The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[Lepidopterous]

My Top 250 list is coming up in a bit...

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by Steve46

Yep. It all ties in with his not sufficiently evolved comments. I don't think he's trying to be mean.

I have barely scratched the surface, but my tastes have still evolved massively over the past five years (since I bought Mulholland Dr. by accident and ended up ranking it top of my favorites).

Now I have to re-watch Moneyball because a friend finally received the DVD that came with my copy and we'll be talking about it tomorrow.

It's not even that preferring recent movies is NSE. It's that people won't open their minds. I was raving about The Artist to some of my friends and one of them said "You paid to see a movie without words?"

[Show spoiler]

I know what you mean about evolving tastes. Same thing with me. It's nice to try to appreciate things you never thought you could. Wes Anderson is still a brick wall for me though.

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

It's not even that preferring recent movies is NSE. It's that people won't open their minds. I was raving about The Artist to some of my friends and one of them said "You paid to see a movie without words?"

[Show spoiler]

I know what you mean about evolving tastes. Same thing with me. It's nice to try to appreciate things you never thought you could. Wes Anderson is still a brick wall for me though.

I like Bottle Rocket, Darjeeling, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Rushmore. I woke up early a few days ago and ended up watching The Royal Tenenbaums on TV at 5am and now I like that too. But there are plenty of things that are considered great or classic that I just don't like.

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

My Top 250 list is coming up in a bit...

----------------

on the topic of expanding tastes and whatnot, i actually feel like (currently) i'm moving backwards.

i work 10-12 hour days and lately i've just been so tired and exhausted that the last thing i want to do is watch a challenging, difficult or genre bending new film / show. i'm much more in the mood to just watch "simple" films - comedies, romantic comedies and things like that. no offense to those who love those films, hell, i've always loved those films, but i always mixed it in with challenging work and foreign films, but now that i work so much i just don't feel as "up" to trying those as i used to.

i imagine i'll get past the feeling eventually, but for now, i'm content watching some of my "simple" favorites over and over.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

i'm moving backwards.

Blatantly obvious since November 2009

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Blatantly obvious since November 2009

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

I see in your sig that you bought Archer.

Watched any yet?

[KilloWertz]

When people tell me that "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "Total Recall" are their favorite films, I wonder: Have they tasted the joys of Welles, Bunuel, Ford, Murnau, Keaton, Hitchcock, Wilder or Kurosawa? If they like Ferris Bueller, what would they think of Jacques Tati's "Mr. Hulot's Holiday," also about a strange day of misadventures? If they like "Total Recall," have they seen Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," also about an artificial city ruled by fear?

Maybe I'd rather just stick to Ferris Bueller. Just saying...

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I suspect that to be the case, and for more reasons than just seeing him as a victim. Remember his line "I wanted to teach you to be your own boss". ? I think that shows that he was vulnerable like all of us. He may even have viewed himself on some small scale as a minor failure. I also believe that if his character were TOO rugged (physically violent) it would have made his sons ability to forgive feel unlikely. At least to me.

In one of Pitt's voiceovers he pretty much says he's a "nobody" or something like that.
"I used to criticize the way he'd turn the pages. Make him hit himself for no reason. I made him feel shame. My shame. Poor boy. Poor boy."

I think his character is way more complex than many people give him credit for.

3 out of 5, huh?

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

I see in your sig that you bought Archer.

Watched any yet?

nah. i have amazon prime and it's fast but not THAT fast. ordered last night. should be here tomorrow. will likely wait till i'm home from work Friday night to start watching. i'll likely watch all 10 eps of season 1 that night depending how much i love the show.

watched a butch of trailers for it and it's definitely something i'm gonna love

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

----------------

on the topic of expanding tastes and whatnot, i actually feel like (currently) i'm moving backwards.

i work 10-12 hour days and lately i've just been so tired and exhausted that the last thing i want to do is watch a challenging, difficult or genre bending new film / show. i'm much more in the mood to just watch "simple" films - comedies, romantic comedies and things like that. no offense to those who love those films, hell, i've always loved those films, but i always mixed it in with challenging work and foreign films, but now that i work so much i just don't feel as "up" to trying those as i used to.

i imagine i'll get past the feeling eventually, but for now, i'm content watching some of my "simple" favorites over and over.

