What's The Last Movie You Watched? XIII - Part 11

[C. Lee]

I served the king of england (2006)

 

[Panthro]

28 Days Later

 

[Doctor Jones]

Ghost Rider: Spirt of Vengeance - 4 or 5 out of 10

Cage Rating 8/10

Quite the disappointment. The camera angles drove me ****ing crazy. To the point where I wanted to shout, "Get a ****ing tripod!" It got somewhat disorientating with the 3D and was just a nuisance. But thankfully they did know where to hold the camera still in the right moments, and when it got crazy, the camera got crazy, but still too crazy.

The film just isn't very compelling at all. Quite boring actually. Though I did like how Ghost Rider was actually scary and when he showed up, I was actually frightened. The CG of him looks flawless and he looks just so much better. The bike as well. Cage brings a lot to the performance of Ghost Rider too. Cage is out of control at times, and I ****ing love it. Particularly an insane interrogation scene. Idris Elba as Moreau, other than Cage, was just about the only thing I really liked in this movie. But besides that, the plot didn't hit me that much. Peter Fonda was a much better Satan and Blackout was a lame villain. I mean ****ing lame. When you're the devil's right hand man given a second chance to capture the Ghost Rider, what do you do? Oh, drive in a car and touch food that deteriorates when you were already told by the devil that you can do that and say humorous one liners. He was just a joke I couldn't take seriously so it wasn't a surprise how easily he was killed off and in such a lame way. What a huge waste of a villain. Blackheart was better.

And in general, just about everything was better in the first film. This is coming from someone who really liked the first film, the guily pleasure that it is, is fun as hell. For all its flaws, it's at least engaging and fun and I own it.

As much as I love Cage, down the line, I'd really like to see a truly great Ghost Rider film with thought and care (though Cage, whatever your opinions are of his take, actually gives a ****, that I always respected of him and his career in general) Ryan Gosling as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider is a great start.

 

[Panthro]

Hellboy (2004)

 

[moviedoors]

Jane Eyre (2011)

I was quite taken with it. Great acting, gorgeous cinematography, and an achingly beautiful score. It's inspired me to take the plunge into Victorian era lit.

 

[rnewbz]

Moneyball 8/10

 

[Gwendolyn Stacy]

Jane Eyre (2011)

I was quite taken with it. Great acting, gorgeous cinematography, and an achingly beautiful score. It's inspired me to take the plunge into Victorian era lit.

I remember an episode of Phineas and Ferb where they mentioned a new version of Jane Eyre was in the works. Can't comment on the actual movie since I haven't seen it, but now I know what they were talking about.

 

[Marx]

Mrs. Doubtfire

 

[Panthro]

Go Tell The Spartans (1978)

 

[mongoose-mania]

E.t.

 

[Nirvana]

The Help

 

[Jordacar]

Space Mutiny (on MST3K)

 

[dude stannis]

Apocalypse Now

My first viewing of the theatrical cut. While I missed some of the cuts, the removal of the French colony stuff improves the film by leaps and bounds. The whole film felt like a weird dream, which flows with the descent into insanity you witness.

There's not much more I can add about this wonderful, wonderful film that hasn't been said. I love it.

 

[Figs]

Robocop

The Big Lebowski

 

[Ash J. Williams]

 

[The Morningstar]

Goodfellas. My favourite mafia film.

 

[craigdbfan]

10/10

For some reason they completely edited out the scene with the spoon kid and Neo on TNT. I have no idea why they'd remove that scene...

Anyway it's always great seeing this film.

 

[superhero]

the one
dragon ball evloution
master of the unisver
power ranger the movie
green lanter the movie
superman/shazzam return of black adadm
steel
mask of zorro
bourne ultimatum
star wars epsideo 2 attack of the clones
starr wars epsidoe 3 revagn of the sixth
Suburban Commando
promblem child 2
lost in space
the unlited agvners 1
the unlimte agvners 2
hulk vs wolrivng
return of the hulk tv movie
trail of the incdaible hulk tv move
death of the incdaible hulk tv movie
the first kid
see spot run
mr and mrs smith

 

[Lobo]

Anonymous.

 

[Metallo]

The Fabulous Baker Boys

8/10

I'm actually a little surprised Jeff and Beau Bridges haven't done a lot more work together over the years. Jeff is the more successful but Beau has always struck me as a good actor.

