Films: Rate and Discuss

Yorick said:
I've finally started watching The Wire and am halfway through the first season (about to start episode 7). I wasn't immediately sold by the pilot, but since episodes 2 and 3 I've been hooked. It's deliciously modern noir, with a surprising amount of accuracy and depth. And the acting, oh goodness the acting. Everyone in this is just fantastic.
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The thing is though, I'm at episode 5 now and I don't feel compelled in any way to watch any more of it. The writing is good, the acting is good, everything is good but I just don't care. What keeps me going in a show is a sense of anticipation of future events, some mystery, tension, unknowns, a feeling of "ohmygodwhatsgonnahappennexticantwait". It's all good in terms of quality, it's great even, but it's not enough for me. I'm just not feeling The Wire at all. I doubt I'll finish the DVD any time soon.

I flew right through all four seasons of Breaking Bad, half a season a day in fact, but with The Wire I'm currently like "Jesus, I've only watched 5 episodes of the first season? Feels like I've been watching 20 hours of it already".
 
PvtRyan said:
The thing is though, I'm at episode 5 now and I don't feel compelled in any way to watch any more of it. The writing is good, the acting is good, everything is good but I just don't care. What keeps me going in a show is a sense of anticipation of future events, some mystery, tension, unknowns, a feeling of "ohmygodwhatsgonnahappennexticantwait". It's all good in terms of quality, it's great even, but it's not enough for me. I'm just not feeling The Wire at all. I doubt I'll finish the DVD any time soon.

I flew right through all four seasons of Breaking Bad, half a season a day in fact, but with The Wire I'm currently like "Jesus, I've only watched 5 episodes of the first season? Feels like I've been watching 20 hours of it already".
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I can definitely see that. That's the biggest gripe I've heard about it. But the first season is only 13 episodes, and it supposedly picks up in the last couple, so I'm going to at least finish it out. I definitely think there's anticipation for what will come next, but I agree with you that I lack a certain personal investment as well.
 
I took me about 6 or 7 episodes of the first season to be able to really get into it.
And even then, I took me 2 tries to finally be able to sit down and pay attention.

Afterwards however, I couldn't stop watching it and ended up cramming a DVD a day.
Lester was probably my favorite character on the show and Season 4 was definitely my favorite season.

The one thing I loved about the show was that each season focused on a different aspect of Baltimore.
1 - The Streets
2 - The Docks
3 - The Politics
4 - The Schools
5 - The Journalism
And it did it with such finesse, this is the most realistic and in your face television series that I have ever seen and I try to recommend it to as many people as I can.

edit:
Attack the Block - 7/10...

It was alright, the bizarre South London slang that they were using drove me nuts though, combined with the accents.
 
PvtRyan, having just finished the first season of The Wire, I recommend sticking with it for at least that long. Seeing the climax of all the things built up through the season is really, really excellent. The payoff is very much worth it. And if you still decide to bail, the season stands on its own with a really fantastic ending that doesn't require you to go any further, if you don't want to. However I will be starting Season 2 sometime this week.
 
welcome to the best television show of all time, it's only taken you however long to finally get here. but that's okay, you're watching it now, and that is all that matters
 
Yorick said:
And if you still decide to bail, the season stands on its own with a really fantastic ending that doesn't require you to go any further, if you don't want to.
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What.
I mean maybe it's just because I kept going immediately after it ended but I didn't get that feeling at all, I mean... I felt completely obligated to continue because there was just so much more to see... despite S2 being drastically different.


Cowboys and Aliens - 0/10...

Got 40 minutes into it before I shut it off, waste of a dollar... since I rented it from a Redbox.
So ****ing BORING and everyone sounded like they were reading directly from a friggin script.

One of the worst movies that I've seen in a while.
 
