Recommend-a-Movie Thread

Top Ten of the year:

1. No Country For Old Men
2. Michael Clayton
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
4. Juno
5. Grindhouse
6. Eastern Promises
7. Gone Baby Gone
8. In the Valley of Elah
9. Knocked Up
10. Once

As the end of this amazing year of film draws to a close, I managed to catch up a little on some film I missed while catching the last hurrahs.

No Country for Old Men- My pick for film of the year (it's not a bold selection, judging from the critics' lists it's topping). Tommy Lee Jones is a master of minimal acting. His body language, garb, and inflection make him simultaneously the most ordinary man on the planet and the one that stands out the most. Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh may be the best and most unsettling villain since Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs over 15 years ago.Josh Brolin rounds out the film's trifecta as a simple man who stumbles upon a sour drug deal and makes off with 2 million clams. His battle of wits with Chigurh proves he isn't some dumb hick and it makes for some of the best thriller in a long while. The Coens draw many obvious parallels to their previous masterpiece Fargo, mainly through their use of desolate settings. While the snow in Fargo serves to make the characters (and their blood) stand out even more in contrast, the dusty, dark plains of NCFOM consume the characters, making them nearly invisible. It has that trademark dark Coen humor, but this is by far the most dramatic thing the guys have made.

3:10 to Yuma- This and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford are the best Westerns to hit the screen since Unforgiven, and they can sit any day alongside the glorious spaghetti Westerns of the 60s and 70s. Christian Bale proves once again that he is one of the foremost actors out there, and Russel Crowe (a man I've always like but never been wowed by) gives one of his best performances. The Western genre is full of remakes (some of the best of which came from adapting Japanese film master Akira Kurosawa), and, though I've never seen the original 3:10, I'm more than sure that this honors that film.

Sweeney Todd- Having never seen the musical, I had only the faintest idea of what to expect. However, I knew Tim Burton would be the perfect choice to direct once someone described the plot of the musical to me. Johnny Depp, though not old enough to really play Sweeney, he manages to make us believe he's a embittered, broken man on the edge thanks to his sheer talent. Helena Bonham Carter has a great voice, but the lyrics are so often obscured becuase of the British slang in which her songs are written. Cohen was great in his limited time on screen, and Alan Rickman makes the already great film transcendent. He can intimidate like few others. A fun bloody ride.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story- Judging from the trailers, this was going to be Judd Apatow's first slip-up since he hit big with 40 Year Old Virgin. Imagine my surprise when my friends forced me to go to this and I saw a note perfect satire of music biopics. John C. Reilly is perfect as the titular character, as he can be treat the character with sly winks as well as dramatic sincerity, and he makes both hilarious. Tim meadows gives his funniest performance to date as his bandmate Sam, who delivers his lines with aggressively dry wit that makes his already funny lines instantly memorable. Everything about biopics is skewered, from using the same actor starting from early teens all the way to death, to the tendency to highlight any other musicians that the character ever interacted with (i.e. every artist Dewey meets is referred to by their full names, from Buddy Holly to Elvis to each of the Beatles). Quite simply, this is the funniest film about music since This Is Spinal Tap.

I used to have a game called Equilibrium, where you're supposed to drop cubes on a board that's balanced at the middle so that the board doesn't flip over. When you get four cubes of the same colour in a row they disappear. It was freeware, but now I can't seem to find it anywhere. Anyway, if this was a recommend-a-game thread, I'd recommend that one. 

EDIT: I found it!


Edited by Vompatti - November 05 2007 at 16:31

being 5th of November... I recommend...

V for Vendetta

not the greatest movie, but the scenario is pretty weird at times...


Edited by aapatsos - November 05 2007 at 08:55

Amazing movie!

andu wrote: Some more clappies:

Is it me or does the guy on the right look like Alan Tudyk?

darkmatter wrote: ^ Except they're separated into individual DVDs if I'm not mistaken, which is really annoying!   Great movies though!

Yes, they are separated, but you get extended versions of both. The downside? The only trailer you get is Machete. The good news? The full theatrical version (or both the extended, I'm not sure) is slated to be released with a full length version of Machete sometime in 2008. Don't wait for that release though, cause these are extended versions and God if a film was ever worth double dipping for, it'd be this one.

Now that Planet Terror is out- Grindhouse. When I watch a movie, I do it with reserve. I don't shout joyously when something cool happens, gasp in suspense, scream in horror; heck, I don't even laugh out loud. However, when I sat down with Grindhouse, something took hold of me. I groaned throughout Planet Terror as Rodriguez threw as much sickening gore as he could, and whooped whenever something blew up or someone got taken down. In Death Proof, I laughed uproariously at the dialogue and couldn't stop cheering at the end. Very few movies have this effect on me (Sin City is the only one that comes to mind). If you don't have the DVDs go to the nearest store as soon as possible and pick up Planet Terror and Death Proof. Most exhilarating film experience I've ever had.

Das Leben Der Anderen >> This German movie is opne of the most human I've see in years. It's about the Eastern Germany life in the 80's and the Stasi secret police. Even if the subject does not push you to see it, this is an awesome movie >> easily the movie if the year for me? It's been running for five months in Brussels. 

Edited by Sean Trane - October 16 2007 at 05:59