Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It

[Spring in Fialta]

In relation to the conversation I had with Shareefruck, one of the movies that really exemplifies the point I was making, I think, is the first half of Full Metal Jacket. With impact and subtlety, it really drives home the nastiness of the common man/viewer. While you can't help but laugh at Private Lawrence (Gomer Pyle) predicament through the use of exquisite one-liners, you begin to forget the tragedy of his situation through laughter and it really drives home the simple point that I feel Kubrick was trying to make - some people aren't cut out for the high-pressure environment/discipline of the military and yet that point is made through a whole that never takes you out of the story being told, even for a second. And I think Wong Kar-Wai exemplifies exactly what Shareefruck is going to bat for. His movies aren't deep, but they never grandstand on the viewer/get up their own ass like Anderson and Tarantino do. They're a lot more organic and loyal/focused to their supposed intentions.

 

[Shareefruck]

In relation to the conversation I had with Shareefruck, one of the movies that really exemplifies the point I was making, I think, is the first half of Full Metal Jacket. With impact and subtlety, it really drives home the nastiness of the common man/viewer. While you can't help but laugh at Private Lawrence (Gomer Pyle) predicament through the use of exquisite one-liners, you begin to forget the tragedy of his situation through laughter and it really drives home the simple point that I feel Kubrick was trying to make - some people aren't cut out for the high-pressure environment/discipline of the military and yet that point is made through a whole that never takes you out of the story being told, even for a second. And I think Wong Kar-Wai exemplifies exactly what Shareefruck is going to bat for. His movies aren't deep, but they never grandstand on the viewer/get up their own ass like Anderson and Tarantino do. They're a lot more organic and loyal/focused to their supposed intentions.

I think their movies - and Anderson moreso than QT - tend to have that moment where everything stops and attention is riveted towards conveying that message, which I think is a technique that feels overwrought which takes away from the impact the message can make. This is different from the truly great writers who I feel have their message be a subtle part of a whole where the attention isn't solely focused on the message, but also on everything else around it, in a fluid manner.

Both WA and QT write in a consciously flashy way that tries to indicate a certain cleverness that I don't think is there intellectually but works very well for humor. I agree that a developed aesthetic style shouldn't mean you have to be deep intellectually (see Drive) and I don't think I've suggested that this is the case. I think Anderson and Tarantino willfully make that attempt and fall flat, despite trying reaaaally hard. Especially in those moments where it feels the impactul scene's sole intention is to have you focused on it's words.

You don't find that Wong Kar Wai touches on poignant and worthwhile ideas and state-of-minds that aren't superficial? I wouldn't lump him in with what I'm saying at all.

I agree with you about better directors having ideas and delivering them in understated ways being ideal.

I'm just not sure I'm seeing what you're seeing regarding Anderson and QT trying really hard to stop everything and convey a message. With Anderson's older movies, sure (like Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums)-- that can be obnoxious-- but that seems to be an aspect that he's gotten rid of. For the most part, these days, I just see them as only being interested in doing stylistic experiments and exercises in delivery for its own sake and doing it better than many other filmmakers. QT in particular, these days, seems defiantly against having anything that resembles a meaningful idea or message in a movie. If anything, that seems to be the biggest criticism he receives. Recently, he's kind of been famous for taking meaty settings that could be explored thoughtfully, but instead refusing to do anything with it besides turning it into a childishly fun, slick, and hollow genre exercise. I don't really see these guys pretending to be any more than they are.

 

[kihei]

1. In relation to the conversation I had with Shareefruck, one of the movies that really exemplifies the point I was making, I think, is the first half of Full Metal Jacket. With impact and subtlety, it really drives home the nastiness of the common man/viewer. While you can't help but laugh at Private Lawrence (Gomer Pyle) predicament through the use of exquisite one-liners, you begin to forget the tragedy of his situation through laughter and it really drives home the simple point that I feel Kubrick was trying to make - some people aren't cut out for the high-pressure environment/discipline of the military and yet that point is made through a whole that never takes you out of the story being told, even for a second. And I think Wong Kar-Wai exemplifies exactly what Shareefruck is going to bat for. His movies aren't deep, but they never grandstand on the viewer/get up their own ass like Anderson and Tarantino do. They're a lot more organic and loyal/focused to their supposed intentions.

