silent hill (2006). directed by christophe gans.

horror movie marathon indeed. and this slightly dated film is better than sinister (2012) that i watched yesterday. yeah it was based on a video game, but it has a better story line and make attempts to explains the strange occurrence in silent hill. violence is liberally applied, but it has an interesting visual style and i like the costumes [of the monsters] in the movie. 

my brother said this is one of the better horror movie that he had watched and looking forward to the sequel which will be showing in KL next week. i am not a big fan of violence, i will probably stay off it. 

margaret (2011). directed by kenneth lonergan.

i am a fan of lonergan's works. remember you can count on me (2000) which is heartwarming without being cliche and idiotic which can be challenging to find. the fact that this movie is mostly carried alone by anna paquin as the fast talking teenager who thinks what she feels matters to the world only to find out that she is well on her way to learn why cynicism is the only armour to survive this world when one is older.  not that adults do not care, or young people is more in touch with their feelings, or that sensitivity is lost by age, but this world has this kind of crushing feeling to it if you don't pick your battles carefully. it's survival instinct. 

sinister (2012). directed scott derrickson.

the background to the ghost story is weak. perhaps no explanation is needed in that aspect, but when i think of horror movies that i admire, there must be something that needs to be understood behind all that skin crawling experience. the substitute to a good plot is violence  and in this movie, there is plenty of it that had me screaming due to the sheer amount of massacre committed by children no less. 

i understand sometimes things are senseless, but this one is just sense-less. 

taken 2 (2012). directed by olivier megaton.

megaton it is not. taken i am not. a very poor version that tries to imitate the first movie. how sad is that?

life as we know it (2010). directed by greg berlanti.

what a waste of money. so many rehashed version of this story proves that it is extremely banal no matter the kind of angle you try to twist it because you just can't. i watched this last sunday i ended up running a list of movies that has this plot..really..this monstrosity has got to stop. 

the kids are all right (2010). directed by lisa cholodenko.

i quite like cholodenko's work, in particular high art (1998) and laurel canyon (2002). this movie has laurel's potential, the whole superficially-everything-is-ok-but-not-really BUT it is not actually as good as laurel. i find the story..hmm..how should one put it. i find the story flat. yeah you have a lesbian couple who has half sibling children looking for the donor dad. the one of the partners slept with the donor dad out of the usual relationship boredom. it could have been interesting, domestic unrest, like in we don't live here anymore (2004), but this movie brings nothing new to the table.