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[ViewtifulJC]

^Still the worst movie I've seen all 2013

It was very pretty...and that is the full extent of the positives I have for that film. Like that keeps it at 2-3/10 instead of 1/10

 

[Ridley327]

I didn't hate Only God Forgives, but there is a definite "the emperor has no clothes!" aspect to it that makes it difficult for me to rewatch it.

 

[Nemesis_]

^Still the worst movie I've seen all 2013

It was very pretty...and that is the full extent of the positives I have for that film. Like that keeps it at 2-3/10 instead of 1/10

I just. I don't know. Maybe my expectations were high since I read so many postiive things about it (though now I look around and see more of a mix so maybe I didn't give myself time to properly judge it) but now that I've seen it.....I don't know.

It's like one of those movies where people will bleat at me "you don't understand true art" when they don't really know or can properly elucidate why they believe it to be true art.

But yeah I can't emphasise enough how much I liked Crystal, the cinematography and select parts of the soundtrack. Really saves it for me (but like you said, only barely)

 

[swoon]

Without the concept of empathy and the ability to imagine the inner lives of someone other than oneself, we'd be deprived of a multitude of great works of art. Frankly, I think this line of thought is absurd, and - intentionally or not - works as a way to excuse creators the responsibility of diversifying their outlook and subsequent output. Where is the line drawn, anyway? Should Steve McQueen have refrained from making 12 Years A Slave because he's a black Brit rather than an African-American?

he much a much different film because of it also - it obviously shouldn't be restricted, but the failings of 12 years of a slave, from its visual appearance to its use of music to the weird benny hill sense of humor i suspect can be drawn back to the UK rather than the book.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was critical in the abolitionist movement. And that was written by a white lady. Of course it's OK.

but the mistakes in tone in uncle tom's created like everything awful about black characters in literature - like what was stowe thinking with sam, really? it's fine that she wrote it - and even better that she was a figure in the abolitionist movement but it does change the work.

not saying that it's not OK, but i think it requires more thought about what it does change, especially for adapted works.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I didn't hate Only God Forgives, but there is a definite "the emperor has no clothes!" aspect to it that makes it difficult for me to rewatch it.

Its what happens when a director starts buying his own hype, and after Drive, dude went into overdrive, pun intended.

Sullen, mean, nihilistic, redundant, and boring as fuck. The official running time is 90 minutes but its gotta be a typo cuz the version I saw was about ten hours or so

 

[UrbanRats]

seems like a contradictory "peer pressure" thing like how do you enjoy a movie if it's not good? For instance people call Miami connection a "so bad it's good" movie when really it's just a ridiculous nonsensical but sincere film with pretty good fights and some style, so it truly is good.

Sometimes you enjoy bad things because you laugh at other people's failure.
Something like The Room is funny because of the bad acting, bad writing and so on, you're laughing AT the movie, so it's fair to call it "so bad it(gives you a) good (experience)".
Some films are just somewhat bad, and don't reach that threshold at which point they become laughly bad, so you just call them bad.
That doesn't make The Room a good or well crafted movie, infact, there is pity and condescention in your appreciation of them.

 

[Blader]

Only God Forgives was almost as bad as Trance... what an awful, pointlessly mean-spirited movie.

 

[scsa]

Finally saw the wolf of wall street.

Loved every bit of it, awesome performances by hill and Decaprio. The Ludes!!

 

[Ridley327]

Its what happens when a director starts buying his own hype, and after Drive, dude went into overdrive, pun intended.

Sullen, mean, nihilistic, redundant, and boring as fuck. The official running time is 90 minutes but its gotta be a typo cuz the version I saw was about ten hours or so

It's a shame, too, since the subversive quality of Drive's story is what really draws me into that film, not the aesthetic overload, as pleasant as that was. I feel like Refn is the kind of director that needs a strong producer to steer him away from his bad habits, rather than being left to his own devices. Not that I feel like Refn shouldn't be trying to make the kind of films that he wants to make, but he definitely suffers from a lack of grounding. He's clearly an enormously talented director, and even Only God Forgives is proof of that, but he needs someone to hold the leash, so to speak, because he's the kind of guy who loves playing in traffic.

