The Departed and Infernal Affairs, spoilers.

This is the first time I watched IA in a few years. The last time I saw it was before The Departed, which I've now seen 5 or 6 times, came out. Both are great movies. The Departed is mostly and overall better, and I consider it one of Scorsese's best. Infernal Affairs does have its own gritty hong kong style to boot, and it is much better than The Departed in one aspect: the character of the mole in the police force, and how he is handled in the end (ie. the ending). The writing for his character is much better in IA. More cunning and devious, his ultimate motivations are simply so much stronger than the rather conventional and tepid offering in The Departed. And that he survives in the end without anyone knowing who he is makes for a terrific and original ending. The fact that there is only one person instead of two in The Departed who knows his real identity also works much better. Scorsese should have stuck with that, although Mark Wahlberg's Dignam is such a fun character to watch (and listen to lol).

What theme do you mean? Like when you're facing a loaded gun, it makes no difference whether you're a cop or a gangster, both die?

I liked his character in IA better. Unlike in The Departed where he got the courage to go against his employer only after he found out he was an FBI informant and might give him up anytime, in IA he makes the decision on his own (or maybe with some indirect help from his girlfriend's novel, which I thought was a nice touch). He realizes he is the one who holds sway over the mob boss and not the other way around, "why the hell should I take the risk and protect him when I have a high position job in the police force I'm comfortable with?" he asks himself, and sets him up. To me that works so much better.

Also as I said, the Rollo Tomasi ending is better.

The Third Man (1949). Eh didn't much like it. Bitterly disappointed.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 24 2010, 09:42 PM

I think that better describes Andy Lau's character, who had no real external reason to screw his boss other than to consolidate his position as one of the elite in the police force. Damon's was simply trying to save himself from being handed over to the FBI. Lau was much more cold-blooded when he executed his boss.

That's a slightly different perspective, and I essentially agree on the same points, but I do not see Andy Lau's character to be heroic. He is a gangster, trying to pretend he is a cop, trying to convince himself that he is a cop. I will however agree that Sullivan was more of a cowardly rat than his counterpart in IA.

Speaking of Damon, I'm about to watch The Informant!.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 25 2010, 08:00 PM

Well it's certainly another interpretation of his character, one which I do not agree with but will not argue. I actually watched the chronological edit of all three IA movies a few years back, and from what little I remember the portion from IA III might actually go to some extent in supporting your theory that he partly really wanted to be a cop. But I think IA III painted him more of a crazy guy with dual personalities. Best to disregard that movie from what I recall.

Anyway, The Informant!...



What the hell was Mark Whitacre smoking?! Whatever it was, I'm glad he was on it because it made for a thoroughly entertaining 100 minutes.

I never thought he deserved it, and I think Sherlock was one of his weaker efforts, though that's not to say I didnt like him in it. He goes by a lot using his charm and likability, but maybe it's now slowly wearing off.

Matt Damon in The Informant! was awesome. The tone of the movie is indeed similar to one of the Coens' comedy efforts and takes a pretty serious subject and turns it into an offbeat comedy. I saw A Serious Man the other day too. It's not a super complex or deep movie but it's always entertaining and you can derive several different interpretations off the ending. The Coens do like sudden endings dont they?

re: IA and The Departed, I can think of one more area that IA was better. In IA Tony Leung's character was in the mob outfit working for Eric Tsang's character for 4 years before the mob boss suspected a mole. In The Departed, Costigan was only working for Costello for maybe a few months before they smelled a rat. He was the only young guy in the outfit. His dad did not like the mob. He was ex-police. Naturally it doesnt take a genius to know that Costigan was probably the mole. It's just something you have to accept in order to enjoy the movie, a bit like how everyone doesn't recognize Superman when he wears the glasses.

so it took a stinker to get you back in here.

---

Added on January 28, 2010, 10:13 pmTriangle

Holy fucking shit!

That's something you'll hear yourself hear at least once during the movie. What a headtrip! Here I was expecting yet another dual-identity/surprise killer/slasher flick, when the reality is this movie is simply INSANE. Bloody good too. Very much recommended. Dont read anything about it, just go watch it.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 28 2010, 10:13 PM

Triangle

Holy fucking shit!

That's something you'll hear yourself hear at least once during the movie. What a headtrip! Here I was expecting yet another dual-identity/surprise killer/slasher flick, when the reality is this movie is simply INSANE. Bloody good too. Very much recommended. Dont read anything about it, just go watch it.

---

Added on January 31, 2010, 4:49 pmWatched 3 movies over the last few days.

Tiger Woohoo - See the thread for the movie.

