Article ITT I attempt to review every movie I've seen.

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Title: Lockout
Year: 2012
Country of Origin: France/US
Director: James Mather & Stephen St. Leger

Plot: Its like Escape from New York, but in Space.

Review: This is about as B-grade as you can get. President's daughter is trapped on board a space prison...so I guess its more Escape from LA...and a wise cracking lone soldier is sent into rescue her.

Guy Pearce turns out to be a convincing action lead, though I wish that he had pick a better film to showcase this to us. There isn't much to speak of plot wise, there are two sub plots that go pretty much nowhere. The low grade CGI does little to excite, especially a chase scene at the beginning where the visuals in Far Cry 3 look better than this crap CGI. The film isn't offensively bad and there are some nifty ideas floating around the production. Still its the kind of film that's only worth watching late at night when there is nothing else on.

[4.5/10]
 
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Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Year: 2012
Country of Origin: NZ/UK/US
Director: Peter Jackson

Plot: 13 Dwarves, a Wizard and a Hobbit go on an adventure to reclaim a lost Dwarvish kingdom.

Review: The Hobbit is pretty good. Its not great, I wish I could say it was great...but issues with pacing and tonality keep it from being as good as its predecessors.

So where did the film go right? Well the quality of the CGI and the cinematography creates a wholly believable world. The production itself feel top notch and it is utterly spectacular. The cast does a great job in their roles and as a whole pretty much everyone is likable. The story is interesting, its filled with adventure, danger, and mystery. So on a whole, its the making of and excellent movie. More importantly I had a smile on my face for a good part of the film. So where does it go wrong?

Well my guess is that it all went wrong in the editing room. Initially there were only going to be two Hobbit films. Only at the last minute did they decide to make The Hobbit into a trilogy. I suspect that a lot of what might have been cut was added back into the film to plump up the running time. I say this because the films pacing is a little too slow and you will feel this film's nearly three hour run time. Heck it takes the film about an hour just to get the whole adventure going.

The other major problem falls under the category of the old saying "to many cook in the kitchen." As you may well know, Guillermo del Toro was initially set to direct The Hobbit. A lot of the film's pre-production was done by del Toro. He worked on the script, probably story boarded most of the film. Essentially most of what set the feel and the tone of the film was done by del Toro. In 2010 Guillermo del Toro left The Hobbit because at that point the film seemed like it was never going to get made. He eventually went on to shoot Pacific Rim. So Jackson took over and the tone of the film was forever confused. Several times during the film I said to myself oh, well this scene seems to be made for people of all ages to enjoy from small children to full grown adults...a wonderful scene like this is immediately followed a scene of extreme violence and darkness. The conflicting tones create an experience where I'm not entirely certain how to feel. Is this a lighthearted fantasy adventure or is this a darker film where people are decapitated or bludgeoned to death with a rock. This is unfortunately something that happens when someone takes over a project from another directer.

Anyway, The Hobbit is still a perfectly enjoyable film. Sure its not a great as I had hoped, but I still enjoyed it well enough. Also I have a feeling that we might see some of the issues I mentioned resolved by the second film.

[7.5/10]
 
I Saw Moonrise Kingdom a couple weeks ago. Thought it was a fantastic film that showed a side of Bruce Willis that we don't see too often. Check it out if you haven't. :D
 
Top Films of 2012:

Wow, there are a lot of film I regret not seeing this year. So needless to say this list lacks most big name foreign or Indie films or even a lot of the big name films that people are raving over. So please excuse this somewhat lacking list:


#7: The Master:

Yeah, I know...so far I haven't reviewed this one yet...mostly because I still can't think of what to say about it other than its very good and chances are you will not like the film. This is an incredibly pretentious and thickly layered film that will probably annoy or bore 50% of the people who see it. Still its a very well made and incredibly well acted character study and it is one of the most memorable films of this year.


#6: The Raid: Redemption:

As far as straight action films go, The Raid knocks everyone out of the park. It is simply the most enjoyable actioney action film to come out in a while...probably since Crank 2.


#5: The Avengers:

Its crazy enough that the whole Mavel film thing made enough money to warrant an Avengers film let alone one that was actually good. The Avengers has its flaws, but it is also an incredibly enjoyable film and it will be the summer film to beat for many years to come.


#4: Skyfall:

Skyfall is essentially a mini-reboot in what is essentially a rebooted series and its pretty much exactly what the Bond series needed. The Craig bond had begun to stray to far away from the series roots and Skyfall reconnects the new films to the past while building the franchises future. On top of that, it a well made film and the highest grossing Bond film to date.


#3: The Cabin in the Woods

I love a good ole' fashion genre deconstruction and The Cabin in the Woods is just that, a great deconstruction of the horror genre...particularly the sub-genre that involves spooky cabins in the spooky woods. Its best you see this one without knowing anything about it...like nothing. All I knew going into it was that it was written by Joss Whedon and that being a film geek, I should be excited to see this movie.


