Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5998245 times)

Quacksploitation

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17110 on: July 23, 2009, 10:16:26 PM »
Humpday

Easily the funniest film I've seen this year.  Great movie watching experience as the entire audience was totally into it as well.  Shelton also surprised me with the often humorous My Effortless Brilliance, but Humpday is a huge step up into the comedy major leagues.  She manages to spin a blatantly silly premise into an insightful examination of male friendship, marriage and the attempt to maintain or reignite youthful ambitions, while maintaining an exceptionally consistent level of hilarity throughout. 

The three leads are spot on.  Duplass as the buttoned up newlywed, Ben, who's anxious to prove he's not a square; Leonard as his freewheeling buddy, Andrew, who secretly thinks he's a fraud; and Alycia Delmore as Ben's flabbergasted wife Anna, all give great performances that anchor the film in reality while still cranking up the funny.

It's only in a handful of theaters, but if Humpday happens to be playing near you, definitely check it out.

9/10

I couldn't agree more with you on this one.  I fear I'm saying more than I intend with this comment (given the plot of the film), but I found it startling how relatable the characters and their dynamics were.  Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there's a bit of Andrew and Ben in all of us in varying measure. 

Roger Ebert made a remark in his review of this film that I thought was very insightful.  He points out that Anna has such complexity and depth to her character likely due to writer/director Lynn Shelton.  There is no shortage of films by men about the relationships between female friends, but it is an interesting reversal to see Shelton's grasp of male bonding, particularly as spot-on as Shelton is in this film.  I don't mean to give Shelton too much credit.  Not every dude will necessarily see himself on the screen in this picture, but I was able to locate myself, my friends, and my lady-friend in several bits here and there.  Nothing like a little connection with the on-screen characters to remind you why you love the movies.  Shelton is able to get men and women so right here.  Marks of a truly perceptive artist.  Yikes, that sounded pretentious.

It was one of those precious few viewing experiences where I simultaneously wanted the film to go on forever, but also begged it to end because I was loving it so much. 

Easily my favorite film of the year so far (G.I. Joe- that's your cue to wow me with those accelerator suits!).     

StarCarly

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17111 on: July 23, 2009, 10:38:29 PM »
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

It took me a second viewing to really process how much they changed the ending. It just makes me angry. I'm gonna go read everyone else's rants in the spoiler thread and see if I have anything to add.

Grade: B-
"I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech."

Films Watched in 2017

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FifthCityMuse

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17112 on: July 23, 2009, 11:03:22 PM »
For FLY:

Hercules (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1997)
Can I have that time back?

I love that FLY always complains about the way that The Incredibles is stylized, but never mentions that this is stylized, and nowhere near as well. I don't know that there is a single sequence in this I would call beautiful, or well-animated, or visually engaging. The voice acting is pretty awful all round. Structurally, its pretty messy. The character development is all over the place as well.

The music is never better than slightly above average, except for the song Meg gets to sing, which I liked a bit. But I suppose that makes sense, cause Meg is the best thing about the film.

Were Greek people offended when this came out? Because it pretty much mauls their rich cultural history and history of story telling, theatre, and deep, influential philosophy and mashes it together with American Mall Culture of the mid-90s. And maybe I shouldn't expect them to keep the mythology intact, but I think it would've had to have resulted in a better film.

I liked the Muses in theory, but the way they kept singing "And that's the Gospel truth" in the beginning annoyed me. It's pre New Testament times, people. No Gospels yet. I understand they're singing Gospel style music, but - who cares? Nothing else in the film is at all consistent, so I guess I shouldn't expect this to be.

Yeah. It's nowhere near as good as I remembered. It's also never really that engaging. It feels far longer than 90 minutes. At times Jeanne Dielman is more engaging.

C-

skjerva

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17113 on: July 23, 2009, 11:11:20 PM »

Yeah. It's nowhere near as good as I remembered. It's also never really that engaging. It feels far longer than 90 minutes. At times Jeanne Dielman is more engaging.


