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I watched The Lion in Winter (1968) today. Directed by Anthony Harvey, the film has a good cast including Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton. It was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning 3. As expected with a cast like this, performances are very good. Hepburn and O'Toole are the two standouts for me. Costumes and set design were well done. My main issue with the film is that I didn't find the story very interesting. The film is 2 hours and 14 minutes and drags on at times. There are some good moments, but overall it feels too long and is not as compelling as it should be. The Lion in Winter is not a bad film, but maybe with a different director it could have been a truly great film. My guess would be that Edarsenal nominated it for me.
Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame VI
I really liked The Lion in Winter, it was all the biting arguments and back-stabbing. I watched it as a play though and it didn't have quite the same magic, so it must have been the performances in the film that brought the dialogue to life.
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It must be that historical period costume fantasy movie set in 18th century London starring Winona Ryder
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I really liked The Lion in Winter, it was all the biting arguments and back-stabbing. I watched it as a play though and it didn't have quite the same magic, so it must have been the performances in the film that brought the dialogue to life.
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Originally Posted by Citizen Rules
It must be that historical period costume fantasy movie set in 18th century London starring Winona Ryder
Good call!
It must be that historical period costume fantasy movie set in 18th century London starring Winona Ryder
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) isn't on any of the lists
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The Lion in Winter isn't a film I loved BUT it's one I can say is masterfully written and performed.
...The Lion in Winter is not an easy film to watch. I found if I didn't pay close attention I would miss bits of dialogue and lose my place in the ongoing, plans-within-plans. The dialogue is very stage like and reminded me of a modern adaption of a Shakespearean play.
I do love historical period pieces but this film is really about cleverly written verbiage. Really the things they say are very witty and roll off the actors lips like fine tuned prose....
I do love historical period pieces but this film is really about cleverly written verbiage. Really the things they say are very witty and roll off the actors lips like fine tuned prose....
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I watched Dheepan (2015) today. Directed by Jacques Audiard, the film stars Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, and Claudine Vinasithamby. It's a drama about three strangers who pose as a family to escape war torn Sri Lanka and immigrate to France. Dehhpan won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I thought this film was pretty good, but not great. The first half of the film was the strongest part. Some of the story elements in the later part of the film didn't completely work for me. Performances were good from the three main actors. The story had some interesting moments, but overall I felt it could have been more compelling. There were a lot of other better films in 2015, so this wouldn't have made my list of best films of 2015. I've only seen one other film by Audiard, which was The Prophet, but I was severely underwhelmed by that one. For me, Dheepan is a much better film than The Prophet. I think this was a bit of a risky choice for me. I did appreciate and like the film, but didn't love it and wasn't blown away by it. My guess is that Siddon nominated this for me, but I could be wrong.
Yup that's me...I'm pretty much going to nominate Dheepan for everyone at some point. And while I agree the first half is better than the second half...the first half is a masterpiece I still think the second part is solid. Generally I hate british class working films (I, Daniel Blake, Naked, Ratcatcher) Dheepan is the exception to me because it's actually about real people that feel real and the movie actually goes some place.
The Lion in the Winter was my second choice for you (I think) so I picked the right film of the two choices for you.
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I watched Raise the Red Lantern (1991). This is one of my friend's all time favourite films and I had heard that it was supposed to be really good. I had been meaning to get around to watching it. Sorry to say, this didn't live up to the hype for me. It didn't do much at all for me. For me, the best thing about the film is the cinematography. I did love the look of the film. The biggest problem is the story. I did not find this interesting or compelling. To be honest I found the film boring in parts. It dragged on and felt longer than it was. I had a hard time caring about the characters. The performances were fine, but honestly no one really impressed me, acting wise. There were a couple good moments here and there, but overall I didn't care for this film. I've seen two other films by this director, Hero (2002) and Ju Dou (1990). I liked both of those, but this one is a miss for me. I would guess Citizen Rules picked this for me. Whoever it was, good effort, sorry that it didn't work for me.
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So for Once Upon a Time in America, does the nominator prefer that I watch the theatrical cut or the extended director's cut or no preference? I have the blu ray, which has both cuts.
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So for Once Upon a Time in America, does the nominator prefer that I watch the theatrical cut or the extended director's cut or no preference? I have the blu ray, which has both cuts.
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I watched Raise the Red Lantern (1991). This is one of my friend's all time favourite films and I had heard that it was supposed to be really good. I had been meaning to get around to watching it. Sorry to say, this didn't live up to the hype for me. It didn't do much at all for me. For me, the best thing about the film is the cinematography. I did love the look of the film. The biggest problem is the story. I did not find this interesting or compelling. To be honest I found the film boring in parts. It dragged on and felt longer than it was. I had a hard time caring about the characters. The performances were fine, but honestly no one really impressed me, acting wise. There were a couple good moments here and there, but overall I didn't care for this film. I've seen two other films by this director, Hero (2002) and Ju Dou (1990). I liked both of those, but this one is a miss for me. I would guess Citizen Rules picked this for me. Whoever it was, good effort, sorry that it didn't work for me.
