Movies We've Seen Recently

[Lumbermouth]

This seems to be the most relevant and well regarded films with this title convention, but if anyone wants to suggest others I might as well, I've gone this far.

Criterion put out a box set of all of Tsui Hark’s Once Upon A Time In China movies. 1 and 3 are on Prime too.

[Dr. Buttplug]

For no particular reason I watched a bunch of movies with titles that start with "Once Upon a Time in" and for no good reason at all I'm going to rank them.

1. the West

Sergio Leone is my favorite director. His style and pacing, the palpable suspense and Ennio Morricone's score ties it all together like a nice little bow. The Good the Bad and the Ugly is my absolute favorite, but the West is spectacular.

2. Mexico

A shade sillier than any of the other flicks on this list. More patriotic too. Some very memorable scenes though. I was a little down on it upon first watching it, but I keep thinking back on it and going "that was pretty rad."

4. Shanghai*

Andy Ho was way better at acting and more believable and bombastic in his physicality. Should have been about him. Phillip Ng looked like a goofball with that discount Bruce Lee wig. Also screaming "get out of my country!" is not the heroic quip they thought it was.

5. America

I'm really down on this right now. It's just a brutally unpleasant experience and I think that's intentional. I'll probably come around on it eventually but right now I just feel gross. If you're considering watching it CW: explicit extended rape scene.

6. Hollywood

I saw this when it came out. Not a bad movie, but I hate how reverent it is of "old Hollywood" to the point of being masturbatory.


I also plan on watching Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. It's a long one, but I'm hoping it will rank, and given the setting I'm curious how it compares to RRR. I will update my rankings when I finish it.

This seems to be the most relevant and well regarded films with this title convention, but if anyone wants to suggest others I might as well, I've gone this far.

India will slot nicely in at number 3. I was surprised it was a sports movie and extremely surprised it made me give a shit about a cricket game. Really fun and dramatic.

As compared to RRR, it's actually set quite a bit earlier than I thought, like 30 years earlier. Still a lot of white people are the worst going on, which is fun.

I do also want to watch China at some point, but I don't have Prime at the moment. Will update for that sometime further down the line.

[chai tea latte]

Still a lot of white people are the worst going on, which is fun.

There are a lot of contenders for pure righteous fury at the FUCKING BRITISH powering an action movie but for my money Ip Man 2 takes the cake and then probably a dozen other HK actions are right behind

[Moose]

I'm trying to work my way through a bunch of movies I have saved on HBO Max. A couple of nights ago I watched Dog Day Afternoon (1975) for the first time ever and enjoyed it immensely. For the year it was made, I thought it handled queer issues rather well and didn't treat it like one big punchline, especially when it came to Leon. The phone conversation between her and Sonny really struck a chord in me; I love realistic, heartfelt dialogue. The ending broke my heart, though I mostly expected it. I did read up on the case the film was based on, and ofc the movie was mostly fictional in its accounts, but at least the real Sonny enjoyed Al Pacino's performance. I'll definitely be watching this again sometime soon.

Next on my list is probably The Seventh Seal (1957). I've never seen an Ingmar Bergman film so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it. Based on the few images I've seen floating around on tumblr and twitter, it looks like it's up my alley. I'm also gunning for Metropolis (1927), which I've never gotten around to watching for whatever reason.

^{also wassup this is my first post on ballpit in uhhhh 3 years i think}

[Victor Laszlo]

I'm trying to work my way through a bunch of movies I have saved on HBO Max. A couple of nights ago I watched Dog Day Afternoon (1975) for the first time ever and enjoyed it immensely. For the year it was made, I thought it handled queer issues rather well and didn't treat it like one big punchline, especially when it came to Leon. The phone conversation between her and Sonny really struck a chord in me; I love realistic, heartfelt dialogue. The ending broke my heart, though I mostly expected it. I did read up on the case the film was based on, and ofc the movie was mostly fictional in its accounts, but at least the real Sonny enjoyed Al Pacino's performance. I'll definitely be watching this again sometime soon.

