I see a lot of people saying spielberg. I don’t like the guy too much and he may be overrated (in the sense that he’s considered the best director ever by a lot). But I definitely like a good amount of his films. I am however surprised how nobody mentioned minority report. I was a HUGE fan of it, and thought it was one of the best sci-fi movies I had seen in like.. five years. What are you guys’ thoughts?
I hate Juno. Worst shit ever. And I like the actors and everything, but it sucks. The other movie i really hate that EVERYBODY seems to love is Gladiator.
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead and Dog Day Afternoon- Lumet
Mulholland Dr.- Lynch
Undertow- David Gordon Green
Mabuse and Metropolis- Lang
Aguirre, Wrath of God- Herzog
Infernal Affairs- Andy Lau
Kubrick movies other than Spartacus
Hero or House of Flying Daggers- Zhang Yimou
Memories of Murder- Bong Joon-ho
Oldboy-Park Chan-wook
Friend (Ching-gu)- Kwak Kyung-Taek
I also think some animated movies should make it:
My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke- Miyazaki
Grave of the Fireflies- Takahata
Metropolis- Rintaro
I agree with cayley completely. This film is not bad, but scorsese’s movies are 100x better than this. And yes, it was driven by the media and the press. Dicaprio is great, but can’t pull this disorganized attempt together. It just doesn’t hold the same balance between the two main characters like the original. And the original is fucking spectacular.
I agree. I think remakes are probably mostly cash-driven and not that great. But there are plenty of remakes which directors and writers use as a platform for showing the audience something new. Good example: 2000 Animated Film Metropolis by Rin Taro. Has nothing to do with the original, save for the skeletal story, and it’s great. Or the Magnificent Seven. Yeah it’s not as good as the seven samurai, but it’s great.
Slumdog is great. Tied for best movie i saw this year with Let the Right One In. The latter is more original, but Slumdog took a fairly basic concept (in terms of framing the screenplay with the who wants to be a millionaire format) and made it epic. The tertiary characters, the completely straightforward music, the fantastic action chase sequences, the tense allllmost moments. It’s unbelievable, actually, that a movie like that came out of Bollywood.
Le Samourai can definitely be considered a samurai movie. It may not be a period piece in japan, but it’s protagonist is the french definition of a samurai. Also, Kill Bill? Get the fuck out of here. Unbelievable really. Anyways, it seems like noel here knows his samurai movies, and yes seppuku is harakiri. Samurai Rebellion is an almost Shakespearean level tragedy. And Sword of Doom is one of a kind. Oh and Frye, I actually REALLY liked the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise.
Great insight into the camera’s shadow and the flashes of Georges’ mind. Cache is a fantastic thriller. I think your interpretation of Haneke as the tape-sender is interesting and a really funny way of looking at the film. I like to see it as the tape-sender’s identity as being unimportant. Sure, when I saw it the first time all i could think about was who the tape-sender could be, but that’s just how he gets ya. I like to see the movie as character’s in a normal fictional narrative who break under the pressure of the audience. This ironic interpretation really helps to focus on the individual characters handling of this ‘eye in the sky’(or eye slightly to the left of their front door). I also love the last shot, and how Haneke decides to throw in a little treat for all the good eyes out there. The fact that Pierrot and Majid’s son talk (even though both characters should not know eachother) is fantastic, especially since it’s essentially hidden in the shot. The shot focuses on the back of some random person instead. Or maybe the person isn’t random….
Despite 300, I think this adaptation of the comic book is going to be amazing. I’m usually one not for comic book hero movies at all. I mean i liked iron man and dark knight, but hardly AMAZING movies. They’re both good. And when I first heard about watchmen and zack snyder, i wanted to kill myself. However, i’ve been keeping up with all the production journals and footage they release, and I can say without a doubt that this movie is going to be amazing. This is going to be the end all be all of comic book movies. Instead of making it flashy bullshit action shots, this movie is going to have an intimate camera and it’s going to dive into the comic book panels and really display the drama which happens in this alternate history, cheesy costumed crusaders story. I’m sure the Dylan cover will be awesome in the movie and i’m sure the no-squid problem will prove to be nothing. Last thing I want to say is that TDK was good, but I definitely want to see more movies based on the actual comic book, rather than a visual allusion-less adaptation. The reason why these movies are awesome is because it’s a way of seeing those iconic images come to life on the bigscreen. I didn’t particularly like Sin City, but I’ve read some of them, and seeing those images on the screen was pretty awesome. So I feel that with a good comic book with awesome imagery, a movie could be the next best step.
