Star Trek movies, 2fer10 at wallyworld. Look great upconverted on my Toshiba HD-XA1 and in DTS:D

Steep - A surprisingly bland documentary about some of the pioneers of extreme skiing in America. Sure, the mountain footage is spectacular, but the film lacks much of a story arc and never really bites into the personalities and motivations of the sport's characters, some of whom will pursue their passion to their demise. Worth a look if you're a fan of skiing films or mountain vistas, but a Warren Miller film would probably be more entertaining.

Next - Descent fare with Julianne Moore, Nick Cage and Jessica Biel. Something different at least. Wish it would have ended in a better way. Started fast, and was only around 90 mins long.
Watched on MCHD. Good action gave the 5.1 a workout. PQ was acceptable. Presented in 2.35 at least.

A South Korean satiric black comedy film about the events leading to and the aftermath of the assassination of former Korean President (Dictator) Park Chung-Hee by his close friend and Korean Intelligence Agency Chief Kim Jae-Kyu.

Almost the entirety of the film focus on the few hours before and after Park's assassination on October 26, 1979. Park is portrayed as a cowardly libertine, having late-night drinking parties, pawing young women, and in particular having much admiration for Japanese culture, to the point of occasionally speaking Japanese himself, which is considered somewhat of a sin as it shows admiration for Korea's former colonizers.

The title is a double entendre, with one meaning referring to the President's assassination, and the other meaning referring to the speculation that if the President hadn't been assassinated that night, he was most likely on his way to having a menage a trois with a couple of girls selected by his Intelligence Agency.

Rendition - On his way home to his pregnant wife and young son in Chicago from a conference in South Africa, a chemical engineer of Egyptian descent is pulled from his connecting flight and secreted away by the CIA to a prison in an unidentified country in North Africa where he's interrogated and tortured as a suspect in a terror attack against the country's defense minister. Meanwhile, his wife back home is frantically trying to find out what has become of her husband but she's continually stonewalled by government officials. A powerhouse cast (Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhall, Meryl Streep, Peter Saarsgard, Alan Arkin) is overpowered by this chilling, cautionary tale of the lengths the American government will go to root out the terrorists in their midst, no matter how suspect their suspicion. The film is muddied somewhat by a parallel plot involving the defense minister's own domestic problems.

A Stephen King book brought to screen, we enjoyed this movie. Well made, and an ending that worked. Recommended.

We were supposed to be in Burlington last night, but the fog closed in around 6:00PM, and at Trafalgar Road and the 401 it was to the point that we just went home. Seemed like a perfect night for a movie like this..... ;)

Not a lot of extras - deleted scenes, and a focus on the artist who does many movie posters. Both were interesting.

The DVD movie is in 16:9 format, so it fills the entire screen of a hidef TV. That adds considerably to the viewing experience, IMHO.

The Last Emperor - Criterion Edition

Fantastic DVD transfer of this acclaimed film. So far I only watched the theatrical version, still need to see the extended TV cut of the movie. Kudos to Criterion! 2:1 aspect ratio looks fine to me (minding that it was presented like that on 70mm prints and according to Storare it was their intention all along).

The Mist

Hated, hated, hated the ending. That would never happen. They just did that to piss people off.


Don

The Good Night - Gary (Martin Freeman) was once a pop star; now he's writing music for commercials and his relationship with his longtime girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow) is in a rut. So when Penelope Cruz shows up in one of his dreams, whispering sweet nothings into his ear, Gary becomes obsessed with keeping his lucid dream life going. A quirky, little sleeper (pun intended) of a movie, written and directed by Gwyneth Paltrow's brother, Jake, has some interesting ideas but falls a little short in comedic or dramatic momentum. I thought the dream sequences were especially well done

Coasterdon...I LOVED the ending of the Mist...yes it's a downer...yes it's not your typical Hollywood ending...but it's such a gut wrenching mind blowng "oh god no..."...when they pull back with the camera and reveal the "truth"...

Imagine that was you..the world was ending all around you with creatures wanting to rip your little boy into shreds the second you get of the car..you have only 2 bullets..there is no "perceived" hope..the agony of the "decision" weighing on you like 5 tons of bricks...what would anyone do in that situation?...I'm a father and I couldn't imagine doing what he did..but I couldn't imagine sacrificing my kids to the "monsters" either...it's a classic lose lose..and the "reveal" at the end that shows the consequence of that decision is gut wrenching as you know that consequence will never ..ever...be fogotten.

