Yeah I found out about Before Midnight afterwards. Pretty excited, hope it doesn't jump the shark

It should be great. When all is said and done it might be the definitive trilogy on romance and relationships. Pretty amazing how they've done the movies so many years apart from one another. From young love to middle age.

I love it too! I think it's my second favorite Tarantino movie after Pulp Fiction, without seeing Reservoir Dogs. Robert De Niro is awesome in every second he is on screen, and I will never get tired of Chris Tucker's scene! Also, did you happen to notice in the scene where Ordell is shot that Michael Keaton is wearing the white socks + sandals combo?!

Anyway, the reason I'm making this post is: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Just saw this yesterday and I can barely find words to describe how great I found it. I did a search and saw that it was mentioned in this thread before, but it deserves another mention! I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't say anything about the plot, but I recommend this to everyone. If you are capable of enjoying this kind of thing, you will enjoy it to the max.

Ha, really? That's awesome!

I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes a few days ago, and it didn't suck. It was actually quite good, and the chimp looked a little like Mark Wahlberg.

Centurion

Gory, brutal, and filled with manly men doing manly things. And a few warrior chicks too. It had the facade of being a realistic historical drama, but it wasn't. It's a manshoot with swords. The pacing was often frantic and unpolished, as were many of the cuts, the main characters were pretty much interchangeable, and the plot wasn't very engaging. Not a great movie. But at the same time, I did kinda like it. It was no nonsense. Straightforward. Despite having a lot of flaws and too-frequent moments of incoherency, it knew what it wanted to be. And the actors were pretty fun to watch, all trying to out-legionnaire each other. Especially Michael Fassbender, who played his role with gleefully manic energy.

The Double

It's hard to discuss The Double without spoilers, given that the plot is built on a major twist that occurs about twenty minutes in. So...

MINOR SPOILERS

The interesting premise was squandered by a lukewarm script that never capitalized on its wealth of potential, and often erred on the side of tedium. Especially given that one character spent most of his time trying to figure out something the audience already knew. What's more, neither Grace nor Gere posses anything spectacular in the way of charisma or acting chops. Their interactions with each other weren't bad so much as they were woefully uninteresting and lifeless. Only another rather surprising plot twist at the end kept the movie from being about as bland as they come. That and the cover art. Topher Grace looks pretty awesome yelling and pointing his gun off to the side like he's James McAvoy in the final shootout of Wanted.

END SPOILERS


Also, I saw Argo

SO TENSE. Tense from beginning to end. Literally (the beginning scene was arguably the best part of the whole film). While perhaps not better than the other potential Oscar nominees of this year (and there are a lot of them, aren't there?), its narrow focus meant that almost every element was about as perfect as could be. It's also one of the most gripping movies I've seen this year, just in terms of how emotionally involving it was. Seldom have I so viscerally wanted the protagonists of a movie to find a way out of danger--danger that is everywhere and inescapable. Only a few marginally contrived tension-builders near the end and Affleck's rather mundane acting tarnish it. Oh, and I guess it was a bit more Hollywoody than something like...I dunno... The Hurt Locker? And I guess some people are being really sensitive and nitpicky about its portrayal of Iran? Whatever. It was still awesome.

Leon the Professional. Was blown away by how good it is. Anyone else seen it?

Just watched Moonrise Kingdom. Pretty much new favorite Wes Anderson film.

Yeah. I own it. Not one of my favorites, but there is something irresistible about it. And Gary Oldman is awesome. EEEEVERRRRYYYYOOOOONNNEEEE!!!!!!!

Did you watch the international version or the US version? The international version makes the implied sexual tension between the two characters a lot more obvious. Which is why it was cut for the US version. Oh, and it also shows Matilda helping Leon with some of his hits.

Ah yeah it's the international version I saw :D

Beastly

My brothers and I picked up the Beastly movie tie-in game for Wii awhile back, just to have something awful to riff. It wasn't just your garden variety awful, it was truly one of the most worthless and joyless games I have ever encountered. So naturally, we decided to take a look at the movie it was based on.

Basically, Beastly is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in modern day New York. It was bad. Not only was the plot's face-punch moralizing absolutely insulting, but it also made no attempt to create anything other than character-shaped cardboard cutouts with motivations and emotions straight out of a Disney Original Series, and had a script that might have been forgivable in its mediocrity if not for its constipated attempts to force out something resembling middleschool wit as seen through the eyes of world weary 40-year-old hack writers. Oh yeah, and it was rife with logical absurdities, had a lead actress that couldn't act her way out of a damp cardboard box, and featured nothing that in any way resembled originality or cleverness. And according to my fiancee, the romance between the two leads was actually a bona fide "worse love story than Twilight" (I can't say for myself, since I haven't seen or read anything Twilight related). The only somewhat redeeming element of Beastly was Neil Patrick Harris, who seemed to be having an inexplicably good time playing a thoroughly unconvincing blind man. In his hands, even the most forced sarky dialogue was made amusing. If the movie had just been 86 minutes of him hamming it up, it would have been a far more enjoyable experience.

This is a movie that appeals to one demographic, and one only: adolescent girls who think sparkle ink romance, corny highschool moralizing, and a moderately attractive male to fawn over combine into movie gold. Unless that sounds like you, or you're looking for another baddie to riff with friends, don't even give Beastly a second thought.

I guess it's better late than never. ;) It's one of my favs. It also helps that I really like Jean Reno.

Just finally watched Barton Fink.
Very well put together.
For fans of Lynch,Kubrick and the Coen bros.