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TrixRabbi posted:drat, top 3 and I’ve been out of it for a year. Also, I did watch Audition on my own from my previous list but forgot to note it; though it never was assigned to me. Not sure if that counts. I counted only those that were mentioned in some way. The prime example being Mistletoe Donkey. In one post he said he watched over 200 films in the thread but I only see him reference 154. So he probably removed a lot from his list without saying anything so I can't verify the amount. It does help a LOT that many posters have kept large checklists at the end of their posts. I'll mark you down as 246 now. Magic Hate Ball posted:A decade of shame! This thread has done so much for me in terms of not only watching movies I probably wouldn't have gotten around to, but in approaching, digesting, and critiquing art in general. It's so bizarre looking at the first half of my list because that part of my life feels so alien now, and some of those I barely remember at all. Yeah, this thread has given me a lot of focus. So many films I've been on the fence on seeing. And, of course, I've pulled dozens and dozens from other lists here. The more films I see the more I appreciate how hard it must be to make the greatest films. And also even if I don't like a film too much I recognize the work that was put into making it. TrixRabbi posted:My early reviews and takes are, as the kids say, cringe. Some of my early posts were very, very short. Zogo fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 2, 2020 |
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Jun 2, 2020 22:22
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TrixRabbi posted:I had never seen The Godfather when I started in this thread. Now I add obscure Ukrainian propaganda films with like 2 views on Letterboxd to my list. That's what I call growth. My original ten: quote:12 Angry Men - I read a story on this in school at some point so seeing the movie has never been a priority for me. And to think...I hesitated in watching Sunset Blvd. and Vertigo. PS still waiting for Jay Dub to watch Blue Velvet ten years later. 
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Jun 2, 2020 22:28
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Hey I made the list  So many quality flicks in the list below my posts now, thanks to everyone who gave me a nudge to watch them even if my reviews tend to be brief. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Actually watched this a couple weeks ago, but for various reasons didn't write anything about it at the time, which is a mistake as it's no longer fresh in my mind. It's more fun and funny than I expected and Newman and Redford are charming, likeable leads. I liked the Burt Bacharach score a lot, perhaps because of how anachronistic and un-western it often felt. I didn't know 'Rainbows keep falling on my Head' was written for this. If you want some action and peril but also an lighthearted, amiable romp this is a good choice. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) Sholay One of the biggest ever Indian movies 6) (Western or Musical) Moulin Rouge One of the biggest hits of that weird early noughts musical revival period 7) (Horror) I Spit on your Grave (1978) Infamous 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (92): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Hidden Fortress; An American in Paris; Der Golem; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Magic Hate Ball gets First Blood
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Jun 3, 2020 16:03
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bitterandtwisted posted:5) (foreign language) Sholay One of the biggest ever Indian movies "Basanti, don't dance in front of these dogs." The Young and the Damned - It's a familiar story of disaffected youth but this one doesn't betray its tone like some others are apt to do. This features misery from beginning right through to the end. It has elements of neorealism but it also has elements of surrealism as we're shown a memorable dream sequence at one point. The main cast of characters are a bunch of delinquents and petty thieves living lives of desperation. Food and money is scarce so they don't have issues using violence. They'll attack old blind men and assorted cripples for a few pesos. Big rocks and clubs are the weapons of choice. Among them El Jaibo (Roberto Cobo) stands out as being extremely villainous. It's a reminder that hanging around with criminals is a dangerous thing and a breeding ground that sucks in even those trying to reform themselves. As the film goes on the crimes get bigger and by the end we're shown a couple of shocking murders that have no resolution. Also watched: Deep Red - This one builds upon the earlier film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). The lead in this one is also fixated on details and acting as a private investigator on his own behalf. Overall, I'd say this one is more polished as it has a memorable score and makes use of interesting locations. At one point it feels like you've stepped into the world that's depicted in the famous Nighthawks canvas painting. It's a bridge between two eras as I got vibes from Hitchcock touchstones like Vertigo (1958) and Marnie (1964) and its more explicit violence also points toward so many horror franchises of the late 1970s and 1980s that still run through today. Even things like Scanners (1981). I also have to mention that I watched the infamous cut of the film that's mostly in English but veers strangely into Italian at times. I've seen films with bilinguals and trilinguals naturally conversing but this is different. The original English version cut out some exposition and thus created more subtext. Later these scenes were readded but no English dialogue had ever been recorded. So the characters jump sharply from English to Italian and back again. It's really jarring and humorous. PS I also liked that we go on a side adventure with Marcus (David Hemmings) exploring and demolishing a derelict haunted house. James Bond versus Godzilla (38/64 completed): Tomorrow Never Dies - A true statement. 5/23/20 Hesitation (28 completed): #25 The Sentinel (1977) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlNDQKwsg 2/18/20 #29 Defending Your Life - It's been on some lists and sounds interesting. 4/7/20 #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (89/100 completed): new The Most Dangerous Game - I've seen Surviving the Game but not this one. 6/5/20 new Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20
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Jun 6, 2020 05:32
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Oh, go with Defending Your Life! Light, easy, and fun. Good pandemic fare. Her Crazy good. The parts of it are amazing and the sum of those parts is somehow even greater. Not enough can be said for the setting, lighting, color scheme, just everything from a visual standpoint was utterly stellar. Then you have some incredible performances, poignant yet not too affected dialogue, and a score that hits just the right level of evocation. The turns in the film feel obvious when they're happening but none ever occurred to me before they happened. I can't find a fault with this one, such a wonderful film. 10/10 My new ten: 1. The Florida Project - Go ahead, break my heart. 2. You Were Never Really Here - Kevin was a loving knock out that has stuck with me. Very interested in this. 3. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. 4. In the Mood for Love - Heard nothing but great things. 5. Mother Bong joon ho's that is. I've seen everything else of his (apart from barking dogs, and that's just never gonna happen) , and have enjoyed everything. 6. Moonlight Missed it in theaters, but I hear it's worth watching. 7. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - I like me some Agatha Christie. I don't know much about this apart from the obvious. 8. Anatomy of a Murder Another classic that I've missed. 9. The Nice Guys My list is looking heavy. I've liked Shane Black just fine up until now. 10. *NEW* Uncut Gems *NEW* - OK, I'm just really curious about this. 144Total 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, Ace in the Hole, 9/10, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy 6.5/10, The Grand Budapest Hotel 7/10, Train to Busan 4/10, Her 10/10
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Jun 7, 2020 06:35
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Lol, ever since the pandemic began I've been watching primarily very light comedies and reality television like The Bachelor, so I'm ready to get some heavier films in my diet again. Chili, as a pretty big Wong Kar-Wai fan I'll have to say In The Mood For Love! 1. Aguirre: The Wrath of God - I remember something about this movie caught my attention a while back when I was in college. It's been on my to-watch list ever since, but I can't remember exactly what intrigued me about this film anymore. I'm sure it's something though! 2. Stray Dogs - I really need to familiarize myself more with Tsai Ming-Liang, I have some friends who go nutso for the guy. Out of his films, Stray Dogs is the one that has the most accolades from my friends. 3. The Terrorizers - This movie also came highly recommended to me from my friends but I never found the time to watch it. It's been on my to-watch list for yonks though. I did like Yang's Yi-Yi a lot. 4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - This movie was all over the place for a while lol, and has a pretty neat poster. I'm also not very familiar with Thai film, so this would be interesting to watch. 5. Lolita - Really liked the book when I read it, always meant to watch Lolita: The Movie. How did they ever make a movie of LOLITA? 6. Purple Noon - I've watched some French New Wave flicks, but never watched any films from the older generation. Def a gap in my knowledge. 7. The Swimmer - This is based on a John Cheever short story right? I remember reading the short story a long time ago, and while I don't remember much of what happened, various images from it stuck with me. Interested in seeing how a film takes this on. 8. Escape from New York - In recent times, this film has been referenced more and more often lol. I live in NYC too so it's topical. 9. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Yeahhh....somehow I've never gotten around to watching this. It's been available and endlessly referenced but...yeah. I think I built it up in my mind as a 'special occasion film', but really that's just an excuse to put it off. 10. The Straight Story - I like the idea of a film following an old man driving on his lawnmower to visit his ailing brother. Seems like a tear-jerker, and I've watched almost every other Lynch movie.
