Its funny cuz the first time I saw Heat I didnt really like it
then I watched it again years later and I was like, "Wait a minute...this is one of the greatest American films of the last 25 years! WTF was wrong with younger me..."
Also one of the people who didn't like Heat the first time they've watched it. I've yet to see it a second time hah. It's been a few years, I think I'll get round to that second watch soon.
I watched At Berkeley the 4 hour doco yesterday. I think it may be the longest movie I've seen so far edging out Love Exposure (I'm yet to see Shoah).
I found it rather fascinating, portraying varied aspects of UC Berkeley and allowing a brief view into what the institution was like at the time. The little workshops(?) where students were invited to share their views on the protests or on study groups excluding black kids intrigued me the most. I wonder how common such occurrences are, I've never witnessed anything quite like that in my university experience.
the amazing spider-man 2 - haha spiderman is such an amusing fellow with his quips and whatnot... and here's peter crying i guess... wait he's back to wisecracking! yeah pretty much hated it.
ASM2 is corporate accounting disguised as blockbuster entertainment. Sony's attempt to do something, ANYTHING with the character so they can keep the rights, clear and coherent storytelling be damned. Its not a movie at all, but rather the next big piece of the ongoing dick-measuring competition between the half-dozen companies who control everything in pop culture. Boring, sloppy, and incredibly stupid. A confused husk of a franchise that has no idea where its going, who's directing or writing where, or the good sense to realize having villain spin-offs without the main character is a bad idea. Peter Parker deserves better. Hell, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone deserve better.
Its funny cuz the first time I saw Heat I didnt really like it
then I watched it again years later and I was like, "Wait a minute...this is one of the greatest American films of the last 25 years! WTF was wrong with younger me..."
I was bored out of my mind the first time, too, but perhaps it was because it was 1996, me and my mates were in full zomg where are the specl effctz LOL BORING phase, then catched it on TV a couple years later and it was a revelation
I love ASM2 doesn't mention the plot where he is looking for his uncle's killer. To see what happens when he finds him, and what Spiderman will do if he ever finds him. The ultimate growth moment. It was mentioned in the first movie at the end, and they don't even reference it at all. Probably have to in the 3rd movie. But that is going to be so long away, only thing that people are going to remember is how bad the movies were.
Naked Lunch - Felt like it only scraped the surface of the source material, giving the viewer some half-assed philosophic ideas that lack depth. Luckily there's awesome creature and set designs as well. *** A Few Good Men - Sorkin dialogues plus cool cast results in a very entertaining courtroom drama. I was waiting for that famous line the entire time though. Cruise is always fun to watch.***½ Midnight Run - Chemistry between the leads it what drives this movie and also what saves it from becoming boring due to its by-the-book script. ***½
Rain Man - The entire movie seems to revolve around Hoffman's performance, which is a good one. Cruise is always fun to watch. **** Clash of the Titans - Was expecting this to be really good, which it wasn't, but it was a very entertaining yet somewhat clumsy adventure nonetheless. Kudo's for the stopmotion. The Medusa cat-and-mouse scene is the best in the movie. *** Divergent - Way too similar to the Hunger Games. Also very bad. **
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - There's a dubstep rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider. * Hysteria - About the invention of the vibrator. Loved the dry humor and disliked the forced romantic plot. *** Abre los ojos AKA Open Your Eyes - Halfway into the movie I realized I saw it before and remembered the plot+ending, which sucks when that happens. It was still quite good though ****
Watched City of Life and Death with my son last night. As expected, it was dismal and sobering, even though I had already done previous research about the massacre at Nanjing. Incredibly good acting and cinematography, and as an outsider (American), it didn't feel like a Chinese propaganda film. It was honest and brutal. Loved it. Will never watch it again...I hope.
Ninja Masters - Why is this film called "Ninja Masters"? Why does it have a ninja on the cover, and why does the tagline says "they are the perfect weapon"? This movie has nothing to do with ninjas.. it's a pretty straight forward chinese MA movie.
A pretty bad one at that, the choreographies and athletes involved did a good enough job, but the screenplay, the directing and, especially, the editing, were some of the worst i've seen in a movie of this genre.
