The Movie Reel

[ClayDeath]

excellent thread.

 

[Moxie]

I just saw "Only God Forgives," the latest from Nicholas Winding Refn with Ryan Gosling, after they collaboration in "Drive." It's incredibly stylish and gorgeous looking. It's also very violent, (I completely put my hands over my eyes during more than a few parts,) slow-moving and rather difficult to love, but, in the end, and after mulling it over, I thought it was a really good film. Much left to think about. If anyone sees it, it would be interesting to discuss. (Sorry...that doesn't sound like a glowing review, but it's not an easy film. However, I do recommend it for valiant and intrepid film-lovers.)

 

[ClayDeath]

i still need to see the 2 following movies:


1. man of steel
2. the great gatsby with de caprio.


i saw the old one with redford in it. i thought the movie was brilliant.

 

[Moxie]

I've got one for you, Clay Death. Wong Kar Wai, one of my favorite directors, has made a film about the master who trained Bruce Lee. Has to be right up your alley:

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ngxn9NzLzs[/video]

It opens next month. I can't wait.

 

[ClayDeath]

wow. it is right up my alley indeed.

I shall look for it.



by the way did you see "warrior`s way"?
















I thought it was pretty good. a martial arts with a twist of western.


I have always been crazy about the westerns.

 

[shawnbm]

I re-watched 12 Angry Men with my kids yesterday evening and it is still as good as I remembered it being. Fonda, Klugman, Begley, Robinson and the whole gang were just superb. An excellent film with a key message for all generations who like to call themselves constitutional people.

 

[britbox]

i still need to see the 2 following movies:


1. man of steel
2. the great gatsby with de caprio.


i saw the old one with redford in it. i thought the movie was brilliant.

Great Gatsby is good. de Caprio is fast becoming my favourite actor.

 

[ClayDeath]

who do you think are the best of the best today?


here is my list:


1. Russell crowe
2. gerard butler
3. Daniel day lewis
4. de caprio
5. brad pitt



by the de caprio is no redford. you need to catch the first one (the great Gatsby) baron britbox.



and I need to catch the latest one.

 

[tented]

de Caprio is fast becoming my favourite actor.

who do you think are the best of the best today?

here is my list:

1. Russell crowe
2. gerard butler
3. Daniel day lewis
4. de caprio
5. brad pitt

I also like DiCaprio a lot. I was flipping through channels the other night, and came across Inception. The entire cast is terrific, but DiCaprio stands out. (And, yes, I admit I've grown to like Inception. A lot, actually.)

Russell Crowe and Daniel Day-Lewis are also great actors. Their work in The Insider and My Left Foot (respectively) are two of the greatest performances ever filmed.

 

[ClayDeath]

Daniel day lewis may be the only living male actor who is running around with 3 Oscars.

gerard butler is one of the biggest stars on the planet now. he just makes bad decisions with some movies.

 

[tented]

Daniel day lewis may be the only living male actor who is running around with 3 Oscars.

gerard butler is one of the biggest stars on the planet now. he just makes bad decisions with some movies.

DDL is the only man ever to win 3 Oscars for Lead Actor. Several others have won it twice, and Jack Nicholson won twice for Lead and once for Supporting. If DDL wins again, he'll tie Katharine Hepburn, who currently has the record of winning 4 times, all for leading roles.

 

[ClayDeath]

DDL is also very smart. he does not make many movies. he chooses his roles carefully and then he studies those roles for years.



by the way check out one of his old movies. it was "the last of the mohicans".


I thought it was a fantastic movie. the soundtrack is also spectacular. great music.

 

[Moxie]

I re-watched 12 Angry Men with my kids yesterday evening and it is still as good as I remembered it being. Fonda, Klugman, Begley, Robinson and the whole gang were just superb. An excellent film with a key message for all generations who like to call themselves constitutional people.

Fantastic film! It might amuse you to know that I served on a jury panel here in Manhattan a few years back, and the jury room looks exactly the same as it did in 1957...same fans, same bathroom doors. We talked about it.

 

[shawnbm]

Wow Moxie, that is really fascinating! The same after all these years!

 

[Didi]

Just finished watching the first Die Hard movie. My wife loved it which means a lot as she usually cannot stand action movies. Before today I have only seen the 5th one this spring and I remember walking out of the cinema totally disappointed and confused asking myself what the buzz around the series was all about. Glad I finally watched the origin. It's a simple flick, yet so thrilling, funny and full of ideas at the same time with a fitting cast and nice one-liners. I shouldn't have been surprised though as John McTiernan is one of my faves. Cool to see Reginald VelJohnson with a great cameo in a movie, haven't seen the guy since he's been 'urkeled' by Steve and Waldo Geraldo Faldo.
I give Die Hard a solid and well earned 7.5/10 and thus just behind the origin Predator flick which is McTiernan's best in my eyes.

