The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[Holmes]

The Greatest

Film: 4/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Special Features: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5



The Greatest is not the greatest film ever made. It is, however, an interesting film with strong performances. The film begins with the death of Bennett Brewer (Kick-Ass' Aaron Johnson), a popular high school senior with a bright future. The film chronicles the grief of the people who loved Bennett. His mother, Grace (Susan Sarandon), has withdrawn from her husband, Allen (Pierce Brosnan), and other son, drug-abusing Ryan (Evan Almighty's Johnny Simmons). She is distraught and furious, and does not hide her turbulent emotions. Allen, however, has imprisoned his grief inside. He insists on remaining calm and strong, much to Grace's chagrin. Into this troubled home comes Rose (An Education's Carey Mulligan), who was with Bennett the night he died (before its tragic end, the romantic evening was "the greatest" night of her life). She reveals she is pregnant with their late son's child. Allen welcomes her with open arms and seems to find comfort in her presence, but Grace distrusts and perhap even resents her. The introduction of Rose seems to represent a turning point, an ultimatum, for the Brewers: come together as a loving unit and persevere, or continue to spiral into despair.

This is writer/director Shana Feste's first film. It is a promising debut. It is an earnest, introspective, and often quiet film and the most important element is the cast. And it is a fine cast! Though his third-act tears ring false, Brosnan is excellent overall. This is a compassionate and subtle performance. Mulligan is astounding. Her character is a bit contrived and underdeveloped, but I just noticed this in retrospect. This is how poignant and honest Mulligan's performance is, how convincing her interpretation of this character is. When she, in a quiet scene with Brosnan, reveals she believes Bennett was the love of her life, it is a heartstring-obliterating moment. Sarandon does not shine as much as Brosnan or Mulligan. She tries her best, it's a performance overflowing with larger-than-life emotions and nuances, but the script does her no favors. Scenes centered on her character tend to unfold as absurd, at times even grating distractions from the heart of the film, which is the dynamic between Brosnan and Mulligan, and their respective characters' arcs. Sarandon's performance also, to be honest, feels familiar. She has given it before: Moonlight Mile, Elizabethtown, In the Valley of Elah, etc.

As for the BD release, it's fine. Not a revelation (this was, it's clear, a low-budget production), but well-done overall. The video is clear, crisp, and detailed. A demo disc? Of course not, but it does the job it is intended to. The audio is fine, but I have minor reservations. At times I found the dialogue almost too soft and too low in the mix. Not a major issue, though, and the dialogue is otherwise clear. And the music (the original score and the several acoustic, lovelorn pop songs which play throughout) sounds warm and full.

The bonus features: six non-essential, but worth-watching deleted scenes, and a handful of brief interviews, including with Pierce Brosnan and Carey Mulligan. Topics covered in the interviews include: what drew the actors to the script, performing complicated, emotional scenes while maintaining an American accent, etc.

See it for the ace performances (Brosnan and Mulligan in particular) and see it because it's a decent, promising debut by a writer/director who may one day be very celebrated. People new to the film and established fans should both be pleased by the fine A/V presentation and the slim, but mostly worthy supplements.

[lDlisturb3d]

Originally Posted by Freekman

The Bourne Ultimatum
Film - 5/5
PQ - 5/5
AQ - 4.5/5

This is my favorite of all the 3

Originally Posted by Marcus Wright

Kung Fu Panda

Movie -10/10 Its best Dreamworks movie IMO. The 3rd one on my all time favorite animation list after Ratatouille and Wall-e.

PQ - 10/10 That simple.

AQ - 10/10 It had one of the best surround soundtrack usage I have ever heard.

Overall 10/10.

P.S. I may sound crazy but KFP is one of the most underrated animations IMO.

Agreed Kung Fu Panda is a real treat and in addition the BD is 100% reference

[Holmes]

I've always thought Supremacy was a bit superior to Ultimatum. Both are, of course, awesome, super-exciting, super-tight chase thrillers, but Supremacy has a bit more...atmosphere. And a bit more poignance (the fate of Bourne's girlfriend, his interaction with the daughter of the Russian couple he assassinated).

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

Like I said before, there's no definitive explanation for the film--even the director says so. Holmes has one interpretation, which is completely legitimate, I have another.

