Ebert Gave This Movie Reviews Thread 3 of 4 Stars!

[Reply #520 on:]

The Wolfman
I don't know if I had super low expectations watching this, but I didn't think it was bad at all, the main actors turned in fine performances, maybe Hoskins was a little weird, but Benicio and Blunt were good dammit!
The story is nothing original or anything but being the only Wolfman film I've seen I can't really fault it: guy becomes wolfman, goes all beastie on people, they chase him, no surprises!
The sets and costumes and stuff were great, really bleak and properly eerie looking, and it's got gore and a bit of action too, whats with all the negativity I've heard? OwoooOOOooo!!!

C+ at least.

[Reply #521 on:]

The Wolfman
... but being the only Wolfman film I've seen...

Really?  There's some pretty good ones out there; try "American Werewolf in London" or "The Howling" (the original, that is).  You'll probably like them...

[Reply #522 on:]

Faze: Haven't you seen that werewolf Flanders Treehouse of Horror segment?

[Reply #523 on:]

Maybe 5 bucks will refresh my memory...?
Doesn't count as a full film!

[Reply #524 on:]

Transformers

I just saw this tonight for the 1st time, on cable.  What a stupid movie.  A perfect example of a film made just to show off special effects; almost no plot.  Dialog was terrible, acting was bad; Megan Fox's was cringeworthy.  The whole thing was totally sophmoric & lame.  I was confused why this film was even made, then I realized that it was a Michael Bay film.  Enough said.

2/10

[Reply #525 on:]

Haha, it is unbelievably bad, and I was reading Verns review of it in his new book last night and he was talking about how people keep saying "it's supposed to be like that" and "what did you expect from a movie about giant robots?"
Um, what kind of fucking stupid argument is that? I expect a decent movie no matter what the hell it's about!

[Reply #526 on:]

Uh, yeah, if I plunk down my $8 or whatever movies cost these days, I want something good, something entertaining.  Which this was not.  It was ~ 2 hours of my life that I want back.

[Reply #527 on:]

Transformers

I just saw this tonight for the 1st time, on cable.  What a stupid movie.  A perfect example of a film made just to show off special effects; almost no plot.  Dialog was terrible, acting was bad; Megan Fox's was cringeworthy.  The whole thing was totally sophmoric & lame.  I was confused why this film was even made, then I realized that it was a Michael Bay film.  Enough said.

2/10

[sarcasm]Well then I highly recommend the second one. It is a sophisticated and well leveled sequel with amazing effects that won't make you want to vomit. The acting in this one is superb, it certainly won't make you feel like your brain is hemorrhaging. And the characters have massively improved in a way that it won't make you want to shoot Michael Bay in the face.[/sarcasm]

[Reply #528 on:]

Thanks, Spacedal11.  I figured that, given what a piece of crap the 1st one was, the only way they could go was up.  Then I remembered it was a Michael Bay film, and any impulse to watch it (even if they paid me to) quickly passed...

[Reply #529 on:]

Thanks, Spacedal11.  I figured that, given what a piece of crap the 1st one was, the only way they could go was up.  Then I remembered it was a Michael Bay film, and any impulse to watch it (even if they paid me to) quickly passed...

Think of it as an art film

[Reply #530 on:]

Thanks, Nix!  I haven't laughed so much in a long time.  My favorite line:

"So, to sum up: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema, if not the greatest."

Pure genius...

[Reply #531 on:]

I Love You Too

Wow. This movie ended up being way better than I thought it would be. And it was funny.

A

[Reply #532 on:]

Samson and Delilah

I saw this film on TV, it was hands down incredible. Marissa and Rowan act really good, maybe because there's not a lot going on to weigh them down, but still the story goes on without a boring moment, it's really great. It won't appeal to everyone due to its lack of dialogue, but it tells the story in visual terms really good.

Avatar

First off, it wasn't as good as Titanic.
But it was still pretty awesome. The animation is great, the story is good, although it's been done before. For example, The Ant Bully, but Cameron wrote Avatar years before.
It has some loose dialogue, like when Jake started going 'Oh yeah! Who's bad! That's right! That's what I'm talking about bitch. That's right..."
It has real emotion and power in the story, it has its twists and turns. Jakes character is a bit of a smart-ass, like the way he's in the Na'vi tribe and he goes "Hey, how ya doing?" when he should know not all of them speak English.
James has still got that masterful storytelling inside him. I enjoyed it very much, however I do hope the sequels are good enough.

[Reply #533 on:]

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   I do hope the sequels are good enough.

I hope so, too. (Though I'm not particularly confident.)

[Reply #534 on:]

Still haven't seen it.  I figure I'll wait until it stops making billions of dollars & comes to cable, so they don't make theatre type money on it.  Take that, James Cameron!

[Reply #535 on:]

 Now, that's being a crafty consumer (or just plain obstinate, I'm not sure which).

[Reply #536 on:]

Phone Booth

Rented this on iTunes, it's good, somewhat slow, but just glad it was relatively short.

[Reply #537 on:]

That's what she said.

[Reply #538 on:]

Mystery Team (trailer)
Ok so I saw Danny Glover (Community, awesome) was in this and it looked kinda goofy, it's about a Hardy Boys type mystery solving team who are grown up and still acting like they're 7 trying to find missing kitty cats, except they get involved in a murder case and end up in strip clubs and trying to buy cocaine.

It's very silly of course but I laughed a few times, it's like a Saturday Night Live sketch extended or something.
Also Dot Com and Lutz from 30 Rock have cameos.

