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Post by countjohn on Nov 1, 2020 5:54:28 GMT
Lost Highway
Watched Twin Peaks for the first time last month and am thus in a Lynch-y mood and wanted to check out a movie of his I hadn't seen. I thought this was good all around. Excellent lighting and sound design. It had a distinctive atmosphere that was very nice for Halloween night. Both Arquette and Pullman were good. Between this, Eraserhead, and Inland Empire Lynch is one of the few directors who can scare me. I'd put it as my no. 4 Lynch behind Inland Empire, Eraserhead, and Elephant Man.
8/10
Although I will add, the first two acts are close to a fairly conventional thriller by Lynch standards, but the ending is the most oblique thing he's ever done. I really have no idea WTF happened there at the very end. Even in Inland Empire, Eraserhead, and the Twin Peaks dream sequences I could keep up with what was broadly supposed to be going on. It didn't really matter though because the movie's vibe is so good which is what it is really about and the rest of it is so good.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Nov 1, 2020 14:33:57 GMT
The Rock. Was going to do The Untouchables but I surprisingly don’t own it and it’s not available to stream. Still got some bad ass Connery action though.
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Post by DaleCooper on Nov 1, 2020 14:34:08 GMT
Halloween (2018)
Apart from maybe one or two scenes (the babysitter killing scene is well done, but that was about it) this wasn't even bordering scary. But more than that, it's just so dumb. Just about every character just behaves so stupidly that I find it very hard to enjoy. 3/10
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Post by DaleCooper on Nov 2, 2020 22:42:09 GMT
Martyrs
Really good although a rough watch. Doubt I ever will feel the urge to revisist this. 7/10
À l'intérieur
Just as above, doubt I will ever revisit this, but it's a very good films as well. Especially the build up is well done and very effective and throghout it is very intense. Incredibly hard to watch towards the end. 7/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 3, 2020 1:39:22 GMT
Whisky (2004) - ~8/10 on NetflixVery unique, observational film that is unresolved in every possible way - not just at the end - ..... an impressive work imo particularly in how it is sculpted......... the script which is very sparse - uses certain dialog ("God willing") as a thematic cross-current for great sadness and (possible) great happiness. The humor is all odd and off-kilter - a "thumbs up" magnet on a refrigerator is also, well you know, a "thumbs down" magnet The director of this movie Juan Pablo Rebella killed himself at 32 ...... which makes this work - a bittersweet comedy in a way - .......really sting and dovetail with certain themes he presented here......"God willing".
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 3, 2020 18:16:16 GMT
Tiger Bay (1959) - rewatch 7+/10Strangely sympathetic mix of crime film, weepy, and action chase film that some people might consider a sort of classic. Hayley Mills is extraordinary here in her debut........and papa John Mills is in fine form too.
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Post by jakesully on Nov 3, 2020 22:24:18 GMT
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Hands down the best Indiana Jones film imo. Thanks to Sir Sean Connery as Indiana's dad. Love everything about this film!
The Untouchables - Loved this film as well. Sean Connery will be missed for sure. Absolute LEGEND!
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 4, 2020 1:32:18 GMT
Whisky (2004) - ~8/10 on NetflixVery unique, observational film that is unresolved in every possible way - not just at the end - ..... an impressive work imo particularly in how it is sculpted......... the script which is very sparse - uses certain dialog ("God willing") as a thematic cross-current for great sadness and (possible) great happiness. The humor is all odd and off-kilter - a "thumbs up" magnet on a refrigerator is also, well you know, a "thumbs down" magnet The director of this movie Juan Pablo Rebella killed himself at 32 ...... which makes this work - a bittersweet comedy in a way - .......really sting and dovetail with certain themes he presented here......"God willing". Loved this... And possibly my new favorite of 2004 that weakling of a year. It's very well made and flawlessly edited - there's wit to the transitions. It reminded me of Aki Kaurismaki (but better!) between the static camera framing, pastel colors, the dry humor, the factory routine. It does an excellent job using space - visually, with painterly compositions, and as clues for character and social context. Like how the main guy has to shrink to fit into the frame during the "say whisky!" photograph scene (btw, puts to shame our Say Cheese). There's a sad remove to him too - as Julio Cortazar said "We conduct life as we conduct our eyes." Very touching movie, and kinda hypnotic in its craft and measure. Also randomly reminded me of one of my fav movie lines, from Night and the City - "If you ain't got socks on, you can't pull 'em up, can you?"
