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| Marc |
 Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:44 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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ehle,
did you see DRAG ME TO HELL?
I am rather certain I will not be alone at the end of the year. DRAG ME TO HELL will appear on several "best of 2009" lists. It's the best American horror/comedy to come out in years. Not as good as Raimi's EVIL DEAD movies, but still heads and shoulders above the gore porn of shit like the SAW series and HOSTEL. Seeing it in a theater full of laughing and screaming people helps. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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Yeah, I went with a friend who is into horror flicks. Funny, I wasn't laughing. Guess I just don't get the humor.
This, thanks to lady_w for mentioning it, THIRST looks like it's going to be scary as hell:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/85718/movie-trailers-thirst---red-band-trailer
You have to create a free account @ hulu.com. They also have the trailer for Alice in Wonderland (woohoo!) coming in March 2010 in IMAX 3D!!! |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:02 pm |
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| Glad to hear that Billy. I heard the interview with Apatow on NPR (actually twice) and the movie sounded very promising. I read Dargis' review and tried to remember if she were considered one of the good critics or one of the duds. I guess I'll be watching it with Spanish subtitles. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Glad to hear that Billy. I heard the interview with Apatow on NPR (actually twice) and the movie sounded very promising. I read Dargis' review and tried to remember if she were considered one of the good critics or one of the duds.
Dargis is the dud of duds. Another recent example is last year's independent Old Joy, which Dargis called one of the best movies of the year. I can recommend it as a surefire sleeping pill. It's only 70 minutes long but feels like three hours. Two old friends get together, travel around in a car, say almost nothing, and realize they don't have much in common any more. Zen it sorta is. Sideways it ain't. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Well, I have to amend the previous post just a tad. Though I disagree almost all the time with Manohla Dargis, and I consider her pretentiousness to be absolutely obnoxious, at least she seems to have her head screwed on straight. Armond White, by contrast, seems bizarrely perverse and almost certifiable. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Continuing about Funny People: Perhaps the most impressive thing about it is the fact that every character in the movie is interestingly layered. No one is all good or all bad. The "good" people have serious, deep, important flaws and the "bad" ones have t least some redeeming qualities. The movie feels like life, even though it's nominally about a subculture (standup comedy) that is not the provenance of the "normal" person.
Sandler gives an amazingly subtle and fascinating portrayal of a totally self-centered person with moments of insight and grace that stun you. He really is the actor Paul Thomas Anderson promised he was when Anderson created Punch Drunk Love for him. Sandler was excellent in PDL--and also in his other dramedy Spanglish--but he's never been as flat-out great as in Funny People.
Seth Rogen continues to knock my socks off. His performance earlier this year in Observe and Report was funny as hell and perverse to boot. This one--of the "nice guy" with moments of almost unforgivable selfishness and/or idiocy--brings his talent to a whole new level. Leslie Mann's performance is loaded with little surprises. You think you have her pegged on her first entrance, but nowhere near--and I ain't tellin'.
Jason Schwartzmann paints one of the most annoying assholes in memory, but he too has areas of likeability, and Schwartzmann integrates them seamlessly into his performance. Jonah Hill, who looks like your typically young fat character actor, is some kind of acting genius, as Superbad fans and SNL regulars already know.
As for the great Eric Bana: he has long been one of my favorite actors of his generation, but here he meets acting challenges I've never seen him take on before. Bana started as a standup comic himself in Australia, and though his role here has nothing to do with standup comedy, his comedy chops are seriously on display. His character is the nominal "antagonist"--the slick, cheating husband of the former girlfriend (Mann) with whom Sandler makes a belated connection--but Bana makes the character hilariously funny, poignant, maddening, likeable, and more. What an actor!
Judd Apatow here takes an important step in what is looking like a great career of Capra/Wilder proportions. He's the real deal.
Lastly, and importantly, this is a genuinely character-driven movie that still grabs you like a plot-driven potboiler. And how rare is that? |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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Sounds good, billy.
Today's not so current viewing in a theater:
Also, later tonight: THIRST |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Ehle has his Blanche supporthose choice...
Mrs. Ra from Thirst!
<picture goes here> |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:08 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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ehle64 wrote: Sounds good, billy.
Today's not so current viewing in a theater:
Wade - thought you'd like to know: there are rumors that Criterion will put this out. It is, of course, available en France (sans les soutitres). |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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I guess I'll have to resort to prostitution in order to own it!
Thank you for the info and thanks again for the lovely day. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 11:16 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Caught The Hurt Locker last night with Earl. It is well acted, written, directed, shot and edited. It feels less like a movie than a documentary. Riveting and moving at times.
But also more than a little dull. Maybe the dullness is intentional, to keep it from veering into action movie territory, but there was a good stretch there in the middle I found it hard to sit through. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 11:51 am |
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ehle64 wrote: I guess I'll have to resort to prostitution in order to own it!
Thank you for the info and thanks again for the lovely day.
How much are you going to charge per trick, Wade?  |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:38 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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marantzo wrote: How much are you going to charge per trick, Wade?
Hopefully more than Anna Karina...
Although then he'd get to stand around, lookin' good and smoking Gitanes like the plant's about to shut down.
ehle64 wrote: Thank you for the info and thanks again for the lovely day.
I had a great time too, Wade - we need to not wait so long next time!
But I still have to find Mrs. Ra's picture, wah. |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 9:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Finally saw The Hurt Locker tonight. Very, very impressive film. It was riveting and soulful. I think it captured the feeling of frustration and duty the soldiers feel every day, and the terrible challenge these feelings present them with. Renner was pitch perfect in his very real bravado of one whom only feels alive in a setting such as this, it is what he is. Many good cameos, David Morse is an actor I quite like. This is the type of film that gives me a real feel for how terrible this must be and how, dare I say it, impressed I am by people’s ability to do at all.
Still processing, but this was an excellent film. Really something. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 12:34 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Quote: But also more than a little dull. Maybe the dullness is intentional, to keep it from veering into action movie territory, but there was a good stretch there in the middle I found it hard to sit through.
Joe, I didn't find a single frame of THE HURT LOCKER dull. |
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