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Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| June 2013

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Finally got around to watching the Muppets (2011)

Damn! I haven't had this much fun watching a movie in a long time. I grew up with reruns of the Muppet Show and their movies so it was just such a good time seeing them all again. And I'm also a huge Flight of the Conchords fan so the fact that this movie had James Bobin's and Bret Mckenzie's fingerprints all over it made it that much more enjoyable for me. The music was perfect. Life's a Happy Song was easily the standout for me.

I tried getting my girlfriend's four year old's into but they just couldn't care less. I don't understand it. Maybe it's a generational thing. All I know is I almost cried when they finally performed Rainbow Connection. I felt like I was 5 year old again. Such a good feeling.

I can't believe it took me this long to get around to watching it but I'm so glad I did.
 
Just watched The Boy With The Striped Pyjamas. Wow. Had no idea what it was about other than it had rave reviews a while back. Loved how they kept a kid's innocense and curiosity all throughout as frosting over a cake of poison. Brilliant and touching.

Keeping with depressing films on a Saturday night. Amour now...

Edit: I hope to die before becoming too ill at an old age. :(
 
My movie selections have been kind of all over the place, with The Holy Mountain being the most recently strange choice. I have to say a lot of the imagery likely went over my head a bit but I still appreciated the things I did recognize and the way it twisted all these symbols and ideas for its own purposes. Funny, incredibly odd, and equally uncomfortable in parts I couldn't dislike it based purely on the variety of the spectacle. Some great visuals. I don't know what it is about mannequins but the scene where The Thief wakes up surrounded by molds of himself creeped me out, also when he eats the face of one of these molds. Not much sense to be had here I'm sure but it was quite the experience either way, now to watch El Topo at some point.
 
Watched some De Palma movies over the last 2 days, not very successful in terms of how much I liked them though. It's kinda hit and miss for me with this director.

Passion - Felt like it was ripped straight from the 80s in terms of lighting/dutch angles/music/aesthetics, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it felt super dated. The worst thing about it is the total miscasting of the two leads; both are unbelievable and unconvincing, although McAdams is a gorgeous woman. The story about two backstabbing colleagues turns murder mystery felt forced and I found myself not really caring for whatever turned out to be the truth **
Snake Eyes - A fantastic single take 12 minute opening shot (although apparently there were some cuts, but whatever) makes for a promising start, but after getting the viewers hopes up the movie goes downhill from there concluding in a terrible final act and an hilariously bad climax. Bonus point for Cage Caging it up **½
Carlito's Way - AKA Just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in or Scarface II: The Later Years if He Went to Prison instead of Dying. It goes trough the usual tropes but it's not bad. It was too long though and I hated the ending ***
Blow Out - Rewatch ****
Femme Fatale - Blugh **

Any other movies of his I should watch? I've seen most by now I guess. How about Phantom of the Paradise/Casualties of War/Sisters/Obsession, any of those worth watching?
 
femme fatale rocks. good rating for blow out though.

and you hated the ending of carlitos way? i was laughing so hard when benny blanco from the bronx showed up again.
 
Discotheque said:
femme fatale rocks. good rating for blow out though.

and you hated the ending of carlitos way? i was laughing so hard when benny blanco from the bronx showed up again.
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I almost facepalmed, it was so obvious. Hey let's introduce this venomous violent character, have our protagonist treat him badly and then forget about him. When he showed up I thought you have got to be fucking kidding me

And yeah Femme Fatale, not sure. It just didn't connect with me.
 
&Divius said:
Any other movies of his I should watch? I've seen most by now I guess. How about Phantom of the Paradise/Casualties of War/Sisters/Obsession, any of those worth watching?
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Phantom and Sisters, for sure, although I have to question the mental state of someone who didn't love Femme Fatale. What about The Fury, have you seen that? It's like the bastard sequel to Carrie.
 
Roxanne: A charming movie, and probably my favourite Steve Martin film after Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Felidae: That was the second most animated cat sex I've seen all week. This movie is all sorts of messed up, it's a shame I didn't see it as a kid. Would have built character. The dream sequence with the dead cat marionettes was nicely done, definite nightmare fuel. Leave it to the Germans to have eugenics as a major theme in an animated film starring cats.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Pretty much loved this. I've read a lot of people thought the environmental message was too preachy and so forth, but I didn't feel it was overdone. It was a beautiful movie to watch, and one of the most interesting post-apocalyptic visions I've seen (although I'm not sure does a world with forests and valleys like that count as post-apocalyptic in the strictest sense, but whatever). This has nothing to do with the movie itself, but the blu-ray had the weirdest glitch or whatever it was. It worked just fine, except when you turned the subtitles on it pretty much started freezing and skipping all over the place and became totally unwatchable. I've never even heard that subtitles could affect a film like that. As a result I had to watched it dubbed. It wasn't a bad dub though, just would have preferred watching with the original voices for the first time.

