What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

Well I can't really review this because I saw only about ten minutes of it on youtube, but I must say that it only further proves Bela Tarr as one of the greatest directors of our time: His adaption of Macbeth for television in 1982 is anything but conventional and despite being in Hungarian pertains the beauty of Shakespeare's language. The whole film consists of two shots; one at the begining which lasts for five minutes, and one for the rest of the film which lasts for a stunning 57 minutes on a handheld camera. Obviously this is a greatly abridged version, but having not seen the whole thing, I can only comment that Tarr's direction is masterful. Both the camera and actors possess a sort of grim realism, this is one of the rare films of his shot in color and the low-quality television format is a bit off-putting at first, but then starts to benefit the film which its utter claustraphobic grittiness. I really look forward to getting my hands on the complete version. A very interesting look at a genius in development.

Watched too many films lately. I'll just mention the last one, which was district 9 (at the theater). I was pleasantly surprised! Good film :nod:

A History of Violence - Brilliant performances, great directing, great script. It's always good to see Ed Harris in a film. And I really fancy Maria Bello. 9/10.

Tonight when I had reached a full and unabashed state of mental despair, I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" on TV (one of Frank Capra's many directoral masterpieces). It inspired me as it always does, remaining one of the greatest films of my lifetime. Such a gem.

Eagle Eye gets a 9/10; if they'd toned down the car-bashing, it'd've been a perfect 10.

'Paranormal Activity' 3/10.

Promising underlying premise but executed very poorly. Scenes that may have provoked genuine fear are clumsily telegraphed. Neither the acting or the narrative are strong enough to maintain the 'documentary' artifice. Exceedingly lame.

Up In The Air - 10/10 - this is the best film i've seen all year, and I didn't think i'd say that seeing as The Hurt Locker and In The Loop came out this year, but this one tops them all. Brilliant. The best role of George Clooney's career, without a doubt.

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Originally Posted by Mathor

Up In The Air - 10/10 - this is the best film i've seen all year, and I didn't think i'd say that seeing as The Hurt Locker and In The Loop came out this year, but this one tops them all. Brilliant. The best role of George Clooney's career, without a doubt.

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I've heard good things but I was dubious. Will certainly check it out now.

Only three films in my life have rendered me so speechless that I felt as if I had somehow transcended all thought. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocolaypse Now and Persona. The latter I have just finished watching and I must say that I am as mute as the women in it. This film along with 8 1/2 the above mentioned and a few others, is the all-everything of cinema; it is infinite. 10/10

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Originally Posted by DanielBenoit

Only three films in my life have rendered me so speechless that I felt as if I had somehow transcended all thought. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocolaypse Now and Persona. The latter I have just finished watching and I must say that I am as mute as the women in it. This film along with 8 1/2 the above mentioned and a few others, is the all-everything of cinema; it is infinite. 10/10

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I second 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was not until I saw this creation that I fully appreciated film as an art form.

The last movie I saw was The Tenth Level (1975). It was a made for TV movie about a real psychological experiment that investigated what made people obey orders of cruelty toward others, and how far the average person would go, (an idea that stemmed from the events that took place in Nazi Germany during WWII). The content was intriguing. Also, it starred William Shatner and included his famous shoulder-roll, which is always a plus in my book. :lol: 9/10 for quality of subject matter.

The White Ribbon - this movie mystifies me more and more every time i see it.
2001: A Space Odyssey - Watched it against last night. I'm always on the edge of my seat every single time. SO GOOD.
Inglourious Basterds - I just got this on DVD. This is my third time seeing it, and I think it gets more hilarious and brilliant every time you watch it. This is starting to shake the ranks of some of my old fav Tarantino films.

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Originally Posted by Mathor

The White Ribbon - this movie mystifies me more and more every time i see it.

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Grrr, I have to find some time to see this.

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Originally Posted by DanielBenoit

Grrr, I have to find some time to see this.

