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TrixRabbi, watch King Boxer: Five Fingers of Death. I've heard it referenced so many times in conversations about Tarantino - surely it's going to be awesome. So I watched Barton Fink tonight. This is the final Coen Brothers film I hadn't seen, and I can say honestly that I've never felt as if their films were pretentious until seeing this one. Don't get me wrong, it was a very interesting and well-acted film. Knowing beforehand that the Coens have stated many times that they didn't intend for any sort of 'meta' message to be communicated made the whole thing seem truly hipster. I understand that they didn't want the existential themes to be overt or obvious, but claiming that a character saying "Heil Hitler" before shooting someone in the face was just done on a whim just strikes me as disingenuous. Still an enjoyable film (mainly due to the performances), but definitely my least favorite of the Coen filmography. 5/10 My shame v2.0 1. Citizen Kane - might as well get that one out of the way. Don't know why I haven't watched it, just haven't. 2. Schindler's List - equally shameful 3. Lawrence of Arabia - I watched this as a kid but don't remember anything. I need to watch this again. 4. Roshomon - I've seen Ran, Throne of Blood, and Kagemusha (loved them all) but not this one. 5. The Tree of Life - The Thin Red Line is my favorite war film, and really enjoyed Days of Heaven, but I wasn't so keen on The New World. Not sure how I'll feel about this one. 6. Cool Hand Luke - No excuse. 7. Chinatown - I love Nicholson but every time I sit down to watch this something interrupts me. 8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Sitting in my Netflix queue for the last 2 years. 9. Her - My best friend keeps bugging me to see this one. 10. The Wild Bunch - my grandpa's go-to movie that I can't admit to him I haven't seen all the way through --------------------- Hall of De-Shame: Barton Fink (5/10)
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Jun 17, 2014 03:04
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Unzip and Attack posted:2. Schindler's List - equally shameful Next one for you. Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid - Pat and Billy are supposedly friends but it's tenuous to say the least. This has some of the same trimmings as The Wild Bunch. It's unpredictable in that one never knows what character is going to bite the dust next. It's brutal in all kinds of ways and has no problem focusing on bodies littering the ground after a gunfight. Throw any good vs. evil duality right out the window because the law shifts like a shadow from year to year and most of the characters seem to have reservations with their actions anyway. My favorite segment was when Pat Garrett (James Coburn) inadvertently got into a gunfight with a passing riverboat. It was casual and almost innocent and encapsulated the whimsicality well. PS James Coburn reminded me a little of Lee Van Cleef at times. It was also interesting seeing Bob Dylan in an acting role. Also watched: Star Trek - I saw this one in the theaters and after five years I had the same response with the DVD. While it looks good I just didn't buy into it. It's an origins story set in an altered reality covering the events before TOS. Sci-fi is interesting when it's covering new territory, new ideas and doing groundbreaking things AKA everything this film was not doing. This was a vanilla rehash of things too inconsequential to be covered in the 1960s. Everything possibly interesting has been excised (if it was ever there to begin with) and we're left with Star Rehash. Spaceships, uniforms, an anti-bullying PSA and that's about it. Vulcan is destroyed but planet destruction is a dime a dozen. New actors parroting familiar characters and their tired mannerisms with a sanitized and bland 2009 pastiche. I won't go into the story too much but there's a dull villain, dumb humor, obnoxious cameos, and a plot that hinges on multiple contrivances. This all leads to a low emotional investment. To make it worse it seems like they were trying to throw a bone and pander to the earlier films and TOS by making some of it Spock-centric and giving Leonard Nimoy a prominent role. I know it's been the tradition of the films to link up with the TOS and TNG but I would've rather seen a brand new story set somewhere with no direct references to past characters or TV shows. If that's impossible then maybe the series needs to be shelved. I did learn two things this time around: -Winona Ryder played Spock's mother. -I fear for Star Wars: Episode VII. Reds - It's somewhat unique in that there were many talking head interviews interspersed abruptly into the film. I liked them as it's not typical although some may find it jarring. The events take place from 1912-1920 (WWI and the Russian Revolution being the main focal points) and the film was released in 1981 so the people being interviewed are all in the 80+ range and some nearing even 100. I find older people telling stories to be interesting as they have a window to worlds that are long gone and not coming back. They've been through the cycle of life and are usually wiser for it. I think I actually would've liked more interviews and less dramatization. Anyway the main story concerns John Reed, his wife Louise Bryant and at times Eugene. This trio makes up a pretty standard love triangle that highlights the frailty and weakness of humans in their interactions. I won't delve into the story too much as it's very long but it grabbed me at times and other times it lost me. I have a reoccurring issue with biopics anyway in that I usually think they have too much mundanity and if I'm not really interested in the person(s) it's an even tougher sell. The characters are constantly arguing over politics and ideology and what constitutes genuine socialism, genuine communism/bolshevism. Some are willing to compromise and others are striving for crystalline ideological purity. These people are putting all their hope in politics and by the time the story plays out many of the lead characters have become disillusioned. PS We're about a month away from the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of WWI. Procrastination (128 completed): #125 Swades - Don't know what this is about but it's on the IMDb top 250 and on Netflix instant. 4/17/14 #127 Breaker Morant - Heard this referenced before. 4/30/14 #130 The Adventure AKA L'Avventura - Not sure what kind of adventure this will be. 5/6/14 #132 Contempt - I recently watched The Story of Film: An Odyssey and in it Mark Cousins described Jean-Luc Godard as a terrorist. And that kind of made sense. 5/10/14 #133 Viridiana - I'm assuming Buñuel is going to take another dump on religion here. 5/14/14 #134 Underground - Never seen a Emir Kusturica film but I've heard good things. 5/17/14 new #135 Girl, Interrupted - Been meaning to see this for awhile. 6/17/14 James Herbert Bond versus James Tiberius Kirk: new Star Trek Into Darkness - Let's see if I like this one more. 6/17/14 Roger Ebert's Top Films 1967-2012 (44/46 completed): 1970 Five Easy Pieces - Jack Nicholson orders a meal? There must be more than just that. 5/27/14 new 1969 Z - Something about politics. 6/17/14 Zogo fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 06:09
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Zogo posted:#133 Viridiana - I'm assuming Buñuel is going to take another dump on religion here. 5/14/14 I'll give you a hand in getting this out of the way. Not a lot of enthusiasm to see this, huh? Arsenic and Old Lace This is my 4th Cary Grant film (after Notorious, North by Northwest, and Charade), and I now see him in an entirely different light as Mortimer Brewster. I'm sure there have been comparisons with Grant & George Clooney? I like Clooney best in oddball films from the Coens and Grant is best here with his over-the-top facial expressions and manic energy. It's a story so dark and morbid in nature that the only way to pull it off is through comedy - and Mortimer Brewster's two aunts, who wish to provide peace to the elderly and lonely, are cast to perfection. Josephine Hull, with the pleasant voice and wicked smile, immediately reminded me of the happy psychotic-looking aunt in Mulholland Dr. The one issue I had is the film didn't need to be two hours long. It wears out it's welcome with too much focus on his two insane brothers, Thomas Jefferson & Boris Karloff, and not enough of Priscilla Lane as the Mortimer's beautiful new wife Elaine. All in all it's still great fun and well worth the watch. LIST Amour (2014.02.22) - I've had two festival opportunities squandered due to film print damage. I've waited long enough! A Few Good Men (2014.03.13) - I haven't been able to handle the truth until now.. wow that was lame. Harakiri (2014.06.03) - I've heard so much praise given to this film lately that I feel left out. I wanna join in on the conversation! Holiday (2013.12.15) - the title made this choice appropriate to add around this time of year. The Innocents **new** (2014.06.16) - with Criterion announcing it's release today, it's about time I get the dust off my DVD copy and finally watch it. Jack Goes Boating (2014.02.17) - it took Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing to make his only directorial effort a higher priority.. for me, pretty drat shameful. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (2014.06.01) - more Archers is never a bad thing as I've loved The Red Shoes & Black Narcissus The Player **oldest** (2013.12.04) - this just seems right up my alley. Playtime (2014.04.21) - really enjoyed the only other Tati film I've watched, M. Hulot's Holiday. The Searchers (2014.04.27) - somehow I've watched the opening shot of the film, but nothing more? A classic western long overdue. 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), Network (5/5), Once Upon A Time In The West (5/5), Sleeper (2.5/5), Y Tu Mama Tambien (4.5/5), Lawrence of Arabia (3.5/5), Amadeus (4/5), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (4.5/5), The Postman Always Rings Twice (3.5/5), Ben-Hur (4.5/5), Bug (4/5), All The President's Men (4.5/5), Through a Glass Darkly (4/5), The Leopard (2/5), The Aviator (4.5/5), Duck Soup (4/5), The Good The Bad & The Ugly (5/5), Werckmeister Harmonies (4/5), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (4.5/5), To Kill A Mockingbird (2.5/5), Brazil (2.5/5), M (5/5), The Sweet Hereafter (4/5), Princess Mononoke (5/5), High and Low (5/5), The Sting (5/5), The King of Comedy (4.5/5), Stand By Me (4.5/5), The Wages of Fear (4/5), Amores Perros (3.5/5), The Music Room (4/5), The Spirit of the Beehive (4/5), Cape Fear (3.5/5), The Passion of Joan of Arc (4/5), The Magnificent Ambersons (3/5), Tokyo Story (5/5), Quiz Show (3/5), Witness For The Prosecution (4/5), The Last Picture Show (4.5/5), Robocop (2.5/5), Grand Illusion (2.5/5), Ikiru (5/5), The Bride of Frankenstein (4/5), The Taste of Cherry (4/5), Eastern Promises (3.5/5), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (4/5), Le Doulos (4.5/5), Million Dollar Baby (3/5), Akira (5/5), Lone Star (3/5), Barry Lyndon (2.5/5), Dr. Strangelove (5/5), Leon the Professional (3/5), Arsenic and Old Lace (4/5),[Total:74] friendo55 fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 06:26
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friendo55 posted:I'll give you a hand in getting this out of the way. Not a lot of enthusiasm to see this, huh? Not exactly a vibrant enthusiasm. At this point if I'm dying to see a film it usually won't make it on the list. I've been slowly working on the top 100 TSPDT list and that one is pretty high up there.