[Show spoiler]I believe that the lead guy met the woman last year at Marienbad, while she was with her significant other--the creepy guy. They had an affair, he caught them, then he killed the lead guy but it was never proven. The lead guy is a ghost and has been waiting to see her again. She has forced his death out of her mind, the way many trauma victims attempt to do. He tries to convince her that they did indeed meet and fall in love last year. The last few scenes of the film, imo, show that he was a ghost and that he is to wander the halls of that hotel/chateau for eternity, just hoping she will come back and he can spend time with her. In a way, it's like a mini-loop! This isn't hell like in Triangle, but still. I like this interpretation and I'm gonna stick with it (since there is no correct interpretation) because I think it's at once tragic and very romantic.

bravo!!!

now this is what I call vintage! I may be stealing your interpretation! excellent! I remember reading on the back of the film cover

[Show spoiler] that the film may be a dream, a reality "or even a ghost story", and always wondered "how does the ghost story work?". i even googled marienbad + ghost and couldn't find anything.

. can't wait to watch this again now! I watched it a few weeks ago and loved it beyond belief, and that was before this theory

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

Playtime (blu) (Criterion)


PQ: 4.5 (out of 5)

AQ: 3.5 (out of 5)

Film: 3 1/2 stars (out of 4)


There aren't too many films that are truly unique, but this one is. This is an absolutely genius film, and the attention to detail is extraordinary. I cannot recommend it enough. Thanks goes out to surfdude for the high recommendation.

glad you liked it. how insane was this 70mm PQ?? You could tell Tati bankrupted himself with this film. A true masterpiece in that sense = bankrupted the director + coldly received at first. Sounds like Coppola doing Apocalypse now (on the financial end).

how great was the

[Show spoiler]4 window apartment scene? i LOOOOOVED how the left the camera outside, so we could watch and hear cars driving by, while watching human beings living in an effective mini-mouse cages, with genius camera work of giving them the appearance of interacting through walls but alas, having no interaction = structural barriers = social barriers

like you said, no other film like it!

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

bravo!!!

now this is what I call vintage! I may be stealing your interpretation! excellent! I remember reading on the back of the film cover

[Show spoiler] that the film may be a dream, a reality "or even a ghost story", and always wondered "how does the ghost story work?". i even googled marienbad + ghost and couldn't find anything.

. can't wait to watch this again now! I watched it a few weeks ago and loved it beyond belief, and that was before this theory

It's weird--I've only seen the film once. The last 5 minutes is where the ghost story clicked in (I didn't read the back) for me. Then I thought about it and it made sense, but not in the way Triangle or the Fountain make sense. Those films have things that are definitive, based on scenes and details. Marienbad has nothing definitive and I didn't deconstruct it to arrive at the explanation--it's simply how the story appealed the most to me. Considering I came up with a theory, I really need to see it again to see if it holds water. My inkling is that some of it will and some of it won't, since it's universally considered to have no true answer. Let me know if you re-watch it.

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

bravo!!!

now this is what I call vintage! I may be stealing your interpretation! excellent! I remember reading on the back of the film cover

[Show spoiler] that the film may be a dream, a reality "or even a ghost story", and always wondered "how does the ghost story work?". i even googled marienbad + ghost and couldn't find anything.

. can't wait to watch this again now! I watched it a few weeks ago and loved it beyond belief, and that was before this theory

See, the can't kick me off this site--I'm too good at making stuff up

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

glad you liked it. how insane was this 70mm PQ?? You could tell Tati bankrupted himself with this film. A true masterpiece in that sense = bankrupted the director + coldly received at first. Sounds like Coppola doing Apocalypse now (on the financial end).

how great was the

[Show spoiler]4 window apartment scene? i LOOOOOVED how the left the camera outside, so we could watch and hear cars driving by, while watching human beings living in an effective mini-mouse cages, with genius camera work of giving them the appearance of interacting through walls but alas, having no interaction = structural barriers = social barriers

like you said, no other film like it!

I seriously thought all day about the film, trying to pick out my favorite scenes. There are way too many good ones, but two come to mind:

[Show spoiler]I love the waiter who is asked "Did you go to catering school?" he then looks in the mirror, fixes himself up, then goes out on the restaurant floor. The next 20 min, everytime you see him he's smooching his lips, winking, or doing other funny things. My other favorite scene is probably the broken glass door scene, where the hotel guy pretends it's there and holds the knob out. So funny. On the same note, when the ceiling collapses due to Hulot, the drunk guy uses the wooden jungle gym that used to be holding the flowers, as a door. You see him letting guests go by by opening it! (sorry, bad explanation)

Also love at the end when he buys the scarf but has to go through the theme park like metal thing, and there's the trinket next to him on the shelf with the tubes sticking out that does the same thing.

