Rate The Last Movie You Watched

[larrymcg421]

I actually liked King Kong quite a bit. I thought Jackson nailed the old Hollywood style quite well and so did his actors who knew exactly the right tone to play their parts. (Especially Jack Black, who was terrific).

But Jackson actually had two great films before he even made the LOTR trilogy: Heavenly Creatures, which is a fucking amazing piece of work and he followed that up with the severely underrated The Frighteners, one of the more original (based on the way it mixed genres) films I've ever seen.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I actually liked King Kong quite a bit. I thought Jackson nailed the old Hollywood style quite well and so did his actors who knew exactly the right tone to play their parts. (Especially Jack Black, who was terrific).

But Jackson actually had two great films before he even made the LOTR trilogy: Heavenly Creatures, which is a fucking amazing piece of work and he followed that up with the severely underrated The Frighteners, one of the more original (based on the way it mixed genres) films I've ever seen.

I agree. I really liked both "Heavenly Creatures" and "Frighteners". Also, don't forget about "Dead Alive". That shit's crazy.

I just found "King Kong" to be really boring. Just too much for me.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I actually liked King Kong quite a bit. I thought Jackson nailed the old Hollywood style quite well and so did his actors who knew exactly the right tone to play their parts. (Especially Jack Black, who was terrific).

But Jackson actually had two great films before he even made the LOTR trilogy: Heavenly Creatures, which is a fucking amazing piece of work and he followed that up with the severely underrated The Frighteners, one of the more original (based on the way it mixed genres) films I've ever seen.

I actually think King Kong vs District 9 is an interesting comparison. I probably would rate both of them roughly the same rating 5/10 or 6/10. I actually enjoyed King Kong more when I saw it though since mostly what I had heard was that it was a bad movie or not very good. I was plesantly surprised when I watched it.

Neither one is a movie that I would put in my all time top 250 list, but it is interesting to see how expectations effect your enjoyment of a movie. I enjoyed King Kong more than District 9 simply because of that.

[Chief Rum]

IIRC, Jackson only produced District 9. It was directed by some guy from South Africa (shocker, eh?).

I don't know if that makes a difference, but just pointing out that D9 might not have been entirely (or even much at all) Jackson's vision.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

IIRC, Jackson only produced District 9. It was directed by some guy from South Africa (shocker, eh?).

I don't know if that makes a difference, but just pointing out that D9 might not have been entirely (or even much at all) Jackson's vision.

Yeah it was originally a short film before Jackson was even involved.

[JediKooter]

I thought District 9 was a pretty good movie. I think it was a rather inventive way to show how fucked up Apartheid was in South Africa. It wasn't the best movie in the universe, but, it wasn't bad.

King Kong though...I don't mind special effects, I don't mind putting your own mark on a older movie, but, come on man, get to the meat of the story. The 1933 and the 1976 versions were much better paced than Jackson's version.

[ISiddiqui]

It wasn't... IIRC, Jackson just gave the money really. The director (Blomkampf or something) did just about everything else.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I'd give District 9 a 6 at the highest. "Heavy handed" would be putting it mildly.

Not sure if I posted a score for it, but I'd rate a 6 at the highest as well.

And I keep forgetting that Peter Jackson directed The Frighteners. I loved that movie.

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

King Kong though...I don't mind special effects, I don't mind putting your own mark on a older movie, but, come on man, get to the meat of the story. The 1933 and the 1976 versions were much better paced than Jackson's version.

The first time I watched King Kong I loved it. However on repeat viewings I end up turning off the movie about an hour into it.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by sabotai

And I keep forgetting that Peter Jackson directed The Frighteners. I loved that movie.

The hospital sequence at the end, where he shifts through time with brilliant editing, is as impressive as anything in LOTR.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

The first time I watched King Kong I loved it. However on repeat viewings I end up turning off the movie about an hour into it.

I'm pretty much the same way. I watched once all the way through and now if it's on TV, I'll only watch about an hour of it. He should have cut about an hour and 15 minutes or so and nothing would have been lost.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

When I saw KK in the theater someone there actually yelled out during the never ending monkey spinning on his ass on the ice scene, "Why the hell am I watching this shit?"

