Film Thread
I just noticed we haven't got a film thread, pretty much state a film or two which you have seen recently and thoughts about it.
Inglourious Basterds: a fantastic return to Tarantino's style of old. Go see it.
District 9: another fantastic film, done in a documentary style, with some really excellent characters.
Inglourious Basterds: a fantastic return to Tarantino's style of old. Go see it.
District 9: another fantastic film, done in a documentary style, with some really excellent characters.
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Rope: A fantastic Alfred Hitchcock film I hadn't heard of before. It had some very good themes and a great plot, though the TV Guide spoiled it for me. But this is one of the few movies I've seen where you know the plot twist but you're still filled with tension. Hitchcock is really a great director. Jimmy Stewart was great and the acting was top notch.
Ghostbusters 2: Ghostbusters never gets old. Never.
Blazing Saddles: While it's not the best Brooks film, it certainly has some of the funniest lines. "What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?"
"The Separation" by Robert Morgan.
Reccomended heavily.
I haven't really come across any movie I really liked in the last few years, though.
Certainly not.
Life During Wartime: This is the sequel to Happiness, one of my favorite black comedies. It was very funny, and true to the first film in style, but I worry that Solondz might have put himself in a corner with this because A) It kind of does require that you have seen Happiness in order to be able to get all the jokes and understand what's happening quickly and
That said, I enjoyed it a lot. It's very dark, but it's not as oppressive and nihilistic as Solondz's other movies, with a theme of forgiveness (even if that forgiveness never comes). The new cast is mostly good, and Paul Reubens' part is great (he plays the ghost of Andy, Jon Lovitz's character), but even with very different actors in the roles, it's hard not to compare them to the old actors (Michael K Williams gets off slightly easier because they've retooled his character a bit to accommodate his new race). So yeah, basically a "for fans only" affair, but a worthy follow up.
A Serious Man: This is a pretty unique film for the Coens. The humor is still their usual style and straight-faced delivery, but it's by far their least narrative movie ever. Where the Coens usually seem concerned with big, violent plot twists, this is a small, quiet, film without a lot of flash or fury. That, coupled with the love of suburban Jews actually reminds me a bit of Solondz's work, although the humor is obviously of a different sort.
The ending is ridiculously abrupt, and the story never really goes anywhere, which ties in with the theme of uncertainty in the movie. On that level it works, but don't expect the usual noir-tinged drama with a traditional three act structure, because it just isn't here. I saw a good short today, too. It was called Socarrat, a Spanish short about a dysfunctional family. Very good dark comedy. I wouldn't mind seeing it fleshed out into a feature.
Hancock got better from the halfway point I thought. He was a really likeable character, but I admit the whole him being Thor plotline was a bit farfetched, but it is a superhero movie.
First half wasn't as good a parody as I thought, but I totally got sucked in half way, you had so much empathy with his situation and I liked the whole love interest/weakness thing.
Philosophy of a Knife, on the other hand... I knew it wouldn't be a good documentary, so I can't fault it there. It's very much a gore flick that just happens to be filled with dry facts and interviews about Unit 731. And as far as the shock factor goes, it succeeds in spades. For the sake of the family-friendly nature of the forum, let's just say it makes Men Behind the Sun and Salo: 120 Days of Sodom look like Disney films.
That being said, this film is very hard to sit through, but not because of the torture. It's four hours of drawn-out shots of absolutely nothing, followed by interview segments with the world's slowest speaking Russian man, slideshows of war photos overdubbed with a narrator that sounds extremely bored, and then re-enactments of 731's "experiments", which lose a bit of their impact due to ridiculous sound effects. You almost expect slide whistles and "boing" sounds at some points. Were they going for "Japan's Funniest Home Mutilations"?
And yet, despite all of that, I'd still recommend this film to those with a love for history and a stomach of steel. It's sheer pretentious exploitation, but the info on Unit 731 and the interviews with a guy who actually ran into them are well worth the bad film-making.
It was
Land of the Lost: Now I kind of suspect the sentiment about Will Ferrell and that he's not that funny, but the movie is pretty good. Not great for kids.
Star Trek XI: I pretty much forgot how many times I've seen this one, but it still is a great movie.
