Hard Candy
 

Still not sure if i liked this flick, though i am not at disappointed at having seen it. Maybe it is just one of those flicks that is not to be liked.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Or maybe it was the dissonance created by almost liking the bad guy more than the hero, which is "ooky" in the words of our heroine. Just saying.
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Actually, despite liking the movie quite a bit, I didn't like either of the main characters. That was the biggest flaw of the movie in my opinion, no likable leads.

I don't think it's a flaw at all- I believe the filmmakers intended that ambiguity, and it's part of its brilliance.

I also believe how much empathy/liking you have for the girl may be quite different, depending upon gender.

Punisher: War Zone

thats what i was thinking.

instead of coercing you into siding with a character they force you to look at the situation, put you in the story instead of leading you to side with a character which usually leads to the red herring bullshit.

not liking or identifying with the leads didnt bother me in the least.

Its definately more disturbing than most films of its type because there is no clear seperation between the two characters.

I love the film but struggled with the heroine as she was, at the heart of it, unlikeable whilst the man was, on the face of it, a regular bloke but clearly a bastard at the same time.

Would recommend this flick to everyone

Watched Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers for the first time today. Such a brutal, brilliant film. I'd rank it among Bergman's finest.

I've been trying to knock out a lot of the classics I still haven't seen watched
Bonnie & Clyde
The Great Escape
Bladerunner
Monkey Shines
Delicatessen (this was an absolutely fabulous film, anyone who hasn't seen make an effort to do so ASAP.)
The Fisher King

What'd you think?

Ah, yes! One of my all-time favorites.
Glad you liked it.

H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond (1986)

A genuine sci-fi horror with tons of fun.

>>: A

The Burrowers (2008)

>>: C-

The Initiation (1984)

http://shopping.yahoo.com/video/imag.../77/197577.jpg

>>: C+


Die Welle aka The Wave (2008)

http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/images/TheWave.jpg

Based on a true story, this German film is about a high school teacher�s attempt to teach his students what is "Autocracy"; he decides to make an experiment. where he reintroduces traditional seating plans, uniforms, and respect for the teacher. The excited kids started to run the project by themselves, introducing a hand signal, a graffiti tag and a rather menacing attitude toward those that don't fit in. Before they know it, they have enthusiastically become a gang with fascist over-tones.

Provocative & engaging.

>>: A-

Shiver
 

This was sort of a bumpy road for me, varying between enjoying it as a movie, at times being pretty creeped-out, to being rather bored. Storyline was desent. Afterwards, when i had to go out to the barn around midnight, i was pretty creeped out, so i guess that overall it did its job. Ashe.
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I'm glad you felt that way, I didn't, not caring about any of the characters gave the film no impact. The movie started, it was pretty good, and then it was over. The story felt a lot less interesting when I didn't care what happened at the end. PS: I still really dug the film, I just think it would have been AMAZING if I had any interest in any of the characters involved.

I liked it. The pacing was quite decent and I thought the movie started off quite well, before it got bogged down a bit in the second half. Good entertainment, although the scares felt a bit overdone from all the "heavy borrowing" from the movie's Korean counterpart.

All in all, another needless, but fairly decent Asian remake.

The Burning


It wasn't nearly as good as I remember it being. Still, it's a decent movie compared to a lot of 80's slashers.

6.5/10

The Good Life

Really liked this one. Harry Dean Stanton was great in his role.

Agreed. It's getting outrageous, isn't it?

Speaking of Harry Dean, have you ever seen Wise Blood?

I was completely engaged throughout the film, and its morally ambiguous stand had much more impact on me at the end than if, as urge says, they had taken an easy manipulative approach and forced you to accept only one conclusion. As it is, the film seesaws from one question to another, making the viewer actually THINK FOR THEMSELVES about the issues. The steady stream of plot twists and changes in perspective kept me quessing throughout. It's a rare film that actually asks you to think and THAT made the film AMAZING to me.

Not to the point of absurdity yet.


Wall - E

Must be a remake.

Saw a movie with the exact same story together with the rest of my class, back in my school days. That's about 18 years ago.

I have no idea whether it's a remake or not but as it was based on an actual incident then probably that movie also inspired by the same story.:confused:

last seen:

Hell Night (1981)

>>: B

Mobsters (1991)

>>: B-

Last night I watched:

The Omega Man - Surprisingly a lot better than I expected. It's actually my favourite adaptation of Matheson's novel.

The Machinist - Cool flick, Christian Bale is great in this.