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 4, 2020 22:16:12 GMT
Road House (1989). I thought this was about a badass and some bar fights, had no idea it’d be so literally explosive. Dalton is a role Stallone or Schwarzenegger might have played, or Bronson back in the day. Swayze is ok - I like that first sarcastic scene with Doctor Hots and the way he says “Just lucky I guess." And I always appreciate those who drink their coffee black, of course. Despite its major Western influence, it reminded me of the dumb-fun ‘80s Golden Harvest martial arts movies too - and whaddaya know, Benny the Jet had just come off a few of those to advise on this one. The aptly named Rowdy Herrington directs quick, the supporting cast is awesome (an untouchable Gazzara, a cool-as-a-cue Sam Elliott), and the nonsense script (cowritten by the woman who wrote the pulp Romeo is Bleeding) is at least quotable... “Pain don’t hurt.” Then I watched Best of the Best (also 1989) which is so sappy and awful I just wanna forget about it. Karate contest costarring Eric Roberts and James Earl Jones should've at least been fun.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 5, 2020 1:16:57 GMT
The Second Civil War (1997). "No way, José!" I know, weird timing, but actually part of my James Earl Jones juggle I've been having this year. Barry Levinson developed this HBO movie but dropped out to direct Wag the Dog instead, and Joe Dante was subbed in; the two movies are similarly pointed political-media satires. Very much HBO, coming between Tanner 88 and Veep/The Newsroom, and oddly feels like a parody of Path of War that they released in '02. Beau Bridges won an Emmy for this but he's so-so. It's a great, deep cast with the standouts being: a hysterically bothered Elizabeth Pena, a peppy Dan Hedaya, and a hilariously aloof Phil Hartman (one of his last roles) as POTUS who keeps misunderstanding the people around him.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 5, 2020 19:58:36 GMT
Dial 1119 (1950) - 6.5-close to 7/10Very short ( Mattsby, 75 mins).......entertaining but bargain basement cheapy version of The Petrified Forest/The Desperate Hours template but without Bogart or anyone close to him on an acting level (Marshall Thompson, Virginia Field....who? ) But the script is better than the acting and it can be fun if you are doing a B movie film noir marathon but aren't looking for Detour or Decoy.....but are looking for movies that start with "D"
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Post by Joaquim on Nov 6, 2020 8:06:22 GMT
I liked Caligula but I wish they would’ve had some reference to how he wanted to make his horse counsel, or maybe it did and I missed it. Also could’ve spent more time on his efforts to make life for the senators miserable
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Nov 6, 2020 18:47:57 GMT
Blackhat. Probably the first time I’ve seen it since I saw it in the theater but I recently bought it on Blu-ray for like $4. Liked it better than I remembered. There’s a lot to like about it tbh but I just had such a hard time getting past Hemsworth’s NY accent. He was a jailed hacker, there was no reason he couldn’t have just been Australian.
