Les Misérables

Upon watching this film, I hadn't read the book, seen the musical, nor was anyway antiquated with the story at all.
But it was a musical, and musicals are quite a rarity these days, so I really felt that I wanted to watch it.

So, I saw it today.
It had slanted camera angles.
A lot of slanted camera angles.
Naturally, I felt really great often times because they had so many, and so often, and used so well. Just for that it's a good movie.

I thought that the story was wonderful, and had some really great emotional parts. I particularly liked it when one of the characters was shown great kindness and forgiveness, and much later on reflects that onto someone else.
I'd agree with Mickey that they seemed to focus far more than necessary on some more gross and awkward parts. But it was only on a few parts at least.

The songs were really great, and I loved them quite a bit. Particularly the tune sung by Inspector Javert throughout the many times which he sung. I heard that unlike most musicals, where the songs you hear are not actually being recorded with the film and at another time, in this one they actually filmed the songs being sung. Because of this, they seemed to feel a lot more natural than the usual musical song. For the most part, there seemed to be a lot more emotion in all of the songs as well.

I really liked the characters, but particularly Russel Crowe's character, Inspector Jarvet. Yeah, I know he's the antagonist, but he's a really great antagonist. He has an extreme lawfully aligned character, and enforcing the Law is basically mostly entirely everything he tries to do throughout the film. Somehow, this felt really fitting, and it made him interesting.
Also, most of the parts where he sung were the best. I really liked the portrayal of the character.

On top of all of this, lots of really great costumes and sets.

But the slants. Au

It's a good watch. I'd recommend it if you wouldn't mind a few awkward parts or a film where the characters sing almost constantly.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Not that bad. While most definitely not up to the scope and scale of the LOTR films, I will say that I found it to be an enjoyable film, and I think it bodes well for the remaining two.

Even though it was 3 hours long, I honestly never really noticed it while I was watching. While adding things like Radagast and the Middle Earth High Council of Exposition (MEHCE, as I like to call them) do well in their jobs to set up the events of Parts 2 and 3 and adding greater complexity to the narrative, I will say that the lingering threat of apocalyptic warfare diminishes the importance of the pretty straightforward dwarf quest.
I find it wise, though, that the film strives to maintain the more humorous tone of the book wherever possible (The dwarfs, and those goblins).

I saw the film in 48 FPS, and honestly I did not think it was that bad. While the technology is by no means perfect, and it takes a little getting used to, I think it does have potential and does not hurt the film in anyway.

All in all, I say you should go see it. Just don't expect anything as huge and epic as LOTR, and make sure to pee before the movie starts.

Youtube @TheRealSonjira I consider it a personal defeat if my pee is not perfectly clear every time.]

Les Miserables (2012)

I congratulate the Director for having the courage to use live singing instead of the usual pre-recorded one. The acting was great although there were too many close-ups, at some scenes (1-2 scenes at most) it worked well but it became too repetitive. The singing was bad for most of the time as well, I didn't enjoy Hugh's singing at all, Anne's singing was great though, since this is based on a musical I thought the music is like the strong point of the film but it's nowhere near strong. I guess whoever did the casting picked acting over singing... Overall, I didn't enjoy it all, IMO the directing was bad, I'm not gonna mention any other problems of the movie because you should watch it yourself but I say this is nowhere near "The Film of the Year", I enjoyed "Life of Pi" at least 10 times more. To sum up if you want to go with live singing then you better get the actors that can actually sing...

6/10

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

2007 is the best year for movies (so far in my life). There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old men, ^this, Zodiac and etc. Great year and this film is amazing it questions how people are remembered and how they actually were. What's a villain and what's a hero? Aren't they actually the same? Casey Affleck's performance is probably the best in his career, Brad Pitt plays Jesse James but I guess he's the only one in the cast who still seems to be playing himself. The rest of the cast delivers wonderfully. Oh and the soundtrack of this film = paradise, they better play "Song for Bob" during my funeral.

