Films Recently Watched

[Nebraska]

 

this film is based on a true story about how new york shitty became the hell hole it is today- run by a marauding band of good for nothings known as riders prospecting the land in search of victims. crazy good and a remarkably accurate account of the future

[Guest yikes]

8/10

 

10/10 just for the cinematography -forget the propaganda angle-note the pool/hotel shot

watch the whole thing

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2A2NSUOEw

 

 

10/10

 

8/10

 

9/10

Edited April 27, 2013 by yikes

[Schlitze]

Upon further examination it has come to my attention that Killing Them Softly is 1/3rd Crime Caper and 2/3rds political allegory. How might this sway my original 8/10 rating you may ask? Well, while I believe the politics were screamed and shouted out of the tv's, i find this as unsubtle as the fact we are never shown Richard Jenkins character standing up. As a consequence my rating has dropped to 7/10.

[Guest yikes]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

i found it boring and wanted a lot more from it

[Guest zaphod]

oblivion - i guess this was a challenge issued at some kind of writer's retreat to see how many science fiction cliches you can cram into a story. i was expecting glados from portal to show up at the end. at one point my buddy actually said "of course there's fucking clones" at a volume audible to the theater. if you consider that a spoiler, by the way, you're probably the film's target audience. i had the entire plot worked out three minutes into it. let's say 3/10, mainly for the scene when tom cruise and his lady friend are by the pool and she goes "i'll show you something" and a wave of overblown synth cheese washes over everything. it was like something a horny concept artist would dream up while on ketamine.

 

on the plus side i got to see some wonderful trailers:

 

[youtubehd]X07xNrVd7DU[/youtubehd]

 

[youtubehd]c-KKx0lcn2A[/youtubehd]

 

[Guest bitroast]

oblivion - i guess this was a challenge issued at some kind of writer's retreat to see how many science fiction cliches you can cram into a story. i was expecting glados from portal to show up at the end. at one point my buddy actually said "of course there's fucking clones" at a volume audible to the theater. if you consider that a spoiler, by the way, you're probably the film's target audience. i had the entire plot worked out three minutes into it. let's say 3/10, mainly for the scene when tom cruise and his lady friend are by the pool and she goes "i'll show you something" and a wave of overblown synth cheese washes over everything. it was like something a horny concept artist would dream up while on ketamine.

 

 

lol.

 

btw. due to no spoiler now i'll definitely never download and watch this movie. thanks a lot... : |

[Alcofribas]

my buddy

lol

[Guest RadarJammer]

Oblivion I avoided spoilers beforehand but I knew I was walking into a Tom Cruise movie so I had a good idea of the quality of story telling I was gonna get so I didn't feel let down for any reason. The only criticism I had while watching it was that lots of the CGI, while beautiful, didn't look as real or convincing as I thought it could have. I'm definitely starved for big budget scifi so I'll take what I can get without judging too much. 9 freedom medal of valor's out of 10

[Guest zaphod]

 

my buddy

lol

 

 

lol

 

upstream color

went sans buddy to this one. found it weirdly affecting. i actually think wisp is completely right in all of his criticisms and the acting was definitely stilted and awkward, but whatever, the movie worked for me. i guess it works on the same level that some drone music works, cumulatively building up emotional associations through repetition. i'm not sure carruth is a good director and his editing kind of annoyed the shit out of me. maybe i just liked the soundtrack? maybe it's like a lynch movie where you can't figure out if it's good or bad? fuck knows, i'm gonna watch it again though. uh, 7.5/10

Edited April 28, 2013 by zaphod

[awepittance]

glad to hear you dug it at least. ;When the opening scene of those two kids doing psychic tai-chi started I almost lost my shit and thought 'oh no this seems like straight out of an m night movie' but then i was pleasantly surprised by the rest. I just re-watched it and felt it was stronger the 2nd time around, things were less jarring and felt more natural.Unfortunately about 5 people laughed during several scenes that weren't meant to be funny when i saw it in the theatre, and I get a little bit Compson when this happens, overly sensitive and it takes away from my enjoyment of the film

Edited April 28, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

[Guest zaphod]

yeah i kind of recoiled in horror at the very opening scenes because of how pretentious and "indie" it seemed but once the invasion of the body snatchers/sampler stuff started i was all in. some of that was very well done. i think carruth needs to reign himself in and maybe let someone else edit and write his films, or at least get a co writer. he's an ok director and i actually liked the music in this a lot. as an actor i see no reason for him to be in his own films. he really thinks he's an auteur, but i don't think he needs to be. he kind of reminds me of george lucas in that way, actually.

