Even More Movies You've Watched This Week II

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

PACIFIC RIM…TAKE A DAY AND GO SEE THIS FREAKING FLICK. IT WAS KICK ASS!!!

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms.

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it.

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.

[quote]four60 wrote:
PACIFIC RIM…TAKE A DAY AND GO SEE THIS FREAKING FLICK. IT WAS KICK ASS!!![/quote]

This X a level V kaiju.

I don’t understand why everyone on this thread isn’t talking about this movie.

Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt (Jagten)

The Hunt is a Danish film by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, known by some for his excellent work directing “The Celebration” in the late 90’s as part of the Danish Dogme 95 film-making wave. The Hunt centres on the story of a kind and mild-mannered kindergarten teacher in a small village in Denmark. After losing his job as secondary school teacher and following a divorce from his wife and the short stick on custody of his son, Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is trying to get his life back on track by becoming teacher of a young kindergarten class, and is fortunate to find a new and exciting relationship with a female co-worker, along with a lot of drunken meetups and joyous festivities with lifelong friends. However things take a dark turn for him when a young child from the kindergarten (and the daughter of his best childhood friend) falsely accuses him of sexual abuse, with the townsfolk taking her words as truth and allowing her to not expand on them lest she have to relive the memories. Through this, Lucas finds his life falling apart, his girlfriend becomes distant, his once close friends begin to vilify and exile him from public places, he is fired from his work and anyone still close to him are similarly rejected, with Lucas strongly attempting to prove his innocence throughout.

The Hunt is a brilliant film with magnificent acting, in particular Mikkelsen (who most may remember as Bond villain Le Chiffre in the film Casino Royale) and the young girl who makes the accusation of abuse who are both unbelievably powerful in their roles. A film like this with such a dark and tragic story on such an important subject demands both an equally commanding script and chemistry of actors, and I am proud to say that the film delivers remarkably well on both. Vinterberg takes both directive and written credits, and I am thoroughly grateful that he put the thought and effort into this as he did. The script is absolutely incredible and allows the potential of the film to be fulfilled just as it should, creating a very memorable, very pleasing production that leads among the best of modern Danish cinema. I was completely taken aback by the thought that was put into the story and characters, both reviling the townsfolk for their ignorance and prejudice, and understanding the emotional cloud of the situation they have been put in. The character of Lucas is one that drew in my empathy from beginning to end and Mikkelsen’s portrayal was adept and expressly worthy, I am very pleased that he was chosen to act as the protagonist of The Hunt. I should also commend the young child Klara (played by Annika Wedderkopp), who was very impressive in her role, especially at such a young age, I expect to see wonderful things from her once she matures and is taken to be a more respected and central figure in Danish productions.

I love that the film never steps beyond the realism of it’s boundaries, it both explores the innate evil and malevolently hateful potential of the human species, and on the other end of the spectrum, it explores the kind and selfless nature that we also hold. Only these roles are seen clearly by the audience, but reversed in the eyes of the townspeople, which is expressed in a stroke of pure genius in this film. I am glad Vinterberg is willing to explore such a strong topic, on both the unreliable nature of young children along with the trust that adults will grant of them, and the potential of people to be overwhelmingly evil on the whim of a lie. Never does the film cross into the surreal, but remains a direct eye onto the horrors of what can really happen when a man is wrongly accused of a serious crime and the significant change that people in his vicinity may go to after hearing about it. To know that most of the people that Lucas held as dear friends were willing to spite and condemn him on nothing more than an unexplored opinion of a naive child is tragically powerful and maintains the cold, merciless truth of our human potential that many of us find ourselves fighting to deny.

The direction of this film is incredible, and it is one of the only fresh films I have seen recently that have had multiple scenes that have destroyed me and completely pulled me to tears, I was immersed in the idea of this from start to finish and my fascination never waned, Vinterberg knew when his scenes were worthy for the final cut and I am eternally grateful that he was able to draw what he could from his brilliant directive eye. A lot of the scenes are wonderfully shot and bring this film to a level that separates it clearly from any with a lazy and indifferent filming process, the brilliance is prevalent from beginning to end and the passion is strongly present for the entirety of The Hunt.

