28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Sycophant]

I thought QT was okay in From Dusk Till Dawn.

This is a sentence that I agree with.

I even think he's pretty alright in Pulp Fiction.

[megladon8]

But if everyone is saying it, and it's consistently pointed out as a flaw, doesn't that just make it all the more valid a criticism?

[Spinal]

I just cannot comprehend sometimes. Like, my mind is literally unable to function. In fairness, I think my list would be similarly mind-melting to you, so...

Well, OK. But those aren't exactly outside-the-box picks. One won an Oscar. Another was nominated. The third probably will be.

[monolith94]

I offer no rationale or rubric for this list of my favorite perfs of the aughts:

Audrey Tautou – Amelie
Oksana Akinshina – Lilja 4-Ever
Christopher Walken – Catch Me If You Can
Chris Cooper – Adaptation
Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Seung-yeon Lee – 3-Iron
Clive Owen – Sin City
Hugh Jackman – The Fountain
Cate Blanchette – I'm Not There
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder

[Winston*]

I even think he's pretty alright in Pulp Fiction.

His acting's terrible in Pulp Fiction but it's more the dialogue he gave himself to say that makes his scenes bothersome.

[D_Davis]

But if everyone is saying it, and it's consistently pointed out as a flaw, doesn't that just make it all the more valid a criticism?

No - it makes it vapid.

Find something else to critique. I don't want to read the obvious.

Is saying "water is wet" a valid critique of water? It's true, but it's also something we all know already.

[D_Davis]

His acting's terrible in Pulp Fiction but it's more the dialogue he gave himself to say that makes his scenes bothersome.

Right. I like him in PF and in From Dusk Til Dawn, but not because of his acting.

[Sven]

Well, OK. But those aren't exactly outside-the-box picks. One won an Oscar. Another was nominated. The third probably will be.

Well, yeah, but come on... you don't like Jack and he's the most nominated actor of all time. If there's even one anomaly, using the Oscars as a basis of quality is useless. (Good call on Bettis, though.) Anyway, my hastily created list, in no order:

Nick Nolte, The Good Thief (his Affliction performance would be number one if it were eligible)
Mark Wahlberg, I Heart Huckabees
Geoffrey Rush, The Tailor of Panama
Colin Farrell, Phone Booth
Ron Perlman, Hellboy
Ryo Ishibashi, Audition
Federico Luppi, The Devil's Backbone
Tim Roth, Invincible
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dirty Pretty Things
Bob Hoskins, Felicia's Journey

Sadly male heavy.

[The Mike]

First Ten Favorite performances of the 2000's that came off the top of my head right now....

Anthony Lapaglia - Lantana
Willem Dafoe - Spider-Man
Val Kilmer - The Salton Sea
Robert Downey, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Charlize Theron - Monster
Benicio Del Toro - Things We Lost in the Fire
Ellen Pompeo - Moonlight Mile
Djimoun Honsou - In America
Jennifer Connelly - Waking the Dead
Billy Crudup - Waking the Dead
Sarah & Emma Bolger - In America
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Dirty Pretty Things

[Sven]

I guess mine was a list of the past ten years, not from 2000 up. I don't care.

[megladon8]

Ten performances that popped into my head right now and would probably change drastically if I put lots of thought into it...

Christian Bale - American Psycho
Hugh Jackman - The Fountain
Audrey Tautou - Amelie
Willem Dafoe - Shadow of the Vampire
Choi Minsik - Oldboy
George Clooney - Solaris
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Naomi Watts - Mulholland Dr.
Brad Pitt - Snatch
Thomas Jane - The Mist

[Winston*]

The best performance of the decade is Tim Blake Nelson in O Brother Where Art Thou.

[Yum-Yum]

8. Angela Bettis, May

Stab-tastic!


Stuck (Gordon, 2007) ***

Cornrows are groovy.

[Spinal]

Well, yeah, but come on... you don't like Jack and he's the most nominated actor of all time. If there's even one anomaly, using the Oscars as a basis of quality is useless. (Good call on Bettis, though.)

No, you're not understanding me. I'm saying that those choices are backed by a large consensus in their favor. You were reacting all like 'I don't get it'. I'm just saying that a lot of people do. I'm not using the Oscars as a basis of quality. I'm using them to point out that you are the one running counter to conventional wisdom, not me.

[Sven]

No, you're not understanding me. I'm saying that those choices are backed by a large consensus in their favor. You were reacting all like 'I don't get it'. I'm just saying that a lot of people do. I'm not using the Oscars as a basis of quality. I'm using them to point out that you are the one running counter to conventional wisdom, not me.

See this is what I'm talking about: my brain... not working.

[Spinal]

Cornrows are groovy.

Some say Godard is cinema. Some might say Bresson or Antonioni. I say Mena Suvari laying a wicked beatdown on a naked chick. That's cinema.

Sorry for getting all mushy on y'all.

[chrisnu]

Favorite performances of the aughts:

Ellen Burstyn, Requiem For A Dream
Renee Zellweger, Nurse Betty
Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr.
Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There
Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger
Paul Giamatti, Sideways
Julie Delpy, Before Sunset
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Laura Dern, INLAND EMPIRE
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

[Watashi]

Ryan Gosling - Lars and the Real Girl
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood/Gangs of New York
Nicolas Cage - Adaptation.
Sarah & Emma Bolger - In America
Bruno Ganz - Downfall
David Strathairn - Good Night and Good Luck
Bjork - Dancer in the Dark
Tom Cruise - Collateral
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Gene Hackman - The Royal Tenenbaums

[Spinal]

Sarah & Emma Bolger - In America


Someday I'm going to have to see this movie so I can get to the bottom of which one of these girls gave the spectacular performance and which one was just coasting along, riding her sister's coattails.

[Dead & Messed Up]

01. Nicolas Cage - Adaption
02. Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
03. Tommy Lee Jones - No Country for Old Men
04. Matthew O'Leary - Frailty
05. Uma Thurman - Kill Bill 1 & 2
06. Tom Cruise - Collateral
07. Steve Carrell - The Forty-Year-Old Virgin
08. Clea Duvall - 13 Conversations About One Thing
09. Johnny Depp - Secret Window
10. Jennifer Carpenter - The Exorcism of Emily Rose

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Moon So-ri - Oasis

[Spinal]

I think Cage gives a very good performance in Adaptation and yet it's probably my 4th favorite performance in the film.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I think Cage gives a very good performance in Adaptation and yet it's probably my 4th favorite performance in the film.

I'm just stunned by it, because he differentiates the two characters so subtly, and yet you're never, ever in doubt as to which one is which. It works for me on both the technical level (how did he do that?) and the narrative level.

[Watashi]

Someday I'm going to have to see this movie so I can get to the bottom of which one of these girls gave the spectacular performance and which one was just coasting along, riding her sister's coattails.
You haven't seen In America?

Get on it!

[Spinal]

You haven't seen In America?

Get on it!

I just can't get excited about it. Not sure why.

[Ezee E]

The only other performance that I would add that hasn't been mentioned is Al Pacino in Angels in America.

[Spinal]

I'm just stunned by it, because he differentiates the two characters so subtly, and yet you're never, ever in doubt as to which one is which. It works for me on both the technical level (how did he do that?) and the narrative level.

Hmmm ... I always kinda thought it was just Nic Cage in a bad mood versus Nic Cage in a good mood. He gets some laughs though, I'll grant you that.

[Spinal]

The only other performance that I would add that hasn't been mentioned is Al Pacino in Angels in America.

Mary Louise Parker made my short list, but Pacino is great too.

[dreamdead]

My Shortlist:

Moon So-ri - Oasis
Kang-sheng Lee -- What Time is it There?
Tony Leung -- In the Mood for Love
Isabelle Huppert -- The Piano Teacher
Valérie Lemercier -- Friday Night
Julie Delphy -- Before Sunset
Kate Winslet -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[The Mike]

05. Uma Thurman - Kill Bill 1 & 2
06. Tom Cruise - Collateral
07. Steve Carrell - The Forty-Year-Old Virgin
10. Jennifer Carpenter - The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Had I thought, I might have gone with some or all of these. Props for you.

[Dead & Messed Up]

This is one of those topics where a top ten doesn't even begin to cut it.

[Watashi]

I just can't get excited about it. Not sure why.
It's totally a Spinaly movie.

[Qrazy]

To me this is becoming one of those things like when people complain about Gears of War being brown. We all know QT can't act. It really doesn't ever need to be mentioned again. He likes being in movies, and so when you know he's in one, just deal with it.

Your defense of everything having to do with this film is getting a bit extreme. I know Shyamalan can't act either but I"m not going to deal with it I'm going to say Shyamalan you huge anus get back behind the camera where you belong.

[Ezee E]

It's totally a Spinaly movie.
Agreed. I'm fairly sure he'd love it.

[soitgoes...]

Moon So-ri - OasisAll lists should have her at the top. Co-star Sol Kyung-gu deserves a spot on the top 10 as well.

[dreamdead]

All lists should have her at the top. Co-star Sol Kyung-gu deserves a spot on the top 10 as well.

True. His quirks and mannerisms there have their own grace in the film. And such a monumental shift between that role and Peppermint Candy for him in terms of tonal range. I really need to seek out more of his work, but I'm worried that I've already seen the best from him.

[soitgoes...]

Moon So-ri - Oasis
David Gulpilil - The Tracker
Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York
Jeon Do-yeon - Secret Sunshine
Isabelle Huppert - The Piano Teacher
Sol Kyung-gu - Oasis
Gene Hackman - The Royal Tenebaums
Amy Adams - Junebug
Michael Douglas - Wonder Boys
Mark Ruffalo - You Can Count on Me

Something like that...

[Philosophe_rouge]

Ten favourite performances, more or less.

Q'orianka Kilcher, The New World
Penelope Cruz, Volver
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
Gillian Anderson, House of Mirth
Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr. (
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Kirsten Dunst, Marie Antoinette
Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

[Milky Joe]

Ian McShane in Deadwood would easily get my vote for the single greatest performance of the 00s, but I'm assuming television doesn't count (a shame, if you ask me). Anyway, this is hard.

Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Bill Murray - The Life Aquatic
Laura Linney - The Savages
Laura Dern - Inland Empire
Paul Giamatti - American Splendor
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Synecdoche, New York
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Almost Famous
Jeff Daniels - The Squid and the Whale
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor

[Boner M]

Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Moon So-Ri, Oasis
Danny Huston, ixans xtc
Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count On Me
Eric Bana, Chopper
Birol Unel, Head-On
Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive
Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher
Luminita Georghia (sp?), The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Emannuelle Devos, Kings and Queen

If we're including TV, I'd def. put Andre Royo for The Wire in there.

[Watashi]

I smell a consensus coming up.

[transmogrifier]

Off the top of my head:

Moon So-Ri, Oasis
Choi Min-Shik, Oldboy
Viggo Mortensen, LOTR Trilogy
Song Kang-Ho, Memories of Murder
Seol Kyeong-Gu, Public Enemy
Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger
Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jack Black, School of Rock
Hugh Grant, About a Boy
Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love
Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys

[Watashi]

I'm serious. Someone other than myself should start a consensus thread.

[MadMan]

God I'll have to think about this. So many actors/actresses qualify, and yet I know I haven't seen enough to really judge. Plus the fact remains that when it comes to movies I usually value theme, direction, screenplay and cinematography over acting, although that doesn't mean I don't note or notice good or bad performances.

[Boner M]

Quick shotz.

Au Revoir, Les Enfants - Middlebrow and achingly tasteful as I've come to expect from Malle, but this time with a fail-safe story and remarkable child performances to compensate. Final scenes are hard-hitting primarily because of the lack of sentimentality.