The Bridges brothers play the Baker brothers, a lounge act piano duo. Frank (Beau) is the more responsible brother while Jack (Jeff) is the more talented brother. Frank handles the business as Jack goes through the motions on stage and in life, living alone with a few one night stands on the side. Business isn't going so well for them so they decide to add a singer named Susie (Michelle Pfeiffer), an uncultured girl from the streets who pretty much has no tact but a great voice. Shes a real firecracker that sparks some changes, good and bad, in the whole act.

I like the themes this movie plays out about playing it safe vs following your dreams. The ending doesn't wrap everything up perfectly with a nice pretty bow on top. Its not entirely satisfying but the ending we get seems more true to life to me than a nice clear cut happy Hollywood ending.



Crazy Heart

8/10

Its another turn in a film about music but this time Jeff Bridges is a burnt out country music star looking for his one shot back to the top. Bad Blake was a great singer-songwriter but he pissed his life away with help from a bottle. This kind of story could be cliched but Bridges is such a good actor that he makes it feel real. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a music journalist who interviews Blake for a retrospective on his career but ends up involved with him romantically. Shes a single mom and she and her son become a kind of new surrogate family to replace the one he drove away.

Robert Duvall plays an old buddy of Blakes and as usual Duvall is great. Bridges tries to convince his now popular former protege, Colin Farrell, to record some songs with him to help boost his popularity. When Farrell says he can't Bridges loses any focus he had left and screws up in his life yet again.

I'm not going to spoil the ending but I will say its very realistic but uplifting. I like how natural it all is. The film doesn't have a big budget and its characters aren't particularly glamorous. I think that gives the movie and its characters a relatable quality. Its somewhat cliched but its a very well done indie type of drama.



JFK

8.5/10

A flawed but powerful film. The cast alone is staggering. Familiar faces and great actors left and right. Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw, Sissy Spacek, John Candy, John Larroquette, Donald Sutherland as the military informant "X", Jack Lemmon, Vincent D'Onofrio, Joe Pesci, Walter Matthau, Ed Asner, Kevin Bacon, etc. were all involved. Its a huge cast and it shows how strongly so many felt on the issue that most of them even took small parts.

Gary Oldman pretty much IS the Lee Harvey Oswald I've seen from limited archival news footage. Incredibly convincing performance. Costner is usually pretty flat in most of his movies but he does do a good job here of showcasing Jim Garrisons determination and obsession in the prosecution of Clay Shaw on conspiracy charges in the murder of President Kennedy. Tommy Lee Jones shows some real range as Shaw. Its got to be one of the more eccentric roles I've seen him perform.

I was impressed with how faithfully that period was recreated. Dallas and New Orleans of the 1960's seemed pretty authentic.

This film has always been controversial because it takes the truth in some instances and bends it, ignores it, or sometimes replaces it with total fiction. I've never tried to take the film as fact or just whats on the surface but I've always tried to look at the basic message at its core. The story it presents is almost a myth. Its Stones fictional account of what might have happened. Exploring all the what ifs and possible scenarios. The good thing about the movie is that it makes us ask the questions because there is still a lot more about the Kennedy assassination that we don't know. Many of the sealed records won't be viewable by the public for another 20 or 30 years.

John Kennedy had his flaws but like so many other people cut down before their time its that feeling of lost potential that causes his death to resonate. How the course of history was potentially changed by an assassins bullet is something very powerful to consider. You can tell that Stone feels that way.



All The Presidents Men

8/10

From one Presidential story that rocked the country to another. ATPM doesn't focus so much on the overall Watergate saga but the story behind the two journalists who did their part to blow the particulars of the case wide open for everyone to see. Its really more their story than Nixon's. The film is pretty slow and methodical in its approach. Its more low key and realistic in the way the story plays out.

There isn't a lot of fast paced pulse pounding drama. We are taken step by step on how these two got the scoop of the decade. I found it very interesting how hard Woodward and Bernstein had to work on this story. They really beat feet all over not only Washington but the country tracking down leads and interviewing people. Sometimes they had to be pretty clever to get results while their editors really put the screws to them to make sure they had a solid story that could be backed up.

We have a good cast here. Robert Redford is Bob Woodward. Woodward had the hunger and instincts for the story but it seems like sometimes he rushed in head first. Dustin Hoffman is Carl Bernstein. Bernstein seemed to be a portrayed as a better writer and someone who could give Woodward's work the polish and clarity it needed. Together they were a formidable team.

