Ebert Gave This Movie Reviews Thread 3 of 4 Stars!

[Reply #600 on:]

The Lives of Others

wtf, why is the 50th on IMDB, this was boring, nothing happened, it was boring and poltical and blah blah, 50!?

Doesn't the title alone ring alarm bells in your head that it's not going to be a very interesting film?

I thought it was pretty good, maybe it was just too complicated for Books. As for the title, I think the original sounds better. Das Leben der Anderen

[Reply #601 on:]

Toy Story 3

The ending was really sad, too bad 80% of the story was them running away from the day care.

B-

[Reply #602 on:]

Toy Story 3

The ending was really sad, too bad 80% of the story was them running away from the day care.

B-

But...it was so good. I loved it.

[Reply #603 on:]

Up

What a fantastic movie. Probably the best Pixar movie to date. I was seriously impressed at how mature this movie was, while still being massively entertaining.

A-

A Serious Man

Heh, this was a weird movie. I could go on trying to figure out the meaning of it all, but honestly, I didn't get a slightest bit of it. But it was extremely well acted, and very, very funny, so:

B

P.S.: My Jewish dad absolutely loved it.

[Reply #604 on:]

Up

What a fantastic movie. Probably the best Pixar movie to date. I was seriously impressed at how mature this movie was, while still being massively entertaining.

A-

I loved that film! But why does every animated film nowadays have to have a fight mid-air in planes? It almost wrecked it for me.

[Reply #605 on:]

A Serious Man

... But it was extremely ... very, very funny, so:

I'm struggling with this one. Can you tell me just one bit that was funny? A single line or scene which could be considered comedic? I know that it was promoted as a comedy, but I... I don't know which part I was supposed to have laughed at.

I did chuckle a little when that woman stabbed the guy in the strange and completely-unrelated-to-the-rest-of-the-movie prologue, but I always laugh at violence, so that probably doesn't count.

[Reply #606 on:]

Yeah, it was fantastic and I'd give it 10/10, but it really wasn't funny. I don't get people calling it funny.

[Reply #607 on:]

Coldy, Books, I think the problem isn't that there wasn't anything comedic in the film, but just that different people have different senses of humor. I know, it's a hard concept to grasp, but try.

I found the movie very funny, often in a subtle dry way, but nonetheless. I would have to say the funniest parts of the movie were when Larry went to see the rabbis, and each one was of absolutely no help. "Look at that parking lot" was hilarious, and the whole anecdote about the goy's teeth that ended up having no meaning was also hilarious. "The message in the teeth? Don't know. Helping others? Couldn't hurt." And the older rabbi quoting Jefferson Airplane to the boy after his bar mitzvah was great.
And then the end was possibly the funniest part, to me. Things are KINDA starting to go okay for him, and then he changes the grade and BAM! Cancer and a tornado. It was like the world going FUCK YOU, DUDE!
And Sy Ableman was funny in that creepy wtf you're a moron way.

Half of the comedy was Larry's awkward interactions with other people, who seemed oblivious to reality and completely without common sense. The other half of the comedy was the black humor, seeing one thing after another go wrong for him.

If you didn't find those parts funny, alright, like I said, different senses of humor. Not a bad thing.

Also, about the prologue. If I had to take a stab at it (see what I did there? okay sorry), I would say it was a metaphor for disaster being at the door. No matter what you do, you can't escape a curse. And Larry was definitely cursed.

[Reply #608 on:]

Cool Hand Luke
Was George Kennedy doing an African American accent or what? It seemed like that stereotypical accent, only he's a white dude... He was good though.

I see a few similarities in The Shawshank Redemption to this, fighting The Man and all, but it's weird seeing a old prison movie where all the guys stay in one room and there's no rapings or shankings and guys settle fights with rather gentlemanly fisticuffs, and have fun gambling on egg eating competitions...
It also seems like it was shot in hell since everyone's sweating buckets all the time.

Also young Dennis Hopper was supposedly in it and I completely missed him but I did spot a young Joe Don Baker who's been in a few things, weird.
It was ok but I didn't love it.
I'll tell ya who the real The Man is, that girl washing the car in front of a chain gang, that's right The Man is a woman! Grrrr!

