Film What's the Last Film You Saw? v. Tell Us What You Thought!

[L2R]

R.I.P.D.

got bored through this utterly formulaic crap

 

[kytnism]

rewatched "stand by me" for the first time in FOREVER with my daughter and partner.

id forgotten so much of what happened throughout the film. it was a lovely and apt revisit.

...kytnism...

 

[lostNfound]

you would probably enjoy MUD, matthew mcconaugheys newish flic, should also check out The Kings of Summer.

I last watched The East
I'm a Brit Marling fan and a an Ellen Page fan so this had to be good.

Fortunately, it wasn't just good on their merit alone.

[video=youtube_share;gHpT9B7e7-Q]http://youtu.be/gHpT9B7e7-Q[/video]

1,2,3,4 stars

 

[Maya]

Omg i just saw that last night!! You read my mind lostandfound lols!!!

 

[Bill]

City of Life and Death

Reminded me of a better version of an Asian Shindler's List
I was speechless the whole movie

This scene especially is so evilly bad ass

NSFW:

SirGrunge needs to recommend me some more awshum azn cinema

 

[MrGrunge]

Uh oh Max. I think you might invoke the wrath of Hydro with the new title...

SirGrunge needs to recommend me some more awshum azn cinema

Whatchu need, nigga? I got yo fix right hurrr:

Drama:

The Human Condition - A 3-part epic about the brutality of the Japanese military in Manchuria during World War 2. It's the first Japanese film to really be critical about the conduct of the Japanese military, with some of the best camerawork, story and acting (for its whole 9 hour runtime) of any film I've ever seen. Some intense shit right here, and it is my current 'Favorite Film of All Time'.

Mother - A mentally challenged young man is arrested for the murder of a young girl, so his Mother (who believe he's being framed) sets out to find evidence of his innocence.

The Bad Sleep Well - Akira Kurosawa's (the Seven Samurai director) take on the Hamlet story, set in the contemporary Japan. Maybe my favorite Kurosawa film.

Sansho The Bailiff, The Life of Oharu, and Ugetsu - I didn't want to devote too much time to these films because they can be pretty inaccessible for casual viewers and aren't exactly fast-moving. They're three very sad, borderline depressing dramas about the human spirit in the face of incredible adversity. If you decide you really like Japanese cinema, by all means give these a shot as they are amazing films, but I wouldn't blame you if you skipped them.

Early Summer, Tokyo Story, and Late Spring - Same deal as the last entry, but moreso: these films are for die-hard fans of Japanese cinema. Yasujiro Ozu, often listed as one of the Top 5 best directors of all time, has a very peculiar style and deals almost exclusively in domestic slice-of-life dramas - they are not exciting, they often re-tread the same thematic ground (especially the three I just listed) and you really have to have a certain familiarity with Japanese culture. That said, there's a reason Ozu is so revered by directors and critics alike - he's a damn genius. Tokyo Story has ranked #1 in the British Film Institute's "Best Film Ever Made" Directors poll more times than any other film.


Samurai:

Seven Samurai - Often considered the greatest Japanese film ever made (though I'd debate that) and an absolute classic piece of cinema. The movie was remade in America as The Magnificent Seven, but I think we can all agree that Samurais are cooler than Cowboys.

The Samurai Trilogy - 3 of the best samurai films ever made. This series was a big influence on Quentin Tarantino, especially for Kill Bill.

Harakiri - This is my favorite Samurai film, though it is much slower-paced than the other two. The story requires a certain understanding of feudal Japanese culture to really appreciate the drama as it unfolds, but the ending is so brilliant that it actually makes you appreciate the slower pace. Be sure to see the 1962 version by Masaki Kobayashi (the guy who directed The Human Condition, btw), not the re-make by Takashi Miike or the weird Fritz Lang film from 1919 also called "Harakiri" (both of these are on Netflix, but the Kobayashi version is on Hulu).

The Sword of Doom - Unique story about a psychopathic and blood-thirsty Samurai. In this film, the main character is the antagonist, and he is a fucking badass piece of shit.


Horror:

Audition - Takashi Miike's masterpiece. The horror in this film is a slow build with a big payoff.

A Tale of Two Sisters - In my opinion, this is the best Asian horror film ever made. It was remade in America as The Uninvited, but of course they fucking ruined it.

