I saw "The Hurt Locker" yesterday, I thought it was really good actually. 8/10 I'd say.
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I saw "The Hurt Locker" yesterday, I thought it was really good actually. 8/10 I'd say.
"Bella" -- Rotten Tomatoes gives it 45% - insane. This is a really fine film -- only about 4-5 plots/themes; characters with real problems. Very subtle film, very sensitive. Apparently, RT reviewers show that they have lost the ability to feel anything.
My favorite movie! It's the best.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
I just watched The Hangover. I saw it on the big screen but it was just as funny the second time around. Great story, great acting, just all-around funny, fresh, and original. I couldn't ask for a better comedy. 9/10
I just recently re-watched Casablanca for maybe the millionth time. Here's a review I posted a while back and one that I'm quite proud of.
Casablanca. Oh how those syllables seem to echo throughout the collective memory of film audiences. Its lines, phrases and characters have become virtually commonplace and this work of art is just as likely to settle into the collective unconscious of Western civilization just as Hamlet or The Sistine Chapel has. Let's admit it, this is one of the most popular movies of all time, so popular and so well loved, that it has become almost a cliche to call it the greatest film ever made. Every filmgoer who has seen it, loves it, and we all know that it is one of the three or four greatest films ever made, what's the point of even stating something that is common knowledge?
But Casablanca is more than just some great film. It's passion and love is unlike anything ever made in Hollywood, or anywhere for that matter, all thanks to the two immortal performances of two immortal actors, backed up by probably the finest cast of all time along with The Godfather and Citizen Kane. Every inch of this film is perfect.
I probably won't even bother with a synopsis because this film is like a piece of music that we've all heard and look upon with memory. It's like whistling the opening chords of Beethoven's 5th, it resonates inside every filmgoers head.
Now I could waste an entire review saying how great everything about it is, when I can just say what everyone else has said in a single sentence: This is a perfect film, perfect script, perfect acting, perfect atmosphere. Done.
There are just so many characters to love, down to the corrupt French police offical Captian Renault, who's probably the most lovable. His subtle bisexuality and amorality is so amusing that he seems to steal every non-serious scene in the movie. Bergmen and Bogart's performances are both great, and probably the greatest to ever be found in a Hollywood romance, or any film for that matter. Sam is the wonderfully charming piano player, who, despite his minor performance, made Casablanca what it was with the perfect pitch of jazzy music. Paul Henried as the heroic Victor Laszlo is probably the most stiff romantic hero of all time, but who's banality sets just the right tone so that his political heroism doesn't outshine the far more interesting and troubled Rick.
But what is it that draws us to it? Why is it so well loved? It is, in my opinion, along with Singing in the Rain, the greatest thing Hollywood has ever produced. Now of course Hollywood produced Citizen Kane and The Third Man, but those were films made by directors more free from the constraints of the studio system. They are works by their directors; Casablanca is not. It is a purely studio production if there ever was one, and it is an achievement on their part.
What I must say, upon many viewings from over the years, the explanaition of Casablanca's effect sinks in with time. The movie is about time and memory, and the love which seems to go along with it. Observe the nostaligc flashbacks of Paris and the end result; what we see is love, innocence and joy, pitted against the modern world, however can two lovers keep their innocence in a bloodstained world, seems to be what the film asks. Out of this comes Rick's despiar; nostaliga, apathy, memory. And yet, how beautiful it is, that through Paris to Casablanca, that we still hear Sam play "As Time Goes By", strumming the keys as if winding a clock. 10/10
Also, I just re-watched Persona for the third time and still feel as if I'm not worthy enough to review such a great and mysterious film. If anything it is a masterpiece of cryptic modernism in film. One of the all time greats, and Bergman's finest.
Speaking of Bergman (the Swedish director not the actress, lol), here's a review that I attempted to write when I first saw Cries and Whispers. It was just too hard for me to go on, because even words do injustice to the film and trivialize it.
However, I did finish it, but it is terribly unorganized and not one of my best at all:
Clocks tick away in a silent house in early morning. A women awakes in great pain. We can almost hear the sounds of her insides. She takes a glass of water and it harshly goes down.
Cries and Whispers - Taking place at the turn-of-the-century this film inhibits the most deepest, darkest and most intense array of human emotion between three sisters. Each one seems to have done little with their life, and have begun to loathe themselves for it. One of them is in the final stages of cancer, leading to the most painful death scene I have ever seen. We can hear sounds from her stomach, her breathing becomes intensely acute and her voice sounds animalistic and humanly unrecognizable. Ingmar Bergman presents death, in contrast to his most famous masterpiece The Seventh Seal, not in an abstract or theatrical way, but in a cruelly physical and naturalistic way. He presents it as the death of the body. The sister's inevidible death forces us to turn to the other two sisters, as well as the servant as they prepare the funeral.
Flashbacks are shown of the other two sister's life. The two flashbacks further present the extremes of human emotion and how these two women became who they are today. This film isn't a decent into despair, in so much as it is an atmosphere of despair, that is, these induviduals are already wounded in one way or another.
But in a film so filled with narcissism, cruelty and coldness from its characters, there is the greatest love to be found in the servant Ana, who has been treated as a sister and is the one who comes to the dying sister's side when she is screaming in pain and lays her next to her breast like a mother calming her sick child. Bergman films this like a Reinissance painter, so spiritually, so painfully. There is one particular shot in here of Ana holding the dying sister that is so powerful and so heartbreaking, that it is without a doubt one the best in all of cinema.
