slumdog millionaire
Gran Torino
Citizen McCaw
Taxi to the Dark Side
The Weather Underground
The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
6
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - eww, i don't get why people like this, much less think it is one of the year's best. sure it had some cute moments, but so many scenes play absolutely flat, some seem completely unnecessary, and some there just for a gag don't even work for the gag - just a rotten flow. the plot is poorly executed even for the formula it follows. some of the editing is just weird, and i can't imagine it is intentional, just poorly done. Segel is great in HIMYM, but he he is just too awkward to pull this off; Bell works as a bad tv star, but only because she is also pretty bad(ly drawn) here; Kunis is pretty okay, but her little big role is so empty. i think 30 Rock dude might have had a funny line in there somewhere. the dracula song at the bar was the best part of the film, should check to see if it has filmspot love for best song. it sits pretty low in my films o' the year
Burn After Reading - i think most folks are right in not liking this one, i am holding out some hope for it being redeemed, but it did little for me. looking forward to reading something from Basil about ow this film is so great and misunderstood (not sure he has written on this specifically yet, as i've been avoiding reading anything on it). not sure of the point of making all the characters so unlikable and bumbling/stupid. also near the bottom of my films of the year.
8
Gran Torino - are you fücking kidding? what an absolutely horrible and fantastic film! as i was walking out with a friend he said he has never been so conflicted about a film, i was thinking the same thing during the film. so much bad acting, horrible dialogue, ridiculous situations, but also genuinely good, not even (or only?) in a campy way.
Similar reaction, well said.
I cannot rate this film. I still like Eastwood, but I'll never watch this again nor recommend it to anybody. The bad acting and dialogue is inexcusable. I mean wtf I might've loved it otherwise.
can't even recommend for the sheer WTF factor? i do think the film is somehow good, but it is a mindbomb that the acting and script/plot can be so hideous
Does this film get the same acclaim had it been released pre-9/11?
Umm, yes. It could've been any other two skyscrapers and it wouldn't have changed a thing. That has nothing to do with the story.
on matt's question, i wonder that, too, but think it might not be quite as praised. for me one of the most compelling aspects of the film is Phillipe's forbidden uses of (quasi-public) space - twin towers aside - the policing of space is a key post-9/11 issue, i just don't think the film would resonate the same pre-9/11.
Wendy and Lucy -
A- or 4.32345321593
glad you loved it