Camo's 2018 Movie Log

So glad i watched this again, i think it's one of my favourite films as i said the main guy being so fallible and how devastating it is makes it pretty incredible IMO. The thing that's devastating to me is Kim Sun-woo's role and what his death at the end was for. Kim Sun-woo at first is a generic muscle man for a powerful crime boss. He is given the task of essentially babysitting the bosses much younger girlfriend and is given orders to kill her and her love if his suspicions that she is having an affair are correct, he's clearly already a killer at this point and while killing a woman may be problematic it should be a routine task; he actually tries to get out of it and to me the reason seemed to be that it was beneath him rather than anything else. He then meets and falls for her, they spend a couple of days together then he confirms his bosses suspicions that she was having an affair. This was particularly devastating to him because he cares for her and i imagine was entertaining thoughts of being with her himself. His feelings for her stops him from carrying out his bosses orders and instead of killing them he tells both of them they can never see one another again. That's where Kim Sun-woo and Yoon Hee-soo's interactions ends which is partly whats devastating to me, i don't remember when that happens exactly, the film is two hours long i doubt that's anymore than 40 minutes in leaving us with the majority of the film. Now there's Yoon Hee-soo; there's no indication that she feels the same about Kim Sun-woo, it would actually be pretty weird if she did. They only spent one proper day together and regardless of the reasons for it he is the one that forbids her from seeing her lover something she is not happy with. Her reaction to that indicates that the person she is seeing isn't just a sexual partner but someone she cares about; likely loves. I mean the only other scenario here is Kim killing both of them, he's putting himself at great risk here and still she is seriously pissed at him and saddened by it. Now Yoon is obviously not dumb, she is musically talented and from their conversations doesn't come across like some bimbo. That's the thing from their conversations she is the more dynamic and in control one and i don't believe that's only supposed to be his feelings for her and her connection to his boss, i think she is alot smarter than him. She is most likely manipulating him, her goal is probably to get him to like her so he may let his guard down and she can continue having her affair. The thing is we see her purely from the persona she wants to portray to him and from his memories of her at the end, obviously compromised and sugarcoated memories because it's only one image we see of her (the one i used for my picture) in his memories one of her smiling at him with her violin, no mention of the animosity. Then i find it doubtful that she was forced into a relationship with his boss, i doubt it's supposed to be that he just decided she was his girlfriend and she was practically a slave. We don't find out her history so i think it's much more likely that she floated in his circles and the much more refined version of her we see is due to the wealth she has sought out from becoming his girlfriend; her being a good person is a conclusion he comes to and we watch rather than her ever being demonstratably good in the film. This all leads me to conclude that she was playing him, she thought (and was probably correct since it worked) that he was a dumb brute and she could easily lead him on and manipulate the situation as she pleased. There's no indications that he is smart in any way, street smart but that's not the same thing as generally intelligent or even competent, i don't believe he's an idiot but i do believe he could be played by a more intelligent person like her. Meaning our protagonist is a dumb, pathetic, sadsack and that once she is out of the picture we are watching him travel towards his death for absolutely nothing. Couple that with him being fallible like i said earlier; every fight he is in is really messy and he is terrible with guns, the whole thing is so different to any similar superhero mafia hitman/special agent film i've seen including those three other Korean ones i mentioned.

