Well, I think there has been better CGI than Frozen especially with the snow , but nonetheless it was pretty well animated

The Wolfman

The original from 1941. I'm a big fan of horror of all eras, no matter how pedestrian the older stuff may feel. Bela Lugosi's cameo in this was fun, but a lot of the main characters were quite miscast. The protagonist's father was far too young to be Lon Chaney Jr's dad, and as with Dracula there were quite a few Englishmen with unconvincing English accents. Still, I found this very enjoyable - very much a product of its time, too, especially regarding the painful amount of sexual harassment that's just brushed under the carpet as banter, as well as the number of plot holes that crop up.

It was also fun pointing out elements which they kept for the recent (and disappointing) remake. The story was vastly different but there were some visual motifs that made their way into the remake.

EDIT: It's been a slow day.

Spider-Man 3
I'm going to come out and say it. Spider-Man 3 is nowhere near as bad as everyone says it is. It's easily 6/10.

The last half hour is utter chaos (though well-choreographed, dazzling chaos), but the cinematography is on-point, and a lot of the humour really saves it. It could have done without Sandman, and his screen time could have been deferred to a better-developed Venom (not Brock, Venom), and obviously it has lots of minor plot holes, but I think it mainly gets a lot of hate because it's not anywhere near as good as Spider-Man 2. It's not terrible, but it's not a worthy successor to what's arguably one of the best superhero films ever made, and in a franchise like that, that's a killer.

Last edited by jampot (August 28, 2015 (12:01pm))

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

A few days ago I watched no less than four Tarantino films for the first time, in 36 hours, on a cinema screen.  Since this must be some kind of personal record for me, I feel I should mark the occasion by reviewing them... I guess?  I feel like I may be beating a dead horse here since so many people have seen/reviewed these, but here goes.  Either way:

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2003/2004)

"You... over-reacted?"

A double feature of both volumes.  I actually watched the rare-ish Japanese edit of the first volume, which is apparently even more violent (most notably, the fight scene in The House of Blue Leaves is in colour as opposed to black and white).  I liked it, although it gets pretty over-the-top in places.  It's very interesting visually, with some neat cinematography and editing (I particularly like the manga cartoon part explaining O-Ren Ishii's origin).  Though, I'm kind of disturbed by the amount of blood (I'm still wondering how much of the entire budget of this movie was dedicated to buying fake blood...), plus the fact The Bride suffers no apparent psychological damage by all she's been through. 

The plot is pretty simplistic--quite style over substance, though the ending part of the second film with B.B. took me by surprise.  The characters and dialogue are great, though.  There are some funny details and moments throughout, such as the gun hidden in the "KaBoom" cereal, or the flashback to the stand-off in the hotel room.

Still, I feel like this film glossed over many of the characters--we barely learn anything about the rest of the DiVAs aside from Bill and O-Ren, why Budd is living as a redneck in a trailer home, supposedly pawned his sword, and is apparently short on cash, etc.  Still quite a fun ride and very interesting to watch... if you don't mind bare feet, expletives, and/or severed limbs.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

"Do you ever listen to K-Billy's 'Super Sounds of the Seventies' Weekend?"

To me, this one feels much more slowly paced and more dialogue-heavy.  Not that this is necessarily bad, but I feel like you have to be in a certain mood to watch it (as opposed to Kill Bill, where it's more of a sit-back-and-enjoy-the-show type feeling).  Still, it really manages to build a feeling of tension and paranoia, particularly towards the end, and it's interesting how the conversation at the beginning foreshadows the events to come.  I like how each of the characters have their own unique personality that play off and come into tension with each other (aside from Mr Blue, who apparently is the Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Show of robbers...).  The violence is actually quite sparingly used, but it really goes all the way when it does occur (need I mention the ear scene?).  The ambiguous ending also worked really well too, in my opinion, and really brought the story together. 

I find it a bit difficult to believe that this takes place in the same universe as Pulp Fiction, though, seeing as both films have completely different feelings--Reservoir Dogs is violent and extreme, yet still grounded and realistic, whereas Pulp Fiction feels much more over-the-top, even borderline cartoon-like.  Which rather conveniently brings me to my next review...

Pulp Fiction (1994)

"Let's get into character."

I wasn't really sure what to expect.  It's definitely a very... colourful experience, in more ways than one.  It goes without saying that the characters and writing are great.  It's interesting that people say the dialogue isn't relevant to the plot, whereas I feel quite differently about it.  It may not be of immediate relevance, but it still reveals something about the character.  Besides, these are characters doing what is more or less business as usual for them--it wouldn't make any sense if they only ever discussed what they were about to do (which is also highlighted by their actions, like Jules and Vincent being totally blasé about shooting someone's head off but worrying about getting the towel dirty).  I think it also provides an interesting contrast with what Mia says at Jack Rabbit Slim's about uncomfortable silences.  The Diner scene works really well as bookends for the film, and the development (or lack thereof) clearly shows despite the non-linear narrative.

The only thing that didn't work for me was the incident in the pawn shop.  Even by the standards of this film, it goes pretty far.  Beyond that, though, it makes absolutely no sense and seems very contrived.  Every other event in this film is underpinned by a consistent, if rather absurd, logic (e.g. Butch forgets his watch so he must retrieve it, Vincent leaves the drugs in the coat pocket which leads to Mia OD-ing, etc.). 