 

[UrbanRats]

I didn't hate Only God Forgives, but there is a definite "the emperor has no clothes!" aspect to it that makes it difficult for me to rewatch it.

I don't know, basically everyone i've read about called him out on it, even Gaf hated it for the most part (this board had a major boner for Drive).

I think it had more potential than Drive, although in the end less entertaining, but i completely get all the hate, at the same time.

Refn should go back to the Pusher days... or maybe that trilogy was just a lucky coincidence.

 

[ThanksVision]

hello movie GAF

I'm taking a horror film class for kix this semester and I need to find a film in the genre before 1950 to watch on my own. I know a few, and I could look into more but I'd rather get recs from horror gaf. Any takers?

 

[strobogo]

Bride of Frankenstein is still one of the best sequels of all time.

 

[UrbanRats]

hello movie GAF

I'm taking a horror film class for kix this semester and I need to find a film in the genre before 1950 to watch on my own. I know a few, and I could look into more but I'd rather get recs from horror gaf. Any takers?

Haxan has my vote.

 

[big ander]

Haxan is cool, Bride of Frankenstein is fantastic. I'll also throw out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Cat People. Really can't go wrong with any of those

It's called critical thinking. Not that all "so bad it's good" films are automatically bad.

Edit: To be less of an ass, think of it this way. There are different measuring sticks by which we can measure films, one of which is our enjoyment. Other could be critical acclaim, academic acclaim, positive word of mouth, production values and various technical aspects, narrative, etc. In an attempt (big emphasis on this word) to try to find some sort of truth we can look at the various measurements we gather and make our conclusions.

Ok sure there are a lot of silly measuring sticks you can apply to films I agree. and I also agree with you that you can use those measuring sticks to conflate meaningless external facets and obscure actual insight into the work and avoid actually making progress in figuring out why you enjoyed something by saying something reductive & hollow. so I guess my question is why do any of that when you could just, y'know, talk about it more capably. that is...think critically

anyway thank you for revealing all of these measuring sticks

Sometimes you enjoy bad things because you laugh at other people's failure.
Something like The Room is funny because of the bad acting, bad writing and so on, you're laughing AT the movie, so it's fair to call it "so bad it(gives you a) good (experience)".
Some films are just somewhat bad, and don't reach that threshold at which point they become laughly bad, so you just call them bad.
That doesn't make The Room a good or well crafted movie, infact, there is pity and condescention in your appreciation of them.

I haven't seen The Room yet, but the most compelling discussions of its cultural potency that I've read find something to like in it. The most convincing of those was a podcast interview with Sestero around the time of his book last year, and the conclusion he and the interviewer came to was that The Room was like a film made by an alien who'd barely studied human interaction, a dive into this man's insane mind and how he sees the world and how he's so goddamn bad at understanding human interaction. That sounds like a unique, valuable viewpoint. Which is something good.

I hope it was clear that I wasn't saying "how can a movie be good if its production values aren't good!" That would be baldly sophomoric. What I'm getting at and what I've come to believe is this: the whole "good bad" movies thing is facile bullshit, frankly. The best "bad" movies are actually good because they offer a fascinating viewpoint or accidentally stumble into making some commentary or are charmingly chaotic and excitingly amateur on a technical level. I've only ever laughed at or pitied movies that I truly thought had no worth, had no logic to their badness. But you take Repo Man, Dark Star, El Topo, Hausu-- these can easily read as "wrong" on certain levels, but you end up laughing with them and admiring their reach. They are good movies.

 

[UrbanRats]

I think it's inherently wrong to simply classify movies as either good or bad, and there are certainly various levels of worth to any movie, from the charming to the technical perfection and what have you.

However i also think it's dishonest to not recognize that some movies are enjoyed simply on a level very close to what makes people falling over at a wedding funny.
In certain contexts, it's funny to see others fail, as long as there's an element of charm and candor to it, and it's not just straight up malice.

Also sorry, i can't type well on this goddamn touchscreen.

