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Saracene said:
But I didn't think that it was carried across in the film and I frankly found the last few scenes very tedious to watch.
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:up:

The last 10 - 15 minutes just ruined the whole film for me. What, up to that point, had been a great, riveting, tense thriller for me, turned and (IMO) tried waaaaay too hard and with too much obviousness, to reach for greatness and meaningfulness, and completely changed the tone and direction of this film for me, unwarranted.

It's one of the few examples I can think of off the top of my head, where the ending of the film completely marred what had been a really good film.

NCFOM :down:
 
FitzChivalry said:
:up:

The last 10 - 15 minutes just ruined the whole film for me. What, up to that point, had been a great, riveting, tense thriller for me, turned and (IMO) tried waaaaay too hard and with too much obviousness, to reach for greatness and meaningfulness, and completely changed the tone and direction of this film for me, unwarranted.

It's one of the few examples I can think of off the top of my head, where the ending of the film completely marred what had been a really good film.

NCFOM :down:
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From the time we are very young we are told stories.

and they all have their formulas and proper endings.


"No Country" is an exceptional film because it does not fit into that formula.

In life, sometimes things just happen.

And the story - is in the telling.


Right now, the 911 story ends with Bin Laden living and going on to do who knows what?

Such is life - in the real world.
 
One of the reasons I'm looking forward to watching No Country For Old Men again is to reassess the action and dialogue with full knowledge of the ending. It took me completely by surprise before and was a bit of work to absorb on the spot, but it feels like a film that will get better with repeated viewings. Probably read the book beforehand too.

-----------------

Citizen Kane
The common, unofficial title of 'Best Film Ever Made' seems to have become a handicap for this outstanding work. A lot of reviews on forums, blogs, etc, say how they went in with high or even dubious expectations and came away bored and wondering what the Hell all of the fuss was about. Well, any film made out to be the best ever made is bound to disappoint most people watching it for that accolade alone because in my mind it's not a film that was made with such an ambition in mind.

Watching it a few years since my last viewing, with many films great films experienced in that time, I was surprised to remmeber just how entertaining it is. The energy, passion, creativity and sheer joy that radiates off the screen is immense. There's the old quote where Orson Welles describes working on his first film as akin to a child playing with the world's biggest playset and it shows on the screen. The range and wealth of camera angles, transitions, narrative techniques and canny special effects make it simply fun to watch, even during the heavy scenes. Case in point; we see Kane walking through Xanadu towards the end, a broken man alone in an incomplete marble monolith of a home. One shot depicts him walking down a corridor with mirrors on both sides, showing his image reflected into infinity but always completely alone and more distant each time. It's a perfect shot that perfectly shows his situation but it just looks so bloody beautiful you're entertained by it!

To go on would require too much gushing for one post, so I'll just move on to the second film in my recent double bill.

Plan 9 From Outer Space
Well, when you've just seen the best any film is going to be a comedown, so may as well head straight to the bottom. This was the first time Id'd ever sat down and watched the whole film from start to finish in one sitting after seeing twenty minutes here and ten there. And it really is that bad. I don't mean casually bad, where the jokes aren't funny and/or plain offensive, I don't mean where the thriller has no tension or the romance is too cliched and stupid for anyone to care about. No, this film is quite simply the most poorly executed and incompetantly made I've ever seen.

I don't know where to begin. Daylight turning to darkest night and back again three, four, five times in the same scene. Cardboard gravestones wobbling and even falling over on cheap cemetary sets. Actors proclaiming "Holy mackeral!" as a pie plate UFO hovers past and then proceeding to actually lift their scirpt into shot as they check their next line. Forcing stand ins to hide their faces behind cloaks rather than recast deceased actors. Introductary monologues filled with absurd, contradictory nonsense.Unintelligible lead actors who really only have about four scenes. Lame stock footage, poor acting and a bollocks script.

