I can see people thinking Tarantino is formulaic and a bit hit or miss and wouldn't really disagree.

With The Godfather I think the first film suffered from the other two being made but taken alone it is a magnificent movie.

But Blade Runner not having great performances or sub-plots? Per-lease! The scenery and setting is amazing, doubly so when compared with other films of the time. There are maybe half a dozen different performances that are absolutely mesmerising in their intensity and there most certainly are sub plots. There's the whole slave/master thing (not to mention the slave/slave relationship) which is widened into the God/being relationship and what a God is. there are the various inter-personal relationships but most importantly is the trip of discovery Deckerd takes and the underlying question of whether he is actually human.

One thing I would say is that the director's cut is far and away the best version as it puts back some threads that the studio cut. It actually changes the story somewhat as well, and is far closer to the book than the studio cleaned version. Also the extra bits of origami it includes are very important.

Anyway, I saw the Social Network last night and quite enjoyed it. Nothing great about it (for me) but nothing bad either. mind you I'm glad I don't do facebook!

Have you seen 'The Final cut' (think that is what it is called)? supposed to be the version that Scott actually wanted to release although I'm not sure how different it is to the director's cut.

What are people's favourite films? I was considering this yesterday as this has been the first conversation about movies that I have had in years and I came up with Infernal Affairs (much better than The Departed) which I think is a tremendous movie but I'm sure that there are ones I prefer and just need my memory jogged.

Tell you what Captain, how about if we turn this round slightly and rather than favourite films we turn it into a thread about films we love that others might not have heard of?

I'll throw in two '60s films to start.

Firstly, a Peter Sellers film - "I Love You Alice B Toklas". Lawyer, hippy brother, potential marriage, hash cakes and loads of laughs on the way.

Secondly is "Alice's Restaurant". A film starring Arlo Guthrie (son of Woody) and based on his song of the same name. Deals with the draft and stuff and some parts suffer slightly from being made from a song but still well worth a watch.

You mean films existed before the 80s?

But seriously, good idea. Still wouldn't mind some favourite contributions but a mixture of the two is more than welcome.

Captain wrote:

You mean films existed before the 80s?

But seriously, good idea. Still wouldn't mind some favourite contributions but a mixture of the two is more than welcome.

Funny you say that 'cos my son's kid bro won't watch anything made before he was born!

I think the two can sit comfortably side by side and it might give people some ideas of movies to watch (or indeed remind them of an old favourite they've forgotten).

Well Inglorious Basterds was all style over substance too. Its a decent film but its not his best.

I turned Death Proof off half way through, complete rubbish.

I've never actually watched any Tarrantino. Was thinking about watching Kill Bill a while back but was reminded of what the man himself is like in interviews; can't take him and therefore by extension his films seriously.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Blade Runner. Visual feast that I never at any point felt dragged (unlike Gladiator). In terms of that comparison, there's much more going on thematically/intellectually(/whatever) and unlike Klaus, I feel that the cityscape and overall environment blends nicely into the mix, providing a colourful (quite literally) backdrop to the rest of the film; a visual sub-plot as it were. It is contextual and needs be nothing more.

Burnwinter wrote:

having heard all the academic arguments and absurd over-interpretations of themes that aren't really visible or there at all

I'm sure there's plenty of absurd navel-gazing about its thematic content but blind Freddie would agree that it is replete with relations to ideas of mortality, identity, self, consciousness, memory, pain, family etc., not to mention the religious side. I mean that's practically all it is, a giant thematic hammer.

I can appreciate that over-exposure to it in an academic setting could have sucked the joy entirely out of what was, for you, already a somewhat underwhelming experience.

Well, not really. It's not the overrating from an academic viewpoint that I have an issue with (well, I did have an issue with it at the time, but for other reasons rather connected to the fact that most film students don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to actually doing their own analysis instead of just repeating points they've either read in canonized writing or lifted from commentator tracks on DVDs). I recognize the themes that are actually in there - I just don't think the film does a great job at portraying most of them. It does have its points of course. I'm not trying to make it out like it's Manos: The Hands of Fate or anything, but it all adds up to a fairly boring watch in my opinion. For me, how a film portrays something will always be more important than what it portrays.

I guessed I wouldn't like Death Proof, so I didn't watch it. But how anyone could argue with the quality of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and (just throwing it out there) Kill Bill 2, I'm not sure.

And I loved Inglourious Basterds. Particularly the opening scene.

Don Pacifico wrote:

I've never actually watched any Tarrantino.

:o Ignore captain. Go and watch Resorvoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown ASAP. You'll love Inglorious Basterds and True Romance (only written/produced by QT) as well if you enjoy those. I've liked all of his other films too but I can see why others wouldn't.

I thought the non English speaking sections of Inglorious Basterds were great.
The Brad Pitt American maverick soldier parts really jarred.

Speaking of non English language films.... if you're not a fan of sub titles these 3 make you forget that you're reading:
La haine, City of God and The Lives of Others.

Captain wrote:

Have you seen 'The Final cut' (think that is what it is called)? supposed to be the version that Scott actually wanted to release although I'm not sure how different it is to the director's cut.

Yeah, I've seen it in the super-duper DVD release from a couple of years ago. It's very similar to the original director's cut - I'm not even sure I could tell you what the differences are off the top of my head. Certainly the voiceover is still gone and the Hollywood ending still excised.

Infernal Affairs is such a good film - the apotheosis of HK Triad films. Trust you've caught Election and Election 2?

Talking of Ridley Scott films:

Haven't seen part 2 actually, was considering it just a few days ago funnily enough but watched an odd HK B-movie called City Under Siege instead.

