Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen

[Morari]

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices - I am not trying to say Walmart is great, but this was nothing more than a propaganda video from people who are against Walmart (for example, they talk about how small stores can't compete and close down, but ignore the hundreds of new jobs each one brings). Pretty much the opposite of what a documentary is supposed to be (which is unbiased).

The documentary was definitely biased. That said, I think it's more agreeable than not. The kind of jobs that Wal-Mart brings in only put people (both employees and not) at the mercy of Wal-Mart. They don't pay well, they offer little in the way of benefits, and are notorious for outright abusing their employees. I personally don't shop at Wal-Mart, but I don't like the atmosphere. I can get better products for lower pricers (with better service) at smaller, more specialized stores. The traffic problems caused by people flocking to Wal-Mart is enough to turn me off though.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - After 25 years, it is still a good family comedy. Pee-Wee sets out for the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas after his iconic bike is stolen. Pee-Wee even helps a escaped criminal evade the police (although since this is Pee-Wee Herman, the guy's crime was cutting off that "Do Not Tear" label from a mattress).

One of my favorite films of all time. I always liked Pee-Wee though, and this initial adventure showed a lot of promise for Time Burton as well... Too bad he has resigned himself to lame remakes. :\

1984 - Yeah, maybe the book was better because I thought the movie was crap and boring. Also, what is up with Julia's bush? Are women in that time just not allowed to shave at all down there? Geez, you almost need a map to navigate there.

It's been a looong time since I watched the film adaptation of 1984. I really only recall the Eurythmics' soundtrack being kind of an odd fit for it. If you haven't read the book, I'd greatly recommend it. It's more insightful now than it ever has been. You might also consider Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".

Fritz the Cat - Almost no plot, obvious that it was just trying to push the limits to get a reaction. Unless you want to watch a bunch of cartoon animals smoking weed and having sex (although you never see the actual penetration), not worth watching. Maybe even a little racist in some parts.

I don't think that R. Crumb was even ever really happy with the Fritz films. They're good to watch once to better understand the underground comics of the time, but they're pretty niche beyond that. The animation itself still holds up fairly well though.

[ejamer]

Shortbus - This movie created a lot of controversy around here when it came out because of graphic sex scenes.  Maybe that controversy was just because it isn't all (or even mostly) about straight sex?
 
While sex is what thrusts the story forward, those scenes weren't as erotic as you might expect and probably aren't what most people are interested in watching.  Luckily, the graphic nature didn't outweigh what the movie is really about: relationships, desire, frustration, and disappointment...  Really surprised how well the movie turned out with lots of laughs and a few genuinely touching moments.
 
If you like indie flicks and aren't put off by mature content, then give it a watch.  (On the other hand: if you are thinking about watching this movie just for the sex scenes or as a cheap turn on, don't waste your time.)
 

Tokyo Gore Police - Wow, another movie that easily exceeded my expectations.  Tokyo Gore Police (TGP) revels in the odd and the obscene, but never loses it's sense of humor or irreverence.  The faux ads and propagana shorts spliced into the film are funny, the storyline just convoluted enough to meet the Z-grade standards I was hoping for, and the gore effects are solidly over-the-top.  Most people won't like this movie... but a certain twisted subset will love it.  You know who you are.
 
As a sidenote, this movie is infinitely better than The Machine Girl.  Now that was a disappointment!

[TJ Spyke]

I don't think that R. Crumb was even ever really happy with the Fritz films.

You weren't kidding. I just looked it up and apparently Crumb disagreed so much with the people who made the first film that he ended the comic strip (and had nothing to do with the sequel).

[Morari]

Shortbus - This movie created a lot of controversy around here when it came out because of graphic sex scenes.  Maybe that controversy was just because it isn't all (or even mostly) about straight sex?
 
While sex is what thrusts the story forward, those scenes weren't as erotic as you might expect and probably aren't what most people are interested in watching.  Luckily, the graphic nature didn't outweigh what the movie is really about: relationships, desire, frustration, and disappointment...  Really surprised how well the movie turned out with lots of laughs and a few genuinely touching moments.
 
If you like indie flicks and aren't put off by mature content, then give it a watch.  (On the other hand: if you are thinking about watching this movie just for the sex scenes or as a cheap turn on, don't waste your time.)

I'll agree. Shortbus was worth the watch. I was only initially interested in it due to Mitchell's previous work, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I'll admit to loving that one, and rank it among the top of my list of musicals.

[ThePerm]

1984 - Yeah, maybe the book was better because I thought the movie was crap and boring. Also, what is up with Julia's bush? Are women in that time just not allowed to shave at all down there? Geez, you almost need a map to navigate there.

