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Electronico6 you can watch Munich. Lawrence of Arabia was a very interesting movie with some amazingly scenic landscapes in it. I put off writing this for a bit because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to say about it, but I really liked how they developed the character of Lawrence. At first I felt like he was just a brash and overconfident British officer, and this was borne out right up until he executed the man he saved in the desert for me. After that I realized he was quite far from the typical action hero the journalist portrayed him as, and I think my changing perceptions of him from his original state, to an effective leader able to make the tough decisions to achieve his goals, then adding the flaws of hubris and bloodlust onto it really mirrored what some of the characters in the movie must have also felt. I also liked the characterizations of the Arab tribes, and the whole part after they took the city of Damascus was especially interesting to me. It almost reminded me of the backyard steel furnaces during the Great Leap Forward in that Lawrence really believed if he just gave it to them then by their sheer will they could run it correctly and make it work. Other than that the cinematography was beautiful and despite the slow pace the movie was gripping and easy to follow the whole way through. I did have pause to go to sleep when I got to the intermission and finish the next day, but that was just because I didn't realize quite how long it was going to be. Well worth the watch. The List of Shame: Stalker: I played through S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat and absolutely loved the games, so it feels a bit weird to have not seen this movie. For a Few Dollars More: Yay, bounty hunters and movies I haven't seen. Enter the Dragon: I was reading this thread and realized that I too have never seen a Bruce Lee movie. Se7en: Detectives looking for a serial killer and it has Morgan Freeman. I really should've seen this by now. The American Astronaut: Goons in the "I saw a film" thread seem to like this one. Battleship Potemkin: Supposedly a classic about mutiny on a Battleship, that's about all I know. Lost in Translation: I should see more films with Bill Murray, and other goons in this thread seemed to enjoy it. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Okay, at this point I'm just looking at interesting movie in the imdb top 250. But it does look interesting and it would be good for me to see a Western. Goodfellas: I started watching this movie a couple years back and for some reason just couldn't get into it so I stopped. Help me overcome this deficiency of character through shame. The Elephant Man: One of my friends was in a single-man play type thing of this some years back, so a movie adaptation seems cool. De-shamed(3): The Thin Red Line, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia
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Feb 18, 2013 00:38
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Ixtlilton, you get to watch For a Few Dollars More. I actually like it more than The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, but I'm probably in a minority there. Side note to the people who were talking about Blue Velvet yesterday: is there a Lynch thread where I could read more about his stuff? It sounds like goons have a lot to say about him, but I don't want to derail this thread. I just finished watching Metropolis. Netflix offered me a choice of an 80-odd minute colorized version with "the best of 80s synth pop," or a 2 1/2 hour version with the original score. Not really a tough choice there. I ended up watching it with my roommate, and we both enjoyed it, but it was her first encounter with silent film. The stage makeup and exaggerated gestures took a bit of getting used to, but the effects were way more than either of us were expecting for the mid-20s. I kept seeing shots and scenes I remembered from other movies that were made much later, though a lot of the more metaphorical bits would develop big blinking "THIS IS A METAPHOR/HALLUCINATION/DREAM" signs in those later films. I think it works much better without them. The story itself started off seeming like it would be a communist piece, but quickly made it clear how it feels about violent revolution. The characters were mostly straightforward hero/helper/capitalist/minion types, though Robo-Maria had me saying "wow, you're loving crazy" to my television for the second time this weekend (thanks for setting a precedent, Blue Velvet!). All in all, I think I'll probably be seeing echoes of this movie in every scifi and social commentary movie I watch from now on. A new film moves to fill the scifi slot. My Shame List, in order of length of time on the list: 1) Glengarry Glen Ross: I've heard this was an excellent drama, if very misanthropic. And how can you say no to that cast? 2) Jurassic Park: I haven't seen this since it first came out, so I was five. Any message beyond "Dinosaurs!" was completely lost on me, so I think it counts as being unseen. 3) The Rock: I've heard many people say this is terrible, but other people seem tend to speak highly of it. I have no idea if that second group is joking. 4) Casino: All I know is that it's a lot of the same people as Goodfellas (which I loved). A casino is probably involved? Joe Pesci is probably despicable? 5) Unforgiven: I don't know much about this beyond "western with Clint Eastwood, but darker than the Dollars Trilogy." 6) Battleship Potemkin: How did I take a film studies class in college and not see this? --- Original List Ends Here --- 7) The Shining: I like Kubrick, and this is apparently one of his best. 8) Inglorius Basterds: The ending got spoiled for me, but I've heard the journey to get there is good. 9) Videodrome: Long live the new flesh! My entire knowledge of this movie is that that line is in it. 10) Prometheus: (new) I want to get mad at half the forums over this, too! I feel like I've been left out. De-Shamed (4): The Thing (5/5), Casino Royale (3/5), Blue Velvet (4/5), Metropolis (5/5)
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Feb 18, 2013 04:29
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Nolanar posted:5) Unforgiven: I don't know much about this beyond "western with Clint Eastwood, but darker than the Dollars Trilogy." It may be genre subversion but you don't need to have seen a lot of them to enjoy them, in the same vein as Harakiri. (If you have seen that you know what I'm talking about.) Enjoy. Before Sunset - Better than its predecessor. More succint if my memory serves me correctly and in my opinion, more truthful, the writer has grown just as the characters did. Terrific acting and the real-time aspect brings out a lot of the tension that comes knowing you only have such a short time to be with someone. I wished it could have gone on forever. The song at the end was achingly beautiful. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Germany Year Zero (2/2/13) - This was one of the few movies I hadn't seen on Martin Scorsese's Journey to Italy so I've put it off because I'm too familiar with it (he tends to go into depth on each film eventually spoiling it) Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. The English Patient (2/2/13) - I hear its both boring and essential, so I'm torn. City Slickers (2/14/13) - Not that I'm exactly ashamed to have never seen this, it does seem to have gotten enough recognition that I should have. Taken off AFIs 100 Laughs... list. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Saturday Night Fever (2/17/13) - Another of those films thats a part of popular culture that I've never bothered with. Spellbound (2/18/13) - I have no idea how this eluded me for so long. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10)
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Feb 18, 2013 15:21
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:
I don't know if I'd call it essential. I've been meaning to re-watch it since I haven't seen it since I was much younger. The Purple Rose of Cairo is essential. I don't know why I thought it was an ode to silents...odd. What a great film that doesn't get lost in its nostalgic fantasy. It has a terrific emotional core through Mia Farrow's naive Cecilia. The premise and initial execution of the explorer coming out of the screen is awkward but it's handled with such odd amusement afterward that it works. Some of the best scenes are when the remaining characters are questioning the meaning of existence and their banter with audience members. It has a bleak streak to it that helps its footing in reality as the mutual escapes experienced by Cecilia and Tom Baxter are realized to be futile and temporary. I was worried because a friend of mine, who loves Allen, warned me off this...or told me not to get my hopes up. I wasn't disappointed. Daniels and Farrow are both incredible here. LIST O SHAME: 1920s - The Last Laugh (1924) - I have never seen a Murnau film...so very shameful. 1930s - The Lower Depths (1936) - Jean Renoir has really impressed me with Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game. It seems logical to see more of his work. 1940s - Monsieur Verdoux (1947) - Later Chaplin, I've heard mixed things. 1950s - The African Queen (1951) - I've felt guilty about not seeing this one for a long time. Seeing how I love Bogart, I have no excuse. 1960s - The Naked Kiss (1964) - Let's get into some Samuel Fuller ya'll. 1970s - Days of Heaven (1978) - Only Malick movie I haven't seen. Or, at least I don't think I've seen. I watched clips in a university class years ago. Don't think I saw all of it. 1980s - Broadcast News (1987) - I love movies about the news 1990s - Europa (1991) - Lars von Trier is a fascinating filmmaker and I would like to see more of his earlier work. I've caught Anti-Christ, Melancholia and Dogville but his only pre-2000 work I've seen is The Kingdom. 2000s and up - Fish Tank (2009) - Michael Fassbender is in this...something something... Bonus/Random - Don't Look Now (1973) - It comes highly recommended and I haven't seen much of younger, non-white haired Donald Sutherland other than Mash and Animal House. SHAME BE GONE:Wild Strawberries, Sunset Blvd., The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Our Man in Havana, Breathless, Phenomena, Withnail & I, 12 Angry Men, The Cranes Are Flying, Fitzcarraldo, Amadeus, Paths of Glory, Blow Out, Cronos, Hausu, City Lights, Easy Rider, The Lives of Others, Salo, In the Bedroom, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Cars, Brand Upon the Brain!, The Great Dictator, Double Indemnity, Point Blank, Cool Hand Luke, 127 Hours, Black Narcissus, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sting, A Woman is a Woman, Life of Brian, Last Picture Show, The Company of Wolves, Tree of Life, Life is Beautiful, Young Frankenstein, Cinema Paradiso, Some Like it Hot, Shotgun Stories, Singin' in the Rain, Precious, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Rules of the Game, Frost/Nixon, All About Eve, Bronson, The Searchers, Bicycle Thieves, American Graffiti, A Christmas Story, The Phantom Carriage, The Changeling, Repulsion, Kagemusha, Irreversible, The Virgin Spring, The Red Shoes, Deconstructing Harry, Metropolis, Che, The Island of Lost Souls, Revanche, Black Moon, Stalker, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Badlands, The Long Goodbye, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Apartment, All About My Mother, Tokyo Story, Chungking Express, This is Spinal Tap, On the Waterfront, Grave of the Fireflies, Rebecca, The Sweet Hereafter, Peeping Tom, Drunken Angel, Duck Soup, Key Largo, Witness for the Prosecution, The Lady From Shanghai, Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, Safety Last!, King Kong, Anatomy of a Murder, In a Lonely Place, Safe, Bad Day at Black Rock, The General, The Magnificent Ambersons, Five Easy Pieces, Porco Rosso, Mystery Train, Rififi, The King of Comedy, The Straight Story, The Kid, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carlos, Onibaba, It Happened One Night, Sherlock Jr., Lone Star, Foreign Correspondent, The Last Detail, Young Mr. Lincoln, Rope, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, The Man Who Laughs, Husbands and Wives, Reds, Sweet Smell of Success, Shadow of a Doubt (TOTAL: 118)
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Feb 18, 2013 18:06
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Ratedargh posted:I don't know if I'd call it essential. I've been meaning to re-watch it since I haven't seen it since I was much younger. in 12 official lists This movie ranks #51 in BAFTA - Best Film This movie ranks #55 in BFI 100 This movie ranks #56 in AFI's 100 years...100 passions This movie ranks #70 in Academy Award Best Pictures This movie ranks #99 in Academy Award Best Cinematography This movie ranks #268 in The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made This movie ranks #275 in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die This movie ranks #288 in 501 Must See Movies This movie ranks #388 in Empire 500 This movie ranks #398 in All-Time Worldwide Box office This movie ranks #403 in Academy Award Best Picture Nominees This movie ranks #950 in Have You Seen? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films I think it qualifies... 
