General Movie Thread

[masterofsparks]

I will admit to a soft spot for junky Luc Besson movies (specifically The Transporter and Taken), so maybe that explains why I had so much fun with From Paris With Love. The Travolta role seems like it was written for someone like Duane Johnson, but he seemed to be having a ball with it. It's crazy and over-the-top in a late-period Pacino kinda way, but it worked for me.

It's on Netflix streaming if you have a need to kill 90 minutes in a brain-dead actiony kinda way. It was the perfect palate cleanser after my aborted attempt to watch The Machinist.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Recently saw Boxer's Omen, I loved it!  Plenty of WTF moments with similarities to Hausau and The Holy Mountain.

Watched this based on your recommendation. Rocky 2 meets Evil Dead 2 meets Siddhartha 1.   I can't go as far as to say that I loved it, but it certainly had "plenty of WTF moments" as you suggested. 

P.S. The second screen shot you provided was visually my favorite part of the film.

[dave from knoxville]

I started out kind of iffy on "The Hobbit" trailer, and then when they all started singing "Gonna go see Liza, gonna go to Mississippi" together, I couldn't finish it.

[Rick in Salt Lake]

I started out kind of iffy on "The Hobbit" trailer, and then when they all started singing "Gonna go see Liza, gonna go to Mississippi" together, I couldn't finish it.

It would be strangely awesome if they were singing about Liza Minnelli...

[free plax]

Just watched the BBC Masterpiece Contemporary production , Page Eight.  Showed on "the telly" over there in August but is available on DVD here in the States.  It's a rather slow but intelligent political thriller with a good cast.  I've enjoyed a few of the other MC movies/mini-series including Collision and Endgame but Page Eight is my favorite, so far.  None have been as good as the BBC mini-series, State of Play, which like Page Eight starred the great Bill Nighy.  They turned it into a crappy Russell Crowe/Ben Affleck film but the original first introduced me to my major crush, Kelly McDonald of Boardwalk Empire.

Think I'm going to to delve into Snowtown here in a minute. Like Animal Kingdom, it's an Austrailian movie based on a true story, the countries most notorious serial killer, John Bunting.  Supposed to be brutally great.

[cavorting with nudists]

I saw Pina this afternoon and was wowed.  I know almost nothing about dance, but this is about the most operatically expressive interaction between the motion picture camera and the human body I've ever seen.  Spellbinding.

[Hugman 3.0]

I saw Pina this afternoon and was wowed.  I know almost nothing about dance, but this is about the most operatically expressive interaction between the motion picture camera and the human body I've ever seen.  Spellbinding.

Apparently you haven't seen The Magazine The Movie yet.

[roubaix]

Watched this based on your recommendation. Rocky 2 meets Evil Dead 2 meets Siddhartha 1.   I can't go as far as to say that I loved it, but it certainly had "plenty of WTF moments" as you suggested. 

P.S. The second screen shot you provided was visually my favorite part of the film.

Glad to hear you watched it, even if you weren't quite as impressed.  I'm mesmerized by crazy visuals in Asian films -- although I've only seen a handful of movies that qualify.

[Rick in Salt Lake]

I saw Pina this afternoon and was wowed.  I know almost nothing about dance, but this is about the most operatically expressive interaction between the motion picture camera and the human body I've ever seen.  Spellbinding.

I've read about this and am in your situation when it comes to knowledge of dance. Still, I'm really curious about it. As I recall reading, it's being shown in 3-d, right? If so would you recommend seeing it in tat format? Some movies really do require it, for example I cannot immagine seeing "Cavoe of Forgotten Dreams" without 3-D...

Also, the movie is a recording of a live performance before an audiance, right? If so does it break from the action to show enraptured viewers or cut to some commentary? THat kind of bullshit always takes me out of these types of movies...

[Rick in Salt Lake]

Watched this based on your recommendation. Rocky 2 meets Evil Dead 2 meets Siddhartha 1.   I can't go as far as to say that I loved it, but it certainly had "plenty of WTF moments" as you suggested. 

P.S. The second screen shot you provided was visually my favorite part of the film.

Wow, that is quite a description. IS it available via Netflix?

[Chris L]

I saw Pina this afternoon and was wowed.  I know almost nothing about dance, but this is about the most operatically expressive interaction between the motion picture camera and the human body I've ever seen.  Spellbinding.

It will take some time for me to wrap my head around the concept of a new Wim Wenders movie that's actually good.

[cavorting with nudists]

I've read about this and am in your situation when it comes to knowledge of dance. Still, I'm really curious about it. As I recall reading, it's being shown in 3-d, right? If so would you recommend seeing it in tat format? Some movies really do require it, for example I cannot immagine seeing "Cavoe of Forgotten Dreams" without 3-D...

Yes, the 3D is absolutely crucial.  I said the same about Cave but in this case, double it.

It will take some time for me to wrap my head around the concept of a new Wim Wenders movie that's actually good.

Yeah, if all I've heard is true he's shat the bed as a fiction filmmaker, but hasn't he always sort of kept on track as a documentarian? I liked Buena Vista Social Club, of course that wasn't exactly recent.  Anyway, he didn't have to script this one and his eye is still good.  Actually, the most Wenders-esque-in-the-self-parodic-sense about this is the sort of dreamy way he handles the talking-heads sequences--we hear the voices but the speakers simply look soulfully into the camera, as if we were angels overhearing the Berliners' thoughts in Wings of Desire. But they are interesting faces, and these passages are brief.

[cavorting with nudists]

Also, the movie is a recording of a live performance before an audiance, right? If so does it break from the action to show enraptured viewers or cut to some commentary? THat kind of bullshit always takes me out of these types of movies...

No, it's not done in front of an audience.  Some scenes are on a stage set and others are out in real-life locations.  The only commentary is by dancers in Bausch's troupe and as I've said these are brief and not too intrusive.

If you remember the dance sequence that opened Almodovar's Talk to Her, that was Pina Bausch & company, if that gives you any idea what to expect.

[Rick in Salt Lake]

Also, the movie is a recording of a live performance before an audiance, right? If so does it break from the action to show enraptured viewers or cut to some commentary? THat kind of bullshit always takes me out of these types of movies...

No, it's not done in front of an audience.  Some scenes are on a stage set and others are out in real-life locations.  The only commentary is by dancers in Bausch's troupe and as I've said these are brief and not too intrusive.

If you remember the dance sequence that opened Almodovar's Talk to Her, that was Pina Bausch & company, if that gives you any idea what to expect.

Ok, I get you. I'll certainly make a point of seeing it. I'm always willing to try to introduce myself to new things and I think a 3-D film about dance would fit that description.

ETA: I see it opens in Salt Lake on 1/20. I'll be looking for it. Thanks for the recommend...

[cavorting with nudists]

I'm gonna retract what I said about the 3D being twice as crucial to Pina as it was to Cave--that was my enthusiasm for the film talking. On hosing myself down, I think that Pina could still be an awe-inspiring experience without 3D in a way that I can't quite imagine COFD being--after all, these dancers move, and create their own spatial relationships in depth in a way that the static cave paintings can't really do, reduced to two dimensions.  Let me scale back to say just that Pina uses 3D beautifully and if you have the chance to see it that way and don't take it, you're cheating yourself.

OK, that bit of hyperbole is off my conscience now.