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Three movies were rented this week.

Seven Pounds -- is great drama starring Will Smith.  This one is more emotionally charged than Pursuit of Happyness.  The storyline has a build up that hints of Smith's past but is not fully explained until the end.  I highly recommend it.

The Watchmen -- Do not be alarmed by the glowing blue penis.  This is a good movie, even for a non-fanboy.  The director Zack Snyder was apparently true to the comic book version.  The plot is great.  I love the unexpected ending.  The story build up is exciting and the flashbacks do not slow down the movie for me.  The only thing it lacks is character development for some of the younger heroes.

The Soloist -- My wife and I started to watch this movie.  About 20 min. in we were not impressed.  Robert Downey Jr. was so not the right choice for this movie.  I could feel his arrogant swagger seeping through almost like I was watching Iron Man instead.  The movie is about a journalist who discovers a homeless musical genious and writes a story about him.
 
Genghis Khan said:
The Watchmen -- Do not be alarmed by the glowing blue penis.
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I was, and by the blue man group gang bang. For Christ's sake, couldn't they at least have given him blue underpants?
 
Genghis Khan said:
I saw Gran Torino written and starring Clint Eastwood.  Like much of his work since Unforgiven (1992), this movie is a combination of machismo with a healthy dose of reflection upon life.  Eastwood plays a war veteran whose loneliness and past guilt leads him to help a young Hmong boy in the neighbourhood avoid a local gang and provide a source of direction and purpose.  For its humourous grittiness and honesty, I find this a great movie.  Eastwood's character acts as a old man of his background is expected to act.  When Eastwood's life
becomes threatened due to his involvement in the Hmong neighbourhood
, I believed his actions were true to the character.
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Yesterday I saw Gran Torino and agree 100%! That ending was very impressive. I expected something like this could happen but not exactly the way it went.

I am looking forward to see his next film about Nelson Mandela.
 
Perun said:
I was, and by the blue man group gang bang. For Christ's sake, couldn't they at least have given him blue underpants?
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I laughed at that because it was so unexpected, surreal and true to the character, I think.  The blue underpants comment is understandable.  Though he used to have underwear early in the movie or the flashback scenes.  The point is that Jon (blue man) is becoming more and more out of touch with human society as he is becoming less and less human.  The director could have shot him from the waist up, but clearly the intention was to film everything true to the comic book.
Forostar said:
Yesterday I saw Gran Torino and agree 100%! That ending was very impressive. I expected something like this could happen but not exactly the way it went.

I am looking forward to see his next film about Nelson Mandela.
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I didn't realize Morgan Freeman was acting in it.  That's great news.  The two were great in The Unforgiven.
 
Genghis Khan said:
Do not be alarmed by the glowing blue penis.
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I was more irritated by all the random philosophical ejaculations. It felt like the film tried really hard to be serious and intellectual but ended up being silly and tedious instead. And there was absolutely no need for the constant slow motion blood splatter.

Ah well, I suppose I didn't "get it" ;)
 
Genghis Khan said:
I didn't realize Morgan Freeman was acting in it.  That's great news.  The two were great in The Unforgiven.
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And Million Dollar Baby (I still gotto see that one!).
But Eastwood won't act in this next film (perhaps even never again, who knows).
 
I've been watching a TV series called Leverage.  It stars Timothy Hutton and he plays an ex-insurance recovery man.  His job was to find the 'bad guys' who stole items, con them and get the stuff back.  His ins co denied a claim on his son for some procedure, and the boy died from it.  As the show opens, he is a drunk and hired to watch over a group of thieves, "...a hitter, a hacker, a grifter, and a cat burglar..".  They are all loners and as the series progresses, they become friends and work to help the people that get boned by corporations and such-- 'they start where the law leaves off'.  It is pretty fun watching how they work out their series of cons on crooks.  They are on season 2, now, 4 epis in.
 
Shadow said:
I was more irritated by all the random philosophical ejaculations. It felt like the film tried really hard to be serious and intellectual but ended up being silly and tedious instead. And there was absolutely no need for the constant slow motion blood splatter.

Ah well, I suppose I didn't "get it" ;)
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I looked at the characters as philosophical archetypes.  Even though the movie did not do the best job at explaining their motivations, afterthought convinced me that the characters acted according to their nature (EDIT: and life experiences).  It is hard to show background charactarization, development and basic philosophies of six characters in a single movie.  The movie was told to be "unfilmable" for a reason.

By the way, I believe Rorschach was the best developed character and thus my favourite to watch.  I did cringe during the scene when the hatchet was introduced to the criminal's head again, and again, and again.  You're right about the blood splatter.
Forostar said:
And Million Dollar Baby (I still gotto see that one!).
But Eastwood won't act in this next film (perhaps even never again, who knows).
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That was a great movie, too.  Not as good as the other two mentioned though.  I know Eastwood won't act in the next one, but he did come out of retirement once.  We may get lucky again. 
 