B-

[Reply #609 on:]

Shrek Forever After

I'm a fan of all the shrek movies, this was definately the worst, though still fairly enjoyable as far as comedy goes. It has some moments, but the savior of the entire thing is Puss in Boots when he's fat. There's just something seriously cute and hilariously funny about an overweight ginger cat.

Some good one-liners, and a fairly nice story that can make you go "Awww" but nothing spectacular. It could have been way better though. The sprogs don't feature much in it either, so that's a plus as well. It's something to watch if you don't want anything serious, I'd still stick with the first two though, as far as the movies go.

Overall...

C+

[Reply #610 on:]

I found the movie very funny, often in a subtle dry way

You know, a way where it's not funny at all, but you laugh anyway because it says "comedy" on the DVD cover.

Larry went to see the rabbis, and each one was of absolutely no help.

Not funny. That's just what I would expect in the real world. Spiritual leaders with nothing to offer but nonsensical rhetoric that does not apply and helps nobody. That's not comedy - it's an observation of the total uselessness of religion. Not a joke - absolutely true.

And then the end was possibly the funniest part, to me. Things are KINDA starting to go okay for him, and then he changes the grade and BAM! Cancer and a tornado. It was like the world going FUCK YOU, DUDE!

I laugh when children hurt themselves, and not even I think cancer is amusing. The ending, as you described it, was just frustrating. That's all.

black humor, seeing one thing after another go wrong for him.

In the structure of a story, conflict is most often provided by something "going wrong" for the main character. This is not comedy, especially not when those things "going wrong" are fairly common real-world problems; not funny things, just unpleasant things. A story's appeal is supposed to be in an escalation and ultimate resolution to those problems. This part is absent from the film. Kind of... essential component to competent storytelling just... left out.

If you didn't find those parts funny, alright, like I said, different senses of humor.

No... no I'm really not sure that's the case. I think it's more likely that folk, being told by all those fancy self-indulgent critics how good this movie is, were resolved to enjoy it by means of self-delusion so that they could think themselves at least as intelligent as said critics.

The rub is that those critics were doing the same thing, hoping to present themselves as being at least as intelligent as the film-makers.

While the film-makers, understanding how much all those people want to feel smart, knew that they could make any nonsensical pointless piece of shit, present it as high-art, and the fools would all eat it up - forcing themselves to enjoy it through any mental acrobatics necessary. Thusly, one takes advantage of the desire to be seen as an intellectual.

Also, about the prologue. ....I would say it was a metaphor for disaster being at the door. No matter what you do, you can't escape a curse. And Larry was definitely cursed.

Prime example. Right there. Oh, it's a metaphor, is it? Those characters bear no apparent relationship to any of the main characters or events in the film and are never referenced again. There is nothing in the movie to tie that episode in with anything else. It makes no sense whatsoever. It is therefore non-sense. Nonsense. You know it is, but you'll desperately scramble to apply meaning to it because someone told you that the film is intellectual and you're frightened that if you don't "understand" then that will mean you aren't smart. Not true - there is nothing to understand. It is a film about nothing, and by applying meaning to meaningless nothingness, you actually show yourself to be less intelligent, not more.

[Reply #611 on:]

You realize you're mocking me for saying I liked a movie, right? Not for saying you should like it, in fact I said the opposite, I implied we had different tastes. But no, you can't accept that, I must be delusional, I must be tricking myself into thinking I liked the film to pretend that I'm intellectual. I'm doing nothing of the sort. I didn't think the movie was smart, or meaningful, or anything. It simply entertained me, and I accept that it may not entertain others. I never tried to defend the film, I simply answered a question you asked, told you what I happened to find funny about the film.

Look at what you're doing. You're railing me for saying I liked a movie. I didn't tell you you were wrong for NOT liking it. But you're telling me what I must be thinking, what my motivations for liking the film must be. In fact, you're saying that I didn't actually like it, that I must be pretending to. How pretentious is that? You're the one who's delusional, if you think you KNOW what I must be thinking and feeling. You're the one who's trying to look intellectual by insulting everybody who liked a film you thought was overrated.

