The Simpsons Movie DVD. It is amazing how funny it was watching this movie again, especially because I couldn't remember the whole movie from one thearter viewing. One of the funniest movies I ever saw, that's for sure.

I watched all three of the shorter Wallace and Gromit films on UKTV Gold this afternoon, ie: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. A funderful experience. :smed:

I managed to resist the urge to watch Raymond Briggs' the Snowman this year, which definitely saved me a lot of emotional grief and a box of Kleenex. Don't get me wrong, I love that cartoon and its beautiful, utterly haunting tone and style dearly, but its notoriously brutal conclusion just rips out my heart and splatters it across the room every time. :'(

The Simpsons Movie DVD. Got it for Christmas today! I still love it!

AvP2 and Water Horse, both of which I liked.

Toys

It's a slightly older Christmas movie that everyone has either forgotten, ignored, or never heard of. It stars Robin Williams, Joan Cusack, and Michael Gambon (the new Dumbledore). This movie has been in my Christmas childhood as far back as I can remember and still to this day, I absolutely love this movie.

I think Williams does a great job as always and the music is fan-freaking-tastic. Hans Zimmer, infamous "Pirates of the Caribbean" scorer provided the music in this movie. I am so going to buy the soundtrack now. Oh, and as always last night on Christmas eve, as per tradition in our family, we watched "The Muppet Christmas" carol :berry:.

Live Free or Die Hard

what a great movie! This franchise is awesome, but i'd have to say this is the best one since the original.

Yippie Kay-ay!

I watched Sweeney Todd a few days ago and it was wonderful. Depp does an amazing job as ever. It was nice to see him as something other that Jack. And Tim Burton did a phenomenal job making it. The blood was beautiful.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

After having my hopes of a great crossover battle thoroughly squashed, crapped on, and ruined by the horrible first movie, the red band trailer of this movie gave me high hopes that I would finally get the incredible brawl I had been hoping for. And low and behold, it did and THEN SOME! This movie was an absolute blast.

While the first movie DID provide a great 1 on 1 initial fight between the 2 space baddies, this movie truly made the alien creatures the star of the show and focused more on them then the humans. The humans are average, nothing special outside of one kinda cute couple, but the stars are the alien monsters.

You really get a sense of watching things through the monsters POV, following the Predator as he hunts the endless horde of Aliens. The action is fierce and dark, there's some sick scenes in this movie and some vicious deaths at the hands of (majority of the victims) the Aliens. Once they get to the town the action never stops.

That's the best part, they are in the SUBURBS. You see them in diners, restaurants, hospitals, public homes, they are really in your face. You even get some great interaction with the Predator himself, and the super cool Hybrid from the first movie (about 80% Alien and 20% Predator).

This is a great science fiction movie, anyone who has even the SLIGHTEST interest in sci-fi will love this. Its the AVP movie they should have done first, and while they do connect it directly to the first movie, you don't really need to see the first one to catch up. This is a great, violent, action packed movie.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

I was up ultra-early this morning, and this delightful movie happened to be on, so I watched it. As with everything in the Studio Ghibli catalogue (which this technically does pre-date, but still gets to wear the badge of all the same, thanks primarily to the input of Mr. Miyazaki), this is intricate, engaging and darlingly-animated, my only nitpick being levelled at a selection of the background music, which has a slightly more timely and stock feel to it than most SG scores and occasionally feels a bit intrusive (I take it that stock music was all they could afford at the time). But that's small potatoes.

I'm actually quite curious to see the original, heavily-editted English dub they did in the 80s (entitled Warriors of the Wind), if only to see if it's really as hideous as I'm led to believe. :bloogrin:

One final observation, and I have my friend Dave to thank for pointing this out the first time we watched this - because Nausicaa's trousers are exactly the same colour as her skin, it frequently gives off the illusion that she isn't wearing anything down there at all. :wiltshock:

I seen the last bit of Pirates 3 and now I need to see the whole thing.8D

I had a movie marathon last night and here are my thoughts on each of the movies.

The Great Gatsby (1974 version): After seeing the movie after I had read the book, I thought the film was mostly faithful to the novel. I liked the movie, but I liked the book more.

Shrek the Third: This was an entertaining movie, but it wasn't as funny as it could have been. Also, I wanted more of the subplot with Princess Fiona and the Disney Princesses. That would have been interesting.

Charlotte's Web (2007 live-action version): I thought it was a cute and charming film. It was endearing and also mostly faithful to the original book. However, I'm partial to the animated version of Charlotte's Web and, of course, the book, but that's just me.

Beavis and Butt-Head do America. I can't believe I never watched these guys when they first aired! This movie was a fun-filled laugh-fest from start to finish. And I really enjoyed Robert Stack's guest star performance.:D

More movies I watched last night; here are my thoughts.