F Stop Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Feb 18, 2013 |
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Feb 18, 2013 18:34
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The English Patient is essentially boring.  Ratedargh I watched today The African Queen, so that's what you get. Munich(2005) dir. Steven Spielberg With Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz and Hanns Zischler  During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack. This one feels very much like an extension and answer to Spielberg's own Schindler's List. The basic connection is that both concern Jewish culture, but the two also follow the same old Jewish maximum as moral framework, 'save one life is to save the whole world', in Shindler's List one character actually says it. In Munich nobody says it, and no one is doing any saving of lives, but I think it still applies. Spielberg takes a step back from the politics surrounding Israel-Palestine and Terrorism(Though that doesn't mean he ignores it), and takes a look into it from a very moral one. Can an endless war of attrition, a cycle with no end of people murdering other people, where one falls and is immediately replaced by someone else, be entirely justified and swept under the rug with just a simple "We have a home at last". Can it even be a home with all that guilt piling away in the back of your mind, and the killing never ceasing? It's interesting how the group sets out in it's journey, they all right from the start express some form of doubt, but hide it deep inside. As they progress through each name their carnage gets ever more brutal(Also some of Spielberg's most savage action scenes, this side of Saving Private Ryan), so they keep finding new ways to remain resolute to their mission(Avner(Bana) even says to one the non-filmcriticism version of 'shut your brain off'), and as a result a step closer to personal catastrophe. We keep following the group, never looking away from their gruesome violence, making us almost complicit in their dealings, and also share their doubts and guilt. The film closes up on a wide shot of New York's 70's skyline, with the World Trade Centre in the distance. Though that disaster might not be directly related to the events in this film, I think it eerily suggests that in some form it's deeply connected, with Avner's mission serving as a particular cautionary tale. And we do get a glimpse at the USA incredible shady dealings in the Middle East and Europe, in a moment where cold politics supersede morals and ethics. The last thirty minutes are the weak link, as the film slowly comes down to an all familiar paranoia scene, and just seems to drag and limp to it's end. Though this might just be because I still have The Insider fresh in my mind. Both films were even written by Eric Roth(This one co-written). But this is probably the most subtle and intricate of all 'serious' Spielberg films. I much prefer Spielberg when he is doing films with man-eating sharks, face melting Nazis, and cloned dinosaurs, as I find that they seem to stretch out more of his filmmaking imagination and really gets going, but this one holds it's weight. 90(Excellent) SHAME Part III: Rome, Open City Early Italian Neo-Realism. To be or Not to Be Ernst Lubitsch comedy about them nazis. Le Cercle rouge French gangsters are cool. La Chienne I quite liked Lang's remake/re-adaptation, though FitFortDanga says this is much better. The Great Silence A Western of the spaghetti variety. Delicious. Winchester '73 James Stewart and the Old Wild West. Black Narcissus Powell & Pressburger and Nuns. The Lady Eve Screwball comedy with the awesome Barbara Stanwyck and...Henry Fonda? Can Henry Fonda even do comedy? Juliet of the Spirits Fellini Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Boats Boats Boats Have watched so far 44 movies: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Fallen Angels, The Shop Around the Corner, La Strada, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn, All About My Mother, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Long Goodbye, Vampyr, Mon Oncle, The Exterminating Angel, Jules et Jim, Sorcerer, The Darjeeling Limited, Close-up, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Host, Zelig, Koyaanisqatsi, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Last Picture Show, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Killer, Anatomy of a Murder, The Trouble with Harry, Don't Look Now, L'Atalante, Cache, The Leopard, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dancer in the Dark, How Green Was My Valley, Vivre sa Vie, Harvey, The Earrings of Madame de..., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Tokyo Drifter, The Player, Intolerable Cruelty, The Insider, Late Spring, Munich.
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Feb 18, 2013 22:08
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Electronico6 posted:Juliet of the Spirits Fellini Of all Fellini's lesser known films, this is probably my favorite. Hope you enjoy it. The English Patient - It was indeed boring. Very boring, in fact. Uninteresting characters, plodding romantic storyline, and void of any interesting thematic elements. It seems to be a film equivalent of a Harlequin romance novel. Even the acting wasn't especially noteworthy, not that it was called for or anything. There was some nice photography at least. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Germany Year Zero (2/2/13) - This was one of the few movies I hadn't seen on Martin Scorsese's Journey to Italy so I've put it off because I'm too familiar with it (he tends to go into depth on each film eventually spoiling it) Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. City Slickers (2/14/13) - Not that I'm exactly ashamed to have never seen this, it does seem to have gotten enough recognition that I should have. Taken off AFIs 100 Laughs... list. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Saturday Night Fever (2/17/13) - Another of those films thats a part of popular culture that I've never bothered with. Spellbound (2/18/13) - I have no idea how this eluded me for so long. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists and is high on TSPDT. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10)
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Feb 18, 2013 22:53
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F Stop Fitzgerald, you get City Slickers. It should be the polar opposite of The English Patient. As it's title suggests, Adam's Rib is about the battle of the sexes. In this case, it takes place in a court room. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn are husband and wife lawyers, and find themselves opposing each other in the court room in an attempted murder case. Why isn't it a conflict of interest? Because then there'd be no movie fuckface. The results of the case affects their marriage. The film starts out with very whimsical music, and the style of the opening credits is reminiscent of comedies of the time. Then we witness an attempted murder, and this juxtopistion sets the tone for the rest of the film. It deals with what should be serious subject matter, but it is very comical with it's dialogue and tone. The interplay between Tracy and Hepburn matches the tone well. Thematically, the film deals with feminism, but it's a late 40's style of feminism. It's a bit more progressive than something like I Love Lucy, but it would probably be a much different movie if it was made 20 years later. Something I found funny was that the defendant just went to a pawn shop to buy a gun so she could shoot her husband. This is why there's waiting periods I guess  The List of Shame 1. Quiz Show: It's that movie from 1994 that no one ever seems to talk about anymore. Because it kind of sucks. 2. Witness for the Prosecution: More courtroom drama 3. Animal House: I rented this when I was a kid, watched about 10 minutes, got bored, and haven't revisited it since. 4. Lolita: I've seen almost all of Kubrick's offerings, but I have not yet seen this teen sex romp. 5. Strangers on a Train: More Hitchcock 6. The Time Machine: Old school sci-fi, and it's supposed to have good special effects. 7. Five Easy Pieces: One of the more important films of the New Hollywood movement. 8. The Philadeplphia Story: I have a feeling that this will be about a lot more than boxing. 9. Gaslight: This is one of the more famous noirs, so I feel I need to see it. 10. Ocean's Eleven (1960): I've seen the remake a bunch of times - let's see how the orginal once is. [b]De-shamed: A Clockwork Orange, Munich, The Godfather part 2, 12 Angry Men, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, Casablanca, Seven Samurai, Rear Window, 3:10 to Yuma, City of God, Sunset Boulevard, It's a Wonderful Life, LOTR: Return of the King, Saving Private Ryan, Memento, For a Few Dollars More, North by Northwest, Double Indemnity, M, Paths of Glory, To Kill a Mockingbird, Blade Runner, The Departed, Leon: The Professional, Wall*E, The Sting, True Grit (1969), The Third Man, The Hustler, Rashomon, Groundhog Day, Network, Rio Bravo, The Godfather part 3, Repulsion, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, Anatomy of a Murder, The Town, Dial M for Murder, A Bridge Too Far, The Towering Inferno, The Grapes of Wrath, Yojimbo, The Sixth Sense, Forbidden Planet, Cool Hand Luke, Easy Rider, It Happened one Night, Donnie Brasco, Fargo, Enter the Dragon, The Big Sleep, Adam's Rib
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Feb 19, 2013 01:40
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CopywrightMMXI, watch Animal House my man. I finally got around to watching Jaws, and I was really amazed how much I enjoyed it despite knowing practically every big moment just through pop culture. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Hooper found the head in the boat. Really kicking myself for not having seen this sooner. 1. Blade Runner I've never been sure what version to watch, so I figured it was just easier to not even bother 2. Pan's Labyrinth A friend told me it sucked, and I stupidly took his word and never saw it for myself. Mostly going down IMDB's top 250 now 3.The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 4. 12 Angry Men 5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest All movies I simply overlooked due to being a dumb, somewhat sheltered kid and trying to play catch up in the last few years.