I'm gonna guess that the person was you, because you're EDGY.

[Groundhog]

BTW I have no idea if anyone has seen them outside of New Zealand and Australia, but Peter Jackson's first two movies - Meet The Feebles and Bad Taste - are amazingly terrible, in a good way.

[Groundhog]

Meet the Feebles is like a warped Muppets movie, and Bad Taste is like... well... imagine the first Evil Dead movie except with aliens, a lower budget, worse actors (the New Zealand equivalent of red necks ), and an awesome scene involving a chainsaw.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Meet the Feebles sounds like it may work on a Labyrinth level. I'm assuming no David Bowie or Jennifer Connelly though.

Hmmm. Well, imagine Labyrinth, but filled with sex and drug jokes, no humans, and songs about sodomy.

[Groundhog]

After a quick read of the wiki page, Avenue Q sounds closer to the mark (and something I wouldn't mind seeing!).

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Ah, so Avenue Q.

It makes Avenue Q look fairly tame.

[Groundhog]

Yah, I guess the best warning would be that Meet the Feebles is rather... umm... rude.

Still, the songs are fairly impressive and catchy (my circle of friends still bust out the Sodomy and "On a magic night..." songs randomly from time-to-time) and the puppet work is top notch (Bad Taste has some impressive puppet work too, considering the budget).

It was pretty amusing in hindsight, because back in high school we had all seen Meet the Feebles/Bad Taste and quoted it all the time, and when The Frighteners was released, we were all like "Wow, is that the same dude that did Meet the Feebles?". And then of course there was that little LotR trilogy that followed.

Certainly wasn't a predictable career trajectory.

[larrymcg421]

There's another Jackson film called Forgotten Silver, which I really enjoyed. It's a mockumentary about the discovery of very early films made by a New Zeland filmmaker that nobody knew about, but many of his advanced techniques predated DW Griffith. Jackson included interviews with industry types and critics (like Leonard Maltin). However, when this premiered in New Zeland , it was presented as a documentary and it wasn't until the following day that Jackson spilled the beans.

[DataKing]

The War by Ken Burns (9.5 / 10): I reserve 10/10 ratings for those movies that I find truly remarkable, and while this one doesn't qualify, it definitely comes close. This is actually a 7-part PBS documentary series about World War II, focusing on four different American towns and how the residents of each experienced the war. Extremely well-done, with a good mix of war footage (a lot of which I'd never seen before) and some really excellent interviews with veterans as well as people who remained on the homefront. Some of the footage and a lot of the interviews are quite powerful and moving. If you enjoy WW2 history, this is definitely worth checking out. It's no small undertaking though...seven episodes and each one is over two hours long. It's available now on Netflix On-Demand.

Daybreakers (6 / 10): I'm a sucker for vampire movies, so I figured I'd give this one a try. While the movie itself was decent, I did feel a little let down. The premise is a very interesting one; what would happen if vampirism actually spread to most of the world, to the point where there wasn't enough blood left to feed everyone. Basically an example of a parasitic organism self-destructing by nearly wiping out it's host organism. But the execution I felt didn't really do the story itself justice. Parts that would have worked very well as macabre were ruined by making them just gross instead. Still, an interesting premise and story, and not a complete waste of time if you're into this sort of thing.

Edit: And I too loved The Frighteners.

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by DataKing

The War by Ken Burns (9.5 / 10): I reserve 10/10 ratings for those movies that I find truly remarkable, and while this one doesn't qualify, it definitely comes close. This is actually a 7-part PBS documentary series about World War II, focusing on four different American towns and how the residents of each experienced the war.

If you like WW2 stuff I very much recommend you check out the Why We Fight films. Basically American propaganda shown to troops. Highly interesting and at times amusing. They're available online through the wikipedia article I linked.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

If you like WW2 stuff I very much recommend you check out the Why We Fight films. Basically American propaganda shown to troops. Highly interesting and at times amusing. They're available online through the wikipedia article I linked.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've added those to my queue. Looks interesting.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Kick Ass. Loved it without having read the comic, but I'm likely to buy the all in one edition of it just to see the differences between the two.

