The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by killowertz

Nope, no smiley face or wink after this one.

was it the entire list that is upsetting or just one in particular?

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

since everyone else already made their lists (and i swear to god we better not have 55154372 pages of everyone reposting their scores again ) i'll post mine because it's super easy

Gladiator - incomplete. started watching it once about 4 years ago, never finished. wasn't really into it
Kingdom of Heaven - never seen it
Braveheart - no interest in seeing it
The Last Samurai - 4/5. almost afraid to watch this again since every time i do the score drops
Troy - no interest in seeing it (don't even start Squid )

that was pretty easy

you probably already answered this but why little interest in the Gladiator/Braveheart? especially if you dug Last Samurai?

My score/ranking of them has definitely gone down in the last 10 years. Gladiator/Braveheart were both in my top 10 at age 22, but now around 70 in my top 100. For me, it wasn't that they got "bad" , but just that I suddenly started watching all of these excellent movies I'd never seen, so they had to take the back seat

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

was it the entire list that is upsetting or just one in particular?

Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and Braveheart. That's all.

[Marcus Wright]

I dont really like fighting movies but of the movies mentioned here I do think that the only real masterpiece is Braveheart.
Its more than just a historic movie.

I enjoyed Gladiator immensly but I think it was a little bit overrated.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

what i love about that last part Surf is

[Show spoiler]how it's reminiscent of the age group both are in. Hausner is older, wiser and more at peace with his life, what has happened, what he's accomplished and lost, so he's not vengeful or angry. Alex is younger, and like most younger adults (even though he's mid 30's at least i'd say) he has more energy, still demands answers for things, still somewhere in him thinks he can fix / make right what has happened by his actions now. even though he obviously cannot.

ugh. i LOVE this film

yeah! you nailed it!! More age = more experience = more wisdom = easy life.
I bet Hausner

[Show spoiler]used to be an Alex! I bet he was just as raging at some point, but burned out fast, and probably sees his old self in Alex. Hausner = My Idol. The dude is cool as sh1t. "Here! Till the end!" (refusing to be taken to the hospital/nursing home). He's so stubborn (and smart!), I love it!

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

you probably already answered this but why little interest in the Gladiator/Braveheart? especially if you dug Last Samurai?

i honestly have no idea. i have no idea what made me want to see The Last Samurai (blind bought it for $12 but now it sits on my "pending" shelf). and to be honest, when i watched Gladiator i was a big "where's the action?!" nut before the Fight Club / serious drama love i have now took over. so when i watched Gladiator, i wasn't expecting a 3 hour personal redemption story. i was expecting people to just haul ass and see lots of blood and i've been meaning to revisit Gladiator, it's in my queue around #40 or so, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. and i LOVE the HBO show Rome, which is roughly same style / time setting so i'm expecting to fully enjoy Gladiator when it comes around.

Braveheart however, the setting simply doesn't interest me. Gladiator? cool, gladiators. The Last Samurai? samurais! Braveheart? a battle of english regiment? eh, not my cup of tea. i might get to it some day, but it's definitely not something i've ever had the interest to watch.

My score/ranking of them has definitely gone down in the last 10 years. Gladiator/Braveheart were both in my top 10 at age 22, but now around 70 in my top 100. For me, it wasn't that they got "bad" , but just that I suddenly started watching all of these excellent movies I'd never seen, so they had to take the back seat

it's crazy how that works! when i was, let's say 12, if you would have told me Jurassic Park will fall from #1 on my favorites list to outside of the Top 150 i would have laughed in your face. but as i grew up and experienced not only BETTER films, but genres i liked more, it fell fast. is it a bad film? no, not at all. but do i still hold in such high regard as i used to? not even close.

almost frightening to think if one day i wouldn't like dark dramas anymore. but that's simply nonsense because that won't ever happen

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

awesome dude!!!

tbizzle = officially SE!

Haha, as I said the words aloud, it clicked!

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

yeah! you nailed it!! More age = more experience = more wisdom = easy life.
I bet Hausner

[Show spoiler]used to be an Alex! I bet he was just as raging at some point, but burned out fast, and probably sees his old self in Alex. Hausner = My Idol. The dude is cool as sh1t. "Here! Till the end!" (refusing to be taken to the hospital/nursing home). He's so stubborn (and smart!), I love it!

agree 100% i remember when we first see him in Revanche

[Show spoiler]playing his accordion i was like "WHO THE F IS THIS GUY?! and what role is he gonna play? all he does is sit there!"

but his role is more

[Show spoiler]like the subconscious 'look what age does to you' type than an actual character that is there to help another out.

at least, that's kind of how i see him in a sense.

needless to say, i love how we get so involved in some films even though we haven't watch them for a few days / a week or so now. a true testament to how great some films are. i almost feel bad for my friends who like movies, but don't love movies or think about themes in movies. i couldn't imagine being that way.

