NLSC MOVIE CLUB |1-1| Rats in the attic...toys in the cellar

[benji]

Rules:
-Review the films as you watch them.
-Number of reviews completed relates to number of suggestions for the next period.
-Further details could potentially be found here: viewtopic.php?f=76&t=81888

Big Nothing (2006)
Director: Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Stars: David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg, Alice Eve
This is one of those films that will never be anything more than a cult hit. As evidence, it was partly shot in the third world nation of Canada. It features Simon Pegg before he got big and David Schwimmer during his career. And here's the part where you bail. Schwimmer dominates all over this film. He's good in Band of Brothers, but he's truly great here. Pegg and the others are not irrelevant but it's Schwimmer's show, he's the key to the film. It's his character that needs to gain a second income for the family. And that's where we start. A brilliantly done black comedy that if it was not for this description you would expect nothing more than absolute shit so I've probably ruined it for you by saying something other than: DAVID SCHWIMMER. DAVID SCHWIMMER. DAVID SCHWIMMER.

Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father (2008)
Director: Kurt Kuenne
Probably the most depressing thing you'll ever watch, and if you cry while watching it you're pretty much gay but it's also somewhat warranted. This is basically a documentary that was being made for the infant son of a man murdered by the mother of the child (if you're following) as the documentary continues it becomes less a tribute to the murdered man and delves into other areas, until the climax which will make you hate life for some days to come.

Gran Torino (2008)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley
If you laugh at any of Clint Eastwood's racist jokes you're an awful person, fortunately for you however you won't be laughing at them uproariously in a packed cinema like I was but nevertheless you will enjoy them. Eastwood is a miserable old bastard who hates everything but develops a soft spot for an Asian family living next door, it's extremely well done as the main character is as racially sensitive as Grand Wizard Nathan Forrest but remains likeable throughout, and the ending is awesome.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Director: Paul McGuigan
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Stanley Tucci
Ignore the credentialed cast. Come for the plot. And stay forever because of the dialogue. They look left. You go right.

The Mexican (2001)
Director: Gore Verbinski
Stars: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini
Of course, you've seen this listed on TNT and TBS how many times. And you'd never watch it. Brad Pitt? Julia Roberts? Who wants it? Here's the thing, this is one of the best movies you haven't seen. Hey, wait, that's the theme! Brad Pitt hasn't fulfilled his duties, and thus he's given a task. And thus our plot happens. Gore Verbinski kills it. And if they don't dance, they're no friends of mine.

Ravenous (1999)
Director: Antonia Bird
Stars: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette
You won't like this film. Because there's no way you could want this film if you knew what it was. Until you watch it, and then you'll cherish it forever. Guy Pierce has been incredible, and this is still one of his best. Robert Carlyle? No, sorry, he hasn't been better. Incredible soundtrack, brilliant directing. You'll almost forgive Jeffery Jones for being a sex offender!

The Room (2003)
Director: Tommy Wiseau
Stars: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Graeg Sestero, Plot Holes
Possibly the greatest movie ever made. If you require your movies to have plot continuation, a script that makes sense, appropriate reaction to traumatic events, acceptable to good acting or any dramatic scene that isn't ruined by not having any of the afformentioned then go fuck yourself. If you like incredible dialogue, late 90's rnb fueled sex scenes, saying hi to people and "the unexplained" you will love this movie. Watch it, I refuse to spoil any of this masterpiece in my description.

A Shot In The Dark (1964)
Director: Blake Edwards
Stars: Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders
Fact: 99% of all "comedies" you enjoy are probably worse than this. Fact: Strangelove is the better move, but Sellers is never better than here. Fact: Friedberg and Seltzer wish they could come within a parsec of this script.

Two Hands (1999)
Director: Gregor Jordan
Stars: Heath Ledger, Bryan Brown, David Field
Heath Ledger's first major role, it's a movie set in Sydney about a man (Ledger) who has $10,000 belonging to a local mob boss stolen from him while swimming at the beach one afternoon. The bank robbing scene is possibly the most accurate portrayal of Australian common life in the history of theatre and the movie also features a very young (and very blonde) Rose Byrne of Damages fame in what was also her first major role.

The Warriors (1979)
Director: Walter Hill
Stars: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright
A pretty iconic movie unless you've been living in a bubble or refuse to watch anything made before 1990. The Warriors are framed for a murder and have to make their way back to their home in Coney Island meanwhile being chased down by every other gang in New York on the way. There was a video game made about this which I'm sure some people have played, the movie itself is worth watching if for nothing else but the Baseball Furies and the awesome "Warriors, come out to play..." scene. No idea where the actors from this are now, I'm going to assume dead, but regardless, they left us this classic before they (maybe) died.

