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Movies You've Seen Recently III: The Third Chapter

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Mulholland drive has a peer pressure rating of 5/5, watch your back, Borgnine
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Swoon he may be, but we've got your back, Ernie.
 
My absolute favorite is Part 4: The Final Chapter, for me this is the quintessential Friday movie, great kills, fun characters and a satisfying arc and "ending" to the series.
Speak the truth! I own and watch 1-8 every year, but 4 is the one everyone watches with me. My vote as well.

I rewatched Aliens Theatrical Cut because the video game made me think of them. I always love watching the film and thinking about the creatures.
I actually only watch Alien and Aliens now after ten years of loving the lore, the rest of the franchise isn't even worth it. I said it.
 
Speak the truth! I own and watch 1-8 every year, but 4 is the one everyone watches with me. My vote as well.

I rewatched Aliens Theatrical Cut because the video game made me think of them. I always love watching the film and thinking about the creatures.
I actually only watch Alien and Aliens now after ten years of loving the lore, the rest of the franchise isn't even worth it. I said it.


I don't think you're saying anything crazy. Pretty much all Alien franchise discussions end in that conclusion.
 
movies I watched in february:

Point Blank 4.5
Logans Run 4.5 classic
Bottle Rocket 5 lovable road movie with both Wilsons
Incredibles 3.5
This must the place 4
State and Maine 3.5
Spartan 4.5 surprisingly brilliant, really didn't expect that
Another Earth 4
Hot Chick 3 man I love Rob Schneider movies, one of his weaker ones but still funny.

LOVE Bottle Rocket so much.
 
Just watched To the wonder, and it might just be my least favourite Mallick. It still looks very pretty and there's lot of subtext packed into it, but it failed to impact me as much as any of his other movies that i've watched, which I had anticipated considering the subject of this movie. The format, so to speak, of this movie is pretty much identical to Tree of Life where the editing is very similar and the hushed dialogues are taken to their logical extremes. Not sure if missing most of the dialogue impacted the movie experience, but dialogue was sparse anyways.
 
139) Bangkok Girl 2005

I thought this would go more in depth into the Thai sex industry, but it kinda just surrounded this one girl. This particular girl man, as a child she goes up to her step mom, what you doing. she was cook. girl goes can i help, the step mom gets pisses and puts her hand into a boiling pot of water. the girl ended up losing fingers

140) Winterbeast 1991

Kinda bad movie. For most of the movie people would go up into the woods and get attacked by these horrible demons which were mostly small clay demons shot up close to make them appear big, by the end some dude was found to be summoning them lol. Terrible sound in this. I found most the demons interesting though.

141) A fish called wanda 1988

Really lol movie, all kinds of double crossing to get stolen goods from a robbery

142) Dutch 1991

Thought this would of been worse than it was, turned out pretty decent. Ed O'Neill to impress his gf brings her kid home, but the kid is a twat and trying to fuck him at every turn. Lol kinda reminds of Are we there yet movies cept this was better

143) Raising Arizona 1987

rewatch; decent comedy still. had not seen it in a few years

144) Terminator 2 1991

rewatch; still awesome, but one thing i was thinking during this particular rewatch was if he the other dude could regenerate why did arnold even bother shooting at him lol


144 total movies
93 new watches
51 rewatches
 
My roommate and I watched the workprint version of Balde Runner tonight. It's mostly similar to the Final Cut, with some extended scenes and bits, and the audio (particularly the music) is a big change. Also were a lot of graphical problem with it, you can really tell it's an early version, very untouched. We compared it visually with the Final Cut afterwards and were blown away with how improved it was. Then for s&g's we watched the ending to the theatrical cut, holy shit that was a bad ending,

Really makes me appreciate the Final Cut even more. Such a great movie.
 
Saw The Last Samurai. I didn't hate it, it had a nice look and some likable characters, but there's many things that bring it down
(specially the ending)
. Cruise's character went from insufferable to tolerable to kind of offensive.
Had his character died I would have liked the movie more.
I don't really mind history accuracy, so I don't care if it was just fictional. Also, I thought Avatar was more similar to this one than some of the other influences, he even kept a journal. 6/10
 
GAF, any recommendations for movies to watch with friends? Must mix with weed/alcohol.

Edit: no horror

Weed? Alcohol? Dazed and Confused comes to mind. It's in the 70's though.

A bunch of trailers watched in cinema, what's the common thing about them? Hyper-violence. A Good Day to Die Hard, Gangster Squad, The Last Stand and Broken City. Guns and shooting, shooting and more guns with explosions. None seems to be insteresting enough, perhaps Gangster Squad could be (watched LA confidential some weeks ago) but I'm not so sure... at least there's Emma Stone.
 
