I feel sorry for your girlfriend if Elijah Wood is what gets you in the mood.

Pumped as in excited, as in I like him as an actor. Geez Nate, mind out of the gutter.

Watching Orange is the New Black. It's pretty great far. Better than Weeds, I think. Great cast of characters (although some are just irritating, and not in a good way - but they're in the minority), solid acting, and a good balance between funny and dramatic (which was Weeds' major problem - seems it could never decide if it wanted to be a drama or a comedy). Can get a bit soapy at times, but it's usually watchable.

Also very interesting to watch Piper's slow descent into crazy as she gets used to this crazy world she's been locked into. Often wonder if the goings on around her are actually happening, or if she's just losing it. A fun element for sure and leaves a lot of room for surprise in the story. Every now and then though I just couldn't give a shit about two secondary characters squabbles and get tempted to fast forward or go do something else, though maybe that's more due to binge-watching the show.

Gonna keep watching for sure. First experience with a Netflix original series (well apart from the new Arrested Development season, which all in all was pretty dull) and it seems like they're giving the writers and showrunners lots of artistic freedom, which I couldn't be happier about.

Hail Netflix

I'm interested to hear which characters were these, because when I first watched the show I had a similar reaction to a few characters but some of them became my favourites in the second season.

Godfather II was just on CBS or something, I dunno. An American channel. Any way yeah, still stands up for me as one of the best films ever made. Damn it fucking sucks Mikey dies.

I sympathise as a first born son with a more intelligent, more academically successful baby brother.

I realized the last time that I watched The Godfather movies that I hate the cinematography. Something about the way it's shot makes me feel disoriented while watching it.

Oh look OANST has an opinion about The Godfather, WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT?

just kidding ily

You're just being too high on drugs to keep up with the action.

I recently rewatched Dog Day Afternoon. Great film - don't think I really appreciated the great performances the first time around.

Fucking Fargo.


It was okay.

BAH!

I think everyone should check out the British TV show Utopia. Series 2 is about to start on Channel 4 with the first two episodes on Monday and Tuesday. Series 1 is on 4oD, DVD/BluRay, or through less legal means as always.

I'd also recommend anyone not in the UK to watch it although I hear David Fincher is developing a HBO remake.

Trailer



Opening Scene


Utopia Opening Scene by benoitsergerie

Just finished True Detective.

So good.

I went out and saw the new Captain America movie and honestly wasn't impressed. I liked the character development and the reintroduction of Bucky, but other than that the plot seemed kind of forced and all over the place.

i may or may not have been high at the time, so i don't know if my review is valid

I just watched Rape And Murder: The Movie. Or as the box would imply: "Natural Born Killers" I hated this movie, nothing good seems to happen at all. I can see where some people like it, but I personally just thought it was terrible.

That's correct behavior. It would feel wrong if you enjoyed Rape and Murder.

Hey, I liked that movie.

I sort-of-watched Black Dynamite tonight, was doing other stuff at the same time but it was pretty hilarious at some parts.

I watched The Terminator 1 and 2 for the very first time a few days ago. Very good movies, T2 especially. Though it's kinda disappointing how the obvious paradoxes are never being questioned in the movies. Also not sure if I should watch the third and fourth movies since the ending of T2 seemed like it was meant as the 'original' ending to the overall story.

I watched A Serbian Film because I was really interested to see if it was actually as shocking as people made it out to be. It was pretty shitty honestly, I was expecting a really disturbing, appalling film but it was just... eh. I don't know, maybe I'm just fucked in the head or something. I thought it had a great soundtrack though and a few scenes were shot very well.

Sin City.

My mate said I'd like the style of the film and fuck me was he right. Instantly fell in love with it. I could tell it was based on a graphic novel because it captures the art and the style perfectly. The only other film which does a similar thing (Which I've seen) is Scott Pilgrim, and Sin City does a MUCH better job.

So yeah. I adored it. And i'm very happy to hear a second one is on it's way soon too.

I think i'll invest in the graphic novels now as well...

You should watch Utopia, Crash. It also has a great visual style.

Continuing with fucked up movies, I watched Irréversible yesterday. It was very, very disturbing. The way the story was told in a reverse chronological order was really bizarre. I wasn't expecting the notorious rape scene to be too bad, boy was I wrong. The first 15 or so minutes of the film made me sick too, it had nausea inducing infrasound playing in the background while the camera followed one of the main characters through an underground men's BDSM club... But yeah, uhh, over all it was an interesting movie none the less told in a unique way. Definitely more shocking than A Serbian Film in my opinion.