Black Water - Surprisingly serviceable for a film that has been largely written off as the 'Aussie croc movie that isn't Rogue'. Strains for a poeticism that isn't there with too many nature-insert-ellipses, and the FX-based scenes cast obvious budget restrictions into sharp relief, but the performances make things work, esp. Maeve Dermody, who I may be singling out for being a mega-crush throughout high school (she got an AFI nod for this, so I'm relieved from suspicion, I guess).

Operation Filmmaker - A pretty fantastic story to begin with, kinda the ultimate unintentional satire of liberal paternalism ever, then it just becomes sorta fascinating in the same way that Overnight (ala, lol Troy Duffy) was. Kinda hard to criticise from a cinematic standpoint, but worth a look.

An Autumn Tale - No reason why this one didn't work for me quite as much as the other Rohmer's I've seen did; might be slightly broader focus on a group rather than one person, maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, I dunno. Still fine, peppered with little "Get out - I'm like that!" moments, nice scenery, etc.

Men's Group - For better or worse, ugly-looking, improv-heavy gab-fests seem to be the vogue in Aussie cinema at the moment, and this is at least a lot better than something like the ludicrously overpraised Boxing Day. Drawbacks of the actor's workshop approach are evident throughout - eg, characters with trump-card personal secrets, and the accompanying belief that 'real people' can only be interesting if they have a history of child abuse or alcoholism, etc - but buttloads of conviction and heartwrenching moments to boot.

[soitgoes...]

Weekend possibilities:

Encounters at the End of the World (Herzog)
La Terra trema (Visconti)
Il Grido (Antonioni)
La Notte (Antonioni)
Where Is Freedom? (Rossellini)
God Told Me To (Cohen)

[Boner M]

A few of these:

Mauvais sang
All About Lily Chou-Chou
Ascent
The Beguiled
They Drive By Night
Imitation of Life
Platform
Gimme Shelter

[Sven]

Danny Huston, ixans xtc

Alright, that's it. I'm getting this. It's so unassuming that I needed to be reminded.

[megladon8]

Weekend possibilities:
God Told Me To (Cohen)


This movie's awesome.

Hope you like it.

In fact, maybe I'll watch it again this weekend.

[Grouchy]

1. Jeon Do-Yeon (Secret Sunshine)
2. Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love / 2046)
3. Choi Min-Sik (Oldboy)
4. Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr.)
5. Daniel-Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
6. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
7. Angela Bettis (May)
8. Billy Bob Thornton (The Man Who Wasn't There)
9. Federico Luppi (The Devil's Backbone)
10. Julianne Moore (Magnolia)

[Bosco B Thug]

Is there a Happy-Go-Lucky thread somewhere? Cuz it's a really good movie and it probably deserves one.
Agreed. Also agreed. This movie was awesome.

Ekes out a fully realized framework study of a very particular response system to dismal education patterns and latent violence (attributed to males, made to create direct tension with our lead female character). It is a bit fastidious in its careful juggling of plot threads, though, and a bit preening in its careful play between its Poppy characterizatons: happy-go-lucky moment here, Poppy-with-gravitas moment there, and an occasional maybe-her-methods-are-kind-of-questionable moment here and there. The pivotal moments where she's confronted with aggressivity she might not be able to get off scotch free from (two main ones being the boy and the bum) do let her off a bit too easy, I felt, but I guess it's one reason the climactic scene with Scott is so effective.


Alright, that's it. I'm getting this. It's so unassuming that I needed to be reminded. This is never gonna get a widely available DVD release. Neither is Rose's Paperhouse apparently. Why can't the guy get his films distributed properly?

The Double Life of Veronique was stunningly crafted and meltingly sensual and all, but well, its bare, abstract premise, which it fully and admirably commits to, just doesn't satisfy me personally. Lots to say about metaphysics (and cinema) and all, I'm sure, but I personally struggled over the question "What did I learn from this film?" once it ended.

[Ezee E]

Weekend:
Encounters at the End of the World
Citizen Ruth
Quai des Orfevres

O'Horten
Surveillance
Donkey Punch
Three Monkeys

Oh, and Boiler Room now steals the worst Goodfellas approach from Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow. Way to go!

[Melville]

I'm serious. Someone other than myself should start a consensus thread.
Didn't Boner say that he was going to have a countdown of his favorite performances?

1. Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr.
2. Daniel-Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood/Gangs of New York
3. Tony Leung, In the Mood for Love/2046
4. Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
5. Laura Dern, Inland Empire
6. Q'orianka Kilcher, The New World
7. Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
9. Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher
10. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator

[Yxklyx]

Weekend:
Encounters at the End of the World
Citizen Ruth
Quai des Orfevres

Awesome lineup!

Weekend:
Paranoid Park
Sicko
My Kid Could Paint That

maybe: Let the Right One In or Rachel Getting Married

[Sven]

Oh, and Boiler Room now steals the worst Goodfellas approach from Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow. Way to go!

Boiler Room, one of the more stupidly entertaining movies I've seen >>>>>>> Better Luck Tomorrow, one of the more just plain stupid movies I've seen

[Raiders]

I'm serious. Someone other than myself should start a consensus thread.

And we can put the results on the new site I created!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Boiler Room, one of the more stupidly entertaining movies I've seen >>>>>>> Better Luck Tomorrow, one of the more just plain stupid movies I've seen

Really? Someone else hates Better Luck Tomorrow too? Man, when I first came back with a negative review after seeing it (pretty sure this was still RT days), I was ripped by several posters, and I don't remember a sole agreeing with me.

[MadMan]

Weekend:

*Phantom of the Opera(1925)
*Rebecca(1940)

[Wryan]

Really? Someone else hates Better Luck Tomorrow too? Man, when I first came back with a negative review after seeing it (pretty sure this was still RT days), I was ripped by several posters, and I don't remember a sole agreeing with me.

I felt underwhelmed after the film. I loved Brick though. They're connected only obliquely, I realize. But it made me think of how much I liked Brick.

[Ezee E]

Really? Someone else hates Better Luck Tomorrow too? Man, when I first came back with a negative review after seeing it (pretty sure this was still RT days), I was ripped by several posters, and I don't remember a sole agreeing with me.
Yes, but that was also RT.

[Spinal]

This weekend, I have in my possession the penguin documentary from that German guy and the Bin Laden documentary from that burger eatin' guy. I also really want to see the vampire movie from those Swedish guys.

[Wryan]

This weekend, I have in my possession the penguin documentary from that German guy and the Bin Laden documentary from that burger eatin' guy. I also really want to see the vampire movie from those Swedish guys.

"You really wanna save those crazy Swedes, huh, Doc?"
"Norweigians, Mac!"

[Watashi]

Weekend:

Bolt
Man on Wire
Eight Men Out
Men With Guns
Passion Fish

As you can see, after Scorsese, I'm moving on to finishing Sayles filmography.

[Yxklyx]

...
As you can see, after Scorsese, I'm moving on to finishing Sayles filmography.

But Scorsese comes after Sayles - are you going in reverse alphabetical then?

[Watashi]

But Scorsese comes after Sayles - are you going in reverse alphabetical then?
I'm not doing any order.

I just put 50 directors names in a hat and pulled one out. No joke.

[Wryan]

I'm not doing any order.

I just put 50 directors names in a hat and pulled one out. No joke.

American directors only?

Fellini. Just do him now. :)

[Watashi]

American directors only?

Fellini. Just do him now. :)

Here is the list:

1. Oliver Stone
2. Woody Allen
3. Akira Kurosawa
4. Ingmar Bergman
5. Walter Hill
6. Peter Greenaway
7. Bela Tarr
8. Robert Wise
9. Sam Fuller
10. Mike Leigh
11. Andrei Tarkovsky
12. Nicholas Ray
13. John Cassavetes
14. Jacques Tati
15. Tony Scott
16. Michaelangelo Antonioni
17. Anthony Mann
18. Robert Altman
19. Brian De Palma
20. Paul Verhoeven
21. Dario Argento
22. Vincente Minnelli
23. Eric Rohmer
24. Michael Powell
25. John Boorman
26. Peter Weir
27. Henri-Georges Clouzot
28. Jean-Pierre Melville
29. Kenji Mizoguchi
30. William Wyler
31. Jules Dassin
32. Alejandro Jodorowsky
33. Jean-Luc Godard
34. John Ford
35. John Huston
36. Joe Dante
37. Fritz Lang
38. Spike Lee
39. Werner Herzog
40. Sidney Lumet
41. Howard Hawks
42. Robert Bresson
43. Luis Bunuel
44. Elia Kazan
45. Billy Wilder
46. Yasujiro Ozu
47. David Cronenberg
48. Jean Renoir
49. Sam Peckinpah
50. Federico Fellini
51. Milos Forman
52. David Lean
53. Francois Truffaut
54. Orson Welles
55. Roman Polanski
56. Frank Capra
57. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
58. John Sayles

[Ezee E]

I wonder how many times Wats picked up Tarkovsky, and then proceeded to pick someone else instead.

[Wryan]

It's a good list. I'm excited for you. If you're looking for others that would entertain such company, how about Curtiz and Hitch, Egoya and Almodovar?

[Wryan]

I wonder how many times Wats picked up Tarkovsky, and then proceeded to pick someone else instead.

I think he was third of fourth when I did something similar (first was Fellini). Tark is, uh, fun, dat's fo sho.

[Wryan]

Also, how bout a woman: Lina Wertmuller.

Also: Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica.

Also: John Schlesinger.

I'm not doing this as a subtle criticism of the list, I hope you understand. Just want your net to be as big as possible.

EDIT: OOOH! And Stanley fucking Donen!

[Yxklyx]

The no touching and kissing thing in Japanese films of the 30s,40s, and 50s. Is that a real reflection of Japanese culture or is it like that only in films?

[soitgoes...]

Finishing Sayles's filmography and finishing Ford's are two different beasts entirely. Good luck with that.
I don't think I've ever finished all of any one person's films, well at least those who've made more than say 10 films. I always like to leave something to come back to, I suppose.

[Boner M]

Didn't Boner say that he was going to have a countdown of his favorite performances?
Yeah. I typed out a few, realised they were pretty ordinary choices, and that I didn't have much to say about them, so I aborted.

I may revisit it over the next few months, though. Maybe narrow it down to a certain era or something. Or do an altogether different countdown. Or get back to my great album series. Who knows what the future holds for Boner M!!! :eek:

[Watashi]

Finishing Sayles's filmography and finishing Ford's are two different beasts entirely. Good luck with that.
I don't think I've ever finished all of any one person's films, well at least those who've made more than say 10 films. I always like to leave something to come back to, I suppose.
Well, I won't get into ALL their films, just the essential ones and maybe their underseen ones.

I think I've only seen two John Ford films and that's pretty embarrassing.

[soitgoes...]

The no touching and kissing thing in Japanese films of the 30s,40s, and 50s. Is that a real reflection of Japanese culture or is it like that only in films?
Well yes and no. There is kissing and touching in Japanese society, but generally it is relegated to showing extreme emotion. The US occupation forces after WWII encouraged Japanese filmmakers to have kissing on the screen, because it was deemed that a more liberal or democratic society would have that, thus the increase through the fifties.

[D_Davis]

US occupation forces were also responsible for destroying a vast number of Japanese films deemed "too Japanese" or nationalistic.

There is some good stuff on this in a book called Currents in Japanese Cinema

http://www.amazon.com/Currents-Japanese-Cinema-Tadao-Sato/dp/0870118153

This is a great book for a detailed look at early Japanese cinema. It was written in 1987, and so more modern films are not covered.

[Qrazy]

Also, how bout a woman: Lina Wertmuller.

Also: Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica.

Also: John Schlesinger.

I'm not doing this as a subtle criticism of the list, I hope you understand. Just want your net to be as big as possible.

