Netflix Will Tear Us Apart

Penguin Incarnate

This is the movie thread. This is the only movie thread. All others are false prophets. All hail the movie thread.

What's going on in the news?
Avatar made a few dollars
35 Criterion Collection movies are now on Netflix Instant watch
Pooro is objectively wrong about Stanley Kubrick
The Autuers is kind of a rip-off, but it's got a lot of good movies on it (some of which are free)
And in recent news, I just saw the new Coen brothers film for two dollars. It was pretty damn good. Fuck all the haters and all the babies.

Recommendations from PI:
The Man Who Would be King
The Duelists
Dear Zachary
The Thin Red Line
One, Two, Three
Head On (Will one of you fucks watch this instead of making a retarded joke about that headache treatment commercial?)
The Naked Prey
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Spartan

the cheat

i just watched the new star trek. pretty good, but i was annoyed with that one sound they kept using.

Faricazy

i saw Rock'n'Rolla the other day

it was good but

the twist was exactly the same as Layer Cake

Muggins

HEAD ON

APPLY DIRECTLY TO YOUR TV FOR VIEWING PLEASURE

Cilla Black

Watched my District 9 blu-ray today, and somehow the movie was more tense and enjoyable the second time through than the first. It also looks extremely excellent in full HD.

HyperAquaBlast

the cheat wrote: »

i just watched the new star trek. pretty good, but i was annoyed with that one sound they kept using.

What? The sound of awesome?

AMP'd

So, Up In the Air was great

GSM

So because DVDs are being liquidated, I've been buying a ton of modestly terrible movies on the cheap.

It doesn't help that I'm still on a bit of a horror movie bend, so I've now purchased:
Ju-On
The Grudge
The Grude 2
The Ring
The Ring Two
The Rings (short films and a two documentaries)
And to add insult to injury, I got that haunted house simulator for Wii (I don't currently own a Wii).

Planning on a fear-numbing marathon someday.

Penguin Incarnate

What the fuck is the matter with you?

Muggins

GSM you are gonna be so bored

The boredest

Penguin Incarnate

Just flush twenty dollars down the toilet and save yourself twelve hours of mediocrity.

The fuck is the matter with you?

Dr.Funkenstein

The Ring is decent the rest suck

Pharezon

The Warlords

Penguin Incarnate

The Chinese are making an epic movie? What?

I am going to start spitballing a theory here:
The Chinese, as an autocratic government, are basically mirroring other autocratic governments-- Francisco's Spain especially-- in their choices for making movies. Obviously the Chinese government gives a lot of tax breaks (if not funding) to the movie industry. What they choose to make is primarily "epic" and "historical" features, ones that don't exactly lend themselves to topicality. They're fables, basically. So either they're trying to escape into the legendary past, a past which they draw on for patriotism, which everyone looks back on fondly, (like so many other countries making a grab for super-power) or they're just trying to sell action films internationally. Or both.

This is my theory.

Penguin Incarnate

Also, there's no fucking reason for a cannon to not fly back when it fires in a movie. I cannot imagine that it costs so much to hire a guy to pull a rope that such a thing becomes an impossibility.

Pharezon

Penguin Incarnate wrote: »

The Chinese are making an epic movie? What?

I am going to start spitballing a theory here:
The Chinese, as an autocratic government, are basically mirroring other autocratic governments-- Francisco's Spain especially-- in their choices for making movies. Obviously the Chinese government gives a lot of tax breaks (if not funding) to the movie industry. What they choose to make is primarily "epic" and "historical" features, ones that don't exactly lend themselves to topicality. They're fables, basically. So either they're trying to escape into the legendary past, a past which they draw on for patriotism, which everyone looks back on fondly, (like so many other countries making a grab for super-power) or they're just trying to sell action films internationally. Or both.

This is my theory.

You know too much.

Penguin Incarnate

What I'm saying is that facist Spain bares direct comparison with current communist China.

Except that the Chinese have jobs and industry.

Pharezon

ALL HAIL THE GENERALISSIMO!

Penguin Incarnate

That's why I love Del Toro so much. Because he's willing to give fascist Spain no shortage of shit for basically being ruled by one of Hitler's buddies for over thirty years.

That and he makes a real good movie, too.

GSM

Veretas wrote: »

GSM you are gonna be so bored

The boredest

So I like mocking bad movies with friends? We just had an amazing Christmas party where we watched "Starchaser" and had a great time talking over it. It helps that some people in the group have stand-up comedy experience, and one of them is a very talented vocalist who occassionally adds impromptu musical sequences.

But, yeah, maybe that's a few too many spookfilms.

AMP'd

Pharezon wrote: »

ALL HAIL THE GENERALISSIMO!

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead

Penguin Incarnate

Not dead enough.

Hamurabi

I don't know about this Warlords, and I haven't watched Red Cliff yet, but there're probably themes in both that mirror what they're trying to project.

I know Hero was all about eskewing self-righteousness for The Greater Good, but I don't think Hero was directly financed by the Chinese government.

Pharezon

AMP'd wrote: »

Pharezon wrote: »

ALL HAIL THE GENERALISSIMO!

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead

HE'S JUST WAITING TO COME BACK!

Penguin Incarnate

Hero fucking sucked.

It was the same boring story five times with different colors.

Fuck that movie.

Hamurabi

I actually liked Hero quite a bit. I saw why Tarantino put his seal of approval on it.

Faricazy

Penguin Incarnate wrote: »

That's why I love Del Toro so much. Because he's willing to give fascist Spain no shortage of shit for basically being ruled by one of Hitler's buddies for over thirty years.

That and he makes a real good movie, too.

Apparently, Spanish studios told Del Toro that the guy that ended up playing Vidal is totally wrong for the role and would not be able to pull it off, and that Del Toro doesn't get it because he is Mexican.

Penguin Incarnate

Those movies are especially interesting, because I've taken Spanish cinema and Latin American cinema and all of these actors-- who all seem perfect for their roles in Del Toro's movies-- all show up again, and it's completely weird.

But that teacher sucked.

Speaking of which, someone gave a presentation in class about Pan's Labyrinth and all they talked about is contemporary Spanish history. Apparently, completely unaware of where the man was from. It was fairly grating.

AMP'd

Penguin Incarnate wrote: »

Hero fucking sucked.

It was the same boring story five times with different colors.

Fuck that movie.

I was going to make a mean post about Rashomon here, but the difference is that one of those is not a boring movie

Faricazy

I saw Del Toro kiss a baby.

GSM

AMP'd wrote: »

Penguin Incarnate wrote: »

Hero fucking sucked.

It was the same boring story five times with different colors.

Fuck that movie.

I was going to make a mean post about Rashomon here, but the difference is that one of those is not a boring movie

Hero taught me that there was such a thing as too many fight sequences.
I don't remember any characters, beyond art direction.

Penguin Incarnate

The fight scenes weren't even any good. It was just a bunch of people floating around for ten minutes and then ping pong with a drop of water.

Hamurabi

I'm not a connoisseur or anything here, but I liked it. Especially the overall theme of sacrifice, since it's the antithesis of what pretty much every action-ey movie ever has been.

GSM

Hamurabi wrote: »

I'm not a connoisseur or anything here, but I liked it. Especially the overall theme of sacrifice, since it's the antithesis of what pretty much every action-ey movie ever has been.

Didn't work out all that well for Matrix Revolutions.

AMP'd

No, scores of action movies have involved a heroic sacrifice

Penguin Incarnate

Hero sucked because it required a knowledge of Chinese history that I'm sure many Chinese don't care about and it also simply was not an interesting drama.

Moving on, where are my epic Tartar or Cossack movies?

Who will make these for me?

AMP'd

Man, Bronson was a Tartar?

Faricazy

Well, there's Mongol. Haven't seen it yet.

BusterK

I just want to bring up the fact that I knew Sherlock Holmes was going to be great in the last thread and all I got were horse conventioneers




Also Mongol was fantastic
It was like Conan the Barbarian only real

Speed Racer

I saw Avatar last night

It was really pretty but goodness me was it ham-handed.

It's like they're planning some kind of shock and awe campaign!

Also I liked how you could tell just how dang morally torn the corporate guy was, because sometimes after approving something horrible he'd look momentarily distraught, or sometimes even turn away and sigh.

He's just so conflicted!

Penguin Incarnate

Oh yeah, Mongol.

Hey, Buster, still want to catch some flicks at the Aero?