Chic, IL What Movie Did you last see?

Wow, that is some cutting edge satire. George feels underutilized! Ringo is a joke! John is somberly pompous and Paul's a narcissist! Surely no one has seen through these legends in such a way over the past forty years.

"What do you do when the music stops?"

 

Right, and the movie doesn't get much funnier than that. The comedy of the whole movie is based on overused rock n' roll cliche's.

D'

 

Considering the talent, content and circumstances, the movie was probably a lot of fun to make. Not unlike "Mallrats", I imagine the extras/commentary on the DVD are actually much more entertaining than the finished product.

"Who's Walt Flannigan's dog!?"

 

Good Night, and Good Luck - Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. When I first heard that the U.S. would have such a thing called the "Department of Homeland Security", I felt sick. I can respect the FBI, in theory at least. But DHS and TSA seem like the government versions of the RIAA and MPAA: treat all of your customers like thieves, suspect everyone. Now we get to PAY FOR THE PRIVILEDGE that we should have had all along...seems like a backwards way of doing things, and makes me **** sick.

**** sick. Of course, I don't do anything to fight and/or change it, so future generations can blame me. Let's just pray that the Book of Revelations is right and God pushes the global reset button soon.

This was a well done movie, however. I have heard that filming in black & white is terribly difficult to light correctly, and this is a gorgeous looking movie. Well written and well acted, from my point of view.

-Haz

"He'll just have to not get Christmas presents for his kids this year."

"He's Jewish."

"Well, don't tell him. He loves Christmas."

 

Click - Cute concept executed in a boring and formulaic way. I generally like Adam Sandler stuff, but this sucked. Adam's character is a putz and not likable. And I really don't think he did a good job portraying it. Or maybe he did. I don't care, which I guess is the telling factor. The 2 saving graces are Christopher Walken and, as always, the lovely and stunning Ms. Kate Beckinsale (dressed as Pocahontas? Are you kidding me? I think I'm developing tennis elbow). And The Hoff steals every scene he's in. I'm just really glad I waited until Netflix sent it to me instead of paying money for it (you know what I mean).

Bottom line: Jimmy Stewart did it better.

-Haz

"Shut up, James Earl Jones!"

 

Finally got around to the Peter Jackson "King Kong" remake. There's a pretty good 90 minute movie in there somewhere.

"I think women and seamen don't mix."

 

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is every bit as funny as you may have already heard. It's also, surprisingly enough, a pretty intelligent look at relationships and how just about everyone in the world is fukced up in some way or another.

And I've never laughed harder at the words "I'm sorry!" You can kinda see it coming, but it's still hilarious.

 

Watched Cloverfield last night. It was alright. Nothing really spectacular, some cool scenes, and a nice concept, but it didn't blow me out of the water.

 

Shoot 'Em Up - Gun porn.

And considering the foul mood I was in when it started, that was exactly what I needed. Lots 'o' shooting, bad Hollywood physics of the highest order, Monica Bellucci as the hooker-with-a-heart, and a soundtrack of Lemmy and Angus Young. There are just as many one-liners and clichés littering the floor as there are shell casings. The scene where Clive Owen takes care of a room full of SWAT with his pistol while SIMULTANEOUSLY taking care of Ms. Bellucci with his "gun" is nothing short of awesome.

Get some popcorn, turn off your brain, and enjoy some of the best gun fights this side of John Woo.

-Haz
"Do we suck, or is this guy that good?"

 

The Nines - Hunh.

If you don't hate movies where there are multiple story lines and you can't see how they could possible tie together and then in the last 2 minutes they do and you're all like, "Oh! That's what it meant!", then you should probably see this.

Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just...interesting.

 

The four-disc edition of "Blade Runner" is really something special, another great example of the exhaustive possibilities of DVD sets. One entire disc is dedicated to nearly 4-hours "making of" retrospective interviews, and another disc catalogs more technical and contemporary behind the scenes footage.

I haven't checked out the commentaries yet, but BSG fans will enjoy the moment in the "Deckard, replicant or not?" featurette in which Edward James Olmos accidentally refers to skinjobs as "cylons."

(for the record, I'm on the "or not" side of the Deckard debate, though Rutger Hauer makes a strong case for its irrelevance.)

Oh yeah, and the whole set is like twenty bucks. How can you go wrong?

"I've done... questionable things."

 

Closer - I got this from Netflix for the scene with Natalie Portman as a stripper and that's pretty much the only part I liked.

She has a very lovely bottom.

