A few films recently watched.

last train home - 8/10 - eye opening docudrama about migrant workers in china

exit through the gift shop - 9/10 - i LOVED this, couldn't take my eyes off it

unstoppable - 7/10 - good fun, bit too short but eh, its a runaway train it can only do so much, also i just fucking love denzel in any role like this

buried - 9/10 - massively impressed by this film - the only thing that stops me giving it a ten is the music they used when he was "in peril" during a few scenes, it just did not sit with the rest, apart from that, wow...reynolds has some fuckin acting chops when handled right

red - 0/10 got bored about 10mins into it, started playing a game on my phone, looked back up about 4 hours later and it was still boring as shit and full of old people who shouldnt be doing action, nah.

true grit - ?/10 im currently watching this right now on my other monitor, the little girl is stealing the fucking movie bigtime, brb

  On 1/3/2011 at 8:24 AM, kaen said:

red - 0/10 got bored about 10mins into it, started playing a game on my phone, looked back up about 4 hours later and it was still boring as shit and full of old people who shouldnt be doing action, nah.

I thought you were talking about the Kieslowski movie at first and I was gonna plead with you to try again.

  On 1/3/2011 at 12:09 AM, Awepittance said:

 

True Grit 8/10 - better than i expected from the Trailer, overall i thought it was about on par with or maybe a little better than Burn After reading, not as good as a Serious Man. Idiot reviewers who say the movie has no humor or is too serious or dry are lying herd mentality reviewers

WHAT THE FUCK? who said the Coen's True Grit had no humor in it? They didn't see the movie. Or are severely mentally handicapped.

Or was their point that the humor in it wasn't funny? Because that is two different things....and I would certainly disagree with both.

I think I read it on imdb.com, but this guy felt exactly the way I did, in that this movie reminded me greatly of Miller's Crossing...which is probably in my top 2 or 3 fave Coen Bros. movies.

The two have tons of parallels, the grouchy drunk protagonist who gets the heart of gold, the strange accents but incredibly spot-on and appropriate dialogue that manages to be funny without having to get a dictionary or read a history book to figure out what they mean. True Grit was even scored by the same guy that did Miller's Crossing....the theme of which btw if you haven't heard it, you must hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2YPsfwSPGg

Its hard to explain, but one thing I just really admire the Coens for is that their time-appropriate films just seem to be so natural. There is a romanticism about each that captures your attention and for a moment the exhilaration in your heart,and yet there are still scattered reminders of the harsh realities that these worlds exist within. I was glad when I was watching True Grit that people in the theater didn't gasp in horror when the Native American about to be hanged was hooded before he could give a speech. Instead they laughed, which I certainly think is what the Coen's intended....its not that the laughing is racist, its the acceptance of how ridiculous such actions were....and yet our ancestors were guilty of it up and down as if there wasn't a problem in the world.

another thing about their style, they actually show what FUCKING HAPPENS WHEN YOU SHOOT SOMEONE

none of this namby pamby, Wilhelm-scream, roll-off-camera bullshit that so many movies do. When someone dies from gunshot wounds it does not look pretty, fucks sake...and blood doesn't just rush out in never-ending oceans....goddamn that shit pisses me off so much.

As an admitted fanboy, I can nonetheless still claim that Miller's Crossing is my favorite of their films and always has been.

1. Miller's Crossing

2. The Man Who Wasn't There

3. No Country for Old Men

4. The Big Liebowski

5. Raising Arizona

6. Barton Fink

7. Fargo

8. Blood Simple

9. Intolerable Cruelty

10. Hudsucker Proxy

11. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

12. A Serious Man

13. Burn After Reading

14. The Ladykillers

I'm fairly firm on this list, but a few of them are sorta lumped together.

  On 1/3/2011 at 5:48 PM, The Overlook said:

As an admitted fanboy, I can nonetheless still claim that Miller's Crossing is my favorite of their films and always has been.

 

1. Miller's Crossing

2. The Man Who Wasn't There

3. No Country for Old Men

4. The Big Liebowski

5. Raising Arizona

6. Barton Fink

7. Fargo

8. Blood Simple

9. Intolerable Cruelty

10. Hudsucker Proxy

11. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

12. A Serious Man

13. Burn After Reading

14. The Ladykillers

 

I'm fairly firm on this list, but a few of them are sorta lumped together.

hahaha...i gotta be honest, I saw you lurking on the thread and waited for you to tear me a new asshole, but...yes. Miller's Crossing ftw....everyone who has not seen it here should at least give it a try.

Albert Finney is amazing in that.

Have you seen True Grit yet?

  On 1/3/2011 at 5:48 PM, The Overlook said:

As an admitted fanboy, I can nonetheless still claim that Miller's Crossing is my favorite of their films and always has been.

 

1. Miller's Crossing

2. The Man Who Wasn't There

3. No Country for Old Men

4. The Big Liebowski

5. Raising Arizona

6. Barton Fink

7. Fargo

8. Blood Simple

9. Intolerable Cruelty

10. Hudsucker Proxy

11. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

12. A Serious Man

13. Burn After Reading

14. The Ladykillers

 

I'm fairly firm on this list, but a few of them are sorta lumped together.

The Man Who Wasn't There is such an underrated movie.

