I finally saw The Hurt Locker last night, and can see why it's getting all the award buzz. I still haven't seen everything talked about as potential Oscar movies (the most notable exception being Up in the Air), but it was the best of the movies released in 2009 that I have seen. Highly recommended ( Read more... )

I saw a screening of Terry Gilliam's new film tonight, and liked it very much. The film is definitely a return to his recurring themes of the fantasist (Brazil, Time Bandits, Baron Munchausen). Totally worth seeing on a big screen for the visuals alone. There is an abundance of CGI in the stories and imaginarium worlds, but not in the real world ( Read more... )

Okay, so I saw My Name Is Bruce this last night and it was a lot of fun.  It is by no means a good movie, but it's sure a hell of a lot better than almost every movie he's done since Bubba Ho-Tep.  (Yes, I realize that's damning it with faint praise.)  It's pretty tongue-in-cheek, almost a meta-movie, and it's definitely a present for the fans; I ( Read more... )

If the phrase "Takashi Miike's English-language Spaghetti Western" fills you with giddy delight, Sukiyaki Western Django is out now on DVD.  And it is spectacular.

It sure did look pretty, but I was bored out of my skull by Tarsem's movie The Fall.  It was like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen without the grime or whimsy, or The Devil's Backbone without ghosts or likable characters.  I honestly stopped paying full attention after about 45 minutes and just had it on in the background for the rest of the time ( Read more... )

Very rarely have I ever seen a movie that so frequently shifted from being a two-star movie to four-stars and then back again.

I liked The Ruins much more when it was this:

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Why had I somehow not heard about Takashi Miike doing an English-language spaghetti western???

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Six major film studios have agreed to include antismoking public service announcements produced by the California Health and Human Services Agency in the DVD releases of all new movies rated G, PG or PG-13.
Crap like this makes me want to take up smoking and piracy. How many stupid, unskippable warnings do we need to have before watching a movie? ( Read more... )