posted
We recently saw Ararat because our friend rented it (the one who rents our spare room) and we have only one TV (though, strangely, more than one dvd player ).
The only other Atom Egoyan film I've seen was Exotica , which was also set in Toronto, I believe. You'd think that Canadians were all gay, child molesters, customs agents or ... smuggling something.
In any case, it was a very moving story, with Egoyan's usual, labrinthine storytelling. Half the fun is figuring out who these people are and what , exactly, is going on. And, of course, the strange ways their lives bump into each other. At the heart of it, though, is the relationships between parents and children, most often MOTHERS and their sons, but other parent-child arrangements slip in, too.
It's a story within a story, as we learn about Raffi and his mother, and his somewhat tortured step-sister/girlfriend. But there is also the historyof the Armenian genocide (the focus of a movie that Raffi's mother is involved with, due to her study of Arshile Gorky, an Armenian -American and survivor of said genocide).
It's brutal, moving and intensely personal. Anyone else seen it? I reccommend it, as long as you are not horribly depressed. It has a positive ending, but it goes to some bad places on the way there.
Last night, we watched Black Hawk Down. I generally avoid war movies, though I had seen some fairly detailed documentaries on the subject. Another film that was sometimes hard to watch. I found it interesting how many of the 'Americans' were played by people who were not American. Orlando Bloom was there, looking like a real pup; Ewan McGregor had a convincing accent, and was always getting blown through the air. Which was true of Stebbins, the guy on whom his character was based-- everybody thought he was dead at least three times. Ron kept calling one character 'Mr. Malfoy' because he was played by Jason Isaacs.
Eric 'the Hulk' Bana played a cool Delta Force guy, more than convincingly, I might add. I don't care for Josh Hartnet, but that's my bad, I guess. Tom Sizemore will always look at home in combat dress. I wish I knew why that is.
In any case, war sucks.
Anyone want to add a movie that they have seen recently, but that has been out for a while? It's really cool when you see a movie you like, even if you are sort of behind the curve. Think of all the Donnie Darko threads we've had, or even the spate of 28 Days Later threads (also a VERY worthy movie).
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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My brother introduced a new movie to me a few months ago, and I'm now obsessed. "Beautiful Girls" It was made in the mid 1990's and stars people such as Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Natalie Portman (@ the age of 13), Rosie O'Donnel, and Uma Thurman.
It's such a good movie. It's about a guy who comes back to his hometown for his 10th reunion. It's kinda hard to explain the plot further, but I fully recommend that movie for any one.
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I'm with you on Tom Sizemore. He'll always fit in just about any war movie. He just looks like a soldier, like some of the guys I met while my Dad was in the service.
I'm also a behind the times movie watcher. I just now saw Daredevil and The Matrix: Reloaded. TMR was very fun, incredible fight scenes. Daredevil was...eh. I don't know whether to blame the CG or Ben Affleck for looking that bad as a martial artist. He looked very out of place, especially when trying to show emotion. Jennifer Garner didn't look bad, though.
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We just recently saw Adaptation. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. I did enjoy it, I think.
Oh, and we liked Donnie Darko so much that we bought it. The director commentary makes the plot more confusing, and the deleted scenes once again show how editing can change a story.
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Adaptation was probably my favorite movie of last year. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I was especially impressed with Nick Cage. Not only was the movie quite a departure from his normal "cool" roles, but he managed to make me believe that there were, in fact, two different actors playing Charlie and Donald.
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There's another block-headed actor that I consistently confuse with Tom Sizemore... only this... other guy always seems to play hit men.
And the actor that played the captured pilot, Durant? I always confuse him with Tim Roth for some reason .
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I just saw The Matrix at an IMAX theater. Good movie but I'm not a huge fanatic (like my husband--this was his third time seeing it, second time in IMAX). There were some parts I could've done without.
I also just saw Spirited Away on DVD. Very good, but I think I like My Neighbor Totorro better (done by the same guy). I don't like it when the main character is put down and made to go through a bunch of drudgery for most of the movie, which is the case in Spirited Away. Totorro is a personal favorite, so I'm probably a little biased. But SA is definitely worth seeing--very good film.
Posts: 374 | Registered: Jun 2003
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In case anyone happened to miss the thread I did on Sunday(as I think it was on the first page for about ten seconds), I really liked the horror film 'May'. Don't watch it if you are at all turned off by horror films.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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By the by, I'm a bit disappointed with the title of this thread. Where's the stuff!? I see only movies...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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First, if anyone noticed I was gone, I'm back, and congratulations if you did notice I was gone. I was in England (the Old Country for me).
Secondly, having flown to England I saw four movies on the plane; the first one was How To Lose a Man in Ten Days which I didn't like and felt was fairly boring and blahish. The second, on the way back was (I can't even remember the name and I saw it today...urmm...) Well anyway it was highly predictable... got it. Bringing Down the House. Sweet and entertaining enough, but very predictable. Finding Nemo was excellent. So sad in many places. I was nearly crying from the very beginning, which was a good thing. Finally it was Shanghai Knights which played on the general interest in British Things, had a lot of action (being an action film) and incoperated such beings as Sir Conan Doyle and Charlie Chaplin, which was unusual but unbelievable.
Well, they passed the time, and now it being 12:30 British Time, I am tired.
I am happy to see all the new smilies, but will be forced to express my delight with the good old regular smilie. Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I like the character development in Spirited Away. She has to learn not to be so whiney and to work hard - something we all need to learn at some point in time. Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
I had originally planned to also talk about the settings of movies and how sometimes that can make all the difference.