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Jun 17, 2014 06:45
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Zogo posted:#133 Viridiana - I'm assuming Buñuel is going to take another dump on religion here. 5/14/14 A steaming dump at that. I'm not 'that religious', but parts of Viridiana had me almost offended friendo- My recommendation was going to be Harakiri because it's so drat good, but I see The Searchers has been on your list longer, and it's also really drat good, so go with that. Nashville had me stuck for a while, but after the first hour I started being absorbed into what was going on. I've often thought that if you took one slice of place and time, say a hotel lobby at 2:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and asked everyone there 'story', you would probably have some really interesting material. To me, Nashville kind of did that. But the movie has so many layers I can easily see what I viewed as a drama could be viewed as a statement about politics. Also, Shelly Duvall is one of those people (like Sissy Spacek), who can look stunning or off-putting by something as minor as what they are wearing and from what angle they are pictured. For most of this movie she was a knock-out, but I've had a crush on her since I was young, so don't judge me to harshly. 1. Cinemania - A documentary about obsessive movie watching. Hmm. 2. Shoeshine - I really like De Sica. 3. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrance - Know nothing about this, but it is a Criterion release and sounds interesting enough. 4. Moonrise Kingdom - Never seen any Anderson, so I think I'll start here 5. Young Mr. Lincoln - I don't know if I have been disappointed by a John Ford movie yet. 6. Eyes without a face - I needed some horror on this list 7. Fort Apache - I'm stealing this one from TrixRabbi's list 8. Red River - I don't consider myself a fan of Westerns, but I can't say I've seen too many I didn't enjoy 9. Cat O' Nine Tails- Next up in the Argento 'Animal' trilogy 10.Assault on Precinct 13- I...I just saw They Live for the first time in my life this week  Seen: Rio Bravo, Days of Heaven, Hoop Dreams, The Exterminating Angel, Hopscotch, Letter Never Sent, Stagecoach(1939), I shot Jesse James, The Trial, The Wild Bunch, Man Bites Dog, The Pianist, Viridiana, Badlands. Aliens, Easy Rider, Paris Texas, The 400 Blows, Touch of Evil, La Strada, Fog of War, Gaslight, Make Way for Tomorrow, M, The Bird with the Crystal Plummage, Nashville
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Jun 17, 2014 13:53
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Watch Shoe Shine. It turns out I had already seen Witness for the Prosecution, I had just forgotten I had seen it. As you can imagine it didn't make a huge impression on me. It's a competently done courtroom drama with a few touches of humor, some good performances, and a twist at the end, but there's really not much there. The characters are thin, the drama is contrived, and largely as a result of the characters being thin, it doesn't say much about anything. It's worth a watch but it probably wasn't worth watching again. 1) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - This replaces Battleship Potemkin - I must see all the old classic Russian silent famous films. 2) Union Station (1950) - It has William Holden, right? So I should probably also check it out. 3) The Earrings of Madme de... (1953) - The title intrigues me. Whose earrings are they?!?! 4) Electra (1962) - I saw Kakogiannis' Iphigenia and loved it, so more Greek tragedy is just what the doctor ordered. 5) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Marriage! Who doesn't love it, am I right? 6) Raging Bull (1980) - I haven't seen a ton of Scorcese films. I guess this is his Rocky, right? 7) Time of the Gypsies (1988) - What is the time of the Gypsies? Is it the 80s? 8) Trust (1990) - I know nothing of this movie but I trust it will be good. 9) Amélie (2001) - I think I recall that this movie was all over the zeitgeist at some point but I managed to entirely miss it. The poster art and so on looks like it's a depressingly easy movie to imagine but I guess maybe it's better than it looks. 10) Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - In honor of thegloaming's post right above the post where I'm first adding this to my list, here is a movie released recently. People always pick the really new movies on my list so I'm tempting fate by seeing how long this will last. I like Kathryn Bigelow's other stuff. Deshamed: In a Lonely Place (98), The Seventh Seal (97), 2001: A Space Odyssey (97), Full Metal Jacket (96), Last Year at Marienbad (95), Seven Samurai (95), Heathers (94), Stalker (93), Lawrence of Arabia (93), There Will Be Blood (93), In the Mood for Love (93), Tokyo Story (93), The Brothers Bloom (92), Aguirre: The Wrath of God (92), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (92), Sweet Smell of Success (91), 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (91), Nostalghia (91), Play Time (91), Schindler's List (91), The Long Goodbye (91), Blue Velvet (90), Out of the Past (90), Once Upon a Time in the West (90), Ordinary People (90), 8 1/2 (89), Diabolique (89), City of God (89), Badlands (89), Das Boot (88), Magnolia (88), The Royal Tenenbaums (88), Dead Man (88), Almost Famous (88), Videodrome (88), The Exterminating Angel (87), 99 River Street (87), His Girl Friday (87), Cool Hand Luke (87), Battleship Potemkin (87), Goodfellas (87), M (86), Throne of Blood (86), High Fidelity (86), A History of Violence (86), The Maltese Falcon (85), The Big Sleep (85), Waltz with Bashir (85), Rififi (84), Female Trouble (84), Midnight Cowboy (84), Crimes and Misdemeanors (84), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (84), Touch of Evil (83), The Social Network (83), The Last King of Scotland (82), Amores Perros (82), The Lost Weekend (82), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (82), City Lights (82), Slacker (82), Vertigo (81), North by Northwest (81), Hard Eight (81), Breakfast at Tiffany's (81), Unforgiven (81), Zulu (80), The Man Who Fell to Earth (79), Body Heat (79), Raising Arizona (77), The Lady Vanishes (72), Boyz n the Hood (76), The 400 Blows (72), Gone With the Wind (72), Witness for the Prosecution (70), The Man Who Knew Too Much (60)
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Jun 17, 2014 17:04
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TychoCelchuuu posted:
You get this because I just watched it. Speaking of, The Earrings of Madame De... is elegant and distancing, but an excellently crafted film. It's difficult to pinpoint why it didn't entirely suck me in, and PT Anderson almost had me on his side with his short talk on the DVD about it, but I didn't entirely connect. It may be one of those films that gets better in memory the longer it settles. In the months since I last posted, I also saw La Notte and it was right up my alley. Perhaps it was timing, perhaps I was in the right mood, but there was something in the exhausted melancholy and gorgeous cinematography that helped elevate the film in a way it may not have otherwise. A ton of wonderful individual scenes and moments and exceptionally rich, though emotionally fractured, central characters. Taking a look at relationships that challenges conventional notions of how we react is something I'm always curious about. Relationships are way more complex than some stories really touch on. La Notte, and Antonioni's L'avventura, look at the dark and confusing sides of relationships but also don't completely revel in the misery. I prefer La Notte, but L'avventura was quite good...and like I predict with Earrings above, I've come to like it more since I've sat on it. I also watched Europa, which I think is one of the more creative films from Lars von Trier while also being one of the more conventional at the same time...if that makes sense. It's stark and dreamlike. It's like a hypnotic simulation of a postwar scenario. Sydow's narration is fantastic and the overall visual style helps create an astonishing atmosphere of unease. Narratively, it comes off as kind of thin, like von Trier had an interesting concept and great visual flair, with very little else. Still, it's done so well that it's very much worth it. LIST O SHAME: 1920s - Pandora's Box (1928) - Know next to nothing about it except a former co-worker was fascinated by it. 1930s - Bringing Up Baby (1938) - Was always worried I wouldn't find it interesting or funny. 1940s - Monsieur Verdoux (1947) - Later Chaplin, I've heard mixed things. 1950s - Ordet (1955) - Dreyer is not exactly a blind spot, but I'm certainly not as well versed in his films as I'd like. 1960s - Andrei Rublev (1966) - I love Tarkovsky so much. He's got a great filmography and I'm shocked I haven't seen this one. 1970s - World on a Wire (1973) - Time to see a Fassbinder movie! 1980s - Cobra Verde (1987) - Time to watch more of my Herzog/Kinski box set I bought ages ago. 1990s - Topsy-Turvy (1999) - Saw a trailer for this when I was in high school. Thought it looked lame. I've since grown up a tad and have liked what I've seen from Mike Leigh (Happy Go-Lucky and Naked) 2000 and up - George Washington (2000) - The only film by David Gordon Green I have seen is Pineapple Express. Apparently his early films are nothing like that. Slight edit...I've since seen Prince Avalanche and liked it a ton. Bonus/Random - Dersu Uzala (1975) - Kurosawa film with a story I've been fascinated by but never watched. 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, The Purple Rose of Cairo, The African Queen, The Lower Depths, Frankenstein, Broadcast News, La Strada, The Last Laugh, Stagecoach, Alexander Nevsky, Don't Look Now, Fish Tank, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Days of Heaven, The Killer, Nosferatu, The Naked Kiss, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Jules et Jim, Mon Oncle, Howl's Moving Castle, Y Tu Mama Tambien, A Night at the Opera, Berberian Sound Studio, The Natural, Kwaidan, The Color of Money, Fanny and Alexander, Repo Man, The Breakfast Club, The Passenger, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Goonies, Z, Ashes and Diamonds, L'Atalante, All Quiet on the Western Front, L'Age D'Or, The Earrings of Madame De..., La Notte (TOTAL: 156) Ratedargh fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 22:54
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Ratedargh posted:1960s - Andrei Rublev (1966) - I love Tarkovsky so much. He's got a great filmography and I'm shocked I haven't seen this one. I hate getting lists where I haven't seen anything, but they are movies you want to see and this appears to be the most interesting of them. It's hard to place what I think about Planet of the Apes. Heston hams it up real hard, but it might be one of the things that makes the movie memorable. I already knew the ending so it was neat to pluck out little tidbits here and there that built to it. The thing that surprised me the most was how engaging the score was. I wouldn't know how to rate this movie, but it's certainly a good movie. The final scene is certainly one of the great moments in film. Plus we got my favorite Simpsons moment out of this. "I hate every ape I see, from chimpan-a to chimpanzee." New List: 1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Spielberg. Aliens. 2. Three Colors: Blue - I remember seeing the trilogy brought up quite a bit from other lists. Might as well take a look myself. 3. Oldboy - Everyone always says great things about Oldboy. I might as well actually watch it. 4. The Hustler - I haven't seen a Paul Newman movie in a while, and this has always been part of cinematic lore. 5. The Intouchables - Highest top 250 movie I haven't seen. I know nothing about this. 6. Grave of the Fireflies - I'll try a non-Miyazaki Ghibli film. I know this gets a lot more dark. 7. Rain Man - I guess I know the premise, but I've never really thought of seeing it. Best Picture Bonanza (29/86) 8. Wings - I've set a goal to watch every movie that won best picture which I'm a bit of a third of the way through. 9. Ben-Hur - Might as well see Heston at his best. 10. 12 Years a Slave - This slot will go to the last best picture I haven't seen which just so happens to be the most recent. Watched Count 95: Chinatown, 12 Angry Men, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather Part I, The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Do the Right Thing, A Clockwork Orange, Wall-E, Citizen Kane, Aliens, The Shawshank Redemption, Back to the Future, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Dr. Strangelove, Raging Bull, Rear Window, The Green Mile, Braveheart, Apocalypse Now, Seven Samurai, The Great Escape, City of God, Vertigo, Blue Velvet, Ratatouille, All Quiet on the Western Front, Mulholland Dr., Sunset Blvd., Bridge on the River Kwai, Memento, Unforgiven, The Usual Suspects, Network, The Social Network, Psycho, Black Swan, The Professional (Leon), Duck Soup, Up, The Silence of the Lambs, The Hurt Locker, Animal Crackers, American Beauty, The Princess Bride, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Great Dictator, The King's Speech, American History X, Taxi Driver, The Philadelphia Story, Cars, Dial M for Murder, Amélie, Spirited Away, North by Northwest, Paths of Glory, Some Like it Hot, On the Waterfront, Platoon, Annie Hall, Patton, Harvey, Nikita, Yojimbo, How to Train Your Dragon, To Kill a Mockingbird, This is Spinal Tap, Fargo, Sin City, Wayne's World, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barton Fink, Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, Rashomon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Wild Strawberries, Rebecca, Dog Day Afternoon, The Departed, The Graduate, V for Vendetta, My Neighbor Totoro, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, City Lights, Life is Beautiful, Stand by Me, The Artist, Howl's Moving Castle, Good Will Hunting, Planet of the Apes marioinblack fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 23:27
