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Posting to find my last post
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Mar 8, 2017 05:01
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Trix Rabbi, you get to watch Passages from Finnegans Wake because I read like 80 pages of the book and I am extremely curious how that could possibly translate to a film. I guess now I just take a year to watch a movie for this thread. That's two in a row. City Lights was pretty fun. I'd never actually seen a Chaplin film before, only clips, so I hadn't ever really appreciated what a great physical performer he is. I loved the opening scene with the monument and how matter-of-fairly he keeps tipping his hat. The boxing scene was also pretty funny. Also the ending got me a bit choked up. I liked this movie. I also watched The Artist a few months back. The dog in this movie is really good. Very good dog. I went into it expecting to hate it, but I didn't. It was all right. Well made, enjoyable, but not particularly memorable. The List: NEW 1. Tokyo Story: I don't really know anything about this but it's on a ton of lists. 2. Stalker: Never seen a Tarkovsky, so I might as well start now. 3. Throne of Blood: Kurosawa doing MacBeth sounds dope 4. Stagecoach: I should watch more John Ford 5. Barry Lyndon: This is my Kubrick slot now 6. The Life Aquatic: I have never seen a Wes Anderson movie. 7. North Dallas Forty: I've been told that this is the best football movie ever made. I like football and movies. 8. The King's Speech: I borrowed this from the library a few weeks ago but the DVD was scratched and gave out halfway through. I liked what I did see, though. 9. The Hudsucker Proxy: This is my Coen slot now NEW 10. Reds: This seems up my alley and I've been meaning to watch it for years and just haven't gotten to it. Watched (56): Goodfellas, Rear Window, Rashomon, The Searchers, Lawrence of Arabia, American Psycho, The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential, Unforgiven, Once Upon a Time in America, Blue Velvet, Schindler's List, Vertigo, First Blood, The Sting, Annie Hall, Twelve Monkeys, The Deer Hunter, Rain Man, Chinatown, Glengarry Glen Ross, Patton, Brazil, Casino, Scanners, Black Swan, Superman, Spartacus, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Seven Samurai, Double Indemnity, The Thing, Aguirre The Wrath of God, Badlands, Planet of the Apes, Shane, Léon: The Professional, Trainspotting, The Conversation, Miller's Crossing, A Fish Called Wanda, City of God, Psycho, Singin' in the Rain, Witness for the Prosecution, Se7en, The Wild Bunch, Oklahoma!, Cool Hand Luke, Paths of Glory, The Night of the Hunter, Blood Simple, Eyes Wide Shut, Memories of Murder, Sunset Boulevard, City Lights Alfred P. Pseudonym fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 05:23
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Get yourself some Hudsucker APP. It's not the Coen's best by any means, but it is definitely a turning point film of theirs. Check Mr. Smith Goes to Washington off the list. This thing took forever and the ending lacked so much catharsis it hurt. That would've been fine if they went for an unhappy ending, but they didn't. Smith essentiall wins in the end, but he doesn't land the knockout punch. Anyway, it's 40 minutes before anything interesting happens and then Smith kinda 'oh shucks' his way through the movie. He's clearly good, and they're clearly bad, and it lacks nuance or style. I wasn't very impressed but I know that ultimately this thing is old as dirt, so whatever. 7/10 I also watched Certified Copy. I was groaning when it felt like this was just gonna be a linklatery stroll through Europe but then the film makes its huge rear end turn. It gets cool, for sure, pretty quickly, but the twist goes on for far too long without there being any significant resolution. It was clever and good, but it definitely left me wanting more in the wrong kind of way. 8/10 1. *NEW* Fantastic Mr. Fox *NEW* - Still haven't managed to enjoy any Wes Anderson. Maybe this one? 2. Garden of Words - Heard it's very pretty. 3. *NEW* Lawrence of Arabia *NEW* - Time to go through this. I'll probably be bored, but I'll do my best. 4. True Romance - This is my Beef Supreme pick, thanks!  5. Three Colors: Blue - A thread favorite, I'd like to check it out. 6. Metropolis – Hitler pick. 7. Ajami - Looks painful; someone knock me down a peg. 8. Deconstructing Harry - More Woody please! 9. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. 10. Good Morning, Vietnam- My understanding is that this is somewhat overrated but it's never boring watching Robin Williams. 136 Total De-Shamed! Yojimbo 7.5/10, Aliens 6.5/10, Brazil 8/10, Cool Hand Luke 9.5/10, 28 Days Later 6/10, Predator 8.5/10, Blade Runner 7.5/10,Crimes and Misdemeanors 9/10, Vertigo 7/10, Being There 7.5/10, Psycho 10/10, Apocalypse Now 7.5/10, Citizen Kane 8.5/10, Dr. Strangelove 7/10, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 8.5/10, The Bicycle Thief 7/10, Raging Bull 8/10, Ikiru 10/10, Terminator 2: Judgement Day 7/10, The Night of the Hunter 8.5/10 How to Train Your Dragon 6.5/10, There Will Be Blood 8/10, Manhattan 7/10, Rashomon 8.5/10, Unforgiven 8.5/10 The Third Man 9.5/10, Requiem For A Dream 4/10, Charade 5.5/10, Sunset Blvd. 8/10 , Badlands 6.5/10, Dead Man 8.5/10, On The Waterfront 9/10, Mad Max 6/10, Singin' In The Rain 9.5/10, Sleeper 7.5/10, Enter The Dragon 6.5/10, The Hustler 8/10 , The Town 9/10, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 5.5/10, Boogie Nights 7.5/10, Hanna 8.5/10, The Conversation 7.5/10, Serpico 8/10, Hoop Dreams 9/10, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 8/10, Blood Simple 7.5/10, Roman Holiday 8.5/10, Miller's Crossing 8/10, M 7.5/10, Moonrise Kingdom 6.5/10, Rope 7/10, Tiny Furniture 1/10, On The Town 5.5/10, Gosford Park 5.5/10, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, 8.5/10, City Lights 8.5/10, The Exorcist 6.5/10, California Split 7/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 8/10, Following 8/10, The General 10/10, Barton Fink 8.5/10, Tombstone 8/10, The Hudsucker Proxy 9/10, Love Actually 6.5, La Dolce Vita 7/10, Chop Shop 9.5/10, Duck Soup 6/10, When Harry Met Sally 8/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Kelly's Heroes 8/10, The Thing 8.5/10, Lost In Translation 9.5/10, Anchorman 6.5/10, Mulholland Dr. 8.5/10, Rebecca9/10, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans 7/10, Steamboat Bill Jr. 9/10, Double Indemnity 9/10, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 6.5/10, The Man Who Wasn't There 8.10, Synecdoche, NY 10/10 , Leaving Las Vegas 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 8.5/10, Magnificent Seven 8/10, Dear Zachary -/10, The Fly 9/10, Time Bandits 6/10, Before Sunrise 6.5, The Buddy Holly Story 7/10, Pleasantville 7/10, The Rules of the Game 6/10, Senna 7.5/10, Kiki's Delivery Service 8/10, Gojira 9/10, The Blues Brothers 5/10, Notorious 7/10, Little Shop of Horrors 9/10 , The Last Starfighter 7/10, Rebel Without A Cause 8.5/10, Sherlock Jr. 7.5/10, Intolerable Cruelty, 9/10, The Ladykillers 9/10, Spring Breakers 7.5/10, Touch of Evil 8/10, The Purple Rose of Cairo, 9/10, My Cousin Vinny 7/10, Galaxy Quest 8/10, First Blood, 9/10, Arsenic and Old Lace, 7/10, Mad Max 2, 9/10, The Raid: Redemption, 8/10, Kramer vs. Kramer 9.5/10, Nightcrawler 10/10, Frank 9/10, Strangers On A Train 8/10 , Wild Strawberries 7.5/10, They Came Together 5.5/10, The Squid and the Whale, 10/10, Poolhall Junkies 1/10, Citizenfour 10/10, The 400 Blows 9.5/10, Event Horizon 2/10, Ashes and Diamonds, 8/10 Defending Your Life 9/10, The Informant! 8.5/10 The Lady and the Tramp 8.5/10, Memories of Murder 8.5/10, Ordinary People 8.5/10, Blue Ruin 7/10, F For Fake 9/10, The Best Years of Our Lives 6.5/10, Saturday Night Fever 7/10, We Need to Talk About Kevin, 10/10, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 10/10, 2011: A Space Odyssey ???/10, The Master, 9/10 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 7/10 Certified Copy, 8/10 Chili fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 06:45
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The Fog Of War I can't, in all honestly, formulate any kind of compact analysis or judgement of this movie and its character. It's very good, I can say that. A key concept that Morris seems to chase in his films is the idea of self-knowledge and bridging the gap between yourself and others - or refusing. How much can we know about others, and about our own selves? Are we aware of our impact? Are we honestly confronting the lies we tell ourselves? In Gates of Heaven, the gap is emotional. Here are a group of people who seem to solidify a personal philosophy and then live in it, content or even gleeful to misunderstand and judge others for not conforming to their own philosophies. Some of them are happy, some of them prick themselves repeatedly with their selfishness, battling for no reason than because it feels good to have your own philosophy propped up by the conflicting actions and opinions of others. In A Brief History of Time, the gap is physical. Hawking is literally cut off, sliced out of physical life and dropped into a mental abyss, which forces him into a new way of thinking that allows for deeper conceptions of time and space that might not come so readily to a grounded, fleshy person who can put their thoughts down on paper, rather than having to develop an entire inner framework to consider them by, thereby allowing for extreme visualization and flexibility. In The Thin Blue Line, the gap is social and institutional. Here is a person cut out of life by the actions of others whose main consideration is the construction of a narrative that best suits themselves. He goes to prison not based on concrete evidence but because it's convenient for everyone else, which calls into question the very concept of interpersonal knowledge and influence. In The Fog Of War, this gap becomes global. It becomes a force of massive death, of monstrous nihilism, trapping millions in a nonsensical game of force and apprehension. McNamara (who, I should note, I only knew as a lyric in a Simon and Garfunkel song before watching this) was called the architect of the Vietnam war, which is broadly considered one of the most wrongheaded wars in modern history that killed thousands and thousands of our own people, and thousands and thousands of them. One of McNamara's main points in the film (which is divided into eleven segments, each headed by a pithy lesson from McNamara such as "Never say never") is to empathize with your enemy, and then suggests that one of the biggest problems with the Vietnam war is that they didn't know enough about the Vietnamese to empathize with them, and understand their conflict. Which is a frightening concept - that thousands could die because, you know, oops, we didn't know why they were fighting. In the second half of the film, McNamara describes a meeting in the 90s with one of the major figures who had presided on the other side of the war, where they nearly come to blows over the realization that they were, in essence, fighting two different wars. How could so much violence happen as the result of a fundamental misunderstanding? Morris provides, ultimately, an empathetic portrait of McNamara. It's not necessarily a positive one - McNamara evades frequently, and Morris can be heard behind the camera calling him out, demanding answers - but we can see that McNamara is, at the very least, conflicted about his role in the war. The "lessons" all have a hint of irony, mostly in pointing to the question that inevitably hangs over every Nuremberg-trial-esque query about war, which is "why have war in the first place?". There's something called the "overview effect", which is a cognitive shift experienced by astronauts who go up into space and look at the earth and realize that we need to get our act together. McNamara suggest we have to do a certain amount of evil to do good. There's the personal, the conflict, and the global. Why do we have to pass through fire to get to peace? At the end of the film, McNamara flatly refuses to say whether he feels guilty or responsible for the Vietnam war and its casualties. I don't blame him at all - the history he and Morris give us is concise and informative, but every thread leads to two more threads. It's a feisty knot. War, of course, is merely an extension of human uncertainty. You could talk about the fog of interpersonal relationships, or the fog of living. What is certainty? Morris probes his cameras into McNamara's eyes at key points, revealing a kind of milky hesitance, and apparently McNamara and Morris came to conflict over what would or would not be included in the film. But we don't hate McNamara at the end of it - McNamara himself has expressed his appreciation and respect for McNamara. What we seem to get is an image of someone understanding uncertainty. He quotes the TS Eliot bit about exploring and coming back to the place you started and understanding it for the first time. This and the Kierkegaard quote about only understanding life backwards go well together and outline the themes of Fog of War. Only after you get through life, through war, through a conversation can you look back and say, yes, that was what that was. And then you have to live with it. Even in certainty, in retrospective understanding, there is only uncertainty. And then there is nothing. What do we learn from that? 10/10 EDIT: My Beautiful Laundrette Alas! People! I'm not unfamiliar with 80s British films that are mad about Thatcherism - Mike Leigh's High Hopes and Peter Greenaway's Cook Thief come to mind, and are just as colorful and edgy as this. I was expecting a much more dour, kitchen sink film, and there's plenty of scumminess in this (one of the main characters is hired as an "unscrewer", which involves throwing poor artists out of their lovely flats for not paying rent), but there's also an amazing amount of color and a good dose of odd whimsy. Not necessarily whimsy in the humorous way, whimsy in the way it's totally unafraid of being a little overripe and pulpy. The characters are drawn in lurid strokes, big, sad, lively, angry, and they interact in unexpected ways, pulling weird parallels and contrasts, like characters from a Tolstoy novel, boldly aware, deeply conflicted, utterly driven, and slightly hallucinogenic. The biggest, nicest surprise was the happy ending. This, in a way, is the biggest kick against Thatcher and her ilk - that loving bitch demon oval office - that, despite cultural odds, two people could find love where it's only meant to be stamped out. The other nice surprise is that there's a limited amount of suspenseful hiding-of-the-gays. They're not directly out in the open, and there's one awkwardly-almost-found scene, but it's thankfully not a typical thriller-type story. Not that that didn't happen, but it's such a common trope. Instead, we get a really interesting look at the status of England. "Listen," says one character towards the end of the film, who is drinking himself to death, "drat country has done us in. That's why I'm like this." He is in a state of collapse over his son, who, instead of going to college, has taken in with his uncle's less-than-savory family, who smuggle drugs from their native India and set themselves up in a suburban palace. "He must have knowledge," he says. But another character says: "We're nothing in England without money." These upper-crusters come in conflict with the wandering punks, who throw anarchic parties, moon cars, threaten violence, and upend norms by refusing to take part in England's capitalist merry-go-round. And the two main characters are stuck in the middle, trying to find some kind of ground between the two - legitimate, but not struggling. That they do this by opening a glitzy laundromat is part of the movie's biting charm. It's a little bit of a mean joke, looking like something out of a Monty Python parody, or a nonsense scheme concocted by Rich and Eddie on Bottom that turns fatally violent. But it's also nice in a camp way, like the high-class drive-in from Polyester. The overall effect is to put the action of the film on a gently demented, semi-satirical plane, which means we get to eat our cake and have it afterwards - we get the vitriolic satisfaction of the suggestion that, only in a cockeyed fantasy, can gay love succeed in Thatcher's Britain, and then we get gay love succeeding in Thatcher's Britain. It's a clever tightrope walk and the movie succeeds at it. Mostly I just like that I get to see people like me in a movie. That's very nice. 10/10 shame sphere 1) A Poem Is A Naked Person - more les blank!!! 2) The River - Inspired Satyajit Ray? Something about India? 3) Blind Chance - I need to fill up on my Kieslowski 4) The Pillow Book - greenaway is the man 5) The Entertainer - Lawrence Olivier enters the kitchen sink 6) Odd Man Out - not the orson welles one the other one 7) My Winnipeg - horse 8) Veronika Voss - plowing forward with fassbinder 9) Meantime - 80s underground 10) Brute Force - BLAST HARDCHEESE Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10, Pather Panchali 10/10, The Terminator 6/10, The Trial 10/10, Exit Through The Gift Shop 10/10, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 7/10, The Phantom Carriage 10/10, Au Hasard Balthazar 3/10, The African Queen 10/10, My Night At Maud's 10/10, The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse 10/10, La Haine 10/10, The Pianist 7/10, Four Lions A-, Scream A+, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul B-, The Naked City 7/10, Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10 (total: 124) Chili gets Lawrence of Arabia Also, TrixRabbi, how are you planning to see As I Was Moving Ahead? I've been wanting to see that for ages but I don't know where. Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Mar 9, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 22:20
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Magic Hate Ball posted:How could so much violence happen as the result of a fundamental misunderstanding? People from the same culture and language kill each other constantly so it can become amplified when there are cultural and language barriers. "Communication Breakdown...it's always the same." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EH7QMVnSRI Magic Hate Ball posted:The "lessons" all have a hint of irony, mostly in pointing to the question that inevitably hangs over every Nuremberg-trial-esque query about war, which is "why have war in the first place?". There's something called the "overview effect", which is a cognitive shift experienced by astronauts who go up into space and look at the earth and realize that we need to get our act together. McNamara suggest we have to do a certain amount of evil to do good. There's the personal, the conflict, and the global. Why do we have to pass through fire to get to peace? World/country conflicts are just the macrocosm of the microcosm seen in interpersonal relationships. Back in the 1990s it was in vogue and hip to be all about hoping, unironically for "world peace." And yet so many people chanting and aspiring to such an insanely lofty goal weren't capable of getting along with their neighbors or even their own family members. Magic Hate Ball posted:What is certainty? Mathematical formulas. The falling teacup from A Brief History Of Time is so simple but it says a TON about various topics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEXIpwgt5gE Whether one believes in a cosmological big chill or a big crunch...the universe and our planet has increasing disorder. Every single day hundreds of thousands of people are added to the population. New countries, religions, ideologies are added to the lexicon yearly. More confusion, more options, more fighting. All of recorded history being reanalyzed and recontextualized on the fly. All theories on the future up for debate etc. Most importantly, all the new movies to watch. Magic Hate Ball posted:How much can we know about others, and about our own selves? Are we aware of our impact? Are we honestly confronting the lies we tell ourselves? In the grand scheme of things barely nothing. Not fully, no. Chaos theory/butterfly effect dictate that we can't know those things fully. No, most don't fully do that either.
