Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Apr 4, 2016 17:13:22 GMT -5
I'm don't know that they're that comparable really. Snowblood has a clearer story, better action, and a more controlled visuals style. Tokyo Drifter I recall being crazier in general and not in a way that clicked with me. unfortunately your review is lost in the sands of time that is the old CS! Ah, but not from the archive o' Letterboxd: 3/31/2012: "As a long time enthusiast of the criterion collection, I’ve spent a great deal of time looking through the esteemed distributor’s catalogue and two of their discs that always jumped out at me were Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter. Why did these jump out at me? Because the cover art of their original release was truly awesome, pop art at its finest. When it’s come to actually watching the movies, well, that hasn’t been such a great experience. I think I watched about twenty minutes of Branded to Kill once and ended up sort of casually turning it off and thinking “eh, I’m not feeling this, maybe I’ll give it another chance some day.” Seeing its companion film, Tokyo Drifter, I’m reminded exactly why I wasn’t too thrilled to keep going the last time I gave Suzuki a chance. Seijin Suzuki was known to have had a lot of quarrels with his studio over the years because they felt his films were “incomprehensible,” and frankly I don’t blame them. Suzuki is a filmmaker that seems generally more interested in energy and audacity than traditional storytelling (or any other kind of storytelling for that matter), he’s sort of a punk rock filmmaker. I’d probably have a lot more respect for that if I thought his visuals were as interesting as he thinks they are. The film was consistently odd but not memorable odd; the action scenes were messy but not transcendently messy, the story was generally muddled and not in an intelligent way, and as far as sheer Japanese craziness goes… I’ve seen crazier. What we’re left with is just a mess of a movie that I never even made any kind of connection too. This isn’t the kind of movie I want to watch, this is the kind of movie I want Quentin Tarentino to see and then turn into something that’s actually watchable. I’m giving this movie a low score, but I don’t necessarily hate it, I’m just profoundly indifferent to it, I might go so far as to say that it’s the oddest movie to bore me. * out of Four"
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 4, 2016 17:19:13 GMT -5
I gave that to you four years ago? Holy lord.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 4, 2016 17:32:21 GMT -5
I think I watched about twenty minutes of Branded to Kill once and ended up sort of casually turning it off and thinking “eh, I’m not feeling this, maybe I’ll give it another chance some day.” The exact same thing word for word happened with me.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 5, 2016 17:24:35 GMT -5
ROUND 169
Doomsday - PG Cooper Justin - Dracula Doomsday - Jibbs
The due date for Round 168 will be Monday, April 18th, 2016. I'll double up since we have an odd number.
Enjoy.
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Justin
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Post by Justin on Apr 5, 2016 17:48:33 GMT -5
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 6, 2016 18:30:46 GMT -5
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Apr 6, 2016 21:25:37 GMT -5
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Justin
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Post by Justin on Apr 6, 2016 21:38:12 GMT -5
I'll go with The Life of Oharu.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Apr 8, 2016 13:05:10 GMT -5
Better late than never. Sorry, I've kind of had a hectic last month.
Garden State (2004)
A genre that seemed to really gain traction around the mid-2000's was the quirky indie rom com, with Garden State being one of the first. Written, directed by and starring Zach Braff, this has all the makings of this kind of film...and yet, most of it just didn't click for me. To be fair, I can recognize the concerted efforts of Braff in particular to make something worthwhile, but maybe because I've either seen enough of this genre by now or it has a slight perfunctory feel to it all, but I just couldn't get into the story. Most of the time, Garden State played out like going down a checklist of all the typical indie rom com tropes, characters and quirks without much of an effort to really make me care about any of it. The performances I'd call uniformly solid all around, namely Zach Braff and Natalie Portman -- who admittedly have some decent chemistry -- but the script felt like it was going through the motions to me. Some scenes that really stood out to me in that regard were the ones where Braff's character hangs out with his childhood friends who are now all stoners and spend the night getting high, after which we see them try to wax poetic or what-have-you in their own way while highlighting their quirks. I certainly wanted to like Garden State, but it never rose above mediocrity.
**/****
Reviews of Animal Kingdom and Fruitvale Station are also forthcoming.
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Post by Hollywood on Apr 9, 2016 11:42:33 GMT -5
Cold Souls
Cold Souls is well directed and well acted. When I say well acted I mean Paul Giamatti haha. Anyways there's no question that Paul Giamatti is an exceptionally fine actor, however it dragged in its depressing story. It was entertaining throughout the film but the one thing that really annoyed me was the ending. It made you want this film to be longer but at the same time you get bored of the soul tracking scenes and just stand up and stretch. The film gets a little draggy and derivative at times but the overall film is pretty decent. I enjoy movies like this, which play with the logical consequences of an idea and movie stands out since is a unique story. But the humor for the movie never got high. Was only mid line laughter. But does stretch and drag some at points. Paul is the reason it save's this movie slightly. There is a interesting part of the story where Paul is experiencing things anew through his replacement soul, from a Russian factory worker, but it never reaches the emotional peak that Paul without a soul reaches through comedy. But i do like that it tried through the black market which made it a little more interesting but they didnt take too much advantage in that story and could of done little more with that.
