Okay, I've waited long enough. Time for a back-to-back post, me reckons...

Wall-E

I finally got to see this the other night, and I just wanted to add my voice to its ever-growing and thoroughly-deserved crowd of admirers. As it happens, Ratatouille has yet to be knocked from its throne as my personal favourite Pixar movie, but Wall-E is definitely a worthy contender. The minimal dialogue was unusual, but worked beautifully, and put me very strongly in mind of Walt Disney's earliest, pre-WWII features - Dumbo, Bambi, Fantasia and the like - in which visual charm and expressiveness was always treated as the more important story-telling device. Sure, folks are thankfully still able to acknowledge the charm of those movies, but an age in which celebrity voices and endless wise-cracking are treated as capital to most (non-Pixar) animated films, very few seem brave enough to try it for themselves any more, which is a great shame...oh, thank heavens for Pixar. And, not only do they lead the way for innovation in contemporary animation, but it's nice that they also know when not to run a good idea into the ground - with the Incredibles, Ratatouille and Wall-E, there's been a definite step away from the previously quite high amount of self-referencing within their films, which was fun at first, but might have become a little intrusive had it continued.

I really need to get the soundtrack now too. I'd had no idea until the end-credits started playing that the mighty Peter Gabriel had recorded an original song for the film. When I recognised his voice, I whooped for joy.

Here's how I currently rank the existing Pixar movies, from favourite to least favourite:

1. Ratatouille
2. Wall-E
3. Toy Story
4. The Incredibles
5. Toy Story 2
6. Monsters Inc
7. Finding Nemo
8. Cars
9. A Bug's Life

The Dark Knight

Oh my gaaawwwd! So, I'm not really a Batman fan, and I didn't really like Batman Begins for some reason (I just couldn't keep my attention on it), but The Dark Knight...I was just on the edge of my seat!

And every time Heath Ledger came on screen I had to say, "Holy crap." He was just so good (and I've always found the villians and crazy people to be the most interesting characters in movies anyway :P).

Stepbrothers

amazingly funny 8D one of the most vulgar movies ever made, i cried laughing.

Pan's Labyrinth. I caught this film by chance on the movie network and was absolutely floored by how dark it was. It is a very good film and the imagery was fantastic. Now I really can't wait to see the Hobbit film(s) because between Del Toro and Jackson, it will be one spellbinding event!:D

Wall E

The Dark Knight

Yes Yes! The good that is in these fine movies has already been adequately expressed above so I'll restrict myself to favourite moments and the sort of observations that have led to a steady decline in the number of invitations I recieve to social occasions:

Spoiler Below

Spoiler Below

Well, I just got back from The Dark Knight and... well, I really can't make heads or tails out of this (no pun intended). I really don't know whether to like this or not. But I will say that I did enjoy Heath Ledger as the Joker. Very dark, and I especially enjoyed his 'magic trick'. That was just unexpected.

Hoppity Goes To Town

Long before A Bug's Life, Antz and The Ant Bully, there was Hoppity Goes To Town (actually, it was Mr. Bug Goes To Town originally, but Paramount clearly didn't think that the Mr. Deeds homage was worth having "Bug" in the title, which they saw as detrimental, and later changed it). This was the second of only two feature films to arise from the Fleischer Studios (extra points if you knew that the first was Gulliver's Travels in 1939), most famous for the Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons - once serious rivals with the Walt Disney studio, to whom they apparently lost a multitude of employees, the poor box office performance of this particular film (not helped by the fact that it came out just two days prior to the attacks on Pearl Harbour) is sadly what finished their studio off for good. A shame, since it's quite a charming little film, if obviously now very antiquated.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that it really measures up to any of the feature films which Walt Disney was producing at around the same time - while Snow White, Pinnochio, Dumbo and Bambi all feel like properly sustained features within their own right, Hoppity comes off a lot more as a heavily extended short cartoon, with some definite pros and cons. I wasn't particularly wild about the character designs - the vast majority of bugs here are human beings, more-or-less, with antenna and wings stuck on them...I guess at time this was seen as the most logical way of convincing audiences to identify with insect characters, but nowadays it just looks twee - though the animation was nicely fluid and colourful throughout. The strongest character by far was the villainous C. Bagley Beetle, who I really liked (his only fault, which is something he shares with a lot of Disney's antagonists, I guess, is his rather questionable taste in sidekicks - Aunt Sarah from Lady and the Tramp excepted, of course). The weakest character was very easily Honey Bee, Hoppity's love interest, who never amounts to much more than a dainty little thing for the male characters to fuss over (again, this was probably much less of an issue at the time). Hoppity himself is likeable enough, but doesn't get a great deal of character development (another reason why it may have been a little better suited to a short cartoon). Yeah, it's a mixed bag for sure, but all in all I enjoyed it, and Mr. Beetle's contributions were all brilliant.

they're making a Hobbit movie?

sweet

Two, actually. Part one being the first half of the book and part two being the second half.:D

Jurassic Park III.

