A few films recently watched.

  On 6/5/2012 at 6:35 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

  On 6/5/2012 at 7:37 AM, Ricky Downtown said:

just watched Eyes Wide Shut after having not seen it for a few years. 4/4

Never saw this as I heard terrible things when it came out. probably cruise/kidman put me off too. how does everybody else feel about it?

Holy shit man, get on it! There is so much to love about this film. The extreme depth you can take your mind while thinking about this film is what I love most about it.

I do think the thought of stranger's editing part of the film is what killed Kubrick. He couldn't handle anyone molesting his work. Was the last straw. A small straw but it probably broke his heart.

This film and The Ninth Gate by Polanski came out the same year and i always think of them as cinematic siblings due to similarities. I love watching these in the same day. They fit together in a strange beautiful way.

i didnt see AI either but I'm assuming that is missable

  On 6/5/2012 at 9:17 AM, lumpenprol said:

hm, the tiny airline screen must help then. Or the lack of oxygen at altitude. I remember Ang Lee's hulk being terrible, though. It's like he was grasping at those universal themes, and pathos, but way too earnestly and clumsily. The comic-book like frames broke any immersion factor, the mutant dogs and nick nolte were hilariously over-the-top, etc.

 

Was Chronicle really corny? I dunno if I'd call it that. Regarding the found footage aspect, I had heard it come up a lot as a negative in reviews, so was prepared to really dislike it, but I ended up being neutral about it. There was only one moment where I felt it was truly absurd: at one point the main kid is talking to his sick mom and the camera is positioned from her point of view watching him...um, did he put it in her near-lifeless hands? There were a few other forced instances, such as the girl and guy filming each other at parties, but from time to time it actually worked to the film's advantage, such as

 

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the shot where their VW beetle is "flown" to the top of the space needle, I though that shot was really effective with the view and the girl screaming

 

 

As I was saying I do wish the film had gone farther, I felt it was a bit timid and lacking in conviction in a way...like the director or writer didn't have the balls to dig deeper or be more imaginative, so just went for the easy way out, like

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killing the black dude

. I really liked the

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scene where he beats up the 3 bullies, but it lacked any emotional impact since there was no real build-up related to those characters

 

 

Anyhoo, liked it much more than Super8, with which it shares some similarities. I should see it on the big screen to see how well the vfx hold up, they looked good on the tiny screen...

i dunno, it failed to move me. maybe stories of teenage angst and rage don't do much for me anymore. i'd like to see the same scenario played out among adults with lives, but then i guess that's just the "suitcase of money" trope in a simple plan or similar films. there wasn't anything new or interesting about chronicle. a teenager is beaten by his father, has rage issues and is a loner, so probably isn't the best person for superpowers? how original. every beat of the movie was predictable. i can excuse shoddy effects work if the writing is solid, but there were so many holes in this film's logic and it was so emotionally braindead that i couldn't get past how fake most of the major effects scenes looked. the whole film reminded me of a really sullen version of jumper. that isn't good.

Ok lets put kubrick's films in order

maybe..

2001

The Shining

Full Metal Jacket

Dr Strangelove

Clockwork Orange

haven't seen:

Lolita

Paths of Glory

Spartacus

Eyes wide shut

Barry Lyndon

I'm missing too many to really put them in order properly

for a completist i'm seriously slacking on kubricky

my list in order:

2001

Dr Strangelove

The Shining

A Clockwork Orange

Eyes Wide Shut

Full Metal Jacket

Paths of Glory

Barry Lyndon

Lolita

Spartacus

not a huge film noir fan, so I have to leave those off of list, haven't given them enough time.

has anyone seen jon ronson's "kubrick's boxes"?

cannot find it, not even on torrent or dvd or yt

yes and it is bad ass.

goddammit

  On 6/5/2012 at 7:27 PM, The Overlook said:

Melancholia - A belabored metaphor from a guy who can't seem to stop repeating himself. I get that Von Trier is unhappy. He thinks capitalism is bad, in particular when combined with nostalgic, reactionary Americans, and their failed marriages. He's devoted an entire trilogy to this hobbyhorse. Dogville, Manderlay, and soon Washington. Okay. What Von Trier has done, Vinterburg did better. Festen at least maintained its sense of humor with its unconventional but scathing critique of rich families and their antique-filled villas. It was also centered by no less than a dozen fully realized characters exploring the physical and psychological interiority of Vinterburg's narrative. Melancholia is a monosyllabic, pitiless two hour crawl from point B to point A. Nonetheless, I think an editor could have saved it. Cut it by 30 minutes and place the stunning visuals of the opening at the end where it belongs. For all his attempts at high art here, I think a conventional three act structure may have better served the film. Oh, and by the way: whatever gripe he clumsily levels at advertising via Stellan Skarsgård's character has been repeatedly committed by Von Trier himself.

 

P.S. - Dunst looked surprisingly quite fappable, but I wasn't that impressed with her performance. Gainsbourg accomplished more and with far less screen time.

far less? hmm, i guess. i watched the two parts on different days and sort of forgot about most of the Justine bit.

  On 6/5/2012 at 8:24 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

has anyone seen jon ronson's "kubrick's boxes"?

 

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cannot find it, not even on torrent or dvd or yt

It came with the Kubrick box set I got for cheap. Definitely worth watching.

2001

Dr Strangelove

Barry Lyndon

The Shining

Paths of Glory

Full Metal Jacket

The Killing

Spartacus

Lolita

Eyes wide shut

Clockwork Orange

have not seen

Killer's Kiss (1955)

Fear and Desire (1953)

that's my ranking. Paths of Glory is fantastic, one of the shortest and most direct Kubrick movies. The Killing is an overlooked one about a complicated heist where it shows the ending from multiple people's perspectives kind of like Jackie Brown. General Jack Ripper from Dr Strangelove plays the main character in the Killing. Barry Lyndon is hands down one of the most beautifully shot movies ever made, see it just for that .

I like clockwork orange, but i feel like Kubrick smoked too much pot or something during this period, it's super dated probably has aged worse than any other film he;s done including Spartacus, which actually over time stands up better than Orange

what's this order?

clockwork orange is kinda crappy compared to the book. THERE I SAID IT.

my fav by kubrick is full metal jacket. i'm postponing 2001 indefinitely as i know it will be nowhere near my expectations as a fan of sci-fi genre in general. least favourite is eyes wide shut which bored me in an epic way.

spartacus is a horrible, horrible film..i watched it long ago but i can still remember the facepalms it induced, it's not even wholly a kubrick film , is it ?

  On 6/5/2012 at 9:24 PM, patternoverlap said:

  On 6/5/2012 at 8:24 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

has anyone seen jon ronson's "kubrick's boxes"?

 

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cannot find it, not even on torrent or dvd or yt

 

It came with the Kubrick box set I got for cheap. Definitely worth watching.

which one please?

  On 6/5/2012 at 7:27 PM, The Overlook said:

P.S. - Dunst looked surprisingly quite fappable, but I wasn't that impressed with her performance. Gainsbourg accomplished more and with far less screen time.

Dunst clearly only understands about a quarter of her lines per given film script.

  On 6/5/2012 at 8:12 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

Ok lets put kubrick's films in order

2001

Barry Lyndon

Clockwork Orange

The Shining

.. Don't like the rest.

what's this order??? from gay to gayest?

The Shining

The Shining

The Shining

Full Metal Jacket.

  On 6/5/2012 at 8:12 PM, zaphod said:

i dunno, it failed to move me. maybe stories of teenage angst and rage don't do much for me anymore. i'd like to see the same scenario played out among adults with lives, but then i guess that's just the "suitcase of money" trope in a simple plan or similar films. there wasn't anything new or interesting about chronicle. a teenager is beaten by his father, has rage issues and is a loner, so probably isn't the best person for superpowers? how original. every beat of the movie was predictable. i can excuse shoddy effects work if the writing is solid, but there were so many holes in this film's logic and it was so emotionally braindead that i couldn't get past how fake most of the major effects scenes looked. the whole film reminded me of a really sullen version of jumper. that isn't good.

lol, ok. Articulate review as usual, I loled at "sullen version of jumper", I never saw it but the mental image of an even more sullen Hayden Christiansen makes me laugh. Agree to disagree I guess. I do think the film had flaws - for example, none of the acting was very good, particularly the "angry dad". But I thought overall it was tight and nicely controlled. In fact I think the director has a promising future. Apparently he's now making the film version of Shadow of the Colossus, which hopefully will be as fucking awesome as the game, and silence the haters. I have as much hope for him as a director as I do for David Bowie's kid, the Duncan Jones lad. Probably more so, as Duncan Jones seems to be trying too hard for the M. Knight Shamalalaland mindfuck, whereas Chronicle is just a nice tidy little film.

My favorite Kubrick films:

1) Stalker

2) Solaris

3) Andrei Rubelev

4) Platoon Apocalypse

  On 6/6/2012 at 1:56 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 6/5/2012 at 8:12 PM, zaphod said:

i dunno, it failed to move me. maybe stories of teenage angst and rage don't do much for me anymore. i'd like to see the same scenario played out among adults with lives, but then i guess that's just the "suitcase of money" trope in a simple plan or similar films. there wasn't anything new or interesting about chronicle. a teenager is beaten by his father, has rage issues and is a loner, so probably isn't the best person for superpowers? how original. every beat of the movie was predictable. i can excuse shoddy effects work if the writing is solid, but there were so many holes in this film's logic and it was so emotionally braindead that i couldn't get past how fake most of the major effects scenes looked. the whole film reminded me of a really sullen version of jumper. that isn't good.

 

lol, ok. Articulate review as usual, I loled at "sullen version of jumper", I never saw it but the mental image of an even more sullen Hayden Christiansen makes me laugh. Agree to disagree I guess. I do think the film had flaws - for example, none of the acting was very good, particularly the "angry dad". But I thought overall it was tight and nicely controlled. In fact I think the director has a promising future. Apparently he's now making the film version of Shadow of the Colossus, which hopefully will be as fucking awesome as the game, and silence the haters. I have as much hope for him as a director as I do for David Bowie's kid, the Duncan Jones lad. Probably more so, as Duncan Jones seems to be trying too hard for the M. Knight Shamalalaland mindfuck, whereas Chronicle is just a nice tidy little film.

 

My favorite Tarkovskiy films:

1) Stalker

2) Solaris

3) Andrei Rubelev

4) Platoon Apocalypse

Here I fixed it for you.

thanks captain obvious!

You're most welcome friend.

my kubrick list:

jaws

duel

raiders of the lost ark

last crusade

the rest is garbage