The movie was made before the bush was considered a bad thing.

Harry Potter wow that was dark/10. I liked it. I wish i could see more of what goes on in Ron's Imagination.

Predators Finally, a good sequel to a great movie.

[greybrick]

Ustoppable: Self-righteous and annoyingly justified Denzel Washington on a train/10.

Gotta love the /10 meme.

[broodwars]

Just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Pt. 1) as part of a family outing, and it was surprisingly good.  I can't stand most of the Harry Potter movies as they tend to suffer from bad pacing, questionable casting, and problems in the writing due to large sections being omitted from the books.  This movie, though, was surprisingly well-shot; well acted; well paced; and was generally very true to the spirit of the book (and the last book is probably my favorite of the 7).

Unfortunately, my experience watching the  movie also reinforced exactly why I do not see movies in theaters anymore.  The movie kicked off with trailers for several godawful-looking 3D movies (damn you, James Cameron, for reviving this nonsense), and I had to spend the entire movie with a lady and her 5-8 year old kids constantly talking the entire movie.  Seriously, those little brats never shut up, constantly asking questions.  And what the hell was that moron of a lady doing bringing these young children to a movie this violent?  And she probably saw this movie already, because she took them out of the theater before the sequence at Godric's Hollow, and she brought them back in afterwards.  People like her and her children are why I avoid the theaters and perhaps look forward to the day when they no longer exist.  Home video all the way.  At least I can watch my movies with as much peace or whatnot as I like in my own home without having to suffer from the wanton stupidity of some of these people who come to the movies.

[ThePerm]

ugh, yeah people should rarely bring their kids to theaters, unless its a kids movie. They invented the BluRay/DVD/VHS/Beta for a reason...so you could watch stuff at home, and not only that..it is cheaper. You could pay 70 bucks to take your kids and their friends or whatever to a theater, or you could drop by a redbox or a rental store spend a dollar 4 months later and not bother people on dates/enjoying cinema.

[broodwars]

With my old PS3 out-of-commission (and the new one in the shop importing my original PS3's data, which is annoyingly more complicated than it should be), I'm trying to make an effort to catch up on my backlog of movies.  Well, I just finished my first one (if you're curious, the other 3 are Toy Story 3, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  And yes, I know the last one is supposed to be pretty bad), The Prince of Egypt, which came highly recommended by Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic.  Just as a disclaimer, I am not a religious person, having spent most of my time in Sunday school reading whatever book I brought in with me at the time, so I was only familiar with the basic outline of the Moses storyline.  That said, I thought this was a pretty decent movie with some amazing animation (especially the parting of the Red Sea.  Wow.).  The focus the movie puts on the relationship between Moses and Ramises serves the story very well and makes you really feel for the plight of even the villain.  However, the big reason I avoided these films when they originally appeared in theaters cropped up here: Dreamworks, if you can't hire talent to write and sing your songs on par with what Disney offers, you shouldn't make your movies musicals.  The songs in this movie are pretty uniformly terrible, and the singing is all over the place.  Ditto for the voice acting, which is excellent in some areas and pretty mediocre/terrible in others.  The writing can also be sickeningly preachy, but I guess that's to be expected from a movie based on a story from the Bible.  Recommended, but skip the songs.

[Stratos]

I loved the 'Let My People Go' song from Prince of Egypt. But yeah, some songs were pretty terrible. I was surprised how NC favored the animated one in that video. He tends to favor the older shows I've noticed.

[broodwars]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Not as bad as people have told me.  It's not great; has some terrible acting; a mediocre script; an especially mind-numbingly stupid ending; and laughably bad effects, but it's a decent popcorn action movie.

Toy Story 3 - Not as great as people have told me.  I'm not a huge fan of the first two Toy Story movies, but this one was pretty decent.  The problem is that after Incredibles; Wall-E; and Up, I've come to expect better than "decent" from Pixar.  There are some genuinely humorous moments (particularly Buzz's "Spanish mode"), but some humor gets way overused (like Ken's effeminate nature) and the middle 1/3 tends to drag (the movie feels like it's wrapping up 1/2 hour before it's over).  The movie does end well, though.  I hope that Pixar and Disney have the artistic integrity to let this be the final Toy Story movie.

[Morari]

The problem is that after Incredibles; Wall-E; and Up, I've come to expect better than "decent" from Pixar.

Really? I haven't seen Up, but I thought that Wall-E and the Incredibles both suffered from the same issue: they sucked after the halfway point. Wall-E was awesome until he went onto the ship, then everything became very boring and predicable. More so, the ship's sterile interior and the cartoon-ish humans weren't nearly as impressive visually as the Earthen wasteland. The Incredibles on the other hand started out quite humorously, but eventually fell into the same superhero cliches that it was initially mocking. Both seemed like great foundations, but the execution felt phoned in.