   I agree with almost all of this, but I think Wong Kar-Wai's movies have a lot of depth, emotional depth anyway, as he charts the vagaries of romantic entanglement in various ways both sensual and complex. He is great at showing people's disguises and vulnerabilities and often their melancholy and longing as well. In his movies, I think he charts some very complex feelings, helping the viewer understand his characters in the process. That incredible sense of atmosphere that he brings to so many of his works also serves a serious purpose by reflecting the characters inner feelings. I don't watch his movies so much as submerge myself in them. I enjoy doing that obviously, but I also think that there is an awful lot there to consider. True, Wong focuses on emotions rather than ideas usually, but in cinema, as in literature, that can be every bit as insightful and important as a more straightforward intellectual approach.

 

[kihei]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well, I can see how my above comment might stop a good conversation in its tracks.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Just Watched:

6/10

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Yeah, fair enough. Wong Kar-Wai perhaps wasn't the ideal example and I agree with both of your points. I just meant to say that he isn't a director in which philosophical/academic/societal (can't really think of a single better word here) ideas are touched but that he's more of a very stylish auteur, something that WA and QT both advertise themselves as but without the subtle execution needed to truly excel. There's certain poignant moments in Wong Kaw-Wai movies that I've never gotten from Anderson and Tarantino (the cop and the lonely girl in Days of Being Wild, the mute boy falling in love with the ditzy girl in Fallen Angels) and I think he's very much a director based on emotion, which in turn, can be very insightful. And I mean, @Shareefruck, I think the last scene in The Hateful Eight goes directly against what you say Tarantino does. It's Samuel L. Jackson and the white guy clutched in each other's arms reciting, I think, Abraham Lincoln, and works as a very obvious message on racial unity.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Just Rewatched:

8/10

 

[Shareefruck]

Yeah, fair enough. Wong Kar-Wai perhaps wasn't the ideal example and I agree with both of your points. I just meant to say that he isn't a director in which philosophical/academic/societal (can't really think of a single better word here) ideas are touched but that he's more of a very stylish auteur, something that WA and QT both advertise themselves as but without the subtle execution needed to truly excel. There's certain poignant moments in Wong Kaw-Wai movies that I've never gotten from Anderson and Tarantino (the cop and the lonely girl in Days of Being Wild, the mute boy falling in love with the ditzy girl in Fallen Angels) and I think he's very much a director based on emotion, which in turn, can be very insightful. And I mean, @Shareefruck, I think the last scene in The Hateful Eight goes directly against what you say Tarantino does. It's Samuel L. Jackson and the white guy clutched in each other's arms reciting, I think, Abraham Lincoln, and works as a very obvious message on racial unity.

Fair enough. I don't remember seeing that moment.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Justice League

with ALL the superheroes!!!

After the many convoluted events of B vs S, Batfleck is feeling lonely. He wants to ask Wonder Woman out...but he doesn't. She's still doing her own thing, not dating anyone seriously as she's still pining over losing Captain Kirk in WWI. As you would. But Batfleck has a funny feeling that something big is coming...something that not even he could buy his way out of alone. So he sifts through the various cryptic data streams on the Batputer goes out to recruit The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman for some ensemble fun. Soon the menace of the moment appears in the form of Steppenwolf, a Big Bad Guy who was defeated thousands of years ago by a consortium of Gods, humans, Amazons and Atlanteans (odd how no historians noticed that) and now he's back to get the magic phlebotonium boxes to kill all life on Earth to...do stuff and make things more like his home planet of...somewhere because he and his army of alien bug-things live on fear so they have to...eat...kill people...uh...anyway. If only Superman hadn't valiantly died in the last movie...*sniff*...oh, why am I bothering. If you're reading this, you know Superman was brought back to life in this one. Together they all fight Steppenwolf so he won't hog the subwoofers needed for Batfleck to make the Batman voice. And save the world and stuff.

