[Spammy]

Originally Posted by sidsutton

Seen loads of shit movies lately, starting with the ***** Farrell trifecta - The New World(managed about half the movie), Alexander(maybe 30 minutes) and Miami Vice(incredibly all of it). Alexander was easily the worst and that`s saying something. Angelina Jolie as his mum with some weird Russian accent and all the arse banditry made it unwatchable.

Watched Doom this afternoon. Complete gash.

I liked Miami Vice

[Spoonov]

Is Idiocracy any good?

[Kevrockcity]

Originally Posted by Spoony

Is Idiocracy any good?

http://pretentiousmusings.com/idiocracy.html

[Spoonov]

I take it you didn't like it then?

[Kevrockcity]

Originally Posted by sidsutton

Seen loads of shit movies lately, starting with the ***** Farrell trifecta - The New World(managed about half the movie), Alexander(maybe 30 minutes) and Miami Vice(incredibly all of it). Alexander was easily the worst and that`s saying something. Angelina Jolie as his mum with some weird Russian accent and all the arse banditry made it unwatchable.

Watched Doom this afternoon. Complete gash.

the new world is an interesting failure. the cut i saw was entirely too long (i hear the later reedited it down a good 20 minutes though) and narratively repetitive, but also included some amazing filmmaking - the opening where the europeans appear in the bay comes to mind as one of the more powerful sequences in recent memory.

[Kevrockcity]

Originally Posted by Spoony

I take it you didn't like it then?

i don't really want to take out the stick because it means well. but no, it isn't great.

did you ever rent seconds?

[Spoonov]

Originally Posted by Kevrockcity

i don't really want to take out the stick because it means well. but no, it isn't great.

did you ever rent seconds?

Can't get hold of it. I've tried Play and a few other places. Pissed me right off.

[sidsutton]

Originally Posted by Kevrockcity

the new world is an interesting failure. the cut i saw was entirely too long (i hear the later reedited it down a good 20 minutes though) and narratively repetitive, but also included some amazing filmmaking - the opening where the europeans appear in the bay comes to mind as one of the more powerful sequences in recent memory.

the narration got right on my tits

It looked great in the trailers but it didn`t work at all. I guess I saw the long version too.

[Kevrockcity]

amazon uk tells me seconds is only available region 1.

damn philistine brits.

[Spoonov]

That's ok, I can run region 1.

I'll check it out. That said, I bet it's .com.

[Kevrockcity]

.com?

[Spoonov]

amazon.com.

It's not .co.uk, that's for sure.

[Kevrockcity]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seconds-REGI...?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

[Spoonov]

Cheers, Kev.

[Kevrockcity]

JESUS CAMP

“I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam” says Pentecostal youth pastor Becky Fischer. “I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospels as they are over in Pakistan, in Israel, in Palestine.” If you believe our children should be indoctrinated to a theological fatalism mirroring suicide bombers and death cults, then I imagine Pastor Becky talks a whole lot of sense. For the rest of us, she makes the documentary Jesus Camp one of the most frightening films of 2006.

Pastor Becky runs the “Kids on Fire” summer camp in North Dakota, where children ride go-carts, pray to George W. Bush, and shake it to Christian rock diddies like “Who’s in the House” (answer: J.C.). They have to be careful with those moves, though, as camper Tory reminds us: “When I dance, I really have to make sure that that’s God, because people will notice when I’m just dancing for the flesh. I really need to get over that.” Tory is ten-years-old. Rachel, a year younger, daydreams about how great martyrdom would be: “I feel like we’re kinda being trained to be warriors, only in a much funner (sic) way.” When the assembled children are asked if they’d “like to be those that give up their lives for Jesus,” most raise their hands; the others have an adult nearby who helpfully raise the hand for them. “They are so usable,” says Pastor Becky. She really does mean it in a good way.

The more disconcerting aspects of Pastor Becky’s ministry involve the blatant politicization of religion – Jesus has picked a side, in case you didn’t know, and it isn’t the Democrats. “We’re going to break the power of our enemies in government” declares one of the camp leaders (who appears to be Australian; this isn’t a solely American issue). These enemies of righteousness are those that removed prayer and creationism from schools, abort fetuses, and read Harry Potter books (also known as “the warlock”). Pastor Becky’s spoken love for “America,” “the American lifestyle,” and “the 21st Century,” is repeatedly undermined by her hostility towards pluralism, secularism, and the material world; in her rush to institutionalize Judeo-Christian values, it never occurred to her that religion flourished in the states, not despite of its constitutional separation from the state, but because of it. Belief in a creator may be best left a matter of conscience, but choice (in any incarnation) has little place in the morbid dogma of Pastor Betty. Death hangs over everything in the “Kids on Fire” camp, a place whose very name echoes everything that’s wrong with it. The children are taught to simultaneously seek and fear death; it’s punishment for the wages of sin (and something done to tiny babies by liberals), but it’s also the only gateway to salvation. “I look at this sick old world,” says Becky, “and I go ‘God, let’s get out of here.’” They can’t wait for the world to end and it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy - one home-schooled boy’s lesson on global warming (or, as they call it, “global warming”) is particularly humorous/alarming. There’s no reasoning with someone to whom God personally speaks, whispering in their ear that the world began 6,000 years ago and men road on the backs of dinosaurs.

