Rate the last movie that you saw for the first time.

[drave]

All this talk about Kubrick makes me wanna go re-watch A Clockwork Orange again.


Love that film. Didn't quite get it all when I first watched it (was young, really young) but watched it many MANY times again.


Favorite scene is when they break into the house with the exercise obsessed lady and Alex (Malcom McDowell) starts hitting the giant cock. That entire scenario is fantastic. I really shouldn't laugh, but it was too funny.

[Destor]

There's a bit of misdirection in that film i really appreciate. Near the top of the film the gang comes on another gang about to rape a girl and they run them off. There's this moment where the audience can think "these guys are thugs but have a moral code." Only within 30 min to have them show that no there is no line. It makes the home invasion scene have a a sense of betrayal on top of the violent horror.

[drave]

I'm a bad person

[Destor]

Oh for sure. The worst.

[Destor]

[Destor]

Saving Private Ryan - 8/10

The storming of Omaha would be the best war sequence ever filmed to this day if theyd never made 1917. Of course i wouldnt judge a film against what was made after it im simply saying its really a cut above. At that point there's nothing put to film thats better.

Like that opening battle the film takes all the romance out of the picture and replaces it with sorrow and fear but it manages not to lose heroism which would have been very easy to do. Fear is a theme throughout the film even in a character who's central arc is hus own cowardice and boldly he doesnt overcome it at all. Instead it costs him his humanity in some ways; the war leaving him less honorable than it found him.

The thing that impressed me the most with the picture is the casting though. The secondary and tertiary roles are littered with talent but they arent what youd expect to find in a war film. This cast seems like the people you would find in any neighborhood anywhere in America. Theyre normal people who've been burdened with mountainous task. There are tough guys about but they remain human and not charactature.

Where does it rank among Spielberg's best work? Hard to say. Close Encounters, Jaws, Indiana Jones, ET, Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List. These films are known to basically everyone. Saving Private Ryan belongs in their tier i think without question. Whati think i can say is was his last truly great film up to this point. He's made good films since. Catch Me if You Can for instance but nothing thats on this level of excellence.

Will he ever again? Time will tell.

[Lock Jaw]

Bullet Train - 9/10

Ridiculously fun and entertaining...

[Destor]

Im looking forward to that coming out on bluray

[drave]

Originally Posted by Destor Saving Private Ryan - 8/10 The storming of Omaha would be the best war sequence ever filmed to this day if theyd never made 1917. Of course i wouldnt judge a film against what was made after it im simply saying its really a cut above. At that point there's nothing put to film thats better. Like that opening battle the film takes all the romance out of the picture and replaces it with sorrow and fear but it manages not to lose heroism which would have been very easy to do. Fear is a theme throughout the film even in a character who's central arc is hus own cowardice and boldly he doesnt overcome it at all. Instead it costs him his humanity in some ways; the war leaving him less honorable than it found him. The thing that impressed me the most with the picture is the casting though. The secondary and tertiary roles are littered with talent but they arent what youd expect to find in a war film. This cast seems like the people you would find in any neighborhood anywhere in America. Theyre normal people who've been burdened with mountainous task. There are tough guys about but they remain human and not charactature. Where does it rank among Spielberg's best work? Hard to say. Close Encounters, Jaws, Indiana Jones, ET, Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List. These films are known to basically everyone. Saving Private Ryan belongs in their tier i think without question. Whati think i can say is was his last truly great film up to this point. He's made good films since. Catch Me if You Can for instance but nothing thats on this level of excellence. Will he ever again? Time will tell.

I will watch this film every single chance I get. Amazing. This is the first film I played when I got my Atmos system and FOOOOOOOOOOOK.

[Helmsphere]

Wreck it Ralph: 8/10

Took off one whole point because while tolorable in this, I could still tell it was Sarah Silverman.

[OssMan]

Nope

Good... very "visually striking"... didnt totally understand everything that was going on... lots of little funny stuff... good...

