[DustyShinigami]

Originally Posted by Henke

Spoiler:

I actually liked the fact that some things were only hinted at in the movie (like paedophilia and gender swaps).

Yeah. It certainly gives viewers who haven't read the book something to think about. It gives the movie more depth. But because i'm a perfectionist, whenever i read a book and then see the movie i always want it to be pretty darn acurate.

Spoiler:

My favourite scene in the book is missing though, the one when Håkan escapes the hospital och finds Tommy in the cellar. I can sort of understand that Tommy was taken out of the movie since there would be to many characters otherwise. But I imagined Håkan being almost totally melted when I read the book but it's only half his face in the movie. But the fact that they chickened out on the gore doesn't ruin the movie.

Spoiler:

Yeah, the part where Hakan tries to rape Eli? That is a good part. I quite like the memory Eli shares with Oskar though. Where he experiences his penis being cut off. I read somewhere the director was going to include the castration scene but use a pig's for the close-up-shot. But when a pig and a slaughterer showed up he had second thoughts. I still think they could've done it but without showing everything. The parts you don't see could then be left to the viewers imagination.

One thing i didn't praise in my mini review was the soundtrack. I think it's just as beautiful as the rest of the film. I just had to order a copy. Always seems to send shivers down my spine whenever i listen to it.

[SnorkleCat]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

[

Valkyrie



I couldn't really go wrong could it. Tom Cruise is a Nazi, there are a gaggle of big name British stars to back him up and it's directed and written by the team behind "The Usual Suspects".

Damn them......

It looks great, the authentic settings and costumes. The acting is ok, Tom Cruise is pretty good, Eddi Izzard, Tom Wilkinson etc are all top notch. The story is decent enough based on one of the real Assassination attempts on Hitler towards the end of the war.

So why was I not connecting to anyone in the movie. The film trailer makes it look thrilling, but it's far too concerned with how the plot was conceived and executed that it misses out on the characters. You don't give a hoot about any of them and in the end it falls flat. I think it was a mistake taking a true story and trying to make a hollywood thriller out of it. It can't stand up to the likes of Downfall or Shindlers List without feeling shallow and pointless.

6/10

Agreed. I did not dislike the film, but it was rather ...erm.. clinical and detached. I thought Sophie Scholl was a better film in that it managed to tell a matter-of-fact tale of resistance with the right balance of emotion and factual details.

...One distressing side note for Valkyrie for me, is that the crappy theater in which I saw it was having technical problems; the film was sped up faster than it should have been. Everyone sounded like chipmunks and walked like Charlie Chaplin. :-/

[Henke]

Dellamorte Dellamore (Englishtitle: Cemetery Man)

A great movie! Amazing settings and interesting characters. Has one of the best scenes ever!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I liked it, a life portrait of an interesting person similair to Big Fish and Forrest Gump.

[kuze]

Transsiberian - meh. It was alright, I guess, at least the portrayal of life and living in Russia was more or less accurate. The storyline however was somewhat ridiculous - but then again, I didn't like the storyline of the Machinist either.

[Kolzig]

The Wrestler

A very dramatic and touching movie about a man living in the past glory.

It was even more shocking than I had imagined. Rourke absolutely deserves the Oscar next sunday. Simply perfect job at showing the life of Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

Many scenes in this movie were unforgettable, I had no idea what hardcore matches are, but now I kind of know.

[Lucien21]

Push

A cross between "Heroes" and "Jumper" this low budget action flick stars Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning.

There are people in the world with powers - "Movers" can move things with their mind, "Watchers" can tell the future, "Sniffers" can track people and "Pushers" can alter peoples minds and make them do things.

Most of them are hiding from "Division" the evil gov agency who are trying to track down and experiment on them.

Dakota Fanning is a 13 year old Watcher who enlists Chris Evans "mover" to find an escaped girl and recover a package that could save or kill all the mutants.

The film was pretty decent for a low budget effect although it suffers too much from rough hand camera style footage and excess shakycam during the fight scenes.

The film sags drastically in the middle as they end up just wandering aimlessly through a very pertty Hong Kong.

Strangely there is also a complete lack of an ending. It's like it was a 2 part movie as it leaves far too many loose ends unfinished at the end for my liking with no guarentee of a sequel.

Reasonably enjoyable hokum.

