What's the latest movie you watched and how was it?

[Earth-2 Superman]

watched Boogie nights for the first time. Damn good. reynolds was great in it, as was Walberg and Moore.

[Rorschach]

Haywire

The Soderberg directed flick starring MMA star Gina Carrano. I liked this one. Carrano's acting is kinda wooden at times, but she can sure kick some ass. Really good use of sound and music in this film, or should I say, the lack of sound and music. The lack of music during the fight scenes helped to amplify the intensity of them. You could hear every punch, bone break, groan, and cry for help. A nice change of pace from the overbearing scores of some fight flicks.

Supporting cast was nice as well. Fassbender is always a treat, Channing Tatum actually fit his role, Douglas was smarmy bossy Douglas, and I really enjoyed McGregor as the head of the contracting firm. A nice take on the action film different from the ADD inspired over the topness we usually get. Grounded but action packed, realistic but unforgivably hard hitting fights. Good stuff.

[Rorschach]

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Hollywood Version)

I've already seen the Swedish version and read the book, so the plot was no surprise to me (save for the slightly altered, unnecessarily altered may I add, ending). I was hoping that Fincher would make the version more his own, but it really felt like I was essentially watching the exact same film I watched a year prior, only in English this time (did Daniel Craig even attempt a Swedish accent?).

There were some instances of Fincher's trademark cinematography and colour schemes, despite the zero effort in accent Daniel Craig was good in the male lead and Rooney Mara managed to fill Naomi Replace's shoes to a fair extent. It was nice to finally hear Trent's score in context, having already listened to it several times. Very haunting and ambient, very different than the Social Network score which was compiled more as individual songs, while this score was more pieces of creepy and distorted ambiance.

It was a good and fair adaptation, just kinda hoped Fincher was going to do more to make it his own. I probably would have given this a very glowing review have I not scene the original.

[Rorschach]

Shame

A cold and morose portrait of a sex addict (played by Micheal Fassbender). He is a man with a high paying job and a distant personal life, and has everything in a perfect equilibrium that allows him to buy hookers and indulge in copious amount of porn without disruption, until his sister decides to stay with him for a while. It almost sounds like the set-up for a comedy but there is nothing funny about this film. It is quiet, extremely awkward, and very painful to watch at times.

Fassbender (who should have gotten a Best Actor nom) is able to portray the frustrated protagonist with stern perfection. He is a man with seemingly the best addiction in the world, until you see how it completely consumes his life, leaving him unable to interact comfortably with others, and how joylessly he feeds his addiction.

The conversations are distant, cold, and awkward. Your almost waiting for something horribly to happen the entire film. Its a fantastic character study, but a hard watch, so even tho I enjoyed the experience of the film, I dunno if its one I really want to watch again. Its a hard watch, but one that will captivate you and leave you thinking.

[Dr Doom]

Steve McQueen the GOAT at making brilliant movies that are ridiculously hard to watch. I can't wait for his Twelve Years A Slave movie, which together with PTA's The Master and Refn's Only God Forgives are the three movies I'm anticipating like crazy.

[Jack Roller]

Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance

It was better with beers. I remembered having a good time watching it the first time though. I really would have marked out if Blaze was able to make Moreau shoot hellfire out of his guns though.

[Rorschach]

Yeah, I'm going to have to check out Hunger now. McQueen has been added to my "directors to check for list".

In continuing with my 2011 film catch up week, watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Surprisingly fun and action packed with many creative and fresh action scenes. Enough has been said of the scene involving the Dubai tower but finally seeing it in full was spectacular. I really enjoyed seeing Nyquist in an English role. Film was essentially everything it should have been, action packed, over the top, a few funny moments, and Tom Cruise running for 90% of it. Crazy Tom still got it at 50. Probably the moist entertaining of the series.

[Rorschach]

Take Shelter

Indie thriller from last year, starring Van Alden (Micheal Shannon) and Eli Thompson (Shea Wingham) from Boardwalk Empire. A family man starts having dreams about an impending storm that is coming that will kill everyone. So he starts building a tornado shelter at the cost of everything in his personal life. A great performance from Shannon. He does a great job of giving those subtle facial movements, pauses, and tonal shifts that build the belief that there is probably not something right with this guy.

The film is not without a controversial ending, one that is ambiguous and leaves some interpretation to the viewer. It can be taken literal (which I don't really like to because I feel it devalues a lot of Shannon's behaviour and character build-up. Either way, it is still a great film with great performances. A nice psychological suspense thriller.

[Dr Doom]

The end is mostly a metaphor, and Shannon is among the GORT, Greatest Of Recent Times.

[Rorschach]

The Rum Diary

Had some funny parts and was kinda watchable for a film that didn't really have a plot (the book didn't really have a plot either). But if your gonna have a movie that barely has a plot, more outrageous and memorable moments have to occur, in this sense they probably should have deviated from the book some more. Its a little fun watching Depp get drunk and gab on with non-sense, but the film needed a little more. And the film also pussed out with the most controversial scene from the book. Film was meh.