Review the last movie you viewed (NO LISTS) III

[monkeyskin]

North By Northwest is probably Hitch's most entertaining film, but I'd hesitate to call it much of a cinematic or artistic achievement. By comparison, Rear Window succeeds on all levels. But I think I can watch NxNW more often.

Cary Grant never lets you down. The most watchable screen personality ever, and will never be topped. There is no one else capable of such class, and yet willing to make a total ass out of himself if the story requires it.

I have to confess that I've just never been able to get into Vertigo until the makeover begins towards the end. I know it's just me and that makes it even more annoying.

And a huge 'YES' with regards to Cary Grant. The man was the smoothest criminal to ever grace the silver screen and even if he did appear in a few clunkers they were worth watching just for him alone. Not many actors I can say that about.

It's worth watching a lot of his films that he made up until 1946's Notorious where he played his widest range of roles, after that he largely settled back into the Cary Grant persona that he's most famous for. I recently watched Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and Father Goose (1964) and while neither picture were exceptional his performances made them so much more enjoyable.

 

[Saracene]

Cary Grant never lets you down. The most watchable screen personality ever, and will never be topped. There is no one else capable of such class, and yet willing to make a total ass out of himself if the story requires it.

Could never see the appeal of Cary Grant, personally For my money, one of the dullest major leading men in Hollywood history.

 

[lazarus]

Could never see the appeal of Cary Grant, personally For my money, one of the dullest major leading men in Hollywood history.

History says you are wrong. I don't know how many or what films of his you've seen, but his sense of humor and charm are pretty much equalled by no one. Of the classic actors only Gable comes close, and he doesn't have anywhere near the long-term appeal of Grant.

MS, I agree that pre-war Cary is where it's at. You look at Holiday, None But The Lonely Heart, Bringing Up Baby, Sylvia Scarlett, Only Angels Have Wings, Suspicion, His Girl Friday, Notorious...hard to believe the range he had and is rarely given credit for.

And then, of course, there's The Awful Truth. God that film is funny, and ultimately moving as well.

 

[monkeyskin]

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The rewatch after seeing it at the cinema back in March confirms it's place in my top ten of 2007. Absolutely gorgeous to look at, Twyker masterly brings the emotions, reactions and feelings of scents to a primarily visual medium without ever missing a beat. As I've said before the set design is flawless throughout the whole film, bringing to life the sights and smells of 18th Century Paris. Props also to Ben Whishaw who fearlessly inhabits a character so fundamentally likeable and even manages to pull the viewer into his diabolical project. He is given many scenes without dialogue and conveys his emotions perfectly without ever having to exagerate.

Also, with full knowledge of the climax in mind I was able to spot a few subtle hints along the way that make the climax less completely out of left field and actually make it seem the logical conclusion. Not bad for an ending that had everyone in the same screening as me look around at each other with WTF expressions.

House of Flying Daggers
Another film that's beautiful to watch, this lacks the poetic elegance of Hero but compensates by being so much more immediate and visceral. It's prompted me to go out and get Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and this on DVD ASAP (e-Bay of course) as every time I watch any of them my admiration grows considerably. I wonder if the same will happen with Curse of the Golden Flower and Fearless, both of which I felt were inferior to these three.

 

[lazarus]

You know, I felt the Zhang Yimou films were both extremely overrated, and I couldn't understand all the critics preferring them to Crouching Tiger. I think it stems from a snobbery about Lee because he had worked in Hollywood already, whereas Yimou had this legacy of very humanist films all in Chinese . And he does have some great stuff in his filmography-- To Live (which I own), Raise the Red Lantern, Ju-Dou, etc. Unfortunately, for all the great images, I thought there was a serious lack of depth in Hero and HOFD, whereas the characters really stuck with me in CTHD.

Hero was a very entertaining action movie that didn't resonate very much, and HOFD was just so ridiculously melodramatic I couldn't take it seriously. I also thought the fight in the trees had about 1/10 the poetry of the bamboo fight in CTHD.

Curse of the Golden Flower was visually great as well, but didn't stand out very much either.

 

[LMP]

Did not know Magnolia is about 3 hours long. I'm about an hour into it and diggin' it so far.

Tom Cruise plays a good cocky asshole.

 

[No spoken words]

Respect the cock.

 

[MrBrau1]

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The rewatch after seeing it at the cinema back in March confirms it's place in my top ten of 2007. Absolutely gorgeous to look at, Twyker masterly brings the emotions, reactions and feelings of scents to a primarily visual medium without ever missing a beat. As I've said before the set design is flawless throughout the whole film, bringing to life the sights and smells of 18th Century Paris. Props also to Ben Whishaw who fearlessly inhabits a character so fundamentally likeable and even manages to pull the viewer into his diabolical project. He is given many scenes without dialogue and conveys his emotions perfectly without ever having to exagerate.

