now tell me how this works please.....

wife speaking to me....after buying this dvd.......

"we are not watching "the incredibles" tonight because yer daughter is grounded...."

wha???

Doc B...

? quoting Orpheus

"The Incredibles" the best damned cartoon this millennium

I second.

But I saw "Million Dollar Baby" yesterday afternoon. And boy, was it heavy duty stuff. I wasn't the same after I walked out of the theater. I was in a chipper mood going in, but I was so heavy-hearted by the time it ended.

So...don't watch it if you're already depressed. It just might ruin your day. That said, I highly recommend the movie. Just watch it when you're happier.

I intended to read this entire thread but it seemed to get bogged down in piracy and the definition of anime after a few pages, so I'm skipping to the end.

Here are my ratings on movies I've seen. If you like the ones I like, perhaps you'll see some you haven't seen yet.

The Game (Michael Douglas) - Fantastic. One of the most gripping and unexpected storylines ever. Good enough to watch more than once.

The Grudge (Sarah Michelle Geller) - I saw this yesterday and thought it was crap. Totally plot driven, with big plot holes and unrealistic characters. Rips off a lot of The Ring. There were a few good scenes, like in the elevator and the special effects on the security video. But haven't any of these characters heard of a light switch? And when you go to burn down a haunted house, are you realy going to put down the kerosine to investigate the splashing noises coming from the bathroom? Fundamentally flawed.

The Thing (Kurt Russell) - I loved this movie. One of the few horror movies that I think really worked, and the only movie I can think of that has plausably done a shapeshifter (apart from Terminator 2 I suppose). Excellent special effects.

Hellboy - Another typical Hollywood comic-to-movie film, which I don't usually like, but this one was better than most.

Van Hellsing - One of the crappest Hollywood movies I have ever seen. A total insult to the intelligence. (If a werewolf jumps onto a moving stagecoach, is a spark from his claw striking the railing going to ignite the entire roof? Give me a break.)

The Last Samurai (Tom Cruise) - I can't stand Tom Cruise, but I liked this movie. Partly because he gets upstaged by the Japanese actors, and partly because of the ending which I won't spoil.

Unbreakable (Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) - I saw this years ago but it really stuck in my mind. It's really a superhero movie, but it doesn't push itself as such too much. Quite well done.

American Beauty (Kevin Spacey) - A fantastic movie. Despite it's themes of murder, adultery, violence, swearing, paedophillia, drug use, homosexuality, and nazism, you could still take your grandmother to see this movie. Beautifully filmed and acted.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (Jim Carey) - Outstanding. Jim Carey seems almost out of place in this movie, but he performs really well. Great special effects, moments of humour, and powerful emotion that'll leave you thinking.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - This movie is visually stunning, with great acting, great story, and great "wire-fu" fight scenes. The best I've seen of this genre.

House of Flying Daggers - Almost as good as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but the plot is a little lacking. Stunning visuals and breathtaking fight scenes. Ending could have been a little better.

Hero - This one didn't really grab me as much as the two above. The cinematics were excellent, but the plot was too convoluted. I didn't reall "get it".

Independence Day (Will Smith) - I hate this movie.

Starship Troopers - Very entertaining, with some subtle humour reminiscent Robocop (same director I think). Quite gorey, but definately sci-fi rather than horror.

Sphere - I have mixed feelings about this movie. In hindsight I think it was quite good, but I know there were moments I was hating it. It felt like Samuel L. Jackson was almost bored in this movie, or at least wasn't being directed properly. The characters didn't respond to things as you would expect people to.

The Quiet Earth - A 70s sci-fi movie, in which a man awakens to find everyone in the world missing. He goes a little bit crazy as first, thinking he's the kind of the world. Later he meets some people and they get down to find out what happened and what they can do about it. Worth watching every 8-10 years.

Kill Bill 1 & 2 (Uma Thurman) - Extremely artistic and well executed (no pun intended). Actually I'll say this for all of Quentin Tarantino's movies - they're amazingly directed with awesome storylines and plot twists. Once you can get over the extreme violence, that is (took me a few years!). Jackie Brown is probably the crappest of his movies, the others are good.

Troy (who cares) - Big-budget Hollywood crap, created solely to make money. Save your money. In fact, don't even waste your download bandwidth. ;-)

The Matrix Trilogy (Keanu Reeves) - I remember seeing the trailer before the first movie came out and wondering how such an awesome looking movie could be so under-advertised. It soon became popular. I actually liked the second movie the most, since it had even more amazing special effects and fight scenes, plus some very well thought out philosophical plot elements (and some great secrets to watch for, like the agents' car licence plate). The third one I thought was pretty crap, like they didn't know how to end it so they just threw in a bunch of special effects and tried to make it as tense as possible. The Zion invasion was just boring. Overall though, an excellent trilogy. Might be a while before I watch it again though.

