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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5997041 times)

joem18b

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27580 on: February 18, 2010, 01:25:38 AM »
Black Dynamite (2009)

"You're one of those guys who thinks he can get by with a wink and a smile."

He winks.

"What about the smile?"

"I am smiling."

Verite

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27581 on: February 18, 2010, 03:11:48 AM »
I don't want to saay too much about it, but "Revanche" is an absolute masterpiece. Powerful, and in the vein of Bresson. See it.

Saw it twice in the theater and left really impressed both times.  Antares isn't on Revanche's level but it's a fine film, methinks.  I'm not reminded of Bresson though.  I see it as a film of The Decalogue in the style of Haneke.

The film reminded me aeshtetically of "L'Argent" for some reason.

Hmm, I don't see it.  Could you expound?  It's not clear to me if this--

There is nary a wasted shot in the whole picture.

-- is the only quality of Revanche that reminds you of L'Argent aesthetically.  Are there more characteristics/similarities?  When you said, "the ending sealed the deal," did you mean you found the ending Bressonian as well?

Goodness, "Bright Star" was lovely. Funnier than I expected too.

Pretty different from "Sweetie", the only other Campion film I've seen, but terrific all the same.

I had never seen Abbie Cornish in a film before, and had only seen Whishaw in "I'm Not There", and they were both fantastic.

She's excellent in Candy and very good in Somersault.  Those seeking out other Worthington performances might want to check out the latter.  He's good in it.  And it was because of flieger (MDC) that I saw Somersault.


Funnier than I expected too.

I mentioned the film's humor in hopes of that getting people to check it out in time for Filmspots.

the little girl is pretty funny, in addition to being oodles of cuteness.

Fanny's wisecracks are the comedic moments I enjoyed the most in the film.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 03:19:02 AM by Still Walking »
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pixote

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27582 on: February 18, 2010, 03:56:51 AM »
I saw most of Never Been Kissed tonight, I think.  Unremarkable or something.

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flieger

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27583 on: February 18, 2010, 03:57:26 AM »

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (Werner Herzog, 2009)
This is one of those films that has gotten a lot of similar reviews, so I'm not really going to emphasise the "batshit crazy" aspect. It's probably reflective of the role choices Cage has made over the years, leading to this self-fulfilling meme of "crazy Nic and his crazy acting".
Cage sort of does a Kinski, but he injects humour and a shagginess to his role, which was unexpected and pleasing. I thought it was going to be the full-on hysteria mode for the whole film, but Cage's lieutenant travels a layered journey, full of craziness and drugs, yes, but also with moments of insight and tenderness, especially with Mendes. I loved the physical aspect of his character, his rigidity, slightly robotic, like his shoulders are held up by wires. His face is a grimace, his teeth always seem to be showing. He's a walking drug acquirer, taking anything he sees with very little apology or artifice, and his accent oscillates between the Cage drawl and this wiseguy sort of staccato. Sure, there are the crazy moments, but I think the story actually works, and so while Cage teeters on the edge, he's always drawn back in to the universe of the film.
The film looks like it had a limited budget, and Herzog's can-do, minimal takes ethos really shows, but it doesn't seem that bad a thing. In fact, as the film went on, I really started to enjoy the outdoor locations and the way Kinski captured them. He obviously has a documentarian's eye, as he seemed to forego the usual atmosphere-building techniques of other policiers/thrillers, and give the film a stark, naked, almost improv look.  
In the end, I think this film had the potential for a train wreck, sure, but it just damn works. Whether it was Herzog harnessing the energy of Cage, while downplaying the genre elements, I don't know, but everything stays on line. The film finishes and I don't shake my head at the madness, but just marvel at the skills of those at the helm.
Easily one of the most enjoyable films I've seen this year.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 03:59:03 AM by flieger »

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27584 on: February 18, 2010, 08:50:49 AM »
Second, perhaps first, best film of 2009.

'Noke

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27585 on: February 18, 2010, 09:58:35 AM »

Shutter Island (Martin Scorcese, 2010)
There's a storm coming - as signposted by Krzysztof Penderecki's ominously booming score - and for Scorcese it's all in the subtext. Pity it's enveloped by an overly talky thriller, because the dream sequences and the flashbacks are so florid, such fever dreams, that you wish you could escape to that world. Ted Daniels wishes he could, but is it something he wants to go back to, or escape? Or is it both? The film tantalises us with ambiguity, then wallops you over the head with melodrama and exposition. The island is full of symbolic markers and the connection to the troubled consciousness of Ted Daniels is hard to miss.
Scorcese is again really exploring American cinema, from the soundtrack bursting with avant garde works and some stark shots that bring to mind Kubrick, to the melodramatic, crazy pulpiness that the plot demands to be played with. Scorcese duly obliges with smoke, chiaroscuro, contrastingly luscious and dank interiors, tangled and precarious exteriors. The symbolic markers of the island are paralleled by the cinematic markers that Scorcese holds so dear.
Performances were good, the standouts being Michelle Williams, DiCaprio and Elias Koteas (he really is a Canadian De Niro!). But that final act drags, as we have to talk it out like any good psychotherapy session, and the final flashback's pacing goes off, but is still bonkers beautiful and dreamlike and awfully sad. So, for me, the pacing was off, constrained by the plot's novelistic origins. The film is all in the detail, the real and emotional, the flesh and the brain, that Scorcese loves to explore.

PS. Since Gangs of New York (167 mins), the shortest DiCaprio film has been 119 minutes... the others: 138, 128, 141, 170, 151, 143. I mean, I love Leo, but how about a 90 minute one now and then?

So...You liked it?
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27586 on: February 18, 2010, 10:42:00 AM »
Glad there are more A Bittersweet Life fans out there.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief
Dir. Chris Columbus

I lost a bet and had to see this.  Seriously.  Fortunately, everyone who I lost the bet to also had to sit through it, as they chose it.  What a miserable movie going experience.  Its really long, really dull.  The idea of the ancient Greek gods returning in modern times is actually pretty decent.  But the film, script and direction are nothing but hackneyed.  I like Columbus's Potter films, but it could be that the world of Harry Potter is just so good that it doesn't matter how dull the filmmaking is, Rowling's world is just so evocative as to shine through (Though I don't care for films 4 and 5).  Here, everything is telegraphed.  Percy Jackson is accused of stealing Zeus's Lighting Bolt.  Everyone assumes Percy stole it, even though there is no proof, and the only scap of evidence is that he is half god.  Yet we meet hundreds of half god children later on.  On Percy's adventures running from the hordes of the underworld, we do actually meet the real thief, and its so telegraphed that the "big reveal" laer on in the film is nothing but more dull.  I can't Fail this film, but its so generic and tiresome that I can't give it a pass either.

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FroHam X

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27587 on: February 18, 2010, 11:09:13 AM »
Adam Quigley went primal on Percy Jackson in the latest /Filmcast. Sounds terrible.
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Wilson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27588 on: February 18, 2010, 11:15:12 AM »
Wow, the /filmcast attacks a movie by a 'fashionable to hate' director, I'm shocked.

Bill Thompson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #27589 on: February 18, 2010, 11:18:39 AM »
Wow, the /filmcast attacks a movie by a 'fashionable to hate' director, I'm shocked.

Ditto