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Feb 19, 2013 02:46
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Beef Jerky Robot posted:4. 12 Angry Men Everyone needs to see this movie. City Slickers - Uninspired with a few small laughs, but most of the jokes fall flat. Palance and Kirby were alright but every other actor annoyed the poo poo out of me. I don't have much to say about dumb comedies and this is no exception. I don't know what the AFI sees in this. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Germany Year Zero (2/2/13) - This was one of the few movies I hadn't seen on Martin Scorsese's Journey to Italy so I've put it off because I'm too familiar with it (he tends to go into depth on each film eventually spoiling it) Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Saturday Night Fever (2/17/13) - Another of those films thats a part of popular culture that I've never bothered with. Spellbound (2/18/13) - I have no idea how this eluded me for so long. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists. Yol - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10)
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Feb 19, 2013 16:41
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Well I dragged my rear end back into this thread after finally finally watching Fish Tank. Took a while to get into it, but Katie Jarvis and Fassbender put in great work and were always interesting to watch. I love the pale, sunbloomed, almost intragrammy cinematography. Tey used the 4:3 ratio well, its tightness added a degree of intimacy to it all. It could've stood to be about a full half-hour shorter, my attention really sagged in the middle when it played out the same basic situations two or three times in a row. When it's on, though, it's powerful and really upsetting. They don't gently caress around, they make sure you understand exactly how a girl could do what this girl does, and the casting of Suavest Man Alive Michael Fassboner as a total opportunist creep is a brilliant move. Pairs well with An Education. I also saw Skyline, which I did not like at all, and Boxing Gym, which I loved, so I've swapped those out. F Stop Fitzgerald (god that's a great name), do Saturday Night Fever. Most people find it's not what they expect. New list: The Whole Shootin' Match This is another one of those ones that I'm really intrigued by but somehow am never in the mood for. new: The Shout I hear this one is nuts. Who'll Stop the Rain? I hear this is basically a better version of Cutter's Way? Senso Always up for a melodrama. new: Son of Rambow Like the premise, own it, never ever had the urge to watch it. My Brother's Wedding So there's a director's cut that's like a half hour shorter? Which should I see? The Masseurs And A Woman I've been hankering for '30s Japanese films lately. new: Contagion Jude Law? Jude Law. Blue Valentine Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are both so awesome. How I Won the War Lennon and Lester. (trimmed this down to the last 20) Finished from this thread: Deep Red (8/10), The Darjeeling Limited (7/10), The Last Emperor (7.5/10), The Dead (8.5/10), Black Narcissus (8/10), Szerelem (8/10), The Passion of the Christ (8/10), Rumble Fish (8/10), Ils (6/10), Man's Castle (8/10), Antarctic Journal (6.5/10), Rango (8.5/10), Montenegro (8.5/10), Hammett (7.5/10), Hollywoodland (6/10), The Indian Fighter (7.5/10), Skyline (3/10), Boxing Gym (8.5/10), Fish Tank (8/10) penismightier fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Feb 19, 2013 |
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Feb 19, 2013 21:31
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penismightier posted:
I agree with their being awesome, and I have yet to see this myself. Hope you like it! Battleship Potemkin Wow was that ever intense! What an awesome musical score. What a difference this restored blu-ray version made compared to when I tried watching it years ago and couldn't get through the first 15 minutes. Perhaps I've grown as a filmgoer but this was far better than I ever expected it would be. Some scenes are shocking even 93 years later. Now, granted, there were moments that dragged a little. Even at 71 minutes, this would've benefited from a few minutes taken off here or there. And as exciting as most of this film was, it was hard to get into when there was no mention of any names except for one or two early on. The two sides are clear, and there's plenty of extras to be found, but no names to any faces to focus these sequences a bit more. It's comparable to a fireworks show where you're in awe of what you're seeing but there's no emotional attachment. This is quite the technical achievement and worth seeking out, if only to check off your list. It may provide more than simply that. LIST Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (2012.09.18) - need to add a Scorsese film to get myself back on track in the "Pick a Director. Watch Every Movie." thread. Ben-Hur (2013.02.12) - I bought the Collectors Edition real cheap off amazon a while ago, and it's embarrassing having that on display and not having watched the movie! The Leopard (2012.09.18) - blind purchase during a B&N sale & haven't had any strong desire to sit & watch it (probably the runtime). Someone change that. The Music Room (2013.01.29) - I have to yet see anything from Satyajit Ray. Once Upon A Time In The West (2013.01.24) - I need to see more westerns. The Postman Always Rings Twice (2013.02.09) - I claim to be a big fan of film noir yet have not watched this one. But hey, that's why I'm here! Sleeper (2013.02.14) - I could've chosen many Woody films I need to catch up with, but we'll go with this one for now. The Sting **new** (2013.02.19) - I get told often to watch this. I want to get told once more. Through a Glass Darkly (2013.01.18) - just picked up the Bergman trilogy and I want to do this in order. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2012.12.26) - friend of mine just told me I need to see it which also made me wonder why this wasn't on my list sooner? De-shamed: Aliens (4.5/5), The Bridge on the River Kwai (5/5), La Dolce Vita (4/5), The Hustler (5/5), Blue Velvet (4.5/5), Close-Up (4.5/5), The Lady Vanishes (4.5/5), Grave of the Fireflies (5/5), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (3.5/5), Oldboy (4.5/5), Gattaca (3.5/5), Children of Men (5/5), The Great Dictator (4.5/5), Diabolique (4.5/5), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (3.5/5), Rashomon (4.5/5), Singin' in the Rain (5/5), Le Samourai (5/5), Hiroshima, Mon Amour (5/5), Battleship Potemkin (4/5), [Total:20]
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Feb 20, 2013 06:08
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friendo55 posted:And as exciting as most of this film was, it was hard to get into when there was no mention of any names except for one or two early on. The two sides are clear, and there's plenty of extras to be found, but no names to any faces to focus these sequences a bit more. This is actually a feature of both Battleship Potempkin and Strike, and it makes sense with the Communist stance of both films. There's no one member of the sailors (except maybe Vakulinchuk) or Odessans or factory workers who is more important than another; instead, the revolutionary collective as a whole is the 'protagonist' that we follow and support. I was actually lucky enough to see Battleship Potempkin in a theater with a live orchestral score, and it was an incredible film to watch on the screen.
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Feb 20, 2013 06:21
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RandallODim posted:This is actually a feature of both Battleship Potempkin and Strike, and it makes sense with the Communist stance of both films. There's no one member of the sailors (except maybe Vakulinchuk) or Odessans or factory workers who is more important than another; instead, the revolutionary collective as a whole is the 'protagonist' that we follow and support. I left that out - I went in knowing none of the history, but I did think maybe that was the point? But even with that making sense, it doesn't make it any more engaging to watch. It's a film I respected more than enjoyed overall. I've yet to see a film with a live score and I'm sure that would leave a lasting effect! A friend of mine had that experience with 2001. I hate you both.
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Feb 20, 2013 06:31
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Friendo, I find myself without knowledge of any of your movies. I'll say go ask Alice, because Scorsese is good, and that's all the reason I need. Despite the fact that the story was pretty obvious and well-known, 12 Angry Men blew me away. The performances in this movie were simply amazing. Every character had a unique personality defined with very little effort. Ed Begley’s flagrant racism was well-portrayed. It would seem over the top today, but in its era there’s no doubt many people would talk just like that, and I was impressed the movie tackled such a sensitive issue. The real stand-out, though, was Lee Cobb as Juror #3 (I was about halfway through the movie before I realized none of them had names). When he had his breakdown at the end and you realized just why he took it so personally, it was heartbreaking. This movie is brilliant and is not paled even by countless imitators. Rating: 4/4 66. Dr. Zhivago- For the historical epic slot, we move from sand to snow. Also, more WWI, this time from the Russian perspective, which I like even more. ON HOLD: 72. The Rapture- 1991 movie about the dark side of an already pretty dark heresy. This sounds right up my aisle. 73. Safety Last- Silent comedy by a guy who's not Chaplin- Lloyd? Keaton? Pretty sure it's one of them. 75. Tokyo Story- What is this? I have no idea what this is, but I keep seeing it on best of lists. 77. Leaving Las Vegas- Like I said, I've always liked Nick Cage, so let's see his Oscar performance. 79. Dogville- Never seen a Lars von Trier film. I think I heard this described as very dark and minimalist. 81. Irreversible- This is supposed to be really disturbing. I got a few minutes in a while back, but had to stop because the weird camera angles and flashing lights were making my wife sick. 83. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang- So, I don't know. This is like - a noir, but not a noir? A parody, kind of but not really? Robert Downey Jr.? I'm confused, but I'm told I'll like it. 84. Lost Weekend- Ben Franklin from 1776 gets really drunk. Sure, why not? 85. Blue Velvet- More David Lynch. Okay, tell me what I’m watching! Shame relieved: The Godfather: 3.5/4, The Godfather Part II: 4/4, Taxi Driver: 4/4, Casablanca: 4/4, Duck Soup: 2/4, Pulp Fiction: 4/4, Barton Fink: 3.5/4, Annie Hall:3/4, Rashomon: 4/4, Blade Runner: 3.5/4, Chinatown: 4/4, Nashville: 3.5/4, Goodfellas: 4/4, The Seven Samurai: 4/4, Superman: 2/4, The Exorcist: 3/4, A Face in the Crowd: 3.5/4, The Seventh Seal: 2.5/4, Treasure of the Sierra Madre: 3.5/4, Apocalypse Now: 4/4, 2001: A Space Odyssey: 2.5/4, The Deer Hunter: 3/4, Schindler's List: 4/4, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: 3/4, Young Frankenstein: 3.5/4, Yojimbo: 3.5/4, Brazil: 3.5/4, Hamlet: 4/4, The Aviator: 4/4, Rocky: 3.5/4, Gandhi: 3.5/4, City Lights: 4/4, Battleship Potemkin: 3.5/4, Predator: 3/4, Easy Rider: 1.5/4, Platoon: 3.5/4, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: 4/4, Get Carter: 3.5/4, Full Metal Jacket: 4/4, My Dinner with Andre: 4/4, Lethal Weapon: 3/4, 3 Women: 4/4, Ikiru: 4/4, The Maltese Falcon: 2.5/4, Midnight Cowboy: 3/4, Gattaca: 4/4, Gone with the Wind: 3/4, Jaws: 4/4, The Bicycle Thief: 3/4, Sophie's Choice: 2/4, On the Waterfront: 4/4, North by Northwest: 3.5/4, Stagecoach: 3.5/4, E.T.: 2/4, Nosferatu: 4/4, Lawrence of Arabia: 4/4, Dirty Harry: 1/4, Vertigo: 3.5/4, Rebecca: 4/4, The Pink Panther: 3/4, Children of Men: 4/4, Wings of Desire: 3/4, Metropolis: 3.5/4, Born on the Fourth of July: 4/4, The Bridge on the River Kwai: 3.5/4, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 4/4, Being John Malkovich: 3/4, Adaptation: 4/4, Bonnie and Clyde: 4/4, Goldfinger: 3/4, A Streetcar Named Desire: 4/4, Dog Day Afternoon: 3.5/4, Leon: The Professional: 4/4, 8 1/2: 3/4, Mulholland Drive: 4/4, 12 Angry Men: 4/4
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Feb 20, 2013 20:00
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Jurgan you get to find out who was the star of Safety Last.(Tip:Not Keaton) Juliet of the Spirits(1965) dir. Federico Fellini With Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu and Valentina Cortese  Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman(Giulietta Masina) to find the strength to leave her cheating husband(Mario Pisu). This was Fellini's follow up film to 8 1/2, and feels very much like 8 1/2, with that floaty camera and carnival approach to life, blending reality and imagination seamlessly. Now it's in colour(his first), with a different person(and gender!) having it's fears and fantasies being put up on the big screen. However when it was over, I couldn't help feeling that the film never got around to the visions, and the memories of Giulietta Masina alter-ego Giulietta(Juliet) Boldrini, but instead existing in someone else's visions, memories, and imagination. It's like Fellini is doing Masina(his wife) biography, interpreting it only through his voice and expressions, not leaving much room for Masina as Juliet. Masina who brings colour to the B&W Nights of Cabiria and La Strada with her incredible presence, in this one seems strangely off and muted, trapped in her husbands circus of life. Something just doesn't gel together in Juliet of the Spirits, which is really off putting. But I'm being really overly negative about it, cause I did actually enjoy watching it, even if it doesn't come together by the end of it all. Fellini is a tad over indulgent here and there, but it's fun to watch it go into a colourful overdrive, never really knowing which way the film is going, swaying to the flow of the actors almost dancing through the frame, and the best part of it all, admiring all those silly hats and dizzy dresses. Some amazing wardrobe. Also Nino Rota is a God. 77(Good) SHAME Part III: Rome, Open City Early Italian Neo-Realism. To be or Not to Be Ernst Lubitsch comedy about them nazis. Le Cercle rouge French gangsters are cool. La Chienne I quite liked Lang's remake/re-adaptation, though FitFortDanga says this is much better. The Great Silence A Western of the spaghetti variety. Delicious. Winchester '73 James Stewart and the Old Wild West. Black Narcissus Powell & Pressburger and Nuns. The Lady Eve Screwball comedy with the awesome Barbara Stanwyck and...Henry Fonda? Can Henry Fonda even do comedy? Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Boats Boats Boats A Foreign Affair Billy Wilder Have watched so far 45 movies: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Fallen Angels, The Shop Around the Corner, La Strada, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn, All About My Mother, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Long Goodbye, Vampyr, Mon Oncle, The Exterminating Angel, Jules et Jim, Sorcerer, The Darjeeling Limited, Close-up, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Host, Zelig, Koyaanisqatsi, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Last Picture Show, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Killer, Anatomy of a Murder, The Trouble with Harry, Don't Look Now, L'Atalante, Cache, The Leopard, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dancer in the Dark, How Green Was My Valley, Vivre sa Vie, Harvey, The Earrings of Madame de..., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Tokyo Drifter, The Player, Intolerable Cruelty, The Insider, Late Spring, Munich, Juliet of the Spirits.
