Re: An Idea Part 3: Same $h!t, Different Thread

[BanksIsDaFuture]

I think Joss Whedon is pretty good, simply for how terrific Dollhouse is.

[Buscemi]

Stick It would have been interesting had she chosen jail over gymnastics. Then we would have gotten a cool prison movie!

[IPKI$$]

Don, I'm pretty sure Swedgedemus swears by Stick It, so it must be at least somewhere near halfway decent. You're not in bad company.

[leestu]

I think Joss Whedon is pretty good, simply for how terrific Dollhouse is.

I don't know anyone else that likes this show but I think it's great (once you get past the first 5 episodes). It can be enjoyed just for entertainment's sake (Eliza Dushku in sexy outfits each week has to be a plus) with the storylines each week, or on another level it is questioning so many things; genetic engineering etc, but not providing any answers. It's up to you to work out them out. I really enjoy watching a show where the viewer is not really sure who the good guys are and who are the bad guys. Like real life it's all a bit grey and complicated with a bit of both in everyone.

[Buscemi]

The Hurt Locker ***.5/****

Kathryn Bigelow has made the best film to date about Iraq. It's never preachy and it doesn't take sides, it just shows us exactly what it's like in times of war. The film reminds me of some of the best war films such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket in which they took us inside the minds of soldiers rather than the explosions or the people outside the battlegrounds. The plot isn't much (consisting of soldiers who work in defusing bombs) but the script by Mark Boal (who seems to be a natural at writing good movies focused on war such as In The Valley Of Elah) is very well written and actually depicts the subjects as real people rather than stereotypes. The technical aspects are great as well, especially in the editing (reportedly, more footage was shot for this film than any other film in history) and in the documentary-styled cinematography. As for acting, everyone is great. The brightest spot was Jeremy Renner as James, the de-facto leader of the group and the main bomb expert. He is a character with two sides, the renegade wildman who loves his job and the average family man who begins to think seriously about what he is doing with his life. It would be great to see Renner get an Academy Award nomination for his performance come January.

In the end, this is a great war movie that Hollywood should be doing more often. It is funny that while the big shots were making preachy movies with confusing messages, the independent filmmakers were really showing what it is like to fight in a war were anything and everything can kill you. I hope that Bigelow gets to continue making action films and return to her days were she was in high-demand.

[mfrendo]

Funny People - 5/5

JUST FUCKING AMAZINE!! Seriously loved this movie. I usually hate when movies go longer than 1 hr 45 min, but this was 2 hr 35 min and I would have liked it to go longer. Funny, yet deep and emotional with little sugarcoating and real characters. Great.

[Buscemi]

Funny People **/****

A better title for this film would be Two and A Half Hours Of Dick Jokes. This is a self-indulgent mess of a film that doesn't know if it wants to be a drama about life-changing experiences or a raunchy comedy about bad comedians. Sadly, it tends to be the latter since we get a million cameos from comedians that add nothing to the plot (and when you've got Sarah Silverman in your film making jokes that make no sense, then you know it can't be good). Though there are a few good moments (such as nearly every scene with Leslie Mann and the kids), almost all this can be seen in the trailer which is 50 times shorter and twice as entertaining.

In short, I hope that Judd Apatow never gets final cut on a film again. Though he is a great producer and writer, he should not be allowed to make 150 minute long movies filled with dick jokes and celebrity cameos. Was Universal simply afraid to tell him to cut 30 to 60 minutes from the film?

[Keyser Soze]

(500) Days of Summer 8.5/10

Just a refreshing take on the whole Boy Meets Girl movie especially since they tell you at the outset that these two do not end up together which still doesn't stop you from rooting for them to end up together or feeling sad when they don't. Fantastic performances from the entire cast but especially the leads Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Daschenal. The movie was funny when it needed to be but also serious at times. It was kind of like Juno for the post collegiate scene without one person having all of the pre-written one liners (Except for the girl who played Levitt's younger sister in the movie who was written to be wise beyond her years)

It is clearly the first film ever to incoporate both The Smiths and Hall and Oates yet also do it succesfully.(The Patrick Swayze song She's Like the Wind still makes me cringe every time I hear it, and I think that was the director's intent).

Two often overused film making tools were both utilized with great success, the telling of the story out of order as it continuously jumps around the 500 days to show you things that will happen eventually and then go back to show you how it got to that point, and the use of split screen which most often never works, but here worked beautifully especially as a device to show you simultaneously how the same event unfolded in Levitt's mind and how it happened in reality.

I highly recommend this especially to people who were made to have to sit through HJNTIY, The Ugly Truth or Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Off to see The Hurt Locker this afternoon on another rainy Sunday in Pittsuburgh

[IPKI$$]

Funny People- 5/10 Pretty much agree with boosh on this one 100%...Everyone was pretty much playing themself, which wasn't neccessarily a bad thing and while the drama and the character development were actually pretty damn good, the comedy was too childish and just not very funny most of the time. Which I understand was probably part of the point, but with the pedigree this should've easily been the funniest and close to just plain best movies of the year,unfortunately, it's just too confused, formulaic and self-indulgent to justify two and a half hours of bad dick jokes and shameless "thank you" cameos. I mean, Eminem and Ray Romano was kinda funny, and I guess andy dick, but the bar scene was ridiculous...Overall, would've made a better much more effective straight drama with dark humor scattered throughout, but this makes Punchline look like the comedic Citizen Kane.