This is a film about a man wrongly accused of sexually abusing a child, who has to scratch and claw his way out of the witch hunt that is consistently breaking and abolishing the livelihood he has worked so hard to create. This is a very worthy film with an incredibly potent story, and I recommend anyone that is a fan of compelling, dark dramas to see this as soon as they possibly can, it is one of my favourites that I have seen so far in the year, and is one of the only ones to tear me apart and force me to tears, especially in the latter half, and very much so with it’s deeply resonant final shot. If everyone were to see this film, they would each find the strong connection and personal message that they can take from it, and perhaps be all the better for it.

Justice League : The Flashpoint Paradox

Good movie, was not expecting as much gore as there was but recommend it. Worth a watch.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives is the story of a young American expatriate named Julian living in Bangkok that helps his family run a Muay Thai club to front a large drug smuggling operation along with his brother and mother, who is the frontrunner of the operation. When Julian’s older brother, Billy, rapes and murders an under-age prostitute and is allowed to be beaten to death by order of a local police Lieutenant who considers himself a righteous mediator to maintain moral balance under brutal means, Julian is ordered by his mother to find Lt. Chang and kill him.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this going in. Having seen (and loved, perhaps my favourite of 2011) Refn’s previous film “Drive” I was under the impression that this would fall short in it’s footsteps, not delivering on the similar film-making style that made the former so great. In a way I feel that I was correct, however it’s not quite as cut and dry as I would have liked. This movie was like Drive and unlike Drive to some incredibly quick shifting extremes.

While it retains the very arty idea of cut dialogue and the “cool”, stylistic demeanour of close-up facial shots under periods of intense silence (and does this a hell of a lot more than Drive, way past it’s point of diminishing returns) that are also gradually interlaced with scenes of incredible violence and gore towards the end, it is also far more surreal and dream-like in it’s narrative and the way the story/characters are played out on-screen.

I enjoyed the silent moments of Drive, Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan’s characters in particular, because they are set up in such a way where their personalities and internal monologues would allow them to reason that silence is their best recourse under that situation, and in a very subtle way offers a unique reflection of the characters and a rewarding hint as to the depth of their character on the circumstances that they are left facing at any particular moment, I felt none of that with Only God Forgives.

In Drive, a few of the characters are incredibly awkward while the rest remain largely socially intact and capable of normal interaction, whereas here the design is flipped, with only a few characters ever really exhibiting any kind of conformity to the norm and the rest pacing around in the same awkward manner as the Driver from Drive, but with no appreciable understanding as to why.

The only person in the entire movie that displayed any particular sense of “normal” behaviour was Crystal (Julian’s mother) played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and due to that was perhaps the most memorable and impressive performance of the movie, which is not saying all too much for the way her character is written outside of that. Gosling and most of the rest of the cast were left with a mumbling, stoic moodiness that is built on shaky foundations that offer no real pleasantries in their actions during the events of the movie, most of the characters have no real “character” at all.

And while having seen it once around and at least knowing a little more of the character back-story, I expect a second viewing would serve little more than what I’ve already seen and understand of Refn’s intent.

The story itself may have shown some promise in it’s plotting, but the idea to take this beyond a straightforward situational study and into a metaphysical dream-state insight into morality left Only God Forgives with a façade of cloudiness and mysticism that was more an ordeal to dig through than a joy. This is a movie that will leave you with a lot of questions and very few answers, and not at all in the way that you’d like.

While I can respect a cloudy narrative if it allows the audience to come to their own conclusions on how they interpret the themes laid out by the director, Only God Forgives left me with a sense that what I took from the movie was not so much an enlightening view of moral righteousness and the price paid for reckless evil, but Refn’s view of moral righteousness and the price paid for reckless evil.

Under the guise of something that offers infinite branching paths to how a person may view it’s story, Only God Forgives is really just an artistic showing of horrible and malicious human tendencies (that border frequently in the extremes) that hopes people will be open-minded enough to invent something up themselves to fill it’s blatant gaps. While I can see the themes that Refn was trying to get across, I felt a strong disconnect with how he made them appear and how he could have made them appear efficiently.

