The Movie & Book Review Thread
 

I felt like startiing this thread, cause I like to watch a lot of movies. What movies have you seen that you really liked? This can include recently, or awhile ago, or whatever. I'll start...
The last movie I saw was "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo".

My wife got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and she got the subtitled version of that movie for free. We watched about 5 minutes of it until we said let's just go to the theatre. The American theatre version was a bit different.
I felt "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was pretty good, but it was very sexually violent and long. Sexual violence as in ---- rape scene, which I was semi disgusted with...but then it takes a satisfactory twist. This is a David Fincher film...he made fight club, which just might be my favorite movie of all time.
Next Movie...
Before the last movie, I saw "Drive".

I really loved "Drive", but my wife and my best friend and his wife were like "meh".
New years Eve...I was across the street and I was watching "The Big Lebowski". I saw this movie a while ago, but it's phoenominal. It's right up there with American Psycho and Pulp Fiction.

We have a "Modern Cinema" thread, but this works too.

As for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, don't get me started. Not seeing it.

Well $hit. I didn't notice that other thread, so mods please delete if necessary.
As for the girl with the dragon tattoo, I think I'm going to honestly say I was very dissapointed with that flick and I would not recommend it to anyone. Daniel Craig should only be allowed to be James Bond, that's it.

You should definitely copy/paste your reviews to the other thread.

To anyone who is thinking about seeing the movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", please, for the love of humanity and kittehs, read the book. I shat you not, it's incredible.

¿Por que?

Book notwithstanding...

The 'Murica version of Dragon tattoo was much less visceral and emotionally involving than the original. Anyone who is interested in the series needs to skip the Fincher version and go straight to the Euro movie. I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix/dvd.

Thirdgen...the rape scene in the latest one make you squirm? The original is lightyears more devious and sadistic, but that makes the revenge scene even more gratifying :D The portrayal of the guardian in the Fincher version does not scratch the surface of performance in the original. Same goes for the climax scene, where Daniel Craig is about to go bye bye...

See the original. You won't regret it.

I'll check it out! Thanks.

Just saw "Act of Valor", it was really good and I'd see it again. It was played by active Navy duty SEALs, which is really cool.

Haven't seen the American version of "Dragon Tattoo," but the original was very faithful to the book - and all of the books are great reading.

I finally saw "Drive" on DVD a few weeks ago... and... it might have been the worst movie I've seen in the last 10 years. Just absolute crap, and not at all the action thriller it was made out to be. I kept waiting for some kind of payoff but it never came. It was just a slow, plodding, wannabe-artsy-fartsy flick with really, really, really, really really, bad "action" scenes. The "car chases" were just comically terrible. I'm surprised it wasn't up for an Oscar...

"The Wrestler" - Saw this when it opened in theaters a couple years ago. A really good movie where Mickey Rourke is perfectly cast. Not exactly a warm and fuzzy date flick, but very, very well done if you like downward-spiral stories like "Requiem For a Dream." Marisa Tomei's naked body makes lots of appearances too, so that's an added bonus.

"No Country For Old Men" - I read the book first, and I highly recommend it along with the movie. The movie is an almost spot-on translation of the book. The acting is superb - Javier Bardem takes the prize for one of the most ruthless and creepy bad guys to come along in a while. Another gold star for the Cohen bros.

"TRON: Legacy" - Yeah, yeah, I'm a sucker for TRON. I felt like an 8 year old all over again when I saw this at the IMAX. I'm sure it's a little thin on plot and acting, but I was too busy looking at all the shiny pretty things to care. And the Daft Punk soundtrack is pretty badass too.

"Step Brothers" - So ridiculous that it still makes me snicker when I see bunk beds - so much room for activities.

"Hot Tub Time Machine" - One of the best 80s movies ever...

I've a certain fondness for 70s vintage dystopian science fiction. Just watched THX 1138 this evening, in fact.

That is all.

Ooooh... good stuff...

And of course you know that THX-138 was the plate number for John Milner's '32 Ford Coupe in American Graffiti two years later... right? Those are about the only Lucas flicks that he hasn't gone back and effed up...

The fact that I'm not the only person on here who knows the existence of THX-1138 makes me happy

I am watching the old SEAL movie with Charlie Sheen, and it is one of the biggest POS wastes of time I have seen. I think I'd like it a lot more if I was drunk. Good to know the new one does not suck.