 

I hear she and Clive Owen gave good performances, and that was about it.

Portman filmed nude scenes for that movie. Just weeks before its premiere, the director decided to replace them with PG-13 rated duplicates. This has upset many, many people.

Still, the footage exists, and a few people have made it their life's work to track it down. for the good of all mankind (and lesbian-kind): godspeed, sirs.

"Licorice!?"

 

I would say of the 4 main actors, Clive certainly did the best job, portraying a very convincing grade-B a$$hole. Ms. Portman was second best, but I think there was a large gap there. She was cute and waif-ish and partially nude, but I've seen her give more effort in other roles. Jude Law was either boring and bland, or did a great job portraying boring and bland. Julia Roberts didn't even phone it in. It was more of a fax or text message performance.

It's on my short "to do" list.

-Haz
"I am Spartacus!"

 

Day of the Dead-2007.

I knew going into this it would suck, especially since it went straight to video. I'm a zombie fan but this movie lost me with jumping zombies. I'm all for the running zombies we've seen in recent years(though I prefer the Romero-shamble) but when the undead are outracing a car and jumping up 3 floors, that just loses me. This is definitely not a continuation of the Dawn of the Dead remake(which was excellent) but a stand-alone suckfest.

Luckily I only wasted a buck at the RedBox DVD.

 

Thumbsucker - The best part was Keanu Reeves as a crazy orthodontist. Every thing else sucked more than thumbs.

 

Finally caught up with "Hellboy". It was better than I expected, but I can see why people didn't exactly flock to the theaters. It's very much a comic book style, and that's still not very popular with the masses, despite the growing popularity with movies based on comics.


"Mmm, nachos."

 

We should have a movie night with this awesome film.

"I don't think you have the balls."

 

I dunno. Not unlike "Itchy and Scratchy", those clips are funny, but I don't think I'd want to watch more than two minutes of them at a time.

The AVClub's best ongoing feature is currently "Better Late Than Never", in which staff members read/watch/listen some seminal piece of the pop culture canon that they'd heretofore missed out on. This week's entry is by a young gent who somehow managed to never see the original "Alien" before now.

"Quick, change my order to the special!"

 

I just got back from seeing Iron Man. I really loved this movie. I think they really captured the character and his origins. Definitely stay past the end credits for an extra scene that produced nerdgasms in the theater I saw it at.

Phil

 

Saw Iron Man. I really liked it. You have to stay till the end of the credits like phil said.

 

Thank You For Smoking - I liked it. To me, it really doesn't have anything to do with smoking, but it's about being 'politically correct' and the job of putting spin on things that aren't necessarily nice to talk about. It's well written and well acted. Good job.

 

Dead Alive - Holy SCHNIKE'S! Why didn't I see this movie before? It gives Shawn of the Dead a run for its money for "Best Tongue-In-Cheek Zombie Movie Evar in the History of Zombie Movies". It's the only Peter Jackson movie I've seen outside of LotR (including The Frighteners". Every scene is just an excuse to outdo the previous scene for over-the-top gore and silliness. It is completely awesome, and every geek who hasn't seen it is doing themselves an injustice if you don't queue it to the top of your list today. Also, if you pay attention you can really see Jackson getting his feet wet with complex cinematography and framing for his future Rings films.

D'

EDIT: oh yeah, I saw King Kong.

 

Just got back from seeing Iron Man. Holy mother of everything good in this world! This movie kicked major ass! The story line was good. The CGI was out of this world awesome. Tony Stark is a pimp, ass, complete clown, and just frakking awesome! I don't think anyone would have made a better Stark than Robert Downey Jr. His performance was just dead on! Hands down, the BEST comic to movie made to date! I really hope this starts a streak of pure awesomeness!


Stay for the end of the credits! I soooo hope they do what I think they are gonna do!!!! If you didn't stay, and dont know what happened, and would like to know, PM me and I'll fill you in.

 

I haven't actually seen any movies today, but "woot" for post 2,000!


edit: great old Onion news brief for the Iron Man fans --

Headphones-Wearing Pedestrian Loudly Proclaims Iron Man Status


MINNEAPOLIS?Local resident James Gaines loudly proclaimed his Iron Man status Monday while walking down Hennepin Avenue wearing a Sony Discman. "I am Iron Man," Gaines announced in a deep, foreboding voice before launching into his dark, personal tale of madness and revenge. Gaines has previously declared himself "hot for teacher," "a teenage lobotomy," and "a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm."