So Far This Year VOLUME X

Started by modage, July 02, 2012, 10:30:56 AM

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polkablues

The original Total Recall is a big dumb mess, but it's a singularly entertaining and eminently memorable mess. It's a great movie, but it is by no means a GOOD movie. The remake is perfectly competent and immediately forgotten. That's all I was saying.
My house, my rules, my coffee

RegularKarate

The original is a well thought-out, very intentional mess. Verhoeven knew what he was doing. Like it or not.
The remake has no idea what's going on and is trying to impress everybody and ends up being a terrible video game.

Reel

I agree with both of you wholeheartedly. You guys should do a podcast.

jenkins

I like polka's list and the idea. These are my fav movies that prob wouldn't make a tops list for a good or bad reason.

Abe Lincoln Vamp Hunter
The stampeding horses fight scene was a gem and a half. Dude throws a horse at another dude, that's all I'm saying.

Three Stooges
These guys are so silly. Larry David plays a fucking nun.

Dredd 3D
Bleeds neon. Pulses crap. Total package.

Crazy Horse
Combines my love of Frederick Wiseman and burlesque clubs. I like Wiseman's pretty phase.

Rock of Ages
This was trash culture's Les Mis in like multiple ways. Great opening right.

Detention
Pop opera mess with mad imagination. If he could combine imagination with knowing wtf is happening he could reign as king. LA's best kept secret.

Goodbye First Love
Worried it won't make a tops list and I thought it was romantic. So romantic! Crush on this movie.

Snow White Hunts Man
When that creature in the forest, the magical beautiful one -- oh man :(

Klown
Fuck these jerks. Jerkest movie of the year.

Lincoln
I like antique stores, specially old-timey ones. <3

Wrong
For like 20mins thought it was going to be great. Conversational distance lol. Some pretty big lols, but gets a lil tedious lez be honest.

Beasts of Sundance Wild
Little girl was a tough one! She inspired me.

The Hunt
"Kids never lie" Ahahahaha. Fav movie to joke about

squints

when are we gonna do the xixaxies? when does that whole thing start?
"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

Alexandro

Quote from: trashculturemutantjunkie on January 03, 2013, 10:38:19 PM

Beasts of Sundance Wild
Little girl was a tough one! She inspired me.


This made me laugh out loud.

polkablues

Quote from: squints on January 04, 2013, 02:28:08 PM
when are we gonna do the xixaxies? when does that whole thing start?

TBD
My house, my rules, my coffee

Stefen

I got catching up to do, but from what I've seen, my favorite flick of last year was Alps. Yorgos Lanthimos is probably my favorite filmmaker right now. The type of stories he crafts and the way he allows them to unfold is high-level shit. Dogtooth was great but Alps was just something else. It had the same sort of off the wall premise (eventually), but it was grounded in a reality and real world aesthetic that Dogtooth lacked. It builds slow, but that's exactly what makes it amazing. You find yourself still watching, waiting to see where it will go and by the half hour mark you don't even care if it goes anywhere because you're fascinated and paying attention............ and that's when it reveals itself. It's not an explosion or an elaborate set piece -- it's just people being people and having emotions, intentions, motives but most of all, compassion. You're hooked and you turn off your phone, put the dog outside and cancel the pizza you just ordered because you don't want any distractions for the remainder of the films running time. That's what great films do and that's what Alps does. At its most basic level, you could even say it's a film within a film, actors playing actors, but it never lets the audience in on the joke. It isn't until a couple days later when you can't stop thinking about this devastating film that you finally realize, "......wait, that movie was funny as shit. wtf just happened?" Haneke used to be great at this, but Lanthimos just takes it to another level.

The Master was amazing, maybe PTA's best film. I saw it once in the theater and then it was gone and never got a chance to see it again. It has tons of layers that I think about, but I can't tell if they're worth deciphering and crunching numbers trying to crack or if it's just a troll job by PTA for us on this board to agonize over. As I get older and don't put so much stock into movies being cool, I started to realize that PTA's early movies aren't really that amazing like I used to think, they're just really fucking fun and neat to watch and think about. Sydney and Boogie Nights are just a young snotty punk making homages and working with people he thought were under the radar cool. Magnolia is still one of my most favorite films ever, but that's only because like most on this board, it came out at a prominent time in my early teenage life where I started to realize movies were more than just dinosaur parks and killer dolls with red hair (the first two greatest movies for anyone born in the early to mid 80's), and could be something more if you took a look and watched. Magnolia is excessive, overblown, pretentious, ham fisted and ill advised, but it's a part of my life and will always have a special place in my heart.  PDL is an experiment and is the only one of his films that deserves more credit than it gets. TWBB? Certified American masterpiece. Best film of the 00's. I watch it every day. PTA had always been moving up with each subsequent film and after CMBB, The Master almost feels like a step down, but that's only on scale. It has more character development than any of PTA's previous films and at its heart that's what it is, and that's what all of PTA's movies always wanted to be, but they were always filled with homages. Too many actors and flashy filmmaking techniques. He was almost schizo in the way he made movies. Everyone had their idea of what his identity was. He used ensembles like Altman, he used violence and cinematography like Scorsese, wrote dialogue like Mamet, etc, etc, etc. He was like a Frankenstein monster who did things okay that others filmmakers did really well, but The Master feels like the first ever "PTA Film." It's a flick where it's his own style and nobody else's. Sure, there are influences, but the only rip-offs are him ganking from himself. He finally started believing in himself! And it shows. Freddie is a PTA character. The way he fights, concocts moonshine and talks about pussy, it's something only a PTA character would do, and he did. It has all the shit PTA movies have and none of the shit he ripped off from other dudes in his other movies. Like when Freddie is working as a dept. store photographer and takes photos, PTA could have done a closeup of a flashbulb explosion like Scorcese does, it would have been perfect, but no, Freddie just fights shitty then splits. PTA has his own style now. I'm a snob so I'll wait for the bluray before I nitpick and analyze it's nuances, but it's pretty incredible. The auditing scene may be the best scene PTA has ever done. The editing is bonkers.

Other movies I liked...

The Imposter - Didn't want to watch it because of it's spoilerific title, but it's so much more.
Keep the Lights On - The main character is really bright, and he's always getting turned on, so I'm not sure if that's the meaning of the title or if I'm just over analyzing. Really quality flick.
Magic Mike - Soderbergh at his best. Pounding back cold ones and just having a good time with his bros.
Killer Joe - Haha, oh my. Watch it late at night when you can't sleep.
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia - It says so much with so little. Pretty admirable.
Moonrise Kingdom - Hated his last few flicks but this was cute as fuck. Wes Anderson to the core, a good thing now. I wish Bruce Willis would do more comedy.
The Loneliest Planet - Haha, what a coward. But seriously, you can't live that down.
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning/The Raid: Redemption - If you weren't feeling manly and shadow boxing in front of the big mirror in your parents room after watching these then you probably watched The Avengers.
The Grey - Flying is just something humans aren't made for -- haven't evolved enough yet. And nature? We're too evolved for that. Can't survive in the wilderness anymore. Houseboats is as good as it gets for us.

Forgettable...

Holy Motors - Dumb. Type of movie I would have loved back then, but front now, it's just not happening. Back then me would probably say I just didn't get it then call myself a faggot. I was a real homosexual back then.
Django Unchained - Tarantino does silly shit, revises history, makes frat boys fist pump. Yawn, alright?

Want to see but need a guinea pig...  :yabbse-undecided:

The Turin Horse - Is there any real animal cruelty?

Hated...

Lincoln - Der, I'm Lincoln, I did legislature shit, signed documents and filed paperwork. I also played dice and drank forties with bruthas until I got shot in the dome and went out in a blaze of glory. Let's watch a movie about the legislature shit.

Worst of the year...

The Dark Knight Rises is the only answer. The fuck? It's like first they came up with an awesome plot. Check it -- Batman is laying low, dormant for years, his skills have deteriorated. Then Bane shows up, exiles Batman and takes the whole city of Gotham hostage, THEN.....Batman comes BACK and bravely saves Gotham. Sounds fucking awesome right? They marketed it with this awesome plot so you know it had to be good, right? WRONG. You see, what they never marketed was what happened in between......and that's because they never fucking figured out how to get from point A, to point B to point C, so they just filled it with corny fat nerd bullshit in between. Classic sum was bigger than it's parts piece of shit dork movie abomination bitchass filmmaking by the previously imaginative Chris Nolan who is now a hack and should be shot on sight and his body displayed in broad daylight for all nerds to see if they could stand the sun's rays.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.