Maybe this is just civilian ignorance talking, but I think its a bad thing that there has been so much interest in the SEALs specifically lately. I think the support of the military independent of political BS is fantastic and I am glad I don't live back in the BS days of the 70s. But it just seems like a really terrible idea to have active duty SEALs basically demoing tactics and whatnot. If I'm the head of some intelligence service for some country that's in/may be a war with us, that might be some useful information. Along with the faces of military personnel who may be involved in said war. I don't really need to know the specifics of how SEALs kill/kidnap/rescue/sabotage/reconnoiter/etc. I just need to know that they do.

Hijack mode off.

From what I saw nothing was shown that reveals anything about any special tactics used by SEALs, to me it looked like pretty normal stuff, but what do I know. But yeah, I think it would be better if there wasn't so much of a spotlight on them, but on the other side of the coin it shows the sacrifice they make. At the end of the movie a list of names is show who are the SEALs who where killed in action since 9/11, there where a lot more names then one would imagine.

I agree on all of these except with Tron as I havent seen it. Drive was such a disappointment

Also I saw Midnight in Paris today. thought it was pretty good and interesting, but it's definitely out there

Yeah, and a thousand other places. Luke (disguised as a stormtrooper) claimed to the guard that they were transferring Chewbacca from cell block 1138. The helmet that Leia wears which freeing Han from Jabba's palace has "1138" painted on the side. An unnamed speaker over the PA system at the German harbor in Raiders calls out "eins, eins, drei, acht" (1138 in German.) In the Library, MCXXXVIII (1138) is clearly written in Dr. Jones (Sr.)'s Grail Diary.

(I'm such a geek.)


Actually, he did.

The 2004 "Director's cut" of THX 1138, which is the only copy I have, has been quite thoroughly CG'ed. For instance, everything behind the glass in the hot-cell rooms, where they're manufacturing the androids, is 100% CG (and the most visually discontinuous) but they also added in a bunch of cars in the garage, expanded several crowd scenes, copied-and-pasted actors into new CG sets in a couple of places, and just generally made the whole thing look like a poorly-compiled fan film which constantly cuts back and forth between, say, Episode 1 and the original 1977 theatrical print of "A New Hope."

I've actually never seen the original, unaltered version. It's never been released on DVD, only VHS and Laserdisc.

Examples:

CG Background added:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1330312821


Upper 2/3 of factory is new CG:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1330312821


Interior of hot cell is 100% CG (no original shots remain of the android manufacturing process in this version):

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1330312821


Ah, well. It's actually not that bad, as compared to, say, Greedo shooting first and Han stepping on small-Jabba's tail. And there's still plenty of bald Maggie McOmie hotness.

I just watched Goon. Some hockey flick with stifler from American Pie. The movie was terrible. But I LOL'd hardcore when in one of the beginning scenes the main character's brother, who is gay, has his boyfriend roll up in a flaming red miata. HAHAHAh.

Seriously? Come on, we all went through a Star Wars phase in which we learned all kinds of nerdy facts about George Lucas and bought "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", right?

I saw Midnight in Paris recently too. I enjoyed it but felt I was too uneducated to fully appreciate the movie. For example, I know a bit about Hemingway and Picasso, which made their characters more enjoyable. My knowledge of the other writers/artists/musicians, not so much.

Saw Safe House last weekend and it didn't suck. If you like Denzel, you'll probably like the movie. No big surprising plot twists just a bunch of people getting shot.

I must be slow.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1330649286

I only just realized the in-joke behind Auric Goldfinger's name. It didn't click until I noticed the license plate on the front of his Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Rented Moneyball... thought since it was nominated it would be decent. HATED IT! Really, it sucked balls. As far as baseball movies go, it sucked balls. The fat kid was terrible, and Brad was just Brad, and while that's usually good, not this time. And it was so freaking terribly SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

Really? Loved it. It's not Fields of Dreams, Major League, or The Natural, but I found it highly enjoyable.

I've seen 3 movies in the last 2 days.

Sherlock Holmes 2: Saw it for $2 with my brothers military discount, and I regret it. Chitty movie IMO. The plot was hard to follow, it was boring and too long. Four of us went, one of us liked it and two of us slept through part of it. suck/10

Project X: My friends wanted to see it and even though I thought it would be another sucky teen I went, and was surprised at how good it was. Pretty funny. 8.5ish/10

50/50: Watched it @ 2am after watching project x at the theater, getting ihop and drinking fire water. Better then I expected. 7.5/10

Watched "The Quick and the Dead" last for the first time. I liked it and my wife liked it. It's nice to watch a movie from 1995 that still is decent, cause there is a LOT of crap out these days, like this one: "Due Date". Zach Galafanokis needed to be in "the Hangover", but that was about it.

