Rate The Last Movie You Saw.

[pathoftheturtle]

I always thought that the original films could be much more than they were, but alas, we've only sacrificed what good there was. John Byrne's "The Man of Steel" comic series was pretty brilliant, and gave the character new life and direction for many years. (And I say that even though I'm not a fan of everything he's done.) The TV series "Smallville" was decent. Basically, the new movie uses earlier stories, not actually retelling them with any feeling, but just bringing them together insensitively in pat representations and plugging them into a computer-generated "entertainment" machine. Earnest actors, phony philosophy; it's all quite grimly pretentious. Instead, maybe just try some old comic books, if you have a little disposable money that you don't want to feel you wasted absolutely.

[Jean]

Sauna, by Antti-Jussi Annila (Finland)

An incredible film. I am amazed. I really really wish my friends here would watch it (there are things I want to discuss), only I am not sure anybody else will like it. It's very specific, something bears usually love, and people usually don't. I think I can safely recommend it to Heather and Melikey .

[evilash]

I saw This Is The End last night and loved it. Very funny with o ton of great references. It was far better than I was expecting and would actually like to see it again. 8.5/10

[Merlin1958]

Man of Steel

Terrible. Very disappointing. The first half was almost interesting, but really came to nothing. This film lacks original thought and offers nothing worthwhile. Just a bunch of special effects fight scenes. I was incredibly bored.

3/10

something is telling me that I don't really have to drop everything and run to watch it...

Yes, go see it!! Path just hated it because I liked it!!! LOL LOL LOL

[DoctorDodge]

Man of Steel

Terrible. Very disappointing. The first half was almost interesting, but really came to nothing. This film lacks original thought and offers nothing worthwhile. Just a bunch of special effects fight scenes. I was incredibly bored.

3/10

something is telling me that I don't really have to drop everything and run to watch it...

Actually Jean, I think you'd really enjoy it. I thought it was a great character drama that focused on Superman, how since birth he has always been a victim in a world full of monsters, and how-

Hah! Only joking, you'd seriously fucking hate it, brother.

[Heather19]

Sauna, by Antti-Jussi Annila (Finland)

An incredible film. I am amazed. I really really wish my friends here would watch it (there are things I want to discuss), only I am not sure anybody else will like it. It's very specific, something bears usually love, and people usually don't. I think I can safely recommend it to Heather and Melikey .

Looks really good. I added it to the top of my list, so hopefully it'll be waiting for me when I come back from vacation.

[Merlin1958]

Man of Steel

Terrible. Very disappointing. The first half was almost interesting, but really came to nothing. This film lacks original thought and offers nothing worthwhile. Just a bunch of special effects fight scenes. I was incredibly bored.

3/10

something is telling me that I don't really have to drop everything and run to watch it...

Actually Jean, I think you'd really enjoy it. I thought it was a great character drama that focused on Superman, how since birth he has always been a victim in a world full of monsters, and how-

Hah! Only joking, you'd seriously fucking hate it, brother.

OK, I can see when I am not wanted.

[Still Servant]

I too really enjoyed This Is the End. I really enjoy a lot of the guys in that movie. The premise was pretty cool and they didn't take the movie that seriously. Tons of inside Hollywood jokes and lots of pop culture references. I wouldn't mind seeing more films like this.

[Mattrick]

Role Models, a good comedy that flew under the radar. Paul Rudd rules, Sean William Scott is a great fit and Jane Lynch, Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks and Ken Yeong round the supporting cast nicely.

[NickP]

Man of Steel. Pretty good, but not great. 7.5/10

[Still Servant]

Role Models, a good comedy that flew under the radar. Paul Rudd rules, Sean William Scott is a great fit and Jane Lynch, Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks and Ken Yeong round the supporting cast nicely.

Role Models is one of my favorite comedies of the last 5 years. Lots of laughs and the film has some heart too. I love the monopoly clause scene about the "get out of jail free card" line. Good stuff. I pretty much see anything with Paul Rudd in it. If you liked Role Models, might I steer you towards I Love You, Man?

[Bryant Burnette]

The Lone Ranger -- 4/10 -- a few solid grace notes (Depp and Hammer are good), but mostly awful.

