Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 19, 2006 23:26:46 GMT
Yes, just one person actually, and we pointed that out to her. She's an idiot. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982/Heckerling)Fun little movie, didn't really live up to my expectations though. Could've used more Sean Penn, and less on the cliched Jennifer Jason Leigh storyline. Overall, enjoyable. And why is this the only film I've ever seen with a Led Zeppelin song in it?
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Post by Vercetti on Oct 19, 2006 23:35:21 GMT
Led Zeppelin are very picky about lettign their songs used. In fact in the film it's not even the right song. He's told to listen to Led Zeppelin 4, when in fact he listens to Physical Graffiti.
Jack Black had to beg them to be able to use "Immigrant Song" in School of Rock.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Oct 19, 2006 23:42:59 GMT
Yeah, I think Pink Floyd is the same way.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Oct 21, 2006 1:03:00 GMT
Flags of Our Fathers(2006/Clint Eastwood) [First Viewing] An account of the Battle of Iwo Jima, and a famous photograph that sprang from it.Eastwood's films are cold, dark, and sad, and "Flags of Our Fathers" is no different. But, after an uneven first half, the film finally gets somewhere with the story of Adam Beach's character, and the story becomes a tale of false heroism propaganda and racism. Beach's performance is the best I've seen this year, and makes this a worthy film. Eastwood's attention to period detail is perfect. The final moments sum up the film perfectly, as an examination of America's 'Greatest Generation', and the reasons why they never spoke of the war.
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Post by Valenti on Oct 21, 2006 8:47:37 GMT
I love Clint Eastwood's films.
Has anyone seen "A Perfect World"?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 21, 2006 15:12:38 GMT
I saw it when it first came out. I don't remember it very well.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 22, 2006 1:59:29 GMT
The New World Terrence Malick 2005 US 4th time; DVD The first English settlers in America find themselves at odds with the Natives, and are saved by the rival king's youngest daughter, who falls in love with Captain John Smith. Exploring the contrast between two civilisations, one free and content at its own introversion, the other curious and explorative, and both primitive in their own way, Malick's beautiful film, a lyrical hymn to the world and an ambitious extension on themes covered in his other three features, never really settles for an established narrative arc: it sort of comes and goes, recycling and hovering upon its own themes; his unique editing style suggests a never-settling atmosphere, a narrative drive which is in a constant state of exposition.Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain Amelie Jean-Pierre Jeunet 2001 France 2nd time; DVD A lonely girl in search of love finds happiness in other people's joy. Jeunet creates, through an omnipresent narrator, a unique, era-less aesthetic, and an assorted cast of characters all in need of fresh outlooks on their lonely lives, a cinematic world entirely believable to the viewer. It's difficult to resist such naivety when it's served in such a knowing fashion. To channel the perspective through one character with such heavy insistence requires a certain amount of charm in the leading role, and in Audrey Tatou Jeunet casts an admirable actress.
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Post by Valenti on Oct 22, 2006 9:50:46 GMT
Children of Men Really great movie. Big thanks to Capo for his proview, without it I may not have seen it.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Oct 22, 2006 20:53:09 GMT
Little Children(2006/Todd Field) [First Viewing] A group of individuals in a suburban neighborhood look for ways to escape the pain of their own existence.An amazing ensemble casts help to make this very odd film worthwhile. Very different from Field's earlier film, "In the Bedroom", but both cover similar ground. The use of narration has bothered many viewers, but it helps to make the film unique, and give each character their sense of purpose. Close suburban observation and symbolism is apparent throughout, and the title is very ironic, in a way. One of the strangest films to be released this year. I loved every minute of it. The Prestige(2006/Christopher Nolan) [First Viewing] Two rival magicians in turn-of-the-twentieth century England set out to discover each other's secrets.Nolan's best film. Complex and thought provoking, dark and detailed, this film is flawless. The two lead performances by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman perfectly capture the obsession that these men have at each other. The twists and turns are really well written, and the cast is excellent. What separates this from similar films is that Nolan has gone the extra step to make everything look authentic and convincing. He is at the top of his game with his skill behind the camera and in the writer's seat. Marie Antoinette(2006/Sofia Coppola) [First Viewing] An Austrian teenager is sent to France to marry Louis XVI and become the next queen.What Coppola has done with this film is reinvent the teen film sub-genre. Stripped to it's bare bones, you have a film about a teenage outsider seeking acceptance and individuality....an ongoing theme in Coppola's films. The production design is extraordinary, making this the most beautiful film of the year, and not to mention the best. Kirsten Dunst gives a dynamic performance, taking Marie from the spoiled/confused teenager to the devoted mother and wife in the closing days of her life. The film also boasts the best soundtrack of the year as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quite a weekend for films. These are my top three favorite films of the year so far.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 22, 2006 21:10:02 GMT
Looking forward to hopefully seeing all three of those. American Beauty (1999/Mendes)Pump Up the Volume (1990/Moyle)
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 23, 2006 0:09:52 GMT
The Black Dahlia Brian De Palma 2006 US 1st time; big screen In 1940s California, two cops, also boxers, try to solve the case of a murdered woman, disembowed and cut in two. Convoluted, messily-edited film, with a clunky rhythm and nothing in particular to fall in love with. It looks nice, full of fleshy palettes of browns and yellows, and it does have one good set-piece in which two men fall over a balcony to their death, but there are some risible moments of corn, such as that in which Hartnett whips the tablecloth from the table in the heat of the moment with Johansson. Johansson seems underused, Swank fails to impress, and Hartnett is watchable; the best shot in the entire affair is that preceding the take-down of a crime pin, a street view of not only the case at hand, but the initial discovery, by some frantic blonde, of the Black Dahlia's corpse, a clever, implicit bit of storytelling. ...
