Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| Nov 2013

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Just saw this. Been in the mood for medieval/fantasy ever since I got into A Song of Ice and Fire, and this one did not disappoint. Great visual flair and atmosphere. Just a deeply brooding and gritty look into plague-ridden England. Some great acting. Story and climax were interesting enough, although the ending felt a bit forced and unnecessary.

Either way, really liked it.

4/5
 
Upstream Color- Pretty damn good looking movie visually speaking.Used those visuals and music to tell the story more so than the dialogue. Not much "narrative", but I thought what was given was very interesting. Don't think I cared much for the way the ending was handled.

Need to see Primer eventually.
 
Busy weekend for films, must have seen at least a dozen. Stand outs included:

Il Futuro - An Italian film about two recently orphaned teenagers trying to get by. The younger brother joins a gym, and his new friends hatch a plan for the older sister to seduce a local retired bodybuilder/movie actor (based on Reg Park from the Hercules movies, and played by Rutger Hauer) to try and steal his money. Fantastic acting all round, and great story that combines a love story, a story of people that have lost everything, and a story about a teenager becoming an adult.

Bushido Man - A Japanese action pastiche about a wandering martial artist who is attempting to master a variety of fighting techniques. Lots of action scenes, plenty of homage to different action genres, and a few good jokes.

Antboy - A Danish about a 12 year old boy who is bitten by a radioactive ant and gets ant-based superpowers, such as super strength, powerful jaws, and acid pee. While fairly predictable, it's a solid kids film about superheroes. Comic books are discussed frequently, and the Spiderman homage is pointed out by the characters within the film. Personally, I was pleased to see Savage Dragon get a few nods.

HK: Hentai Kamen / Forbidden Superhero - Anotehr Japanese superhero parody, this one about a teenager that gets superpowers from wearing women's panties on his face and defeating villains by slamming his crotch into them. Quite one-joke, but for some reason I can't stop finding the joke funny.

Harakiri - An old Japanese film about a Samurai who arrives at a household demanding use of their forecourt to commit suicide. A very tense first half, as everything is not quite what it seems, but it started to drag towards the end, and the second act could have been a bit punchier.

Ikarie XB-1 - An old Czechoslovakian film about a spaceship crew on a voage to Alpha Centauri. While the films itself isn't incredible, with an overly large cast, the attention to scientific detail is notable.
 
I can't stand Van Houten because of her terrible Dutch accent (which I also have and therefore it's extra noticeable for me)

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The Abyss - ***½
Cold Fish - ***½
Shinjuku Incident - Jackie Chan in a more serious Scarface-ish film. Some interesting concepts in terms of racial tension and moral choices, but it goes stale by the end **½

Jumper - Bad. *½
White House Down - Bad. (Olympus has Fallen won) **

As I mentioned I got a 3DTV so I rewatched some stuff in 3D:
Man of Steel - It just does not connect with me at all **
Prometheus - I want to like this so badly, but the film makes it so hard on me. There are some cool ideas and the exploration of the Alien mythology is potentially amazing, but there is also just so much dumb stuff ***
Dredd - Just. Awesome. I ARM THER LAWR! RAWR! ****

Non-movie sidenote: I watched the last season of Breaking Bad (in 3 days, heh) and started Boardwalk Empire!
 
Harakiri - An old Japanese film about a Samurai who arrives at a household demanding use of their forecourt to commit suicide. A very tense first half, as everything is not quite what it seems, but it started to drag towards the end, and the second act could have been a bit punchier.

Them's fightin' words. If it weren't for Seven Samurai I'm pretty sure plenty of people here would say that Harakiri is the greatest samurai film ever.
 
Harakiri is awesome. Only movie that has depicted "real" samuraïs.
 
Harakiri - An old Japanese film about a Samurai who arrives at a household demanding use of their forecourt to commit suicide. A very tense first half, as everything is not quite what it seems, but it started to drag towards the end, and the second act could have been a bit punchier.

The build of tension in both Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion are almost hard to take, to feel it dragging might be due to a waning interest.

I consistently have a crazy wily-eyed grin on my face as they near those final scenes, really amazing films.

Probably my next Kobayashi. Next Japanese film for me is The Insect Woman, which should start me on Imamura.

That is a good starting point.
 
Them's fightin' words indeed.

Haven't watched Seven Samurais, Yojimbo or Samurai Rebellion yet (I know) so Seppuku is sitting on the throne undisturbed so far...
 
Gravity Stunning cinematography and sound design. The symbolism was a little heavy handed at times but it still managed to keep the fine balance between entertainment and art. One of my favourite films of 2013.
 
I thought Samurai Rebellion was pretty dull, tbh. I'd say the back half is way more exciting than the front.

Well, it is more exciting, naturally. I found the opening scenes more gripping after I had already seen the film once. It sometimes helps to know where a film is heading, and to be curious about what went wrong.
 
Nice! Still need to see this from that list:

Harakiri
Sansho
Santango
Werckmeister
Duck Amuck
Woman in the Dunes
Paradise Lost
Le Trou
Winter Light
Shoah
A Brighter Summer Day
The Devils
Cries & Whispers
The Exterminating Angel
The Human Condition
Love Exposure
The Cranes Are Flying
A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese
Hiroshima, mon Amour

Tell me what I should make a priority, GAF.