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Mar 11, 2017 01:02
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Magic Hate Ball posted:3) Blind Chance - I need to fill up on my Kieslowski I was gonna choose My Winnipeg, but I'll get away from documentaries and go with Kieslowski. Cheers! King Kong With all that I knew going into this 1933 original, this movie still blew me away with it's special effects, set designs and vast number of extras on screen. If you think you've seen enough of this based on clips or montages over the years, do yourself the favour of going back and watching this. You won't be disappointed. LIST Airplane! [1980] - (2017.01.17) - not too many comedies appear on my shame list, but this certainly applies! Bringing Up Baby [1938] - (2017.01.21) - absolutely LOVED 'Holiday' w/ Hepburn & Grant, and Grant's birthday just passed. Dark Victory [1939] - (2016.05.29) - one of those films you don't hear discussed much, but a revisit of All About Eve makes me want more Bette Davis! Fail-Safe [1964] - (2016.11.15) - continuing my goal of being Walter-Matthau-complete. Gilda [1946] - **OLDEST** (2015.11.27) - I'll replace an early Rita Hayworth film with her most iconic. I Killed My Mother [2009] - (2016.12.29) - loved Dolan's 2014 film Mommy, and my pricey Plain Archive blind-buy remains unwatched.. It Should Happen To You! [1954] - (2016.09.15) - replacing my previous Jack Lemmon selection with Lemmon's debut film Nobody Knows [2004] - (2016.04.23) - a 2+hr Kore-eda film that would be my 3rd film of his. Long overdue. Rome, Open City [1945] - (2017.02.20) - Rossellini's War Trilogy has been sitting unwatched for too long.. this is the 1st in the trilogy. Shane [1953] - **NEW** (2017.03.11) - having recently watched Logan, it reminded me I've yet to watch this western classic. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), Missing (3.5/5), Howl's Moving Castle (4.5/5), Rio Bravo (4/5), Cloud Atlas (3.5/5), Children of Paradise (4/5), That Obscure Object of Desire (5/5), The Fountain (3/5), Malcolm X (4/5), Warrior (4/5), American Movie (4/5), Being There (4/5), Leaving Las Vegas (4.5/5), Rope (4/5), Ed Wood (4.5/5), American Hustle (2.5/5), The Man Who Knew Too Much (3.5/5), Mister Roberts (4/5), Charley Varrick (4/5), A Face in the Crowd (4.5/5), Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5), Slacker (3.5/5), Drugstore Cowboy (4.5/5), Love and Death (3.5/5), Fantastic Mr. Fox (4.5/5), A Scanner Darkly (4/5), Marketa Lazarova (5/5), A Clockwork Orange (4.5/5), The Fly (5/5), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (5/5), King Kong (5/5), [Total:144]
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Mar 12, 2017 06:05
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Friendo, go for the oldest - Gilda for you TrixRabbi gave me Nightcrawler, an inspiring story about how hard work and a can-do attitude will get you the car, the job and the girl   I knew the basic plot of 'creepy camera guy chases violence, poo poo escalates', but I was pleased by the specific type of creepy on offer here. Gyllhynynhyll owns the role, doing an amazing job at being a hundred pounds of crazy in a ninety pound suit. He's all bulging eyes and skeleton and fevered intensity, never comfortable unless he's completely in control. Watching his sociopathy (as filtered through art-of-the-deal self help lifestyle coaching) bounce off "normal" people was uncomfortable when he was powerless and worse when he had leverage. Quite a character. The script got a bit heavyhanded at times, but the acting and the directing (specifically the location shots - I was reminded of Collateral in a good way) make up for it. Overall grade:  Spotlight [2015] - A friend keeps bugging me to see this. Memories of a Murder [2003] - Came on my radar from some podcast, looks interesting. Beasts of No Nation [2015] - whoo boy. Big fan of the director, but just never in the mood for a little child-soldiering. The Brothers Bloom [2008] - Liked looper, loved brick, interested to see how this goes. Superbad [2007] - A comedy that people seem to like  12 years a Slave [2013] - a cheery movie to lift my spirits The Hateful Eight [2015] - from tarantino's oldest to his latest 12 Angry Men [1957] - I'm keen to see if I actually like this, or if it's too dated for my tastes Badlands [1973] - people seem to think Terrence Malick is cool and someone described this as his 'most accessible'. I'm all about that Perfect Blue [1997] - nani?!? seen: Reservoir Dogs  Fargo  Annie Hall Chinatown  Casino Nightcrawler
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Mar 13, 2017 06:18
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awesmoe posted:
There are a ton of great titles on your list, some better than this one, but I love Spotlight. It was my favorite movie of 2015 and I am always interested to see other's thoughts. So, I really didn't respond to New York, New York. I love Scorsese, and I admire him trying something different and paying homage to the MGM musicals of yore, but this is a mess. Style -- and Laszlo Kovacs' cinematography, specifically -- elevates a repetitive and overlong story about an unpleasant and altogether dull jazz saxophonist and an aspiring singer/performer. Jimmy (Robert De Niro) is an awful character. I don't mean that as unlikable, though he is certainly that, but that there is nothing compelling about him. He yells and broods and acts like a petulant rear end in a top hat the entire time. I'm not against lowlife protagonists, hell I loved The Wolf of Wall Street, but there's a curiosity about Jordan Belfort that is lacking here. Liza Minnelli is great here, though, and Francine should have been the focal point from the beginning. The final 30 minutes almost save it, and honestly if a bunch of Jimmy's meandering was cut in favor of economy, I may have been able to look past the shagginess. As it is, style can't elevate a thoroughly disappointing effort. I also watched Yi Yi, which I think is growing on me the further I get away from it. I love it when that happens. I think it's a perfect matinee movie as it's about 3 hours and is a sprawling look at various members of the same family. The specifics aren't as clear, but the subtlety of the emotion -- specifically the father (NJ)'s story meeting up with his high school sweetheart and trying to woo a Japanese investor for his software company (though his co-workers are trying to take advantage of the investor). His wife, by this point, has had a breakdown and is in a hospital, and he's going through a bit of an existential crisis. The Japanese investor awakens in him some alternate philosophies or ways at seeing the world separate from the bottom line. It's not a message movie and it's not covered with swells or grandeur, it's very small, subtle, and contemplative. The stories surrounding NJ's children are also absorbing, from Yang Yang's new obsession with his camera (and photographing the back's of people's heads) and figuring out the world at a young age, and his sister's complicated friendship with a neighbour and her own foray into dating which oddly mirror's her father. It's one I want to revisit and Edward Yang is a filmmaker whose work I am curious to see more of. LIST O SHAME 1) Walkabout - One from the outback. I know next to nothing about it, but cover art intrigued me. 2) The White Ribbon - It's taken me a long time to get into Haneke, but I want to keep going. 3) Paprika - Anime from the creator of Perfect Blue, which I was a fan of. Figured I should see another. 4) Dogtooth - Liked The Lobster well enough...heard this was somehow stranger. 5) A Touch of Zen - It's so long, but apparently an absolute must-watch according to a friend of mine. 6) Rio Bravo - They've been talking about it on Filmspotting a bit with Filmspotting madness, and I'm woefully short on John Wayne westerns. 7) Song of the Sea - Irish animation I've wanted to see since it was released. 8) Joint Security Area - I've seen, and loved, most of Park Chan-wook's movies, but haven't seen this one. 9) All That Jazz - Bob Fosse is a blind spot. 10) La Silence de La Mer - Jean Pierre Melville is excellent. I've liked everything I've seen. SHAME BE GONE (PART DEUX): Top Secret!, Yi Yi, New York New York (Total: 3)
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Mar 13, 2017 22:29
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Ratedargh, check out Rio Bravo. It's a classic for a reason and one of the best ways to acclimate yourself to quality John Wayne films. What's fun to remember as well is it's the main influence for Assault on Precinct 13 and it's one of Tarantino's favorites. Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1967) dir. Mary Ellen Bute  Mary Ellen Bute is best known as a pioneer in abstract animation who from the 1930's through the 50's created a series of "Seeing Sound" films that visualized classical music. Although they could be considered avant-garde, Bute's short films became widely seen and recognized after she convinced the owners of the Radio City Music Hall in New York to screen her movies before feature films. They're lovely and soothing, and strangely paved the way for laser light shows and digital media player visualizers. While Bute was always innovating, she was less prolific than she could have been largely due to issues getting finances for her work. She put all of her own money into making her films, ending up in shelters and ending her four-decade filmmaking career early, a full 16 years before she died of heart failure in 1983. Her final film, Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, was her only feature and only her second narrative. Filmed over three years, Bute applied her penchant for dreamlike filmmaking to Joyce's dream-based epic, although she strayed from her abstract origins. She ultimately selected the most filmmable sequences from the notoriously inscrutable novel and crafted a film that is perhaps most in line with early surrealist films like Bunuel's L'Age D'or. We open on Tim Finnegan in bed with his wife, when he rolls over the side and falls into a dark void that ends at his wake, where his friends and family celebrate the wake itself more than they do his life. From there we experience a number of scenes, spoken in Joyce's prose, featuring a revolving door of emotive characters, until finally Finnegan wakes up. In Underground Film: A Critical History, Parker Tyler criticized Bute for creating a too concrete adaptation, and he's not entirely wrong: "Her film becomes a Surrealist vision of the work's transcendental action because it photographs people and thing in their true physical aspect, regardless of their strange relationships and the necessarily illogical sequence of the continuous dream action." Tyler's spot on in his critique, not because the story needed to be transcendental, but because a more abstract version likely would have been more engaging. The film is at its best when its chaotic and experimental in its editing, but harder to enjoy when it engages in vignettes by actors with thick Irish accents who often seem to be speaking nonsensically. Overall though, I do like it. It's audacious and has fun with itself. Plus a bit of trivia, this is the first film Thelma Schoonmaker ever worked on. My List: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) - Classic Mary Pickford, aka my bae. <3 <3 <3 (Added 4/9/2016) Last Summer (1969) - The warm weather is here and something about sexual awakenings. Let's hit the beach and gently caress. (Added 5/12/2016) Nerves (1919) - German expressionist film that looks cool as heck. (Added 5/16/2016) The Blood of Jesus (1941) - Spencer Williams' iconic race film. Spike Lee paid homage to it with Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. I've never seen any of these old race films, outside of some documentaries featuring clips. It seems like a fascinating genre worth diving into. (Added 5/25/2016) The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - This is the oldest entry (by date added) on my 400+ film To-Do List. I recently watched Simon of the Desert and before that it had been years since I'd seen a Bunuel. I need to explore him more. (Added 11/26/2016) Os Deuses e Os Mortos (1970) - "Of Gods and the Undead." A Brazilian film that is reportedly a favorite of Werner Herzog's. (Added 1/8/2017) The Viking (1928) - An all technicolor silent about Lief Ericsson. I saw a clip in a documentary years ago and I've had it on my To Do list for years. (Added 1/14/2017) Cairo Station (1958) - Meant to see this ever since I watched The Story of Film and now FilmStruck has a whole bunch of Youssef Chahine available to stream. (Added 3/1/2017) As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - Another 5-hour movie for the list. I caught a bunch of Jonas Mekas stuff, including a screening of Walden with him in person, at a retrospective recently, but I chickened out of spending my entire Saturday in the theater when this one rolled out. (Added 3/7/2017) Starship Troopers (1997) - I feel like this comes up in conversation a lot and I always have to feign like I know it. (Added 3/14/2017) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet; The War Room; Sanjuro; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key; Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; Flooding with Love for the Kid; Soylent Green; The Most Dangerous Game; Street Trash; The Avenging Conscience; The Spook Who Sat By the Door; Bringing Up Baby; The Life of Juanita Castro; The Hour of the Furnaces; Au hasard Balthazar; Surname Viet Given Name Nam; Seconds; My Dinner with Andre; The Thin Man; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace; The Passion of the Christ; Grand Illusion; Fanny and Alexander; Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (TOTAL: 35) TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 18:36
