Agreed, "Kill The Irishman" was one of the best flicks from last year. I even had the pleasure of seeing it in theaters after I convinced a pal of mine to see it instead of "Fast and the Furious Part 15".

Looking forward to "The Grey". Can't go wrong with Liam Neeson wrapping broken glass to his knuckles and fighting wolves.

Good summary, and interesting that you found it slow - the first time I actually found it too fast, with so many ideas packed into each scene that I wanted it to slow down. Apparently the original cut was 6 hours long so that's not surprising, and I hope that cut eventually sees the light of day. Did you find Sean Penn could have had more screen time, considering it is in many ways his story?

Sean Penn definitely didn't get enough development and I wish they had a few more scenes with him in them. Might have helped to tighten the movie up and make it a little more coherent. But the scenes with the family are indispensable, and just rule in general.

Hostel Part III - 1/5

This is horrible crap, but it's FUNNY horrible crap! Never have I seen such a ridiculous clownish film under the Hostel name! Unlike the first two which were boring and retarded, this one is retarded and hilarious. They drop most of the abundant cliches of the first one and actually put out a semi-suspenseful film - you know, aside from the awful, awful kill scenes that come off like something out of an Adam Sandler movie instead of an actual horror movie. Seriously, one of the kills in this movie involves pouring bugs all over a girl. Is this Fear Factor or something? The few moments of promise, likely coming from the fact that this wasn't done by Eli Roth, are squandered in hilarious moments that just make you pity everyone involved. Pretty much trash, but hey, not really anything else was expected. The low stay exactly where they are.

My favourite movie of the year is probably the Irish movie, The Guard. Everyone needs to watch that one right now. I loved The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, also.

Up to this point I've been lucky or unlucky, you be the jugde, of seeing only the first Saw. However, during this week, I sloshed through the whole franchise for some reason, and I hope it really is game over for it. The novelty of the movies wears thin quite quickly, and the last two movies were painful to sit through. There are nice ideas here and there throughout the movies, but the cliched stupidity of horror characters shattered any feeling of enjoyment I was having. Meh!

I saw Mission Impossible Ghost protocol...I was actually quite surprised how entertaining the movie was. I don't think it would have been as good without the silly humor of Simon Pegg. Wish Ving Rhames had more than a cameo role, though. If there is a sequel, I hope he's part of the team to make the fans of the franchise happy. This will most likely a DVD or Blu-Ray purchase for me.

I was really surprised to hear that Brad Bird directed the movie as well, since a lot of his work was based on animation (The Simpsons for the first 8 seasons and then Pixar). I thought he did well with this movie. And Tom Cruise continues to impress me no matter what role he takes.

I enjoyed the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but thought the rape scenes were excessive and unnecessary, considering they ended up having zero relevance to the plot as a whole except to show that the main character was both "damaged" and "tough", but we know the latter from seeing her fight off those guys in the subway and find out the former from what happened in her childhood. I think it was unnecessary and gratuitous (seriously, THREE very uncomfortable rape scenes within maybe 1/2 hour).

Otherwise though I did enjoy the movie, and found the central mystery intriguing and the setting (isolated island inhabited solely by old rich Swedish family) was perfect. I'm talking about the Swedish version, of course. Not a great movie, but an entertaining mystery/thriller.

Devil Inside- Fuck this movie and the shit ending.

^^^ That is disappointing. I had high hopes for it.

That Dragon Tattoo film looks like schlock from what i've seen. An inclusion of uneccessary rape scenes furthers that notion. Seems like a thing people like to add in ever-increasingly for cheap shot edginess.

The first girl they try to help(the one who twists) . After messing with the mother, it turns into . The ending is... I havent heard so many people yelling "bullshit", etc since Saw 5.
My friend, who really want to see it, HATED it. Of course, practically the same people who saw Paranormal Activity 3 were there, since they screamed/laughed at everything(which 90% of that wasnt even scary).

I'm kinda excited about Prometheus. I'll be looking for the trailer as a Super Bowl ad.

I'm going to see Ghost Protocol tonight, really hoping it's not another wasted $20 trip to the theaters.

It's still pretty retarded, being a Mission Impossible film, but it was watchable.

In other news, I saw the new Sherlock Holmes last Friday, god damn it's worse than the first one. Richie can't write or direct at all any more, from the total failure at humour and the horrible "reveal" at the end, where there is both some kind of magic time travel conversation (It's stupid) and the plans are foiled by things that Sherlock had apparently done without ever being mentioned or shown on screen. It's terrible. Oh and if Sherlock was always happy to straight up murder the guy at the end he seems to have had ample oppurtunity to do so through the days he spent around him (All of screen of course). Fuck. Such a bad movie.

That movie is going to kick so much fucking ass!

