Boxingscene Movie Reviews Thread

[talip bin osman]

love

its a bold indie film that tackle mankind's legacy on earth as seen by a soldier from the american civil war and an abandoned astronaut in a space station...

the last act was very reminiscent of kubrick's space odyssey as we find the astronaut traversing a house where he finds a book and hundreds of servers containing mankind's "legacy" or memories on their tenure on earth...

whether this happens on a different celestial vantage point or in a heightened state of consciousness was deliberately left unclear... the writing is basic and pretty much linear and while it was bold enough to ape (unintentionally i suppose) kubrick towards the end, it never reaches the majestic visuals of "odyssey..."

if you are feeling a little existential, this film is for you...

[MidnightSpecial]

Zero Dark Thirty

an incredibly overrated film

i also question its accuracy. Ill have to write a full review later.

[jaded]

Just finished watching The Master. One word comes to mind...weird. I can't believe I waited in anticipation of this movie...what a disappointment. Joaquin Phoenix was great as usual but regardless...this movie goes nowhere.

Also watched Gangster Squad...pure crap.

[MaD RoBoT]

one of the most beautiful (& inspiring) movie i've seen, visually stunning 9/10



a different kind of action movie...8.5/10

[Libido Sanchez]

Cosmopolis (2012)
I didn't fully understand this movie. Maybe it just went over my head, since it deals with economics and philosophies I'm admittedly not up on. It's based on a book by Don DeLillo and directed/written by David Cronenberg. In its own weird way I think this is supposed to be a dark comedy or at least parts of the movie play that way. But it's not a someone-slips-on-a-banana-peel-funny, but rather an absurd funny, like the scene where the main character speaks while a proctologist's finger is up his rectum. The actors all purposefully talk in a strange, jilted manner which will infuriate or bore you and will probably cause many viewers to turn this off after the first 15 minutes or so. Being a Cronenberg fan, I saw this one all the way through to the end, and it does get slightly better as it goes along, but I don't think this is a movie for everybody. Anyways, if you're still curious, Cosmopolis stars that dude with the weird eyes from the Twilight movies as a young billionaire who seems stuck in a ruthless life, a life in which the more money he makes the more lives he destroys. Most of the movie takes place inside his limo. Again, I imagine most will hate it. (*No Rating*)




Compliance (2012)
How stupid can people be? This will probably be the thought running through your head while you watch this. But then you will have to remind yourself that it's based on real events.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS: In order to properly talk about the movie a few things need to be revealed, mainly the plot, which is about fast food employees who receive a phone call from someone identifying himself as a police detective who begins ordering the employees around via the phone. Things spiral out of control as the demands from the voice on the other end of line begin to cross the line. The biggest criticism against this movie seems to be that some people feel like what happens in the movie would never happen to them in real life and they get mad at the characters for behaving like they do and thus don't like the movie. I guess if you're constantly thinking the characters you are watching are a bunch of idiots then it makes it hard to like the movie, but again, this is based on actual occurrences that happened in real life, as ridiculous at it might seem. IMO, the acting is good and the movie overall is solidly directed. I wasn't mad at all for watching it. But when it was done I went on Youtube and watched the various news reports about this incident that include actual security video footage, and I can't help but think that the real life reportage is more engaging and effective. (7 / 10)



A Serbian Film (2010)
It took a few years, but I finally saw the extremely extreme (really, it's fuckin' extreme) A Serbian Film. I kept hearing how disgusting, disturbing and vile it was, and yeah, it's pretty disgusting, disturbing and vile. I almost feel like it's my civic duty to warn you: DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE! IT'S SICK!

But some of you who still haven't seen it will probably not heed my warning. In that case, let me continue. The movie itself is an exploitation picture that falls literally into the torture porn category. Now the filmmakers have made claims that the movie is a political statement against censorship and a comment on Serbian society. I don't know much about Serbia to determine whether the director/producers are pulling everyone's leg or not, but there's no doubt (in my mind) that some of these comments are being used in order to market the film and perhaps even entice people outside the shock cinema core audience to see the movie. In that case, these filmmakers are some evil subversive mofos, and I guess, to some degree, you got to give them some props for that. If not, you got to at least give props to the actual film itself for it's clearly made by people with some talent and not just some shit thrown together with gory effects.

Anyways, this is the story of a retired porn star now a family man who has struggled for years to make ends meet financially. One fateful day he's given a big money offer to make one last movie for some real shady motherfuckers who won't tell him any specific details about the picture. As you can guess, the movie he's about to make is gonna be way more hardcore than double **** or than anything he's ever done before. WARNING: THERE ARE SEVERAL GRUESOME SCENES IN THIS MOVIE THAT WILL MAKE YOUR EYES BLEED AND SCAR YOUR MEMORY.

