Somebody uploaded this quite decent movie, one of director Peter Hyams' better works. Pretty much HIGH NOON in Outer Space, but w/ 100% more exploding heads.

Watched Brad Pitt's baseball movie MONEYBALL last night. Very good, thoroughly enjoyed it!

RR.....
LOVED Outland. One of my all time faves!

Saw Premium Rush the other night at theater
Good movie, well done and suspenseful
Go see Michael Shannon's (Agent Van Alden
from BE) performance. Spectacular!

Saw DREDD, it was pretty good. This year's 4th comic book-based movie and the 4th good one, except thankfully a well-earned R-rated futuristic adventure that isn't made to please everybody or sell lunchboxes.

High octane entertaining B-action movie w/ streaks of humor from the one-liners and ultraviolence. Part DIRTY HARRY, part DIE HARD, part ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (this movie feels John Carpenter-ish), with a subtly effective production/art design that won't get enough credit in giving you a sense of grim and (pun!) dread that a future this bad needs such a fascist police state to stem the problems of Mega City One (800 million in a super city the size of New England), and they're apparently not enough.

Not a great movie, but a good adaptation of the 2000 A.D. Comics with Karl Urban in a Clint Eastwood-inspired performance as the Judge Dredd that finally will hopefully erase memories of that lame Sylvester Stallone movie from back in the day.

I give this ***1/2 out of 5.

Saw Traffic the other day for the first time, it was very good.

Watched Hard Eight just now. Great movie!

Last night I watched some of John Travolta's movie (which I never geard of) entitled Love from Paris (or something like that)in which he's a CIA agent. It was pretty good and so was he although bald headed. Give it a look.

I saw that movie and almost watched it. LOL I ended up falling asleep. I did however watch a movie I hadn't heard of, with John Cusack and Morgan Freeman but can't think of the title. It was about a father/son out hiking and come across an assassin. Was pretty good.


TIS

Taken 2.

The glorious thing about the first Taken was the hidden bada$$ery of Liam Neeson. Of course if you've ever seen Rob Roy, Gangs of New York, Les Miserables or Darkman this shouldn't have really been a surprise but unfortunately for the mental defectives in the first film they didn't see those movies. The first film had really good pacing. It communicated the frantic nature of Bryan Mills' search for his daughter Kim before she is sold off into Third World sex-slavery.

But in Taken 2, presumably everyone, including the half of the Albanian male population that Mills DIDN'T kill and his ex-wife and daughter, knows that Mills is not a man to be f***** with. Because if you mess with him or his family you will die. And if he has the time, you might die painfully.

So there's really no reason for the bad guys to try again and there is even less reason for them to do incredibly stupid stuff like not kill Mills immediately once they have kidnapped Mills and his ex-wife Lenore.

If you were determined to keep Mills alive for a while that would be dumb.
At the very least since you know that he is very resourceful, incredibly dangerous, and has a downright mean streak, wouldn't you keep him under 24 hr armed guard, search him thoroughly, bind him with iron and steel instead of plastic or rope and just to be on the safe side, cripple him to forestall any escape attempts? I mean what are they teaching in Evil Overlord Boot Camp these days?

Also I will have to go back and watch the first Taken but I don't seem to remember Maggie Grace either being as curvy or showing as much flesh. Not that I'm complaining but it's impossible to believe that she's 16 years old. Again, since both his ex-wife and daughter know what he does , it makes no sense for them to insist on questioning his directives while people are shooting at them or saying they can't do what he tells them to do or falling into hysteria, which is most of what they do throughout the film.

Lots of stupid people get shot in the head. The end.

Not seen TAKEN 2 yet, but I'll be honest I'm pretty certain that as action movies go, it won't as good as DREDD was. (TAKEN 2 will make a fortune, DREDD unfortunately tanked in theatres.)

And well shit, somebody online agreed with me.

Do Yourself a Favor and See Dredd 3D Instead of Taken 2



http://gawker.com/5949128/do-yourself-a-favor-and-see-dredd-3d-instead-of-taken-2



I saw that too, I liked it as a good afternoon killer. (Travolta camping up as the ultimate "Ugly American" was good fun.)

That was another movie produced (and co-written) by Luc Besson, the French filmmaker who's become probably king of the B-action movies, low/modest budgets and usually taking place in Europe. His credits range from the TRANSPORTER series to the TAKEN movies to even LOCKOUT w/ Guy Pearce which came out earlier this year.

Went to the cinema the other day to see KILLING THEM SOFTLY, the new Brad Pitt gig. Very good show i have to say, with star turns from Mr. Gandolofini, Mr. Liotta and Vincent Curatola also!!

Worth seeing, most definitely.

Anyone else watch HBO's "The Girl" a story about Alfred Hitchcock's filming of The Birds and the obsession he had with it's star, Tippi Hedron? He comes off as very strange and kind of creepy in this film.

I am still watching but apparently when they filmed the scene of her in the attic and being attacked by the birds, she was told it would take a day to film and turned out to be 76 or so days. Hitchcock seemed to be just pushing & pushing. Plus, Hitch didn't tell her there would be mostly real birds (along with mechanical) in that scene.