My 3rd favorite. :smed:

That was a good one. My favorite moment was the one by the fence when they were talking about the cell phone, realized what had happened to it, and heard it ring. They turned, and there's the Spinosaur. :eek:

And that they could hear the cell phone ring right through the spinosaurs belly. 8D

I've seen both Gulliver's Travels and Hoppity Goes To Town. Both extremely nicely animated (Gulliver himself was rotoscoped); what was wrong was story development. Whoever wrote the script for Gulliver just watered down Swift's tale with some trite dialogue and no direction. Hoppity just seemed to drag. The Fleischers could do longform--the Popeye two-reelers are testiment to that. (TRIVIA: King Features Syndicate never saw a dime off the Popeye cartoons that Fleischer and Famous made as the two studios bought the rights to the characters.)

What did the Fleischers in was that Max and Dave split from each other in acrimony in 1941, leaving Max to run the studio which Paramount Pictures (distributors of their cartoons) now controlled. True, the poor timing of the release of Hoppity Goes To Town was a contributing factor in the demise of the Fleischer Studios by name; Paramount would oust Max and rename it Famous Studios (named for their music publishing arm) with Max's son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel helping to run it.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that for me, Ccook. I'd known that Max and Dave had quite a nasty rift during the production of Hoppity, and that this was a contributing factor toward their decline - irony is that Max did apparently become friends with his former adversary Walt Disney in the aftermath.

And I agree - the film itself was nicely animated, but could have done with a slightly more substantial storyline. I still feel quite sad for it, though, given the circumstances.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Death to Smoochy

Truth be told, the Mummy "3" pretty much served up everything I expected it to serve. I wasn't surprised but I was by no means disappointed either. It was a great action movie and despite being made by a different director, it still felt like a "Mummy" movie and was quite enjoyable.

The new older Alex O'Connell was a great addition, he looks JUST like Brendan Fraiser and Jet Li made a bad ass new mummy villain. The final mega sized un-dead fight was especially kick ass. On the downside, I really miss Racehl Weisz, this new girl isn't bad but she's nothing to brag about either. Also, I felt the abominable snowmen were kind of stupid and felt unnecessary.

All in all, a good movie that was VERY enjoyable and well worth seeing.

Mamma Mia!

Super cheesy but super fun. It's certainly not going to win any awards for narrative unpredictability, but that scarcely seems relevant - the real joy here comes from seeing how all the familiar Abba numbers are staged and choreographed throughout, the results of which are utterly irresistable. The film doesn't take itself any more seriously than it should, and most of the cast, particularly Meryl Streep (who is awesome) get into the spirit of it really well. It goes without saying of course that you have to like the music of Abba, and lucky for me I do. For the record, my favourite Abba song is "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A man after midnight)", but I felt that "Take a Chance on Me" was the best used and staged within the film itself. Of course the "Dancing Queen" sequence was great too.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

My most favorite. :)

My favorite parts are when the released dinosaurs destroy the hunters camp, when the T-Rex rampages through San Diego, knocking over the 76 gas station sign and scaring away the police cars and the animal control truck. 8D

It

The two-part TV movie from 1990, based upon the Stephen King novel of the same name and no doubt responsible for inspiring an entire generation of coulrophobes. I watched both parts over the weekend for the very first time, not entirely certain what to expect, and found that it was actually really good, although it must be said that the two halves themselves are not equals - the first is definitely a heck of a lot stronger than the second, which kind of falters.

The former is brilliantly taut - aided by the input of a surprisingly strong ensemble of child actors, including a young Seth Green, (and all those "special appearances" from Tim Curry, of course) it sets the scenario and builds up the tension supremely well, cumulating in a truly chilling and unexpected climax which instantly has you wanting more. The second...well, it's entertaining enough and certainly has its moments. Problem is that it never really lives up to the high expectations set by its predocessor (that, and that it contains quite possibily the most annoying cliche you could find in a horror movie, but I'm willing to let that slide). I've never actually read the original Stephen King novel, so excuse my inability to compare, but I found the climax to be a bit disappointing:

Spoiler Below

Well, as with every good horror movie, the true delectability is to be found in the anticipation, and even if that anticipation finally falls short of any particularly satisfying fulfillment, the build-up is just too much fun to be missed. Recommended to all, except for the most emotionally fragile of coulrophobes. Oh, and folks who really love clowns. If you do, then I have a feeling that Pennywise here could seriously ruin your fun.

