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[Steppenwolf]

wtf man. The Killing and Eyes Wide Shut are both awesome movies.

 

[Blader]

There's nothing particularly remarkable or interesting about The Killing.

Eyes Wide Shut was trite and unnecessarily long.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

There's nothing particularly remarkable or interesting about The Killing.

Eyes Wide Shut was trite and unnecessarily long.

You have the weirdest opinions on films sometimes. I remember you hating Double Indemnity as well.

The Killing is great because it manages to simultaneously be a perfect heist movie while, in very little time, also including a number of deeply humanizing elements. It's basically the Ocean's movies meets Reservoir Dogs, but it's better than all of those films because it is better crafted, more satisfying, and more emotional.

 

[TOM f'N CRUISE]

.................this movie was disappointing. i thought it was gonna be a great movie when it was just kinda ok.

 

[_Isaac]

A lot of movie watching from you guys all of a sudden.

@Otake - You really hated it that much? I was actually pleasantly surprised. The trailers just made it look boring as hell, but I really got into it once I got to see it. The characters weren't really its strong suit though. I can agree with that.

@Eyes Wide Shut people - That movie was awesome.

@Shurs - I just could not get into Yi Yi. Everybody considers it such a masterpiece, but I was honestly bored the whole time. It was a good one time watch I guess. Grandma was such a great character.

 

[~Kinggi~]

Just saw The Box. I have to say, this came totally outta left field as i knew nothing about it other than Richard Kelly wrote and directed it. He is definitely a writer who knows how to make conversation starters, ill give him that. This movie was fucking crazy, but in a good way, at least to me.

I knew going into it it would be a little nuts, so i think that helped me a lot. Average joe who i imagine went to the flick based on the very misleading trailers might have been pissed.

I suggest anyone that likes sci-fi and mind-benders to watch this.


Anyway, massive spoilers, DONT read if you havent seen:

Spoiler

So my interpretation coming out of this was that a race of aliens were basically doing a body snatchers deal and running tests studying the human race and whether or not they should be exterminated. Now, to my amazement, heading on over to the IMDB boards, there are a large portion of people thinking the movie is purely symbolic of religion involving Adam and Eve and the devil. Even crazier is their theories fit, but i still dont think that was what the movie was really about. I think Richard Kelly is just amazing at writing parallel storylines to be interpreted many different ways based on the viewer.

There is a part in the movie where he looks at a poster with a quote that says "Sufficient technology is indistinguishable from magic" or something along those lines. The main characters try to rationalize all the crazy shit happening to them as some sort of spiritual test, and the afterlife when they are pleading with the mystery man. I think that quote pretty much sums up the movie, and is genius cause it has all these nutjobs over at IMDB claiming it just has to be religious in nature since it is so absurd! Lol the fucker tested the viewer as well.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

:lol Awesome. And... I agree.

See, now, everyone loves this movie, but I just can't see it. I found it sleep inducing. Also, it's a totally different film from Pan's Labyrinth, but it's in Spanish, there's a young girl, and both have monsters, so people compare them a lot. I don't get it.

It might be boring; I'm honestly not sure. I find that any movie that clocks in under 100 minutes goes by pretty quickly, though, so I'm not the best judge of that. It's not one of my favorite movies, mind, but I'm glad that I watched it.

I would also say that it is alike to Pan's in that it's a fantasy movie about a young girl coping with life during the Spanish Civil War by investing herself into a fantasy world that may or may not be real.

 

[Expendable.]

how the fuck can anyone hate Double Indemnity? that movie is perfect.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

how the fuck can anyone hate Double Indemnity? that movie is perfect.

To be fair, I recall Blader saying in the past that he/she is not a huge fan of older films, so he/she is at least pretty consistent in that view.

Also, Double Indemnity is great, but I don't think that it's anywhere near perfect; I think Wilder made better noir films (Ace in the Hole and Sunset Boulevard being my two favorites of his).

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Double Indemnity is a great film but it's far from perfect. I agree with Snowman that Wilder has made many better films. Like The Apartment. <3 <3

Also, The Killing is a damn fine heist film. Not the best, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

 

[Blader]

how the fuck can anyone hate Double Indemnity? that movie is perfect.

Perfectly awful, hur hur hur

Spoiler

No, seriously, I hated it. Dialogue was laughable, and the set-up for the whole film was retarded ("I'm shot and bleeding to death, but instead of making a quick stop to patch myself up, I'm just going to sit here--still shot and bleeding to death--and recount the narrative of my life").