12 Angry Men. One of my most recent Criterion flash sale purchases. Still an utter masterpiece. Not much else needs to be said.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 6, 2020 20:07:56 GMT
Inner Sanctum (1948) 6/10. Directed by Lew Landers, who made almost 100 movies between ’40-’50. This is a 60m noir that is kinda like bargain-bin Shadow of a Doubt, with a framing device that feels ahead of tv horror hosts, a funny clairvoyant (“I once had a difference of opinion with a watchmaker and I’ve boycotted timepieces ever since”) who rides trains and tells violent stories, here to a gal played by Eve Miller (who committed suicide later in her life). Lotta people say this is a badly acted movie but I thought all the perfs were pretty good, and a lot of the dialogue is creative. It feels hemmed in and low budget (a flood trapping all the characters is never seen), but it’s entertaining overall. High Sierra (1941) 7/10. “Of all the 14 karat saps….” Could do without the club foot subplot; the ‘afterlife’ amends of a criminal is almost interesting thru Bogart but who cares about some foot? And it feels slightly outside of the best elements here - Bogart’s perf, aged up - looking out but trapped in, the one-last-job of it, Ida Lupino who has good chemistry with Bogie. Everybody is trying to earn something/someone… it’s a sort of noir with a side-lament for the early Hollywood gangster era. Reminded me a bit of You Only Live Once, and the later Grisbi where the younger generation of criminals are classless, and the older generation just want outs and a good night’s rest.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 6, 2020 21:10:30 GMT
His House (2020) - Netflix ~7/10Social message drama/horror that borrows quite liberally from The Babadook - which has invented a whole horror sub-genre: living literally with your real life issues/ghosts/skeletons in your closet. Not bad.....and a whole lot better than crap like Antebellum which this could have easily turned into if it lacked any tact or nuance. Home Sweet Home......not really......
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 7, 2020 1:41:06 GMT
A Slip-Up (1972) 6.5/10. Tepid direction and a cliche full-stop ending decrease the interesting character study that Jerzy Skolimowski has written (he didn't direct). Closely follows Marek who's a wastrel philanderer, an unemployed photographer, and deeply sociopathic. Playing in the snow, he tells his new gf "Move or you'll freeze!" and seems to live by that idea in and out of the cold - he roams, he schemes. It's a low key but busy, dark view of then modern Poland - how easy to be gained on or locked away. In one scene, on a tv in an auto-body shop we see Wojciech Fortuna winning Poland's first Olympic gold, but the men shrug it off, the broken spokes aren't gonna fix themselves.
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Post by DaleCooper on Nov 8, 2020 22:19:24 GMT
So, I rewatched The Ring for the first time in more than 15 years probably. Bad idea, really. For me, this is probably the movie that scared me the most when I was a kid (I remember once I watched it on TV having to stop watching being so scared) - absolutely terrified me it did. Today I can appreciate some aspects of the film - it's well done, the cinematography is good and some scenes really builds an unnerving atmosphere but apart from a select few scenes it's not really scary at all. It works pretty decently as a thriller though. Gotta say I was surprised that I remembered it quite well, I must have watched it a lot back in the days. 5/10
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 9, 2020 0:09:22 GMT
Gave myself a week to jump around the Shatner Treks. The not-mentioneds are ones I really didn't like or didn't finish, otherwise... Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) "Let them eat static!" Overrated but pretty fun with a meaningful and necessary ending for the series. Yet they continue! Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) "I may have carried your soul but I sure couldn't fill your shoes." I liked seeing the weird communities in the beginning but this gets so ridiculous and the whole backtrack fan-flame ending felt wrong. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) has the dumbest plot I've ever heard yet it's the best movie bc it's the funniest and doesn't pretend there isn't goofiness to the team. It has both overt (peta!) and clever (slogans etc) American commentary. And, Kirk likes beer! Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) I like the whodunnitishness of this one and the Christopher Plummer character who hilariously only speaks in Shakespeare quotation. It's also overlong and gets sidetracked... So I had fun with most of 'em, don't love 'em but I do think there's good charm to Shatner's perfs and Nimoy is fascinating. It's odd how little the rest of the team matter in the movies -- though Dr McCoy is like the Artie Bucco of the series and Scotty makes me laugh -- but Nichelle Nichols gets more to do in the very first episode of the show than all the movies combined. The show at least steps up to its sometimes suggestive premises (sexual urges, etc) that the movies don't care about at all.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 9, 2020 5:06:50 GMT
another Edward Scissorhands rewatch. Between the bizarre and still unreplicated aesthetic, the critique on suburban shallowness that was so hot in the 90s, the fanfic-yness, the ice dance and "hold me" scenes... the teenage girl in me melts. What always gets me is that one scene where Kim drapes herself in Edward's arms. That's why I keep coming back to this thing. So much is inferred about Edward's humanness and need for connection in that one little moment, and how his creator's death robbed him of the ability to express his love through touch (scratching Vincent Price's cheek was the best he could do) via flashback. The movie's sentimentality feels earned because the mushiest cues are expressed mostly through Elfman's score while the performances themselves are subtle. That anyone could project themselves onto these lovestruck teenagers is credit to its enduring legacy. also, the cinematography is outstanding. it's easy to point to the score, the makeup, and the sets but Stefan Czapsky's cinematography doesn't get enough props.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 9, 2020 21:16:07 GMT
The Night Visitor (1971) - ~7/10 rewatchI think I reviewed this before and may have rated it something entirely different - this is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen while appearing to be "straight" and "simple". This movie has dazzling production design, gothic sets images shot through with a steely blue and a plot that is either Hell on Earth or a preposterous, childish joke (?) Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman subvert their Bergman filmographies here as brother/sister with a whole bunch of issues - this is rated 13% on RT some people love it .......which I totally get ........and I'm not sure why at the same time.......
