Boogie Nights, and not because of what its about, but for every piece of dialogue in it. Mind you I love what it's about, I'm just saying thats not wht it's my favorite movie.

A close second is Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

In closing I'd like to point out that neither of these films won the Oscar for best picture, thus I will not be attending the Academy Awards this or an other year as it is a sad, pathetic, and seriously flawed endeavor.

LOOPER SPOILERS:
The scene where the one Looper's future self is losing parts of his body. I found the combination of his understandable frantic desperation and the implied horror of what was happening to his past self to be quite disturbing, even though you don't actually see any dismemberment occur (I find torture to be fairly conceptually disturbing to begin with). Sorry to hear the movie didn't click for you. It's possibly my favorite of the year.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

First of all, I can understand some of the complaints people have. Some. Yes, there's a lot of talking and a lot of backstory. Yes, it's long. A few moments were overly cartoonish or improbable, some scenes were cliched, and the cameos felt like pointless fan service. And in some ways it felt like a fluffier retread of The Fellowship of the Ring. But to me these complaints are minor. It was still a damn good fantasy adventure, with good acting, pretty good pacing all things considered, a competent script, and a beautifully realized world. Also, a Gollum that's somehow even creepier and more pathetic than in the original trilogy. And in a year filled with gritty realism or psuedorealism, it's quite a joy to revisit an earnest world of bardic heroism and larger-than-life happenings. Especially when it's this freaking gorgeous. The cinematography was top notch, to say nothing of the fantastic 3d and the buttery smooth 48 FPS (yeah, at first it was hard to get past the "higher framerate = lower quality" bias. But after about 15 minutes it felt fine).

I'm not a LoTR nerd (and haven't read The Hobbit in years), so I don't know how many creative liberties Peter Jackson took with the lore or the plot. And I know that my inherent enjoyment of this particular style of epic might make me more willing to put up with some things that would alienate others. But still, for what it's worth, I thought it was quite good. If I had to assign a numerical score I'd say it was a solid 8/10. I don't think this trilogy will end up measuring up to Lord of the Rings... but I'll judge that after I've seen the other two films. And I am looking forward to the other two films very much.

I looked it up on IMDB. It does sound interesting, at least.


So today I watched 2 movies, because it's Christmas break and I'm allowed to be lazy.


Knowing

Had really beautiful cinematography and art direction. Also had really spectacular disaster scenes (the plane crash and its haunting aftermath were probably the best parts of the entire movie, only tarnished by Cage's rather inappropriate reactions and wooden acting), a nice sense of constant mystery, and a few intriguing ideas. But it had some rather stupid scenes, some rather stupid acting, and a whole lot of rather stupid characters, doing and saying stupid stuff. The thematic switch halfway through was perhaps not for the best, either. Without giving too much away, let's just say that the second act was basically a nosedive into absolute ridiculousness, and it ends on a low point with a reveal taken straight out of the Big Book O' Retarded Sci Fi Twists. Still, it was enjoyable, and certainly very easy on the eyes.


The Master of Disguise

I have nothing to say. This movie doesn't even deserve having its existence acknowledge with a scathing review. Just don't watch it. Ever.

Last Movie Watched:

Ted - Didn't enjoy it.

Recommendations:

Once Upon A Time In The West - If you like westerns from Italy, this is probably the best. I love it even more than the man with no name trilogy.

Bizarre, Weird, or Pretentious movies:

Like them for their bizarreness.

Begotten or watch Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and go from there.

The Call of Cthulhu

Modern (2005) silent film that's only about 45 minutes long, and is on Netflix instant stream. It's great fun. It goes out of its way to be as "silent filmy" as possible, with gleefully over-the-top acting and primitive special effects as well as the expected moody visuals. The Cthulhu lore is naturally rather truncated due to dialogue limitations, and a few plot points have been modified (usually not for the better), but overall it's pretty true to Lovecraft's story. Again, it's under an hour and it's on instant stream, so it's well worth a look even if just for the novelty of seeing a modern silent film.

I can't list all the movies I've watched since the last time I posted here, but recently I've seen these :

The Hobbit : I loved it. Once again, I totally agree with the adjustments Peter Jackson had to make.

Corpo Celeste : good movie.

Thor : what in the world was that ?

Caterpillar : good movie, but not my favorite from Wakamatsu.

Indie Game: The Movie

Edmund Mcmillan is a lovably crude teddy bear, Phil Fish is an emotional wreck, and I'd love to have coffee with Johnathan Blow and discuss artistic philosophies. Overall, I loved it. Not just because it was educational, but because it was uplifting. There are people who think like me, and they can succeed. Sometimes.



A few episodes of My Little Pony

Scarily enough, I can actually see the appeal. It's 4 year old girl concentrate with enough sparkles and rainbows to make even Jesse Ventura's balls shrivel up and die. But it has well-defined characters, competent (if naturally incredibly simplistic) writing, and an appealingly innocent and happy world. And the ponies are OMG SO CUTE. Almost too cute to stand... almost. Only Applejack made my teeth grind. Her spunky southern accent and attitude on top of the already ridiculous levels of dollhouse cuteness were just too much.

Now, I just need to figure out how to watch more without anyone knowing...

I generally watch anything that interests me - even if the language is actually japanese.

Well, I saw this flick called talaash over the weekend. While somewhat predictable it was still nice for a one time watch.

We saw Lost in Translation. I really enjoyed it, with part of it being the whole "fish out of water" element that I periodically encountered as a former frequent traveler. Granted, that wasn't the point of the movie but it's certainly something to which I can relate, and it made me better understand that relationship.

Recently saw Galaxy Quest for the first time. Pretty fun sci-fi spoof.

The Host and Haunters (aka Psychic)

They're both Korean films (subtitled) and they're friggin' awesome :D

Just watched that recently and found it thoroughly enjoyable.
I love projects like that.
The same people behind that recently released Whisperer in Darkness (2011).

I watched Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer yesterday. Probably the only (good) movie I've seen that I'd call disturbing, and I watch a lot of movies. Also one of the best thrillers out there.

Any Guy Maddin fans in the house? I just finished watching Careful. I'm speechless about that one.