Last movie you watched

[LargeLeader]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Noomi Rapace, phwoar.

Well I had fun with it. Thoroughly entertaining stuff.

[dude]

Christmas Vacation, Bad Santa, Lethal Weapon and Fargo got left out this year. Maybe later this year, or next year.

No Long Kiss Goodnight? Continue dying. Out.

I’m a couple of days late with this, but I couldn’t have been bothered in the past few days;

Christmas with Shane Black

Lethal Weapon

One of the true masterpieces of action cinema. What really goes over people’s heads is that this is truly Roger Murtaugh’s film. He’s the first main character we meet, it’s he who solves 99% of the mystery (Riggs only suggests that they follow up on Dixie, beyond that he acts crazy and shoots people, basically; Mel Gibson), it’s he who has a personal connection to the plot, it’s his daughter who gets kidnapped, he kills both the main villains and it’s him the film ends on.

10/10

The Long Kiss Goodnight

Did more for empowering women in 90 minutes than James Cameron did in his entire career. Mid 90’s R rated Samuel L. Jackson is God. Damn Marvel for wasting his time like that, when he could still be owning everyone left and right. Craig Bierko is one of the most underrated villains ever, I was laughing in every scene he was in. Even if it’s developed a cult following in recent years, this film still hasn’t been getting enough love. If you haven’t seen it, do so ASAP.

9/10

[beckmen]

I may have should have swapped out DH2 with TLKG. DH2 ended up being the only movie I really didn't enjoy this year.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): My initial thoughts is that it's not one of Fincher's best. It's a good film for sure, but the script isn't quite as tight as it could have been, and the music just sounded like rejected tracks from The Social Network to me. I'll definitely check it out on disc; possibly even buy it; and see if I feel differently then. B-.

Tiny Furniture: I have to admit, I find Lena Dunham adorable. So that colored my enjoyment of the film to an extent. However, it's a fairly witty little piece of low-key cinema. Feels like a more reigned-in form of mumblecore, with definite early Kevin Smith vibes, considering how it was made. It wasn't amazing, or even a breakout film for anybody. But enjoyable enough. I'll probably check out her HBO series. C⁺.

[Company Man]

Latest cheap Chinese DVD's are The Thing (2011), and Source Code.

The Thing, was.... the story was good. The CGI was, OK it ¨was shitty to me and ruined the film. I didn't like the way the creature looked generally, but I did like some of the ideas, like the arm things.

And fuck spoiler tags, that did not ruin anything. I also am docking 2 full points becaquse I didn't see the guy kill himself, nor do I even recall which fucking "HEY SWEDEN'ISH" guy he was. Lar's is the man though.

And the third movie is kinda set up.

6-10

Source Code was good, I do not get all the negitive wrap it got. OK, the bad guy is less stimulating, but the story was great, Jake can do it.

7-10

[Hudson]

Gonna have to agree on Reznor/Ross's score for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Social Network's score is really good listening, just good music period. The new score is mostly just noises that compliment the images, not actual good music which is surprising to me because I love Trent Reznor. Their new project "How to Destroy Angles" is really damn good though and their cover of Is Your Love Strong Enough was really awesome too.

[Hubbs]

Razor Blade Smile (UK, 1998)

Believe it or not but this UK made film is most probably the genesis for major US films such as 'The Matrix' and many future sci-fi films and vampire films, especially 'Underworld'.

The film is VERY low budget but shows the kind of imagery, cam angles and typical slow motion action that is now common place in all big films, the tight latex catsuit wearing hitwoman is certainly a much used idea these days.

Director West does well with virtually no money and using his parents house haha there are some really nice sequences here which look much better than you might expect. Cast is also quite unique really with some cult figures included such as Adamson, Warbeck and of course Daly, wonder if they were paid anything?

The film has some lovely hammy moments with some really delicious dialog, the obligitory sex scene for Daly, plenty of fangs and vampire hissing, a coffin full of weapons ('El Mariachi'?) and Adamson REALLY twisting the knob with his performance and facial expressions. In fact you can easily see an early Viktor from 'Underworld' with the character Adamson plays, almost a direct rip off infact, only Adamson is slightly more meaty than Nighy.

 

[Pandorag]

Priest

It is a very bad movie. No story. No suspense. Not scary at all, except the religious mumbo jumbo and maybe Christopher Plummer.

[BlackWatch]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Much more of the same as the first movie, so if you liked the original, you'll like this. Downey Jr. and Law are both excellent in their roles once again. Jared Harris was great as Moriarty as well. Noomi Rapace was also enjoyable in her role. Rachel McAdams... was still hot. And aside from some deviance from the history of the evolution of the automatic pistol, the story was good, and I really enjoyed it. I'd agree with the B+ rating.

MI: Ghost Protocol

I haven't been a fan of the MI movies since the original (which I really liked). This one seemed tacked on and completely unnecessary. Probably Cruise's worst acting to date. Almost like he either doesn't give a shit anymore or just isn't trying. Action scenes were not exactly original, but some of the fighting scenes were good. I'm not going to say it was good just because it's a big budget production and will take in a lot at the gates. I'd say C at best. Only saving grace was the new lady in my life provided a bit of a distraction mid-way though.

[Hudson]

Despicable Me & Galaxy Quest
Both fun movies 8/10

[Hubbs]

Johnny Handsome (1989)

Curious little crime thriller based around a disfigured criminal that has a major face lift, almost like an early version of 'Face Off' really accept a little more realistic.

Its kinda unique because the film almost comes across as an endearing story of a criminal who turns his life around after receiving his new face but then turns into a silly revenge thriller towards the end, I thought the endearing story might have worked better.

The cast is pretty slick with Rourke as the main lead and almost a prediction of his future facial issues, Morgan Freeman looking and acting exactly the same as usual, Forest Whitaker looking really geeky with a stupid beard and Lance Henriksen looking completely hilarious in some very gay looking tight fitting 80's attire complete with a ridiculous earring.

Silly title and surprisingly for a Walter Hill film not that good, the problem being its almost two different films stuck together awkwardly.

[PredBabe]

Young Adult-

I was trying really hard to like this movie but it was a let down. I love Theron and the message that the film sends is a good one, but still... Even the parts that were supposed to be funny just weren't; it was kind of hard to sit through.

[Moonpatrol]

The Muppets. Kermit  can play the banjo pretty good still.

[dude]

The Adventures of Tin Tin

My last film of 2011, and I'm glad I ended on a high note. Having seen Plinkett's review of Indy 4 beforehand, I was weary of Spielberg something Indyesque, but he's crafted an excellent adventure film here. The guy no longer has any edge, but goddamn is he perfect for family orientated stuff like this. I had a blast the entire way through.

9/10

The Expendables: Extended Cut

I traditionally start the year with Schwarzenegger, this is kind of tenuous, but still counts. Honestly, I have no idea why they removed all the extra footage they did, just about all of it adds to the film and helps define each character a little better. Maybe the film has just finally clicked with me.

Stallone's exasperated reactions to everyone's idiosyncrasies make him much more relatable. Statham gets even more comedic stuff, which he pulls off perfectly, he's actually much better as a laid back goof, than his usual dour intense self. I really think he should take on more action comedies. Li doesn't really get much more to do, but as far as I'm concerned he never got the love he deserved for his role, he's far more animated here than in his other US roles, playing a broke loser to perfection. Dolph gets the most benefit from all the extra footage, if he hit it into the stands in the theatrical, he hit it out of the park and into the next town here. More Terry Crews being Terry Crews is always great. Couture cauliflower ear speech is actually pretty good in it's entirety, it's more Tarantino/Shane Black and makes me laugh.

Steve Austin and Gary Daniels are still sidelined unfairly, especially as I never cared about the stuff with Eric Roberts and Angel Batista, but Daniels gets to have a bit more fun, playing Statham's evil laid back goofus twin, especially a bit where he gets annoyed because he's not allowed to water board the chick any more. This is probably the first time he's worked under someone who even has the slightest idea about directing actors, and he's very animated and lots of fun, you figure that one out. The insincere "Hi, what's your name?" "Hi! You havin' fun mate?" "Yeah not bad" back and forth between Sly and Daniels had me in stitches. They need to work together again for sure.

The next thing they did was redo the hand to hand fights so they're not cut to an inch of their life, Dolph vs Li in particular feels more Bloodsport and less Bourne Ultimatum, same with Statham & Li vs Daniels.

The only problem now is the shitty nu metal songs they added over the soundtrack and that they kept the crappy Charisma Carpenter subplot in. In fact skipping through it completely and leaving in all the surrounding dialogue about it works tremendously better.

It's still not perfect, but there's probably a fan edit out there that certainly is.

[NERMAL]

I'm sitting here drunk and by default Josie and the Pussy Cats has come and run it's course. This is actually a pretty cynical and intelligent film and I challenge others to watch it. Especially after seeing Justin Bieber in Never say Never...LOL.

[dude]

Catch .44

They're still making Pulp Fiction ripoffs? This was fucking atrocious. Bruno and Whitaker should be ashamed of themselves. A gigantic piece of monkey shit.

3/10