Last movie you saw.

[RoseOfHizaki 131]

Fury - somewhat semi ridiculous as some scenes would never of actually happened IRL in ANY theater of war. Though with that said... Its just another movie that portrays glorifies how 'invincible' america is and even though their soldiers may fall in battle, American ideology will never die.

 

 

A decent movie though but it doesnt top saving private ryan.

[Bear 1817]

Rewatched Snowpiercer with my girl yesterday. Yes, one can tak about plot holes or bad CGI, but this film is awesome. The atmosphere is fantastic, everything that's not CGI looks gorgeous and we get some of the coolest action scenes seen since Oldboy. They're executed with such flair and style it's almost beautiful to watch people get murdered in the film. And the cast is superb as well. Song Kang-ho is a god and that's a fact. Don't need to say more about him than that. Chris Evans shows that he's way more than just a pretty face, Ah-sung Ko and John Hurt is amazing, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner and so on are all very good.

 

But the main reason why I like this so much is the atmosphere and inside-visuals. The wagons looks amazing and they've all got their own identity and character. It's so well done like. Stunning stuff.

[beni 2149]

The Black Cauldron

I LOVE this child's movie. Sure, it's pretty dark for one aimed at kids but the darkest, I feel, make us prepared for what's in store for us in the future and reality. Everything about this movie was pretty much bashed by reviewers; storytelling, art, characters and, of course, 'Disney's usual magic.' It failed at the box office too (selling this movie so well). I enjoyed it as a kid and even now. The storyline is pretty much an evil king wants to get his hands on this black cauldron to take over the land but our young hero with his group of misfit friends have to stop him and protect Hen Wen, my favourite ever pig with a magical power that can show the location of this cauldron. I think I have an adoration for most things that don't go down all that well with the majority of people or something, seeing as my other favourite child movie is Oliver & Company (about a homeless kitten taken in by a poor owner with a pack of dogs, who survive by stealing from people. The kitten meets a wealthy young girl and gets caught up between both families). Which, by the way, got worse ratings. Ignore reviewers on these two please, they're so much fun.

[Vitne Eveille 65]

Just watched Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom yesterday.  Still awesome

[eiheartx 1310]

I'm not a movie person (+, theaters are 1h away from my home and the ticket is expensive; it's not worth it). So the latest movie that I've saw at home last month was Inception. 3rd time watching, this is what I needed to finally understand this shit lmao.

[Bear 1817]

But what was it that you did not understand before? I don't get why so many struggle to understand the film. It's a very, very straight forward film afterall and everything is overexplained about a thousand times during the film's playtime.

[eiheartx 1310]

But what was it that you did not understand before? I don't get why so many struggle to understand the film. It's a very, very straight forward film afterall and everything is overexplained about a thousand times during the film's playtime.

 

I was lost the first time with all of those dreams within a dream, the ending etc. It wasn't clear for me at all. The second time was better but still I've missed some points.

I'm too stupid apparently to understand this.

[Bear 1817]

It's got nothing to do with stupidity, dear you.

 

 

Sin Nombre - Adventure-drama written and directed by Cary Jôji Fukunaga, best known for the genius director in the first season of True Detective. I expected something more along the lines of City of God, but this was something completely different and very, very good. Great story and well-acted, but Cary Jôji Fukunaga's the big star here. Visually stunning with beautiful cinematography and it's just so well-directed. He's a proper star, that man. Should've had a bigger name by now. It also comes off as very realistic and great.

[Bear 1817]

Shinobi no Mono aka Ninja, a Band of Assassins - The first out of a eight-film long jidaigeki series, with the three first being based on novels. It was also so popular that it got a TV-series as well, just like Zatoichi did around the same time. This is old school ninja films. These ninjas doesn't have any super powers, there's no tunnelling through sand dunes and no flying through the air. This is pure old school ninjas who can be quiet, are smart and great fighters and strong, but nothing else really. It's realistic ninjas.

 

The first thing that hits me from the first moment of the film are the beautiful cinematography and amazing soundtrack. It both looks and sounds a billion dollars. Stunning stuff. It's well-written, well-directed and really fucking entertaining.

 

The cast is amazing and everyone truly impress, and among the cast you also find Tomisaburô Wakayama, best known as the lead in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. A genius! He steals the show for me, despite not getting much screentime. But he's fantastic.

 

Another thing that I noticed throughout the film is that it is incredibley violent for a 1962-film. There's some insanely bloody moments (for its time), and those made me go nuts. It was massively unexpected, and my eyes went huge a couple of times. Great action scenes too. Brilliantly done.

This was a fantastic film, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest and get them all on DVD or VHS or whatever.

 

The film series also has its own unofficial fansite. Do check out: http://www.shinobinomono.com/snm_wordpress/

 

The film also served as an inspiration for Roald Dahl as he wrote You Only Live Twice. Says it all really.

 

[Tokage 5930]

There's a film festival currently going on here, so I've watched quite a few films in the last few days.

