28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Kurosawa Fan]

The only movie moments that consistently choke me up are the conclusions to The Iron Giant and The Last of the Mohicans,

[

Show Spoiler

"Superman!"

and

the cliff face suicide

]

Other than that, I have a heart of stone.

Strangely enough, I'm affected by the end of Rudy. I know it's ridiculous, but something about that music and the fact that it's a sports film (for which I'm a sucker). It's quite embarrassing. That and Dancer in the Dark are the only two films I can recall that have made me cry.

[transmogrifier]

Dancer in the Dark was too aggressive in its bleakness/fantasy dicotomy for me to really care by the end. It was all histronics.

[transmogrifier]

Mars Attacks! is such a waste of a good idea. Everything up to the first attack is such a deadening waste of talent, a horrible script unable to muster any comic momentum at all. Once Mars does, in fact, attack, some of the shackles come free ("Don't run, we are your friends", Easter Island bowling, Tom Jones' back-up singers and especially the childish glee with which they set up a mammothly over-the-top ray gun to the head of a frail little old lady listening to her music), but then the film ends just as laugh-free and poorly as it started. Nicholson's second character with the fake nose is the very definition of useless (every single scene he is in grinds the film to a complete stop), with Bening and De Vito very close behind.

Shame. Would love to see it remade with a funny script.

[Mysterious Dude]

I'm a huge fucking crybaby at movies.

[Derek]

My wife is the same way with It's a Wonderful Life. We watched it together a few nights ago, it's our tradition every Christmas season, and she was bawling her eyes out again. I admit I get choked up, but it's never made me cry. I don't care what anyone says, I love that movie.

It's usually dissed by people unwilling to cut Capra any slack. Granted, his films are more often than not overly sentimental and somewhat ham-fisted, but he's capable of occasionally reaching great heights. This film and the final ten minutes of Lady for a Day are absolutely masterful - extremely tense and moving by drawing on real human emotions while not being coyly manipulative. Most of his other films have their highs and their lows, aside from Arsenic & Old Lace which I can't hate on enough, despite it being Christmas and all.

[DSNT]

Wow, The Simpsons Movie was a complete disappointment given the strong reviews. I found it overly preachy and almost completely unfunny. It didn't add anything to the show. In fact, it was far, far worse than any of the early episodes.

[Melville]

It's usually dissed by people unwilling to cut Capra any slack. Granted, his films are more often than not overly sentimental and somewhat ham-fisted, but he's capable of occasionally reaching great heights. This film and the final ten minutes of Lady for a Day are absolutely masterful - extremely tense and moving by drawing on real human emotions while not being coyly manipulative. Most of his other films have their highs and their lows, aside from Arsenic & Old Lace which I can't hate on enough, despite it being Christmas and all.

I've already repped you too many times today to give you more rep for this, but damn if this doesn't deserve some rep. People who dismiss It's a Wonderful Life for being too sentimental seem to be missing almost everything that's going on in the movie. And Arsenic and Old Lace was the most painfully shrill movie I've ever seen.

[Rowland]

I'm downloading Khadak from KG, which I believe is monolith's favorite movie of the year. I don't know anything about it, so my expectations are basically nonexistent. Hope it's good.

[Spinal]

I think that I don't like Frank Capra, but then I look at the films he's made that I have seen and I realize that I do.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I think that I don't like Frank Capra, but then I look at the films he's made that I have seen and I realize that I do.

Same here, he somehow wows me 90% of the time, although I'm very prone to forgetting it. I really need to rewatch It Happened One Night, it's been years. So many years.

[Watashi]

Wow, The Simpsons Movie was a complete disappointment given the strong reviews. I found it overly preachy and almost completely unfunny. It didn't add anything to the show. In fact, it was far, far worse than any of the early episodes.

:crazy:

[MadMan]

:crazy:

I'm thinking the same thing. Damnit I'm agreeing with Wats too much lately. Must be the holidays.

A Christmas Story might have the best narration ever.

All of you are heathens.

HEATHENS!

Damn straight. See people even Wats can see that the film is great. Why the hell can't you? :P

Sorry I'm being particularly obscure.

The picture of creepy Santa is from Gilliam's Brazil. Also in Brazil Sam has to figure out the anagram Ere I Am JH (Jeremiah) in order to reach the apartment of the administrator who is the man in the Santa suit. Which makes it somewhat interesting that the anagram for Santa is actually Satan. Also of interest is that in the bible the prophet Jeremiah is known as the broken hearted prophet. God told Jeremiah, "You will go to them; but for their part, they will not listen to you." Which ties together neatly with Brazil as both dystopian fiction, satire, and warning of things to come, as well as with the whole bit about Jeremiah in the film as the ghost in the machine. As an aside, another partial 'anagram' in the film is when Sam is fighting a large samurai that turns out to be him... Sam U Ar I. Oh and the script was written by Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) as well as by Gilliam.

Oh and my initials are JH... seemingly unrelated and yet...

Ah, I see.....I really must view Brazil post haste.

Other bits I really like are the John Barry score ("Capsule in Space" is particularly strong), Nancy Sinatra's title song, Little Nellie, the locations which look and feel so much more authentic than most of the Brosnan Bonds, giant magnet + car, a Piranha-filled pond. My God, how could you forget about the piranhas?

I'd give it a ***.

The score wasn't really noticable, the title song blew, the main Bond chick wasn't that hot or really cute (there are cute Asian girls but really to me there are only a few really hot ones), but yes I did forget about the piranha filled pound which was cool. The car with the magnet bit was merely okay at best though. The film should have been a hell of a lot better than it really was.

