Films Recently Watched

hmmm, i like that trailer, will look for this

Trailer is a bit misleading, but it is a good movie.

Willow - never watched before. It passed the time/10

jeremiah johnson. solid, if a little structurally flawed - some scenes feel too truncated to have the power it's suggested they should have - and a little reliant on robert redford's good looks, but nicely shot and pretty touching thanks to great music and relaxed, funny, varied moods. one of those westerns i'd never seen, and i'm always looking for more.

  On 3/24/2013 at 3:59 PM, zaphod said:

the plane crash in the grey was way better than the one in flight.

on the other hand, characters in the muppet show are way better than the wolves in "the grey"

and on the other other hand, pink trapezoids feel space at a time when the people are touching.

i didn't mind them. i actually quite liked the film on the whole, one of the stronger movies of the first half of last year. but i don't expect anyone to agree, there was too much of a herd mentality regarding the marketing of that film not delivering on its promise of liam neeson fucking up some wolves yeah bro fuck yeah.

hackers - all the ironic nostalgia drenched love that watmm could bestow on this won't prevent it from being a steaming pile of shit. there is one big laugh:

[youtubehd]36YBidKiCDE[/youtubehd]

otherwise, as a fan of both cyberpunk/computer culture and electronic music, this is sort of like being the mother of a retarded deformed baby. i guess i can pretend to take ownership and responsibility, to love this...thing, but inside, i'm crying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=H3QkM7uyF10

Carlos.

All 6 hours of it.

Highly recommended.

9/10

Also, 3 Wire songs in the soundtrack.

korean crime/vengeance/action flick par excellence

9/10

highly recommended

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-que79ZgP4

fargo

hadn't seen this in years. i remembered loving it, now i don't. the mike yamagita scene is in fact pointless and in a way all this material is covered artfully and without unnecessary comic affectation in no country for old men. william h. macy has some great moments, though. his botched escape through the window of a motel at the end is a peerless example of someone hitting their rock bottom. it makes me laugh and cringe. buscemi and stormare are stock characters and every moment they're on screen is tedious. i can't rate this above miller's crossing or barton fink, and no country has grown in stature over the years to overtake it as the coen's best film featuring a suitcase of money. so, it still beats the shit out of blood simple and lebowski.

from beyond

body horror from the director of re-animator, also based on lovecraft. not that film. don't watch it with raised expectations and you'll walk away happy.

[youtubehd]zgZuCXY-vR8[/youtubehd]

really, how can anyone pass that up?

  Quote

buscemi and stormare are stock characters and every moment they're on screen is tedious.

really? I see where you're coming from, but I thought Stormare was great, filled with silent menace. And the moment he asks for "unguent" is typical Coen sense of humor, I always laugh.

also:

  Quote

without unnecessary comic affectation

is it really unnecessary? I think No Country and Fargo are just quite different films. No Country doesn't have much humor, does it?

  On 3/30/2013 at 6:13 AM, zaphod said:

from beyond

body horror from the director of re-animator, also based on lovecraft. not that film. don't watch it with raised expectations and you'll walk away happy.

 

[trailer]

 

really, how can anyone pass that up?

Last week I dug out his adaptation of Dreams In The Witch House as part of my lady's ongoing education in all things horror/trash.

For some reason I've never heard of or seen From Beyond. Although now I look at the cover of DITWH it actually says on it "from the director or Re-Animator and From Beyond", duh.

Looks fookin' amazing, gonna watch soon as.

Dreams In The Witch House is pretty great if you haven't seen it btw.

(Though the trailer's not up to much)

The Nest - intresting late 80's document that kinda borrowed from peter jackson score of the time/10

Django Unchained - ok so tarantino wants to be an aussie. He's welcome and ahead of the fobti massive. But still, why your script so pathetic, why you no re write meestar faulty .. why you film stuff cowboy style and all their shit look so clean meestar foltee ... ffS even a t-mobile ad looked more authentic ... note the dust an shit that was on the originael movies that his magesty worships ..

http://youtu.be/N7_Oiunf1go

Project Nim - As previously mentioned in one of my posts earlier in this thread (regarding Shadow Dancer) I am a massive fan of James Marsh and his skill for jumping effortlessly between docu's n' fictional drama. Nim will draw you in with his animalistic tendencies and humanistic nature...it will also draw a tear from your eye. Nim seems to be a chimp corrupted by his human counterparts, and heartlessly left in a lab cage by 70's cliche's who could no longer look after him. I think the most saddening thing is that the ones Nim formed the strongest bond with were the ones who ended up caring the least.

Room 237 (the documentary about The Shining)

This is a documentary about mad people (over)analysing a mad movie.

I like The Shining. Don't get me wrong. I also love reading interpretations of movies that are a bit on the crazy side. But the people in this documentary (whose faces we never see btw.) are out of their fucking minds. I don't know if this documentary is supposed to be serious or of it's like the Toddlers and Tiaras show where it actually points fingers at the people who are on the show. The theories - and in some cases "conspiracy theories" - are all over the fucking place. When some of the theories were presented, I was thinking, "sure, why not? Makes sense... kinda.", but then we got to the theories about The Shining being the film where Kubrick admits to being the one who faked the moon landing and that the guy who figured this out was now being watched by the government and so on. Holy shit balls. Or that guy who believed that it made perfect sense to watch the movie forwards and backwards at the same time and then superimpose the two screenings, because then "everything lines up!"