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TrixRabbi posted:Starship Troopers (1997) - I feel like this comes up in conversation a lot and I always have to feign like I know it. (Added 3/14/2017) Next one for you. My Night at Maud's - The first hour had a lot of tedious religious conjecture focused around Pascal. Characters come across as confused and mired in lots of platitudes and pretenses involving math, logic and their unremarkable religious philosophies. Even worse they cover topics so cursorily that their conversations frequently veer into semantical discussion. Nothing too interesting about seeing people argue over simple dictionary definitions and put dumb labels on one another. The Netflix DVD sleeve promised me deep philisophical conversation!  When a film is so involved in the characters conversations they have to at least be a little interesting. The Before Trilogy or My Dinner with Andre or Claire's Knee come to mind. The best quote that summed up the triteness was when Jean-Louis said to Françoise: "I'm 34 and you're 22 and we're both talking like we're 15." Also watched: Moonlighting - In order to save 75% on costs a landlord imports workers from Warsaw and sends them to London to do demolition and rehab work on an apartment. In the midst of a military coup in Poland the leader of the four men decides to hide the truth for fear that his three workers will flee (they don't speak English so they don't know what's going on back in Poland). After a few mishaps the workers are in dire straits. Ultimately the leader has to resort to criminal acts to finish the job. He continually steals food, and later clothing and a bike. It's a really wound up character study. Rarely does a film take you so deep into a characters head (Jeremy Irons) and never let you out. The other thing hanging over his head is the belief that his wife is carrying out an affair with the main boss. The other three workers deal with the different culture and language barriers. They're also dealing with bad working conditions throughout. Different aspects of this one reminded me of these films: Life Is Beautiful Bicycle Thieves Good Bye Lenin! Procrastination (244 completed): #239 The War of the Gargantuas - Election season 2016. 10/16/16 #242 The Saragossa Manuscript - I started watching this once and realized it was one of those bastardly DVDs in the incorrect aspect ratio. 11/17/16 #244 On Golden Pond - Henry Fonda's last role. 11/26/16 #247 I Am Curious: Yellow - I am curious. 12/28/16 new #249 Night Moves - Supposedly an underwatched one. 3/14/17 James Bond versus Godzilla (22/58 completed): For Your Eyes Only - Bond enters the 1980s. 3/2/17 All Monsters Attack - Godzilla X. Still in the 1960s. 1/15/17 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (38/40 completed): Gene Siskel's Top Films 1969-1998 (26/30 completed): 1981 Ragtime - I'm guessing this will have some piano music. 1/15/17 1979 Hair - There are still a lot of Milos Forman films I need to see. 3/2/17 new 1978 Straight Time - Haven't heard much about this one. 3/14/17
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Mar 14, 2017 23:07
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You gotta just knock out the rest of the Razzies man.
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Mar 15, 2017 00:26
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TrixRabbi posted:You gotta just knock out the rest of the Razzies man. I can't find Can't Stop the Music anywhere unfortunately. It's one of those rarities not on Netflix or in my library system.
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Mar 15, 2017 23:02
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Lame  Well, check out I Am Curious: Yellow in that case.Starship Troopers (1997) dir. Paul Verhoeven  The first thing that strikes me about Starship Troopers is that it looks and feels like a Disney Channel movie -- Zenon with gore. Verhoeven sets up his row of ducks to be naive, bright-eyed high schoolers for whom joining the military is the hip thing all the cool kids are doing. It's a brilliant way to set up the rest of the film, which is that most of them are going to die unceremoniously like chumps and be almost instantly forgotten as cannon fodder. In fact, only one soldier is actually seen being mourned with a funeral, while the rest lost to the past without a moment's reflection. This type of militaristic society is cruel, senseless, and is built only on the foundation that there is an invasive enemy that must be defeated; a belief strongly held by "Camp of the Saints" doomsday cultists like Steve Bannon and his minions. It's a fun movie driven by it's play-it-straight satire. Verhoeven lets his characters move around and spout their philosophy knowing full well the action itself is going to undercut everything they say, there's no need to mock or humiliate them. At the end when Neil Patrick Harris listens to the brain bug and soberly tells the crowd of soldiers that "it's afraid," to cheers and applause, is when we finally see this culture for everything it really is. One without sobriety, constantly drunk on victory. My List: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) - Classic Mary Pickford, aka my bae. <3 <3 <3 (Added 4/9/2016) Last Summer (1969) - The warm weather is here and something about sexual awakenings. Let's hit the beach and gently caress. (Added 5/12/2016) Nerves (1919) - German expressionist film that looks cool as heck. (Added 5/16/2016) The Blood of Jesus (1941) - Spencer Williams' iconic race film. Spike Lee paid homage to it with Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. I've never seen any of these old race films, outside of some documentaries featuring clips. It seems like a fascinating genre worth diving into. (Added 5/25/2016) The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - This is the oldest entry (by date added) on my 400+ film To-Do List. I recently watched Simon of the Desert and before that it had been years since I'd seen a Bunuel. I need to explore him more. (Added 11/26/2016) Os Deuses e Os Mortos (1970) - "Of Gods and the Undead." A Brazilian film that is reportedly a favorite of Werner Herzog's. (Added 1/8/2017) The Viking (1928) - An all technicolor silent about Lief Ericsson. I saw a clip in a documentary years ago and I've had it on my To Do list for years. (Added 1/14/2017) Cairo Station (1958) - Meant to see this ever since I watched The Story of Film and now FilmStruck has a whole bunch of Youssef Chahine available to stream. (Added 3/1/2017) As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - Another 5-hour movie for the list. I caught a bunch of Jonas Mekas stuff, including a screening of Walden with him in person, at a retrospective recently, but I chickened out of spending my entire Saturday in the theater when this one rolled out. (Added 3/7/2017) Total Recall (1990) - Another classic Verhoeven I've had to shamefully avoid talking about in public (Don't worry I have seen Robocop). (Added 3/15/2017) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet; The War Room; Sanjuro; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key; Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; Flooding with Love for the Kid; Soylent Green; The Most Dangerous Game; Street Trash; The Avenging Conscience; The Spook Who Sat By the Door; Bringing Up Baby; The Life of Juanita Castro; The Hour of the Furnaces; Au hasard Balthazar; Surname Viet Given Name Nam; Seconds; My Dinner with Andre; The Thin Man; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace; The Passion of the Christ; Grand Illusion; Fanny and Alexander; Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; Starship Troopers (TOTAL: 37)
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Mar 16, 2017 01:36
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TrixRabbi posted:
I was given my oldest film listed on my list, so I'll go with yours! Cheers. Gilda 15+ months on this LIST of shame, and finally got selected. Does that mean there isn't much shame in not seeing it if other's don't care to choose it? 34 films got chosen ahead of it in that timeframe. Anyway enough of my own (shameful) stats - this was a ton of fun all thanks to the magnetic presence of Rita Hayworth. I'm now fully understanding how shocked the world was when she chopped her hair off and dyed it blonde for her husband Orson Welles' Lady from Shanghai 1 year later. Watching this, I couldn't imagine asking her to do such a thing, just in that intro alone. Glenn Ford as the boss' right-hand man was perfect at times, and the wrong man for the role at others. George Macready was great throughout as the boss Ballin Mundsen, and some fantastic shots of both him and his lavish surroundings (both at home and at work) made him shine all the more. Aspects of the gambling reminded me of Casablanca, but maybe that's because I've just watched Casablanca so many times. Anyway, fun film and I could watch and listen to Rita sing "Put the Blame on Mame" any time in the morning. LIST Airplane! [1980] - (2017.01.17) - not too many comedies appear on my shame list, but this certainly applies! Bringing Up Baby [1938] - (2017.01.21) - absolutely LOVED 'Holiday' w/ Hepburn & Grant, and Grant's birthday just passed. Dark Victory [1939] - (2016.05.29) - one of those films you don't hear discussed much, but a revisit of All About Eve makes me want more Bette Davis! Fail-Safe [1964] - (2016.11.15) - continuing my goal of being Walter-Matthau-complete. I Killed My Mother [2009] - (2016.12.29) - loved Dolan's 2014 film Mommy, and my pricey Plain Archive blind-buy remains unwatched.. It Should Happen To You! [1954] - (2016.09.15) - replacing my previous Jack Lemmon selection with Lemmon's debut film Nobody Knows [2004] - **OLDEST** (2016.04.23) - a 2+hr Kore-eda film that would be my 3rd film of his. Long overdue. Rome, Open City [1945] - (2017.02.20) - Rossellini's War Trilogy has been sitting unwatched for too long.. this is the 1st in the trilogy. Russian Ark [2002] - **NEW** (2017.03.16) - A film I've always wanted to (& should) watch but it never becomes a high priority Shane [1953] - (2017.03.11) - having recently watched Logan, it reminded me I've yet to watch this western classic. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), Missing (3.5/5), Howl's Moving Castle (4.5/5), Rio Bravo (4/5), Cloud Atlas (3.5/5), Children of Paradise (4/5), That Obscure Object of Desire (5/5), The Fountain (3/5), Malcolm X (4/5), Warrior (4/5), American Movie (4/5), Being There (4/5), Leaving Las Vegas (4.5/5), Rope (4/5), Ed Wood (4.5/5), American Hustle (2.5/5), The Man Who Knew Too Much (3.5/5), Mister Roberts (4/5), Charley Varrick (4/5), A Face in the Crowd (4.5/5), Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5), Slacker (3.5/5), Drugstore Cowboy (4.5/5), Love and Death (3.5/5), Fantastic Mr. Fox (4.5/5), A Scanner Darkly (4/5), Marketa Lazarova (5/5), A Clockwork Orange (4.5/5), The Fly (5/5), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (5/5), King Kong (5/5), Gilda (4/5), [Total:145]
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Mar 17, 2017 05:12
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Blind Chance A man catches a train, or he doesn't, or he doesn't. It doesn't really matter one way or another, because no matter what happens, he's the same face in a set of circumstances that lead him to the same place - loss and despair. Kieslowski, as usual, walks a fine balance between naturalism and dramatic coherence. Things happen in such a way that we are pleased by the coincidence and layering of themes, by the collusion of ideas that feel related in an abstract way while still giving room for the organic movement of the characters. The theatricality and the verite complement each other, bringing the viewer into a sense of being richly present. He's like a more intoxicating Bergman, with more lush cinematography and a riper sense of character/plot interaction. Where Bergman's characters have a brittle snap to them, Kieslowski's seem to still be in a caul, wet and strange, like dark pools that bubble up characteristics and decisions. I won't say I totally understood the entirety of Kieslowski's message, mostly because I'm not totally familiar with the goings-ons of late Polish communism. What is he suggesting with the vaguely mean stupidity (or mean, vague stupidity) of his main character? That people, generally speaking, lack control and are subject to the whims of the universe? This is supported by his punch-line ending, which has a sudden bite to it when we remember the opening moment. I actually laughed, honestly, as the plane was taking off I thought to myself, what, is it going to blow up or something and then it did with amazing comic timing. Not that I disagree. We've certainly seen something like this in our last election - if only certain people could see things this way or that way, then they would be this or that or the other. But it's funny that Kieslowski seems so bitter about it. It's really a philosophical horror movie, and I'm sure it hit hard in the nonsensical turmoil of communist Poland. Apparently, upon finding out that the new Pope was Polish, one of the communist heads of state said "Oh my god, what are we going to do now?" What, indeed? 8/10 EDIT: i also watched My Winnipeg It's been ten years since this came out, and ten years I've been wanting to see it. Ten years? It's been nearly seven since my first post in this thread. Where has my life gone? What have I been dreaming about? Maddin dreamt of Winnipeg. It seems sometimes that Canada is the dream of America, something happening out of step with our own culture, a moment behind or ahead, same but not, its streets overlaid with our own but a foot to the right, another life happening, half-considered, like a ghost. Maddin calls his film a "docu-fantasia", capturing the essence of a life and a city and a life of a city and his relation to it and the grander, social relation to him and it and his life and its life and its own life and their life. It's not true, but it's plausible, and it becomes emotional fact in the process of his colloidal symphony, facts suspended in a liquid fiction to create a new, alternative whole. It's a powerful way to make a documentary - by stepping around fact and realism, he creates a warped mirror of things we recognize, and by forcing us to decode them, presents us with the bare, stripped-back truth. The experience of art, the give-and-take of the medium and the viewer, means that our decoding, our personal understanding of what we understand, is the absolute value of the real. There's no way to escape from the real of My Winnipeg, because just by grappling with it are we forced to understand it. The only way to avoid the truth that it inflicts is to disengage entirely and either turn it off or sit, glazed, dazed, and dumb, refusing to process its asynchronous imagery and sound. This form of truth-telling via artifice is the very soul of fiction. What fictions shine on us from the window of My Winnipeg? Maddin plays with things that are deeply melancholy via whimsy, in a way I haven't seen since Synecdoche, New York (recall: the burning house sequence). In the world of the film, his mother performs each day in a tv show called "Ledgeman", in which a man threatens to jump from his high-rise apartment but is coaxed back in by his mother. Each day, he goes back out, and each day, she brings him back in. It's cheating to tell you that I cried at this, because emotions lie, but it's a testament to how the sideways nature of Maddin's fictional games dig up sharp pangs of truth. Winnipeg, we are told, has the highest percentage of sleepwalkers in the world. The natives of Winnipeg stumble the streets, holding great balls of keys, and a city ordinance requires anyone with a sleepwalker on their step to take them in for the night, into the phantom of their old home, sold out to new tenants. Where are we going? Why is it so difficult to stay awake? I dream of a place, but am I really going there? Or am I taking the wrong train, and looping back towards home? 10/10 edit: I also watched The River This feels like a cousin to The Red Shoes, in that the documentary interest threatens to take over a boilerplate story. Renoir insisted on shooting this film on location in India, which was a great choice because it looks terrific, lots of vivid colors and a spirited capture of the apparent earthy vitality of Indian life. This sort of contrasts with the estate life of the English family that the film is about, but it's not so much satire as observation. Here are people bringing their culture to this culture, and like a stream running into a river, the English front of purity is muddled. Only once or twice does this come across as pointed commentary - most notably towards the end, when we see their huge dining room, which is sparsely decorated in a weird clash of Indian textures and art deco minimalism. What this leads to is a feeling more that the characters themselves are adrift - Renoir doesn't suggest that there's some fundamental incompatibility between Indian culture and English culture (or people), but that English hesitance itself prevents a breakthrough. The main plot follows the ugliest of several girls lusting after an alienated one-legged soldier. She writes poetry and has an intimate knowledge of the town's bazaar. When her heart is broken, she tries to kill herself, but is saved and comes to an understanding about beginning again and that life is like the big river they live on the edge of, always moving. The English hesitance of the film itself almost prevents its own breakthrough. The film's best moments are all the times when the plot isn't happening, which allow us to accept the themes on a more relaxed level. One great bit is just a montage of everyone sleeping - the afternoon atmosphere is palpable. But it comes out all right in the end. The concepts are delivered and justified, but it feels like there's an idea that's not being allowed to express itself - something is getting hitched up in the course of the film. It comes alive when it's being interstitial. One long sequence features all the long stairways down to the river while the main character describes them. The stairways, somehow, feel more important than the characters. Satyajit Ray would later capitalize on this. But I'm glad the seed is there. 