The cinema thread

[doldrums]

just watched this maybe a day ago. amazing film. excellent performance by hupert and the whole cast (ive never seen isaac bankole talk for more than a minute yet hes always so damn impacting). Also very interesting in terms of just having some idea of the nature of the conflict in Post colonial africa. Really carefully paced with a constant sort of tension/horror in the background that sort of bubbles throughout carefully then erupts. i could probably go on for a while about it

Agreed - this was fantastic. caught it at the toronto film festival a few years back and its stayed with me since...

[BSR]

Just saw this. AWFUL. My advice to anyone planning on seeing it - See it in Imax 3d. I watched the 2d and it was clear that this movie was made for the sole purpose of showing off 3d. There was no story really. The characters were beyond underdeveloped (and not for a reason, they were just underdeveloped). The script was awful. I don't want to give away anything, not like it matters, but it involves Fassbender's character and it's the most silly, corny thing i have ever seen in a movie that is supposed to be serious.
Theron is dreadful as are most of the actors. I would put the blame on the laughable script and Ridley Scott. The best actor is the guy who plays the captain, only so because his character has somewhat of a personality going for him. Again, this isn't about the characters are purposely soulless or whatever (though fassbender is, still very very bad), it's just an extremely low quality script. I wonder how one movie can have fantastic digital effects yet at the same time look like a low-budget tv movie at the same time. Part Scott, part Cronenberg, this movie is garbage and I will never, ever watch it again. thumbs WAY DOWN. I watched Bridesmaids last night on hbo and it's about 50 times better than this.

plus it's a shame the sex scene between charlize theron and the captain has been skipped. seriously, how can people expect anything out of this kind of metaphysical holywoodian 3D porridge?

[Faust]

Why shouldn't we expect something from a guy who's made Alien and Blade Runner?

[galia]

prometheus was garbage though. so many inconsistencies and clichés. and I don't think the 3d added anything actually, except perhaps in the opening sequence. But I'm sure it would have looked almost as nice without it. Icelandinc landscapes are awesome, it would have been hard to fuck up.
otherwise the whole thing sucked except for the part with the worm that looks like a penis, but that was just a "so bad it's good" moment

[Tafkap]

I think the last decent thing Scott made was Hannibal... I may be one of the few that actually liked Hannibal. (liked, not loved) The opening action sequence in Hannibal really is fantastic. I was hoping Prometheus would have some serious action sequences but there just wasn't. They were corny. I also loved the Gary Oldman character in Hannibal, especially the make-up, and I gotta say - the make-up in Prometheus was awful.
There are some movies, the great movies, that leave me asking questions, that make me want to know more and understand more, but whether I missed something, (i did - i had no idea it was a prequel, and still don't get it) - i don't really care. I didn't miss anything. This movie was garbage. The script has to be the worst script written in the last 20 years for a movie with similar box office success. It's movies like these that make me wonder what is happening with American cinema and what it's future will be. I can count on 2 fingers mainstream American directors whose work I really give a damn about - P.T. Anderson and David Lynch. (Coen Brothers and Woody Allen are hit and miss, Wes Anderson I hope comes back around with Moonrise Kingdom, though I doubt it)
Oh, Hollywood.....why?

Also, another reminder on why I prefer to watch movies at home. I don't have the time to list the chaos that has been trying to watch a movie in the theater these days. I need to invest in a bigger screen.

I'm not just saying this but ever since seeing Prometheus I have been in a bad mood and have been a little depressed. You hear people say things like, "I just wasted 2 hours of my life that I will never get back." Well, that's how I really feel for the first time in my life. I literally wasted 2 hours of my life watching this garbage and I can't let it go. I knew going in I wasn't going to see the new Haneke, so expectations were low, but boy, oh boy...the actors should be ashamed of themselves for taking these roles.

[Faust]

The script has to be the worst script written in the last 20 years for a movie with similar box office success.

Sorry, but that honor belongs to Avatar.

[galia]

but avatar was just pocahantas in space with blue indians, it wasn't an original idea

[eleven crows]

Avatar, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, etc. It's a fairly well used trope.

I haven't seen Prometheus yet. I've dodged all the trailers, reviews, and any talk about it. Even in here. I'm not sure if it's even related to the Alien universe. Tonight I'll found out. Fingers crossed.

[Tafkap]

Sorry, but that honor belongs to Avatar.

Probably. I didn't see it. I saw a little bit of it on HBO or one of those stations and just shook my head and changed it.
The stupid "rock and roll" movie with Tom Cruise and Baldwin looks like Chinese water torture for the eyes and ears, so it will probably take the title soon enough.

[klangspiel]

kaneto shindo sadly passed a forthnight ago. one of the last remaining preeminent greats of a generation - ozu, mizoguchi, kurosawa, naruse, et al. - that defined japanese auteur cinema to its essential loins, sinews and brains. his films were nothing if not diverse - spanning the breadth of classic genre-defining japanese horrors of onibaba and kuroneko, to the minimalist bresson-esque poetry of the dialogue-less naked island. from politically-charged indictments of ideological powers-that-be (children of hiroshima, most notably and emphatically), to sexually-themed paeans to the many foibles of the gendered economy of eros (libido and lost sex). his last film, postcard, was a ripper. a deeply personalised representation of his long-standing anti-war sentiment that dates as far back as his early career. it's a film that's by turns tender, indignant, stoic, poignant, humorous bordering on the caricature with a large slab of the gallows, and ingeniously metaphorical. a fine paragon of an anti-war film, not to mention a perfect and wonderful last hurrah. r.i.p.

So, what's good at Cannes? (klangspiel?)

i'm not sure if they would be to your taste, but i rather liked the haneke, carax, reygadas, hong, and mungiu. haneke is haneke. carax's a welcomed return after a long hiatus from making features (his last was in the late 90s). reygadas gave us another stunning slice of transcendent cinema. hong manages once more to be his typically unassuming lo-fi self and i prefer isabelle hupert here than in the haneke. mungiu shows us yet again why he's at the forefront of contemporary european auteur cinema. the kiarostami and apichatpong weren't too bad either but hardly departures from their more recent work.

[klangspiel]

aleksei german retro this month.

i'm still eagerly awaiting for history of the arkanar massacre to finally surface. how long has it been now? 12 years? 13? the man gives a whole different level of meaning to a fastidious ethos - kubrick is a relative slob by comparison. there's a good probability that it might come out next year though, but i'm definitely not holding my breath ... in any case, i'm pretty sure it's going to be the greatest film of all-time. frothing at the gash just thinking about it. :)

[MoFiya]

Thanks for the tips, klang - always appreciated. And don't care about my taste, I enjoy your recommendations and pick whatever plots suits my mood :) Definitely looking forward to the new Haneke of course as I was so stocked about the white ribbon...

Saw Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson yesterday. Such a lovely love story , will watch again! But then again, this is a typical Anderson so if you didnt like his prior movies, you wont like this one. I dig his humour :)

[Karamazov]

Rewatched The Believer last night. It's nothing special in terms of visuals and stuff like that, but the story/plot/dialogue combo feels like being punched, very slowly...

[galia]

Saw sokurov's Faust today. It's really good, I was impressed, and beautifully beautifully shot as well.

[AngelofDeath]

Really enjoyed Moonrise Kingdom. Had no idea going in that it was an Anderson flick, but I just remember thinking, "Man, this reminds me a lot of The Life Aquatic..."