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Jun 9, 2020 16:18
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Akarshi posted:Lol, ever since the pandemic began I've been watching primarily very light comedies and reality television like The Bachelor, so I'm ready to get some heavier films in my diet again. Welcome to the thread! That was me too for a bit, but it's funny how my brain has been just acclimated to this now and is craving some meatier fare. Thanks for the pick, been looking forward to this one!
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Jun 9, 2020 19:52
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Akarshi, see 2001: A Space Odyssey. Seems to be either you love it or hate it. Me, I love it. Been gone a while. I tend to watch movies that are available from the local library (yes, I'm old) and I recently moved to a new city with a much smaller library. They didn't have a copy of Stray Dog, which was my next assigned movie, and I thought about skipping it. Luckily, however TCM had a Kurosawa fest a few months ago and I DVR'd a bunch of his movies, including Stray Dog. Saw Stray Dog. Very early Kurosawa. I enjoyed it very much. Loved the way the story slowly built and how it draws you in. Toshiro Mifune was great as the rookie cop who makes a very relatable, yet regrettable mistake, and tries to live with his grief afterwards. Also saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It wasn't on my list, but was going to be on it soon. Lots of fun. Lots of guest stars. Great story. I liked how the movie cut between the various characters and told a very engaging story. Highly recommended. My List: Fort Apache - This will be my John Wayne spot for now. Sideways - My mom disliked this movie, but I'll give it a shot. Jabberwocky - Following up one Terry Gilliam movie with another. The Cocoanuts - Working my way through the Marx Brothers movies. This is their first movie. Our Hospitality - Another Buster Keaton movie. Pelle the Conquerer - Big fan of Max Von Sydow. Need to see more of his work. Transformers: The Movie - Taking a break from Studio Ghibli. Not the Michael Bay movies. The animated movie from the 80's. Camelot - Die Nibelungen - Interested in seeing another Fritz Lang picture. Arsenic and Old Lace - Another Cary Grant picture. NEWEST King Creole - A slot here for Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles movies. Starting with one of Elvis'.
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Jun 11, 2020 19:38
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When all else fails, go with a Keaton - Our Hospitality for you. In the Mood for Love was a tough one for me. The staccato pacing and the repetitive music just kept on getting to me. I felt that a lot of the film's nuance was lost on me. I had a hard time parsing scenes both visually and narratively. I kinda get what it was going for but I didn't find myself invested in the story or the characters. I had high hopes going in for this and while I can certainly see a lot of things in the film that standout alone, the cinematography and editing being true highlights, it's hard for me to say it, but, I just couldn't access much of this. 6.5/10 My new ten: 1. The Florida Project - Go ahead, break my heart. 2. You Were Never Really Here - Kevin was a loving knock out that has stuck with me. Very interested in this. 3. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. 4. *NEW* Starship Troopers *NEW* - One of those that just never found its way to me. Looks fun. 5. Mother Bong joon ho's that is. I've seen everything else of his (apart from barking dogs, and that's just never gonna happen) , and have enjoyed everything. 6. Moonlight Missed it in theaters, but I hear it's worth watching. 7. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - I like me some Agatha Christie. I don't know much about this apart from the obvious. 8. Anatomy of a Murder Another classic that I've missed. 9. The Nice Guys My list is looking heavy. I've liked Shane Black just fine up until now. 10. Uncut Gems - OK, I'm just really curious about this. 145Total 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, Ace in the Hole, 9/10, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy 6.5/10, The Grand Budapest Hotel 7/10, Train to Busan 4/10, Her 10/10, In the Mood for Love [b]6.5/10
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Jun 11, 2020 21:16
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Chili posted:3. Rififi - Heard this was an inspiration for a lot of the films I love. "There's something I always wanted to tell you. There are kids, millions of kids who've grown up poor. Like you. How did it happen? What difference was there between them and you, that you became a hood, a tough guy, and not them? Know what I think, Jo? They're the tough guys, not you." Defending Your Life - More like laughing at your life. It's a little like Heaven Can Wait (1978) but quickly sets itself apart with a different bunch of afterlife rules. Basically when someone dies a bunch of hyperintelligent defenders and prosecutors analyze lives to determine if the departed can move onward to another celestial plane or remain stuck on Earth as a dullard. Kind of like the tenets of some religions. The court reviews video of pivotal life moments and judges the ethics and morals of the person. Fear and a lack assertiveness being the main determinants. Most of the highlights include reviewing the past blunders of the lead (Albert Brooks) as he tries to spin things in his favor. Mealy-mouthed defenses of his past misdeeds demonstrate how he's out of his depth. At times it feels like a reprise of his neurotic character from Lost in America (1985). In between court appearances guests at Judgment City can eat as much excellent food as they want without gaining any weight. So he goes on a handful of dates with Julia (Meryl Streep). We get a twist ending that's not too surprising as most usually don't want to end on a dour note. PS I liked that they showed the pitfalls of buying a new car. Yes, you can buy one and immediately get in a terrible wreck. They never show that in car commercials! I'm surprised BMW went along with that. Also watched: Tomorrow Never Dies - An interesting turn for the series. In a world full of liars, foolers and conmen this one highlights the dubious distinction the media has in crafting false stories and narratives. Making a media company and its owner the villain is something that resonates strongly in today's world of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Whether it's misleading economic news, inane Russia shite or the worship of Donald Trump himself. Or, going back a little further, weapons of mass destruction. Just the tip of the iceberg considering chicanery is all around us. The villain is kind of a boobish Steve Jobs in appearance but making the media the enemy was an inspired decision. Just like The Running Man (1987) did. Bond's the hero and at one point flips a switch and turns off the media mogul's news feed. One of the most heroic scenes in the entire series. Anyway, the film has good action throughout. There's a memorable motorcycle chase and a segment with a remote-controlled car that was also funny: https://youtu.be/RlsozGx-F1g?t=13  The film also has a little to say on nuclear fears and how governments think any problem can be solved by dropping bombs. And if that doesn't work it's because not enough bombs were used. Consider how drone warfare by the US increases year-over-year irrespective of who is in charge. PS k.d. lang's rendition of Surrender should've been the main theme for this one. Perhaps the biggest theme mistake in the Bond series thus far. The Sentinel - A woman moves into a new apartment but something is a little off with the neighbors. And there's also an old priest that stares out the window all day. Most of the story is about uncovering dark misdeeds of the past. The two leads are trying to cheat fate but in the end it proves to be futile. This one was filled with tons of well-known actors/actresses. The simple comparison is that it's a hybrid between The Exorcist (1973) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). It shares the tempo of both but I found it more funny than scary or menacing so it was more like Rosemary's Baby overall. It's kind of regressive in a way as people with handicaps and deformities play demons etc. It basically takes the opposite approach that Freaks (1932) did. Basically that one cannot tell real monsters merely by appearance. James Bond versus Godzilla (39/64 completed): Hesitation (30 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 new #33 Code Unknown - At one time I had this confused with Code 46. 6/16/20 new #34 Fireworks AKA Hana-bi - Feels like it may be time to watch this one. 6/16/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (89/100 completed): The Most Dangerous Game - I've seen Surviving the Game but not this one. 6/5/20 Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 new Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20 Zogo fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 17, 2020 05:48