Co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady for the most part allow their subjects to tighten their own nooses. The figures populating Jesus Camp, young and old, are often surprisingly articulate; it makes what they have to say even more soul-crushing. However, Ewing/Grady can’t resist peppering the film with their own commentary in the form of well-lit Air America host Mike Papantonio; his partisanship is tempered by a southern accent and his own vocal godfearedness, but the film really doesn’t need him. Regardless of how right he may be, his brief segments have the vague smell of white portentous liberalism. During a debate between Papantonio and Pastor Becky, the latter actually makes a point or two that aren’t completely without merit (What’s the line between teaching children and indoctrinating them? Is it the subject of the lesson or the manner in which you give it?); neither Papantonio or the directors seem interested in addressing them and would rather score some obvious, redundant points.

Likewise, Jesus Camp is structured around the Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings; it’s an unnecessary conceit, even sabotaging Ewing/Grady’s transparent attempt to appear evenhanded. Alito is a Roman Catholic with no relationship to this radical Pentecostal sect other than a shared antipathy towards Roe v. Wade (a complex legal issue that has many facets independent of religion); yet with a disingenuous bit of editorial shell game, Alito is conflated with the Jesus Camp crew. Who’s being overtly political now? Pastor Becky defends her methods with a proclamation that “we have ‘the Truth.’” One imagines Ewing/Grady might say the same thing.

Interesting footnote: In response to the film, Pastor Becky announced that she would have to shut down the “Kids on Fire” camp for an indefinite period. The owners of the property on which the camp was located apparently feared vandalism, retribution for events depicted in the picture. Pastor Beck is currently seeking out a new location.

http://www.pretentiousmusings.com/jesus_camp.html

[Kevrockcity]

here's a particularly entertaining segment of jesus camp:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g-ys3YD1mpY

[olesmyhero]

The Black Dahlia

PLOT
Pair of detectives try to find out who murdered an actress in 1940s Hollywood.

REVIEW
While faithful to the noir style, this movie is a piece of shit. It doesn't really go anywhere and you're left feeling like you wasted 2 hours of your life.

RATING
4/10

[Spoonov]

I'm downloading Stranger than Fiction.

Anyone seen this?

[Dr. Dwayne]

Originally Posted by Spoony

I'm downloading Stranger than Fiction.

Anyone seen this?

no. let us know what you think. it seemed interesting from the trailers.

[Spoonov]

No worries. I'll review it tomorrow.

[prateik]

^ dont download the one cd rip .. its out of sync ..

[Spoonov]

I'm downloading the 2 CD rip.

[prateik]

just finished watching PUCKED




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407038/

Genre: Comedy / Sport (more)

Plot Summary: Frank Hopper (Bon Jovi) is a former lawyer, long-term loser and constant dreamer - and frankly, probably just not all that bright...

nothing new ..
1/10


avoid ..

[bazalini]

Charlotte's Web

PLOT
Something about a pig, death and a spider who writes words in its web. Totaly stupid


REVIEW
Brought my 4 year son to it, thinking he would like the talking animals - load of crap. Not have boys - for girls around 8 years old or adults who get turned on by animals

RATING
2/10

[Veron]

I just saw babel.

Was the whole movie without subtitles for the morocon,mexican and janepense scenes or did i see a really bad print of the film.??

[Melbourne Red]

Originally Posted by Varun

I just saw babel.

Was the whole movie without subtitles for the morocon,mexican and janepense scenes or did i see a really bad print of the film.??

The latter.

[Melbourne Red]

Meanwhile I just saw Borat. Some parts were obviously scripted, and the parts that weren't made me cringe but it was watchable enough.

I assume this particular pirated copy was distributed through Pakistan, because they edited out the bit where he stumbles into the Gay Pride March. My copy of 'City of God' received the same treatment. After they'd finished cutting out every instance of violence, sex, drug use and bad language, all that was left was 25 minutes of incomprehensible plot. Lucky I've seen it before.

