post #1 :: 5th March 2007 at 06:44 AM

I was pretty happy with what came out during 2006 and I'm always looking for gems that may have been underpromoted or overlooked. Post 10 movies from the last year that in your eyes all of us should have already seen or should make a point of seeing.

If I wasn't a cheapass these are some of the movies I would already own: (in no specific order)

1. Pan's Labyrinth - Beautiful war-time fairy tale. See this movie.
   
2. The Last Kiss - Remake of an Italian film starring Zach Braff, if you are gay for him and Garden State you'll probably love this too.
   
3. Brick - Murder mystery set in a school starring teenagers with 'grown up' roles, really original and fucking cool.
   
4. Lucky Number Slevin - Very entertaining movie with plenty action and brilliant writing.
   
5. Clerks 2 - I'm not a big fan of the original but this movie really did it for me, truly heartfelt comedy with the usual nerdy references. My favourite comedy of the year.
   
6. Apocalypto - Amazing movie, even the lolmelgibson factor couldn't ruin it, visually stunning.
   
7. The Departed - Fun and entertaining.
   
8. The Prestige - Rival magicians trying to ruin each others careers during live shows? There is a lot more to it but that alone should make you want to watch this.
   
9. Children of Men - Alfonso Cuarσn could make a colonic irrigation look breathtaking on film, thankfully he doesn't have to since he has other things to work on. I fell in love with this film instantly.
   
10. Borat - You have probably already seen this, I have honestly never laughed as hard at a film in the cinema as when I saw this. Comedy gold.
    

post #2 :: 6th March 2007 at 06:14 AM

Let me comment on the four I saw:

Clerks 2: not as awful as I feared, but nowhere as good as the original. Good to see old Randal again though.

The Departed: great film I caught at a very difficult moment of my life. Not quite as good as the original (Infernal affairs), but so much better than the usual Hollywood fare.

Children of Men: this one left me.. not disapointed as such, but I felt it lacked something. It felt just a little too sugarfree for me, even though the exploding Starbucks and rampant alcoholism was fun.

Borat: Utter, and I mean utter, shit. I fucking hated this film. Luckily I immediately saw Ali G in da House afterwards, at least that one gave me a good laugh.

post #3 :: 7th March 2007 at 03:16 AM

That's weird, I found Borat hilarious but the Ali-G film was fucking terrible.

The thing about Borat and Ali-G is that they're really funny up until people start mimicking them. Then you just want to shoot everybody in the room.

post #4 :: 7th March 2007 at 06:12 AM

Christ yeah, those people are just plain cunts.

I just found Borat to be utterly unfunny and it just made me cringe from beginning to end.

post #5 :: 7th March 2007 at 09:44 AM

Yeah, but surely that's where the humour lies. It's the awkward, cringeworthy moments that make it what it is. Kinda like The Office. UK version, that is. Obviously.

But still. Meh.

I liked the Borat movie. The naked hotel chase was superb. The Kazakstan national anthem was great. The bear... oh the bear. And the heart-rendering moment when he burns his tickets home. OH BORAT.

post #6 :: 18th March 2007 at 01:04 PM

comments on 300?

i thought it was historically inaccurate, but that's ok, because all the spartan hotties made me forget history class.

I'm usually very nit-picky about historical films... Hated the Passion of the Christ (that ain't the way they told us it happened in Sunday school.) but the abs, oh, the abs! the Spartans were fucking HOT!

post #7 :: 19th March 2007 at 09:35 AM

And the Spartans have to coolest line in the story (dunno 'bout the movie):

Molon Labe!

post #8 :: 20th March 2007 at 06:25 PM

1: I also would rate 'Children of Men' in my top ten from last year as I thought it was fantastic!

2: 'Borat' I saw the day after an incredibly tough day so it was the best release. Don't know if I ever want to see the hotel scene again ahhhh.... but I loved the bit with the college dudes in the campervan, fucking scum sucked in!

3: 'Little Miss Sunshine' I thought was great as it made a mockery of the whole pagent thing.

4: 'You Me and Everyone We Know' was a small release film I saw that was absolutely brillient looking really simply into childrens sexuality - that actually sounds kinda creepy but it wasn't.

5: 'Thank You For Smoking' again another film that makes a mockery of something, this time the tobacco industry. Since I quit smoking this year I also enjoyed this.

6: 'An Inconvenient Truth', wow Al this changed the world, seriously!

7: 'Brokeback Mountain', can't say I liked it but was happy to see a film like this get so much attention.

8: Im starting to struggle... Just watched 'V for Vendetta' the other day and thought it was a heap of fun too.

9: 'Pirates of the Carribean 2', I lurve jonny depp in this, really I wish I could marry a pirate.

10: fuck hmmmmmm what about....well I can think of the worst $5 I spent on a movie, it was that stupid christmas movie with cameran diaz, cate winslett, jude law and jack black, who is cool but totally should have stayed away from this peice of crap. I can't even remember what it was called.

post #9 :: 21st March 2007 at 04:33 AM

Katie, I agree with you on all except the last two.

