Films Recently Watched

Letters from Iwo Jima

Although the Japanese had a hard time during that period of war it doesn't mean that I should be watching some exaggerated pro-american propaganda film. The characters are undeveloped and stereotypical; not to mention the General Kuribayashi and the GI Saigo whose performance would be more appropriate for a mexican soap opera... The Japanese are portrayed as savage banzai-screaming maniacs unable to come up with a offensive strategy, while the americans are civilized righteous super-soldiers that just wait for them in their foxholes to mow them down day and night. Horrible.

interesting..the film did very good in japan from what i read. i also remember it was recommended by a few profs. when i did courses on japan.

are you sure you're not trying too hard ?

  On 4/21/2013 at 3:51 PM, eugene said:

interesting..the film did very good in japan from what i read. i also remember it was recommended by a few profs. when i did courses on japan.

are you sure you're not trying too hard ?

Maybe I spot the propaganda gimmicks to easily and consequently tend to enjoy these films less. Dunno.

Code 46 - The strong cast (Tim Robbins. Samantha Morton) make it worth a look for die hard sci-fi fans as it conceptually falls somewhere between Gattica and Blade Runner but no where near as good as either. A different and stylish new world order style lo budget sci-fi that got lost in the dreary romantic plot line. Probably quite cool when it was made (2003) but the Coldplay ending really dated the film. 6.5/10

Room 237 - Documentary about people who are fanatical about the subliminal meanings in Kubrick's 'The Shining' ranging from the ridiculous to the Nazi holocaust and most interestingly the clues to Kubrick being involved the fake Apollo 11 footage as well as an insight into the man with an IQ of 200. watmm/10 (renting The Shining on bluray asap)

Casshern - Good diesel punk styling and ott action sequences done in the way only the Japanese can get away with. Seemed like a mish mash of different films all rolled up into one that falls into some very deep and profound anti war statements towards the end which does get dragged out quite a bit. I think they were trying to make something truly epic on a fraction of the budget that was needed but it's still entertaining and worth a watch. 7.5/10

  On 4/22/2013 at 12:38 AM, soundwave said:

as well as an insight into the man with an IQ of 200.

lol. there is no way Kubrick (or any other mortal) has had an IQ of 200.

  Quote

 

The highest IQ ever to be scored in the advanced IQ test was by Abdesselam Jelloul. Who scored an adult IQ of 198 in a 2012 test which included 13 dimensions of intelligence (analytical, spatial, logical, memory, musical, linguistic, philosophical, moral, spiritual, interpersonal, intra-personal, bodily and naturalist). Unlike other tests, the advanced IQ test includes more measures that other tests cannot assess.

 

Trance - Great, could have been better 8/10. Danny Boyle is probably my favorite director active right now, i love most of his movie (all of them expect Slumdog, Millions and that movie he did with cameron Diaz... The Beach is allright).

Evil Dead remake - okay i guess, it had so many modern horror movie cliches that it just reminded me how fucking shitty the state of horros movies is, it made me appreciate The house of the Devil a whole lot more. 6/10

is it true that they took out most of the surreal/wacky stuff and instead it's just a series of possessed people fights one after the other?

part of the charm of the original movie is beyond the deadite possessions they have animated trees, hallucination/dreamlike events (mirror turns into water), and a ridiculously over the top stop motion animation finale as well as really good early Raimi creative camerawork.

Well i know that it came out in the 80's but i still hadn't watched ...

Children of the corn - don't fucking do that !! but in the end i guess i'm glad that you did however frustratingly silly it was for you to ignore your better judgement as a protagonist in an horror movie/10

It's a seriously frustrating film, I almost thought Pt2 was better because it had that weird preacher kid in it.

  On 4/22/2013 at 10:01 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

is it true that they took out most of the surreal/wacky stuff and instead it's just a series of possessed people fights one after the other?

 

part of the charm of the original movie is beyond the deadite possessions they have animated trees, hallucination/dreamlike events (mirror turns into water), and a ridiculously over the top stop motion animation finale as well as really good early Raimi creative camerawork.

Unfortunately the filmakers took a safe road and made it so they can make the most money out of teens.

I fucking hate money and what it does to art, the filmakers didnt have the balls to recreate the spirit of the original. A missed opportunity to show how good the horror genre can be.

  On 4/20/2013 at 7:49 PM, messiaen said:

10/10 for napoleon dynamite? that score stuck out like a sore thumb.

just for the photography alone...

  On 4/20/2013 at 9:14 PM, Gocab said:

Lilya 4 ever, evil dead and night of the living dead's combined score makes me question the sanity of michael jackson.

lylia 4 ever - prostitution movie for mtv generation? no thanks, watch transe and then report back!

evil dead was quite alright, cool camerawork and nice old photography, oh and i forgot the raping trees, hilarious! it's a shame it's not an assumed comedy like the rest of the series...

now, night of the living dead, trying to be all serious and thought provoking about post-apocalyptic shit, lol no... you might get a 10/10 if you compare it to the walking dead series though...

for some reason, went with my fiancee to see 'Oblivion' ... i vaguely already knew that it would be crap, but the m83 soundtrack pulled me in and i thought 'Tron: Legacy' was underrated.

anyway, yeah; it was crap. avoid at all costs.

Hey pbn!

Watched Good Bye, Lenin! for the first time since it came out last night. I luv it a lot more now that I understand that time period a little better.

Upstream Color - 6/10

good writeup. The movie left me sort of perplexed, I'll probably see it again before it leave the cinema.

Killing Them Softly - 8/10

i love what Dominik has done with background noise in this.

It beats Berbarian Sound Studio for its audiaciosness

So the 8/10 is for the background noise? Generous.

that movie gets a couple points for ray liotta's beating. maybe the drug sequence. other than that it was pretty bad.

The movie is a crime caper and viewed as such its an excelent piece of filmaking.

Punk bitches, I liked the way the dialogue flowed in Silver Linings. I felt the same way about this little beauty. I thought ZAPHOD would have far more taste.

The Assasination of Jesse James -9.3/10

  On 4/23/2013 at 7:14 PM, Schlitze said:

The Assasination of Jesse James -9.3/10

Well, you got that right at least.

  On 4/23/2013 at 6:55 PM, zaphod said:

that movie gets a couple points for ray liotta's beating. maybe the drug sequence. other than that it was pretty bad.

See, I think even that "couple points" is generous. The drug sequence was annoying and pointless.

I know Dominik is stoked about technology but working with Deakins is one thing, whose mastery of the discipline actually complemented the script of Jesse James - with Killing Them Softly, it was just tech for tech's sake. The bullet time death - wtf was that? Why did that matter?

I also just couldn't help but lol @ the attempted conflation of gangster amorality and capitalism. I mean, it's not exactly a difficult connection to make in the first place, so why belabor the point? He was far more clever with the script of Jesse James - especially since the gambit wasn't clear for the first hour or so of the film.

Something stinks about Killing Them Softly. I wonder if some day Dominik will denounce it and come clean that it was a horrible effort.

Overlook and Zaphod really gotta watch the film again