Last Good Movie You Saw

[Hot Heart]

The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.

 

Seems like a film written to utilise Nic Cage's talents as he does a great job. For a long time you're left wondering where things are going to end up, and there are some funny, weird little sequences in there, yet it doesn't shock as much as similarly-themed films. I don't think it was as great as the buzz around it had led me to believe (when is it ever? Personally, I think only The Dark Knight succeeded there) but still a very entertaining film.

[toxicitizen]

Watched Zero Dark Thirty last night. There wasn't a "Last AMAZING movie you saw" thread, so this will have to do. Goddamn that movie was good.

 

I watched The Hurt Locker kind of a long time after it came out, so I'd heard a lot of great things about it but still somehow managed to go in with no expectations. Needless to say, it blew my freaking mind. So, I had much higher expectations for Zero Dark Thirty. And holy shit, I was not disappointed. I can't really think any specific thing about it that made me like it as much as I did. It's just fucking good. 

 

Also, it was weird seeing Andy playing one of the special ops guys. Very weird.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Springbreakers.

 

I went in expecting a weird movie with social commentary and didn't leave disappointed. James Franco and Selena Gomez gave VERY solid performances, and the rest of the girls did their part of being slutty. You'll know a movie is not what you thought it was when they're talking about "how nice the place and people are and how you're discovering yourself" with a montage if tits being drizzled by beer and girls grinding on each other.

 

It wasn't the best movie I've seen but definitely good. I especially liked how I watched it in a college town and like 40% of the people leaving were like "that's not at all what I expected". It's like Drive all over again.

[toxicitizen]

Just finished watching Django Unchained. Much like every other Tarantino movie, it was pretty fucking good.

 

Oh, and I finally got around to watching The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 last night. I wasn't a huge fan of the comic when I read it but, I have to admit, it made for a pretty good animated movie.

[Mister Jack]

Saw Lincoln.  If you've seen a Daniel Day Lewis movie then you should know what you're getting into with this one, but he was damn good.

[TheMightyEthan]

Jurassic Park 3D.  The 3D effect was really good for the most part, barring 1 or 2 scenes.  If I didn't know better I would have believed that it was originally filmed in 3D.

[Hot Heart]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

 

This is a bit of a bizarre one. I know it's regarded as an all-time classic, but it's such an uneven film outside of its 'historical' relevance. I like films that can manage to tell a story within two hours, yet this has some odd pacing with quite a bit of unnecessary stuff alongside some neat compression and condensation of its narrative and themes. Overall, though, it's entertaining and the chemistry between the leads is great, with a lot of amusing moments throughout. And it should be said that the final showdown is also really well-edited.

 

I get the sense that the bit with Butch's first kill influenced those misguided and terrible 'slow-mo, extended death scenes' you see in low-budget films.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

I had a similar experience with The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Such an odd film from a pacing perspective, but I love how they weren't afraid to take their time and develop the setting and characters in scenes that didn't necessarily drive the plot forward.

[NeoStarr]

 

Sushi Girl. One of my favourite movies. I actually saw it at a film festivals when it first came out but I rewatched it recently cause it's on Netflix streaming now. It is to genre fans what The Avengers is to comic book fans. Be warned; it's a torture film, like Saw or Hostel, so if you can't stand to watch that kind of stuff I wouldn't bother with it.

 

Best part about it is that some of the actors are reenacting roles that made them famous. Namely; Mark Hamill is playing a live action, R-rated Joker.

[TheMightyEthan]

What do you mean, genre fans?  I've always heard "genre fiction" used as a generic term to describe everything from sci-fi to fantasy to mystery to horror.

[NeoStarr]

A genre film is like a b-movie but with more ambition and quality execution. You usually see them more in film festivals then in theaters, but a lot of the stuff Sam Raimi and Wes Craven have directed could be considered genre films; Kill Bill is kind of a genre film too.

[Mister Jack]

Just watched Seven Psychopaths.  That movie had me laughing at loud at several points.

[toxicitizen]

Went to see Evil Dead last night. It was alright.

 

It's obviously nothing like the originals and I thought the tone was a bit too serious, but it was enjoyable enough. Definitely has its moments but it's mostly played straight. So there's never anything quite as amazing as this

 

Edited April 13, 2013 by FLD

[madbassman39]

I saw Jurrassic Park in 3D this weekend. One of my all time favorite films. I loved it and as Ethan said, it seemed as if the film was made with 3D in mind. Having said that, I was hoping to see some really cheesy 3D affects thrown in, such as the T-Rex roaring out of the screen. I'm glad they didn't change the movie to put stuff like that in, but boy that would have made the 3D experience really fun.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

 

Went to see Evil Dead last night. It was alright.

 

Wrong thread.

 

I saw Upstream Color on Saturday night. Now that I've been able to re-align my brain I can say that it's a really great movie. At first I felt like I didn't want to see it again as it was so intense but now I kind of want to take a shot at it knowing everything and what to expect. Really, it's an experience unlike many (if any) other movies I've seen, the use of sound and several artistic techniques really make you feel and experience the movie in a way that makes total sense for the narrative. It never feels like it's being overly artsy, either. The director/writer/actor had to do things this way because it really seems like the only way to do even do the story. You won't walk away confused. You'll walked away with your brain hanging out of one of your ears. You're never talked down to. The things you aren't told aren't impossible to piece together. At the end you just... understand it, because you felt it. Your gut takes over in a way that's really unusual for movies.