[Keyser Soze]

The Hurt Locker 7/10

Probably the best movie made about the war in Iraq yet. What made it the best is the fact that it was not skewed to one side's message or the other. The only reason that I'm giving it a 7 and not a higher score is that it sorely lacked in character development. There was no backstory on any of the characters to show what made them tick or act the way they did. What it did show was what it really is like to be in a bomb disposal unit wearing an 80 lb. kevlar/ceramic suit in 120 degree heat while trying to decide whether to clip the green wire or the red one.

A couple of nice cameos by Guy Pierce and Ralph Fiennes to go along with a no nmae cast. I can definitely see possible Oscar nominations for director Kathryn Bigelow and main star Jeremy Renner.

The pacing could have been a little better as there were a couple of times I felt it dragging, but it seemed like any time that started to happen, Bigelow picked things right back up.

While I have always believed that the best movies about an individual war always come long after it is over, it was nice to see one made about this war that didn't involve either the message of "What the hell are we doing here?" or "See, this is why we need to be here"

All I can tell you is that Iraq is not a place I'll ever be visiting.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

(500) Days of Summer - 8/10

I never really understood the appeal of Zooey Deschanel until now. She did a terrific job, not as good as JGL, but good nonetheless. They had perfect chemistry and played off each other wonderfully. I really liked the non-linear approach, made a simple story much better. I had to take points off because everyone is saying it's fresh and unpredictable when it really isn't. It's a slightly better rom-com with expotentially better acting than usual. The ending, I could see coming a million miles away, but I still enjoyed it. As for the ending, what I thought was gonna happen -

Spoiler:

I still liked what they did though.

[NSpan]

Up.

It was no Wall-E. But a great film nonetheless. My problem with it was the fact that there was SO much content for adults and, at once, SO much content for children... I just can't imagine the cross-section / middle-ground that would thoroughly enjoy the entire film from start to finish..

i almost feel like the first and final portions of the film could be condensed into a BRILLIANT animated-movie-for-adults concerning the protagonist learning to live after the loss of the his wife.. the middle portion (with the silly antagonist, talking dogs, and whatnot) could make for a fun and semi-thoughtful KIDS movie..

as a whole, i can't say it really worked.. but the parts that DID work were brilliant..

Wall-E is still (heads and tails) better, but Up might be in the running for 2nd place amongst Pixar features[/b]

[geezer9687]

Funny People: 7/10

It was a good concept that was really promising for the first hour and a half or so. And then it just draaaaaaaaaaggggggggeeeeddd for about an hour. Its called editing Judd! Use it! I really think this could have been a better movie. It wasn't all that funny, most of the humor was, as mentioned, dick jokes and celeb cameos, but I didn't have a problem with that because the story was good. But it really fell flat at the end where it could have delivered. Still decent, but could have been a lot better.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Funny People 9/10 (so far)

I missed the last half hour or so of the movie, which I'll be watching tomorrow. But so far, it's a pretty great movie. I think if you go into it with the knowledge that it's a drama with a few funny parts, you'll enjoy much more. I know if I saw it OW expecting Knocked Up 2, I'd hate it. Sandler does a great job here, I haven't seen Punch Drunk Love but he should do more serious roles. Leslie Mann also actually surprised me, I'd written her off as playing herself a long time ago. Pleasantly surprised with her performance. Liked most of the cameos, even if they got a little excessive at times. Eminem's scene was probably the best.

[Buscemi]

Damn, Eminem has gotten fat.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

That's what sucks about getting off drugs.

[NSpan]

and dedicating your life to a chocolate candy with a thin candy shell

[Buscemi]

Eminem apparently ate Cheddar Bob too, thinking he was a type of cheese.

[W]

FYI, I'm trying out a 100 point scale now for reasons I'm not completly sure of:

Fast and Furious 42/100: This was almost decent. Just really not a great plot. Not great action sequences. No edge of your seat moments. I thought the ending would redeem it, then they threw something else in there. It really just sucked... I was a fan of the first one, but every other one was awful.

[Keyser Soze]

The Great Buck Howard 5/10

Rented this one thinking how bad can any movie with John Malkovich in it be, and then I found out. Looks like it was just a vehicle put out by Tom Hanks to give his kid something to do, and then Tom inserted himself into the movie to try and give it some credibility. Emily Blunt's character made it a little less painless, but on the whole, nothing about this movie ever clicked. Whether it was the pacing, the direction or the acting, it just always seemed like everything was middle of the road at best hence the 5/10 rating.

[transformers2]

FYI, I'm trying out a 100 point scale now for reasons I'm not completly sure of:

Fast and Furious 42/100: This was almost decent. Just really not a great plot. Not great action sequences. No edge of your seat moments. I thought the ending would redeem it, then they threw something else in there. It really just sucked... I was a fan of the first one, but every other one was awful.

I really liked Fast and Furious i thought it was the best one of the series.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Julie & Julia - 6/10

Meryl Streep's great acting couldn't save this one from being boring, overly long, and just downright dull. They try to make suspense out of book publishing and blogging, it just doesn't work. Streep is terrific as Childs, while Adams is passable as the other chick. Childs' storyline was really repetitive and streeeetched out. Julie's storyline was a bit better, with her coming out of her shell as she progresses through the recipes. It's not a bad movie per se, but I def wouldn't reccomend it to anyone, except maybe hardcore fans of Julia Childs. She does seem like a cool person.

[Buscemi]

I imagine that you needed something to fap to afterwards?

[NSpan]

-10 points for any use of the terms "fap" or "fail" on a non-4chan message-board

sorry

[Buscemi]

I thought fap was the Dutch term for masturbating.

Epic fail for me.

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