Yeah, I also thought Rorschach was the best character.

I think my problem was with the story itself rather than the lack of character development. It started out as a fairly entertaining mystery, but somewhere in the middle it collapsed into a mess of flashbacks and long conversations that didn't say much, completely losing the nerve and pace (sort of like Dune). I simply lost interest along the way.
 
Shadow said:
Yeah, I also thought Rorschach was the best character.

I think my problem was with the story itself rather than the lack of character development. It started out as a fairly entertaining mystery, but somewhere in the middle it collapsed into a mess of flashbacks and long conversations that didn't say much, completely losing the nerve and pace (sort of like Dune). I simply lost interest along the way.
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The difficulty lies in that all the manipulations of
Adrian Veidt
need to be shown to the viewer.  I can see why an individual would lose patience as the purpose of many scenes is not clear until the
ending "battle".

I wonder if the movie could have been told from A.V.'s point of view.
 
Saw My Sister's Keeper today. I thought it was a good movie, although perhaps having too many climaxes or crises...I felt emotionally exhausted by the end of it. I highly recommend bringing tissues or a hanky to the cinema for this one, it had me crying at parts. I don't want to give anything away, but it is about cancer, dying, and the consequences it has for the family.

A must see.
 
Anybody else here see District 9?

I thought it was very good, and the lead actor did an amazing job. I'm also deeply saddened that they're already talking sequel. No sequel is needed. Leave it alone!
 
There's been alot of talk about the movie I saw yesterday: Inglorious Basterds by the infamous Tarantino.

In a way, it was a totally different movie from what I expected. Far less blood and gore than Kill Bill, but far more ironic moments. Also better acting I think, whoever played the SS officer Hans Landa really did a great job. On the other hand, it was a little odd (especially the ending). I prefer to think that the movie meant to provoke reflection about revenge and whether two wrongs make a right. The movie seemed to favor a certain position on these questions that I don't agree with, and felt it may have been pushing a little too strongly. Still, the important thing is that these reflections occur.

Probably the best part of the movie was not the movie itself, but where I saw it. I saw it in Vienna, Austria and I believe it was a unique experience with that particular audience. Some scenes struck a little too close to home I think, but it was great to hear the horrified gasps amid giggles when Brad Pitt told a Nazi officer to "take his Wiener Schnitzel-licking fingers" and point out where the other Nazi's were hiding.

All in all, glad I saw it, and while it moves a bit slowly and there's a lot more dialogue (mostly in German and French which was fantastic!) than I expected, it is chock full of irony and has some great scenes that really evoke emotion.

Stop reading this and go watch it already.
 
Just like distric 9 I'll wait until it is out in the cheap theaters....


I saw Up! Great movie. I was near tears the entire movie, really funny, touching, but rather sad for a "kid" movie.
 
I also saw Inglourious Basterds the other day, and i think it may be my favourite Tarantino movie, not that I'm a huge fan. It was an odd movie, half slow and well-acted period piece (despite zero historical accuracy, though it's intentional), half pure escapist fun. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz both give excellent performances and any scenes with the two of them really shine. Overall it's a tough movie to describe, but it's definitely worth watching.
 
I have District 9 and Inglourious Basterds on my must rent list.  I'm not much of a movie goer unless it is something that requires big sound and big screen.
 
At last, I saw Milk. Well, I was waiting to see something better than that...
Ups : I've learned things about the gay movement
Down : All the actors but Penn, were awfull  :down:

Now, regarding Penn's performance : He did some efforts, I have to admit, but still I can not believe that it was him to take the oscar instead of the giant of Mickey Rourke, who gave an incredible performance in Aronofsky's Wrestler.

As I saw the Wrestler first, and being hugely amased from Rourke's performance (the best performance I saw in years)
I was really hoping to see a monster of performance by Penn -but no; Apparently the Academy awarded him
just for playing a homosexual -the comparision with Rourke and my high hopes before the movie, got me pissed off in the end
 
I thought Rourke was better too, but I thought Penn was amazing and carried the movie.  Except I thought Josh Brolin was great in Milk as well.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Anybody else here see District 9?

I thought it was very good, and the lead actor did an amazing job. I'm also deeply saddened that they're already talking sequel. No sequel is needed. Leave it alone!
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I thought it was good, but not as good as it could have been. While the action scenes towards the end were great from a technical perspective, I would have preferred it as a less extravagant thriller, with more focus on the prawns and their culture. I thought the story suffered from the fact that it never really dug deep into the mysteries of District 9.

I shouldn't complain too much though. Action movies with good acting and story as well as great special effects are pretty rare. You really should see it. 
 
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