Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths IMDb
This was a lot of fun, especially the first half.  It got more serious in the second half but still good.  Man, this is one I wish I would of seen last year in the theatre.  Loved everything about it.  Most of the music was cool.  Certain cool moments like the "Final Shootout Standoff" scene and Woody Harrelson losing it emotionally for a little dog.  Lots of dark comedy on here.  This is the second film from the director who brought us "In Bruges."  I remember liking that movie when I first saw it.  Sam Rockwell is hilarious here.  I think his character is my favorite.  This has a lot of scenes about these characters coming up with a screenplay for a movie, which in a way, inspires me to write some stuff up. Several "Oh, my god" moments and tense scenes makes this one very awesome.  Must buy for the collection.  Could of been in my honorable mentions from last year. 

Oscar Night Sunday: The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel IMDb
So my first Oscar Sunday movie this year I wanted to start with Wings (the very first movie to win an Oscar).  That movie was hard to get at the moment.  So I went this 1932 Oscar Winner.  Didn't know what to expect at all.  I like the first 20 minutes of this.  It seemed like a big play. The next hour was so and so.  I lost interest in it.  I fell asleep for like 10 minutes.  The last part was pretty good.  I thought the murder (in self defence, kind of) was rushed a bit.  This is a movie from the 30's after all.  Excellent shots.  Cool strange characters.  That's about it.  Definitely not a movie I would like to see over and over. 

The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy IMDb
This was a spur of the moment decision after work.  Went to 7-eleven and grabbed some nachos and went home and drank a coke to this big action movie. I've seen the rest of the Bourne movies.  I don't call myself a fan but they're okay from what I remember.  Right here, it goes concurrently with the last Bourne movie.  Same kind of set up different new character.  What more can you pull from a rabbit's ass?  It's got the same rollercoaster ride.  This one is still pretty good for an action movie.  It kept me in it until the very end.  I think my favorite scene has to be the scientist going on a shooting rampage.  Or maybe the last chase scene with the motorcycle.  Nice "killing the main bad guy" moment there.  In the mood for an Action movie, this one is okay to check out. 

Blow Out

Blow Out
Brian De Palma freaking rules with his earlier films.  I been wanting to see this one for a while. This one and Dressed To Kill has to be my favorite De Palma films besides the obvious Scarface, The Untouchables, and Carlito's Way.  This has a split screen, great 80's music including a track that also comes out in Tarantino's Death Proof. It has a suspenseful subway scene.  Hell, the whole climax was nothing but suspense.  There was some nice T & A in the beginning.  There was even a slasher sub story in this.  I loved it.  I love conspiracy movies.  This one is worth buying. Right now, I'm debating if I should start a Brian De Palma section for my collection.  I need to revisit the original Carrie and a few others. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild
This was pretty okay. It was artsy but not too artsy like other artsy films I've seen.  I didn't really connect well with the characters so I didn't care about them that much.  There were some cute moments in the first half but that's it for me.  I like that this was a good effort for a first time director.  Decent performances.  Beautiful shots.  The only reason for seeing this movie actually is because it was nominated for an Oscar.  Every year, I tried to watch most of the nominated films before the Oscars to see if I can root for them or not. This was borderline for me.  I rather see this win more than Lincoln and Les Miserables, for example.  But my heart is set on Django Unchained, Argo, and Silver Linings Playbook.  I plan to see Amour next month. The only two Oscar movies I'm going to miss are: Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi.
Back to this movie, well, my favorite part was when the little girl blew up the dam.  The rest was so and so.  You might want to eat alligator with this one.

New Release Tuesday: The Imposter

The Imposter IMDb
I saw the trailer to this crazy documentary mid-last year and damn I been wanting to see it ever since. The whole thing feels like a movie. You can almost say this is a docu-thriller. But, it's all real. It kept me on my toes through the whole thing. Didn't know what to expect. How can a 23 year old Frenchman con a bunch of government officials and a family to believe he's a 17 year old boy from the U.S.? Well, this documentary goes all out to explain all that. Very good and solid documentary. Since I saw this late at night, I thought I was going to fall asleep. Luckily, I had me some hot chocolate. But, even if I didn't, this documentary had me on full alert.

The Last Stand (2013)

The Last Stand IMDb
My first official 2013 movie of the year delivered the cheesy action goods. Loved it. Now, I was afraid that one of my favorite Korean directors was going to flop with his first American movie. But, damn, this one was badass for what the story was. Lots of good bloody gunshot scenes. Quirky funny moments. I mean, come on, we can't take Arnold Schwarznegger seriously. His character and the rest of his team was spot on actio great. Favorite moments include: Johnny Knoxville blowing someone to pieces. The sheriff killing someone while falling off a building, and an old lady civilian killing an intruder. Lots of claps during those moments. Kudos to Jee-Woon Kim. The director of I Saw The Devil, A Bittersweet Life, and The Good, The Bad, and The Weird. I guess this new movie is my fourth favorite Jee-Woon Kim film. Good start for the year.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook IMDb
Very awesome movie we got here.  Seriously, I didn't think I was going to like it as much.  I did wanted to see this last year but didn't have the opportunity until this night.  After watching it, I could easily say this would of been a top 10 or at least an honorable mention.  Touching story.  But, great dialogue and comedic moments.  I don't usually don't connect well with dramedies but this one was one good ride.  Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, hell, even Robert DeNiro, played characters, each with their own set of psychological problems. And boy, they delivered in that department.  I can somewhat relate to the main character.  There's usually something that triggers feelings from the past that make me do stupid things.  But, the goal is always to try to overcome these triggers and stuff.  This is definitely a feel good movie at the end.  After all the mess and all, there was something there that made me smile.  This is an Oscar contender, my heart goes all out Django Unchained, but, I wouldn't mind if Argo or this movie wins big.

