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

[Snowqueen]

I've seen just two animated movies by Hayao Miyasaki - Howls Moving Castle and Spirited Away and they were very good specially Spirited Away. I look forward to watch The Wind Risestoo.

I saw The Gift last night with a big cast and it wasn't bad. 6/10

[YesNo]

Glad the review prompted your response, Emil Miller. I figure if there weren't characters like those in Austenland, qimissung, we'd have to create them. I saw Spirited Away long ago, Snowqueen and Ecurb. It still sticks in my mind. I think I'll have to skip the comedy section in the library for a while and look at some anime movies.

I saw three movies last week:

Sightseers: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023690/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Alice Lowe's performance is what makes this stand out. I liked the expression on her face when she (Tina) watches her new boyfriend kill a couple people he figures shouldn't continue to breathe anymore and how you can see the wheels turning in her brain as she makes sense out of it. If you find this gets a bit boring because all they are doing is pushing people over cliffs or running them over in their camper, hang on till the end. It is unusual. Tina was a quick learner.

Score: 6/10

The Angel's Share: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This one has more realistic violence than what you find in Sightseers. I liked Paul Brannigan's portrayal of Robbie as well as the plot surrounding this character. Robbie is caught between physically harassive stalkers and he gets into situations where he thinks he is defending himself only to find he has harmed innocent people. He needs a job because he is a new father and his father-in-law just wants him out of the way. Robbie handled himself better than I would in the circumstances.

Score: 9/10 (maybe 10/10)

Afternoon Delight: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2312890/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This is about a wife, Rachel, who has multiple problems which makes for a delightful story. She takes in a stripper, McKenna, to try to help her out. Actually, McKenna doesn't really need any help, but she goes along for the ride helping Rachel. Rachel is also seeing a shrink, or counselor or whatever you call them. Toward the end of the movie, this shrink performs an hilarious routine on the couch with Rachel. Perhaps it is a brand new therapeutic technique? Whatever, it knocks some sense into Rachel and everyone lives happily ever after as they are supposed to.

Score: 8/10

[Emil Miller]

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard this is a very French film and very much of its time.
The cast consists largely of the strikingly beautiful Macha Méril and her husband and lover.
She has a son but her husband is a pilot who is often away and that is when she has assignations
with her lover who is a stage actor. She is thinking of divorcing her husband but when she discovers
she is pregnant, she decides that an acting engagement that will take the lover away to Marseille gives
her a chance to break with him and return to her husband.
The story is told in random conversations and actions very much à la mode at the time but I doubt that
it would be acceptable today except to serious film buffs.

7/10


http://youtu.be/g3_Z3vsdjKk

[LitNetIsGreat]

Chess Fever.

A brilliant 1925 Russian silent film about chess. It is just a short, under 30 mins but well worth a watch. It is about a society addicted to chess and how one young man's obsession with it nearly ruins his love life. Features some rare real footage of some old great players from a 1925 tournament, such as Lasker and Capablanca. Very funny and well shot.

9/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnn4K8g354

[MorpheusSandman]

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard this is a very French film and very much of its time... I doubt that
it would be acceptable today except to serious film buffs.

I love Godard, but that is not one of his better films. Godard never WAS acceptable to anyone besides film buffs (except maybe for his first 2 or 3 features) because his entire cinema was built around subverting cinema (and culture) itself in a very postmodern way. That said, there's been no filmmaker more influential in the last 50 years (which is why he's #5 on TSP's Top 250 list, along with tying the great John Ford for the most films on their Top 1000) and even filmmakers that work in completely different modes, like Tarantino, owe almost all of their freedom to Godard and the French New Wave. Trying to write about a Godard film with a plot summary is rarely worthwhile as his plots are usually just skeletons that his aesthetics and intellectual ideas hang on. A Married Woman is really one of his lighter works from that era, colorful and fun, but lacking the originality of his truly great 60s films (and he had a handful of them: Breathless, Contempt, Pierrot le fou, Weekend, Alphaville, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, Masculin/Feminin, Vivre sa vie).

[Emil Miller]

Chess Fever.

