A few films recently watched.

i certainly dont think the second half is bad but i do think that its a lopsided film.

and barry lyndon isnt a war film

i know its not a 'war film' exactly but kind of like full metal jacket the first half is mostly about battles and the military and it changes to something quite different about halfway through. What's watmm's opinion on Paths of Glory?

I just recently saw The Killing for the first time. It was surprisingly good. On the wiki page it says this

    Quote

Quentin Tarantino has confirmed that this influenced him a lot for his first film Reservoir Dogs, especially the use of different perspectives of different characters on a heist.

jackie brown also has a similar multiple perspectives climax like the Killing, im wondering did Kubrick invent that? He probably didn't but it's the earliest film i've seen with that technique

paths of glory left me cold but it was a while ago that i saw it. whats so great about it? im open to giving it another look

  On 11/26/2009 at 1:25 AM, Awepittance said:

He probably didn't but it's the earliest film i've seen with that technique

Rashomon?

  On 11/26/2009 at 1:30 AM, Z_B_Z said:

paths of glory left me cold but it was a while ago that i saw it. whats so great about it? im open to giving it another look

Besides the themes inherent to the material, which I found really interesting. The cinematography is gorgeous. I always remember the long tracking shots of Douglas' character walking through the trenches.

OK, so I've just put on Die Hard, I'm 5:05 through the film and Bruce Willis wife slams a picture of Bruce willis down on the table. I immediately lost my temper, how dare she slam down a picture of Bruce Willis.

Passion of the Christ - wow, wasn't really expecting it to be THAT brutal! loved the movie though

  On 11/26/2009 at 4:03 AM, Calx Sherbet said:

Passion of the Christ - wow, wasn't really expecting it to be THAT brutal! loved the movie though

Sorry, but

  On 11/26/2009 at 3:19 AM, abusivegeorge said:

OK, so I've just put on Die Hard, I'm 5:05 through the film and Bruce Willis wife slams a picture of Bruce willis down on the table. I immediately lost my temper, how dare she slam down a picture of Bruce Willis.

OMG JOHN MCCLANE HAS JUST HANDED BILL CLAY A GUN I CANT GO ON

  On 11/26/2009 at 4:55 AM, abusivegeorge said:

  On 11/26/2009 at 3:19 AM, abusivegeorge said:

OK, so I've just put on Die Hard, I'm 5:05 through the film and Bruce Willis wife slams a picture of Bruce willis down on the table. I immediately lost my temper, how dare she slam down a picture of Bruce Willis.

 

OMG JOHN MCCLANE HAS JUST HANDED BILL CLAY A GUN I CANT GO ON

OMG OMG OMG TEN OUT OF TEN TEN OUTOF TEN TEN OUT OF TEN

everyone knows die hard is 10 out of 10 you douchebag.

now as for the second one, thats more of a grey area..

Yeah I know man but I haven't seen it in so long.

The Mirror. Saw a 35mm print of this tonight and while my opinion of it hasn't changed much I did enjoy some aspects of it that I hadn't previously. I still think it's Tarkovsky's worst film, possibly second worst next to Solaris but the visuals were pretty glorious. I still can't get past the fact that the film has such great cinematography and such shoddy camerawork, it's like every rig they used was Soviet surplus, it's not that fucking hard to get a steady tracking shot. That and a lot of the techniques such as the moving camera and zooming at the same time just haven't aged very well. Still, Tarkovsky is Tarkovsky, there's certainly some glory there. 7/10

Fight Club. This film is aging incredibly well for something that was so of it's time. One thing that always struck me about the visual style was that they made the CGI elements actually look good despite they're being obvious. The thing that struck me most on this viewing was how well the sound and editing is stitched together, the flow of the whole film is really impressive. Great performances, great script, great cinematography, great everything. 10/10

I've been meaning to rewatch Paths of Glory for a while, I always liked it quite a bit, I'm surprised it could leave anyone that cold. Will post back with a more updated opinion soon.

There Will Be Blood - 9/10 - watched this one again today. It is a very lovely film... no doubt about it.

