What is the last film you watched?

[indy4 155]

TDK, I reviewed it in the other thread.

[A24 4,338]

The Prestige (HD): It came free with the player and boy I'm a glad that I watched it again. It is now officially my favorite Nolan film.

Alex

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Saw Wanted and Wall-E last night (that's right, 2 films in the same trip - we got delayed and arrived too late for the 8.30 Wall-E showing and next was 11pm, so saw another in the meantime)

Wanted was completely over the top, but featured what I consider to be some good performances, outrageously good action sequences and an interesting twist that M.Night wouldn't see coming. 8/10

Wall-E looked and felt absolutely stunning. It's definitely among Pixar's finest achievements (although I think their best movie can be contested, especially with Ratatouille): the music fit like a glove, Wall-E himself was so cute and there didn't need to be any dialogue for most of the film. 9/10

[Romão 2,274]

The Prestige (HD): It came free with the player and boy I'm a glad that I watched it again. It is now officially my favorite Nolan film.

Alex

I haven't seen the Dark Knight yet, but I agree with you.

[Marian Schedenig 8,195]

The Prestige (HD): It came free with the player and boy I'm a glad that I watched it again. It is now officially my favorite Nolan film.

I know people who hate it because of the way it turns out, but I think, especially after seeing it a second time, it all fits together wonderfully.

I re-watched Ratatouille. It really has a touch of its own, and beautifully and consistently develops its plot and themes. The ratatouille scene is easily among the most brilliant I've seen in the last few years. If Wall-E is really supposed to be better than all the Pixars before it, then it must be outstanding indeed.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

I've seen The Prestige 3 times, and I liked it less and less with each viewing.

[Morlock 11]

I saw it twice. Ditto. It lost my trust early on, and never got it back.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The Prestige (HD): It came free with the player and boy I'm a glad that I watched it again. It is now officially my favorite Nolan film.

Alex

It's most definitely not Nolan's best, despite it being quite magnificent.

This is my order of Nolan's best to worst:

The Dark Knight

Memento

Batman Begins

The Prestige

Insomnia

It's hard to rank those, because they are all superb films.

[Morlock 11]

I think Insomnia's underrated. Well, more forgotten than underrated. A really fine film.

[indy4 155]

Batman Begins is FAR from a superb film.

[Romão 2,274]

Quality wise, there aren't many directors as consistent as Nolan.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

For me, Nolan usually builds interesting characters but is barely adequate in the visual storytelling department.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I think Insomnia's underrated. Well, more forgotten than underrated. A really fine film.

Agreed.

Quality wise, there aren't many directors as consistent as Nolan.

This is true. I think Fincher is also able to consistently deliver in both style and quality. Also, maybe the Coens. They have varying styles, but they meet and exceed all expectations.

To me, these fine directors (Nolan, Fincher, Coen) are the best working today.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

I think Insomnia's underrated. Well, more forgotten than underrated. A really fine film.

We agree again on Nolan.

[A24 4,338]

Never been a big Insomnia or Memento fan, in fact, I couldn't complete my second viewing of the latter. I'm certainly not a Batman Begins fan. I admit, I only saw BB once but I really don't think it will become more interesting on revisiting. The Prestige, thanks to its complexity and richness, did become more interesting (and the visuals are attractive, create mood and they're functional to the plot, BurgaFlippinMan). BTW, does anyone notice a parallel main theme between The Prestige and a certain Ridley Scott film? With other words, did this film not frigging remind you of a certain Scott film?

Alex

[Morlock 11]

Well, I saw The Prestige before I saw The Duellists.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I watched Batman Begins last week and one shot in particular of the Narrows reminded me of Blade Runner. Must have been the Asian signs combined with the dark and the rain.

- Marc, who still doesn't quite get why there's laundry hanging outside in the pouring rain.

[Romão 2,274]

The Blade Runner influence on Batman Begins has been recognized by Nolan himself.

[A24 4,338]

The Blade Runner influence on Batman Begins has been recognized by Nolan himself.

Tim Burton's Batman films reminded me more of Blade Runner than Batman Begins.

[Morlock 11]

Really? Burton's distopia is so colorful, that it never convinced me of a real city. I see sets connected but exterior set-design. Nolan does try to make it more of a tangible place, though not with resounding success.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

STAR TREK: NEMESIS

Decided to revisit this after listening to the score. First time I've saw it since theaters, when I greatly disliked it. Ever get that time when you do a 180 turn on a flick? That happened here. Enthralled. Saddened. Excited. Intrigued. I'd go so far to say it's the best TNG flick.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

STAR TREK: NEMESIS

Decided to revisit this after listening to the score. First time I've saw it since theaters, when I greatly disliked it. Ever get that time when you do a 180 turn on a flick? That happened here. Enthralled. Saddened. Excited. Intrigued. I'd go so far to say it's the best TNG flick.

