I am resolved that I will pretty much always be deficient in the horror genre; I simply do not care for it.
I do not actually have Netflix right now; I'm at college, and living in a dorm, I find that Netflix is less than convenient, especially since my dorm is right next to a video store that has an everlasting 2 for 1 deal on catalog titles. I checked out 5 movies yesterday for $6.75; that is so much cheaper than paying to go to the movies.
For tonight and tomorrow morning, I have on tap:
Days of Heaven
Man Push Cart
Ikiru
3 Women
As usual, I have not seen any of them. I am especially excited for Ikiru.
finally saw braindead in its entirety -- i'd seen most of it a couple years back, but not the most famous parts toward the end (pretty much everything after the uncle invades the house with his wierd party). really awesome, the whole movie just has an awesome feel and really plays up the absurdity of the human body.
I am resolved that I will pretty much always be deficient in the horror genre; I simply do not care for it.
I do not actually have Netflix right now; I'm at college, and living in a dorm, I find that Netflix is less than convenient, especially since my dorm is right next to a video store that has an everlasting 2 for 1 deal on catalog titles. I checked out 5 movies yesterday for $6.75; that is so much cheaper than paying to go to the movies.
For tonight and tomorrow morning, I have on tap:
Days of Heaven
Man Push Cart
Ikiru
3 Women
As usual, I have not seen any of them. I am especially excited for Ikiru.
sounds like a great line-up! "3 women" is fantastic, one of altman's best! i personally prefer "images" (have you seen it? you should!), but "3 women" is a must see. and "days of heaven" is also great! it's the only malick flick that i'm fond of, actually. "the thin red line" didn't do much for me and "the new world" was just abysmal.
weir is such an underappreciated director. i really enjoyed "master and commander" too. if you like weir, you should definitely check that one out. i also have a soft spot for "the truman show" btw!
that's the strangest misspelling of 'beautiful' i've ever seen.
did you see Badlands? if you liked Days of Heaven but not Red Line and New World then you might enjoy Badlands, as Malick doesn't really give in to his excesses there as much as with his later work.
oh and 3 Women is a very good movie but it's very difficult. i've got some pretty wild ideas as to what it's about and i'm in no way sure that even 50% of that is correct. not that that really matters, mind you.
The New World just might be my favorite movie of the last decade.
Oddly enough, I didn't really care for it when I saw it in theaters. But I caught bits of it on cable and liked it more and more. Finally I decided to pick it up on Blu-ray (hell, I needed HD Malick) and had my mind blown. Watched it something like three times in three days. Love it so much.
Jesus, I bookmarked that. My goal will be to say I have seen at least 500 movies on that list by the end of this year. I need to figure out how many I have already seen off of it first though.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 10/10
Saw it again for the 5th time. Something about the atmosphere, music and Casey Affleck that i love so much about this movie. Also, the soundtrack is perfect for when you're down.
The New World just might be my favorite movie of the last decade.
Oddly enough, I didn't really care for it when I saw it in theaters. But I caught bits of it on cable and liked it more and more. Finally I decided to pick it up on Blu-ray (hell, I needed HD Malick) and had my mind blown. Watched it something like three times in three days. Love it so much.
"the new world" might be among my least favorite movies of the last decade, putting it mildly. i thought it was laughable. i can endure almost anything, even the most pretentious self-important wankery. in fact, i have been known to enjoy movies that border or cross the line to said pretentious wankery. i never walk out on films or just stop watching them halfway through. but "the new world" did it to me. i wanted to murder all the characters with their pompous inner monologues; that stupid, inane, bloated rambling full of heavy-handed metaphors, subtle as a sledgehammer. puke. i fast-forwarded through the last quarter of the movie. it was just too much. i can only remember one other movie that i treated worse in the last 10 years: "yes", which i turned off after 40 minutes.
Timber said:
did you see Badlands? if you liked Days of Heaven but not Red Line and New World then you might enjoy Badlands, as Malick doesn't really give in to his excesses there as much as with his later work.
I hated The New World as well. Actually, I've yet to finish the movie. I only managed to watch about an hour of it until I was forced to turn it off out of sheer boredom, and that one hour felt closer to three. Was ridiculous.
I quite liked Days of Heaven, Badlands, and The Thin Red Line though.
Mine too.