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Man I haven't seen any of the films on your list Zogo, but I do like Haneke, so I'm gonna say Code Unknown. Saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. Man while watching it I felt so many pop culture references clicking into place, and I now realize that that weird red dot avatar that a lot of people had back in the day was HAL-9000. I greatly enjoyed the movie aesthetically - the PanAm space shuttle, the room with the white floors and the Greek statues, the zero gravity effects. For a fil;m made in the 60s, that was awesome. The shutdown scene was surprisingly affecting, and the ending...well, I can't quite make heads or tails out of exactly what happened there haha. But I thought it was a great movie. I also saw Escape from New York, which was a fun watch! I wish we saw more of the people who lived in the subway. It was thin but fun. 1. Aguirre: The Wrath of God - I remember something about this movie caught my attention a while back when I was in college. It's been on my to-watch list ever since, but I can't remember exactly what intrigued me about this film anymore. I'm sure it's something though! 2. Stray Dogs - I really need to familiarize myself more with Tsai Ming-Liang, I have some friends who go nutso for the guy. Out of his films, Stray Dogs is the one that has the most accolades from my friends. 3. The Terrorizers - This movie also came highly recommended to me from my friends but I never found the time to watch it. It's been on my to-watch list for yonks though. I did like Yang's Yi-Yi a lot. 4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - This movie was all over the place for a while lol, and has a pretty neat poster. I'm also not very familiar with Thai film, so this would be interesting to watch. 5. Lolita - Really liked the book when I read it, always meant to watch Lolita: The Movie. How did they ever make a movie of LOLITA? 6. Purple Noon - I've watched some French New Wave flicks, but never watched any films from the older generation. Def a gap in my knowledge. 7. The Swimmer - This is based on a John Cheever short story right? I remember reading the short story a long time ago, and while I don't remember much of what happened, various images from it stuck with me. Interested in seeing how a film takes this on. 8. *new* Cruising - I've heard many things about this film - namely, its controversy on release, its depiction of a gritty 80s-era New York, and its critical reappraisal recently. Curious to see it myself. 9. *new* Adrift in Tokyo - The synopsis makes it sound like a walk-and-talk movie, always down for that kind of stuff. 10. The Straight Story - I like the idea of a film following an old man driving on his lawnmower to visit his ailing brother. Seems like a tear-jerker, and I've watched almost every other Lynch movie.
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Jul 4, 2020 03:09
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Akarshi posted:4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - This movie was all over the place for a while lol, and has a pretty neat poster. I'm also not very familiar with Thai film, so this would be interesting to watch. "I couldn't have experienced this if I hadn't mated with a monkey ghost." Code Unknown - This one features a lot of abrupt vignettes and reminded me a lot of Babel (2006) at times. Some of the film deals with the travails of migrants and their plight once they arrive as immigrants e.g. clashes over culture followed by moments of confusion and lots of family drama bombs and marital issues etc. Another focal point is showing how the affluent live compared to the poor. Second and third class citizens struggle to avoid deportation while the rich seem oblivious. Broadly, it brings about thoughts concerning globalization, hegemony and classism. Near the end it feels like things are building up to some kind of crescendo but it never comes. Ultimately this one ends up being more ambiguous than Babel as we're left with an incomplete puzzle of sorts. PS my favorite film in this style of interconnected stories remains Short Cuts (1993). James Bond versus Godzilla (39/64 completed): Hesitation (31 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 #34 Fireworks AKA Hana-bi - Feels like it may be time to watch this one. 6/16/20 new #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (89/100 completed): The Most Dangerous Game - I've seen Surviving the Game but not this one. 6/5/20 Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Jul 11, 2020 05:41
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Zogo it's been a long time you had any movies that I've seen on your list. I still haven't seen any of them, but random number generator says you should watch The Most Dangerous Game. Saw Our Hospitality. Very fun movie. Buster Keaton is a lot of fun, and the locations and story were very good. Really looking forward to more of Keaton's work. Also saw King Creole,which was one of Elvis' early roles. Elvis can act. Also was fun seeing Walter Matthau in a rare dramatic role as the heavy. Great music and Elvis knows how to perform the songs to maximum effect. My List: Fort Apache - This will be my John Wayne spot for now. Sideways - My mom disliked this movie, but I'll give it a shot. Jabberwocky - Following up one Terry Gilliam movie with another. The Cocoanuts - Working my way through the Marx Brothers movies. This is their first movie. Sunrise - A friend of mine who likes silent movies recommended this one. Looking forward ti seeing it. Pelle the Conquerer - Big fan of Max Von Sydow. Need to see more of his work. Transformers: The Movie - Taking a break from Studio Ghibli. Not the Michael Bay movies. The animated movie from the 80's. Camelot - Die Nibelungen - Interested in seeing another Fritz Lang picture. OLDEST Arsenic and Old Lace - Another Cary Grant picture. A Hard Day's Night - A slot here for Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles movies. It's the Beatles turn.
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Jul 14, 2020 01:43
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Dmitri Russkie posted:Sideways - My mom disliked this movie, but I'll give it a shot. "Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot's potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they're just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and ancient on the planet." The Most Dangerous Game - The first half of the film was a good mystery but unfortunately I had some of the film spoiled many years ago so I knew what was coming. After a yacht disaster a man ends up on an island as the lone survivor. He meets up with a Russian Count and they go through lots of chatting about hunting ethos etc.  as to what this guy is hunting though. A viewer might think it was some extinct animal or dinosaur the way things are hyped up. Some cryptozoological discovery perhaps. Ultimately, it becomes a darker movie when we realize that he's hunting humans and has a trophy room full of people.The Count is also villainous in that he gives the hunted participants only a small knife while he uses a bow and arrow, rifle, dogs and a few henchmen. More than stacking the deck obviously e.g. there's not much sport in hunting cows with laser-sighted sniper rifles. He's hopelessly outarmed and outgunned. So we get the familiar underdog protagonist who sets jungle traps and uses his wiles to win. The action in the latter part of the film is great for year 1932. At many points it felt like I was watching a proto-Predator (1987) and a proto-First Blood (1982) and a proto-The Last of the Mohicans (1992). PS it's in the public domain. James Bond versus Godzilla (39/64 completed): new The World Is Not Enough - Another true statement. 7/16/20 Hesitation (31 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 #34 Fireworks AKA Hana-bi - Feels like it may be time to watch this one. 6/16/20 #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (90/100 completed): Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Jul 16, 2020 23:32
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I'm watching Back To The Future for the first time! Not a fan of 80's pop culture in the least but so far I'm diggin' it, I like McFly's red jacket/sleeve outfit.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:52
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Zogo posted:
Sholay Wow, that was a wild ride. Where do I begin to describe Sholay? It's a ~3.5 hour foreign language musical, so it took me a while to watch it. At least that's what I expected. It is a lavish Bollywood musical, but also a grim and gritty spaghetti western, a lighthearted buddy comedy, an action movie and a romcom. The tone is just everywhere. We start with an exciting train fight against bandits, and then a homoerotic song about being best friends forever. One extended sequence has our heroes in a prison where the warden is a Hitler Clown and it's all slapstick comedy. Later we get a brutal flashback scene with Officer Thakur that reminded me strongly of Once Upon a Time in the West. There is a strong emotional core and I did feel myself tear up at both Jai and Ahmed's deaths One small but extremely irritating thing was a disclaimer saying "cigarette smoking is injurious to your health" that came up whenever someone was smoking onscreen. I would certainly recommend this, it's a unique experience. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) Wild Strawberries I should watch more Bergman 6) (Western or Musical) Moulin Rouge One of the biggest hits of that weird early noughts musical revival period 7) (Horror) I Spit on your Grave (1978) Infamous 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (93): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Hidden Fortress; An American in Paris; Der Golem; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Sholay bitterandtwisted fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Jul 28, 2020 |