[OssMan]

Originally Posted by Destor Lolita (1962) - 9/10 Very racey film for the peroid. It remains visually striking like all of Kubricks work. He frames his shots like theyre paintings making even the dullest scene interesting, not that any of these scenes are dull. In a lot of ways this film is echoed later with Eyes Wide Shut but in obviously very different ways. The subject matter is more taboo today than then and it was way very taboo then. Kubrick is fearless though and goes headlong into a tale about sexual obsession with a minor and in this film there are no winners save the audience.

Cant imagine watching this, I read the book and despite it being fantastically written and engrossing it was thoroughly disgusting and i feel like what made the book so good was all the little details that get stripped away in film adaptations. I just watched Anna Karenina after reading it and the same thing happened there, these russian guys specialize in that stuff and the hollywood treatment just changes the focus of the work as a whole. I get that if you go into a film adaptation of the book looking for the same experience or w/e youre gonna be disappointed but that combined with the subject matter just yeah don't want to go near that

[Destor]

I think avoiding that is what makes the Kubrick film work. Its all very understated but clearly there and if you've read the book it adds a richness to what goes unsaid

[Lock Jaw]

Elvis - 8.5/10

Enjoyed it.... sad

[drave]

if it doesn't end with him on the shitter, then 0/10.

[Destor]

Being the Ricardos - 7/10

I expected to hate this. Ive never found Kidman particularly convincing and with her as the lead i didnt have much to rest my hat on. She doesnt light up the stage but she doesnt get in the way of the picture.

Kidman aside i love Sorkins writing so i watching this was inevitable i suppose. Its good. Not his best but its good. Communism is at the core of the plot and knowing Sorkins politics i expected a very different picture than the one i got.

SPOILER: show

The 1st 2 acts i was getting what i expected. Subtly telling us communism isnt so bad. Lucy repeatedly justifying it with "i support workers." But the film wasnt lecturing me. The focus was on how the accusations affected them not the politics itself. I can respect that.

The 3rd act however surprised me. Desi, American military veteran and communist survivor, set her straight. Unapologetically and with no rebuttal there or later in the film. In 2021 in a Hollywood picture he openly and unequivocally condemns communism. I didnt know Sorkin had it in him. Its a brief exchange, it doesnt grand stand or brow beat the audience, but its there. I appreciated that.

Sorkin does have a knack in his dialog to organically weave conversation with politics in human way and thats present here in the A plot.

The B plot is odd and a bit disjointed. All the tension is in the A plot. Cutting away to the B plot, which is focused on the couples young love in the form of flash backs, often sees the films pace come to a hault. These scenes arent bad and theyre integral to the climax but it does feel out of place, even though savy movie goers know this will boomerang around.

There's also the issue with the timeline of the climax of the film not matching the inquisition..but whatever.

Still i think the film works even with the glaring issue. Largely thanks to how good the cast is. Jarvier Bardem, while not a career high, is excellent here and his singing voice is alarmingly good. JK Simmons steals every single scene he's in. I could go on.

All in all its not a bad picture or a bad script. Its solid. If you're interested in the premise i think give it a watch. Its the freshest take on McCarthyism since the 60s...mostly because its been the exact same take from Hollywood since the 60s but still. If you like Sorkin give it a go. If not give it a pass.

[Lock Jaw]

Top Gun: 6.5/10

Was ok I guess.

[Destor]

Trying to watch morbius for the 2nd night in a row. Bet i fall asleep again

[Destor]

Well there's always tonight i guess

[Destor]

Welli finally managed it


Morbius - 3/10

Talk about a shit show. I leave the film feeling very bad for its actors. Its not their fault. This script has nothing for them to do. How they didnt know that going into this is beyond me but here we are all the same. Matt Smith and Jared Harris have the only decent scene in the film but sticking two A+ actors alone in a room and theyre bound to get something interesting out of it. Fortunately for them no ones seen them in this film so their shame should go largely unnoticed.

