I quite enjoyed Trick R Treat, though it wasn't quite as good as I expected it to be after seeing various scenes floating around the net. It did pull off the anthology concept very well, though, somehow creating something of a cohesive overall impression while letting each of the stories develop in a satisfactory manner. I quite like that I have an image or atmosphere in mind every time I hear the name, which doesn't always happen with those collections.

I write (and say, actually) 'quite' a lot. Must break that habit.

On the other hand, I did finally see Django Unchained. Hooooly... Can't really put my thoughts into words that aren't superlatives right now, but I've gotta say that I was absolutely blown away; exceeded every single one of my expectations.

@Necroticism Well recently I finally watched Andrei Rublev all the way through, and that was pretty great. Also saw Departures, that Japanese drama that won the Best Foreign Film Oscar a few years ago, which was neat. I dunno...plenty of things. I've been watching a lot more TV shows recently than film, though.

I will give you one, though. Everyone here needs to see Der Freie Wille. Seriously one of the best films I've seen in the last ten years. So good.

Oh...I see...one of THOSE guys
Whatever gets you hard, mate.

Sorry, I should've said Robot Jox.

EDIT: I just noticed that your e-mail is Hellraiser_lover. And that you're 20. I kinda like Hellraiser. And Hellraiser 2.

I'm just not huge into super foreign movies, baby.

Can we agree on Jackie Chan, at least?

Of course! And I like quite a few french and german films. But no Japanese ones, I'm afraid. At least none that immediately spring to mind.

Check out The Twilight Samurai.

Hahaha, I made that when I was 13 and never bothered to change it as my main email cause Hellraiser is indeed awesome. Although those two are the only ones any sane person really needs.
And yes, I AM 20. What are you implying?

I LOVE the first Hellraiser movie. It's one of my favorite horror films of the 80s. Probably why I just completely wanted to punch the latest, Doug Bradley-less one in the face.

Hellraiser is, indeed, excellent. Haven't even seen the last one - decided not to ruin the memories.


Not even Seven Samurai?

He's seen Seven Psychopaths; isn't that pretty much the same thing?

Has anyone here watched The Paperboy or Killer Joe? Along with the excellent Lawless, my faith in American-financed cinema is pretty much restored.

And Dredd was indeed ass. Not sure why people thought it would be good, given that it was coming from the writer of the execrable novel on which Danny Boyle's equally execrable "The Beach" was based and the director of Rashomon's ADD riddled 2nd amendment enamored black sheep second cousin twice removed absolute fucking bullshit of a wannabe action movie "Vantage Point." If people really want a fun throwback to the no-nonsense action flicks of the 80's and early 90's, just pickup the unrated cut of Lockout. It's still pretty idiotic (packed with enough plotholes to serve as a colander--although still way less than Looper, which was basically just one ginormous circular hole of a movie), but at least it knows it's fucking stupid and runs with it in a highly amusing fashion.

And Guy Pearce is spectacularly good, as he always is. One of the very, very few top-level Hollywood actors I have boundless respect for. He can literally do anything. Yes. Literally.

That was the first rec that came to mind, honestly...but, you know... it's in black and white. God I love Kurosawa. Actually, Necro, watch Versus, you'll love it Japanese cinema at its absolute finest...

DD, have you seen Der Freie Wille? Not to sound like some raving fanboy, but I seriously love it and I thought you might dig it as well. As far as existential/nihilistic contemporary films go, it's by far one of the finest I've seen. Aaaand I promise to stop plugging it as of.....now.

I have not! But I can already tell I'll enjoy it. I'll check it out ASAP.

While we're on the subject of German drama, have you seen Revanche. That one might be my pick of the decade; really can't sing its praises enough. Amazing movie. Götz Spielmann is the next Tarkovsky.

I remember finding Revanche OK. Didn't leave much of an impression. Spielmann's style reminds me of Jacques Audiard but not as elegant.

I got these 2 movies recently, they're on my ps3, I'm gonna watch them soon, I'll let you know my opinion. And indeed, Lawless was pretty fucking awesome and Pearce was superb.

I'll have you know that I like black and white!

Killer Joe is great. Haven't seen The Paperboy, but the synopsis caught my eye. I'll definitely have to check that out too.

Hellraiser III is cool because Armored Saint is in it...but that's about the only good thing. The second one is the best though.

