RNL
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Post by RNL on Aug 30, 2006 2:11:22 GMT
One of Peter Greenaway's best films. The colloquial wordplay in the title doesn't translate very well to other languages, so it was distributed in some territories under the name "Zoo."
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Aug 30, 2006 20:47:47 GMT
The Breakfast Club (1985/Hughes)Gets better every time I see it. Truly deserving of the three star rating. I've been handing them too leniently as of late.
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Post by Valenti on Aug 31, 2006 9:56:11 GMT
Oh, Christ...The Breakfast Club. Such nostalgia.
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Aug 31, 2006 17:19:54 GMT
I get nostalgia from 80's high school movies too, even though I wasn't alive when they were made. I feel like it's a pretty easily translatable expierience throghout the decades.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Aug 31, 2006 21:40:56 GMT
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Post by Michael on Sept 1, 2006 5:55:35 GMT
The Thin Red LineLong, absorbing, provocative, and genuinely gorgeous portrayal of an important period in history. Every frame is delivered with such detail and richness that the viewer feels like they're actually in the movie. I can't wait to see Badlands and Days of Heaven.
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Post by Michael on Sept 1, 2006 9:14:48 GMT
A Woman Under the InfluenceSomeone could learn more about human interaction by watching ten minutes of this film than they ever could in any amount of time spent in a classroom. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of difficulty there was in capturing all that Cassavetes captured on camera. This is the most humane depiction of the insanity of life I have ever witnessed, and really one of the best films I've ever seen. What an accomplishment!
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Post by Michael on Sept 1, 2006 9:18:07 GMT
Two films in a row. Haven't done that in a loooooooooooooooong time.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Sept 1, 2006 13:17:17 GMT
Have you not started school yet?
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Post by Valenti on Sept 1, 2006 13:47:22 GMT
I get nostalgia from 80's high school movies too, even though I wasn't alive when they were made. I feel like it's a pretty easily translatable expierience throghout the decades. That's true enough...high school doesn't change much. You can change the teachers and the technology and the classes, but it's still generally the same.
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Post by Michael on Sept 1, 2006 15:23:15 GMT
Have you not started school yet? I don't start until September 5th.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Sept 1, 2006 20:49:14 GMT
AUGUST 35 films. 25 first viewings. 6 on the big screen. Dog Door (Stille Nacht V) Stephen Quay / Timothy Quay 2001, UK[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] The Untouchables Brian De Palma 1987, USA[/color] 2nd viewing; DVD[/size] One Man Band Mark Andrews / Andrew Jimenez 2005, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Cars John Lasseter / Joe Ranft 2006, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Bottle Rocket Wes Anderson 1992, USA[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Someone to Watch Over Me Ridley Scott 1987, USA[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Shadow of a Doubt Alfred Hitchcock 1942, USA[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Miami Vice Michael Mann 2006, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Kostnice The Ossuary Jan Svankmajer 1970, Czechoslovakia[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Flora Jan Svankmajer 1989, UK[/color] 2nd viewing; download[/size] Zamilované maso Meat Love Jan Svankmajer 1989, UK / USA / West Germany[/color] Nth viewing; download[/size] Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta Jabberwocky Jan Svankmajer 1971, Czechoslovakia[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Escape from New York John Carpenter 1981, USA[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Batman Tim Burton 1989, USA / UK[/color] Nth viewing; DVD[/size] Lady in the Water M. Night Shyamalan 2006, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Haze Shinya Tsukamoto 2005, Japan[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Au hasard Balthazar Robert Bresson 1966, France / Sweden[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Batman Returns Tim Burton 1992, USA[/color] 2nd viewing; DVD[/size] Total Recall Paul Verhoeven 1990, USA[/color] 2nd viewing; DVD[/size] Good Will Hunting Gus Van Sant 1997, USA[/color] 1st viewing; DVD[/size] Mad Max George Miller 1978, Australia[/color] 1st viewing; DVD[/size] Escape from L.A. John Carpenter 1996, USA[/color] 1st viewing; DVD[/size] A Scanner Darkly Richard Linklater 2006, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Die Hard John McTiernan 1988, USA[/color] Nth viewing; DVD[/size] Big Trouble in Little China John Carpenter 1986, USA[/color] 1st viewing; DVD[/size] Werckmeister harmóniák Werckmeister Harmonies Béla Tarr 2000, Hungary / Italy / Germany / France[/color] 3rd viewing; DVD[/size] Snakes on a Plane David R. Ellis 2006, USA[/color] 1st viewing; big screen[/size] Primer Shane Carruth 2003, USA[/color] 2nd viewing; DVD[/size] Basic Instinct Paul Verhoeven 1992, USA / France[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Le livre de Marie The Book of Mary Anne-Marie Miéville 1984, France / Switzerland[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Je vous salue, Marie Hail Mary Jean-Luc Godard 1984, France / Switzerland / UK[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Charlotte et Véronique Charlotte and Veronique Jean-Luc Godard 1957, France[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] Forever Mozart Jean-Luc Godard 1996, France / Switzerland[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size] King Kong Peter Jackson 2005, New Zealand / USA[/color] 2nd viewing; pirate DVD[/size] Hard Candy David Slade 2004, USA[/color] 1st viewing; download[/size]
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Sept 2, 2006 15:45:36 GMT
Quite a list.
Your thoughts on "Bottle Rocket", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Miami Vice", "Lady in the Water", and "Snakes On a Plane".
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Post by bobbyreed on Sept 2, 2006 15:57:45 GMT
And "Hail Mary" and "Forever Mozart."