7/10 shame sphere 1) A Poem Is A Naked Person - more les blank!!! 2) A Room With A View - yeah 3) No End - you say Kiesl i say Owski 4) The Pillow Book - greenaway is the man 5) The Entertainer - Lawrence Olivier enters the kitchen sink 6) Odd Man Out - not the orson welles one the other one 7) The Passion of Anna - one of the only major Bergmans I haven't seen 8) Veronika Voss - plowing forward with fassbinder 9) Meantime - 80s underground 10) Brute Force - BLAST HARDCHEESE Jules et Jim 6/10, Saving Private Ryan 9.5/10, Fitzcarraldo 9/10, The 39 Steps 7/10, Notorious 7/10, Run Lola Run 8/10, Downfall 7.5/10, The Searchers 7.5/10, Tokyo Story 7/10, Gone With The Wind 10/10, Touch Of Evil 9.5/10, Ikiru 7.5/10, The Apartment 7/10, Bicycle Thieves 7/10, Moon 7/10, The Color Purple 7.5/10. The French Connection 9.5/10, The Leopard 8/10, Yojimbo 8.5/10, Sanjuro 8/10, Das Boot 8.5/10, The Conformist 8/10, Breathless 9/10, Where The Wild Things Are 7.5/10, Vertigo 9/10, Raging Bull 10/10, Ordet 7/10, City Of God 9/10, The Wages Of Fear 9/10, Aguirre, The Wrath Of God 9/10, The Mirror 9.5/10, Through A Glass Darkly 10/10, On The Waterfront 6/10, The Straight Story 9/10, Lawrence Of Arabia 8.5/10, Dial M For Murder, 8/10 Winter Light 10/10, The Silence 9/10, Badlands 8/10, The Wrong Man 7/10, In The Mood For Love 9.5/10, Secret Honor 10/10, Gosford Park 10/10, Viridiana 7.5/10, The Exterminating Angel 9/10, Seven Samurai 10/10, Rashomon 9/10, The Godfather: Part II 10/10, La Dolce Vita 10/10, The Princess Bride 9/10, Bringing Up Baby 7/10, City Lights 9/10, Baraka 7/10, Au revior les enfants 8/10, Bonnie And Clyde 6.5, Hiroshima mon amour 8/10, Lost In Translation 10/10, The Piano 8/10, La Strada 7/10, Safety Last! 10/10 Vivre sa vie 9/10, Band Of Outsiders 8/10, Diary Of A Country Priest 7/10, Mommie Dearest 8/10, Once Upon A Time In The West 10/10, L'Atalante 7/10, All About My Mother 7/10, Shoot The Piano Player 8/10, Faces 10/10, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc 10/10, The Wild Bunch 6/10, Harold And Maude see my review, Pink Flamingos 8/10, Heat 10/10, Raising Arizona 7/10, L'Avventura 2/10, Atlantic City 9/10, The Magic Flute 9/10, Cleo From 5 To 7 9/10, Down By Law 10/10, Hoop Dreams 10/10, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her ¿8/10?, La jetée 9/10, Night Of The Living Dead 9/10, Cool Hand Luke 6/10, Pather Panchali 10/10, The Terminator 6/10, The Trial 10/10, Exit Through The Gift Shop 10/10, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 7/10, The Phantom Carriage 10/10, Au Hasard Balthazar 3/10, The African Queen 10/10, My Night At Maud's 10/10, The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse 10/10, La Haine 10/10, The Pianist 7/10, Four Lions A-, Scream A+, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul B-, The Naked City 7/10, Floating Weeds 9/10, Daisies 8/10, Stray Dog 8/10, Victim 6/10, Man Bites Dog 9/10, Night and Fog 10/10, Weekend 8/10, Jubilee 10/10, Sans Soleil 10/10, Candidate 8/10, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders 10/10, The Freshman 5/10, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers 10/10, Branded to Kill 8/10, In Heaven There Is No Beer? 10/10, Blood Simple 10/10, The Marriage of Maria Braun 7/10, A Day In The Country 7/10, A Brief History of Time 10/10, Gates of Heaven 10/10, The Thin Blue Line 10/10, The Fog of War 10/10, My Beautiful Laundrette 10/10, Blind Chance 8/10, My Winnipeg 10/10, The River 7/10 (total: 127) friendo55 gets Airplane!! Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Mar 19, 2017 |
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Mar 17, 2017 23:32
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Magic Hate Ball posted:6) Odd Man Out - not the orson welles one the other one Even the Criterion covers look identical too.. enjoy this other Reed film. Airplane! Leslie Nielsen had a much smaller role than I expected, plus this was far more adult than I expected, including nudity and nonstop sex jokes - including one where a stewardess blows up the "Otto-pilot" blow-up doll right below his waist, as a big grin forms across his face. None of this is a negative, just didn't expect it knowing very little going in. There were also plenty of gags & jokes along the same lines of "don't call me Shirley" which were great in some cases and missed in others. But there were so many jokes coming at you, it didn't matter if a couple didn't land. It's a film that knew exactly what it was doing, and owned it - which is something I'll always appreciate and recommend. LIST Bringing Up Baby [1938] - (2017.01.21) - absolutely LOVED 'Holiday' w/ Hepburn & Grant, and Grant's birthday just passed. Dark Victory [1939] - (2016.05.29) - one of those films you don't hear discussed much, but a revisit of All About Eve makes me want more Bette Davis! Dead Man [1995] - **NEW** (2017.03.19) - I absolutely loved Paterson, and I need to starting watching more 90s movies besides ones I saw as a kid. Fail-Safe [1964] - (2016.11.15) - continuing my goal of being Walter-Matthau-complete. I Killed My Mother [2009] - (2016.12.29) - loved Dolan's 2014 film Mommy, and my pricey Plain Archive blind-buy remains unwatched.. It Should Happen To You! [1954] - (2016.09.15) - replacing my previous Jack Lemmon selection with Lemmon's debut film Nobody Knows [2004] - **OLDEST** (2016.04.23) - a 2+hr Kore-eda film that would be my 3rd film of his. Long overdue. Rome, Open City [1945] - (2017.02.20) - Rossellini's War Trilogy has been sitting unwatched for too long.. this is the 1st in the trilogy. Russian Ark [2002] - (2017.03.16) - A film I've always wanted to (& should) watch but it never becomes a high priority Shane [1953] - (2017.03.11) - having recently watched Logan, it reminded me I've yet to watch this western classic. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), Missing (3.5/5), Howl's Moving Castle (4.5/5), Rio Bravo (4/5), Cloud Atlas (3.5/5), Children of Paradise (4/5), That Obscure Object of Desire (5/5), The Fountain (3/5), Malcolm X (4/5), Warrior (4/5), American Movie (4/5), Being There (4/5), Leaving Las Vegas (4.5/5), Rope (4/5), Ed Wood (4.5/5), American Hustle (2.5/5), The Man Who Knew Too Much (3.5/5), Mister Roberts (4/5), Charley Varrick (4/5), A Face in the Crowd (4.5/5), Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5), Slacker (3.5/5), Drugstore Cowboy (4.5/5), Love and Death (3.5/5), Fantastic Mr. Fox (4.5/5), A Scanner Darkly (4/5), Marketa Lazarova (5/5), A Clockwork Orange (4.5/5), The Fly (5/5), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (5/5), King Kong (5/5), Gilda (3.5/5), Airplane! (4/5), [Total:146]
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Mar 20, 2017 06:18
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Friendo, check off Nobody Knows finally. Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) dir. Alfred E. Green & Jack Pickford  Time and legacies can be strange and unpredictable. While the average person on the street probably knows Charlie Chaplin, I'm willing to bet nearly every person in a random poll wouldn't be able to name a single other silent era star. And if they do I'd guess they would come up with Lon Chaney or Buster Keaton. Older folks might note John Barrymore, but more because the family name has stayed relevant. Mary Pickford on the other hand, despite being possibly the biggest movie star of her time, only comes up among serious film buffs and even then in that male-dominated field (thankfully it's diversifying) the conversations often tend to move around her. But she was one of the most significant pioneers of Hollywood filmmaking, both as an actress, and later as a producer and occasional writer, one of the four founding members of United Artists. But like the bulk of silent film stars, and like many aging women in Hollywood, her career in front of the camera ended in the 1930s after a few talkies and she began solely producing films up until retirement 1949, none of which are strongly remembered but do include deep cuts by Douglas Sirk and the Marx brothers. Little Lord Fauntleroy is from the first half of her United Artists era and it's a deceptively simple charmer. Pickford, in one of her signature dual roles, plays Cedric Errol, a little American boy growing up in relative poverty in 1885, but nonetheless happy and content. One day, Cedric discovers that he is the heir apparent to a vast fortune and earldom in Britain under the title of "Lord Fauntleroy." Initially reluctant, Cedric and his single mother (also Mary Pickford) move overseas so he can take his title. However, his newly discovered extended family doesn't take kindly to his modest heritage, and his mother is unfairly ostracized and kept out of her son's exciting new life. It is not, however, in Cedric's nature to let wealth corrupt him. He makes waves in the castle home by inviting in poor children and although he dresses the part he does not conform to the standards of the British bourgeoisie. However, his charm soon wins the love of his grandfather, who defends the boy when a challenger for the title appears. The plot is quite basic, but it's the charisma of Pickford that carries these films, aided by the photography by Charles Rosher (most famous for shooting Murnau's Sunrise). It's easy to watch, and surprising how quickly you get involved with the characters, even as they behave in ways that seem almost too-virtuous. My List: Last Summer (1969) - The warm weather is here and something about sexual awakenings. Let's hit the beach and gently caress. (Added 5/12/2016) Nerves (1919) - German expressionist film that looks cool as heck. (Added 5/16/2016) The Blood of Jesus (1941) - Spencer Williams' iconic race film. Spike Lee paid homage to it with Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. I've never seen any of these old race films, outside of some documentaries featuring clips. It seems like a fascinating genre worth diving into. (Added 5/25/2016) The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - This is the oldest entry (by date added) on my 400+ film To-Do List. I recently watched Simon of the Desert and before that it had been years since I'd seen a Bunuel. I need to explore him more. (Added 11/26/2016) Os Deuses e Os Mortos (1970) - "Of Gods and the Undead." A Brazilian film that is reportedly a favorite of Werner Herzog's. (Added 1/8/2017) The Viking (1928) - An all technicolor silent about Lief Ericsson. I saw a clip in a documentary years ago and I've had it on my To Do list for years. (Added 1/14/2017) Cairo Station (1958) - Meant to see this ever since I watched The Story of Film and now FilmStruck has a whole bunch of Youssef Chahine available to stream. (Added 3/1/2017) As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - Another 5-hour movie for the list. I caught a bunch of Jonas Mekas stuff, including a screening of Walden with him in person, at a retrospective recently, but I chickened out of spending my entire Saturday in the theater when this one rolled out. (Added 3/7/2017) Total Recall (1990) - Another classic Verhoeven I've had to shamefully avoid talking about in public (Don't worry I have seen Robocop). (Added 3/15/2017) Manchester by the Sea (2016) - Being from Massachusetts I should eventually get around to this one. (Added 3/21/2017) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet; The War Room; Sanjuro; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key; Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; Flooding with Love for the Kid; Soylent Green; The Most Dangerous Game; Street Trash; The Avenging Conscience; The Spook Who Sat By the Door; Bringing Up Baby; The Life of Juanita Castro; The Hour of the Furnaces; Au hasard Balthazar; Surname Viet Given Name Nam; Seconds; My Dinner with Andre; The Thin Man; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace; The Passion of the Christ; Grand Illusion; Fanny and Alexander; Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; Starship Troopers; Little Lord Fauntleroy (TOTAL: 38)
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Mar 21, 2017 13:50
