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| gromit |
 Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:49 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Now here's an indie/foreign-heavy Top 10 list, from Film Comment, which doesn't jibe with my taste:
The Top 10
1. The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2. Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
3. Melancholia, Lars von Trier
4. A Separation, Asghar Farhadi, Iran
5. A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg
6. Mysteries of Lisbon, Raśl Ruiz, Portugal
7. Certified Copy, Abbas Kiarostami
8. Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt
9. Hugo, Martin Scorsese
10. Poetry, Lee Chang-dong, South Korea
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Uncle Boonie and Poetry were two of the worst films I saw in 2011. Just really irritating stuff. Boonmie seem amateurish and muddled. While I felt like I could see the strategy sessions leading to each next scene or plot development in Poetry. It didn't help that I watched Secret Sunshine a week or two before and disliked that. Poetry was basically the same film with a more annoying lead character. Really, I'm kind of surprised I made it through both films.
Tree of Life was entirely okay. I thought all the cosmic stuff and the Penn future and beach finale really didn't work and didn't belong. But the family core with Pitt and Chastain and well-chosen kids was good.
I do want to see Lisbon and Melacholia and A Separation and have high hopes for those. So maybe I'll meet this list halfway after I see more of it. But I completely disliked two of their 10, and think TofL was interesting but overpraised in many indie/critic circles. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:25 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Quote: This one sounds awesome and is directed by the great Brad Bird, of The Incredibles fame. He's never directed a live-action film before, but this won't be his last by a long shot.
Bird also directed one of the few animated films I like: The Iron Giant.
What makes Mission Impossible 4 so much fun is that it has the lunatic energy of a Tex Avery cartoon. It's propulsive, silly, edge-of-your-seat wackiness. It's live action with bold colorful strokes. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:12 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The devilish part of me is, I must admit, rather delighted that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close got no nominations in the SAG and Golden Globes races and that its failure to do so is apparently driving Hollywood nuts. The movie is a litmus test for intellectual snobs and mid-cult weepies and for me is one of the worst movies of the year. Well-made as all get-out, it's Forrest Gump for a more college-educated clique.
Also relieved that Keira Knightley's horrendous turn in A Dangerous Method failed to do what I feared, fool a lot of people into thinking she deserved some sort of recognition for daring to look less than beautiful on screen.
Now if War Horse can only get some respect before the Oscars...
And if Kristen Wiig can only win the GG for best comedy actress...
Well, one can hope, can't one? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:14 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Mary & Max, Sita Sings the Blues, Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir.
Paprika, Wallaces and Gromits, Triplettes of Bellville, Toy Stories ...
Also a Golden Age of feature animation. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Mary & Max, Sita Sings the Blues, Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir.
Paprika, Wallaces and Gromits, Triplettes of Bellville, Toy Stories ...
Also a Golden Age of feature animation.
Good list, though I don't love everything on it. For me, Sita Sings the Blues and Toy Story 3 are the best in years--since Finding Nemo, in fact, and before that, Beauty and the Beast in 1993.
Not as balls-to-the-wall nutzoid over Up, Ratatouille, and Wall-E as I'm aware knowledgeables think I should be. And liked The Incredibles a lot without adoring the hell out of it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Incidentally, I'm extremely annoyed & incredibly unsurprised that Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet got GG nominations for their merely competent acting in the barely competent but hardly inspired Carnage. It's another case of star wattage meaning too much in Lalaland. And the Polanski connection, I guess. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:12 am |
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| Way back in 1999, Shirley Anne and I took my granddaughter and grandson to see Tarzan. I thought it was enjoyable and the kids liked it a lot. A couple of weeks later we told them that I would take them to see The Iron Giant. My granddaughter, Ruby, was wary, because she didn't like the name of the movie. I told her that it was supposed to be good. My grandson, Daniel, was too young to care. Well they both loved the movie and Ruby said it was better than Tarzan. Needless to say, I loved it too. And did write a review of it on the NYTFF. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:37 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I too loved The Iron Giant and should have included it in the list of best animated films along with Finding Nemo and B and the B. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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billyweeds wrote: Marc wrote: The new Mission Impossible is terrifically entertaining and exciting. See it on the biggest screen you can.
The only thing about the film that bothered me is: I saw it at an Imax theater. But only some scenes were shot in Imax so the aspect ration changes throughout the movie. Very distracting. And to charge Imax prices when only 1/3 of the film is in Imax is a rip-off.
Planning to see this movie asap, and that's surprising, since I not only disliked every one of the others, I disliked them intensely. This one sounds awesome and is directed by the great Brad Bird, of The Incredibles fame. He's never directed a live-action film before, but this won't be his last by a long shot.
Wow. Didn't realize this was directed by Brad Bird. Guess JJ Abrams handed over the reigns on this one. |
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"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:22 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
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| Sita Sings is my favorite animation of the century, so far. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I recall "The Iron Giant" as having some really wonderful artwork.
Meanwhile, I hope I haven't missed "Puss in Boots." I liked "Shreck Forever After" and the idea of a sequel for the rakish feline hero strikes me as brilliant. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:56 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Saw Hugo tonight. A movie about the magic and magicians of the screen with no magic to it. Are kids really supposed to care for the lectures on film history or film preservation? And why is Scorsese, of all people, casting such a girly twerp as his hero? Couldn't we have a canny Artful Dodger instead of an anemic Oliver Twist? And why is a cast of Parisians speaking in precious, upperclass British accents--even the poor (and when it comes to the part about Melies, it's particularly frustrating: why should a pioneering French moviemaker be made into a Brit?). You can see Scorsese is going for Harry Potter and The Golden Compass and maybe even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with the child-catcher patrolman. But there's no whimsy and no wonder. It's its own automaton. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 2:03 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Joe, you're wrong. There's plenty of magic there.
Before Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, I saw a preview for a new macabre animated film advertising that it was from the people who brought you Coraline. My immediate reaction was "Wow! They've adapted The Graveyard Book! How could I not have heard about that?" Alas, there were too many kids in the movie, and it turned out to be something called Paranorman, which may be fine, but not if it prevents someone from making the movie I want to see. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 2:12 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Joe,
did you see Hugo in 3D? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 2:18 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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As for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, I was disappointed. Downey, Jude Law and Noomi Rapace are okay, but Jared Harris's Moriarty was a disappointment and would have been far more effective if he'd stayed in the background. This Moriarty is simply not threatening.
I notice Holmes's deductive skills apparently include clairvoyance, although at one point he makes a grave mistake that costs a bunch of lives. The action scenes were also confusingly edited.
One thing of note here is that Noomi Rapace is just as comfortable acting in English and could have played the English language Lisbeth Salander just as well as she did in the original. Unfortunately, her gypsy character is often superfluous, although I did feel pangs when I thought she might have been killed. With her hair long, she looks quite a bit like Cher. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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