To be fair, I recall Blader saying in the past that he/she is not a huge fan of older films, so he/she is at least pretty consistent in that view.

That's just how it works out for me, it's not a hard and fast rule. On the Kubrick note, I enjoyed Paths of Glory quite a bit, and that was only (iirc) made a year or two after The Killing.

 

[Big-ass Ramp]

I saw The Proposal, of all things. Not that bad, actually. The shower scene with Sandra Bullock made it a lot more interesting.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Double Indemnity is a great film but it's far from perfect. I agree with Snowman that Wilder has made many better films. Like The Apartment. <3 <3

Also, The Killing is a damn fine heist film. Not the best, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

I think it serves as a perfect response to anybody who says that Kubrick's films lack emotions.

Also, to Blader: yeah, the setup for Double Indemnity is kind of silly, but it's one of those Hollywood devices that you have to be willing to live with in order to experience the great experience to be had by the rest of the film.

 

[creativity]

Since Thursday, I have watched (all for the first time):

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

One of the most gorgeous movies that I have ever seen. It's really effective at evoking the sensation of dreams and memories, and I love the way that it switches back and forth between black and white and color. This was actually my first Tarkovsky, which I now think was a mistake because of how personal it seems to be, but I loved watching it just the same.

Band of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

It's weird. I like Breathless the most of any of the French New Wave films that I have seen, but for the most part, I like Truffaut's films a lot more than Godard's because they feel more humane to me. Godard was a good director and artist, but for my money, his films have this coldness to them that makes them a little bit off-putting. I did like, it, don't get me wrong; I especially liked the deconstructive aspects of it (like the way the dancing scene played with the sound by letting the music fade in and out so that the narration could come in), and as usual, the crazy editing choices made by French New Wave directors in many of their films continues to excite me. Overall, though, I was somewhat apathetic toward this movie, though I do understand why Tarantino is such a big fan of it.

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

Visually, this movie is a masterpiece. The opening shot is, of course, deservedly famous for how well-conceived and executed it is, but even beyond that, I love the unity of the film's visual style; the ascending and descending crane camera was a very effective way to shoot this film, as it allows you to get drawn into the tale while simultaneously giving you moments to step back and breathe for a minute while you try and piece together what's happening. The script is also damn good, and Welles is his usual fantastic self; the man was a genius behind the camera, for sure, but he also had an undeniable screen presence (and due to his tendency toward cerebral, intellectual acting, is a personal idol of mine). Where the film loses me a bit is in the inherent silliness of having Charlton Heston playing a Mexican; in addition, I feel like the main relationship between Heston and Leigh is a little bit underdeveloped.. I'm willing to let those slide, however, because of how amazingly the movie is made in every other aspect.

Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)

I love the shit out of most of this movie. The acting, cinematography, and design of the film are all top-notch (though the acting tends more toward the over-the-top, heavily stylized acting typical of some of Kurosawa's historical works). In addition, the fight between Mifune and Ueda is one of the best that I have ever seen in terms of staging and emotion; it is the sort of crude, realistic sword-fighting that George Lucas got very right in the original Star Wars trilogy and then got so very wrong in the prequel trilogy. The ending, however, is not very in the spirit of the film; for me, this films ends with the cynical listener leaving the priest, the woodcutter, and the baby standing under the shelter, left bewildered at the darker side of man's nature. The sappy tag at the end is completely out of the spirit of the movie, in my opinion, and should have been omitted.

The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)

Each shot of this film is like a painting; it is a sparse, carefully crafted work and avoids most of the trappings associated with films about children (and manages to turn one, the naivete and gullibility of young children, into an effective plot device). I was not versed in Spanish history prior to this film and thus did not pick up on some of the coded symbolism, but even without that, I think that it's a pretty little tale of a young child's fascination with the mystical and ethereal. The scene where she actually meets

Spoiler

Frankenstein's monster

is simultaneously one of the strangest and most beautiful scenes that I have ever seen in a film. I've heard that this film is an influence on Pan's Labyrinth, and I can definitely see it, though I would say that in more objective cinematic terms, this is probably a better film because it manages to do a lot of the same things with a lot less.

The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

It's strange; Bogie was not really much of an actor in terms of his range of expressiveness, but he is still one of the most compelling screen actors because of his distinctive look and perfect timing. He gives a fine performance in this film; it's the sort of performance that he has given in a number of films, but what sets it apart is the strange sort of sexual chemistry that he has with his future wife Lauren Bacall. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it's not something that I see myself revisiting many times in the future, if only because there are other film noirs that I like more.

