Drive

Violent noir film wrapped in an extremely attractive 80s visual package (seriously, this film was beautiful). The plot itself is a little bland, but the fantastic cinematography, sparse but sharp dialogue, good acting all around, jarring graphic violence, and a surprisingly brutal and disturbing Gosling kept things interesting. And including random hipster musical tracks actually worked in a movie's favor for once! Overall, I liked it a lot. I did feel like it started to sputter near the end, and I think the kissing scene on the elevator was completely 100% retarded. But otherwise, a great film.

Also watched The Next Three Days. Not as good as Drive, but still quite good. Very tense. And Russell Crowe is just magnificent, always.

Just rewatched "For a few dollars more". It's a Leone, thereofore head and shoulders and torso and belly and legs and heels above anything else produced in the domain of cinematography. But that's almost cheating.

Also watched "Carnage", which was very very good, even though Yasmina Reza is no Nathalie Sarraute or Agnès Jaoui. Still, she tries very hard, and the result is pretty decent. Lot of progress since the disappointing "Art".

Very last film I saw was Cloud Atlas. Honestly the best movie I've seen all year. My film studies course had us go out as an assignment, so got the opportunity to see it in a theater when I might not of had the chance to otherwise. Have to keep an eye out for the novel now. If you have the chance to see this movie I'd recommend you do just that!

-edit- It was also the first film in a very very long time that got the audience to laugh & root for it! Plenty of reactions. So satisfying not to find myself sitting in a room full of statues for once.

I've been dying to see it ever since I saw the trailer, but I've seen no ETA on it showing here, so I'll just have to wait patiently until it arrives.

Last movie I saw was X-Men First Class and I enjoyed it a lot.

Winter's Bone

On the greater side of good, but not amazing. It had a few brilliant scenes (one in particular involving a chainsaw was one of the most vivid and effecting movie moments I've seen in a long time), good acting across the board, deftly avoided as many cliches as possible, had dialogue that was almost always natural and believable (neither snappy or overly contrived), and was very restrained and subtle in its approach--which fit the rather restrained and subtle plot. Perhaps a little too subtle, sometimes. The story is told through vague clues and implications, and I was sometimes left feeling like I was the only one not in on the plot.

Oh yeah, and Jennifer Lawrence. She was great. Very natural. And I was interested that her character was portrayed without the usual sentimentality. She was a girl with the weight of the adult world on her shoulders, and she exhibited both the good and bad of this, being uncommonly capable but also cold and stoney. As far as the other actors/actresses go, I give the film major props for actually hiring people that look like they came from the backwoods, rather than supermodels in overalls or grotesque Billy Bob stereotypes.

I liked it. It was about what I expected.

Savages

What an awful waste of time that was.
Over indulgent and a boring mess.

WHAT?! Blasphemy!!!



I work at Blockbuster so I get a lot of films to watch :D

I watched Singin' in the Rain (One of the greatest films ever made in my opinion), Bringing Up Baby (Old slapstick comedy, very good), and Memento (Mindfuck).

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Two good leads and some moments of beautiful choreography (yes, beautiful). Also, a meandering plot, bipolar character behavior, a lot of silliness that contrasts with the movie's attempts to be something other than cheap wire-fu, and an ending that felt less like closure and more like cop out. It was ok. Not nearly as good as I expected it to be. Perhaps one of the most disappointing films I've seen in awhile, actually. Yet as I look on imdb, I'm seeing 10 star ratings and comments such as "utterly captivating" and "a magical romance." So... guess I missed something? Perhaps I'm just not the target audience? I'll admit that this often happens with martial arts films. Fans will hold certain movies up as being these deep, insightful spiritual experiences. And I see them, and I'm like "Huh. Cool fight scenes, everything else was hokey." I dunno.

Kwaidan

It's a Japanese fantasy/horror movie from the 60s. Not gory horror, but slow dread and atmosphere. The film tells four separate stories.

It's available for free on hulu.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/243415

Scarface because...it is Scarface. I never get tired of that movie.

Just watched The Hunger Games with my bro. Damn good show. I went into it a skeptical cynic, and ended up becoming riveted to my screen throughout.

I watched Machine Gun Preacher the other night on Netflix.

Must admit, I didn't like the way it started as it was extremely violent which doesn't usually bother me but this seemed to hit a nerve. However once he found the church and headed out to Africa you see the film in a different light.

He buys a plot of land to build an orphanage to save the children in Sudan, he has the backing of the liberation army and is trying to make a change for the better. It hops backwards and forwards from America and Africa and keeps you interested start to finish.

The film is a little controversial and has been condemned by the church and some say its a little close to the bone with American politics etc

However at the end you see some videos / photos of him and the work he is to this day still doing in Africa. I thought it was based on the kids book Another Mans War. So seeing this at the end really makes you think with it being a true story.

Well worth watching

Metal Tornado

Horrible. Most of the acting and dialogue are made-for-tv quality, and the effects and plot aren't any better. What's worse is that the whole concept could have been fairly awesome, were it not undermined by horrible production values and a lack of quality on almost every level. Not even fun in a B-grade way. A true waste of time, unless you riff it with other people as I was doing.

Also, I'm pretty sure nobody involved with the movie had ever actually been to rural Pennsylvania. They just transplanted a few hillbilly stereotypes to the Appalachians and called it a day.

Double Indemnity for sure. Also:

Out of the Past
The Stranger
Scarlet Street
The Killers
Sorry, Wrong Number
Crossfire (Gloria Grahame is so hot in this one)
The Blue Dahlia
The Glass Key
This Gun For Hire

You can find a lot of great titles here: http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

A Royal Affair

A movie about the nobility in Denmark during the late 1700. Superb movie with a few beautiful moments.