I feel the same way sometimes. There are films that I know aren't the best in my collection, but I return to them often because I am familiar with them and it's no effort.

[volcomsocal]

The Perfect Game - 2009

I love baseball. I love baseball movies.

Here's a movie based on a true story. In 1957, a baseball team from Monterry, Mexico made it to the Little League World Series and won. Not only did they win, they were the first non-USA team to ever win it. I don't think what I just said is a spoiler, because how could anyone not see this end coming?

The Perfect Game was a heartwarming movie that was enjoyable from beginning to end. There were some oddities (bi-lingual (?) lip-sync issues, film and audio editing) every now and then, but nothing that ruined the movie watching experience.

This movie is the typical underdog story that makes your heart melt, and succeeds very well. It's not a flawless movie, but it was above average, and worth the two hours it takes to watch it.

The Perfect Game was also one of the best looking blu-ray's I've ever watched. Absolutely gorgeous!

PQ - 5/5
AQ - 4/5

4/5

[jvince]

Originally Posted by Steve46

I like Bottle Rocket, Darjeeling, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Rushmore. I woke up early a few days ago and ended up watching The Royal Tenenbaums on TV at 5am and now I like that too. But there are plenty of things that are considered great or classic that I just don't like.

Now all you need to see is Life Aquatic. Hope Moonrise Kingdom will be awesome as well.

[Steve46]

Originally Posted by jvince

Now all you need to see is Life Aquatic. Hope Moonrise Kingdom will be awesome as well.

Both are on my list of things to see. I wonder if Criterion will release any more on Blu-ray.

[jvince]

Genre: Action | Thriller
Synopsis: A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.
Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Director: Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven)
Writer: Lem Dobbs (Dark City)
Stars: Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith), Bill Paxton (Titanic), Channing Tatum (Step Up), Mathieu Kassovitz (Amélie), Michael Angarano (Sky High), Antonio Banderas (Desperado), Michael Douglas (Wall Street)

Steven Soderbergh makes a welcome return to the genre with Haywire, a stylistic revenge film unlike any of the usual slew of action/thrillers... and perhaps his best and most entertaining outing since his 2001 caper, Ocean's Eleven.

Gina Carano of MMA fame -- who makes her feature-length debut as betrayed CIA agent, Mallory Kane -- does a respectable job overall as the lead. Carano may need some work on her acting and delivery, but Soderbergh wisely gives her minimal dialogue and more ass-kicking screentime. The acting by the ensemble is good and what you'd expect from vets like Douglas and Banderas. The cinematography and especially the score are quite wonderful, as both meld together perfectly.

Pacing is a bit slow (which might be an issue for some action fans), but it does a great job taking its time to build-up some tension. Action is also sparse, but when it gets going, it's a thing of beauty to watch. In fact, if there's one reason to see this movie, it's absolutely for the fight sequences. Carano was obviously cast mainly for the stunts and she brings it on while Soderbergh does his thing and shoots each sequence with refreshing eyes. No shaky-cam and excessive edits here that would leave you nauseous and make you wonder what's going on. All is shot steadily with minimal cuts, adding a sense of rawness and realism, making the viewer feel like a spectator within the scene.

Plot-wise, Haywire may be pretty basic and been-there-done-that -- and yes, it is higher on style than substance -- but it's still a blast regardless, and a commendable effort on the part of Soderbergh for trying to take the tired action/thriller formula and dress it up as something new.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Interesting. That completely explains why it worked for you. Can you describe a scene/edit/transition that helped you feel that way? Perhaps I missed something. I could clearly see that young Jack as well as old Jack both spent a LOT of time in serious contemplation mode, but I never saw him drift off into those thoughts. What did I miss? Help a brother out.

there were 2 pre-universe family sequences which made me believe the characters were thinking about the universe stuff:

[Show spoiler]
(1) mom with her friend in the front yard after news that her son is dead.
friend: he's with god now
mom: he was with god the whole time!
friend: the lord gives and the lord takes away, and that's the way he is.
**at this point, its not crazy to assume that the mom, angry with god, would reflect on god's scope ("he was with god the whole time") including him making the world, since that fuels her anger that if god could be so huge as to make the entire world, how could he have screwed up the tiny task of watching over my boy?