I forgot she also took a movie part in Hitchock's "Marnie". She must have been a glutton for punishment. LOL




TIS

I watched "Gone With The Wind" tonight for the first time, truly an epic film and i can see why this is one of the greatest films ever made, but geez it's on a long time 3hrs and 45 mins .. Vivien Leigh's performance is amazing and is up there with the best of all time..

It's one of my favorites, DeNiro! With the exception of Leslie Howard's British accent, the entire cast was just incredible. I especially loved Aunt Pittypat.

Did you realize that one of the Tarleton twins (they were on the front porch of Tara with Scarlett in the beginning of the film) is George Reeves, who later went on to play TV's Superman?

Just saw that Dredd film it sucked big time. Note to Hollywood directors, just because you have 3D doesn't mean we have to see stupid scenes to highlight this technology, I didn't need to see a minute of a woman in slo motion splashing water out of a bath.
Also 3D should not mean you disregard screenplay, acting and hell a half decent script! Terminator this ain't.

Pete Travis isn't a 'Hollywood' director, he's British, as is the film's scriptwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later..., Never Let Me Go). 2000AD, the comic in which the Judge Dredd character appears, is also British.

Capo, what did you think of DREDD?



Who the fuck said this was TERMINATOR? More like a John Carpenter-esque remake of DIE HARD, which is a compliment not a criticism.

A movie where a fascist cop shoots a flare into a perp's mouth can't be bad in my book.

That's a decent film; you can view it in seven parts here, on YouTube. It's under-known as far as I can tell; in the UK especially, "Nighthawks" refers more popularly to this film.

I liked it overall. Thoughts: jump down to the text that follows the Dredd image.

Good reviews mate.

Yeah I enjoyed DREDD too, which of the comic book movies this year might just be the most perfect and honest, least pretentious/bloated of the bunch. Not necessarily the best or the one I enjoyed the most, but DREDD rocks.

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Tarantino has an eye for cinematic mayhem so it's not surprising that he would make a film set during slavery. I was surprised that he made one that was so darkly humorous and ultimately touching. I don't think that Tarantino does "message" films. So this is not some profound deeply moving serious film with slow reveals, silent screams and classical music that ponderously swells at just the right moment to bring audience tears. There are no long speeches aimed at the mentally slow explaining why slavery is bad. I think Tarantino considers that far too obvious to mention.

There is a tremendous amount of violence in this film and some brief nudity. Obviously, racial slurs and profanity abound. This is not a film for children. Blood spurts and flows. There are a few broadly comedic killings. You really have to see the film to understand what I mean by this last statement. You kinda had to be there and I wouldn't care to spoil it for you.

This movie touches the same core American cinematic themes of protecting your family, standing up for yourself and getting some righteous payback that animated such movies as Shane, Death Wish, True Grit, The Brave One, Rambo, Taken, Braveheart, Death Sentence, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Sons of Katie Elder, and virtually any 80s Steven Seagal flick. The only difference in Django Unchained is that the good guy (well the main good guy anyway) is black while almost all the bad guys are white. This is really unusual for American cinema. This is a perfect antidote to Lost Cause nostalgia that suffuses so many movies about this time period.

If you are looking for a sober searing movie, this is not that film.
If you enjoy action and heroics this is a remarkably entertaining movie. Foxx really inhabits the titular role while Waltz shines in a strong supporting role. Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel Jackson star as villains. Good stuff. A little long but worthwhile.

I do enjoy Tarantino and was looking forward to this film, but was unsure if we should see it. Thanks for the review, Lilo. Although it was nominated for some Golden Globes, most of the reviews I read have been mixed.

Anyone else ever see the movie "Eagle Eye" with Shia Labeouf? It's been on TV quite a bit. It's getting to be one of the movies (Like GF, Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard and others) that I always have to tune in to watch at least part of it. Anyway, good movie IMHO. I really don't even remember when it was out at the theaters. Maybe it wasn't a huge hit but I liked it. I also liked him in a Rear Window variation (loosely) in "Disturbia."

Also, I started to watch also, on HBO last night, "Contraband" with Mark Wahlberg. I fell asleep halfway thru but not because I didn't like it. It was just late. I intend to watch the rest later today. Anyway, not too bad a movie so far.

TIS

I liked Eagle Eye and Contraband. I think Contraband is the better film.

Good movie day. Now watching the remake of "Taking of Pelham 123. Tony Soprano, Mayor of the city?



TIS

I much prefer the original with Matthau and Shaw. The remake (another forgettable entry in the latter days of the late Tony Scott) to me just feels like on the level of a big budget TV episode. It's not a bad film, but I can't say I was intrigued or engaged or excited beyond the level I would hold for a basic TV action/thriller episode.

And that's my smug observation for the day.

Hi RR,

You know I don't think I ever saw the original Pelham 123 believe or not. It probably IS better. As history shows usually the originals are the best.

Btw, I'm seeing previews of a new "Hansel & Gretal" movie. Sounds like a real scary twist no?



TIS

I also never saw the original Pelham 123, I thought the remake was good in its own right.

I can't say I'm a huge Travolta fan but he plays a real good asshole.



TIS

Oh, and speaking of bad guys, you know who else played a great bad guy/villian? Dennis Hopper. I thought he was great in Speed. Gosh, I remember him way way back as an "Easy Rider."



TIS