Movies you've seen recently (possible spoilers!)

Tried to watch It's Complicated, but found it just very boring. I felt like I'd already seen the whole movie just from the trailers.

Saw both "the Producers" movies recently. Had forgot how much music it actually is in the non-musical version. Had also forgot the differences (for example the inserted office scene in the musical version, which I dig, or the Rio bits). In general both movies are a bit hectic, but I do love'em.

We saw How to Train Your Dragon last weekend. It was a very fun movie! We went back and saw it again the following day!

Watched Fantastic Mr. Fox on DVD. Really good--the animation wasn't as creepy as it looked in the stills and the story was quite fun.

~LCD

Finally watched The Strangers yesterday. I was thrilled by maybe the first 20 minutes of it, then quickly got kind of bored. But still worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.

phantom10906 wrote:Finally watched The Strangers yesterday. I was thrilled by maybe the first 20 minutes of it, then quickly got kind of bored. But still worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.

I loved it. Thought it was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

SenorSwanky wrote:

phantom10906 wrote:Finally watched The Strangers yesterday. I was thrilled by maybe the first 20 minutes of it, then quickly got kind of bored. But still worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.

I loved it. Thought it was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

I think the only thing that truly creeped me out about this film, was the fact that things like this movie can and do happen. This movie and another one called Funny Games are exactly why I never want to own a secluded vacation home.

phantom10906 wrote:

SenorSwanky wrote:

phantom10906 wrote:Finally watched The Strangers yesterday. I was thrilled by maybe the first 20 minutes of it, then quickly got kind of bored. But still worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.

I loved it. Thought it was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

I think the only thing that truly creeped me out about this film, was the fact that things like this movie can and do happen. This movie and another one called Funny Games are exactly why I never want to own a secluded vacation home.

Yeah, it's very real (and based on a true story). Things like that, and Paranormal Activity, really freak me out. Isolation and not knowing where the bogeyman could pop out is terrifying. The original Halloween excels at that, and is probably the best and scariest horror movie I've seen.

SenorSwanky wrote:

phantom10906 wrote:

SenorSwanky wrote:

phantom10906 wrote:Finally watched The Strangers yesterday. I was thrilled by maybe the first 20 minutes of it, then quickly got kind of bored. But still worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.

I loved it. Thought it was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

I think the only thing that truly creeped me out about this film, was the fact that things like this movie can and do happen. This movie and another one called Funny Games are exactly why I never want to own a secluded vacation home.

Yeah, it's very real (and based on a true story). Things like that, and Paranormal Activity, really freak me out. Isolation and not knowing where the bogeyman could pop out is terrifying. The original Halloween excels at that, and is probably the best and scariest horror movie I've seen.

Agreed on the Halloween point. I must disagree with Paranormal Activity. I felt like it was like The Blair Witch Project and that bored me to tears. I am a fan of the Scream series. The first one was quite a new concept for the time, and I enjoyed that.

Haven't seen Blair Witch, but I don't like the little bit I've seen of any of the Scream movies. Paranormal Activity was a little laughable at times, and wasn't very scary for much of it, but it's amazing what they did on that small budget, and I love how real it feels. The end was really scary, though.

I was incredibly interested in "Paranormal Activity" because all my horror movie-buff friends thought it was so cheesy, and all my horror moving hating friends loved it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, in fact I did enjoy it. It was very suspenseful at times, and slightly disturbing at times.

The Strangers terrified me. I think it wasn't the fact a lot happened, because really there wasn't much action but throughout the whole film after they first come to the door I had that really unsettling feeling you get that something was going to happen. I found the end quite hard to watch actually even though it wasn't on par with movies like Saw etc.

dolly-ry wrote:The Strangers terrified me. I think it wasn't the fact a lot happened, because really there wasn't much action but throughout the whole film after they first come to the door I had that really unsettling feeling you get that something was going to happen. I found the end quite hard to watch actually even though it wasn't on par with movies like Saw etc.

The original Saw's alright (the parts of the next one or two sequels I've seen are not so good). It's a creative concept, but it's kind of schlocky. I was never scared during it, but I think my heart might have raced a little toward the end when you realize what the two characters stuck in the room are going to have to do to get out.

SenorSwanky wrote:

dolly-ry wrote:The Strangers terrified me. I think it wasn't the fact a lot happened, because really there wasn't much action but throughout the whole film after they first come to the door I had that really unsettling feeling you get that something was going to happen. I found the end quite hard to watch actually even though it wasn't on par with movies like Saw etc.

The original Saw's alright (the parts of the next one or two sequels I've seen are not so good). It's a creative concept, but it's kind of schlocky. I was never scared during it, but I think my heart might have raced a little toward the end when you realize what the two characters stuck in the room are going to have to do to get out.

I liked the original Saw, it was an original concept and on the whole pretty well done. It wasn't gore for the sake of gore strictly speaking and my heart did race when I realized what they had to do. I also thought the very end was very well done and was a pretty "didn't see that coming moment."

I watched two and three and although two wasn't as good as the first one I gave it a chance. I think by the third I realised they were just trying to get as much money as possible out of the franchise and it was most definitely gore for the sake of gore so I refused to watch anymore. I've read about the rest of them and don't really feel like I want to watch things like that and the story is getting pretty ridiculous now and this halloween they will be up to movie number seven! Ridiculous.

"The Invention of Lying"- Surprisingly funny and super charming at the same time. Gervais' character isn't a bad guy at all, as I thought from the trailers.

