14th Hall of Fame

some really great reviews today and it is capped off with an exceptional description of Black Snake Moan by Miss Vicky getting to the very heart of the movie. BRAVO.
Held off reading Nestorio's review for the spoilers; but its always great to see the reasons people choose a movie and I got to see that with Cricket's review of Mommy. Rather liked the line about their ups and downs are your ups and down, and look forward to seeing if such an experience is shared by me as well.
Enjoyed Joel's to the point analysis of Hurricane and, once again, an intriguing and descriptive review from Cosmic for Empire of Passion.

VERY cool

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
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~Mr Minio

Grand Illusion SPOILERS



This one surprised me a lot. The only previous Renoir I had seen was Rules of the Game, which I had seen twice. I saw a lot of critics regard that as one of the best films of all time and I definitely disagreed. Then I saw a lot of praise for this film and I was skeptical. But, it tells a great story. I seem to have a nice feel for POW films. It almost felt like a Stalag 17 film. There were even some parts I found funny (though obviously it isn't as funny as Stalag 17), but a lot of it clicked for me. I think the casting and the acting drove the film to be really good. In particular Gabin and Fresnay we're real good but I thought pretty much all the key contributors were. When they were digging the hole, I certainly thought that the plot would be centered around that happening, much like Le Trou. But when they were moved out I knew that wouldn't be the case. My favorite part of the film was centered around Boeldieu and Raufenstein, the scene where Raufenstein tried to shoot him in the leg and got him in the stomach. It was a pretty emotional scene seeing Raufenstein talk to Boeldieu as he was dying in the bed. The film makes human life feel valuable and makes it feel that all life has purpose. The other thing I liked about the film was the ending, with Gabin and Fresnay hiding out in the German Widows home. First it was cool that she never ratted them out and second it was cool to see her become friends with them (and even more with Gabin). I thought for sure they were going to get shot at the end but it was a cool scene seeing them walk off as well. A great nomination @edarsenal.

Black Snake Moan (2006)

Like the other films I've seen in this Hall of Fame so far, I had no idea what this film was about, although I feel that will be the case with the rest of the films I watch here.

The film stars Samuel L. Jackson as a farmer and blues guitarist named Lazarus who finds a young woman named Rae (Christina Ricci) who he tries to cure of her nymphomania. Other characters include Lazarus' friend RL (John Cothran), and Rae's boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake). Overall, I did like the film - Samuel L. Jackson was fantastic as usual, as were the rest of the cast. I also thought the music in the film was great and would probably rank it amongst my favourite film soundtracks. The plot was also quite good as was Craig Brewer's direction and the script is filled with good doses of humour to even out the drama.

Overall, this was quite good but and was definitely surprised as to how much I liked it, and will be sure to revisit it in the future

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Letterboxd

BSM is getting a much better reception than I expected. Fingers crossed that the trend continues.

Glad you liked it Raul

That's my only Renoir too, watching The Human Beast soon.

I was rather pleasantly surprised by Grand Illusion, as well, @rauldc14. Need to get my review posted for this.

and glad to hear you enjoyed Black Snake Moan, @Yam12, quite the good film

I wish there was a non overly scientific way for me to cast my computer onto my HDTV. Some of the more obscure/hard to find titles I have to watch sitting straight up at my desktop, and it's never a comfortable watch for any film. My HDTV section allows me to recline and really give myself to a movie completely with maximum movie watching comfort. Until I find a way to do this, I will probably shy away from titles like M, Empire of Passion and La Grande Illusion.

I am currently fighting through Time of the Gypsies, and because of this, I've come to realize that comfort is very important while assessing a film, especially a foreign film to the viewer.

I will comfortably watch Passengers tonight, and make my best and most honest effort to force comfortability upon the viewing of Gypsies, as soon as I end this sentence.

I do agree that watching a film on a laptop/compute does take away as opposed to watching something on a tv. It is a difficult balance and one I take into full account on my viewing since I do bounce back and forth during these.

We'll see if my wondershare video converter will do me a solid and "take notes" of the dailymotion link, so thou sahl haveth a copy for my thumbeth drivest. Only on a thumbeth drivest can thou watcheth in comforteth.

methinks doth quoth truthfully lol

La Grande Illusion

Before watching this movie I checked out the introduction by the director, Renoir, who mentioned how this was not the usual POW movie that many of us are familiar with and how, for him, the first world war and in regards to how prisoners were treated, was far more gentleman-like and it does prepare you for how courtesy to a military prisoner is equal to how one would treat a guest.

