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A few random movie recommendations...

My random recommendations for movies that I've seen recently are BUBBA HO TEP, which is discussed in this thread (and which, I should add, comes out on DVD next week) and ROBOT STORIES, which is discussed in this thread.

Also, my random recommendation for a movie-related website is richard-kelly.net. If, like me, you're a big fan of DONNIE DARKO, you should check out this site, which reports on the status of its director's current projects, which include the upcoming director's cut of DD, and his next film, SOUTHLAND TALES.
 
Oh yeah baby I have finally arrived. A thread I origanted has been Linked! :D

As for my own personal recommendations Bubba Ho Tep is the best movie I have seen in a long while. I'm getting the DVD the day it comes out. Now Im not sure if the falls under the classification of "movies" but I'll mention it anyway. I have been renting all the eps that I can get off Netflix of Batman the Animated series. It's worth checking out. Also I highly recommend Old School. Very funny movie and appeals to my sense of humor.
 
Elric, I didn't mean to imply that your comments on the Lathe Of Heaven were out of place here at all. That thread about it was rather long ago, probably a couple of years. I just thought that you might find that discussion interesting, if the thread still exists.

And I too want to see Bubba Hotep! I've heard so much about it, it sounds pretty wacko.
 
Gee whiz, it's almost the end of May, and there's still not a good summer movie out yet. Shrek 2 might be good, but I haven't seen it yet.

Unfortuantely, a friend of mine was in the mood to go see a bad movie just to see how bad it was. Apparently, he was in the same mood when he bought the DVD we watched after that. So, here are two more reluctant reviews...

At Theater:
(D+) Scooby Doo 2

On Video:
(D-) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
 
Elric, I didn't mean to imply that your comments on the Lathe Of Heaven were out of place here at all. That thread about it was rather long ago, probably a couple of years. I just thought that you might find that discussion interesting, if the thread still exists.
Click to expand...

No Probs Jade, I didn't take it that way ;)

I did want to find the old thread just to see peoples thoughts on it but I don't think the thread exists anymore :(
 
Just saw another summer movie. Not bad. Mostly a special effects movie, and therefore, a little hokey at times. However, the characters and acting were just good enough to hold it together and make the story satisfying.....

(B) The Day After Tomorrow
 
<in voice of Vincent Price>Behold, I shall raise this thread back from beyond....</in voice of Vincent Price>

Anyway, I saw two movies this weekend. One was Around the World in 80 Days. Featuring Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan, this should have been the best thing ever. As it was, it was a fairly amusing caper, with Steve Coogan doing rather a good job in the lead, with fairly obvious excuses for Jackie Chan to jump around and beat folks up, which I liked...I reccommend this to rent at least, especially if you like silly cameos.

The second was City of God, which was superb. Really superb. I'd go out on a limb and say its the best gangsta film i've seen, but would really have to watch Goodfellas again to clarify that statement.
 
In Theaters:
(A-) The Terminal
(B) Dodgeball
(A-) Fahrenheit 9/11
(A) Spider-Man 2

On Video:
(B+) The Italian Job
(C+) Gods and Generals
(B) The Bourne Identity

Recently Broadcast on TV:
(D+) A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
 
City of God is amazing. Though I don't know how or why you would put it in the same category as Goodfellas. Not even similar in any way.

For those who don't know, City of God is about kids growing up in a slummy Brazillian neighborhood, full of refugees and the poor, ignored by cops, rife with violence. Teens and kids are often conscripted into this violent way of life. The film is from the point of view of one kid who basically managed to avoid it due to his love of photography (which led him to become a filmmaker). The film is extremely brutal.


Nukemail, interesting you gave Gods & Generals a C+. I don't disagree. I thought it had a lot of potential and was expecting it to be much better than it was.

Let's see, what I saw recently:

In theatre:
1) The Notebook- F (tried to see F9/11 that weekend, but was sold out. This movie may only be of interest to those with a bigger vagina than a brain)
2) F9/11- B

On video:
1) Rules of the Game- B+
Jean Renoir's comedy/drama of manners (though he refused to call it that). Considered one of the greatest movies ever, but I hold Grand Illusion in much higher esteem.
2) Heavenly Bodies- B
Peter Jackson's first non-horror film, a drama/fantasy based on the diary of a young girl writing about her obsessive friendship with another girl (played by Kate Winslet in her first major role). Surprisingly engaging.
3) The Frighteners- B+
Peter Jackson's last major film before Lord of the Rings. Michael J Fox as a ghost-hunter. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous and stupid, but done with such charm and wit that I really liked it.
 
City of God is amazing. Though I don't know how or why you would put it in the same category as Goodfellas. Not even similar in any way.
Click to expand...

I'm being a bad librarian, and not classifying properly.
:LOL:
Overlook cultural differences, location, level of violence etc and there are a lot of parallels. The whole growing up together thing, the central narrative, the character vingettes, the journeys of some the characters...

It's all about descent into crime. In City of God, Rocket is on the sidelines, but many of the others are not. We get an over the shoulder view on them as well. I think you can draw parallels about their lives and those of the characters in Scoreze's work. In COG, everything happens at an earlier age, on a much more brutal level.
Some of the comparisons are amusing, take the way both films descrive the organisations of the drug dealing rackets.