Bladerunner (Harrison Ford) - An old but great sci-fi movie of a bleak futuristic society. The original had naration and a happy ending, but later the director's cut was released with no naration and a bleaker ending. Both are outstanding, but I think the director's cut was a little overrated and had made the original hard to find. The soundtrack (by Vangellis) is one of the best of any movie ever.

Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs Predator (Sigourney Weaver) - The first movie broke ground with it's gritty, industrial view of the future, as opposed to the 2001 Space Odyssey mindset of its time. But it was the sequel with the marines being sent in that really shined and is by far the best of the series. Watch the Special Edition if you can, with opening footage of Hadley's Hope and later footage of the sentry guns. Alien 3 wasn't quite as good. Not bad in its own right, but they were clearly milking the cow at this point (check out the original script for a wildly different version of this movie). Alien Resurrection was crap, and turned the series clearly from sci-fi to horror. Despite a couple of good scenes, it had too many unbelieveable moments (how long can these guys hold their breaths underwater? And why did that soldier need to remove a piece of brain from the hole in the back of his own head in order to confirm he was dead?). The fifth movie focussed a lot more on Predator than Alien, and suffered somewhat by trying to compress both themes into one movie. Lance Henriksen gave a respectable performance, which isn't hard for him.

Memento (Guy Pearce) - Definately worth watching. Despite each "scene" being showed in reverse order, it's not unduely hard to follow. In fact it fits very well with the main character's memory loss.

The Butterfly Effect (Ashton Kutcher) - A highly original and breathtaking movie. A bit freak and trippy at points, but the plot lines come together with great precision and unpredictability. I actually found it quite disturbing and had nightmares for a week following it, although it cartainly isn't a horror movie. I've only seen the original cinema version, which has a different ending from the DVD release.

The Mothman Prophecies (Richard Gere) - Another highly orininal movie. In fact I can't think of another movie that has a similar take on its supernatural themes. There are moments where it's hard to follow, but these clear up quickly as the characters have no idea what is causing the weird stuff around them. I highly recommend this one.

Exitenz - A movie about a virtual reality within a virtual reality within a virtual reality ad naseum. Director David Cronenberg works in some trypically grotesque moments in a genetic engineering abattoir, and a supurbly disgusting moment where a restaurant diner constructs a gun out of the remains of his meal. If you're interested in surreality movies then take a look, but personally I won't be watching it again. I think it tries too hard to surreal.

Naked Lunch - Speaking of surreal, this one takes the cake. Worth watching just to say WTF? at the end. I've read many reviews saying it's not supposed to make sense, but if you follow closely it all fits. The problem is that what you see is sometimes real and sometimes a drug-induced hallucination of the main character as he goes from exotic drug to drug in delusional paranoia. The 50's settings, props and costumes are well done. Occassional Cronenberg organicish gross-out scenes. By the way, if anyone knows what the last scenes means let me know! Recommended.

Resident Evil 1 & 2 - The first one was better. I don't see a lot of undead movies so I'm no authority, but it was pretty entertaining and full of action.

The Cube 1 & 2 - Both excellent sci-fi movies. A group of seemingly unrelated characters wake up to find themselves in a room, with all connecting rooms randomly containing deadly traps. I prefer the sequel, but it might be because I saw that one first. Thought provoking, if even at a shallow level. The action and danger somehow makes you care about the characters and wonder what you would do in their situation.

Lord of The Rings trilogy - Bah. I know I should like them. They looked amazing. The story is a milestone in fantasy literature. Maybe they're just too long, but I can't see myself watching them again. Not for a long time anyway.

Fight Club - I loved this movie (plus the ending was like a kick in the teeth to Hollywood cliches). Exciting and fun, highly recommended. Even if you don't like fights.

The Usual Suspects (Kevin Spacey) - An excellent thriller with an almost flawless plot. I know this is picky, but how did Verbal know "Kobayashi" was printed on the underside of his full coffee mug? Great movie anyway.

Scarey Movie 2 - Kill yourself before watching this movie.

Scarey Movie 3 - Much better.

Highlander quadrilogy - They made 3 too many of these movies. It's alright though, because each movie pretends the others don't exists. The first and third were probably the better of the four.

