Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| September 2015
- Thread starter Charles Foster Kane
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Cipher Peon
Banned
Rewatched Mad Max: Fury Road last night with a bunch of friends at a screening.
Even though all of my criticisms of it haven't budged an inch (not enough surface level story, uninteresting villain, unappealing main setting, etc), I enjoyed it moderately more the second time I saw it more than the first time. I allowed myself to get into it more, yelling and cheering and making snarky comments to my friends and making the hand gestures that the War Boys do. So it was a more involving time. Shame about the audience, though. They were clearly way more into last week's screening of Jurassic World.
Anyway, while my quick (and admittingly unfair) pitch of "gorgeously shot action scene stretched for 2 hours that isn't quite for me" still holds true, at least I still had a good time watching it. Nowhere near the best action movie I've seen, but it's still damn good with a lot of subtext and excellent world building to admire but not be able for me to personally get engrossed in.
8/10
Even though all of my criticisms of it haven't budged an inch (not enough surface level story, uninteresting villain, unappealing main setting, etc), I enjoyed it moderately more the second time I saw it more than the first time. I allowed myself to get into it more, yelling and cheering and making snarky comments to my friends and making the hand gestures that the War Boys do. So it was a more involving time. Shame about the audience, though. They were clearly way more into last week's screening of Jurassic World.
Anyway, while my quick (and admittingly unfair) pitch of "gorgeously shot action scene stretched for 2 hours that isn't quite for me" still holds true, at least I still had a good time watching it. Nowhere near the best action movie I've seen, but it's still damn good with a lot of subtext and excellent world building to admire but not be able for me to personally get engrossed in.
8/10
All downhill for Ti West after that... I had so much hope for him.
we already did the Innkeepers debate (it's great karasu, watch it) days ago so nothing to say there but "all downhill" makes it sound like he burst onto the scene with a good movie then made a mess of bad movies. when the reality is he'd already made a handful of mediocre to bad movies, then he made the one you find great, and then made two you dislike before completely switching genres for his upcoming movie. given that established reputation for wavering quality, feels like giving him "lost cause" status is hyperbolic
UberTag
Member
Sicario is a movie that deliberately keeps its audience in the dark about agendas and constantly off-kilter as we're thrust alongside Emily Blunt's Kate Macer into the heart of the Mexican drug war. She serves as the ethical and moral heart of the film as she actively challenges the events she's faced with at every opportunity. It's easily the best performance I've seen out of her (bearing in mind that I have yet to see The Devil Wears Prada or Gideon's Daughter).
The rest of the performances in this ensemble range from decent to serviceable. Del Toro rarely disappoints and Walking Dead buffs will get to see memorable stints from both Jon Bernthal (Shane) and Maximiliano Hernández (Bob the Cop... not to be confused with Bob the Human Kebab aka D'Angelo Barksdale).
I would have just liked to have seen this story go some place unconventional and to challenge characters outside of Blunt's Kate to develop in a meaningful way. The opening is a humdinger so look forward to that. Some gorgeous cinematography out of Roger Deakins, too... this guy has been nominated for 12 Oscars (Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, Prisoners, Fargo, etc.) and has yet to win a single one... that pisses me off. (7.5/10)
The rest of the performances in this ensemble range from decent to serviceable. Del Toro rarely disappoints and Walking Dead buffs will get to see memorable stints from both Jon Bernthal (Shane) and Maximiliano Hernández (Bob the Cop... not to be confused with Bob the Human Kebab aka D'Angelo Barksdale).
I would have just liked to have seen this story go some place unconventional and to challenge characters outside of Blunt's Kate to develop in a meaningful way. The opening is a humdinger so look forward to that. Some gorgeous cinematography out of Roger Deakins, too... this guy has been nominated for 12 Oscars (Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, Prisoners, Fargo, etc.) and has yet to win a single one... that pisses me off. (7.5/10)
lazybones18
Banned
Zardoz
Shit was so dull and stupid it nearly put me to sleep
Shit was so dull and stupid it nearly put me to sleep
Frankie Muniz was also surprising in this.
