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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 8, 2009 1:33:01 GMT -5
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Post by PTAhole on Mar 8, 2009 4:08:14 GMT -5
I've yet to see the movie (it can wait), but the comic's definitely worth reading, as are pretty much all of Alan Moore's books.
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 8, 2009 13:35:25 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 9, 2009 16:19:44 GMT -5
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt 
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 9, 2009 18:29:34 GMT -5
Encounters at the End of the World
9/10
Herzog's documentary contains lots of compelling information about both the environment of Antarctica and also the people who make their living in the desolate land. From the single-celled organisms to the biological linguist to the insane penguins to the Hawaiian physicist, everyone Herzog covers in this film has something valuable to teach the viewer. Is it preachy at times? Yes. And do certain parts get a little boring? Yes. But that does not mean that this film should not be viewed, it is certainly a wonderful documentary.
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 11, 2009 12:08:14 GMT -5
Tobacco Road (John Ford, 1941) Hillbillies  Except...  Hillbillies  But ultimately...   Hillbillies 4.5/10
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 11, 2009 17:34:04 GMT -5
Rachel Getting Married
8.5/10
Demme's latest film is an intense family drama with very little in the way of story but a lot in the way of complicated and fierce performances. Hathaway and DeWitt are both amazing in their roles and they really take over the film. It is a shame that DeWitt didn't get more recognition for her performance. The film has its slow spots and it definitely tries too hard to be trendy and worldly, but the performances and the movie's musical pulse more than make up for it.
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 12, 2009 16:03:45 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 16, 2009 13:23:46 GMT -5
The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford, 1935) THIS was directed by John Ford? A light, funny little semi-parody of gangster movies and tale of mistaken identity? If you just showed me this movie without credits, I wouldn'tve guessed in a million years that John Ford of all people helmed it...but hey, I'll take it. Edward G. Robinson is fantastic, as usual, this time in a dual role, showing both sides of a range you never would've guessed he had - a meek, shy and soft-spoken bookkeeper, and the nasty, fast-talking gangster he gets mistaken for - the persona you'd much more readily associate Robinson with. But, he pulls off both roles very nicely (it really is incredible how different these two characters, being played by the same actor, are), and while some of the movie is incredibly dated (that black doorman at the bank...  ), many of the situations that arise from an unassuming bureaucrat being mistaken for 'Killer' Mannion are very clever and funny - even moments of slapstick aren't overdone, but are more in-the-moment than anything, making the humor that much more endearing (Robinson can do obnoxious drunk like no other  ). I've only seen three of Edward G. Robinson's performances (well, 4 if you count this movie's as two...), but I think he's shooting right up my list of favorite actors regardless. This movie's nothing profound, but it was cute, and I liked it  7.5/10 Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)   jesus christ, Shirley Temple got HOT! Well, when I wasn't thinking about the things I would do to America's former sweetheart in a sleazy motel room, I was pretty much bored. You've seen one 2-hour excuse to show off Monument Valley, you've seen 'em all, and "Fort Apache" was one of 'em all. Some shots of desert, some trouble at home at a remote army base, some stock chase/action scenes between army 'n Indians, that just about sums it up. Even John Ford's bizarre brand of comic relief, namely involving inexperienced soldiers and their horses in some really weird slapstick, is just plain strange, and Fonda stick out like a fucking sore thumb. I'd compare his go as a stubborn, bloodthirsty or glorythirsty or both Lieutenant Colonel to, say, Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock's "Rope" - in both cases, a great actor in the prime of his career, practically dumped into a movie where it just doesn't feel like he belongs. On the bright side, though, John Wayne's pretty damn good as the captain - charismatic, honorable in sympathizing with the Indians, basically the foil to the bullheaded Fonda, and doesn't yet have that stroke victim drawl the uninitiated would associate with John Wayne. But, at least until the finale, Wayne is woefully underused, in favor of trying to build up Fonda's assholeishness for some kind of redemption that, while