| Harry Potter |
[17 Jul 2009|10:19am] |
I figure I should post my review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince While it's still relevant. You can find my post on my journal by clicking here.
I granted it 3.5 stars out of 4.
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[16 Jul 2009|10:43pm] |
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Hello! I just joined this community. *waves*
OK, so, I've been needing a cheesy 60's movie fix. Badly. And I like the more psychedelic/hippie movies, if there is such a thing. Either way, a 60's movie. Cheesy. But 60's, and that makes it good. Completed with 60's music, hair, and make-up. The whole thing. :-p
Second, there was this 60's movie I saw a few months ago. I remember these people sitting around in a big room with pillows on the floor, and they were all smoking dope and passing it around to each other. I then remember something about people going upstairs to look at something, and the whole house was painted in a psychedelic fashion: blue door frame, purple walls, red door handle, yellow window frame - that sort of deal. I also remember two people talking at the top of the stairs. I know that is pretty vague, but I was hoping someone might know what the title of the movie was. I think the movie had something to do with a man dropping acid for the first time.
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| Crap Ben Kinsley Movie - A SOUND OF THUNDER |
[17 Jul 2009|10:04am] |
(Stopping Movies Half-way Through Week, Part 2) So it starts with a trip back through time that features a dinosaur. A dinosaur that seriously looks as realistic as the dinosaur in Toy Story (and remember, that was meant to be a plastic dinosaur). Then, about five minutes later, it has an exterior shot. The movie is set in 2055, so there is a lot of futuristic stuff outside – cars, flying things, etc. But the green screen effects are less effective than those old 40s movies that had someone like Cary Grant in a car with all the action taking place outside the windows, but the action was filmed somewhere else. This is very distracting. Later on, we get Ben Kingsley overacting like no decent actor ever should. Which makes me think: does he know how crap this movie is going to be, and he can’t get out of his contract without being sued, so he’s just doing the worst he can? I have a lot of respect for Sir BK, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say, yes, this is the case. And then there’s the scene with the bugs. Which is about the time I switched this utter shite off.
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| Synecdoche, New York |
[15 Jul 2009|11:04pm] |
If you havent seen this movie, you so need to rent it.
If you have seen it, isn't this one of the most amazing movies you have ever seen in your life?
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| Student Academy Award GOLD winner: Best Documentary |
[15 Jul 2009|06:11pm] |
The powerful documentary film "As We Forgive" (winner of the "student" filmmaker Oscar) airs on PBS starting today. It poses the question: Could you forgive a person who murdered your family?
Two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. Can true forgiveness be possible? Can survivors forgive the killers who destroyed their families and embrace them as friends and neighbors? Can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today?
In As We Forgive, narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors, once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through the process of forgiveness.
http://www.asweforgivemovie.com/pbs/index.htm
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[15 Jul 2009|03:16pm] |
Was there a movie that had you real frustrated with it? Or completely shocked by how terrible it is? I decided to rent The Mist from BlockBuster and I completely hated that movie. ( warning:The Mist spoilers )
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| Woman is the Future of Man (Sang-soo Hong, 2004) |
[15 Jul 2009|12:53pm] |
So it's settled: Sang-soo Hong is officially one of my favorite working filmmakers, Korean or otherwise. Despite not having much in the way of a cinematic tradition, Korea1 has become perhaps the most exciting film country going. Even relatively high-profile releases like Chan-wook Park's Oldboy, Joon-ho Bong's The Host and Ki-duk Kim's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring transcend their genres somewhat and do a fine aesthetic job of it all the while. But those movies tended to trade, to varying degrees, on spectacle and the exotic, and in those qualities lay their weaknesses. In the first two films of his that I've watched — the previous being Woman on the Beach — Hong retains all the refreshing qualities of modern Korean film and excises, as it were, the excesses, using materials drawn from life and trimming end results down to their barest elements. If there's a reliable formula to win my cinematic love these days, that's it.
