]

Oh..I'm so, so sorry you had to watch that. Do you need a hug?

Idiocracy
Heeey...Sarah Rue was in it! And Luke Wilson. Which makes me want to see Less Than Perfect again. And also watch the episode of The X Files with Sheriff Hartwell..
The movie itself was good too. The message was similar to that of Wall-E, except instead of everyone being really fat in the future they were just really dumb.

[Reply #691 on:]

Please.... You failed to mention the female lead in Idiocracy. It was Maya Rudolph. She is a brilliant sketch comedian and singer and is the daughter of Minnie Ripperton R.I.P.
Loving you is easy, cause you're beautiful....

In the US we have gotten to see Maya for a decade on Saturday Night Live. She was in A Prairie Home Companion with Lindsay Lohan. We love Maya.

[Reply #692 on:]

Lobster Mooch, you're the king of dead celebrities I've never heard of

[Reply #693 on:]

She was in A Prairie Home Companion

That reminds me, I really need to watch that film again. Despite being a casual fan of the actual radio show and recognizing the characters, I remember finding the film very strange and somewhat sad (not that those are bad things at all), but I couldn't determine whether I actually liked it or not for some reason.

[Reply #694 on:]

A Prairie Home Companion
It's an O.K. flick. Not great but it's an Altman film, so it's well directed. Meryl Streep shows a great voice. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are funny as Dusty and Lefty, telling dirty jokes.
Virginia Madsen is very pretty and excellent as The Dangerous Woman (death).
People who have seen the movie, are still discussing the ending. It ends in the diner with death looking at the main characters. Who will be next to die?
All in all it's a fine behind-the- scenes look at a radio show, which could be The Prairie Home Companion. A little slow, but this ain't Astro Boy here.
7/10

Lobster Mooch, you're the king of dead celebrities I've never heard of

If I can introduce people to these departed luminaries, and pique someones interest in their career, I've done a good thing. Oscar winners like Jennifer Jones do not come around often.

[Reply #695 on:]

New Moon
No, it wasn't even worth it for the 17 year old werewolf and his pectoral muscles. It was worse than I imagined, and I had really, incredibly low expectations.
Even the easily achievable details, like good makeup and costuming were a massive fail. The vampires had uneven drawn on brows and you could see the powder sitting on their faces. I've done better touch up jobs drunk, slumped over the sink in a bar.
Z-

Rach, you so crack me up... 

Dirty Harry
This film was considered heretical when it was filmed in 1971.  The film focuses on San Francisco Police Detective Harry Callahan (portrayed by Clint Eastwood; the character is known on the force as "Dirty Harry", because he takes the assignments other Police Officers won't), and his cat & mouse conflict with a psycho (portrayed by Andrew Robinson; sort of a Zodiac Killer type). 

It's easy to dismiss the film as a simple macho action film, but you'd be missing the main theme if you did; the question of how far can protectors of society go to get the job done; even if it means breaking the very laws they're sworn to uphold.  This film is very lean & fast moving, and portrays a gritty street scene not previously seen much before.  Clint Eastwood creates an iconic character in Harry Callahan; brooding, troubled, conflicted and, at the same time, dedicated & of a single purpose.  Andrew Robinson's portrayal of the films antagonist was so realistic & dynamic that he was typecast for years and had trouble finding other acting work; some directors supposedly actually believed he was psychotic.  Overall, a spartan & fast moving film, with exceptional acting & a great story.

9/10   

[Reply #696 on:]

Someone, not me, pointed out that the three Dirty Harry films all took a distinctive tone. Left leaning, right leaning and middle of the road. In one he was battling terrorists (right). In one he was battling rogue cops (left) and hunting a sniper (center). Interesting stuff.

BTW Gran Torino will be the last lead vehicle (pun) for Clint. He will continue his career behind the camera.

[Reply #697 on:]

New Moon
Z-

Anyhoo, Extract
Maz reminded me I saw another Mike Judge film recently, with Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, JK Simmons (and Gene Simmons for no raisin), David Koechner.
So lots of cool people, but a pretty mediocre film about Bateman as a vanilla extract flavour factory owner.
Bateman acts very Michael Bluthish so it has that going, and I didn't hate Affleck in it, some funny parts, like the drug taking.

C+

[Reply #698 on:]

Avatar in superawesome 3D (hahaha Bianca)
Visually stunning, epic action, cool characters, some weak and cheesy dialogue and the whole corporation destroying nature thing has been done to death, so it's not exactly fresh, but the story is one Cameron had lying around for years so that's fair enough.
Totally worth it though, Jim didn't let me down!

A-

Fazey pretty much summed it up. A!

