Placebo... I've only heard Without You I'm Nothing. I like that album very very much, but somehow I never ventured beyond it.

Ho ho, I got Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up In The Air. Can't wait to watch these.

Haha maybe I mistook you for someone else... like vivienne.

Fantastic Mr. Fox. I really liked it, and want to watch it again, but I will stop short of calling it... uhm... fantastic. The animation is fantastic, that much is certain, but oddly I find that the movie never really settles. It's always moving, going. That, and Clooney's voicework are really the only faults I can find though. I still liked every minute of it. Desplat's score is really really nice.

Up in the Air. Nice little movie. Starts off with Thank You For Smoking-like witty narration, but later provides more of an emotional connection. It's more of a drama with a light tone than a comedy. I can understand the Oscar nod for Anna Kendrick, but how Vera Farmiga was nominated is beyond me. She's good, nothing more.

Ninja Assassin. Going by the first 5 minutes, I thought this was going to be another G.I. Joe, in that everyone else hates it and I really like it. A really wicked fun opening, but then the (rather serious) story comes in and we have to deal with a host of characters we dont care about and some bad dialogue, with the only reprieves coming from seeing little Raiko in Ninja training, 300-style. Meaning we get to see little boys fight and bloody up each other. After all that flashback we get more plot developments, none interesting, and some fight scenes which should have looked cool, if it werent for the fact that they fight in shadows. Anyway, this is a bad movie. Blood looks nice though. Didnt know a human can spill that much blood.

The Men Who Stare at Goats. What a ludicrous movie. Terrible. I've read the book this is based on, and it's pretty damn freaky in its allegations as well, but at least it attempts to tie some of it up in the end, to connect the dots, to give us an actual conspiracy, instead of just leaving us with a load of weird shit that has no meaning like the movie does. The book even makes you wonder about the possibility of them being real. The movie doesn't convince you at all that all this stuff really happened.

Sometimes I can never tell if you actually liked a movie from your review.

Airplane! - Finally got to watch this. Mehhhhhhh. I dont see how it is much better than the Scary Movie movies, and the first 30 mins were embarrassingly bad. Only after Leslie Nielson appears and an actual situation arises (people start getting sick) with a semblance of plot does it get better. It's still mostly crude, unfunny, toilety jokes though, the kind every critic pan these days. 2.5/5

I am serious! Now whenever I see a Scary Movie or an Epic Movie, I know which movie to blame. Leslie Nielsen is still awesome though!

Aiyo, sometimes people want to know what you feel. Gives us some closure... you're not Joel or Ethan Coen!

Btw, cant decide between watching Green Zone, Invictus, and Edge of Darkness. Which should I watch? I'm leaning on Green Zone at the moment, but it came out of no where... I didn't even know Greengrass had a new movie coming out until a week or two ago.

Yeah I think I'll watch Green Zone. Ebert gave it four stars. I may not agree with him all the time, but I can enjoy a good action thriller. I just hope it doesn't lay on the politics too thick.

I liked Sky Captain as well, when I saw it a few years back. Looks great, leads have great chemistry, good humour. Third act as you said should've been better.

Just finished watching The Princess and the Frog. Pretty good, but nothing particularly memorable. As light entertainment for the family, it works. The animation itself is underwhelming at times, after you've seen the rich drawings of classic Disney like Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Aladdin.

Anyway, it adds to a string of fine animated films from 2009:

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Up
Ponyo
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Mary and Max
The Princess and the Frog

OK, maybe none of these is ass good as Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, or Spirited Away, but surely they to add up to the best year for animation ever?

That was because of rapid flashing lights and the children were epileptic if I remember correctly.

Anyway, Cloudy with A Chance of Meatball = best animated flick from last year, together with Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Anyway again, I saw An Education. A great film. At first I was not sure if I would like it, I didn't want it to end up like another Juno. Thankfully the film sidesteps that and ends up being something much better.

Green Zone was pretty good, especially the first third of the movie, but it's political message is obvious to everyone, yet the film makes it out to be some kind of revelation. It's quite suspenseful throughout. Nothing that touches The Bourne Ultimatum though.

The Man Who Wasn't There. Man, what a great piece of existential film-noir. Among all directors, the Coens have surely made the most number of great films in the last two decades.

I liked A Prophet very much. Maybe a tad overrated, but it's a powerful film. The film's portrayal of mafia and gangsters is something between The Godfather's romanticism and Scorsese's brand of hard-hitting reality, and Malik's transformation is nothing short of Micheal Corleone-like brilliant. The actor who played him was really gave something special. Cant say I fully understand how the prison system in France works, and a few parts were unnecessarily convoluted, but in the end it's one pretty mesmerizing film about how the harsh prison life changed a young, possibly good man forever.

Btw mov_freak, I have never seen a Sandra Bullock that I liked, in any movie she has starred in.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 18 2010, 06:40 PM

I love Speed. Not even Bullock can ruin it.

Didnt see The Proposal. Havent seen Demolition Man since I was a kid... and I dont remember Bullock in it. Her acting probably isn't bad per se, but there's something about her style of acting (or maybe she's like that in person as well) that I just dont like. She was annoying as fuck in Speed. Should have blown her up, would have made an awesome movie even more awesome.

lol no interest in it why should I watch it? Ask kobe la, it's his type of movie. In fact, I guarantee you he has watched it. Probably loves it as well.

I remember there was this device where both parties plugged themselves into and proceeded to have "mind sex" as a substitute to physical sex to "prevent AIDS" as said by the female character (was it bullock?) or something like that. I dont actually remember any sex scene...

Astro Boy looked like it was made 15 years ago. No thanks, I do not think I need to watch it.

Well I can recommend two movies I watched this week: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, and Brothers.

The Descent Part 2 will not be a recommendation, however.

Also saw The Princess Bride. It was pretty good, pretty funny, pretty witty. But not totally good, not totally funny, not totally witty. It's also pretty, and not totally, dated. So I guess it's pretty recommended then.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 21 2010, 10:15 PM

A World of Warcraft movie?

yeah, that is a very possible explanation.

Coz you're ancient old man.

Btw, early reviews for Kick-Ass make it out to be, well, kick ass.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1217700-kick_ass/

I know its early, but an 8.7 average score!

Incidentally, Matthew Vaughn also directed Stardust, which is also a whimsical fairy tale in the mold of The Princess Bride, only better imo.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 21 2010, 11:09 PM