movies What's the last film you watched? And rate it!

Training Day 6/10

Not bad. Solid story with some clever twists, good cinematography, a nice score, and very good acting. The ending, a few of the scenes, and certain characters in the film were very dull though. There were also some shots that were obviously borrowed from films the director liked. One that stood the most out too me was the taxi-driver shot. For some reason it annoyed me :grumpy: It's good, not great.
 
scarface 10/10

genius from start to finish, it seems the older i get the more i find it more of a comedy film as the Wit in it is brilliant, the language, the use of context everything i never noticed before i have now, truely a great.

and I hate the godfather before anyone asks, its just too boring for me.
 
Maborosi directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda - 10/10
Hirokazu Kore-eda's work has interested me since I watched his 2008 film Still Walking, and Maborosi doesn't disappoint. An Ozu-esque contemplative film where every frame of this picture has a story to tell. The story of the film is simple, it is about a woman who can't get over the death of her grandmother and then her husband who suicides. After some years in solitude she re-marries and apparently finds happiness but the pain begins to creep in again when she revisits her hometown. The film has a mournful quality to it that never falters yet it never goes for sentimentality. All of the shots are poetic, some are even quite spiritual. For anyone into "contemplative" cinema, this is a great film especially for Ozu lovers. This film once again proves to me that Hirokazu Kore-eda is Ozu's spiritual successor.
 
Love Actually. It's cute. Or cutesy. Goes a little overboard at times. But for those of you softies and sentimentalists out there, in the closet or out, it's pretty much a worthwhile confection...if you're in the mood for a sweet, verging on saccharine (probably more than verging on) soap opera. And certainly a great cast.
 
Training Day 6/10

Not bad. Solid story with some clever twists, good cinematography, a nice score, and very good acting. The ending, a few of the scenes, and certain characters in the film were very dull though. There were also some shots that were obviously borrowed from films the director liked. One that stood the most out too me was the taxi-driver shot. For some reason it annoyed me :grumpy: It's good, not great.

Not sure if you know but the ending was re-shot.
In the original both cops died. It went down badly with either the studio or test audiences, and the director had to re-shoot.
 
I watched several short films and a feature film today.

I first decided to watch several of the Venice 70 - Future Reloaded short films and I'll rate them by director. One good thing about these films is that they're short and diverse so I get to watch the work of several filmmakers, however, they are usually low-tier films in their oeuvres.

Bernardo Bertolucci - 4.5/10
Some interesting images, but no reason for me to care much and to be honest there is not much even in the visual department to satisfy me.

Claire Denis - 4/10
Some interesting work with sound, but I feel that this film is trying to tell me something and I can't seem to understand it. If the film had more interesting visuals I'd give it a re-watch to try to understand it but again, I don't care that much.

Wang Bing - 6/10
A good look at a man's life, working and eating. Not much to say, but it was very well-shot and the man's actions were interesting.

Abbas Kiarostami - 7.5/10
A great comedy scene that recalls the early silent comedies. I love that Kiarostami's vision of the "future of cinema" is about children making films. This was probably my favorite of the short films.

Kim Ki-Duk - 6.5/10
A decent film about the filmmaker's relationship with his mother. I honestly think the concept of this film was too big for such a short film, maybe a five minute short film would've been better in this case.

Apitchatpong Weerasethakul - 6.5/10
There isn't much to the film, but I don't know why its images captivate me. A good (experimental?) mood piece if you will.

Giuseppe Piccioni - 6.5/10
An interesting concept, the special effect works well as simple as it is. I wonder what old film dialogue was used in the film.

Hong Sang-soo - 7/10
A good, well-shot scene. Not really subtle at all, but it works for the films length.

Jean-Marie Straub - 2/10
This was the biggest waste of time I've had watching a film I think, thankfully it's less than 2 minutes. It really is just an image of a paper with some writing in French, if I knew French I'd read it instantly and turn off the film. I think all of the writing on the paper was old film writing and at the end the writer said he made contributions, I suppose that the director is saying that the future of cinema is recycled ideas.

Jia Zhangke - 7.5/10
This was my second favorite, the film is basically about how many people today watch films on iPad's, smartphones and smaller screens, and how in the future people will want to go back to watching films on an old projector because its a more powerful experience.

Paul Schrader - 6.5/10
It was nice to here Schrader talk about cinema and the film is edited in a unique style. I agree with Schrader saying "without the bottle there can't be wine" just as without the form in cinema there can't be content.

Shekhar Kapur - 3/10
I didn't really get this film, there's a bunch of out of focus shots.

Shinya Tsukamoto - 6.5/10
A fun little film about a kid playing with his toys, I like how it plays out just like children plays with toys.