Good film. Wasn't completely blown away like most but i think this would be a difficult thim to dislike. It was sweet, funny, well acted and filmed in gorgeous locations. Not sure how much it would work a second time but it did a good amount this time. Personally, i think Armie Pyle gave the better performance. This was Elio's coming of age tale, it was his first love, etc, everything was more important to him so i get why Timothée Chalamet is getting the more praise. He did a good job anyway and i liked his character. One thing i liked about this was sex was clearly a big part of the relationship and attraction. Too many gay romances in movies and tv i've seen shy away from this and make it purely about an emotional connection as if homosexuals aren't sexual people they are only interested in love; i could guess the reasons for that but there's no point going into it. Of course they fall in love so that's a big part of it but before they even like each other you see them checking each other out and reacting when they touch each other, Olivier actually mentions that he was trying to tell Elio he was sexually attracted to him when he touched him during the volleyball game that was clearly before they had developed feelings for each other. Romances that shy away from the sexual element never ring true to me (unless it's in a classic film where you couldn't overtly depict sexuality) so this worked alot. As well as that this was just a romance not a gay romance; by that i mean it didn't really matter that it was between two men. The forbidden element was more the age difference and the fact Oliver was Elio's dad's assistant, doubt this would have been any different if it was his daughter and then it didn't even go through the typical them getting caught plotline. His family seemed progressive and that they'd be fine with him being gay, and of course that was confirmed with his dad near the end in one of the most powerful scenes. Definitely didn't expect that from Arnold Rothstein So yeah good film.

Usually i start my reviews with a general i liked, loved, disliked, hated this, then i explain why but i honestly don't know yet think i need to let this fester. I know i didn't dislike it, i didn't have a bad time watching it but i'm not sure how much i liked it yet and there was some things i wasn't a fan of. Whatever i think this absolutely wasn't what i was expecting which was a great thing. Cricket said "yeah i thought it would be a 80 minute Rom-Com", same here. Actually agree with everything he has said, i expected this to be a simple i found this funny and/or powerful so i liked it or vice-versa type of deal and it wasn't at all.

I kinda think i should have hated the dialogue here. Stuff like Williams "scared of getting from plane to plane" thing near the start was horrific, it's not how people talk anywhere ever and you don't meaningfully open up to a stranger that way without the slightest prodding. Seriously it would be like me asking someone i just mets name and them fitting in the fact their brother is in prison in their answer I'm guessing Polley was going for a general she had to get it out sort of thing and she was already intrigued by him and comfortable around him but i didn't get that by that point so it was just ridiculous. Still despite that it was charmingly and believably delivered by Williams. Williams is one of the best working actors, i don't think alot of this would have worked without her talent. I mean that scene was obviously important and i think if it wasn't for Williams that one exchange could have sunk the whole movie for me. When it didn't come from her i had a harder time swallowing it. Luke Kirby's "what are you going to do with me now you've got me?" thing for example. I kind of respect that this film didn't dance around the fact these two are interested in each other, but they went too far in the other direction to be believable IMO in that Daniel seemed oddly forceful with how straightforward he was. I couldn't accept Margot being interested in him alot of the time, or at least still being interested in him after things like that. The fact that she isn't happy in her marriage isn't sufficient enough reason for me to believe she would become interested in a specific person, you need to believably build their relationship and Daniel and some of the dialogue held it back for me. There's nothing to say someone couldn't be attracted to and interested in stuff like that so that's fine, but for me to accept it i need to find it probable and for this specific story i'd need to enjoy them together to an extent, sometimes i didn't and the times i did was thanks to Williams. Too be fair it's probably just my general dislike of person stuck in boring life intrigued by someone dangerous or wild seeming stories, and i think this tried to dress this up as something else when that's what it felt like to me. Obviously Daniel wasn't "wild or dangerous" but he was certainly alot different from the people she was usually with especially her husband, he got genuine reactions from her and wasn't afraid of being provocative or combatative and of course he's not the least bit hesitant in pursuing her despite being married. Once it actually became a thing i accepted it more and i liked that it ended up pretty damn dark and depressing. I actually liked the sex montage alot, how it showed it start off exciting and transform into a similar mundanity as her relationship with Lou. An obvious thing to do but i still think it was well done.

What i will say is the mundanity of her life was done extremely well, it was believable that she wasn't happy with it. Even when i wasn't enjoying her stuff with Daniel it was at least interesting, her early scenes with Lou were so dull and forgettable which i'm sure was intentional, i wanted her to get back to Daniel as at least it wasn't boring. That's a big reason why i'm so conflicted on this; i basically had the same feelings as Margot. It was brave to do the early stuff with Lou that way. It was all the same three scenes; one of them in bed, one of them in the bathroom then one of him cooking with her in the kitchen with him. Both of them constantly playing around and telling each other they loved each other, like they were trying to force happiness by overselling it. I was part of this boring cycle and i felt it.

