Last Movie You Watched? the 8th

Hilly wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

THE ROYAL TENEBAUMS (2001, dir. Wes Anderson)

Delightful. My third favourite Anderson.

from the start, from the Baldwin narration I'm hooked. Powerful film.

And that great cover of Hey Jude.

I watched BODY HEAT. I liked it, but I wasn't overwhelmed. I may give it another viewing, though. I really like that specific time for some reason, 1981. Something about the look. Barry's score is a stunner, though. The cast is fantastic. Especially enjoyed seeing Ted Danson outside of the bar.

Can't wait for BODY HEAT II: ISLAND OF DORITOS.

Idiocracy - yep, it's all too believable regarding the 'rise of the cretins' that in 2505 (actually, will it even take until then?) the most popular TV show will be 'Ow, My Balls!' and the biggest Oscar-garlanded box-office hit will be called 'Ass'.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Idiocracy - yep, it's all too believable

Massively underrated script. If there'd been a decent budget, cast and distribution then the film might have made some impact. Incidentally, in some territories, Idiocracy was retitled J7wild.

Der Student von Prag (1913, dir. Stellan Rye, Paul Wegener)

The film hadn't been shown in 38 years on TV here, so I thought it would be a good idea to record it. It's a restored, enhanced version of what could have been seen until now, aparently.
It's a Faustian story, but doesn't go very deep, particularly from a silent I expect more quality in this respect. It's surprisingly well made technically, for its time. It is a fairly interesting story, but it didn't really sway me. It's hard for me to do real justice to silent movies - some I like, but haven't seen many yet; I wish there had been more text in between scenes, it was a bit hard to follow at times (this may or may not be a reason for me thinking it could have gone deeper). For those who are more expert at silents it may be more rewarding (hope the review didn't sound more critical than the film actually deserves).

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

THE ROYAL TENEBAUMS (2001, dir. Wes Anderson)

Delightful. My third favourite Anderson.

from the start, from the Baldwin narration I'm hooked. Powerful film.

And that great cover of Hey Jude.

I watched BODY HEAT. I liked it, but I wasn't overwhelmed. I may give it another viewing, though. I really like that specific time for some reason, 1981. Something about the look. Barry's score is a stunner, though. The cast is fantastic. Especially enjoyed seeing Ted Danson outside of the bar.

Can't wait for BODY HEAT II: ISLAND OF DORITOS.

Christ almighty. First thing that came to mind was a line by Barry Bostwick in Spin City

"...or that time I rolled a whale off Coney Island...!"

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Might see it at some point but I'm much more interested in WHITE HOUSE DOWN.

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN isn't worth your time (or anyone's time, really).

I went to a free screening of it so it didn't meet the sort of scrutiny I'd normally give to a movie, but I didn't think it was a total waste of my time. It's not Antonioni, of course, and my time would probably be better spent seeing something like The Place Beyond the Pines, but it was entertaining enough for a dumb, mindless piece of neo-con propaganda. Almost worth seeing just for some of the more outrageous idiocy contained within (Eckhart playing the worst POTUS ever, Butler claiming some info he'd gotten must be legit since he'd tortured somebody for it).

I wanted a big, dumb, fun action flick, but I didn't think OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN was very entertaining (it was, however, quite dumb).

I saw IRON MAN 3 yesterday. I was so bored, I was even willing to see it in murky 3D.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. Ultimately, I think is a better sequel to IRON MAN than IRON MAN 2 was, mostly because IM3 does stuff that IM2 tried, with the difference being that IM3 gets it right. However, for all its clever dialogue and the way the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to, it is let down by retreading ground IM2 covered, and resorting to a forgettable plot and genre tropes when it finally remembers to do something on its own.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I saw IRON MAN 3 yesterday. I was so bored, I was even willing to see it in murky 3D.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. Ultimately, I think is a better sequel to IRON MAN than IRON MAN 2 was, mostly because IM3 does stuff that IM2 tried, with the difference being that IM3 gets it right. However, for all its clever dialogue and the way the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to, it is let down by retreading ground IM2 covered, and resorting to a forgettable plot and genre tropes when it finally remembers to do something on its own.

I was a big fan of the first, the second really destroyed my enthusiasm and although I found Avengers tolerable the trailer for this film seems to ramp up the Gung Ho mentality and idea that everything RDJ spouts amounts to a 'clever' line both of which I am quite sick of in general, is there anything else to enjoy here or should I stave off and wait for the slightly more subtle Thor2 The Dark World?

Taken 2, while as an actionmovie it worked vary well it suffered from the daft editing during the actionscenes, a bit of a letdown from the usual Luc Besson orientated actioners. The movie did suffer due to the strangeness of the nartial arts scenes. The carchases were excellent. One could only wish that Besson were given the chance to write a actionorientated 007 movie in which we have less of 007's angst and more of the action which is what the 007 franchise gave his reputation.

I did like how the ambiance of Istanbul was used in the movie.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Idiocracy - yep, it's all too believable

Massively underrated script. If there'd been a decent budget, cast and distribution then the film might have made some impact. Incidentally, in some territories, Idiocracy was retitled J7wild.

