The Paint.NET users Film/Movies Club.

[david.atwell]

I saw Marvel's THOR last night. I found it resoundingly meh. It was a good movie, but far from the best superhero movie I've ever seen. It seemed somewhat aimless, and the romance was a bit contrived. The vfx were decent, though. 5/10

[Ilke]

Most recently watched Largo Winch II (don't bother, unless you want to see the worst of Sharon Stone's acting) and the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. Haven't read the books, but the movies are definitely gripping and intense, so I'd vividly recommend them.

My movie of the year is a tie between True Grit and Rise of the Planet of the Apes for now. Minus points for Rise of Apes for straining my suspension of disbelief though.

[BoltBait]

Recent movies I've seen:

Hanna - 8/10

I would have rated it higher without the music interludes. I hated the alternate ending on the DVD. But overall, I liked it.

Mighty Joe Young (1949) - 7/10

Kind of a different take on King Kong... but more funny.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum - 7/10

I was afraid it wouldn't be as funny as it was when I saw it as a kid. But, I think it was actually funnier. There is lots of subtle humor in this one.

All About Eve - 8/10

I really liked this one.

The One - 6/10

What could be better? Jet Li fights everyone including himself. I don't know. Meh. He's done better.

[pyrochild]

Hanna - 8/10

I would have rated it higher without the music interludes. I hated the alternate ending on the DVD. But overall, I liked it.

Really? I didn't much like the movie, but I love the soundtrack. The Chemical Brothers

[BoltBait]

I watched a few silent films thanks to Netflix streaming.

Sherlock Jr. (1924) 7/10

Funny stuff. I was really laughing at the end when he's watching the movie for ideas.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 7/10

Actually 6/10 but I give it +1 for all the old scenes of Sacramento, my hometown. I've been on those docks and those streets many times.

There is a new film coming out in November called The Artist which is a silent film. Should be interesting. I'm curious.

[TFPrime]

Watching The Breakfast Club for the millionth time.It doesn't lose it's epicness.It's still the only thing from before i was born that I'm in love with, if you know what i mean, because girls happened before i was born.XDDDDDDDDDD

[david.atwell]

...silent films thanks to Netflix...

My wife and I spent 2 days watching The Thief of Bagdad (1924), featuring Douglas Fairbanks. It's pretty impressive, really. HUGE sets, very good special effects (if you consider they were made only 46 years after the invention of the motion picture), and pretty impressive stunts. Plus, the story is told rather well.

It's really long, though. Over 2 hours (which seems a lot longer when there's only music). I enjoyed it a lot, especially split in two.

[BoltBait]

Thanks, DA. I'll check it out.

I just watched the first Sci-Fi film:

A Trip to the Moon (1902) 8/10

An amazing movie. To think, all sci-fi movies derive from this.

You can watch it here: http://www.archive.org/details/Levoyagedanslalune it is about 14 minutes long.

I believe there is a hand colored version of this movie. I'd love to see that.

[TFPrime]

I'm not watching it, but, i saw Speed Racer in 2008, May-I think.It's really astonishing, and the graphics are crazy and wild but don't mix up your eyes in the slightest.I wonder how that's possible...Anyways, the story wasn't corny at all.But, my ONLY, i mean only problem with it was that regular places and not just the big cities and races were vibrant.It'd be cool to make some stuff look ordinary.Like, when Pops Racer answers the door to that glasses guy(I feel dumb forgetting his name, I've seen 5 whole cartoon discs to Speed Racer.),the outside was much to...Poppy.I mean, look at where they live, and then look out your window.Not every lawn is like green candy and cars don't shine that bright.

8.2/10 overall.

[BoltBait]

The General (1926) 6/10

Of all the Buster Keaton movies I've seen over the last couple of days, I liked Sherlock Jr. the best.

[BoltBait]

Just got back from the movies...

The Thing (2011) 6/10

I really wanted to like this one but it suffered from some flaws:

- Performances were weak. Seriously, you're spending millions making a movie, hire people that can act. Even Mary Elizabeth Winstead was not believable in this. Most of the actors didn't even show any terror on their faces when seeing people getting killed. Everyone is just standing around talking instead of freaking out? Heh. Only Kristofer Hivju seemed believable to me with his wide open eyes--like WTF am I seeing?!