Also, though while this the setting of this movie, the very heart of it is more about relationships. Between classes and among people and we see this as those who are similar in their upbringing find and drift toward their like, regardless of what country they come from.
And while this seems a simplistic story line, there is an elegance that did catch me unaware and without realizing it, I was very much involved in the story and with the characters in this.

What I also found endearing was that there was no bad guy. There were human beings. Soldiers. Doing what they must, as they must.
I won't go any deeper and wait for others to watch and continue this conversation then.

Closing, I will say I am very happy to have found this and quite happy to share it.

Watched Passengers. Oof. Do i have to review it? Not going to be a very polite review. I forgot who nomd it so, let me just think more about it later.

I thought it had so much dramatic potential. Great modern fx. Then again $110 million budget, it'd better.

You ought to write it up, yes. As long as you give reasons for your dislike of it, there shouldn't be an issue. People need to remember that it is the film being criticized and not the person who nominated it.

Joel, Passengers is my nom, I've always been cool when people don't like my movie, so no worries.

I don't watch movies on my computer either. Question....you say you will shy away from titles like M, Empire of Passion and La Grande Illusion. Are you saying you're not going to watch them? or saying something else?

You can literally just use a HDMI cable and your tv will work like another monitor. The only trick would be moving your computer close enough to the tv for that.

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I'm only saying I won't make them priority until I can watch them in a decent manner. It wouldn't be fair to watch them uncomfortably, my opinion on those films might not be as favorable because I would have been squirming the entire time.

Passengers (2017)


Forgive my lack of eloquence in writing this review. I want to get right to it.

I was warming up quick to this movie because the premise was great. People go to sleep for a hundred years to await their new life on another planet, in the future. One guy wakes up early, with 90 years left to go, completely and understandably freaks out, finds a woman he fancies, then has a dilemma, a moral dilemma..but inevitably(?) wakes her up, making her life suffer through 90 years of time against her initial wishes.

There you have it. A fantastic premise. Plenty of room for dramatic insight, heartache and just general story possibilities.

I was let down, I felt. I did think the effects were pretty super. The spaceship that everyone was hibernated on was lush and massive. It moved through space nicely. Then again, this is all CGI so, it's not like I can say that the art of motion control has really come a long way.

The two leads are just serviceable, I thought. I'm not a fan of either and this film is no exception, although I did find a few moments of humor that was appreciated. I don't hate them, I'm just not connecting to them personality-wise. I don't altogether buy their demeanor.

Then I remember that this film isn't playing for realism. It's a $110 million blockbuster positioned movie from Columbia, and about a dozen other film companies, making an outer space romantic tale of morals I guess?. Jesus Mary.

I didn't like the written characters. Why did they basically commit suicide and leave friends and family behind? No explanation aside from some video chat recording which is hollow and empty. Both of them, good looking, all American young adults. Vanished. Took a train into outer space for the rest of time. No flashbacks, no back story, no contrast, no dice. No dice for me.


Then that ending song that closed the film, oh man. I am sorry. This...this is not my kind of movie.

Potential spoilers for Passengers.
They do both explain their motivations for leaving everything behind. We aren't told much about Jim, but he's sold on the idea of moving to a new, untainted planet where he can build a new life from scratch. We don't know whether or not Earth has overcrowding issues, but even if there is still space to expand, he likely couldn't afford to build his own home (which he tells Aurora he really wanted to do), especially since he had to get a skilled labour discount on a lower class ticket.

While Aurora did have friends and family on Earth, that doesn't mean she was happy there. She does admit that she never intended to stay on the new planet; she just wanted to be the first writer to have that experience, and return home to write about it. You can read that as her being willing to give up her loved ones for her career, or that she really wanted this new experience.

Personally, if I could take my own films and video games with me (we do see a movie theatre and dancing video game arena), I'd totally be up for a trip to a new planet. That doesn't mean that I hate my friends and family, but a once in a lifetime opportunity like that would probably be too hard to resist.

I hear what you are saying. My issue is that the reasons were not explored enough. She did plan to return to earth, but it'd have been in the future so her departure would have been permanent to her friends/family essentially. I guess the moral dilemma for me would have been this more than actually waking someone up against their will. Once I discovered that they jumped the ship with next to no exposition aside from some general and unexplored reasons, I didn't feel much weight coming in any other direction. I believe this to be very indicative of the writing, as you had mentioned earlier with the lack of moral justice. I feel the same, but mine is compounded, sadly.