I sort of hinted at that with the Atom Egoyan movies, wondering if his image of Toronto was as warped as it seemed.
28 Days Later would not have worked as well anywhere else in Europe, or in America. A friend of ours commented that it was nice to see an apocalyptic movie that wasn't set in America.
Also, when I was in Brazil, everyone thought Americans were like they are in the movies. I think some of them actually thought WE were in the movies BECAUSE we were American. They asked for our autographs.
So do we think Mexico is like El Mariachi ? Or Scotland is like Trainspotting ?
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Well, there's also the kind of movie where the story is familiar, but the setting makes it interesting.
Frex, Rob Roy is basically an old-fashoned Western set in Scotland, with Claymores instead of rifles. And lots of peeing.
Outland was like High Noon in space. Clueless was Emma set in modern Beverly Hills. Moulin Rouge was Camille with more high kicks and rock and roll. Sometimes the setting makes things interesting.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I read the horrible reviews for Solaris and The Life of David Gale and I rented them anyway. The Life of David Gale was exactly what I expected it to be. (Plotwise. I'd figured out the ending before ever starting the movie. TV commercials were enough to see where this one was going.)
Solaris on the other hand. Good Lord. If you ever have insomnia, rent this movie. The only thing that was mildly interesting about it was the fact that George Clooney is kinda hot. So, if you aren't a George Clooney fan. . .well, you just up a creek.
It was shorter (though it seemed longer) than 2001, and the music was worse. I hated 2001. I just couldn't believe how bad this movie was.
And I couldn't believe how obvious The Life of David Gale was.
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I liked David Gale. I liked it a lot. Kayla, with all of the threads with spoilers I posted on that movie, and I know you read them, you don't get to say that the movie was obvious and below you.
Of course you guessed the ending, but even so, it wasn't supposed to be shocking as much as a confirmation of his intensity. Wasn't the movie itself splendid? I guess it's because I don't spend the movie trying to guess the ending. That's not where the kick is for me. For David Gale, the interesting parts where the style and the intensity of his belief. The same could be said about "The Believer." Knowing what's going what is going to happen doesn't dimish the ferocity of the event. I mean, just think about childbirth.
The movie to me was about the passion that a human can have for an ideal. He was a man with his feet planted in all too human fallibility reaching for the stars. Maybe the movie effected me so because I identified with Kevin Spacey's character so much.
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Irami, I didn't read a thing about the movie except for one review and the comments they make with weekend grosses.
I intentionally stay away from most movie threads because I don't go to movie theaters very often, so I have to wait 6 months usually for a movie to even come out on video. I hate having a movie ending told to me because I figure them out in the first few minutes anyway. (My husband hates this and my son is convinced I somehow saw last week's brand new episode of Monk before.)
And secondly, I enjoy trying to figure out the movie ending. I also enjoy saying the next obvious line before the character does. I love the "I could write for movies" feeling.
David Gale was done by an English Lit. grad who spent too much time with teachers obsessed with symbolism. Cliche was the word I was thinking of. Predictible is another that comes to mind. Stupid man has sex with female (who everone else knows is trouble) and his life falls apart. Watching the wreckage wasn't fun. The movie wasn't all that long, but Lordy, it seemed to go on forever.
Think what you want, but I didn't read your threads about the movie, though I have trouble remembering what I did yesterday, so forget about something that you think I might have read six months ago. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Evie, I love that movie, Beautiful Girls, it has a great cast and they play off each other well.
At first I thought you were talking about Some Girls, another great movie with an early Jennifer Connally role. Patrick Dempsey (probably his only decent film) plays a college student who goes to the home of his girlfriend in Quebec City for holiday. Her family is a little nuts, but in a cool, eccentric way. VAUGE SPOILER WARNING
The film also has the best death scene I have ever seen, in 30+ years of watching films. That one scene is worth the price of a rental.
quote:I enjoy trying to figure out the movie ending. I also enjoy saying the next obvious line before the character does. I love the "I could write for movies" feeling
Kayla, me too, in spades. So much that I can be obnoxious while watching video's, if I don't watch it. I enjoy trying to figure out plots, and if they're too predictable I rapidly lose interest.
posted
Shanghai Knights...ehh. Story was so so, not up to par even with most Jackie movies. Action was great, especially the swordfight and the fight with Donnie Yen. I was left feeling like more could've been done with the cast they had.
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quote: "Stupid man has sex with female (who everone else knows is trouble) and his life falls apart."
Actually, I believe she was in cahoots with the anti-death penalty crowd. Though, I could be wrong because I missed a few minutes of the movie because someone's @!#$% cell phone went off about three times during the movie at which point they HAD to talk to the person on the other end.
I agree with Irami. TLoDG is an excellent movie. I disagree with him somewhat that the movie is about dying for an ideal. It's more a movie about how thin the line is that seperates murder from martyrdom and monstrosity from heroism.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Nescho rented Hunted that movie with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Torro. It totally fell apart for me when they both stopped to make themselves new knives in the middle of a huge manhunt along the river.
Del Torro had enough time to forge a new knife from metal scraps he found (in a fire he started from twigs, no less) AND haul spikey logs up into trees to set booby traps for Jones, all in the time it took Jones to bang out a knife from stone. That's when I decided I wanted a bath more than I wanted to waste another minutee of my life watching that stupid thing. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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