Has anyone read the manga Nausicaä is based? The world seemed pretty interesting and I thought the ending left a lot open, and found out it was based on just the first two of seven books in the series. The whole series is about 38 euros on Amazon.co.uk, that seems like a pretty good deal for 1,100 pages worth of material. Might pick it up. I've never read any manga other than Dragonball.
 
I finally watched Skyfall and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I had very low expectations because I don't care much for Bond movies and I didn't think the other Craig Bond films were all that good. This movie has some very questionable story elements, but it is beautifully shot and despite its running length it kept me engaged the whole time.

Javier Bardem's character was defeinitely the highlight of the movie for me. His introduction was great, and even though his plot made no sense whatsoever, he did a great job in the role.
 
Cosmic Bus said:
Phantom and Sisters, for sure, although I have to question the mental state of someone who didn't love Femme Fatale. What about The Fury, have you seen that? It's like the bastard sequel to Carrie.
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Haven't seen The Fury, will seek it + those others out.

Is anyone still watching the film club movies? Haven't seen much mention of Night and Day.
 
Iron Man 3:
Man its shit. Loved Kingsley and the way that was handled, hated everything else. Kid, the directing, dumb action, dumb "hanging it up" ending. Miss Jon Favreau's direction and Sam Rockwell.
 
John Dunbar said:
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Pretty much loved this. I've read a lot of people thought the environmental message was too preachy and so forth, but I didn't feel it was overdone. It was a beautiful movie to watch, and one of the most interesting post-apocalyptic visions I've seen (although I'm not sure does a world with forests and valleys like that count as post-apocalyptic in the strictest sense, but whatever). This has nothing to do with the movie itself, but the blu-ray had the weirdest glitch or whatever it was. It worked just fine, except when you turned the subtitles on it pretty much started freezing and skipping all over the place and became totally unwatchable. I've never even heard that subtitles could affect a film like that. As a result I had to watched it dubbed. It wasn't a bad dub though, just would have preferred watching with the original voices for the first time.

Has anyone read the manga Nausicaä is based? The world seemed pretty interesting and I thought the ending left a lot open, and found out it was based on just the first two of seven books in the series. The whole series is about 38 euros on Amazon.co.uk, that seems like a pretty good deal for 1,100 pages worth of material. Might pick it up. I've never read any manga other than Dragonball.
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Yes. Do it, do it, do it. I loved the film as well, but it is absolutely nothing - not a scratch on the surface of the manga - whose characters are infinitely more complex and whose story is magnitudes more epic, poignant and philosophically stimulating. The package itself it a marvelous thing to own. It is the only manga I own.
 
Scullibundo said:
Yes. Do it, do it, do it. I loved the film as well, but it is absolutely nothing - not a scratch on the surface of the manga - whose characters are infinitely more complex and whose story is magnitudes more epic, poignant and philosophically stimulating. The package itself it a marvelous thing to own. It is the only manga I own.
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With such a glowing recommendation I had no choice. Just ordered it.
 
Scullibundo said:
Yes. Do it, do it, do it. I loved the film as well, but it is absolutely nothing - not a scratch on the surface of the manga - whose characters are infinitely more complex and whose story is magnitudes more epic, poignant and philosophically stimulating. The package itself it a marvelous thing to own. It is the only manga I own.
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I loved the movie and this has been on my Amazon wish list for some time now. How is the art overall? I mean, is it consistently good the whole way through like Akira is?
 
Watched Zero Dark Thirty, good movie, even though it was pretty long I found myself captivated the whole time. I liked a lot more than The Hurt Locker.

When they got to the hangar with the stealth choppers I got this corny action movie feeling but I reminded myself that it was real which, at the scene when they fly at night, almost gave me patriotic feelings even though I'm not even american. I just kept thinking this is insane during the whole scene. I didn't know about those night vision googles either, I have to read up on why they are designed like that.
 
Nausicaa art has a distinict european feel compared to other manga, and it's pretty consistently great the whole way through. In fact, it's printed on much longer pages than the average manga as well. Feeling more akin to a graphic novel than a typical manga paperpack.
 
Late to the party as usual ....