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I love Raise the Red Lantern, personally. It's one of my favorite first-time watches of this year.
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I loved it the first time I watched it....but it loses a bit on repeat viewings...doesn't make sense for this hall though.
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Twelve Monkeys
Like anything Gilliam the story goes here there and everywhere. It's got those trademark Gilliam camera shots (at least felt very similar to those used in Tideland which I have seen prior) and I'm not really a big fan of those. The film is gritty looking and has some nice looking sequences although it also doesn't wow me. In Sci-Fi films I like it when we have cool world building which this really doesn't have.
Bruce Willis is a tough actor for me to like. I have found most of his performances quite wooden and there's really nothing different in his case here. I feel like he can be substituted and the film could have equal or even greater impact. There's a lot of people behind the performance of Brad Pitt here too but overall I found it to be just ok.
What I did like was the ending which was very climatic and it was cool to see a younger version of the crazy Disturbia neighbor wreaking havoc on the world again. His mini performance may have been my favorite as crazy as it sounds. It was cool to see how it didn't depend on the heroic ending and I like how tense those final scenes were. Probably something that will deserve a rewatch down the line although I won't be in a rush. So a bit unfavorable overall for me but at least I finally got around to it.
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Like anything Gilliam the story goes here there and everywhere. It's got those trademark Gilliam camera shots (at least felt very similar to those used in Tideland which I have seen prior) and I'm not really a big fan of those. The film is gritty looking and has some nice looking sequences although it also doesn't wow me. In Sci-Fi films I like it when we have cool world building which this really doesn't have.
Bruce Willis is a tough actor for me to like. I have found most of his performances quite wooden and there's really nothing different in his case here. I feel like he can be substituted and the film could have equal or even greater impact. There's a lot of people behind the performance of Brad Pitt here too but overall I found it to be just ok.
What I did like was the ending which was very climatic and it was cool to see a younger version of the crazy Disturbia neighbor wreaking havoc on the world again. His mini performance may have been my favorite as crazy as it sounds. It was cool to see how it didn't depend on the heroic ending and I like how tense those final scenes were. Probably something that will deserve a rewatch down the line although I won't be in a rush. So a bit unfavorable overall for me but at least I finally got around to it.
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Love Willis and Pitt but I don't care for Twelve Monkeys.
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Twelve Monkeys
Like anything Gilliam the story goes here there and everywhere. It's got those trademark Gilliam camera shots (at least felt very similar to those used in Tideland which I have seen prior) and I'm not really a big fan of those. The film is gritty looking and has some nice looking sequences although it also doesn't wow me. In Sci-Fi films I like it when we have cool world building which this really doesn't have.
Bruce Willis is a tough actor for me to like. I have found most of his performances quite wooden and there's really nothing different in his case here. I feel like he can be substituted and the film could have equal or even greater impact. There's a lot of people behind the performance of Brad Pitt here too but overall I found it to be just ok.
What I did like was the ending which was very climatic and it was cool to see a younger version of the crazy Disturbia neighbor wreaking havoc on the world again. His mini performance may have been my favorite as crazy as it sounds. It was cool to see how it didn't depend on the heroic ending and I like how tense those final scenes were. Probably something that will deserve a rewatch down the line although I won't be in a rush. So a bit unfavorable overall for me but at least I finally got around to it.
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Like anything Gilliam the story goes here there and everywhere. It's got those trademark Gilliam camera shots (at least felt very similar to those used in Tideland which I have seen prior) and I'm not really a big fan of those. The film is gritty looking and has some nice looking sequences although it also doesn't wow me. In Sci-Fi films I like it when we have cool world building which this really doesn't have.
Bruce Willis is a tough actor for me to like. I have found most of his performances quite wooden and there's really nothing different in his case here. I feel like he can be substituted and the film could have equal or even greater impact. There's a lot of people behind the performance of Brad Pitt here too but overall I found it to be just ok.
What I did like was the ending which was very climatic and it was cool to see a younger version of the crazy Disturbia neighbor wreaking havoc on the world again. His mini performance may have been my favorite as crazy as it sounds. It was cool to see how it didn't depend on the heroic ending and I like how tense those final scenes were. Probably something that will deserve a rewatch down the line although I won't be in a rush. So a bit unfavorable overall for me but at least I finally got around to it.
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