A few films recently watched.

Ashes of Time Redux:

This was a "re-cut" and re-release of Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time. The music was distractingly horrendous but overall I thought it was excellent. It takes some of the compositions vaguely reminiscent of John Ford's shots of Monument Valley but everything is incredibly washed out. If you are a fan of WKW's nostalgic meditations on romance, betrayal, and regret, then you will like it. If you like violence, you will like it. If you like both, like me, you might really like it. Maybe this was the first real Chinese spaghetti western?

Vicky Cristina Barcelona:

Woody Allen's actors seem to have a mandate to act very badly and in VCB, there are moments of truly horrid performance (although none involved Cruz, so maybe she deserved all the recognition). That being said, I thought it was brilliant. It subverts the female fascination with exotic European men, in particular their accents, by making such women look justifiably like fucking buffoons. What made it a great film was its reluctance to follow through on this notion by ratcheting up the detached mean-spirited bullshit that's so in vogue these days. Instead, Allen's heroines actually mature, learn from their experiences, and while they may not become our idols by the time the credits roll, we at least identify with and like them a bit. I did, anyway. Considering how dreadful Match Point was, maybe I just had incredibly deflated expectations.

The Visitor:

Fuck this movie in its earhole. I liked The Station Agent. Sure, it was bland and a bit conventional and a LOT sentimental. Yet everything that was wrong with Agent is amplified ad nauseum in The Visitor. This was the most unrestrained liberal trash I've witnessed in many years. If Michael Moore started writing fictional narratives, The Visitor would be the result. Considering the endless heaps of truly unjust horseshit emigres have to endure when seeking asylum or trying to start a better life in the UK or USofA, why not stick to the basics when telling their story? This film just antagonizes isolationists with disingenuous nonsense by telling a story so preposterous that even self-described liberals (myself included) feel our intelligence being insulted with every plot twist. I was hoping this was made with ironic bad taste, but I'm afraid it's the genuine article: a two-hour string of manipulative, pretentious bullshit.

Changeling:

I actually liked the old 80's George C. Scott horror film called The Changeling, but Eastwood's Changeling wasn't half-bad. Jolie is pretty, she is talented, and she wore nice clothes. The photography was grade AAA, with lots of fluid Hollywood movement. Although a wildly embellished biopic, Eastwood handled the feminist undertones of the screenplay with subtlety and nuance. Unfortunately, he hoisted up the "villain" of the film as a remorseless, goggly-eyed freak, the sort of creature that begged to be put down by the state. So much for restraint...speaking of which, the entire second act was an inelegant gamble that tried to distill all the horrors and political indignance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest while John Malkovich as a Presbyterian squarehead tries so earnestly to save the day. Meh, this was a mixed bag, but worth watching.

Can't be arsed to elaborate but:

Milk - 7/10

The Wrestler - 8/10

Synecdoche - 8/10

FrostNixon - 9/10

Into the Wild - 7/10

oddly enough, the shining. now i know where mirezzi's avatar comes from

i thought it was pretty cool, suspenseful , eerie, ya know

haven't seen any of those, but i guess this thread is for us to post films we recently watched?

can't be arsed to elaborate but:

watchmen : bloated mess

chungking express (criterion blu ray) : beautiful

the aviator : really great biopic, my favorite scorsese movie

hostel 2 : lol

Right on, I thought The Aviator was delicious, and DiCaprio deserves more credit for being a hard-working and talented dude.

Then again, I did make the mistake of watching Blood Diamond once upon a time and he was refried shit in that, so...hmmm...

I haven't watched much torture porn, so I can't comment on anything by Eli Roth...I'm curious about those types of films though, and Haneke is a smart enough guy to make Funny Games very intriguing.

I think I'm gonna buy Chungking Express on Blu-ray. Criterion making Blu-ray discs is just mind-bogglingly awesome.

yek - how have you only just seen The Shining for the first time? I watched it over half a dozen vodka tonics on Christmas day. There was no better antidote for the shitshow that was Benjamin Button (the film that ruined x-mas!). I almost cried it was so perfect. I did cry laughing when Jack says, "Are you out of your fuckin' MIND?"

dude, funny games was terrible. most obvious post modern drivel ever. i watched the remake, i don't know if that has any effect on my opinion or not. what a waste of two hours though.

  Mirezzi said:

The Visitor:

Fuck this movie in its earhole. I liked The Station Agent. Sure, it was bland and a bit conventional and a LOT sentimental. Yet everything that was wrong with Agent is amplified ad nauseum in The Visitor. This was the most unrestrained liberal trash I've witnessed in many years. If Michael Moore started writing fictional narratives, The Visitor would be the result. Considering the endless heaps of truly unjust horseshit emigres have to endure when seeking asylum or trying to start a better life in the UK or USofA, why not stick to the basics when telling their story? This film just antagonizes isolationists with disingenuous nonsense by telling a story so preposterous that even self-described liberals (myself included) feel our intelligence being insulted with every plot twist. I was hoping this was made with ironic bad taste, but I'm afraid it's the genuine article: a two-hour string of manipulative, pretentious bullshit.

I absolutely agree with everything you just said.

