The Latest Movies (Non-Anime) You Are Watching Right Now

[llj]

Gone Girl--Seems like everyone in America was talking about this a few weeks ago. A lot of people are very disturbed by it, mostly married couples and people who read gender relations subtext into everything. I guess not being married and being a fan of so many seedy Euro thrillers makes me immune to the shock factor of a diabolically clever woman setting her guy up. Or that the idea of a sociopathic female is somehow a line that shouldn't be crossed. Didn't we go through this before in the 90s with Basic Instinct?

It's a very well crafted movie and its attention to detail is impeccable as you would expect from a David Fincher film. Then again, Basic Instinct is actually a pretty well crafted thriller as well. It just takes itself less seriously than Gone Girl.

[llj]

Aside from my theatre-going outings, I really haven't watched a whole lot of movies on DVD in the past 3-4 months. The sole exceptions being this Eric Rohmer kick I've been on for the past 6 months. I basically watch about 1-2 Rohmer features per month--they're mostly all alike in story, but when you start to grok where Rohmer is going with them, you realize that each film is more like a part of a whole, much like most of Ozu's output. That makes it difficult to distinguish one film from another in your head, but as a result you have a much more focused impression of Rohmer's general stylings. Last night I sat down and watched My Night at Maud's...surely one of his best I've seen to date (the others being Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee and Love in the Afternoon).

Aside from hardcore film buffs, the French New Wave probably has no relevance to most filmgoers today. EVen for the growing legion of cult film fans, they don't seem to register. Hipsters may watch 1 or 2 so that they can name drop whenever they're on a date (you can immediately tell who's a legit buff or not by the substance of their name drops) Which is a shame. There's still a lot here to discover (or rediscover) for the adventurous filmgoer.

[greg]

This weekend I rented two movies.

Moonrise Kingdom. I enjoy Wes Anderson movies. Each of his movies are like a fantasy or something. The camera moves back and forth and many of the sets are made to look like a doll house, and the characters all speak in the same way. Very matter-of-factly and bluntly. When I watch a Wes Anderson movie, it's like I'm watching his imaginary play time. My favorite remains The Life Aquatic, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox is my second favorite.

So I think this is Bruce Willis's first time to appear in a Wes Anderson movie. It takes place on an island where two kids run off together and the whole island they live on is after them. Again, it is totally fantasy. The island is very detached from reality, the boy that nobody likes turns out to be an extremely likeable yet eccentric person, and the scouts are more like some paramilitary more than just a boy scout troupe. As always, the characters say and do things unpredictably without any reason or explanation. These movies are always just pure escapism that spark my imagination.

The Wolverine. I missed this movie when it came out last year. I didn't know that the movie leads right up to Days of Future Past. My wife and I used to watch a lot of movies together before our daughter was born, but nowadays she barely watches any. Back then, she'd say "Hey, let's watch Raiders of the Lost Ark" or something, but her personality changed for some reason. It's like her personality lever was cranked all the way over to the "MOM" end of the spectrum and it broke off. This movie, however held her attention. Maybe because it was about Japan. I dunno. I'm just glad that we watched an X-Men movie together. I really enjoyed it, but I am pretty sure there were some plot holes that needed explaining. I still can't imagine why that guy would order a mafia hit on his own daughter like that. I could figure out what Yashida was after and what his plan was right away, although a review I watched claimed that his motive was unclear. I still couldn't figure out how Wolverine got his bone claws back, altough I guess he does have regenerative abilities, so I suppose that would include limbs. Maybe I will try watching it again before I must return it to Tsutaya Friday night. The incredible fight scene on top of the shinkansen was the top of the movie for me, I think. That was really the coolest part of the movie.

[llj]

I'm interesting in hearing your opinions on Grand Budapest Hotel when you see it, Greg. There were times afterwards when I considered it my favorite Wes Anderson, and then other times 3rd or 4th favorite. My family doesn't "get" Wes Anderson. Too quirky and eccentric for them. Really liked Moonrise Kingdom, though I haven't seen it since it was in theatres. I've been waiting for a Criterion re-release.

The Wolverine was one of the few superhero movies I wanted to see when it came out. Should get around to catching it on DVD/BD sometime.

[greg]

My wife doesn't understand Wes Anderson movies, either. She knows that Bill Murray is funny, but when she would walk into the living room when I was watching Life Aquatic, she'd as me, "Is this a comedy? It doesn't look like one. Why are you laughing?" That one was probably the funniest IMHO. I loved the part after they raided the pirate base to free Jeff Goldblum from captivity, and Bill Murray says, "We forgot the dog! We have to go back for the dog!" And everyone just glares at him and shakes their head. "Well, forget about the dog." Although not as hilarious, Moonrise also had some token Wes humor too. Like when people are asking about Bill Murray's black eye and said he went looking for his daughter in the dark, then later he says, "She stole the batteries from my flashlight." Because the girl had said that she took batteries to use for her record player. Or when the boy says, "Maybe we can feed the fish bones to your cat." "Oh, that's alright. She eats cat food." And it turns out that she brought along all these cans of cat food (but didn't bother bringing any human food). It's just subtle, full of irony, and cute.

I have to return the movies I rented to Tsutaya tonight. I won't have time to watch Wolverine a second time. I will see about renting some other movies, and will probably grab either Darjeeling or Budapest.

[_D_]

Really liked Big Hero 6 even though it was nothing like the comics...

Looking forward to Kingsman, Battle of The Five Armies, among others...

[greg]

I watched Kubrick's The Shining last night. Yesteday we drove up to spend a week at the in-laws' place up in the mountains, so I brought a bunch of DVDs to watch while we're here.

