What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

[formality hater]

IT...3/10
I wonder why most of the movie adaptations of Stephen King books fail to impress!My sister(having not read the book) could not get the ending as it wasn't explained well.I think the movie-makers shouldn't have messed with the actual story!

[NickAdams]

IT...3/10
I wonder why most of the movie adaptations of Stephen King books fail to impress!My sister(having not read the book) could not get the ending as it wasn't explained well.I think the movie-makers shouldn't have messed with the actual story!

Especially since it was a miniseries, so it wasn't like they had to boil it done to 90 minutes. I do prefer Kubrick's Shinning to King's miniseries.

[DanielBenoit]

I do prefer Kubrick's Shinning to King's miniseries.

Oh yes! My theory about literary adaptions is that it is best if they are taken in a different direction than the book and stand on their own as films. Just look at Kurosawa's adaptions of Shakespeare's plays, or Kubrick's entire career, especially film adaptions like Lolita or Barry Lyndon, the latter being a radical departure from the book.

[Mathor]

Now . . . if only we can get Mel Gibson to do the same . . .

There's no savin' ol' Mel. And if there is, it will be the career turnaround of all time.

[manolia]

I don't know what relavence this may hold to the thread, if any at all. . . . .but for those who are familiar with my reviews might be happy to know that I have just gotten a job as Foriegn Film Critic at examiner.com!!!!!!

Congrats Daniel

[NickAdams]

There's no savin' ol' Mel. And if there is, it will be the career turnaround of all time.

Did you like Apocalypto?

Here's a trailer for his new film, it's nothing new though:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2723086873/

[Helga]

der untergang

amazing.. I really liked it, disgusting and real... but I thought Hitler had a golden retriever not a german shepherd.... maybe I'll check it out.. also Junge always said he treated his dog very well so one scene seemed out of place but I don't know he was on the edge down there....

[byquist]

"The Lemon Tree" and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," both high quality films.

[DanielBenoit]

There's no savin' ol' Mel. And if there is, it will be the career turnaround of all time.

I've never cared for Mel Gibson that much, but I did think that The Passion of the Christ, though being a bit empty (especially when compared to Scorsese's Last Temptation), is very well directed and quite powerful at some points.

[NickAdams]

I've never cared for Mel Gibson that much, but I did think that The Passion of the Christ, though being a bit empty (especially when compared to Scorsese's Last Temptation), is very well directed and quite powerful at some points.

You have to give Kazantzakis some credit for Last Temptation. Other than the roles of Jesus and Mary, I applaud Gibson for casting actors with ethnic backgrounds that are accurate and for his choice of the languages used in both Passion and Apocalypto. The world is far to connected for Hollywood to continue to produce films like Valkyrie. Robert Pattinson as Dali?! WTF, indeed.

[DanielBenoit]

I just saw Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies for the second time in my life. I'm going to hold off the review because there is so much to say and I don't want to post it here until I publish it on examiner.com, which will be at the end of the year when, as tradition, all professional critics compile a list of the best films of the decade.

All I can say is that I have never seen anything like it. It is utterly mezmerizing. Bela Tarr seems to have invented a new language of cinema with his extremely long and contemplative takes. The atmosphere achieved in this film is so visually haunting, despairing and beautiful all at the same time. It is a metaphyiscal and political allegory in the best sense of the word. If you have the time and patience to go and seek out a rare, but extremely different film from the rest of things being made today, please see this haunting masterpiece. NetFlix is where I found it. 10/10

[Mathor]

Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) - 10/10 - Germany's selection for Foreign language film at the Academy Awards this upcoming awards season promises to blow the competition apart. This movie is amazing! Being an Oscar-watcher over the past couple years, I've got many foreign language submissions yet to see, but this one is the obvious favorite (With the winning of the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year). Great stuff.

EDIT: And Daniel, I agree on Passion.

[Pryderi Agni]

The Core gets a solid 2/5 for me (I dig Hilary Swank), while Stranger Than Fiction gets a thumping 5/5.

[Darlin]

Stranger Than Fiction was definitely a very good movie.

Last movie I saw was Song of Love with Katharine Hepburn and it was pretty decent. I'd put off watching it, deleted it from my list then finally thought why not! Made me want to read the biographies of the Schumanns and Brahms. Just more books to add to that list.

[DanielBenoit]

Killer of Sheep - It is a miraculous thing that a film like this was made. Not because it is some epic adventure no. But because it possesses the power and the vision of some of the greatest films of all time, and yet it was made on such a minuature budget with no professional actors and was considered a lost film for decades.

Thanks to the grace of director Steven Soldbeirg, this film was rediscovered and re-released, thirty years after it's original release in 1977. Upon the films second chance, critics exploded. It was universally acknowledged as a masterpiece and its director Charles Burnett was immedietly hailed as one of the American masters. Almost right after its release, it was submitted into the National Film Preservation Regestry, a privlidge that only a few American films have shared. This film is proof that independent cinema can create gems, and that you hardly need anything to make a monumental film.

Set in urban Los Angeles through long hot summer days, we are given a series of vignettes concerning the everyday encounters of urban life for African-Americans. The films protaganist, Stan, is an emotionally detached working man who earns the little money he gets by working as a slaughterer at a sheep processing plant (hence the name).

This film is just teeming with life. With little scraps and bits of everyday life, we are able to intigrate a glorious whole of what it is to live in America. This film is neither upbeat or downbeat. It possesses no plot, it has minor character development, and wanders about the urban neighborhoods, with Stan being our guide.

There are moments of despair, confusion, joy, play. Hardly any scene has any deliberate connection to another, but in the end, we are do not feel that we have seen some kind of pretenscious fragmentated mess, but rather a beautiful mosiac of the human experience.
10/10