8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)

After a few false starts over the last few months, I finally got through this. Man, it's a hell of a film. Fellini just throws everything onto the screen in this one; it veers into every conceivable genre, including just a pinch of sci-fi, and its over-abundant use of symbolism is at once pretentious and completely perfect. Mastroianni is, as usual, perfect; that sly tilting of the glasses is something that I don't think I will ever forget. Honestly, so many things happen in this film that I don't feel qualified to talk about it on a single watch; I'm really not sure what hit me.

A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)

Loved this film a hell of a lot. This is my second Cassavetes film, and thus far, I've been supremely impressed by his work. The acting in his films is absolutely spot-on, and I love the way that his characters talk like real people (though he achieves this in a very different way from Robert Altman, who also got realistic dialogue from his actors). The guy at the video store told me when I rented this that it took him 3 years to get through this film because of how hard it is to watch sometime, and though I did not respond to it as viscerally as that, I definitely agree that there are moments when Rowlands's performance is so convincingly unstable that I could not help but wonder aloud, "What the fuck is wrong with this woman?" Peter Falk was also great, and he had, to my mind, a tougher job because he had to create a character that was, in reality, just about as crazy as his wife but who revealed his insanity in less obvious ways. To my mind, Peter Falk's character is much more dangerous that Rowlands's unhinged loon because his problems are much harder to detect and are much more violent than his more showy but ultimately harmless wife's. Wonderful film.

My god, what a run of films. How do you survive such an onslaught of awesomeness?

All right, so I'm less thrilled about The Big Sleep and Band of Outsiders, but the rest are just absolutely first rate, and Mirror is one of my all-time favorites. It really is a pleasure to read people's thoughts on films like these.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Red Cliff (Original International Version Blu Ray)

Wow. Really, really enjoyed this one. 4 hours and 50 minutes of just epic scene after epic scene. The battles were huge and cut no corners, and the characters were all pretty enjoyable to watch. Some of the war tactics in Part II were especially clever, and one even got a chuckle out of me. The last battle in particular is just incredible. Beautiful movie as well. Been holding out on watching this until I could get my hands on the full version, and I was not let down in the slightest.

 

[Peru]

Perfectly awful, hur hur hur

Spoiler

No, seriously, I hated it. Dialogue was laughable, and the set-up for the whole film was retarded ("I'm shot and bleeding to death, but instead of making a quick stop to patch myself up, I'm just going to sit here--still shot and bleeding to death--and recount the narrative of my life").

All movies have to be realistic?

 

[Meliorism]

I don't know if it was AlternativeUlster or someone else here that mentioned the movie for the first time, but help me out with this:

Someone mentioned some movie that seemed like an Asian Scooby Doo type movie that was really weird and trippy or something. I've tried searching for the post in this topic (or, at least I believed it was made in this topic), but I've had no luck.

Any ideas?

Also, the last movie I watched was All the Real Girls. I thought it was pretty neat.

 

[creativity]

Phew, long post, and I'm probably forgetting stuff, but here's some of the stuff I've seen recently.

Providence, Alain Resnais, 1977

A mad, delirious and unexpectedly vulgar exploration of death and art. Like other Resnais films it is bold and fascinating, but it is also weakened by its excesses, and with all its turgid, pretentious monologue, lacking in genuine humanity. Still it's hard not to recommend, especially for people who like films that are complex and thought provoking.

9/10


Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro, 2006

What did the critics see in this film? Did they like the characters? They're all so predictable and shallow. The story? Dull, both as fantasy and as history. Regarded as either, there's so little that's novel or substantial it hardly merits interrogation. Aesthetics? Eh. Well, I suppose some people found it surprisingly "dark," but even with all the gratuitous violence, it seemed anything but transgressive; rather, it felt overly familiar, overly conventional. It falls back on all the familiar and stupid tropes, the fairies and princesses, the magic that's only real for children, and that vulgar moral Manicheanism, as crude as Avatar's, worse when used in place of historical understanding. The ending, my least favorite part of the film, seemed so eager to manipulate and gratify I could only laugh and shake my head.

7/10


Claire's Knee, Eric Rohmer, 1971

Possibly my favorite of the six moral tales, I was happy to see this movie after the previous two because it serves as a great example of the humanity, warmth, and emotional intelligence that films can be capable of. In fact I don't think I could name another filmmaker who matches the Rohmer films I've seen on these qualities. I have received more pleasure from single scenes in Claire's Knee than from the entire oeuvres of more oft-acclaimed directors. A masterpiece.

10/10


Kandahar, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001

I'd rather not say anything too nasty about so well-meaning a film made under such difficult circumstances, but it's simply far too clumsily made and poorly acted to be the sort of film it should have been. The poetic ending only adds to the disappointment.

6/10


Oxhide II, Liu Jiayin, 2009

In this film, a family makes 73 dumplings. The camera never moves and never leaves the kitchen table. Dialog is sparse, and even the faces of the characters are rarely seen. There are maybe 8 cuts in 2 hours. How is this not the most boring film ever made? For starters, this film features some of the most ingenious blocking and composition put to film. There's so much happening in each frame it will make your eyes dance around on the screen. Between the foreground and the background, the mise en scene and the offscreen sound, and with everything happening in real time, this represents a new kind of symphonic realism. It's worth reiterating that the cuts don't elide time at all; they just imperceptibly blink to a different perspective, leaving you ever immersed in the moment, and the film's overall structure of cuts counterclockwise around the table, above and below it, is so interesting and deeply considered that it never feels like a gimmick, but an inextricable part of the film's structure. Modest and grand, this film is a cineaste's delight, and likely ranks as one of the ten best films of last year.

10/10


Blissfully Yours, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002

Few directors give me the sense of absolute freedom that Apichatpong does with his films. Sure, there is a peculiar consistency in his films, certain scenes appearing over and over, but in each there is a sense of mythical possibility. What will happen next? It might bother certain viewers that his films obey their own, highly unconventional, narrative logic, but it's one of the things I find most exciting about them. Since Mysterious Object at Noon, there is the feeling with each of his films that his stories are somehow truer to life by being freed of these conventional narrative obligations, and with Blissfully Yours, as strange as it is, I can't imagine the film playing out differently. I don't think it's quite as superb as Tropical Malady or Syndromes and a Century (my favorite film of the 2000s), but it's still a sensuous, deeply strange and wonderful film.

9/10


Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks, 1953

I haven't seen that many musicals, and I keep telling myself that I don't really like them very much, and maybe I don't, but when they're as brilliant and funny as this one, I have to confess they're a special kind of bliss. And they have that additional property of sticking in your head for days and days. Best part:

Spoiler

Mr. Henry Spofford III

. Delightful.

10/10


The Crowd, King Vidor, 1928

If you haven't seen this film, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to do so at once. Don't make the same mistake I made of overlooking it for so long; nevermind that it's obscenely omitted from the AFI Top 100 (in favor of shit like Forrest Gump) and has zero votes from Sight and Sound critics and directors. This is a one of a kind masterpiece. I need to say that even perhaps halfway through I had some reservations about the film. There were parts I wondered might have rung out a little flat. But when it ended I found myself so moved and awed by the whole vision it was clear to me it was all in fact so true and profound, that this is an American silent masterpiece of the same order as City Lights and Sunrise. Oh, please see it.

10/10

 

[Steppenwolf]

If.... (1968)
Great movie. More or less the english version of Der Junge Törless. Boys in a college doing their thing with crazy rules and rituals. The only thing i didn't liked was the end.
8/10

Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)
I love Tati but this one just wasn't as hilarious as his later films. Beautifuly shot tho.
6/10

Easy Rider (1969)
I was expecting a bit more from that one given its cult status. The editing and sound design are often downright awful, the two main characters blank. Everything gets better tho when Jack Nicholson has his appearence. Too bad he only has a supporting role.
6/10

Los olvidados (1950)
Quite a depressing movie about youth poverty and crime. Depressing to see that nothing has changed in the 60 years since the movie was made. Horrible things that happen today already happend then. Youth gangs beating and robbing the handicapped, murder etc.
The movie can't compare to the works of italian neo-realism from that period but it is very well done nonetheless.
8/10

Carlito's Way (1993)
This movie gave me constant flashbacks. Al Pacino the same role that he played in many movies before and that he does best. Nothing special, quite enjoyable gangster movie tho.
7/10

Gycklarnas afton (1953)
One of Bergman's earlier movies. It's a nice and touching story about a circus director who has to take a lot of humiliation. This film would go well as a double feature with Fellini's La Strada. The young Harriet Andersson as the directors wife just looked gorgeous.
8/10

 

[HiResDes]

There's nothing particularly remarkable or interesting about The Killing.

