Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| Jan 2014

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Don Jon

I thought I had the entire movie mapped out within the first 15 minutes. I was so glad to find out I was wrong. It's a well-made movie, but something about it overall must not have worked for me. It's less than 90 minutes long and yet it felt long. I'm not quite sure how to describe how I felt about it. I thought it was a good movie and yet I don't think I'd ever want to sit through it again, nor am I dying to recommend it to anyone.

Tony Danza was really damn good in it. Scarlett's accent was annoying. It wasn't that she did a poor job of emulating the accent, it's just that the accent itself is so obnoxious. I just can't take anyone seriously who sounds like that.
 
feel like Italian cinema is a big blind spot of mine too. Maybe I'll fix that this year. I've seen like a Rossellini film, a couple de Sica's, a few spaghetti westerns. oh and that fernando di leo box set swoon recommended a couple years ago.
No

You're a monster for hating Anchorman

this. but yeah Life is Beautiful is just ok. the sentimentality neither made me sick nor took me over. it's just...fine.
 
Prisoners was pretty fun I think, in a dreadful way. I'd put neither it nor Incendies above like 3.5/5 yet they're both well-crafted thrillers. has me excited for Enemy (which had some interesting reactions out of fests).

Haha what borgnine said: this will be goddamn impressive if you somehow pull it off. You physically can't do that in a 2-day weekend, even in a 3-day you'd have to really ludovico yourself

We'll pull it off. We're starting tomorrow, so we should finish Kubrick around midday. A short nap, then off to the weird section of movies, finishing by Monday morning.
 
You're Next=fucking awesome movie! Definitely a lot better than I was anticipating, didn't see half the shit that happened in this movie coming. Some twisted humor to boot.

Immediately recognized the guy who played the dad as the bartender from dumb and dumber lol
 
I haven't seen very many Italian films -- really just Bicycle Thieves and about a dozen or so spaghetti westerns -- so I've been thinking of checking out of some of the essentials. After some meticulous google/imdb perusing, I came up with this shortlist of 10:

Rome, Open City (I know this is only part 1 of Rosselini's war trilogy, but I didn't want to take on all three right off the bat)
Umberto D
La Strada
L'Avventura
Last Tango in Paris
Nights of Cabiria
La Dolce Vita
8 1/2
Cinema Paradiso
Life is Beautiful

I thought this was a fairly decent cross-section of the major films/directors/movements in Italian filmmaking, drawing on whatever I remembered from school, but what say you guys? Any glaring omissions or things on here that maybe aren't worth the time?

Being fairly deficient regarding Italian film myself, I can't make too many suggestions since you seem to have the bases covered, but Dillinger is Dead is good.
 
Maniac (2012) - Like a cross between Drive and American Psycho. It's an interesting premise that works really well. It has some cool moments and even has a decent scare or two. But overall it was merely okay.

Excision - Went in knowing literally nothing and came out pleasantly surprised. I'd never heard of AnnaLynne until this but she was fantastic (and weirdly hot). Most of the praise should be heaped on Traci Lords who kills it. Really worth checking out if you like Horror films. Great unsettling atmosphere.
 
Just finished Amistad. And Solomon is totally there.

Great flick. Underrated.

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Maniac (2012) - Like a cross between Drive and American Psycho. It's an interesting premise that works really well. It has some cool moments and even has a decent scare or two. But overall it was merely okay.

Excision - Went in knowing literally nothing and came out pleasantly surprised. I'd never heard of AnnaLynne until this but she was fantastic (and weirdly hot). Most of the praise should be heaped on Traci Lords who kills it. Really worth checking out if you like Horror films. Great unsettling atmosphere.

Did you watch the latest Half in the bag?
 
12 Years Slave

It is definitely a very well crafted movie. It won't only get a full five stars rating from me just because, as it happened with Shame, there's always something about McQueen's direction that doesn't let the movie highs hit me as much as I think they should. There's some kind of barrier between what's happening on the screen and what's going on with myself as a viewer.

Prisoners was pretty fun I think, in a dreadful way. I'd put neither it nor Incendies above like 3.5/5 yet they're both well-crafted thrillers. has me excited for Enemy (which had some interesting reactions out of fests).

Haha what borgnine said: this will be goddamn impressive if you somehow pull it off. You physically can't do that in a 2-day weekend, even in a 3-day you'd have to really ludovico yourself

Prisoners was a big let down for me. I was expecting something along the lines of Twin Peaks/Alan Wake and, even though it is entertaining, solid and safe, that was it. Finished watching and I was "ok?!"

Maybe seeing people talk good things about it let my expectations go higher than they should.
 
Am I a monster for not liking Life is Beautiful?
I didn't love it either, a bit too melodramatic for me.

Speaking of melodrama, I watched About Time and loved it. Ate it up completely, welled up eyes at the end and all. Definitely a movie that should be watched with the heart and not with the brain though. I guess it is soon time for me to check out Love Actually..
 
WTF @ Twin Peaks/Alan Wake?

Where did you possibly get that connection from?

I probably read it somewhere and got that idea on my mind while watching the movie. And it is definitely not that.

