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slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
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The chemistry between them is incredible! Such an awesome casting choice.

Yeah.. I actually heard about these movies when a lady friend of mine posted on FB saying how boring and stupid these were.. she even went as far as calling them "two of the worst movies ever made." I could not disagree with her more.

haha. I think I've glanced over those movies in the past, the covers made me keep on my way. But your rave reviews has me interested and since they are on netflix streaming I'll definitely check em out :thumbsup:
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
Catfish - 8/10:
Well, I liked this one. I just read some reviews from the old thread on here and it seems like I'm in the minority. I also went back and watched the trailer, which I now remember seeing, but didn't remember before I watched the movie. Wow is it misleading.

The movie is played off as real, as a documentary, but it's pretty obviously not. I went into the movie not really knowing what it was about, except that it was NOT real. I don't remember why I had that insight, but I did. My girlfriend didn't know anything about it at all. She believed it was real, and really liked it. I "knew" it wasn't real, and I still liked it.

I won't bother explaining the plot because it isn't really helpful in explaining the movie, so I'll just stick with my comments. For what the movie is, I think they did a pretty good job playing it off as real. At first glance you could probably believe it, if not for some details and the movie as a whole. Not knowing what to expect, I thought the movie was getting a bit exciting when they got to megan's farm, but after that I thought the movie was a bit flat, aside from a few scenes.
 

OCNewbie

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2000
7,603
24
81
Michael - 8.5/10 A German film centred around a paedophile who has a ten year-old boy locked in his basement. So hearing that premise you would think it is the most uncomfortable, painful film to watch and while there were certainly multiple scenes that had me squirming in my seat, the film is presented in such a way that you are not sitting there with a disgusted face (D:) for the duration. It is an interesting film as it shows you not only how a man like that would live in order to keep up the disgusting charade of a life he leads, but also how the boy deals with living in this situation and also how things almost become familial in a twisted sort of way. There are, surprisingly, actually a couple of lighter moments too and seeing the man interact with the real world was quite interesting. I thought this was very well done and it does not make you feel like a disgusting sicko for sitting there watching it like, say, a Michael Haneke might do (I still love you Mr. Haneke). Has a great ending and closing credits sequence too.

KT

The way you describe this one reminds me of the book/film Lolita. I haven't seen the original, but really loved the one that came out in 1997.
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,829
184
106
The Haunting of Holly Martley - 4/10 - What the F*CK! was that ending. Totally ruined it. I was entertained (I like B-movies) to the end, but holy shit on the ending. Totally rushed and ruined it for me. It's a teen preppy, very unscary "horror" movie.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
anyone know anything about The Awakening(2010)?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1373405/

Horrible horrible reviews, doesn't seem to even be on rottentomatoes.

Netflix Average of 26,832 ratings: 1.9 stars
imdb rating = 1.7/10


but...
Our best guess for rick:4.4 stars

wtf? is netflix trying to tell me something? D:
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
anyone know anything about The Awakening(2010)?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1373405/

Horrible horrible reviews, doesn't seem to even be on rottentomatoes.

Netflix Average of 26,832 ratings: 1.9 stars
imdb rating = 1.7/10


but...
Our best guess for rick:4.4 stars

wtf? is netflix trying to tell me something? D:


WTF indeed. I get 4.9 D:, never heard of this movie either.

Edit: from comments:

After watching this, I'm convinced the 5 star ratings are posted by people associated with the film. The overall look of the movie is cool and there are lots of attractive actresses, but it is otherwise boring and confusing. I'm not sure I would even call it fun and campy.

Looks like someone is trolling.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
I saw that, but a few 5 star ratings shouldn't outweight a 1.9 average lol, should it?
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
I saw that, but a few 5 star ratings shouldn't outweight a 1.9 average lol, should it?

I am not quite sure how Netflix suggestions work, but maybe the producers paid netflix to spam all the users with this recommendation.. LOL. :p
 

goobernoodles

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2005
1,820
2
81
Just watched X-Men: First Class last night. 9/10

Movie was fun as hell to watch. Holy crap. Sound effects and LFE were awesome.
 

PrayForDeath

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
3,489
0
76
Before Sunrise & Before Sunset - 10/10

Mind == Blown.