Infernal Affairs II - Prequel to IA I. Takes a few elements from The Godfather movies, but as a whole it's nothing near a copycat of it. The gangsters here are now more romanticized (as in the Godfather), but the grittiness is ever prevalent, and the plot is surprisingly complex, with a slew of very well written and complicated characters. It stands very alone from the first movie, and in fact is less a movie about moles than more a classic tale about feuding triads. It may be very different from IA I, but watched side-by-side I think they fit each other very well, if just to see how one set of characters from this movie develop in IA I. Smashing movie. For my money, better than the first. 5/5

Law Abiding Citizen - . What the hell was Kurt Wimmer (the writer) smoking when he wrote this? Forget the f***ed-up, wrong, shallow and, by the midpoint of the show, inconsequential moral code the movie presents, the plot is bonkers! It's basically about this ******* child of The Joker from TDK and John Doe from Se7en who, after seeing his family murdered, decides to take on like... the whole world. The rape and murder we witness in the first few minutes of the movie is supposed to make us feel for the main guy, and we do just that for about 10 mins before we realize he's raving mad. He's also pretty goddamn smart, in dumb movie logic. Heh. In the end I didn't care for anyone or the movie, but it is pretty entertaining watching all the mindless violence. Thinking along the lines of Saw... on the street. And hey at least there's a really good fright in there. 2.5/5



This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 31 2010, 04:49 PM

Watched 3 movies over the last few days.

Tiger Woohoo - See the thread for the movie.

Infernal Affairs II - Prequel to IA I. Takes a few elements from The Godfather movies, but as a whole it's nothing near a copycat of it. The gangsters here are now more romanticized (as in the Godfather), but the grittiness is ever prevalent, and the plot is surprisingly complex, with a slew of very well written and complicated characters. It stands very well alone from the first movie, and in fact is less a movie about moles and more a classic tale about feuding triads. It may be very different from IA I, but watched side-by-side I think they fit each other very well, if just to see how one set of characters from this movie develop in IA I. Smashing movie. For my money, better than the first. 5/5

Law Abiding Citizen - . What the hell was Kurt Wimmer (the writer) smoking when he wrote this? Forget the f***ed-up, wrong, shallow and, by the midpoint of the show, inconsequential moral code the movie presents, the plot is bonkers! It's basically about this ******* child of The Joker from TDK and John Doe from Se7en who, after seeing his family murdered, decides to take on like... the whole world. The rape and murder we witness in the first few minutes of the movie is supposed to make us feel for the main guy, and we do just that for about 10 mins before we realize he's raving mad. He's also pretty goddamn smart, in dumb movie logic. Heh. In the end I didn't care for anyone or the movie, but it is pretty entertaining watching all the mindless violence. Thinking along the lines of Saw... on the street. And hey at least there's a really good fright in there. 2.5/5

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jan 31 2010, 04:50 PM

The House of the Devil.



Terrific mood, terrific suspense, terrific build-up, terrific pay off. And yes, quite scary too. You dont get that often in horror movies nowadays. You certainly dont get that in Paranormal Activity. It's slow as PA, probably much slower in fact, but it's very deliberate in its pace, and unlike PA, evil permeates every frame instead of only sporadic moments as in PA. I believe I've found 2009's best horror picture. Chilling. Nice poster too.

---

Added on February 2, 2010, 10:57 pmWhile I've never been very interested to watch his movies, I think The Rock is pretty damn likable as an actor. Fares much better on my scale than Jackie Chan anyway. He's probably the best thing about these kiddie movies.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 2 2010, 11:01 PM

Hey, dont tarnish my image with that bullshit! I dont watch any movie only for boobage!

A Tale Of Two Sisters. Hmm, didn't quite like it. Nice atmosphere and all, pretty creepy at times, but it is slow. They try to keep everything from the viewer until the last few minutes, so you really dont get where it is going or what the hell it really is about. Consequently, there is very little to no drive, and it feels slow. The final revelations could have been a saving grace, but it turns out to be just the kind of twists I have begun to dislike. This might have come out at the height of that particular twist's popularity, but I'm ony seeing it now, and I can only feel what I feel- that is the twists are old and dated. 3/5 I suppose.

Misery. Great Stephen King adaptation. Good to see a kidnap-and-torture movies that doesnt resort to complete bloodletting to entertain. Wonderful performance by Kathy Bates, and James Caan is more than equal to the task. I've only seen very few of his movies, but I think Reiner is an unremarkable director. I dont mean that as an insult, what I mean is that he doesn't infuse a lot of style into his pictures, and he lets the story flow very naturally. 4/5

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 7 2010, 10:17 PM

Please, stop with the further defamation posts.

Anyway, forgot to add in my last post, I watched Timecrimes, a spanish movie about time travel and its implications. Cool movie. It does seem Triangle might have gotten a few ideas from it, but on the whole I think they're different enough. Triangle is more concerned with a bigger, and more abstract, picture. This is more concerned with a much more (relatively to Triangle) concrete theme.

