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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5997780 times)

'Noke

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36290 on: September 20, 2010, 12:13:44 PM »
You are a good man verbALs. Once Upon a Time in the West is just that good.
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

UltimateOutsider

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36291 on: September 20, 2010, 12:21:19 PM »
Shiat, I really have to see Underworld.
Yup, Beckinsale is off tha hook in full-body latex. Oh, wait-

Also,
Cop Land (1997)

Miramax thought that this movie was going to be their next Pulp Fiction, and with a cast like this (Stallone, Keitel, Liotta, De Niro, and numerous others from the Sopranos and Scorsese set) it's easy to see why, at first glance. But this is a film where Stallone plays an emasculated half-deaf local Sheriff in a town where most of the residents are NYPD (so no crime). It's a mostly watchable film, and notable for the fact that Ray Liotta plays the most likable character (I usually hate- no, HAET- Liotta, and think that Goodfellas is a cinema classic only despite his presence). Unfortunately, in exchange for making Liotta a redeemable presence in this film, they had to toss in Michael Rapaport to maintain the skeeve balance. *sigh*

3/5

Aliens (1986)

Probably my third or fourth time watching this since I first saw it with my dad on the big screen. I love marveling at the great special effects of pre-CGI Hollywood. The aliens are so much more convincing here than in anything I've seen since the mid-90s (the only exception being the queen in this film, which was such a large creature that it inevitably looks a little... puppety?) I could have done without Newt (most child actresses bug me), but I understand her presence in the story as a motivation for Ripley to take control of things. I love Bill Paxton in this- I know he annoys the hell out of lots of folks, but I think he's actually the most realistic character in the film, and it was sort of neat to see "how would a real, normal person react to this situation?" I know that's not why we pay to see summer blockbusters, but I enjoy the element nonetheless. Also, Jenette Goldstein was the Michelle Rodriguez of her time. Soooo sexy (and quite interesting in Near Dark as well.)

4/5

Note: The film I'm currently watching is so weird that it deserves a special write-up. Might take me a while to throw that one together. We'll see what happens there.

verbALs

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36292 on: September 20, 2010, 12:48:54 PM »
You are a good man verbALs. Once Upon a Time in the West is just that good.
;D {tomorrow I'm going to pound on Casablanca to avoid being accused of playing to the crowd.}
« Last Edit: September 20, 2010, 01:29:31 PM by verbALs »
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mañana

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36293 on: September 20, 2010, 01:01:57 PM »
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

sdedalus

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36294 on: September 20, 2010, 01:23:50 PM »
re- Le cercle rouge; Not sure why the lack of horse dreams makes it a depressing film. Just makes it a lot more of a straight noir than Asphalt Jungle. Delon is about as superheroically untouchable as a noir character can get.Well something eventually stops him but you know what I mean.

For me, a lack of any hope for a better life is depressing.  Le cercle rouge sees no other possibilities for its characters, except for Yves Montand, who can get psychotically drunk.

re- ....king Amal; Since this is the first review of it since the top 100, would you agree it belongs in the pantheon (the only copy I could find was going for £75 so please feel free to put me off tracking it down)?

I saw it via the Instant Netflix, but it's definitely worth £11 for the box.  CINECAST!ing Åmål made my Top 600 at #496.

The result very well may be a new favorite Sirk for me.

It's my favorite Sirk, hands down.

It's between it and All that Heaven Allows.

I don't see the compiled Filmspotter list as an exercise pantheon formation.  (Perhaps many did.)  With that said, Amal is the slightest film on the list.  And I'm not pejoratively using the word slightest.  Amal placed high on mine.  And in comparison to the other "slight" films on the list, Amal is "plain": Chungking Express has an unusual narrative structure to go along with its kinetic visual style; Lebowski riffs on The Big Sleep; Eternal Sunshine has visual effects and a story concerning memory that is a subject mostly seen as hefty material.

Did Lost and Translation make the list again?  Doesn't get slighter than that.

This quote sheds some light on what Scott Pilgrim was trying to do:
Quote
And nearly all of Scott Pilgrim’s facts revolved around the fact that he believes he is the hero in his own movie in his head. And so I think that’s the thing, it’s sort of the character. Until the end, he doesn’t really think of the consequences of things emotionally. I don’t know. He’s like the center of his own universe until it comes crashing down.

That's part of what I was hinting at, that the film reduces itself to only Scott Pilgrim's POV, even when it doesn't make sense.

because it reduces Ramona herself (who you would think would have her own issues revealed and be overcome through ex combat) to a passive prize, Cera's goal instead of a fully realized character of her own.

