What Movies Have You Watched Recently?

[fyodor]

I hope your tag - "Another good but not great movie" - refers to The Good German and not Casablanca. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I loved the technical parts of The Good German - beautiful video and enchanting audio - The writing though, wasn't nearly what this film deserved. The writing in fact was so bad that the Casablanca homage at the end actually made me laugh out loud.

[Enrique]

Yes, I meant The Good German. Actually, I have yet to see Casablanca. For some reason watching that movie has eluded me still. Yet, the homage was clear even for someone who hasn't watched Casablanca.

I do think Soderbergh recreated a 1940's feel to perfection, I agree the writing left something to be desired.

I hate the "why don't you ask her?", why don't they just tell him right there? It was quite annoying seeing the "why don't you ask her?" being repeated over and over again. They tell some information but decide not to give other information it seems just for the sake of drama and no realism at all. I don't think anybody would react "yeah, you're right, I should ask her again for the 10th time". I think people would react by asking again. Of course maybe the author decides to cut those scenes because if the other person keeps the secret then it would be a boring scene to prolong, but if the scene is boring to prolong then don't include it in the first place.

I rant, but that is the reason, I didn't think the movie was great.

[Dominic]

I recently saw two films:

Stranger Than Fiction

This was quite good...light, but fun. I thought Will Ferrell did a great job and I liked the whole absurdity of the situation of a person realizing he's a character in someone else's book. Well worth the time.

Down in the Valley

Interesting little film starring Ed Norton as a South Dakota cowboy in L.A., who starts seeing jail bait Evan Rachel Wood, much to the displeasure of her father, David Morse. I'm not quite sure what the point of the whole movie was but it was never less than entertaining and interesting, and the performances are near-great. Also, Evan Rachel Wood just jumped to the top of "Girls I'd Risk Going to Jail For."

[odellthurman]

Best movie I have seen lately is Open Hearts, a Danish film that examines the after-effects of a car accident that leaves a young man paralyzed from the neck down. The acting in this movie is fantastic.

[diebitter]

Watched an old Italian horror movie today called 'Mask of Satan' (aka Black Sunday). The plot was all over the place, but the imagery was pretty darn good.



Starring the strangely beautiful Barbara Steele as both the heroine and the witch/vampire that is her ancestor.

I liked this a lot. Directed by Mario Bava (for the filmies). It came in English dubbed or Italian/w subtitles.

Strangely, there were definitely parts of it they were speaking English from the mouth movements, and others they were talking Italian. I think in Italian studios they never used to record the sound on filming, but dubbed it in later, so I guess the actors could talk in whatever language suited them.

[SoloAJ]

Watched Disturbia two nights ago at the theatres. I found it to be really entertaining and a good thriller. It seemed conscious of trying to be different enough from Rear Window that it wouldn't be too unoriginal.

I thought for the setting (high school environment) it was easily interesting to adults (at least to me). There were 3 scenes that seemed a bit silly or amateurish maybe, but nothing too out of line.

The mood was set well and I felt tense as a good thriller should do. That said, it isn't great cinema. It is, however, about the perfect kind of "date movie" a guy could ask for, if it was that or a chick flick.

[fyodor]

Stranger Than Fiction
I mentioned somewhere earlier (maybe even in this thread) that I saw most of STF on a bus but hadn't seen the end. About a week ago I saw the whole thing with my gf. Then a girl (just a friend) came over the other night while my gf was at work and I told her to pick out any movie in my very extensive collection and she picked STF so I have now seen it 2.75 times in the last month. It gets funnier each time.

The ending is a bit dissapointing but I'm not sure what else they could have done besides actually kill him and go totally dark. I think they should have ended with the bus drivers hugging each other though. The bits after that were redundant.

Interestingly my gf walked out about 30 minutes in. She thought it was terrible. The other girl's comment at the end was "I thought it was supposed to be a comedy".

My Own Private Idaho
Somehow I had heard about this movie without knowing anything about it. I knew Keauna Reeves and River Phoenix were the stars but other than that absolutely nothing.

I managed to watch 1:20 before I bailed. I will watch the final 20 min sometime today. I can't imagine those final 20 minutes changing my mind much though. Absolutely no idea what the director's intent is with this movie.