***/*****
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 11, 2016 18:58:30 GMT -5
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 11, 2016 19:30:36 GMT -5
Uggggggh, like I've seen your personal Citizen Kane since the last time I strangled up some movies.
Alright, let's do this!!! *does stuff*
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 11, 2016 19:41:39 GMT -5
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 11, 2016 19:47:03 GMT -5
I'll go with Get Carter.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 11, 2016 19:47:58 GMT -5
I'll do They Live!
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 11, 2016 19:49:14 GMT -5
Oo, fun.
Just remember, the line was in this before Duke Nukem!
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 11, 2016 19:55:18 GMT -5
I never played Duke Nukem, it was rated M and my parents got me Crash Bandicoot instead.
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Justin
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Post by Justin on Apr 11, 2016 21:17:15 GMT -5
They Live is awesome.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 14, 2016 18:48:01 GMT -5
They Live
'Life's a bitch, and she's back in heat!'
Is it possible to like quotes from a movie more than the movie itself? Because They Live is full of them, most memorably 'I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubble gum.'
Rowdy Roddy Piper stars as a drifter (I don't think they refer to him by name) who discovers that society is really ruled by a secret alien race disguised as humans and control us via our televisions. The only way he is able to spot them is by putting on a special pair of sunglasses that reveals who the aliens really are and shows him the subliminal messages that are spread around city, messages like 'OBEY' which I assume is where the popular Andre the Giant sticker swiped its slogan. Piper is then a man on a mission; to bring down the aliens who secretly rule our society and expose them to the people who are unaware of their existence.
They Live is a fun concept and is more of an action/horror comedy than other Carpenter movies that came earlier like Halloween or The Thing. For me however it didn't quite seem to flow as well as it wanted. At times it's a slow, ploddy movie and others it almost sails past major points or developments. Characters act with little motivation or thought. While it's cool to see Piper blow aliens away and fight Keith David in a comedically overlong fistfight, they don't seem to add a lot to the movie as a whole.
I get what this movie was trying to do and I think it worked here and there but for me it just didn't create a very engaging film. I'm not a very big John Carpenter fan but I do admire a lot of his work however this doesn't sit as high on my list as some of his others. Still, there are a lot of really cool and really funny lines.
C+ so says Doomsday
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 14, 2016 18:57:38 GMT -5
Ahh, that's too bad.
Oh man, I forgot about the really long fist fight. That was absurd.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 14, 2016 20:58:35 GMT -5
That was the point I realized it was tongue in cheek. I didn't 'dislike' it, I just didn't love it.
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Justin
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Post by Justin on Apr 23, 2016 21:27:05 GMT -5
The Life of Oharu (1952)
I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It's a simple story concerning a woman--obviously named Oharu, who is played by the magnificent Kinuyo Tanaka--whose life becomes increasingly difficult from day to day. Drifting from her job as a courtesan to marrying a retailer of fans, she attempts to overcome obstacle after obstacle. It's never easy for her. And this relentlessly bleak plotting is part of the problem I had with the film. It begins to feel a little contrived when Mizoguchi seems to throw everything he can into the story in order to provoke an emotional response. For a great director like Mizoguchi, this is a missed opportunity. Even so, it's a film with a strong message that still resonates today.
Rating: B
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 26, 2016 18:58:59 GMT -5
Get Carter (1971)I figured this would be a French Connection-esque, gritty, anti-hero type movie of the early 70s, but it didn't really prepare me for this strange movie. Carter is an interesting character because he's not very likeable. Most anti-heroes show this quality in some way, but usually in some fun ironic way. Jack Carter (Michael Caine), is just this dickish guy looking for revenge. It's not obvious at first, but eventually he's throwing people from roofs and actually hitting innocent bystanders. That's a first for me. There is NEVER collateral damage from the "good guy." Well played. But besides this interesting aspect of the film, I couldn't really get into it. Like I said, it's strange. It feels disjointed and aimless, probably by choice. But there were some scenes I really enjoyed. **.5/****Big spoiler: Wow, I put this on my "Top 25 Most Memorable Death Scenes in Film" list. Good thing I only remembered that about 2 seconds before it happened.
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Doomsday
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Post by Doomsday on Apr 26, 2016 19:22:11 GMT -5
Just curious, how did you put it on a memorable death scenes list if you hadn't seen it?
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Jibbs
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Post by Jibbs on Apr 26, 2016 19:58:42 GMT -5
I googled lists, researched the ones I wasn't familiar with. Rarely on lists did I put stuff I hadn't watched, but mostly I tried to make them complete.
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