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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684031 times)

oldkid

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3720 on: August 21, 2019, 04:09:48 PM »
Sholay just felt like amateur time for me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the particular mix of hokey action, comedy and music didn’t work for me, either,.  And I couldn’t possibly compare it to the magnificent Seven Samurai.

Lots of other Bollywood I’d recommend over Sholay, that I found much more entertaining, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge  and Lagan: Once Upon a Time in India.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Teproc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3721 on: August 22, 2019, 03:25:05 AM »
Sholay>Seven Samurai

Both interminably long with over-big acting in telling essentially the same story, but Sholay has song and dance.

I like Sholay a lot, but I do not support this kind of heresy.

Sholay is super fun though. You have to go along with its 30-minute Great Escape/Great Dictator digressions, interminable (but fun/pretty) dance numbers and exploitation-type plot developments (he has no arms !!!), which is not for everyone. I have yet to find a Bollywood film I can get on board with quite in the way I did with this one.
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3722 on: August 22, 2019, 03:46:06 AM »
Well, the context is I strongly dislike Seven Samurai, which I find painful to watch.

MartinTeller

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3723 on: August 22, 2019, 08:34:18 AM »
Bondo can't resist a hot take!

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3724 on: August 23, 2019, 11:16:44 PM »
Torment (1944)
★ ★ ★ - Good
Instead of talking about the film, I want to make a comment about my viewing habits and two about MartinTeller's review of the film. Because many films I watch are not something I seek out so much as a title I'm checking off a list in the hunt for a good film, when I start watching the level of indifference can be seen as unfair to the movie. I think of it as a smirnoff approach, please don't waste my time, make me FEEL something and I will appreciate it. This is such a case. I knew nothing except that it's supposed to be very good, so it took my by surprise to read in the opening credits that the screenplay is by Ingmar Bergman. Still, this is very early for Bergman so it gave me no expectations. Took some time, but around the middle I realized I was liking this a lot, I was invested in where things were going and was paying close attention.

How fortunate that Martin wrote about the film. (Twice!) He must've known this wouldn't be as analyzed or as useful as something more familiar, but as a Bergman fan I hoped for some thoughts and found five paragraphs. ...plus an earlier review.

Martin comments, "The film has a noir-like sensibility." I don't disagree, but for me I was seeing a lot of Horror style. Shadows and dark closets, a sense of evil beyond reason. The script goes for a more peaceful resolution, but I wonder if I saw Horror where Martin saw Noir because these are the genres we are drawn to?

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3725 on: August 23, 2019, 11:33:50 PM »
A doubly rewarding experience! :)

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3726 on: August 24, 2019, 01:45:58 AM »
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
★ ★
My knowledge of Abba tunes doesn't go deep enough to appreciate this movie. I recognized less than a third of the songs, and except for "Waterloo" and the reprises of "Mamma Mia" and "Dancing Queen" from the first film, this is definitely lesser material. That was the saving grace of the original, one of the worst directed studio films I've ever seen. (The footage used was as cinematic and realistic as the behind the scenes.) At least this is shot like a movie, and it stars Lily James. That only makes the thin, corny script stick out more, but credit to the sequel for giving Pierce Brosnan back the dignity he lost singing "S.O.S." in the first film. Here, they don't ask him to hit notes he cannot, and he looks genuinely happy to be part of the film. 


Beautiful Boy (2018)
★ ★
I'm well on my way to not being a fan of director Felix van Groeningen (The Broken Circle Breakdown). In both films his scenes are scattershot and repetitious and he mixes in the soundtrack WAY TOO LOUD. 

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3727 on: August 25, 2019, 04:39:52 PM »
BlacKkKlansman

I like the performances in this a lot... at times the film is like a Coen bros collection of distinct odd ball characters, with everybody absolutely nailing their roles. There's a lot of entertainment value in just watching them interact. My interest in the story ebbed and flowed. There was a lot of slack in the editing, and scenes lingered far too long sometimes. But there are also some really great scenes. Adam Driver playing a guy who plays a racist was really convincing. That was a fun and impressive performance.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3728 on: August 25, 2019, 04:54:26 PM »
Ready or Not

Well, it could have been more politically pointed, but it was still fun. Samara Weaving gets a star-making role as a product of the foster system now marrying into a family of gaming tycoons and inevitable "Final Girl." As a presumptive satire of the 1% it is pretty toothless. It doesn't comment on the rich so much as make them easy villains. It is just window dressing on what is otherwise just a neutral horror premise that plays out amusingly thanks to a fairly strong cast. Aside from Weaving, of particular note is Adam Brody who really hasn't had the career he deserves, which I blame on Amazon for not ordering The Cosmopolitans to series.

Not much else to say, enjoyable 90 minutes that I probably won't remember much in six months.

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #3729 on: August 26, 2019, 03:33:19 PM »
Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)

This film was hot for a minute. I was quiet high on it after my first viewing also. It's still an engaging film thanks to the abundant dialogue and broad range of characters coming in and out of the story. It keeps things varied. Even though conversations between the characters are often frustrating, sometimes eye-rolling, they are usually quite intense. Bad scenes came here and there, but not in pairs.

It's not a film or story I find a lot of meaning in, but the drama of the scenes are enough to make the experience good while it lasts. I revisited it in consideration of adding it to my top 100, but I don't feel so strongly about it now.