What Movies Have You Watched Recently?

[Enrique]

Twelve Monkeys
I saw this movie for the sixth time.
I love this movie, and I remember that the plot was too complicated for me and that it took me about three viewings to get it. Now, I understand everything and hence the joy of watching comes from noticing the extras that Gilliam puts in or for the first time relating the movie to La Jeteé. The movie is inspired by "La Jeteé", but I had never seen it before, the first time I saw it was last month. An interesting scene was when James and Dr. Railley are in a movie theater watching Vertigo, in "La Jeteé" there is also a reference to "Vertigo". I loved the scene between James and Dr. Railley where she has the blonde whig and he has the moustache and the music is the music from "Vertigo". "Vertigo" being one of my favorite films, I get a big kick of hearing its music and seeing an homage scene in other movies.

Other notable scenes are:
-Brad Pitt's character explaining how Dr. Railley mapped out every possible decision of his life in a computer and factored it out using a probability matrix.
-The powerful ending scene
-Imagining the shock of the guy that saw James get his tooth out. A guy that was fearing for his life after James kicks his ass. (Note James is the character played by Bruce Willis).

Things I still can't explain to myself:
-Who the hell is Bob? How is he talking to James? Is James a little crazy?
-Did the tooth thing actually work?

This movie is just excellent.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Last Ark
Second time I see it. It is a really fun movie to watch. The scene with the monkey and the chasing reminded me a lot of the Looney Tunes. There seem to be many logic mistakes in the movie, but it is forgiven because the movie is incredibly fun and doesn't try to be realistic. A fun movie to watch, but I don't love it nearly as much as Twelve Monkeys as you can notice from the lenght in words dedicated to each movie.

[Barcalounger]

Half Nelson

Ryan Gosling stars as an inner city history teacher using unconventional methods to try and get through to his students. He also has unconventional ways of relaxing after work, namely crack cocaine. He forms a friendship with a 13 year old student played by Shareeka Epps after she finds him smoked up on the floor in the school locker room. The girl has her own problems with a hard working mother, absent father, brother in jail, and the only real father figure in her life just happens to be her teacher's crack dealer.

This setup could have easily turned into a really bad after school special. Instead it's one of my favorite films of last year. It's filmed almost like a documentary and the acting is so tremendous all around that occasionally I would forget that it was fiction. I think it would be impossible to overstate how great Gosling and Epps are in carrying the weight of this movie. And weight is the apt word considering how depressing it can be to watch people's lives spiral out of control so realistically. Many other great issues are also worked into this context and dealt with subtly, and others not so subtly. I'll definitely be watching for more films from this director and these amazing actors. 9/10

[SoloAJ]

Barca, Ryan Gosling is a good actor in everything IMO. This he was particularly awesome in. I thought this was a really well done movie and didn't get enough credit for the movie itself (all of the credit went to Gosling and Epps, who were obviously outstanding....just not all the film had to offer).

I recently watched The Last King of Scotland and had the same feeling I just mentioned. Whitaker was absolutely amazing. But the movie itself was really really good I thought. And I was surprised I didn't hear more about the movie itself...just about Forrest. Seriously though, he had SUCH presence in the movie...really was a once in a lifetime performance for someone, I thought.

[j2zooted]

With the recent Paris Hilton court story, I thought of this movie, and watched it again. It is a dark comedy about a relentless high school girl with aspirations of fame. James Woods has a great raunchy character in it. Has a fair amount of lurid language in it in case that bothers anybody. I highly recommend this movie, one of the funniest i have seen in the past few years.

[fyodor]

I've still been watching a movie or two a day; for some reason I just stopped reviewing them. Tonight I feel like making an exception. Just got back from watching Away From Her
Stars Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie & Olympia Dukakis
Directed by Sarah Polley



Pinsent & Christie have been married 40+ years. She is coming down with Alzheimer's and against Pinsent's wishes decides to go live in an institution. He can't see her for the first 30 days and when he finally does show up she basically no longer recognizes him and has kind of taken up with a mostly catatonic, wheelchair bound fellow inmate.

The story is about Pinsent's love and devotion to her and how far he is willing to go to ensure her happiness. He goes a little further than I would.

The film is very slow and artsy. It starts with them cross country skiing side by side like their journey through life but briefly shows either them or another couple splitting off at an angle.

Some of the film is a little heavy handed for my taste. We get a few monologues on the effects and consequences of Alzheimer's. I think everyone is familiar enough with this disease that it is completely unnecessary. One really annoying moment occurs when Pinsent is reading aloud about synapses shutting down like breakers in a house so that the lights go out one at at time. Then we see lights going out in their house one at a time. I don't think that was a big enough hammer Polley, please hit me again.

There was a little dig at American film making when Christie says something about not going to the movies much anymore because there is nothing but Cineplexs showing bad American movies that are all the same. The Canadian audience ate it up.

