What movie did you watch today?

Discuss the world of entertainment; movies, tv, journalism and radio.

Moderator: drizzle

Tommy Bunz
Posts: 17474
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:02 am

Post by Tommy Bunz »

Yeah The Hit is really incredible. Its definitely part British Crime thriller mixed with classic noir but I also felt it took a lot of cues from the western genre as well. Like it tons more than the Long Goodbye and I really like LG. Stamp, Hurt and Roth are all sooo well cast in that and that Eric Clapton score is just icing on the cake.
The Hit and Clean, Shaven are probably the two most underlooked titles in Criterion's catalogue imo.

drizzle
Awesome Vatican Assassin
Posts: 55482
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems

Post by drizzle »

yeah i can def see the western elements, both physically in the spanish plains landscape and spiritually in the 'road movie' aspects of the narrative

putting this above LG is a bold claim, but i'm just fresh off first watching of this and haven't seen LG in a few years. need to maybe let the former settle and revisit the latter to address it.

I tied in LG here for two reasons - the rank existentialism prevailent in both, and the fact that the Hit is neither too rare or too obscure yet still remains generally unappreciated, much like LG was until a few years ago. but there's a 10 year gap between the two, i'm wondering if there maybe a closer point of comparison timewise. Thief maybe?
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

perfectprism
Posts: 437
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:39 pm

Post by perfectprism »

The Hit is one of my favorite movies. I didn't know Eric Clapton did the score. I feel gooey/at peace inside just thinking about it.
the boy is the father to the man

Tommy Bunz
Posts: 17474
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:02 am

Post by Tommy Bunz »

I meant just as personal preference, I see myself going back to The Hit much more often than The Long Goodbye in the long run. But that has as much to do with style and pacing than the quality of the movies; Altman's movies are such slow-burns that they are once-a-decade viewings for me

But yeah, I think Thief would be a much better comparison piece to The Hit, although neither is perfect because The Hit has a vibe thats very unique to itself. The 80's neo-noir that owes the most to The Long Goodbye is probably Blood Simple.

drizzle
Awesome Vatican Assassin
Posts: 55482
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems

Post by drizzle »

i was looking at imdb for other things i might be forgetting along the similar lines, and this popped up at me

73 - friends of eddie coyle / the long goodbye
74 - chinatown / nickel ride
75 - night moves

what a fuckin bubble, jesus

there's likely a few that i'm ommitting too. the driver could be considered an outlier. still never saw Hickey & Boggs, although that's a bit earlier
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

User avatar
Comedy Quaddafi
Posts: 13515
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Southsea, UK

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Image

Branded to Kill (1967) - Style galore, one of the most sexy-looking gangster movies I've seen. It holds up well to this day because the sleek mobsters with odd quirks and "cool"-obsessed style is still something every hack DTV action-movie tries to master.
Now, boil that rice, bitch! NOW!

Image

Nightmare Detective (2006) - Awesome j-horror with Tsukamoto fingerprints all over it. At face-value the message in the movie is devastating and hyperdepressive - everyone wants to kill themselves, even if they don't know it, because they hate life and other people, and with a little help from a madman who can enter their dreams they can finally realize that desire. I don't think that's the point though, there might be a lot more at work here. What we get is ingenious therapy in essense, the theme of suicide is tackled really well, up there with Kurosawa and Sono. The less-is-more approach in terms of monster efx is applied well here. This is truly scary shit, I would seriously disencourage anyone with tendencies towards depression and nightmare-problems to see this (then again maybe not?)
The only true problem with the movie is the actor playing the dream-detective, hes truly grating on the eyes and frustratingly emo and dull.
Whether to Jason of Philaflava or John Podesta, I will speak my fucking perspective openly
- MB

drizzle
Awesome Vatican Assassin
Posts: 55482
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems

Post by drizzle »

tokyo drifter is even sexier, def see that next
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

Tommy Bunz
Posts: 17474
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:02 am

Post by Tommy Bunz »

Funny that CQ was watching a Suzuki flick, cause last night I watched
Image
It was all (relatively) tame for a while and I was like where's all my wierd Suzuki shit? And then one of the lead yakuza bosses starts making out with a cat. For almost a full minute. With tongue. This is one of the first movies he did out of getting out of B-movie hell so he hasn't fully developed his style yet but there are hints of what would turn into it all over the place. I was actually surprised how deftly he handled a rather complicated plot with the lead playing two rival gangs against each other in order to avenge the murder of a friend. Didn't see the twist coming at all and it actually made sense.
Last edited by Tommy Bunz on Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Spartan
Posts: 12800
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:29 am
Location: The Slaughtered Lamb
Contact:

Post by Spartan »

Primal (2010)
Image

Fucking shit.

Tommy Bunz
Posts: 17474
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:02 am

Post by Tommy Bunz »

Image
She (Robert Day, 1965) - Pretty fun Hammer adventure movie starring dimepiece Ursula Andress as a 2,000 year old living goddess of sorts, who has spent eternity waiting for the reincarnation of her true love. When she finds him, she brings him to the lost city of Kuma, which still is trapped in a time similar to the pharoahs of Eygpt and which she rules with an iron fist. The doppleganger of her past love must then choose between continuing on with his life or becoming immortal. Hammer regulars Chris Lee and Peter Cushing play supporting roles and I was rather impressed with the production values. Ursula is soo fucking sexy in this.


Image
Special (Hal Haberman & Jeremy Passmore, 2006) - The previews for this make it seem like its an off-beat indie comedy of sorts but its a much darker and interesting movie than its made out to be. Its about a depressed loner who signs up to take an experimental anti-depressant, only the medication starts to make him think he's developed superpowers. His psychosis spins more and more out of control, becoming a danger to himself and everyone around him. Michael Rappaport is better in this than anything I've ever seen him in, delivering a very convincing performance of a confused and mentally scarred individual, playing it subtle and emotional and yet mixing in paranoia and comedy at just the right levels. Definitely an odd movie but one I'd recommend.

Image
Lone Wolf & Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Kenji Misumi, 1972) - Seen the American cutup of the first 2 movies, Shogun Assassin, a bunch of times but first time watching the Jap originals. Without the English voiceovers and score this feels like an entirely different movie and one I enjoyed for entirely different reasons.

Image
The Magician (Ingmar Bergman, 1958) - A bit of an underappreciated film in Bergman's career and that's a shame since this was pretty great. Max Von Sydow stars as a travelling magician/sorcerer who, along with his band of performers, are taken into custody when entering a small town. The town's police chief and head doctor insist on a private performance to determine the group's fate, with the town's leaders bent on proving the group to be a fraud and the Magician bent on convincing them of the supernatural world and a battle of wits ensues. This is probably the most accessible Bergman film I've seen to date, with good dialogue and humor and even a horror sequence, and would be a great starting point for anyone who finds his more famous works to be long, boring and obsessed with death.

Image
The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2009) - Very dark modern noir about a small-town sheriff who becomes involved with a prostitute but things start to get complicated and he kills her. As he tries to cover his tracks, more people start getting in his way and have to die and he discovers that he likes it. Casey Affleck is really coming into his own as an actor, giving a very nuanced performance that keeps you interested and even rooting for him even though he is completely evil. Also, Jessica Alba spanking sex scene is the greatest thing ever.

Image
The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966) - Seen it a bunch of times before but first time in HD and it looks phenomenal. One of the most economical westerns ever made, 2 hours and not a single scene wasted or boring, with some great dialogue and a cast that's talented enough to deliver it. A classic in every sense.

User avatar
Comedy Quaddafi
Posts: 13515
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Southsea, UK

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Wasn't that keen on Shogun Assassin so I think I should definitely go for the real deal instead.

Image

Kinatay (2009) - I saw this because Roger Ebert said it was the worst movie to ever be shown @ Cannes... and it was every bit as good as I expected. It's a sombre and ultra-dark drama about the devaluation of life in the Phillipines and how integrity can get lost when it's more convenient to look the other way. QT apparently sent him a letter of appreciation, that's sort of funny to me. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone but I liked it lots, you know a moviemaker has balls when he devotes half a movie to a car-ride, not to mention what happens after...
Whether to Jason of Philaflava or John Podesta, I will speak my fucking perspective openly
- MB

LilLeftBrain
Posts: 12266
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:16 pm
Location: burn pile

Post by LilLeftBrain »

insidious - some genuine creeps well balanced with some good camp.
two thumbs up!
__________________
Image

Spartan
Posts: 12800
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:29 am
Location: The Slaughtered Lamb
Contact:

Post by Spartan »

Hatchet II (2011)