[surfdude12]

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Film: 2/5
-story about a British POW in Japanese prison camp. Japanese captain at the camp is intrigued by a new British prisoner (Bowie).
-I never felt engaged by any of the characters or dialogue. It was never clear why a certain decision was being made by someone, and what their motivation was. In a prison type film, this has to be clear to the viewer, otherwise how can you understand the characters and their intentions? In Shawshank, for example, we know 100% why the warden is doing what he's doing. Things just happened, leaving me scratching my head.
-Very very very slow film. That by itself is not an issue for me. My main issue was the poor script and how I never felt like I knew why things were happening. But a disclaimer to those people who hate slow films: beware. About 5 minutes of action in this one and 120 minutes of dialogue.
-Acting was good, didn't hurt the film.

PQ: 4/5
AQ: 4/5

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by killowertz

Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and Braveheart. That's all.

gotcha. i am revisiting Gladiator, eventually, so that may ease your anger towards me a bit

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

same i think we all are. i love dark, theme heavy dramas, but could i watch just them forever? well, maybe but i also love things like The Fast and the Furious, Into the Blue and Armageddon - among other "less than stellar films".

I love Armageddon, Into the Blue is good, and being a car guy I love The Fast and the Furious.

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

It was never clear why a certain decision was being made by someone, and what their motivation was.

i should warn you about 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, it's kind of like this.
you've seen The Road correct? if so, then you can click on the spoiler

[Show spoiler]you know how in The Road we don't know why the world is destroyed? and how, in a sense, that doesn't really matter to connect with the characters, and the film itself? that's kind of like how 4M3W2D is in one regard (some find it a huge regard, others, like me, not so much).

jhiggy actually disliked the film because of the vagueness, while i didn't feel we needed to know some particular answers.

just an fyi and if you want to know the "what" let me know (it doesn't ruin the film knowing) and be glad to answer, that way you can know if you want to avoid it or not.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

and i LOVE the HBO show Rome, which is roughly same style / time setting so i'm expecting to fully enjoy Gladiator when it comes around.

dude! I didn't know you owned ROME. how awesome is that show? Squid told me about it. So glad I snagged it. INfinite replay value, no? I love how its simultaneously (1) small-scale: 2 soldiers, and (2) large-scale: shows empire-sized battles. have you watched both seasons?

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by tbizzle

I love Armageddon, Into the Blue is good, and being a car guy I love The Fast and the Furious.

i've seen Armageddon about 100+ times used to watch that movie relentlessly a few years ago. so cheesy but awesome

if you've seen any of my conversations with Diesel, you'll know that for whatever reason, i seem to have some sort of man-crush on Paul Walker, as everything he's been in i've really enjoyed. and that's the same for Into the Blue (and Alba of course ) and The Fast and the Furious. and i have absolutely no love of cars or street racing or rap music. that's just one damn fun film! can't wait to own it someday (hopefully pick it up cheap during the holiday season )

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

Thanks

I'll be at the midnight showing Thursday night!

[Show spoiler] I wish they held one for this.

It will probably be playing at the Century on Eureka in Roseville. I go there to see a lot of limited release movies (assuming it's a ltd release), including Milk, The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire (pre-Oscars), and A Single Man.

Hey, I'm going to finally watch Pi sometime next week! You should too.

After years of not getting around to Pi, I agree! I just bumped it up in my queue so it should be here next Wednesday

If Black Swan is playing at the Century in Roseville, I'm definitely goin!

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

You should review it if you get the chance. I'm interested in what you think.

Amores Perros is arriving on Monday

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

dude! I didn't know you owned ROME. how awesome is that show? Squid told me about it. So glad I snagged it. INfinite replay value, no? I love how its simultaneously (1) small-scale: 2 soldiers, and (2) large-scale: shows empire-sized battles. have you watched both seasons?

yep yep i've watched both seasons about... 4 or 5 times now? i own it on dvd though but i've seen the seasons on blu. gorgeous!

i wasn't expecting the show to be so character and politic driven, but i love that aspect of it. and i love the two main leads of Vorenus and Pullo. this will be an odd analogy, but in terms of two character leads, i think this tv based relationship is right behind Mulder and Scully of The X-Files. damn good show on every level.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

thanks for the info and it has been noted so i don't forget

[Show spoiler]to be honest, the thing with Seven Samurai is the aura around it. it worries me. i don't want to go in with the thought in the back of my head "this is supposed to be super ultra awesome" and then have it effect my viewing one way or the other (either subconsciously 'forcing' myself to like it more than i actually do, or hating it because of the hype no matter how good it may actually be). so i'm putting it on hold until i kind of forget about it. although i'm sure once i'm watching it i'll be like "oh yeah, this film" although usually i can block off any preconceived notions of it. and there are tons of awful films that i love (Halloween II (2009 Rob Zombie's film)) and well received films that were just for me (Titanic, Inglorious Basterds among others) so it shouldn't be too hard to do for this one

and i have to look into the story, i don't know if it really interests me but will look into it.