Chicago (2002 version): I can see why this film won all those Academy Awards; it was pretty great. Though I didn't care for the plot that much, everything else was spectacular.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: I also can see why this film is considered a modern classic; it was an excellent and heart-warming movie. It was funny, the story felt organic, the characters were endearing and it was captivating to watch.

Also, whenever I see that part in One False Movie where Mac is riding the bicycle with Bloo in it to the moon, I'm gonna be ROTF now. Seeing the original makes it even funnier now.

Help! I'm a Fish

Just saw that on tv and I have to say, it's a rather nice little movie indeed, sad at some points, but all in all, rather good indeed.

Especially when Spoiler Below

shrek

havent seen the first one in a long time. always fun to watch :D

These are the movies I watched Christmas eve to New Year's Eve:

Watership Down
The Hudsucker Proxy
The Big Lebowski
The League of Gentleman's Apocalypse
The Illusionist
Princess Mononoke

The sequence began and ended with animated films very much concerned with man's relationship with nature, predoominantly as a destructive and threatening force. All the films in between very much show what's best about humanity - the ability to surpise, amuse and astonish and of course its great diversity. All of these attributes we share with the living world of animals and plants, which shouldnt be surprising as we're just another eddy in the endless spirals of the vast organic matrix that's developed on this planet. Princess Mononoke ends optimistically with the awful, futile war between man and nature concluded as well it should be as we're all part of the same process who's beauty emerges in all of us in so many different ways.

These films all in their own way reinforce the delightful magic of existence and all end with unity and continuity either created, restored or maintained. The future belongs to friendship and imagination. Happy New Year! ;)

Oh yeh, I also saw quite a lot of the Rocky & Bullwinkle movie but it didn't really make the point very well so I pretended I hadn't. Was that Duchess as the main bad lady? Sure sounded like her.

Nah that was Julia Louise Dryfuss doing Grey Delisle doing Natasha.

I thought it was Rene Russo doing June Foray doing Natasha Fatale. I think you got the wrong Seinfeldian actor there. It was Jason Alexander who was in the film as Boris Badenov.

I Am Legend

On the whole, I enjoyed this film, but I can tell you one thing that I absolutely loathed about it - and that is the utterly glaring and gratuitous focus at one point, in the final third, upon a couple of extracts from Shrek. I mean, really, what on earth were they doing there, other than to satisy Dreamworks' relentless compulsion to force that movie and its tiresome franchise down our throats at every turning? They couldn't have made a more intrusive blunder if they'd tried. Because, sadly, that was it from then on. The entire spectral milieu the film had spent so much time and energy building up had been very rudely jarred, and try as I might, I just couldn't claw my way back into it. The distinctly Hollywood-ish conclusion didn't exactly help matters, but then I haven't actually read the original story, so I could be talking out of turn there. If I am, then by all means ignore me.

It was a shame, because as I said, up until that moment things had been going pretty solidly. There were some lovely, eerie atmospheric shots of the derelict New York City which managed to be both musing and unsettling, and the bonding between Will Smith and his doggie companion admist all that impendence (revealed gradually, and effectively) was pretty darn engaging stuff. Mr. Smith himself didn't do a bad job at all of carrying the film pretty much by himself for the bulk of the running time, though naturally the gorgeous german shepherd who played Sam deserves their fair share of credit too.

Tonight's package also included the trailer for Alien versus Predator: Requiem, which was pretty fun. I got a few childish kicks out of uttering "oh, whoops" whenever the population total was shown to drop. :blooevil:

Nah, I was just checking to see if you were paying attention to the therad.

And indeed you were kudos my man, kudos. 8D

Finally seen Ghostbusters in full. A great movie that I'm going to have to be sure to pick up on DVD at some point.

Shall We Dance?, a film from 1936 with Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers (I think that's her name). It was a cute film, and interesting if just to see the differences in what counted as entertainment back in the 30s as compared to now.

I just came back from seeing The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. I enjoyed the film: I didn't think it was terrible, nor did I think it was all that great. I liked it.

It's a quaint fantasy film revolving around the Loch Ness Monster (a Water Horse) that has some dramatic and darker points. The film had an interesting take on the concept, though I thought it could have done a bit more with it, aside from the obvious.

With all the other films currently out there, this would one of the better ones to see, but that's just me.

(Btw, I loved the execution of the Water Horse. It was a cute thing when it was little, and it became an awesome monster thing when it grew up. I want one of those creatures now)

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

I have to say, it was rather impressive indeed. Quite an enjoyable movie really.

They even had a cameo in there by none other than...
Spoiler Below

All in all, it was a nice little move, little cheesy in the end, but ah well, I liked it indeed.

Wow, now I actually want to see that movie.

I Am Legend

wow...great movie! It was really well done, and the part with Shrek didn't detract from it at all, if you paid attention to the fact that it was the bit where Shrek is talking about how he lives alone and all that, just like Neville.

