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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (Jan 2011 - Nov 2013)  (Read 2532372 times)

Moderator Kitty

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13600 on: June 18, 2012, 06:32:58 AM »
Quote from: jdc on Yesterday at 03:38:55 PM

    Quote from: OmNom on Yesterday at 02:48:13 PM

        Chinatown

        I'd say the first half of the movie was beautiful.  It was the second half that slipped away.  Perhaps it simply hasn't aged well... There were definitely some unintentionally funny scenes-- the moment when Jack Nicholson slaps Faye Dunaway back and forth was just kinda hilarious-- and Roman Polanski's performance made me think he'd cast himself in a part to try and save money.  Of course it could well be that Polanski meant for the slap scene to be funny and he wanted us to laugh at his performance,


    I loved the film but scene always bothered me as well.  I don't think there is any intention of it being funny but it can pull you out for a moment.  Just one of those things I have learned to overlook.
I watched Chinatown a couple of months ago at my local film club in a theatre. I never got around to write about it for some reason, but I liked it a great deal. It was lovely to see the young Nicholson of course, but I also enjoyed the mood even though I not always could follow all the details in the conspiracy. The rock/beach scene reminded me quite a deal of Hitchcock.

The ending of it killed me. Didn't expect that. But I guess it made sense. A truly dark film.

q.v.

The Tenant: bleak, dark,
funny in equal measure.
That's Polanski!

will write haikus for milk ^ ^

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13601 on: June 18, 2012, 08:37:47 AM »
Moderator Kitty, you're my own personal hero!

Lobby

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13602 on: June 18, 2012, 12:17:47 PM »
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, CA, 1983)

Surrealistic flesh lives for long

Long live the new flesh!
 
If you’ve ever seen David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, you’re familiar with the battle cry.

To be honest I’m not sure of what it means. But it sounds good, doesn't it? It sticks.

I bet there are those who think this film is easy enough to interpret.

There is this guy Max who runs a TV channel and always is looking for new sex videos, preferably spiced up with some kinky stuff, to attract more viewers. When he comes across a mysterious underground production named "Videodrome", more hardcore than he's ever seen before, he starts to see and experience strange and frightening things happening to himself and the people around him. He's losing control, of his body, soul, mind and life.

So what is this, if not a precautionary story and a warning to upcoming generations about the dangers of excessive media consumption, putting it in the same category as Haneke’s Benny’s Video?
 
But I think it would be to make it a disservice and diminish it to a much simpler film than it is.

I’d rather put Videodrome in the same category as David Lynch’s Twin Peaks in the way it’s dancing on the borderline between reality, nightmares and surrealistic hallucinations.

What is real, what isn’t? There is some kind of conspiracy going on, but what is it about and who is in charge?  What are those twisted minds getting at? Can you trust anyone? What is it all about?

We don't know and we don't need to know anymore than we demand Salvador Dalí to explain the exact meaning of his paintings. You can equally enjoy them and feel sickened by them anyway.

You could expect that a movie relying quite a bit on special effects from 1983 would have aged badly. I can't tell, since I didn't see it when it came out originally.

What makes the movie feel a bit old to me is the muffled sound. I've noticed that this often is the case with movies from the early 80s, for a reason I'm not certain about. Are the film originals deteriorating, the same way that old buildings turn into ruins and old books fall apart? Or have my expectations on the sound quality in movies increased over the years, at the same pace as the standard has developed?

Regardless of which, it does feel a bit aged in the sound quality and cinematography.

But it's easy to forgive, since the special effects, involving various body parts, which I don't want to go into detail about in order not to spoil anything, hold up so well. They are surprisingly realistic and creepy almost 30 years after the premier.

If someone got the idea to remake this movie I assume they would replace the videotapes with blue-ray records. But there is no need to do it. No need at all.

The flesh is still new. It's the kind that lives for long.

My rating: 4/5
http://thevelvetcafe.wordpress.com/  - where I think aloud about movies

verbALs

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13603 on: June 18, 2012, 12:58:07 PM »
Was the Cronenberg appearance on Kermode the reason you watched this? Kermode wild theory is that all of Cronenberg's old films were "of the body", and were better than his move into films "of the mind". I think Videodrome gives a lie to that, and is probably the most effective of these early films, because it is of both body and mind. An amazing film. I've been making a point of differentiating ambiguity and vagueness. Here's a great example; totally ambiguous, absolutely transparent.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

Lobby

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13604 on: June 18, 2012, 01:02:49 PM »
No, actually I had no idea that interview would come up; I watched this earlier last week but haven't had time to write about it until now. I heard what he said though.
I don't know enough about Cronenberg's works to agree or disagree.

