Recently viewed movie thread - Rental Edition (8 Viewers)

[perry147]

I watched Moon last night and thought it was ok, nothing special - I was not expecting much to begin with.

 

[shake zula]

Tim Burton's, 9, very good movie. Visually spectacular. The characters were also very captivating. For an animated/cgi feel pretty interesting how attached one can get to the characters.

I'm not sure how much Tim Burton had to do with this movie. Doesn't seem fair to call it his anyway.

I disagree.

why?Shane Acker directed it, wrote the story, created the characters, etc. He made the short film that helped bring Tim Burton on board to produce the feature film, but if you watch the extra features on the DVD, the short film doesn't look all that much different.



I'm sure Tim Burton's name and clout certainly helped get the film made, but I didn't get the sense he played a huge role on this film. All the interviews on the extra DVD features basically point out that Acker did everything.

If not for Tim Burton dark animation movies like 9 would never have been made. I personally think he is genious but especially when he is making movies like this.Also, I agree, if not for his clout and money, this particular movie does not get made.

 

[QUEZILLA]

Hurt Locker 8/10- I enjoyed this. Got slow at a few times. The quietness in this movie really adds to the suspense.

Moon 8/10 - Extremely original idea done very well.

Informant 7/10- Kind of like Michael Clayton but without any action. Damon was pretty funny, and the music really changed the tone of this film.

Paranormal Activity - 6/10 - I don't usually like "scary movies" but this was pretty original. It's worth a watch.

 

[hooter311]

Tim Burton's, 9, very good movie. Visually spectacular. The characters were also very captivating. For an animated/cgi feel pretty interesting how attached one can get to the characters.

I'm not sure how much Tim Burton had to do with this movie. Doesn't seem fair to call it his anyway.

I disagree.

why?Shane Acker directed it, wrote the story, created the characters, etc. He made the short film that helped bring Tim Burton on board to produce the feature film, but if you watch the extra features on the DVD, the short film doesn't look all that much different.



I'm sure Tim Burton's name and clout certainly helped get the film made, but I didn't get the sense he played a huge role on this film. All the interviews on the extra DVD features basically point out that Acker did everything.

If not for Tim Burton dark animation movies like 9 would never have been made. I personally think he is genious but especially when he is making movies like this.Also, I agree, if not for his clout and money, this particular movie does not get made.

He was making Alice in Wonderland, not this. Burton seen the Acker's short and helped him secure financing to make it a major motion picture. That was about the extent of his involvement.So would you consider My Big Fat Greek Wedding a Tom Hank's film or The Others a Tom Cruise film? Because they were producers of each of those.

9 is Shane Acker's film. Crediting it as a "Tim Burton film" is ridiculous.

 

[hooter311]

If not for Tim Burton dark animation movies like 9 would never have been made.

This is a joke, right?

 

[Chaka]

Tim Burton's, 9, very good movie. Visually spectacular. The characters were also very captivating. For an animated/cgi feel pretty interesting how attached one can get to the characters.

I'm not sure how much Tim Burton had to do with this movie. Doesn't seem fair to call it his anyway.

I disagree.

why?Shane Acker directed it, wrote the story, created the characters, etc. He made the short film that helped bring Tim Burton on board to produce the feature film, but if you watch the extra features on the DVD, the short film doesn't look all that much different.



I'm sure Tim Burton's name and clout certainly helped get the film made, but I didn't get the sense he played a huge role on this film. All the interviews on the extra DVD features basically point out that Acker did everything.

If not for Tim Burton dark animation movies like 9 would never have been made. I personally think he is genious but especially when he is making movies like this.Also, I agree, if not for his clout and money, this particular movie does not get made.

That doesn't make it a Tim Burton movie. Acker deserves the credit for what we see on screen, it's his movie. Burton deserves credit for helping it to be made (although I disagree that it never would have been made without him).I thought that, while visually interesting, it was a pretty meh movie.

 

[hooter311]

Continued my chronological James Bond run over the weekend. Can't wait to rank them all when I finish. (Probably will be another month or so).

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Lazenby was not as big of step down from Connery as Bond as I expected. I really wish he could have done a few more pictures in the lead role. The jerk cutting of the action scenes really detracted from what could have been in the running for the best Bond film. This rendition of Blofeld as the villain really didn't meet my expectations either. He was just far too different from the faceless cat petting evil doer we were first introduced to. Tracy was the best Bond girl yet in the series.

3.5/5



Diamonds Are Forever

Far too corny and my least favorite of Connery in the Bond series. Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) was one the worst actresses caught on film. Hard not to gag at nearly anything she tried to accomplish here. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd were great minor villains, but I could have done without seeing them hold hands and skip into the sunset, their homosexuality could have been left only implied. The Willard Whyte (Howard Hughes) characiture was distracting and stupid.

2/5

 

[Osaurus]

Continued my chronological James Bond run over the weekend. Can't wait to rank them all when I finish. (Probably will be another month or so).

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Lazenby was not as big of step down from Connery as Bond as I expected. I really wish he could have done a few more pictures in the lead role. The jerk cutting of the action scenes really detracted from what could have been in the running for the best Bond film. This rendition of Blofeld as the villain really didn't meet my expectations either. He was just far too different from the faceless cat petting evil doer we were first introduced to. Tracy was the best Bond girl yet in the series.

3.5/5



Diamonds Are Forever

Far too corny and my least favorite of Connery in the Bond series. Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) was one the worst actresses caught on film. Hard not to gag at nearly anything she tried to accomplish here. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd were great minor villains, but I could have done without seeing them hold hands and skip into the sunset, their homosexuality could have been left only implied. The Willard Whyte (Howard Hughes) characiture was distracting and stupid.

2/5

Bambi and Thumper down?

 

[hooter311]

Diamonds Are Forever

Far too corny and my least favorite of Connery in the Bond series. Jill St. John (Tiffany Case) was one the worst actresses caught on film. Hard not to gag at nearly anything she tried to accomplish here. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd were great minor villains, but I could have done without seeing them hold hands and skip into the sunset, their homosexuality could have been left only implied. The Willard Whyte (Howard Hughes) characiture was distracting and stupid.

2/5

Bambi and Thumper down?

