list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

Fight Club wrote: I especially love how Eli bleeds black at the end, just like everything else Daniel touches. He is quite literally an oil man.

HAHA!

Fight Club wrote: Chicapah wrote: Finally saw "There will be blood" and it was an amazing acting performance by DDL.  He's in every scene and I'll spend the rest of my life dissecting his character's dark psyche. Even though I believe that his performance may in fact be the best I have ever seen in a motion picture (yes is really is that profound) I think it's a crime that the movie gets so much attention for the performance instead of its entire execution in general. The sheer magnitude of DDL's performance initially seems to pull people's eyes away from the true genius of the film. Every little detail in that movie is worked out to perfection - every. There isn't a single aspect placed within it that doesn't serve a purpose towards conveying the character of Daniel Plainview and his conflict with Eli Sunday. Really everyone, if you haven't seen this movie yet, I urge you to. If you have seen the movie and didn't quite get it yet, watch it again, and with a closer view to aesthetic detail. It truly is a modern day masterpiece and will be remembered for years to come!

WOO YES!  I too was taken away by TWBB. It was brilliant.  the acting, the cinematography, the story, the music.  The entire film had everything you could need.  I was upset that a brilliant work of art like TWBB was reduced to one man's performance (a great one though).  The best picture oscar should have gone to TWBB instead of No Country For Old Men. While that film was good, it didn't match the glory of TWBB.  I mean the Coen brothers had already made films like No Country before.  TWBB took movies back to the days when epic films were so very well done like Lawrence of Arabia.  The big screen especially magnified the brilliance of the film too.

Even just the opening shot was perfect.  I loved it.  easily a 10/10 film for me. 

Toaster Mantis wrote: Just be warned - Oldboy is pretty much the definition of a cinematic Rorschach test except that the blots are blood rather than ink.

HAHAHA

mithrandir wrote: Jim Garten re 'The Shipping News' wrote:   & I thought beautifully filmed, . yeah, that was probably the only interesting part for me, the nice fiming of the landscape, shores, ocean. hills etc, beautiful country side, not so good movie though

You must admit though, there're not many movies where the 'hero' is saved from drowning by hanging on to a beer cooler, which just happens to contain a man's head... original if nothing else.

TGM: Orb wrote: Saw Blade II yesterday. Was a fun action movie, even if some of the twists (especially the big one) were extremely obvious. Some of the ambiguity was well-handled, though. Haven't seen the first, mean to watch the third on Wednesday. 6/10

I fell asleep 30 minutes into it the first time I saw it
But then again, it was 3am when I began to watch it.

mithrandir wrote: The Shipping News - eh, not even worth writing about, Kevin Spacey in an uninteresting roll and uninteresting story, I must be harsh - 2/10

Ooh, that is harsh ; personally, I liked the movie; not the most exciting in the world, sure, but well written, well acted (would you expect anything else from Spacey...?) & I thought beautifully filmed, despite the fact it portrayed Newfoundlanders as ignorant inbreeds & Newfoundland itself as an ugly wasteland; not true - just goes to show the camera does lie.

Toaster Mantis wrote: mithrandir wrote: Solaris, the original Tarkovsky masterpiece is one of may all time favorite movies - at least top 10, very meditative and contemplative film definitely not for everyone! of course the Staninslaw Lem novel is a must too if you haven't already!   Solaris is one of my all-time favourite science fiction novels and I don't think either movie version did it justice, but Tarkovsky's came closest. At least it got the themes right even if the end result was a little confusing and Tarkovsky made some really weird decisions. Most notably, the prologue on Earth was dragged out too much, screentime better spent on what went on on the space station so that part of it actually felt rushed.   Soderbergh's, however, just ended up subverting the book, so I felt a bit cheated when I had finished watching it.   I don't think Solaris should ever have been made into a movie in the first place, though, because most of its conflicts are so abstract that it's not a very "cinematic" novel.

thats part of Tarkovsky's style though, those long single shot takes...I think it was intended to force the mundaneness(or connection) to the Earth before going out into Space...I just love the trance-like vibe to that film... its a flick I can watch only once every few years though...if that, but I agree, most good Science Fiction novels aren't translated very well into film without loosing much of the greater depth, (Dune, Lathe of Heaven, A Scanner Darkly, etc)


Edited by mithrandir - June 01 2008 at 13:12

Saw Blade II yesterday.

Was a fun action movie, even if some of the twists (especially the big one) were extremely obvious. Some of the ambiguity was well-handled, though. Haven't seen the first, mean to watch the third on Wednesday.

6/10

Snow Falling on Cedars - movie about a small town the has a good sized Japanese immigrant community, set before and after WW2, the more interesting part of the film was the portrayal of the prejudice and internment camps at the time, which was depressing and very enraging, oh yeah there's a murder mystery in here somewhere too, but over all really kind of a dull movie - 4/10

The Shipping News - eh, not even worth writing about, Kevin Spacey in an uninteresting roll and uninteresting story, I must be harsh - 2/10

Ever Since the World Ended - I like the idea of this movie, a mock documentary about a plague that wiped out the majority of the population and a group of people going around interviewing the few that remain on their feelings and experiences and how they manage to currently survive, I only wish it was a bit more rugged looking and the acting was improved upon, it definitely wasn't a professional job the cast pretty much consisted of a group of art/film school students, another thing I noticed is that none of the takes were ever filmed at night...it would have enhanced the mood a bit more if they did I think, I do like the shots they got of a seemingly desolate Golden Gate Bridge and some panoramic shots of the city apparently abandoned (Im assuming most of this was done in the wee hours of the morning) oh yeah...Adam from Mythbusters is also in this movie WTF? ha! - the idea of this movie a 10/10 but the over all finished product I'll have to just say about 5/10