I asked this before and got a few answers. I wanted to bring it back up. What DVD's are out that I should pay attention too, but may not?
Bubba recommended Cuckoo. I watched it and really liked it. My wife didn't, but it was a foreign subtitle film. She doesn't get into that as much as I do.
Are there any really cool Sundance or Cannes films out there that may have slipped under the radar? I'm always looking for new things to watch......
These movies I've seen recently and I thought were all exceptional. They're ordered from best down.
The ButterFly Effect - Had no clue it'd be the best film I'd see in a long time.
Dog Soldiers - surprise surprise, the British can think...and ACT. Some great performances here. For once, characters that react appropriately.
Equillibrium - This is my idea of kick ass sci-fi. A mix of old and new concepts. Think Matrix without the unnecessary slowdown during 120% of the action scenes.
Open Water - would suck SO bad
Ginger Snaps - great merge of social issues and creature feature cheese w/a HOT chick - smarter than you would think
Man on Fire - best I've seen of Denzel - you end up caring about the characters
Last Samurai - actually like it more than some of the others but come on, it's Tom Cruise
Arlington Road - old movie, but I saw it again for the 50th time a few days ago. VASTLY superior filmwriting.
Reign of Fire - Low on the list for above reason. Easily my 2nd or 3rd favorite movie of all-time and has Christian Bale as my favorite actor. McConnehey(SP) was fantastic too. This movie did for both what Dusk till Dawn did for Clooney. Subtlety and character development have never been so beautifully combined. A small example is the "nod" the chopper gives Bale before setting out on the suicide run.
I guess that's about all I can think of right now.
Movies to definitely avoid. I'm dead serious here. Ordered from worst to least worst:
The Village - I SO want to ruin this movie because I'm that pissed. But I can't out of respect for you guys. It sucks perhaps more than any movie I've seen in my entire life. Even "Going Overboard".
Van Hellsing - this movie is an atrocity to the legends
The Day After Tomorrow - It blew yesterday, it blows today, it will blow tomorrow and it will definitely still blow "INSERT TITLE". The ENTIRE disaster was shown in the previews. Every last second of it. The rest was just babbling and dribbling and sitting through a bad movie.
Starship Troopers 2 - This movie is a JOKE! Embarrassing. They even brought back an actor that died in the first flick. I mean HELLO! If you loved the first movie like me and HAVE to see more of those viscious bugs, you might stomach it. But don't expect the same quality level of Veerhoven's classic and don't expect the same violence level.
28 Days Later - Started SO strong....ended SO badly. It's got Hemmish in it though 🙂
Gangs of New York - ZZZ Are you telling me that you spent two solid hours leading up and preluding to a fight between the two main characters to have it interrupted within 3 seconds of starting? Oh my god...W......T.......F?
Dawn of the Dead (new version) was awesome, atypical for a hollywood movie, there was no real scenes of mandatory romance plot included. Nuh uh, nothing but zombie killing and heads exploding. Ving Rhames did a good job in this one.
Donnie Darko
Ronald Reagan has been Shot or The day Ronald Reagan was shot or something like that I think this was an HBO movie or something, I watched it the other day and you have NO IDEA how much that story was wrapped in lies and chaos by the higherups in washington. At one point during the day we thought the Ruskies launched the bomb on us. Really well done, good story.
Yeah, but you gotta feel robbed of a climax. The whole movie was fine until that cannonball hit. I would have preferred it hit the writer in the head.
I endorse the newer Dawn of the Dead. I canNOT wait to see the uncut version. GREAT flick.
Donnie Darko pretty much paved the way for Butterfly Effect. They're similar. Both are excellent but believe it or not, Butterfly is vastly superior writing in my book and Punk'd boy can actually act.
Oh, one more. GOOD LUCK finding this one anywhere. Seriously, I have no clue how to get ahold of it. It was a Showtime original and called "Suckers". All about car salesmen. Don't watch this if you've recently bought a car. You will see your experience play out on screen and what they were saying and thinking behind your back and you WILL go back there with a LAW.
Suckers sounds awesome! I've known a few car salesmen and I've heard some of the shit they think. It's pretty scary.
