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| mo_flixx |
 Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:51 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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yambu wrote: gromit wrote: Mein Fuhrer gets some poor reviews on IMDb. I just spotted the dvd yesterday, but decided to pass. Me, too. A comedy about Hitler is not what I'm looking for. Reminds me of Life is Beautiful, which I also let go by.
Thanks for the tip. Life is short and there are just too many movies to see here.
Many just play one screening only, one day/week. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Nancy wrote: Syd wrote: mo_flixx wrote: Easy choice. See MOROCCO.
But if I do that, how are you going to know whether or not to see Horton Hears a Who? Besides, my niece may want to know whether to take her kids to see the movie.
Horton will still be hearing a who after you watch Morocco. Did you finish Blonde Venus yet?
Finished that one, now. It took a few tries to get past Marlene Dietrich in a gorilla suit. Pretty good impersonation, too. (Review will appear in the Pre-Code forum when we get to discussing specific films.) |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:18 pm |
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| Unless I missed something, I don't believe anyone mentioned seeing The Bank Job. I recommend you see it. Terrific movie. Entertaining to the max from beginning to end. Jason Stathan Is one of the most engaging actors around. And considering that there are a number of distasteful acts that take place during the story, it is a movie that I would describe as warm. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:24 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| "The Bank Job" has been getting some very good and interesting reviews. If I had time to see a movie, that's the one I'd see... |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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| My kids saw it and liked it a lot. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:17 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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The Bank Job got very mixed reviews in the UK, but perhaps people here are more attuned to the film's shortcomings in properly capturing the time. It was also criticised for its inconsisitency on tone. Personally, watching gritty British crime films is my sofa by the TV with a good glass of good wine, i.e. my comfort zone. A number of the genre including amongst others Get Cater; Mona Lisa; and The Long Good Friday, figure in my favourite films, ever.
I also find the Jason Statham, an amiable and welcome replacement for Stephen, Chuck, Arnie, Cluade et al as king of the B-move action thrillers. And of course The Bank Job features the ever delectable Saffron Burrows. She's as wooden as ever by all accounts, but, the giraffe pen at London Zoo aside, she has the longest and most elegant neck in Engand. Wouldn't it be heaven to slide up behind, she welcome you in, gently tilting her head to one side inviting a kiss on that...it's enough to make you want to be one of the undead. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| jeremy: You've named some of my favorite Britcrimers as well. Have you tried Shiner or Gangster No. 1, both from 2000? Both flawed, but both with some excellent scenes. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:32 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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| The only "Britcrime" film that Alan Bates ever did was "Prayer for the Dying," with Bob Hoskins as a priest. Hoskins had been offered the gangster part and Sir Alan had been offered the priest role, and both said no--both had done that kind of thing often enough--but then agreed that if the roles were reversed, they'd go for it. They were both excellent, but star Mickey Rourke was a black hole in the middle of the film and it didn't come out well. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:33 am |
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| Jeremy, I can't figure out what the British press would find bothersome about the movie. I don't know how far afield the movie went from the actual story, but maybe that was a problem for them. I like at the end when they list what happened to some of the main characters. And at the end of the credits they say that some of the names were changed to protect the guilty. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:32 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Seems WKW's next scheduled project is a remake of The Lady from Shanghai (2009). If the lead actress is Asian, I hope she'll have her hair dyed blonde (echoing both Rita in the original and ChungKing Express).
I'm halfway through CKEx (1994), and less than loving it. Not fond of the gliding swirly camera. Characters are kind of boring and obscure. Some of the themes, such as the expiration dates, just seem sort of goofy and forced as metaphors. I do like that I recognize many of the Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui) sites, though I've never been in The Bottom's Up club.
I'm doing a mini-Asian festival here.
Started with Blueberry Nights (also WKW), which I reviewed before. A bit slight and episodic.
Lust, Caution was indeed sort of an Asian Black Book. Not sure why it focused so heavily on the sex, or removed all other characters to focus on the mistress and the collaborator This minimized the impact when during the ending suddenly a bunch of previous characters return and are in peril. Unfortunately, we haven't seen three of them in three or four years of story-time. And a lot of the resistance fighters seemed unlikely. At two and a half hours, it could have used some serious editing.
Millenium Mambo (2001) by Hou Hsiao-Hsien was a pretty desultory affair about a girl who gets mixed up with a useless jealous boyfriend and then drifts into the bargirl scene and becomes a criminal's mistress. The film has a slow-paced aimless storyline, mirroring the lives of the main characters. I get rather impatient watching inarticulate, poorly socialized people interact ineptly. There was probably a 1:1 ratio between cigarettes smoked and lines of dialogue spoken. The acting wasn't that good, and if Shu Qi wasn't such a hottie, I wouldn't have made it to the end. In fact, I was just getting ready to fast-forward through the rest of the film, when I sensed the end was near.
Lastly, the voice-over narration (from 10 years in the future) seemed an unnecessary distraction, and at times told us something which was going to happen, and then we watched it unfold without suspense.
I also watched the Korean film Green Fish.
Sort of a Korean Scorsese tale of a young guy who gets out of the army and drifts into a crime gang. Some over the top violence and a silly script left me unimpressed.
I'm just not really aboard the Asian Cinema Express.
Maybe living here long-term takes away the novelty and exotic element. But also the focus on violence doesn't do it for me (same goes for Hollywood). |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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gromit wrote: Seems WKW's next scheduled project is a remake of The Lady from Shanghai (2009). If the lead actress is Asian, I hope she'll have her hair dyed blonde (echoing both Rita in the original and ChungKing Express).
That does sound interesting. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:41 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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gromit wrote: Seems WKW's next scheduled project is a remake of The Lady from Shanghai (2009). If the lead actress is Asian, I hope she'll have her hair dyed blonde (echoing both Rita in the original and ChungKing Express).
That could be a lot of fun.
Quote: Lust, Caution was indeed sort of an Asian Black Book. Not sure why it focused so heavily on the sex, or removed all other characters to focus on the mistress and the collaborator This minimized the impact when during the ending suddenly a bunch of previous characters return and are in peril. Unfortunately, we haven't seen three of them in three or four years of story-time. And a lot of the resistance fighters seemed unlikely. At two and a half hours, it could have used some serious editing.
The sex was pivotal to the movie - and a tangible expression of - their "relationship" and how it evolved. It's why she has that discussion with the young guy and their handler (not looking their names up right now) and why SPOILER things go south with the resistance movement END SPOILER. And the group was pretty close-knit in the early stages; it's not that surprising that they'd still be working together (I thought that was mentioned, but I saw the movie in Nov - Dec so don't remember). I also don't think that the resistance folk had a lot of contact with others, so they couldn't compromise each other if captured. If she doesn't know they're still at it, she can't expose them if worst comes to worst. I'd also say that part of the point was that the original group moved into the resistance from more naive bravado than anything else (if that's what you mean by "unlikely"). They had no clue what they were doing. (And I guess that's probably realistic compared to the history.) That's why the murder was so messy.
If you read the story, short though it is, it's very much centered on their relationship, not the other things going on around them. I'm not a Chinese literature expert (it's supposed to be very important in CHinese canon), but I thought the movie did a very good job of fleshing out the story.
Quote: I also watched the Korean film Green Fish.
Sort of a Korean Scorsese tale of a young guy who gets out of the army and drifts into a crime gang. Some over the top violence and a silly script left me unimpressed.
That's funny, I saw Green Fish last night (it's not on commerical DVD, so a special showing). It wasn't my favorite Korean film, but I saw a lot of elements that show up later in some really good Korean films.
I also think that the pivotal incident (what provoked what he did) may be a little too foggy; in fact, the woman leading the Q & A was on a different interpretation than several in the audience (and we did think she was wrong).
Quote: I'm just not really aboard the Asian Cinema Express.
Maybe living here long-term takes away the novelty and exotic element. But also the focus on violence doesn't do it for me (same goes for Hollywood).
Don't think it's so much about being exotic (at least for me, and in some quarters "exotic" is considered an insult - although I don't think you mean the old stereotype). The films I saw were just better-made than their Hollywood counterparts.
Also - there are a lot of people living around you who are into it, so it may just be your personal preference (which is obviously not a problem). |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:26 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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I saw 2 terrific movies today. The first was "Mabei shang de fating" ("Courthouse on Horseback") by Jie Liu. Here's the info. from the imdb.com :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1064775/
The second film is called "Boarding Gate" with Asia Argento. It so happens that it was reviewed in today's NY Times. Here's the review's URL:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/movies/21gate.html?8mu&emc=mu
"Boarding Gate's" director is Olivier Assayas, who seems to be following Soderbergh's formula of alternating commercial with personal films. BG is a personal film which he wrote in English. The dialogue is sometimes a little stilted but it seems to fit. The genre is "revenge chick," and very much in the HK Woo/Tarantino style. I can't think of another actress who could quite pull off the part of the leading lady. Argento has that damaged look about her that none of the Tarantino uber-chicks (Uma for example) have. Yet she's plenty tough. Michael Madsen looks perfect as an over-the-hill shady businessman who's losing his looks. The plot, involving Paris, HK, and China, is just convoluted enough to not really matter a great deal. Be prepared for extreme violence and a bit of kinky sex.
"Courthouse on Horseback" (literally "Judge Feng's Last Ride" in French) is a remarkable co-production directed by the cinematographer Jie Liu. The film is about a judge who once a year makes a long trip throughout China's Yunnan province to settle disputes between the ethnic tribes there. What follows is a remarkable piece of ethnography as well as movie-making. The movie presents the audience with a rare chance to see these tribes, their trad'l. costumes, and unique customs. The judge does his best to render decisions. How Jie Liu found these non-actors is beyond me. I'd rank this as a MOVIE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE because I have already vowed to return to Yunnan province to see add'l. tribes - and I've not seen any of the ones depicted in this film. I'd hazard a guess that you may have to wait a while to see this amazing movie. I hope I can see it again next week if they repeat it here. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:46 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I will be screening Courthouse on Horseback and Boarding Gate in
April at my theater. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Thanks for that Mo.
Boarding Gate is around and I've been eying the Dvd. Though have to say that violence and kinky sex tend to bore me in the movies. But not if done well, I guess.
I believe Courthouse on Horseback is around as well. And just from the awkward English title I didn't even bother to find out what it is about. Yunnan Province is (imo) the best part of China, bordering Vietnam and Laos and with a good deal of Thai influence (one of the larger minority groups there is the Dai, who are related to modern Thais). The Province has stunning scenery -- including at least two valleys claiming to be Shangri-La -- and an array of minority groups who have retained their cultures and identities. |
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