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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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Post by jakesully on Nov 11, 2020 4:47:06 GMT
Colombiana - caught this on Netflix. Overall it was pretty entertaining tbh. Can't go wrong with Zoe Saldana (one of my favorite actresses working today) looking all sexy killing drug cartel scumbags. Featured some good/cool action sequences.
7/10
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 11, 2020 20:47:56 GMT
Without Pity (1948) 6.5/10. Cowritten by Fellini, directed by Aberto Lattuada (Mafioso) and costarring John Kitzmiller - a fascinating guy, the role was written for him, a black US Army Captain who filmed this during a 30-day leave, and postwar remained in Italy to act and became a legit marquee-level star for a while. In the US he's only known for his supp role in Dr No. Here he falls in like with a girl and each struggle immensely in the aftermath of the war to remain together and not fall into prostituion and the criminal black market, which of course they do. Melodramatically written but lotta scenes are directed quite well, tracking shots and such, and Giulietta Masina gives an excellent perf as a funny, repentant prostitute. Valley of Peace (1956) 7.5/10. Kitzmiller won Best Actor at Cannes - with competition Seventh Seal, A Man Escaped, etc, and was the only black actor to win until Forest Whitaker in '88. He plays a downed pilot who protects two orphans around war zones in this Yugoslav pic that is a bit familiar (The Search, Forbidden Games) with some cheaply done moments but for the most part it's entirely heartbreaking and had me in tears at the very end tbh. There's a fascinating circular dialogue effect - Kitzmiller speaks English to the boy, who speaks Slovene to the girl, who speaks in German with Kitz. He isn't dubbed here or in Without Pity - despite clearly being an amateur actor, he's a likable affecting presence, balancing languages, and there were often parallels with his life and the movies he did.
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Post by wilcinema on Nov 12, 2020 9:54:18 GMT
In The Line Of Fire: Nothing special, but man is Malkovich good in this one.
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Post by wilcinema on Nov 13, 2020 9:11:41 GMT
The King of Comedy (rewatch): It really is Marty's underrated masterpiece.
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Post by isabelaolive on Nov 14, 2020 3:15:48 GMT
Amadeus (1984) - 9/10 Amadeus is one of those films that I took a long time to watch, even when everyone was always recommending me. First because I'm not a big fan of Milos Forman (I found ONOTCN and MOTM extremely boring), and second that biographies are usually boring or pedantic, most of the time they are only worth it for the performance. Very few directors take the risk of making a biography interesting or bold. But in the last few months I have been interested in learning more about classical music, and I looked for some films and documentaries to watch and Amadeus always appeared at the top of the lists, so I decided to take a chance and watch, I even chose to watch the 'Directors Cut". And I don't even have words to describe the magnitude of this film, obviously because it was a period film, the costumes, production design and makeup are impeccable, but the performances and direction were the highlight. Everything I expected to receive when I watched OFOTCN I received here, Abraham's performance has automatically joined my list of favorite performances of all time. I find it curious that his name was not even familiar to me before this film, apparently he played some supporting roles in prominent films, but Amadeus is his only major film as a protagonist. I was surprised to find that not only did he win the Oscar for Best Actor for this film, but the film also won seven other awards. And all well deserved! Do you know when you finish watching a movie and soon you want to watch it again? That's how I feel, Abraham's performance is mesmerizing, the envy, bitterness and regret are almost palpable!
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Post by wilcinema on Nov 14, 2020 11:19:18 GMT
In The Heat Of The Night: I thought I would like this one more than I actually did, but not bad at all anyway. Great acting.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 14, 2020 11:33:51 GMT
Forgotten (2017) - 7/10.......sort of ... on NetflixInsanely plotted and typical South Korean film that equates random, utterly preposterous narrative twists with Greek Tragedy (or South Korean) and High Art - presenting them like it's Oldboy (it's not) and blowin' your mind all over again....... yet this remains compulsively, oddly watchable and entertaining anyway. People who like "twisty" movies will love this out of all proportion - and people who don't like to think too much about them will love it even more than that ..........which isn't exactly the same as my 7/10 here. No matter how hard you study.....it's a test you can't pass:
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Post by jakesully on Nov 14, 2020 15:58:47 GMT
The Hummingbird Project - Came across this on Netflix (never even heard of it before) and came away really liking it. Jesse Eisenberg was dialed into his Zuckerberg self and Alexander Skarsgard (sp?) continues to impress me (loved that he was bald in this ) Definitely a little clever hidden gem. Highly recommend it solid 8/10
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Post by stabcaesar on Nov 14, 2020 18:45:10 GMT
United 93 - First film I've seen in months. Such a difficult film to finish as it made me sick to my stomach. Absolutely masterful and devastating. What a dark day in human history. Those passengers were true American heroes. 10/10.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 15, 2020 6:22:53 GMT