But mostly because the back of the DVD pack likened it to Goodfella's. For whatever that was worth...
;)

Heavenly bodies is really excellent. And the Frighteners is a guilty pleasure. You can spot the origins of a lot of Lord of the Rings in those movies, some of the ghosts in the frightners look very wraith-esque...
 
Ah, the back of the DVD. :LOL:
Not laughing at you, just remembering some absurd things I've read. Marketing, you know.

I think the reason I have trouble connecting them in anyway is the underlying premise behind the violence of the characters. In Goodfellas, one gets the feeling that the violent lifestyle is pure choice. Henry Hill got into being a gangster because of pure materialism, and Pesci's character was a psychopath. Wereas in City of God, we're shown how many of the kids almost have no other choice, especially once the full-on gang war starts.
 
2) Heavenly Bodies- B
Peter Jackson's first non-horror film, a drama/fantasy based on the diary of a young girl writing about her obsessive friendship with another girl (played by Kate Winslet in her first major role). Surprisingly engaging.
Click to expand...

Very freaky movie. If you like really weird movies, I would highly recommend it. There are several scenes that wlll have you doing double takes and wondering what you've gotten yourself into, scenes that make you exclaim in your best redneck voice, "Whut da heyll?!?".

3) The Frighteners- B+
Peter Jackson's last major film before Lord of the Rings. Michael J Fox as a ghost-hunter. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous and stupid, but done with such charm and wit that I really liked it.
Click to expand...

I didn't like this one. I'm not too fond of ghost movies, and this one felt too kinetic and very spaztic.
 
Ah, the back of the DVD. :LOL:
Not laughing at you, just remembering some absurd things I've read. Marketing, you know.

I think the reason I have trouble connecting them in anyway is the underlying premise behind the violence of the characters. In Goodfellas, one gets the feeling that the violent lifestyle is pure choice. Henry Hill got into being a gangster because of pure materialism, and Pesci's character was a psychopath. Wereas in City of God, we're shown how many of the kids almost have no other choice, especially once the full-on gang war starts.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I guess the cover was aiming for the quick and dirty sell.
:D

I think there are plenty of stylistic similarities in the two, although City of God had a prevelent handi-cam documentary style, there were some nice Scorsese-type set pieces as well.

I like your point about choice, Henry Hill et al went into it out of choice. The opposite is true in COG (terrible acronym), where by it's the only way to succeed by economic default. For Henry Hill, it was an ambition, ("all my life, all I ever wanted to be was a....")
Mind you, Rocket tried to be a gangsta at once point, but was just too nice. I found that whole sequence very amusing. The motivation of the two protaganists was also a great difference.

Think of them as exploring similar themes, just approached from very different angles. The two would make a nice comparison for a film studies student to write an essay on, "evil by choice and neccesity in two crime movies set in different countries".

Sigh, wish I had gone to film school instead of studying Politics and then Information Science, now i'm all studied out.
:(
 
City of God sounds very interesting, I'll have to check it out. Anyone who liked it might be interested in another great film on the subject, the 1981 Pixote, directed by the great Brazilian director, Hector Babenco. It is very powerful, and available on DVD. Here's the IMDb link:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0082912/

If anyone has the opportunity, they might want to check out Zatoichi, by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, now in limited release in the US. I'd love to see it, but it's not playing anywhere in my area. If anyone on the BB sees it, I'll be extremely jealous! :D ;) :D
 
I suppose I'll kick a few recommendations around. Again.

Check out Feeders and Feeders 2. Two very fine horror/sci-fi/god only knows movies. They could possibly be called the epitome of the B movie. Well, Z, rather. Basically, they were made with small, seemingly nonexistant budgets, and it totally shows. And if you can't really get any REAL enjoyment out of either of them, you can always watch them utilizing the ancient techniques of MST3K and just make fun of stuff as it comes. Between iffy acting, crappy alien puppets/computer effects/etc., Santa with a laser, and a farting child (a very well timed scene, really), there's PLENTY of laughable moments to be had from both.

I'd also recommend Ichi the Killer. It was... graphic and confusing, sort of. I think. Seems like half of the Takashi Miike films I've seen so far have left me wondering just what the hell happened during the previous 2 hours or so. S'fun!

Then there's Wasabi. At this point, I was going to attempt a quick synopsis, but upon reading it, I thought it sucked. Therefore, I give you this link. CLICK!

Suffice to say, I rather enjoyed it. Also, upon reading the synopsis THERE, I find it to be a bit.... blah. Read the user comment thing. Much more sensible. Anyways... I've lost my train of thought. Just watch.
 
(C+) Anchorman
(C+) Bourne Supremacy

...and one I saw several weeks ago but forgot to list here...

(D) Chronicles of Riddick


Anchorman was not as funny as I was hoping.

Bourne Supremacy was a good continuation of the Bourne story, but I'm convinced that the director is a crack addict, the camera operators all had shaky-hand syndrome, and the editors both had attention deficit disorder. On story and performance alone, I would give Supremacy a B or B-, but it gets a penalty for the cinematography literally giving me a headache.

Chronicles of Riddick had an epic feel to it, I'll have to admit, but I didn't like the direction of the story, what little there was.


So far, my favorite movies of the summer are Spider-Man 2, Fahrenheit 9/11, and despite not getting better reviews, The Terminal.
 
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