Movies you've just watched

[emphatic]

I'm really no fan of Heat either. I had to watch a FanEdit of it to finally get through it.

[Acid King]

Anyone seen LA Takedown?
Also, anyone not surprised Nolan used this movie as inspiration for TDK?
Like I said, same damn movie.

Yes I've seen it, his directorial debut.

Thief, the Keep, and Manhunter predate LA Takedown.

[Skykid]

Anyone seen LA Takedown?
Also, anyone not surprised Nolan used this movie as inspiration for TDK?
Like I said, same damn movie.

Yes I've seen it, his directorial debut.

Thief, the Keep, and Manhunter predate LA Takedown.

Oh my bad. Been many years since I saw it. Maybe it was his TV movie debut or something...

So this Thief is an oldie? Strong recommendations, might watch it.

I'm really no fan of Heat either. I had to watch a FanEdit of it to finally get through it.

There's very little to be a fan of. It's somewhere between distinctly average and implausible stupidity.

[GaijinPunch]

I believe Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack to Thief. Even so, I've still not seen it. :-/

. It's somewhere between distinctly average and implausible stupidity.

This is cumming from someone that ranks Predator in his top 10.

[Skykid]

I believe Tangerine Dream did the soundtrack to Thief. Even so, I've still not seen it. :-/

. It's somewhere between distinctly average and implausible stupidity.

This is cumming from someone that ranks Predator in his top 10.

I don't have a top ten.

Heat is incomparable to Predator. In dramatic terms they're attempting to appeal to completely different audiences on completely different terms.

I've reiterated this point a million times over, but let's do it again for the sake of donkey flogging: different movies, different goals, rated based on achievements within those parameters. Predator is superb at what it aspires to do. Heat is a failure owing to a massive boredom factor - a myriad issue with scripting, dialogue, editing and ultimately, directing.

tl;dr Michael Mann is distinctly average.

Wanna go again?

[GaijinPunch]

Wanna go again?

Nah. You've proven my point.

[Never_Scurred]

What's wrong with having Predator in your top 10?

Speaking of top 10's

1. Reservoir Dogs: Found this movie while digging in the neighbor's trash looking for porno when I was 13 (hey-it was 1993). Watching RD took me from movie nerd to raging film geek overnight. Perhaps the only movie beside House Party 2 and Menace II Society that I can quote verbatim. Love this film so much, in highschool some buddies and I tried to adapt it into a stage play. We didn't think we would get very far with it but everyone(students) was down with the project once word got around. Apparently, none of the faculty had ever heard of it until the drama director rented it on spring break. Came back like, "HELLL NAAAAWWWLLL!" hehehhe. But it was fun putting it together and she thought it was cute that we tried.
2. Battle Royale
3. Hard-Boiled: Saw this on recommendation from a hip film clerk back in the day. Wanted to rent Hard Target(Another great action film JCVD doesn't get credit for, btw), the clerk was like, "if you wanna see some REAL good shit, check this one out. Here, its free, spread the word." Shiiiieeet, movie pretty much jump started my puberty, nigga had hair everywhere and wanted to fuck errrrthing. Next, it was A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2, The Killer, Heroes Shed No Tears, A Bullet in the Head....from '95 to '97, John Woo was God to me. I remember bringing Hard-Boiled to school to watch on Fridays back before white boys discovered it was cool to bring automatic weapons. Them chinese niggas in my shop class used to all be like, "English dub bad, you guys should hear what they really saying." I used to sell dub copies of movies like this and Ninja Scroll for lunch and candy money.
4. The Thing
5a. Braindead(Dead-Alive)
5b. Street Trash
6. Night of the Living Dead
7. Pink Flamingos: The funniest film I've ever seen.
8. Kids: A snapshot of what my life was like back in '95 minus the rape and STD's. I don't watch this movie anymore because of how nostalgic I'll get. I miss the '90's.
9. Visitor Q
10. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

[GaijinPunch]

What's wrong with having Predator in your top 10?