portrayed heroically at the end, feels disingenuous, and a sub-plot involving Fonda's daughter (Temple  ...can't act to save her life, but ) and her romance with the young officer who, of course, daddy doesn't approve of, that has its moments but falls a bit flat like most everything else. If it wasn't for little moments like the drunk serenading the happy couple and the O'Rourke family on their porch one night (a most-decidedly Ford-ian moment ), and a climax that ends things on an incredibly strong note, as Fonda's near-crazed Lt. Col. Thursday and his men take on the Indians (who're portrayed in a more positive light than negative, so the question of which side to root for is surprisingly, and nicely, complex), "Fort Apache" would be utterly forgettable. As it stands, it's still one of the weaker Ford's I've seen, but the last reel or so saves it from oblivion  6.5/10
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 18, 2009 13:07:32 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 21, 2009 16:00:59 GMT -5
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 23, 2009 15:45:34 GMT -5
Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford, 1960)rantsandmusings.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/sergeant-rutledge/Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927) nothing like attempted murder to give the ol' marriage a jump start, eh? But apparently in the expressionistic world of F.W. Murnau, that's the case, because that thought of murder turned the lowest of the low to the highest of the high for a humble farm couple. What emotion, what sheer joy, what carefree euphoria the Man and the Wife experience on their excursion! This movie is everything that was right about expressionism in silent film. When the Man and the Woman from the City plan the Wife's murder, and then the Man tries to go through with it, his clunky movements, hunched over, practically turn him into Frankenstein's monster - but the look on his poor wife's face evokes sheer terror - no words need describe it, it just is. The wife running from her husband in fear, she's like a traumatized little girl - all the more reason for us to pity and fear for her. And their reconciliation, every embrace, every moment they spend in a big and scary and unfamiliar metropolis, observing a wedding, chasing a pig, visiting the barber, a passionate kiss before the photographer's camera - these two stick out like a sore thumb in the bustling city, but their innocence and happiness, not long after sheer terror, affected me like few other on-screen relationships ever have. This is how body language and facial expression trump dialogue to deliver the purest of emotions, despite over-the-top expressionism. Yeah, "Sunrise" has all the technical innovations the historians tell you about, from the moving camera to the graphic match cuts to using tricks and effects to have a ghostly visage of the vicious Woman from the City embrace an hunched-over and emotionally-neutered Man, but frankly I didn't even notice the technical qualities. All that mattered to me was the performances, how disgusted the Man is when the Woman from the City - the snake of Eden - tempts him with thoughts of murder, how in the beginning Man and Wife and their baby inhabit the same room, but can't even muster the strength to look at each other, and how they reconcile and are all of a sudden inseparable and couldn't be more passionate for each other and excited about their new surroundings. "Sunrise" is suspenseful, endearing, funny (the Venus De Milo visual gag is hysterical), tragic, and above all, life-affirming. This could've been a simple story of how the big bad city (through the insipid Woman) can be the undoing of innocence and pure love (through the Man and Wife and their rural sensibilities), but it's deeper than that - look no further than how much god damn fun the couple have in that supposedly big, bad city after all. As sappy as it sounds, love conquers all, and these two people become unconditionally entwined as one entity - "A Song of Two Humans" becomes a song of one. And is this not, like, the greatest, most atmospheric and evocative, entrance in all of cinema? (1st minute of clip): www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zbEoyG02Hw10/10
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 26, 2009 15:38:10 GMT -5
