DVDizzy Forum

Amelie - My fourth or fifth viewing, one which was similar to my first: it's a unique experience that plasters a smile on my willing face and keeps it there for the duration. It's whimsical, creative escapism, yet mixed in with the escapism are messages and an inspirational driving force, the idea of gaining the greatest happiness through altruism. The characters are everyday but not archetypal, featuring quirks that are original alongside realism that is recognisable. Audrey Tatou is superlative. Quite simply, it's one of the greatest films I've ever seen.

Beauty and the Beast (1946 version, directed by Cocteau) - Oddly enough, to me this is something like the kind of Disney film BatB would be if it had been in the 1930's or 40's. There's a ghostly, other-worldly quality that scenes in the castle share with moments from Snow White, or perhaps Pinocchio. I adore what Cocteau does with the story and plot elements: the living objects in the Beast's castle aren't convivial comic relief, they are creepy, unnerving and unwelcoming. Svankmajer comes to mind. Meanwhile, the costumes and the set of the castle are the quintessential examples of how ravenously, unabashedly gorgeous this movie is; perhaps this goes against the message, yet I don't think the fairy tale message of true beauty existing within was Cocteau's focus. Instead, he explores the more intriguing and almost Freudian concepts. The Beast becomes a submissive, pet-like animal to Belle during some scenes, and in others is an intimidating - but, perhaps to Belle, sexually alluring - and monstrous presence. His make-up is terrific too. It's a movie brimming with magic, both in the sense of cine-magic through Cocteau's tricks and set-pieces like the disembodied arms holding candelabras, and also in the simple, love-conquers-all fairy tale sense that enraptures.

Die Hard

Howl's Moving Castle

ParaNorman

Dr Frankenollie wrote:Svankmajer comes to mind.

Jan Svankmajer? I can't remember anything about him except that he's either an animator or works (worked?) in the field of animation.

Jules wrote:

Dr Frankenollie wrote:Svankmajer comes to mind.

Jan Svankmajer? I can't remember anything about him except that he's either an animator or works (worked?) in the field of animation.

He is indeed still alive and working; if you've ever seen his work, I'm surprised you cannot recall it. It's terrifically surreal and grotesque.

I Googled him up. Unfortunately I haven't seen his films, but I did read about him in a book called "Masters of Animation", written by a certain John Grant. I'm glad I didn't forget him entirely.

Ponyo - It's definitely Studio Ghibili's version of The Little Mermaid. I didn't except how much it would be like it and how obvious it is and it was enjoyable

Hotel Transylvania - This movie was better than I thought it was. my favorite scene is where Johnny is on the plane ride and he's watching a Twilight type movie and Dracula sees it and says sarcastically that it's nice to see he's well represented

Guys. Guyssssssssss

Criterion has all of their movies u p to view for free this weekend on Hulu, no Plus account needed. Hit this up while you can.

Warm Bodies.

Anyone wanna look at zombies the same way again?

Eraserhead and Life is Beautiful.

Pirates Band of Misfits

Wall-E

My friend never saw it and picked it out.

Fairly recently viewed in cinema (december/january):
Life of Pi
Wreck-it-Ralp
Cloud Atlas

On DVD:
- Wizard of Oz
-Les intouchables
-Control (B/W movie about the short tragic life of pop singer Ian Curtis of Joy division)

TV/digital recorder
-The social network
- Happy Feet (repetitive, not very interesting - not a movie to watch a second time)

I've seen a lot of films lately, but the two most recent were Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty and Tales from Earthsea. I enjoyed both of them, though I found them both somewhat boring in ways, unlike some of their other films. Earthsea's finale was very bizarre... I did like the Sparrowhawk, Arren and Cob characters, but Tenar felt like an uninteresting re-hash of characters from other films down to her design. I enjoyed the story for the most part, though it dragged a little longer than I expected, but it's actually made me interested to read the books considering how different it seemed. I also liked Arrietty and Sho/Shawn from Arrietty (Spiller was really cute, too), and it was fun having Carol Burnett voice Haru.

I wouldn't say either of the films was up there with their best, but I moderately enjoyed them both, similar to Ponyo.

