What's the last movie you've seen?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Last three movies I've seen:

1) Das Leben der Anderen
2) Syriana
3) Munich


Will probably go to see "Inside Man" tomorrow... although the idea that Spike Lee makes a mainstream thriller sounds still kinda weird to me.

[Middle-aged Europe]

2) Syriana

Any good?

A good example for liberal Hollywood propaganda.

Many people probably find "Syriana" both boring and too complex, because of its extremely slow pace, the almost documentary-like style, the multiple plots and storylines as well as the dozen or so different main characters (the numerous supporting characters not counted).

It isn't exactly your typical "blockbuster" action movie. You have to pay attention to everything what happens on the screen and you have to think a lot. The script for "Syriana" is from the same author who has written "Traffic" and in many ways both movies are comparable in the structure of their plots as well as their visual style. Think of it as "Traffic" with greedy oil executives and corrupt CIA officals instead of greedy drug lords and corrupt Mexican cops.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Da Vinci Code



Two remarks about the movie:

1) Most of the supposed plot twists and suprising revelations could be guessed at least half an hour before they took place on the screen.

2) A few times the movie even became unintentionally funny. I haven't read Dan Brown's novel, but it appeared to me as if the director attempted to make a serious thriller/drama-version of "Dogma". As it turned out, this attempt failed.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Miami Vice


I have to admit that I actually enjoyed it... certainly better than I expected, considering that it's just a adaptation of a TV series from the 80ies.

But I do have a weakness for those bleak and morally ambiguous cop thrillers... plus, I like this ultra-realistic documentary-like style with shaken hand-held cameras etc. which has become popular in recent years (despite the fact that many people think that it hurts the eye after a while and causes them headaches ).


Btw, judging from the "masterpiece or crap?" debates on the imdb message board this seems to be a pretty polarizing movie.  The same applies to the user rating there:

10 out of 10 - 1832 votes
...
5/10 - 874 votes
4/10 - 626 votes
...
1/10 - 1249 votes


Well, personally I would give it a 7/10 or so.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Akira (DVD)

My first (no, second actually) attempt at animes.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Mein Führer

[Middle-aged Europe]

SUNSHINE

In one smiley What was with that film? A half melted man saying GOD told him that he wanted the World to die in an never-ending winter?

The first half of the movie sort of plagiarized "2001" (which made the first half definitely superior), while the second half was an all too obvious rip-off of "Event Horizon"... minus that evil dimension.

I just sat in the cinema and couldn't stop asking myself "what the hell were they thinking, when they decided to turn this in just another Teenie slasher movie"??

[Middle-aged Europe]

Back to the Future

I haven't seen the film in a very longtime, but I still found it quite enjoyable. Especially when Doc asks Marty about who's President in 1985.

And in 1985 some might have reacted exactly the same way had they been told who's Governor of California in our time period...

[Middle-aged Europe]

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Watch it again. (Was it Directors Cut, Final Cut or Original Hollywood release?)

Yeah... the first time I tried to watch Blade Runner I thought it was boring as hell. I became a die-hard fan of this movie not earlier than the fifth time I saw it.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Movies I've seen in cinema this year:

Milk
Frost/Nixon
Watchmen
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation
State of Play



Last movie I've watched on TV:

Jurassic Park, I think.



Last movie I've watched on DVD:

Can't really remember. Possibly Mystic River.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Last King of Scotland

[Middle-aged Europe]

I saw two yesterday.

Get Real and Nixon. Both enjoyable movies.

I love [/i]Nixon[/i]. It overly inflated my hopes for W. though. I kept sitting there in the theatre wondering "Why is this movie such crap? Why couldn't you have just made this like Nixon and cut out the cheesiness and comedy?". It turned Bush into a cartoon character who makes gaffes in private conversations that happened during speeches. The best thing about Nixon was that it humanized him. The dialogue in Nixon and the casting were all amazing, the opposite was true of W.

Stone jumped the shark big time with Alexander, he'll never recover....

Yeah, that was also my problem with "W."

It was a movie which couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a serious character drama or a full-blown satire. The end product was a pretty uneven picture.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Ghost Writer

[Middle-aged Europe]

In theater (reverse order):
The Social Network
The Town
Inception
The Ghost Writer

Non-theater:
2001: A Space Odyssey (rewatch)
Magnolia (first time)
Network (rewatch)
Requiem for a Dream (first time)

I found Magnolia terribly boring, while I enjoyed Requiem for a Dream. Since I had exactly the same sentiments about There Will Be Blood and The Wrestler, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a fan of Darren Aronofsky, but not of Paul Thomas Anderson. Tom Cruise's character in Magonolia cracked me up though. "Respect the cock!"

Network and 2001 speak for themselves really.

The Town: My first thought was that it must be a perfect movie for couples. Action + Love story = something for everyone. Of course, Ben Affleck is a better director than actor and of course Jon Hamm is a better actor than Affleck. Still enjoyable though.

The Social Network: Fincher + Sorkin = Win.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Superman Returns - The fact that it is often considered lackluster helped me enjoy it, I guess. It certainly exceeded my lowered expectations Notable performance: Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.

The Road - Pretty much what I expected. Certainly competes with Children of Men for the title of most depressing post-apocalyptic movie ever made. Viggo Mortensen was great though.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Die kommenden Tage

German family drama against the backdrop of a increasingly decaying near-future (global recession + ressource wars + Fight Club-style terrorism without the fight clubs ).

A bit too soap operaish for my taste (oh noes, a love quadruple!). As for the vision of the future it presents... certainly a worst-case scenario, but not as far-fetched as many other things I've seen. The sh**t starts to hit the fan when Islamists topple the Saudi Arabian government. They should have spend more time on that aspect of the movie instead of exploring who's sleeping with whom. Given the run-down state of society the movie depicted the implied solution to all the problems seemed a bit naive though ("hey, let's built more solar power, and everything will be fine again soon!").

[Middle-aged Europe]

Theater: Carlos. French three-hour film (originally a five-hour miniseries) on Carlos the Jackal.

Non-theater: Charlie Wilson's War... I think. It has been a while.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I remember reading he was in some Turkish anti American blockbuster.

Yes, Valley of the Wolves... alongside Gary Busey! *lol*

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Day of the Jackal

Was saturday nights on TV, I think. Not surprisingly, it was much better than the Bruce Willis remake.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Dead Zone... the complete film for the first time, anway.

Cronenberg + Walken + Sheen = Win.

[Middle-aged Europe]

American Gangster

I noticed that I started to watch more TV between the holidays.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I went to this really weird bar in Chicago last night and they were showing Flash Gordon (while playing music such as Silverchair, Nirvana, Silversun Pickups, and Puddle of Mudd). I was pretty drunk at the time, but I found it to be hilarious (and Timothy Dalton is in it!). Also makes you appreciate how good a job ILM did on The Empire Strikes Back, which was released the same year.  

The movie already has an original soundtrack by Queen... what do you need the other bands for? (Official music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfmrHTdXgK4)

Freedom movie btw.

[Middle-aged Europe]

TRON: Legacy

Weak story and plot, impressive visuals and special effects. So just like the 1982 film, actually. At least they made good use of Jeff Bridges by having him double as hero and villain.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The King's Speech

Colin Firth is going to win Best Actor, obviously.

[Middle-aged Europe]

True Grit