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TrixRabbi, haven't seen any on your list, so I'll pick the oldest one. See Last Summer Saw Dial M for Murder. Good movie by Hitchcock. Liked the atmosphere and Grace Kelly was good as always. Not one of Hitchcock's best, preferred Rope to be honest. While I know this predates it, it seemed very much like an episode of Columbo. My List: The Shootist - Feel like it's time for another John Wayne movie. V For Vendetta- Don't know much about this film. Faust - Looking forward to another Murnau film. Reds - Don't know much about this movie. A Day at the Races - More Marx Brothers madness, please. The Cat Returns - Need to see some more Studio Ghibli. Sequel to Whisper of the Heart Dodesukaden - Starting to run out of Kurosawa films. What a great director. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - This is one of my grandmothers favorite movies. I haven't seen it yet. OLDEST King Kong(1933) Strangers on a Train - More Hitchcock here. Newest King Creole - Adding a new slot here for Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles movies. Starting with one of Elvis'. Movies Seen: Seven Samurai, Dune, Singin' in the Rain, Animal Crackers, Once Upon a Time in the West, Amadeus, Double Indemnity, The Day the Earth Stood Still, 12 Angry Men, Ed Wood, Sunset Boulevard, The Dark Knight, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Brazil, Rashomon, Yojimbo, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, M, Duck Soup, The Princess and the Frog, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, Dracula, It's a Wonderful Life, Lawrence of Arabia, Ikiru, High and Low, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Kagemusha, Best In Show, Modern Times, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Red Beard, Monty Python's The Life of Brian, Cars, Cool Hand Luke, The Public Enemy, Time Bandits, Adaptation, The Producers, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gone With The Wind, My Fair Lady, City Lights, A Christmas Carol(1951), Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, West Side Story, Caddyshack, My Neighbor Totoro, Throne of Blood, The Phantom of the Opera, Yellow Submarine, Little Caesar, The Third Man, The Godfather, Persepolis, The Godfather Part II, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Invisible Man, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Beautiful Mind, The Kid, Fiddler on the Roof, The Gold Rush, Metropolis, Rear Window, Enter the Dragon, Horse Feathers, The Great Dictator, Despicable Me, The Bad Sleep Well, The Wolf Man, Nosferatu, Patton, Howl's Moving Castle, The King and I, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Kiki's Delivery Service, The King's Speech, Grave of the Fireflies, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Graduate, Whisper of the Heart, The 39 Steps, Ran, Notorious, True Grit, North By Northwest, Rope, Dersu Uzala, Vertigo, Avatar, Gangs of New York, House of Wax, Wall Street, Life of Pi, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,The Big Lebowski, Dial M for Murder
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Mar 22, 2017 00:01
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Dmitri Russkie posted:V For Vendetta- Don't know much about this film. Try this one next. I Am Curious: Yellow - Known in Sweden for being politically disturbing it's mainly known in the US for its explicit sex scenes. What's shown is radical in a lot of respects. We're shown the director in the editing room and also the film crew at times as if they're characters rather than workers behind the scenes. Lena, the main character, is going through an identity crisis of sorts. She's trying to be the ultimate liberal progressive of Sweden in the 1960s. She frequently has segments with MLK that come across like hallucinations. She also goes around doing a lot of street interviews on class systems, dictatorships, nonviolence vs. military etc. If she was in 2017 US she'd be screaming at Trump supporters saying "you racist, sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic, systemic racists!" These interviews highlight the timeless reality of continual diametric juxtapositions within every society. The fact that people will always hold countless different views on things. In the midst of this she also carries out an affair with a local worker and they have sex in a variety of odd places. Eventually she gives up on her egalitarianism and trashes her liberal enclave (her bedroom). And then gets deloused with her latest lover due to the STDs they've picked up. It's definitely a satire on liberals. Reading through the Netflix reviews on this one was particularly funny as many found it to be spectacularly repulsive and divisive. It evokes strong feelings in some to say the least. Also watched: Hair - This one touches on the never-ending dichotomy between antiwar and prowar sentiments. Vietnam and anti-Vietnam War in this instance. It features lots of ragamuffin hippies and vagrants belting out show tunes. Singing songs about LSD and popping LSD sugar cubes. The pivotal part of the story concerns the hippies who decide to visit their friend in Nevada who's about to be shipped to Vietnam. They steal a car and uniform etc. and then an amazing twist happens and the wrong guy is sent off to war. Ultimately, it's a great film because it has characters that matter, it has stimulating choreography and has some great sequences with memorable music and visuals. It also cleverly switches between comedy and seriousness like an Indian film. This is how you end a film (major spoilers of course): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU Procrastination (245 completed): #239 The War of the Gargantuas - Election season 2016. 10/16/16 #242 The Saragossa Manuscript - I started watching this once and realized it was one of those bastardly DVDs in the incorrect aspect ratio. 11/17/16 #244 On Golden Pond - Henry Fonda's last role. 11/26/16 #249 Night Moves - Supposedly an underwatched one. 3/14/17 new #250 Xanadu - One of the films that inspired the Golden Raspberry Award. 3/25/17 James Bond versus Godzilla (22/58 completed): For Your Eyes Only - Bond enters the 1980s. 3/2/17 All Monsters Attack - Godzilla X. Still in the 1960s. 1/15/17 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (38/40 completed): Gene Siskel's Top Films 1969-1998 (27/30 completed): 1981 Ragtime - I'm guessing this will have some piano music. 1/15/17 1978 Straight Time - Haven't heard much about this one. 3/14/17 new 1973 The Emigrants - Haven't heard anything about this one. 3/25/17 Zogo fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Mar 26, 2017 |
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Mar 26, 2017 00:18
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zogo man, you got some weird movies on your list. Watch xanadu, so we dont have to. Ratedargh gave me Spotlight, a 'based on a true story' about the distant past when journalists didn't just hang out on twitter all day.  This one was pretty much exactly what I expected, plot and story-arc wise. I liked that the director trusted the story (and the actors) enough to let it stand on its own merits - the looming layoffs and relationship pressures and stuff are there, but they're not tarted up to make things more exciting. It's just a human story about relationships and power and influence, set really firmly in the city. Acting was solid - better than solid, actually, I thought it was great (ruffalo's oscar clip was the only thing I thought was overdone, and given the material that was a real risk). No negatives - good story, highly recommended. Overall grade: Memories of a Murder [2003] - Came on my radar from some podcast, looks interesting. Beasts of No Nation [2015] - whoo boy. Big fan of the director, but just never in the mood for a little child-soldiering. The Brothers Bloom [2008] - Liked looper, loved brick, interested to see how this goes. Superbad [2007] - A comedy that people seem to like 12 years a Slave [2013] - a cheery movie to lift my spirits The Hateful Eight [2015] - from tarantino's oldest to his latest 12 Angry Men [1957] - I'm keen to see if I actually like this, or if it's too dated for my tastes Badlands [1973] - people seem to think Terrence Malick is cool and someone described this as his 'most accessible'. I'm all about that Perfect Blue [1997] - nani?!? Killer Joe [2011] - alright alright alright seen: Reservoir Dogs Fargo Annie Hall Chinatown Casino Nightcrawler Spotlight
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Mar 27, 2017 05:41
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It’s been six months? drat, I’ve been putting this off for way too long. Awesmoe, watch 12 Angry Men. I decided to watch both versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the original several months ago and the remake yesterday. I probably liked the charm of the original better, but the remake had good effects. The remake was longer and put in something that was missing from the original. In the original, there were a lot of people telling us that their friends had changed, but the remake showed more of it and relied on the acting. The rules of how the pod people worked were a little unclear in the original- I thought you had to sleep near a pod to be replaced and then your original body was destroyed, but the woman fell asleep in a cave and turned into a pod person. On the other hand, I felt the original was more passionate about its message. The climactic speech where the villains tell the hero that he will be improved by losing his emotions was better in the original (though having Leonard Nimoy give that speech was funny casting). I was surprised how obvious it was that the two main characters were in a sexual relationship- I expected a 50’s movie to be more circumspect. And the original’s ending with McCarthy desperately shouting at the audience that “they’re already here" was very memorable, while Donald Sutherland pointing at the camera and screeching doesn’t have as much resonance to me. “The bad guys win,” okay. The original left it open, with a tacked on scene suggesting the authorities might be able to fight back, but it was unclear. It probably should have ended with McCarthy screaming, but the studio didn’t like that (and I loved that they got him to cameo in the remake doing the exact same scene with Sutherland driving the car). Is it an allegory for something? I'm basically going to rephrase Frank Moraes's interpretation (I saw this article a while ago- normally I try not to let other opinions influence me, but too late). It does fit in with 50’s fears of communist infiltration. Some people say it’s more about McCarthyism, but that doesn’t make as much sense. Kevin McCarthy said he imagined the pod people as Madison Avenue suits who were all about money. The producers say no allegory was intended, and I believe them. I think of movies becoming big as a sort of natural selection. A lot of movies get made, and some of them tap into the zeitgeist, but it’s often completely unintentional. The movie dovetailed with fears of communism, so people were scared by that relationship even if that wasn’t the intent of the filmmakers. Rating: 4/4 (1956), 3.5/4 (1978) While I was waiting, I also watched The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s been several months, and I don’t remember many details. Honestly, though, that’s fitting for this series. Every time I watch one of these, I have a good time, but then I’ve forgotten it by the time I watch the next one (ironic for a series about amnesia). I like watching Damon do his think and outsmart/outfight the people around him, but I’m not sure the series adds up to much. Maybe it was more powerful when mass surveillance and shady intelligence were the hot topics in the news. People kept saying the third was the best in the series, but to me they all seemed basically the same. Also, it falls into the Poochie rule: “Whenever Bourne’s not on screen, everyone should be saying ‘where’s Bourne?’” It was a fun series, but hardly life-changing. It certainly was industry-changing, though- it was a spy movie based in the modern day and playing on realistic fears rather than the campy fifties throwback James Bond had become. No doubt this series is one of the big reasons why the Daniel Craig reboot was necessary. Rating: 3.5/4 101. 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. 116. Boogie Nights- Uh, porn is bad. You shouldn't watch porn, m'kay? 120. The Straight Story- Doug Walker described this as "a movie that seems really slow and tedious until you get to the end, and then you realize everything that happened was for a reason." So that interested me. Also, it's by David Lynch, who ranges from excellent (Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks Season One) to pretty good (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks Season Two). No, I've never seen Dune, why do you ask? 122. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang- Somewhere, someone made a list of best pre-Hays Code movies, and this was at the top. That's all I know about it. Oh, and I think there's a twist ending of some sort, but I've deliberately avoided reading anything about it. 124. The Rules of the Game- I opened the They Shoot Pictures list, and this is number five. I've never even heard of it. 127. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer- One of Shakespeare's lesser known history plays. 131. F is for Fake- I think this is an odd experimental film from Orson Welles. I heard I should watch it without knowing too much about it. 132. Five Easy Pieces- Continuing the Ebert list, I somehow skipped over this one. 133. The Stepford Wives- I recently saw Get Out, and I highly recommend it. I've seen a lot of comparisons to The Stepford Wives, and while I basically know what it's about I still think I should see it. 134. The Day the Earth Stood Still- More sci-fi that I need to see. 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, Patton: 3.5/4, The Bourne Supremacy:3.5/4, King Lear (1983): 2.5/4, Repo Man: 2.5/4, King Kong: 3.5/4, Wall Street: 3/4, The Blues Brothers: 2/4, Trois Couleurs: Blanc: 2.5/4, Trois Couleurs: Rouge: 3.5/4, Animal House: 1.5/4, Ben-Hur: 3.5/4, Gojira: 4/4, Sunset Boulevard: 3.5/4, Falling Down: 4/4, The Night of the Hunter: 3.5/4, Ran: 4/4, The Battle of Algiers: 4/4, Z: 3/4, The Great Escape: 2.5/4, Cries and Whispers: 4/4, Enchanted: 3.5/4, Judgment at Nuremberg: 4/4, Cool Hand Luke:3/4, Scenes from a Marriage: 4/4, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): 4/4, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): 3.5/4, The Bourne Ultimatum: 3.5/4
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Mar 28, 2017 21:30
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Okay Jurgan, you get to watch F is for Fake because experimental films are rad. I haven't seen it either, so I can't provide any more reason than that. I am new to the thread. I have gotten out of watching movies over the past several years and I miss it. I'm hoping participating in this thread can provide me with some additional structure and motivation to sit down and watch some good movies. There isn't method to my current list, it is mostly just a hodgepodge of stuff that came together as I was browsing some 'Best Movies' lists and stuff that I remembered wanting to see. Anyway, here it is: Shame, so much shame: 1. The Deer Hunter (1978) – I like younger De Niro. It sounds like a darker First Blood. Am I right, or will I be surprised?! 2. Whiplash (2014) – I remember being curious about the film at the time it came out (2014? Time flies). I’m hoping to see some sweet drum skillz. 3. The Neon Demon (2016) – I am a sucker for Refn films. I look forward to seeing what he does with a female protagonist. 4. On the Waterfront (1954) – I don’t think I even knew this was a movie until I started to develop this list. 5. La La Land (2016) – Apparently everyone loves this film? I like both of the lead actors, too. 6. The Hunt (2012) – I’m mad about Mads. 7. L.A. Confidential (1997) – One of those films that has always been on the back burner, but I never get around to sitting down and watching. 8. Chinatown (1974) – I’ve avoided this film because every person that I’ve known that raves about it I’ve found just unbearable to be around. 9. Before Midnight (2013) – I saw and liked the other two. 10. TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) – It's all the rage in the ‘What should I watch on streaming?’ thread.
