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Author Topic: Write about the last movie you watched (2006-2010)  (Read 5998232 times)

Tequila

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31210 on: May 14, 2010, 06:55:26 AM »
Down the Drain (1993, Shinobu Yaguchi)

I somehow managed to overlook the fact that this actually is a Bracket film. Anyway, like edgar pointed out, this is basically Murphy's Law - The Movie. And yes, it's funny and a bit disturbing. For once I liked the Indie vibe this had and some of the stuff is so wacky, it could probably only pop up in a debut feature. The breaking and entering scenes are definitely the best thing about it (as it usually is in films) but there's also some scenes where it just goes overboard and becomes unfunny pretty rapidly.
Bottom line is that I enjoyed this to a degree and would normally be looking forward to checking out Yaguchi's follow-up film My Secret Cache (which even stars Naomi Nishida from Nabbie's Love!), if pix and JokerXgg hadn't totally trashed it. Oh well.
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worm@work

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31211 on: May 14, 2010, 08:29:46 AM »

Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2004)

This is such a strange, unsettling, fascinating and gorgeous little fairy tale of a film. It's such a surprisingly confident film that I'm surprised to note that it's her debut film (although I think she worked on Gaspar Noé's films as editor). The film just pulls you into it's world immediately and right from the start, there is this sense that there's something indeterminate and mysterious beyond the images that we are watching on the screen. Right from the start, I found myself wondering if this was going to be a dream or a nightmare, a fairytale or a horror story and I think the film has elements of both.

It's an allegorical film but one with a fairly simple idea at its core. It basically uses the setting of a rather unusual boarding school for girls in some indeterminate location in rural France to examine the imposition of gender roles on women as they come of age. This coming-of-age journey as viewed in this film is simultaneously exciting and scary. Likewise, the school these girls belong to is both nurturing and repressive. The girls wander around freely through the beautiful grounds skipping rope and twirling hula hoops but we are always conscious of the tall stone walls that ultimately keep them in confinement.

It reminded me in some ways of the Breillat film Bluebeard but this is an even better film. It does not rely nearly as much on metaphor (although there is some of that) and is all the better for it. All it does with the boarding school setup is offer us a tangible, physical exemplar of the type of gender conditioning that Hadzihalilovic is interested in examining. In that sense, the film feels completely real and totally current despite the dreamlike atmospherics. This is probably why I loved the film as much as I did because through this Hadzihalilovic manages to convey that this is not some outmoded concept she is having us think about but rather that the world we live in has us all being subjected to some type of "schooling" that helps us fit into society's expectations from us.

Another thing that really impressive is the way Hadzihalilovic sets up the mood of the film. Somehow, something about the mundane, routine, organized day-to-day events is terribly unsettling. I found myself constantly wondering about the future these girls were being trained for. While the film hints at something potentially horrifying that lies beyond, for the most part the film albeit dark and disturbing avoids shocks of any kind. I especially love the ending and the way we get to learn the answer to the question about the girls' future simultaneously with the girls themselves.

Had I watched this film in time, I feel pretty certain that this would have made my decade list. It would have also made my list for cinematography. The film is just meticulously composed and lit and the whole film is simply stunning to look at. It also has such great sound. Plus, all of these elements seem to really work together to create the magical atmosphere that makes the film so compelling to watch.

I also love the dedication at the end. I can't think of a better Valentine than to be able to show the person you love the parts of your life that they missed out on that made you who you are.

Grade: A-
« Last Edit: May 14, 2010, 08:34:09 AM by worm@work »

Bill Thompson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched[/quote]
« Reply #31212 on: May 14, 2010, 09:58:04 AM »
The Big Lebowski (1998) ****

Quote
Sometimes a bit of distance from a film can be a great thing, such was the case with myself and The Big Lebowski. When I first watched The Big Lebowski I was inundated with people telling me how awesome it was that after it finished my only reaction could be, “eh, it was okay.” Fast forward many years to the point where I have become an unabashed lover of the Coen brothers and I knew The Big Lebowski  was due for a second spin. I know I have changed as a person, because The Big Lebowski hasn’t changed at all as a movie and yet this time it worked for me in every way that a film can work. The time I spent away from The Big Lebowski allowed me to appreciate it more this time around, to see the funny where I missed it the first time around, to read into the hero thematic or the riffs on classic noir films that eluded me in that first viewing. Time has been kind to The Big Lebowski, very kind indeed.

You can read the rest, here.

Clovis8

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31213 on: May 14, 2010, 10:22:28 AM »
Iron Man 2 is a terrible movie. It's worse than Transformers 2.

give me a break. It is not even close.

ferris

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched[/quote]
« Reply #31214 on: May 14, 2010, 10:28:25 AM »
The Big Lebowski (1998) ****

Quote
Sometimes a bit of distance from a film can be a great thing, such was the case with myself and The Big Lebowski. When I first watched The Big Lebowski I was inundated with people telling me how awesome it was that after it finished my only reaction could be, “eh, it was okay.” Fast forward many years to the point where I have become an unabashed lover of the Coen brothers and I knew The Big Lebowski  was due for a second spin. I know I have changed as a person, because The Big Lebowski hasn’t changed at all as a movie and yet this time it worked for me in every way that a film can work. The time I spent away from The Big Lebowski allowed me to appreciate it more this time around, to see the funny where I missed it the first time around, to read into the hero thematic or the riffs on classic noir films that eluded me in that first viewing. Time has been kind to The Big Lebowski, very kind indeed.