Also, with full knowledge of the climax in mind I was able to spot a few subtle hints along the way that make the climax less completely out of left field and actually make it seem the logical conclusion. Not bad for an ending that had everyone in the same screening as me look around at each other with WTF expressions.

freaky film. loved it.

 

[Lancemc]

In The Mood For Love

I think I might be ready to give this one a 10/10 now. Even after my rating system revision.

The second viewing did wonders.

 

[lazarus]

Did not know Magnolia is about 3 hours long. I'm about an hour into it and diggin' it so far.

Tom Cruise plays a good cocky asshole.

Why are you stopping this movie to give us an update?

Fix your attention span YLB.

 

[lazarus]

In The Mood For Love

I think I might be ready to give this one a 10/10 now. Even after my rating system revision.

The second viewing did wonders.

I still like 2046 better, but that may be because I'm living in more of a dream world.

Zhang Ziyi FTW,

 

[LMP]

Why are you stopping this movie to give us an update?

Fix your attention span YLB.

I paused to get some food right then.

What a classic movie that was. I mean, it's a whole lot to digest at a time: the character relations, how they all connect, the themes of forgiveness, regret, parents/children, and then frogs fucking coming out of nowhere.

I can rarely sit still during a movie of or around 2 and a half hours, this one being no exception, but I tried to focus and enjoy this as much as I could. And it delivered.

I also loved the central theme of it all: "Shit happens, and you've gotta deal with it. These situations don't pull the strings, but your decisions ultimately do."

Right movie at the right time for me. Awesome.

 

[monkeyskin]

You know, I felt the Zhang Yimou films were both extremely overrated, and I couldn't understand all the critics preferring them to Crouching Tiger. I think it stems from a snobbery about Lee because he had worked in Hollywood already, whereas Yimou had this legacy of very humanist films all in Chinese . And he does have some great stuff in his filmography-- To Live (which I own), Raise the Red Lantern, Ju-Dou, etc. Unfortunately, for all the great images, I thought there was a serious lack of depth in Hero and HOFD, whereas the characters really stuck with me in CTHD.

Hero was a very entertaining action movie that didn't resonate very much, and HOFD was just so ridiculously melodramatic I couldn't take it seriously. I also thought the fight in the trees had about 1/10 the poetry of the bamboo fight in CTHD.

Curse of the Golden Flower was visually great as well, but didn't stand out very much either.

Out of the three I prefer Crouching Tiger overall, as you said it resonates the most and manages to be much more beautiful without assaulting the senses like Zhang Yimou's films do (for example I felt the fight in the leaves between Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi in Hero was just too much).

I'll also agree that come the conclusion of House of Flying Daggers melodrama does take over and knock a spectacular film down a few places. But the way the scene segues into a blizzard was well done. I really don't think that there was ever intended to be much depth though, as the bulk of the film was action scene - running scene - angsty scene - repeat, but done so well and entertainingly that it warrants repeat viewings just for the fun of it.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Juno. 8/10.

I mainly ranked it that based on the performances. Ellen Page was fantastic and I've always loved Alison Janney and she definitely doesn't disappoint here ("As soon as you move out, I'm getting Weimeraners!" was just hilarious). Jennifer Garner was perfectly cast as well.

Definitely leans on the cutesy side and the dialogue is frankly ridiculous at times. But I found that it got better as the movie went on (the worst bits were right at the start in the convenience store and when she called her best friend). It got a little less Gilmore Girls and a little more human after that. A little.

I agree about Ellen Page, now I get what all the hype about her is about. It is like a gritty Gilmore Girls ( much too much intentionally abnormal ways of speaking ) and that part of it got annoying- like you I felt it got better as it went along and it was touching towards the end. Wraps up teen pregnancy in a completely implausible way but it is just a movie.

I really didn't care for Jason Bateman, I get why they cast him in that part but ugh he was so wooden. I get that his character is supposed to be stunted and unhappy but it still seemed completely uninspired.

 

[No spoken words]

There Will Be Blood.

Here's my rating:



10 drools.

My lame review:

I do not know what film I've seen that I can compare it to. Citizen Kane, maybe? Not for technical aspects, but just for the character study. Someone like Laz will likely think of a better comparison, with his greater depth of film knowledge.

Just an astounding performance by Daniel Day Lewis, and Paul Dano holds his own, which is saying something.

The ending was risky; scenes like that are easier to....accept?.....when on the written page, but I thought it worked.

The score was fantastic, as well, reminded me of Kubrick here and there....

I loved it, look forward to seeing it again.

 

[Lancemc]

Glad you loved it NSW. Easily the best film of the year.