No problem. My first viewing was a theatrical presentation in film class a few years ago. It's still one of the best movie experiences I've ever had (not to hype it up even more ).

Originally Posted by surfdude12

Yeah -- good catch there. The last time I watched it my friend said "where's the subtitles"? I think it was a scene where she was on the phone speaking Ukranian. I told him it was b/c she wasn't speaking German and that perhaps since Alex couldn't understand her, the director/screenwriter is denying us subtitles to put us in Alex's shoes: we don't know what she's saying, just as Alex doesn't? is that why?

Yes, that's actually pretty common in movies. I watched The Godfather on blu a few weeks ago with my mom and the scene where Michael is at the table with the police chief and Sollozzo, he and Sollozzo have an entire conversation in Italian, with no subtitles (she then translated the whole thing for me like a big shot ). It means the audience is supposed to be "outside" the conversation. Possibly for the particular reason that you pointed out.

Yeah -- there was even a 3-way

[Show spoiler]"male photo mourning" club going on: Alex, Robert and Hausner. Alex and Robert had photos of Tamara -- so that pair had that in common. But then Alex and Hausner both had photos of their departed loved ones pasted to their own room in the cottage (Hausner of his wife -- "she's waiting for me", Alex of Tamara). I thought it was fascinating on those two parallels: (1) Robert/Alex with Tamara in common and (2) Hausner/Alex with a departed "shrine-like" photo of each of their women on the wall of each of their room in the cottage. What was cool about the Hausner/Alex parallel was that even though they both were mourning their respective women with shrine-like photos on the wall, they each acted 180 degrees opposite to one another (Hausner: at peace, winding down. Alex: in rage, winding up)

Love the parallelism. They each had their own hobby to help pass the time.

[Show spoiler]Alex his wood cutting, and Hausner his accordion. I thought it was funny that Alex cut his sausage just like logs . Reminds me of Modern Times. Their hobbies can be construed as metaphors of their personalities as well. Alex is hard edged while Hausner is... flexible--not really though, he was pretty stubborn. At one point, Susanne says something like "he never stops playing!" which obviously refers to his immersion into the activity, but also maybe his mode of hanging onto life. The moment he stops playing (during which I literally thought he died ) Alex decides to take him to the hospital, where he probably did die. One thing I could not get to the bottom of though, was the cow feeding. Was that symbolic of anything? I remember something Hausner said stood out to me like a sore thumb as foreshadowing: "Feeding time!" then it proceeds to the next scene.

I will say though, for such a subtle film, Susanne was one of the most straight forward, readable characters. I mean she had the hidden agenda of trying to get pregnant, but it wasn't masked with metaphor or anything (to my knowledge).

Originally Posted by surfdude12

great review again DJ! sorry to hear about the subtitle miscue at the beginning but glad its cleared up now!

Crazy that my viewing experience recovered from that and was still able to love it. Got to respect the movie for that. I just think I'm going to like it that much more the second time around. I was so distracted it was ridiculous. I even paused it, googled it, and found another pissed off dude that made me even angrier! So I was a fireball of fumes () starting it back up and I was about to unleash fury on you guys for not mentioning it. Luckily I realized it about a half hour through (while the dude obviously didn't throughout the course of the movie considering it's in his review). I guess I won't doubt Criterion again

Originally Posted by surfdude12

dude! I didn't know you owned ROME. how awesome is that show? Squid told me about it. So glad I snagged it. INfinite replay value, no? I love how its simultaneously (1) small-scale: 2 soldiers, and (2) large-scale: shows empire-sized battles. have you watched both seasons?

Rome is my third favorite show

I agree with everything except #2. Caesar vs. Pompey was the most underwhelming battle sequence ever. It was like 30 seconds of blurred soldiers, and was supposed to represent Caesar's army overcoming a disadvantage of epic proportions.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by tbizzle

After years of not getting around to Pi, I agree! I just bumped it up in my queue so it should be here next Wednesday

If Black Swan is playing at the Century in Roseville, I'm definitely goin!

Great, you and bearcat will be a few days ahead of me. I just realized how busy I am all next week so it'll have to wait until the weekend.

Originally Posted by tbizzle

Amores Perros is arriving on Monday

Nice. Followed by 21 Grams and Babel?

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Hopefully it cycles back around in the next month or so.




I think this is better than Troy


So, now that I've finally seen it, I'll drudge this back up:

Gladiator - 5/5

Kingdom of Heaven - 4.75/5

Braveheart - 4.5/5

Last Samurai - 4/5

Troy - 3.5/5

Okay I've gone from hating the new ST to considering it to be as good as ST IV: The Voyage Home, which means I think it's one of the 3 best ST films of all-time.