Kwaidan - This is a collection of four different Japanese folk tales. I wouldn't call this film scary per se (then again, Horror films typically don't scare me), but it is fucking beautiful to look at - I've wanted to watch it on psychedelics for a long time now. It's another winner from Kobayashi.

Jigoku - The first hour and a half tells a pretty interesting story about a young student on the run after killing a yakuza boss, the last 30 minutes is pure batshit lunacy the likes of which can only come from Japan. Watch this one on drugs, yo.

The Ghost of Yotsuya - This is an adaptation of a traditional Japanese play so there are many versions of this story, but the one by Nobuo Nakagawa is the best. It's just over an hour long and has some amazing bits of cinematography.

Cold Fish - A modern horror movie about a man who joins a group of serial killers against his will. Good, crazy, bloody shit.


Thriller:

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - A crazy thriller from my favorite Korean director - just watch it, it's brilliant.

The Yellow Sea - A Taxi driver pays off his gambling debts by agreeing to carry out a hit for his bookie...things do not go well.

Oldboy - If you haven't seen this film yet, watch the original Korean version before remake that's coming out soon.


Comedy:

Barking Dogs Never Bite - An absurd, hilarious, and very dark comedy.

I'm a Cyborg but That's Ok - a very surreal comedy about a girl who is checked into a sanitarium because the thinks she a cyborg. It's made by the same guy who made Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, though at times it feels like a Wes Andersen flick. Watch this one with your girlfriend - it's funny, cute, and will guarantee sex.



I'm gonna stop there because fuck you Bill for making me type all that.

 

[kytnism]

the U.S vs john lennon.

so appropriate today.

...kytnism...

 

[Bill]

GeneralissimoGrunge thank you for your kind azn recommendation offerings
Proudfrul dispray

I'm going to watch The Human Condition first as I always have a boner for good war flicks, especially rare ones like I found the other day, City of Life and Death

 

[Max Power]

Uh oh Max. I think you might invoke the wrath of Hydro with the new title...

"I only roast the ones I love." - alasdairm

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

yay! have you seen it before? i assume you have seen godard & karina films, or will this be the first?


Electrick Children

the lead actress actually does look like an angel. freakishly so. though mary isn't an angel. i'd leave it at divine, but the character, rachel, is directly called an angel. the blurring has to be of significance. and isn't mary the only non-angel that was able to achieve assumption (into heaven)? blurring her mortality. that is certainly of significance to the film. anyway, it couldn't have worked without her, julia garner. anything she's in is now on my list.

it is so soft. i wasn't in the right frame of mind to properly absorb. i kept on pausing and pacing. over like a six-hour time period. i will revisit either tomorrow or this weekend.

ecstasy created through cassette tapes, neon, and plastic sunglasses. everything she wears is beautiful. there is something in this movie even beyond the poignant late 90s atmosphere. including a parallel and then divergence from Lolita. a nod to kubric's Lolita on the surface, but a further correlation to nabokov's Lolita. in that it is about a little girl lost without a point to go back to. then there is the stark divergence. rachel is able to escape. by going back to even before the beginning of her self -- allowing her to transcend and redefine. dolores isn't able to move in this abstract plane, so her end is tragic. i'm not 100 percent sure what existentialism is, but this film is certainly an exploration of.

at first i was worried the story would be another rejection of religion. which we are past. fortunately it is open. restarting instead of just ending. the movie isn't rock; it is pop and it is pretty.

 

[Max Power]

This will be the second; Pierrot le Fou was the first.

 

[Max Power]

Regarding Anna: now I get it.

I made a gif.

 

[MrGrunge]

Dredd (2012) - Can someone explain to me why this movie got so much praise without using the word "fun"? I wouldn't even call it fun - it was just an over-stylized, derivative action movie. Hell, I thought the Sly Stallone version was better because at least you got to see the city and the wasteland and all the other things which give the Dredd universe its character (and gave the film a feeling of Adventure), not just the interior of a big apartment building that looked the same throughout. The "Slow-Mo" drug was just a transparent attempt to justify the director's use of gratuitous slow-motion shots, NONE of the characters had any development, and the plot was so profoundly stupid at times I found myself literally face palming. If you liked Dredd, good for you for managing to extract some enjoyment it, but I don't see any possible way to argue that it's a good movie.