The film is rushed. There's a saying, for decades, that American films dont have a 3rd act. Generally i think this is pretty true. Especially with popcorn films. Act 1 set up the characters. Act 2 peak the conflict. Act 3 reverse everything we did in act 2. Credits.

By that logic this film doesnt have acts. Its an exercise in reaching an end state. There isnt a narrative developing instead its a race to a finish line where this character can exist in a larger pool.

Our hero's journey is purely to defeat the villain. The villains motivation is crush kill destroy. A better A plot would have been dealing withhis hunger and searching for a sustainable solution. It would give us something to rally along side Morbius and would make his actions herioc. Saving people from himself. The villain can be the B plot. A foil in his efforts.

Instead its visually uninteresting action with powers randomly occuring with no set up so the audience doesnt feel anything when these McGuffins fortuitously arrive.

It's writing at its laziest. That's so because this film was never seriously contemplated. Instead they focused on a finish line they were never going to cross.

[Destor]

Apocalypse Now (Theatrical Cut) - 9/10

I'd seen Redux...and hated it. This however is a film the deserves the reputation. That said its hard to write a review for it since ive seen a version of it. No clue why edited the film again to make that truly terrible Redux version but...they did. Ive spent decades thinking that it was me and i just didnt click with the film. Nope. Its that cut.

I dont think, even with this superior version, in the final analysis that this is the definitive Vietnam picture. I think that's Full Metal Jacket. I say that having not seen Platoon though (I did purchase Platoon and ill be watching it in the next week or so. I want to give some air between these two.)

Watching this film i was thinking on the American War Film Oeuvre in a broad sense while watching this though. The WW2 pictures of the 40s-60s were hero flicks. Good vs bad. Essentially cowboy films.

Juxtapose them with Nam films. There's no hero.no morality. This is the American psyche struggling to admit something. Something darker than the films even allow for. The films want to have a post moralist tilt. I find that dishonest on some level. We were the villain.

The nam films never go that far of course. They cant. The customers fought there, their loved ones died there. There isnt an audience for that film...if the filmmaker even allows themselves to consider the thought let alone accept it.

But it is there underneath it all. Struggle its way to the surface of their minds. These films trend dark, this one literally devolves into a horror picture at the top of the third act. Theyre dark reflections we're struggling to cope with.

Id like to see an honest film on the modern wars. I envision an impressionist film showing them as procedural and disassociated. Wars conducted with automaton like actions. Lifeless and sterile. Gone is the passionate sound track of nam. The roaring heroism of ww2. A transactional presentation. Like a bloody walgreens receipt.

In any event this film definitely has a role in the great American film catalog without question. Im glad i finally gave it a go. After seeing Redux and now seeing this isa great testament, retroactively, to how paramount editors truly are.

[Seanny One Ball]

Platoon is a quality Vietnam war film, possibly the best. It is undeniably the best thing Oliver Stone ever did.

[Destor]

I have a big hard on for Natural Born Killers

[Seanny One Ball]

I don’t.

[drave]