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Jul 28, 2020 12:12
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bitterandtwisted posted:3) (animation) Waltz with Bashir it's highly regarded "Memory is dynamic, it's alive. If some details are missing, memory fills the holes with things that never happened." The World Is Not Enough - This one makes more sense if watched during a time where peak oil fears are bubbling up. Of course, with COVID-19, we're now on the other end of the spectrum with a huge surplus of oil that no one knows what to do with. Oil producers have recently been paying people to haul it away. Anyway, I was reminded of some of Roger Moore's films in some respects. Mainly Bond's proclivity to bounce from harrowing, death-defying escapes and then jump right into bedroom romps a little bit too easily. Bond goes from paramotoring to evading helicopter chainsaws to disarming a nuke and doesn't seem harried much at all. Robert Carlyle plays Renard. He's a crazy terrorist who's unable to feel due to a bullet being lodged in his brain. Ultimately he's a patsy as the oil heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) is the one in control. It definitely reminded me of the relationship between Bane and Miranda in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). There are a decent amount of twists but the dreaded nuke plot device is back. I think they should only use a nuke in a Bond film if they let it explode to mark the end of a Bond actor. I think this is the seventh nuclear bomb Bond has dealt with and it's just not very suspenseful. Bond needs to deal with aliens or something. The Godzilla series has plenty of aliens. PS It looks like this is the end of the road for the original Q. James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Hesitation (31 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #32 The Keep - An early Michael Mann film I've been meaning to watch. 4/19/20 #34 Fireworks AKA Hana-bi - Feels like it may be time to watch this one. 6/16/20 #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 new #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also,  Alan Parker. 7/31/20BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (90/100 completed): Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Jul 31, 2020 21:12
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I didn't realize I'd watched three shame films but this has been a hectic month so here are some short reviews: Mr Smith Goes to Washington This is an odd one to watch these days. The idea of a congressman attempting suicide because of a dam land graft scandal is so quaint that it's almost silly, and the dewey-eyed patriotism comes across as alien. It is, to some extent, a screwball comedy, which is a genre that I can't stand, so I was relieved by the way Capra uses humor to leverage the viewer's sympathy when entering the more straightforward whistleblower drama of the second half. James Stewart is his usual bumbling self, playing hypercredulously off the cynical, fast-talking wall of his secretary, Jean Arthur. They have cute chemistry, and I think that's the best way to describe the whole movie - cute. It's also undoubtedly a blockbuster, particularly via the script, which is dense and wordy with a lot of firecracker back-and-forths typical of the era. This produces a funny dissonance - on the one hand, I was being distanced via the massive shift in American politics and values, and on the other hand, I was thoroughly engaged in the content and messaging. Obviously, this isn't unique to this film, or to this viewing experience, but at some point the sense of distancing fell away and I was securely within the jolly, clamoring patriotic bubble alongside Mr Smith. For a little while, I had the sense of believing in America again, and it made me sad because I haven't felt that way in a long time. If it's quaint and naive, it's also a little bit heartbreaking for it. It's good to remember why we fight for a better home, and sometimes mournfulness, even if it's mourning for a sense of hope that sprung from ignorance, is productive. 8/10 Saturday Night Fever When I first saw Rocky, I was shocked that it was so much more than just a goofy punching movie, and instead was intrenched firmly in the New Hollywood movement alongside films like Mean Streets and Nashville. This is just like that - so much more than a goofy disco movie, Saturday Night Fever is a pulpy, raw film about empathy and connection in an unforgiving environment. It's sort of low-budget and sometimes clumsy, but it feels so handmade and so lived-in that it becomes like this unexpected electric shock, just a direct pumping of energy that captures the feel of the time. There's some gorgeous camerawork here, with some assistance by the lovely film stock tones, which bring scenes set in dingy, underground dance studios and late-night burger diners come to life in a way that feels like really good street photography. What the film isn't is two hours of that Jon Arbuckle disco scene, which, you know, thank god. The actual arc of the film, and of Travolta's character, is about discovering how to make a connection outside of yourself that isn't purely transactional. Learning to trust, how not enter an interaction with the single-minded goal of getting as much of what you want as you can, how to express yourself and understand what you want, or what you wish you didn't have. It's a small, human story told like a big bolt of lightning. 9/10 First Blood Much like Rocky, my parents had the three-VHS Rambo box-set when I was a kid. What surprised me, when watching this, wasn't how much I remembered, which was very little, but how specifically I remembered one exact moment, which is when the guy gets the tree branch spikes to the legs. That must have scarred me a long time ago, because it happened exactly as it's always been burned into my memory. A little bit less like Rocky, this isn't quite as much of a gritty, down-to-earth masterpiece. Instead, it's just a fun, guns-blazing salute to Stallone's sweaty, action-hero movie chops, and possibly one of the best (though I'm only familiar with this, Daylight, and Cliffhanger), thanks in part to a relatively grounded script, but also moody and frequently very pretty cinematography. It's set in Washington, and filmed in Hope, BC (which is a shithole now), and having spent a lot of time in the general area I really appreciated how well they capture the velvety darkness of the Pacific Northwest's rainforests. The scene referenced above is a great example. Throughout it, Stallone sets about dealing with a group of local cops who are tramping through the woods, unaware of their proximity to him, which scans for the viewer because of how it's shot, and it makes moments like, uh, that one really stand out. You see the flash of the bared flesh of the tree branches where they've been whittled down, and you see the cop's teeth as he screams in pain, and you see, in the inky shadows, dark blood. And that's just enough to let you fill in the rest. In the second half it gets a little cartoony, prefiguring the more gonzo sequels. The first half is, for the most part, believable, and plays well with the concept of Rambo being a highly trained war vet. He's presented with challenges, and he overcomes them in interesting ways. The sequence with the cave, for example, is a lot of fun, and there's a good bit of cliff-climbing. But then he escapes in a military truck and blows up a whole town, which feels like an almost comical escalation, deflating the legitimate sense of pain and humiliation that veterans like Rambo felt after returning from the war. But it's fun all the way through, and there's not much I can truly fault it for. 7/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Mad Max - mad movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Friday the 13th - slasher movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10 (total: 173) Zogo gets The Keep
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Aug 2, 2020 04:35
