Cinemexperience: part deux., Some more filums you saw. Options

[logger]

I don't think Lou Reed is cool so it actually had the opposite effect on me.

A Single Man

Some great performances, especially Firth who was really unlucky not to win the Oscar, he was certainly better than Jeff Bridges mumblecore effort in Crazy Heart, a sleek and sensual feel and a real sense of loss and what was lost but I just felt it didn't have the chutzpah to stop it from being cliched.

And then we come to the final event of the film which brought derisive laughter from me.

[maian]

I don't think Lou Reed is cool so it actually had the opposite effect on me.

A Single Man

Some great performances, especially Firth who was really unlucky not to win the Oscar, he was certainly better than Jeff Bridges mumblecore effort in Crazy Heart, a sleek and sensual feel and a real sense of loss and what was lost but I just felt it didn't have the chutzpah to stop it from being cliched.

And then we come to the final event of the film which brought derisive laughter from me.

The ending is the only part of the film I didn't particularly like. It's a solid ending, but when I first watched it I found it unnecessary cruel. Otherwise, though, I really responded to it.

[logger]

I hated the ending, it was just weak on so many levels. It reminded me of a Young Ones annual I had, in it Rik writes a play that ends with a nuclear war from out of nowhere because he doesn't know how to end it.

[Sostie]

HUMAN CENTIPEDE
The film based around a nauseating idea, which is why it has received the publicity (and cinema release) that it has. There are a few scenes of medical gore and teeth extraction and degredation, but this isn’t as extreme as was expected. Actually the most disturbing part are the simple chalk diagrams on a blackboard as the doctor explains to his victims what he is about to do.
A sick idea, yes. An mentally scarring, stomach turning gore-fest. Not even close. A well executed, passable b-movie mad scientist schlocker. No more, no less.

CENTURION
I like Neil Marshall films. This time he has survivors of a massacred Roman Legion running away from Picts. Lots and lots of gore and decapitation and Michael Fassbender with his top off. Good hokum.

Adventureland

Hell, I bet John Hughes wishes he made something this good.

I don't think John Hughes ever really tried to do anything like this.

Adventureland was OK, but I wish it'd stopped trying to ram how cool it was down my throat.

I don't think it did. If it had I would have hated it. If you want to see this done, and done very badly, two words. Garden. State.

[dandan]

i wrote a big, messy, spoiler filled discussion of a review, which is more mess than review, although that kinda suits the film...

atonement

[maian]

Days of Being Wild (1991)

Really good, if messy, Wong Kar-Wai film (the first in a loose trilogy that includes In The Mood For Love and 2046) in which a young man (Andy Lau) has relationships with a couple of women before setting out to find his real movie. There's more to it than that, but in a nutshell that's the plot. The film is less about events than it is atmosphere and themes, particularly the theme of rejection which seems to coarse through all of York's relationships with the women in his life. It's not as polished as some of his later films, and the sudden bursts of violence towards the end are really jarring and odd, but otherwise it's a strong film and indicative of the great work he would go on to do.

Manderlay (2005)

The second film in Lars von Trier's (aborted) America trilogy finds Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), having left Dogville, stumbling across an old plantation run by Lauren Bacall in which slavery is still in effect, despite the Civil War having ended 65 years before. Grace sets about freeing the slaves, only to have her own ideas about race tested and challenged when she has to introduce the slaves to a new, freer life.

A great, unflinching exploration of America's racial history that works as a compelling character study as well. As with Dogville, von Trier manages to satisfy both emotionally and intellectually.

My one problem with this film would be the fact that the character of Grace reappears, since I found her naivety about the world really out of step with what she went through in Dogville. If it was just a follow-up with a different lead character, I'd probably have not got so caught up on it.

[logger]

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Take him to the hospital, you dink.

[logger]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Cheap airport thriller of a movie, kind of a Rape Vinci Code. Too long, too dull, too stupid and overall cheap.

[logger]

Air Doll

Kind of reminded me of the Werner Herzog as a carrier bag short, and is similarly moving but I thought at 2 hours they were pushing it a bit. And it wouldn't be Japanese cinema if it wasn't a little bit creepy and weird. It helps that Bae Doona is so adorable, I particularly liked it when she was on the streets and interacting with a real environment.

It also made me think, along with repeats of Randall and Hopkirk that it's about time for the mini skirt/dress to make a comeback.

This post has been edited by logger: Aug 24 2010, 08:10 PM

[Kick in the Head]

Love Exposure - after his mother dies, Yu Honda's father decides to become a priest, but after a tumultuous and unfulfilled relationship with one of his congregation, Yu's father forces him to come to confession every day and admit to sins he hasn't committed. In desperation, Yu starts to engage in petty acts of bad behaviour in order to give his father material to be forgiven for. But when he starts to train with a master peek-a-panty photographer, he soon becomes highly skilled at taking up-skirt snaps, both in a quest to appease his father's love of confession and to find his one true love, his "Maria". Entering into this equation is a man-hating kung-fu Christian schoolgirl and a mysterious puppet-master seemingly stalking Yu. All in a tale of love, life, death, and religion which can effectively be boiled down to a teenager's yearning to finally achieve an erection. It also just so happens that this film is 4 hours long.

Given its running time and how patchy I have found Sion Sono's past work (which have often been filled with interesting ideas and memorable scenes but hampered by unsatisfying, and incoherent to the point of babbling, narratives), I would have been a tad more trepidatious (?) about subjecting myself to his flights of fancy for one sixth of a day had the reviews not been so glowing. Thankfully though, my attention was held throughout, and Love Exposure just so happens to be one of the most entertaining and original films I've seen this year. With such a lengthy running time (with the original cut apparently lasting six hours total), it actually gives you time to fully buy into its odd premise and truly invest in the characters - it's rare to see a dark relationship comedy given the time-scale to grow and develop over a period usually reserved for sweeping war epics. Though the pace does slacken somewhere around the three hour mark, there's no scene I'd think to cut, as the love-lorn Yu gets further embroiled in relationship problems that take inventive and surprising turns. Buoyed by its peculiar sense of humour (yes, there're a lot of knob gags, but they're actually cleverly deployed - nothing like a silly boner joke to stop the audience attention from waning) and some great tunes from, sadly now defunt, psychedelic popsters Yura Yura Teikoku, Love Exposure is still not for everyone - there's some pretty graphic violence that can be best summed up as "Lars Von Trier's Kill Bill", and it fully embraces its weirdness and seediness (you'll hear the word 'hentai' - 'pervert' - A LOT) to almost Eurotrash levels. But it is also Sion Sono's masterpiece, and could also just about be the greatest love story ever told.

This post has been edited by Kick in the Head: Aug 24 2010, 08:35 PM

[logger]

you'll hear the word 'hentai' - 'pervert' - A LOT

Is that what it means? That's brilliant.

[Serafina_Pekkala]

CENTURION
I like Neil Marshall films. This time he has survivors of a massacred Roman Legion running away from Picts. Lots and lots of gore and decapitation and Michael Fassbender with his top off. Good hokum.

I'm sorry I missed this at the cinema. Picts, Romans and Fassbender are 3 of my favourite things ever.

[Kick in the Head]

Air Doll

Kind of reminded me of the Werner Herzog as a carrier bag short, and is similarly moving but I thought at 2 hours they were pushing it a bit. And it wouldn't be Japanese cinema if it wasn't a little bit creepy and weird. It helps that Bae Doona is so adorable, I particularly liked it when she was on the streets and interacting with a real environment.

It also made me think, along with repeats of Randall and Hopkirk that it's about time for the mini skirt/dress to make a comeback.

The funny thing about it being a Japanese film is that despite being dressed in one of those french maid outfits (and the fact that people are too reserved and non-confrontational) no one bats an eyelid, while if it were made in the States, it would be all "Hey, why you wearing those funny clothes?". In a way, it's like a remake of Enchanted. I guess though it could only really be made in Japan precisely because it's a little bit creepy and weird, but then if it didn't really show the details (when she cleans out her own 'spunkbox', for instance - which is as upsetting as it is unsettling), it wouldn't have anywhere near the level of impact.

[logger]

I guess though it could only really be made in Japan precisely because it's a little bit creepy and weird, but then if it didn't really show the details (when she cleans out her own 'spunkbox', for instance - which is as upsetting as it is unsettling), it wouldn't have anywhere near the level of impact.

Especially as she'd just been blackmailed into fucking her boss. The whole cutting her boyfriend open so she could blow him back up was a bit shocking too.

[Sostie]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Cheap airport thriller of a movie

Not a bad thing. Jaws was a cheap airport thriller

overall cheap.

Personally can't agree with your other criticisms, but I have no idea where this one comes from.