Movie Tab II

Rewatched Raging Bull and while Scorsese amazes me with his wonderful storytelling,I find this film much weaker than Taxi Driver (they are often compared).Raging Bull is a good film but I think I just wasn't interested in the source material so it wasn't captivating.

Also rewatched Pulp Fiction and well...it's a masterpiece.You know how people sometimes watch a crappy film and they sometimes try to justify themselves by saying "I want an easy,stupid film for the evening".Pulp fiction proves that entertainment also can have high quality and whenever I want an "easy" film,I just rewatch PF.

For the first time I watched Midnight Cowboy.I really can't comment on it much,the film certainly managed to create this depressing atmosphere and sad characters,it also is consistent,I can understand why people love it yet I couldn't say that I was blown away.

Flight was a pretty powerful film which seemed as if it were a bit overlong by having Denzel be self-destruciive once or twice too often. The bravura airplane disaster scene is the obvious highlight, but Denzel is impressive throughout and actually makes the finale believable, even though the movie would have been better served by some tightening up. Don Cheadle and John Goodman provide ample support.

I don't understand the constant use of the word "depressing" in connection with Midnight Cowboy. I do get devastating, powerful, exhilarating, haunting and awesome acting though.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Nah, I'll stick with depressing

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I don't find it depressing either. I think haunting is a good description of it. It's not a movie that I can watch and just walk away from. I'm in a certain mood after watching it, but it's not depressed or even sad. I think haunted is as good a word as any to describe my feeling.

It's all because of my poor vocabulary!

Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
Colder and less charming than City Lights, but still wildly inventive and holds up remarkably well in terms of its humour. Chaplin was a master of doing the unexpected.

Tape (Richard Linklater, 2001)
Interesting in that it seems Linklater at this point ONLY wanted to film dialogue. It feels like a student film and, whilst there are moments of palpable intensity, it can't sustain 90 minutes.

Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1991)
I saw this as a film of contrasts. Conservative and liberal, violent and pacifist, art and anti-art, young and old, philosophical and practical - each vignette represents some sort of battle of ideology, attitude or cultural background. Each character is more interesting and eccentric than the next and it's very cleverly shot.

Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994)
Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)

Orson Welles' tale of poilce corruptness set on the US-Mexico border is a fantastic piece of work and an instant favourite for me. The story has a fantastic sleazy feel to it, we get cops and criminal gangs facing of against each other, egotistical and shady individuals, and plenty of violence and crime. Citizen Kane is often praised for its technical innovation, and this film is just as good if not better in my opinion, with Welles returning to America to direct following a break in Europe. Some of the shots in the film are fantastic, with great use of lighting and shots of great depth that are often associated with Welles' directing. In front of the camera Welles also gives us one of the most disgusting and hated characters in the history of film.


Another film noir, and without a doubt one of the greatest film scripts ever written. This film is just filled with so many fantastic lines, with so many quotable lines of genius. Highly entertaining from start to finish, this film is basically the ultimate battle of wits between to highly intelligent human beings, Sidney Falco and his high profile news writing boss J.J. Hunsecker. The plot never fully reveals itself in to the end as the opportunistic characters keep the story twisting and turning.


My first Charlie Chaplin film was everything I expected it to be, very funny and entertaining but also very touching emotionally. I know everybody probably talks about it, but the ending really is a magical moment. I will definitely be checking out more films from Chaplin.


Some will argue that my rating for this film is too low, because I know this film has a lot of fans around here. Whilst I did think it was a great film, I don't think I completely fell in love with it and I am going to wait until I watch some more Kurosawa (Ran and Seven Samurai, I plan) and perhaps re watch this one, I can't give it anything higher. The film's storytelling technique is very interesting, and the performances are good, at some times its a little in your face, but at other times I found it to be beautiful.

My first Robert Bresson I found to be very enjoyable, but not much more than that. It's stylish and interesting, but beyond that I didn't find myself really understanding or caring for the main character, who's motives I thought were never really that clear. He was completely cold and not particularly likeable, although once again some people seem to have a certain love for this film so maybe I need to watch it again before I appreciate it as much as others. Stylistically and in terms of direction it was pretty strong and I am definitely interested in more Bresson.

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@Daniel_M:

I haven't seen your last picks (I also still need to discover Kurosawa and Bresson), but your first 3 films are absolute favorites of mine! Ciy Lights and Touch of Evil are top 20 material for me and The Sweet Smell of Succes is also a certain top 100 movie in my book.

I'm very glad you also liked them!

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Can you expand on The Infidel, mark? I enjoyed less than you but I think it has it's stron points.

The Infidel is painted in broad strokes but it's amusing enough (at least compared to what I've been watching) to just about justify its running time. It also discusses its theme in humorous terms (not as well as Four Lions or The Time That Remains) which most films or filmmakers won't touch. It could have dealt more with how his situation really affected him and his family but it wasn't really that kind of movie. He just had to be more understanding and make his son's dream come true.

Bresson doesn't make films where you can relate to the characters, even his most tortured ones, like the little girls in Au Hasard and Mouchette. Bresson tried very hard to created cinema, which he felt should be different from the theatre, and thus the notion of a performance (an emotionally gripping character) was unnecessary.

I also don't think a very clear motive is necessary either (although the film is sased on a French lieutenant's account of his 1942 escape from a gestapo fortress in Lyon).

