[Jelena]

Stepford Wives (2004)
I saw the first version in 1975, but I only remember bits and parts of it One thing though was that I thought it was really creepy. The new version was more of a comedy. Fun, but not that memorable. Bette Midler is always fun to watch!

[lumi]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It was a very good movie. A movie is done well when I start to care for someone whom I've never met and isn't real.

[[toj.cc]Phantom]

The Benchwarmers...yes...I did like it...

[Jelena]

Million dollar baby
Such a well told story.(There´s something about Morgan Freeman teeling the story. Just as in The Shawshank Redemtion.) I was deeply moved and can´t stop thinking about it.

[kuze]

Waking Life for the 2nd time: I'm not sure I got it all this time either, this movie has way too much content squeezed in. The beautiful visual art (overlapped drawn and taped visuals) and the absolutely amazing soundtrack by Tosca Tango Orchestra surely made up for this though.

[Spiwak]

Spoilers ahead:

The Notebook An excellently made chick-flick (by Nick Cassavetes, the son of legendary John Cassavetes) that actually did have me enthralled in the simple, albeit derivative romance between Ally and Noah. While the James Garmer-Gena Rowlands scenes were probably the most interesting, detailing his attempts to get her to remember her past (she has a bad case of Alzheimers) by reading her the story of the two lovers....it in fact killed the atmosphere for me, and the inclusion of said plot contradicted one of the big themes of their early romance. It felt like the story was constantly on the edge of uncertainty--for the future, for the lovers, particularly when young Ally has to make a big choice towards the end and ends up going the "less secure" route. But seeing the end result didn't work with that same idea, although obviously there's a tremendous gap from their late twenties to their later lives, but it made quite obvious how their lives went. So anyway, other than the fact that the movie killed some of the brilliantly-created atmosphere this was still a smart romance with a token bittersweet, though lovely, ending.

[lumi]

Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna) - it's a bout a pastor who's losing his faith. It was pretty interesting to watch. I think the choices to do without music and not shoot in widescreen helped creating a sense of loss and aloness.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Spider Crusoe

[b]Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna)

It has to be Swedish. Is it a new movie?

[Tobbe]

Not really a movie, but saw the first episode of: My Name Is Earl, it´s hilarious!

[Pilaf]

Junebug: Has to be one of the better movies I've ever seen. Comedy, drama, ahh...great stuff here. See it. All of you.

[lumi]

Originally Posted by LenaJ

It has to be Swedish. Is it a new movie?

It is Swedish, but it's not new. It's from 1963 and by Ingmar Bergman.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Spider Crusoe

It is Swedish, but it's not new. It's from 1963 and by Ingmar Bergman.

LOL That shows how much I´ve cared about his early work.

[SCRUGAtes13]

omg Glengary Glen Ross is the best film i've ever seen. I haven't even seen all of it just this scene with alec baldwin upto a scene with Al Pacino and i know that's all i need to see to make me wanna see it all! in fact i bought the special edition dvd today but ain't had time to watch it... friday beckons forth...

[Catbert]

Just finished watching the Man With no Name trilogy. What kickass movies

[Maquisard]

Good Night and Good Luck. A bit on the boring side, but informative.

[Once A Villain]

Originally Posted by LenaJ

LOL That shows how much I´ve cared about his early work.

Blasphemy.

Bergman was good in the 50's, 60's, 70's, early 80's, and even his last film, Saraband, was quite good in 2003. Especially for fans of Scenes From A Marriage. Heh.

Anyway, I even like the films he only wrote, but didn't direct. The Best Intentions was excellent, and I liked Sunday's Children as well.

He might be my favorite film director. Well, along with Orson Welles, Satyajit Ray, and Akira Kurosawa.

[lumi]

I watched three movies I've been meaning to see for awhile.

L.A. Confidential - an entertaining movie. The opening gives a good summation of how the movie plays out: the LA police like to do things their own way, a Hollywood way. The movie felt big and glamorous. It's not something I'd choose to rewatch, at least very seldomly, but nice to have seen.