Fancy Clown
Member
Pi. It's interesting to see Aranofsky's style start to develop in this eerie, low budget thriller. It didn't work for me nearly as well as its two obvious inspiration points (Eraserhead + Repulsion) but it does a good job of building up a paranoid, surreal atomosphere all the same.
Cipher Peon
Banned
I looooooooved House of the Devil. The slow burn part was great. However, I didn't like the sudden hard turn to be Rosemary's Baby at the very end. I thought the movie was doing fine until the climax and then I kind of lost interest when it became "been there done that". Still really awesome and a big thumbs up from yours truly!
I liked The Sacrament a lot more than I expected and Second Honeymoon was very solid (not to mention it has the most gruesome throat slashing scene in horror history). I like Ti West, but James Wan's career will be the one I religiously follow.All downhill for Ti West after that... I had so much hope for him.
Watched a free redbox Jupiter Ascending last night. It was...terrible.
It's like they gave the bullet points of the story to the oblivious actors and the Effects studio and just filmed those components with loose improv and editing techniques to serve as transitions. The Wachowski's are ideas people. They seriously need help grounding and polishing a story. I did enjoy Sense8, but even that was pretty rough around the edges and only saved by a few good actors.
It's like they gave the bullet points of the story to the oblivious actors and the Effects studio and just filmed those components with loose improv and editing techniques to serve as transitions. The Wachowski's are ideas people. They seriously need help grounding and polishing a story. I did enjoy Sense8, but even that was pretty rough around the edges and only saved by a few good actors.
Heaven Can Wait
What a goofy crowdpleasing turn for Warren Beatty. A surprisingly funny movie, almost like Beatty doing his take on Monty Python, which was a little awkward to grasp at first but once you roll with it the movie becomes really entertaining.
Much Ado About Nothing (2013)
I struggled at first because this is one of the handful of Shakespeare plays I've neither read nor know anything about, so it took a bit to piece together who was who and how they're all connected. I also have a thing about doing Shakespeare in modern settings, but that may be just be a kneejerk to Baz Luhrman's Romero and Juliet which I didn't care for at all. But as I got into this more I ended up liking it. Some nice editing. I also kinda really dug Whedon's music for Sigh No More.
What a goofy crowdpleasing turn for Warren Beatty. A surprisingly funny movie, almost like Beatty doing his take on Monty Python, which was a little awkward to grasp at first but once you roll with it the movie becomes really entertaining.
Much Ado About Nothing (2013)
I struggled at first because this is one of the handful of Shakespeare plays I've neither read nor know anything about, so it took a bit to piece together who was who and how they're all connected. I also have a thing about doing Shakespeare in modern settings, but that may be just be a kneejerk to Baz Luhrman's Romero and Juliet which I didn't care for at all. But as I got into this more I ended up liking it. Some nice editing. I also kinda really dug Whedon's music for Sigh No More.
Secret Fawful
Member
Please tell me you're watching the extended editions.
Discotheque
Banned
you're shitting me with this right? is he in this movie?
You know, I could spend a lot of time talking about how great Sherlock, Jr. was (and it is), but my mind is still reeling from how bad Cobra is. So much of it feels like a hodgepodge of really bad ideas that have no business being together that it gets rather watchable quality to it, but only in the car accident kind of way.
Yes, it's a joke about David Bennet being Frankie Muniz's clone in Legend, but the 80's one.
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) - I've seen it before but I was looking for something short and funny to watch, it's still funny like I remember but it completely wears out it's welcome by the hour mark. I like observational humor but this just hits you on the head with it by the end.
The Mouse That Roared (1959) - Charming film but very unremarkable. Holy hell the actress that played the scientist daughter was a dreadful actress.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) - Often horror movie sequels are a retread of the original, this one definitely isn't, a wholly original movie and nice play on the genre.
I'm going to need a sequel to this and Hansel & Gretel stat.
