No, it was neither scary nor dramatic. It was banal, boring and uneventful, with no payoff whatsoever, and I want those three hours of my life back.

...What, it only lasted an hour and a half? Oh, could have fooled me.

Has anyone here seen Gaspar Noe's Seul contre tous and Irreversible? Fantastically fucked up stuff, especially Seul contre tous. So satisfyingly sick and wretched and nihilistic.

Also tried watching Eraserhead again (to continue on the fantastically fucked up path, albeit in a different way) after a few years and it's hardly as shocking or effective the second time around, I found. Didn't even bother to finish it. Wasn't in the mood, I guess.

Beautiful. This is the pinnacle of all that art has strived to be over the last few thousands of years.

I'm slightly aghast at how unshitty the music sounds...

Necro made me watch Lawless, here's some thoughts

Lawless - 3,5/5
Hardy: badass
Pearce: sick badass
Shia: his character could be played by anyone and it wouldn't change anything, Kristen Stewart is a better actress.
Chastain: babe
Oldman: who?
Nick Cave: haha, lol, great music for sure.

About Hardy's character


Someone should make a parody and use his Bane voice but in Lawless.

Nope it was a good movie, for the reasons I already stated. Time flew by for me and I didn't find it any of the things you said, so eh, not much either of us is gonna do past this point besides saying "no, your opinion is wrong."

The Final - 1.5/5

Pretty much a torture horror movie about a bunch of rejected high school losers who can't cope in the real world so they turn on their bullies, tie them up and start to brutally torture them. Could have been an interesting take on high school bullying, but past the first 20 minutes or so, there was nothing of worth. The movie degenerated into a pointless mess and in the end I hated all the characters, even ones who the audience should have liked by the end. I really didn't gain much from watching it and it was mostly just mean spirited and dumb.

The Man from Hong Kong - 3.5/5

This is a Australia/Hong Kong collaboration Kung Fu flick, and I must say it's a pretty exciting ride. You got this Hong Kong inspector traveling to Sydney regarding a case involving a dude from there (strangely enough they speak Mandarin in the film), and things don't go as plan. What you get to learn in this flick, is that Chinese policemen like to beat the crap out of the bad guys instead of doing a proper investigation or planning anything at all. Over the top kung fu action involving breaking anything that stands in the way, with a hefty dose of cheesiness and badass (and cheesy) music. Can be a tiny bit long at times, but it's a lot of fun.

Ah, see, I really disliked the performance of the actress who played Esther - I thought it was flat and predictable; it's interesting how perceptions can differ. I do agree, though, that the depiction of the family itself was rather well written and acted, in parts at least; Vera Farmiga was very good as the mother, though I thought that was the only good thing in the movie.

Of course, the twist - the sheer plot content of it, rather than the style in which it was done - is no less plausible than Sleepaway Camp or other 80s horror, which I greatly enjoy; the difference is in how the films present themselves. Orphan takes itself too seriously, for lack of a better expression; many 80s horror flicks maintain an atmosphere of unhinged humour, or at least allowed the audience to veer into that mood without thereby immediately ruining the feel.

Anyway. I'll stop complaining about Orphan; another 'agree to disagree' point.

I dunno about that. It's darker than 80s movies, sure, but there's an element of dark comedy to the twist, the way it's revealed (she goes nuts in her room) and all of those scenes where

I certainly agree that this particular scene, for example, is pretty damn funny; I just happen to think it's unintentionally so, especially in light of the earlier, more serious treatment of the family's issues. That's not to say that I think a film can't have, both,'serious' and humorous aspects, or that dark comedy and genuine poignancy are mutually exclusive; that'd be ridiculous. Rather, I thought that Orphan basically tried to present itself as a serious horror film and failed due to the, erm, hilarity of its plot and certain key scenes.