The two minutes of screen time they had was entertaining enough. Can't say it made a whole lot of sense on how it went down.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Bob- I LOVE Jacques Tati... Mr Hulot's Holiday is something I saw as a kid and only rewatched recently- ####### brilliant physical/manners comedy. I would put it as a top 10 comedy for me- off the top of my head, probably top 3 (Dr. Strangelove, Something About Mary, Hulot... but I've probably forgotten a lot of deserving films). I was astonished this time around how little dialogue there was but how successfully he was able to convey his comedy and build character development. Even the dining room door had more character than most movies I've seen in the last 20 years. I've been dying to see Playtime, which is a reflection on Modernism (with a capital M) and uses Modern architecture (my biz) and urban life as it's lens. I've heard nothing but great things about it and just have to find time.

i discovered tati later than you, floppo... a former co-worker mentioned the first two, i saw first two (hulot & mon oncle), enjoyed them and found them charming, but had sort of forgotten about them... i was checking out some new criterion releases, which led to play time, and i have become very interested again (play time was brilliant, ahead of its time, & a spectacular failure which bankrupted him)... haven't finished it yet, but my review to follow (his body of work & this film in particular seem to be criminally underrated)... meanwhile... * earlier overview of all three clasic comedies by dvd savant (mr. hulot's holiday, mon oncle & play time)...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s249tati.html

all three made it into ebert's "classic movies" list... his review of first two (play time linked earlier/above)...

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../401010328/1023

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../306080301/1023

not only are all three of these available at netflix, but also instant/streaming (that said, play time was shot in 70 or 65 mm, and biggest screen possible recommended... i don't have the box & watch this way on 24" monitor - not optimal for a movie like this - doing so for now, but getting the criterion blu-ray)... they all also got the criterion treatment, though play time the only blu-ray, for now (they just started only last year, i think)...

his last real movie, trafic, also available on criterion and netflix (though not instant/streaming), is said to be a lesser movie in his canon, but still representative of his humor and style, and still good. it has a second bonus disc (also on netflix) with a feature length, two hour documentary/biography on tati/hulot, which sounds like the definitive one for fans...

** criterion liner notes on play time...

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/446

4Sep06

The Dance of Playtime

BY JONATHAN ROSENBAUM

I suppose it could be argued that I saw Playtime for the first time in ideal circumstances—as an American tourist in Paris. Yet to argue this would mean overlooking the film’s suggestion that, like it or not, we’re all tourists nowadays—and all Americans in some fashion as well.

It’s a brash hypothesis, arguably somewhat middle-class and rooted in the assumptions of the 1960s—but then again, a great deal of what’s known today as “the sixties” can be traced back to the vision and activity of middle-class Americans. I was certainly enough of a middle-class American tourist to find myself bemused as well as amused by this account of a day spent in a mainly studio-built Paris—and sufficiently intrigued by the seeming absence of focal points during several busy stretches to return to the movie a couple of times. This was during the summer of 1968. I’d arrived in Paris in June, at the tail end of the famous May events, the very day that the police took back the Odéon from the students. I caught the movie in 35mm, during what must have been its second or third run, a good half year after it had opened in 65mm—the format in which it was shot, which Jacques Tati suggested was the shape of the modern world—with a running time of 152 minutes. Under pressure from exhibitors, and to avoid an intermission, Tati had trimmed about fifteen minutes between the December premiere and mid-February, and with rare exceptions, most of the versions seen ever since have been about this length, in 35mm and monaural. Sadly, not all of the missing footage—most of it reportedly devoted to further variations of existing gags—has been recovered, but everything else was enhanced in a 2002 65mm restoration of the original sound and image. So we can finally see and hear the film as Tati conceived it.

When I flew back to New York, out of Orly, at the end of the summer, I was delighted to hear Playtime’s theme music employed as Muzak on my departing plane. Like the use of the same theme as the movie’s exit music, accompanying my departure from the theater each time, this implied a continuity between the movie and the world that I’ve been discovering and rediscovering ever since. In this respect, Playtime has an unexpected affinity with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (a film that, incidentally, Tati adored and that also originally clocked in at about 155 minutes)—in its wide-screen project to reeducate us by disrupting some of our basic habits in organizing visual and spatial data. And its only counterpart in Tati’s own career would be his deceptively modest and boldly experimental last feature, Parade (1973), which carried the radical principle of equating spectators with performers even further, gently insisting that, as Tati liked to put it, “the comic effect belongs to everyone.”

A year after my first encounter with Playtime, I moved from Manhattan to Paris, and in retrospect I think I can say that the film played a significant role in my decision. It was less a matter of my Francophilia than a dawning discovery about how to live in cities that this masterpiece had helped me to formulate. And, not surprisingly, I found I could apply this lesson more readily to Paris, with its outdoor café chairs that function as orchestra seating and the theatrical lighting of its streets at night. By contrast, I felt that in response to Manhattan’s sensory overload I was starting to feel detached from and deadened to the world around me whenever I left my one-room apartment. Playtime proposed a particularly euphoric form of reengagement with public space, suggesting ways of looking and finding connections, comic and otherwise, between supposedly disconnected street details—not to mention connections between those details and myself.

A few years after my move, I landed an interview with Tati in his suburban office, in La Garenne-Colombes, and began our conversation by telling him how Playtime had changed my relation to cities. (Around me, in his small office, I could see a few enduring elements from the film—most notably, one of the antiseptic black chairs, which, unlike its movie equivalents, didn’t go whoosh when I sat in it.) I’m sure that my declaration, along with my subsequent friendship with Marie-France Siegler, Tati’s main assistant—who can be seen seated on the bus next to the young tourist, Barbara, in Playtime’s final sequence—must have played some role in my getting hired as his “script consultant” a couple of months later.

It was a weekday job that basically consisted of being his audience for a never-filmed film project called Confusion—ultimately lasting, if memory serves, less than a couple of weeks, until Tati became ill. He had recently been bankrupted by the heavy losses of Playtime, so it was generous of him to be paying me any salary at all. This was during the period when Playtime was first showing in the United States, in various cuts over which he had no control, and there were times during our sessions together, often in the late afternoon, when he sank into gloom. I remember one such time when he sought to cheer himself up by looking through his scrapbooks devoted to the Playtime sets. He also once imagined killing off his famous persona, Monsieur Hulot, in the opening moments of Confusion, a gesture that for him would have been liberating. The character was his meal ticket—which is why Tati reluctantly made him more prominent again in Playtime (1971), after deliberately minimizing and even downgrading him in Trafic with a profusion of ersatz Hulots—but he interfered with Tati’s democratic notion of comedy, which did away with stars. In Playtime, he liked to say, the only real star was his set—and maybe that was expensive, “but not any more than Sophia Loren.”

