Nomis wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2020, 7:02 am

Leviathan: Make it Alien, but underwater. lol
tbh it was trashy fun, it's not an absolute drought like Sphere but it really is incredibly similar to Alien. Still nice that Stan Winston worked on this though.

Conan the Destroyer: Somehow more entertaining than Conan the Barbarian? But not better lol, I can see why Schwarzenegger wants to ignore this one when it comes to another Conan sequel lol. It's a pity they never made another in the 90s.
Tbh I'm curious to see the 2011 remake of the first Conan. They say it's a bore and anything but fun but Momoa tho

Infernal Affairs: I really liked this. It's just such a good premise/story. They deftly handle the two leads' character development. I also really like Tony Leung's work, he's such a great actor.
This film deserves a much better class of blu-ray btw, it's one of the ugliest looking blu-rays ever lol. It needs a 4K remaster like yesterday!
Scorsese made a great remake with The Departed. I wonder if the Cantonese sequels are any good? Anybody here seen them?

The sequel to Internal Affaires is great.

Young Frankenstein:
"I ain't got no body and nobody cares for me, yaketata,yaketata-ha!"

9/10

viridiana rules

this and ida would make a helluva double feature


-Vader

Havoc1st wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2020, 8:42 pm

Nomis wrote: ↑

April 2nd, 2020, 11:15 am

alright, didn't know the first sequel was a prequel but that seems a bit redundant given what happens in Infernal Affairs?

I wouldn't really say it's redundant since by the end of the movie it implies why certain characters' relationship are the way they are in the first movie. It also expanded on Eric Tsang's character (one of the good things about the second movie). It's also a completely different kind of movie tonally. So be prepared for that.

aight

edit:

Metropolis (2001): A bit standard story, but it's visually very pleasing. Loved the weird character designs.

Judge Dredd: Oh my god, been wanting to watch this for ages but just delete it from my brain pls lololol, this is just bad. I mean, Diane Lane and Max von Sydow try their best but even they sometimes struggle with their lines. And I say sometimes! Because apart from that they're the only good things about this film. Stallone and Assante hamp it up like never before, holy shit. Schneider tries his best with his comedy-relief but it just doesn't stick. I mean at least it's also a good blu-ray but this largely looks just comic and plain fake and it's just bad.

Underwater: It starts off pretty good and most of the second act is actually quite nice and dare I say exciting. It's beautifully made, the cast is good but then it goes into monster territory...
I mean it's a bit funny though, only days ago I watched Leviathan and it's a nice juxtaposition to see a monster/underwater film from 1989 and one from 2020.

Corpus Christi: This was beautiful. Bielenia's performance is impressive, he not only has an angelic looking face which suits the part incredibly well, but he's also shown some serious range. I loved how thought-provoking this film was, I was a bit afraid it would be melodramatic or too on the nose but it was none of that. This is a great story of redemption. Well deserved Oscar nomination too.

Nausicaa (Miyazaki)
It so happened that a film about an apocalyptic future where humanity is about to be destroyed due to its misunderstanding of its environment was the right film to watch in the middle of the quarantine. Nausicaa is such an inspiring character.
After Nausicaa, Totoro and Castle in the Sky, I'm now moving towards more recent Miyazaki (90' and 00').

I watched so much good kino.

Cover Girl

Really fun musical. Simple story but Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly are so sincere that you don't really care if it's a story you have seen before. Worth noting: the sequence where all the covergirls are doing their thing, today's models wish they could serve like that.

The Big Heat

This was a rewatch but I loved it even more. Also noticed the Three Little Kittens story Bannion's daughter wants to hear all the time parallels some kittens in the movie who actually do lose their mitten.

For a German, Fritz Lang understands American blind justice at all costs better than most Americans. I also remember Lang's Human Desire discussing the worst American traits in a really great way too lol.

Recess School's Out

An old childhood classic. The soundtrack is banging and there's even an Easy Rider reference in it.

The Lady From Shanghai

I love how when Welled does closeups of himself and other dudes they look ugly and sweaty af and they get the worst lighting. But then when he does a close up on Ms. Hayworth in the same scenes, she has impeccable skin, great lighting, and looks ready to seduce you. You can really tell how much Welles loved Hayworth by the way he frames her. In the beach scenes it really doesn't make sense for Hayworth to be lighted like that. With any other director I'd clown it but with Welles, this man was in love okay?

It's a convoluted plot but man I loved the twist. And that mirror scene. The directors are just not serving like that anymore.

Spellbound

I too would put my career on the line to help Gregory Peck.

Ingrid Bergman plays a motherfucking doctor in this but she goes through so much casual sexism and misogyny but she always comes out on top.

As someone who took a psych class in college, it was pretty easy to follow the psychology aspect and it reminded me of discussions from college. The dream sequences that were designed by Salvador Dali were a delight.

This is one of the better Hitchcock's.

Niagara (1953)
Marilyn Monroe is laying very much against type in this rather intriguing and suspenseful thriller/film noir. The twists the story takes are rather well-executed. If I had to point to a flaw it's the performance of Max Showalter whose line delivery somehow takes me out of the experience a lot because he feels like one of the few actors playing a character rather than being a character when I watched the film. The last setpiece of the film is nail-biting and really intense and then leads into an inevitability and sadness.
8.5/10

The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A lot of things presented in this film have been parodied so much that the film did not wow me as much as it could have I think. However, Humphrey Bogart plays a great morally questionable detective and the dialogue is intelligent and witty, especially in the last third when the stakes are clear and much of it is just a conversation between multiple characters who have been scheming and lying throughout the entire film so any moment of truth becomes delicious to analyse.
8/10

The Naked Kiss (1964)
I do not recall there being many films of this type being made at the time this film came out. It is also historically interesting, given how many people perceive prostitution nowadays and how attitudes have/have not changed towards it. The story is not its strongest part but the main character and central performance lift up what could very easily be a very melodramatic tale. The end is quite bittersweet in a certain way but the beginning is definitely explosive and in-your-face.
8/10

The Innocents (1961)
Greatest gothic ghost story/haunted house story ever put to film and I'll put the Haunting in there as point of comparison as well. The film is not only gorgeously shot, the costumes are exquisite and the performances mesmerising all around but the deep sense of growing anxiety and fear permeates the entire story, getting the viewer there from an initially only slight sense of unease. Whether or not one comes down one way or another in terms of the central question that the narrative poses is not relevant imo because there are various elements that could support any one interpretation. Rather, the situation presented to us is rather complex, with seemingly no good solution available to the characters. This is ambiguity done right and it is rare to find a film like this nowadays. When you look at films like House on haunted Hill there is an element of pulp to them that keeps you somewhat at a distance. Not so here because the main character's (unnamed in the source material) interpretation of events does not appear questionable initially but ultimately it is us who get to choose.
9.5/10

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
A tale of a man being trapped in more ways than one but one leaves him with considerably more freedom but also much more risks than the others. I found Gloria Swanson's character rather pathetic (that is to say deserving of pity and empathy), given her isolation and melancholy but then again it is also true that her character is the kind of person who only looks inwards and backward, all while presenting a very much inflated sense of self, which contrasts with the moments she tries to harm herself. Reality is not allowed in Hollywood cinema is what I took away from it and when the reality of who Norma Desmond is clashes with what the industry values it is sad to see. In a way I am reminded of 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' more than anything. William Holden is good at playing a man who creates his own isolation in his own way. I am usually not a fan of narration as a story-telling device but it works ok here. The last shot of the film is terrifying and yet pitiful for a number of reasons.
9/10

Artemis wrote: ↑

April 5th, 2020, 9:18 pm

I watched so much good kino.

Cover Girl

Really fun musical. Simple story but Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly are so sincere that you don't really care if it's a story you have seen before. Worth noting: the sequence where all the covergirls are doing their thing, today's models wish they could serve like that.

The Big Heat

This was a rewatch but I loved it even more. Also noticed the Three Little Kittens story Bannion's daughter wants to hear all the time parallels some kittens in the movie who actually do lose their mitten.

For a German, Fritz Lang understands American blind justice at all costs better than most Americans. I also remember Lang's Human Desire discussing the worst American traits in a really great way too lol.

Recess School's Out

An old childhood classic. The soundtrack is banging and there's even an Easy Rider reference in it.

The Lady From Shanghai

I love how when Welled does closeups of himself and other dudes they look ugly and sweaty af and they get the worst lighting. But then when he does a close up on Ms. Hayworth in the same scenes, she has impeccable skin, great lighting, and looks ready to seduce you. You can really tell how much Welles loved Hayworth by the way he frames her. In the beach scenes it really doesn't make sense for Hayworth to be lighted like that. With any other director I'd clown it but with Welles, this man was in love okay?

It's a convoluted plot but man I loved the twist. And that mirror scene. The directors are just not serving like that anymore.

Spellbound

I too would put my career on the line to help Gregory Peck.

Ingrid Bergman plays a motherfucking doctor in this but she goes through so much casual sexism and misogyny

one old motherfucker straight up kisses her and it's so uncomfortable

but she always comes out on top.

As someone who took a psych class in college, it was pretty easy to follow the psychology aspect and it reminded me of discussions from college. The dream sequences that were designed by Salvador Dali were a delight.

This is one of the better Hitchcock's.

I love The Lady from Shanghai

also the way Hayworth was portrayed on screen, spot on lol

I think that film is definitely amongst my favourite noirs

All that Heaven Allows

If my mom was getting dick from Rock Hudson I'd throw her a party. The kids in this movie were so mean to their mom omg

I keep seeing all these binges of classic movies but zero yi yi


-Vader