1. Favorite Movie? Harold & Maude/Schizopolis
2. Top Three Actors? Kevin Spacey, Alec Guinness, Peter O'Toole
3. How horrible is Avengers? Mediocre. Predictable therefore boring
4. How many films do you watch a year? About 200
5. Favorite Genre? Black Comedy
6. What is your favorite performance in film? James Stewart in Harvey or John Mills in Ryan's Daughter.
7. Who is your favorite director? David Lean/Stanley Kubrick
 
Thought Used Cars was on instant watch, i was mistaken. So i watched the next movie down on instant named Hot Cars some little watched(i assume 59 imdb votes, 2 icm) movie from 1956, it wasnt bad, rather short..60 minutes
Father gets involved into a car theft ring, at first he like fuck this shit i got honor, but his son is sick and had to be hospitalized so like any good father he swallows his pride and does whatever it take. A investigator eventually snoops deep enough to uncover it, they end up getting the top guy and a woman that was involved
 
The Master

beautifully shot, great performances, but either PTA learns to trim his movies down by about 30 minutes or I'll just have to fall asleep halfway through every goddamned time. Just like TWBB, it requires multiple rewatches to become perfectly clear, since the point he tries to make isn't always clear
 
Scullibundo said:
Yes. Do it, do it, do it. I loved the film as well, but it is absolutely nothing - not a scratch on the surface of the manga - whose characters are infinitely more complex and whose story is magnitudes more epic, poignant and philosophically stimulating. The package itself it a marvelous thing to own. It is the only manga I own.
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Damn it Sculli, I've been on the fence about buying the Manga for months but you're close to pushing me over the edge.
 
Citizen Kane tonight (and Man of Steel in the afternoon—eh, it was decent). I must say, everyone talks about Kane being an interesting character, but the narrative implies that he's interesting because of the ways different individuals paint him. That to me is the real genius, since Kane's not as complex as he's made out to be (I think Leland's just as interesting, honestly). Aside from the opening sequence (I would have preferred non-flashback stuff be relegated solely to the picture people and the ending, not the beginning with the final words), this movie's as great as I expected. It's just really good, comic, serious story-telling. *****

Note to self: watch Joan of Arc next. It'll make Sculli proud?
 
ViewtifulJC said:
RIP Sculli
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lol, damn.
-
Saw Deep Red and Suspiria, just to get in the spirit to watch Berberian Sound Studio, which was pretty damn good.
I wish it embraced the 70s aesthetics more though, i think it lacks that powerful, vivid color palette.
All three one after the other, feels good.
 
Dragoon En Regalia said:
Citizen Kane tonight (and Man of Steel in the afternoon—eh, it was decent). I must say, everyone talks about Kane being an interesting character, but the narrative implies that he's interesting because of the ways different individuals paint him. That to me is the real genius, since Kane's not as complex as he's made out to be (I think Leland's just as interesting, honestly). Aside from the opening sequence (I would have preferred non-flashback stuff be relegated solely to the picture people and the ending, not the beginning with the final words), this movie's as great as I expected. It's just really good, comic, serious story-telling. *****

Note to self: watch Joan of Arc next. It'll make Sculli proud?
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One of the reason I love Citizen Kane is because we see his story as others saw him. It's a really complex film even if it may be seem to be at first glance.

The way the story is structured is pure magic. I love how the newsreel basically tells the whole story we'll see later, but from a cold journalistic perspective. Then we start getting versions by people who were progressively closer and closer to him. Love it, and the attention to detail is fantastic.

I'm always a bit bothered when I hear people saying that CK is only remembered for it's technical achievements.
 
Scullibundo
Banned
(Today, 04:33 PM)
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iImRl5Nud7OH4.gif
 
CFK said:
One of the reason I love Citizen Kane is because we see his story as others saw him. It's a really complex film even if it may be seem to be at first glance.

The way the story is structured is pure magic. I love how the newsreel basically tells the whole story we'll see later, but from a cold journalistic perspective. Then we start getting versions by people who were progressively closer and closer to him. Love it, and the attention to detail is fantastic.

I'm always a bit bothered when I hear people saying that CK is only remembered for it's technical achievements.
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Yeah, I'll never that understand that now. I've seen other 5-star films I like more (2001's a definite on that), but this movie's so thorough and consistent in what it's doing that, even without Toland's visual sense, the editing and composition-based dissolves work so well to service the story. That's just one broad example of why it all functions on its level, lol.

Man of Steel? I can see its sequels being better, maybe, but it looks we won't be getting a Wonder Woman feature anytime soon. I'd be more interested in that; it's Father's Day, so me and Pop went to see this in a packed-ass theater. Going to rewatch it in a more controlled environment next time!
 
