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Accidentally I'm planning to catch red cliff this week. Already seen the excerpt years ago from either dvd or tv aired but I never got the chance/have mood to finish thing up completely for I and II




I, Daniel Blake

I'm at a loss for words, such a powerful movie, so full of warmth but devastating.

they still haven't changed the **** music on the phone.

10/10



Welcome to the human race...
For sure.

Iro's the only one to ever write a short sentence or two next to a rating.
I thought Max was referring to the low rating for an otherwise acclaimed film. You know, because the only reason anyone would ever diss a popular film is to prove how different they are to everyone else.

Anyway...

The Great Wall -


Bright colours and muddled subtext for everyone!
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Arrival (2016)

+

This has clear inspirations, or motifs from a lot of other movies have. It's like Contact, but's it's a lot less grand. It has the busy complexities of Nolan's recent sci fi films, but it's a lot less talky, and in your face. It has the political charge of District 9, but it's far less obvious. It does have a "yeah, me too" story, but if you ask me, it does it better than all of those mentioned. It takes it's traditional story, and truly molds it into something I think is pretty damn special, with how it is crafted, how much they give to the audience, the way these themes are presented, it's all really good stuff. My only issue is a pretty out of nowhere reveal between Adams, and Renner's character at the end. But, other than that minor nitpick, it's a beautifully shot, smart science fiction drama that I feel like has a lot to offer if you have the patience for it.

Get Out (2017)

+

I liked it quite a bit. I wouldn't call it a horror masterpiece, but I can understand the acclaim, there are moments of brilliance in here, and it's always consistently good. Jordan Peele is shockingly ultra confident for a first time director, you don't usually get movies that seem this fearless when it comes to debuts. Sometimes you kind of know what's coming from a lot it if you've watched the trailer in terms of theme, and tone, but a lot of the time it doesn't, there's actually some pretty unique commentary that I wasn't expecting from it that transcends itself from what people were expecting. It can be a little overplayed, and obvious at times, sometimes I wished it was a bit more subtly mixed in with everything going on, but I never once thought "ok, we get it," or something along those lines, which is always a good sign for satire.

The horror is good, although very traditional. You have your seemingly innocent, albeit uncomfortable community that you pretty much know has dark intentions, you've seen it before, and you know where's it going to go. There's a few twists, and turns, but nothing truly shocking. But, it's given a jolt of originality from the clever writing to keep it from being too "been there, done that." It's funny, but not in the way you'd expect. Save for some of Lil Rel Howery's lines, there's no broad, laugh out loud comedy, which was a nice surprise, and quite a shock coming from someone who is mostly known for sketch comedy, I like it when satire can be a bit more subdued with it's humor.

Overall, I think it was really close to being great, but I'll settle for pretty damn good. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Peele's next is even better. This is a good start to his film career, and I dare anyone to say he's not as talented as his partner after seeing this.



Bad Santa 2 (2016)



**** this movie. I didn't expect much, but man, they just got it wrong, wrong, wrong. The first one is one of my favorite movies, it's delightfully mean spirited, and nasty, during, for most, the best time of the year, and it does so by being hysterical, without ever begging for laughs. It's also surprisingly sweet at times, it's it own unique sadistic way. This movie offers nothing the first one did. Bad Santa wasn't a joke riot, it didn't throw one at you every ten seconds. But, this one goes for far too many desperate, cheap laughs that mistakes the original's dark comedy for horrible one liners trying to shock. Really, the jokes are just downright horrible. It tries to have a soft spot, but in a far more traditional way that really doesn't work for these characters.

Thornton seems tired, and not in the way the character calls for. The naive, uncomfortable character Brett Kelly played as a kid now just comes off as very annoying as an adult. You would think Kathy Bates would be funny in this kind of role, but she's really not. Poor Tony Cox, he still seems like he's trying. His delivery is still there, he's a funny guy, but he can't get past the script, all he's really there for is to take the garbage jokes that were made at his expense. What a pointless, unnecessary, god awful movie. It fails as a comedy, and even moreso as a sequel. It might be one of the worst sequels I've ever had to sit through.



The Accountant (Gavin O'Connor, 2016)


This could've been a tight little action vehicle that reclaims autism in the process by recharacterizing the afflicted protagonist as a superhero of sorts. The problem lies in the overly complex plot, and the abundance of needless side characters.
Complex plot?- I thought it was too straight forward. In regards to superhero protagonist,- it only works if he is fighting against superhero antagonist, otherwise it's savage slaughter. First "John Wick" had this problem (haven't seen second), "The Equalizer" had this problem and "The Accountant" has this problem- overpowered protagonist. (p.s. all superman movies coined this problem.)