My biggest surprise was the size of Seth Rogen's role. He's barely in it for like the first hour, i was expecting a rom-com of those two getting together. One thing we all seem to agree on is that Seth's character was likeable, how could he not be? I think Seth barely acts he's the same in every film and in interviews and he is so likeable at all times even when his character is supposed to be an a-hole. Then his character is being cheated on, no work was done on Polley's part there. Casting Seth Rogen for that role was like a cheatcode in getting her desired effect haha. Seems like you guys all hated Margot. I get it, if i was to read a description of her character and actions i'd hate her but it's Michelle Williams. I wouldn't say i liked her especially as it went on but i'd be lying if i said i truly disliked her. Maybe that was a fault in her performance if the intention was to make me dislike her, but even if it was i'd still call this a good performance for selling dialogue i disliked so well that i mentioned earlier. I'm being ridiculous here because her actions were just as bad if not worse than his but i disliked Daniel more. Daniel mentioning Lou's chicken the first time they met pissed me right off haha. All we've seem him do up to that point is make chicken, he has a better relationship with his chicken recipe than his wife who you are stealing lets not twist the knife buddy. Then again i kind of sympathised with him a few times, Cricket pointed out that he had no friends or family of his own and i definitely felt for him a bit when he was sitting watching Lou's party he just looked so envious and lonely, of course Lou has to go ahead and invite him haha. Seriously i can't make my mind up with this film. Wasn't a big fan of Silverman. She seems pretty polarizing in general but i do like her in interviews and stuff so i was surprised there. My main deal with her was dialogue related again like what she was saying in the shower scene perfectly fit everything about Margot's situation at that moment, glad Polley focused on Margot looking uncomfortable during every second of that scene or i would have never gotten what she was going for haha. Seemed inauthentic and too "perfect" to me, i never react well to something done that blatantly. It was also that Silverman's character seemed to be half joking and just making conversation yet everything she was saying was what was on Margot's mind constantly at that point. I did like her more at her scene more at the end. What i liked was she spotted Daniel intently following Margot at the party earlier, clearly she was the first to catch onto what was happening and i think that played into her anger as well as the obvious reasons. One of my main complaints here has been some of it was blatant, i actually think Silverman spotting them was more subtle and forgettable. Or maybe i'm just reading too much into a brief look haha.

So in the end i'm not quite sure what i thought yet, as i said i didn't dislike it but i can't tell how much i liked it. I complained a hell of alot here i know but i think that was a positive in that this is supposed to be provocative and it did provoke reactions for me, i'm also conflicted on a fair amount of it. At the very least i'm impressed as this did feel different and it avoided most of the cliche's in these types of film; if this even fits into a "type". I mean alot of my complaints are redundant by the end since what i was feeling was right all along and that's so frustrating Reading Citizen, Thursday and Crickets reviews i realized i agree with them all on parts and disagree with them on others showing this is at least an interesting film as everyone had different feelings on it. Good nom Sean.