 

[No spoken words]

Definitely the best film I saw all year, though, admittedly, I missed some good ones this Fall/Winter.

I wish I understood a guy like Daniel Day Lewis. That sort of dedication to his craft unnerves me, but in a good way. To so totally inhabit a character to the point where it's no longer an actor but a fully realized alternate persona.....that's just powerful.

 

[LMP]

It's almost like a controlled insanity. I wonder what the guy's like in real life.

 

[RedRocksU2]

Troy
4/10
I just got to watching this.
After seeing 300, Troy was a joke.

 

[lazarus]

There Will Be Blood.

Here's my rating:



10 drools.

My lame review:

I do not know what film I've seen that I can compare it to. Citizen Kane, maybe? Not for technical aspects, but just for the character study. Someone like Laz will likely think of a better comparison, with his greater depth of film knowledge.

Glad the love fest continues. Unfortunately you guys are going to have to wait a couple weeks for me to see it and catch up.

As for other comparisons, what about Giant? A long, non-epic set against the oil industry that is much more about the characters than the world around them. Also, and I don't know too many specifics about the ending of TWBB aside from the milkshake line, if you've seen it you'll recall the ending of Giant takes place in a diner (a confined, urban location which is a contrast to the rest of the film's wide open spaces) and features kind of a postscript dust-up between two of the main characters. Seems like the bowling alley coda would be a nod to that, unless it was in Sinclair's novel (which I doubt, as PTA changed a lot apparently).

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Dan In Real Life - 3/10

Too cutesy, Steve Carrell is great and I had no issues with him, but Dane Cook makes me want to pop my eyeballs out with q-tips covered in salt even when he's not being himself. Juliette Binoche seemed out of place in it, as well.

 

[MrBrau1]

Hatchet- 7/10. A funny & entertaining gore-fest.

 

[Dalton]

I love Gary Paulson.

 

[lazarus]

His name is ROBERT Paulson.

His name is Robert Paulson.

His name is Robert Paulson.

 

[lazarus]

The Newton Boys (Linklater, 1998)

This film has a bit in common with the Coen Bros. 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy--both were considered the first failures in promising independent film careers, both critically and financially. Both films are also period pieces with the biggest budgets the filmmakers had worked with to date. And most importantly, they are both very underrated films, especially respective to the careers of the artists.

What's interesting about The Newton Boys is that it's really the only "big" film in Linklater's career. Even works like Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, which take place in Europe, are very modestly scaled. Perhaps it's this tendency to work in a more intimate fashion that gives The Newton Boys much of its authenticity, and its homey feel.

The story is about the most successful bank robbers in the history of the country, rumored to have knocked over somewhere between 40 and 80 banks across the U.S. (and Canada), culminating in a train robbery of 3 million dollars that proved to be their undoing.

Linklater may have appeared to many critics upon the film's release to be out of his league, but you'd never notice watching it today. He handles the bigger scale effortlessly, and his 'scope shots and pacing seem a step above his normal relaxed and non-descript style. This is a director who is capable of action, suspense, you name it, and it's a shame he hasn't been given (or chosen to take on) another larger project since. Of course this made way for the experiments into animation with Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, which I wouldn't trade for the world.

Even if this proves to be a small detour in his filmography, it's a very worthy one. This isn't something stunning on the level of The Assassination of Jesse James, or necessarily as entertaining as Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, but if you're a fan of the director or interested in the story it's well worth checking out.

Matthew McConaughey is pretty captivating in this, before he became synonymous with awful films. The twinkle in his eye isn't followed by the greasy sleaze you'd see nowadays. Probably his best work along with A Time to Kill. Ethan Hawke is a pleasure to watch as well, a complete opposite of the dour, moody roles we normally see him in.

 

[impy13]

Well, I just found out TWBB comes out in Austin on the 18th, so I'll see it around then.

What really sucks is I could have seen it back in September at Fantastic Fest. Oh well, though.

I also missed Juno in November at the Austin Film Festival. I really need to get on top of this shit.

 

[U2girl]

Gone baby gone 7/10

Some actors are just better behind the camera (Gibson, Eastwood) and it seems Ben Affleck is on the right path with this movie too. Good acting (especially Affleck's younger brother and his girlfriend), backed up with legends like Freeman and Harris. Big twist and an ending that stays with you.

 

[lazarus]

In a lesser year, this would have definitely made my Top 10. Luckily Amy Ryan is certain to get a nomination and should give the film a little more publicity. Casey Affleck was better here than in James/Ford, in my opinion. Certainly more natural.

Also, loved the 'do and facial hair on Ed Harris.

 

[U2girl]

He looked like Dennis Hopper.

 

[lazarus]

Good call.