Wednesday, February 29, 2012

February in Movies

Happy leap day everyone! I actually didn't realise until half way through the day that it was in fact the leap day...after spending half of the day trying to figure out when the leap day was. Gosh I'm cool. Anyway, that is February over. And if I'm being honest, I'm glad to see the back of it. I have always disliked February (aside from the madness of Oscar season) because everything is so up in the air at school, and by the end of the month we're out of that "ugh I miss the holidays so bad" phase and into the "can't wait for the holidays, but let's get some work done please" phase. The sooner I can get earning some credits, the better.
While last month was really good in terms of movie-watching, this one definitely wasn't. I'm still getting used to the fact that I lose over six hours of my day to school, which means less time to do stuff that I actually want to do. And then I just got into The Hunger Games series, so reading that has taken over most of my nights. Hopefully time management will fall into place in March.

Movies I had never seen before until the month of February...


Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 - I don't think I ever got the chance to stick this on last month's one. If you have not seen the trilogy, YOU NEED TO SEE IT.
Perfect Sense - In one of my classes we had nothing to do, so I filled out my film journal (must update that page) instead. Someone grabbed my book and they were flipping through it, and everyone seemed to be quite taken by Perfect Sense's page. Hopefully more and more people get to see it.
Kung Fu Panda - I know, I should have seen this in 2008. I'm so slack.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - WAY cooler than the first one. Which is quite an achievement.
Hallam Foe - My friend had this at her house, and being suddenly in love with Jamie Bell, I jumped on it. It was quite impressive, and it was also by the director of Perfect Sense.
Trespass - When it was Valentine's weekend we had these little love hearts saying which movies were good for couples to watch. One was on this movie. I nearly lost faith in humanity. No one should see this movie, let alone couples.
Sin City - Am I the only one who didn't like this film?
The Exterminating Angel - Was going to review this one but then I realised that there weren't many ways to review it. So odd...yet so great.
Flashbacks of a Fool - My friend had this too, and since it has Mark Strong, Olivia Williams and Felicity Jones (oh, and Daniel Craig) in it, I felt obliged to watch it. Nice enough movie - but Felicity Jones' general amazingness made the movie for me.
13 Assassins - Surprisingly my first live action Asian film. I almost got shot for saying that. Don't worry guys, I'm going to make amends...
The Beaver - We're watching Braveheart at school at the moment. And somehow, I'm having trouble picturing Mel Gibson without a beaver puppet on his hand. That's how much The Beaver damaged me.
Moneyball - It is so sad that this didn't come away with any Oscars.
Dark Victory - I love old films. I know that makes me sound like a hipster (and good lord do I hate hipsters), but anything black-and-white with muffled sound is good to me.
Munich - I'm catching up with all of the Steven Spielberg movies this year so I can truly justify my love for the god guy. I really liked this one, even though for a while I had problems trying to figure out what accent Daniel Craig was trying to achieve.
The Three Musketeers - If I had a say, I would have nominated this for Best Art Direction. It looked BEAUTIFUL. But then we got flying boats and a whole lot of other crap...yeah, I can see why it got snubbed.
Monte Carlo - Wasn't as bad as I was expecting. But do you expect me to believe that a goody two shoes like Selena Gomez would go to Paris with people like Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy, who are both known for more, ah, risqué roles? So confusing.
Fright Night - I was so disappointed with this one. I thought it would be kinda entertaining, but it just wasn't. Still, I want to give Anton Yelchin cuddles.
Shakespeare in Love - Watched this in class for our Shakespeare unit, on video (what are the odds?!). Okay, so maybe Gwyneth Paltrow didn't exactly deserve Best Actress, nor did the film deserve Best Picture, but it was still pretty cool. And it is obvious that looks run in the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family.
One Day - Such a good idea, but it was so shallow. Anne Hathaway's accent was atrocious. I still love her, though.
Tanner Hall - It was so weird seeing Rooney Mara with long hair and looking all girly. But you could see that she would one day be an Oscar nominated actress. This was quite a good film for the most-part, but like One Day, it was completely ineffective.

Films I've already seen before but the need to watch again because I'm cool like that...


The Help - Every time the trailer for this comes on at work I wait for Jessica Chastain to come on (in a small clip where she's jumping around and hugging Minny) and I have a full-on spaz attack. Every. Damn. Time.
Strictly Ballroom - I should rewatch my entire Baz Luhrmann set. I'm so excited for The Great Gatsby.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. - This movie keeps renting and renting. Which is fine by me. Laughs+Ryan Gosling's abs=worth more than the price of the rental.
Inglourious Basterds - Still utter perfection, no matter which way you look at it.
Lost in Translation - Oh gosh, this movie is almost perfect. I want to be Sofia Coppola.
Thor - Watched this for a third time with my friends. I grew more attracted to Tom Hiddleston. But my goodness, THERE ARE SO MANY CROOKED ANGLE SHOTS!!!!
Friends with Benefits - A 12am movie with my friends. You know that fake movie with Jason Segel and Rashida Jones that is put into the movie? I really wanna see that. (Also, this is the first movie that I've seen twice this year. Weird.)

