I can't think of anything to say here, so I'll just mention something I really enjoyed in the Monster dub -- yesterday had the episode where Johan crossdresses as Anna/Nina to get information, and I love how it handles the first meeting between Suk and Anna. There's some noticeable "acting" on Anna's part that is subtle enough where you won't notice it your first time through, but if you know what it is going to happen, then it's a nice extra touch of foreshadowing. Pretty cool.
9 (2009): It starts off interesting because it has a cool premise and looks fantastic (the rendering of the post-apocalyptic society is especially great), but as the movie goes along, it becomes increasingly generic and action movie-ish until the ending. Still a solid movie overall, but definitely disappointing.
Zombieland (2009): This, on the other hand, is as good as I expected it to be. It has a lot of fun with all the established zombie movie tropes, and it delivers on being a hell of a lot of fun because it doesn't try to be scary at all. There's also an absolutely hysterical cameo appearance in it; I won't specify who it is, because I somehow went without knowing, which means at least some other people who haven't seen the movie also don't know, but the whole thing made me laugh pretty hard.
Ninja Scroll (1993): I really wanted to like this more than I did ... but it feels like a bunch of wasted opportunities, as if the creators had all these crazy ideas that they just could not properly harness. If the movie were even 5-10 minutes longer, and certain fights were given a bit more time to breathe and develop, the movie could have been amazingly kickass rather than intermittently kickass. There are some pretty awesome scenes, and the visuals hold up well -- it looks like it's from 1993, but it's also a movie, so it doesn't feel cheap or anything like a TV series from 1993 might. The ending is kind of awesome, too. But, still, it's frustrating that this movie easily could have been more than it is.
Primer (2004): As per Kastom's request, I won't say a peep about the plot of this movie except to note that I definitely did not understand everything, haha. It's not just that there is a lot of science talk -- which I assume is mostly accurate considering a mathematician/former engineer wrote this -- but also because the movie's narrative is deliberately constructed to be disorienting, in reflection of the plot's main action. And it certainly works! But it's not disorienting in a bad way; it's disorienting in a way that keeps you on your toes and makes you want to think through everything that is going on, which is a difficult sense to achieve. If I have one problem with the movie, it's with the acting, which is occasionally quite wooden. However, the writer/director, Shane Carruth, says he deliberately avoided actors who unconsciously added dramatic emphasis to lines, so I guess he was going with a more realistic feel to the acting to go along with his more realistic approach to the movie's science. Certain lines feel unnatural and rehearsed, which works in some cases (though I can't explain why), and doesn't in others.
On the queue for this week: Re-Animator (1985) (didn't watch it this week because Zombieland unexpectedly showed up)
Total Movies: 36 (The Taking of Pelham 123, The Station Agent, The Final Destination, Silent Movie, The African Queen, Departures, Moon, Bound, Solaris, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rifftrax), Wristcutters: A Love Story, In the Loop, Public Enemies, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Rifftrax), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-Hen, District 9, The Magnificent Seven, Night Moves, My Name is Bruce, Big Fan, Almost Famous, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Drag Me to Hell, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Kara no Kyoukai 1-7, 9, Zombieland, Ninja Scroll, Primer)
