MOVIE COMMENT CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

 

The Skin I Live In is stunning. Both visually, and thematically. It's the kind of movie that you need to see knowing as little as possible. All I can say is that it involves a surgeon who has a mysterious, beautiful woman locked up in a room in his mansion. It's been a long time since I've watched something this... original and bizarre.

Great film. If you get a chance watch Eyes Without a Face, which is a classic and surely inspired Almodovar's film

 

Does it have no human grace?

[Jingus]

The People Under the Stairs is one of those four right?

Yep, along with Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.  

 

 

Yeah, I'm not sure how anyone could say at the very least that The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and New Nightmare aren't all good. 

I loved the theory of that one, but in practice I found it kinda meh.  It could have questioned harder, delved deeper and brought up more specifics in terms of how and why this stuff worked.  Plus I'm not very high on Langenkamp as an actor, outright hated the annoying kid playing her son, didn't like all the re-used jump scares from previous films (it played the "wait, that's just like in the movies..." card too often) and had no idea what was going on with the ending.  Even on the "fucking weak ways to kill Freddy" scale, that was some bullshit.  I also wanted to see a LOT more of Craven and of Englund sans makeup.  

 

 

Another random watch for me last night:

 

The Rainmaker - Matt Damon stars as a lawyer fresh out of law school working for a charlatan and suing a big, evil insurance company for killing his client by failing to pay for his leukemia treatments.  Danny Devito co-stars and Mickey Rourke plays Damon's boss.  And you get Danny Glover as the kindly veteran judge trying to steer Damon through his first case and Jon Voight as the evil corporate attorney opposing Damon.  There's a good story here - the book is your typical excellent John Grisham novel - but the execution is not good.  The questioning that Damon does is terrible, not asking important questions, not knowing proper court procedure and just generally is a mess.  Stuff that they try to pass off as "rookie mistakes" but really aren't.  The music is 1970s cheesy and the whole thing just feels real cheap and cheesy.  Definitely not the best Grisham adaptation I've seen, that's for sure.  4/10.

Strangely, that was the last movie Francis Ford Coppola made before he went on his long hiatus.  Between that and Jack, one wonders if he'd entirely given up and was merely taking camera-for-hire roles.  

[Tabe]

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

What was the holdup? That movie is seven years old.

[Curt McGirt]

Miko Hughes was great in Pet Semetary, but of course he was just a toddler being coached. I wonder whatever happened to that kid. 

 

I know I've said this before in regard to Re-Animator but it boggles the mind to see Day of the Dead uncut on television. Speaking of which, that has the greatest special effects in the history of the great '80s next to The Thing. What else would make up a list like that? There are so many candidates it's hard to pick.

[caley]

Really had no interest in The World's End based off the trailers, but ended up going anyways with a friend and really enjoyed it.  It's funny, it's kinda sad in parts, the action scenes are really entertaining (And apparently inspired by Jackie Chan and uses one of his stuntmen as a choreographer).  It's probably my least fave of the Cornetto Trilogy (Which isn't really a knock, as it's a fun trilogy) and it's also probably the most serious of the trilogy, which isn't to say that it's not really quite funny.  Nick Frost kinda steals most of the film, along with Eddie Marsan.  Also, I suspect a Brit of my age might have gleaned a little bit more enjoyment out of the film, as the musical choices would probably have you going "Oh yeah!  I remember this song!" but, over here, we never heard much Soup Dragons.

 

Clear History was really fun, as well.  It's basically a slightly crazier, longer 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' episode, but that's also completely what I was hoping for.  Larry David plays a marketing guy for an electric car company who quits the company over really silly reasons, and ends up losing out on over a billion dollars, changes his appearance and starts a new life in Martha's Vineyard where he's fairly happy and well-adjusted until his former boss shows up and builds a mansion on the island and he decides to get revenge on him.  It's got a staggeringly great cast (David, Jon Hamm, Kate Hudson, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, J.B. Smoove, Chicago, Philip Baker Hall, an uncredited Liev Schreiber and Amy Ryan).  Just silly and entertaining.  I had a great time watching this.