 

In the cinemas I've watched

Jodorowsky's Dune

The New Girlfriend

The World of Kanako

 

And on my PC I watched

20.000 Days on Earth

Bird People

Enemy

Cold in July

 

... And there's still a bunch of films on my to-watch list. I'll post more thoughts once the whole festival is over, two weeks from now.

[Bear 1817]

Cool! Film festivals are awesome. I'm going to Oslo Fright Fest in January. A film festival fo horror, cult and exploitation fans. They'll show What We Do in the Shadows, which I am extremely excited about, The ABCs of Death 2 and the Norwegian christmas slasher O'Hellige Jul!. There's gonna be more of course. Hoping for some awesome guests and some even more exciting films.

[Tokage 5930]

What We Do In The Shadows was also on my watch-list, but it turns out i won't be able to see it. 

 

Going to see Nightcrawler though, which also seems like it could be interesting.

[Bear 1817]

Nightcrawler is one of the films I have been looking the most forward to in 2014. I've already given it 9,5/10 because of the poster, and hailed Jake Gyllenhaal's fantastic performance as the performance of the year (as far as films goes). This is before I've watched it. Such massive expectations. Don't think it'll come to the movie theaters around here, and IF it comes it'll be in 2015. Ew.

[Bear 1817]

Shinobi No Mono 2: Vengeance - The second in the series, and this is just as good as the first one, if not better. I was taken completely off guard with a few of the scenes. So brutal, grim and harsh, and this is 1963, man. Fucking hell! It both looks and sound as good as the fist one, and is just as well-acted and directed. Fantastic film. A bit more action-oriented and epic, with a bit less ninjaism. But it worked eally well, and I loved this one too. Raizo Ichikawa is still fantastic in the lead, Tomisaburo Wakayama is even better than in the first and Shiho Fujimura really caught my eye. So talented and so beautiful. Perfect!

 

Bloody, epic and even grim and harsh. This film should please any fan of old school jidaigeki and chambara. Top notch film!

 

[Bear 1817]

Shinobi No Mono 3: Resurrection - Starts off directly where Vengeance ended, and it starts off really well and while it never gets bad or boring, it just never reaches the hights of the previous films. It drags on a bit too long, and the climax is very disappointing. Way too uneven pacing, not enough ninjaism and not epic enough. But it's still a fantastic film, though.

 

[Youko_o 51]

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. Actually I didn't finish this one cause I wanted to sleep, but will finish it when get time to. I really liked the acting and the narrative, it's pretty different from most movies. Also I kind of like french.

[Bear 1817]

Enter the Ninja - While not the first American ninja film ever, this was the one that started the ninja boom of the 80's, just like Halloween did with slashers. The film stars Franco "Django" Nero, Susan George and Sho fucking Kosugi, and the latter is the star here. I mean, fuck! Sho was beyond awesome in the 80's. Not a good actor, but more than enough charisma and badassness to make up for it.

 

Enter the Ninja isn't a good film by any means, but it's got a great cast, lots of cheese and bood, cool ninjas and awesome fights. What more do you reall need? Nothing, I say. Nothing at all!

 

[Bear 1817]

Revenge of the Ninja - Second part of the Ninja trilogy in whih neither film have anything to do with eachother, other than Sho fucking Kosugi who plays a role in all, though different characters. In this they nail the story, the characters and action. OK, so it's not a proper good film and the story isn't very good or special, but it's an entertaining story that gets things going and it's a fun one. Sho fucking Kosugi is his usual self and he's proper badass like. So fucking brutal. It's more over the top than Enter.., except for the amount of bloody violence. There's a serious lack of blood throughout of the film IMO, and with more blood it'd be even better. But the end makes up for it. Ad the climax is better than in Enter... It's so fucking over the top and ridiculous, in a good way that is. Awesome stuff!

 

Sho Kosugi's two sons plays in the film as well. One plays a huge part actually. Cool as fuck.

 

[Bear 1817]

Shinobi No Mono 4: Siege - Back on track! The first three films were based on the Shinobi no Mono novels by Tomoyoshi Murayama, and starred Raizo Ichikawa in the role as Goemon Ishikawa. This is the first of the films in the series to be based on original screenplays by Hajime Takaiwa, the same man who was the screenwriter for the three first films. Raizo Ichikawa continues in the lead, but this time as another character called Saizo Kirigakure, who is on the opposite side of his first character Goemon Ishikawa. One of my alltime favourite actors Tomisaburo Wakayama is also present in this film, after being absent in the last film, Shinobi No Mono 3: Resurrection. Both are fantastic, just so that's said.

 

The film starts off as a proper slow burner, and while very good and interesting, it takes some time before it properly starts off. But when it does it's like getting kicked in the stomach. Everything is taken a bit further here and the ninjas are closer to what we think of when hearing the word ninja in 2014 than what the previous 3 films were, and every single time there's some ninja action on screen it looks fantastic. Stunning work. The story is top notch as well as the beautiful cinematogaphy, though a bit too dark in places.

 

All in all a fantastic film and the second best, if not THE best, in the series so far.

