The Movie Review and Discussion Thread

[Lepidopterous]

I think dreams are just a stream of neural pathways activated simultaneously or in succession during REM. And also believe recent thought processes are more prone to activation during a dream, which is why I can usually link the content in my dreams back to something I have done recently. The 90's Disney's Looper Youtube mash-up I watched yesterday is what probably led to my Sixth Sense dream. Btw I watched Looper and Cabin in the Woods over the weekend--thoughts on those later.

[P@t_Mtl]

La Grande Illusion (1937)
Grand Illusion

Directed by : Jean Renoir
Starring : Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo. Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
Format : HDTV

Story : During WWI in a German prison for officer, we French officers trying by any mean's to escape. Two of the worst offenders, aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (Fresnay) and working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Gabin) are send to a prison deep in Germany where no one escape. They however keep on trying always with the hope of someday returning to France.

Comments : This movie was one of the pillar of the Criterion Collection for many years. It's much more than just a war movie but also a social commentary on the end of classes differences in Europe. Many of the more aristocratic characters in the movie (French, English, German..) comments often how somehow their time seem to be done, that a change in social status is happening with this war. In the end classes differences seem to not matter and that humanity is the same for everyone no matter what family they were born into. If you have never seen this movie, I higly recommend that you do so at least once.

Ratings : 4.5/5

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

I think dreams are just a stream of neural pathways activated simultaneously or in succession during REM. And also believe recent thought processes are more prone to activation during a dream, which is why I can usually link the content in my dreams back to something I have done recently. The 90's Disney's Looper Youtube mash-up I watched yesterday is what probably led to my Sixth Sense dream. Btw I watched Looper and Cabin in the Woods over the weekend--thoughts on those later.

i like to believe that when we sleep, we're seeing glimpses of ourselves in another universe that may or may not be taking place in the same "time" as our own (i.e. when i sleep on October 8th, the world i am seeing is also October 8th, just... somewhere else) that's why sometimes things are familiar and other times (or in the same dream in the same moment) they are very different or outraegous.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

i like to believe that when we sleep, we're seeing glimpses of ourselves in another universe that may or may not be taking place in the same "time" as our own (i.e. when i sleep on October 8th, the world i am seeing is also October 8th, just... somewhere else) that's why sometimes things are familiar and other times (or in the same dream in the same moment) they are very different or outraegous.

So like Inception? Pretty cool.

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

So like Inception? Pretty cool.

is that like Inception?

$h*t. that ain't cool lol

[BladeRunner2007]

Knightriders 4/5

Wow, I knew what this film was about but I did not expect such a greatness. In fact, I expected it to be trashy, yet lots of fun. Romero's writing is top notch. Might be his most original work ever. Direction is also very good. I also love the film's vibe. Ed Harris gives a breathtaking performance. Oscar worthy imo! The entire cast is just so much fun. You'll recognise many familiar faces from other Romero films. The cast really feels like some sort of family, which is essential for this movie to work. The runtime is pretty long with 146 minutes, but it never feels that long. In fact, time flew by and I didn't want this movie to end. But the ending was perfect and so beautifully executed. This film really is the definition of cult movie. I love this film. A true original!

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

I had a nightmare about The Sixth Sense last night. It's a little embarrassing that that movie still terrorizes my dreams from time to time, but atmospheric ghost stories scare the sh!t out of me. The Orphanage is another one I have lost sleep over.

Bah, I've had more than my fair share of movie-related dreams.

The scariest one I had was when I was a teenager. I dreamt that the T-1000 murdered me four different times. Nothing I could do could kill it, the thing's invincible!

Some other highlights include a dream with the Ghostbusters' ectomobile (when I was a kid), a dream where Gandalf and Yoda were duking it out in the Mines of Moria (recently, and it was as cool as it was weird), and a few with Batman.

I think movies have imbedded themselves do deep into my subconscious that they sometimes manifest into my dreams. Not sure if that means I watch too many films or what, but man, my dreams are really far-out sometimes.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

Man on Wire - 5/5

absolutely brilliant film! an absolutely astonishing true story of a man who is a "wire walker" and walks across the World Trade Center

at times it's almost more amazing how the tea pulled off the event (since it wasn't set up with police or WTC people) as the act itself. but man oh man, seeing the actual footage of Phillip walking across the towers... laying down on the wire! kneeling on the wire some hundreds and hundreds of feet from the ground is just jaw dropping.

i could watch this on an endless loop forever and be 100% riveted to my seat, no doubt about it.

it was almost baffling to watch as it almost seemed fake to watch Phillip walk across the WTC towers (and many other buildings as shown) with such ease and no worries. it was hard to fathom someone actually did this. i'm afraid of heights so it blew me away and my mind was blown time and time again. and again, what they went through to avoid getting caught and to set up the wire is just astounding.

everyone should watch this documentary. the amount of video footage is just amazing and really brings home just how amazing this event was and it's amazing to see how Phillip and his friends came together to pull this off. and to see his girlfriend on his back as he wire walks on a "test line" some 15 feet from the ground and do it like she weighed as much as a paperclip was awe inspiring.

absolutely riveted and glued to my seat and my eyes to the screen from start to finish. incredible

Yep. I liked how when he

[Show spoiler]got busted they didnt make him do jail time and let him do shows for kids as community service.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

I think dreams are just a stream of neural pathways activated simultaneously or in succession during REM. And also believe recent thought processes are more prone to activation during a dream, which is why I can usually link the content in my dreams back to something I have done recently. The 90's Disney's Looper Youtube mash-up I watched yesterday is what probably led to my Sixth Sense dream. Btw I watched Looper and Cabin in the Woods over the weekend--thoughts on those later.

