Seeing there's a movie review thread on here, I thought I might throw my reviews up and a link to what I've been doing over the last few years.
An idea shamelessly stolen from the podcast The Film Vault; reviewing recently watched movies (not just new releases).
http://www.facebook.com/Flickfessions
By coincidence, I saw a collection of movies with ambiguous endings. I'm still not sure if it's clever film making, trying to cash in on a sequel or just not knowing how to end a movie.
Limbo
http://en.wikipedia....%281999_film%29
A film I've heard mentioned as some type of Alaskan survival movie, which sounded pretty cool. However about 30 minutes in I was googling to see if I had the wrong movie, as I was watching some D-grade TV movie about a mother and daughter struggling to fit in and find work after moving to a new town. Nope, I had the right movie; I just wasn't patient with the filler and fluff before the action. So 1.5 hours in I was scratching my head doubting if I had the right movie again as there still wasn't any action. Finally something happened with the plot, but I had already been so frustrated by this, I didn't care anymore, and it was over too quick. It's like this was originally pitched as a TV series and the movie was episodes 2, 3, 7 and 9 out of 10. The most exciting and meaty bit of the story takes place out in the Alaskan wilderness, but it feels as most of these scenes were cut in exchange for mindless small talk by a couple of 90s stereotypical lesbians. I was shocked to find out people consider this a masterpiece.
The Birds
http://en.wikipedia....irds_%28film%29
A Hitchcock film from the 60s claiming to be the most terrifying motion picture ever made. Well, I guess back in 1963 the bar wasn't that high. It also depends on the viewer whether this holds up or not. For people afraid of birds, this probably will freak you out. The story takes a while to get going, but once it does, it's not-stop action. It's quite amazing to see how they made some of the scenes with so many birds at once on camera, as well as some of the special effects at the time. There really isn't much of a story, and if you blink you'll miss it anyway. The 3rd act of the movie is very well done. Worth the watch if you're a bird person.
Splice
http://en.wikipedia....lice_%28film%29
A Canadian film based on genetic engineering of humans. This movie starts hard and fast with a lot of technical/lab lingo thrown at you, which does seem to give the film legitimacy. I was surprised the pacing of the movie was so quick, but it got me in. The story is about a research facility that is funded by some corporation to find a protein they can mass market found when splicing DNA of difference species together. The scientists are obviously more interested in new and exciting research, where the bosses just want to see profits. So a pair of scientists conduct their own experiments in secret with human DNA. Where the first half of the movie moves along nicely, not trying to stretch anything out, the second half does get a bit stale. Throw in a bit of bestiality and the movie goes from a B+ to a C. If you like sci-fi, you'll probably find this interesting.