Man i loved this. Not sure what my white trash fixation has been the last couple of years with American Honey being my favourite of 2016, but yeah this was excellent. Despite the depressing and gritty story and setting this doesn't feel real at all, it's like a fantasy world; or an anti-fantasy world since i can't imagine this being anyones fantasy. Everything is rundown and delapidated yet it's all super colourful and vibrant and just gorgeous, it's great to look at and you really feel like it shouldn't be. It's like if The Land of Oz had a Ghetto. Everything about this is incredibly nasty; the people, the enviroment, the behaviour, the language; just everything, i understand why it's had a lot less praise than i expected. Haven't read any reviews of this but i'm almost positive "poverty porn" will be used as a criticism regularly and i get that, i think that's completely fair actually since this doesn't seem like a realistic depiction. Halley was nasty and vile, and she is still able to nonchalantly live the way she wants (she is poor but she just sits around drinking and smoking, she seems happy) which i'm sure brings up something else that will annoy people which i won't go into. She finds her kids awful behaviour pretty hilarious, she does kind of punish them at times but that's after laughing at whatever they've done then the punishment turns out to be super fun for them. Honestly i'm happy they didn't go for the down on her luck but with a heart of gold struggling mum. That is incredibly played out, the only actually bad or irresponsible mums in movies seems to be the villains, rarely do they present us with one as our main character. The kids are monsters, they are adorable and hilarious anyway. These are definitely not your typical naughty movie problem children, our introduction to them is them spitting on a car then running away and when confronted calling the owner a "fat whore" and every other name you could imagine before spitting on her child; who later becomes their friend of course. I do kind of adore their sense of adventure in this horrific situation though, they are always happy and having a great time creating fun out of nothing and frequently stuff they shouldn't be. That's definitely what kids do, i did it all the time as a kid so i kind of connected with that; i obviously wasn't anything like this though.

I love Dafoe's character. Just the idea of someone trying to maintain this place and keep its residents in line is insane to me, he's an American Hero in my eyes. He wasn't just some disinterested dude doing his job and not giving a crap. Halley is able to live comfortably (her idea of comfortable) because he likes and cares about her and the rest of the residents, he kind of does seem like he's part of the not real fantasy world i mentioned earlier because there's just no way someone would be this lenient and charitable. Even genuinely good people would eventually realize things are not going to change and it's probably best for the kids if they get out of this situation so they should stop enabling her. He jokes around with her and her kids even though he has ample reason to hate her. I find really bad for him throughout. One of the most powerful scenes to me was him confronting the paedophile he spotted hanging around. Most people would react like he did even if he hated the mother and her kids but he had a genuine rapport and fondness with them so it made that moment all the more powerful how protective he was of "his people". Another thing was it really showed this as a community and basically like the kids own world for the first time despite its faults which are numerous. We see the first serious reaction from Moonee at that looking shocked at Dafoe's anger and this was of course directed at an outsider, creating the feeling that this is their own world that is safe and content to them. Every time Moonee confronted reality was horrifying, another was the dude who was with her mother for reasons i can only guess walking in on her in the bath, such a stomach churning scene.

Now i was enjoying the hell out of this. My fear was that it'd turn into a proper drama, up to this point we had only been observing a real lifestyle that exists; a heavily stylized version of course but people do live similar to this. It kind of felt wrong that it may have a resolution with a good or bad outcome, just anything changing at all because it so often doesn't in real life and i liked that was what this was. But when it did enter into drama it was incredibly effective largely because of the "fantasy world" feeling i mentioned earlier. One character came to the realization that she didn't want her or her child living like this, that the other residents including the main kids and their mom who was her friend are a bad influence on her and her kid. It was just insane that someone looked beyond this world, it was almost like breaking the fourth wall to me that a character noticed this is not an ideal living situation. Crazier still it wasn't our main character. We watch Halley filming and cheering on a fight by a car and Ashley drags her kid inside when earlier she would have been there joining everyone else. This was a good thing of course but it kind of broke the movie because it turned every horrible thing we witnessed up to this point into something real. Up to that point Halley didn't really seem real, her behaviour wasn't difficult to watch up until that diner scene. The film ends exactly how you'd predict it would and that might be my one problem with it, although it's not entirely negative. Presumably Moonee is found and taken away by CPS, the closest thing to a happy ending we could get although it obviously isn't entirely as the foster care system absolutely doesn't ensure a good life. But at least it's a chance as Halley is not going to improve or change and neither is Moonee's upbringing. The actual ending was devastating though. Moonee again confronting reality in the most severe way up to this point, completing a trilogy of them with the two i mentioned earlier; her crying for the first time in the whole film, it was the first time we had saw her sad in any way and it felt like such a powerful release. Then the actual ending (which i'm guessing Swan was a fan of since it was apparently filmed guerilla style with an Iphone in Disneyland) returning us to the fantasy feeling i mentioned in the first half was just beautiful. Great film.