I have never felt so attached to the characters before. Wow! what a wonderful piece of cinema these movies are. The first one, just like their age, was a bit crude, a bit frantic and restless. The second, and the better of the two; is a bit more deliberate, more organic and natural.

The final 30 minutes of the second movie are so beautiful that I was almost in a trance.

I'm not a fan of romance movies (hate most of them), but my friend insisted I watch these.

Not what I expected! The acting looks very spontaneous and real, and you just can't help but fall in love with the characters. The technique they used in the second movie where they show you the events in real time (forgot the name) is also interesting.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
Hesher - Not sure how to rate it, maybe a 5 or 6? Some good parts, some bad parts some really odd parts.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
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Mitsuko Delivers (Hara ga kore nande) - 1/10: Yay, my first walk out of the festival! This movie was terrible; it was trying to be funny and quirky with various love stories intertwined, but it was painful and unfunny. It's about a pregnant you lady who returns to her modest home to have her child and seems to rekindle an old love. I toughed it out for about an hour, then decided a coffee and butter tart from the local patisserie was a much more tantalizing prospect than anything this movie could offer in the final 40 minutes. I feel confident I made the right decision as that butter tart was delicious!

Target (Mishen) - 5.5/10: This was a tough one. I wanted to like it more than I did. It's a sci-fi tale set in the near future (though it feels surprisingly like a 70's movie) where some wealthy Russians go to this abandoned astrophysics lab in rural Russia and gain, seemingly, eternal life. It seemed to owe a lot to Tarkovskiy, Stalker in particular, but it lacked the gravitas and beauty of a Tarkovskiy film. Fortunately it also lacked about 90 minutes of length that Tarkovskiy most assuredly would have included in his version of this film since at 2.5 hours I was pretty spent by Target. I did enjoy some specific sequences as these people deal with their newly found eternal life back in the real world, but it was all a little too muddled and never felt like it really came together. The Director was funny though, he commented before the film that if we could all tough it out and make it to the end of this thing we would be treated to a nice final shot and he was right; we had to "tough it out" and the final shot was indeed quite beautiful.

Life Without Principle (Dyut meng gam) - 8/10: was a fun film on the financial crisis and how it impacts different people in different walks of life. It all take place in Hong Kong and I think the Director Johnnie To did a good job of blending the stories, though admittedly the resolutions to some situations are left wanting. The highlight in this film is Ching Wan Lau playing the bumbling Brother Panther; he was awesome and hilarious and really stole the movie. I kind of wish the entire film was about his character. Good stuff.

Khodorkovsky - 8.5/10: is a documentary detailing the story of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the one-time richest man in Russia (he was actually the richest man in the world under the age of 40). He is now in prison for what seem to be political reasons. I found this fascinating; seeing Khodorkovsky's rise to prominence as the curtain came down, then his take down by the Putin government was a interesting and frightening tale of how nobody is safe from government corruption. Of course, this is a pretty one-sided story as the director quite obviously believes Khodorkovsky was wronged here and presents that argument well, so now I want to read more on the story which is often all I ask from a good documentary. There are some very strange animated sequences throughout the film which seem completely unnecessary, but aside from that I thought it was well composed.

Miss Bala - 7.5/10: A Mexican film about a young woman who attempts to enter a beauty contest then gets caught up in the rampant crime of Mexico. A very grimy, dirty film (it actually felt like the director put a filter of some sort on the camera to make everything look dull and brown) that is very effective and portraying the despair and helplessness of this young girl as she tries to just do something simple with her life and follow a basic dream. Has some great bursts action, but it also has a lot of slow parts with minimal dialogue that are very effective. I liked this quite a bit.

White (Hwa-i-teu: Jeo-woo-eui Mel-lo-di) - 3.5/10: Honestly a pretty bad Korean horror film about a K-Pop band that ends up using a cursed song...blood and violence ensues! It's pretty standard fare with some very generic J-Horror style scares, but I have to say I did have a bit of fun with it even though I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen. What can I say, I'm a sucker for pretty girls (Eun-Joo is gorgeous!) and horror so while I rolled my eyes pretty often at some of the scenes, and the horrible subtitles (2th??!? Is that supposed to be 2nd or 20th? Who knows.) by the end of it all I'd had a few good chuckles. Not really recommended for anyone but a goof like me who can watch stupid horror movies of any kind.