Better than Batman vs Superman, I'll give it that. They really, really tried to make Aquaman cool with Jason Momoa doing the role and making him more badass generally...but he's still lame. He's Aquaman. Cyborg was better than I was expecting, and the Flash got to be the teenage smartass (and I liked him more than anyone else here) but the Big Bad Guy is still generic. At no point was I ever really involved with the story. I was watching Superman's upper lip for traces of the CGI they used to cover the mustache he couldn't shave for another role that was being filmed at the same, I was wondering how Amazons could hold up huge stone slabs to fend off Steppenwolf but then get killed by having a horse fall on them, and I was being grateful I wasn't seeing Jesse Eisenberg's ball-smashingly terrible version of Lex Luthor show up until after the credits. And I was also being annoyed by the massive bass boost whenever Steppenwolf and Batfleck were talking. Know anyone with a boom car? Play a conversation where Batman is in costume on the stereo, and you'll be shaking Starbucks mugs for miles around. Also, they still never show Batman smearing black makeup around his eyes before he puts on the Batcowl. Which he'd have to do to look like that, really.

Meh. Like I said, better than Batman vs Superman. Which isn't saying much. And if my wife wasn't a determined Batfreak I'd have never bothered watching this.

 

[kihei]

Oops. Wrong thread.

 

[CycloneLaunch]

Watched Blade Runner after getting a recommendation on which version to watch in here, was one of those 'eureka' moment movies where I realised a bunch of media i've consumed over the years has borrowed/been influenced heavily by it.

 

[CycloneLaunch]

Can anyone make some recommendations from Jack Nicholson's filmography, I've seen Easy Rider, Chinatown, Cuckoos Nest, The Shining, A Few Good Men, Batman and The Departed. Anything worth seeking out from his 60s/70s/80s work? Not really interested in About Schmidt era Nicholson

 

[kihei]

Can anyone make some recommendations from Jack Nicholson's filmography, I've seen Easy Rider, Chinatown, Cuckoos Nest, The Shining, A Few Good Men, Batman and The Departed. Anything worth seeking out from his 60s/70s/80s work? Not really interested in About Schmidt era Nicholson

In order of strength of performance:

Five Easy Pieces
The Last Detail
Prizzi's Honor
The Passenger
The King of Marvin Gardens
As Good As It Geets
Carnal Knowledge
The Missouri Breaks (Brando steals the show and outrageously)

 

[kihei]

Valley of Love (2016) Directed by Guillaume Nicloux 6A

Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, the Tracy and Hepburn of post-French New Wave film, reunite for the first time in nearly 40 years in a movie that is more curiosity than substantive work but still worth seeing. The premise is, well, peculiar. A long-divorced couple reunite and travel to Death Valley in California and Nevada at the behest of their dead son whose last wish before committing suicide was that they do so. He claims that on one of the seven sites that he has laid out for them to visit, he will return to corporeal existence if only briefly. The mother is hopeful; the father scoffs at the notion but goes along with it anyway. The movie only obliquely dwells on the premise using it more as a means of establishing a character study of a failed relationship. Both Depardieu and Huppert are marvelous. Despite the fact that Depardieu is the size of a small water buffalo and Huppert is still slender and lovely, the pair share a lived-in kind of rapport that is impossible to fake. We see exactly why these two people loved one another and why they nonetheless eventually drove each other crazy. Huppert and Depardieu are not only among the best actors of their generation, they are among the best actors in film history. You could scan each of their filmographies and be hard put to find a single false moment in any of their performances. It is great to see them ply their trade together once again, elevating a relatively slight movie in the process.

subtitles

 

[plank]

Can anyone make some recommendations from Jack Nicholson's filmography, I've seen Easy Rider, Chinatown, Cuckoos Nest, The Shining, A Few Good Men, Batman and The Departed. Anything worth seeking out from his 60s/70s/80s work? Not really interested in About Schmidt era Nicholson

In order of strength of performance:

Five Easy Pieces
The Last Detail
Prizzi's Honor
The Passenger
The King of Marvin Gardens
As Good As It Geets
Carnal Knowledge
The Missouri Breaks (Brando steals the show and outrageously)

I love Five Easy Pieces. Like Carnal Knowledge, The Last Detail and As Good as it Gets haven't seen the others(might have to remedy that).
I would add the Witches of Eastwick and Tommy(small role but I'm a Who fan)

 

[Osprey]

Oops. Wrong thread.

