Movie Tab II

Snow!


Snowman’s Land (2010) –
A darkly comic crime film in the spirit of the Coens, Tarantino, and Guy Ritchie. I guess the style has been done to death now, but this one should appease those who crave these sort of genre flicks. The story follows a deadpan hitman accepting an indefinite job in essential seclusion, running into some loosely related speedbumps along the way.

Shut Up and Shoot Me (2005) –
Same sort of thing as Snowman’s Land. This one requires a bit more suspension of disbelief, but it also has a somewhat more original style and a wonderful finale. The story begins with a simple premise (a man wanting to die), and in modern crime comedy convention, it devolves into a convoluted web of unpredictability (in a good way).

30 Days of Night (2007) –
I remember being beyond hyped when this came out, and was let down by a bulk of clichés and really bland dialogue. With lower expectations this time, I found it pretty entertaining. Of course, the setting plays the biggest part.

The Grey (2011) –
I thought the main character’s bits of melancholy were alright. Unfortunately, the rest just follows a garden-variety thriller script. It’s also hard not to get irritated by a movie that prompts me to turn the volume way up to hear characters’ faint mumbling, only to have it deafen me once the sudden action begins. On the plus side: Neeson is good, snowy scenery is usually nice, and the ending felt appropriate (making it that far was a bit of a chore though).

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Das weiße Band The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009) - +
Salinui chueok Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003) - +
Fat City (John Huston, 1972) -

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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."

Of course not. :P

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Frau im Mond [Woman in the Moon] (1929) -



Another sci-fi by Fritz Lang and again a masterpiece! This one has some incredible suspense moments, like during the rocket starting or match drawing that keep you on the edge of the seat. There are some romance themes, but handled perfectly well. So many beautiful scenes, these details... That ending.

Gaslight (1944) -



Generally, I'd say that the British version is a tad bit better, but Bergman here is beyond wonderful. I imagine if she and Walbrook combined would've starred in an adaptation of the play, it would've been a masterpiece. As always, it was cool to watch it some time after the British version, so I could notice the differences and there's a lot to notice here as the screenplay has been reworked. Sadly, all the graphic parts were cut off. Happily, Ingrid's cutesy more than makes up for it.

The Brood (1979) -



So f*cked up in the second half! Cronenberg's best by a mile! So creepy! So gross! So Freudian! This guy playing the main hero looks like how Peter Dinklage would've looked if he wasn't a midget.

Note: I really need to decide which thread to use...



The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)

Glorious tale of revenge that plays out more like a gangster film than some more traditional noirs, I thought it was quite dark/violent for its time, but its the personal touch and blurring of morality as our "hero" gets closer to his goal that makes the film particularly memorable. Glenn Ford and Lee Marvin are great in their roles, but its Gloria Grahame who arguably gives the best performance. Lang seems so confident with the camera, each scene feels perfectly constructed and shot, just like in M.



25th Hour (Spike Lee, 2002)

I always knew that Derek from here and Roger Ebert were big fans of this, so when it appeared pretty high up on the BBC's recent critics' best of the century list, I figured I would finally give it a watch. I am really not sure whether I am under or overrating it, I think some sequences/scenes are questionable, but the overall story, characters and the mood especially just made me feel like I was watching something great. From the off it had this downbeat, maybe even depressing tone, a feeling of regret and uncertainty, a frustration at life, at the choices we make, how we look at decisions and events for point of blame, and this downbeat mood stayed with me through the whole film, I really thought it was a very sad film. The ending worked very well with the message, I thought.

Is this the same as the Rate The Last Movie You Saw thread, except you write a review?

Welcome to the site!

You don't have to write anything. Generally this is something like Rate The Last Movie You Saw, only for cool people.

Glad you like it man and I feel the same about the movie

Were the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009) -
Fast & Furious (Justin Lin, 2009) -

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The African Queen (1951) -



Initially a 3 star rating, increased to 3.5 after I've rated The Sound of Music 3 stars. Typical Sunday after church type of a movie, but Hepburn and Bogart make such an adorable couple! Great acting from two veterans of cinema plus some nice oriental cinematography that looks amazing in Blu-Ray quality.

Cool Hand Luke (1967) -



Newman is a beast! Newman's banjo song was 100 times more emotional and touching than all the songs from The Sound of Music combined. The ending was pretty sad. Such a great film.

The Sound of Music (1965) -














Cinematography is insane. Everything else is meh. One hour in I wanted to give up watching it. Terrible. Then it picked up a little bit, but still typical musical of the time. If not for visuals, it would've been a complete failure. Music is okay, I guess, but nothing much. Took some screencaps for the hell of it. All in all, typical gbgoodies-core.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) -



I found this very scary. Scarier than most horrors I saw. Both leads were amazing, Bette Davis especially.

Naked Lunch (1991) -



I really disliked it at the beginning, but once I got into it, I ended up really liking it. I mean: talking anuses, giant cockroaches, homosexual syndicates, telepathy... Wow!

I would think Naked Lunch would be right up your kinky potatoe path Minio I was totally into the beginning of Naked Lunch but then it just lost me. Though the talking typewriter was golden.

I generally dislike this kind of junkie atmosphere in film (I didn't like Inherent Vice), but the amount of craziness here is something to behold.

Me and a friend tried watching "Naked Lunch" -- it was turned off after 10 minutes.