#2: Lincoln:

Lincoln surprised me, I was taken aback by just how good Lincoln was. Maybe thats because I've a little to down on Spielberg or I thought it was going to be some unfocused war epic. Still, go see Lincoln...just do it.


#1: Looper:

Looper is faaaaaantastic. Its the hard R sci-fi film that I was looking for this year. It wasn't even on my radar until it came out and I noticed it was written and directed by Rian Johnson, the man behind the excellent film Brick. Looper is probably the best time travel film since, Timecrimes. So yeah, Looper is the best film I've seen this year. Hopefully next year I'll get out and see a wider variety of films.

Also, yes I need to see Moonrise Kingdom
 
Hey Sexy since you said that theres quite a few films that you regret not seeing this year, hit me up with some of the titles that youd like 2 get a review on & if they look interesting enough, then ill watch em. Just dont want another mishap of the old skool iron man movie.
 
pillar said:
Hey Sexy since you said that theres quite a few films that you regret not seeing this year, hit me up with some of the titles that youd like 2 get a review on & if they look interesting enough, then ill watch em. Just dont want another mishap of the old skool iron man movie.
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Well a lot of them were Indie films or foreign films that I never got around to seeing. I'm seeing Django Unchained tonight and Zero Dark Thirty whenever that is getting a wide release. I still need to see:

Argo
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
Killer Joe
Holy Motors
The Deep Blue Sea
The Imposter
Bernie (Which is on Netflix...and I'll watch it one of these days)
Amour (Actually thinking about it I still haven't seen Haneke's The White Ribbon)
It?s Such A Beautiful Day
Killing Them Softly
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Seven Psychopaths
Kill List
Cosmopolis

...and a few others that'll come to me later.
 
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Title: Zero Dark Thirty
Year: 2012
Country of Origin: US
Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Plot: So how do you feel about torture?

Review:No seriously, the above questions will probably dictate how you feel about this production. Zero Dark Thirty is a film that methodically details the major points of the hunt for Osama bin Laden between 2003 and May, 1 2011 when he was killed by a team of US Navy Seals. Part of this hunt, included the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques...the dramatizations of which are kind of hard to watch. Yeah, needless to say there is a lot of controversy floating around this film. But seeing that I am in a no way an expert on the subject on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, I'm not going to comment on accuracy or pretty much any of the controversy about the film.

So lets get down to business, is the film any good?

Yes, it is an excellent film. Kathryn Bigelow further proves that she is pretty much the only one who can cover the war on terror correctly. The acting is great, with props going to Jessica Chastain for her performance as the films main character. The pacing is pretty brisk for a film that is two and a half hours. It also helps that the films ending contains one of the best fire fight scenes ever filmed. So I going to say, go see this film...but if you have a problem with watching scenes of torture then you should probably steer clear of this one.

[9/10]
 
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Title: Topsy-Turvy
Year: 1999
Country of Origin: UK
Director: Mike Leigh

Plot: Have you ever seen a Gilbert and Sullivan show? If you haven't...well you're missing out. Gilbert and Sullivan were duo who created several comedic operas in the late 19th century. Its not necessary to have seen a Gilbert and Sullivan piece to appreciate this film, but you'd be remissed to think that you should go through life without seeing at least one.

Review: Topsy-Turvy is long, clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes and there are some spots that seem to drag...this sums up my only complaint about the film. Its technically a bio-pic of Gilbert and Sullivan covering the period between the debut of Princess Ida and the debut of The Mikado, one of their most successful and entertaining works. The acting is top notch, the whole cast is amazingly talented and they all did their own singing. If you're a fan of the TV series Rome, keep a look out for Kevin McKidd...its really weird to see Lucius Vorenus singing. The directing is perfect, Mike Leigh knows exactly where to put a camera and when to move it, he allows a scene to unfold without an excess of cuts and lets the action take place around the camera as opposed to the...well...opposite of that.

The film is strange and intermittently hilarious. The pacing is a little slow and it almost seems like the film makers have no interest in reaching the conclusion. I found it perfectly fine since I was entertained for most of the films running time, but there will be some who will find this off putting. What is really impressive though, is that the film contains several fully produced songs and scenes from various Gilbert and Sullivan works. They are all impressive and fun mostly due to the talented cast.

From what I've read, this film was exhaustively researched and its pretty much historically accurate. Making the production feel whole and authentic. Sure not everyone will like this one, but I enjoyed it and I guess in this thread that's what counts.

[9/10]
 
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Title: The Sylvian Experiments (Kyōfu)
Year: 2010
Country of Origin: Japan
Director: Hiroshi Takahashi

Plot: The film hypothesizes that if you apply an electric current to the part of the brain called the Sylvian fissure...you can trip balls.