(2) Old Jack reflecting back to his brother's death. We hear Old Jack say (think):
-where were you? (I interpret to mean "where the %#&*$# were you god? why didn't you watch over my brother?")
-as with the mom above, once someone starts reflecting on (a) god and (b) why god did/didn't do something, imagining the creation of the world is the FIRST thing that pops into my head, because if God is supposedly so awesome that he can do all that, why couldn't he have done this little thing for me? this fuels the god anger, and so thinking about the universe formation/big bang is a logical thought process. now about the dinosaurs and meteorites? i think that part is there once the characters become SE and realize "hey! wait! bad stuff happens to everyone, not just me. god didn't single me out. maybe i am no different than a withered leaf in the fall or a drowned dinosaur after a meterorite. maybe its just the cycle of life and my thinking is the problem." so i think the general universe formation could easily be going through their mind, but not necessarily the dinosaur/meterorite stuff, until at least the end of the film when the mom realizes that its just life happening to her and says "i give my son to you", a comparable epiphany that jackman has in the Fountain when he realizes that eternal life is RIGHT HERE AND NOW, that death can't be avoided or eluded, and that death is not a bad thing to be resisted and feared but to be embraced as a part of life. do you see any parallel in the mom and jackman's realization at the end?

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Because in The Fountain the dream sequences were places the characters visited.

[Show spoiler]Tommy's visions of the future were his continuation of her book, molded to fit his own emotional needs during his healing process. Izzi's fantasy was part of her coping and acceptance mechanism for dealing with her terminal illness.

you mean the characters emotionally visited those places in the Fountain? not physically visited?

I guess I think the characters in both films emotionally visited those places. I think both Tommy and the mom

[Show spoiler]were overcoming/accepting the death of a loved one, and were both dreaming/imagining sequences which helped them do so. In Tommy's case, it was a continuation of a book Izzi gave him to finish, which helped him accept death and realize that the present moment is eternal and the only way to "live together forever", since the present moment does not have time = timeless. Time only exists in the past and future. In the mom's case, it was an imagined sequence of God's role in the universe, and finally coming to grips and accepting that God's role included taking her son at a young age (as well as affecting other things way beyond her, which helped her make this realization).

I'm still not sure if the mom character arc is actually the mom, or Old Jack's view of the mom. Probably the latter.

In The Tree of Life, I didnt get the feeling that it was the characters who were pondering the extreme fantasy sequences as much as it was the filmmaker doing so. Yes, for sure, the characters wondered why god did and or allowed certain events, but It never seemed to me that they were the ones pondering the birth of the Universe/dinosaurs/Big Bang/evolution vs creation. And thats an issue for me when it comes to Malick. He convolutes/comingles himself with his characters and it doesnt work for me.

This probably varies from viewer to viewer. If the viewer wouldn't envision the Universe/Big bang sequences, then the viewer will likely presume that the characters didn't. And vice versa: if the viewer would envision the Universe/Big Bang sequences, then the viewer will likely presume that the characters did. I would probably envision the sequences, because although I'm not an ardent believer in a creation God, I'm certainly open to the possibility.

[Steve46]

21. Chungking Express (1994)
Comedy, Drama, Mystery, 102 minutes, Cantonese Language
Directed by Wong Kar-Wai
Starring Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung, Faye Wong and Takeshi Kaneshiro



If you look at the cover of Chungking Express, you will catch a glimpse of some of the stylistic choices made by director Wong Kar-Wai. This is a film that intrigues me because of its style rather than the plot itself. Many of the images are blurred deliberately to reflect Hong Kong's fast-paced life. Other segments are shown in slow motion.

