Testy Area 51 (3 Viewers)

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Steve Christou /t/81187/testy-area-51/28080#post_3888525
I'm not exactly gagging to see Iron Lady either Russ, I hated her as Prime Minister, so did millions of Brits. But I am looking forward to blind buying Three Musketeers on Blu-ray, I missed it at the cinema and I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun. Anderson isn't a great director but like Michael Bay he's a very visual director. He knows where to place the camera.

Surprised QT wasn't impressed with Drive and didn't like Sucker Punch, I would have thought those films were right down his alley.

I wish there was a backlash for The Artist for some reason I don't want it to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and I hope it's not The Descendants either, that looks thoroughly ordinary. I wish they'd surprise us and give it to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, not one of my faves but it did get great reviews. Anyone see Hugo yet? War Horse?

I thought the same thing about his take on Drive and Sucker Punch. And I'm with you on The Artist. Everyone keeps talking about how amazing it is because it's a silent movie. Shit, I've been watching silent movies all week, I've pretty much fallen in love with Janet Gaynor and can The Artist be as emotionally charged as Sunrise and 7th Heaven? Pssssh! Whatever! the bits they show on the awards show look like the type of silent film that people who have never seen a silent film might think a silent film is like. That said, I'd pick it over Iron Lady. I'm not saying there isn't a story to be told about Thatcher, I am saying that this film only exists to win awards. Similar to how Uwe Bole films exist to lose money in order toreap massive German tax payouts.

I'm pretty jaded!

Janet Gaynor gives her miserable whore sister some payback in 7th Heaven. Sigh, she could whip me.. wait huh ummm wha?

 

[Steve Christou]

I saw a 1922 silent film from Denmark called Haxan - Witchcraft through the Ages, which is a documentary with dramatised scenes. Lots of witches and devils on display, one scene had a bunch of devil worshippers, mostly women, lining up to kiss the devil's butt hole, hilarious stuff. The devil bent over and each person sticking their face between his bumcheeks and than walking off. Must have been a real crowd pleaser 90 years ago.

 

[Ruz-El]

I have that one. It's pretty great. Lots of the silents were really dark like that. These melodramas I've been watching man, they really put poor Janet Gaynor through the wringer. Heavy stuff!

I bet there's no rimming in The Artist....

 

[Steve Christou]

Russ there's a new film my nephew keeps bothering me about called A Serbian Film, have you seen that one? He says it's very disturbing, I can't even mention the perversions contained in that film. It's all at IMDB. Why make these sort of films?

 

[Ruz-El]

I've seen it and I liked it. It is a disturbing subject, and it delivered on it, it didn't take an easy way out. In fact, it went way too far in a way and managed to make it all work. I'd rather film makers stay true to a disturbing subject in films like this and Human Centipede then cheat by letting on that everything is disturbing but never showing it and relying on the dumb audience. What made A Serbian Film work for me is, I can believe it would happen? I'm ignorant about Serbia, so I could see a disillusioned former Euro porn star going through something like that.

so yeah, lump it in with graphic, offensive, challenging and ultimately interesting films like Anti-Christ and the human Centipede as films I liked but can't really recommend since they're not for the faint of heart.

Salo: a 120 Day of Sodom would probably fit too.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Thanks for posting Tarantino's list, Steve. Interesting, but please -- "Attack the Block" good, "Sucker Punch" terrible?!??!?!?!! The love for "Block" is probably one of the most puzzling things to me regarding 2011 films.
I think I may see "Shame" this weekend. Oh, "Flowers of War" (Christian Bale) is opening, too! And there's about 3 other things I'd like to see!!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Since I'm home recuperating from my Pneumonia...I took the opportunity to catch up on a couple of flicks I had never seen before. I watched the Blu-rays of Se7en and Zodiac.

Loved Se7en. Liked Zodiac.

And I also got a chance to finally check out my Blu of Bridge on the River Kwai. The best part of that was watching it with my 21 year old son....who usually won't last through any movie made before he was born. He stuck out Kwai to the end!

 

[Ruz-El]

You have to love Kwai, it's probably my favourite Lean film.

I saw The Devil Inside last night. We wanted to see Young Adult, but alas, it's vanished from the cinema. The good: It was almost all exorcisms, and they were pretty cool. The bad: Everything else really, especially the "end". Really terrible.that ending. Same problem The Last Exorcism has.Someone has to figure out an ending to these exorcism films before they make them I think.2.5/5

Off to see a sneak peek of Haywire tonight, if we can get in. It might be pretty busy, but I'm going to try!

 

[Elizabeth S]

Going to see Shame later today. Looks like Carnage left town already.

 

[Ruz-El]

I sawed Haywire last night with my own eyes! It's not what I thought it would be, but what I should of expected it to be. The good: Soderberg wisely keeps Gina Garano's dialog to a minimum in the classic tradition of action stars JCVD but it manages to really work. The tone, pacing and action is all top notch, and everyone is really good in it. Best way to describe it is The Limey mixed with The Girlfriend Experience shot like Oceans 11, with Kicks to the face. The bad: I have no complaints with this one, I really enjoyed it! It has a natural feel to it, and some of the fight scenes are super well done, I wont elaborate, but one feature a minimal amount of sound effects and no music playing behind it, just the natural sounding bashing of two people going at it. It was pretty awesome. I give it 4/5

 

[Ron-P]

After 10+ years of wanting one, I finally got it. While my girlfriend and I were in Gas Lamp District in San Diego over the weekend during our pub crawl we found a bar tender who steered us in the right direction and I am now sporting a tattoo. Got a dark green Hibiscus flower on my left leg just below the knee, it's about 3". So cool. Gonna add a Tiki Mask, a Sea Turtle and one of the mechanical birds from the Tiki Room at Disneyland to complete the circle. My girlfriend got a Hibiscus flower too, a much more girly one with vines and smaller flowers across the top of her foot up her leg just above the ankle. Talk about a fun 3+ hours....I'm so hooked now and looking forward to my next one.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

So, this weekend I'm going to see My Neigbour Totoro, Whisper of the Heart, Castle in the Sky, The Secret World of Arrietty (Arrietty the Borrower), and Nausicaa at the cinema. A local film-festival organization is doing a Ghibli retrospective. Laputa will be shown with subtitles, & the rest are all the Disney dubs. The $5 ticket price is a real bargain, especially considering that Arrietty doesn't even officially come out in this country for another month.

 

[Mike Frezon]

What a fascinating array of posts in Testy today!

 

[Elizabeth S]

Just got back from seeing Shame. Frankly, it wasn't nearly as NC-17 as I expected, and probably got that more from the tone and theme of the film than actual scenes/shots. I liked it and the way it doesn't feel the need to explain everything. I'm not sure I'm supposed to draw certain assumptions about the central relationship in the film, but that's life -- we draw conclusions about people which may be accurate or not. With it's often static and broad shots, it made the viewer feel like a fly on the wall watching these interactions. Meaty role for Fassbender, and the trailer was for his "A Dangerous Method", which looks interesting as well.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I watched Moneyball tonight.

One of the best movies I've seen in a very long time.

Full disclosure: I'm a big baseball fan.

I've read a lot of opinion that says even non-baseball fans will love it. I'm not so sure about that...but, maybe.

Between seeing Se7en and Moneyball...I am really impressed (reminded) about how good Brad Pitt is as an actor.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Re: Moneyball -- I watched baseball for a while many years ago but never really got into it. (College basketball -- mainly the UH Rainbows -- is the only sport I'm fanatical about.) However, I thought "Moneyball" was terrific. Perhaps someone totally not into any sport wouldn't like it as much, but I believe a fan of any sport can likely relate to the excitement of other sports and the thrill of competition. I bought the exclusive 3-disc combo pack which includes the Bob Costas interview with Pitt, Hill and Beane. Don't know when I'll have time to see it, but I love Costas -- he has the most wonderful vocabulary.
I saw The Viral Factor today. At first, I thought the film had been dubbed into English as I couldn't understand why the characters were all speaking English for the first 15 minutes. Somewhere along the way, they changed to Cantonese and back to English when they feel like it. I don't believe this film had more than a 3-minute stretch without shootings, grenades, explosions, cars crashing, or stabbings. It all revolves around a plot to mutate smallpox and create a vaccine to make the villains rich. I've always liked Nicholas Tse, but I didn't realize Jay Chou is the actor who was in "The Green Hornet" (which I didn't see). Entertaining enough, but as with many films from Hong Kong, veers into melodramatics and sappiness.

Lucky cat!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth S /t/81187/testy-area-51/28080#post_3889908
Re: Moneyball -- I watched baseball for a while many years ago but never really got into it. (College basketball -- mainly the UH Rainbows -- is the only sport I'm fanatical about.) However, I thought "Moneyball" was terrific. Perhaps someone totally not into any sport wouldn't like it as much, but I believe a fan of any sport can likely relate to the excitement of other sports and the thrill of competition. I bought the exclusive 3-disc combo pack which includes the Bob Costas interview with Pitt, Hill and Beane. Don't know when I'll have time to see it, but I love Costas -- he has the most wonderful vocabulary.

I got the same version and watched the Costas interview immediately after watching the film. There is LOTS of good info in the interview (which also includes Michael Lewis, the author). Be forewarned, however, the audio to the Costas program is all over the map...constantly dipping and spiking throughout--unless I got a bad copy.

 

[RickER]

 

[Ruz-El]

My pick from the weekend is Tabloid. If you get a chance to see it, be sure to check it out. One of the more bizarre documentaries you'll see. I went into it pretty blind like I do most Errol Morris films, I suggest doing the same. 4/5

Also saw The Three Musketeers. It's not very good. Milla is good as always, but the everything else, it's actually ineptly made. There's a scene where a character is talking and his head is out of frame. I mean, that's just inexcusable. That's on top of some more then questionable editing choices that just didn't make sense. Booo! 2/5

Oh, Steve mentioned previously a year or more ago that Legend Of The Fist was pretty good, and it is! 3.5/5

 

[Steve Christou]

The Three Musketeers not very good Russ? Damn i was going to blind buy it too.

Spielberg got snubbed at the Oscar noms, yes they decided Terence Malick did a more impressive job 'directing' The Tree of Life than Senor Spielbergo did directing War Horse. So I'm rooting for Scorsese and Hugo this year.