The old movie thread: ratings and discussion' or some shiz

I saw this a couple weeks ago also. Liked it a lot.

Very efficient. Probably because M. Night got somebody else to direct it for him.

If M. Night directed it, it would have been filled with 45 minutes of extra filler. The elevator would have opened on the 13th floor to a village filled with Amish people and the Devil would have been played by Cate Blanchett dressed like Mark Wahlberg, and only shown in distance shots from 40 feet away.

 

I guess I am in the minority as I usually really enjoy his movies. I don't think I have seen one yet that I didn't like, and that includes The Happening. In fact, one of his least popular, Lady In The Water, is probably one of my all-time favorite movies.

 

Well, I'm probably closer to your camp then most. Except that "The Happening" was more enjoyable as a comedy to me.

I liked "Lady In The Water" and "The Village" to.

My issue, is that outside of "Unbreakable", his movies are good for a first viewing and not much else. Rewatchability is pretty negligible.

He usually relies too much on the payoff near the end, and his Direction leading up to that is usually fairly flat.

His strength is as a writer IMO. I think there are plenty of other directors who could take his original material and do a much better job with it, then he is capable of himself.

 

Oh my god! You liked Lady in the Water? I was just about to reply to your post about how M. Night bashing is just a bunch of bias, but now it's obvious you're just biased about M. Night, only the other way. I'll admit The Happening wasn't nearly as bad as it gets bashed but Lady in the Water has to be one of the top 5 most dumbest movies ever. It's like he worked the story and script in a particular way just to have a twist. It was so painfully obvious that it totally ruined that movie for me. Not that it would have been good anyway.

 

watched black swan the other day. it was one of the most disturbing films i've ever seen. the plot itself is just whatever, but the way it was filmed aligned w/ its score/music was unbelievable.

 

It was a good movie with good acting from Portman but disturbing ?? Really ?????

 

yea it was an eerie movie. like that scene where she looks back in the mirror and she's scratching herself. aranofsky does a great job of making scenes disturbing than they really are.

 

Ya that was a little creepy okay as long as girls eating pussy didn't disturb you you're off the hook opcorn:

 

oh yea, there were some definite hot scenes throughout. portman could/should (now that she's apparently pregnant) add 10 or 15 pounds, but she's still very attractive.

her mom in the movie was also disturbing and had a scary looking face.

 

Black Swan was pretty damn twisted and disturbing.

They even manage to make the hot scenes all fucked up with its visuals.

:hump: Mila Kunis

 

The Last Airbender Watched this film with my daughter who used to watch the Nickelodeon cartoon series and knows the whole premise. She liked the film and found it to very close to the cartoon show. Regardless of all the criticism I had read about it, I found it to be very entertaining, but not an easy film to follow. I think its main problem was that its plot and themes were waaay too deep into oriental mysticism and not much mindless american summer popcorn fare audiences are acostumed to watch. Ying Yang, karma and spiritualism mixed with fantasy is a hard sell. The fact that a big chunk of its cast was composed of actors from India made many think that it was too Bollywood-like for their anglosaxon taste. Besides its cool now to bash M.Night Shyamalan's new films. I say all this because I found nothing wrong with the film itself except for its unconclusive ending/set-up for a sequel that now will never happen. Yup,I liked it. 8/10

 

Everybody's Fine Look at this film poster and you'll think that this is a feel good Christmas family comedy. Never has a poster been so deceiving! This is a drama. And not a cheerful one (why are all of them smiling here when this film has not a single scene that will make you smile?). In fact is the opposite: bring hankerchiefs and a box of Kleenex for a good cry. DeNiro plays a recently widowed senior citizen who in the face of all his children cancelling a family gathering at his house he decides to visit them by surprise. He finds out that he doesn't really know his own children as much as he thought. DeNiro gives a controlled moving performance that makes you forget that he is DeNiro the movie legend and instead a pitiful old man. Good drama, but nothing memorable about it. 7/10

 

Not a fucking chance!! At the very least The Happening had a bunch of people offing themselves, sometimes in pretty cool or disturbing fashions. The movie gets bashed way to much and I still don't know why. It was not THAT bad. Lady in the Water had such a stupid plot and to be honest I can't even remember what it was.

So I ask you, what makes The Happening so terrible and Lady in the Water bearable?

 

I enjoyed both quite a bit. I just love movies that tell an actual story rather than relying on CGI and special effects and M. Night is an incredible story teller.

How can you not enjoy the characters from Lady In The Water? The guy with the one muscular arm, the stuttering maintenance man who didn't stutter around the lady, the man with no secrets because his wife blabs on so much, the kid from Heroes and his crossword solving father. I think that the only one I didn't care for was the movie critic who was offed by the grass wolf thing and maybe the loud Asian girl, but she was kind of hot so she gets a pass.

As for The Happening, I found it to be pretty suspenseful the first time around. I enjoy John Leguizamo's character and I didn't think that Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel were all that terrible. I thought that the story was actually pretty good as well. How plants cannot just up and move when humans are overtaking their space and so they must communicate and work together in order to put up a defense to the human onslaught.

 

THE BRAVADOS (1958) I had not rewatched this film since I was a boy so watching it again as an adult gave me a better apreciation of this great western classic. Jim Douglas (Gregory Peck) is a rancher who has been tracking down four criminals (Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Lee Van Cleef and Henry Silva) who allegedly raped and brutally murdered his wife. These criminals were going to be hanged at a far away town, but they manage to escape. Douglas hunts them down and kills them one by one. A great revenge western with a shocking twist revelation at the end which was, storywise, ahead of its time for this kind of genre films in 1958. Joan Collins was a real beauty in this film as Peck's old flame. Great film. 9/10

 

sounds interesting panchy, i might check it out. i love a good western, especially darker ones.

 

Letters from Iwo Jima finally watched this film back to back with Flags of Our Fathers the two Clint Eastwood directed films that he shot simultaneously about the events before, during and after the battle of Iwo Jima. Both films makes you see the whole picture about that battle from the point of view of both armies. While "Flags" concentrates more on the american soldiers who were told to pass as the real heroes who raised the flag in the battleground, "Letters" is a more straightforward war film and IMO the better film. Filmed from the perspective of the japanese legion who were left behind to defend the sure to fall island of Iwo Jima, the film works as both a powerful drama and action packed war film. Ken Watanabe does a magnificent job as the commander who prefer to show compassion to his soldiers than the traditional rigid samurai-kamikaze officer. All the characters felt real. Not a single stereotypical japanese character here (I have seen more caricature portrayals in japanese productions). You root for these characters and wish they could have a happy ending, which you know they won't. This is a great war film. One of the best ever. I liked it better than Saving Private Ryan. This is Clint Eastwood's best film to date period. On the other hand, "Flags of Our Fathers" is closer in spirit to the Spielberg film. The war scenes are also top notch, but there are not many of them. The focus of the film is the three soldiers who against two of them own wishes were named the heroes of Iwo Jima when they knew very well they were not those guys in that photo. The third one loves the whole attention,publicity and fame and couldn't give a damn about the truth. Good drama, but Eastwood should had pick a better actor than Ryan Phillippe for its lead role...someone who can act. Letters 9/10 Flags 8/10

 

Great critique Panchy. I could never get the motivation to watch either of these films but I think your break down has peaked my interest so I'll give it a go. Which film should be seen first?

 

I never watched Iwo Jima but I found FoOF to be very plodding. It may lose something in translation as I'm not American.

 

Splice. A re-watching, as I saw it several months ago in the cinemas. Great film, but a little off-the-wall.

 

Nah, you didn't lose anything. "Flags" just wasn't very good for the genre.

Haven't seen "Letters To Iwo Jima" yet, but I've got it saved on my DVR. Everything I've read claims it's better then "Flags Of Our Father", so I hope it's worth the watch.

 

Tenderness - Sort of a surprising little movie for me. Never heard of it even though Russell Crowe was in it. However, this is not Russell Crowe's movie. He plays more of a supporting part to the two younger actors.

Probably a slow movie for some. The movie plays it as a constant slow boil under the surface. Not a lot happens, but this is a movie about noticing the smaller moments.

Reminded me of an Atom Egoyan film. Not his, but if you like that sort of film-making style, this one might be for you.

Basically, the movie opens with a juvenile serial killer just getting out of detention as he comes of age. At the same time, a teenage girl who's been abused for most of her life and follows his story wants to make a connection with him after he gets out.

Crowe is the retired cop who has taken interest in this kid, because, while he sympathizes with him, he's pretty sure he's going to kill again.

This is a straight up psychological movie. It's not a thriller, which it may be mistaken as. As I said, not a lot actually happens, but what does is fairly thought provoking and the two younger actors give very good performances.

8/10

 

Planet Terror and Death Proof



These were showing on TV a lot over the weekend. I think it was the Spike TV channel that was showing them. I thought Death Proof was the better of the two and the whole end scene where the three chicks are speeding down the road and the one is strapped to the hood was just nuts. Planet Terror wasn't really my kind of movie. Was just too gruesome. Loved the 70s B movie filming style of both movies. They even showed a preview for the Machete movie coming out on Blu-Ray in this same style.

Death Proof: 5/10
Planet Terror: 3/10

 

I personally loved both of these, cause opposite of you they are my type of movies

 

Thought it was funny seeing Sayid and Lapidus from Lost in Planet Terror. Lapidus is also in Machete.

 

yeah i guess they are going to keep making movies with the same grindhouse them with the same actors as long as they generate money

for me that works

 

princess bride