9/10

"Song for Bob"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz0FSG9h-GI

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Very very slow. I have no idea how they got Brad Pitt to be in it. It's one of the most boring films of 2012. The ending however is among the best of 2012 (my favorite for sure). So cut the whole movie, put the ending scene on the loop and here you go...

7/10 (only for the ending, without it, it's 3/10)

Last edited by Leo's World (January 7, 2013 (03:48am))

I was aware of the fact that Dominik directed both films. Personally I saw Killing Them Softly before Jesse James, so I thought "what a crappy director" and then I saw Jesse James and I couldn't believe how Dominik could fall from such a masterpiece to a slow crime drama with too much additional unentertaining dialogue. It's as if Dominik tried to make the film Tarantino'ish but ended up without the entertaining dialogue that QT always writes.

Don't get me wrong about Killing Them Softly though, it's a film that has some great laughs (sawnoff shotgun ), some decent acting and even epic slow-motion scenes BUT I was among those guys who expected way too much from this film. I've been waiting for it for over a year so I was let down. At the end of the day I admire Dominik because he seems to be making films with a clear, meaningful message (unlike 99% of Hollywood rubbish).

And yeah, I've heard that Pitt's favorite film is Jesse James (not Fight Club) so I guess no wonder that he ended up with Dominik again

Last edited by Leo's World (January 7, 2013 (05:10am))

I thought the dialogues were well written when it came to storyline related stuff, but there was a lot of Tarantino'ish dialogue about life and stuff and it was quite dull and hardly entertaining (Q.T. is among my favorite directors, so I do appreciate good dialogue). Still, the ending is worth all the waiting

Man on A Ledge (2012)]
It was ok, not nearly a masterpiece but an ok thriller for sure. The most suitable description would be "as average as they get" which means it's not bad but not good either.

The Hobbit
Diffidently good, though not as good as LOTR. The action was too unrealistic and over-the-top, which was the only real problem I had with it, it reminded me of P. of the C, . But overall it was worth the money and the time.

Life of Pi
I went into this movie not really knowing what my expectations were. I'd heard that it was a great movie and all but I didn't think that a somewhat long movie with a spiritual message would be my thing but... Oh my sweet baby Cthulhu.
That was absolutely amazing. The acting was great, the music was fitting and it was really emotional at times, I almost cried at some points. One of the best things about the movie is probably the atmosphere, it's really nice to see a movie that likes to take its time to really draw you into the feel of the movie for once. It's also nice to see 3D in a movie for once that is actually good and not really cheaply made. And Oh God that cinematography is simply gorgeous, definitely the highlight of the movie for me.

BRAWL 2013 ENTRY Quack In Time
"Why in the world did you do a weird language if you know English?" - tenny1028

バトル・ロワイアル (Battle Royale)
Of course this movie is Japanese and its only 13 years old , i have never seen this movie ever since i went back watching Asian foreign films , and i heard complaints that this was better than the hunger games since it plays the same role. (Hunger games was released in 2008)

The only difference is that this has guns and more blood and gore , so here's the story in a nutshell.

40 Students finish school and go on a field trip , they somehow appear to be on a unknown island and they were told that they were in battle royale which is a new law made by the government , Studentw wear electronic collars to keep track of 40 students 2 students died before the games started , Each student will carry a bag which will have their weapon inside it will either be a gun or a knife.

during the game students either killed themselves or got killed by Kiriyama which he appears to be a transfer student and kill half of the students but got killed near the end.

Kawada wins and fakes Noriko and Shuya's death , Kawada dies and Noriko and Shuya are the only ones alive.

My thoughts:

For me i have never read or watched the hunger games myself , Battle royale seems to be filemd on the same Island that has been used in some films like kamen rider or super sentai for the Ocean scenes , I just think toei studios blew a lot of budget for that movie.

Lots of people agree that this film was excellent and had a very good story line compared to the hunger games itself.

Final Rating

9.68/10

12 Angry Men

Wow, that was really great. The suspense was incredible and it was entertaining all the way through.

Dr. Strangelove

Hahaha, I liked it a lot. The ending was a little unexpected but interesting at the same time. I was surprised Peter Sellers played three roles in this movie; he was very good at all of them.

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