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

i like to believe that when we sleep, we're seeing glimpses of ourselves in another universe that may or may not be taking place in the same "time" as our own (i.e. when i sleep on October 8th, the world i am seeing is also October 8th, just... somewhere else) that's why sometimes things are familiar and other times (or in the same dream in the same moment) they are very different or outraegous.

we should start a "what do dreams mean" thread

I read that its a good idea to keep a "Dream Journal" by your night stand. Since dreams are hard to remember even minutes after you awake, write down lots of details in the journal once you wake up (colors, shapes, etc). Over time, look for patterns in the dreams and it may shed light on your past lifetimes.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

i like to believe that when we sleep, we're seeing glimpses of ourselves in another universe that may or may not be taking place in the same "time" as our own (i.e. when i sleep on October 8th, the world i am seeing is also October 8th, just... somewhere else) that's why sometimes things are familiar and other times (or in the same dream in the same moment) they are very different or outraegous.

Too much Fringe!

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

we should start a "what do dreams mean" thread

I read that its a good idea to keep a "Dream Journal" by your night stand. Since dreams are hard to remember even minutes after you awake, write down lots of details in the journal once you wake up (colors, shapes, etc). Over time, look for patterns in the dreams and it may shed light on your past lifetimes.

I keep a dream journal.

If there is any recurring pattern or themes to my dreams, it's that I've had quite a few of them with tornadoes in them. According to some online dream dictionaries, they usually mean emotional turmoil. I must have been under duress when I had those dreams.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

we should start a "what do dreams mean" thread

I read that its a good idea to keep a "Dream Journal" by your night stand. Since dreams are hard to remember even minutes after you awake, write down lots of details in the journal once you wake up (colors, shapes, etc). Over time, look for patterns in the dreams and it may shed light on your past lifetimes.

Start it up!

That's a pretty deep interpretation of dreams. It reminds me of Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, where we all have innate thoughts passed down from previous generations completely independent of our own life experience. Which also reminds me, I still need to see A Dangerous Method.

I keep a dream log in my iPhone notes. When I wake up from my dreams, I'll describe them as best I can then read what I wrote when I wake up in the morning. It has had some interesting results.

Although I consider myself an artistic person, my dreams tend to be less warped and more realistic. I also catch on that I'm dreaming during the dream sometimes but shrug it off and continue believing what's in front of me.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by iam1bearcat

is that like Inception?

$h*t. that ain't cool lol

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Bah, I've had more than my fair share of movie-related dreams.

The scariest one I had was when I was a teenager. I dreamt that the T-1000 murdered me four different times. Nothing I could do could kill it, the thing's invincible!

Some other highlights include a dream with the Ghostbusters' ectomobile (when I was a kid), a dream where Gandalf and Yoda were duking it out in the Mines of Moria (recently, and it was as cool as it was weird), and a few with Batman.

I think movies have imbedded themselves do deep into my subconscious that they sometimes manifest into my dreams. Not sure if that means I watch too many films or what, but man, my dreams are really far-out sometimes.

The T-1000 is terrifying!

Sounds like you have some pretty awesome dreams. I don't think I know anyone else that can say they hang out with Batman by night.

[legendarymatt92]

An example of Ford crafting a classic Western that would continue to inspire filmmakers right to this day, The Searchers is one of his earlier forays into the Western genre with superb results. Starring John Wayne (an actor-director partnership that would give cinema some of its most brilliant and instantly recognizable films ever released) as Ethan Edwards, a man who, having been fighting in the Civil War and missing for three years afterwards, finds that he has to rescue his niece (played by Natalie Wood) from Native Americans after they kill his brother's family and torch their homestead. Ford, who plays such an intrinsic part in the creation of the Classic Western, begins to hone his skills here, playing with typical conventions and, ever so slightly, tipping them on their head, especially with the character of Edwards - Wayne plays him as the typical Western anti-hero, bold and strong, afraid of nothing and not worried at all by the prospect of violence, but it's in the writing of the script where things aren't all that they seem; Edwards seems to have been gone too long without any excuse for where he'd been, he's rich with newly minted coins and there seems to be some sexual attraction to both his brother's wife and his niece at differing times in the narrative. Despite those unsettling aspects that grow as the plot rages on, Ford's Western is pretty much a standard when looked at now - it features the ranges made so famous by Ford himself, the desolute and bleak landscapes and the constant threat from the "savage" Indians, as well as the triumph of American values and the Westerner himself. It's such a classic piece of cinema on the whole - never mind just in the Western genre - that it deserves to be seen at least once by everyone, much in the same vein as Citizen Kane and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