Lucid said:
What.
I mean maybe it's just because I kept going immediately after it ended but I didn't get that feeling at all, I mean... I felt completely obligated to continue because there was just so much more to see... despite S2 being drastically different.
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Season 1 ends with McNulty realising that he went through and put everyone else through everything for such a small payoff. It ends with them closing the case, but to what end? They haven't put a dent in the sale of drugs, people are hurt or dead, careers are ruined. D'Angelo, who we spend the entire season connecting with, is spending decades in prison. Wallace is dead. Bubbles is back on drugs. Kima was shot. The only person who gets anything remotely good is Lester Freamon.

Honestly you could have it as a 13 hour movie and end it right the **** there. It's so bleak and noir. No one gets what they want. People die, people go to prison. And in the end, in the big picture, all their work, all the shit they went through, doesn't really amount to a damn thing.
 
which is, if anything, even more reason to watch the second season, and the third, and so forth. just because it ends on a total downer doesn't mean it's a wrap, all of the running themes from the first season...

... - characters, arcs, locations, etc - all continue straight away in the second, and a new angle with it. the barksdale case is far from over, and we've come to learn from 13 hours of watching him be an arrogant, stubborn prick that mcnulty doesn't give up just because he's dragged some peoples reputation through the mud. it took kima getting shot to really bring him down a peg, but with her recovering, it's time to get back on the saddle and put a bad guy behind bars. as landsman says earlier in the season, he's addicted to himself...


... and that's all that matters. he'll keep going, and people would be silly to watch the whole season and think any different. perhaps i'm a little bias because i know how the following seasons unfold, and that makes me absolutely grimace at the thought of people just... stopping right when the hunt is really starting to begin.
 
The Baby (1973) - 7/10
Boy, this is one ****ed up movie.
 
Hangover 2 notfunny/10

Well, after trying to watch the first one and falling asleep four times, I gave up. The second is no better. I was on a plane with nothing else to do
and still only got halfway. I cant stand these films.

And yet almost everyone else i know thinks theyre HILARIOUS WOW SSOOOO FUNNY

Am I the only one here?
 
No, you're not.


Contagion - 7/10

The deterioration of society and pandemonium really made me anxious, as I expected. It had a wider scope of main characters than I was expecting. The acting was pretty good (though I'm terrible at judging this). The movie kept me engaged just because it's easy to get invested in a story like this, but afterward I felt the plot was pretty scattered and weak. I think it tried to cover too many storylines and none of them felt very strong in the end. I think one of the best moments was when
the one lady got sick in the hotel and called the doctor to tell him, and then after he hung up he was just sitting there, and just seeing him there thinking with a pained look was all the movie needed to say, you could really feel the intensity
I suck at reviewing movies.
 
13 Assassins- Haven't seen the original but yeah it's an enjoyable Samurai movie. You can definitely see the influenced of Miike that I'm sure weren't in the original.
stump amputee woman, kids getting shot with arrows etc.
Definitely paced like an olds-chool samurai movie, you've got the setup, gang getting together and the inevitable final showdown. The vagrant is such an homage it's almost the point of being a ripoff of Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai and I really didn't have a problem with it. Not overly long and definitely recommended.

Heat- Good but man am I really sad about Al Pacino's performance. Deniro was a champ in this but my god is Pacinco a ****ing clown. That aside I always figured this was just a bank heist movie but I was pretty god damn wrong. Don't know if there's much to be said, great action, plot and the last chase scene is superb.

Silenced aka The Crucible- Caused a pretty big stir when it hit South Korean theaters and was their biggest grossing movie (I believe) and I can really see why. It's the true story of sexual abuse and how people get away with it. It's pretty maddening to see the shit people can pull if they have even a bit of power, and it's a pretty evocative flick at that. Not my favorite Korean movie but an important one.
 
Black Swan - ididntgetitcolonopenbracket/10

Good movie, I love picking out tiny little things in psychological thrillers, like in Fight Club. But unlike Fight Club there was no explanatory-montage for the dummies (i.e. me). Was the idea that it's open for interpretation, or did I miss something?

My main question is, what is the go with Nina/Lily/Winona Ryder('s character)? Are the same person? Or did Nina stab herself at the end and just visualised stabbing Lily?

Also, why does her mum treat her like she's 12?
 
