Movies you've just watched

[Skykid]

It's a bit before my time so perhaps I'm missing something here but I'm still half-guessing Skykid would rather pretend this didn't exist.

What, Krull is awesome. Do you want to read my full professional review for a limited time only?

[iconoclast]

Question: What's the last movie that "left you reeling" because of how absolutely outstanding it was?

I think Woman in the Dunes and Ikiru are the only movies I've seen in the last year that I immediately rated five stars after watching, so them.

Welcome Back Mr. McDonald has also taken over as my favorite comedy, but that took a little longer to grow on me.

[drauch]

Watched Ikiru myself this year, and coincidentally, almost watched Woman in the Dunes the other day! Ikiru is up there with my favorite Kurosawa now. Just thinking about some of those scenes are depressing me now... thanks!

[rapoon]

Question: What's the last movie that "left you reeling" because of how absolutely outstanding it was?

recent: Incendies. bar none the best movie i've seen since the year of it's release (2011).

older: sorceror (first heard of this movie via drauch) and cross of iron.

I want to wife her so bad.

you and me both. she's adorable, and a striking resemblance to audrey hepburn.
if you liked amelie's quirkiness, everything by jean-pierre jeunet is worth checking out. i like to think of him as a french wes anderson.

[Skykid]

Movie related but more on the side of inquiry about screening processes. Went to see Interstellar for a second time today in the IMAX, and as soon as they started talking the audio was out of sync - ahead by about a second. Obviously with lip sync out it was unwatchable, especially since the movie relies a lot on audio/visual conjunction, so I got up and left.

We were speaking to the manager who informed the operator. After 30 minutes the operator came to ask me to go back to the theatre to check the audio, and I told him it was now fine.

Here's the curious bit: they said they had to phone Canada to fix it.

It was corrected without interruption to the movie, but phone Canada? So we're speculating on how this works. I know it's digital, but how is it being served? Do the theatres literally have screenings made via an online service? So in the event of a sync issue etc, they need to phone abroad to resolve it?

Very unusual. I was hoping someone could shed some light on it. Either way, we've been given centre VIP seats for tomorrow's afternoon showing and two complimentary tickets for another movie, so it ain't so bad.

[Xyga]

Canada is such a perfectly synchronized country that just giving it a call will put everything in place.

Anyway the website says " almost 10 times the resolution of standard projection formats, with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theater geometry " whatever this means.

Are you sure that format is (completely) digital IMAX ?

[Skykid]

Canada is such a perfectly synchronized country that just giving it a call will put everything in place.

Anyway the website says " almost 10 times the resolution of standard projection formats, with powerful, laser-aligned digital sound and customized theater geometry " whatever this means.

Are you sure that format is (completely) digital IMAX ?

100% sure.

It's just the method they said they used to fix it made it sound like it was streamed from overseas and they needed to contact them to sync it, making me wonder about distribution of digital film these days. I mean if China's IMAX theatres are basically given passcodes to access a server across the continent and shoot the movie through the projector, it's news to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is how physical media and legwork is being cut down these days.

[Xyga]

If that's the case then Holy Bandwidth !

[BPzeBanshee]

Wow, that poster is amazing!

I thought it was pretty awesome myself and thought about posting it in the movie posters thread, but I don't think it's actually an original. Note "Twitch" at the bottom. Pretty sure this is the original, which I don't think looks too bad either.

What, Krull is awesome. Do you want to read my full professional review for a limited time only?

If you're serious I'm very curious as to what you think of it. Seems strange to me that you'd be all over something with a seemingly weak script (although it has its moments, the old man in the spider's cave was actually pretty good and it doesn't surprise me that the two ended up in Dune after that) when that's exactly the sort of thing you bang on against for stuff like Inception and Transformers.

[Skykid]

If that's the case then Holy Bandwidth !

Yah!

What, Krull is awesome. Do you want to read my full professional review for a limited time only?

If you're serious I'm very curious as to what you think of it. Seems strange to me that you'd be all over something with a seemingly weak script (although it has its moments, the old man in the spider's cave was actually pretty good and it doesn't surprise me that the two ended up in Dune after that) when that's exactly the sort of thing you bang on against for stuff like Inception and Transformers.