The Great Film
Leon/The Professional (1994)
Director: Luc Besson
Stars: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman

[Oznogrd]

Two Hands

I kept hearing how great Heath Ledger was before TDK but I had never seen proof. I hated "Gay Cowboys not Eating Pudding" and had never bothered with any of his more chick oriented fare. Well, this is the proof you need that Heath was awesome. This movie should be much bigger than it is. It should be in the conversation for best "owe a shit ton of money to criminals and try to get it anyway you can" movies of all time.

Do you like tragic figures? Good. Do you like horrible situations occurring at the worst possible time for the protagonist? Good. You should check this out then. I will say the stuff with the older brother talking from his grave is a little odd but no worse than anything that happens in any other indie movie, it just didn't really fit the tone of the rest of the flick for me.

Also as Jae and I said in the "Last move you watched thread", the robbery scene is awesome.

Definitely give this one a watch. One of the movies I had the lowest expectations for but ended up being one of the better ones I've watched in the past couple of years.

The Warriors

*puts plastic bottles on my fingers to type this review*

Hey kids do you like violence? Yeah well so do I and despite a lot of the "gangs" in this movie being over the top, this movie's pretty fun and actually has some surprisingly memorable moments. (Seriously. Every bad situation i get in nowadays i just see the guy from this movie going "come out and playyyy" singing in my head)

The plots pretty simple but it works. Bad shit has gone down. Epically bad shit. We're a long ways from home. We gotta get home through other's territory. Remember the part of GTA: San Andreas where you're taking over other gang territory? Go as far on the map as you can. Then try to WALK back to CJ's place. Thats about what this movie is like (with a lot less rap influence and more weird dystopia 70's ideas about the future of our kids!).

Is it campy as fuck? Yup. Are the fight scenes pretty obviously faked? Of course. But that's the fun. Its a great flick, with a certain midnight/cult following element to it. Also: probably one of the easiest movie to video game translations of all time. I never played the game (only saw it being played) but it seemed to keep the movie ideas intact while still giving a fun experience.

*clicks the bottles together*

[Lamrock]

I've only seen three of those. Gran Torino was really good. I watched it two or three times. “A Mexican, a Jew and a colored guy walk into a bar. The bartender says, ‘Get the f**k out.’” I remember not liking Lucky Number Slevin but its been too long to remember why. Leon The Professional is a classic that everybody should see

[buzzy]

i'll try to watch some of these, as i have some time on my hands

[cyanide]

Gran Torino

Disclaimer: Spoilers scattered across.

Clint Eastwood is phenomenal as always. The script is great. Some great lines and I'm sure you've heard of, "Get off my lawn." Yeah, it's from this movie. Eastwood's character goes from a bitter, racist cynic to one that you can sympathize with. Understandably so, since his family are derps and he's at the age where he doesn't give a fuck. There's also this supplementary character that plays the role of the priest does a good job of feeding him his guilt and putting him on the path of morality. But he figures that out anyway with his next door Asian neighbours, some "slanty-eyed gooks" who he thought to be the same people he murdered in Korea, but they turned out to be Hmongs. This Hmong kid, his neighbour, I forget his name but he is the worst actor I've seen in decades who becomes the son Eastwood never had.

So they get themselves involved with gang warfare, yadda yadda yadda and I'm disappointed the kid doesn't die. He can't act worth shit. What the fuck was Eastwood thinking when they casted him?

Gran Torino is the name of his car.

Good movie overall. 7/10.

[koberulz]

Big Nothing

Meh. I don't particularly feel as though I've wasted an hour and a half of my life, but it's not something I'd watch again. Possibly a genre thing; whilst it had its moments comedically I found the dark storyline overpowered them. The schtick with basically everyone being a serial killer got old, quick. It wasn't helped by the fact that I spent an hour and a half getting invested in a story that turns out to go absolutely nowhere. It really felt like they had far too many storylines going on, and in the end none of them really got any resolution. The wife's story was barely covered, Garman's death happened and then was never mentioned again. As a film, it never really had any sort of plot. There was the underlying blackmail plot story that acted as an excuse for there to be a film at all, but at the end of the day it was more a matter of throwing a couple of people together and having them run into as many serial killers and accidental deaths as they could get into 90 minutes. If it was funny enough, it could have got away with it, but it wasn't.

[[Q]]

Gran Torino was pretty good. It'll introduce Hmong people to those who aren't familiar with them.

[Oznogrd]

Big Nothing

Hm. Odd little flick there. I love Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer has been in some decent stuff (not necessarily because of him) so I figured I'd give it a shot...What the fuck was that? Think I see why it was a straight to DVD release in the USA.