The Iron Lady. Streep disappeared.

Then I fell asleep.

The Thing (2011)- I have never been so horribly disappointed in a movie. This was complete crap. The special effects (hardly) just made it that much harder to watch. Sorry people, but shitty 3D is NOT better than traditional makeup/puppeteer work.

I'm a big fan of the original and the John Carpenter remake. The John Carpenter remake was just so, so brutal. Even today I have friends who get visibly disturbed because everything looks so real and the gore is just over the top. The 2011 remake had almost no gore or anything over the top. No real jump moments either; it was easy to catch everything before it happened. It's like they ran out of ideas or just completely gave up.

I feel that most new movies are heavily rushed, probably due to the severe lack of attention span most people have today, and this was no exception. It was rushed and the acting was mediocre at best.

Spoiler alert: It's a -----ing awful movie.

See the original and the John Carpenter remake.

I assume this was a sequel to the 2009 "Sherlock Holmes?" Didn't even know there was a second.

I watched the first one on a flight recently, and while it wasn't especially enthralling, it was a decent way to kill 2 hours on a plane.

I watched 21 Jump Street last night. It was hilarious and I laughed a lot.

Okay, so who has seen "Katy Perry 3D"? I'm pretty tempted to go see it this weekend, although I'll probably end up getting thrown out of the theater for chubin' it to Katy. :giggle:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342113629

I saw Ironclad recently. I can honestly say it was the best movie (and goriest) I have ever seen which centered around the Magna Carta.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342113682

I have low standards, though, as I find the Gymkhana videos entertaining, did not read the books and was thus able to enjoy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and felt that Drive was a reasonable way to kill a couple of hours while most of the good TV shows are off-air. :)

Drive - was good, but dry and slow
Sherlock Holmes 2 - I liked it, to me one of the better movies recently
Avengers - I loved it. I'm a geek tho. That said the wife really liked it too. FYI it is a Jose Whedon movie ie: Dollhouse, Firefly, and other really good shows. On of the few people in Hollywood I will blindly go see. He hasn't made anything terrible that I know of.
NETFLIX movies - I don't have TV

Tucker and Dale VS Evil - Awesome movie
I sell the dead - Little slow at first while it builds story, then gets good and funny

Anyone want to rent a good one !? "Right at your door" DOOOOEEEETTT

Me and a buddy were watching our favorite fight scenes. After watching this fight scene I'm curious about the movie, They Live. I made a few comments like "this is so human" my buddy laughed and said I should watch the whole thing.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1342183563


here's the full movie:

They Live is perfect 80's b-movie camp. Full of terrible puns, cheezy one liners, and transparent plot.

He also made another movie, which is even worse. "Hell Comes to Frogtown".

you should still all watch 21 jump street.

Rowdy Roddy Piper!

i used to like brutus the barber and the big boss man. i miss the 80s.

I went to elementary school with Ted "The Million Dollar Man" DiBiase's son.

Ted DiBiase is my avatar on gtalk and mfz

21 jump Street is funny as hell

Right at your door is wild

Watched Second Hand Lions for probably the 5th time. I love movies like this.

My favorite speech during the movie:

Really? Is it good? I figured it was a typical sentimental old man movie.

We've recently watched:

The Help -- Not bad, but chick flick.
The Ides of March -- Very good. Weirdly, I think Ryan Gosling has turned into a very good actor.
Win Win -- Recommended, Paul Giamatti. A little heavy on the quirky indie-flick feel, but some good performances.
Contagion -- Disappointing. The plot overwhelmed the actors. Just a series of events, who cares.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy -- Incredibly disappointing. Muddled, confusing, inaudible dialogue. Plot much too compressed for movie. BBC miniseries supposed to be much, much better. A waste of Gary Oldman.
The Hustler -- Such a great movie. One of my all time favorites. Newman is great, but Gleason is incredibly controlled.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. -- Typical romantic dramedy. Not bad, if you like Steve Carell.
The Descendants -- Enjoyed. Some excellent writing. The stoner kid steals his scenes.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol -- It is what it is. A marshmallow of a movie.
Everything Must Go -- Watched because it's based on an incredible Raymond Carver short story. Only kind of works as a movie, but still enjoyable.
We Bought a Zoo -- Surprisingly fun family movie. Worth watching. Matt Damon is underrated.
50/50 -- Occasional powerful moments, but mostly bromance dick jokes.
The Muppets -- Entertaining but a bit disappointing if you ever loved the Muppets. Voices sound wrong, plot makes little sense (even for a Muppet movie), songs are only okay.
Hugo -- Develops slowly but is beautifully shot, with some incredible performances.

dont let Joe read this. I said the same thing and he nearly died on the spot.