Well, and let's say that it is not a completely outer space thing to even remotely make that connection.
 
Paranorman.
Great little film! For the first 45mins my GF was convinced we were watching something 15+ kept asking if it was really a kids film as they have some great adult gags and once the zombies show up my gf was legit scared at first haha.
Reminded me of Coraline which is never a bad thing!

Its all stop motion stuff which the poster does not really show.
 
I didn't love it either, a bit too melodramatic for me.

Speaking of melodrama, I watched About Time and loved it. Ate it up completely, welled up eyes at the end and all. Definitely a movie that should be watched with the heart and not with the brain though. I guess it is soon time for me to check out Love Actually..

Yeah, About Time was pretty great. Love Actually is a guilty pleasure for me as well, watched it too many times by now. In the same genre sort of About a Boy is also a gem.
 
I just watched Citizen Kane for the first time. Although I can see where all the praise is coming from, the movie left a few things in the dark. (Or maybe I just missed it...)
for example:
Where did he get his money from in the beginning? He seems to have an infinite supply of cash, but I can't remeber where/how he got it exactly. His parents sure didn't look very rich.
also
Wtf @ the ending: why would they burn all of his possessions?

and thanks to ghostbusters for spoiling the whole thing for me ~15+ years ago...
 
I watched The Spectacular Now last night, totally wasnt what I was expecting. The scene where Bob Odenkirk
offers him the job in the clothing store if he can stay sober
just broke me.
 
Rififi was spectactular...

08QDi08.jpg


An amazing heist movie, but I read this is considered a noir which I don't really agree with... not much traces of German expressionism left, no real femme fatale, no detectives... but probably i'm doing this wrong.
 
Where did he get his money from in the beginning? He seems to have an infinite supply of cash, but I can't remeber where/how he got it exactly. His parents sure didn't look very rich.

Gold was discovered on land his mother owned, he inherited the fortune when he turned 25.

also
Wtf @ the ending: why would they burn all of his possessions?

They weren't burning everything, just the junk (like old sleds).
 
Gold was discovered on land his mother owned, he inherited the fortune when he turned 25.



They weren't burning everything, just the junk (like old sleds).

ah! thanks, now it makes a lot more sense.
but still, kinda sad that they'd just
burn his dearest possessions...

moving on to vertigo or some other classic I've yet to experience
 
I probably read it somewhere and got that idea on my mind while watching the movie. And it is definitely not that.

Well, and let's say that it is not a completely outer space thing to even remotely make that connection.

That's a weird expectation to have of thrillers.
 
I probably read it somewhere and got that idea on my mind while watching the movie. And it is definitely not that.

Well, and let's say that it is not a completely outer space thing to even remotely make that connection.

Twin Peaks/Alan Wake is a very particular descriptor. Everything I've read about Prisoners has been in comparison to "normal" thriller-procedurals, not weird supernatural and idiosyncratic Twin Peaks style stuff.
 
I finally got around to watching Man of Steel on New Years Day. Really enjoyed it, even if Superman had no memorable dialogue at all.

Looked amazing, and sets the world up nicely for more films.
 
Twin Peaks/Alan Wake is a very particular descriptor. Everything I've read about Prisoners has been in comparison to "normal" thriller-procedurals, not weird supernatural and idiosyncratic Twin Peaks style stuff.

I wasn't expecting supernatural stuff either, just a similar setting and atmosphere. Like Insomnia.
 
Last year I watched
478
films (including a handful of shorts). Yikes.

New
You're Next was cool. It works as a slasher with a twist, it works as a dark comedy and it works as a thriller. I had a lot of fun with this. ****
Computer Chess is weird, enjoyable but ultimately not entirely for me. Certainly unique. ***
The new Carrie remake was, in a word, pointless. **

Old
Easy Rider for the first time was quite the trip (ba-dum tsh); a nice period piece. Sex, drugs and rock & roll man ***1/2
After checking out I'm a Cyborg but that's OK, I decided to watch Park Chan Wook's JSA as well, finishing up his films I wanted to see. It was great. It offered some insight in the history of the two Korea's and the tensions between them, while dealing with themes like friendship and loyalty. Film looked nice as well. ****
 
ah! thanks, now it makes a lot more sense.
but still, kinda sad that they'd just
burn his dearest possessions...

Part of what makes it effective. What represents something to someone, might seem like junk to others.


moving on to vertigo or some other classic I've yet to experience

Hope the praise doesn't hurt your impression of it (due to expectations). It is fantastic (I really think it's one of the best), but Vertigo is one of those movies that get better and unfold with rewatches.
 
The Pianist
A very emotionally raw film. Adrian Brody gives a great performance and the cinematography is amazing.

Zombieland
A really fun film that surprisingly feels like a fresh breath of air in the zombie genre.

Altered States
Some of the symbolism and shots here are jaw dropping. The second half of the film felt a bit to much like a David Cronenberg film (the fly) but that isn't really a compliant.
 
I found a rip of Goltzius. I hope it doesn't have the awkward Russian dub like the ones that are streaming. What am I saying? No one probably cares as much as I do. Haha.

About to watch Simon Killer and hopefully Laurence Anyways tonight.
 
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