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Last seen...

I saw Candyman yesterday. I will admit to having low expectations for this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't think it was the scariest thing ever made, but it was creepy. The film also had a nice combination of graphic gore and well-crafted suspense (something for pretty much every type of horror fan).

On a related note, does anyone think the lead actress in Candyman, Virginia Madsen, resemble a young Gillian ("X-Files") Anderson?
 
The young, beautous Madsen in Dune didn't resemble anything at all with young Gillian. I guess 40-year-old Madsen resembles even less :D although she has aged with grace.
 
Stephen King's Sleepwalkers. More funny than scary, and I don't think that was King's intention here. Supposedly the script was inspired by a story that King never published. Hmm... in any case, Alice Krige ("Six Feet Under", Star Trek: First Contact) delivers a fantastic performance as the villainess. Everyone else, on the other hand, either underacts or overacts. Fans of the show "Charmed" may enjoy this since one of the show's stars, Brian Krause, has one of the lead roles in this film.
 
Anamnesis said:
Stephen King's Sleepwalkers. More funny than scary...
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I'll agree with that, having seen it when it first came out. (I remember wanting to get a copy of the fictional book it quotes at the start. :eek: ) It also features a couple of author cameos, if I remember correctly. King as a sexton and Clive Barker as a doctor.
 
Watched Team America again on DVD last night. Spent most of the day saying 'Maaatt Daaamon' to people for no reason. It even annoyed me, and I think I'm great, normally...
 
The Grudge 2. Now, I liked the original movie version, I liked the "American" remake, I even thought "Ju-On: The Grudge 2" had its merits... but this was Not Good. The formula is stretching very thin, and Shimizu is trying to compensate by moving further away from what made the original... uh, original, and adding more conventional horror clichés and EVEN MORE of that white kid and his mom running around everywhere. (By the time he makes "The Grudge 8", it'll just be those two standing in front of the camera for 90 minutes straight.) And that creeping feeling of utter dread that he used to do so well is completely gone. Not completely without its merits - the time-jumping thing is pretty effective - but he needs a new idea very soon.

On a scale from 1 to 5:
Ju-On: The Curse - 3
Ju-On: The Curse 2 - 2
Ju-On: The Grudge - 4
The Grudge - 4
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 - 3
The Grudge 2 - 2
 
The Da Vinci Code - (well it was Halloween a few days ago :rolleyes: ) what on earth was Ron Howard thinking? How strange (and uncomfortable) does Tom Hanks look? Who'd have thought Amelie was from Christ's bloodline. I think I preferred the book.

beergood said:
On a scale from 1 to 5:
Ju-On: The Curse - 3
Ju-On: The Curse 2 - 2
Ju-On: The Grudge - 4
The Grudge - 4
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 - 3
The Grudge 2 - 2
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That is just one long film really isn't it.
 
Heteronym said:
I just watched Little Miss Sunshine yesterday, and I don't think I've seen such a good movie since February, when Brokeback Mountain premiered in Portugal. This is really funny, emotional stuff!

Has anyone else seen it? I get the feeling it's an indie, so it's probably not popular. But it's just such a well-made movie about a dysfunctinal family with hilarious gags.
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I saw this a couple of weeks ago with my brother. Absolute Gold. How gorgeous is the girl who played Olive (can't think of her name, or be bothered googling it). It was so hilarious in such a real way. I was crying with laughter by the end, particularly at the dancing scene.

The cast is fantastic, particularly Greg Kinnear, who I have a new love for. I also have a new respect for Steve Carell, who I thought was very good in his role; played it nice and subtle.
 
I went to see the newest Matt Damon movie, The Departed, about two weeks ago (the night before my grandpa passed away) and really didn't like it. Unless you really like to see people's brains get blown out, forgo the hassle of the price of a ticket and see something else if you can.
 
Last rented movie this week: Seven Samauri. It was absolutely fantastic. Long and sub-titled but still great.

Movie rented for today: The Virgin Suicides. I hated the book. Thought I would give the movie a shot.

