I'd like to welcome everyone who joins once again. Hopefully this will build up a bit, and we can get some real good discussions going. We feel this could be a real good place to really try and explain what you loved about a movie. Anything from the core of the script, to the acting; from cinematography to the editing. You name it, we wanna know what made a movie click with you.
(Side note: If you post up a movie and give it a review, try to keep the spoilers in a particular spot and be sure to mark them. Just so people can skip the post if they need to.)
So without further adieu I would like to start with a movie I watched for the first time tonight:
Law Abiding Citizen
This was a movie that I wanted to see when it was in theatres. It was a cool idea, with good actors. Some of the dialogue in the trailer was a little cheesy ("Its gunna be biblical."), but hey...we can all use a little cheesy hollywood dialogue every now and then. The trailer had me hooked from the get go. I didn't get around to seeing it on the theatre, but I will throw out there that it looked great in Blu-Ray.
The movie was shot pretty well, decent cinematography, good camera movement. The production design stood out in particular instances. The solitary confinement set looked like a damp dungeon from the middle ages; not particularly realistic for current prisons, but it looked damn good.
I love the actors in this film. Gerard Butler is a dignified bad-ass, Jamie Foxx is outstanding, and Colm Meaney is awesome. All three of their performances are decent, Gerard giving the strongest and most believable.
With a good mix of action and suspense, Law Abiding Citizen was a fun movie. The ending was a bit lacking in my opinion, but it worked within the confines of the film (and the two hour time limit, hehe). Its definitely worth a rent if you guys have netflix or something like that.
So, for those who have seen Law Abiding Citizen, what are your thoughts on it? What did you enjoy about the movie? Hate? Love? Anything at all!
I watched this with Dan tonight on BluRay... and I don't have too much else to add... The transfer looked great, the production design and cinematography were well crafted... even though a few handheld shots seemed out of place to me. The actors were all top notch, especially Gerard Butler. I thought overall it was pretty average... but entertaining...
ReplyDeleteOne issue I have is with the Marketing... a lot of the surprises were spoiled in the commercials and trailers... to the point that i knew exactly what was coming and it deflated the moments for me...
I also agree that the ending needed some more "Umph!"... it lacked tension and ended more abruptly than I would have hoped...
Well I have a vendetta against Jamie Foxx and mostly hate him in everything film he's been in but I will admit he was tolerable in this one.
ReplyDeleteI loved Gerard Butler and he owned this role through and through.
I was also surprised by the "darkness" (for lack of a better description) or perhaps I mean the tone of some of the traps he used. This tonality didn't really come through to me from the trailer and was a nice surprise. (I got a little bit of the feeling of "Seven" at times throughout the film which was exciting) but it fell short overall and didn't have the cohesive feel that Seven or similar films have, and it needed that cohesiveness to become a watch again classic in my book.
You didn't like "Ray"?
ReplyDelete***Future Note*** write your posts in a word type document (Pages, TextEdit Etc...) before putting it to this negative zone...SUCK
ReplyDeleteAnyways Seth and I saw this film just a couple of days ago (unfortunately not in Blu-Ray). Seth thought it was "ok astronaut" whatever that means… Both of us really enjoyed it. Whenever I movie has you yelling at the screen in which you are viewing it form, I think its safe to say they had you hooked…Story line was good loved the coloring of the entire film and camera department get a pat on the back lighting was great and I am pretty sure I saw Seth pee his pants when we first see the octagon interrogation chamber (HOLY AWESOME). Overall pretty SAUCY film.
I give it a BLU-RAY BUY (BRB)!! go get it, like Dan and John said its a great transfer and a good film. You will enjoy having this one in your collection.
kyle... one word... punctuation... just saying...
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Joel...some of the ways Gerard's character moved "the pieces" on the chessboard were quite dark and did tend to surprise me too. We watched the uncut version, which I hear has quite a bit more to it.
ReplyDeleteI also felt it could have gone darker. There were elements to the story that they were playing with, but never really went full on with them. This movie could have been a deep psychological thriller that could have walked on the line of the "How far would you go for the ones you love."
Again, I enjoyed it the way it was, but I was yearning more in the end. Some pretty good and intense moments do stand out.
I was expecting one more "Chess Piece" in the end... and was kind of deflated when that didn't happen... I felt the ending lacked tension... and the theme's about how flawed our justice system can be could've been built on further...
ReplyDeletethe best scene in the damn movie wasn't the action/tension stuff... it was the Bail Hearing... Gerard owned that scene... and that movie could've used more of that...
Exactly Dan. It had the potential to be the next huge thriller with that line. but it just dabbled with it instead.
ReplyDeleteJohn I totally agree with you about the bail hearing. I got chills when he flipped out. Also i didn't like Ray. I know thats a controversial choice but I hated how he won the best actor just for playing a character with a disability (and not well I might add) when to me either Leo or Clint Eastwood were the clear winners.
I thought he was the spitting image of Ray Charles, down to the voice, mannerisms... everything... it was uncanny... and he made the movie watchable for me...
ReplyDeleteI saw this movie the other day and it was alright. The plot was really easy to follow along with, but I felt like it could have used build up at different moments. I liked how they just explained that Butler was a bad ass guy who kills people for a living, but never showed a flashback or anything. It kind of left me like really? A guy in a tunnel tells you he can kill anyone from anywhere and this is all we have to go on? Over all though the movie was pretty well paced, I didn't find myself wanting to go do something else. The production design was very well done in some places, and the camera work/ film transfer came out very nice and crisp. Overall I'd say it was worth a watch. If nothing else it was entertaining, but I would have liked to see about 20 mins more character development.
ReplyDelete