What Emmanuelle Movie Did You Just Watch?

[Ed Hocken]

Well, if you remember George Kennedy. That's all that matters.

[Matt]

'The Times of Harvey Milk', the documentary from 1984. Still excellent, and watching it again FINALLY gives me the desire to see 'Milk'.

[Ed Hocken]

It really REALLY is an amazing documentary.

[Anderson]

Criterion is prepping it for a March release to DVD and Blu-Ray.

[Ed Hocken]

Yeah, I'll be picking that up.

[Captain Russ]

The Fighter.

I wrote a lengthy post about it, but I'd rather just sum it up thusly: Bale is just fucking great in this role and I have a sickening feeling in my stomach from watching his skeletal crackhead frame in motion.

The Ward clan, specifically the harpy chorus of Ward sisters, with their delusional fanaticism to a dream long since over, are as American as a handgun license.

[Captain Russ]

I ended up watching some randomly selected things from the instaqueueueueueue this weekend. Here's what I thought about them:

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. Jailbait-era Diane Lane becomes a proto-Madonna in a punk band, sleeps with a young Ray Winstone, and commodifies her image like so many others before her. The remarkable things about this are that she's a teenager when she does it, becomes the pied piper of the dejected mallrat youth, and even when her whole schtick is revealed, she turns around and reinvents herself as some pop monstrosity. Lane fucking owns it the whole way through. Definitely ahead of the curve.

Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters. The life of Japan's most famous author and his erratic last days. I'd heard the Philip Glass accompaniments before, but not in context. The imagery used in the more abstract moments (like in the stage-play chapters of his works and in the ending sequence) was astonishingly beautiful and hypnotic. Not for everyone, but definitely worth a look if you're in the mood for a complex character study.

Charley Varrick. From the ravings of Patton Oswalt's blog of old I had heard mention of this one. Seeing it had finally been made available for a lazy fuck like myself, I decided to give it a look. The opening credits were all I needed to be convinced I was in for something fucking awesome: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, and John Fucking Vernon. In terms of locations and subject matter, it instantly reminded me of No Country for Old Men. That's where any comparisons stop (though Joe Don Baker's Molly is an unforgettably epic asshole of cinema). Bank robberies, mob money, Matthau gettin' dat Secretary Frost Ass, and Molly the Darth Vader of Henchmen come together to create one hell of a fun and off-kilter crime flick. 70's art in motion.

[Ed Hocken]

The Other Guys

Michael Keaton was fantastic and the action sequences were quite impressive.

It would make a good pairing with Hot Fuzz.

[Abraham Smashington]

I enjoyed The Other Guys more than Hot Fuzz. Yes I know I'm in the minority.

'Date Night': Eh. Wasn't horrible, wasn't great. Fey and Carrell had some decent chemistry and I fucking loved Franco and Kunis in it. Surprisingly decent action scene half way through involving Leon Black and a taxi cab.

'The Town': Wasn't horrible, but wasn't great. Affleck was da bomb in it though. Can't take Don Draper seriously at all. And lulz to the MiB being Don's right hand man. Decent little crime flick but it's no HEAT.

[BillyG]

Decent little crime flick but it's no HEAT.

Nothing is. I can't even consider comparing any kind of crime/heist flick to HEAT lest I never enjoy such entertainment again.

[Ed Hocken]

Town is not Heat, but the big action scene towards the end was aces. Plus, I really enjoyed how Boston was used.

Hell, even if the story is similar if the location is used well and in a unique way. I'll enjoy it. That's why I reallyed enjoyed Tropa De Elite aka The Rio De Janiero SWAT flick.

[Ben Thomas]

I think The Town might be my favourite film from last year. Just a good film done well. Sure, its no Heat, but it might just be the best film of its sort SINCE Heat.

This weekend I watched Down With Love and OSS117: Lost in Rio.

Down With Love was great from a technical standpoint, but didn't really have enough laughs or originality. It was all style over substance. The scene towards the end where Zellweger had to reel off a shit-ton of exposition in one long, uninterrupted shot was really good and McGregor's reaction shot sealed it. Alas, it would have been amazing if Peyton Reed had gone on to do a period Fantastic Four of the back of that.

Lost in Rio was great, every bit as good as Next of Spies with some excellent split-screen scenes thrown in. And if anyone ever makes a Gene Kelly biopic, they need to cast Jean Dujardin as Kelly.

[Abraham Smashington]

The Town just seemed so "Eh, I've seen this flick a million times before". It was competantly shot, edited, and written but it didn't do much for me. I also fell asleep near the end.

[Ed Hocken]

I also got to re-watch JFK on instant view.

While very well done, Oliver Stone is not known for his subtlety. It's been said before that the movie should not be viewed as truth, and rather a picture of that time.

Really great casting in that movie, complete with John Candy as the beatnik attorney.

[Captain Russ]

I also got to re-watch JFK on instant view.

While very well done, Oliver Stone is not known for his subtlety. It's been said before that the movie should not be viewed as truth, and rather a picture of that time.

Really great casting in that movie, complete with John Candy as the beatnik attorney.

The editing is a fucking masterwork.