Recent movies reviews/recommendations/warnings
#561
Posted 2015-September-27, 22:07
Paul Dano (the young preacher in There Will Be Blood) is absolutely fantastic as the young Wilson. In the first scene, I had to do a serious double-take, since they are a splitting image.
John Cusack plays the older Wilson. While he captures some of his quirkiness, the role seems very forced.
Paul Giamatti plays Wilson's shrink, Dr. Eugene Landy, and his role is seriously over the top but every review about the movie states they had to change very little of the real story for the movie, and in real life Landy was even crazier, but they wanted to tone down his character else he wouldn't be credible lol.
Elizabeth Banks is OK, but her role is reactive, except for a few parts. She's at her best in the Cadillac dealership when Landy is reading her the riot act.
Its a great story, but its pretty dark. The best parts are the studio sessions making Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations and Smile. Wilson is a true musical genius.
I liked it and I would recommend it.
Winner - BBO Challenge bracket #6 - February, 2017.
#562
Posted 2015-September-27, 23:08
Phil, on 2015-September-27, 22:07, said:
Paul Dano (the young preacher in There Will Be Blood) is absolutely fantastic as the young Wilson. In the first scene, I had to do a serious double-take, since they are a splitting image.
John Cusack plays the older Wilson. While he captures some of his quirkiness, the role seems very forced.
Paul Giamatti plays Wilson's shrink, Dr. Eugene Landy, and his role is seriously over the top but every review about the movie states they had to change very little of the real story for the movie, and in real life Landy was even crazier, but they wanted to tone down his character else he wouldn't be credible lol.
Elizabeth Banks is OK, but her role is reactive, except for a few parts. She's at her best in the Cadillac dealership when Landy is reading her the riot act.
Its a great story, but its pretty dark. The best parts are the studio sessions making Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations and Smile. Wilson is a true musical genius.
I liked it and I would recommend it.
ya it was sort of ok....
saw a small movie called Meet the Patels. Very good movie/documentary. top ten of they year so far. The parents live about 15 minutes west of me. Very funny, full of family love in a different culture.
https://search.yahoo...atels%20trailer
#563
Posted 2015-September-28, 07:41
In many ways it was very good, but I was hoping for a more substantial ending.. I am interested in the opinions of others on this. Reviewers focused a lot on the romantic interests of the leads, or the struggles of the adults. For me, it was about the consequences for others, often the terrible consequences of our choices. The Judd Hersch character was consumed by ideology to the extent of caring nothing about the consequences to others. His (slight) change of approach at the end was not enough. The fact that his children were surviving was no thanks to him.
Anyway, I found it very interesting but I kept rooting for the 17 year old, River Phoenix, to kick his father where it hurt and walk away.
#564
Posted 2015-September-28, 08:32
mike777, on 2015-September-27, 23:08, said:
saw a small movie called Meet the Patels. Very good movie/documentary. top ten of they year so far. The parents live about 15 minutes west of me. Very funny, full of family love in a different culture.
https://search.yahoo...atels%20trailer
I saw some previews for that and thought that it looked good.
Thanks for the recommendation
#565
Posted 2015-October-10, 04:50
PS the 3D doesn't add anything.
George Carlin
#566
Posted 2015-October-10, 23:31
gwnn, on 2015-October-10, 04:50, said:
PS the 3D doesn't add anything.
I read the book...then I got the book again as a gift from a friend. the book is pretty good.
the movie is pretty good, borderline if it makes my top ten at this point but decent.
fwiw I think they could pick a heck of a lot better disco music.
jAll in all I note I gave it 3.5 stars out of 4 so may make top ten movies of the year but lets not go overboard.
#567
Posted 2015-October-11, 08:07
#568
Posted 2015-October-11, 17:45
mike777, on 2015-October-10, 23:31, said:
Do you mean "more enjoyable" or "more annoying" (so you share Mark's annoyance)?
At least one of the sonds was obviously chosen because of how it fit the scene: "Hot Stuff".
Anyone think Damon will get an acting nomination for it? I think the movie is a good bet for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.
#569
Posted 2017-March-15, 16:44
Psyche (pron. sahy-kee): The human soul, spirit or mind (derived, personification thereof, beloved of Eros, Greek myth).
Masterminding (pron. mstr-mnding) tr. v. - Any bid made by bridge player with which partner disagrees.
