Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Jason Marconnet (Lime_Coke) said:

I just watched Zero Effect. It's a quirky little mystery film from the late 90s starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller. While it drug at times it was a pretty entertaining film with some good performances by Pullman and Stiller.

I like this movie a lot. The movie itself has some faults, but I *love* the character of Darryl Zero -- I wish there'd been more movies made about him.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

We've been watching a bunch of movies while my friend Chris is visiting. So far, we've seen Funny People, Hamlet 2, and The Thin Red Line. Probably tomorrow will be G.I. Joe, God help me.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Jason Marconnet (Lime_Coke) said:

I just watched Zero Effect. It's a quirky little mystery film from the late 90s starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller. While it drug at times it was a pretty entertaining film with some good performances by Pullman and Stiller.

I remember that movie. Very underrated.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I agree it had some faults. If I can find this for a good price, I wouldn't mind owning it. i agree with Travis that it is a very underrated film. I'd say it's a diamond in the rough of the 90s along with Gross Pointe Blank and Suicide Kings. Two movies that also should have had more attention.

Rob Staeger said:

Jason Marconnet (Lime_Coke) said:

I just watched Zero Effect. It's a quirky little mystery film from the late 90s starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller. While it drug at times it was a pretty entertaining film with some good performances by Pullman and Stiller.

I like this movie a lot. The movie itself has some faults, but I *love* the character of Darryl Zero -- I wish there'd been more movies made about him.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

G.I. Joe is not that bad. It's light and fun and does not take itself serously. It's not brillant by any means but I had fun watching it.

What did you think about the other films you saw? I've seen all of them. I thought Funny People had it's moments but was mostly dissapointed. I didn't think Hamlet 2 was as good as I had hoped it to be. Thin Red Line, has been erased from my memory.

Rob Staeger said:

We've been watching a bunch of movies while my friend Chris is visiting. So far, we've seen Funny People, Hamlet 2, and The Thin Red Line. Probably tomorrow will be G.I. Joe, God help me.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I really liked Funny People -- even more in retrospect, though I thought the last section (at his ex's house) needed to be tightened. I liked that it wasn't a comedy, and yet made me laugh a lot anyway.

Hamlet 2? Eh, it was okay -- it could've been a lot better, I think, but it was a decent hour and a half. (I really liked when Elisabeth Shue turned to the person next to her and said "That's the crane," though!)

The Thin Red Line? It wasn't as bad as I remembered it being. There's a decent movie under all those interminable voice-overs, i think. I wish the plot.. particularly the Nolte/Cusack conflict, which was growing out of the Nolte/Koteas conflict, had continued.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

Last night I watched Grumpy Old Men. I had never seen it before. My friend gave me a bunch of DVDs he didn't want anymore about 4 or 5 months ago. This was one of them. I liked it. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau make a great team. Burgess Meredith steals the show as Lemmon's father.

Then I watched The Spanish Prisoner. It's a thriller by David Mamet. It was a pretty good story but I'm not sure how much I liked it. Mamet's known for his dialogue. I'm not sure if it was the dialogue or the way the actors delivered it, but I figured who was behind it all early on. It was still light and entertaining.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I just watched The Soloist. It's predictable as far as "depressed guy meets troubled yet brilliant homeless guy" movies go. The performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jaime Fox elevate this movie though. It's worth seeing.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, I've been meaning to watch the Spanish Prisoner again for quite some time now. I remember really liking it. Then again, I'm a Mamet kinda guy...

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Rob Staeger said:

Oh, I've been meaning to watch the Spanish Prisoner again for quite some time now. I remember really liking it. Then again, I'm a Mamet kinda guy...

I hated it the first time I saw it, but have enjoyed it more with each viewing.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

Just saw the Hurt Locker. This is a great war movie and probably one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. This is the story of bomb techs in the Iraq War. Not so much making a statement about the war but more about what what these soldiers go through. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I saw Inglorious Basterds today. I have always enjoyed Tarantino's films but there are only I few that I really like. I absolutely loved this movie. Some may disagree with me. I just had a discussion with a friend who is a huge movie buff, who said the film fell a little flat for her. I thought the whole thing was excellent. The acting was great. The story was good. The dialogue was awesome. It's probably my favorite movie this summer and possibly this year.