Yeah, a rare big disagreement on this one for us. I wasn't bored for an instant; felt totally involved. I thought it was original in the sense that it was a post-war anti-war movie that demonstrated very well the tremendous trauma left by the war. I thought the premise, as played, was fresh and led to really interesting character dilemmas. Add to that the sympathetic and very effective direction and I think it is a really good movie.
Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +5
- Thread starter Pranzo Oltranzista
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Keep Your Right Up (1987) Directed by Jean Luc Godard 3C
Keep Your Right Up is a muddled mess, of little interest to even Godard fans. Ostensibly it is a comedy about a director who has to get his movie completed by the end of the day. But that potentially fun premise is merely mentioned at the beginning and then given a scattershot approach the rest of the way. Rather we follow a director around, called The Idiot, who pops up on airplanes, golf courses, railway trains, sometimes doing something vaguely amusing, usually not. Much of the movie focuses on a guy and a cute French girl (Les Rita Mitsouko) recording pop songs on the fly—which has nothing to do with anything else in the movie. That’s the most interesting part of the flick, though. Too much time is spent with the audience listening to voice overs with someone droning on about nothingness, evil, randomness, life, blah, blah, blah. There is one funny slapstick scene of The Idiot trying to get in a car, but the good bits are infrequent. Despite the odd funny line, arresting shot or interesting insight, the movie just doesn’t add up to much of anything. For those who have no patience for Godard or at least Godard at his most opaque, Keep Your Right Up will seem like it was directed by the Antichrist.
Sidenote: Of Godard"s roughly 40 feature length movies (he has produced dozens of shorts. "documentaries" and TV segments as well), I have seen 36 films. I think Keep Your Right Up might be right at the bottom of the barrel.
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Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) Directed by Eliza Hittman 8B
Currently the #1 ranked movie of the year on Metacritic, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a very direct film about what it is like to be Autumn (Sidney Flanagan) a pregnant 17-year-old girl from a dysfunctional family with a white trash boyfriend already in her second trimester trying to get an abortion without the help of anyone, save her slightly older cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder). Thwarted in Pennsylvania, they travel to New York City and into a world of unknown dangers. The movie has only one thing on its mind and that is to put the viewer in Autumn’s shoes and experience what she goes through on this perilous journey. No question, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is showing what it is like to be a girl without power in a man’s world, certainly a stance that will rub some people the wrong way. But the movie makes its many points with surprising subtlety and in a totally gripping fashion. First time actress Flanagan (she looks a little like a baby Meryl Streep) gives an utterly convincing performances as the deeply introverted Autumn. Never Rarely Sometimes Always, angry and empathetic simultaneously, isn’t as depressing as the society it depicts.
Top Ten so far this year
First Cow, Reichardt, US
Seducio da Carne, Bressane, Brazil
Beanpole, Balagov, Russia
Before We Vanish, Kurosawa, Japan
Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Hittman, US
The Portuguese Woman, Gomes, Portugal
The Forest of Love, Sono, Japan
The Load, Glavonic, Serbia
A Land Imagined, Siew, Singapore
The Day after I'm Gone, Eldar, Israel
Peninsula (2020) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)
In this standalone "sequel" to Train to Busan, a soldier and a few others are recruited to retrieve a truckload of money from the Korean peninsula, which is infested by zombies, controlled by a rogue militia and home to a family of four. The plot doesn't make a lot of sense here except to justify the action and drama. There are no trains in this, but there is a lot of driving and cars running over zombies. Curiously, unlike the original, the zombies aren't the real threat this time around. The real villains are the crazy militiamen who run the area and enslave outsiders. The movie is more Escape From New York than zombie horror. That's not exactly a bad thing (especially to folks like me who aren't really into zombies), but it's probably not what most people are expecting. One way in which it does deliver as expected, though, is in melodrama, with the ending, especially, being a little over the top. At least the acting is good and the characters are likable enough, though a bit two dimensional. Whereas Train to Busan was a horror movie, and an above average one, this is more of an action movie, and just an average one. It's certainly decent and good for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment, but those expecting an experience like Train to Busan delivered may be disappointed.
