Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Alex]

Couple days ago I sat down and watched The Rundown.  Great movie for sure, even if I'm not a big fan of Willem Dafoe Christopher Walken.

[Classic]

I read Persepolis and now feel compelled to WATCH it. Am I going to be horribly impressed or let down, because it will be one or the other?

[Thad]

Retitled the threads since the theater/DVD distinction got lost somewhere along the way.  (Expect I wasn't helping what with watching Midnight Cowboy in a theater.)

Anyway.  Haven't read Persepolis but I quite liked the movie.  My perception is that it was a very faithful adaptation.  More thoughts on the previous page.

[Thad]

This past week I continued my "classic movies I've never gotten around to seeing" project with Raging Bull and The Wild One.  Plenty of ink has been given to both movies, so I think I'll try something hopefully more original and contrast the two of them.

Wild One, while a classic, is such a product of its time; its depiction of a motorcycle gang is such a 1950's whitewash, a group of mostly-harmless guys who are supposed to be threatening because they talk back to their elders and some of them have a five-o'-clock shadow.  For God's sake, they cross-dress and dance in one scene.  And while the camera work's great and the acting is adequate at worst and brilliant at best (I'd say Lee Marvin, not Marlon Brando, is the real highlight -- he's always drunken and violent! --; Brando just stands around acting like he's too cool for everybody, and in fact he's too cool for the silly movie he's in), the dialogue is some of the most ridiculous stuff I've ever heard.  It's a Standards-and-Practices-inhibited Hollywood writer's interpretation of teenage slang; nobody ever really talked like that.  Honestly I'd like to see it on RiffTrax -- sure, it's an all-time classic that spawned a genre and starred Brando, but is it really that much better than, say, Girls' Town or This Island Earth?

In fact, this seems to be the only movie where I've ever thought, "Hey, they should Rifftrax that," and then gone to their forum and NOT seen that a shitload of other people have already suggested it.  I think I'm going to sign up for an account just to recommend it.

Anyway.  As for Raging Bull, well, 35 years after The Wild One, Raging Bull's like a 180, real and raw and ugly.  Where Wild One features "bad guys" who are way more likeable than the wholesome small-towners they terrorize, Raging Bull features a protagonist who's violent, crazed, and powerfully insecure, who alienates everyone who cares about him, including the audience.

Both classics, each starring one of the greatest actors to grace American cinema.  Very different eras and approaches.  One is quaint in hindsight; the other hits as hard now as when it was made.  The Wild One is a lot more fun to watch, but Raging Bull is a way better movie.

[Thad]

X-Files: I Want to Believe: pretty much all the reviews are right.  It's not a great movie, and it feels like something that could have been pared down to 45 minutes and run as an episode of the TV show -- but really, that feels like it's the point.

It's unambitious and unassuming and I think it succeeds at what it is: a modest start to a potential franchise.  I could see one of these coming out every couple of years and feel pretty okay about it.  I'm glad I didn't spend $9 to see it in the theater, but I think it's worth a rental -- leastways, if you're a fan.  (I was for a good little while; didn't catch much of the last few seasons.)

Pretty straightforward story, good characters -- particularly the confrontations between Scully and Billy Connolly (in a serious role!), and I liked Amanda Peet's character -- and the creepy atmosphere the show was known for.  Heavy on the fan service without spending too much time plumbing continuity.  Again, not a bad flick if you liked the show; not on par with the best episodes, but not on par with the worst either.

[Mongrel]

You know, I'd just like to say that I'm pretty sure that Some Like It Hot is actually a 50's porno and not a comedy.

I mean... are you kidding me? COME ON.

[clutch]

I'm watching The Protector right now. It's no Ong-Bak (what is?), but the action direction is unbelievable in places. There's a scene about halfway through the movie in which the protagonist raids a mob-controlled restaurant, and the whole thing is filmed as a six-minute-long, uncut tracking shot. There are hundreds of extras and dozens of stuntmen involved, and it takes place over four stories of the restaurant. It's a technical masterpiece.

EDIT: The scene is on Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXIGP6_fNZk

[Kayma]

I've been meaning to see that flick ever since I caught that scene on YouTube awhile back (with awful Street Fighter sound effects added in). Reminds me very much of the hallway scene in Oldboy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY1lpIf5Jmg

[Detonator]

I've been meaning to see that flick ever since I caught that scene on YouTube awhile back (with awful Street Fighter sound effects added in).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ze-xQoEfOU

BUSTAAAH WOLF!  *railing*

[Kayma]

AWW YOU OK?

