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Movies you have seen recently?
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The Innocents (1963, Jack Clayton)
Watched it because it came highly recommended, and rightly so. Genuinely spooky with great acting (suprisingly) from the children. Probably one of the best horror movies utilizing children together with The Brood, The Children and Quién puede matar a un niño.
WTF IS THIS SHIT? I mean all these kind of movies suck arse but this...this...what is it?! This isn't a comedy, it's not even trying to be funny, it's embarrassing. At least with other movies like this they are garbage but there's still that tiny bit of effort, like in some way someone thought it was a nice idea but failed at it. This is like some D-grade youtube video with 1 star and 15 "This sucks fuck you" comments.
Lets see the skits here. Umm, old people talking about sex. Hahaha, it's funny because their old and gross!
Or how about the virgins who have sex and want to take it to the next level...with strap ons, midgets and sheep! Hahahaha, that's crazy!
Or the white chick bragging about fucking 2 black guys. Original shit!
Or a guy who wants to meet up with a hot chick for a fantasy rape and ends up going to the old ladies house. Hahaha..err...
The worst of all though was the teen guy who had an abe lincoln fetish so he goes back in time and gets ass fucked by abe lincoln! Who thinks of that?! It was just weird, and not because it's gay sex but...abe lincoln? Wtf? Why not have jesus suck off king kong while you're at it?
Worst movie I have ever seen. Andy Samberg and all the other idiots who made this need to be banned from any movie making again.
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Gran Torino - I've had this movie for awhile, just never got around to watching it. WHY DID I NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE BEFORE?!?! It was easily one of the best films I've seen in years.
I Love You, Man - Uh...this one surprised me. It was very subdued most of the time, which was refreshing in a modern R rated comedy. I never felt like the movie was trying to be raunchy for the sake of being raunchy. The problem with this one is I think they rushed the friendship scenes, it kinda all got distilled into a longer than usual montage. The "bromance" just didn't have time to cook up. Still pretty funny, better than most of the comedies I've watched recently.
I Love You, Man - Uh...this one surprised me. It was very subdued most of the time, which was refreshing in a modern R rated comedy. I never felt like the movie was trying to be raunchy for the sake of being raunchy. The problem with this one is I think they rushed the friendship scenes, it kinda all got distilled into a longer than usual montage. The "bromance" just didn't have time to cook up. Still pretty funny, better than most of the comedies I've watched recently.
Just saw Invictus, in a theatre with no heat whatsoever. It was worth nearly freezing to death over, really awesome and interesting look at Nelson Mandela and the Springbok rugby team. I don't know much at all of rugby, nor SA's history, but still a very powerful and interesting film. Definitely worth seeing.
Also saw the Book of Eli trailer, nice "BELIEVE" tagline too, Gary. Will be seeing this when it comes out, on principle.
Also saw the Book of Eli trailer, nice "BELIEVE" tagline too, Gary. Will be seeing this when it comes out, on principle.
afternoon delight
Member
Really been meaning to check this one out - definitely sounds worth watching.
Just finished Che (2008)
Having read a book or two on the man and the situations revolving around the uprising, this film is fucking perfect. Once again Sodebergh proves he's the most interesting man making movies right now. I can see a lot of dislike stemming from the fact that it's kind of like I'm not there - if you didn't know Bob Dylan's life then the movie was a mass of confusion. But if you do know anything about Che or want to see an excellent portrayal - check it out. Streamed it in HD from Netflix. So very textured and the tone is great: removed and involved at once, which sounds confusing, but that's how it feels.
Blood Diamond
proves once again how hard it is for Hollywood to do message movies without the message being negated by the fact that it's presented by, indeed, a dumb Hollywood movie. this one is very bipolar with bad melodrama on one end and omg riveting action sequences on the other. especially jarring were the three or four instances where the action followed up the sentimentality immediately. dicaprio and connelly having a tender talk and OH SHIT EXPLOSIONS RUN AWAY. hounsou being reconciled with his son and hugging him and GUNFIRE TAKE COVER!!!
the dialogue is beyond bad, especially in every scene where dicaprio and connelly are alone together.
"you american?"
"guilty"
"aren't all americans?"
really bad shit like that. putting two people in front of each other and having em spout cliches back and forth is not romantic. come to think of it, is there even a reason why a movie about the african diamond trade needed a subplot of a burgeoning love between two white people? for artistry's sake, definitely not. from the point of view of the movie's financiers, well, that's another story. can't have the good moviegoing public looking at a bunch of black africans for two and a half hours! so yeah... dumb movie.
