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Post by Pavan on Mar 11, 2021 17:48:20 GMT
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)- 6.5/10
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 11, 2021 18:25:03 GMT
Hudson Hawk (1991) 7.5/10 rewatch Bruce Willis as Hudson is released after a decade in prison and he just wants a cappuccino with the right amount of foam. But he keeps getting pulled back into the unhinged slapstick world of blankly greedy burglary, exploited for his talent to take. It's Hitchcock meets Indiana Jones set to the tune of Looney. How often do you get references to Bogart next to Bullwinkle? Repercussionless, like a cartoon, it’s a ridiculous, shamelessly kooked, wildly fun movie with some quite catchy actor chemistry especially btwn Willis and Danny Aiello (“I hated cigarettes until I saw my first No Smoking sign”) who duet whenever they can, and a sexy Andie MacDowell (“I betrayed a man, a good man, an innocent man, a thief” or how about the big romantic moment - “Will you play Nintendo with me?”). Like Willis wondering why Captain Bob’s wheel was taken off the wall… objects seem to matter in their mystery. And characters seem to be playing any role they can, even as human candy bars. Ceaselessly sliding around spoofs and chaos, it's an entertaining haul....yet hated. Box office bomb, Razzies named it among the five worst movies of the decade, and the only critic that liked it was Richard Brody who called it better than Die Hard and in the key sphere of Wes/QT. Despite conditions of the production, everybody involved seems to be having a great time….so why shouldn’t we? It exemplifies buffoonery as the cinematic badge of the overcaffeinated. "Hey...Drink your coffee."
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Post by Pavan on Mar 11, 2021 20:03:46 GMT
About a Boy (2002)-
Just a feel good rom-com. Hugh Grant's interesting character and his charming performance is what puts this a notch above the usual. Collette and Hoult were good too- 7/10
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 12, 2021 1:56:27 GMT
The Burnt Orange Heresy (2020) - pretty wonderful Euro art-thriller, though calling it a thriller is misdirecting its charms which solely lie in the twisty plot peopled by characters who all seem to be hiding something and in the sumptuous dialogue. Feels like the bastard love child of Minghella's Talented Mr. Ripley and Ozon's Swimming Pool. Jagger is sensational in a small role and the rest of the cast delivers too. Really liked this one.
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Post by mhynson27 on Mar 12, 2021 3:01:02 GMT
The Lovebirds
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Post by jakesully on Mar 12, 2021 3:19:17 GMT
The Last Samurai (re watch) I don't give a damn if some critics call this a "white savior " film. Tom Cruise is fucking awesome in it and deserved to be nominated for it. (maybe even over Sean Penn for Mystic River) Definitely my favorite film of 2003 !
9/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 12, 2021 8:55:02 GMT
Voorbij, voorbij aka All Things Pass (1981) - TV Film - 8 / 10Short TV film by Paul Verhoeven that packs a lot of sorrow and regret into a short runtime and fits neatly between some of his very best movies ( Soldier of Orange, Black Book). Quite good, and impressive in its direction in how some shots echo others or form a counterpoint to them.
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 12, 2021 17:54:59 GMT
A Wolf At The Door (2013) - 8/10 ..........on TUBI Just watched this. Great directorial debut... really effective use of intimate space and long takes to create an almost suffocating atmosphere. I assumed they shot on film but seems it was digital. That too-close framing adds all sorts of unsettling pressure to the neo-noirish plot, in a way like the late 80s into 90s cycle of erotic thrillers.... but American movies don't look like this anymore or ripple as sexually and darkly. W/ some very good performances as well that feel genuine in their lust and disgust. And you know I loved that line, "This isn't any coffee... this is police coffee."