Y Va, City of God is easily in my top five favourite movies. I have the original cinema poster (minus the blurring of the guns) signed by most of the cast and crew, framed and hanging on my wall.

Just watched "Robinson Crusoe on Mars". Quality movie.

Can anyone give me a very brief synopsis of Pink Flamingos? I downloaded it a while ago but can't bring myself to watch it (probably out of fear that it'll be too grotesque for me to watch).

Captain wrote:

Y Va, City of God is easily in my top five favourite movies. I have the original cinema poster (minus the blurring of the guns) signed by most of the cast and crew, framed and hanging on my wall.

Nice. Is that this one?

Yep, that's the one.

'City of God' is a great movie. I've also enjoyed 'Taken', 'No Country for Old Men', 'Man on Fire' and 'Harry Brown' to name a few of similar theme/genre.

For some reason, I was dubious about City of God. Jo made me watch it and I loved it, superb film.

Interesting recomendation about City of God. Never knew about it but did a search and its reviews were impressive. Is the film in English or?

Recently stumbled upon this movie. Great film to be honest. Most of the people who watched it cried though. Based on true story.

I think that there is a dubbed version but I have never seen it so can't say if they did a good job.

Will check out that Hachiko a bit later, cheers.

Rockthecasbah wrote:

I guessed I wouldn't like Death Proof, so I didn't watch it. But how anyone could argue with the quality of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and (just throwing it out there) Kill Bill 2, I'm not sure.

And I loved Inglourious Basterds. Particularly the opening scene.

If Inglourious Basterds had ended after Chapter One (the first scene), it would have been the perfect short story. Brilliantly done.

Fantastic movie overall - my favourite of the past year or two - but the opening scene was something special.

Yes, that and the scene in the basement.

QT described that basement scene as Reservoir Dogs in 20 minutes. Or something like that. Brilliant.

Basterds was a fantastic movie.. dont really like Tarantino films (other than Reservoir Dogs), and the wife hadnt like ANY of his movies, but we both thought it was great.. and have to agree, the opening scene was utterly brilliant.

Just been to see the new Harry Potter, it was definitely better than the last one but like most of them not particularly great.

Saw The Social Network on Friday. You don't know how true it is, and it's told from the perspective of those who say he screrwed them, and probably most of the actual facts and events in the film, aside from the outcomes of the law suits, are fictitious. But it was really excellent.

USArsenal wrote:

Basterds was a fantastic movie.. dont really like Tarantino films (other than Reservoir Dogs), and the wife hadnt like ANY of his movies, but we both thought it was great.. and have to agree, the opening scene was utterly brilliant.

Not like Pulp Fiction?

Captain wrote:

Just been to see the new Harry Potter, it was definitely better than the last one but like most of them not particularly great.

Dragged a little I thought. Start was good, end weren't bad, and some of the acting and cinematography was great - just long-ish parts of the film where it was a bit of a chore to watch.

Second part will probably be a really good film though.

invisibleman18 wrote:

Saw The Social Network on Friday. You don't know how true it is, and it's told from the perspective of those who say he screrwed them, and probably most of the actual facts and events in the film, aside from the outcomes of the law suits, are fictitious. But it was really excellent.

I really enjoyed it. And if it was told from the views of his opponents it did paint him quite sympathetically, though maybe slightly pathetically.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Captain wrote:

Just been to see the new Harry Potter, it was definitely better than the last one but like most of them not particularly great.

Dragged a little I thought. Start was good, end weren't bad, and some of the acting and cinematography was great - just long-ish parts of the film where it was a bit of a chore to watch.

I saw it the other day and pretty much agree with this. Walked away feeling a bit disappointed even though I've never been a big fan of any of them. The film looked great but the story really dragged for the most part. It felt as if they could have told it in the span of thirty minutes rather than over the course of two and a half hour. Makes you wonder whether the decision to split the book into two movies was made for creative reasons or just because they wanted to squeeze a bit more money out of the box-office.

Got a lot more entertainment out of Legend of the Fist. Donnie Yen was quality as Zhen Chen. I've got Bad Blood lying around too but I'm saving that one for tomorrow. Not a big fan of Dennis Law's films, but it's supposed to be pretty decent.

Opening scene of Legend of the Fist is probably the most frenetic thing that I have ever seen.

Watched Daybreakers last night. There's a great film wrapped up in there somewhere, but it just went so, so wrong.

USArsenal wrote:

Basterds was a fantastic movie.. dont really like Tarantino films (other than Reservoir Dogs), and the wife hadnt like ANY of his movies, but we both thought it was great.. and have to agree, the opening scene was utterly brilliant.

What I loved about that film was that everyone spoke the language they were supposed to be speaking. You cannot fully appreciate the creepiness of the characters unless you know how awful a German accent sounds in French. When the German colonel replied to Pitt in fluent Italian I burst out laughing.

Definitely his best work since Pulp Fiction.

watched "Extraordinary Measures" this weekend (yeah, the wife made me watch it).. was OK.. 6 of 10.. ive seen better from both Fraser and Ford..

oh, and i watched Grown Ups last week.. that was actually much funnier than i thought it would be.. good 7.5 out of 10 on that one...

Captain wrote:

Haven't seen part 2 actually, was considering it just a few days ago funnily enough but watched an odd HK B-movie called City Under Siege instead.

Y Va, City of God is easily in my top five favourite movies. I have the original cinema poster (minus the blurring of the guns) signed by most of the cast and crew, framed and hanging on my wall.

How did you get that? Wicked man.

Have you been to Brazil?

Would you believe me if I told you that I won it in a bet?