| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garage Olimpo - R | January 3, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Gou-Gou datte neko de aru (Gu Gu the Cat) - PG | January 3, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Huozhe (To Live) (Lifetimes) (Living) - R | January 3, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Zombieland - R | January 2, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| Ddongpari (Breathless) - Unrated |
This little blurb will contain spoilers but it doesn't really need them because the film was rotten before I got here. It's ninety minutes of name calling punctuated by ass-kicking. Breathless tells the story of the cycle of violence: that kids who grow up watching their fathers beat the crap out of their mothers grow up to beat the crap out of people too. Then somebody comes along and beats the crap out of them. In the first fifteen minutes of this film the main character spits on two women and hits them in the face. The second of the two women is a high school girl and she gets hit hard enough it knocks her unconscious. She wakes up and responds to it like some sort of pick-up line because, guess what? She's also grown up watching her father beat the crap out of her mother. So the two of them form a friendship. In the end, the cycle continues. Yes, we all know this story, but we know the stories ahead of time of many of the movies we love. The trick is to create characters we care about and tell the story in some imaginative way. This film doesn't do that, in my opinion. sitenoise at the movies: Breathless |
January 2, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Whip It - PG-13 | January 1, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| High Life - Unrated | December 28, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Baunsu ko gaurusu (Bounce KO Gals) - Unrated |
This movie was a great big surprise. A film about the world of compensated dating in Japan, made in Japan, could easily be exploitatively cheap or cheaply titillating, but Bounce Ko Gals is neither, and much to some people's chagrin, considering its subject matter, it turns out to be a sweet, sort of melodramatic film about friendship. There is no sex or nudity in the film but it is pretty insightful and blunt about such things. It's not a kids film by any means and as much as many adults might like to think its subject matter inappropriate for teens, it's pretty spot on in its portrayal of youth culture, particularly that of contemporary Tokyo. Bounce Ko Gals is a hip, fun, frank, and furious look at the, some would say uniquely Japanese, phenomenon of teenage girls who have discovered their sexual power and find very little reason not to use it even though the endgame of designer handbags and other assorted accessories might seem superficial--not to mention mind-boggling to those of a more mature bent. The straightforward approach to this subject matter is assisted by the director's documentary style of filming and it's got a great soundtrack. Highly recommended. sitenoise at the movies: Bounce Ko Gals |
December 28, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Yi ngoi (Accident) - Unrated |
I'm Louis Koo. I'm an actor. Look at me looking off in the distance. Look at me sitting here looking at a wall. Look at me lying here in my bed snuggling up to my wife. Golly I must really love her. The scene with my wife shows that I am a family man who loves his wife so when I start killing people you will be conflicted about hating me for the complete weenie I am. Oh but wait. When I was lying there with my wife and you were looking at me did you notice that there was a little tension there. That's what a good actor I am. Of course I get up in the middle of the night, sit in a chair and stare at a wall for you. I made you think a little bit even though it had nothing to do with anything. I'm just intense. But it's not my fault. Blame the director for thinking it would be a good idea to make another movie about nothing but intense shots of me being intense. Thank you. Do you like my sideburns? I'm kind of a weird looking guy but I've stylized it to look as if it's intentional. That's part of my overall intensity. I look the same and do the exact same thing in all my movies. I just look intense. I'm Louis Koo. I'm an actor. |
December 23, 2009 | N/A | |||
| A Perfect Getaway - R |
Some day Timothy Olyphant will land a role in a good movie and the world will ask "Where has this guy been hiding?" In this film he is mysterious. He has a badass history, carries a knife, kills an animal, and has a steel plate in his head. But he is also a nice, thoughtful guy. It's the back and forth of his mysterious goodness and badness that creates the only interesting tension in this film. And since Olyphant is a good actor his character makes for the only enjoyable aspect of the film?besides some beautiful photography of Hawaii. It's a big twist! But it's completely unfeasible. So unfeasible that the film spends thirty minutes of inexplicably black and white night visioned flashback recreations to try and make the case anyway. If a film has to spend an inordinate amount of time defending a twist, it's not a very good twist. I felt completely disrespected by the script. Insulted. Thrillers with twists are supposed to be somewhat mysterious throughout. This one deliberately misleads its audience in a patronizing manner, and only attempts such nonsense because it thinks its audience is gullible and stupid. Well ... right back at ya, Perfect. Getaway from me. sitenoise at the movies: A Perfect Getaway |
December 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - R |
Eva Mendes doesn't have much screen time. I don't know why she's on the movie poster. Wait. Yes I do. There's no use comparing this to the 1992 film called Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara because it's not a remake, not the same film at all. Herzog doesn't spend a lot of time on things, which is good, I suppose, because that way we get more Herzog. But then again, if he would have known ahead of time that he was going to get the performance from Nicolas Cage that he got he might have spent a little more time massaging the script and he would have produced a masterpiece. Instead what he gives us is a pretty good movie with a masterpiece performance from Cage. The film comes off as a series of vignettes rather than a smoothly flowing story. A lot of it is rather implausible if you stop and dissect it so maybe a series of hallucinogenic impressions was the only way to go. It's a great film but it's not a masterpiece. sitenoise at the movies: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans |
December 17, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Terminator Salvation - PG-13 | December 17, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Bu neng shuo de. mi mi (Secret) - Unrated | December 15, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Surrogates - PG-13 | December 13, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Bakjwi (Thirst) - R |
We had a THIRST party and we're all sitting there silently in shock and awe for the first thirty minutes or so and then someone asks "Why is this film so annoying?" Another responded: "For one thing, the sound design is childish at best." What's with all the slurping sounds? Someone else offered: "If they don't kill that one guy pretty soon they better at least teach him to wipe his nose or I'm gonna puke." Well, one of those things happened. I won't spoil it by saying which one, suffice to say it had no impact at all. This film has low-budget written all over it. Sure, Park spent a few bucks on a couple scenes but overall it feels cheap. And don't go suggesting that someone drive in here with the metaphor assistance team to give it some depth and all will be well, because it is still unpleasant to endure. The only good part is Ok-bin Kim's lust towards her newfound lifestyle but then even that comes too late and plays itself out way too long to the point of indifference. Yike-o-rama! This film is awful. sitenoise at the movies: Thirst (Bakjwi) [2009] |
December 8, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Moon - R |
I don't know if the science fiction elements of this reach any hifalutin heights (an Aliens-esque greedy galaxy corporation blah blah, cloning blah blah) but the surface play out of it is fun. The film looks good in all its sparseness, so no complaints there, but the real treasure of this movie is Sam Rockwell. It takes him a while to get going while the film is creating its context but as soon as his place in the world is established and he's split in two, he soars, so convincing in his random deterioration he doesn't seem like he's acting a part as much as putting up with the things that are happening to him. The ending is a little abrupt and if you want this to be some big statement about something you may be disappointed, maybe not, but for a film with one guy in it, it's a great performance piece. sitenoise at the movies: Moon [2009] |
December 8, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Paranormal Activity - R |
Don't fall for the stories of people walking out of this film because it's too scary. It doesn't even pretend to be scary until at least an hour into it. Somebody's leg is being pulled. And speaking of pulled legs ... that is the only scary scene in the movie. There are allegedly three different endings to the film. I saw the original one ... and it's not scary or satisfying at all. There's a little bit of off-screen screaming that abruptly turns into silence. OK, that can be unnerving but it's just a technique. It doesn't move the story to anywhere that matters. The ending being shown in theaters now might be better--a whole bunch more technique with more frightening images that is over with quickly. The original peters out to nothingness for too long and has no meaning. Even if we grant that either or both of the two endings I didn't see kick total ass, that doesn't make it a good film. It makes it three minutes of coolness that requires ninety minutes of suffering to get to. The guy in this film is a completely unlikeable moron. The girl is OK but I never really thought she was scared, more just annoyed by her idiotic day-trader boyfriend. I think everyone acknowledges that this film is mostly, for at least an hour, nothing but set up before anything happens, and that's too much time spent with bad actors working without a script. There's nothing subtle about it. sitenoise at the movies: Paranormal Activity |
December 8, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Pandorum - R |
I watched this movie because I think Ben Foster is a major talent. And this movie proves it again. It's a fairly bad movie but you can see Foster improvising his way through it, trying to make something of the nonsense he's given to work with. He adds a sense of humor to the proceedings by almost mocking his own dialog. He whispers a lot too. I suppose he's hoping maybe no one will be able to hear some of the lines he has to deliver. So it is entertaining on that level. The rest of it is garbage. These creatures they encounter, the ones that can run faster than humans and are "stronger than you know", well, the humans outrun them throughout the whole movie, sort of like the way Mark Wahlberg outran the wind in "The Happening", and they beat them in some fights. And Yo! the director uses silly camera tricks to cover up ridiculously written and choreographed scenes. Movie bad, Ben Foster good. sitenoise at the movies: Pandorum [2009] |
December 3, 2009 | N/A | |||
| (500) Days of Summer - PG-13 | November 30, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Mulgogijari (Pisces) - Unrated | November 9, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Memoirs of a Geisha - PG-13 | November 4, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Shiki-Jitsu - Unrated |
One thing is for sure, this film has some of the most gloriously thought out and constructed set designs ever. A lot of the film takes place in the young girl's "apartment" which is about the size of an average K-Mart. Each room is like a different department but it doesn't seem strange once you enter the world Hideaki Anno has created. Anno comes from years working in Anime so his visual imagination works on a different level than most. This is a beautiful film with stunning photography. When the couple are outside they're usually hanging out on or near railroad tracks, creating all kinds of wonderful lines and framing. On the downside, the story is standard "crazy free-spirited girl captivates man" stuff; the dialog and philosophy get a little precious from time to time; neither of the two can really act--they're just supposed to be attractive cool people (they are)--but Anno makes the best of their limitations. This is definitely an indie/arty bag of ennui, but it does do some interesting things and even goes all Dogme 95 for a scene at the end. sitenoise at the movies: Ritual |
October 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| The Usual Suspects - R | October 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Taxi Driver - R | October 21, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - PG | October 21, 2009 | N/A |
756 ratings
302 reviews
