What Movies Have You Seen Recently?

Stayed up last night watching all twelve hours of the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Very good. Also, Frodo looks like a young and innocent Daniel Radcliffe.
 
Goldfinger

Best Bond film I've seen so far.

Also, at the end, I couldn't help but think "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." If you get that reference, you get a medal.
 
Champion Christmas said:
Goldfinger

Best Bond film I've seen so far.
Click to expand...

seriously?
 
Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom

However, unlike the last time I saw that movie, which was before the 4th season of Winx Club premiered, I got ripped off tonight, as the movie's ending got skipped completely.
 
Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob

I watched this movie so many times in my childhood, and I still like it.
 
Saw Hugo; I got it for Christmas, since I saw it theaters last year, and my Grandma really wanted to see it. Still a good movie.

Edit: Saw Les Misérables with my family (except my dad, he stayed home).

It was pretty good! I previously saw the musical twice... but I only remember the first time I saw it, which was my high school production of it. I feel bad, because while I found the story interesting, I fell asleep halfway through it so I don't remember a lot of what happened...

Seeing the movie, I feel the story is really intense and emotional. I came close to tears at the ending. I didn't cry, though, I'm weird like that. The songs were also good and memorable, even the ones that are mostly just transition songs. But really, you can say that about the original book and the musical. How's the movie?

Well, I have to say, they really took advantage of the fact that it's a movie and not a stage play... half of the time. Moments with sweeping camera angles and shots of Paris, not to mention the fights on the barricade, those were all done really well. Other times, the camera just focuses on one character singing, which makes sense, seeing as I found out early on that this movie was mostly shot live, relying on both the actor's acting talent and singing talent to hold a lot of the film. And for the most part, it works. They managed to sing fairly well AND convey genuine emotion...

Except for Russel Crowe. My entire family and I all agreed that he was probably the weakest aspect of the movie. I don't want to say he's outright bad, he did fine, but his singing voice, while not off-key, just didn't properly convey the character of Javert, and sounded a bit awkward in some places... Which is a shame, because he's probably the most intriguing character of the story.

One last thing I feel the need to mention was something they added to the film. Since I only remember the beginning part of the musical I noticed that, in the beginning, Jean Valjean is ordered to lift a mast with the French flag on it. I immediately took notice of this, because I remember
he lifted a heavy cart to save a man's life later on. It's a nice touch they added to the movie, in that it helps convey to the audience how and why Javert would suspect the now mayor as the convict 24601 when he did that. A lot of film makers tend to forget this simple act of set-up and pay-off.

So yeah, overall a good movie. Quite a bit of it reminded me of just how demented and cruel this story can be... Makes me want to real the original story for myself, actually. Anyway, I'd give this movie a... 7/10.
 
Frankenstein Conquers the World

An underrated Toho film, sure it's not as good as most Godzilla films, but decent none the less.
 
Yesterday, I saw Django Unchained! I watched it with a co-worker of mine who had already seen it, but was more than willing to watch it again! I did so because I wanted to see it and was sure no one else in my family would want to. My sister's boyfriend is staying over, though, and he really wants to see it, so maybe I'll watch it again with him...

Anyway, this happens to be the very first Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen... kind of feel bad, because I really wanted to see Inglorious Basterds when it came out a few years back... But now that I've seen it, I believe I need to track down and watch Quentin Tarantino's other movies now as well, because I really liked it! It was a lot funnier than I expected it to be, and what's strange is that a lot of the humor came from a strange juxtaposition wherein there's wacky zoom-ins, off-beat lines of dialogue, and nonchalant attitudes when dealing with people casually being shot or having their faces blown off. Of course, there's the issues of casual violence towards slaves, which is the source of a lot of controversy... although, there was going to be controversy no matter what, and I honestly like that Tarantino had the balls to show just what the pre-Civil War South was like.

It's got great characters, too. Christopher Waltz as Dr. King Shultz is probably my favorite character in the movie.
For a while, it seemed like he steals the show, given how reserved Django acts, until suddenly he's killed off! It was quite shocking to me, and it made me feel sad, but thankfully, the film didn't go limp when he, and the main villain (who I'll get to) were killed off.
Jamie Foxx as Django,
like I said, kind of comes off as dull throughout the movie, but near the end, when he's mostly surrounded by fellow black people, his true nature comes out, and then you realize, his calm nature is really a survival instinct, burrowed into his brain through years of having his white owners treat him AND his wife horribly should either of them speak out of line. His true nature is actually kind of a smart-alec, and might I say, total badass!
The main villain, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, truly is one of the most despicable villains to have ever graced the big screen in recent years...
I'd say he, the character that is, is trying to pull off a "I'm a calm, light-hearted *bleep* who assumes everyone loves to see me act cruel and malicious", the sort of thing most people like out of the Joker and such, and for a while, it does seem that way, but really, when you get right down to it, he really is so obnoxiously cruel that he's almost beyond "love to hate" territory. I think what I like about him the most is how he grew up and why he has the mindset he does; apparently, "Monsieur Calvin J. Candie" grew up with his family completely surrounded by black slaves. He always wondered why, with so many of them, they never bothered to rebel. What I find interesting is his fellow white associate laughed at this, but he remained dead serious. One of the black slaves served his father and grandfather for 50 years, and even shaved them. He could have easily killed them then and there, but didn't. Calvin happened to own this slave's skull, and pointed out these three divots on the inside of the skull, saying these indicate the "submissive" part of the brain. He reasons that these are in ALL blacks, while the skulls of whites would have those divots in their more creative parts of the brain. I like this aspect, it makes him more human, and helps us understand why he reached this conclusion outside of being a racist. But really, it doesn't really justify watching 2 black slaves fight to the death or letting one get chewed and torn apart by dogs, and it's at that point where Dr. Shultz had finally had it and shot him...
But he isn't the only bad guy. What I found to be the most surprising aspect of the movie is the secondary villain, a black slave named Stephen, played by Samuel L. Jackson. He really plays up his performance, like expected, and is probably my second favorite character in the movie next to Dr. Shultz, but what's interesting about him is that
he's a black-hating black... Kind of like that one guy from The Boondocks. He's a lot less reserved than "Monsieur Candie", but at the same time, I think he's actually smarter than him... He's like the brains behind Candie's "big bad" entity, which I find rather strange, actually... Maybe I missed something, but just why is Stephen so devoted to Candie, and why does he have such a low opinion of his own race? I'd of love to know more about that, but even as it stands, he just comes off as an even BIGGER *bleep* than Candie. I mean, Candie may be a *bleep* who doesn't bat an eye at a black slave death battle or a black slave torn apart by dogs, but there's just something even more wrong when someone of your own race, one who's ALSO a slave/servant, and yet no only has the same low opinions shared by his master, but is a lot more vocal about it! In fact, Django and Dr. Shultz's plan would have succeeded if he didn't notice how angry Django was getting when his wife's scars were put on display. That's something that is, perhaps, the most intriguing point about the two characters. Candie was almost about to be dooped before Stephen stepped in, and Candie started to put on his full-on *bleep* performance. So really, he's nowhere near as cool as he thinks he is, especially considering he didn't even notice he was being had... And like I said, even though he died, Stephen was still there, and served as the main villain for the remainder of the movie, which wasn't that much longer, anyway.
The other characters are fine, not much else to say about them. The main four of this movie, though, are real stand-outs and make this movie a real joy!

I feel like I should address the "N-word issue", even though there isn't really much of an issue. That's what blacks were called back then; having it absent would have seemed strange, IMO. Not that it isn't a bad word, it is, but I think including it helps emphasis just what the word originally meant and the implication it had. Also, for anyone else who saw this movie, were you reminded of Blazing Saddles? Because I was...

One last thing: I feel the need to mention my favorite little moment. Early on in the movie,
Django and Dr. Shultz upset this one plantation owner, and he and a group from town decide to raid their cart... And there's a scene that I feel would come straight out of any give comedy, wherein the planation owner complains about the bags their using to cover their faces. A big argument comes out of this, about who's fault it is and whether or not to ditch the bags. It has no bearing on the plot whatsoever, but it's hilarious to watch, and helps emphasis just how funny this movie can be, even WITH dealing with such a VERY difficult subject matter.

Overall, one of my new favorite movies of this year... which is almost over. 8.75 out of 10!
 
Django Unchained; I mostly concur with Smashgoom's analysis. If you're gonna go into his other stuff, best start from his most famous movie, Pulp Fiction (or Inglorious Basterds if you want something more similar to Django).
 
I watched Star Wars episodes 4-6 last night one after the other.
 
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