[iam1bearcat]

Deep Impact (my first blu from netflix! )

FIRST TIME VIEWING

someone once told me, "yeah, Deep Impact is a lot like Armageddon, it's weird". that person is an idiot. Deep Impact - main story wise - is EXACTLY like Armageddon! i was baffled and literally laughed in shock at how the story is the same:

[Show spoiler]asteroid headed towards Earth, solution is to send a team to the giant rock and blow it up from inside so it breaks apart and misses Earth

but here's the main difference:

Deep Impact = great film
Armageddon = popcorn flick

now, i love Armageddon, but Deep Impact, major plot idea aside, is a different animal completely. Deep Impact is smarter, more family oriented, and overall much more moving than Armageddon ever could be. i can't quite place why this is, but where Michael Bay obsessed with explosions, humor and a rag tag group of oil dwellers, Deep Impact shifts its focus to a more natural, human element. now both films are great for entirely different reasons, so i'm not knocking Armageddon but here we meet more characters, we may not see them as much, but i felt i connected more with them. hell, the "goodbye" scenes almost had me tear up, and i was like, "what the hell? i've seen this character for 40 minutes, why do i care so much?" - because it's a good film. few films makes me care as much as i did here, and i really never felt like i knew these people. amazing how that works.

the science aspect of the film - if there are any "oh come on that could never happen!" (i'm sure there are a few) - didn't bother me at all. i came to watch a fun, science fiction / end of the world disaster flick. and Deep Impact exceeds GREATLY. a varied and very well known cast, only one or two cheesy bad acting performances, a solid / smart script, and freaking Morgan Freeman as the President! what's not to love?!

4.5/5

[Chaotic]

Amusment WTF/10

The dying rat grossed me out

[tbizzle]

The Edge - 5/5

One of my favorites. I usually post my ratings of films that I love, but I hadn't seen it in a long time. Looks and sounds great on blu!

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

[Show spoiler]Also love at the end when he buys the scarf but has to go through the theme park like metal thing, and there's the trinket next to him on the shelf with the tubes sticking out that does the same thing.

That parta kinda ticked me off...

[Show spoiler]the guy already bought something, LET HIM THROUGH!!!

It's sad and funny though, because I could see it happening in real life.

Still quite a humorous film (

[Show spoiler]the glass door gag was funny. Heck, I thought the entire club scene was funny

). Glad you liked it!

[BladeRunner2007]

Lucky You 1.5/5

[Foggy]

Gonna watch The Dark Knight after to get prepared for Inception

[Monkey_Boy]

"District 9"

This was a movie I avoided for a loooooong while. I'd read the reviews, and knew they were generally favorable. The thing that threw me off was the constant comparison to what's happening in South Africa and the film's commentary on it. I figured I'd already seen (and own) "Tears from the Sun" & "Lord of War", there was no need to watch it with aliens (even if I did think the creature designs were awesome and a half). Well, I finally found it for relatively cheap on BD and figured I'd check it out, if only for the AWESOME picture and sound that only Blu-ray can offer.

I get home and pop this sucker into my player and I'm transported to a fully realized present day where aliens live among us. The way they acted and the human reactions seemed completely authentic. (Well, the military guys seemed to be as ridiculously evil as the ones in "Avatar" which put me off just a bit. Isn't it possible to have soldiers "just doing their job" without coming off like sadistic @ssholes?) I've read that the director (whose last job was directing Nike commercials and such) did a previous project similar to this movie where he interviewed actual locals about the "unwanted" (in this case other humans) in their community, and then edited it to make it seem as if they were talking about aliens. I was wary of the movie being presented as a documentary at first, because of movies like "Cloverfield", that actually made me feel as if I was gonna hurl like a mug! However, this is filmed like an actual documentary, and when was the last time anyone's seen a vomit-inducing shaky-cam during National Geographic? In truth, it only starts out in a doc-style, then once the plot kicks in, we enter the "movie". As I mentioned befoe, the aliens look fantastic. Completely fully realized, photo real CG characters. I know alotta folks are jaded these days concerning CGI, but I am one that is still impressed whenever they can pull off something this...uh... impressive.