Mulholland Drive - the only other David Lynch movie I had seen before was Blue Velvet, and both certainly have a distinct flavor that I haven't seen elsewhere. I think I like MD more, but it's been awhile since I saw BV so I'm not sure. I liked how it started off simple enough to follow, and then towards the end became complicated. Definitely something worth rewatching. Naomi Watts gave a great performance.

American Beauty - I wonder if this is how the city slickers view suburbia? Living in such a place, I find it kind of funny, but truthful in some ways. Phony and dead lives are probably to be found here. It also ventured into another territory or two, but left those more to the viewer to think about. It was an interesting movie; it's something that could easily have fallen flat on me, but it was done well enough that it didn't.

[Crunchy in milk]

Walk the line, Brothers Grimm, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

There was nothing tremendously new in any of them, apart from enjoying Reese Witherspoon's performance for a change (probably due to the great character she was playing).

I tried, and failed to watch Match Point.

I have this strange hankering to rent out Labyrinth all of a sudden.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Silent Hill

Oh I so wanted to like this film.

Big fan of the games and the film succeeds in replicating the atmosphere of the games very very well.

There are countless nods towards the series from the camera angles and music/sounds to lifting whole plot points from various games.

Therein lies the problem i'm afraid they succeed far to well It was too much like watching someone play the game. There was too much (especially at the beginning) of just watching the main character run around going through doors marvelling at "oh i remember this location"

The acting was dreadful and the story is impossible to know what the hell is going on unless you have played the games.

Strange there was not enough of the bad guys each of them get about 1-2 min of air time which was disappointing (Although Pyramid head gets slightly longer and also gets the best bit in the movie when he catches one of the characters - eeekk). Maybe it was just me but the movement of the nurses at the end all looked like they were dancing to Thriller I nearly laughed out loud.

Don't get me started on the ending which was crap.

Overall very atmospheric, looked and sounded amazing, and it was nice to see the designs, locations and monsters from the series up on the big screen, but as a movie it's a incoherant mess.

5/10

You're too critical, man. Thus I counter your review with mine! Mmph!!



Finally saw it this afternoon. Three words: Instant cult classic.

Wow, I haven't seen a horror movie this rich, warped, well orchestrated, and visually beautiful since Suspiria, Kubrick's The Shining, and Cronenberg's Videodrome, Scanners, and The Brood.

And actually I think the obscurity of the core story worked extremely well, because it keeps the audience in a perpetual state of imbalance, so that they're forced to look for clues and symbols, much like the concept of the original game of Silent Hill. The explanatory monologue towards the climax was almost too revealing, really. But then I supposed it was necessary in order to satisfy the clueless.

Spoiler:

But I hated that they killed Cybil Bennett off. That was cheap. She had an interesting enough back story to establish an emotional and psychological depth that, sadly, was neglected for further exploration.

Many of the best monsters entities from the first two games were used and depicted lovingly and accurately. Pyramid Head's dramatic entrance was jawdropping. They also used many of the original music and sound effects from the games. Even some of the sets (like Midwich Elementary School) were eerily accurate to the game. The first dimension shifting scene where Rose flicks on her butane lighter is EXACTLY straight out of the first Silent Hill game - absolutely magnificent. And that scene where the dimension shifts in the bathroom in the school is peerless!!

Pragmatically it's definitely a little too closed off to audiences who haven't played the first and second game, but there's definitely an exquisite sensibility in this film that you rarely ever find in typical Hollywood horror fare. And hopefully this movie will ignite substantial interest in the games themselves (I now expect there to be a Silent Hill 5 or something in the works).

I AM ABSOLUTELY BUYING THE DVD!!

8/10

(I also posted this mini review in the Silent Hill thread)

[RLacey]

A Beautiful Mind
Overly sentimental, and it suffers from making Nash nothing but a troubled hero, but the direction and acting are both fine. Oh, and I'm such a sucker for the so-obviously-hinted-at-earlier ending moments .