Nitpick #1

Spoiler

It starts out very much into the idea of just a guy trying to be a superhero and getting his butt kicked for it. By the end it was just another superhero movie. A really fun one, but it felt like it went away from the heart of what the movie is about.

Nitpick #2

Spoiler

Hit Girl loads up on weaponry which included grenades and they are even labeled by type. She takes on the bad guys and they are all lined up in a narrow passage. Instead of using one of the grenades in a perfectly tactical way she simply "runs" through them.

I agree with both of these. While I thought Kick Ass was hilarious, I thought going in that it was going to be more of a Superbad type comedy than an action flick, probably because McLovin is in the cast. I enjoyed it but it was not what I thought it was going to be.

I also wondered about the grenades in the penultimate scene. As soon as I saw all the guys lined up in the hallway, I thought "oh yeah, the grenades" but using grenades in that situation wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying to watch.

[larrymcg421]

The Other Guys - 5/10

There were certainly some very funny bits, but too many misses as well. Can't figure out why they felt the need to throw in some politics during the end credits sequence. You just made a silly comedy. Spare me the lecture, assholes.

[Neon_Chaos]

The Expendables - 8/10

You won't find much in the way of plot. But, come on, you know what kind of movie this was.

Action, Action, Action. It's Stallone's ode to the 80's action flicks, and it doesn't disappoint.

It was about 1 hour and 30 minutes, and it flew by really, really fast.

Spoiler

Of course, the scene with Stallone, Schwarzeneger, and Willis was kind of cool. The Terminator, Rambo, and John McClane in one scene... whowouldhavethunkit?

[Groundhog]

25th Hour - 8.5/10
Started watching this with no expectations and no real idea what it was about. Impressive movie, and I totally feel Hoffman's pain re: Paquin in this movie...

Ikiru - 7/10
Not as good as I expected it to be, considering nearly every other Kurosawa movie I've seen I've loved. It was kind of two movies in one really and, though I liked both parts well enough, it felt a little disjointed. I thought Red Beard is a better film of his with a similar(ish) theme.

[ISiddiqui]

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 10/10: Holy crap this was an amazing movie!! For anyone who really likes late 80s video games or arcade games, you will adore this flick. The gist is Scott Pilgrim has to defeat the 7 Ex's of the woman he's interested in before he can have her. It is presented in the format of an old video game with 7 bosses, each one having a point total when he beats them. The story is well done, clever, and absolutely hilarious! Cera does a fantastic job as Scott Pilgrim, mixing his trademark awkward kid with kick ass arcade game hero. The rest of the cast is completely incredible in their roles. The movie is very stylistically done and there are tons of little things that you could probably keep finding the 5th time you've watched the film.

[Fidatelo]

Kick-Ass - 8/10: Just a fun movie. Good action, interesting plot, and endearing characters.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 10/10: Holy crap this was an amazing movie!! For anyone who really likes late 80s video games or arcade games, you will adore this flick. The gist is Scott Pilgrim has to defeat the 7 Ex's of the woman he's interested in before he can have her. It is presented in the format of an old video game with 7 bosses, each one having a point total when he beats them. The story is well done, clever, and absolutely hilarious! Cera does a fantastic job as Scott Pilgrim, mixing his trademark awkward kid with kick ass arcade game hero. The rest of the cast is completely incredible in their roles. The movie is very stylistically done and there are tons of little things that you could probably keep finding the 5th time you've watched the film.

I would put it in the area of a 8, or 9, but it was a fun as hell movie.

[TroyF]

I'd have rated District 9 a solid 8.

The Other Guys - 7/10. As someone said above, there are plenty of misses. Some BIG swings and misses actually. There are some really big hits though. Some seriously funny parts that make up for the rest. I enjoyed this one.

The Expendables - 5/10 I wanted to see crap blowed up and the movie delivered. I knew going in there wouldn't be a plot worth a damn, and didn't expect it. That said, nothing fit together at all. I mean, nothing. I was entertained, don't get me wrong. But I can go to You Tube and get a mash up of great fight scenes and explosions and get the same feeling.