A brilliant 1925 Russian silent film about chess. It is just a short, under 30 mins but well worth a watch. It is about a society addicted to chess and how one young man's obsession with it nearly ruins his love life. Features some rare real footage of some old great players from a 1925 tournament, such as Lasker and Capablanca. Very funny and well shot.

9/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLnn4K8g354

An interesting film that satirises the Russian fascinaton with chess that was being actively encouraged by the soviet regime as a form of intellectual stimulation of the public following the revolution. V.I Pudovkin was one of the founders of soviet cinema who went on to make films of a somewhat more serious nature.

[YesNo]

I saw a couple Hayao Miyasaki anime movies last week:

1) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087544/

Nausicaä is a princess who turns into the hero whom the world has been waiting for for a thousand years. You sort of expect this from the beginning once you know that the community has given up on the hero ever appearing and you see how Nausicaä behaves.

Score: 9/10

2) Ponyo: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Here's a fish who causes a lot of trouble just to become human. She is already quite nice the way she is. The most interesting character is her mother who is a goddess of some sort. She reminds me of the Hindu Lakshmi rising out of the churning ocean.

Score: 9/10

[Iain Sparrow]

I saw The Grey Zone last weekend... where Schindler's List has moments of tender humanity, The Grey Zone only marches on to certain conclusion.

I can't remember watching a movie so devoid of hope, not even a pretense of hope. If you think you can take it, then I recommend the film.

[MorpheusSandman]

I saw a couple Hayao Miyasaki anime movies last week:

I adore Miyazaki, but neither are favorites. Nausicaa is beautiful in its own way, but Ponyo seems a decidedly minor effort. I'd give the former an 8.5 and the latter a 7.5.

[TheFifthElement]

I adore Miyazaki, but neither are favorites. Nausicaa is beautiful in its own way, but Ponyo seems a decidedly minor effort. I'd give the former an 8.5 and the latter a 7.5.

I agree Morpheus, both are lesser Miyazaki works. Nausicaa is Mononoke-light with Mononoke, I think, being a much more fleshed out and beautifully done version of the same kind of story. Ponyo I saw at the cinema and disliked, but it has since grown on me considerably. It is a nice rendering of the Little Mermaid story, Japanese style of course. Pretty, but not a master work.

My personal favourites are Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. I also have a fondness for My Neighbour Totoro, which is such a heartwarming story. Oh, and Kiki's Delivery Service, that's sweet too. Haven't seen The Wind Rises yet as it's not out in UK until May, but I can't wait.

[MorpheusSandman]

My three favorite Miyazakis are Mononoke, Totoro, and Spirited Away, with Castle in the Sky a close 4th. Most of Miyazaki's grow on you, I've found. I too liked Ponyo more the second time around, though, as we agree, it's still short of a master work. Nausicaa very much does seem to be a "tune up" for Monoke.

[YesNo]

I'll probably pick up a couple more Miyazaki anime movies at the library this morning. I didn't expect the animation to be so realistic.

[MorpheusSandman]

I didn't expect the animation to be so realistic.

I don't think I'd call them realistic in the slightest, though definitely artistic. If you want "realistic" anime, try Grave of the Fireflies, which, IMO, is better than any single Miyazaki film.

[kev67]

I just watched Under the Skin at the cinema. I was the only one in the auditorium. Just as well, as it is uncomfortable viewing. I kept wanting to do some press-ups to relieve the tension.

[TheFifthElement]

I don't think I'd call them realistic in the slightest, though definitely artistic. If you want "realistic" anime, try Grave of the Fireflies, which, IMO, is better than any single Miyazaki film.

Oh I agree, Grave of the Fireflies is in a class of its own. I've only been able to watch it once because cry, cry, sob, cry. It should come with a box of tissues and a hotline for counselling after you've watched it. My son, who watched it with me, also sobbed at the end. It is a very powerful piece of movie-making.

I still like Spirited Away better though

Last movie I watched was The Woman in Black. Best part was watching Ciaran Hinds' incredulous expression as he watched Daniel Radcliffe trying to act. More boring than the book. Full of cliches. Yawn. 3/10.