WHAT YOU WATCHED THIS WEEK

[Sheridan Passell]

I read The Long Halloween when The Dark Knight came out, there was a lot of stuff in that, the roof scene stood out. Reading ALL the good comics and stealing the best lines and moments is a great method and not too difficult, it's surprising how many comic book movie screenwriters are too lazy to do it.

[Sheridan Passell]

Lethal Weapon 2 - Just a brilliant, brilliant movie. Great writing, great chemistry, memorable scenes and lines. Mel Gibson, what did you do to yourself? I love how his character is so anti-prejudice in this movie, what a turnaround.

The Last Boy Scout - Meh. If takes a long time for anything to happen. Bruce Willis is just too hard a character to believe, his family life is preposterous. Marlon Wayans was bland, I can see why his acting career never really took off. Hate the way Tony Scott shoots.

[dalmatianjaws]

Lethal Weapon 1 and 2 are SO SO good.  Three is a shocker, there is NO story, just things happening at random. There are fun concepts involved, but the writing is atrocious. Four starts with an armored warrior with a flame flower then jump to a scene with sharks. BIZARRE.

[Sheridan Passell]

Yes, Lethal Weapon 3 and 4 are a pile of steaming sh*t. Series finished with 2 when Shane Black walked.

Can't wait to see what he does with Iron Man 3, hopefully he's still 'got it', and has a proper degree of creative control.

[dnwilliams]

Casino Royale - Not as good as I remember.
Quantum of Solace - Better than I remember.
Melancholia - Not as good as I wanted it to be.

[Sheridan Passell]

Why has Casino Royale gone down a notch?

[dalmatianjaws]

Shallow Grave - great, great great.

ParaNorman - Jaw-dropping craftsmanship, so-so script.

[Sheridan Passell]

I always thought Shallow Grave was kinda meh?

[dnwilliams]

Pacing issues with Casino Royale, and the way some of it is shot frustrated me. I wasn't paying attention to it the last time I saw it, but I've seen it enough times now that nitpicking is easier, I guess.

Elite Squad - Good. Really started getting interesting halfway through when I realized what they were doing. Even more excited about that RoboCop remake now.
Gattaca - Great.
Road to Perdition - Great.

[Sheridan Passell]

the way some of it is shot

How so?

[dalmatianjaws]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - still brilliant ... and written in 7 days ... *sigh*

Hunger Games - not brilliant but boring as hell. Nothing makes a lick of sense, there is no narrative drive via character choice, the world building is trite and confusing, the shaky cam and TV-style directing are terrible, and the bloodless, spineless approach to the subject material  is reprehensible. Kids are killing each other for chrissake and no one seems to give a shit, how morally irresponsible NOT to show the carnage ... the PG-13 rating actually makes it more ethically grey than an R-rating.

It was pretty good overall.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - not NEARLY as awesome as I remember as a kid, but still ridiculous fun.

[Sheridan Passell]

I had almost the same reaction to The Hunger Games. But many more complaints after that. For me, easily the most over-rated movie of the year.

I always though Bogus Journey was the better Bill and Ted. ...Although it has been a long time (20 years?!) since I watched Excellent Adventure.

[dalmatianjaws]

Juan of the Dead - this arrived in the mail for me to review, and review it I will cause it's DAMN good. Who would of thought there was life left in the zombie genre (see what I did there?), let alone the zom-com genre. This flick is flawed, but SO fun and full of heart. The ending is actually quite a powerful commentary on Cuba. Great stuff.

[Sheridan Passell]

Out of interest what does it say about Cuba? Not too sure what life is like there these days.

[dalmatianjaws]

It's actually very surprising that they got away with that they did. It's very anti-establishment. The first zombie is wearing a prison uniform, hinting that the plague stems from Guantanamo Bay prison ... a pretty powerful metaphor. Throughout the movie anarchy is promoted as a fun, positive thing. They blow up buildings, scam locals out of money (the "hero" goes into business, Ghostbusters style, by killing zombies for people ... he answers the phone "Juan de la Muertos..."), and all the while they keep showing (literal) signs of government propaganda getting town down. At one point they are "saved" by the government, ala the ending of Shaun of the Dead, only the soldiers are horrible at their job and rescue an infected person that attacks them. The ending is quite powerful, despite all the silliness, and he gives a monologue about how with all the shit Cuba has been through, why should he flee from a zombie plague? It's just one more horrible thing on a long list, and he'll survive this as well.  It's pretty touching, actually.

Also, the entire movie is uncomfortably homophobic. They hurl "faggot" right alongside "traitor!", the one gay character is played as a joke and killed off early and refereed to later as annoying, and a major zombie kill is made by impaling it through the ass with a water pipe, then spitting on it and proclaiming: "Sodomite!"

So Cuba is kind of like Texas.

Also saw:

The Bourne Legacy - not nearly as bad as I expected, but really uneven. It's a bridge to another movie rather than a strong standalone story. WAY too much talking but the action parts are well done. Oscillates between really smart action and really stupid action. The whole thing is elevated by Renner and Weitz and Norton, the latter of which has nothing to do but bitch at computer screens.

The Inbetweeners (British Version) - three episodes in ... not that funny to me, can't say why.

[Sheridan Passell]

a major zombie kill is made by impaling it through the ass with a water pipe, then spitting on it and proclaiming: "Sodomite!"

Shouldn't this sort of stuff be redubbed/resubtitled for a foreign release?

[Sheridan Passell]

Renner and Weitz and Norton, the latter of which has nothing to do but bitch at computer screens.

omg he's playing us.

[dnwilliams]

The Raid: Redemption - Completely stunned this lived up to the hype. I *wasn't* hyped for it, simply because I did not believe it could be as cool as people were saying, but it really was. Makes me want to check out a whole bunch of action movies I've ignored for whatever reason. Thrilling stuff.

The Social Network - As great as it was last viewing.

The Cabin in the Woods - Did NOT live up to the hype, goodness me.

La Haine - Good enough that I wanted it to be better. Might need to revisit it.

the way some of it is shot

How so?

There's some really static, overlit stuff, framed uninterestingly.

[dalmatianjaws]

The Raid: Redemption - Agree 100%

The Social Network - Agree 90%

The Cabin in the Woods - I'll fight you to the death.

Inbetweeners Series 1- it grew on me but didn't love it. Too many obvious/recycled jokes. When they injected a little drama into it I liked it better, made people seem real which enhances the humor in my opinion.

The Time Machine (Guy Pearce version) - Always knew it wasn't great, but WOW it does not hold up at all. Though, I must say Orlando Jones really knocks it out of the park in his 2.5 scenes.

[dnwilliams]

I'll fight you to the death.

Weird, I'm happy we disagree on something and I'm the one doing the disliking for a change. CitW was an okay movie, but really. Nowhere near as clever or entertaining as people claimed. Is there a previously unnoticed 10% failing of TSN or is the luster just wearing off?