Ok, so not Street Fighter. And by awful I must have meant great. But you get the idea. I heard a FALCON PUNCH in there.

[Niku]

Midnight Meat Train got unfairly dumped out of theaters because Lions Gate had no faith in it I guess, but really, it's no worse than much of the other schlock they put out.  I think it's Ryuhei Kitamura's English movie debut, but the main problem with the film is it doesn't feel enough like one of his.  It's predictable with a fairly rushed climax and ending, but the editing isn't nearly up to his "rip off the Matrix at every opportunity" stylishness aside from a few amusing gore bits so it's harder to forgive the lack of substance when I went in expecting more style.  So I was a bit disappointed, but honestly, if you want to kill an hour and a half watching a Clive Barker horror movie, it's not a bad time.

(also it's premiering in houston at our theater tonight and tomorrow at midnight.  hooray!)

[clutch]

 

I got House of Games from Netflix after having a long conversation about Glengarry Glen Ross while on a date the other night. Now, I like Mamet--I think he's one of the few living writers that can really nail classic male stoicism--but goddamn if he isn't the WORST FILM DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME. No hyperbole there, whatsoever. All the dialogue was stilted and awkward, and none of the actors seemed invested in their characters. There was one scene early in the movie where I actually thought the two characters were rehearsing lines for a stage show, but no, they were having a breakthrough psychiatry session.

So, in the style of Bill Maher, NEW RULE: On the set of any movie shoot, Mamet should be seen, not heard.

[Alex]

I went finally watched Speed Racer, completely expecting a pretty terrible movie and was pretty surprised to find out that it was a pretty amazing movie all things considered.

There was not nearly enough Chim Chim hitting people with wrenches.

Next up: The Protector because I watched that clip with the Capcom vs. SNK 2 sounds dubbed in like twenty times.

[Spaco]

I got House of Games from Netflix after having a long conversation about Glengarry Glen Ross while on a date the other night. Now, I like Mamet--I think he's one of the few living writers that can really nail classic male stoicism--but goddamn if he isn't the WORST FILM DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME. No hyperbole there, whatsoever. All the dialogue was stilted and awkward, and none of the actors seemed invested in their characters. There was one scene early in the movie where I actually thought the two characters were rehearsing lines for a stage show, but no, they were having a breakthrough psychiatry session.

So, in the style of Bill Maher, NEW RULE: On the set of any movie shoot, Mamet should be seen, not heard.

Mamet's Redbelt is really good, IMHO.

[Niku]

Just watched [orec] aka the spanish flick that got remade into Quarantine.  I really dug it.  And reading the synopsis for the latter on Wikipedia confirms that they made a number of small and unnecessary changes to the movie while Americanizing it.  Ending spoiler: [spoiler]Also it hits home just how spectacularly awful American advertising really is when the ABSOLUTE FINAL SHOT OF THE MOVIE is used in the commercials for Quarantine.[/spoiler]  Looking forward to [orec]² just to see where they take it.

[Arc]

[orec] ... Quarantine... Ending spoiler: [spoiler]Also it hits home just how spectacularly awful American advertising really is when the ABSOLUTE FINAL SHOT OF THE MOVIE is used in the commercials for Quarantine.[/spoiler]

Noticed this too, but it worked out for The Dark Knight.

... Hey, what at you doing with that knife. Hey, stop kidding around, he-

[clutch]

Mamet's Redbelt is really good, IMHO.

I saw that the other day. Meh!

[Thad]

...So as a Halloween kinda deal, I watched four different versions of Dracula.  I think I'll blog about them in-depth later, but basically my favorite was Coppola's because he managed to do pretty much a scene-for-scene adaptation of the book while COMPLETELY SUBVERTING its theme.

[Kayma]

Next up: The Protector because I watched that clip with the Capcom vs. SNK 2 sounds dubbed in like twenty times.

Yeah, likewise. Gotta find  copy of this movie.

[Thad]

...So as a Halloween kinda deal, I watched four different versions of Dracula.  I think I'll blog about them in-depth later, but basically my favorite was Coppola's because he managed to do pretty much a scene-for-scene adaptation of the book while COMPLETELY SUBVERTING its theme.

Part 1 is up, does not talk about the Coppola one.