Anyway - once again, emphasising that 'agree to disagree' thing. There are worse modern horror films, I'll grant that; I watched part of "Mirrors 2" last night (not sure what I was thinking, either - I guess I was just transfixed by the sheer awfulness and incapable of reaching for the remote) - good grief, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at a disembowelment before.

A lot of people really like The Mist here....how can you guys get past the absolutely horrendous acting? Yeah, it's a neat film/idea but goddamn that acting is terrible.

Yeah, The Mist is ass. Cheesy as hell acting and the twist at the end is awful and makes Orphan's twist look like something Hitchcock would write. That's another one I should review sometime.

Anyone in particular that you guys have in mind? I don't remember the acting being all that bad. I thought it was a pretty cool movie. Certainly better than about 90% of the modern horror movies you see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAW0NxqjIk

lel. Just one of a few. It's just really stilted and awkward. The whole movie. I only like it because the aesthetics are cool, and the hidden nature of the monsters is awesome, and I love the whole inter-dimensional aspect.It's a great story, and should've just stayed a great story.

Okay, maybe. The DCD song still makes the ending pretty damn cool.

I thought The Mist was pretty damn cool... right up until probably the most horrible ending ever conceived. Thomas Jane (we are talking about that one, right?) was about as good as Thomas Jane can be. Whats-her-name that played Mrs. Carmody was probably the worst. It was a faithful adaptation of the short story that utterly, utterly failed in the last 10 minutes.

No way. Harden was great, the character she was playing might have been shit, but her acting definitely wasn't. At least I remember really liking her performance as the nutter.

The ending was fine as well. I can get not liking it, but it somehow being the worst ending of all time? What? how? why?

Ending was balls but I will agree with deathsane in that The Mist was far more enjoyable than most modern horror films.

I really don't see why people disliked that ending so much. I didn't think it was that great of a movie or anything, but I thought the ending was surprisingly good. Their decision to commit mass suicide was sensible, considering they'd run out of gas and running around on foot out in the mist essentially guaranteed a horrible death. Then WHOOPS it turns out the outside world was reacting in a totally believable way. Aside from a bit of ironic timing, everything was believable, and it was a much bleaker ending than I expected out of the film. Way better than if they'd been picked off one by one, or if they had just gotten away. If you ask me, the worst part of the movie was how quickly that crazy religious chick gets the majority to turn on the others. It really needed better writing/acting to make that part stick, I thought.

Lebowski is one of my favorite movies simply because you can interpret it so many wonderful ways, and come to so many vastly different conclusions based on these interpretations. I'm going to write a long, scattered-brained post about it now.

I recently watched it with the idea in my head from the outset that Walter represented the Old Testament of the Bible, and the Dude represented Christ/the New Testament. It even adds up with Walter's whole Jewish thing, the Torah, etc. It's a sketchy way to look at it, but intriguing nonetheless and not to be entirely discarded.

Then I sometimes notice how much of a linguistic adventure the movie is. There is such an importance placed on language and syntax that I can't help but wonder what kind of game they are playing, if any, with the wording. For instance, a lot of characters - the Dude especially - repeat phrases they heard earlier. This is simply good writing on the Coen Brothers part, because this happens all the time in real life. But also: the ass fucking motif, with Jesus promising to fuck the Dude and co. in the ass next Wednesday instead, and Walter proclaiming that Corvette thrashing is what indeed happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass. Also, Maude is obsessed with language and 'the parlance of our times': "his dick, or his rod, or his johnson," etc. Also see: coitus, etc. The Dude I'm sure is amused by all of Maude's pomposity, but even their little exchanges in wordplay are hilariously revealing about their characters. Is that simply it? Am I reading into it too much? Are the Coen's just exceptionally good at using language to convey character? Or is there a syntax fueled sub-text I am not quite grasping? There has to be some kind of significance of language in this movie. The Stranger, who bookends the film and makes a sole appearance smack-dab in the middle, makes it a point to bring the Dude's foul mouth up to him. Also, let's NOT forget Walter's very carefully chosen wording: "that poor woman, that poor SLUT probably kidnapped herself." Walter always chooses his words carefully, it seems to me - even when being vulgar.