 

oh and i saw it in a nearly empty theater but for some reason a couple came in and sat a row down from me and brought fucking nachos and cans of soda to see upstream color. and some people laughed at various scenes which, like you, immediately puts me in a sensitive and defensive mood.

[Nebraska]

 

the earth is being invaded by martians (and their hot dames) but they make one terrible mistake: they decide to start with mexico. bad idea guys, coz that's ground zero for santo (slaughterer of martians, monsters, vampire women etc.) a royal ass-whopping (the likes you've likely never seen) is swiftly delivered against these moronic aliens. their women are spared the violence though.

[awepittance]

 

 

yeah i kind of recoiled in horror at the very opening scenes because of how pretentious and "indie" it seemed but once the invasion of the body snatchers/sampler stuff started i was all in. some of that was very well done. i think carruth needs to reign himself in and maybe let someone else edit and write his films, or at least get a co writer. he's an ok director and i actually liked the music in this a lot. as an actor i see no reason for him to be in his own films. he really thinks he's an auteur, but i don't think he needs to be. he kind of reminds me of george lucas in that way, actually.

oh and i saw it in a nearly empty theater but for some reason a couple came in and sat a row down from me and brought fucking nachos and cans of soda to see upstream color. and some people laughed at various scenes which, like you, immediately puts me in a sensitive and defensive mood.

this is my new interpretation after seeing it for the 3rd time

the 'sampler' character is essentially the one causing or influencing the shape of possibly hundreds of different real peoples lives. He is basically a sociopathic new age musician who has exploited this symbiotic creature by putting parts of them into pigs from people so that he can get inspired for his probably boring music through drama happening vicariously through others. After watching it again I don't even think he was aware that him throwing piglets into the river caused the parasite to spread through flowers. By basically raising these pigs in an enclosed environment through this mental connection the actual humans also act out repetitive and ocd like behaviors like an animal walking the boundary of it's cage over and over again.
It's not clear exactly how much control he's exerting over their experiences or if he's merely an observer, but my guess is he knew that killing the piglets might create the drama or in this case psychotic break he needed for proper inspiration. I think the scene in the pool where she grabs the flower was the main character first discovering same power in the symbiotic creature that the Sampler had been using the whole time, that combined with the Walden book jarring her memory she used it to find where he lived. The ending is not clear but it seems as though listening to the Sampler's music on CD allowed her to learn his power better and surprise attack him. Probably my favorite part of the movie was that scene where they cut to him buying the stack of CDs at the store, which look very similar to many cheesy synth new age cds I've bought before. Then him sitting at the table, with the Sampler deciding to check in on him and that uncomfortable glance where he looks away from her in fear when he realizes she sees him. Whatever confusion/problems i had with the movie was worth it for how nicely I thought that scene delivered. Great score during that part, reminded me of a sort of dark new age track in the style of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfeld

Edited April 28, 2013 by John Ehrlichman

[awepittance]

 

what's funny is that even the reviews I've read that rip it apart saying it 'doesn't make any sense' actually lay out with accuracy every discernable element of the plot and appear to understand it perfectly, they just well didn't like the movie for other reasons. The plot in this one is a lot easier to follow than Primer i think. I don't think the acting was so much the problem as Reid described above, but the script.

 

I too initially felt that maybe it was (and probably is) the script, but I also couldn't help but remember the little things that I didn't like about Primer...one of which is the delivery of a lot of the lines. As with Primer, I never felt that the supporting cast were all that horrible, and that it was primarily Shane Carruth.

