movies

[cpebbles]

Shutter Island:

Oh man, what a disappointment. Five minutes in, the movie is absolutely bludgeoning you with atmosphere. It eases up a bit after that but you may as well just leave anyway, because you'll have the whole thing figured out by then. The performances are pretty good, but the movie is a huge letdown and a Scorsese career low unless some of his movies I've missed were a lot worse than I've been led to believe.

[MrSaigon]

Matt Damon is fantastic in The Informant. Interesting story about an interesting guy. The movie gets a little too kooky at times (the music, for instance, was way over the top IMO). One of those decent movie/awesome acting performance movies.

[lukethedrifter]

Matt Damon is fantastic in The Informant. Interesting story about an interesting guy. The movie gets a little too kooky at times (the music, for instance, was way over the top IMO). One of those decent movie/awesome acting performance movies.

Relevant to nothing really, my mom's husband hired that guy out of college.

[Freed Roger]

Watched "Badlands" last night. really enjoyed it. great underrated flick. Martin Sheen nailed that part.

only downside, is Leroy kept creeping into my head the entire viewing.

[ghostrunner]

Intended to watch Oldboy on Netflix streaming a couple nights ago, but I started it up and lo and behold - dubbing instead of subtitles. So I'm watch this Korean dude talk like Joe the Plumber for a few minutes and I couldn't hack it. So I checked out the other films in the trilogy on the netflix streaming, and they have subtitles, but they look awful - like bootleg quality and some of the subtitles are off screen.

Ended up watching Moon on Blu-ray. Awesome, amazing. How nice would Avatar have been with some of the same thoughtfulness? A little frustrating in that the characters don't ask questions you want him to and you'd like to think you would in the same situation. Other than that, it wasn't a 2001 rehash, which I was worried about. It's nice that they only hinted at some things, and didn't directly address them. For instance,

[SHOW]

It seemed pretty clear to me you could hear the original Sam on Earth with his daughter in the video feed. But it's a little ambiguous, and it's interesting to think about why the original Sam went along with the clone idea. Though it's also interesting to ponder whether he even knew about it.

They also never directly addressed the illness all the Sams seem to have had, though it really wasn't necessary.

Some recent stuff I haven't mentioned here:

Hurt Locker - This and Moon are probably my favorites of what I've seen of last year's movies.

Drag Me to Hell - I knew it was Sam Raimi, but I was expecting something more straightforward due to the marketing. It veers between that and Evil Dead silliness. Though I liked that you never actually saw the demon. I don't know why more people don't get this about movie monsters. Almost always, the less you see of them the better it makes the movie.

[SHOW]

The surprise ending didn't make any sense to me. Did she bury the ring and it still ended up back with her? Did she have the wrong envelope with a ring shaped bulge in it? Was the ring not in the envelope she had? I was actually expecting the boyfriend to get dragged to hell.

The Best of Youth - This is the 6 hour Italian movie from the "Most memorable movies of the 2000s" thread. It was supposed to be a miniseries for italian tv, which accounts for the length. I really liked it, but it definitely has the miniseries feel to it. A little melodramatic in terms of the story, but the performances aren't too sentimental. Most interesting thing for me was learning details about postwar Italy. Something I know very little about. Lots of pretty Italian women throughout, which is never bad. The guy who plays one of the brothers could easily pass for Spaghetti Western era Clint Eastwood.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Clive Owen, and the director of "Get Carter (Mike Hodges). They did "Croupier" together years ago. A very, very low-key crime film. You're expecting a lot of kick-ass vengeance action, but it never really happens. It toys with you a little bit. Owen is built up as this once fearsome mobster, and you expect him to go to town on everyone like Will Munny in Unforgiven. But the payoff is somewhat unsatisfying and seems to be that way intentionally. It seems like the movie is challenging you in a way, by not giving you the ending you think you want. If so, I'm not sure they quite succeeded. One of the more stupefying "that's it?" endings I've seen since No Country for Old Men.

Zombieland - pretty typical Zombie comedy, that is to say very enjoyable.

[SHOW]

The Bill Murray part - Fun I guess, but not nearly as awesome as people made it out to be.

[The Third Man]

Intended to watch Oldboy on Netflix streaming a couple nights ago, but I started it up and lo and behold - dubbing instead of subtitles. So I'm watch this Korean dude talk like Joe the Plumber for a few minutes and I couldn't hack it. So I checked out the other films in the trilogy on the netflix streaming, and they have subtitles, but they look awful - like bootleg quality and some of the subtitles are off screen.

I had the same problem, was really disappointed. I'll have to rent the disc sometime.

Drag Me to Hell - I knew it was Sam Raimi, but I was expecting something more straightforward due to the marketing. It veers between that and Evil Dead silliness. Though I liked that you never actually saw the demon. I don't know why more people don't get this about movie monsters. Almost always, the less you see of them the better it makes the movie.

[SHOW]

The surprise ending didn't make any sense to me. Did she bury the ring and it still ended up back with her? Did she have the wrong envelope with a ring shaped bulge in it? Was the ring not in the envelope she had? I was actually expecting the boyfriend to get dragged to hell.