The story is in two parts and shows a glimpse into the lives of two policemen. The first has just broken up with his girlfriend, but he's in denial because it happened on April 1 and she might just be playing a joke on him. He decides to give her one month to reveal that she's joking. As she likes pineapple chunks, he decides to buy one can per day until she comes back to him. The cans must have an expiry date of May 1 as that's when her time expires. When she fails to return, he eats all of the 30 cans in one night. I mention that scene as an example because it demonstrates just how original the script is. The way the characters think and behave is extremely strange and that's part of the reason the film works so well for me.

There are essentially four characters in the movie. The first cop, after eating the 30 cans of pineapple chunks, decides to talk to the next woman he encounters. She turns out to be a drug dealer with an interesting story of her own.

The second story is probably the stronger of the two. It concerns a second cop who is about to break up with his girlfriend. She leaves a letter for him at a food bar he regularly frequents. A woman working at the food bar has a crush on him and steals the key to his apartment from the envelope.

The film contains a lot of humor, as well as drama and romance. It's just interesting to visit this strange world and hang out with the characters once in a while. The color palette and quirky plot reminds me somewhat of Amelie and it's not meant to be taken completely seriously. The story offers some thoughts on how random life can be. We can pass strangers in the street and they could become an important part of our lives in the future. One of the characters loves listening to California Dreamin', so be prepared to hear that throughout the second story.

If you like Chungking Express:

There are plenty of other films by Wong Kar-Wai and I would recommend Fallen Angels if you like the style and setting used in Chungking Express. The two films have a similar quirky feel and I'm sure fans of one would like the other.

If you prefer something in English, take a look at My Blueberry Nights from the same director. It stars Jude Law, Norah Jones and Natalie Portman, and one of the main settings is a New York cafe. David Strathairn gives a memorable performance playing a cop who has broken up with his wife.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

I think his character is way more complex than many people give him credit for.

3 out of 5, huh?

His character was very interesting to me.

I dont have a brother, so I was also fascinated by the relationship dynamics between young Jack and R.L.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

there were 2 pre-universe family sequences which made me believe the characters were thinking about the universe stuff:

[Show spoiler]
(1) mom with her friend in the front yard after news that her son is dead.
friend: he's with god now
mom: he was with god the whole time!
friend: the lord gives and the lord takes away, and that's the way he is.
**at this point, its not crazy to assume that the mom, angry with god, would reflect on god's scope ("he was with god the whole time") including him making the world, since that fuels her anger that if god could be so huge as to make the entire world, how could he have screwed up the tiny task of watching over my boy?

(2) Old Jack reflecting back to his brother's death. We hear Old Jack say (think):
-where were you? (I interpret to mean "where the %#&*$# were you god? why didn't you watch over my brother?")
-as with the mom above, once someone starts reflecting on (a) god and (b) why god did/didn't do something, imagining the creation of the world is the FIRST thing that pops into my head, because if God is supposedly so awesome that he can do all that, why couldn't he have done this little thing for me? this fuels the god anger, and so thinking about the universe formation/big bang is a logical thought process. now about the dinosaurs and meteorites? i think that part is there once the characters become SE and realize "hey! wait! bad stuff happens to everyone, not just me. god didn't single me out. maybe i am no different than a withered leaf in the fall or a drowned dinosaur after a meterorite. maybe its just the cycle of life and my thinking is the problem." so i think the general universe formation could easily be going through their mind, but not necessarily the dinosaur/meterorite stuff, until at least the end of the film when the mom realizes that its just life happening to her and says "i give my son to you", a comparable epiphany that jackman has in the Fountain when he realizes that eternal life is RIGHT HERE AND NOW, that death can't be avoided or eluded, and that death is not a bad thing to be resisted and feared but to be embraced as a part of life. do you see any parallel in the mom and jackman's realization at the end?

Hmmmm. I guess I just think differently and thats why I didnt connect them (characters) to the daydreaming/pondering the same way you did. Interesting.

Yes I see the similarities between Tommy from the Fountain and the Mom. A lot. From denial, to acceptance, to actually embracing.

Its weird. When I read your posts I get the vibe that the movie was "about" the Mom for you. Am I off base there? For me the movie was 100% about Jack and everyone else was just a peripheral character.