Schoolio's Movie Corner

[Grandma]

Movies I've seen recently:

Buffalo 66 I saw this like a day after The Forgotten and it almost made up for that travesty. It was described to me as a "dark Napoleon Dynamite"...

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I saw 7 Psychopaths in an awesome theater in Brooklyn run by Austin-transplants and is a complete rip-off of Alamo, so there was a lot of drinking involved. it is much better than the horrible trailers imply, though that is made so very much by the remarkable cast. Ultimately I was left wondering what the point of it was supposed to be, as it seems to just cram every single idea somebody has ever had into one movie, but it's extremely entertaining.

[Down Rodeo]

Oops. That's a pretty serious blunder on my part.

[KungFuJoe]

Was not a fan of Holy Motors. Granted I was tired from not being able to get into the Amour screening yesterday, then having to waiting for Motors to start an hour & a half late. It was a trouble keeping focus on the film. However, I think I saw enough of it to believe I don't really need to give it another chance. Did not live up to the hype.

[Dogvolta]

Cabin In The Woods was fucking funny

Watched it last night. I had a fantastic time watching that movie.
It was remenicent of Botched, Feast series, and little hints of Funny Games.

[Drewski27]

I saw Man With the Iron Fists last night. I thought it was pretty good. Russel Crowe was actually really good in this, in a comedic relief kinda way. I want his knife gun. That thing was fucking sweet.

[xanman86]

This past weekend, one new movie and a bunch of re-watches:

Certified Copy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
10 Things I Hate About You
The Godfather Part II
Raiders of the Lost Ark

I need to go to a movie theater lol

[xuclarockerx]

RED STATE

Caught most of this on Showtime. Pretty fucked up, predictable but still twisted. The 'trumpets' at the end gave me chills. They should have gone with the 'original ending' (wiki it)

[cutterbutter]

Yeah, I thought the ending was pretty great, got chills as well when the trumpets came in, but ive never read the original ending before. That shit would have been crazy.

During various interactive Q&As for the film, Smith has stated that the original ending actually continued through with the trumpets signaling the Rapture. After Cooper tells Keenan to shoot him, Cooper's chest explodes, followed by the remaining family members' chests exploding one by one, and then the remaining agents' chests exploding one by one. During these deaths, the ground shakes and splits, and Keenan curls up on the ground and closes his eyes. When he opens his eyes he sees the last agent killed with a giant sword coming out of his chest, which is being wielded by an enormous armored angel. The angel looks at Keenan, puts a finger to his lips, and says "shhhhh". The angel then flies off into the sky, and as the angel banks out of the picture, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descend

[ThatGirl]

This reminded me of a movie called "The Rapture" starring Mimi Rogers. It really struck a chord with me at the time I saw it, but so disturbing. I read a review that stated, "Under no circumstances should a child see this movie". It was really hard to watch. Now I'm really curious about Red State.

[xuclarockerx]

Now I really want to see that movie.

If you haven't seen Red State it's basically about a Westboro Baptist type cult on crack, crossed with the Branch Dividian siege in Waco. Some kids looking for sex get drugged and wake up captive in the middle of a church service. Eventually the ATF is brought in and it becomes all out war. Kind of over the top stuff but pretty gripping. And yeah I can't express the feeling I got w/ those trumpets. My mouth was literally gaping for 5 minutes there. I was pretty disappointed with how they handled it (apparently a budgetary issue)

[amyzzz]

I stopped watching it once they started torturing/killing the sexed up guys.

[ThatGirl]

The story in The Rapture takes some time to develop, but also involves a somewhat cult-like religious movement, and how the main character's involvement, and her family's involvement with it, begins and grows. Starting off it can seem a bit slow, (I think in order to get through all the fine details of the storyline) but I thought Mimi did a great job of showing the change and transformation of her character.

[xuclarockerx]

I stopped watching it once they started torturing/killing the sexed up guys.

i missed about 10-20 minutes there but its way better after that.

[schoolofruckus]

I'll write more in the near future, but I can say without question that Post Tenebras Lux has ruined AFI Fest for me, and I mean that as a compliment. It was the first film I saw and it's such a rapturous, horrifying, transcendent experience that everything I've seen since has felt like less than cinema.

Leviathan came closest to making me forget about it for a moment; that one is a truly staggering feat of image capture, using the real life mechanics of a commercial fishing boat to create an impressionist vision of brutality in nature (ideas that PTL also tackles), but even at 87 minutes it starts to feel a bit redundant at some point. I don't think that's thematically inappropriate (it appears that every day is exactly the same in this world) but it kept it from being an unqualified triumph for me.