1st of the madoka magicka movies:
i remember the series having amazing backgrounds but damn was this film gorgeous to look at. plan on watching the next two soon.
brazil:
has been on the top of my bucketlist for ages. have watched every other terry gilliam film, yet the one considered his finest has eluded me for years. loved it.
ender's game:
a lot better than i thought it was going to be. even though it ignored the more philosophical/political parts of the book i enjoyed it. then again i'm a sucker for giant space battles.
rebel without the cause:
another from the bucket list. starting to see why james dean is so widely regarded despite only appearing in three films. have to get around to giant soon and finish off that "trilogy".
another earth:
i'm normally not opposed to a film leaving me with questions but this stopped right before things could have gotten interesting. liked parts of it but kinda meh overall.
Enjoyed the first one, even though I think the romance was forced and forced romances in stories is something I'm basically allergic to. The second one fixed that issue and I liked it even more.
But did...did the third movie even have a writer? Because what I saw was a few gigantic action scenes stitched together with three sentences of setup. There's this guy that the bad guys want to catch! So here's 40 minutes of him running around panicked as the bad guys yell at their computer screens. And now there's a chase scene. Here's a guy running through a street. And then he goes inside a building for a second. There he runs up some stairs. Then he jumps through a window because he preferred running in the street. For another 40 minutes.
Norte, The End of History
Kill all the bad elements.
My internal reaction:
What an absolutely devastating and aggravating film. Amazing 250min morality epic. What starts as political and philosophical discussions between fairly well-off law students eventually becomes something bigger where Fabian nothing but pretensions Viduya stops being an educated hypocrite and carries out his post-truth manifesto that doesnt go as planned. I was surprised to find such a sympathetic trans character portrayal (Moira) among the law students, and they mostly bring the lighter tone. The film isnt all po-faced, there are some hilarious lines, but that goes away when the gravity of Fabians actions take hold. There is not class warfare but more a contrast between the rich and poor, set around the vignette structure making the main characters just pass by at the most excruciating times when they should meet. The other side is given to a working lower class family or really more about a single mother, Eliza, as time passes while husband Joaquin wastes in prison and how that devastates her. This is evident in one spoilery moment
where you can tell that shes about to attempt suicide at the top of a mud cliff
. There are shades of moral grey here, where even the loan shark Magda is not as much a bad person but more pragmatic. I couldnt quite figure Fabian (the pro/antagonist) out at times who reminded me of Simon Killer where he always goes against my moral expectations, even though there is remorse in him.
Some of the best cinematography Ive ever seen (trailer), the natural lighting is to die for and one shot of climactic rain is timed so perfectly that I wonder if it was real or by machine. Bars and fires are recurring visual motifs that speak to the prison and hopelessness of life. There are quite a few brilliant dreamy aerial shots that furthers the hope that Joaquin has behind bars. There is one long stare back at the camera shot by Eliza that is mesmerising. The incredible naturalistic performances combined with the long shots really capture the quiet moments you dont often see in films but do see in reality where you can just imagine where the characters headspaces are at. Enough is understood about them that when the long shots after grand moments come, they provide that contemplation for what theyre thinking and what theyre about to do. The long shots also immersed me enough to have a couple of violent moments in the prison that feel so real where I tried to figure out how they were done.
One revelation in the last hour was a real whoa moment where it ties all the themes together such as how spirituality isnt always a good thing or what the rotting of family cohesion explains about Fabian. That whole theme reminded me of that heartbreaking documentary Last Train Home about Chinese migrant workers estranged from their families. I was waiting for a
deus ex machina
as is discussed by the law students and it comes, but goes against expectations which lead to my anger as the film ended. It made me think about how film directors can create their own worlds of morality and here a cruel Gods hands (or maybe the lack of one) are at work.
Feel like I should read some Dostoevsky after this. Fans of Tarkovksy and the Vengeance Trilogy should have this on their radar.
BEST FILM OF 2014
Apparently, you can rent it on Youtube for £3.49 (UK), whoah ok so more people can see this!
Sharknado - .... There are no words. Other than Cassie Scerbo is fn hot.
Pain & Gain - Surprisingly decent. Feels like Michael Bay doing his version of a Martin Scorsese movie and might be a meta-commentary on Bay's own movies. Who knows. Really didn't feel overlong although a lot of the more violent scenes were a bit much at times.
I need to watch a really great movie to clean myself.
Enjoyed the first one, even though I think the romance was forced and forced romances in stories is something I'm basically allergic to. The second one fixed that issue and I liked it even more.