I laughed out loud when one of the theorists said that he hadn't had a job for quite some time, because throughout most of the documentary I was thinking to myself that these guys must have a lot of spare time on their hands and that maybe they should get a job.

Apart from the fucking wackjobs talking about The Shining being about the holocaust and Jack Nicholson's hair on the photo of the ball room party forms a Hitler mustache when they fade in to a close-up of his face, the documentary itself wasn't that good. Like I said, you never see any of the people who are throwing their wild theories around the room. You only hear their voices. So since you never see anyone, the only things they show are clips from the movie and these staged clips of kids from the 80s watching The Shining in a cinema over and over and over and over.

Also the music was terrible. I know it was trying to be very 80s Kubrick-ian and blablabla, but it didn't work at all. Also, whoever mixed the sound ought to be shot in the foot for doing such a terrible job.

I give it 5/10

GI Joe Retaliation - 5/10 actually makes the first film look coherent and well acted. Low budget direct to video crap. The plot devolves into running around a water treatment plant in jet skis.

1990: the bronx warriors

sometimes i forget how bad a film can be, and then one comes along and reminds me. fred williamson is in this, so it might be worth your time if you're a blaxploitation completist, but otherwise there is nothing of value here. garbage. here is a clip show so you don't ever watch this:

[youtubehd]nuJgRVD_VdQ[/youtubehd]

  On 3/31/2013 at 6:05 AM, Rubin Farr said:

GI Joe Retaliation - 5/10 actually makes the first film look coherent and well acted. Low budget direct to video crap. The plot devolves into running around a water treatment plant in jet skis.

The Shining (first re-watch after a four year break) - This was the first time round I noticed some flaws. "Wendy" isn't really all that good an actress... but it's still a mad film with tons of great ideas.

The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski-film from 2010. I fell in love with this movie instantly. The way it's told, the atmosphere it creates, the cast, the direction.... it's pretty much perfect. Watched it three times in a row.

The Innkeepers - Some piece of shit movie by Ti West. Someone mentioned it in their review for Entrance as an example for a "slow-burn" film style, building suspense over a long period of time - but it's not worth watching. Watch Entrance instead.

Red Road - Pretty good thriller/drama by Andrea Arnold (who directed Fish Tank), although I had a little trouble understanding the lead actress due to her heavy Glasgow accent. Still recommended.

Wuthering Heights (2011) - Another Andrea Arnold film. Very atmospheric and quite a harsh, non-kitschy interpretation (which is good). I did find it a little sad to see the great child-actors replaced by their grown up versions in the 2nd half of the film though.

Jonas - Experimental film project by German master-comedian Christian Ulmen who plays an 18 year old boy who goes back to school. It's a real school, and it's shot like a documentary, so Ulmen is the only actor involved, all others are real. In a way, Ulmen's style could be compared to the films by Sacha Baron Cohen, but this one was more "tame". It pretty much just reminded me what school was like - Terrible feeling, good film.

Rosemary's Baby - I had high hopes for it as it's by Roman Polanski, but I don't think it works very well anymore in this day and age... he did touch some controversial subjects for its time though and, in its own way, the movie is flawlessly directed. It just hasn't aged very well.

The Tenant - Another Polanski from the 70's. It's nice to see how he started out but again, some elements are just hard to take seriously in 2013... a zoom on a screaming person with an echo-effect on the sound just seems comical today. But Polanski always knew how to build proper suspense for sure.

Inland Empire (the first 45 minutes or so, again) - I keep falling asleep to this movie! I love it, but I only know 1/3 of it! It's like it makes me fall asleep cause my brain already thinks it's dreaming while watching it. So very weird. The "neighbor lady" is perhaps the scariest character ever to appear in a film.

  On 3/30/2013 at 6:13 AM, zaphod said:

from beyond

body horror from the director of re-animator, also based on lovecraft. not that film. don't watch it with raised expectations and you'll walk away happy.

 

[youtubehd]zgZuCXY-vR8[/youtubehd]

 

really, how can anyone pass that up?

awesome, shall watch next.

Kept saying to myself throughout "surely they can't top that......surely they can't top that" after they did yet another deeply depraved sexual act...but for all its 'shock value' (if you could even call it that) its a pretty great film. Some really nice film devices, shot nicely etc.

piss on my face/10

The Dark Night Rises - I'm not really a Batman bod, I haven't read any views on this film so not sure what the average consensus is but I thought it was an excellent film. Some of my mates at work reckon its boring and plods along, not sure if we were talking about the same film lol

8.5/10

  On 3/31/2013 at 7:12 PM, TRiP said:

 

  On 3/30/2013 at 6:13 AM, zaphod said:

from beyond

body horror from the director of re-animator, also based on lovecraft. not that film. don't watch it with raised expectations and you'll walk away happy.

 

[youtubehd]zgZuCXY-vR8[/youtubehd]

 

really, how can anyone pass that up?

 

awesome, shall watch next.

 

Kept saying to myself throughout "surely they can't top that......surely they can't top that" after they did yet another deeply depraved sexual act...but for all its 'shock value' (if you could even call it that) its a pretty great film. Some really nice film devices, shot nicely etc.

piss on my face/10

 

What film are you talking about?

Salo.

I don't care what anyone says; it was a fucking stupid movie.

Yeah yeah fascism commentary blah blah blah.

side effects - 5/10 - the premise and the subjects the film deals with are very interesting and could be a basis for something much more original and deeper, but the film didn't do it justice and seemed very generic to me. it's well made and decently acted but ultimately forgettable.