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

^might i ask how young you are? i'm baffled by the idea of someone not having seen the original Die Hard. as far as classic action flicks go, it's as good as they get. i've seen neither of the latest two installments - and i don't plan on doing so. oh, by the way, you might want to check out those first three Indiana Jones flicks as well. #4 is nothing like those
of course - Carl Winslow. i always wondered if VelJohnson had some background in law enforcement, or if he just had the right look to get casted as a cop so often

btw, just re-visited Predator yesterday. classic indeed. it'd be hard for me to decide between that and Die Hard. as a kid, i always preferred the average-guy toughness of Willis over the elite soldier muscle mass of Arnie. but then again, the corniness of Arnies deliveries were lost on me back then, as we of course had the dubbed versions.

I re-watched 12 Angry Men with my kids yesterday evening and it is still as good as I remembered it being. Fonda, Klugman, Begley, Robinson and the whole gang were just superb. An excellent film with a key message for all generations who like to call themselves constitutional people.

Fantastic film! It might amuse you to know that I served on a jury panel here in Manhattan a few years back, and the jury room looks exactly the same as it did in 1957...same fans, same bathroom doors. We talked about it.

funny the movie should be mentioned, just last night, we watched "Eastern Promises" (good, but brutal. a bit too gory for me at times), which featured Armin Mueller-Stahl, which reminded me that i still need to see 12 Angry Men, because he was in the remake. did anyone see that? it might pale in comparison, but it still has a great cast (Lemmon, Gandolfini!).




also, funny about seeing the jury room from the inside.

have i ever shared with you the story of a northeastern US trip and the movie scenes we happened upon? not stuff that you know and go look up, or iconic places that just happen to be featured in a lot of movies (ie: everywhere in central park), just the most random little things:
- we stayed a night in a shabby hostel on 107th in NYC, ... for our 1 am dinner, we ate cheesesteak and fries sitting on the stairs of a church right next to said hostel. back at home, months later, i watch "Keeping the Faith" with my girlfriend, and as Ed Norton walks in and out of his character's church, my GF's like "i think that's the church we had our dinner at". i thought that these churches just often look much a like.. but sure enough, she was right!
- after NYC, we spent two days in Rhode Island. went to a nice little place called "Point Judith", a light house and coast guard station. back at home, we watch "Dan in Real Life". where does Steve Carrell's character take the kids to see a light house? exactly.
- the day after Point Judith, we went to the Beavertail State Park. a year or so later - "Moonrise Kingdom", which featured lengthy scenes (and, again, Ed Norton).

i guess that's just everyday stuff if you live in those places (same with the horrible tv shows that are set in Vienna ), but for us to go on such a streak within just three days, i thought that was pretty funny.

btw, each of the movies is very recommendable. "Moonrise Kingdom" is typically quirky Wes Anderson. "Keeping the Faith" is light fare, but very entertaining, pairing Ed Norton the priest with Ben Stiller as a rabbi. "Dan in Real Life" is my favorite out of these three - a low-key, wonderful piece of storytelling about family, love and bliss.

 

[Didi]

Well I'm already in my mid 40s which makes it actually even more shocking that I have never paid any attention to the first Die Hard movies. Especially when I consider the surprising fact that the movie came out in 1988 which was during the period of the mid 80s to the mid 90s when I was in my 'prime' going to cinema nearly every day and being a huge movie nerd. I've probably seen close to 1000 movies in that time span alone, be it on VHS or cinema, yet I missed out on John McClane. Criminal indeed. Cool story about your US trip by the way, always liked Edward Norton ever since his brillant performance in Primal Fear/Zwielicht. Cannot believe he's yet to receive his very first oscar and probably never will.

 

[Johnsteinbeck]

yeah, that's a shocker. Zwielicht ( ) was brilliant - i guess you might know the german saying "jemanden an die Wand spielen" - Norton did that quite literally with Gere to think that this was his FIRST film - ridiculous. American History X could have gotten him an award as well, but i can relate to people being uncomfortable with such a charismatic portrayal of a neo-Nazi (plus, he was up against the wonderful Roberto Benigni, who really deserved the trophy). 25th Hour - also brilliant. oh, and of course - Death to Smoochy (no kidding, he's actually great in it).

he's been shockingly unproductive as of late though, doing mostly cameos since '09. two upcoming projects though - "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (yes, as you can tell by the title, the later is another Wes Anderson flick). both sound interesting, but are also ensemble pieces, so we don't know how big his parts will end up being.

 

[Riotbeard]

While I dearly love Cool Hand Luke, and Nicholson in "A Few Good Men," I must spare a moment for "Sharknado" which played last night on Syfy. The best/worst schlock movie I've seen in decades. Non-stop bad movie hilarity. :laydownlaughing

Sharknado more than anything makes me sad about not having cable.

 

[Riotbeard]

This is probably the best movie I have seen in a while, and cements the idea that Fassbender is the best of his generation.

Fishtank:
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdD7PQPQa08[/video]

Also I agree with Moxie, Wong Kar Wei is one of the best. Chunqking Express is an all time favorite.

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjd7PFf_TFw[/video]