"Gentlemen, when the barrage lifts." 9th battalion, King's own Yorkshire light infantry,
2000 years earlier: "morituri te salutant"
"I will be with you, whatever". Blair to Bush, precursor to invasion of Iraq
#570
Posted 2017-June-11, 05:15
Quote
By Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott. With contributions from Kathryn Bigelow, Guillermo del Toro, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins, Richard Linklater, Robert Pattinson and Michelle Williams. June 9, 2017
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Six Directors Pick Their Favorite Films of the 21st-Century - Antoine Fuqua, Sofia Coppola, Paul Feig, Denis Villeneuve, Brett Ratner and Alex Gibney share their highly personal lists.
#571
Posted 2017-June-12, 16:34
y66, on 2017-June-11, 05:15, said:
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Six Directors Pick Their Favorite Films of the 21st-Century - Antoine Fuqua, Sofia Coppola, Paul Feig, Denis Villeneuve, Brett Ratner and Alex Gibney share their highly personal lists.
Clearly I am falling behind. I will tell Becky we have to get with the program. Thanks for the list.
#572
Posted 2017-July-02, 08:30
Quote
You’ve said before that “A Touch of Sin” is your take on a martial arts film. Why did you decide to make a kind of martial arts film based on contemporary news events?
Jia Zhangke:
Actually I had been preparing to make a martial arts film since 2007, a real martial arts film. It doesn’t have an English title yet. In Chinese it’s called “In the Qing Dynasty” (在清朝). It deals with the period from 1895 to 1905. The reason I wanted to film this period is because this is when China’s transformation began. And that transformation has continued up to now. It hasn’t stopped.
Last year, while I was still in the process of preparing for the film — well, not just last year, more like two or three years ago — I started using Weibo, and Chinese society also became more interested in using Weibo, China’s Twitter. It’s had a big impact on the lives of Chinese people.
The biggest impact I think is that now if something happens, no matter where it is in China, it can be seen by people immediately. And I feel that the way I understand China’s reality has also changed, because now I can see these things that are happening all around China on Weibo. Different kinds of things, not just these ones in the film. There are good stories and there are bad stories. But for me, I slowly began to see the problem of individual violence in society. There are many tragedies or social problems in which people ultimately rebel, and this becomes a very big tragedy. So I began to pay more and more attention to this problem because, frankly speaking, I feel that the Chinese people really don’t understand the problem of violence because society has never had a widespread discussion of the problem.
Especially in films, violence used to be restricted. Of course, there are two aspects of this. One is the censorship of films. In the past they didn’t really allow too much violence in movies, especially when the violence was closely interrelated with society. Then there is the cultural convention in China where we are not very willing to look back on or confront unpleasant events. Obviously, all of these violent events are unpleasant. But for me, it is not enough for the news media to report on these violent incidents. I think what films can do is provide an emotional understanding, and in the one or two hours of a film we can try to understand these incidents. From that time on, I really wanted to direct this kind of movie.
But I didn’t immediately think of a good way to make this movie. Because for a director, aside from the content, what is the most effective cinematic language to use to tell the story? I didn’t know right away. But it happened that one day, while I was preparing for the martial arts film, I suddenly knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to make a movie about these four stories. I thought these four stories were just like the martial arts films made in the past except that they were set in contemporary China. So I thought I could use a traditional martial arts style to film the movie I wanted to make about today’s China. Once I decided this, I began preparations for it in August last year. Production took a very long time. Because starting in August, when we began pre-production, to filming — first we were in Guangdong Province, in Dongguan, for about three weeks. Then we went to Chongqing, and we were there for about another three weeks. Then we went to Shennongjia in Hubei to film the third story. And then we went to Shanxi Province, where we finished filming. We began filming at the end of last October and continued into March, so it was five months in all.
You could say this was the most complicated of my films to make. Often when we were chatting, we’d say that it was like filming four separate movies, because these four stories are very different from each other. For each of them, the production and the pre-production had to be completely redone. So really we used the energy for making four movies to finish this one movie.
#573
Posted 2017-July-02, 10:58
#575
Posted 2017-July-04, 16:30
As you can see, I liked it.
#576
Posted 2017-July-04, 19:19
kenberg, on 2017-July-04, 16:30, said:
As you can see, I liked it.
I'm with you on special effects - here, they were only used to advance the story. Usually, they are used because they have run out of story.
#577
Posted 2017-July-04, 20:37
Winstonm, on 2017-July-04, 19:19, said:
Exactly!
#578
Posted 2017-July-04, 23:44
#579
Posted 2017-July-07, 13:30
May go to a movie this weekend. Recommendations are welcome.
Winner - BBO Challenge bracket #6 - February, 2017.
#580
Posted 2017-July-07, 15:12
Phil, on 2017-July-07, 13:30, said:
May go to a movie this weekend. Recommendations are welcome.
I thought La La Land OK but kind of over-hyped. Haven't seen Moonlight. I was impressed and really enjoyed Lion.