The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940)            John Wayne playing a Swede  But, when Wayne’s “yahs” weren’t making me cringe, I was admiring just the sheer atmosphere of “The Long Voyage Home”, where even the great John Ford and the great Gregg Toland damn near outdid themselves with the production value. That first scene is as great as everyone says it is – the seductive native girls hanging out on the shore practically grinding the trees, Wayne and his merry band of seamen surveying the view from their cozy little boat, saying nothing as the fog and darkness and exotic music gives us all the atmosphere we need – the mood is set without a single word needing to be spoken. And the moodiness and atmosphere really doesn’t let up from there. I wasn’t much a fan of some story and dialogue choices – a few too many clichéd what’re-you-gonna-do-when-you-get-out or who’s-waiting-for-you-back-home or bedside you’re-gonna-be-just-fine moments – nor did I really like some rather over-the-top performances all-around, with stereotypes like the wise, stoic seaman dishing out cryptic advice to the hero or the jovial fat guy everyone looks up to or the shrimpy little guy who gets his panties in a twist about EVERYTHING, so nobody takes him seriously. There really wasn’t a character, from Wayne’s impossibly shy Ollie on down, that stuck out for me, or that I could particularly like – or hate, for that matter. It was like one big collective of overacting, though the reserved loner Smitty, who attracts the suspicion of the others, is the exception in a very nice and subtle performance by Ian Hunter. Thankfully, all that nothing special-ness is helped along by that great atmosphere, and by those great Fordian staging and images that I’ve been busting a nut over for the past month, although Toland obviously deserves just as much credit for that for his cinematography – he did only do “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Citizen Kane,” two of the greatest-photographed films ever made, in the same 2-year span as this  . When you hear nothing but the wind, the occasional foghorn, and the anchor scraping against the hull, and the faces of these severe-looking men are lit only from the bottom, and on the deck at night they’re not even men, but silhouettes, and they’re cramped together in those dark, seedy living quarters like they’re in a football huddle, yeah, I’d say every feeling from camaraderie to boredom to desperation to outright suspicion of the very men they call friends is pretty fucking palpable. The men’s treatment of Smitty and a mysterious box he keeps under his bed one fateful night is particularly disgusting and tough to watch (I mean that as a compliment), and their drunken escapades, while over the top and drawn out too long, has a kind of warm intimacy to it. A character who you’d think will be a major one, or maybe even the chief protagonist, by movie’s end, is out of the picture far sooner than you’d likely anticipate, and the story takes on a far different tone late in a port town, so to its credit, the movie’s not that predictable. The production value and ambience, especially aboard the boat in the middle of the war-torn Atlantic, is impeccable, but there were still a few too many of those acting and dialogue 1940s-isms that never fail to irritate me. But then again, late in the movie during a particularly bizarre situation involving a rival ship, I was really worried about what was gonna happen to Ollie, so if that isn’t an indication that I have no clue what I’m talking about, I don’t know what is. 7.5/10
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 28, 2009 16:23:54 GMT -5
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 29, 2009 17:02:50 GMT -5
Let the Right One In
10/10
I've heard this film described as the anti-Twilight and I couldn't agree more. While the latter is all about stirring teen girls emotions and has very little substance to it, this film is dense, moody, and has something to say about young love, alienation, and the darkness inside us all. The young leads are fantastic and the story is intelligent. This isn't simply a vampire film with all the usual trappings but rather an excellent film in which vampires happen to be essential to the plot. Definitely belongs among the best films of 2008.
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Post by PTAhole on Mar 30, 2009 2:02:47 GMT -5
I Love You, Man- This movie was hilarious. Jason Segal and Paul Rudd have excellent comedic chemistry, and any movie with as much of a Rush presence as this one is awesome.
Twilight- Saw this in school. Horrible, but pretty unintentionally funny.
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 30, 2009 9:14:46 GMT -5
Baraka
8/10
Saw this is in my English class. Really is an incredibly fascinating film to watch and the contrasts are very affective. It kinda hits you over the head with its message but it is still worth a watch.
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 30, 2009 10:33:37 GMT -5
Baraka 8/10 Saw this is in my English class. Really is an incredibly fascinating film to watch and the contrasts are very affective. It kinda hits you over the head with its message but it is still worth a watch.  |
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 30, 2009 17:23:23 GMT -5
From Homelessness to Harvard
1/10
Don't you love Lifetime movies in Theology class?
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captainofbeef
Cool KAt
Beauty Hides in the Deep
You should have asked me for it, how could I say no...