The best weed movies are actual weed movies (Pineapple Express, Half Baked, Friday). We once rented this movie called Cutest Kittens or something which was pretty hillarious while stoned too
 
Finally caught Amour.

It was good, but certainly a far cry from Haneke's better self (the last of which was Caché). It may be because (through no fault of the film's own) it was exactly what I expected it to be: methodical and monotonous to hammer home that inescapable sense of paralysis for both of them. So on that front, Haneke completely succeeded. I guess I was expecting the film to build to something not cathartic, but something I could take away from the film to ruminate on that I hadn't already walked into the film with.
 
Watching Dances with Wolves right now, but as it's four hours long, I'm splitting it in half.I've finished the first half. Objectively, the worst narration ever. Beautiful movie, though.
 
I've never understood the love for Cache. I thought the pacing in that movie was glacial and the payoff didn't work for me.

True Lies. This is a great action movie. It also saddened me because action movies have horrid editing now. I have no idea why directors choose to seclude the action by having a cut every two seconds.
 
I'm always surprised when people don't have at least some sort of comprehension about Holy Motors.

My perspective:
Basically the only conversation in the movie confirmed that there are cameras that are microscopic, floating in the air, following them around, so why bother having sets when they can go out and do this stuff in real life? Acting in the real world. The talking cars at the end of the film was just the peak of the thematic material: that eventually, in this world, the fantasy created by acting and reality become the same. Kind of like Videodrome but for actors.

On an unrelated note, I watched The Shining for the first time and loved it. Super tense and incredibly constructed.
 
The Thing (2011). Pretty big fan of the original, I thought this did a decent enough job of setting it up, but made a mess of the second half of the film. Almost completely devoid of ambiguity, which created the tension in the original.
 
I'm always surprised when people don't have at least some sort of comprehension about Holy Motors.

My perspective:
Basically the only conversation in the movie confirmed that there are cameras that are microscopic, floating in the air, following them around, so why bother having sets when they can go out and do this stuff in real life? Acting in the real world. The talking cars at the end of the film was just the peak of the thematic material: that eventually, in this world, the fantasy created by acting and reality become the same. Kind of like Videodrome but for actors.

On an unrelated note, I watched The Shining for the first time and loved it. Super tense and incredibly constructed.

I didn't really take such a rigidly defined sci-fi approach with my interpretation.
I interpreted oscar saying that you can't see the cameras not as saying they're microscoping, but more as commenting on how far holy motors has to go nowadays to tell a story, because people constantly need the tricks to be updated.
not that your theory is automatically NOT true but I don't think you have to interpret it that specific way. much more wiggle room. thematically though I did get a similar idea out of it but I don't think the film limits itself to commenting on acting or even just film. also makes some more focused statements on violence, sex, identity, animal nature, etc.
 
Short time no post...

The Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov)

Letterboxd said:
I've become the witness of a strange coincidence.

It happened when, after starting this movie on Netflix, I immediately recognized that a Michael Nyman score was playing. It didn't bother me until I confirmed it was the soundtrack to a video game called Enemy Zero, released by Kenji Eno's company Warp in 1998. The game-maker passed away sometime on February the 21st, 2013, from heart failure. Listening to Nyman's reconstructed soundtrack for The Man with a Movie Camera was strangely moving. It's such a hectic score, for such an intense movie, that I remembered how Eno, for most of his life, suffered from mental instability and health issues. In short, Vertov's film feels like a day in the life of one of my favorite former game designers.
How odd. It's a great movie, but perhaps this wasn't the most normal time to view it. Then again, what did I know? ****/*

A Poet's Life (Kihachiro Kawamoto, Kobo Abe)

Letterboxd said:
A Poet's Life, beautifully brought to life by esteemed puppet animator Kihachiro Kawamoto, feels more like a living book than a full, animated work. The origami cutouts, drab in charcoal yet appropriate for the magical realism Abe conveys in his original short story, move around all janky and stiff, as if the weariness of the factory workers' lives has made them this way. Just as soon as their world turns nightmarish, with a worker's mother turned to yarn and then into a sweater, so too does the animation pick up pace and evolve into something unexpected and fascinating. And, by that, I mean slow and unforgiving for the casual viewer.
I quite liked this short film overall. I know that Tadanari Okamoto's where it's really at, but Kawamoto, surprisingly, is more popular and in the same class of independent animation greatness. Huh. ***/**