My Piece of the Pie (Ma part du gâteau) - 6.5/10: Another financial crisis related film, this one taking place in France and following a Mother who attempts suicide after losing her job at a plant she's worked at for the past 20 years. She then ends up going to work as a housekeeper for a wealthy investment banker. This was actually quite a bit of fun with several laugh out loud moments and while their were a few silly parts that I found a bit too trite, I was along for the ride and enjoying myself...up until about the last 15-20 minutes where it takes a massive turn. I understand why it happened, but it was such a shift it left me a little baffled. I did like this I just wish the last act had been handled a little differently.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? - 8.5/10: Pretty straightforward documentary about Norman Foster, one of the best architects on the world. If you have any interest in architecture I highly recommend this as you get to not only see beautiful shots of many amazing buildings, but the thoughts behind them, plus you get to delve into the life of the man himself. Not much else to say.

Lost Bohemia - 9.5/10: Great documentary on the Carnegie Hall apartments above the great theatre which housed many great artists and teachers over the years. If you have seen Bill Cunningham New York, and if you haven't you really should as it is awesome, then you absolutely must see Lost Bohemia as they essentially feel like companion films. So many unusual and interesting characters that have lived in that place for up to 50 years and we see them trying to deal with the Carnegie Corporation attempting to take the apartments away from them. Excellent and touching documentary. Highly recommended!

Alps - 6.5/10: Well it's no Dogtooth, but it definitely contains many of the same stylistic and even thematic elements of that film. The concept is great, but I did not quite find it as compelling or funny as I would have hoped. It did have its moments; the charades scene had me howling and I found one of the later scenes dealing with the attachment of one of the fill-ins to actually be touching. I liked this movie, but I think my hopes were a bit too high after Dogtooth. I'll need to watch this again to give it a fair shake. He sure likes to have awesome dancing in his movies!

Le Havre - 7/10: this is the first Aki Kaurismäki film I have seen (man Without a Past has been on my ZipList for quite a while) and to be honest I found it a tad befuddling. I loved the main character and found him very amusing, but the overall feel of the film left me bit bewildered as I was not sure whether some of the things (like the poor acting with clunky dialogue in a few spots) were intentional. This was another film that felt like it was from 30 or 40 years ago, which I suppose is to give you a sense of arrested development in this town, but just left me confused. I sound overly critical, but I actually did like this quite a bit, I think I'm just not entirely sure what to make of it. I'm probably over thinking it and should just enjoy it for the nice tale that it is. My favourite parts were, by far, anything with the main guy and the inspector; both of those characters were awesome. I'm quite interested to see some of Aki Kaurismäki's other work now.

KT
 
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KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
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Nov 30, 2005
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Catfish - 8/10:
Well, I liked this one. I just read some reviews from the old thread on here and it seems like I'm in the minority. I also went back and watched the trailer, which I now remember seeing, but didn't remember before I watched the movie. Wow is it misleading.

The movie is played off as real, as a documentary, but it's pretty obviously not. I went into the movie not really knowing what it was about, except that it was NOT real. I don't remember why I had that insight, but I did. My girlfriend didn't know anything about it at all. She believed it was real, and really liked it. I "knew" it wasn't real, and I still liked it.

I won't bother explaining the plot because it isn't really helpful in explaining the movie, so I'll just stick with my comments. For what the movie is, I think they did a pretty good job playing it off as real. At first glance you could probably believe it, if not for some details and the movie as a whole. Not knowing what to expect, I thought the movie was getting a bit exciting when they got to megan's farm, but after that I thought the movie was a bit flat, aside from a few scenes.

I was not a huge fan of this movie and I think the biggest reason was because I freaking hated the main guys. They seemed like annoying douchebags to me and I did not enjoy going on the journey with them.

The way you describe this one reminds me of the book/film Lolita. I haven't seen the original, but really loved the one that came out in 1997.

Well kind of like that, but less stylized and much darker and dirtier. It's a good movie though.

Hesher - Not sure how to rate it, maybe a 5 or 6? Some good parts, some bad parts some really odd parts.

Interesting. Been wanting to see this one for months but it never even played here. Will rent.

KT
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
KT goes HARDDDD

:cool:

Few of those sound interesting. I remember seeing Lost Bohemia playing in NYC but didn't have enough desire to see it. I'll keep an eye out for it now though.