They are supported by some talented veteran actors. Jack Warden and Jason Robards play their bosses at the Washington Post. Robards is fantastic. Other actors include Ned Beatty, Marty Balsam, Merideth Baxter, and Stephen Collins. Got to give a special mention for Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat. His performance probably ended up becoming the inspiration for damn near every shadowy informant type we see in movies now. Time has only made his casting look better because he reminds me of the REAL W. Mark Felt, the man revealed to be Deep Throat a few years ago.

I have to take some points away because while the material was interesting I did find the presentation pretty dull sometimes considering how complex the Watergate cover up was. But since we see most of the story form Woodward and Bernstein's POV we don't really see any of that. The filmmakers seemed to be more concerned with being accurate to the last detail rather than creating a false sense of excitement.



Frost/Nixon

8.5/10

Now we go from the Watergate investigation to its aftermath. Part of that was Richard Nixon's planned public rehabilitation of his image which included the 1977 interviews with David Frost.

I thought this film might be pretty dull. How could they make interviews riveting? Ron Howard and co. do an excellent job making this film fun, exiting, and combative. Its one of the few Ron Howard films I've really enjoyed since Apollo 13. The other two being his team ups with Russell Crowe.

Richard Nixon has to be one of the meatiest presidential roles for an actor to play. There's a lot there to peel back. He was a man shaped by that poor Quaker upbringing who had a lot of vices but I think he's also been a little misunderstood over the years. He wasn't a total monster but he did feel he was above the law. Lots of neuroses. At first Frank Langellas Nixon came off as more of a caricature but as time went on Langella got to give him more and more personality and we really got to see Tricky ***** character and his demons. Langella gives a really good performance that gives us a glimpse of Richard Nixon the man instead of just Richard Nixon the villain.

Michael Sheen has become one of my favorite actors in recent years. He seems to be able to play so many different kinds of roles in different kinds of films. There are his various performances as Tony Blair, his turn as The Lycan Michael in the Underworld series, and the trickster Castor in Tron Legacy. But when it comes to David Frost he presents us with a guy who is more of an entertainer who changes over the course of the film and wants to prove his detractors wrong. Frost wants to show he's a serious journalist.

In some ways the interviews seem like the final political battle Nixon had been itching for. He still had that fire to debate in the political arena but his political career was in ruins. Nixon trounces Frost in the first three interview tapings but when they get to the fourth, Watergate, Frost is much more prepared and things get VERY interesting.

Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, and Oliver Platt are all great in this. Rockwell and Platt had me LMAO. I'll never think of Checkers the dog the same way again.



Death Race 2000

7.5/10

The movie was produced by Roger Corman in 1975 and in some ways this is a forerunner to Mad Max's road wreckage mayhem. The look, the costumes, the action...I can see a few similarities. The film has a certain kind of satirical social commentary in it thats not exactly like Robocop or The Running Man but its very similar. Its a look at the love America has for violence in entertainment.

In the "future" year 2000 we see yet another story where America has experienced a financial catastrophe and the country is ruled like a military dictatorship. The President is in office for life and the new American past time is the Transcontinental Road Race. The race sums up the new American Way perfectly. The racers earn points for running down pedestrians while on the way to the finish line in their four wheeled death machines. There's something almost Roman-esque in the way the public eats up this kind of sadistic entertainment. Its worse than throwing Christians to the lions.

The reigning champion is a black clad racer called Frankenstein (David Carradine). He's aptly named since he 's rumored to be a stitched together body of broken bones, scarred flesh and bionic parts. His toughest rival in the race is Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone), a murderous angry thug even when he's not racing. This was just after Carradine left Kung Fu and just before Stallone began working on Rocky so both were in a fascinating place in their respective careers at the time. Carradine is cool yet creepy and its a real departure from his role as Kwai Chang Caine. Stallone goes really over the top in this one and embraces the material. He doesn't seem to be so self aware or worried about his image the way he would be years later. I think this kind of B movie freed him up a little as he was still trying to make it in the biz.

The movie is very tongue in cheek and entertaining as hell even though its cheap. But I was impressed with how well it was pulled off. In true Roger Corman fashion they got everything they could out of every dollar. The cars look cool in a cheesy way, especially Frankensteins car. The stunts are also pretty impressive when you think about how little the crew had to work with.