Also noted the green-ness of the females. Bunny Lebowski is a lime green, Maude is a rich olive green.

THERE IS A LOT OF GODDAMN SYMBOLISM AND SUBTLE SHIT IN THIS MOVIE AND IT'S FUN TO WATCH. IT'S ALSO FUNNY. But I don't think I'll ever settle on how I want to interpret it. Which keeps it fresh and fun every time I watch it.

I didn't like The Mist. I don't know about the acting but I couldn't get past the story itself. The premise was cool but it didn't eventuate into anything interesting or gripping and was always teetering on the dull and unsuspenseful side because it was bogged down with all the external conflict and bickering. I felt the religious elements were unnecessary and purely there to cause conflict, predictable off the bat. It's not that I want the characters to be likeable but I at least want them to man up and think of a way out, one that doesn't involve running blindly outside.

That's about my take too. I haven't seen it in a few years, but I dunno, just not interesting writing-wise; felt very disposable and generic aside from the cool aesthetics that Frog mentioned. The characters were all really stock and they weren't likable at all really. The ending bugged me because of the irony aspect...just felt so hammy and contrived the way they did it. The fact that it ended that way wasn't awful I guess, just the sneering "look at how ironic we are" sort of ending annoyed the hell out of me the last time I saw it.

I also much prefer the story. The ending was just as bleak, but it was better written because Stephen King.

THOMAS JANE 4 LYFE

The Mist was better than most of the movies Empyreal likes. It had tons of problems but was unpretentious and well paced. I'm also a sucker for single-location action movies.

That's pretty much exactly what I think, too.

The dynamics of the group just felt very artificial and forced, and also rather rushed, as if they really wanted to play through all of these psychological developments that would really take time and careful writing to portray in a believable way, but were too impatient. Honestly, though, while I thought that the characters' decision to leave the supermarket was a rather tepid and inane end to the situation, I actually found the ending to be one of the few vaguely interesting aspects; granted, this is probably because, by that point, I disliked the characters so much that I was glad they died.

I do like Thomas Jane....and I did enjoy my time with the movie, was just curious to see how many people ignored the just....awful acting.

One word, PhilosophicalFrog: Stander. One of the greatest docudramas ever.

oh cool! the premise sounds badass. will check it out.

THIS.

I saw the twist coming a mile away. Thought it would have been much better for them to kill themselves and that just be it... nice and bleak.

Really the acting was the main problem, I think if the actors (especially in the supporting cast) had done a better job of selling the whole thing more people would have bought the ending. Also maybe they could have fixed up the script around the whole religious zealotry thing to be less cheesy. Anyway other than that it was a pretty decent horror movie, it's not like there are dozens of better ones from recent years. In a healthier genre it'd be forgotten, but yeah, that's pretty much the situation horror is in right now.

Haha, would be a fun movie to watch with a bunch of friends.

I recently watched two movies.

Life Ov Pi: I haven't read the book but I thought the movie was quite good. In terms of the performance, the overall acting was quite convincing and had some strong performances, especially older Pi's character moved me a bit with his story-telling and narration. As far as the effects and 3D aspect goes, I honestly found it a bit bland except for the scene with the jellyfish. I suppose I had my expectations pegged really high with all the pre-release hype. But all and all, it's worth every buck spent at the theater.
Rating: 8/10

Safety Not Guaranteed: The problem with Aubrey Plaza is that she's incorrigibly like Micheal Cera, a person who plays the same character in every film. Keeping that aside (and the fact that I find her attractive), I thought the movie was a tad quirky and would appeal more to hipsters. To be honest, I didn't have anything else to watch, so I kept this movie on while I tried to go to bed. Unfortunately, it didn't make me sleep. The plot could've been written by a 10 year child for all you know.
Rating: 5/10

The real ending to The Mist is as bleak as bleak can be. The last survivors roll off into the mist, finding no end to it, and just follow a faint radio transmission that they think comes from Hartford of something, hundreds of miles away. The end.