[Curt McGirt]

Also, Eyes Without A Face is one of the greatest horror films ever. Period. See it. The Almodovar movie is pretty damn good too.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Also, Eyes Without A Face is one of the greatest horror films ever.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BILLY IDOL JOKE

[Curt McGirt]

SINCE YOU'RE SO PUSHY

 

[Tabe]

Mystic River - Timothy Robbins plays a guy who was kidnapped as a kid and raped.  Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon were his friends who saw him taken away.  They've drifted apart over the years but are brought back together when Penn's daughter is murdered.  Long movie, kinda convoluted with a lot of stuff going on as each guy continues to deal with what happened on that fateful day in their childhood.  Great cast (Lawrence Fishburne, Laura Linney, and Marcia Gay Harden are also in it) and a good story, directed by Clint Eastwood.  Good flick with a slightly dissatisfying ending.

[Curt McGirt]

One of my favorite things is finding a great movie you've never seen before at like 3 AM on the satellite, and tonight I caught the last half of Lifeforce by Tobe Hooper. What a fucking crazy flick... basically it's about space vampires that suck out people's lifeforce instead of their blood and Matilda May is the head vamp, who walks around nude the entire film. Steve Railsback is the protagonist and the headmaster from A Clockwork Orange is in it along with Patrick Stewart. Comes off like if Hammer survived into the '80s to have a wild movie based around alien vampires turning London into a zombie apocalypse with lots of nudity, gore and great '80s era visual effects. Scream Factory is re-releasing this with two different cuts and I'm totally buying it.

 

EDIT: I watched the first half later (thank god for repeat showings) and yeah, this is just a Quatermass film made in the '80s, with Dr. Quatermass split into two separate people personality wise. I fell asleep with the TV on to Bram Stoker's Dracula and woke up to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, incidentally

[The Natural]

Liked World's End.(Is this the right thread? Who can keep them all straight?)Thought it was good, but prob not as good as the other two.In order of personal preference, i'd prob go:1. hot Fuzz 2. shaun 3. World's endAnd Rosamund Pike has become quite the fetching mature lady.One small niggle

nothing against Bill Nighy, but i would have liked to have heard a different voice for the Network. While sitting there, i thought how great it would have been if it was Tom Baker.

 

Really had no interest in The World's End based off the trailers, but ended up going anyways with a friend and really enjoyed it. It's funny, it's kinda sad in parts, the action scenes are really entertaining (And apparently inspired by Jackie Chan and uses one of his stuntmen as a choreographer). It's probably my least fave of the Cornetto Trilogy (Which isn't really a knock, as it's a fun trilogy) and it's also probably the most serious of the trilogy, which isn't to say that it's not really quite funny. Nick Frost kinda steals most of the film, along with Eddie Marsan. Also, I suspect a Brit of my age might have gleaned a little bit more enjoyment out of the film, as the musical choices would probably have you going "Oh yeah! I remember this song!" but, over here, we never heard much Soup Dragons.

 

I like The World's End but I also have it as the weakest film in the trilogy, then Hot Fuzz with Shaun of the Dead on top. I'd also say The World's End is Edgar Wright's weakest film.

[Brian Fowler]

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

 

Only about a year after I broke down and imported the blu-ray from England, yay.

 

 

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

What was the holdup? That movie is seven years old.

 

 

Was originally supposed to be put out by the Weinsteins, but after Grindhouse bombed, they cleared the decks on their horror slate.  Was sold to a company that then promptly went out of business.  Then floated around with nobody picking up the U.S. rights for years.

[odessasteps]

It also seemed like The World's End had a lot of pro wrestling spots in the fight scenes, including Nick Frost doing an over-the-knee backbreaker on a bad guy.

