I’ve been meaning to watch this for a long time but never got a chance to catch it on the big screen. What a remarkable film. The lyricism in some of the scenes towards the middle (the walk in the fields, the butterflies, etc) was sublime, probably as evocative as some of Malick’s best work. I wish Campion had sustained this feeling throughout the film. Regardless, I was very satisfied with the end result.
I could have sworn I'd seen this before, but I was wrong. I've had mixed reactions to various old "screwball" comedies in the past, but there were two scenes in this one where I had a good, loud laugh. So yay.
I’ve been meaning to watch this for a long time but never got a chance to catch it on the big screen. What a remarkable film. The lyricism in some of the scenes towards the middle (the walk in the fields, the butterflies, etc) was sublime, probably as evocative as some of Malick’s best work. I wish Campion had sustained this feeling throughout the film. Regardless, I was very satisfied with the end result.
For about the first half, all I could think was how awful the dialogue was and how we've heard this story so many times before, but yeah, it looked amazing (although my eyes sometimes felt some strain adjusting to the 3D).
Then about halfway through, I got more and more sucked into the action, so I ended up liking it more.
But it just frustrates me - you spend so much time creating this amazing world, these new visual effects ... why not spend a little more time on the dialogue? Is it Cameron's ego that's preventing him from doing it? Like "This is MY world, and I want to control every piece," or does he honestly think the dialogue was good and not cheesy/cliched?
I think he deserves every bit of praise for what he's done here re the technology. I just really hope it doesn't win best picture. I have no idea what I think should win in its place (I was only "meh" about The Hurt Locker), but they shouldn't reward cheese and cliche and rehasing of stories we've heard for years. I don't care how many records it broke.
They gave out specially made Oscars for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to reward its accomplishment - how about a special tall blue Oscar for this one?
I could have sworn I'd seen this before, but I was wrong. I've had mixed reactions to various old "screwball" comedies in the past, but there were two scenes in this one where I had a good, loud laugh. So yay.
This is one of the greatest of them all. Grant and Dunne are perfect. Love that scene where Dunne pretends to be his floozy sister. And of course Grant at the piano recital.
And the ending is sublime on top of it.
I probably prefer Bringing Up Baby though, for its anarchic spirit. And Hepburn.
Yeah, that "sister" scene was one of my favorites, and the other was when Grant and the voice teacher were hiding in her bedroom but having a knock-down drag-out fight, and then they come chasing each other out, and the other lady dryly remarks: "... they forgot to touch second."
For about the first half, all I could think was how awful the dialogue was and how we've heard this story so many times before, but yeah, it looked amazing (although my eyes sometimes felt some strain adjusting to the 3D).
I agree about the 3D, causing strain and being a distraction.
There were a lot more break troughs with this film than just the 3D
I watched it the 2nd time in regular 2D, I really appreciated the motion capture, and was able to pay attention to other things besides the vegetation jumping out over the first 20 rows of the theater.
As for the cheesy dialogue, it is not as painful the 2nd time around, because you know the limits of it.
Wow, I just had one of my greatest cinematic experiences - Edward Yang's 4-hour epic, A Brighter Summer's Day. I didn't expect this to top Yi Yi, which I adore, but it certainly did. It is difficult to come up with a coherent review of this one - so many themes and characters, depicted in such a masterful, restless way. I hope Criterion or some distributor finally decide to put this on DVD - it should certainly be in any best of the 1990s list.
I was very pleased to see this on Sundance today, as it's not out on DVD yet. Oh, figure skating. How I've missed you!
I liked this a lot - I've mostly lost interest in his TV series on Sundance, but as a profile/history of Mr. Weir, it's a good 90-minute movie. Nicely encompasses how he came into the skating world, and a good glimpse of who he is.
Dude can skate, and I love how he is who he is, no apologies. I'd forgotten he started skating at an older age (compared to a lot of skaters), and that after a cringe-inducing first year at the adult level at Nationals, he came back the next year to win the first of his three-in-a-row national titles.
Thanks, that's a good find. The only question is the quality - one of the Yi Yi versions I saw (not Criterion) had an awful transfer. This is probably not the restored print that is now circulating (thank you, Scorsese and World Cinema Foundation), but $10 is not a bad price to find out. I guess I'll go for it!
Well if it's just been restored, then a DVD should be following suit at some point in the near future. I imagine that's where they are more likely to make the return on investment.
But it just frustrates me - you spend so much time creating this amazing world, these new visual effects ... why not spend a little more time on the dialogue?
Because James Cameron is a hack and he actually thinks that passes as good dialogue. He should really be like a "special effects director" or something.
Away We Go 8.5 / 10. Never even heard of this, but my wife kept telling me how funny it was, so I checked it out, and whatta know, she was right. Jim Halpert was very funny, played the character real well. I thought Maya Rudolph was going to be funny as well, but her character was a pretty serious sort and she played it nicely. And Maggie Gyllenhall is awesome in everything, so she's always welcome.
Pandorum - 8/10. Nice space horror sci-fi. Ending twists were a little silly, I felt. Nice tension build up, kept me tuned in. Tons of plot holes, but whatever.
Well if it's just been restored, then a DVD should be following suit at some point in the near future. I imagine that's where they are more likely to make the return on investment.
American Movie - Every time I hear, "You have to see this documentary, it's soooo funny!", I wind up laughing two or three times, and then just feeling sorry for the people the rest of the time. Sure, there were some humorous moments, but I had a difficult time thinking it was "funny" and not just sad. To some extent I almost felt like the poor guys were being exploited with the documentary. Regardless, it kept me interested and entertained.
Love Happens - meh, it was ok. Actually, the ONLY good about this movie was the wonderful John Lynch - barely in it, but I love his acting!! Aniston is so fuking bland. Eckhart is okay. not as boring as her.
I got to see Hunger in all of its Blu Ray glory, really brought out the browns on the poop-smear walls and fluorescents in the depressing prison. Good job, Criterion. On a serious note, THE FASS!'s performance was terrific, which is mostly non-verbal until a 20-minute dialogue scene punctuated with a heartbreaking, close-up monologue which he absolutely nails. Subject matter's extremely bleak, being about a hunger strike and the state of "political" prisoners in Ireland in the early '80s, but if you're a fan of wrenching dramas or ridiculously gorgeous art house films, you're in luck!
Revisiting 2008 (I promise that I'll get to an '09 list, Laz):
Synecdoche, New York
The Dark Knight
Wall-E
Let the Right One In
Waltz with Bashir
Man on Wire
Hunger
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Wrestler
Rachel Getting Married
We probably would share about half that list for 2008. Button and Synecdoche (which I need to see again) are at the top, with TDK not too far behind. Waltz With Bashir and Man on Wire would be there as well.
Let me go find my list from last year if I can...
Well, I wasn't able to, but Pineapple Express, My Blueberry Nights and Che were probably all on it.
Sweet. Pineapple Express, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Visitor, In Bruges, and The Foot Fist Way are right on the outside looking in for me. I plan on watching Che on Watch Instantly when I get back home. I've been putting it off for way too long.
Tales of Hoffmann and New York, New York should be coming in after I return Hunger and McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which I've yet to watch.
Sounds like you have a good lineup. I almost ordered a BR of Che from Amazon.uk (much cheaper than the Criterion), but held back, not sure how much repeat viewing it would get.
Vicki Cristina was def on my list for last year.
Oh, the big one I forgot is A Christmas Tale. That's top 3 for sure.
Thanks. Yeah, I can totally relate. after biting $60 on an out-of-print Blu of The Third Man, I'm done with huge purchases for a while, unless I can sell my DVD counterparts for a similar amount.
The Professionals - More old western watching on Netflix. Fairly entertaining, I was shocked how good Jack Palance was as a Mexican Rebel. Lee Marvin is always bad azz.
1. Speed Racer
2. A Christmas Tale
3. My Blueberry Nights
4. Let The Right One In
5. Flight of the Red Balloon
6. Che
7. Man on Wire
8. Waltz With Bashir
9. Paranoid Park
10. Quantum of Solace
I'm not sure if this is a joke or not, but I admittedly thought this was amazing visually when I watched it on Blu-Ray a few months ago. I'll probably end up buying it if I ever find a good sale.