Spoiler Below

That is so true!

"The Demented Cartoon Movie."

It's hilarious. :P

Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet

This is one half of an anthology of short films, each based in some way around the subject of time, and each with a ten minute running time - the fairly straightforward idea being that the viewer will be exactly ten minutes older by the end of each segment. I was drawn to it chiefly because one such contribution, entitled "Int. Trailer. Night", was directed by one of my favourite film-makers, Jim Jarmusch, though I have to say that the stand-out piece for me was Wim Wenders' "Twelve Miles to Trona", starring none other than Charles Esten, of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame (the US version, in which he is creditted as "Chip"). Here, he plays a character struggling to drive across an isolated Californian highway to the nearest emergency room after accidentially overdosing on an unknown hallucinogenic. It's a visually beautiful and emotionally very tense little piece. Also brilliant was Victor Erice's "Lifeline", set in the Spanish countryside in the early 40s. Filmed in black and white and with very little dialogue, it's a very haunting and well-made short which combines idyllic glimpses of a local family enjoying a peaceful day with imagery indicating the constant threat of death and destruction which hangs over them at all times, ultimately manifesting itself in a very immediate threat to the life of the baby, who is slowly bleeding.

The second half of the anthology is "The Cello", which I hope to be able to see really soon.

Badda bing badda boom! Ten Minutes Older - The Cello

I've gotta admit that this was a slightly less satisfactory collection than The Trumpet. Bernardo Bertolucci's "Histoire d'eaux" and Jiri Menzel's "One Moment" were by far the strongest contributions, the former being a simple fable effectively told, and the latter a montage film in celebration of Czech actor Rudolf Hrusinsky, with whom I'm not particularly familiar, but which I found to be beautifully made and pretty affecting nonetheless. The other pieces were a lot more hit-and-miss. Volker Schlondorff's "The Enlightenment" sported a pretty intriguing concept - a voyage around a trailer park and a commentary upon human weaknesses from the perspective of a philosophical mosquito who clearly knows his Augustinus - but in practice played out rather unpleasantly and heavy-handedly, instead of getting under your skin parhaps as hauntingly as it could have done. And I'm not quite sure what to make of Michael Radford's "Addicted to the Stars" (starring Daniel Craig), which is interesting chiefly for being the sole science fiction story of the two anthologies. All in all, a weaker companion piece to the largely excellent Trumpet, but still more than worth the watch, thanks in no small part to Bertolucci and Menzel, and I wouldn't mind seeing another installment some time in the future.

The Simpsons Movie. I finally sat down and watched this and I was thoroughly impressed. It's almost a shame that the series is still going because this movie would have been an excellent send-off.
What really surprised me was the quality of the voice acting, it was so much better than what they've been churning out lately. I actually was holding back tears during Marge's very touching scene midway through.

wakko's wish.

havent seen it in a while, great movie. i really love the ending.

Barnyard. 8D

Pretty funny movie.

Trust me, the ending is better in the book. it's just too metaphysical to translate to the screen with the budget/special effects they had.

Thanks, I thought that might be the case. Like I say, I'm not familiar with the book, but I do intend to read it some time.

The Dark Knight

I saw this on Sunday & I must say....Wow. Awesome movie. Heath Ledger as The Joker was great, I definately think he deserves the Oscar. Every scene he was in was great & alot of times funny. He stole the show, like Jack Nicholson did in 1989. Maybe it's the Joker curse, every Batman movie with him in it will automatically become a Joker movie. My only complaints were it felt too short (Indiana Jones & Iron Man had the same problem, yes I know all 3 movies were over 2 hours long) & Two-Face felt wasted like Venom in Spider-Man 3. I think they should of ended his story Spoiler Below The Dark Knight has replaced Iron Man as my favorite comic book movie. Though at of the whole year I liked Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull more (it'd probably behind TDK & IM, if I wasn't such a big Indy fan). I'm in awe of it & I really can't wait for the DVD. But I think I had a better time watching Indy. This year is the best comic book movie year ever, I still haven't seen TIH or Hellboy 2, but I'll catch them on DVD. I hope the next couple years have comic book movies just as good as this year's. *Crosses fingers for Wolverine* :grin:

I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight as well today, and I pretty much have to agree with everyone else and say that it is one of the best movies of the year.