EDIT: OOOH! And Stanley fucking Donen!

It seems to me like it would be quite an arduous task finishing some of those director's filmographies.

[Watashi]

Legend.... lol.

Not as good as I remember it.

[Duncan]

The Japanese sure made up for the lack of sexuality in their earlier films in the sixties and seventies. Naked people all over the place.

[MadMan]

Yes, but that was also RT.Yes, because everyone on RT thinks that way. Absolutely.

Maybe over Thanksgiving I'll actually get to posting some of the reviews I've written. My problem is that I've seen too many movies recently.

And I'm watching Phantom of the Opera right now. Good stuff. Great to see that Ray Bradbury is the guest programmer, seeing as he's one of my all time favorite writers. A literary giant indeed.

[transmogrifier]

Weekend Viewings:

A Fishing Rod
The Boat
The Wide Open Sea
Soft Bait
Several Fish in a Bucket
The Bottom of a Beer Bottle

[Grouchy]

I wonder how many times Wats picked up Tarkovsky, and then proceeded to pick someone else instead.
I'd do the same.

[Qrazy]

The Japanese sure made up for the lack of sexuality in their earlier films in the sixties and seventies. Naked people all over the place.

Let's not get started on the 90's what with the tentacles and the feces.

[megladon8]

Called into the radio this morning.

They were talking about some article that said if you exclude Christmas songs (like "Silent Night" and the like) the song most played in movies is "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves.

They were joking saying that, looking at the list of movies, they were all crap, and if anyone knew a good movie with that song they should call in.

So I called in and told them it was played in a hilarious scene in American Psycho, which led to us discussing the movie for a good five minutes :)

I said that I will never hear "Sussudio" the same way again.

It was grand.

[MadMan]

Because of American Psycho I decided to give Phil Collins and Genesis 80s stuff another try. So far I like quite a bit of what I've heard, at least more than I did the first time around. All I know is that thanks to that movie I will never hear Its Hip to Be Square the same way again.

[Ezee E]

Because of American Psycho I decided to give Phil Collins and Genesis 80s stuff another try. So far I like quite a bit of what I've heard, at least more than I did the first time around. All I know is that thanks to that movie I will never hear Its Hip to Be Square the same way again.
But would you have it any other way?

[MadMan]

But would you have it any other way?Hah, nope. The avatar I got made from The part where he's holding the ax before he goes in and kills Jared Leto is one of my favorites. I would up load it if I hadn't used it a million times.

[Ezee E]

Hah, nope. The avatar I got made from The part where he's holding the ax before he goes in and kills Jared Leto is one of my favorites. I would up load it if I hadn't used it a million times.
Funniest scene in the movie is when he analyzes a song and tells his escorts to undress/make out/move the ass at the same time. Then proceed to run around in his apartment complex with just socks and a chainsaw.

[MadMan]

Funniest scene in the movie is when he analyzes a song and tells his escorts to undress/make out/move the ass at the same time. Then proceed to run around in his apartment complex with just socks and a chainsaw.That entire scene is creepy, freaky, funny and just plain awesome. I think its one of the best blind buy purchases I ever made-and I got it pretty cheap, too. The DVD copy I have (I think its the only DVD copy maybe) has some cool extras on it.

[Ezee E]

That entire scene is creepy, freaky, funny and just plain awesome. I think its one of the best blind buy purchases I ever made-and I got it pretty cheap, too. The DVD copy I have (I think its the only DVD copy maybe) has some cool extras on it.
It's a movie that I was a little discouraged when I first saw it, because something felt off. Then I watched it again, and laughed a whole lot more, then again, and laughed even more. It continues each time. One of the best dark comedies period. One of my favorites.

Them takes the same approach as The Strangers and has similar flaws. A final act that is pretty weak, but at least with this one we didn't know what happened. However, what I liked about The Strangers more was that ig felt a lot more creepy, whereas Them seemed to be a lot more chasing.

[The Mike]

Called into the radio this morning.

They were talking about some article that said if you exclude Christmas songs (like "Silent Night" and the like) the song most played in movies is "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves.

They were joking saying that, looking at the list of movies, they were all crap, and if anyone knew a good movie with that song they should call in.

So I called in and told them it was played in a hilarious scene in American Psycho, which led to us discussing the movie for a good five minutes :)

I said that I will never hear "Sussudio" the same way again.

It was grand.

That's ridiculous. High Fidelity rules, and the song is used perfectly in it. The station fails.

[soitgoes...]

Men with Guns is better than anything in Scorsese's filmography. Discuss.

[Watashi]

Men with Guns is better than anything in Scorsese's filmography. Discuss.
Did you just see it? I have it in my possession as I type this.

[soitgoes...]

Did you just see it? I have it in my possession as I type this.No, I saw it a couple years ago. Just saying because of recent the discussion. An amazing film. Sayles was on quite a run with this, Limbo and Lone Star.

[soitgoes...]

Le Notti bianche and Il Grido has two of the great Italian directors releasing films the same year, 1957. Visconti's and Antonioni's films couldn't be further apart in look and feel, but both find their way near the top of one of the strongest years cinema has to offer.

Visconti's film, Le Notti bianche, is a departure from anything he had done up to that point, and as far as I can tell it was very much a singular moment in his career. He paints a film that is almost lyrical, dreamlike in quality. Set in Venice, but filmed in the CinecittÃ* Studios in Rome, Visconti's Venice is filmed with long sweeping shots. His streets stay mostly empty, with the exception of the main players, led by a shy, awkward Marcello Mastroianni. He plays the third wheel in a love triangle of sorts. A triangle that sets up the film's strongest moment, the beautiful final 10 minutes.

Antonioni's film, set in the Po Valley, is bleak and almost dirty, hearkening back to Italian neo-realism. A gray mist hangs over most of the film, as the main character Aldo, played by American Steve Cochran, tries to sort his way through life. With daughter in tow, Aldo bounces from one town to the next trying to find compensation for the love he lost in Irma, who had dropped him for another man. Antonioni has some great shots of introspection, the types of which he would later apply in L'Avventura 3 years later. His only weakness would be a somewhat of a cop-out ending. He seems to know how he wants the film to end, but doesn't really know how to get there. It's still a great film.

Really I had no idea that two dissimilar films would play so strongly with me. Both are highly recommended. Also of note, both films feature fabulous scores. Visconti's film is scored by the great Nico Rota, and Antonioni's film by his personal composer Giovanni Fusco. Fusco's score might very well be the best part of the film. Sublime.

[Ezee E]

I really want to see Men With Guns. Is it on Netflix now?

[Scar]

Legend.... lol.

Not as good as I remember it.

Regular version or superior Director's Cut?

[Ezee E]

The Prince of Darkness character is awesome enough to make the movie worth seeing.

[Scar]

The Prince of Darkness character is awesome enough to make the movie worth seeing.

This.

[Boner M]

Mauvais sang - Fucking awesome. Anything this ambitious and exuberant is bound to be veer toward preciousness (which it does), but Carax's visual sensibility and mastery of Godard-ian shifts between noir conventions and emotional digressions are so expressive of the characters' psyches that it's hard not to be swept away. The scene where Lavant runs down the street doing spasmodic acrobatics along to Bowie's "Modern Love" is a perfect encapsulation of the film's impulsive, ecstatic energy. Fans of Wong's Fallen Angels owes themselves to check this one out immediately.

[dreamdead]

Mauvais sang - Fans of Wong's Fallen Angels owes themselves to check this one out immediately.

Nooo! Netflix doesn't stock it presently, and Amazon has no copies cheaper than $33... :sad:

[Wryan]

"Walkin on Sunshine" was used spectacularly in High Fidelity, too.

And Q, Wats said he just wanted to get as many as he reasonably could, so I would include those if I were him. Lots of good stuff.

[Boner M]

Nooo! Netflix doesn't it stock it presently, and Amazon has no copies cheaper than $33... :sad:
I got it as part of a 3-disc Carax set from Amazon UK when there was a mega-sale earlier this year. Boy Meets Girl is very good too, though I haven't seen Pola X and have heard wildly divergent opinions on it, so I guess I can't vouch for buying the whole set.

Carax's Lovers on the Bridge (the only of his four features not included on the set) is very much in the same vein and is said by many to be his masterpiece, so you'd be just as well off to check out that one instead if you can. I liked Mauvais sang slightly more, though I think I might feel differently now that I'm more acquainted with Carax's unique style.

[Yxklyx]

I liked Mauvais sang more as well. Haven't seen it in a while. Looking back now I think it reminds me most of some of Fassbinder's films.

[Grouchy]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jXV1w0LaL._SS500_.jpg

Worst DVD cover EVAH!

[Wryan]

The curving bullet. The Jolie hair that doesn't really represent how her hair was in the movie. The extreme blur except on the actors' faces. The 2-disc special edition.

Glorious.

[Sycophant]

That's one of the stupidest, ugliest DVD covers I've ever seen. Jesus.

[Kurosawa Fan]

That's one of the stupidest, ugliest DVD covers I've ever seen. Jesus.

Fits the movie quite well, I'd say.

[Sycophant]

Fits the movie quite well, I'd say.
True.

[Watashi]

/Film: What’s the movie that you’ve seen the most, do you think, in your lifetime?

Robert Pattinson: I go through periods where I just watch the same thing again and again and again. I’ve been watching this movie called Ivansxtc. It’s a Danny Huston movie. I watched it like 50 times this year.

/Film: Why were you so attracted to that film?

Robert Pattinson: If you watched it, you’d understand. It starts off kind of stupid, but it ends up being Danny Huston. It’s kind of transcendent. He lifts the whole movie. It’s like when you just see an actor and they’ve got the part of their career, and the scene and they’re not messing up. It’s an amazing, amazing movie. I don’t even think you can buy it in America.

Robert Pattinson is the lead star in Twilight btw.

[Watashi]

Worst DVD cover EVAH!

http://images.movieeye.com/store/images/robinson-crusoe.jpg

It still has yet to be topped.

[Ezee E]

http://images.movieeye.com/store/images/robinson-crusoe.jpg

It still has yet to be topped.
Sometimes I like it when the image doesn't instantly load on your computer, as it builds some strange type of suspense.

It was perfect in this case. I laughed out loud at work in my office. That can't be good for business.

[thefourthwall]

Argento's Deep Red is one of the scariest films I've ever seen (but I'm no expert). The angles of both the architecture and the camera were visually stunning. I'd love to live in the beautiful Art Nouveau house, dead bodies or not. What I found most unique about the film (other than the ridiculous half dubbing, no subtitles print that seems to be the best available to English speakers) is how the camera is simultaneously subjective and objective. Much like the modernist literary notion of free indirect discourse that wavers between 3rd and 1st person narration, Argento's camera here is used both in a jarring hand held manner and to signify the killer's p.o.v. Often it is impossible to determine which though, making for deliciously scary scenes.

Despite what dreamdead tells me, I'm cautiously excited for The Stendhal Syndrome.

[SirNewt]

Sometimes I like it when the image doesn't instantly load on your computer, as it builds some strange type of suspense.

It was perfect in this case. I laughed out loud at work in my office. That can't be good for business.

Yeah, I couldn't stop for a while and am getting some pretty weird stares at school.

[Qrazy]

"Walkin on Sunshine" was used spectacularly in High Fidelity, too.

And Q, Wats said he just wanted to get as many as he reasonably could, so I would include those if I were him. Lots of good stuff.

Yeah true and now that he stated more clearly that he was just going to watch the major films and some underseen gems from those directors your suggestions are reasonable. I didn't only mean your suggestions either I meant the whole list. Watching everything Ford has made and even everything De Sica and others have made seems arduous to me. I've loved two De Sica's (Umberto D, The Bicycle Thief), really liked two others (Shoeshine, Miracle in Milan (except the last act)), mildly enjoyed The Children are Watching Us and disliked Two Women, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and Terminal Station. I'll probably watch Sunflower and Marriage Italian Style at some point but if the three I disliked are any indication of the quality of the rest of his filmography I don't think I could go through it all.

