Let Me In I really wasn't looking forward to watching this as I just didn't think it could live up to the great original, but it kinda did. Very little americanization and the new duo was almost as amazing as the first kids. Albuquerque didn't feel quite as desolate as Sweden, but still very dark.

Nil by Mouth

A portrait of a chaotic family of thieves, drunks and alcoholics.

Unremittingly grim and possibly a little heavy handed in parts but overall riveting and full off great performances.

I was really surprised this didn't get more acclaim. I was a huge fan of both the book and the original film, and was really surprised to enjoy the remake both times I watched it. They really got the vibe pretty well. I thought setting it in the 80's was an interesting approach that actually worked.

I must admit to being mystified by their cutting the "scar" frame. Without that frame, the entire rest of the scene is virtually useless, and, well, why cut it anyway?

One shot is fired at Kopple, the director. Glad I picked this before you did, Vix. BTW, the women in the film are very strong, and I loved the performance by Nimrod near the beginning.

I kept thinking "are the men doing anything"? Heh. I assume the film intentionally followed the women quite a bit. It was interesting to see their involvement. Usually these kinds of stories marginalize their impact.

They did add a fantastic car scene. It was a good movie, think they should have taken more liberties with the story--the car scene I see as evidence they could have succeeded. But, minor gripe. If I never saw the Swedish movie pretty sure I'd be loving this one more and not because the Swede version is better. Just b/c I saw it first tbh.

I'd bet the studio was behind that cowardly decision. I agree that the scene didn't make sense if you hadn't seen the original, otoh knowing what was coming had me squirming like crazy. Pretty effective if that's why they kept it.

Yeah, that scene was good. No doubt they could've pulled off more changes/additional scenes.

Oh come now... Finchers Alien Cubed IS NOT crap. In many ways it's the most adult movie of the three proper alien films and appropriately closes the storyline. There is no way Ripley should have been left to survive.

any other alien movie is not related to the first three despite what the story line was.

Sometimes I watch the behind the scenes featurette on what Alien 3 was supposed to be and wonder if it would have been any better.

I watched Keeping Up with the Joneses last night...it sucked. I knew it would suck...but the premise was so appealing to me and it was on Netflix stream.

Catfish - very good, very interesting "documentary." It's definitely engrossing and pretty disturbing when you think about it. What I find strange is how many people argue/fight over whether or not it actually is real. It doesn't matter if it's real or not. The fact that it's presented as a documentary is just a device that gives it a more powerful punch to begin with. If it's real, then it's disturbing that there's someone out there that does stuff like this. If it isn't real, it's still disturbing knowing that there are wacky people out there that could do something like this.

I would bet that it is real, like 85 real, 15 hoax.

I'm about 99% sure it's real, especially after watching the bonus DVD feature with the three of them answering questions. Unless I'm just horrible at reading people (which based on my poker results is a distinct possibility).

LOL.

I just saw "The Next Three Days" and thought it was awesome.

The main character is played by Russell Crowe and his wife gets accused of murder and locked up and after fighting to get her out for a few years with no success he decides to break her out.

I know the above sounds like it would be completely terrible but it was really well done. Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde also play small roles..

I thought this was pretty good. Not great, but entertaining. One part that made me cringe was when

The recut of alien 3 in the quadrilogy boxset is excellent

diebetter is unusually correct here (j/k fonz)

Enter the Void - I really enjoyed the first hour or so, but then it just got annoying and repetitive. I'm pretty sure Noe could have cut about an hour to an hour and half out of this movie and it would have probably been much better. It's very impressive visually, but goddamn, it needs to be edited down to about 80-90 minutes tops. 6/10

Father of the Bride (1991)

A cute but rather forgettable film about a father coming to grips with his young daughter's decision to get married.

Watched 3 movies

Walkabout WOW what a movie. 10/10

Hereafter was a yawner, did not like. 5/10

Paranormal Activity 2 was confusing, maybe I'm dumb. It's ok tho. 6/10

Despite my nationality I have only now been able to watch Der Untergang (Downfall) a film about the last days of the third reich in Hitler's bunker.

Quite interesting in the way they "humanized" some of the era's most important people, making you able to understand why they were able to become powerful in the first place. Yet at the same time showing some unbelievably distorted minds (Hitler repeatedly claiming having ingenious plans and victory being very close; Magda Goebbels killing her children because a world without national socialism to her wasn't worth living in.

Nothing new historically if you went through the German school system, but artistically I like "humanizing" Nazis, as the have usually been shown as monsters. Obviously made it easier for Germans to live with, but facing that Nazi sympathizers of the 30s and 40s and their leaders were in fact human beings and our ancestors (if not biologically, then at least culturally) is obviously very important. Another film that does this quite well is Napola (I think I've written about this somewhere in here once before).

Happy Together - very good depiction of a relationship in trouble. I'm going to have to watch some more Wong Kar-Wai movies.

He is the rare director that has never made a bad movie. They are all good or great with a couple masterpieces mixed in.