Films Recently Watched

[Guest No Pomo]

i loved Hard Eight, one of my favorite PTA films. The only thing i didn't like about it was the 'twist' about why the guy was mentoring him the whole time. I just really liked the atmosphere of the movie, more than the story itself.

 

Yeah I totally predicted the twist though, the acting was so good that the fact was present before being said which is amazing. It could of been left more vague and made more atmospheric though for sure.

 

Also there is a subtle theme of christmas music through out the film, which was pretty cool. I guess it is to highlight the idea of giving/loving/family, as well the general decor of a vegas-like light city? Very interesting and nicely tucked into the general narrative and not a over-done touch.

[TRiP]

 

 

 

I was a fan of Spirited Away as a kid and I decided to watch some of Miyazaki's other movies this weekend, like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, but I kept feeling grossly underwhelmed. Like Spirited Away, the plots feel... off. Someting about them isn't satisfying and some of the characters' behaviors confuse or annoy me. (Although I was totally enthralled by the atmosphere and the setting execution of Kiki's Delivery Service, whose plot also satisfied me much more than Spirited)

 

But then I watched Mononoke Hime, and WOW. What a fantastic movie. Definitely going in my top 10. The characters are extremely relatable for me and I really just identify with the movie all around. Great movie, would love to see more like this if anyone can recommend anything.

 

do yourself a favor and check out 'Pom Poko', (if you haven't already) it's not a Miyazaki, but it is Studio Ghibli

 

powerful powerful film, changed my life...or at least it had a vast impact on me

 

I just finished watching this, but I have to say, it was a bit disappointing. Sure it was funny, but I feel like the message was better told in Princess Mononoke, it wasn't so ham-fisted. Now watching Nausicaa.

 

to be honest, i had taken a small dose of the ole' LSD prior to its viewing...having said that, I feel the final moments of the film is powerful stuff, where (SPOLIER AHEAD) the Raccoon, who has lost his way and has taken on the human form, is on the train and is looking around and seeing human existence in all its depressive bleakness, when he suddenly spots a fellow raccoon and follows him - thus rediscovering what life truly is about, being happy and not being locked down to such a silly monotonous existence

 

...then again, that could of been the acid talking

Edited March 6, 2013 by TRiP

[awepittance]

Nixon - 9/10

haven't seen it in years but it still stands up as one of the best political and historical movies made. It's also fucking hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbq87ASrLMs

[awepittance]

one of the best scenes where Anthony Hopkins laughs while talking about how we should emulate the 'germans in world war 2' as they nervously pan over to Henry Kissinger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTePaF_WS8k

[Guest drukqs]

to be honest, i had taken a small dose of the ole' LSD prior to its viewing...having said that, I feel the final moments of the film is powerful stuff, where (SPOLIER AHEAD) the Raccoon, who has lost his way and has taken on the human form, is on the train and is looking around and seeing human existence in all its depressive bleakness, when he suddenly spots a fellow raccoon and follows him - thus rediscovering what life truly is about, being happy and not being locked down to such a silly monotonous existence

 

...then again, that could of been the acid talking

I think its that I already have the values that the film is preaching prominently in my own being already, prior to watching the film. So its really preaching to the choir.

[cruising for burgers]

metropolis

 

 

 

chungking express

 

 

 

small apartments

 

 

 

castaway on the moon

 

 

 

the keep - the ost is one of my recent favorite albums so i might be biased...

 

 

YES

• rise of the guardians - nothing much to say, i remember feeling that the characters didn't fit in the scenarios but that was a cool thing to see, gave it a videogame feeling...
• berberian sound studio - well, i still don't like this recent photography, i guess i don't like photography in general but instead i may have a fetish for a specific kind of photography... i wish the cinematography on this was more a la Dario Argento style...

 

 

OK

• life of pi - the cinematography on this is extremely cheesy, but damn, if you let go, there's some nice dynamics between the kid and the cgi animated tiger, i do believe it is one of the best achievements in mixing cgi with rl i've ever seen...
• the baytown outlaws - it's cool to turn of your brain...