In this standalone "sequel" to Train to Busan, a soldier and a few others are recruited to retrieve a truckload of money from the Korean peninsula, which is infested by zombies, controlled by a rogue militia and home to a family of four. The plot doesn't make a lot of sense here except to justify the action and drama. There are no trains in this, but there is a lot of driving and cars running over zombies. Curiously, unlike the original, the zombies aren't the real threat this time around. The real villains are the crazy militiamen who run the area and enslave outsiders. The movie is more Escape From New York than zombie horror. That's not exactly a bad thing (especially to folks like me who aren't really into zombies), but it's probably not what most people are expecting. One way in which it does deliver as expected, though, is in melodrama, with the ending, especially, being a little over the top. At least the acting is good and the characters are likable enough, though a bit two dimensional. Whereas Train to Busan was a horror movie, and an above average one, this is more of an action movie, and just an average one. It's certainly decent and good for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment, but those expecting an experience like Train to Busan delivered may be disappointed.
Mekong Hotel (2012) Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul 8D
Mekong Hotel is a film that I love, among my favourites of this century, but trying to defend my feelings about it would be futile. At an hour, it is hardly a movie at all, more of a wisp of a film, but it entrances me. For me, watching the film is the equivalent of resting, just barely conscious, in a hammock in a verdant backyard on a warm afternoon drowsily watching the rest of the world float by. I know that doesn't sound like much of a recommendation. I'm not sure most people would even get all the way through this film. Still....
Mekong Hotel starts with an accomplished acoustic guitarist playing slow, languid jazz riffs at a table. His delicate tunes subtly become the background music for a young couple seemingly engaged in a budding romance as they chat on the great veranda of a hotel that overlooks the Mekong River far below. In the course of getting to know one another, the young man mentions that a POB, which is a vengeful female ghost, has eaten the entrails of his dog. The young girl duly takes note of this assertion. She is not traveling alone but with her mother who may also be the ghost in question. In fact, as it turns out, no one is exactly what they seem in this highly atmospheric film. The plot unfolds in a gracefully casual manner, practically a swoon, with dramatic tension simply not an issue in the least. Though some of its elements might suggest otherwise, Mekong Hotel is not a thriller or a horror movie. Rather, it is a visually exquisite tone poem, a cinematic mood piece, about different states of being. It may prove far too slow and outrageously uneventful for most viewers. Indeed Mekong Hotel feel like a rough sketch for an abandoned project. It will likely be only a footnote in the career of unique director Apichatpong Weerasethakul who creates unconventional films that challenge his audience’s assumptions about reality and existence. Mekong Hotel ends with a nearly six-minute shot of distant speed boats going up and down the Mekong River. In this case, the perfect ending.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,981
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Of course, this sort of thing is very personal. I found the film intellectually engaging to the extent that reverie was out of the question for me, though I could see your point clearly. My immediate impression was that I think this is most French French movie that I have ever seen. Very impressive. Thanks.
aufheben
#Norris4Fox
The very success of the first movie is the downfall of this one. Based on the plot of Train to Busan, it was clear that the movie was supposed to be a one-and-done vehicle. Surprisingly, it became such a global hit, that the director was probably forced to make a sequel. That is why all the characters, from the main cast to even the important minor characters, have their own personalities and motives, while the people in this latest one are caricatures, at best. He was probably crunch on time, since he did direct a big budget superhero movie in between the two.
While I do like the acting from all the female leads, the male lead is just terrible. To be fair, he is serviceable, but for some reason, the director still gives him a couple of close-ups that seems to linger forever. As a result, his lack of emotional range becomes a glaring weakness, and he actually makes me want to turn the movie off.
I have it at a 6/10, but that is mainly because I find it to be a decent action flick, with enough action scenes to keep me interested. As long as people see it as a standalone sequel and do not try to compare it to Train to Busan, it does its job. I really hope the series ends here though, because it is clear that the director has ran out of ideas. The movie is pretty much Fast and Furious- Zombie edition, with some rather unrealistic chase scenes, and the interesting set pieces from the first one, such as the zombie tidal wave, are so overused here, that they become tired and even boring after the third time.
ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
Keep Your Right Up (1987) Directed by Jean Luc Godard 3C
Keep Your Right Up is a muddled mess, of little interest to even Godard fans. Ostensibly it is a comedy about a director who has to get his movie completed by the end of the day. But that potentially fun premise is merely mentioned at the beginning and then given a scattershot approach the rest of the way. Rather we follow a director around, called The Idiot, who pops up on airplanes, golf courses, railway trains, sometimes doing something vaguely amusing, usually not. Much of the movie focuses on a guy and a cute French girl (Les Rita Mitsouko) recording pop songs on the fly—which has nothing to do with anything else in the movie. That’s the most interesting part of the flick, though. Too much time is spent with the audience listening to voice overs with someone droning on about nothingness, evil, randomness, life, blah, blah, blah. There is one funny slapstick scene of The Idiot trying to get in a car, but the good bits are infrequent. Despite the odd funny line, arresting shot or interesting insight, the movie just doesn’t add up to much of anything. For those who have no patience for Godard or at least Godard at his most opaque, Keep Your Right Up will seem like it was directed by the Antichrist.
Sidenote: Of Godard"s roughly 40 feature length movies (he has produced dozens of shorts. "documentaries" and TV segments as well), I have seen 36 films. I think Keep Your Right Up might be right at the bottom of the barrel.
subtitles
MUBI
Just curious, what would you list as the best movies on filmmaking? It might be something fun to consider.
Right now, I only have The Stunt Man on my list.
Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) - 6/10 (Liked it)
After 25 years of failing to write the song that will save the world, Bill and Ted travel to a future in which they've already written it in order to steal it from themselves. Maybe because I thought that that premise had such potential, I got my expectations up too high. While not without charm, this wasn't quite the triumphant return that I was hoping for. Bill and Ted are as we remember them--as slackers who are still dumb and constantly speak in an 80s surfer dude style--which some may like, but felt a bit unbelievable and forced to me. I think that it might've been better if they had been written as a little more grown up and "normal," so that we might relate to them a little better and better appreciate the moments when their younger personas come to the surface. In addition, their daughters act a lot like them and use the same outdated expressions. I'm not sure what felt more out of place: 50-year-olds using words like "righteous" in 2020 or 20-year-olds using them.
That said, I suppose that there's something to be said for some things never changing. Even though it's been 29 years since the last movie, it doesn't feel like that much has passed when you watch it. Bill and Ted are recognizable, they still go on an adventure through various time periods and even to Hell, where they enlist the help of their old friend Death (played by the returning William Sadler). Unfortunately, the writing isn't very good, so the situations and jokes aren't nearly as funny as in the previous movies and the plot is too busy and rushed. Still, I could sense and respect how hard the writers were trying to replicate the feeling of the first two movies. Reeves and Winter were also game for it and put everything into making fools of themselves again, which is admirable. For those reasons and for the overall nostalgia, I went with the score that I did. I can't say that it's a good movie, but I liked the nostalgia and the effort put into it. It could've been quite a bit better, but I'm still glad that it got made.
FYI, there's a scene at the very end of the credits. If you missed it...
After 25 years of failing to write the song that will save the world, Bill and Ted travel to a future in which they've already written it in order to steal it from themselves. Maybe because I thought that that premise had such potential, I got my expectations up too high. While not without charm, this wasn't quite the triumphant return that I was hoping for. Bill and Ted are as we remember them--as slackers who are still dumb and constantly speak in an 80s surfer dude style--which some may like, but felt a bit unbelievable and forced to me. I think that it might've been better if they had been written as a little more grown up and "normal," so that we might relate to them a little better and better appreciate the moments when their younger personas come to the surface. In addition, their daughters act a lot like them and use the same outdated expressions. I'm not sure what felt more out of place: 50-year-olds using words like "righteous" in 2020 or 20-year-olds using them.
That said, I suppose that there's something to be said for some things never changing. Even though it's been 29 years since the last movie, it doesn't feel like that much has passed when you watch it. Bill and Ted are recognizable, they still go on an adventure through various time periods and even to Hell, where they enlist the help of their old friend Death (played by the returning William Sadler). Unfortunately, the writing isn't very good, so the situations and jokes aren't nearly as funny as in the previous movies and the plot is too busy and rushed. Still, I could sense and respect how hard the writers were trying to replicate the feeling of the first two movies. Reeves and Winter were also game for it and put everything into making fools of themselves again, which is admirable. For those reasons and for the overall nostalgia, I went with the score that I did. I can't say that it's a good movie, but I liked the nostalgia and the effort put into it. It could've been quite a bit better, but I'm still glad that it got made.
FYI, there's a scene at the very end of the credits. If you missed it...
The old, retirement home versions of Bill and Ted ask if the other is dead yet and then get up and jam on their guitars together until they get tired and need to sit down.
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ProstheticConscience
Check dein Limit
Dolemite is my Name
with Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, and other, mostly black people.
1970's LA. Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) yearns for stardom. He may work days in a record store and nights as a lame MC at a nightclub, but dammit he wants more. He's a simmering cauldron of hopes, dreams, and boundless enthusiasm with a mile-wide grin, and he's on a mission to do...something. He's tried breaking into a singing career, went nowhere. He tries to sweet-talk the club manager into giving him more time onstage, no dice. Then one day, he shoos away a urine-scented bum out of the record shop and the bum spouts off a few rhymes about Dolemite, mythical folk subject of much obscene humour. *ding* On goes the lightbulb over Rudy's head, and a new standup comedy shtick is born. His Dolemite character is a pimpin' badass of monumental proportions, and no put-down is too raunchy to voice. Several subversive underground hit comedy albums later, Rudy wants to make a movie. He musters all the money, friends and free labour he can, and off he goes. Will the movie be a hit? Will his very large black lady protege learn to love herself as she is? If the film school kids drafted into shooting the movie see a naked woman in the flesh, will they run and grab a first aid kit? Watch and laugh along for the ride.
It's actually really good. It's light, funny, positive, genuinely uplifting, and nice. Which is a departure from what you'd expect from an Eddie Murphy movie. The guy behind the original Dolemite movie has been hailed as the Godfather of Rap music and the source of a giant portion of modern black humour and media, and Murphy clearly works his ass off to do him justice. The subject matter is held with respect, reverence and genuine affection, and damn it must have been fun to work on what was clearly an objectively terrible movie. You're always rooting for Rudy and his click, and they're always fun to watch.
On Netflix.
We're motherf***in walkin' here, motherf***a!!
with Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, and other, mostly black people.
1970's LA. Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) yearns for stardom. He may work days in a record store and nights as a lame MC at a nightclub, but dammit he wants more. He's a simmering cauldron of hopes, dreams, and boundless enthusiasm with a mile-wide grin, and he's on a mission to do...something. He's tried breaking into a singing career, went nowhere. He tries to sweet-talk the club manager into giving him more time onstage, no dice. Then one day, he shoos away a urine-scented bum out of the record shop and the bum spouts off a few rhymes about Dolemite, mythical folk subject of much obscene humour. *ding* On goes the lightbulb over Rudy's head, and a new standup comedy shtick is born. His Dolemite character is a pimpin' badass of monumental proportions, and no put-down is too raunchy to voice. Several subversive underground hit comedy albums later, Rudy wants to make a movie. He musters all the money, friends and free labour he can, and off he goes. Will the movie be a hit? Will his very large black lady protege learn to love herself as she is? If the film school kids drafted into shooting the movie see a naked woman in the flesh, will they run and grab a first aid kit? Watch and laugh along for the ride.
It's actually really good. It's light, funny, positive, genuinely uplifting, and nice. Which is a departure from what you'd expect from an Eddie Murphy movie. The guy behind the original Dolemite movie has been hailed as the Godfather of Rap music and the source of a giant portion of modern black humour and media, and Murphy clearly works his ass off to do him justice. The subject matter is held with respect, reverence and genuine affection, and damn it must have been fun to work on what was clearly an objectively terrible movie. You're always rooting for Rudy and his click, and they're always fun to watch.
On Netflix.
We're motherf***in walkin' here, motherf***a!!
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,981
- 2,900
Just curious, what would you list as the best movies on filmmaking? It might be something fun to consider.
Right now, I only have The Stunt Man on my list.
You have to start that list with 8 1/2.
I love Ferrara's Dangerous Game too. Woody's Startust Memories...
I actually have not seen 8 1/2 yet. I have it, but for some strange reason, I am not quite motivated to see it.
I will check out the other two.
What about Day for Night? Do you think it would qualify? That I have not seen yet either.
If I go with a critic's list, it may look something like this:
8 1/2
Night for Day
Opening Night
Contempt
Cinema Paradiso
The Player
Adaptation
Sunset Blvd.
All About Eve
Mulholland Drive
Other than Contempt, I actually have not seen any of them, so I only went with various critics' list.