[TCP]

I saw Django Unchained this weekend. It definitely lived up to the hype. It also made me hate white people.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

You mean you didn't already?

[deanb]

Hunger Games

 

It's pretty enjoyable, and watchable, and considering how it could have gone not really any turn away and wince moments either. That said it does have plenty of flaws, mostly stemming from being teen fiction, many heavy handed plot elements, lots of things you see a mile off, and way too much early focus on the lass pretty much set up to win from the get go. It's kinda like if you took Willy Wonka and removed the Fizzy Lifting drinks and "You get nothing!" bit. Very little tension, about the only part where it was "ooohh!" was the scuffle with the girl at the table with the four bags laid out, and then as the girl wins, pinned down with a knife to the neck, then she starts monologuing. Then dies.

 

So yeah, that could have been worked upon. Probably more an editing issue than anything. It should maybe have focused on a bunch of the other kids in the training period or something.

[madbassman39]

My girlfriend loved the book, bought it for me to read, then we went and saw the midnight release. As someone who read the book I honestly disliked the film, not because the book was better, but because the movie opted to focus on the teen love more than what was present in the book and monumentally changed some pretty powerful scenes in the book.

 

 

Such as Ruth's (i think thats her name) death, in the movie it was bad luck, in the book it was Katniss' fault because of her arrogance. It was at that moment that the whole Hunger Games became something more to her. The movie changed it to keep Katniss a positive forward thinking character, the book she doubted herself a lot. Then District 11's gift became more of a "We forgive you" gift instead of a "thank you for respecting the dead" gift.

 

 

It was understandably changed to capture the "Team Jacob/Edward" audience, and the book wasn't particularly fantastically written, but there were some very deep themes in the book that could have pushed the boundary for this audience that they opted to go without.

[Waldorf and Statler]

A big aspect they should've gone more in depth in the movie is how uncaring Katniss was. She doubted basically everyone.

[Hot Heart]

Lawrence of Arabia.

 

I had never actually seen this before but it was on 'the list'. Great film and the sort of thing that doesn't really get made anymore (though people such as Ridley Scott really like to try). It presents a deep and layered character who is not the typical 'hero' you might expect, and Peter O'Toole does a wonderful job. The real-life history is obviously a lot more complex, but the film distils enough so that you have a decent thread of a story through which to follow the characters (inconsistencies be damned).

 

It is a little cringeworthy that they 'brown-face' a few actors to play the major Arabian roles, but the people they cast (Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn) are so great that you soon forget that. Although, blu-ray probably highlights Quinn's prosthetic nose a little more than the original release...

 

I had to watch it in two sittings (the original has an intermission, preserved on this release) because it's roughly 3 hours 45 minutes long. It's no worse for it though, and rarely were there parts that felt like they could've been a little shorter. This is possibly down to the magnetic performances and imagery throughout.

 

And, of course, it would be remiss not to mention that score.

[Hot Heart]

The Bridge On The River Kwai.

 

Since I'd watched Lawrence Of Arabia, I figured I'd go for another David Lean (whose films were anything but). This one suffered slightly because I already knew what was coming. That said, it is still a good film and an interesting story with a real powerful, gut punch of an ending. Not sure I can say with certainty that it was too long for what it was (since I was 'waiting' for the finale), but it did feel like it could've been a lot tighter at points, and there is a real abrupt focus shift that upsets the pacing a little.

 

Also, for good or ill, you get this stuck in your head.

 

"Madness! Madness..."

[deanb]

IRON MAN 3

 

Much better than Iron Man 2. It handled the fact it's the first film post-Avengers well. It incorporates elements from a pretty neat Iron Man storyline in which is good. The first song played is a...different choice. It shares script-writer with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which shows here and there. There's also gags and witticism a plenty, as expected of Stark/Downey Jr (though as I've noted on Twitter there's a feeling of being a bit too many, but the gags aren't where they're not wanted. The poignant scenes are gag free). The action is good, doesn't really let up. There's elements of wanting to touch upon bits of Starks character that aren't fully addressed, just kind of put out there but not taken anywhere. It's not a detriment, but it I think it could have made it slightly deeper than a paddling pool action movie.

 

Oh and Ben Kingsley. Man..soooo good.

 

Also a spoiler, though not for the film (per se) that is maybe worth looking into before hand for added enjoyment before seeing it. Or if you have seen IM3 something to look into.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ-ghF7ZAjM

 

Oh and as per usual with Marvel films, stay after the credits.

 

edit: Oh that spoiler apparently had already been announced as part of pre-release media.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Deanb
hmm, not much of a spoiler apparently

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

 

Much better than Iron Man 2.

 

Well that's all I need to know. I liked the first Iron Man for a superhero movie but IM2 just felt like a worthless cash-in by comparison.

[Hot Heart]

It shares a scriptwriter and director with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That is the main reason I am going to see the film. Glad to hear that it lives up to that.