I hated the second Hellraiser movie. No idea it had so many fans here. I mean I knew Necro liked it but didn't think anyone else would have...haha.

Hell on Earth was a fucking travesty, but a really funny travesty. Almost everything about that movie is facepalm worthy. ''TIME FOR YOUR CLOSEUP!''

I enjoyed Read My Lips quite a bit, but A Prophet verged on the terrible. Didn't see much similarity between the two director's styles.

I didn't bother seeing Lawless because Shia LaBeouf has ruined every movie I've seen him in. This one's actually good?

I did see Revanche, probably because I saw you rec it here, dd. It was good! I liked it a lot. Would like to check out some of the director's other material, now that you mention it.

For some reason I haven't gotten around to looking into Bela Tarr yet. Should do so. And more Sokurov.

Didn't see A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints either, I'm guessing? While I enjoyed Lawless more, Guide was hardly what I'd call a bad film. Very reminiscent of early Scorsese and the films of the Italian neorealism movement.

In the hands of the right director, Shia's a decent enough muse. I actually find him generally more palatable than Christian Bale.

Glad you enjoyed it, U_S! Other great recent German titles are Maren Ade's Everyone Else and Fatih Akin's The Edge of Heaven (which I liked far more than the overrated Head-On.) I THINK both of those are on Netflix, but I could be mistaken.


What did you think of Bug, Emp? It didn't do much for me the one time I saw it, but I enjoyed Killer Joe so much, I may be willing to give it a second go...

Amazing Spiderman was actually pretty good! I really didn't want to bother with it because of the whole reimagining of a movie that isn't even ten years old thing but damned if it wasn't much better than the Tobie Maguire one. I was much more emotionally invested in the characters, and they did a much better job in portraying Peter Parker much closer to the comics with all the wisecracking. The action had this sense of urgency and it really illustrated how inexperienced Parker was and the Lizard was a great choice of villain. I'm actually interested in the inevitable sequel now.

I loved The Amazing Spider Man. Such a fun movie and both Peter and Gwen are two of the most ridiculously likeable movie characters I've seen in quite a while.

You need to watch Survive Style 5+.
Everyone does for that matter.

I thought Bug was great, darkeningday. Just a really creepy, paranoid mind ride. Michael Shannon was excellent in it. Dude has an unsettling face.

I tried to watch Sinister the other day. I fell asleep during it because it was 2:00 AM, but from the 40 or so minutes of it that I did watch I was really not impressed. It felt very rushed despite still have an hour left, the acting wasn't very believable, and even the 16mm scenes that I heard so much about were not very frightening or disturbing. Perhaps if it didn't have the jump scare music underneath it the whole time maybe it would've been more effective, but from what I saw it just looked very amateur.

Experience has taught me not to bother starting films at late hours if I'm very tired...being drowsy fucks up a film's pacing and pretty much everything else. There's a bunch of good movies out there I got bad first impressions of because I was tired on the first viewing.

Yeah, the acting was solid. Ashley Judd is one of a very small number of Star Trek veterans who actually made it pretty well in the "real" acting world. But what about Bug was particularly "ridey," Necro? Seemed pretty one note from beginning to end, like it got trapped in its own claustrophobic first act and never managed to break free. I have a feeling it would have worked far better on the stage than the screen, though, so I'm not entirely sure there's anything William Friedkin could have done to fix it. That said, Scott Thomas's sublime Anacardium (which featured a similar set of aesthetics, mood and single-location setting) transitioned elegantly from the stage to the screen, so maybe the blame really did lie at the feet of the director.

Anyway, you'd do best check out Killer Joe, Necro. Loved every second of it, and I have a sneaking suspicion you would too.

I've never heard of that, but if it's similar I'll give it a watch. I thought it was enthralling and you were never sure how far it would go until the effective conclusion (could it have ended any other way?). I liked that it pulled no punches and just went further and further down the mental rabbit hole.Maybe it WOULD have worked better on the stage but I think it works well as a movie. As you said, it has a very claustrophobic atmosphere. About Killer Joe, I actually wanted to see it when it was in theatres but it was only playing at one place downtown and nobody else wanted to go.

Well, hurry up and see it so I can feel less bad when I trash Seven Psychopaths .