[Reply #699 on:]

Avatar (in 3D)

Negatives first - the characters are a bit one-dimentional, the dialogue is clunky, the story is cliché and the politics are juvenile. There's incredible irony (some would call it hypocrisy) in spending half a billion dollars of corporate cash and utilising the absolute bleeding edge of modern technology to hammer home a message that is essentially 'Technology-weilding corporation = unashamedly evil / undeveloped, nature-loving tree-dwellers = unquestionably good'.

Talk about a chasm-esque disconnect between the medium and the message…

None of that matters one bit, though, for two reasons. Firstly, there's the pragmatic side of things - if you're going convince a studio to part with 500 million dollars, you need to convince them that the resulting film will have really, really broad appeal, so that means keeping the story and themes simple and easily understandable - good guys are good, bad guys are bad. Accept this, and you're part way to forgiving the lack of thematic shades of grey. The second reason will push you over the line, and far, far beyond…

The film is, quite literally, mind-numbingly gorgeous - as in the awe-experiencing part of your brain will begin to shut down two thirds of the way through. Every single review says this, but it really is nothing like you've ever experienced at a cinema before. The action sequences are pitch perfect, the sound is amazing and the 3D is subtle, but immersive. I really love how they combined the soft-focus and shallow depth-of-field with the perspective provided by the 3D tech. Once you stop trying to focus on the out-of-focus bits and look where the director wants you to look, it really works.

A lot of people make excuses for bad films like Transformers and the like, by saying that, even if the story and the characters are a little bit rubbish, just go in, switch off your brain and enjoy the spectacle. It doesn't work though, because the spectacle is never quite spectacular enough to distract you from the other failings. Avatar, on the other hand, is something else entirely. The story is decent enough, the characters are decent enough, but as a spectacle, it is unsurpassed.

[Reply #700 on:]

Talk about a chasm-esque disconnect between the medium and the message…

Ah, but the film was printed on bark from renewable plantation stock.

[Reply #701 on:]

Ya except for a few of the chase/fights I could actually follow the action sequences in Avatar, never in the more recent quick tracking type movies.
Also the depth of field focus thing, you have to keep your eyes on what's in focus and not on the blurry parts, that's how to avoid wonky vision.

Cameron talks about using the "technology is evil" theme while using super advanced tech to do it in this /Film interview.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/18/the-filmcast-interview-james-cameron-director-of-avatar/

[Reply #702 on:]

Great interview, thanks for the link.

Articulate son-of-a-bitch, aint he…

[Reply #703 on:]

I was watching the Titanic commentary a while ago and he has such a good vocabulary. I live in his hometown, and I almost moved into a house on the street he grew up on, but we got a different house instead.

[Reply #704 on:]

So much gayness in that post. Soooo much.

[Reply #705 on:]

I could watch Titanic over and over.

[Reply #706 on:]

BC is right, sorry Books.

[Reply #707 on:]

Where the Wild Things Are
 What my boyfriend suggested was that at the end when they just stare at each other in the most un-heartwarming reuniting scene ever,

Wrong.

the mom should have asked, "I could really use a story."

 Gay. Please refrain from trying to improve things that don't need improving. That ending was perfect. Once again, you and your boyfriend are gay. Thanks for playing.

[Reply #708 on:]

Moon

No, not New Moon. Moon. With Sam Rockwell. You know, Zaphod Beeblebrox in the Hitchhikers movie, Guy from Galaxy Quest. Directed by Duncan Jones. You know, David Bowie's son.

So you have no idea what I'm talking about?

Cool.

Well, this film is, by far, one of the best I saw this year. It has a lot of 1984, 2001, and (this will spoil the plot twist of the movie, so seriously don't read this spoiler if you don't want anything ruined, because this plot twist is really, really good)

Show spoiler

Blade Runner

vibes going for it. This film made me think the entire time, which I can't say about many other movies that have been released lately. District 9 made me think a little, but Moon outshines and outperforms it easily as the best science fiction film released this year. D9 was a lot more formulaic than Moon, I really didn't know what to expect next with the latter. D9 also was on a much larger scale, whilst Moon was very minimalistic (Sam and GERTY are the only characters throughout the film, minus video cameos from others) and was much more able to develop Sam's psyche. Now don't get on me for ragging on D9 here; I love District 9. It is one of my top films of this year. But, really, it's no Moon.

Sam Rockwell gives a fantastic performance, and I love the appearances of Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY the Robot and Matt Berry as one of Lunar's executives. Yes, that Matt Berry. His appearance is hard to see as you never get a good shot of him, but listen in during the executive scenes and you'll definitely hear his voice.

This film really did amaze and delight me and I highly recommend it to everyone.

A+

[Reply #709 on:]

I want to see that so badly. And for once, I'm not touching that spoiler tag.

[Reply #710 on:]

It was Space 1999, by the way.

[Reply #711 on:]

AVATAR in 3 Dimension-O-Vision

Saw it with a bunch of work mates last sunday in vmax at george st.

It was AWESOME.

I was very entertained.

10/10.

