The Official Movie Thread

Harry Potter 5: meh

5 or 6? 5 is great, 6 is not.

the diving bell and the butterfly has that awards-bait prestige pic aura around it but manages to largely get past that through a surprising amount of unsentimentality, i love the droll humour in it. i'm not sure it'd break my top 10 of that year though, which isn't an insult as it was a very good year.
 
saw Angels and Demons on dvd, it was fuckin brilliant. a well-crafted story with interesting historical references. and it was shot in Rome, such a beautiful city, i recognized some places in the movie cuz i was there last Easter.:)
 
5 or 6? 5 is great, 6 is not.

the diving bell and the butterfly has that awards-bait prestige pic aura around it but manages to largely get past that through a surprising amount of unsentimentality, i love the droll humour in it. i'm not sure it'd break my top 10 of that year though, which isn't an insult as it was a very good year.

Oh, I can't keep track. I meant the newest one. What was with all those random, who-gives-a-shit love subplots that had no relevance? And then all of a sudden _____ dies and the movie ends. That was one of the flattest endings ever.
 
What was with all those random, who-gives-a-shit love subplots that had no relevance? And then all of a sudden _____ dies and the movie ends. That was one of the flattest endings ever.

i reviewed it here if you're arsed (third one down), i probably got more out of it than you did but... yeah, i agree.

fifth one's still a beauty though. this is one of my favourite reviews ever and encapsulates everything i love about it.

as for eastwood westerns, i just watched 'the outlaw josey wales' which totally kicks ass.
 
check out that review i linked to, i couldn't possibly put it any better. it's the kind of dark, swirling coming-of-age fairytale i get kicks out of, there's real danger, wonder, ambiguity to it.
 
Yeah I'm on an Eastwood binge at the moment too. His Leone films are very good, but I don't think they're good because of Eastwood. He's a better director than actor imo.

agree on his directing...

I am going to start watching all of Clint Eastwood's old westerns.

this is a must.
no connection...but props to the modern 3:10 Yuma. I thought this was one of the finest westerns I've ever seen.

...except million dollar baby.

I thought this one was pretty good.
 
Finally watched Synecdoche, New York. I've had the envelope sitting for maybe two weeks. It wasn't something I was looking forward to. Tough to summarize my thoughts, as there certainly was a lot to try to put together. I think the main problem for me was exemplified by when Hazel tells Caden that he's not fun and Sammy is. Caden is just such a pathetic mope that it's hard to feel all that bad about his life ending. If it came across that he enjoyed more than 2% of his life, it would have had more of an effect. Even things that should make him happy are always overwhelmed by disappointment. He cries every time he has sex. Which is surprisingly often, with pretty hot women somehow. The film similarly buries every possible uplifting or encouraging thought, most notably when the line about every life being a lead role is immediately buried by the priest's remarks. His was the most discouraging message. I can avoid being Caden, but those thoughts are always latent and inescapable. While it would be easy to pick on the narrative structure, I figured I would just let that go. I do think David Lynch's wtf-isms are better at appearing to mean more than they do. I'm sure there is lots of meaning under the surface that I did not grasp, but a lot of it felt forced.

The production values were extremely impressive, which surprised me, as I didn't think there would have been much of a budget for this. It was worth watching the movie overall, but I think for grand movies about life I'd take Magnolia by far.
 
yeah. I think it's a very existential film. Here we have Philip Seymour Hoffman (Caden) who is given this amazing opportunity to truly do something amazing with his life. He attempts to give something to humanity, but because he doesn't truly understand himself, all he ends up doing is attempting to discover himself in this simulacra and ultimately is left sitting on a couch crying with some woman (I can't remember it's been a while since I saw the movie).

It certainly isn't the happiest film, but I think it's supposed to empower you in some way. I don't know. I'm sure Tom will explain it in a better way
 
I expect he will. I really do not have it in me to watch again, as it felt like a very long two hours, somehow. It's certainly an extremely ambitious and metatextual film, with Caden's own excess and indecision in his production likely mirroring Kaufman's struggles. But I just wasn't going to buy into the whole tortured artist thing when he had millions of dollars to pursue his dream and got to bang Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, and Samantha Morton. It would be silly to complain too much about the film straying from reality, but that level of a disconnect did hurt, in my view.
 
Can someone PLEASE name a couple movies that do not have extremely predictable endings (The Knowing, for example), has that gay, overdone Hollywood thing going (like X Men Origins..or the fucking Knowing...I hate that god damn movie). Something with a point (like Cool Hand Luke or Fight Club), something moving or deep or realistic like those two. Something not so god damn meh!

EDIT: I'm very picky about movies. Some that I've seen recently and couldn't enjoy:
The Invention of Lying
The Knowing
The Proposal
The Great Buck Howard (god damn love stories...and that fucking broach)
the new Last House On The Left (it is cool, and graphic, but I hate all new horror movies)
Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (cool concept, predictable as fuck ending)
Public Enemies (I don't need that fag J. Depp in a movie about a story with not much story. Went to prison, got out, got shot. /end...except From Hell was not bad)
The 9th Gate
The Wrestler (this is right on the fence. I don't actually hate it like the above)

A few movies I do like:
Cool Hand Luke
Fight Club
Punch Drunk Love
Event Horizon
Angelheart
Trainspotting (obviously...)
 
A Swedish movie called Four Shades Of Brown, if you want something original and real. One of the directors is Thomas Alfredsson who did Let The Right One In.
 
I'm watching Cool Hand Luke again. God damn it, the scene with his mother gets me everytime. If there was ever a movie that described me, this is the one. I'm hard as nails, but I've failed many people and inside I am broken.

Then it follows with the scene that shows a man being broken inside. He's busting his ass, building everyone else up. Because who gives a fuck? Life is pain, so make due, eh? "The man wants speed? Let's give it to him!". Despite the pain, you mutha fuckers ain't gonna break me.