Videodrome - Quite a disappointment. At best, it's second-rate Lynch; at worst, it's a bit boring. The body horror effects can be sickening but are generally dated, James Woods suits the main role and there are moments of creativity, yet it all amounts to a simplistic anti-TV violence message.

Die Hard - See the Request a Review/Opinion thread.

I just got back from Side Effects and despite a rough start, it turned out to be a really engrossing and great film. Truly sad if it ends up being Soderbergh's final flick, but a great ending to a fluctuating career, if it is the case.

My Neighbor Totoro - I find it to be a bit overrated in my opinion but it was still very enjoyable and cute. Also some scenes disturbed me like the dad and his daughters taking a bath and his daughter is blocking his, well er, package which was odd to me to include that scene but it's still an enjoyable movie I look forward to seeing again on Blu Ray.

Cloud Atlas - An utterly extraordinary film. Ridiculously ambitious and utterly mesmerising (despite nearly being three hours), it tells six roughly interconnected stories, set between 1849 and a distant future. Visually and musically it's a delight, and the superb makeup renders much of its all-star cast (including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant) unrecognisable. I don't agree with the underlying reincarnation belief espoused by the writing, yet I still enjoyed it tremendously, and many performances - particularly Broadbent's, Hanks' and Ben Whishaw's - were exquisite. Much of the fun was in thinking back over moments of foreshadowing or self-referential lines: Cavendish shouts in a tongue-in-cheek manner that 'Soylent Green is made of people!' (and we later learn that the Sonmi fabricants of the future are recycled into food).

"Barfi!" is the most recent film that I've seen. It's a sweet romantic comedy about a mute and deaf guy named Barfi who falls in love with a autistic girl. The relationship is commendable and really melts my heart. There isn't a lot of dialogue in the film, but it has a lot to say. The music is beautiful and it is well shot. Story wise is fairly well told, but how it is structured can be confusing. Also at times it feels contrived mainly in the third act. Overall though, it is a entertaining movie with a lot of heart.
It's on Netflix if any of you are interested in watching it.

Skyfall (2012) 6.5/10 - I have low expectations when it comes to James Bond films. None of them are good with the exception of Casino Royale. That said, I never expected this movie to be boring, especially considering the director involved. While I consider Brosnan to be my favorite Bond, Daniel Craig really is the best. Sure, he's not as suave as the others but he feels real. He has emotions, faults but best of all, he actually looks like an assassin who knows how to use a gun, not an actor with a prop. That said, he was poorly written and portrayed here. If this was my first introduction to this Bond, I'm sure I would hate him. I guess my problem with this movie is that I really had no emotional connection to any of the characters. They were all dry shells with nothing to latch onto. Rather unpleasant characters that I'd rather not spend a couple of hours with. Bond plots are never anything special, clichéd nonsense but the entertainment really comes from the character of Bond. Unfortunately, the character of Bond has been striped of all its charm and just can't carry this generic plot. Really the only redeeming factors are the Adele opening number and the Deakins cinematography, nether of which come close to saving the film. What a letdown.


Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1+2 (2012-2013) 7/10 - I'll start of by saying this was surprisingly good, with part one being much more entertaining then part two. Part one is much more grounded, with the villains being less over the top and the plots less goofy. In part two, we get a shift in tone with the introduction of Superman. I honestly hated everything that had to do with Superman. For some reason he's portrayed as a puppet for Ronald Reagan and uncharacteristically goes around slaughtering foreign armies. I already don't like Superman but making him a complete douche just makes me hate him more. Seeing Batman fight him in a mechanical suite was just too much for me. Character wise, I have a love/hate relationship with this Batman. From an emotional stand point, I bought into him and very much enjoyed him. Unfortunately, he's more irresponsible then ever throwing a brand new Robin out into danger day one (a mere child with no weapons, training, or body armor). He also seems to be able to take an unlimited amount of bullets and knife stabs and be perfectly fine. This eliminates any kind of tension at all. Not my kind of Batman. Two of this movies best features are how authentic it is to it's 80s roots. The art direction and the music instantly transport to you an alternative future as seen from the 80s and it's fantastic. As with all these DC Animated Films, Christopher Drake absolutely knocks it out of the park with the film score. The score add a whole new emotional depth to this movie that would otherwise be nonexistent. He always seems to write more memorable pieces of music with emotional undertones then any of the live action DC counterparts. He writes a new Batman theme for each movie, each having it's own unique style, and each one absolutely shits on anything Hans Zimmer has written for the Nolan Batman films. This guy has proven himself 10x over and I can't wait to see what he does with a big budget film. That said, the character designs are horrible. Batman is unbelievable gigantic in this movie and the female Robin looks like something from A Pup Names Scooby-Doo. Some of the voice casting just doesn't work, like Peter Weller as Batman. He just isn't intimidating enough. Sure, he sounds the proper age but doesn't have the proper tone Batman should have. The animation is also weak. Really really poor at times. Overall, it's worth checking out, just keep expectations reasonable.