Next on my list is probably The Seventh Seal (1957). I've never seen an Ingmar Bergman film so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it. Based on the few images I've seen floating around on tumblr and twitter, it looks like it's up my alley. I'm also gunning for Metropolis (1927), which I've never gotten around to watching for whatever reason.

I once asked an online community why Pacino was so revered because for 30+ years he has been a scenery chewing clown, and someone told me to go watch Dog Day Afternoon and report back.  It was enough.  What a fucking performance, one of the best I've seen.  If you enjoy great acting you should watch this film.

the 'Attica! Attica!' was ad-libbed at the suggestion of maybe an assistant director

^{also wassup this is my first post on ballpit in uhhhh 3 years i think}

Welcome back! Yay Moose!

[chai tea latte]

Three Colours: Blue: wow this was pretty fucking good. Saw this at the local indie theatre and will be returning for Red and White. Kiesloswski's trilogy is an examination of the French tricolor, and Blue expresses Julie's (Juliette Binoche smoulders perfectly) anguish and loss in a deeply compelling way I had to talk to my mom on the phone about in order to fully process. 5/5, see if you can watch the 4k restoration in a local theatre while it's making its run, okay? art is better in the movie theatre than at home.

Enemy (2010): 4/5 a strange tight little 90 minute thriller from Denis Villeneuve based on a Saramago short story. A history professor sees a movie with an actor who looks exactly, entirely, like he does. They are compelled by some outside force to meet, and one dies. And what a fucking ending, goddamn.

rewatched Stalker (1979): it's perfect. 5/5 on rewatch I looked at the Writer and imagined his monologues were from Tarkovsky speaking directly to the viewer. Pretty good monologues! Really good movie! How staggeringly beautiful. I read a review after the re-watch that said something very cool and provocative; "Tarkovsky [...makes the human head] monumental: sculptural and philosophical." And he does! Goddamn.

Passing (2021): adaptation of the classic novel about 'passing as white' in Harlem and New York. Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga star in a gripping black-and-white (get it? get it?????) movie about black liberation and how much The Movement asks of any of us personally. 4/5

Prey (2022): Coulda sworn I reviewed this in this thread but this was pretty fun. The kills are sickening and the moral lessons are sweet and compelling. Plus, there's a dog! Some hay was apparently made Online by right wing losers comparing this to the original, Predator (1987), because it stars a Comanche woman instead of a roided-out German-American or whatever? I had no idea this had been the case until after I saw the movie, because, like, I saw the trailer when the trailer came out and I said oh damn I'm gonna see that, and I saw it when it came out, and I liked the experience. Good action movie good Predator film (rarefied sub-category of "all predator films") good stuff all around. Its funny that the chasseurs du bois speak in modern Quebecois French. 4/5

e: Metropolis (1927) absolutely rules. I think one thing people often forget to mention, after all the hubbub about, you know, it's so old, the story of the restoration of the different prints, etc....it's a compelling and beautiful film with a strong take-away moral (repeated verbatim several times throughout the movie). And the moral is one you can take with you into your real life for the rest of your life. You should see it bro

[chai tea latte]

Elvis (2022): i was not expecting this movie to mean very much to me but it is a masterpiece. Austin Butler sounds exactly like Elvis and looks like a tall pretty boy from the South. He drawls like Elvis. The movie's frame narrative is that The Colonel (boo! evil! we hate you!) is begging the audience to listen to him as he dies old and alone, as he tells us what working with Elvis was like. It concludes, emphatically and beautifully, with the '68 Comeback Special and "If I Can Dream", perhaps one of the best songs ever recorded. None of this even meant anything to me before seeing the movie; Elvis wasn't really part of my childhood, certainly less of it than the other blues and country musicians of the day (who show up in the movie and my granddad's record collection), but I am blown away by a combination of Baz Luhrman magic and the earnest real and true story of Elvis Presley, America's Prettiest Boy Who Sang So Good. 4 stars

Three Colours White, meanwhile, left me cold. The funny parts were funny but the movie did not at all move me like Blue did. I hope that Red redeems this for me; my friend says White is, like, an intermission between the two. Perhaps as a cohesive whole, it will be better than this! 2 stars.