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Feb 20, 2013 20:19
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Electronic06 you get Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. For a Few Dollars More was a fun movie to watch. It set the mood well, had lots of action, and most importantly  . I was surprised to see that I recognized a few of the shots as screencaps from around the internet, and the ending even took me a bit by surprise not that the bad guys lost, but the whole sister thing and matching watches .Well worth the watch just to have seen such an iconic western, but the watch itself was also really cool to me. As someone who has a small collection of pocket watches the first thing I thought when I saw the thing was "Is that a gold hunter with roman numerals? I want that so bad  !" Seriously, that pocket watch/music box was awesome.And now for The List of Shame: Stalker: I played through S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat and absolutely loved the games, so it feels a bit weird to have not seen this movie. Boondock Saints: I got this moviefor $3.00 at a library sale a while ago and I haven't gotten around to seeing it. Should I? Enter the Dragon: I was reading this thread and realized that I too have never seen a Bruce Lee movie. Se7en: Detectives looking for a serial killer and it has Morgan Freeman. I really should've seen this by now. The American Astronaut: Goons in the "I saw a film" thread seem to like this one. Battleship Potemkin: Supposedly a classic about mutiny on a Battleship, that's about all I know. Lost in Translation: I should see more films with Bill Murray, and other goons in this thread seemed to enjoy it. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Okay, at this point I'm just looking at interesting movie in the imdb top 250. But it does look interesting and it would be good for me to see a Western. Goodfellas: I started watching this movie a couple years back and for some reason just couldn't get into it so I stopped. Help me overcome this deficiency of character through shame. The Elephant Man: One of my friends was in a single-man play type thing of this some years back, so a movie adaptation seems cool. De-shamed(4): The Thin Red Line, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, For a Few Dollars More
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Feb 20, 2013 21:14
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Ixtlilton, you must watch Goodfellas! It has always been one of my favorite movies about organized criminals, because unlike The Godfather and many movies that have come after it, Goodfellas does not make any attempt to convince you that gangsters are some kind of noble warrior poets. There are tons of gaps in my knowledge of cinema, but here are some well-regarded films I have lying around that I perpetually put off watching for some reason: Blue Velvet: Literally the only David Lynch film I've watched is his ridiculous Dune adaptation. I'm also very open to alternate suggestions for starting points in Lynch's filmography from Lynch fans, but please don't recommend Eraserhead, because I am very terrified of the Eraserhead baby, which literally looks like something from out of my nightmares. Thank you. Grave of the Fireflies: I'm one of those dudes who completely and utterly despises anime, but I also completely love animation and I'm aware that the stuff Studio Ghibli puts out (of which I've seen none) is held in high regard even by people who don't watch Digimon. This seems to be the most revered film they've produced? The French Connection: For some reason, every time I've tried to watch this movie, I've zoned out and completely lost track of what's happening within the first 20 minutes. But I love Gene Hackman and I love movies about crimes, so at some point I have to sit down and give this movie a chance. Chinatown: I know that it ends with a guy telling another guy, "That's Chinatown." That is all that I know. The Guns of Navarone: A team of guys in World War II pull off a mission? I do not even know if that is really what this movie is about. Melancholia: I'm curious about Lars von Trier, but even the Wikipedia plot synopsis of Antichrist almost made me pass out, so I doubt I have the stomach for that one. Maybe I'll watch this one?
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Feb 20, 2013 23:29
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justsomedude posted:Blue Velvet: Literally the only David Lynch film I've watched is his ridiculous Dune adaptation. I'm also very open to alternate suggestions for starting points in Lynch's filmography from Lynch fans, but please don't recommend Eraserhead, because I am very terrified of the Eraserhead baby, which literally looks like something from out of my nightmares. Thank you. I can't help but try to get people into David Lynch. Hopefully you'll like it better than the last person I picked this for. Saturday Night Fever - Well, penismightier was right about this not being what I expected. Still mediocre, but not that bad. Travolta was actually quite good (perhaps the role he was born to play) but the whole rest of the film felt underdeveloped. There were some interesting things going on but I didn't feel they were realized in any meaningful way. Loved the music. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Germany Year Zero (2/2/13) - This was one of the few movies I hadn't seen on Martin Scorsese's Journey to Italy so I've put it off because I'm too familiar with it (he tends to go into depth on each film eventually spoiling it) Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Spellbound (2/18/13) - I have no idea how this eluded me for so long. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10)
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Feb 20, 2013 23:50
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:
Being as I just watched a Scorsese film, I'll stick with that theme and give you this. It's also one I need to eventually see myself. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore Here's Martin Scorsese doing a human drama about a mother trying to survive on her own, as a singer, raising her 12 year old son. Maybe it's a bit dated? Maybe it's because I'm not a single mother with an annoying bratty 12 year old son? Hell, this Alfred Lutter III played his role as young Tommy so well it makes me not want to have kids. There were moments I almost stopped the film because of how irritating he was. Overall, there were some good moments, but so much of it dragged on for me and the film didn't connect. At the same time, when moments in this film were good, they were really great. I will say Ellen Burstyn gave a hell of a performance. She kind of reminded me of Faye Dunaway and even Diane Keaton. As Alice Hyatt, she's completely convincing and the film is great with focusing on her and giving her character plenty of depth. The relationship she has with her son Tommy has real complexity unlike many others that attempt the same (I'll forgive the odd creepy moment). This genre is not Scorsese's strong suit, in my opinion, as a 112 minute film felt like 4 hours. It was a relief to see the credits roll and I have no desire to see this again. This is me giving a generous 3.5/5, if not for Burstyn's performance and a well written script... for the most part. LIST Ben-Hur (2013.02.12) - I bought the Collectors Edition real cheap off amazon a while ago, and it's embarrassing having that on display and not yet watched the movie! The Leopard (2012.09.18) - blind purchase during a B&N sale & haven't had any strong desire to sit & watch it (probably the runtime). Someone change that. The Music Room (2013.01.29) - I have to yet see anything from Satyajit Ray. Network **new** (2013.02.20) - This is just long overdue, and I've loved Lumet's other films. Once Upon A Time In The West (2013.01.24) - I need to see more westerns. The Postman Always Rings Twice (2013.02.09) - I claim to be a big fan of film noir yet have not watched this one. But hey, that's why I'm here! Sleeper (2013.02.14) - I could've chosen many Woody films I need to catch up with, but we'll go with this one for now. The Sting (2013.02.19) - I get told often to watch this. I want to get told once more. Through a Glass Darkly (2013.01.18) - just picked up the Bergman trilogy and I want to do this in order. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2012.12.26) - friend of mine just told me I need to see it which also made me wonder why this wasn't on my list sooner? De-shamed: Aliens (4.5/5), The Bridge on the River Kwai (5/5), La Dolce Vita (4/5), The Hustler (5/5), Blue Velvet (4.5/5), Close-Up (4.5/5), The Lady Vanishes (4.5/5), Grave of the Fireflies (5/5), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (3.5/5), Oldboy (4.5/5), Gattaca (3.5/5), Children of Men (5/5), The Great Dictator (4.5/5), Diabolique (4.5/5), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (3.5/5), Rashomon (4.5/5), Singin' in the Rain (5/5), Le Samourai (5/5), Hiroshima, Mon Amour (5/5), Battleship Potemkin (4/5), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (3.5/5), [Total:21]
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Feb 21, 2013 07:21
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friendo55 posted:Network **new** (2013.02.20) - This is just long overdue, and I've loved Lumet's other films. Sorry but I have to make you watch your newest addition, because not only is it my personal favorite of the ten but it's also the most essential imo. Germany Year Zero - Another reason I put this off for so long is that I've never been wowed by anything Rossellini did besides St. Francis and I'm not crazy about the whole neo-realism movement, sorry to say. That being said, I really liked this one, probably my new favorite by him. I loved the cinematography, it made great use of the bombed-out city, really adding to the atmosphere. The strangely used music was off-putting, but in the best of ways, purposefully creating a sense of unease. Like all neo-realist films however, the use of non-actors was more of a detriment than virtue, but it could have been a lot worse. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Spellbound (2/18/13) - I have no idea how this eluded me for so long. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. Julius Caesar (1953) (2/21/13) - I love me some Shakespeare. Taken from Martin Scorsese's 85 Films You Need to See to Know Anything About Film. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10) - Germany Year Zero (8/10)
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Feb 21, 2013 17:39
