I love the stuffing out of Pineapple Express, but I will concede it had a bunch of lines that completely fall flat. A lot of the dialogue that didn't work for you, though, was probably some of the improvised stuff. Like "It smells like a whale's vagina". I think those kind of nonstop complete non-sequiters have become so ubiquitous in comedy these days that it can get awfully tiring awfully fast. But, yeah, Pineapple Express is still one of my favorite films of the year.
i think the line you're thinking of actually goes "God's vagina", but yeah. I always got the feeling that the reliance on pothead humour dragged the film down a bit and it didn't get especially interesting for me until the actual murder scene, and from that point on I actually found the film much more watchable. And despite the relatively low rating, I also reckon
Pineapple Express is one of my favourite 2008 films.
Anyway...
RAN (Kurosawa, 1985) -
It's been a while since I've seen anything that could genuinely be considered "epic", but then I found myself with a few hours to kill on New Year's Eve and decided to finally finish
Ran once and for all. Quite simply,
Ran is brilliant, and I honestly can't remember why I didn't watch it in full sooner. Cast of thousands, painfully elaborate art direction, engaging power struggles galore, etc etc. It's just brilliant, with the only real flaw being that some parts of it drag slightly. Other than that, it's amazing.
On one somewhat personal note - this film has a PG rating in Australia. It is easily the bloodiest PG-rated movie I've ever seen. Kudos.
(edit post)
Amélie (Jeunet, 2001) -
I think my rating for
Amélie is at least a popcorn box or two lower than virtually everyone else's rating. What can I say? I'm not easily charmed. In the film's favour, I will admit that its unique photography was definitely a treat (especially the fact that every frame seems to have a weird yellowy-green hue to it). I think my main problem with
Amélie is that, in all honesty, I'm not much of a fairytale person. As good as the film may be (and I will admit, it's good) but it just doesn't agree with me. The wackiness of the characters and story felt a little too forced at times, although the plot did develop and wrap up neatly rather well. (one other thing I liked about the film was Dominique Pinon's small but hilarious role as the creepy tape-recorder guy)
So...yeah.
(edit post...again)
Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995) -
Given another viewing or two, I'll probably bump the score up to
(as it stands, I give it a very high
). Seriously, I can't quite find the words to express just how much I like
Dead Man. I wouldn't say it's the best movie ever, but damned if it doesn't hit all the right notes for me. The performances are brilliant - as mild-mannered accountant turned "killer of white men" William Blake, Depp gives a superbly understated performance, which only serves as a fine contrast to the bizarre cast of characters, both good and bad (mainly bad) that he comes into contact with over the course of his journey. I'm also extremely fond of Robby Müller's fluid black-and-white photography and Neil Young's hypnotic use of distorted guitars on the film's soundtrack. All of this centres around a strangely compelling odyssey through the wilderness to the spirit world that awaits a dying Blake - and the parallel journey of the simply evil trio of bounty hunters on his tail.
It's not often that I feel this way about a film, but when I do - damn.
Do you know my poetry?