Mike Judge is a sharp cookie - still makes me smile wryly now that (following in the subversive wake of what 'glory days' Simpsons had to say about television) Beavis and Butthead, a show that strongly hinted only morons sit around watching music videos all day ... was on MTV.

lachesis wrote:

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I saw IRON MAN 3 yesterday. I was so bored, I was even willing to see it in murky 3D.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. Ultimately, I think is a better sequel to IRON MAN than IRON MAN 2 was, mostly because IM3 does stuff that IM2 tried, with the difference being that IM3 gets it right. However, for all its clever dialogue and the way the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to, it is let down by retreading ground IM2 covered, and resorting to a forgettable plot and genre tropes when it finally remembers to do something on its own.

I was a big fan of the first, the second really destroyed my enthusiasm and although I found Avengers tolerable the trailer for this film seems to ramp up the Gung Ho mentality and idea that everything RDJ spouts amounts to a 'clever' line both of which I am quite sick of in general, is there anything else to enjoy here or should I stave off and wait for the slightly more subtle Thor2 The Dark World?

I can't say one way or the other as to whether you should watch it. I, personally, felt that THOR was the weakest of the three Marvel Universe origin films (not counting the HULK films), so I;m not really that enthused for THE DARK WORLD.

The problem with IRON MAN 2 is that it saw the success of IRON MAN and said "Great! Let's do that again!", and really just tried to be IRON MAN instead of being its own film. IRON MAN 3 does do some of the things that IRON MAN 2 did, but it does them considerably better. Almost like it was apologising for IRON MAN 2. Because of it, it's a better sequel to IRON MAN than IRON MAN 2 was.

The thing that I think Black absolutely nailed was the way to handle the material in a post-AVENGERS world. This is the best way I can explain it: I remember when Roger Spottiswoode was filming TOMORROW NEVER DIES, he said that he and Bruce Feirstien were kicking around ideas on what to do for an action set-piece. They were coming off the back of the tank chase in GOLDENEYE and Spottiswoode had no idea to top that. He couldn't think of anything that was bigger and better Bond tearing around St. Petersburg in a tank, and he didn't want to try if there was a chance he couldn't pull it off. So he went in the opposite direction and decided to make Bond more vulnerable, and thus we got the Saigon motorcycle chase. Where Bond was pretty much invincible during the tank chase, he was completely exposed in the motorcycle chase. And while the finished product might not have been that great, the story behind how the sequence was conceived has always stuck with me. That's what Black does with IRON MAN 3: instead of trying to one-up THE AVENGERS, he goes in the opposite direction and makes Tony Stark more vulnerable.

RDJ does have that gung-ho mentality in this film, but I think that's always been a part of the character he's playing. He's pretty consistent, and his work with Black on KISS KISS BANG BANG means they have a good working relationship. This is a film where RDJ can be a complete asshole to a ten-year-old, but he keeps it in character and the themes of the story give him an actual reason for his behaviour. It doesn't apologise for his behaviour the way IRON MAN 2 did, but rather lets him work through it. And speaking of the dialogue, it's not a case of joke, joke, joke, joke. There is some very irreverent humour throughout it (there's one running gag that is executed perfectly every single time), but the dialogue always feels like a conversation and Black knows how and when to pull off a joke. You can always count on a punchline being around the corner because the series as a whole has never taken itself too seriously, but Black doesn't drop them into the script in a way that makes them feel out of place.

Now for some of the problems.

One of the major problems with the series is that Iron Man is a very powerful hero to begin with. Naturally, he needs enemies who can match him physically. IRON MAN had the Iron Monger, which was fine. IRON MAN 2 made the mistake of once again having a villain with a powered suit. IRON MAN 3 doesn't make this mistake directly, but its villains are still very powerful in their own right. One of the film's major themes is the question of whether Tony Stark is Iron Man, or if the suit is Iron Man and Tony Stark is simply the guy controlling it. The villains definately agree on the latter interpretation, and attack the suit when they should be attacking the man. And speaking of the villains, they don't really have a plan. At all. I had absolutely no idea what they were actually trying to do, and I understood BioShock Infinite on the first play-though. So the third act is definately the weakest, and that's before it does something that every superhero film does:

Spoiler:

I wasn't too big on some of the cast members, either. This is very much RDJ's film, so some of them get under-used. One or two are completely bonkers, which does lead to one or two scenes that are a little too drawn out for the sake of a joke, and there's one cast member who I thought was brutally mis-cast despite giving their all:

Spoiler:

Finally, I found that Iron Man really exists in his own world that feels completely disconnected from everything and everyone else. Every threat he faces, and almost every person he meets with, is somehow already connected to him. It did make the world of the film difficult to invest myself in, because I never got the feeling that if they existed, then one of the villains could break out of the world Tony Stark lives in and affect me the way Heath Ledger's Joker could. Speaking of that, I've heard favourable comparisons between Ben Kingsley's Mandarin and Ledger's Joker. All I can say is that you shouldn't believe the hype, because those comparisons aren't true (and the following is a major spoiler):

Spoiler:

A MIGHTY WIND (2003)

One of the best of Guest's films. Great performances, especially by McKean, Levy and O'Hara. I really enjoy how this film functions exactly like a documentary, but isn't. I know that's an obvious statement, but, by that, I meant that I went into the film having little interest in folk music and musicians. However, by the end of the film, I was interested in the music and the musicians, although they were completely fabricated. An array of great character actors helped to create the illusion that the film may be a real documentary, especially if you were a casual cinema-goer. Without any knowledge of actors and their film roles, you'd constantly be asking yourself "have I seen them somewhere before?", which fits perfectly with the fact that the film is about 60s folk musicians that had long been forgotten by the general population.

