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

[NickAdams]

I couldn't agree with you more on all of those points. CGI ruins most movies because you begin to believe what is going on in the movie, begin to get sucked in, and then you see a CG explosion or a CG monster or a CG Spiderman mixed in with all the real shots and it sets up a bit of disbelief in the viewer. You say to yourself "that is not real". Avatar finds a way to do it that works. After seeing it, i'm very mad at the production companies for how they made all of the trailers of Avatar. It makes the movie look very stupid. The movie you are going to expect to see is certainly not the movie you will be seeing, that's the only thing I can guarantee you.

Lol, those moments in Spider-man are overshadowed by the instances in the Matrix sequels.

Thanks. No matter how much I'm against a movie, I'd rather end up enjoying it than have my criticisms validated. There was another movie, I don't remember which, that I was dragged to this year and I was surprised that the tone was totally different than how the trailer portrayed it. I wonder how many good films I have missed because of that. I'm hoping that, with the internet, more films will start posting the first ten minutes rather than continuing with trailers.

[NickAdams]

I totally agree, and I love films like LOTR or Avatar, but seeing Buster Keaton do the real thing is truly astonishing. Hell the greatest thing about Buster besides the fact that he is one of the best and funniest actors who ever lived, he's without a doubt the greatest stuntman. It is enthralling to see what he does; fall off of a twirling house, jump onto a moving car, have a frickin' house fall on him, and all with a straight face.

It's all too bad that directors no longer take very many risks when all they have to do is add CGI. What would've a film like Fitzcarraldo become if it was done with CGI?

My younger brother called me recently to help him with an essay on The Prestige, so I watched it again and it's interesting how the movie can work as a metaphor for two types of directors. You have Angier "The Great Danton" (Michael Bay) and Bordon "The Professor" (Herzog). The Great Danton can stand for any commercial director or abuser of CGI (those who believe that they're an auteur just becuase they are credited as the director).

You can even draw a comparison of how Hollywood exploits the independent creations: Bordon creates a trick called the Transported Man and Angier copies the trick, but commercializes it.

[DanielBenoit]

The Great Danton can stand for any commercial director or abuser of CGI (those who believe that they're an auteur just becuase they are credited as the director).

I know, I can't stand how some special effects directors somehow see themselves as autuers when there is almost nothing unique about them. Sure Michael Bay's trademark is that of helecopters on the horizez and Peter Jackson does have a tendency to provide many close-ups in slow-motion, but that does not mean that they are autuers in the sense that Tarantino or Korine are. Besides, the real authors behind most of the work is the special effects people, they're the real minds behind these films.

[chaneybean]

Up

Loved it! 10/10

[DanielBenoit]

Omfg I'm so excited! One of the very few French New Wave masters still alive, the great Jean Luc-Godard shall release a new film called Socialisme. Here's the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhqOF...eature=related

EDIT: It has been reported to be his last!!!!! BIG news here!


Ooops, wrong thread

[papayahed]

The Hangover - Kinda dopey with a few funny parts thrown in, 7/10.

[Shalot]

The Hangover - Kinda dopey with a few funny parts thrown in, 7/10.

We have rented the DVD here...I haven't watched it yet but I was going to.

Spun: I've seen this before but I'm watching it again. Britney Murphy is in it and as we all know, she died and the thread about it was locked. But anyway, this movie is just crazy. It's about these people who are on Crystal Meth and it's revolting but I couldn't stop watching... I give it a 9/10.

Oh, and since I couldn't post this in the Britney Murphy thread, I just wanted to recommend The Dead Girl. I think Britney Murphy did have talent...you just have to look beyond the tasteless Maxim photos there.

[NickAdams]

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
I'm not really sure how to rate it.

Most of the reviews I've read have praised Ledger's performance and cringed at the story. I found Ledger's performance uneven with moments of nice casual humor, but the praise comes from his death and not what's put on screen. There is more of Ledger than the reports led me to believe. Out of the three actors that volunteered to complete Tony's story, Colin Ferrell , Jude Law and Johnny Depp: Johnny Depp is the only one that is consistent with what has come before.

I found Lily Cole's performance flat, Tom Waits' odd, Andrew Garfield's promising and Verne Troyer is surprisingly funny as a George Costanza type.

There are some great looking set pieces. Terry Gilliam blends the real and fantastic, something that he has done before and better in pictures like The Fisher King.

If I were to recommend this film it would be for Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus and the very interesting take on his relationship with Mr. Nick.

[Mathor]

Lol, those moments in Spider-man are overshadowed by the instances in the Matrix sequels.

Thanks. No matter how much I'm against a movie, I'd rather end up enjoying it than have my criticisms validated. There was another movie, I don't remember which, that I was dragged to this year and I was surprised that the tone was totally different than how the trailer portrayed it. I wonder how many good films I have missed because of that. I'm hoping that, with the internet, more films will start posting the first ten minutes rather than continuing with trailers.