Playtime is a movie that unfolds entirely in a public space defined by that set. Even the strange sequence showing us adjacent living rooms—which wasn’t part of any of the versions I saw until Tati reedited a final version that satisfied him, shortly before his death, in 1982—is shot exclusively from the street; and the only time we see Barbara in her hotel room is when a maid delivers her evening dress. So there’s something inappropriate and contrary to Tati’s design for the film about its being viewed in private spaces, especially on any screen smaller than oneself. Playtime assumes a precise contiguity and continuity with the public space of a theater, where we share its experience with others—just as the customers and employees of the Royal Garden eventually manage to carve out a common social investment in an establishment that’s gradually disintegrating around them. Even if we sometimes wind up laughing at different gags, we’re all laughing to some degree at ourselves, and the sense of mutual recognition is crucial.

Mobile phones have sadly made the sense of public urban space as it exists in Playtime almost archaic, a kind of lost paradise. The utopian vision of shared space that informs the latter scenes—beginning in the new Royal Garden restaurant at night and continuing the next morning in a drugstore and on the streets of Paris—is made unthinkable by mobile phones, whose use can be said to constitute both a depletion and a form of denial of public space, especially because the people using them tend to ignore the other people in immediate physical proximity to them. Nevertheless, given his capacity to keep abreast of social changes, I have little doubt that Tati, if he were alive today, could and probably would construct wonderful gags involving the use of these phones. And if he were making Playtime now, I suspect he’d most likely be inventing gags for the first part that involved mobile phones, and then would have to find ways of destroying or disempowering them to make way for the second part. (It’s hardly accidental that his most brilliantly and elaborately developed gag involves the shattering of glass, another social barrier.)

The Royal Garden sequence, making up roughly half of the film, may be the most formidable example of mise-en-scène in the history of cinema. It is certainly the most Brueghel-like in its expansion of the principle—found in such populated landscape paintings as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and The Procession to Cavalry—that life and history unfold in a plethora of small, almost indiscernible details.

The crucial catalyst for our appreciation of this sequence is the music, played by two successive bands and then sung by an old-fashioned chanteuse, who’s eventually joined by the customers—an element that helps us to cope creatively with Tati’s overload of invention by furnishing a rhythmic base to work from. Thanks to this music, each set of visual options has a rhythmic pattern for one’s gaze to follow while scanning the screen’s busy surface of swarming detail, through which we can join Tati in charting our own choreographies, improvising our own organizations of emphasis and direction in relation to the director’s massive “head arrangement.” What other movie converts work into play so pleasurably by turning the very acts of seeing and hearing into a form of dancing?

 

[saintfool]

Bob- I LOVE Jacques Tati... Mr Hulot's Holiday is something I saw as a kid and only rewatched recently- ####### brilliant physical/manners comedy. I would put it as a top 10 comedy for me- off the top of my head, probably top 3 (Dr. Strangelove, Something About Mary, Hulot... but I've probably forgotten a lot of deserving films). I was astonished this time around how little dialogue there was but how successfully he was able to convey his comedy and build character development. Even the dining room door had more character than most movies I've seen in the last 20 years. I've been dying to see Playtime, which is a reflection on Modernism (with a capital M) and uses Modern architecture (my biz) and urban life as it's lens. I've heard nothing but great things about it and just have to find time.

i discovered tati later than you, floppo... a former co-worker mentioned the first two, i saw first two (hulot & mon oncle), enjoyed them and found them charming, but had sort of forgotten about them... i was checking out some new criterion releases, which led to play time, and i have become very interested again (play time was brilliant, ahead of its time, & a spectacular failure which bankrupted him)... haven't finished it yet, but my review to follow (his body of work & this film in particular seem to be criminally underrated)... meanwhile...

the kids in the hall present "
"...

 

[fsufan]

Zombieland

fun movie

 

[jdoggydogg]

re: Pixar.I'm in the camp that has liked the recent films less than the early ones, although I never saw Cars and haven't seen Up yet. IMO, Nemo, Monster Inc and the Toy Stories were them at the top of their game. I like Ratatouille and the Indredibles, but they dont resonate as much with me as the others. But I'm also in the camp that thinks they haven't made a bad movie yet.

I mostly agree. Although I think Wall-E is their best film.

 

[jdoggydogg]

He was making Alice in Wonderland, not this. Burton seen the Acker's short and helped him secure financing to make it a major motion picture. That was about the extent of his involvement.So would you consider My Big Fat Greek Wedding a Tom Hank's film or The Others a Tom Cruise film? Because they were producers of each of those.9 is Shane Acker's film. Crediting it as a "Tim Burton film" is ridiculous.

The Burton attachment is simply marketing to expose the film to a wider audience.

 

[Chaka]

Maybe you have an odd sense of humor. Is this spill over from the Hurt Locker discussion ??

YOU WILL ACCEPT MY POINT OF VIEW RIGHT NOW!!!

 

[hooter311]

He was making Alice in Wonderland, not this. Burton seen the Acker's short and helped him secure financing to make it a major motion picture. That was about the extent of his involvement.So would you consider My Big Fat Greek Wedding a Tom Hank's film or The Others a Tom Cruise film? Because they were producers of each of those.9 is Shane Acker's film. Crediting it as a "Tim Burton film" is ridiculous.

The Burton attachment is simply marketing to expose the film to a wider audience.

No doubt.Timur Bekmambetov was also attached as a producer, and while he might now be as well known in the US market, he is no slouch himself when it comes to this type of visionary cinema.

 

[shake zula]

He was making Alice in Wonderland, not this. Burton seen the Acker's short and helped him secure financing to make it a major motion picture. That was about the extent of his involvement.So would you consider My Big Fat Greek Wedding a Tom Hank's film or The Others a Tom Cruise film? Because they were producers of each of those.9 is Shane Acker's film. Crediting it as a "Tim Burton film" is ridiculous.

The Burton attachment is simply marketing to expose the film to a wider audience.

No doubt.Timur Bekmambetov was also attached as a producer, and while he might now be as well known in the US market, he is no slouch himself when it comes to this type of visionary cinema.

Still calling it Tim Burton's.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

The CoveWow. One of the best movies I've seen this year. Incredible documentary, but please do not let that prevent you form watching. It had some very intense, suspenseful sequences that big-budget Hollywood wishes it could manufacture. Its definitely politically charged from the same type folk in Greenpeace and other activist, environmental orgs, but please do not let that prevent you form watching. The film takes the time to let you get to know the main characters and their motivations and to allow you to build an understanding of the subject (dolphins). Even with those two obstacles that will prevent it from ever gaining a wide audience, I defy anyone to watch it and remain unmoved. A great, moving film.5/5 stars

Thanks for the recommendation.Powerful and completely depressing.

I was probably more angered than depressed. And I also felt hopeful that there are people willing to make such a commitment to expose what's going on. I know a lot of these type orgs have more than their share of loonies and sometimes cross boundaries we perceive as spectators. But this really made me appreciate the motivations, sentiments and enthusiasm behind their actions.

