Ratings:
Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)
+
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
-
Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, 2004)
+
Navajo Joe (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
Men In Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2012)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)
La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
(Short Film)
Harvie Krumpet (Adam Elliot, 2003)
(Short Film)
Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, 2009)
+
Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino, 2007)
+
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
(Rewatch)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
(Rewatch)
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)
+ (Rewatch)
Further thoughts:
The first film
Once Upon a Time in America was one I had been meaning to watch for a long time as a huge Sergio Leone fan, it turned out to be everything I expected and more, a true masterpiece. This is copied from another thread: Whilst I think
Goodfellas and
The Godfather are both masterpieces, I think this might just be better because not only does it succeed as a gangster film, but it is also better in the way it deals with it's characters and various human aspects - greed, violence, betrayal, friendship/relationships - we have characters like 'Noodles' who are some of the most disgusting, brutal characters we have ever seen yet you feel frustrated and sorry to them because of how they constantly make the bad choices when they think they are doing something right, or what they deserve/are entitled to. De Niro's performance is brilliant and there's just so much I could write about his character. Despite being four hours long as well, this film is constantly engaging, like a magical dream, it feels real yet has a mysterious and surreal aspect to, which is helped by the way the story is told.
Next up is three Clint Eastwood films, a director I had been meaning to explore further following my love for
Unforgiven and to a lesser extent
Mystic River. High Plains Drifter was on Sky Classics so I took this opportunity to watch one of his first ever films as a director, you can draw many parralels between this film and the superior
Unforgiven in his approach to the revisionist, violence filled West. What I enjoyed about
Unforgiven was how he dealt with important themes and concepts often associated with the West such as good versus evil and the glamorised violence, High Plains Drifter is very much similar in the fact we are immediately introduced to an anti-hero rapist, a brutal murderer yet a man who is supposed to be the town's saviour, I like the supernatural feel of the film represented in Eastwood's mysterious ghost like character which I may talk more about if I review it.
Gran Torino I borrowed in DVD format from a friend of mine, again another highly enjoyable film. Although relatively straightforward and quite compact in how it fits its story into its runtime, Eastwood packs it with important human messages and meaning as we watch a man filled with racism and prejudice, although at times it felt a bit clichéd and convenient, it was highly enjoyable as we see the violent side of Eastwood that we often associate with him.
Million Dollar Baby was the best film of the three though and is now my second favourite film of Eastwood, once again the story is told in a relatively straightforward way without any unnecessary effects or devices employed by the director, instead we let the performances take over the film (much like
Mystic River), the film is extremely powerful and touching in it's message about the human life, relationships, goals etc. and I can honestly say that I found the ending (well, the whole film) very moving.
Navajo Joe is a lesser known Spaghetti Western that appeared on TCM (noticed Mark F watched it recently as well) and I decided to watch because of Tarantino's use of the music in Kill Bill and how the director has been influenced by Corbucci in general. The music is one of the film's strong points, although as a low budget Spaghetti Western it's almost everything you'd expect. It has some moments of greatness, some well shot scenes and visuals, all the sets/costumes are pretty good, but the plot is quite weak, some of the editing for the fighting is incredibly poor - Joe seems to be able to jump about 20 metres, but it was enjoyable to watch nonetheless.
Men In Black 3 was on Sky On Demand and I ended up watching it despite not really liking either of the first two films when I was younger, I thought this to be pretty good though, nothing great but an enjoyable film, I liked how they chose Brolin to play the role of a younger Tommy Lee Jones, a good ending too. I recorded and watched
Mad Max 2 because I watched the first film a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty good, this was pretty much more of the same and gets the same rating from me, some good gritty visuals and well done scenes (I love a lot of the road chase scenes) but I don't really get the character of 'Mad Max' who before watching the films I was expecting to be some crazy violent maniac when in reality he seems pretty normal and contained.
La Jetée I decided to watch because donniedarko decided to watch it recently for his self challenge thread and I noticed after that other members also seemed to hold it in high regard. I give it the same rating as donniedarko, a beautiful experimental film and one of the most fascinating works I have ever seen, the story and the way it's told is truly great and quite touching as well despite being all still images, except for a few seconds - which seemed like magic. You can find my reviews/thoughts on
Harvie Krumpet and
Mary and Max in the
trade-off thread.
The final bunch of films belong to Quentin Tarantino. If you didn't know he was one of my favourite directors then you probably do now.
Death Proof was the only film that I watched that I hadn't seen before (and means I've now seen every Tarantino film) and I went in with kind of low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the fim. The first half of the film was especially great, I actually loved it, all the bar stuff and up until the hospital scenes are brilliant, really dark and gritty stuff and the introduction of the fantastic character in Stuntman Mike, Tarantino does a great job here and I actually loved the old grindhouse movie feel and just wish I could have seen this in the cinemas, love how the film was physically scratched to achieve it's look too. The second half I didn't like so much, when it actually stops the old feel and goes to a cleaner picture and a new set of girls, everything gets a lot more colourful - lots of bright colours, yellows, pinks, set in the day time, bright sun etc. - and it turns into more of a girlfriend fun style comedy, whilst I got what was happening I think it would of been better had it kept up it's first half style all the way through.
The other three (or two) Tarantino films I watched with my younger cousin who had never seen a film of his before. Every time I watch
Inglourious Basterds it just gets better for me and I think this might just be his second best film, I definitely need to write a review about everything I love in the film. The
Kill Bill films seem to be a bit hit and miss around here, some people really like them or others see them as a bit of lull for Tarantino as a director, personally I love them and find them to be two hours of great fun and a fantastic film watching experience, I love the world Tarantino creates and the characters the inhabit it, I want to watch and listen to these characters for hours. My real life friends, and a few people on here tend to think that the first part is stronger, but I've always preferred the second, the half with more substance, background story, character development and talking - something which you'll either love/hate.
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I found it pretty hard to watch the first time and I didn't really know what to make of it either, but the second time around I wasn't so blindsided by it. It has an overwhelmingly dreamlike atmosphere, and it is an exploration of memory, so I think it's supposed to give you a headache.
Anyway, maybe in a few years I will try to watch this movie again.
What?