Laz's son knows about this, but, let me share my film mission with you all.
A few months ago, Laz posted a link to a site called icheckmovies, where there are all sorts of best of lists, and you check which you've seen, etc. There is one list in particular, called "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They" which has slightly over 1,000 films on it, in some sort of ranked order. Not sure how the rankings were determined, but, suffice to say, it's obviously a list containing many great films. I decided to, while still watching new releases (Watched Sugar and The Hurt Locker yesterday) work my backwards through said list, starting with #1 and just keep going until I get tired of it or whatnot. I'll skip the ones I've seen already, of course. So, just started this over the weekend and I've watched Vertigo (yeah, never saw it before, fuck off) 8 1/2, and The Rules of the Game. The Searchers is up next, followed by SevenSamurai.
Before that, I watched all but one of Leone's films (Holy fuck, Once Upon a Time in the West was outstanding) and I also completed the Miyazaki-thon, minus Ponyo. I'll watch the missing film from both directors soon.
In the theaters, the only thing I've seen in the past month would be Shutter Island.
So that's what's going on with me cinematically. Besides that, not much else going on. Oh, wait, my girlfriend and I broke up and she moved out of the apartment. So, besides all these movies and that, not much else going on. Wait, have a grad school interview tomorrow, even though I'm likely not gonna stay in the Bay Area when my lease expires. So that's that. Forgot, heading to Spring Training with some friends next week for a few days, followed by a trip to Vegas. Followed by a 3-week Syracuse-NYC-Philly-DC-Chicago-Denver trip to see friends and family, assuming I don't get a part-time gig between now and then.
Glad to see you back NSW, sorry it's not under better circumstances.
In addition to answering Cori's question, what did you think of Vertigo (which should have been extra interesting since you're currently living on location) and Rules of the Game?
Thanks, Cor and Laz. Sorry for the TMI post but most of the interlanders I like that did not already know post in here. Cliche'd as it is, the decision was for the best, for the both of us and we're still good friends.
You know me, I can't put the words together to do even a semi-proper review, but, I'll give some brief thoughts:
8 1/2 - As Lance told me, having a more fluent knowledge of Fellini or Italian cinema in general might have helped here. I mean, sure, the opening nightmare was great, the idea of a director doing a film about directing appeals to me (I still don't know just how much was autobiographical), Marcello Mastroianni's performance was truly excellent, and the harem scene was great. All that being said, I guess I appreciated or admired the film more than I enjoyed it, if that makes sense. I wasn't engrossed or sucked in or wildly entertained. Still, I did come away with something to think about and I did enjoy the idea of a director being so blocked and subsequently conflicted about not just his art, but his life, past present and future.
Vertigo - I loved it. Jimmy Stewart was great and Novak was better than I'd been lead to believe, or so I thought. The story itself, while not original, even at the time, was still gripping. San Francisco looked fantastic. I loved how they achieved that vertigo effect with zooming in while moving the camera backwards, nice.
And, of course, Stewart's love turning into powerful obsession as Novak's love turns to surrender was fantastic. The scene where she comes out of the room with her hair finally pinned up, with the subsequent circling of the camera as the background changes briefly to the stable, just perfect.
So, definitely liked Vertigo.
The Rules of the Game - The biggest surprise for me, in that I figured that, like 8 1/2 ended up being for me, I'd appreciate more than enjoy it. Instead, I was fully entertained, amused, surprised, etc by the film. Great dialogue, great upstairs/downstairs collisions (Definitely the Grandfather to Gosford Park, this film), very scathing look at French high society around WWII, and truly amazing scenes where the camera is moving around as if it were a freakingteadi-cam, characters are in the forefront, the background, on the sides, etc.....just a lot going on, so well choreographed. I can't say enough about it. Oh, and there was a Jewish character in it, so, come on.
That's it, hope that suffices.
Maybe I'll get around to ranking the Miyazaki films. I know that Spirited Away is my #1 with Nausicaa #2.......and, I liked the film Sugar A LOT.