Echoes From A Sombre Empire:: 6/10. Herzog doc about your run of the mill African dictator. Yadda yadda torture, yadda yadda embezzlement, you know the story. Then in an extraordinary final scene a monkey smokes a cigarette.
The Cranes Are Flying: 9/10. Stunning. Features some of the most gorgeous moving photography I’ve ever seen, it’s still with me days later. Like that corkscrew shit on the stairs, and that fence thing. Tatiana Samoilova is like god damn. I would drag my dick through two world wars just to smell her Borscht. Looking forward to Letter Never Sent, but maybe it’s the same basic movie?
Ballad Of A Solider: 6/10. Less effective Russian dub dub two love story. I didn’t really believe they fell in love, and a lot of the movie hinges on that. Great ending though.

I also watched the first season of The Walking Dead (terrible show btw). That’s THREE things this week that featured a plot point where men leave for some reason and their women don’t wait for them. Is life trying to tell me something?
 
Haven't watched nearly as much movies as I planned last week... first of all, I'm still working on my classic sci-fi watchlist:

Invaders from Mars (1953)
Started out very cool, like an earlier take on the Body Snatcher theme, but the stock footage of tanks and troops really took all momentum out in the latter half.

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
First in the series, it was funny to see a UK sci-fi movie after watching so many American ones, with such an asshole protagonist. Loved the first half, when the rocket crashed and they investigate what happened, but the second half was more or less a Frankenstein rip-off.

Forbidden Planet (1956)
Pretty good, you can basically see Star Trek evolving from this, great electronic soundtrack too, this felt very much ahead of it's time.

The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Another great classic, with cool sounds and very effective art direction. Didn't like the animal scenes that much tho, but otherwise it's near perfect 70s sci-fi.

Also watched:

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Trying to watch the few Woody Allen movies that I missed, this is definitely one of the better ones. Great supporting cast too.

Trois couleurs: Blanc (1994)
Don't know what to think yet, I loved Blue but this was very different, lacking the visual wizardry and the reality based content of that first film.

Movie 43 (2013)
watched this out of morbid curiosity, and yes it was thàt bad, even if I enjoyed some of the individual performances (mostly in the "Batman speed dating" skit).
 
The Golden Compass was probably the worst adaptation I've ever seen, and I haven't even read the book. Assuming the book is not utterly terrible, the movie is probably actually even worse.

It felt like I was watching the deleted scenes of the actual movie. There's just things that are happening and all the plot I could get from it was that there's a girl who needs to go somewhere for some reason. Because Dust? Which is... a word... that means something bad I think.

You know you've fucked up with your children's movie when Primer (after first viewing) makes more sense.
 
MikeMyers said:
What happened with Sculli this time, WW2 thread I presume?
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Loxley said:
I'm going to assume that was it. That thread was getting super heated before I bailed out.
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I sure hope it's not (or maybe I missed something?) because seeing the usual apologists - and indeed fucking idiots - still standing makes my blood boil.


In other news, I was in the mood for a sunday evening rom-com so we decided to watch l'Arnacoeur (Hearbreaker). It's quite a feat that this movie encompasses everything that is bad in rom-com AND in French movies. So if you're in the mood for some recent gallic romance, please watch Populaire, mkay ?
 
Ghost Dog: Good movie. Was better than I expected. Good acting all around.
 
Borgnine said:
Looking forward to Letter Never Sent, but maybe it’s the same basic movie?
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I watched it recently and loved it. I haven't seen Cranes yet, but I imagine the cinematography in LNS is more impressive at the cost of story depth. It's more of a genre piece than anything else, with some mild propaganda (some of which actually subverts itself), but it's very solid stuff. I recommend it.
 
Stoker: Particularly inspired direction bolstered by some quality acting. I felt like the movie "blew its load" too quickly though, never feeling as mysterious as it did during the initial third. Still, entertaining throughout and I loved the final scene and credits song.

Also, Nicole Kidman is still gorgeous.

3.5/5

Warm Bodies: Why was Rob Corddry's character suddenly able to verbally communicate with R as soon as they were reunited, whereas before they were only able to unintelligibly grunt at each other? Similarly, R was too easily able to use words to communicate with the girl from the get go. I see what they were going for,
a slow transformation from zombie to human again
but to me it largely felt clumsy and unconvincing.

Still, the general plot was compelling enough despite the inconsistent execution. The Boneys, the money shots of post-apocalyptic landscapes and Teresa Palmer all made for some nice eye candy, too.

