The Official Movie Thread

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Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Lam Nai Choi)

that movie is beyond words...one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen..but to be listed as some of the greatest movies of all time?! I don't know

I vividly remember that one scene where he pokes one of the men's eyes out and IMMEDIATELY a gang of ravens dive and eat it...I was laughing so hard! And let's not forget the final battle against the Warden...the whole time I was like

 

[challenge_everything]

Yeah I was digging that list until I saw that on there...

That movie borders on so-bad-it's-good but it's just not bad enough.

 

[Dak]

lol@ Avatar review.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

There is a very, very short list of movies that I have enjoyed to such an extent that I've been completely entranced and forgotten that I am watching a movie. So entertaining that I'm no longer capable of thinking "this movie is awesome", only "this is awesome".

I'm not saying these are the best movies ever, because they've rarely held up on rewatch for me. And maybe their artistic merit isn't that otherworldly, but they are, possibly, the most entertaining films I've ever seen.

There are maybe 3-8 movies I can name that I have felt this way about. And Riki-Oh is one of them. I think I like Ebola Syndrome even better though, as far as CAT III-exploitation goes.

 

[Psychonaut]

Riki-Oh is amazing.

 

[NinjaGeek]

that movie is beyond words...one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen..but to be listed as some of the greatest movies of all time?! I don't know

I wasn't asked to list movies I thought were the greatest of all time. I was asked to list my favorite movies. Riki-Oh is certainly not on par with a lot of those, but I've seen it tons of times and it never gets old for me. There are quite a few examples on the list where I chose one of a Director's weaker works simply because I have a preference for it.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Unrelated and maybe slightly less obvious: man, did The Hurt Locker ever squander its potential by diffusing its own tension with stupid cliches and a cheesy meandering narrative that never went anywhere, thanks to the central redneck dumb shit.

i understand this reaction but disagree with it. it's obviously steeped in cliché but that's intentional as it's a self-proclaimed genre picture, like i said in my review a few pages back. it's very self-consciously *cinematic*. it's supposed to be cheesy to the extent that all action movies are meant to be cheesy. because of its critical acclaim i think a lot of people went into it thinking it'd be some piece of depressing 'realism' or something, when it's actually more in the vein of, say, inglourious basterds or port of call new orleans.

 

[Anticitizen One]

This makes some sense, but I'm not convinced it's people that were confused; I think maybe it's the movie that's confused. It tries to be both—a tensely realistic war film that erratically fumbles into more and more cheesy action movie cliché. Shit like having the guy get into the shower with his armor still on—it wasn't played for tongue-in-cheek lulz, it was fucking horrible drama cliché. It actually seems like it happened more out of an unfortunate lack of self-awareness—like Bigelow wanted to make something real and harrowing, but fell back into making Point Break. On the other hand, Inglorious Basterds knew what it was doing from the very start.

I scrolled back a bit and didn't see your review.

Film as a whole left a lot to be desired last year. Avatar and District 9 need no further comment, Moon wanted to be 2001: A Space Odyssey but suffered from a couple of bizarre leaps of logic, Inglorious Basterds was pulpy self-indulgence, fun but not great (except for Waltz's performance)... Plenty of other shit that isn't even worth mentioning. I think the only thing I truly liked without any real qualms was Antichrist. There are still a few I haven't seen yet, though, like Bad Lieutenant and A Serious Man. We'll see how those go.

btw: http://www.criticker.com/profile/antitype

 

[Anticitizen One]

Actually, I liked Moon a lot more than I give it credit for. There was one part where thought, "Wait... huh?" but I may need to see it again to see if that particular thing happened more naturally than I'm remembering it. Sorry, vagueness, just don't want to spoil it (since the movie's impact is increased significantly as a dodge (that is to say, it's not quite what trailers lead us to think it was)). All in all, though, the film learned its lessons from 2001, Solaris, Alien, Blade Runner, The Fly, etc. I guess I'd say I liked it about as much as Antichrist, or maybe a little more. I just need to watch it again and see for certain...