The Mouse That Roared (1959) - Charming film but very unremarkable. Holy hell the actress that played the scientist daughter was a dreadful actress.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) - Often horror movie sequels are a retread of the original, this one definitely isn't, a wholly original movie and nice play on the genre.
The end battle sequences between the two zombie armies is the most absurd thing I've seen in movie in quite sometime, and one of the most entertaining, highly ridiculous and funny. The sex scene at the end was even nutter, so did zombie Hanna murder Martin in the car or does he just really loudly have sex?
True Savior
Member
La Isla Mínima - A Spanish crime-detective/thriller about the abduction and homicide of two girls in a village with very characteristic swaps. The nature is beautifully represented , always wide , sometimes with some gorgeous aerial photographies. The intrigue itself is kinda simple , and the usual "things are not exactly what they seem in this serene environment". The story occurs in a post-Franco era , where Democracy has been established , which allows to some exploration about the past of different characters and their lives in a new context.
For fans of detective stories with eerie ambiance , its recommended. Sadly most of the characters are just as dull as it gets. Especially one of the protagonists.
Science ! The main project actually started by a theoretical physicist will to make a movie tackling some of these concepts
Touch of Evil and The Lady from Shanghai are great. Even The Stranger, which is prolly his least regarded film, is still a good time. It's a shame so many of his movies got mangled by the studios. I still need to see Ambersons because somebody thought it'd be a great idea to treat it like a special feature for the Amazon exclusive Citizen Kane collector's edition and not give it the full blown release it deserves. Even now Welles is still getting treated like garbage.
Fancy Clown
Member
Love and Death. This is the first early Woody movie I've seen, and the only one of his I've enjoyed besides Match Point. This was really funny stuff though, a solid send up of Russian literature, although you certainly don't need to be familiar to find it funny (but it helps). I should give his classics a shot, I've always avoided them because of the Woody I have seen.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
some time ago i bought a woody allen dvd box that had 20 films of his, starting from bananas. there are some low points, which is inevitable when you average a movie per year, but overall it is brilliant stuff.
Elitist1945
Member
In the past two days:
Oblivion: 9/10 - I love sci-fi movies (and Tom Cruise), and the acting, visuals, soundtrack and most of the story where excellent. Went a little downhill in the second half, but damn beautiful film nonetheless.
Collateral: 8/10 - Watched because of Tom Cruise, even though I'm not the biggest fan of crime thrillers. Like Oblivion, the acting was very good (even from Foxx).
Oblivion: 9/10 - I love sci-fi movies (and Tom Cruise), and the acting, visuals, soundtrack and most of the story where excellent. Went a little downhill in the second half, but damn beautiful film nonetheless.
Collateral: 8/10 - Watched because of Tom Cruise, even though I'm not the biggest fan of crime thrillers. Like Oblivion, the acting was very good (even from Foxx).
Getting Any?
I only watched this for the first time last week, but was with some friends and wanted to show them. It's so stupid I love it. MAMBO!
Zatoichi
Had a film night with people from my class and my teacher. I've seen it a few times before and I really love it. The sfx aren't great with the swords and blood but whatever. I absolutely love the way the film looks and the music fits the film so perfectly. Also one of my favourite movie endings, so satisfying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op0b7AyaQn0
Avengers: Age of Ultron
I find it funny how people eat this shit up. I have gone off these superhero / comic book movies over the last few years because of how cheesy, bland and lazy they are. This had some super cheesy lines, oddly bad sfx and overall lazily made in places. I enjoyed it somewhat I guess, these movies just aren't really for me anymore. But for some people these are literally the greatest thing ever, when I find them pretty forgettable.
I only watched this for the first time last week, but was with some friends and wanted to show them. It's so stupid I love it. MAMBO!
Zatoichi
Had a film night with people from my class and my teacher. I've seen it a few times before and I really love it. The sfx aren't great with the swords and blood but whatever. I absolutely love the way the film looks and the music fits the film so perfectly. Also one of my favourite movie endings, so satisfying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op0b7AyaQn0
Avengers: Age of Ultron
I find it funny how people eat this shit up. I have gone off these superhero / comic book movies over the last few years because of how cheesy, bland and lazy they are. This had some super cheesy lines, oddly bad sfx and overall lazily made in places. I enjoyed it somewhat I guess, these movies just aren't really for me anymore. But for some people these are literally the greatest thing ever, when I find them pretty forgettable.
Rhomega Beta
Member
The Red Baron: I need to give some background first. This is an animated movie made in 1972 by Rankin/Bass Studios for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, which aired from 1972-1973, which was an hour-long TV program featuring movies made specifcally for this show. Movies from Hanna-Barbera and Filmation were also featured. The Red Baron itself features anthropomorphic dogs (and a cat who acts like Muttley, which raises questions about their society). I saw this as a kid because we had a VHS tape, but wanting to add it to my Letterboxd list, I find it's not listed. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry listed either. IMDB has an entry, but it doesn't have enough votes (including mine) to create an average rating. This makes The Red Baron possibly the most obscure movie I've ever seen.
The overlying theme here is World War I. After all, this does feature the Red Baron, biplanes, Mata Hari, and references to war fronts and trenches, but that's where the references end. The plot starts as a "kidnapped princess" plot that is actually a Romeo and Juliet plot, except Prince Heinrich's father approves of the eloping. Meanwhile, the Red Baron himself is a noble but oblivious idiot who blunders his way to victory flying an airplane that runs like your grandpa's jalopy. After accidentally creating a smokescreen that crashes Prince Heinrich's plan, the King of Weinerburg sends out Mata Hari to find out the Baron's secret weapon.
This movie is...strange. There seems to be only 2 songs to use throughout this whole movie. Princess Sophie almost always has a smile on her face, even when she's scared. Mata Hari goes from antagonizing and interrogating the Red Baron to falling madly in love with him because...he stands up straight? The biplanes have no weapons, so combat turns into a slapstick-y collision-fest. Don't even ask me how Mata Hari's zeppelin works. Oh, and there's a wind-up robot that's indistinguishable from a real woman...in the 1910s.
If you want to check this out, it's on YouTube.
The overlying theme here is World War I. After all, this does feature the Red Baron, biplanes, Mata Hari, and references to war fronts and trenches, but that's where the references end. The plot starts as a "kidnapped princess" plot that is actually a Romeo and Juliet plot, except Prince Heinrich's father approves of the eloping. Meanwhile, the Red Baron himself is a noble but oblivious idiot who blunders his way to victory flying an airplane that runs like your grandpa's jalopy. After accidentally creating a smokescreen that crashes Prince Heinrich's plan, the King of Weinerburg sends out Mata Hari to find out the Baron's secret weapon.
This movie is...strange. There seems to be only 2 songs to use throughout this whole movie. Princess Sophie almost always has a smile on her face, even when she's scared. Mata Hari goes from antagonizing and interrogating the Red Baron to falling madly in love with him because...he stands up straight? The biplanes have no weapons, so combat turns into a slapstick-y collision-fest. Don't even ask me how Mata Hari's zeppelin works. Oh, and there's a wind-up robot that's indistinguishable from a real woman...in the 1910s.
If you want to check this out, it's on YouTube.
BaronLundi
Member
Messofanego
Banned
Dead Snow was great, didn't even know there was a sequel and that it was good!
Infernostew
Member
New Every Frame of Painting... really good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojm74VGsZBU&list=PL2w4TvBbdQ3sMABf317ExCob_v6rW2-4s&index=22
Fancy Clown
Member
i think his videos are mostly fine, but taking on this topic (and missing the joke of the title) shows how large the distance between him and thom andersen and others really is
Cipher Peon
Banned
I thought Age of Ultron was a sloppy mess for a lot of the reasons you've explained and a lot more, and I left the theater pretty grounded when I left it (liked it better than Ant-Man, though).
That being said, I'll eat that shit up as long as it comes. I'll gladly consume every mediocre superhero movie as long as they come. I'm happy to be part of the problem and directly funding it by going to see them in theaters. The amount of pure love I have of discussing, thinking, speculating over the future of, and sharing excitement of these movies with others is astronomical. Even if a lot of the genre doesn't light my fire.
I actually don't like a lot of Woody's "earlier funny" stuff -- a lot of it just falls flat for me -- but Love and Death is really excellent and legit hilarious. Definitely up there as one of my favorites of his.
It impressed me a lot, maybe because I didn't exactly love the first one, it's a very wild movie. I was disappointed that the version I saw was completely in English though, they filmed some of it twice in the native language and English, there is some American characters in the movie so I'm guessing the Norwegian version isn't completely in Norwegian anyway, but still it's a little jarring. The English accent of the characters do seem to add some humor to most of the scenes I will say, so it's not all bad.
Cipher Peon
Banned
Just saw Sleepy Hollow (1999).
This was my first exposure to the story of Sleepy Hollow and man, I am happy to have seen this.
Something I really love about Tim Burton (this being my 5th Tim Burton directed film I've seen) is his aesthetic and the way he views the world. It's a kind of gothic reality that's fantastical in all of the right ways. Makes me want the real reality to be the same one that Tim Burton sees it. The film has a surreal spookiness to the setting which is swimming with wonderful fog, fun scarecrows, lonely architecture, people who look half dead, etc brings an awesome vision. Which is exactly the way I try to style my life like!
The cinematography was completely on point, too. Really helped me get lost in the world. How gorgeous the film can be at times really emphasizes the parts of the film that don't look as awesome. The movie really nailed the fantasy bits, like The Tree of the Dead, the Headless Horseman, the witch, etc, but the film struggled to make human interactions visually interesting. My eyes glazed over when a room full of people got together to talk in static scenes and at times I got bored enough to play Super Mario 3D Land (which says a lot considering how much I do not like 3D Land). Not to mention that the visual effects are super dated and just plain awful. Besides about half of the CGI for the final transformation, I thought almost all of it was hideous. I should have expected it from a film from 1999, but it stood out to me when the film clearly showed how pretty it can be.
That being said, almost everything I said was about the visuals of the film when there's a perfectly cool story here to talk about. To be fair, seeing my aesthetic on screen is a visual treat for me. Anyway, I thought the story was inconsistently paced but intriguing enough throughout for me to not completely lose interest! I really didn't care about Ichanod's backstory and the conspiracy plot, while engaging, had a lot lost due to the inability for the cinematography to make it visually interesting. I felt as if long stretches of the movie were stagnant and I was impatient and wanted to see it accelerate, or at least improve on its weaker elements. That being said, the church scene and the final act were absolutely incredible and I loved every beat of it. The film's payoff was incredible and while I didn't think the movie needed a huge action setpiece send off, it was handled with a lot of energy that had me hooked.
So overall I really liked the movie. Wish the boring stretches were replaced with more atmosphere and world building, but I'm happy with the end result. Good movie!
7/10
Ranking of Tim Burton movies I've seen:
Batman Returns
The Corpse Bride
Batman
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
This was my first exposure to the story of Sleepy Hollow and man, I am happy to have seen this.
Something I really love about Tim Burton (this being my 5th Tim Burton directed film I've seen) is his aesthetic and the way he views the world. It's a kind of gothic reality that's fantastical in all of the right ways. Makes me want the real reality to be the same one that Tim Burton sees it. The film has a surreal spookiness to the setting which is swimming with wonderful fog, fun scarecrows, lonely architecture, people who look half dead, etc brings an awesome vision. Which is exactly the way I try to style my life like!
