Last movie you watched?

[Nathander]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marshmallow

The problem I had was this

Spoiler Below

Ozymandias should have died. I was supremely pissed off that he was allowed to live when he should have killed and vaporized for everything he had done. The fact that he got away with everything I thought was insulting. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the fact his bombs did go off and millions of people died, I liked how that brought about peace and no one could change it without destroying the peace they established. I liked everything about that part of the ending.

What i didn't like was the fact that Ozy should have been killed. Dr. Manhattan killing Rorschach I understand, but why he did not kill Ozy is something I do not understand because its like: you let him get away with EVERYTHING! And the other heroes just let it happen and accepted it. Even if Dr. Manhattan understood what Ozy was trying to say, that still doesn't make Ozy any less responsible for what he did and the fact Manhattan would allow him to live just bugged the crap out of me because he had more reason to die then Rorschach did. That was my problem with the ending. What Ozymandias did was unforgivable, giving cancer to innocent people and intentionally mind hammering Manhattan earns him more reasons that he should have been killed and even MORE incentive for Manhattan to kill Ozy despite the fact he agreed with his plans.

That's my beef with its ending.

Which is perfectly acceptable. I would state, in fact, that this is to be the correct reaction to how everything unfolds at the end. It's simply the human way most would react to it.

Spoiler Below

The thing is this: Veidt is, in many ways, made a colder, more heartless man in the movie. In the comic, he shows genuine guilt and remorse at what he has done, as shown through a comic called "The Black Freighter", which parallels Veidts' own conscious and more or less shows his anguish at his actions and the fact that he's certain he's doomed to hell for them. Now, of course, this is still little compensation for him still surviving all he had done (there are other ways he's punished in the comic, though there's no need to go into them since the ending and him not getting caught are still the same), but it is something. No, it's completely unfair and unjust that Veidt didn't get punished for what he did, while another (although crazy) figure like Rorschach allows himself to be killed in order to stop himself from revealing whats happened. But at the same time, life isn't fair. It's fine that you don't like how it ended; you're not supposed to, though that's still little compensation.

As for why Jon didn't kill Ozymandias in the end, it's because while he recognizes the miracle of human life, he's tired of being caught in the tangle of the current lives of humans. He acknowledges that life is a miracle, and that it must be preserved, but he's still distant from it and, since he now has no real ties to this world left, chooses to leave and make his own forms of life. The reason he kills Rorschach isn't just because he intends to reveal what Adrian has done, but because he demands Jon kills him as well. Jon has lived his entire adult life taking orders, as shown by the fact that he obeys and does exactly as he's told to by the government, despite disagreeing with what they tell him to do. Unaccustomed to making a choice on his own, he chooses to do what Rorschach demands of him.

As for wanting Ozymandias to be killed, there actually was an intention to make this the ending in the first draft of the current script, which ends with Dan confronting Adrian outside in the snow and killing him with an "owlrang". This was dropped for the (what I honestly find better) sequence of Adrian standing there passively while he allows Dan to wail on him out of anger and anguish after seeing Rorschach's death.

Also, semi-related for those who haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

Also:

[taranchula]

The Wrestler

Okay, after seeing this movie. Once again I have to ask what was the academy thinking when they didn't give the Oscar to Micky Rourke?

His portrayal of Randy "The Ram" was one the most honest and brutal performances I have ever seen and I mean honest, they way the movie was shot and written and what Rourke went through to prepare for the role, you would think that he really is a broken down old pro wrestler clinging to his past glory.

[jekylljuice]

The Sound of Music

Yeah, I know, this film is regarded as one of those classics which everyone's supposed to have seen at some point in their childhood, and yet, despite my having been on this earth for close to a quarter of a century now, I only just got round to seeing it, for the first time, the other day. What can I say? It was magical, and the songs are truly delightful. The cinema was nice enough to have provided sheets with most of the lyrics on them, so we could sing along, if we chose to, only possibly they didn't think it all the way through, since once the film had started it was far too dark to read anything in there. Happily that didn't really matter, since I knew the overwhelming majority of the songs off by heart already. Even if you've never actually managed to see the film itself, it takes some doing to remain totally ignorant of the likes of "My Favourite Things", "So Long, Farewell" and, of course, "Do-Re-Mi" (incidentally, Douglas Adams once made an observation about that last one which was pretty much dead-on, and which I myself have been pondering for yonks...why couldn't they have come up with an actual definition for the sound "la" (as opposed to just being "a note to follow so")? Does it have a definition at all?).

[Ccook50]

For "la" - how about "a rule you must obey"?

As for me, I last watched Yellow Submarine. My nephew wanted to see it, so I watched it with him. It was the 1999 edition with the "Hey Bulldog" segment added (it wasn't in the original release).

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by Ccook50

For "la" - how about "a rule you must obey"?