House of Games - 7/10 - This was an interesting film... a very good character film though I do wish they had used a different actress for the lead. There were points during the film when I was thinking, "Jesus I'm drowning in plot holes and outrageous story telling" but then the twist comes along and you find out the outrageousness was just a tool to show how lost this character is.

  On 11/26/2009 at 9:53 AM, goffer said:

 

House of Games - 7/10 - This was an interesting film... a very good character film though I do wish they had used a different actress for the lead. There were points during the film when I was thinking, "Jesus I'm drowning in plot holes and outrageous story telling" but then the twist comes along and you find out the outrageousness was just a tool to show how lost this character is.

I like Mamet a lot as a writer and raconteur but don't think he's that great as a director. I lost interest in House of Games mostly due to the horribleness of the lead actress. Bambi VS Godzilla is fucking awesome though.

Paranormal Activity

Unsurprisingly nowhere near as scary as the trailers suggest, although it does provide quite a few jump scenes. It's fun, got me out of seeing the new Twilight film which I was pleased about but I won't bother watching it again.

I just saw Orphan (The Orphan?) on an in-flight movie. It was surprisingly good, though I wish they had chosen a different reveal for the orphan's backstory. They clearly didn't have the balls to go for the explanation that would make the most sense, ie. survivor of sexual abuse. It's not a great film or anything, but I like a well-made old-fashioned horror story, and I have a weakness for movies with evil children. 7/10.

  On 11/26/2009 at 10:47 AM, Overand said:

  On 11/26/2009 at 9:53 AM, goffer said:

 

House of Games - 7/10 - This was an interesting film... a very good character film though I do wish they had used a different actress for the lead. There were points during the film when I was thinking, "Jesus I'm drowning in plot holes and outrageous story telling" but then the twist comes along and you find out the outrageousness was just a tool to show how lost this character is.

 

I lost interest in House of Games mostly due to the horribleness of the lead actress.

Yes... at times it felt as if I was watching one of those frigid Lifetime network made-for-TV movies.

Inglorious Basterds was extremely disappointing. Nothing has beathen Death Proof yet, hehe

Mystery Men, awesome good clean fun. Great cameo by Tom Waits, Hanl Azaria is also great in this

  On 11/26/2009 at 10:22 PM, AJW said:

Inglorious Basterds was extremely disappointing. Nothing has beathen Death Proof yet, hehe

What the fuck? Basterds was infinitely better than Death Proof.

Ghost Ship 7/10

Extremely entertaining bullshit.

  On 11/27/2009 at 5:52 AM, abusivegeorge said:

Ghost Ship 7/10

 

Extremely entertaining bullshit.

sadly it never topped the EPIC opening scene imo...

  On 11/27/2009 at 5:54 AM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 11/27/2009 at 5:52 AM, abusivegeorge said:

Ghost Ship 7/10

 

Extremely entertaining bullshit.

 

sadly it never topped the EPIC opening scene imo...

I agree actually, that was definetly the most shocking and gripping part of the film over and done with in the first five minutes.

Wild Strawberries - 10/10 - A very well done film in typical Bergman fashion. It plays with the usual reoccurring themes of Bergman's work such that of life and death but this one on a much more personal level it seemed. I cannot wait to revisit this one in the future.

Inglourious Basterds - 6/10 - This one started out quite nicely... I really enjoyed the opening sequence but then it slowly began to evolve into one of those awkward situations.... like the one where everyone is having a good time, the mood is just right, confidence is gained and someone decides to tell a joke but the joke drags on to the point that the punchline is pointless. This film felt very rushed and incoherent which I found to be quite sad for it had so much potential. Maybe it was just a bad move to follow it after a Bergman film... I dunno.

Zombieland - Fun stuff. Watch it. Bill murray rules.

zombieland felt like a US teen targeted tV show to me, was glad that i was able skip forward whenever it became too trying, yes even for bill murray. I most enjoyed the clips at the beginning, but overall it felt like a directionless nothing plot written by great pitchmen, great in the sense that they got someone to pay for their dream to get filmed.

losers