Eyes Wide Shut was trite and unnecessarily long.

Eyes Wide Shut is anything but trite:lol .

 

[HiResDes]

To be fair, I recall Blader saying in the past that he/she is not a huge fan of older films, so he/she is at least pretty consistent in that view.

Also, Double Indemnity is great, but I don't think that it's anywhere near perfect; I think Wilder made better noir films (Ace in the Hole and Sunset Boulevard being my two favorites of his).

Sunset Boulevard is by far his best IMO...Amazing movie, one of my top 20 favorites of all time.

 

[John Dunbar]

Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick's best, and easily one of the best films of the 90s. So awesome.

 

[afternoon delight]

Dr. No - Absolute classic. I decided to re-watch the Bond flicks that I remember as great, and this is by far in the top three. If it weren't for the painfully written Jamaican sidekick, it would actually be perfection, but whatever. The cold, calculated nature that Craig taps into is started here: nothing is better than

Spoiler

the geologist trying twice to kill Bond, only to be shot and left on the floor after talking.

5/5

Edit: And Eyes Wide Shut is easily one of the best in Kubrick's career.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

My god, what a run of films. How do you survive such an onslaught of awesomeness?

All right, so I'm less thrilled about The Big Sleep and Band of Outsiders, but the rest are just absolutely first rate, and Mirror is one of my all-time favorites. It really is a pleasure to read people's thoughts on films like these.

Yeah, those are also my bottom 2 out of the list I posted. I basically had a free weekend due to Easter and said, "Fuck it; I'm watching movies." I'm likely not going to get to watch many movies at all this week, so those ought to sustain me for a little while.

 

[Timber]

Since Thursday, I have watched (all for the first time):

That's an amazing selection of movies. Your reactions to 8 1/2 and The Mirror... mirror my own when I first saw them. Dazzling movies, but difficult to ingest all at once. They're both so dense that you can't not watch them again, and they get even better the second time around.

On Touch of Evil: The relationship between Heston and Leigh's characters is indeed underdeveloped, but then again Heston's character, supposedly the protagonist, isn't really all that pertinent to the movie-- Touch of Evil is about Hank Quinlan, and he's such a dominating and captivating presence that I find it easy to forget about the relative unimportance of the other characters.

On Rashomon: Yeah, that ending... it's definitely one of those love it or hate it things. I love it, but I can see why some would find it jarringly out-of-place.

The Crowd, King Vidor, 1928

Yes! I'm glad that you loved it as much as I did. It's a movie that stays with you, and I'd place it squarely in my top 10.

When I saw it, I also wondered during the first half where the movie was headed and what it was leading up to. It all made sense by the end. Their youthful naivete and bliss makes the second half so, so much more impactful. That final shot of the couple laughing,

Spoiler

then the camera panning out to show them among multitudinous others in the same situation

is so incredibly haunting in so many ways.

And good call on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Such a perfect blend of musical, screwball and social commentary.

 

[Timber]

two weeks' worth of movies!

Hunger (2008)
bone-chilling. it's impossible to completely divorce this subject matter from politics, but i admire how the movie favours the personal and spiritual side of sands' hunger strike. i don't know to what degree the film is intended this way and to what degree this is conjecture, but i got the feeling sands' actions were done as a form of repentance as well as activism.

Matinee (1993)
really fun. there are many things that make this work, but my favourite aspect was how it brilliantly recreates 50s science fiction schlock.
half man, half ant, it's... MANT.
"you have to get in touch with the human in you and put the insect aside"
"insecticide? aaah, where?"

Floating Weeds (1959)
oh my. another masterpiece. the first hour makes it out to be a comedy a la Good Morning, but then there's a turnaround and some of the saddest moments i've seen from Ozu happen. it's a bit of a departure because the characters here aren't part of a traditional family dynamic like in most of his movies. there's a moment near the end that involves the lighting of a cigarette that's one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen in a movie.

An Affair to Remember (1957)
it's not often that you find such amazing rapport between two actors. Grant and Kerr communicate thru smiles and glances as much as thru snappy dialogue. it's the kind of nuance that's hard to come by, in classic hollywood and elsewhere. the story isn't all that special, but the amazing chemistry between the leads lifts in into higher spheres.