:cool:

[A24 4,338]

Atonement: I'm sorry but I thought that was overrated. A love story about characters we hardly know? A film about a grieving process of a supporting character? Hmm, I wasn't impressed. Technically, all the scenes at night looked really bad too. I've seen much better than this.

[Morlock 11]

I thought it was a rather shoddy work, both as a literary movie, and as a movie in general.

[A24 4,338]

Exactly, I guess many people fell for the typewriter rhythms.

[Morlock 11]

Well, I did like the score....

Anyhoo, I saw Wanted yesterday. I loved it. I mean I really had a fantastic time. I seem to be susceptible to one action movie a year. Last year it was Shoot 'Em Up, this year it's Wanted. A lot of that is James McAvoy. Action movies are so much better when they have a real actor in them. McAvoy does a great job here, adds an immesurable amount of believabilty to the proceedings. This is probably the first movie in which I really liked Angelina Jolie. She does a good job here. She has gestures in the movie that are priceless.

Morgan Freeman was a surprise. I thought he would be sleep-walking through the role. But he was good. he really needs more bad mother-#%&@er roles. I would have liked to see more of Common, Dato Bakhtadze and Konstantin Khabensky. David O'Hara, too. I'm so happy he's been getting higher profile roles recently. He's still one of the best things about Braveheart, and he was great in The Departed. Liked seeing Thomas Kretschmann, I thought he was one of the best things about King Kong.

Backstory's kind of dumb, but I didn't mind. And I was enjoying myself so much that I caught on to the twist in the film quite late, and it was quite enjoyable. A rare action film that never lags, not even during the big climax, which was also fun (mainly because of the rats).

I loved Elfman's score. And it struck me like he was treated very well by the director. The theme used as a cell-phone ring, the prominance of the score in the mix, the song during the film, and included in the end credits, which is entirely Elfman...it was nice to witness a film composer getting some respect.

A rare action film that is not timid, not nihilistic, not apologetic, and with some real acting.

Also, I saw my last six films at the film festival here. They are as follows:

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts. Scott Hicks' documentry, following Glass around (intermittantly) for a year. First thing that struck me was how imposing a figure Glass turns out to be. A very rounded individual (Although the film's most honest scene tells us, not as well-rounded as it seems). It is basically a film of idol-worship. As such, it is very good, communicates it well. However, the film almost entirely neglects to ask any questions about the music, about the minimalist movement, about Glass's theories on his music. It is a significant flaw, but the film can be enjoyed as a portrait of an interesting man. I was very interested in some of his pieces that were heard in the film, including his 8th Symphony and the opera premiered during the film. And I loved seeing him talking with Woody Allan about Cassandra's Dream.

The English Surgeon, a BBC produced documentry about an English neuro-surgeon, who travels to the Ukraine regularly to assist in Brain-surgery there. I was attracted to it becuase Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provided the music for it. But I was really surprised by how moved I was by the movie. In his temperment, Henry Marsh, the subject of the film, reminded me of M.A.S.H. He jokes about death, and does his best to remove himself emotionally from his prognoses, just to get through the day. A rather small and simple documentry of a beautiful human story. I teared up towards the end of the film, something I am not prone to.

Standard Operating Procedure. Errol Morris's documentry about Abu Ghrab. It's hard, harrowing and insightful. But it's also too long, too repetitious, and distractingly theatrical. The talking heads are separated by inappropriately showy animation that looked liked a particularly annoying DVD menu. And unfortunately, Elfman's score was quite inappropriate. It seems like Morris went to great lengths in trying to make this documentry more like a "real" film, and a lot is lost there. The score is prominant, but the tone of the score very rarely matches the tone of the film. The only parts that work are the relatively minimalistic cues (like the terrific SOP theme #1). Morris would have been better off sticking to Glass. Minimalism is the right tone for this kind of documentry.

Tian tang kou (Blood Brothers). A Taiwanese film produced under the aegis of John Woo. It starts off promisingly enough, some nice compositions. But in the end, this ganster tale of loyalty, brotherhood, morality is the purest Hollywood BS I've seen in a long time, and becomes quite laughable. The score, by a composer named Daniel Belardinelli has some ideas I liked, but was mixed terribly in the film, felt liked it was laid on top of the mix, not mixed in.

Lou Reed's Berlin. Jullian Schnabel's direction of a Lou Reed's first live performance of his 'Berlin' album since it's premiere. I am not a Lou Reed fan, and while I foudn the music quite good, I lost interest, as I do with most concert films. The films is peppered with some impressionist films/images provided by Schnabel's daughter Lola, and these images are useless at best, mind-numbingly artsy at worst.

