ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
- 20,259
- 11,398
I think LDC and Damon are both terrific actors. LDC is better looking but Damon has more charisma.
I'm looking forward to see what you make of Damon on the Movie of the Week page when you review The Good Shepherd. Watched it last night, and I kept invidiously comparing him to another actor who would have been great in the role in his day--Robert De Niro, the man in the director's chair. De Niro would have found endless nuances to play with beyond that mirthless expression that Damon sustains throughout the entire movie. I found it hard to watch that performance and think "this guy is a great actor."
I see what you're saying about Jackie Brown being more "patient" and "mature" than Tarantino's other films and Jackie and Max being his "most human, least cartoony characters he's depicted," and can even agree with you to a degree on all of that, but such praise sounds relative. If his other films are more impatient and immature and their characters more cartoony, is it really a cause for praise that they weren't as much this one time? I can understand why that might make it one of your favorites of his, so, if that's all that you're saying, never mind, but I wonder if the film gets more credit than it deserves for standing out from Tarantino's other films when it's not really a standout film, otherwise. It seems like something similar may going on with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where opinions vary depending on whether you're judging it as a Tarantino film or just a film. It is hard to disassociate Tarantino from any of his films.
You guys are too hard on him. He's a fine actor.Oh I have thoughts!
That movie was so relentlessly boring. I for one chalk it up to it being one of De Niro's only times as director, and he didn't have New Yawk biographical stuff to fall back on.I'm looking forward to see what you make of Damon on the Movie of the Week page when you review The Good Shepherd. Watched it last night, and I kept invidiously comparing him to another actor who would have been great in the role in his day--Robert De Niro, the man in the director's chair. De Niro would have found endless nuances to play with beyond that mirthless expression that Damon sustains throughout the entire movie. I found it hard to watch that performance and think "this guy is a great actor."
*edit* Oh yeah, Bjorn and his three friends are serial killers who take blond women to the woods and kill them while wearing tuxedos and overacting at levels usually unseen outside Mexican soap operas.
Amazing how he was able to jump from one building to the next, aye?Skyscraper starring Dwayne Johnson. 3/5
Just like Batman or Spider-Man!!Amazing how he was able to jump from one building to the next, aye?
What a man!!!
Reservoir Dogs - 9/10.
I will have to watch these all again at some point, but I currently believe this is my favorite Tarantino film of those that I've fully watched. Still have some to go, but man I really enjoyed this one.
You forgot From Dusk til Dawn. *edit* Oh wait, his BFF directed that. nvm.Ultimately I'd personally rank Tarantino's filmography like this:
Inglorious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Kill Bill 1, Django Unchained, Kill Bill 2, Death Proof, The Hateful Eight.
I can understand people not liking Basterds but it's one of my favorite movies. I just go into it knowing it's basically a fantasy war fiction with a historic coat of paint. I find it to be Tarantino's best blend of storytelling, cinematography, pacing, and humor. Sure the revisionist fantasy is absurd, but I accepted it from the first time I watched it that it's not meant to be serious or true to life. And in keeping that in mind I find it to be his most entertaining and well crafted movie. Also worth mentioning that I only find roughly half of his films good to great.For me Pulp Fiction edges out RD as the more mature, developed work.
You forgot From Dusk til Dawn. *edit* Oh wait, his BFF directed that. nvm.
And Pulp Fiction followed closely by Reservoir Dogs are the only two I've really liked a lot. Inglorious Basterds annoyed the hell out of me just for the revisionist history of WWII; in my family that's a very sore spot. The opening scenes where Landa was interrogating the French farmer was really, really good...then it was all downhill from there imho. Jackie Brown was so overrated it wasn't funny. Just ended up being boring. And I hated the Kill Bills. Much like the last Harry Potter or Hunger Games movies they went for the cash grab and made two movies where one would have done. Such an egotrip. After that I lost all interest in watching new Tarantino work. Just got sick of the try-hard movie nerd white guy who clearly wishes he was black.
Ya, Basterds is my favorite as well. It's just jam packed with memorable scenes, it's Tarantino's funniest movie, and it has one of the greatest characters of all-time IMO with Hans Landa.I can understand people not liking Basterds but it's one of my favorite movies. I just go into it knowing it's basically a fantasy war fiction with a historic coat of paint. I find it to be Tarantino's best blend of storytelling, cinematography, pacing, and humor. Sure the revisionist fantasy is absurd, but I accepted it from the first time I watched it that it's not meant to be serious or true to life. And in keeping that in mind I find it to be his most entertaining and well crafted movie. Also worth mentioning that I only find roughly half of his films good to great.
Nashville (1975) - 2/10 (Hated it)
I don't understand how this is considered one of the greatest films ever made. It has almost no plot. It's just an excruciating 2 hours and 40 minutes of jumping between literally dozens of characters doing little besides socializing, performing daily routines and singing songs. Regarding the latter, I like country songs, but literally over an hour of the movie is made up of performances that serve little purpose but to entertain the viewer. It's as though Robert Altman tried to replicate the experience of sitting in on the Grand Ole Opry and forgot that he was making a movie. It's not like, say, A Star Is Born, in which the songs have meaning and are expressions of the character development that we've been witnessing. We learn very little at all about the characters in Nashville, much less see them develop, so the hour worth of song is just filler.
The film is just 2.5 hours of meaningless performances and scenes until, finally, in the final few minutes, a handful of the dozens of characters are actually in the same place at one time for a shocking conclusion. It's like the film equivalent of Ravel's Bolero: deliberately putting you to sleep with an overlong and predictable performance just so that, in the final few seconds, it can surprise you with something completely out of left field. Basically, 2.5 hours of your time are wasted just so that the final few minutes can be disturbing and stick with you. For that reason, I can't imagine how people could stand to sit through this film more than once, watching hours of scenes that hardly matter just to get to an ending that they already know. Anyways, judging by Rotten Tomatoes, a lot of people like this film, but it feels to me like one of the most overrated films ever.