The Passion of the Christ
Still the best film about the trial and crucifixion of Jesus ever made. I saw it in the cinema in 2004, and loved it then, but I hadn't seen it again since. Felt inspired to watch it last night, and was not disappointed. Absolutely stunning cinematography and performances throughout. Despite his well-publicised character flaws, this is Mel Gibson's magnum opus, and he deserves praise for pulling this off.
I Just Watched (Films)
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Stormbringer
- Rad Dad
- Posts: 2993
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:57 am
- Location: Hyperborea
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
My fire is more than can be made with forests,
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
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Stormbringer
- Rad Dad
- Posts: 2993
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:57 am
- Location: Hyperborea
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
The Ballad of Lefty Brown
The last time I saw Bill Pullman in a film was in 1996, playing the President of the United States in Independence Day.
In this Western he's an old man named 'Lefty' Brown who's worked as partner to a rancher/law-man, named Ed, for forty years in Montana. Ed is running for office as Senator in Washington and the ranch he's run all these years will be left to Lefty's care, much to Ed's wife's chagrin.
The main premise of the film seems to be that Lefty Brown is rather slow of mind and makes poor decisions and everyone (except Ed) sees him as stupid and untrustworthy...but even Ed isn't beyond admonishing him for his mistakes. From watching it, I couldn't really understand why this was the case, other than his rather slow way of speaking. He seems to be fast with a gun and has good survival instincts and forward-planning skills, as well as fierce loyalty to his friend Ed...so it's kind of sad to see why everyone seems to misunderstand him. The opening act of the film shows Lefty apparently making a 'mistake' when trying to apprehend an outlaw in a saloon, but the mistake hardly seems like a mistake to me, more that he gets caught out in an entirely unexpected way. I don't see how he can be blamed for it at all. There's some pretty decent acting throughout. Visually it's fine, but it's not Coen Brothers level. I enjoyed it more than Appaloosa, for sure.
The last time I saw Bill Pullman in a film was in 1996, playing the President of the United States in Independence Day.
In this Western he's an old man named 'Lefty' Brown who's worked as partner to a rancher/law-man, named Ed, for forty years in Montana. Ed is running for office as Senator in Washington and the ranch he's run all these years will be left to Lefty's care, much to Ed's wife's chagrin.
The main premise of the film seems to be that Lefty Brown is rather slow of mind and makes poor decisions and everyone (except Ed) sees him as stupid and untrustworthy...but even Ed isn't beyond admonishing him for his mistakes. From watching it, I couldn't really understand why this was the case, other than his rather slow way of speaking. He seems to be fast with a gun and has good survival instincts and forward-planning skills, as well as fierce loyalty to his friend Ed...so it's kind of sad to see why everyone seems to misunderstand him. The opening act of the film shows Lefty apparently making a 'mistake' when trying to apprehend an outlaw in a saloon, but the mistake hardly seems like a mistake to me, more that he gets caught out in an entirely unexpected way. I don't see how he can be blamed for it at all. There's some pretty decent acting throughout. Visually it's fine, but it's not Coen Brothers level. I enjoyed it more than Appaloosa, for sure.
My fire is more than can be made with forests,
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
-
Stormbringer
- Rad Dad
- Posts: 2993
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:57 am
- Location: Hyperborea
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Cleaner
A crime 'thriller' film starring a very serious Samuel L. Jackson as an ex-cop, now janitor, specialising in post-mortem clean-up operations. I watched this film back in 2008 or something, and remembered it fondly. Parts of it had stuck in my head for all this time and I had somehow got the impression that I liked it. After attempting to watch a rather crap Western called Le Duel (starring Liam Hemsworth), I stumbled upon this again on Amazon Prime Video and thought: "Oh, why not? I remember liking that...let's give it another spin."
Well, frankly, I don't know why I enjoyed this back then. It's bland, boring and wholly undeserving of the 'thriller' categorisation. A convoluted plot where every major character is so closely tied to every other character it reminds me of something I would have written in my days at college when I studied TV production, except there are so many layers of buried and barely-explained complexity I found it really hard to follow. There's also a horrible and wholly unnecessary grainy, high-contrast grading effect across the whole thing which reminds me of one of the early Mission Impossible films. This didn't enhance the film in any way.
A crime 'thriller' film starring a very serious Samuel L. Jackson as an ex-cop, now janitor, specialising in post-mortem clean-up operations. I watched this film back in 2008 or something, and remembered it fondly. Parts of it had stuck in my head for all this time and I had somehow got the impression that I liked it. After attempting to watch a rather crap Western called Le Duel (starring Liam Hemsworth), I stumbled upon this again on Amazon Prime Video and thought: "Oh, why not? I remember liking that...let's give it another spin."