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Went to the cinema to see it on the same day as the Oscars (completed the 9 movies nom for Best Picture) and I like it a lot. It's intense, emotional and freaking frustrating.


In the end of the movie the guy next to me that spent the 2nd half of the movie laughing about don't know what says to the girl that it was the worst movie ever, full of clichés and boring dialogue. Anyone else?


What an amazing movie and what a godlike performance by Hoffman.




I liked all the mistery and strangeness envolved in the movie.




Why am I only discovering this movies now? Just like A Woman Under the Influence, I discovered it now, had to see it and wow, brilliant movie. It's a bit complex and I'm not sure I even understood it right. Probably goes a bit higher once I've seen it again.




Complex plot?- I thought it was too straight forward. In regards to superhero protagonist,- it only works if he is fighting against superhero antagonist, otherwise it's savage slaughter. First "John Wick" had this problem (haven't seen second), "The Equalizer" had this problem and "The Accountant" has this problem- overpowered protagonist. (p.s. all superman movies coined this problem.)
I don't know how you could call the story simple. It takes a 20 minute break towards the end to let JK Simmons explain wtf is even happening through flashbacks. You could cut the investigators, the British lady explanation, the multiple red herrings, the brother, the father, and the mother out and still have a substantial movie. One that flows a lot better and doesn't spread itself too thin trying to be clever, fail at being emotional, and put its ensemble cast to work.

As for him being overpowered, they put his friends and acquaintances in the line of fire to compensate. That's a pretty common trope. Look at Taken. Look at Bourne. Hell, the best part of the movie was watching Affleck operate in that apartment building. So none of that really bothered me. Ideally, with a movie like this the biggest conflict he should have to overcome is with his disability instead of any antagonist. That kind of goes out the window as soon as you rebrand autism as a super power.
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Out Of The Past -
+




There's some spoilers in this so don't read if you haven't seen it.

Good film. My favourite things were the cinematography and Jane Greers performance and character. She was exactly what i like in a femme fatale. Likable to an extent but somewhat dark and mysterious so you are never comfortable completely warming to her, and genuinely enticing so you can believe that the protagonist would fall for her. Although the latter part was in spite of the story, if Greer wasn't as good as she was a good chunk of this wouldn't have worked for me which brings me to my main problem that stopped this from being a potential favourite. Mitchum's narration annoyed me a bit. It just felt a bit lazy; we saw Jeff doing something then his narration would explain exactly what was happening and what he was thinking; made the film feel rushed. I mean why on earth did they have Jeff kiss Cathy that early on? What the hell was that? I was baffled, they hadn't attempted to build anything between them. They had the brief meeting then maybe a minute and a half of talking in the bar before they go for a walk then the romantic music plays and he kisses her. I swear i almost burst out laughing at how much the director had jumped the gun for me at least, it felt so flat and just weird. At this point i thought i wasn't going to like this even though i had already taken to Cathy, thankfully it improved when Kirk Douglas came back into it. Actually the very moment that got me back into it was when Jeff and Whit are going down to the hotel bar when he has just arrived and a woman walks in with a sunhat on stopping Mitchum dead in his tracks; it really cemented the stakes. I really liked Kirk Douglas performance and character more and more as the film went on, there was something that completely worked about how calm he was. Loved when it was revealed that Kathy was with him again, he didn't raise his voice or threaten Jeff, presenting her was enough to show Jeff that he knows everything and that Jeff doesn't have a choice. I love stuff like that reminds me of Vito and Michael in The Godfather, helps create a great antagonist. After that the story got a little crazy with various twists and turns in a short period of time, i enjoyed it though. The only bad thing for me was how Joe died, that was ridiculous. Loved both Jeff's short lived victory scene over Whit and Cathie, Mitchum was at his best and seeing Whit finally get angry was amazing, the ending too really didn't expect Jeff to die.

So yeah, i did like this and i think it's probably better than the rating i gave it; the things i mentioned in the first half hour dragged it down a bit though.



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The Wrestler (2008)
It is Mickey Rourke's performance I liked the most about this film. He was so convincing like he wasn't even playing the character. It was because the parallel between Mickey's real life and life of the character he played.