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 12, 2021 18:17:47 GMT
A Wolf At The Door (2013) - 8/10 ..........on TUBI Just watched this. Great directorial debut... really effective use of intimate space and long takes to create an almost suffocating atmosphere. I assumed they shot on film but seems it was digital. That too-close framing adds all sorts of unsettling pressure to the neo-noirish plot, in a way like the late 80s into 90s cycle of erotic thrillers.... but American movies don't look like this anymore or ripple as sexually and darkly. W/ some very good performances as well that feel genuine in their lust and disgust. And you know I loved that line, "This isn't any coffee... this is police coffee." I love it a great deal it definitely has lingered in my mind Not only is it a great central performance but it dares you, even invites you to hate her - if Promising Young Woman did that, even a little bit - think of how much better it could have been (and before people start screaming at me - I liked the movie but it's inferior to this is every conceivable way - not that they are that similar but......just an observation on how movies treat their female characters.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Mar 12, 2021 21:07:31 GMT
Sexy Beast. First watch. Ben Kingsley seriously won the best villain poll for this? He was great, but not in the best villain of the year convo.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 13, 2021 2:06:49 GMT
Hagazussa : A Heathen's Curse (2017) - ~ 8 / 10Anybody see this film - maybe themoviesinner ? - I don't recall this being discussed here. This is basically a German version of The Witch by a first time director too but I could see loving that movie and really hating this or vice versa. The thing is this is far less plot heavy and works in an impressionistic way - rather the "banality of evil" this could be thought of as "the evil of banality" - the world of this time (15th century) causes a kind of immoral derangement in response to trauma in multiple ways - how people inflict themselves on others - medical, physical, maternal, power and sexual struggles, personal betrayals, the role of people vs. nature and fear of the unknown - ie the world basically creates witches .............and they then go mad. Set up in 4 chapters - each which has a single disturbing af traumatic event that in some way becomes the eventual mythology or the folk tales of witches. It's actually a very complex thematic work but you may be baffled by it because of how it's presented. Not scary but more disturbing and encroaching towards you and a lot of this is the central character alone or just with one other person - its a desolate landscape - and it's often silent for long stretches. Unlike The Witch - there is nothing empowering here either - at least not yet within the mythology. This seems like the more authentic, yet less "enjoyable" witch movie Cinematography and the ambient, droning at times white noise score are spectacular ....
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Post by mhynson27 on Mar 13, 2021 2:44:21 GMT
My Octopus Teacher
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Post by themoviesinner on Mar 13, 2021 7:23:54 GMT
Hagazussa : A Heathen's Curse (2017) - ~ 8 / 10Anybody see this film - maybe themoviesinner ? No I haven't seen this. It looks good though, so I've added it to my watchlist.
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Post by Pavan on Mar 13, 2021 11:36:39 GMT
The Quiet American (2002)-
A triangular affair in tumultuous times at an exotic place. Not as epic and great as it sounds but engaging enough and Michael Caine gave a strong performance. Could've been memorable in the hands of an inspiring director- 7/10
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Post by mhynson27 on Mar 13, 2021 12:00:53 GMT
The Way Way Back
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Post by TerryMontana on Mar 13, 2021 16:21:02 GMT
Coming 2 America - 5.5/10
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Post by Pavan on Mar 13, 2021 19:34:08 GMT
Frida (2002)-
Episodic pertaining to its genre but the subject is very interesting that it holds the film together from falling apart. Politics of the world can occasionally overtake the center figure and her art but Salma made sure her pain was felt. Beautiful sets and costumes too- 7.5/10
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 13, 2021 23:39:51 GMT
Riding Shotgun (1954) 7.5/10 Randolph Scott made seven Westerns with Budd Boetticher starting with the aptly titled 7 Men From Now in 1956, but the front of that decade saw Scott saddle up with André de Toth six times. Same year as this, they did The Bounty Hunter where Scott shows up to a town looking for unknown outlaws - everybody is under suspicion and nobody likes it (“We don’t like curiosity around here”). Here, Scott rolls into a town called Deep Water to warn them of a gang raid and the townsfolk, wet behind the ears, wrongly suspect he’s one of them. It very humorously colors the townsfolk, who swarm the road and mumble judgment at each other too, but it's also looking right at their whole eager, stupid, impatient sense of justice. Toth uses some noir tricks (a lot of voiceover) and quick cutting to tighten pace and drum the plot's ironic potential. Also, Charles Bronson’s first Western - as one of the outlaws who stokes the town ire toward Scott to keep them nice and distracted.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 14, 2021 0:34:31 GMT
Beton (2011) 7+ / 10 .....on VimeoA early, short film (55 minutes) by Lukas Feigelfeld - the director of the maddening but often wow inducing "horror" Hagazussa (2017) - reviewed in this thread yesterday. This is what looks like a student film (?) - a found footage piece - about a wayward teen couple - him, a doofus and she a sort of punk'd out Britney Spears in appearance. The movie is predictable and inevitable and dull in a way that mirrors their own boredom but it's in the details that it also gets interesting. Another film about the "evil of banality" - switching the cliche - as I called it in Hagazussa - that itself threatens to come off as banal, but doesn't really - you have to focus closely. This time Feigelfeld sets this up as incrementing bad behavior - first stealing booze, then a petty robbery, then.......well you get the idea.......but he never moralizes - he rather suggests this is a mental illness in them or in the culture too - just like the witches in Hagazussa. Visually he finds a motif in certain geometric patterns of order - highways, apartment exteriors, garages, inside decor and designs, etc. and in the lives of the teens we see the opposite - formless, broken, blurry, dead-ends, in disarray, the order of the patterns designed to keep them in a state of disorder and what seems like chaos or random chance - it's designed to keep them out of everything. The plot - what little there is of it - starts to turn on the words "I love you"....spoken after a long silence. It's not a coincidence or a manipulation but rather a testament to mutual downward spiraling. Quite good.....
