A few films recently watched.

You urgently need to start watching some comedies. Something like Weekend at Bernies or something.

Brainscan (1994)- 8/10

My judgement of this movie is very much clouded by nostalgia. Hokey but effective acting from Ed Furlong, cheesy early CG effects, and a good soundtrack make this a cult classic for me.

  On 9/26/2009 at 11:01 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 9/26/2009 at 10:29 AM, goffer said:

Hmmmm I'm not too sure about you Mr lumpenprol, you are hating on the film for all the wrong reasons. The patience Malick put into the film, the tedious atmospheric elements that more times than none, slip by unnoticed. Richard Gere was too pretty for good reason, that was his character... he deliberately stood out from the rest, as the young girl told us, because he wasn't one of them. I do, however, agree in regards to the characters.... yes they were a bit under developed, but not many films out there did what Malick did in the mere 94 minute life span of the film. But who knows... maybe you are right, maybe I am right, or perhaps we are both ungrounded...to each their own... I so happen to love the film, and cavort to the Malick way.

 

yeah I hear you, I think I'm just not in the right mood for Malick lately. It's certainly a gorgeous film, some of the shots looked like they popped directly from a Wyeth painting. Malick only has a handful of films, but his filmmaking "tics" - people speaking or looking directly into the camera while the person they are talking to is not shown, random snippets of dialogue or action inserted with no context, random nature shots, someone musing in voice over - are all in this film and you either like them or not. I tend to go back and forth, sometimes I really liked what the little girl was saying in voice over - the contrast between bucolic nature shots and her musing about damnation and hellfire, for example - but other times it seemed distractingly "poetical." Ultimately I guess I felt the film was too obvious and predictable and maybe I just no longer click with Malick's world view. I had to watch it over 3 nights as I got bored each time and turned it off. It's by no means a "bad" film it just didn't speak to me at this point in my life.

Poetical yes.... very much so and he tends to do that in all his films... must be because of his philosophical background. I'm surprised you found it obvious and predictable... the number one complaint that I read about this film is Malick leaves too much to the viewer. You must also realize that this is only his second film, though his first in color, which could explain his over usage of establishing shots and such.

  On 9/26/2009 at 11:28 AM, Awepittance said:

I gave New World another shot recently i and i think i appreciated it a little more but i don't think i've had any Terrence Malick films click for me yet, i understand in theory why he's so highly revered though.

 

  On 9/25/2009 at 3:32 PM, takeshi said:

This made me laugh.

Mamet's "Anne Frank" labeled too dark

  Quote

A planned adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for Disney Pictures has been put into turnaround because it is "too dark" says The Wrap.

 

The article says provocateur playwright and filmmaker David Mamet ("Heist," "Spartan") was hired to pen the adaptation, but the script he turned in was not a retelling of the famous Holocaust drama taken from the diaries of Frank,

 

Instead Mamet delivered the story of a contemporary Jewish girl who goes to Israel and learns about the traumas of suicide bombing. The script apparently delivers a pro-Israeli exploration of modern anti-Semitism.

 

"It's very intense, and dark and scary. It's not a film version of 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The story evolved into something more intense" says one insider, indicating the subject matter is too difficult for Disney to produce or distribute.

 

 

i've been watching a lot of David Mamet films recently but this sounds absolutely ridiculous, his last movie Red Belt was horrendous.

I really wanted to like Red Belt, mostly because I like Chiwetel Ejiofor and was hoping it'd be a breakout role for him.

Have you ever seen Edmond? That's the film that convinced me that Mamet is skating by on the rep he built with stuff like Glengarry Glen Ross. I started to get hints of this when he started putting his wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, in major roles in his films. Who is just a terrible, terrible actress.

Raw Deal. Not one of Arnie's best but still enjoyable. Pretty banging soundtrack.

13 TZAMETI

Runaway Train! it has: jon voight, some weird italo soundtrack with gated snares, and a buncha trains! even zaphod likes it!

  On 9/26/2009 at 8:30 PM, takeshi said:

  On 9/26/2009 at 11:28 AM, Awepittance said:

I gave New World another shot recently i and i think i appreciated it a little more but i don't think i've had any Terrence Malick films click for me yet, i understand in theory why he's so highly revered though.

 

  On 9/25/2009 at 3:32 PM, takeshi said:

This made me laugh.

Mamet's "Anne Frank" labeled too dark

  Quote

A planned adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" for Disney Pictures has been put into turnaround because it is "too dark" says The Wrap.

 

The article says provocateur playwright and filmmaker David Mamet ("Heist," "Spartan") was hired to pen the adaptation, but the script he turned in was not a retelling of the famous Holocaust drama taken from the diaries of Frank,

 

Instead Mamet delivered the story of a contemporary Jewish girl who goes to Israel and learns about the traumas of suicide bombing. The script apparently delivers a pro-Israeli exploration of modern anti-Semitism.

 

"It's very intense, and dark and scary. It's not a film version of 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The story evolved into something more intense" says one insider, indicating the subject matter is too difficult for Disney to produce or distribute.

 

 

i've been watching a lot of David Mamet films recently but this sounds absolutely ridiculous, his last movie Red Belt was horrendous.

 

I really wanted to like Red Belt, mostly because I like Chiwetel Ejiofor and was hoping it'd be a breakout role for him.

Have you ever seen Edmond? That's the film that convinced me that Mamet is skating by on the rep he built with stuff like Glengarry Glen Ross. I started to get hints of this when he started putting his wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, in major roles in his films. Who is just a terrible, terrible actress.

i actually really liked Edmond, mostly because i rented it thinking it was going to be absolute shit and i was intrigued to see it was based on a play by Mamet but directed by Stuart Gorden (creator of arguably the first splatter horror ever, Reanimator). I have to admit i really did like it, the main character reminded me a little bit of my own dad's out of touch sensibilities. I don't mind his wife but i could see why that would bother you.

some mamet films i enjoyed recently - Spartan, Spanish Prisoner, State & Maine, the Heist. Spartan i found particularly enjoyable because it starts off like some sort of typical 'elite squad working for the us government on a special mission' type of film but then just degenerates into hilarious(intentionally maybe?) abuses of power by the main characters. State & Maine was a good one because it had a lot of silly one-liners and was decent for being a comedy, i don't think he;s done another comedy to my knowledge. 'goes together like dykes and dogs'

i just watched the excellent sequel to weekend at bernies

my concept for a third one is that its an alternate universe, the setting takes place at the same beach house as the first film. Bernie meets the two dudes, and he realizes they are hot pieces of ass that he wants to fuck. So he kills them both and fucks their dead bodies for the rest of the movie while pretending to his party guests that they are still alive. of course it would be twice as hard for Bernie to make them both look alive as it was for the both of them to make Bernie look alive he would accomplish it with a sort of giant marionette like rope contraption to keep them both moving at the same time. IT would be a similar take like Herzog's new bad lieutenant, very similar concept similar characters but different situation

  On 9/27/2009 at 12:15 AM, Awepittance said:

i actually really liked Edmond, mostly because i rented it thinking it was going to be absolute shit and i was intrigued to see it was based on a play by Mamet but directed by Stuart Gorden (creator of arguably the first splatter horror ever, Reanimator). I have to admit i really did like it, the main character reminded me a little bit of my own dad's out of touch sensibilities. I don't mind his wife but i could see why that would bother you.

some mamet films i enjoyed recently - Spartan, Spanish Prisoner, State & Maine, the Heist. Spartan i found particularly enjoyable because it starts off like some sort of typical 'elite squad working for the us government on a special mission' type of film but then just degenerates into hilarious(intentionally maybe?) abuses of power by the main characters. State & Maine was a good one because it had a lot of silly one-liners and was decent for being a comedy, i don't think he;s done another comedy to my knowledge. 'goes together like dykes and dogs'

I thought The Spanish Prisoner and American Buffalo were well done and what I remember of The Winslow Boy was decent. Have you seen Oleanna?

no i havent although i just downloaded a torrent of it and have waitng for the right time to watch it. I didn't realize how many mamet movies William h macey starred in until recently.

  On 9/26/2009 at 10:08 PM, camoqp said:

13 TZAMETI

i liked that movie

had forgotten the title

  On 9/26/2009 at 11:32 AM, Dr Clitterhaus said:

You urgently need to start watching some comedies. Something like Weekend at Bernies or something.

I'm laughing. Nice work. I'm not being sarcastic.

  On 9/27/2009 at 12:55 AM, Awepittance said:

no i havent although i just downloaded a torrent of it and have waitng for the right time to watch it. I didn't realize how many mamet movies William h macey starred in until recently.

have you guys seen House of Games? I thought that was one of the better Mamets, though I saw it years ago

  On 9/26/2009 at 10:34 PM, iep said:

Runaway Train! it has: jon voight, some weird italo soundtrack with gated snares, and a buncha trains! even zaphod likes it!

how could you not? akira kurosawa wrote it. it even has a shakespeare quote at the end. and what an end!

i rented house of games recently but forgot to watch the whole thing before it's due date. i just overload myself with movies sometimes and don't have time to watch them.

just watched house of games, thanks for the recommendation

Just watched the English short Love You More. Great and funny, although might want to avoid it if you don't like Buzzcocks/teenagers fucking a lot.

  On 9/27/2009 at 7:39 AM, viscosity said:

just watched house of games, thanks for the recommendation

This?

yeah that's the one. I thought it was great - in 1987. Haven't seen it since.

hurt locked 0/10

really hated this movie. its the first time i've considered walking out a movie in a long time. really boring, crap characters. i heard this movie was good.

district 9 8/10

i should take a point off for the ending shot. couldnt they leave it as her showing the flower?

  On 9/28/2009 at 12:33 AM, Jonas said:

drag me to hell: 8/10

 

Lots of lols.

I loved this. Sam Raimi truely came back to form with this one. Lots of fun.

amazing film!

  On 9/27/2009 at 5:47 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

hurt locked 0/10

really hated this movie. its the first time i've considered walking out a movie in a long time. really boring, crap characters. i heard this movie was good.

 

district 9 8/10

i should take a point off for the ending shot. couldnt they leave it as her showing the flower?

do you mean The Hurt Locker??