I hadn't seen The Shining for at least 12 or more years. We watched the miniseries which is supposedly more accurate to the book and has Stephen King's blessing, but it was really bland and I kept thinking, "The dad isn't scary in this one... it's the funny guy from Wings! He's not scary, he's cute!" The best I got from the miniseries is that the hotel is trying to collect dead souls in order to level up or something. That made sense, and that is why the hotel was trying to make Jack kill his family.

Anyhow, I read a FAQ about the movie last night. It explains why there is both the Charles Grady who killed his family and the Delbert Grady who was the old butler. The hedge maze is like a metaphor of the labrynth into insanity. In the movie, Wendy is also hopelessly lost and hysterical, and the catatonic boy is lost in his own mind. I know that for myself, when life is overwhelming me, I get easily confused and easily agitated. It's very easy to fall into the trap of lashing out at loved ones when you're going through a stressful time at work or whatever. It can become infectious.

So the Kubrick version is cinematic genius. It's creepy, disorienting, and it's best to not explain everything.

[llj]

For some reason King has been resistant to the film adaptations that actually are good movies. I guess it's no surprise that a writer would prefer a movie adaptation of his books stay true to them, but movies and books are different mediums. I mean, I seem to recall King not liking the De Palma version of Carrie either, but it's pretty well established that Carrie and The Shining are basically the best movies based on his books. Although while The Shining is great because of Kubrick's direction, Carrie is good more for Sissy Spacek's performance than De Palma's direction.

Sounds like you have been catching up on some Kubrick the last couple of months, Greg. He truly is one of the great directors, and very versatile too. There used to be the argument that he wasn't funny, but Dr Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange are VERY funny films. I guess for years people missed it because they're just humour pitched black.

[greg]

Dr Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange are VERY funny films.

My favorite scene from Clockwork Orange that had me laughing and rewinding like crazy was the feeding scene. One Kubrick movie I've never seen (and next on the list of his movies to watch) is Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, the Vietnam war movie filmed in London, with the famous "What's your major malfunction?" line. I never did see that one.

Today we went to Tsutaya, where there's a deal for 5 movie rentals for 1,000 yen. Tonight I watched Captain America with my mom-in-law. She's never seen it before. She skipped several Marvel movies and went straight to Avengers. I've only seen this movie once before, in the theaters, and now seeing it a second time, it makes me pretty certain that the Tessaract sent the Red Skull to Valhalla or somewhere instead of killing him. We'll probably see Hugo Weaving again in another Marvel movie. I am really glad that he has evaded being typecast as Agent Smith or Elrond and continues to star in movies.

I think tomorrow we will watch Captain America: Winter Soldier. I missed that movie in the theater earlier this year.

[usamimi]

For some reason King has been resistant to the film adaptations that actually are good movies. I guess it's no surprise that a writer would prefer a movie adaptation of his books stay true to them, but movies and books are different mediums. I mean, I seem to recall King not liking the De Palma version of Carrie either, but it's pretty well established that Carrie and The Shining are basically the best movies based on his books. Although while The Shining is great because of Kubrick's direction, Carrie is good more for Sissy Spacek's performance than De Palma's direction.

Sounds like you have been catching up on some Kubrick the last couple of months, Greg. He truly is one of the great directors, and very versatile too. There used to be the argument that he wasn't funny, but Dr Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange are VERY funny films. I guess for years people missed it because they're just humour pitched black.

The Shining is one of my favorite books, but even I really love the Kubrick film because visually it's just awesome, and the soundtrack paired with the visuals (along with Nicholson's creepiness) can be very jarring, which is perfect for that kind of movie. And Carrie is fantastic, too---like you said, Spacek's performance is just so believable, and I always loved the fact that they used real fire in the end. Real fire will always look more scary than CGI flames.

I had a free trial of Amazon Prime and forgot that I could watch a bunch of free stuff on Amazon Instant, so I've been soaking up movies while I can before it expires on new years. XD Here's what I've seen so far:

The Woman in Black - had some creepy parts, but I definitely wouldn't call it scary unless you easily freak out over scary movies. The story was pretty predictable, though.

Under The Skin - this was a very intriguing movie because it didn't really tell you what was going on....you had to kind of figure it out for yourself. I've seen it described as both a horror movie and a sci-fi movie. I dunno if I'd really call it horror, but there's a lot of tension and unease that build up in parts of the movie. It had some very interesting visuals and the soundtrack definitely added to the creepiness of it, but there were other times it dragged a lot. I think if it had just a LITTLE more of a narrative going on, I would've loved it, but it was still an enjoyable at least once.

The Man Who Fell To Earth - I hadn't seen this movie in YEARS, and seeing Under The Skin made Amazon recommend it to me (which, after you see it, kinda makes sense) so I figured why not? I think I got a lot more enjoyment out of it as an adult (I first saw it at 16, I think), though it's still one of those movies that is kinda weird and not all together there at times. Still has some lovely cinematography (and David Bowie is always a nice bonus for me, but that's my personal bias XD).

Coherence - This one was really interesting! I'd NEVER heard of this movie, but it was really unique in the way it was shot and how the story unfolded. It was probably one of the most...organic feeling light sci-fi movies I've seen in a while. If you've ever seen "Primer" and liked it, you'd probably like this one. It was like a long Twilight Zone episode, I really dug it.

I also rented The Babadook, which is an Australian horror movie that was pretty damn creepy. If you like horror movies, I totally recommend checking it out. For something that was apparently made on a shoestring budget, it didn't look like it.