Image

"One of the best slasher films ever." Err no, but a big improvement over it's predecessor. Adam Green has gotten so much better in recent years and in Hatchet II he goes back to his roots with slasher mayhem and gory splatter set to eleven. Better plot this time round that immediately picks up where the first one left off, but with smurfette scream queen Danielle Harris as sole survivor, Marybeth returning back to the swamps with a hunting party. Victor Crowley's origin is once more explained but in more detail than before. This is Adam Green going the Tarantino route and rounding up forgotten horror stars from yesteryear into the mix again. The real star of the show is the always underrated, Tony Todd reprising his role as Reverend Zombie and plays a bigger part than before. Although a guilty pleasure, Hatchet's failure was that it burdened itself to recreate the archetypal eighties slasher and instead felt like just another mediocre clone, it's sequel does not give a shit however and benefits for the better by feeling much less contrived. Some great scenes in this and some really fucking awesome slasher kills including one truly unforgettable double kill.

Edit - WTF? The rest of my post didn't make it.

Exorcismus (2010) - Disappointing movie, last twenty minutes are decent though. Very annoying characters.

La Casa Muda (The Silent House) (2010) - Filmed in one take (hmm). Based on a true story, this is an incredibly creepy film from Uruguay. You need a huge amount of suspension of disbelief to enjoy this however. I thought it was pretty fucking awesome.

Dan
Posts: 6215
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:34 pm
Location: St. Pete, Florida
Contact:

Post by Dan »

Here's what I watched this week:

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Adding another Best Picture winner to my watched list.
This was a tense film, but I canג€™t really say it was Best Picture worthy. Though itג€™s been 2 years, I canג€™t remember all the films it was up against.

Clockers (1995) - You ever watch a movie and then start recognizing parts like you had seen it before? I was under the impression that I had never seen this, but then I remembered the first scene in the park where theyג€™re hating on Chuck D for being a positive rapper. So Iג€™m thinking, okay, maybe I just saw the beginning, but as the film went on I started realizing that I had seen it, but I just didnג€™t remember ever watching it or how it played out.
Iג€™m wondering if I even liked it that first time, because with this viewing, I wasnג€™t as impressed.
Way too many cliched characters and story lines. Up there with Crash.

Zardoz (1973) - Futuristic film set in 2293. A God has convinced his people that guns are good and the penis is bad, so people must kill to make sure human life ceases.
Sean Connery is one of those followers and he manages to find the secret vortex where he discovers that people just canג€™t die, but theyג€™re not all happy and wish to die.
Very, very strange film.

Assassination Tango (2002) - Robert Duvall directs and stars as a family man who secretly is a hired assassin. He gets sent to kill a General in Argentina, but when the General injures himself and is hospitalized, that means Duvallג€™s character must stay in Argentina longer than planned. Thatג€™s where the tango part comes in. He is enthralled in the dance and meets an instructor who teaches him the Argentine way of the dance.
Really not much action in this, more dancing than violence.

Paris, Texas (1984) - A man who left his family and friends suddenly re-emerges after 4 years. During that time, his wife has given custody of their son to his brother, and she has moved on, not telling anyone her whereabouts.
This was very slow moving, but itג€™s made up for during the penultimate scene. It turned me around and made me appreciate it much more.
Supposedly this was Kurt Cobainג€™s all-time favorite film.

Maborosi (1995) - Japanese film about a woman who has a loving husband and a 3-month-old baby boy. All seems perfect with this family until one day the father turns up dead. It is ruled a suicide.
The film resumes 5 years later, the wife has remarried and moved to a new village. Even with new happiness, she still often grieves over her first husband and canג€™t understand why he wouldג€™ve killed himself. These thoughts haunt her daily.
Another slow moving film, but without any real resolution. Youג€™re just watching this woman try to figure out life for 2 hours. I guess itג€™s a realistic film in that sense.

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) - It was cool learning the back story on the creator of Hustler Magazine, but as far as biopics go, this was pretty generic.

User avatar
Comedy Quaddafi
Posts: 13515
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Southsea, UK

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Image

Doppelganger (2003) - I'm a fan of K. Kurosawa and the doppelganger-theme, so this looked right up my alley. It's way more light-hearted, acessible and playful than both Kairo and Cure. I don't like it as much however. After a really interesting set-up and engaging character-development, it falls apart and turns in to a screwball comedy in the last act. Everyone seems to die multiple times and it's impossible to make sense of any of it. Good movie overall though, lots of interesting ideas regarding identity, as usual.