The Crowd
"marriage isn't a word; it's a sentence." excellent and poignant silent about the trials and tribulations of domesticity. there's barely any crass sensationalising and some scenes are verisimilar almost to the point where it feels like a home movie. the couple's squabbling over insubstantial things is nearly as gripping as their major tragedies. very powerful performance by the male lead whose eyes project a palpable sense of disappointment with life and with being just another face in the crowd.
proves once again how hard it is for Hollywood to do message movies without the message being negated by the fact that it's presented by, indeed, a dumb Hollywood movie. this one is very bipolar with bad melodrama on one end and omg riveting action sequences on the other. especially jarring were the three or four instances where the action followed up the sentimentality immediately. dicaprio and connelly having a tender talk and OH SHIT EXPLOSIONS RUN AWAY. hounsou being reconciled with his son and hugging him and GUNFIRE TAKE COVER!!!
the dialogue is beyond bad, especially in every scene where dicaprio and connelly are alone together.
"you american?"
"guilty"
"aren't all americans?"
really bad shit like that. putting two people in front of each other and having em spout cliches back and forth is not romantic. come to think of it, is there even a reason why a movie about the african diamond trade needed a subplot of a burgeoning love between two white people? for artistry's sake, definitely not. from the point of view of the movie's financiers, well, that's another story. can't have the good moviegoing public looking at a bunch of black africans for two and a half hours! so yeah... dumb movie.
The Crowd
"marriage isn't a word; it's a sentence." excellent and poignant silent about the trials and tribulations of domesticity. there's barely any crass sensationalising and some scenes are verisimilar almost to the point where it feels like a home movie. the couple's squabbling over insubstantial things is nearly as gripping as their major tragedies. very powerful performance by the male lead whose eyes project a palpable sense of disappointment with life and with being just another face in the crowd.
Count Dookkake
Member
Balboa said:
You are so wrong about Bogus Journey.
Come on... Death, evil-robot-usses, De Nomolos (Sit Up Chamoion of the 27th Century), "our album covers lied to us." The laughs don't stop.
Just wait until you get to the undisputed greatest credit sequence of all time.
Some stuff I've seen over the last week or two (all for the first time):
Full Metal Jacket - Disappointment. Of all the strange things Kubrick has done in his films, this is the only one I truly do not understand on my own. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish with putting essentially two separate movies in one. Had he just ended the movie with
I would probably have a much higher opinion of this movie. As it stands, it's my second least favorite Kubrick film (Eyes Wide Shut being the worst).
The Proposition - Solid movie, though once again I am duped into watching a film thinking that Guy Pearce will be the star and he ends up getting sidelined :lol
A.I. Artificial Intelligence - Fucking awful. One of the worst Spielberg movies I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone could like this and I don't want to know.
28 Days Later - Solid, but nothing I'd watch again. Danny Boyle is incredibly overrated.
Lolita - Liked it.
Insomnia - My least favorite Nolan film, but still good. Predictable, but good.
Full Metal Jacket - Disappointment. Of all the strange things Kubrick has done in his films, this is the only one I truly do not understand on my own. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish with putting essentially two separate movies in one. Had he just ended the movie with
Pyle killing himself
The Proposition - Solid movie, though once again I am duped into watching a film thinking that Guy Pearce will be the star and he ends up getting sidelined :lol
A.I. Artificial Intelligence - Fucking awful. One of the worst Spielberg movies I've ever seen. I don't know how anyone could like this and I don't want to know.
28 Days Later - Solid, but nothing I'd watch again. Danny Boyle is incredibly overrated.
Lolita - Liked it.
Insomnia - My least favorite Nolan film, but still good. Predictable, but good.
bggrthnjsus
Member
Blader5489 said:
i like nolan's version of insomnia way more than the original version. i also think ai would be a lot better if it ended much earlier, instead of trying to be so epic it could have just been about a boy trying to get home to his mom. and you're not alone on the full metal jacket hate, it seems like most people really like the first half, but the second half is altogether kind of stupid and pointless.
stuff i've seen lately:
the wrestler - i'm glad this goes pretty ambiguously, because if it had come full circle to total redemption i would have been pissed, and if it had come full circle to total tragedy i would also be pissed.
moon - not sure what it means to be human, but this movie takes a stab at it...could have done without the radio/tv broadcast snippets at the end though. kevin spacey's GERTY is such a great movie robot; a little conflicted, as human as ai gets.
avatar - very impressive to take in, but still it is just a white messiah complex story in space, which i find stupid and offensive
The Road - hmmm not bad, but I had to laugh that Man and Boy only have a gun with two bullets in the nation with more guns then there probably are people. Like No Country for Old Men - massively overrated.
Lovely Bones - good stuff, nicely directed - love the 70's look of the movie which is captured perfectly.. Although I spent most of the movie wondering where I'd seen the lead actress in. Turns out Atonement. Lovely direction, but some obvious CGI - but then I guess you can't really make a realistic halfway house between here and heaven.
Lovely Bones - good stuff, nicely directed - love the 70's look of the movie which is captured perfectly.. Although I spent most of the movie wondering where I'd seen the lead actress in. Turns out Atonement. Lovely direction, but some obvious CGI - but then I guess you can't really make a realistic halfway house between here and heaven.
Ok, so this is the second time I've seen someone mention streaming a movie in HD over Netflix.afternoon delight said:Really been meaning to check this one out - definitely sounds worth watching.
Just finished Che (2008)
Having read a book or two on the man and the situations revolving around the uprising, this film is fucking perfect. Once again Sodebergh proves he's the most interesting man making movies right now. I can see a lot of dislike stemming from the fact that it's kind of like I'm not there - if you didn't know Bob Dylan's life then the movie was a mass of confusion. But if you do know anything about Che or want to see an excellent portrayal - check it out. Streamed it in HD from Netflix. So very textured and the tone is great: removed and involved at once, which sounds confusing, but that's how it feels.
HOW do you do this? I don't see any HD option, and when I play it it's certainly not in HD.
1. Alien
I'm ashamed to say that I had never actually seen the film. The film was definitely a bit dated considering it was made in 1978, but it still held up pretty well. Was more of a suspense film than I was expecting but that's certainly not a knock against the film.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
2. Aliens
James Cameron has an amazing talent for Science Fiction and this is definitely the best of them by a good margin. I can definitely see why the film was named Aliens instead of Alien 2, the plurality of the name is definitely appropriate considering the sheer difference in volume the protagonists are attacked by. I was also surprised how similar aspects of it were to his most recent film.
Score: 5 out of 5
3. Apocalypse Now Redux
I already created a thread about how disappointed I was with this "definitive version". It's certainly not a bad film in its own right, but in comparison to the flawless theatrical version, it's pretty fucking horrible. Most of the additions were simply unneeded and simply gave the film severe pacing issues.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
4. Brother
I love Takeshi Kitano. This is one of the few films of his filmography that I had not seen. While the Los Angeles setting is definitely a huge departure from his typical environment, the film as a whole is still classic Kitano. Even from Kitano, the film was a bit more violent than I was initially expecting, but it didn't really hurt the film. There were some pacing issues, characters that weren't as fleshed out as they could have been and some funky transitions, but I liked the film overall.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
5. Donnie Brasco
"Forget about it". I actually really liked this film, there was definitely a huge influence from Scorcese's Goodfellas and Casino, but that wasn't a bad thing considering they're amazing films. Pacino and Depp also had great chemistry together. I have a huge soft spot for crime films so I was bound to enjoy this.
Score: 4 out of 5
6. Invictus
Considering the director, actors and subject matter, I came out of this film rather disappointed. It's certainly not a bad film, but with the aspects I just named, you go in expecting a lot. The film simply didn't take any risks and I think that's because of what they chose to focus the film on. I personally found the tidbits having to do with South Africa and struggles to transition from Apartheid to be incredibly interesting, unfortunately, the scenes involving Rugby didn't have the same effect. Considering the country and the era, you'd think some adversity would have been present, but from the beginning you knew
Really a wasted opportunity.
Score: 3 out of 5
7. Jaws
Another film I'm ashamed to have never seen. I can definitely see how it was revolutionary at its conception, but having seen it now, I found it to be a tad bit overrated. The best character in the film Captain Quint by far, and unfortunately, he doesn't make his full emergence into the film till well over half of the runtime. The film had some pacing issues but once it picked up it was great. I certainly liked the film but I didn't find it to be in the upper echelon of films.
Score: 4 out of 5
8. Love Exposure
Absolutely loved it, and while I'd have trouble explaining the film to anyone, it's easily one of the best films of the decade. I've been reluctant to jump in considering its a hair under four hours, but it's surprisingly well paced and hardly ever feels long. And for those who've seen it, have you ever come across an antagonist as hateable as the one in this film? I literally hated her face.
Score: 5 out of 5
9. The Birds
One of the few Hitchcock movies I didn't watch during my marathon run a few months ago. It's a decent film but certainly nowhere near the magnificence of some of his earlier stuff. I don't have issue with a slow burning film but this one unfortunately took a ridiculously long time to hit its second act. It was great once it started though.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
10. The Green Mile
Easily the best adaption of Stephen King story outside of The Shining or Shawshank Redemption. I don't know what it is about King but he sure loves his "Magical Negro" characters (The Shining, The Stand and this) :lol It was interesting from beginning to end and wonderfully acted by everyone in the film. Michael Clark Duncan and Sam Rockwell definitely stole the show, I have no idea who won Best Supporting Actor in 1999, but it must have been pretty damned good to beat out Duncans.
Score: 5 out of 5
11. The Outsiders
Not one of Coppola's best but was still enjoyable at times, pretty surprising how many future stars he was able to stuff into this film. Don't really have much to say outside of that.
Score: 3 out of 5
12. The Usual Suspects
I'm surprised I didn't come out of this film in love. I absolutely love crime films and the movie is jam packed with some solid actors. I found the film to be good but not great, unfortunately
,
is obvious once you're aware one is present.
Score: 4 out of 5
Snatch
Loved it. [I'll elaborate more later, I have to go right now :lol]
Score: 5 out of 5
I'm ashamed to say that I had never actually seen the film. The film was definitely a bit dated considering it was made in 1978, but it still held up pretty well. Was more of a suspense film than I was expecting but that's certainly not a knock against the film.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
2. Aliens
James Cameron has an amazing talent for Science Fiction and this is definitely the best of them by a good margin. I can definitely see why the film was named Aliens instead of Alien 2, the plurality of the name is definitely appropriate considering the sheer difference in volume the protagonists are attacked by. I was also surprised how similar aspects of it were to his most recent film.
Score: 5 out of 5
3. Apocalypse Now Redux
I already created a thread about how disappointed I was with this "definitive version". It's certainly not a bad film in its own right, but in comparison to the flawless theatrical version, it's pretty fucking horrible. Most of the additions were simply unneeded and simply gave the film severe pacing issues.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
4. Brother
I love Takeshi Kitano. This is one of the few films of his filmography that I had not seen. While the Los Angeles setting is definitely a huge departure from his typical environment, the film as a whole is still classic Kitano. Even from Kitano, the film was a bit more violent than I was initially expecting, but it didn't really hurt the film. There were some pacing issues, characters that weren't as fleshed out as they could have been and some funky transitions, but I liked the film overall.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
5. Donnie Brasco
"Forget about it". I actually really liked this film, there was definitely a huge influence from Scorcese's Goodfellas and Casino, but that wasn't a bad thing considering they're amazing films. Pacino and Depp also had great chemistry together. I have a huge soft spot for crime films so I was bound to enjoy this.
Score: 4 out of 5
6. Invictus
Considering the director, actors and subject matter, I came out of this film rather disappointed. It's certainly not a bad film, but with the aspects I just named, you go in expecting a lot. The film simply didn't take any risks and I think that's because of what they chose to focus the film on. I personally found the tidbits having to do with South Africa and struggles to transition from Apartheid to be incredibly interesting, unfortunately, the scenes involving Rugby didn't have the same effect. Considering the country and the era, you'd think some adversity would have been present, but from the beginning you knew
South Africa was going to win the Cup (even if you weren't aware of the history) and they did with few bumps in the road along the way.
Score: 3 out of 5
7. Jaws
Another film I'm ashamed to have never seen. I can definitely see how it was revolutionary at its conception, but having seen it now, I found it to be a tad bit overrated. The best character in the film Captain Quint by far, and unfortunately, he doesn't make his full emergence into the film till well over half of the runtime. The film had some pacing issues but once it picked up it was great. I certainly liked the film but I didn't find it to be in the upper echelon of films.
Score: 4 out of 5
8. Love Exposure
Absolutely loved it, and while I'd have trouble explaining the film to anyone, it's easily one of the best films of the decade. I've been reluctant to jump in considering its a hair under four hours, but it's surprisingly well paced and hardly ever feels long. And for those who've seen it, have you ever come across an antagonist as hateable as the one in this film? I literally hated her face.
Score: 5 out of 5
9. The Birds
One of the few Hitchcock movies I didn't watch during my marathon run a few months ago. It's a decent film but certainly nowhere near the magnificence of some of his earlier stuff. I don't have issue with a slow burning film but this one unfortunately took a ridiculously long time to hit its second act. It was great once it started though.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
10. The Green Mile
Easily the best adaption of Stephen King story outside of The Shining or Shawshank Redemption. I don't know what it is about King but he sure loves his "Magical Negro" characters (The Shining, The Stand and this) :lol It was interesting from beginning to end and wonderfully acted by everyone in the film. Michael Clark Duncan and Sam Rockwell definitely stole the show, I have no idea who won Best Supporting Actor in 1999, but it must have been pretty damned good to beat out Duncans.
Score: 5 out of 5
11. The Outsiders
Not one of Coppola's best but was still enjoyable at times, pretty surprising how many future stars he was able to stuff into this film. Don't really have much to say outside of that.
Score: 3 out of 5
12. The Usual Suspects
I'm surprised I didn't come out of this film in love. I absolutely love crime films and the movie is jam packed with some solid actors. I found the film to be good but not great, unfortunately
knowing that there was a twist within the film pretty much ruined the "surprise"
Kevin Spacey being Kaiser Soze
Score: 4 out of 5
Snatch
Loved it. [I'll elaborate more later, I have to go right now :lol]
Score: 5 out of 5
DieNgamers
Member
No no! You can understand that sentence in two different ways, as far as I can see. It doesn't say anything about the fate of the main character, really. You know nothing!Melchiah said:
falls between relic and relevant, but a well-timed movie considering it was released right between the puritan 50s and the sexual revolution. supremely unsubtle and much too forceful in saying what it has to say, namely that the sexual problems youngsters faced were caused by idiotic and unrealistic cultural values as well the unfair expectations of parents that came as a result of said values. the older generation is depicted as having ridiculous views on sex and also a jealousy that stems from their own repressed sexuality. one of the best moments and a nice visual metaphor is when the main characters kiss and an onlooker closes their drapes at the sight of it, only to continue peering over them.
i like the point the movie was trying to get across, but it did so in a manner that was waaay over-the-top. every little incident sends the characters (especially the female ones) spiralling into histrionics. the movie is commendable for denouncing the dichotomy where young women were either pure virgins who have their pride or out-of-control sluts, but this anti-sexist message is somewhat undermined by how all the women characters are depicted as wildly hysterical.
still, not bad and the ending kinda got to me.
Where the Wild Things Are - 5/10 - I wanted to like this movie, I really did. I'm a big Spike Jonze fan and I thought he did a really good job bringing the Wild Things to life, but the film as a whole felt really hollow and I never really grew attached to any of the characters. I think I set my expectations way too high going into this. I wanted it to be great because I loved the book so much when I was a kid.
AlternativeUlster
Absolutely pathetic part deux
It's been forever since I've posted in here but here are some highlights:
White Ribbon - *** 1/2 (His weakest effort but still a masterful mystery and profound look at the youth that would become the Nazi party)
Silent Light - *** 1/2 (If I trimmed maybe 5 minutes from this film, I thought it would have been one of the best films I have seen this decade)
Syndromes and the Century - *** 1/2 (I will probably rewatch Tropical Malady because of this even though I felt like if they kept the humor of the first half then it would have been a top 10 of the decade for me)
Paranoid Park - **** (Gus Van Sant's best of the of the decade)
Fantastic Mr. Fox - *** 1/2 (Wes Anderson's best since Royal Tenenbaums)
Sherlock Holmes - ** 1/2 (I felt like there was something completely missing and I wonder if a director's cut will fix this. Still would go see a sequel though)
John Carpenter's The Fog - ***
Sweetie - **** (makes me want to watch more Jane Champion films that is for sure)
Harmony and Me - *** (a nice note in the mumblecore movement)
Youth in Revolt - ** (should have been made punchier and the animation was really distracting)
White Ribbon - *** 1/2 (His weakest effort but still a masterful mystery and profound look at the youth that would become the Nazi party)
Silent Light - *** 1/2 (If I trimmed maybe 5 minutes from this film, I thought it would have been one of the best films I have seen this decade)
Syndromes and the Century - *** 1/2 (I will probably rewatch Tropical Malady because of this even though I felt like if they kept the humor of the first half then it would have been a top 10 of the decade for me)
Paranoid Park - **** (Gus Van Sant's best of the of the decade)
Fantastic Mr. Fox - *** 1/2 (Wes Anderson's best since Royal Tenenbaums)
Sherlock Holmes - ** 1/2 (I felt like there was something completely missing and I wonder if a director's cut will fix this. Still would go see a sequel though)
John Carpenter's The Fog - ***
Sweetie - **** (makes me want to watch more Jane Champion films that is for sure)
Harmony and Me - *** (a nice note in the mumblecore movement)
Youth in Revolt - ** (should have been made punchier and the animation was really distracting)
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I have watched the following films in the past week (not necessarily in this order):
Night of the Hunter
Yi Yi
The Insider
A Simple Plan
Big Fan
Happy-Go-Lucky
Oldboy
Almost Famous
The Book of Eli
I've seen Oldboy before, but the rest were all new. My favorites were Yi Yi, A Simple Plan, and The Insider.
