Similarly, my post was supposed to read "Mendoza, but I coincidentally just borrowed the Demy from my library."Quoting baby doll (view post)
Similarly, my post was supposed to read "Mendoza, but I coincidentally just borrowed the Demy from my library."
Yep.
And agreed about Scott picking the wrong movie to reign in his style. He must have thought the connect-the-dots screenplay was solid enough to compensate?
Letterboxd rating scale:
The Long Riders (Hill) ***
Furious 7 (Wan) **½
Hard Times (Hill) ****½
Another 48 Hrs. (Hill) ***
/48 Hrs./ (Hill) ***½
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Besson) ***
/Unknown/ (Collet-Serra) ***½
Animal (Simmons) **
Olympia is largely entertaining, though it becomes abundantly clear when Riefenstahl either doesn't have much interest, or doesn't see much in the way of cinematic beauty, in certain events. Events like sprints, marathons, horse races, soccer and boxing matches are shot in a really straight forward manner with no real eye for composition, merely documentation. Slow motion is Riefenstahl's best friend, and she uses it beautifully to emphasize and aggrandize human physicality. In addition to slow motion, lower angles are used to brilliantly frame athletes against the sky and the tiny spectators in the stands, rendering them sort of deified. When Riefenstahl takes a more cinematic approach to the events, the results are often spectacular. What is without a doubt the pinnacle of the two films is the diving finale in Part Two. Each shot is from a new, provocative angle filming seemingly gravity-defying divers as if they were flying, spinning and doing flips in mid-air. One shot looks straight up at a diver and follows her down to and below the water in one unbroken take. The whole sequence has to be seen to be believed. If Riefenstahl had put in the same enthusiasm and turned the same cinematic eye on the entirety of the documented events, it would likely be a masterpiece, but as it is, it's good.
Last 5 Viewed
Riddick (David Twohy | 2013 | USA/UK)
Night Across the Street (Raoul Ruiz | 2012 | Chile/France)*
Pain & Gain (Michael Bay | 2013 | USA)*
You're Next (Adam Wingard | 2011 | USA)
Little Odessa (James Gray | 1994 | USA)*
*recommended *highly recommended
“It isn't easy to accept that suffering can also be beautiful... it's difficult. It's something you can only understand if you dig deeply into yourself.” -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder
twitter | next projection | criticker | frames within frames
*passes bottle*
Just saw The Thin Red Line. Liked it, didn't love it. The first 15 minutes were sublime though. I just don't think I'll ever love a war movie...just not tailored towards my taste. I certainly like some and even really like Paths of Glory and Apocalypse Now, but I'm just not a huge fan of battle scenes. So when there was a huge one in Thin Red Line, I wasn't all that interested, whereas I found the sections with the natives, any memories...basically all the meandering I loved. The philosophical narrators was a bit hit-or-miss--it sometimes felt too blunt and obvious. The score's main theme was indeed good, but it was so overbearing and obnoxious sometimes. I liked it, and now that I'm attuned to Malick's style, I see myself liking Days of Heaven the most. It's just a guess though, I don't know.
In comparison to non-Python comedies, and in order of my preferences:
Life of Brian -- 10/10
Holy Grail -- 10/10
Meaning of Life -- 10/10
Something Completely Different -- 9/10
In comparison to each other:
Life of Brian -- 10/10
Holy Grail -- 10/10
Meaning of Life -- 9/10
Something Completely Different -- 7/10
My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.
Mind-boggling.
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
Huh? They're still showing this at festivals? I saw it over two years ago. It's awful, but people I trust (Karina L., Vadim R.) seem to like it, which baffles me. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
I'm writing for Slant Magazine now, so check out my list of reviews.
Hopefully I'll have the energy to update my signature soon.
Personally I prefer Meaning of Life to Life of Brian, but nothing beats Holy Grail.
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
:crazy:
Well, William Wellman continues to uninspire. The Public Enemy is just insipid in its proclamation to realism, and its movement through the twentieth century is just painfully prolonged and pedestrian. Cagney is not a film presence I find remotely natural, and the overbearing script fails to help any segment of the plot. Tedious and unbearable. Really afraid to watch White Heat now.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
I have typically found Wellman films disappointing as well. The Ox-Bow Incident is pretty good.
Luckily, this is Raoul Walsh.
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
Explain.
My YouTube Channel: Grim Street Grindhouse
My Top 100 Horror Movies OF ALL TIME.
Deal with it.
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
White Heat is better than The Public Enemy.
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
It's really just a token 'light' choice. I am expecting nothing from it whatsoever except for a few laughs and/or something to pan in my eventual alt-weekly wrap-up.
It's a popular tack to take, but I really feel like Life of Brian works best, since it coheres into a successful story without seemingly sacrificing any gags. In fact, it makes a lot of the jokes funnier to me, since they have the opportunity to grow and grow. Holy Grail and Meaning of Life have peaks and valleys (especially Meaning of Life), but Brian is consistently hilarious.
Not that those films aren't amazing in their own ways. "The Universe Song" and "Every Sperm is Sacred" kick ass, and the Lancelot segment from Grail stands as one of the funniest sustained sequences from any film I've ever seen. "One day, lad, all this will be yours." "What, the curtains?"
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is not a funny movie. To me. I am being serious. Humor doesn't work for me at all.
It's perhaps the movie I feel most out of the loop on.
Evidently.
Sorry, I mean to say BAD humor doesn't work for me.
Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly!Sorry, I mean to say BAD humor doesn't work for me.
I feel the opposite. I find much of the humor in Life of Brian to be their most dated.
The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
And what would you cite as good humor?Sorry, I mean to say BAD humor doesn't work for me.
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The Princess and the Pilot - B-
Playtime (rewatch) - A
The Hobbit - C-
The Comedy - D+
Kings of the Road - C+
The Odd Couple - B
Red Rock West - C-
The Hunger Games - D-
Prometheus - C
Tangled - C+
Yeah, I don't actually think it's a bad movie, but I don't connect with it at all. I'm sure you guys feel the same way about many popular comedies.
I watched Meaning of Life a few years ago and found it pretty disappointingly boring. First and last bits were pretty good, if I remember correctly.
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