What Did You Watch Today?

[BlackFlagg]

Birth - 6/10

[Ananas]

Surviving Christmas - **1/2

From the director of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo", Surviving Christmas is also in the vein of the choppy comedies that are charming in one moment and morbid in the next. Ben Affleck delivers one of his most forgettable performances yet as Drew Latham, the eccentric millionair who rents a family for the Christmas holidays to get over his own loneliness. Backing him up are 3 superb actors, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara, who along with Josh Zuckerman play the Valco family. Despite an interesting premise and charming moments, this is one of those ambiguous Christmas comedies unsure of what it wants to be. I can't remember one really good laugh throughout the entire film, and the performances are all that hold it together. Thumbs down.

[BlackFlagg]

Monty Python's Life of Brian - 9/10

[BlackFlagg]

Terminator 2 - 9/10

[ROC]

Killing Me Softly - 4/10 or (*1/2) In Killing Me Softly, Heather Graham shows off her best parts (her curvy body) and her worst parts (well, everything else). For nudity hounds, the first nudity comes about 10 minutes into the film (and if you're really that desperate to see her nude, watch the unrated cut). For everyone else, it's a film to avoid. Sometimes, it just depends on how much you like a celeb to bear watching a sucky movie just to see them bare their clothes (apparantly, what men will probably do if Anne Hathaway's nude fest Havoc ever opens, but that's a different story).

The Rundown - 6.5/10 or (**1/2) The Rundown proves itself to be a film that is funny at times and with an awesome action sequence during the Rock/Kontiki rebels fight scene. It is one of the best action scenes I've seen from recent films (with the last one being the freeway sequence from Matrix Reloaded).

Phone Booth - 7.5/10 or (***) A great thriller motivated by Kiefer Sutherland's awesome bad guy role (which brings intensity, talent, and dare I say, humor to the role) and very much helped by Colin Farrell's performance.

[Big Tuna]

Man On Fire-9.5/10

Very good movie, the only thing that stopped it from being a 10 was the quick change from a semi-serious movie into a Rambo-Style Movie.

Highly Recommended.

[livid]

25th Hour - 9/10

It was on Starz so I figured I would check it out. I saw part of it awhile ago, but this was the first time I watched the whole thing and wasn't dissapointed. I like Pepper as an actor and believe that he should be getting higher up there in the world of mainline actors as he gets more recognition. Norton was good stuff in this movie like he always is and Spike Lee did a good job with the movie. All around, a great 2 and half hours of entertainment.

[Benji]

The Grudge: 7/10

I genuinely jumped at this superior US remake, I have to say I prefer this over the original. It's kind of creepy and I'm expecting cat children to attack me, but I'll get over it.

The downfall is that it's very "seen it all before", mainly because I have, within supernatural 'horror' films they all end the same, but I'm not going to tell because that would give away the ending.

[BlackFlagg]

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - 9/10

[BlackFlagg]

Maverick - 8/10

[ROC]

The New Guy - 5.5/10 or (**) The New Guy takes the teen cliche, adds in some cool cameos (Gene Simmons, Tommy Lee, Henry Rollins, and David Hasselhoff ALL have hilarious cameos), adds Eliza Dushku in bikinis ( :thumbsup: ), and finally adds all that potty humor. All that makes for quite an interesting brew. Meh, but interesting.

Not Another Teen Movie - 7/10 or (**1/2) Now, here's a movie making fun of all those teen cliches. Some funny stuff holds it together well.

The Mummy - 6/10 or (**1/2) While many can criticize Stephen Sommers for turning scary movies into cheeseball action flicks (and they would be right), films like this still provide quite a good effects show and a good action ride with humor (Fraser is just oozing with one-liners), excitement, and fun. While the two Mummy films can hardly be comparible to the original horror classics, they are entertaining enough to be watchable.

School of Rock - 8/10 or (***) This film works well because everybody is on their A-game here. Jack Black does a good job of being funny yet somehow serious, Mike White writes his second great film in a row (his last one was the great drama The Good Girl), Richard Linklater directs another quality film, Joan Cusack does a great supporting job, and, of course, the kids are great in their musical talent (and yes, they are actually playing their instruments!). Just hilarious and more importantly willing to show off talented people.

[BlackFlagg]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 10/10

[ROC]

Alien Resurrection - 6.5/10 or (**1/2)

I plan to watch Thirteen and Secretary tonight. Reviews up in...whenever.

[KRC]

Without A Paddle: 7.5/10

Some really good jokes in this one, the real problem I had was I hated when Matthew Lillard's character was getting all "Deep", it seemed a bit overdone in past movies. Dax Sheppard & Seth Green were hillarious, and Lillard has a did a solid job.

Friday Night Lights: 7/10

Hardly "The Greatest Sports Movie Ever Made" but a good movie none the less. What happened with Boobie Miles was pretty overdone aswell, but I loved the interaction with him and his teammates, he really plays the "Cocky Star Player" roll really well. Also the drunk father/son scenes were good aswell. One of my favourite Billy Bob movies aswell.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

The Wash - 7.5/10

All in all the film was pretty good and didn't really have any bad points to it, just not any great points either. Although I really don't like Eminem, he's quite the funny guy in this.

Gothika - 9/10

Pure awesome movie! It's got some jumpy points at times and it tells a great story. Had me entertained the entire way through, couldn't have made this one much better if you ask me.

Girl Next Door - 9/10

Awesome movie! Nothing else to really say on it apart from the fact that it is funny and sad/romantic(at times anyway).

[Numbahs]

Alfie - 5/10

Sideways - 8/10

The Incredibles - 9/10 (Twice)

[FLiam]

Banf of Brothers 12/10.

[ROC]

Thirteen - 7.5/10 or (***) A powerful, harrowing flick made all the more powerful by the fact that I've heard of events of the same type of thing as shown in the film. Wood, Hunter, and Reed all turn in good performances (especially Wood in the film's finale).

Secretary - 8.5/10 or (***1/2) There is a reason Maggie Gyllenhaal is one of Hollywood's top young talents, and it isn't because of her last name. Gyllenhaal makes the role in Secretary really hers, though, it helps that James Spader is a pro at being neurotically sleazy. With humor (some of the kinky stuff is pretty hilarious), drama, and even a love story among it, Secretary will appeal to the indy crowd and those looking for some type of love story far out of the Hollywood norm. Either way, I'm watching it again.

[Twist]

2 Fast, 2 Furious - 9/10

Being able to drive gives you so much more appriciation of this film. Before I was like, O.o nice cars ... now its like, wow kickass cars.

[ROC]

The Girl Next Door - 8.5/10 or (***1/2) For the 5th or 6th time, still great.