But don't get me wrong, it's well worth watching sometime. Trust me, you'll laugh more than many comedies. If you've seen Ed Wood you'll know what to expect, but to actually watch it and marvel at how they weren't taking the piss and were actually producing faithful reenactments of certain scenes is something else.
 
Mamma Mia

Just as delightfully fluffy and entertaining as I had hoped. Fun times. :up:

But oh, poor Pierce Brosnan. He's really not much of a singer, is he? :lol:
 
corianderstem said:
Mamma Mia

Just as delightfully fluffy and entertaining as I had hoped. Fun times. :up:

But oh, poor Pierce Brosnan. He's really not much of a singer, is he? :lol:
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No he's not, I thought he looked a bit jaundice at times as well. I found myself rolling my eyes a few times early on but actually teared up during Slipping Through My Fingers :reject:. Our theater was clapping along which really made it more fun. It's selling out which I can't believe competing with The Dark Night.
 
I loved the ending, with the sing along before the credits, with Meryl and her compatriots rising out of the water in their fab getups. And, of course, the men in their fabulous getups.

I don't know how many people were singing, but the stranger next to me and I were both singing along. I'd been waiting patiently through the whole movie to sing Abba loudly! :wink:

Just got done watching ...

The Cockettes

a documentary about a San Francisco troupe of performers in the late 60s/early 70s, a combination of straight, gay and the downright weird. Shockingly, drugs featured heavily in their performances. :wink:

Pretty interesting, bizarre stuff.
 
The Savages

Very strong performances by Laura Linney and P.S. Hoffman as a sister and brother attempting to care for their abusive and dying father.

Hoffman, especially, was a treat in this one. He plays a depressed, grouchy, struggling writer...which is pretty much what I want to be when I get older. So I connected with him. Strong performances all around, really. Even the brief little role of the Nigerian nurse I thought was written and played very well.

It was indeed funny at times (again mostly Hoffman) and was for the most part pretty intriguing. Definitely a bit of a slow burn, and some would maybe say that it is too murky and depressing but I thought that the pace and feel of it really fit well with the two lead characters.

I also enjoyed the nice happy-ish ending.

Pretty good stuff.
 
While everyone else was off seeing Batman, I was one of three people in the theatre at the matinee of Reprise, a Norwegian film about two young best friends who are aspiring writers and what happens when their books get published. Lots of angst set against a hip, brooding Oslo writer's culture and a fair amount of Joy Division and New Order in the background. Kind of dark but also really, really good. The hand-held camera gave an intimacy to what could have been otherwise something more detached. I have worked with writers at varying stages of their careers for most of my adult life so it had a particular resonance for me. I highly recommend it. :up:
 
Michael Clayton.

I had not read a lot about it, so, was not entirely sure what the film was about.....

I really enjoyed it. Thought that every performance was spot on, from Clooney to Pollack (RIP) to Swinton to Wilkinson.

The story drew me in from the beginning and I never once lost interest. I enjoyed how eloquent each character was, and how the tension was present without.

This felt like Pollack himself had directed this film back in the 70's, if that makes sense.
 
joyfulgirl said:
Reprise
I have worked with writers at varying stages of their careers for most of my adult life so it had a particular resonance for me. I highly recommend it. :up:
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I don't work with writers

I did read a book, once

I see a lot of foreign language films

of the last 10, this was the worst :down:

self-absorbed, boring characters, why should anyone care about these people? also, nothing happens :yawn:
 
deep said:
I don't work with writers

I did read a book, once

I see a lot of foreign language films

of the last 10, this was the worst :down:

self-absorbed, boring characters, why should anyone care about these people? also, nothing happens :yawn:
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You're such a contrarian. What book did you read?
 
GirlsAloudFan said:
The Savages

Very strong performances by Laura Linney and P.S. Hoffman as a sister and brother attempting to care for their abusive and dying father.

Hoffman, especially, was a treat in this one. He plays a depressed, grouchy, struggling writer...which is pretty much what I want to be when I get older. So I connected with him. Strong performances all around, really. Even the brief little role of the Nigerian nurse I thought was written and played very well.

