What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Anderson]

Balada Triste de Trompeta aka The Last Circus.

One of the most bizarre love triangles I've seen.

Jules et Jim through the lens of a coked out Oliver Stone combined with Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre. It is at once incredibly grotesque, humorous, but above all, tragic. As the roller coaster continues its wild ride toward its end, for a scant few moments here and there, the outlandish characters show genuine vulnerability and become more than broadly painted caricatures.

The mania of it all is deftly captured by de la Iglesia and crew in increasingly inventive ways, and I have to tip my hat to the ballsy spaniard's willingness to shift tonal and narrative gears with such wreckless abandon.

Go in with an open mind and you might end up pleasantly surprised. Or unpleasantly.

MVP: Carolina Bang. Wow.

One of the best Blu-Ray transfers ever.

[gravedigger]

CAPTAIN AMERICA: America, fuck yeah. OLOLOL. But seriously, this movie is a lot of fun. I am completely okay with Evans being a hero in every Marvel movie.

THE DILEMMA: I think I watched this because it was late and I was too tired/lazy to turn off the tv. What a stupid piece of shit movie. The last five minutes were pretty entertaining and Jennifer Connelly proved she's still totally hot. That's it.

EASY A: Just as entertaining the second time. Emma Stone is great. Blacked out again during the musical number at the end.

[BillyG]

Easy A was like $5 on bd this weekend on Amazon. Tried to snag it, but it sold fast as hell.

[Lisa]

Haven't watched anything, but the shitty, rotten mood that I'm in is going to only be fixable with a Matt Dillon marathon. Current Matt would be fabulous, but considering that I've loved his ass since 1979 in "Over The Edge", older Matt movies would be fucking amazing. You know, something like "The Outsiders", where he was so unbelievably gorgeous that it was like staring directly at the sun. I wish it wasn't almost 11 PM and that I didn't have to go to work tomorrow - I'd be indulging right now.

[Matt]

ROBIN HOOD (Ridley Scott), director's cut

First time viewing it and my expectations were really, really low. Maybe that explains why I liked it. Didn't love it, but liked it. Decent action and solid acting throughout. It wasn't the story that I wanted to see (that would be the sequel that'll never happen) but it was entertaining nonetheless.

[BillyG]

The movie should have started with the last 20 minutes, then give us 90 more.

[BillyG]

Faster

Well that's pretty much the movie the Rock needs to be making. Loved just about everything, the score, the performances, Adebisi the gangsta evangelist, the nutjob British hit man.

[Ben Thomas]

Hated the beach skirmish in Robin Hood, that one awesome shot aside. I thought the last 20 minutes was the weakest stretch, to be honest.

Kung Fu Panda 2

If not quite as great as the original, it's not far off at all. Its wall-to-wall action this time out, but the way 'inner peace' is demonstrated was truly wonderful and the way Po integrated it into the finale was really something. Loved it.

The Damned United.

Tom Hooper's a talented chap, isn't he? This is a great film, not least for Micheal Sheen's occasionally eerie transformation into Brian Clough. A really entertaining story shot through with pitch-perfect performances from all involved. You don't need to know the first thing about 'soccer' to get a lot out of this one.

Thor

Second time around and, while its certainly entertaining, it still left me somewhat empty come the end. I guess I just wanted more of the action demonstrated in Thor's standoff with the Destroyer (?) and less of the often awful effects (the Jotenheim offensive is probably the worst example, though the spinning hammer effect did not work AT ALL). The MVP is Stellan Skarsgard for me. He's like a Scandinavian Liam Neeson - regardless of the quality of the surrounding film, he always delivers. The post-credits sequence for this was pretty great. All of that aside, the potential is there for Thor the character to kickass proper in The Averngers, if given something meaningful to do.

[BillyG]

Hated the beach skirmish in Robin Hood, that one awesome shot aside. I thought the last 20 minutes was the weakest stretch, to be honest.

The last 20 minutes weren't good, but you don't make Robin Hood then end the film with him becoming Robin Hood. Give us a quick ok this is why he became "Robin Hood" and bam now we are in the forest here's his merry men GO. They spent two hours teasing the movie they were advertising.

They should have made the insane procedural that was the original script.

[Matt]

Agrees with Ben on the final battle. It's a bit of an incoherent mess with no real geography. The rest of the action in the film was pretty damned good, I thought. Wish the film would have been more FUN, though. It's way too serious.

Also, I thought that THOR played better the second time.

[Ben Thomas]

It did.

[Ben Thomas]

In fairness, I liked a lot of little moments. Agent Coulson was a more prominent character and his stuff is solid - Coulson's slightly weary response to 'Is that one of Stark's?' is a nice moment - all of the bifrost/Heimdall scenes are great, its got a memorable villain and I think they actually nail the characters throughout, including the big man himself. I'm just not crazy about Hemsworth in the role, fine as he is both as an actor and as man-meat. I want a man mountain for Thor though, not a pumped up underwear model. I want someone as built and as beautiful as The Rock. Since I can't think of anyone contemporary to fill the role, that probably explains why we didn't get that.

[Captain Russ]

Brian Blessed is unfortunately too old now.

[Martin]

Hated the beach skirmish in Robin Hood, that one awesome shot aside. I thought the last 20 minutes was the weakest stretch, to be honest.

Kung Fu Panda 2

If not quite as great as the original, it's not far off at all. Its wall-to-wall action this time out, but the way 'inner peace' is demonstrated was truly wonderful and the way Po integrated it into the finale was really something. Loved it.

Thor

Second time around and, while its certainly entertaining, it still left me somewhat empty come the end. I guess I just wanted more of the action demonstrated in Thor's standoff with the Destroyer (?) and less of the often awful effects (the Jotenheim offensive is probably the worst example, though the spinning hammer effect did not work AT ALL). The MVP is Stellan Skarsgard for me. He's like a Scandinavian Liam Neeson - regardless of the quality of the surrounding film, he always delivers. The post-credits sequence for this was pretty great. All of that aside, the potential is there for Thor the character to kickass proper in The Averngers, if given something meaningful to do.

See, I JUST rewatched Thor (with my son! Who liked it, at 3!), and I like it even more. Not sure I like it more than Captain, but Marvel sure has it going.

As for Panda 2, I really liked the darker side this time around. And the original is so so great. Only Dragon beats it quality-wise, but Panda is more entertaining. It grows on me every time I watch it.

[Matt]

Stellan is good, but the film hinged on Tom Hiddleston's Loki more than anything else. He nails it and carries most of the weight of the film on his shoulders. He's far more interesting than Thor and rolls with it. I'm glad that he's so prominent in THE AVENGERS.