The Adjustment Bureau

A slight story barely adequate for an episode of The Outer Limits.

The Adjustment Bureau is flawed, but I think the biggest gripe I have with the movie is that Damon's character doesn't learn anything. He's the same from start to finish.

It's pretty boring.

Minority Report (2002)

It's been awhile since I last saw this, so I was kinda surprised to see how well this held up. I remember when I first rented it on VHS, I only saw maybe everything up to the moment he's supposed to commit murder and that I found it very riveting. During that point, I had to pause it and go help out getting something at the store and they just happened to carry the DVD. Given how much I liked it, I purchased the DVD. I call this a one eyed purchase, I don't think I ever did that for anything else and this was one of my very early DVD purchases. So for awhile it's been on my shelf collecting dust after the last time I saw it.

I really dig the noir look of the flick. I forgot how extreme they went with the high speed film and how it's nearly black and white, the only colors hinted at are blood and plants. It's very gnarly. Tom Cruise is a hit and miss actor throughout his career. Some flicks he comes off hilariously hammy (BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY), but on few films like these I think he's really giving his best. Would like to see another collaboration between him and Spielberg. Haven't seen WAR OF THE WORLDS for awhile.

Flaws? The whole thing works for me, except for the eyes thing (though Hobo Cruise chasing his eyes down a hallway is hilarious). He shouldn't be able to access the pre-crime station with his eyes, you'd think security would have restricted his clearance after he went on the run, but that may just be human error, which Colin Farrell always brings up, "the system is 'perfect', I get it, but there's always a flaw: human error". With how much the flick works for me, I let that plot hole slide.

FieldsMan wrote:

The Adjustment Bureau is flawed, but I think the biggest gripe I have with the movie is that Damon's character doesn't learn anything. He's the same from start to finish.

This idea of the protagonist's journey has taken over contemporary scriptwriting, hence the deification of Christopher Vogler. (Though, oddly enough, not Joesph Campbell.) I think it's lazy and reductionist, though I can understand its popularity with people who like writing by numbers.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

I saw IRON MAN 3 yesterday. I was so bored, I was even willing to see it in murky 3D.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't brilliant. Ultimately, I think is a better sequel to IRON MAN than IRON MAN 2 was, mostly because IM3 does stuff that IM2 tried, with the difference being that IM3 gets it right. However, for all its clever dialogue and the way the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to, it is let down by retreading ground IM2 covered, and resorting to a forgettable plot and genre tropes when it finally remembers to do something on its own.

I haven't seen any of the IRON MAN films (or THE AVENGERS) and hadn't been interested in IRON MAN 3, but if it is indeed the case that "the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to" then I'm intrigued, as that's something that's practically unheard of in a comic book franchise blockbuster (and indeed pretty rare in films of any genre, full stop).

Erica Ambler wrote:

FieldsMan wrote:

The Adjustment Bureau is flawed, but I think the biggest gripe I have with the movie is that Damon's character doesn't learn anything. He's the same from start to finish.

This idea of the protagonist's journey has taken over contemporary scriptwriting, hence the deification of Christopher Vogler. (Though, oddly enough, not Joesph Campbell.) I think it's lazy and reductionist, though I can understand its popularity with people who like writing by numbers.

Yep, a film must be a 110-minute life lesson.

Loomis wrote:

I haven't seen any of the IRON MAN films (or THE AVENGERS) and hadn't been interested in IRON MAN 3, but if it is indeed the case that "the characters are actual characters rather than people who do things because the plot tells them to" then I'm intrigued, as that's something that's practically unheard of in a comic book franchise blockbuster (and indeed pretty rare in films of any genre, full stop).

Well, they're characters by comic book standards. This is still a comic book film, remember. I just think there is more characterisation in IM3 than in the previous films, and Black is smart enough to know that you can - and indeed should - have dialogue that is not simply the characters talking about what they are going to do and why.

Okay, but does IRON MAN 3 showcase any characterisation or dialogue that eclipses anything in the Nolan Batman films? I just want to get an idea of how good the film is at its very best.

CITY LIGHTS (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin)

Sublime.

A classic...To Sir With Love...

dig the Lulu song too....

The Last Boy Scout

Jesus Christ. It's like pulling a greasy hamburger out of the trash that still tastes kinda good. A hamburger with cocaine on it.

I remember laughing very hard at certain points. Probably Tony Scott's second best flick, behind CRIMSON TIDE.

"I think I fucked a squirrel to death, and don't remember." If only you could hear that in IRON MAN.