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Magic Hate Ball posted:2) Mad Max - mad movie "I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine." The Keep - It's 1941 and German soldiers are encamped in Romania. Soldiers quickly take an interest in 108 nickel crosses in a castle because they think they're made of silver. This castle is strange though as it appears to be fortified from the inside out. Soldiers then inadvertently release an entity named Molasar who's been hiding out in a giant chasm underneath the castle. He's tall and looks like Apocalypse from X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) or Force of Nature (Douglas Shuler illustration) and he sounds like Darth Vader. Anyway, this guy emerges from the netherworld and spends a few weeks vaporizing Nazis. There's a basic good and evil duality going on in the film but it's atypical because the "bad guy" is the antagonist of the Nazis. This one was moody and gloomy but had a score featuring rollicking synthesizers from Tangerine Dream. At times it felt like watching an understated Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) from the periphery. There are a lot of ambiguities due to the film being spliced and diced. So the final product feels obscurant. James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Hesitation (32 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #34 Fireworks AKA Hana-bi - Feels like it may be time to watch this one. 6/16/20 #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also, Alan Parker. 7/31/20new #37 Walking and Talking - Catherine Keener cult classic. 8/8/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (90/100 completed): Rosetta - Never seen a Dardenne film actually. 6/5/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Aug 8, 2020 06:33
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Mad Max I've seen a few movies in this thread that kind of bounced off of me, and this was sort of, kind of one of them. I liked it, but I was weirdly unengaged. Part of this, I think, is the wonky pacing - it feels like a very "and then" movie, with the stakes sort of jumping up and down now and again. The opening sequence takes about ten minutes to get through, and it has some decent car stuff but it's also strangely clumsy, focusing for a while on a pair of bumbling cops, then a secondary character, and then Mad Max appears and does...something? Which produces a lovely explosion. Then there are villains, and then a character gets into a bike crash, but he's fine, but then on the way back he gets into another crash and almost dies, and then the main characters go on vacation, and then, and then... So it's not the most enthralling script, and there are loads and loads of really bad B-movies from this same era with similar issues, but the style makes this a viable cult film. The post-apocalyptic elements mostly seep in around the edges, more suggestion than backstory or world-building, and there are a number of oddball side characters that add a lot of color (the fussy police commissioner, Labatouche, and the social worker with the Charles Nelson Reilley sunglasses were my favorites). It's shot in a dynamic, grimy fashion, and it features wonderful bursts of nasty, darkly comic violence, including a terrific rape and car destruction sequence. In fact, the whole thing feels like a more brutal version of A Clockwork Orange, like Kubrick with a venereal disease. It's a wormy, hairy, sweaty little movie. Also, can we talk about the homosexual overtones? I love that. The characters wearing all leather, or the bald, mustachio'd man wearing just leather pants and a black silk scarf while he chomps a cigar and waters his plants, or the effeminate violence of the villainous gang. The leader wears eyeshadow, has long hair, and speaks with a certain cattiness, and one of his henchmen is wearing a woman's blouse, with a low-cut, slouching neckline. In fact, it's hard to think of a character outside of Max and his family who don't come across as somehow (and I'm speaking in terms of the era this was created) deviant. The cops and the criminals both engage in destruction, killing for sport, and Max, with his nuclear family, is trapped in the middle. At times I felt like I was continuing to watch more out of duty than out of narrative captivation, but at other times, particularly when the atmosphere comes to the forefront, or the pacing gathers itself into a gallop, it's striking. 7/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Evil Dead - cabin movie 3) Come And See - oh god 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Friday the 13th - slasher movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10, Mad Max 7/10 (total: 174) Zogo gets Rosetta
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Aug 15, 2020 20:03
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Magic Hate Ball posted:Also, can we talk about the homosexual overtones? I love that. The characters wearing all leather, or the bald, mustachio'd man wearing just leather pants and a black silk scarf while he chomps a cigar and waters his plants, or the effeminate violence of the villainous gang. The leader wears eyeshadow, has long hair, and speaks with a certain cattiness, and one of his henchmen is wearing a woman's blouse, with a low-cut, slouching neckline. In fact, it's hard to think of a character outside of Max and his family who don't come across as somehow (and I'm speaking in terms of the era this was created) deviant. The cops and the criminals both engage in destruction, killing for sport, and Max, with his nuclear family, is trapped in the middle. Bubba Zanetti (Geoff Parry) reminds me of Rob Halford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1YndrF8GiU A lot of the cast would fit well in a Judas Priest music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKuuHfMx3CQ
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Aug 15, 2020 21:48
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Magic Hate Ball posted:3) Come And See - oh god "I know where they are." Rosetta - This one focuses heavily on the titular character (Emilie Dequenne) with lots of closeup framing. She's a frantic and combative teenager who's constantly fighting with (and taking care of) her alcoholic mother. She's also constantly laid off and rejected over and over which leads to her frustration. When she's let go from somewhere she always raises hell. It's a timely topic considering the tens of millions who've lost their jobs recently. She's just looking for stability and normalcy like most others. Some of her actions demonstrate an ambivalence as she sometimes prefers to stay in the doldrums (subsisting by catching fish) and other times she has a dog-eat-dog mentality and is ready to betray friends. It's unique in that most films don't explore a young female protagonist with this much dynamism or candidness. Also, the film has basically no music which makes for a nice change of pace. Also watched: Fireworks - The protagonist is a sullen and stoic ex-cop who occasionally has violent outbursts against those who have crossed him (mainly gangsters wanting money from him). He's also become jaded due to his wife having terminal cancer. The film jumps around a lot but always circles back to a pivotal police shooting featuring gruesome flashbacks that are played in slow motion. Some of the characters go through their own identity crises as a result of the aftermath of the shooting. It also features a lot of artwork by one of the injured policemen which brings about a contemplative and melancholy feeling. I kind of saw the end coming as Takeshi Kitano's character had burned so many bridges. James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Hesitation (33 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also, Alan Parker. 7/31/20#37 Walking and Talking - Catherine Keener cult classic. 8/8/20 new #38 To Have and Have Not - From what I've heard this one sounds similar to Casablanca. 8/27/20 new #39 Tora! Tora! Tora! - A movie that will live in infamy forever. 8/27/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (91/100 completed): Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Aug 28, 2020 05:42
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Zogo, see Tora, Tora, Tora Saw Sideways. I have to say, I just didn't care for it. It seemed like a lot of last fling before marriage movies, and I just couldn't get into either of the two main characters. Seemed very shallow and almost exploitative. The wine country scenery was very good, but it just didn't seem to be my type of movie. Also saw Camelot. Very good acting by Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave. The sets, scenery and music were very impressive and the story, while well known, was interesting and kept you involved. My List: Fort Apache - This will be my John Wayne spot for now. Mean Girls - My teenage daughter is shocked that I've never seen this movie. Jabberwocky - Following up one Terry Gilliam movie with another. The Cocoanuts - Working my way through the Marx Brothers movies. This is their first movie. Sunrise - A friend of mine who likes silent movies recommended this one. Looking forward to seeing it. Pelle the Conquerer - Big fan of Max Von Sydow. Need to see more of his work. Transformers: The Movie - Taking a break from Studio Ghibli. Not the Michael Bay movies. The animated movie from the 80's. Meet Me in St. Louis - I know Judy Garland is in this, but that's all I know about it. NEWEST Die Nibelungen - Interested in seeing another Fritz Lang picture. OLDEST Arsenic and Old Lace - Another Cary Grant picture. A Hard Day's Night - A slot here for Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles movies. It's the Beatles turn.