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F Stop Fitzgerald, Spellbound is a lesser Hitchcock but it's worth catching for the Salvador Dali segments. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World(2003) dir. Peter Weir With Russel Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D'Arcy  During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain(Russel Crowe) pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America. I'll be honest I wasn't expecting much from this one, nor was very excited about it. Nobody seems to talk much about this film. Just one of those big historical epics that everyone was doing in early 2000's, doomed to be forgotten. Apart from my friend who has been telling me to watch it since around the film originally came out(10 years ago jesus), but I could never really tell if he actually enjoyed the film or he was only being the usual nutter about Napoleonic narratives and all that fine period detail. As it turns out it's pretty loving great film, and I'm starting to regret not catching this back in '03 on the big screen. For much of it's two hours of runtime everything that goes on happens almost entirely on the ship, except for a visit to the Galapagos. You are with the crew of HMS Surprise the whole time. Effectively stuck in the 'wooden floating prison' as Paul Bettany character says at some point. The plot is waffle thin; there is a French ship and our able seamen must sink it down, without paying themselves a visit to Spongebob. There is only two battles, one at the start of the film, the other at the end. Between the promised big naval battles, you get to watch the crew going on their usual high sea routines; scrubbing decks, fixing broken ship parts, eating, getting drunk, singing, all that. Sounds boring, and the world most unlikely swashbuckling epic, but as it turns out it isn't boring, and it's an epic all by it self. While low on the swashbuckling and grand adventure, it's incredible rich in character. The whole of the crew feel very much alive, and you go through all of their highs and lows, their friendships and conflicts, their fears and triumphs. After awhile you sort of forget that they are chasing a French ship with intent to destroy it. When it finally gets to the big battle, it all pays off. The violence is incredible chaotic and brutal, characters die in a simple blink of an eye, and you even tend to lose sight of them as they charge into battle, and you are left to dread that they most likely dead. Only when the battle is over, is where you get to see properly who came out alive. I don't think I ever saw a film that does a similar thing, just this cluttered mess of people killing each other, and never cutting away to a close up or doing a slow motion to one character dying. You spend almost two hours following these dudes around, and the last you may see of them clearly, are they charging bellow decks against the enemy. It's unorthodox, but incredible effective where it counts. Guess I own my friend an apology for ignoring his suggestion for almost a decade. 86(Great) SHAME Part III: Rome, Open City Early Italian Neo-Realism. To be or Not to Be Ernst Lubitsch comedy about them nazis. Le Cercle rouge French gangsters are cool. La Chienne I quite liked Lang's remake/re-adaptation, though FitFortDanga says this is much better. The Great Silence A Western of the spaghetti variety. Delicious. Winchester '73 James Stewart and the Old Wild West. Black Narcissus Powell & Pressburger and Nuns. The Lady Eve Screwball comedy with the awesome Barbara Stanwyck and...Henry Fonda? Can Henry Fonda even do comedy? A Foreign Affair Billy Wilder Romeo + Juliet(1996) Oh dear Have watched so far 46 movies: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Fallen Angels, The Shop Around the Corner, La Strada, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn, All About My Mother, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Long Goodbye, Vampyr, Mon Oncle, The Exterminating Angel, Jules et Jim, Sorcerer, The Darjeeling Limited, Close-up, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Host, Zelig, Koyaanisqatsi, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Last Picture Show, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Killer, Anatomy of a Murder, The Trouble with Harry, Don't Look Now, L'Atalante, Cache, The Leopard, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dancer in the Dark, How Green Was My Valley, Vivre sa Vie, Harvey, The Earrings of Madame de..., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Tokyo Drifter, The Player, Intolerable Cruelty, The Insider, Late Spring, Munich, Juliet of the Spirits, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
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Feb 21, 2013 19:32
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Electronico6 posted:La Chienne I quite liked Lang's remake/re-adaptation, though FitFortDanga says this is much better. I picked this at random, due to ignorance. - Seven Samurai - I ended up watching this movie in three parts: two before the Intermission and then the whole later half at once. The first half left me wanting; the pace ate away at me as it went. I recognize how good it was but the material wasn't hooking me hard enough to feel engrossed. But it was all worth it for that second half. The real benefit of the first hour-forty was the buildups of the seven samurai, the villagers, and the preparations of their homes for war. That last hour was fantastic and I'd love to rewatch it, especially with other people. Also, a sign of a good movie is when I genuinely feel something at the end. The last shot showing the graves...brilliant. More poignant that I was expecting. A great movie. - SHAMELIST: (in order of longest time on this list) Rebel Without A Cause - Another "I've heard of it" entry. I want to get an idea who this James Dean fellow is Good Morning Vietnam - My best friend suggested this. Is he a fool? The Sound of Music - I feel filthy that I've never seen this. Something about Nazis, right? And spinning in a field of grass. Nazis spinning around in fields of grass? gently caress yeah. From Russia with Love - Bond movie #2. I feel like with Connery, nothing can go wrong. The Jerk - I want to have a comedy on this list and here it is. Hopefully it works for me. Notorious - More Hitchcock please  Wreck-It Ralph - After WALL·E, I want some more interesting animation. And this is right down my wheelhouse. Rocky - The only Rocky I've seen is the fourth one. I would like to see the first one, at least. Deliverance - I watched the famous dueling banjos scene in college once. I want to see what happens to those poor fucks. Lawrence of Arabia - I know nothing about this movie other than it being long. Time to fix that. De-shamed (32): Raiders of the Lost Arc; Alien; Blade Runner; The Godfather; Casablanca; Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; The Godfather Part II; Die Hard; Grave of the Fireflies; Aliens; A Fistful of Dollars; One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest; Network; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Schindler's List; Superman; Dr. No; Rear Window; Young Frankenstein; Jaws; Akira; The Shining; American Psycho; Metropolis; The Graduate; The Birds; Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure; WALL·E; American History X; The Third Man; Blue Velvet; Seven Samurai
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Feb 22, 2013 00:30
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Space Cob posted:Notorious - More Hitchcock please Considering what I just watched it seemed fitting to recommend another Hitchcock/Bergman film. Unlike Spellbound, this one is excellent. Spellbound - Lesser Hitchcock is right. The film is watchable and even slightly entertaining but thw whole is really more than the sum of it's parts. The soundtrack was awful, the psychology is annoying (not that it could helped, product of it's time and so on), and it's not really much of a suspense film. Even the performances were underwhelming, surprising coming from two such great actors. The Dali-inspired dream sequence is definitely the high mark of the film, even if it is still full of dimestore psychology, with some of the craziest imagery found in a Hitchcock film. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a hardcore Hitch fan (although if they were they would already have seen it I'd imagine) nor would I watch it again, but it was still decent. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. Julius Caesar (1953) (2/21/13) - I love me some Shakespeare. Taken from Martin Scorsese's 85 Films You Need to See to Know Anything About Film. Footloose (2/21/13) - I know I'm not going to like this but it is popular enough that I should have seen it. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10) - Germany Year Zero (8/10) - Spellbound (6/10)
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Feb 22, 2013 00:34
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F Stop Fitzgerald, you get Julius Caesar. It seems to be the one you're most looking forward. I saw some of Animal House when I was about 12, and rewatched it now 20 years later. I think had I watched it at some point in between, this might have been my favorite movie. As it is, it's a comedy that somewhat holds up, but it's more interesting to watch to see how it influenced pretty much every college movie that has followed it. This is the college movie, and it has all the tropes associated with the genre, like a crusty old dean, rival fraternities, and of course, togas. The film moves along at a quick pace, and while none of the scenes drag, the humor doesn't always hit it's mark. I feel somewhat ashamed to say this, but a lot of Belushi's scenes really didn't work for me because there was too much slapstick. Some scenes though, such as a recurring joke involving a handjob had me laughing out loud. The main problem I have with this film is the main problem I have with Revenge of the Nerds. While not as reprehensible as Nerds, it's still sexist as gently caress. The nudity is gratuitous, and really is just an excuse for male gaze. But hey, at least there was no rape. Overall, I wouldn't say it's a bad movie, but just one I feel that I've outgrown. I think had I watched this when I was in university, I'd probably have a ton of nostalgia towards it though. The List of Shame 1. Quiz Show: It's that movie from 1994 that no one ever seems to talk about anymore. Because it kind of sucks. 2. Witness for the Prosecution: More courtroom drama 3. Lolita: I've seen almost all of Kubrick's offerings, but I have not yet seen this teen sex romp. 4. Strangers on a Train: More Hitchcock 5. The Time Machine: Old school sci-fi, and it's supposed to have good special effects. 6. Five Easy Pieces: One of the more important films of the New Hollywood movement. 7. The Philadeplphia Story: I have a feeling that this will be about a lot more than boxing. 8. Gaslight: This is one of the more famous noirs, so I feel I need to see it. 9. Ocean's Eleven (1960): I've seen the remake a bunch of times - let's see how the orginal one is. 10. The Man with the Golden Arm: I'm not sure if this is any good, but it certainly is intriguing. Frank Sinatra plays a heroin addict in this one. Given that it was made in the 1950s, I'm interested in seeing how they portray this. De-shamed: A Clockwork Orange, Munich, The Godfather part 2, 12 Angry Men, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, Casablanca, Seven Samurai, Rear Window, 3:10 to Yuma, City of God, Sunset Boulevard, It's a Wonderful Life, LOTR: Return of the King, Saving Private Ryan, Memento, For a Few Dollars More, North by Northwest, Double Indemnity, M, Paths of Glory, To Kill a Mockingbird, Blade Runner, The Departed, Leon: The Professional, Wall*E, The Sting, True Grit (1969), The Third Man, The Hustler, Rashomon, Groundhog Day, Network, Rio Bravo, The Godfather part 3, Repulsion, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, Anatomy of a Murder, The Town, Dial M for Murder, A Bridge Too Far, The Towering Inferno, The Grapes of Wrath, Yojimbo, The Sixth Sense, Forbidden Planet, Cool Hand Luke, Easy Rider, It Happened one Night, Donnie Brasco, Fargo, Enter the Dragon, The Big Sleep, Adam's Rib, Animal House CopywrightMMXI fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 04:45