Nothing if you don't take a shit on Heat. Extra points for God Moving over the Face of the Water. Predator's soundtrack? Movie-like.

[MX7]

Reply

@never_scurred - That's a pretty awesome top 10. Aside from the extraneous final scene Visitor Q is sort of perfect. Battle Royale is the best drinking game since Jurassic Park and The Thing is possibly better than Alien.

Was considering my favourite films the other day. Though it's becoming more and more impossible to rank them. Joint top five of Blind Beast, The Bedroom, The Seventh Continent, Phenomena and The Doom Generation. And L'age D'or. And Tokyo Drifter. And Godzilla Vs Mothra. Argh.

Trying to think of God Tier films that have come out in the last 5 years, can only think of Spring Breakers, Only God Forgives and Enter The Void. Evidently I have a fluorescence fetish.

[Never_Scurred]

Reply

@never_scurred - That's a pretty awesome top 10. Aside from the extraneous final scene Visitor Q is sort of perfect. Battle Royale is the best drinking game since Jurassic Park and The Thing is possibly better than Alien.

Was considering my favourite films the other day. Though it's becoming more and more impossible to rank them. Joint top five of Blind Beast, The Bedroom, The Seventh Continent, Phenomena and The Doom Generation. And L'age D'or. And Tokyo Drifter. And Godzilla Vs Mothra. Argh.

Trying to think of God Tier films that have come out in the last 5 years, can only think of Spring Breakers, Only God Forgives and Enter The Void. Evidently I have a fluorescence fetish.

I gotta cosign The Doom Generation.. That movie was too damn tough. I had the poster for it and everything. Top 10 GOAT '90's indie flick (fuck the haters). Also GOAT '90's road movie (remember when everyone was making them shits back in the day?) Gregg Araki is my nigga, real talk. Its as if Gregg was channeling the essence of Waters and is the reason I love Rose McGowan. I'd let Rose shit in my mouf, damn. I'll even forgive him for Splendor. My favorite Araki film is Nowhere. Shit is a classic underrated teen flick. Top 10 alternate for Kids. I remember losing my shit in the theatre lobby on the way out from seeing The Aristocrats (GOAT documentary, imo) when I saw the poster for Mysterious Skin. Nigga wasn't even checkin' for JGH until after that film. Gregg Araki and I even share the same birthday.

[Lord Satori]

Reply

You don't need to type the word "reply" to indicate that you're replying. -_-

[Some-Mist]

Trying to think of God Tier films that have come out in the last 5 years

depends on what you like, but a few of my favorites of the last 5 years:

un prophete
the master
upstream color (actually saw this as a double feature with primer and a q+a with shane carruth after )


I really loved "hesher", "wrong", "no", "the guard", and "jodorowsky's dune" too but wouldn't consider them god tier. I'm a big Harmony Korine fan too and I really thought Spring Breakers was a waste of time - tho it was funny seeing people leave the theater pissed.

[emphatic]

There's very little to be a fan of. It's somewhere between distinctly average and implausible stupidity.

Yet it's better than The Last of the Mohicans. I saw that in the cinema and was like, never again, Michael Mann.

[lilmanjs]

are mistaken for Koreans..

The horror...

What do you expect from a movie directed by Nagisa Oshima?

[Moniker]

un prophete
the master
upstream color (actually saw this as a double feature with primer and a q+a with shane carruth after )

Great list. Un Prophete really was fantastic, up there with the best of American mob films, but the director's piece de resistance is "De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté," or, "The Beat that My Heart Skipped." Fucking amazing. Watched it a billion times when I rented it from a local film rental, and now I need to find a way to watch it again. The main character is one of my favorite protagonists. It also has one of my favorite movie turn-arounds that I'd put in that thread I started.

Upstream Color... you gotta admire a director who operates on pure mathematical principle. Definitely better than Primer, but more emotionally compelling by far. Need to rewatch it another few times and read some internet analyses to understand it properly. This guy pretty much started the puzzle-film, which is a valuable new addition.

W/r/t The Master, I've already sung its praises. Must see nigh-perfect film.

I'd have to add to your list No Country for Old Men. The craft in that one is unsurpassed. The villain is easily among the best ever.

[boagman]

What's wrong with having Predator in your top 10?

Nothing if you don't take a shit on Heat.

This is, at the very least, completely on-target. I happen to like "Predator" a good bit. In terms of which one is better, though? Somehow *every single piece of dialogue* in "Heat" is better than, say, 90% of the dialogue in "Predator".

I find it laughable that anyone would think that "Predator" is the better movie between the two, and this is coming from someone who thinks that "Predator", too, is a fun watch.

[EmperorIng]

Universal Soldier - This is really silly. Halfway through Dolph Lundgren must have finally realized he was in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, and stops giving all fucks. I love it. This might be one of the only Hal Emmerich movies I like.

Godzilla 2014 - passable entertainment. I liked it, liked what it was trying to do, but it didn't go far enough in giving me what I wanted. I wanted Godzilla dammit. If it gave me one solid half-hour of Godzilla-on-cockroach fighting, I'd have been a happy man. Pacific Rim remains the superior monster mash!

Death Journey - It's pretty incredible. Not only is this movie my new contender for the worst film I have ever watched, but it's directed and starring the same person too! Fred Williamson, I love ya man, but that's two strikes (Mean Johnny Barrows), and Death Journey sucks so hard that I'm counting it as two itself. I guess you hoped that audiences would enjoy you ambling around with some fat Jewish guy for 90 minutes, punctuated by low-octane fight scenes. At least Mean Johnny Barrows had an assassin whose only weapon was his car. And his name was Armor. That's cool. Death Journey is not.

[Never_Scurred]

What's wrong with having Predator in your top 10?

Nothing if you don't take a shit on Heat.

This is, at the very least, completely on-target. I happen to like "Predator" a good bit. In terms of which one is better, though? Somehow *every single piece of dialogue* in "Heat" is better than, say, 90% of the dialogue in "Predator".

I find it laughable that anyone would think that "Predator" is the better movie between the two, and this is coming from someone who thinks that "Predator", too, is a fun watch.

I'll put it like this:
Heat: Only ever revisit for the Deniro/Pacino restaurant scene and the shootout-both of which I can watch on YT without crap that is the rest of the movie.

Predator: Never gets old. Can sit and watch all the way through multiple times and never get bored.

Universal Soldier - This is really silly. Halfway through Dolph Lundgren must have finally realized he was in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, and stops giving all fucks. I love it. This might be one of the only Hal Emmerich movies I like.

Godzilla 2014 - passable entertainment. I liked it, liked what it was trying to do, but it didn't go far enough in giving me what I wanted. I wanted Godzilla dammit. If it gave me one solid half-hour of Godzilla-on-cockroach fighting, I'd have been a happy man. Pacific Rim remains the superior monster mash!

Death Journey - It's pretty incredible. Not only is this movie my new contender for the worst film I have ever watched, but it's directed and starring the same person too! Fred Williamson, I love ya man, but that's two strikes (Mean Johnny Barrows), and Death Journey sucks so hard that I'm counting it as two itself. I guess you hoped that audiences would enjoy you ambling around with some fat Jewish guy for 90 minutes, punctuated by low-octane fight scenes. At least Mean Johnny Barrows had an assassin whose only weapon was his car. And his name was Armor. That's cool. Death Journey is not.

Man, I kinda liked Death Journey, then again, though I lean more towards his '80's Italian films.

[Moniker]

What's wrong with having Predator in your top 10?

Nothing if you don't take a shit on Heat.

This is, at the very least, completely on-target. I happen to like "Predator" a good bit. In terms of which one is better, though? Somehow *every single piece of dialogue* in "Heat" is better than, say, 90% of the dialogue in "Predator".

I find it laughable that anyone would think that "Predator" is the better movie between the two, and this is coming from someone who thinks that "Predator", too, is a fun watch.

I think the crux of the issue is that Heat attempts, and fails, to be ambitious, whereas Predator humbly and completely fulfills the quintessential 80s action flick requirements. I'd have to say Predator is the better movie, because it knows its strengths, weaknesses, and expectations, whereas Heat tries to elevate itself above its expectations and doesn't succeed. Heat is still an eminently watchable and entertaining flick. But its reach exceeds its grasp, which isn't true of Predator.

[EmperorIng]

If you liked Death Journey, you might like Mean Johnny Barrows.

Or better yet, Black Cobra. That one is really quite fun. Definitely more "Italian," since the main bad guy, the titular Black Cobra (but the movie refers to Fred Williamson as the black cobra wait) is one of the most goonish wops to ever grace cinema.

[Never_Scurred]

If you liked Death Journey, you might like Mean Johnny Barrows.

Or better yet, Black Cobra. That one is really quite fun.

Lol, you know I fuck with Black Cobra 1 and 2.

[EmperorIng]

You're scum. Human garbage.

[chum]

Trying to think of God Tier films that have come out in the last 5 years, can only think of Spring Breakers, Only God Forgives and Enter The Void. Evidently I have a fluorescence fetish.

I think Enter the Void belongs in the trash. Spring Breakers is entertaining for what it is but can't match Korine's previous efforts (particularly the outstanding Julien Donkey-Boy)

My picks would be Play (dir. Ruben Östlund) and Like You Know It All (dir. Hong Sang-Soo) for great movies made in the last 5 years, though admittedly I kind of don't keep up

[boagman]

Heat is still an eminently watchable and entertaining flick. But its reach exceeds its grasp, which isn't true of Predator.

I can live with this. I still prefer "Heat" when a gun's at my head, but I'd rather not get rid of either of them. I don't necessarily agree that "Heat" doesn't hit its marks, but I can understand why someone might say that. That being said, "Predator" doesn't exactly reach for the stratosphere, either, does it? Don't get me wrong..."Predator" is a great deal of 80's movie fun, but it's not exactly any kind of cinematic challenge, now is it?

[rapoon]

haven't we had this discussion about Heat before?

I vividly remember watching it in an LA theatre as a teenager.

great cast, great script (I love heist films), fucking awesome OST (Moby's "god moving over the face of the water" during final scene).
to me, it's a gem and has a warm spot in my top 10.

on another note, I watched 2001 again (was 15 or 16 last time I saw it) and it was awesome. granted I was baked out of my mind and
just about everything is epiphanic when you're high.

[GaijinPunch]

great cast, great script (I love heist films), fucking awesome OST (Moby's "god moving over the face of the water" during final scene).

Yep, mentioned last page.
I probably care more about score here than anyone else... or at least as much as the diehards. Akira is definitely in my Top 3 (maybe 1) but the visuals are only half. The soundtrack is what takes that movie from good to God... perhaps moreso than any other film. The only other two I can think of where the soundtrack is "half the movie" is Blade Runner and No Country for Old Men (as it's absent).

[rapoon]

great cast, great script (I love heist films), fucking awesome OST (Moby's "god moving over the face of the water" during final scene).

Yep, mentioned last page.
I probably care more about score here than anyone else... or at least as much as the diehards. Akira is definitely in my Top 3 (maybe 1) but the visuals are only half. The soundtrack is what takes that movie from good to God... perhaps moreso than any other film. The only other two I can think of where the soundtrack is "half the movie" is Blade Runner and No Country for Old Men (as it's absent).

after I posted that, I went back a page and saw your comment very nice.

scores huge for me as well (Akira: "requiem" and "kaneda") and is often the foundation for any emotional attachment I have to a film.
ya, I also noticed the tangerine dream comment and it got me thinking about "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the track played during the museum scene which
I always thought was a tangerine dream song. turns out it's an instrumental version of "please, please, please, let me get what I want"

Ferris Museum Track

two personal fav OST's are "The Mission" (Ennio Morricone) and "The Thin Red Line"

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, the Ferris Bueller track I figured out some years later. Another soundtrack Tangerine Dream did is Miracle Mile, which is a pretty interesting film as well. Definitely worth checking out. The soundtrack is more into their New Age stuff and less about their weird stuff unfortunately, but still good.

[Some-Mist]

un prophete
the master
upstream color (actually saw this as a double feature with primer and a q+a with shane carruth after )

Great list. Un Prophete really was fantastic, up there with the best of American mob films, but the director's piece de resistance is "De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté," or, "The Beat that My Heart Skipped." Fucking amazing. Watched it a billion times when I rented it from a local film rental, and now I need to find a way to watch it again. The main character is one of my favorite protagonists. It also has one of my favorite movie turn-arounds that I'd put in that thread I started.

Upstream Color... you gotta admire a director who operates on pure mathematical principle. Definitely better than Primer, but more emotionally compelling by far. Need to rewatch it another few times and read some internet analyses to understand it properly. This guy pretty much started the puzzle-film, which is a valuable new addition.

W/r/t The Master, I've already sung its praises. Must see nigh-perfect film.

I'd have to add to your list No Country for Old Men. The craft in that one is unsurpassed. The villain is easily among the best ever.

looks like I'll be adding the beat that my heart skipped to my list. I love the recommendations

At the UC/Primer Q&A Carruth talked a little bit about his next film which is about an ocean and trading by ship and he said it's very different from both primer and upstream color. I forget the word he used but I think he said it had an "elemental" focus. I hope it's still a film left to the viewer to interpret for themselves.
some guy who got the microphone asked "So what did Upstream Color mean?" - Carruth then asked the crowd if they wanted an explanation and everyone boo'd. I thought it was hilarious but I honestly couldn't figure it out after my first viewing either. definitely wouldn't have asked him to explain it. it seems like nearly all his fans like to try and decipher it (at least those who were there), and I'm pretty sure Carruth enjoys reading viewers interpretations too. I'm not going to lie though... I did look up the concept online after having seen it and it all finally clicked when I rewatched it.

I've quickly become a huge PTA fan mainly because of The Master. I take it you're probably as excited as I am for his next flick Inherent Vice? Pretty entertaining book (an easy read for Pynchon) and an allstar cast. I don't see how it can be anything but good.


-------

saw Dance of Reality tonight. I remember reading a comment on here how El Topo felt a bit amateurish (which I would agree with) but I couldn't get that out of my head nor help but feel that about Dance of Reality too. A few parts felt kind of like a soap opera, but it did add to the surrealism in an odd way. overall it was pretty entertaining. worth the price of admission but I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you're already a Jodorowsky fan. As expected there were some very bizarre parts

Spoiler

the mother pissing all over the fathers face and body to cure him of his infection, the dog show in which the "loser" committed suicide, the mother singing all of her parts, the grandfather's "hairpiece" that the son wore, etc..

I get that a lot of it was symbolic but it's still unsettling to see it on screen

[Skykid]

great cast, great script (I love heist films), fucking awesome OST (Moby's "god moving over the face of the water" during final scene).

Yep, mentioned last page.
I probably care more about score here than anyone else... or at least as much as the diehards. Akira is definitely in my Top 3 (maybe 1) but the visuals are only half. The soundtrack is what takes that movie from good to God... perhaps moreso than any other film. The only other two I can think of where the soundtrack is "half the movie" is Blade Runner and No Country for Old Men (as it's absent).

Absolutely. Akira's score is one of the finest accomplishments in movie history IMO, a piece of art that elevates another piece of art.

Also completely approve of your appreciation for the absence of music - something I often wish more directors understood.

@Rapoon: Heat and 2001 in the same breath pains my heart. One a seminal masterpiece, the other the movie equivalent of a Happy Meal. :ouch!:

@Scurred: some nice picks in the top ten mang. Although I refuse to compile a definitive list of my own (impossible task) I respect your respect for Hard Boiled, a film where plot and dialogue means nothing when appreciated for its spectacular Bullet Ballet - unmatched in my opinion.

I probably would have knocked it and Battle Royale further down the rankings. I think Carpenter's Thing is superior to both - especially BR. It has its moments but in revisits it doesn't qualify as a 'great' movie for me.