Recently Watched Movies

[Glassfan]

Just rented My Way (Korean 2011) from the video store. This is a spectacular war film with incredible battle-scenes and first-rate CG. Two boys, Korean Kim and Japanese Hasegana, grow up in (1920-30s) occupied Korea and are each other's cross-country sports rivals. The war comes along and Kim and other Korean men are shanghaied into Hasegana's Imperial Japanese Army unit to fight the Soviets in Manchuria. They get captured and taken to the Gulag, and are eventually forced into the Red Army when Germany attacks. Then they escape and join the Wehrmacht and end up at Normandy just in time for D-Day. When their position is overrun, and being marathoners, they try to run away.

As strange as it may seem, this movie is "inspired" by a true story of a Korean soldier captured by Americans at Normandy. It's even got a kickass surprise ending. By all means go out and rent this flick - it's on the "New Releases" wall of your DVD rental store, and very much worth the trouble (if you like war films).

ps: I just checked and found it's also available on streaming Netflix - but rent the DVD for the extras.

 

[Oruc]

I watched Die Hard 2 today (I played the Die Hard trilogy PS1 game many years ago when I was 10 or 11 and wondered which film took place in an airport, a plane and on snowmobiles).

Anyway I enjoyed it I like a good action film and this was decent. Don't know what the bad guys plan was once they took off in that plane though.

 

[TheLastOne36]

I believe it might have been explained in one of the movies. The bad guys are inter-connected IIRC.

Speaking of, Die Hard 5 is in production I hear.

 

[ComradeDavo]

Finally got round to watching Chasing Amy a couple days ago. Pretty good. Bit more serious than the other Jay + Silent Bob related films, but I likde it.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I recently finished "W.", which portrays George W. Bush as an earnest guy from Texas trying hard to live up to his family's legacy (and particularly, to get away from his father's shadow), who isn't really up to the job of POTUS and who is dominated by Machiavellian "subordinates", namely Cheney and Karl Rove. It interweaves scenes from his youth (spoiled drunken rich kid) with the build-up to Iraq.

High point: the casting of George HW Bush and Tony Blair. Horatio Hornblower as PM...

 

[dragonprobably]

Just saw Skyfall the other day. My God, is it awesome.

 

[Ozbenno]

Watched Incendies, a French Canadian movie last night. Was pretty heavy material but was very very good, can highly recommend it.

 

[Glassfan]

Just went to see Lincoln, directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, and based on Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's prize-winning best-seller, Team of Rivals.

I don't want to exaggerate superlatives, but I believe this is one of the finest films I have ever seen in my life. I'm going to pay another $10 and see it again tomorrow. In the showing I was in, the audience was extremely vocal and participatory. People were laughing, crying, cheering.

It's reminiscent of Amazing Grace (2006) in plot and subject matter, and especially it's depiction of the warts and blemishes of legislative democracy in action. Daniel Day-Lewis is (IMHO) the most compelling Lincoln portrayed in American cinima.

Unexpectedly, it even has a surprise ending.

Spoiler :

Thaddeus Stevens can't bring his housekeeper to the house!

Very highly recommended - especially if your taste tends to period pieces and/or social progress.

Spoiler :

However, on the very important issues of Lincoln's well-known zombie and vampire activism, this film is strangley silent.

 

[ace99]

In the showing I was in, the audience was extremely vocal and participatory. People were laughing, crying, cheering.

Hah! There had to have been some brothers in that audience.

 

[Quackers]

People were laughing, crying, cheering.

You would get laughing and crying in a British cinema, but cheering? What ? Why?

 

[Phrossack]

Just saw Skyfall the other day. My God, is it awesome.

Same here. Thought it was solid, especially the end, though it doesn't really explain how Bond

Spoiler :

survived two gunshot wounds and falling hundreds of feet into a river, only to be rescued somehow by someone somewhere for some reason. And how he survived plunging into a frozen pond on a cold Scottish night. And how he really didn't care when the closest thing to a Bond girl in the movie died, and immediately forgot about her, but then again, he is remarkably cold, especially since Vesper died

. But other than that, it was just great. My brother complained that it was predictable and copied off of The Dark Knight's Joker, but it wasn't too predictable, and the villain had a clear motive and a clever plan.