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CopywrightMMXI, I bet it is probably the worst film on your list, but you must watch Quiz Show, because it is the only movie I've watched on your list! It is so forgettable that I literally remember almost nothing about it. A guy is a contestant on a quiz show, and the producers help him cheat, and then he gets caught cheating. And then...? The end. You'll have to remind me what happens. Blue Velvet (1986) Man, I was ready for this movie to be kind of a chore (my only real experience with David Lynch prior to this was watching his silly adaptation of Dune), but it surprised me by being incredibly compelling from beginning to end. I'd heard that Blue Velvet is one of Lynch's more accessible films, and the narrative is certainly intelligible, but the meaning of the film is complicated enough that I'm still rolling it around in my head and trying to decide exactly what I want to say about it. The actions of the protagonist, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), at first seem to lack any plausible motivation, but when high school student Sandy (Laura Dern) tells him, "I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert," she's also addressing the viewer. We are keen to see Jeffrey step into the darkness of Dorothy Vallens' (Isabella Rossellini) world for the same reasons as Jeffrey, but what are they? Dennis Hopper's manic performance as unstable sociopath Frank Booth was consistently gripping and disturbing, but Blue Velvet isn't an exploration of his character so much as it is an exploration of why it is we find characters like him so engrossing. The mood of the film is consistently dreamlike, bouncing back and forth between Jeffrey and Sandy's almost Old Hollywood relationship and the surreal nightmare world that is Dorothy's apartment. There are definitely a lot of really memorable "staring into the void" images peppered into this movie, which is thematically appropriate, as Blue Velvet is a movie that asks why it is we feel compelled to stare into the void in the first place. I'm not sure if I get the film's happy ending, but I'm definitely down to watch some more Lynch. THE LIST: Mulholland Drive: Now that I've watched Blue Velvet and thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm down to check out another Lynch film. Grave of the Fireflies: I'm one of those dudes who completely and utterly despises anime, but I also completely love animation and I'm aware that the stuff Studio Ghibli puts out (of which I've seen none) is held in high regard even by people who don't watch Digimon. This seems to be the most revered film they've produced? The French Connection: For some reason, every time I've tried to watch this movie, I've zoned out and completely lost track of what's happening within the first 20 minutes. But I love Gene Hackman and I love movies about crimes, so at some point I have to sit down and give this movie a chance. Chinatown: I know that it ends with a guy telling another guy, "That's Chinatown." That is all that I know. The Guns of Navarone: A team of guys in World War II pull off a mission? I do not even know if that is really what this movie is about. Melancholia: I'm curious about Lars von Trier, but even the Wikipedia plot synopsis of Antichrist almost made me pass out, so I doubt I have the stomach for that one. Maybe I'll watch this one? Chilled Cactus fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 17:02
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justsomedude you get Grave of the Fireflies because it's a great movie. Really sad, but a great movie. I started off Goodfella willing to give it another chance, but after about an hour I remembered why I didn't like this movie the first time I tried to watch it. Now, I did finish it this time, but I found absolutely none of the characters likeable. The main character was boring to me and just kind of a dick, and I think that best described most of the characters, except maybe Paulie and Jimmy. Although with Jimmy it might just be that I can't not like Robert De Niro. Of course, justsomedude did tell me that the film didn't romanticize gangsters, but I feel like it went so far in the opposite direction that I couldn't relate to it. The fact that it didn't have an overarching plot beyond the guy just going through his life was also off-putting for me, but I can't fault the film so much for that, but I've seen movies that made stock trading seem more exciting than this movie made being a gangster. Then again, I really liked Rogue Trader for whatever reason, so that might not be so condemning. The List of Shame Stalker: I played through S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat and absolutely loved the games, so it feels a bit weird to have not seen this movie. Boondock Saints: I got this moviefor $3.00 at a library sale a while ago and I haven't gotten around to seeing it. Should I? Enter the Dragon: I was reading this thread and realized that I too have never seen a Bruce Lee movie. Se7en: Detectives looking for a serial killer and it has Morgan Freeman. I really should've seen this by now. The American Astronaut: Goons in the "I saw a film" thread seem to like this one. Battleship Potemkin: Supposedly a classic about mutiny on a Battleship, that's about all I know. Lost in Translation: I should see more films with Bill Murray, and other goons in this thread seemed to enjoy it. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Okay, at this point I'm just looking at interesting movie in the imdb top 250. But it does look interesting and it would be good for me to see a Western. Space Mutiny (MST3k): Not sure if this counts as a movie really, but although I've seen bits and pieces of various Mystery Science Theater 3000 scenes, I've never seen a full MST3k movie track. This one seemed like a good introduction. The Elephant Man: One of my friends was in a single-man play type thing of this some years back, so a movie adaptation seems cool. De-shamed, now with ratings(5): The Thin Red Line(8/10), Casablanca(9/10), Lawrence of Arabia(9.5/10), For a Few Dollars More(7.5/10), Goodfellas (4/10) Edit: My post took too long, so now my recommendation is for someone else. Ixtlilton fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 17:13
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Ixtlilton posted:The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Okay, at this point I'm just looking at interesting movie in the imdb top 250. But it does look interesting and it would be good for me to see a Western. Watch this. After Battleship Potemkin this is the most essential on your list. Unlike Potemkin, this is decidedly much more entertaining. Julius Caesar (1953) - Wondreful adaptation of what I consider only a slightly overrated play. James Mason gives the standout performance among a sea of other greats. The sets and costumes are perfectly designed, with some flair but while still somewhat minimal, staying true to how I imagined it. Mankiewicz script omissions help streamline the whole production, while essentially keeping all the substance. I worry though that it wouldn't really appeal to anyone who isn't familiar with the play. It isn't flashy or inventive enough to make someone a fan like say, Titus. As someone who reads the plays for fun though, I really enjoyed it. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. In the Realm of the Senses (2/18/13) - I know almost nothing about this except it populates many best of lists. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. Footloose (2/21/13) - I know I'm not going to like this but it is popular enough that I should have seen it. El Dorado I need to complete the TSPDT list and this one is a regular on there. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10) - Germany Year Zero (8/10) - Spellbound (6/10) - Julius Caesar [1953] (7/10)
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Feb 22, 2013 18:06
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:
A lot of people dismiss it because of its sexual content, but I thought it was excellent. Finally got around to watching Three Colors: White. With its reputation for being the weakest by far of the trilogy, I expected very little out of the film, hence why I took so drat long to get around to watching it. However, this was a surprisingly solid film. I don't usually expect goofiness out of a Kieslowski film, but this film had an incredibly light and silly tone to it that felt closer to something from Aki Kaurismaki, if maybe a bit more cynical. It was a really fun film that moved fast and entertained the hell out of me. Easily the worst of the three films, but I really enjoyed it. 80/100 In the time it took me to watch this film, I watched a couple others on this list: Drunken Angel: It's actually been so long that I only vaguely remember this film, though I do remember enjoying it quite a bit. Not one of Kurosawa's best, but still very good. 80/100 Satantango: loving amazing. I have grown to love Bela Tarr more than almost any other director. Bleak as hell and long as gently caress, but somehow engaging enough to make me sit through 8 hours or so of very little action. Not as good as The Turin Horse though, which is the best move I never want to watch again. 95/100 My list: Ulysses' Gaze: I've heard Angelopoulos is great. Les Cousins: Didn't like Le Beau Serge at all, but maybe I'll like this one more. Week-End: I'm not a fan of Godard, which most people would gasp about, but maybe this one will change my mind. O Lucky Man: I really enjoyed If... I've watched about 10 minutes of this and thought it looked cool but I've never committed. Distant: I've heard that Ceylan is one of the best film-makers working right now, but I can't get up the motivation to find out. I Vitelloni: I love Fellini and this one looks good. Just haven't gotten around to it. Rome Open City: Started it and it seemed boring, but I feel like I need to see it. The Thief of Baghdad: The Fairbanks one. I started watching it and it seemed a bit goofy, but I love fantastical silent films and it just got a Blu-ray release, so I should commit to it. The Birth of a Nation: Just a movie I've never been able to get through... Not because of the racism, per se, but because it seems dull as gently caress. I like a lot of Griffith's shorts, so I force myself through this. Le Quattro Volte: A recent film that got a lot of hype, but I haven't been able to sit down and commit to a dialogue-free movie about an old dude waddling around. Watched: The Bad Sleep Well: 85/100, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried: 85/100, Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge: 75/100, Tokyo Story: 70/100, Fanny and Alexander: 100/100, Stroszek: 70/100, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs: 85/100, Nostalghia: 85/100, Elevator to the Gallows: 85/100, Brand Upon the Brain!!: 90/100, Goodbye, Dragon Inn: 65/100, Kagemusha: 90/100, A Man Escaped: 90/100, Last Year at Marienbad: 95/100, Ran: 95/100, Les Enfants Terribles: 60/100, Uncle Boonmee who Can Recall His Past Lives: 85/100, Yi Yi:90/100, The Saragossa Manuscript: 85/100, Au Revoir Les Enfants: 80/100, Scenes from a Marriage: 80/100, Steamboat Bill, Jr.: 85/100, City Lights: 85/100, Day of Wrath: 90/100, Fallen Angels: 80/100, Fires on the Plain: 75/100, Dogtooth: 65/100, Ashes and Diamonds: 90, 100, The Letter Never Sent:90/100, Last Tango in Paris: 70/100, The Virgin Spring: 95/100, The Leoapard: 80/100, The Son: 55/100, Lola Montes: 80/100, Silent Light: 90/100, Three Colors: White: 80/100, Drunken Angel: 80/100, Satantango: 95/100.
