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Rate the latest movie you've seen.

Started by GalacticBusDriver, February 16, 2013, 12:37:09 AM

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Gawdzilla Sama

I loved Tony's ad lib line about the video game.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Shiranu

#5566
Ran (Chaos) - 1985, Akira Kurozawa

Mix "King Lear" and feudal Japan, add in Buddhist philosophic thought and heavy pessimism, and sprinkle that with the best cinematography from one of the greatest directors to ever live and you get Ran. While a long movie (which being a Shakespeare-adaptation, that is to be expected), the pacing is never horribly slow and the scene changes are marked by transitions looking at the sky, making good markers on where you can take a break.

At this stage of his life, after decades of being denied funding for his movies because he had both simultaneously became "Too Western" and also "Too 'Old-School' Japanese"... Kurozawa had clearly grown depressed and disillusioned with the cinema business (he had tried to commit suicide about ten years before), but also with the idea that his humanity could ever live at peace with one another, a theme repeated several times in this movie... though I think like several of the characters, he also accepted this reality and found peace in doing what little he could. Edit: - Apparently his wife died during the production of this film as well, so that probably... didn't help...

Between the cinematography, the story, the setting and the Buddhist undertones throught... I would go out on a limb and say this might be my favorite movie I have ever watched or at the very least my favorite character-heavy films I've ever seen.

And seriously, just looking at this... the movie is filled with scenes of this quality.

"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

trdsf

Check out Kurosawa's Dreams.  Kurosawa is one of the few directors who could've given lessons to Kubrick or Welles.  I think the technical term for him is "absolute fucking genius".
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: trdsf on May 21, 2020, 03:39:46 AM
Check out Kurosawa's Dreams.  Kurosawa is one of the few directors who could've given lessons to Kubrick or Welles.  I think the technical term for him is "absolute fucking genius".
"The Fox Wedding" was interesting. That thing in the tunnel was pure PTSD.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Munch

I watched someone do a review of Avatar. He brought up some interesting points.

Anyone even remember that movie? When mentioning avatar it can be interpreted your talking about either the great animated series, that crap live action remake, or the movie with blue alien guys.

It for a while was the highest grossing movie of all time, and is still in the top 10 highest, but just because a movie makes a lot of money on ticket sales isn't a measure of its quality. It's like paying to see a football game but you come out disappointed despite how much you paid to see it, you and thousands others.

The only thing good about the movie is the cgi, it's pretty, for the time it was made. But they seriously can make video games with more advanced cgi today better then they could back then. The music was okay too but I seriously can't remember any of it, so dunno if I can even back that statement.
Everything else in avatar are plots copied from other movies, and average to flat out awful acting.

When I think about movies that left some kind of impact, ones I'll remember for the acting, music and cinematography, there are loads that have had more of an impact on me then this movie. Infact rewatching it, all it did was make me think of better movies they copied stories from I'd sooner be watching.

Pretty but shallow, like a hot guy or girl you see at a party but when you finally talk to them they have all the cognitive function of a walnut. And that's why it made so much money.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

SGOS

Coincidentally, I just watched Avatar again about a week ago.  I would put that film in my top 5 all time favorites.  And it does shamelessly borrow from other films, in this case, Dances with Wolves, which must have borrowed it's plot from something else, because I distinctly remember experiencing Deja vu when I saw Dances.  But I don't mind a borrowed plot, especially when it's done better than the one before it.  Avatar was also my introduction to the new 3D or "fake" 3D as it's sometimes called, but Cameron was a rare director that knew what to do with 3D.  He set the stage and showed what possibilities 3D could add to movie making, but it was all downhill from then on, except for Dr. Strange.  Most directors just saw the possibilities of 3D as extra profit the way a drug company mixes two older drugs into a new one with a new name, and charges 4 times more.  You can't just shoot a haunted house in 3D and call it added value.  But Cameron milked it with concepts that seem almost gratuitous, like the floating islands, cliff diving, and distant panoramas with bold foregrounds.  I once paged through all of Amazons 3D films to see which ones would justify me buying a new 3D projector, but there were only two, Avatar and Dr. Strange.  There were a couple of others that I added just to try and make a more solid case for the purchase, but apparently that wasn't enough.

I was especially taken by the colors in Avatar.  Parts of the jungle glowed astonishingly bright colors seldom seen in films and included iridescent floating things that drifted silently by or landed on a character marking him as chosen by the sacred life mother.  The wildlife was a bit over the top, but I was totally willing to submit to the fantasy and just lose myself in the film.

I don't want to debate this.  Others may feel differently, and that's OK.  I just wanted to express my appreciation for that film.  I don't know why things click differently for people, nor can I explain why I love some films that critics hate, or hate some films that critics fawn over, but it's a chance to share differences in things we enjoy, rather than distance ourselves because of our views.  I love movies.  I love loving movies.  But I'll walk out of the theater in the middle of some films too.

Mike Cl

SGOS I like Avatar (in my top 5 as well) for much the same reasons as you do.  I think it is a great film.  Hurtlocker sucks and I was quite upset when it beat out Avatar.  I have given the Oscars much attention since.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Blackleaf

I like Avatar mainly because it does something that I rarely see. It takes us to an alien planet and shows us all the interesting fauna in it. Plants and animals, and the unique co-evolutionary trait they have of being able to link minds. It was very interesting stuff. Of course, the world has these aliens that basically look like humans, but taller and blue, and they're comparatively boring compared to the wildlife. But I do often wonder, if we ever find alien life, how similar would it be to life here? Would it be weird, like nothing we've ever seen before, or would convergent evolution result in life following certain blueprints? Personally, I suspect it is unlikely that an alien planet would have anything like us there, given that in all of Earth's history, we're the only species like us. Flying squirrels, lizards, and bats all independently developed membranes between their limbs that allowed them to glide, but no lizard has ever built or used tools. I think humans are a huge fluke.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

aitm

Extraction, meh. Take a over the hill John wick style action film where one guy wipe out 500 others and it becomes really boring.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Hydra009

#5574
I dunno why everyone likes Avatar so much.  M. Night Shyamalan has really lost edge.  Korra was better, imo.

Baruch

#5575
Quote from: Munch on May 22, 2020, 10:49:13 PM
I watched someone do a review of Avatar. He brought up some interesting points.

Anyone even remember that movie? When mentioning avatar it can be interpreted your talking about either the great animated series, that crap live action remake, or the movie with blue alien guys.

It for a while was the highest grossing movie of all time, and is still in the top 10 highest, but just because a movie makes a lot of money on ticket sales isn't a measure of its quality. It's like paying to see a football game but you come out disappointed despite how much you paid to see it, you and thousands others.

The only thing good about the movie is the cgi, it's pretty, for the time it was made. But they seriously can make video games with more advanced cgi today better then they could back then. The music was okay too but I seriously can't remember any of it, so dunno if I can even back that statement.
Everything else in avatar are plots copied from other movies, and average to flat out awful acting.

When I think about movies that left some kind of impact, ones I'll remember for the acting, music and cinematography, there are loads that have had more of an impact on me then this movie. Infact rewatching it, all it did was make me think of better movies they copied stories from I'd sooner be watching.

Pretty but shallow, like a hot guy or girl you see at a party but when you finally talk to them they have all the cognitive function of a walnut. And that's why it made so much money.

A better FernGully, that I also saw.  And Dances With Wolves, and Little Big Man.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hydra009

#5576
I rewatched Blair Witch 2 for like the 6th time.  This film gets a lot of crap, but personally, I think it's genius.

They're mad because they had bad expectations due to false assumptions about the nature of the movie.  It's not a copy-paste of the original, that would be boring.  Nor is it a completely conventional horror flick like the trailer would lead one to believe.  It's something entirely different: a deconstruction of the first film, an exploration of the interface of pop culture and reality and how fan obsession and madness can cause a sort of mass hysteria and real violence.  "Blair Witch: hysteria or history?"

This movie was made for theorists, which is ironic, because it also warns against the sort of obsessive analysis that it actively encourages.  Because the unreliable narrator trope and the fact that the entire main cast is increasingly off their rockers, it's very difficult to piece together what's actually going on.  The only clue is that what's captured on film (in-universe film) is genuine, while what everyone thinks is happening or remembers happening is suspect.

A LOT of what goes on in the film makes very little logical sense, and the main joy of this film is putting together a theory about what really happened in a way that conforms to as many facts as possible and makes the least amount of assumptions.  And like the first film, my working theory is that there is nothing supernatural going on - no witch, no witchcraft - just mentally-damaged people who somehow unleashed each other's bottled-up madness and went on an absolute bender one night.

The real villain is mankind, and always has been.  The witch is just a scapegoat, just like historical witches.

Munch

#5577
I watched Addams family and Addams family values, the ones from the 90s. I forgot how good these movies were. Sat watching them both with my mum in hysterics.
The directing and cinematography in both were really good, and the acting, just about all performers gave it their all, especially anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd.
I really don't find any fault in the two movies, they felt like something Steven Spielberg had directed back then, dark humour and slapstick done right.

To me these are the definitive Addams family, even more then the original series, though that still has its charm today.
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Hydra009

Quote from: Munch on May 24, 2020, 07:09:22 AMTo me these are the definitive Addams family, even more then the original series, though that still has its charm today.
In the original series, I really liked the scene where Wednesday is upset about a story the school made her read: a story of a knight slaying a dragon.  The father and mother consider it an outrage.

Shiranu

#5579
Master and Commander - Really great, I wish it didn't end on a cliff-hanger. Might have to give the novels a go sometime, who knows.

Between my mom living in the Caribbean and about a third of my family is Navy, so it checked a fair few boxes for me. I definitely see why it's popular in my family now, and it's an interesting look at what life would have been like in those times... much the same way that 1917  was a visual way to understand the horrors of that time.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur