8187 replies to this topic

[Magnus Malcolm]

Let the Right One In: This was fabulous. Late contender for my best of the year. Great cinematography, surprisingly great acting from the two kids, and it's just perfectly, disturbingly dark and cold.

Gran Torino: Eh, whatever.

Taken: This was pretty damn fun. Liam Neeson gets to be a badass again.

[caley]

Let the Right One In: This was fabulous. Late contender for my best of the year. Great cinematography, surprisingly great acting from the two kids, and it's just perfectly, disturbingly dark and cold.

Gran Torino: Eh, whatever.

Taken: This was pretty damn fun. Liam Neeson gets to be a badass again.

Magnus! We were discussing your whereabouts a page or two back. Hope you're going to be around for the Voting/Countdown.

[Mr.Nobody]

This was alot of fun and the cast all played their roles well here.Tim Curry was especially good as the butler.

[AFTERSHOCK]

Speed Racer

Well, for a movie that makes no pretense at being anything more than a vehicle (ouch) for visual effects, I really have to admit to enjoying the ride. Sure, it's all predictable. Sure, there are things I would have left on the cutting room floor. Sure, there are no surprises in the story, characters, etc.

Yet the film is a flat-out rollercoaster ride from the very first frame. George Lucas should've gone more with this approach for the Star Wars prequels - lose the overambitious plot/poor character development & just go balls-to-the-wall with cliche'd characters & full-tilt action sequences. I sat watching this on a 61" widescreen set & it totally did it for me. Nah, it ain't high art. But it IS a wild ride, and I'll probably watch it again. With friends. On E. Yeah, that sounds like fun.

And uh, Christina Ricci looks downright adorable in this one. Rawr.

[Magnus Malcolm]

Magnus! We were discussing your whereabouts a page or two back. Hope you're going to be around for the Voting/Countdown.

I hope so too. and I'll have to go back a page or two.

[Magnus Malcolm]

You're not supposed to bring up Tom Cruise in this thread, in case Magnus is around, and we'll kickstart the whole 'Is Tom Cruise worthless' argument again.

I'll never undestand the Cruise hate. He's a throwback to 1930s and '40s' matinee idols like Clark Gable.

Cruise is great.

Indeed. Glad I missed this bit.


By the by, I liked Appaloosa. I thought Renee Zellweger (and her character) worked simply because she was such a bitch. Kept me wondering, 'why is Ed staying for her?', etc. Not a great film, but alright.

Actually, might as well throw out a few thoughts on '08.

Slumddog Millionaire: Didn't hate it, but don't get the hype either.

The Wrestler: Blah. I don't think it had much of anything unique in it, and I went and got all interested following Cannes.

Synecdoche, New York: Liked this quite a bit.

Valkyrie: I'm sure this got savaged around here, but whatever, I liked it.

Redbelt: Finally caught it, and was surprised to like it.

Doubt: Great performances, o.k. film.

[Tongue-Tied]

Should I watch Snatch tonight?

or should I not waste my time?

[Campaigner]

Should I watch Snatch tonight?

or should I not waste my time?

Yes. Watch it.

Makes you think that perhaps, once upon a time, Guy Ritchie was good.

[AFTERSHOCK]

Should I watch Snatch tonight?

or should I not waste my time?

Yes. Watch it.

Makes you think that perhaps, once upon a time, Guy Ritchie was good.

Snatch and Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels are great fun.

[Slackmo]

I really, really enjoyed RocknRolla. More of the same, but arguably the best cast he's put together so far.

[Tongue-Tied]

well I decided to go against Snatch tonight and watch one of my netflix films...



That was a good watch. For some reason, it didn't seem like it was as long as it was...when in theory is should have felt that long since all the scenes were dialogue-based. However, I found myself immersed in the conversations, wondering about the relationship, and being in awe of the whole situation. The mystery elements worked well and I thought the performance by James Mason was incredibly strong. Kubrick's camerawork is great, but not as noticeable as in most of his other works. However, this puts most of the emphasis on the performances and the screenplay. I know this was adapted from a novel, and I find it very interesting that the same author wrote the screenplay, that normally does not occur. Anyways, the screenplay is the true strength of the film and the very unseen relationship in a film between "dad" and "daughter".

