Movies #6

[Noodle]

Gagree with the abover re: Clash of the Titans. Took Noodle Jr. to see it in the theatres. One might think a twelve-year old boy would be the optimal demographic for a movie like this. Even he thought it was the cinematic equivalent of Rachel Ray's bathwater. The 3-D was so horrible, we removed our glasses fifteen minutes in. The only positive note was we killed plenty of zombies in the video arcade after the movie.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Re-watched Me and You and Everyone We Know, which I loved when I first saw it 5-6 years ago. I expected to hate it this time around. It's gimmicky, sort of, and ahhhtsy, which usually means that it's an unwatchable piece of shit. But this movie is still terrific. One weird subject that you don't see in many movies these days is, once you're out of college, how the hell do you meet people anymore? It just seems impossible. We all used to be more social now, but now people are really isolated from each other. I thought this movie dealt with that in a variety of ways, and it was funny, and it was sweet without being schmaltzy. Plus, I kind of want to bang Miranda July.

Parts of the rest of your review make me a little wary - seems a little reminiscent of steaming piles like Garden State and Elizabethtown...does Me and You feature a Manic Pixie Dream Girl character, too? - but I want to see this for the bolded part alone. I'm at an age where this is something I think about a lot. So...I'm gonna go ahead and get off teh ACTs now...

[Blaze]

Re-watched Me and You and Everyone We Know, which I loved when I first saw it 5-6 years ago. I expected to hate it this time around. It's gimmicky, sort of, and ahhhtsy, which usually means that it's an unwatchable piece of shit. But this movie is still terrific. One weird subject that you don't see in many movies these days is, once you're out of college, how the hell do you meet people anymore? It just seems impossible. We all used to be more social now, but now people are really isolated from each other. I thought this movie dealt with that in a variety of ways, and it was funny, and it was sweet without being schmaltzy. Plus, I kind of want to bang Miranda July.

Parts of the rest of your review make me a little wary - seems a little reminiscent of steaming piles like Garden State and Elizabethtown...does Me and You feature a Manic Pixie Dream Girl character, too? - but I want to see this for the bolded part alone. I'm at an age where this is something I think about a lot. So...I'm gonna go ahead and get off teh ACTs now...

Kind of has The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but it sort of subverts this trope in a great scene where the dream girl tries to get in a car with the main male character. I won't ruin it, but it's oh so good.

It's nothing like those steaming piles though HPD, it's really just kind of different all around. One of those different "little" films.

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

Garden State is the worst movie I have ever seen. I have not seen and will not see Elizabethtown. I loved Me and You and Everyone We Know. Not really a MPDG at all, but mostly because the MPDG exists solely in the eyes of the mopey male lead who is the substitute for who the writer really is. Blaze is right too - the car scene is critical to this movie.

Anyway, really terrific. I recommend it with the caveat that it *is* ahhtsy, which means I would normally expect to hate this movie. But I think it's worth your time.

[Beldo]

I need to see M&Y&EWK...I believe it's streaming on Netflix Instant.

Elizabethtown is not as bad as Garden State...it's more likable, at least. It's like a person you really wanna like, but they keep doing dumb, embarrassing shit to themselves.

[Not_RMR]

speaking of manic pixie dream girls...I would rather watch a hysterectomy surgery than this new shit ass michael cera movie

[HighPlainsDrifter]

speaking of manic pixie dream girls...I would rather watch a hysterectomy surgery than this new shit ass michael cera movie

Michael Cera: dweeby cash cow of the quirky teen/gen Y comedy-drama. I haven't seen that Scott Pilgrim thing but it's got a strike against it already for that poster showing him faux-playing/mishandling that sweet sweet Rickenbacker bass.

Not to digress too much but I see movies like Garden State and Elizabethtown (even Almost Famous, good as it is) sort of as fronts for above-average soundtracks, as if the writer sketched out a premise and story arc based on a specific bunch of songs he/she wanted to use at strategic times, and so the whole thing kind of hangs together around a handful of these songs used at climactic moments. (And voila, you have your iconic, memorable scene.) It can be done well, like in Almost Famous, but it can get formulaic too, like in Elizabethtown. Damn you, Cameron Crowe. That music-first style is (understandably) Crowe's signature and we see that in Vanilla Sky too, though that's a very different kind of movie.

Re: MPDGs, now that I think about it, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) in Almost Famous is sort of a proto-MPDG isn't she? And another one I don't think is ever mentioned - Kate Winslet as what's-her-face in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Never got around to seeing it until early this year and thought I'd love it. Nope - steaming pile. Seemed kind of dated like I'm sure Garden State would be now. The main reason it bugged me was seeing Jim Carrey playing such a pathetic sad bastard character, like he made a conscious decision to play the reverse of his usual zany self and went way too far with it. (Which could be for all I know the reason everyone else seems to love the movie, I s'pose.) Combine that with the quirky but seemingly deeply damaged MPDG he's beside himself for - is it too much to ask for believable characters? - and you get a flick I never want to see again. Haters gon' hate, I guess

[Drebin]

Hating on Eternal Sunshine? This thread just took a nasty turn.

[Bowood]

I spent 20 mins in the new releases at Blockbuster today and walked out with a box of chocolate raisins and a tub of cookie dough ice cream. The pickings are really getting slim right now.

[Not_RMR]

I want to say I was indifferent and just thought Clash of The Titans was bad....NOW I FUCKING HATE IT! Screw you warner brothers and your shitty ass letters to my ISP!!!!!

[Tuxedo T-shirt]

I watched IOUSA, about America's burgeoning debt crisis. The first half was pretty interesting, and then it got progressively more ridiculous, and the leaps in logic were becoming canyon-esque, and the Dr. Congressman Ron ReLovelution Paul started talking and the whole thing became a shitfestival of stupid. Skip it.

I watched "It's Complicated" because I was forced to. This is a movie about upperclass baby boomer assholes justifying their constant self indulgence. It was atrocious. They'd been divorced for like 15 years or some shit and at the end, the kids were sobbing because they were like, "Are you guys getting back together? We're still getting over you being divorced!" Like, you've got to be f-ing kidding me. What kind of weirdo oversensitive little ninny can't handle their parents getting divorced? Happens all the time. Time to toughen the fuck up, kiddos.

[Beldo]

Watched Peckinpah's THE GETAWAY for the first time. Holy shit. What a great movie. I feel like every action movie should use this film as a template for how an action movie has to be engaging AND have badass scenes of action in order to actually be good. Ali McGraw was a hottie, and WTF, Sally Struthers was once fuckable?? The moment when McQueen punches her while she's screaming her head off...classic. Kinda pissed me off that you kept thinking she was gonna get naked and she didn't. WTF, Peckinpah??

[DADDY]

Set out to watch every Philip Seymour Hoffman pic this vacation . . . saw exactly NONE. Some of the movies that I did watch . . .

The White Ribbon - Really quite watchable. Great art direction, good performances, beautiful cinematography . . . still can't figure out what the point of the movie was . . . but still beautiful.

Despicable Me - Cute enough.

In Bruges - Really funny.

Bad Santa - Pretty funny . . . a little tedious, but still good.

[Lloyd]

I saw "The Killer Inside Me". Dirty shit. Jim Thompson would have aproved!

[Tabbedout]

I watched "Land and Freedom". Ken Loach is a great director. It reminded me alot of "Homage To Catalonina" by Orwell.