And I forget where, but I recently saw Miss Bala mentioned somewhere. Sounds interesting, looking forward to that. Khodorkovsky also sounds good

:thumbsup:
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
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Nov 30, 2005
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For Lost Bohemia I would say you should watch the Cunningham doc first and if you like that, then watch Bohemia. I don't think I would have liked the second film as much if I had not seen the first. There are many of the same people and t's almost an extension of that first film, which is why I liked it so much.

KT
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,806
46
91
Interesting. Been wanting to see this one for months but it never even played here. Will rent.

KT

yeah, its a fairly interesting movie and kept my attention but it's just all over the place and kind of weird. It has a message but the way it goes about it is just completely insane, like the title character, Hesher, lol.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
For Lost Bohemia I would say you should watch the Cunningham doc first and if you like that, then watch Bohemia. I don't think I would have liked the second film as much if I had not seen the first. There are many of the same people and t's almost an extension of that first film, which is why I liked it so much.

KT

Considering Cunningham is on netflix, I'm pretty sure I'll watch that first. Gracias for the tip

In other news, Barnes and Noble Criterion sale is probably again next month :eek: Just bought $100 in gift cards on ebay...Here we go again
 

KeithTalent

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Nov 30, 2005
50,235
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Ahhhh, damn, there goes a few more hundred bucks I'm sure. :D Can't resist those freaking sales.


Kooky (Kuky se vrací) - 9/10: This is the new film from Czech director Jan Sverák who apparently won the '96 Best Foreign Film Oscar for Kolya. It's a kids film about a sick boy who has his little stuffed animal, named Kooky, thrown into the trash; we then go on a fantastic ride in the forest as Kooky tries to return home. I added this film on a whim since I just happened to have a spot open and honestly was not much looking forward to it since I'm not a big fan of kids films, but damn, I loved this movie. I'm going to exclude pretty much all of the family stuff with the real people because it was small part of the film and I found it pretty annoying (the dubbing did not help). The world that Kooky gets wrapped up in (all dreamed up through the child's imagination) is so awesome, it felt like I was a kid again watching a Jim Henson production with fresh eyes. The blend of the puppet characters with real life animals in a real life forest is better than any animated nonsense that has come out in recent years. It was fun, spooky, sad, and thoroughly enjoyable. I have to say I was actually amazed at how some of the sequences were done as they looked so fantastic and while the dubbing was awful in the human parts, it was perfect in the puppet forest since they did not really have mouths and the voices sounded great. Such a bright, fun, kids' story. Loved it. I sure hope I enjoy the new Muppet movie as much as I enjoyed this; who knows, this could end up being a truer tribute to Henson and the only shame in that would be that few people will see this film.

The Loneliest Planet - 8/10: I don't know what it is about me and movies where nothing happens (and for open endings with little to no explanation), but I seem to have a strange affinity for them. This was no exception as this is an extremely sparse film revolving around three characters (a youngish couple and their grizzled guide who only speaks broken English) as they trek through the Georgian countryside. I really liked this film, despite Gael Garcia Bernal being in it who I very much dislike. I think I have an appreciation for relationship films that show what I feel is an accurate representation of how people interact and how things, whether small or large, can change a relationship over periods of time, no matter how short those periods may be. We spend the first part of the film with the couple as they are very touchy-feely and constantly joking with each other, then some small things happen along the way and the relationship changes. The way the director shoots this with very long shots with minimal dialogue helps to really ingratiate you into their world and be taken along for the rocky ride with them through the mountains. In the end you are left contemplating what is going to happen with this soon to be married couple and also reflecting inward to see how you would have handled things in a similar situation. Certainly not for everyone, but this kind of stuff is right up my alley.

KT
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
Those both sound very interesting. Saved The Loneliest Planet on Netflix. The other doesn't have a page yet.


Troll Hunter - 5/10:
This was a disappointment. I hadn't really seen anything negative at all about this, but after seeing it, I don't understand all the positive things I've heard. The movie is a mockumentary about 3 college students who are reporting on bear attacks. They start to follow someone who they believe to be a poacher, and eventually he tells them that he hunts trolls, not bears.

