Deja Vu - Been watching some more Denzel Washington movies since last time. Didn't really like this though. It does the time travel stuff pretty sloppily. Doesn't help that a lot of stuff explained about how it works in the movie sounds dumb as hell. Oh well. Can't say I enjoyed this.
The Manchurian Candidate - This was decent for a political thriller. Saw the ending coming from quite far away though, but watching Meryl Streep made up for it. I know this is a remake of the 1962 film and it is rated better, still on the fence about watching it for now.
Training Day - One of those movies that I have wanted to watch for a long time but never got around to it. I even finished it in one sitting, I don't recall taking a single break I was so engrossed in it. That rarely happens to me with movies where I zone out that much.
The Sheik - Documentary about the Iron Sheik, the pro wrestler. Came out last here but I guess it just released on Netflix recently. Pretty interesting. I used to watch pro wrestling as a kid so I never watched him but I didn't even know how he used to be a very gifted wrestler in Iran winning many awards, even being a bodyguard for the Shah back then. Didn't even know how he left Iran because he felt they didn't value their wrestling athletes at the time so he came to America and even coached Collegiate wrestling which he was very successful at.
Then all the WWE stuff being the heel, had no idea he identified with America so much. I also remember the thing with him and Hacksaw Jim Duggan getting caught together with drugs and that's what led to his downfall. I heard about this in Bigger Faster Stronger, a documentary, that I watched awhile back. He ended up getting on bad terms after that and had to resort to doing small independent shows to make ends meet and get tangled up in drugs, addicted to crack cocaine etc. Then they went on about the stuff on youtube and twitter and how it made him so popular again.
I wrote a lot there but it was pretty interesting. Would recommend to any pro-wrestling fan, either was or still is.
On April 07 2015 16:47 Azza wrote: Any recommended movies that are graphically stunning?
Ran Kill Bill Stalker Hero The Night of the Hunter Lawrence of Arabia Lord of the Rings Avatar 300 Gravity Sin City Life of Pi Citizen Kane Tron 2001 The Fall The Holy Mountain
I think there are plenty of films that don't even work on a large home TV and should really be seen on a big a screen as possible. Lawrence of Arabia, Ran and Time of the Wolf are the first few to come to mind.
On April 07 2015 17:32 seom wrote: ^^ very nice list
I think there are plenty of films that don't even work on a large home TV and should really be seen on a big a screen as possible. Lawrence of Arabia, Ran and Time of the Wolf are the first few to come to mind.
Yeah i watched laurence of arabia on my 24'' pc screen and it just did not work... if i ever get the occasion to watch it in a movie theatre i would go immediatly though.
From the previous website, i can recommend House of Flying Daggers, i really enjoyed that movie back then! Pan's labyrinth is really worth the watch as well if you haven't seen it yet.
On April 07 2015 17:32 Jetaap wrote: It's more of the "artsy" type but I really like "in the mood for love" as far as aesthetics goes.
Yes! pretty much anything by Wong-Kar Wai looks and feels great. Chris Doyle's photography is stunning in all these early films: ITMFL, Chunking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together and Days of being Wild.
edit: and his films are not pure exercises in style either, they have a lot of substance too.
The Fountain is without a doubt the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen. Whether or not you like the movie is basically a measure how much you can deal with/buy into some spiritual blah blah, but i loved it.
On April 05 2015 16:19 Jetaap wrote: It's obviously just a list but blade runner is a hugely influential movie, i don't think it's ridiculous at all to have him at this position.
i don't think it was influential. Siskel and Ebert are pretty open minded guys and they say Blade Runner sucks balls.
37th of all time? was it even 37th at the Box Office the year it came out? lol.
if u want to talk about influential movies in this era ( late 70s/early 80s ) then i'd go with Superman The Movie.
It set the formula for how to make a big-budget//top-name-actor, comic book movie. it was way more influential than Blade Runner and it made like 5X as much cash as Blade Runner at the Box Office.
Every Clarke-Kent//Kal-El since Superman THe Movie came out 40 years ago is compared to Christopher Reeve.
That's influential.
I find it hilarious that you quote Roger Ebert, because he later reverted his criticism and added Blade Runner to his Great Movies Collection:
"I have been assured that my problems in the past with "Blade Runner" represent a failure of my own taste and imagination..."
he adjusted his rating by all of 1 star and Siskel ?
i'd say Blade Runner was an above average movie. no more.. no less... winning no awards... nominated for 2 cursory awards having nothing to do with acting, plot, or theme.
some say whether or not a movie "stands up" over time is a non-issue in these rankings. hell, the movie didn't stand up at the box office in 1982 in the prime of Harrison Ford's Star Wars career. 2 Star Wars movies done and the 3rd one on the way.
in the 80s almost everything Harrison Ford touched turned to gold, but not Blade Runner.
He should've upped it to 5 stars and salivated all over it or what? Siskel died in 99, Roger changed his mind in 2007 after seeing the final cut, impossible to say if Siskel would've changed his mind and does it matter?
Fight club got 1 nomination for effects and also flopped at the Box Office, how should we rate this movie in your mind? Shawshank Redemption flopped at the Box Office, it got nominated for some Oscars though, but it didn't win any. Box Office top 100 includes some really bad movies (less so if adjusted to inflation but still) I don't know why you keep talking about it.
