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Yeah, amazing performances. I can't name too many other films where the empathy I feel for the characters is so natural and unforced.

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Aww,nice to see someone not liking My Own Private Idaho

Katzelmacher (1969) -

World on a Wire (1973) -

Pacific Rim (2013) -

Still not watching much.

The Great Gatsby (2013)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Epic (2013) -

Léon (Luc Besson, 1994)

Whilst a very good film, I didn't find myself loving this as much as some have. I think part of the problem I had with it was the balance between it being an action film and a drama. If this had been just an action film, I think it maybe would have worked better, but with the deliberate age difference and large amount of scenes dedicated to the relationship between Leon and Mathilda, I wasn't really sure what to make of them, and I found it a little bit strange, had the girl been say 18, I think I would have been a lot more comfortable with it. I felt the switch from drama to action sometimes was a little sudden too, the action was over the top but fun, and Gary Oldman gives a memorable fun performance as a great villain. I have it on Blu-ray which means I am more liking to watch it again and possibly appreciate it more anyway.


American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)

I find this film very difficult to rate. I mean, parts of it I really really liked, but other parts just didn't seem right. The idea behind it seems good, and I thought it started well and was interested in how it was going to deal with racism. But come the films end I don't think the film accomplished what it should of, the ending left me kind of confused and I'm still not completely sure on what its meant to say exactly.

Whilst the film shows the transformation of one man from a racist neo-nazi to the opposite, and him stopping his younger brother from becoming one, it does this in no detail or without any depth whatsoever. If needed to show better why he changed his attitude, why racism is wrong, it needed to show him teaching his son why it's not cool to be part of this neo-nazi gang, why he's heading down the wrong path, but it all just kind of happened without explanation.


One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) -

Another good film, that I don't think it's as brilliant as some people do . It has moments of greatness, and some scenes are genuinely touching and warming. I just wasn't really sure about Jack Nicholson's character and his storyline, it all seemed a bit too sudden and changed direction abruptly at the end for me. It was enjoyable, and like I said many scenes left me with a smile on my face, it has some good performances with many different enjoyable characters, but I'm not really sure how Louise Fletcher won an Oscar.


The Artist (Michael Hazavanicius, 2012)

A delightful little film that I absolutely loved. A fantastic homage to silent films, it has everything people love about films, not just silent ones, great acting with fantastic chemistry between the two leads, it's full of charm with a romantic centre, has great cinematography and sound, and the costumes/sets are delightful.


Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)

My new favourite Lumet film, Network is a film that relies on its characters, the performances of everyone involved, and sees some of the greatest on screen performances that I have seen. William Holden and Faye Dunaway are both brilliant. Then there's supporting actors like Peter Finch as the insane news anchorman Howard Beale who becomes the centre of attention following an initial bizarre on screen outburst that his network capitalise on and use to their future advantage.

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^Id rank those films

Network
American History X
One Flew over the Cuckoos nest
The Artist
and then Leon

@Mark, could you expand on Side Effects

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How far between them then Donnie, what's the top and bottom popcorn ratings?

I rewatched this a while back and while it didn't hold up as well as I had hoped, I still like it a lot. I think their relationship is easily the strongest part of the film and what sets it apart from most bland, action-oriented movies.

That said, I can understand why on the surface of it, their pairing might make someone uncomfortable. But my view has always been that Mathilda's age is perhaps the most effective tool Besson used to characterise Léon as childlike and emotionally underdeveloped himself. I see him like a sort of assassin-savant, and someone who's learning just as much from his partner as he is teaching her. The idea that he'd act upon Mathilda's naive advances seems impossible to me.

The undertone is a mixture of father-daughter and child-child, in fact I think Besson sidestepped a potentially distasteful (to say the least) pitfall remarkably well and created a very touching, if unconventional, relationship at the same time.

But that's just me.

Also I love Network, The Artist and Cuckoo's Nest, so that's a great set besides American History X, which I definitely didn't like.

There we go

Fair enough, I knew you didn't The Artist that much, I remember what you said about that and L.A. Confidential. Even though both films rely on the traditional elements that make the films they are paying homage too, I felt that the individual stories of both were strong enough to make me really enjoy them, you didn't find that?

Umm, for me the story and plot, were actually the biggest down fall of the movies. And you're right while I've criticized both for being to much style wise, I actually both have stylistic elements. The dream scene in The Artist comes to mind. But no story wise I think both are highly weak and unengaging. My eye looks at it 180 degreas differently than the vast majority, though.

Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
This was recommended by a friend who completely oversold the motion capture love scene. I was waiting for this one to go somewhere but it never did.
2 stars

Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene (2011, Sean Durkin)
I liked it. Imo, it would be hard to find someone that can pull off the subtle creepiness that John Hawkes can right now.
3.5 stars

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010, Werner Herzog)
Oh Werner, please stop narrating your films. Mr. Herzog has a great way of finding unique narratives with respect to humans and their connections to nature, but his narration had me tuning out at times. This solidified my standing as a film/doc geek because there are just so many people that can sit through a documentary about Siberian fur trappers.
3 stars

Upstream Color (2013, Shane Carruth)
What to say, what to say. After primer, I was hoping to see more from this guy. Nothing keeps me more engaged than when a director decides to tell a story with a consistent flow of clever shots. This one was fun to watch but difficult to understand. In what seems to be a sea of vanilla lately, this was a winner.
3.5 stars

Can anyone tell me how to do the popcorn rating thing?

Like [ rating]1[/ rating] or [ rating]1.5[/ rating] without the spaces And I enjoyed Holy Motors more than you, although it's a pretty strange film that I can totally get some people wouldn't like.

Leon is great! :[

As previously posted, I'm VERY biased when it comes to Leon and skepsis defines Leon's and Mathilda's relationship wonderfully. Sorry to hear you don't care for leon, donnie, and daniel, did you see the director's or the theatrical? Not that it will sway you either way, more out of curiousity and reps, regardless, for, as always, good and honest reviewing.


REWATCH Oldboy (South Korea) What can be said that hasn't been said about this movie? Intense with moments of dark comedy, a story of long standing retribution, it captivates from the very first scene and holds you through out.




War of the Arrows (South Korea) An historical piece where a brother takes on the Quing Dynasty to rescue his sister.
Once the action gets going on this one, it does NOT stop and that is only a minor kudos of this movie. The characters, their interaction and the cinematography is done with poetic intensity that, it seems, Korean movies truly excel in.

I don't have much original to say about Side Effects, but that's because I think it's not a terribly original film. It's not really social criticism and it's not really a thriller, so that removes it from Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. I suppose it's really a mystery with a slight paranoid feeling, but it's so subtle in the first half and so silly in the second that I'm surprised that the director would choose it as his feature swan song. Under the circumstances, the acting isn't too bad but considering it shares some juicy plot twists of a Wild Things-type thriller, I'm afraid that Soderbergh approached the material while under the side effects (or intended effects) of a tranquilizer chased with an antidepressant.

Haha, while the second half did have some plot holes, I did find the first half phenomenally intense. It's one of the more original from this year (I know that's not saying much), I had a problem with the dialogue (it's from the same writer as The Informant!) but I feel that the film keeps an intense and real atmosphere

Only God Forgives (2013) -

It's good. It isn't garbage like some critics say it is, but it is not a great work of art, either. Don't expect it to be like Drive because it is a totally different film, and I am glad it is. Drive told a simple story, and had a great character study. Only God Forgives doesn't explain much - it consists of surrealistic and dreamlike scenes for the most part, and it's a movie full of characters that look like humans inhabiting a spiritual world, and sometimes don't even look like humans at all.


other films seen recently:

Clerks (1994) -

The Game (1997) -

Half Nelson (2006) -

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) -

The Forgiveness of Blood (2011) -

Night of the Living Dead (1968) -

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - I admit, I liked the first G.I. Joe film. It wasn't GREAT, but it was a fun time at the drive in. This one is sort of a sequel and sort of a giant middle finger to that earlier film. Most of the cast from the first is not in this one, and those who are end up dead in the first fifteen minutes. So eff that first film, it's not important, this one says. And then we get The Rock (who's strangely humorless throughout), and two people I've never heard of, fighting Cobra Commander (who's decidedly not Joseph Gordon Levitt this time) with the help of a clearly disengaged Bruce Willis...I think that's his default mode now. I can't remember the last time Bruce looked like he gave a crap about any of the films he's in. Maybe Looper...I just didn't care how this film ended. I was tired of it at the half way mark. I gave it one because I may have laughed once, at RZA from Wu Tang Clan playing a Japanese man. Cause that's just funny.

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