To calm myself after being almost traumatized by Irréversible I decided to re-watch Lost in Translation. I watched it for the first time last summer at night on a laptop on my dad's apartment's balcony and at that time it felt oddly comfortable. It's hard to describe but it had a strange, relatable feel to it. After re-watching it (summer night, alone in my dark room with a nice breeze coming through the open window) I feel the same way. It just has a very strange, comfy feel to it. Lovely movie.

Started watching Adventure Time at long last. An hour later I was still watching it.

It's silly and surreal, and the characters are endearing. It makes me smile and laugh. I can't put my finger on anything exact, but there are just so many things right about this show.

Also the mouths are drawn perfectly. The rest of the animation is good, but I can't get past the mouths.

I started watching Veronica Mars yesterday. I remember seeing bits of it when I was younger, and I remembered more as I watched into it, but on the whole this is a new experience for me. I tried describing it to a friend and realised how lame the premise of the daughter helping her PI dad solve crimes behind his back, while juggling highschool social issues sounds, but somehow it's done really well. I sympathised with the characters, main or side, and I'm genuinely intrigued as to where the overarching plot is going. Keen to watch some more soon and form some real opinions.

In preparation for Dawn of the Year of Monkey Business 9: Back 2 Apesics, I watched the original Planet of The Apes. No, not the incomprehensible monkey-shmoozing monster Tim Burton let fall out of his ass 13 years ago. I'm talking Charlton Heston baby...from the tail end of the sweaty 60's.

Planet of the Apes is still a great film. It's well shot, eerily scored and still bears some terrific makeup. You can't escape the cheese that comes with those at-times silly gorilla masks, but it's supported by an unorthodox story, great performances and excellent pacing. It keeps you interested despite yourself; you can start PotA scoffing at the silliness of the idea and leave it feeling thoughtful and willing to wax philosophical on the ludicrous world that was set before you. The sense of isolation that sets in when you realize how alone with Charlton Heston/George Taylor you really are keeps it feeling tight and always bringing you along for the ride. A lot of 60's science fiction suffers from too much bloat and not enough progression. Planet of the Apes finds its pace and keeps it moving right until the ending reveal, which was on the DVD and the Menu. They actually showed a clip of the ending when I clicked 'play movie', I'm dead serious.
Anyhow, go watch Planet of the Apes. It opens a lot of questions that were ultimately answered by...

DAWN of the Planet of the Apes suffers from some typical sequel errors; banking on making the shocking revelations of Rise the norm such as talking apes and idiotic humans being a constant, almost overemphasized aspect of the film. It suffers from being slightly tone-deaf, the Antagonists (it's difficult to call them villains until the very, very end of the film) are hardly monsters themselves. Replacing the naive, uncaring human villains of the first movie with more relate able, if not ultimately more monstrous cutout characters. A tragic experiment survivor. Sad Gary Oldman. Despite how flat the characters are, Rise gives the world a lot more flesh for you to sink your teeth into, it succeeds at being much more than a hackneyed, unnecessary sequel. It's like a good breakfast; filling but without too much bloaty carbs and poo-throwing.

There's also a scene where a rampaging ape dual wields M249 machine guns with his giant ape biceps and rides a horse. That part was okay, but thankfully brief. I have to give it points for avoiding indulging in too much action, it's a genuinely suspenseful and very tense film. So go see it too.

I actually watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes in anticipation of DotPotA (tee hee), and I really enjoyed it for what it was. Honestly the film lacked a little tension but it was cool to see Caesar's rise to power. 8/10 would watch again.

Dawn comes before Sunrise 1/10

Wow, when I watched A Serbian Film (back when I was 16) I was fucking freaked out! I just kept thinking it couldn't get any worse but it just kept going! Although, I've heard that A Human Centipede 2 is worse. The first one was pitiful. Should've been rated PG.
I think my brain has shielded me so that I can't remember the majority of the stuff that happened in ASF but yeah, if you didn't find it that bad you must be very... desensitized! (that word that means you're used to/not affected by violence and gore in films and video games)

Desensitized.

Yay! Thank you! I hate it when I just can't remember a word haha

The Double. Directed by Richard Ayoade (Who's acting credits include The Watch and the British sitcom The I.T Crowd, and has also directed several music videos for bands including Vampire Weekend) and starring Jesse "Mark Zuckerberg" Eisenberg. One of the best films I've seen in my entire life, with very hypnagogic direction slightly reminiscent of Wes Anderson. Some great and surreal concepts played with that encase very real themes that I think everyone can relate to on some level. Highly recommend it. 8.5/10