[Mattrick]

Role Models, a good comedy that flew under the radar. Paul Rudd rules, Sean William Scott is a great fit and Jane Lynch, Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks and Ken Yeong round the supporting cast nicely.

Role Models is one of my favorite comedies of the last 5 years. Lots of laughs and the film has some heart too. I love the monopoly clause scene about the "get out of jail free card" line. Good stuff. I pretty much see anything with Paul Rudd in it. If you liked Role Models, might I steer you towards I Love You, Man?

I Love You, Man, is the greatest comedy ever made. "It was the taste....of betrayal. It was the taste of betrayal, Peter, you fucking whore." "SHE'S A SQUIRTER!!"

[Mattrick]

Sharknado: Quite possible the greatest movie ever made. It has everything: hurricanes, tornados, floods starting from hills, sunny skies during tornadoes, it makes a point to defy a law of nature/physics/mathematics/logic at least once every thirty seconds; sharks participate in a game of Duck Hunt for the NES, they are chopped up, sewer drains crap sharks out and the special effects are straight out of a 1990's B movie...they didn't even have the budget to drive a hummer fast through an intersection and had to computerize it...the single dad who is probably supposed to be mid-thirties has a son who looks 25 which means he knocked Tara Reid up when she was about ten and the most interesting dialogue comes from John Heard who was clearly in a bar drinking when they asked him if he wanted to playa drunk guy and swing a bar stool at imaginary sharks (he deserves and Emmy for this harrowing performance) 10/10 FIVE STARS

[Jean]

Sharknado: Quite possible the greatest movie ever made.

Oh!

It has everything: hurricanes, tornados, floods starting from hills, sunny skies during tornadoes

oh...

[pathoftheturtle]

Subtlety is dead.

[fernandito]

I re watched Apocalypse Now over the weekend after about 5-6 years of not having seen it. I'm so glad I did. Truly one of the greatest films ever made, an almost perfect film. No other war film illustrates the hypocrisy and downright absurdity of the Vietnam war in such harrowing fashion. Simply amazing.

I watched the 'redux' version but next time I watch it I'll do the theatrical. The French plantation scene is so jarring and it breaks the momentum of the film.

[Mattrick]

I've yet to watch Apocalypse Now but since Coppola is, to me, top ten of all time it is nourprise it is great. You really need to watch Coppola's The Conversation, it's an incredible film, so incredible, in fact, the only movie that beat it at the Oscars was Coppola's own Godfather Part II.

[Mattrick]

Cube: An instant Sci-Fi and Horror classic, it's one of the few movies I know to simultaneously be both genres at the same time. The movie has as many layers as the cube itself has. Basically all character interaction is grounds for commentary on human nature, science, mathematics, philosophy, good/evil, capitalism, politics, occupational identity and actual identity which makes the dialogue far more intriguing than I remember it being from childhood - this was the first time I'd watched the movie in about a decade after countless black box (illegal cable what?) viewings growing up. It's amazing the way the characters develop or perhaps the characters devolve instead, we know them first only by the names on their shirts (last names only) and the next step we learn is what they did (Cop, doctor, math student, office guy, convict/escape artist) and their personalities match their occupation but as they become exhausted, terrified, paranoid the superficial identities they present to the world through duty, loneliness, nihilism and pride begin to fade away and we begin to see all of them for who they are and their actions eventually tell us why they present themselves a certain way, because they themselves are ashamed of who they are or perhaps shame merely to be human. It is a new twist on cabin fever as cabin fever stories usually involve people who know each other and care about each other go crazy enough to turn on each other but in this case, their facades do not work because there is no world to support them, to make them real, so all their wounds are open and infected and the slightest touch is far too much. While the rooms in the cubes are full of traps, as one character Quentin alludes to, the humans themselves are the traps; the cube is mechanical, it has no soul, no malice or aforethought, it merely does at it is constructed to do, when it kills it feels no malice or hatred but the humanity trapped inside is unpredictable, capable of absolutely anything and of course, humans have the ability to choose to be good or to be evil because both are a part of human nature.

[Ricky]

Cube bored me to death.

[pathoftheturtle]

Well, that's more like it. This I've gotta see.

[Mattrick]

Yeah, Cube is a template for how to film an entire movie with a single set; literally, it is filmed in a single 14x14 box and the colour plates are changed to give the illusion of a larger construction. They could have filmed this movie in a garage and you'd never even know it. The effects, when used, are still very effective fifteen years later. Cube, along with Pontypool, are two great Canadian horror films.