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Marioin, you have a lot of good ones. I'll give you Close Encounters. I won't talk about history or theology here, but focuse solely on filmmaking: I really liked The Ten Commandments. It's a vast movie with tons of character and a huge scope. I think I liked the first half best, showing Moses's character progression, perhaps because I'm already pretty familiar with main story of the plagues and pharoah's defiance. So I like that they had a number of characters who weren't in the Bible to flesh out the story. The acting was kind of hammy and over-the-top at points, but I think that was just the way things were done back then, especially in these dramatic historical epics. Similarly, the effects are pretty obvious (especially the green screens in front of shots of slaves working), but they're still impressive and were even moreso for their time. One thing I didn't like was the invented love triangle between Moses, Rameses, and the woman whose name I don't remember. Having her goad pharoah into chasing after the slaves just because she was jealous of Moses was silly and kind of misogynistic. Still, you had Moses's mother and wife to balance that out. And I really liked the end, where it shows the panic of the Israelites building the golden calf. That's something that's a little abrupt in many other versions, so it's nice that they actually made it believable (though why you'd listen to a sleezy opportunist played by Edward G. Robinson is beyond me). Rating: 3.5/4 90. Wall Street- Greed is good, I guess? I like Michael Douglas, and I don't know who else is in this movie. 93. Patton- On second thought, if I'm going to put a George C. Scott movie on here, it should really be this. 96. The Bourne Supremacy- Love the first one, eager to find out more. 101. Spartacus- In the end, aren't we all Spartacus? Yeah, I know how this one ends, but that's basically it. Also, I think it's popular among labor organizers. 102. Enchanted- I love Disney movies, but I also know their problems. I think this must have come out during the period when I was too old to be in Disney's target audience and too young to admit I still liked these sorts of movies without being embarrassed. 103. Judgment at Nuremberg- I had never heard about this until Slacktivist mentioned it. Sounds interesting. 107. Trois Couleurs: Blanc- I liked the first one, and I want to see where it goes next. 108. Ran- This is Kurosawa's version of King Lear, I think. I've never read King Lear. Also, Kurosawa's black-and-white filming is so good that I'm scared to see him in color. 109. Repo Man- Weird cult classic about... a glowing alien in the trunk of a car, maybe? Or am I getting mixed up with Pulp Fiction? 110. Ben-Hur- There's, like, chariots and stuff? 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, Dogville: 4/4, The Rapture: 2/4, Blue Velvet: 3/4, Irreversible: 4/4, Airplane!: 3.5/4, Tokyo Story: 2.5/4, Big Trouble in Little China: 3.5/4, American Psycho: 3.5/4, Dr. Zhivago: 3/4, Leaving Las Vegas:4/4, The Bourne Identity: 4/4, Out of Africa: 3/4, The Usual Suspects: 3/4, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: 4/4, Rain Man: 3.5/4, The Lost Weekend: 3.5/4, Ratatouille: 3/4, City of God: 4/4, Ed Wood: 4/4, Top Gun: 2.5/4, Trois Couleurs: Bleu: 3.5/4, The Hidden Fortess: 3/4, First Blood: 4/4, The Ten Commandments:3.5/4
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Jun 18, 2014 21:52
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Jurgan posted:93. Patton- On second thought, if I'm going to put a George C. Scott movie on here, it should really be this. I'd pick this just for the speech at the beginning, but the rest of the movie following is still good stuff. Close Encounters certainly felt like a Spielberg movie. I thought the second act slogged a bit, but the first and especially third acts were good. The issue is for me is ranking this on its own and not versus other Spielberg movies I've seen. The thing about this compared to those is I feel that this will be fairly unmemorable sans the hillside and final scenes. That being said, outside of some of the central portion, I really have no qualms with the movie. The visual effects still look great in 2014 which is true for just about any Spielberg movie. One thing that makes me wonder is what happened with Dreyfuss' family at the end? His family thinks he's crazy and now he's run off to another planet. Not quite the best father figure are we? Fun stuff overall, well worth its watch. John Williams is the best ever. New List: 1. The Grapes of Wrath - I've never seen a John Ford movie. It brings me great shame. 2. Three Colors: Blue - I remember seeing the trilogy brought up quite a bit from other lists. Might as well take a look myself. 3. Oldboy - Everyone always says great things about Oldboy. I might as well actually watch it. 4. The Hustler - I haven't seen a Paul Newman movie in a while, and this has always been part of cinematic lore. 5. The Intouchables - Highest top 250 movie I haven't seen. I know nothing about this. 6. Grave of the Fireflies - I'll try a non-Miyazaki Ghibli film. I know this gets a lot more dark. 7. Rain Man - I guess I know the premise, but I've never really thought of seeing it. Best Picture Bonanza (29/86) 8. Wings - I've set a goal to watch every movie that won best picture which I'm a bit of a third of the way through. 9. Ben-Hur - Might as well see Heston at his best. 10. 12 Years a Slave - This slot will go to the last best picture I haven't seen which just so happens to be the most recent. Watched Count 96: Chinatown, 12 Angry Men, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather Part I, The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Do the Right Thing, A Clockwork Orange, Wall-E, Citizen Kane, Aliens, The Shawshank Redemption, Back to the Future, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Dr. Strangelove, Raging Bull, Rear Window, The Green Mile, Braveheart, Apocalypse Now, Seven Samurai, The Great Escape, City of God, Vertigo, Blue Velvet, Ratatouille, All Quiet on the Western Front, Mulholland Dr., Sunset Blvd., Bridge on the River Kwai, Memento, Unforgiven, The Usual Suspects, Network, The Social Network, Psycho, Black Swan, The Professional (Leon), Duck Soup, Up, The Silence of the Lambs, The Hurt Locker, Animal Crackers, American Beauty, The Princess Bride, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Great Dictator, The King's Speech, American History X, Taxi Driver, The Philadelphia Story, Cars, Dial M for Murder, Amélie, Spirited Away, North by Northwest, Paths of Glory, Some Like it Hot, On the Waterfront, Platoon, Annie Hall, Patton, Harvey, Nikita, Yojimbo, How to Train Your Dragon, To Kill a Mockingbird, This is Spinal Tap, Fargo, Sin City, Wayne's World, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barton Fink, Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, Rashomon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Wild Strawberries, Rebecca, Dog Day Afternoon, The Departed, The Graduate, V for Vendetta, My Neighbor Totoro, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, City Lights, Life is Beautiful, Stand by Me, The Artist, Howl's Moving Castle, Good Will Hunting, Planet of the Apes, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
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Jun 21, 2014 14:23
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marioinblack posted:One thing that makes me wonder is what happened with Dreyfuss' family at the end? His family thinks he's crazy and now he's run off to another planet. Not quite the best father figure are we? Is he supposed to be?
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Jun 21, 2014 16:51
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Spielberg says he kind of regrets that ending, and if he were making it today he would not have the father abandon his family. I guess he got caught up in the wonder of the movie and didn't realize how dark it read. After all, most of Spielberg's movies have issues with families and fathers, possibly as a reaction to his parents' divorce.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:52
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marioinblack posted:
Give this a watch - I'm always keen to hear reviews of this film, as it tends to be pretty divisive. Watched Schindler's List tonight. What I really appreciated about it was how well Spielberg portrayed what Hannah Arendt famously called "the banality of evil" or just the everyday, paper-pushing jobs that made the Holocaust possible. People (myself included) tend to think of the Holocaust as having occurred in these isolated, far-off places where a small number of Germans heaped abuse on their victims but the reality was that there were probably very few Germans who didn't come into direct contact with it in some form or another. Also rather poignant was the constant reminder that the Nazis forced / coerced other Jews into participating as well. The shot where the Jews were being robbed of all their worldly possessions was one that stood out - there were tables full of jewelers just sitting there prying diamonds from stolen rings, appraising them, then putting them in piles - and the appraisers were Jews themselves. Just heartbreaking. An absolute masterpiece from start to finish. 10/10 My shame v3.0 1. Citizen Kane - might as well get that one out of the way. Don't know why I haven't watched it, just haven't. 2. The Shining - equally shameful 3. Lawrence of Arabia - I watched this as a kid but don't remember anything. I need to watch this again. 4. Roshomon - I've seen Ran, Throne of Blood, and Kagemusha (loved them all) but not this one. 5. The Tree of Life - The Thin Red Line is my favorite war film, and really enjoyed Days of Heaven, but I wasn't so keen on The New World. Not sure how I'll feel about this one. 6. Cool Hand Luke - No excuse. 7. Chinatown - I love Nicholson but every time I sit down to watch this something interrupts me. 8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Sitting in my Netflix queue for the last 2 years. 9. Her - My best friend keeps bugging me to see this one. 10. The Wild Bunch - my grandpa's go-to movie that I can't admit to him I haven't seen all the way through --------------------- Hall of De-Shame: Barton Fink (5/10); Schindler's List 10/10
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Jun 22, 2014 03:49
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Jurgan posted:Spielberg says he kind of regrets that ending, and if he were making it today he would not have the father abandon his family. I guess he got caught up in the wonder of the movie and didn't realize how dark it read. After all, most of Spielberg's movies have issues with families and fathers, possibly as a reaction to his parents' divorce. I'm not surprised he'd change it now, but I really like that aspect, it makes the alien pull that much more, you know, alien. It doesn't matter what his life is, who he's married to, how many kids he's got, something is in him telling him to go find this thing. I think if that punch were pulled it wouldn't be half as eerie, which is important, because this is a phenomenon that's unknowable, intangible, and pretty much incomprehensible.
