Recently Watched Films 2010

[grisha]

hey, it's also the last film i've seen. very nice one.

plus "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Hurt Locker". i've seen the former multiple times, of course. and i found the latter very good too.

[Dohol]

"Rule #1. Cardio"

[Gerardo A]

http://www.zombielandrules.com/all-zombieland-rules/

[leroysghost]

William Castle - Homicidal (1961)
William Castle - Strait-Jacket (1964)

two very predictable bandwagon jumpers that are mostly devoid of the humor and schadenfreude that are hallmarks of Castle's best work. Homicidal starts out okay with some amusing Psycho references, but the script is very bad and as soon as the (painfully obvious) plot is introduced the proceedings turn quite dull. ditto for Strait-Jacket, despite a script written by Robert "Psycho" Bloch himself. some workaday bits of camp by Joan Crawford, George Kennedy and Jean Arless a.k.a Joan Marshall (who is dressed in unconvincing drag and giant fake teeth in Homicidal). it's barely enough to keep you awake, really.

[Dan Warburton]

Gus Van Sant, Gerry, 2002

The funniest thing about this is reading the irate users' comments on IMDb, written by folks as dumb as Gerry and Gerry. Anyone know why GVS had to go all the way to Argentina to shoot some of this? Isn't there enough desert in the USA?

[Dan Warburton]

Samuel Fuller, Street Of No Return, 1989

This is one that should probably go in that "Best Bad Movies" thread. Can't decide whether Sam Fuller was really trying to take the piss out of himself, not to mention a whole smorgasbord of styles and genres from classic noir to blaxploitation and MTV, in this crazy and over the top version of the David Goodis novel. The acting is so bad it's almost good - with Keith Carradine as failed rockstar-turned-wino Michael looking like a cross between Klaus Kinski and Bilbo Baggins (wait till you him sing too.. yeowch!) and Bill Duke as the badass black top cop (a stereotype worthy of an essay in its own right: what was the first film to feature this? Bullitt?). The dialogue is classic B movie fluff, but Fuller's eye for a striking image - literally: the film starts with a guy being smashed in the face with a hammer (homage to his own Naked Kiss, I guess) - is just as sharp as it ever was. But the music is absolutely fucking awful, and is used so ineptly and inappropriately throughout that I assume that either Fuller didn't have a clue what he was doing (hard to believe, that) or was deliberately making some point about The End Of Cinema As We Know It. Anyone else seen this doozy?

[oldirtybastien]

yeah I agree on everything.

Fuller's eye for a striking image - literally: the film starts with a guy being smashed in the face with a hammer (homage to his own Naked Kiss, I guess) - is just as sharp as it ever was.

And that's about it. For the rest I'm speachless. I prefer to think that someone was pointing a gun to his head during the whole shooting. His carreer stopped with white dog for me. I have yet to see les voleurs de la nuit though.
Anyone considering watching this one can stop after the first 3 seconds. And I mean watch in hand...
I always wanted to catch the goodis book. Thanks for the reminder!

[Dohol]

Finally, after decades of waiting..

[MRS]

Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party (2005)

. . .starts off with poignant, funny, quasi-Herzog moods then disintegrates (coincidentally as the party commences) into an unqualified piece of pretentious shit. Very rarely do I turn off movies, made it about 45 minutes here.

[Dan Warburton]

Jean-Luc Godard, Made In USA, 1966

"A Disney movie with blood" is how Anna Karina sums it up at one point. One of my favourite Godards, though not usually considered as one of his best.

[Dan Warburton]

Finally, after decades of waiting..

..and the verdict, Doug? I'd love to see this one - have managed to miss it the last few times I saw it advertised.

[P. Wretch]

..and the verdict, Doug? I'd love to see this one - have managed to miss it the last few times I saw it advertised.

