The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[Romulus]

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Nominated for the Academy Award for longest movie title with "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", this is a fascinating documentary.

In my history classes this was barely even mentioned so my knowledge was very little. This documentary does a fantastic job laying everything out for you. I didn't feel an overwhelming bias strangling the movie, which is rare for a political documentary. I don't think there could have been a better way to learn about this in my opinion.

Film: 4/5

A true masterpiece.

[Al_The_Strange]

“Hunger,” another blind-buy from B&N’s Criterion sale.

Whoops, didn’t realize that the director Steve McQueen is not the Steve McQueen that I initially thought of (Bullit!!!), but is actually a different person. Not that it affects the viewing experience though….

Regarding the film itself, within the first hour I was wondering if this could be classified as either “Das Experiment” to the extreme, or “Salo” lite. There are parts of this film that are significantly disgusting, brutal, and ugly. I should say there's only a few really bad parts, but they are pretty disturbing regardless.

But at the same time, it has a slow poetic pacing and a lot of strong imagery; I think if a vampire was thrown in the mix, it would resemble “Let the Right One In,” since the two films are stylistically similar. However, some of this seems a bit frivolous (there’s an interview scene that lasts for 20+ minutes with no cut, and a scene where a guard is washing a hallway for 3 whole minutes; some of these scenes could have been trimmed!).

It’s a simple story with some decently developed characters. I’m not sure how much of this is based on real events; I’m willing to bet that the film exaggerates some things. It does present plenty of content to think about regarding religion and politics...but I won’t go there. Acting and writing seem really good; I gotta admire the actor for having lost so much weight for this role, for he was very convincing.

I really loved the ending

[Show spoiler]with the flashback and the shot of the birds fleeing from the tree, juxtapose to the dying main character

. It seemed beautiful in its own way.

4/5 (entertainment: NA, story: 3.5/5, film: 4.5/5, i/e: 4/5)

The Blu-Ray looked and sounded like pure flippin' reference quality to me!

PQ: 5/5, AQ: 5/5

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Waiting it out for a year makes for zero urgency.

So...lets just look for the treasure at a liesurely pace. No sense in hurrying, since there are no consequences for arriving tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Oh, and we are facing ZERO danger, so yeah, we are in a really slow, mellow, peaceful treasure hunt movie. We'll get around to it when we get around to it. Maybe we'll take a nap first though, since there is no reason to act briskly. After the nap, we'll stop for lunch, because, you know, the treasure has been hidden for hundreds of years and it aint going anywhere anytime soon. Lets catch a movie after lunch too.

The Treasure HUNT is a RACE because you have an opponent. If you remove the opponent, what happens to the race? It goes bye-bye. If your opponent is a nice guy, who does the audience root for?

Bad Guy = A reason to root for good guy + A reason to race + Creates a sense of Urgency + adds danger + adds action scenes.

Without the villian you have a PBS documentary.

Maybe "National Treasure" should have been made by this Steve McQueen guy who made "Hunger." Long shots, very mellow, with only sudden sporadic bursts of violence.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Waiting it out for a year makes for zero urgency.

So...lets just look for the treasure at a liesurely pace. No sense in hurrying, since there are no consequences for arriving tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Oh, and we are facing ZERO danger, so yeah, we are in a really slow, mellow, peaceful treasure hunt movie. We'll get around to it when we get around to it. Maybe we'll take a nap first though, since there is no reason to act briskly. After the nap, we'll stop for lunch, because, you know, the treasure has been hidden for hundreds of years and it aint going anywhere anytime soon. Lets catch a movie after lunch too.

The Treasure HUNT is a RACE because you have an opponent. If you remove the opponent, what happens to the race? It goes bye-bye. If your opponent is a nice guy, who does the audience root for?

Bad Guy = A reason to root for good guy + A reason to race + Creates a sense of Urgency + adds danger + adds action scenes.

Without the villian you have a PBS documentary.

Plus...Sean Bean and Ed Harris were very good in the movies

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Plus...Sean Bean and Ed Harris were very good in the movies

I love the opening snowbound scenes in the first one. Cool atmosphere. Totally Disneyesque sets.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

“Hunger,” another blind-buy from B&N’s Criterion sale.

There are parts of this film that are significantly disgusting, brutal, and ugly. I should say there's only a few really bad parts, but they are pretty disturbing regardless.

]

I have this in my queue, but have some reservations.

Will you please elaborate (without spoilers if possible) on the nature of the disgusting and brutal scenes. I dont mind brutality and grotesque images as long as they are not gratuitous. Blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore dont work for me. But needed for realism stuff is OK.

