Day ten: Tropic Thunder

Summary: Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson

Thoughts: 

• um
• blackface is
• problematic
• but i honestly think that rdj handled it as respectfully as he could considering the circumstances
• but still
• it’s blackface
• bad
• at least they addressed it being bad in the film
• and the shit about the mentally disabled
• i mean
• i get that it’s social commentary
• i just
• couldn’t
• laugh
• at
• those parts
• most everything else was really good
• over the top
• really stupid
• y’know
• i actually liked jay baruchel in this
• i normally hate his voice
• but
• it suited this character well
• also
• they got the cheese just right
• like
• it’s goofy and over the top
• but not so over the top i want to cringe
• so
• that’s good
• and it’s really too late for me to really give a decent review for this movie
• :/
• oh well
• not that any of my reviews are actually
• you know
• quality

Rating: 7/10

Day nine: Inglourious Basterds

Summary: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth

Thoughts:

• fuck
• that was a brutal movie
• there were a couple of things i couldn’t look at ugh
• but it was good
• not really the type of movie i’d want to watch over and over again
• but
• good
• fassy seems to be making a habit of playing german speaking characters
• what with his role in this and his role in x-men as erik lensherr
• i really really liked the girl
• the one who burned down the theater
• i liked her relationship with marcel
• understated as it was
• it was very sweet and loving
• he died for her
• he understood that her revenge came before everything else
• and he still loved her
• also
• one of the first male poc / white woman pairings i’ve seen that didn’t completely focus on the pairing
• their romance was not the focus
• but it was treated very well all the same
• but other than marcel
• who had about six lines and a kiss
• very
• very
• white cast
• ugh
• but still
• fucking good film
• shit i’m really tired

Rating: 8/10

Day eight: The Hounds of Baskerville

Summary: Based on The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the episode investigates the strange activities at a military base. (via wikipedia)

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Russell Tovey, Amelia Bullmore

Thoughts:

• fucking
• fabulous
• and
• i swear to god
• that they’re working towards a john/sherlock relationship
• this
• is 
• ridiculous
• they included the ‘we’re out of doubles so you’ll have to share a room’ trope
• i mean
• what
• 
  
• what even are you doing
• are you trying to give us fangirls heart attacks
• and then sherlock tells john he has no friends
• …
• emphasis on the ‘s’
• then
• he says
• that he only has one friend
• 
  
• and his greatest fear is jim
• not the hound
• not anything else
• jim moriarty
• the same person he was so eager to meet with at the pool
• he’s now utterly terrified of
• why?
• jim took john
• strapped a bomb to john’s chest
• said that he’d burn the heart out of sherlock
• he’s threatened the people sherlock cares about most
• ugh
• ugh
• ugh
• and lestrade
• fuck i love lestrade so much
• greg
• knows mycroft
• they know each other
• um
• omg
• so much insinuation in this goddam episode
• on all parts
• fuck
• i can’t even focus here

Rating: 9/10

Day seven: X-men: First Class

Summary: In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start world war III.

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, etc.

Thoughts:

• right
• so
• i’ve seen the first fourth, the last fourth, and the middle third of this movie
• in the wrong order
• and what i’d seen
• i loved
• watching the whole thing in order:
• 
• DAMMIT CHARLES
• YOU DON’T SAY
• ‘THEY’RE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS’
• TO A FUCKING HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
• HOW ARE YOU SO STUPID
• HOW EVEN
• YOU SUPPOSEDLY KNOW ‘EVERYTHING’ ABOUT ERIK
• WHAT
• IS GOING
• THROUGH YOUR HEAD
• oh right
• a fucking metal coin was just driven through your brain
• DAMMIT ERIK
• HOW COULD YOU HURT YOUR FRIEND LIKE THAT
• AND THEN YOU
• DEFLECTED
• A BULLET
• INTO HIS SPINE
• AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN GET HIM TO MEDICAL HELP
• YOU HAD A TELEPORTER
• 
• everyone is so fucking stupid
• i had to go read fix-it fic
• right after
• oh
• darwin/alex?
• ship it
• so
• hard
• 
• where’s all the fic
• why isn’t there fix-it for those two
• why
• did
• darwin
• have
• to
• die
• at all
• and then to have angel go join the enemy
• well you’ve successfully made the only poc around either dead or a bad guy
• yeah
• what a good decision
• *grumble grumble*
• and banshee
• oh god sean
• i wanna be you
• i wanna to have your power
• i wanna have your ginger babies
• riptide’s too
• and darwin’s
• all the babies
• fucking attractive cast
• gtfo
• i’m done

Rating: 8/10

Day six: Cleopatra

Summary: Historical epic. The triumphs and tragedy of the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, Richard Burton

Thoughts: (i really did start this on the sixth. but the thing is four fucking hours long, so i wound up finishing it on the seventh)