Without wishing to pre-empt Dohol, I actually think it's one of the best Lang silents - preferred it to Metropolis. A sort of science romance, largely devoid of spectacle and eccentric in places, filled with such types as the mad scientist, the shady corporate villain, and the cheeky (read: irritating) young boy who tags along. Accurately predicts the countdown to a space rocket launch years before it was actually possible, although the 'hard science' rather ends there, as they gambol about in search of the moon's plentiful gold deposits. Some critics find the whole thing uneven and tedious, but you have to adjust to its rhythm.

[Dohol]

..and the verdict, Doug? I'd love to see this one - have managed to miss it the last few times I saw it advertised.

Without wishing to pre-empt Dohol, I actually think it's one of the best Lang silents - preferred it to Metropolis. A sort of science romance, largely devoid of spectacle and eccentric in places, filled with such types as the mad scientist, the shady corporate villain, and the cheeky (read: irritating) young boy who tags along. Accurately predicts the countdown to a space rocket launch years before it was actually possible, although the 'hard science' rather ends there, as they gambol about in search of the moon's plentiful gold deposits. Some critics find the whole thing uneven and tedious, but you have to adjust to its rhythm.

I would largely concur. The films pace is definitely from another era...and some (most) of the science is laughable (the Moon has a breathable atmosphere on only one hemisphere?) but still, it's Lang at the top of his game..
(Not as good as the Dr Mabuse movies though)

[Chromosome]

Ingmar Bergman, Cries and Whispers, 1972

Why do I continue trying to "get" Bergman? I had to stop after about 40 minutes because of sheer boredom.

[Dan Warburton]

Ingmar Bergman, Cries and Whispers, 1972

Why do I continue trying to "get" Bergman? I had to stop after about 40 minutes because of sheer boredom.

Try Persona or The Seventh Seal and if you don't "get" those, I'd give up.

[Chromosome]

Ingmar Bergman, Cries and Whispers, 1972

Why do I continue trying to "get" Bergman? I had to stop after about 40 minutes because of sheer boredom.

Try Persona or The Seventh Seal and if you don't "get" those, I'd give up.

Haha. Okay I'll give Persona a try. I guess I should have mentioned that The Seventh Seal is my most preferred of the Bergman that I've seen, but I still didn't really like the ending of that film.

[O'Grady]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Despair (1978)

This apparently cost more than all his earlier films combined. I can only think that all the money went on the soundtrack, there is barely a section of the film which doesn't feature music, not simply reused themes either. It's quite a bizarre experience if you're not versed in late Fassbinder, but even those who are might find it a tad overwhelming. It's also all in English, a language Fassbinder wasn't so accomplished in; Tom Stoppard helped with the script.

The film is about Hermann Hermann, a Russian émigré going through a mid life crisis: 'Somewhere Hermann Hermann's despair sets in, making him do things that turn whatever happens into his happening, which allow his strange, hapless possibilities to become a great transformation, a refusal to be dead in life. Of this despair and the painful search for something in motion, and the courage to recognize a utopia and to open yourself up to it, how ever poor it may be - of these things I tell in this film'

[Dan Warburton]

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Despair (1978)

Ha, one of only a handful of RWF films that didn't make it to the Carlotta box sets (Querelle was another)! Have to get this one separately, then. I've been eyeing it for a while.

This apparently cost more than all his earlier films combined.

Dirk Bogarde and Tom Stoppard's fees, perhaps?
Meanwhile, was pleasantly surprised by this last night:



Sam Raimi, A Simple Plan, 1998

[Dan Warburton]

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008

[leroysghost]

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-7xwZ_GZgw)
Howard Hawks - Come and Get It (1936)

overlooked and underrated, probably due to the producers malicious co-crediting of William Wyler as director (Hawks claimed Wyler only shot 100ft of film, while Wyler didn't even want to have his named attached). the cast is great all around, with Frances Farmer absolutely blowing me away (i kinda wish she had starred in Only Angels Have Wings now). it's also worth noting that the film has cinematography by both Rudolph Maté and Gregg Toland...doesn't get much better than that. plus you get some truly to die for logging footage from Richard Rosson. i like it a lot.

p.s.
yes, that's a svenskar Walter Brennan