Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5998073 times)

roujin

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9080 on: December 21, 2008, 09:49:57 PM »
I just wanted you not to miss out on Milk because of a bad experience with PP. They really aren't very similar, aesthetically or thematically, I'd reckon.

This is what I wrote about PP when I saw it earlier this year.

The only thing I'd take back now is what I said about the story not being very important. Skjerva made some very good points about it.

FroHam X

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9081 on: December 21, 2008, 10:42:05 PM »
12 Monkeys   5/5

You can find my thoughts on my blog.
Awesome start to your blog, hamster.  I read every word!  And you really made me regret pushing for The Matrix's resurrection over 12 Monkeys'.  And, yeah, The Hamster Factor is a great supplement.  Really too good to be considered as such, even.  The same guys did the theatrically-released Lost in La Mancha, but I didn't find that film anywhere near as good.

pixote

Thanks pix. I can wait to write more reviews. This first one was very long, but the movie was so good and I had a lot to say. It would have been longer but at a certain point I decided it would be too much. And yeah, The Hamster Factor is great, there's a reason I kept referring to it as a "documentary feature." It's too good just to be called a special feature.
"We didn't clean the hamster's cage, the hamster's cage cleaned us!"

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Junior

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9082 on: December 21, 2008, 11:42:41 PM »
Milk.

Although it did not raise very high above the standard biopic level, I really loved this film. And I kind of like the standard biopic thing anyways. All the same praises (Penn, Brolin, Hirsch, GVS's direction) and criticisms (Luna) as everybody else. I thought the whole thing was great.

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skjerva

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9083 on: December 21, 2008, 11:53:44 PM »
Milk.

Although it did not raise very high above the standard biopic level, I really loved this film. And I kind of like the standard biopic thing anyways. All the same praises (Penn, Brolin, Hirsch, GVS's direction) and criticisms (Luna) as everybody else. I thought the whole thing was great.

A.

 :)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
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roujin

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9084 on: December 22, 2008, 12:18:32 AM »

[noembed]Jumping[/noembed] (Osamu Tezuka, 1984)

Pretty cool six-minute short. Boy/girl's jumps get higher and higher and higher. We jump over cars, then houses, then mountains and then we jump into war and into a mushroom cloud and then into hell. Pretty damn cool. Absolutely no physics in it from what I understand and apparently shot in one cut with 4000 motion pictures. Whatever that means.




[noembed]Broken Down Film[/noembed] (Osamu Tezuka, 1985)

Even better. This one recreates that old silent cartoon short style to great effect as it does a really cool Duck Amuck-style thing. The cowboy/hero has to save the girl but also has to deal with the really old film's scratches and all this other stuff. Really, really awesome and funny.




[noembed]Push[/noembed] (Osamu Tezuka, 1987)

This one's more overtly political. It follows a man who at the push of a button can get everything renewed from vending machines. He gets new clothes, new pets, a new car. However, he goes up to heaven and asks God for a new earth (he had been traveling through a barren wasteland, more or less). He's denied. And, God, a funny looking old man, says there's no such things. It's simple but very effective and the music at the end is awesome.




[noembed]Self-Portrait[/noembed] (Osamu Tezuka, 1988)

This one's only 14 seconds only long but still cool. Basically, Tezuka turns different people's portraits into a slot machine ending up at different combinations and finally ending up on his own face which spits coins (such a cute drawing, too!).



This has been roujin's Osamu Tezuka hour.

Edit: Added youtube links if you're interested. Can't vouch for quality. I watched this on dvd.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 12:09:34 AM by roujin »

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9085 on: December 22, 2008, 04:14:28 AM »
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
I enjoyed this a lot, which was nice, especially seeing as it's not the movie I was going to go see (we had plans for I've Loved You So Long, but the timing was off). It's not brilliant, but Hall, Cruz and Bardem are all very good, and I thought Scar Jo was quite... serviceable. I sniggered at things a few times when I don't know that anyone else in the cinema did, and I laughed out loud on more than a few occasions. The end was... odd.

3/5

Slumdog Millionaire
I suddenly realised about 40 minutes in that I loved this film, which surprised me, because until that point I think I was a little ambivalent, for the most part. It was also difficult because I was suddenly hit with this wave of melancholy, for a better word, at that point, and it didn't leave me till the end. There is this really dark undercurrent running through this film, and it really made more upset, as opposed to uplifted by the main story.

I thought it was supremely done, but looking back, I don't know that there aren't issues with the story, particularly the story of Salim, Jamal's brother. That said, the skill of the direction is really obvious. (Frankly, I don't understand how people don't like Boyle. Personally, I think he's pretty great.)

There's a lot of talk about the credits, and I'll just say that for me, they didn't fit. The ending had me pretty much in tears, and then to follow it with the credits, changed that mood.

Still I think this is coming to rest at number three on my end of year list at this stage (remembering that a lot of big films haven't been released here yet), or number 2 if I move Caramel back to last year, which I should, because it is a 2007 release officially. Anyway, I rant.

4/5

Oh, and edgar? Wait till you see Hunger. It's difficult, but it looks amazing (better than Slumdog, which, considering the subject of most of the shots, is a massive achievement.

Gobman

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9086 on: December 22, 2008, 08:38:33 AM »
Alien 3: The Assembly Cut

I watched this on Junior's recommendation, in this film, ripley's ship ejects her onto a prison planet full of bald men,  guess what comes with her. (hint: it's in the title of the film)  This film is pretty predictable with a couple of exceptions and there are some cinematic motifs that are overused (I believe it's called cross-cutting) but overall it's good fun, sort of the original Alien filtered through the camp of Road Warrior, though with much less action. It's better than Aliens and worth a watch but I wouldn't be putting it at the top of a netflix queue in a hurry. For interest's sake I fast-forwarded through the theatrical cut after I was done and as far as pacing goes I'd say it did the first half better but the second half much worse, maybe I'll get to do my own assembly cut someday and make it a really good film.

3.5/5

Melvil

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9087 on: December 22, 2008, 09:29:31 AM »
Alien 3: The Assembly Cut

It's better than Aliens

You just lost all credibility. ;)

Junior

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9088 on: December 22, 2008, 10:25:55 AM »
I win again!
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roujin

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Re: Rate the last movie you watched
« Reply #9089 on: December 22, 2008, 01:13:53 PM »

Still Life (Jia Zhang-Ke, 2006)*

Just gorgeous. Utilizing the ridiculous depth of focus available to him to dwarf his characters in their surroundings (place them in a social context or something), he's showing/exploiting this technology like no one else is. To me, this shit is just fascinating. The slow pans (with the occasional dreamy music) to reveal new information and terrains is just amazing but I guess it helps that it helps that Jia is shooting the whole Three Gorges Dam deal which is just staggering. We see footage of people taking down buildings, in essence, dismantling their own city. Some parts of the city are just rubble of the buildings that have already been taken down and there's a bizarreness to these images (like, this can't possibly have been civilization, right?) that's accentuated by men in white suits and these little (but HUGE) moments where artifice is gleefully squeezed into the narrative (with CGI!). These moments are so random and yet so oddly beautiful that... jeezuz... and the ending beats Man on Wire at its own game. Just CINECAST!ing superb.

« Last Edit: May 11, 2009, 12:08:40 AM by roujin »

 

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