Well, like I said, A Serbian Film is well made, and as much attention is given to the shocking content, it's actually the set-up to the movie that was most impressive IMO, as it does manage to make you care about the porn dude and his family. After seeing it, I went online and discovered that the 99-minute version I saw was actually edited and was missing at least 4 or 5 minutes of footage. (I think the version I saw was labeled NC-17 but there's an UNCUT or UNRATED version that is longer.) Normally, I would avoid seeing a censored picture because I always want to see the director's intended vision. But seeing how much crazy, fucked-up shit was in the version I saw, I DO NOT even want to imagine what the hell I didn't see in the uncensored version and thank goodness I was spared that horror. (8/10)

[Libido Sanchez]

Miss Bala (2011)
This movie is ill. If you watch Spanish-language news, you know that every so often beauty pageant queens get mixed up with drug cartels down in Mexico and South America. And by "mixed up with" I mean the women get directly involved in the highly dangerous drug operations. This movie is inspired by those real life incidents and it's a tense, non-stop crime drama that does an excellent job of making you feel like you're right in the scene during various shoot outs. The lead actress, Stephanie Sigman, is really good in this. I don't know much about her, I think she was a model before (she's hot), but she pulls off the good girl next door type who gets thrust into a world of shit just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The dude who plays the narco boss is one good villain. Tight ass movie. Recommended. (9.5 /10)




Alice (1988)
I put this on my Netflix queue a really long-ass time ago and the plan had been to get stoned and then see this surreal stop-motion animation fable by Czech artist Jan Svankmajer loosely based on the Alice in Wonderland story. Well, by the time it arrived I didn't have any weed and didn't feel like waiting so I threw it on... and maybe I should have waited until I was high. Or maybe it's better I didn't because there's a creepy vibe to this movie which will probably scare most kids who watch it. There are some rather cool scenes, but overall the narrative really was a test of endurance as the the movie cuts to the little girl's mouth uttering the phrase "Said the White Rabbbit" like a zillion times. What made matters worse is that I watched a dubbed-in-English version that only caused the narration to be even more annoying. I got to respect the artistic elements, but as a whole movie it was a bit tough to get through after a while. (6/10)




Leningrad Cowboys Total Balalaika Show (1994)

There's hundreds of random movies on my Netflix queue and quite often something arrives that I totally forgot about (and don't remember why I even added it). This one is one of those picks I don't recall ever adding. This isn't really even a movie but a 50 min. concert film of the mock Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys. I knew nothing about this band and had to actually Google them after I saw this movie, which honestly I almost turned off after the first 5 minutes because I was buggin' out about what the hell I was watching. The Leningrad Cowboys look like some crazy Russian rockabilly band with these weirdo haircuts and ridiculous pointy shoes and they are on stage with a massive Russian military band and some dancers who'd you probably see on some cultural show on PBS. And they're playing a mix of Eastern European traditional folk music and Western rock tunes. And somehow it works! Although I was disappointed in their rendition of ZZ Top, their cover of "Knocking On Heaven's Door" (posted above) was probably the highlight followed by their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama." Anyways, whether or not you can hang with this one will depend if you can genuinely enjoy listening to all types of music genres out of your comfort zone. I was entertained so I give it a thumbs up. (6.75/10)

[talip bin osman]

men of honour

a biopic of a dude named carl brashere...

the first african american master diver of the US navy... and incidentally,

the first amputee to be reinstated to active duty...

though actually there are 2 storylines, (the other one is of robert deniro's character named billy sunday) brashere's was more fleshed out and cuba gooding delivers an exquisite performance... the final scene where he had to walk 12 paces to convince the personnel commitee of the navy to allow him to be reinstated was quite moving... robert deniro, almost without effort, made the film much more interesting to watch playing an easily provoked diving instructor...

some flaws: there were some cheesy theatrics here and there and charlize theron's character really served no purpose whatsoever...

the film was generally good though... cuba gooding was wonderful and damn it, deniro was really good even without trying...

8...

[The Noose]

Alice (1988)
I put this on my Netflix queue a really long-ass time ago and the plan had been to get stoned and then see this surreal stop-motion animation fable by Czech artist Jan Svankmajer loosely based on the Alice in Wonderland story. Well, by the time it arrived I didn't have any weed and didn't feel like waiting so I threw it on... and maybe I should have waited until I was high. Or maybe it's better I didn't because there's a creepy vibe to this movie which will probably scare most kids who watch it. There are some rather cool scenes, but overall the narrative really was a test of endurance as the the movie cuts to the little girl's mouth uttering the phrase "Said the White Rabbbit" like a zillion times. What made matters worse is that I watched a dubbed-in-English version that only caused the narration to be even more annoying. I got to respect the artistic elements, but as a whole movie it was a bit tough to get through after a while. (6/10)


)

lol. Just one word needed. Creepy. I watched that years ago when doing a dissertation for Lost Highway.



Watched Silver Linings Playbook last weekend. Very good film. Never wanted to watch a 'rom-com', but this is quite different and had me really laughing.

Plus, Jennifer Laurence is so ****ing bangable in this film its ridiculous. Especially at the end when shes dancing badly.

[Mr Ehrmantraut]

Wreck it Ralph.

I watched this stoned. Mesmerizing Heart-warming (insert cliche).

It really brought back some great gaming memories. 9/10.

[_original_]

Wreck It Ralph was so fun, my kids loved it.