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Jun 22, 2014 04:14
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Unzip and Attack, you get Lawrence of Arabia Well Rebel Without A Cause was a little different than I expected. I knew nothing about this film and was kind of expecting just rebellious teens and society's trouble with them. Instead, what I got was a great slice of 50's melodrama. These kids have parent issues from ineffectual dads to non-existent parenting overall. I had never seen a James Dean film before, so now I get what the hype was about. He was great. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. 1) Le Deuxieme Souffle- love that Melville 2) Carlos- everyone I know who has seen this raves about it 3) Dead Man- haven't seen much Jarmusch, this looks interesting 4) Bringing Up Baby- I like early screwball comedies 5) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg- love those musicals 6) The Music Room- never seen a Sanjit Ray movie 7) Stalag 17- I love all the Wilder I've seen so far 8) The Wolf Man- more Universal monsters 9) Swing Time- last musical on the AFI top 100 I haven't seen 10) A League of Their Own- I know the famous line, but that's about it. Is this any good? New List of Unshamed: The Invisible Man; Paris, Texas; Dr Strangelove, Ran, Stripes, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Throne of Blood, Touch of Evil, Blow Out, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Sound of Music, The Apartment, The Rules of the Game, The Last Picture Show, Bicycle Thieves, Manhattan, The Conversation, All That Jazz, Two Lane Blacktop, The Deer Hunter, Island of Lost Souls, Tokyo Story, Nashville, A Woman Under the Influence, The Earrings of Madame de..., Rope, The Phantom Carriage, The Magnificent Seven, Go West, Cabaret, Five Easy Pieces, To Live and Die in L.A., A Fistful of Dollars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, For A Few Dollars More, Sanjuro, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Great Dictator, Around The World In 80 Days, Our Hospitality, Rain Man, Thief, Gun Crazy, It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Act of Killing, Rebel Without A Cause
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Jun 22, 2014 08:00
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Mistletoe Donkey posted:5) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg- love those musicals I swear I could list your exact 10 films with those same explanations. That's scary. I think I want to see this film the most as I'm waiting to pick up the Criterion Demy set on bluray. Enjoy and I look forward to the review. The Searchers This just wasn't for me. I couldn't stand the subject matter, couldn't relate to any of it. The absolutely stunning landscapes in HD couldn't make up for the overacting and whining and shrieking and bad jokes and manipulative score. I think I've realized I'll take a Leone western anyday over Ford - though a friend says I need to see Hawks' Red River. The forums were down so I chose another film for myself: Playtime This was one I appreciated more so than enjoyed. The film was purposefully alienating and thus had that effect on me too. It was fun to watch and there were plenty of great gags and beautiful imagery and set design - but nothing to push it over the top to where I could truly connect. Maybe on a rewatch it'd be a different story, but I much preferred M Hulot's Holiday. Still a great film and definitely worth seeing. LIST Amour (2014.02.22) - I've had two festival opportunities squandered due to film print damage. I've waited long enough! Charulata **new** (2014.06.25) - I keep hearing great things and I really liked The Music Room A Few Good Men (2014.03.13) - I haven't been able to handle the truth until now.. wow that was lame. Harakiri (2014.06.03) - I've heard so much praise given to this film lately that I feel left out. I wanna join in on the conversation! Holiday (2013.12.15) - the title made this choice appropriate to add around this time of year. The Innocents (2014.06.16) - with Criterion announcing it's release today, it's about time I get the dust off my DVD copy and finally watch it. Jack Goes Boating (2014.02.17) - it took Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing to make his only directorial effort a higher priority.. for me, pretty drat shameful. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (2014.06.01) - more Archers is never a bad thing as I've loved The Red Shoes & Black Narcissus The Player **oldest** (2013.12.04) - this just seems right up my alley. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith **new** (2014.06.25) - this is ridiculous at this point, I need to finish this trilogy. Or do I? 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), Network (5/5), Once Upon A Time In The West (5/5), Sleeper (2.5/5), Y Tu Mama Tambien (4.5/5), Lawrence of Arabia (3.5/5), Amadeus (4/5), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (4.5/5), The Postman Always Rings Twice (3.5/5), Ben-Hur (4.5/5), Bug (4/5), All The President's Men (4.5/5), Through a Glass Darkly (4/5), The Leopard (2/5), The Aviator (4.5/5), Duck Soup (4/5), The Good The Bad & The Ugly (5/5), Werckmeister Harmonies (4/5), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (4.5/5), To Kill A Mockingbird (2.5/5), Brazil (2.5/5), M (5/5), The Sweet Hereafter (4/5), Princess Mononoke (5/5), High and Low (5/5), The Sting (5/5), The King of Comedy (4.5/5), Stand By Me (4.5/5), The Wages of Fear (4/5), Amores Perros (3.5/5), The Music Room (4/5), The Spirit of the Beehive (4/5), Cape Fear (3.5/5), The Passion of Joan of Arc (4/5), The Magnificent Ambersons (3/5), Tokyo Story (5/5), Quiz Show (3/5), Witness For The Prosecution (4/5), The Last Picture Show (4.5/5), Robocop (2.5/5), Grand Illusion (2.5/5), Ikiru (5/5), The Bride of Frankenstein (4/5), The Taste of Cherry (4/5), Eastern Promises (3.5/5), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (4/5), Le Doulos (4.5/5), Million Dollar Baby (3/5), Akira (5/5), Lone Star (3/5), Barry Lyndon (2.5/5), Dr. Strangelove (5/5), Leon the Professional (3/5), Arsenic and Old Lace (4/5), The Searchers (2/5), Playtime (4/5), [Total:76]
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Jun 26, 2014 05:12
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friendo55 posted:Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith **new** (2014.06.25) - this is ridiculous at this point, I need to finish this trilogy. Or do I? Might as well prepare for Episode VII. Viridiana - Every time I sit down to watch one of these formerly "banned films" I expect something more controversial than what I get. There's four or five moments that'll definitely rankle some viewers but I guess I'm not the banning type of person anyway. Don Jaime is an older, wealthy, eccentric, and perverted uncle. In short a high-class creep. The relationship between him and Viridiana (an aspiring nun) was the highlight of the story. From his insistence on Viridiana wearing his wifes wedding dress and proposing marriage to going to the backup plan of having a servant basically give her a date rape drug. So for him to go and hang himself with a jump rope out of embarrassment not even thirty minutes in was a disappointment. Maybe he had some PTSD from his original wife dying on their wedding night but it really doesn't excuse his actions. The rest of the film showing Viridiana trying and ultimately failing to help the surly invalids of the area (who end up making a big mess of the house and nearly raping her) was not as exciting. I think this was seen as an attack on some aspects of religion but in the end the poor came out looking the worst. Maybe we're supposed to see some kind of futility in piety. As we draw near the end it's clear that Viridiana has accepted the ways of the world as she's willing to play card games. PS Handel's Messiah is blasted in the background during many of the disturbing scenes which brings out an awkward comedy. Also watched three others: The Adventure - For the first ninety minutes or so I didn't know if I was watching a cynical mystery like Diabolique or a more pensive piece like La Dolce Vita. It ended up being kind of a half measure of La Dolce Vita. A group of wealthy people go boating and stop on a desolate island and the huge turn in the film is Anna's disappearance. It ends up being a misdirection as what transpires after takes center stage. Eventually Sandro moves on and begins chasing Claudia (Anna's friend). I'm usually not one to write about the scenery, landscapes, cityscapes and visual aesthetics in a film but it's hard not to mention the beautiful Mediterranean here. The ending was a little flat as I thought it was already obvious that Sandro was a run-of-the-mill philanderer. Star Trek Into Darkness - Like the 2009 film it's a rehash in some respects but it's more palatable at least and left some things to think about. Better acting and dialogue, less dumb humor and less old Spock. Still too much action and too fast-paced IMO. There were plenty of interesting moments that were instantly nullified by explosions, spaceship stalls or phaser blasts. The prime example being the scene where Uhura was talking with the Klingon for a few seconds and then Khan appeared and we had a few minutes of an incomprehensible laser shootout. Concerning the opening scene I've never understood the prime directive principle about hiding from those deemed to be primitive. I had issues with the Khan/Spock fight but that's minor I suppose. Not exactly a 180° change from (2009) but I feel slightly better about Star Wars: Episode VII now. Five Easy Pieces - Every so often I'll watch something that doesn't do much for me but I imagine watching it in its release year and think "I might really have thought this was a revelation had I seen it in 19XX." Now I acknowledge there's no way to know if that's actually true or not for a variety of reasons but it still pops into my head. I call these ones "vestigial films" as they were hailed for being groundbreaking, influential or launching/solidifying a career but don't seem to resonate as much currently. Kind of the opposite of films deemed to be ahead of their time that grow in stature as time goes on. It's a unique story full of unique characters told in a jumbled, abrupt and chaotic way which mirrors Robert Dupea's (Nicholson) whimsical, noncommittal and manic personality. Robert's actions at the end show he really hasn't changed that much and will continue on his aimless travels. I also liked the scenes at the house showing the refined world clashing with the unrefined demonstrating that Robert didn't fit on either side. Procrastination (130 completed): #125 Swades - Don't know what this is about but it's on the IMDb top 250 and on Netflix instant. 4/17/14 #127 Breaker Morant - Heard this referenced before. 4/30/14 #132 Contempt - I recently watched The Story of Film: An Odyssey and in it Mark Cousins described Jean-Luc Godard as a terrorist. And that kind of made sense. 5/10/14 #134 Underground - Never seen a Emir Kusturica film but I've heard good things. 5/17/14 #135 Girl, Interrupted - Been meaning to see this for awhile. 6/17/14 new #136 Barton Fink - I keep hearing about this one and it's been mentioned a lot in the thread. 6/25/14 new #137 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - One of those films that instantly got a lot of critical praise. 6/25/14 new #138 Her - Something about an OS infatuation. 6/25/14 James Bond versus Godzilla: I finished the Star Trek films and part IV remains my favorite of the dozen. Godzilla (2014) is out and it reminds me that I should really tackle this series (even longer than the Bond compendium). I remember watching ~5 or so Godzilla films (fullscreen English language versions) back in the 90s and longing to watch them in their original form. Well, some time has passed and it feels like a real privilege to be able to watch all these in their original unadulterated form. new Godzilla Raids Again - I watched the original a couple years back. I like this title as it sounds like Godzilla is getting right down to business after part I. 6/25/14 Roger Ebert's Top Films 1967-2012 (45/46 completed): 1969 Z - Something about politics. 6/17/14 Zogo fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 05:26
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Zogo posted:new #136 Barton Fink - I keep hearing about this one and it's been mentioned a lot in the thread. 6/25/14 I double dipped this time. First I watched my selected choice of 12 Years a Slave. This is a movie I would give at least a 9/10 on. It really hit hard at times, and I felt like all the characters were real people, not just caricatures of real people. One thing I liked was how the camera would linger on Solomon for a bit longer just to give time for the situation to weigh on me the viewer as it weighs on him. This is a fantastic film and probably the best I've seen so far since 2010s began. I also watch The Intouchables after several recommendations. I'm not sure what to say about this movie. I enjoyed it overall, but it felt like there was a truly hard hitting inspiration piece there that the movie never delivered on. Overall it felt kind of bland with a couple of good performances by the leads. I left wanting more because I felt like I could've been given something stellar, but the movie settled on pretty good. New List: 1. The Grapes of Wrath - I've never seen a John Ford movie. It brings me great shame. 2. Three Colors: Blue - I remember seeing the trilogy brought up quite a bit from other lists. Might as well take a look myself. 3. Oldboy - Everyone always says great things about Oldboy. I might as well actually watch it. This is the original version of course. 4. The Hustler - I haven't seen a Paul Newman movie in a while, and this has always been part of cinematic lore. 5. Modern Times - The last movie in imdb's top 50 I haven't seen until some above average action movie slips in. 6. Grave of the Fireflies - I'll try a non-Miyazaki Ghibli film. I know this gets a lot more dark. 7. Rain Man - I guess I know the premise, but I've never really thought of seeing it. Best Picture Bonanza (31/86) 8. Wings - I've set a goal to watch every movie that won best picture which I'm a bit of a third of the way through. 9. Ben-Hur - Might as well see Heston at his best. 10. Argo - The only best picture of the 2010s I haven't seen. Watched Count 98: Chinatown, 12 Angry Men, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather Part I, The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Do the Right Thing, A Clockwork Orange, Wall-E, Citizen Kane, Aliens, The Shawshank Redemption, Back to the Future, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Dr. Strangelove, Raging Bull, Rear Window, The Green Mile, Braveheart, Apocalypse Now, Seven Samurai, The Great Escape, City of God, Vertigo, Blue Velvet, Ratatouille, All Quiet on the Western Front, Mulholland Dr., Sunset Blvd., Bridge on the River Kwai, Memento, Unforgiven, The Usual Suspects, Network, The Social Network, Psycho, Black Swan, The Professional (Leon), Duck Soup, Up, The Silence of the Lambs, The Hurt Locker, Animal Crackers, American Beauty, The Princess Bride, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Great Dictator, The King's Speech, American History X, Taxi Driver, The Philadelphia Story, Cars, Dial M for Murder, Amélie, Spirited Away, North by Northwest, Paths of Glory, Some Like it Hot, On the Waterfront, Platoon, Annie Hall, Patton, Harvey, Nikita, Yojimbo, How to Train Your Dragon, To Kill a Mockingbird, This is Spinal Tap, Fargo, Sin City, Wayne's World, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barton Fink, Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, Rashomon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Wild Strawberries, Rebecca, Dog Day Afternoon, The Departed, The Graduate, V for Vendetta, My Neighbor Totoro, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, City Lights, Life is Beautiful, Stand by Me, The Artist, Howl's Moving Castle, Good Will Hunting, Planet of the Apes, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 12 Years a Slave, The Intouchables