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Post by Pavan on Mar 14, 2021 11:25:57 GMT
About Schmidt (2002)-
An old timer's road trip film. Funny, heartfelt and a little profound at times. Jack Nicholson delivered one of his best performances in here. Alexander Payne mixed humor and emotion like only he can- 8/10
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Post by TerryMontana on Mar 14, 2021 11:47:54 GMT
On the Waterfront
Re-watch
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Post by Miles Morales on Mar 14, 2021 13:51:06 GMT
Raya and the Last Dragon - 8.5/10
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Post by MsMovieStar on Mar 14, 2021 18:09:36 GMT
Oh honey, what an experience this was! Kagittan Hayatlar (Paper Lives 2021) 7/10 What I thought was going to be a delightful Turkish movie, filmed in beautiful Istanbul, turned into something else altogether. I was really divided about it. It's like nothing I've seen. Has anyone else seen it? Apparently, it's sitting at Number 2 on Netflix's global chart.
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 14, 2021 19:22:49 GMT
Skin Game (1971) 7-7.5/10. Buddy con comedy in the Old West where James Garner sells Louis Gossett Jr, springs him, and they split the gain. Not unlike The Scalphunters (1968) that has a light touch around its serious race issues - especially so here, how Gossett is used and demeaned ("It never is the other way around") and how Garner smugly carries on. It hits a complex peak when John Brown's slave-freeing becomes an obstacle in their scheme. Gossett is very good, in some scenes Pryor-esque funny, and in a genre and era you rarely see a black lead.... that wasn't a star vehicle (Poitier, Jim Brown). Having said that, a little too much time is given to Garner's lame Susan Clark romance. I especially liked the dialogue (writer wrote Charade, Pelham One Two Three), how it breaks down gags for thematic hints (the Indian surprise gag), and calls out cliched lines. After being pickpocketed Garner sadly says "That was my daddy's watch." After a beat, Gossett corrects him, "No it wasn't. You fobbed it off a circuit-riding preacher from Lexington."
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 14, 2021 20:12:29 GMT
Skin Game (1971) 7-7.5/10. Buddy con comedy in the Old West where James Garner sells Louis Gossett Jr, springs him, and they split the gain. Not unlike The Scalphunters (1968) that has a light touch around its serious race issues - especially so here, how Gossett is used and demeaned ("It never is the other way around") and how Garner smugly carries on. It hits a complex peak when John Brown's slave-freeing becomes an obstacle in their scheme. Gossett is very good, in some scenes Pryor-esque funny, and in a genre and era you rarely see a black lead.... that wasn't a star vehicle (Poitier, Jim Brown). Having said that, a little too much time is given to Garner's lame Susan Clark romance. This movie and Support Your Local Sheriff used to play constantly at the old movie house near me and I must have seen it like 20 times growing up or more even. Love Garner in both and the rapport he has with Gossett - both of those movies have this easy likability to them. I sometimes mention this movie as the most glaring example of "movies you can't make today" because they appear on the surface to be "outdated" or "insensitive" but are not really (to me anyway, ymmv I mean I like Pepe Lew Pew and Dr. Seuss so my getting offended tolerance is pretty high ). anyway............... in the 70s this inspired a TV sequel ( Sidekicks (1974)) with Larry Hagman taking over the Garner role (Gosset is back in his part). Now that could use a rewatch! It's on Youtube ..........
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