Agree 100%. Just watched this movie the other night as well. One of the more powerful documentaries that I've watched.To me the surfer guy's parts stood out to me. I think it's just because everybody else in the movie was sneaking in, putting up cameras, trying to free the dolphins, etc.. I liked his story about the dolphins and the shark, or how they surf along with them. Just came off as silly that they paddled out and held hands in the cove when everybody else in the doc was running around and risking jail time.

amazing film. haven't seen all the nominations, but it seems this should be a strong contender for the Best Documentary Oscar this year.

 

[cosjobs]

The CoveWow. One of the best movies I've seen this year. Incredible documentary, but please do not let that prevent you form watching. It had some very intense, suspenseful sequences that big-budget Hollywood wishes it could manufacture. Its definitely politically charged from the same type folk in Greenpeace and other activist, environmental orgs, but please do not let that prevent you form watching. The film takes the time to let you get to know the main characters and their motivations and to allow you to build an understanding of the subject (dolphins). Even with those two obstacles that will prevent it from ever gaining a wide audience, I defy anyone to watch it and remain unmoved. A great, moving film.5/5 stars

Thanks for the recommendation.Powerful and completely depressing.

I was probably more angered than depressed. And I also felt hopeful that there are people willing to make such a commitment to expose what's going on. I know a lot of these type orgs have more than their share of loonies and sometimes cross boundaries we perceive as spectators. But this really made me appreciate the motivations, sentiments and enthusiasm behind their actions.

Agree 100%. Just watched this movie the other night as well. One of the more powerful documentaries that I've watched.To me the surfer guy's parts stood out to me. I think it's just because everybody else in the movie was sneaking in, putting up cameras, trying to free the dolphins, etc.. I liked his story about the dolphins and the shark, or how they surf along with them. Just came off as silly that they paddled out and held hands in the cove when everybody else in the doc was running around and risking jail time.

amazing film. haven't seen all the nominations, but it seems this should be a strong contender for the Best Documentary Oscar this year.

Its too bad that so many people have an aversion to documentaries. This one played out like a well-crafted thriller. Better than 95% of the fictional thrillers I have ever seen. And it also punches you in the gut like a great drama. So much to like. I am sure it will be honored well at the Academy Awards.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Couples Retreat: Definitely not as bad as all the reviews it has been getting, imo. A few decent laughs. Bateman and Vaughn were good. Vaughn's kid in the movie might have been the best part. 2.5/5

 

[Chaka]

Its too bad that so many people have an aversion to documentaries. This one played out like a well-crafted thriller. Better than 95% of the fictional thrillers I have ever seen. And it also punches you in the gut like a great drama. So much to like. I am sure it will be honored well at the Academy Awards.

I have only seen Food Inc and The Cove. I Burma VJ on deck.I echo everyone's sentiments on The Cove.Food Inc is probably the most valuable to viewers of this years nominees unfortunately as stated earlier Americans avoid documentaries almost as much as they avoid salads.

 

[El Floppo]

Bob- I LOVE Jacques Tati... Mr Hulot's Holiday is something I saw as a kid and only rewatched recently- ####### brilliant physical/manners comedy. I would put it as a top 10 comedy for me- off the top of my head, probably top 3 (Dr. Strangelove, Something About Mary, Hulot... but I've probably forgotten a lot of deserving films). I was astonished this time around how little dialogue there was but how successfully he was able to convey his comedy and build character development. Even the dining room door had more character than most movies I've seen in the last 20 years. I've been dying to see Playtime, which is a reflection on Modernism (with a capital M) and uses Modern architecture (my biz) and urban life as it's lens. I've heard nothing but great things about it and just have to find time.

i discovered tati later than you, floppo... a former co-worker mentioned the first two, i saw first two (hulot & mon oncle), enjoyed them and found them charming, but had sort of forgotten about them... i was checking out some new criterion releases, which led to play time, and i have become very interested again (play time was brilliant, ahead of its time, & a spectacular failure which bankrupted him)... haven't finished it yet, but my review to follow (his body of work & this film in particular seem to be criminally underrated)... meanwhile... * earlier overview of all three clasic comedies by dvd savant (mr. hulot's holiday, mon oncle & play time)...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s249tati.html

all three made it into ebert's "classic movies" list... his review of first two (play time linked earlier/above)...

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../401010328/1023

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../306080301/1023

not only are all three of these available at netflix, but also instant/streaming (that said, play time was shot in 70 or 65 mm, and biggest screen possible recommended... i don't have the box & watch this way on 24" monitor - not optimal for a movie like this - doing so for now, but getting the criterion blu-ray)... they all also got the criterion treatment, though play time the only blu-ray, for now (they just started only last year, i think)...

his last real movie, trafic, also available on criterion and netflix (though not instant/streaming), is said to be a lesser movie in his canon, but still representative of his humor and style, and still good. it has a second bonus disc (also on netflix) with a feature length, two hour documentary/biography on tati/hulot, which sounds like the definitive one for fans...

** criterion liner notes on play time...

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/446

4Sep06

The Dance of Playtime

BY JONATHAN ROSENBAUM

I suppose it could be argued that I saw Playtime for the first time in ideal circumstances—as an American tourist in Paris. Yet to argue this would mean overlooking the film’s suggestion that, like it or not, we’re all tourists nowadays—and all Americans in some fashion as well.

It’s a brash hypothesis, arguably somewhat middle-class and rooted in the assumptions of the 1960s—but then again, a great deal of what’s known today as “the sixties” can be traced back to the vision and activity of middle-class Americans. I was certainly enough of a middle-class American tourist to find myself bemused as well as amused by this account of a day spent in a mainly studio-built Paris—and sufficiently intrigued by the seeming absence of focal points during several busy stretches to return to the movie a couple of times. This was during the summer of 1968. I’d arrived in Paris in June, at the tail end of the famous May events, the very day that the police took back the Odéon from the students. I caught the movie in 35mm, during what must have been its second or third run, a good half year after it had opened in 65mm—the format in which it was shot, which Jacques Tati suggested was the shape of the modern world—with a running time of 152 minutes. Under pressure from exhibitors, and to avoid an intermission, Tati had trimmed about fifteen minutes between the December premiere and mid-February, and with rare exceptions, most of the versions seen ever since have been about this length, in 35mm and monaural. Sadly, not all of the missing footage—most of it reportedly devoted to further variations of existing gags—has been recovered, but everything else was enhanced in a 2002 65mm restoration of the original sound and image. So we can finally see and hear the film as Tati conceived it.