Anyway i loved this. It's not a pleasant film at all; although it is funny and oddly sweet at times. While bleak it's in a different way from usual, the characters are basically alright with their situation and they get by without much complaining or being miserable, the bleakness is in how accepting they are of it. I know some here are going to hate this but i don't care i thought it was great.

Fun film. There's not much i can say about this without running through parts i found funny. Franco is difficult to get used to at first and he of course could never truly embody Tommy but he does a really good job in the end and he gets some of his mannerisms and speech patterns down, he's still too attractive though no offence to Tommy. I wasn't that into Dave Franco as Greg; to me he had to be Tommy's connection to the real world and he didn't feel that natural. Anyway really funny, and nuts and feelgood actually.

One thing here is i'm lucky i went into this knowing it's apparently a true story, otherwise i would have been annoyed by a fair amount of this. I still don't know how much of it is true but it at least made me think of it as something crazy that actually happened rather than an incredibly contrived story. There was so many coincidences and right place at the right time moments, but apparently they actually happened. Some parts didn't work that well for me like the majority of the Nazi School part due to this, Jupp being picked for the examination and the various other "he might be caught" moments were just frustrating at that point as absolutely everything in the film had happened to him by then and there was zero tension in it, but i was fine with most of it. I'm still definitely skeptical both of this as an accurate adaptation of his book and of the truth of Perel's claims, and the ending with "your story won't be believed" genuinely pissed me off, but it was nuts and entertaining anyway and by the time that was said i had already enjoyed a lot of the film.

This didn't get to me emotionally like a lot of holocaust films, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing since there's a million other holocaust films that set out to depress you. Seemed this was quickly paced so it didn't dwell on a lot of the sad and disturbing things; not sure if it was intentional or not but i liked that in the sense that people then rarely could dwell on that sort of stuff in the middle of a war where more hardships are likely to come, particularly jews living in Germany like shown here. The Nazi's attack their house while he's in a bath and he quickly runs out and jumps in a barrel next time we see him any of the unpleasantness the Nazi's bestowed has passed, same thing with his sisters death; we don't see it she's just dead then we quickly move on. Another reason for this was the films tone, humour and the main character who seemed barely affected by any of this. This was certainly a unique perspective on this time period and these events. One thing i like about that is this is apparently a first hand account of these events and people like me who have no connection to it try to pigeonhole it into what we imagine it was like when there obviously wasn't one commonly held experience of these times. I mean he says stuff like "When war broke out i was glad because the police would forget about the bicycle incident and father wouldn't get mad" . It's also an interesting tale of survival. Something you see a lot in war stories is people not giving up their faith or staying loyal to their country or whatever, that's definitely noble and admirable but you'd think no one in the 40's thought of self-preservation. Well our main character certainly does and it was refreshing to watch and brought up some interesting questions.

Alot of this reminded me of the young part of Once Upon a Time in America and he kind of reminded me of Noodles for some reason. I'm not sure if it was just film about Jews made around the same time or something, just wanted to throw that out there. Maybe it was both dealing with tough situations and them barely reacting to it just going on and acting like normal kids, Noodles situation obviously wasn't as bad but he was growing up poor in a crime ridden ghetto. The other film it reminded me of was Forrest Gump, that's basically what this was before Forrest Gump was made haha. He's even somehow there for Stalin's son's capture, not just that he plays a central role The interesting thing about this is comparison was he wasn't some unaware person due to his mental capabilities like Gump, he had to consciously navigate these crazy situations to survive while coming of age in the process. Not to mention us seeing the villains of history as allies, mentors and friends of him, just living as they normally do; was a weird insight into their side. For example when i mentioned tragedies or death or whatever not being dwelled on earlier, the one that's dwelled on most and probably get the biggest reaction from him is his Nazi friends death; definitely didn't expect to see a jew genuinely broken up about a nazi's death.