 

[Ridley327]

hello movie GAF

I'm taking a horror film class for kix this semester and I need to find a film in the genre before 1950 to watch on my own. I know a few, and I could look into more but I'd rather get recs from horror gaf. Any takers?

You'd do well to look into any of the Val Lewton productions, with the ones getting my highest recommendation being The Ghost Ship and The Body Snatcher.

 

[big ander]

I think it's inherently wrong to simply classify movies as either good or bad, and there are certainly various levels of worth to any movie, from the charming to the technical perfection and what have you.

However i also think it's dishonest to not recognize that some movies are enjoyed simply on a level very close to what makes people falling over at a wedding funny.
In certain contexts, it's funny to see others fail, as long as there's an element of charm and candor to it, and it's not just straight up malice.

Also sorry, i can't type well on this goddamn touchscreen.

Yeah, I was just running with good/bad. I'm uncomfortable with them myself.

Also true: I think you can learn something from any movie. But that's kind of exactly why I don't find laughing at them of very much value. You're probably right that I should get off my high horse and own up because I'm sure I have done it before

 

[Femmeworth]

Ok sure there are a lot of silly measuring sticks you can apply to films I agree. and I also agree with you that you can use those measuring sticks to conflate meaningless external facets and obscure actual insight into the work and avoid actually making progress in figuring out why you enjoyed something by saying something reductive & hollow. so I guess my question is why do any of that when you could just, y'know, talk about it more capably. that is...think critically

anyway thank you for revealing all of these measuring sticks

I get your point but we are talking about enjoyment here, something that is more or less entirely intuition. Obviously this is a pet peeve of yours, but you might as well be getting hung up on people calling a film good and being done with it, critically speaking.

 

[big ander]

I get your point but we are talking about enjoyment here, something that is more or less entirely intuition. Obviously this is a pet peeve of yours, but you might as well be getting hung up on people calling a film good and being done with it, critically speaking.

Getting hung up on someone stopping at saying they enjoyed a movie is entirely different. I was remarking on saying something along the lines of "I enjoyed it, it's bad." which you specifically chose to defend but now seem to be shying away from

also it's not really a "pet peeve," I mean it's something that I've observed and disagree with but it came up organically here and you calling it that seems more like a poor attempt at trivialization rather than an actual response

 

[madkiller]

The Sword Of Doom (1966) by Kihachi Okamoto

Excellent anti-samurai film that places more emphasis on it's villain and his descent into madness. Way ahead of it's time.

5/5


Plus One (2013) by Denis Iliadis

Decent thriller with some interesting ideas.

3/5


The Warriros (1979) by Walter Hill

First watch and loved it. Deserves it's cult status.

5/5

 

[Femmeworth]

Getting hung up on someone stopping at saying they enjoyed a movie is entirely different. I was remarking on saying something along the lines of "I enjoyed it, it's bad." which you specifically chose to defend but now seem to be shying away from

also it's not really a "pet peeve," I mean it's something that I've observed and disagree with but it came up organically here and you calling it that seems more like a poor attempt at trivialization rather than an actual response

How am I shying away from it? Yes, I think it is relatively fine in the context of this thread to say that you enjoy a film even though it is bad.

Came up organically? You're the one that jumped to the conclusion that they only said that because of "peer pressure." I'm not the only one injecting attitude into this discussion.

 

[HoJu]

I liked everything about the sword of doom except for it being half a movie.

 

[Lafiel]

I liked everything about the sword of doom except for it being half a movie.

The fact that there was suppose to be two more films about it is amazing because I feel the ending has a lot of thematic resonance going for it, most notably on how it plays on the "madness" of the main character.

 

[thenexus6]

Jobs Finally watched, enjoyed it.. Nothing overly crazy good but a decent watch

 

[hal9001]

The Spectacular Now
The two central performances are outstanding and their incredible on screen chemistry pulls the film through a sometimes predictable plot. Great film.

Inside llewyn Davis
Another wonderful film by the Coen Bros. Superb cinematography and music. It kind of loses a bit of its momentum from the Chicago road trip but overall its was quite enjoyable.