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Feb 23, 2013 01:50
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jonnykungfu posted:Distant: I've heard that Ceylan is one of the best film-makers working right now, but I can't get up the motivation to find out. Here's the extra push you need. He's not the most accessible director but I think anyone who can appreciate slower moody films will really enjoy his work. I think you will. In the Realm of the Senses - Nicely photographed pornography. Other than any shock value I didn't get anything out of it. Uninteresting characters and no narrative to speak of. Disappointing considering its reputation. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. Footloose (2/21/13) - I know I'm not going to like this but it is popular enough that I should have seen it. The Karate Kid (2/23/13) - Put this off because I have the feeling it's not really my thing, but another of those that is just too popular to have not seen it. Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10) - Germany Year Zero (8/10) - Spellbound (6/10) - Julius Caesar [1953] (7/10) - In The Realm of the Senses (3/10)
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Feb 23, 2013 17:16
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F Stop, get Footloose out of the way. Safety Last was a lot of fun. The stunts were daring, and the set-ups were inventive. I was surprised by a lot of the gags, which made me laugh out loud, and the ones I predicted (mouse in the pants) were probably only because I've seen them imitated in other movies. The only problem I had was the painfully long sequence in which he lies to the girl about being a big shot and acts like he's the boss of the employees. I don't find it funny watching sympathetic characters lie to their friends. While, unusually, he didn't get caught and humiliated, it still was unpleasant to watch when she probably would have accepted if he'd just told the truth. Oh, well, it was cringe-inducing for about twenty minutes, but the other fifty were so good that I forgive it. Rating: 3.5/4 66. Dr. Zhivago- For the historical epic slot, we move from sand to snow. Also, more WWI, this time from the Russian perspective, which I like even more. ON HOLD: 72. The Rapture- 1991 movie about the dark side of an already pretty dark heresy. This sounds right up my aisle. 75. Tokyo Story- What is this? I have no idea what this is, but I keep seeing it on best of lists. 77. Leaving Las Vegas- Like I said, I've always liked Nick Cage, so let's see his Oscar performance. 79. Dogville- Never seen a Lars von Trier film. I think I heard this described as very dark and minimalist. 81. Irreversible- This is supposed to be really disturbing. I got a few minutes in a while back, but had to stop because the weird camera angles and flashing lights were making my wife sick. 83. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang- So, I don't know. This is like - a noir, but not a noir? A parody, kind of but not really? Robert Downey Jr.? I'm confused, but I'm told I'll like it. 84. Lost Weekend- Ben Franklin from 1776 gets really drunk. Sure, why not? 85. Blue Velvet- More David Lynch. 86. Big Trouble in Little China- Wait, this is by John Carpenter? I love John Carpenter! How have I missed this? Okay, tell me what I’m watching! Shame relieved: The Godfather: 3.5/4, The Godfather Part II: 4/4, Taxi Driver: 4/4, Casablanca: 4/4, Duck Soup: 2/4, Pulp Fiction: 4/4, Barton Fink: 3.5/4, Annie Hall:3/4, Rashomon: 4/4, Blade Runner: 3.5/4, Chinatown: 4/4, Nashville: 3.5/4, Goodfellas: 4/4, The Seven Samurai: 4/4, Superman: 2/4, The Exorcist: 3/4, A Face in the Crowd: 3.5/4, The Seventh Seal: 2.5/4, Treasure of the Sierra Madre: 3.5/4, Apocalypse Now: 4/4, 2001: A Space Odyssey: 2.5/4, The Deer Hunter: 3/4, Schindler's List: 4/4, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: 3/4, Young Frankenstein: 3.5/4, Yojimbo: 3.5/4, Brazil: 3.5/4, Hamlet: 4/4, The Aviator: 4/4, Rocky: 3.5/4, Gandhi: 3.5/4, City Lights: 4/4, Battleship Potemkin: 3.5/4, Predator: 3/4, Easy Rider: 1.5/4, Platoon: 3.5/4, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: 4/4, Get Carter: 3.5/4, Full Metal Jacket: 4/4, My Dinner with Andre: 4/4, Lethal Weapon: 3/4, 3 Women: 4/4, Ikiru: 4/4, The Maltese Falcon: 2.5/4, Midnight Cowboy: 3/4, Gattaca: 4/4, Gone with the Wind: 3/4, Jaws: 4/4, The Bicycle Thief: 3/4, Sophie's Choice: 2/4, On the Waterfront: 4/4, North by Northwest: 3.5/4, Stagecoach: 3.5/4, E.T.: 2/4, Nosferatu: 4/4, Lawrence of Arabia: 4/4, Dirty Harry: 1/4, Vertigo: 3.5/4, Rebecca: 4/4, The Pink Panther: 3/4, Children of Men: 4/4, Wings of Desire: 3/4, Metropolis: 3.5/4, Born on the Fourth of July: 4/4, The Bridge on the River Kwai: 3.5/4, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 4/4, Being John Malkovich: 3/4, Adaptation: 4/4, Bonnie and Clyde: 4/4, Goldfinger: 3/4, A Streetcar Named Desire: 4/4, Dog Day Afternoon: 3.5/4, Leon: The Professional: 4/4, 8 1/2: 3/4, Mulholland Drive: 4/4, 12 Angry Men: 4/4, Safety Last: 3.5/4
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Feb 23, 2013 19:41
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Cool Hand Luke Another odd, flabby film from the late 60s that became a baby boomer keystone. It's mostly held up by Conrad Hall's gorgeous cinematography, which works neatly in conjunction with Lalo Schifrin's dreamy score to create a sort of fairy-tale mood, and Paul Newman, who carefully balances Christ-like reincarnation with nebulous humanity (perhaps if I were a little more non-secular I could pick up a few more references but I did get the obvious ones), but it has trouble stringing its vignettes along and starts to feel like an add-a-pearl necklace. There's also a certain tired predictability and I would blame this on generation loss (it was obviously an influential film) but really, this kind of thing goes back to I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, which I also found tiresome. Maybe I just have trouble giving a drat about John Q Everyman. It's a gorgeous film with moments of elation but boy does it wheeze. Also I was absolutely not surprised to discover that most of this was shot in California's central valley. Oak trees as far as the eyes can see. 6/10 this list is as shameful as michael fassbender's penis 1) The Terminator - Nope, haven't seen it. 2) To Be Or Not To Be - Let's get some Lubitsch up in here. 3) Pather Panchali - Generally speaking I enjoy Indian culture but the closest I've come to a Satyajit Ray film is the Darjeeling Ltd soundtrack. 4) I Know Where I'm Going! - gently caress me, I've rented this like four times and for some reason I never watch it, which is retarded because I love Powell and Pressburger. 5) The Pianist - A Sad Movie About The Holocaust? 6) Au hasard Balthazar - Something about a donkey? 7) The Phantom Carriage - Apparently a huge influence on Bergman. 8) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Another Huston - something about a dam being blown up? I dunno. 9) La Haine - This seems like something I should be obligated to see. 10) The Deer Hunter - weh. Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10 (total: 85) Jurgan gets Dogville.
