The old movie thread: ratings and discussion' or some shiz

MAMMA MIA! -Based on the smash Broadway musical using ABBA songs. The story centers around 20 year old Sophie, who lives in a little remote greek island with her single mother, Donna (Meryl Streep in a career resurrecting role), who is going to get married and invites to her wedding the three guys who 20 years before had a brief romance with her mom. Sophie doesn't know who her father is, so she wants to find out which one of those three guys is her father. Yeah, is a chick flick AND a musical. I was dragged to watch this by my wife since it was her birthday, otherwise I might have skipped it. But you know what? It was actually entertaining. Meryl Streep can surely sing and dance, even at her age! Like I said, this movie will resurrect her career not because it was meaty role (it isn't), but because it has been a smash hit, something that she hasn't had in a looong time. Pierce Brosnan can not sing, not even if his life depended on it. Every time he opened his mouth to sing only a croak sound came out of his throat. Oh, how low has the mighty former 007 has fallen! Amanda Seyfried, the petite blonde girl from BIG LOVE, is extremely charming here and the best singer of all the actors in the cast. The audience in the theater surely had a blast with this film (Abba fans?) and cheered, clap, laughed and stayed seated when the credits started rolling since there was another "Dancing Queen" video playing at the end. Good date movie. 8/10

 

Use space bar next time, this is hard to read :flip:

 

THE DARK KNIGHT

GRADE: B+

PREMISE - Batman returns for more crime fighting and hopes to have found a lawyer/allie who may rid the streets of crime for good. That is until he meets the kind of brilliant sadistic criminal that changes everything.

CRITIQUE - I enjoyed this movie, but it wasn't quite as great as everyone blows it up to be. For one thing it was too long and the plot moved so fast I rarely had the chance to take everything in and follow along. I also didn't like the way that when they didn't have time to fully plot out things, they would make simple short almost ridiculous reasons. Like the reason Batman had to take the blame for 2 Face's condition, or how and why 2 Face turned in the first place. Still the action, story, and dialogue were all top notch, but I'll never be a big fan of the Batman character nor will I ever be excited for one of his movies.


HANCOCK

GRADE: C

PREMISE - Will Smith is an alcoholic superhero who does more harm than good. His attitude is the main problem as he tends to be too self absorbed and basically an asshole. He meets a guy who becomes his PR man and helps him to clean up his image and act during which Hancock also finds out the guy's wife is as super powered as he is.

CRITIQUE - Another obvious case of a great trailer (successfully) selling a mediocre story, and in this case the movie could have been so much better. On the surface it would seem like once they rode out the asshole-to-hero plot that they just didn't know where to go from there. Personally I think the story they did switch to looked good on paper but the execution just wasn't very good. The 2nd half resolved to explain how & why Hancock had his powers and it wasn't a bad idea but they didn't need the 2 supers have stupid fights over nothing. Overall the movie wasn't that bad, but it wasn't as good as advertised. The best parts made it to the trailer.

 

THE NUN'S STORY (1959) - I finally decided to take a look at this classic to see what all the fuss was about. Critics are right. This film is a masterpiece, very mature, serious and ahead of its time in every aspect, particularly in the acting department. Audrey Hepburn portrays Gabrielle, a young Belgian girl who enters a convent and takes the bows as a nun. After considerable time in cloistered rituals, discipline and penitence, she is allowed to pursue her dream to become a missionary nurse in Congo. From there she has to move to France during World War II and make some drastic decisions. The film's focus in the struggle of a deeply spiritual woman trying to follow the rules of her religion of obedience, chastity, dogmas etc. versus what her rational mind and free spirit leads her too. In the hands of other filmmaker and actors this film could had turned into another soapy melodrama like THE SOUND OF MUSIC sans the songs. Fortunately this wasn't the case. The first half of the film where Gaby (Hepburn) starts her life as a novice until she graduates into Sister Luke, the name that she was given once she became a nun, is absolutely fascinating and very accurate. Audrey Hepburn barely talks during this part of the film since her character has a vow of silence, but with her eyes and facial expression does all the talking. Compare Audrey Hepburn,s acting with that year's winning actor Charlton Heston in BEN HUR and you will see who gave the most realistic performance. An epic human drama that even non-catholics like myself will enjoy. 10/10

 

I AM NOT THERE Easily the most overated film of the year. Critics were singing so much praise to this film it got me curious about it. While not a terrible film, it is not that good either. A convulated, disjointed surrealist biography of Bob Dylan. A lot of hype received Cate Blanchet's performance deservengly so: her sequences are the most interesting in a film were five actors play the same character. But the scenes that made more sense were the ones with Christian Bale. He did a good job, though no one will believe he was Dylan (in the film the folk singer goes by another name). Anyway watching this film gave me a big migraine. EL TOPO is easier to watch than this and if you manage to watch the whole damn thing you feel that you deserve a medal. 6/10

 

:nono::nono: I gave it an 8 out of 10, anything with Bruce Greenwood in it is good.

 

watched 'Step Brothers' the other day. didn't realize it was rated R until i purchased the tickets. it was much vulgur than i had anticipated. overall, i thought it was pretty good. much funnier than farrell's last two movies. plus, john c. reilly is the man.

 

I recently watched I Am Legend and The Mist and while both may have had some new ideas to them by the end of the movies they both felt way too derivative.

