The cinema thread

[Faust]

Too much character development & not enough meaningless action for the war movie loving masses

too bad about hobbit , Did you ever end up watching Holy Motors ? any feedback

Never got around to it - will look for it on dvd.

[drizzly]

Saw the Hobbit yesterday. What a piece of shit. I cannot even begin to describe my disappointment. I want my money and three hours of my life back.

sucks you didnt like it, i quiet enjoyed it

[endorphinz]

anyone see cloud atlas? should i see cloud atlas? i have it downloaded but 3 hours is a commitment i'd rather not regret making.

[Faust]

Was excited about it initially, but have taken MailMoth's position since. Chances are it will be a visually stunning cheesefest. I hope I am wrong.

[endorphinz]

guess ill wait till i'm snowed in to watch, tho I hope that never happens

[egoody]

As a life long lover of cinema, I can remember many movie going experiences in my youth; seeing Terminator 2 opening weekend at the Arclight in LA, seeing Army of Darkness over 5 times in theatres when it came out, finally getting to see West Side Story in 35mm at an old theatre, having to exit Saving Private Ryan due to a panic attack brought on by the D Day landing.
Anyways, my point is that I've been watching mainstream and underground/cult movies for as long as I can remember. I know actors, directors, screenwriters. I know more about movies than most of my friends, whatever. However, it's only been recently that I've really GOTTEN excellent performances by actors, and excellent directors and what makes them so.

I remember watching Black Swan in theatres and thinking to myself that if Natalie Portman didn't win the best actress Oscar, I'd never watch the oscars again, ha. Maybe I still don't know why I was so enthralled, but I knew that she had done an incredible job.

After this, I went back and watched all these incredible films I had seen and loved when I was younger, but maybe didn't appreciate enough at the time. Brando in "On the Waterfront"; Al Pacino in "Dog Day Afternoon"; Toshiro Mifune in "High and Low" and "Seven Samurai" all meant more to me now.

I still don't think I fully understand what makes a performance so incredible, but I'd like to delve into that more so I can fully appreciate some of these legendary performances for what they are worth. Are there any articles/books/etc you can recommend to me? Books reflecting on what made Brando's Don Corleone so great, or why great filmmakers make dogshit movies? Who's to blame for these faults? Who's to congratulate for the critical success of such acclaimed movies?

I wrote this on a whim, I hope it makes some sense

[MoFiya]

Saw Los abrazos rotos by Almodóvar yesterday. What a wonderful movie, one of my favorites by him.

Other than that, I need some recommendations on what to watch. Preferably some melancholic shit about love and stuff.

[Faust]

Amour should be good for that, no?

[MoFiya]

I am a fan of Haneke usually, but an old couple's lovestory? Hmmm, not sure. Have you seen it?

edit. It's not available on DVD, yet anyway :\

[Faust]

Go to the movies, you punk!
Actually, I don't really care for going to the movies anymore myself, what's with the stupid prices for tickets and the Netflix/high quality of home theater these days.

I haven't seen Amour, but it's getting rave reviews, which I suppose all of Haneke's films do.

[MoFiya]

True, prices have gone insane. Nowadays, I can go to the theatre and pay the same or even less... Amour is not being played in the cinema here anymore anyway.

Speaking home theaters... Yeah. I am staying at my parents over the holidays and enjoy their bigger TV screen. When at home, I watch movies on my laptop screen. You can kill every movie with that :)

Not sure if it has been mentioned but Moonrise Kingdom is a great movie as well. Watched it twice already and will probably watch it again in the new year. Highly recommended if you like Wes Anderson!

[mrbeuys]

Thoroughly enjoyed Django Unchained, in no small part due to Christoph Waltz's performance.

[Lane]

really enjoyed this movie recently, and what stuck to me was the opening.

[drizzly]

Thoroughly enjoyed Django Unchained, in no small part due to Christoph Waltz's performance.

he did win best actor last time for inglorious bastards

[888]

Thoroughly enjoyed Django Unchained, in no small part due to Christoph Waltz's performance.

I enjoyed this as well. Tarantino kept the long, masturbatory 'clever' dialogues in check for the most part, though it dragged a bit when they were negotiating at 'candieland'.

I saw the hobbit last week. Found it to be a disappointment personally. The casting was good, but I felt it relied on sub-par computer animation moreso than the LOTR trilogy. References to the other films were heavy handed and cringe-inducing.