MOVIE COMMENT CATCH-ALL THREAD

[Jingus]

I would indeed call Master and Commander a great movie, possibly the single best film I've seen about naval warfare.  (Which is admittedly not THAT many, but still.)  But I'd say it's still not quiiiiiite as good as Picnic, which I'd personally pick as Weir's best.  

[elizium]

I don't think I can watch Picnic at Hanging Rock after Not Quite Hollywood absolutely slammed "high end" Australian cinema so much, I'd feel like I was cheating on myself.

 

Patrick is the only kind of Australian movie I want to watch.

 

[Jiji]

I would indeed call Master and Commander a great movie, possibly the single best film I've seen about naval warfare.  (Which is admittedly not THAT many, but still.)  But I'd say it's still not quiiiiiite as good as Picnic, which I'd personally pick as Weir's best.  

 

And it's not close. Two hours of butt clenching drama, bad ass Prochnow at his best, the rest of the cast is really good, superbly done claustrophobic atmosphere, and an ending that just destroys the viewer. When I started my history BA, I watched altogether far too many war films, most of which I wouldn't watch now if you'd pay me. This one stands the test of time. Probably on my top 20 list if such a thing existed.

[Jingus]

I count submarine movies as their own different little subgenre.  Okay, let's narrow it down: the best film I've seen about pre-industrial naval warfare with sailboats.  

[Jiji]

Does Mutiny On the Bounty count? The '35 version was fantastic and I'd put it ahead of Master and Commander. It's more of an internal conflict rather than external, though, so I'm not sure it meets your criteria.

[odessasteps]

I count submarine movies as their own different little subgenre.  Okay, let's narrow it down: the best film I've seen about pre-industrial naval warfare with sailboats.

Yellowbeard:)

[caley]

I'm bummed there's this much Peter Weir talk and no mentions of 'Fearless'!

 

 

One of my favourite movies of the 90s (Watch it for the poll!).  Jeff Bridges plays a man who survives an airplane crash and decides he must be immortal, then finds it difficult to interact on a daily basis with anyone who didn't face the same thing he did.  That scene where he drives down the empty road and leans his head out the window while he accelerated is one of the best moments of pure joy ever set down on film.  Plus, the crash itself is just harrowing beyond all belief.  It's a good 'un.

[Eivion]

Watched Ip Man 2. Been a while since I've watched it, but I very much got a Chinese version of Rocky 4 feel from it. Thought the boxer vs. martial artist fights were well done. I dug it overall though it doesn't quite measure up to the first film.

[Curt McGirt]

Since we are leaning on the arcane-o-meter for Aussie cinema check out anything by Brian Trenchard Smith, esp. TURKEY SHOOT/ESCAPE 2000

 

and yeah I need to watch a whole shit-ton more of Peter Weir movies now

[caley]

Watched Rust and Bone and I will admit I watched it entirely because of the m83-scored trailer.  The first thing you can honestly say about it is that it is definitely not one of those films where you watch it and sigh "Just another cookie-cutter plot!"  Ali leaves Belgium with his son in tow and stays with his sister.  Ali doesn't really know his son, who was used as a drug mule by his mother, very well and they have a pretty strained relationship but takes on a series of menial jobs to look after him: bouncer, security guard etc.  While bouncing he meets Stephanie, a killer whale trainer who, shortly thereafter, loses both legs from the knee down in a training accident.  Ali turns to underground fighting to support himself, while beginning a friendship with Stephanie.  It might sound like I'm giving the film away, but that is just the first half hour or so!  Anyways, Stephanie gradually begins to develop feelings for Ali, who just struggles to put it all together. It's really good and well-acted (Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard are really really good in the leads, not sure how Cotillard didn't get a Best Actress nomination) but it's not an easy watch as Ali's a tough character to like, seemingly mostly/only interested in self-gratification.  But, it has some gorgeous cinematography, good music and the effects work on Stephanie's missing legs is particularly amazing, prompting one IMDB user to ask if it was real (He's obviously not a big Cotillard fan).

[jaedmc]

Since we are leaning on the arcane-o-meter for Aussie cinema check out anything by Brian Trenchard Smith, esp. TURKEY SHOOT/ESCAPE 2000

 

and yeah I need to watch a whole shit-ton more of Peter Weir movies now

Escape 2000 is brilllliant. There was an Aussie Exploitation doc on Netflix Instant a while back that turned me on to some of these incredibly fun movies. Tarantino was one of the talking heads.

 

OH!!!! And UNDEAD(2003) is another fun Aussie flick. I had an absolute blast watching that.

[Mr Harms]

Did I really just read one of you guys using a similarity to Insidious as a good thing?

[Jingus]

OH!!!! And UNDEAD(2003) is another fun Aussie flick. I had an absolute blast watching that.

Yeah, I love that one too.  So bizarre, such a great sense of humor.  Especially when a certain character says to another certain character "Put your clothes back on!" and the other one is all "What? I'm comfortable with my body!" and the context makes it into the most hilarious thing ever.  It's from the same guys who did Daybreakers, except it's totally way better than Daybreakers.    

Did I really just read one of you guys using a similarity to Insidious as a good thing?

You weren't aware that lots of people like that movie?  Not too many horror flicks nowadays manage to scrounge up both a positive Rotten Tomatoes score and a hundred-million-dollar worldwide gross, this is one of the few that did both.  I personally thought it was a buncha good jump scares in search of a good movie, but that's still sadly better-than-average when it comes to the horror genre's miserably low bar for average quality.

[jaedmc]

I thought Insidious was lots of fun until the last 10 minutes. And then I wanted to punch it in its stupid face. The jump scares were quality and they did a good job of framing halls and doors so that you weren't sure what was going to be there. Sometimes it was nothing, which created some good tension.

 

I also like that when the family gets creeped out of the house they're like "Fuck it, we're moving". You hardly ever see that in a movie, at least not until the very end like Amityville. There were some really good ideas that were kind of loosely held together by a weak story.

[Mr Harms]

I don't remember these quality jump scares. I remember just shaking my head at how cartoon the whole thing was. It felt like a live-action scooby doo without any charm.

And how much money the movie made means nothing to me. I happen to absolutely hate Insidious and the only thing that stops me from wiping it from my memory is that I may accidentally watch it again.

[Jingus]

I don't remember these quality jump scares.

A couple of the HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! moments were pretty choice. I'm a hard guy to startle, but the bit where the camera cuts back to someone at the dining room table and suddenly there's this inhuman face behind the one person, just barely out of focus; yeah, that did it. And the TERRIFYING smile on that one family-massacring ghost woman was one of the most unnerving facial expressions I've ever seen in my life.

And how much money the movie made means nothing to me.

I know, commercial popularity =/= artistic quality. But when a movie is both critically acclaimed (by horror standards) and made a bunch of money, it's usually worth a moment to stop and wonder why one's opinion is so far outside the norm. I'll never be convinced that Scream is anything but a shallow piece of utter hacksmanship, but I think it's important to understand why everyone else creamed all over it.

[Jiji]

Undead is hilarious. My friends and I would whisper "the world is ending" in terrible Aussie accents whenever anything was amiss for about two or three months after watching that one. Yeah, we're idiots.

[elizium]

 

OH!!!! And UNDEAD(2003) is another fun Aussie flick. I had an absolute blast watching that.

Yeah, I love that one too.  So bizarre, such a great sense of humor.  Especially when a certain character says to another certain character "Put your clothes back on!" and the other one is all "What? I'm comfortable with my body!" and the context makes it into the most hilarious thing ever.  It's from the same guys who did Daybreakers, except it's totally way better than Daybreakers.

 

 

Undead is hilarious. My friends and I would whisper "the world is ending" in terrible Aussie accents whenever anything was amiss for about two or three months after watching that one. Yeah, we're idiots.

 

AND when the hillbilly is standing in the boat punching the zombified fish, who are flying out of the water at him. Such a good movie.

 

Jae, the doc's name is Not Quite Hollywood and is fantastic. The story about Dennis Hopper being banned from ever driving in Australia is hilarious. The same guy also did a pretty good doc on the Filipino exploitation films of the 70s, Machete Maidens Unleashed.

[jaedmc]

Indeed Machete Maidens Unleashed is fantastic as well. I immediately watched The Big Birdcage and was not disappointed. Sid Haig forever.

[Burgundy LaRue]

I wrote a review of MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED a long time ago.  I'll have to look it up and post it here.  It's a great watch.

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah me and a friend watched The Big Birdcage (Sid is so great in that) and Netflix hipped us to Machete Maidens Unleashed! right after. I almost enjoyed it more! The stories are wild and it is truly bizarre to have R. Lee Ermey talking about Apocalypse Now during it right alongside wisdom on such cinematic treasures as Mad Doctor of Blood Island and whatever the fuck that movie was with the kung-fu midget.

[piranesi]

MACHETE MAIDENS was so fun.  The one it clued me into was HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, the movie Joe Dante made on a bet with Corman that he could make the cheapest movie Corman had ever produced.

[Burgundy LaRue]

Corman came off as the boss he is in that doc.  Dude squeezed pennies until Lincoln hollered, but he has such a sweet neighborly demeanor to him.  It was nice to see that everyone understood what they were doing wasn't high art, but they enjoyed it and they all seemed content with their lives.  Good times.

[elizium]

Man, it's cool as shit that so many of you have seen Machete Maidens. Such a great doc and well deserving of the praise.

 

Sid Haig is one person that I am legitimately afraid of. The one year I went to Comic-Con I made sure to give his booth a wide berth, just on the off chance we'd make eye contact. He seems like he'd be intense to meet.

[AxB]

I watched Superbad for the first time. Is having UFC on a telly in the background an Apatow thing, or a Rogen thing? Because between this and Pineapple Express...

 

I see films in the wrong order sometimes. I saw Green Hornet before Pineapple or Knocked Up, and so I didn't get that Rogen was trying to play against type, because I'd not seen his type yet. I saw Kick Ass years before Superbad, so Mintz-Passe wasn't McLovin' to me before he was Red Mist. Also, what it it about Emma Stone that means she's always cast as the cute girl who gets off with the geeky guy (in this, Zombieland and Spiderman - don't think I've seen her in owt else)? Why does she never play the head cheerleader who's dating the Quarterback, like?

 

I watched Silent Hill, but it took me about three weeks because I kept turning it off to go to sleep. So does it not make sense, or is it just that I should have watched it in one sitting and don't understand it because I forgot something important from that start. Wierd to see a Sean Bean where not only does he not die, but he's never really in any danger of possibly dying. Kim Coates from SOA looks totally different with short hair.