Interstella 5555, which is an anime film commissioned by Daft Punk with their entire second album as the soundtrack. No dialogue, just dance music and a crazy story about an evil music producer kidnapping aliens to be pop-stars on Earth.

Yeah, I was high.

Primer was like an old-school hard sci-fi novel. I recommend it, but only if you're interested in movies edited at home on an Apple computer (Robert Rodriguez style) and scripts that are peppered with metaphysical and scientific technobabble.

Escape from Sobibor was a decent TV mini about a successful uprising in the Sobibor concentration camp.

Finally got to see Pan's Labyrinth, which we enjoyed quite a bit (although there were a lot of bits I had to look away from). Is it wrong that I'd like Heyday Films to approach del Toro to direct the last Harry Potter movie? I really liked his directing, and whoever his cinematographer is can come along too.

I just watched Pan's Labyrinth as well. It was really good. It didn't affect me as much as some of my friends said it did them, but only about 3/4 of my attention was on it. It was beautiful though.

I flove this movie. It was so disorienting and non-splashy while raising some pretty interesting questions. And it gets pretty dark, too, which I liked.

Inside Man I'd seen it in the theatres but I had other things on my mind at the time. I REALLY liked it. All three main actors were fabulous (damn, does Clive Owen have a sexy voice, and Jodie Foster was awesome in a darker than normal role, and Denzel worked that hat). The supporting cast was great too, as were the actors playing the hostages/robbers.

I particularly loved the scenes of Denzel/Clive on the phone. In the commentary Spike Lee says that those were shot at the same time, on opposites end of the stage, so they were actually on the phone, and I thought that gave them an extra oomph. Plus the use of actors from Dog Day Afternoon, and the Sal's famous pizzeria boxes was kinda awesome.

Really the only thing that made me roll my eyes was Lee's use of infamous floating Jesus camera shot. It worked in Malcolm X but its gotten old, and was completely out of place here.

MaddyCat, the director's commentary was ten kinds of awesome, too. I loved hearing about his ultra-low budget DIY approach to film-making... "I used subpar 3D software to create this special effect... I played and composed the music myself on my computer... For this prop I photoshopped my own photography and had it printed.."

I'm kind of surprised that he hasn't done anything else.

Is there? I remember being told that and then finding the truth somewhat disappointing. Of course, I was seventeen and weened on late-night Cinemax, so my standards may have been off-kilter.

If you remember that Robin fanfilm "Greyson" that hit the nets some time back, there was a making-of version with director's commentary that's absolutely fabulous for that. Of course, a lot of it is along the lines of, "This was really dangerous and kind of stupid, but..."

Alright, I'm totally getting my hands on the commentary now. I had no idea one existed.

And, yeah, he should definitely do something else. I'm surprised some indie production didn't snap him up.

A couple nights ago I watched Sweet Land, which...totally blew me away. I only own about a dozen DVDs, but I ordered this on Amazon about 2.5 seconds after finishing it. It's a wonderfully done, incredibly tender movie about a Norwegian man whose mail-order bride turns out to be German, in Minnesota following World War One, and the trouble they have being accepted in the Norwegian town. The cinematography is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, the acting is great. Actually, I think I heard about it on SF2.0 last year some time.

I can't possibly stress how much I liked it, and how much I'd recommend it. A LOT. Rent it. It's excellent.

The low budget film world is often very proud of their ability to make films with a reasonably low budget--perhaps jsutifiably, considering people throwing around 300 million dollars.

Oh yay! I saw it in the theatre ages ago, and completely adored it (in fact, that was probably me who was rambling about it at 2.0). It'll be on my DVD shelf soon.

Watched Breach last night. Good stuff. Interesting case, and very strong performances all around. I was surprised at how good Ryan Phillippe was. He pulled off inexperienced and dimwitted yet sneakily intelligent very well. And he held his own opposite Chris Cooper, who was magnificent as usual. However, I'd like to see Chris Cooper in something lighter or comedic because I'm really starting to believe that he never smiles in real life because he always plays such crabby and angry characters in his movies.

Last night we watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I liked it much more than I thought I would. Gwyneth Paltrow was miscast but I was willing to overlook that. The character should have been played by someone with more genuine spunk and character. (I think Cate Blanchett or Kate Winslet would have done better) Visually it was incredibly beautiful and the story was rather nifty as well.