Night At the Museum 2: This one I know people think isn't that great, but I need to say one thing. It promoted Amy Adams onto my top 10 favorite female actors, and possibly even top 10 favorite actors overall. Seriously, she looks hot with glasses. Of course I'm pretty biased and think most women look in fact better with glasses, but that's probably not really the point. Other than that, pretty much campy acting on her part most of the time. Seriously, it worked on Giselle, probably not so much on Emilia Earhart. And we all know she can do more serious stuff. Ben Stiller himself pretty much looks weird when trying bad-ass. In fact, the whole movie was pretty camp, but fun nevertheless.
That film had sooo much potential but just became a bloated mess, for instance, this is just what I think, but most of the Cuba part could of been cut and it wouldn't of made a difference to the plot!
Other than that, the most recent movie I watched was The Twilight Samurai, which I found to be beautiful and moving. Reminiscent of Kurosawa, I'd go so far as to say. Definitely not fast-paced, but if you let the story unfold, it does so at just the right speed. I wish more filmmakers would occasionally slow down and let the story tell itself.
Surrogates
Not as good as the trailers and the premise and the reviews make it sound. Basically a huge disappointment. I can't even tell if it hangs on decent or just not it.
I recently also had a filmathon, where I began watching pretty much a lot of movies I bought on Blu-Ray recently, here in random order:
Night at the Museum 2
So apparently this one wasn't as badly rated as I thought it was, and it seems only those elitist movie goers had this sentiment, probably. But anyway, it still didn't bore me.
Ghostbusters
Anyone who doesn't like this movie doesn't like this movie. But I liked it, and I still like it. And apparently a lot of other people do as well. And the game this movie was packed with was pretty good as well. I only need to play it further past level Stay Puft.
Soul Men
It's pretty much a road trip to the soul, man. Also a great ending to the carreers of both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. Not really a movie for everyone, but a good movie for those who like the soulful music. Also, I didn't know you could line-dance to such music.
Push
Yeah, don't know what I'll have to think about it. I personally liked the movie. Wasn't the best, but it wasn't lower than good either. It was good. But then again there are some plot points that seem all too familiar, which are executed in the predictable way, so you know beforehand how the basic story is going to end. So yeah.
Scooby-Doo
I love Scooby-Doo.
17 Again
Basically the all-famous transformation with an all-famous moral. Not a bad movie, although some might claim otherwise. Also, Zac Efron is a basketballer yet again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-wqmnJrOFM
The fact that I watched the whole movie proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have problems...
Watchmen: Directors Cut - if you read the book, and If youre not a "fall on your knees fanboy" who angrily blogs over the changed ending, youll find it to be pretty epic.
Was this before or after he lost his hand?
A classic is all I have to say.
The deliciously macabre story and the fantastic gothic Victorian make-up added a lot, but it was the world they inhabited that I loved so much. It's great, to be able to see someone's creativity go full bloom like that. I never, not for one moment, thought "Tim Burton". Don't get me wrong, it IS his style, but it's also very much not. A stellar job all around.
My only "meh" thing to the film was that the secondary characters were criminally underdeveloped. And that's it.
First musical I've enjoyed in ages. I think I'm going to buy the DVD.
I cannot speak to "Kiss Me Kate" but I LOVE 1776! As a history and a theater nerd, it's pretty much the perfect musical to me! You touched on the two major performances, but I also love Ron Holgate's energetic goofiness as Richard Henry Lee (watching him perform that song makes me think that he could play Stan in a Monkey Island movie) and John Cullum's dark intensity as Edward Rutledge. Superbly done! Both those parts are on my list of dream roles...
"The Lees of Old Virginia" is actually #1 on my iTunes top 25 most played list...
based on a true story,
"Mary and Max" made me friggen cry so hard I couldn't believe it was animated and could still evoke this.
I really wanna see that 2
I have a feeling it will flop in the long run, though. It doesn't pander to the type that needs action, explosions, swearing, or nudity every five seconds to stay interested, so it won't be successful after word gets around that it's mostly dialog and mood-setting.
"Anyway, don't see it....that is all." Really now? You should see a movie before making a final judgement on it. This is why critics watch films before they write their reviews. You can't review something you've never experienced. That's probably the reason the review you read gave it a B+: The critic watched the film, drew his/her own conclusions, and rated it accordingly.