Beginning with the blonde guy with his hat on backwards in the cafe in Portland doing some psuedo interview on through the entire thing with Bob, where the acting got purposefully worse and worse, like they were parodying some really bad high school production of Shakespear, I was like 'what is the [censored] point of this?' It was painfull to watch and if it was supposed to be funny, it sure didn't resonate with me.

When the action switched to a back road in Idaho and then the campfire scene, I thought the movie was about to save itself, but then it quickly turned back into some kind of a parody.

Really I don't think the director even knew what he was after here. Just string a bunch of inside my own mind stuff together and make it as long as a normal movie and it will look like art.

Read a few reviews after the fact and it seems the critics either loved it or hated it. Mark me down for the not-having-a-clue-what-is-going-on department.

If the last 20 minutes pulls it all together in some brilliant fashion I will retract everything I said... Don't hold your breath.

[Enrique]

I saw a lot of shorts yesterday.
Got out a compilation of shorts called "Short 2" from library and I saw the following ones:
La Jetee The classic sci-fi film that inspired 12 Monkeys. 12 Monkeys is one of my favorite films, so I was looking forward to seeing this movie and it was the main reason I got it the DVD out of the library. The movie was really good, it was very interesting seeing a movie with just stills, like a slideshow with narration, but the stills have some period to them, sometimes the movement is almost palpable and at other times it jumps ahead. Very interesting. The story is also very cool. 12 Monkeys and La Jetee complement each other quite nicely.
Big Brass Ring A short film made to get funding to make a longer Big Brass Ring. It is based on a screenplay Orson Welles did with his lover Oja Kodar. The short was not that good, since it felt like part of something and not something that could hold on on its own. Nevertheless I enjoy watching Malcolm McDowell.
Cafe Bar A very nice animated feature with some very creative and funny ideas throughout.
Depth Solitude A very cool and interesting piece narrated by Max Von Sydow. Really worth the watch.
Eye Like a Strange Balloon Very weird movie with references to Poe and other stuff. I should have probably watched it again to try to understand better what was going on. Without having any clue what it was about, it still had some very nice images.
A guy walks into a Bar Besides La Jetee, the other shorts were between 4 and 7 minutes long. This was the other long one, with about 27 minutes. It was quite enjoyable, with very funny parts. I enjoyed this movie very much, Fred Savage seemed like a perfect cast for that character and the australian model that had the female lead is very attractive. A nice story of "be careful what you wish for".
Seefood Short bits of a guy opening his mouth and showing what he had eaten ("ceasar salad", "soup du jour", "beef", "chicken", "dessert").
Rochambeau A never ending video of a hand playing Rochambeau, it randomly selected between paper, rock and scissors.
What is sex? I don't know what this short was about, I guess 15 seconds are not enough to answer what is sex.
Bride of Resistor A funny tale of a resistor falling in love with a bride doll. It tries to capture it with a mouse trap but it ends up capturing a groom. Pretty funny with nice visuals.

Then I watched pryor's films:
L'Attente I enjoyed it. You can really feel the desperation of the guy not getting his coffee. Of course, I can't relate to the character because I would get up and get the waitress to give me the coffee. Nevertheless it was fun to watch and the ending was very nice.
guard duty It was very funny, specially when the old guy losses count. A fun, short, enjoyable film.

I also watched some films from the Angry VideoGame Nerd:
This guy became popular in youtube for his reviews of horrible NES games. They are very funny, it is very interesting how he gives very solid arguments for why something sucks. Last night I found out somebody in youtube flagged him for using profanity and his videos are slowly disappearing from youtube, nevertheless there are out in his website and other parts.
Last night I saw his review of the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 (the only movie he has reviewed). It was hilarious. If you love NES games you should check him out. He also has a very funny video complaining about sequel titles.

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]

Then I watched pryor's films:
L'Attente I enjoyed it. You can really feel the desperation of the guy not getting his coffee. Of course, I can't relate to the character because I would get up and get the waitress to give me the coffee. Nevertheless it was fun to watch and the ending was very nice.
guard duty It was very funny, specially when the old guy losses count. A fun, short, enjoyable film.


[/ QUOTE ]

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[Blarg]

Wow, I envy you seeing La Jetee! I saw this ages ago and was blown away by it. Since then I've tried to find it, and haven't been able. I'd love to have this in my collection.