Posts: 7,778
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Post by captainofbeef on Mar 31, 2009 13:28:57 GMT -5
Happy-Go-Lucky
5/10
I could barely stand to watch this film. Hawkins' performance has been praised but I simply found her annoying most of the time. Sure, there are times where she shows some emotion but otherwise she just acts ridiculously quirky and silly all the time. Alexis Zegerman gives a much better and more real performance as Poppy's roommate. Not to mention that the film is much too long. Really a disappointment.
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Post by Clark Nova on Mar 31, 2009 21:51:18 GMT -5
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drone
King Kong
Posts: 184
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Post by drone on Apr 1, 2009 22:45:19 GMT -5
How can you stand watching that many Ford's  |
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Post by Clark Nova on Apr 1, 2009 23:06:15 GMT -5
How can you stand watching that many Ford's Ford was our Master of the Month over at another forum. I got through it relatively unscathed |
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Post by PTAhole on Apr 5, 2009 10:02:42 GMT -5
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People- Everybody hated this movie, but I thought it was pretty funny, and Simon Pegg is the most likable motherfucker in the universe.
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Post by Clark Nova on Apr 5, 2009 10:52:02 GMT -5
doesn't megan fox get in her bra in that movie or something? as far as i'm concerned, that'd be the only reason to watch  |
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Post by PTAhole on Apr 5, 2009 15:57:44 GMT -5
Yeah, she does, but she's not in the movie all that much. Simon Pegg is most of the reason to see it. Though, Robert Weide (of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame) does a respectable job with the direction.
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Post by Clark Nova on Apr 6, 2009 14:22:15 GMT -5
Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)  "I want my 93 grand."God bless Lee Marvin. 8.5/10 The Limey (Steven Soderbergh, 1999) Jeez, so it's Soderbergh doing his Boorman-directing-Point Blank-but-on-acid impression. This is pretty much everything that "Point Blank" was, but more exaggerated. Terrence Stamp's thug is even more exaggeratedly badass than Point Blank's Lee Marvin (this time going on a violent crusade seeking revenge for his daughter's death rather than the inexplicably simple goal of simply retrieving some money) - almost comically serious with the occasional spurts of (business-like) English profanity, but still awesome (though Lee Marvin's quiet, goal-obsessed stoicism in and of itself can certainly be called exaggerated). Soderbergh makes extensive use of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and every flash in-between. Often the flashes are silent, sudden and jarring, with dialogue from the scene we're watching acting as the only background noise to these sudden new images (showing us disjointed moments ranging from Wilson's youth to his daughter on the beach to that conversation he had with this daughter's friend in the car just a few minutes before), and the flash-forwards acting as instant dream or deja vu-like snippets of moments the narrative is yet to catch up to (I had quite a few "oh, yeah!" moments when this scene or that reprised seemingly random images from minutes before). "Point Blank" did the same thing, but there it seemed more natural and in-the-moment and genuinely felt like random snippets of memory were entering Lee Marvin's head at any given moment. Here, Soderbergh's much more liberal with those stylistic flourishes - sometimes distracting, but still an interesting touch. You've got those, you've got the jump cuts, the snappy dialogue, Peter Fonda at his corrupt music mogul sleaziest, sudden bursts of violence (many of those nearly off-screen or at least well in the distance), that just plain cool vibe throughout (Fonda's house, man...), and yes, moments that do make "The Limey" a first-rate thriller, and it's like Soderbergh is Dr. Frankenstein, trying to combine the styles of Boorman and Jean-Luc Godard to create his own special monster. I preferred "Point Blank's" cult exercise in coolness, mainly because Lee Marvin's performance was just out of this world, making quite the interesting climb up the corporate ladder if you will (even I was as disbelieving and skeptical as the shady higher-ups of The Organization that Lee Marvin's Walker goes on the bloody crusade he goes on just for $93,000), but still, Steven Soderbergh's exercise in shameless stylistic self-indulgence had me entertained 7.5/10
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mixed
Hitchcock
We played with life and lost
Posts: 1,273
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Post by mixed on Apr 12, 2009 19:59:44 GMT -5
I'm going to comment on the last few posts. Everybody that posted above me give it a little read, I can't be bothered to 'quote' each person and I may comment to something somebody or other said! I'm quite behind, haven't posted in a while, mainly to my internet being cut off and general business.
