What's the last movie you've seen?

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Paranormal Activity

Literally one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

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Paranormal Activity

It was only scary if you lacked logic and critical thinking skills. A friend and I went to see it in Georgetown this weekend, and literally half the theater was jumping in fear at what was going on. I thought GU students were a little smarter than that. Nothing that happened in the film could not be done with computer enhancements. It was only "good" if you went in thinking it was real. Even then, the only time I jumped was at the ending when the body of Micah was hurled at the camera.

Most of the people that go to that theater don't actually go to Georgetown. Also GU has a healthy population of dumb bros who basically got in here because of legacy/they went to a Jesuit prep school.

But yeah, terrible and boring film.

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Moon

Fantastic. It's inspired me to finally watch Solaris (the Tarkovsky version) when I get a chance.

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Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man", an acid western starring Johnny Depp.

Bizarrely fantastic.

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Daybreakers.

Such a sweet movie. It's like vampires + sci-fi + zombies with a healthy dose of Sam Niel and Willem Dafoe. Admittedly, the backstory and the world they created is probably more interesting than the film itself, but it reminded me a lot of an old sci-fi B Movie, that, at face value is just entertaining pulp, but at the same raises some interesting questions and social commentary as well.

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Fantastic Mr. Fox

I was beaming for the first thirty minutes or so as I soaked in all the hilarious little touches and the adorable animation and the referring to everything in human and fox years. I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching a film as much.

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I saw An Education the other day. Really good, I thought, with great performances from pretty much the entire cast, especially Alfred Molina and Carey Muligan. It's a coming of age tale disguised as a romance. The costumes, cinematography and art direction were also beautiful. 

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Year One

Okay, I guess. Some funny parts. The random Bill Hader and Hank Azaria cameos were the best.

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Crash

Pretty ridiculous and insulting to the viewer's intelligence, though some of the characters (mostly just Matt Dillon's, I guess) were interesting.

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Shutter Island

Really terrific. The story and performances are great, and I love how the setting of the story and the events that unfold add the mystery of not being able to know whether what you're seeing is some hallucination or if that crazy person is lying or not until the very end. The last scene was also really smartly done and a nice final twist.

And of course Scorsese's direction is magnificent, and you could tell, from the music and cinematography and design, that he had a specific and defined vision for the film.

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Rashomon

I'm yet to be convinced of the merits of this film.

Do you like Kurosawa's other stuff? Rashomon is probably my least favorite of the films of his that I've watched, but I still thought it was enjoyable.

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King of California

Pretty good little indie flick. And Evan Rachel Wood has the best eyes.

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2012

It's so hilariously ridiculous that it manages to be pretty entertaining.

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It didn't really feel long at all to me. The movie kept moving briskly from start to finish.

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I was pretty surprised to see that it got an 81% on RottenTomatoes.

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Piranha doesn't really sound like it has much of a plot, just hurrdurr these big fish are eating people, girls in bikinis and stuff.

“Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.” - Thomas á Kempis (c. 1380-1471)

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Metropolis (1927).

I wonder how many PhD thesis' in Gender studies has this film inspired?

Anyway the ideas are totally banal and prosaic and the ending conclusion is laughable (and in a way, unsurprisingly - the screenwriter later joined the Nazi party. In parts, it shows). However it is, in it's second half once the plot gets going (the first half is mostly dull other than the imagery, which is o/c amazing) it turns into the most exciting silent film I've ever seen.

Was it the full version they just found earlier this year? I've been meaning to get my hands on that eventually.

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The Shop on Main Street, a Czechoslovak film from the 1960s, one of the first Czech New Wave films and the first Czechoslovak film to win an Oscar. I really liked it. It dealt really well with the subjects of the Holocaust and living under fascism without turning into sentimental exploitation (like such films are wont to do).

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Finally saw The Social Network. I thought it was terrific.

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I ate a spacecake two hours before the movie started and went to see Harry Potter with friends last night. Now, the drugs may have affected my ability to watch the movie, but it struck me as at once the most lazy, cliched, boring and uninspired garbage mash-up of tropes and deus ex machinas pushing along totally flat characters with no emotional weight or connection from one set piece from the book to the next, soullessly going down a check list of important scenes that the fans want to see in movie form AND at the same time one of the most entertaining films I have ever seen.

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Most of the film's logic breaks down just like that if you give it more than a few seconds of thought. But their refusal to ever kill the enemy is really ridiculous. You're in a freaking magical war, there's apparently a Muggle holocaust or something happening, people keep trying to murder you and have already murdered plenty of your friends and family. Just avadava kadavra these idiot henchmen. Jesus Christ!

Imagine if Aragorn had gone all the way to Mount Doom just knocking orcs out and leaving them to wake up in a few hours. It's just nonsense.

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If I were a muggle in this world, after all of this ended I would vote for whatever right-wing BNP-esque party cropped up to kick these magical freaks out of the country. They're just all around awful and ruin everything. They're also so damn lazy; like the scene where they're putting up the tent with their magic. Can't kneel down on the ground for a bit or pull a bit of rope for a couple of seconds? It really makes no sense that any of the characters are as athletic in this film as they are (unless wizards are naturally some sort of übermensch that are genetically gifted with great strength), since in the real world their muscles would have atrophied from lack of basic use by this point.

And let's not forget that Harry is proven to be an absolutely worthless hero. Even Ron, who is supposed to be the dopey little working class sidekick with a heart of gold but no actual ability, would be a better hero than Harry. Like the scene with the sword in the water. Seriously going to jump into a freezing lake to pull a sword out? Don't you have some sort of spell to warm up the water? Or levitate the sword towards you? Or something? No, let's just jump naked into a frozen pond without any real strategy or forethought regarding how you'll get out again and not die of hypothermia.

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Grown Ups (that Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, etc. going camping with their families movie) was on the plane on the flight across the Atlantic. It wasn't terrible or anything, but largely unfunny and pointless. It's always nice to see Tim Meadows and Colin Quinn getting work though.

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Exit Through the Gift Shop

What a fascinating little film. Highly recommended.

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Dogtooth, a really cool Greek movie. It's kind of a black comedy, except you never really laugh because it's so dark. One of those films where it's best to go in not having heard anything about it.