Get over yourself.


Anyway:

Toy Story 3

Wow. Just wow. That was wonderful.

A+

P.S.: Can I ask...what exactly was sad about the end of this movie? (By the way, answer in spoiler tags, heh.) It was beautiful, sure...but beautiful =/= sad.

[Reply #612 on:]

You realize you're mocking me for saying I liked a movie, right?

No, I'm "railing" against the culture of false intellectualism I feel is represented by films like this one. Insulting you was merely a byproduct of that and not really the objective (not that I really care either way).

[Reply #613 on:]

How to Train Your Dragon DVD screener is out! I'll watch it tonight

[Reply #614 on:]

I was shocked how good that movie was.

[Reply #615 on:]

I watched 4 movies over the weekend. One on Saturday night and 3 on Sunday (it was Japanese International Film fest week)

Toy Story 3
Had to agree with Josh. It was awesome!

A+

5 Centimeters Per Second (Anime)
The animation was great and I like the direction of the story. It's basically about unrequited love.

A-

NORIBEN-The Recipe of Fortune
This is such a lovely story about a woman trying make a living selling Noriben (a type of bento but it's known for being a cheaper choice of bento yet tasty)

B-
The downside of the movie is that the organizers fuck things up by playing the movie mid-way. So I have to watch the middle part first and then watch the front after the movie ended. WTF?

One Million Yen Girl
I expected this to be a sappy, emotional story but it turned out to be such a lovely story about a young girl dealing with her life.

A

[Reply #616 on:]

Yojimbo
Toshirô Mifune plays a badass samurai who wanders into a town where two fighting gangs are making the local coffin maker busy and rich, so he goes about trying to create a little bit of harmony and order, more on that below.
Actually the gangs and their leaders are pretty much pussies, half are stupid cowards (especially "Unibrow Pig" as I call him) and there's an evil guy with a gun and a big huge fella in one gang, so I don't know how those guys didn't win already.

So the samurai sets the two gangs against each other and they start to thin each other out, and he helps a family escape and stuff, but in the end he kills the whole lot and there's two guys left (coffin maker and barman) in a wrecked town... wtf samurai dude? WTF!
It's still a Kurosawa film though so it's great for being made in 1961 despite the weird soundtrack and occasional weird acting.

A-

[Reply #617 on:]

Yojimbo was remade into "Last Man Standing" with Bruce Willis; also, I think one of the Clint Eastwood Segio Leone films was based on it as well.  Yojimbo is still far superior.  I had heard that it was going to be remade with Ken Takakura (the Japanese Clint Eastwood, who's a great actor), but don't know if it's going through or not.

[Reply #618 on:]

I really want to see Toy Story 3!

[Reply #619 on:]

Get Him to the Greek
I don't know if I expected anything with this movie, which probably worked in its favour, since I did enjoy it. It had those usual "one of those movies.." moments, but it also had those giggly moments, and I like giggling. I think my favourite part was the text message being read:
"Where the fuck are you?
I'm gonna kill you.
Smiley face"

Oh, and the whole furry wall thing. Hah. I want a furry wall.

7/10

[Reply #620 on:]

Yojimbo was remade into "Last Man Standing" with Bruce Willis; also, I think one of the Clint Eastwood Segio Leone films was based on it as well.  Yojimbo is still far superior.  I had heard that it was going to be remade with Ken Takakura (the Japanese Clint Eastwood, who's a great actor), but don't know if it's going through or not.

A Fistful of Dollars was the Leone one, just read Verns review of all 3 remakes last night after watching, hurr.

[Reply #621 on:]

The Wild

Worse CGI movie ever! I wish all the animals in that movie would die! Fail!

F

[Reply #622 on:]

Toy Story 3

It made me feel like a kid again, I laughed, I cried, I yelled at certain wrongdoings of strawberry scented characters, and loved every minute of it.