just finished I Saw the Devil. I was so onboard with this until the final act. Needlessly moralistic and narratively pretty dumb. If this had just been a lean, mean splattery exploitation revenge flick, that would've been great, but that's not really what it is. For one thing, it's too long and too repetitive (I was really digging it for the first 100 minutes), for another, framing this moralistic narrative around moral duality and the protagonist becoming the monster that he's hunting is not thematically interesting enough for this runtime and also really flimsy given we don't know anything about the protagonist beyond his rage and grief. He's a paper-thin character overladen with existential angst. I don't care, I just want him to torture the bad guy. but, even putting all that to one side, where I really lost my patience is when the protagonist doesn't prepare for Choi Min-sik to diarrhea out the GPS and is DRIVING AWAY after dropping him off instead of staying nearby... WHY? What could possibly be on his schedule that's more important than keeping an eye on the at-large serial killer he's trying to terrorize? Picking up dry cleaning? maybe even worse was the scene when Choi Min-Sik gives himself up to the police and they wait around forever before making a move, giving the protagonist ample time to pull off a really unwieldy kidnapping scheme in front of their faces. I don't know anything about South Korean police but surely they can't be this passive. There's a serial killer in the middle of the street wanted for multiple counts of rape/murder/torture and instead of all the cops converging on him with guns as soon as he steps his ass out of the car, they stay hiding in the building for minutes while he's just standing there. What are they waiting for? GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GO ARREST HIM! Imagine a scene like this in an American film. It'd be so bizarre. it's frustrating because some of these sequences are so dope (that greenhouse scene especially). White knuckle action and vicious, splattery gore. Tense exchanges. Cat-and-mouse games. It's relentless and chilling and mean. As a horror/action thriller, this has so many right ingredients, but it also has just enough wrong ones to ultimately be a disappointment.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 16, 2020 17:12:03 GMT
The Fool Killer (1965) 7-7.5/10 "Shell-shocked amnesiac Civil War vet Anthony Perkins may or not be the eponymous Fool Killer of legend who strikes down sinners with his axe. Atmospheric, creepy, and strikingly directed, this compelling American Gothic is the next best thing to The Night of the Hunter.” — Joe Dante said. He programmed this a few years ago at BAM in a double bill with Confessions of an Opium Eater (to think to pair the two means he's a genius or lunatic). This is an obscure and underrated movie from Mexican director Servando Gonzalez and the writers of The Pawnbroker from the year before. Reminded me a bit of Mark Twain and a less-severe The Painted Bird too. Fascinating in its depiction of an emptied, searching South - stephen maybe has seen this? Perkins gives a tense and creepy perf ("Twas a regular glory") and Henry Hull as a paranoid brittle old man is very good. Maybe the last third could've been better but I was shocked how creatively visualized a lot of this movie is and there's a sermon scene that might be one of the very best ever put to screen.
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Post by stephen on Nov 16, 2020 17:39:32 GMT
I actually have never seen that, and now I need it my life.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 16, 2020 22:37:39 GMT
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) 7-7.5/10 5.5 on IMDb, 41% Rt Audience Score. This gets grouped with Star Wars knockoffs — others produced by Corman like Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, and Tarantino/cult favs like Starcrash, Message from Space. Those all have their moments, but they are lousy, oozy movies too. Meanwhile, I think Battle Beyond is very nearly on par with the first Star Wars, maybe even more pure fun. It has remarkable design (James Cameron), it’s well shot with soft colorful lighting (the DP started his career working for Eric Rohmer and Jean Eustache) and with excellent sound/score by hot-shot James Horner. The movie is paced tight, wastes no time, it's hilarious, and the cast is awesome: John Saxon, Robert Vaughn, a bitchy HAL named Nell voiced by Lynn Carlin! etc. Its ‘Star Wars wannabe’ roasting is barely suited - they share Kurosawa inspiration, but the beaming and actual designs and curious planetary loners are right outta Trek. John Sayles wrote this - I buried the lede! and he often used blockbusters to parallel and structure and subvert in his “pop genre chores” as screenwriter (Piranha, Alligator, The Howling) and peppers them with subtext and clever little ideas and detail, which is especially the case here scene-by-scene. Many of the mercenaries come from once-great planets and join the fight simply out of boredom, something to do. They all have interesting and fun characteristics, like George Peppard's Cowboy who likes Earth's movies and keeps scotch and ice in his belt buckle.
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Post by jakesully on Nov 17, 2020 17:36:57 GMT
Knockaround Guys - Very meh and forgettable. Seth Green was annoying af in this too. Only reason I watched it on Netflix was for Barry Pepper(wish he had a better career ugh), Dennis Hopper & John Malkovich. Don't waste your time on this one.
5/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 17, 2020 22:36:22 GMT
Beasts Clawing At Straws (2020) 7.5+-8/10Pretty terrific South Korean spin on the Shallow Grave plot with echoes of Tarantino but especially the Coen Brothers. You think you see where it plays out but not really and this is a debut film too by Yong-Hoon Kim - which maybe marks him as someone to keep an eye on because he's patient, deliberate and when he has to be he can be pretty nasty too. Impressive....
