Best movie seen in a looong time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Prophet
Thrilling, insightful and awesome actors! Watch it if possible.
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Best movie seen in a looong time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Prophet
Thrilling, insightful and awesome actors! Watch it if possible.
I second this, it's an incredible movie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Subedei
Triumph of the Spirit
Its a Holocaust film set in Auschwitz. Its made well, it was even shot on location of the death camp, so that was interesting to see. But I didnt really get a feel for the characters. The film is supposedly about a Greek boxer forced to box for the Nazi officers, but it didnt feel like that was the main plot of the movie, it felt like it was something on the side, nothing more. Willem Dafoe, to his credit, had a good performance in the movie. Edward James Olmos's performance was also great, but I might be slightly biased as I am a huge Admiral Adama fan so he cant really do any wrong in my eyes. I also loved him in American Me.
Lague of extraordinary gentlemen, great fun. A fine production by the numbers, it's nothing extraordinary but it's fun. It's a genre that you can't really can wrong with really. Good value for the euro I payed for it.
That's interesting you liked it Frag. Here in the US it is generally held as one of the worst movies to come out in a long time. 17% from critics and 44% from audience on rottentomatoes.com I watched it and thought it was merely average, but people also say that "Lady in the Water" is terrible but I rather liked it, so I guess to each his own.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragony
Watched Brasil for first time ever. Entertaining.
Also watched My Life As A Dog, freaking amazing film.
Ajami, very cool Israeli/Palestinian movie. Guess what it's not about? Exactly, there is no politics in this movie it's part crime-movie part family-drama. Gives nice insights in jewish and palestinian cultures. Recommended.
Captivity, sadistic crap, turned it off after 5 minutes. Saw was a great movie, this just tries to capitalise on that. But this isn't clever at all it's torture-porn. Avoid at all costs.
Saw Master and Commander again, it's awesome. I just wish they made a sea-warfare movie about battles of a large scale, like the English vs the Spanish armada or the Dutch fleet, these battles were enormous, and with modern technoligy it should be possible to not make it all too expensive.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - good story, well played, directed, etc...would give 3.5 of 5.
So with only a week left until I am officially on break, I have decided to make a list here of movies available on Netflix instant watch so that I can become a more cultured individual. There are 37 movies on here I want to watch, and I want to finish it off by early January when school starts up again.
The full list is here:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
First one on my list to cross off Ip Man 2
If you saw my review for the first one, you know that I enjoyed the first one for its ability to provide what you would expect from such a film, good fights and a good setting. I think the second one surprisingly improves on the first film in almost every way with the exception of the implementation of Act 3. Whether due to a bigger budget or more experience under the actors belt, the acting from all native Chinese actors were better than in the first film, although this is offset by the horrific performances by the white actors playing the British police and antagonists later in the film. No outrageous wire fu, but fast paced, exciting fights that do not get dull after the first 30 seconds of fighting. The biggest improvement going for it is the toned down themes of Chinese nationalism which makes sense when considering the differences in sentiment between Chinese-Japanese relations and Chinese-British relations. The plot is good as Ip Man is now in Hong Kong presumably fighting all the other Kung Fu masters in order to establish himself as the best master of them all, but then the film suddenly takes a turn near the end by turning the main Chinese antagonist into a martyr for the Chinese people by having him get killed in the ring against a brutish British boxer who Ip Man must now fight in order to show the true strength of the Chinese martial arts. The stakes are not exactly as high as the first movie when the Japanese are occupying the entire country, attempting to demoralize the Chinese with one sided tournaments. So the hype isn't there in the end as you would expect from a sequel, but none of that matters any way because as I said, it gives you what you want, some good kung fu. Watch it if you liked the first.
Nah. Ip Man 2 kind of sucked pretty hard.
Van God Los, great Dutch crime movie based on true events. There is a subitled version but it's probably hard to find, well worth the trouble looking though. Very violent, great acting.