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922)
watched this over the course of two nights. it's very long and, possibly due to its novelistic structure, the narrative of the first part is a bit confusing. but in the second part everything comes together marvelously and the last half hour is just about perfect. Mabuse is such a brilliant character. also, when watching movies like M and Mabuse, i come to realise that Lang is single-handedly responsible for the transition from German expressionism to film noir.

A City of Sadness (1989)
it's hard to describe just how perfect i thought this was. i have to admit that i was only cursorily aware of the history detailed here, so this was quite an eye opener. it shows how horrible events affect regular people, and does so with wisdom and understanding, and it never succumbs to melodrama because it knows, just as Ozu knew, that in order to get to the heart of what people go through you don't have them jump through emotional hoops for the audience's sake.

and two rewatches

Night of the Hunter (1955)
it's been a while since i saw this, during which time i've seen a lot of movies, so only now i became aware of just how unique night of the hunter is. its qualities are well known but i'll list 'em anyway: it's ethereal, the visuals are immensely impressive, the writing is pitch-perfect and Robert Mitchum is terrifying. i loved how his famous love/hate speech is a summary of the movie's plot and i love how this is captured in biblical terms as well. and i love to see Lillian Gish with a shotgun.

Sherlock Jr. (1924)
The General is great, but for me, this is Keaton's masterpiece. he had some jokes he didn't know how to place in an appropriate context, so what he ended up making is a paean to the wonders of cinema. the final scene is so great. Keaton takes cues from the movie within a movie when making advances to his girlfriend while they themselves are placed in a frame within a frame. it's a touching scene not only because of the endearing way he gets the girl, but also because it makes me think of my relationship with movies. it's so meta it makes me feel meta-emotions.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick's best, and easily one of the best films of the 90s. So awesome.

I agree that it is his best and among the best of the decade.

Gets better every time I watch it, despite my usual dislike for Cruise.

 

[Philia]

The Wire Season 4 and 5 in a weekend.

Its just too awesome. SO awesome. I cannot even find words... no need for a poet, the show is just the greatest show of all time. And you know what, screw seasonal favorites, the whole show is awesome period. "It’s the journey, not the destination."

 

[Steppenwolf]

I find it hard to pick one movie as "the best" for a director like Kubrick who made so many outstanding ones.

As i see it Eyes Wide Shut is up there with all his classics but it's not a classic yet. Like many of his movies it gets more and more appreciation the older it gets. I think 20 years from now it will have the same status as some of his other movies.

 

[ymmv]

Rope (1948)
This short Hitchcock film (only 75 minutes) only has one location and one murder. Two students murder a friend, shove him in a chest and then invite friends to their party to enjoy the thrill of getting away with murder. Since it's really stage play it's all talk, no action and there's only a few suspenseful scenes. The denouement is weak. The best part of the movie is how Hitchcock upholds the illusion of the movie being done in one single shot.
6/10

The Lovely Bones (2009)
Halfway during the movie I wished Peter Jackson had concentrated on the grief of the family after the murder of a child or on the thriller aspects of this story instead of so many scenes of Susie Salmon wandering through fake looking scenes of a CGI heaven. The movie started strong but instead of becoming a transcendent reflection on life and death this movie became sentimental hogwash at the end. Rachel Weisz was wasted as an actress, Mark Wahlberg still can't act his way out of a paper bag, newcomer Saoirse Ronan was excellent though.
5/10

The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Conrad Veidt stars in the movie version of a not very well known Victor Hugo novel. Gwynplaine was mutilated as a child by the orders of a spiteful king James who wanted to take revenge on his father and now as an adult travels with his mentor and a blind girl with a sideshow act around the county. The Man Who Laughs is the eternal clown on the outside yet crying on the inside. Veidt played the character with teeth prosthetics that fixed his mouth to a huge grin yet he still manages to convey expressions of utter sadness with the rest of his face. The US movie was made by Paul Leni who brought his brand of German expressionist film making to Hollywood. The sets are lovely, there's a small snippet of pre code nudity, there's action, there's oodles of 1920ies sentimentality and a lot of very strange names for a story that supposedly takes place in 17th century England: the evil jester Barkilphedro, Lord Dirry-Moir, Lord Linnaeus Clancharlie, Dr. Hardquanonne, the blind girld Dea, the friendly mentor Ursus and Homo the Dog.

As a sidenote, it's very obvious that Veidts portrayal of the Man Who Laugs became the inspiration for the joker ten years later.

