More good movies we've seen.

[tattuchu]

Morvern Callar from Lynn Ramsey. Well, Samantha Morton sure was nice to look at. Kinda boring film, though. I don't mind a non-traditional narrative. And I don't mind a film in which not much of anything happens, and is more mood than anything else. Still. Kinda boring. But Samantha Morton was nice to look at.

[tattuchu]

Dick Tracy. For an old comic strip character I never gave two shits about, this sure was a hell of a movie. Lots of fun and great performances. Warren Beatty made the most of Dick, actually giving a two-dimensional character a bit of depth and nuance. Madonna as Breathless Mahoney was surprisingly not annoying. And Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman were hilarious in their roles. It seemed like everyone had a blast making this. It was also visually striking, utilizing a palette of primary colors.

[tattuchu]

The Company of Wolves. Dreamlike and surreal and lovely to look at, though veered close to silly and cheesy at times. I think a better soundtrack might have helped. Cool film, though.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just saw "Pacific Rim". I was afraid it would be another Transformers movie, but it was fun. Reminds me of my old mantra, "Always chose a planet that can resist alien invasion."

[tattuchu]

800 Bullets. Not quite what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more like a Spanish version of The Good, The Bad and The Weird. It wasn't like that at all. It was okay, though. Still, glad I only spent a few bucks on it for a used copy.

12 Monkeys. Haven't seen this in years. A goddamned masterpiece. My favorite Gilliam film is Munchhausen, but still I like this one quite a lot.

[tattuchu]

Night On the Galactic Railroad. Japanese anime from 1985. Not as good as I remembered. Seriously hampered by cheap low budget animation. Still, beautiful character and set design, and the film has a lovely dreamy melancholy feel to it. Worth watching if you don't mind the slow pace.

[Brian Peacock]

Got round to The Hobbit's unexpected journey. It's OK. Nicely paced. Good performances. Lovely scenery. Some good set-pieces (the bolder giants scrapping, giant eagles, cavernous troll lair etc). I did think that they'd overspent on noses though - and the hobbit should have been fatter. But all in all a pretty watchable and enjoyable film. Glad I saw it on DVD. It's rather long, but with a couple of intervals that was OK as well.

I did find myself wondering, when they were in the Elven kingdom, and Gandalf was talking with Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, and Cate Blanchett (spank me!), and of course we know that Sauron is in thrall to the necromancer dude from TLOTR trilogy, what's Sauron's motivation for turning to the dark side? I mean, he's the CEO of the wizards. Their whole raison d'etre is to be good guys and to protect the land and shit. And he's got to the top of his profession, he's the big honcho, and he is the most powerful wizard evah! He's like a virtual god really. So why swap sides and put that all in peril, just for what? To be a henchman for a evil tyrant with a very poor record as an employer? Everything to loose and very little to gain.

You know, if it wasn't for that the whole thing would be far more believable.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Got round to The Hobbit's unexpected journey. It's OK. Nicely paced. Good performances. Lovely scenery. Some good set-pieces (the bolder giants scrapping, giant eagles, cavernous troll lair etc). I did think that they'd overspent on noses though - and the hobbit should have been fatter. But all in all a pretty watchable and enjoyable film. Glad I saw it on DVD. It's rather long, but with a couple of intervals that was OK as well.

I did find myself wondering, when they were in the Elven kingdom, and Gandalf was talking with Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, and Cate Blanchett (spank me!), and of course we know that Sauron is in thrall to the necromancer dude from TLOTR trilogy, what's Sauron's motivation for turning to the dark side? I mean, he's the CEO of the wizards. Their whole raison d'etre is to be good guys and to protect the land and shit. And he's got to the top of his profession, he's the big honcho, and he is the most powerful wizard evah! He's like a virtual god really. So why swap sides and put that all in peril, just for what? To be a henchman for a evil tyrant with a very poor record as an employer? Everything to loose and very little to gain.

You know, if it wasn't for that the whole thing would be far more believable.

You got that a little muddled, Brian.

Sauron IS the necromancer. Christopher Lee's character is Saruman. And he was trying to win power for himself - to set himself up as a rival to Sauron.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Saruman was seduced by Sauron via the Seeing Stone. It's subtle.

[Tero]

It was only so so, Girl Most Likely. Just what you can manage for a comedy these days.
but now I have discovered
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Wiig
so I am watching all her SNL skits.

[Brian Peacock]

Got round to The Hobbit's unexpected journey. It's OK. Nicely paced. Good performances. Lovely scenery. Some good set-pieces (the bolder giants scrapping, giant eagles, cavernous troll lair etc). I did think that they'd overspent on noses though - and the hobbit should have been fatter. But all in all a pretty watchable and enjoyable film. Glad I saw it on DVD. It's rather long, but with a couple of intervals that was OK as well.

I did find myself wondering, when they were in the Elven kingdom, and Gandalf was talking with Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, and Cate Blanchett (spank me!), and of course we know that Sauron is in thrall to the necromancer dude from TLOTR trilogy, what's Sauron's motivation for turning to the dark side? I mean, he's the CEO of the wizards. Their whole raison d'etre is to be good guys and to protect the land and shit. And he's got to the top of his profession, he's the big honcho, and he is the most powerful wizard evah! He's like a virtual god really. So why swap sides and put that all in peril, just for what? To be a henchman for a evil tyrant with a very poor record as an employer? Everything to loose and very little to gain.

You know, if it wasn't for that the whole thing would be far more believable.

You got that a little muddled, Brian.

Sauron IS the necromancer. Christopher Lee's character is Saruman. And he was trying to win power for himself - to set himself up as a rival to Sauron.

Ah, right. A muddle of nomenclature. Saruman then, he's like the uber wiz, but he wants to muscle in on Sauron's shit and be the gangland boss of darkness. But why?

I never made it past about page 20 of TLOTR on the couple of occasions I given it a go. I found the prose stultifying, turgid, overbearing and self-important. It basically put me off any book with a runic map or an epic poem inside the front cover as well as putting me of the fantasy genre in general for quite a while. However, I must thank Peter Jackson for somehow making four quite enjoyable films out of that shit. Imagine what he could do with a decent story. Peter Jackson's Moby Dick anyone? Or... and this is a winner for sure... Peter Jackson's Weaveworld?

[Rum]

Pacific Rim this afternoon. If a movie can be like a roller coaster then it was one of the best. A surprisingly decent plot for the type of film - and the monsters were amazing! A good wet afternoon's entertainment..on a sunny day today..however.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Pacific Rim this afternoon. If a movie can be like a roller coaster then it was one of the best. A surprisingly decent plot for the type of film - and the monsters were amazing! A good wet afternoon's entertainment..on a sunny day today..however.

I gave it high praise elsewhere. "It's not a Transformers movie."

[tattuchu]

Alien. Been quite a long time since I've watched this. Holds up very well despite being nearly twenty-five years old. Ridley Scott did an amazing job on a fairly small budget turning what could have been a shit B movie into something approaching an art film, and of course the creature designs from H R Giger are genius. Great performances, also, from a fine cast.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Alien. Been quite a long time since I've watched this. Holds up very well despite being nearly twenty-five years old. Ridley Scott did an amazing job on a fairly small budget turning what could have been a shit B movie into something approaching an art film, and of course the creature designs from H R Giger are genius. Great performances, also, from a fine cast.

Not depending too much on CGI helped there, the effects that are there are viewed nostalgically rather than "Oh, boy, how bad was it back then?"