But did...did the third movie even have a writer? Because what I saw was a few gigantic action scenes stitched together with three sentences of setup. There's this guy that the bad guys want to catch! So here's 40 minutes of him running around panicked as the bad guys yell at their computer screens. And now there's a chase scene. Here's a guy running through a street. And then he goes inside a building for a second. There he runs up some stairs. Then he jumps through a window because he preferred running in the street. For another 40 minutes.
You sure you watched the right movie? Because the third is pretty much universally seen as the best in the trilogy. I mean everyone is welcome to their own opinion but Ultimatum was fuckin great IMO.
As far as critical reception goes, Ultimatum was easily better received. 85/100 metacritic and won 3 Oscars. Supremacy was 73. Identity was 68. I mean I understand if you like 1, 2 or 3 better than the others of personal reasons. That's fine.
I'd probably go 1>2>3 myself, but yeah, The Bourne Ultimatum isn't much more than Jason Bourne's Greatest Hits.
I felt like the action sequences in The Bourne Identity were a lot stronger and certainly more novel, but I can't really hate on what you were able to see of them in The Bourne Supremacy, and that does have a big advantage of having significantly more Brian Cox.
1 just seems real cheap to me now, like the TV movie version before Greengrass made the big budget versions. And I dislike everything about Franka Potente's character/performance, so her being gone is a big ups for me.
Between 2 and 3 is your own personal taste. I prefer 3, but 2 has the best car chase.
ah the bourne films, the best actions movies where i have no idea if the action is actually any good because i'm trying not to vomit from motion sickness.
I've always thought Supremacy had the best plot, Ultimatum had the best action, and Identity was the best overall package.
Magic in the Moonlight
As far as Woody's off-year movies go, this one was pretty alright really. Fun, if disposable story, and Firth and Emma Stone are charming leads. Not much more to it than that, it's just a cute, kinda forgettable but wholly inoffensive movie. I didn't much care for the ending though.
Blue Collar
This was really great, especially for a debut film, and very unlike a lot of Schrader's other stuff. Feels very much like the blue collar worker equivalent of Mean Streets, in no small part because of another great Harvey Keitel performance. Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto were excellent too, I mean really the acting across the board was strong, good script, paced very well. I have no real complaints except for, again, the very end, which was totally unnecessary and awkward.
The final shot of Keitel and Pryor swinging at each other was telling enough, they didn't need to reuse Kotto's "the system pits us against each other" monologue again -- especially the audio was mixed into very poorly.
I had fun with Guardians of the Galaxy. Great flick to see with friends or even a date (in my case).
Unlike most Marvel films, it might actually be re-watchable and the all of the characters have thier moments (the characters moments happen even they're together which is great).
I know nothing about the comics or whatever but Drax and Gamora seemed to just be normal. No special abilities or anything unless I missed something. Just skilled fighting but I feel like that didn't add much. Based off the film they could've easily been swapped.
Ronan was a Marvel reskin villain, and could've been swapped with most of the other villains in the MCU and no one would notice. He has a cool deep voice and a hammer and that's about it. Honestly, seeing Thanos have a full scene was more satisfying than anything Ronan related in this film. The movie looked very cheap and T V like at times which was one of my disappoints with the visual direction.
I'll give them a few passes though for throwing a few curve balls and setting a fun tone early and sticking with it.
Loved the soundtrack btw, Starlord's mom has good taste. It's one of those movies that doesn't misuse licensed music.
To be fair, exactly what else could Williams do in that film? It's the most lazy form of textbook manipulation already. Williams was obviously just hired to go on autopilot. So autopilot he did.
To be fair, exactly what else could Williams do in that film? It's the most lazy form of textbook manipulation already. Williams was obviously just hired to go on autopilot. So autopilot he did.
How did they manage to bag Williams in the first place? I was under the impression that he basically only works these days if it involves Spielberg or Star Wars.
HER - It deserves all the praise it's gotten.
I loved it top to bottom really, fantastic experience.
The only nitpick is that some of the logical jumps it makes, come off more as plot holes and disturbed me a bit, but were easy enough to get over.
Mainly, a super human AI is coming out on the market, and it doesn't seem like a huge deal? Theodore is just like "oh look, this nice new product, i'll give it a shot!".
But it's objectively not something you can consider mundane or brush off like the other technological advancements the movie intentionally understates (nice touch, otherwise).
Aside from that, nothing to add really, just a great movie.
The Bourne franchise is a huge blur to me, much like the fighting scenes I guess. All I remember is the car chase in one of them, and Damon beating some guy half to death with a book.