Full professional review incoming (for a limited time only). Enjoy:

It was for a limited time only.

[CMoon]

Great movie list Drauch, also, yeah, always good to see Woman in the Dunes get mentioned Iconoclast. I need every weekend to be 4 days long so I can catch up with that list. Glad to see someone give The Keep a little respect...not a great movie for all the normal movie reason, but a very different and interesting film regardless.

I finished Wages of Fear last night and am still riding a high from it. Makes me want to re-read death ship, which is something like Wages of Fear meets Moby Dick (there's actually a fair amount in common and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some inspiration.)

[drauch]

At first I couldn't really decide if I liked Wages or Sorcerer better, and at a point, sort of just considered them equal. While they're based on the same story, there's still some differences in character and locale that makes each unique, but after some serious debate and sitting on it for awhile, I think I much prefer Sorcerer. Friedkin not only ups the suspense a bit, but you get a better view of the squalid lifestyle of this remote jungle town and the political unrest going on. Each shot is dripped in sweat and agony and frustration, each resident brimming with desperation to get out of this sticky, jungle hell. I felt like I was getting malaria from it! I can confidently say it's one of the best films I've ever seen. I don't really like speaking so grandiosely and putting a prize on "the best," but it does everything right for me to adore it and sing its praise.

[Mischief Maker]

Question: What's the last movie that "left you reeling" because of how absolutely outstanding it was?

Not sure if I'm answering your intended question, but while I've appreciated a lot of films over the last couple years, "The Fountain" was the last movie to leave me reeling. It's fully the equal of Requiem for a Dream in terms of emotional assault, but while that movie leaves you feeling filthy and horrible, The Fountain leaves you feeling almost cleansed. It's also gorgeous with a score to match. And why the hell is Hugh Jackman typecast as goddamn Wolverine? He's amazing in this movie!

It wasn't so much "reeling" as "jarring" when the otherwise goofball comedy movie "Journey to the West" lifted imagery from The Fountain.

[Some-Mist]

"The Fountain"

saw this in theaters and it almost instantly became one of my favorite movies. had this made years after it's release for 360/ps3/pc/ps2/dc

Spoiler

together we will live forever

[Skykid]

Question: What's the last movie that "left you reeling" because of how absolutely outstanding it was?

Not sure if I'm answering your intended question, but while I've appreciated a lot of films over the last couple years, "The Fountain" was the last movie to leave me reeling. It's fully the equal of Requiem for a Dream in terms of emotional assault, but while that movie leaves you feeling filthy and horrible, The Fountain leaves you feeling almost cleansed. It's also gorgeous with a score to match. And why the hell is Hugh Jackman typecast as goddamn Wolverine? He's amazing in this movie!

It wasn't so much "reeling" as "jarring" when the otherwise goofball comedy movie "Journey to the West" lifted imagery from The Fountain.

Hm, I didn't mind the fountain, but I felt it over reached itself slightly. It had good moments and concepts, but fell foul to meandering and some airy plot developments for me. While I liked it for a one time only watch, I certainly didn't didn't think it was the equal of the caged beast of Requiem, although the antithesis in theme, certainly. Few films can match Requiem for sheer, ludicrous nerve-shredding horror.

Was Journey to the West the recent Stephen Chow movie? I can't remember the specific lifted scene, but mentioning a parallel with The Fountain rings a bell.

[Some-Mist]

Hm, I didn't mind the fountain, but I felt it over reached itself slightly. It had good moments and concepts, but fell foul to meandering and some airy plot developments for me. While I liked it for a one time only watch, I certainly didn't didn't think it was the equal of the caged beast of Requiem, although the antithesis in theme, certainly. Few films can match Requiem for sheer, ludicrous nerve-shredding horror.

