Anyone seen a good movie lately?

[Father Demon]

Finished Walk Hard today.  Enjoyable, but not worth watching again.  Jenna Fisher is very hot.  The music was actually very good, and mostly funny.

2.5/5

[mussa]

The Orphanage - 4/5 - Guillermo del Toro who did Pan's Labyrinth, did this film also. I liked it better than PL. Scary, yet beautiful at the same time. I just realized he is doing the Hobbit movies also 

[Wingspan]

del Toro only produced the Orphanage...he wrote/directed/produced Pans Laberynth and Devils Backbone

[rjs246]

Mussa's review aside, I've heard great things about the Orphanage and really want to see it.

[mussa]

del Toro only produced the Orphanage...he wrote/directed/produced Pans Laberynth and Devils Backbone

ok, i wasn't sure. i think he is directing the hobbit and peter jackson is producing it. same guy who played gandalf is doing gandalf again as well...

rjs...the orphanage is really good

[MadMarchHare]

Del Toro has not officially accepted the offer to make the Hobbit, although he wants to.  The Tolkien heirs are fighting for the rights in court, and Del Toro may move on if it stretches out.  Jackson is in fact producing, and Ian McKellen has agreed to reprise Gandalf (if he doesn't die before it's filmed).

[MDS]

the pianist- would be 5/5 but auto minus pts for being directed by a coward pedophile. 4/5

[ice grillin you]

the 2008 summer movie of the year



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c00kYuUPSw8

Before there was coastal beef, when Biggie was just getting started, before Tupac got got and just after Kurt Cobain popped a hole in his head is where the coming-of-age dramedy, "The Wackness" takes place.

Months ago when the film was just a twinkle in the media consciousness' eye, it was probably best known as the film where Mary-Kate Olsen made out with Sir Ben Kingsley, (or at least that's what earned it some initial press), but that's a tiny fraction of the story.

Written and directed by 31-year-old newcomer Jonathan Levine (who will have two films out in 2008 including the teen horror "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" due in early May) "The Wackness" is a semi-autobiographical manhood tale set in 1994 New York against a backdrop of a sweltering summer and burgeoning hip-hop sounds. The film chronicles a troubled teenage drug dealer (the up and coming Josh Peck), who trades therapy sessions for pot with his drug-addled psychiatrist (Sir Ben Kingsley). Their already-weird relationship is complicated when the hip-hop loving dealer falls for the doctor's daughter (played by 2008's soon-to-be indie It girl, Olivia Thirlby). It also features rapper Method Man as a Jamaican drug connection and the aforementioned Olsen twin as a fruity hippie.

And the film is pretty hard to pin down as it's man things at once; a drug comedy, a coming-of-age story, a serious first-love/unrequited romance heartbreak tale and the bonding male friendship of two unlikely buddies.

Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance 2008, the film was acquired almost immediately by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution later this summer.

"1994 found New York at a crossroads. And it found hip-hop at its creative apex. I suppose I was at my own crossroads...[and] I latched onto this music and never let go," director Jonathan Levine said about the music he still holds dear.

" '94 featured debut albums from Nas, Notorious B.I.G., Outkast and Method Man. Although these albums weren't necessarily made with me in mind, they spoke to me nonetheless. There was a restlessness to the music, a sense of provocation which I identified with. It's not so much that these albums had the right answer (they rarely did); it was more that they were asking the right questions."

Levine said an old Ghostface Killah lyric summed up much the story. "If you forget where you come from, you're never gonna make it where you're going (from Iron Man)." That sentence encapsulates a lot of what making this movie meant to me."

Music was such an integral part of the script that Levine hired a music supervisor early on. "Biggie was such an important part of the script that we got in touch with the Wallace estate and we were able to [get his material] and they were very gracious to us." he told First Showing back in January. "It was really important having that soundtrack and luckily we got all the [songs] we wanted. A lot of the artists and the labels were really excited about the opportunity to put it in a movie. You don't see Nas or Wu-Tang in a movie very often, especially not their old stuff."

The film also features an amazing Brian Eno-like score by ambient composer, guitarist / texturalist David Torn (aka splattercell), who composed the recent excellent score to "Lars & The Real Girl," and whose impressive resume includes guitar work for Spike Jonze's "Adaptation," the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski," and original music scores for "Friday Night Lights," the short-lived TV music industry show, "Love Monkey" and the upcoming Canadian metal documentary, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil."

Some of the sun-drenched cinematography in the film set to Torn's heavenly compositions will be like cinema porn to those that subscribe to the Sofia Coppola school of pretty pictures set to pretty music (we can safely say we are part of that group).

Throwing around "Juno" for boys comparisons is specious and a useless marketing tag hook, as the two films couldn't be any more different, but expect someone to throw that connection out there, and at the very least you know Sony Pictures Classics will be hoping for some similar success. If and when its marketing campaign (when it begins proper) reminds you at all of the 2007 indie-breakout film, don't be totally surprised. Film bloggers at the 2008 Sundance festival seemed to adore the movie.

While, the film's soundtrack is heavy on the hip-hop, the movie also features '60s reggae artists, The Pioneers, late '80s indie-pop act Vomit Launch, the aforementioned Torn score and and tracks by Donovan and Mott The Hoople*.

[phattymatty]

i've been looking forward to that, awful title and all.

i tried to watch the new harold and kumar yesterday and it was horrible.  i stopped halfway through.

[MDS]

damn son igy be old

[methdeez]

Watched Iron Man, in possibly the best place in Maerica to see it, the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight in Hwood.
This was an excellent action movie. I never was into Ironman as a kid, and do no know much about the backstory, but this was really good. Good script, a lot fo good humor, excellent action, etc. I was really unsure about RDjr as a superhero, but he really kills it as a hard-partying irresponsible rich boy (whatta strech).

The worst part of the movie is probably the emergence of the villian at the end, but I had the same thoughts for (the new) Batman, so maybe it's just a personal thing.
4/5.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

"The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"

Do you like laughing at nerds?  Do you like guys with American Flag ties and mullets?  Have you ever played the original Donkey Kong?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, see this documentary.  It is extremely entertaining.  4.5/5

"27 Dresses"

So, I get the video game documentary, and the wife gets the romantic comedy.  This was as standard as standard gets for this genre.  Katherine Heigl is still hot, but the more I see her act, the uglier she gets.  On a romantic comedy scale, it's an average 2.5/5.  If you compare it to higher-reaching films, I guess it could rock a 1.5/5.

[rjs246]

I watched the first hour or so of Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane. It wasn't bad enough to be enjoyable in that sense and wasn't good enough to be enjoyable as a regular movie.

It was almost too good to be watchable, which only makes sense for corny horror/zombie movies. I'll probably finish it and then never think about it again.

[MDS]

Leon- Awkward sexual tension between a middle aged Frenchman and a 12 year old girl + awesome action and ridiculous violence = a great film 4/5

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Leon- Awkward sexual tension between a middle aged Frenchman and a 12 year old girl + awesome action and ridiculous violence = a great film 4/5

Here in the states, we call it "The Professional".... and you should be banned for only watching it now.