 

[L2R]

^it is a perfect translation of comic to film. this seldom happens. for me it was seriously the best film of 2012.

last night i watched
ai weiwei: never sorry (documentary)
interesting and inspiring.

pushing tin (because i'm applying to be an atc).
very 90's forgettable movie

 

[MrGrunge]

SPOILERS BELOW!

^it is a perfect translation of comic to film.

I very much disagree, and it goes back to my point about the entire plot taking place in the interior of one building. In the Dredd comics, Mega-City One and the Wasteland are integral parts of the series - much in the same way Gotham is for Batman. Aside from brief fly-overs of the city and the chase scene in the beginning, we never see the city again - it would be like if The Dark Knight Rises took place entirely in the underground prison. A perfect translation would have made Mega-City One the setting for all/most of the film, but it seems pretty obvious the budget wasn't there for it (which is not an excuse, imo - do it right or don't do it at all).

So now it's just a story of how Judge Dredd and a rookie Judge kill a bunch of drug dealers - a simple story that was still somehow riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Why should we care about Dredd? What makes him different than other Judges? Why is Mama so evil? Why do people follow her? Why didn't Dredd use his high-explosive rounds or grenades to blow open a hole in the wall? How can someone drive/move/talk/shoot on a drug that makes their brain perceive time 1% of normal speed? In a world of such great technology, how can corrupt Judges openly talk about their corruption without anyone knowing? What purpose did the corrupt Judges serve in the story when all they did was show up and get killed? Aside from Judge Anderson, where are these mutants they keep talking about? Are there a lot of them? Do other people have psychic abilities? Why did the guy with the cyber-eyes stay in Mama's crew? Why wasn't he able to easily track Dredd even though he has full control of the building's sophisticated computer network? Why didn't Mama kill Avon Barksdale?

To me, the movie felt like an adaptation of a single issue of the comic - there's no backstory, no great scheme, and no real character development - it just depicted a day in the life of Judge Dredd and assumed the viewers were all ready familiar with world of the comic. Because nothing was properly developed, there was never any sense of consequence to the action. Like, why should we care if Mama dies? She's just some arbitrarily evil former prostitute/drug dealer. I have no reason to hate her because I have no reason to love Dredd - he's just as two-dimensional as Mama. I guess this is why Judge Anderson was introduced. She was clearly the most defined and sympathetic character, which could be used to effectively argue that she was in fact the main character as she's the only one who went through any sort of development arc. Which, again, makes this not a perfect adaptation because in a perfect adaption Dredd would be the main character.

In short, you're wrong and I hate you.

 

[L2R]

wrong on all accounts. you went in with wild expectations of a grand futurism opera. it's a small story, and it poses itself as nothing else. within its small contexts, it showcases the universe perfectly. you don't need a bunch of tacked on exposition to answer those niggling questions you have. good storytelling keeps it real within the universe, and this film does that in spades.

although set in one spot, the environment of that spot, the behaviour of the people (judges and crims) and the politics of the situation all explore the wonders of megacity.

yes, anderson is the main character. it is her "coming of age" story. this is how the plot is structured. it is through her eyes that the audience gets to experience mega-city, since she is the rookie, the outsider. it is through her eyes do we find the strengths and weaknesses of dredd himself.

pull the rod out your arse, brother. the shit hole film you're looking for is not this one. go back to the sly stallone flim if you want to be spoon fed expository dribble. the only thing that film has going for it is joan chen (i'm drooling just thinking about that part). hey at least in this film, there's no utterly inexplicable evil layer explosion climax.

therefore, you's stupid and your bum sticks out.

 

[GodSpeedK]

Movies I saw recently that I really enjoyed:

Then I saw This is The End and The World's End and wished it was the actual end. Both so bad, except for Michael Cera.

 

[Maya]

I've seen this movie last night about the life of Liberace. Starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Very impressive acting of Michael Douglas and an award worthy performance as well. I am giving this movie a 4 our of 5 star.

 

[Carl Landrover]

I had seen Django Unchained in the movie theater, but I stupidly went too high and missed out on parts of it.

I gave it a rewatch and damn was that a lot better when you're paying attention! When I look at the other roles Leonardo DiCaprio has done I thought he was fantastic as a the southern plantation owner.

 

[amanda_eats_pandas]

I've attempted to watch Django at least three times and each time I end up having sex instead.
I mean, worse things could have happened, but I now know all the major plot points and dislike watching things twice (unless its really really good).