Anyways, much better list than IMDb 250.
 
Sunset Blvd is higher on this list than IMDB, so points for that

and 12 Years a Slave is a great film, but damn nigga let the paint dry before you put up in the museum at #30

also, looks like I'm the last man standing without a letterboxd, I should probably get one

also also, I just noticed the Sweet Smell of Success and Duck Amuck are here, so consider all complaints lobbied against this list null and void, including my own
 
Missing about 25. I haven't watched any of the "Before" pics... >_>

I have seen The Graduate though so fuck off!
 
Shawshank way too high.

Sunset Blvd is higher on this list than IMDB, so points for that

and 12 Years a Slave is a great film, but damn nigga let the paint dry before you put up in the museum at #30

well it is the internet, charles.

you can also see that in like newer movies like 12 years and before midnight and the hunt are ranked so high because the main purpose of the site is rate movies as you see them which should include more new movies than ICM and IMDB where people rate/favorite things different.

s
 
Still need to see this from that list:

Harakiri
Sansho
Werckmeister
Duck Amuck
Woman in the Dunes
A Brighter Summer Day
The Devils
Cries & Whispers
Love Exposure
The Cranes Are Flying
Hiroshima, mon Amour

Tell me what I should make a priority, GAF.
Out of these, I'd personally go for Cries & Whispers, A Brighter Summer Day, and Woman in the Dunes. The middle one's a no-go right now, though, but I think Criterion's about ready to release it via World Cinema Foundation.
 
you can also see that in like newer movies like 12 years and before midnight and the hunt are ranked so high because the main purpose of the site is rate movies as you see them which should include more new movies than ICM and IMDB where people rate/favorite things different.

Which is why the MOST POPULAR MOVIE OF ALL TIME is... Django Unchained.
 
well it is the internet, charles.

you can also see that in like newer movies like 12 years and before midnight and the hunt are ranked so high because the main purpose of the site is rate movies as you see them which should include more new movies than ICM and IMDB where people rate/favorite things different.

s

I know, I'm just saying :P
 
What did you think of Contempt?

I didn't care for Breathless, and am currently wading through Weekend (I actually had to break it up into two viewings), but I thought in Contempt Godard had something meaningful to say about love and marriage, and his self-awareness regarding his transition to more mainstream, commercial cinema was interesting enough and didn't feel like it intruded into the film. It was pretty low-key on the psuedointellectual babble too.

Contempt is probably my favorite Godard movie. I like him though. I guess my least favorites of the ones I've seen are Pierrot le Fou and A Woman is a Woman, though I think they're both good movies as well. I don't see how anyone could dislike Breathless or Band of Outsiders though.


Unrelated:
I'm taking Film Theory this spring, skipping the prerequisite of Intro to Film. Do you guys know of any intro books on the subject that might help me prepare for the class?
 
First Attempt at a Letterboxd 250:

http://letterboxd.com/frankentomato/list/the-semi-official-letterboxd-top-250/


really interested to compare against ICM/IMDB's list

this one had Duck Amuck, so y'know it's obviously the best.

at 146. I'm at 178 on the imdb version, which is proof enough that this one is much better
Unrelated:
I'm taking Film Theory this spring, skipping the prerequisite of Intro to Film. Do you guys know of any intro books on the subject that might help me prepare for the class?
what dragoon said. Film Art's a great comprehensive book. or if you're cheap literally just read a random entry on Bordwell's blog once a day. the one thing a book can't really teach you outright is how to write about movies, which intro to film helped me with a lot, so reading Bordwell on specific films could show you by demonstration.
 
Nice! Still need to see this from that list:

Harakiri
Sansho
Santango
Werckmeister
Duck Amuck
Woman in the Dunes
Paradise Lost
Le Trou
Winter Light
Shoah
A Brighter Summer Day
The Devils
Cries & Whispers
The Exterminating Angel
The Human Condition
Love Exposure
The Cranes Are Flying
A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese
Hiroshima, mon Amour

Tell me what I should make a priority, GAF.

Anyways, much better list than IMDb 250.

A lot of greats on there. My one vote goes to Werckmeister Harmonies.


I haven't read a whole lot of textbooks on film, but Bordwell's Narration in Fiction Film is currently grabbing my eye.
 
159/250 on the letterboxd list. Also I was thinking I would be able to finish the IMDB top 250 (30 odd movies to go) this year, and that seems like it won't happen.
 
Hah, I was wondering if a thread like this existed.

I watched The Master the other night. Great acting that goes nowhere fast, though I didn't mind too much.

Saw that iCheckMovies is working on a redesign.

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I use Letterboxd to keep track of my movies. Simple but it works for me.
 
Nice! Still need to see this from that list:

Harakiri
Sansho
Santango
Werckmeister
Duck Amuck
Woman in the Dunes
Paradise Lost
Le Trou
Winter Light
Shoah
A Brighter Summer Day
The Devils
Cries & Whispers
The Exterminating Angel
The Human Condition
Love Exposure
The Cranes Are Flying
A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese
Hiroshima, mon Amour

Tell me what I should make a priority, GAF.

Anyways, much better list than IMDb 250.

You should have such a fun day with the bolded.

And if my calculations are correct I litteraly mean a day.
 
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