 

[Glassfan]

Hah! There had to have been some brothers in that audience.

A mostly young, PW university crowd.

You would get laughing and crying in a British cinema, but cheering? What ? Why?

When the Amendment passed, our audience cheered along with the actors. The whole Lincoln thing might be lost on you Limeys, though I daresay, England's had eccentric characters aplenty.

 

[Oruc]

Why does everyone like Skyfall? When I went to see it I thought it was bad, the villains great scheme was to kill some old woman (They talk him up as some really ruthless guy with loads of power and that's all he does with it?) and why do they keep telling us about bonds life and childhood I'm not interested in that at all.

I watched Troll hunter the other day, I thought it needed less travelling and scenery shots of Norway and more trolls.

I'm going to pay another $10 and see it again tomorrow.

You're just throwing money away!

 

[Ozbenno]

I watched Troll hunter the other day, I thought it needed less travelling and scenery shots of Norway and more trolls.

I really enjoyed it, thought they had the balance done right. The trolls were awesome though...

 

[Glassfan]

You're just throwing money away!

Although a case can be made for differences in personal taste, some movies are of such a quality that they obviously stand above the rest. I believe Lincoln is one of these. This movie is going to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and maybe a half dozen other catagories. It'll certainly win numerous other awards as well (ie., critics, industry and festival awards).

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Why does everyone like Skyfall? When I went to see it I thought it was bad, the villains great scheme was to kill some old woman (They talk him up as some really ruthless guy with loads of power and that's all he does with it?) and why do they keep telling us about bonds life and childhood I'm not interested in that at all.

There's a thread about it in this forum, but the point is that it's personal revenge he's after, not destroying the world or some kitschy super villain nonsense. I mean, the point wasn't simply to kill her, it was to get back at the organization that had betrayed him to the Chinese. She was the lynchpin who actually gave him up, so she's the one who was the main target. He kills a lot of other people in that movie.

 

[Synobun]

Saw the newest Resident Evil today. 8/10. I forget all of the previous movies so I had no idea what was really going on but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

 

[Oruc]

Although a case can be made for differences in personal taste, some movies are of such a quality that they obviously stand above the rest. I believe Lincoln is one of these. This movie is going to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and maybe a half dozen other catagories. It'll certainly win numerous other awards as well (ie., critics, industry and festival awards).

I was talking about the fact you only just watched it.

There's a thread about it in this forum, but the point is that it's personal revenge he's after, not destroying the world or some kitschy super villain nonsense. I mean, the point wasn't simply to kill her, it was to get back at the organization that had betrayed him to the Chinese. She was the lynchpin who actually gave him up, so she's the one who was the main target. He kills a lot of other people in that movie.

It might aswell not be a bond film then, the new films are missing something like SPECTRE.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

It might aswell not be a bond film then, the new films are missing something like SPECTRE.

Watch the old movies if you want SPECTRE. There hasn't been a global super-evil-organization since Blofeld died. The only difference between this Bond villain and the post-For Your Eyes Only Bond villains is that this one was driven by personal revenge and a total disregard for collateral damage, instead of a half-baked global or regional plan and a total disregard for collateral damage. It has all the elements of the Bond franchise, the single most important being that it contains and follows a secret agent named James Bond, it seems that your only complaint is that it follows distant-past-and-not-followed-for-a-long-time-anyway formula 95% instead of 100%. To which I can only say, boo effing hoo. Get over yourself.

 

[Disgustipated]

My brother hated the new Bond (I haven't seen it). He says it really isn't Bond. And Bond drinking a Henekein? That has to be the worst product placement in any movie in history.

I saw Life of Pi with my gf. I figured that was a movie we both would enjoy (she's not really into action, so I put off seeing skyfall until it's on netflix). And we both did enjoy it. It's not as deep a movie as I thought it would be, but it's an entertaining story. I rate it 4 out of 5 stars.