Can't wait to see Michael Shannon in The Iceman and possibly Man of Steel, we'll soon see which is better.
I saw Bug halfway through and thought it was deeply unsettling, like one big bad trip, going to give it a complete re-watch soon. The main reason I haven't yet is because of how bleak and uncompromising the last portion is, not really something I seek to watch, and if I do there's usually a long space between viewings.

Man, what happened to Michael Shannon? I saw him in an off-Broadway play directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman a few years back, and his performance practically knocked the wind out of me. Dude could have been the next Daniel Day Lewis if he'd played his cards right. But now he's descended into the black hole of kiddie comic book dross? And even worse (although I'm not sure you can actually go below zero), Zach Snyder directed kiddie comic book dross. A shame.

The Iceman could be somewhat passable, though. Danika was quite bad, but there were some interesting ideas beneath its muddy, well-worn surface. Let's hope director Ariel Vromen has fixed what wasn't working and left alone what was. Kind of strange Vromen got another high (probably even higher?) profile movie deal, though, because I was under the impression Danika was a financial disaster...

I found it average but LaBeouf isn't what prevented the movie from being as great as it could have been. It has a superb cast and a potentially great story to tell but it failed to engage me. Whether it was with romance, violence or intrigue, it was never great. I kept thinking the director was setting things up in the first half for something a lot bigger later on but it never happens.

It's not bad or boring by any means, but it's more forgettable than it should have been considering the ingredients.

Agreed with Riffs. It was decent enough to watch, but never as gripping or interesting as it seemingly wanted to be. It paddled along and then ended without any real highs or lows. Guy Pearce was pretty cool in it, though.

Some movies I saw recently:

Citadel: 5 out of 10

A young, disenfranchised father and his family are threatened by a gang of mysterious, violent kids. This is another variation riding the UK trend of "chavs" thriller/horror movies. This time, instead of the middle class being under threat, it's the destitute preying on the destitute. Starts with a bang on a traumatic event and then slowly builds up showing the main character struggles to overcome a trauma. But it later devolves into some sort of lame action horror. I don't know, it didn't quite gel for me, although I appreciated the lead's performance.


A Royal Affair: 7 out of 10

Not usually much into historical drama but this film about 18th century Denmark was enjoyable, even if the romantic angle was a little sappy for my tastes. The portrayal of Christian VII, the batshit insane king of Denmark played really well by Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, is what really lifted the movie for me. No punches are pulled but he is not demonized either. This makes for an interesting character triangle between him, the Queen and the physician who befriends the former and fucks the latter.


Here Comes the Boom: 3 out of 10

Got suckered into watching this. Guess I was expecting something better than that. Kevin James tries hard but that movie is just ass. Lame story, shitty cast. None of them are funny. Salma Hayek is fucking embarrassing. It's a comedy where you don't laugh, with touchy-feely elements that aren't touching, spiced with MMA fights that are totally lame and boring. It fails about everything it tries to be.


Officer Down: 5 out of 10

Thriller about a cop who attempts to redeem himself for his shitty life and basically causes an unforeseen chain of events in the process. It kills time, it's not bad but it's a little by-the-numbers with borrowed elements from a lot of films out there. I'd rather watch State of Grace or Romeo Is Bleeding again for some really awesome, gripping stuff.


Yellowbrickroad: 2 out of 10

Wow. What a fucking mess of a movie. A bunch of people attempt to solve the 1940 mysterious disappearance of a town's entire population who allegedly left everything behind them to travel some road. This is really bad, with lots of failed, adolescent attempts at metaphors, atrocious pacing, shitty production values and inane actors. I'm giving it a few points only for establishing some tension in a few scenes and an intriguing setup. But it stinks nonetheless.

Rosemary's Baby: A classic I never got around to. This movie is all about building atmosphere. It's a slow, deliberate build, with things seeming to get more wrong and skewed as it goes along. Mia Farrow is great, they did a good job of making her look increasingly terrible and sickly as the pregnancy came along. This woman is isolated and anyone that could help her ends up incapacitated. The mystery builds, what do they want with the baby? To sacrifice it ...or something more sinister? I really liked it. It looks great, with vibrant colours and a sense of the ominous in every day environments. The soundtrack, especially the opening track, is very diabolical. The conception scene is as close to perfect as possible, as is the sudden switch in attitude and tone at the end. I'd love to hear of other movies that pull off satanism with such subtlety and effectiveness.