Waterworld: Extended Version

7.5/10

A cheesy but fun film that I've always thought got a little too much flak. Not nearly as good as its spiritual father the Mad Max trilogy but its still very entertaining. The extended cut explains some things in more detail and works better than the theatrical version.

At some point the world is completely covered in water (possibly thanks to global warming). In the distant future whats left of humanity survives by floating on the ocean in different structures. Some of them are communities called Atolls The main character in the film, The Mariner, is an amphibious mutant. When he arrives on an Atoll to trade he meets a woman named Helen and a girl named Enola. Oil burning pirates called Smokers want Enola because she has a map tattooed on her back that supposedly leads to the mythical "Dry Land"

Costner is appropriately stoic and emotionally distant as the Mariner. The Mariner is your classic anti hero who ends up finding compassion for others. The late great Denis Hopper continues a long trail of over the top villainous performances as "The Deacon." He's the leader of the Smokers and the captain of the oil tanker "The Deez" (a slightly amusing joke that gets a payoff at the end of the film).

I like how cutthroat this world is shown to be. Its kill or be killed which makes sense when there are so few resources. Dirt is worth more than gold. The Mariner is ruthless when he needs to be.

The scale of this film is huge. The big sea battles are very well done and when the camera pulls back to show the huge atoll floating on the vast ocean I can't help but be impressed. A lot of this stuff was shot in camera too--with sets. I remember reading about the movies production before its release in the mid 90's and how not only was it the most expensive film ever made at that point but it was projected to be a HUGE flop. I think a lot of people even dubbed it "Fishtar."

Many things in the movie aren't really explained in much detail (even in the extended cut) but most of it doesn't need to be. I would have liked a few of the characters to have been fleshed out more. For example: how exactly did Enola float to the Atoll all the way from Dry Land? Seemed like a loooong way away. Just what happened to her parents? I wanted to know a little bit more on the Mariners origins and information on others like him. The implication was that he wasn't the only mutant. That kind of evolution/mutation seems pretty fast even for a few hundred years.



Children of Men

8.5/10

This was my first time watching Children of Men and...wow. If more of Alfonso Cuaron's films are like this I've got to see "Pans Labyrinth" and the upcoming "Gravity" for sure. I've been wanting to check this out for years but I'm just now getting around to it.

Its 2027 and the world economy has basically gone to hell. The UK seems to be one of the few places still carrying on but its facing problems ranging from rampant terrorism to major immigration issues. Its now become a police state. Oh yeah...there's been worldwide infertility for 18 years.

Clive Owen plays a man named Theo, a civil servant going on with his day to day life when his ex wife, Julian (Julianne Moore) asks him for help. She's a part of a rebel group trying to get an African immigrant named Kee, the only pregnant woman in the world, out of the country. A group called the Human Project needs her and her baby to try and cure the infertility problem. Michael Caine plays Theos political activist buddy Jasper. Caine really looks like he's having a fun time. The entire cast is good. Owen in particular.

You really get a sense of how desperate things are for the human race. Within 100 years humanity will be all but extinct and a lot of people in this world have just said "f*** it." Just goes to show what happens without hope for the future. There's a moment when all the fighting stops when everyone sees that Kee is holding a baby. The fearful bystanders are filled with hope and the soldiers and rebels hold their fire and look on in wonder. There was something almost messianic about that as well as people showing their humanity by simply being happy to see an innocent child again Also interesting that Cuaron chose an African woman to be the first to have a baby in decades and that they are the last hope for humanity. Some people say humanities origins are in what is now Africa so there is something to consider with that symbolism.

There is a very cool use of music here. The soundtrack uses songs that sound like something from the 1960's. Even though the film is set in 2027 the music reminded me of the turbulence of the 1960's, the social unrest, and the rise of counter culture. That feeling fits whats going in in the movie. The end of the film is pretty predictable but then it usually is when we have a hero like Theo.

I LOVE the look of this film. The way the film is shot, with a documentary feel, is very successful. We've seen plenty of dystopias but we only go ahead less than 20 years here and its a totally believable future. The technology is a little more advanced but not far fetched at all. And the best part is its a used looking future where its all worn and breaking down. I can picture our progress AND out problems being just like this in 20 years unless we do something now to stave it off.

 

[Panthro]

Iron Man (2008)

 

[Kable24]

Final Destination 5

The Quick and the Dead

 

[Panthro]

Starman (1984)

 

[TX85]

3/5,Good memories!

 

[nite-owl]

5/10