The Film thread

[FlyingMonkey]

anyway I've been watching a lot of ****** movies. The only one that was somewhat interesting was Mr. Nobody.


completed in 2009 but just recently been shown in select theaters in US. Worth a watch.

I saw it about 3 years ago, if I remember right. I thought it was entertaining in parts, but also a huge (and quite derivative) mess.

 

[hoodyear]

Apparently this was released this past weekend and tanked bad. Other good S.Korean movies:

Mother
I Saw the Devil
Save the Green Planet

I want desperately to see I Saw the Devil but I have a weak stomach for gore

 

[diniro]

Wasn't The Chaser gory? It's been awhile. I Saw the Devil is pretty brutal but if you can handle Oldboy's

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

tongue scene

I don't think you'll have a problem.

 

[hoodyear]

The Chaser was disturbing, but really not gory. And
wasn't the tongue just out of frame when he cut it?
That's the only reason I was able to handle it.

I had heard ISTD was on another level. Maybe I'll try it when I'm feeling brave.

 

[diniro]

Wow you're right. I just searched that scene again on youtube. I guess I replaced the actual scene with one I imagined in my head, and it was a lot more graphic. That's crazy.

 

[BigC222]

I thought I Saw the Devil wasn't too scary as it felt more of an action/thriller movie than anything. The protagonist basically spent the whole movie f*cking up the killer in a cat-and-mouse game.

I found the most disturbing part to be some of the minor characters themselves, with their psychopath personalities and behaviours. I think my favourite part was when the antagonist hitch hiked the taxi and realized the driver and passenger weren't who they were supposed to be...

 

[Lorcan7]

I wanna see this. Looks fascinating:


article: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/11/vermeer-secret-tool-mirrors-lenses

Sounds like an awesome guy. Thanks, diniro. Both the movie and Hockney's book look excellent.

Pretty awesome that he went to such lengths to recreate the room, and use the second mirror to flip the image from the camera obscura. However,

I'm a bit of a skeptic. Vermeer probably did play around with optics (though there is no documentary evidence) but alongside traditional methods. There's physical evidence that Vermeer used one of the standard artist's techniques of the day - ie. sticking a pin with a piece of string attached into the vanishing point, and moving around the string to create the orthogonal lines. The string is coated with chalk, holding the string taut and letting it snap against the canvas leaves a chalk line which marks out the perspective. In 13 of Vermeers paintings a pinhole has been found, either plainly visible, or shown in the ground layer with x-ray examination.

Hockney's claims about many other artists are much more tenuous (the early Netherlandish paintings in particular) and his book is basically twaddle. One fairly vitriolic review. I'd like to see the 'Tim's Vermeer' documentary though!

Most interesting film I've seen recently would be Herzog's Nosferatu.

The scenes showing the breakdown of society from plague (which Dracula brings with him to the picturesque German town) are surreal and awesome. Kinski does a kind of lonely and pathetic take on Dracula but is suitably intense and creepy. The guy who plays Harker was a bit wooden and rubbish though. Watched it in German with English subs. Herzog did a version with every scene filmed in English but it wasn't the actors' first language, and it really shows from the clips I've seen.

 

[Donut]

Watched Goldfinger last night and really enjoyed it. I liked the fight scene between Oddjob and Bond. This was the first of the older Bond flicks I've seen, so can anyone chime in on their other favorites?

 

[noob in 89]

Anything with Sean Connery is going to be a safe bet, but if you're feeling adventurous, you can watch Thunderball followed by Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball also starring Connery.

 

[GoldenTribe]

Almost all the old Bonds are great (except Live and Let Die, which is horrid).

Goldfinger is certainly a candidate for the best, and it's certainly the first truly archetypal Bond, but From Russia With Love and The Spy Who Loved Me are both great in the same vein (combining far-out spy adventure with serious action-thriller and a romantic element that goes beyond the superficial).

Anything with Sean Connery is going to be a safe bet

Particularly Zardoz (1974) and Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

 

[Biggskip]



Watched Goldfinger last night and really enjoyed it. I liked the fight scene between Oddjob and Bond. This was the first of the older Bond flicks I've seen, so can anyone chime in on their other favorites?

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Anything with Sean Connery is going to be a safe bet, but if you're feeling adventurous, you can watch Thunderball followed by Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball also starring Connery.

Almost all the old Bonds are great (except Live and Let Die, which is horrid).