Viscountess wrote:"The Invention of Lying"- Surprisingly funny and super charming at the same time. Gervais' character isn't a bad guy at all, as I thought from the trailers.

Wasn't it great? I've gotta get it on DVD.

Alice in Wonderland. One of those movies that is extremely off-canon, but taken on its own terms isn't that bad. Makes me sad that the film version of American Magee's Alice never surfaced...

~LCD

Date Night. Very, very funny. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard or so intensely during a movie.

Michael Jackson's This Is It. It's hard to rate as a film, because it's basically a spliced-together bootleg of rehearsal footage, but it does reveal what would have been an amazing concert. It also shows Michael Jackson as a very frail man clearly lacking a lot of the energy he used to display, but at the same time, he still has it, and by "it" I mean that presence, that perfectionism and musical, dancing genius. We really lost a great person and performer last summer. It's still hard to believe he's gone, but at least we'll have films like this and Moonwalker to remember him by.

SenorSwanky wrote:Michael Jackson's This Is It. It's hard to rate as a film, because it's basically a spliced-together bootleg of rehearsal footage, but it does reveal what would have been an amazing concert. It also shows Michael Jackson as a very frail man clearly lacking a lot of the energy he used to display, but at the same time, he still has it, and by "it" I mean that presence, that perfectionism and musical, dancing genius.

Agreed. I was positively surprised by some of the stuff I saw. Would have been a heck of a concert. The dance scenes were awesome, and I hope they plan to release that revamped "Thriller" sequence as a music video!

I saw 'Whip It' last week. I described to a friend as "Bend it Like Beckham, but with roller derby and beauty pageants instead of football and a religious family". Very enjoyable and fun though.

2012. Most of it is absolutely dreadful and laughably unbelievable, but there are a few, occasional moments of entertainment and even some poignance.

Did You Hear About the Morgans? Not too shabby. Good cast. Hugh Grant's line delivery makes even a menu charming and witty.

I love you, Phillip Morris

Erm... So the shocking thing here was that they were gay? And remind me again why they sold it in as a comedy? This movie wanted way too much. But Carrey and McGregor played well.

Beware of spoilers!


My life in ruins

Nevermind that the cover is nearly identical to "Mamma Mia!" and that they use much of the backside to tell that it's made by the same producers... This is the sequel (sorry... standalone story) to "My big fat Greek wedding". So Georgia is suddenly single, though the whole point about the first movie was that she got married? Or am my memory so poor? Hmm, that aside, the story is plain enough. Georgia (Nia Vardalos) now lives in Greece, homeland of her parents, and has been fired from her job at the university. So now she is a tour guide instead, trying to teach the groups as much culture and history as possible. They just wanna have fun. Enters: trouble. But of course faith have some cards up its sleeve, and they lived happily ever after.

I liked the first part of the movie, then I started disliking it. And suddenly I loved it. Might have been my mood, might have been the movie. All in all, enjoyable enough, but it lacked the quirkyness of the first movie.


Young Victoria

Tells the story of Queen Victoria from right before she became a queen and until some time after her marriage with Prince Albert. I loved how they managed to flesh out the relationship between Victoria and Albert. I think Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend was a perfect casting, and Miranda Richardson as her troubled mother was also excellent. No-one does hard-to-get women like Richardson.

Although the 1830s and 1840s are the periods I like the least, costume wise, the movie design was pure eye candy. Fantastic historical accuracy, as far as I can tell. "Elizabeth", you can take those fantasy rags and stuff them in a sack!

The story telling is a bit slow at times, but as long as the two leads are so likeable, I can live with that.

SenorSwanky wrote:2012. Most of it is absolutely dreadful and laughably unbelievable, but there are a few, occasional moments of entertainment and even some poignance.

Oh man, I was actually forced into watching this movie earlier today by my aunt. It was difficult to keep a straight face during the majority of the film especially with my boyfriend (who's a geology major) complaining about all of the faulty information and science. I think the one redeeming factor was definitely John Cusack as the main character...

operafantomet wrote:Beware of spoilers!


My life in ruins

Nevermind that the cover is nearly identical to "Mamma Mia!" and that they use much of the backside to tell that it's made by the same producers... This is the sequel (sorry... standalone story) to "My big fat Greek wedding". So Georgia is suddenly single, though the whole point about the first movie was that she got married? Or am my memory so poor?

Wait! I must correct myself. It actually ISN'T a sequel, it IS a stand-alone story. It's just that some countries (Italy and Norway included) has translated the title to "My big fat Greek vacation", making it appear a sequel.

SenorSwanky wrote:2012. Most of it is absolutely dreadful and laughably unbelievable, but there are a few, occasional moments of entertainment and even some poignance.

I agree about the dreadful. I didn't find the death of millions of people particularly nice to watch. Disturbing, more like. I don't know what's so entertaining about watching people die, over and over again, in different parts of the world. The friends I watched it with seemed to find it rather amusing, but I felt sickened. Maybe it's just not my kind of movie.

On the funny side, that movie was one of those I could have chosen on my flight to California. Very smart: "Watch this movie, and you'll see the part of the US in which your plane is about to land crumble into the ocean!". Nothing for the faint of heart, I'd say.

IamErik771 wrote:I watched the Japanese film "Departures" (winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. I adored it; it had a wonderful mix of humorous and sad bits that made for a really poignant film that's worth seeing multiple times.

I agree, it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.