• blah 
• subpar acting
• decent script
• too fucking long
• no for serious
• it could have been two hours
• two
• not four
• goddamn it i almost fell asleep multiple times
• liz i expect better from you
• you too, rex
• .
• .
• .
• christ
• the sheer number of extras
• costume changes
• those sets
• shit
• that’s some fucking expensive stuff
• but so gorgeous
• that’s about it
• it’s supposed to be a sweeping love epic
• but
• it fell flat
• i was expecting more
• 
• well at least i can now say i’ve seen the damn thing
• oh!
• but the tableau at the end
• 
• not too bad

Rating: 5/10

Day five: The Village

Summary: The population of a small, isolated countryside village believe that their alliance with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the forest around them is coming to an end. (via imdb)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver

Thoughts: Not as bad as I was expecting, though not something I really want to watch over and over. I like how they played the end confrontation between Ivy and the ‘monster’; the camera angles were specifically designed to make the viewer’s sight feel as limited as possible. And good lord, the creature designs were creepy as fuuuuck. Would not want to run into one of those. Decent acting, decent script, interesting camera work (though it didn’t always work), fabulous music score.

Rating: 6.5/10

Day four: The Emperor’s Club

Summary: An idealistic prep school teacher attempts to redeem an incorrigable student. (via imdb)

Starring: Kevin Kline, Jesse Eisenberg, Emile Hirche

Thoughts: I was really bored throughout the whole thing. About fifteen minutes in, I gave up and opened my dash while it was playing. Jesse was adorable, of course, and Kevin Kline gave a good performance, but the pacing was slow, the script dragged, and the themes and lessons were trite and overused. Definitely not made to blaze any trails. 

Rating: 5/10

Day three: Roger Dodger

Summary: After breaking up with his lover and boss, a smooth-talking man takes his teenaged nephew out on the town in search of sex. (via imdb)

Starring: Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenberg, Isabella Rossellini

Thoughts: this really isn’t the kind of movie I usually go for, but despite my wariness, i actually really enjoyed it. 

• the themes of sex and male vs. female
• wow
• wow
• basically all the dialogue
• was 
• fabulous

and i mean, the women in the film had some of the best lines. they didn’t let themselves get pushed around; they called out misogynistic bullshit when they saw it. roger, the protagonist, is drawn as a pig. he’s not sympathetic, and really the most we can hope for is that he has a change of heart, a revelation of character at some point. it can be argued that he does, though whether that epiphany is permanent or fleeting, we can’t tell. nick, too goes through some really interesting changes. he clearly has the potential to become a nice guy. he could just as easily turn out just as douchey as his uncle. what happens to him is left unclear.

• oh
• there was a cameo
• about two minutes or so toward the beginning
• of morena baccarin
• 
• i
• was
• so
• excited
• to see her

so yeah. the feminist themes, the commentary on societal views of men and women and how those views are degrading, the ambiguity, all make for a really fascinating film.

Rating: 8/10

Day two: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Summary: Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker. (via imdb)

Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer

Thoughts: Lets have some more bullet points, yeah? Um, the movie has a couple of graphic rape scenes and plenty of mutilated bodies soo.. tw?

• right
• umm
• i honestly felt like i couldn’t breathe throughout the film it was so good
• rooney
• fucking
• mara
• is my hero
• her lisbeth was flawless
• actually flawless
• pitch perfect delivery
• icy cold but so emotional at the same time
• she was exactly the way i saw lisbeth in the book
• if i ever meet you rooney
• i’m proposing
• jsyk
• immigrant song w/ opening titles was, of course, flawless
• creepy creepy creepy
• oh god the rape scenes
• i sat in the theater squeezing bina’s hand the whole time
• i mean
• i knew what was coming
• but
• it was still so horrifying
• and i kept hoping that the scenes would end
• even though i knew that fincher isn’t the type to flinch away from that sort of horror
• but i hoped
• every time the screen went black during the second rape scene
• every time the camera cut away briefly
• i hoped it wouldn’t come back
• but it did
• jfc
• ‘i hope you like anal’
• jfc you monster
• you deserved everything that happened to you
• there were well deserved cheers every time lisbeth was a bamf
• they were loudest when she tazed that douche
• pretty loud at the ‘i am a rapist pig’ tattoo lisbeth gave him
• also the
• ‘i’ve never done this [made a tattoo] before. there will be blood’
• oh and the
• ‘can i kill him?’ there at the climax
• yeah
• one of the few problems was that
• i felt like there wasn’t enough build up in the film for the blomkvist/salandar relationship
• i understood where it came from because i’ve read the book
• but bina was like
• ‘well that came out of nowhere’
• which i totally understand
• it felt like she was just randomly jumping into bed with him
• later on, during the mystery bits
• the pics of the mutilated women didn’t bother me
• but
• i
• forgot
• the cat was slaughtered
• oops
• freaked me out so much
• it was just
• up close and personal
• with the decapitation and the limbs so broken the skin’s ripped 
• ugh
• ugh
• i swear craig’s delivery there was fabulous
• (not that it wasn’t fabulous everywhere else in the film
• but
• that poor cat
• bby didn’t even have a name
• and blomkvist’s expression was just the right mix of horror and sad)
• speaking of…
• henrik was just the right mixture of charming and creepy, from the beginning
• don’t think i liked the change they made to the end
• but
• i guess they shortened and condensed it for time reasons
• also maybe budget?
• right
• i guess i should mention the costuming?
• because i want all of lisbeth’s wardrobe
• fucking
• hell
• it is so beautiful
• those goddamn earrings
• fuck i want them
• and her pants
• her fucking pants
• and the ‘fuck you you fucking fuck’ shirt
• and the shirt with all the holes
• (do i mean all of them? yes, yes i do)
• dammit i just wanna be lisbeth
• (except i really, really don’t
• because
• you know
• she had a seriously shitty life)
• oh fucking fuck
• this film was so pretty
• i mean
• landscapes and shit
• ice and snow
• gorgeous houses and cottages and glass monstrosities
• basically nearly everything about this film was perfect
• i could go like this for a couple more hours i think
• but
• i’ll stop now