Yeah. Ultimately I try not to dwell too much on trailers at all. You can rarely realize if you will like or dislike a movie simply by watching the trailer. I've also had many movies that i see the trailer and think "this is going to be the best movie ever" and I come to realize that the trailer only made it appear to a movie worth watching. It's all hollywood trickery. The director does not make the trailer, therefore using it to determine if we will see a movie seems almost like the backwards way of doing things.

[Mathor]

An Education - 10/10 - Finally. Finally. Finally. A movie that addresses all the elements of the story it is trying to tell. I watched The Blind Side a month ago, a movie that is truthfully and simply a movie about racism, but the movie tries so hard to be a heartwarming flick that it never even once touches on the theme that the entire movie is evolving around. I felt this same way when I watched Clint Eastwood's Invictus, a movie that is also really about racism, but attempts to cover this up to make it a movie about sports (Much like Remember The Titans).

Here we have An Education. A girl (masterfully acted by Carie Mulligan) who is only 16 and a year from graduating from high school wishes to break out of the hole her life appears to be in. She is obsessed with french films and art and jazz music, and her dream is to play the cello in some sort of great London orchestra. Her father says that all of these things are a waste of time, that she will not need any of these things when she goes to Oxford. He tells her that all she needs is An Education. She meets a man of 32 one day in the rain after cello practice, and he drives her home. He appears to be a man of much wealth, and he offers her a series of dates and similar things. On top of that, the man is able to convince her parents that he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This man is able to give her a slice of the fancy life she dreams of living. The ultimate theme of the movie is the lingering question of why the girl (Jenny) must get an education and go to college. When the playboy offers her a hand in marriage, the headmistress of her school says that "you can not do anything in this world without an education". And Jenny says to her "but what if i do not want to be a teacher?" and the headmistress simply replies "then you could be a secretary". The harsh reality of the time period of this movie, before any great civil rights initiatives for women, women were forced into one job. All of the "working" women portrayed in this movie are unhappy with their lives, often single, often seen as women who are pretty lonely people. When Jenny asks her dad about getting married he simply says to her "Well then I guess you'd be all taken care of." And Jenny says "Well, what about Oxford?" and he says "I guess you really wouldn't need to go to school, then, would you?" This movie spends a great deal of time discussing women and their roles in society, and the very small route of options for them as individuals. I cannot discuss this movie as much as I'd like without giving away what happens, but please go see this film.

I should point out Rosamund Pike's amazing acting as a sort of aristocratic jazz beatnik (portraying the side of women who choose not to go to school) who befriends the young Jenny. You might notice her as Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.

Rosamund Pike is on the left, Carrie Mulligan as Jenny on the right:


And i just feel the need to point out the brilliant cinematography to go along with the wonderful narrative:

[DanielBenoit]

Yeah. Ultimately I try not to dwell too much on trailers at all. You can rarely realize if you will like or dislike a movie simply by watching the trailer. I've also had many movies that i see the trailer and think "this is going to be the best movie ever" and I come to realize that the trailer only made it appear to a movie worth watching. It's all hollywood trickery. The director does not make the trailer, therefore using it to determine if we will see a movie seems almost like the backwards way of doing things.

Yeah, most trailers make films look feel-good when they're really downbeat and Hollywood thrillers when they're works of American neo-realism (see the trailer for United 93).

[Janine]

It's a Wonderful Life ~ Frank Capra...amazing to find out this great film was not recieved well when first released; but now is found much more world-wide popularity and acclaim...it was nominated for many awards back in the day of it's release, but then passed over and into obscurity until the copyright ran out; it was then shown on TV and later released on DVD. Of course, it's corny and sentimental in parts, but still one can't beat the story and the characters; top-notch actors! I think it's one of Jimmy Stewart's best roles ever...especially, when he shows rage and then is in darkest dispair on the bridge in the snow. Donna Reed was perfect for the role and she is just drop-dead gorgeous in this film. Great to watch the extras and see just how the film was staged and shot; and the snow was one of the first, that used a combination of ingredients to make artificial snow. I have to say the falling snow looked quite realistic. I am a big Capra fan, and I hadn't seen this movie for awhile, so I enjoyed it emensely. It's the perfect holiday movie. Frank Capra, himself, felt it was his greatest achievement. I could watch it again right away - it's delightful. I love the angel, Clarence. He's really humorous.

[DanielBenoit]

Gummo - Some may say that director Harmony Korine is unfair and condecending towards his characters, presenting them as dumb, racist white trash, and while the extremity of this film may create a convincing argument for that (for its content is not gracious or subtle) it is too shallow an interpretation in this otherwise haunting and hypnotically strange and disturbing film.

Yes before viewing this I had heard all about the films contnet; the cat-drowning scene, the depictions of racism, the extremely odd logic of the film, which consists of a series of surreal vignettes concerning a small Ohio town which had been hit by a tornado.

At the begining we are presented with many explicitly disturbing things, not least one of them being the drowning of a cat by two teenagers, then them going to the grocery store to sell it. One of the teens narrates and talks about his friend "some say he's evil". At this point we certainly agree, knowing very well that most serial killers began with killing cats. But they don't kill for enjoyment, or at least partly. Their hunt is in a sense a strange and offbeat means of survival, it's Korine's modern twist on the hunter-gatherer culture. What the grocery store does with the cats I don't know and probably don't want to know, but that doesn't matter. The point is that they are killing cats, but why is it so much more disturbing than if they were killing bears or wolves.

There are many deep and simple snapshots just like this throughout this exploration through this hic town in mid-western America. Take one in which a girl figures out she has AIDS. She goes to a doctor and learns that she's going to have to have her breasts surgically removed. She despairs over the fact that she won't be able to get a boyfriend after that because "boys are like that". Which raises an uncomfortable and yet deeply troubling question: Do we as a society place all the value of a women in her breasts? If so, what is she to men when she no longer has them? The answer is deeply troubling.

This film is a masterpiece of poetic and despairing moments concerning suicide, murder, Satanism, sexuality, death, old age, racism and blue-collar culture. Korine makes a masterful use of different film mediums to convey his visual poetry, which is effective at all times with haunting voice-over narration by the two teenagers. Just take the opening sequence in which one of them describes the tornado that hit. To hear his voice and the things he says so simply is chilling.

This is a troubled and deeply disturbing film whose style and subject matter will immedietly turn off many people. Those who cherish experimental art cinema know who they are and will seek out this film, if you are still watching Twilight, you may not be ready for this film just yet. It has a beautiful pace and is masterfully directed by the young Korine and hardly ever fails at what it does (except at the more light-hearted comedic parts). And despite its disturbing images, it does have heart and moments of tenderness you are shocked to find. There is a beautiful scene in which one of the teenagers pays to have sex with a prostitute. She turns out to be a weirdly motherly and innocent girl who looks like she walked out of a cartoon from the 50's. Instead of having sex the two talk and she mothers him in an odd and tender way. When I say this film has heart, I mean it is embedded under all of the despair and suffering of this horror, just like at the heart of every human being. 9/10

[Mathor]

It's a Wonderful Life ~ Frank Capra...amazing to find out this great film was not recieved well when first released; but now is found much more world-wide popularity and acclaim...it was nominated for many awards back in the day of it's release, but then passed over and into obscurity until the copyright ran out; it was then shown on TV and later released on DVD. Of course, it's corny and sentimental in parts, but still one can't beat the story and the characters; top-notch actors! I think it's one of Jimmy Stewart's best roles ever...especially, when he shows rage and then is in darkest dispair on the bridge in the snow. Donna Reed was perfect for the role and she is just drop-dead gorgeous in this film. Great to watch the extras and see just how the film was staged and shot; and the snow was one of the first, that used a combination of ingredients to make artificial snow. I have to say the falling snow looked quite realistic. I am a big Capra fan, and I hadn't seen this movie for awhile, so I enjoyed it emensely. It's the perfect holiday movie. Frank Capra, himself, felt it was his greatest achievement. I could watch it again right away - it's delightful. I love the angel, Clarence. He's really humorous.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's one of many great Capra films, and for some reason it does the most for me. I do not know if it's the technical best, but the story just WORKS. From start to finish, it's cinema gold. I watch this every Christmas, and the past couple Christmas' (mainly this and the last) I've had some pretty unhappy things happen right around the holiday season. This movie can make me forget about these things, no matter what has happened in my life. It's also probably Jimmy Stewart's best role of his life outside of The Philadelphia Story.

[DanielBenoit]

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's one of many great Capra films, and for some reason it does the most for me. I do not know if it's the technical best, but the story just WORKS. From start to finish, it's cinema gold. I watch this every Christmas, and the past couple Christmas' (mainly this and the last) I've had some pretty unhappy things happen right around the holiday season. This movie can make me forget about these things, no matter what has happened in my life. It's also probably Jimmy Stewart's best role of his life outside of The Philadelphia Story.

Yeah I agree. The all-time greatest feel-good film (though I have a personal prefence for It Happened One Night). One of the most life-affirming stories played to perfection by every single character. A true momument to a heroic life which was unable to see its own significance. And though Jimmy Stewart's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema, I always consider his work in Harvey to be his best, his performance in Vertigo trailing along.