You can read the rest, here.

I'm due for a second watch for precisely the reasons you lay out here.
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Junior

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31215 on: May 14, 2010, 10:37:05 AM »

Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1933)
Spencer Tracy is certainly no Charles Farrell when it comes to looks or physical presence, but he has other gifts, and brings them to the fore. Constantly putting Trina down, poking her, pulling her hair, it's obvious that it's all bluff, and there's a real tenderness and sincerity under it all. The thing that really gets me about a lot of Borzage's films is that men are often all bluster around the women, but there's never even the threat of implied violence in their actions, the threatening nature of masculinity so often seen in Hollywood films. His films are endlessly fascinating, just to watch the endless manifestations and variations in the interactions of the main couple. Bill seems scared, baffled, overwhelmed by this elemental force that has engulfed him, and all the wise-cracking comes across as so much hot air. He tries to run, jumping onto a passing freight train, but he jumps off and crashes to the ground.

Ok, two things. Thing One, I love that you're loving these movies. Seriously. Love it. Thing Two, now that you've seen this you might want to watch Liliom to see a strange, carnival-house-of-mirrors version of this movie. And to see Farrell in a talkie.
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edgar00

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31216 on: May 14, 2010, 11:52:27 AM »
Down the Drain (1993, Shinobu Yaguchi)

I somehow managed to overlook the fact that this actually is a Bracket film. Anyway, like edgar pointed out, this is basically Murphy's Law - The Movie. And yes, it's funny and a bit disturbing. For once I liked the Indie vibe this had and some of the stuff is so wacky, it could probably only pop up in a debut feature. The breaking and entering scenes are definitely the best thing about it (as it usually is in films) but there's also some scenes where it just goes overboard and becomes unfunny pretty rapidly.
Bottom line is that I enjoyed this to a degree and would normally be looking forward to checking out Yaguchi's follow-up film My Secret Cache (which even stars Naomi Nishida from Nabbie's Love!), if pix and JokerXgg hadn't totally trashed it. Oh well.

I should watch that again to see if it holds up.
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'Noke

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31217 on: May 14, 2010, 12:05:46 PM »

The Island

Last year, I really didn't like Thirst. But I want to take this oppurtunity to apologise to Thirst, because all the time that I was watching The Island I had the same response as I had to Thirst. And I realised that I need to apologise to Thirst. Because I spoke to harshly and meanly to Thirst. Yes, I still dislike it as much as I did before. But Thirst was interesting. Thirst is a movie with strange ideas and tries to do a bunch of interesting stuff, and in my opinion fails entirely. To get to the matter at hand, The Island is something else entirely. The Island is pure 100% garbage, the worst thing I have ever seen.

I mean, CINECAST!. The story is pure hookum. Stem cell research is a topic that is so controversial that is has to be dealt with delicacy, see Moon, but can you think of one person who could so ham-fistedly destroy that then Bay? Seriously? I mean, The Rock was terroists on a rock, Armaggedon was a big asteriod, and Transformers was robots hitting each other. These plots are made for Bay, stupid, but eneptly easy to execute. The Island should never have been in his hands, the idea should not have been his to bastardise the industry that many people support (I actually have no stance on the issue, but it's as if Bay made an action movie about Abortion and turned the pro-abortion people into Hans Landa).

And that's not even the worse part!! Get over the stupid balck and white shenanigans of the story, the plotting itself is awful. So we have this idea that the clones act stupider then they look, like they come into the world with curiosity and stuff, and they don't know how things worked and stuff. And it's played for comedy, like when they arrive at a biker bar (how come all these movies have biker bars?) And those scenes were so awful, they made me so mad at the characters and michael bay for making that decision. These and random comedy moments (the crazy receptionist at the insititute, and the "Jesus loves you" guy. PS, why are both these people Black?) are so distracting, in a movie where I was dying watching it and distractions should be a gift from heaven, they actually made me feel more nauscus.

Which brings us to the meet of this movie, explosions. And, would you know, there's a lot of them. But they are done is such a way that I had no CINECAST!ing idea where anything was or who was doing what, I was so CINECAST!ing confused and my head was throbbing. And this is coming from a guy who was brought up in the MTV/Matrix generation. My mind was so pissed, they go everywhere and none of it seems plausible at all. And there's the lighting, all futuristic and shit which was annoying, and even worse was the simple camera placements, which felt always stupid and rushed and done so horribly it...grr...

Mcgregor and Johansson were no good, and neither was Bean. I enjoyed Steve Buscemi on a "I love Buscemi" level, he was fun, and barely in the movie. Hounsou is one of the most underapprecited actors of our generation, but he was wasted here, and had one of the most implausable character arcs ever (turning sides just like that WTF?).

Oh, and did I mention the awful ending? CINECAST! me.
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FroHam X

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31218 on: May 14, 2010, 12:09:03 PM »
I like The Island.
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Bill Thompson

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Re: Write about the last movie you watched
« Reply #31219 on: May 14, 2010, 12:10:09 PM »
Just remember Noke, ScarJo wanted to get naked for The Island, she felt it was important that her character be naked, and Bay talked her out of it.