I thought that Toy Story 3 was much more even throughout. It may not have had the charm of the first film, but its story was arguably better. I wasn't a big fan of the second film in the series though.

[ThePerm]

a nightmare on elmstreet remake 7.2/10, Not as bad as Freddy's Dead or part 2, but not as good as others, it  gets 0.2 pts extra for some nice bits and pieces

House of the Devil 8/10 this movie was great, i love the retro styling. It has some pacing problems though.

[Stratos]

Avatar Surprisingly a whole lot better than I thought it would be(9)/10

I finally watched this and found the whole movie to be very enjoyable. Yeah, a there were a few plot holes and cliches and the plot was predictable but it was a fun ride and the visuals were great. I'm glad I watched it on my dad's HDTV because it's probably the best justice the visuals are gonna get without 3D.

[broodwars]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - yeah, it doesn't bear that much resemblance to the original game, but I still found this to be a fairly enjoyable film with some really inspired casting for Dastun and the princess (who had some pretty good chemistry).  True, the Dagger didn't get used all that much, but the movie made it pretty clear that the sand in the dagger was very limited.  There was enough parkour in the movie to satisfy me, and the action was pretty decent.  There were some strange additions to the movie like the illegal ostrich racing (I still don't understand why the writers threw that in), but I enjoyed the movie overall.

[Stratos]

My folks watched the PoP movie and then kept asking me "Is this in the game? Is that? Is there ostrich racing?"

They seemed to like it. I hated the ending. Just felt poorly thought out.

[broodwars]

My folks watched the PoP movie and then kept asking me "Is this in the game? Is that? Is there ostrich racing?"

They seemed to like it. I hated the ending. Just felt poorly thought out.

Eh, the ending was more or less the same as it was in the original game with one massive rewind, though I honestly expected they'd roll back even further to before those particular events.  I expected that ending and thought it was alright.

[Stratos]

I meant the final conflict/reveal of the enemy after the rewind

Course, that last fight in the game felt a bit anti-climactic for me as well. I was very glad that the movie followed the rewind like the game as that is the best part of the story for me.

[BranDonk Kong]

Saw VI - 6/10 - I had already seen the first 5 movies, so I figured I'd watch the last two. It amazes me that they continue to make these movies, but the surprising part is how they kind of make sense in how they work out.

[TJ Spyke]

Batman: The Movie - It boils down to this: if you liked the campy 1960s show you will like this movie, if you didn't then you will not like this since it is basically just a extra long episode. I thought it was OK, but I can't get into the campy stuff of the 60s show (like the shark biting on Batman's leg for almost a full minute and having no damage, the corny puns, etc.).

Batman - Does not age well, and Prince does not seem like a good fit (especially during the art scene). I also wish Burton hadn't decided to make Joker be the guy who killed Batman's parents (the comics always had it be some random thug named Joe Chiller).

Batman Returns - Better, but I am not a big fan of Tim Burton's Batman movies.

Batman Forever - I really like the movie, especially Jim Carey as The Riddler. Val Kilmer is OK as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but not the worst (IMO, that would be Christian Bale).

Batman & Robin - The nipples on the suits didn't bother me. I was puzzled by the decision to make Barbara be Alfred's niece rather than Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Arnold as Mr. Freeze was a little odd, and I wish Bane had a bigger role considering that in the comics he became famous for breaking Batman's back and putting him out of commission for a long time.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero - OK movie. The story was a little boring.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman - Overall I like it, not much else to say.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - Good movie, I was surprised a little at who the Phantasm was when I first saw the movie.

Superman: Doomsday - Good movie, but the defeat of Doomsday was anti-climatic as we never got to see what happened to him after Superman slammed him into the ground.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - I am counting this as a movie. I love it and thought Neil Patrick Haris was great and he really gets you to like him and root for him against Captain Hammer.

Cool World - I enjoyed it, but it does not have the same charm as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which also blended live action and cartoons and had a similar time period). Also, kind of disappointing that when Holly Would became human her breasts became a lot smaller (she looked like a E cup as a cartoon, but Kim Basinger is like a B or C up).

Orgazmo - Based on the plot, you would expect more raunchy stuff. There is almost no nudity: no male or female genitals, no bare female butts, and total nude female breasts is like 1 second (one of the female porn stars takes off her top but the view is quickly blocked). The only nudity really are male buts (which was obviously on purpose). The actual movie was not that bad.

