General Movie Thread

[Martin]

Watched IN THE LOOP today. Just as I predicted, it's the movie to beat in 2009. Best of the year so far, by a wide margin.

Also, I could listen to this kind of dialogue all day long:

"Where do you think you are, some fucking Regency costume drama? This is a government department, not a fucking Jane fucking Austen novel. Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up the shitter with a lubricated horse cock."

[kittykittymeowmixhead]

Don't know if this was mentioned but Happy Go Lucky is very good!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwD7Zy6Vno[/youtube]

[Wotally Tifficult]

Don't know if this was mentioned but Happy Go Lucky is very good!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwD7Zy6Vno[/youtube]

Agreed, my nana had it play at her retirement home. Apparently, everyone bailed when they saw marijuana use(which I hadn't noticed/remembered.

[fletcher munson]

I saw some amazing Bruce Bickford films this weekend, one called Prometheus' Garden.  Don't let the fact that he worked with Zappa keep you away.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

i watched Awake this weekend.  it was awful. 

i also watched Good Luck Chuck.  also awful.

i hate Jessica Alba.

[wood and iron]

Watched Killing Zoe (1994) directed by Roger Avary last night.

It wasn't half bad for a thrown together B-movie. The whole first half with the drug crazed Frenchmen is kind of aimless and drags on way too long but the bank heist second half has a really great tension throughout. Eric Stoltz is pretty good in it, too.

Also really love Avary's adaptation of The Rules of Attraction.

[DoodleJump!]

About to watch How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
It has Megan Fox in it. :{
But it also has Simon Pegg. So that could be ok.

[NJL]

Did anyone see Moon?

[crumbum]

Did anyone see Moon?

I saw it last night and I recommend it, mostly for Sam Rockwell's excellent performance. I find him pretty much endlessly watchable. And the structure of the movie allows him to show off his acting chops, albeit in a kind of gimmicky way.

I'm pretty sure it's the director's first feature, and you can tell. He draws way too much attention to his plundering of bits and pieces from other sci-fi films, especially 2001. To be fair, a lot of this comes from of the script, and you can excuse it as homage, but I think he also lacks a strong visual sensibility of his own, compounding the problem.

[wood and iron]

Fun fact: The director of Moon is Zowie Bowie aka Duncan Jones.

And has a beard to rival the Brushman's.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I just saw that Michael Mann John Dillinger movie.  Dangerous Minds?  Desperate People?  No, Public Enemies.  anyway, it was pretty good, but had all that campy, melodramatic Michael Mann stuff that always makes me think of Coupon: The Movie.

[masterofsparks]

I just can't help disliking Michael Mann movies. I always come in hoping this will be the one that turns me around on him and I always walk away disappointed.

As for things I've actually seen recently, I re-watched The Long Good Friday last night since I just picked up the Criterion DVD. Holy moly is that movie awesome.

[crumbum]

I just can't help disliking Michael Mann movies. I always come in hoping this will be the one that turns me around on him and I always walk away disappointed.

I think his best years are behind him for sure -- his last four movies have been stinkers. (I remember reading an interview wih Quentin Tarantino somewhere in which he said he would quit after twenty years of directing, because in his extensive study of directors' careers he'd never found one who had more than that many great years in him/her. For all the bullshit that guy spouts I thought he was pretty much right-on [though I can think of maybe two or three exceptions].)

I like The Informant a lot, and Manhunter and Heat both have some wonderful sequences.

[Chris L]

I just can't help disliking Michael Mann movies. I always come in hoping this will be the one that turns me around on him and I always walk away disappointed.

I think his best years are behind him for sure -- his last four movies have been stinkers. (I remember reading an interview wih Quentin Tarantino somewhere in which he said he would quit after twenty years of directing, because in his extensive study of directors' careers he'd never found one who had more than that many great years in him/her. For all the bullshit that guy spouts I thought he was pretty much right-on [though I can think of maybe two or three exceptions].)

I like The Informant a lot, and Manhunter and Heat both have some wonderful sequences.

Yet another extensively researched Tarantino opinion that I completely discount.   Admittedly many directors lose their drive or fall by the wayside but a lot more than 3 have had great 30-year + careers. 

I'll say this for Mann:  He's doing really interesting stuff w/ digital video.   I thought Collateral and Miami Vice looked amazing.   Haven't seen Public Enemies yet but the idea of shooting a period film in the same style sounds interesting.  

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Yeah, it looked really good.  I had no idea it was digital until afterward, when I went online to look something up about it.

And has Tarantino cracked a late-period Bergman movie much?