I forgot to post reviews of a few new films out on DVD the last time I did it, so here are the ones that I missed. As always, they’re brief and to the point.
Michael Clayton
First, George Clooney is outstanding. Second, the story itself is amazing – especially the film’s conclusion.
South Park: Season 11
This isn’t out on DVD yet, but you can download it on iTunes. Being that it’s my favourite animated show, I’m completely bias. But it has to be said that Guitar Queer-o is truly outstanding (not to mention accurate beyond belief, ahem).
Gone Baby Gone
This film proves that Ben Affleck should stay behind the camera and that his brother is far superior in front of it.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Complete nonsense. Utterly and completely historically inaccurate. Looked great though.
Martian Child
Good for that warm, fuzzy feeling. That’s about all.
We Own The Night
I have to admit, much better than I expected it to be.
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“This film proves that Ben Affleck should stay behind the camera and that his brother is far superior in front of it.” Bahahah! nice
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Yah I hate Ben Affleck in movies, mostly because of that whiny, crying scene he did with Bruce Willis in Armageddon.
He pretty much stinks up the screen in whatever he’s in.
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I have to agree with Matt with regards to We Own The Night. I was expecting something far worse than what we got.
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I watched Michael Clayton the other night. Clooney was great. Have you seen the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford?? In my humble opinion Casey Affleck should have been nominated in the Best Actor category for his performance. He out classes his big brother in many ways….
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South park is by far my favorite show in general, let alone animated. It’s amazing how it just keeps getting better too, after 11 seasons you’d think it would get stale. But I guess the world is getting more and more f-ed up, so that helps when your writing a show like South Park.
You should bring out one of those guitar hero controllers and play a little acoustic song on your next tour!
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Almost rented Martian Child last night, because John Cusack rocks my world.. Da boy can act…. He’s oscar bound, I can feel it in my bones!!!! Instead we rented Easter Promises: HOLY SHIT, NAKED VIGGO ALERT!!!!!!!
Thanks for the other updates, M.
I want to see Michael Clayton.. since Syriana, George proved he’s at the top of his game and is staying there, I want to see everything he’s in.. (except Oceans 13, which suuuuuuuucked)….. Love Tom Wilkinson….
I agree about Ben (ala Good Will Hunting proof), although I liked him in Boiler Room for some reason….
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Quoting Minivan mom:
Mini, Casey actually was nominated for the Oscar in the best supporting category..
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I absolutely love Michael Clayton. A friend and I went and saw it the day it came out, before all of the Oscar hype, and we were blown away by how great it was. Watching it twice makes it even better because the story is pretty deep so going through after seeing it once made it easier to pay attention to everything in it.
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If you have not seen it yet, watch Once. It is amazing, the music in it is breathtaking.
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Hey…leave the Guitar Hero alone! Nothing will replace the real thing, but it’s pretty damned fun. Hell of an episode, though…
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Yes I agree with tracy Once is a truly amzing film. I do have to say that Ben Affleck gets a lot of undeserved shit. He has done some truly horrible movies but what actor hasn’t. To me, he proved himself as an actor with his preformance in Hollywoodland and as a writer/director with Gone Baby Gone. Plus he was the bomb in Phantoms yo!
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On the homepage for Yahoo when I logged in a while ago said that the game could turn people into real life guitar hero’s…. ok I give.. what is Guitar Hero?
Tracy, when did Once come out? I must google…
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Ben Affleck generally isnt that impressive, and I agree Casey is superb in his movies (bar Gerry, that arty effort with Matt Damon that Gus Van Sant knocked up which was as rivoting as sharpening pencils for an hour and a half). Good Will Hunting is masterful though, Affleck solid in his role both with his brother. Damon and Williams mafe it though, with incredible scriptwriting by Damon at just 22 (Affleck helped sure, but we all know who’s baby it was). I agree Gone Baby Gone was Casey’s movie, with Ed Harris at his usual good standard as well, it was gritty and well shot by Affleck.
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One day I turned on the tv and watched South Park and realized it had something on all other animated combined.
I think they stepped it up starting from season 10, that was easily my favorite as it’s socially commentary and parody of current (mostly) events was dead on.
And nothing wrong with Guitar Hero, we cant all be rock stars! lol The SP episode was excellent.
It’s accessibility is the mid-point between the people who don’t want to learn and the ones who do.
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T, apparently it came out in 2006, out on DVD around this time last year (according to IMDB). I actually only heard about it because I was watching parts of the Oscars and they sang “Falling Slowly” (which one an Oscar) and I fell in love with the song. So I thought I would go buy the movie, finally got it today and I love it so much. I highly recommend it.
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I watched “He was a quiet man” tonight. Interesting, worth a watch. Best acting I’ve seen out of Christian Slater.