About time
One of the best and funniest romantic films of the year. Many people complain and get too worked up on the time travel mechanics and completely miss the point of the film. It has some amazing themes and some emotional scenes at the end.

Argo
A pretty good thriller which had some tense scenes here and there. Certainly overrated in terms of awards but not a bad film by any means.

Speed Racer (Rewatch / Blu ray)
This still looks visually absolutely amazing. Some of the scenes, and especially that last race, gives me goosebumps.

 

[overcast]

I think The Warriors is one of my favorite action movies. It has such a great vibe.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

That was my first Ozu film, but last night I watched Tokyo Story and I quite loved that one as well.

Well, then, you've got a lot to look forward to. All of Ozu's films are superb, but his post-war run is one of the greatest of any director in history. If you're looking where to go from there I'd say going in chronological order starting with Late Spring (1949) would work. I think it helps put his eventual shift to color in perspective, as it added another quality to - and greatly enhanced - his already exquisite compositions, adding additional depth and distinction to the relative visual flatness of his objects and characters. I truly wonder what he would have done with widescreen had he lived long enough to be forced into using it.

I haven't seen The Room yet, but the most compelling discussions of its cultural potency that I've read find something to like in it. The most convincing of those was a podcast interview with Sestero around the time of his book last year, and the conclusion he and the interviewer came to was that The Room was like a film made by an alien who'd barely studied human interaction, a dive into this man's insane mind and how he sees the world and how he's so goddamn bad at understanding human interaction. That sounds like a unique, valuable viewpoint. Which is something good.

I hope it was clear that I wasn't saying "how can a movie be good if its production values aren't good!" That would be baldly sophomoric. What I'm getting at and what I've come to believe is this: the whole "good bad" movies thing is facile bullshit, frankly. The best "bad" movies are actually good because they offer a fascinating viewpoint or accidentally stumble into making some commentary or are charmingly chaotic and excitingly amateur on a technical level. I've only ever laughed at or pitied movies that I truly thought had no worth, had no logic to their badness. But you take Repo Man, Dark Star, El Topo, Hausu-- these can easily read as "wrong" on certain levels, but you end up laughing with them and admiring their reach. They are good movies.

i think the key part is "stumble". The best bad films are so alarmingly unaware of how they are bad, and similarly so of how they're good, perhaps even despite their best efforts. Jumping off of the discussion of TV shows and their propensity for repetition, I think there is a greater potential for genre films to be so bad they're good because they work within familiar and comfortable genre trappings, but then either misinterpret those trappings, fail to add anything else besides reinterpreting how other genre movies are structured, or go in an entirely unexpected direction. It's an interesting type of film, and one that firmly combats auteur theory and the idea that films should understood as their creator intended.

In a sense, I suppose the true worst film ever is actually just the most mediocre, the one least capable of inspiring any sort of reaction, either good or bad.

 

[Saya]

Captain Phillips - Paul Greengrass - ★★★
I have mixed feelings about this. Tom Hanks was great and overall this film was quite entertaining, but it's just pretty much a straight re-telling of events. I didn't really get much else from this movie. The first half was interesting, but once Phillips gets into the life raft the film dragged for me. The G.I. Joe introduction of the Navy Seals was kinda ridiculous. It was a fine film, but not too remarkable for me.

Tokyo Story (Tōkyō Monogatari) - Yasujirō Ozu - ★★★★★
This was quite... stunning and moving. Very calm, and simple and complex at the same time. It's all so very human, relatable, affecting, and so beautifully captured by Ozu. He gives life's seemingly unimportant and meaningless moments so much attention and focus. The characters in the film actually feel like real ordinary human beings with emotions, actions, and desires like the all of us. I found the cinematography in Floating Weeds better (maybe because it's in color? I don't really know), but the family drama of Tokyo Story is unequaled. Both films were phenomenal though.

 

[Saya]

Well, then, you've got a lot to look forward to. All of Ozu's films are superb, but his post-war run is one of the greatest of any director in history. If you're looking where to go from there I'd say going in chronological order starting with Late Spring (1949) would work. I think it helps put his eventual shift to color in perspective, as it added another quality to - and greatly enhanced - his already exquisite compositions, adding additional depth and distinction to the relative visual flatness of his objects and characters. I truly wonder what he would have done with widescreen had he lived long enough to be forced into using it.

