Page 20 of 21
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:33 pm
by Reza
--Penelope wrote:--Reza wrote:--Penelope wrote:Sunshine Cleaning (Christine Jeffs) - 7/10
Slight, occasionally obvious, but overall well-done comedy-darma, with terrific performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Saw an interview clip on HBO with Adams praising Steve Zahn.
Yes, his body and his butt still look good.
I don't think she mentioned these attributes of Zahn.
Edited By OscarGuy on 1240627563
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:06 am
by Penelope
--Reza wrote:--Penelope wrote:Sunshine Cleaning (Christine Jeffs) - 7/10
Slight, occasionally obvious, but overall well-done comedy-darma, with terrific performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Saw an interview clip on HBO with Adams praising Steve Zahn.
Yes, his body and his butt still look good.
Edited By OscarGuy on 1240627575
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:43 pm
by Reza
Penelope wrote:Sunshine Cleaning (Christine Jeffs) - 7/10
Slight, occasionally obvious, but overall well-done comedy-darma, with terrific performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Saw an interview clip on HBO with Adams praising Steve Zahn.
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:35 pm
by Penelope
Sunshine Cleaning (Christine Jeffs) - 7/10
Slight, occasionally obvious, but overall well-done comedy-darma, with terrific performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:50 am
by anonymous1980
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd. (voices).
Dirs: Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman.
Although not as bad as past Dreamworks animated efforts (the absence of the names of the big-named voice cast on the posters is an improvement), it's still way below the standards set by PIXAR. Hell, it's below the standards set by Kung Fu Panda, the best Dreamworks animated feature to date. But there are some good moments here and quite a few good laughs but all in all, just okay.
Oscar Prospects: Best Animated Feature, maybe.
Grade: C+
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:41 am
by Sabin
I'm going to *** on I Love You, Man if only because Paul Rudd gives such a fantastic comedic performance. It could have gone much further into subversion and the film's too long, but margins of the film are so rooted in funny behavior that I'm inclined to give it a pass.
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:59 pm
by Penelope
I Love You, Man **1/2
Genial if unmemorable bromantic comedy.
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:28 pm
by Zahveed
Back in middle school I used to watch DBZ, but just the trailer for this looks like a piece of shit so I'm not going to touch it with a ten foot pole. That's even if I have a ten foot pole. A friend of mine that used to watch the show has said the same thing Anonymous, it's garbage.
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:52 pm
by anonymous1980
Let me save you all some money: Dragonball: Evolution is a piece of shit.
Yes, I've seen it already since our office worked on the Russian DVD release and I'm telling you guys, it is indeed a piece of shit. Only young kids and megafans of the original anime/manga series would find enjoyment out of it.
My younger bro was a fan of the original Dragonball Z anime series. I thought it was silly and ridiculous and pretty much turned me off on everything anime until people have nagged me to try Miyazaki's films. I watched this with an open mind thinking maybe my prejudice against anime was affecting my judgement. It turns out, I was right the first time: Dragonball Z is ridiculous.
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:18 am
by Zahveed
--flipp525 wrote:--Mister Tee wrote:Sometimes I hate that damn Last Seen Movie thread. People drop in reactions to movies, and by the time I get around to the films myself, I can't remember where I saw the write-ups, and have to go hunting back 7-10 pages. It's a great thread for older or obscurer movies, but isn't it more convenient to limit detailed responses to current films to either individual threads, or, for less major efforts, this thread?
I agree with, Mister Tee. It's an annoyingly-titled thread, too with BIG CAPITAL LETTERS for no reason.
Maybe dreaMaker was angry. Everyone knows the easiest way to release stress is to press the caps lock key.
Edited By ibsupport on 1240627050
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:54 am
by flipp525
Mister Tee wrote:Sometimes I hate that damn Last Seen Movie thread. People drop in reactions to movies, and by the time I get around to the films myself, I can't remember where I saw the write-ups, and have to go hunting back 7-10 pages. It's a great thread for older or obscurer movies, but isn't it more convenient to limit detailed responses to current films to either individual threads, or, for less major efforts, this thread?
I agree with, Mister Tee. It's an annoyingly-titled thread, too with BIG CAPITAL LETTERS for no reason.