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Thanks Tracy…. is it that couple who won, you mean? Oh, I loved that song too!!!!!! They beat out all those songs from Enchanted……
I just heard about ‘He was a quiet man’ yesterday….I wonder if it’s new because I rarely see Christian Slater anymore and I’m a huge fan of his.. I will definately see this movie….
Well, Blades of Glory just started. bye folks.
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Matt,
I read in the Georgia Straight that you were an NFB supporter (could be the guy was just saying that because your hands were above your head)…
A friend of ours (my gf and I) works at NFB and gives us movies to checkout.
Just recently, I viewed (gf is off in India volunteering — now I’m super sad) “CARTS of Darkness”. It is about the shopping cart guys who ride their carts down the steep roads in North Van (at some 60km/h). And it is an interesting insight into the city’s homeless.
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I have to disagree with everyone who says there is nothing wrong with guitar hero, I do play guitar, so I am biased, but hear me out. Guitar Hero is great for shits and giggles at partys, but I can’t imagine why anyone would want to invest that much time to get good at the game solo. Buy a real guitar (probably cheaper than the game at Wal-Mart) and start to learn some easy songs, you won’t progress as fast as you will in the game….but you will most definitely get more chicks!
I played it for the first time this past new years, and it is pretty funny, because some of the songs are soooo fucking easy to play on real guitar, but hard to play on the game. So the game is fun with a few people, but if your sitting there for hours on end by yourself, please just pick up a real guitar.
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I gotta agree, Guitar hero looks quite silly. I just do not see the fun in it.
I do like South Park, but to me family Guy is far and away the funniest animated show on television. It doesn’t attempt satire as much as SP but they have conversation etiquette down.
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For any fans of Al Pacino I highly recommend picking up his boxed set. It’s previously unreleased movies the he, Pacino, either directed or had a hand in creating (as well as acting in).
In particular Chinese Coffee absolutely blew me away.
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Ballz, you got ballz…… ha kidding..
Awesome insight….. Thanks…
Hilary Clinton just freaking appeared on SNL, is she allowed to do that? That was crazy…. I really did not think that was her, but it was… she did the ‘live from Saturday night’ bit…. oops, meanderer gal is at it again.
Matt I love your movie threads…….. I loooooooove movies…. post more post more!!!!! I love to talk, movies are my first love..
Has anyone seen American Gangster and would you recommend it? Please and thank you.
Night.
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You should see In Bruges if you’re looking for a laugh involving Brit comedy.
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Quoting pyemaster:
Actually Ben did do most of the writing. Yeah I know he looks like the total doofus jocky dummy, but he is quite intelligent. Except he seems to share the same agent as travolta for picking films. Although it seems to be getting better lately.
I directed a play called Matt & Ben ( even just reading the script is hilarious) which has the premise of basically how did Good Will Hunting come to be. It plays on Ben being dumb and Matt being very anal - kinda Oscar/Felix Odd Couple thing. It was a very funny play though -
As for We Own the Night - I gotta admit I expected it to be solid considering the actors - Duvall was a caricature of himself seemed like he was making up the lines as he went along. Phoenix was fine but not engaging as he usually is. Whalberg was useless and Mendes i kept wondering why they cast her - was it strictly so they could have a mainstream actress show her nipple. It was as if the whole thing was improv’d.
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quite true about Guitar Queer-o…
“real guitars are for old people Mr. Marsh”
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Quoting Minivan mom:
I just watched the Assasination of Jesse James the other night and couldn’t agree more. I have always liked Casey since way back with his bit part in Good Will Hunting. I watched both Michael Clayton and Gone Baby Gone recently and loved them both, I think we are gonna see a lot more Casey in light of these recent performances.
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Quoting T-Lee:
I have and I do. Definitely.
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GO SEE “Once”!!!!!
seriously, it’s pretty much the best movie ever
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Quoting MissChriss:
LOL. i need to go and watch kevin smith now!
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Quoting T-Lee:
Yes, and i would definitely recommend it. it is absolutely fantastic :)
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I have yet to see this episode of South Park, so I cannot comment on it.
However, I will say this about Guitar Hero: that game is a laugh in a half when you’re playing with a group. :)
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Guitar Queer-O is definitely one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in quite a while. The cliched scenes, the emo kid prodigy, the real guitarist’s suckitude…loved it. The ending was just the icing on the cake, hysterical.
American Gangster, I found, was a gritty look at corruption on so many levels. At times it reminded me of Scarface (big surprise) and an older “gangsta” movie that I forget the name of. Definitely going to watch it again.
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i saw micheal clatyon, and yeah clooney was awesome. i thought the movie dragged in some parts and it was kinda hard to follow, but i thought the ending was awesome.
i thought we own the night was good, but typical. joaquin phoenix was awesome. without him the movie would’ve sucked in my opinion.
i LOVED gone baby gone. excellent acting and directing. the story is mind boggling. it made me think of the ending; i honestly don’t know what to decide if i were in that situation…
i agree about the assassination of jesse james; excellent movie. casey affleck was awesome in that as well.
speaking of Gus Van Sant; i just recently saw My Own Private Idaho with River Phoenix (I still can’t believe how Joaquin is his brother). weird movie. but that’s gus van sant i guess.
anyways, you HAVE to see Into the Wild !!!!!
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Quoting T-Lee:
Yeah, I know…just don’t think that was a “supporting” actors role. He was the main character in my opinion and stole the show.
I can’t wait to see Into the Wild, and Juno!
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Quoting jeni25:
Cool. I was worried that would go over some peoples heads. Sorry for this being completely off topic but it seems that following the success of ” I’m fucking Matt Damon” and ” I’m fucking Ben Affleck” Kevin Smith decided to throw his hat in the ring and made one from the set of the movie he’s shooting with Seth Rogen. It’s a good way to waste a couple minutes..
http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2008/02/25/quick-stop-exclusive-im-fing-seth-rogen/
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Ah I sit corrected, I believed Damon to have been working on it for several months by himself whilst in Harvard, and after having conceived the plot and basic script, went to Affleck to help fill bits in and refine the script. They then went to Rob Reiner who told them some dos and don’ts, before securing Van Sant and away they went. I credit Damon more than Affleck for the script as it was his thing from the start, Affleck chipped in later on. Or so I thought.
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Quoting jeni25:
ha ha speaking of him. I was surfing this morning when I saw Kevy himself, ON DEGRASSI!!!!!! …. yes, him and Ben are best friends… I don’t think Ben is a duffus, I think he just picks the wrong movies…… Kevin wouldn’t hang with duffus’s, he’s too smart…. so yeah….. ……. poor Ben….. he’ll get a good role soon, I’m sure..
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Quoting Minivan mom:
I will check it out….. I agree, sometimes I think that someone should be in the Best Actor category, but it really goes by who is the Protaganist and who is the Antagonist, I believe….
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I have been saying Seth Rogen is hot sinch he was all shaved and buff in Superbad and at the Oscar’s he was back to being the original ”Seth” with Johah Hill as a look-a-like… man, the calls I got that night…. “you think that guy is hot”?
God, what is wrong with people… hot isn’t all about being shaved… it’s also in the glasses, man….. some glasses just do it!!!!!!!
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Quoting MissChriss:
ah poop! the link is all wonky. i’ll have to check it out sometime today, besides i havent been to his site in awhile so this gives me an excuse. plus i should catch up on my smodcasts :P
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My girlfriend, who is a history major in university, totally flipped when she saw Elizabeth! Completely historically inaccurate, but i guess that’s hollywood where nothing is real and we turn fact into fiction.
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Quoting T-Lee:
i still have never seen those degrassi episodes :(.
yes i agree on Ben not being a duffus….off camera, the guy does seem kinda cool.
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Quoting DaveyJayEn:
Randy Marsh sprawled out on the couch, in his underwear, playing Heroin Hero…that is what did it for me.
Cartman: Butters, you wanna play me next?
Butters: Okay, but I get to be the one that betrays you after the sex and drug party. - ha ha, i love butters!
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My quoting button is not appearing right now.
Jeni25, he’s very quiet seeming. And reserved. That doesn’t tell me he’s someone seeking attention or the superstar status….. we all know what happened when he appeared on Jennie from the block. I think he learned his lesson which tells me he’s human and makes mistakes… On that note, I will end my Ben comments for the day and congratulate him on the movie!!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait to see it………
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Quoting T-Lee:
Oh man… Seth Rogen is so adorable!!!
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Wasn’t he cute with Jonah, all superbaded out? The Halle Berry twins…. that was friggin hilarious, when they came out to present that award. ah ha ha.
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Mmm hmm. He is so yummy.
and on a side note, yay for me figuring out how to get a little picture!!
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Oh dear… seems I haven’t figured it out yet :(
Help!
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haven’t seen a single one of those movies yet.
The only one that I’m interested in is ‘We own the Night’
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The most recent movie that I watched that I am COMPLETELY in love with is: The Namesake.. it was a wonderful movie..
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Quoting T-Lee:
i think you may have mis-read what i was saying.
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Quoting Brent:
As much as I liked Al Pacino, it seems to me that ever since he did Scent of a Woman, his brain and linguistics somehow became hardwired in that “whoo-ahh” voice and he became the living embodiment of Lt. Frank Slade. I now watch The Godfather and can’t imagine him talking like he did in that film- like a normal human being. That and the fact that he’s made a bunch a crappy movies since Scent of a Woman doesn’t help his cause in my eyes.
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Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia….good lord, what a waste.
Looks like we’ll never catch that dragon in the forest, huh?
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Quoting Duane Storey:
Not Fair, can’t forget about Dogma!
Though that may be because Kevin Smith is brilliant and Alanis Morisette as God come on…
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Quoting Communist Dan:
Agreed, except for Heat, which was brilliant.
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“guitar queer-o” is BY FAR, the greatest episode of south park since they released “make love, not war”
Kyle - I never thought it was all about the points
classic
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Quoting jeni25:
Oh sorry.. No, I was rambling.. just talking about loud…. Nope, I gotcha!!!!
Just further agreeing with you that he’s pretty cool!!
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Watch both Martian Child and Michael Clayton today.
I thoroughly enjoyed both films. I agree that Martian Child was a warm and fuzzy type of movie. Still, the story behind it was interesting and I thought the boy was great in it. Michael Clayton was great. I loved the story and the ending surprised me. George Clooney again shows why he is one of the best actors in the business and willing to take roles in a film that makes the viewer think.
I love South Park, and I’ve seen the Guitar Queer-o episode, which has become one of my fave episodes, and agree that it is pretty dead on.
I’m looking forward to watching No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, when they are released.
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Is Javier (can’t remember last name), the guy who won the Oscar for No Country for old men, the same actor who played the main character in the movie ‘Before NIght Falls’? (he dated Kylie Minogue). Just curious….. Because I love the actor from Before Night Falls… Excellent movie….. … and if they are two different Javiers, then I now have two fave actors with that name… IMDB isn’t loading on my computer so this is my source for help, at the moment… Thank you!!!
t
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I have two friends, both excellent guitar players. One of them recommended Guitar Hero to me, giving the usual disclaimer of how at first he was like ‘I play real guitar’ but its actually really fun, etc. The second friend thinks what many people think, that its lame, that people who play it are wasting time that could be spent learning real guitar, and he actually pointed out, while I was playing it, that the same ‘note’ on the video game was, in fact, a different note on a real guitar.
While I don’t think the second friend of mine is arrogant, I mean…it’s a video game. Obviously it’s not the same as an actual guitar. And while I thought it looked like the stupidest thing when it came out, it’s actually a whole lot of fun (past easy, anyway).
Someone on here mentioned how people could spend time getting good at Guitar Hero by themselves, rather than at a party or what not. Truth is, it’s not that hard, and it’s fun. I’ve almost beaten it on expert, and I’ve sat down and killed time on it maybe ten times since Christmas. It’s just a good time waster. It’s fun.
South Park is definitely one of the most relevant TV shows in a while, on top of being damn funny. Its formula on social commentary is essentially to take a moron from one side of an argument, a moron from the other side, a reasonable person from one side, a reasonable person from the other, and then add their own opinion, right or wrong.
It’s actually kind of sad how genius that is.
Shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy, and recently, Jon Stewart; when they go political, they usually forget that there’s a moron on their side of the story as well, and in forgetting that, they usually represent that moron pretty well.
Woodland Critter Christmas is still the best though, and the Lord of the Rings episode…
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Hey T-Lee, Javier was in Before Night Falls (2000). I’m not sure how they pick who is a supporting actor and who is lead, I thought his role in No Country was significant enough to be lead actor, but what do I know.
In regards to guitar hero being fun, to each his own, just wanted to point out if you did take all the hours you spent playing the game solo you could have learned how to play real guitar, which leads to fun for the rest of your life.
Thanks for the post on Downfall Matt, checked it out and it is amazing!
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Ben Affleck… typically not a fan, but he forever gets a pass in my books based on the “I’m fucking Ben Affleck” video with Jimmy Kimmel last week.
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^that was hilarious!!! even the actual interview carried it on still and was hilarious
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Movie.. what’s a movie??
Really I have to start watching more movies… sad I know.. just sad…
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Quoting Ballz McGee:
Thanks Balz!!! Appreciate it.. Have you seen Before Night Falls? FANTASTIC CAST… Sean Penn and Johnny Depp in the same movie? Come ooooooon…. (cameo’s, but even so)… Excellent excellent movie…..
Yeah, I’m going to google…… it has something to do with who is the diving force behind the whole story.. who the story is about… For instance, the English Patient probably had both Colin Firth and Ralph Fiennes in the movie equally the same amount of time…. but the movie was about ‘The English Patient’ himself who happened to be Ralph Fiennes so he was nominated for Best Actor… Firth had a strong role but it supported the movie, as did Juliette Binoche’s part (who took the award for supporting actress)…. hope that helps and I think that is how they determine their categories…
Also, Michelle Williams was nom’d for Best supporting for Brokeback.. yes, a very strong character in the movie, but the movie was not about her….. hence the ’supporting’ nom..