The fact remains though, I love this forum! Despite the sad decline, the few individuals who post here are brilliant people and have interesting things to say about film (and other things) which keeps me coming back. It is now that I am going to get back on here and try to be a more regular poster, I want to support this little community! And hell, I'm the only English point of view here!
Simon Pegg is one likeable motherfucker! That can't be denied!I felt that Spaced was a pretty crappy sitcom which I didn't find very funny at all. But I watched it because of you Simon Pegg! And for me, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead barely registered a smile on my face.
BTW there are a lot of far better modern British sitcoms. I highly, highly reccommend Peep Show to all Americans unfamiliar with it. It really is comic gold imo. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. I'm just saying that maybe I'll check out how to lose friends because Pegg is in it! Oh and again, run fatboy run was quite shitty but I stayed tuned because of that llikeable motherfucker!
The Limey:
I saw this a few years back and it made me think my god, Soderbergh you pretentious fucking arsehole. I haven't seen point blank and I probably need to rewatch the Limey but those are my memories of that film, aside from recalling some nice cinematography.
John Ford - fuck I hate westerns...but maybe I should at least check out his famous stuff...
I love you man - Looks good, Rudd is perhaps my favourite of the 'apatow crowd'.
Koyaanisqatsi - Amazingly beautiful, must rewatch.
Let the right one in - All I hear is amazing stuff, it's probably the next thing I will go and see.
Ok, relatively up to date...back soon to say what I've seen lately!
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mixed
Hitchcock
We played with life and lost
Posts: 1,273
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Post by mixed on Apr 12, 2009 20:09:30 GMT -5
My computer is being a dickhead and keeps taking me back to the main page, causing me to lose large chunks of fucking posts. I'm pissed off, more posts another time. Need to kill a virus I think....
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Post by PTAhole on Apr 13, 2009 4:09:33 GMT -5
Simon Pegg is one likeable motherfucker! That can't be denied!I felt that Spaced was a pretty crappy sitcom which I didn't find very funny at all. But I watched it because of you Simon Pegg! And for me, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead barely registered a smile on my face. BTW there are a lot of far better modern British sitcoms. I highly, highly reccommend Peep Show to all Americans unfamiliar with it. It really is comic gold imo. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. I'm just saying that maybe I'll check out how to lose friends because Pegg is in it! Oh and again, run fatboy run was quite shitty but I stayed tuned because of that llikeable motherfucker! I disagree very much about Spaced, as it's maybe my favorite television show (along with Freaks and Geeks), but I will check out Peep Show, for sure. |
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. When you hear nothing but the wind, the occasional foghorn, and the anchor scraping against the hull, and the faces of these severe-looking men are lit only from the bottom, and on the deck at night they’re not even men, but silhouettes, and they’re cramped together in those dark, seedy living quarters like they’re in a football huddle, yeah, I’d say every feeling from camaraderie to boredom to desperation to outright suspicion of the very men they call friends is pretty fucking palpable. The men’s treatment of Smitty and a mysterious box he keeps under his bed one fateful night is particularly disgusting and tough to watch (I mean that as a compliment), and their drunken escapades, while over the top and drawn out too long, has a kind of warm intimacy to it. A character who you’d think will be a major one, or maybe even the chief protagonist, by movie’s end, is out of the picture far sooner than you’d likely anticipate, and the story takes on a far different tone late in a port town, so to its credit, the movie’s not that predictable. The production value and ambience, especially aboard the boat in the middle of the war-torn Atlantic, is impeccable, but there were still a few too many of those acting and dialogue 1940s-isms that never fail to irritate me. But then again, late in the movie during a particularly bizarre situation involving a rival ship, I was really worried about what was gonna happen to Ollie, so if that isn’t an indication that I have no clue what I’m talking about, I don’t know what is.