[Raiders]

Weekend:

American Pop
Bolt
Ballast

[Derek]

The Strangers (Bryan Bertino, 2008)

The Strangers strips down the home invasion film to its essence, feeding us only a few crumbs of a backstory and concerning itself with the sole task of making every square inch of screen space feel unsafe. On the one hand, this limits the film to the confines of a cinematic game of hide-and-seek, a genre exercise that may appear like a warm-up for a more fully developed film, but on the other hand, these very same limitations allow for a careful attention to its formal elements as it's unimpeded by "burdens" like plot or character arc. Divorced from a any sense of realism, Bertino and cinematographer Peter Sova choreograph scene after scene of this self-contained cat-and-mouse game in a way that forces every ounce of security to seep out of their environment, leaving us increasingly disoriented the more time we spend within it. The film often bucks genre expectations, blue-balling the audience through its refusal to provide closure. It instead allows a sense of uneasy randomness to pervade the entire film, lending a sense of inevitability and despair to the admittedly awkward though strangely affecting finale.

[Sven]

American Pop

You'd better make good on this or I will cut you.

[Raiders]

You'd better make good on this or I will cut you.

It's sitting on the table right in front of me. Might even watch it tonight.

[Raiders]

Hmmmm... I'm going to have to sit on this one, Sven-sos. I'm pretty mixed right now, but rest assured I certainly enjoyed it far more than I expected.

[Yxklyx]

No thread for My Kid Could Paint That?

How can they still be getting away with it? In one of the early paintings there are some long sweeping thin strokes. From what I've seen from the videos of Marla actually painting I can't see how it'd be possible for her to have made those strokes. They require more dexterity and a longer reach than what she has. All of the paintings they showed her painting look nothing like the really good paintings I saw in the film.

[Sven]

Hmmmm... I'm going to have to sit on this one, Sven-sos. I'm pretty mixed right now, but rest assured I certainly enjoyed it far more than I expected.

I'm very curious. This is a top twenty for me. I'm definitely going to tackle a full review in the not-too-distant-future.

[Watashi]

Bolt: Extremely formulaic, but fun and full of easy Powerful Dog moments. I'll probably check it out in 3D later.

Nowhere near the awesomeness of Kung Fu Panda, which still remains awesome on a second viewing.

[Amnesiac]

Has anyone here watched any Andrey Zvyagintsev films? Worth a look?

[Yxklyx]

Has anyone here watched any Andrey Zvyagintsev films? Worth a look?

Yes, The Return is pretty good. Tension drawn out well throughout the film.

[Boner M]

Has anyone here watched any Andrey Zvyagintsev films? Worth a look?
I've only seen The Banishment and while it didn't altogether work for me, it had formal mastery in spades and I'm now keen to check out The Return.

[dreamdead]

Cheh Chang's Have Sword, Will Travel is a pretty significant downgrade from the wonderful Five Venoms. This is largely because the first hour is consumed with a staid relationship and meaningful glances between Piau Piau and Mr. Lo, yet the whole affair is played out like Piau Piau's never seen a man before. She is engaged to Siang at the beginning and it's suggested that this is a relationship she's long desired, and the first second she sees Mr. Lo she becomes a panting preteen, long in the throes of infatuation. It's embarrassing to wade through, but the second hour is rife with fantastic visions of battle and fantasy fears of human dread (Lo's fears of death are powerfully realized). So a mediocre first hour saved by an equally masterful second hour.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening is, as has long been noted, embarrassing for pretty much all involved. Hard to believe that the writing and acting isn't positioned at this level of ridiculousness purposely, but I have my doubts. Badly attuned in terms of telling everything and showing us nothing, with no real visual aesthetic, and with a childish vision of couples interacting and maturing. I remember back when Zooey Deschanel was so damn adorable. Here, it's shrill pretty much constantly. Painful to watch.

David Schwimmer's Run Fatboy Run is diverting enough entertainment. It runs through the expected motions and jokes from laziness to personal growth, and situates itself squarely in the confines in the male who's undergoing arrested development, but Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran have a pleasant chemistry that makes the time pass amusingly.

[Ezee E]

M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening is, as has long been noted, embarrassing for pretty much all involved. Hard to believe that the writing and acting isn't positioned at this level of ridiculousness purposely, but I have my doubts. Badly attuned in terms of telling everything and showing us nothing, with no real visual aesthetic, and with a childish vision of couples interacting and maturing. I remember back when Zooey Deschanel was so damn adorable. Here, it's shrill pretty much constantly. Painful to watch.


Yes. Zooey basically takes her Weeds character and is apparently serious this time around. Even she's pretty horrible in this.

[D_Davis]

Cheh Chang's Have Sword, Will Travel is a pretty significant downgrade from the wonderful Five Venoms. This is largely because the first hour is consumed with a staid relationship and meaningful glances between Piau Piau and Mr. Lo, yet the whole affair is played out like Piau Piau's never seen a man before. She is engaged to Siang at the beginning and it's suggested that this is a relationship she's long desired, and the first second she sees Mr. Lo she becomes a panting preteen, long in the throes of infatuation. It's embarrassing to wade through, but the second hour is rife with fantastic visions of battle and fantasy fears of human dread (Lo's fears of death are powerfully realized). So a mediocre first hour saved by an equally masterful second hour.


I disagree about the first hour.

One thing to consider is that when HSWT was made, martial arts films were quite different. This being from Chang's first period when his films had more in common with the various forms of Chinese opera than they did with what we westerners are more familiar with from the genre. As an example of that kind of film - which the first hour is - it is extraordinary. I wouldn't have been surprised to find some musical numbers it. It may feel embarrassing, but this is only because the style of drama is so foreign to an outsider. Also note the large amounts of make up the male actors are wearing, a trait emulating the stage productions of Chinese opera. I found the first hour to be lovely, and it is beautifully shot.

And Chang's genius being what it was, he was able to combine the new - the final portion at the famous Shaw Brothers pagoda - with the conventions of the old thus making a film that bridged the gaps. It is one of his better first period films, and both the leads, David Chiang and Ti Lung, are in top form.

This is easily top 10 Chang.

[dreamdead]

I disagree about the first hour.

One thing to consider is that when HSWT was made, martial arts films were quite different. This being from Chang's first period when his films had more in common with the various forms of Chinese opera than they did with what we westerners are more familiar with from the genre. As an example of that kind of film - which the first hour is - it is extraordinary. I wouldn't have been surprised to find some musical numbers it. It may feel embarrassing, but this is only because the style of drama is so foreign to an outsider. Also note the large amounts of make up the male actors are wearing, a trait emulating the stage productions of Chinese opera. I found the first hour to be lovely, and it is beautifully shot.


I don't dispute the operatic touches going on here. It's a rather melodramatic film and that by itself isn't the problem. Rather, the issue is that Piau Piau acts like a wide-eyed preteen who goes gaga over any man, regardless of her commitment to Siang, and she seems to have little internal conflict over her emotions. As such, we see and emphasize with Siang's sense of betrayal too much, rather than feeling that he is simply being too stern. Now this may be a sense of a Westernized perspective, and perhaps Piau Piau's characterization is normal for a Chinese audience, but to me she demonstrates a willingness to gloss over and sublimate her commitment to Siang far too easily, which in turn makes me doubt her ability to remain faithful. Basically, the portrayal of the feminine here is worrisome to me. I'll try one of Cheh's other female-centered films to make sure it's not just this one, though. Suggestions on what could work on that front.

Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century was watched largely for Carole Lombard, and she's dazzling again physically, but the whole focus on preening and granduerizing characters in screwball comedies gets old quickly. Whereas in something like Only Angels Have Wings Hawks is able to balance between male bravado and feminine sensbilities, here the former is so dominant and heavy-handed that the whole affair fades into inconsequentiality before the film's done.

[D_Davis]

I see where are coming from now, sorry for the misunderstanding.

:)

Volumes have been written on Chang's portrayal of female characters - and there is not a lot to be said that is good, or progressive. He was very concerned with masculinizing the genre - the wuxia pian was largely seen as a "feminine" genre, where as the kung fu pian is the "masculine." He was also (most likely) a homosexual and idolized the pure masculinity of his male stars at the risk of demonizing the females.

Unfortunately, most of these works about Chang are only in Chinese, and thus I have only been able to catch a peripheral glimpse into his life. He loved dudes, and often times the women in his films are not given a fair shake - this is true. It is one of the main criticisms people throw at him.

One of the first big action stars in Chinese action cinema was a woman - Cheng Pei Pei - and Shaw Brothers main producer was also a woman - Mona Fong. I wonder if Chang resented this?

I don't know.

When Chang Cheh moved into his second phase, he and Mona Fong agreed that it was time to leave the feminine aspect of the wuxia pian behind and move into the more open-handed, non-weapon-based action of the kung fu pian.

So unfortunately, if you are looking for strong female characters I am afraid that Chang Cheh will leave you wanting. However, that is not to say he never did this. You may find something of more value in:

Golden Swallow
Flying Dagger

You may also want to check out Ho Meng Hua's The Lady Hermiy, or King Hu's Come Drink With Me, and of course there is Tsui Hark, one of the most progressive directors in terms of gender roles. Many of his films contain strong, smart, and noble female characters.

[Sven]

EVERYONE GO NOMINATE YOUR FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOW THEMES FOR THE GREAT TELEVISION THEME BATTLE IN THE TV FORUM!!!!

[Watashi]

We have a TV forum?

[Bosco B Thug]

Sleepaway Camp is... about the same quality as I remember it. For a movie so adamantly campy and low-rent, it's got a good, somewhat intricate sense of storytelling rhythm and character construction. It's a talky slasher film with things on its mind. Still, sexually avaricious pre-teens (and so soon after Let the Ring One In) is gah (watched it in a class; laughter throughout, of course).

[Melville]

Yeah. I typed out a few, realised they were pretty ordinary choices, and that I didn't have much to say about them, so I aborted.
That's too bad. Acting doesn't get much attention around here (I certainly never have much to say about it), so it would have been cool to see someone focus on it for once.

[Mal]

Sleepaway Camp is... about the same quality as I remember it. For a movie so adamantly campy and low-rent, it's got a good, somewhat intricate sense of storytelling rhythm and character construction. It's a talky slasher film with things on its mind. Still, sexually avaricious pre-teens (and so soon after Let the Ring One In) is gah (watched it in a class; laughter throughout, of course).

Love it. So delightfully awful.

[Sycophant]

delightfully awful.Two words I'll never understand when put together.

[Sven]

Two words I'll never understand when put together.

Not all amusement must come from successfully executed intentions or irony.

[Sycophant]

Not all amusement must come from successfully executed intentions or irony.

I guess at this point, I'm required to acknowledge that I'm the one who just doesn't get it.

[Winston*]

I like laughing at things. Brings me pleasure.

[Raiders]

Bolt may very well be the funniest animated film I have ever seen. Formulaic, predictable, same jokes repeated... yada yada yada... it's just frakkin' funny.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Watching Con Air. Two thoughts occur to me:

1) It's still pretty fun.

2) This concept really should've been done by John Carpenter or Larry Cohen back in the early 80's. The concept has too much going for it to get saddled with a director-for-hire like Simon West. He does a commendable job, but there's a lot more that could be extracted from the premise. Tension between the inmates, a less immediately sympathetic hero, and fewer scenes with DEA and FBI agents arguing with each other.

[Derek]

I guess at this point, I'm required to acknowledge that I'm the one who just doesn't get it.