I rated it only 3 out of 5 because of the film's destructive message. He was simply so stubborn and not able to change his life destroying his relationships with his daughter and his possible girlfriend. He was on a good way to make it all better and destroyed everything again. Not even heart attack made him to change his life. You can do the professional sports to a certain age, you can party to a certain age, but then you have to move on and take a responsibility. After his daughter told him she doesn't want to see him any more, I was so hoping he's gonna get a haircut and change his life. But, zero.

I think that The Wrestler was heavily inspired by Beyond The Mat and Jake The Snake. In that you see that these guys can often never give up on performing this form of entertainment look at what guys like Terry Funk put themselves though. I say who are we to judge these people though they may well be self destructive in the end but at least they do what they want with their lives and it does seem to be one they love, what is that compared to living what we see as a normal life which is probably be one that they would ultimately be unhappy in.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Complex plot?- I thought it was too straight forward. In regards to superhero protagonist,- it only works if he is fighting against superhero antagonist, otherwise it's savage slaughter. First "John Wick" had this problem (haven't seen second), "The Equalizer" had this problem and "The Accountant" has this problem- overpowered protagonist. (p.s. all superman movies coined this problem.)
You mean, every action flick ever has this problem?
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The Eyes of my Mother (2016)


Finding this one really difficult to judge how much I liked it. Its a slow burning horror, beautifully filmed in black and white and with a real unsettling atmosphere throughout. The film itself is very minimalist, which leads us to Kika Magalaes, who more or less carries the film in its entirety. I'll not spoil by going any further but her performance as a woman obviously unbalanced and lonely is fantastic.


Highly recommended.


+++ (with lots of potential to rise!)
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The Innocents (Anne Fontaine, 2016)



The horrors of war and the trials of faith examined through a powerful premise which unfortunately degrades into typical Hollywood fair. The film can't reconcile its most stark and unwieldy realities with its penchant for cinematic convenience and tidy story telling. Its momentary successes, potent by themselves, only compound my frustration for its shortcomings as a whole.



Doctor Strange

The story..should I say.. kinda psychadelic mess lul. Idk, anything feel rushed, cliches(won't argue) , too(too) convenient etc etc etc , even the jokes :/ .
In the end I love the cast but some of characters did feel - err something like that - especially efiojor's character. But again it have that impressive spectacle no matter what - and no matter what - absolutely awesome -



- insterstellar overdrive Is rockin' but like I feel with mostly marvel problem with music~bgm~ost, it became less strikin' somehow -



I don't know how you could call the story simple. It takes a 20 minute break towards the end to let JK Simmons explain wtf is even happening through flashbacks.
Flashbacks were not necessary. They are best used in relation to current psychological state of characters or as a fancy method to connect the dots. In other words there should be some feature connecting presence and past to make flashbacks justifiable. Flashbacks are not good for explaining something that could have been explained in linear timeline without loosing "essence".
You could cut the investigators, the British lady explanation, the multiple red herrings, the brother, the father, and the mother out and still have a substantial movie. One that flows a lot better and doesn't spread itself too thin trying to be clever, fail at being emotional, and put its ensemble cast to work.
Repeated demonstrations of protagonist's intellectual and other abilities doesn't make a movie clever. Otherwise "Beautiful Mind" would be clever movie. And surely "The Accountant" was as dry of emotion as movies come. Even if it's justified given it's accountant. As far as ensemble cast goes, they fulfilled their roles defined as marveling in accountant's abilities.
As for him being overpowered, they put his friends and acquaintances in the line of fire to compensate. That's a pretty common trope.
True.
Taken relies on audiences satisfaction of watching the bad guys getting annihilated above all else.
Bourne spends as much time running away from his enemies as he does pursuing them. Besides there is more thought put into how their confrontations should transpire. Having protagonist shoot up his opposition with as much effort as I eat my birthday cake is not a way to make a movie interesting.
Hell, the best part of the movie was watching Affleck operate in that apartment building. So none of that really bothered me. Ideally, with a movie like this the biggest conflict he should have to overcome is with his disability instead of any antagonist. That kind of goes out the window as soon as you rebrand autism as a super power.
Many superheroes had to overcome worse than autism. Look at Deadpool.
You mean, every action flick ever has this problem?
Most action heroes spend lots of time having to overcome difficulties or having to get the **** out of somewhere. So no, most action movies don't have this problem.



So John Wick was shot and that's why he isn't superhero. Well, yes, one of twenty guys who were shooting at him thanks to dumb luck hit him. Meanwhile, John Wick fired 19 kills with 19 bullets. (Doesn't apply to "John Wick 2", I haven't seen it.)