well i felt a lot of closeness to the movie, pertaining to my own life in some aspects. So that also made it very touching for me.


Oh, btw, No Country For Old Men was great! Liked it very much. Also a fav of mine. I could watch the scene with old man in the store over and over. It's so real. I grew up with people like that. Just perfectly done.

In that case I'll refraiin from airing my thoughts on that one...

Last weekend, my wife and kids drug me to the theatre to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. From the very first glimpse of the CGI chipmunks (who I kept referring to as "3d animation", thus driving my wife nuts) on a movie poster, I had been preparing to hate this movie with the loathing of a thousand dying suns. You see, I had already been subjected to the live action Garfield: the Movie, and this just screamed more of the same. I had armed myself with instruction on the proper way to slit my wrists ("Remember, kids, down the block, not across the street!"), and was now down to working out the details of how my family would get around the suicide clause so that they could collect my life insurance.

Much to my surprise, the movie turned out to be quite decent! Sure, it *is* a transparent commercialization of a childhood memory, but the movie actually had an anti-commercialization theme, and hit on some family values stuff. Sure, Dave was a bit two dimensional, and his love interest could have been as easily played by a cardboard cutout, but the guy who used to play Eliot in "Just Shoot Me" actually made a good bad guy, and there were enough decent (dare I even call some of them clever?) one liners and sight gags to make the movie enjoyable.

I...I'm a tiny bit ashamed to admit it, but I enjoyed it. So there.

The movie Cloverfield opens today. Would love to hear from people who see it. I have been watching this one develope for awhile and I think it will be amazing.

I have to hand it to him - the Fresh Prince of Bel Air has done quite well. In my book, he's in a group with very selective company - Tom Hanks might be there, too. Guys who can play the everyman, who seem to be believable in whatever role they take.

So yes, I finally got around to seeing I am Legend this weekend. Excellent, outstanding movie. New York with weeds growing in the streets and deer running among the abandoned cars was a nice, creepy visual. Smith does a great job carrying this movie as the only human through the first 75% of the film.

I did think the ending was a touch odd, but I won't go into why that is (don't want to spoil things for anyone). I had one major argument against it, but even so, the movie was great. Well worth the price of admission!

We just came back from watching Cloverfield, and I would LOVE to see it again Right now!

I thought that it was very well done, although it doesn't answer many question.
Cloverfield is a crossbreed between Blair Witch and Godzilla. I don't want to spoil the fun here, so let me just tell you that it lifts itself above other monster movies by the reality of everything that's happening. The shaky handheld camera is something to get used to, but enhances the experience because you're on the edge of your seat not to miss anything.

I agree that the beginning of the movie is somewhat boring, but absolutely necessary for character bonding. Also, it heightens the action that follows, and stops at the exact moment you're consciously tired of it.

The monster itself looks like something that ran away from a Studio Gibli movie (Princess Mononoke, or Spirited Away).
The acting is good. There was not a single moment that a scene felt unnaturally performed. You have to keep reminding yourself that somewhere there had to be a director that said 'cut' and 'one more time'. It just feels real.

I figured out how the movie would end within the first half hour, and if you pay close attention to the way the film is portrayed, so will you. It didn't come as a shock to me, but I think not everybody will like it.

We had a great time watching this movie. It's more like an experience than a story. Much like Blair Witch was. Only, this one is 100 times better.

Funny thing: it was only when the credits started rolling that I realized there had been no music to enhance the tension. Of course there was no music, because it was supposed to be a documentation. But where so many monster movies rely on tension building tones, this one totally didn't need any.

Go watch this in theaters, and don't wait for the DVD release.

I just read an alternate theory about this Cloverfield movie, and I must urge you all to watch the movie before reading it, otherwise there is no fun in either.

follow this link, but you'll have to log in to imdb.com. If you don't want to do this, I'm sorry, but you can't read it.

alternate theory Read only the last three paragraphs of the first post, the rest isn't interesting enough to waste time on.

Forgot to post that we did go and see Cloverfield. It was, indeed, a fun movie - basically a godzilla flick shot documentary-style. I'm not sure it was worth all of the crazy hype surrounding the movie, but it was a fun watch.

I just returned from seeing this movie today (it's been out awhile). It's very interesting - a tear-jerker.

A young girl lets her imagination get away with her and condemns a young man and separates him from the woman he loves (Keira Knightly). He ends up going to war during the big WWII, and being a British soldier with the BEF at the final days of France being invaded by the Nazis, is present at Dunkirk.

An interesting film, to be certain; heavy-handed though, and can get you misty-eyed in places. See it to expand your aesthetic sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuksQwGOtVs
I'll earn some geek points with this one...it's Youtube 'cause the main site is so laggy.

Yeah, I saw a bunch this week. specifically Cloverfeild, Fight Club, Full Metal Jacket, and The Wicker Man (funniest movie of 2006).
But yeah. on the subject of recent movies, I thought Cloverfield was pretty enjoyable. One of my biggest problems with J.J. Abrams is his disposition towards a shaky camera. I believe I likened watching MI:3 to watching a regular movie, only someone is trying to push you down the stairs. But he actually had an excuse in Cloverfield. And that's good. Because now (hopefully) its all out of his system for Star Trek.

Saw Juno recently with my wife. That was a very good experience. It was a simple movie... but we really enjoyed the story. Some funny scenes, some good drama. Very nice.

Made me interested in checking out "Hard Candy" (earlier movie starring Ellen Page). Anyone seen this film? Did you "enjoy" it?

Anyone see "The Golden Compass"? Any good?

Said it was very good. I don't go to the movies anymore. I'll wait for it on DVD.

Juno was indeed pretty alright, not more than that. It's nowhere near worth the hype that was created about it; something I though Cloverfield was worthy of. The leading actress is good in her role, but she's mainly just acting like she always is.
We have seen Hard Candy, and I should just warn you not to get your hopes up. It's a decent enough movie, but the credibility of it's ending is a little off. The idea is good, the acting too, but it's not entirely convincing story-wise. We 'enjoyed' it enough, so if you're interested in Elen Page's work, check it out. If there are other movies in the videostore that you're more enthusiastic about to see as well, you'd do best picking those.

The Golden Compass was very enjoyable, with some moments of weakness and an ending that screams "Sequel". If you haven't seen it yet, perhaps it's better to wait and find out if they're making the sequel or not. If they do make the sequel, wait with watching until it comes out. You'll definately be wanting to check part II out in theaters. If no sequel comes, then rent it some time and have a good old fantasy time.
I don't see what all the religious fuss is about either. I think it's weird when people call out for the public not to go see a movie because of religion. Are they afraid people will start thinking differenly afterwards? I watch movies with serial killers, but that doesn't make me one.

anyway... we saw The Mist yesterday. It was a GREAT movie, even though we had a sucky experience at the theater. It's almost as good as the Stephen King book, which is one of the best he ever wrote, in my opinion. The acting is good, the religiously crazy woman the scariest and most manipulative you've ever seen those kind of people in movies. The monsters are fantasticly creepy.
Ok, so they changed the ending. They've managed to get you leaving the theater with the same feeling of disorientation and horror that the book did. The makers of this movie understand that fear is not created by bringing the scariest monsters to screen. There is much, much more going on.