Oh and Its a Wonderful Life is indeed the best Christmas movie I have ever seen. Brilliant in every single way and those who hate it do have a heart of stone. I'd say my favorite part has to be "Hahaha! My mouth's bleedin' Burt!" which is just joyous-and those who have seen the film know what I'm talking about.

[number8]

AVP:R is not as awesome as I thought, but still fun.

[Justin]

AVP:R is not as awesome as I thought, but still fun.

So it is at least better than the first? My roommate is more than likely going to drag me to see this.

[number8]

So it is at least better than the first?

Well, easily.

I'm mainly disappointed that the movie is humorless and all the gore bits are already shown in the red band trailer.

[megladon8]

Saw Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem tonight.

It has ZERO plot, terrible acting and script, but holy CRAP is it ever a fun, super violent, gory time.

Infinitely better than the first.

Literally solid action from start to finish.

I have a few small gripes - it's often very, very dark and sometimes hard to see what's going on.

But all in all it was a great big dumb, fun action movie.

[Ivan Drago]

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is probably the best spoof in recent memory. It does more than make fun of music biopics, it also makes fun of musicians in general. The preludes to Dewey's run-ins with drugs and his fits of destruction (pulling the sink out of the wall :lol were hilarious IMO, and while a few of the songs are funny, most of them are just plain good. And Reilly is great, as always.

EDIT: And Superbad is still a masterpiece, and one of the best comedies in recent memory. Hell, with that and Walk Hard, Apatow and Co. made the two best comedies of the year.

[Li Lili]

Dancer in the Dark was too aggressive in its bleakness/fantasy dicotomy for me to really care by the end. It was all histronics.

I couldn't stand more than 20 minutes of it. I don't think I like Lars Van Trier.

[Li Lili]

Also I watched Shadows in the Palace, a Korean thriller/horror film directed by Kim Mi-jung (it's her first film) this year. The film is set during the Joseon Dynasty and focuses on the conspiracy and shows the austerity of the life in the palace and the strictness of its rules. I found the film was very average, even though the plot was conventionally well led, and almost the entire cast was woman (which could have made more interesting).

[Qrazy]

I couldn't stand more than 20 minutes of it. I don't think I like Lars Van Trier.

Yeah, I keep returning to his films for the formal mastery but I agree with both of you about Von Trier.

[baby doll]

Two things: First of all, my review of The Kite Runner is up. Secondly, after posting my essay on Trouble Every Day, I wondered if I was being too intellectual about film, and decided to take another look at Sunset Blvd. just to look at the tone of the film, and what I found is that the movie really hates Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson. The movie basically sees her as a pathetic hasbeen, rather than somebody who's been used up and spit out by the Hollywood machine (when we see Cecille B. DeMille, playing himself, we're supposed to think he's this nice, sympathetic old man). Instead of hating Hollywood, the movie hates Norma Desmond. Veronika Voss, which deals with similar subject matter, sees the title character as a victim of German society, and I think that's a far superior film.

[Melville]

Two things: First of all, my review of The Kite Runner is up. Secondly, after posting my essay on Trouble Every Day, I wondered if I was being too intellectual about film, and decided to take another look at Sunset Blvd. just to look at the tone of the film, and what I found is that the movie really hates Norma Desmond/Gloria Swanson. The movie basically sees her as a pathetic hasbeen, rather than somebody who's been used up and spit out by the Hollywood machine (when we see Cecille B. DeMille, playing himself, we're supposed to think he's this nice, sympathetic old man). Instead of hating Hollywood, the movie hates Norma Desmond. Veronika Voss, which deals with similar subject matter, sees the title character as a victim of German society, and I think that's a far superior film.

Why can't the film see her as a pathetic has-been and as somebody who has been used up and spit out by the Hollywood machine? The concept of the pathetic has-been is presented in the film as being made possible by the nature of the Hollywood machine.

[baby doll]

Why can't the film see her as a pathetic has-been and as somebody who has been used up and spit out by the Hollywood machine? The concept of the pathetic has-been is presented in the film as being made possible by the nature of the Hollywood machine.

Because she's not just a hasbeen but a pathetic one who's completely out of touch with reality. And I don't think the movie sees her as some one who was used up and spit out; at one point, the hero tells her "there's nothing pathetic about being fifty, unless you try to be twenty-five," so the movie is complicit in Hollywood's treatment of older actresses (the other woman, who the film sees as being on her way up, is the one who wants to work behind the camera).

[Melville]

Because she's not just a hasbeen but a pathetic one who's completely out of touch with reality. And I don't think the movie sees her as some one who was used up and spit out; at one point, the hero tells her "there's nothing pathetic about being fifty, unless you try to be twenty-five," so the movie is complicit in Hollywood's treatment of older actresses (the other woman, who the film sees as being on her way up, is the one who wants to work behind the camera).

But she's out of touch with reality because Hollywood has put her out of touch with reality. If Hollywood hadn't given her the illusion of being worshipped, she wouldn't be living in that illusion. By fleetingly aggrandizing its stars, Hollywood makes it too easy for those stars to grasp onto their grandeur long after its gone. Again, they can only be pathetic because of the way Hollywood works.

[baby doll]

But she's out of touch with reality because Hollywood has put her out of touch with reality. If Hollywood hadn't given her the illusion of being worshipped, she wouldn't be living in that illusion. By fleetingly aggrandizing its stars, Hollywood makes it too easy for those stars to grasp onto their grandeur long after its gone. Again, they can only be pathetic because of the way Hollywood works.

Well, she wouldn't be living with that illusion if Erich von Stroheim weren't the one sending her fan letters. I think it's really indicative of the tone of the film when the hero sees her bury the monkey in the middle of the night, because the whole point of that sequence is to establish how batshit crazy she is.