Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched (Jan 2011 - Nov 2013)  (Read 2532361 times)

Melvil

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20060 on: November 02, 2013, 12:04:12 AM »
Ender's Game (Gavin Hood, 2013)

My full review is in the spoiler thread, though it turned out not to be spoilery. The short version is this: A competent, though problematic adaptation that I enjoyed surprisingly well as a fan of the book, but that is probably not a great introduction to the story otherwise.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20061 on: November 02, 2013, 03:34:46 AM »
The Look of Love (2013)

This kind of has the general biopic problem for me, minus the resort to mimicry as acting (well, Steve Coogan may be doing it, but I don't know the original), or really a lot of reality based films in that having to adhere to real events and how real people may have responded to them can nullify the thematic interest. In this case, we are introduced to Paul Raymond, a mogul in property and in titillation in the heart of the sexual revolution.

The initial set-up between him and his wife/choreographer Jean (Anna Friel) is sex-positive polyamory. It is presumably what happened, but it feels too fitting of the cliché that it winds up with the woman being unable to handle this arrangement and acts the crazy spurned lover. I kind of enjoyed the film when it was this 70s swinger world with fairly positive interactions and respectably classy titillation (certainly less depressing than the local strip club). The evolving darkness both in his relationships, with his daughter (Imogen Poots), and the increasing bawdiness of his efforts, facing competition, is real and flips the switch much like Boogie Nights, another film whose second half I struggled a bit more with not because it doesn't work but because it isn't fun and represents a huge tonal shift. This with the muddled themes renders the perfectly watchable film pretty average.

3/5

Monty

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20062 on: November 02, 2013, 12:57:12 PM »


That's it. I'm done with zombies, viruses and general destruction for one day, that's said it's Bonfire Night later at the local pub, anything could happen ;D.


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1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20063 on: November 02, 2013, 01:31:44 PM »
Bad Grandpa
* 1/2

We are now at the point with the Jackass films where what's on screen is less interesting than what must've gone into getting these pranks to work. This is proven by the end credits which shows the Knoxville and the crew revealing to the surprised witnesses they are now part of a movie being filmed. These real bits are seamlessly blended with pick-up shots that must've been filmed after the reveal and completely staged bits like the funeral and the wedding. (Sure are a lot of strangers at that funeral. It's not like people just go to funerals for fun.)

Attempting a plot and with the exception of one flashback, sticking to that narrative thread, now brings these films into territory where I imagine Jean-Luc Godard is loving how they deconstruct cinema in order to build it into something new. However, I laughed once, I was shocked once and I checked my watch a lot. That is the sign of a bad comedy.

Lobby

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20064 on: November 03, 2013, 08:21:04 AM »
An open letter to Popcorn after watching Gravity


Dear Popcorn!

I’m writing to you to let you know that I’ve had enough.

For years I’ve been trying to be tolerant. Knowing how badly the theatres are depending on the income from the snack sales, I’ve patiently endured the effects of your presence.

I’ve told myself that the rustling is discrete, barely noticeable if you compare it to nachos or bacon crisps. Most movies these days have enough of explosions or drums in the soundtrack to cover for it.

I’ve tried to think of your smell as a part of the movie going experience that actually helps you to get into the mood.

I’ve shrugged at the popcorn litter all over the floor. It could be worse. At least it isn’t sticky like chewing gum or soda.

You have to believe me; I’ve really done my best to be accepting to you and to the theatre visitors who choose to bring you to the screenings. After all: watching a film is a social experience. If you can’t tolerate any evidence of the presence of other human beings in the room, you should probably rather watch movies at home in solitude.

But this time you’ve gone too far. All I say is: Gravity.

Don’t pretend to be innocent. We both know what happened.

You were there. You knew what a special movie it is; you know how it opens in dead silence. And yet you went to see it. Perhaps that’s what drew you there in the first place? Maybe this was your intention all this time: to get maximal attention from everyone in the audience.
This was your chance to finally take control of an audience consisting of three hundred people, each one listening intensely at every rustle, every bite, every shake-about.

And how successful weren’t you? I’ve been going to the theatre for decades, but this was the first time that I encountered a Popcorn performance on this level. You owned it from the start, turning the salon into the next object of a swarm of mutant termites, devouring everything that crossed their path. For the first ten minutes I was convinced that the munching insects would become visible any minute and we’d have to flee for our lives as the building crumbled.

You almost had me there.

Hadn’t it been for the splendour of this film, you would have succeeded ruining it for me.
As it was, I became too involved to even care about you. I wasn’t in the room anymore; I was far out in space, for the first time ever experiencing 3D that added to the immersion rather than taking away anything from it. I was there with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, fighting for my own survival and at the same time soaking my soul in the beauty and majesty of the infinite void. So vulnerable, so much alive, so distant and yet so close. The sound of Popcorn became the least of my problems. My mind was elsewhere.

Agains all odds, your attempt to spoil this movie failed.

But the fact remains: I hate you. And I hate the staff at the theatre that didn’t have the insight and courage to stop you at the door, saving this special theatre experience from your evil attacks. Couldn’t they have made an exception, just this one time, offering marshmallows to people with an eating disorder that requires them to eat constantly?

My days as a popcorn apologist are over.

From now on I’ll show no mercy with popcorn in theatres.

The war is on.