Can anyone recommend me some good psychological thriller/drama movies?

I feel like i've run out of all the good ones :(
 
Yorick said:
Which have you seen / liked?
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Misery
Shawshank Redemption
Cube
The Exam
The Triangle
The Shining
The Game
Jacob's Ladder
A ClockWork Orange
Requiem for a Dream
Gummo
A Beautiful Mind
Shutter Island

there's more but that's all I could think of for now.

Basically "wtf" type movies or movies that make you think
 
Definitely Memento. Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive or probably anything else by David Lynch.

You kind of covered all the others I've seen already that come to mind.
 
The Arrival and The Arrival II/The Second Arrival*
*unclear what the title of the sequel is supposed to be.......

I remember watching The Arrival as a kid and thinking it was pretty cool. It's an alien movie that came out right before Independence Day and went mostly overlooked. Has Charlie Sheen. According to the IMDB boards, people think he looks like Gordon Freeman in this (I didn't really notice). It's definitely not a great film, but it's' not terrible. Some lines are pretty funny (intentionally, not bad-funny). The plot is actually decent enough:

The aliens are pumping out greenhouse gases to terraform Earth since they like it warm and their planet's star is dying, or something to that effect. This was maybe before global warming was such a big topic, so this is kind of impressive. Unfortunately I think I spotted CFC's on their list of greenhouse gases, even though the ozone layer has nothing to do with global warming.

The Arrival II on the other hand was a huge 101 minute piece of crap. Lots of boring scenes like the main characters failing to get money from the bank after the alien conspirators shut down their accounts. I mean, it's kind of a logical scene but added nothing except more awfulness. At the end they bring down a "nuclear plant" (really a greenhouse gas plant) and escape in a way that makes absolutely no frickin sense. And of course the guy knows some computer stuff, which translates to immediately knowing how to use alien tech. The aliens have this laptop with like 15 giant unmarked buttons just randomly flashing to look cool I guess -- I can imagine the director telling the alien character, "Just press some buttons and stuff and try to make it look like you know what you're doing." I admit some parts were so bad they were funny (the only reason I decided to waste my time watching this), but mostly it was just bad.

I think the absolute best thing about the sequel is that when you watch it, the title clearly shows up as "The Second Arrival" but it's listed all over the dvd case as "The Arrival II," as if the people who put this out knew what a piece of crap this film is that they didn't bother to get the title right.
 
Ip Man 2 9/10

Another amazing movie, and just as good as the original. If you like martial arts...watch this movie. If you haven't seen the first, watch Ip Man. I'm not the biggest fan of martial arts, but this one is very solid and kept my attention. Also read the wiki on Ip Man, he influenced
Bruce Lee and many others
 
Underworld: Awakening amazing/10

Amazingly bad. Acting - terrible. Effects - terrible. Storyline - terrible. This being Underworld I had extremely low standards, and it failed to meet even those.
And although theres something to be said for watching Kate beckinsale run around in skintight clothing, even she couldnt make this watchable. I walked out halfway. And i rarely do that. I think Im going into shock it was ****ing abhorrent save yourselves and your money.


Safe House betterthanunderworldbutthatsnothard/10

Mindless entertainment. Dragged on, I couldnt wait for it to finish so we could go home. If you dont like thinking when you watch movies Im sure this will be enjoyable.
 
mechanicallizard said:
Underworld: Awakening amazing/10

Amazingly bad. Acting - terrible. Effects - terrible. Storyline - terrible. This being Underworld I had extremely low standards, and it failed to meet even those.
And although theres something to be said for watching Kate beckinsale run around in skintight clothing, even she couldnt make this watchable. I walked out halfway. And i rarely do that. I think Im going into shock it was ****ing abhorrent save yourselves and your money.
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In my opinion the Underworld series is basicaly "Twilight for guys" lol. I did watch the first two movies just because of Kate, but the story is garbage. It's always been that way, so I don't know why you bothered to pay to see this.
 