Originally Posted by Destor Apocalypse Now (Theatrical Cut) - 9/10 I'd seen Redux...and hated it. This however is a film the deserves the reputation. That said its hard to write a review for it since ive seen a version of it. No clue why edited the film again to make that truly terrible Redux version but...they did. Ive spent decades thinking that it was me and i just didnt click with the film. Nope. Its that cut. I dont think, even with this superior version, in the final analysis that this is the definitive Vietnam picture. I think that's Full Metal Jacket. I say that having not seen Platoon though (I did purchase Platoon and ill be watching it in the next week or so. I want to give some air between these two.) Watching this film i was thinking on the American War Film Oeuvre in a broad sense while watching this though. The WW2 pictures of the 40s-60s were hero flicks. Good vs bad. Essentially cowboy films. Juxtapose them with Nam films. There's no hero.no morality. This is the American psyche struggling to admit something. Something darker than the films even allow for. The films want to have a post moralist tilt. I find that dishonest on some level. We were the villain. The nam films never go that far of course. They cant. The customers fought there, their loved ones died there. There isnt an audience for that film...if the filmmaker even allows themselves to consider the thought let alone accept it. But it is there underneath it all. Struggle its way to the surface of their minds. These films trend dark, this one literally devolves into a horror picture at the top of the third act. Theyre dark reflections we're struggling to cope with. Id like to see an honest film on the modern wars. I envision an impressionist film showing them as procedural and disassociated. Wars conducted with automaton like actions. Lifeless and sterile. Gone is the passionate sound track of nam. The roaring heroism of ww2. A transactional presentation. Like a bloody walgreens receipt. In any event this film definitely has a role in the great American film catalog without question. Im glad i finally gave it a go. After seeing Redux and now seeing this isa great testament, retroactively, to how paramount editors truly are.

This really is a fucking masterpiece. Freshman year of college, we watched this, and also read Heart of Darkness. We did a "deep dive" on comparing and contrasting, as well as the shit Conrad took for the way he wrote the book. Helluva story, very interesting take on the mental effects horror and atrocities can have on man.


The book is good too, if you've not read it.

[drave]

Platoon is also very good, but is a different type of movie than this one. Personal ranking would be:


1) FMJ
2) Apocalypse Now
3) Good Morning Vietnam

4) Platoon

[Destor]

I do love GMV. Different kind of film obviously

[Seanny One Ball]

Casualties Of War is underrated, Hamburger Hill too. Brian De Palma once was a good director as well as an angry raconteur…now it’s just all anger. Redacted was a real nasty piece of work, even though it was supposed to be, it still went too far and had almost no artistic value.

Somebody should do a film about any of the numerous massacres in Vietnam, no single film shows that farce up quite as fully as it should be.
So many rapes and murders…

[Destor]

It comes down to who would finance that picture and how would they make their money back. War films are rarely cheap. They basically an action period piece. And now most of the antiwar people are dead...but i do strongly agree with you.

[Destor]

In the Company of Men (1997) - 8/10

Film takes the romcom trope of 2 guys bet on a girl and twists it. Here they both intend to woo her simultaneously and then break her heart as a vengeance on the female race. As an added bonus theyre both bastards. Chiefly Aaron Eckharts character. They pick a lonely deaf girl and the plot goes from there.

Good script with a lot of clever lines and a complete lack of fear allowing for our co-leads to unspeakably horrid people and letting us explore that space.

One of the things i found particularly intriguing is the lack of female characters. There are only 2 female roles and 1 is a minor chracter. Effectively for the films runtime there's 1. So the film is purely from the perspective of these vile men.

Which it should be noted that Stacy Edwards in incredibly effective and this film wouldn't work without her.

Smart premise, well crafted dialogue, and well acted. This is a very good film with a razor sharp edge.

[Destor]

And id like to point out that at no point does anyone turn to the audience and start moralizing.

[Destor]

Rashomon (1950) - 10/10

I think im a believer i Kurwasawa. I watched Seven Samuri last night/this morning (went to bed at intermission.) Great film but i wanted to see how it stacked up against his non action films. Seven Samuri is a great action. Its the kind of film ive seen from Kurwasawa in the past. Rashomon, while set in the same period, is a psychological thriller about truth and perspective.

These more serious films, even though Seven Samuri does have a serious point to make, are much much better.

This film centers around a man who finds a body in the woods and the trial that follows. Turns out a bandit came across a man and wife in the woods, fell upon them and raped the woman. The film plays out through flash backs of 4 first hand accounts of the same crime.