Last movie seen in theatres: Step Up. It was great. :) The dancing is why I went. My daughter is a dancer trained in classical ballet 15 years so we went together. We loved it. Lies - I am not sure why you thought it was so crappy. :confused: Are you familiar with dance at all? Okay, the story line might have been a bit juvenile and sappy but the dancing was awsome.
 
beer good said:
No, actually it's more like one and the same normal-length film repeated again and again and again with tiny variations.
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:D .
Perhaps it's a little like the Ring - if they don't keep remaking the same film over and over agin, they're cursed, or haunted or something.

lies said:
Just got back from "Step Up", and I must say, the crap they put out these days! Hehe.
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you mean lines like 'I'm fighting, for something that's real for the first time in my life!' didn't melt your heart? :rolleyes: :D
 
The Black Dahlia. Yup, this pretty much sucked. Remember Steve Martin's noir tribute Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid? That had more life than this admittedly stylish movie - in spite of half of it being clips from old 40s movies. The story is excellent, the sets are beautifully recreated, but there is NO direction except what took place in the cutting room, every actor seems to fumble in the dark for some clue whether their lines are supposed to invoke dread or laughter, and de Palma once again proves that he's a lot better at remembering old movies than making new ones. 2/5.

Aguirre - The Wrath Of God. Finally decided to give Werner Herzog a decent try, bought the Herzog/Kinski box set... and Aguirre knocked me flat on my back. This could basically be seen as a different take on Heart Of Darkness (you know, Apocalypse Now, though it has 7 years on Coppola) only set in 16th century South America and a lot bleaker. Yes, bleaker than Apocalypse Now. Klaus Kinski plays a madman disturbingly well, and the whole movie is one long descent into nightmare that seems to point towards the idea that all human ambitions tend to result in the opposite of what people try to achieve. They set off for riches, and find only starvation; for power, and end up lording it over corpses; to spread the word of God, and find only man's cruelty to one another. Very realistic, very creepy, very excellent. 5/5.
 
Gem said:
:D .
you mean lines like 'I'm fighting, for something that's real for the first time in my life!' didn't melt your heart? :rolleyes: :D
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No, I'm afraid my heart is not very meltable. I cannot remember a movie where I've cringed so much and felt so ashamed for the characters. Definitely one for the books, hehe.
 
Movie rented for today: The Virgin Suicides. I hated the book. Thought I would give the movie a shot.
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Okay, but how was the movie?

Last seen for me: An American Haunting. Stylish and nicely directed for the most part, but the scenes shot from the ghost's POV were overkill (too much switching between color and B&W). I also didn't really care for the modern-day scenes; in my opinion they really didn't add much to the story. I think the film could have worked just fine had it been set solely in the early-to-mid 1800's. Not a bad movie by any means, and better than I expected it to be given the director's previous movie was the horrid Dungeons and Dragons.
 
Aguirre - The Wrath Of God. Finally decided to give Werner Herzog a decent try, bought the Herzog/Kinski box set... and Aguirre knocked me flat on my back. This could basically be seen as a different take on Heart Of Darkness (you know, Apocalypse Now, though it has 7 years on Coppola) only set in 16th century South America and a lot bleaker. Yes, bleaker than Apocalypse Now. Klaus Kinski plays a madman disturbingly well, and the whole movie is one long descent into nightmare that seems to point towards the idea that all human ambitions tend to result in the opposite of what people try to achieve. They set off for riches, and find only starvation; for power, and end up lording it over corpses; to spread the word of God, and find only man's cruelty to one another. Very realistic, very creepy, very excellent. 5/5.
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Incredible film. Next up you must see Fitzcarraldo, and then check out the doc that Herzog made about Kinski, My Best Fiend. Great stuff.

I've been working my way thru the films of Eric Rohmer, courtesy of Netflix, and so far my faves have been, Claire's Knee, My Night at Maud's, Pauline at the Beach, and A Tale of Summer.
 
lenny nero said:
Incredible film. Next up you must see Fitzcarraldo, and then check out the doc that Herzog made about Kinski, My Best Fiend. Great stuff.
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Whaddyaknow, the box set has Fitzcarraldo and My Best Fiend too (along with Nosferatu, Woyzeck and Cobra Verde). And I have a lot of free time on my hands. Yay!

It's funny, the only other Herzog film I can remember seeing (though I know I have seen Nosferatu and possibly a few others years and years ago) is Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. Which is fun and all, but... yikes. Those last images, with Kinski and the monkeys...
 
Wish I was watching Fitzcarraldo.

Today I watched Hellraiser 5: Inferno, Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker, and Silent Hill. Perhaps good horror films just aren't made anymore. :(
 
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