I didn't like Vicky Cristina Barcelona though, but I think it was more the characters that I hated - plus Woody Allen's neurotic voice during the monologues...

I recently watched Epic Movie and thought it was a very intelligent comedy with a lot of layers.

Then I watched the little known Italian flick L'uomo Con La Francese Piacevole Cappello and thought it was surrealist garbage.

  zaphod said:

dude, funny games was terrible. most obvious post modern drivel ever. i watched the remake, i don't know if that has any effect on my opinion or not. what a waste of two hours though.

watch the original!

  Squee said:

I absolutely agree with everything you just said.

I didn't like Vicky Cristina Barcelona though, but I think it was more the characters that I hated - plus Woody Allen's neurotic voice during the monologues...

You mean the narration? That was some no-name dude called Christopher Evan Welch.

Unless, of course, you mean the monologues of the characters, which all sound like Allen because he has often failed (it's his trademark really) to differentiate his characters from himself.

  Mirezzi said:

  Squee said:

I absolutely agree with everything you just said.

I didn't like Vicky Cristina Barcelona though, but I think it was more the characters that I hated - plus Woody Allen's neurotic voice during the monologues...

You mean the narration? That was some no-name dude called Christopher Evan Welch.

 

Unless, of course, you mean the monologues of the characters, which all sound like Allen because he has often failed (it's his trademark really) to differentiate his characters from himself.

Hahaha!

No, I actually thought it was Woody Allen narrating... oh well...

I watched Synecdoche New York the other day though. It made me feel terrible - in a good way. I'm not sure I understood it but the important thing is that it threw me to the ground and beat me silly.

Inside-4 out of 10

Martyrs-7 out of 10

Frontiers-7 out of 10

Haute Tension-8 out of 10

Watchmen-6 out of 10

Face (2004 jap)-4 out of 10

Sleeper-9 out of 10

play it again sam-8 out of 10

evil dead trap (jap)-7 out of 10

the muppet movie-9 out of 10

Amateur pornstar killer 3-0 out of 10

Mr73-8 out of 10

Revenge(GER/AUSTRIAN)-8 out of 10

  Jaffa said:

Martyrs-7 out of 10

 

Haute Tension-8 out of 10

 

the muppet movie-9 out of 10

 

Amateur pornstar killer 3-0 out of 10

You are fucked up.....

like totally

  Mirezzi said:

I haven't watched much torture porn, so I can't comment on anything by Eli Roth...

ignorant statement/

  Jaffa said:

like totally

thanks for agreein' you fucked up mofucka!

i dont really have too much time to watch films these days, i have a growing back catalogue of horse blowjob scenes i have to catch up on and value more importance on

Pretty Woman - 8 out of 10

Pretty Woman - 7 out of 10

Pretty Woman - 6 out of 10

Pretty Woman - 5 out of 10

After spending Sunday watching Pretty Woman 4 times in a row I decided to take a break as it wasn't holding my interest, as the law of diminishing returns seemed to kick in. Well after a most enjoyable respite conisisting of 30 minutes of rubbing my flacid half impotent cock and watching the most despicable and misogynistic facefuck porn, while simultaneously consuming a supermarket bought family size 'tira mi su' in its entirety, I was ready to go again. My God, if you only knew what I would do to the Gere stick if ever given the chance.

Good day, gentlemen.

you're all rating films wrong, retards...

watchmen 4/4

jk about the retards <3

this thread has reminded me to watch chungking express again

  sneaksta303 said:

  Mirezzi said:

I haven't watched much torture porn, so I can't comment on anything by Eli Roth...

 

ignorant statement/

how? that's what he makes.

i last watched ashes of time years ago, so i didn't remember it so well when i watched the redux tonite (on blu-ray, looks so so good). man, it blew me away how well edited it was. the transitions were so smooth and seamless, it didn't even feel like there were separate scenes. and leslie cheung... what a guy.. rip

although not my favorite wkw film, i still rate it highly

  beneboi said:

  sneaksta303 said:

  Mirezzi said:

I haven't watched much torture porn, so I can't comment on anything by Eli Roth...

 

ignorant statement/

 

how? that's what he makes.

it's what he tries to make, but it's gotta be obvious for anyone who's seen a scene or more from any of his movies that it's all just a big cloud of fail 'n lol

i recently enjoyed rosemary's baby. can't be arsed to elaborate.

I recently watched Rosemary's Baby as well. What a strange movie! I'm disappointed I recently missed a film print of this being shown under the thematic pretext of Gender and the Monstrous. I see a lot of space for that dialogue. Cassavetes and Farrow were excellent. Only watched Knife in the Water before this so maybe Repulsion next?

Saw a print of John Huston's Wise Blood. Another odd one. Not really sure what to say about this really. A lot of questions and several characters just seem to disappear. Of course, I haven't read the Flannery O'Conner's book of the same name but I've had it on my shelf for some time so maybe this'll provoke me to read it soon. Apparently it's well thought of as an adaptation. Brad Dourif sort of suprised me - didn't recognize him as the same person in LotR.

Also recently watched Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life. I'm really starting to appreciate his style and this over the top melodrama. I've only seen three of Sirk's releases but they all have encouraged me to write about them. And they're really atypical movies for me to watch. Which is great.