Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5996688 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22810 on: November 21, 2009, 06:39:51 PM »
Hard Boiled

Because all this violence can't be mindless. It's hard to believe he made The Killer too.

ferris

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22811 on: November 21, 2009, 07:05:37 PM »
No Country For Old Men (2007) ****
http://billsmovieemporium.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/review-no-country-for-old-men-2007/

Yet another Coen rewatch where what I thought was a pretty great film was elevated to magnificent this time around. I'm still struggling with what to say about the film actually, it all works, and in so many ways, but it's hard to put into words why it all works. The acting is brilliant, as great as Bardem is I actually found myself liking Brolin's performance more this time around, and the film is gorgeous from beginning to end, not just in terms of visuals but in its structure as well. I can't say enough about this film, but it's still only the second best film of 2007, falling just shy of Eastern Promises.

I have the same problem describing my love for this.  It just really works.  I thinks it's in the pacing.  It is so deliberate - it draws you directly into it.  Even though we are following a few different character threads at once.  It has great rewatchability factor - which of course is the hallmark of any Coen film
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Holly Harry

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22812 on: November 21, 2009, 07:08:14 PM »
One of my favorite aspects of No Country is that retreating aesthetic. As the film goes on, as Ed Tom Bell starts retreating into retirement, the acts of violence stop occuring on screen. The audience is put in the same position as Bell, implying that the film is more subjective than it may appear. Everytime I watch it, I discover something new. Rare for a recent Best Picture winner.
"Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again."-Woody Allen.

ferris

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22813 on: November 21, 2009, 07:11:51 PM »
Flick Chart Nights 4
The Dead Poet's Society
Dir. Peter Weir
DoP John Seale

Last night I showed this for our fourth Flick Chart Night, my roommate Cam hadn't seen it.  Its my #7 All-Time Favorite.  And this is exactly what a favorite film should be.  This is yet another example of how wonderfully I am affected by film.  When it was over I wanted to run out of the house and all the way across country, instead I went to a bar in Venice Beach and heard one of the most incredible, strike that, the most incredible bar band I've seen.  They were great, and essentially plaid my Punk/Post Punk Ipod Playlist for their set list.  Anyway, back to the film,
Williams delivers such a triumphant performance which helps the film earn its saccharine but incredible ending.  When Ethan Hawk mounts his desk and utters those amazing words, forever shattering his self doubt and fear, leading those boys into manhood I get all teary eye'd, and its not dusty, its just packed with so much raw adolescent emotion.  I'm 27 and I still remember exactly what it was like to be told to my opinions were worthless until I earned them via some degree.  I remember putting my fist through my father's office door when I couldn't articulate my self with him, which was because for a large part of my life, my father nurtured the notion of giving my brother and I the room to be free thinkers, except for when it infringed on him, so he could spout off anything he wanted and tell us to think what we wanted, until he disagreed or we disobeyed his largely archaic code of parenting.  He and Neil's father would have gotten along really well there for a few years.  Then, when I started applying to college, it all changed, no longer was my father a tyrant, something had happened, and we began to see eye to eye.  But man, did we have some epic father/son battles.  They make Lord of the Rings seem like child's play.  And this film so perfectly captures all of this, and bottles it like an elixir.  I want to ramble on and on, but I've already left the point in the dust.  Basically its one of the greatest films ever made, and I have Peter Weir to thank for it.  I still think he should have directed the Harry Potter films.

Grade A+   

Great review.  I agree :)

Peter Weir is one of our most underappreciated directors.  Between this, The Truman Show and Master and Commander he will always get my benefit of the doubt
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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smirnoff

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22814 on: November 21, 2009, 07:14:44 PM »
I think of No Country as a modern day western with a little bit of darkness.

Verite

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22815 on: November 21, 2009, 07:29:57 PM »
Peter Weir is one of our most underappreciated directors.  Between this, The Truman Show and Master and Commander he will always get my benefit of the doubt

Love TS and really like MaC.  I'd rank Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave as his two best films.  The Year of Living Dangerously behind TS and MaC.

Picnic was one of my final cuts from my Top 100.

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oneaprilday

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22816 on: November 21, 2009, 07:31:30 PM »
Peter Weir is one of our most underappreciated directors.  Between this, The Truman Show and Master and Commander he will always get my benefit of the doubt

Love TS and really like MaC.  I'd rank Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave as his two best films.  The Year of Living Dangerously behind TS and MaC.

Picnic was one of my final cuts for my Top 100.
I need to see The Last Wave, then, I guess! I love Picnic - it made my top 100.

Verite

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22817 on: November 21, 2009, 07:38:51 PM »
I love Picnic - it made my top 100.

Best list ever  ;D

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roujin

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22818 on: November 21, 2009, 08:18:09 PM »

Wheels on Meals Sammo Hung, 1984

Oh, man, this is like the great buddie action movies I never knew could be good. Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao are just buddies operating their own amazingly pimped out food van or whatever. They dominate most of the film, really. They meet this pretty lady and hijinks ensue there because they both want her but they're bros so they decide that neither of them will go for her. In the background is Sammo Hung, who plays a detective trying to track the girl down. There's not that much fighting at first, more of a comedy/action kind of thing (there's even a really badass car chase in there somewhere), but when both threads of the film converge and there's a rumble in this really great castle, there's lots and lots of fighting, including one of the greatest of all time. Jackie fights against this one white thug dude in this thing that gets progressively more epic and that climaxes with all kinds of badass shit going down, and although Sammo doesn't get to shine as much, he still delivers a bunch of laughs and thrills and  goddamn if that one fight isn't fantastic, and I laughed and you laughed and we laughed, except there's no "we," just an imagined "we" or whatever, but I'll take what I can get, because movies like Wheels on Meals should be known by everyone. So CINECAST!ing fun. And, man, Jackie Chan is a really good skateboarder...
« Last Edit: November 21, 2009, 08:21:02 PM by roujin »

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #22819 on: November 21, 2009, 08:24:17 PM »
You're an inspiration, roujin. I'll watch this film.