 

Batman (Keaton)

still holds up well, though the shoot outs (and accompanying sound effects) are comical. "PEEYOOWWW"

 

The Ruins - The characters were so frustratingly idiotic that the movie was just a headache to watch. No matter how hard you try, I think it's just impossible to make a ______ scary. (Blanked out to remove spoiler)

I'm always on the look out for a decent horror flick, but the Ruins definitely isn't one. It's essentially Turistas, only with killer _______, instead of killer natives (although they are in the movie as well).

 

KUNG FU PANDA

GRADE: A

PREMISE - A Panda in old time china works in a kitchen serving food with his father. But rather than take over the long time family business he has dreams and desires of being a kungfu master. He gets his chance when the great ninja master through sheer luck (or is it fate?) chooses him as the prophetic next kung fu master.

CRITIQUE - This is probably my 3rd favorite animated movie and goes right behind Monster's Inc & the Incredibles. It had action, comedy, and drama as well as a good story and dialogue. All the ingredients for a spectacular movie.

 

Havent seen it, never will.

 

Then try THE ORPHANAGE..but it's in spanish...:kick:

 

Haha I reviewed it a few posts up. :cheer:

 

Is good, very funny, but I'll give it a B instead of an A. WALL-E on the other hand does gets an A+ IMO.

 

Listen up, post your weekly boxoffice report this Sunday before 3 PM Eastern or else.

 

CARAMEL (Sukkar Banat) - Friday nights is chick flicks night (I have a wife that demands equal time of passive entertainment). This is the story of five lebanese women that work at a beauty parlor in Beirut. A sort of romantic comedy, but is more realistic than many of your typical movies from the genre. The main character, Layale (played by the super hot babe Nadine Labaki who also directed the film) is a single woman who is having an affair with a married man and this situation is taking its toll on her. The other ladies have their own problems too: one is getting married, but she is not a virgin and fears what will happen on the wedding night when the guy or her parents finds out, another is a tomboy who, surprise!, likes women, the other is an older lady competing with younger girls, etc. Yup, very chick flick, but it was well made, funny and touching. The most compelling aspect of the film is this: no matter how different the culture is or the country where you live, people are the same everywhere. Hey just the sight of sexy Nadine Labaki merits to give this film thumbs-up. 8/10

 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Very good movie. Based on a true story, as is another foreign language film based on a similar subject, The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro).

I'd recommend both, along with The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares).

 

You should see Wall-E. Its better than Kung Fu Panda. But yeah, KFP was a good movie. I give it a 8/10. And Wall-E a 10/10.

 

Exactly. Lb 4 lb go to page 86 here and check osfan's review and mine too. This is the most fun you'll have this summer at the movies. Great family entertainment with a solid science fiction plot.

 

Zodiac

8.9/10

Very surprised how great this movie was. Caught it on Showtime HD last night,so that definatley added a few points.

Great thriller,the only thing that kept it from scoring higher was the fact it is still an unsolved case. But highly recommended! Great acting job by everybody,minus Chloe Savigny,who just felt totally out of place in this movie!

SEE THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T!!:crafty:

 

Pineapple Express 5.5/10

Seth Rogen's routine is a bit tired already. Green Goblin Jr from Spiderman played a good stoner though.

 

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

GRADE: C+

PREMISE - Bruce Banner is still hiding out from the government while also trying to cure himself and this time will come face to face with the Abomination, a beast bigger and stronger than him.

CRITIQUE - I found the whole movie pretty average. The story, dialogue, and action was all CGI anyway. Wasn't bad but wasn't particularly intriguing either.

Rewatchability - No, (though I would watch the action sequences if I catch them on HBO or something at the right time.)

 

I liked the 2003 Hulk better.

 

yea, rogen pretty much played the same guy he did in 40 year old virg and knocked up. still funny though, but i thought james franco outshined him.

i liked the part where franco throws change at rogen and says 'why don't you supersize that bitch!' haha.

that other guy who played 'red' was pretty funny too.

 

7/10 - a C grade comedy...a lot of will ferrell style humour...funny at times....sort of drags on at times....not bad overall

 

9/10---Funny and worth watching again. :laughing::laughing:

 

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS I am a Star Wars fan, but I really didn't wanted to watch this. Mainly because I knew it was nothing but a cheap made for TV movie to kick start this Fall's upcoming Cartoon Network tv show. Greedy George Lucas saw in it another opportunity to milk more cash out his cash cow franchise and decided to release it at movie theaters. most critics has been merciless with the movie...and rightly so. It is not that good and very forgettable. But keeping in mind that it is just after all, the pilot episode of a kiddie show, in that sense it wasn't THAT bad. The little plot that we have here is about the events between ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH films. The Republic's clone army is battling the Separatist's droid army. Obi Wan Kenobi leads the battle while Anakin Skywalker and his brand new padawan are assigned to rescue Jabba The Hutt's kidnapped baby. That's all the plot. The rest is just battle scenes. My children who dragged me to watch it today with them, seemed to like it. I could barely stay awake. The animation is on the HOODWINKED level: very cheap and poorly executed in the sense that there is very little animation to the playdo looking characters. Anyway I'll give it a 5 out of 10 just because Christopher Lee lended his voice to the Count Dooku cartoon, which was nice. 5/10