What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Martin]

Saw Warrior and Drive this afternoon. Both beyond excellent in their own ways.

Toldja! That's one hell of an afternoon...

Warrior is all heart. Drive is just such a great throwback to the 70's-80's badass movies that deserted the screens,


Heat

Just rewatched it. A classic. No need to say more, really. Flawless, and boast one of the best ensemble cast ever.

[FilmNerdJamie]

There were a couple of moments in Warrior that damn near drove me to tears. Plays straight for the heart and succeeds in that goal. Helped with how the story unraveled in the first hour like it did and God damn were Edgerton and Hardy magnificent. Ditto Morrison and Notle.

Drive was, as you said, a stylized late 70s/mid 80s throw back chalked full of better-than-they-had-any-right-to-be great performances, a dazzling soundtrack and those car chase sequences. Great kinda of movie to see with an audience who jumped at all the right moments.

[Martin]

I'll be honest, remove the fantastic performances and the resonnance of the emotions and hte movie would crash down in flame. Instead it makes it soar so much above the similar The Fighter.

As for Drive, I'll let it simmer down, but I just might put that poster on my wall along with Inception. I loved it so much.

[FilmNerdJamie]

The fact that its similar to The Fighter (Coming a little less than a year after it opened) and its shitty marketing is why Warrior isn't doing well. You're right though. It succeeds specifically because O'Connor & Co. made the wise decision to focus on Brendan and Tommy first and foremost and let the MMA stuff come well into the story.

Of the two, I'd say I preferred Drive - my favorite film of 2011 so far. But again, both movies have different goals in mind and succeed in spades.

[Martin]

Yeah, Drive is also my favorite this year. With 13 Assassins, Attack the Block, Warrior, Contagion and Hanna coming after it.

[PHEDG]

http://jerrygarrett.wordpress.com/20...1973-chevelle/

[Abraham Smashington]

Man, I really want to see Drive now after all the praise you guys are giving it.

[gravedigger]

THE BEAVER- It's too bad all that girlfriend bullshit got in Gibson's way because he is incredible in this. What a great movie. Probably affects you more if you have a case of the Daddy Issues.

[Abraham Smashington]

Shit, I still need to see that as well.

[Martin]

I did not like it. Gibson's good, but the movie bored me.

[Captain Russ]

Fright Night: Poots Edition.

Updated for the twenty-first century, it had some surprisingly effective stuff in it that could definitely be seen as an improvement, and then there were some things that would be better served fucking off for eternity.

Farrell was outstanding in his first heart-to-heart with Yelchin (who was no slouch either). Just a great little scene that put everything together in a wonderful pre-fight press conference. The fact he wasn't sporting the fucking turtleneck of doom like his predecessor helped add to the undercurrent of menace in Dandridge's character. That and he didn't have the midlife crisis sort of aspect to him that Chris Sarandon brought to the show the first time around. By the time Charlie hands him the beer, Jerry has sized the little shit up without so much as a raised voice. Jerry is ALPHA AS FUCK®.

Another improvement was Chuck's first realization that his next door neighbor is a bloodsuckin' fiend. It was sold incredibly well by Yelchin when the inevitable gutpunch of the sequence comes.

The update for Peter Vincent was fun if a bit flimsy (with an unnecessary-as-fuck third act reveal). Tennant was great as a drunk piece of shit MINDFREEEEEEK clone. It's a shame they didn't give him more to do.

Poots. Oh Poots. So hot. So hot it fucking hurts. Ridiculous. Her Amurkan accent was kind of strange (as was Farrell's), but she put in a fine effort as Amy. Not the dumb naive Marcy Darcy horseshit, an actual likeable character. And no stupid pantomimed glamouring dance sequence with Jerry this time (it's much darker this time around, and with some fucked up rape-y undertones to the whole vampire/victim thing). I think the movie was much better for it.

As for the creature effects, I still hold the original in higher esteem. But I'm a practical whore, so whenever the computer generated sideshow comes into a horror film, it does the exact opposite of its intentions. I know it's fake, because generally it is used as a lazy crutch instead of hiring guys with plaster and latex to do it a million times fucking better (THEY GOT THE TOOLS, THEY GOT THE TALENT. It is sadly not Miller Time). Usually, in using CG creature effects, they only succeed in calling attention to the artifice of the whole thing, ripping me out of the world the movie is desperately trying to establish and it pisses me off by trying to make something look menacing that does not look fucking menacing.

I say all of this typical horror fanboy bullshit because I strangely enjoyed the computerized visual effects here. Yeah. I was sort of shocked as well. Probably because here they were used in service of the film, not a fucking demo reel. The fact they gave all of the vamps the old school 'Amy Face' was fantastic. But my favorite addition is the way in which they are dispatched. It's a neat mix of ash and blood with an oddly sad final moment in which they revert to their human selves before they expire.

And now to the stuff that I found unnecessary and frankly stupid. First, we have the lockpicking app moment. He finds the key in a fake rock, so it was a pointless gag that did nothing but grate. Stupid and unneeded. Secondly, the apple-chomping Jerry gag. A stupid callback to the original, which was in itself a silly affectation. I know what they were attempting, but it was executed poorly (the second time would have been perfectly fine if they hadn't already sold it once before). Just little niggling things that could have been excised and nothing of value would be lost. Oh, and the unnecessary 3D gags. All of them were dumb. I hate 3D. It must die.

Besides these few derp moments, it's an incredibly enjoyable vampire movie. You won't be hearing something like that for a long time, I wager.

And the roadside cameo is fucking great.

[Matt]

'Citizen Kane'.

Didn't mean to watch it again, but we were flipping around and landed on TCM right when it was going to start. Amazing.

[Timothy225]

Caught a couple over the past week:

VALHALLA RISING - Damn fine piece of filmmaking here. Mads Mikkelsen delivers as One Eye, going from captive to unstoppable Viking killing machine, and his relationship with The Boy reminded me at times of Koike and Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub, especially the scenes on the boat and toward the end. Some existential moments here and there, some slow spots, but all in all, a refreshing change form the Hollywood stuff I usually see. Wouldn't hurt to follow it up with Mongol if this flick's your cup of grog.

THE A-TEAM - Fun, but I'd have to side more with The Losers if it came right down to it. While not a huge A-Team fan growing up, this was a bit of a hard sell. The TV show was more of a vehicle for Mr. T, and Quinton Jackson just didn't nail it for me, as good a job as he did. Same could be said for the rest of the flick - Neeson and crew did a good job, but it just didn't ring true. Story was a bit muddled, and Jessica Biel sort of annoyed me. Would rather have watched The Expendables again.

Also revisited 13 Assassins - loved it when i watched it earlier in the year, and love it still. Miike at his best.

[Nathan]

Alien 3. Still love it. Flaws and all.

[Timothy225]

Saw the first half hour of The Green Hornet last night before my meds kicked in and decided to go to bed (sneezing like crazy all day Sunday). Wasn't too impressed by it, does it get better?