The look, the tone, the acting, the dialogue, the music everything was woven together well in a superb Gothic tapestry.

Hopefully they'll be able to beat the superhero Three-quell curse and create another winner for part three.

Don't know if anyone posted this already but here is TDK trailer acted out by a group of kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy673zWHUOw&eurl

Yeah, I've seen that. That kid does a pretty good Joker laugh. :P

Alien Planet

Actually, this was more of a documentary than an actual "movie", but it was still about the length of a movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I don't watch too many documentaries.

As the name suggests, the movie takes the viewer on a fictional journey to another planet in the near future to discover actual alien life. No, not little green men who fly in spaceships, but actual plausible lifeforms similar to the different plants and animals we have or had on Earth. I thoroughly enjoyed it, mainly because it's actually possible and we may find similar lifeforms whenever we do start launching similar kinds of expeditions to other planets in the near future.

I firmly believe there has to be some other life out there, and I have no doubt we will eventually discover it, and this movie shows one of the ways we could.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, you can buy the DVD on Amazon, but it's also available to watch online here, albeit with low video quality.

I have a copy of Alien Planet and I love it. It was exceptionally well done, both in technical and scientific terms, and very plausible. I've watched it many times since it's debut on the Discovery Channel, the most recent viewing being just two weeks ago, and I never get tired of it. It may interest you to know that the show was based on a book titled Expedition by Wayne Barlow; the book is out of print but copies turn up on Amazon and eBay now and then. I haven't read it but I understand that there are some significant differences between the book and the movie. Regardless, the movie gets a very definite thumbs-up from me. :)

Mirrors

I've always thought mirrors were perfect weapons to use in a horror movie, I could think of plenty of ways they could be scary, this is NOT one of them. The movie has some great acting from Kiefer Sutherland and gore hounds will be VERY happy to see there is some seriously twisted forms of gore (Especially the "Jaw" scene).

However the story was convoluted, jumbled, poorly explained and ultimately crapped upon by the uninspiring climax and "truth" behind everything. They spent half the damn movie playing clue search and not enough time increasing the body count or even bothering to make it scary. I wasn't totally disappointed but outside for gore, I can't really see recommending this to anyone.

Thanks for the review Mr M; I had no idea if I wanted to see Mirrors or not.

I also enjoyed Alien Planet when it came on TV some time ago (if it's the one I'm thinking of, anyways).

I recently saw a Korean horror film recently called The Ghost (Ryeong) that I was highly disappointed in. Every scare involved a dripping-wet female ghost with long hair obscuring her face...effects were great and I might have been scared if I hadn't seen the exact same thing done in half a dozen other films. :/ The plot twist was interesting but not good enough to save the film, imho.

The last half hour of John Q

I liked this movie four years ago, and I'm thrilled to say that it hasn't lost its appeal. The story follows John Archibald (played by Denzel Washington) on his quest to get his young son a heart transplant.

The beginning (as I recall-- keep in mind all I caught was the last half-hour) was good, but the subtle foreshadowing got to be glaringly obvious two-thirds of the way through. The ending was emotional and pure and utter win.

Pretty good movie overall. :)

Bits and pieces of "Shoot 'em up". I'll probably try to see it in full later because it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It knows just how ridiculous it is and just has fun with it rather than trying to be serious and over the top.

Tropic Thunder

Quite possibly one of the funniest movies of 2008, and that I have seen in a good long while. This movie is hysterical, Ben Stiller did a masterful job directing/writing/producing/acting this movie. Its gritty, its gory, its loaded with action, great acting and great lines. Totally over the top and outrageous.

Unless you don't like to laugh your ass off, I suggest you see this movie IMMEDIATELY! Its a fantastic film 4 stars baby ;) and be on the look out for Tom Cruise's hilarious small role, he's worth the price of admission alone.

I'm in the middle of watching "Clash of the Titans". I'm loving the effects so far.:)

Watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters over the weekend. I never got a chance to see it in theaters. It was nothing special but not terrible either. Dr. Weird and Steve never cease to amuse me though.

I decided to watch the Simpsons Movie.... again.

Still a good movie after all of the times I've watched it. :frankiesmile: