Movie Tab II

RoboCop (2014):
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937):
Do the Right Thing (1989): +
The Sacrament (2014): +
The Red Shoes (1948): +
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999): -
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014): -
Moon (2009): -
I Saw the Devil (2010):

The past month in film:

I, the Executioner (Kato, 1968)
The Sacrament (West, 2013)
Angst (Kargl, 1983)
Muriel, or the Time of Return (Resnais, 1963)
Sorcerer (Friedkin, 1977)
Ashes and Diamonds (Wajda, 1958) *
A Colt is My Passport (Nomura, 1967)
Enemy (Villeneuve, 2013)
A Face in the Crowd (Kazan, 1957)
Blue Ruin (Saulnier, 2013)
Pitfall (Teshigahara, 1962)
Landscape Suicide (Benning, 1987)
Custer of the West (Siodmak, 1966)
Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2004) *
The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970) *
Prince Avalanche (Green, 2013)
The Visitor (Paradisi, 1979)

[Short] Zeigt (Bauer,1969)

*-rewatch

What are your thoughts about Downfall? Is 3/5 an 'average' for you? Slightly above? Slightly below?

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I have to see Ashes and Diamonds again! I feel like I underrated it the first I've seen it (). Kanał and Niewinni Czarodzieje are Wajda films I liked even more. Brzezina is pretty good too.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

I guess it'd be slightly above average. It's not really a film I have particularly strong feelings about if I'm honest. I like it, the performances are good, it's well directed, etc. The rating has certainly gone down fairly significantly over time, mainly because I've begun to tire of it. Not really the best basis to build a "rating" around, but... meh

I found it incredibly underwhelming upon a first watch, I think I gave it . My major criticism at the time, I believe, was that the middle dragged. I certainly didn't find that to be the case this time around. I love Kanal. I haven't seen any more of Wajda's films. I should certainly rectify that.

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948) – +
Scream* (Wes Craven, 1996) –
High Plains Drifter* (Clint Eastwood, 1973) – +
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Marc Webb, 2014) –
Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013) –
Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson, 1987) – +
Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013) –
The Magician (Ingmar Bergman, 1958) – +
Dredd* (Pete Travis, 2012) –
The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992) –

*Rewatch

Amer (2009) - Helene Cattat/Bruno Forzani
A naughty little Belgian "horror" movie - but definitely more naughty than horrific. I liked it.

Black Hawk Down (2001) - Ridley Scott
Entertaining but pretty shallow in terms of characters. +

American Graffiti (1973) - George Lucas
Very influential but only really a decent movie IMO. +

The Past (2013) - Asghar Farhadi
Farhadi's Iranian trademarks largely remain intact in this French family drama. Of film-makers who made their feature debut post 2000, I don't think there is anyone better in the world than Farhadi. +

Funny Games (2008) - Michael Haneke
I rated this slightly lower than the earlier version because even though it is really exactly the same movie the acting was marginally worse IMO. I still really appreciate what Haneke was going for - and I know I'm the sort of horror movie fan that was in his sights +

Show Me Love (1998) - Lukas Moodysson
This is a completely clichéd teen romance that works incredibly well thanks to the performances and the writing. Not many movies have created teenage characters that I've "cared" about as much. -

Volver (2006) - Pedro Almodovar
Almodovar is one of the few European directors that I knew of before I started seriously watching non-English movies in the last year or so. I always thought his movies were too weird - how things can change with a bit more experience. This was very good but I perhaps expected more ... -

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) - John Cassavetes
I love Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands so I was always going to like this - and I did. +

Asian Movie Challenge Movies:

Ikiru (1952) - Akira Kurosawa
Breath (2007) - Kim Ki Duk +
Fireworks Wednesday (2006) - Asghar Farhadi
Harakiri (1962) - Masaki Kobayashi
Samurai Rebellion (1967) - Masaki Kobayashi
Time (2006) - Kim Ki Duk
Shirin (2008) - Abbas Kiarostami
Kwaidan (1964) - Masaki Kobayashi -
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006) - Park Chan Wook +
The God of Cookery (1996) - Stephen Chow/Lee Lik Chi
The Blue Umbrella (2005) - Vishal Bharadwaj
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) - Stephen Chow -
Shaolin Soccer (2001) - Stephen Chow +

Oh, you watched it, I see.

Yes, I thought it was great.

Prisoners was perhaps the biggest surprise for me from last year. I thought it would just be a decent thriller but I really enjoyed it.

Denis Villeneuve is definitely a talent to watch out for. I especially loved Enemy, which continues to grow on me. I know Incendies is supposed to be good too, will have to see that.