Image

Ken (1964) - A sports-movie about Kendo, which is the sport established to preserve samurai knowledge and techniques. It's about Okubu, who is saintly and noble, and Kagawa, who is arrogant and worldly. They share duties of training their club for the next championship, but everyone hates Okubu for his pure heart, so they jealously attempt to corrupt him. Cool flick.

Image

X (2011) - Another dope Oz-thriller, it is centered around the intertwining fates of two prossies. It's violent, sexy and suspenseful. I like erotic thrillers and this is obviously more competent than a lot of the lite-smut being made, mostly, in the 90's when the genre was booming. Jon Hewitt legitimately made a good film here, it doesn't bother too much with the bland morality-parables usually present in hooker-movies and is all the better for it. It looks damn good with lots of murky colors and creative camera-placement etc.

Spartan
Posts: 12800
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:29 am
Location: The Slaughtered Lamb
Contact:

Post by Spartan »

X sounds like my kind of movie.

User avatar
kato
Posts: 2411
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2003 5:26 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by kato »

X sounds great...I actually passed up on it the other night. Will def. watch this weekend.

thanks for the heads up Comedy

Jaz
Ease Up
Posts: 21579
Joined: Thu May 20, 2004 10:33 pm
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

Post by Jaz »

Image

Pretty good, predictable but well made and clever special effects.

7/10

Image

Good...a head scratcher but not like Inception was...worth seeing.

7.5/10

Image

Emma Stone is funny and sexy but this was pretty lame and unfunny...very average.

5/10

Image

Pretty funny and not what I thought it would be, I liked this, fave scenes were the car scene, the teacher scene and the end...

7.5/10

Moolah
The Rap Yahoo Serious
Posts: 30580
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 7:40 am

Post by Moolah »

I take it the X means it's set in Kings Cross?

Weird that Com Quad has a thing for aussie movies.

User avatar
Comedy Quaddafi
Posts: 13515
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Southsea, UK

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Yeah, King's Cross is where they shot it.
I think plenty of folks are paying attention to what comes out of Australia, especially if you like horror and thrillers.
There's many Aussies over here and they're usually surprised when I bother them with movie-talk and my appreciation for certain films :grin:
Whether to Jason of Philaflava or John Podesta, I will speak my fucking perspective openly
- MB

Spartan
Posts: 12800
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:29 am
Location: The Slaughtered Lamb
Contact:

Post by Spartan »

Comedy Quaddafi wrote: I think plenty of folks are paying attention to what comes out of Australia, especially if you like horror and thrillers.
Word. Primal is still fucking shit though.

Moolah
The Rap Yahoo Serious
Posts: 30580
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 7:40 am

Post by Moolah »

I feel pretty bad when people like Comedy Quadaffi know way more about Aussie films than me.

Shout outs to Blastmaster PM'ing me about obscure Australian girl-pop bands I'd never heard of a few years back.

User avatar
Comedy Quaddafi
Posts: 13515
Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Southsea, UK

Post by Comedy Quaddafi »

Glad I passed up on Primal.

Just to make you feel worse, Moolah, I'm anticipating this heavily. True Crime stuff.

<object width="560" height="345"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fvu_tBQgZyI?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fvu_tBQgZyI?version=3&hl=da_DK" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Reviews have been unanimously positive as well.
Whether to Jason of Philaflava or John Podesta, I will speak my fucking perspective openly
- MB

Skeptic
Posts: 2073
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2004 5:00 am
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by Skeptic »

Kill List (2011)

Fuck yeah!

Dan
Posts: 6215
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:34 pm
Location: St. Pete, Florida
Contact:

Post by Dan »

Here's what I watched this week:

Spartacus (1960) - Iג€™ll admit that I watch a lot of movies, maybe too much to fully appreciate. Iג€™ve always had an unofficial list of must-see films. This one has always been near the top. TCM finally played it recently, so I grabbed it.
I was always curious why Stanley Kubrick made an epic. I learned from the pre-film intro that he was not the original director. Anthony Mann was the director, but shortly after filming began, executive producer and star, Kirk Douglas fired him and asked Kubrick to direct. He had previously worked with Kubrick on Paths of Glory.
Apparently, Douglas felt jilted after not being given the lead in Ben-Hur, so this was his way of showing the studio producers that he could indeed lead in such an epic story.
Thereג€™s several cuts of this film, but thankfully TCM played the 1991 restored version, which is currently the longest cut known to exist.
Over 3 hours long and I can say I was never really bored. While it didnג€™t feel like a Kubrick film, it was still good. The battle scene was incredible. I love seeing films using thousands of extras instead of CGI.

