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Hey there all. Watched the girl with the dragon tattoo. Was riveted to the screen for the entire movie. Think it runs for the best part of 2.5 hours but it flies by. Rarely do I find a movie that holds my interest and keeps me guessing for the entire picture. Would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a highly intelligent thriller. There will be a US remake of this film (without subtitles I guess) but I really don't think you can improve on the original. Just to balance up the cerebellum a little, also watched Zombieland with woody harrelson. What a great black comedy. Go in with no real expectations and you will be pleasantly surprised. It's not brain surgery but it's funny in a very black way. Would happily watch both movies again. Enjoy!

Part 2, The Girl who Played With Fire, comes out on DVD soon (Oct 26 2010).

isn't the girl with the dragon tattoo not in english? does that mess with the movie at all? or do you speak other languages?

Hi there, yes it is a subtitled movie. I think the language is Danish or one of those Nordic dialects. The movie is so engrossing that subtitles are not an issue. Can't wait for the next installment in a couple of weeks. The movie follows the book very closely. Cheers. Greg.

Its in Swedish. I understood it perfectly... (transplanted swede in US)

No it does not take away from the movie at all. In this film it was not distracting at all. There are others that say the English dubbed version was not as good as the subtitled one. I hear there might be a remake. I can't imagine that a remake could be as good as or better than the original.

Oh, and for the record I'm not Swedish!

Regards,


RTROSE

"Next" (Nicholas Cage and Jessica Biel)

Had low expectations when this one drifted to the top of my Netflix Que.
However, a solid 3.5 of 4.0, didN't require a lot of deep thought, but I didn't fall asleep either

and the 2nd half had ample quantities of LFE

Watched Iron Man 2 on the plasma - Big letdown from the first one. 2/5. I was kind of bored. Didn't ever think that there was any real danger in it to build suspense.

Get Him To The Greek (BD): 3.5/5 -

Watched this one with my wife and two other couples. If you enjoyed "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", you'll enjoy this one. Not only is it the same type of humor, it's actually an extension of the same universe; The main character, Aldus Snow, was introduced in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", and there are a few other winks and nods to the other film as well. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments, but the movie did seem a bit uneven at times.

28 Days Later (BD): 3.5/5 -

I finally got around to watching this movie. I had heard good things when the movie was released, but I luckily knew very little about the plot (Then again, what's to know? It's a zombie flick, right?).

Overall, I found the movie enjoyable with some genuine scares. My only complaint has less to do with the movie and more to do with the fact that I watched it with people who had already seen it*. And even though I knew the movie was a low-budget indie film, at times it was a little too obvious (choppy camera movements and cuts were used instead of showing any actual gore).

Also, it's worth noting that the Blu-Ray edition that I watched seemed downright horrible. Unfortunately, I can't tell if it's the quality of the actual film itself, or if it's a horrible transfer, but the movie looked more like a DVD than a BluRay.


*[rant]
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate watching a movie with people who've already seen it, especially if they won't shut up. For an hour and a half, all I heard was "Here comes a scary part!", "Oh, this part is good!", "Did you catch we he just said? That's important" and a million other comments that drove me insane. AAArgh!
[/rant]

Night of the Living Trekkies Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyO2k-jApng
(also known as 2 minutes and 57 seconds of your life that you won't get back)

Regarding "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" Not only does the 2nd installment "The Girl Who Played With Fire" come out very soon...... The third "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" comes out in January-2011.....

If Amazon does their typical 30% off, I'm jumping on this trilogy, but I've only seen the first so far, and have not read the books, but that won't stop me from blind-buying the other two..... I loved the first.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=bluray-012-20

Pierre le Fou by Jean-Luc Godard

Everybody throughly enjoyed it!

Watched Robocop 1 BluRay
Watched Robocop 2 BluRay
Watched Robocop 3 BluRay
2.7/5

The video quality on the first one is terrible. It's the 103 minute version with a few seconds here and there that I didn't remember. The 2.0 stereo sound mix on the original RoboCop in theaters won an award, but the 5.1 sound remix for this wasn't right.

The video quality on the second is pretty good although it's a little saturated, the third so so.

Double feature at my place.

Frozen (2010)

They say 3 good scenes makes a good movie. Frozen has 2.5 good scenes but I'm in a charitable mood so I'll bump it up to a good movie status for free. But let's not get carried away - it's not a great movie.

The plot is a simple one. Three skiers get stuck on a chairlift and are faced with a week long wait for the resort to open again. Death is certain if they wait. The alternatives to freezing up in the chair could be worse. Desperation grips them as they make their choices and fight to stay alive.

