Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

are you serious? is that your summary of The River?

I mean, as I said, I definitely don't think it's that great a movie, but you really think the movie is about the kid getting bitten by the snake?

That's the payoff. And then they give the kid an Indian burial. As they say in the Profession of Arms: bravo sierra. The whole film is an exercise in bad faith.

[noodles_leone]

The Sopranos, season 1 - 8/10

Stanton was right, it's getting better and better, and the whole season works better than each single episode.

[stanton]

And the 2nd season is then incredible.

When Richie comes home from prison ...

[sargatanas]

" the exiles " a 1961 film about a largely forgoten corner
of a depectively bright city is nothing less a welcome act of
defiant remembrance. the night photography alone would
make the film imortal
http://www.exilesfilm.com/  

[dave jenkins]

Dept. of So Hot, I'll Watch Anything As Long As It's Shown in An Air-Conditioned Cinema

Monster's University (2013) 4/10. This prequel has none of the inventiveness of the first film. It rehashes what we already know, but adds a campus comedy plot that is also a rehash. Oh well, the theater was nice and cool.

Red 2 (2013) 6/10. There was a Red 1, and I saw it, but I can't remember anything about it other than Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren were in it as superspies brought out of retirement to do something or other. This new one is probably just as forgettable, although it includes appearances by Brian Cox, David Thewlis, and Anthony Hopkins (who starts out rather lame, but warms up as his part becomes more important). It provided me with a couple of laughs, even though the body count, which is through the roof, undercuts a lot of the humor. Again, I really appreciated the cool and the dark of the theater.

[dave jenkins]

Only God Forgives (2013) 3/10. Visually interesting, sonically impressive—Cliff Martinez has done it again!—as narrative, however, this film is a joke. The situations are absurd, the plot ridiculous, the dialog risible—the Noho crowd I saw this with kept breaking into laughter at inappropriate times. The actors, as well as the camera, were often immobile—the film should have been called Pose (the guy from Drive was called upon to do very little actual acting). When the actors did shift position, it was as if they were moving through jello. The color scheme—heavy on reds and blacks—looked good. The sudden eruptions of violence were almost Python-esque (causing more inappropriate laughter). This won’t be a future Blu-ray purchase for me—might get the soundtrack CD, though.

[Groggy]

Originally my moviegoing choice this weekend had been between Only God Forgives and The Lone Ranger. Even a week ago it seemed like a one-sided affair. Now I'm looking for a third option.

[Groggy]

Monster's University (2013) 4/10. This prequel has none of the inventiveness of the first film. It rehashes what we already know, but adds a campus comedy plot that is also a rehash. Oh well, the theater was nice and cool.

The first film wasn't THAT inventive. It was basically a reworking of Aaah! Real Monsters using sparkly CGI.

[PowerRR]

Only God Forgives - 3/10
No plot? No problem. I'm a huge Malick fan, after all. But when you throw away characterization and any sort of meaning, this turns into nothing more than Refn's exercise in style. It looks relatively unique, despite the overabundance of red and being an amateur hybrid of Kubrick and Lynch at times. Some good music matches some good visuals, and it was watchable. So 3 points for nothing but the distracting, "look at me I'm a director" style. At least he tried. And at least I didn't actually pay for this.

[dave jenkins]

Only God Forgives - 3/10
And at least I didn't actually pay for this.

Neat trick. Explain.

[dave jenkins]

Originally my moviegoing choice this weekend had been between Only God Forgives and The Lone Ranger. Even a week ago it seemed like a one-sided affair. Now I'm looking for a third option.

You want to see either Fill the Void or Museum Hours. If you're stuck with multi-plex fare, you're best bet is Red 2.

[noodles_leone]

Only God Forgives - 3/10
 But when you throw away any sort of meaning,

No. The meaning may be childish (it's actually "Freud 101") but there is a meaning.
And once again, it's less "look at me I'm a director" than "look at me: fuck you", which is a bit childish too, but still damn cool.

[dave jenkins]

No. The meaning may be childish (it's actually "Freud 101") but there is a meaning.

I'd say that there is an attempt at a meaning, but the film is actually incoherent.

[PowerRR]

Neat trick. Explain.

There are fancy websites which allow you to stream DVD quality movies. It's technically illegal, but since you're not actually downloading anything, nobody watching can get in trouble (only those uploading). Only God Forgives went online quickly because, like To the Wonder (which I actually did pay for), it was a straight to On Demand movie. It's not something I normally do, but in the case of Only God Forgives I wasn't willing to spend $8 for a movie which has been universally torn apart.

Acts like this do end up hurting indie filmmakers but in Refn's case here I don't really care. Malick earned my money.

Noodles_leone:

As far as the movie goes, it may not be completely void of meaning, but it's uninteresting enough where I just don't care. Despite my very low rating I actually don't hate the film, and like you I respect (to an extent) what Refn was doing in terms of the "hey fuck you, I can do what I want" type deal. It just turned out to be a huge failure, IMO.

For the record I liked Drive and Bronson. I don't think Drive was half-worthy of the love it earned, but it's still good to see something of smaller caliber reach such success. Both of those are 7/10ish. I haven't seen any other of Refn's work but I'm still interested in most of it.

[Groggy]

Only God Forgives - 4/10 - Can't add much to Jenkins and Powers' comments, though I'll be slightly more generous: the visuals are nice enough certain stretches are tolerable. But I started growing impatient during the hooker's masturbation scene, "cleverly" contrasted with dismemberment fantasies and super dramatic music swelling on the soundtrack. The first karaoke scene, presented without irony or humor, convinced me I was going to hate this movie. The next 75 minutes bore out my prediction. But hey, it was better than The Great Gatsby.