Remus said:
In my opinion the Underworld series is basicaly "Twilight for guys" lol. I did watch the first two movies just because of Kate, but the story is garbage. It's always been that way, so I don't know why you bothered to pay to see this.
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I didnt, a friend did. He owed me. And like I said, I went in with low expectations, it didnt even meet those.
 
lol. Actually saw that the night it came out with a friend since he got free tickets. Kate Beckinsale and the gore were about all I could enjoy.
 
Nature (PBS): Ocean Giants - 9.5/10

Might be the best nature show/documentary I think I've ever seen. (But I still haven't seen BBC's Planet Earth so I can't compare. This one is obviously a lot more limited in scope.) I just turned it on because I looked up the tv listings and this seemed like the best thing on at the moment. It's 3-hours/3-parts, filming by Doug Allen who filmed for Planet Earth, and Didier Noirot. Tuned in about 40 minutes into the first hour. I think that section was more of your typical grey whale, blue whale kind of stuff. The second part was on dolphin/whale intelligence. I think that was the most fascinating part. Ended on the humpback whales that hunt with the bubble net, which was shown briefly in the Disney Oceans film (which is far eclipsed by this documentary). So I've seen it before, but it was explained really well here, and also you get to hear a little from the researcher who studies them -- he seems like a pretty cool dude. They probably should've made this section the last. Third section was on sound/echolocation and ended on whale songs which is great but so 70's. I remember we had a vinyl record of that at home when I was a kid, and I would always think "Oooooh whale songs" then put it on and after 5 minutes... "wtf this is weird". But now I find it to be vaguely ambient/postmodern-ish..... :p

Anyways, highly recommend this if you have any remote interest in animals at all.

Half point off is just for the soundtrack. The theme is quite similar to the one by John Murphy in the Danny Boyle Sunshine film. Good theme but was overused here.
 
Hard Candy - 8/10...

Apart from some pacing issues I really liked this.
Darkly humorous and great performances by everyone.
 
Crazy Stupid Love Amazing/10

So many hilarious moments in the film, loved it.
 
Hugo - 8.5/10

Saw it at my university. Nice thing about still being in school at 24 is that I still get discounted entertainment. I'm usually out of the loop on movies, so I never heard of this before it won all those Oscars. It was mostly enjoyable. More humorous than I expected. The kids' conversations were pretty awkward (but mostly in a humorous way); kiddie hand-holding was super awkward. I guess I can understand why it won Best Cinematography, but personally I don't much care for the intense color saturation. Out of the two nominees I've seen, I'd have liked Tree of Life to win that instead.

The story was good but not great. I bump it up to 8.5 instead of 7.5 or 8 because the clips of Georges Melies films and showing how those effects were done was cool. Potential there for some good DVD extras.

p.s.
Still my favorite music video ever.
 
Yojimbo- 9/10

Watched it in my film class at school. Very influential movie that basically created the "Man with no name" spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. Acting and photography was wonderful. Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa have never had a slump in my book.
 
Watch Sanjuro, it's easily as good if not better.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (US)

Bit of a mixed bag for me. As usual, Fincher's cinematography is impeccable, everything exudes his cool, controlled style and even the small things seem meticulously thought out. The actors all seem well chosen and play their roles well enough, if a little vacantly at times. The problem, as has been pointed out in many reviews already, is the schizophrenic pacing and editing. In several stretches the movie begins to feel less like a proper narrative and more like a loosely connected, blandly presented sequence of events whose implications and consequences are never quite felt. The viewer is rarely given time to take in what's occurring, to appreciate the various twists and turns the story is taking before them, and so I quickly lost interest in trying to keep track of it and all of its numerous and (for the most part) barely interesting characters. This is especially problematic for a film that presents itself as a murder mystery, as the reveal left me completely indifferent due to a lack of investment. Its main saving grace is the protagonists, and the way their hardships are portrayed completely unflinchingly. I continued watching not because I was especially interested in the events of the film, but because I was interested in the affect it had on them, and in that respect I consider it at least a partial success.

Too bad the stupid ending nearly ruined that, too.