C+

[Reply #539 on:]

Sex and the City 2

I went to see this with a friend, mainly because nothing else that was playing (with the possible exception of Prince of Persia) seemed interesting, but I still wanted to blow $8.25 on something. I didn't see the first movie, and I've barely seen the TV show, but I guess this was okay. Once you get beyond how vapid and bitchy and self-centered Sarah Jessica Parker is, and the semi-offensive portrayal of the Middle East, it has its moments. It's not emotionally resonant or, like, side-splittingly funny, but I can think of worse ways to spend a Monday night.

C+

[Reply #540 on:]

...but I can think of worse ways to spend a Monday night.

Like being trapped in a car thats on fire?

[Reply #541 on:]

That might be slightly more amusing, actually.

[Reply #542 on:]

Now THAT is the way to not recommend a film.

[Reply #543 on:]

Prince of Persia

Fun, but dumb.  Not a terrible movie for something based on a vidya game.  It *did* make me want to purchase the Prince of Persia game that came out last year or so, so there is that.

Robin Hood

Worst Robin Hood movie ever.  Which is a shame, because it wastes some very good individual performances by Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe and various other actors.  Too bad the story was an aborted mess of a jumble.

[Reply #544 on:]

I saw Prince of Persia last night, it was better than I had expected, in that I hadn't really been interested in seeing it at all and didn't know what was going to happen in it at all.

And Gorky, I have to go see Sex and the City 2 with my friends this weekend. Yay...I bet the most "amusing" bits were in the trailer. The trailer is beginning to piss me off, too. Especially at the end where the little girl says "like Aladdin and Jasmine?" and SJP says "Yes, but with cocktails." How the hell is that funny? What the hell. STOP MAKING MOVIES SOLELY TO MAKE MONEY. Put some effort into it! I could write better jokes than these people.

[Reply #545 on:]

Throw spoons at the screen, Maz.

[Reply #546 on:]

Haha. Booze said we should have taken spoons to Prince of Persia, since the cinema was very steep, we could have thrown spoons over EVERYONE. It was packed too. Damn. Next time. Yes. I'll throw spoons at my friends for taking me to Sex and the City.

[Reply #547 on:]

or spoon them for taking you... then post photos

[Reply #548 on:]

No. I'm telling you Maz. Do the world a favor and throw metal spoons at the screen and everyone else in the theater at Sex In The City 2.

No wait.

Knives.

[Reply #549 on:]

Daggers!

Do the world a favour, invent yourself some underpants!

[Reply #550 on:]

Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai)
Great drama set in samurai times, about a low-wage/rank samurai who is nicknamed Twilight by his work buddies from the Castle Storehouse because he never goes out drinking with them, leaving at twilight to take care of his family after losing his wife to illness, and he has 2 daughters and a mother with dementia to take care of and is pretty poor after paying for his wifes funeral.
So he finds out from his buddy that his childhood friend Tamoe (his buddies sister) is recently single and she starts helping him around the house with his kids and stuff and everything's cool for a while.
But somehow he ends up fighting her drunkard of an ex-husband and beating him with just a practice stick against his sword, and later on this victory earns him a commission to kill a guy after a big political power struggle when the clan lord dies.
He refuses at first because but they basically force him to do it or he'll be banished, so there's a great scene of him reluctantly taking his sword out and sharpening it and practicing for the first time in years, while his young daughter narrates and watches from bed.

Great film, great acting and sets and stuff, it's not an action film however, there's only two fights in it, but that's cool, it's a well told story and you're rooting for Iguchi, aka Twilight all the way.

A

[Reply #551 on:]

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   I do hope the sequels are good enough.

I hope so, too. (Though I'm not particularly confident.)

They'll be good in the sense that they'll make the first one seem better...

[Reply #552 on:]

    I like the way that man thinks!

[Reply #553 on:]

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Only took me a month to see it but I'm glad I did. I liked it, it took the concept in a new direction and I hope that since they've gotten the established characters and plot fleshed out they can only improve with later movies. Two things that irked me speaking as a fan of the original:

1. Why did they change the origin of Freddy? I mean if you want to alter it fine but you totally made him a pussy and a character that you can't help but hate for the most part.
2. Her name is Nancy Thompson not Holbrook! Get it right you bastards!

Other than that it was pretty good. Not really good as a remake but good as just a popcorn flick.

C+

[Reply #554 on:]

Gee, another reboot/sequel, what a shock...

[Reply #555 on:]

Quiet you.

[Reply #556 on:]

Sita sings the blues

Java animated re-telling of Indian folklore, as narrated by the lilting tunes of Annette Henshaw.  Art film through and through and while it doesn't get you too emotionally involved in our Betty-Boop looking heroine, nor through the pedan-style re-telling by clarifying narrators I still dug this movie.  There is also an autobiographical segment of the film which pops up in scribble animation detailing the directors breakup with her long time boyfriend.  It's all very well put together, and the segments have their own dynamic look, while threading the common theme.  Still, at times the film will come across as an overdone Java animation I still say it's worth it though, if for nothing else than the soundtrack.

B

[Reply #557 on:]

I just watched Solaris George Clooney Version Remake on A-Channel and it was pretty good

[Reply #558 on:]

This Film is Not Yet Rated

Sort-of documentary about the MPAA ratings system; I've seen it before, but I was bored last night and Netflix had it as an instant play, so I figured why not. It's interesting hearing the filmmakers discuss why, exactly, their movies received the death knell NC-17 rating, and all the talk of censorship and its antecedents and repercussions is equally intriguing. It's totally skewed towards lefty, indie filmmakers, and its tendency to make a villain out of everyone in the MPAA doesn't make it the most balanced documentary--but I don't particularly care, being a touchy-feely, anti-censorship liberal myself.

A

[Reply #559 on:]

Liberals aren't any more anti-censorship than conservatives they just like to censor different things and they're both equally wrong.