Oh, there is a really pretty girl in this too, who has a very nice pair. Extra points for them!

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, which I saw a few days ago and forgot to post about it but now that I remember, I have to say it out loud: one of the most hilarious and most smartass movies.... ever! The easiest thing to criticize is the plot, which isn't very good but simply exists as a means of getting all the characters together. And damn, what characters! This is arguably RDJ, Kilmer, and Monaghan's best roles ever! The last half hour does falter slightly because it naturally attempts to focus more on the not-so-good plot and tying it up, but with the characters, how they act and react, the dialogue, the feel of the movie... I must have seen this 4 or 5 times now and it just doesn't get stale at all! The movie has so much going for it that I cant justify giving it less than a 5/5.

I saw Shaun of the Dead last night. Some riotously hilarious moments, just not quite enough of them. The first hour or so is great, but there are very short stretches in them which feel dull. The last half hour (again) though is strangely devoid of funny moments. Not the masterpiece or classic this is said to be. I once called this much better than Zombieland, but I now think they are both probably equal. 3.5/5

I also watched this last night. I didnt really know what I was getting into. What the hell truly one awesome, awesomely bad movie. Yeah, almost definitely the funniest of 2009. Full of all kinds of awesome. It's something a crazier Tarantino might have attempted. Everyone should go watch it. Just awesome. 4.5/5


I have about the same opinion of this as Shaun of the Dead, except this is slightly less funny. Then again, I dont follow Star Trek. And hey, I'm probably one of the few who actually thinks Weaver was pretty good looking back in her younger days (Alien, not Galaxy Quest or Avatar, please!). She looked like a less attractive Nicole Kidman to me.

Great movie. Ethan Hawke used to have such poster boy looks right?

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 9 2010, 12:41 PM

Nothing But The Truth - A decent thriller/drama about a reporter who reveals the identity of a CIA agent. Well it was pretty decent until the stupid surprise ending anyway, which you can easily guess from the beginning. But it is after seeing all the reporter goes through that the sheer stupidity of the ending hits you. She obviously mistook stupidity for integrity. Everything that comes before it is alright, nothing too great but definitely not bad. The writing isnt very good (some of the characters, like Alan Aida's lawyer, have no meat in them), and the direction is pedestrian, but it has a good idea of a story, and is quite entertaining. Kate Beckinsale isn't bad, but she is slightly out of her league here and she simply cant shoulder such as demanding character.



The Cove - The Oscar-nominated documentary about the mass killing of dolphins in a small town in Japan. Indeed it is one-sided, and many of the facts are simply brushed over before moving onto the next hate-fuelling fact, and yes I think it's possible to do a similar documentary about killing cows and chicken for food which gets the same reaction out of me, but damn... they managed to really make me feel for the dolphins. Devastating film. It also has a unique structure, in which we are told something bad will happen, and then proceed to flashback narration to get to that point, with the proper introductions of the good guys, bad guys, the setup, and how it all went down. And while you might not totally agree with Rick O'Barry, this world sure as hell needs more of people like him.

Last night I saw one great prison escape movie...

Nah they didn't have any boobies. And even if they had, clay boobs just dont cut it.

Clay boobs dont feel right when squeezed. They dont bounce either. Cannot lah.

I saw Where The Wild Things Are a few days ago. I liked it, but it's probably too sombre for most kids. The creatures were fantastic.

I got two film-noirs lined up next! The Coens' The Man Who Wasn't There and Welles' Touch of Evil. Which reminds me, I still haven't got around to watching Citizen Kane.

From what I remember the sole point of the movie was to show you that bad guy can win in movies. Pretty entertaining flick as I recall, nothing spectacular. Except that slow-mo explosion. FUUUUHHHH!

I can tell you are one girl who is blinded by looks.

Anyway, his character is smart in a very dumb sense. Like L and Kira in Deathnote, these characters are so goddamn smart that there is no friggin way they are human. It's like there are ten different, equally probable choices they have to make, only one being correct, and every single time they are somehow smart enough to "know" the right one. Until the end, of course. So one can conclude that is not intelligence but simply lazy, dumb writing.

300. All style and no substance. If you know me, that wouldn't be a problem. Pity the Snyder's style here is very one-note, despite some visually very impressive scenes. The story is wafer thin, and they attempt to pad it with some heavy-handed narration. Half of the narration is pure Leonidas ass-kissing. The other half is all repetition. In the end though, I still enjoyed it. Equal measure of ass-kicking and ass-kissing, really.

I'm pretty sure he's a she. I remember her from the MUSE thread... I think.

Dont be fooled by tags. She probably change her gender so the buayas here wont kacau her. Oh look... kobe is a girl too!