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take your time. It's a very hard watch, a very difficult movie to take in. Even when you're finished with it you likely won't know how you feel about it.

The Blind Side - The fact that this film made $150 million at the box office proves that this is one of the most manipulative films in years. Maybe it is better that more people are seeing this than nonsense films like Twilight, but then at the same time, most people when watching Twilight are there for entertainment and know they're watching nonsense; by the numbers, audineces seem to be mistaking The Blind Side as something profound.

Of course it is hard-times and sometimes all we need is a feel-good movie. I've never been much of a fan of feel-good movies since most of them violate the logic that Capra laid out for them, and that is there must be something of a plot, conflict or even sadness or despair preceding the feel-good fluff. Take It's a Wonderful Life, the quitessential feel-good movie; our hero goes through an entire life of what he sees as failures, irrelevances and meaningless trials to the point that he is driven to commit suicide. Taken literatley to the edge of the bridge, his guardian angel suddenly comes down to him and not-so-easily convinces him that his life was and is worth living.

The Blind Side gives us the guardian angel, but no preceding life, hell it doesn't even give us the nightmare of George Bailey's world without him, the very source of the heart-fulfilling ending. The Blind Side assumes that it needn't pull its audiences emotions, it plays it as safe as it possibly can and squirms into the little gutter of corniness whenever the very sight of a conflict arises. Hell, from the very opening scenes one is convinced that all will be better in the end.

Yes this may be based on a true story, but as moving as it may be, if the movie is not brave enough to at least show us some darkness then we have no reason to believe in it. Instead it shows us nothing of him except a series of reaction shots overtrumpted by Sandra Bullocks condesending and yet very good performance. I'm sure the two stars of the film mean well and are more than capable of doing a honest version of this story, it's clearly the writers and director who are at fault in diminishing their hero into a shallow object of pity with absolutely no psychological depth and giving the films guardian angel the main role.

Probably the films major fault besides its disrespect for the audiences intellegence is the embaressingly old-fashoined racial profiling. This is probably one of the few mainstream American films in years to indulge in the age old insult that the helpless big black boy must be saved and reconciled from all of the evil black druggies by a smart and angelic rich white women who will teach him the rules of the civilized world.

What an insult. At first I threw off this undertone as illusorary, but once the film got to the point in which the only other African-American portrayed onscreen besides our helpless giant was a mean old lady and a bunch of cronies leading him the wrong way, I was convinced that this film was at least diluted in very subtle and outdated friendly racism in which all African-Americans portrayed on film are either druggies or innocent little teddy-bears that cannot survive without the help of a bunch of nice rich white people.

It's such a sad thing that a film with such racial condecation would be making $150 million at the box office in the year of 2009 when the very same year a much smaller and much greater film is playing, though in not the nationwide multiplex theaters The Blind Side unfortunatley finds itself in. That movie is Precious, both concern a teenage African-American living in poverty, both are abused by their parents and both are given help by kind induviduals. The difference is that one respects its characters by making honest and real, by not being afraid to but them under the most unbearable circumstances and trials, in the end, not being afraid of the cruel world. Precious is real life, The Blind Side is an illusion. One is more uplifted by kindness after seeing a harsh and cruel life than one is by seeing nothing but kindness from the very begining.

God, if there's anything I hate in a film it is the feeling of condecation from the film through cheap manipulative preachy moments. This overlong two hour and eight minute film is stuffed with these until the slop boils over. Sure Old Dogs is an awful film, but when would somebody take it seriously? The Blind Side is nowhere near as bad as Old Dogs but is more dangerous since audiences have taken it seriously. The former is just bad entertainment, the latter is a lie disguised as reality. 3/10

Avatar - 9/10

I wasn't really looking forward to it and I went in to the cinema slightly sceptical, but I was pleasantly surprised, it was a good story that kept me enthralled until the end. I will be buying the DVD when it's released, that's for sure.