The Movies Discussion Thread

[wiped]

Toy Story 3 ... fantastic.

[David Smith]

Been watching some new wave french horror in the form of Martys, Inside, Frontiers and Them. Aside from Them, which shares a lot of similarities with other much better films, these films are fantastic and utterly horrific in places. Martyrs is one of the most intense horror films i can think of and Inside amongst the most tense and gory - some masterful horror work and well worth watching for anyone. Be warned though, particularly Inside can make for some very unpleaseant viewing.

[J Ed]

I recently found a copy of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and have watched it 2x straight through
I know I'll be watching it a third time soon cuz my friend has a projector and I feel this needs to be seen on the big screen
one scene in pertickler, when Toshiro Mifune duels a rival general in the middle of an enemy camp with some sort of javelin/spear things, definitely looks like it would make more sense at a larger than life scale ... the camera pulls back and up to show the width of the camp and all the underling soldiers pushing in to watch the duel then they suddenly back away in waves as Mifune tests the play of the javelin/spear thing out by abruptly waving it into the crowd behind him ... my 19inch monitor just isnt doing that justice

[PublicImage]

Been watching some new wave french horror in the form of Martys, Inside, Frontiers and Them. Aside from Them, which shares a lot of similarities with other much better films, these films are fantastic and utterly horrific in places. Martyrs is one of the most intense horror films i can think of and Inside amongst the most tense and gory - some masterful horror work and well worth watching for anyone. Be warned though, particularly Inside can make for some very unpleaseant viewing.

Martyrs is FANTASTIC! It can be difficult to get through the second half, but it's easily one of my favourite modern horrors.

[David Smith]

Saw Audition last night - brilliant romance film that takes a pretty powerful horror twist towards the end and results in a rare case when you sympathise with both the victim and the villain. Excellent.

Martyrs is FANTASTIC! It can be difficult to get through the second half, but it's easily one of my favourite modern horrors.

Agreed all the way - i knew by reputation the second half was fairly unpleaseant yet since i knew almost nothing about the storyline i was really taken aback by it. If you haven't seen it yet then i would strongly recommend Inside which is a similar visceral horror without boundaries

[PublicImage]

I'll give Inside a try when my next student loan comes through. All of the "New French Extremism" films that I've seen have been interesting, so I'm definitely eager to see more of them.

The new Serge Gainsbourg biopic was the last film I saw. The director's choice to focus on his Jewish identity is interesting and differentiates it from most other biopics I've seen recently, but it skips some important parts and would've benefitted from more development of the relationship between Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. I liked it on the whole, anyway, and the music is fantastic.

[David Smith]

I'll give Inside a try when my next student loan comes through. All of the "New French Extremism" films that I've seen have been interesting, so I'm definitely eager to see more of them.

I seen Martyrs, Inside, Frontiers, Them (which was very underwhelming) Irreversable (if it counts) and Switchbalde Romance/ High Tension - is there any that i've missed from that list which are worth a viewing which you've seen? Is very much the same for me that i've liked what i've watched, so would definitely see more if recommended some good ones

[PublicImage]

I can't think of anything I've seen other than those ones. I love Switchblade Romance though, which I think is a really well-made slasher.

[wiped]

Robin Hood (the Russell Crow one) ... excellent sleep aid ... zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
The Other Guys (Will Ferrell / Mark Walburgh) - OK , a few laughs.
Four Lions - very funny movie.
The Dependables - it was like having a lobotomy - a part of my brain died watching this.
The Prince Of Persia - silly Disney family action movie a la Pirates of The Caribbean - harmless.
The Jones - a ho hum look at Consumerism / Materialism / Family Values / the American Dream - ok for a one off viewing.

[Damn!t]

Robin Hood (the Russell Crow one)

saw it yesterday.....

A mixture of a decent Scott film, lord of the rings, jean d'arc, saving private ryan and some other you name it hollywood blockbuster ticket selling monster film. It's obvious that the Scott didnt have a final word in the making of this picture.
VERY disappointed.
Every credit to our old Floydie Arthur Max for production design.

[danielcaux]

Does Ridley Scott even have a style?

[Damn!t]

Well, the last films from him that I appreciate (kingdom of heaven and gladiator) certainly have that something that can be interpreted as a style, imo.
Start of this Robin Hood was rather promising, but turned out to be just another brick in the wall of movies that want to please the mob with compromises.

[Hudini]

The Dependables - it was like having a lobotomy - a part of my brain died watching this.

A friend of mine downloaded a copy and we watched it last week. Or tried to watch. About half an hour was more than enough for me.

[J Ed]

last weekend watched...
The Blues Brothers
which, as I know I said a few dozen pgs back, holds up incredibly well ... the musical sequences are spectacular, and the car chases more extreme than any Ive seen in films since (and really the Bluesmobile is like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with street cred) ... and all the location shots add up to a loving tribute to the city of Chicago

also
The Shootist
John Wayne's last film from 1975, about an aging gunslinger dying of cancer
also stars Lauren Bacall, Jimmy Stewart, Richie Cunningham and the colonel from MASH

also Attack of the Clones/first few scenes of Revenge of the Sith
the story underneath all the CGI could have been pretty interesting if somebody other than Lucas were writing and directing
I have to wonder about younger folks who saw the prequels first and the original trilogy after ... the whole story culmonates w teenage Darth Vader turning to the Dark Side and the galaxy turning to fascism ... what ethos did younger folk learn from this? I asked my young protege this exact question at work today, and she said she never really thought about the moral, she just thought of it as a story except stupider than most
as for me, Ive decided theres one moment in the original film that was definitive life altering movie magic when I was 10 years old:
not knowing anything about who Darth Vader was or these droids or what was supposed to be going on, shortly after Luke skywalker is introduced we see him gazing up at the stars above his uncles watermining facility, dreaming of flying a starship, and Williams' music swells ... iconic imagery for a 10 year old just beginning to wonder what possibilities the future holds, and it only worked because I knew nothing of what Luke was going to find once he got off Tatooine ... as the franchise proceded that suspension of disbelief was lost even as the special effects got more and more expensive and I never cared so much about Luke's experiences again

[danielcaux]

Well, the last films from him that I appreciate (kingdom of heaven and gladiator) certainly have that something that can be interpreted as a style, imo.

Oh! I see, swords!

Joking aside I think all his films "look" quite good, perhaps a little too slick, but not to the extremes of Bruckheimer films. The directional style, characterization and plots, well that's another story. All his films feel like ultra comercial artifacts with a little more soul than regular hollywood comercial artifacts, with Blade Runner and Alien being the most notable exceptions. Well I enjoyed Matchstick Men too, in fact I have enjoyed a lot of his films but can't really recognize a style that's present in all of them, unlike say other lesser or greater directors like Gondry, Jonze, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Tarantino, Kubrick, Scorsese, etc, whose films you almost inmediatly recognize as being made by them. He is like Spielberg but without the recurring themes and visual trademarks I guess.