Movie Tab II

Metropolis 1927 Fritz Lang
A - I watched this with the commentary on and that helped me understand Lang's perspective.



La Jetee 1962 Chris Marker
B-



The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 Robert Wise
A-

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I forgot to mention...

Sans Soleil 1982 Chris Marker
C

Well this is just great, now I look like an idiot. I should've looked this stuff up before I posted that.

Let The Right One In

Very atmospheric vamp flick, even if not a lot happens. Definitely want to revisit it before making any calls on the huge amount of hype it's received. Suprisingly strong performances from the young cast and worth a look for genre fans but is rather slow, compared to, say, 30 Days of Night it's almost a polar opposite.




sex, lies and videotape


Can see why it's an important film in terms of independent filmmaking, very realistic with, at times, some strong performances driving not much of a narrative.




Kingdom of Heaven- Director's Cut


Oh dear, Orlando Bloom can't act for toffee. Shame since he was the pivotal character for empathy and not giving a toot about him really stopped any engagement with the film. Such a shame when the other cast, cinematography and such were all splendid. Got a bit tired of the action sequences going slo-mo and all these film do just seem to drown in the wake of LoTR.




Raging Bull


Finally watched this all the way through, probably at the higher end of Scorsese's filmography but didn't quite resonate with me. De Niro and Pesci certainly shine as brothers and really bring the characters to live with some great chemistry but wasn't the most satisfying story arc




Seventh Seal


Had this on hold since just thought it was all about the Knight playing chess with Death, turns out that was very small part. My least favourite Bergman film to date and thought it was pretty average.




Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan


Think is probably best Trek film, some very memorable moments and not actually that dated.




Star Trek III: The Search for Spock


As one of the uneven Trek films (and by reputation weaker) i still think it's pretty solid and a good continuation of the previous installment. Not the strongest story or characters but still enough to enjoy




Body Snatchers


That cold 90s feel suits the story brilliantly but the second half of the script falls apart leaving a thoughtless rush from point a to b. Some of it's dated and reuses that chilling end courtesy of Sutherland from the 78 version too much. Still, better than The Invasion.




Beyond the Valley of the Dolls


Eh, maybe i missed something. Thought it would be more "cult", in as much as it would be pretty bizarre, it wasn't. From what i've heard of Meyer's work as well, it wasn't that sexy or outrageous.




Chaser


Bog standard Asian crime drama, the cover made it look a bit supernatural or something. It wasn't. Pales against superior film Memories of Murder which does most of what this tries to do better.




Angel-A


Besson's return to screen isn't quite as explosive as his last few films, very restrained B&W with occasional flourish. Not sure much to recommend, the romance wasn't that touching nor was the message.




Red Sun

Sublime cast, standard Western

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Lulz, no.



I'm a little conflicted about this one. Objectively it's a very well written/shot drama in the vein of Italian neo-realism, only without dialog; the struggles of an ordinary, hard-working family on a barren little Japanese island, visual poem about the struggle to survive, yada yada. But I thought it was only mildly interesting and I'm not sure if I particularly care for a film you can describe in one sentence. Maybe it was the lack of dialog. But I did like some films with sparse dialog (3-Iron, Spring, summer...). I dunno, it was just too simple I guess. I fast-forwarded a lot of it and felt like I didn't miss a step...:\

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Hey, it's Vonnegut's favourite film as well Godoggo. I thought it was decent, just didn't impress me. Actually, all of Hallstrom's films that I've seen have that same affect on me.



The Big Red One (1980, Samuel Fuller)

"We don't murder, we kill."

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Yea, I read awhile ago that it was Vonnegut's favorite film and it made me really happy. I was just kind of giving you crap, but I understand that everyone isn't going to love it as much as I do. Some of Hallstrom's work I think is decent, but I don't love it like I do My Life as a Dog. I really didn't like The Cider House Rules which is unfortunate, because John Irving is one of my favorite writers. One of the reasons that I think that Vonnegut might have loved this movie so much is the way that the characters are so complex in this joyful sort of way, much like characters in Vonnegut's novels. Irving does this too, so I thought Hallstrom and him would be a good match. Not so, in my humble opinion.

My fave Hallstrom flick is definitely Once Around.

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My IMDb page

Mannequin -

+



I believe that this was my very first viewing of this delightful, fun movie about a mannequin that comes to life, making a young artist-of-sort's dream come true. Kim Cattrall is tantalizing, and she was as tantalizing as ever in this. Great comedy and all-around good performances, and a fantastic ending and song choice for that ending.