There's nothing too fancy going on here. Just a solid set of performances by the small cast and a couple of pretty gruesome scenes to get your heart racing. There's no bad guy here, no cringe-worthy clichés and nothing far fetched. It's easy to place yourself in that chairlift, feel the cold bite of the wind, and wonder if your choices would be any different.

2.5/5


A Perfect Getaway (2009)

As an audience we are smart. We read movies so well that script writers have to try really hard to surprise us. Sometimes, despite their best intentions, their attempts are so far fetched it's an insult.

A Perfect Getaway starts with the best intentions set in gorgeous Hawaii. We meet a young couple on their honeymoon who decide to trek to the perfect beach. This is after they've found out a killer who targeted honeymooners on the neighbouring island is now on their island. In order to avoid a suspiciously dangerous couple they team up with, you guessed it, another young couple that throw off more signals than a deaf signer. We are obviously being set up for a twist and it seems almost too transparent.

As you lose interest and start to count the minutes the pacing starts to annoy you. It's a short movie at 98 minutes but it feels so much longer. The twist can't come quickly enough. When it does, it's like a slap in the face with a dirty wet sock. No, actually I would rather sit through a barrage of sock slaps than have to watch this movie again. It's an outright insult to the audience, completely ignoring the events leading up to the twist. To make up for it they show us a really really really really (that's one, two, three, four) really, really, really, really, really (and ten) really long set of flashback scenes. Shot in what looks like an annoying IR filter, the flashbacks are meant to explain the twist but only serve in adding to the pain.

By the time we get to the final action scenes you don't really care anymore. It's a shame because this is the best part of the movie. If I was forced to recommend this film to a friend, I would advise them to watch the first 45 minutes and the last 15. The middle act needs to be scratched off all discs. In fact, when this comes to my local video store I will hire all of their copies to do just that.

1/5

Watched The Island (2005, BluRay)
2.9/5
When I first saw this in theatres years ago, I really liked the first half.
The video quality of this BluRay is very good, with beautiful colours of the ocean and lands with many parts drifting into the 'visually stunning' ranking.
I imagine that part of my lower score this time around is just that I knew what was coming.

Watched "Beer" (1980-ish, not sure.... has David Alan Grier in it) Spoof/Satire about beer marketing..... had some laughs.... some of which they were going for, others were unintentional.

3.5/5

Couple of movies this weekend.

How to Train Your Dragon - BR What a great movie. I even enjoyed it more here at home than I did in the theater. This is a stunning BR transfer, even my wife commented on how nice the picture was. Very good sound mixing as well. Lots of LFE but not too overdone. This is definitely a reference movie for audio and video, oh and the story is good too! 4.5/5

The Karate Kid (2010) BR - Well I know that comparisons to the original are inevitable, but still as a remake it is different. It is basically the same story as the original, kid moves to a new city, bullies beat him up and a unassuming maintenance man who just happens to be a Kung Fu master in disguise takes pity on the boy and trains him up to win a Kung Fu championship. The cinematography of the Chinese country side is absolutely beautiful. I really like Jackie Chan, but in this his character seems stiff, and Jaden Smith is at times acting too hard to act like he is not acting. He seems as he is not really a good fit for the part. I liked the film, but it falls short of equaling or surpassing the original. Worth a watch but just don't expect too much. 3/5

Regards,

RTROSE

Watched District 13: Ultimatum (2009)
2.9/5
I can't believe no one in this thread told me that this was available.
It's part 2, three years later, of District B13 (2006).
It maintains the Parkour/Free Running tradition.
It has a bit of a dystopian political plot, that while not complex, exists more than I was expecting.
Of course I was willing to overlook the incredulous incredible physical accomplishments of the leading two players.
A good bit o action entertainment.

Watched Jonah Hex
2/5
Strange abilities, and some bizarely unlikely equipment.
There is a short story, more a few scenes than a plot.
The director's choice of cartoon animation was odd, but only slightly worse than some of his other odd choices. I understand those that read the comic books were less than thrilled.
I don't think John Malkovich or the dragon balls, really pulled off the bad guy threat.
It was over and the credits rolling before I realized she was Megan Fox -- her wasp waist corset was done very tight giving her a two hand waist.
From a video point of view it's very dark -- so if you don't have good black levels well there's stuff you won't see.