Something in the Air was my first Assayas, and I know Chris will disagree, but I thought it was weak sauce. It's about a bunch of left-wing teenagers coming of age in early-70's France (and abroad); I'm under the impression it has echoes of Assayas' own coming-of-age, but it felt completely hollow to me. There's no depth to the political content (which is basically used as a self-actualization device and nothing else) or any of the relationships between the characters. It reminded me a lot of the upcoming Not Fade Away, actually - another portrayal of the young and artsy searching for themselves against a backdrop of mid-20th century turbulence which is passable, but emotionally and dramatically vacant.

[KungFuJoe]

The Hunt is not only the best film I caught at AFI this year, but possibly the best film of the year. This one floored me.

[iv3rdawG]

I'm going to echo Gabe's sentiments about Post Tenebras Lux. It was my first Reygadas film and I was absolutely blown away by it.

[SoulDischarge]

Was not a fan of Holy Motors. Granted I was tired from not being able to get into the Amour screening yesterday, then having to waiting for Motors to start an hour & a half late. It was a trouble keeping focus on the film. However, I think I saw enough of it to believe I don't really need to give it another chance. Did not live up to the hype.

After seeing the trailer and reading the reviews, this is the upcoming film I'm most excited to see (and of course it's not playing within 200 miles of me at any time in the next few months). I'm not allowing this to dissuade me in my excitement one bit.

[TomServo]

Red State is by far the best Kevin Smith movie, from a "fan of movies" perspective. It's really good once it gets going, and nobody who saw the final 75% would guess it was a Kevin Smith film, which is sadly a compliment.

[TallGuyCM]

After seeing the trailer and reading the reviews, this is the upcoming film I'm most excited to see (and of course it's not playing within 200 miles of me at any time in the next few months). I'm not allowing this to dissuade me in my excitement one bit.

I seem to be in the vast minority on this (most everyone I went with either liked it or loved it) but I really, really disliked it. I can usually find some kind of silver lining amongst most films that I don't care for, but this one caused an almost violent level of vitriol from me. I'm not sure quite what it is that made dislike it so much, but I absolutely loathed it.

[Vasoline Groove]

Red State is by far the best Kevin Smith movie, from a "fan of movies" perspective. It's really good once it gets going, and nobody who saw the final 75% would guess it was a Kevin Smith film, which is sadly a compliment.

Watched it last night. Pretty enjoyable but I thought the preacher ranted too long sometimes. It would have been great if they could have stayed with the original ending, but budgets are a bitch.

I kept thinking that eventually one of the actors was going to start getting snarky in a Kevin Smith fashion but no one really did and I respected him for that.

[schoolofruckus]

I seem to be in the vast minority on this (most everyone I went with either liked it or loved it) but I really, really disliked it. I can usually find some kind of silver lining amongst most films that I don't care for, but this one caused an almost violent level of vitriol from me. I'm not sure quite what it is that made dislike it so much, but I absolutely loathed it.

After seeing the trailer and reading the reviews, this is the upcoming film I'm most excited to see (and of course it's not playing within 200 miles of me at any time in the next few months). I'm not allowing this to dissuade me in my excitement one bit.

Was not a fan of Holy Motors. Granted I was tired from not being able to get into the Amour screening yesterday, then having to waiting for Motors to start an hour & a half late. It was a trouble keeping focus on the film. However, I think I saw enough of it to believe I don't really need to give it another chance. Did not live up to the hype.

I missed my AFI screenings of Holy Motors, but I'm super excited to see it at Cinefamily in a few weeks. I'm also really hoping Tabu gets some run here, as I was too tired for that one yesterday.

Joe, did you see Something in the Air? As a long-time Assayas guy, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

[schoolofruckus]

Super fucking excited for this:

[cutterbutter]

Going to the AFIfest "secret screening" tonight at Graumen's. Whatever that may be.

[schoolofruckus]

Variety says it's Skyfall. In a related story, I have a couple extra tickets if anyone needs them...

[cutterbutter]

Uhh just saw it and was coming here. Same I suppose. Going to see it this weekend with my dad since its his birthday and all. Could still be fun but not with all the other billion things going on this week.

[schoolofruckus]

The rumor I heard this morning is that it would be Django Unchained. I would have still had minor reservations about skipping a movie that comes out in April (Simon Killer) for a movie that comes out in December, but at least it would be an electric environment with it having been a world premiere. Seeing any movie that has been out in the UK for a month and which drops here in two days would not have that factor - let alone that Bond is among my least favorite movie franchises ever.

[xanman86]

<--- Jealous

[thestripe]

Watched the Tree of Life last night. What a great experience. Every single shot is gorgeous. I don't think I moved for the entire 2.5 hours the movie ran. I already want to watch it again.

[xanman86]

We Bought a Zoo was freakin' adorable