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Nitin, my thoughts exactly.
loved how he seemed insane on the train the first few times... "you're the distraction right? every simulation has one!" I was thinking whether that was meant to be a character/circumstance trait or a subtle attempt at conveying PTS.
Saw 127 Hours and The Fighter this weekend. 127 Hours is about what I expected, Boyle made the best of what he had - basically a guy stuck in a hole for an entire movie. Quite exciting but it felt like the cutting off the arm cheapened it a little as a drama. Decent but I probably wouldn't watch it again.
The Fighter was good, great performances from Bale and Wahlberg. I'm glad Aronofsky pulled out of directing it though, the story wasn't really grand enough for his talent. It's not the kind of movie that'll be a classic in 30 years time. By the end I was on the verge of fast-forward just to get to the inevitable result of the fight. I did enjoy it more than 127 Hours, but there's been plenty of good boxing movies (sporting movies in fact) before it, and plenty more to come no doubt. 127 Hours was a much more emotional movie. Hmmm what else have I seen recently... Doomsday, which i've now lost all faith in Neil Marshall having any skill. And Soon The Darkness - average cliched horror. MicMacs - quite good but I was hoping for something awesome and it didn't really deliver. Oh and Lynch's The Straight Story (okay for 1 watch, but very slow), and Wild At Heart (rubbish). Certainly not Lynch's better movies. Watched The Lost Highway again, which is brilliant :D IMHO.
Wild at Heart I didnt like at all except for a few isolated scenes. As for The Fighter, I thought the best performance was Melissa Leo, simply because her character portrayal in the movie is not really how she normally is at all. re Source Code - my thoughts EXACTLY. Was pretty unimpressed, over all.
re Drive - Saw it last night, it was good! I'm not the biggest fan of Bronson because it seemed all atmosphere and artsy sheen, with little weight beneath the surface. Drive is much better, although some of that feeling remained for me. Some sections of the movie felt a bit forced - like routinized set up, or something. The violence is something that interests me in this movie. The director bides his time before a drop is spilled, and when it is you really feel it. However, the film goes too far in one or two scenes, and I felt it had the effect of undercutting other instances where the violence made more sense. It had the further effect of making me question the protagonist - making him go from a sort of classic Clint Eastwood, and into more of a Travis Bickle. Perhaps that was the point though... The issues above are definitely minor criticisms - It's a good movie IMO - one of the better ones I've seen in months, and it has re-motivated me to go and find Valhalla Rising. Shelter
Starts nicely, gets more and more chaotic/cheesy towards the end. Sound fucked up?! (very hard to understand because of the quality.) Annoying music, good acting, mixed directing. Bottom Line: interesting, but not necessarily good. 3/5 Thor Skip under all circumstances. Dumbed down hollywood action-drama-comedy-comic-romance-fantasy-historical movie. Do I need to say more? Okay directing, nice images, bad CG, underwhelming acting, badly cut action scenes (that probably suck to begin with, but you can't really tell), cheesy story, out-of-place humor... etc. 2/5 because it's not as bad as similar movies. Predators Really well made action movie that doesn't try to be anything more than exactly that. Reminds me of action classics. Rodriguez' influence is very noticeable, this is a good thing. End is a bit cheesy, but in style with Predator. 4/5 Attac the Block Nicely shot humorous action movie about alien invasion. Aliens look out of place, other than that its pleasant to watch. Story ok-ish, setting is nice, both could have been improved upon. 3/5 cool, will definitely see that once it finally hits cinemas in Aus. Wasnt a big fan of Bronson either but really liked Valhalla Rising.
saw Rabbit Hole last night. Very very goold film with top shelf acting and some nice dark humour to offset the otherwise bleak (but well handled) material. first anime film I've seen in years.
Very basic story and stock characters but the action scenes are worth it alone. Brilliantly drawn and choreographed and with a nice matching score. The Killing (1956)
Randomly picked this when deciding on a movie to watch so I had no idea what to expect. I found it quite bad. Acting was good from some, bad from others. The timeline is presented rather confusingly. The action scenes are awful. Sure, this was 50 years ago but even then they could have at least put some effort in masking the charade. For example when Nick(? the rifle guy) was shot... I don't get what is supposed to be so great about this movie. The overall idea of the story was great but presentation not so. Airplane! (1980) Super silly shallow dumb fun. Laughed a lot. Nice! Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Pretty good idea for a movie, which i've been looking forward to: "12-year old Ivan works as a spy at the eastern front. The small Ivan can cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information. Three Soviet officers try to take care of this boy-child." But instead of being a war masterpiece it was really just a bunch of talking in a bunker and sweet fuck all happening. Finally the movie goes somewhere 3/4 of the way through when Ivan goes back across the river, which is really atmospheric and the highlight of the movie (which isn't saying much tbh). [SPOILER] then we suddenly discover his fate and it's the end of the movie. Why was he even going across the river? WTF was he scouting? Great acting from the boy though. I would hope some of Andrey Tarkovskiys later movies are a bit more interesting. After.Life (2009) Christina Ricci completely nude with tits out numerous times throughout the movie means i'm going to watch it just for that, but actually the entire plot was very refreshing and different, especially the ending. It's got numerous plot holes and you've just got to assume the characters are mostly complete idiots, but the unique plot and unexpected ending make it a pretty damn good horror movie. The Short Films of David Lynch Wow, these are the biggest piece of shit short stories i've ever seen, and i've been to a few student short film showings. I'd be embarrassed to have released these to public. I love David Lynch's movies, but this just shows that not everything he touches is good. The Cowboy and the Frenchman actually for the first half was pretty good - It was making me wonder if Lynch could pull off a comedy like Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. But alas, it turned into a gay as fuck musical. The Grandma was terrible and I just wanted it to end. The Alphabet and 6 fuckwits getting sick repeated over and over again made me want to kill myself. I skipped over The Amputee after 5min as it was boring me silly. The commentary by David was far more interesting than his short films. I dont think you will like Tarkovsky's movies. Most of them do not have a traditional narrative and going by your reviews, I think thats one aspect you prefer to have present in a film.
As for Ivan's Childhood, I didnt think it was a masterpiece, but I did like it and it has one of my favorite moments of cinematography in any film (the forest sequence between Pasha and the officer with the camera following them around and ending with the camera pulling down into the ditch). Call of Cthulhu
Mandatory watch for deluded Quake people. A short movie from 2005 that closely follows Lovecraft's original story. All shot like an early-20th century silent movie, complete with cheaply-made contemporary effects and ear-cutting score. R'lyeh looks cool. I enjoyed it as a quick oldschool fix, especially since I listened to the audiobook not long ago. (Tip: Lovecraft audiobooks + mapping = win) The White Ribbon Somewhat odd and awkward movie set in pre-WW1 Germany. I constantly thought WTF is this and why is it so critically acclaimed, but it somehow unfolded on me afterwards. I wouldn't recommended it to anyone except nitin. MegaspiritwalkR: Any of you seen Hell yet? How is it? yeah but so is Solaris.
negka, haha, already seen it mate :) Loved it of course. drew, 27 October release date in Aus so not yet. Oh yes I totally forgot about Solaris! I have seen that and liked it. The original was the better version over the George Clooney remake, but both were good. The remake will be more suited to todays audiences though since it moves at a faster pace and has more of a focus (on the relationship/romance).
Barefoot Gen (1983)
Similar to Grave of the Fireflies in that it's an anime based in Japan near the end of WWII from a child's perspective. GOTF was very very sad, but Barefoot Gen feels slightly more realistic and shocking. Loosely based on real life events as well. The animation is a little older looking, and some of the characters and voice acting can be quite irritating, but it's an incredible anime, just like GOTF. Perfect Blue (1997) Another older anime - more of a psychological drama/thriller about a pop idol turned struggling actor. It's very Lynchesque and by the end of the film quite open to interpretation as to what happened. Darren Aronofsky owns the big screen rights, which says a lot. Another incredible film, I'd love to see a live action movie of this. It does take a while to get up to speed, but the last 1/3 is crazy. Check out Satoshi Kon's other movies, they are all good (some of them a bit more light-hearted but still nice).
His death was one of the biggest losses in jap animation in the last few years, I really hope they still finish the last movie he was working on. :(
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