Interesting list, ACIN. The ones I ain't seen:
3. End of Watch
10. Jet Li's Fearless
11. Batman: Under the Red Hood
12. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
14. Safe
15. Downfall
18. Charade
19. The Man from Nowhere
22. The Way
23. Batman: Year One
26. Fresh
27. Witness for the Prosecution
28. Memorial Day
29. Imitation of Life
On my current to-watch list, for no particular reasons:
Sonatine
Tiny Furniture
Best Worst Movie
Bernie
In the Loop
John Dies at the End
Melancholia
If any Orgahs have an opinion on any of these flicks, feel free to share. Especially if you've seen it and it isn't worth the time.
Both excellent movies, especially Downfall.Quote:
3. End of Watch
15. Downfall
I've seen some of these; I definitely recommend End of Watch, and The Man from Nowhere. I enjoyed Under the Red Hood more than Batman: Year One (which was more like Gordon: Year One).Quote:
Interesting list, ACIN. The ones I ain't seen:
3. End of Watch
10. Jet Li's Fearless
11. Batman: Under the Red Hood
12. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
14. Safe
15. Downfall
18. Charade
19. The Man from Nowhere
22. The Way
23. Batman: Year One
26. Fresh
27. Witness for the Prosecution
28. Memorial Day
29. Imitation of Life
CR
These were not on the list, but a friend invited me to watch The Hobbit at his place and then we immediately saw Desolation of Smaug in theaters, essentially amounting to 6 hours of Hobbitness today.
For part one, I was really happy with how well they kept to the story line, and I felt like the actors were good choices for their chosen roles. The problem I had was the one I was most afraid of which was that they were either not going to spend enough time on the ancillary dwarves to make certain portions of the book impactful or they were going to cut good portions of the book out. As it turns out over the course of part 2, they began to cut out big portions of the book which were some of my favorite scenes. The scene with the eagles is included in part 1 and (avoiding spoilers) it did match up with what I imagined when I read the book myself about 2 months ago.
The real problem I had was the rapid deviation from the book in part 2, the one which just came out. I do not have a problem with cutting corners and leaving only the essentials, but much of what they changed was simply unnecessary and detracted from the characters of the book and even worse, ruined the atmosphere of the biggest points of the book. Being a children's book, there is no love interest angle in The Hobbit, but because this is a big budget Hollywood film, they just had to shove one in there, where it did not belong, as well as bringing back characters from LOTR who were not present at all in The Hobbit.
The pacing due to the many alterations is now very off in my opinion, the fight I expected to see at the end of part 2 was now put off until the beginning of part 3 because they added a 20 minute fight scene which never occurred in the book. Now granted, they way it plays out in the book, would be very boring if it was portrayed on film (hint, there is lots of hiding and talking and waiting and talking), but I do think the route taken set the movie back in other ways simply to fulfill a big ending fight featuring the main characters.
I don;t want to make it seem like either of these movies are bad, if you have not read the book, you will not know what was added unless you remember what I have been saying while you watch it haha. I was just disappointed because I felt that The Hobbit could have been done more faithfully than the LOTR trilogy because it is not as long as the trilogy and instead found Hollywood shoving its tropes very hard into an otherwise perfect story. Desolation of Smaug still deserves your money however, and I encourage everyone to watch it, if only for the songs and soundtrack that accompanies every Hobbit/LOTR movie.
Gangster Squad
Besides having a pretty dumb name, it was a pretty dull movie. Almost no character development at all, dumb plotlines, and even somehow made the action boring. Cant recommend.
Though Emma Stone in that red dress... :flowers:
Another movie struck from the list:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior was decent. The story was pretty barebones and there was a real lack of any real fighting until about half way through the movie when suddenly it became fight after fight after fight. The fights themselves were satisfying enough for me, they were neither over the top nor quick, but the movie seemed to have a genuine realness to it such that Tony Jaa was really doing all these stunts, which if you think about it, are impressive to perform without wires. Each punch felt heavy and there was a fun 'Taken" element to it when a man get knocked out cold from one good blow among a series of 5 minute fights. I was going to watch jet Li, but I am getting sick of kung fu. Tomorrow I think I will watch Platoon.