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 9, 2020 21:44:36 GMT
The Boys (1962) 8/10. It's on Prime, and I hope some people searching for their big show might stumble onto this. This approaches being an unsung courtroom classic and came right on the heels of the Woodfall kitchen-sink pics. It opened the same month as Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner actually. With a structure compared to Rashomon, four youths are on trial for theft and murder and we get a divided depiction of them, either as teddy boys terrorizing half of London, or just a regular bunch of friends moseying around barely employed. It's a solid script made special bc of the perfs by a large cast - Robert Morley most notable maybe? and among his best work - and the involving direction by Sidney Furie, who by my guess is the only filmmaker who made films in the '50s who is still working! He uses CinemaScope that stretches the frame so it's as if we're always looking at a lineup. There's great attention to the minutia of the courts manner, character detail, and an on-location grittiness.... I've only otherwise seen The Appaloosa and The Entity from Furie. Would love some recs besides Ipcress File which I'll def get to.
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Post by TerryMontana on Nov 10, 2020 13:49:21 GMT
The Offence
Kinda liked it but...
It was deliberately very slow paced and a bit confusing at times. I really enjoyed Connery's three person-to-person scenes (with his wife, his superior officer and with Baxter) but even those seemed slightly f...ed up: Some meaningless quotes, scenes cut abruptly just when they were getting interesting... Not Lumet's fault imo, mainly badly written I guess.
But I have to admit the final interrogation scene was shot and played amazingly and the "twist" was the soul of the movie (not really surprising but great nevertheless).
Very good turn for Connery after being typecast with the James Bond persona.
6-6.5/10
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Post by jakesully on Nov 10, 2020 16:16:33 GMT
Parasite - FINALLY got around to seeing this one. And all I can say is WOOOOOOOW!!! No wonder it won Best Picture. It was a flat out masterpiece.
10/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 10, 2020 23:18:37 GMT
Queen Bee (1955) - ~6.5/10 re-watchMarlon Brando didn't get beaten to a pulp in movies for acting as bad as you'll see here from the supporting cast.....but Joan Crawford is at her most Crawfordemented in how she plays this part.....skirting camp (though less than you'd guess) and OTT but somehow strangely right in a preposterous part she justifies this soap opera gone haywire. This movie is improbably overplotted and way too short at the same time...... This predates the kind of specific camp type that Liz Taylor would attempt in the late 60s/early 70s and is fun/awful in that way and Crawford's look here ( insane eyebrows!) alone is fascinating. The film's pitch is set like this Simpsons skit ( ibbi ) - watch both clips and see how similar they are....... but the film is played straight ......except when Crawford plays it - then it's sideways......... and straight, no chaser.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 11, 2020 1:05:29 GMT
The Ipcress File (1965) 7/10. The opening credits of a sleepy Caine making gourmet coffee is a movie after my own heart. For a while, this is great - Sidney Furie keeps scenes interesting and visually very creative, with extra care about what the characters see and observe. Caine's cool sarcasm is a highlight, and I really like his Palmer counterspy character - so I may look into the sequels. But anyway, the last 30 minutes suddenly dulls, especially a capture scene that goes on and on and on, only delivering some plot and not much else. Still and all, a good movie and should appeal to the Carré cats and the Bond-hounds (same producer and lotta crew from the early Bond movies).
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