Haha, fine. I'll look forward to your take. I'm just quite opinionated.

Watched a short film called "The Silent City". I liked it... not sure if Shiny liked it or not. The director's home page is here:

http://www.ruairirobinson.com/short_films.htm

You can either download it in regular or HD, or watch it on youtube. I got the HD version, though the download is a bit slow (seems capped at about 350KB/sec).

I think this is the youtube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeF-tDhGtvI

Just seen District 9...

It was pretty ok I thought. 2 out of 5. Couldn't quite give it 3 but it was close. I liked it overall.

The best bits for me was the visuals and slight moral undertone. The effort made on creating the spaceship and that robot was fucking awesome. That robot especially was done pretty convincingly in my eyes. No silly effects, it all pretty much made sense. Even the aliens looked good. The kind of vague argument beneath the film of what would society make of all this alien stuff was interesting too. It was brutal, perhaps overtly so, but interesting none the less.

The main not so good bits for me was that there was alot unexplained. Like why the aliens were so unruly. It wasn't a huge problem because it's pretty easy to suggest reasons, but it does cause some concern when you're trying to fill gaps while watching the film.

Another thing was that i think perhaps they exaggerated the heavy handedness of humans on the aliens. Yes, we know as humans that we treat others like shit, but aliens is another matter i think. Also, i just found it really strange that there was no real interest in the intentions/technology/origin/motives/circumstances of the aliens. Dunno, kinda weird. Take the space ship for example... what's it made of? What manufacturing processes were used? Of course you cant go into that in the film, but the whole alien strangeness factor seemed completely overlooked.

The love story thing was a bit exaggerated too. It was used as the main motivator for the main character, but in reality I think you dont give a shit about love in a survival situation. i dont think the dude was cast correctly too. I mean his wife was HOT and he came across as some scrawny dipshit. So much so that I couldnt feel much sympathy for his troubles.

It was ok i guess. I enjoyed it. I don't really dig sci-fi's but I liked this.

Man a spoiler warning would be nice I only vaguely skimmed over the middle part of your post because of the spoilerism.

I want to see this film though, and the fact that you gave it a 2.5/5 is enough evidence for me that this one is on par with Bladerunner and Brazil as far as SF goes.

Won free tickets to the premier of 'Gamer' which looked like a promising popcorn Hollywood movie, but as it turns out something got mixed up with the movie's encryption code and they couldn't show it...so they showed GI Joe: Rise of Cobra instead. (I could have gotten a voucher but since I was already there and it was free anyway...)

Overall, not unhappy. Wouldn't recommend to go see it as a paying customer, though. The action, CGI and GI Joe camp were cool but there was some toe-curlingly bad acting at times and a completely gratitious romance... (usually in convergence).

Overall, ok. In derf ratings a 0.5/5. In my ratings 1.5/5.

Dude, you can't give half-scores. The whole point of the 5 our of 5 system is that it encourages no fence-sitting.

0 = Theoretically impossible benchmark. The movie has NOTHING of value.
1 = Very bad. The movie is 90% shite.
2 = Bad. Some elements are ok, perhaps good, but there are too many concerningly shit bits. Perhaps watchable once, if youre in a tolerant mood.
3 = Watchable. Nothing spectacular, but overall, very pleasing.
4 = Very good. Artistically well executed all round.
5 = Theoretically impossible benchmark. The movie is perfect.

The out-of-10 system is a bit unnecessary because there's no need to break it down into 10 grades. I used to use it, but found too many films to fell into 4-6 grades, hardly any were truly 8 or above. I would rather use the 1-bit system Simple, ruthless, but not very clever 90 or 95% of films would be 0.

So Watchmen was 5/5 then?

Derf is smoking that rock. If 5 is impossible, 0 should be too, or your scale is unbalanced.

Anyway, saw Inglorious Basterds... it was ok, though not insanely awesome. I'd give it a 3/5.

District 9 to me was pretty good, though not perfect either... I'd give that a 4/5.

Rambo was funny. I couldn't help but laugh at all the people being torn apart by .50 fire. 2/5 for me.

Watchmen was awesome, since someone brought it up. I'd hesitate to give it a perfect, but it's a very strong 4/5. Only reason I don't give it a 5/5 is because I'm sure something could've been better, somewhere. Maybe I just needed more scenes with the blue penis.

lol the only thing that could have made Watchmen even better was using the squid from the original graphic novel instead of the bizarro "energy explosions" they used now. Jk.

Is District 9 really that good? I sure hope so, cause I want to go see it.

Saw Gamer on holiday...very weird. It has some good ideas and some good inside jokes if you're a gamer, but mostly a weak movie with a plot with holes you could send the Titanic through. Mildly enjoyable though.

And saw The Spirit last night. Yawnfest, except for the femme fatales played by Eva Mendes and Scarlett. Samuel L Jackson was kind of ok too.

Yea, I think I preferred the movie ending to the comic ending, as far as the squid is concerned. It's easier to swallow than making a psychic super squid. I like all the side and back stories in the comic though.

Yeah, for one thing the whole Nite Owl I and II backstory is much better worked out. And there's the Tales of the Black Freighter of course, which is just awesome in every way.

I saw Lost in Translation again yesterday. Still a wonderful movie. Reserved, lingering, but drenched with emotion and understated acting. I think anyone who has ever lived in a similar situation automatically 'feels' the movie...the almost autistic feeling of living in a society that is alien to you and that you don't speak the language of. Very confronting, forces you to learn a lot about yourself.

I caught about 20 mins of "Religulous" last night and it was pretty funny. I'll probably watch all of it tonight.

It's basically a slap-dash, badly-cut, american, anti-religion comedy in the style of a documentary... well, interviews and such. It's very american in the sense that the main guy is fairly narrow minded and one-directional. But it's the bluntness which works well for me. He kind of lays into Islam a fair bit, which I had to take with a pinch of salt, but it's pretty funny either way.

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/r ... religulous

If i watch it i'll give it a rating.

We watched 88 minutes while waiting for our plane in the airport (had it on my laptop). It was pretty much crap. I hate those totally contrived mystery type things that make absolutely no sense if you actually step back and look at it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411061/

So yea, unless you're really into those types of movies, avoid. The acting and such was fine, just don't expect a plot that makes sense.

I thought you were talking about Religulous until I clicked your link.

hehe, no, hadn't even heard of that movie until you posted. Not sure if it's something that would interest me.