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Sep 4, 2020 01:45
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Come and See I'm always a little wary of "suffering movies". One potential downfall is that, by being mediocre and like others in the genre, a movie like this can arrive utterly deadened, too respectable, too well-made and polished to have any kind of actual impact (e.g., the cotton-ball plushness of The Pianist, or Spielberg's clumsy and hollow Empire of the Sun). There are movies like this where you just kind of roll your eyes because it's like watching a hackneyed boarding school movie, except instead of kids being short-sheeted and playing doctor, people are being loaded into gas chambers and sobbing amongst ruins. It's a little bit insulting, even borderline offensive to some degree, to use the subject of war crimes or generally violent human instability as a springboard into feeble awards-grabs. But the good versions are great! One of my favorites is Bergman's Shame, which gave me severe nightmares. What I love about that movie, and about all great examples of this kind of film, is that it feels like it's being screamed out by someone who can't hold the story in any longer. There's a furious desperation at work, and that makes it both riveting and sympathetic, and a very, very strong point of view. Come and See is that kind, thankfully, and is great. My favorite element is that it's both surreal and vividly earthy. It's gorgeously textured, like a Tarkovsky film, so packed with visual feeling that it comes off the screen and envelops you. In one scene, two characters are attempting to steal a cow, and are interrupted by gunfire. They duck down in the foggy meadow amongst rifts of tiny purple flowers, the light above them hazy and pastel, the bullets flying overhead in converging laser-red parallel lines. Bright, glittering flecks of shrapnel cluster in the corners of the screen, caught, magnified, and warped by the lens. It's a moment that's completely unique, both dreamlike and factual. It's also, overall, just a masterpiece of audio-visual craftsmanship. A plane flying overhead is suggested by a low electronic drone, which merges with the rest of the soundtrack. A long post-explosion deafness sequence includes a jolting use of 30s pop music. The camera often dollies or stumbles (steadicam, I imagine) across the landscape, in one case rotating nightmarishly around a barn on fire, or stares straight-on at the characters, who look directly into the lens, their shoulders and ears disappearing in the shallow focus. These movie tricks are pulled constantly, producing an inescapable fever-dream atmosphere, not telling you this is what it felt like, but this is how it feels. I put it off for a long time because I often expect these movies to be kind of dry and sullen, but Come and See is a juicy, toxic hallucination. I couldn't be more pleased. 10/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Evil Dead - cabin movie 3) Sicario - villenueve movie 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Friday the 13th - slasher movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10, Mad Max 7/10, Come and See 10/10 (total: 175) Dmitri Russkie gets A Hard Day's Night
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Sep 12, 2020 22:48
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Magic Hate Ball posted:10) Friday the 13th - slasher movie "His name was Jason." Magic Hate Ball posted:In one scene, two characters are attempting to steal a cow, and are interrupted by gunfire. They duck down in the foggy meadow amongst rifts of tiny purple flowers, the light above them hazy and pastel, the bullets flying overhead in converging laser-red parallel lines. Bright, glittering flecks of shrapnel cluster in the corners of the screen, caught, magnified, and warped by the lens. It's a moment that's completely unique, both dreamlike and factual. That's also one of my favorite scenes. Tora! Tora! Tora! - This has some humor but the first ninety minutes features so much dialogue. Dialogue isn't bad itself e.g. Gettysburg (1993) has a huge amount of talking but it's philosophical and character-driven. However, in this one it's mostly repetitive and stale procedural/ceremonial stuff. Incompetent and incredulous officers tepidly arguing with one another over the dilemma of not knowing when a future attack will happen etc. I think most historians of today will find it to be informative but it was probably more enamoring for the viewers fifty years ago who lived through the events and were looking for some minutiae. It has its moments though as the second half gets to the action which is basically a huge lopsided massacre of US sailors and ships and planes. It's rated G so I wasn't expecting anything visceral but we do see the Japanese blow everything up. The planes finally take off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvt76v-kBzg&t=126s PS Pearl Harbor (2001) lifted some scenes from this one. And at other times I was reminded of The Final Countdown (1980). James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Hesitation (34 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #35 The Big Heat - The Big Sleep and White Heat were good. Let's see if this one is as well. 7/10/20 #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also, Alan Parker. 7/31/20#37 Walking and Talking - Catherine Keener cult classic. 8/8/20 #38 To Have and Have Not - From what I've heard this one sounds similar to Casablanca. 8/27/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (93/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 new #94 Where Is the Friend's House? - Been on the radar for a long time. 9/14/20 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (91/100 completed): Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Sep 14, 2020 06:06
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RND gives Zogo quote:#35 The Big Heat Waltz with Bashir Writer/director Ari Foldman tries to remember the part he played in the 1982 Lebanon War. It's part drama, part documentary, with (animated) interviews of real people who witnessed the war. It's a conflict we don't talk about in the west - I have to admit I'd not even heard of Bashir Gemayel I liked the art style, but the animation is quite strange. It makes extensive use of flash cutouts, so the movement often looks flat, especially dialogue scenes where people are just sitting and drinking. The battle scenes looked to be animated traditionally and it doesn't shy away from the bloody business of war. The film is about the nature of memory, and how it can be distorted or suppressed. We open with one soldier's recurring nightmare of being chased by dogs, caused by traumatic memories of the war. Foldman talks to his friends and therapist about what really happened. It's grim viewing at times, but it does feel like the film itself is a form of therapy for Foldman. My List: 1) (highest ranked imdb) 1917 2) (comedy) Any Luarel and Hardy feature film Not seen one before 3) (animation) Anomalisa interesting concept 4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves 5) (foreign language) Wild Strawberries I should watch more Bergman 6) (Western or Musical) Moulin Rouge One of the biggest hits of that weird early noughts musical revival period 7) (Horror) I Spit on your Grave (1978) Infamous 8) (sci fi/fantasy) Alphaville sounds intriguing 9) (epic) The Last Emperor 10) (wildcard) Quardophenia mods vs rockers Watched (94): Taxi Driver; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Iron Giant; Platoon; American History X; City Lights; My Neighbour Totoro; Rashomon; Duck Soup; Friday 13th (1980); Birdman; Frankenstein (1931); Time Bandits; Carrie (1976); King Kong (1933); Das Boot; The Blair Witch Project (1999); The Sting; Annie Hall; The Bridge on the River Kwai; The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Godzilla (1954); Bicycle Thieves; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974); The English Patient; Scanners; Forbidden Planet; Deliverance; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Life is Beautiful; Minority Report; Rosemary's Baby; On the Waterfront; Solaris (1972); Driving Miss Daisy; Eraserhead; M (1931); This is Spinal Tap; Death Race 2000; The Producers (1967); Martin; Easy Rider; Office Space; Ghost in the Shell (1995); The Kid; Freaks (1932); The Abyss; Ben Hur (1959); Poltergeist (1982); Escape from New York; Once Upon a Time in America; Phantasm; Dracula (1958); Videodrome; Slumdog Millionaire; The Blob (1958); The Blob (1988); My Fair Lady; Avengers: Infinity War; Cinema Paradiso; 8 1/2; The Lord of the Rings (1978); Logan's Run; Willow; Misery; Bringing up Baby; Aguirre, The Wrath of God; The Man Who Fell to Earth; Candyman; The Dark Crystal; Tron; Andhadhun; Avengers: Endgame; The Lives of Others; Critters; Harakiri (1962); Blood and Black Lace; Grave of the Fireflies; The Seven Year Itch; Wings; Modern Times; The Searchers; Coraline; Cabaret; Tokyo Story; Joker; Dr Zhivago; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Hidden Fortress; An American in Paris; Der Golem; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Sholay; Waltz with Bashir
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Sep 14, 2020 13:27
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bitterandtwisted posted:4) (Academy Award winner) Dances with Wolves "Many times I'd felt alone, but until this afternoon I'd never felt completely lonely." The Big Heat - This one is filled with cynical, evasive and threatening characters. It starts off with a Sergeant investigating a mysterious suicide that quickly unravels his own life in a variety of ways. He ends up going rogue and pushing things too far himself. He learns that corruption goes straight to the very top. One aspect that stood out was how many of the women were manhandled and physically abused in the film. Stranglings, being thrown across the room, hot coffee splashed in the face, burnt with cigars etc. It's no wonder that one picks up a gun near the end and turns the tables. Lee Marvin makes an early appearance in this one. Also watched: Where Is the Friend's House? - Like The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) this one taps into childhood problems, confusion and miscommunication. When one student loses his school notebook another student goes on an ambitious quest to return it. But it's a big world and young kids can easily get pushed around when dealing with adults. These students reminded me of careless kids I knew in grade school. The kind of kids who'd bring homework home but not want to do it and come to the simple solution to dump it all into the neighborhood mailbox. In the end it's a simple story of altruism. PS It shares some story elements with Children of Heaven (1997). James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): new Godzilla vs. Mothra - Mothra is back after a long hiatus. 9/28/20 Hesitation (35 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also, Alan Parker. 7/31/20#37 Walking and Talking - Catherine Keener cult classic. 8/8/20 #38 To Have and Have Not - From what I've heard this one sounds similar to Casablanca. 8/27/20 new #40 Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills - I saw a little of this on TV late one night. 9/28/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (94/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 #98 In the Heat of the Sun - Going into this one blindly. 10/23/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (91/100 completed): Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Sep 29, 2020 05:47
