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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5997607 times)

BlueVoid

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21650 on: October 28, 2009, 08:33:31 PM »

Paranormal Activity[2009]
So often a horror movies relies on cheap jump scenes for it's scares, but 'Paranormal Activities' attacks from a different angle.  Presenting a realistic story, playing off events many people believe can occur and even happen to them, the film tries to thin the line between reality and fiction trying to induce true horror in the audience.  While trying to pass it off as actual events is a stretch, the way that it is presented is effective in driving home what is scary about this film. These events could happen to you.  That is if you buy into paranormal activity.  Everyone hears noises at night and gets spooked from time to time.  Feeding off of this, the film continually builds upon the little scares, mounting suspense and climaxing with terror.  The reactions by the actors are similar to how anyone might react in the situations which makes the experience that much more disturbing.  The events do get a little repetitive and are somewhat on the nose, but as a whole it managed to scare me.  Something which I thought any horror film could no longer accomplish anymore.
Rating: 3.5/5


The Thomas Crown Affair[1968]
Steve McQueen is cool.  There was no reason to have an entire movie based solely around this characteristic.  In 'The Thomas Crown Affair' McQueen plays a millionaire who organizes a bank heist for the thrills, and the police trying to pin it on him.  There is very little plot wise here.  We're just left to bask in the coolness of McQueen and I guess envy him.  It's shot in a very stylized manner which also heavily dates it.  The shot sequences feel extremely overdone and are seemingly meritless.  There is one shot between Dunaway and McQueen playing chess.  The scene wants to badly to be a powerful, meaningful moment, but is ruined by the heavy-handedness of the direction and cinematography.  It starts off fine with beautiful close ups of Dunaway and McQueen, but then gets absurd when the scene would not end and is shot from every conceivable angle as it derails into a corny parody of itself.  There's something to be said about subtlety which this film completely ignores. There are a handful of scenes where its fun to just enjoy McQueen being McQueen, but it all was just over the top with no substance to be enjoyable.
Rating: 2/5



Battle of Britain[1969]
Some say this is one of the most historically accurate portrayals of a battle on film, and that very well might be the case, only it still wouldn't mean much to me since I couldn't stay interested for more than a few minutes at the time.  This is very much a war epic complete with an overly bombastic score which frequently didn't fit with what was being shown.  At no point did I connect with a single character.  At no point did I feel any emotion towards any of the events that were being shown.  There was very little glue holding the action scenes together.  Perhaps I'm tainted by modern effects, but the action scenes just did not do anything for me.  The repetitive air battles blend together into one uninteresting failed air show.  If a majority of the film is going to depend on the effectiveness of the action, it had better be good.  It wasn't, and I can't see this as anything but a colossal bore.
Rating: 1.5/5
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chardy999

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21651 on: October 28, 2009, 09:59:39 PM »
I don't care about the HIV jokes, after several rewatches, "In Bruges" is still the best film of 08.
Absolutely this!

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FroHam X

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21652 on: October 28, 2009, 10:07:24 PM »
I don't care about the HIV jokes, after several rewatches, "In Bruges" is still the best film of 08.
Absolutely this!

Yes, this is correct.

I might actually be on the same page. Right now it's fighting with The Dark Knight for top spot in my books.
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UberGeekyGirl

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21653 on: October 28, 2009, 11:19:41 PM »

Ôdishon (Audition) 1999
Takashi Miike

This is the second time I have seen this movie and I love it from beginning to end. The first hour or so of this movie is slow paced though hardly boring. It introduces the main players in the story and further develops their characters and their relationships in, from what I've seen, is a classic portrayal of Japanese dramas. Miike shows amazing restraint in this part of the movie providing small glimpses or hints to the surprises that await us later but they are so fragile that they blend in seamlessly with the very commonplace story which the viewer is watching. The second half of the film and particularly the last 15 minutes or so wouldn't be nearly effective if we hadn't seen the "normal" view of this world and these characters. The build up to the ending of this story is only done so well because Miike seduces us into a comfortable state which was carefully planned and amazingly executed.   

Once reality and the surreal start to blend the film start to show more of the Miike we are use to with skewed camera angles, brighter colors and increasingly nonlinear narrative. Then we are left questioning what is the truth. Is Aoyama just dreaming of these horrific things? Miike provides the viewer with the chance to feel sorry for Asami regarding the abuses she had suffered but never really lets you forget the icky feeling you get about her. Aoyama is not really the saint either. After all, he did hold an audition to find a wife where the questions being asked were often sexual in nature and his requirements include obedience. The film skates between who is most deserving of our sympathies.

This movie is one to have discussions about regarding the meaning behind the events. Is the movie just a commentary on how child abuse can do so much psychological damage it produces sadistic murders? About subservient expectations and the roles of women in Japanese culture?

I really enjoy this movie.
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Holly Harry

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21654 on: October 28, 2009, 11:22:43 PM »
I don't care about the HIV jokes, after several rewatches, "In Bruges" is still the best film of 08.
Absolutely this!

Yes, this is correct.

I might actually be on the same page. Right now it's fighting with The Dark Knight for top spot in my books.

In my mind, "In Bruges", "Let The Right One In", "Synecdoche, New York", "A Christmas Tale" and "Che" were the five best films of last year. The top 3 are actually pretty similar. 2008 was a good year for existential parables.
"Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again."-Woody Allen.

sdedalus

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21655 on: October 29, 2009, 01:13:04 AM »
Seven Samurai

You really can see how so many things come from this film. Nevertheless, it was a hard slog for the 3 1/2 hours and didn't live up to my lofty expectations. I'll give it another go in about three years; hopefully I see it differently. :(

The first time I watched Seven Samurai, I fell asleep about an hour into it.  I was fairly hungover, but it certainly did seem to take forever getting to the expected action and whatnot.

However, on rewatching, that first section just flies by: knowing how long it's going to take, you find yourself no longer impatiently waiting for the fighting to start and begin to enjoy the little stories Kurosawa is telling in introducing and revealing each character and creating an entire world and social structure for them to inhabit.

Every time I see it, and I've seen in a lot of times in many different ways: at least twice in theatres, on VHS and DVD on TVs of all sizes, even once on a laptop, it goes by faster and faster.

This is one of the things that makes it The Greatest Movie Of All-Time: it gets better every time you see it.
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roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21656 on: October 29, 2009, 01:25:40 AM »
Isn't the first hour of that movie just the most massive setup of all time? Cuz the second half is the most massive payoff of all time.

Melvil

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21657 on: October 29, 2009, 01:54:38 AM »
Isn't the first hour of that movie just the most massive setup of all time? Cuz the second half is the most massive payoff of all time.

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Tequila

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21658 on: October 29, 2009, 11:47:13 AM »
Maybe it helps to watch 'Breaker' Morant first?  :D
Watching Breaker Morant almost always helps.

Also, you didn't champion it but you asked for my opinion some three months ago, so there it is. First one was fun, I agree. Second has this:
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facedad

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #21659 on: October 29, 2009, 11:50:25 AM »
Isn't the first hour of that movie just the most massive setup of all time? Cuz the second half is the most massive payoff of all time.

I approve of this assessment.
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