It's a staggering masterpiece. Very personal and esoteric, so of course it divides opinion, but like all Malick films its reputation will grow as the years pass.
"the new world" might be among my least favorite movies of the last decade, putting it mildly. i thought it was laughable. i can endure almost anything, even the most pretentious self-important wankery. in fact, i have been known to enjoy movies that border or cross the line to said pretentious wankery. i never walk out on films or just stop watching them halfway through. but "the new world" did it to me. i wanted to murder all the characters with their pompous inner monologues; that stupid, inane, bloated rambling full of heavy-handed metaphors, subtle as a sledgehammer. puke. i fast-forwarded through the last quarter of the movie. it was just too much. i can only remember one other movie that i treated worse in the last 10 years: "yes", which i turned off after 40 minutes.
Those pompous inner monologues were largely taken directly, often word for word, from the actual diaries and journals of the explorers from the time. Malick then took these historical records and married them to a story drawn from American folklore. So don't blame the narration on Malick as he was only attempting to capture the spirit and voice of, well, the people who came closest to living this dream.
I can understand not liking the movie or finding it slow or whatever, but calling it pretentious is way off the mark. It's not trying to be anything it's not. It's not phony or contrived. It's a movie whose story is told entirely through its visuals. And this time around, Malick doesn't need to shoehorn his big themes into a movie where they might not belong. The Pocahontas story has always been about natural world beauty and its inevitable spoiling by civilization; he just had to show it.
First off, movies I've seen that were before I started the 100 movies this month:
avatar - * 1/2 A dude really did say "Get some" twice. Somehow people thought that was Oscar caliber. Really mindless and the 3D gave me a headache and I don't think the world was that beautiful or creative. Blah.
home - *** 1/2 Caught this while in LA. A really funny and heartbreaking take on family chemistry and damaged values that starts in a very free spirited first act to the eerie surrealistic final. Ursela Meier is sure to be a constantly great filmmaker someday.
1. wings of desire - **** If the bible was written like this, I would probably be a religious man. I love whenever you watch a film and it feels like it taught you something and more importantly, it makes you appreciate life a little bit more.
2. tetro - **** Did not expect this to be as great as it was due to poor reviews even though I loved the trailer. I think I might have said that earlier. I love powerful family dramas and Tetro is a knockout. The film really does feel alive and I can imagine myself rewatching this film numerous times throughout the year. If I redid my 2009 list, it would probably be in my top 3 films of the year.
3. fish tank - ** The more I think about this film, the more I really dislike it. Sometimes it feels like a parody of a neo-realism film and it is greatly predictable but while watching it, I mostly forgive knowing pretty much every direction I would see coming. Characters are wholey one dimensional and in the last 5 minutes of the film, the director tries to show her having growth in an ending that is just flat out dumb.
4. secret of kells - ** 1/2 The 5th Animated Oscar nominee that no one ever heard of before, Secret of Kells feels like an Irish Miyazaki clone with some nice ideas for animation and an interesting take on Irish mythos. Some plot devices seemed far fetched and not comprehensible but I do like the brutal honesty direction the film ends to. Oh yeah, favorite part of the film, all the clumsy lovable side characters at the start of the movie that try to help Brendan chase the goose
fucking die like pansies by vikings
5. the quiet earth - ** I am not going to lie but this was a huge disappointment. I expected the Quiet Earth to be one of the smartest bleakest science fiction films to be made but then they explained too much and none of it was all that believable.
6. an education - *** A great great script from Nick Hornby and a wonderful performance from Carey Mulligan. If it was made by a more capable director, it would have been a more like a modern Eric Rohmer morality tale but with a female perspective. Nick Hornby, as I have said this before, really understands the nature of man maybe more than any working artist today.
7. code unknown - incomplete tales - *** 1/2 An interesting puzzle about people's paths that stems off a particular moment. My favorite part of Code Unknown are the things the film doesn't show you and probably where it gets its "incomplete tales" subtitle. Not my favorite Haenke but still great all through out.
8. house of the devil - * 1/2 A horror film that isn't scary for half of the film and even when the tension is supposed to build, it feels sort of half assed. The gore isn't really worth noting what little of it and the ending felt cheap and made the film mostly a peon's
Rosemary's Baby
9. we are the strange - *** What probably would have worked better as an art installation than as a feature length movie, the plot should have been more surreal to match its madcap visuals which for the most part feels nonstop. There are times when the film is just flat out fucking annoying (mostly the voice work, idiotic dialog, and the plot that should have been less apparent) but man, the animation feels like 2 parts classic Liquid Television and 8 parts unused videogame assets from sound effects, music, to unfinished CGI. Worth watching once at least.
