Hobbit: An Unexpected Story

I loved the LotR movies but couldn't get into this anywhere near as much. Part of it may be to do with my not being able to look at Martin Freeman without seeing Tim from The Office but, even that aside, the whole thing seems ridiculously padded out. The book isn't that long and no way does it justify what'll probably amount to about an 8 hour movie in the end.

Tree of Life.

Shit. It was like a youtube movie of hubble deep scan images from NASA's website spliced with some Discovery HD stock footage (and I would have honestly preferred watching something educational like Atlas or NOVA) and really choppy, depressing, college-art film about people's exaggerated grieving. Then there were the boring childhood scenes with the terrible soundtrack. That first awkward funeral? Wow. As if real funerals aren't fucking hard enough, but to sit through this terrible one on film (twice no less)? I do wish my parish had a hat rack there by the candles, I never know where to stash my ball cap during Mass. What was the point of the gratuitous clown? Over-emphasis on the Oedipus complex a bit much? Did they have to needlessly antagonize Brad Pitt's character so much? (by the way, I just skipped through it all every couple minutes when I couldn't bear to sit through it)

Yeesh. This is was what everybody was raving about a few years ago? I couldn't even sit through the whole thing it was so bad.

neither coudl i! i fucking turned it off and sent back the disc. terrence malick = the cure for insomnia.

didnt know chan wook park has been directing outside korea. that's great news!

Well I thought it was a great film so ner. Pretentious? Of course it bloody well is but so what.

everyone making art is by definition "pretentious" so i'm not going to hold that against the guy, or anyone actually.

the movie just bored me senseless. storywise, it appeared to be a glorified, gorgeously shot home movie with philosophical ramblings--- but still a home movie. "little timmy, at 7, playing in the backyard." unless i'm related to little timmy, i don't give a fuck, and then only for 30 seconds.

SPEAKING OF WHICH

watched PTA's "the master" this weekend. i got the sense he wants to be the next terry malick. a bit of a rambling aimless story with again gorgeous shots of all kinds of shit. i liked the movie, but i felt i could have liked it more if he hadn't been so purposefully ambiguous. i can't explain this just yet because i haven't had time to think about it yet, but when the movie ended i thought "what the fuck? is this the end?"

anyway, joaquin and the fatman did a great job. so did that chick that looks like the blonder sister from the one in the office.

Argo. A good flick.

I hated it.

RIP James Gandolfini

Only 51. Scary and sad.

Jaws 2

I prefer the first one but for pure enjoyment the sequel's hard to beat.

around 21:37 in THE EXORCIST 3
why in the fuck does the guy whos in the hospital bed say
"Go in peace my child. May the Schwartz be with you."
then it cuts back to George C Scott rolling his eyes
kinda like to say, why is there a Spaceballs quote in this movie?

I gave up watching it at that point. I watched the first 2 before that.
then I watched SCANNERS instead
now it's MIDNIGHT RUN

Midnight Run!

4/10

Before Midnight, it's amazing.

GI JOE: RISE OF THE COBRA

Because I thought this would be utter shit, I was pleasantly surprised and I look forward to many sequels.

Favorite parts:

-The Eiffel Tower is destroyed. Someone says to the President, "The French are pretty upset."

-The Joes confront a weight-sensitive hallway. Step on it, you'll die. So a guy handwalks across the floor because, duh, when you're upside down you don't weigh anything.

This is gloriously stupid brilliance.

Worst soundtrack ever, though.

It's his first, I think.

the green hornet. i tought it was gonna be just meh but i liked it. then it turned out to be a michel gondry movie, which explains a lot. it's funny, goofy, and preposterous.

before that




step brothers. i had never heard about this until i heard it mentioned in an episode of workaholics. great surprise. maybe i'm deprived or something but i laughed pretty hard.

Why had I not heard of this? Now I need to go see it.