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Jun 26, 2014 15:53
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Watch The Grapes of Wrath since I think I'm going to read that book soon. I was a very big fan of The Earrings of Madme de.... I'll copy what I wrote for an online Criterion film club I just started:  You are now entering the spoiler zone. The are unmarked spoilers from here on out. I want to highlight four things that I found interesting about the movie. First, the tracking shots and long takes. Second, the slanted camera angle we get a couple times, as highlighted in the screen capture above. Third, the personalities of the three characters. The Tracking Shots and Long Takes These are pretty apparent if you're the sort of person who watches out for these things. Indeed, the very first shot in the movie is a long over the shoulder tracking shot that follows Madame de Whatever as she picks out her outfit. We're stuffed right into her closet along with her, and we only see her face when she sits down and it's reflected (and slanted) in a mirror. Later the tracking shots are equally veiled - they follow a character as the character walks through a room, but the camera is outside the house so we just see the character in one window, then a wall for most of the shot, then finally the character in another window, or the character is in a ballroom and they're constantly obscured by dancing couples and pillars - this happens multiple times. The effect would be one of disorientation - where is the character? Where have they gone? - except all of these shots are extremely long takes, too. We never cut, so we never get lost, despite the characters going out of sight for long stretches. For me, at least, I think this gives us a sense of being privy to the inner lives of these characters while simultaneously getting a sense that things are veiled even to them. The camera never loses anyone but things get in the way, and nobody ever misunderstands someone else even though they never talk straight with one another. Louise, her husband André, and Donati all basically know what is happening, but they never come out and say it. Louise's way of saying "I love you" is to say "I don't love you," André is always aware of everything that is going on but also holds back from flat out saying it (which is symbolized perfectly by that scene near the end, when Louise is heartsick from having her affair broken off, and André talks to her with the earrings in his pocket throughout almost the entire conversation), and Donati makes no secret about how he feels but he of course has to constantly pretend nothing is going on. Even the excuse for the duel at the end is made up. The hypocrisy and double talk everyone engages in (think also of how Louise often tells lies) is echoed visually by these long tracking shots. Slanty Scenes Twice (maybe thrice?) when André and Donati talk, the camera is angled. The shot above is an angled shot of André but the shots of Donati are also angled. These are scenes where the two are alone and are talking with each other, and because of the slant they of course contrast quite a bit with the rest of the movie, which is level like movies typically are. In both of these scenes André is exploiting his knowledge of the situation by toying with Donati and talking around things, which he does all the time, but I think he revels in it more when he does it with Donati compared to when he does it with Louise. With Louise, he seems to think he's trying to help her. That scene near the end, where he has the earrings in his pocket, is key, I think - he mentions how his life hasn't really turned out the way he would've liked, because he has changed himself for Louise's sake. He then tries to help her get over her sadness in his own odd stoic way. There's none of this in his relationship with Donati - that's harsh to the point where he eventually shoots Donati, of course, but even before that he does things like keeping Donati waiting in that room near the end of the film (when he eventually shows up, that conversation is one of the slanted ones). In fact I just went and checked: the film is indeed slanted at least three times. When he challenges Donati to a duel, we get another series of slanted shots:  So I think it's pretty clear that the slant is all about the men, as opposed to Louise. The slant is playful and also sort of sinister, or off-kilter. It's funny but also wrong. To me this suggests a commentary on André's treatment of Donati. On the one hand, we get caught up in the jesting nature of it - it's fun to watch André toy with Donati and make jokes at his expense, and the tilted camera gives us leave to treat the whole thing as a farce. There is, though, an undercurrent of real menace there (rather than the undercurrent of tenderness that I think we get with André's treatment of Louise and the way he thinks he's helping her get over a difficult time in her life) and the slanted shot picks that out for us, because it's just wrong for the world to be slanted thus. The Three Characters We've got a pretty interesting set of people here, don't we? Louise is a funny mix of passion and manipulation - she's caught in the currents of this love, and it seems like it's taking control of her, but the way she manipulates people is by feigning faints, and we know she's a notorious flirt, so it's sort of unclear how much of the emotion she's putting into this is real and how much is an act. I think she probably doesn't know either - like the web of lies she builds up for not much reason, or all the machinations with the earrings, she's sort of dug herself in to a point where she's got to live and feel the things she at least pretends to live and feel. The apotheosis of this is of course the end, when she literally dies (well, maybe - we don't actually see it...) from emotion. Did she work herself up to the point where she died from exactly the weakness she was using as her strength? Or was she actually earnest the entire time? It gave her a lot of depth and ambiguity. Donati, if we take Louise at her word, doesn't even love her at the end of the film, and yet, he gets himself killed in the duel. He doesn't really care - look at that insouciant expression he's got in the above image! That's not a crummy picture I took while he was blinking - that's how he played the whole scene. Why the sudden change? Donati seemed head over heels the rest of the time, then suddenly, it's over when André says it needs to be over. I think Donati realizing how fully he had been found out and the enormity of what he had done (symbolized by him learning that the earrings were a gift from André originally) is a sign that Louise is right, and that really for Donati this was all about Donati. He has a conception of himself that's more important to him than even life itself, and when he can't keep up appearances in the way he wants, it all has to crumble for him. André is maybe the most interesting character. As I've noted above I see him as genuinely wanting to help Louise in his way. He says at one point that he has never been able to let himself feel sadness, and that he regrets it (or something like that). He clearly likes being in control - he is, after all, a general - and mastery of the situation and of his life seems like it's driving everything, but it's not clear what his end goal is. That one line about his life not having turned out like he would have liked is really suggestive, but we don't know what he means. It's clear, though, that somehow he's got regrets for everything, and all he can do is take charge of the situation he ends up in. When there's something he can't control, like how the earring are sold by his niece and show up again at his office, he gets angry and breaks his composure. 1) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - This replaces Battleship Potemkin - I must see all the old classic Russian silent famous films. 2) Union Station (1950) - It has William Holden, right? So I should probably also check it out. 3) The Wages of Fear (1953) - I've heard so many great things about this and yet have never seen it. 4) Electra (1962) - I saw Kakogiannis' Iphigenia and loved it, so more Greek tragedy is just what the doctor ordered. 5) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Marriage! Who doesn't love it, am I right? 6) Raging Bull (1980) - I haven't seen a ton of Scorcese films. I guess this is his Rocky, right? 7) Time of the Gypsies (1988) - What is the time of the Gypsies? Is it the 80s? 8) Trust (1990) - I know nothing of this movie but I trust it will be good. 9) Amélie (2001) - I think I recall that this movie was all over the zeitgeist at some point but I managed to entirely miss it. The poster art and so on looks like it's a depressingly easy movie to imagine but I guess maybe it's better than it looks. 10) Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - In honor of thegloaming's post right above the post where I'm first adding this to my list, here is a movie released recently. People always pick the really new movies on my list so I'm tempting fate by seeing how long this will last. I like Kathryn Bigelow's other stuff. Deshamed: In a Lonely Place (98), The Seventh Seal (97), 2001: A Space Odyssey (97), Full Metal Jacket (96), Last Year at Marienbad (95), Seven Samurai (95), Heathers (94), Stalker (93), Lawrence of Arabia (93), There Will Be Blood (93), In the Mood for Love (93), Tokyo Story (93), The Brothers Bloom (92), Aguirre: The Wrath of God (92), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (92), Sweet Smell of Success (91), 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (91), Nostalghia (91), Play Time (91), Schindler's List (91), The Long Goodbye (91), Blue Velvet (90), Out of the Past (90), Once Upon a Time in the West (90), Ordinary People (90), 8 1/2 (89), Diabolique (89), The Earrings of Madame de... (89), City of God (89), Badlands (89), Das Boot (88), Magnolia (88), The Royal Tenenbaums (88), Dead Man (88), Almost Famous (88), Videodrome (88), The Exterminating Angel (87), 99 River Street (87), His Girl Friday (87), Cool Hand Luke (87), Battleship Potemkin (87), Goodfellas (87), M (86), Throne of Blood (86), High Fidelity (86), A History of Violence (86), The Maltese Falcon (85), The Big Sleep (85), Waltz with Bashir (85), Rififi (84), Female Trouble (84), Midnight Cowboy (84), Crimes and Misdemeanors (84), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (84), Touch of Evil (83), The Social Network (83), The Last King of Scotland (82), Amores Perros (82), The Lost Weekend (82), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (82), City Lights (82), Slacker (82), Vertigo (81), North by Northwest (81), Hard Eight (81), Breakfast at Tiffany's (81), Unforgiven (81), Zulu (80), The Man Who Fell to Earth (79), Body Heat (79), Raising Arizona (77), The Lady Vanishes (72), Boyz n the Hood (76), The 400 Blows (72), Gone With the Wind (72), Witness for the Prosecution (70), The Man Who Knew Too Much (60) TychoCelchuuu fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 20:33
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TychoCelchuuu, the more I look back on Zero Dark Thirty, the more I recognize it's greatness. It might be one of the most important films of the past 10 years and I think it perfectly captures the post-9/11, post-Iraq United States. King Boxer (or as it's better known, Five Fingers of Death, which is a much better title) is a ton of fun. The kung fu fights are top notch and happen at least once every five minutes. The cinematography is surprisingly gorgeous, with a lot of classic kung fu ticks (crash zooms, slow motion jumps) that sell this as one of the essentials of the genre. It's also got plenty of scenes where one dude decimates a crowd of lesser fighters, and those are always fun. My List: The Lady Eve (1941) - I picked up the book "Cinematic Mythmaking" by Irving Singer because it looked really good. However, the essays in it tend to focus on single films and this is one of them. I'd like to go through a few of them before I crack into the book. (Added 7/31/2013) The Beaver Trilogy (2001) - We were supposed to show this at the theater I work at with the director in person, but it got cancelled for whatever reason. Anyway, since finding out about it my interest is peaked. Technically three films in one. (Added 12/17/2013) Black Jesus (1968) - But what about Black Santa?  (Added 12/17/2013)Damnation (1988) - I've never seen a Béla Tarr film. I know Werckmeister Harmonies is the favorite, but something about this one is calling me. (Added 12/21/2013) Fort Apache (1948) - The first in John Ford's Calvary trilogy. (Added 1/2/2014) Playtime (1967) - Is this an alright jumping in point for Tati? (Added 3/11/2014) Andrei Rublev (1966) - It's been awhile since I watched a Tarkovsky. I liked Stalker and Solaris a lot but didn't connect too deeply with either. (Added 4/19/2014) Showgirls (1995) - Is this actually bad or Verhoeven-style "bad." (Added 5/29/2013) Chelsea Girls (1966) - Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey both make a movie, and then shove them both together. Curious to see how this plays out. (Added 6/16/2014) Akira (1988) - I have a strong aversion to anime. But I'm willing to give this a fair shot. (Added 6/26/2014) Watched: Harold and Maude; The Third Man; Inland Empire; Godzilla; Big Trouble In Little China; Y Tu Mamá También; Marathon Man; Hunger; A Woman Is A Woman; Black Narcissus; A Hard Day's Night; Scarface; Le Doulos; On The Waterfront; Rocky; 3 Women; Airplane!; Duck Soup; Clash of the Titans; Singin' In The Rain; The Cow; Straw Dogs; Stop Making Sense; Bad Timing; Once Upon A Time In America; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Robocop; Shane; WALL·E; The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin; The Man Who Fell To Earth; Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; Divorce Italian Style; Some Like It Hot; To Kill A Mockingbird; An American Werewolf In London; Buffalo '66; Lawrence Of Arabia; Manhattan; Cul-De-Sac; The Birth of a Nation; Braveheart; Sex, Lies, and Videotape; Malcolm X; Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; The Passion of Joan of Arc; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Le Samouraï; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; Marat/Sade; His Girl Friday; A Woman Under the Influence; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Rio Bravo; Triumph of the Will; Titanic; Strike; The General; Jules et Jim; Tokyo Story; Once Upon A Time In Anatolia; L'Âge d'Or; Stroszek; Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky; Faust; Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom; Frankenstein; Rebel Without a Cause; Gone with the Wind; Barry Lyndon; The Grapes of Wrath; Midnight Cowboy; My Darling Clementine; Hoop Dreams; Close-Up; Begotten; The Goddess; The Apartment; Hell's Angels; All About Eve; Night and Fog; Grey Gardens; Zardoz; King Boxer - Five Fingers of Death (TOTAL: 84)
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Jun 27, 2014 04:33
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TychoCelchuuu posted:
I'm interested in the link for this club?
