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

[YesNo]

Gone With the Wind

Score 10/10

[Emil Miller]

Yesterday's Enemy (1959). This black and white British film, directed by Val Guest, concerns a unit of British troops, cut off from their regiment in the Burmese jungle, who take over a Japanese occupied village after a firefight. One of the dead enemy officers has a coded map that seems of importance, so the English captain sends it with some of his men into the jungle in the hope that they will make it back to the regiment while he and the others remain behind to cover the rear in case the enemy come looking for the map. They do and, after a battle, the British are taken prisoner and subjected to psychological interrogation by the senior Japanese commander.
Good location scenes and some excellent photography save this story about the moral imperatives of war between the English captain and the Japanese intelligence officer, from becoming routine. 7/10

[Helga]

'To Rome with love' by Woody Allen, it was good, not great. Better than his worst but not as good as it's best

[MorpheusSandman]

Ichi The Killer (2001; Takashi Miike) - 8/10

Typical over-the-top blood-bath from the master of Japanese schlock shock, the uber-prolific Takashi Miiki. Ichi is a particularly bizarre and creative effort, though. Here, we have an icy-calm Yakuza (Japanese mafia) leader, killer, and sadomasochist with a slit in his cheeks held together by piercings (so when he takes them out he can open his mouth as wide as a snake) going up against a crybaby super killer, Ichi, that slices people apart with blades that come out of his shoes. Seriously, who else can come up with this stuff? One thing you can count on with Miike are scenes that are so violent they border on hilarious parody, and there are many of them here, including the Yakuza killer catching a punch in his snake-like mouth and chewing a guy's arm off, and Ichi slicing a guy completely in half from his head to his crotch. Bloody fun.

[YesNo]

The City of Your Final Destination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cit...al_Destination

Score: 10/10

[MorpheusSandman]

The Insect Woman (1963; Shohei Imamura) - 8.5/10

On the surface, it's a Japanese New Wave rendition of the well-worn prostitute/geisha genre of Japanese cinema. Under the surface, though, it seems less like a New Wave rendering, and more like a complete summation of the various approaches to the genre. Imamura has Mizoguchi's sympathy for the plight of women during hard times, Ozu's static, unflinching camera, and Kurosawa's dynamic compositions, lighting, and in-camera movement. Perhaps the most pervasive influence, though, is Mikio Naruse, who took a much more hard-edged, realist approach to the genre, by not depicting his female characters as tragic, saintly figures ala Mizoguchi. Imamura's Tome is a complex, resourceful, ambitious, sympathetic, opportunistic, occasionally ruthless character whom is both a product of her socio-cultural context (pre-war and post-war Japan), but also a reactionary to it.

Sachiko Hidari plays Tome wonderfully over the course of the film's 3 decades, which takes us from just before the war, on through the economic boom after it, and into the early 60s. She breaks out every nuanced facet of the character, and in doing so consistently manipulates our perspective and sympathies towards her. Imamura takes a very impressionistic, fragmented perspective, which slowly reveals the whole through pieces and glimpses of scenes, with a healthful dose of Ozu-like elisions that tend to focus on the small, individualistic moments as opposed to the big, life-defining events (and even those are so subtly played they don't come off as being as monumental as they are). All in all one of the best films ever made in the "geisha/prostitute" genre that seems to get everything right by refusing to omit any perspective of the situation.

[faithosaurus]

Gangster Squad 9/10

I thought it was a great movie; a good amount of humor and action/drama. Plus, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are great actors.

[MorpheusSandman]

Plus, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are great actors.

Don't know about great actors, but Emma Stone is adorable. I loved her in Easy A.

[faithosaurus]

Don't know about great actors, but Emma Stone is adorable. I loved her in Easy A.

That movie was awesome in so many ways.

Sooo, just went to see Silver Linings Playbook. 10/10. Seriously, Jennifer Lawrence...she just makes every movie she's in. So great.

[islandclimber]

That movie was awesome in so many ways.

Sooo, just went to see Silver Linings Playbook. 10/10. Seriously, Jennifer Lawrence...she just makes every movie she's in. So great.

It was that good then... I was thinking about checking it out, yet I've never been able to like Bradley Cooper. Such a mediocre actor. And De Niro has been going downhill since Taxi Driver. That's like 35 years of getting worse! Jennifer Lawrence was great in Winter's Bone. Haven't seen her in anything else.