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Friday the 13th One of the things that prompted me to revisit Antonioni in this thread was seeing a film installation at a museum in which the opening sequence to L'Eclisse was re-assembled and played in a randomized loop, accompanied by a new, understated foley design and soundtrack. It was hypnotizing and eerie, the two characters moving around in random patterns, encountering or avoiding each other, like seeing the "wrong" side of the movie, where the characters exist between scenes, not fully formed. Friday the 13th reminded me of that, in that it's like seeing the wrong side of a slasher film, the structure removed, leaving mostly this weird languor punctuated with oddly subdued, almost rote violence. Of the three big horror franchise-launchers, the other two being Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street, I think this goes at the bottom. I knew nothing about it going in, and was surprised by the fact that Jason isn't even in it (the murders are almost entirely committed by a wandering camera, and often actually take place off-screen, which actually was a lot of fun for me as I really had no idea who the killer was). Going with the idea of this being the wrong side of a movie, here is a franchise-starter missing everything famous about it except for the most basic plot and location elements. No hockey mask, even, just a group of 20-somethings passing time and dying. Every scene is drawn out, lingering, like a piece of minimalist music, so slowly coming to the expected endpoint that it becomes strangely mesmerizing. It's also absolutely a B-movie, which is just great. Most of the acting is really not very good, a lot of scenes have the vibe of being shot in a hurry, and the script feels super first-drafty. At one point, two characters are looking out at an oncoming storm, and someone off-screen briefly toggles what was probably a work light on and off. "Wow!", says one character, "that was some lighting!" However, this is offset by a couple of extremely effective kill moments, and it works in favor of the protracted atmosphere. Overall, though it's not as punchy and taut as either Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street, it fits in really well with other culty, indie horror movies like Sleepaway Camp and Slumber Party Massacre. If it's not totally cohesive, it's still crafted, and it's just fun seeing a movie that feels like it was handmade. I think that's kind of the joy of these movies, watching them produces the same kind of communal glow I get from using lumpy stoneware pottery from the flea market. It's kind of hard to drink coffee out of, but someone made it, and that makes me happy. 7/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Evil Dead - cabin movie 3) Sicario - villenueve movie 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) Predator - choppa movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10, Mad Max 7/10, Come and See 10/10, Friday the 13th 7/10 (total: 176) Zogo gets In The Heat of the Sun
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Oct 5, 2020 15:59
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Magic Hate Ball posted:Zogo gets In The Heat of the Sun Do you want to pick another from my list? It looks like all the copies available on YouTube with English subtitles have been deleted. I can't find it anywhere.
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Oct 6, 2020 23:22
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Of course! I grant thee Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
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Oct 6, 2020 23:39
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Magic Hate Ball, Haven't seen any on your list. I'll say .... watch Predator Finished watching A Hard Day's Night. Very fun movie. Hard to get into at first, but I really enjoyed it. Between this and Yellow Submarine, (which are the only two Beatles movies I've seen) I'm really looking forward to the next one. Captures the obsession of Beatlemania perfectly, and shows how they just would like to get away at times. Also, Paul's grandfather was a hoot. My List: Fort Apache - This will be my John Wayne spot for now. Mean Girls - My teenage daughter is shocked that I've never seen this movie. Jabberwocky - Following up one Terry Gilliam movie with another. The Cocoanuts - Working my way through the Marx Brothers movies. This is their first movie. Sunrise - A friend of mine who likes silent movies recommended this one. Looking forward to seeing it. Pelle the Conquerer - Big fan of Max Von Sydow. Need to see more of his work. Transformers: The Movie - Taking a break from Studio Ghibli. Not the Michael Bay movies. The animated movie from the 80's. Meet Me in St. Louis - I know Judy Garland is in this, but that's all I know about it. Die Nibelungen - Interested in seeing another Fritz Lang picture. OLDEST Arsenic and Old Lace - Another Cary Grant picture. Ocean's 11 - A slot here for Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles movies. This is the original with Frank Sinatra. NEWEST.
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Oct 7, 2020 20:52
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Magic Hate Ball, you should def continue with the Friday series. They absolutely evolve and each film has its own unique take on the same basic story.
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Oct 7, 2020 21:29
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I actually watched Part 2 last night, and I'm planning on watching Part 3(D!) shortly, partially because it was in 3D but also because it's the first appearance of the hockey mask. Part 2 was definitely worse than the first one and felt kind of awesomely slapped together (what happened to the nerdy guy at the bar?), but it's also kind of fun in a hokey way. The opening title being the same, but then with "PART TWO" literally exploding in made me laugh.
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Oct 7, 2020 23:38
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Part 3 was filmed in 3D, so expect lots of murder implements comin' atcha.
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Oct 8, 2020 00:07
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I know this is totally "you gotta watch three lovely seasons but then season four rules" but Part 6 is an all-timer. Then again, so is 4.
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Oct 8, 2020 02:28
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Dmitri Russkie posted:Meet Me in St. Louis - I know Judy Garland is in this, but that's all I know about it. "Clang, clang, clang went the trolley." Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills - This one takes a look at the sociopathic wealthy and some of their struggles with sex and class. The characters in this one reminded of some from Ghosts Can't Do It (1989) and Decontructing Harry (1997). It also has elements of social hypocrisy that are showcased in Keeping Up Appearances (1990-1995). It examines how people can be two-faced in a variety of ways and that age-old distinction between appearance and reality. There's a story here but it's all wrapped up in so much jokey melodrama that the stakes don't feel very high. But it's still funny at times. James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Godzilla vs. Mothra - Mothra is back after a long hiatus. 9/28/20 Hesitation (36 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #36 Angel Heart - Some say it's underwatched and underrated. Also, Alan Parker. 7/31/20#37 Walking and Talking - Catherine Keener cult classic. 8/8/20 #38 To Have and Have Not - From what I've heard this one sounds similar to Casablanca. 8/27/20 new #41 Frankenstein Conquers the World - Another big monster film. 10/9/20 new #42 Limelight - One of the last major Chaplin films I haven't seen. 10/9/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (94/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (91/100 completed): Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20
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Oct 9, 2020 06:03
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Zogo, you get Angel Heart. drat I can't believe this thread is over ten years old. I've been participating off and on since page 3. I think I'll jump back in again after a couple year hiatus. I have no idea which movie was assigned to me last, so I'll just start a fresh list. To mix things up a little I'm going to source my list from both They Shoot Pictures, Don't They and They Shoot Zombies, Don't They. My List: ----- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? ----- 118. Beau Travail (1999) - I know nothing about this - 10/27/20 121. A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - Rented it once but never watched it - 10/27/20 123. Yi Yi (2000) - Always on many best of the 21st century lists - 10/27/20 129. Rome, Open City (1945) - Rossellini's Journey to Italy was good - 10/27/20 144. The Passenger (1975) - Antonioni has been hit or miss for me - 10/27/20 ----- They Shoot Zombies, Don't They? ----- 77. Kwaidan (1964) - Supposed to be slow and spooky - 10/27/20 80. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) - One of the few adaptations of this I haven't seen - 10/27/20 81. Onibaba (1964) - I've been admiring the Criterion artwork for like 15 years - 10/27/20 111. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - Supposedly some incredible performances - 10/27/20 116. Witchfinder General (1968) - Vincent Price is the best - 10/27/20 Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 27, 2020 |
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Oct 27, 2020 18:08
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Predator It's been a busy couple of weeks for me (including watching The Sequels Friday 2-4), but I've also been putting off writing this review because I just don't have much to say about it. It's fine. It does everything it does okay, but for me it's lacking a certain something, and in many ways it feels kind of perfunctory. Some of the gore is terrific (the dead bodies in the first act are particularly chilling), but there's an overall lack of payoff. I think "lacking" is the main word for this, it's not that it's bad, it's just missing that thing that makes movies like this stand out. Of the various franchise-launchers I've watched this year, this is probably the lowest on the pole. I really don't usually struggle this much to write about these movies. It was fine. I could easily imagine myself going on a hot July night to see this at the cineplex in 1987, though I would probably rather have seen Robocop. 5/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Evil Dead - cabin movie 3) Sicario - villenueve movie 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) A League Of Their Own - baseball movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10, Mad Max 7/10, Come and See 10/10, Friday the 13th 7/10, Predator 5/10 (total: 177) Spatulator bro! gets A Brighter Summer Day, one of my favs...
