The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame II

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I'm not a squeamish person when it comes to violence and gore, but something about people biting into other's necks just makes me squirm. This film is probably the most graphic depiction of vampire bites I've seen on film, and I got to respect 'Interview With The Vampire' for that. I like the approach it takes to the vampire mythos: that everything is untrue except they still drink blood and die in sunlight, also the blood can only come from a living being. I think more writers should mix up and change the vampire rules, so as to not have the genre grow stale.
The performances are all good; I feel the old accents that Pitt and Cruise use helped to add a sense of extravagance and mystery to their characters, showing that there's something just a little off about them even when they're pretending to be human. The brief moments of dark comedy were effective. All of the sets and lighting are well done, and are great in how they add to the gothic tone.

Apart from that I don't have much to say, most of my interest in the film just came from the story and how it was told.

Thanks to whoever picked this, definitely have to see more Neil Jordan films.



The trick is not minding
Didn’t care for Interview with a Vampire.

Edit: to elaborate, I found it flat, and maybe it had something to do with the fact I read the book a few years before it, but it never lived up to its potential



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Deliverance





I had come to know this movie as the Hillbilly rape-revenge flick but consider my surprise when I find out this was more of a survival film fighting the elements of mother nature. Sure the added dangers of dead bodies piling up create tension and logistical problems for our characters, but it was interesting to me to see how this movie has been known for one scene and one scene only for decades since its release. There is so much more to dive into with this movie and I'm glad I finally sat down to watch it.

When four friends decide to go on a canoeing trip down the Cahulawassee River before it becomes one giant lake, they run into problems when two members find themselves at odds with two mountain men who sexually assault and threaten to kill them. In an act of self-defense, one of the mountain men is killed and the four friends must decide what to do with the body and how to navigate the rest of the dangerous waters.

Pleasantly surprised by this one. With beautiful cinematography, tense action sequences and suspense at almost every corner, deliverance delivers a solid time. It was nice to see Reynolds, the 'star' be side-lined with a broken leg and have us now spend time with Jon Voight. He's less sure of himself and we as an audience lose confidence in them making it out of this alive.

Solid nomination.
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Suspect's Reviews



Hooray Suspect, glad to see you're still on the forum!

I love Deliverance and have seen it many times. It was on in a bar one time, and when going out for a cig, I jokingly said to my wife, come get me if it's time for the rape. Came back in and we finished our drinks and were leaving, and some lady says, aren't you going to stay for the rape?



Interview With a Vampire is one of a handful of vampire movies I enjoy and a lot of it has to do with Kirsten Dunst. Cutest little kid and just nasty. She did great. I remember when it was being made and the set was closed off as the studio didn't want anyone to see Tom all made up as it was such a different role than we we used to seeing from him. I thought it was one of his better performances.

Deliverance is also good but it's not something you pop in for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon.



I've been meaning to rewatch Interview with a Vampire, I've only seen it once but like Hey Fredrick just posted a lot of that film's credit goes to Kirsten Dunst's performance as a kid vampire. I don't remember much about though, so a good reason to check it out again sometime.



the exterminating angel

of the three bunuels i've seen, i'd say this slightly edges out belle de jour and un chien andalou as my favorite. i have my misgivings about the film as a whole, but without question the thing that makes this movie work is bunuel's refusal to explicitly identify the force keeping these people in the room. cinema is so much more compelling when it deals in the unexplainable, so i appreciate any movie in which the very premise deliberately makes no logical sense. the fact that their entrapment seems essentially self-imposed rather than external is so much more interesting and, most importantly, funnier. the resolution of the film clearly implies it in some way stemmed from a breakdown in social order, which bunuel uses to show the rot at the heart of the decadence of the ruling class when they are stripped of their social etiquette and material excess, one of the purest distillations of marxism i've seen on screen. or, conversely, you could argue he's showing that same rot by leaving them with ONLY that etiquette and excess, as they are trapped in the very room in which they congregate in de facto celebration of their lavish lifestyles.

my only quibble is that the film feels distinctly sociological rather than dramatic, which is why it lends itself to such fascinating analysis, but it also precludes any sort of emotional investment on the part of the audience. i admire the lack of sympathetic characters because that's how it should be when you're dealing with rich pricks, but it would've been cooler if they also felt like actual fully-formed characters. instead they're basically just manifestations of various upper-class components that we must observe from a distance, with no psychological insight aside from what bunuel deems necessary for his satirical purposes. i suppose this is why some would say it's ill-advised to make a film where you hate all your characters, but i respect his purposes too much to really hold it against him or the film. under normal circumstances i would probably care even less about a film not having sympathetic characters because i usually think that's a lame complaint for such biting satire, but when the bulk of a film's satirical content can simply be found in its premise, once the premise has been established you aren't left with much to latch on to. luckily bunuel does find some clever and entertaining elucidations on his central theme so i was never bored, but i'd still say its fairly unsatisfying on a dramatic level. but that's really only a minor complaint when you consider what the film is going for. very much looking forward to the other bunuel i have to watch for this.

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Thanks for checking in Inmate! I don't know if it'd be the same for you, but my favorite from that director is That Obscure Object of Desire.



Caught a couple of Bunuel last year, Viridiana and Simon of the Desert. I really liked Viridiana, one of the best movies I watched last year, and thought Simon, which is a short, was very good as well. Have been wanting to see Exterminating Angel just haven't gotten around to it.



The trick is not minding
So, can’t find A Letter from an Unknown Woman available to stream or rent at my local, and the same with the Innocents.
So plan C. Watching A Woman Under the Influence instead.
Eventually, and not right now, but probably in a few weeks, I’ll need to ask for links for those two.
But for now, I’m fine.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
So, can’t find A Letter from an Unknown Woman available to stream or rent at my local, and the same with the Innocents.
So plan C. Watching A Woman Under the Influence instead.
Eventually, and not right now, but probably in a few weeks, I’ll need to ask for links for those two.
But for now, I’m fine.

I think both of these movies are on YouTube for free.

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948):



The Innocents - (1961):
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The trick is not minding
I think both of these movies are on YouTube for free.

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948):



The Innocents - (1961):
If all else fails, I guess I can. Not a fan of watching them via YouTube.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
If all else fails, I guess I can. Not a fan of watching them via YouTube.

I only skimmed through them quickly to see if they were the full movies, but at a quick glance, they both look like they're nice copies.



The trick is not minding
I only skimmed through them quickly to see if they were the full movies, but at a quick glance, they both look like they're nice copies.
Ok. I’ll probably end up watching them that way then. Thank you!



The trick is not minding
A Woman Under The Influence


Going into this, I thought it was a film about a woman’s descent into alcoholism. It was the first mistake I would make in my assumption about this film. The second would be expecting a good film.

Rowland’s delivers an a performance filled with overacting full of wild gestures. It’s an exaggerated act with unbalanced scenes. Their idea of a mentally unstable woman is a hollow one.

Falk delivers the best scene's as her husband Nick, but only when he’s alone, and Rowland’s not around flailing about. Nick is an angry person with his own issues, namely a bad temper. He’s angry at his circumstances. For himself and his family. But mostly he’s angry at himself. He doesn’t know what to do with his wife, Mabel. His treatment of her is one that alternates between callousness and exasperation. And his decision haunts him with guilt.

As a whole the film didn’t work for me though. It’s treatment of mental illness was, as I explained earlier, hollow and could have been expanded on more.

Sorry, whoever picked this.