The Bourne Identity

hi - new member here.

just wanted to add that i have also seen hitchhikers guide to the galaxy this weekend and i would give a 4/10 mark.

The reason being is that the graphics towards the end were great and i loved the depressed robot but the story line was terrible and i also nearly fell asleep in the middle of the movie as it was so boring. (not many scenes with the robot).

"Lemony Snickets: A Series of Unfortunate Events"-It was pretty bad. I am not sure what I didn't like but it just was, in my opinion, boring. They only thing somewhat interesting in this film was the entertaining Jim Carrey who had the opportunity to use improv throughout the entire movie, and had some pretty funny characters. 3.5/10


Welcome to the site GemGem, but I must disagree with you when you say:

quote:

the story line was terrible and i also nearly fell asleep in the middle of the movie as it was so boring.

I thought that the story was quite faithful to that of the book. And I don't think that I would call any of Douglas Adams' work "Terrible."

I just saw Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy this weekend and it wasn't bad. I didn't no what to expect since I had never read the book but it was pretty funny-surpassed the little expectation I did have.
Anyone seen Kung Fu Hustle?

I liked Hitchhikers Guide a lot, true, the middle section wasn't as good as the beginning and end parts, and I thought Arthur should have been more bewildered and less inconvenienced, but compared to my memories of the old TV show(everyone dressed as if they were challenging Zaphod's role as worst dressed humanoid in the universe, Trillian looking like a crack whore, and Marvin as a reject from Lost in Space!), it was pure gold for me!
I recently checked out A Snake in June by Shinya Tsukamoto, of Tetsuo:The Iron Man fame. A very interesting film, shot in black and white, about a man who photographs in her private moments a woman who answered his call to a mental health help line, and then blackmails her with the revealing negatives into living her life more freely. At the same time the blackmailer exposes to her husband that his wife has hidden desires he is not fulfilling. Lots of bizarre imagery that could be confusing at times, but I just went with it and ended up liking the film even if I didn't completely understand it.
I also rented Audition and Gozu by Takashi Miike. Audition felt disappointing to me, motives were unclear, and it felt like reading the original book was necessary to catch a lot of the meaning. As well it was the first film of Miike's where I started to notice his formula during the film. Gozu on the other hand was mind-blowing! My mouth was agape through much of the movie as it consistently went wherever I didn't expect it to go! In the special features there is an essay that explained many of the things in the film that I had problems grasping, and I recommend to anyone renting this film that they read that essay immediately after finishing it. There is a lot of imagery and plot taken from Buddhist mythology, and it mentions off the bat that the film is meant to be in the style of David Lynch's more recent bizarre films. Great movie from Miike, if you're a fan of his you'll love it, and as the box cover states, "Like nothing you've ever seen before...even from Takashi Miike!"

Millions - (2005) directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting", "28 Days Later")
A Fox Searchlight Picture
Official Website
A+++

A movie about a boy who finds a big sack of British Pounds, which in a few days will be made absolutely worthless by the Euro conversion.

Wonderful movie that not enough people will see.

Funny, clever and heartwarming without any of the lame stuff that I've come to associate with major studio releases.

Suitable for the entire family, although some might have issues with one whimsical scene featuring a women's lingerie advert.

.

I agree about Millions. Great movie.

Also:

Kingdom Of Heaven:
I'm sure some people have heard me raving about how good this movie looked in other discussions, and I was not dissapointed. The cinematography and production design are amazing, and the battle scenes are awesome. The only dissapointment was in the similarity it had to Gladiator. I love Ridley Scott as a director, because no two of his movies are alike...until now. I didn't like Kingdom of Heaven as much as Gladiator, but it came close. And considering how much I love Gladiator, that's pretty damn good. A-

Crash

I've been looking forward to this one, since it is directed by the Million $ Baby writer. I thought it was extremely well-written, well-acted, but something about the movie just lacked punch. It is hard to describe...a couple of the reviews I read said that the script was too preachy, but I never found the dialogue to be too deliberately dramatic (like Closer). Is there anybody out there who could help me out...what (if anything) do you think the movie lacked that could have made it more emotionally jolting? I felt like tragic stuff kept happening, but that I just didn't care. Usually when this happens it is because of bad writing, but I don't find that here...I don't know.

I guess the writer/director was TOO left-wing, or maybe he wasn't ready to direct himself? YOU guys went out to see it, not me on Mother's Day, so YOU tell ME!

Well it definitely wasn't a left-wing film...all you have to do to figure that out is what the first scene with Ludacris.

"The interpreter"-Good but forgetable (The only thing that really sticks out right now is Kidman's deep blue eyes and I just saw it Friday) 65/100

Also recently saw Kingdom of Heaven and thought it was wonderful. Beautiful photography, excellent writing and, of course, excellent, directing. In my opinion, it was a better film than Gladiator. Kingdom of Heaven had more substance...more feeling. It didn't take its subject matter for granted and didn't insult the audiences' intelligence.

Highly recommended!