I didn't think Children of Men was amazing - I thought it was a very interesting concept and I liked the way the first half of the movie was done - showing the state of Britain in an infertility-struck world, and I loved the bit in the exploding building that was all done in one take. I love bits in movies like that. But I thought the ending was a bit rubbish (it left too much up in the air), and it just felt a little bit... well... rambling. But hey. The Alliance Operative from Serenity was in it as the rebellion leader guy so I can't really complain. Dunno though, it felt like there was a lot more that they could have done.

I've probably mentioned it before but I LOVED Little Miss Sunshine. I thought it was a perfect role for Steve Carrell to play the clinically depressed gay scholar. He played the part perfectly. The loser dad was brilliantly played, too, as well as the heroin addict grandpa. The whole cast was excellent - I even liked the angsty vow-of-silence kid. The film was obviously aimed at showing how fucked up the world of child pageantry is... and it succeeded at that. I felt ill watching most of the last half an hour, until she did the dance. Which was simply brilliant, on so many levels. Parents - stop whoring your kids!

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was simply terrible. I don't have one good word to say about this piece of crap. The first one was bearable - my ex-ex-girlfriend made me see it and it was a passable effort, though no way as good as all the attention at the time made it out to be. Number 2 I got taken to by the ex-girlfriend, and it was just fucking stupid. She agreed, too - she was tempted to walk out of the theatre halfway through, which is a HUGE statement for someone who loves Johnny Depp as much as she does. Too many fights on rolling apparatus, too many stupid Jack Sparrow lines (sure, they could be funny in the first movie, but they're old lines now. Do something original). Keira the Stickwoman yet again proved why I hate her in everything she's in, and the storyline (and ending) was pathetic. Ugh. I hated that piece of crap.

An Inconvenient Truth was certainly eye-opening. I thought it was a bit "Al Gore = God" though. It was obvious he was trying to make himself sound modest but it just reeked of "I told you so".

I saw adverts at bus stops for that Christmas movie. I remember laughing to myself thinking about how awful that film must be.

I still need to see Passion of the Christ.

post #10 :: 21st March 2007 at 08:37 AM

Passion of the Christ is Great.

...if you like sado-masochistic flagellation movies, in Aramaic.

post #11 :: 21st March 2007 at 10:49 AM

"if you like sado-masochistic flagellation movies, in Aramaic."

And who doesn't?

I saw too few movies to have a top 10, but The Prestige was absolutely brilliant. The Departed was also very good.

Besides the military battle at the end and Michael Caine, I didn't like Children of Men. It was too jumpy and vauge. I didn't really get what was going on the whole time, and what i did understand I didn't care about.

How someone who didn't like the original Clerks is allowed on this forum, though, I'll never understand.

post #12 :: 21st March 2007 at 01:08 PM

DiscordianStooge said: Besides the military battle at the end and Michael Caine, I didn't like Children of Men. It was too jumpy and vauge. I didn't really get what was going on the whole time, and what i did understand I didn't care about.

This is kinda what I was trying to say, though, as usual, using 500 times as many words.

How someone who didn't like the original Clerks is allowed on this forum, though, I'll never understand. [/B]

This is a very good point. BANT!

post #13 :: 22nd March 2007 at 06:09 PM

dave said: I even liked the angsty vow-of-silence kid.

I thought this part of the story was fantastic, at first it seemed contrived but grew to be an excellent side-line. And the 40yr old Virgin star really changed my opinion on him as I couldn't even sit through that crap but thought he rocked in Little Miss Sunshine.

dave said: Keira the Stickwoman yet again proved why I hate her in everything she's in, and the storyline (and ending) was pathetic. Ugh. I hated that piece of crap.

That is true I freakin hate Keira and I think it stems from the remake of Pride and Prejudice that she was in. The BBC version changed my life, the new one just wasted some of it.

post #14 :: 23rd March 2007 at 12:55 PM

Don't forget her role as Guinevere.

post #15 :: 25th March 2007 at 01:20 PM

Unfortunately I have not been privledged to see this role though I fear it to be as equally unappealing as the rest. I'll keep an eye out for it so I can stay the fuck away!

post #16 :: 25th March 2007 at 07:06 PM

Saw 300 last night. Highly recommended but leave your historical knowledge at the cinema dooirs.

post #17 :: 27th March 2007 at 04:11 PM

I just saw Pan's Labrynth, and it was brilliant. Very beautiful and a great story.

I did forget to mention the most surprisingly not awful movie I saw last year - Slither.

This looked like a stupid alien invasion/body snatchers movie, and it was. But it was also very funny. If you like cheesy horror flicks, this is better than most.

post #18 :: 15th April 2007 at 01:24 PM

I hired a great movie on the weekend called "Everything is Illuminated"
It was really quirky, based kinda on a guy finding out what happened to his Grandfather in the Ukraine during WW2 but it was so much more than that. It was moving without being violent or deeply upsetting. Highly recommend.

post #19 :: 15th April 2007 at 10:10 PM

DQ, you have to read the book that the movie was loosely based on. It is far more deatiled and covers whole story arcs that the movie missed (the most interesting ones in fact).

It is, however, sometimes violent and disturbing, as it covers pogroms against the jewish village at the centre of the story, as well as what happens when the german einsatzgruppen arrive in '41. Be warned.

I do highly recommend reading this book.