Two more movies taken off the list:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I am thinking that I wont be able to keep this pace for my whole break, so I have picked nine movies that I will put off the until the end as "extras" that I will get to if I have time. If I get through the core 27 movies I want to watch, I will consider this a success.
For today:
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Not much to say, it's an hour long DC WB animated movie featuring Bruce Timm as the producer, so I was somewhat confident that the quality would not be terrible, and to my enjoyment it was pretty good. It operates essentially as a 3 episode arch of Batman: The Animated Series, except with different voice actors notably for both Batman and the Joker (no Mark Hamill :( ). It's hard to talk about it without spoilers but if you are familiar with the recent "Red Hood" story arch from the DC comics, you pretty much know what to expect here. If you liked the Timmverse DC Animated cartoons (Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Static Shock, JL: Unlimited etc...) you will get enjoyment out of this as well.
Platoon
Very good movie, I almost felt guilty not having seen this movie until now. Featuring a diverse cast that would become some of hollywoods biggest stars or already were at that point. I feel dumb writing about this to be honest, because it is a classic and has been for over 30 years, im the one late to the party. I will just say, I am glad that the characters I liked survived (mostly) and the characters that I didnt, did not (mostly). If you for some reason were in the same boat as me, just know that it is one of the best movies about the Vietnam War ever made (up there with Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket) and you should see it.
How did you make it work to not have seen Platoon. Yeah, great movie. Berenger and Dafoe are great as total opposites. Berenger plays a terrifying character. I wouldn't survive there I am not made for that.
The Hobbit 2 and many other words. Cheezus, Hollywood, chill out with the epic naming attempts, k? Good movie, not really necessary to bother with the 3D gimmick. The wizard additions were welcome and interesting, the Legolas additions not so much. *Elf.
*Be sure to read the word Elf here with a little reek to it.
Two more movies last night, on the 20th I am going to decide whether or not to just scrap the extra movies because I still have over 20 movies and only 17(ish) days left in my break.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Batman: Year One is best described how Crazed Rabbit called it, "Gordon: Year One". Not that I minded, because you have Bryan Cranston as the voice of Commissioner Gordon. The movie is a lot darker and includes multiple with PG-13 sexual scenes and swearing, which may seem off putting for someone expecting an animated Batman movie, but the story line is inspired from the Frank Miller comic book story arc, so there is really no getting around his type of writing. It's a very interesting story though that does a good job of tempting you to watch a sequel which never comes by introducing the origin of a few villains and ally's we all know and love. Out of the two Batman animated films I have watched, I would actually say that Year One is my favorite of the two, if only because of the more adult tones which I thought were pulled off well without giving me that excessive Frank Miller feel.
Dr. Seuss's The Lorax is essentially a kids movie, but it is a fun kids movie. Famous people come in to lend their voices such as Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Danny de Vito, Rob Riggle and Betty White. Unfortunately, the rhyming is minimal which is somewhat understandable since a 45 page book can't support a 90 minute movie. Instead there are musical numbers interspersed throughout the movie which hold up very well thanks to the talent of Taylor Swift and Zac Efron. The message of the book is still there and not overdone and if I had to take young kids to see this movie, I at least would not be bored out of my mind watching it with them (I shudder at how my poor mom had to watch Pokemon: The First Movie with my brother and I at the theater.)
Another movie down, I am getting worn down at this point. I know I won't be able to watch the extras, but I dont care, I wasn't really that interested in them anyway. One more movie on wednesday and then I think I will take a two day break and come back on saturday. No point in watching movies if I am too tired to appreciate them.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The Hunt for Red October was a pretty good thriller movie. Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery was a good duo to cast although it is a bit unbelievable to take Sean Connery's character seriously with his Scottish accent. The plot had a good twist, had me on edge on who the saboteur was on the sub. Some of the matters at the end seemed a bit silly or waved off leading me to believe that either the screenwriter or Tom Clancy had a hard time preventing WW3 while trying to ride the line throughout the whole movie. Also although I am not familiar with naval rules of engagement, I am pretty sure that the movie depicted captains as having a shit ton of discretion on whether or not to follow orders, and I had a hard time believing the American captain going "Oh you have a hunch, lets go with that then." about 3 times I counted throughout the film. Nevertheless though, I had a fun time watching it. I feel like it still holds up as a good movie some 20 years later.