Rating: 9.5/10

Day one: A Scandal in Belgravia (that totally counts as a film, right? i’m gonna say it does)

Summary: Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate a case of blackmail that is threatening to topple the monarchy. They find links to international terrorism, rogue CIA agents and a conspiracy within the British government. Sherlock locks wits with Irene Adler, a woman as ruthless and brilliant as himself. 

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Lara Pulver, Mark Gatiss, Una Stubbs

Thoughts: I’m afraid this is going to be a bit incoherent, seeing as it’s two forty in the morning as I write this, but here goes.

• ugh this was so fucking good 
• i really loved irene as a dom
• it made for an interesting dynamic between herself and sherlock
• did sherlock manage to get bothmore and less human in this episode?
• molly bby i’m so sorry sherlock’s a dick you deserve better
• go find yourself a nice man
• MRS HUDSON I AM SHOCKED YOU ARE SUCH A FUCKING BAMF MA’AM
• john could you get more ambiguous about your feelings toward sherlock?
• hey why wasn’t there more interaction between john and sherlock i feel like irene, much as i love her, just kinda shouldered her way in
• 
  
• i get that that’s the point of this episode
• but jeez
• the first third was like bang bang epic bromantic partnership yippee
• but then irene shows up
• and it’s all
• ‘IRENE IS AS DEADLY AND CLEVER AS SHE IS BEAUTIFUL’
• but john’s just kinda…
• gone
• oh yeah
• and then they decide to make irene a lesbian
• (YAY!!)
• but she wants to bone sherlock
• 
  
• …
• 
  
• okay moffat
• we get it
• you’re trying to make the point that sexuality is fluid
• but can you do it to a man?
• please?
• cause you ruin enough bamfing women in your shows
• i mean
• river song?
• amy pond?
• hello?
• why can’t we have a supremely self sufficient woman here
• one who needs no man
• who can slay her own kriffing dragons
• and you had to have sherlock rescue her at the end?
• i mean
• WHAT THE FUCK MOFFAT
• WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS
• IRENE IS A FUCKING BAD ASS
• SHE COULD HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF IT HERSELF
• COME
• ON
• BUT NO
• SHERLOCK HAD TO SAVE HER
• BECAUSE SHERLOCK CAN DO NO WRONG
• 
  
• IRENE DOESN’T NEED A MAN TO FIX HER PROBLEMS
• SHE CAN BLOODY WELL DO IT HERSELF
• okay despite the mini-rant
• i really did love this episode
• john and mycroft
• (so fucking much mycroft oh my heart)
• and mrs hudson and lestrade
• ugh ugh ugh
• 
  
• sooooo
• i think i’ll give it

Rating: 8/10

antrozous:

The 365 Films Challenge

Short and Sweet Overview: Watch 365 films in the year 2012.

What Is This Challenge?
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to spend the next year delving into the world of film by watching one film that you have never seen before per day.

How Do I Participate?
The extent of how you participate is totally up to you, however it is recommended that you post some form of a review, whether it be as simple as a star rating or as extensive as a critical film analysis. Some also do graphics along with their reviews.

When Do We Start?
Like most 365 challenges, the best day to start is January 1st so that you end on December 31st.

But Isn’t This A Leap Year? It Should Be 366.
Consider it a free day or a bonus film, I could care less.

What If I Can’t Watch A Film Each Day?
No one is monitoring how you reach 365 films, so if you fall behind or watch ahead a few movies, that is your choice.

How Am I Going To Find 365 Films To Watch?
I suggest signing up for iCheckMovies and start with their top movies lists. You’re bound to find something you haven’t seen before.

Recommended Tags:
#365films, #365 film challenge

this is gonna be terribad, but it looks sooo cool.

gonna start composing a list.