I like everyone’s opinions here. I don’t cry ever really, but i recently saw David Gordon Green’s George Washington, and the scene when George is visiting his dad after he accidentally had a hand in killing his friend, is fucking intense. He grows to sympathize with his father (who the movie doesn’t even bother to explain really) and that is some powerful shit right there.
Whaaaaaat. Sword of Doom is fucking amazing. The ending may seem stupid, but it’s actually the opposite. The film is not only a fantastic parable of good vs evil, but it manifests it in GREAT detail. When Ryunosuke watches Toranosuke slay an entire team of men, he is essentially watching his own death by the hands of this samurai who fights completely unlike him. It’s evil watching how good prevails, and then evil becomes terrified. Ryunosuke even prepares for Toranosuke to come at him, but Toranosuke knows that this man with an evil soul and evil swordplay is just destined for self-destruction. And it comes in the most brutal of fashions. The last bloody and long fight scene raises a really good question, whether or not Ryunosuke wants to kill these people or if he’s now slave to his sword play. His sword play, which is tempered by the hundreds of souls he’s taken and years of guilt. This swordplay that drives him to madness.
Yes soybean, i’ve only just started to get into american graphic novels, but so far Watchmen is BY FAR the best. I would go as far as saying watchmen is one of the great literary pieces to EVER come out of america.
Once again I completely agree with matthias. Spoilers ahead for le samourai, so uneducated beware.
Matthias brings up a bunch of good points with “Someone good at what he does, and will do it at any cost for his superior, whoever that might be.” But I think the key reason why it’s a samurai movie is because of the ending. He knows that his jig is up and that the cops are CLOSE behind him. So he goes into the club in the end and pretends to try and kill the piano player, but his gun has no bullets. It has always been said that the one thing a samurai knows is that he lives by his sword, and he dies by his sword. Not only did he live through his gun, his empty gun was what got him killed, he did that on purpose. He knows he’s going to die, and he does it on HIS terms. I don’t think there is anything that epitomizes the samurai more than that. No sets, no costumes, no language can cross that kind of samurai code.
I thought it was a fantastic thriller. I’m also partial to bryan singer, and fuck all the tom cruise nay sayers. He may be a crazy dude, but he’s a good actor in good movies.
At Home
Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow: 5/5
FANTASTIC! I can’t believe this same guy made tokyo drift, which i actually saw on t.v. once ( i was super stoned). Better Luck Tomorrow is a fascinating drama about asian american ivy-league-bound highschoolers who get deep in petty crime and drug dealing. Excellent visual direction, amazing attention to detail for an OC highschool, and great break-through performances. Please go see it.
Rob and smokedphish: Yes to Hook, hold’s a VERY special place in my heart.
I’ll start with tom cruise movies and then move on
Valkyrie
Vanilla Sky
Eyes Wide Shut
Last Samurai
Minority Report
(Seriously I can’t believe people can consider the above movies as bad, they’re amazing)
Spaceballs
Pineapple Express
Any Jackie Chan movie
THE CELL
^^(probably one of my favorite movies of all time, not even a joke)
X-Files: I want to believe
Troy ( i hated gladiator with a passion)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The Cable Guy
That’s all i can think of now. I’m sure there are a lot more.
High and Low
The Bad Sleep Well
Sword of Doom
Traffic (Tati)
Bottle Rocket (blu-ray)
Man Who Fell to Earth (blu-ray)
Tokyo Story
Jigoku
Kagemusha
Hard-Boiled(my best friend found me a copy at someone’s garage sale, they didn’t even know it was worth a lot)
I LOVE CHASING AMY. I’m not crazy about kevin smith, but chasing amy is fan-fucking-tastic. People in this movie talk like me and my friends, so i may be biased. I loved the relationship between affleck and lee, i thought their friendship is something you see in the real world A LOT and the ending when they see eachother at the comic book convention was SUPER sad. Not because it’s a scene filled with undying dramatic emotion, but because of how real it is. They just… don’t even talk. Smith doesn’t show them crying or agonizing over eachother, he only shows a brief nod. Yet that brief nod tells a whole story.
I like a lot of other people’s choices, so i’m gonna copy a little. =D
Vengeance is Mine
Cache (Hidden)
Raging Bull
The Fall
The Beat that My Heart Skipped
A History of Violence
High and Low (Tenkoku to Jigoku in japanese, which means high and low or heaven and hell)
The Godfather (only first 1)
Floating Weeds
Hoop Dreams
I’m Not There
Adaptation
Rashomon (The Castle Gate)
Rebellion (Original title director had for Samurai Rebellion)
Who do you think the most overrated director is? over 3 years ago
I see a lot of people saying spielberg. I don’t like the guy too much and he may be overrated (in the sense that he’s considered the best director ever by a lot). But I definitely like a good amount of his films. I am however surprised how nobody mentioned minority report. I was a HUGE fan of it, and thought it was one of the best sci-fi movies I had seen in like.. five years. What are you guys’ thoughts?
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Movies you hated that everyone else loves over 3 years ago
I hate Juno. Worst shit ever. And I like the actors and everything, but it sucks. The other movie i really hate that EVERYBODY seems to love is Gladiator.
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Greatest Director/Actor Collaborations over 3 years ago
Kurosawa-Mifune
Done.
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Greatest Director/Actor Collaborations over 3 years ago
Maybe Nakadai-Okamoto
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Before the Devil Knows Your Dead and Dog Day Afternoon- Lumet
Mulholland Dr.- Lynch
Undertow- David Gordon Green
Mabuse and Metropolis- Lang
Aguirre, Wrath of God- Herzog
Infernal Affairs- Andy Lau
Kubrick movies other than Spartacus
Hero or House of Flying Daggers- Zhang Yimou
Memories of Murder- Bong Joon-ho
Oldboy-Park Chan-wook
Friend (Ching-gu)- Kwak Kyung-Taek
I also think some animated movies should make it:
My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke- Miyazaki
Grave of the Fireflies- Takahata
Metropolis- Rintaro
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Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
Psh, and Akira- Otomo
Man, almost missed it =P
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CONTENDERS FOR BEST FOREIGN FILM 2009 over 3 years ago
It’s definitely going to be between Slumdog and Let the Right one in.
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Remakes over 3 years ago
I heard Scorsese is going to remake Kurosawa’s High and Low. Pretty excited for that.
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The Departed over 3 years ago
I agree with cayley completely. This film is not bad, but scorsese’s movies are 100x better than this. And yes, it was driven by the media and the press. Dicaprio is great, but can’t pull this disorganized attempt together. It just doesn’t hold the same balance between the two main characters like the original. And the original is fucking spectacular.
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The Departed over 3 years ago
Good movie. Probably better overall, but infernal affairs does have some truly innovative camera work and editing IMO
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Remakes over 3 years ago
I agree. I think remakes are probably mostly cash-driven and not that great. But there are plenty of remakes which directors and writers use as a platform for showing the audience something new. Good example: 2000 Animated Film Metropolis by Rin Taro. Has nothing to do with the original, save for the skeletal story, and it’s great. Or the Magnificent Seven. Yeah it’s not as good as the seven samurai, but it’s great.
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Most violent films you've seen over 3 years ago
Irreversible should be in there. I would also add parts of fincher’s zodiac and okhamoto’s Sword of Doom. Maybe Miike’s audition. Ichi is also CRAZY.
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Slumdog Millionaire Overrated Film of the Year over 3 years ago
Slumdog is great. Tied for best movie i saw this year with Let the Right One In. The latter is more original, but Slumdog took a fairly basic concept (in terms of framing the screenplay with the who wants to be a millionaire format) and made it epic. The tertiary characters, the completely straightforward music, the fantastic action chase sequences, the tense allllmost moments. It’s unbelievable, actually, that a movie like that came out of Bollywood.
Go to Comment
Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
Le Samourai can definitely be considered a samurai movie. It may not be a period piece in japan, but it’s protagonist is the french definition of a samurai. Also, Kill Bill? Get the fuck out of here. Unbelievable really. Anyways, it seems like noel here knows his samurai movies, and yes seppuku is harakiri. Samurai Rebellion is an almost Shakespearean level tragedy. And Sword of Doom is one of a kind. Oh and Frye, I actually REALLY liked the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise.
Go to Comment
(UN)HIDDEN CAMERA: THE "REAL" SENDER OF THE TAPES over 3 years ago
Great insight into the camera’s shadow and the flashes of Georges’ mind. Cache is a fantastic thriller. I think your interpretation of Haneke as the tape-sender is interesting and a really funny way of looking at the film. I like to see it as the tape-sender’s identity as being unimportant. Sure, when I saw it the first time all i could think about was who the tape-sender could be, but that’s just how he gets ya. I like to see the movie as character’s in a normal fictional narrative who break under the pressure of the audience. This ironic interpretation really helps to focus on the individual characters handling of this ‘eye in the sky’(or eye slightly to the left of their front door). I also love the last shot, and how Haneke decides to throw in a little treat for all the good eyes out there. The fact that Pierrot and Majid’s son talk (even though both characters should not know eachother) is fantastic, especially since it’s essentially hidden in the shot. The shot focuses on the back of some random person instead. Or maybe the person isn’t random….
Go to Comment
(UN)HIDDEN CAMERA: THE "REAL" SENDER OF THE TAPES over 3 years ago
Ha, that was a joke. I’m sure they were random.
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Watchmen over 3 years ago
Despite 300, I think this adaptation of the comic book is going to be amazing. I’m usually one not for comic book hero movies at all. I mean i liked iron man and dark knight, but hardly AMAZING movies. They’re both good. And when I first heard about watchmen and zack snyder, i wanted to kill myself. However, i’ve been keeping up with all the production journals and footage they release, and I can say without a doubt that this movie is going to be amazing. This is going to be the end all be all of comic book movies. Instead of making it flashy bullshit action shots, this movie is going to have an intimate camera and it’s going to dive into the comic book panels and really display the drama which happens in this alternate history, cheesy costumed crusaders story. I’m sure the Dylan cover will be awesome in the movie and i’m sure the no-squid problem will prove to be nothing. Last thing I want to say is that TDK was good, but I definitely want to see more movies based on the actual comic book, rather than a visual allusion-less adaptation. The reason why these movies are awesome is because it’s a way of seeing those iconic images come to life on the bigscreen. I didn’t particularly like Sin City, but I’ve read some of them, and seeing those images on the screen was pretty awesome. So I feel that with a good comic book with awesome imagery, a movie could be the next best step.
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What film scenes really make you cry? over 3 years ago
I like everyone’s opinions here. I don’t cry ever really, but i recently saw David Gordon Green’s George Washington, and the scene when George is visiting his dad after he accidentally had a hand in killing his friend, is fucking intense. He grows to sympathize with his father (who the movie doesn’t even bother to explain really) and that is some powerful shit right there.
Go to Comment
Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
Whaaaaaat. Sword of Doom is fucking amazing. The ending may seem stupid, but it’s actually the opposite. The film is not only a fantastic parable of good vs evil, but it manifests it in GREAT detail. When Ryunosuke watches Toranosuke slay an entire team of men, he is essentially watching his own death by the hands of this samurai who fights completely unlike him. It’s evil watching how good prevails, and then evil becomes terrified. Ryunosuke even prepares for Toranosuke to come at him, but Toranosuke knows that this man with an evil soul and evil swordplay is just destined for self-destruction. And it comes in the most brutal of fashions. The last bloody and long fight scene raises a really good question, whether or not Ryunosuke wants to kill these people or if he’s now slave to his sword play. His sword play, which is tempered by the hundreds of souls he’s taken and years of guilt. This swordplay that drives him to madness.
Go to Comment
Watchmen over 3 years ago
Yes soybean, i’ve only just started to get into american graphic novels, but so far Watchmen is BY FAR the best. I would go as far as saying watchmen is one of the great literary pieces to EVER come out of america.
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Watchmen over 3 years ago
A british author and artist, but it’s published by DC an american company and it’s an alternate history piece in and about the u.s.
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Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
Once again I completely agree with matthias. Spoilers ahead for le samourai, so uneducated beware.
Matthias brings up a bunch of good points with “Someone good at what he does, and will do it at any cost for his superior, whoever that might be.” But I think the key reason why it’s a samurai movie is because of the ending. He knows that his jig is up and that the cops are CLOSE behind him. So he goes into the club in the end and pretends to try and kill the piano player, but his gun has no bullets. It has always been said that the one thing a samurai knows is that he lives by his sword, and he dies by his sword. Not only did he live through his gun, his empty gun was what got him killed, he did that on purpose. He knows he’s going to die, and he does it on HIS terms. I don’t think there is anything that epitomizes the samurai more than that. No sets, no costumes, no language can cross that kind of samurai code.
Go to Comment
Last movie you saw and rate it over 3 years ago
In Theaters:
Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie: 4.5/5
I thought it was a fantastic thriller. I’m also partial to bryan singer, and fuck all the tom cruise nay sayers. He may be a crazy dude, but he’s a good actor in good movies.
At Home
Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow: 5/5
FANTASTIC! I can’t believe this same guy made tokyo drift, which i actually saw on t.v. once ( i was super stoned). Better Luck Tomorrow is a fascinating drama about asian american ivy-league-bound highschoolers who get deep in petty crime and drug dealing. Excellent visual direction, amazing attention to detail for an OC highschool, and great break-through performances. Please go see it.
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Movies you love, but everyone else hates. over 3 years ago
Rob and smokedphish: Yes to Hook, hold’s a VERY special place in my heart.
I’ll start with tom cruise movies and then move on
Valkyrie
Vanilla Sky
Eyes Wide Shut
Last Samurai
Minority Report
(Seriously I can’t believe people can consider the above movies as bad, they’re amazing)
Spaceballs
Pineapple Express
Any Jackie Chan movie
THE CELL
^^(probably one of my favorite movies of all time, not even a joke)
X-Files: I want to believe
Troy ( i hated gladiator with a passion)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The Cable Guy
That’s all i can think of now. I’m sure there are a lot more.
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Criterion Christmas over 3 years ago
I got:
High and Low
The Bad Sleep Well
Sword of Doom
Traffic (Tati)
Bottle Rocket (blu-ray)
Man Who Fell to Earth (blu-ray)
Tokyo Story
Jigoku
Kagemusha
Hard-Boiled(my best friend found me a copy at someone’s garage sale, they didn’t even know it was worth a lot)
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Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
Me too. I only recently started getting my friends into samurai films. I like the lone-wolf reference =D
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Now, how about CRITERION issued films you just don't like!! over 3 years ago
I LOVE CHASING AMY. I’m not crazy about kevin smith, but chasing amy is fan-fucking-tastic. People in this movie talk like me and my friends, so i may be biased. I loved the relationship between affleck and lee, i thought their friendship is something you see in the real world A LOT and the ending when they see eachother at the comic book convention was SUPER sad. Not because it’s a scene filled with undying dramatic emotion, but because of how real it is. They just… don’t even talk. Smith doesn’t show them crying or agonizing over eachother, he only shows a brief nod. Yet that brief nod tells a whole story.
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Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
=D
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Best title over 3 years ago
I like a lot of other people’s choices, so i’m gonna copy a little. =D
Vengeance is Mine
Cache (Hidden)
Raging Bull
The Fall
The Beat that My Heart Skipped
A History of Violence
High and Low (Tenkoku to Jigoku in japanese, which means high and low or heaven and hell)
The Godfather (only first 1)
Floating Weeds
Hoop Dreams
I’m Not There
Adaptation
Rashomon (The Castle Gate)
Rebellion (Original title director had for Samurai Rebellion)
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Greatest samurai film of all time? over 3 years ago
Hey now, that’s a good movie. Don’t call it a guilty pleasure!
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