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Mar 29, 2017 15:23
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Cithen, welcome to the thread! Watch On the Waterfront. I also saw that one knowing nothing about it except Marlon Brando, and I was very surprised when I read some of the background of how it was made. F for Fake starts with Orson Welles swearing the next hour is all true, which only makes me doubt the accuracy of what follows. And that’s the point. This is a fascinating “documentary” on the lives of several artistic hoaxers as a way of meditating on the nature of art and mortality. The central question is “if all art is fiction, then how can it convey truth?” There are some interesting stories about people I’ve never heard of, combined with some self-deprecation on Welles’s part. Howard Hughes gets tied into this as well, and I was surprised to learn he was the original inspiration for Citizen Kane, before they shifted to an expy of Hearst. And Welles presents the whole thing while showing himself making the film that he’s in. It’s a strange movie, but it works. I don’t have much else to say about it, but I imagine a lot has been written about what it “means,” and I’m definitely going to see what others have said on it. Rating: 4/4 101. 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. 116. Boogie Nights- Uh, porn is bad. You shouldn't watch porn, m'kay? 120. The Straight Story- Doug Walker described this as "a movie that seems really slow and tedious until you get to the end, and then you realize everything that happened was for a reason." So that interested me. Also, it's by David Lynch, who ranges from excellent (Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks Season One) to pretty good (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks Season Two). No, I've never seen Dune, why do you ask? 122. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang- Somewhere, someone made a list of best pre-Hays Code movies, and this was at the top. That's all I know about it. Oh, and I think there's a twist ending of some sort, but I've deliberately avoided reading anything about it. 124. The Rules of the Game- I opened the They Shoot Pictures list, and this is number five. I've never even heard of it. 127. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer- One of Shakespeare's lesser known history plays. 132. Five Easy Pieces- Continuing the Ebert list, I somehow skipped over this one. 133. The Stepford Wives- I recently saw Get Out, and I highly recommend it. I've seen a lot of comparisons to The Stepford Wives, and while I basically know what it's about I still think I should see it. 134. The Day the Earth Stood Still- More sci-fi that I need to see. 135. Man with a Movie Camera- Fourth wall? Never heard of it. 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, Patton: 3.5/4, The Bourne Supremacy:3.5/4, King Lear (1983): 2.5/4, Repo Man: 2.5/4, King Kong: 3.5/4, Wall Street: 3/4, The Blues Brothers: 2/4, Trois Couleurs: Blanc: 2.5/4, Trois Couleurs: Rouge: 3.5/4, Animal House: 1.5/4, Ben-Hur: 3.5/4, Gojira: 4/4, Sunset Boulevard: 3.5/4, Falling Down: 4/4, The Night of the Hunter: 3.5/4, Ran: 4/4, The Battle of Algiers: 4/4, Z: 3/4, The Great Escape: 2.5/4, Cries and Whispers: 4/4, Enchanted: 3.5/4, Judgment at Nuremberg: 4/4, Cool Hand Luke:3/4, Scenes from a Marriage: 4/4, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): 4/4, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): 3.5/4, The Bourne Ultimatum: 3.5/4, F for Fake: 4/4
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Mar 29, 2017 19:01
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Jurgan posted:
One of my favorites. I'll try this with some dvd's I blind-bought but haven't gotten around to yet: M (can't go wrong with a classic, right?) Sky Captain (probably will like, loved The Shadow) Topsy Turvy (my blindest buy, it's about musical writers? ) Lonesome (1928) Triple Cross (maybe like Where Eagles Dare?) Notorious (Hitchcock) Barry Lyndon Charlie Countryman Wrath of the Titans (2012), Clash of the Titans (2010), Clash of the Titans (1981) discount rack shlock that might be cool, probably terrible video quality from cheap transfers: Black Cobra (1 or 2 or 3?) Strike Commando Fireback Tiger Joe That's probably a decent start
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Mar 30, 2017 22:12
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Got any sevens, watch Lonesome which is a beautiful little movie. Last Summer (1969) dir. Frank Perry  I didn't know much about Last Summer before I watched it. I knew that it was a film about three teenage friends - two boys, one girl - and I assumed it would be something like a Jules et Jim, or maybe even Y Tu Mama Tambien. But it's actually a much more complicated film, one that is darker with brutal honesty and honest brutality. Peter (Richard Thomas) and Dan (Bruce Davison) are on the beach at Fire Island when they meet Sandy (Barbara Hershey). The trio discover a dying seagull in the sand, it has swallowed a fish hook that is now protruding out of its neck. While the boys want to abandon it ("You could get rabies") Sandy insists they help it. After saving its life, they keep it as a pet and try to teach it to learn to fly again. The three of them form a bond, they drink beers under the peer and agree to share their deep secrets, which turns into flirting as Sandy informs the boys her top is wet, and decides to take it off, teasingly pulling her bra out from under her sweater. She also shares a story of how her stepfather reached his hand up her skirt the other day, while her mother was in the next room, except she doesn't seem too upset by this. She laughs about it, uses it as more fodder to rile up the boys. They share cruder stories - one about catching his mom having sex, the other about put snot in sandwiches and feeding them to his cousin - and they all laugh. It seems ultimately a happy moment, but Sandy's story, like the seagull scene before it, is a hint at the seriousness and unrest that will follow. Things finally twist with the introduction of Rhoda (Catherine Burns), a shy, conservative girl from Ohio, who meets them on the beach and quickly integrates herself into their trio. Peter begins to fall for her, but Dan and Sandy remain bitter. Sandy switches between friendly and bitter, often lashing out at Rhoda. Hershey's performance is brilliant in her subtle, building violence. The relationship between all four of them takes a nasty turn, switching between seeming pleasantry and unexpected rage, jealousy, and contempt. Roger Ebert gave the movie four stars when it came out and made a very accurate observation that the characters really do behave the way teenagers do in real life. This comes with the naivety, the irrationality, the anger, the sex drive, the childishness that all role together to create a toxic cocktail when kids are left to their own devices. In fact, despite that early mention of a stepfather, parents are largely absent here - in more ways than one. It's a brilliant movie, one I need more to time to stew on, but it really is one of the finest films not available on DVD. My List: Nerves (1919) - German expressionist film that looks cool as heck. (Added 5/16/2016) The Blood of Jesus (1941) - Spencer Williams' iconic race film. Spike Lee paid homage to it with Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. I've never seen any of these old race films, outside of some documentaries featuring clips. It seems like a fascinating genre worth diving into. (Added 5/25/2016) The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - This is the oldest entry (by date added) on my 400+ film To-Do List. I recently watched Simon of the Desert and before that it had been years since I'd seen a Bunuel. I need to explore him more. (Added 11/26/2016) Os Deuses e Os Mortos (1970) - "Of Gods and the Undead." A Brazilian film that is reportedly a favorite of Werner Herzog's. (Added 1/8/2017) The Viking (1928) - An all technicolor silent about Lief Ericsson. I saw a clip in a documentary years ago and I've had it on my To Do list for years. (Added 1/14/2017) Cairo Station (1958) - Meant to see this ever since I watched The Story of Film and now FilmStruck has a whole bunch of Youssef Chahine available to stream. (Added 3/1/2017) As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - Another 5-hour movie for the list. I caught a bunch of Jonas Mekas stuff, including a screening of Walden with him in person, at a retrospective recently, but I chickened out of spending my entire Saturday in the theater when this one rolled out. (Added 3/7/2017) Total Recall (1990) - Another classic Verhoeven I've had to shamefully avoid talking about in public (Don't worry I have seen Robocop). (Added 3/15/2017) Manchester by the Sea (2016) - Being from Massachusetts I should eventually get around to this one. (Added 3/21/2017) I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) - Biopic about infamous SCUM Manifesto author Valerie Solanas who shot Andy Warhol. From the director of American Psycho. (Added 4/1/2017) Watched: Fort Apache; Damnation; Ran; Ordet; Purple Rain; Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages; Napoléon; Yi Yi; Faces; The Blood of a Poet; The War Room; Sanjuro; The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key; Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; Flooding with Love for the Kid; Soylent Green; The Most Dangerous Game; Street Trash; The Avenging Conscience; The Spook Who Sat By the Door; Bringing Up Baby; The Life of Juanita Castro; The Hour of the Furnaces; Au hasard Balthazar; Surname Viet Given Name Nam; Seconds; My Dinner with Andre; The Thin Man; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace; The Passion of the Christ; Grand Illusion; Fanny and Alexander; Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; Starship Troopers; Little Lord Fauntleroy; Last Summer (TOTAL: 39)
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Apr 1, 2017 17:23
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TrixRabbi posted:Total Recall (1990) - Another classic Verhoeven I've had to shamefully avoid talking about in public (Don't worry I have seen Robocop). (Added 3/15/2017) Next one for you. Hopefully you've seen RoboCop 2 as well. Xanadu - A frustrated painter (Michael Beck) and an aging clarinetist (Gene Kelly) are visited by one of Zeus' daughters (Olivia Newton-John plays the ethereal goddess). She takes them on a magical ride and helps them open up an enchanted roller rink. Kind of a mixture of TRON and The Rocky Horror Picture Show but somehow even goofier. I think the pinnacle was seeing a guy in roller skates yell at Zeus. I'd be hard-pressed to recall something stranger than that. The special effects stand out for the time period and it's probably maligned because viewers were fed up with disco by 1980. Some memorable scenes found on YouTube: Zeus' daughters emerge from a mural: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD3YXFsU6AA Xanadu opens to the sound of snare drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHl4H1xfiI Also, The film reminded me of this Jackson 5 music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nP4WE_-uqE Also watched: For Your Eyes Only - Bond is a couple years older and ready for another silly adventure. We start with another comedic appearance by Blofeld (the invincible villain). Maybe he's finally dead after being dropped down a chimney. Then we get a so-so Sheena Easton song. The impressive stunts and constant action are a selling point but the stories are lacking. With each successive film the stories are more like those a parent tells a child before bed with a few details changed on a whim due to lack of creativity. In Saving Christmas Kirk Cameron makes the good point that young kids like the same story to be told repeatedly but as a person gets older they want to hear new stories. Well, Bond isn't delivering in that regard as it's the same old story. There are a few underwater fights and sequences that feel influential on the great film The Abyss. This isn't the first Bond film that feels like an infomercial for the Winter Olympics either. It's almost like they're shooting concurrently with the Olympics to save some $$$. Also, Bond comes across dubiously as he readily kills people (when he doesn't always have to) but lectures others who try to emulate him. Procrastination (246 completed): #239 The War of the Gargantuas - Election season 2016. 10/16/16 #242 The Saragossa Manuscript - I started watching this once and realized it was one of those bastardly DVDs in the incorrect aspect ratio. 11/17/16 #244 On Golden Pond - Henry Fonda's last role. 11/26/16 #249 Night Moves - Supposedly an underwatched one. 3/14/17 James Bond versus Godzilla (23/58 completed): All Monsters Attack - Godzilla X. Still in the 1960s. 1/15/17 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (38/40 completed): Gene Siskel's Top Films 1969-1998 (27/30 completed): 1981 Ragtime - I'm guessing this will have some piano music. 1/15/17 1978 Straight Time - Haven't heard much about this one. 3/14/17 1973 The Emigrants - Haven't heard anything about this one. 3/25/17 Time for a new category. TCM: The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies (46/52 completed): new 42nd Street - I've heard of the title but not much else. 4/1/17 new Now, Voyager - A Bette Davis film. 4/1/17 Zogo fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Apr 2, 2017 |
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Apr 2, 2017 05:45
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Zogo, watch All Monsters Attack because Godzilla. Okay I'm going to jump back into this, but I'm going to do my list slightly differently. I feel that I've got the "greatest" movies covered with my They Shoot Pictures Don't They venture, so I'm going to compose my list of the most POPULAR films I haven't seen. Although I may not be watching masterpieces, this should fill in some embarrassing gaps in my movie repertoire. As a reference I'll use Box Office Mojo's all time box office list adjusted for inflation. And I'll try to avoid any films on the TSPDT list, since I'll be getting to those separately. Jurassic World - The first film is basically my Star Wars. I saw it four times in the theater when I was ten. Parts 2 and 3 are meh, so I never had much enthusiasm to see this one. Grease - This always looked ridiculously cheesy. But who knows? Marvel's The Avengers - I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest. I've only seen one Marvel movie (Captain America) and hated it. Thunderball - It's been years since I've watched any old school James Bond. Kinda excited for this one. The Jungle Book (1967) - I've seen bits and pieces of this as a child but I never sat and watched the whole thing. Love Story - I'm surprised to see a movie on this list that I haven't even heard of. But hey, it must have been super popular in 1970. Cleopatra (1963) - The only thing I know about this is Elizabeth Taylor is hot. Beverly Hills Cop - I've caught bits and pieces. The Robe - "THE FIRST MOTION PICTURE IN CINEMASCOPE–THE MODERN MIRACLE YOU SEE WITHOUT GLASSES!" Cool. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - I'm already beginning to regret this list.