Aside from that, this is a pretty great watch (huehuehue).  I get the feeling that if these films were made by anyone other than Tarantino, the amount of violence, language etc. would just make it plain nasty and uncomfortable to watch.  Yet Tarantino manages to make it so over-the-top that you can't help but enjoy it.  And then feel guilty for enjoying it.

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (September 15, 2015 (12:57am))

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition

The Iron Giant is one of my favorite movies, so when I remembered that a theater near me was showing the Signature Edition, I had to go, and I'm really glad I did. The new scenes were great and fit nicely into the film, and I also enjoyed Brad Bird's introduction at the beginning.

What I enjoyed most about the film was the feeling I had upon leaving. The reason I want to make films, as uncertain a career as that is, is so that someone else can leave the theater after seeing one of my films with the same feeling I had upon leaving Brad's film. I can't fully describe it, but it is a good feeling, and people need that from time to time.

If you haven't seen the original, you need to. Just do it.

Madoka Magica: Rebellion

Madoka Magica was a TV series, this movie is the follow-up to it. It would make no sense at all if you went into it having not seen the series, but it's a short series and was edited into two films prior to this film's release to make it more accessible. Frankly, I thought Madoka Magica was a good series that was a little bit overrated; it's better if you go into it with some knowledge of the magical girl genre (a few episodes of Sailor Moon is probably enough) since a lot of the cleverness of the series is in how it subverts tropes from that sort of show. Basically, MM is a dark version of Sailor Moon with time travel].

The visuals are honestly some of my favorite from an animated film. Not because of the technical skill required to make them so much as that I just genuinely love the aesthetic. The world of the film has a strange geometric bent to it, almost like something you'd see in an Escher painting. The fight scenes are completely over the top, but comprehensible (and more importantly, entertaining). All that said, where the film really shines is in the more abstract "labyrinth" scenes, which are something like a mixture between Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations and Yellow Submarine. They're really trippy fun, but also appropriately creepy and somewhat unsettling. The score does a great job of complementing the visuals.

There's also a story, but it's really crazy and not the reason I would recommend the film. I personally liked the plot, but it does get a little bit convoluted. The end was also pretty clearly added to invite more sequels, which I don't think is a great idea. All that said, if you've watched the series you'll probably be fine with the story and if not, it's really enough of a visual treat that I'm tempted to say it's worth trying to get into regardless. I seriously didn't go into watching this film thinking I would be recommending it, but here we are.

I liked this movie quite a bit as well.  It gave me a greater respect for the beach boys than I had, and especially Brian Wilson.

The Walk (2015)

Admittedly, one of the better films I've seen this year. I had been waiting to watch this one for awhile, and I had read such good reviews about it. So, for my sixteenth birthday, I went with my whole family to see it, and I liked the movie. The narrative techniques, however, not so much.

As soon as it started, something was off. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (or Jo-Go-Lev, as I sometimes call him) stood in front of a white expanse like he was in a drug PSA. But, as the camera zoomed out, I realized, he was being poorly blue-screened onto Lady Liberty's torch, with the Twin Towers and the South Manhattan skyline in the background.

At first, I didn't mind, since this movie was gonna be filled with CGI and green-screening. But, a few minutes in, I finally figured it out. Jo-Go-Lev was gonna be doing this the whole movie. Every time a tense moment was successfully set up, they would immediately cut to the actor, in character as the real-life French highwire-walker who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers. If there was ever a moment where I was on the edge of my seat, I was instantly taken out of the movie when Jo-Go-Lev was back on top of Lady Liberty in the next shot.

It's a very unorthodox narrative technique that I've never really seen before in a biopic, unless it's in some Reading Rainbow special. Because of its PG rating, the producers must have thought kids would come and see this, and to keep them invested in the movie, they would have to have man, speaking in a French accent, to constantly retell what was going on (as if that would help). But, it was still a distraction to me when this happened: it was the worst when Petit had finally settled on a date for his walk. He made the date clear to the audience four times: 1) Narrating, he said he would walk on August 4th. 2) He circled the date on a French calendar. 3) He recited the date again to his girlfriend. 4) He would go on to say again: "I will walk on August 4th! It was incredibly unnecessary and annoying. Another thing was the nudity; I felt like Jo-Go-Lev showed his butt too many times for a PG film.

Things I liked was the solemnity the film would suddenly go into (of course, they would eventually be overshadowed by the narration). I won't spoil them for you. I did however, for example, like the serious note the film ended on. Not too disquieting, not too joyful--just subtle enough.

Jo-Go-Lev did a fine performance, but I think Ben Kingsley and the young lad with acrophobia were even better. I was so invested in their performance, especially with the latter. Despite some unusual aspects, I would definitely recommend The Walk. It isn't director Robert Zemeckis' best (that title goes to Cast Away, with the "Back to the Future" trilogy following up closely behind), but I certainly hope it drums up some Oscar buzz this winter.

9.2/10

Helium, I think pretty much everyone on BiM loves The Iron Giant.

Today I entered the Matt Damon Universe and watched

The Martian

Matt Damon delivers an interstellar performance as an astronaut stranded on Mars.  Really great story, scifi, and acting all around.  It's a really out of this world movie, as can be expected since it features Matt Damon in space.