Exo

Chan Wook Park's first english film. I can't wait to see it but I might have to venture to the city to see it.

scleaves

I watched Oz. It was so good, I want to see it in theatre a second and maybe third time.

Exo

La Haine

Shame that Mathieu Kassovitz has made nothing but crap since this but at least we have a great little film like La Haine. I think this film is over-hyped a bit but in now way is a bad movie. It was interesting seeing Vincent Cassel in an early role and the ending was definitely worth the watch.

3.5/5



Amores Perros

Spanish for "Life's a Bitch", Amores Perros is a film from three points of view that intersect a bit but all have to do in some fashion with dogs. The director also made Biutiful, Babel, and 21 Grams and while I didn't feel this was as heavy as those films it's still a very tough watch in some points as you're going through some very serious situations with these characters. Definitely worth the watch because it's one of the better debuts from a foreign director.

4/5



Skyfall

Oh my god what a gorgeous movie. Sam Mendes filmed a masterpiece of light and shadow and oh my god the color in this things. I'm going to show you a screenshot...



LOOK AT THAT SH*T. Gorgeous! And the whole movie is full of shots like that. As a person who has never explored the back catalog of Bond and never been really into the ones I've watched...all I can say is that this is a great action movie with fantastic acting from Dench and Bardem but lacking an interesting plot. Still, it was a great watch and may be a future blu-ray purchase due to it being one of the prettiest movies I've ever seen.

4/5

Alfred

Yeah, we can thank Roger Deakins for that. It's a real crime that he hasn't won an Oscar for best cinematography.

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LoathsomePete

Colour me intrigued, I had just kind of written it off as another Bond movie, but I love light/dark imagery and if the entire movie is full of shots like that then it may be worth a look.

Anyways I felt like watching an '80's horror movie last night, and luckily Netflix is full of them so here's what I watched.



C.H.U.D.

Yeah the effects are pretty atrocious, even for the time (I mean The Thing predates it by two years and that is one of the best monster movies of all time) and the acting can be a little hashed out, but I have to commend the movie for taking a progressive stance and sticking to it. I love cult '80's movies because they are usually very critical of the practices and results of the Reagan era. C.H.U.D takes a very critical look at two topics many follows of Reagan liked to downplay, chiefly environmental degradation and urban decay, both topics I follow closely.

I can't say C.H.U.D. will change your life, but if you're into monster movies and cheesy '80's movies in general then it's worth a look.

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Exo

The Hunger Games
Netflix Instant

I finally sat down to see what the hype was about and since it just got released on Netflix Instant it came easy. This is a bit overrated. It wasn't a bad movie by any sense and I really should applaud it for actually breaking the mold that the Twilight series and other young adult adaptions formed by actually being a film instead of a piece of trash. The frantic camera work got annoying fast and I really didn't dig the story that much but Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic and the movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested in how it ended although it was quite obvious. I don't understand the hype but appreciate it for actually trying unlike Twilight.

2.5/5



The Naked City
Hulu Plus

Classic film noir right here. The film is also a semi documentary in the way it acknowledges and explains how the film uses real shots of New York City and no sound stages. Having grown up in the suburbs of the big apple all my life, I appreciated seeing old New York through the eyes of an Oscar winning cinematographer. The story was not bad but definitely a basic "who did it?" mystery but with a great conclusion. Definitely worth the watch.

3.5/5



Rust and Bone
DVD

Very good film from the director of "A Prophet". The film might work better given no information about the plot. It certainly isn't a mind f*ck movie but more of an emotional ride that seems would hit harder with no back story. I will say that both leads were fantastic. Mathias Shoenaerts was just as good as he was in "Bullhead" which was one of my favorite films last year. Cotilard was also fantastic as always. I haven't seen El Vi En Rose but this is her best role I've seen. Definitely worth checking out if you can find a rental of it.

4/5



V for Vendetta
Blu-Ray

One of the good number of films I've had on backlog for f*cking ever because I'm never in the mood to watch it. I was in a blu ray mood today and instead of re-watching something from my collection I decided to borrow this from a friend and give it a go. I was half entertained and half disappointed. This thing is on IMDB's top 250. Did you know that? Then again, so is The Hobbit but this film remains one of those mysteries as to why it's given so much praise. I think it's just a fan favorite. I can see why. Portman was great and Hugo Weaving as V was a perfect cast. His voice and personality was perfect. The story however just didn't grab me and I read that the original graphic novel was more focused on chaos rather than freedom. I feel that a movie about chaos would have been much better.

3/5



The Loneliest Planet
Netflix Instant

This film should be renamed "Hey, let's go for a walk. Oh look! Trees! I'm sad."

This is in no way a bad film because I like watching films that do something different but my god nothing happens in this movie. If I were to write down what happens it would fit on a page of marble notebook paper that 1st graders use to practice writing letters. It was however filmed in gorgeous locations which provided eye candy for people who like nature which should be everybody. I'm also a big Gael Garcia Bernal fan as this is the second film I've seen with him this week and is why I watched the movie in the first place. Only watch this if you like art films and slow slow SLOW SSSSLLLLOOOWWW burns.

2.5/5

Alfred

IMDB also collectively thinks that The Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film of all time and that Fight Club, Inception, The Matrix, Se7en, Memento, and American History X are better films than Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Bridge On The River Kwai, Blade Runner, and Days Of Heaven, among countless other great films. It's a website populated mostly by people who know jack shit about cinema.

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Exo

I agree with you but there are also some classic films on there that certainly aren't on there for being "popular". Most of them are older films but some great foreign films of the last ten years are on there. It's a flawed list that gets a few things right but wrong things VERY WRONG. Is every Nolan movie on that list? I love his work but really? Dark Knight and Memento and that should be all.

Janszoon

Honestly, I agree with several of the rankings that you just mentioned. The Shawshank Redemption and Memento specifically are great movies and literally every single film you listed is far superior to American History X, which I've always considered to be a great Ed Norton performance wrapped in a black and white Lifetime original movie.

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Alfred

Yeah, I give the list credit for at least having some classic art films on it (probably films that the Nolan crowd hasn't seen). There are some people who do know their stuff, but a majority seem to be people who have never seen a foreign film or one from before 1970.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure all Nolan's films are in the top 250 except for Following and Insomnia.

I like The Shawshank Redemption and Memento, but I wouldn't put either of them anywhere near my top 25 favourite movies of all time. Shawshank is too sentimental for me to appreciate as anything other than a very good Hollywood film, and Memento is just an interestingly-written, satisfying thriller. I'd give them both 8/10, but I think are vastly overrated.

I 100% agree with you about American History X.

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