You post in other threads? What's next, MetalheadPenguinsFan reviewing a film that doesn't have walking corpses in it?

 

[kihei]

You Were Never Really Here (2018) Directed by Lynne Ramsay 8B

It is hard to say what Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) really does for a living. He seems to be part hitman and part finder/fixer. When he begins searching for a missing 14-year-old girl, his depressing existence acquires a new sense of purpose but for all the wrong reasons. His is a quiet, traumatized, often brutal life, but he presses on in lieu of anything better else to do. You Were Never Really Here is an amazing piece of direction by the ultra-talented Lynne Ramsay. While the story is pulpy, nothing we haven't dealt with before, the delivery is fresh in a manner that is nearly expressionistic. There is a Taxi Driver vibe going on here, although Joe, unlike Travis Bickell, is a good guy, if only by the very flimsiest of narrow margins. And there is just a tiny bit of an Upstream Color do-it-yourself feel to part of the movie as well as Ramsay uses flashbacks devoid of context or back story to hint at Joe's damaged psyche. But these stylistic references never seem the least derivative because Ramsay is so good at constructing an inner world that feels somehow uniquely different from anything else in this genre . With Phoenix giving the role his full, intense attention; Joe seems to inhabit a personal hell, haunted by images that he can't get out of his head. The performance seems tightly controlled much of the time but wildly yet brilliantly improvised part of the time. Whatever way one wishes to describe what Phoenix is doing, the end result is riveting. It is not a Brando-style performance, but it is a Brando-sized performance. An expressionistic soundtrack that relies on a lot of shardy dissonance is a treat in itself and absolutely a perfect complement to the visual style of the film. You Were Never Really Here is the kind of assured, creative film making that suggests that Lynne Ramsay will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.


Best of '18 so far

Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel
You Were Never Really Here, Ramsay, US
Annihilation, Garland, UK/US

 

[kihei]

You post in other threads? What's next, MetalheadPenguinsFan reviewing a film that doesn't have walking corpses in it?

Actually, my "home" thread is the tennis thread. I would guess most of the people on that thread would be surprised that I do movie reviews frequently.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

A Most Violent Year

with Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Alex Sarsgaard, and various other nefarious New Yorkers.

NYC 1981. Abel Morales (Isaac) owns and operates a heating oil company; one that has had trouble with hijackers and pesky DA investigations. The bigger and more successful he gets, the more trouble seems to find him. He makes a big deal to gain a refinery/port/gas company property place to become a really big wheel...but then the attacks start in earnest. His wife (Chastain, who is unfortunately not let off her leash nearly enough here) is one frayed nerve away from going full Mob Princess on their asses...but Abel doesn't want violence. He wants to be an honourable businessman...which is a very rare thing in NYC in 1981. Tensions rises...innocent truck drivers get into shooting matches on public bridges...fat guys in suits get haircuts and have tense meetings..shit goes down, man. Or you think it might. Maybe.

Not as great as the reviews suggest. Isaac still oozes charisma from every pore, Chastain is still luscious and serpentine...but it falls a bit short. It's a mob movie that isn't a mob movie. The primary cast is compelling but the story itself falls short.

Don't tell my wife I picked this on Netflix just so I could ogle Jessica Chastain.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Little Shop of Horrors - 2012 Bluray version

I actually unkowingly downloaded this version for a nostalgia watch and I have to say, it is way better than the original. Apparently there was a completely different ending that didn't see the light of day until this release, I had vaguely heard about it but always assumed it was an idea and never fleshed out. Turns out it was fully filmed and exists in the same quality as the rest of the movie unlike some other restorations.

I'm sure I'm super late to the party but for others who haven't seen this movie in years, I recommend giving it another watch as the new ending couldn't be more different from the theatrical version.