Definitely! Late Spring is next on my list. Really looking forward to it.

 

[megamerican]

Her was a pretty big letdown. Everything about the world and characters seemed a bit too twee for me. Phoenix was good as per usual, but Theodore was a hard character to root for. Scarlet gave a fantastic performance as OS but her character seemed more like a personal assistant than a love interest. It did get very interesting towards the middle, but the ending was seriously underwhelming.

 

[Buckethead]

The Place Beyond the Pines

Ryan Gosling is a shit actor.

 

[Inferno313]

The Place Beyond the Pines

Ryan Gosling is a shit actor.

This post is 110% full of wrong. He gives one of the best performances in that film.

 

[Discotheque]

The Place Beyond the Pines

Ryan Gosling is a shit actor.

clown ass movie. would have worked better as a 20 minute short story.

bradley cooper's son was...oh man wtf. so annoying.

 

[davepoobond]

wow so I just got back from Ride Along and it was like offensively bad. so many horrible clichés and predictable plot turns and just awful gamer stereotypes. eyerolls everywhere.

i just watched this as well. i can't believe how packed the theater was. not only that, there were parts where people were laughing hysterically, and i was just looking around trying to figure out what was funny, and ended up laughing that people thought that something funny had happened.


there were like 4 or 5 good jokes in the whole thing. there was a surprising amount of video game references that didn't make me cringe, just that they were dumb, so i guess there's that.

 

[Card Boy]

Saw 3 more movies

SALT - Pretty good.
Wall-E - Pretty good
Me, Myself & Irene - Was ok i guess, i was tired while watching this so i have a bias handicap

 

[Helmholtz]

Only God Forgives: As a fan of Drive, I can't say I liked this very much. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it was lacking in many ways. I think a lot of people have said it's style over substance, and I have to agree. Also that torture scene was fucking raw, man. Jesus.

Before sunrise/sunset/midnight: Watched all three of these during the past week. I'd rank them Sunset>Sunrise>Midnight. I enjoyed it overall. I usually don't bother with romance movies, but these are officially my favorites and I think it'll probably stay that way. I really like the realistic nature of them, and I think the two leads are just perfect for those roles. But honestly, I think I could have done without Midnight. The ending to Sunrise was great, and Midnight was such a shift from the first two that I'm not sure I wanted to see. It was pretty well done though regardless.

 

[jakncoke]

Duplex: lol man that evil old hag

 

[WhereAreMahDragonz]

The Burning Plain. I really enjoyed it. It started punching me in the feels maybe 3/4 of the way through.

 

[Card Boy]

Saw The Muppets (2011) fucken amazing. Loved the songs and was entertained the whole time.

5 out of 5.

 

[strobogo]

Saw The Muppets (2011) fucken amazing. Loved the songs and was entertained the whole time.

5 out of 5.

I liked it a lot, but god damn Jason Segel could not have been worse in it if he tried. I've never seen a worse performance from him, which is weird since he wrote it and it was a dream project of his.

 

[big ander]

How am I shying away from it? Yes, I think it is relatively fine in the context of this thread to say that you enjoy a film even though it is bad.

Came up organically? You're the one that jumped to the conclusion that they only said that because of "peer pressure." I'm not the only one injecting attitude into this discussion.

I was entirely joking with the peer pressure thing-- that's been a joke saying here for months now

This discussion has been interesting and I think there's value in breaking down the "so bad it's good" label, and why some films (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Drive Angry) intentionally push these buttons while others (Battlefield Earth, Plan 9 From Outer Space) are quite sincerely bad but enjoyable nonetheless, and maybe taking a second look at how we categorize these both internally and in the manner we discuss them. However, this kind of fingerpointing y'all have fallen into is unnecessary and distracting and I'd rather it were avoided. On the whole this is one of the most articulate and well-behaved communities on GAF (even in the manner you guys argue!) and I'd like it to stay that way without having to intervene too much.