Beneath: This is a fairly ingenious horror flick; it satirizes the genre while also succumbing to the very pitfalls of the genre it's trying to create which provides and interesting tonal shift before the final act. The characters are all callous, shallow teenagers who live life through cameras, high school drama and social media in short, they still have a lot to learn about life. The week before the movie they graduate high school and now wish to have one last gathering; they plan to take a row boat across a lake (a lake with a dark, mysterious past which is hinted at but never explain which I found refreshing, because explanations ALWAYS kill a horror movie) to party on the other side - A neighbour of the grandfather (who owns the property the boat is on) of Johnny is rather agitated and put off a bunch of kids who, unlike Johnny, doesn't understand they must respect the lake and Johnny promises 'no one will go in the water'. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS A GIANT MAN-EATING CATFISH IN THERE! Yes, that's right, a goddamn Catfish and it's absolutely awesome. Since all the characters are shallow and superficial and seem only to be friends for appearances sakes: it's quite clear once faced with being trapped in a lake, in a leaking rowboat with no oars, they can't stand each other because they're all pretty shitty, shallow people. Because of the situation and what the situation brings out in these template characters we're allowed to feel some sympathy, probably just enough for us to care if one particular character makes it out alive. There are plenty of homages to the movies it is satirizing but the movie really develops of a life of it's own in the second half. I suppose horror movies are supposed to have stupid characters, it's almost essential, especially in campfests, and while the characters eventually make smart decisions, it's always way too late and I find myself thinking 'why didn't you do that first?'...I suppose it would shorten the movies runtime and affect the pacing but I wonder if the writer's did it on purpose, to make the characters even dumber. It's cheesy as hell but the dramatic parts do work fairly well and it's tense where it should be and it does it job at making you chuckle at the movie one scene and feel uncomfortable at the next. Essentially, Beneath begins as a half-serious satire and when it turns direction to be it's own actual horror movie in the later parts, it's so seamless you didn't notice it change under your eye.

[DoctorDodge]

So I finally saw The World's End today. Being a fan of Edgar Wright's work since TV series Spaced, I had been looking forward to this one, to an extent, although the trailers didn't impress me too much. It's definitely not as brilliant as Shaun of the Dead is or as funny, but there was a lot I liked about it - the wonderfully 90s Britpop soundtrack, how Simon Pegg's character goes from a total douche to "the King" (not perfect, but still an interesting journey) and how great it is visually, as you'd expect from an Edgar Wright movie - how he makes shots of pulling pints so hilarious, I'll never know. I don't think the characters are quite as great here as they are in Shaun or Spaced, so that does let it down a bit, especially with the humour. One of the things I loved most about Edgar Wright's earlier work was how much the humour came from the characters and their reactions, whether it was to a zombie invasion or to the betrayal of George Lucas by creating the Phantom Menace. Here, they're sometimes closer to caricature than 3-dimensional characters, especially Pegg's character, although as I've said, he does become more likeable as the film goes on, with an ending that has echoes of the awesomeness of Evil Dead Bruce Campbell to it. The weakest of the Cornetto trilogy, which isn't surprising considering how great the first two were, but if you're a fan of the first two films, still worth a watch.

[Jean]

Just for a change, decided to watch something heavier than the usual horrors I normally watch, found a few "The Most Disturbing Films Ever" lists and started ploughing through them. Here's what I've seen so far:

A Serbian Film
Happiness
Visitor Q

I have mixed feelings. All three are masterpieces, and all three impressed me greatly. At the same time, I don't think I can recommend them. Happiness and Visitor Q are at least comedies... well, special kinds of comedies, blackest of the black, but still. A Serbian Film is a tragedy that moved me to tears, but I really wish I could unsee it. The only film ever that I found more disturbing than that one was Men Behind the Sun.

[DoctorDodge]

Wait, so A Serbian Film not only disturbed you bears, but it was one of the most disturbing films you've ever watched? Holy fucking shit, I thought it might've been just a load of hype for it. I'm aware that there are a number of films which many find "scary", "horrifying" and "brilliant", and bears will think the exact opposite. Now I know to avoid A Serbian Film at all costs, at least!