I actually hated requiem for a dream, tho I can do a pretty good impression of Jared Leto saying, "MA, YOU ON UPPAZ? YOU DROPPIN UPPAZ MA?!?". Overall, it felt like an overly graphic film for the sake of being a piece of DARE propaganda, but that might be because it was originally shown to me in school for just that purpose. It's definitely not something I enjoy rewatching... whereas I've been able to rewatch the fountain on countless occasions and have still been able to find/form an even deeper connection with subsequent viewings.

Those are the movies I love to watch...the ones where you can rewatch them countless times and still enjoy it as much - if not more - than the first time you saw it.

I can't really rewatch Pi either (for other reasons), but I can say that I felt it was more enjoyable than requiem too.

[Stevens]

I watched Krull again not too long ago, I thought it had aged pretty well.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Bally (which was already a subsidy of Williams Electronics) did release a dedicated arcade upright cabinet of Krull to accompany the theatrical movie of the same name as well...it was even shown on an episode of Starcade with gameshow host, Geoff Edwards, giving it national exposure indeed. For many Starcade contestants, playing some of those newest arcade game titles was their first time trying 'em out.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[lilmanjs]

Muppets Most Wanted.
Good cast of known actors in the other roles and the story was decent. Made me laugh and I liked that. I have sitting unopened for months now, Woman in The Dunes. I guess I need to get on it, but with my backlog of lots of 50s and 60s Japanese cinema to go through (mostly gangster and film noir movies), I'm not sure if that should be first.

[Iron Peach]

Battle Royale (J-version)

Two questions: Why does the crazy student have infinite uzi ammo? and what in hell is up with the ending?

[KindGrind]

So many good movies mentioned. Random post ahead.

Sluizer's The Vanishing belongs in my top 15 ever, a great watch for anybody around these parts. Fascinating.

I really liked The Fountain. Upon several rewatches, I think the movie tried a bit too hard to push a kind of tear-jerking agenda, and it put me off a bit. The CGI (or lack or it in some sections) was great and refreshing. Clint Mansell's music swept me off my feet... Again.

Requiem for a Dream is a great book, but is a towering movie achievement for me. No movie has my insides churn like this. More than 10 years after the fact, I'm still pissed that Erin Fucking Brokovich stole Burnstyn her Oscar. Despite the movie's themes, I think the movie is a very "cool" one. Edgy editing, inventive use of camera, great use of color... Acting perfect from all the members of the cast.

Woman in the Dunes I found unsettling, which means it struck a chord with me. Pretty rare for a Japanese movie to have this effect on me. There's something I think I don't get in most Jap movies. I miss cultural references or lack historical knowledge to fully appreciate the works of people like Ozu or even Kurozawa. I really tried, but could never get into those 2. Watching Tokyo Story, for example, I remember feeling totally numb, and found it boring as hell. Kurosawa, even his epics, also left me pretty unimpressed. Even the much revered Seven Samurai I found interesting, no more.

Wake in Fright was excellent, surprisingly visceral. Watched within the last month, had never heard of it. Have no idea how the idea: "Hey let's watch this" entered my brain. Not for the faint of heart, be advised.

I'll look into the Sorceror. Krull, I think I've watched it as a kid. Thanks for the input!

Edit: If I were to answer my own question, movies that made an enormous impression on me/that I love (apart for some mentioned above)... I'd say...: Three Colors: Blue, Werckmeister Harmonies, The Royal Tenenbaums, Days of Heaven, Before Sunset, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Chungking Express, Trainspotting, Brazil, Man Bites Dog, There Will be Blood, Festen, The Sacrifice, Fanny and Alexander, to name a few!

[drauch]

Yeah, don't feel bad. I could never really get into a lot of French New Wave and similar stuff myself. Jules and Jim and Breathless piss me off, and I found Shoot the Piano Player as sorta meh, but I love The 400 Blows. I don't care, but sometimes it feels strange to be so into movies and despise ones that are so historically revered. That's personal taste, I suppose!

Been meaning to rewatch Man Bites Dog again. It's been over ten years now, but goddamn, I remember it so well and adore it. Days of Heaven is amazing, but I prefer Badlands when considering (what I consider) the two Malick masterpieces. I really like The Thin Red Line as well, but it starts to get into wee bit pretentious territory with the pondering Southern narrative. New World was purdy, but lacks substance. I'm basically done with him at this point. Kind of shows what success can do to an artist.

Really wish Before Sunrise/Before Sunset would get a BD. Watched Before Midnight this year and enjoyed it, although I have mixed feelings. It's a bit superfluous and paints a way different picture. At times depressing and uplifting and very real, but I kind of wish it just didn't exist. Thematically the "film per 10 years" idea is intriguing, buuuuuut I really don't want to watch the struggles of independence within the married couple with children. "Go home and be a family man!" No thanks, Guile; I'd rather just watch movies.

Have you seen any other Herzog or Wong Kar-Wai? Fitzcarraldo and Fallen Angels are my favorites, respectively.

[EmperorIng]

The Italian movies of the 50s and 60s did the whole era better imo. I think one of my favorite directors out of the French group was Franju, who was only barely part of the New Wave movement, and liked making high-class pulpy movies, as opposed to Godard's low-class pulp!

What, Krull is awesome. Do you want to read my full professional review for a limited time only?

If you're serious I'm very curious as to what you think of it. Seems strange to me that you'd be all over something with a seemingly weak script (although it has its moments, the old man in the spider's cave was actually pretty good and it doesn't surprise me that the two ended up in Dune after that) when that's exactly the sort of thing you bang on against for stuff like Inception and Transformers.

Full professional review incoming (for a limited time only).

Krull is such goofy fun that it's hard not to like.

Its silly premise is headed up with a serious Hollywood budget, really fun special effects, and 80s glam-rock hair that makes everything work so good.

It's a really accessible "dumb" movie that people can easily enjoy. Just describing it gives me joy; the movie's premise is pure heavy-metal. An evil group of intergalactic conquerors, the SLAYERS, led by their evil shapeshifting lord, the BEAST, set out to conquer [insert fantasy world with token Liam Neeson here].

[GaijinPunch]

"The Fountain"

saw this in theaters and it almost instantly became one of my favorite movies. had this made years after it's release for 360/ps3/pc/ps2/dc

Yeard good things about it and never got around to it. Might give it a whirl.

[chempop]

Always nice to hear positive thoughts on The Fountain! Certainly one of my favorites but similar to Cloud Atlas I sadly can’t often recommend it due to the heavy subject matter and “far out” nature. Agreed that Hugh was damn good in it, one of those actors who can pull of the Hollywood stuff to pay the bills and also really commit to a well written role (even if it was cast for Brad Pitt who basically walked on set and got the movie shut down on their first attempt filming). The DVD has a pretty interested “making of” that is worth checking out.

I just watched Snowpiercer, a very strange action/drama about the last human survivors living (and mostly killing each other) on a train after an attempt to neutralize global warming goes horribly wrong and the planet undergoes another ice-age. Pretty messed up stuff, over the top and absurd, but interesting and well acted enough for me to get absorbed from start to finish.

[Skykid]

Saw Interstellar for a second time. Screen was better, film worse. Under any kind if scrutiny it falls to bits on many levels. Again, I should mention I like Nolan's movies on a simple entertainment basis: his concepts and style are strong. His scriptwriting is impressively bad and his casting full of weak spots. I think he'd do better handing the reigns to someone else for those areas.

For those who have already seen it, here are all the errors, inaccuracies, stupidies and impossibilities I picked up this time:

Spoiler

1: In 2001 the future evolutionary beings who guide mankind are just that: beings. In Interstellar, which politely rips the gist, they're us: humans of the future. This instantly creates the circular timeflow chicken and egg issue that is an unresolvable error: if Cooper saves the human race from extinction by relaying TARS quantum data from inside the black hole, coding it into the watch hand's movements, so that gravity can be solved (the result lolworthily sidestepped in the name of plot advances) and escaped, all with the help of the future us, who saved the future us the first time around?

2: Messages from earth in space, yes? Messages from earth through a wormhole that already established complete non-functional electronics due to an absence of space and time that puts you several billion light years away? A veritable impossibility.

3: Matt Damon rigs a bomb set to explode from human tampering should anyone examine its data and then puts himself to sleep on a permanent basis. Fucking why again? This is tied to the movie's most heinous co-error, in that Matt Damien informs the newly arrived crew that the planet is habitable. Later it turns out to be a lie. The basis for the lie is that there is not enough fuel to allow Cooper to travel home in one of the ships and reach the next possible habitable planet at the same time. So thinking of protecting the mission he lures Cooper out on the promise finding habitable sites, only to attempt to kill him and then take control of the space station.
The problem is, he tells them the lie BEFORE Cooper receives his daughter's message and decides to go home, meaning Damon had no reason whatsoever to lie. He could have just said the planet is useless, where to next. Additionally, Cooper is a rational astronaut - had he been told the remaining fuel had to go toward seeking out the last hope destination, rather than seeing his kids die on earth, would he really have put up a fight? Of course not. This entire section of the movie was a ridiculous deus ex machina for a crazy naut scenario and a bit of fighting.

3: When Damon and Cooper go looking for their first habitable site, how far do they walk exactly? Cos when Hathaway comes to save Coop in the ship, it looks like she flies about 300 miles!

4: Physicists explaining wormhole theory to astronauts.

5: Cringeworthy scripting honourable mention: Boy coughs violently "it's the dust" he says to his aunt. Like she doesn't fucking know dipshit! The world's population is dying from dust inhalation, but you need to remind her it's not from your chronic underage cigar habit? Terrible.

6: Cooper arrives on Cooper Station at the film's end, where he's informed by his 100 year old daughter that he needs to "go to Brand, who's setting up camp on our new home"... how does she have this information? According to relativity, Brand would only have just arrived there, while this old creature has been busy having 50 years worth of babies. Secondly, if they did receive reports of a habitable planet, wouldn't they have dispatched an army of personnel immediately, rather than waiting for Cooper to steal a ship and go alone? What kind of first-draft high school scriptwriting nonsense is this? It's a bit embarrassing.

7: Terrible actor honourable mentions: Doyle, useless. Both black guys, crap, and the blonde school teacher, equally. Hathaway, smiling innapropriately. Caine, lacklustre. So most of the primary cast.

8: "Why did the future evolutionary humans choose your daughter?" "Because of love TARS, because of love!" Puke. What kind of Speilberg hokum is this about love being a quantifiable force to cross space and time? It's like something out of a sunday afternoon tv drama. Really hurts a hard sci fi product when you start crapping it up with this stuff.

9: Unprofessional trained astronaut of the year award: Anne Hathaway for trying to argue that loving her boyfriend is a legitimate reason to risk the future of the human race despite the evidence suggesting they should go elsewhere.

10: How long does it take to input quantum physics data relating to defying gravity into morse code format? That's quite an undertaking.

11: Michael Caine noting Cooper is one of the last true space pilots left, so he believes he was brought there for a reason... if that's the case, why didn't Caine simply seek him out directly? Way to go NASA. Smart.

12: In relativity terms, when Cooper is in the tesseract knocking books off, he's not actually been away from home that long - most of the journey was in cryosleep. So why the hell does he repeat the exact same messages that he knew didn't work first time? "STAY" - Ok damn, that didn't work this time either. I know, morse code! Nope. Binary... Yeah, instead of binary saying "Yo fuckhead, it's you from the future, don't get on the ship, he instead gives himself the exact same coordinates that lead him to the NASA base to get back on the ship... wut? The contradiction ever, slick. You either want to stay or you want to go. Considering he's crying like a five year old girl "Don't let me leave Murph!", I couldn't quite gather why he decided to lead himself to the exact same spot.

There's way more, but I'll give Nolan the rest of the evening off to go away and think about what he's done, and how to better himself in future.

[KindGrind]

Have you seen any other Herzog or Wong Kar-Wai? Fitzcarraldo and Fallen Angels are my favorites, respectively.

I have seen everything Herzog, even the documentaries he narrates. He has a sort of mesmerizing voice... Hard to explain. One of my favourite directors, without a doubt. I really loved Aguirre for its raw performances, the overall spontaneity of the director in his choices. The fact that the crew was recruited locally (most of them), and that he had no script written prior to shooting on location. I really love the story behind him and Kinski as well. I fact, I think that "Watching My Best Fiend" made me love it even more. A perfect hour and a half, Aguirre. Fitzcarraldo is also an amazing accomplishment. A director willing to go the distance for his viewers to believe the action. To think they really did winch that boat through the land, and they did put the boat in the rapids with at leasr a cameraman on board... I even liked Cobra Verde quite a bit. Kaspar Hauser was very good, Stroszek wasn't my favourite, but I think it was my first Herzog ages ago. Grizzly Man I found amazing, Cave of Forgotten Dreams did send me to sleep the first time I watched it, but I liked what I saw when I revisited. Rescue Dawn, Nosferatu... quality movies, as well. I can't find much at fault with Herzog's filmmaking, much like Aronofsky prior to Noah, which I despised. What a piece of crap movie... (cinematic co-co-co-combo breaker)

I'm with you on the French New Wave. There's 100 Blows, and I didn't care much for any the rest, and French is my mother tongue... I do own a bunch of them, but will never bother rewatching. I think I did resell all the Criterions already.

Wong Kar Wai... I've watched Summer/Autumn/ect, 3-Iron, In the Mood for Love, 2046 and Chungking Express. Never watched Fallen Angels or anything else by him. Chungking is for me an oddity - I don't like the director's other movies much, but I absolutely loved that one. One of the most rewatchable movies out there, imo.

Someone mentioned Incendies... Although not a theater guy, I had seen the play locally (Mouawad living in the province) and had been really impressed by it. A draining experience if there ever was one. The movie was a capable adaptation, but I couldn't like it as much as the original... A very good movie, still, but I will probably never bother watching again.

A movie I've been meaning to watch is Exterminating Angel. Has anybody watched it? Thoughts? I've watched 3-4 other Bunuels... (Viridiana, Andalusian Dog, Discreet Charm, Milky Way..) SHould I expect something similar?

[MX7]

You'll probably like Fallen Angels. Pretty much the second half of Chungking Express.

[drauch]

So glad to see others feeling the same way about French New Wave. I always felt alone!

I still have a bit of Herzog to go myself. Love all the Kinski stuff the most; he's one of my favorite actors in general. So powerful and mesmerizing... and insane! Only Herzog I've yet to not care for was Heart of Glass. Love the cinematography and the sort of weirdness of it all, but in the end I just didn't care for it.

Wong Kar-Wai's best stuff is his early stuff. After In the Mood for Love I kind of stopped caring, as I really didn't like the unnecessary sequel that is 2046. I think those first two you listed are from Korean director Ki-duk Kim? Definitely give Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild and his other early films a shot. They had more of a distinct, almost sort of "wild" style that usually involved crime and the viewpoints and interactions of multiple characters.

I've still yet to see Exterminating Angel, but I'm a fan of his other stuff that I've seen. For what's it worth, my buddy claims it carries the same style. I usually read that people are quite fond of it, and it's probably his most imitated work--at least story-wise.

[Xyga]

Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy 1951)
I had only a vague memory of that movie since great Sword and Sandal movies pretty much disappeared from TV when I was still a kid.
So I enjoyed watching it 'again', it's not as pompous and cheesy-religious as, say, Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments, maybe because the characters and dialogues feel more casual and honest than your average pseudo-history-biblical recitation.
Some characters are very good (esp Plautius) and for once the hero guy isn't a blonde aryan-american super-hero.
Costumes, visuals etc are top-class Hollywood from that era when they actually put tremendous effort in making the thing look stunning in every fucking scene.
Don't look for historical or religious accuracy here, it's just pure Sword and Sandal madness from the golden era of the genre.

Now I wish I could find this in proper wide format (I had to watch it in 4:3), good Criterion-level quality, and maybe with original french dubs or at least subs to show it to my parents.
This has completely disappeared from the French video market...