Heh. Good one.

Last flick I watched was Slumdog Millionaire, this year's big Best Picture taker-homer, which I only just got round to seeing on Friday. A friend had remarked to me in advance that you could tell this was a Danny Boyle film, since it featured a lot of scenes with young blokes running away from things. I noticed another parallel with Trainspotting, in that in both films Danny tests the tenacity of his protagonists via their willingness to swim through faeces to get what they want - although, unlike in Trainspotting, the relevent scene here is actually extremely triumphant as well as revolting - a reading which it possibly wouldn't be too inaccurate to apply to the film as a whole. It doesn't consistently make for easy viewing, there being quite a lot of grit and brutality therein, but at the same time, it does have this really beautiful underlying fairy tale feeling to it, one which really draws you in and has you gasping and cheering at all the appropriate moments. Some folks have argued that it's this very fairy tale feeling which automatically negates all of the film's attempts to provide any kind of realistically gritty and hopeless depictions of life within the slums - and true, it's very hard to argue that Slumdog isn't essentially an escapist film above all else. But it's a damned fine one, with some really good acting and directing to boot. Better than Trainspotting? Oh jeez, I don't know, it's been a good three years since I last saw that one. Either way, it's a great movie too, and probably due for a revisit soon.

[some guy you dont know]

Last movie I saw was Hotel Rwanda. I know I say this every time, but I think now it may fit best above all else, but I simply cant describe this movie. This truly is one that you just need to see to believe. I think the part that got me most was that this was based on a true story. It's very frightening, or at least it was to me, and really makes you afraid at times about the mortality of some of the characters.

[Mr. Marshmallow]

Knowing

I didn't get the chance to see or read anyone's reviews or comments on the movie only that I guess reviews were rather horrid for this movie. In any case I saw this movie not really aware of what was to be expected of it and it turned out to be a good thing because strangely enough, this movie really shocked me.

Parts of it had Nicolas Cage's (regrettably) recent clunky acting and odd moments of weird screams and facial expressions ala "Wicker man" remake but once you got past that, I was surprised to see some pretty well written dialog, a compelling twisting story and to top it all off, an ending that literally blew my mind. Not everyone will like it in fact most will think its down right absurd.

Oddly enough, I accept its absurdness and felt this ending was "fitting" for this movie. It really made me think and think about life, religion, this whole 2012 thing and just about stuff in general. I haven't had a movie done that to me in a long time, and it is by no means a must buy for me but I am most certainly glad I saw it.

[jekylljuice]

The Band's Visit

A truly wonderful slice-of-life drama about an Egyptian orchestra who have travelled to Israel with the intention of peforming at a cultural centre in Petah Tiqwa, only to wind up in the wrong location altogether and find themselves stranded there, at least until the town's transportation resumes the following morning. Throughout their overnight stay, the band members get the opportunity to explore their temporary environs and interact with a few of the locals, touching upon some of their own insecurities and aspirations whilst picking up a tiny taster of their's, and a succession of understatement, whimsy and poignency duely ensues - think something along the lines of the structure of Before Sunrise combined with the sensibilities of Jim Jarmusch. It's all very engaging, touching and enjoyable, and topped off with some really fantastic performances and direction.

Trivia: Israel did attempt to have this nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2007, though ultimately (and unfortunately, since it would have been a first-rate contender) it was rejected because of the high proportion of English dialogue it also contained. Thus, Beaufort was nominated instead.

[frankie_fan]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marshmallow

Btw if you're looking for a more "complete review", I have a full length audio review of Watchmen on my youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhWxZAfwZ-w

I didn't know you had your own YouTube channel.

[jekylljuice]

Naked Gun 33 1/3 - The Final Insult

Unfortunately, this is a textbook example of the law of diminishing returns - amusing enough in places, but with altogether rather little to offer in the way of particularly fresh or inspired humour and plot direction. What humour there is is very heavily dependent upon parodies of other movies from the early 90s, the problem being that, with the notable exception of the Untouchables-inspired opening sequence (which is a scream), most of the parodies just aren't all that funny, and, in terms of the narrative, feel rather disjointed and abitrary. It's almost as though they picked a whole bunch of movies which they wanted to parody in advance - Thelma and Louise, The Crying Game, Jurassic Park, et al - and modelled whatever storyline they could around that...in which light, having the film climax at an Academy Awards ceremony, though it does have its moments, really doesn't feel like much more than an excuse to stage even more movie parodies totally uninhibited. Like its predecessors, it's fast-paced, loaded with quirky sight-gags, and Leslie Nielson gives a typically enjoyable comic performance, but none of that quite disguises the thinness of the entire affair (nor its frequent, and really quite obnoxious dips into misogyny). All in all, it's probably worth watching if you enjoyed the previous two Naked Gun flicks, but this one just doesn't have that same classic comedy sheen.