Thoughts From the Booth (Film Journal)
 

Movies I've seen in 2012 (old and new alike)

Hyde Park on Hudson trailer dropped recently and it looks fantastic. Bill Murray has always been one of my favorite people ever.
The dude is just ****ing awesome. Lost in Translation is one of my favorite films of all time and Bill got royally screwed because his film came out the same year that Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Sir Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog) put in performances that were just unbelievable. The three of them should have really shared that Oscar. This is hopefully going to be his year as he looks like he could be gunning for that award with his performance as FDR. I can't possibly predict from a two minute trailer that he is going to be fantastic but I certainly can be excited for one of my favorite actors looks like he's going to be dropping another gem on us with this one.

Hyde Park on Hudson is set to release in December.

http://i.imgur.com/g0vhK.jpg

Whew. What an ending. A very heavy movie that ended with a bang but was also very beautiful. I haven't seen many Mexican films but the ones I have have all been fantastic. This one was definitely the most depressing of them but in a way I felt very fresh and relieved having seen it.

8.5/10

I envy your job! Looking forward to more entries.

Thank you sir. I assure you that I have it EASY. I got lucky enough to be in charge of a dying theater, meaning there is A LOT of downtime. I still have hard nights such as thursdays when a new crop of films has to be spliced up and an old batch needs to be spliced down. That, and I still have to deal with people, but I can't complain being in this business with the job I have. I enjoy it.

http://i.imgur.com/NvbzG.jpg

Finally got around to seeing the famous Battleship Potemkin. I enjoyed it for what it was, a propaganda film that still had its cinematic moments. For those of you who watched it, did you notice that the Odessa stair scene had a baby carriage falling down the stairs EXACTLY like The Untouchables? I guess De Palma was a fan of Potemkin because it can't be a coincidence. The Odessa stair scene was definitely the highlight of a film that will be watched by film students for years to come. I'll have to check out Alexander Nevsky sometime as it's supposed to be more of a plot driven film.

8/10

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After a few serious movies I like to throw in a cheesy movie to kind of even the playing field. I downloaded a whole set of 80s and 90s cheese films and dive into it every couple of days.

http://i.imgur.com/VdQx2.jpg

"Horror" film from the late 80s about a bunch of kids that uncover a lair of mini demons in their backyard. This one is filled with dead animals, horrible dialogue, and numerous uses of the word "f a g" which kind of surprised me because it seemed to be geared towards kids who like scary movies. Stephen Dorff makes an early film appearance as the main kid caught up in the mess. It reminded me a lot of Earnest Scared Stupid which was a film I loved as a kid. It could have been much worse but it still wasn't a very good movie.

3/10

Yup. That's a real Anchorman 2 teaser trailer. I loved Anchorman so I hope this doesn't destroy the uniqueness of the first film. I'm just glad to see Champ back.

That looks freaking fantastic. Finally, Murray in a leading role again. Thanks for the tip.

Oh my gawd, I ****ing love anchorman! This movie's gonna be amazing (hopefully).

http://i.imgur.com/zvBzm.jpg

This one has been sitting in my queue for a while and I finally brought it out while at work for another ten hours today. That was one hell of a good story. The acting was very good and while the camera work wasn't special in most cases it had some absolutely wonderful shots throughout. The ending was a great twist. I really didn't have any idea that it was going to end that way and the actual last scene was very creepy and ambiguous. I think I might go out and purchase this one if I can find a good price.

8.5/10

Next up: More cheese with Lathe of Heaven.

thank you posting that teaser fro anchorman :)....i agree i was somewhat under the impression that Champ would not be back.....and he was my favorite character out of the four.....looks pretty good :)

http://i.imgur.com/sJapW.jpg

I'll be honest, I didn't pay attention to the second half of this movie. It was that bad. Bob says that the book is good so I'll check it out because the story did seem quite interesting but the production of the movie was just BAD.

2/10

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Wow this was bad. Wow. No redeeming qualities unless you like retarded action, no character development, and horrible dialogue and acting. It was like the script fell on the floor and nobody checked to see if the pages were in order. I expected cheese but not this much awful.

0/10

http://www.cinemablend.com/images/ne...1250741180.jpg

This one REALLY fell flat. Jason Bateman might as well not have even been in it because he phoned in his act. I like Mike Judge's humor but this was just flat and boring. The only redeeming quality was David Koechner's character.

4/10

http://www.accentfilm.com/productimg/1000123.jpg

Let me first say that the movie isn't very good. It certainly had nice qualities to it but it could have used a rewrite or two. What did surprise me though was that I didn't think Christian Slater had an impressive acting performance in him. I had to remind myself that I was acting watching Christian Slater. He did a GREAT job and this should be his crowning achievement unless he focuses this much on the rest of his career. I'd say it's worth a watch just to see something that I thought was impossible, a good performance by Christian Slater.

6.5/10

Oh! I forgot! Two trailers dropped today. Sam Mendes's Skyfall and one of the most anticipated movies of the last three years for me...Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master.



I'm hoping it's a thousand times better than ...Solace and I think Mendes is the person to do it. I really like his work.



Oh my god I can't wait for this. I haven't confirmed it but it sounds like Greenwood could be doing the score again which would be amazing. I'm such a big PT Anderson fan, all of his work is amazing and I wouldn't expect this to be any different. This is going to be such a great year.

Have I told you recently that Bill Murray is awesome? I have? Well it's for good reason. Check out this drunk tour of Moonrise Kingdom...

I haven't looked at the rest of the thread yet, but I just had to give Megadittos for this. I was so surprised by what an amazing movie this was. I loved that Bill Murray was so reserved (at least as far as Bill Murray is concerned) and almost serious at times, which somehow seemed to make him even more funny.

Don't forget the amazing shots of Japan and the incredible shoegaze soundtrack. Bill Murray's performance was the icing on the cake of one of the best movies of all time in my opinion.

I know that most of you that are into Batman have probably seen this, but for those who haven't, please watch this for it is the way you make trailers. It is artistic, dramatic, and best of yet enticing without revealing much besides the bridges and the stadium. I hope this movie is five hours long and even then it wouldn't be long enough. I can't. ****ing. wait.

Here's my weekend of films minus a couple I don't feel like writing about because they were bad. (Altered, The Crow, Good Neighbours)

http://i.imgur.com/YuaAA.jpg

This was good. It was vastly superior to the first film in every way possible. I'm one of those people who loved Kill Bill Vol. 2 way more that Vol. 1 and this movie is the equivalent to Vol. 2. It had more character depth and dialogue rather than focusing on action scenes. It was a great closer to the first film while still leaving room for another movie which if done well could work.

8.5/10

http://i.imgur.com/Be3uv.jpg

It was alright. There was a lot of decisions the characters made that were so illogical which I hate that it prevented me liking this more. It's just lazy writing. It's so much easier to have two retarded characters than to have them make good decisions. It happens all the time though. There was also zero character development as the movie was only an hour and fifteen minutes long. I didn't care if they died or not. What I did like was the sound and camera work for such a low budget film. The ending was also unique. Overall it is a flawed film but short enough to put time into.

6.5/10

http://i.imgur.com/t9Fwp.jpg

Loved it. LOVED IT. The voices and animation were top class and the story didn't feel old or redone. It was a fun ride and Johnny Depp should do more voice over work more often.

8/10

thx for the head-up

this might just rejuvenate my interest in film

(haven't really been watching many movies lately and am mostly catching blockbusters from a few years ago on tv)

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That's a still from Taratino's "Django Unchained". I just found out the first trailer is going to premier on prints of Prometheus when it comes out June 8th. I can't wait. If it surfaces on youtube I'll post it on here for those of you who aren't going to see Prometheus.

^ that just made my day sir....i actually just bought my ticket for Prometheus :)

saw the preview for Skyfall before MIB3 and all i can say is damn

the Master is a PT Anderson film.....which means i will love it....that preview solidifies my hypothesis

and i'm with you....i hope The Dark Knight Rises is at least 28 hours long.....i'm sure for this i could stand to loose a day of sleep :)

Awesome! Now I'm even more excited for Prometheus

That's a great film and so original for its time. I hope you've seen Wages of Fear probably Clouzot's best film.

One week til Prometheus!!!!!

ticket has been bought and reservations before and after for beers after have been made.....what started as a small group has turned into over 20 people....

It's been forever since I did reviews so here's a **** load from the past week or so...

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Excellent film. Paddy Considine was superb as the protagonist and the ending was heartfelt and satisfying. I expected an okay revenge flick but got a unique violent thriller with great acting.

8/10

http://i.imgur.com/WQ5aS.jpg

The narrative was interesting but the story was boring as all hell. It should be re-named "Brit Badasses Talk and Say **** A lot".

6/10

http://i.imgur.com/ajmG6.jpg

I was surprised with this one. One of the blackest comedies I've seen which is to be expected since it's a comedy about suicide Jihadists. The laughs were good and in the end it got a bit serious but not enough to throw the movie off it's comedic course. I'd recommend seeing it for an entirely different kind of comedy.

7.5/10

http://i.imgur.com/pPQtp.jpg

Fantastic thriller. There were some obvious plot holes but for the most part it was fresh and exciting. The lead actor was great and the filming was crisp and enticing. It's on netflix instant so check it out.

8.5/10

http://i.imgur.com/bNgsB.jpg

The first half was boring. The second half was awesome. Poor Danny Aiello. Spike Lee made a very good film after he was done stereotyping minorities. The end was true to the nature of human beings when they feel something wrong happened. Animals.

7.5/10

I just got an awesome email from our film distributors. Advanced showtimes for Dark Knight Rises. This includes the run time.

165 minutes of epic greatness. I'm excited.

This was one of my favorite films of last year. Granted, i don't have the healthiest sense of humor but i laughed hard throughout:p:

http://i.imgur.com/WcviS.jpg

I loved it. The writing and attention to detail was absolutely incredible and of course the set design and acting was top notch. I didn't expect it to be as funny as it turned out to be. Not as good as Tennenbaums or Life Aquatic but on the same page as Darjeeling and Mr. Fox. And yes, I still haven't seen Rushmore.

8.5/10

A friend of mine is really excited to see this movie, the funny thing is I've only seen the early Wes Anderson movies, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums.

On a side note, have you seen the new David Cronenberg movie, Cosmopolis by any chance?

It's getting released in the US August 17th, but will only run in NYC and LA for two weeks. Canada has it though. I didn't see A Dangerous Method but loved pretty much all of his previous work so we'll see.

Oh duh, stupid me, I totally read the Wiki wrong. C'est la vie.

I'm glad the new Wes Anderson movie is really good though.