8 1/2
Night for Day
Opening Night
Contempt
Cinema Paradiso
The Player
Adaptation
Sunset Blvd.
All About Eve
Mulholland Drive
Other than Contempt, I actually have not seen any of them, so I only went with various critics' list.
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 3,981
- 2,900
If I go with a critic's list, it may look something like this:
8 1/2
Night for Day
Opening Night
Contempt
Cinema Paradiso
The Player
Adaptation
Sunset Blvd.
All About Eve
Mulholland Drive
Other than Contempt, I actually have not seen any of them, so I only went with various critics' list.
Opening Night is my favorite Cassavetes film, but it's about theater. Le mépris should be top of the list too, didn't think of it. La nuit américaine actually came to mind, but I couldn't recommend it (not really a fan).
Oh, and you should watch 8 1/2. Amazing film.
Calibre (2018) Directed by Matt Palmer 7A
Calibre is one of the more plausible thrillers of the past few years, and there is nothing slow burn about it. Vaughan and Marcus, two likeable guys from Edinburgh, go deep into the highlands of Scotland to do some hunting. They meet the locals, get in a scuffle that almost turns really serious. On their first day in the woods a terrible accident happens and then there is an attempt to cover it up. They return to their hotel and decide what to do next, but nothing goes as planned. The villagers begin to sense something is very wrong. A real work of craftsmanship, well-written, well-acted and well-directed, Calibre is one of those thrillers where every step along the way seems perfectly consistent with what has come before. How events unfold makes sense. We view the action from Vaughan and Marcus’ perspective, but with mixed feelings. We can also understand the villagers’ reactions and the practical and moral dilemmas that they face. It all makes for some gut-wrenching suspense. I’m amazed this movie didn’t find a bigger audience. The terrible generic title probably didn’t help, but Calibre is among the best movies you never heard of available on Netflix.
Sidenote: Incidentally, the movie makes a great travelogue for the Highlands as well. Some viewers may be surprised by how rugged and beautiful Scotland northern Scotland is.
Netflix
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ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,745
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Back To The Future II (1989) - Unwatchable/10
Couldn't watch more than half of this garbage. I know 80s blockbusters are often overrated due to nostalgia from that gen now being movie critics or entering their 20s-40s as the internet became big but this is really bad. It might be even more campy than the predecessor despite being released almost 5 years later. I known people often say they hate expository dialogue and I usually don't notice it too much but it's really bad here.
Unfortunately there are quite a few disappointing things to come out of 1989 outside of myself that I've now seen....this movie, The Cook/Thief/Wife/Her Lover, The Abyss, Ghostbusters 2, Batman 1, and When Harry Met Sally.
Couldn't watch more than half of this garbage. I know 80s blockbusters are often overrated due to nostalgia from that gen now being movie critics or entering their 20s-40s as the internet became big but this is really bad. It might be even more campy than the predecessor despite being released almost 5 years later. I known people often say they hate expository dialogue and I usually don't notice it too much but it's really bad here.
Unfortunately there are quite a few disappointing things to come out of 1989 outside of myself that I've now seen....this movie, The Cook/Thief/Wife/Her Lover, The Abyss, Ghostbusters 2, Batman 1, and When Harry Met Sally.
Woah, that is a surprise. Personally, I love the trilogy, and I have so much fun when I watch them.
Just curious, what did you think of the original Indiana Jones trilogy then? I only dislike the second one, but I still had fun with it overall.
I really enjoyed the first one, was very disappointed in the second one, and, though I saw the movies in the franchise after that, nothing has really stayed with me about any of them. Funny, thinking of these movies as fostering trilogies. "Trilogy" seems a little too grandiose a term for basically commercial works with no purpose but to give people the same experience over and over again with not the slightest inkling of actually developing a theme across three films.
ORRFForever
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2018
- 19,862
- 11,106
Vanished (2020):
A couple’s young daughter goes missing. 2 days later, the husband’s spying on the hotty next door and trying to get lucky with his wife. Needless to say, this is an odd movie with a twist ending you won’t see coming because, well, it's ridiculous / stupid / shamefully manipulative.
4/10
A couple’s young daughter goes missing. 2 days later, the husband’s spying on the hotty next door and trying to get lucky with his wife. Needless to say, this is an odd movie with a twist ending you won’t see coming because, well, it's ridiculous / stupid / shamefully manipulative.
4/10
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