+1 on Second Hand Lions- one of my all time favorites. Now I kinda want to watch it again.

Not sure if this really fits here but I recently saw Ted and Thats My Boy.

I went in with high hopes for Ted, it was pretty good but it was one of those movies where they try to fit too much into the time-frame. It had some decent laughs though.

I went into Thats My Boy with low hopes, I didnt expect much except a stupid Adam Sandler movie. It was better then I expected and I thought it was pretty funny. A good percentage of them were cheap laughs but Sandler doesnt make movies that make you think.

i thought they could have cut at least 30-45 minutes out of that movie and not lost a thing.

Little bit of old and new.

21 Jump Street - Mindless comedy, watch it with a drink not expecting to think. I enjoyed it. A jock and a nerd went to high school together turned cops and best friends go back to high school under cover while switching roles.

Flight of the Phoenix - Mindless drama, watch it with a drink not expecting to think. Its about the conflict between a bunch of people after they crash land in the desert and have to mcgyver an airplane out the remains of their crashed airplane. Based on a book supposedly.

Prince of Persia Sands of Time - Loved it. Good plot, never drags, Gylenhaal does a great job. Highly recommended. Look up the plot on IMDB, its twisty.

Limitless - One of those movies people live through vicariously. You watch it thinking what if that was me. I thought it was OK, not terrible.

Rounders - Old movie with Matt Damon and Ed Norton. They play underground poker and get themselves in hot water. Highly recommended.

Source Code - Gylenhal again. Never though a movie like this surrounding basically the same scene over and over could be any good but it turned out to surprise me. Not awesome, but certainly worth a watch.

Watchmen - Greatest movie of all time after God Father 1 and maybe Shawshank Redemption. I love it so much I bought the hard cover book and seen the movie maybe 10 times.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Guy Richie. Nuff Said.

Snatch - Guy Richie. Nuff Said.

Inglorious Basterds - Torentino. Nuff Said.

----

I watch a lot of movies so im sure im forgetting some, illl update this thread as they come to me.

Just watched Cowboys & Aliens on the flight over, and was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting it to be about as corny as Independence Day or Space Cowboys, but it was actually pretty good. Not serious dramatic matter by any stretch, but really good character performances by Clancy Brown, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. Sort of a big-budget Firefly.

We are doing a month trial of Netflix and watched London Boulevard with Colin Farrell and Kiera Knightly. If you like English geezer movies, you'll probably like this one.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1343304171

This is probably the best thing I've seen all year.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1346297178

So, Moon turned out to be a fairly interesting film.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382900592

I watched that last week because I have a man crush on Ryan Gosling. I was highly dissapointed with this film.

Cool side-note that Moon (and source code) were directed by David Bowie's son.

Forgot about this thread. Saw Gravity (Sandra Bullock) last weekend. Way better than I thought and very happy to see it on big screen. Thought it would be a "rent it", but turned out very good.
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...WbjElf-RwykeHq

Hmmm. Still nothing but Cams for Gravity...

I find that I am, quite by accident, becoming something of a Duncan Jones fanboi. I posted earlier about his first major film, Moon. I just got done watching Source Code, which I didn't even realize he'd directed until I looked it up. Extremely similar in style, it closely follows the movements of a single man as he wrestles with the classic "is this real or is it the Matrix" conundrum. Hugely recommended.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1385323265

And now I am sad that I have exhausted the entire filmography of this young director.

On the plus side, hey, The Grand Budapest Hotel has wrapped principal photography and should be in theaters sometime this spring!

It seems many people enjoy the Sci-Fi genre that post in this thread.

Following this, I was pleasantly surprised with "Oblivion"

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1385328584


Also, for anyone that has an inner nerdy 10 year old, "Pacific Rim" cannot be missed. I cannot stress this enough. If you loved Robocop/Terminator/other robot movies, please see this movie. Seriously.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1385328584