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[MOVIE] July 2016 Movie thread


AxB

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On 2016-07-16 at 9:47 PM, Death From Above said:

Herzog's version of Nosferatu might be my favourite Herzog movie. I'm fully aware this is considered a pretty out there choice.

That's pretty awesome. Nosferatu is a seriously beautiful film. I love the overhead shots of the feast table and the shots of all the people carrying caskets, as the townspeople succumb to the plague.

Aguirre is definitely number one for me. Next 2 would be some combination of Fitzcarraldo or one of the Bruno S. movies.

Is this where I admit that I've never seen Grizzly Man? For the longest time I thought I had seen it because I thought it was the one about the dude trying to make the bear proof suit. I'm a bad Herzogonaut.

 

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You think that's bad, I went back and looked at his filmography and realized that my top three and My Best Fiend are the only four films I've ever seen in full from him, haha. Otherwise I've only seen some of Woyzeck, most of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and shopped in the video store while the staff watched Grizzly Man. 

Julien Donkey-Boy should be counted for his participation and because I've seen it multiple times

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That's not too bad. Any Herzog is better than no Herzog. Honestly, unless you grew up with a great independent video store or live in a pretty metropolitan city, it's tough to track down his shit. I'm indebted to Fandor, which has let me knock off some of his lesser played early films like Woyzeck and Even Dwarfs Started Small and some documentaries.

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I got really lucky and found a couple different Herzog multi film box sets in HMV a few years ago in probably post-Christmas clearance so I have a ton of his older stuff on DVD. I guess around when he took off as a thing hipsters discovered. That was back in the days when we were in the midst of 70's Project viewing and I was pretty happy to get it just for Aguerre.

 

The only one I genuinely think is no good in any real way is Fata Morgana, which is just a failed idea and very very boring. But even most of his other old films that don't quite work have parts or elements that are great (hi, Cobra Verde).

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Verde is really only watchable for Kinski's absolute insanity. When he's teaching the villagers how to fight, I have no doubt that in his mania, Klaus really thought he was doing it. The old slave fortress is an amazing looking location as well, I guess. That's about all I can say to recommend it though, it's really not a very good movie. And has realllllllly questionable racial ethics, especially at the end when the little disabled boy is pretty much reduced to being a lost puppy, rather than a person. That made me pretty uncomfortable.

Really only Kinski completionists, as it is probably his most manic performance, which is saying something.

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For some reason. I watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It doesn't really work.The concept is a novel idea, but not enough to sustain a whole movie. It would have worked as a series of skits on a comedy show, but not something long-form like this. And the style of the action scenes doesn't fit at all with the period it's set in or anything, all this kung fu movie wirefighting stuff - it's acceptable in kung fu movies, it works in things like the Matrix, but this film wants to eat it's cake and still have it. I'm guessing that the plot contrivances are to fit in with actual life events that happened to the real Lincoln, but I know next to nothing of his life (I don't think many schools outside America do much American history, and I've never wanted to read the history of some far-away nation when there's so much interesting English history that's actually relevant to me), so that's a wasted effort in my particular case.

There's a few decent bits, some of the action sequences are really good in and of themselves, and it's actually got a great cast*. But if they'd just made a 19th century Vampire Hunter movie without shoehorning in the Lincoln stuff, that might make it feel less pointless.

* Although it's weird. Abraham Lincoln ages (wears old make-up) throughout the film, whilst Dominic Cooper doesn't because he's immortal. But Anthony Mackie doesn't seem to age at all, even though he's supposed to be the exact same age as Lincoln, and isn't immortal. Unless it's some sort of Black Never Fades** thing.

** Apparently Americans say Black Never Cracks, instead of Black Never Fades. Never knew that.

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I watched Dracula Untold yesterday. We had a free trial of HBO while I was working from home yesterday. Threw it on for background noise and it wasn't terrible. Story wasn't terribly deep or anything but I thought that Luke Evans did a pretty good job as Dracula and the story was intriguing enough to where I kinda want to see a sequel.

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20 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

I watched Dracula Untold yesterday. We had a free trial of HBO while I was working from home yesterday. Threw it on for background noise and it wasn't terrible. Story wasn't terribly deep or anything but I thought that Luke Evans did a pretty good job as Dracula and the story was intriguing enough to where I kinda want to see a sequel.

My daughter and I enjoyed it, too.  It was pretty cool how everything was played up as history in name only and then went straight into vampire myth.  Yes, there was actually a Vlad Tepes Dracula of Walachia and the similarities end after that.

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8 hours ago, AxB said:

** Apparently Americans say Black Never Cracks, instead of Black Never Fades. Never knew that.

The "proper" saying is Black Don't Crack.

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I went to see Closet Monster last night & I gotta say, it is pretty easily the best movie of 2016. I loved the natural dialogue & the lead actor wasn't perfect, he was a bit of a dick sometimes. Also the dad was very layered as well, not just the asshole but full of contradictions like any human. 

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Swiss Army Man is fantastic, so frigging weird, I don't know what award you can give Daniel Radcliffe, but he should be given something. Dano is good, but Manny the corpse is the beating heart of the film. Things get pretty sad at the end there, too.

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So here's the lineup of the '12 for a dollar' deal I got at Goodwill on VHS today:

Carlito's Way

The Terminator

The Addams Family

The Deer Hunter (2x VHS)

Die Hard 2

Die Hard With A Vengeance (of course)

Wayne's World

Raising Arizona

and if that isn't good enough, here are the real catches...

Magic (the horror movie with Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist)

Dead Kennedys - The Early Years Live

True Romance (Unrated)

The Twelve Chairs

I've never owned a copy of any of these and have never seen Magic or The Twelve Chairs at all. For $1.07... not bad, not bad.

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3 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

So here's the lineup of the '12 for a dollar' deal I got at Goodwill on VHS today:

 

Magic (the horror movie with Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist)

 

That very VHS tape haunted me more than any other at blockbuster during my youth.  I made a point to pass by it every time I was there and couldn't help myself but look at it every time...and every time I retreated like a coward.

 

Fucking dummies, man.

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5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Haha. I always saw it at Walmart on VHS as a kid. Never bothered me... we'll see what the film does, however

I'm with Piranesi.  I always thought that ventriloquist dummies and department store mannequins were fucking creepy when I was a kid..

A steady diet of late night programming on USA Network in the 1990's did not help this phobia.

 

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