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Jun 27, 2014 06:16
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friendo55 posted:I'm interested in the link for this club?
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Jun 27, 2014 07:23
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TrixRabbi - Go for The Lady Eve! I watched it last night and it was a real treat. Barbara Stanwyck is really snappy and whoa I forgot how young Henry Fonda could look. Just finished Some Like It Hot and holy poo poo I am sorry I have waited so long to see it. Totally hilarious and a fantastic ending. We could not stop laughing (and ogling Monroe in every loving scene, hot loving drat) and then bam, that last bit! It's been a long time since I've thoroughly enjoyed a film from start to finish. 10/10, easily. Oh and when the forums were down I watched Infernal Affairs. Pretty decent action flick, but the awful cheesy music killed it for me at times. 5/10. I think they did it better with The Departed but perhaps added a bit too much, maybe. 13. Yi Yi - it's on so many top 10/50/100 lists but I've never gotten to it. 2. Solaris - the last Tarkovsky - Stalker - had me squirming with boredom (the book had me believing that the movie was going to be amazing). 3. Witness for the Prosecution - Courtroom dramas can really just go on. 14. Bicycle Thieves - Yeah, I think I can handle it. 15. 8 1/2 - I am ashamed. 6. Alone in the Woods - just recently heard about this one while doing research for something else. 7. The Lives of Others - I enjoy espionage stuff, but this has always felt like it could be too heavy. 8. Saving Private Ryan - war makes me sad, so I have avoided it. 12. Y Tu Mama Tambien - skipped over this in college; never returned to my old lists. 10. The Princess Bride - I remember nothing else of this film other than the torture scene when my parents took me to see it when I was 4, and I had to be carried out crying. I've had a block against it since, even though everyone I know loves it.
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Jun 27, 2014 07:28
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artichoke posted:8. Saving Private Ryan - war makes me sad, so I have avoided it. It might be time to be sad. Barton Fink - Barton Fink is a newly successful NY playwright who's given the opportunity to write a film in Hollywood. I liked the characters as they all had some funny moments. Most of them are cartoonish and the atmosphere frequently veered into an area with a tinge of surrealism. Many segments had a heightened focus on detail (usually in the drab hotel). The fixation on the typewriter and the look of the film reminded me a lot of Naked Lunch (another film released in 1991). Maybe it's because we never really leave Barton Fink's side but something felt missing from the fabric of the film. We kept getting short snapshots of the characters he encountered and most of it was memorable but after two hours it's kind of one-note (even with the surprises like the jovial Charlie Meadows being a murderer). Procrastination (131 completed): #125 Swades - Don't know what this is about but it's on the IMDb top 250 and on Netflix instant. 4/17/14 #127 Breaker Morant - Heard this referenced before. 4/30/14 #132 Contempt - I recently watched The Story of Film: An Odyssey and in it Mark Cousins described Jean-Luc Godard as a terrorist. And that kind of made sense. 5/10/14 #134 Underground - Never seen a Emir Kusturica film but I've heard good things. 5/17/14 #135 Girl, Interrupted - Been meaning to see this for awhile. 6/17/14 #137 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - One of those films that instantly got a lot of critical praise. 6/25/14 #138 Her - Something about an OS infatuation. 6/25/14 new #139 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Trying to see some newer things. 6/27/14 James Bond versus Godzilla: Godzilla Raids Again - I watched the original a couple years back. I like this title as it sounds like Godzilla is getting right down to business after part I. 6/25/14 Roger Ebert's Top Films 1967-2012 (45/46 completed): 1969 Z - Something about politics. 6/17/14
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Jun 28, 2014 05:03
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Check out Contempt. Things I appreciate about Zero Dark Thirty - the slow pacing, the raid at the end, that it's a pretty movie, that ending scene (the colors especially), and, uh... some scenes where Jessica Chastain acts. Things I don't appreciate: most of the rest? I think my key issue is that there's just not a lot there. Too much of the movie is people saying exposition to each other so that we know what is happening. But why is what is happening important? As far as I can tell all of this matters only because it actually happened (or, more accurately, because this is the flavor of what actually happened). But that stuff actually happened is not on its own very interesting to me. It's got to mean something and all it means in the movie is that it happened and it was ugly and what you thought about it before is probably what you're going to think about it now. It turns out torture is pretty great and if you try hard enough and hope for the best, you too can have a pack of trained men kill a terrorist for you. 1) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - This replaces Battleship Potemkin - I must see all the old classic Russian silent famous films. 2) Union Station (1950) - It has William Holden, right? So I should probably also check it out. 3) The Wages of Fear (1953) - I've heard so many great things about this and yet have never seen it. 4) Electra (1962) - I saw Kakogiannis' Iphigenia and loved it, so more Greek tragedy is just what the doctor ordered. 5) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Marriage! Who doesn't love it, am I right? 6) Raging Bull (1980) - I haven't seen a ton of Scorcese films. I guess this is his Rocky, right? 7) Time of the Gypsies (1988) - What is the time of the Gypsies? Is it the 80s? 8) Trust (1990) - I know nothing of this movie but I trust it will be good. 9) Amélie (2001) - I think I recall that this movie was all over the zeitgeist at some point but I managed to entirely miss it. The poster art and so on looks like it's a depressingly easy movie to imagine but I guess maybe it's better than it looks. 10) The Master (2012) - I've seen almost all of Anderson's films now. I'd love to finish him off. Deshamed: In a Lonely Place (98), The Seventh Seal (97), 2001: A Space Odyssey (97), Full Metal Jacket (96), Last Year at Marienbad (95), Seven Samurai (95), Heathers (94), Stalker (93), Lawrence of Arabia (93), There Will Be Blood (93), In the Mood for Love (93), Tokyo Story (93), The Brothers Bloom (92), Aguirre: The Wrath of God (92), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (92), Sweet Smell of Success (91), 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (91), Nostalghia (91), Play Time (91), Schindler's List (91), The Long Goodbye (91), Blue Velvet (90), Out of the Past (90), Once Upon a Time in the West (90), Ordinary People (90), 8 1/2 (89), Diabolique (89), The Earrings of Madame de... (89), City of God (89), Badlands (89), Das Boot (88), Magnolia (88), The Royal Tenenbaums (88), Dead Man (88), Almost Famous (88), Videodrome (88), The Exterminating Angel (87), 99 River Street (87), His Girl Friday (87), Cool Hand Luke (87), Battleship Potemkin (87), Goodfellas (87), M (86), Throne of Blood (86), High Fidelity (86), A History of Violence (86), The Maltese Falcon (85), The Big Sleep (85), Waltz with Bashir (85), Rififi (84), Female Trouble (84), Midnight Cowboy (84), Crimes and Misdemeanors (84), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (84), Touch of Evil (83), The Social Network (83), The Last King of Scotland (82), Amores Perros (82), The Lost Weekend (82), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (82), City Lights (82), Slacker (82), Vertigo (81), North by Northwest (81), Hard Eight (81), Breakfast at Tiffany's (81), Unforgiven (81), Zulu (80), The Man Who Fell to Earth (79), Body Heat (79), Raising Arizona (77), The Lady Vanishes (72), Boyz n the Hood (76), The 400 Blows (72), Gone With the Wind (72), Zero Dark Thirty (72), Witness for the Prosecution (70), The Man Who Knew Too Much (60)
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Jun 28, 2014 05:57
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Tycho, take 'The Master'. I just watched this a couple weeks ago and I'd like to hear your take on it. Watched Lawrence of Arabia last night. I admit that I have not watched a lot of classic films and so my tastes run to much more contemporary styles, but the thing that stood out to me was Alec Guinness playing Prince Faisal and how obvious it was that a white Brit was playing the role with heavy makeup. It's strange how those sorts of things really distract from an otherwise great film. Some of the desert scenes looked positively alien, and I enjoyed the first half of the film much more than the second. The director did a fantastic job in portraying the desert itself as the primary antagonist, and the journeys across the barren sands were palpably horrific. 8/10 My shame v4.0 1. Citizen Kane - might as well get that one out of the way. Don't know why I haven't watched it, just haven't. 2. The Shining - equally shameful 3. Blue Velvet - I've never seen a Lynch film. There, I said it. 4. Roshomon - I've seen Ran, Throne of Blood, and Kagemusha (loved them all) but not this one. 5. The Tree of Life - The Thin Red Line is my favorite war film, and really enjoyed Days of Heaven, but I wasn't so keen on The New World. Not sure how I'll feel about this one. 6. Cool Hand Luke - No excuse. 7. Chinatown - I love Nicholson but every time I sit down to watch this something interrupts me. 8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Sitting in my Netflix queue for the last 2 years. 9. Her - My best friend keeps bugging me to see this one. 10. The Wild Bunch - my grandpa's go-to movie that I can't admit to him I haven't seen all the way through --------------------- Hall of De-Shame: Barton Fink (5/10); Schindler's List (10/10); Lawrence of Arabia (8/10) Unzip and Attack fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 06:18
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Holy smokes. Watch Citizen Kane. I don't know if it's the "best of all time" like most movie lists would have you believe, but it definitely deserves its critical reputation. Just finished Bicycle Thieves. All in all, it was pretty much exactly what I expected: a quiet, profoundly upsetting tale of a broken postwar society and the things otherwise-good people feel they must do to survive. Which is to say, it was absolutely brutal. Arrghh. The shame list, revised:
Die Feuerzangenbowle (2014/04/01), Ikiru (2014/06/14), Bicycle Thieves (2014/06/27) treasureplane fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 07:27
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TychoCelchuuu posted:Things I appreciate about Zero Dark Thirty - the slow pacing, the raid at the end, that it's a pretty movie, that ending scene (the colors especially), and, uh... some scenes where Jessica Chastain acts. Things I don't appreciate: most of the rest? I think my key issue is that there's just not a lot there. Too much of the movie is people saying exposition to each other so that we know what is happening. But why is what is happening important? As far as I can tell all of this matters only because it actually happened (or, more accurately, because this is the flavor of what actually happened). But that stuff actually happened is not on its own very interesting to me. It's got to mean something and all it means in the movie is that it happened and it was ugly and what you thought about it before is probably what you're going to think about it now. It turns out torture is pretty great and if you try hard enough and hope for the best, you too can have a pack of trained men kill a terrorist for you. That's not what the movie is saying at all. It's a film that's partly about obsession. Chastain's character devotes an entire decade of her life to finding Bin Laden, and along the way she compromises her morality to torture people, watches as friends die around her, and eventually, when released from her duty, realizes she has nothing left in her life because she has given it all to this endless, seemingly pointless search. The movie in no way advocates torture. If anything, it highlights the horrors of it, and the way that America compromised it's morality (as if it ever had any) to find this one man, in the name of "justice." Think of the scene where we see the main torturer grab a fistful of M&Ms during a board meeting. Those same hands that are shoving colorful candy into his mouth were used to inflict unthinkable agony on prisoners. It's a drat powerful statement. Finally, you have the ending, which is very deliberately against Hoorah-Americanism. The raid is treated with respect, even a bit of horror, recognizing the women and children involved in the incident. And finally, you have that final shot of Chastain crying in the helicopter. It's something that should be cathartic, but instead it's anti-climatic. He's dead. Ten years of her life have paid off. But for what? Justice? Revenge? It's a rather damning statement against everything the US has done since 9/11 in the name of "fighting terror." If anything, you can't kill Bin Laden, because he is no longer a man. He is a specter hanging over us all. It's why we don't see his face in the film, because to show his face humanizes him. Rather he is in every scene, motivating every action. Why did we torture? Because of Bin Laden. Why did we go into Iraq? Because of Bin Laden. And the film leaves us with the fact that he will continue to haunt us.
