What-cha-what-cha-what-cha Watched?

[The Ü™]

Frankenweenie.

 

[Hyacinth]

Watched Skeleton Key with my bf last night, still one of my favorite "scary" movies. Not so scary, but I do love Louisiana.

 

[ms.behaving]

Dancing with the Stars and Castle.

 

[prplchknz]

I watched part of 2 broke girls, it sucked. it tried to hard to be funny and was just stupid.

 

[prplchknz]

I finally got around to watching warehouse 13 and omg i love this show

 

[citizen cane]

Ten Little Indians. Also a documentary about migrating birds.

 

[Mole]

"Killing Them Softly", with Brad Pitt

I saw, "Killing Them Softly", last night and learnt that in America you are on their own, that Thomas Jefferson sent out young men to die rather than pay his taxes, while he stayed at home and raped his slave girl, and that America is a business.

How could Brad Pitt mislead us so?

 

[Hyacinth]

watching the house of the devil atm, pretty good so far!

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

Cake Boss; The Columbus Day parade episode and online pie orders also, Mario talks about becoming a US citizen.

 

[Mole]

Safety Not Guaranteed

I saw, "Safety Not Guaranteed", last night. It's a really nice movie, kept us beautifully in suspense until the spectacular last few frames.

Oh, how I would love to believe in time travel if only I didn't believe in entropy.

 

[Viridian]

Re-watched Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, for a paper on French Impressionism. Such a great film.

 

[Salomé]

Am watching Elementary - sloppy American Sherlock remake.

Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes? Are you shitting me? Lucy Liu as Watson?? What a turkey. You can't have all our heroes. Go get your own!

 

[Ism]

Boondocks - Riley Wuz Here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z1V0kUfiC4

So good. So, so good.

 

[The Ü™]

Cloud Atlas. Where should I start? The movie was a work of genius in every way. But what really stood out was the make-up design...some of the most ambitious I've ever seen. I guarantee it will sweep every make-up award there is. Hugo Weaving looks pretty damn good in drag, too.

In fact, my only complaint was during the end credits, in which some of the crewmembers were listed under, and I quote "Team Wachowski" and "Team Tykwer." I thought to myself, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

 

[Totenkindly]

Cloud Atlas. Where should I start? The movie was a work of genius in every way. But what really stood out was the make-up design...some of the most ambitious I've ever seen. I guarantee it will sweep every make-up award there is. Hugo Weaving looks pretty damn good in drag, too.

He's done it before (actual drag, not just being made up as female) in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, long before The Matrix came out.

In fact, my only complaint was during the end credits, in which some of the crewmembers were listed under, and I quote "Team Wachowski" and "Team Tykwer." I thought to myself, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

What did you dislike about that? Otherwise it would have been Crew #1 and Crew #2 (or some sort of location designation), I suppose.

My impression with the movie reviews is that it's something that appeals to certain types of people and not others, rather than some quality issue -- hence, the movie seems to be rated as excellent if it meets someone's personal preferences vs inadequate if it does not. A friend of mine said last night she cried through the closing credits and then in the car in the parking lot. I would have liked to see it yesterday, but I'm abysmally sick and can't sit in a theater for 3 hours right now...

 

[The Ü™]

What did you dislike about that? Otherwise it would have been Crew #1 and Crew #2 (or some sort of location designation), I suppose.

I've seen enough "Team So-and-Sos" in my time. Team Edward and Team Jacob was more than enough.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watching "What Lies Beneath" again, as I suppose, for a Halloween treat.

This, like Super 8, was one of those movies that I came away disappointed from during my initial screening... but then continued to grow on me with repeated viewings and now I really like it.

I think Zemeckis managed to pull off the "slow burn" in terms of the supernatural elements of this movie; he takes his time, as if he's not afraid of losing the audience, and so the movie slowly develops more and more sense of dread that eventually becomes unbearable, so you're just WAITING to see whether the ghost is real. And it allows him to take a mere "reveal" shot that usually is the BEGINNING of most "ghost stories" and use it as the climax of the film, to frightening effect.... a real, subtly building, non-sensational use of the "revenant" motif. "Haunting" is a great word for the ending. A director has to be confident in his material and presentation to take his time like this and not rush.