The 39 Steps (1935) - I was reading The Catcher in the Rye this week and early in the book the main character talks about his younger sister and mentions her favorite film being this one. She had seen it so many times that she could recite the lines and even pantomimed the finger scene.
Having never seen the film, I queued it up on Netflix and watched it shortly after reading that chapter. Since a major plot point was revealed, I was afraid more about the film would be brought up, so I wanted to watch it immediately.
This is an early Hitchcock film about a secret organization of spies.
Even though it was somewhat spoiled, the scene recited in the book still took me by surprise, so I still enjoyed it.

The Blind Side (2009) - I swore that I would never watch this, it just looked like a made-for-TV movie.
I knew my mom wanted to see it, so I bought her the DVD last Christmas. I remember shortly after Christmas my mom went away for a week to visit my sister. My parents always watch movies together, always my motherג€™s choice, so my dad has grown to like and actually prefer J.Lo/Jennifer Aniston type rom-coms. He tells me while my mom was away that he watched The Blind Side by himself and could not stop raving about it. He told my mom over the phone that he had watched it and she was upset, saying ג€œwe were supposed to watch that together,ג€ to which he replied, ג€œdonג€™t worry, Iג€™ll gladly watch it againג€ and when she returned that week they both watched it.
They tried pushing the DVD my way, but I declined. So a couple of months ago when I moved into my new place, I had to get a new DVR. From previous experiences, whenever I got a new DVR, for about a week I would get every pay channel for free, so Iג€™d go through the guide and record tons of movies from all the HBOג€™s, Cinemaxג€™s, Showtimeג€™s, etc... When I came across this one, I kept questioning myself and ultimately decided to record it, but if space was running low, this would be the first to go, unwatched.
Well, my DVR has been hovering at around 50% and every time I went through my recordings this just kept staring at me, so I caved and put it on.
It opens with Lawrence Taylorג€™s tackle on Joe Theismann which resulted in a broken leg. I had seen that play so much in replays as a kid that itג€™s still hard to watch. I couldnג€™t even watch it. I focused on other parts of the screen just so I wouldnג€™t see the leg break. Unfortunately, you can still hear it and that was enough to bother me.
As for the film, it was exactly what I expected. I donג€™t follow college or NFL, so I had never heard of Michael Oher. I canג€™t really hate this, it wasnג€™t that bad.
Iג€™ve seen my parents twice since watching it, but Iג€™m kind of embarrassed to let them know Iג€™ve seen it.
I gotta say, Sandra Bullock looked incredibly hot in this.

Moby Dick (1956) - I was interested in seeing this considering it was made 20 years before Jaws was released. I wanted to see how theyג€™d manage to pull off a dangerous whale.
Surprisingly, it looked really good. I was impressed.

Земля aka Earth (1930) - Russian silent film about rich Ukrainian farmers feuding with poor farmers.
Only watched this because itג€™s one of TIFFג€™s top 100 films. Iג€™ve seen 66 so far.

The Caine Mutiny (1954) - Humphrey Bogart plays an overly strict Naval ship captain during WWII. The crew come to the conclusion that the captain is strict because he has a mental disorder, so as the title suggests, they want to take over control of the ship.
This was really good, but had an unnecessary love story plot that had no bearing on the story. It was just there.

The Guard (2011) - Havenג€™t been to a theater in over 2 months, but this just came here today, so I went to the first showing.
Really funny Irish film about an investigation in drug trafficking. A black American FBI agent comes to investigate and teams with an older Irish cop, who basically only knows black people from what heג€™s seen in American films, so basically, cliched things like poor, drug selling, and uneducated.
The humor is extremely dry. I liked this a lot.