Underlined is basically what I was trying to get at, in a clumsy blunt fashion

i think the key part is "stumble". The best bad films are so alarmingly unaware of how they are bad, and similarly so of how they're good, perhaps even despite their best efforts. Jumping off of the discussion of TV shows and their propensity for repetition, I think there is a greater potential for genre films to be so bad they're good because they work within familiar and comfortable genre trappings, but then either misinterpret those trappings, fail to add anything else besides reinterpreting how other genre movies are structured, or go in an entirely unexpected direction. It's an interesting type of film, and one that firmly combats auteur theory and the idea that films should understood as their creator intended.

This is a really good point, and I agree with it but the one thing I'd like to add (cause I'm an argumentative bastard) is that sometimes that sometimes that misinterpretation is purposeful. I think it's hard to judge that level of awareness of a film as an audience member, and that can get into knottier issues of intention and auteurism

I liked it a lot, but god damn Jason Segel could not have been worse in it if he tried. I've never seen a worse performance from him, which is weird since he wrote it and it was a dream project of his.

I think he's great in it. Hammy, sure. But that's in-step for a Muppets film.
What I'm really worried about is Gervais in Muppets Most Wanted. Well, worried implies that the quality of his performance is up in the air-- he'll most certainly be atrocious

 

[captainwhat]

Just saw Elysium.

Might have been one of the worst movies I've seen in recent memory.

 

[UrbanRats]

I've seen Man of steel, while the movie was boring and too chaotic in general, there were several plot points that kept distracting me throughout.

The most annoying one being:

Spoiler

Why the hell doesn't Zodd just live on Earth with its atmosphere and enslave all of humanity? A couple of years with breathing difficulty aren't worth being able to fly and go through buildings like butter? Really?

Also, this didn't need to be this long, for fuck's sake, 5 hours of buildings collapsing...

 

[Reckoner]

The Great Gatsby

At the beginning, I even thought of stopping the movie because the fast-paced touch of director Baz Luhrmann was getting annoying. The thing stabilized a bit, but leaving a very unsatisfying feeling as it went.

Everything felt fake (the CG elements didn't help it, obviously); the sound mixing is ridiculous - with pop/rap songs over jazz that only seem to work as a prop and not as a way of putting the viewer living the era and experiencing the historic context of it. Story-wise it was very "by the book", so there aren't much objections to be made.

 

[Divius]

Both Gravity and 12 Years A Slave were crowned Best Picture at the Producers Guild Awards today, that's a first.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

^Well shit, I was hoping the PGA would clear up the BP race. Guess the DGA is gonna be interesting this saturday

also, Expendable saw Linklater's new film Boyhood before all of us, so fuck him

 

[luso]

Spring Breakers didn't surprised as much as it promised. Too many flashbacks. It stayed between a "coming of age" story (as far as it could be as a crazy one) and nihilism. 3/5

Total Recall (2012) - Total lack of charm, they did the effort to put Mars out of the plot, just to do it dumber. Scenes were done to show the CGI and not the opposite, CGI to really add something to the scene. 2/5

Two Lane Blacktop (1971) - Great movie, was actually a rewatch, I like this kind of story of characters drifting without a definitive conclusion. 4/5

Cannonball Run (1981) - It was fin at the beginning but it went flat before reaching half-way. 3/5.

 

[hal9001]

The Warriors
This had been on my watch list for ages and I am kicking myself for not having watched it sooner. The is the epitome of cool cinema. The cinematography and art direction are absolutely gorgeous. This film feels tailored made to my own cinematic tastes and it has jumped onto my personal favourite films list.

The Driver
Some of the shots in this film and Walter Hills directorial style clearly must of been a influence for Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive. It's a bit strange seeing Ryan O' Neal in this type of role, since I have been used to seeing him so many times in Barry Lyndon. The car chases are incredible.

 

[Ridley327]

Judging by everything said about the film, this seems like the best cover possible for it:

Discuss.

 

[Jarnet87]

I really dislike most of The Eagles music, but In The City is an awesome track and fits the end of The Warriors so perfectly.