Have you seen Samurai Cop? If not, rent it, watch it and understand the words "delightfully" and "awful" can go together.

[Ivan Drago]

Bolt may very well be the funniest animated film I have ever seen. Formulaic, predictable, same jokes repeated... yada yada yada... it's just frakkin' funny.

It does look hysterical.

"I eat danger for breakFAST!!!"
"Are you hungry?"
"STARVING!"

[Sven]

So Derek... why the low blow for 'zog?

[Derek]

So Derek... why the low blow for 'zog?

Not a low blow at all. You just don't pay attention. 60=***=pro(-)=good but minor Herzog. I agree with you that the part with the penguin wandering off towards the mountain was the highlight. Otherwise, the interviewees were interesting, but it often felt more grounded and traditional than the other Herzog docs I prefer.

[Sven]

60=***=pro(-)=good but minor

Stop destroying my mind.

But... I can side with your reaction, as it is largely my own and I imagine my Herzog fanboyishness has me placing emphasis on the film's strong moments, as well as its overall relevance to his career as a whole, which, admittedly, every film he makes seems like an encapsulation, summation, or representation of so much of his past work (mostly because he's done so damn much).

Still, very good, very beautiful, very entertaining, though Wild Blue Yonder bests it in every way but the penguin.

[Derek]

Stop destroying my mind.

Stop not understanding simple things I've already explained.


But... I can side with your reaction, as it is largely my own and I imagine my Herzog fanboyishness has me placing emphasis on the film's strong moments, as well as its overall relevance to his career as a whole, which, admittedly, every film he makes seems like an encapsulation, summation, or representation of so much of his past work (mostly because he's done so damn much).

Still, very good, very beautiful, very entertaining, though Wild Blue Yonder bests it in every way but the penguin.

I just wish more focus was on the more surreal, admittedly gorgeous shots of the landscape and underwater footage. I guess I wanted an Antarctic Lessons of Darkness...but you can't blame me, because you know that'd be awesome.

[Sven]

Stop not understanding simple things I've already explained.

I have an admission to make: I never pay attention to discussions of individual movie rating systems on this board anymore. I apologize for this useless line of discussion.


I just wish more focus was on the more surreal, admittedly gorgeous shots of the landscape and underwater footage. I guess I wanted an Antarctic Lessons of Darkness...but you can't blame me, because you know that'd be awesome.

Have you seen Wild Blue Yonder? You will get what you want with that beautiful, beautiful film.

[Derek]

I have an admission to make: I never pay attention to discussions of individual movie rating systems on this board anymore. I apologize for this useless line of discussion.

Then the 50+ ratings I've made so far should've given you a hint that a 60 is not bad, but yes, let's move on please.


Have you seen Wild Blue Yonder? You will get what you want with that beautiful, beautiful film.

I have and I'm not sure why I didn't like it more than I did. Dourif brought the crazy, but I grew tired of his shtick despite the otherwise great underwater footage. It's definitely one that needs another look, along with a handful of other Herzogs that I expect to appreciate more after a second viewing.

EDIT: But more importantly, did you catch my thoughts on the Kitano film? I'll be really interested to see what you think of it. It's the first of his films I could fully embrace, so I might be starting to come around on him. :)

[chrisnu]

Robert Pattinson is the lead star in Twilight btw.
The thing is, Ivansxtc is a really good movie. Watching it fifty times... may be some sign of instability.

[eternity]

The thing is, Ivansxtc is a really good movie. Watching it fifty times... may be some sign of instability.

He's pretty damn good in Twilight, mostly because he plays his completely different than the book or the script would want him to. He's completely instable, and you can see it in his face and in the way he talks. It's really quite fantastic.

[Watashi]

Bolt may very well be the funniest animated film I have ever seen. Formulaic, predictable, same jokes repeated... yada yada yada... it's just frakkin' funny.

Hmmm... really? What did you find so funny? I felt Rhino's shtick grew thin by the end of the movie.

Kung Fu Panda is much funnier.

[transmogrifier]

Now, now, we all know The Emperor's New Groove is the funniest animated movie.

Right?

[EyesWideOpen]

Kung Fu Panda was one of the most boring animated films i've seen in a while.

[Sven]

EDIT: But more importantly, did you catch my thoughts on the Kitano film? I'll be really interested to see what you think of it. It's the first of his films I could fully embrace, so I might be starting to come around on him. :)

Yes, I did, and you've restored my excitement for it. I thought you were really big on Fireworks, no?

[Derek]

Yes, I did, and you've restored my excitement for it. I thought you were really big on Fireworks, no?

Nope, that's my least favorite of the four I've seen by him and obviously due for another look.

[megladon8]

I've not been much of a fan of Kitano's work so far, though I'd like to revisit the ones I've seen.

Zatoichi was fun and humorous, but nothing extraordinary.

Violent Cop was a pretty good little crime thriller, but again, nothing special.

Sonatine I found quite boring and just didn't connect with it on any level other than thinking it was pretty to look at.

[Raiders]

Hmmm... really? What did you find so funny? I felt Rhino's shtick grew thin by the end of the movie.

I think it's just the way the whole thing is executed. Like I said, it's all fairly redundant and predictable and I would be surprised if many other people, here especially, like it as much as I did. But, Walton's vocal work for Rhino is just superb, and the comic moments in the film are handled very well, less mugging than your typical Dreamworks film (especially the little grace notes like Bolt's eye-stare when trapped in the cage and Mittens' blind response). The energy and execution feel more akin to Pixar than modern Disney (likely due to Lasseter's presence throughout this one's production), and I just enjoyed the whole thing immensely, maybe even more so because I knew where it was going and could just enjoy the fun, energetic and deft execution.

Kung Fu Panda is much funnier.

I haven't seen it yet. I'll be renting it soon enough.

[Sycophant]

Now, now, we all know The Emperor's New Groove is the funniest animated movie.

Right?

Yes, we do.


I've not been much of a fan of Kitano's work so far, though I'd like to revisit the ones I've seen.

Zatoichi was fun and humorous, but nothing extraordinary.

Violent Cop was a pretty good little crime thriller, but again, nothing special.

Sonatine I found quite boring and just didn't connect with it on any level other than thinking it was pretty to look at.

When are the 2008 Wrongie award nominations?

[Sycophant]

Yes, I did, and you've restored my excitement for it. Ditto this, by the way, Derek. I was dangerously close to apathy for this release (I don't know why, really), but you got me all anticipatory again.

[Rowland]

Encounters at the End of the World gained more significance and emotional resonance for me in retrospect, when it dawned on me how Herzog was slyly recording a document of musings regarding civilization, humanity, and the passing of torches to new generations before the environmental end of the world that we have brought upon ourselves, at the very location where this shift is picking up the most steam, itself the tip (or end) of our planet. It's still too disjointed and saggy, but a fascinating piece nonetheless.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Now, now, we all know The Emperor's New Groove is the funniest animated movie.

Right?

David Spade is the anti-funny.

[Boner M]

Has anyone seen the The Beguiled? For all its hysteria and overripe symbolism, it's a pretty dynamite Freudian Gothic-melodrama, with a palpably thick atmosphere and sense of claustrophobia. Definitely the most stylish Siegel film I've seen yet... along with Dirty Harry from the same year, and Charley Varrick two years later, they form one hell of a holy trinity.

[Grouchy]

The Toxic Avenger is fucking awesome. It had me laughing like an idiot from the unmistakably '80s opening credits to the final bloodbath. Ridiculous gore, bad acting, great special effects and some really strange shit going on. Why is that guy dressed like a woman? Why the fuck are they smoking on a gym? I will now make it my life-long mission to watch all three sequels and basically any other Troma film I can lay my hands on. The DVD has previews for stuff like Tromeo and Juliet, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD and Surf Nazis Must Die. It's like I've discovered a new world. It's strange, it's ugly, it's cheap, it's everything you can want from cinema!

And speaking of strange stuff, I also rented this little animation film from the late '60s called Mad Monster Party? I'd never heard about it before, but it has voice acting by Boris Karloff as Baron Frankenstein and the largest ensemble of the classic monsters I'd ever seen on the same film - Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and even a special appearance by King Kong! It has the feel of a Halloween TV special, and it's from Rankin/Bass. Also, Harvey Kurtzman worked on the dialogue, which is filled with double-entendres and puns. Some of the jokes are also quite risky and sexual for a kids movie. Overall, while I recommend the film for its entertainment value, great dialogues and neat musical numbers, I can also think of many other ways it could've been improved. For example, and this is coming from a guy who loves musicals, if they'd cut a little on the songs to the benefit of the meandering plot. But, it still worked for me. The ending is very funny and a sly Some like it hot homage.

Finally, I saw the spaguetti western Compañeros by Sergio Corbucci. It has a powerhouse cast, consisting of Franco Nero, Tomás Millián, Fernando Rey and Jack Palance himself in what has to be one of the trippiest villains of the genre - a guy with only one hand who smokes marijuana constantly, has a deadly hawk as his only friend and a starving rat he uses to torture victims. The title song (vamos a matar, compañeros / todos en alto con los sombreros) is another great invention by Ennio Morricone, and during the action scenes, it's fucking rousing to hear those guitars playing in between the gunfire. The plot is the standard for these movies, featuring Nero as the elegant gun merchant Swede and Millián as the scruffy Mexican revolutionary known as El Vasco double-crossing each other for two hours. The script, however, goes a little deeper than most into themes like the use of violence in politics, manipulation of the youth and patriotism. However, I read in the internets that two years before this, Corbucci, Nero and Palance had done another Western called The Mercenary which has the exact same plot! So, I'm interested in seeing that one soon and finding out which one is the best.

[The Mike]

Agreed on both Toxic Avenger and Mad Monster Party. The former is incredibly wonderful, and the latter was a lot of fun but could have been more (especially their version of "The Creature"....WTF was that?).

[D_Davis]

Make sure you watch Toxic Avenger IV: Citizen Toxie. It elevates bad taste to a whole new level. Such an amazing film.

[Grouchy]

Agreed on both Toxic Avenger and Mad Monster Party. The former is incredibly wonderful, and the latter was a lot of fun but could have been more (especially their version of "The Creature"....WTF was that?).
Eh, I enjoyed their twist on the Black Lagoon Creature. I liked all of the monster designs a lot, actually. I'd buy all of the toys.


Make sure you watch Toxic Avenger IV: Citizen Toxie. It elevates bad taste to a whole new level. Such an amazing film.
That I will.

Just finished watching the Criterion DVD for Equinox. This is one of those cases where knowing the background behind a film helps you appreciate it a lot more. Equinox is unapologetically a B-movie, as it has bad acting, worse editing, and a bazillion continuity goofs. However, it's also the student project of Dennis Muren, the guy who went on to create ILM for the special effects in Star Wars OT and basically did the FX of most of the Lucas/Spielberg/Cameron canon. So that means, a lot of fucking awe-inspiring miniature work as early as 1970. The creatures he built for this film are a joy to watch, and they have an instant acceptance in my mind that no CGI can ever attempt to emulate.

The DVD features both the released 1970 Equinox and the original 1967 movie Muren directed. Distributor Jack Harris shot extra footage to get the film into feature lenght. Of course, I can totally understand the logistics behind that choice, but I gotta say, from an uncompromised, modern perspective, the '67 film is much, much better. It starts off more powerful, it wastes less time before the story starts and at the same time develops the characters and the situation better, even the short flashback scenes are a lot cooler and feature a laughing skeleton that's not in the longer cut! It's actually fun and educational to view both (well, I fast-forwarded through the shorter one, only stopping when it got different) and compare how they tell the same story in two ways.