- The special effects of the thing itself were not as good as the 1982 movie of the same name. The computer generated thing looked more like it belonged in a video game. The 1982 version was totally better in this regard.

- It's a remake. Hollywood, STOP REMAKING MOVIES! I know it TECHNICALLY is a prequel to John Carpenter's excellent movie. But, seriously, it tells the same story, the characters go through the same trials, they come up with a "test", it is among us, etc. It's a remake. Only, it doesn't end with the same ambiguity as the 1982 movie. Nothing new to see here, move along kids.

- I was glad to see that they hooked the two movies together. However, it was lame how they spliced the end of the story into the end credits. The cuts were jarring. This would have worked better just being shown with the credits rolling over the footage.

I suppose, if the 1982 version didn't exist I would rate this one higher. But it does exist... so disappointed in this movie.

At least I saw it at the matinee, so I'm only out $5.50.

[Aislin]

now collecting all seasons of Supernatural, One Tree Hill, Tudors and Grey's Anatomy, yeah yeah, I know, weird combination if you put them together, LOL

[Ilke]

Just watched Contagion: 4.5/5

An excellent thriller with great directing and even better attachment to realism. The pacing had some issues though.

[AGJM]

Movies I would recommend:

Horror:

Insidious - the plot is actually interesting, for a horror movie. I also was able to laugh at some parts. Good quality, for the genre. Not too scary. 8/10

Action/war:

Black Hawk Down - GREAT soundtrack, based off of a true story, nice visuals. 9/10

Avatar - Six million dollars on visual effects pays off. Don't like the theme, though. 8/10

Comedy:

Rush Hour - Only the first. Very original, hilarious, good action scenes. 8/10

That's about all I can contribute.

Edited December 10, 2011 by AGJM

[AGJM]

I love the F-Word :?

My written English is very formal and polite, but my spoken English is full of colloquial terms and swear words :oops:

Maybe I should get off YouTube and watch some CNN or BBC instead

American news is very biased. All of it. Best to watch BBC.

[nitenurse79]

Recomended movies.

The Warriors - Dark, stark and very realistic.

Casablanca - THE best movie ever made, enough said.

Plus;

It couldn't happen here, a film starring the Pet shop boys, completely a lost classic, I have this on VHS, I just hope for a DVD re-issue of it, great music, surreal theme to the movie, very odd storyline, but a remarkable movie all the same.

And ny own personal "feel good" movie - Grease Simply because it is one of the best musicals ever.

[BoltBait]

Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011)

I give it a 5/10 and I'm being generous.

Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book, so I'm on board with the ideas presented.

The problem here is execution. The movie raced through the material without giving the motivations behind the actions. The casting was a joke. The acting was poor. The special effects weren't very "special". Overall, the movie was embarrassing.

In my opinion, it was a mistake to try to make this story into a movie. It should have been done as a mini-series at least... possibly a full-on TV series that ran for 5 years.

I cannot recommend this movie.

The last time I can remember a movie this poorly done with such rich source material was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) which I rated 4/10.

[usedHONDA]

Seeing how I never contributed to this thing before, I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. It's hard to say "favorite movie, ever," but it's much easier to pick favorites in categories. A lot of this is pretty cliche, but hey, a good film is a good film.

Favorite...

Cute film to watch with your significant other: Spirited Away

Action flick to mess with your perception of time: Memento

Piece of pure art to stress out to: Black Swan

Movie to watch a second time: Fight Club

Film where you love all the characters even though none of them are good: Pulp Fiction

Documentary (or Rockumentary?): Meeting People Is Easy (Radiohead)

Movie that makes you so sad you want to die: Dancer In The Dark

Foreign WTF film that makes you say "awwww": I'm a Cyborg But That's OK

---------

On a related note, I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night (yeah, I'm late). I enjoyed it, my girlfriend hated it. We concluded that the movie is basically "Chris Nolan makes a romantic comedy".

[BoltBait]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

6/10

Why couldn't they have stopped at 1?

[BoltBait]

Sin City 9/10

I'm normally* against comic book movies. I don't care for Batman, X-Men, or Superman. I find the stories silly and not very much like a real comic book**.

But, this was good. This is how I imagine a comic book movie should look. It features over-the-top action, stunning visuals, and a comic book script.