The Bourne franchise is a huge blur to me, much like the fighting scenes I guess. All I remember is the car chase in one of them, and Damon beating some guy half to death with a book.
Same, the conversation in here got me to think on them and realize I remember little beyond a handful of action sequences, the weird half-retconning of the Pamela call in Supremacy, and some moments in Ultimatum.
Ultimatum's release was a big moment for me as a teenager though. had thoroughly enjoyed the first two movies, Identity was probably one of my most rewatched movies of ages 10-15. Also enjoyed the first book
despite/because of the very very detailed sex sequences probably being a bit above 13-year-old me's experience
. But outside of catching select scenes on cable I don't think I've seen a minute of the trilogy in 6 or 7 years.
Also, I feel like the current convo is avoiding how fucking terrible Legacy was. Justifiably so, I know I want to forget #chems.
Legacy was so utterly pointless except to remind you of the better Jason Bourne films. You wanna call Ultimatum the Bourne Greatest Hits, this was like your local cover band version of them. So perfectly mediocre it slips right out of your mind the second you walk out of the theater, remembering nothing but chems, Renner's omnipresent glowering, and that Moby song they play at the end
I loved the Bourne trilogy as much as the next guy, when they first came out.
Then i rewatched the first one some time after Taken (which had put me in the mood) and found it strangely boring and slow.
Never rewatched any of 'em since.
I loved Ultimatum, it's one of the most rewatchable movies. Sure, plot is fairly basic, but ultimately who gives a shit since it's so damn funny
the fight scene between Bourne and the Arab guy, which ends with him owning the enemy with a towel is priceless. But why so many strangled people? Bourne has quite a lack of imagination when it comes to fatalities
Sharknado 2: The Second One is every bit as dumb as you'd expect it to be, and while it threatens to overwhelm itself with being too self-knowing with the army of cameo appearances, it still manages to be ridiculously entertaining. While it's still not a patch on The Asylum's masterful (well, for them) Mega Piranha, you'd be hard-pressed not to be awestruck at how much they can still mine out of this patently ridiculous idea.
Under the Skin Review (CONTAINS LOOSE SPOILERS) - I watched the film a few times now and each time my overall appreciation of the film's cinematography and aesthetic seem to grow along with my reservations about its plot. If you might recall I didn't understand why a reviewer would have brought up Kubrick's opus 2001: A Space Odyssey in relation to Under the Skin whatsoever. And I still don't get the comparison. It just seems quite lazy. Like when reviewers randomly bring up Citizen Kane as a way to quantify the quality of a film.
The plot of Under the Skin when glanced upon at face value is probably most akin to the cheesy sci-fi trilogy Species. However, the tone of the films couldn't be more different. And the way Glazer captures the female protagonist's ill-fated descent into a carnal and sexualized society reminds me more of Giallo like Amer and Betty Blue.
Aesthetically the film uses a variety of wide angled shots of the landscape and backdrop showcasing how seemingly peaceful and beautiful the setting looks from afar. However, as the the female becomes more closely integrated into the populace Gazer utilizes more closeups of her deadpan gaze. I think her aloofness is supposed to be somewhat off-putting to the typical male gaze. She never breaks the fourth wall or gives the camera the satisfaction of truly looking as though she's truly comfortable in her beautiful voluptuous body, which makes perfect sense given the details of the plot. And even when she ensnares men with her appearance it's done in such a passive fashion that it seems their lack of self-restraint is what is most to blame.
However, throughout the film the female's deadpan gaze slowly dissipates. And after one encounter with an unconventional male she seems to feel a bit of compassion for the men in the film. And she even flirts with being domesticated, though there are hints throughout the film that she had been subservient to a male counterpart the entire time. Anyway, just as she begins to trust the men in the society she soon finds out that ultimately they're only interested in one thing and this proves to be tragic in the end once they figure out who she really is. Her brief attempt at assimilation is shot down.
The film seemingly is flirting with a bunch of ideas and condemnations of society and misogyny, but can't really settle or drive home any single thing. Furthermore the lack of character building of the protagonist in Under the Skin really hurts any attempt to elicit much sympathy for her. It starts off quite formulaic and repetitive to the point of seeming rather light on content and a bit boring as well. Too much time is wasted on showcasing the aesthetics rather than beefing up the meat of the plot. And thus, Under the Skin is nice to look at, but not so great to actually watch.