Well, frankly, I don't know why I enjoyed this back then. It's bland, boring and wholly undeserving of the 'thriller' categorisation. A convoluted plot where every major character is so closely tied to every other character it reminds me of something I would have written in my days at college when I studied TV production, except there are so many layers of buried and barely-explained complexity I found it really hard to follow. There's also a horrible and wholly unnecessary grainy, high-contrast grading effect across the whole thing which reminds me of one of the early Mission Impossible films. This didn't enhance the film in any way.
My fire is more than can be made with forests,
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
My state more base than are the basest valleys;
I wish no evenings more to see, each evening;
Shamed, I hate myself in sight of mountains,
And stop mine ears, lest I grow mad with music.
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Looker (1981)
I feel like I watched this as a kid but didnt remember much. What a cool film! Strangely topical too. Its about selling your image to a computer so it can do what it wants with it. It also has a killer theme song!
Oh and it has the best, most convincing death/stunt I've ever seen. Both I and the missus sat up and went "What the fuck? Did they just toss a lady off a balcony?" and you know what, I'm not entirely convinced they didn't. The stunt looks incredible (in a hard to watch way) plus the stunt lady is in her underwear, so it seems like theres no padding other than on the car. Ive been trying to see any behind the scenes but no luck. Lass surely has whiplash at least. Hope she was well payed!
Heres the stunt -
Final Destination Bloodlines
Its garbage but its moderately fun garbage.
Sleep My Love
Woman wakes up on a train and has no memory of boarding. So commences a Hitchcockian tale of manipulation. Its really good!
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Two sisters, one a washed up child star and one a recently paralysed adult (not that kind!) star live together. The jealous ex-child star torments her sister in an almost Misery type of thing. Stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford who hated each other in real life and would torment each other when the cameras weren't rolling.
Its funny, its suspenseful, it ticks the right boxes. Good film!
Tales From The Crypt 1972
Its fine. An anthology of linked tales. Nothing surprising but not bad.
Joker 2
Its mostly on par with the first. Certainly not deserving of the hate it got which was mostly because there were a few musical dream sequences (its not a fucking musical).
Novocaine
Jack Quaid cant feel pain but is a shit fighter. His girlfriendish is kidnapped and he goes to get her back. Its amusing enough, its silly enough. Its fine.
I feel like I watched this as a kid but didnt remember much. What a cool film! Strangely topical too. Its about selling your image to a computer so it can do what it wants with it. It also has a killer theme song!
Oh and it has the best, most convincing death/stunt I've ever seen. Both I and the missus sat up and went "What the fuck? Did they just toss a lady off a balcony?" and you know what, I'm not entirely convinced they didn't. The stunt looks incredible (in a hard to watch way) plus the stunt lady is in her underwear, so it seems like theres no padding other than on the car. Ive been trying to see any behind the scenes but no luck. Lass surely has whiplash at least. Hope she was well payed!
Heres the stunt -
Spoiler
Final Destination Bloodlines
Its garbage but its moderately fun garbage.
Sleep My Love
Woman wakes up on a train and has no memory of boarding. So commences a Hitchcockian tale of manipulation. Its really good!
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Two sisters, one a washed up child star and one a recently paralysed adult (not that kind!) star live together. The jealous ex-child star torments her sister in an almost Misery type of thing. Stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford who hated each other in real life and would torment each other when the cameras weren't rolling.
Its funny, its suspenseful, it ticks the right boxes. Good film!Tales From The Crypt 1972
Its fine. An anthology of linked tales. Nothing surprising but not bad.
Joker 2
Its mostly on par with the first. Certainly not deserving of the hate it got which was mostly because there were a few musical dream sequences (its not a fucking musical).
Novocaine
Jack Quaid cant feel pain but is a shit fighter. His girlfriendish is kidnapped and he goes to get her back. Its amusing enough, its silly enough. Its fine.
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
Sounds intriguing, will give that a look!
Vanilla Sky
I went in knowing very little other than it was supposedly very weird. It was indeed very weird, in a weirdly banal way. The first two thirds are boring as shit, there's a glimmer of something interesting and then you're spoon fed the explanation of what's going on. Aftwards I felt completely unmoved, as there was nothing to contemplate and it was mostly inconsequential. If there was a point to the story, it eluded me.
4/10
Re: I Just Watched (Films)
On Saturday went to see the new Fantastic Four, thought it was pretty good actually.
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