I need to see Donnie Darko. It's one of those films I always wanted to watch, but always forget when I get into the video store. I read they are rereleasing it to theater with 20 additional minutes. The only problem is it is being released to LA and NY, then based on that, it will go into bigger limited release. I guess I have to wait for the Directors Cut on DVD.
I liked Butterfly Effect up until the very last scene. For reasons I don't want to go into, it really, really disturbed me. I kind of wish it wasn't so graphic in it's presentation.
I saw a hodge podge of various endings and can't remember which was the theatrical. I won't go any further than I think I know which one and I know of too many horrible reasons why this would disturb people. If I'm right, it was the ending that left me in the worst shape. The whole part with the dog nearly put me in a panic and left me haunted for way too long...even today. I guess it was the power and shock of the film that drove it to the top of my list. That and nearly 40% of it showed them as kids and that's something to be respected in the world of high dollar, inflated ego actors these days.
Breaky: Yeah, No S. I swear I was interested in the opening scene and then stomached the rest out of anticipation of the final conflict. In fact, that was the only light at the end of the tunnel and reason number one it turned out to be the biggest waste of my time since the Village.
The funny part about Suckers is that I saw it about a week after buying my car. I spent 7 years scrambling to get the exact one I wanted and thought I left the dealer with like the best deal possible. I was SO pissed after watching that movie. It felt as if they put a camera in the room with ME.
one indie film that i really enjoyed was "pi". good flick. all black and white.
i dont recommend seeing "24 hour party people". it was teh suck. however a similar movie that preceeded it "human traffic" was a good british film. mostly about the rave scene in london.
"formula 51" dont think breaky liked that one too much but it has its good parts. and its got samuel l. jackson AND meatloaf, so there's uber quality right there.
i liked daniel day lewis in gangs of new york but that was about it. too long and boring.
equilibrium is a quality movie, and the story behind it is also great. and for those of you who have seen it, gotta love those nail heads in the butt of the pistols. quality.
hitpawz i gotta disagree with you on van helsing. it was just a fun movie to watch.
and if you like ww2 movies then i HIGHLY recommend "memphis belle" great cast. great true story. great scenes. great movie.
Sorry Borton, but you are officially my worst enemy for liking Van Helsing. I kid.
But seriously, how can you like a movie that transforms a mindless, pieced together monster that was created in a lab with a dead brain into an intellectual, rope swining, opera singing, emotional, whiney, snivelling, educated, prudent, big sissy FAG? Frankenstein was so far from the legend, it would have made 10X more sense to replace him with Mr. Hanky, have him scream "HIDEY HOE" and call him Frankenlogh.
Ok, and the chick. Don't get me wrong, I am in love with Kate as much as the next guy and can watch any movie with her in it, including Serendipity (my only likable chick flick). But that accent? What dialect iz daaaaaaaaat? BLEH. VON TOOOOO THREEEEEEEE pieces of crap in the toilet. Was that Transylvanian or what? And the acrobatics she was doing? Since when did they mention she was spidercow? And why the hell was there SO MUCH rope swinging? YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH.
Ok, I take it back. I wasn't kidding. I hate you 🙂
Ok, Ok. I admit it. It had the best werewolves ever in the History of werewolves since Howling. Dracula was kinda cool when the moon hit him and stuff, but he was a sissy too.
And where the hell was the Mob Squad to kick Van Hellwolf in the nads?
No creature from the black lagoon?
Tiny little gargabatsies? Green blood?
Yes, I would have taken the death to drive my steak into that redheaded vampiress.
but you missed my whole point about the movie. who cares that it was all jacked up concerning the original stories and yada yada rope swinging blah blah kate WOO HOO nonsense. my whole point was that it was a fun movie to watch 🙂
Well, honestly I had more fun with my friends in the parking lot as we ripped it to shreds. I haven't been a part of a bashing that fierce since the TimeMachine remake.
am i the only one that would have woken up 800k years in the future and immediately scream "WHERE'S MY TIME MACHINE!?"
Atomm wrote: Bubba recommended Cuckoo. I watched it and really liked it. My wife didn't, but it was a foreign subtitle film. She doesn't get into that as much as I do..