Like (the more recent) Woman on the Beach, Woman is the Future of Man revolves around a male-male-female trio of nominally artistic late-twenty/early-thirtysomethings: that movie has a filmmaker, a production designer and a composer; this one has another filmmaker, an art professor and a painter. Hun-joon the filmmaker and Mun-ho the art professor, having celebrated the former's return from an extended stay in the States by — what else? — pounding bottle after bottle of soju at a café, decide it would be a fine idea to go visit the girl, a painter named Sun-hwa, whom they both, at one point or another, left behind. Because these two are men in line with what appears to be a Sang-soo Hong tradition, they're disoriented bundles of excuses, ex post facto rationalizations, flimsy false sincerity and sheer ineptitude, and thus their visit to the former ladyfriend turns out to be just about as healthy and productive as you'd expect.
Seeing these two films and reading descriptions of Hong's others lead me to believe that he works within a narrow subject band, but man oh man, does he work within it. Seeming fully to grasp Ebert's dictum that a film is not about what it is about but how it is about it, he minimizes the focus on the what and maximizes the focus on the how, sometimes going so far as to announce events in advance, thus freeing the audience of the burden of that what-happens-next? vigilance that sucks attention away from the other elements. In this film as well (apparently) as in his wider body of work, Hong uses patterns, cycles, repetition and a to enormous advantage, creating richness out of small-scale actions, interactions and conversations visited and revisited like themes echoed and varied throughout a piece of music. There's a certain kind of cinematic pointillism at work here, taking countless little (sometimes only loosely related) bits and pieces of life as you'd watch or hear if from the other side of a park or restaurant — one friend offering another the first walk through untouched snow, in this case, or a momentary outburst due to another's "American-style" hugging of one's wife, or the confrontation by a student of his teacher holding drunken court — and reassembling them into an image that, viewed, from two different distances, can be appreciated on two different scales.2 What you notice in the whole, you don't notice in the part; what you notice in the part, you don't notice in the whole.
Perhaps it's best to quote Hong himself on his creative process:I start with a very ordinary, banal situation, and this situation usually has something in it that makes me feel strongly. It's a stereotypical feeling, but very strong. I have this desire to look at it... perhaps it's a blind feeling. I put it on the table, and I look at it. I open up, and these pieces surface. They are not related, they conflict with each other. But I try to find a pattern that makes all these pieces fit into one. Many complaints about Woman is the Future of Man's lack of a "payoff" float around the tubes, and indeed, that's just the sort of convention to which mediocre screenwriters enslave themselves. I say it's an indication of Hong's unusual skill: he grasps a great many things about cinema, but his most important understanding is that he's making films, not slot machines. What filmmaker couldn't stand to be reminded of that?
1 Some insist on calling it "South Korea", but really, isn't it so much easier to call the south "Korea" and the north "North Korea"? It's just like "Virginia" and "West Virginia": the trick is to stay out of the one with the cardinal direction.
2 Hong also, so I hear, employs a great deal of wordplay and general verbal wit, which gives me something to look forward to fifty years from now when I have finally gotten a handle on the Korean language.
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| The New Harry Potter |
[15 Jul 2009|03:16pm] |
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Buffalo Springfield - Theres Something Happening Here |
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The problem with reviewing the new Harry Potter film is that this is the least "stand-alone" installment of the series so far. The Half Blood Prince is very much the next chapter in the story, rather than a story in itself. Thats not necessarily a bad thing as there cant be anyone left on the planet who cares enough to go to the cinema that hasnt already got at least the gist of the Potterverse, it just makes reviewing it as a single film that much more difficult.
The Half Blood Prince bridges the gap nicely between the story/characters/events already established and the climax of the final film(s) to come. The films have got progressively darker as the characters have aged and this, unsurprisingly is no exception.
This is the first of the films Ive seen in the company of teenagers (they werent with me they just happened to be in the cinema) and their reactions to the film were surprisingly helpful. During all of the moments of the film that deal with the teenage-soap stuff, the awkwardness of feelings etc, of which I usually have little interest the teenagers audibly responded with giggles, sighs and sympathetic 'awwws' as appropriate. Im too much of an old fart to be able to relate to this aspect of the films but based on the reactions of the people who are the peers of the films' characters I think they managed to get that part of it right too.
I gather they are filming the final book as two films rather than one. On the basis of this I say bring them on.
