rolling movie thread

[xfer]

oh shit also:

The Motorcycle Diaries--saw this in NYC. it was GREAT! I loved how the filmmakers showed restraint and didn't include tons of later stuff about Che, but really stayed focused on this particular period of his life. the movie is about experiences that cause someone to become conscious of and concerned about social justice issues, and I think it really resonates with anyone who has had that kind of experience.

also, leaving out the later stuff (including Guevara's later crimes against humanity and other horrible stuff) lets you really see the idealism and good intentions of youth, and how Marxist movements were very attractive at one point in history. our 20/20 hindsight now makes it easy to say "that shit was awful and evil" but this movie lets you just think about how things looked in 1952.

Sideways--can't remember if I mentioned this on this board before. but it was very good. some weird pacing, but it worked.

 

[Firedwarf]

yes Sideways is very good.

I also saw The Aviator. Every Scorsese movie I've seen (haven't seen many) has these claustrophobic bits of madness which are really hard for me to watch for some reason. I liked it anyway.

 

[IanDork107]

I saw The Brown Bunny. Easily the biggest disappointment of 2004. Buffalo '66 is one of my favorite movies and Gallo totally fucked up with this one. It's a plotless mess of pretentious nonsense with about five minutes at the end that ties it all together, but nowhere near enough to make it worth giving up 90 minutes of your life.

 

[IanDork107]

Just watched Oldboy. It was awesome. One of the better "revenge" flicks of all that come to mind. Oddly enough, although it's an Asian film it has a visual flare that's much more akin to French directors like Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Highly reommended.

 

[xfer]

hmmm I borrowed Get Carter a few weeks ago and haven't gotten round to watching it. I heard it was pretty excellent as far as revenge flicks go.

 

[mindspell]

Saw a bunch also, some repeats, some new:

Anchorman: Funny, not amazing but certainly worth it.

Maelstrom: Quebec movie, good and funny in a morbid kind of way. Pretty touching.

Audition: First Miike in my life, was impressed until the last half hour. Good no more.

Sånger från andra våningen: Awesomely surrealistic.

Y Tu Mama Tambien: Repeat

Mononoke-hime: Repeat, didn't realize how good it was.

Repo Man: B-movie classic, hadn't seen it in many years

I saw a couple more but they are not coming to me right now...

 

[mindspell]

Buffalo '66: reading Ian's post made me remember. Good stuff, not as awesome as some people tried to tell me.

 

[goatschool]

ju-on 2, finally: pretty good and i can't help but view the ending in a way that i don't think was intended... and if i stick with my interpretation, then it is the best ending.

 

[xfer]

I saw fifteen minutes of The Aquanoids last night before I had to shut it off. no-budget seaside horror filmed on video cameras. not well-done.

 

[avi]

I first saw Repo Man when I was way too young to appreciate it. All it did was confuse and belittle me. I suppose I should probably rent it again sometime, since I know I'd actually probably like it quite a bit nowadays.

 

[mindspell]

Repo Man is really awesome, it just has that trash charm that makes it a classic like Bad Taste, Toxic the Avenger and others.

 

[avi]

I'm not super fond of Toxic Avenger, but man oh man - Bad Taste is definitely one of my favorites. I almost peed myself the first time I saw it and have it near the top of my netflix queue to watch again soon.

 

[mindspell]

I have Bad Taste on VHS. The first Toxic was pretty good, the rest is crap. I wish Niche/Netflix was available here.. I know that Blockbuster has plans to open their service in Canada sometimes, that would be a start.

 

[mindspell]

I just found out that there is a similar service here....

 

[goatschool]

halfway through ken park, holy moley

 

[avi]

the best man's wedding (jalla jalla)
kind of a cliche romantic comedy involving lebanese immigrants in sweden and an arranged wedding. made decent by some inventive camera work, a few nice little twists and good acting. a pleasant film to watch with the wife.

spring, summer, fall, winter and spring
surprising depressing, but still very cery beautiful. not at all what I was expecting.

I dunno if I could stomach Ken Park. I'm curious, but most of that stuff just kinda seems exploitive to me nowadays.

 

[xfer]

finally saw dawn of the dead remake, shockingly good! it takes a huge turn downhill once the dog shows up, though. no, no, not because it's a DIRTY DOG or something, but that just marks the part where the movie gets kind of cliched. there has to be an animal, and it has to survive charmingly/cutely (see: Independence Day, where huge swelling background music and tension was reserved for the dog surviving a leap into the tunnel with fiery explosions in the background...for christ's sake!), someone has to behave idiotically to preserve it and yet be vindicated...

honestly, in so many film situations, everything would be able to survive if the group didn't include one to three complete idiots.

 

[gekko]

See I don't think that the dog survives cutely, its just that the zombies aren't interested in him for some reason. I was just frustrated that the annoying, retarded girl that owned him didn't get it. Especially since she is really the reason they had to rush their escape.

 

[goatschool]

black narcissus: nuns

 

[xfer]

that's what I said. his survival is cute. because it apparently is not disturbing for americans to see people getting slaughtered but a pet? oh! that's beyond the pale.

that retarded girl who stole the truck to save him should have died and it is a terrible injustice she didn't. (she was who i was thinking of with the "idiocy" comment, primarily).