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 18, 2020 2:50:41 GMT
Black Wind (1965) 7ish. “When it’s hot, it’s hell. When it’s cold, it’s freezing.” Following in the tracks of DeMille’s Union Pacific, this Mexican drama centers on a tormented engineer given a sort of biblical task of creating a railroad across the barren Sonoran desert. It reminded me of Station Six-Sahara, Fitzcarraldo, Red River and There Will Be Blood (especially as the engineer’s neglected son comes into the picture), and in the third act a bit of Sierra Madre/Flight of the Phoenix. Released in Mexico on xmas a month after the director’s American pic The Fool Killer (I posted about above). Like that one, he employs frantic interior-monologue and creative visuals - except this has a bigger drawback in trying to tackle too much, it seems to spool out drama on a whim and feels overlong. Still, some great moodily done scenes, and a fascinating commentary on social division, ambition, and stuck laborers - in the desert one says after getting paid, “All this dough and no way and nowhere to spend it!”
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Post by wilcinema on Nov 18, 2020 15:16:07 GMT
The Platform: I almost loved this one. The ending lets it down, but the rest is quite good. Brutal, painful and horrific.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Nov 18, 2020 16:42:38 GMT
Videodrome. Probably my first viewing in 20 years. This movie is a trip. I miss 80’s/90’s James Woods.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Nov 18, 2020 18:44:41 GMT
Dark was the Night - Signs meets "werewolves"... really dug it until its incredibly sappy final act. Durand was pretty great in it and managed to sell the sappy shit well enough for me to not throw my slipper at the screen.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 18, 2020 21:05:23 GMT
Bringing Up Baby (1938) 8.5/10 rewatch. Maybe the very best screwball comedy, there's such a gymnastic bop to the perfs and pace. Cary Grant's fumfering phiz is at his defeated daffiest best ("in moments of quiet, I’m strangely drawn to you….but there haven’t been any quiet moments.”) -- and Hepburn is at her fastest and funniest ("oh David don't be irrelevant"). Howard Hawks lets 'em fly and never stops or steps away to hobble the immensely lovely lightning fun it is. Gambit (1966) 7-7.5/10. Initially meant to be a Cary Grant vehicle actually, this was the first script job by the great Alvin Sargent (Paper Moon, Ordinary People, some that are underrated: Straight Time, White Palace; most popularly SpiderMan 2). It had some interesting marketing - "Tell the end! But don't tell the beginning!" and that first twist caught me off guard actually. This isn't quite as good as the similar How To Steal a Million (released a few months before) but it is pretty smoothly enjoyable done with some fun twists, and while MacLaine is pretty funny, Caine gives a standout subtle yet very hilarious perf - huge year for him with Alfie etc.
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Javi
Badass
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Post by Javi on Nov 19, 2020 0:45:00 GMT
Atlantic City (1980) - watching some 80s stuff for the poll! Forlorn little gem, heir to both the Nouvelle Vague and New Hollywood, with cocaine, hippies and a distinct fishy smell taking over the supposed glories of Gangster-era Atlantic City. Kinda many movies at once—a romance, a crime movie, an absurdist comedy. In Malle's dilapidated Atlantic City not even death means what it used to in the good old days: a frenetic chase sequence that suggests THE FRENCH CONNECTION and ends in the death of a dope fiend is followed by the hippie widow's nonchalant assurance that there's really nothing to worry about; the dead man's due for another reincarnation anyway (we're told his spiritual journey can be traced all the way back to Ancient Egypt). Burt Lancaster is magnificent: a master of decadence (THE LEOPARD), he almost convinces us that his Old World gallantry elevates him above his present situation. All imaginary reputation, he's both great and small in the role. The movie reaches new heights in the third art, harkening to the pleasures (and the romance) of 30s gangster movies: suddenly Lancaster and Sarandon become movie characters in the classic sense, and we root for them in a simple, uncomplicated way. Louis Malle is at his magical best here, underestimating no one—his characters both real and larger-than-life, his ATLANTIC CITY a sordid affair though not without the promise of salvation—and salvation's in the storytelling. One of the great French directors, this English-language movie might actually be his masterpiece. A 10/10 for moi...
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Post by stephen on Nov 19, 2020 18:30:12 GMT
The Nest (2020): Solid performances in search of a quality script. Durkin's direction is deft but the story is so shallow that it leaves me wishing I could just find a copy of the stage version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? where Carrie Coon played Honey.
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 19, 2020 18:36:49 GMT
Champagne for Caesar (1950) where Vincent Price plays a soap executive who sponsors a very popular trivia tv show - he used to be roommates with an alcoholic parrot, but has come a long way. After belittling the brainy Ronald Colman's Beauregard Bottomley ("the last scholar"), Colman decides to bankrupt Price's soapy show by never losing. Lame love subplot takes over the second half ("How dare you fall in love on my time!") but Price is a riot and has some amazing reaction shots and one-liners. "I loathe humor...and you're humorous."
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Post by DaleCooper on Nov 19, 2020 22:10:23 GMT
Not the last movie I saw, but I watched Winter Sleep recently. Such a captivating and powerful film, easily one of the stronger films of the last decade. 9/10
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