Now the narration, that was weird. There's a part when he's on a boat while he's narrating then he's thrown into the water and he stops narrating and takes a deep breath, as if he was narrating it in present time. That can't be possible as he talks in past tense constantly and with hindsight, not sure if the writers thought that'd be cute or what but it was mostly baffling to me and took me right out of the movie. Have some other general complaints but that was something that genuinely annoyed me because i was into the tone when that happened, thankfully there was no more of that when it went on. His narration was hilarious at times in fact; it was usually just him clarifying what was going on but it was always ridiculous and insane. My favourite was when he was just told the Captain wants to adopt him, can't remember the exact words but the "staunch anti-semite" part cracked me up. Performance wise i overall think everyone did a good job. My biggest surprise was Julie Delpy. I saw her name on the poster then by the time she appeared i had forgot she was even in it, was weird seeing her so young she was good.

I had some problems with this but overall i liked it a good amount, mostly because it was very entertaining and despite the subject matter a very easy watch mostly due to its pacing and humour. Actually the thing i'd praise this film for more than anything was that the humour never felt inappropriate to me even though i think it should have. Good nom JJ. That's two noms now i had the wrong impression of going in. I thought this was going to be another straight depressing holocaust or just general WWII movie, and honestly i was kind of dreading it as i've seen tonnes of those so glad it turned out to be something different. Most importantly though i can now cross off my bucket list: watch Stalin and Hitler dance together

This was mostly very bad but it was kind of entertaining anyway thanks to Frances McDormand. Casting her was the one good decision made here. Baffled by the response to this.

This was disappointing but still pretty funny and entertaining. I liked the main guy but i didn't like the way it approached the main story.

Man, this was so great. It is four hours long and is completely packed with everything you can imagine; and i really mean packed since it was supposed to be six hours long and the director had to edit out a third of it to get it released. You'd think this would be an incomprehensible mess, but nah it's actually really tight and there was only a few things i didn't enjoy much. Actually the only part i wasn't big on was the part he starts working for the porn company, went way too heavy on the prince of perverts stuff but that was only ten minutes long or something. I really didn't feel the length at all, i watched it over two nights but the first around 2 hour 40 minutes flew in and i only didn't watch the last 80 minutes that night because i really needed some sleep. There's no way i could attempt to post about this as there's just so much too it, but yeah it was really great and i hope some of Sono's other films work as well for me.

Like i told Citizen i've never seen a Little Women adaptation but i did read the novel when i was very young. Going in i only remembered most of the big moments, i thought unless there was something particularly awful about the film there was very little chance i'd dislike it. At the same time i didn't expect to think too highly of it, was expecting a nice easy watch and a good refresher on the story not much more. To my surprise i liked this a lot, maybe i was in the right type of cozy, sentimental mood, maybe it was leftover christmas feeling, most likely though it's just because it is a very good adaptation of a nice story.

They did such a good job on the casting, Susan Sarandon for instance is a very middle of the road actress to me i don't have a strong opinion on her either way, she was completely perfect as Marmee March though. She has a non threatening warm personality, or at least that's what i usually get from her in films and it couldn't have worked out better here. She basically sold the corniness of her character perfectly haha. Winona Ryder was so great in the 80's and 90's, feel kinda bad saying "was" but that's how i feel it's a shame where her career has went. Even in Stranger Things she feels so weird and unnecessary, in the 90's she seemed to be awesome in a lot of bad and mediocre films. Jo is the most interesting of the girls being the independent one who doesn't want to follow the woman's "role" during this era, she is kind of typical except not since Walcott's Jo is largely an inspiration for this sort of character we see in later media. That's the exact vibe i always got from Winona growing up; someone different in stuff like Beetlejuice and Heathers so she was exactly right for this. My god i had no clue that was Claire Danes playing Beth until she gets the piano . Either she's a chameleon or i'm a moron, i'll let you guys decide. She was very good in that scene she really made the warmth with her overwhelmed response to overcoming that ordeal and being able to spend more time with her family. Then Christian Bale, what in the world? I had no idea he was in this and it's insane to me that he was around in well known films like this back then. In my mind it was Empire of the Sun then nothing for fifteen years until American Psycho. He's fine in this nothing great but he does his job and he is pretty charming at times. The biggest complaint i have about the acting is sometimes the accents come on and off and some just aren't that good, it really didn't bother me other than in a few moments though so no big deal. I definitely don't think this is some masterclass but it's a talented cast doing a good job and while nothing blows me away it's all just enough for everything to work. The most important thing was they felt like a family and they really sold the growing up aspects.