3/5
 
The Evil Dead - So bad it's good. I watched 2 a while back and nothing in the first film comes close to a chainsaw prosthetic arm, but there's plenty of silly gore nonetheless.

Edit: Why the fuck does Google tell me Bruce Campbell died in 1993?

Pitch Black - A rewatch. This is a solid film.

Forbidden Planet - Although this is a decent old sci-fi movie, the plot is stretched a bit thin.

kurisu1974 said:
I would recommend Take Shelter (2011) and especially My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) for more Michael Shannon awesomeness.
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&Divius said:
Take Shelter +1

Also BUG

Bug%202007%20Brian%20OByrne%20Ashley%20Judd%20Michael%20Shannon%20pic%203.jpg
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eLZhi said:
Watch Shotgun Stories.
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luso said:
The same, even if it is almost painful to watch the events unfolding.
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Thanks for the recommendations.

I must say, however, that Shannon wasn't a great choice for Zod in Man of Steel. Not imposing enough and a bit lacking in insane passion. Hardly the worst flaw of the film, though.
 
Stupid Movie Sunday!

Alien versus Predator: Requiem

Horrible. Cliche characters and dialogue (the line "God help us all" is used, dude likes a super hot girl who has an asshole boyfriend but she secretly likes the nice dude, etc.) that you never get a chance to care about. Their deaths are treated with such nonchalance that it's clear the writer/directors don't care if you care.

Having said that, it still could have been decent to good! The premise of xenos fighting a predator in the middle of a small town and having the national guard called in to help, could have led to some memorable scenes. The problem is that the movie is so damned dark and the editing is so choppy (and rarely is anything shot with a wide angle), it's difficult to tell what is going on.

Did I mention it has some of the most tasteless and unnecessary violence I've ever seen? I don't mean it's too much; it's just poorly done. Human beings and entire characters just serve to be alien and/or predator fodder. Yes, the first AvP is better than this. There isn't much that's redeemable here.

3/10

Identity Thief

You know, I actually listen to the Scriptnotes podcast, which is co-hosted by Craig Mazin, the writer of the screenplay for Identity Thief, among other movies. I do respect his thoughts and opinions; he may not be subtle, but he is to the point and his input is always entertaining and educational.

Having said that, I was pretty disappointed by this, and it's easy to see where the middling reviews came from. I found it hard to care about the characters. No, this isn't because Melissa McCarthy is a less-than-savory female, it's because there isn't much there to like. I'm not sure if its the writing or McCarthy, but I just did not smile during her scenes for the majority of the movie, and I am a big fan of hers.

Jason Bateman was alright, but kinda standard Jason Bateman fare.

This isn't to say it's horrible. It has some genuine comedy and heart, but much of it is surrounded by medocrity. It was nice to see Amanda Peet, likeable as always.

6/10
 
Already watched a long time ago but i stumbled into later half of The Lost World on TV and was not as good as I remembered. Some parts did had a lot of tension (most of trailer part) but was overstretched and lol at Goldblum, always thinking seconds ahead of everyone, he must have a 6th sense. The gymnastics kick was just dumb. Entertaining enough. 3/5

And rewatched Gattaca after some 10 years maybe, is still solid. 4/5

Jeux interdits (1952) - Story of 6 year old lost child befriending a 10 year-old farmer's son, on the eve of French occupation in WW2, both young actors were amazing, and the story, aside some inconspicuous light humor, is not for laughs. 4/5
 
Anton Sugar said:
Stupid Movie Sunday!

Alien versus Predator: Requiem

Horrible. Cliche characters and dialogue (the line "God help us all" is used, dude likes a super hot girl who has an asshole boyfriend but she secretly likes the nice dude, etc.) that you never get a chance to care about. Their deaths are treated with such nonchalance that it's clear the writer/directors don't care if you care.

Having said that, it still could have been decent to good! The premise of xenos fighting a predator in the middle of a small town and having the national guard called in to help, could have led to some memorable scenes. The problem is that the movie is so damned dark and the editing is so choppy (and rarely is anything shot with a wide angle), it's difficult to tell what is going on.

Did I mention it has some of the most tasteless and unnecessary violence I've ever seen? I don't mean it's too much; it's just poorly done. Human beings and entire characters just serve to be alien and/or predator fodder. Yes, the first AvP is better than this. There isn't much that's redeemable here.

3/10
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Yeah, that movie was shite. It's like a made-for-TV movie where the DP only brought like one lens.
 
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