What movies have you seen recently?

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I watched The Thing (2011) again. My feelings of it haven't changed since when I saw it in a theatre: it's one of the better horror films of the past decade, and stands up nicely to John Carpenter's 1982 version. Hopefully it'll get a little critical re-evaluation in the coming years.

Parental Guidance (2012) - funny movie for the family

Searching for Sugar Man (2012) - a movie that resonated with me. I listened to his music when I was in high school. I never knew the background of this guy. He is bigger than Elvis in my country (because of his philosophical music), and it was a controlled state/Apartheid at the time, and yet nobody in the USA knows about him. Mind boggling how, but somehow confirms my own beliefs that one might feel worthless in your own place, but be good somewhere else, without having to reinvent one self. I too feel philosophical, like the artist. He lives such a humble life, and it feels like I was free'd again just by watching this movie, that my unconventional self resonate with others too. That I am actually not alone, that there are others like me, even if I feel like being all alone.

The Master (2012) - this movie was strange, I didn't know what to make of it. I guess I'm not one for cults. Did intrigue me a bit

"The Princess Bride" I'm really amazed that this film is so well liked. The bookend scenes of the grandfather reading the story to a reluctant kid are distracting and annoying. The rest of the film, while having a bit of witty dialog now and then, is pretty conventional and uninteresting. I would have liked it if the characters and the actions were push to extremes. Unfortunately here, most of the film is just kind of tepid.

Il gabbiano [original title: The Seagull] (1977) / IMDb / DVD / R0 - Italy - RHV

Front cover of DVD:



Back cover of DVD:



This is an Italian adaptation of the play The Seagull, by Anton Chehkov, which premiered in Russia in 1896 and is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. I didn't know anything about these plays before I had watched the film - this is literally my first foray into Chehkov. For my part, I found it all pretty dull and uninteresting, with characters that bored and annoyed me in equal measure. I could see what they were trying to do, but it still bored the crap out of me. Bad subtitling (probably not helped by an even poorer translation) probably did not help matters. Having said that, the woman who plays Irina the actress, Pamela Villoresi, is sort of easy on the eye. The DVD itself is quite grainy and has some nasty artifacts, one of which is the hair-in-the-gate one and the other one, I can't quite describe - it's sort of like floating raindrops on the screen! As this is an extremely talky film (which i believe was probably made for television - check out the 4:3 aspect ratio), good English subtitles are essential and I don't believe that these are anywhere near up to the job as I suspect that a lot of the dialogue is in fact missing from the subtitles, and what is here isn't well-translated. As for the DVD, extras run to two interviews with the director Marco Bellocchio, film editor Silvano Agosti and a screen test for Il gabbiano by Tina Aumont, who was an American actress. It was obviously unsuccessful, as she is not in the film itself. None of the extras are subtitled in English. Oh, and included in the DVD case is a small booklet containing a short essay about the film. I can't speak Italian though so again, it's useless to me.

being the recipient of such bullying abuse is no laughing matter. try it sometime.

/\ /\
I have been the recipient of exactly that kind of "bullying abuse" and that's part of what makes it humorous to ME.
"Bullying abuse" is a necessary part of any military recruit training.

In regard to "Full Metal Jacket" I think the abuse is horrific and very funny. But it's funny in the same way that "Dr. Strangelove" or "Clockwork Orange" are funny. I think this kind of obscenely dark humor was what Kubrick was best at. It's funny, but it's not pleasant to watch.

Twister

Disaster movie about storm chasers researching tornados. I enjoyed it.

I take it, it is the movie Twister with Helen Hunt? Funny the preview of the movie was on our Universal Studios channel. I guess I will see it this Friday.

FDR: American Badass!

For my money it's the best FDR vs Nazi Werewolf movie of the year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As3sBKFRpdU[/youtube]

The Impossible

A docudrama about a family affected by the 2004 tsunami.

It's a powerful, amazing movie and was worth seeing. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor were phenomenal in their roles and the tsunami scenes were convincingly realistic.

Many people have compared The Impossible to Apollo 13, which, IMOO is a strange comparison. I don't know how The Impossible and Apollo 13 are similar to each other, but I think Oliver Stone's 9/11 movie,
World Trade Center is a better comparison.

As I mentioned in another thread, many who have complained that Hollywood has developed a habit of making a cash grab out of any "major recent event" do have a point. IMOO, Hollywood should wait a minimum of 8-10 years before making a movie out of a "major event" that may be still in the minds of people. However, in the case of The Impossible, I think enough time has gone by that people have either forgotten all about the tsunami or don't remember much about it.

Memento

Christopher Nolan movie based on a short story written by his brother about a man who has lost his short term memory.