Okay, so i don't have my hopes up or anything of course, but i might head to my friends house this week to grab some movies and bolster my already retarded sized collection. He'll have a bunch of new garbage so are any of these worth getting:

Attack the Block (2011)
Puncture (2011)
Red State (2011)
The Eagle (2011)
This Must Be the Place (2011)
Ironclad (2011)
Bad Ass (2012)

I'm especially interested in that Sean Penn film.

???

Well it took me a while but I finally completed a list of my best and worst movies of last year: http://docuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/01 ... -2011.html

I'm surprised by how much you (And others on your blog?) like Captain America, I found it the worst of any of the recent superhero movies. I'm also saddened to hear you dislike J Edgar, I've been looking forward to that one. But happy you liked Source Code as much as me, seems that one sort of got forgotten after it's early popularity in the year from a lot of lists I've seen.

Being a fan of Sherlock Holmes (the books and Jeremy Brett-era), I'm hesitant about going to the movies to see this. I didn't care for the first one, so I doubt I would enjoy this one either, and reading this certainly cements my unwillingness.

yeah fuck Guy Ritchie for making these shitty ass Sherlock movies. And I'm a fan of Jude Law and RDJ, so this just sucks.

Watch the BBC Sherlock reboot instead.

I'm not sure how he manages to get such a bad performance out of RDJ actually, his voice or accent or whatever he tries to do is embarrassing. Also Stephen Fry... Damn. He gets so many bad performances out of so many great actors.

Yeah, i saw the first one and was like:
"Are You Kidding Me?"

Gosh, what an appauling effort. I got given this film, and though it would imagine it not being my thing - the modern blockbuster, with a tired old storyline - i went into it quite openly - and was flabbergasted by its horrible-ness.

Firstly, i will say that i have never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but from my estimation, they featured a brilliant detective and his assistant solving mysteries in old-timey London. What happens here, whether it has some allegiance to Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional works or not - is just over the top, and awful. Dinosaurs, flying dragons, bionic steel armour suits, giant sea monsters, and flying helicopter air balloons with machine guns, invincible women? Come on! That's just too much.

Even the lighting an camera work come off as low budget. For a film made with $90 million, it's hard hard to see how they could get such tacky looking shots throughout the film - in appearance, as well as the over the top storyline, this one comes off looking like an episode of TVs Doctor Who; gawdy. Particularly the close-in over the shoulder type action shots - just terrible.

The acting is often horrendous; 10 mintutes into the thing i was thinknig of flicking it off based alone on the overacted, contrived performance of Robert Downey Jr., who does, if possible a worse job than the always horrible Jude Law. Stunningly bad. On a more positive note - some of the CGI and scenery in this film look quite nice, which is i think where a good part of the $90 mill went.

There's a lot more i could say here, but i genuinely just hated this film. It's basically like Pirates of the Caribbean II, set in 1860's London. I know these blockbusters aren't usually my thing, but i watched this one with Kick Ass, which at least was quite fun. Also I enjoyed a couple of Ritchie's cockney gangster flicks, and i know he wanted to do something different with this one, but i think he should stick to what he knows. This was just awful.

That's what I love about BBC's Sherlock Holmes. He's a brilliant detective whose new and unorthodox methods are in a stark contrast to the values and methods of the Victorian era. It's sort of a clash between the ideologies of the 19th century and the 20th century, and I think it's just great. Admittedly, BBC series with Jeremy Brett has very embarrasing fighting scenes whenever they take place, but then again, it's not really supposed to be that much about muscle and fighting prowess, although Holmes masters various types of martial arts.

Heh, I don't think I can expect to see this in the new Holmes. And what comes to that list of atrocities, I'm speechless...

Incidentally, it's nota movie but it pertains to this discussion appositely: has anyone watched the modern Sherlock series with Benedict Cumberbatch? I thought it was great and I hope they'll continue producing more episodes.

Saw this last year. It was, cheesy as hell. The first act is pretty cool in terms of tactics and building up suspense, and the second half does it, too. Then it takes a nosedive for the climax. Makes no sense. Very Hollywood ending, if you know what I mean.

I think you saw the 2010 rip-off version of Sherlock Holmes made by The Asylum studios. (Known for mockbusters such as Snakes on a Train, The Da Vinci Treasure, Almighty Thor, etc..)

I'd like to point out that J Edgar isn't nearly as bad as the actual terrible other movies in my 'worst' list - but it's not good and from Clint Eastwood was very disappointing. It's just too long and felt like a chore to watch.

And hah, I remember you and some others voiced the same opinion about Captain America, which was funny to me; I wasn't as big a fan of any of the other superhero movies aside from the Nolan Batman ones, but Captain America was just really fun and entertaining.

PS, DRD - "Red State" is total ASS.

No foreign films Empyreal?

Hugo is one I really need to see. I didn't need to see the Sherlock one to know it would suck, one look at the trailer left me in no doubt.