6/10

[Lucien21]

Che Part 2

October 1965: Fidel Castro (Bichir) reads a letter from Che Guevara (Del Toro) in which he resigns from the Cuban government. Two years later, Guevara tries to bring about revolution in Bolivia. Things do not go well.

I'm glad I watched this in 2 parts as watching the whole 5 hours would have been a slog.

Not that it isn't a decent film, because it's a great film, but the 2nd part is a darker film than the first making it draining to watch.

Conveniently jumping over all his rumored crimes in Cuba it jumps forward in time to Bolivia and the failed revolution. Che hides out in the jungles as the locals refuses to side with him, and US trained soldiers pick them off.

This film is like a mirror image of the first as we witness him become more isolated and follow him to the end as the camera closes in on Che and then we become his eyes.

Benicio Del Toro is superb throughout the movie and it's a travesty he wasn't nominated for an Oscar.

8/10

[MystGirl]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Role Models

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Push

Hmmm....we seem to enjoy many of the same movies for the same reasons. Push is actually based off a comic series. I enjoyed it but you're right about the ending. I'm not sure how far the comic series goes, but there could be a sequel.

I enjoy Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist even though it was kind of slow. Movies like that make me want to move to a city though. I envy all the places you can go to in the cities to listen to little bands like Find Fluffy. LOL.

I thought Role Models was hilarious but I'm a big Paul Rudd fan. I'll see anything he's in.




I've been renting a lot of movies lately.

I've actually found myself enjoying a lot of Guy Richie's movies so far.

I just rented Rocknrolla. Most of his movies are about British gangsters with a bit of humor thrown in. I saw Revolver recently too, but I like Rocknrolla better. Better plot overall, better characters, and a better pace. Revolver seemed to lag in too many places. His movies seem to go straight to DVD over in the States these days. Not sure why.

[Lucien21]

Cool. It's either "Great minds think alike" or "Fools seldom differ". I know which version I prefer

[Lucien21]

Gran Torino

A movie in which Clint Eastwood stars as well as directs.

Here he plays an old racist grouchy bastard, a vetren of the Korean war, who recently lost his wife. He rails at the whole world, his family and especially the new Asian neigbours. The neighbourhood that he grew up in is now predominatly an imigrant area, ruled by gangs.

After an unintentional act of heroism he starts to grow an uneasy friendship with his new neighbours especially the 2 kids. He takes the young boy under his wing, teaches him about fixing things, how to talk to other men (With lots of racist comments of course) and gets him a job in construction.

Unfortunatly the gangs keep getting involved and it's up to old Clint to come to the rescue. He growls through this film in fantastic form and the movie is held together by the acting.

I loved it and it would be a perfect swansong as Eastwood the actor, and further proof that he is a great director.

9/10

[Kolzig]

I really want to see Gran Torino immediately when it comes to Finland.

[Lucien21]

Punisher :War Zone

3rd time lucky for Punisher?

I'm in a minority that I actually like the Thomas Jane version that came out in 2004.

This one though was dreadful. Ray Stevenson plays the armed vigilante who's family is murdered and he goes on a one man war against the mob.

This is so gruesomly violent as to be hilariously funny. Heads, legs and arms are seen exploding with showers of blood as he guns his way through an army of cannon fodder enemy.

Dumb and stupid with little going for it.

4/10

[Kolzig]

I liked the Thomas Jane version as well, he was very good as the Punisher. I really don't even want to see this latest one.

[RLacey]

Hannibal Rising
Woeful. Quite how everyone involved managed to completely misunderstand the reason for the appeal of The Silence of the Lambs is astonishing.

[kuze]

Red Is The Color Of - a great, great movie. A love-story, a love-triangle, a more mysterious, more sensual, more exploring story than Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the other love movie I watched recently. Loved it.

[Lucien21]

Watchmen

Ok, this one has a huge heritage to live up to. Seen by many as the greatest Graphic Novel ever written, it has a huge following and is seen as unfilmable by the author. Would it be safe in the hands of the director of "300"

Could it live up to the hype.......of course it can't nobody could condense every idea from that novel into 3 hours, but who cares.

It bloody rocks.

It's an alternate 1985, tricky dicky is still in charge and the USA is on the brink of a nuclear disaster. Rorschach is one of the only "Superheroes" still plying his trade as Masks are outlawed. He starts off investigating the death of the "Comedian" a fellow hero from the glory days and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the entire world.