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Apr 2, 2017 18:45
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Spatulater bro! posted:Marvel's The Avengers - I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest. I've only seen one Marvel movie (Captain America) and hated it. I watched this on a bus trip when I was in band as an undergrad, and I remember it being loud, stilted, and mind-numbingly boring. Maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did? I'm just jumping on as well, only with a slightly more esoteric list. I've got a pretty sizeable backlog, and I'd like to get through them before the July Barnes & Noble Criterion sale so I can justify splurging on more Blu-Rays! 1. Intimate Lighting (1965) - Krzysztof Kieslowski listed this as one of the ten films that most affected him. If that's not a ringing endorsement, then I don't know what is. 2. Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - aka Man with the Movie Camera aka The Man with the Movie Camera aka the documentary to end all documentaries 3. Napoleon (1927) - I've had this since Christmas, but I'd prefer to watch it in one go. Easier said than done, what with it being 5.5 hours and all... 4. In Vanda's Room (1999) - Another of those "have to block out almost an entire day for it" films. 5. Pather Panchali (1955) - India is one of my cultural blindspots. I'd like to fix that at some point. 6. Seven Samurai (1956) - I know, I know. See nos. 3 and 4 7. The Calm (1980) - I'm attempting to my way through most of Kieslowksi's back catalog. This is next on my list. 8. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) - Sounds amazingly relevant to this day and age, unfortunately. 9. Ashes and Diamonds (1958) - Supposedly this is one of the masterpieces of realist cinema, Polish or otherwise. 10. Synecdoche, New York (2008) - A contemporary American film? What's this doing here?
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Apr 2, 2017 21:25
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oneforthevine, you get to watch Seven Samurai, because I love that movie. Kikuchiyo is the best.Goon Danton posted:Ixtlilton, you get to watch Rosemary's Baby. So I may have taken a few years to do it, but I finally got around to watching Rosemary's Baby. It wasn't bad! I feel like I get the "Hail Satan" jokes people make a lot better now, because honestly it wasn't a scary sort of horror movie, more of a "dude even if you weren't half awake there you didn't discuss that with your husband and that's super hosed up" sort of thing. I thought it was interesting that they didn't really show a real shot of the baby at the end and I think that made the scene more compelling if anything, but it was a bit hard to take it seriously. I was also distracted at the time with other stuff going on, but overall it was a solid B-. I think I'm gonna rethink my review ratings from those years ago since my old ones weren't as granular as I'd like towards the top end if that makes sense. I also have seen The Pianist in the intervening years, and remember enjoying it! I'll try to write more in my reviews in the future, but I really just wanted to get this out there tonight and have time to shower and get to bed at a reasonable time. The List of Shame: Doctor Zhivago: Let's keep this guy's movies coming. The Dawn Patrol: A movie about fighter pilots in WWI, seems cool to me. Cool Hand Luke: A cool dude with a good, if expensive, brand of food. Tokyo Story: A classic I've never gotten around to seeing. The American Astronaut: Goons in the "I saw a film" thread seem to like this one. Gates of Heaven: I heard this was (one of?) Roger Ebert's favorite movies about mortality. R.I.P. big guy . Princess Mononoko: I feel like this is the only Miyazaki I haven't seen. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: It's supposed to be a somewhat absurd movie about nuclear war or cold war politics or something? It's a classic that I have no real excuse for not having seen. The Act of Killing: It looks like a very interesting documentary, in case you want me to watch something emotionally charged. Like Stars on Earth: Found this looking through imdb, could be good! De-shamed(21): The Thin Red Line(8/10), Casablanca(9/10), Lawrence of Arabia(9.5/10), For a Few Dollars More(7.5/10), Goodfellas (4/10), The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (7.5/10), Stalker (8/10), Battleship Potemkin (6/10), Starship Troopers (6.5/10), Blade Runner (7.5/10), The Godfather: Part II (9/10), Se7en (7/10), The Boondock Saints (2.5/10), Space Mutiny(MST3k) (8/10), The Bridge on the River Kwai (8.5/10), Enter The Dragon (7.5/10), Rubber(1.5/10), Lost in Translation (5.5/10), A Fistful of Dollars (7/10), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (8/10), Rosemary's Baby (B-)
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Apr 3, 2017 04:33
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Ixtlilton, I'll throw you Dr. Strangelove, as this thread did for me however long ago. Mad Max: Fury Road was a masterclass in modern action filmmaking. Absolutely relentless in it's pacing and setpieces, and yet not at the expense at the film's characterization, even with as relatively few standalone dialogue moments as there are. Everything is choreographed wonderfully, is remarkably easy to follow considering how hectic the film can get on average, and is consistently driven by standalone character actions and motivations as opposed to simply looking stylish (not that that's by any means absent either mind you). Admittedly, the story itself is relatively simple, but absolutely works in service for what the film is going for. 1. Good Morning Vietnam - Continuing my Robin Williams film spree with one of the films that really put him on the map. 2. Requiem for a Dream - A fun-filled romp for the whole family! 3. Plan 9 From Outer Space - The B-movie to define all B-movies? 4. Whiplash - One of my best friends considers this his favourite film of 2014, and J.K. Simmons generally hasn't steered me wrong in the past. 5. The Wolf of Wall Street - My understanding is that this shares a lot of structural and thematic similarities to Goodfellas, so for the sake of contrasting the two, I figured it'd make for a suitable follow-up to the Scorsese slot. At any rate, I had been interested in seeing this one and do love me a good black comedy. 6. The Exorcist - No real excuse not to have seen this already, nor to neglect throwing it on here while in horror movie season. 7. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - The absurdist comedy with a slight tinge of dark comedy seems right up my alley, and with a pseudo-sequel having come out within the last year, it seems as good an excuse as any to finally get around to watching this one. 8. Pan's Labyrinth - Want to start getting into del Toro's work, and with this year marking this film's 10th anniversary, it seems like an ideal time to hit up this one. 9. Barton Fink - I'm gonna go sneak into an R-rated movie. 10. Fantastic Mr. Fox - Never watched a Wes Anderson film but always down for some sood animation and stop motion in particular. Deshamed (60): Monty Python's Life of Brian, My Neighbor Totoro, Alien, Back to the Future, Star Wars: A New Hope, Aliens, Hot Fuzz, Ghostbusters, The Fisher King, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Good Will Hunting, Wayne's World, One Hour Photo, This is the End, Inglourious Basterds, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, John Carpenter's The Thing, The Social Network, The Blair Witch Project, The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, Fantasia, Kill Bill, The Iron Giant, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Avengers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Zombieland, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, 21 Jump Street, The Godfather, Jackie Brown, Citizen Kane, Pink Floyd - The Wall, Birdman, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Back to the Future: Part II, Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Zodiac, Princess Mononoke, The Godfather Part II, Halloween, Spirited Away, Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, UHF, Goodfellas, No Country For Old Men, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Hard Day's Night, Fargo, Porco Rosso, Mad Max: Fury Road
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Apr 3, 2017 07:27
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Trash boat, you've got some good stuff on your list that I'll probably copy in the future. But for now, take The Exorcist. It scared the bejeesusfuck out of me when I was younger, but I am a giant pussy so... Jurgan gave me 12 Angry Men and I feel shortchanged by all the men who were merely indifferent, bored, emotionless, or easily led.   A tiny film set almost exclusively in a single room, 12 Angry Men shows a dozen jurors deciding the guilt, or absence of guilt, of a young man accused of murdering his father. Everything here is personal and intimate and uncomfortable, and that's the beauty of the film. My main worry about this was that I'd find it unwatchably dated, but aside from a few (by today's standards) cliched or overacted bits it was remarkably compelling watching. There's a lot happening - the personal stories of each of the jurors, the conflicts between them, the frustrations of trying to run a meeting in a group that size, the weather and confines of the room, and the case itself - and the way that all of those elements work together makes something great. Overall grade: Memories of a Murder [2003] - Came on my radar from some podcast, looks interesting. Beasts of No Nation [2015] - whoo boy. Big fan of the director, but just never in the mood for a little child-soldiering. The Brothers Bloom [2008] - Liked looper, loved brick, interested to see how this goes. Superbad [2007] - A comedy that people seem to like 12 years a Slave [2013] - a cheery movie to lift my spirits The Hateful Eight [2015] - from tarantino's oldest to his latest Badlands [1973] - people seem to think Terrence Malick is cool and someone described this as his 'most accessible'. I'm all about that Perfect Blue [1997] - nani?!? Killer Joe [2011] - alright alright alright Cave of Forgotten Dreams [2010] - It's not something I'd ever watch without prompting, but I've heard a lot about hetzog and I'm kind of interested in the cave paintings so  seen: Reservoir Dogs Fargo Annie Hall Chinatown Casino Nightcrawler Spotlight 12 Angry Men
awesmoe fucked around with this message at 10:10 on Apr 5, 2017 |
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Apr 5, 2017 10:05
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awesmoe posted:Superbad [2007] - A comedy that people seem to like With so many bleak & heavy films on this list, I decided to choose the only light one here. Enjoy! Nobody Knows Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of those directors where you know what kind of film you're going to get, and you're confident it's going to be well worth your time. The 3 I've seen so far [Like Father Like Son, Still Walking, and now this] are all very confident, assured and well-crafted filmmaking. They're all human stories and take the time to let the story breathe and immerse you in their ongoing lives. Here, it's a single mother Keiko taking care of 4 children - each coming from different fathers. Only 1 child is known to the landlord and the other 3 are kept hidden inside the apartment. Soon, Keiko goes away and the oldest Asuka is left in charge. It's the type of film where a review doesn't do the film justice, but it's always nice to just stop, take 141 minutes out of your day, and watch a Kore-eda film. You'll feel more alive coming out of it. LIST Bringing Up Baby [1938] - (2017.01.21) - absolutely LOVED 'Holiday' w/ Hepburn & Grant, and Grant's birthday just passed. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969] - **NEW** (2017.04.04) - one of my first blurays, a gift to my father years ago, but haven't watched myself! Dark Victory [1939] - **OLDEST** (2016.05.29) - one of those films you don't hear discussed much, but a revisit of All About Eve makes me want more Bette Davis! Dead Man [1995] - (2017.03.19) - I absolutely loved Paterson, and I need to starting watching more 90s movies besides ones I saw as a kid. Fail-Safe [1964] - (2016.11.15) - continuing my goal of being Walter-Matthau-complete. I Killed My Mother [2009] - (2016.12.29) - loved Dolan's 2014 film Mommy, and my pricey Plain Archive blind-buy remains unwatched.. It Should Happen To You! [1954] - (2016.09.15) - replacing my previous Jack Lemmon selection with Lemmon's debut film Rome, Open City [1945] - (2017.02.20) - Rossellini's War Trilogy has been sitting unwatched for too long.. this is the 1st in the trilogy. Russian Ark [2002] - (2017.03.16) - A film I've always wanted to (& should) watch but it never becomes a high priority Shane [1953] - (2017.03.11) - having recently watched Logan, it reminded me I've yet to watch this western classic. De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), Missing (3.5/5), Howl's Moving Castle (4.5/5), Rio Bravo (4/5), Cloud Atlas (3.5/5), Children of Paradise (4/5), That Obscure Object of Desire (5/5), The Fountain (3/5), Malcolm X (4/5), Warrior (4/5), American Movie (4/5), Being There (4/5), Leaving Las Vegas (4.5/5), Rope (4/5), Ed Wood (4.5/5), American Hustle (2.5/5), The Man Who Knew Too Much (3.5/5), Mister Roberts (4/5), Charley Varrick (4/5), A Face in the Crowd (4.5/5), Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5), Slacker (3.5/5), Drugstore Cowboy (4.5/5), Love and Death (3.5/5), Fantastic Mr. Fox (4.5/5), A Scanner Darkly (4/5), Marketa Lazarova (5/5), A Clockwork Orange (4.5/5), The Fly (5/5), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (5/5), King Kong (5/5), Gilda (3.5/5), Airplane! (4/5), Nobody Knows (4.5/5) [Total:147] friendo55 fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Apr 6, 2017 |
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Apr 5, 2017 17:33
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friendo55 posted:Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969] This is Newman and Redford at their best. Tremendous fun. Enjoy! The Iron Giant  What a joy this was to watch. It's a tight (87 minutes) little animated feature–tightly crafted, well animated, well conceived... It's good. The characters are, for the most part, well sketched. The two main characters, Hogarth and the giant, are likable and relatable. The rest of the cast fall somewhere between flat and round—the G-man Kent Mansley is a little too flat, for me, as he's a pretty straight villain. There could have been some more there with his motivation, but the movie needs him for its message (which we'll get to in a minute). Hogarth Hughes, the nine-year-old boy who discovers an "iron giant", is likable from the outset. He's a bit of a social outcast because he's smart, and up a grade, so he gets picked on. He's got no friends to speak of, so he's looking for them wherever he can find them–whether they're squirrels or 100-foot-tall robots from space designed to kill. The iron giant is a big clumsy erector set, even though he's clearly got some menace in him (actually, as we see near the end of the film, quite a lot of menace); he is, as Hogarth describes him, like a child, since his memory was jogged by the crash. That memory loss opens the door for the central message of the film: "you are who you choose to be." The movie is saturated with 1950's paranoia, particularly in regards to nuclear weaponry and the Cold War. There is a distinct lack of trust in outsiders, including town figures, like the old fisherman who first encounters the giant and local junk-art weirdo Dean. When the giant shows up, Hogarth basically teaches him how to be nice, never suspecting the vicious design of the robot hidden beneath his plain exterior. The robot slowly rediscovers his nature, and has to actively fight against it, in order to avoid destroying all around him. It is interesting that the film sets up violence as the true nature of the giant, and non-violence as his choice. You are who you choose to be, even if that goes against your true nature, the movie seems to be saying. There is also criticism of militaristic ideology. Effectively, the movie seems to be saying that aggression leads to death for all involved, ultimately. The Army, not knowing the intent or nature of the robot, opens fire, knowing only that the giant was not made by the US. This awakens a violent response from the giant, and escalation ensues. Mansley gets a nuke launched, and doom seems inevitable for the village—until the giant denies his violent nature and sacrifices himself for the sake of the people, even those who wanted to kill him. Trust and sacrifice are the only way to prevent violence, says the movie. This is a very smart and enjoyable children's movie. I am sure parents loved watching this when it came out, because there is just as much for adults here as for kids. Also I cried a whole bunch at the end. THE WATCH LIST Days of Heaven (1978): Seeing as Tree of Life is one of my favorite films, and I’ve seen none of his other movies, I should probably get started. This seems a good a place as any. Tokyo Story (1953): I keep seeing this all over “Best Films Ever”-type lists, and I hadn’t even heard of it until a few years ago. Seems like a good candidate. Psycho (1960): I’ve seen a lot of Hitchcock, but never this one. Le Samouraï (1967): The origin of cool. Or so I hear. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003): I've seen Volume 2. I've seen every other Tarantino film. No, I don't know how this happened. Ikiru (1952): In general, I’ve seen too little Kurosawa. A Serious Man (2009): I'm a Coen brothers fan, and Chili tells me I need to watch it so we can discuss it. So here it is. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): I love a good revisionist western and Clint Eastwood has a hell of a scowl. The Graduate (1967): One of my best friends claims this is the best movie he's ever seen. Good enough for me. A Few Good Men (1992): I just have a gut feeling that I’m supposed to watch this movie. The Watched List: Paths of Glory; The Apartment; Solaris; A Touch of Zen; Apocalypse Now; The Iron Giant
