movies (Page 24 of 31)

Just saw "The Fountain" and liked it a lot. It's not a mundane third density flick but touches on the hyperdimensional and mythical and personally gave me the same satisfaction that I get from listening to epic doom metal.

The reviews are sharply polarized. I think the seething reviews are irrational reactions based on resentment over having lack of understanding or resonance with the transcendental themes in the film. For anyone here who enjoys poetic, cosmic, epic things... definitely go see this, at least as a matinee.

Sinaptix, thanks for the recommendation for "Stay".  I had never even heard of the film before, yet I read that post just yesterday, and then last night went to the video store for the first time in months (looking for something else), and then saw that one on the shelf when I wasn't expecting it.  I immediately thought "synchronicity", and rented it.

Definitely worth it; I'll be thinking about that one for a while.  For those who haven't seen it but are considering it, don't be fooled by the scathing reviews at places like rottentomatoes.  Similar to what montalk said above with "The Fountain", I get the strong sense that the large amount of criticism leveled against "Stay" is due to the proportionately small percentage of the population that it may resonate with.

Without really spoiling anything, I'll give you one small tidbit that's both a warning and a hint... For most of the people on this forum, the primary plotline explanation in "Stay" will likely be pretty apparent within the first hour or so of viewing (you may not know all the details, but you'll see where it's going).  But there's more to it than that.  So if you're looking only on the surface, the final reward won't be very satisfying... but give it some more thought once you're done, and you'll probably be tempted to watch the movie again from a different angle.

Getting more than the overt cursory explanation from this movie takes a bit of work, something most viewers probably won't do (both because of a lack of interest/resonance, and also because the plot is structured in such a way that when the finale comes the viewer may think that's all there is)... but the people on this forum tend to be more adept at looking behind the curtain a bit more, and so for this audience I think the movie is a must-see.

We saw "Children of Men," starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore.  Basic plot synopsis - it's the year 2029, and humanity has been infertile for 18 years.  Society has gone to pot and the only country that's supposedly still hanging on by a thread is Great Britain.  The movie opens up with the death of the world's youngest human, age 18, all over the news.  Society is bleak - refugees, or fugees, are hunted down and put into detention camps, warring factions of people fight in the burned out streets...and then one woman turns up pregnant.   Here's the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808715896/trailer

I thought this movie was awesome and VERY well done.  The way it was filmed....extremely realistic.  It's a movie that takes place in the future yet, is believable, not some hokey sci-fi portrayal of how the future will be. 

I mention this movie only because the reviews it's getting are extremely polarized.  People either hate it - quite literally, with vigor and passion - or they love it.   I have yet to see a review that's in between.  Going over to imdb.com there is quite a bit of hate being spewed on the messageboard for this movie, to the point where you can practically imagine the figuritive spittle flying around as these people typed their comments.  To me it's shocking, because I thought this movie was absolutely fantastic and so well done.   Why the hate?  Why the polarization?   I can only guess, but I'm thinking that this movie touched a nerve for a lot of people, big time.  It's quite emotional and moving - you can tell from the trailer alone, and you'll come away from it looking around at life very differently.  The shallow types and "OPs" can't seem to handle that sort of thing.  Oh well for them......but don't let it bias you.  This movie is a must-see in a sea of nonsense movies that are currently out.

we saw "Blood Diamonds" a few days ago ... fairly intense movie as it's based on 'real-life' situations -- they didn't hold anything back in terms of showing some of the violence that goes on in some parts of africa with all the various factions fighting each other for control, power, etc ... i enjoyed the movie although it was really sombering with regards to the overall theme - it's a story about a diamond smuggler who seems to be out only for his own interests and who gets involved with 2 characters: a reporter with a heart and strong conscience who wants to expose the truth about the situation in that part of africa where they are & a native african guy whose village gets plundered by a guerilla faction opposing the local government and also whose family gets taken from him - the plot gets more involved with all these folks finding themselves getting involved in each others' business and ultimate destiny ...   

the interations and relationship that develops between the smuggler & the reporter i though was really interesting - something like both showing their own views to each other and the resulting affects they both eventually have on each other -- the whole human nature thing - looking at the smuggler's character, it made me think about peoples characters in general - and how some can really be affected by serious traumatic incidents they experience during early childhood (i don't think i had any of those), so it was interesting for me that way ...

I heard a really interesting story from Alex Jones on Conflict Diamonds.  He explained that while conflict diamonds are a "bad" thing, their government is not as concerned with who is making money from the diamonds but who is not.  Jones said that basically 2 families own the majority of diamond mines in the world.  Diamonds also are one of the least precious stories in the world next to quartz, however through a clever marketing campaign, and artificial supply suppression diamonds value has been raised through the roof.  Debeers stands to lose greatly if the market is flooded with diamonds that did not come through their channel, because quite frankly they are everywhere in Africa.  So Debeers is funding the government and militias to take out the "illegal" diamond mines, and smugglers, and has labeled the those diamonds conflict diamonds to blemish anyone caught purchasing them.

I just got done watching The Patriot again, which I hadn't seen for awhile.   What a good movie.   Everyone should see this to get in the proper spirit for the times we are now facing.

We rented this a few months ago, since I'd never seen it.

Let's just put it this way....................I didn't even finish watching it.  I guess I don't agree, I don't think it's a good movie at all.  We paused it because it is a long movie, and I had to go to work the next morning and it was already 1 a.m., so I intended to watch the rest the next night....although I was already feeling a bit doubtful about continuing it.   So in the intermim I hopped online and did the research into this movie out of curiosity, and come to find out that it's blatently lying about things that happened during the Revolutionary War.  Namely, it portrays the British troops as over the top monster caricatures, doing things they didn't actually do according to real history.  We'd paused the movie before the infamous scene where some of the colonists are rounded up and burned to death in a barn by the British troops, but that apparently didn't really happen.   (I know, people are thinking, "Hollywood??  Lying and distorting things??? Noooooo!"  haha)   When I learned that I was like, You know what....I'm not even going to finish watching this movie.  It's hooey, forget it.  I mean, I know Hollywood lies...but still.  When you're doing an historical epic you should at least make an effort to be, oh, I don't know......accurate in some way!   And if a particular event, such as innocent colonists being rounded up and burned alive didn't actually happen, then there's no real pont in watching it on cellluloid.  Because it's not actually a re-enactment of a real historical event. 

As far as The Patriot being "the proper spirit" for the times we are now facing, I don't know about that either...........!  Think I'd have to disagree, but, that's just me.....