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Feb 23, 2013 22:03
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Magic Hate Ball posted:3) Pather Panchali - Generally speaking I enjoy Indian culture but the closest I've come to a Satyajit Ray film is the Darjeeling Ltd soundtrack. Pather Panchali is the best place to start. Footloose - So ridiculous and silly I couldn't help but be at least mildly entertained. The experience reminded me of watching an Ed Wood film. Not that it is nearly as incompetent, but the fact that it takes itself relatively seriously, without a trace of irony, while being immensely stupid. I found myself laughing a lot when I don't think I was supposed to be. Loved the soundtrack too, but again, not in the way intended I'm sure. The SHAME LIST Moonstruck (2/2/13) - Doesn't sound especially interesting but it seems to deserve some attention. Senso (2/2/13) - Not a wildly huge Visconti fan. The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. Jailhouse Rock (2/15/13) - This one is sort of random because I still haven't seen a single Elvis movie. Even though I doubt I'll like it, it is still somewhat shameful to me. Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Yol (2/19/13) - I need to see more Turkish films and this is one of the better ones, supposedly. The Quiet Man (2/20/13) - Not really a John Ford fan but this seems like something I ought to have seen. The Karate Kid (2/23/13) - Put this off because I have the feeling it's not really my thing, but another of those that is just too popular to have not seen it. Flashdance (2/23/13) - Let's keep the stupid 80's dance films coming Unshamed: The Artist (8/10) - Cat Ballou (5/10) - Soylent Green (5/10) - Cabiria (8/10) - The Lower Depths [1957] (6/10) - Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (7/10) - Chariots of Fire (4/10) - Before Sunset (9/10) - The English Patient (2/10) - City Slickers (2/10) - Saturday Night Fever (5/10) - Germany Year Zero (8/10) - Spellbound (6/10) - Julius Caesar [1953] (7/10) - In The Realm of the Senses (3/10) - Footloose (3/10)
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Feb 23, 2013 23:11
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:The Bank Dick (2/2/13) - On so many top lists but God does W.C. Fields piss me off. As the epic beard man once said, "It is better to be pissed off than pissed on." The Red Shoes - I suppose this could be called The Red Swan in some respects. It's full of life and it's a confluence of conflict between artists all immersed in their craft. It feels like a film by artists and primarily for artists. The story moves along with the help of closeup shots of letters and postings. It's realistic in the sense that a lot of the characters in the film remind me of the many self-important, absorbed, hard case hotshots I've run into when I worked in Chicago. There's almost too many of them in the film and it's kind of sickening. The film has an unexpected and explosive ending of emotion. Boris had a few memorable lines: "It is worth remembering, that it is much more disheartening to have to steal than to be stolen from, hmmm?" "Don't forget, a great impression of simplicity can only be achieved by great agony of body and spirit." also watched: The Greatest Show on Earth - This wouldn't be a bad film to watch if you've never been to a circus before. It gives a pretty good rundown about what goes on at one. I went to the circus a few times as a youngster and I'll never forget seeing an elephant poop ~5 feet from me. It was so large that people thought it was giving birth to a new elephant. "It's having a baby!" Betty Hutton, James Stewart and Charlton Heston are the three main stars of the film. Stewart is in clown makeup for the entirety of the film and it's a little strange for a character in a film to do that (but he has a reason). The film oscillates between circus shows and interpersonal backstories. I can't say the character stories were that compelling. I suppose the most exciting part was when Holly and Sebastian were on the trapezes trying to outdo one other. But a lot of the rest of it is overly silly (the angry German named Klaus who threatens to crunch his girlfriends head with an elephants foot, goofy scammers). Klaus ends up with a ridiculous fate (that looks about as realistic as something out of Garry's mod). Brad (Heston) likes firing people so this gives him ample opportunity. I was reminded a little of the film Big Top Pee-wee and Mace Montana. There's a few violent surprises and mishaps along the way. The Catholic church blesses the train at one point and this ends up not turning out well. I don't know what happened to Sebastian's arm. Near the end of the movie Brad gets a blood transfusion from Sebastian and Sebastian goes on a long and odd speech about how he's giving Brad his sexual power and if he has any kids they'll look like him. It's hilariously odd and felt out of place for a seemingly kids film. IMDb list: new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 - I'm getting close to finishing this series off. 2/23/13 #237 Incendies - I've heard the title before but don't know anything about it. 2/1/13 new #248 The Help - Looked very predictable but I could be wrong. 2/23/13 #269 Laura - Don't know much about it but I keep linking it in my head with "Rebecca" by Hitchcock although they're unrelated. 12/27/12 Academy Award for Best Picture: 1947 Gentleman's Agreement - Don't know anything about it. 11/17/12 1944 Going My Way - Don't know anything about it. 12/21/12 Procrastination list: #37 Primer - This is one I've heard talked about for a long time. I've seen those hilariously complex graphs. Might be time to figure out what that's all about. 1/25/13 #38 Stagecoach - I keep hearing this one is important and influential. 1/25/13 #39 The Birth of a Nation - It's been out almost 100 years. 1/28/13 #40 Tokyo Drifter - Been meaning to watch this. 2/1/13 Zogo fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Feb 24, 2013 |
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Feb 24, 2013 05:35
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Zogo posted:1947 Gentleman's Agreement - Don't know anything about it. 11/17/12 Longest on the list pick  - Notorious - Whoops! I saw this before. I guess reading the IMDB description didn't set off any mental alarms so I watched this one for a second time. And I'm glad I did. If I had to think of a definition for "a perfect movie," it would be a film with no unnecessary scenes. And in Notorious, every single shot means something. It took 10 minutes for me to be sure I had seen this movie before and only a bit came back to me. But I remembered more and more as the movie went on and it didn't take away from any of the tension at all. If I'm going to mess up and accidentally rewatch a movie, I'm glad it was this one: a masterpiece where a second viewing gave me a renewed appreciation for it all. - SHAMELIST: (in order of longest time on this list) Rebel Without A Cause - Another "I've heard of it" entry. I want to get an idea who this James Dean fellow is Good Morning Vietnam - My best friend suggested this. Is he a fool? The Sound of Music - I feel filthy that I've never seen this. Something about Nazis, right? And spinning in a field of grass. Nazis spinning around in fields of grass? gently caress yeah. From Russia with Love - Bond movie #2. I feel like with Connery, nothing can go wrong. The Jerk - I want to have a comedy on this list and here it is. Hopefully it works for me. Wreck-It Ralph - After WALL·E, I want some more interesting animation. And this is right down my wheelhouse. Rocky - The only Rocky I've seen is the fourth one. I would like to see the first one, at least. Deliverance - I watched the famous dueling banjos scene in college once. I want to see what happens to those poor fucks. Lawrence of Arabia - I know nothing about this movie other than it being long. Time to fix that. La Dolce Vita - There was a Jeopardy! category about directors today and Fellini came up. I couldn't name a movie of his. So I'm picking this as a start because it is the oldest in his IMDB "Known For" block.  De-shamed (33): Raiders of the Lost Arc; Alien; Blade Runner; The Godfather; Casablanca; Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; The Godfather Part II; Die Hard; Grave of the Fireflies; Aliens; A Fistful of Dollars; One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest; Network; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Schindler's List; Superman; Dr. No; Rear Window; Young Frankenstein; Jaws; Akira; The Shining; American Psycho; Metropolis; The Graduate; The Birds; Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure; WALL·E; American History X; The Third Man; Blue Velvet; Seven Samurai; Notorious
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Feb 24, 2013 06:17
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F Stop Fitzgerald posted:Sholay (2/16/13) - Called the best Indian film ever made, but I never saw one I liked so far unless directed by Ray. Also, I'm so sorry for your upcoming suffering through The Bank Dick.
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Feb 24, 2013 07:32
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Space Cob posted:
This is encouraging. I liked Notorious but didn't fall in love with it like I was hoping, which is how I have felt about a lot of Hitchcock outside his most well known (though I love 39 Steps and Lady Vanishes unabashedly). I will need to re-watch this soon.
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Feb 24, 2013 07:54
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Notorious was one of the ones that really got me into Hitchcock. I appreciate Vertigo and Rear Window, but I think their reputations are a little overblown and made me expect a lot more out of them. My favorite Hitchcock (currently, I still have a lot to see) is Strangers on a Train.
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Feb 24, 2013 08:22
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Space Cob you get Lawrence of Arabia. La Chienne(1931) dir. Jean Renoir With Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant  Cashier Maurice Legrand(Michel Simon) is married to Adele, a terror. By chance, he meets Lucienne( Janie Marèse), "Lulu", and make her his mistress. He thinks he finally met love, but Lulu is nothing but a streetwalker, in love with Dede(Georges Flamant), her pimp. She only accepts Legrand to satisfy Dede's needs of money. Really loved Legrand's implied narcissism on that frame, there is something devilish simple about it. A sort of subtle sly joke. I think I like Fritz Lang re-adaptation/make Scarlet Street better, but this one is great too. Free of (supra)puritanical filmmaking codes, Renoir can bring out the seedy parts of the story to the fold, as best as you can for a 30's film. Though no nudity or actual sex, there are straightforward scenes of Dede selling out Lulu to rich folk for money, which is something that Lang's version only suggests via omission.(In that film Lulu is a "model") It doesn't shy from the rotten core of it's characters. Despite it's more sleazy aspects the film is quite funny, in the manner that only a French/European film could find hilarious the idea of a man ending up as a vagrant, begging for money on the streets, and be weirdly content with it. Where Lang's version does far better is with the trio of characters. In this one, outside of Michel Simon, the acting is quite dubious, and there's barely any character at all outside of Legrand. Kinda missed Joan Bennet's lazy slouches and flirting around Edward G. Robinson's heels, she brought a lot of personality to a very archetypal role, which is kinda missing in this making it feel very bare-bones at times. 82(Great) P.S: Also was that waltz scene done with handheld camera or was I imagining things? SHAME Part III: Rome, Open City Early Italian Neo-Realism. To be or Not to Be Ernst Lubitsch comedy about them nazis. Le Cercle rouge French gangsters are cool. The Great Silence A Western of the spaghetti variety. Delicious. Winchester '73 James Stewart and the Old Wild West. Black Narcissus Powell & Pressburger and Nuns. The Lady Eve Screwball comedy with the awesome Barbara Stanwyck and...Henry Fonda? Can Henry Fonda even do comedy? A Foreign Affair Billy Wilder Romeo + Juliet(1996) Oh dear What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? How campy is this exactly? Have watched so far 47 movies: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Fallen Angels, The Shop Around the Corner, La Strada, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn, All About My Mother, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Long Goodbye, Vampyr, Mon Oncle, The Exterminating Angel, Jules et Jim, Sorcerer, The Darjeeling Limited, Close-up, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Host, Zelig, Koyaanisqatsi, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Last Picture Show, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Killer, Anatomy of a Murder, The Trouble with Harry, Don't Look Now, L'Atalante, Cache, The Leopard, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dancer in the Dark, How Green Was My Valley, Vivre sa Vie, Harvey, The Earrings of Madame de..., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Tokyo Drifter, The Player, Intolerable Cruelty, The Insider, Late Spring, Munich, Juliet of the Spirits, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, La Chienne
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Feb 24, 2013 09:59
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Electronico, you get Le Cercle Rouge, mainly because I haven't seen it and I've always wanted to. I've been putting off participating in this thread (same as I've been putting off seeing some important movies), but now's the drat time. I have a ton of films in my collection that I haven't watched yet (including a Michael Haneke box set I have to get to at some point), and without some motivation I'll probably end up just rewatching Mean Girls and Sledgehammer forever. So onto my list: Downfall: I've owned the DVD of this for years and somehow talked my way out of ever watching it. I don't know why-I've wanted to see it since release, but it always ends up somewhere further down the list. The Godfather: I've seen part II and loving love it. For some reason I own this on DVD despite never seeing it, and I think I'm ready to change that. It feels weird being a huge Coppola fan without seeing this. Rosemary's Baby: I know I'll love it, but I've just never gotten around to watching it. Caché: I own like 7 Haneke films I haven't seen, and I figure I should start with what a lot of people consider his best. I've had it sitting on my bedside movie shelf for months and I'm ready to watch it and put it back with my regular collection. Into the Abyss: I love Herzog (I have a drat Herzog tattoo) but for some reason I've been putting off watching this despite owning it since day of release. The case has been staring at me, disappointed, for like a year now. Suspiria: This is the most disappointing of the Argentos I haven't seen, followed closely by Deep Red: I've tried watching this but it's not a good holy-gently caress-I'm-too-drunk-to-move movie. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage: I swear I've seen Argento films, I've just somehow missed these three main ones. Don't Torture a Duckling: Another classic giallo I've put by the wayside for god knows what reason. Films completed: 0
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Feb 24, 2013 12:59
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