A comedic highlight of the film is one of the inmates being an ex-play by play guy. He gives play by play on everything going on around him and his analysis of a crushed Pinsent leaning against the elevator is priceless.

I am no expert on the technical aspects of films but I think there was something lacking in the cinematography. There were some nice pictures but overall it was lit like a documentary. Perhaps that was intentional.

Overall I would say the film is a decent directorial debut, but why the critics are simply gushing over it is beyond me. Metacritic has it at 87% based on 30 reviews and RT has it at 93% based on 89 reviews.

I'm Canadian, and I found it a little too Canadian for my taste.

[katyseagull]

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I'm Canadian, and I found it a little too Canadian for my taste.

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lol. I really like your reviews, fyodor. Sarah Polley? Really? Isn't she like 24 or something?

This subject matter is not one I would normally embrace but I kind of want to rent the film now just to see the guy giving his play by plays.


You should do more reviews for us. You're good at them.

[diebitter]

Daughters of Darkness


I wouldn't be surprised if no-one has heard of this one.

This is a very stylish vampire/sex drama, made in the early 1970s, and whilst it is in English, it reeks of European aethestics. It is often interesting and well-composed to look at, and the main character, the Countess Bathory, is a truly great screen character.

The story concerns a newlywed couple missing a boat to England to meet 'Mother', and staying at a large, out-of-season hotel in Ostende. They are at first the only guests, but the Countess and female companion Ilona (who is very beautiful) also stay. The ageing concierge recognises here as having stayed there 40 years previously, and looking exactly the same...

It's a slow, building drama, where we eventually learn of murders nearby where young girls have been drained of blood, and also the history of the Countess's 'ancestors'. We also find the husband seems excited by all this, and seems in fact to be a sadist (though this is mostly hinted at in the dialogue, right up until the surprising scene where he belts his wife).


It's a cool, slow movie, with losts of gore and sexual imagery and tension (both hetero and lesbian) and scenes, but it's about as opposite to, say, Hammer movies, as you can get. It's more an arthouse film.

Recommended to try and catch, though I've no idea how.

[fyodor]

Just watched The Collector (1965) Credits in the poster.



A social misfit, amateur lepidopterist who has come into some money, kidnaps a beautiful, artsy girl that he has fallen in love with from a distance, and hides her away in his dungeon. He does what he can to make her fall in love with him. He has serious 'putting women on a pedestal' problems.

Tender, insightful, chilling and enthralling. Well worth watching.

[Barcalounger]

[ QUOTE ]
Little Children

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Just saw this yesterday. I enjoyed it a whole lot. Very ambitious subject matter, well shot, superbly acted, nice pacing, tons of tension, overall just a very superior film. IMHO it's definitely better than his previous In The Bedroom. I'm also a bit disturbed with how much it has stuck with me and hit a little too close to home even for this very monogamous type of guy.

About the narration - I think you're right in that it probably isn't needed in a plot developing kind of way. For me I thought it provided some much needed breathing room from the tension and some comedy relief.

About Kate Winslet - Man, I love her. I do think that her character was a bit underdeveloped, possibly purposely so. I'm not really as resolute on her reasons for her infidelity, other than she strikes me as the "heady, intellectual" type that often get trapped inside their own mind and obsess about their alternatives in life. Her husband and their relationship were very undeveloped, especially in comparison to how much insight I felt I had into the other marriage. I also feel very bad for her character at the end of the film because I feel that she'll have a hard time ever being happy.

[Barcalounger]

Fast Food Nation

What an ambitious little mess of a film. The "story" is basically a bunch of side plots revolved around the fictional Mickey's fast food restaurant and their beef supplier. We have the marketing VP who's investigating too much fecal matter in the beef, the illegal immigrants crossing the border to come work at the slaughterhouse, the high school girl who works at a Mickey's and becomes more politically motivated against the big corporate machine, and others all worked in. Social commentary on eating habits, urban sprawl, illegal immigration, the corporatizing of America, and tons more all are thrown at you so fast that you can barely think about it before some other issue is in your face.

Linklater is kind of known for his lack of focus, but the problem here for me is that he seemed to focus TOO MUCH on the least interesting characters. Kinnear's VP of marketing is barely seen again after the halfway point (until the end credits). Kris Kristofferson's cattle rancher is awesome, but they only give him 5 minutes to spit out his diatribe before he's cast aside. Instead we get Fez from that 70's show sneaking across the border, getting a job spraying down rats, living in a hotel room with 20 other people, pondering on how to open a bank account, taking his wife out to dinner, dealing with rampant drug use all around him, and trying to live out the American dream. This is literally half the movie, and to me the least interesting "subplot". I get it, illegals get the shaft. Sometimes literally. I'd rather have more good metaphor scenes like a bunch of cows not being set free.

Anyway, it wasn't that bad, it just wasn't that good.