[Kevrockcity]

MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette has always gotten a rather bum rap. Formerly an archduchess of Austria, she was sold off to France in an arranged marriage with Louis XVI at the tender age of fourteen (Louis le Dernier was fifteen). Romance did not immediately bloom for the young couple; a cause of much royal consternation, Marie did not bare children for another seven years after their wedding. In 1774, Louis XV died of smallpox, making Marie the teenage queen of France. “Dear God, guide and protect us,” her husband is said to have spoken at his coronation. “We are too young to reign.” He was right. Louis XVI was not prepared to take the reigns during these tumultuous times and neither was Marie. Her foreign birth, profligate spending, and perceived callousness towards the working man (“Let them eat cake,” or so the story goes) made her a target both in Versailles and the Parisian ghetto. Marie was ultimately fashioned into an effigy of the crown’s fiscal mismanagement and betrayal of liberte, egalite, fraternite; she was guillotined before a cheering crowd, her severed head put on display just short of her thirty-eighth birthday.

No one ever chopped off writer/director Sofia Coppola’s head; her public execution was of the figurative kind. A member of one of Hollywood’s own royal families, Coppola was the recipient of a rather unwise bit of nepotism from her famous father – thrown into the deep with a lead role in The Godfather: Part III and asked to swim. Critics had a field day; Coppola the elder defended the casting and claimed they were “using (my) daughter to attack me.” While Godfather III was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, Sofia won the Golden Raspberry for “Worst New Star.” We are too young, indeed. Sofia has since gone on to be a director of some acclaim, of course, so don’t feel too sorry for her.

For a period piece with such lavish costumes, locations, and set decoration, Coppola’s Marie Antoinette really is a small film, often infuriatingly so (but we’ll get to that). We meet the titular character (Kirsten Dunst) as she’s sold off into to the royal brand of white slavery. She’s not particularly excited about the prospect of marrying someone she doesn’t know, and understandably so. Looking at a painted picture of her future husband, Marie tries to look on the bright side: “He has kind eyes.” It is a tiny portrait, though, as the future king is portrayed by bad blind date Jason Schwartzman (Sofia’s cousin, in another ironic example of unfortunate Coppola casting nepotism). Marie’s new life is filled with pomp and ceremony, dessert for breakfast, whispers about her (and Louis’) sexual performance, and not least a general ignorance to the changing world outside the doors of Versailles, where the barbarians will soon be banging on the gilded gates.

Coppola has purposefully kept the narrative as focused as possible; this is Marie’s story and it’s an overtly insular one. She is shielded from the realities of Paris by both Louis and her court – a bread shortage has no relevance to her own life, so how can she possibly relate? Monarchs have always acted frivolous, even encouraged to, and Marie is more than happy to comply with what’s expected. Holes always need filling, particularly emotional ones; as Louis has no interest in (ahem) doing the filling, Marie packs hers with stuff – expensive shoes, cakes, champagne, and eventually, a Swedish army officer. It’s not a bad existence, like a gorged pig living in blissful ignorance until led to fateful slaughter.

She evokes our sympathy, but a little political context would have helped. Revolution ferments in Paris while we watch Marie take baths; it’s a defensible creative choice, but you still wish Coppola turned the camera around once in a while. Even monumental events like the “Affair of the Necklace,” which Antoinette was personally involved (and partially led to her downfall), doesn’t even get passing mention. The Bastille falls and we hear about it as she does: from someone else.

Much has been of the director’s music choices, largely eschewing period-appropriate symphonies and such in favor of 80s New Wave and Post-Punk. It’s not a terrible idea – the songs do carry with them a certain youthful indiscretion - but the execution often comes up short. Coppola has contracted Cameron Crowe Disease (Exhibit A: Elizabethtown, also starring Kirsten Dunst), appearing more interested in making a soundtrack than a motion picture. Songs overpower the scenes they are in; one imagines Coppola hopes the music will do the heavy lifting for her. It doesn’t, as Marie Antoinette functions less as a film than a two-hour music video for Sofia Coppola’s mix tape of favorite songs.

They are great songs, though.

Interesting footnote: The story of the teenage queen was previously brought to the big screen with 1938’s Marie Antoinette. Norma Shearer played the title character and was nominated for an Oscar; she was famously beat by Bette Davis (Jezebel). The Shearer film eventually became a favorite of Eva Peron, whose blonde locks were inspired by those of the actress.

http://pretentiousmusings.com/marie_antoinette.html