 

[Bear 1817]

Innerspace - This is one of the films everybody loves when seeing it at a young age, and I was obviously one of them. So when rewatching this last night I was very excited to see if it had stood the test of time, or if it was en embarrassing piece of shit in 2014. And not only was I excited to see if this was good in 2014 because I loved it as a young, but also because I've grown on to become a HUGE Joe Dante fan over the years. Piranha , The Howling and Gremlins are three FANTASTIC films, and I adore Small Soldiers as well. One of my all-time favourite directos, despite not having too many movies to his name.

 

And guess what? Innerspace hasn't gone sour one tiny bit. Still absolutely fantastic and I can understand why this won an academy award. Ok, so some of the visuals do look a bit dated, but everything else is fantastic and both Martin Short and Robert Picardo are beyond fantastic in this film. It's not the film that keeps you gigling from A to Å like Dumb & Dumber or anything, but when it provides some laughs you'll have a hard time stop laughing because it's absolutely hilarious. Very good film!

 

[Bear 1817]

Ninja III: The Domination - The third and final films in The Cannon Group's ninja trilogy, and the most ridiculous of the three. I mean, this is so fucking over the top and it won't take you many minutes to find that out. The first ten minutes of the film consists of a ninja assasinating a man and his girl, before an army of cops starts chasing him. The ninja being a ninja he slays a shitload of cops with different weapons before he gets shot... 100 times and continues to fight and do his shit. A beautiful telephone linewoman and aerobics teachers finds this injured man and receive a sword - and so it all begins. That's just during the first ten minutes. This film has ninjas, possessions, exorcisms, floating swords, vengeance from beyond the grave, a beautiful lead and Sho Kosugi. And awesome fights. Do you need to need more? No, you do not. Watch this masterpiece!

 

[PsychoΔelica 648]

Finally watched Cold Mountain last night (with a delay of like 10 years ). I think I missed at least the first 30-40 minutes by the time I started, but still I really enjoyed it. The cinematography was fantastic. Everything felt pretty realistic and I could really get the sense of that time in history. Plotwise it was never boring, and it was really interesting to see the paralell journeys of each of the main characters until they finally met again. I really enjoyed the acting as well, notably Renée Zellweger, Jack White, James Gammon; although there really weren't any bad performances. The ending sequence was a little inconsistent but everything was tied up nicely by Ada's narration.

 

Think I'd give it a 9/10.

[Bear 1817]

Castle of Owls - When I say this film is directed by Eiichi Kudo, you should know that this is a high quality film. If you're not familiar with Eiichi Kudo, then shame on you. Eiichi Kudo is probably best known for for his masterpieces 13 Assassins (the original which Takashi Miike remade some years ago), The Great Killing and Eleven Samurai. Castle of Owls might as wellbe the finest ninja film I have ever seen, one of the best jidaigeki-films I've ever seen, and probably the best I've seen by Eiichi Kudo till now. The story is simple, yet brilliant, the actors are top notch, it's beyond visually stunning (the colours in the film look fantastic!!!), the fights and ninjaism is magnificent and it's just extremely well-made, as expected from someone like Eiichi Kudo.

 

It is a real shame that the remake is perhaps better known than this. Much more known I think. I've not seen the remake, but I am interested in seeing it, but I doubt it can match this film.

 

That is hands down one of the best shots I've ever seen on film.

[Bear 1817]

Samurai Spy - A visually stunning 60's new wave samurai/ninja masterpiece by Masahiro Shinoda, with a great cast, good, solid plot and cool action. The cinematography in this film is absolutely insane and the strongest point of the film by a long shot, and there is ALWAYS some eye candy present on screen. It's so beautiful to look at. The story might be a bit too much for some people, with too many characters and locations in too short of a time, but I have no problem following the plot, which I really like. But if you're unlucky and get lost, I think you'll struggle big time to get into it again, which means this is a film that requiers your 100% attention. Lovely soundtrack that fits the atmosphere of the film perfectly too.

 

Yeah, it ould pobably have been a bit longer and gone deeper into the plot and sub-plots here and there, but the visuals totally makes up for it and despite being black and white it's one of the most colourful films I've seen in a long, long time. Truely reathtaking! 9,5/10

 

 

 

 

 

Shinobi no Mono 5: Return of Mist Saizo - I'm not sure about the title, but it should be something along those lines. Anyway, the fifth in the series and a direct continuation of the previous one. As with the 3rd, it starts of amazingly but doesn't manage to follow it up and ends as a bit of a disappointment, mainly because the lighting is bloody awful at times and it gets hard to see exactly what happens during some of the action scenes. But other than that it's geat, fast-paced and cool. Raizo Ichikawa and Tomisaburo Wakayama ae themself alike - brilliant by both! And the plot is solid as fuck, so I truly enjoyed this film as well.

[beni 2149]

Decided to spend dinner watching the classic movie Pulp Fiction today all the way through and wow, what a cult thriller. This scene in particular made it for me:

 

 

Travolta is mighty fine in this. Actually, that whole cast is perfect! I'm beginning to crush on an entire cast, oh my. xD I LOVE the non linear narrative, made it so interesting. Why couldn't we have done this film in Film Studies? So good.