 

[Einherjar86]

I was disappointed by both The Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds. Where the former lacked the direction of the latter, the latter lacked the character development of the former. Considering the amount of praise both films are getting, I was severely disappointed.

 

[no country for old wainds]

This makes some sense, but I'm not convinced it's people that were confused; I think maybe it's the movie that's confused. It tries to be both—a tensely realistic war film that erratically fumbles into more and more cheesy action movie cliché. Shit like having the guy get into the shower with his armor still on—it wasn't played for tongue-in-cheek lulz, it was fucking horrible drama cliché. It actually seems like it happened more out of an unfortunate lack of self-awareness—like Bigelow wanted to make something real and harrowing, but fell back into making Point Break. On the other hand, Inglorious Basterds knew what it was doing from the very start.

cool, i can go with that. for me i think it's probably just a case of a director managing to make a mediocre screenplay seem alive, i really felt sucked into the druggy haze and tension and that allowed me to be rather less discerning about how trite the basic character study arc may be - i really felt that bittersweetness by the end. incidentally i could say exactly the same thing about the already similar 'the wrestler' - director (and actor of course) plugging the holes in a leaky screenplay.

i suppose i'm annoyed that most people here are dissing this but praising 'district 9', which is far more muddled and compromised than 'the hurt locker'.

i simply don't understand why people love 'moon' btw. i liked it and thought it was fun in a goofy way but i didnt feel one intense or complicated emotion during the whole thing, and i forgot it as soon as it ended. may not have helped that i saw it just after my favourite movie of the year, though...

 

[Zephyrus]

Saw Antichrist last night. I really really liked it.

 

[Einherjar86]

That's the next film I'm renting when I go to Blockbuster.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

I liked the Hurt Locker, wasnt amazing, but was above average.

 

[panzerfaust666]

Saw Edge of Darkness today. Not bad, entertaining enough. Nothing special.

Also very stoked for Shutter Island

 

[MasterOLightning]

Pump Up The Volume is on. This movie has aged so poorly that it is throughly terrible/entertaining. I can't even really articulate how this one makes me feel, in that I was busting a gut in the scenes played for heavy drama, yet being won over enough to not zone out the message. I really doubt that this played as a dark comedy at the time. It's no Heathers. This movie might as well be what people in 1990 thought people in 2010 would make a movie set in 1990 about.

 

[rms]

Edge of Darkness was an awesome action thriller, highly recommend if your into that. Won't be a top5 but was definitely worth the shitty popcorn and free ticket in korea

 

[Anticitizen One]

i suppose i'm annoyed that most people here are dissing this but praising 'district 9', which is far more muddled and compromised than 'the hurt locker'.

i simply don't understand why people love 'moon' btw. i liked it and thought it was fun in a goofy way but i didnt feel one intense or complicated emotion during the whole thing, and i forgot it as soon as it ended. may not have helped that i saw it just after my favourite movie of the year, though...

I agree that District 9 is really muddled — I sincerely do not know how to feel about that movie. I think I want to give it some credit for having more, uh ... sophisticated (or just muddled) characterization than Avatar, which is superficially similar plotwise, but it's such a mess I honestly can't decide whether I liked it or hated it. Furthermore, I can't decide whether that's to its credit or detriment. Such a fucking weird movie.

Well, don't get me wrong; I am not placing Moon on the same level as those movies it draws from. In the landscape of film in 2009, though, it certainly stood out. Not that it was very hard to do so...

 

[no country for old wainds]

i don't think 2009 was a particularly bad year, better than '08 anyway. speaking of which i guess i should do a top 10. some of you are gonna hate this list lol

most notable blind spots: tokyo sonata, bright star, house of the devil, summer hours, lorna's silence, 24 city

20-11 (in order): coraline, triangle, the white ribbon, up, bad lieutenant: port of call new orleans, the chaser, the hurt locker, inglourious basterds, martyrs, in the loop

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

 

[panzerfaust666]

I agree with Un Prophete, Revanche and Antichrist. Not so much with Two Lovers however