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Jun 28, 2014 16:34
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TrixRabbi posted:That's not what the movie is saying at all. It's a film that's partly about obsession. Chastain's character devotes an entire decade of her life to finding Bin Laden, and along the way she compromises her morality to torture people, watches as friends die around her, and eventually, when released from her duty, realizes she has nothing left in her life because she has given it all to this endless, seemingly pointless search. TrixRabbi posted:The movie in no way advocates torture. If anything, it highlights the horrors of it, and the way that America compromised it's morality (as if it ever had any) to find this one man, in the name of "justice." Think of the scene where we see the main torturer grab a fistful of M&Ms during a board meeting. Those same hands that are shoving colorful candy into his mouth were used to inflict unthinkable agony on prisoners. It's a drat powerful statement. TrixRabbi posted:Finally, you have the ending, which is very deliberately against Hoorah-Americanism. The raid is treated with respect, even a bit of horror, recognizing the women and children involved in the incident. TrixRabbi posted:And finally, you have that final shot of Chastain crying in the helicopter. It's something that should be cathartic, but instead it's anti-climatic. He's dead. Ten years of her life have paid off. But for what? Justice? Revenge? It's a rather damning statement against everything the US has done since 9/11 in the name of "fighting terror." TrixRabbi posted:If anything, you can't kill Bin Laden, because he is no longer a man. He is a specter hanging over us all. It's why we don't see his face in the film, because to show his face humanizes him. Rather he is in every scene, motivating every action. Why did we torture? Because of Bin Laden. Why did we go into Iraq? Because of Bin Laden. And the film leaves us with the fact that he will continue to haunt us.
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Jun 28, 2014 17:36
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treasureplane, I don't know much about it, but The Pearls of the Crown piqued my interest; I've not seen many older movies, but the one 1937 French film I have seen (Grand Illusion) was good enough for me to assume that 1937 France was probably just really good in general. This is my first time in this thread, so I picked a completely arbitrary theme for the list I'll begin with, based on year of release: 1. Girl Shy (1924) - one of the first romantic comedies, apparently, and it ends with a lengthy action sequence. 2. It Happened One Night (1934) - also a romantic comedy, and the first of only three movies to win the Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best writing. Coincidentally, I watched one of the other two to do that (Silence of the Lambs) about a month ago for the first time. 3. Torment (1944) - the first movie Ingmar Bergman wrote, about a maniacal Latin teacher. 4. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) - a Japanese film about a teacher that takes place over a long period of time. 5. Goldfinger (1964) - I've never actually seen any of Sean Connery's James Bond films; I should probably fix that. 6. The Great Gatsby (1974) - I saw a brief clip of this in a literature class a year or two ago, but I've not seen the whole thing. I enjoyed the more recent Baz Luhrmann adaptation of it, but I'm interested in seeing how this more direct adaptation handles things. Plus, Mia Farrow. 7. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - I've not seen nearly enough horror, and this seems like a really good thing to help fill that hole in my experience. 8. Timecop (1994) - I'm pretty sure 90s sci-fi action movies involving time travel are never not fun. 9. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - I've never actually seen any of Michael Moore's documentaries. This one was extremely successful and I'm interested in what it'll be like watching it a decade later. 10. The Raid 2 (2014) - I loved the first film, and everything I've heard suggests that the sequel manages to live up to its predecessor's reputation without just repeating all the same things.
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Jun 28, 2014 18:01
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TychoCelchuuu posted:She compromises her morality? She was "a killer" before she even went overseas and the most unhappy she ever seems to get about torture is when she's slightly hesitant about handing Dan a bucket of water so he can waterboard someone. If her morality was comprimised it was at some point before the movie started. She has nothing left in her life? She never had anything in her life. She was recruited right out of high school and halfway through the movie when she's asked if she has any friends she doesn't answer because the answer is no. M&M scene definitely happened. It's part of a larger scene, but it's a subtle thing that caught my eye. You might be right about her being a killer before even starting this. But her never having had anything else in her life is what I was getting at. Her entire life is focused on catching Bin Laden to the point that when she is taken off the case she realizes how she has nothing else. If you're going to get angry about the movie showing torture as effective then I don't know what to say, because that's the reality of the situation. But depiction doesn't mean endorsement. It's very much pointing at torture and rubbing your nose in it, because if it's going to happen you shouldn't just be allowed to block your ears and shut your eyes and pretend that's not what's going on. It's very much showing it for how putrid it is, even if it does "get results." Not to mention the focus on a character like Dan outside of torturing. We're introduced to this guy and he is waterboarding men, and then we constantly see him eating sweets and acting as if the last time we saw him he wasn't brutalizing prisoners. And there are a lot of Dick Cheney's in the world. It's maybe not a profound statement when written out, but after a three-hour film (or ten years of a person's life) where the belief is that getting Bin Laden is going to provide some form of closure, it's a gutpunch of a finale because there is no closure. Unless you're this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGxpdP3ZbWQ
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Jun 28, 2014 18:17
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Watch It Happened One Night. I didn't like it at all but as you point out it's quite critically acclaimed. The best part about The Master is Joaquin Phoenix's tremendous performance. He's great at seeming weird and broken enough to be weird and broken but also relateable and real enough to anchor us when the rest of the people in the movie are crazy cultists. Ultimately the movie is all about him, and the eponymous Master is just a stand in for all the masters in Phoneix's life and how he can't stand to be subject to them. But I am busy and not sure what else to write about the movie without thinking about it a lot more. Amy Adams and Laura Dern were both tremendous in their roles too. Laura Dern should be in more stuff. 1) Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - This replaces Battleship Potemkin - I must see all the old classic Russian silent famous films. 2) Union Station (1950) - It has William Holden, right? So I should probably also check it out. 3) The Wages of Fear (1953) - I've heard so many great things about this and yet have never seen it. 4) Electra (1962) - I saw Kakogiannis' Iphigenia and loved it, so more Greek tragedy is just what the doctor ordered. 5) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) - Marriage! Who doesn't love it, am I right? 6) Raging Bull (1980) - I haven't seen a ton of Scorcese films. I guess this is his Rocky, right? 7) Time of the Gypsies (1988) - What is the time of the Gypsies? Is it the 80s? 8) Trust (1990) - I know nothing of this movie but I trust it will be good. 9) Amélie (2001) - I think I recall that this movie was all over the zeitgeist at some point but I managed to entirely miss it. The poster art and so on looks like it's a depressingly easy movie to imagine but I guess maybe it's better than it looks. 10) Her (2013) - This is replacing The Mater - one Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams film for another. Deshamed: In a Lonely Place (98), The Seventh Seal (97), 2001: A Space Odyssey (97), Full Metal Jacket (96), Last Year at Marienbad (95), Seven Samurai (95), Heathers (94), Stalker (93), Lawrence of Arabia (93), There Will Be Blood (93), In the Mood for Love (93), Tokyo Story (93), The Brothers Bloom (92), Aguirre: The Wrath of God (92), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (92), Sweet Smell of Success (91), 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (91), Nostalghia (91), Play Time (91), Schindler's List (91), The Long Goodbye (91), Blue Velvet (90), Out of the Past (90), Once Upon a Time in the West (90), Ordinary People (90), 8 1/2 (89), Diabolique (89), The Earrings of Madame de... (89), City of God (89), Badlands (89), Das Boot (88), Magnolia (88), The Royal Tenenbaums (88), Dead Man (88), Almost Famous (88), Videodrome (88), The Exterminating Angel (87), 99 River Street (87), His Girl Friday (87), Cool Hand Luke (87), The Master (87), Battleship Potemkin (87), Goodfellas (87), M (86), Throne of Blood (86), High Fidelity (86), A History of Violence (86), The Maltese Falcon (85), The Big Sleep (85), Waltz with Bashir (85), Rififi (84), Female Trouble (84), Midnight Cowboy (84), Crimes and Misdemeanors (84), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (84), Touch of Evil (83), The Social Network (83), The Last King of Scotland (82), Amores Perros (82), The Lost Weekend (82), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (82), City Lights (82), Slacker (82), Vertigo (81), North by Northwest (81), Hard Eight (81), Breakfast at Tiffany's (81), Unforgiven (81), Zulu (80), The Man Who Fell to Earth (79), Body Heat (79), Raising Arizona (77), The Lady Vanishes (72), Boyz n the Hood (76), The 400 Blows (72), Gone With the Wind (72), Zero Dark Thirty (72), Witness for the Prosecution (70), The Man Who Knew Too Much (60)
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Jun 29, 2014 18:31
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TychoCelchuuu posted:
I agree 100%. What really held my attention throughout this film was my complete inability to predict what Phoenix's character was going to do next. He played the role of a simpleton and a complex man simultaneously.