Ok not to quivel, but, ummm I've never heard of that movie. Think you got the wrong dude, that or there is another Bubba out there in this world!!
I haven't watched anythign in a while so I got no recommendations. Although the opening for BFV is pretty good. ;-)
Frankenstein was so far from the legend, it would have made 10X more sense to replace him with Mr. Hanky, have him scream \"HIDEY HOE\" and call him Frankenlogh.
You can't see it from there, but there are tears running down my face from laughing so hard...
Man I was really dissappointed in Time Machine. If they had made it halfway like the book it would have been so much cooler. Kinda like how I refuse to watch "I Robot" because it wasn't even taken from the book at all, talk about shitting on really great Sci-Fi...
Time Machine was definitely teh suck, but it had its moments. The moon breakup was just freaky and the effects of time travel were REALLY well done. All the erosion and having that much time pass and all that.
But wouldn't it be known throughout all of man's history the fabled legend of the creepy ass guy in the machine looking thing that hasn't aged in a millinium and nothing can exist within his bubble? I mean GOD! He ended up at one point in the alley when the moon was coming apart and it's like, he never moved right? He was always in that one location and here he is in an alley. So from the distant past, to the alley, he's been zipping through time like a madman. In one spot, for thousands of years straight. Nobody gathered in a croud around this guy and said "what's with these street performers and their stupid statue idea?"
Again! Don't you think he would have woken up in 800k years and immediately screamed "WHERE'S MY F'ING TIME MACHINE!?" I'll never get over that.
I like the friggin what's their faces. The Gorgonytes? The Mobdulas? The friggin monkey monsters? REALLY well done.
I'm surprised so many have seen Equillibrium. I SO loved the whole gun katta thing and how it was developed using computer algorythms and shit. That was genius I swear. Here's a stupid useless fact. The president (or leader) guy that addressed the public that only ever showed his face on the big screens is, in fact, one of the lead actors from Dog Soldiers and he's absolutely brilliant in it. Apparently he's a rather distinguished British actor.
I'm going to insist on Dog Soldiers for all to see. It's classic storytelling with some decent twists and they did an AWESOME job with the very obviously limited budget. Good conversations and realistic attitudes and reactions. That and they're all British.
Last good movie idea for now: Small Soldiers - I WANT THOSE TOYS!!!! Dunno why but I love that movie.
The guy from Dog Soldiers, I think he was Robert DeBruce in BraveHeart also... big UK actor...
Oh yeah, no one could see the time machine when he was travelling because he was in another dimension or something. Stuff just passed through him.... Or if he was there, he only existed for microseconds so no one could even see him and if they passed through him it was instantaneous so no one probably felt it.
Robert the Bruce wasn't in Dog Soldiers. It was a British theater actor who's only showed up in a few obscure movies like Dog Soldiers and Equillibrium. The Bruce was the bad guy in M.I.2 and he's done a few other mainstream flicks. Lot's of Braveheart extras went on to a movie career. It's SO deserved. Hemmish went on to do all kinds of crap and showed up in Gangs of New York, the Village and 28 Days Later. At least I THINK that's Hemmish, if not, he's the same guy throughout what I've listed. I just can't place it. The guy who came to "claim the right of a husband" in the Village and the movie with Will Smith and Hackman and that old spy type movie with Val Kilmer...damn, I'm drawing blanks on all the old school movies.
I dunno how I forgot this flick, but it's freaking wonderful.
"The Boondock Saints"
Useless fact, the bartender who suffers from Turretts is the Grandpa from Fraggle Rock.
"Hollow Man" was good in my book too. Nice and violent. Good example of PRE-Bush Hollywood. Except that they cheaped out and had the ending in a corrdor, underground set in Studio 10, as if that's not been done before. Best FX I think I've still seen. Damn that gorrilla was awesome.
Yeah hitpawz you are right about the Hammish guy and those movies. also he will be in the next harry potter movie (for those of you who read or watch them). the guy who played robert the bruce was in equilibrium, he played dupont. and he was not in mi:2. the Hammish guy was in mi:2.
the hackamn smith movie was enemy of the state. good flick, also had seth green, james cann's son, jack black, the blonde hair dude from starship troopers, and john voight in it.
and the other movie with the scarface guy was the saint.