One of my favorite movies to thrust upon unsuspecting friends.

Try getting through 10 pages of the book.

Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)



I know this is quite highly regarded and some see it as a cult classic or whatever, but I didn't even find it mildly entertaining or likeable, in fact I thought it times it was pretty much unbearable. I'm a big fan of Monty Python and have enjoyed Gilliam's other films that I have seen, but I thought the comedy here was dull and repetitive, just lots of scene of silly shouting and stuff, bar some good ones where Cleese and Connery appear. My biggest complaint is probably just how ugly the whole film looks and feels, everything is grey, brown, frames are overcrowded and there doesn't seem to be much care taken with camerawork and such. I know you could say that the dull colours and ugliness comment could be applied to Brazil but I think it works there in the message of the film in that the man is trying to escape the gloomy world, this is meant to be a big fantasy epic where we travel to all sorts of locations, I would have liked to have seen glorious colours and unforgettable magical scenes.

Fog City Mavericks (Gary Leva, 2007)



Although it sometimes comes across as a self-promotion flick, this documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote, is also crammed with tons of historical info, wonderful movie clips and anecdotes from some of the most significant American filmmakers of the 1960s onward. It makes the case that there is an entire group of filmmakers, who have made some of the most wildly successful films ever, who are essentially independent from the Hollywood studio system. These include Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, Philip Kaufman, Carroll Ballard, John Milius, Steven Spielberg, Caleb Deschanel, Robert Dalva, Chris Columbus, Saul Zaentz, the entirety of Pixar Studio, Sofia Coppola, and several others.

The film basically describes how Coppola and Lucas took off one day in the late '60s to San Francisco where Coppola made his film The Rain People with a crew of about nine people, all who could somehow fit in a van. Lucas took home movies of the entire project. From this, Coppola was able to negotiate some projects for all the people he "represented", and those included Lucas' THX 1138 and a little something scripted by Milius called Apocalypse Now. Eventually, Coppola founds American Zoetrope Studios in San Francisco, and Lucas builds Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. Pixar is actually something which originally was part of Lucasfilm, but Steve Jobs was able to buy it for $5 million in the 1980s, although it was later bought by Disney for 7.4 billion (!!).

Although the film seems to occasionally strain credulity in suggesting that all these guys just wanted to make experimental films, the actual content of the movie is fascinating and includes many juicy tidbits which I had never heard of before. The story about the filming of The Rain People and how the studio butchered Lucas' truly experimental THX 1138 are very interesting, and then the way this group of filmmakers seems to expand, including a few personae non grattae (as if Lucas isn't at the top of the list) also makes it seem definitely unusual. I definitely recommend a viewing, even if you believe you know all about these filmmakers and their origins, I'm pretty sure it will open your eyes more than once.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allen, 2007)



This is a good example of how I look at films completely differently than many current professional reviewers and average film watchers. Woody Allen's latest (and it's not surprising if you don't even know it exists because of non-marketing) has been compared to Sidney Lumet's last one, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. They are very similar, at least superficially. They both involve brothers who get in way over their heads. They both seem to be attempts at modern Greek tragedies, so it goes without saying that things will end badly. They both concern the family as the overriding concern in one's life. Lumet's film was critically-acclaimed, and although the acting was good, the plot spilled over into such extreme areas that I found it more laughable than tragic. Allen's film is more predictable and offhand and wasn't well-regarded from most reviewers, but it seems to actually be stronger to me, as both entertainment and honest human drama.

Cassandra's Dream is the third consecutive Woody Allen film shot in London. These films seem to have recharged his batteries because they're much more interesting than his other output in the 2000s. Match Point was a potent drama and Scoop was a fun comedy, but one thing all three of these movies have in common is that they all involve murder, so they can be seen as variations on Woody's themes in Crimes and Misdemeanors and even Manhattan Murder Mystery. In this film, brothers Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell) need some financial help to see their dreams come true. Since they're both working-class blokes, they have little chance of ever striking it rich, but they are lucky enough to have their mom's rich brother, Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), so when he visits for their mom's birthday, the brothers approach him to help them with their two different problems. Unfortunately, although Uncle Howard seems more than willing to help them financially, he's seeking quid pro quo in the form of the boys murdering a business "associate" who has the goods on Howard's shady dealings and may send him to prison for life.



The plot contains many other elements and details, and they all add to the overall enjoyment of watching the film. As I said, it's fairly predictable, but I found it fun to yell out what was going to happen next and hum the Dragnet theme music before something nasty was going to happen. Going back to my first paragraph: many people complain that an Irishman and a Scotsman could never be believable brothers, especially when their folks and a girlfriend seem to be Cockneys. However, Uncle Howard certainly has no Cockney accent, and both Farrell and McGregor do a good job of ditching their normal accents and sounding more like Tom Wilkinson. Considering that the two brothers want to be upwardly-mobile, just like their uncle, is good enough for me. Besides, I was more interested in listening to Phillip Glass's score or watching Vilmos Zsigmond's subtle lighting and camerawork. Both McGregor and Farrell play their roles well. In fact, seeing Farrell agonize over his qualms about murder is actually an interesting comparison/contrast with his novice hitman role in the superb In Bruges. I realize I haven't said that much, but that's the way I like to keep my reviews: spoiler-free and appetite-whetting.