It was indeed funny at times (again mostly Hoffman) and was for the most part pretty intriguing. Definitely a bit of a slow burn, and some would maybe say that it is too murky and depressing but I thought that the pace and feel of it really fit well with the two lead characters.

I also enjoyed the nice happy-ish ending.

Pretty good stuff.
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I agree with everything in your review except one main opinion . . . I thought Linney was far, far, far and away better in this than Hoffman (and I do love Philip Seymour Hoffman!). I just don't think he did as much with his character or went as far with him as Linney did with her character. Her performance again affirmed my opinion that she is one of the 2 or 3 best working actresses in "mainstream" cinema today. Her transformation and character arc are amazing in this film and she shows us every nuanced detail along the way. Hoffman was good, but Linney was AMAZING! :drool:
 
deep said:
I don't work with writers

I did read a book, once

I see a lot of foreign language films

of the last 10, this was the worst :down:

self-absorbed, boring characters, why should anyone care about these people? also, nothing happens :yawn:
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Well, no, it's not an action film. It's a coming-of-age story about male-bonding when the most exciting thing in the world is music, literature and ideas, and you hang out with your friends and think about all the possibilities the future holds, and then how that all fades in time. People are self-absorbed at that age. It was a look at a very specific period in these young men's lives. Not a lot "happened" when I was that age either, but plenty was going down inside.

So, we disagree. :shrug:
 
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation 8/10

A really touching story about a little boy in Sao Paulo whose parents are involved in politics in the '70s and have to suddenly go into hiding, leaving the boy with his grandfather in the Jewish section of the city (the boy is half-Jewish but not raised Jewish). Unbeknownst to the parents, the grandfather died right before they dropped the boy off so he is left stranded to be cared for by the good people of the neighborhood and in particular, an old man who doesn't seem to particularly like children. There is a lot of humor here though the boy's circumstances are bleak. He makes new friends and learns the ways of a different culture, against a backdrop of a shared love of soccer as Brazil goes for the World Cup. Very absorbing and sweet, and the boy is wonderful.

It was a "coming of age" weekend for me--one book and two films all coincidentally on this subject.
 
joyfulgirl said:
Well, no, it's not an action film. It's a coming-of-age story about male-bonding when the most exciting thing in the world is music, literature and ideas, and you hang out with your friends and think about all the possibilities the future holds, and then how that all fades in time. People are self-absorbed at that age. It was a look at a very specific period in these young men's lives. Not a lot "happened" when I was that age either, but plenty was going down inside.

So, we disagree. :shrug:
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no problem

we agree a lot. too

I really liked the Joy Division film

the film is getting mostly good reviews, too. :shrug:


I just could not have cared less about the guy, who counts to ten, twice
and could not understand why his cute girlfriend would even put up with his pity party


other films, I have seen at my local art house
and have enjoyed more recently:

Tell No One

Edge of Heaven

Roman de Gare

Quid Pro Quo

Brick Lane

Before the Rains

The Unknown Woman

The Grocer's Son
 
deep said:
no problem

I just could not have cared less about the guy, who counts to ten, twice
and could not understand why his cute girlfriend would even put up with his pity party
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Oh, I agree with you there. I wanted to smack him. But I've known people like that and even though I didn't like him, he was real to me. I don't have to like a character to appreciate their place in a film or a book, and he did have some redeeming moments.


deep said:
other films, I have seen at my local art house
and have enjoyed more recently:

Tell No One

Edge of Heaven

Roman de Gare

Quid Pro Quo

Brick Lane

Before the Rains

The Unknown Woman

The Grocer's Son
Click to expand...

We have two great art houses here, too, but we tend not to get things as soon as you do out there, often not until they're about to be released on DVD, sadly. I did see a couple of weeks ago "My Brother is an Only Child" which is really good, and "Flawless" (Michael Caine/Demi Moore) also really good, but I rejected "Before the Rains" because it got bad reviews--but you recommend it? I figured I'd wait for the rental. "Brick Lane" is coming soon and I'm looking forward to that but am desperately looking for the book which is somewhere in my house but I never read it, probably because I can never find the damn thing.
 