Shirin Neshat - 5.5/10
There's nothing much to say as it is really just cutting together different bits of two Sergei Eisenstein films, it does make me want to watch those films though, and the piano track was nice.

Later I watched another short film and a feature.

The Bread And Alley directed by Abbas Kiarostami - 8/10
I love this short film, it has a lot of charm with a great soundtrack and great child acting.

Perfect Blue directed by Satoshi Kon - 9.5/10
This is one of the very best anime films I've seen with its Hitchcock-like suspense and Lynch surrealism. This film seems to have inspired Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan with its similar visual style and thematic elements. However, this film is better with its relentless depiction of a girl going mad, or is she? The world in the film is very confusing but engaging enough to make you care, I'll want to revisit this film but its quite disturbing so it'll take me sometime before I return to its world.
 
Perfect Blue directed by Satoshi Kon - 9.5/10
This is one of the very best anime films I've seen with its Hitchcock-like suspense and Lynch surrealism. This film seems to have inspired Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan with its similar visual style and thematic elements. However, this film is better with its relentless depiction of a girl going mad, or is she? The world in the film is very confusing but engaging enough to make you care, I'll want to revisit this film but its quite disturbing so it'll take me sometime before I return to its world.

I've not seen this for a while so it's probably about time I gave it another viewing. It was the movie that changed my girlfriend's opinion of anime. Great film.

Bounty Killer 6/10 - Part of me chuckled all the way through this, while the rest of me turned around and pretended to not know me. Mediocre, but comic book fans might enjoy.

Only god forgives 9/10 - Loved it. Beatifully ugly in a strange freudian way.

We're the Millers 7/10 - Much funnier than expected!

World War Z - 6/10 - This film is the wrong way round... starts off strong then grinds to a bore.

Furious 6 5/10 - TrOloLoL!!! Gains points for absurdity + popcorn factor.
 
If you get the chance watch Disconnect (2012) 9/10. One of the best movies I have seen this year and it got a minimal theater release and minimal marketing so not many people got to see it.

Great cast and an outstanding story. I was engaged in every scene. Story really pulled me in. Outstanding.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433811/?ref_=sr_1

Reviews on IMDB: lots of 9/10 and 10/10s
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433811/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Storyline
A hard-working lawyer, attached to his cell phone, can't find the time to communicate with his family. A couple is drawn into a dangerous situation when their secrets are exposed online. A widowed ex-cop struggles to raise a mischievous son who cyber-bullies a classmate. An ambitious journalist sees a career-making story in a teen that performs on an adult-only site. They are strangers, neighbors and colleagues and their stories collide in this riveting dramatic thriller about ordinary people struggling to connect in today's wired world.
 
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Our Idiot Brother - 5.5/10

I wanted to like this movie but can't say I did. I enjoy almost all of the actors/actresses in this film. The performances were actually quite good in my opinion, but the heartwarming ending wasn't quite as heartwarming as it needed to be for me to think it was a really good movie. My girlfriend and I got done with it and looked at each other with a "meh".

Not a bad movie, not terribly good either.
 
I'm not a hardcore anime fan, so I had to google him to check out the rest of his credits. :D We only caught it as my GF and I went through a phase of watching movies from the world cinema section in our local dvd rental store. I recognise a couple of them, but I've not seen any more though. Millenium Actress and Paranoia Agent are probably worth a punt.

On a slightly unrelated note, If you like the crazier Japanese stuff too, then check out Visitor Q. It's pretty low budget, but never fails to leave it's mark on unsuspecting viewers. :crazy: :lol:

PS: Don't watch it with your parents/grand parents/girlfriend's mates etc. :D
 
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I think his point is when Cronenburg is weird, he's good. I disagree, I loved History of Violence, but it's a slow paced movie so I can see where someone might find it dull.

I finally got around to Iron Man 3. Best of the bunch, and I loved dealing with the aftermath of Avengers. Robert Downey Jr. is always fun to watch though at the end of the day, Iron Man isn't my favorite superhero (for that matter, superheroes aren't my favorite type of comics). A solid 8/10 for me, one less if you aren't predisposed to comic book movies, one more if you like Iron Man in general.

Related note: I also caught Super. 7/10. Somewhere between Kick-Ass and God Bless America (though the latter is a much better movie). Actually, closer to the tone of the Kick-Ass comic series than the movies, with lots of really unsettling dark comedy moments. Nathan Fillion is, as always, awesome (pretty small role for him, but he hams it up appropriately).

As for Satoshi Kon (RIP), Paranoia Agent is probably my favorite (short series, not a movie), but Paprika is really good too. Not as weird as it sometimes gets hyped up as, but an excellent film.
 
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