Review: So yeah, the film isn't actually about crazy electricity based hallucinations. Heck, I'm not entirely certain what this this film is trying to get at or say. I guess it has something to do with suicide and that committing suicide is generally frowned upon...or something like that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this film sucks.

[3/10]
 
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Title: Back from Hell
Year: 2011
Country of Origin: Italy
Director: Leonardo Araneo

Plot: Look at that poster up above, you see that woman walking on the ceiling? Yeah, that never happens in the film. Heck, nothing even close to that happens. I wish something like that did happen, it would have made it at the very least entertaining.

Review: Its an Italian film, but don't worry they're all speaking english...for no particular reason. Well I guess it was so they could release it in an American market, but it doesn't really work with the setting or the thick accents. Oh, nearly forgot...this is a found footage film. So expect shakey camera movements and cheap looking everything. Actually you probably shouldn't worry about this since in all likelihood you will never see this film...you probably make sure of that cus this one sucks. Sure there is some unintentional humor here and there, but its too few and far between for this one to be worth watching.

[3/10]
 
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Title: Lars and the Real Girl
Year: 2007
Country of Origin: US
Director: Craig Gillespie

Plot: Lars is a nice guy. He live next to his brother and sister-in-law at his folks old home. People seem to like him well enough, but Lars is a quiet man and he is a little withdrawn. One day he buys an anatomically correct sex doll and starts to call it his girl friend.

Review: I guess what I like most about this film is that it never goes for the low hanging fruit. Its never dirty or raunchy or uncouth. No the film sidelines that and presents a cute and touching tale of one mans delusion and how the people around him come together to help him and not cast him out as some weird fetishist. The humor is mostly situational and there are some good laughs to be had. The acting is great, every one hits their marks and are believable in their roles. Overall its an unassuming comedy that is a pleasure to watch.

[8/10]
 
Here's my current Netflix queue...cus why not:

Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone
Evangelion: 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance
Dawn of the Dead
My Own Private Idaho
Scanners
2046
Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht
The Sacrifice
The Killing Fields
Crash
Bad Lieutenant
Hands Over the City
La Haine
The Naked Kiss
Fighting Elegy
High and Low
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Infernal Affairs
American Movie
High Fidelity
The Amazing Screw-On Head
It's a Gift
Shinjuku Triad Society
Days of Heaven
Benny's Video
The Virgin Spring
A Snake of June
Alucarda
Bad Guy
Female Prisoner 701 Scorpion
Izo
The Face of Another
The Night Porter
Kwaidan
Jubilee
Bad Timing
Westworld
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Repo Man
The Silence
Eyes Without a Face
Scorpion: Beast Stable
Paprika
Bright Future
Black Sheep
Dead Ringers
Visitor Q
The Piano Teacher
Lady Vengeance
Repulsion
The Spiral Staircase
Inland Empire
Graveyard of Honor
Deliverance
Two-Lane Blacktop
This Sporting Life
The Man Who Wasn't There
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
Hour of the Wolf
Doppelganger
Amores Perros
Pandora's Box
Time of the Wolf
Vertigo
Seance
Rendition
Gone Baby Gone
Suspiria
The Wicker Man
Phantasm
Onibaba
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Marebito
Murderball
Crumb
Ghost World
Spider
Hard Candy
Cinema Paradiso
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
The Guns of Navarone
The Mist
Jigoku
Blast of Silence
Judgment at Nuremberg
Mon Oncle
The Asphalt Jungle
The Naked Prey
Fail-Safe
In a Glass Cage
Man with the Movie Camera
Clean, Shaven
Sweet Movie
The Grapes of Wrath
Woman in the Dunes
The Big Sleep
Nights of Cabiria
THX 1138
Darkon
Closely Watched Trains
Evil Dead Trap
sex, lies, and videotape
Sisters
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
Thieves' Highway
Belle de Jour
24 Hour Party People
Running Scared
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai
The Lives of Others
Drugstore Cowboy
Grave of the Fireflies
Lolita
He Was a Quiet Man
The Kentucky Fried Movie
Pierrot Le Fou
Splatter: Naked Blood
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Dead Man
Dog Soldiers
The Manchurian Candidate
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3:10 to Yuma
Rescue Dawn
SLC Punk
Kill!
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
After Hours
The Third Miracle
I Stand Alone
The Brood
Krull
Sick
Africa Addio: Directors' Cut
Blood Brothers
Control
Death of a Cyclist
Death Note
MirrorMask
Visions of Suffering
The City of Violence
Boyz N the Hood
Eden Log
Man on Wire
Following
The Wrestler
Reds
The Innocents
Vanishing Point
I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse
Umberto D.
D.O.A.
Rabid
Ashes and Diamonds
Flame and Citron
Tokyo Sonata
Cannibal! The Musical
The Sweet Hereafter
Vengeance
Cronos
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
The Pentagon Wars
Kim
Zigeunerweisen
Kanal
Kids
The Dead Zone
Black Dynamite
Magnolia
The Skin I Live In
Band of Outsiders
Shallow Grave
Chronicle
A Dangerous Method
Shame
Super
Pusher
Pusher 2: With Blood on My Hands
The Mouse That Roared
Tanner '88
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Station Agent
The Bad Sleep Well
Metropolitan
The Last Days of Disco
A Colt Is My Passport
Carlos
Homicide
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
The League of Gentlemen
Shoot the Piano Player
Johnny Got His Gun
God Bless America
Kill the Irishman
Gods and Monsters
A Single Man
The Artist
Stalag 17
The Wages of Fear
The Train
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Manhattan
Moneyball
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Persepolis
Z
Departures
Princess Mononoke
The White Ribbon
Miss Bala
The Blind Swordman: Zatoichi
Azumi
Frontiers
Shortbus
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
I, Claudiu
Incendies
Ex Drummer
Tokyo Story
Atonement
Blue
White
Red
Night on Earth
Stranger than Paradise
Dogville
Le Deuxi?me Souffle
Broken Embraces
Bad Education
Brief Encounter
Spirited Away
[REC] 2
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Hesher
The Forgiveness of Blood
Safety Not Guaranteed
Killer Joe
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
The Imposter
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
Moonrise Kingdom
Seven Psychopaths
Kill List
Cosmopolis
The Royal Tenenbaums
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
The Ghost Writer
Le Doulos
Le Cercle Rouge
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Ken Park
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre
The Fourth Man
The Experiment
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS
The Eel
Wild at Heart
22nd of May
The Untold Story
Argo
Holy Motors
Amour
It's Such a Beautiful Day
Killing Them Softly
Silver Linings Playbook

Yeah, I have a thing for Exploitation films and ultraviolet foreign films. I wouldn't read much into it, I compiled most of this queue while watching the like of The Men Behind the Sun and Cannibal Holocaust.
 
Quick, Take Killing Them Softly off your list and save your self an hour and a half.

I hate to say any movie is bad. But damn did that movie strive for it.
 
ChocolateVillain said:
Quick, Take Killing Them Softly off your list and save your self an hour and a half.

I hate to say any movie is bad. But damn did that movie strive for it.
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I can't...its directed by Andrew Dominik who also directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which I really did like. So I kind of have to watch it.


Fullmetal said:
Best films ever.
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I've watch the series a while back and I think I saw the first one, but I can't remember much so I rented it again.


Lucas15 said:
The Outsiders.
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Added to the queue.
 
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Title: The End of Evangelion
Year: 1997
Country of Origin: Japan
Director: Kazuya Tsurumaki & Hideaki Anno

Plot: If you're confused by the finally of Neon Genesis Evangelion, then you probably should see this movie.

Review: The End of Evangelion is pretty much the literal ending of the series Neon Genesis Evangelion. The original ending to the series is so cryptic and filled with metaphor that it would make even Andrei Tarkovsky scratch his head in confusion. Of course what all this means is don't see this movie unless you've already seen the series. Anyway, I'll skip pretty much everything in the way of plot. Lets just say that its actually really good and most importantly a satisfy conclusion to the original Evangelion series.

[8.5/10]
 
Ok so I just searched and found multiple movies w/ the title Black Sheep. Are you referring to the movie with Chris Farley and David Spade or the others? Frankly thats the only 1 I know of.

Also the movie above night on earth, is the title supposed to be Red or is it supposed to be all together, as in Blue, White & Red?

No offense Sexy, but I keep finding multiple posting for movies that you posted above. Is the vanishing point movie the one from back in the 90's or the older 1?
 
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pillar said:
Ok so I just searched and found multiple movies w/ the title Black Sheep. Are you referring to the movie with Chris Farley and David Spade or the others? Frankly thats the only 1 I know of.

Also the movie above night on earth, is the title supposed to be Red or is it supposed to be all together, as in Blue, White & Red?

No offense Sexy, but I keep finding multiple posting for movies that you posted above. Is the vanishing point movie the one from back in the 90's or the older 1?
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Ok, so Black Sheep is a 2006 horror-comedy from New Zealand about undead sheep. It seemed cheeky in the same vein as Braindead.

Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors trilogy consist of the titles Blue, While, and Red. Supposedly representing the three guiding principles of The French Revolution...you know other than decapitation and restructuring the calendar.

Also, yeah its the original Vanishing Point. Which was also the inspiration of one of my favorite rock albums.
 
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