Big Fish - Excellent movie. Adventurous, great set and visuals, and cool stories. Make sure you see this at some point.

Gothika - Not bad. Better than I expected of this genre.

Deep Impact / Armageddon - I can't tell these apart. An asteroid is coming to wipe out all life by crashing into America. Not worth watching on any level.

The Shining (Jack Nicholson) - It's a little slow in parts, but many scenes are filmed and directed incredibly well. A classic you really have to see.

Catch Me If You Can (Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks) - Much more enjoyable knowing it's based on a true story, and surprisingly uncrappy performances by the lead actors. Quite entertaining.

Jacob's Ladder - Surreal, disturbing, enthralling. A man starts seeing demons after a bad drug experience years earlier in Vietnam. One of the best movie endings.

Pitch Black (Vin Diesel) - This gem came hidden away amongst the usual Hollywood action blockbuster crap. It's slightly reminiscent of Aliens, and even starring Vin Diesel it's pretty good.

Chronicles of Riddick (Vin Diesel) - A reasonably good sequel, although the trailer could be for an entirely different movie. I quite liked this one. I think I was expecting Vin Diesel's Riddick to be an arrogant asshole macho character, but he's actually pretty cool and even reserved.

Stir of Echoes (Kevin Bacon) - Probably Kevin Bacon's best movie. I saw this years ago so I don't remember much, but I know I liked it and whenever I read the title I get "Paint It Black" stuck in my head. In a good way.

Dodgeball - If you have a choice between watching this and Zoolander, watch Zoolander.

Treasure of The Four Crowns - The crappest piece of crappy crapness ever committed to crappy film. If you find a video store with this title, burn it down. Then piss on the ashes while whistling the theme tune of Raiders of The Lost Ark.

Anime:

Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke - Both brilliant. Fantastic animation, story, emotion, creativity.

Akira - This one got me into anime. It's old, but revolutionary and I highly recommend it.

Ghost in The Shell - Very high quality anime. Some excellent scenes, especially the spider tank. Philosophical undertones allow repeated viewing, just don't let yourself be put off by the fanboy scene this movie has created.

Black Jack - I love Tezuka's work (Astroboy, Broken Down Movie, and Jumping were particularly good) but this one didn't grab me. I saw the end coming a mile off.

Ninja Scroll - A fantastic feudal-era Japanese ninja/samurai story. Incredible fight scenes and very creative demonic adversaries. Highly recommended. The TV series maintains the awesomeness.

Ninja Resurrection - Not the sequel to Ninja Scroll, but it tries to be. The excessive violence isn't enough to hide the mild crapness of this movie. The TV series was even worse.

Blood The Last Vampire - I don't remember much about this movie, but it was very short (45 mins) and not particularly gripping. I really didn't see the point of this movie, unless it was some fantastic revelationary culmination of a series that I missed. Not worth watching, IMO.

Goku Midnight Eye - Technically an OVA (2 episodes I think). I really liked this rare title. It's about a guy who's eye gets replaced by a satellite supercomputer uplink, and he gets an extending staff. Then he takes down bad guys against incredible odds. The plot elements were done suberbly, the animation is high quality, and the characters act realisticly.

Animatrix - Worth watching, if just to see all the variations in style available in anime. Some of the stories are a bit dull. The best ones I think are Detective Story, Osiris, Program, and Second Renaissance. Some nicely imaginitive stuff.

Spriggan - A decent movie in it own right, but don't cry if you miss it.

3x3 Eyes - Another (fairly old) OVA. I really liked this one. One of the fun parts is the main character becoming immortal early on, and no matter how many times he gets shot or run over he's alright afterwards. Plenty of action, violence, Ninja Scroll-type demons, and even emotion.

Trigun - One of the few full anime series I have actually watch all the way through.

Wings of Honeomaise - Very impressive animation, as good as Ghost in the Shell, although the action isn't as hard and fast.

Castle of Cagliostro - I quite liked this movie. It's a lot of fun.

Grave of the Fireflies - A very sad movie (some say depressing). I rate it very highly but I don't think I could bring myself to watch it again. It's about a boy and his little sister trying to survive in country Japan after the WW2 firebombings.

Because he's gotta tilt the mug so that the bottom faces Verbal so's he can drink from it.

A.I should have left it with the kid trapped in the ocean. The ending they left it with felt like it was tacked on so that it could end on a happy family friendly note.

It'd be nice to see the occasional film with an ending that makes you think. The TV series 'The Others' had all the main characters die in the last episode and it was all the better for it.