Watching the film it is obvious that the director has a real love for the Graphic novel, there are iconic shots that mirror the comic panels very closely, from the initial comedian out the window to Rorschah's ever shifting mask, to the nite owls ship etc etc etc are all just like you remember from the novel. My main concern is that unless you have read the Graphic Novel you might be lost. Is it accessible to newbies...probably not.

It's certainly dialog heavy (it needs to be) and the horned in fight scenes are all thrilling with occasional slow mo (not overdone thank god), the sound track an eclectic range of 80's tunes to accompany the action.

Visually it is stunning, with some amazing SFX on Dr Manhatten.

It's an amazing attempt to film the unfilmable and a very enjoyable film to boot. Not your typical comic book movie.

Just don't expect it to be the Graphic Novel.

9/10

[kuze]

Would you recommend it to someone who despises graphic novels, but somewhat enjoyed The Dark Knight?

[Lucien21]

Sure why not.

It's more of a talky film though, there is a limited amount of action in it's 3 hours.

[SoccerDude28]

I whole-heartedly agree with you Lucien. Although it did diverge from the book in a few places( like the totally new ending), I thought it kept the essence of the book intact. I just wished he cut down on the latex for silk spectre though As far as newbies who didn't read the comic book getting confused, my girlfriend has never read the novel, and she said she understood everything that was happening. Some references might be missed by the newbies (like the opening scenes from the credits for example), but I think they will get the gist of the whole movie.

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Watchmen

Ok, this one has a huge heritage to live up to. Seen by many as the greatest Graphic Novel ever written, it has a huge following and is seen as unfilmable by the author. Would it be safe in the hands of the director of "300"

Could it live up to the hype.......of course it can't nobody could condense every idea from that novel into 3 hours, but who cares.

It bloody rocks.

It's an alternate 1985, tricky dicky is still in charge and the USA is on the brink of a nuclear disaster. Rorschach is one of the only "Superheroes" still plying his trade as Masks are outlawed. He starts off investigating the death of the "Comedian" a fellow hero from the glory days and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the entire world.

Watching the film it is obvious that the director has a real love for the Graphic novel, there are iconic shots that mirror the comic panels very closely, from the initial comedian out the window to Rorschah's ever shifting mask, to the nite owls ship etc etc etc are all just like you remember from the novel. My main concern is that unless you have read the Graphic Novel you might be lost. Is it accessible to newbies...probably not.

It's certainly dialog heavy (it needs to be) and the horned in fight scenes are all thrilling with occasional slow mo (not overdone thank god), the sound track an eclectic range of 80's tunes to accompany the action.

Visually it is stunning, with some amazing SFX on Dr Manhatten.

It's an amazing attempt to film the unfilmable and a very enjoyable film to boot. Not your typical comic book movie.

Just don't expect it to be the Graphic Novel.

9/10

[Trunkyo]

This was originally in the Comicbook, GNs, etc. Thread, but I figured it really belongs here so...

Originally Posted by Me

My sister and I went to see Watchmen yesterday too; she's never read the graphic novel and somehow avoided all the hype surrounding the movie!

Really liked the movie, many of the scenes and dialogue were taken directly from the GN, I didn't even pay attention to the long running time. Lots of snapping bones and splattering of blood. (What else would one expect from the director of 300?! ) I always imagined Dr. Manhattan's voice to be deeper and echo-y, that's what his word balloons in the GN always seemed to suggest to me. But after learning that Billy Crudup was cast and then actually hearing his voice in the second trailer, I couldn't help thinking, "...Really?!" His performance was still very good, as were those of most of the main actors, especially Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach.

About the reworked ending...

Spoiler:

...it still made sense, though. The "Manhattan" devices substituting for the interdimensional alien squid achieved the same result. Personally, I would preferred including the orrery scene (Dr. Manhattan's final conversation with Veidt), which probably would've been anticlimactic from a film standpoint. Instead, Doc Manhattan disappears after his goodbye kiss with Laurie and she's given the "Nothing ever ends" line instead.

I can't wait for the Tales of the Black Freighter DVD to come out, but I'm wondering if I should just wait for the planned extended version of the Watchmen DVD instead, with the Black Freighter scenes interspersed throughout the original movie. (Would this even work? )

9/10