As a side-note, the amount of film-makers and Hollywood big names who have quoted this film as main inspiration is astounding - John Milius, director of Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn, stated that it is the "most important American film of all time" and that he has "watched it around 50 times". Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, said that he watches it "around three times per year, more if I need inspiration for something in particular" and "whilst the writing and acting aren't great, the way that Ford tells the story, the way that it is crafted, is beyond perfection". Even Spielberg said that it is a film he loves and that he watched it twice whilst making Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

9/10

[iam1bearcat]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Yep. I liked how when he

[Show spoiler]got busted they didnt make him do jail time and let him do shows for kids as community service.

and yet

[Show spoiler]the one "accomplice" got kicked out of the U.S. forever! that was sad and seemed completely ridiculous.

Originally Posted by surfdude12

we should start a "what do dreams mean" thread

I read that its a good idea to keep a "Dream Journal" by your night stand. Since dreams are hard to remember even minutes after you awake, write down lots of details in the journal once you wake up (colors, shapes, etc). Over time, look for patterns in the dreams and it may shed light on your past lifetimes.

i try to keep a journal, but i always seem to think i need to have some sort of structure or pattern for it and it upsets me when i don't keep it that way and then stop it for awhile. weird i know

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Too much Fringe!

that's what i was thinking when i wrote it.

Originally Posted by DjMethod

Start it up!

That's a pretty deep interpretation of dreams. It reminds me of Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, where we all have innate thoughts passed down from previous generations completely independent of our own life experience. Which also reminds me, I still need to see A Dangerous Method.

I keep a dream log in my iPhone notes. When I wake up from my dreams, I'll describe them as best I can then read what I wrote when I wake up in the morning. It has had some interesting results.

Although I consider myself an artistic person, my dreams tend to be less warped and more realistic. I also catch on that I'm dreaming during the dream sometimes but shrug it off and continue believing what's in front of me.

i have that quite a bit. a lot of dreams i'll find myself watching myself (like from a camera in the corner like what i'm watching is a film and i know it's a film) and the "me" in the room will look around like, "wtf is this? weird" and then i'll continue on. it baffles me sometimes lol.

[P@t_Mtl]

In The Mood For Love (2000)

Directed by : Wong Kar-wai
Starring : Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
Format : Blu-ray

Story : In 1962 Hong Kong, journalist Chow Mo-wan (Leung) and secretary Su Li-zhen (Cheung) move into the same rental building. Both are married but lonely souls as both of their spouses are always working and absent from home. Each of them have doubts on their own spouse's fidelity. Lonely, both start forming a strange relationship but keep everything on a platonic level even if the neighbours seem to think otherwise. They both refuse to fall to the level of their own spouses and not be faithful. After a time they are seperated due to Chow going to Singapore for work. Over time they keep crossing each other without meeting, their love remaining as it always was platonic. The final scene taking place at Angkor Wat

Comments : I have to say that I am very biase when it come's to this movie. It's one of my favorite movies of the last 15 years (and that is a very short list). Been a fan of the two actors for many years (Cheung made quite a few movies with Jackie Chan in the 80's and early 90's). I always try to hold myself back in recommending this movie because I understand that it's not a movie for everyone. I like it but I always have doubt that others will. It's slow and the relationship remain's a platonic one which for a western audience just seem so darn strange. However if you have seen other movies made by Wong Kar-wai than I say watch this one as well, it's worth the time.

A note on the Blu-ray. I have seen this movie about 4 times in HD in the last three years, so I suspect I knew what to expect. This site gave a average note to the PQ but frankly it's really above that. It's on pair with the other Wong Kar-wai movies.

Ratings : 4.5/5

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Foggy

The Apartment

Charming, funny and dramatic film that shows how far a simple clever idea can go if you know where to push it in the right areas and develop it forward.

Acting is decent, script is sharp and pacing is consistent although it began to drag towards the end. Just a really good all round classic.

9/10

Definitely plan on blind buying this when it goes on a good sale.

[dag]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

In The Mood For Love (2000)

Ratings : INFINITY/5

I corrected that score for you.

[Show spoiler]

I saw this movie a few years ago, but I will definitely watch it again on Blu. Glad you liked it.

[jvince]

Just saw Argo and damn... it was f*cking incredible. Best movie of the year? Could be. I love Moonrise Kingdom, so I'm gonna have to think about that for a while. Full review coming up.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by jvince

Just saw Argo and damn... it was f*cking incredible. Best movie of the year? Could be. I love Moonrise Kingdom, so I'm gonna have to think about that for a while. Full review coming up.

This is just unfair!