Maxed Out - A documentary about the rising debt of Americans and how devastating it can be (two of the people interviewed talked about how their college-age kids committed suicide after racking up thousands of dollars in cred card bills and having no way to pay them back). Good and well worth watching, even if the actual info is a little dated since it was released in 2005.

[MaryJane]

@Morari

Let me start by saying that I hated Toy Story 3, and you can see the reason for that in my question to you:

How do you say that the story was better in 3 than 1 when they are basically the same story: The toys get taken away from owner, Woody and Buzz rally them together and bring them back. Was it better because Buzz's identity crisis was better in part 3? Or was it because this time when they had to reset him he turned Spanish instead of into an asshole?

[MaryJane]

Six Degrees of Separation: 9.5/10
Great movie about self-examination inside the pretense of opening your eyes to the world.
Would have gotten a 10/10 but I hated the part where the parents were talking to the kids. I know what they what they were trying to show, but it was overdone and under-acted.

China 9, Liberty 37: 6.8/10
Typical western; lots of gunfights and a quick flame romance. But, it was interesting because it was a little difficult in the begining to see which choices the main male character would make. I found the title interesting (and to my knowledge it was never explained in the movie) and I also found it interesting that both the lead male and female had heavy eastern-European accents in a western flick.

[oohhboy]

The Departed Facepalm/1

Having seen the original (Infernal Affairs), I have no idea why the hell this movie got an Oscar. Was Scorsese "due" for an award or something? Hell why was this made? Americans can't read subtitles or something?

The cast is good except for casting both Marky Mark and Matt Damon in the same movie, because they confuse the hell out of me. Mark puts out a good performance, but Matt, seriously, no. Otherwise good work all round from the actors given it's all star nature and terrible script.

Scorsese's directorship was questionable at best. There are a number of what is effectively shot for shot remake of the original which isn't the problem. It's more to do with the narrative and characters themselves. Maybe Scorsese had no control over this, but I do not understand why he feel it was necessary to "Up the Ante" by adding subplots, a higher body count, wanton violence and changing the crime from dealing drugs to a nation security matter. All these additions turn the narrative into a train wreak. There's no subtlety especially when it comes to whole communications subplot. The ending is mind blowingly abrupt. The character, while acted well by everyone except for Matt, just doesn't have any of the depth they are suppose to have. Gone are the shades of grey, everything is a simplified American Black and White world moral understanding with it's equally antiqued cowboy justice.

While I did not expect them to transferre the Eastern themes from the original, there are no real themes at all. Just events. There is no moral conflict about ones fate or identity, just people killing each other. The character motivation for their actions draw heavily from these themes. It was never about money or fame.

Pacing is shot to hell. Geography and time feels all over the place.

While this movie is profitable, it's an artistic failure. Scorsese failed with a $90 Million dollar budget and a all star cast at 151 minutes. A HK production, at a tiny fraction of the budget, at an hour and a half, set a new high water mark for crime thrillers. I won't review Infernal affairs other than say watch it. But  if I was to score it on this scale, it would have gotten 15/10.

I wish I could unwatch this mess.

**** off Hollywood, **** the hell off.

[ThePerm]

i liked departed better than infernal affairs, they were both good....hmm i wrote like a review on imdb comparing the pros and cons in both movies. However, damnit it was a couple of years ago and imdb stuff disappears after a couple of years. Of course Infernal Affairs is the original material, but i feel like something is missing. Best advice, don't watch the other before the other. I liked both movies, but any harsh criticism is just harsh. Its not like it is Gus Van Zant's Psycho remake which deserves all the harshness it can get. I liked a lot of the stuff Scrosese added. He changed a lot of things to make it fit in the different setting. It would also help to know about "Whitey" Bulger which Scorsese based the Irish mob boss off of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger

[broodwars]

The Crow - Yet another movie I've been meaning to see for ages, and now that I've seen it I wish I hadn't waited so long because the movie just could not live up to my built-up expectations.  For one thing, this movie hasn't aged well.  It was made in 1994, and the movie looks like it was shot 10 years prior to even that.  The special effects only kind of work, the footage is so dark and muddy it can sometimes be hard to make out certain scenes, and the acting vacillates between being fairly earnest (usually scenes with Eric) and being extremely 1980s-style corny (usually scenes with the villains).  The movie's storytelling is serviceable (if filled with plot holes), though it seems to take ages for the movie to get through the few narrative beats it hits.  There are a few attempts to play off some Noir style, but they just felt flat to me.  Honestly, this feels like a movie that probably should get a remake, because while there are some good ideas in here and the atmosphere can sometimes be excellent, the movie as a whole just didn't come together very well for me.