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Sept 2, 2006 18:53:59 GMT
Quite a list. Your thoughts on "Bottle Rocket", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Miami Vice", "Lady in the Water", and "Snakes On a Plane". The short Bottle Rocket is just a black-and-white sketch for the feature, with some scenes carried over. It's pretty funny, and worth a watch. It's on YouTube, if you're interested. The IMDb plot synopsis for Shadow of a Doubt claims that a young girl begins to suspect her uncle is a serial-killer. I thought that was a great premise, but since the film was made in the early '40s it struck me as peculiar, seeing as serial-killers didn't really find their way into pop culture until the '50s or '60s, after Ed Gein. Well, her uncle isn't really a serial-killer; he's killed a few wealthy widows for their money. Regardless, it's a really great film, one of the best Hitchcocks I've seen. Beautifully shot, with many of the compositions designed to liken the killer to a vampire (and explicit verbal references to Dracula). There's one shot - an elaborate tracking crane in on a ring on the girl's finger - that De Palma gave a great twist to at the end of Snake Eyes. I didn't get the joke before, and thought it was a weird, arbitrary way to end the film, but now I think it's hilarious. Miami Vice was okay. Some very well directed action scenes. Some Mogwai on the soundtrack. Some jaw-droppingly cheesy but nonetheless entertaining dialogue. There is, however, only so much "I'm cool" strutting and mugging I can stand, and that's all the characters seem to do. A passably engaging experience I have no desire to ever repeat. I liked Lady in the Water a lot. I liked the hermetically sealed apartment building and all the weirdo tenants. I loved the story about the characters who know they're in a story and are actively trying to find ways to move and manipulate the narrative. Doyle's cinematography was gorgeous. Giamatti's performance was great. I find the idea of structuring a whole film around a rebuttal to your critics very appealling (Solondz did this with Storytelling, also starring Giamatti). What's not to like here? It's a bit cloying, maybe, at times, but certainly not to the extent of your average Oscar-bait (and it is framed as and interwoven with a bedtime story, after all), and maybe a little overlong, but I don't understand the poisonous critical reaction to it, unless they don't like seeing 'themselves' being portrayed as arrogant know-it-all pinheads, or seeing 'their' ignorance and closed-minded certitudes getting 'them' mauled by wild animals, which is quite possible. I actually think I may have underrated this film. There's a criticism going around that Snakes on a Plane is a title before it's a movie. That's true. It's every bit as cynical a vie for instant 'cult' status as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The difference is that where the latter is an almost life-threateningly unfunny series of witless sight-gags, SoaP is actually a decent comedy-thriller. It's a film you've seen dozens of times: it's Passenger 57 or Executive Decision or Air Force One or any film you can think of that fits that formula - but with snakes. It's a bit of fun.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Sept 2, 2006 19:09:39 GMT
And "Hail Mary" and "Forever Mozart." Simply put, Hail Mary is one of the most irritating, ugly films I've ever seen. The soundtrack is a horrible, headache-inducing cacophony of squawking birds and church organs. The camera is lifeless. I actually hated it, and I very rarely hate films. While I was watching Forever Mozart I began to wonder if I'd like In Praise of Love as much on a rewatch. It resembles it quite closely, and I found it totally uninteresting. Again, the camera is dead (perhaps because cinema is dead!). The soundtrack here is actually fairly pretty, though, with periodic, brief blasts of Mozart (I presume) roaring up and dying away at unexpected moments. It starts as something about a French stage troupe travelling to perform in Sarajevo and getting accosted by militants, then something else about a cantankerous old director trying to make a movie while studio suits interfere, then something else about his film losing out commercially to Terminator 4. Along the way we get what I'm coming to see as typical latter-day Godard-isms - pretentious literary citations, dubious 'philosophical' catchphrases, political sloganeering, etc. Have you seen either of these?
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Post by Vercetti on Sept 3, 2006 1:05:50 GMT
This is quite simply the most humane film I have ever seen, Agreed, I said the same exact thing about it. Anyway, I've been away for a week or so. Heat (3 times) Wedding Crashers The 40 Year-Old-Virgin Goodfellas Seinfeld (seasons 5 & 6) n/a The Inside Man
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Post by bobbyreed on Sept 3, 2006 1:14:53 GMT
And "Hail Mary" and "Forever Mozart." Simply put, Hail Mary is one of the most irritating, ugly films I've ever seen. The soundtrack is a horrible, headache-inducing cacophony of squawking birds and church organs. The camera is lifeless. I actually hated it, and I very rarely hate films. While I was watching Forever Mozart I began to wonder if I'd like In Praise of Love as much on a rewatch. It resembles it quite closely, and I found it totally uninteresting. Again, the camera is dead (perhaps because cinema is dead!). The soundtrack here is actually fairly pretty, though, with periodic, brief blasts of Mozart (I presume) roaring up and dying away at unexpected moments. It starts as something about a French stage troupe travelling to perform in Sarajevo and getting accosted by militants, then something else about a cantankerous old director trying to make a movie while studio suits interfere, then something else about his film losing out commercially to Terminator 4. Along the way we get what I'm coming to see as typical latter-day Godard-isms - pretentious literary citations, dubious 'philosophical' catchphrases, political sloganeering, etc. Have you seen either of these? I haven't seen either one.
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Post by Valenti on Sept 3, 2006 1:21:29 GMT
This is quite simply the most humane film I have ever seen, Agreed, I said the same exact thing about it. Anyway, I've been away for a week or so. Heat (3 times) Wedding Crashers The 40 Year-Old-Virgin Goodfellas Seinfeld (seasons 5 & 6) n/a The Inside Man I hate to say it, but The 40 Year-Old Virgin is one of my favorite movies. It's just so goddamn sweet.
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