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| carrobin |
 Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:40 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Yesterday I caught most of "The Cabin in the Woods" on one of those movie channels, and was impressed by Joss Whedon's bizarre twist on the teen horror flick. Disturbing and funny, as the guys in the control room observe and manipulate the situation, sacrificing a group of teenagers to the Ancient Ones whose blood sacrifice rituals keep them from destroying the world. Interesting to see what it looks like when all hell literally breaks loose. (Amy Acker must be the most versatile actress working today--Meryl had better step up her game.) |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I liked everything about it except the ending. Oddly, there is supposed to be a sequel. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:24 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| If anyone could make a sequel to "Cabin," it would have to be Whedon. Who else would even try to imagine where to go after that. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:40 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Indeed.  |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:06 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Watched Memento last night. Well acted, well paced, etc. Too bad I couldn't follow it. I gave it all my patience and attention, but they were not enough. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 7:05 pm |
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yambu wrote: Watched Memento last night. Well acted, well paced, etc. Too bad I couldn't follow it. I gave it all my patience and attention, but they were not enough.
Liked it very very much, and it is difficult to follow. I saw it in the theatre. I watched it on TV twice more and I got more of the connections but still had to use my imagination about what some of the scenes connected to.
Very well done and excellently acting all around. Perfect ending also. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:13 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I thought Memento was fairly great. What I liked is that even though it is a bit difficult to follow on first viewing it still is entertaining and interesting. And then it is easier to piece together on second viewing. I like how it keeps you guessing when the lead takes on the other guys persona (his sharp suit and sports car), whether the helper guy is a policeman or what his motivations are, whether the woman will help him or set him up, the insulin injections, etc. A lot of good little puzzles.
Then there are nice extra touches like tattooing yourself to help with your memory deficiency, some humor ("What am I doing? Oh, I'm chasing him" [runs at other guy, who shoots at him] "No, he's chasing me."), etc.
Fairly brilliant. Especially how the non-linear time structure syncs with the content, and more or less places the audience in the position of the memory impaired (we also don't know what has come before and only have 10 minute snippets of information). |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:01 pm |
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"...some humor ("What am I doing? Oh, I'm chasing him" [runs at other guy, who shoots at him] "No, he's chasing me."), etc."
Yeah, that was hilarious. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:43 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Thought Memento was overrated, but it's still arguably the best of Christopher Nolan's movies, most of the rest of which are all more or less awful. IMHO.
Inception is on my all-time-worst list. What I saw of it. To watch all of it would have been akin to having my fingernails removed one by one with red-hot pincers.
Yet people with no brains (again IMHO) have made this horrid film into a cult classic, and together with the semi-deserved praise for Memento and the unjustified love for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises have made Nolan a cult hero. Yecch.
The only Nolan film I've come close to actually enjoying was the one no one credits him for--the remake of Insomnia. Even then, the original was way better.
Nolan and Sam Mendes are two of the luckiest men in movies. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:11 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Saw the 1940 John Ford The Grapes of Wrath at the Museum of Modern Art the other day. I think I may never have seen it from beginning to end before. The print was pristine and beautiful, and the movie outdid my expectations. It's really great--a little more positive than the book, I guess, but beautifully shot and acted. It's probably Henry Fonda's best performance ever. No actor that I can think of could have captured Tom Joad with such absolute perfection and precision. By comparison, the Oscarwinning Jane Darwell as Ma Joad seems a bit over-calculated though excellent as well. Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz) provides an indelible impression as Grandpa, a small but very touching and wryly funny role.
But Fonda and Ford and the stunning photography are the real stars here. Wow. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:43 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Nolan's first feature, Following, is a pretty decent little neo-noir |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:52 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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As I may have mentioned here, I corresponded briefly with Jon, Chris Nolan's brother, and discussed a story idea (I was hanging at a writing website run by FF Coppola and Roy Kesey) regarding a man with Korsakoff's Syndrome (the condition that Guy Pearce suffers from). I had a rather clumsy short story constructed, but I was happy to see Nolan file it away and put it to good use a couple years later. He didn't plagiarize or anything, just fleshed out something that a non-writer had whispered in his ear. It's a great movie, but then I have reason to be a little biased.
BTW, Nolan's uncle is John (with an h) Nolan, and was in the Wild West theme episode of "The Prisoner" the 60's BBC series. He also has an important role in Jon Nolan's "Person of Interest" series. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 1:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Nolan's first feature, Following, is a pretty decent little neo-noir
Following starts promisingly but deteriorates quickly. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 2:15 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Pasolini's "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" has got to be the most oddly cast Biblical epic I've ever seen. I don't think Joseph and Mary got to say a single word, which may be fortunate because the cast is non-actors. [All the dialogue is straight from Matthew and Joseph and Mary are never quoted directly in Matthew.] Joseph looks like the neighborhood butcher. Young Mary is very striking. [Old Mary (played by Pasolini's mother) looks about 80 when she would have been about 50, and doesn't look like young Mary could age into her.] It's a relief from Biblical movie behemoths but that doesn't necessarily make it a good movie. It comes across more as snapshots from the Bible more than an actual story.
By the way, I think it would have made a better movie if he had no music whatsoever, even though the soundtrack includes Mozart and Bach. The music's a distraction from the neorealist style. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 2:31 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| The Europeans, on the other hand, is impeccably written, acted and designed, dramatically inert and a pretty good cure for insomnia. |
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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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