The original was an american movie (1981) named "The Wave". It only had a running time of 45 minutes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083316/

westworld
futureworld

Choke - Not bad, I was expecting something darker and grittier though. I'll probably read the book now.

Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D - Funny enough with some endearing characters and some of the best 3D I've seen yet.

I'm about half way through Punisher: Warzone, so far it's true Punisher all the way and I'm really diggin' it.

I just wanted to let NE, Des, and Urge know that I've really been enjoying the Hard Candy discussion. I left the movie completely unsure of how I felt about it and how I felt about the characters and reading your thoughts have definitely crystallized a few things for me:

It's silly to think that unlikable characters are the outcome of bad writing or acting (which I tend to think... Then again, it's usually based from your typically bad, flat, 2-dimensional horror flick that's not really there to engage its audience). You're right; the fact that I didn't necessarily empathize with her character was left purposefully vague.

What you DO know:

You have one character who is being accused of doing horrible pedophilic things (all off-scene and accusations, though that he has her over is an indictment of the truth).

You have one character who is DOING horrible things to punish the crimes that we haven't seen.

So, who should the audience connect with? The more that I reflect on the movie, the more that I realize how intelligent it was. I'm glad that you guys brought up these critiques because it made me realize that what I thought were flaws were actually purposeful writing and directorial choices.

There is still one teeny tiny thing that bothers me, though... It's more of a suspend-your-disbelief sort of thing... She's so tiny, skinny, almost to unhealthy proportions. I had a difficult time believing sometimes how easily she was able to overpower him.

I don't believe it's bad writing OR acting and I agree with NE that the creators of the film achieved their vision of those characters. I do feel that I would have liked the movie even more had I enjoyed the characters in any way. Hell, I gave the film 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix and I meant it, I just believe I would have given it a 5/5 if I felt any emotion toward the characters or story. I think the story was great but it was far from mind bending, it takes more time to digest than it does to dissect.

Out of curiosity, everybody's giving their opinion about what the director and writer wanted to do (or intentionally did) and I was wondering if there was an interview out there or if it's all assumption.

I think I misspoke. The comment wasn't an indictment of you, but more of myself constantly and easily writing off unlikeable characters as being linked to bad writing or acting.

I agree with you, though - I respect the movie, but have a difficult time if I don't like or connect with anyone in it. Even though it was intentional, it still took that little bit away from me.

I understand, but your little blurb had me thinking about my comments on the film. I hate really enjoying a film and trying to talk about the minor flaws it has because it sounds like I'm attack the movie. I really dug Hard Candy and I'm one of the few people I know that really likes Page (even with the pseudo-hip roles they've shoved her into lately).

Yeah - I don't get that; why do people hate her so much? I saw her first in Hard Candy and was RIDICULOUSLY impressed with her acting skills. That role is NOT an easy role to do, but I thought that she nailed it with this innocent ferocity that was horrifying at the same time. She was delicate at times and an honest threat.

I loved her in Juno, too. I don't know why we have so many Page-haters.

Eraserhead
 

WTF was that all about???:confused: The movie definitely had an impact. i enjoyed the constipated feel of the characters, the sound was ingenius, and the camerwork was perfectly awkward, but i could get all of that by taking acid and sitting alone in my kitchen. Ashe.
d

In Heaven, everything is fine.

Terminator 2

Mission Impossible III

The Swarm (watching it on TCM as I type)

No I haven't but I'll look into it.

I'm not sure what the R2 release looks like, but I do know that Criterion is releasing it in a couple of months.

http://www.criterion.com/films/1424

You can watch the trailer there, too.

Re-Animator (1985)

Stealth (2005)

I was in the mood for a mindless Hollywood explosion flick, and this one was exactly what I was looking for.

The whole plot falls apart once you put any thought into of course, but the CGI was decent, and the characters surprisingly were a little bit more than walking clichés (I was especially impressed with Sam Sheperd).

Nothing special of course...but half-decent entertainment.

When it was featured on Comcast On Demand there were several behind the scenes featurettes, including a 40 minute special with the producer- who was, in fact, the one who came up with the idea and oversaw every fascet of the film. It was very informative. In fact, I recommended it in this very thread when I saw it. I hoped at the time you would watch it in light of the discussions we were having about the role of the producer.

At the beginning she drugs him. After that she has him restrained at all times, or drugged, except for the one time he gets loose. I think he doesn't expect her to to be so powerful when she gets the upper hand.