list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Thief

Caught between the true-crime realism of the 1970s and designer tech of the early 80s, Michael Mann's directorial debut has a lot going for it and yet somehow manages to bore us half of the time.   We want to like Thief, we certainly like James Caan, and Tangerine Dream's score is nice to hear.   But the disconnect between the character's professional life as a diamond burglar and legit job as car salesman & husband never comes together and what could've been one of the great cult films of the era ends up mostly forgotten about.

Syriana

Palpably atmospheric psych-thriller set in the Middle East intersects three main storylines following players in the Big Oil/CIA/State Department intrigues post-9/11.   Drawn from ex-CIA man Robert Baer's memoir, it brims with inside swagger and geopolitical savvy as we get a rare peek into a grim, oddly finite world of petroleum politics and the machinations that keep it going.   Believable but still entertaining, the sad reality of modern day espionage through the looking glass.

The Silence - Ingmar Bergman. 

Capricorn One

In many ways the peak of the 70s govt./conspiracy-thrillers and among the most outlandishly absurd and deliciously plausible ~ given a country still smarting from Kennedy and barely recovering from Vietnam and Watergate ~ Peter Hyams brings all his experience as a reporter to a script that draws from the No-Moonies claims but goes much deeper into an entirely believable setting where a country that had become an industry/war state was now willing to kill its own in order to survive.    Though mainly a quick-paced action flick, Capricorn One also explores corruption, patriotism, loyalty, psychology, and ethics.   Throw in Jerry Goldsmith's mercurial score, great performances from Elliot Gould and cast, a spectacular helicopter chase through the Texas desert, and one of the most memorable out-of-control car scenes in film history and you've got some compelling stuff if a bit contrived, as relevant today as in 1977.

Mrs. Doubtfire 

^^ OK, Gaganov. It was a funny yet touching story about a man who loved his kids so much he would do anything to be with them including dress up like an Old Hag just to see and be close to them.

Edited by ProgMetaller2112 - August 17 2014 at 23:27

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Though the dazzlingly talented Andrew Garfield gives another perfect performance as Peter Parker, this one is only a decent follow-up to the very good Amazing Spider-Man.   Jamie Foxx pumps out the voltage as Electro and Dane DeHaan excellent as Harry Osborn but the film reads like the average Marvel comic, is laden with too much romantic sentiment and after several years of superhero flicks, TASM 2 doesn't quite deliver the way one would hope.   A good attempt at an increasingly limited character.

The Presidio

Bland crime drama set at the San Francisco army base with Mark Harmon doing his best Tom Cruise imitation saved only by a beaming Sean Connery as a tough military policeman partnering to solve the shooting of a young female M.P.   Would've made a decent TV movie in 1980.   Pretty much stinks as a feature film.

Anyone by any chance saw the '81 149-minute or the '85 293-minute version of Das Boot?

^ I've read from reviews on IMDb.com that it's filled with tedium, supposedly to add to the "realistic" factor. I take it that in your eyes the tedium didn't really increase any sort of tension between the characters in the film.