The main actors/actresses put in at the very least believable performances until the writer is like "you know how M Night put a twist at the end of the Sixth Sense and made ton of money? Maybe if i do that for the last 20 minutes ill make a million dollars per twist!" I was pleasantly surprised to see Hank Moody's wife in this but her performance was pretty wooden and her character was terribly written. Not a single goddamned thing happened that would've made her cover up the murder unless i missed a major plot point Honestly the less used characters were some of the funniest and I sorta wish they had more time to flesh out whatever clusterfuck of a story had actually happened. Just did some research. No fucking wonder it was so weird. Damn French people. Except for my client le badman, he's still awesome.

The soundtrack was kinda nice, felt like I had gone back to the 90s with the heavy Eels presence. Probably my favorite part of this flick. Except for Simon Pegg's american accent. I'm pretty impressed he kept it up almost the whole time.

The action was alright, the gore not too cheesy, and honestly the pacing was fine for the kind of movie it was. Nothing spectacular but not particuraly horrendous

I wouldn't call this a bad movie but the story is just so badly written. It takes alot of potential and basically wastes it. Think like a teenager blowing his load because he couldnt believe the girl in front of him had just taken off her shirt. The writing of this movie felt like that. He got overexcited that someone was actually going to let him make a movie, so he got lost in what im sure he thought was "genius" and fucked everything up. Give it a watch if you're bored, it was entertaining enough. But much like kobe said: not something i'd probably watch again, or recommend to others.

[koberulz]

Gran Torino

Early on, I was expecting this to be an 'asshole finds religion, ceases to be an asshole'-type story, and wasn't expecting to enjoy it. Whilst I probably wouldn't watch it again, I definitely enjoyed watching it the once. The religious theme was there, but it was kept nicely in the background. Ending was ruined by the kid who played Thao absolutely sucking in the scene where he's yelling at Walt to let him out of the basement, and by the suicide mission being foreshadowed a bit too much.

I'm really not sure this was as much of a 'transformation' film as it really seems. Guy's family sucked, and his racism is directed at his friends as much as his enemies, which indicates that it's really not all that sincere. Really, it's as he says to himself in the bathroom mirror: he has more in common with the Hmong than with his family. He's never been able to relate to or get along with them, but he's able to relate to and get along with his neighbors. He never did treat them poorly; his abuse of Thao was always more about tough love than mistreatment. The only reason he got to know them at all was his saving the girl from the trio of blacks which, if he really were the racist uncaring bastard he's initially portrayed as, he'd have no reason to do. Can't say as I felt any different about him after the movie than I did early on.

[koberulz]

Lucky Number Slevin

Loved this one. Only watched it the once, which probably isn't ideal for reviewing purposes. Will definitely watch it again in the future.

[koberulz]

The Mexican

I enjoyed it up until Jerry killed "Leroy", but after that it just felt like it went too long. Had it ended with Sam going back to Vegas and Jerry stuck in Mexico, it would've been a better movie. Even with all that extra time, we still never found out what happened to Ted. He escaped from the pawn shop, and unless I missed something was never spoken of again.

Hated Leroy. Sappiness in general irritates me enough, and that's when it's not coming from a hired assassin. Yeah, we get it, he's a killer with feelings and it's interesting because it's not what you'd expect. It's been done enough that it's about as common as the inverse. And Sam got way too comfortable with him way too quickly. He's trying to kill you, and you're trying to get him a date? Why?

[koberulz]

The Room

Easily the worst film I've ever seen. The acting is awful, Johnny's lines are clearly dubbed in several places and have nothing to do with the movements his mouth is making, the acting is awful, there's no plot that makes any sort of sense, and the acting is awful.

The drugs plot and the cancer plot are brought up once each and never heard from again. Lisa went through the Heel Face Revolving Door so many times I got dizzy. Denny was clearly retarded, but no mention was made of it. The first half of the movie seemed to be for no other purpose than showing naked people. Which is not a good thing when one of those people looks like Tommy Wiseau.

That wasn't even So Bad It's Good, it was just So Bad It's Horrible.

[koberulz]

A Shot in the Dark

It had its moments, but for the most part it felt like the plot (whatever it was) only existed to give Clouseau reasons to be clumsy and get arrested constantly. I still have no idea what the hell the plot was. The opening and closing scenes had way too many people in them, who weren't anywhere to be seen the rest of the movie, which made it impossible to tell who was doing what, or saying what. Not helped at the end by the fact that they're then as close together as they could get, and moving around, and all yelling over the top of one another.

The Dreyfus subplot was the only real highlight of this film. That, and the completely deadpan delivery of his announcing that he'd cut off his thumb and stabbed himself with a letter opener.

[benji]

Don't want to act like I'm shooting down opinions, though we did want debate for this project, but I did want to address some of your points koberulz because you have taken the initiative in watching the films.