[SHOW]

The envelope she buried was her boyfriend's coin (or whatever it was, can't remember specifically) from earlier in the movie, in his office.

[ghostrunner]

Intended to watch Oldboy on Netflix streaming a couple nights ago, but I started it up and lo and behold - dubbing instead of subtitles. So I'm watch this Korean dude talk like Joe the Plumber for a few minutes and I couldn't hack it. So I checked out the other films in the trilogy on the netflix streaming, and they have subtitles, but they look awful - like bootleg quality and some of the subtitles are off screen.

I had the same problem, was really disappointed. I'll have to rent the disc sometime.

Drag Me to Hell - I knew it was Sam Raimi, but I was expecting something more straightforward due to the marketing. It veers between that and Evil Dead silliness. Though I liked that you never actually saw the demon. I don't know why more people don't get this about movie monsters. Almost always, the less you see of them the better it makes the movie.

[SHOW]

The surprise ending didn't make any sense to me. Did she bury the ring and it still ended up back with her? Did she have the wrong envelope with a ring shaped bulge in it? Was the ring not in the envelope she had? I was actually expecting the boyfriend to get dragged to hell.

[SHOW]

The envelope she buried was her boyfriend's coin (or whatever it was, can't remember specifically) from earlier in the movie, in his office.

[SHOW]

Forgot about that. He must have mentioned that at the train station. Guess I missed it.

[JL21]

[SHOW]

So, the Coen brothers apparently decided they don't need to offer any explanation on things like this, that would be useful for 99% of the population to know. The question in that opening sequence is whether the guy is a dybbuk. A dybbuk is the oldworld jewish/yiddish combo between a ghost and a curse; if you invite the dybbuk into your house, you are essentially fubar for life.

I think there are two purposes to this sequence. One, the big question of the movie, asked by Larry repeatedly, is "Why Me? I didn't do anything." He's just trying to be a good dad, a good professor, etc, and then horrible things happen to him. It's a big question in Jewish theology: if we're God's chosen people, just trying to be good, why does all of this bad [expletive] keep happening to us? The man in the opening sequence just invites an old man who helped with his wagon into his house, and now he's cursed? Or about to be a convicted murderer? Why me? Second, I think the scene is supposed to make us contemplate whether the visitors to Larry's home, who were invited in and seem to curse him, are dybbuks themselves: Sy and brother Arthur. Sy even reappears later as a malevolent ghost in his dream. Which raises the question of predetermination v. fate/chance/luck. Is Larry cursed? Or do bad things just happen all the time to us for no reason?

My two cents!

I just saw it last night and I felt the need to dig up the comments from you and Geen. The spoilered above, especially, is really great info.

[omaha_red]

[SHOW]

So, the Coen brothers apparently decided they don't need to offer any explanation on things like this, that would be useful for 99% of the population to know. The question in that opening sequence is whether the guy is a dybbuk. A dybbuk is the oldworld jewish/yiddish combo between a ghost and a curse; if you invite the dybbuk into your house, you are essentially fubar for life.

I think there are two purposes to this sequence. One, the big question of the movie, asked by Larry repeatedly, is "Why Me? I didn't do anything." He's just trying to be a good dad, a good professor, etc, and then horrible things happen to him. It's a big question in Jewish theology: if we're God's chosen people, just trying to be good, why does all of this bad [expletive] keep happening to us? The man in the opening sequence just invites an old man who helped with his wagon into his house, and now he's cursed? Or about to be a convicted murderer? Why me? Second, I think the scene is supposed to make us contemplate whether the visitors to Larry's home, who were invited in and seem to curse him, are dybbuks themselves: Sy and brother Arthur. Sy even reappears later as a malevolent ghost in his dream. Which raises the question of predetermination v. fate/chance/luck. Is Larry cursed? Or do bad things just happen all the time to us for no reason?

My two cents!

I just saw it last night and I felt the need to dig up the comments from you and Geen. The spoilered above, especially, is really great info.

[SHOW]

i kinda thought that the wife and husband at the beginning with the dybbuk were
distant relatives to Larry and family.. and because of what they did at the beginning..
stabbing the old dude.. the family was cursed forever.. so Larry is their great great great
grandson/nephew or something.. hence his family has no chance.. just something that
crossed my mind? anyway.. the beginning scene would have made an absolutely awesome
full length movie

[clevername]

movie dump:

Zombieland: worth it for Woody and some of the visuals/ideas.

Intolerable Cruelty: I had only heard bad things about this, but it wasn't what I had heard. But, I like Clooney, so that helps.

The Invention of Lying: big disappointment. I liked some of the ideas he tried to get through but when the film can't even be consistent with its main conceit the distractions become too much.

Cool Hand Luke: finally saw this and now know the significance of the frequent references it seems to get.

Shutter Island: ultimately a bit of a disappointment, though I didn't dislike it as much as cpebbles apparently did. Thought it had great atmosphere. The story was the weakpoint.