Well, I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but even though I am a huge fan of the books, Hitchhiker's blew. For starters, every joke in the script lacked panache. Just no real heart to the writing. Second, they simply tried to cram too much into one movie. The plot was too fast and incoherent, and the confusion in caused just furthered my first complaint. Third, the visual effects were VERY distracting at times. Specificially, Zaphod comes to mind. I realize the whole "two heads" thing was important in the books, but it just doesn't translate to the screen. And the flipping thing was evern worse than two actual heads would have been. The juevenile trick hampered Rockwell. Also, same for Marvin's physique. Somethign was just not right. Too rolly-polly. Needed a bit more humanoid form. Specifically, upon reading the novels, my mind came to one conclusion. He should have looked like a character (not sure how many are young enough to have watched this, buts worth a shot), the robot from Power Rangers, Alpha. The one who was always yelling "Ay Ay Ay!" All in all, a nice effort, but it comes up short. And the acting came SOOO damn close to being redeeming. The jobs done by Freeman, Rockwell, Mos Def, Malkovich, Rickman (AMAZING as Marvin. Simply AMAZING) far surpassed the rest of the work.

3/10

Saw two movies tonight, one pretty decent, the other shockingly bad.

The decent movie was 'In Good Company.' I wasn't expecting much, and it turned out to be a nice movie to watch on a saturday night. The acting was somewhere between good and great, with Topher Grace giving a standout performance and Scarlett Johansen proving again that she is one of the better young female actresses going right now. My only complaint is with the soundtrack. While I thought the music was pretty good, and it might actually be a pretty good cd to pick up, the use of music was a bit heavy handed for me. Every scene was scored with some new-folk song or another. It was intrusive, and would have been more effective had it been used less. I give it a solid B.

The other movie we rented was What the Bleep. I was intrigued after the horrible review given in Scientific American, and decided I had to see it for myself. It was indeed terrible, possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. As a production, the film was just terrible. I pray that none of the three directors ever work in film again. My fiance described the film as seeming like a bad Discovery channel documentary. I still am in shock at the laughable computer effects used in the film. But, if What the Bleep were simply a bad production I would easily forget it and move on, but I think this movie is doing a genuine disservice to the scientific community. If people think that they are learning anything at all about quantum physics or how the brain works from watching this pile of new age propaganda (and I've personally met several people who do think that this film gives credible scientific backing to their beliefs) then I am worried. Please don't watch this movie, and tell those who have that they should do some independent reseach before believing anything in it.

I agree with you keylime about What the Bleep?. I was so surprised at how popular it was and how long it remained in theatres, at least where I live.

Also saw Kung Fu Hustle and loved it. The fight scenes easily compared with The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and boy was it hilarious. The superb special effects will blow you away. I can't reccomend this one enough. Such a fun, cool movie.
82/100 (I'm gonna start giving movies an */100 score, rather than a letter grade. I hope you don't mind Mike. )

There has been a lot of decent movies on TV this weekend, so...

Josie and the Pussycats- I'm almost a little ashamed to admit I love this movie, but I've seen it about half a dozen times, and I still love it. I love the super cheesyness, and the horrible music. A+

Trapped- This movie has a terrible metacritic score, but I actually liked it. The ending was a bit over the top, but the acting was great, and Dakota Fanning wasn't even as creepy as she normally is. B

Twister- I hated this. Seriously, how many times can two people be in the middle of a tornado and survive? Maybe I was just expecting too much. C

The Haunting- Now I finally know the main thing Sacry Movie 2 was spoofing. THat was bugging me a little. This movie was just sort of fun, and not scary at all. B+

X-Men 1- Can't believe I didn't see this until now. The effects were amazing, and I have no complaints. A

I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" about a week ago, and was just to lazy to say anything about it. Unlike Jackie, I didn't like it. They had an excellent topic, one that hasn't been used too often, and they just blew it into an action movie. Where was the corruption of the Pope? Where was the blind following of Religion? It was historically absurd. As an actual movie, it wasn't bad, but if you are looking for a historically accurate movie this isn't it. 50/100

By the way, I don't mind you using the same system as I do Kraft.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971, Grade: B-)

Altman's follow-up to MASH is a highly personal (what would you expect?) take on the western genre with a hip '70s perspective on the anti-western. This film runs two hours, but I still swear that Altman would have loved to put out a version at least a half-hour longer. Even after this many viewings, there still seems to be too many missing scenes to connect-all-the-dots, but what's left is enough to tell Altman's tweaked story about a guy way over his head and the woman who's more of a man than he'll ever be, but who falls in love with him (maybe not as much as the other way around.) The best part of the film is what seems to be the almost-throwaway character bits (once again, Altman honing his technique.) Leonard Cohen's song score is alternately repetitious and moving. The final 25 minutes is pretty cool but would have been even better without the incessant F/X.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (Xan Cassavetes, 2004, Grade: B)

This is the highly-entertaining, deeply-disturbing documentary about Jerry Harvey, the driving force behind the nation's most unique and visionary early cable channel in my own backyard, the Z Channel. The personal stories are involving, and the obscure movie clips are mesmerizing and wonderful. Jerry Harvey got to live a lifestyle similar to what I would have enjoyed if I couldn't actually share MY personal loves with the world, other than here on the Net. Harvey's personal demons and those of his siblings make for heartbreaking drama as well. I may be underrating this one, but if so, I'll correct that in the future.

Saw Monster-in-Law this weekend and while J.Lo did her best to bring this movie down, it had a number of entertaining moments thanks to Wanda Sykes and Jane Fonda.

National Treasure:Average, entertaining, but pointless. There wasn't enough plot to last for an entire movie. 50/100