A+

[Reply #623 on:]

Toy Story 3

Wow, what a ride. It starts you off with a nice bit of happiness and nostaliga, sucks you in and leaves you glued to your seat. If you're a fan of the first two, then this one will live up to what you're expecting out of the franchise. The film has absolutely gorgeous graphics. You can really tell how far Pixar has come since 1995. The happiness you experience shalln't last for long, as the film throws you into a mosh pit of sadness, anger and fear. The last thirty minutes or so will get to ya even if you never admit it, unless you're a heartless jerkwad. Fantastic end to the trilogy of films.

A+

[Reply #624 on:]

Titanic is one of my favourite movies! Wonderful acting, totally believable and sad as well. I think it deserved highest-grossing movie more than Avatar.
This is Cameron's magnum-opus right here.
A+

[Reply #625 on:]

Yay! I agree with Future Shock! Titanic is fantastic, I don't care what all the haters say, they're idiots.

[Reply #626 on:]

Yeah, I really don't see why the hive mind consensus is that it was a bad film. I thought it was rather good.

[Reply #627 on:]

For me the movie came in two discs, so it was in two parts. I put in the second disc by accident, and pretty soon I realized I was watching the end of the movie, then I watched the first bits.

[Reply #628 on:]

...how the hell did you not realize that in the first 3 seconds?...in the menu!?

[Reply #629 on:]

I thought it'd go to a flashback or something... I WUZ WRONG! 

[Reply #630 on:]

....Titanic....is....one of the worst movies....ever...I think this thread is going to make me die of disappointment.

[Reply #631 on:]

....Titanic....is....one of the worst movies....ever...I think this thread is going to make me die of disappointment.

Look at what you're doing. You're railing me for saying I liked a movie. I didn't tell you you were wrong for NOT liking it. But you're telling me what I must be thinking, what my motivations for liking the film must be. In fact, you're saying that I didn't actually like it, that I must be pretending to. How pretentious is that? You're the one who's delusional, if you think you KNOW what I must be thinking and feeling. You're the one who's trying to look intellectual by insulting everybody who liked a film you thought was overrated.

Josh, joshing?

Titanic is okay. 

White Sheik
Not a bad little film, about a wife and a husband who have just married in Rome, she runs away for a while to look for an actor, while he mopes around in fountains and half-heartedly tries to find her. Kind of charming, much better than the usual Fellini fare.

Simon of the Desert
A neat Luis Bunuel film about either the Simon or a Simon, who wants to sit on his pillar and live the ascetic, godly life, but the Devil just won't let him alone! Mayjinks occur. Highlights include the Devil's impression of Jesus (a fake beard and an unhappy lamb) and the freakout ending. Usually the Devil cheats a little bit, but in this case the Devil didn't just twist the rules of the game: she kicked the board over, ate the dice, and stole the other player's car. Pretty short, couldn't have been more than an hour, but a good textbook example of why Bunuel totally rules!

The Last Unicorn
Unicorns are such assholes. By all expectations, this should have been really terrible, but I liked it! Workmanlike, gurbly animation that kind of suits the material, nice voice acting, absolutely terrible musical numbers (by sheer overwhelming force of numbers, this probably counts as an America album)

Incident at Loch Ness
A mock-blocking mockumentary about Werner Herzog and a ship crew made up of an actual film crew go looking for the Loch Ness Monster in what starts as a typical kind of Herzog thing - but... is it? Yes, it is. Viewers may ask: is there more to this story than meets the eye? No, not really... and yet ....

It's all pretty good, though. Personally I'd give the most credit to Zak Penn, he really does come across as a duplicious, principle-smooshing hack. The obvious thing to say here is, "Are you sure he was acting?".

Drinking game: every time you hear the phrase, "this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of" (doubling the dosage if it was Herzog)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Attractively bleak film, beautifully shot, interesting characters. The main case they were investigating was a little bloodless, even towards the end, but I think that complemented rather than clashed with the rest of it. The mundanity of what, by all accounts, should have been an unbelievable crime. I had trouble telling one Swedish ex-Nazi from the other, though, so if you watch it, pay more attention to it than I did.

My Life As A Dog
A bittersweet story about how quickly the things and people around you change. Ingemar's mother is sick and dying, and he is shuttled off to live with his Uncle and Aunt in a vaguely quirky village. He goes back to the city for a while, and he comes back to the village to see how things have changed, not for better or for worse, just different, and he has to cope with that, plus a couple of deaths. Contains footage of kids being horrible to each other.

Election 2
Big Head never gets a break. The first one was more striking (crates!) and overall, better, but this had its moments.

On Golden Pond
The kind of film that leaves you feeling full of sweetness and light, and with good will towards the rest of the world, even if it's only for a little while. I'm guessing that Henry Fonda in this reminds everyone of their dad.

A Film With Me In It
Oi, Faze will love this. Two Irish writers, Mark and Pierce, spend their time either talking about writing projects, playing clarinet, or betting on horses. Four deadly accidents in a row happen, the fourth of them the most implausible (how do you faint like that?) and they realise that nobody in the world would believe that they were coincidences. TIME FOR A COVER UP and later a fifth accident.

It follows of the cliches and conventions of a thriller, with the soundtrack, the flickering kitchen light, and there's plenty of foreshadowing: for example, Pierce gets locked in the bathroom early in the film because of the faulty doorknob. Also, Pierce is played by Dylan Moran, which must be a siren song for about forty percent of PEEL to begin with. This is GOOD, guys.

"My name's Pierce, I'm a writer stroke director.... and a waiter."

"We have to bury her."
"Have you seen the time? Do you know how long it takes to bury a human being?"

[Reply #632 on:]

Josh, I hate you

[Reply #633 on:]

A Film With Me In It
Oi, Faze will love this.

I've seen it and reviewed it babeh! In the last thread I think.

[Reply #634 on:]

....Titanic....is....one of the worst movies....ever...I think this thread is going to make me die of disappointment.

Look at what you're doing. You're railing me for saying I liked a movie. I didn't tell you you were wrong for NOT liking it. But you're telling me what I must be thinking, what my motivations for liking the film must be. In fact, you're saying that I didn't actually like it, that I must be pretending to. How pretentious is that? You're the one who's delusional, if you think you KNOW what I must be thinking and feeling. You're the one who's trying to look intellectual by insulting everybody who liked a film you thought was overrated.

Josh, joshing?

Nah, just being a massive hypocrite.

I don't actually care if other people like it, and I don't think they're stupid or wrong for liking it. I just personally happen to think it's a massive piece of shit.

[Reply #635 on:]

Well, we have our opinion, and you have yours.

[Reply #636 on:]

...duh?

[Reply #637 on:]

Coraline
Slightly creepy (Burton-esque but based on a Neil Gaiman novel), imaginative, great stop-motion film about a young girl, who discovers a wonderful alternate universe through a little secret door in her new house, but all is not as it seems and she has to fight her way out and save some other trapped kids and her parents.

B

Brooklyns Finest
Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs another gritty police thriller about three different cops, the depressed 7-days from retirement burnout (Richard Gere), the undercover informant drug dealer (Don Cheadle), and the corrupt narcotics cop who steals drug money to take care of his family (Ethan Hawke), their stories all meet up at the end of the film.

Drug lord Wesley Snipes and Cheadle have an Avon Barksdale Stringer Bell relationship in it which reminds me, no less than three cast alumni from The Wire appear, spot em all: win a prize!
Good stuff.

B+

[Reply #638 on:]

Leap Year

A romantic comedy set in Ireland, starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode about a young woman named Anna trying to propose to her boyfriend on leapyear. Though at times full of cliches, its a lovable comedy with plenty of heart and enough "aww" moments to make your heart melt. (hahaha a cheesy review for a slightly cheesy movie)

B

[Reply #639 on:]

A Film With Me In It
Oi, Faze will love this.

I've seen it and reviewed it babeh! In the last thread I think.

So you did! Good review.

Les Diaboliques
Very atmospheric 1955 film about the wife and mistress of a school headmaster who team up to murder him to get him out of their lives. Everything works, and just as they sigh in relief, the body disappears from the (death) pool. Homigosh! Plenty of elements they use today for thrillers and horror films probably cut their teeth here, and even though it's a pretty simple story, it's well told and genuinely suspenseful!