Watched Predators (2010)
2.2/5
B-movie and nothing more.
Predictable.
(Some people thought it was great)

Predator / Predator 2 / Alien vs Predator / Aliens vs Predator Reqium / Predators

I also watched How to Train Your Dragon this weekend. Excellent in all aspects. I rented the BR to watch with my wife and our 3 year old son. My son thought it was great and my wife and I both thought it was excellent, it is a buy not a rent.4.75/5

Watched, Leaves of Grass also this weekend. Not great but interesting ideas, 3/5

RT,

Thanks! I will be buying this one >> should be good for our grade-school niece(s) and nephew(s) that visit during the Thanksgiving Holiday...

Rented Robin Hood this past weekend. Very enjoyable! For us a 4.0/5.0.

North By Northwest (1959)

Years ago one of the local TV stations used to play an old classic film each Saturday at midday. I knew very little about films back then but I would look forward to each Saturday. Each week I would meet the likes of Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, James Stewart or Katherine Hepburn and a host of others. I would sit spellbound on the floor of my little room watching Hitchcock's or Wilder's films on a tiny television. All without knowing who any of these people were and what they meant to cinematic history.

Many years on, I'm still watching the classics only now I get to re-watch many of them with an appreciation I never had back then. Even though there are no more Saturday midday movies, there isn't a Saturday morning that goes by that I don't watch one. My favourite thing in the world is to wake up on Saturday to heavy rain outside, and a film inside. I didn't get the rain on this particular Saturday, but I did get to re-watch a favourite of mine.

North by Northwest is the story of an advertising executive who is trying to survive a case of mistaken identity. A group of spies want him dead, the police want him caught, his mother doesn't believe a word he says, government agents are using him and naturally, a beautiful blond has stolen his heart. This film has it all. Suspense at every corner with witty dialogue to match. Funny at times and tense at others. Action sequences that thrill and sparks of romance to boot. There's little wonder why this film is a favourite with many cinephiles.

4/5

Psycho (1960)

It has been in my possession for a while now. I've picked it up now and then. The mood wasn't right yesterday. I didn't have enough time the week before. It was daytime last month and the sunshine coming into the room ruins the contrast on my screen. Well, I ran out of excuses tonight. I placed the disc in the tray, hit the lights, picked up the remote and pressed the little triangle. It was time to watch Psycho.

Before I knew it, the 109 minutes were up and I let out a breath. What an enjoyable ride. From sound to cinematography, acting, plot and pacing, this film hits all the home runs. I could go on but I'm certain I'll be wasting your precious time. After all, you ought to be looking for a copy of Psycho. Stop making the same excuses I was and enjoy the ride.

4.5/5

In 2012 they're remaking U.F.O. (SHADO) !

Hi there beta, I was lucky enough to spend seven months in the Solomon Islands and visited the war landmarks and saw where the fighting took place during the battle of Guadalcanal. It is so eery to walk amongst the hills surrounding Henderson Airfield and see loaded magazines still sitting there jn the trenches 60 years later. The heat, humidity and Mosquitos over there are oppressive. Before visiting this location the Thin Red Line was one of my all time favorites. Now it is hauntingly so. For anyone who has not seen this film, it's worth owning! 5/5

Watched Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)
2.7/5
A little slow, a little predictable. But pleasant.
(A nice alternate to "Kingdom Of Heaven")
The battle scenes are short, but not too bad.
I got the feeling the characters could be developed more, and it turns out that this 2 hour movie is extracted from a 6 hour mini series, which was made into two 2 hour movies, which in turn were boiled down to this release.
historical epic, crusades-era
Arn is a Swede who falls in love with a woman who is betrothed to another family. He knocks her up so she has to do 20 years in a convent while he has to do twenty years in the Crusades as a Knight Templar. As he himself was raised by the church he's a very serious dude. He was also schooled well in combat by a monk who did time in the Crusades so he can fight with the best of them. He heads off to the Holy Land where he becomes key in winning some battles. His time is up so he heads home to be with his woman but ends up facing a whole new challenge. It seems Sweden isn't all that united and there is a new grab for power he needs to thwart.
Mostly in swedish with easy to read english subtitles, with a little english/latin/arabic thrown in.

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

I have not seen a trailer, read a review nor heard anyone discuss this animated film. I went in blind intentionally and was very pleasantly surprised. Good wholesome fun for the family that doesn't leave the older audience wanting.

The cast of voice actors is pretty current and hip but the accents were a little too much for me. They are great but the mix of American and Scottish accents playing Vikings is a tough pill to swallow. I'm sure the kiddies won't mind one bit.

The film was well paced with a very tight template storyline that aims to please the masses. I wouldn't mark this against it - we all know going in that we won't see anything particularly challenging and new. Full marks though for executing a heart-warming story about an unlikely hero who learns all about friendship and trust by believing in himself.

4/5

Miss a day (or two), miss a lot ...