Hey!  Jeanne Dielman has to be more engaging!  (it is kinda sick that i have also felt compelled to actually sit through Hercules?!)
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. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

Corndog

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17114 on: July 23, 2009, 11:15:43 PM »
Mad Money (Callie Khouri, 2008) -

This was so bad. The script was just awful. The lines were so cheesy and terrible. They didn't make sense and were just dumb. Then the plot was basically just one big hole right in your face. There was one good thing about it, a joke. Queen Latifah goes to this schoolguy, "So can I pay you in crack?" That's it.

Rating: 1/4
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

skjerva

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17115 on: July 23, 2009, 11:17:35 PM »
oh no she di'n't!!!
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. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17116 on: July 23, 2009, 11:24:29 PM »

Yeah. It's nowhere near as good as I remembered. It's also never really that engaging. It feels far longer than 90 minutes. At times Jeanne Dielman is more engaging.


Hey!  Jeanne Dielman has to be more engaging!  (it is kinda sick that i have also felt compelled to actually sit through Hercules?!)
I suppose I mean that Hercules should have a leg up. Relatively fast editing, closeups, all of that. Yet JD has none of it and is easily more engaging and hypnotic and compelling. Which just shows what good craft can do. Shame Herc doesn't have all that much of it.

jbissell

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17117 on: July 23, 2009, 11:29:53 PM »

Paris, Texas 9/10

My only Wenders experience was Wings of Desire, which never quite clicked for me, so I wasn't sure how much I was actually going to like Paris, Texas despite all the raves on the forum.  From the first shot of Harry Dean Stanton walking in the desert to Ry Cooder's simple score, I was hooked.  So many gorgeous images, I really could post screenshots of the entire film. 

This is a film just begging for a great HD transfer; I haven't been this impressed by the colors in a film since Three Colors Trilogy.  Hopefully Criterion gets their hands on it at some point.  Harry Dean Stanton absolutely blew me away.  So many good little moments.  The mirror walk with Hunter after school (sidenote: IMDB tells me Hunter was originally cast as Bud Bundy on Married with Children).  The scenes in the peepshow are incredible.  I loved the little theme of each room, as well as the composition of the shots with the one-way mirror.  Stanton and Kinski's monologues at the end were really remarkable performances.  The ending was perfect.  All of this makes me think that it might be time to give Wings a 4th shot.

Mr. Hutchinson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17118 on: July 24, 2009, 12:16:10 AM »
Mad Money
5/5

This movie completes me.  I am a new man because of it, no longer will I underestimate women janitors working for the Feds.  No longer will I take into account the laws of physics or the laws of common sense.  All I have to do now is get giant bags of money and store them below a diner.  Thank you, I love you all.

Hugs and kisses
Hutch

roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #17119 on: July 24, 2009, 01:09:23 AM »

The Baxter (Michael Showalter, 2005)

It's really funny. Sometimes in that awkward manner, sometimes in a little more wacky way, sometimes in a quiet resigned way. It hits all the good notes of the romantic comedy, rarely hitting a bad one and then tops it up with a couple of quietly sublime moments that shouldn't belong to a film like this, but they do. There's a kind of fascination in it for me in how it depicts certain kind of people. Like, the Justin Theroux character is so hilarious in his oblivious cool guy charm. Everything he does is the opposite of who Showalter is, and just them being in the same scene (along with a great Elizabeth Banks) is fantastic in its awkwardness (witness Showalter trying to order pinot noir wine at some random hamburger joint). But the real revelation for me was Michelle Williams who played in any different way could come off totally wrong, but just the way she does it (the way her hair is made up, her clothes, her thing about the singing - it's somehow a full characterization). She's really great and funny (and the perfect woman). We're just lonely people. . . until we find the right person. Then it's someone else's turn to be lonely.