7.5/10

 

[Borgnine]

Checked out The Killing since you guys were arguing about it. Thought it was great. Loved the Bam Bam Bigelow match in the middle. :lol Though I thought the

Spoiler

money tornado

at the end was kind of dumb. I think this director has a promising future.

 

[Blader]

Rope (1948)
This short Hitchcock film (only 75 minutes) only has one location and one murder. Two students murder a friend, shove him in a chest and then invite friends to their party to enjoy the thrill of getting away with murder. Since it's really stage play it's all talk, no action and there's only a few suspenseful scenes. The denouement is weak. The best part of the movie is how Hitchcock upholds the illusion of the movie being done in one single shot.
6/10

I saw this recently too. The overracting dampened any enjoyment I could get from it as a story, but as an experiment, I thought it was interesting.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

Red Cliff (Original International Version Blu Ray)

Wow. Really, really enjoyed this one. 4 hours and 50 minutes of just epic scene after epic scene. The battles were huge and cut no corners, and the characters were all pretty enjoyable to watch. Some of the war tactics in Part II were especially clever, and one even got a chuckle out of me. The last battle in particular is just incredible. Beautiful movie as well. Been holding out on watching this until I could get my hands on the full version, and I was not let down in the slightest.

The Yingyang (tortoise) is the coolest war tactic I have ever seen.

 

[J2d]

The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke continues to impress me. Sometimes I forgot to read the subtitles because I was distracted by the visuals.

Great scene.

 

[afternoon delight]

From Russia With Love - After the supreme awesomeness that was Dr. No this felt a little weak. Not to say it's a bad movie - it's really fun - but the meanness that Connery was working with prior is absent. In exchange he's suave and that's not a substitute for detachment. Robert Shaw's doppelganger and its plot implementation is executed to perfection and he almost outshines Connery in some scenes. Their confrontation is something to behold. 5/5

 

[Cosmic Bus]

It's shameful how far I've fallen from my viewing habits, say, this time last year. The only things I've watched in the last month were Good Burger and Dirty Dancing. :lol

I'm going to redeem myself slightly by going to see Brighton Rock at SIFF tonight, though.

 

[afternoon delight]

Brighton Rock

Please post about how it is - I never knew they adapted it into a film, let alone in the forties.

 

[GurgleBot20]

I've been watching a lot recently, here were the last three:

The Godfather: Despite it's reputation, I've never seen it until now. And it was great. Everybody gave a wonderful performance, especially Brando. Have to see part II now.

One flew over the Cuckoo's nest: Also enjoyed this one. Jack Nicholson was fun to watch. And the ending surprised me

Spoiler

I finally get another Simpson's joke

:lol

Duck, you Sucker: I loved all of Sergio Leone's other westerns. I enjoyed this one but it wasn't as great as some of the others. The film had great cinematography like his other films, but the characters weren't as great. Also, the flashbacks could have been handled better in my opinion.

Anyway here's how I'd rank the Sergio Leone Westerns:
1. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
2. Once upon a time in the West
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Duck, you Sucker
5. A Fistful of dollars


Although 1 and 2 often change spots.

 

[Discotheque]

I've been watching a lot recently, here were the last three:

The Godfather: Despite it's reputation, I've never seen it until now. And it was great. Everybody gave a wonderful performance, especially Brando. Have to see part II now.

One flew over the Cuckoo's nest: Also enjoyed this one. Jack Nicholson was fun to watch. And the ending surprised me

Spoiler

I finally get another Simpson's joke

:lol

Duck, you Sucker: I loved all of Sergio Leone's other westerns. I enjoyed this one but it wasn't as great as some of the others. The film had great cinematography like his other films, but the characters weren't as great. Also, the flashbacks could have been handled better in my opinion.

Anyway here's how I'd rank the Sergio Leone Westerns:
1. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
2. Once upon a time in the West
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Duck, you Sucker
5. A Fistful of dollars


Although 1 and 2 often change spots.

Good ranking. Also agreed on your latter comment. But it's usually "..West" above "..Ugly" for me.

 

[wRATH2x]

The Fly

I've dreaded watching this movie. No horror movie ever scared me, ever, except for this. I fucking hate flies and transforming into anything scares the hell out of me, David Cronenberg just couldn't wait to scare the hell out of me. This remake is leaps and bounds better than the Vincent Price original.

I never saw it in full, but I always have seen some scenes from TV. 11 year old Wrath couldn't take it.

