list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Jim Garten wrote: TGM: Orb wrote: I just saw Fight Club. With pretty low expectations, I was really surprised. Gripping plot and psychology, powerful  and convincing performances, even from Brad Pitt. Interesting choices for the visuals. Very neat development. Wow. Blown away. When that came out in the UK, the critics were appalled, one of whom (not usually given to outrage) stated it was one of the most aboninable films ever produced: "it is an inadmissible assault on personal decency. And on society itself. At its Venice Film Festival world premiere in September, it caused well-justified outrage as a movie phenomenon well in line with the current tentative but threatening revival of Nazism" I avoided the movie for ages, but eventually watched it, loved it & purchased it - I personally didn't see the parallels seen by various critics - what I did see was a well written, scripted, acted & filmed piece of cinema of which Norton, Pitt & Carter should be proud, as opposed to: "In any well-adjusted society, its stars would feel a backlash of public indignation well beyond the box-office" No accounting for taste, eh?

I wonder how the reaction to the next film adapted from a Palahniuk novel will be. Choke will be coming out sometime soon. I don't know how they're going to pull it off. The book had anal beads featured quite frequently.   Trailer for Choke.

The Dead Girl - one of those movies that follow 5 different people who never actually meet in the movie but all have some sort of relation to the main event-"The Dead Girl", including the girl herself and the last day of her life, nothing new was okay for a Friday night viewing - 5.5/10

964 Pinocchio - this was stupid, Im getting tired of weird movies that are weird for the sake of being weird! although there was nothing weird about this, thin plot, gross out moments, annoying parts that go on way too f**king long, I guess a comparison can be made to Tetsuo The Iron Man which I thought was much more of a visually stimulating film, 964 Pinocchio...not even close, hmm maybe this is cool when you're 18 and wanting to branch out into strange cinema outside of David Lynch, (by the way I love Lynch) but f**k this movie! -  1/10

City of Rott - Animated zombie film, every part of this film done by one guy, I applaud the effort, but way too adolescent for me, its pretty much geared towards a video game crowd, nonstop gore - human kill zombie: guts, maggots, entrails, splatter, <reverse> zombie kill human: guts, maggots, entrails, splatter...and so goes the entire movie... which we didnt actually watch all the way through, about 45 minutes in we just fast forwarded through the rest - 2/10

lame weekend for movies, hopefully next weekends batch is better! 

Edited by mithrandir - June 22 2008 at 03:34

I just saw Fight Club. With pretty low expectations, I was really surprised. Gripping plot and psychology, powerful  and convincing performances, even from Brad Pitt. Interesting choices for the visuals. Very neat development. Wow. Blown away. It's a shame I missed the opening 20 minutes or so due to Hattie and the North and not paying attention to the time.

I'd give it a 9/10, based on what I've seen.

what in the f**k is wrong with this forum?  half the time I type stuff and than when I go to post it, there is an error or my stuff is lost!!!!



anyway,

Slipstream- a film written and directed by Anthony Hopkins (yes the actor who usually plays nice and creepy characters)  perhaps all of his years of playing psychopaths has gone to his head, as this film is a schizophrenic's David Lynch-wannabe nightmare.  It is fairly incomprehensible plot-wise, and falls into the easy trap of being more about art for the sake of art.  Do not get me wrong, I love many offbeat and bizarre films, yet I feel that folks like Cronenberg and Lynch do a great job of making you squirm with the surreal in the seeming mundane or the organic and un-natural.  The devices that made this movie tiresome were the constant, milisecond flashes of randomness, cuts to black and white that seemed totally random, time jumps from past to present and alternate reality likeness of scenes with little details changed.  Also the editing was very much like what you might get if you put a turntable-ist audiophile onto the film editing machinery and let him mistake the equipment for some vinyl to scratch......it is very jumpy, repeats numerous times what would otherwise seem to be useless minutia and randomness repeated for no reason.  Art film students may no doubt eat this up.  I can appreciate the artistic element, but even Lynch usually knows when to pull together a plot or some direction, no matter how many distractions.....meh.  I am at a loss.  This film will never be the masterpiece that Memento (for instance) is.  it gets bonus points for a great score and some truly disturbing material and shots included in all of the random milisecond flashes of randomness.....

I am not even sure how to rate this.....

for art's sake:  6/10
for film and plot's sake:  5/10  (there is some sort of story, but it is really convoluted)
overall:  3/10

The T wrote: While all of you are watching pseudo-movies, I entertain myself with a true piece of lost cinema: Zoltan, Hound of Dracula A.K.A. Dracula's Dog... Now try to beat that...

there's no beating a really crappy flick now and then, especially one with several A.K.A.s.. congratulations

Bluesaga wrote: Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain (1973) is really amazing.  It's so surreal and yet symbolic it's hard to draw the line on what's humor and what's serious, I'm going to have to research it some more and give it a few more viewings (maybe next time under the influence of something).  Some of it is definitely the most "wtf" moments conveyed on film, but some of it is definitely the most "holy wow that's amazing."  I really loved the ending, it's a twist on the typical and cliche plot twist, plus with an optimistic message.  10/10 I also downloaded Jodorowsky's El Topo from 1970 which I'll be watching sometime later this week.  Definitely need to look into more obscure and surreal movies.  Like with music, I dislike the fast majority of popular movies, especially the modern ones.

well, you're definitely on the right track with those two! don't know if I adore Holy Mountain and El Topo as much as most people do, but they indubitably encompass the definition of a "cult movie", the imagery and symbolism is astonishing be it a bit typical of the time, I think seeing those in a dusty old 30 seat theater during the 70s would have been amazing!