Love the music.
Anchorman 2
I really liked this movie, I laughed a ton and that to me makes for a winning comedy movie. There were a couple of parts that were more eye-rolling than funny, but the last 30 minutes might be one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in a movie.
The movie also sent a great message about the role of media in society.
9/10
Battle Royale
A beautiful combination of violence, gore, youthful alienation and love. As deeply affecting as it was satisfying. Would recommend.
Seconded, it's awesome. That girl who starts liking killing is SCARY
So for the holidays I decided to spend some family time watching some Disney movies, notably Tangled and Frozen.
Both were fantastic movies, I really enjoyed it. Before I didnt really care for the new Disney animation but now I really like it. I thought it would just be sappy kids movies but nope I enjoyed it. Laugh all you want, they were awesome. Highly recommend!
All Disney movies are awesome nowadays. They absolutily perfected the formula. Fun movies with a heart.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
Both are great movies. After watching Tangled I wondered how good a frying pan unit would be in a TW game. ~DQuote:
Originally Posted by Hooahguy
Frying pans, who knew? :beam:Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregoshi
lol, have not updated my list in a while. Basically I gave up watching all of them. I decided I didn't really want to watch most of them. But there are a few that I will watch later on. The last ones I did on the list were End of Watch and I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
For End of Watch I honestly thought it was one of the best cop movies I ever saw. So intense and the acting was great. The camera style for some reason switches oddly from "handheld" to a more professional thing but I didnt mind. I just enjoyed the dialogue because it seemed so real.
Butch Cassidy was an interesting movie, kind of. It sort of rambled on and the plot changed randomly half way through which left no real satisfying conclusion for either story arch, because none of them felt fulfilled. The dialogue kind of got cheesier as it went along as well, because I really enjoyed the banter for the first hour and a half. Some of the older members in here are going to have to tell me how this movie became as popular as it did. The scene with the "Raindrops" song was so oddly out of place, but I heard that the movie made that song really popular. Just dont really get it.
Tonight I am watching Oceans Eleven again, for the third time. Because damn it I love a good heist movie.
Simon, a really good Dutch movie, that will make some sense out of what you probably percieve as lunacy. Half of the dialogue can't really be translated but it it's still a really good movie if you miss most of it.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gNnEWwXGE_s
Saw it yesterday. I agree with your assessment. The movie really veered away from the book in this second installment and the action sequences were absurdly unrealistic. On a positive note, Smaug was magnificent. It is a shame they mishandled his encounter with Bilbo. On the whole, I am so disappointedQuote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
Penoza, has to be the best Dutch series ever. A normal mom gets slowly sucked in into the drugs-trade just to survive, which is obviously a pretty damn brutal line of work. I don't know if there is an english version. Watch it if you can find it.
Watching The Bridge, awesome Danish/Swedish crime-series. Vikings certainly are good at making these, a LOT of good movies and series are made in scandinavia for sure.
Hobbit - Smaug goes for a Picnic. Excellent. If you like Peter Jackson's version of JRR Tolkien, then this is it at its best. Keep an eye out for Colbert too!
(I do agree with ACIN's and the Lurker Below's assessment, additions like Legolas were completely unnecessary, and quite simply and obviously a "bums on seats" star attraction move).
I have been watching so many films from France and Mexico and Sweden and it is just shocking at how horrible American cinema has become
Has anyone else seen Her? It just came out here and I went to see it yesterday. It was one of the more interesting films I've seen in some time. A man comes out of a long term relationship and then starts to fall in love with a new AI operating system. The movie follows their relationship and raises a lot of thought provoking questions. The writing is fantastic and Joaquim Phoenix shows off all his skills.