10. tetsuo: the iron man - *** Yes, yes. I have never seen Tetsuo before. Blah blah blah. David Lynch this, robocock that. Blah blah. Am the only one that thought this would have been more crazy?
10. tetsuo: the iron man - *** Yes, yes. I have never seen Tetsuo before. Blah blah blah. David Lynch this, robocock that. Blah blah. Am the only one that thought this would have been more crazy?
I actually haven't yet. I have only really loved one Miike film so far out of the couple I have seen but I do have a copy of Gozu on DVD waiting for me at my sister's house in Kansas. I guess I will go back there to visit in early March.
Did you calculate how many of those films on that list you have seen yet?
Just seeing the same premise played out in an arguably less interesting way. It's probably just a matter of taste, but I liked Kiarostami's Brechtian ending better. (I won't spoil it.) Or it could simply be that I saw Taste of Cherry first, so when I saw Goodbye Solo it didn't feel very fresh. That's why I was curious. I wonder if you'd like Taste of Cherry less, seeing it second.
On an unrelated note, I was the last person to see Avatar. I just got back. It's kind of like a furry version of Baraka, smothered in white capitalist guilt. I enjoyed it and felt deeply embarrassed at the same time.
I actually haven't yet. I have only really loved one Miike film so far out of the couple I have seen but I do have a copy of Gozu on DVD waiting for me at my sister's house in Kansas. I guess I will go back there to visit in early March.
Did you calculate how many of those films on that list you have seen yet?
Watched Taken & Inside Man the other day, Taken was good but Inside Man was definitely one of those movies where you just smile at the end. IMDB says there's a sequel though!?
Watched Taken & Inside Man the other day, Taken was good but Inside Man was definitely one of those movies where you just smile at the end. IMDB says there's a sequel though!?
The Informant! - 3 out of 5 - i knew the entire story because this american life spent an hour covering it on one of their shows. It was ok i hoped it would be better.
A Serious Man - 1 out of 5 - didnt like it at all.
Moon - 3 out of 5 - didnt know anything about it going in ( which i like ). Not sure if i would ever watch it again but was interesting.
tetsuo: the iron man is only really crazy because of the hunt to get a copy of it. somebody's older brother would tell a story about it and how it was impossible to find. i only saw it because i let some kid dub my 5th generation dub of eraserhead. now all this shit is on netflix streaming and is pretty tame.
also that rohmer comparison is bonkers.
fake edit: i thought you guys would be a lot higher than 200s, i was around 900 and it looks like i won't be able to find all the films to finish the list.
Just saw "The Room". Very fun too watch with others, but the horrible-density was so high at some points I just couldn't take it. I mean, watching a few youtube videos doesn't convey the same feelings that watching an hour and a half of it does.
tetsuo: the iron man is only really crazy because of the hunt to get a copy of it. somebody's older brother would tell a story about it and how it was impossible to find. i only saw it because i let some kid dub my 5th generation dub of eraserhead. now all this shit is on netflix streaming and is pretty tame.
also that rohmer comparison is bonkers.
fake edit: i thought you guys would be a lot higher than 200s, i was around 900 and it looks like i won't be able to find all the films to finish the list.
It's a list dominated by older films and I really didn't start watching stuff prior to the 70s until a few years ago. As a matter of fact, if I hadn't gone on Kurosawa, Tarkovsky and Goddard marathon a few months ago, my list would probably be a good 15 movies lighter :lol
tetsuo: the iron man is only really crazy because of the hunt to get a copy of it. somebody's older brother would tell a story about it and how it was impossible to find. i only saw it because i let some kid dub my 5th generation dub of eraserhead. now all this shit is on netflix streaming and is pretty tame.
also that rohmer comparison is bonkers.
fake edit: i thought you guys would be a lot higher than 200s, i was around 900 and it looks like i won't be able to find all the films to finish the list.
Your face is bonkers. It still wouldn't have been as great as Rohmer but it has the blueprints to something great there.
What films on the list can you not find? I've been fortunate to find some obscure films here in Austin. I can check if I Love Video have them on VHS and possible dub some stuff for you. I mostly want bragging rights to say I have seen something before you have, haha.