Love the reviews sdedalus, esp the ones for CINECAST!ing Amal and Le Cercle rouge, but one thing I wanted to ask is...did you necessarily find this to be a flaw in the film?

I do think this is a flaw.  Though I did quite like the film, I find the choice to restrict oneself to the inside of the male protagonist's head, instead of fully realize the characters and world around him to be an unfortunate choice.  I can see what Wright was trying to do, I just would have preferred a film with a more expansive view of the world.  Also, if what QWright was attempting was a critique of that kind of myopia, then the film's conclusion should have ended not just with Pilgrim acknowledging that other people exist, but with those people (namely Ramona) taking an active role in the final combat.
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Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36295 on: September 20, 2010, 01:58:54 PM »
With that said, Amal is the slightest film on the list.  And I'm not pejoratively using the word slightest.  Amal placed high on mine.  And in comparison to the other "slight" films on the list, Amal is "plain"

Did Lost and Translation make the list again?  Doesn't get slighter than that.

Heh, indeedy.

roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36296 on: September 20, 2010, 02:11:47 PM »

The Son* Dardenne Bros, 2002

This was the second Dardenne film I watched (the first was L'Enfant) and it kind of threw for a loop. The film is about watching Olivier Gourmet work and teach. It is about observing what he will do because he doesn't even know himself. Observation is narrative. It's a resolutely physical film, though a much less violent one than Rosetta (the camera tries and fails to keep up with its subject), grounded in work, process. There's this one scene where Olivier Gourmet is eating a sub and the kid keeps bugging him about he knows how to measure stuff just by sight and somehow Gourmet eating his sub counts as character development. Something needs to come from this. Something.


Aprili Otar Iosselliani, 1961

I liked this best when it was just the young lovers trying to sneak into secluded areas to kiss and less when it grows heavy-handed about ionno materialism or whatever draining the life out of meaningful relationships. Either way, it's wonderful when a kiss can power a whole household. Alternative energy!


The Glass Bottom Boat Frank Tashlin, 1966

Doris Day works at some random science research place as a tour guide. Rod Taylor more or less owns the place and has come up with some crazy formula to do something something space-related. Crazy hijinks ensue, Russian spies abound, Day gets to sing a few songs and sex it up, mistaken identities, blah blah blah. The spy stuff never reaches the heights of Artists and Models. Meaning, it lacks people dressed in mouse costumes. Mostly the film seems to be about Tashlin having fun with random gadgets and how each gadget can malfunction: a machine that cleans the kitchen floor, an automatic egg beater, a boat run by remote control. Sadly, none of these top the killer lawnmowers from It's Only Money.


I Love Melvin Don Weis, 1953

Crazy awesome. Debbie Reynolds is a backup dancer type in Broadway (she plays the football in a football musical). Donald O'Connor is a photographer for some random magazine that routinely gets ignored. Being stunned by her beauty, he tries to win her over by promising her a spread in the magazine. Who cares about that though. There are so many numbers. The fantastic meet-cute in the beginning where each character is introduced from opposite sides of the frame, Reynolds flying through the air as a football, O'Connor copying Kelly in The Pirate and then skating round and round. The songs are punchy, fast, they zip by and leave a smile on your face. Best of all, whenever O'Connor tries to kiss Reynolds he messes up, thereby commenting on the ridiculousness of his leading man status. Great movie.

sdedalus

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36297 on: September 20, 2010, 02:27:34 PM »
I dug Glass Bottom Boat, but I Love Melvin is fantastic.  A couple nights ago I watched the other two Debbie Reynolds musicals from 1953, both of which feature Bob Fosse: Stanley Donen's Give a Girl a Break (in which Fosse plays the romantic lead!) and The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, directed by Melvin's Don Weis, and featuring some original Fosse choreography and which stars Fosse's compatriot in the background of 1953's Kiss Me Kate, Bobby Van.  What a great year for musicals.
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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36298 on: September 20, 2010, 03:07:33 PM »
Inception (2010 Christopher Nolan)

I have finally gotten around to seeing this. Watched it at the Gold Class cinema, the screen may not be as big, but the comfort is wonderful. I have managed to avoid most reviews of this film, it has not been easy, but I was expecting an excellent film. I got a very good film, that I want to watch again.

Good performances and special effects, but, ah I will move the rest of the review to the spoiler section.

Saw the ad for The Town prior to this film and it was a bit of an odd one because there are several cast in both films, added to that dream like quality.


Bondo

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #36299 on: September 20, 2010, 04:12:20 PM »
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels vs. Zelig

None shall live while the other survives.