I really want to get into De Palma, but this left me cool. Perhaps it was the fact that I needed a piss halfway through and never went, so that I couldn't wait for it to end. But perhaps it really was as mediocre and, frankly, as silly as I thought. As it is, my ignorance and misunderstanding of his work continues.
What did you make of it beyond three stars, Wet Dog?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 23, 2006 0:46:23 GMT
I read the review in Sight and Sound the other day and totally agreed with it. It's generally miscast (Hartnett, Swank and Johanssen - bleh), there's an excess of plot, and none of it really feels like comfortable De Palma territory until the loony final revelations. Also, (and this isn't his fault), Ellroy's story is so, so, so much less interesting than the story of the Dahlia herself, and I kept wanting to leave the story we were following and go back to the murder case.
Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short with De Palma giving her contemptuous directions from off camera was a great touch. I did love the final, feverish 'waking nightmare' moments, and the discovery of the murder scene, with the creepy grinning clown. I thought that one long take that reveals the body had a wonderful sense of parallel narratives adjoining, as though we'd been following one sequence of events while another played out unobserved, and they're suddenly bound at that point by the shared shot.
I was disappointed, though more in the subject matter of the film than in De Palma's use of it. The 3-star rating was generous, and it'll probably drop to 2 whenever I get around to revising my De Palma ratings en masse.
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Jenson71
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Post by Jenson71 on Oct 23, 2006 1:55:59 GMT
Marie Antoinette(2006/Sofia Coppola) [First Viewing] An Austrian teenager is sent to France to marry Louis XVI and become the next queen.What Coppola has done with this film is reinvent the teen film sub-genre. Stripped to it's bare bones, you have a film about a teenage outsider seeking acceptance and individuality....an ongoing theme in Coppola's films. The production design is extraordinary, making this the most beautiful film of the year, and not to mention the best. Kirsten Dunst gives a dynamic performance, taking Marie from the spoiled/confused teenager to the devoted mother and wife in the closing days of her life. The film also boasts the best soundtrack of the year as well. I also saw Marie Antionette this weekend. I thought it was well done and very factual, from the events to the way they bowed to her. One of the best I've seen this year too, in my opinion. I was shocked at the abrupt ending, but definitely liked it.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 23, 2006 2:17:14 GMT
Fa yeung nin wa In the Mood for Love Wong Kar-wai 2000 Hong Kong 3rd time; DVD In 1960s Hong Kong, two lonely neighbours realise their respective partners are having an affair with one another, and slowly begin to fall for each other themselves… A filmmaker's film, fragmented and dreamlike, which develops in a succession of fractured little snippets of scenes. Abandonment of storyboard and script make for a piece which allows the director's ideas to come to actuality in a much purer form, with a naivety and vulnerability in its two leading characters, played with such heartbreaking poignancy by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung. Running throughout, holding the piece together, are elongated scenes played out in slow-motion to various pieces of music, a waltz by Shigeru Umbeyashi, and Spanish recordings of Nat King Cole songs. Deeply nostalgic, the whole thing, wonderful to look at and listen to, seems to be in mourning of times long gone.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Oct 23, 2006 2:39:05 GMT
I also saw Marie Antionette this weekend. I thought it was well done and very factual, from the events to the way they bowed to her. One of the best I've seen this year too, in my opinion. I was shocked at the abrupt ending, but definitely liked it. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER (sort of) I had heard that the film had an abrupt ending. I was expecting the revolution sequences to happen really fast (like they did) and then have Marie get her head cut off, just like that. But, I thought the ending was fitting.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 23, 2006 3:29:02 GMT