[Neuqua]

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - 8/10: I warned my friend that this has either boom or bust potential, and nothing in the middle and I was right. As Issidiqui said, the way the whole movie was put together was just really clever and unique. My face hurt after the movie was over because I had been smiling the entire time. Say what you will, Cera is *very* good at playing that certain kind of role.

The Expendables= 7/10: I got exactly what I wanted out of this movie. Two hours of testosterone-filled awesomeness. The writing was laughable of course, but again, who cares in a movie like this. Jason Statham really stole the show in my opinion.

[Young Drachma]

Watched Brooklyn's Finest last night. Sort of dark and dragged on too much I thought.

[JS19]

Anyone ever seen the movie Cyrus? It has John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill. I've never heard of until a friend mentioned it, said it was pretty funny.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by JS19

Anyone ever seen the movie Cyrus? It has John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill. I've never heard of until a friend mentioned it, said it was pretty funny.

dont bother. too "real life", if that makes sense. absolutely nothing happens.

then again, i really dont like mumblecore

[molson]

Originally Posted by Pyser

dont bother. too "real life", if that makes sense. absolutely nothing happens.

then again, i really dont like mumblecore

It's true that nothing happens, but I think one's enjoyment of this movie comes down to whether you find John C. Riley and Jonah Hill funny even when they're not doing anything. I do, so I was amused for an hour and a half (which was just the right length).

[stevew]

Just saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and liked it a lot. Solid 8/10 type movie. I'm saddened that it flopped at the box office.

[DataKing]

The Expendables (8 / 10): This was obviously one of those "check your brain at the door" sort of movies. I went in expecting a bunch of cheesy one-liners and a lot of explosions, and I got exactly what I was expecting. Yes, some (ok, a lot) of the dialogue fell flat, but those instances were mostly involving the more minor characters. The scene with Stallone, the Governator, and Willis actually didn't do all that much for me, but again this was mostly about the action. There was one surprisingly good dramatic scene with Rourke though, which I appreciated. It may have been a little out of place, but on its own the scene was quite good. But really, this was mostly about a lot of visceral action and testosterone, and did not disappoint.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 10/10: Holy crap this was an amazing movie!! For anyone who really likes late 80s video games or arcade games, you will adore this flick. The gist is Scott Pilgrim has to defeat the 7 Ex's of the woman he's interested in before he can have her. It is presented in the format of an old video game with 7 bosses, each one having a point total when he beats them. The story is well done, clever, and absolutely hilarious! Cera does a fantastic job as Scott Pilgrim, mixing his trademark awkward kid with kick ass arcade game hero. The rest of the cast is completely incredible in their roles. The movie is very stylistically done and there are tons of little things that you could probably keep finding the 5th time you've watched the film.

I haven't laughed so much in a theater in a long time. And it wasn't just me, the whole crowd was cracking up. A ton of fun. I highly recommend the books to anyone who sees it without having read them.

[DataKing]

Good article about what's wrong with movies today:

5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same | Cracked.com

[molson]

Originally Posted by Autumn

I haven't laughed so much in a theater in a long time. And it wasn't just me, the whole crowd was cracking up. A ton of fun. I highly recommend the books to anyone who sees it without having read them.

I've somehow never heard of this movie. I'm sure I've never seen the trailer, and I go to about 4 movies a month. I think there was a big marketing fail here if an $11 weekend was disapointing. I'm glad I heard about it here though, so I can make sure to check it out.

[molson]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Good article about what's wrong with movies today:

5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same | Cracked.com

Very interesting. Some of those changes though, I think represent progress in filmmaking. Especially the moving cameras/fake documentary stuff. Camera-shaking can get out of hand, but subtle but constant camera movement can do a lot for action and war movies. I'm sure when Griffith and Eisenstein pioneered editing and jumping movie scenes from one physical place to another, and others started playing around with moving the camera at all - people were freaking out and complaining about a lack of realism. But now you couldn't imagine film without that stuff.