8198 replies to this topic

[JeffTweedysFatStomach]

A disappointment, am I right?

No way - I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Great pacing. Great camera work. Good job by the actors.

[Campaigner]

Once Upon a Time in the West > The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Yojimbo > Sergio Leone

Bingo on both counts...

but having said that - I love Sergio Leone films and there's not much better than them. It just so happens that Kurosawa films rock just that little bit more.

[Magnus Malcolm]

Now I'm contemplating as to how The Wild Bunch stacks up against Once Upon a Time in the West...probably both director's superior westerns.

[JeffTweedysFatStomach]

I loved GBU so much that I just bought Once Upon A Time In The West on my way to work this morning. I definitely look forward to watching it this weekend.

[held]

I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped. Snazzy, cool film making and camera work, to be sure, but for whatever reason the film felt kind of stagnant.

to a certain extent it is different than the pacing of his earlier gangster films but I think the purpose was also setting a very different tone both because he was using color and I think this was an attempt to try some different elements in composition.

of Melville's filmography, the only others I've seen are Les Enfants terribles (1950), (which wasn't that interesting to me) Bob le flambeur (1955) (His masterpiece imho) and
Le Doulos (Doulos: The Finger Man, 1963) which is also worth looking at as another of his gangster films.

[held]

I loved GBU so much that I just bought Once Upon A Time In The West on my way to work this morning. I definitely look forward to watching it this weekend.

I can't tell you how happy I was when 'West' finally came out on dvd... the vhs pan & scan made it the most painful and annoying thing to watch ever minus the tech films in college where the projector would lose the frame every two seconds because some ppl couldn't figure out how to use tape correctly.

[Magnus Malcolm]

held, I agree with you that the filming itself was strong, quite strong at that. I agree with you on thinking that he was going with something different. The story, on the other hand, just didn't hold up for me. I don't think it could've been much less engaging.

[Magnus Malcolm]

Great film, Magnus. Remake is due out before the end of the year. Jennifer Connelly, Kenau Reeves.

Hmmmm. DUBIOUS.

I'm skeptical of anything that Keanu is in - he could fuck up a wet dream.

God help us. I'm judging early, sure, but the trailer for this is out. They changed it entirely. Looks God awful. "If the Earth dies, you die." Worst line..ever?

EDIT- http://www.apple.com...arthstoodstill/

[AFTERSHOCK]

I'm skeptical of anything that Keanu is in - he could fuck up a wet dream.

[By-Tor]

I thought it was ok in parts but a majority of it was typical "daddy didn't love us & is to blame for our mediocre existence" boring bullshit. Regretted wasting my Saturday night watching it.

We were filled with the same regret. What a waste of a Hoffman.

[By-Tor]

Escape From New York: John Carpenter is the greatest B-movie director ever, yes? The cast in this movie alone made it worthwhile.


Born On The Fourth Of July: Cruise was actually pretty good in this, and it never became too overwrought. LOL at Cruise and Dafoe yelling "Fuck you!" at each other in the desert.


Mr. And Mrs. Smith: I have a new least-favorite Hitchcock movie ever. This had no redeeming qualities to it. None.

I disagree with what you say abot Mr./Mrs. S. I think it's the closest Hitch ever got to romantic comedy, and it worked for me. Definitely not your typical Hitchcock, that's for sure. I liked the lightheartedness.

[cerebralcaustic]

I disagree with what you say abot Mr./Mrs. S. I think it's the closest Hitch ever got to romantic comedy, and it worked for me. Definitely not your typical Hitchcock, that's for sure. I liked the lightheartedness.

"Closest" being the key word, as it was neither romantic nor funny.

[By-Tor]

Agreed it was not funny. I just like the light-heartedness. It's just a cute litle movie, and very strange one for Hitchcock. Like "Stagefright" or "Shadow of a Doubt" or "Suspicion", it's a quirky film for Hitch. Not for everyone. Sometimes Hitch misses for me, too-- like "Under Capricorn", whichbasically put me to sleep, even though I love Joseph Cotten.

[velocity]

I watched both of these yesterday & have to say that Infamous was the more affecting of the two. Hoffman's performance is far more nuanced than Jones' but that's part of the problem for me...he played it much more subtly than any footage or coverage I've seen of the real Capote. I also imagine Infamous has more editorial embellishment, which resulted in a few lol moments.

[caley]

How 'bout I take you home and show you my man-sized manicotti?

Grumpier Old Men: Good, but not as good as the first. Too much time spent ogling Sofia Loren and trying to elicit sympathy from the audience (Matthau's loneliness,

Spoiler

the marriage breaking up, Pop dying, Matthau getting dumped

and not enough Burgess Meredith making dirty come-ons. Still worth a watch, though.


My five year old boy, when I got home, had a box of band-aids and he was trying to put his mama's mouth back on.

The Kingdom: Pretty fun and intense little action movie. If you get all into its politics, it might get a little nasty, what with ethnocentrism and all, but viewed as an action movie, like, say Rambo, it's quite good. The Americans and their Saudi counterpart are all quite likeable, especially Jason Bateman as the class clown, and I like the way, in certain situations, the camera pans around showing various unfriendly faces, hiding places, and possible hazards (oil tankers etc.), as if the camera is one of the characters ticking off the potential hot spots. The last twenty minutes or so is as intense as all get-out.

[mouthbreather]

Starting Out in the Evening
Well-acted and enjoyable. Not anything earth shattering, but Langella and Ambrose are fun to watch.

[feisty]

omg

[WesterMats]

Recent viewings:

Notes on a Scandal
Excellent, and the Judi Dench characterization is pretty spot on to one of my co-workers.

Chaos Theory
Blew Chunks. Negative two stars. Had virtually nothing to do with chaos theory.

Chaos
Good. Did follow chaos theory at least a little.

Infamous
Excellent! Even better than Capote.

[caley]

I liked you better then

In Good Company: Kind of diminishing returns on this one. I saw it in theaters and really enjoyed it, then have enjoyed it less and less with each subsequent viewing. Still, it's fairly cute and funny, and I love that there are like 5-6 Iron & Wine songs in it.

[velocity]

Infamous
Excellent! Even better than Capote.

That's what I'm talking about.

I liked you better then

In Good Company: Kind of diminishing returns on this one. I saw it in theaters and really enjoyed it, then have enjoyed it less and less with each subsequent viewing. Still, it's fairly cute and funny, and I love that there are like 5-6 Iron & Wine songs in it.

It seemed like the romance w/ SJ was thrown in just to sell tickets.