A few films recently watched.

Have you seen Citizen Ruth, Lumpy? It's Payne's first film and worth a watch.

 

The Descendants wasn't my favorite Payne film but I thought it was decent. I feel like Robert Forster would have been better in the main role, although he was one of the best things in the film in his role. Mostly, I just felt like they were all spoiled assholes and it made me care a lot less about their problems.

I haven't seen Citizen Ruth, unfortunately. Sorry to say despite all her great performances I just find it hard to get past Laura Dern's face (hey, I'm not sexist, I have the same prob with Dustin Hoffman!), and Laura Dern's face + political theme = total non-starter for me.

 

  Quote

Mostly, I just felt like they were all spoiled assholes and it made me care a lot less about their problems.

I basically felt that way about Sideways too. And About Schmidt for that matter. Not the characters necessarily, but Payne himself. It's like he makes films solely for the Volvo-driving National Public Radio crowd (to be fair, I like NPR but....) Very safe, tame...and any "edginess" is safe and tame as well, doled out in easily digestible doses...sort of like Little Miss Sunshine

 

Edit: regarding Tower Heist and Ratner, yeah it's popular to bash him and he does seem like a fairly reprehensible, reptilian fellow, but Tower Heist is harmless, competent filmmaking. Topical, fun, decent dialogue, zippy...I just don't see how you could *hate* it - unless it was for the irony of the director being a sleazy fat cat while the film espoused populist Robin Hood sentiment. Well, and the completely nonsensical ending where

I also thought it was interesting to see Eddie Murphy has become a kind of creepy guy who is now incapable of being funny, he's curdled like sour milk

Edited March 23, 2012 by lumpenprol

...or The Visitor. Pretty spot-on, Lumpy, I can't disagree with that criticism.

hehe, don't know if you missed my Ratner defense edit while you were posting...Regarding Payne though, I will always love Election, it's one of my all-time favorites. What really elevates it is the ending, when Matthew Broderick throws his drink at her limo. God I love that, so true and dark and lol

Edited March 23, 2012 by lumpenprol

Saw some great movies this week

 

Taking Off and Loves of a Blonde, 2 charming movies by Forman.

 

Rocco e i suoi fratelli, a bit melodramatic but very engaging. Annie Girardot was smoking hot:

 

Elena. Extremely good movie. Fantastic cinematography, superb acting, interesting subject.. Zyvagintsev makes good stuff.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Ego

I really like Milos Forman

  On 3/14/2012 at 5:50 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

John Carter

low expectations pleasantly surprised. haven't read the books so that didnt hinder my enjoyment. big bag o pocorn. good times. shame they won't make anymore, although it wrapped up pretty nicely really. not great but good. the actors were mostly useless: mcnulty i just don't buy in anything but the wire. the princess was meant to be hot but i didnt buy it (least she wasn't stick thin though). the main guy was fine although i kept thinking brendan fraser would have got this role 5 years ago not sure why.

the dog, aaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

  On 3/23/2012 at 3:01 AM, lumpenprol said:

I really like Milos Forman

lumpy i think we have next to identical taste in movies

marie antoinette - 7/10

beyond the black rainbow - i kept wishing that Christian bale played the main role 6,5/10

young adult - 6/10

tower heist - ok for what it is 5/10

transformers 2 - so this robot bloke tells us about the matrix but i'm pretty sure that he didn't watch the same matrix movie we all did/10

transformers 3 - highly visually and auditive appealing retarded nonsense/10

elevator - lol/10

parked - oh my that was bad in so many ways/10

Edited March 23, 2012 by THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON

  On 3/23/2012 at 9:32 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

marie antoinette - 7/10

beyond the black rainbow - i kept wishing that Christian bale played the main role 6,5/10

young adult - 6/10

tower heist - ok for what it is 5/10

transformers 2 - so this robot bloke tells us about the matrix but i'm pretty sure that he didn't watch the same matrix movie we all did/10

transformers 3 - highly visually and auditive appealing retarded nonsense/10

elevator - lol/10

parked - oh my that was bad in so many ways/10

lol so many shit movies that are released and we are forced to swallow the feaces

got to give Jacob's Ladder a second viewing. BZ sounds like one hella drug

  On 3/23/2012 at 6:00 PM, dr lopez said:

  On 3/23/2012 at 3:01 AM, lumpenprol said:

I really like Milos Forman

lumpy i think we have next to identical taste in movies

 

Enter The Void

 

!?/10

More festival films

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2185503/ Snack bar: Experimental Dutch movie. Strange but good. 7/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1705786/ Chinese take-away: Funny, charming, warming. 8/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737256/ The Island. Promising start, but a total lack of coherence, and a ridiculous and unfunny ending 4/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843880/ Code Blue: Extremely unpleasant. Like being slapped in the face for 90 minutes 2/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1687901/ The Awakening: Nice and spooky english horror movie. A bit like The Orphanage, but not that good. Worth seeing 6/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1826593/ Avalon: Meh 5/10

The Hunger Games - 9/10 - I loved it, never read the books so i didn't know what was the movie about, kept me entertain for the whole 2 hours and 20 minutes.

  On 3/24/2012 at 5:28 PM, Npoess said:

Enter The Void

 

!?/10

 

pretty much

 

6.5/10, i never get tired of the way people spoke back in the 30's.

 

 

01:45, love it.

  On 3/25/2012 at 3:07 AM, Joseph said:

  On 3/24/2012 at 5:28 PM, Npoess said:

Enter The Void

 

!?/10

 

pretty much

 

What? It's fucking amazing!

  On 3/25/2012 at 1:58 AM, YO303 said:

The Hunger Games - 9/10 - I loved it, never read the books so i didn't know what was the movie about, kept me entertain for the whole 2 hours and 20 minutes.

srsly? *is intrigued*

Immortals - worth the watch. Looked pretty & had some nice violence/acting/pacing/dialogue. The thing sat well with me is what i'm trying to say.

 

John Carter - Not bad. Shame they won't be making any follow ups. As Stanton had the storyboarding all ready to go. Quite sad that hollywood wanted to kill that franchise reallly. They didn't even hype it with the usual marketing budget. Where as i see hunger games posters/stuff everywhere. Probably cause it would have been cheap to produce and is a chick ready franchise. The next Bella and co,.

 

gleh.

  On 3/25/2012 at 4:59 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 3/25/2012 at 1:58 AM, YO303 said:

The Hunger Games - 9/10 - I loved it, never read the books so i didn't know what was the movie about, kept me entertain for the whole 2 hours and 20 minutes.

srsly? *is intrigued*

 

gf had me go to this, and it wasn't bad at all. my first thought was Battle Royale, and the concept is similar from what I can remember.

  On 3/25/2012 at 5:31 PM, viscosity said:

  On 3/25/2012 at 4:59 PM, lumpenprol said:

  On 3/25/2012 at 1:58 AM, YO303 said:

The Hunger Games - 9/10 - I loved it, never read the books so i didn't know what was the movie about, kept me entertain for the whole 2 hours and 20 minutes.

srsly? *is intrigued*

 

gf had me go to this, and it wasn't bad at all. my first thought was Battle Royale, and the concept is similar from what I can remember.

 

i saw it just now and loved it, 9/10 from me too

  On 3/25/2012 at 1:47 PM, Squee said:

  On 3/25/2012 at 3:07 AM, Joseph said:

  On 3/24/2012 at 5:28 PM, Npoess said:

Enter The Void

 

!?/10

 

pretty much

 

What? It's fucking amazing!

 

I know, I interpreted Npoess as saying that he had no idea how to rate it because it was so crazy

the hunger games 9/10

was kinda half expecting a cheesy, tweeny, dumbed down movie but it wasn't like that at all.