Last Movie You Watched

[Oz]

It didn't feel like one of Sono's films at first, but thinking back to it, I can recognize a lot of Sono's style in the film's construction.

I'd say the protagonist's antics with the body are quite unconventional for the conservative fans of the genre. That's one of the things that screams "Sono!" in the film for me.

[chazthesilencer]

Just caught the end of Toy Story 3, in Slovene.
The animation communicates more than dialogue ever could, and needless to say- the incinerator and ending scenes remain powerful even in a foreign language.
We get a dance during the credits.

Slumdog Millionaire. It tells a good, simple story, very well. I couldn't help but feel reminded of Forrest Gump throughout, and that's no bad thing at all.
We get a dance during the credits.

MegaMind. The gags aren't particularly hilarious or memorable, and there are times the animation flows a little too quickly, but the eponymous character is interesting enough.
The film ends with a dance. The way all good films should.

The Phantom Menace. I remember it being fun when I watched it (two times) at the cinema... I guess I somehow blocked out all memory of the film apart from the pod-race and Maul-duel. Forget Midichlorians, Jar-Jar and the heavy CGI, the biggest flaw of the film is that it's just dull.

I was excited to see WARWICK DAVIS all of a sudden:
too bad even Willow couldn't make things more enjoyable.

At least it ends with some dancing. During the after-battle celebrations…

@DeadStarWarsTangent: Sith is a horrible, horrible film. No dancing at the end of that.

[Xard]

@Xard: If possible, be sure to watch Blood Simple with the commentary track on. It's a riot.

I only had it as mkv file one of my friends gave me. It had no commentary track.

I haven't seen The Man Who Wasn't There so no comment.

As for True Grit I could see why it would attrack the Coen brothers as the tone of the story and all is very similar. Particularly the godawful smell of nihilism and chance that hung heavy on the ending could've been from Coen's own pen.

So some more movies I just remembered I also watched:

March of the Penguins

It was impressively shot and kinda interesting in terms of premise but wow what a schmaltzy fake piece of bullshit and false emotion. Unsurprisingly the French original is pretentious as hell and so ridiculous I couldn't take many moments seriously.

Also big fuck you for filmmakers for humanizing the penguins in such fashion. This could've been good, interesting look at their struggle in their life if they hadn't milked ridiculous pseudo-human drama out of the poor animals by giving horrid dialogue and monologues for penguins. Yeah real fucking nice, I'm sure what actually goes on in penguin minds resembles shitty French melodrama with shitty fake romance and syrupy romantic...poetry I guess.

Film would've been much better without the acted "drama" but remove the human voices from film and it becomes inexplicable. To add salt to the wounds I then go and learn the english version of the film replaces the 1st person stupid perspective and drama with 3rd person Morgan Freeman narration. Which sounds so much better (at least on paper) that it isn't even funny. Of course the sucky finnish DVD only had finnish and french language options. Sigh.

Not only that, film was overlong and made some severe stylistic missteps like the scene where a storm rises...and they turn it into a musical sequence with this absolutely horribly corny french-björk-knockoff-sings-a-cheery-pop-song-with-silly-melody which was kind of lol in itself but when we're then supposed to bad about all the little penguins who died in it. Excuse me, that's like making a ton of jew jokes and then going "now it's time to feel sad about Holocaust guise".

You know what frogs? Fuck you and your shitty film.

Stand By Me

Rewatched for millionth time because miraculously I met a guy who had NEVER EVER seen it. Like, the hell.

Well, so I ended up watching it with him.

I don't think much needs to be said. Best film about childhood friendship ever and pretty much brilliant. One of the best of 80s.


Then films I've seen since last post:

Labyrinth

Yes, I mean the film that is all about David Bowie's crotch.

Absolutely terrible.

Only good thing about this turd would be Bowie's delicious camp fabulous value and I guess the puppetry is technically impressive or something.

Nevertheless the directing is bland and weak, pacing nonexistent (film feels like a collection of random sequences stringed after each other) and writing generally utterly meritless. Humour is jesus christ terribad and aesthetics, especially art direction, just gaudy and offputting.

What I did not expect was how shitty the music is. Wow Bowie you sucked so hard in 80s. The instrumental score is TERRIBLE while all the pop songs are unsalvageable rubbish. As if the musical sequences weren't painful enough watches for visuals alone...

As icing on the cake the girl who plays the lead role gives one of the worst performances I've seen in a long role. Redefinition of wooden and unconvincing.

Thankfully it had at least some so bad it's good value and made me laugh a lot for all the wrong reasons. So it wasn't complete suffering to sit through. Still there's no escape from the fact it is a bad, bad film.

Drive

Wow.

Throughoughly very impressed.

One of 2011's best films I think. Great editing, cinematography and directing generally speaking. Very strong in terms of mood and tone, excellent casting and decent storyline add to it nicely.

If there's something to criticize about it the violence was way overdone and ridiculous and only pulled me out of the film. Gratuitous and tonally off. Everything also (in terms of character relationships and such) also came together a bit too neatly but that is a minor gripe too.

All in all excellent. I want this on BD


The Bodyguard

Came on TV today and figured I should finally watch it since Whitney Houston died and all.

Pretty weak early 90s Hollywood thriller and felt like it. Nothing about the film was good (excluding Houston's terrifying vocal chops) but it wasn't really horrible either.

Just supbar all around.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Drive

Wow.

Throughoughly very impressed.

I just had to see Underworld Awakening in the cinema the other day instead of Drive.


So yeah, Underworld Awakening is terrible.

>only element of horror is "gross" CG and stupid jump scares
IS THIS FILM GRAPHIC ENOUGH YET
JUMP SCARES!
FEEL THE INTENSITY IN REAL3D WHICH IS TOTAL BULLSHIT!

>Show mass murder of infected citizens and dead children in the first few minutes with shaky cam in black/white and tacticool
Am I watching Schindler's List: Modern Warfare or what?

The whole shaky camera thing gets overused to the point where every scene becomes equally "dramatic" and/or inurgent, too.
And every time the shaky camera thing happens while there's a fight, every light on the set just seems to go fucking apeshit and goes on a strobe-fest.

The cast of character's just a bag of stereotypes and as bland as it can get.

And to top it all off, it doesn't even have a real end!
This film goes for a kind of corny one-liner climax, but it just fails hard at it.
Mostly because the "big bad" is only introduced like in the last third and never felt like a big threat or as terrifying as the filmmakers thought he was.
So yeah, just 2 minutes right after the climax, our main character starts to narrate something that seems to be a sequel and then the credits roll.

All in all, don't go see this film unless you're some kind of masochist die-hard Underworld fan.

[Oz]

Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In: I'm always somewhat puzzled with Almodovar's films. I do understand why his direction is praised and in terms of visuals he always delivers. His touch to cinematography and editing gets me through his films. And in this case, the use of sound was intriguing as well. However, there's always something "off" with the screenplays he tackles. Obviously he deals with very off-putting subjects and twisted concepts - and does a lot with them - but the end result always feels unfinished. The Skin I Live In is paced meticulously and the narrative is very solid, but it's devoid of emotion. It should land a huge impact with the emotionally loaded story that unfolds subtly, but that doesn't really happen even with the sentimental conclusion.

[gatotsu911]

@Xard: I'm not sure I'd call the Coens nihilists, though they certainly aren't far off. Still don't fully see just what about True Grit was so exceptionally attractive for them, though, even acknowledging the broad presence of some of their preferred themes.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

I liked Noriko's Dinner Table well enough the first time I saw it about a year ago, but upon rewatching it last night I like it quite a bit more. The real problems that the film has really come when connecting it to it's inferior predecessor Suicide Circle.

SPOILER: Show

Specifically, what the hell happened to the kids and DESSERT/DESSART/DESSRET? The end of Suicide Circle seemed to put them at blame for the whole event, but in Noriko's Dinner Table Kumiko is clearly behind the whole thing. Or at least the initial mass suicide of the 54 girls jumping into the train. Unless... maybe the kids are part of Kumiko's rent-a-family group/cult/organization thing.

Dunno. Maybe I'll write a blog post that no one will ever read regarding my thoughts on the two films.

[Final Messenger]

I tried to watch Star wars episode 2 attack of the clones on television today, but with having to deal with commercials and the overall terribleness of the movie I stopped watching after an hour.

[Trajan]

Pixar's Up which is still amazing and a contender for the best movie they've ever made.

[backseatjesus]

I liked Noriko's Dinner Table well enough the first time I saw it about a year ago, but upon rewatching it last night I like it quite a bit more. The real problems that the film has really come when connecting it to it's inferior predecessor Suicide Circle.

SPOILER: Show

Specifically, what the hell happened to the kids and DESSERT/DESSART/DESSRET? The end of Suicide Circle seemed to put them at blame for the whole event, but in Noriko's Dinner Table Kumiko is clearly behind the whole thing. Or at least the initial mass suicide of the 54 girls jumping into the train. Unless... maybe the kids are part of Kumiko's rent-a-family group/cult/organization thing.

Dunno. Maybe I'll write a blog post that no one will ever read regarding my thoughts on the two films.

I think this was suppose to be cleared up in the third film, which I guess will never be made.

Does the novel based upon Suicide Circle clear anything up?

[Bomby von Bombsville]

Does the novel based upon Suicide Circle clear anything up?

Apparently, but it doesn't look like there's any plans to translate it to English. So yeah. Yet another reason why I should have taken Japanese when I was still in college.

[Alaska Slim]

Howl's Moving Castle, how the hell did Billy Crystal get mixed up- oh right, he voiced for Pixar.

Well, he did an alright performance, and... holy crap, Christian Bale? Why didn't I hear that? Meh, maybe it's because he didn't sound as if he was being attacked by a blender.

By the way, Howl is Birdman.

[CitizenGeek]

Vertigo (1953)

Very good movie, as to be expected from Hitchcock. That said, it didn't quite live up to the hype. The first hour of the movie just was not very compelling. The twist at the end is fantastic, however. The film explores obsessive love and paranoia in a very effective and insightful way, I thought, but it just didn't live up to what I expect from Hitchcock. [8/10]

Drive

Wow.

I agree with your verdict on Drive. It was an excellent movie. I didn't find the violence to be as jarring as everyone else seems to have had, though.

[Trajan]

^
1958 BTW

Three Outlaw Samurai

I really had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. The cinematography is excellent and the sword fights were excellently choreographed.

[Oz]

^ Did you watch the recent Criterion release? I'm planning to buy it sooner or later.

[Trajan]

Sure did. Looked great on my TV for a 40+ year old movie.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

Watched Stanley Kwan's Rouge. This is considered to be a pretty special movie in the Hong Kong film industry, and after my first viewing, I definitely agree. However, I feel like it's one of those films that probably wouldn't go over well with folks who aren't as well versed in Chinese folklore. While it was an original story (I think) that took place in the present time that the film was made, it reminds me of the things we read in my Chinese literature class a couple years back.

[Oz]

Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman of the Dunes: Every time I see this film I'm deeply disturbed by its powerful portrayal of existential despair. The pessimistic juxtaposition to insects, the creepy close-ups, the moody lighting and the terrifying musical score by Takemitsu make this one heck of a film that can't be imitated. There is no other film that can make me feel so depressed and confused about the meaning of life yet the brilliant ending clears that away.

[gatotsu911]

Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000). Disappointing. Ostensibly a satire about the portrayal of blacks in contemporary mass media, it kills both its comedy and its social critique when it descends into repetitive, scattershot, bludgeoning rambling and hamhanded, contrived, poorly acted melodrama about halfway through. By the end it's just a bloated, noisy, inconsistent mess. Which is a shame, too, because buried in that mess are some really sharp moments, good ideas and potentially poignant social criticisms. What the hell happened to the focused, disciplined Spike Lee who gave us Malcolm X? I'd like more of that, please.

[Azathoth]

Gummo. Jesus fuck, that bathtub scene was the most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life. I feel comfortable describing the film as splatter horror. If Anno and Ikuni wanted corporeality in their work, they should have watched this scene. Also, was that a sample from the demo version of "Dominus Sathanas" I heard there? kvlt.