If I do have my reservations about everything else, at the very least I enjoyed the cinematography and thought that the set pieces were wonderfully creative, favouring dim purple lighting in amongst a room of expensive decorum, but also showing the more budget-stricken Thai slums and market streets, with the violence largely reflecting itself well amongst the area it takes place in.

The arguably more “elegant” and meticulous violence taking place in rooms of extreme detail and flair; and the grittier, more impetuous violence taking place in the broken down slums and grease-ridden street corners. While I expect that Refn’s interpretation of Thailand is too close to the stereotype than the reality, I allowed myself to really take in the locations and appreciate them for what they were. Though I maintain that if the wallpapers and chandeliers were what pleased me most about the movie, then it was left with a lot more important things that it failed to deliver on.

Among the many themes of morality and vengeance that this movie holds onto, which I can appreciate under worthy portrayals, it also delves into a mundane and graceless expression of Oedipal tendencies and moody sibling rivalry that I could only ever really be cynical about.

It seems Refn wanted so much to shock his audience with what they would see and hear that he thought slipping in a disgusting background for the character relations (largely unexplored in the movie, and definitely not to whatever potential it may have shown) was enough to explain their personality type, which, when reflecting back on the movie, makes not a modicum of sense.

While there are some metaphors of the abolishment of sin under the eyes of “God” and the price paid for resolution, also the portrayal of the hands as a means of destruction and malevolence and how that plays out that I really enjoyed, the rest felt empty to me and depressingly unfulfilled.

I was altogether disappointed with Only God Forgives, and while I didn’t expect it to live up to Refn’s best efforts, I didn’t expect it to be so shamelessly droll either. At no point was I too bored with it to quit outright, but never was I stricken with awe or left with any appreciation of worth for the movie and it’s situational storytelling capabilities, just with a handful of sweeping questions and no creative answers to wash them away.

I may come back to see this in the future, because there’s a huge part of me that feels I’m missing a lot about the movie that I haven’t caught the first time around, and I’m looking forward to any opinions that oppose mine and what people on the other end of the spectrum may have taken from this, if anyone that has seen it were willing to offer up discussion, I would feel all the better for that. However the most important thing to realise about this is that even though it may look/smell/taste like Drive, it is not Drive, and from what I took from it, it never will be.

really not that good expect when SPOILER ALERT:

he has sex with the nun. That simple fact was the only redemption in the movie.


Big Kahuna could you please make this your next avatar?

[quote]csulli wrote:
Big Kahuna could you please make this your next avatar?[/quote]

There you go my man, actually real excited for Episode 7. Not like “I am your father” scene excited, but kind of like Luke meets Yoda on Dagobah and does a Rocky montage excited.

You seen any good movies lately csulli? I’m working myself to death trying to beg for a release copy of “The Act Of Killing”. I also really want to watch Linklater’s Before Midnight some time soon, but I promised myself I’d watch the first two again for comparison’s sake.

I’m really liking the look of “The Conjuring” too, everything about the trailer and director tells me it shouldn’t be great, but people are actually really loving it. Been a while since I’ve seen a truly special horror film, maybe this could break the drought. Really want to see Fruitvale Station too since it pulled in all those commendations at Sundance.

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Big Kahuna could you please make this your next avatar?[/quote]

There you go my man, actually real excited for Episode 7. Not like “I am your father” scene excited, but kind of like Luke meets Yoda on Dagobah and does a Rocky montage excited.

You seen any good movies lately csulli? I’m working myself to death trying to beg for a release copy of “The Act Of Killing”. I also really want to watch Linklater’s Before Midnight some time soon, but I promised myself I’d watch the first two again for comparison’s sake.

I’m really liking the look of “The Conjuring” too, everything about the trailer and director tells me it shouldn’t be great, but people are actually really loving it. Been a while since I’ve seen a truly special horror film, maybe this could break the drought. Really want to see Fruitvale Station too since it pulled in all those commendations at Sundance.[/quote]
Haha awesome.