Edited By flipp525 on 1237986242
Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:19 pm
by FilmFan720
In case anyone was influenced by Roger Ebert's review, Knowing is not a four-star movie, let alone "one of the greatest science fiction films of all time." It starts off well enough, a solid sci-fi-esque thriller that holds the suspense well enough. It starts to get more and more farfetched, but it remains engaging until the final 20 minutes, when it makes a bizarre tonal shift that makes sense but shifts the whole film in a new territory that betrays what it mas been before. You could do worse for an evening's entertainment, but Ebert is smoking the crack here.
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:41 pm
by The Original BJ
Coraline is such a joyously demented movie. If I were a kid, it would be my favorite movie and I would be completely obsessed with it. (Watching the film brought back memories of a time when I was enamored with The Nightmare Before Christmas.)
I was surprised at just how scary the film was. I'm not a big horror person, but I found Coraline to be one of the more unsettling major studio films of recent years. (Just the thought of having my eyes sewn over with buttons gave me chills.) And it's quite well-plotted too: for such a short movie, there were quite a number of interesting threads. Plus, the pacing contributes to the sense of dread exceedingly well.
But, the big selling point is the visuals, and I offer Coraline as yet another example of an animated film that has no business being blackballed from the Art Direction category just because it's a cartoon. The sets are imaginative, witty, grotesque, and help creative a wonderfully distinctive world (two, actually), and the design team deserves a tremendous deal of credit for this film.
I also liked the voice-over work. I've never really been that sold on Teri Hatcher from her Desperate Housewives work, but I thought she was perfect here. And go-to voiceover guy Keith David was a totally delightful pro as the cat.
I have high hopes, as usual, for this year's Pixar film. But Coraline seems like it should be a slam dunk for at least a nomination in Animated Feature.
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:22 pm
by Zahveed
I suggest limiting this thread to films prior to the the current year and films to this year to the review thread to the respective year.
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:01 pm
by Mister Tee
Sometimes I hate that damn Last Seen Movie thread. People drop in reactions to movies, and by the time I get around to the films myself, I can't remember where I saw the write-ups, and have to go hunting back 7-10 pages. It's a great thread for older or obscurer movies, but isn't it more convenient to limit detailed responses to current films to either individual threads, or, for less major efforts, this thread?
End of screed. On to Coraline, which occasioned it.
I liked the film alot, though maybe not quite as much as Sonic. I doubt it'd be to Damien's taste, as it's clearly a "children's story", but it's a fairly rich and, I might say, mature one. Coraline's unhappiness with her family is all too real (and all too common), and the film deals forthrightly with the near-universal yearnings for a different life and the concurrent fear of losing what we have. There's a happy ending to it all, of course, but the mere acknowledgment of this other side of the equation makes the film at times starkly terrifying (reminiscent of how It's a Wonderful Life teases us with despair before bringing us back home safely).
On a thematic level, there's much to chew over. Doubling themes abound: the twin sets of characters, the performing sisters, and the overall juxtaposition -- in every element of the story -- of the gorgeous ideal and the grotesque horror just beneath (e.g., the stunningly beautiful garden in an instant becoming a threatening pit). This lets us see that in Coraline's world-view (which, in agree with Sonic, is in a sense writing the whole story), the two realities are not polarities, but two sides of the same coin. That's pretty rich stuff for a goddamn cartoon.
And of course I must mention the animation, which is stunning. It's my first experience with 3-D since the skeevy Stewardesses in 1971; I was wary of the glasses (those of us who wears glasses normally have a tough time with a second set), but had no problem. And I was delighted that, a sewing needle or two aside, the film didn't use the 3-D for cheesy SCTV-style in-your-face effects. What it did instead was take Greg Toland's deep focus theory to a new level -- creating an environment that at times felt like it was completely surrounding me. The pictures themselves are often sumptuous (the garden in particular), but the placement within this expanded frame also feels new and right. (It's like it changes the director's job from operating within a proscenium to in-the-round) The film is good enough -- visually and narratively -- to merit viewing regardless (in 2-D theatre or on DVD). But if you can see it in this format, the pleasures are worth the effort.
I hope this is a certain candidate in next year's mostly-reserved-for-Pixar Oscar category. I'd have to be bowled over by something else to not vote for it.