I loved the Spoiler Below i thought that was an interesting little quirk and added flavor to the story

of course it also reminded me that i need a LOT more ammunition 8D

Phantoms

Probably the only widely known and best adaptation of Dean Koontz work, all others have been either crappy or cheaply made TV for movies. I love his work even better then King except King's books become movies in a heartbeat. I really enjoyed this movie, I just felt it tried too hard to "be scary" then it should have.

I read the book so i know the changes they made, and actually most of the changes I liked better in the book. And as Jay and Silent Bob so comically put it to Ben Affleck in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike back", "YOU WERE DA BOMB IN PAHTOMS!" 8D.

Pretty much the only movie I can really honestly say Affleck did a damn good job in.

Regardless, it struck me as a belaboured point, and the scene went on for much longer than necessary. C'mon, we came there to see Will Smith in a semi-serious film about the waning of civilisation and the human race, not a clip show for a movie that's been forced upon us enough times already.

At the time, I interpretted the meaning of that scene as an illustration upon how Neville had lost the ability to effectively communicate with real people, his only sources of companionship having come from his dog, the mannquins and whatever DVDs he'd picked up. If the film-makers felt that it was a totally necessary component of the story, then I just wish they'd chosen a film that hadn't been subjected to nearly as much overexposure as Shrek. It struck me as a particularly unwise move following the lukewarm (at best) reaction to Shrek the Third, which if anything has caused a lot of people to become fed up with the franchise (I personally was fed up with it from day one, but that's just me).

Death Sentence

I really hope this movie and its director gets the well deserved appreciation the theater audiences never gave it. I totally loved this film and found it to be a compelling, gritty, dark, and realistic film of revenge and action. James Wan really is impressing me as an up and coming director, I really want to see more from him.

Kevin Bacon is excellent as always and I was really blown away by the intense graphic shoot out scenes and violence. The soundtrack music was amazing as well. I'm so glad I picked up this movie and I am so going to tell anyone I know to give this movie a look over because it really is a film worth looking at.

Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings

While I personally didn't find this one to be a patch upon Peter Jackson's version of the story, it was, nonetheless, a lot of fun to watch, in spite of, or more likely because of it's various flaws. This film is, of course, notorious for ending after covering only the first two books, and in many ways I felt compelled to admire its valiant, if rather unconvincing efforts to make it out as though they'd reached a perfectly happy and triumphant conclusion when that little loose end concerning Frodo, Sam, Gollum and the Ring itself was left completely dangling. The animation was a little shaky, ranging from the disarmingly camp to the just plain creepy (which, in the case of those rotoscoped Ringwraiths, was probably a good thing). The best thing about it was hands down John Hurt, who has one of the loveliest voices in the world, and who here made a truly smashing Aragorn.

IIRC Boromir was very Nordic-looking and quite an interesting interpretation of that character. I too enjoyed Aragon's character. The Nazgul scene was especially creepy.

I liked Bakshi's "Fire and Ice" (on which Frank Frazetta collaborated) much better myself, if only for the artwork (no real plot)

I hate to admit this, but... Superbad. With my parents. It wasn't my fault-- I came home from my part-time job and it was in the DVD player from our Netflix account!

I enjoyed it. I mean, we all need a little stupid teenage humor every now and then, right?

great flick.

i love the drunk bum on the bus, "...McMuffin!" he screams when he sees the cops, "blue guys!"

WTF? Great great movie.

the who's tommy.

its a pretty weird movie. pretty good, but weird.

Knocked Up

I finally got around to seeing Judd Apatow's 3rd masterpiece and I have got to say, this guy has got such a future ahead of him. I've seen all of his movies and I have to say this one really feels like the smartest, freshest, and brightest piece of work he's made.

While not as constantly laugh out loud continuous funny as "Superbad", this movie really does have the best story and the best use of characters with compelling issues, acting, and above all, really freaking funny stuff. It's his strongest emotional movie and I really think its a great film all around.

sonic the movie.

i thought it was pretty good, but the voice acting was not what i expected. still, it had a good plot.

Well you had to like it a bit more then average if you have its photo in your avatar some guy :bloogrin:.

Is that the one where Sonic sounds like a book-worm?

im not sure if you could say book-worm, but yeah that sounds right. and so does tails a little. and knuckles sounds more like sonic from the games.

Cinderella (Animated Disney version)

I borrowed the movie from my friend because I've been in a Princess-y mood for the last few days, since I've recently finished a short story that's kinda like a fairy tale.

Anyway, I liked it as a kid; I like it now. It's a charming film with lovely animation, catchy singing, cute cartoon animals and a classic tale to tell. I think it was a pretty accurate rendition of the fairy tale, though a bit slow in places.

While not my favorite Disney offering, it's still a good effort.