When I flew back to New York, out of Orly, at the end of the summer, I was delighted to hear Playtime’s theme music employed as Muzak on my departing plane. Like the use of the same theme as the movie’s exit music, accompanying my departure from the theater each time, this implied a continuity between the movie and the world that I’ve been discovering and rediscovering ever since. In this respect, Playtime has an unexpected affinity with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (a film that, incidentally, Tati adored and that also originally clocked in at about 155 minutes)—in its wide-screen project to reeducate us by disrupting some of our basic habits in organizing visual and spatial data. And its only counterpart in Tati’s own career would be his deceptively modest and boldly experimental last feature, Parade (1973), which carried the radical principle of equating spectators with performers even further, gently insisting that, as Tati liked to put it, “the comic effect belongs to everyone.”

A year after my first encounter with Playtime, I moved from Manhattan to Paris, and in retrospect I think I can say that the film played a significant role in my decision. It was less a matter of my Francophilia than a dawning discovery about how to live in cities that this masterpiece had helped me to formulate. And, not surprisingly, I found I could apply this lesson more readily to Paris, with its outdoor café chairs that function as orchestra seating and the theatrical lighting of its streets at night. By contrast, I felt that in response to Manhattan’s sensory overload I was starting to feel detached from and deadened to the world around me whenever I left my one-room apartment. Playtime proposed a particularly euphoric form of reengagement with public space, suggesting ways of looking and finding connections, comic and otherwise, between supposedly disconnected street details—not to mention connections between those details and myself.

A few years after my move, I landed an interview with Tati in his suburban office, in La Garenne-Colombes, and began our conversation by telling him how Playtime had changed my relation to cities. (Around me, in his small office, I could see a few enduring elements from the film—most notably, one of the antiseptic black chairs, which, unlike its movie equivalents, didn’t go whoosh when I sat in it.) I’m sure that my declaration, along with my subsequent friendship with Marie-France Siegler, Tati’s main assistant—who can be seen seated on the bus next to the young tourist, Barbara, in Playtime’s final sequence—must have played some role in my getting hired as his “script consultant” a couple of months later.

It was a weekday job that basically consisted of being his audience for a never-filmed film project called Confusion—ultimately lasting, if memory serves, less than a couple of weeks, until Tati became ill. He had recently been bankrupted by the heavy losses of Playtime, so it was generous of him to be paying me any salary at all. This was during the period when Playtime was first showing in the United States, in various cuts over which he had no control, and there were times during our sessions together, often in the late afternoon, when he sank into gloom. I remember one such time when he sought to cheer himself up by looking through his scrapbooks devoted to the Playtime sets. He also once imagined killing off his famous persona, Monsieur Hulot, in the opening moments of Confusion, a gesture that for him would have been liberating. The character was his meal ticket—which is why Tati reluctantly made him more prominent again in Playtime (1971), after deliberately minimizing and even downgrading him in Trafic with a profusion of ersatz Hulots—but he interfered with Tati’s democratic notion of comedy, which did away with stars. In Playtime, he liked to say, the only real star was his set—and maybe that was expensive, “but not any more than Sophia Loren.”

Playtime is a movie that unfolds entirely in a public space defined by that set. Even the strange sequence showing us adjacent living rooms—which wasn’t part of any of the versions I saw until Tati reedited a final version that satisfied him, shortly before his death, in 1982—is shot exclusively from the street; and the only time we see Barbara in her hotel room is when a maid delivers her evening dress. So there’s something inappropriate and contrary to Tati’s design for the film about its being viewed in private spaces, especially on any screen smaller than oneself. Playtime assumes a precise contiguity and continuity with the public space of a theater, where we share its experience with others—just as the customers and employees of the Royal Garden eventually manage to carve out a common social investment in an establishment that’s gradually disintegrating around them. Even if we sometimes wind up laughing at different gags, we’re all laughing to some degree at ourselves, and the sense of mutual recognition is crucial.

Mobile phones have sadly made the sense of public urban space as it exists in Playtime almost archaic, a kind of lost paradise. The utopian vision of shared space that informs the latter scenes—beginning in the new Royal Garden restaurant at night and continuing the next morning in a drugstore and on the streets of Paris—is made unthinkable by mobile phones, whose use can be said to constitute both a depletion and a form of denial of public space, especially because the people using them tend to ignore the other people in immediate physical proximity to them. Nevertheless, given his capacity to keep abreast of social changes, I have little doubt that Tati, if he were alive today, could and probably would construct wonderful gags involving the use of these phones. And if he were making Playtime now, I suspect he’d most likely be inventing gags for the first part that involved mobile phones, and then would have to find ways of destroying or disempowering them to make way for the second part. (It’s hardly accidental that his most brilliantly and elaborately developed gag involves the shattering of glass, another social barrier.)

The Royal Garden sequence, making up roughly half of the film, may be the most formidable example of mise-en-scène in the history of cinema. It is certainly the most Brueghel-like in its expansion of the principle—found in such populated landscape paintings as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and The Procession to Cavalry—that life and history unfold in a plethora of small, almost indiscernible details.

The crucial catalyst for our appreciation of this sequence is the music, played by two successive bands and then sung by an old-fashioned chanteuse, who’s eventually joined by the customers—an element that helps us to cope creatively with Tati’s overload of invention by furnishing a rhythmic base to work from. Thanks to this music, each set of visual options has a rhythmic pattern for one’s gaze to follow while scanning the screen’s busy surface of swarming detail, through which we can join Tati in charting our own choreographies, improvising our own organizations of emphasis and direction in relation to the director’s massive “head arrangement.” What other movie converts work into play so pleasurably by turning the very acts of seeing and hearing into a form of dancing?

Can't say I "discovered" him, per se- I had great parents who took me to all kinds of culture at a young age. I can't even fathom taking my 2yo son to something like this anytime soon... hell- can't even imagine taking my wife for that matter.I never heard of Traffic- I'll try and keep an eye out for it when I've got a minute (never), although I'd rather see Playtime first.

That review you quoted reminded me of seeing a couple of movies in Paris in the 80s, including Dr. Strangelove in the VO. Again- Strangelove is one of my favorite movies, let alone comedies and I was taking my ex-gf for her first time. About halfway through the movie, after noticing my gf looking a little embarrassed and kinda shrinking into the seat at my laughter, I became aware that not only was I was the only person in the entire theater laughing, the rest of the patrons thrwoing worse and worse stink-eyes my way. My french isn't great, but I started to read the subtitles to figure out wtf was going on- maybe there was a weird translation going on or something. Nope- pretty much straight on... but when simply read instead of heard in context of the acting and visual brilliance of the movie, the whole movie became a bleak, pre/post-apocalyptic, condemnation (of sorts) of the two super-powers. This was still pre-fall of communism under Reagan and I guess the French couldn't get past the "reality" enough to enjoy the film. ####### French. Only time they laughed was when Sellers, as the President, says in the War Room something like "I heard it in the NY Times so it MUST be true" (or maybe it was the Russian ambassador). ####### French.