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Oct 28, 2020 02:00
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Magic Hate Ball posted:3) Sicario - villenueve movie "Don't ever point a weapon at me again." Angel Heart - It's 1955 and Harry (Mickey Rourke) is an old-school detective from a bygone era. It's a PI mystery but it's unique as it comes with a big dose of the supernatural and also horror elements. Imagine if Humphrey Bogart played a detective in a film featuring a Universal Classic Monster. Robert De Niro plays a character that reminded me of Christopher Walken in The Prophecy (1995). Although he likes to showcase his very long and manicured nails. Anyway, Harry has no qualms about bending all kinds of rules to get information quickly. But everyone he talks to ends up dead in short-order. Lisa Bonet also sticks out as the mambo priestess doing scary voodoo rituals. Overall, kind of a nasty one when it touches on the issues brought up in films such as Lone Star (1996) and Oldboy (2003) and One False Move (1992). It finishes with an abrupt ending as the protagonist basically acknowledges that he's fated to burn in hell for his many transgressions. So the story isn't exactly appealing for general audiences. Also watched: Walking and Talking - A humorous examination of a few neurotic and forlorn Gen Xers. And then some vignettes highlighting relational tensions (both romantic ones and platonic ones). Catherine Keener puts forth a refreshingly candid and earthy performance. She's become the third wheel as her best friend is engaged. She goes through therapy to deal with this loss (and her cat being sick as well). A lot of the action revolves around renting VHS tapes from a store. I miss that sometimes. James Bond versus Godzilla (40/64 completed): Godzilla vs. Mothra - Mothra is back after a long hiatus. 9/28/20 Hesitation (38 completed): #31 Orange County - A star-studded cast. 4/7/20 #38 To Have and Have Not - From what I've heard this one sounds similar to Casablanca. 8/27/20 #41 Frankenstein Conquers the World - Another big monster film. 10/9/20 #42 Limelight - One of the last major Chaplin films I haven't seen. 10/9/20 BBC Culture: The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films (94/100 completed): #88 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - I haven't seen a Mizoguchi film in years. 12/7/19 DVD Beaver's Top 100 Desert Island Films (91/100 completed): new The Golem - A superhero made out of clay. 10/30/20 new They Live by Night - Another esteemed one by Nicholas Ray. 10/30/20 Too Late for Tears - An interesting title. 5/27/20 Woman on the Run - Apparently an underwatched film noir. 6/16/20 Zogo fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Oct 30, 2020 |
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Oct 30, 2020 06:17
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Sicario Part of the reason I like the movies that I like is that, typically, they provide a new perspective, or a new dynamic. It's exciting to visit something familiar from a unique direction, or be immersed in a reconfiguration of perception - the cartel drama, for example, is a genre that feels like it's been sucked dry. Some characters go to the border, or south of it, standing around in dumpy abodes or on baked, yellow desert plains, having shallow adventures involving suspicious sacks of powder. There are elements of Sicario that touch on this, but Villenueve takes such a strange perspective on it that it comes across as fresh, even five years and one orange nightmare later. Villenueve's sense of style is on full display here. I've seen him referred to as a chilly director, working at an emotional remove, but I don't really buy that. He's observational and often contemplative, but also playful and has a great way of balancing conscious stylization with visual subjectivity. He has a knack for communicating through light and texture, which is not only fun to look at but produces an enveloping sense of there-ness. An office scene is dominated by glossy greens and blues, the characters framed against glass walls and receding grids of ceiling lights, and a later scene, set at dusk, features the characters descending against the flushed horizon into the murky darkness below, their silhouettes at first seeming to descend into a black pool, and then, for a surreal moment, looking like giants behind the distant mountains. Narratively there are plenty of surprises, as well. If Blunt's character is kind of comically naive, it serves the script in the sense of inverting the expected arc and creating a sort of Eyes Wide Shut-style comedy of disappointment. Blunt, like most Americans, is out of her depth, being used and abused by the people she thinks she can climb the ranks with - the personal may be political, but the political is personal as well. Systems are not only not immune to base human cruelties, but are agonizingly susceptible to them. There's a great line in Laurie Anderson's menacing Reagan-era new wave nightmare song Sharkey's Night, accompanied by the sounds of distant explosions, where she sings (in an artificially lowered voice used to represent male power) "Hey - what's that big noise in the sky? Sounds like thunder...nope. Sounds like the fourth of July...nope. Wrong again. You know? It's just those angels walking. They're clomping around again, wearing those big clumsy shoes we got for them." What Blunt comes up against is the personification of these gigantic systemic threats, these huge things happening out of our control, but created by us. We all share in her humiliation, and that's what I really loved about this movie, is that it's all about Blunt's failure to understand and the punishment that results. Failure and disappointment are two powerful things, and it's a thrill to see them exploited like this. I feel like it's perverse to suggest that this is an entertaining film, but I was solidly entertained. For whatever faults it has, it feels like a complete package. 10/10 shamezone 1) Cries and Whispers - red movie 2) Evil Dead - cabin movie 3) One Sings, The Other Doesn't - varda! 4) Cache - hidden movie 5) The Tree of Wooden Clogs - mike leigh's favorite 6) Last House on the Left - violent movie 7) Salesman - real movie 8) Grizzly Man - bear movie 9) Alexander Nevsky - ice movie 10) A League Of Their Own - baseball movie [full list] 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, Odd Man Out 8/10, The Passion of Anna 9/10, Brute Force 10/10, The Rite 5/10, The Piano Teacher 10/10, Ashes and Diamonds 7/10, Meantime 9/10, Carnival of Souls 8/10, La Notte 10/10, Frances Ha 10/10, L'avventura, Again 10/10, A Room With a View 9/10, Laura 8/10, Marjorie Prime 10/10, Ex Machina 8/10, Tampopo 10/10, Pickpocket 4/10, Harlan County USA 10/10, The Spirit of the Beehive 10/10, Heaven's Gate 4/10, A Short Film About Killing 9/10, The Pillow Book 6/10, Desert Hearts 9/10, Alice in the Cities 10/10, Yi Yi 10/10, Rififi 9/10, Children of Paradise 10/10, A Poem is a Naked Person 8/10, Late Autumn 8/10, Chimes at Midnight 10/10 Watership Down 9/10, Ugetsu 9/10, Veronika Voss 9/10, The Hidden Fortress 7/10, Close-Up 10/10, Journey to Italy 10/10, L'Eclisse 7/10, Andrei Rublev 11/10, Vagabond 9/10, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9/10, Shoplifters 10/10, Escape From New York 10/10, Die Hard 10/10, The Last Picture Show 9/10, Mr Smith Goes To Washington 8/10, Saturday Night Fever 9/10, First Blood 7/10, Mad Max 7/10, Come and See 10/10, Friday the 13th 7/10, Predator 5/10, Sicario 10/10 (total: 178) Zogo gets Limelight
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Nov 4, 2020 18:33
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