[The Mike]

Eh, I enjoyed their twist on the Black Lagoon Creature. I liked all of the monster designs a lot, actually. I'd buy all of the toys.
I remember liking the rest, and it's been a long time, so maybe I was blinded by immature Creature love at the time. I'll have to give it another play one of these days.

[origami_mustache]

Christmas On Mars had a lot of potential. The visuals are pretty nice and I admired the super low budget production design. Unfortunately a lot of the metaphorical dialogue is a little heavy handed and the acting is poor overall, although Steven Drozd did pretty well as the lead. I think what hurt it the most was the slow pacing of the editing. Instead of cutting to immediate reaction shots or dialogue responses during conversations, there would always be an awkward pause between deliveries which, magnified the amatuerism, and could have been easily fixed by trimming frames from each cut...at 83 minutes though it barely qualified to make feature length run time, so maybe that's why they did it?

[Ezee E]

Encounters at the End of The World - Very disappointing until we finally get to the Herzog touches, such as the people's fascinating stories that work there, and the lone penguin.

O'Horten - there's always those film festival movies that you see that are generally well-liked, no problems, but nothing memorable either. This is one of them, although the final images are pretty good.

Surveillance - Jennifer Lynch's second film after the much-hated (unseen by myself) Boxing Helena. She's on to something here with the boredom of rural cops, mistreatment, and lack of training. Unfortunatly, she gets caught up in film twist after twist, and it gets pretty silly by the end. Bill Pullman had an awkward Q&A after this, but settled in fine eventually.

[Ivan Drago]

Match Cut, your help is needed.

I'm writing a paper for my Film Analysis class about the Crime/Gangster genre, and I have to tell of the progression/advancement of the genre as the years went by. To do this, I have to explain the typical conventions of one crime/gangster film per decade. So for the 30s I have Little Caesar, for the 40s I'm analyzing The Third Man (if it counts as a gangster film), but I'm stuck on the 50s - I don't know of any good gangster films that came out in the 50s off the top of my head.

So the question I'm asking is...could someone recommend me a 50s gangster film? Oh and something that I could easily find because I cancelled my Netflix account a long time ago.

Reward for the recommendation = Rep

[Dead & Messed Up]

Just finished watching the Criterion DVD for Equinox. This is one of those cases where knowing the background behind a film helps you appreciate it a lot more. Equinox is unapologetically a B-movie, as it has bad acting, worse editing, and a bazillion continuity goofs. However, it's also the student project of Dennis Muren, the guy who went on to create ILM for the special effects in Star Wars OT and basically did the FX of most of the Lucas/Spielberg/Cameron canon. So that means, a lot of fucking awe-inspiring miniature work as early as 1970. The creatures he built for this film are a joy to watch, and they have an instant acceptance in my mind that no CGI can ever attempt to emulate.

The DVD features both the released 1970 Equinox and the original 1967 movie Muren directed. Distributor Jack Harris shot extra footage to get the film into feature lenght. Of course, I can totally understand the logistics behind that choice, but I gotta say, from an uncompromised, modern perspective, the '67 film is much, much better. It starts off more powerful, it wastes less time before the story starts and at the same time develops the characters and the situation better, even the short flashback scenes are a lot cooler and feature a laughing skeleton that's not in the longer cut! It's actually fun and educational to view both (well, I fast-forwarded through the shorter one, only stopping when it got different) and compare how they tell the same story in two ways.

I watched this with my father. He thought it sucked, I concurred but added that it was probably intended as a demo reel for Dennis Muren. So saying it sucked didn't mean a whole lot. He agreed, but emphasized the suckage. We reached an accord.

:)

It's clearly an influence on Raimi's dark horror/fantasy The Evil Dead, which also concerned itself with idiot teens who don't know when to leave an ancient book alone.

[Ezee E]

The Killing by Kubrick could work for you Drago.
Touch of Evil could work in some cases depending on what approach you take.

[Derek]

The Big Heat or Gun Crazy could work as well.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Match Cut, your help is needed.

I'm writing a paper for my Film Analysis class about the Crime/Gangster genre, and I have to tell of the progression/advancement of the genre as the years went by. To do this, I have to explain the typical conventions of one crime/gangster film per decade. So for the 30s I have Little Caesar, for the 40s I'm analyzing The Third Man (if it counts as a gangster film), but I'm stuck on the 50s - I don't know of any good gangster films that came out in the 50s off the top of my head.

So the question I'm asking is...could someone recommend me a 50s gangster film? Oh and something that I could easily find because I cancelled my Netflix account a long time ago.

Reward for the recommendation = Rep
The first that came to mind were two comedies, Some Like it Hot and The Ladykillers. But I doubt that's what you're looking for. I'll second The Big Heat, add in On the Waterfront

[Winston*]

You could use Rififi 'cos then you'd be going US-UK-France. You'd be globe hopping, that'd be pretty sweet.

[soitgoes...]

Match Cut, your help is needed.

I'm writing a paper for my Film Analysis class about the Crime/Gangster genre, and I have to tell of the progression/advancement of the genre as the years went by. To do this, I have to explain the typical conventions of one crime/gangster film per decade. So for the 30s I have Little Caesar, for the 40s I'm analyzing The Third Man (if it counts as a gangster film), but I'm stuck on the 50s - I don't know of any good gangster films that came out in the 50s off the top of my head.

So the question I'm asking is...could someone recommend me a 50s gangster film? Oh and something that I could easily find because I cancelled my Netflix account a long time ago.

Reward for the recommendation = Rep

For the forties consider High Sierra or White Heat. I think they cover the "gangster" aspect better than The Third Man. For the fifties I will echo Rififi and On the Waterfront.

[Grouchy]

For the forties consider High Sierra or White Heat. I think they cover the "gangster" aspect better than The Third Man. For the fifties I will echo Rififi and On the Waterfront.
I don't think The Third Man is a gangster film at all either. I consider it more of a spy thriller. For the '50s, I second that the best choice so far has been The Big Heat. But since you're writing about the "progression" of the genre, I think you'd have to wonder why is it that you couldn't find enough good examples during the '50s... And that should lead you straight into the boom of film-noir.


It's clearly an influence on Raimi's dark horror/fantasy The Evil Dead, which also concerned itself with idiot teens who don't know when to leave an ancient book alone.
It even has the same shot with the cursed book spinning towards the camera against a dark background!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Match Cut, your help is needed.

I'm writing a paper for my Film Analysis class about the Crime/Gangster genre, and I have to tell of the progression/advancement of the genre as the years went by. To do this, I have to explain the typical conventions of one crime/gangster film per decade. So for the 30s I have Little Caesar, for the 40s I'm analyzing The Third Man (if it counts as a gangster film), but I'm stuck on the 50s - I don't know of any good gangster films that came out in the 50s off the top of my head.

So the question I'm asking is...could someone recommend me a 50s gangster film? Oh and something that I could easily find because I cancelled my Netflix account a long time ago.

Reward for the recommendation = Rep

RIFIFI!!!

[Raiders]

Heck with Rififi. I say go with Touchez pas au Grisbi (Grisbi for short) for the 1950s.

[Qrazy]

Heck with Rififi. I say go with Touchez pas au Grisbi (Grisbi for short) for the 1950s.

I adamantly disagree with this decision and throw another vote to the superior Rififi. As has been mentioned Bob le Flambeur, The Big Heat, On the Waterfront, The Killing, and The Asphalt Jungle are all good alternative choices.

[Sven]

Next semester, we've got a class on Kubrick, Peckinpah, and Fuller. I don't think I'm going to take it. I'm sick of attending film classes wherein I've already seen every film screened.

However, there will be a New Zealand/Australian film class that I am very excited to attend.

[Melville]

I adamantly disagree with this decision and throw another vote to the superior Rififi. As has been mentioned Bob le Flambeur, The Big Heat, On the Waterfront, The Killing, and The Asphalt Jungle are all good alternative choices.
I think any of Rififi, The Killing, The Asphalt Jungle, and Bob le Flambeur would make for a pretty good example of how the 1930's-era portrayals of grandiose gangster lifestyles were replaced with minutely detailed, noir-themed heist pictures.

[Russ]

However, there will be a New Zealand/Australian film class that I am very excited to attend.
Excellent. Has the professor posted the syllabus yet? Curious to see what films are included.

[Sven]

Excellent. Has the professor posted the syllabus yet? Curious to see what films are included.

Nope. I'm curious myself. She's a great teacher, though. I've had her for three classes already.

[Winston*]

I'm guessing a class teaching New Zealand and Australian film is something one can only get excited about when not living in New Zealand or Australia.

[Sven]

I'm guessing a class teaching New Zealand and Australian film is something one can only get excited about when not living in New Zealand or Australia.

I was waiting for that. :sad:

[Rowland]

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker, 1988) 73

This was a childhood favorite of mine that has held up reasonably well. For every clunker of a joke (Nielsen's Frank Drebin leaving his press-addressing mic on while pissing, a highly publicized mishap with Queen Elizabeth II), there is a seemingly tossed off moment of utter brilliance (the crime-scene body-outline floating in the water and attended by a cop in a rowboat, Drebin pulling off his entire suit with a single arm gesture before sex), and unlike many of today's comedies (including the modern directorial efforts by Zucker himself), this is mercifully unreliant on outdated pop cultural minutia. The performances all-around are flawlessly pitched to the straight-faced delerium of the material, aided by Zucker's expert tonal modulation and staging, a breakneck pace that practically demands any unsuccessful gags be immediately forgotten (this thing clocks in at 80 minutes when the credits begin to roll!), and a gleeful irreverence in its satire of the investigative cop genre's most hoary conventions. Some of the expositional scenes uneventfully plod along, and the second half is distinctly less funny than the first, but with bits as fucking hilarious as the scene where the air bags in Drebin's car fill the entire vehicle and send it careening through pedestrians as Drebin tries to shoot it down, I can't bring myself to grumble too forcefully over its flaws. Props as well to the satisfyingly brutal slapstick treatment of O.J. Simpson. And did I spy a reference to, of all movies, A Clockwork Orange? Weird.

[Winston*]

I was waiting for that. :sad:
Do you know what the thrust of the course is going to be? Asserting national identity and all that?

[megladon8]

Next semester, we've got a class on Kubrick, Peckinpah, and Fuller. I don't think I'm going to take it. I'm sick of attending film classes wherein I've already seen every film screened.

However, there will be a New Zealand/Australian film class that I am very excited to attend.


Will the class be called "The Two Peters"?

[Winston*]

Will the class be called "The Two Peters"?

Don't patronise us, megladon8.

[Raiders]

The Strangers is a coy film. Bertino is more sadistic than any of the three killers, playing cat-and-mouse with the audience at the expense of two characters caught in the director's web of cinematic foreplay. The whole film is foreplay in fact, and the director gets mileage out of intimate locations and by completely shredding any sense of barriers between victim and killer well before the film even gets to the halfway point. The opening is both not enough and too much (it is slight enough to show the director doesn't really want us caring too much about these characters--but also too much in the he could have given the same level of depth via the two shots of the traffic light and the empty house filled with rose petals). The killers are ridiculous ghouls and Bertino fills the film with shots of them that are effectively spooky but ultimately kind of lame in their uselessness (why would one of them run up behind an injured Liv Tyler only to not be there when she turns around-- that isn't classic Michael Myers-type stalking, it's to further the audience's blue balls).

The camera work is the film's most effective technique, highlighting often times the spatial relationships between the characters. Bertino certainly knows how to create suspense, but the ending is the biggest letdown of all. Brief and ultimately more confounding than scary, it tries to revamp our sympathy when there wasn't much to begin with and it provides an answer to the "why" question that is eye-roll worthy and would have been exponentially better left unsaid. And how rote of Bertino to end on a lovely horror film cliche.