The cinematography was completely on point, too. Really helped me get lost in the world. How gorgeous the film can be at times really emphasizes the parts of the film that don't look as awesome. The movie really nailed the fantasy bits, like The Tree of the Dead, the Headless Horseman, the witch, etc, but the film struggled to make human interactions visually interesting. My eyes glazed over when a room full of people got together to talk in static scenes and at times I got bored enough to play Super Mario 3D Land (which says a lot considering how much I do not like 3D Land). Not to mention that the visual effects are super dated and just plain awful. Besides about half of the CGI for the final transformation, I thought almost all of it was hideous. I should have expected it from a film from 1999, but it stood out to me when the film clearly showed how pretty it can be.
That being said, almost everything I said was about the visuals of the film when there's a perfectly cool story here to talk about. To be fair, seeing my aesthetic on screen is a visual treat for me. Anyway, I thought the story was inconsistently paced but intriguing enough throughout for me to not completely lose interest! I really didn't care about Ichanod's backstory and the conspiracy plot, while engaging, had a lot lost due to the inability for the cinematography to make it visually interesting. I felt as if long stretches of the movie were stagnant and I was impatient and wanted to see it accelerate, or at least improve on its weaker elements. That being said, the church scene and the final act were absolutely incredible and I loved every beat of it. The film's payoff was incredible and while I didn't think the movie needed a huge action setpiece send off, it was handled with a lot of energy that had me hooked.
So overall I really liked the movie. Wish the boring stretches were replaced with more atmosphere and world building, but I'm happy with the end result. Good movie!
7/10
Ranking of Tim Burton movies I've seen:
Batman Returns
The Corpse Bride
Batman
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fancy Clown
Member
From what I remember it's because it was terrible, but I haven't seen it since it was in theaters.
Fancy Clown
Member
This has nothing to do with Interstellar whatsoever but watch The Conversation.
I wasn't, but I received a recommendation to do that and did that today. Thought the EE was much more enjoyable.
Cipher Peon
Banned
I saw it as a kid and thought it was boring. I then read the book and found it equally as boring, so I guess nothing much was lost. Thought Matilda was Roald Dahl's superior work and that movie was great (even though the ending was massively changed and kind of misses the point of her arc).
REALLY looking forward to The BFG. I loved that book as a kid and Spielberg is directing? Music to my ears.
well i feel like it's one of those cases in which Gaf's consensus clashes with my own like a freight train propelled by a dozen sidewinders onto a mountain made of diamonds. I liked it a lot and way more than the dreadful Wilder one. Book is still aces, though
Rhomega Beta
Member
I don't hate it, but aside from set design and Willy Wonka's backstory, it's just inferior to the Gene Wilder version in every way.
Fancy Clown
Member
GOOD DAY SIR
If you like every frame a painting, I'd highly recommend cinefix's the art of the scene series and their cinefix high playlist. I made a thread about one of their series yesterday but no one else posted...
Looking for more like Interstellar or just anything good? If the former, Nolan's remake of Insomnia is on IW, and it's underrated in his filmography. Following is up too, but that's...pretty fairly rated in its lack of esteem. In terms of similar genre, Snowpiercer's a nice slice of Gilliam-esque sci-fi. eXistenZ is a sci-fi/thriller headtrip.
If the latter: It's Such a Beautiful day is a stellar piece of animated black comedy. Scarlet Street and Sunset Blvd. are brilliant canonical noirs. The Killer is Woo at the top of his game. Oslo, August 31st is a contemplative drama about depression and addiction and one of the best movies of the decade so far. There are a bunch of classic Errol Morris docs. Children of Heaven is a crowd-pleasing Iranian tearjerker about young siblings. Most of Leos Carax's playful imaginative french new wave- and silent film-indebted movies are up there, Mauvais sang being the best. Show Me Love is a funny and touching teen romantic drama from Sweden. Wachowski's Bound, Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, early Alexander Payne films like Citizen Ruth. zany comedies: Hot Rod, Blues Brothers, Zoolander, The Naked Gun, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Wet Hot American Summer.
There's a lot on netflix, depending on what your blindspots are. It's just dishearteningly focused on the last 10 years.
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