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Jun 29, 2014 19:43
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TychoCelchuuu posted:6) Raging Bull (1980) - I haven't seen a ton of Scorcese films. I guess this is his Rocky, right? I pick this. Go. Zogo, back in July, telling me to watch The Terminator posted:One of my favorites. So I got around to watching The Terminator. Good movie! I have nothing to say that isn't in "no poo poo" territory. I fell for two different false finishes, so it was effective in getting across the idea that the loving Also, holy poo poo, 80s hair is wacky. I'm glad I just missed growing up in that decade. - I also just watched Groundhog Day. No, it wasn't ever on my list but it was going to be so I'm counting it. I didn't realize it was such a love story. It had lots of laughs for sure, but by the end I was sucked into the romance of it all. A welcomed surprise. Good to see old Three Rivers Stadium in the opening city shot too.  - SHAMELIST: (in order of longest time on this list) 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. 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. Rashomon - Seven Samurai was good, but didn't enrapture me. I want to try this one, which sounds like it has a more intriguing premise. Also, only 88 minutes long makes it too tempting. Highlander - I have no idea if this movie is any good at all. So chalk this up to "cultural significance." Thunderball - Bond Movie #4. Skipping Goldfinger, which I already know in and out. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - I might have seen this long ago in my childhood but I remember almost nothing about it. I expect seeing it for the first time in 2013 might be really really weird. So on the list it goes! Terminator 2 - I finally saw the first one. Now I'm ready to see the sequel. The better movie? Goodfellas - The Godfather wasn't much my thing. How different is this film? De-shamed (45): 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; Lawrence of Arabia; La Dolce Vita; The Jerk; Videodrome; Deliverance; Ed Wood; Mulholland Drive; From Russia With Love; Rebel Without A Cause; Senna; Groundhog Day; The Terminator Space Cob fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 30, 2014 05:21
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edit: drat it, double post. Sorry 
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Jun 30, 2014 05:24
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Space Cob posted:Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - I might have seen this long ago in my childhood but I remember almost nothing about it. I expect seeing it for the first time in 2013 might be really really weird. So on the list it goes! Enjoy a very fresh perspective! Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith So there's always so much backlash on the new trilogy, and now more than ever I wonder why? I really enjoyed Attack of the Clones when it came out, and now after waiting so long to see this, I enjoyed this too - with a strong exception going to Hayden Christiansen. Him and Jar Jar are really my only problems with the trilogy, and although they're big issues, both don't take away from my overall enjoyment. I'm also not a huge Star Wars nut (obviously) so I don't focus on too many of the details that others might. There were a couple moments that already looked dated from 2005 (especially that lava battle), but overall looked great. The story did a nice job tying everything together leading up to A New Hope. I plan on re-watching the original trilogy before Episode VII arrives. LIST Ali: Fear Eats the Soul **new** (2014.06.29) - This has had enough praise and appeared on enough lists that I feel I need to see it. I know nothing about it. Amour (2014.02.22) - I've had two festival opportunities squandered due to film print damage. I've waited long enough! Charulata (2014.06.25) - I keep hearing great things and I really liked The Music Room A Few Good Men (2014.03.13) - I haven't been able to handle the truth until now.. wow that was lame. Harakiri (2014.06.03) - I've heard so much praise given to this film lately that I feel left out. I wanna join in on the conversation! Holiday (2013.12.15) - the title made this choice appropriate to add around this time of year. The Innocents (2014.06.16) - with Criterion announcing it's release today, it's about time I get the dust off my DVD copy and finally watch it. Jack Goes Boating (2014.02.17) - it took Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing to make his only directorial effort a higher priority.. for me, pretty drat shameful. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (2014.06.01) - more Archers is never a bad thing as I've loved The Red Shoes & Black Narcissus The Player **oldest** (2013.12.04) - this just seems right up my alley. 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), Network (5/5), Once Upon A Time In The West (5/5), Sleeper (2.5/5), Y Tu Mama Tambien (4.5/5), Lawrence of Arabia (3.5/5), Amadeus (4/5), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (4.5/5), The Postman Always Rings Twice (3.5/5), Ben-Hur (4.5/5), Bug (4/5), All The President's Men (4.5/5), Through a Glass Darkly (4/5), The Leopard (2/5), The Aviator (4.5/5), Duck Soup (4/5), The Good The Bad & The Ugly (5/5), Werckmeister Harmonies (4/5), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (4.5/5), To Kill A Mockingbird (2.5/5), Brazil (2.5/5), M (5/5), The Sweet Hereafter (4/5), Princess Mononoke (5/5), High and Low (5/5), The Sting (5/5), The King of Comedy (4.5/5), Stand By Me (4.5/5), The Wages of Fear (4/5), Amores Perros (3.5/5), The Music Room (4/5), The Spirit of the Beehive (4/5), Cape Fear (3.5/5), The Passion of Joan of Arc (4/5), The Magnificent Ambersons (3/5), Tokyo Story (5/5), Quiz Show (3/5), Witness For The Prosecution (4/5), The Last Picture Show (4.5/5), Robocop (2.5/5), Grand Illusion (2.5/5), Ikiru (5/5), The Bride of Frankenstein (4/5), The Taste of Cherry (4/5), Eastern Promises (3.5/5), What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (4/5), Le Doulos (4.5/5), Million Dollar Baby (3/5), Akira (5/5), Lone Star (3/5), Barry Lyndon (2.5/5), Dr. Strangelove (5/5), Leon the Professional (3/5), Arsenic and Old Lace (4/5), The Searchers (2/5), Playtime (4/5), Star Wars: Episode III (3.5/5), [Total:77]
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Jun 30, 2014 05:45
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friendo55 posted:The Player **oldest** (2013.12.04) - this just seems right up my alley. Can't speak for most of those, but enjoy your oldest pick! We just wrapped up Saving Private Ryan, and oh man, yeah, pretty much exactly what I expected from that film by Señor Spielbergo. The fuckin music, the close-ups and humanization of people about to be blown to bits, and fuckin Tom Hanks looking brave and troubled and whatever else he always looks like in these movies. The first and last war scenes made me sweat and had my blood pressure through the roof, so the cinematography was phenomenal, but I can't say the same for the sentimental undertow that churned through most of it. 6/10 Also we watched Bicycle Thieves on Friday and I don't recall any other movie that I actually wailed at when it ended. I cry pretty easily during films, heavily about twice a year, but this one I actually fell over on the couch sobbing and moaning. I'd read most people described it as "devastating" and I agree with that. Takes the cake for the saddest movie I've ever watched and I dare you to find me a sadder one. loving perfect movie and I never want to watch it again. 10/10 13. Yi Yi - it's on so many top 10/50/100 lists but I've never gotten to it. 2. Solaris - the last Tarkovsky - Stalker - had me squirming with boredom (the book had me believing that the movie was going to be amazing). 3. Witness for the Prosecution - Courtroom dramas can really just go on. 16. Baraka - I dunno. 15. 8 1/2 - I am ashamed. 6. Alone in the Wilderness - just recently heard about this one while doing research for something else. 7. The Lives of Others - I enjoy espionage stuff, but this has always felt like it could be too heavy. 17. The Usual Suspects - I "watched" this one as a teenager but really we were loving under the blanket. 12. Y Tu Mama Tambien - skipped over this in college; never returned to my old lists. 10. The Princess Bride - I remember nothing else of this film other than the torture scene when my parents took me to see it when I was 4, and I had to be carried out crying. I've had a block against it since, even though everyone I know loves it.
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Jul 1, 2014 02:05
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artichoke posted:Also we watched Bicycle Thieves on Friday and I don't recall any other movie that I actually wailed at when it ended. I cry pretty easily during films, heavily about twice a year, but this one I actually fell over on the couch sobbing and moaning. I'd read most people described it as "devastating" and I agree with that. Takes the cake for the saddest movie I've ever watched and I dare you to find me a sadder one. loving perfect movie and I never want to watch it again. 10/10 I thought the same, which is why I braced myself when I watched Umberto D, however it felt like it was off-the-mark to me. It probably sounds silly, but I think the lead actor was not right for the role, he just did not have a very believable sad old guy look or demeanor. I am actually working my way through Miracle in Milan right now (as I was unable to find a copy of Shoeshine). Will update once I finish it. May I also recommend Make Way for Tomorrow? If you like 'emotional' movies, I would like your thoughts on it.
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Jul 1, 2014 02:49
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Artichoke, you get to go watch the excellent 8 1/2. Also, since you liked the cinematography, I recommend checking out the photography of Robert Capa, which the opening scene was heavily inspired by. I just finished watching Children of Men, and I feel like I should let it sink in for a while before deciding what to think. It was very good, but the balancing act between optimism and despair made for a rough watch. There was a large amount of exposition near the beginning, which had me worried, but once the world was established that died off immediately. The rest of the film was brilliant. Clive Owen and Clare-Hope Ashitey both put in wonderful performances, as did a lot of the supporting cast. It's also been a while since I've been in suspense right up until the very end of a movie like that, since it could have gone either way and pretty much still worked. I definitely need to digest it more. _________________________ My Shame List: 1) Days of Heaven: Never seen a Malick movie. This was strongly recommended to me since I really liked Upstream Color. (added 10/27/13) 2) Rio Grande: Another Ford/Wayne western for the western slot. (added 12/7/13) 3) The Fly: The Cronenberg one. (added 1/4/14) 4) La Dolce Vita: 8 1/2 was good. How about another Fellini? (added 1/4/14) 5) Galaxy Quest: Star Trek in all but name? (added 1/4/14) 6) Birth of a Nation: Continuing the "know thy enemy" series. (added 3/11/14) 7) Rocky: I have no idea how I missed this one for this long. (added 3/11/14) 8) Night of the Hunter: Don't know much about this beyond the knuckle tattoos. (added 5/5/14) 9) The Long Good Friday: Bob Hoskins and gangsters? I like both of those things. (added 6/5/14) 10) Stalker: Solaris is growing on me the more I think about it. Let's try another Tarkovsky. (added 6/30/14) De-Shamed (47) [Top picks in bold]: The Thing, Casino Royale, Blue Velvet, Metropolis, Unforgiven, The Rock, Jurassic Park, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Shining, Videodrome, Inglourious Basterds, Battleship Potemkin, Con Air, Mulholland Drive, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Taxi Driver, Prometheus, Pan's Labyrinth, 8 1/2, Casino, Starship Troopers, The Big Lebowski, Nosferatu, Oldboy, 12 Angry Men, Drive, No Country for Old Men, The Exorcist, Ed Wood, Face/Off, Koyaanisqatsi, Kung Fu Hustle, Jacob's Ladder, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Unbreakable, Lost Highway, Man with a Movie Camera, The General, Dog Day Afternoon, Forbidden Planet, Solaris, Triumph of the Will, Total Recall, The Graduate, Chinatown, Children of Men
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Jul 1, 2014 03:07
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Nolanar posted:1) Days of Heaven: Never seen a Malick movie. This was strongly recommended to me since I really liked Upstream Color. (added 10/27/13) This has been on your list a long time. - Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a love story to a thing I don't care about. I watched cartoons as a kid, sure, but never went nuts over them. They were on and passed the time. I can't say I enjoyed much of this movie. But when Bob Hoskins entered his office and the first thing he did was hang his coat on a falcon, I smiled. The classic noir silhouette was there too, which was a great little touch in a movie loaded with small gags. It's technically amazing. I had to keep reminding myself this came out in 1988. I know little of the history of film technology, but this strikes me as something absurd to make at the time, like when you hear movie makers rattle off the number of special effect shots their movie required nowadays. I'm glad I've seen it, but I doubt I'll ever care to see it again. - SHAMELIST: (in order of longest time on this list) 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. 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. Rashomon - Seven Samurai was good, but didn't enrapture me. I want to try this one, which sounds like it has a more intriguing premise. Also, only 88 minutes long makes it too tempting. Highlander - I have no idea if this movie is any good at all. So chalk this up to "cultural significance." Thunderball - Bond Movie #4. Skipping Goldfinger, which I already know in and out. Terminator 2 - I finally saw the first one. Now I'm ready to see the sequel. The better movie? Goodfellas - The Godfather wasn't much my thing. How different is this film? Some Like It Hot - I know exactly three things about this movie: it has Marilyn Monroe in is, crossdressing happens, and I think there is a train. De-shamed (46): 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; Lawrence of Arabia; La Dolce Vita; The Jerk; Videodrome; Deliverance; Ed Wood; Mulholland Drive; From Russia With Love; Rebel Without A Cause; Senna; Groundhog Day; The Terminator; Who Framed Roger Rabbit
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Jul 3, 2014 04:19
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