The Official Movie Thread

[rms]

excellent, excellent writing. and the acting was just top notch. it made a seemingly lackluster story filled with action, suspense and all that other good stuff, in its own weird way. obviously you can have your opinion but the odds are against you, winners of best film usually are deserving of it

Acting was top notch? Not entirely sure main character, first finance guy and justin timberlake blew me away but not entirely sure..action? suspense? Come on did we really watch the same movie man? haha

the film's very similar to 'there will be blood' and 'citizen kane' in terms of basic story, did you not like those films either? fincher isn't identifying with anyone here as far as i can see, it's more just a detached, taut, scathingly ironic document of how the creative impulse, and the impulse that fosters technology's mounting presence in our world, is rooted in the same old sexual insecurity that's been driving us all along. and then there's the flawless direction, acting, script, score etc...

I had to watch Citizen Kane in film class in high school and thought it was a terrible story but it's groundbreaking directing/cinematography gives it credit...There Will Be Blood I love though, because the characters are incredibly intriguing, I really cannot say anyone acted differently then how we would have thought throughout the film. There just wasn't really any surprises, personally.

I really can't agree that the script was great when the story was just that lame and one-dimensional! Was anyone surprised with anything that happened in the story?

 

[no country for old wainds]

it's hard to be surprised by a narrative arc that announces its conclusion at the outset. would you rather it had a few twists? maybe check out 'the village' instead.

i would posit that it's impossible to love the story of 'there will be blood' and dislike the story of 'citizen kane'. not that you said anything about 'dislike', instead you used the word 'terrible' a second time, which is sort of laughable when applied to one of the quintessential american tragedies that has its roots in many of the great american literary classics of the century prior.

 

[unknown]

Furthermore, some of my friends complained that it couldn't decide whether or not it wanted to be a drama or black comedy. Well, why can't it be both? One thing I liked about it was that it couldn't decide. After all, with all this shit happening to him all the time, maybe cracking jokes is the only way Rooster Cogburn can cope with the world.

exactly. and that's how it is for pretty much all Coen Brothers movies. There's something absurdly funny about Steve Buscemi and a wood chipper. The scene in No Country where Josh Brolin is getting a hotel room...

Coen Brothers have a very dark, morbid sense of humor which I greatly enjoy

 

[no country for old wainds]

which other coen movie is 'true grit' most similar to in tone?

 

[panzerfaust666]

Just watched The Kings Speech, and it definitely lived up to the hype in my eye. Very beautiful movie. It also further solidified Colin Firth as my favorite actor of 2010; Starting with a Single Man ( unbelievable) and ending with this.

 

[rms]

it's hard to be surprised by a narrative arc that announces its conclusion at the outset. would you rather it had a few twists? maybe check out 'the village' instead.

i would posit that it's impossible to love the story of 'there will be blood' and dislike the story of 'citizen kane'. not that you said anything about 'dislike', instead you used the word 'terrible' a second time, which is sort of laughable when applied to one of the quintessential american tragedies that has its roots in many of the great american literary classics of the century prior.

don't patronize me like I enjoy hollywood esque movies like The Village, just trying to understand what someone found interesting in that movie, and to somehow compare it to something great as There Will Be Blood is ridiculous, that film is in another different league in its own.

 

[The Emptier]

daniel day is god

 

[no country for old wainds]

and to somehow compare it to something great as There Will Be Blood is ridiculous, that film is in another different league in its own.

i was comparing the story, which is extremely similar. in other words, if it's the case that one succeeded and the other didn't, it's not because of the 'story' as you suggested.

saw '127 hours' btw. it sucked. and 'the american' and 'somewhere' which were both really good. and 'my dog tulip', which was pleasant enough.

 

[panzerfaust666]

The American was beautiful. Anton Corbjin is great, his images are fucking unbelievable... The wonderful colors in that movie, omg.

Have you seen Control?

 

[muzmaze]

There are movies enjoyed within a story unliked...there are transformation of characters within a movie. Then there is D.D. Lewis in There Will Be Blood! Yes, its in its own league.

 

[no country for old wainds]

The American was beautiful. Anton Corbjin is great, his images are fucking unbelievable... The wonderful colors in that movie, omg.

Have you seen Control?

no but i'd like to.

just to clear this up btw there will be blood is one of my favourite movies ever and way better than the social network lol. but i do see them as kindred spirits in many ways.

 

[Einherjar86]

Why was 127 Hours bad (without spoilers, please)?

 

[ArneZ]

Great atmospheric flick, in the same style as The Brain That Wouldn't Die. Trashy euro-sleaze.

 

[rms]

no but i'd like to.

just to clear this up btw there will be blood is one of my favourite movies ever and way better than the social network lol. but i do see them as kindred spirits in many ways.

Honestly the only similarity I could fathom is that it follows the start-up to a business/idea whatever..but the reason There Will Be Blood is 10x better is because the story is complex, and the characters actually have worth in the story, not just relaying points.

I'm not really sure how this can be considered best film of the year when Black Swan was amazing and i've heard very good things about The Fighter too but I have not seen that one yet.

 

[Einherjar86]

Black Swan wasn't that amazing. It was Aronofsky's weakest film yet.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

watched Dungeon Master. So bad. yet so good

 

[MasterOLightning]

Black Swan was good, but I'd be disappointed if that was actually the best movie that came out this year. It wasn't the kind of movie I spent a lot of time talking to my friends about in the parking lot.

Any fans of Roger Dodger? Just saw that recently, and aside from a few indie movie quibbles I thought it was excellent.

 

[The Emptier]

wow The Fighter was excellent, Christian Bale...man he's gonna win the oscar for sure.

and The American was great, very sparse and not a lot of dialogue at all but it was one of clooneys best i think

 

[no country for old wainds]

^reminded me of solaris a bit as far as clooney goes, which is always a good thing.

trailer for 'the fighter' made it look so bad, and the reviews i've read pretty much confirmed it as generic oscar-baiting hollywood rubbish. really don't want to watch it but i might have to if it keeps getting such high praise. gone off christian bale in a big way too and somehow i doubt this is going to help matters. hopefully it's at least better than million dollar baby :/

'127 hours' wasn't that bad, but there isn't an appropriate sense of horror or even tediousness, it felt brief and uninvolving to me. it's also a pretty saccharine human perserverance story with a trite no-man-is-an-island message bludgeoned into the ground, and he tries to cover up that sentimentality with these horrible oh-so-cutting-edge hyper-kinetic camera swoops and whatnot. franco's pretty solid but doesn't really rescue it.

 

[challenge_everything]

Pretty much sums up Boyle's career, doesn't it? Not bad or objectionable but just saccharine, safe and generally unoriginal.