Last movie I saw was Pacific Rim. Absolutely loved it. Some cliche plot stuff, but hey, Charlie from Always Sunny as a manic scientist and the breathtaking graphics and fight scenes were more than enough for me.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]csulli wrote:
Big Kahuna could you please make this your next avatar?[/quote]

There you go my man, actually real excited for Episode 7. Not like “I am your father” scene excited, but kind of like Luke meets Yoda on Dagobah and does a Rocky montage excited.

You seen any good movies lately csulli? I’m working myself to death trying to beg for a release copy of “The Act Of Killing”. I also really want to watch Linklater’s Before Midnight some time soon, but I promised myself I’d watch the first two again for comparison’s sake.

I’m really liking the look of “The Conjuring” too, everything about the trailer and director tells me it shouldn’t be great, but people are actually really loving it. Been a while since I’ve seen a truly special horror film, maybe this could break the drought. Really want to see Fruitvale Station too since it pulled in all those commendations at Sundance.[/quote]
Haha awesome.

Last movie I saw was Pacific Rim. Absolutely loved it. Some cliche plot stuff, but hey, Charlie from Always Sunny as a manic scientist and the breathtaking graphics and fight scenes were more than enough for me.[/quote]

T’were real fun Pacific Rim. I enjoy robot alien boxing matches a lot. Oh yeah the plot was a little dry, but I can let it slide on not being all “Inception” seeing as action is the most important part here. I’m glad that it wasn’t really, really stupid though, like enough to ruin it. I like Charlie Day, only realised a couple days ago he plays the purple wool-monster from Monsters University (which is pretty good, not Monsters Inc. good, but pretty good).

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.[/quote]

How do you know so much about Houstonguy?

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.[/quote]

How do you know so much about Houstonguy?
[/quote]

Because I lurked the forums for a year before I decided to join. Been in the gym since late 2011 and I’ve been perusing the site since early 2012. I don’t know all too much about him, but I saw his posts pop up every now and again.

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.[/quote]

How do you know so much about Houstonguy?
[/quote]

Because I lurked the forums for a year before I decided to join. Been in the gym since late 2011 and I’ve been perusing the site since early 2012. I don’t know all too much about him, but I saw his posts pop up every now and again.[/quote]

So you dpn’t know anything about Houstonguy .But you know just enough that you’re HG with a sudden interest in movies.

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.[/quote]

How do you know so much about Houstonguy?
[/quote]

Because I lurked the forums for a year before I decided to join. Been in the gym since late 2011 and I’ve been perusing the site since early 2012. I don’t know all too much about him, but I saw his posts pop up every now and again.[/quote]

So you dpn’t know anything about Houstonguy .But you know just enough that you’re HG with a sudden interest in movies.[/quote]

Did you ever see him talk extensively about movies? If you hadn’t, then it’s highly unlikely that I would have either. I remember him being open to arguments over mundane and unsubstantiated logic, but I don’t recall any of them ever digging deep into film.

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:
We’ll come to the right end point when you get banned again.[/quote]

?

[/quote]

Don’t worry about it. Embrace the troll with open arms. [/quote]

What was his previous username?[/quote]

Already posted it. [/quote]

Now I see what’s happened, you think I’m HoustonGuy reincarnate because you took one of my earlier posts as mirroring his, but with a sudden interest in movies. Unless HoustonGuy was nineteen years old at the time and has a very shitty overhead press, I can assure you I’m not HoustonGuy. Or any other user, but I don’t remember you mentioning others.

I’m kind of interested in which post triggered this, as I don’t believe I said anything that couldn’t be interpreted as a reasonable personal opinion of mine as opposed to a jab for arguments.[/quote]

How do you know so much about Houstonguy?
[/quote]

Because I lurked the forums for a year before I decided to join. Been in the gym since late 2011 and I’ve been perusing the site since early 2012. I don’t know all too much about him, but I saw his posts pop up every now and again.[/quote]

So you dpn’t know anything about Houstonguy .But you know just enough that you’re HG with a sudden interest in movies.[/quote]

Did you ever see him talk extensively about movies? If you hadn’t, then it’s highly unlikely that I would have either. I remember him being open to arguments over mundane and unsubstantiated logic, but I don’t recall any of them ever digging deep into film.[/quote]

Selective memory FTW.