The two sisters don't know how to express emotion, and in a scene of the most deepest and stunning emotional intensity that the cinema has ever seen (you will know it when you see it, for it is beyond words) their most deepest personal insecurities and insticts all come out.
In the end, what Bergman presents in the final heartbreakingly beautiful scene, is that life is dark, short, tortuous, deceptive, indifferent and infinitley cruel. But there are those moments, just those little moments of joy, that make it all worth it. To quote Dostoyevsky; "My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for one man's life?"
Knowing with Nicholas Cage
Rather disappointing...predictable ending.
4/10 (and I'm being generous)
District 9
10/10 - brilliant, brilliant movie.
Gran Torino - 9/10
Gripping storyline and great performance by Clint Eastwood.
Precious.
I'd give it nine-and-one-quarter impoverished teenagers out of ten.
The story itself isn't really that remarkable, in many ways it could have just been seeing how much crap this poor girl can take. Fortunately, they managed to inject a fair amount of humor ("My favorite color is fluorescent beige.") into the movie and made the title character not just something to pity, but to eventually learn to respect as she begins to figure out she shouldn't have to put up with it anymore and takes charge.
Also, the performances were great. Mo'nique bordered on almost too vicious, but managed to bring it together and managed to be much more complex. Definitely deserved the Oscar. Frankly, I'm really surprised Gabourey Sidibe didn't get anything because she was great, especially for someone with little to no acting experience. Hey, even Mariah Carey was good.
It wasn't a "movie" but the Trail Blazer/Warriors game on TNT last night had some great drama. Amazing come-from-behind win by the Blazers. They almost fell victim to the Warriors' crazy offense. But they pulled it together and got the job done. 10/10
Twilight - 4/10. It came on cable and I watched. I'm giving it a very generous 4/10. I understand that there are a lot of Twilight fans and I know there are a lot of Edward Cullen fans (that's his name, right?). But this movie was lame. It was 122 minutes of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart having pained looks on their faces. I'm not the first person to make that observation - I understand Saturday Night Live did a skit about this and I missed it and I do regret that. The only thing I did like was the cinematography - but I am a big fan of that style I guess so that's nothing. I'm sure the books must be better than the movies. I sure hope they are. There were lots of pretty-faced actors as well.
Shutter Island 9/10. Very good, very atmospheric.
A lot, a lot, a lot. This is what I remember:
Mutual Appreciation: :thumbs_up (I really appreciated this film, pun not intended.)
Hot Rod: :thumbs_up (I've seen it three times in the last month)
Damnation: :thumbs_up (In Tarr I trust.)
Mister Lonely: :thumbs_up (I should've had more faith in Korine. I avoided this one, but the moments captured remind me why Harmony Korine is one of my favorite directors.)
The Room: :ack2: (The all-intentioned drama, that's enjoyed as a comedy, is one of the creepiest films I've ever did see.)
Venom and Eternity: :thumbs_up (I couldn't begin to express my admiration for this film <--- I guess that's a start.)
The Ghost Writer - 10/10 - Roman Polanski is continuously proving to the world what a brilliant director he is. I know i'm speaking early, but I can't think of many valid reasons why he shouldn't win Best Director at next year's Oscars for this. Surrealism at its best, he borrows a lot from Hitchcock on this one.
That said - he still deserves to go to jail for the rest of his life. Being a complete artistic genius does not excuse one from crimes. It's kind of a shame, though, because his punishment will ultimately be more of a punishment for the world who will not get to enjoy such brilliant films any longer.
Cadillac Records 9/10
This movie is about Chess Records and the musicians, such as Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry and Etta James, who made music there in the 40's and 50's. The film centers around producer Leonard Chess, who is the owner of Chess Records, and Muddy Waters who was the first musician to sign on with Chess. In the opening credits, I noticed two phrases: "Based On a True Story" and "Executive Producer: Beyonce Knowles." So, I gather that there may have been more to the story than what is given in this particular film, and that's okay for somoene like me who wasn't even around when the Rolling Stones started making music.
According to the movie, Muddy Waters (played by Jeffrey Wright) was working on a plantation when two men pulled up in a car and wanted to make a recording of folk music for the Library of Congress. So he got out his guitar and sang and when they played the recording back for him, he heard his singing and playing the way someone else would have for the first time, and made the decision to leave the plantation and go elsewhere to make music. To be frank, I was more impressed with the music that was played in the early part of the film. Maybe it's the music itself or maybe it's some combination of Jeffrey Wright's performance and the music, but whatever it is, I am now on an internet mission trying to find CD's of that style of blues music.
In the middle of the movie, Beyonce Knowles comes in as Etta James, and at that point, the movie seemed to be about Beyonce performing Etta James' music. The film stopped three times so that we could watch Beyonce Knowles sing an Etta James song wearing an Etta James wig. I like Beyonce, when she is being Beyonce. Her teary Etta James performances did nothing for me personally but then I realized that this is the year 2008 and Beyonce Knowles' appearance might be the bridge from the past to the present for some viewers who wouldn't be compelled to watch this movie otherwise.
Knocked Up - It was a warm piece of poo.. The only reason I didn't turn it off was because I was at someone else's house and they like the movie. It seemed like every actor was a caricature. 4.5/10