The movie is freaking awesome! It really is a great movie that I now dread not watching in full back then(damn you little wrath!). Jeff Goldblum was phenomenal, he went from nerd to jack ass to sympathetic to crazy and done them all well. The jump scares actually made me jump, and the general creepiness of him changing into a fly was disturbing from start to finish.

Awesome movie that I recommend to anyone.

 

[Rei_Toei]

Le Samourai - I really liked the music, the cinematography, but the story didn't interest me much. I guess it was a tad too minimalist for my tastes.

 

[skads_187]

finally got around to watching hurt locker. nice movie
little confused as to why it got best picture though, even though it was really good.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

finally got around to watching hurt locker. nice movie
little confused as to why it got best picture though, even though it was really good.

Because most people thought that it was the best film out of the ones that were nominated; I didn't (preferred A Serious Man and Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air), but most did.

 

[tehfryguy]

I recently saw:

Hot tube time machine: It was decent for what it was...

Favorite quotes: "OH GOOD FOR YOU MAN, GOOD FOR YOU!"

"IS THIS HOW IT HAPPENS, NO!?!"

I also saw Clash of the Titans...

Let me say this, I've only walked out on a few movies in my life, and this was one of them, I just couldn't take it. I really disliked this movie.... the plot was EVERYWHERE and it just never was able to ground itself as a serious "swords and sandels" movie

anyways.

In my Italian Film Studies class I saw Once Upon a Time in America: Let me say I've never seen this movie and...am really disappointed I never have until this class. It was really refreshing, and there are a lot of shocking scenes in this movie that just are NOT done in present day cinema...

 

[big ander]

Finally saw No Country for Old Men in my film class. So good. Bardem and Jones's performances are spectacular, the sound is amazing and visceral, and the films social commentaries on society's obsession with violence and fate and choice are gripping.

 

[skads_187]

Because most people thought that it was the best film out of the ones that were nominated; I didn't (preferred A Serious Man and Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air), but most did.

yeah +1 on Inglourious Basterds, I mean at least for best director. he did an amazing job. Hurt Locker was well directed, but i mean c'mon,

 

[big ander]

Just watched Adventureland. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The music is used wonderfully. Stewart actually ACTS and does a sufficient job of it. Hader and Wiig feel a little bit like they were forced in, but that's okay because they were hilarious in just about all of their scenes. I don't like Reynolds that much, but he was fine. I haven't seen Eisenberg in Zombieland yet, but I loved him here. And the Lisa P girl was HOT. The writing is perfectly awkward, and the story itself is awesome. I also just loved the setting of the late 80s and the sketchy amusement park. It allows for a lot of cool colors in the film.
8.5/10

 

[_Isaac]

The Fly

I've dreaded watching this movie. No horror movie ever scared me, ever, except for this. I fucking hate flies and transforming into anything scares the hell out of me, David Cronenberg just couldn't wait to scare the hell out of me. This remake is leaps and bounds better than the Vincent Price original.

I never saw it in full, but I always have seen some scenes from TV. 11 year old Wrath couldn't take it.

The movie is freaking awesome! It really is a great movie that I now dread not watching in full back then(damn you little wrath!). Jeff Goldblum was phenomenal, he went from nerd to jack ass to sympathetic to crazy and done them all well. The jump scares actually made me jump, and the general creepiness of him changing into a fly was disturbing from start to finish.

Awesome movie that I recommend to anyone.

Really good movie.

 

[sefskillz]

A Prophet
By the end of the movie, I just wanted to live in this world forever and know more. Similar to the feeling one might get after watching Godfather, except I couldn't just pop in a sequel. Loved the hell out of the movie. Thought some parts could have used fleshing out, but at 2.5 hours, I imagine some stuff had to get dropped. Fantastic

Hunger
Was kind of into it, but it wasn't hooking me in until the incredible scene with Sands and the priest. Probably a 15 minute intense conversation without a single cut until near the end? After that, I was all in. Really liked it, I think I'll like it more on a repeat viewing.

Comin up...
Mother (Joon-ho) is playing this week and next, need to check that out. Nashville Film Festival starts next week as well, got tickets to the new Breillat movie, Bluebeard, as well as some Greek movie called Dogtooth, loved the trailer for that. I'm sure I'll end up at more, but that's all I've got for now

 

[Meliorism]

Hey, I watched Un Prophète and Hunger sort of recently too! I enjoyed both.

Anyway, I just finished watching Sweet Movie. Someone in this thread mentioned it, and so I finally got around to watching it. It was pretty fucked up. Glad I watched it...I guess.