What do you think about any of these movies? Watched anything good this month?
NOTE: I'll be gone for the next couple or three days. I'm going to the Arts Festival down in Wellington with my class to see a couple of Shakespeare plays, and won't be back until 2.30am on Saturday morning (and then I have work on Saturday afternoon, so who knows if I'll get anything posted?). Don't miss me too much!

31 comments:

  1. I didn't like Sin City either. It was too all over the place for me, and also kind of gross. I kind of love Shakespeare in Love... it makes me happy :P

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    1. YUSS! And Shakespeare in Love made me happy too :)

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  2. Phew, I always thought I might be the only person who didn't like Sin City! Yeah it looks extremely cool but I hated the characters, the overused voiceover, the representation of women. Massively disappointing.

    Also agreed about Moneyball. I thought it at least had a shot at Best Adapted Screenplay!

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    1. That is basically Sin City in a nutshell for me. It was weird.
      It should have won instead of The Descendants - enough said!

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  3. Solid month Stevee. But we all come to expect this from you. You are a legend

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  4. Oh Lord, One Day was so bad and Hathaway's accent was the worst I heard since Hilary Swank in The Black Dahlia. I'm actually set on watching Lost in Translation, it's such a brilliant movie and I never wrote a review for it.

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    1. I don't know what she was trying to achieve there. And my review of Lost in Translation doesn't seem to make a lot of sense now that I've seen it twice!

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  5. Aw man, you didn't like Sin City, really? It's like, the perfect comic book film.

    This is coming from a massive fan of the comics and Frank Miller, though, so I can't say that it isn't exactly bias, but I think the film is pretty bad ass...

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    1. Maybe in a few years I'll like it more, but otherwise...sorry :/

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  6. Hey, watching old movies doesn't make you a hipster. It merely showcases you're willing to explore the early years of the industry. (Jeez, I sound dorky just typing that.)

    As for Mr. Craig in Munich, I believe he was speaking with a similar accent that Leo was trying to do in Blood Diamond. (I don't remember really. I was too busy noticing how tight his jeans were in some scenes. Dayum, how I envy Rachel Weisz.)

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    1. That's not dorky at all! If only people could share that philosophy...
      Oh, the jeans. I can understand why I had a major crush on him when I was 11.

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  7. Yes you need to watch some more Asian movies! If you think Lost in Translation is perfect, then you must do everything in your power to watch In the Mood for Love.

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    1. 1,000,000% agreed with you on the need to watch In the Mood for Love. God, thinking about that film now it tears me up inside...

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    2. I've heard that's quite good - consider it to be in my watchlist!

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  8. I love Jamie Bell too! ... Anyway, I'm concerned about my next month because I was going to start reading The Hunger Games too...
    Hm, I've been starting to like old movies too - a lot. They just make you feel so... comfy and at home, I don't know how to express it.

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    1. I still need to truly start reading the second one - but reading is so time consuming!
      I know exactly what you mean!

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  9. Flashbacks of a Fool is a film I'm mixed about but I do love Felicity Jones in that film. Notably in the way she lip-synced Roxy Music's If There is Something. She completely won me over in that scene.

    Oh, I recommend getting all of the studio albums by Roxy Music.

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    1. I know exactly how you feel...that's the only clear memory I have of that movie!

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  10. You saw some good films. One Buñuel movie watched is good enough for me. Enjoy Shakespeare!

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    1. Technically there were two... I watched Belle de Jour just after posting this!

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  11. Nice batch of movies! 13 Assassins is great. Not a bad introduction to Asian cinema. :)

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  12. Ahaha can't believe you fell for Trespass! Despite all the warnings from fellow bloggers ;)

    "I almost numchucked you, you don't even realize!" (that's for your comment for 13 Assassins)

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    1. I didn't fall for Trespass...I just feel obliged to see every Nic Cage movie so I can justify my dislike for him, haha.

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  13. I am most definitely going to be checking out the Red Riding trilogy ASAP! It looks amazing!

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  14. I'm with you, Kung Fu Panda 2 is better than the first film. Great viewings this month, sorry you saw Trespass.

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  15. I had to watch The Exterminating Angel twice before I could even begin to articulate anything about it. It's definitely a great film, but oh, that Bunuel.

    I'm also pretty sparse on my Asian film watching. But there's definitely great stuff out there - the recommendation for In the Mood for Love is spot-on, that film is awesome. Also Chungking Express, from the same director, is really good.

    Loving old films does NOT make you a hipster. It makes you AWESOME. It's been forever since I saw Dark Victory, but I really liked it. Of course, I'm taken with most things old Hollywood.

    I will defend Shakespeare in Love (including its Oscar win) to my dying day. :)

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    1. Oh, Bunuel - he makes the most interesting stuff!

      In the Mood for Love is at the top of my queue. I can't wait for it to arrive!

      Oooh, I'm awesome! I love old Hollywood because everything was much more glamourous back then. I love glamour.

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You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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