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

[qimissung]

Tonight I stayed up late to watch Fargo directed by the Coen Brothers. It's such a masterpeice and remains the Coens best work. I remember watching this when I was at my grandmothers house and there was about four feet of snow outside. . . .
This is such a masterful movie, and yet everything is very subtle. After their overblown Raising Arizona, we see an ever growing maturity in the Coens as great directors, their talents reaching their peaks in Fargo, who's plot is so popostorous and weird, that's so violent and funny, that the entire movie seems one big juxtaposition of everyday Mid-Western life.
Here, the Coens achieve what Lynch tried to do with Twin Peaks, and that was to have witty and quirky small-town characters, just going about their everyday lives, oh, and there happens to be a triple homicide. There are moments in the film in which the bored inhabitants of Brainard simply concern themselves with the usual small talk, choosing that over police-work interrigation and questioning, you know all that complicated stuff.
William H. Macy gives a brilliant performance in playing a bad actor; a car salesman who hires two criminals to kipnap his own wife, so that her father can pay the ransom so he'll get some of the money or, whatever, it's too confusing. Frances McDormand is in her shining role of her career who plays a sweet but clever policewoman who seems to be a force of small-town nature on her own, like that hauntingly quirky statue of Paul Bunyan, just outside of Brainard.
Either way, this is a masterpiece, covered in snow and coldness, which presents itself as an interesting crime film and unravels into the most delightful dark comedies ever made. 10/10

Good review, Daniel. I haven't seen this one yet. I acknowledge the Coens are good, but they are also an acquired taste. I will put this on my list of movies to see now.

[manolia]

I saw Halloween II. I guess the cultered people here at Lit Net haven't seen this fine film..

It wasn't that great but I was in the mood for the movie theater and I had a cherry coke and some popcorn so I sat through it. There were a couple of cool cinematic shots that would make for great desktop wallpaper, and Rob Zombie's wife pulled off the creepy ghost mother role better than anyone else could.

hehehe agreed. Love that film

[DisPater]

Away We Go --- an OK movie.

[DanielBenoit]

Good review, Daniel. I haven't seen this one yet. I acknowledge the Coens are good, but they are also an acquired taste. I will put this on my list of movies to see now.

It's so good.

This is probably the funniest scene from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRu6_mJiVAo

[Janine]

It's so good.

This is probably the funniest scene from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRu6_mJiVAo

That is one of my favorite films ever and I have to admit I am not too into the Cohen Brother's films. But Fargo is a classic. It's excellent! Definitely it has to be their best work ever. Good taste in films, Daniel.

[DanielBenoit]

That is one of my favorite films ever and I have to admit I am not too into the Cohen Brother's films. But Fargo is a classic. It's excellent! Definitely it has to be their best work ever. Good taste in films, Daniel.

Thank you

Aww, what films of theirs have met with your disapproval

[Janine]

Thank you

Aww, what films of theirs have met with your disapproval

I actually hated O,Brother Where Art Thou...Maybe I just didn't get it. I found it annoying. Another movie of theirs I thought was terrible, but now I can't recall it's name. It came out after BWAT...Oh, I recall what it was now...I had high expectations but I really hated it, too....The Ladykillers...wasn't that a remake of an old film?

I am not much of an authority on their work, I admit this. Come to think of it and I forgot about this one, I did love Raising Arizona, when that film first came out. No Country for Old Men was a very good serious film; quite different than anything I had ever seen before. I hadn't realised they directed that film. I just looked up their filmography on Wikipedia. I should see The Big Lebowski sometime but I keep putting that one off. I admit it does look pretty funny though.

[DanielBenoit]

Oh, you just had very bad luck. Definitley see No Country for Old Men, as well as Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There and Miller's Crossing.

[Janine]

Oh, you just had very bad luck. Definitley see No Country for Old Men, as well as Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There and Miller's Crossing.

I saw No Country for Old Men...I really did like that one. I will have to check out the other more serious or thriller type films. Didn't you see my post above yours? I guess my view of their work is divided; some I liked and some I didn't.