SPOILER: show

What's so good is all 4 accounts weigh emotional truth vs factual truth. And while all 4 accounts are lies they paint the hearts and egos of the tellers. In the end we dont have a clear picture of the truth. We have a clear picture of how each person felt and sometimes thats all we get.

Outstanding film.

[Destor]

Biutiful (2011) - 7/10

Death is a topic that haunts me to some degree. Maybe as much as it does everyone and maybe more. Who's to say. When i read the description of this film i was drawn to it immediately.

Javier Bardem is the lead here. Street criminal who sells knock off merchandise. His life is a shit show. Estranged drug addict possibly prostitute wife. No family save a brother who is fucking said possible whore wife. Javier has custody of the kids. And he just found out he has cancer with months left to live.

Its serendipitous timing that i watch this having just watched (the masterpiece) Ikiru as there are some interesting parallels. The film ultimately deals with the struggles of death at an existential level but it does it while never talking about it. Instead we get a performance by Bardem that is told often silently. And it is very much an actors film. His film.

If you like Bardems work and this kind of macabre exploration is up your alley its worth a watch. It has a lot to say with out saying it and i very much think its worth hearing. Though i would say its worth watching the superior Ikiru first as this serves as a continuation of the topic in many ways and I'd wager that was intentional.

[Destor]

The Man Who Wasn't There - 8/10

About to do a double feature and for "the diaries" sake i wanted to joty thoughts while they were fresh but dont, sadly, have time to go into detail.

Possibly a top 3 film for the Coen Brothers. No country for old men, imo, is above contestation as their best picture. After that would be, in some order, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou or this.

Juggernaut casting. Amazing visuals. Superb writing. If i didnt have someone waiting on me id write an essay on how good this picture is.

[Destor]

Platoon- 5/10

There are somethings this film does very very well. Theres an eye for details that truly come from first hand experiences. Ants crawling up their clothes, heat strokes, snakes, leeches. These mundane parts of life in this foreign land. These moments the film feels genuine and authentic. These moments, however, are superficial. Very little else feels genuine or authentic. For a film thats a first hand account, dramatized of course, this film rarely rings true.

This feels as authentic as Predator or any of the Rambo sequels. And i think for that reason its not remembered in the same breathe as the great war film of this or any era.

Willam Dafoe is superb. There's many roles i could point to that established him as a top 50 actor and while this wouldnt rank among his very best he's still far and away the apex of the film.

Compare his performance to the lead, Charlie Sheen, who is as vapid here as he is in Major Leagues. Inauthentic. Uninspired. His lifeless voice overs wax poetic but are void of any real insights.

And thats the film as a whole. Insipid.

And how this won best editing is beyong me. Its completely disjointed.

Its not a terrible film, few major Hollywood films are less than 4s for example. Watch some truly bad art films and your standards for what a bad film is will quickly change... but it isnt a good one either.

It ranks nearly at the absolute bottom of all "classic" war films and I'll say, off the top of my head, its the worst film to win best picture that ive seen. It's a high budget B list 80s action film with an over-inflated sense of artistry.

[drave]

Feel like Platoon was just "Big Hollywood" jumping on the trend of war movies and fucking it up, kinda like today's MAJOR ACTION MOVIE START CONGLOMERATE MOVIE FILM!!!

[Destor]

I think it was critically acclaimed because since Stone was a veteran and since Stones film said everything the critics said about the war from the outside looking in that it validated their opinions. So instead of judging on the merits of the film they judged by the merits of their own egos.

[drave]

Well said.

[drave]

It got the whole "video game" treatment too. The game was worse than the film.

[Seanny One Ball]

Charlie Sheen is out of his league between Dafoe and Berenger in Platoon. Even the supporting actors regularly lead him as performers, but that’s the whole point really. Charlie Sheen is supposed to look out of his depth and outclassed at every turn. Sadly he literally is in terms of acting quality and that’s where Destor gets it spot on.
That was an excellent review but I disagree with the rating, though I fully understand your position on it.