Alternachicks at the Movies
 

A new movie review thread just in time for the onslaught of new releases!

I am dying to see "Suspect Zero" starring Ben Kingsley and "Hero" starrring Jet Li :cb:

Recently watched "Ichi the Killer", a Japanese film. It was weird, gross and very violent- some of the martial arts films can be like that. I also watched a Chinese film called The Eye, a supernatural thriller about a blind woman that receives a cornea transplant and begins to see strange things -that was very creepy in some parts :yikes:

Mauvais, some of those Japanese thrillers have scared (and scarred) me for life!

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 last week, and Michael Moore is truly a breath of fresh air! Sometimes it’s just nice to see a movie that doesn’t pretend to be something else, doesn’t try to be subtle – but proudly has a mission and strong opinions. And you can decide for yourself whether you agree or disagree with those opinions.
I really enjoy his movies; it’s this mix of the absurd, hysterical and heartbreaking! I always end up crying though.

I also watched Shrek 2, and I don’t understand why I haven’t seen this before: it was absolutely hilarious, charming – and full of these fantastic movie and television references! And great actors/voices too. Wonderful movie! :D

Garden State is faboo. Very well done, the acting is great and the storyline is charming.

Mystic River - good but kind of depressing.
Bad Santa - not so good, but also depressing.
Anger Management - hubby loved it. Everyone else that watched it hated it, including me. Just wasn't that funny, and was predictible.

Jess: I saw Garden State too, definitely the best movie I have seen this year.

Cheers!

Ali

Just saw Secret Window. Learned two things 1. even when trying to play evil Johnny Depp only comes across as sexy. and 2. Steven King's movies/books are more disappointing than highschool sex.

I don't get it. We keep watching them, but we never really enjoy them. We keep giving him another chance...and it's always the same thing. The movie is awesome for the first half and then it just hits a wall and turns around and dies. It's like he took a break writing and then when he came back it was gone. Or two stories were patched together. I don't get it. Dreamcatcher actually caused me physical pain it ended so badly. And it was so good in the beginning too. :(
Okay, done with my King rant. I'll just pray that Depp doesn't try to pull off scary again. Crazy he can do. But scary just doesn't work.

King movies to watch - Carrie (I love that one), Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me (based on his story The Body), Green Mile (though that one made me cry quite a bit).

And yes, Johnny Depp is just plain sexy! :T :devil:

squeaker - you're right, i wasn't being fair. I do love Stand by me and carrie and i didn't know he did green mile. I was honestly just thinking of his most recent works, which have been greatly disappointing. Especially Dreamcatcher and Secret Window.

Now, I can totally list Johnny Depp movie recomendations. Like Chocolat and we recently watched one called Dead Man which was excellent. And I can not wait for the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate factory with him as Willy Wonka (and directed by Tim burton) that one I am excited for!

High school sex is dissapointing?!? Man, I'm glad I didn't miss anything!

Liziness- I agree with you on the Stephen King thing. I find his short stories or novels work well as movies but his horror stories don't translate well.

I find a lot of his books drag on and on and then go nowhere and have a lousy ending or the first half is great and you get a rip off ending that I like to call the "the tacked on 5 minute ending". I really liked the first half of "It" and then it got a little boring and then the ending was cheap, awful and a rip off! :mad:

Secret Garden was very predictable. I like his older stuff better. I enjoyed The Shining, Christine, Carrie and the Dead Zone. I think I quit reading his horror novels after The Tommyknockers - that one really put me off.

Having said that Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile were two of my favorite movies :)

I remember I tried to read Christine when I was in highschool and it was one of the hardest books to read. I got about 1/3 into it and just gave up. There is such a thing as too much description!! That was my main complaint.

Hubby and I joked about Dream Catcher, it was like he got up to go to the bathroom and when he got back he'd flushed his inspiration or something. It was like he got tired of writing or list his muse or something.

Any yes, Jessica I can confirm for you... you missed NOTHING!!! And probably only 3 minutes of it. ;)

Open Waters: not much to it.
Little Black Book: predictable chick flick
Anaconda: Yuck (and suck acting to boot)
Manchurian Candidate: Love Densel Washington and Merrill Streep
Paparazzi(sp?): actually much better then expected

I'm still catching up on older movies. "Bruce almighty" and little bit too jim carrey-ish, but amusing nonetheless. "Hidalgo" the boys liked it, I fell asleep for most of it. :( "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring" a foreign film, hardly any speaking, but beautifully set and filmed. I loved it, though it is quite slow moving

I saw Resident Evil -Apocalypse - it was great! Mindless zombie kickass action! :lol: (hey, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare)

I just saw "Shaun of the Dead" tonight - hilarious take on Zombie movies! :rofl: Well written, well acted and well produced. Two thumbs up from all six of us that went to see it. I think it was one of the best films I have seen this year - a must for fans of Zombie movies! :D

I saw that on the plane to the UK. It is HILARIOUS!!!

hI New to the site, Just watched ten films called Decologue, polish short films on DVD very interesting. netflix has them too.

Welcome ljoynich :) Sounds like an interesting collection of shorts.

Vanity Fair -- Loved it. Beautiful costumes. And Reese Witherspoon in a somewhat devious role, for once.

Hero -- Kind of boring. The action scenes were somehow dull. Can you imagine? Must have been the predictability.

Before Sunset -- Better than expected. Although some of the female lead's characterization annoyed me. But that's easy to do with my feminism. :p

Cookout -- Went to see it for Queen Latifah. And sure enough, she's the only reason to watch the movie.

Garden State -- Absolutely abhored it. Apparently I'm the exception. :) Although one thing is good. Supposedly Portman liked doing Garden State better than Episode III. Since her acting sucked in Garden State, maybe that predicts good things for Star Wars. :D

Well, we mistook the movie we wanted (Cold Mountain) for a crappy movie called Cold Creek Manor. It has Sharon Stone and that one guy, and that other guy. *LOL* It was by far the crappiest movie we've rented in a long time. About half way through we just gave up and fast forwarded it for a while, checked to see what was happening and then watched the end. Totally not worth watching. And now, to put Cold Mountain into our queue... :)

I kinda want to see Garden State. I also can't wait for The Polar Express, I remember reading that book when I was a kid. It looks so pretty.

NOt been to Movies as you Yanks call it for ages but have seen a number of fine videos and DVDs. One I particularly loved was a Japanese one called Battle Royal. Anyone seen it?


Basically Japanese society breaks down and school kids are playing traunt so the Government devises something called Battle Royal which is an extreme game show. A class of school kids are taken to an island and basically have to kill each other until one person is left. I know, I am sick but it was funny!! There is a new one out called requim I think or is it revisted?

I own Battle Royale and Battle Royale II :lol: Great movies but not for the faint of heart! :yikes: Haven't heard of the other film you mentioned :shrug:

I too am a Battle Royale fan. In fact I was just telling one of my co-workers about it yesterday. I love that movie. But have not been able to get my hands on a copy of the sequel. I also have several of the Manga books that it is based on. Very good, though somewhat more graphic than the movies.

BTW, I looked it up, Requiem IS Battle Royale II. :)

:lol: Didn't know that- only knew the film as Battle Royale II.

Just rented a couple of Jeeves and Wooster dvds. They're GREAT!!

What's Jeeves and Wooster?

P.G.Wodehouse wrote a series of books about a butler named, "Jeeves". They're British. Veddy amusing.

Cool!~ I should check those out - I love British humour, course being British does that to you :lol3:

We just finished watching Dawn of the Dead uber release - awesome! If you are a George Romero fan then it is totally worth it for the footage and behind the scenes stuff and interviews!

ellis- do you have a vcr or a DVD player? If you have a vcr I should lend you my tapes of the Cracker series starring Robbie Coltrane- most excellent!

We have both! That would be great... thanks, Mauvais! :)

When I get over there I will lend them to you then - I just love British crime dramas :D

You can look through ours and borrow a bunch, too!

cool!

Do you guys watch any other types of brittish shows? we watched all that we could find of the "All creatures great and small" series and just sadly finished up "the darling buds of may" series. I really enjoyed both of them. Up next is " A touch of frost" I really like David Jason. I hope we enjoy it as much as the others.

finally saw Cold Mountain. It was very much a lot better than Cold Creek Manor. *LOL*

Lizzi, we've just rented, "Are You Being Served". A BBC comedy series.
We loved, "All Creatures Great and Small"! :yes:

ellis - me too. i was so sad when it was over. we have one dvd left of all their specials from christmas and stuff. we are waiting til christmastime to watch them to prolong it. We have been watching a lot of old favorites on DVD lately. I love old TV. I got the series "Freaks and Geeks" for my birthday, i loved that show was so sad when it was over. We are in the middle of "mellinium" right now and I just started "MY so called life" which i loved when i was a teen and am still enjoying, though not quite as much as before. *L* I love old shows on dvd.

Lizzi, I really enjoyed the James Herriot books.
Have you seen, "Some Mothers Do Have 'em"? Also a British comedy.

We've just rented a couple of seasons of "Soap". I used to love that show. :)

I love Coupling (as far as Brit shows).

Last weekend I saw Ghost in the Shell II: Innocence. Very good. Not as good as the first one. Way too mych CGI but you've got to love bad subtitle translations, "I'm handling this off you." :)

ellis - i haven't heard of that one before. I'll have to check it out if I can find it. I wonder if they have it on netflix.

Saw BattleRoyale2 last night. I thought it was meh. Not as good as the first one, and they had this theme of adults are evil and america is evil that was kind of weird. Was it done by a different person than the first one or something? It was still good but not as good as the first.

Saw Ladder 42 last nite. Heard everyone sniffling in the theater. Even saw some of the guys wiping their eyes. Fell in love with Jaquin Pheonix. Gotta love those fireman.