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, US 2013) My rating: 5/5
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FLYmeatwad

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20065 on: November 03, 2013, 09:04:24 AM »
I laughed to myself a lot during Gravity because of the disconnect between it demanding to be seen on as big a screen as possible in 3-D and the fact that doing so would likely result in a crowded theater where the absence of sound, in my opinion the most striking part of the film (even considering all the technical marvels going on along the edges), would be ruined by people eating and drinking and coughing (as it was October and colds were going around) and whispering. And that happened at my screening and it pissed me off, though I mostly got over it I guess. The majority of Gravity, when stripped away from the spectacle, has faded for me but I think I still appreciate the film as much as I did when I first saw it, thinking back to how well constructed it is and all that.

What are bacon crisps?

Junior

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20066 on: November 03, 2013, 09:25:00 AM »
12 Years a Slave.

This film told by nearly any other director would not be as successful. Steve McQueen brings his aesthetic wonder to the proceedings marvelously, with at least 3 sustained long takes that are not only impressive technically but also emotionally. But then there's a sequence in which Solomon Northup is nearly hanged and must keep his toes squirming around in the mud to keep his windpipe open which begins with a long-ish take and then cuts to several different angles, each perceptively later in the day to show both the passage of time and the way in which people react (or don't) to his situation. 12 Years a Slave isn't a subtle movie but it doesn't beat you over the head with its ideas or themes. It just tells Northup's story with a steady hand and a keen eye for suffering. It is multifaceted in its characterization, not all the white people are evil nor all the black people (the protagonist included) saintly. The script plays a role there, obviously, but the acting by everybody in the large cast is probably the biggest bearer of this weight. I've always liked Chiwetel Ejiofor and he's great here (just wait for the scene where he sings, it's astounding), Lupita Nyong'o is superb as the target of the reprehensible Michael Fassbender's insidious affections, and so on and so forth. It's a marvel of a movie, one which will certainly stay with anybody who can stomach it.

10/10.
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Lobby

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20067 on: November 03, 2013, 09:32:17 AM »
What are bacon crisps?

Hm... I wonder that too to be honest. What exactly they are. They seem extremely artificial. It's some sort of puffed-up snack. Like cheez doodles but with bacon flavour and more noisy. It's the most noisy snack we have here in Sweden imo.
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JakeIsntFake

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20068 on: November 03, 2013, 10:37:48 AM »
the most striking part of the film (even considering all the technical marvels going on along the edges), would be ruined by people eating and drinking and coughing (as it was October and colds were going around) and whispering.

I actually stopped my dad from grabbing popcorn in those silent moments.
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Lobby

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #20069 on: November 03, 2013, 11:44:10 AM »
An ordinary documentary about extraordinary circumstances


Should we feel sorry for the mountain climbers when an expedition ends up in death and disaster?

I got into an argument about this the other night with a couple of fellow movie bloggers. My colleagues had very little sympathy for the climbers. “They risk their lives for what? They know what could happen and yet they go ahead. It’s their choice. There’s no reason to pity them”.

My protests against this came more from my heart than from reason and weren’t as poignant as I would have wished.

The thing is that my heart breaks a little whenever I read about a mountain accident. I guess that I feel that I owe those people something.

I’ve heard the arguments before: what good does it do the world to put all those resources into conquering mountaintops that maybe aren’t there to be conquered in the first place? Couldn’t those efforts be better used elsewhere? Isn’t it all just about vanity pulled so far that it gets lethal?

And I admit it: you don’t lessen the hunger for those who starve by climbing K2, you don’t cure diseases by landing on the moon or by painting a picture or composing a beautiful piece of music. But when ordinary people do extraordinary things in whichever area it is, when they overcome pain, doubts, fear, tiredness and other difficulties, they bring something else to the world.

Reading about the performances by mountain climbers is a constant source of inspiration for me in my own everyday life and has been that for years. If my own life situation feels so-and-so, I can think about Joe Simpson crawling back to the camp after the disaster on the mountain, as told in Touching the Void. And every time I do so, I’m reminded of that a) I’m not that bad off at all and b) if I don’t like to be in the place I’m currently in, I can do something about it. I just need to set my mind to it. Human beings are capable of so much more than we imagine.

As the adventurers push the limits of what a human is capable to do, they also raise the bar for the rest of us. I have many reasons to be thankful and showing them some pity and mercy in return as disaster strikes is the least thing I can do.

Events at K2
The film that sparked this discussion was The Summit, a documentary about what happened at K2 in 2008, when 11 people died within 48 hours, as a result of some bad decisions in combination with bad luck.

Unfortunately this film isn’t the best I’ve seen in the genre. Perhaps it’s the size of the tragedy that makes it hard to explain it so that people who weren’t there to understand it. The film shows the perspective of several different climbers, jumping back and forward in time, moving between different spots on the mountain where different parties were fighting for their survival. It gets pretty messy after a while and as you’re losing track of the events, it becomes harder to fully engage with them. They probably would have made wiser focusing on fewer of the people involved.

Towards the end the documentary starts to raise questions about the reliability of the testimonies from the disaster. With the media situation today, news spread fast and the climbers are aware of how their actions will be judged by the public audience. Apart from being experts in climbing they need to be experts in media handling. Some do it better than others and the world will be left with a whole bunch of more or less differing stories about what happened on the mountain. If there even is such a thing as a “truth”, we’re not likely to get it. Only more or less well founded guesses, versions to believe or not believe. Questions are raised but not quite answered and it feels as if there are more layers and territories, deeper and darker, than we get to see in The Summit.

To wrap it up: if you like me nourish a special interest for those matters, you probably want to watch The Summit, just to get a picture – if messy - of the events at K2. But if your interest in mountaineering and the handling of accidents in mountains is lukewarm, I’d rather recommend other films, such Touching the Void, which manages to raise to an existential level where this doesn't go.

The Summit (Nick Ryan, 2012) My rating: 3/5
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