Thanks Al

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I have this in my queue, but have some reservations.

Will you please elaborate (without spoilers if possible) on the nature of the disgusting and brutal scenes. I dont mind brutality and grotesque images as long as they are not gratuitous. Blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore dont work for me. But needed for realism stuff is OK.

Thanks Al

Well...there's some blood, but not really a whole lot. There's a few scenes where the guards are very brutally beating and hitting the (nude) prisoners with batons, or bashing them into walls. They do portray body cavity searches briefly. There is quite a bit of full-frontal male nudity throughout, largely due to the "blanket" protest. Many scenes in the beginning show the "no-wash" protest with defecation all over the walls and urine on the floors. Scenes toward the end of the actual hunger strike show the main character is a very skinny, skeletal, rather grotesque state.

I don't consider any of it gratuitous, and I think the film maintained a level of realism overall.

Rent it, and see what you think.

[Al_The_Strange]

“Twin Daggers” on DVD.

I must have OD’ed on the Criterion movies, because now after seeing all these artistic and realistic films of such high quality, “Twin Daggers” feels like some kind of crummy B-movie. Oh wait, it is!

It has an okay story and an okay cast of characters; the film tries to be emotional at times, but I think it falls pretty flat, and the story overall seems uninteresting. Acting is kinda silly, especially with these God-awful fake accents, and some iffy (and at times clichéd) writing. Some of it is rather laughable. Photography is rather plain. Production value is average; some SFX look very fake.

As far as action and excitement go, this film does have a bit of it. There are some neat fight scenes scattered around; the stunt-work is not bad. But, some of it is pretty dumb and exaggerated (I swear, this one lady was spinning in the air for a whole half-a-minute! No way!). There is a certain cheesy vibe to this film, reminding me of a Shaw Bros film or something, but I feel that I’ve seen better.

Meh…

2.5/5 (entertainment: 3/5, story: 2.5/5, film: 2/5)

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Well...there's some blood, but not really a whole lot. There's a few scenes where the guards are very brutally beating and hitting the (nude) prisoners with batons, or bashing them into walls. They do portray body cavity searches briefly. There is quite a bit of full-frontal male nudity throughout, largely due to the "blanket" protest. Many scenes in the beginning show the "no-wash" protest with defecation all over the walls and urine on the floors. Scenes toward the end of the actual hunger strike show the main character is a very skinny, skeletal, rather grotesque state.

I don't consider any of it gratuitous, and I think the film maintained a level of realism overall.

Rent it, and see what you think.

Thanks. Sounds fine.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I have this in my queue, but have some reservations.

Will you please elaborate (without spoilers if possible) on the nature of the disgusting and brutal scenes. I dont mind brutality and grotesque images as long as they are not gratuitous. Blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore dont work for me. But needed for realism stuff is OK.

Thanks Al

you won't mind it. its not brutality/gore for the sake of brutality/gore. i was actually surprised and was expecting much worse.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

“Hunger,” another blind-buy from B&N’s Criterion sale.

But at the same time, it has a slow poetic pacing and a lot of strong imagery; I think if a vampire was thrown in the mix, it would resemble “Let the Right One In,” since the two films are stylistically similar. However, some of this seems a bit frivolous (there’s an interview scene that lasts for 20+ minutes with no cut, and a scene where a guard is washing a hallway for 3 whole minutes; some of these scenes could have been trimmed!).

PQ: 5/5, AQ: 5/5

Great review. I liked it, but didn't love it. Regarding the 20 minute cut scene, I know McQueen and the other actor were roommates during shooting and practiced the scene 10+ times per day, off set, hence why the 20 minute cut scene is flawless. I loved it.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

Great review. I liked it, but didn't love it. Regarding the 20 minute cut scene, I know McQueen and the other actor were roommates during shooting and practiced the scene 10+ times per day, off set, hence why the 20 minute cut scene is flawless. I loved it.

Once I got over the thick accents, I was hooked into that scene. It's great.

I might grow to like the film better in time. We'll see...

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Once I got over the thick accents, I was hooked into that scene. It's great.