Night of the Hunter
Yi Yi
The Insider
A Simple Plan
Big Fan
Happy-Go-Lucky
Oldboy
Almost Famous
The Book of Eli
I've seen Oldboy before, but the rest were all new. My favorites were Yi Yi, A Simple Plan, and The Insider.
District 9 - Holy Crap! Very good movie. The movie started really slow, the first 30 minute was really shitty. Thankfully it got better and better as it progressed. I had high expectation for this film and it really meet it.
DO NOT READ THE PAGE BEFORE THIS ONE! CONTAINS DISTRICT 9 SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT READ THE PAGE BEFORE THIS ONE! CONTAINS DISTRICT 9 SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rear Window, or LTTP: Hitchcock. A film set from the perspective of a voyeur watching over his neighbors. Amazing. I don't really know what else to say about it other than I absolutely loved this film.
Continuing Hitchcock, I just watched The Birds. I was slightly let down and didn't like it as much as Rear Window, but it was still a fine film. The last shot was harrowing.
Part two of my quest to watch adaptations of some of my favourite novels. Saw Sons and Lovers a while back which was okay. As for this one I was surprised at how remarkably faithful it is to the original text, at least when it comes to the events that take place within it. Still, they say that great books barely ever make for equally great movies and that's certainly the case here. I know its a bit wrong to go about it this way and be the dude who goes the book was much better, but I do think that by getting rid of Hemingways descriptions and internal monologues the tone of the story is changed too drastically. What basically amounts to an anti-war novel now becomes an action-adventure-war movie devoid of any subtext. Robert Jordan as played by Gary Cooper still talks and acts very much like the kind of romantic masculine hero I imagine Hemingway had envisioned, but by depriving him of the both the moral questions he has about war and the recollections of his past he becomes too shallow and uninteresting a character. The same goes for Anselmo, who in the novel represents the moral centre while here he is relegated to an extraneous bit part.
They did do a good job of toning down Hemingways prosaic dialogue while not having to resort to making stuff up. Theres not half as much talk of shitting in milk, but I guess thats understandable.
The romantic relationship was already a weak point of the novel because of how riddled it is with clichés, but on screen it comes off as even cheesier when Jordan keeps repeating Ill be a part of you now to Maria at the end. At least the extra censorship means we dont have to hear her breasts being compared to mountains this time.
The very last moments I thought were the most incongruous. In the novel, Hemingway has Jordan confront enemy troops while hes fatally wounded. He gives the first soldier to approach Jordan a name and some slight background to keep in line with the whole every soldier is a person and that person is you and the bell tolls etc. theme, and the book ends before either of them has a chance to shoot. In the movie, Cooper just empties his clip on the group of soldiers. Really missed the point there.
One part I did like very much is that they left in and visualised Pilars recounting of the insurrection in her village. Its the best passage in the novel and one of the finest examples of Hemingways storytelling ability, and they surprisingly managed to keep nearly all its harshness and inhumanity intact.
AlternativeUlster
Absolutely pathetic part deux
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
I am glad you dug Yi Yi as it was my favorite film of the decade. What did you think of Happy Go Lucky?
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
AlternativeUlster said:
I dug Happy-Go-Lucky, especially the driving lesson parts; Marsan was excellent in the movie, and of course, Hawkins was great as well. I kind of wish there had been more of an arc for the Poppy character, but at the same time, part of the movie's charm comes from its sense of freedom, its willingness to just be there with that character in her daily life. I also like seeing a movie that is willing to have an ultimately optimistic outlook on life. Overall, while it's not one of my favorite movies or anything, I did dig it and am now curious to check out some of that director's other work.
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Heh, as far as Mike Leigh's films go, Happy Go-Lucky is about the least representative thing you could've watched.
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