Anyway sorry for such a boring, generic review, even more than usual haha. I struggled to find anything interesting to say i just kind of sat back and had a good time with it, think it caught me in the exact right mood and it's well done. To my surprise this has a good shot of ending up high on my list. Thanks for nominating Citizen, seriously doubt i would have watched this and i ended up really enjoying it.

This was my first Zvyagintsev film all i had heard about him was his films are relentlessly bleak, and yeah that's accurate. Couldn't get into this at first, it was mainly the pacing and i wasn't finding anything different from any other in the middle of a divorce film. It was when they went to Zhenya's mothers that everything clicked, from then the hopelessness and despair was crushing. Powerful film.

+

This is a very interesting nomination, i had no idea it existed. Wasn't crazy about it but i didn't dislike it either; good cast who were all performing well and it was a short and easy watch.

I initially liked that it didn't take sides; Zach was a gross, aggressive racist but the gang were being very condescending and smug and just as close minded except in a more socially acceptable way. It was a good portrayal of a liberal bubble being burst; liberal group think being challenged by someone they see as beneath them. Also Paxton was great, he actually managed to solicit some sympathy from me initially when his faith was being sneered at then he quickly turned it up to 11 coming across really unsettling and bigoted, yet he was still on an equal footing with the rest in terms of likeablity probably due to the non-serious and almost surreal vibe i got from the scene. I thought that was a very good start.

My problem is it just kept repeating itself and even though it was the intention i came to really hate the gang and just wanted to stop watching them. Not even because they were unlikeable or because of their actions, they were just exhausting to watch and listen to after a while. Ramping up their self-righteousness and making their reasons for killing increasingly flimsier becoming as intolerant as those they are against was a good idea, it just wasn't that interesting to watch for me. Every Conservative introduced was a caricature, so were the gang but we spent all our time with them and the conservatives only had a scene each so in the end they ended up frustrating to watch for me at least. Also i think nearly every guest was better and more interesting than the regulars which played into that.

I understand why people could love this: the humour, but i didn't find it all that funny. It was similar to Clueless in that i recognized lines as funny or clever but i didn't actually find them as such because it was just too "written". I dunno nothing felt natural, barely any lines or situations felt like they came from real people at least at the frequency they were delivered. That's not really a criticism of the movie because there's nothing wrong with that and i can enjoy it at times plus it obviously wasn't supposed to be a realistic feeling story, but it can also kill my immersement and that's what happened here. I was aware at all times i was watching a movie, or more accurately i was listening to a script being read.

Courtney B Vance was the best of the gang IMO. His calm delivery of everything was so great: "I say we just bury the cracker then finish eating our meal" . The others all did a pretty good job too, think this is the best performance i've seen from Cameron Diaz which speaks more to what i think of her as an actress. I did like how 90's this was: the music, the hair, clothes, even the cast: George Constanza and the dude whose only other film i know of is Drop Dead Fred . The film really fits into a specific era (Audiovisually i mean, its main points are timeless i guess) and i really like that sort of thing.

Thanks for nominating this Siddon. Even though i wasn't crazy about it i doubt i would have ever been aware of its existence if you hadn't and it's an interesting film. The Ascent next for me then i'll finish with Orlando.

I already knew a fair amount of this films plot since a Sopranos episode features it heavily. Cagney was as great as always but i thought this was just okay personally, probably the weakest of the four Cagney gangster films i've seen. Still i'm a massive fan of Cagney now and can't wait to see more of his work.