[EVA]

I loved THE WORLD'S END right up until he coda at the very end, which was really long and not terribly funny. It's tough to figure out where it stands in the trilogy, because the laughs are undercut with so much sadness and melancholy that the other two movies didn't really have. I need to see it again, because I think it's a deeper movie with a lot more going on than being a simple (excellent) send-up of a genre like SHAUN and FUZZ, and that may elevate it's standing above one or both of those down the line. Even if it's not the one you'd take off the shelf if you were looking for pure laughs.

The five guys have amazing chemistry together. I was almost disappointed when the sci-fi element kicked in, because by then I was sold on just watching them get pissed and shoot the shit all night.

[MarcosLoura]

 

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

 

Only about a year after I broke down and imported the blu-ray from England, yay.

 

 

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

What was the holdup? That movie is seven years old.

 

 

Was originally supposed to be put out by the Weinsteins, but after Grindhouse bombed, they cleared the decks on their horror slate.  Was sold to a company that then promptly went out of business.  Then floated around with nobody picking up the U.S. rights for years.

 

I feel all the hype may hurt the movie now, because well, it's not a good a movie. At all.

[Brian Fowler]

I liked it.  Good solid slasher film.

 

But being good for a slasher isn't the same as being good.

[Burgundy LaRue]

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

 

It'll be interesting to see what the interest/reaction for the movie will be.  I liked it fine and appreciated what they were going for, but it's a decisive film.  Certainly one that generates discussion.

[JRGoldman]

Eyes Without a Face is a great film. I think they share this story in the essay from the Criterion Collection, but they did a screening of it in Scotland when it first came out and there was a huge outcry about how gory (for the time) the surgery scenes were. When the director was asked about it, he replied "Now I know why the men in this country wear skirts". 

[Death From Above]

Is there a bigger workaholic in Hollywood than Morgan Freeman? Seems like for about 20 straight years he's had something in theaters, or on the verge of being in theaters.

[EVA]

I loved THE WORLD'S END right up until he coda at the very end, which was really long and not terribly funny. It's tough to figure out where it stands in the trilogy, because the laughs are undercut with so much sadness and melancholy that the other two movies didn't really have. I need to see it again, because I think it's a deeper movie with a lot more going on than being a simple (excellent) send-up of a genre like SHAUN and FUZZ, and that may elevate it's standing above one or both of those down the line. Even if it's not the one you'd take off the shelf if you were looking for pure laughs.The five guys have amazing chemistry together. I was almost disappointed when the sci-fi element kicked in, because by then I was sold on just watching them get pissed and shoot the shit all night.

Oh, and I'd like to add that Edgar Wright is amazing. Honestly, he might be my favorite active director right now. The guy throws more ideas up on the screen in a single movie than most directors do in their whole careers. And to see it on the screen is one thing, but then to read intereviews and watch behind-the-scenes featurettes on how he actually accomplishes some of this stuff is just...wow. Insanely creative guy.

[Brian Fowler]

 

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is finally getting a US release.  It should be out the weekend of Septermber 6th.

 

It'll be interesting to see what the interest/reaction for the movie will be.  I liked it fine and appreciated what they were going for, but it's a decisive film.  Certainly one that generates discussion.

 

 

I think this thread is also showing the other potential issue.  All of us who are the type who are interested in it already broke down and found a different fucking way too watch the damn thing over the last several years.

[J.T.]

I will still go to see it at the movies though.  And I agree good film <> good slasher film.  Two different standards.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Yeah, I bought the R2 DVD a few years ago, so the audience for this may be tapped already.

[Zero]

Star Trek Into Darkness - Thought the movie as a whole sucked. Benedict Cumberbatch was pretty awesome as Khan though. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Star Trek Into Darkness - Thought the movie as a whole sucked. Benedict Cumberbatch was pretty awesome as Khan though. 

I just watched Star Trek the other day. It was okay to me, but it was hard to get past Eric Bana looking like a silly jackass and Karl Urban sounding like a drunk Jimmy Stewart.