The Fall - Directed by that guy that directed that not so good The Cell movie. However, The Cell was imaginative in its imagery, but was very lacking in its story and acting. The Fall is great on all fronts. Incredible scenery, images, great story and story telling, and good acting. Its kind of an homage to storytelling and films, but not entirely. Had adventure/action, drama, comedy, and a bit of a love story. Really liked it. Check out the preview. 9/10.

The Incredible Hulk - Well Ang Lee and co killed this the first time around. Man that first hulk movie was awful. This was a huge improvement though. Edward Norton is awesome as Bruce Banner. Tim Roth is still awesome. Liv Tyler was good too. The story was much better and didn't focus on Bruce being a whiney jackass. The CGI was much improved as the Hulk looked a bit more natural and not like a big green pixel. The big pummel fest. between him and the Abomination was sweet! Robert Downy Jr. makes an awkward cameo that everyone has probably heard about already. (Marvel is trying to tie in all the Avengers characters for when they make the Avenegers movie many years down the road). The only big problem with the movie was that it felt pretty long. It lasted nearly two hours, and the story could not have been shortened. I wouldn't have changed anything, its just that it felt long.

avalanchemaster wrote: Lars and the Real Doll- a surprisingly original story about a socially inept man somewhere in smalltown America who decides to try his luck with the purchase of a real doll.....hilarity ensues and the whole town grows to love the eccentric man.  Thankfully the film addresses the topic of mental health aberrations with a sympathetic hand.  I laughed all the way through and was thoroughly entertained by this one-of-a-kind film.   8/10

I saw it this past winter.  Although a bit too quirky for my tastes, it managed to address alienation in modern life without being too heavy-handed or silly about it.

Anyhow, I just finished watching the Criterion edition of de Sica's Bicycle Thieves--such an excellent film!  While dispensing with bourgeois heroes and convoluted plots, it grapples with arguably the defining problem in life:  our responsibility to each other in a universe indifferent to us all.