Like I said when I talked about it in my top 50 thread, the film's great because it reconstructs the very notion of freedom through offscreen sounds and defines salvation in terms of painstakingly patient and meticulous effort.


You said this is your first Bresson film, though, so you may get used to his style if you watch some more films (I'd suggest Diary of a Country Priest).

Yeh I enjoyed it, but I am not going to lie and pretend I instantly fell in love and connected with the film, I definitely want to explore his other films and revisit it eventually too, I will check out the films you have mentioned when I do

12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) – – enjoyed Lumet's use of claustrophobic settings and the capable performances, but the mechanical writing and a somewhat pat liberal parable that reeks of its period sort of ruined the film for me. Give me the Dog Day Afternoon Lumet over this.

Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977) – – visually and structurally the film's a mess, but many of the situations are genuinely clever, and there are plenty of memorable gags.

Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks, 1936) – – this 1936 film is a superlative airport melodrama, comparable with Only Angels Have Wings. All of the lines of Frank “Spig” Wead's stage play are there and the action is confined to a few sketchy sets, yet the film is never theatrical: Hawks turns the conventions into superbly cinematic abstractions.

Notorious (George Tillman, Jr., 2009) – – I have a thing for hip-hop biopics, what can I say?

The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) – – when I first saw this, about a year ago, I thought it was a masterpiece, but watching it again the experience was somewhat underwhelming; perhaps because I knew everything about it. Great performances and direction (except for a few very ugly shots), but I can't help feel that Scorsese made this film against his best intentions.

The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999) – – this is simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources.

Although I like 12 Angry Men more than you, I agree that Dog Day Afternoon is better. And again although I like The Matrix more than you - not as much as most people do though, I give it - I agree that it gets weaker in the second half, the third act seemed disappointing and formulaic to me where as the initial premise and first half had me extremely interested.

I was on a bit of a recession film wise, with family over, and what not, but I'm back up on pace. Here's some of my recent watches.

Le Samourai (Melville, 1967),
This film creates a genuinely good mood, with it's stylistic intelligent setting. I found the pacing to be inconsistent, starting off fast, and then going much slower. I didn't see the assasian as anything special, or fun to follow.



Crackhouse (BBC Documentary) -
A documentary that tries to make thieves and child abusers be the victims. I just didn't feel it. People when they get themselves into crack no it's not some fantastic drug that'll make you a success, just ask Powdered Water.



Quiz Show (Redford (1997)
While I didn't completely love this, I'm shocked this got one pity point on our 90s list. Great cinematography by Michael Ballhaus, Fiennes and Turturro had great chemistry, despite not being on screen together much.



Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Zemeckis,1988) +
I never got the childhood opportunity of watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as so many others have. I was raised on Mel Brooks at that time. And I think what would've happened if I rewatched this later, similar to what happened with History of the World: Part 1, I'd be surprised with all the adult humor I missed. While this seems innocent, with the scandal being playing patty-cake, and all the slapstick humor, the film is shockingly mature. This has themes of genocide, cheating, and alcoholism. And despite not having the nostalgia of revisiting a childhood classic, I did have the nostalgia effect of seeing all my childhood characters in this. The film mixes live action with animation, and surprisingly doesn't look to dated. This inspired Space Jam, which I did not miss out on when I was a kid (thank God). And while all detective stories are similar I can't help but think this alludes to Chinatown on several occasions. Such as the patty-cake picture scene and the corrupt cops. This movie was funny, and I was hooked in from the opening scene, which I loved. Doesn't feel dated and has all the comedy aspects I look for.


Au Hasard Balthazer (Bresson, 1966)
As an animal lover, and I guess I kinda like people, I expected to fall in love with this. I was watching the clock more than the film itself. A vastly overrated bore, and what's the great statement? That life happens? Ok, that's great Bresson, tell me more.



The Invisible Man (Whale,1933)
Review



Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935)
Review



Con Air (West, 1997)
#100 of the nineties list. The plane act was highly entertaining. The prion(ers) were over stereotypical, the verdict didn't make sense, and the fight made even less sense. Small expansion in the MoFo Nineties thread.



The Hole/Dong (Tsai, 1998)
The musical numbers were pointless, the style was plain. I know it was meant to be dark, but then why those light music scenes. The film has no focus and isn't easy to finish.

"It's the world in an hour and a half."

I don't think being 'entertained' or 'excited' was ever the intent.

Not my world

Really I always found the world to be entertaining and exciting, especially crunched into ninety minutes

Jug Face (2013 Chad Crawford Kinkle) I would imagine that Lucky McKee has had some influence on Kinkle. I don't know that for sure, but they have very similar styles and anyone fond of McKee's style of horror should probably give this a watch. (I don't know myself what I think of McKee. I love May and I hate The Woman and those are the only two of his I've seen.)

This is more of a slow burn creepy psychological movie (but it's about the supernatural as well.), than an actual horror one. It's intriguing enough in the beginning, but by the end you still don't have a whole lot of information and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what the point was.

There is a perverse kind of fun in a lot of horror, but Jug Face is pretty heavy on the perverse and kind of light on the fun. That could be O.K, but I just don't think I got what I was supposed to out of it. Maybe it's the movie missing something, but this is just one of those films that I'm going to have to watch again before I have a clear opinion of it.