 

I still can't get the extremely juvenile feeling that this film left me with out of my brain. Again, not so much in the story it self but the way everything was conveyed. Maybe I am just too much of an asshole now to appreciate it.

 

I didn't think his acting was bad, but he's not great either. The characters are supposed to be sort of depressed with muted emotions, and i think it takes pretty strong actors to pull that off. At times it didn't work. From the interviews I've read of his he doesn't come off as narcissistic but he's a little pretentious He has interesting opinions on movies that I've enjoyed reading about. I can't help but think that him casting himself is a narcissistic move. I thought he was perfectly cast in Primer, I thought the casting for all of Upstream Color besides his character was perfect. At least he didn't also write his character making a book that would change the world ala Lady in the Water.

[Guest zaphod]

most of the acting was fine. i think my problems with the film were more about the constant smugness, people looking up and slightly to the left realizing something. felt like half the movie consisted of shots like that to the point that it started to resemble a music video for a stars of the lid album. but i really, really liked the first twenty minutes and the sampler character. i'm going to wait and download it on demand in may and maybe i can make more sense of it, although i will say, this one is much easier to follow than primer. i'm not sure why people seem to be struggling to say what happens in it. seems very clear to me. almost to the point that i wish there was more to it. maybe there is.

 

 

i think you're right about the sampler, awepittance. you've summed up the plot pretty accurately there. i think carruth is trying to say something about the almost psychotic nature of co dependent relationships, i just wish it was told a bit more concisely and moreover, in a more exciting way,

 

Edited April 28, 2013 by zaphod

[beerwolf]

just watched The Hobbit, mmmm..

 

let me say I read the hobbit and lotr many times each years ago, way before the films, but i'm not a geek.

 

seemed like a just a rerun of lotr, if you squinted your eyes I don't think you could of told the difference. Too much of the fabric was the same, perhaps thats to be expected, and so there for, perhaps it would of been better if another director had told the story, gave it a new vibe.

 

Having said that it was enjoyable to watch (all the elf kingdom bullshit was boring as fuck though, I did some BOC catchup there). I really enjoyed the storm fight between the rock monsters (excuse me but I cant recall the actual name) and Freeman was awesome as Bilbo, and the running rabbits on the sledge was amusing.

 

Not bad, not great.

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

 

8/10

 

 

really? this seemed to sneak into cinemas or maybe bypass them completely. and now it appeared on netflix instant. i was going to watch for laughs...but it's actually good?

Edited April 28, 2013 by Jimmy McMessageboard

[Guest Jimmy McMessageboard]

Rosemary's Baby

First time. Just hadn't wanted to watch it before and even now it wasn't my choice. Really enjoyed it. The ending was unexpected but didnt ruin it. I saw some influence it had on mulholland drive (the old couple coming down the hallway) and the shining (on wendy perhaps (or maybe just the useless knife)). The dialogue was really funny in places too, sometimes unintentionally.

 

Got me thinking about the manson murders and the connection between this film which depicts a pregnant woman carrying the devils baby and the murder of polanski's pregnant wife 1 year later. Am I seeing too much in that connection?

[eugene]

 

8/10

really? this seemed to sneak into cinemas or maybe bypass them completely. and now it appeared on netflix instant. i was going to watch for laughs...but it's actually good?

 

no, i couldn't bear it for more than 25 minutes Edited April 28, 2013 by eugene

[Guest RadarJammer]

Upstream Color the first 20 minutes could have made a refreshing and exciting 10/10 short film however it quickly becomes a dull throbbing migraine headache of film student masturbation. borderline unwatchable. 2 sundance film festivals out of 10

Edited April 28, 2013 by RadarJammer

[Guest isaki]

downloaded all the harry potter films having never seen them before. spent the last few weeks watching them all. complete waste of time IMO

Edited April 29, 2013 by isaki

[Guest zaphod]

lol

[Guest Mirezzi]

I've never seen Jurassic Park.

[Candiru]

Hold on to ya butts.

[FLA FUR BIS FLE]

The Lords of Salem