28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Spun Lepton]

Matheson was one of the greatest genre writers of the 20th century. There is no arguing this.

[Yxklyx]

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Matheson - one of my favorite films.

The Christopher Lee banner should have been kept up longer! I'm still down about his demise. What's the new one from?

[Spun Lepton]

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Matheson - one of my favorite films.

The Christopher Lee banner should have been kept up longer! I'm still down about his demise. What's the new one from?

Mad Max: Fury Road

[Dead & Messed Up]

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Matheson - one of my favorite films.

Same here. The book is pretty fantastic too.

[D_Davis]

Kingdoms of Dreams and Madness was surprisingly sad and melancholy. To think that Miyazaki worked 6 days a week, 10 hours a day for pretty much his entire life, and then to hear him ask what the hell was the point of making movies, really makes me sad. There were multiple times that I thought it looked as though he regretted everything he did in his life. Even though he was living a creative dream, he was still working in a living nightmare of strict schedules and relentless tasks. Multiple times he asked himself why he was still drawing.

I wish the film were animated. That would have been an ultimate kind of irony.

[D_Davis]

The first half of Jaws is great - masterful. Once they get on the boat and start chasing the shark though, man, does it ever drag. And that stupid soundtrack during much of the second half...woof.

I don't think Duel ever reaches the greatness of the first half of Jaws, but it is a more consistent movie.

[Grouchy]

The first half of Jaws is great - masterful. Once they get on the boat and start chasing the shark though, man, does it ever drag. And that stupid soundtrack during much of the second half...woof.

Is this your actual opinion or are you trolling us at the moment?

[Watashi]

I think Davis was just giving his best Irish impression.

[Dukefrukem]

The boat is my favorite parts of the movie... I mean, the comparing scars scene is perfect. And then of course there's the best improvised line in the history of cinema.

You can tell when DD is trolling because his reasoning is always so vague and exaggerated. Then you ask him specifics on why he feels that way (specific scenes) and he never responds.

[D_Davis]

Is this your actual opinion or are you trolling us at the moment?

Serious.

[Dukefrukem]

Then what scene drags for you when they're on the boat?

[D_Davis]

Once they start chasing the shark. I also really, really hate the score to that sequence.

I prefer the slow tension of the first half.

This track:



My god, it completely kills the tension and mood, especially starting at 54 seconds onward. Just a terrible, out of place, overwrought piece of film music.

[Dukefrukem]

Okay preference is one thing but that's dragging for you? Upbeat music and a chase sequence?

[Grouchy]

It's an old fashioned score even for the film's release date but that doesn't make it bad.

[D_Davis]

I don't like it. /shrug

[baby doll]

Incidentally, one other thing that I especially like about Duel is the music, which is like the missing link between Psycho and The Shining.

[Russ]

Trudno byt bogom / Hard to Be a God (Aleksey German, 2013)

I have long heard others sing German's praises. And I'll add my voice (film deserves a well-earned PRO). I admire the audacity of his vision, and the tenacity of his commitment.

If there was a small corner of cinema dedicated to the subject of "difficult films", Hard to Be a God would be that genre's poster child. I think it's been mentioned elsewhere that it's certainly not a film for everyone. I love the fact that German took a famous novel and, with the exception of a few lines of expository narration at the beginning, basically jettisoned the plot, instead delivering 177 minutes of astounding mise-en-scène. It's not an empty exercise in style, either. Enough plot was given to beg questions like: Did all of the scientists/observers adhere to their planet's laissez faire edict? What, if any, were the reasons for the transgressive devolution of Arkanar's population? Did an observer break their code to influence the struggle between the "Greys" and the "Blacks"? Was Don Rumata always insane, or was there a discernible tipping point for his descent into madness? For me, this movie was endlessly fascinating. The camerawork was nothing short of phenomenal. And I kinda dislike the two films that it most reminded me of: Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (for the immersion into squalor) and Werner Herzog's Even Dwarfs Started Small (for the anarchy and chaos).

A divisive film? Absolutely. A select few cinephiles will view German's career-defining work as manna from heaven. Vile, putrid, filthy manna, to be sure. But manna all the same.

A masterpiece or endurance test? It's on Netflix Instant. Don't miss it.

[Stay Puft]

Hard to be a God is on Netflix? Holy shit I didn't even notice. That's my evening sorted.

[Qrazy]

I'm a huge German fan but wasn't that sold on that one. Yes it looks great and there's a lot of interesting moments but overall I think it gets lost inside itself and becomes too repetitious. Khrustalyov, My Car! works better for me in that same vein. I felt like he nailed absurdism there whereas this one is basically the whole people throwing shit around thing from Holy Grail but without the humor.

[D_Davis]

Watched Aronofsky's Noah the other week. What a tone-deaf POS that was. What the hell were they thinking with that? Absolutely dreadful.

[Dead & Messed Up]

That sucks. I found it a lot of fun, interesting riff on both canon and apocryphal scripture, especially its creation of fresh, ambiguous images like the snakeskin and the pulsing tree fruit. Ooh, and that one scene where they're listening to the dying people on the craggy peaks (an image that looks like it was pulled straight out of Dore) that leads into the recounting of the creation. Oh baby. Crowe was a pretty non-charismatic Noah, I'll give you that, but I kinda liked when he got all Jack Torrance on everybody. Mostly because it puts the whole idea of the Flood in stark relief - it's almost as though this madman's decided mankind should be wiped out!

[D_Davis]

I was hoping I'd really like it, because I like different takes on mythology, and am totally open to expanding the ideas of religious stories and doctrine. So while the film attempted to do this, it just missed the mark in its execution on every single shot it took.

[D_Davis]

http://cms.mentalfloss.com/sites/def...20hannah_0.jpg

[Spun Lepton]

Cool, thanks D. I may have to watch some classic noirs now. I'm woefully inexperienced with the genre.

[Spinal]

That was a fun read! I like that every single movie has heavy drinking or smoking.