 

[El Floppo]

Caught most of Donnie Brasco on Showtime the other night for the first time since the theater. Had almost the excact same reaction... hmmm- good, not great movie. I can't put my finger on what didn't get it over the top of greatness for me... but this time around I was really struck with what a great performance Pacino gave. It helped that his character was SO well written- one of the better combos of writing/acting I can remember seeing for a while.

 

[jdoggydogg]

Caught most of Donnie Brasco on Showtime the other night for the first time since the theater. Had almost the excact same reaction... hmmm- good, not great movie. I can't put my finger on what didn't get it over the top of greatness for me... but this time around I was really struck with what a great performance Pacino gave. It helped that his character was SO well written- one of the better combos of writing/acting I can remember seeing for a while.

The Pacino scene at the end is outstanding and very poignant.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Can't say I "discovered" him, per se- I had great parents who took me to all kinds of culture at a young age. I can't even fathom taking my 2yo son to something like this anytime soon... hell- can't even imagine taking my wife for that matter.I never heard of Traffic- I'll try and keep an eye out for it when I've got a minute (never), although I'd rather see Playtime first.That review you quoted reminded me of seeing a couple of movies in Paris in the 80s, including Dr. Strangelove in the VO. Again- Strangelove is one of my favorite movies, let alone comedies and I was taking my ex-gf for her first time. About halfway through the movie, after noticing my gf looking a little embarrassed and kinda shrinking into the seat at my laughter, I became aware that not only was I was the only person in the entire theater laughing, the rest of the patrons thrwoing worse and worse stink-eyes my way. My french isn't great, but I started to read the subtitles to figure out wtf was going on- maybe there was a weird translation going on or something. Nope- pretty much straight on... but when simply read instead of heard in context of the acting and visual brilliance of the movie, the whole movie became a bleak, pre/post-apocalyptic, condemnation (of sorts) of the two super-powers. This was still pre-fall of communism under Reagan and I guess the French couldn't get past the "reality" enough to enjoy the film. ####### French. Only time they laughed was when Sellers, as the President, says in the War Room something like "I heard it in the NY Times so it MUST be true" (or maybe it was the Russian ambassador). ####### French.

no fighting in the war room is funny in any language...

 

[cosjobs]

Sleeping Dogs Lie

This movie has been on my radar for a long time. I could just never stomach putting it into the dvd player because I did not want to see some thing about bestiality. Well that was an error and mistake on my part. The movie is not about that. Its about honesty and relationships and touchy feely stuff interpreted and eviscerated by Bobcat Goldwaith. And it is genius. It is also the most honest discussion of honesty and intimacy in adult relationships I have ever seen on screen. Yes it is irreverent and dances around taboos, but only to set the table for the characters to be forced into open and honest situations and deal with them- with their SOs and their family. I think it was sheer brilliance. The entire cast was spot on and despite a very minor cop out in the end, it was one of the best, most refreshingly honest and forward films I have ever seen.

5/5 stars

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Sleeping Dogs Lie

This movie has been on my radar for a long time. I could just never stomach putting it into the dvd player because I did not want to see some thing about bestiality. Well that was an error and mistake on my part. The movie is not about that. Its about honesty and relationships and touchy feely stuff interpreted and eviscerated by Bobcat Goldwaith. And it is genius. It is also the most honest discussion of honesty and intimacy in adult relationships I have ever seen on screen. Yes it is irreverent and dances around taboos, but only to set the table for the characters to be forced into open and honest situations and deal with them- with their SOs and their family. I think it was sheer brilliance. The entire cast was spot on and despite a very minor cop out in the end, it was one of the best, most refreshingly honest and forward films I have ever seen.

5/5 stars

Bobcat is good stuff.Not crazy about the Police Academy path though.

 

[QUEZILLA]

Couples Retreat 3/10 - This movie was pretty bad. There were a few funny moments but for the most parts this movie had me cringing. I was anticipating a funny ending when they went to the other island but it was just drawn out garbage.

 

[Bob Magaw]

preliminary top 10 thoughts...

it would be very hard for me to narrow down... it would be easier to try and approach it as a favorite directors list (including some representative/personal favorite films by the directors)...

many ways to parse this... citizen kane would be at or near top of the list in terms of "historic importance"... putting lynch before bergman reflects this being more of a personal favorite list, than "most important" director/movie list... also not necessarily sequenced/ranked by overall body of work... because blade runner is maybe my favorite film, that carried a lot of weight and shot scott up the list for me... similar to powell & pressburger, largely on the strength of two films... further down the list, perhaps body of work weighed more heavily...

kurosawa (seven samurai, rashomon, ikiru, yojimbo, hidden fortress, ran, throne of blood, kagemusha, high and low, et al)

kubrick (2001, clockwork orange, dr. strangelove, the shining, full metal jacket, lolita, paths of glory, the killing, etc)

hitchcock (vertigo, notorious, north by northwest, rear window, psycho, man who knew too much, spellbound, etc)

sergio leone (man with no name trilogy, duck you sucker/ie - fistful of dynamite, once upon a time in america)

ridley scott (alien, blade runner)

wim wenders (wings of desire, paris texas, UTEOTW, american friend, state of things, buena vista social club)

powell & pressburger (black narcissus, red shoes)

coen bros (big lebowski, no country, barton fink, raising arizona, blood simple, miller's crossing, fargo, etc)

tarantino (reservoir dogs, pulp fiction, jackie brown, kill bill, inglorious basterds)

coppola (apocalypse now, godfather I & II, the conversation)

honorable mention

disney & miyazake

samuel bronston productions (el cid, fall of the roman empire, 55 days at peking)

orson welles (citizen kane, lady from shang hai, touch of evil)

david lynch (mulholland drive, lost highway)

jacques tati (mr. hulot's holiday, mon oncle, play time)

bergman (seventh seal, wild strawberries)

fellini (amarcord, 8 1/2)

herzog (aguire: wrath of god)

david cronenberg (videodrome, scanners)

billy friedkin (sorceror, to live & die in LA)

sam peckinpaugh (wild bunch, bring me the head of alfredo garcia)

recent favorites

tarsem singh (the fall)

chris nolan (memento)

 

[saintfool]

Sleeping Dogs Lie

This movie has been on my radar for a long time. I could just never stomach putting it into the dvd player because I did not want to see some thing about bestiality. Well that was an error and mistake on my part. The movie is not about that. Its about honesty and relationships and touchy feely stuff interpreted and eviscerated by Bobcat Goldwaith. And it is genius. It is also the most honest discussion of honesty and intimacy in adult relationships I have ever seen on screen. Yes it is irreverent and dances around taboos, but only to set the table for the characters to be forced into open and honest situations and deal with them- with their SOs and their family. I think it was sheer brilliance. The entire cast was spot on and despite a very minor cop out in the end, it was one of the best, most refreshingly honest and forward films I have ever seen.