I thought the whole thing was pretty boring. The few possibly exciting scenes with trolls all flopped imo. The dialogue wasn't very good, the acting was so-so, and it wasn't funny. I read a bit about the movie this morning and I kept seeing the "dry humor" mentioned, but this movie wasn't funny. A few giggles at best; The jokes were just lame and stupid.

Then, there was some religious or anti-religious message to the film, I can't even figure out which. Maybe I'm blind or maybe I just don't care, but it didn't seem clear and it detracted from the movie. They recycled a few "christian blood attracts trolls" jokes, if you can call them jokes, and near the end Troll Hunter has about 10 seconds of dialogue about a troll genocide, with no effect on the plot.

The CGI was good for the budget, but everything else was pretty shoddy. Way too many poorly shot scenes, even for a movie emulating a college-student-shot video. There was some stupid text explanations before/after the "footage." Ugh, the more I think about this movie the more I dislike it.
 

KeithTalent

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Nov 30, 2005
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The Artist - 9.5/10: So freaking awesome! I was pretty excited for this after reading a review from TIFF and boy, I was not disappointed in the slightest; I actually liked it far more than I ever expected I could. I was a bit apprehensive as this is a silent, black & white film about an actor on top of the world, then dealing with the transition to talkies and fading into obscurity, but it was such a fun movie from beginning to end. The style was beautiful, it looked and sounded great, with perfect musical cues that really enhanced the storytelling. The actors were fantastic, as if they were born to do silent films in the late 20's, but I have to say the director did the greatest work bringing this all together with such life that I was blown away by how perfect the whole thing felt. I noticed near the end of the film that I had a giant, idiot grin on my face which had probably been there for the full run time. This movie received the loudest applause of any film at the festival this year, by far, and I'm hoping it comes to a theatre somewhere here so I can see it again and take some friends. Loved it.

The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby This - 6/10 is essentially a talking head documentary on the former CIA director who died, in retirement, under mysterious circumstances. This did have some pretty interesting stuff with respect to the Vietnam war, including some recorded conversations between the Kennedy brothers and some other advisers, and went into some detail into the things that went on over there; Colby being a big part of it. While I did find a lot of that stuff interesting, at the end of it all I did not feel as if I had learned anything new and I certainly did not feel like I really knew William Colby at all. Granted, he was described as a reserved, very moral man, so getting anything salacious on him just was not going to happen, but he really was quite a bland individual and this doc did nothing to dispel that. So yeah, some great old footage, and some interesting stories, but ultimately a bit flat as an actual film. This movie does, however, win the award for longest title at the festival. Congratulations.

KT
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,235
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Those both sound very interesting. Saved The Loneliest Planet on Netflix. The other doesn't have a page yet.


Troll Hunter - 5/10:
This was a disappointment. I hadn't really seen anything negative at all about this, but after seeing it, I don't understand all the positive things I've heard. The movie is a mockumentary about 3 college students who are reporting on bear attacks. They start to follow someone who they believe to be a poacher, and eventually he tells them that he hunts trolls, not bears.

I thought the whole thing was pretty boring. The few possibly exciting scenes with trolls all flopped imo. The dialogue wasn't very good, the acting was so-so, and it wasn't funny. I read a bit about the movie this morning and I kept seeing the "dry humor" mentioned, but this movie wasn't funny. A few giggles at best; The jokes were just lame and stupid.

Then, there was some religious or anti-religious message to the film, I can't even figure out which. Maybe I'm blind or maybe I just don't care, but it didn't seem clear and it detracted from the movie. They recycled a few "christian blood attracts trolls" jokes, if you can call them jokes, and near the end Troll Hunter has about 10 seconds of dialogue about a troll genocide, with no effect on the plot.

The CGI was good for the budget, but everything else was pretty shoddy. Way too many poorly shot scenes, even for a movie emulating a college-student-shot video. There was some stupid text explanations before/after the "footage." Ugh, the more I think about this movie the more I dislike it.

Remember, nothing happens in Loneliest Planet, but I still liked it a lot.

A shame about Troll Hunter as I was really looking forward to it. I'd heard several positive things about it. I may try and see it if it shows up on the movie channel here just to check out the trolls!

KT
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,682
119
106
I don't think I'll mind nothing happening. It's a nice change of pace from the usual.

I'd be interested to hear what you think about Troll Hunter. Seems like I'm in the minority with my opinion so don't let me keep you away.
 
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