[Boner M]

Pretty sure I could watch Airplane/Naked Gun/Top Secret! on a loop for a week straight.

Reminds me, I still haven't seen Hot Shots! yet. Need to amend that.

[Rowland]

Reminds me, I still haven't seen Hot Shots! yet. Need to amend that.It's the weakest of the bunch, but it has its moments.

[Raiders]

Actually, Hot Shots! is my favorite of the bunch.

[Sycophant]

I've seen two New Zealand films: Utu, which was pretty bad, and Whale Rider, which was quite lovely.

Then there were trailers for Eagle Vs. Shark, for which I'll never forgive the country.

[The Mike]

Hot Shots: Part Deux! owns Hot Shots!

[Boner M]

Then there were trailers for Eagle Vs. Shark, for which I'll never forgive the country.
Wait 'til you see the entire fucking movie. I'll never forgive Winston* for not doing anything to prevent it. Fuck you, Winston*.

[megladon8]

For Australian film, Picnic at Hanging Rock is still my favorite.

[The Mike]

Most of my '50's gangsta suggestions have been taken, but I'll throw in The Desperate Hours, for fun. Or, if you want to parallel the paranoia of the decade, Kazan's Panic in the Streets works.

[Sycophant]

Wait 'til you see the entire fucking movie.

I will tear my heart out with my teeth before this happens.

[Boner M]

I bought this 6-disc Ozploitation set last week...

http://umbrellaent.com.au/cover_images/full/974

The eco-thriller The Long Weekend is the one I'm looking forward to the most; sounds like the film MNS wanted The Happening to be.

EDIT: I'm reminded of how ugly our classification warnings on R4 DVDs are. I guess we're even, Winston*.

[Winston*]

I watched the movie Fat Pizza. You cannot take the higher ground with me here, boner.

EDIT: Though I guess neither can I since I watched the movie Fat Pizza.

[Boner M]

I watched the movie Fat Pizza. You cannot take the higher ground with me here, boner.
Fat Pizza is only the pinnacle of irreverence, stop fooling yourself.

[Winston*]

Fat Pizza is only the pinnacle of irreverence, stop fooling yourself.

I don't even know what this we're talking about anymore.

I tell you what; I'm going to be in Sydney in a month or so. How about I track you down and punch you in the face and then we can call it even.

[Boner M]

I don't even know what this we're talking about anymore.

I tell you what; I'm going to be in Sydney in a month or so. How about I track you down and punch you in the face and then we can call it even.
Are you actually gonna be in Sydney?

[Russ]

Hey Winston, ever seen Goodbye Pork Pie?

[Winston*]

Are you actually gonna be in Sydney?
Yeah, from the 31st of December to the 6th I think.


Hey Winston, ever seen Goodbye Pork Pie?

Sure have. It's iconic.

[Boner M]

Yeah, from the 31st of December to the 6th I think.
Duuuuude. Meetup is essential.

[transmogrifier]

Actually, Hot Shots! is my favorite of the bunch.


Ditto.

[Yxklyx]

Match Cut, your help is needed.

I'm writing a paper for my Film Analysis class about the Crime/Gangster genre, and I have to tell of the progression/advancement of the genre as the years went by. To do this, I have to explain the typical conventions of one crime/gangster film per decade. So for the 30s I have Little Caesar, for the 40s I'm analyzing The Third Man (if it counts as a gangster film), but I'm stuck on the 50s - I don't know of any good gangster films that came out in the 50s off the top of my head.

So the question I'm asking is...could someone recommend me a 50s gangster film? Oh and something that I could easily find because I cancelled my Netflix account a long time ago.

Reward for the recommendation = Rep

I would stick with films from one country if you are doing a progressive essay since you'd be adding extra variables by throwing in a foreign film. The genre develops differently in different countries. So for the 50s you can't go wrong with The Asphalt Jungle or Kiss Me Deadly (or Touch of Evil). There are other great films in the genre made in the 50s but those (like Gun Crazy) feel more like 40s films taken to their pinnacle rather than films that take an evolutionary step.

[Winston*]

The Last King of Scotland kind of sucks. Young Indiana Jones and the Ugandan Dictator.

[Boner M]

The Last King of Scotland kind of sucks. Young Indiana Jones and the Ugandan Dictator.
Yeah it's pretty bad. Felt like a Tony Scott movie. Expected more from the Touching the Void dude.

[Morris Schæffer]

The Last King of Scotland kind of sucks. Young Indiana Jones and the Ugandan Dictator.

That's harsh, but I did feel that McAvoy's influence on the plot was rather huge (too?) and that the relationship between Nicolas and Idi Amin was too buddy-ish complete with a whopper of a fart gag.

[Wryan]

Whitaker was balls-out great tho.

[soitgoes...]

Schoeder's doc on Idi Amin is what needs to be watched. Whitaker is good, but the actual man starring in his own film is so much better.

[Rowland]

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007) 76

Opening with a shot of what appears to be the approaching sun that turns out being the sun's light reflected upon a ship heading towards the star, which is then viewed from such a perspective that the ship appears to be a pupil to the sun's blinding iris, we are immediately keyed in to the film's thematic concern with vision, further revealed in the opening scene on the ship, in which a member of the crew is mesmerized by his ability to directly view the sun and experiment with how much a percentage of the sun's actual rays he can gaze upon before being blinded, reflected visually with extreme close-ups of his eyes and through sound design as we can hear the rays searing his corneas. This character is revealed to be both the crew's psychiatrist and the most spiritual in his fascination with the sun's properties on a non-scientific plane, whose borderline-obsession with viewing the sun manifests itself physically through increasingly chapped skin as the movie progresses, subtly setting the stage for later third-act developments involving an explictly antagonistic character as well as introducing thematic conflicts between the rational and the irrational, the tangible and the ineffable, the drive of the human spirit and the limits of its physical sacrifice. These philosophical concerns and how they relate in a heliocentric sense are reflected in numerous ways throughout the film, finally brought to a head in its unabashedly pulpy third act, in which fanatic anti-intellectualism is represented as an abstract visual smear and light a guiding source of clarity, courage, and life itself, as the properties of our universe begin to bend in the closing minutes and only the sun itself brings order to the chaos before the lead character experiences his final sacrifice in a moment of profound transcendence.

Boyle directs the movie for the most part with daunting craft, daring formal strategies, and intelligent application of his special effects, which result in the most convincingly realized and tangible sci-fi movie I've seen in some time. Only a few ham-fisted techniques detract from this, such as an early jump-cut between a character theorizing over the fate of the first Icarus and two of the characters fighting in extreme close-up. These are more than made up for however by such hauntingly realized moments as when they board the first Icarus and flashes of the deceased individual crew members flash upon the screen for a brief instant whenever a light shines into the lens, which imbue the sequence with more pronounced elements of tragedy, mystery, and horror, in addition to evoking the thematic bedrock of light as a spiritual conduit. In fact, Boyle's most clever visual strategy is to constantly emphasize light as a tactile presence, whether through refraction, flares, faces saturated in patterns of light, visible dust particles floating in light beams, and what have you, which serve to further ground the proceedings in a tangible cinematic reality and to contextualize the omnipresence of the sun’s influence.

Garland’s script performs a deftly measured balancing act between establishing his characters as empathetic individuals with singular significance within the narrative and its thematic interests without bogging down the pace with excessive chatter and exposition. An early scene involving the crew members sending messages back home to their families with the foreknowledge that they won’t be receiving responses, and the frustration one character feels when his opportunity to send a message is lost, is a particularly effective device in this respect. Otherwise, Garland keeps the narrative drive flowing at an involving tempo, as he introduces dramatic challenges for the crew (realized by Boyle as a series of exhilarating setpieces) and debates between them pertaining to how the situations should be addressed, which introduce moral and philosophical dilemmas without dwelling too ponderously over them.

His writing is also aided by the keen realization of his characters by the cast, who all give performances appropriately measured to the tone of the material and the idiosyncratic traits of their roles. Notable highlights include Chris Evans (who gives his best performance that I’ve seen by a considerable margin) and Hiroyuki Sanada, whose relatively minor supporting role is infused with tremendous weight (as opposed to how egregiously wasted he is by the Wachowskis in Speed Racer) through a breathtaking setpiece involving repairs to the ship’s shield that develops the themes of self-sacrifice, pragmatism in the face of devastating consequences, and the contrast between rapture over the sun’s godly sublimity and its destructive force. And speaking of destructive forces, the characters are put through the ringer as Boyle and Garland emphasize the fragility of the human body against the elements and our relative insignificance in a manner affecting in emotional, visceral, and thematic senses.

Blah blah blah I’m tired of writing I liked this movie a lot the soundtrack is the bee’s knees the end.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007) 76

Opening with a shot of what appears to be the approaching sun that turns out being the sun's light reflected upon a ship heading towards the star, which is then viewed from such a perspective that the ship appears to be a pupil to the sun's blinding iris, we are immediately keyed in to the film's thematic concern with vision, further revealed in the opening scene on the ship, in which a member of the crew is mesmerized by his ability to directly view the sun and experiment with how much a percentage of the sun's actual rays he can gaze upon before being blinded, reflected visually with extreme close-ups of his eyes and through sound design as we can hear the rays searing his corneas. This character is revealed to be both the crew's psychiatrist and the most spiritual in his fascination with the sun's properties on a non-scientific plane, whose borderline-obsession with viewing the sun manifests itself physically through increasingly chapped skin as the movie progresses, subtly setting the stage for later third-act developments involving an explictly antagonistic character as well as introducing thematic conflicts between the rational and the irrational, the tangible and the ineffable, the drive of the human spirit and the limits of its physical sacrifice. These philosophical concerns and how they relate in a heliocentric sense are reflected in numerous ways throughout the film, finally brought to a head in its unabashedly pulpy third act, in which fanatic anti-intellectualism is represented as an abstract visual smear and light a guiding source of clarity, courage, and life itself, as the properties of our universe begin to bend in the closing minutes and only the sun itself brings order to the chaos before the lead character experiences his final sacrifice in a moment of profound transcendence.

Boyle directs the movie for the most part with daunting craft, daring formal strategies, and intelligent application of his special effects, which result in the most convincingly realized and tangible sci-fi movie I've seen in some time. Only a few ham-fisted techniques detract from this, such as an early jump-cut between a character theorizing over the fate of the first Icarus and two of the characters fighting in extreme close-up. These are more than made up for however by such hauntingly realized moments as when they board the first Icarus and flashes of the deceased individual crew members flash upon the screen for a brief instant, which imbue the sequence with more pronounced elements of tragedy, mystery, and horror, in addition to evoking the thematic bedrock of light as a spiritual conduit. In fact, Boyle's most clever visual strategy is to constantly emphasize light as a tactile presence, whether through refraction, flares, faces saturated in patterns of light, visible dust particles floating in light beams, and what have you, which serve to further ground the proceedings in a tangible cinematic reality and to contextualize the omnipresence of the sun’s influence.

Garland’s script performs a deftly measured balancing act between establishing his characters as empathetic individuals with singular significance within the narrative and its thematic interests without bogging down the pace with excessive chatter and exposition. An early scene involving the crew members sending messages back home to their families with the foreknowledge that they won’t be receiving responses, and the frustration one character feels when his opportunity to send a message is lost, is a particularly effective device in this respect. Otherwise, Garland keeps the narrative drive flowing at an involving tempo, as he introduces dramatic challenges for the crew (realized by Boyle as a series of exhilarating setpieces) and debates between them pertaining to how the situations should be addressed, which introduce moral and philosophical dilemmas without dwelling too ponderously over them.

His writing is also aided by the keen realization of his characters by the cast, who all give performances appropriately measured to the tone of the material and the idiosyncratic traits of their roles. Notable highlights include Chris Evans (who gives his best performance that I’ve seen by a considerable margin) and Hiroyuki Sanada, whose relatively minor supporting role is infused with tremendous weight (as opposed to how egregiously wasted he is by the Wachowskis in Speed Racer) through a breathtaking setpiece involving repairs to the ship’s shield that develops the themes of self-sacrifice, pragmatism in the face of devastating consequences, and the contrast between rapture over the sun’s godly sublimity and its destructive force. And speaking of destructive forces, the characters are put through the ringer as Boyle and Garland emphasize the fragility of the human body against the elements and our relative insignificance in a manner affecting in emotional, visceral, and thematic senses.

Blah blah blah I’m tired of writing I liked this movie a lot the soundtrack is the bee’s knees the end.

Ah, you shoulda kept going. I was digging what I was reading. The more I reflect on the film, the more I realize that it's easily the best science-fiction picture since Children of Men.

I still dislike Roastboy at the end.

[Watashi]

Ah, you shoulda kept going. I was digging what I was reading. The more I reflect on the film, the more I realize that it's easily the best science-fiction picture since Children of Men.

I still dislike Roastboy at the end.

What other science fiction films came in between these films?

[Spinal]

Bolt is OK, I suppose. The action scenes work a lot better than the comedy. In fact, I might have preferred to see the film-within-the-film rather than the whole Buzz Lightyear storyline that we get. Travolta's voice was very distracting to me and the voice acting in general is subpar. Still, I kind of liked the shamelessly sentimental ending and the scenes involving the pigeons. Saw it in 3D and that didn't seem to add a whole lot. But the preview for Coraline was fantastic.

[Raiders]

BAH.

But, then again, I guess I kind of figured to be alone in this.

[Spinal]

BAH.

But, then again, I guess I kind of figured to be alone in this.

You're talking to the guy who currently has City of Ember sitting as his #1 film of the year. So, I can relate.

[Dead & Messed Up]

What other science fiction films came in between these films?

So many that it would be a waste of my time to list them all.

[Stay Puft]

I saw Slumdog Millionaire in Toronto over the weekend, but that's not important. What is important is that beforehand there was a trailer for a movie I had never heard of before.

It's called Chandni Chowk to China:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091229/

It's a Bollywood film with Gordon Liu. I almost flipped out when he appeared on screen.

I have to see it.

[Grouchy]

Man. Don Siegel. That's what I call an action director. Hell is for Heroes is the kind of revisionistic genre picture that was to be the trademark of the '60s, but it's also just too fucking good. Steve McQueen and James Coburn headline a cast filled with young stars-to-be in a cynical movie that builds up suspense like few others with very simple but very effective direction tricks. It also helps that the movie ends up on a very high and abrupt note (according to IMDb, though, that's because they ran out of film stock) and that, clocking in at barely 90 minutes, there's not a single scene wasted. McQueen is in one of those cool loner roles he plays so well, but Coburn obviously hadn't been typecast as a badass yet, so he plays the mechanic of the team, a sensible, well-spoken guy. Overall, I can't say anything in the movie surpassed my already high expectations, but it's a good reminder that I've loved everything I've seen from the Siegel and that I still have a long way to go with his filmography.

[Boner M]

Overall, I can't say anything in the movie surpassed my already high expectations, but it's a good reminder that I've loved everything I've seen from the Siegel and that I still have a long way to go with his filmography.
Wait til y'see Charley Varrick. It's incredible.

[Yxklyx]

Man. Don Siegel. ...Overall, I can't say anything in the movie surpassed my already high expectations, but it's a good reminder that I've loved everything I've seen from the Siegel and that I still have a long way to go with his filmography.

I've seen Dirty Harry, The Beguiled, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Killers. All are really good.

[Scar]

Just finished WALL-E. Goddamn, I thought I was gonna cry at the end. And the extra bonus BURN-E short was hilarious.

10/10

Hell, one of our cats sat and watched the movie with us.

[Spun Lepton]

Just finished WALL-E. Goddamn, I thought I was gonna cry at the end.

Hope you didn't strain your tear ducts too badly by resisting it. Heh!

I have it at home right now from Netflix. Should watch it soon enough.

[Scar]

Hope you didn't strain your tear ducts too badly by resisting it. Heh!


Bah, I'm married! No need to hide it. That is, uh, er, if I were ever to cry at a movie. Not that would ever happen, because I am Manly Man!



I have it at home right now from Netflix. Should watch it soon enough.

It is a great movie.

[megladon8]

Apparently the BluRay for WALL-E is ridiculously amazing.

[Yxklyx]

Apparently the BluRay for WALL-E is ridiculously amazing.

I'm waiting for The Lord of the Rings before getting one of those.

[megladon8]

I'm waiting for The Lord of the Rings before getting one of those.


The Dark Knight BluRay is pretty much essential for me.

I'll be getting a playe in a month or so.

I already have three BluRays - T2, Blade Runner and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[The Mike]

I already have three BluRays - T2, Blade Runner and Bram Stoker's Dracula.Well, you got one good movie. :twisted:

[Amnesiac]

I really want to pick up the Wall-E Bluray but... I also told myself I'd wait until some sort of Pixar Bluray boxset comes out.

I don't think I have the will-power. Well, maybe I'll give it a rent instead of a purchase.

[Scar]

Apparently the BluRay for WALL-E is ridiculously amazing.

It is.

[Raiders]

WALL-E is ridiculously amazing.

Indeed.

:twisted:

[Boner M]

Indeed.

:twisted:
If only it'd been "The blu-ray for The Dark Knight is terrible".

IF ONLY. :sad:

[Winston*]

Yeah, I don't think Raiders understands how fixing someone's post through the use of the quotation feature is supposed to work.

Here's an example of one way you could have gone with that, Raiders:


Apparently the Blu-Ray for Wall-E is ridiculously amazing as an incentive to get children to have sexual intercourse with you. This is knowledge I am aware of as I am a paedophile and thus have the desires inherent to one identifying as such.
Indeed.

:twisted:

[Ezee E]

Yeah, I don't think Raiders understands how fixing someone's post through the use of the quotation feature is supposed to work.

Here's an example of one way you could have gone with that, Raiders:


Indeed.

:twisted:
Post of the year.

[Raiders]

Here's an example of one way you could have gone with that, Raiders, if you wanted to try and mask your own sexual deviance and that bubbling lust for those sweet, young boys.

Hm, I'll take it under advisement. Thanks.

[D_Davis]

Dogme - Lars Von Trier

I can't [edited for Spinal's sanity] this film, and I don't understand how [edited for Spinal's sanity]. It seems to be directed by a [edited for Spinal's sanity], and yet I can't [edited for Spinal's sanity] anything [edited for Spinal's sanity]. I found the amount of [edited for Spinal's sanity] to be insanely disproportionate to the overall [edited for Spinal's sanity] of the [edited for Spinal's sanity], but for some reason the [edited for Spinal's sanity] never resonated with me. I found the narrative [edited for Spinal's sanity], and when [edited for Spinal's sanity] discovers that [edited for Spinal's sanity] is nothing but [edited for Spinal's sanity], the milue falls apart because [edited for Spinal's sanity]. That Von Trier [edited for Spinal's sanity] the [edited for Spinal's sanity] only further proves that he [edited for Spinal's sanity] for [edited for Spinal's sanity].

[edited for Spinal's sanity] [edited for Spinal's sanity] and [edited for Spinal's sanity] of the [edited for Spinal's sanity] is the flm's only [edited for Spinal's sanity]. I really wanted to [edited for Spinal's sanity] the film, but I just couldn't bring myself to [edited for Spinal's sanity] about the [edited for Spinal's sanity].

[MadMan]

Cloverfield is not only an insanely engaging, well done thrill ride, it also managed to scare the ever living hell out of me a bunch of times. Those fucking spider alien creature things-whatever the hell they were-are goddamn evil. I hated those. The scene in the tunnel dark resulted in me uttering multiple curse words and yelling at the screen. Perhaps I may review it, but I'm behind enough as it is. Maybe later. Needless to say, I think its one of the best movies I've seen this year. But then I haven't viewed much.

[soitgoes...]

Dogma - Lars Von Trier

I can't [edited for Spinal's sanity] this film, and I don't understand how [edited for Spinal's sanity]. It seems to be directed by a [edited for Spinal's sanity], and yet I can't [edited for Spinal's sanity] anything [edited for Spinal's sanity]. I found the amount of [edited for Spinal's sanity] to be insanely disproportionate to the overall [edited for Spinal's sanity] of the [edited for Spinal's sanity], but for some reason the [edited for Spinal's sanity] never resonated with me. I found the narrative [edited for Spinal's sanity], and when [edited for Spinal's sanity] discovers that [edited for Spinal's sanity] is nothing but [edited for Spinal's sanity], the milue falls apart because [edited for Spinal's sanity]. That Von Trier [edited for Spinal's sanity] the [edited for Spinal's sanity] only further proves that he [edited for Spinal's sanity] for [edited for Spinal's sanity].

[edited for Spinal's sanity] [edited for Spinal's sanity] and [edited for Spinal's sanity] of the [edited for Spinal's sanity] is the flm's only [edited for Spinal's sanity]. I really wanted to [edited for Spinal's sanity] the film, but I just couldn't bring myself to [edited for Spinal's sanity] about the [edited for Spinal's sanity].
You have a few spelling errors.

[Spinal]

Silly. Dogma is a Kevin Smith film. No wonder you didn't like it.

[MadMan]

Davis's post=:fresh: :lol:

Also I forgot to mention that I saw most of Tropic Thunder today, but since I had to leave my friend's house we didn't finish it. I hope to watch the last couple of acts this week. What I saw was utterly hilarious, and mostly sharp in terms of satire. Robert Downey Jr. is great in it, and the film has a pretty cool cast.

[Rowland]

Madagascar (Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath, 2005) 47

I was initially more positive on this, but listening to it a second time while my girlfriend watched in the other room revealed just how shrill most of the voice-acting is, and how forced many of the culture-referencing, parent-baiting pseudo-jokes tend to be. As such, I felt compelled to drop my score several points into the negative area. Nevertheless, I'm still giving the movie a fairly high score because the narrative is devised in such a manner so that the turns it takes consistently took me and my expectations by surprise, which, when coupled with a fast pace and a short running time, make for a reasonably engaging, relatively painless experience as compared to some of the worst dreck Dreamworks has cranked out. Likewise, the animation style, while still aesthetically unappealing compared to the best animated CGI work and certainly the likes of Studio Ghibli, is more palatable than, say, those hideous Shreck movies. With all the awkward jokes that don't work (WTF re. an American Beauty reference), there is lots of effective visual slapstick, and secondary characters like the monkeys and particularly the penguins are pure gold, the movie's highlight being a hilarious droll gag relating to the penguins and the living conditions they discover upon arriving in the Arctic. That said, this doesn't approach the artistic ambition and integrity of Pixar's finest work.

[B-side]

Considering this thread is reserved for film discussion, and I'm in need of a push in terms of prioritizing, here are a bunch of films I want rated:

Don't Look Now (Roeg, 1973)
Small Change (Truffaut, 1976)
Sawdust And Tinsel (Bergman, 1953)
The Quiet Duel (A. Kurosawa, 1949)
Mala Noche (Van Sant, 1985)
The Face Of Another (Teshigahara, 1966)
Immoral Women (Borowczyk, 1979)
Night Porter (Cavani, 1974)
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Fassbinder, 1977)
Violette (Chabrol, 1978)
La Notti Bianche (Viconti, 1957)
The Bird People In China (Miike, 1998)
The Pillow Book (Greenaway, 1997)
Stardust Memories (Allen, 1980)
Quai Des Orfevres (Clouzot, 1947)