Pretty cool movie, but I think Orlando Bloom lessens it for me. It wasn't necessarily his performance, I just thought his character was too unbelievable. I don't know how rooted in fact his arc was, but I just didn't buy it based on the way it was shown in the film.
The rest of the cast was excellent though. Jeremy Irons was badass and Ed Norton as the Jerusalem king was awesome. Going into the film, even though I knew he was played by Norton, it still took me a few minutes to register that it was actually him. It was just so unlike from what I normally expect from Ed Norton.
I actually haven't yet. I have only really loved one Miike film so far out of the couple I have seen but I do have a copy of Gozu on DVD waiting for me at my sister's house in Kansas. I guess I will go back there to visit in early March.
Did you calculate how many of those films on that list you have seen yet?
Gozu is my favorite Miike film by far. In fact, I'd probably put it in my top 10 films of the last decade. It's sort of like Seijun Suzuki, Kinji Fukasaku, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg tossed into a blender. I had a lot of fun with it.
Gozu is my favorite Miike film by far. In fact, I'd probably put it in my top 10 films of the last decade. It's sort of like Seijun Suzuki, Kinji Fukasaku, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg tossed into a blender. I had a lot of fun with it.
They're nothing like Gozu but I really liked Crows Zero and its sequel.
AlternativeUlster said:
I actually haven't yet. I have only really loved one Miike film so far out of the couple I have seen but I do have a copy of Gozu on DVD waiting for me at my sister's house in Kansas. I guess I will go back there to visit in early March.
Did you calculate how many of those films on that list you have seen yet?
Which films have you seen and which is the one you enjoyed? His films are hit or miss for me, either they're solid or absolute shit, he rarely makes something I'd consider to be mediocre or average.
They're nothing like Gozu but I really liked Crows Zero and its sequel.
Which films have you seen and which is the one you enjoyed? His films are hit or miss for me, either they're solid or absolute shit, he rarely makes something I'd consider to be mediocre or average.
I'm watching it on Blu Ray right now, myself. I only saw it partway into it about 4 or 5 years ago on TV for the first time before. Definitely like it for the atmosphere and it must be where some of the inspiration for Resident Evil 4 came from. I bought it a few weeks ago on Blu Ray for 15 dollars new, so I figured I could not really go wrong at that price.
Great and gruesome special effects though. Also... Keith David and... Wilfred Brimley (Sans mustache) are in it, from the looks and sounds of it.
They're nothing like Gozu but I really liked Crows Zero and its sequel.
Which films have you seen and which is the one you enjoyed? His films are hit or miss for me, either they're solid or absolute shit, he rarely makes something I'd consider to be mediocre or average.
I've seen Audition, One Missed Call, Ichi the Killer, and Happiness of the Katakuris and the only one that I loved was Happiness. I will check out Gozu sooner than later due to yours and Dr. Strangelove's high remarks.
I think this is my next 10 (I actually just watched Andrei Rublev ):
11. Andrei Rublev
12. Knife in the Water
13. That Obscure Object of Desire
14. Jules and Jim
15. Battle of Algiers
16. Picnic at Hanging Park
17. Alphaville
18. Two Lane Blacktop
19. 3 Women
20. Z
I decided that I would only rewatch something if I haven't seen it in the last 10 years.
Wow, I totally messed up my count by a 100. I am at 320 after using that website. When I counted by hand, I would restart at 1 after every hundred. Jesus christ.
Just got done watching The Cove, which is nominated at this years Oscar's for Best Documentary. It's a documentary about dolphins being slaughtered in Japan. Great documentary but it sucks seeing these dolphins being killed.
Amazing novel and a superb, richly comic film. Probably the finest comic film I can remember seeing. Alan Arkin is wonderful, and Jon Voight is brilliant as Milo. I read that it was a critical and commercial failure, but it's so very good. Even Art Garfunkel is terrific.
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (aka remastered Ghost in the Shell 1)
What can i say? The Movie is still great and the BluRay quality is nice. But the new 3D Parts don fit in very well most of the time. And the english synchro is really bad. But anyway still a movie everyone should have seen - imo.
WOW what a kick-ass kung-fu movie. I think it might have been the best of its kind ive seen in at least 10 years. Seriously great, iam looking forward to IP Man 2 :O