Cult Classic Friday: Harold And Maude

Harold and Maude
Wow! Where have I been all my life? This is such an awesome movie.  From the beginning scene to the last shot.  What makes this movie are the catchy dialogue and the music.  Damn, that music.  Majority of the songs were recorded and performed by Cat Stevens for the movie.  This is supposed to be one of the greatest cult classics of all time.  I can see why.  Bud Cort who plays Harold looks evil.  I like all his suicidal stunts he pulls on his mother and his "dates."  But his heart belongs to one woman.
A 80 year old woman with a free spirit.  Lots of good moments from them both: stealing cars, attending funerals, playing music, etc, etc.  Harold's mom also has hilarious moments and dialogue. I have to add the Criterion version to this to my collection.  And for the record, this is also my first time watching a Hal Ashby film.  I Luv Video has a section for him so he has to be somewhat famous in the film world. 

Iron Sky

Iron Sky IMDb
Woke up this morning, turned off the all the lights in the living room and with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and hot tea, I saw this Nazi/Space movie.  Good way to start the day before heading to work.  I first heard about this movie from last year's SXSW film festival.  I'm a big fan of movies with Nazis.  So I had to eventually see this. I didn't know what to expect. Just maybe a silly movie.  This movie was pretty silly but it had a good style.  It's got a good looking sexy nazi played by Julia Dietze. One of my favorite moments happens when the nazis confiscated a cell phone from the American.  The American said it's a phone and a computer.  An Einstein looking scientist laughs and says "That's not a computer.  This is a computer." He reveals a big old school wall size computer machine.  I laughed out loud with that one.  So there were some good cheesy moments. Good to see.  Not sure if I would buy just yet.  Expect a low budget stupid movie and that's what you'll get.

New Release Tuesday: Taken 2

Taken 2
I went in with low expectations with this sequel. I love the first one a lot. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Yes, it was kind of annoying in the beginning with all the sappy dramatic family stuff.  The ex wife is now separated from her new husband and starts getting closer with her ex husband again.  How original!  The daughter, despite going through a lot in the first film, still thinks she can go to another country with no worries.  So I wasn't into that early stuff.  But later, it picked up. There was three okay action scenes: the chase scene,  the escape scene and the final scene towards the end.  Other than that, the other scenes were just focused on the drama.  So, nothing new or exciting to add to this story.  Liam Neeson's character is more bad ass than Superman.  He just touches a person's face and that person dies.  That's what this movie showed anyway. 

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot IMDb
So I threw my son a birthday party today.
After the day was over, I glanced over my "movies I own but haven't seen shelf" I saw this one.  My girlfriend tells me it's a father and son type of movie so I decided to give it a go. It was sweet.  The actual father and son moments happen much later in the movie but it's pretty good.  I like some of the English music on here. I downloaded one of the songs while watching the movie (T. Rex's "I want to Boogie" (I think)). There was a touching scene for me.  And no it wasn't the happy emotional ending.  The scene that touched me was the father going back to work regardless of the strike just so he can afford to send his son to the big ballet competition.  This is supposed to be a comedy. But it's both Drama and Comedy put together.  For the meantime, this is now sitting in my Comedy section.

Vampire Thursday: Fright Night

Fright Night IMDb
Pretty fun and cheesy vampire movie.
Saw the not so good Colin Ferrell remake last year
but never seen the original.
I think I've seen pieces of this as a kid but I don't recall watching
the whole thing.
I like the weirdness of this movie.
The best friend, "Evil," was annoyingly hilarious.
This covers most vampire rules: cross, holy water,
mirror reflections, and etc.
The cheesy 80's music made some serious scenes funny.
I really enjoyed the set up to this film.
It dragged just a bit towards the end but it was pretty cool.
It's got "Marcy" from Married With Children.
Overall, not a bad start for Vampire Thursday.

New Release Tuesday: Compliance

Compliance IMDb
This is the kind of movie that gets you mad.
I can't believe how stupid people can be.
A prank call goes hardcore in this movie inspired by true events. All the people have to do here is hang up and verify
within the first 20 minutes of this movie.
And then, things wouldn't have gone through the extreme.
But then again, we won't have a movie, won't we?
So, I had to put up with an hour and half of people being so
stupid (including our main victim) and believing the caller in everything. The main victim could of stopped the sexual assault a long time ago by telling her manager about the requests made by the caller. But, she got what she deserved.  That was a spoiler, by the way. I usually say spoilers to movies that get me mad.
If you're interested in what fully happens and want to go through the experience, then check it out. This is a type of movie I don't want to see again. I was just curious about the outcome.