Mannequin 2: On the Move -

An unnecessary sequel to what would have been a great stand-alone movie. Here, the comedy was taken to the "wacky," absurd level, and it didn't work well at all. Mannequin 2 almost completely lacked the luster and appeal of the original.

Lower Learning -

+



I had seen Lower Learning once before, and my original rating for it (found pages upon pages back in this thread somewhere), was--I believe--a . While that's certainly changed now, I still find it to be a very funny, entertaining movie, although it didn't stand up to a rewatch quite as well as I'd hoped. It's certainly not your average, run-of-the-mill off-the-wall comedy; it takes the genre to its own level of absurdity, but in this case, that absurdity--mostly--works.

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Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

Horsemen (2009)



Horsemen begins well. Looks and feels like Se7en. I was interested and entertained up until three quarters of the way in. Se7en carried though on its promises, the built up suspense pays off in the end Horsemen does not. The ending is rushed, weak and predictable. A pity since there was potential.

Das Boot (1981, Wolfgang Petersen)

When a movie is three and a half hours long and for the most part takes place in the confined spaces of a German U-Boat, but still manages to grasp your attention throughout and even has you cheering for Germans in a WWII film, a great film you are indeed watching.

Naked (1993, Mike Leigh)

Thanks Iro for recommending this to me, a gritty film with solid performances from the entire cast.

On monday I went to the second Tod Browning double feature at Film Forum. This time we saw The Devil-Doll (1936) and a pretty entertaining racist silent movie called Where East is East, which stared Lupe Valez as a wily, scheming oriental woman who sets her sights on stealing her daughter(who she abandoned to the care of the father, trapper "Tiger" Haynes [Chaney])'s fiance. More icky misanthropy and execution-by-ape from Tod Browning, as pretty much every one in this film save for the daughter shows themselves to be a pretty awful person.

Here are my thoughts on The Devil-Doll from a year ago.

Paths of Glory



Paths of Glory is a movie I've wanted to see for awhile, mostly because it was a Kubrick movie and I'd heard good things about it. Well, I must say it did not disappoint. I thought it would probably be second from the bottom of my Kubrick rankings (with Full Metal Jacket at bottom). But that is nothing to scoff at as those movies all score above a 4/5 in my book. At first, I thought the movie was pretty weak. The opening scene was very stiff and hamfisted. But the film just got better and better as it went along until the

*SPOILER*

eventual shooting scene. I must admit I was apprehensive the whole time before they shot them. I kept thinking 'Are they really going to shoot them?' But of course they did, and it was like a punch to the stomach. Truly a fantastic movie with a great story, good acting, and excellent visuals.

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"Travis Bickle: Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."

The Bad Sleep Well (1960, Akira Kurosawa)



Howl's Moving Castle (2005, Hayao Miyazaki)

Let the Right One In (Alfredson, 2008)



Reading Pyro's post above, I take it this flick got a ton of hype. I hadn't heard much hype, but a friend recommended the film, and I really liked it a lot. I enjoyed watching a vampire flick that didn't rely on ANY cheap scares during its entire run time. It focused on character and atmosphere instead of cheap thrills, which was refreshing. I also enjoyed the fact that the film was bereft of any sort of moral play, simply letting things unfold without preaching one way or another.

One of my favorite watches so far this year.

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Election



certainly doesn't live up to the comparison of The Godfather. It's a decent story of the Triads and their code of honour but at a meagre 90 minute running time it doesn't quite live up to it's epic aspirations, both in character development or the makings of a complex narrative.

Planet of the Apes (original)



boy did the remake mislead me on this one. Thought there would be far more emphasis on action but was pleasantly surprised to see it questioning humanity etc. Also didn't expect it to have held up this well over time, thought the costumes were just as good as in the latest. Repeat views could sway the rating as well.

Nosferatu- Phantom der Nacht



was bit dismayed that the production values seemed bit low but the lack of elaborate sets and such made a far more sombre tone that really helped the characterisation and gave an odd sense of despair to the film. Was very similar to Murnau's to begin with but manages to become it's own film.

You watched this due to recommendations in your thread, correct, Pyro? One of said recommendations coming from me?

Well, I feel pretty stupid because all along, I thought you were talking about this Election:



I've never even heard of the one you just saw. :P

Yes, but at 3.5/5. it must be damn good anyway, no matter how "disappointed" he was. Wow, that really means that The Seventh Seal sucked Death's balls.