 

[OzzyFan]

Rampage
1.75 out of 4stars

Action is decent, but everything else is pretty rough to live through. It's overstuffed with bad corny-ness and has so many holes in it's story that an ape and wolf growing multiple times in size might not be the most farfetched thing in the movie. Rock and a few decent jokes, along with the action, can't save this mess. Wait for TV/Bluray if you're interested.

Not as great as the reviews suggest. Isaac still oozes charisma from every pore, Chastain is still luscious and serpentine...but it falls a bit short. It's a mob movie that isn't a mob movie. The primary cast is compelling but the story itself falls short.

Don't tell my wife I picked this on Netflix just so I could ogle Jessica Chastain.

Totally agree. Isaac to me is one of the more charismatic actors today and Chastain is....yeah, ha, she has her own magnetism and power in her acting.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

You Were Never Really Here (2018) Directed by Lynne Ramsay 8B

It is hard to say what Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) really does for a living. He seems to be part hitman and part finder/fixer. When he begins searching for a missing 14-year-old girl, his depressing existence acquires a new sense of purpose but for all the wrong reasons. His is a quiet, traumatized, often brutal life, but he presses on in lieu of anything better else to do. You Were Never Really Here is an amazing piece of direction by the ultra-talented Lynne Ramsay. While the story is pulpy, nothing we haven't dealt with before, the delivery is fresh in a manner that is nearly expressionistic. There is a Taxi Driver vibe going on here, although Joe, unlike Travis Bickell, is a good guy, if only by the very flimsiest of narrow margins. And there is just a tiny bit of an Upstream Color do-it-yourself feel to part of the movie as well as Ramsay uses flashbacks devoid of context or back story to hint at Joe's damaged psyche. But these stylistic references never seem the least derivative because Ramsay is so good at constructing an inner world that feels somehow uniquely different from anything else in this genre . With Phoenix giving the role his full, intense attention; Joe seems to inhabit a personal hell, haunted by images that he can't get out of his head. The performance seems tightly controlled much of the time but wildly yet brilliantly improvised part of the time. Whatever way one wishes to describe what Phoenix is doing, the end result is riveting. It is not a Brando-style performance, but it is a Brando-sized performance. An expressionistic soundtrack that relies on a lot of shardy dissonance is a treat in itself and absolutely a perfect complement to the visual style of the film. You Were Never Really Here is the kind of assured, creative film making that suggests that Lynne Ramsay will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.


Best of '18 so far

Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel
You Were Never Really Here, Ramsay, US
Annihilation, Garland, UK/US

Damn, I'm hyped. Phoenix is the only actor who'll make me watch a movie solely because he's in it.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Can anyone make some recommendations from Jack Nicholson's filmography, I've seen Easy Rider, Chinatown, Cuckoos Nest, The Shining, A Few Good Men, Batman and The Departed. Anything worth seeking out from his 60s/70s/80s work? Not really interested in About Schmidt era Nicholson

I get that you’re looking for prime Jack, but About Schmidt is really worth your time. It may also be Jack’s best “non-Jack” performance, outside of Chinatown.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

I get that you’re looking for prime Jack, but About Schmidt is really worth your time. It may also be Jack’s best “non-Jack” performance, outside of Chinatown.

Seconded.

 

[kihei]

Beirut (2018) Directed by Brad Anderson 5A

Mason (John Ham) is a career diplomat who returns to Beirut to help a friend who has been kidnapped by terrorists. Mason had been in Beirut ten years earlier and it had ended badly, as he lost his wife in a gun battle when it was discovered that their surrogate son might be in league with terrorists. Since that time, Mason has become an alcoholic trying to keep a low profile, but he still manages to function as a labour negotiator, which are exactly the skills he needs if he is to get his friend and former colleague out of trouble. Beirut starts off like it is going to be a terrific espionage thriller for adults, and then slowly the energy just drains from the movie as formulaic resolutions take over the film. The movie just peters out with an unsatisfying ending that leaves a lot of issues up in the air and a coda on top of that which is making god knows what point. Hamm finally has a role that suits his skills and persona, but everybody else in the movie, including Rosamund Pike, is a cliche of one kind or another. Promising start, but disappointing overall.