The audience is torn between thinking the father is the biggest idiot ..and feeling the deepest sympathy with the father knowing what "he has to live with" for the rest of his life

Sharkwater - A young Canadian biologist and filmmaker makes it his mission to save sharks by exposing their slaughter in Costa Rica and around the Galapogos Islands by long-lining fishers harvesting their fins. What begins as a beautiful nature documentary soon becomes a life and death ride-along with Paul Watson and his eco-warriors, punctuated with horrific scenes of the wasteful destruction of all species of sharks unfortunate enough to be hooked by the long-liners. Powerful and enraging.

I enjoyed the movie. The ending was a shocker:o. My wife had to go and lay with our 7 yr old son after that ending. She loves her happy endings. she wasn't too pleased with the ending. I thought the movie was done fairly well with the creatures. I expected some cheesiness, but wasn't too bad. I would reccomend this movie.

You are not sure what kind of movie this is, until the end. Not really a ghost movie, not really a zombie movie, a different take on thing that could happen.

Looks like a B action movie with horror overtones, but we thought it was better than that - enjoyable, interesting, with superiour production values than you might expect.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Sidney Lumet directs this heist melodrama about a couple of brothers (Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who are so desperate for cash, they plot to hold up their parents' suburban jewelry store. Of course, everything goes wrong, lives are unraveled, relationships are destroyed. A taunt well-crafted movie that's more about the people who inhabit the story rather than the story itself, as some of the plot twists seem a little incredulous.

If I had read the reviews, I could have been watching something entertaining..... :(

A retelling of the Lord Of The Rings story, sans rings, in the same way that Forbidden Planet is a retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

I wanted to see this because most of the movies with Jason Statham seem to be good, at least as far as being action movies. This one is just not a very good movies - reviews elsewhere that pan it seem accurate.

Even Burt in a helmut looks dopey.....

rfielder, that's a Uwe Boll movie. Just that name should've been a bright red alert on the movie. :)

We watched "The Kingdom" last night. Quite a good movie with great action, but it seems to get lost at time between being a good action movie and a political statement movie. It starts with a nice historical short about the Saudi Arabia and US relationship that felt like it was leading to something... but.... we get into an unrelated story instead. However, the opening sequence starts with such a bang (no pun intended) that it got us hooked fast.

I got annoyed at how all evidences were always found and good investigative techniques always came from the Americans. Singing, joking, swearing and doing a better job. But then came the actions scenes and it was intense. Maybe a bit too much shaky camera action, though.

And it ends with a very good line.

rfielder, that's a Uwe Boll movie. Just that name should've been a bright red alert on the movie. :)
That is not a name I recognize, so it didn't mean much to me....

I got annoyed at how all evidences were always found and good investigative techniques always came from the Americans. Singing, joking, swearing and doing a better job. But then came the actions scenes and it was intense. Maybe a bit too much shaky camera action, though.
Agreed, the Yanks are not the only ones who know how to investigate. Would have been an excellent movie it it hadn't need to be so rah-rah-Go-US-Go! sort of thing.

The Savages - Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are excellent as siblings who are faced with dealing with an elderly father suffering from dementia, as well as their own inadequacies, foibles and unfulfilled expectations. Poignant, darkly funny, and difficult to watch at times.

Just saw 88 minutes with Al Pacino on DVD yesterday. Good movie! Had me thinking until the end although the ending was not as good as the suspense / mind twists leading up to it.

Also saw Good Luck Chuck on DVD with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba. The movie was alright... it would've been worse if it wasn't Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and nudity and penguins... which i guess i'm saying the story itself was mediocre but the casting and the producing saved it.

Also watched a Chinese movie Flashpoint with Donnie Yan. He's the new Jacky Chan (probably better kung fu) coming out of Hong Kong. Those of you that understand Cantonese may want to invest in this DVD. It's not often that a quality movie is made in Hong Kong. This is no Departed but it comes close in terms of keeping you glued to the screen. The story line is so-so but the fight scenes are amazing.

Starting Out in the Evening - Frank Langella gives a tender and nuanced performance as novelist struggling with what he figures will be his last book, when his life is unexpectedly enlivened by a young grad student with designs on writing a critical biography of his work, and possibly more. A subtle, intelligent little film, smartly written and well acted.