True Grit (2010)
Definitely deserving of all its praise 4 years ago. Excellent film, and one of the Cohen Bros.' best.

Unstoppable
Thought it was average Tony Scott fare. Not sure why it got as much acclaim as it did. It was enjoyable but the shaky-cam started giving me motion sickness towards the middle of the movie.

Cesar Chavez

AKA "How to Obliterate a Movie Studio"

Which is funny, because it's better than 90% of the action blockbusters that get released today and quadruple their budgets.

Bit of a Tarantino fest over the weekend. Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill 1 & 2.

Alien...still a suspenseful classic.

Reading the reviews, I thought I was in for some lost diamond. No dice. Fun performance by Conte but the script is ultimately weak with inconsistent characterizations and maddeningly contrived complications to the hero's pursuit of his goal. Disappointing.



Audrey just improves with age (my age). Astaire is too old for the romantic lead, but the film is still an intoxicating confection- though the Gershwin tunes are mostly forgettable this time 'round.
The image isn't quite what is should be considering it's Vista Vision origin, but I don't think it looked nearly as bad as fans have groused about. Faces are a little waxy on occasion, but with the advanced age of some of the male lead and female support, I wouldn't have expected ruthlessly revealing detail in every shot.
Colors, OTOH seem beyond reproach with a spectrum of technicolor hues in some scenes ( the bohemian cafe) that rival anything Bava splashed on the screen. Umbrellas Of Cherbourg is renowned for its color, but I honestly think this movie is even more dazzling in that respect.

Also watched the last half of Jodorowsky's Dune.
A great case is made for all the great now classics that wouldn't have been created if Jowdorowsky's 'bible' didn't kick around all the studios.

Crank

Under the Skin & Scanners made for a swell double feature.

Far and Away. Could have been much better by cutting about 20 - 30 minutes.

#1 of 3 from this set:

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and The Missing Pieces.


Good stuff. It had been a decade since I had seen the film and the newly released deleted scenes were great. It would be neat if Lynch would add them back into the film but most of the scenes don't have music and as long as it took for them to be released I doubt the studio would want to pay Angelo Badalamenti to score them.

#2 of 3 from the above Mad Max set.

Crank 2...zany and madcap. loved it.

#3 of 3 from the above Mad Max set.

Watched Thor: The Dark World this evening...

Toy Story 3D...amazing story telling and character development.

Doomsday (2008)

Blue Ruin, an off-beat Indie thriller that is surprisingly entertaining.

http://www.doblu.com/2014/08/01/blue...lu-ray-review/

Noah, wow not sure what to say about it.

As a stand alone movie, nothing to do with the bible, not bad.

As a movie based on the Biblical Story, wow did it miss a great opportunity to make the movie correctly. I thought the writer/director made some very "Interesting" choices for this movie.

They went over the top with Noah's characterization, basically going in an opposite direction from the Bible. I'm not sure why anyone thought Hollywood was going to make it a Biblically accurate story.

Disturbia

Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 - I found them rather booring. I think I'm gonna trust BD.com's reviews more than DVDtalk's from now on.
BD gave the content 2.5 out of 5, DVDTalk 4 out of 5

All I remember from Crank was the Amy Smart scene in Chinatown.

Noah

Green Lantern

Under the Skin. Too much silence and no dialogue and the movie was really strange.