I think I saw The Fly, but don't remember a thing.

More recently I saw A Dangerous Method, which I really didn't like at all. Knightley's chin was strange, but not as compelling as the body transformations in Videodrome...

After watching this I definitely feel the urge to explore more of Cronenberg's earlier movies.
http://thevelvetcafe.wordpress.com/  - where I think aloud about movies

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13605 on: June 18, 2012, 08:16:27 PM »
Poison (1991)

While I adore Far From Heaven and liked Velvet Goldmine, my ambivalence toward I'm Not There helped keep me from developing much an interest in Todd Haynes. Considering he's a banner figure in queer cinema, this seemed strange so I checked out his feature debut Poison. This was a terrible mistake that can only make me less likely to watch the next (though Safe was recommended to me heartily when I covered 1995 for the Bondo Collection).

Poison intercuts three different stories, each told in its own low-budget style, from a faux-documentary about a kid who shot his father to a 50s sci-fi about a Jekyll and Hyde type scientist. The most promising of the three focuses on a prison setting with its homosexuality by choice and by force. Unfortunately, cutting the three together pretty well assures that the viewer will have no connection to any of them. Three poor films is not better than one, so bad that this marks the first film I've shut off early in a long while.

1/5

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13606 on: June 18, 2012, 08:22:17 PM »
Chinatown

I watched this movie last night on Netflix Instant. 

I didn't care for it much.

2/5 

It wasn't my cup of tea either.
Constantine

it is a perfect A.
Amen, brother.

Going to the library a little later to rent it.

I enjoyed it.  Entertaining and effective mix of action and comedy.  Tilda, thanks for your reaction after getting Holy Shotgun-whipped and for driving your foot into Keanu's chest.  Those two moments and Keanu's middle finger are three of the best movie moments I've seen in a while!  Stomare's Lu is the business as is Tilda's Gabriel.

Mentioning specific moments always makes me want to rewatch a film. I should figure out which box has my dvds in it so I can see it again. That or buy the Blu-ray, which by all accounts is worth the upgrade.

If your in the habit of tuning out critics based on their reactions to certain films, Constantine doesn't leave many to read.

On a related note, Rotten Tomatoes sucks at linking back to the full review.

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13607 on: June 18, 2012, 09:10:29 PM »
Chinatown

I watched this movie last night on Netflix Instant. 

I didn't care for it much.

2/5 

It wasn't my cup of tea either.

Would love to hear a bit from you, noff. Chinatown seems like it would be exactly your cup of tea. Did you not like L.A. Confidential either?


Mentioning specific moments always makes me want to rewatch a film.

That's my 'problem' with the mousterpiece podcast. Even though I've watched Wall-E 100 times, I listened to the show and now I want to watch it again.



On a related note, Rotten Tomatoes sucks at linking back to the full review.

Rotten Tomatoes sucks. Period. Metacritic is so much better.

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13608 on: June 18, 2012, 09:34:38 PM »
Chinatown

2/5 
It wasn't my cup of tea either.
Would love to hear a bit from you, noff. Chinatown seems like it would be exactly your cup of tea. Did you not like L.A. Confidential either?

Obviously you don't remember that time I made your day:

smirnoff, your review made my day.

:))

As for Chinatown, it's been so long I can't remember the specifics of what I didn't like about it, just that I didn't like it. I think I wrote a review, I just can't find it. What OmNom wrote would probably all apply to my viewing as well. What the difference is  between Chinatown and a lame TNG-Picard Holodeck episode I'll never know. :P

On a related note, Rotten Tomatoes sucks at linking back to the full review.
Rotten Tomatoes sucks. Period. Metacritic is so much better.
I'm going to make the switch then. Not that I went to RT often, but when I did it always annoyed me in some way.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2012, 09:37:19 PM by smirnoff »

OmNom

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13609 on: June 18, 2012, 09:59:40 PM »
I loved LA Confidential too. 
The answers you seek are in Norway.