The Last Picture Show- 8.5/10



Visually brilliant and an entertaining story! Absolute fantastic acting from all, my favorites being Cybill Shepherd and Timothy Bottoms, ironically the two that actually weren't nominated for Oscars for their roles. I like that Bogdanvich used black and white as it helped with the film setting in my opinion. There really isn't a false set or a misstep in this film. It's a lock for my 70s list and almost assuredly will get a higher rating with time.

3 Women- 7/10



A good movie but I couldn't help to think that it could have been better. Altman is hit or miss with me but this one finds it's way somewhere in the middle. It kind of lost me at the end, but the rest of the film was engaging enough to call it a good, not great film.

Fish Tank- 7.5/10



A particularly intriguing film with an astounding rookie performance from Katie Jarvis, about a troubled teen who sets out to become a dancer. The only thing that ruined the film for me a bit was with Fassbenders character, I don't know I just found his character to be weird and strange, which was probably the intention. I'd like to see more from Jarvis, and overall it was a film that I liked. Wouldn't rush to see it again but it's a must-see if only for Jarvis' performance.

Fantastic Planet- ?/10 rewatch



A rewatch due to the movie club and because I just felt like rewatching it, where I'll give some of my thoughts on it once it opens.

Shawshank Redemption- 10/10 rewatch



My favorite movie of all time commentary style. I would agree with Sean it was hard to remember I was part of doing a commentary, but I'm glad I did, especially with someone who enjoys it equally as well. Countless scenes that have their place among the all time great scenes in film history. A film that gets better with each and every rewatch. I see no flaws.

Gattaca- 5.5/10



Just not really my cup of tea. I was wondering why nobody had really mentioned this among the 1990s countdown thread, and well, now it is evident. Just simply not very good. The one positive was Uma Thurman who I thought acted pretty well in it. I need more action in a Sci-Fi film.

Same here; I like slow movies but if it's slow Sci-Fi, I get bored and lose interest quick.

Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976) -

The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (William A. Levey, 1977) +

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pierre Paolo Pasolini, 1975) -

Up (Rewatch) (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, 2009)

Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)

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The Incredible Melting Man (1977; William Sachs) -

Le Boucher (1970; Claude Chabrol) - - I've seen Chabrol called the French Hitchcock, I guess this would be his Psycho.

Who Can Kill a Child? (1976; Narciso Ibáñez Serrador) - - the killing kiddies subgenre isn't exactly the most believable but I think it was done perfectly here.

Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976; Yasuharu Hasebe) -

Mad Max (1979; George Miller) - - Seriously disappointing. Some terrible dialogue mixed with some poor acting with a twist of uninteresting action sequences gives you Mad Max.

The Big Boss (1971; Wei Lo) -

a couple shorts

R'ha (2013; Kaleb Lechowski) -

Castello Cavalcanti (2013; Wes Anderson) -

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Foodfight



This is one of those movies that misses every single market. It's not for kids, it's not for adults. The characters are always moving, no matter what they are doing, they are just moving. This might win the award for "most animated movie of all time". The graphics look like PS2 cutscenes. Even though it's animated and it couldn't be improvised. It feels like the entire thing was improvised on the spot. Like the animators were just doing stuff and it was dubbed over later in a desperate to attempt to make sense of it.

This cost 60 million dollars to make.

Pirates of Silicon Valley


A nice sequel to 2001's Pirates of the Caribbean. Steve Jobs fires all his employees, makes them work until 5 in the morning, makes them pretend that they are pirates, refuses to pay child support even though he's a millionare, and steals all of Xerox's ideas. Bill Gates meanwhile eats pizza while he crashes a bulldozer into a car.

Jobs


This is bad. This is real bad. Nothing is anything in this movie. Scenes just happen, for no reason. Steve Jobs cons some mongoloid into buying worthless computer boards, then they both turn into millionares. Then he gets really angry because some guy doesn't think fonts are important. What is happening in this film ? Ashton Kutcher's performance is so hillarious you can't look away. What have they done ? Each one of the seven music montages, has the audio way louder than the rest of the movie. It's trying to glamorize Jobs, but actually ends up making him look like a mental retard on top of being a terrible human being. Steve Jobs is rolling around in hell right now.

A Talking Cat !?!


go to 1:05:31 for my favorite scene

A cinematic landmark. The thing is, the cat can only talk to you once. Most of the time he just tells the humans that he can only talk to them once.



Out of Sight



I can sit through made for tv production values and a goofy soundtrack. I will watch a movie about a talking cat, with long meandering shots of nothing. I will watch Ashton Kutcher pretend he's Steve Jobs. I will watch Foodfight, ladies and gentlemen. Foodfight. But I will not watch Jennifer Lopez attempt to act. I refuse.

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Is this some sort of penance?

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

I was just about to ask if he hates himself.

I am surprised he did not throw in The Room or Manos for good measure.