Really nice performance by Michele Pfieffer as well, as the woman who ends up investigating this deepening mystery of a girl's disappearance and never quite being sure whether she is receiving communication from beyond the grave or simply going mad. The scene where she channels Madeleine is very creepy, and then she manages to shift gears completely when the tone changes. She's done some excellent work in her career even if she doesn't seem to do much nowadays, and always had an "otherworldly" feel about her. Also, we get to see Miranda Otto in a supporting role BEFORE she became famous for playing Eowyn in the LotR trilogy... and Diana Scarwid takes a kind of throwaway "best friend" role and turns into a quirky, flitty extrovert performance that still has a core and sticks in my head years later.

 

[The Ü™]

Watching "What Lies Beneath" again, as I suppose, for a Halloween treat.

This, like Super 8, was one of those movies that I came away disappointed from during my initial screening... but then continued to grow on me with repeated viewings and now I really like it.

I think Zemeckis managed to pull off the "slow burn" in terms of the supernatural elements of this movie; he takes his time, as if he's not afraid of losing the audience, and so the movie slowly develops more and more sense of dread that eventually becomes unbearable, so you're just WAITING to see whether the ghost is real. And it allows him to take a mere "reveal" shot that usually is the BEGINNING of most "ghost stories" and use it as the climax of the film, to frightening effect.... a real, subtly building, non-sensational use of the "revenant" motif. "Haunting" is a great word for the ending. A director has to be confident in his material and presentation to take his time like this and not rush.

Really nice performance by Michele Pfieffer as well, as the woman who ends up investigating this deepening mystery of a girl's disappearance and never quite being sure whether she is receiving communication from beyond the grave or simply going mad. The scene where she channels Madeleine is very creepy, and then she manages to shift gears completely when the tone changes. She's done some excellent work in her career even if she doesn't seem to do much nowadays, and always had an "otherworldly" feel about her. Also, we get to see Miranda Otto in a supporting role BEFORE she became famous for playing Eowyn in the LotR trilogy... and Diana Scarwid takes a kind of throwaway "best friend" role and turns into a quirky, flitty extrovert performance that still has a core and sticks in my head years later.

I loved all the subtle CGI effects (invisible fx) that Zemeckis was known for at the time, which was innovative back then, such as the shot where the both Pfeiffer and the ghost are staring in the bathtub, or the shot where Pfeiffer is lying on the ground and the camera flies under the floor, or my favorite, the part where Pfeiffer runs to the truck and how the camera flies through the car window and into the opposite end of the steering wheel.

Zemeckis is the only director that I know of that can pull those kinds of shots off and make it subtle. I wonder what he's got in store for Flight?

 

[Totenkindly]

I loved all the subtle CGI effects (invisible fx) that Zemeckis was known for at the time, which was innovative back then, such as the shot where the both Pfeiffer and the ghost are staring in the bathtub, or the shot where Pfeiffer is lying on the ground and the camera flies under the floor, or my favorite, the part where Pfeiffer runs to the truck and how the camera flies through the car window and into the opposite end of the steering wheel.

yeah, the floor scene is pretty tremendous, and I'm also a fan of the "fades" you describe... I guess you probably also notice the last one in the movie, in the snow of the cemetery, right before the screen goes dark? There are some great morphs of Madeleine too, back and forth.

Zemeckis is the only director that I know of that can pull those kinds of shots off and make it subtle. I wonder what he's got in store for Flight?

I'm not sure. That movie does look interesting (although I had been focusing more on the shift from Washington as the original hero of the movie to at least a tarnished one or even a potential villain... the public is fickle). Zemeckis has taken some flak on some movies, and I have friends who rag on Forrest Gump, but I've generally been a fan since I saw Back to the Future as a teenager -- as soon as I saw all those clocks going off + a time machine built into a DeLorean ("when this baby hits 88mph, you're gonna see some serious shit!"), I fell in love.

 

[Orangey]

Farewell, My Queen.

I liked it better than most shit having to do with that time period. Still, it was a little stiff and could be construed as off-putting in its detachment. It looked really nice.