Goldfinger is certainly a candidate for the best, and it's certainly the first truly archetypal Bond, but From Russia With Love and The Spy Who Loved Me are both great in the same vein (combining far-out spy adventure with serious action-thriller and a romantic element that goes beyond the superficial).
Particularly Zardoz (1974) and Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

As somebody who went to college with a Bond aficionado I got quite an education during the first two weeks of every December when TNN (as it was called in those days) would run "The 14 Days of 007". First of all, Roger Moore was a dolt, and the only remotely good Bond films he ever made were Live and Let Die (which is pretty good) and The Man with the Golden Gun. Moonraker and View to a Kill are just the worst and I wouldn't invest any energy in watching them.

As for Connery, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and You Only Live Twice (aside from the silly nonsense where he becomes Japanese) are my personal favorites.

Both of the Dalton ones are pretty good, but they get buried because he only made two and they were made at a time where the franchise had lost its luster.

Next up is Pierce Brosnan. The first three are all pretty good. Die another Day is one of the all-time worsts and killed the franchise for a few years.

All three of the Daniel Craig ones are pretty good, both for hitting all the major items on the Bond Film Checklist and as standalone films. Also Eva Green is bestest Bond girl ever.

Which bring us to Mr. George Lazenby. George had big shoes fills to fill. He only made one film (the first film after Connery had left the franchise) and then left the franchise because he was afraid of getting typecast (oh, the irony). To many Bond enthusiasts, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is the best Bond film. It's probably my favorite of all of the pre-Craig films.

 

[ac_slater]

Biggskip pretty much hit all the major ones. He's right about Roger Moore. Live and Let Die and Golden Gun were great. That's all. Moonraker was a novelty bond. You love it or hate it.

Obviously almost all of the Connery films are great. Even his older ones. He was going grey in the last one but he just exuded that Bond persona.

I call Lazenby the Connery remix because he kept it classic but did his own thing. Timothy Dalton was a bit of a cult favorite. He got dealt a bad hand because nobody was big on Bond in the 80's. Still there are some people who said he was one of the best. I'm not a huge fan.

Pierce Brosnan to me is my favorite, because he combined the classic Bond (cocky and clean cut) with the more modern bond (physical and badass). Craig is great and all, but he will never be able to look as clean cut and deliver one liners as well as Brosnan or Connery. Obviously Craig is a more believable or realistic Bond if you're into that. Goldeneye remains my favorite film with Skyfall being a close second.

 

[Donut]

Thanks for the input guys. Honestly I've seen all the Brosnan movies and the only one I liked was Goldeneye.

From Craig, I liked Casino Royale and Skyfall (both of which were excellent). Mads Mikkelsen and Javier Bardem played the villains really well.

 

[GoldenTribe]

Wasn't Lazenby at least to some extent pressured out because audiences didn't like him? He made a strong debut in my opinion, though I like all the Bond actors. Connery and Brosnan would be my picks, followed by Lazenby, then Dalton/Craig. Certainly OHMSS is better in every respect than a lot of what followed in ensuing decades ...

Live and Let Die, for example, is a series of blaxploitation cliches dressed up as a 007 movie with nothing at stake except heroin distribution (putting it in the same small-time "who cares" plot category as Quantum's throwaway bullshit about foreign water supply). It's still based on a book, but I don't know that's relevant to my objection. Jane Seymour is decent. Personally, I don't mind the crocodile scene, but it seems to be deeply objectionable to a lot of people. The whole thing is to the 1970s what Die Another Day was to the 2000s: parody-level overkill. Not that Moonraker wasn't, obviously, but that's already been covered repeatedly and it's overkill in a different direction.

EDIT: "Live and Let Die" is one of the great Bond songs, though.

In my recollection Quantum of Solace has very little going for it either as a standalone film or as a Bond film, though I haven't rewatched it lately. I've never heard anyone say a good word about it before, and it's usually "the bad one" (out of the recent releases) when people refer to it. Skyfall is much better but the whole third act is as stupid as they could possibly have written it.

Charlotte Rampling would have been a great Bond girl (or henchwoman), I have always thought.

Thanks for the input guys. Honestly I've seen all the Brosnan movies and the only one I liked was Goldeneye.

What rubbed you the wrong way about The World Is Not Enough?

 

[RegisDB9]

Biggskip pretty much covered all the bases yet...

As a huge Bond fan I cannot believe no one has said Dr. No yet

Casino Royale overtook Goldeneye as my favorite within the hour and I loved its arc with Quantum of Solace which I never understood the hate it received

The Man with the Golden Gun is sometimes underrated also, this movie had one of the best stunts ever performed on any bond movie on one take no less

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]



The stories of Fleming, Lazenby, Broccoli, UA, Connery, et al can be all be understood in this documentary which I highly recommend if you would like to know more about Bond. Only flaw is Connery never comments