I quite like Ryan Gosling of late. Drive was such a good film. Loved it's stark, minimalist nature. And it didn't hurt that the soundtrack was pretty epic, and the few moments of cathartic violence were so damn perfect. He played his role to perfection, with a subtlety so lacking in most films of late.

I saw Oslo, August 31st for the second time last night. I also saw it at TIFF last year. What a film. Anders Danielsen Lie's portrayal of a recovering drug addict is sublime. I'd rate his performance as best of 2011 alongside André Wilms in Kaurismaki's latest Le Havre. The film is loosely based upon Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's 1931 novel Le Feu Follet, which was made into a brilliant movie by Louis Malle many years ago (though much more along the lines of the novel). An incredible exploration into loss, shame, vulnerability and regret, alongside the dim light of hope. Anders finds himself in the midst of this vague existential crisis of wanting to live and to feel, but being unable to do so without the assistance of that which will slowly drive him to the grave. He is clean, yet in so being he remains numb. It's not so much about the struggle to remain clean, but the halfhearted existence of the afterwards and the question of "why bother living?" that arises when one is so hopelessly disconnected from all one thought meaningful. Danielsen Lie's performance is masterful in its complex version of simplicity. And Trier's film is much more sombre and subtle than his first feature Reprise, which was quite a film itself. I give this 9.5/10... Alongside Bela Tarr's latest (and apparently last) masterpiece The Turin Horse, this was the best film of 2011. Two just brilliant films.

[MorpheusSandman]

I've started watching Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. First two eps. were awesome--very Twin Peaksian. I'm including this in the movie thread since Trier is mostly known as a film director and this "tv series" really isn't all that different from his other films, stylistically speaking.

[Calidore]

I've started watching Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. First two eps. were awesome--very Twin Peaksian. I'm including this in the movie thread since Trier is mostly known as a film director and this "tv series" really isn't all that different from his other films, stylistically speaking.

I'd think TV series watched could fall under the movies thread anyway.

I've seen the first Kingdom DVD (episodes 1-4) and it's very enjoyable. I haven't seen part 2 (eps 5-8) yet. Be advised that while the cliffhanger ending of the first set will be resolved in the second (and the main story arc running through those episodes does end in ep 4), the second set cliffhanger never will be, as the intended conclusion to the series was never shot and several of the main cast have since died. I'd still like to watch the whole thing regardless, so if you do go on to the second part, be sure to post your opinion.

If you do watch the second set anyway, be sure to post how it is.

[qimissung]

Amour 10/10. If I could vote for and Academy Award, I know which movie would get my vote, for Best Movie, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director. Yes, in my world, it is a sweep. Both the leads did such a delicate, superb job. This is a heart-wrenching movie, yet one filled up and brimming over with love.

[MorpheusSandman]

Lola Montes (1955; Max Ophuls) - 9.5/10

I have a new candidate for the most beautiful film ever made. The cinematography and mise-en-scene in Lola Montes is so intoxicating I walked away from the film with a buzz. It's hard to imagine that this masterpiece was a flop on its release that was butchered by the studio and was only restored and rereleased within the past decade. For those familiar with Ophuls's cinema, Montes isn't really different in terms of themes (oppressed women in a patriarchal society) or style (complex, omnikinetic camera movements, dense mise-en-scene), but it was his last film and his only film in color. Ophuls reportedly didn't like either being forced into color or stereo sound, but he damn sure made amazing usage of both. About the only negative is Martine Carol's rather blank performance in the title role, which quickly becomes like a second fiddle to Ophuls' direction. It gives the film a kind of chilly distance, which probably explains why the film is mostly only admired by critics and other filmmakers. On the other hand, Carol's eschewing of emotional involvement makes Lola one of the most inscrutable of Max's heroines, giving the whole film a great sense of mystery. The star of the show remains the extraordinary visuals, however, and I can perfectly understand why Andrew Sarris staked his reputation on this film proclaiming it the best film ever made. I won't go that far, but it is utterly extraordinary from a directorial, cinematographic perspective.

If you do watch the second set anyway, be sure to post how it is.

I am going to watch it. I know the series ends without a conclusion, but Twin Peaks did too and it's still one of my favorite things ever.

[Snowqueen]

I watched Winter’s Bone last night; it’s a great film. Jenifer Lawrence’s performance was brilliant throughout the movie. 8/10