Sabotage (Alfie)

Letterboxd said:
Maybe I could comment on how the lack of music redirects the viewer's focus towards those awkward dialogues between the Verloks and their friend from Scotland Yard. Perhaps I could note how efficient the script is, and how Sylvia Sidney and Oskar Homolka make for an effective couple torn by necessity. Hell, nearly all the actors put in great performances, and the cinematography's impressive as ever. But when important moments in a short story go to waste so easily, all the other perfections of a movie like Sabotage are injured in turn. From what I've heard of Hitchcock's penchant for anticlimax, effective or not, and for utilizing a part of the script at an inopportune moment in the film, Sabotage seems to reflect both his ability with taut thriller thematics and weaknesses in key areas. —For an introduction to Hitchcock, this film is certainly the most interesting choice I've made recently.
An interesting early one from the director, and the first one of his I've seen in full. I think I'm leaning towards The Lady Vanishes for my next bout, but I'd like to hear some recommendations before I go through with that. ***/**

Edge of the City (Ritt)

Letterboxd said:
Edge of the City starts as outrageously as it ends, with Cassavetes' James Dean of a character barely making the ferry from New Jersey over to where the stevedores roam. Saul Bass' titles roam through shots like bullet holes on walls; there's a sense of tension and nervousness radiating from Cassavetes' highly physical performance, as is typical of movies placed in less-than-perfect settings and situations in the '50s. As much as Edge of the City borrows from its era, it's no half-hearted take on the scenario of On the Waterfront. I immediately knew, especially after the first talk between Axel and his parents over long-distance, that this was going to mix Rebel Without A Cause and the Kazan film into something rather unique.
This is probably my favorite film that I've seen recently. It's really quite great: Cassavetes and Poitier eating it all up in two defining performances at that point in their careers. I'm surprised it hasn't been more widely seen or talked about. ****/*

Overall, I had a fun week.
 
Not sure where to post this, but I just read the script for Sofia Coppola's new movie. I haven't liked anything she's done since The Virgin Suicides, but this should be a return to form for her. It's seems really fun and the material is really her speed.
 
Loved Perks of Being a Wallflower. Possibly Top 10 of the year material. Was nice to see Ezra Miller's talent being put to good use after the frustratingly wasted potential of There's Something About Kevin. Logan Lerman and Emma Watson were great too.

I hope you've seen Afterschool
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Dude's amazing in it.
 
145)The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975

Seeing Tim Curry as a transvestite was certainly amusing, Catchy tunes as well

146) Nature Calls 2012

I figured I'd watch this just cause, i figured it'd be horrible and by god I was correct!

147)The Producers 1968

Really good movie from start to finish, I think its funny that
once they go to jail for blowing up the play to cover up the scam that they start it up again in prison for a prison play

148)The Doom Generation 1995

Decent although plot seems pretty simple. Rose McGowans tits shown fucks her bf and stranger, go to place that the bill is 6.66 then something goes down be random event or she run into a ex fuck/bf rinse repeat about 4-5 times

148 watches
97 new watches
51 rewatches
 
I hardly watch movies lately.
Anyway i saw Crank 2 and Quiet Earth.

Crank 2 was fun enough, i found the first one to be a boring experiment, despite wanting to be "crazy" at all costs; the second one, i felt, delivered on that premise more.

Quiet Earth danced between wacky and serious, and really couldn't get what tone was going for, some scenes were really good, other "character moments" felt really forced in.
 
A Poet's Life (Kihachiro Kawamoto, Kobo Abe)

Edge of the City (Ritt)

Thanks for posting about these two. I'm an Abe fan but wasn't familiar with that story; watched the short on Mubi and thoroughly enjoyed it. Edge of the City is one of the Cassavetes vehicles I'd been intending to see for a long while, and this was the reminder I needed to bump it way up in the queue.
 
You're welcome, CB. I'm quite interested in the works of the independent Japanese animators Tadanari Okamoto and Kihichiro Kawamoto; A Poet's Life is probably the oddest introduction to the latter I can think of (though his Farce might be worse). Edge of the City's also real great, and it's as solid a debut as an actor like Cassavetes could get.
 
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Has anyone seen Schrader's Cat People? Because it's awesome; it's sad that the the 40s version and Curse of the Cat People are held in higher regard when this one has everything. Moroder score, Kinski, the cinematography. There's a tracking shot near the end with Kinski glancing back at the camera while undressing as she walks up the stairs that's just fucking crazy.

I like how it works as a companion piece to American Gigolo too. It's sad what happened to this dude's career.
 
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