I've no idea why i write these replies, i must stop, nothing good has ever come off of these kinds of conversations.
Fight Club is a movie completely of its time though, Bladerunner, which as you pointed out and others did, didn't really come into its own until well after it was in theaters. If you go back and watch Fight Club, it is really not the same movie you thought at 15 or so. One aged like wine, Fight Club aged like milk. The further from 1999 we get, the less I find people lunging at the opportunity to praise Fight Club.
As you said though, opinions change and like Phillip K. Dick, he and a lot of the source material he wrote was really only appreciated after he passed or after it left the box office respectively.
That's interesting, it has been over 10 years since i last saw Fight Club. Gonna go and check it out when i have the time to see how it has changed for me.
I dunno, I think Fight Club aged fairly well. Then again, I don't really know how ridiculous the following was when it came out. Anyone who liked it as a movie probably will still love it. If anyone actually treated as some kind of cultural revolution gospel, then they've probably realized how dumb they were.
I personally found there to be a rather large generational gap for that movie, my younger brother who is 18 and most of his friends don't think it is much to write home about. Daray I'd be curious to see how your revisit goes.
On April 05 2015 16:19 Jetaap wrote: It's obviously just a list but blade runner is a hugely influential movie, i don't think it's ridiculous at all to have him at this position.
i don't think it was influential. Siskel and Ebert are pretty open minded guys and they say Blade Runner sucks balls.
37th of all time? was it even 37th at the Box Office the year it came out? lol.
if u want to talk about influential movies in this era ( late 70s/early 80s ) then i'd go with Superman The Movie.
It set the formula for how to make a big-budget//top-name-actor, comic book movie. it was way more influential than Blade Runner and it made like 5X as much cash as Blade Runner at the Box Office.
Every Clarke-Kent//Kal-El since Superman THe Movie came out 40 years ago is compared to Christopher Reeve.
That's influential.
I find it hilarious that you quote Roger Ebert, because he later reverted his criticism and added Blade Runner to his Great Movies Collection:
"I have been assured that my problems in the past with "Blade Runner" represent a failure of my own taste and imagination..."
he adjusted his rating by all of 1 star and Siskel ?
i'd say Blade Runner was an above average movie. no more.. no less... winning no awards... nominated for 2 cursory awards having nothing to do with acting, plot, or theme.
some say whether or not a movie "stands up" over time is a non-issue in these rankings. hell, the movie didn't stand up at the box office in 1982 in the prime of Harrison Ford's Star Wars career. 2 Star Wars movies done and the 3rd one on the way.
in the 80s almost everything Harrison Ford touched turned to gold, but not Blade Runner.
He should've upped it to 5 stars and salivated all over it or what? Siskel died in 99, Roger changed his mind in 2007 after seeing the final cut, impossible to say if Siskel would've changed his mind and does it matter?
Fight club got 1 nomination for effects and also flopped at the Box Office, how should we rate this movie in your mind? Shawshank Redemption flopped at the Box Office, it got nominated for some Oscars though, but it didn't win any. Box Office top 100 includes some really bad movies (less so if adjusted to inflation but still) I don't know why you keep talking about it.
I've no idea why i write these replies, i must stop, nothing good has ever come off of these kinds of conversations.
Fight Club is a movie completely of its time though, Bladerunner, which as you pointed out and others did, didn't really come into its own until well after it was in theaters. If you go back and watch Fight Club, it is really not the same movie you thought at 15 or so. One aged like wine, Fight Club aged like milk. The further from 1999 we get, the less I find people lunging at the opportunity to praise Fight Club.
As you said though, opinions change and like Phillip K. Dick, he and a lot of the source material he wrote was really only appreciated after he passed or after it left the box office respectively.
That's interesting, it has been over 10 years since i last saw Fight Club. Gonna go and check it out when i have the time to see how it has changed for me.
I dunno, I think Fight Club aged fairly well. Then again, I don't really know how ridiculous the following was when it came out. Anyone who liked it as a movie probably will still love it. If anyone actually treated as some kind of cultural revolution gospel, then they've probably realized how dumb they were.
I personally found there to be a rather large generational gap for that movie, my younger brother who is 18 and most of his friends don't think it is much to write home about. Daray I'd be curious to see how your revisit goes.
Fight Club was never meant to be for the younger generation, as Fincher himself said, it is a 'coming of age film for people in their 30s'. As such it has lost nothing of its appeal (speaking of the first half of the movie, the rest sucks anyway).
"We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman is created."
The everyman that works the daily grind in some soulless white-collar job is as real nowadays as it was 17 years ago. Everyone wants to break out, but few have the guts to do it. I don't see how anything has changed in that regard.
I would be interested what exactly today's younger generation thinks of these themes. Do they see the emasculation of men already as an "accepted fact" and embrace it instead of fighting against it?
EPT![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/The_Manchurian_Candidate_poster.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://sheikmovie.com/uploads/websites/501/bbb6f3531b1411ec93df2229283ff9b6.png)
![[image loading]](http://nymoviereviews.com/wp-content/fountain.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/006/2/b/the_fountain_to_the_xibalba_by_grisador-d5qmnsl.jpg)
