Movies (discuss, list, etc.)

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:07 pm

Quote:

I'm kind of in a love/hate relationship with Tarantino. On one hand he's one of the biggest hacks in the movie business; but on the other his stuff is just too entertaining to care. Death Proof was no exception; lengthy, snappy dialogues... lots of tribute to campy 80's movies... forgotten actors in unexpected roles... and a simply hilarious ending.

Eh, Tarentino's obsession with homage is growing very thin (he should just call his new movie "The Dirty Dozen" and get it over with) but his talent in undeniable; Kill Bill part 2 particularly impressed me by rising above the simple tongue-in-cheek thrills of the first one (which were great, especially for Kung Fu fans) and making something really resonate and even powerful. I kind of regret not seeing Grindhouse in the theaters, but every single person I talked to loved one and hated the other, so I guess I'd rather just watch them at my own pace on DVD.

As for The Fountain, I'll probably get to seeing it one day, but I was very turned off by the graphic novel companion that the director also wrote. The art was amazing and it had a great idea, but overall it ended up being too much for the writer to handle. The beef of the story came of as an overly forced melodrama with stock characters, and despite the lofty ambitions it was rather underwhelming, even pretentious. But since he had never written a comic before I'll give Aronofsky the benefit of the doubt and assume he pulls it off in the film.

I've seen a few films since last posting but most of them aren't really worth a mention. However, as I expected "Army of Shadows" was incredible; probably my favorite Melville movie yet. Top notch in every aspect.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:26 am

This has to be the vaguest idea for a movie ever; http://www.billyvssteve.com/

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:06 pm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=E0PuZ-i4b_Y

myanimelist profile · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:19 pm

The Wire s4
that sure as heck wasn't a pick-me-upper; not that it ever really is.
outstanding stuff tho; like usual.

Roadie Joined: 25 May 2004 Posts: 58

tideland

very hard to watch

i think it's one of the best movies i've ever seen

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:32 pm

bukuwawa wrote:

tideland

very hard to watch

i think it's one of the best movies i've ever seen

I'm very curious about this one since it prompted such a violent reaction from people. I mean it usually takes a decade or so for most critics to warm up to Gilliam, but everyone just wanted to crucify him over this. I'm a fan, so I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time-Really, really loved this one. It has that perfectly whimsical quality that I like to see in an anime movie but doesn't get drowned in it like some of the lesser Ghibli films. Obviously the time traveling aspect makes no sense and has tons of plot holes, but that isn't really the point of the story. Great characters and direction. Sadamoto's designs were nice too. Anyways its already one of my favorites for the year.

The Killers-Somewhat disappointing noir. The premise is great (as is the Hemingway short its based on) but it never really does anything to set itself apart from the pack. The lack of a great lead really hurts it as well. Speaking of noirs I also recently saw Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, a parody of the genre staring Steve Martin. The real attraction is that it features clips from classic noirs cut into the film, allowing Martin to "interact" with people like Bogart. Kind of disjointed and doesn't really stand up to something like Blazing Saddles, but its amusing and has good one-liners ("I hadn't seen a body put together like that since I solved the case of the Murdered Girl with the Big Tits. ")

La Haine-Solid film that also didn't live up to the hype surrounding it. The first half feels far too post-MTV for my liking, especially since its clearly trying to emulate Do the Right Thing. But it shapes up in the second half when it gets focused and turns up the intensity/pessimism of its view of France's social conditions. Worth a look.

Ride the High Country-Maybe my favorite Peckinpah yet. Certainly the best western I've seen in a long time. It really serves as a great transition from the classic, mythological west to the revisionist films.

The only movie I sat in theaters recently was Ratatoullie. Great quality from Pixar as expected with the studio's most focused story yet, though if I had to find a fault it would be it wasn't quite as fun as Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.

And just for shits and giggles I think I'm going to go buy Big Trouble in Little China tomorrow.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:53 pm

Tideland; which was pure Terry Gilliam. I liked the concept a lot, but I have to agree it's not easy viewing.
Zodiac; good movie. But I just don't like it when David Fincher tries to be normal.
Disturbia; enjoyable teen flick/thriller.
Transformers; lol.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:51 pm

What's hard to watch about Tideland? I haven't heard anything about it.

The Straight Story is the most depressing film I've ever seen. I laughed at it when it first came out in 1999, not once when I watched it again last weekend. I think the depressing parts of the movie are kind of subtle and easy to miss, but hard to shake once you get it.

Watched "Stormy Weather" the other day. Hollywood musical with an all black cast made in 1943. There's a scene where black actors perform in black face, really weird. It's also got a lot of talk about how everyone's gotta do their part for the war, and black boys goin off to war (it's set between the world wars but the movie was made during WWII). Pretty interesting, a decent musical.

Other movies I've seen lately, too many to count. One that had an awesome beginning is The Man on the Flying Trapeze. "There are burglars singing in the cellar!"

Saw some movie called Go, Johnny Go - kind of a fifties equivalent of You Got Served but with lame Rock'n'Roll crooning instead of lame ghetto aerobics. A jaded orphan wins a radio singing contest and becomes a star. This has one of those things at the end where it cuts from face to face of characters standing off to the side while he sings and commenting on it. "he's quite a singer", "he's quite a dancer", "he's gonna be quite a husband." Kind of the moral equivalent of Rebel Without a Cause but with a happy ending.

Peter Pan, the stage musical version with Mary Martin. My mom used to make me watch this over and over when I was a kid. It's funny, the only thing that really stayed with me over the years is the bit where Wendy is flying around feeling sorry for herself. I used to think that was so weird when I was a kid, I didn't think of it in terms of theatrical conventions so it just struck me as a really bizarre way to behave, flying through the air shouting "poor Wendy, poor Wendy" over and over. And the reaction from the Lost Boys is equally hilarious: it's a bird, lets shoot it.