RRR: GUYS BEING DUDES!!! the fun NEVER ENDS in this three-hour epic about the dying days of the Raj and the revelatory freedom and joy created by the national struggle for liberation. YES, it's long, and when you think it's over there's not one but TWO more acts to go, but the cast is tiny for such a long runtime, and when we see Seetha at the start of the penultimate act, the viewer recognizes her and is excited for her story. YMMV but this was true for me. Much more important than the runtime is the sheer level of spectacle RRR wields; truly incredible. There are so many parts of this movie that, alone, would have been the best part of a million other movies; the rescue on the bridge, the cat-and-mouse game between Bheem and Ram, the Tollywood dance scene to Desi Naacho, the furry assault on the britisher palace, the resolution of the cat-and-mouse game, but too late, the final fight scene (and conflagration) in the forest, discussions of the cost of a bullet vis a vis a human life....you owe it to yourself to see RRR, soon, and as loud as possible. Five stars.

The People's Joker: I haven't seen this but i am desperate to. thanks

[Dr. Buttplug]

Dead Ringers 1988 is a fantastic Cronenberg film that doesn't get brought up often enough. It is well regarded by critics because he shows a lot of restraint with the gore. I love it because it focuses on characters and their interactions more than his earlier films do by and large.

[moooo566 (taylor's version)]

the new ant man is basically fine, you've seen marvel films, but there's a bit where a character looks directly at the camera and says "don't be a dick. it's never too late to stop being a dick." and i really hope they carry the innovation over.

[Victor Laszlo]

'Cocaine Bear' was a funny, stupid, campy, stupid, silly, stupid movie.  If you're looking for fine cinema, you're in the wrong place.  If you're looking for a bear to be rejuvenated Popeye-style by cocaine falling into her nose, then this is the movie for you.

Granted I haven't seen the Evil Dead movies in years but this felt like if 'Evil Dead' had top-tier actors and a budget.

[moooo566 (taylor's version)]

After Johns Wick 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 - Parabellum set the bar for sheer bullshit so very high I was concerned they might struggle to reach it in Chapter 4, but I'm pleased to report they disposed of every last spec of reason, continuity, and coherency and successfully made almost three hours of things that were definitely happening on screen without ever considering whether any of those things made sense. I don't think they even thought about whether to consider whether any of those things made sense. I'm not sure this post makes sense either, which makes it the best summation of the film I can offer. 7/10 would watch Rina Sawayama in anything.

[Dr. Buttplug]

Thief (1981) pretty good heist film, pretty good crime drama, all elevated by an amazing score by Tangerine dream. Drive (2011) owes a whole lot to this one.

CW: for a bucket of blood and a bucket of racial slurs. Also there's a couple of scenes where Caan handles Tuesday Weld roughly, abuse without him actually hitting her more or less.

[Shell Game]

Free Guy is a film by someone who's knowledge of computer games comes from a 2007 issue of PCGamer clip with a feature entitled The Future Of Gaming. So much of it was stupid and bad I had trouble enjoying the bits that weren't, and I am not a difficult man to please.

Taika Waititi as the villain was the main redeeming feature, he owns.

that movie came up in our latest wikihow episode and all i learned was Ninja is in it and that people actually try to do viral advertising in wikihow despite it being the worst venue imaginable for such a thing

Everything, Everwhere, All At Once is wonderful. Everyone else has said that, but I really think I need to do it too.

I haven't yet.

It's an amazing film and I'm so happy for its success in the face of such garbage failures. Too bad people went to see the Super Mario Bros movie. I guess we'll just have to wait for big theaters to die after all to ever see a revived interest in projects not based on existing properties or defined strictly by genres.

[moooo566 (taylor's version)]

ryan gosling looks really good in faux-mink

^{the rest of the film is great too}

[DUDEVSTHEWORLD]

I did barbenheimer

I will also follow literally any of u on letterboxd here's mine

https://letterboxd.com/dvw/