I forgot to mention it here, since I went on and on about it in its own thread, but ...

X-Files: I Want to Believe

I woke up this morning realizing it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was last night. Mulder & Scully, great to see you, and all the moments with you guys were great. The rest of the movie? I'm not one to bitch about plot, writing, plot holes, etc. But boy, did I have a lot of problems with it. The least of which was that it was just a lame story to put into a movie. Oh well.

Rescue Dawn

Now THIS was good. I'd heard it was very good, but "war movies" (yes, I know, not yet a war by that point, but POW movies fall into war movie territory) aren't really my thing. But since I'm on a Christian Bale kick (shocker), I watched it.

It's so weird - Bale does an American accent so well that it shocks me when I hear him speak in his plain old accent, and it throws me off. Recent clips I've heard of him speaking, his accent is super thick. On the extra features of this DVD, the accent is there but not nearly as strong. I wonder if he eases off on his own accent while even preparing for another role, or what the deal is.

Anyway. I really liked the movie.
 
Step Brothers

I haven't laughed as hard at a movie in a long time. You've really got to be a fan of the Angry Ferrell Shouting brand of comedy to enjoy it, I think, but if you buy into that, you'll be fine. It's about as bizarre a comedy as I've seen in a while, too, but it's fully aware of that and uses it to great effect. You'll see half of the lines of this movie on T-shirts by the end of the summer.

7/10
 
LemonMacPhisto said:
Step Brothers

I haven't laughed as hard at a movie in a long time. You've really got to be a fan of the Angry Ferrell Shouting brand of comedy to enjoy it, I think, but if you buy into that, you'll be fine. It's about as bizarre a comedy as I've seen in a while, too, but it's fully aware of that and uses it to great effect. You'll see half of the lines of this movie on T-shirts by the end of the summer.

7/10
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I believe I'm going to see this with College Girl tomorrow. I'm pumped.
 
Hey, I watched the movie Good Will Hunting on TV the other day. Yes, on TV. I own it and I've seen it a hundred times before so it's ok.

But, goddam. I hadn't seen it in probably two years or so and it hit me again. I feel like I could be able to write up a pretty fuckin good post about my thoughts on the movie but right now I'm finding it difficult. Maybe one day I'll wake up and realize that I spent 150 grand on an education that I coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.

Anyway, yeah, I'm sure all of you have seen it. But I just felt like saying how much I love it.

And Ben Aflleck? Hilarious. A great performance. That guy, despite all the shit he has received in his career, can really steal a scene with the best of 'em. Shakespeare in Love is another example that comes to mind.

Robin Williams? Another guy who has taken a lot of shit. He delivers us such a great character. And he received an Oscar that he deserved.

"Hey it's me, Will. Remember? We went to kindergarten together."

"Don't forget the coffee!"

"Retainer!...retainer...keep your ear to the grindstone"

I could go on and on so I'll stop now.
 
I still prefer the sequel, GAF.

gwh2.jpg


Jay-Bob-Damon-Affleck-Gus_l.jpg
 
corianderstem said:
I forgot to mention it here, since I went on and on about it in its own thread, but ...

X-Files: I Want to Believe

I woke up this morning realizing it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was last night.
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Glad to see you come out of your fangirl fog.

I know, you wanted to believe. :wink:

I actually enjoyed the first X-Files movie quite a bit.

This one was a complete miss.

It is too bad, there was some good source material here:
Moon astronaut says we're not alone | Video | Reuters.com
 
Control.

I enjoyed this greatly. The performance scenes were too few and far between, but riveting anyway.

Thought the guy playing Curtis was great, and this was one of the few films about a musician/band that felt real and humanistic to me. I cared for Curtis as a character in the film, as opposed to the Curtis I knew prior....if that makes any sense.
 
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