I read the review in Sight and Sound the other day and totally agreed with it. It's generally miscast (Hartnett, Swank and Johanssen - bleh), there's an excess of plot, and none of it really feels like comfortable De Palma territory until the loony final revelations. Also, (and this isn't his fault), Ellroy's story is so, so, so much less interesting than the story of the Dahlia herself, and I kept wanting to leave the story we were following and go back to the murder case. Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short with De Palma giving her contemptuous directions from off camera was a great touch. I did love the final, feverish 'waking nightmare' moments, and the discovery of the murder scene, with the creepy grinning clown. I thought that one long take that reveals the body had a wonderful sense of parallel narratives adjoining, as though we'd been following one sequence of events while another played out unobserved, and they're suddenly bound at that point by the shared shot. I was disappointed, though more in the subject matter of the film than in De Palma's use of it. The 3-star rating was generous, and it'll probably drop to 2 whenever I get around to revising my De Palma ratings en masse. Ever get around to those requested proview details wetdog? I'm still eager to hear your thoughts.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 23, 2006 3:31:13 GMT
I'm really sorry about those. I'll get around to it.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 24, 2006 2:18:42 GMT
The Prestige(2006/Christopher Nolan) [First Viewing] Two rival magicians in turn-of-the-twentieth century England set out to discover each other's secrets.Nolan's best film. Complex and thought provoking, dark and detailed, this film is flawless. The two lead performances by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman perfectly capture the obsession that these men have at each other. The twists and turns are really well written, and the cast is excellent. What separates this from similar films is that Nolan has gone the extra step to make everything look authentic and convincing. He is at the top of his game with his skill behind the camera and in the writer's seat. The Prestige (2006/Nolan)One of the better films of the year thus far, although the remaining two months look daunting. Jackman and Bale are excellent, once you get over their somewhat awkward accents, and the surprise appearance from David Bowie was fantastic. Perhaps too convoluted at times, although I'm sure this turns into a sense beautiful complexity upon further rewatches. The problem with the story here was that although I didn't always understand how they got there, I always seemed to know where things were going to end up. What I'm trying to say while the twists themselves weren't shocking revelations, it was still fun to watch the Nolans work their way there. Omar's right about the period detail here, in a notably different approach than that taken by The Illusionist's Neil Burger. Where Burger seemingly opted to acknowledge the fact that he was making a period piece film, playing around with different cinematographic lighting schemes and whatnot, Nolan seemed to go for dead-on realism. At this point, I'm not completely sure which I preferred. I was surprised to find that I've actually seen all of Nolan's films from Following onwards. While I find his body of work thus far somewhat uneven, from the potential 4-star film, Memento, to the seemingly vastly overrated Batman Begins, I'm personally impressed with his films, the ideas he brings to the table, his cinematic techniques, and just in general, his potential to become a truly legendary directing talent of this generation or perhaps the next. I'm sure mostly all here will be going to see this film, but I'll give another recommendation for it anyway.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Oct 24, 2006 2:45:31 GMT
The problem with the story here was that although I didn't always understand how they got there, I always seemed to know where things were going to end up. What I'm trying to say while the twists themselves weren't shocking revelations, it was still fun to watch the Nolans work their way there. Hmm....But couldn't the same also be said about "Memento", in a way? Omar's right about the period detail here, in a notably different approach than that taken by The Illusionist's Neil Burger. Where Burger seemingly opted to acknowledge the fact that he was making a period piece film, playing around with different cinematographic lighting schemes and whatnot, Nolan seemed to go for dead-on realism. At this point, I'm not completely sure which I preferred. I didn't want to attack Burger's film directly in my proview, and I wasn't just thinking of his film, but I found "The Prestige" far superior to "The Illusionist".
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 24, 2006 3:08:54 GMT
I was just considering that. I had trouble deciding, but I think it's The Prestige by a hair.
As far as Memento, no I wouldn't say so. Nolan, in these two films, reveals to the viewers what you're supposed to believe is the ending, but then there's one final twist beyond that. In Memento, I didn't see it coming. Here, I did.
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