Watched Drive last night, pretty disappointed. You would also think a movie named drive would have an abundance of driving/chase/getaway segments. Only 3, and the last one was embarrassingly bad.

Hugo was alright, took a little too long to build up and get going though.

Expedience, I just didn't see that many, is all. I Saw the Devil was pretty sweet, but I just decided I liked those 10 personally a little more.

http://youtu.be/pX41IJ8xHGY audience reaction to Devil inside and the ending.

Hercules Returns (1993)
Rating: 3.5/5

My fuck, this movie is funny. I threw it on not knowing what to expect, but was instantly drawn in by the first several scenes - brilliant in character and definitive of the period while being somewhat familiar. Anyway, it made me want to keep watching, even as a comparitively minor part of the film, they were awesome. Hercules Returns is basically a re-hashing of the classic sword and sandal flick Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili overdubbed with hilariously crass, and quintessentially Aussie comedic dialogue. It's funny as shit - and the dialogue they write is just comedy gold. Importantly though, this style of humour won't be for everyone. You kinda need to understand and appreciate the Aussie accent and style of humour, and as a NZer, i've had a lifetime of exposure to it, and like many of my friends, find extremely cliche Aussie stuff just "brillo" when done right. I never would have thought a simple overdubbing of an old flick with different dialogue would be entertaining, or even funny - but the hilarity of this, and the sweet framing device mean this one is pulled off really well. In fact, the first few scenes framing the film were so rad, i really wish they'd made a full length film out of that story! Within a couple minutes of the film itself starting, i forgot i was watching a mashup, really, and just sat in my room, laughing constantly at these ridiculous voices and outrageously funny dialogue. A cult classic that i'm proud to own, this is one of the most laugh-out-loud funniest i've seen in months, and it was a complete surprise. Those of you Aussies, and perhaps Brits who find crass Aussie-ness funny will appreciate this, but i can't see many Euros or North Americans really clicking with this.

I'm on it kerrrrrrrrnt.

M:I-4: Ghost Protocol is a fun movie, but largely inconsequential. It has the Live Free Or Die Hard syndrome, in that the crazy and increasing ludicrous situations combined with the CGI work guarantee that nobody in the cast is going to be hurt or be in danger, ever.

Hahaha, i watched Die Hard 4.0 when it came out, knew it would be ridiculous, and was satisfied. Kinda went in expecting exactly what i got. If taken lightly, it's actually not a bad film, but i guess it has Bruce Willis; i probably wouldn't be saying that if it was a similar film with Vin Diesel & The Rock.

I watched Stake Land last night. It's a vampire movie, pretty sure if I remember correctly it's produced by John Carpenter. It takes place in the United States, but after Vampires have wiped out the majority of the people there.. Basically a Billy Badass has survived and hunted them since the beginning, he saves a teenager, and trains the kid to take care of himself, as they trek towards to Canada in search of a New Eden, which is basically the remains of the human population, vampire free. It almost had a Mad Max type of film. Cannibals, religious fanatics, drifters, etc.

It was a little cheesy, but I definitely enjoyed it. It had the feel of a zombie movie, only replace the zombies with vampires. The most refreshing thing about it is I didn't notice any digital effects, it was pretty much old school effects, which were done very well, I felt. I had never really heard of it until last night, but it was probably one of the better vampire films I've seen in quite a while.

This cracks me up...you got ripped off, deathrider. Whoever gave you the movie probably found it next to Transmorphers and Paranormal Entity at Target

I actually have a screenplay that may be produced by The Asylum. Funny how your enemy can quickly become your friend in the cutthroat world of screenwriting.

pa negre. spanish oscar contender. it's a dark story about a boy living in post-war time. the best scene of the movie was in the beginning of the movie, so you're hooked from the first minute. the director did an excellent job of interweaving 3 stories at once: growing up of the main character, murder/ghost mystery, and the effects of spanish civil war.
8.

as for the film of the year 2011, it's la piel que habito, no doubt. a twisted 'family' tale of a deranged, but brilliant plastic surgeon (played by a. banderas) who does shit even those guys from carcass would abhor.
9.

I agree with everyone saying the devil inside was terrible. That movie was a piece of shit even considering I went to see it with no expectations. It felt twice as long as it actually was because nothing interesting happens for about 99% of the time. When something does happen,it's a total rip off of other movies of that type. Then everyone dies. Plus they kept introducing plot points that they never resolved or even elaborated on. I haven't seen such lazy writing in a very long time.

Also,I hated the girl with the dragon tatoo. Over two hours of talking and scenes that lead nowhere,uninteresting plot,random rape scene seemingly just for the sake of it. I kept expecting it to end,but was always greeted with another pointless scene. I would go so far as to say it was the worst movie I've seen this year. I considered walking out on multiple occasions.