5/5 stars

i've become really a fan of what bobcat is trying to do with his films. these kinds of dark, almost uncomfortable humor that seems to go for something honest. i've got "World's Greatest Dad" in my queue already and will add this to it.

 

[parasaurolophus]

I rented Better Off Dead and Big Trouble in Little China last night.

Good memories.

 

[Fletch F Fletch]

I rented Better Off Dead and Big Trouble in Little China last night.Good memories.

Now that's a shame.........when people be throwin away a perfectly good white boy like that.

 

[hooter311]

I rented Better Off Dead and Big Trouble in Little China last night.Good memories.

Now that's a shame.........when people be throwin away a perfectly good white boy like that.

Do you have any idea the street value of this mountain?

 

[hooter311]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

 

[Kenny Powers]

Caught most of Donnie Brasco on Showtime the other night for the first time since the theater. Had almost the excact same reaction... hmmm- good, not great movie. I can't put my finger on what didn't get it over the top of greatness for me... but this time around I was really struck with what a great performance Pacino gave. It helped that his character was SO well written- one of the better combos of writing/acting I can remember seeing for a while.

This is maybe my favorite Pacino performance, and that's what makes it almost great for me. You cant put it on the level of Goodfellas, The Departed, Casino, et al but its only a couple notches below those and for me Pacino is what brings it to that level. What makes Pacino so great in this is you dont feel like youre watching Pacino play Pacino, i.e. loud, obnoxious, self-centered, yet still endearing. Depp is good as usual in this movie, as is Madsen, but Pacino steals the show.IMO Pacino's most underrated performance

 

[Kenny Powers]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

Watched this over the weekend. I thought it was almost easily the best of the series since the original, and based on the storyline, really shouldve been Saw 2 or 3. And I agree, these remain some of the most interesting horror movies, so I'll still watch each one at some point7.2/10

 

[Kenny Powers]

Ed Norton back?! Cant believe it. He's had a few movies I liked a good bit-a lot over the last decade (The Score, Red Dragon, 25th Hour, Illusionist, Hulk, Pride and Glory), but not since The Score do I think he's taken on a challenging, interesting role and excelled at it like he did in the 90's many times and made me a huge fan after only a handful of movies.

Finally looks like he might have actually taken a role he couldnt sleep thru with Leaves of Grass. This movie looks great.

 

[hooter311]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

Watched this over the weekend. I thought it was almost easily the best of the series since the original, and based on the storyline, really shouldve been Saw 2 or 3. And I agree, these remain some of the most interesting horror movies, so I'll still watch each one at some point7.2/10

Upon further thought, this was the only sequel in the series that had me actually care at all about the killer's motivations. The killer actually grew on me. Looking forward to the supposed finale of the series next year. I hope they can keep the momentum going. Can't rate it as high as you though but I thought it was on par with 2 & 4, which were my 2nd favorites after the original. 3 and 5 really didn't do it for me.

 

[hooter311]

Ed Norton back?! Cant believe it. He's had a few movies I liked a good bit-a lot over the last decade (The Score, Red Dragon, 25th Hour, Illusionist, Hulk, Pride and Glory), but not since The Score do I think he's taken on a challenging, interesting role and excelled at it like he did in the 90's many times and made me a huge fan after only a handful of movies.

Finally looks like he might have actually taken a role he couldnt sleep thru with Leaves of Grass. This movie looks great.

Wow, almost didn't click on the link because of the title. Doesn't look like an award winner but potentially a darn entertaining movie. Can't wait to see some Tim Blake Nelson/ Norton interaction.Written and directed by TBN too I see, awesome, guy is a majorly overlooked talent I always enjoy on screen.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

Watched this over the weekend. I thought it was almost easily the best of the series since the original, and based on the storyline, really shouldve been Saw 2 or 3. And I agree, these remain some of the most interesting horror movies, so I'll still watch each one at some point7.2/10

Upon further thought, this was the only sequel in the series that had me actually care at all about the killer's motivations. The killer actually grew on me. Looking forward to the supposed finale of the series next year. I hope they can keep the momentum going. Can't rate it as high as you though but I thought it was on par with 2 & 4, which were my 2nd favorites after the original. 3 and 5 really didn't do it for me.

I kind of correlate my ratings according to genre, expectations, popcorn flick vs low key, etc. So for Saw, I mostly compare it to other horror but box office fodder as well. I by no mean think the movie was great, but like I said, I thought it was the best since 1. I think I gave Pandorum 7.8 or so, this getting 7.2 seems fair.I didnt know there was only going to be 1 more, I figured theyd make another every halloween until people quit seeing them

 

[Wingnut]

Avatar - 7.5/10. Good movie, but I dont know why its the #1 grossing movie of all time. Maybe the 3-d has something to do with it (I watched it at home in non 3-d). Some of the CGI was pedestrian, and some it was great.

Cirque Du Freak (The Vampires Assistant) - 3/10. My gf watched the whole movie, I lost interest 30 minutes in. Didnt finish it. Bad, bad, bad.

On deck in the DVD player:

Creation

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

The Informant!

Three Kings <--- already saw it, am revisiting it thanks to this thread

 

[jdoggydogg]

I didn't think this warranted a new thread, but I was killing time this week and decided to list my DVD / Blu Ray collection. List yours, if you feel like it.

The catch is: you can't simply list your favorite DVDs. Thus, the listing of the live Bee Gees DVD my brother in law bought us:

The Godfather Collection (I, II, and III)

Apocalyspse Now

Goodfellas

Casino

Gangs of New York

The Departed

Raging Bull

SE7EN

Fight Club

300

Pulp FIction

Reservoir Dogs

Jackie Brown

Inglourious Basterds

Bottle Rocket

Silence of the Lambs

Hannibal

Leon: The Professional

The Mummy

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barells

Boogie Nights

Magnolia

True Romance

Miller's Crossing

Scarface

Sin City

American Psycho

Full Metal Jacket

Species

Spiderman 3

Glengarry Glenn Ross

The Sopranos: Season 1

John Carpenter's The Thing

The Matrix Trilogy

Heat

Starship Troopers

Blade Runner

The Evil Dead

Gladiator

The Brotherhood of the Wolf

Iron Monkey

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Office Space

Bad Santa

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Usual Suspects

Kingpin

Dumb and Dumber

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Slayer: Reign in Blood Live

Portishead: Live in NY

Stormtroopers of Death: Kill Yourself (the movie)

The Bee Gees Live

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live

Jazz Casual (Gillespie, Coltrane)

Toy Story 1& 2

Cars

Wall-E

A Bug's Life

 

[newteech]

wife made me watch The Time Traveler's Wife

Chick flick. It sucked

 

[hooter311]

If I listed my dvd collection, nobody would ever take my critiques seriously again.

Mainly because most of my personal favorites have been lent out to friends and never returned.

I do have a LOT of overlap from your list jdoggy.

 

[Anonymous Internet User]

DVD collection (no blu-rays yet), in no particular order & from memory (might be omissions)

Godfather I + II (don't own III)

Goodfellas

Heat

Casino

Donnie Brasco

The Departed

Lord of the Rings trilogy

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark + Last Crusade (don't own Temple of Doom or Crystal Skull)

Pulp Fiction

Jackie Brown

Kill Bill I + II

True Romance

Resevoir Dogs

Death Proof + Planet Terror

28 Days Later

28 Weeks Later

Outbreak

12 Monkeys

Fifth Element

The Mist

Sixth Sense

Braveheart

Gladiator

Master & Commander

Black Hawk Down

Saving Private Ryan

Band of Brothers

Troy

Ghostbusters I + II

Seven Samurai

Yojimbo

Princess Bride

Hard Boiled

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Fearless

Hero

House of Flying Daggers

Unforgiven

3:10 to Yuma

Andromeda Strain

Gattaca

Transformers

Let the Right One In

Underworld series (original + Evolution + Rise of the Lycans)

Jack Ryan series (Clear & Present Danger, Patriot Games, Sum of All Fears, Hunt for Red October)

Air Force One

Crimson Tide

The Rock

Contact

Sphere

Donnie Darko

Napoleon Dynamite

Bourne trilogy

Sergio Leone trilogy

Pan's Labyrinth

Iron Man

Batman Begins + Dark Knight

Spiderman trilogy

X-Men trilogy

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Prestige

The Illusionist

Usual Suspects

Fight Club

Shawshank Redemption

Mr. Brooks

Inglorious Basterds

Terminator 1-3

Rocky

Deer Hunter

Matrix

Children of Men

American Psycho

Fugitive + U.S. Marshall

300

Sin City

V for Vendetta

Apocalypse Now

Full Metal Jacket

Apollo 11

Memento

Transporter I + II

I Am Legend

Platoon

Rock n Rolla

Lock Stock n Two Smoking Barrels

Snatch

Shoot Em Up

Star Trek

Knowing

Serenity + Firefly series

Futurama Vol. 1-4

Star Wars III + original trilogy

Alien I - III

Cowboy Bebop series

Layer Cake

Smokin Aces

Se7en

LA Confidential

Stargate

The Professional

Riddick trilogy

Resident Evil trilogy

Silence of the Lambs

O Brother Where Art Thou

Office Space

Monty Python ... Holy Grail

Raging Bull

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Boondock Saints

Airplane

Equilibrium

Ocean's Eleven

National Treasure I + II

Cloverfield

Watchmen

Sunshine

Twister

Manchurian Candidate (remake)

 

[Payne]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

Watched this over the weekend. I thought it was almost easily the best of the series since the original, and based on the storyline, really shouldve been Saw 2 or 3. And I agree, these remain some of the most interesting horror movies, so I'll still watch each one at some point7.2/10

Upon further thought, this was the only sequel in the series that had me actually care at all about the killer's motivations. The killer actually grew on me. Looking forward to the supposed finale of the series next year. I hope they can keep the momentum going. Can't rate it as high as you though but I thought it was on par with 2 & 4, which were my 2nd favorites after the original. 3 and 5 really didn't do it for me.

Can I watch VI having not seen V? I believe IV is the last one I watched.

 

[hooter311]

Saw 6

If you can stomach the beginning, that's the most gruesome part. Half way through I thought to myself, why do I bother still watching these? But by the end I was entranced. I'll watch the 7th one next year too, although I could care less about the "twists" they always try to throw in. I can vaguely follow the storyline and have no idea what scenes are from what number of film. First one will always remain a masterpiece in my book.

2/5

Watched this over the weekend. I thought it was almost easily the best of the series since the original, and based on the storyline, really shouldve been Saw 2 or 3. And I agree, these remain some of the most interesting horror movies, so I'll still watch each one at some point7.2/10

Upon further thought, this was the only sequel in the series that had me actually care at all about the killer's motivations. The killer actually grew on me. Looking forward to the supposed finale of the series next year. I hope they can keep the momentum going. Can't rate it as high as you though but I thought it was on par with 2 & 4, which were my 2nd favorites after the original. 3 and 5 really didn't do it for me.

Can I watch VI having not seen V? I believe IV is the last one I watched.

Sure. I don't think you'd be missing much if anything. 20% of the movie is footage from the ones preceeding it anyway. They show the last few minutes of V in the opening so if you do ever decide to watch it, the killer won't be much of a surprise. Like I said, I barely remember them and still and drawn to the series.

 

[jdoggydogg]

If I listed my dvd collection, nobody would ever take my critiques seriously again.Mainly because most of my personal favorites have been lent out to friends and never returned.I do have a LOT of overlap from your list jdoggy.

Oh please. Do it. I mean, I love classic films. But there really isn't a classic film I need to see more than a couple of times. So I just buy the movies that I like to watch over and over. Remember, as long as no one gets hurt, there should be no such thing as a guilty pleasure.

 

[jdoggydogg]

DVD collection (no blu-rays yet), in no particular order & from memory (might be omissions)Master & Commander

This is a movie that I cannot wait to watch with my son. He's about to turn seven. I'm thinking he'll be ready within a year or so.

 

[hooter311]

If I listed my dvd collection, nobody would ever take my critiques seriously again.Mainly because most of my personal favorites have been lent out to friends and never returned.I do have a LOT of overlap from your list jdoggy.

Oh please. Do it. I mean, I love classic films. But there really isn't a classic film I need to see more than a couple of times. So I just buy the movies that I like to watch over and over. Remember, as long as no one gets hurt, there should be no such thing as a guilty pleasure.

I'll post it tonight so I don't omit anything. Be prepared to meet the guy that actually owns movies like Wagons East! and Freddy Got Fingered.