[Reply #712 on:]

Planet 51
 It wasn't as bad as I feared it might be and I wouldn't say that I disliked it but while the animation was good the same couldn't be said of the story.

There weren't enough good ideas to rescue the predictably conventional storyline, and what good elements there were weren't tied together tightly enough. The story seemed to lurch from one gag/set piece to another via cliches and/or improbable coincidences.

All-in-all I'd give it a C.

[Reply #713 on:]

Avatar in Real D 3d

Like DogDoo8 I saw it at a Vmax cinema. Very glad that I booked tickets early
The 3d worked really well for the most the movie, except in the sections of high speed movement thanks to 3d's inherent problem of 24fps but other then that it was it flawless. The story was told well and has broad appeal which is a good thing.
There was a scene with ash falling, initially I thought it was dust falling in front of my face and almost blew it away then I realized it was the movie.

I'm hoping to see the 2d version on Sunday.

The movie it self 10/10 the 3d effect 9/10

[Reply #714 on:]

The Singing Detective (1986)

The  TV Masterwork by Dennis Potter.
A film noir miniseries played out in the head of a detective fiction writer, Philip Marlow, superbly played by Michael Gambon. He shows an amazing acting ability and a screen presence worthy of actors like Bogart and Newman. No hyperbole,he is that good in this.
Hailed by many critics as the best script ever written for television

Pick it up at Amazon for a wonderful viewing experience.

9/10


BTW When the writer, Dennis Potter discovered he had cancer he named it Rupert as he despised Rupert Murdoch. Gotta love that.

[Reply #715 on:]

Avatar

3D was cool but didn't live up to all the hype, IMO.  Story was really predictable, but I still enjoyed it.  I was entertained, so no buyers remorse.

The best part to me was the "Marvel vs Capcom 2" loading screen when they linked to the avatars.  For a fighting game fiend like me, that rainbow tunnel effect is the most beautiful thing in the movie.

B+

[Reply #716 on:]

The only reason I'm going to see Avatar is the effects. I knew the plot would be sort of meh, it's trying to appeal to a wide audience like Titanic did, but the effects should be epic. Is the difference between the 2D and 3D experiences for this movie so great that I would be remiss to see it in 2D?

[Reply #717 on:]

You use words like remiss, so I would assume so.

[Reply #718 on:]

Last Days

Gus Van Sant will never stop the "I just got out of film school, now to rip off Stanley Kubrick" shtick.  In this needlessly artsy, needlessly anachronistic and completely un-driven film we watch a fictionalized Kurt Cobain(Blake played by Micheal Pitt) wander around a mansion for a few days before killing himself.  I want to take a special moment to point out the films ridiculous score.  Beginning and ending with A Cappella tenor madrigals and needlessly sprinkled with church bells there is a bizarre non sequitur of sound to subject.  Especially when one is trying to watch a movie about a fallen rock star.  The artsy tone of the film also deals a crushing blow to the films climax trading in its bleak tone for a surrealistic sappy spiritual statement.

All that being said, there are elements of this film I cannot hate.  First of all, Having read a few biographies on Nirvana and Cobian, the film tells a fairly accurate portrayal of the events, taken with loose liberty.  Next and most notable; the low-key and convincing performance of Micheal Pitt was spot on for the burnt-out and isolated Cobain state of mind.  His look, his sound, his music rang so true to the 90's grunge tragedy.  The real saving grace of the film is Blake.  The films directing focuses on long-winded shots and art-house execution, which detracts from narrative.  Pitt's material is all delivered with barely a mumble.  Despite, and perhaps even because of these influences on the films tone, Micheal Pitts performance comes through to deliver real presence.  I don't think there will ever be a more convincing Kurt Cobain put on film.  Everything from his tone of speech down to his mannerisms.  Just the simple act of brushing his hair out of his face, and putting on his ear had just the right quality to capture Cobain's visage.  Going further, he made the rock legend sympathetic and human, not an imitation.  You just felt for his lost direction in his musical career.  His heroin abuse and his long held 'whatever' attitude toward responsibility had left him in a dark place where he could only look at his amazing achievements as a failure.  Most poignantly, the real stand-out moments of his role are during his musical compositions.  While lyrically the music did not reflect Cobain's jaded whimsicality what it does do is tap the Nirvana sound of pain and music combining and overcoming.

I detract from the film for its being deliberately art-house, yet if it was not, I don't think Michal Pitts Performance would have worked as it was nor would it work if altered to fit a new more story-driven focus.  It's a tough call for me, because my biggest complaint is what allowed for the films biggest achievement.

I've got no grade for this movie.  I'll give it a tentative and lukewarm recommendation directed specifically at Nirvana fans that have done some growing up.  All others will most likely come away cold.

[Reply #719 on:]

I just found this link about Avatar.Thought someone might like to read it.
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/hmg-avatar-hidden-messages.html