 

 

NOK

• red dawn - needs more fun cowbells, it's taken way over too seriously ffs...
• take this waltz - this movie was definitely made by a feminist, and a frustrated one...
• the hobbit - yeah sure, 3 hours of Irish/Scottish lads rambling around... why not?

Edited March 7, 2013 by THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON

[RichieBees]

seven psychopaths was p good

[Guest Atom Dowry Firth]

Watched Innerspace for the first time since I was about 8 the other day. Seriously underrated film

 

[FLA FUR BIS FLE]

The Outsiders

 

Haven't seen this movie in ages, so I figured I'd give it another whirl. I have to say that this movie has some of the most oddball acting I've ever seen committed to film. Some of the emotional responses are just lol (such as Dallas/Matt Dillon's death scene). The zoom in on Ralph Macchio's face towards the end fucking killed me. Also, what is with the Stevie Wonder opening and closing music? I suppose it is just a case of the 80s. Slap on a super star musician to a film and you've got a hit. I don't know...the whole experience was just really strange. There is also a slight gay undertone to everything. Maybe I am just oversexualizing it, or reaching too far. Not sure.. but the "comradery" felt like it had gay undertones. I think I am probably reading in to it too much. It didn't really bother me, I was just confused why these rough and tumble greasers were constantly putting their heads in each others laps, long hugs (group hugs too) etc. I have a brother, we are pretty close..but can't remember a time when I was cold at night and he decided to warm me up by spooning me. I guess shit was just different in the 50's/80's

5 out of 10 Gay Greasers & Soc's.

Edited March 8, 2013 by thanks robert moses

[Guest Mirezzi]

Watched Innerspace for the first time since I was about 8 the other day. Seriously underrated film

 

YES! Joe Dante is just generally underrated IMO.

[cruising for burgers]

Watched Innerspace for the first time since I was about 8 the other day. Seriously underrated film

 

awwwww, one of my favorites when i was a kid, thanks for posting!

[TRiP]

The Toxic Avenger - good fun/10!

some nicely shocking scenes of ultra-violence and lovely bits of nudity - decent exploitation flick, albeit a parody of itself and sometimes makes this too obvious at times, there are some nice bits to it.

[awepittance]

Innerspace is fucking great. It's too bad Martin Short was never used in any movie as high quality as Innerspace because he's actually really good in this. It was made back when 'remakes' weren't just paint by numbers modernizations of old films, it's when they actually tried to make a good stand alone film on the back of an old classic ala The Thing.

I think Innerspace is probably one of Dante's most solid all around films, has a great semi electronic score by Jerry Goldsmith too. I dont think anyone these days knows how to make a dark comedy quite like Dante did.
this part used to scare the shit out of me as a kid

Edited March 9, 2013 by Awepittance

[Guest boo]

i had a real life conversation about innerspace recently. it was a conversation about films that are unwatchable as adults. surprised by the love it's getting here

[Guest Atom Dowry Firth]

i had a real life conversation about innerspace recently. it was a conversation about films that are unwatchable as adults. surprised by the love it's getting here

 

To be fair I don't think I ever actually grew up, so that would explain it! Out of curiosity which other films featured in the conversation? I have a sneaking suspicion they're probably also pretty high on my list of awesome, haha. You do need to suspend a large portion of rational thought to watch it as there are quite a few things that simply don't make sense if you think about them too much. But I have to say I haven't seen a film that's anywhere near as silly and entertaining as Innerspace for a long time. It gets a definite thumbs up from me, even as an 'adult'.

 

 

The Toxic Avenger - good fun/10!

 

Love this film

[awepittance]

Innerspace fucking rules

[cruising for burgers]

 

i had a real life conversation about innerspace recently. it was a conversation about films that are unwatchable as adults. surprised by the love it's getting here

 

You do need to suspend a large portion of rational thought to watch it as there are quite a few things that simply don't make sense if you think about them too much.

isn't that what campy stands for??

Edited March 9, 2013 by THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON

[Guest Atom Dowry Firth]

isn't that what campy stands for??

 

Yeah. Are you disappointed I didn't use that word?

[cruising for burgers]

no

 

i just used your quote as a tool to show tauboo that the camp factor is inherent in innerspace...

Edited March 9, 2013 by THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON

[YO303]

Zero Dark Thirty - I tried to ignore the politics of it but the film opens with about a minute of audio from voice messages from victims of 9/11 right before they died which i thought was a shitty and manipulative move from the filmmakers, i was already angry, then the opening scene is of a water boarding, i almost turned it off but i decided to keep going, it took me a while to forget i was watching a patriotic army ad propaganda but when i did forget i enjoyed it. As an action Homeland-copycat i thought it was allright but me being a liberal hippie pacifist opinionated asshole i cannot give the movie a rating because at the end of the day this movie is a piece of shit.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Deer

[YO303]

Zero Dark Thirty - I tried to ignore the politics of it but the film opens with about a minute of audio from voice messages from victims of 9/11 right before they died which i thought was a shitty and manipulative move from the filmmakers, i was already angry, then the opening scene is of a water boarding, i almost turned it off but i decided to keep going, it took me a while to forget i was watching a patriotic army ad propaganda but when i did forget i enjoyed it. As an action Homeland-copycat i thought it was allright but me being a liberal hippie pacifist opinionated asshole i cannot give the movie a rating because at the end of the day this movie is a piece of shit.

 

Zero Dark Thirty - 7/10

 

sorry about the grammar.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Deer

[Guest isaki]

osmosis jones - really only watched this for the memories of laughing with my brother and dad at the "10 second rule" thing (which turned into the biggest inside joke in my family)

it definitely wasn't as funny as I remember, though it was still pretty entertaining. if this movie didn't have Bill Murray in it, it'd be quite shit. still though, it does, so 7/10 -- watch it, laugh at bill murray, then never watch it again

Edited March 10, 2013 by isaki

[YO303]

This Must Be The Place - I saw the poster for this movie and i thought it was going to be another hollywood sponsored gay rights movie about sean penn being a transexual fighting aids, i was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't about that at all. This movie was funny,dark,depressing and lovely all at the same time, i enjoyed it very much and sean penn's character was funny in appearance and demeanor but complex and interesting. 8/10 this movie is worth your time despise having many faults.

[lumpenprol]

The Master: whoa, I consider myself a PTA fanboy but this was rather lame, no? I'll go out and say it - I think both PSH and Joaquin Phoenix were miscast. PSH plays a whiny, craven duplicitous pussy like a pro, but lacks the charisma and menace I'd associate with a cult leader. And Joaquin Phoenix is, seemingly, a real-life junkie, so I wouldn't exactly call this acting. He looks mummified and shriveled, occasionally gets in fights, and does a creepy laugh. In other words he plays himself.

 

I actually turned it off about 1/3 of the way through and had to force myself to continue it the following day. Not the sign of a gripping flick. Most of the scenes cut before they build up any tension. For what it was it was ok, but it felt like it could have been much more. Most of the "processing" scenes, which should have been somehow gripping or suspenseful or creepy, seemed to fall flat (I'm thinking particularly of the "window to wall" sequence). I guess PTA was going for something very subtle but it ended up being too flat for my tastes. I thought Amy Adam's performance was better than either lead, but she didn't get much screen time and her transformation wasn't handled as well as it could have been (I thought the masturbation scene was unintentionally bad).

 

Though it may end up growing on me in hindsight, for now I'm gonna say 6/10. I'd go lower but at least it was filmed pretty, and seemed ambitious.

[Nebraska]

 

my girlfriend has a habit of picking really bad films and this was no exception. a true stinker through and through.