tardis wrote: Fight Club wrote: tardis wrote: Fight Club wrote: [QUOTE=mithrandir] Sunshine - I loved the first hour or so of this movie, great hard-Scifi with an awesome and believable ship, crew interactions and problem scenarios, great special FX too... this is what CGI was made for! the only minor factual flaw was there's no reason why they couldn't have remained in contact with Earth from that short of distance - but I guess that was something they added to raise the tension, Now my annoyance with this movie was what played out towards the end, (all of a sudden it turns into a stalker/slasher in space movie ugh) ...so it lost some points with me on that one, a shame they had to break the mood with that tripe, I'll still give it a respectful - 7/10 - just because there was so much I liked about the beginning, I pretty much agree with you here on this review, and 7 is quite generous. I loved the first part of the movie, great suspense and tension, beautiful ship design etc. .... but couldn't quite feel disappointed at the sudden "slasher-flick" type ending (won't give anything away here)...still, definitely worth seeing...had a lot of potential as a sci-fi flick, we need more of 'em out there because the good ones are few and far between! Movies I've recently watched: Iron Man - 5/10 Mixed feelings on this one. Had some fun scenes and action, but felt disappointingly short-lived if that makes any sense. I felt left wanting for more, and that the ending battle sequence was only subpar (also I have a lot of respect for Jeff Bridges, but couldn't quite get into his character...in fact a lot of the characters felt a bit contrived, but if you can look past the cliched stereotypical archetypes, the movie still has it's fun moments). I, Robot - 9/10 I really enjoyed this movie, despite hearing only average reviews by the critics. I've never read the book, so I can't compare the film, and anyways books are always better, but I really had fun with this film. Yes, fun is the key word! It was a nice combination of detective story, mystery, and philosophical debates (on artificial intelligence rights, and Asimov writes great AI sci-fi). I liked Will Smith's character, even if it took me a bit to warm up to at first. There is more I could say about the film, but I'll let you judge it for yourself...check it out! There Will Be Blood - 5.5/10 Very mixed feelings about this effort. I would have given it a much higher rating if the ending hadn't left me feeling so cheated. Sure, maybe it was intentional and all, but I like to see movies that give me at least a partial sense of satisfaction, and all I felt after seeing this movie was disappointment, depression, and a sick feeling in my stomach. Don't get me wrong, there was some fine acting performances, but the main character was so hopelessly bleak and bitter, with no hope of redemption, I was left feeling like I'd just watched a funeral march. Maybe some like these kind of anti-feel good movies, but I prefer movies with redemptive themes. All I took away from this movie was that I hope to God never to end up like Daniel's character Still, I tried to be generous with my rating, movie was captivating and certainly kept me watching, if the ending hadn't left me feeling so jilted, I'd have given a much higher rating. Definitely recommend watching it though, and would love to hear what others think of it...there's no right review for a movie, it's all personal preference I will never look at drinking a milkshake the same way again though.... Originally posted by BroSpence Originally posted by Fight Club Originally posted by Chicapah Finally saw "There will be blood" and it was an amazing acting performance by DDL.  He's in every scene and I'll spend the rest of my life dissecting his character's dark psyche. Even though I believe that his performance may in fact be the best I have ever seen in a motion picture (yes is really is that profound) I think it's a crime that the movie gets so much attention for the performance instead of its entire execution in general. The sheer magnitude of DDL's performance initially seems to pull people's eyes away from the true genius of the film. Every little detail in that movie is worked out to perfection - every. There isn't a single aspect placed within it that doesn't serve a purpose towards conveying the character of Daniel Plainview and his conflict with Eli Sunday. Really everyone, if you haven't seen this movie yet, I urge you to. If you have seen the movie and didn't quite get it yet, watch it again, and with a closer view to aesthetic detail. It truly is a modern day masterpiece and will be remembered for years to come! WOO YES!  I too was taken away by TWBB. It was brilliant.  the acting, the cinematography, the story, the music.  The entire film had everything you could need.  I was upset that a brilliant work of art like TWBB was reduced to one man's performance (a great one though).  The best picture oscar should have gone to TWBB instead of No Country For Old Men. While that film was good, it didn't match the glory of TWBB.  I mean the Coen brothers had already made films like No Country before.  TWBB took movies back to the days when epic films were so very well done like Lawrence of Arabia.  The big screen especially magnified the brilliance of the film too. Even just the opening shot was perfect.  I loved it.  easily a 10/10 film for me.  Ah yes, the intro to that movie is just plain brilliant. There's no dialogue for the first 15 minutes, and it really puts meaning to the phrase "actions speak louder than words." In this first 15 minutes you get an idea of exactly what kind of man Daniel Plainview is, and it sets up the audience for the rest of the film. I too agree TBWW was a better movie than No Country for Old Men, though No Country was also brilliant. The Coens have had a long and prestigious career though and they deserved that Oscar. TBWW was just brilliant though... I know I'm repeating myself haha, but honestly, the more I think about that movie the more I realize how great it is. It's such a successful example of character study that it should be taught in literature classes. In all honesty, that movie was more poetic than most of the crap I was forced to read in high school haha. EVERYTHING has either a literal or metaphorical purpose. I especially love how Eli bleeds black at the end, just like everything else Daniel touches. He is quite literally an oil man. Geez, you rated I Robot higher (much higher) than There Will Be Blood. That's disappointing... You're DEFINITELY going to have to watch it a few more times. I also suggest going out and renting a bunch of David Lynch movies, once you understand those, you'll watch movies in an entirely different manner It's just that I'm very sensitive to darkness in movies, so I found TWBB very disturbing and difficult to watch. And I know that's the point, but I prefer movies that leave me feeling uplifted. Just personal preference.

Ah that's a shame. I often find that darker movies are the best ones. I guess you shouldn't ever watch any David Lynch then haha

The Orphanage - I guess this was produced by Guillermo del Toro, so it shares a familiarity with "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labrynth"...but I don't think it was quite as good as those, still an okay watch though . it keeps you wondering  what's really taking place, and all questions are answered at the very end in a tight little conclusion, - 6/10

Manderlay - 2nd in my man von Trier's American Trilogy, this time Grace explores racial/slavery issues coming across a backwards town that still practices slavery, different actress this time playing the role of Grace, it was a bit hard to ingest at first but she played a completely different type of character from the Grace in Dogville...so it all worked it pretty good, definitely wasn't as good as Dogville (which was a once in a lifetime piece of brilliance for me), so lightning didn't strike twice with this same novel format, -- I don't think my head was quite into it at first (being I couldn't help but compare it to Dogville the entire time) but the more I think about this movie the more I like about it,  Lars von Trier is constantly accused of being anti-American and this one definitely adds fuel to the fire for his critics, on the surface one might think its a movieto be viewed through the lens of a slave narrative/American liberal white guilt, and perhaps thats small inevitable part but I think there was much more to it, to quote another reviews take from imdb: "The film then transformed into a statement about the presumption that "we" can teach others how to govern when "they" may have a system that works better in their context. The system in Manderlay was not overseer/slave, the system was socialism/communism and each "slave," as Grace saw them, had his or her own specialized role. The inhabitants of Manderlay were free within their system, but Grace was so completely blinded by what her culture had taught her about "freedom" and "democracy" and the inferiority of all other ways of life. The democracy she implemented was a complete farce. Their society did not function when the arrogant outsider who thought she knew what was best for them began implementing her system with force. The most direct comparison is "operation iraqi freedom" and other US nation building exercises or sponsored coups.", I think that sums a good portion of it, even though this movie IMO isn't in genius 10/10 league as Dogville I'll still give this a worthy - 8/10, now I eagerly await the 3rd installment in the trilogy, simply titled "Washington" set for a 2009 release,