Garbage. My gf wanted to watch this for some reason, i was expecting bad but this was somehow worse than i could imagine. I love Charlie Day in It's Always Sunny so much but he's terrible in both this and Horrible Bosses; in both he is basically Charlie Kelly when he tries to act professional except played straight and it's horrific to watch. Then Ice Cube was unbelievably one note, i could guess his one joke when they introduced him as a bad ass and yeah they didn't deviate from that at all. There was a few chuckles here and there but the vast majority wasn't funny there were barely any actual jokes just unfunny character traits that were established then beating into the ground. So bad, worst of 2017 so far.

I made a thread asking for Soviet Films a while back so i was very glad this came up.

Absolutely love the setting. Have always thought heavy snow would be the worst terrain to fight on. Freezing cold meaning you need to wear even more layers than usual further weighing you down and the deep snow on the ground prevents you from moving quickly as well as making it extra tough to travel large distances like shown in the "walk in my footsteps it will be easier" part. Anything reflective: compass, rifle scope, mirror, etc could easily give away your position, the Finnish Sniper Simo Häyhä (one of the most interesting people of the war) didn't use a scope on his rifle because it would give him away making his feats even more impressive. Must have been absolutely miserable, i mean it was all miserable obviously and i'm sure you could make a case for the desert or wherever being worse but in my completely uninformed opinion i would dread the conditions in this film the most. General Winter makes so much sense. I find it interesting that the Soviets and Russian Empire before them were used to it which was a big factor in them always winning in these conditions, until they came up against the Finnish as the Finns lived in these sorts of conditions all year round at the time and with the size of the Soviet Union some soldiers weren't used to it at all due to them living in industrialized cities without snowy conditions. It shows that it wasn't just major super power getting a slight boost from their preferred terrain, the conditions played a massive part in it or the Finns couldn't have achieved what they did as they were obviously incredibly outnumbered and equipped. So yeah this film was perfect actually seeing a depiction of soldiers attempting to survive this hell on earth scenario.

Incredibly beautiful film. Visually of course but also the music, story and performances. A problem i've noticed a fair amount of people have with Russian/Soviet art (or most things actually) is it leaves them cold, it doesn't get to them emotionally; Tarkovsky and Dostoevsky get it a lot. Well i think this is a very moving film. The bleakness and brutality is completely justified in its narrative and i think it pays off as an emotional experience by the end. This was like a serious version of the "things can't get any worse" joke. Feels like it starts off with the worse possible scenario out in the freezing rough wilderness wounded but at least at that point they are free men, next they are being towed away to somewhere they have no knowledge of watching two young children who will almost certainly die as they go, followed by literal torture accentuated with horrific silent screams and somehow it manages to get more dire down in the cellar of grim being mentally tortured with the knowledge that something horrific is most likely coming in the morning. Worked wonders in making it both believable that it would strengthen some of their resolves and completely break others wills. Is it just me or does Vladimir Gostyukhin look like Roman Polanski? He was good but Boris Plotnikov was the highlight for me. Any moment where he springs to life was incredible; the venomous "you betrayed us" part and his will to live being restored especially. It's amazing that he makes such a big impression in a role where he doesn't say much and is drifting in and out of consciencousness. Obviously the christlike imagery and themes involving him from the director played a part but i think he was great anyway.

My one complaint is the Germans were cartoonishly evil, took away from the realistic feel for me. I know they're Nazi's i can accept them being evil and cruel towards the Soviets, but gleefully executing some fleeing random, all the red bitch stuff and cruelly leaving that woman's kids to presumably starve to death for little reason was too much for me. Seemed like these low level German Soldiers were having a great time in this Soviet hellscape and the Soviets came across all struggling and noble, it just didn't feel right to me. I mean even at the start before Sotnikov is wounded both of them are having a miserable time and these three Germans have super high spirits constantly singing and laughing. They were so maniacal it kind of took me out of the film. It improved greatly when they got to the camp because the interrogator was great and it felt much more like natural war time interactions, but initially it was very jarring.

Great nom Jal glad i got to see it. Just Orlando left for me.