LilLeftBrain
Posts: 12266
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:16 pm
Location: burn pile

Post by LilLeftBrain »

Image
qeued this up after listening to the phil rosenthal unmasked last week and though i've never had any interest in watching 'everybody loves raymond' and
all the clips that they showed throughout this were pretty painful, the doc in and of itself was really funny/enjoyable. dry fish onta vodka lifestyles. rosenthals a likeable enough guy to get away with all the mugging to the camera, and most of the russians he encountered were impressively fleshed out. the driver/seashell enthusiast dude was a major highlight
_____________________
Image

Spartan
Posts: 12800
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:29 am
Location: The Slaughtered Lamb
Contact:

Post by Spartan »

Insiduous (2011)
Image

Probably James Wan's best film so far, he's definitely matured since Saw. Not perfect by any means but this was dope for the fact it jumped from haunted house flick in the first act, to a possession themed movie in the second and a completely new direction in it's final act and still remained cohesive and entertaining. Definitely a creepy film and for a mainstream hollywood flick this gets enormous props for not resorting to fake jump scares and gunning for the real deal instead. Really takes it's cue from movies like The Changeling, Poltergeist and The Entity (even Barbara Hershey is in it). It's still a little formulaic and predictable in some scenes but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of this film, in fact for a major studio picture this was a rather big step in overall quality and nowhere near as patronising as one would expect. Very good film.

drizzle
Awesome Vatican Assassin
Posts: 55482
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems

Post by drizzle »

surving the game - haven't seen this in years, a few things occured to me:

1. the movie deserves more credit for re-casting the 'most dangerous game' template into an interesting sociological binary. the scenerio essentially puts a man who is rendered an animal by society's standarts because he has absolutely nothing, vs men who loose their humanity because they have everything. that's some pretty great ubermench shit right there. with better people involved (lead and director specifically), this could've been really something beyond a fun 90s boner

2. it's time to start canonizing 90s cult classics.

#. while this is def a very fun movie with an incredible supporting cast in which Ice T is sadly the weak point, it could've been an even awesomer movie if it was made in the 70s in the true style of its character based existential action roots. this cast came to mind:

ron o'neil (superfly) - ice-t's role
william devane - rutger hauer's role
bruce dern - either busey's role or william mcginley's role
fred willaimson - charles dutton's role
george kennedy - f. murray abraham's role

would be pretty amazing i think
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

Dan
Posts: 6215
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2004 9:34 pm
Location: St. Pete, Florida
Contact:

Post by Dan »

Here's what I watched this week:

Gomorrah (2008) - Italian mob film featuring several unconnected stories. Didnג€™t realize they would be unconnected, I kept waiting for the stories to crossover, but that didnג€™t take away any enjoyment I had. Each story was very well told.
I loved the look of the apartment building that some scenes took place at.

The Hit (1984) - Been hearing a lot about this, so I finally checked it out.
Very cool film about an informant whoג€™s been living a quiet life in Spain for the past 10 years. As the title suggests, a hit is put out on him. He pretty much expected this day to come and accepts it and ultimately becomes the most cooperative kidnap victim ever.
I just might have to pick this up the next time BN has their 50% off Criterion sale.

Buried (2009) - The film starts off with a man awakening in the dark, bound and gagged, discovering he is locked inside of a coffin. After 10 minutes or so, I expected the film to show a ג€œ6 hours earlierג€ transition showing how he ended up being captured and buried, but that never happened. The entire film takes place inside the coffin. There is no other footage shown other than from inside the coffin.
Had I known all this before watching, I probably wouldג€™ve passed on watching this. I mean, how exciting can a film be watching a guy stuck in a box for 90 minutes? The answer turned out to be very.
I was really surprised at how much I actually liked this.

Drive (2011) - This was my type of action film. No over-the-top stunt scenes, no explosions with the hero walking away without even looking back, etc...
The action scenes, though sparse, were used effectively, thus making them all the more entertaining.
The whole cast was great, but I especially loved Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston. I didnג€™t even recognize Cranston at first since he had hair, a limp, and faded tattoos.
Brooks really surprised me with how ruthless he was. I really dug this.

drizzle
Awesome Vatican Assassin
Posts: 55482
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:55 pm
Location: where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems

Post by drizzle »

dan you should read the book gomorrah is based on. dude gets too lost in the dry facts sometimes (on some 'and this guy succeeded this guy who kille dhtis guy who killed this guy who was related to this guy'), but overall it's a pretty great look at the modern mafia in italy. the thing with the dresses/garment racket is 20x better in the book
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo

Post Reply