The plot is one I didn't expect at all. Thirty years after the aliens massive ship showed up over South Africa, filled to the brim with starving malnourished and "Prawns", we follow a government worker, with the unfortunate name of Wikus Van De Merwe, who's been elected to head a massive eviction of every District 9 resident to another location some 400 kilometers away from humans. (I'm sure we all know this isn't going to go well.) We watch as he confronts a few residents who hilariously punk the crap outta him. We see this "nice guy" abort the eggs in a makeshift nursery like it's no big deal. Then we watch as he inspects a shack, and gets sprayed in the face with a black fluid that we had seen a few Prawns collecting earlier. This is where this poor guy's life goes waaaaay down hill. (I think it was in a featurette that the actor says he felt like he was in a Mel Gibson movie with as tortured as the character is!) The part where the movie kicks in is when he escapes from MNU after they've decided to cut him up for Science. It seems rather stupid to actually discuss all of this with the guy you're about to cut up WITHIN EAR SHOT. I mean, If they had just lied to the guy and said something to the affect of, "We'll see if we can't remove this surigically and get you back to normal.", he woulda probably just went to sleep, never to wake up again and be none the wiser. (Works on me everytime the doctor wants to operate. Even though chances are great I'm comin' out the same, I go under anyway because of that sentence. The power of words!) So, in this case, instead of layin' his head back and letting the gas ease him into dreamland (my favorite part of an operation. That is... if there can be a favorite part of an operation. ), he resists and kicks some arse thanks to his new alien DNA! Now the whole of the government is looking for him along with some Nigerian gangsters who want to eat his arm in order to gain the power to operate alien technology (which is DNA based). This is, in actuality, a ridiculous plan of the Nigerians, but seeing as how cannibals have a similar belief, I can see how they would come to such a conclusion.

In short, this movie exceeded my expectations. Especially when we get to the COMPLETELY SCI-FI ENDING BATTLE ROYALE WITH CHEESE! It ain't no "Star Wars", but man you'll get as pumped as Wikus when that exo-suit comes out to play, nonetheless! (At least I did! I was all, "BAM! Betcha didn't think you'd die by PIG today, didja?! Hope ya weren't Jewish! WHOO!") I'd read a few reviews that actually complained about this, as they do when most movies end with a fight or chase, but I think it made for a great ending. Incredible fimmaking!

B+

(Lost a few points for the chaotic-evil soldiers. Just seems too easy to go there. Especially when they did such a great job with making the Prawns believeable and sympathetic!)

[Steve]

Originally Posted by lDlisturb3d

I totally agree bro. Hey BTW where have you been you ghost!

I'm still around. I've been spending a lot of time reading/researching some other "projects" I'm hoping to get going in the near future, and it's kept me from spending as much time here.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Q!

[Show spoiler]That's not what I meant, he pretended to be insane so he could get the lobotomy, he was cured but could not live with himself considering what he had done and a lobotomy would take care of that.

[Show spoiler]If a person chooses to have a lobotomy, are they in a "right" state of mind?

Just teasing, because I understand exactly what you mean.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Pretty good. That would maybe explain the cinematography choices, especially the very floaty beginning sequence. Christ, i never thought it would end.

I have to admit, staring at door frames and light fixtures for 60 seconds got old for me too.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wright

Kung Fu Panda

Movie -10/10 Its best Dreamworks movie IMO. The 3rd one on my all time favorite animation list after Ratatouille and Wall-e.

PQ - 10/10 That simple.

AQ - 10/10 It had one of the best surround soundtrack usage I have ever heard.

Overall 10/10.

P.S. I may sound crazy but KFP is one of the most underrated animations IMO.

Ya know, when I saw this in the theater I thought it was OK. When I saw it on Blu-ray at home I loved it. For some reason the story just felt ten times better on the second viewing. I agree on the AQ/PQ. The AQ is really standout clarity and mix.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Holmes

I've always thought Supremacy was a bit superior to Ultimatum. Both are, of course, awesome, super-exciting, super-tight chase thrillers, but Supremacy has a bit more...atmosphere. And a bit more poignance

[Show spoiler](the fate of Bourne's girlfriend, his interaction with the daughter of the Russian couple he assassinated

).

Er...uh... Spoiler tags please.