A-ge-man. This is the least enjoyable Juzo Itami film I've seen yet. It actually has a scene where someone has a nightmare, wakes up next to his girlfriend who turns into a monster, then wakes up for real. Such a lame gag. On the other hand, it has talk about shaving the pubes off a dead geisha to keep as a lucky talisman. There might be American superstitions that would strike Japanese people as equally weird, but I'm having a difficult time imagining them.

Benny's Video - German movie about a kid who invites some girl to his room while his parents are away and kills her with a weird pig-slaughtering gun. Then his parents come home and help him dispose of the body. I actually thought it was pretty funny but I'm not positive if that was the reaction Haneke intended.

I really want to see Sunshine.

Ratatouille was awesome, my favorite movie of the year so far.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:08 pm

ion_ford wrote:

What's hard to watch about Tideland? I haven't heard anything about it.

I don't think it's hard to watch in the strict sense, just not something breezy you'd watch with a bunch of friends several times. Just to give an extreme example.

Anyway, finished watching TMNT a minute ago; just for nostalgia's sake. It actually wasn't all bad, better than the live-action movies even. Not that I'm a fan of 3D animation; but oh well, some stuff did look really good.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

I saw this several weeks ago at a local film festival (along with Taste of Tea), and the film itself is a few years old, but if you have the means to get ahold of Kamome Shokudo (aka Kamome Diner aka Ruokala Lokki) then I would strongly suggest checking it out - great little whimsical movie.

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:02 pm

Once again seen many, many films since last posting, many of them not worth writing about unfortunatally:

Rififi-Incredible film noir, one of the best I've seen. The infamous 30-minute robbery sequence lives up to its reputation, and I was literally on my feet for the last 20 minutes of the movie.

Hot Fuzz-Good, silly fun, especially since I have a soft spot for action flicks.

Kamikaze Girls-Pretty boring plot made worthwhile by the director's ADHD-driven style. Has a nice pace to it, and the character's are surprisingly involving for all the film's gloss and wackiness. The physical humor works particularly well. Nothing life-changing, but a cute story, which is pretty much all I wanted.

Inland Empire-Wow, its certainly David Lynch, isn't it? I can't really say anything about this movie that would really capture the experience of it; while I don't think it's my favorite of Lynch's movies, it's perhaps his one true "pure" film and certainly his definitive vision. Maddening and mind-blowing at every turn. Just be warned that its pretty much Lynch fucking your brain for three hours, and if you think Mullholland Drive was a bit too bizarre then run like hell.

Surprisingly there are a lot of seemingly good movies out or coming out soon. Being a western fan and a Cronenburg fan I want to see 3:10 to Yuma and Eastern Promises. Kind of interested to see how the Stardust adaptation turned out, though I'll probably wait for the DVD. I'm even a little curious if In the Valley of Elah (or the sequel to "Racism is Bad") turns out to be as big a train wreck as people are saying. Regardless of the quality it's from the detestable Paul Haggis and will inevitably get 5 billion different nominations.[/b]

Fan Boy Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 11

Neuroretardant wrote:

I saw this several weeks ago at a local film festival (along with Taste of Tea), and the film itself is a few years old, but if you have the means to get ahold of Kamome Shokudo (aka Kamome Diner aka Ruokala Lokki) then I would strongly suggest checking it out - great little whimsical movie.

i saw it. and i loved it. greatly done how nothing happens and it doesnt get boring.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:39 am

Currently halfway through season 4 of Oz.
Great stuff so far. Though I kind of get the feeling some storylines are beginning to drag. BUT one of those got cut off in a splendid way at the halfway point, where I'm at now. So I'm hopeful that it'll remain just as excellent as it has been.
Interesting trivia: Main writer Tom Fontana also worked on a lot of episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street. Which is basically the predecessor of The Wire (of which there are also a TON of "cameos" in Oz).

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

ion_ford wrote:

What's hard to watch about Tideland?

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and more simple-minded/giving up on intellectual stimulation or because I don't do quite as many drugs anymore, but I found Tideland definitely hard to watch, and overall not quite enjoyable. It was all a little too much for me.

Some stuff I watched recently:

Memories of Matsuko - by the director of Kamikaze Girls. The easiest way for me to describe it is "a slightly more upbeat and humorous Japanese rendition of Dancer In The Dark," replete with spontaneous song & dance numbers. Same assortment of physical gags and wacky characters as Kamikaze Girls, but definitely a sadder underlying story bordering on depressing. It was good, not great.

The Hidden Blade - Twilight Samurai redux (by the same director, actually). It has the same timeless style as Twilight, and the story a bit more poignant, but ultimately more of the same old.

Millenium Actress - Finally got to see this, and it is probably my favorite Satoshi Kon film now. Awesome, just plain awesome. The very last line at the end of the movie was great, too: it could be looked at in some very different ways, depending on how you relate to the character.

Izo - ...Sometimes I wish Takashi Miike would stop making so many movies and just make movies that were good.

For near-future living I have the Japanese DVD of Nice no Mori (Funky Forest) - I'm sure it will come out on R1 DVD eventually, but I didn't feel like waiting. Also sitting on my desk awaiting 2 hours of my undivided attention are Shortbus and Fried Dragon Fish. And after reading this list today I have a sudden urge to watch Starship Troopers again.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:09 am

The King of Kong aka Steve VS Billy aka A Fistfull of Quarters.
It was pretty funny. Not haha-funny, but more "I can't believe these people actually exist"-funny (Billy's look is so 80's it hurts). As a documentary is was pretty fun watching, too.