Samurai Monday: The Tale of Zatoichi

The Tale of Zatoichi IMDb
Awesome start for Samurai Monday.

I've seen Zatoichi: The Blind Swordman by Takeshi Kitano

a long time ago.  And I know this character

is famous character in the samurai world, so I had to 

see the very original movie.
The only downfall was that most scenes were too dark.

But, other than that, this kicked ass.

I love the set up for the war at the end. I love the speed of Zatoichi. I didn't even see his sword swing.

Just all of a sudden, a couple people are cut.

I loved it.I enjoyed this a lot more than my first screenings of 

a few Kurosawa sumarai movies.  So, I am looking forward for the other 11 samurai movie I got set up for this year.

I like the honor between the two main samurais in this movie.

Screw dying by a bullet, die like a real samurai.  Swing!!

Got to add this to my Asian section.

No trailer found but here's a clip from the movie:

Julia

Julia IMDb
Saw this late tonight after coming home from work.
I've never heard of this movie.
It was a gift from my girlfriend's parents to us.
Why this movie?
They wanted to share with us the very first movie they saw
together in the theater back in the day.
I'm not too much of a fan of these kinds of films but
as a fan of all cinema, I also don't discriminate.
The first 30 minutes were pretty interesting.
It's got some good dialogue.
After a while, I got confused with the story until
it picked up again later. I like Jane Fonda (especially in Barbarella (wink, wink)). And this movie marks Meryl Streep's very first role. She did one TV movie before this but this one is a bigger role.  This movie is not really for me but I still found it cute that my girlfriend's parents wanted to share this with us.  

Premium Rush

Premium Rush IMDb
This movie was everything I thought it was going to be,
which is just a basic movie with decent entertainment.
I saw it because I wanted something fast paced and with
decent actors.  I like Michael Shannon.
I think this is the first time seeing him in a blockbuster movie.
The movie didn't "wow" me but that was expected.
A few flaws here like I was confused why
certain characters were all over the place around the same time.
I'm planning on visiting New York one day but I ain't riding
no goddamn bike there. That's for sure.
There was too many back and forths here in the storyline
but that's the style. 
Overall, decent one time only movie.
Not worth buying.

Killer Joe

Killer Joe IMDb
This was a pretty twisted movie.

It had a little bit of dark comedy, little bit of drama,

and a great role for Matthew McConaughey.

Seriously, he did really awesome here as a detective/hitman.

Lots of cool little scenes.

Reminded me of movies by the Coens.

Good music for this movie about a white trash family.

There's a little messed up scene involving a 13 year old girl

sucking a fried chicken leg.

The ending left me with a big question mark.

I guess it's all for interpretation.

Worth checking out.

Now I'm going to let this one sit through my head before

I decide if I want to have it for my collection.

After seeing this movie, I should of had fried chicken and maybe
a casserole side.  But, tonight I had a homemade Texas chili cheese fries and a Shiner.

New Release Tuesday: Cosmopolis

Cosmopolis IMDb
I didn't know what to watch today.
Nothing I've never seen before sounded interesting.
I like David Cronenberg but I never ever cared
for watching any movie with that Twilight guy.
But, I gotta stay loyal to my movie principles.
This was a let down from the start.
It's a sci-fi drama but it tried to hard to be weird.
It reminded me a lot of "Holy Motors."
But the latter is at least way better than this Cronenberg flick.
I wasn't understanding what was going on through most of
the movie, but most of all, I didn't really care to understand.
My heart and attention wasn't fully on this.
Now for sure, I'm going to boycott any movie with Pattinson in it.
Hope none of my favorite directors ever cast him.
Rough start for this year.

****2013 Movie Specials****

Here's the movie specials for this year:

The 1st Monday of every month will Samurai Monday.
I will watch a samurai movie I've never seen before.
I'm not a big expert. I've seen a few.  Now, it's time to catch up with
this genre.

The 2nd Thursday of every month is now Vampire Thursday.
That's right.  I'll be preparing myself with crosses and garlic
and watching 12 different vampire movies I've never seen before.

The 3rd Friday of every month is Cult Classic Friday.
I'll be checking out 12 movies I've never seen before that
have a huge cult following.  These movies might of flopped in the box
office but they have gathered lots of fans among movie fanatics
and other "weirdos."

The 4th Sunday of every month is Oscar Sunday.
The reason is the fourth Sunday is because the Oscars
this year is on the fourth Sunday of February.
So why not?
I'll be seeing 12 different movies that won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
 My goal is to see at least one from each decade since the beginning
of the Oscars.

And of course, every Tuesday each week is still New Release Tuesday
where I see a movie I've never seen before that gets released on DVD
that day.

So let this year begin.