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| Marj |
 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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shannon wrote: The American Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is better than the Swedish version by leaps and bounds, and more true to the novel. And Rooney Mara is a better Lisbeth. That said, if you didn't like the Swedish version, you won't like this one either. It's less David Fincher-like than I'd hoped for, but it's expected considering he's basically filming the murder mystery version of the Harry Potter books; he's not allowed to fuck with it too much.
Thanks, Shannon. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:15 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Straight Story is unlike any other Lynch film in that it's pretty straightforward. Too much so for me. I also found it dull.
In a Lonely Place is a great film. Darker and edgier than you'd expect. One of the great Bogey performances. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Really liked American Beauty.
Benning and Spacey are terrific.
Lots of humor throughout the film.
The only thing a little off is the dead man narration -- but if it's good enough for Sunset Blvd ...
And for...
SPOILER ALERT FOR GENE TIERNEY AND OTTO PREMINGER FANS...
Laura. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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knox wrote: Straight Story - zzz.
American Beauty is not fit to lick dirt off the shoes of Sunset Blvd. But I sorta liked it, in spite of its many weak spots. The plastic bag scene invited parody (and I think parody came, including a bit on The Simpsons IIRC...)
Top of head, movies I would recommend to anyone - The Third Man, Sunset Blvd., The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Goodfellas, Miller's Crossing, Rear Window, Blade Runner, Chinatown, Vertigo, Casablanca, In a Lonely Place, The Godfather.
Wonderful list, with two major exceptions in my book:
The Big Sleep is impenetrable and confusing. Some see this as a virtue. I call bullshit and see no clothes on this emperor.
Blade Runner is for sci-fi geeks only. For those of us not in the nerdiverse, it's a bore beyond belief. Good art direction. Period.
Glad to see In a Lonely Place getting some love. it's a great--not just very good, not just excellent, but great--film, with a brave and selfless performance by Bogart and a stunning turn by Gloria Grahame. Nicholas Ray is a major director and this is his masterpiece. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:08 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| My #1 movie for that year was the animated Tarzan. I'm not sure if I'd still put it there, but I might. October Sky and The Iron Giant came out that year as well. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| American Beauty was overrated, but that shouldn't prevent it from being acknowledged as an interesting, funny, good movie. It marks the only time I've liked Annette Benning in anything. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:18 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: American Beauty was overrated, but that shouldn't prevent it from being acknowledged as an interesting, funny, good movie. It marks the only time I've liked Annette Benning in anything.
First, see The Kids Are All Right and change your mind.
And second, spell Bening's name correctly.
(That said, I tend to agree with you about the remainder of Bening's career, and about American Beauty in general. It was pretty good overall, just not worthy of the Oscar.) |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:27 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I wasn't sure and slipped in the extra N, confusing the spelling for everyone.
Yes, she was quite good in The Kids Are All Right. But she really bowled me over in AB. Had no idea she was capable of such a performance. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: I wasn't sure and slipped in the extra N, confusing the spelling for everyone.
Yes, she was quite good in The Kids Are All Right. But she really bowled me over in AB. Had no idea she was capable of such a performance.
Are you doubling as Joe Vitus? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:46 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Syd wrote: gromit wrote: The Fall has some great looking images. And they tout it as being all real cinematography -- that is, no CGI. But I found the story about how they found and arranged and shot these locations more engaging then the story in the film. So the commentary track is pretty interesting, even with lots of self-pats on the back.
I got an undamaged disk and finished it. I see why it garnered mixed reviews: Tarsem Singh is amazing with visual imagery, not so strong with storytelling, although showing how Roy's story looks in the mind of a 5-year old child allows for a lot of interesting double roles. I thought the acting was good for the most part, including Lee Pace as the injured stuntman, and Catinca Untaru as his young audience. She reminded me of the little girl in Ponette.
I'm not quite ready to watch it with commentary on, although I bet it's interesting.
Just saw The Fall, and was also wowed by the cinematography and locations. Am glad you recommended this, as I might have passed over it otherwise. The acting was uneven, but held together well enough to dovetail the dark fantasy of the fairy tale and exterior situation of the suicidal stuntman and little girl. The stuntman looked familiar - realized he was the guy who could raise the dead and bake pies on that series a couple years back. Tarsem is a guy to watch, sort of a bloodier-minded Terry Gilliam. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:54 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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whiskeypriest wrote: knox wrote: Straight Story - zzz.
American Beauty is not fit to lick dirt off the shoes of Sunset Blvd. But I sorta liked it, in spite of its many weak spots. The plastic bag scene invited parody (and I think parody came, including a bit on The Simpsons IIRC...)
Top of head, movies I would recommend to anyone - The Third Man, Sunset Blvd., The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Goodfellas, Miller's Crossing, Rear Window, Blade Runner, Chinatown, Vertigo, Casablanca, In a Lonely Place, The Godfather. I would dearly love for someone to go over to the Coen Bros. forum and start a discussion of Miller's Crossing. I have always seen it as nothing more than a technically excellent genre exercise/spoof, and have always wondered what people saw in it that I did not. If they did. As a Coenfanatic, I am always anxious to see yet another one of their movies as a masterpiece.
The other movies you mention would be my recommendations as well, except In a Lonely Place, which I have never seen. How good could it be if I have never seen it? Not very good, I say.
Good list, Knox, though you'd have to buy me dinner and ply me with some good wine to get me all the way to Miller's Crossing, but maybe it could happen. The rest I nod my head at like a dashboard puppy, and will not join Billy in consigning Blade Runner to the Nerdiverse. Too long since I've seen The Big Sleep, but I remember a better film than Billy does. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 9:03 am |
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Bening's was the best performance in American Beauty. I usually like her. She was good in Bugsy and very good in The Grifters. I didn't even know it was her until I saw The Grifters for a second time.
In A Lonely Place was a very dark movie. Very good but a downer. I really liked The Big Sleep. I think I saw it when I was a kid, but the first time I remember seeing it was at the Thalia in Manhattan. Apparently, at one point (William Faulkner, I think) asked Chandler to explain something about the story that he found confusing and Chandler said something like, "I have no idea". |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: Are you doubling as Joe Vitus?
No, you just didn't catch my misspelling, even as you quoted it. I assumed that my double-N spelling messed up Joe and others. I looked it up later but didn't go back and fix it. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:37 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Are you doubling as Joe Vitus?
LOL. Sorry. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| knox |
| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:28 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| Thanks for validations and observant negations of my top-of-head list. Weeds, my fondness for The Big Sleep rests on familial and sentimental attachment, so not to be trusted. Blade Runner...eh, well, it sprang into the Nerdiverse at a certain time when SF was thin on the ground and we still mourned the passing of Philip K. Dick. The love here for In a Lonely Place is heartening. |
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