Take Shelter

Hmm. Hard one to review. Nicely scripted and extremely well acted, but... there was something not quite there for me. I enjoyed it a lot, but I felt like there could have been a bit more to it, especially since it hints at a grandness of proceedings which is never quite realized (in a general sense I mean, not in a spoily way). Then again, its strength is undoubtedly in its characters, so maybe it was for the best that the larger plot was a little subdued in favour of a more personal story.

Too bad the ending was duuuumb but I guess it was pretty much inevitable.

The Sunset Limited

Very powerful movie. Adapted from a play, which shows in its minimal production (two actors, one room, all dialog), but the writing and performances carry it brilliantly. The conceit is simple: Black (Samuel L Jackson) saves White (Tommy Lee Jones) from a close encounter with a subway train (the Sunset Limited) and tries to talk him out of his suicidal compulsion. Black is a hardened ex-con turned man of god, and White is a cynical, world-weary, atheistic professor. Sounds like a totally cringe-worthy setup, doesn't it? Well, thankfully it's much better in execution than in concept. This is primarily because the movie mostly skirts the issue of who's right and focuses instead on which character can state his argument with the greatest conviction. It's a battle of passion rather than reason, so the question of God is ultimately inconsequential - all that truly matters is whether White will be catching the Sunset Limited when he leaves Black's apartment. I won't say any more than that, but I highly recommend it if you enjoy a thoughtful and powerful character drama.

The closing scenes are utterly chilling, my respect for Tommy as an actor went up tenfold by the time it was over.
 
The Wire - I had such ****in hopes for us / 10

I've now finished the first 3 seasons of this (Potentially starting 4 this weekend) and it's seriously one of the most brilliant pieces of television that I've ever seen. I actually feel like I've seen more of this show than 30-odd episodes because each episode feels like 2-3 episodes of any other show. Every scene has weight, every character has purpose, every detail is integral.

My single complaint was that I had trouble connecting with any of the characters on an emotional level, but as I go forward I think that's actually one of the strengths of the show. No one is idealised, and you feel about them as if they were actually people, and as people, most of them are pretty dislikable.

There's a scene that, I forget if it's in Season 2 or 3, but McNulty is driving home, drunk, which he should know better than to since he's a cop, and he accidentally grazes his car on the pillar under a bridge. So what does he do? He backs up, and takes a much better shot at it, intentionally this time. And that's just so incredibly him, that's his character, right there.

The things they do in this show are just, unbelievably good. So much so that I can't decide which season is even my favourite so far.
 
Take Shelter - 8.5/10...

That was god damned fantastic.
The whole movie played out almost like it was a constant dream... very surreal, the music was haunting, and the acting was great.

I'm not sure if I liked the ending though... I mean, it made sense in the context of everything that occurred but I don't know.
I think it would've benefited from a more ambiguous ending.
 
Yorick said:
The things they do in this show are just, unbelievably good. So much so that I can't decide which season is even my favourite so far.
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4
1
2
3
5

all is good, but 4, 1 and 2 are strongest for me.
 
Sliver and Taviow also list 4 as being their favourite, so I'm pretty excited about going into it.
 
4 was pretty amazing and quite soul crushing.
 
JUL3 said:
snip
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Nina suffers from borderline personality disorder, from what I could tell. She represents the white swan, while Lilly represents the black swan. (you'll notice she mostly wears white while Lilly mostly wears black) She has trouble with getting the part of the black swan, but slowly becomes the black swan more and more over the course of the movie. (You can see little hints like when she puts on Lilly's black top she allows herself to do drugs etc...) I guess at the end she's arguing with herself/stabs herself, because the black swan in her begins to dominate. Or something.

That's how I saw it anyway.
 
The Muppets - 8.5/10...

One of the better films that I've seen this year, I feel all warm and fuzzy after having watched it.
The songs were all pretty Whedon-esque, I felt... definitely got a Dr. Horrible / Once More With Feeling vibe out of them.
The humor was hit and miss but mostly hit just because of the sheer delivery and charm of it all.

I would totally watch a new Muppet Show.
 
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