It had its moments, but for the most part it felt like the plot (whatever it was) only existed to give Clouseau reasons

It actually is. I don't know what you or others know about films before the New Hollywood era but they were often vehicles for actors alone, the rest was interchangeable. (And in this case mostly parody of such type of films ala Clue.) In the case of A Shot in the Dark, it's the result of The Pink Panther. Which was written as a starring film for David Nevin, but Peter Seller's side character stole the show. Thus they made a whole film based around him (this one) in like 18 months or something and then the entire franchise wound up based around him. I picked A Shot in the Dark because I think it's better than the other Pink Panther films and establishes many of the cliches (like Airplane) we now expect in comedic films, and also because Sellers is never better than here. Strangelove is second, but playing three characters is cheating. And The Party is him just making up the entire film as he goes.

Indeed off that last point, many Sellers films are him just doing whatever he wants and the "normal" actors having to play along, I believe the billards scene is one of those. The Party is 90 straight minutes of just this.

The Mexican

I think a lot of the latter was Sam as a character being that way. I mean she's with Jerry in the first place, and she clearly accepts him despite all his shit. And they in some respects "bonded" plus Stockholm. But yet it could also be a ploy since she attempted things throughout. I also think he was intentionally setup as that "killer with feelings" for the twist that he's not Leroy so he becomes sympathetic. I don't think Ted really mattered all that much.

My real favorite part of the film are all the stop light scenes. And the dog. And the music. There's a pattern to the repetition and shots. (see: the story of The Mexican.)

The Room

Explore the subtext.

Lucky Number Slevin

Loved this one. Only watched it the once, which probably isn't ideal for reviewing purposes. Will definitely watch it again in the future.

I actually agree, there's a subtilty to some of the performances you saw the first time but can pick out closer the second time. Especially with Willis, Freeman, and Hartnett. They sell so much of the dialogue by themselves.

Big Nothing
The main actors/actresses put in at the very least believable performances until the writer is like "you know how M Night put a twist at the end of the Sixth Sense and made ton of money? Maybe if i do that for the last 20 minutes ill make a million dollars per twist!"
I wouldn't call this a bad movie but the story is just so badly written. It takes alot of potential and basically wastes it. Think like a teenager blowing his load because he couldnt believe the girl in front of him had just taken off her shirt. The writing of this movie felt like that. He got overexcited that someone was actually going to let him make a movie, so he got lost in what im sure he thought was "genius" and fucked everything up. Give it a watch if you're bored, it was entertaining enough. But much like kobe said: not something i'd probably watch again, or recommend to others.

I'll quote this one but can also apply to koberulz's review.

I hate to pull that "you didn't get it" and "you watched it wrong" absolute asshole bullshit, but at least from my perspective you guys may have taken the plot too seriously because of how it portrays itself seriously. I thought it was escalating in terms of trying to get over the top and create twists simply for the sake of it. That it felt that adding a slight dark comedic tweak did not work, that it had to go farther, it needed axes in the head and as many double crosses in 10 minutes as possible.

Back to being an asshole, it's like when what's his face, Joe was it? With the gaudy belt, felt that American Psycho was some serious deep drama. I suppose I never took Big Nothing seriously from the start. So when it starts spiraling I'm egging it on, yes, yes, become more absurd. But it still holds together, like American Psycho, plot wise because it's logical within the fucked up world it exists in.

And yeah, again, that music, AWESOME.

If you guys want a film with really great music though, there's another of mine on this list still. And it involves a child molester. (Not in the film, the actor.)

I'll probably do some reviews towards the end of next week, wanted to see how this went on its own. Not for my films, but the others + Great One, I do intend to post some for mine near the end of the period though.

[Oznogrd]

kobe, are you acquiring these or finding them streaming online?

[koberulz]

I don't know what you or others know about films

Very little.

before the New Hollywood era

Absolutely nothing. I don't even know what or when that is.

but they were often vehicles for actors alone, the rest was interchangeable

Not really my type of movie. I don't really give a shit about actors in general, and I'm not someone who can tell great acting from good acting. If it's as bad as The Room, I can tell, but once it's decent enough to make the film believable, it makes no difference to me.

establishes many of the cliches (like Airplane) we now expect in comedic films

Which doubtless leads to Seinfeld is Unfunny.

I also think he was intentionally setup as that "killer with feelings" for the twist that he's not Leroy so he becomes sympathetic.

Yeah, but it's overdone (though perhaps wasn't at the time) and irritating. That this is the one plot where it was perhaps necessary doesn't change that.

Explore the subtext.

I hate subtext.

I actually agree, there's a subtilty to some of the performances you saw the first time but can pick out closer the second time. