EGF's Most Watched Movies of the second half of 2012

[Justacrazyguy]

butter

But butter can cause health problems if you use/eat too much of it.

[Lucretius]

humans are the most replaceable thing in fiction.

And then TDSA was Mikhail Bakhtin.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

I don't know what a Mikhail is but that sounds like some sort of Nazi liquor made in Russia.

[Defectron]

That was a pretty bad analogy, Mugwump. A better example is bread and butter. Bread is actors, butter is the likeable parts, you can have butter on anything or simply nothing at all. The point is you do not need any specific bread slice to enjoy butter. Butter and bread also work greatly as a style and substance analogy.

Am I the only one who thinks a lot of butter on popcorn is fucking disgusting? I like small amounts of butter or none at all when I eat popcorn. To be honest I don't like a lot of butter on bread either though slightly more then popcorn.

I don't know what a Mikhail is but that sounds like some sort of Nazi liquor made in Russia.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

Nazis At The Center of The Earth, the 2012 classic about nazis under Antarctica that revive Hitler in a robot body and try to take over the world with a flying saucer with flesh eating bacteria missiles and it was great. Of course I had issues like the lackluster credits (second worst in a movie only after Abominable), grotesque surgery scenes, nazi experiment gang rape, and an abortion scene, but this movie did it's science fiction aspects exceptionally well and for that I have to give it a really good score. And seriously, Robo Hitler AND nazi flying saucers!

[Bomby von Bombsville]

Found myself re-watching the gleefully silly 2002 Hong Kong film My Wife is 18, a big guilty pleasure of mine. I believe I wrote an article about it in that one thing we used to do with that Wordpress blog or whatever. They made a sequel and it comes out soon! Hooray for more silly Charlene Choi + Ekin Cheng romance.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

Here is the complete list of movies seen this half of the year according to this topic:

SPOILER: Show

The Bride with White Hair
Nyfes
Bad Ass
Michael Clayton
An American Werewolf in London
Troll Hunter
A
Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem
Bigfoot
The Amazing Spider-Man -6
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Brave -2
Prometheus
Dr. No
Return to the 36th Chamber
Disciples of the 36th Chamber
Duel to the Death
Less Than Zero
Stalker
The Warriors Way
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster
The Assassin
End of Evangelion
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Lawnmower Man
The Rules of Attraction
For Your Eyes Only
Gattaca
Kamen Rider Decade and W: Movie War 2010
Cinema Paradiso
The Death Curse
Just One Look
Chungking Express
Pulse (American version)
There Will Be Blood
Jennifer's Body
Bridge to Terabithia
The Dark Knight Rises -7
K-ON -2
Up From The Depths
Rec 3
Batman Begins -2
The Dark Knight -2
Easy A
From Hell It Came
12 Angry Men
Elves
Deep Sea Monster Raiga
Gehara: The Long and Dark Haired Monster
Blood Tide
American Psycho
Humanoids From The Deep (1999 version)
Daigoro vs. Goliath
How to Train Your Dragon
Death Kappa
The Grey
Transformers: Dark of The Moon
The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks 2
The Mighty Ducks 3
Ted
Birth of The Tenth! All Kamen Riders Together
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Begotten
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2
Conan The Barbarian (1980s version)
Mr. Tines
Kamen Rider Kuuga vs. Go-Jiino-Da
This is Spinal Tap
Garo: Red Requiem
Love Exposure
Fallen Angels
Love and Pop
Kamen Rider: The First
Kamen Rider: The Next
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
The Fly (1980s version)
The English Patient
Linda Linda Linda
Howl's Moving Castle
Irreversible
You Can't Take it With You
Crocodile (1978 version)
Pearl Harbor
The Last Unicorn
Demolition Man
The Last Picture Show
Captain America (2011 version)
Valkyrie
13 Assassins
Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/Gaia Memories
Moonrise Kingdom
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Attenberg
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Amour
Ultraseven: Lost Memory
The Martian Chronicles
Ultraseven:From Earth Forever
Cosmopolis
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The Informers
Ultraseven: Betrayal of The Sun
The Expendables 2
Total Recall (2012 version)
Nazis At The Center of The Earth
My Wife is 18

[Gendo'sPapa]

I've seen this title pop up on these boards before time & time again. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about & rented.... Sion Sono's Love Exposure.

HOLY SHIT!

I just finished the glorious 237 minute experience less than a half hour ago so I need to let the film really soak in. But, if Love Exposure holds up on a repeat viewing I might have to reshuffle my Top 10 favorite films.

Thank you guys for talking about a film I would have otherwise never heard of. I've already added all the other Sono films I could to my Netflix queue and intend to watch as much of this mad geniuses work as I can!

Thank you once again!

[Oz]

Yet another addition to the long list of EGF's "Love Exposure victims". Sono's other films are not up to the high and insane quality of LE, but for the most part they offer intriguing experiences. In my opinion it endures rewatches very well because I've watched it at least 4 times over the years and it gives me the same exhilarating ride every single time.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

^ Especially Cold Fish. That movie sucked.

[Oz]

^ Especially Cold Fish. That movie sucked.

You're overtly critical of that film. I loved it on the first watch, but it ended up being more flawed when I saw it again. I'd say it's significantly better than The Suicide Club - while Cold Fish was less interesting it was at least proficient in all aspects.

My biggest gripe with the film is the ending which is not completely bad either. It's just yet another flawed yet intriguing "getting caught up in a nightmarish scenario" film from Sono. Guilty of Romance was weaker on that regard since it failed to do the basics correctly whereas Cold Fish was a much more accomplished effort.

[ran1]

It's gonna be hard for Sono to make another film that I genuinely like again. Love Exposure is a wild ride of avant-garde-get-fucked and has some of the most outwardly zany visuals that I've ever seen. It's a 237 minute perfect storm of ADHD cinema that makes Greengrass look like he's trying too hard.

Suicide Club set the bar so high on the horror-noir hybrid that it's not even worth sayin'.

Is the consensus of Guilty of Romance negative here? I thought it was alright, but it sits along with Noriko's Dinner Table in a very uncomfortable middle ground for me. It's probably one of my "favorite" Sono films in terms of it being enjoyable to watch, but it wasn't really pushing the medium like, say, Love Exposure does.

Cold Fish was awkward, but I spoiled it by bringing the lady-friend to it. I saw it at Tribeca last year with her, and she, well, wasn't prepared for the unique viewing experience that is a Sono film.

I do remember the color palette being OUT OF THIS WORLD, though.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

Cold Fish really should be a better film than Suicide Circle - it's a much more technically proficient film with a story arc that would be considered to be more "satisfying" by most people. That being said, I've never sat around feeling more indifferent about something for two and a half hours ever before in my life. Maybe I am being a bit harsh - I didn't really find myself groaning my way through it and counting down the minutes and seconds until it was over, but it just didn't make me care about it. The main character was a complete weakling, and none of the other characters approached giveafuckability either.

Suicide Circle is a complete mess as an overall film, but that overall film at least has several great scenes in it. It succeeds more than Cold Fish because it takes a concept that's not too implausible - a rash of mass suicides - and brings it into a world that the viewer is already familiar with.

I have yet to watch Guilty of Romance (I kind of lost interest in Sono for a bit after Cold Fish). I'm more interested in Himizu, which I just recently acquired.

Noriko's Dinner Table is actually my second favorite of Sono's films, after Love Exposure. It's a very ugly film visually, but there was something about the mixture of the voice over narration, the innocence and sincerity of Noriko, and the melancholy-but-playful theme music that all just created an atmosphere that just sucked me in. I liked it even more during my second viewing earlier this year.

[Oz]

Suicide Club set the bar so high on the horror-noir hybrid that it's not even worth sayin'.

What? I've never seen "noir" and "Suicide Club" used together.

Is the consensus of Guilty of Romance negative here?

I think we are the only two who have actually watched it. I also think it is mediocre in the end, but in the context of Sono's filmography it's a huge disappointment. It plays around with fairly interesting themes, but never goes anywhere with them although the ending is a tad fascinating. It's enjoyable for the first third and the lead performances.

That being said, I've never sat around feeling more indifferent about something for two and a half hours ever before in my life.

I am shaken by the film because I like the protagonist. Sono introduces him as a character disregarded by everyone else quite quickly, but it's sufficient enough to make me root for him. Seeing him lose his sanity is disturbing because Sono makes the steps so painfully clear. The only thing that left me a bit cold was the ending because it feels so unnatural although it's fairly comprehensible until his very last deed.

It succeeds more than Cold Fish because it takes a concept that's not too implausible - a rash of mass suicides - and brings it into a world that the viewer is already familiar with.

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that Cold Fish's idea is somehow less plausible than The Suicide Circle's? If you ask me an innocent man blackmailed by a serial killer (who also loses his sanity in the progress) is much more plausible than hundreds of teens killing themselves.

I'm more interested in Himizu, which I just recently acquired.

From what I have read it could be even worse than Guilty of Romance, which doesn't sound too good.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

Ultimately whether or not we found the protagonist sympathetic just might be the breaking point of liking the movie or not liking it, I guess. I often would find a character quickly disregarded by society to be sympathetic - if they gave said character any notable attributes in the first case. From my memory, the lead character in Cold Fish doesn't really have any discernible personality in the first place. He's just kind of a boring, blank slate. Even his family found him boring. It's kind of hard to sympathize with him when I completely agree with the other characters.

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that Cold Fish's idea is somehow less plausible than The Suicide Circle's? If you ask me an innocent man blackmailed by a serial killer (who also loses his sanity in the progress) is much more plausible than hundreds of teens killing themselves.

... good point.

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

Protege de la Rose Noire

Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. Dumb dumb. Dumb. This movie is gleefully and unapologetically dumb. So dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. Almost all Twins movies are dumb to a certain extent, but this one takes the cake. This is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen.

That being said, it's miles more enjoyable than Twins Effect 2. Plus, it has an awesome action sequence where Gillian Chung imitates Jackie Chan in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Charlene Choi imitates Jackie Chan in Drunken Master and together they fight Donnie Yen's little sister. Too bad Donnie Yen himself couldn't come in and save this movie...

... wait, you mean Donnie Yen directed this movie?

10/10

[Justacrazyguy]

The Expendables 2: Hilarious, over the top. It was all I asked for.

[Tankred]

Watched Audition on TV last night. Well, now I have a bizarre urge to protect my feet...

[ran1]

Pepe le Moko, Julien Duvivier, 1937

What a wonderful film. I had been slightly hesitant to visit the film forum's "French Old Wave" retrospective because of it coinciding so closely with the semester starting back up, but I'm glad I went -- and if the quality of this film is anything to speak for French cinema of the mid-to-late 1930s, then I might just start having to reassemble my top 100. Pepe certainly will work its way onto that list.

As far as synopsis goes -- Pepe is about, surprisingly, a man named Pepe le Moko (Pepe of Toulon) who is a middling crime lord in Algiers's Casbah district, a sort of melting pot of brothels, organized racketeering, and petty thievery. Pepe, while a slumlord in his environs, is unable to escape the district without being caught by the authorities, and the film is a harrowing tale of poetic realism as we see the police and military close-in and eventually capture Pepe as he sees off one of his lovers. Pepe kills himself in a moment that will definitely live on with me as a moment of "pure cinema".

Verdict: Highly Recommended, 9/10

[Gendo'sPapa]

So I haven't rewatched Love Exposure yet but I can't get it out of my mind. I've preorderd the Region 1 Bluray coming out next month and plan to rewatch the full experience then. But I very much expect I might have a new favorite film of all time.

In other Sono news I watched Suicide Club. It had a great deal of promise & is one of the better J-Horror films I've seen (technicality be damned I hate all the ones that have a long haired ghost girl making stupid noises) & while I think it's all over the map in what it's trying to achieve the film works more than it fails. Enjoyed it a good deal but don't ever see myself rewatching it.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

^ You should totally unbold Love Exposure if you're just mentioning it without rewatching.

Today I rewatched Pang Ho-Cheung's Beyond Our Ken. It's kind of Wong Kar-Wai-lite. While not as good as an actual WKW film, it's an engrossing little movie, and it features a surprisingly decent performance from Gillian Chung. This is the only movie I can think of that's clearly aimed at an arthouse crowd with one of the Twins in it. Charlene is still the more talented one, though.

Oh, yeah. I like this movie. The ending is kind of disappointing, but it's a very enjoyable ride at least.