Sleepy Hollow is a TV series - bear with this intrusion.
Highly derivative, but it's fun and simple popcorn-entertainment nonetheless.
Watched it 2 days ago. It had it's moments, and in parts very touching. Thoroughly well acted. I particularly liked the set design, the world felt futuristic, but familiarly so, perhaps sleek-retro-hipster? I don't really know how I felt about it's almost Arthur C. Clarke Childhood's End ending though... The parts preceding it raised interesting questions, but it itself felt out of place, or at minimum an odd development.Quote:
Originally Posted by CountArach
And the Alan Watts bit was a complete misunderstanding of everything that Watts was and meant.
These vikings know their trade, there is an absolute wealth of awesome viking crime-series. Tip: Adam's Apples. Hilarious Danish black comedy. It's about a neo-nazi making an apple-pie. Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump
The Bridge Season 2 here I come. Very cool series. Main character is awesome, a female Swedish Sherlock Holmes, incredibly smart and a total sociopath.
More Penoza, awesome series. I can't believe this hasn't been sold internationally, it's pretty brilliant. TENSE. Right up there with the scandinavian offerings.
So Ive seen Frozen multiple times now, I think Im up to 4, maybe 5? Ive lost track. Its still phenomenal. No regrets, just go see it.
I really like Frozen too. The songs are great. Thinking of watching it again when it's out on DVD.
Done with season two of Penoza, best series ever. Incredibly tense. Should it go outside Dutchland, get it. You won't regret it.
I saw Moonrise Kingdom the latest Wes Anderson movie. I actually didn't really "get" the big deal about his earlier movies, but starting with The Life Aquatic, I have been really enjoying them. This one was probably my favorite actually. I would recommend it even if you are not a particularly big Wes Anderson fan.
That movie was too much of a muddle, IMO. The female lead was good-looking, though. :eyebrows:
Lone Survivor
I liked it. Stayed mostly true to what actually happened, save for a few things like a battle at the end, probably to get more action shots in.
8.5/10
Mrs. Lemur and I watched How I Live Now, a sort of coming-of-age things-fall-apart post-nuclear road trip. Odd film. If you dig weird indie flicks with apocalyptic settings, you might enjoy.
http://youtu.be/RSaxm68PPT4
Analysing forgotwho (that is not the actual title, I got analysing right, forgot the name). Great Woody Allen movie. Love this kind of total absurdity.
Edit; deconstructing Harry, that was the name.
Great.
Post apocalyptic is good. Even watching post apocalyptic grass grow is more interesting than seeing grass growing right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
Australia Day weekend, so much time for activities!
American Hustle, rubbish, meandering hogwash. Avoid. There are much, much better con-men flicks out there. JLaw and Cooper, instantly forgettable. Amy Adams the only redeeming factor of whatever this was meant to be.
Spectacular Now. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I just graduated and am in a similar stage of life to the characters. But, I thought it was a great flick that was honestly affecting and a little heart-warming too. Recommended for sure.
Forgettable is probably the last word I'd use for Jennifer Lawrence.:on_love:
Also people don't use these onion heads enough.
Filth
I hadn't read the book but ordered it right after I finished the movie.
Dark, very tragic and at times disgusting. It has some dark humour, but don't expect any laugh.
Reminded me of Fight Club, the way things were getting mixed up, but Fight Club ended on a relatively positive note.
You mean destroying everything?
I'm not quite certain what you are referring to....Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragony
That is what he does. He destroys society, he bombs it in the ending. The Fight-club is a metaphore for anarchy. The main character and Tylor Durden are the same person.Quote:
Originally Posted by rajpoot
Well Filth can be considered the polar opposite. Tylor Durden destroys society and finds himself and gets a second chance at life.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragony
Bruce Robertson on the other hand ends up destroying himself.
Ending spoilers. Don't read if you want to enjoy the movie.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Dredd, awesome. Big, loud, violent. I am one of the few people who liked the old one, but this one is much better
I saw Dredd over the holidays. It was a descent movie (never saw the Stallone version) but I'm not fan of excessive blood and gore. The worst part of the movie though was watching Karl Urban's extreme frown for 90 minutes. My face muscles started having sympathy pains.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragony
The violence doesn't bother me that much as it all can't be taken seriously. The violence in Munich or Zodiac is really hard to watch for me, but this is HEADSHOT LOL territory.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fragony
I enjoyed it, but it seemed to be awfully close to The Raid: Redemption, without being as fresh and inventive. But still, nice to see a Dredd film that wasn't a complete waste.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregoshi
http://youtu.be/PkULMOFpuCo
Dredd was a good movie. I remember watching Stallone's original one as a kid and of course back then I thought it was the best movie ever, but this one managed to capture post nuclear war Megacity One a lot better than the original. Dredd is also more true to its comic version.
Boy in the Striped Pyjama's. Hammer -> Face. It keeps puzzling me that a civilised people like the Germans did such horrible things. Such a contrast between courtiousness and cruelness.
Street Kings 2, not a good movie. I don't even understand why it's called Street Kings 2, it has nothing to do with first movie. It's set in Detroit, my brother lived there for a while and said it's an ugly city. For an ugly city it has some gorgeous architecture imho. Never been there, but it doesn't look all that ugly to me.
Prisoners - 3.1/10 (IMDB 8.1/10)
For a movie which some how rated 8.1/10 on IMDB, you would think it would at least be decent. It also stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, it is bound to be good, right?
Wrong.
It was the longest winded snoozefest imaginable, this is me continuing to watch it with "It is bound to pick up a little now.. surely". No, it was a complete whitenoise moment, which left me and the two others I were with sorely disappointed.
The only half-decent scene is when Hugh Jackman kidnaps some autistic paedophile then proceeds to hit him a couple of times. It had that moment where "This is what it means by 'breaking the rules in the film description'" ... then it completely disappears. The moment from where "You think something will spring up from this" to the realisation they just throw him into a box and torture him for kicks because there is no way he can or will give an answer.
There is also the annoying moment which is sort of a game where we make these inane comments near the start of the movie/program which turns out to be the mainplot/twist. We said "It is going to be X" and low-and-behold it was X.
Then there are moments where disbelief just kicks in. That ending was very painful too in this department...
If you want a complete snoozefest with no suspense (other than the suspend of hoping it will pickup, but doesn't) with no intelligence or drama or even 'thriller' involved in its creation, then this is the movie for you.
The acting in it was shabby and lacklustre too.
Jagten, awesome movie from the always awesome vikings. Scandinavian movies/series, always exceptional. It's about a teacher who is wrongfully accused of child abuse. It's scarier than the scariest horror movie.
Domino!awesome movie with quite a cast. Biggest surpris: Keira Knightly. She plays an absolute badass bounty-hunter. Great action movie.
I agree that Dredd was awesome. I will say though Tiaexz, that I disagree on Prisoners. I thought it was a pretty decent, if flawed movie.
Thor the Dark World
I didnt really enjoy it, muddled plot, though watching Thor smash things is always fun.
Star Trek: into the Dark. Highly entertaining. Great actors, great acton, great writing.
Nomad, no brainer recommendation for orgahs. Clans, light cavalry, open vistas, battles, mongols. Any questions?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqfmmkx0Pqs
The Women in Black, cool ghost story. Harry Potter does a good job at not being Harry Potter. Not really good, not really bad. Worth your time.
Taken, it's ok I guess. I heard it was good, it isn't all that good, just ok. Not a waste of time, nothing more.
Monuments Men - Was pleasantly surprised at the mix of good entertainment and educational story. Had read a book on the topic called The Rape of Europa about 15 years ago. Same subject matter. Clooney did not go outrageous Hollywood with the topic. Just told the story in an enjoyable format.
Lone Survivor. Good, although I disliked the ending narration.
Gravity: Mediocre