h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I watched two movies about people getting infected with parasites which then burst out of them with blood and guts everywhere. One was Alien vs Predator 2 and the other was Juno. AVP 2 was mindless action, which is what you´d expect. However a lot of the film was so dark you couldn´t actually see the action, which is a bit of a drawback. It was also amazing the timescale everything happened in, the aliens would go from implants to fully grown in what seemed a matter of hours. It´s not really a movie I´d recommend people to watch, unless it´s on tv and they have nothing better to do.
Juno was an interesting enough movie, though perhaps not Oscar worthy. The characters seemed fairly believable I thought, but the ending seemed not to fit with the rest. I think they just wanted a bit of a happy ending. Still it would be worth a look I think, even if the soundtrack seemed to consist of songs sung a capella and out of tune.

I watched Die Hard 4.0 last night on DVD.

Apart from one good (and heavily-trailed) stunt with a car and a helicopter, I didn't think much of it...mostly rehashing something done in a Steven Seagal film a decade ago. All the other Die Hards seem to have a lot more going for them. This one doesn't.

RF

"There Will Be Blood" has finally been released on DVD, and we watched it Sunday.

Oh. My. Gawd. What a fantastic film!

I'm a fan of Upton Sinclair, but have never read "Oil!". Mild spoiler- while Daniel Day-Lewis's greed eventually drove him mad, it was the sadistic preacher and his perversion of morality that left me cold. I normally can't stand DD-L, but he really pulled this one off.

Five stars, without a doubt.

Only one from me for that one I'm afraid...and that's for the first 10 minutes, when no-one spoke.

Next on my rental list is Death Proof. Anyone seen it?

RF

Yep, fantastic IMO, I really enjoyed it. But maybe that means you'll hate it?

I saw "Into the Wild" this weekend. It was fabulous but also a bit disturbing.

I've been debating seeing that one, but it's had mixed reviews so I've been undecided. (Of course, we've got about 200 movies in our queue anyway so it's not like one more makes a difference either way...) Now I'll have to think about seeing it all over again!

>> But maybe that means you'll hate it? <<

Maybe it will...it's an interesting experiment! Maybe we'll be able to consult each other about films we love/hate in order to judge our likelihood of enjoying them?

I'll let you know when I've watched it (probably not until the weekend).

RF

> Maybe we'll be able to consult each other about films we love/hate in order to judge our likelihood of enjoying them?<

I've got at least two other people that works with. It's actually proven more effective than recommendations from folks who are just similar enough.

Let me know what you think. Without spoiling anything, I can let you know that a substantial part is very dialogue-driven but there's also some kick-ass action.

I didn't like Death Proof at all, but Planet Terror is great

I thought the first half of Death Proof was really dull and over-written, but the second half was fantastic.

Really want to see Planet Terror, if only for the sight of Rose McGowan with a prosthetic machine gun/rocket launcher/leg.

It is very cool

Stand by me. Isn't it great?

Mol
(finally catching up on films everybody else saw 20 years ago)

"Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" (2008). A 1930's style screwball comedy set in pre-WWII London (the "Noel Coward" London of 1939 according to one review). Very good, with Frances McDormand (Fargo) and Amy Adams leading a well cast ensemble. Good script, but especially good are the photography, Art Deco sets and director/editing stuff (like a scene that becomes Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" - I almost missed it but my wife saw it). Also some great period music, especially the jazz group in the night club (of course there's a nightclub), with all the scheming socialites, uhh, scheming.

A fairy tale, yes, but fun to watch.

I have recently watched " The World's Fasted Indian " which I really enjoyed and the main character reminds me very much of my old racing partner, only one thing on his mind, how to go faster . full stop

I saw Die Welle (The Wave) last week - which is a reworking in a much darker way of the Morton Ruhe book of the same name.

Absolutely fantastic. And, as a foreigner watching it surrounded by Germans who, going in, were all saying "yep, couldn't happen again" it was quite chilling too.

Horton Hears a Who.

Didn't hate it a smuch as I thought I would! Visually some lovely scenes - Whoville is delightful (a bit Port Merrion esque), and the elephant clinging on to the cliff edge above a whole field of pink clovers...

I watched Black Sheep. This is a daft Australian zombie film in the vein of Braindead but with man-eating zombie sheep... Very, very silly but with quite a few laughs. If you like that kind of thing...

I've seen that one, too- got a few chuckles out of it. A similar one called "Dead Meat" involves genetically modified cows running amok, and there's another one like that involving pigs, called "Squeal". I always enjoy watching the animals give it back to the humans who treat them like commodities.

Watched a Spanish film "El Orfanato"/ "The Orphanage" last week. It was better than I expected, given that Guilermo Del Toro was involved and I've found his stuff to be quite over-rated. It wasn't anything new- fairly typical ghost story- but managed to be entertaining and maintain a vaguely suspenseful air. 3 out of 5- worth a rental, but I'm glad we didn't bother seeing it during the theatrical run.

Wasn't there some really tacky 80's weregoat film called Billy the Kid or something?

What a strange subgenre.