EDIT: Is the '97 version any good?

EDIT 2: "I saw James Harris at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1990 at a showing of "Lolita". He said that the Nabokov script was very long and couldn't possibly have been filmed as written. He was paid and given script credit although Kubrick wrote the shooting script when he deemed the original was unsalvageable."

just saw that on imdb. interesting.

[without_opinion]

why is the trailer for The Class so terrible? Makes the film look like a cross between every other awful film about real high school kids with problems and a pathetic tv drama

[Tracy Jacks]

why is the trailer for The Class so terrible? Makes the film look like a cross between every other awful film about real high school kids with problems and a pathetic tv drama

And it isn't?

[Agrimorfee]

EDIT: Is the '97 version any good?

Some find it appalling (I know Tony does). I find it OK, although the permissiveness of the modern cinematic world doesn't really excuse some of the more literal sexual scenes. Jeremy Irons is great (as he does in pretty much anything), Melanie Griffith was not really all that memorable. Maybe it's all a bit too pretty to look at, thanks to Adrian Lyne's style. Not to say Peter Sellers wasn't good in the original but I didn't really think his improvisations were necessary; the story here is more focused toward Lolita and Humbert. And when a novel goes on the screen, I want as much of the original intent as possible.

Really, they are both perfectly fine films, but SK's gets higher marks as classic cinema, really.
Give the novel a read someday...no movie could actually capture Nabokov's careful prose, or his underlying themes about America in the '50s.

[Tongue-Tied]

yeah, I'll have to check out the novel sometime. with "The Graduate" and "Lolita" being watched back-to-back nights for the first time, I'm going to give probably around a week off from movies to fully digest them. we'll see how that goes...

[Ogawa]

Watched Doubt, The Reader, Happy-Go-Lucky, and The Wackness.

Doubt was as lame and heavy-handed as the play, which pretends at complexity but is really quite simplistic and inane. Philip Seymour Hoffman retains his dignity with a good performance, Amy Adams continues to be type-cast as the cheerful moron, Meryl Streep gives a performance that any actress could give and gets nominated for it because she's Meryl Streep, and Viola Davis gives a decent performance of an utterly absurd character that makes even less sense on film than on the stage.

The Reader could've been really good if it had focused more on the sex and less on the Holocaust. I imagine this film as directed by Bertolucci, with lots more sex and a little more guilt. Kate Winslet is good, but her old-age make-up near the end of the film is pretty laughable. Probably should've hired a different actress to play the older character. Her performance in Revolutionary Road is vastly superior, so of course the Academy nominated her for this film instead. Probably cause it's Holocaust-related. Only explanation for the Best Picture nod as well.

I was thinking I might be annoyed by Happy-Go-Lucky, but it was actually incredibly funny. It's a joke that Sally Hawkins wasn't nominated for Best Actress. At least the screenplay was justly recognized. I haven't seen any other Mike Leigh, surprisingly. Any idea where I should start? I really loved this film.

The Wackness was OK. It doesn't do anything that other films haven't done before and much better. Ben Kingsley was amusing, though.

[Tony]

Even though Nabokov was credited with the screenplay the actual film of Lolita bears little relation to his script which was rewritten from scratch by Kubrick. Nabokov later published his screenplay which is a seperate work altogether.

[Agrimorfee]

Probably should've hired a different actress to play the older character.

Maybe they shoulda borrowed David Fincher's special effects team?

[Magnus Malcolm]

I really, really enjoyed RocknRolla. More of the same, but arguably the best cast he's put together so far.

It was a great cast, but I couldn't even get all the way through this one. Given, I was in a bad mood, but it seemed to have no coherent plot/didn't seem to moving in any real direction when I gave up. (I stopped around when Wilkinson was threatening Ludacris over the painting that his musician had stolen or whatever).

[Bob Loblaw]

I think I had my hopes set too high for The Wackness. It was pretty average in every aspect, although it was nice to listen to the golden era of hip hop for 90 minutes. The actor who plays the lead has about the same emotional range as Billy from Melrose Place.