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Apr 5, 2017 20:03
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BeefSupreme posted:
I'm happy I get to suggest this! Enjoy! 4. On the Waterfront 1954) Well, I'm glad this was my first movie. It was really fantastic. While a lot about the movie falls into familiar territory, the overarching story, the one-dimensional tough guy union/mob guys, etc... the film comes away being unique in a way that stands the test of time. Brando's acting was running on all cylinders and really seemed to get in touch with the nuances of a character that could have easily been quite flat if played by someone else. The inner conflict and competing drives were palpable. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Brando and Eva Marie Saint. Saint portrays a plainness about her that becomes transcendentally beautiful and captivating. The relationship between her and Brando is confusing and nonsensical throughout much of the film, and that's why it works. Why does Brando allow himself to be drawn so close to someone who marks his guilt so clearly? Vice versa, Saint seems to viscerally know Brando's culpability in her brother's death well before he tells her, but yet she ignores it. I think for me it was the acting in and of itself that elevates the movie to being a classic. It makes me wonder about the potential freedom that existed at the time in film. Here we have a movie that incorporates what are now recognized as fairly basic tropes, but there is an authenticity and vulnerability present that is missing from its modern counterparts, which seem so restricted and hobbled in comparison. Also,  .Shame, so much shame: 1. The Deer Hunter (1978) – I like younger De Niro. It sounds like a darker First Blood. Am I right, or will I be surprised?! 2. Whiplash (2014) – I remember being curious about the film at the time it came out (2014? Time flies). I’m hoping to see some sweet drum skillz. 3. The Neon Demon (2016) – I am a sucker for Refn films. I look forward to seeing what he does with a female protagonist. 11. La Collectionneuse (1967) – Something French. 5. La La Land (2016) – Apparently everyone loves this film? I like both of the lead actors, too. 6. The Hunt (2012) – I’m mad about Mads. 7. L.A. Confidential (1997) – One of those films that has always been on the back burner, but I never get around to sitting down and watching. 8. Chinatown (1974) – I’ve avoided this film because every person that I’ve known that raves about it I’ve found just unbearable to be around. 9. Before Midnight (2013) – I saw and liked the other two. 10. TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) – It's all the rage in the ‘What should I watch on streaming?’ thread. The Unshamening: On the Waterfront (1954)
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Apr 6, 2017 16:55
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Cithen posted:Also, Can I ask what you mean by this? The politics of this film are weird, because I saw it as almost a Marxist story about organizing to fight against dominance. However, when I read about it, it turns out that the director was a Joe McCarthy ally and wrote the film as a parable to justify testifying to HUAC and snitching on fellow filmmakers. Jurgan fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Apr 7, 2017 |
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Apr 7, 2017 03:53
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Cithen posted:7. L.A. Confidential (1997) – One of those films that has always been on the back burner, but I never get around to sitting down and watching. You have some really, really great films on your list. I'm happy to pick this one for you; it's one of my personal faves. Makes me want to rewatch it. Psycho  This movie was not what I expected. Of course, I went into it knowing pretty much only The Shower Scene, and that it's by Hitchcock. It was very good. I will say I did not watch this under ideal conditions, as there was a 1-year-old running around distracting me with her cuteness, so I don't the movie's scare tactics worked their full magic on me. I think it is most effective in its first half, before everything shifts. I was substantially surprised, actually, likely much in the way original audiences must have been, by the movie's most famous scene. Particularly, its timing. Hitchcock is a master of suspense, and in this case, of subverting my expectations. The film is masterfully made (as is everything by Hitchcock), and plays with shadows throughout. Characters are constantly in partial shadow, obscured, particularly Norman Bates, as we try to figure out what's going on. After everything shifts, I think the movie didn't work quite as well for me. Part of the narrative drive is killed off in that famous scene. I had guessed the film's final twist, though I don't really fault older movies for using things that are obvious possibilities nowadays--I am almost certain Psycho would have been the first to employ the particular twist that it does. I think the final sequence of the film, all exposition about the twist, is wholly unnecessary, but I am curious if it was necessary when the film came out. Hitchcock is at his best when he is playing with our most simple fears, and this movie is no different. Norman Bates is tremendously creepy as the voyeuristic motel operator. Voyeurism, as we will discover, is a bad habit for anyone with an overly jealous mother, and Marian Crane certainly discovers that. Hitchcock carefully drops little pieces of the puzzle throughout, like Bates' animal stuffing 'hobby', though it turns out the puzzle looks different than I first imagined. A nice little piece of meta-commentary the film creates is audience as voyeur, which it sets up with the very first shot, as it peeks through a hotel room window to look at half-dressed Crane and her lover Sam Loomis. This movie is charming throughout. The characters are all well drawn, the dialogue is pretty sharp, it's all tightly put together. There are some great shots in here, too, as there are in any Hitchcock film. Note: Not that anyone checks, but I am pre-emptively removing Kill Bill as I will be seeing it this weekend. THE WATCH LIST Days of Heaven (1978): Seeing as Tree of Life is one of my favorite films, and I’ve seen none of his other movies, I should probably get started. This seems a good a place as any. Tokyo Story (1953): I keep seeing this all over “Best Films Ever”-type lists, and I hadn’t even heard of it until a few years ago. Seems like a good candidate. The Birds (1963): One Hitchcock thriller for another. Le Samouraï (1967): The origin of cool. Or so I hear. My Neighbor Totoro (1988): Still so much Ghibli to watch. I've yet to be let down. Ikiru (1952): In general, I’ve seen too little Kurosawa. A Serious Man (2009): I'm a Coen brothers fan, and Chili tells me I need to watch it so we can discuss it. So here it is. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): I love a good revisionist western and Clint Eastwood has a hell of a scowl. The Graduate (1967): One of my best friends claims this is the best movie he's ever seen. Good enough for me. A Few Good Men (1992): I just have a gut feeling that I’m supposed to watch this movie. The Watched List: Paths of Glory; The Apartment; Solaris; A Touch of Zen; Apocalypse Now; The Iron Giant; Psycho
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Apr 7, 2017 09:09
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^^^ I'm glad you liked it! The structure of the film is awesome as it turns around 'The Shower Scene'. Jurgan posted:Can I ask what you mean by this? The politics of this film are weird, because I saw it as almost a Marxist story about organizing to fight against dominance. However, when I read about it, it turns out that the director was a Joe McCarthy ally and wrote the film as a parable to justify testifying to HUAC and snitching on fellow filmmakers. I see it similar to your first point. I felt the film was pretty transparent in its observation that collective power is not only essential to protecting workers' rights and economic livelihoods, but also positively influences the underpinnings of society. I think with my vague comment I was also observing doubt that this film could have been effectively made at any other time than it was. After the 50s and even through today, to have such a quaint, almost non-politicized incorporation of communist values with 'American Life' in the particular way that 'On the Waterfront' did seems impossible. Even in what I perceived as its more heavy-handed lines about organized labor, it remained organic and focused on the community itself and those individuals in the community. It didn't try to proselytize beyond the scope of the narrative. I guess one could see it as supporting McCarthyism in that the one individual with a conscious goes against the corrupt organized labor unions (communist scum) by snitching. This, despite the context of the filmmaker's political associations, doesn't seem to work as well for me. It works on the micro/narrative level, but the overall tone of the film suggests otherwise to me. Cithen fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Apr 7, 2017 |
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Apr 7, 2017 13:27
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BeefSupreme posted:The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976): I love a good revisionist western and Clint Eastwood has a hell of a scowl. Try this one next. It doesn't get mentioned around here too much. All Monsters Attack - This might end up being the most unique film in the entire Bond/Godzilla series. It's told primarily from the viewpoint of a young kid named Ichiro who dreams of going to Monster Island to watch Godzilla fight and then talk with Minya (son of Godzilla). So all of the kaiju action takes place in his lucid dreaming head. Ichiro is bullied in real life and transplants this problem onto Monster Island by envisioning a new monster named Gabara. Minya shrinks to human size and discusses a lot of things with Ichiro such as the trouble of living up to Godzilla's legend. Eventually, Minya grows larger and attacks Gabara and prevails. Godzilla also fights a few monsters from previous films (as it's all in Ichiro's head). Meanwhile, back in the real world two criminals steal fifty million yen and end up encountering Ichiro. The criminals are pretty incompetent and come across like the two villains from Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. They have their ¥¥¥ but still insist on chasing this kid through an abandoned warehouse for a long time. Take the ¥¥¥ and leave already! Finally the kid outwits them and then attacks the bully. Bullies always crumple under pressure. Would the James Bond franchise do something close to this? I think not! Procrastination (246 completed): #239 The War of the Gargantuas - Election season 2016. 10/16/16 #242 The Saragossa Manuscript - I started watching this once and realized it was one of those bastardly DVDs in the incorrect aspect ratio. 11/17/16 #244 On Golden Pond - Henry Fonda's last role. 11/26/16 #249 Night Moves - Supposedly an underwatched one. 3/14/17 James Bond versus Godzilla (24/58 completed): Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (38/40 completed): Gene Siskel's Top Films 1969-1998 (27/30 completed): 1981 Ragtime - I'm guessing this will have some piano music. 1/15/17 1978 Straight Time - Haven't heard much about this one. 3/14/17 1973 The Emigrants - Haven't heard anything about this one. 3/25/17 TCM: The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies (46/52 completed): 42nd Street - I've heard of the title but not much else. 4/1/17 Now, Voyager - A Bette Davis film. 4/1/17 new Winchester ’73 - Something about a rifle. 4/7/17
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Apr 7, 2017 21:36
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Zogo posted:1973 The Emigrants - Haven't heard anything about this one. 3/25/17 Picked this one for no real reason other than it's one I need to see myself, and curious what your take will be. Enjoy! Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Two things stood out more than anything else - the remarkable cinematography from Conrad L Hall, and the remarkable chemistry & partnership between Newman's Butch Cassidy & Redford's Sundance Kid. The backdrops & landscapes bathed in sunlight are just a joy to take in, creating a seamless break in both the great banter and exciting action. And the two main stars play off each other in a way where you'd assume they've been best friends their entire lives together - it never once felt like acting, which is probably a testament to just how good Newman & Redford are. As a whole, the film is incredibly entertaining, and it's no wonder the film is still so beloved. LIST Bringing Up Baby [1938] - (2017.01.21) - absolutely LOVED 'Holiday' w/ Hepburn & Grant, and Grant's birthday just passed. Dark Victory [1939] - **OLDEST** (2016.05.29) - this one's not discussed much, but a revisit of All About Eve makes me want more Bette Davis! Dead Man [1995] - (2017.03.19) - I absolutely loved Paterson, and I need to starting watching more 90s movies besides ones I saw as a kid. Fail-Safe [1964] - (2016.11.15) - continuing my goal of being Walter-Matthau-complete. I Killed My Mother [2009] - (2016.12.29) - loved Dolan's 2014 film Mommy, and my pricey Plain Archive blind-buy remains unwatched.. It Should Happen To You! [1954] - (2016.09.15) - replacing my previous Jack Lemmon selection with Lemmon's debut film Rome, Open City [1945] - (2017.02.20) - Rossellini's War Trilogy has been sitting unwatched for too long.. this is the 1st in the trilogy. Russian Ark [2002] - (2017.03.16) - A film I've always wanted to (& should) watch but it never becomes a high priority Shane [1953] - (2017.03.11) - having recently watched Logan, it reminded me I've yet to watch this western classic. Watchmen [2009] - **NEW** (2017.04.07) - the comic & the film, as I wanted to read the comic before the film since back in '09! De-shamed Pt2: True Romance (4/5), The Right Stuff (3/5), Syndromes And A Century (4/5), Still Life (3/5), My Cousin Vinny (2.5/5), Doctor Zhivago (3.5/5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (4.5/5), Peeping Tom (4/5), Shadow of a Doubt (4.5/5), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (4.5/5), Only Angels Have Wings (4/5), Umberto D (4/5), Anatomy of a Murder (4.5/5), Only God Forgives (1.5/5), Missing (3.5/5), Howl's Moving Castle (4.5/5), Rio Bravo (4/5), Cloud Atlas (3.5/5), Children of Paradise (4/5), That Obscure Object of Desire (5/5), The Fountain (3/5), Malcolm X (4/5), Warrior (4/5), American Movie (4/5), Being There (4/5), Leaving Las Vegas (4.5/5), Rope (4/5), Ed Wood (4.5/5), American Hustle (2.5/5), The Man Who Knew Too Much (3.5/5), Mister Roberts (4/5), Charley Varrick (4/5), A Face in the Crowd (4.5/5), Farewell My Concubine (3.5/5), Slacker (3.5/5), Drugstore Cowboy (4.5/5), Love and Death (3.5/5), Fantastic Mr. Fox (4.5/5), A Scanner Darkly (4/5), Marketa Lazarova (5/5), A Clockwork Orange (4.5/5), The Fly (5/5), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (5/5), King Kong (5/5), Gilda (3.5/5), Airplane! (4/5), Nobody Knows (4.5/5), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (4.5/5), [Total:148]
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Apr 8, 2017 06:00
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 23:32 |
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Apr 8, 2017 06:18
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