  On 1/3/2011 at 5:50 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

Have you seen True Grit yet?

I haven't. I live in a bumfuck town while in grad school, but I'll probably drive up to St. Louis to see it before it leaves the cinema. I have never regretted seeing the Coens in a theater. No Country for Old Men, in particular, I hold in very high regard because seeing Deakins' magic on a 50 foot screen was pure orgasm.

agreed...everyone is fantastic in that as well.

Also, for those that saw True Grit, did anyone else LOL at the scene with the undertaker in the beginning? You'll know what I mean.

  On 1/3/2011 at 5:54 PM, Squee said:

The Man Who Wasn't There is such an underrated movie.

I agree and for reasons that might be lost on its detractors. Like Miller's Crossing, it's a movie that heavily relies on signature Coen brothers devices, like the use of eccentric colloquial language in lengthy, goofy monologues...and of course a beautiful (if whimsical) musical score.

i enjoyed true grit, in the same way i enjoyed open range. there was little stylized action or violence, the things you see happen are shown pretty much as they would happen, for instance the shots, theres no ten minute panning into a villans eyes with his signature theme music and then loads of suspense before a showdown or anything, while thats cool in films of the 60's/70's sergio etc it isnt accurate. also, maybe it was just the copy but it felt like all the cowboys were fucking mumbling, especially cheney, i know its the southern drawl or whatever and that is indeed accurate but i guess its the only thing that detracted from it, ill have to learn de americansssss language

trust me, certain parts of the deep south and plains areas you can barely understand a word. and thats coming from an american.

tron legacy i fight FOR the user/10

didnt expect much and was surprised. it held together pretty well. looked impressive (although the 3d tech is still blurry most of the time) but we left with a zillion questions and many "hey when [this happened] why didnt he just [do this]?"

A Single Man - 2/10. It only gets two points for some decent shots and minor areas of decent acting. Otherwise I haven't seen a more self indulgent and ham-fisted script/directing job in a good while. I literally winced at some of the dialogue. The director (the famous fashion designer Tom Ford) literally had close ups on mouths when he wanted to show desire (which happened often) and literally increased color saturation on an otherwise fairly muted palette when something significant happened to the protagonist (a suicidal gay literature professor who is constantly hit on by young men. Some of the scenes of this I think were literally lifted from gay pornos, they were that obvious). The film could have been salvaged had Ford let someone else write the dialogue and if he had someone tap him on the shoulder occasionally and say, "Hey Tom, maybe we shouldn't do that so you don't get laughed at on your first fucking feature film."

Zodiac - 4/4

The Piano Teacher - 7/10 - what a fucked up film?!? The acting is amazing, the music is amazing, the 'Cronenberg'-like psychotic sex scenes and ideas within the film are hard to watch, yet rewarding in a roller coaster kind of way.....Haneke hates his audience and I respect him for that, need to see more of his films....

the devil probably - turned off after 15 mins, just couldn't get into it at all

five easy pieces - 9/10 - im a big fan of one-character films and this one was almost perfect, it's an incredible spectacle of a lost man

the piano teacher had a huge impact on me when i first saw it, pure emotion, definitely one of my the most favorite. where did the 3 points go atop ?

I am conservative with my rating system

me and you and everyone we know - one of the worst movies i've ever seen

  On 1/4/2011 at 4:05 AM, remy marathe said:

me and you and everyone we know - one of the worst movies i've ever seen

lmao, what in the fuck were you thinking?

Miranda July is, and I very much believe this, the antichrist.

i just watched scott pilgrim. i thought it was pretty good, the love interest was hot, but i found it ended kinda abruptly and left me wanting a bit more.

soulkitchen 7/10

head-on 6/10

kebab connection - 8/10

Jan Svankmajer's Alice 2/10

Jan Svankmajer's Luancy -6/10

La Haine 8/10

all the small animals - 7/10

catfish - 9/10

farinelli - 4/10

black swan - 5/10

to catch a theif - 9/10

Centurion dissapoint/10

I really like Marshall and I really wanted to like this movie but it strays too far out of the realm of belief with some of the dialog

the characters are never really fully developed

there's CGI blood mixed with traditional corn syrup blood (or whatever they use) which makes it look more fake

and the narration was pointless

I hope his next movie is better

going back to True Grit for a second, it was actually surprising and nice for the Coen bros to have some heart tugging moments in True Grit. I honestly didn't expect anything like that after their bleak last 3 movies No Country, Burn, and A Serious Man. There are only a few other movies they've done where the ending is kind of cliche 'touching' , Raising Arizona , Millers Crossing , Ladykillers.. but i dont use the word cliche negatively, sometimes those kinds of things work in movies if done well. It worked great in True Grit

and allow me to jump on the rank your coen movies bandwagon for a second:

1. Miller's Crossing / Barton Fink

2. Fargo

3. Raising Arizona

4. Blood Simple

5. No Country for Old Men

6. The Big Lebowksi

7. A Serious Man

8. Hudsucker Proxy

9. True Grit

10. Burn After Reading

11. The Man Who Wasn't There

12. The Lady Killers

13. Intolerable Cruelty

14. O Brother Where Art Thou

Memories of Murder - Beautifully shot, suspenseful and engrossing from start to finish. A really heartbreaking (true) story as well. 10/10