Argo

Castle in The Sky

jpanimation wrote:

Skyfall (2012) 6.5/10 - I have low expectations when it comes to James Bond films. None of them are good with the exception of Casino Royale. That said, I never expected this movie to be boring, especially considering the director involved. While I consider Brosnan to be my favorite Bond, Daniel Craig really is the best. Sure, he's not as suave as the others but he feels real. He has emotions, faults but best of all, he actually looks like an assassin who knows how to use a gun, not an actor with a prop. That said, he was poorly written and portrayed here. If this was my first introduction to this Bond, I'm sure I would hate him. I guess my problem with this movie is that I really had no emotional connection to any of the characters. They were all dry shells with nothing to latch onto. Rather unpleasant characters that I'd rather not spend a couple of hours with. Bond plots are never anything special, clichéd nonsense but the entertainment really comes from the character of Bond. Unfortunately, the character of Bond has been striped of all its charm and just can't carry this generic plot. Really the only redeeming factors are the Adele opening number and the Deakins cinematography, nether of which come close to saving the film. What a letdown.

I am so glad that you aren't a film critic that everyone reads. "Skyfall", according to most of the critics I read and myself, thought this was the best of the Bond films since "Goldfinger". The story is very well told, the villain, portrayed by Javier Bardem is scarey as hell, and there was not a predictable moment in the film. Without spoiling it for those who still haven't seen it yet, the part where Eve is ordered to "take the shot" and we see Bond fall into the river, is a very powerful scene. It leads to one of the best of the Bond stories in decades.

Daniel Craig is recreating the Bond character, with the help of Barbara Brocolli, and has signed to do the next two bond films which will put him at five, and I can't wait. Casino Royale was a great introduction to this series of Bond films, and for the first time we actually had a sequel in Quantum of Solace, while not the best sequel, it was still James Bond.

Same Mendes did a terrific job of directing this film. If you watch the extras on Blu-ray you will get a better insight into his thought process on putting one of the fastest moving, yet entertaining, Bond film. It is the second longest Bond film in 23 film, 50 Year Celebration. If you haven't seen all the James Bond movies you should go back to "Dr. No" and start from the beginning. While the Sean Connery films were good, Roger Moore as Bond brought a silliness to the films that I personally am bored with most of the time. He was hit and miss with his films, the best were "The Spy Who Loved Me", and "Moonraker". Timothy Dalton just didn't fit the Bond persona and only had two films to his credit. George Lazenby is well-forgotten in his only appearance in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Pierce Brosnan brought Bond back to what Sean Connery had created, but was a victim of some poor scripts, but he managed to keep Bond as Bond was meant to be.

I, personally, thought Daniel Craig was the wrong choice for James Bond until I saw "Casino Royale", and was instantly drawn in to his version of James Bond.

To call "Skyfall" a very boring, poor film, is very wrong in my view. You evidentally don't like these types of films, so you shouldn't bother seeing them. I see a lot of movies that I don't like, but I don't express my views here because I would be chastised by most of the contributors here.

I think you need to watch films that fit into your genre of films that you like and let the rest of us, who like these types of films, watch and enjoy.