2014 MOVIE OMNIBUS THREAD

[Greggulator]

I just hate-watched Jobs. Oh dear lord was that thing a piece of garbage. I have never seen a movie quite like this. It's somehow, all at once, incredibly pompous, cliched, poorly executed and boring. Everything about this is just awful. Must watch.

[Tabe]

I just hate-watched Jobs. Oh dear lord was that thing a piece of garbage. I have never seen a movie quite like this. It's somehow, all at once, incredibly pompous, cliched, poorly executed and boring. Everything about this is just awful. Must watch.

Feels like you watched a different movie than me. It wasn't perfect by any means but it was far from terrible.

[Control]

 

I just hate-watched Jobs. Oh dear lord was that thing a piece of garbage. I have never seen a movie quite like this. It's somehow, all at once, incredibly pompous, cliched, poorly executed and boring. Everything about this is just awful. Must watch.

Feels like you watched a different movie than me. It wasn't perfect by any means but it was far from terrible.

 

Can't get behind that sentiment. You're right that it wasn't far from terrible: it was, in fact, firmly rooted in the centre of terribleness, probably beside BATMAN & ROBIN or something. I received free tickets and the film still wasn't worth it. 

[nate]

Nevermind.

To make this post worthwhile... I just watched Marty, a somewhat underrated film from 1955. It won the Best Picture, Best Director (Delbert Mann) and Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine) Oscars that year, though it doesn't seem to be talked about all that much.

Borgnine is excellent. He plays a cheerful but lonely 34 year old Bronx butcher who still lives with his mother and has never been able to find a woman. It sounds like kind of a sadsack character, but he's genuinely very likeable. He then meets a similarly lonely woman, but is stuck between what he wants to do, what his woman-troubled buddies want him to do, and what his somewhat jealous mother wants him to do. Well worth seeking out.

I'm not accustomed to seeing an Oscar winning film referred to as "underrated." Not trolling, seriously; are there other examples of such a thing?

[jaedmc]

I'm not sure if underrated is the word - maybe under discussed. Though there are films that have won best picture that people groan over so underrated could work. It really depends more on perspective.

 

Marty is a part of list of Best Picture Winners that people just don't talk about. Like Amadeus. Or Grand Hotel. Hurt Locker is becoming another one, I think. They didn't achieve the universal classic status like a Casablanca or the box office power of a Titanic. Nor were they infamously lame enough to make their winning a bad call on the part of the Academy(Take your pick).

[JRGoldman]

I would say that Marty is more famous for being the answer to the question Herb Stempel missed during the quiz show scandals. Stempel answered On the Waterfront as Best Picture winner, which is probably now a more widely seen and well regarded film.

[Reed]

 

Metropolis is another example, of course.

 

Metropolis is actually one of the few classic films I'd support having a remake. Mainly because Metropolis is burdened by being a silent film, and I'd like to see what someone could do both visually and with dialogue. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

I would say that Marty is more famous for being the answer to the question Herb Stempel missed during the quiz show scandals. Stempel answered On the Waterfront as Best Picture winner, which is probably now a more widely seen and well regarded film.

Me and my pals for awhile would just randomly drop "Not Marty!" and "Where's my panel show?" in casual conversations for years. Quiz Show is great.

And "Marty" is awesome.

[caley]

'Marty' is also the second shortest Best Picture winner ever, at a mere 94 minutes (Though I've seen some sources that say it's the shortest at just 90 minutes, not sure whom to believe).  It's also notable for being one of the only (or perhaps THE only) Best Picture winner that was a remake of a TV movie.

[caley]

'Marty' is also the second shortest Best Picture winner ever, at a mere 94 minutes (Though I've seen some sources that say it's the shortest at just 90 minutes, not sure whom to believe).  It's also notable for being one of the only (or perhaps THE only) Best Picture winner that was a remake of a TV movie.

Also, it's a heckuva good movie with a great Borgnine performance.  Though I can't imagine his line to Clara: "See, dogs like us, we ain't such dogs as we think we are!" would ever work on a woman: "Oh gee thanks, thanks for calling me a dog! You're so sweet."

[Craig H]

8 Mile is the best wrestling movie ever. I meant to post something about this before, and maybe I even did, but fuck it. Here goes. So Jimmy Smith is basically a Sting-ish character. He has the fire, he has the skills, he just has to put it all together. He has his Stinger Squadron buddies too, in Future and Cheddar Bob. Meanwhile, you have the Leaders of the Free World, which would be the 4 Horsemen-ish stable. Jimmy has to go up through the ranks to challenge Papa Doc, and along the way, he gets turned on and betrayed by someone he thought was a friend, Wink. Jimmy is only emboldened to shut down the Leaders of the Free World and runs a gauntlet against them to get to Papa Doc. Jimmy is tired, but the fire in him is burning hotter than ever. He stamps out Papa Doc and wins the title.

[Tabe]

I love 8 Mile.  Way over the Tabedoza line for that movie.

[Reed]

I just got round to seeing Cannibal Holocaust. Dear God, I will never call the protagonists of the Paranormal Activity films unlikable ever again. The film crew in this were all stupid, hideous people. To the point it's even a little absurd. The Alan Yates guy is borderline Bond villain with some of his antics here.

 

I also re-watched The Birds the other day. Is it just me or is Tippi Hedren's character kind of a stalker in this?

[Swift]

Weird, I've got Cannibal Holocaust sitting on a blu-ray here, and planned on watching it today, but didn't get the chance. I might as well ask... this disc I have has two versions: the mostly uncut version (14s cut from the muskrat scene) and a new directors cut version removing all of the animal deaths as Deodata regrets filming them in the first place. Which version should I watch? I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

As to The Birds, I got the impression watching it that Hitchcock was punishing the character for being a little too sexually forward.

