It's an abomination of cinema, a total mess, but at the same time it's spectacular in how hard they tried and yet still failed so proportionately. I've rarely seen so much effort put into sucking.

.. oh wow. Those movies hurt worse than the bad ones.

---

So .. I admit this with a bit of embarrassment, but I watched Cop Land last night. Anyone familiar with this? I won't blame you for giving me the finger, here, but I'd forgotten that Stallone isn't the world's worst character actor. Rambo was really good. Rocky was good. This time he's playing a guy who's struggling with a drinking problem because all he wanted was to be on the force, but lost half his hearing and couldn't. So he's the sheriff in a small town basically owned by police. It's a cop-crime movie, no question, and Deniro's in it, too, and he isn't bad. He does about as well as Ray Liotta, and that's better than decent. Harvey Keitel, for some reason, can't be believable for a second, as hard as he tries. And he tries pretty hard. Maybe it's because he thinks his character sucks, which it does. But Stallone doing something other than being an invincible douche bag is nice to see. His sad, funny eyes and weird face that's too small for his head give Freddy The Earnest a hang dog, "this guy's too big for his brain" endearment. The story's pretty dumb, but if you want a beer and a cop movie that isn't total garbage, give it a go.

I'm not going to rate it because it would be sad. It's just annoying seeing a story that might have a chance if the script wasn't trite. Still .. I've seen worse, and this one's kind of lovable in that "punch ya in the arm and never hug ya" kind of way.

Ha ha...yeah The Fourth Kind was weirder than that, though, in that it was like they were trying as hard as possible to make the worst, least entertaining movie in every aspect, that they possibly could. Odd.

I didn't really like Copland. Just bored me and I ended up looking at my watch for most of the runtime. Couldn't really get into the characters much and honestly I barely remember it even though it's been less than a year since I watched it. I guess I've been spoiled by the Se7ens, the Pledges and the Primal Fears of the genre...eh. I can see it being fun as a drinking sort of movie though.

Yeah believe me, I'm being really generous with it. I was in the mood for that kind of thing, and that's the only reason I didn't pan it as pitiful pabulum. As it was, it was just kind of nice watching Stallone be awkward, fat, and downright soppy. He's such a douche most of the time, and when he's not a douche, he's in good shape. Freddy's just a regular, simple guy who's gonna do the right thing, even if he has to hurt someone's feelings to do it.

The Pledge and Primal Fear aren't ones I'm familiar with. Good cop movies, eh?

The only thing that left an impact on me was Stallone's "girlfriend" character being the typical kind of "oh I like you but I'm with another guy anyway" kind of bullshit. Fuck that - fuck her character. Just pissed me off. But I guess I was pissed for Stallone, which doesn't make the movie a total waste...hahaha.

Yeah Primal Fear is very good, albeit a rather twisty twist at the end, but The Pledge is a true masterwork of the genre. Really, really depressing and bleak but a hell of a movie, and one of Jack Nicholson's best and most unique roles I think. It meanders around but in the end, the whole thing hits like an anvil and the meandering even seems to have a purpose.

Beneath hill 60.

Australian war film set on the western front in 1916. Pretty brutal stuff. Very claustrophobic with all the footage shot in the tunnels they are digging.

the Black Death.

Really cool film. A very dark and gritty take on the middle ages with a fairly clever twist ending.

If it's not Ancient Aliens, then it's not clever enough!

Recently saw Back to the Future II and III for the first time. I think I enjoyed III more than the others.

I remember googling about it after i watched it, then I found out . That made it go from below average to hating it.

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue was a fascinating documentary about American horror films. Doubtless, everyone will have their own bone to pick with it; my own being the choice to focus on The Howling instead of American Werewolf in London.

Monster Brawl was a fun film about a pro-wrestling style death match between famous monsters (Cyclops, Witch Bitch, Werewolf, Zombie Man, Vampire Woman, Frankenstein, Swamp Gut, and the Mummy).

Visioneers was an interesting dark comedy set in a believable dystopia. It was a lot of fun watching Zach Gilafinakis (sp) have a lead role.

Oh God I fucking hated hated hated this movie. So much. It had such potential and was just completely underwhelming. The acting, directing a pacing were all so slack, and in some cases downright bad, not to mention that awful bloody score that went with it. The crowning turd though was that amazing display of the Gunga Din Syndrome when The best scenes were indeed the ones actually set in the tunnels and the film could have benefited from more being made of this, but really, just completely lackluster filmmaking all round.

Thanks for the recs there. Cop movies are decent. I liked Serpico well enough. And Se7en I should watch again. Though at this point Kevin Spacey just looks like a one trick pony. I wish Michael Emerson had played his role. (kind of like how I wish "Pete" from Madmen had played the preacher in There Will Be Blood.)

I agree about her character. I related to Freddy's "all the best girls were taken" line. And I got a kick out of just how lame their delusion of the wild-west "this is our town" schtick was. Only in Fraudulent, New Jersey. Ray Liotta had the best character, I think, but what a joke. The whole thing was unbelievable as hell. It was like the Roxanne of cop movies.

Grab a VHS of Swimming With Sharks.

If that film had gotten a proper release Spacey's star would have risen quicker. Great film.

Spacey a one trick poney? He's one of the best actors of this generation.

Speaking of Spacey, I just watched The Usual Suspects for the first time after so many people recommending it to me. Wow, what a movie! I thought I had it all figured out about halfway through, but damn I couldn't have been more off. Brilliant stuff, and superbly acted by an amazing cast.

Ive listened to an Expendables 2 review and I knew theyd do this...regarding the R rating

Good deal. A movie that's still effective on the second go. Wrongfully Accused has a hilarious spoof scene of this by the way.

Well you'd barely know that with how poorly most of the movie was paced and explained.

@Henkjelle:

It would have been way cooler if :

Man, The Master looks like an amazing movie. There Will Be Blood is one of my favourites, so I can't wait for Paul Thomas Anderson's follow up. Also great to see Joaquin Phoenix back in serious acting.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ1O1vb9AUU

One of the few times I got around to watching some behind-the-scenes/making of footage it was of The Last Samurai when -holy shit- the former SgtMajor of the battalion I served in appeared in it as military adviser; sunglasses and Long Island accent and all but wearing the Civil War duds looking whacky. Life's a trip, holmes.

Yeah, that. I thought it was pretty obvious that's what I was referring to. Funny as shit, but killed the scene. I also love how basically everyone figures out that Bruce is Batman, yet it takes Bruce basically explicitely telling him for Gordon to figure it out.

That's more or less what I thought at first, too. Usual Suspects had me totally on board. And in Se7en he was a really good casting choice. But he basically does variations on that blank, approachable man of subterfuge and mystery, it seems to me. So it's good to have Swimming with Sharks recommended to compare it to, because honestly I think he's pretty predictable. To put it in context, I think Jim Carrey has grown more as an actor in the same amount of time and Jim's gotten shallower roles.

So, I won't say that the trick the pony does is bad, but I will put Spacey with Al Pacino in the "good, but I've seen it" category. If you see what I mean ..

edit:
I'd also put Usual Suspects with Pulp Fiction in the "give it a few years and be sure to watch good movies in the meantime" category. I really liked both of them at first. And they're still decent, they just don't have the same experimental ensorcellment they had when they were novel. Then again, I really liked Reservoir Dogs at first, and I can't stand that fucking thing now. Gawd .. Keitel and Buscemi in the one man gang-bang of Tarantino's mind? spare me.

Pleasantville. Caught this on television. Never heard of it before, GREAT movie. I found it brilliant, said a lot about the human condition. It's also beautiful looking, the colors mixed with the gorgeous black and white being especially eye catching. I don't really want to say too much about it because it's cool to discover it for yourself.

I have yet to see Pleasantville, myself. I've heard it's fantastic, though.

I thought it was pretty cool, probably wouldn't go so far to say great with all caps, but I liked it a lot. William H Macy is always good at these sort of oddball roles, and the look and setting of well, everything, is absolutely marvelous.

I didn't much care for it. Really mawkish and twee, as if Billy Wilder and Wes Anderson collaborated on a script and Steven Spielberg decided to direct it. Not horrible at all, just really unremarkable in pretty much every way (save for a few gorgeous visuals and one of Andy Griffith's best performances).

Well there to have it folks, darkeningday didn't like it. A ringing endorsement if there ever was one.

I'm in an Asian horror movie mood lately. Does anyone know some good ones?

Why did adam sandler go from making stupid but hilarious movies like happy gilmore and billy madison to stupid and depressing "comedies" like Click and shitty childrens movies or that one where he's a dying movie star in a mid life crisis and then ends up not dying?

Jesus Camp. 3.5/5

he tries to make the "stupid but hilarious" kind now, except without the hilarious.

To me Adam Sandler will forever be the socially awkward 30-something with women problems and a stagnate future. He plays the same damn character in every movie I do have a soft-spot for Happy Gilmore and the Mr Deeds remake, though.

Early SNL material or fuck off Adam Sandler.

I maintain that part of me wishes Adam Sandler would have ODed or got in a car accident or SOMETHING after Big Daddy. Billy Madison, a tad overrated and annoying but still has some good, funny parts, Happy Gilmore, a damn mid 90s goofy low brow comedy classic as far as I'm concerned (Adam Sandler and Bob Barker fistfighting will always be comedy gold), The Waterboy, see: Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, see: Billy Madison. After those four, he just fell into the awful mode he's been in for the last fifteenish years. It's almost embarrassing to say I love Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy as much as I do.

Can you recommend me some good 2000s horror? I mean, GOOD 2000s horror. It seems that teenager horror is the only thing they have to offer these days. And I really HATE teenager horror. Teenager horror and remakes. Hollywood really sucks.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610996/ Nuff said, it's on Netflix Instant so you have no excuse. Go see it.

OOoooHH gonna check it out tonight. I'm home aloneeee!