18th Mofo Hall of Fame

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ohhh you guysss...you know you missed the boat on Split but that's OK. OK, (rubs hands together)..three more to go! Let's get it ON!!! (jogs aggressively in place while exhaling like a caffeinated athlete)



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Sorry I've been away for so long everybody. But I've been watching films and only have 3 left. Will post my reviews during the next few days!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
need to wrap this up as well. Got the final four to go.
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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio



Sorry I've been away for so long everybody. But I've been watching films and only have 3 left. Will post my reviews during the next few days!
Look forward to your last 8 reviews!
The Waitful Eight.



The Square (Ruben Ostlund; 2017)



Been interested in this for a while. Overall I'd say the experience was mixed. The performances were great but I did not care for the plot and that it honestly could've been about half an hour shorter or so. I did like a number of scenes though, particularly the monkey scene which I did feel was quite funny. Overall I did feel that the film that the film had some interesting themes and an interesting story but it wasn't something I was able to connect to. Good film nonetheless but not one for me.
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Brimstone (Martin Koolhoven; 2016)



Didn't know much about this before watching but overall wasn't a fan of this. The first chapter was quite promising but the second chapter is when the film started to go off the rails for me and it never recovered after that. Also did feel that the majority of the acting was nothing special. Also felt this went on for way too long and the conclusion of the film was pretty unsatisfying. Overall I could see why someone might like this but it just wasn't for me.
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Letterboxd

Originally Posted by Iroquois
To be fair, you have to have a fairly high IQ to understand MovieForums.com.



Road to Perdition (2002)


The first thing that hit me is how good this film looks and just how good it looks had slipped my mind. Much of that is down to how its visuals are consistently great and I don't think anything else in this Hall of Fame matches up in that area (Unless Split pulls several rabbits out of the hat). Standout is the scene where Jude Law's character Harlen enters the crime scene with his camera. There's not much drama or suspense built into this sequence initially but the way Conrad Hall puts it together with a shaded quality is amazing. I think all of the scenes are well structured because of this and that also gives the more notable story moments a lift. There's clear thought and ingenuity being put into the cinematography and production design of this.

I liked Hanks here and it's got a great supporting cast too (Newman, Leigh, Law, Tucci, Craig, Hinds et. al.). I'm still not a fan of the ending or the last 15 to 20 minutes in general where the corniness is dialled up to a level that was difficult to hack, but that's the only real qualm I have with it.

I remember this as being a decent follow up to American Beauty from Sam Mendes. Without a doubt, Road to Perdition is the film I prefer on rewatch. Great pick @edarsenal.



Watched Snow White yesterday. Will try to have review up today and most likely will vote tonight as well as that was my last film.
incoming.




Sadly @Nathaniel was wrong and I didn't enjoy classical Disney.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) N

A Disney classic about a pretty princess with one bitch of a stepmother.


It's not my movie. Besides animation looking really good there's very little to stir my interest. The story is so minimal that even at only 83 minutes there's time for multiple (rather awful in my opinion) musical numbers. And yes, I know it's from an old fairy tale by the Grimm brothers but the queen's actions to get rid off Snow White are rather pathetic.

The characters are extremely thin. Snow White feels like a simpleton whose only purpose is to find herself a husband. She doesn't exaggerate when she sings that she only knows one song. The dwarfs have their whole character profile in their respective names. It's kinda sad that all the random bunnies and birds feel as deep (or actually shallow) as the titular characters.

A princess fantasy for little girls that doesn't seem very relevant today (whether that's a good or a bad thing is not an easy question to answer). I can't say that I enjoyed this but I can kinda see why people in the 30s did.




Surprise, surprise. I’d like to at least defend it and say that there’s one thing that can make a movie in my opinion without a great plot... and that’s beauty. I think a film with great beauty is just awesome to watch. So now that everyone’s watched it (and few have liked it) I still think it’s important to not just look at the characters and plot but the amazing beauty (and I know a lot of you did point it out).






Abandon Ship! is a film that is of it's essence about dogma. This is a film in which the narrator tells you what to think and every character is lined up for a specific purpose. Had this been a Twilight Zone episode or a Playhouse 90 TV movie it might have worked but stretched to feature length the characterizations are also problematic.


I can understand why Citizen Rules nominated this film, the first act is great and the film has enough plot points that you can maintain a degree of enjoyment from it. Those that died are shown to be heroic those that live...not so much. Also you have bit of a racism problem with the film as several characters are just flimsy and cartoonish stereotypes (black guy, irish guy, Italian guy, promiscuous female and male) are all portrayed terribly. You also have this undercurrent where only the people who served were "heroes" they were not given the same harsh treatment as the civilians.



What is sad about this is the actual story is much more compelling. The actual story took place 100 years early, the ship was filled with many children and the crew killed all the men and two of the women. I would have loved to see that story, about the sort of men that take control in a situation like that, about the boat filled with multiple children not just the one and how the next day the ones that hid were sent to their death. This was just Darwinism which is sad because it could have been more.


As for the film, the low budget works well Tyrone Power takes a commanding lead none of the other characters are given much more to do. The climax I felt would have worked better on a second setting...perhaps on trial or on the rescue ship doing it on the boat seemed a touch too melodramatic



Well we've got our second completely reviewed film...Snow White

Abandon Ship 10/12
Brimstone 11/12
Bubba Ho-Tep 12/12
Extremely Loud and Incredible Close 6/12
The Florida Project 9/12
The King of Comedy 10/12
The Little Stranger 11/12
Perfect Blue 9/12
Road to Perdition 10/12
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 12/12
Split 8/12
The Square 11/12

119 reviews are in with 25 left to go with 24% of those being Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close reviews

Here's a preview for the scoring

1st Place - 58 pts
2nd Place - 52 pts
3rd Place - 51 pts
4th Place - 49 pts
5th Place - 45 pts
6th Place - 44 pts
7th Place - 39 pts
8th Place -37 pts
9th Place - 30 pts
10th Place - 29 pts
11th Place - 25 pts
12th Place - 9 pts



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Reviewing these 2 together cause I felt they had some similarities in terms of atmosphere:

Brimstone

I knew nothing about this, the poster suggested a western so I was quite curious to watch it.
While I didn't love this there were some things nice about it: I liked that it was divided into several non chronological chapters cause it showed the character's actions before showing their motivations. With such a straight forward story line that was a good way to keep things interesting and give it some depth. I liked the first two chapters, while the other two felt a bit underwhelming, especially the last one.
The acting is solid though I wouldn't highlight noone, I felt all the characters lacked some depth but maybe that's because of the script,not sure.
I also had some issues with its running time, it maybe could lose 30 minutes though I'm not sure what would I cut.

It's overall a decent film that I don't regret watching but it's not likely I'll revisit it ever again.

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Road to Perdition

The first thing I need to say about this is: stunning cinematography! There are really amazing shots here and how everything was kept so dark through out the whole film did wonders for its atmosphere.
Tom Hanks lends a friendly face to a film that could easily be a western vendetta film, creating quite an interesting mixture.
The acting is quite good by everyone involved, with a rich cast full of well known faces, but I did think the first climax of this felt a bit empty, too stylized and not enough powerful. Had no problem with the second climax though it was quite obvious it was bound to happen.

A good film, surprisingly easy to watch. Nice nom!

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