[jaedmc]

It's driving me crazy that hte only way I can get a blu-ray of The Birds in the states is through the big ass collection. 

[nate]

I also re-watched The Birds the other day. Is it just me or is Tippi Hedren's character kind of a stalker in this?

"Kind of?!" I'd have put a restraining order on her.

[Reed]

Well, yeah, but she seems to get away with it because 1) she's gorgeous and charming 2) the whole "evil army of murdering birds" thing takes the dude's attention away from her stalkerish tendencies. 

[piranesi]

I love 8 Mile.  Way over the Tabedoza line for that movie.

 

 

7.381!!!!!

[odessasteps]

Saw Grand Budapest Hotel.

Okay but didnt move me.

Closer to darjeeling ltd than rushmore or tenenbaums.

[Reed]

Rushmore was, in fact, Wes Anderson's Rushmore.

[Lawful Metal]

Saw Grand Budapest Hotel.

Okay but didnt move me.

Closer to darjeeling ltd than rushmore or tenenbaums.

Loved Grand Budapest Hotel.  Was perhaps the most Wes Anderson movie of all Wes Anderson movies.  I've been pretty jaded about "indie" movies lately.  I didn't make it 30 minutes into Moonrise Kingdom, I didn't even bother with Darjeerling Ltd.  Rushmore hasn't aged well for me, either.  In fact, when the trailers for GBH came out, I felt as if Anderson was making a parody of his movies with this one. 

 

At the last minute, I decided to see this.  I spend too much time watching animated kid movies and marvel movies with my kids and horror movies on netflix when I get alone time.  I wanted to see something more whimsical, more light.  I had a smile on my face the entire time.  Yes, the plot is essentially inconsequential, but the tone is right, the acting is wonderful and the non-stop cameos are a blast.  And, I felt the return to the Fantastic Mr. Fox-style animation at times just delightful. 

 

I loved it.  And I've been hating everything lately.  And I convinced myself that I would hate this one before I even saw it.  I loved it. 

[Curt McGirt]

The animal scenes in Cannibal Holocaust are absolutely horrible to watch (the turtle scene upset me so much), but they underline the horrible nature of the people and the nihilism of the film as a whole. I cannot recommend anyone WANT to watch them, but they certainly are effective. Nowadays viewers are lucky to have an edited version.

 

I was thinking of the cinematography aesthetics question and the first thing that came to my head is Thief. The second was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I guess I have a thing for neon.

[piranesi]

 

5. Haywire (Soderbergh, 2011) & World War Z (Forster, 2013) A 2-for-1 because both movies were ones that seemed to be thrashed when they came out, and yet I thought they were both a lot of fun. What was the reason for the World War Z hate? It was based on a book or comic book, right? Was it just that it did disservice to the source material. As a stand alone, I thought it was very good. The females I watched it with were genuinely on the edge of their seats, scared shitless. What more could you ask for in a scary movie? As for Haywire, I'm slightly biased, because it's not often I see an action movie in locations I know (my hometown of Dublin). "Oh she's in that Burger King we were in last year" You New York/LA/Chicago guys probably don't know that feeling

 

Just watched WORLD WAR Z.  My wife liked it but I was a little bored.  I don't know if this makes sense, but I was bored because it kept moving so much.  It never settled into any one place enough to build tension there.  That's one of the great things about some of the Romero movies or even [REC] is that the Apocalypse becomes claustrophobic character study.

 

They would sort of touch on that, like in the South Korea part which had a DAY OF THE DEAD vibe and the apartment which was very [REC].  But it was just BLAM...WE'RE IN...exposition exposition money wasted on big name for pointless exposition cameo exposition BLAM WE"RE OUT!!!!

 

It's like there was speed and lots of stuff, but not really tension.  Tension has to build.  It seemed like the whole movie took place over about maybe 36 hours total, with 30 of that spent with Brad Pitt sitting in a plane between stops.  Which makes it kind of funny that they dumped his family so fast...like we see them sleeping and hanging out and having meals...and it's been like one day in Brad Pitt time.

 

It also suffered a bit from video game staging.  The parts where the guy in South Korea is talking in Brad Pitt's earpiece and we hear it.  Very FPS...then the ending part in the WHO place in Wales.  I've just done those missions too many times to want to, like, watch it.

 

I was kind of blown away at how many overdone production company logos there was.   SIX...SIX of those little things that lead to the name of some group you've never heard of.  I think FAMILY GUY did a riff on that, but I don't know if they even got to six.

 

And the plane crash thing was super dumb.

[Reed]

The animal scenes in Cannibal Holocaust are absolutely horrible to watch (the turtle scene upset me so much), but they underline the horrible nature of the people and the nihilism of the film as a whole. I cannot recommend anyone WANT to watch them, but they certainly are effective. Nowadays viewers are lucky to have an edited version.

 

I was thinking of the cinematography aesthetics question and the first thing that came to my head is Thief. The second was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I guess I have a thing for neon.

 

I don't think nihilism works in films when it's too forced (note to David Fincher) and it felt very forced in Cannibal Holocaust. The film crew come off as so absurdly evil it's unbelievable. I mean, I know they were trying to make a point, but you could have had the crew be more careless and unaware rather than outright malicious and that's what set the tribe off. 

[Curt McGirt]

WWZ is definitely a film for kids that grew up with a current video game attention span/interest level

 

I just watched the Gaddafi doc on Showtime and I feel like I need to take a shower. Not just seeing a human head laying on the ground, but knowing there was CIA involvement in the production.