[DanielBenoit]

Ooops, I misread

[Janine]

Ooops, I misread

Oh that's ok, Daniel, .... maybe you need reading glasses. So are the other ones you mentioned more on the serious side with some quirpiness? If so I would probably like them.

[DanielBenoit]

Oh yes, all of them are great. Omg, I forgot: Barton Fink! Big thumbs up to that one.

[billl]

I'll chime in:

Raising Arizona--I saw it in the theater and loved it. This was a pretty new kind of film, at least to me way back then. Comedy about love for a stolen baby, with lots of bumbling shenanigans. And pretty arty editing, etc.

Ladykillers--I had read a lukewarm review or two, but tried it out because I love the Coen Bros., and had an absolutely fantastic time watching it. It is hard to judge Tom Hanks fairly after all of his accomplishments, and his mainstreamness seemed to make me less interested in his performance, but I never found reason to criticize the performance (I was maybe almost disappointed about that--that's just how I am when it comes to putting big-budget guys in a Coen Bros. film), and there was a lot of other great stuff going on, I thought.

Miller's Crossing--A gangster film without too much Coen-quirkiness. It had (for me) all the weighty family issues coated with cold-bloodedness that Scorsese films have made me expect from Mafia films, but did not resemble a Scorsese film in any way, not in performance, casting, set design, or any film technique my untrained eye could notice. I thought it worked well, but I can't say I remember it so well. I'd like to see it again.

The Man Who Wasn't There--I didn't get into this one. It was dark, and moody, and grim. I had little reason to smile, and some of it moved kind of slow, I thought. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, and I strongly suspect that a fan of this one could open my eyes to stuff I missed, and maybe change my opinion. Still, there was little joy or wackiness in this one, and plenty of discomfort, imho.

O Brother--I thought this was a great film! All I can say is that there were some unusual characters, but it never seemed like they were pointlessly unusual. The story went through some odd changes, but it never seemed pointlessly unusual. And the whole thing was offbeat, sometimes absurd, other times ridiculous in its old-time innocence and conservatism. But I was able to watch it without all the extremes and odd juxtapositions throwing me out of a pretty warm and lightly-wacky adventure story, subtly underlined by the quiet, soulful reverberations of eternal truths, kind enough to keep their distance.

The Big Lebowski--I won't say much about this one, just be ready for wackiness, EXTREME quotability, and a rather surprisingly explorable allegory for post-Vietnam U.S. But just forget I said that, it isn't important, really.

[DanielBenoit]

Speaking of Raising Arizona. . . .

Raising Arizona seems as if a camera was given to a twelve year old Orson Welles and was told to go crazy. This is an unbelievably skillful and well photographed film with endless eye-candy and camera moves that seem like circus tricks. This film is just exploding with Wellesian innovation and charm.
That is, with the camera at least.
Raising Arizona is probably the prime example of a director choosing stlye ocer substance. This is a suprisingly premature film from the Coen brothers, who made Blood Simple only two years ago, and Fargo ten years later, both of them masterpieces. This one, is an extemely well made dud. Nothing works in here except the camera. Everything is overdone to nauseating extremes, including the comedy. The screenplay is very messy, which can be quite poetic, but at the wrong times. Really, this film is like a seesaw: It has either moments of pure genius or flat-out embarresingly helpless ones.
It's a good thing that the Coens realized that they could both express their genius and be funny at the same time with Fargo, which is so beautifully subtle and smart. But hey, Raising Arizona was just a mistake. The Coens made Blood Simple before and Fargo after, along with many other greats to add to their collection. Every dog has it's day, and every dog has it's dud.
5/10

[billl]

Just to clarify my comments about Raising Arizona--I had fallen asleep during Blood Simple while watching the newly-released VHS at a friend's house, but only because I was extremely tired. After that, my friends' love for the film made it impossible for me to watch it again from a fresh perspective.

Anyhow, I don't know when DanielBenoit saw Raising Arizona, but I thought Nick Cage was a pretty new and interesting face at the time. I can understand the see-saw type perspective, but I'll give the film an 8.

But Wild At Heart gets a 9, from me.