I might grow to like the film better in time. We'll see...

haha, yeah they were thick. I grew up there so they weren't an issue. My only issue was

[Show spoiler]most of the film just seemed like any generic prison/prisoner scenario. I think that was intentional: the filmmaker wanted to focus on the prison environment, rather than on the politics. Towards the end (20 minute cut),some politics was discussed, but it wasn't enough to satisfy this Irish man I guess my point is: this could have been Guantanamu or any similar prison, up until the few scenes were politics was discussed. I know this was intentional, but I was (perhaps wrongly) looking for more of a political perspective on what they were doing

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

haha, yeah they were thick. I grew up there so they weren't an issue. My only issue was

[Show spoiler]most of the film just seemed like any generic prison/prisoner scenario. I think that was intentional: the filmmaker wanted to focus on the prison environment, rather than on the politics. Towards the end (20 minute cut),some politics was discussed, but it wasn't enough to satisfy this Irish man I guess my point is: this could have been Guantanamu or any similar prison, up until the few scenes were politics was discussed. I know this was intentional, but I was (perhaps wrongly) looking for more of a political perspective on what they were doing

I can understand that. It could either be a generic prison movie with a few blatant political statements, or a specific political film with not enough political statements.

The way I see it, the story was inherently political, since

[Show spoiler]I believe that the guards and the way they treated their prisoners could be a representation of the conflict between England and the IRA

. But from what I understand, the film is indeed meant to take no side specifically.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Waiting it out for a year makes for zero urgency.

So...lets just look for the treasure at a liesurely pace. No sense in hurrying, since there are no consequences for arriving tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Oh, and we are facing ZERO danger, so yeah, we are in a really slow, mellow, peaceful treasure hunt movie. We'll get around to it when we get around to it. Maybe we'll take a nap first though, since there is no reason to act briskly. After the nap, we'll stop for lunch, because, you know, the treasure has been hidden for hundreds of years and it aint going anywhere anytime soon. Lets catch a movie after lunch too.

You're right: what possible urgency could one have in hunting for treasure? I'd have no more urgency searching for treasure worth billions than I would looking for a tupperware lid for my leftover Chicken Marsala

[Show spoiler]Dude, for the record, I agree. this back and forth is fun, though. I'm just venting like an angry kid who can't get (the perfect NT film) what he wants

The Treasure HUNT is a RACE because you have an opponent. If you remove the opponent, what happens to the race? It goes bye-bye. If your opponent is a nice guy, who does the audience root for?

opponent implies competition. competition implies rules of fair play.

NT rules of fair play: they get a gun, you don't. they can kill, you can't. good luck, and get movin!

Bad Guy = A reason to root for good guy + A reason to race + Creates a sense of Urgency + adds danger + adds action scenes.

Without the villian you have a PBS documentary.

bad guy = bone to appease the sleepwalking, brainwashed drones who adore a perfectly beautiful script being crapped on with the cliche good guy/bad guy chase, kidnap and hostage scenes.

[Show spoiler]no, fine! you're right! grrr i've changed my mind. PBS documentary did me in

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by CZAR

Haha my bad for the misspell but she is gorgeous and yes the movie rocked and I will be adding to my collection as well. Got Em!!

It's all good. I had to point it out though. She is indeed gorgeous.

[Foggy]

Inglorious Basterds

One of the best last year, very well made, fun yet art house-ish movie.

9.5/10

PQ 8.5/10 looks nice, but nothing ground breaking

AQ 7/10, for a dialogue heavy film, the dialogue was very quiet, might of just been because of my ancient PS3 fan blowing a gale inside of it to cool down.

Overall 8.5/10

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Inglorious Basterds

One of the best last year, very well made, fun yet art house-ish movie.

9.5/10

PQ 8.5/10 looks nice, but nothing ground breaking

AQ 7/10, for a dialogue heavy film, the dialogue was very quiet, might of just been because of my ancient PS3 fan blowing a gale inside of it to cool down.

Overall 8.5/10

My favorite from last year and No. 5 all time

[BladeRunner2007]

The Prestige 5/5

Masterpiece! It gets better with each viewing. So far it's Nolan's best movie imo. (Haven't seen Insomnia and Inception yet.)

[CZAR]

The Losers - This was a pretty good action film but had some flaws. The main bad guy was terrible and couldnt act for nothing. I loved the cast that played the Losers including Chris Evans who I normally dont like. The story wasnt bad and even enjoyed the twist and turns that took place. All in all it was enjoyable but nothing to write home about.

Film Rating - 3 1/2 stars (out of 5)

PQ - 4 1/2 stars (out of 5)

AQ - 5 stars (out of 5)

Got Em!!


Jennifer's Body - Megan Fox is one sexy chick but thats about it. The film was ok but couldve been a lot better if taken more serious. Amanda Seyfried was good as she normally is and she is slowly becoming a very good actress. The film had its moments but they were far and in between. Other than that it wasnt anything special but still ok to watch for eye candy and blood.

Film Rating - 2 1/2 stars (out of 5)

PQ - 4 stars (out of 5)

AQ - 4 stars (out of 5)

Got Em!!