I watched "Beyond the Black Rainbow" last night. This movie has been compared to "2001: A Space Odyssey", and the movie certainly goes for a very 70's era sci-fi look rather then try to look modern. Its definitely a movie that might need more then one viewing for it to really sink in, the images are great. Anyone else see it?

7/10

John Carter

I remember this getting terrible reviews but I really enjoyed it, even if it is pretty bad.

I thought it was very enjoyable. old school fantasy/sci fi sometimes does not translate well to today's sensibilities.

I'm interested, but for no explicable reason than I more or less enjoy Wes Anderson movies, especially when Bill Murray is involved. Wait, when is Bill Murray NOT in a Wes Anderson movie?

It's a great film. The two kids who play lead are just brilliant too.

yall need to go watch this. especially if you're american.



its a documentary about some old indonesian guys that the cia funded to kill the indonesian communist movement.

they decide to recreate their murders in the hopes of making it into a compelling hollywood movie, like the gangster films that inspired them as they were murdering their fellow countrymen.

you'll understand what i'm talking about when you see the morality on display in this film. the way "anwar congo" only empathizes with his murdered victims when he watches back his own video of himself acting out these murders in 1960's hollywood gangster attire. its more REAL and fucked up than any horror film.

The Last Stand

Loved it.



Cowboys and Aliens

Hated it.

YES.

recently seen:

"Upstream Color"- Dallas boy done good... one of the best of the year- challenging and impeccably edited.

"Something In the Air"- another best of the year so far.... I just love the films of Olivier Assayas and this one feels so lived in

"Dancing In the Dust"- debut film of Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation"), very hard to find but worth the adventure. Boy divorces young wife due to social presure and stows away in the back of a van that ends up in the middle of the desert with a slient old snake catcher. The tonal shifts are jarring.

"Now You See Me"- just terrible.... explains every plot point and every one is a smirking douchebag

"The Bling Ring"- Sofia Coppola has become the queen of disaffected youth, and this may be her most underrated film yet. It's a study in vapidity, executed with such style and cinematic prowess that one almost forgets its really just an updated version of Bret Easton Ellis and his young, chain smoking, status-obsessed L.A. denizens.

"Man of Steel"- Loved the first half (and Kevin Costner deserves a supporting actor nom this year), checked out in the second half when CGI and big bad battles become the focus.

"The Burglars"- terrific, lost 70's Jean Paul Belmondo/Omar Shariff heist film. The opening robbery is amazing and it just gets better from there.

"Stories We Tell"- A documentary by wonderful filmmaker/actress Sarah Polley, turning the lens on herself and her own family as she scalpels away at the truth of the infectious personality of mom Diane and exactly what happened in the late 70's. Using direct interviews, grainy home video footage and even actor-portrayed recreations, "Stories We Tell" charts the timeline of her family with judicious investigation. Why doesn't she look like the rest of her family? What causes a marriage to fade into boredom and familiarity? And what's the responsibility of future generations to trace the truth of past ones? All of these questions are answered in Polley's capable hands, at great personal cost to all. Best film of the year so far.

watched these yesterday.

Taken 2 - 5/10 half of it was OK. Lotsa mindless killin'. Istanbul was Constantinople now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.



ExpendaBLES 2 - crap. high octane video game crap. mindless killin. 3/10

Oh, and re-watched this also


Liked it again. 9/10
Just like reading the old Avengers comic books. Ruffalo made a great Banner, very funny line delivery.

Dances With Wolves

One of the last great mainstream Hollywood Westerns, for me, before the likes of Jim Jarmusch and The Coen Brothers indied the fuck out of them.

Dead Man is amazing. No Country for Old Men is amazing as well. Unforgiven is amazing.

Dances with Wolves is BORING. I fucking wanted to fall asleep watching that stupid shit.

I love Dead Man and No Country For Old Men and the True Grit remake and all the others mentioned. I just have a real soft spot for more traditional Westerns, too. But any Western would have to be really terrible for me not to like it at least a little bit.

Of the more recent indie westerns, my favourite is probably Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Although, like No Country..., it's not really a Western in the traditional sense.