David Mammet's Redbelt closed the festival. Synecdoche, New York cornered the market on strangeness this year, but this one would have taken the cake most other years. What a strange, unpredictable film. What appears to be an A-film hidden in a B-film turns out to be a B-film hidden in an A-film. I absolutely loved it. The film is extremely dense, setting up one plot element ater another, and never really ties them together successfuly. But I had no idea where it was going, and that was a most refreshing sensation. Chewitel Ejiofor is fantastic. He was wasted in a few recent films, he's in fine-form here.I believed he could kick the crap out of anyone. And I liked Stephen Endelman's rythmic score a great deal. This is probably one of the least charectaristic work to come from Mamet, and would not be recognizable as a Mamet film if not for the appearance of some of his regulars (Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, Rebecca Pidgeon). Nothing more to say about it, except that I loved it.

[A24 4,338]

Serenity: Watched it again (came free with the player) after I had finished the Firefly series ... And, yes, the film is not as good as the series. Even Inara didn't look so beautiful anymore.

She does on this photo though.

Alex

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

So having finished the series and watched the movie now with knowledge of the show, what's your opinion on the whole Firefly package, Alex?

[Marian Schedenig 8,195]

I should give another episode a try. I watched the pilot, and honestly I can't remember ever being so bored by anything on TV. And that feeling started after 15 minutes and persisted until the end.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Ouch.

[A24 4,338]

I liked the show. A few episodes were not so good but the overall level was nice. The characters were good, the women were beautiful and the stories were fun. The Star Wars influence is evident but the big positive is that Whedon likes his characters a whole less wooden. Sometimes it was too western for me (like that whorehouse shootout). A little more sci-fi themes or even settings wouldn't have hurt the show. It's strange that the series got cancelled when you know that a poor quality show like Earth: Final Conflict aired for 5 seasons. I felt the film Serenity was a last attempt to convince the producers to give the series another chance (that whole thing with the Reavers!). And I admit, I would welcome a few more seasons (but not too many Reavers, please).

Alex

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I like the more space-oriented episodes a bit more as well. Simply taking a western story and putting tinfoil on the exterior sets seemed a bit too easy for me.

On the one hand, Serenity may feel like a retry (apparently the Miranda thing was supposed to be the second season finale reveal btw), but the final act leaves little doubt about whether this is just another Firefly story, or something beyond the usual yarn.

[Hitch 57]

Mamma Mia. Camping out at the movies is so rare for me. "You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen"....just the way I like my blondes. I didn't have this much fun since jerking off at Basic Instinct

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Good ol' Hitch.

[A24 4,338]

Boogie Nights: An extremely ambitious excercise by an extremely talented moviemaker. His later movies are better though.

Alex

[Maglorfin 196]

Jaws 2 again after quite some time. Definitely amongst those sequels which don't embarass their predecessors.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

It spends a wee bit too much time on the townspeople disbelieving Brody though.

[Neimoidian 14]

I just watched Star Trek TMP... for the first time. Listening to this great music finally with the images was like... WOW! What a great thing!

As for the movie itself, well, I wasn't too amazed by it. I don't want to exagerate, but all what this philosophical and religious talk was about, was to have sex with an alien probe with gorgeous legs... I only wonder how this scene would have worked with some Basic Instinct cues

I am looking forward to the Wrath of Khan, though. From what I know it has more dynamic pace. Of course, there is also the Horner's score and I see they got rid of the pijamas suits. Not bad.

[Marian Schedenig 8,195]

Khan is of course a... far better movie than they had done before.

[indy4 155]

It was a hell of a thing when

Spock died.

[Marian Schedenig 8,195]

Ever heard of spoiler tags?

[indy4 155]

Whoops, sorry.

Hope I didn't spoil it for you, Neimoidian.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

There Will Be Blood (****/****)

on Blu-Ray

A lot better than I remembered in the theater.

[Morlock 11]

Network. One of my favorites. Everyone's so good in this, particularly William Holden.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!!!!!

[A24 4,338]

There Will Be Blood (****/****)

on Blu-Ray

A lot better than I remembered in the theater.

That's what I like about this director.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE

I like the idea, as it seems like actual proper SF instead of endless starship battles, but it's a turgid piece of entertainment. Also, the wormhole sequence is hilarious. The effects are mostly good, and the score is obviously genius, but it bored me out of my skull. Thank god for TWOK.

[indy4 155]

I agree.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

I can see how it would bore people (and how the "womrhole" sequence could generate laughter rather than tension) but Star Trek: The Motion Picture has always been one of my favorite movies. There's just something about that impossibly big ship, man... That thing fired up my imagination when I was a kid, and it still does.

In some ways, it was the Trek movie which got closest to the heart of what Star Trek was all about, so I appreciate and enjoy it for that.

And the score. Man, what a score.

[indy4 155]

I love the original series, it is one of my favorite TV series ever created. But the films, while being good, are not even close to the brilliance of the series, IMO. And I've never seen any of the new Trek, not TV nor film.