list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

If you look back at the 1950s/1960s, the Bible was a rich source of material for film adaptations, resulting in some of Hollywood's classic movies & eventually in Python's iconic p*** take of the whole genre.

If modern directors can follow in this tradition, then fair play to them, but they have to tread the fine line between the technicolor over-clean look of old-school Hollywood epics whose set-pieces took grandeur to a new level & the modern penchant for gritty realism which seem incomplete without a graphic battle scene.

Atavachron wrote: So do you feel the need to have seen the bulk of a filmmaker's work before analyzing a particular film?

Not quite, but I often like to "go through" a specific filmmaker's work in order to have some kind of context to place each film in as well as familiarize myself with their signature style or where their specific set of thematic concerns come from and evolve over their career. Well, mostly if it's with directors who have a very recognizeable way of filmmaking.

Finally watched One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.  Great, though sad, film.  Found the climax rather contrived, though.  Don't know if that was dictated by the way the book was originally written.  But a guy resourceful enough to figure out how to escape suddenly deciding to give a big party to the other inmates and thus botching his own plan came across as far fetched to me.  Other than that, thought it was exceedingly well made.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Light comedy from Woody Allen shot in London as an aging millionaire and failing writer try to survive their own separate but intersecting crises.   Familiar but satisfying with a good British/American cast (including Anthony Hopkins and Josh Brolin) who seem to relish performing even garden-variety work by the legendary filmmaker.   Nothing remarkable but not Allen's worst.

Flowers Of War

Set during the occupation by the Japanese of Nanking in 1937, Christian Bale plays an alcoholic chancer forced by circumstance then his concience to help a group of convent school students. Apparently based on true events, it's an overlooked, very well made film.

Deliver Us from Evil

B-list horror/mystery very loosely "based on actual accounts" of a NYC cop who investigated a string of what appear to have been ritual killings and demonic possessions.   Uninspired and fairly crappy.

^ maybe in part, but it's from the memoirs of Ralph Sarchie (Beware the Night)

Anything Else

In a reinterpretation of past work, Woody Allen samples Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, et al., and casts Jason Biggs as his young alter ego hopelessly in love with a troubled woman.   Though far from his freshest offering, the movie is filled with classic Woody and is surprisingly buoyant and entertaining.

^ Yeah, I remember you doing a poll on his work.

love Lorre, just watched him in the Big Sleep Maltese Falcon






Edited by Atavachron - November 07 2014 at 03:34