Well done!

*I admit I have a few exceptions, like the first Iron Man and Kick-< no swearing >.

**Except Superman III which has a script VERY MUCH like a comic book.

[Lance McKnight]

Recommend a German film, "The Wave," which is about a social experiment on high schoolers who believed that it would be impossible for another Third Reich to happen in Germany. It makes one think.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Lance McKnight

[AGJM]

Is anyone planning to see "Red Tails" tomorrow (1/20/2012)?

It looks great.

I always like a good war movie, and I'm hoping for a new classic.

[RedBeard]

A few of my favorite movies (in no particular order):

Serenity: BoltBait, your stock went up quite a few points when I read your endorsement of this magnificent movie! Hands down, one of the best sci-fi movies ever made from one of the most underrated and under appreciated television series of all time! FOX really screwed the pooch with that one! I agree that anyone who's considering watching Serenity should take the extra time to watch the series first.

True Lies: One of the funniest action flicks in Arnold Schwarzeneggar's catalog. Jamie Lee Curtis is at her comedic best as the bored housewife looking for a little excitement, and even the normally nettlesome Tom Arnold is tolerable. One of the best exchanges from this movie:

Helen Tasker: "Have you ever killed anybody?"

Harry Tasker: "Yes. But they were all bad!"

Dog Soldiers: This one kind of flew under the radar. It's a horror flick that centers on a group of Scottish soldiers on training maneuvers who find themselves isolated and fighting for their lives against a family of werewolves from the confines of a cabin deep in the Scottish Highlands. While not the greatest werewolf movie of all time, Dog Soldiers stands head and shoulders above many of its contemporaries in terms of intelligent dialogue and intense, edge-of-your-seat action, which is broken up nicely with scenes of wry humor and sharp wit. The fact that it was a low-budget movie makes it that much more endearing.

Zombieland: I'll be honest: I'm usually not a fan of zombie movies. To me, zombies are just not that interesting. Having said that, Zombieland stands out as a triumph of comedy mixed with poignancy and introspection, a very human story set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse, with characters that are not easily forgotten. Jesse Eisenberg has been called the "poor man's Michael Cera", but in this movie, he comes into his own and establishes himself as an actor capable of carrying the story. Woody Harrelson turns in a great performance as Talahassee, the cuddly-as-a-buzzsaw drifter who's obsessed with two things: killing zombies and finding a twinky--a valuable commodity in this post-apocalyptic world. Emma Stone, of course, adds some much needed eye candy. And what's not to love about seeing Little Miss Sunshine (Abigail Breslin) kick some serious zombie butt!

The Exorcism of Emily Rose: I don't put a lot of stock in the paranormal or claims of supernatural activity, but from an entertainment standpoint, The Exorcism of Emily Rose does what any good horror movie is supposed to do: it scares you. At the very least, it will creep you out. And it does this without resorting to grossing the viewer out with gratuitous blood and guts. There are some truly disturbing scenes in this movie depicting possession and the torture that demons like to inflict on their victims. Jennifer Carpenter is an absolute gem, giving a very believable performance as the tormented young girl from whom the movie derives its name. And Laura Linney gives a stellar performance as the agnostic defense attorney who is appointed to defend a Catholic priest from allegations of negligent homicide during the exorcism.

Three Kings:  This is one of those rare movies that deftly combines elements of comedy, action and drama without turning into a cheesy mess halfway through.  The dialogue is intelligent, the wit is sharp and there are enough explosions to satisfy the action junkie without resorting to gimmicks that put a strain on suspension of disbelief.  The characters are three-dimensional and elicit a strong emotional investment on the part of the viewer, which is the hallmark of a great movie.  

Edited January 20, 2012 by RedBeard

[NinjaManDan21]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

6/10

Why couldn't they have stopped at 1?

Because He's Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?

[minners71]

Some nice films Redbeard Zombieland, Emily Rose and Three Kings all films I never expected too much from but all surprised me, well worth watching.

Serenity a film I though I would love but to be honest found it underwhelming maybe a second viewing will change this ( hope so as Sci-Fi is my fav genre)

My pick this year Warrior Fantastic film with great performances from everyone involved.

Edited January 21, 2012 by minners71