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| Crap Remake - THE FOG |
[15 Jul 2009|10:12am] |
I have some sub-genres of films that generally don’t impress me. For example, my friends and others who read my blog semi-regularly will say that “Noughties Chick-Flicks” is generally a sub-genre I’m not drawn to, or avoid paying for. However, I’m never willing to give them up entirely, as there seems to always be one film that comes out that is actually good – The Women is a recent example of a Noughties Chick-Flick that I actually liked. So I keep on going to see them, living in hope. Another of these genres for me is “Noughties Remakes of Classic Horror Movies”. I haven’t bothered to see films like Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th and the like because I don’t expect to get anything out of them. However, along comes something like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, and I am reminded that I shouldn’t give up on the sub-genre because good can come out of it. Snyder’s recent films – 300 and Watchmen – do show that he is a director with a medium amount of talent, but the other thing that separates his remake from the others mentioned is that he has shown true respect for the source material, rather than the film being a purely unoriginal cash-cow studio-driven project. Which brings me to The Fog. This is the worst of the “Noughties Remakes of Classic Horror Movies” that I can recall seeing. Dialogue seemingly aimed at teenage boys (but which I think even they may find laughable), stupid sex scenes, totally predictable plotting, obvious “Boo” moments and an overall general lack of intelligence makes this one to avoid (and a horrible blight on the CV of Selma Blair). I gave up after 45 minutes.
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[13 Jul 2009|03:28pm] |
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im trying to put together a book for my friend of thought-provoking films. but i cant seem to gather the best ones ive ever seen. i feel like im mixing up between thought-provoking and jarring films from one another. so far i thought of elephant, irreversible, the diving bell and the butterfly and waking life. i know there are millions more but which ones do you recommend? thanks.
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| Tremors |
[13 Jul 2009|01:00pm] |
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When was the last time you saw a movie that you were sure was a wholly original concept...or at least not a remake of something?
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[13 Jul 2009|02:34pm] |
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What films do you love that never seem to catch on like you think they should?
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| What song is that? |
[12 Jul 2009|06:38pm] |
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I can't stop falling in love with the music going on for the trailer of the film "9". It sounds so good and it's been killing me to know the name or title. Not sure if it is a real song, snippet or whatnot. Can anyone help me out?
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| Figured there might be someone out there that can help.. |
[11 Jul 2009|04:36pm] |
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I'm not expecting anyone to have an answer, because I don't really have many details, but I might as well give it a try..
There is this horror movie I saw as a child. I believe it came out in either the 70s or 80s. I don't remember anything about it except this hilarious scene where this girl (probably possessed) slithers behind the couch.
I've tried google, but obviously not remembering anything else about this movie, I couldn't find anything.
X posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) cinema_obscura
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| Taglines |
[10 Jul 2009|01:26am] |
This is going to sound so weird, but I have a question:
What's the most interesting/funny/best movie tagline you've ever read?
One of my favourites is Dirty Harry with: "Detective Harry Callahan. He doesn't break murder cases. He smashes them."
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[08 Jul 2009|06:58pm] |
I've finally done it! I've finally watched ten films and can rank them. (Just a geeky little thing I like to do.)
So, here we go! Let the comparing apples to oranges begin.
Keep in mind, each of the last ten movies I've seen is actually pretty decent. Even the film I put in tenth place is not too bad. It's just the nature of the exercise. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've seen any of these films!
( Read more... )
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| The Hangover |
[07 Jul 2009|11:59pm] |
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Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea |
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For a long time the appearance of a Hollywood "sex comedy" would be enough to fill me with dread. Porky's and the dozens of films that are like it were utterly dreadful. When The 40 Year Old Virgin came out a couple of years ago I was really torn in my expectations. Im a big fan of Steve Carrell but this film could so easily be another Porkys - luckily it wasnt. Fully realised, relatable characters with humorous dialogue that strays beyond the concept of "boobs are funny" made it a very enjoyable watch.
The Hangover, which I saw today also turned out to be a pleasant surprise. There have been too many films about the male stag-party-gone-wrong but The Hangover still manages to find some new and funny ground. Once again I think it was the characters you can actually invest in that made the difference.
Im not saying that boobs cant be funny but Im glad that there are films that move beyond that one note joke.
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| July's Reel Buff Selection - Jacob's Ladder |
[07 Jul 2009|02:37pm] |
Deep Thought has had a horrible week/weekend. Well, parts of it were horrible and other parts were strange and wonderful. Mostly horrible though... like the film you've chosen to watch. I kid! Sort of. How would she know? She's never seen it!
And that's why there is no better time than a week into this month to begin posting about the movie we all should watch, Jacob's Ladder
Post your thoughts here!
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