Do they starve? Go crazy? Get rescued? Does the mist cover the whole world or what? No idea, no hints, no hope, but they keep going anyway. It's fucking cold.

The movie could have easily done that. If you stop watching the movie 10 minutes before the end, it sort of does. Instead we get oops we're out of gas, might as well snuff it. Die hard survivors that have spent movie-days fighting off horrors with not much more than brooms and Alpo suddenly decide eh, fuck it.

And seconds before the army shows up? As if to say ha ha see you shouldn't have given up? Could there have been a clearer middle finger to the audience? The main hero character was turned into the goat in a 100% contrived way that served no purpose and added nothing. It was like a separate director that was unfamiliar with the script tacked on the ending in post.

Watched Nosferatu. My experience with old ass black and white silent films is pretty limited (in the last 6 years or so I've only seen the Artist, and that doesn't count.) I wasn't expecting it to look so strange. It's not the really crisp black and white of stuff like The Twilight Zone, that's for sure. It's the visual equivalent of raw black metal. I wouldn't say I really enjoyed this, as my ADD was kicking in pretty severely with nothing to latch on to except imagery and the occasional moment of brilliant music (most of it is pretty dull.) But I will mention that the guy who played the vampire actually looked creepy as hell, and when he was actually on screen the movie was enjoyable. What with the unforgettable image of his shadow on the wall, and his strange and awkward gait.

I love these German expressionist horror films from the 10s and 20s. The black and white of it, the silence and the grittiness of the quality makes them just that much more atmospheric and authentic. It feels like hey, this could actually have happened way back then. The world still had unexplored reaches where these supernatural, magical and mystical things might have happened. On Nosferatu specifically, Max Schreck's completely out of this world-look - achieved with just make-up - is just disturbing. The most frightening visage on film though perhaps not as disturbing as the backgrounds of Caligari combined with the sleepwalker's gait. But still, one of my definite favorites, a perfect score.

Yeah I just don't agree with that. The original ending doesn't conclude anything; the characters are essentially exactly where they were at the beginning, in a semi-safe place but uncertain of the future. It's just kind of lazy, really. And they are die-hard survivors, but remember the main thing that kept the dad going was getting back to his wife and rescuing her. He finds out that she's dead, and starts totally despairing. They run out of gas, and from experience they know that running out into the mist without any kind of protection pretty much guarantees a horrible painful death, or worse. With the dad no longer holding everyone together, they all quickly fall in line with his 'quick way out' plan. I agree it was rather rushed in the movie and they could have sold it better by giving them a little more time, as well as better lines and acting. But in principle there was nothing wrong with it and I'm not at all convinced "they just drive off into the mist" would have been a better ending. In fact I'd have felt very let down; all that tension builds up to nothing.

But the original one had the cool Lovecraftian slant to it where you get hints of these huge mountainous creatures stomping around in the Mist. And the desolated atmosphere was great...I dunno, been quite a few years since I read that story too.

I liked Melancholia more than Antichrist. It's certainly more than a psychological study of depression, and I'm not sure it was intended to be even that. It's one of those films where, while enjoying it at the time I didn't find much significance in it, but later on certain events made me think about parts of it and what it was trying to say became clear. To me that's a sign of a good flick. I didn't get that as much with Antichrist. I don't think I really got the gist of that film.

Also: the fact of Dunst being a crap actress sort of fits in to the ethos of the movie if you think about it.

I'd rather thought the ending to The Mist was done brilliantly. Now that's despair right there. Also, I never really had a problem with any hammy acting, been awhile since I saw it though. The rest of the film, especially technically, was very well done imo.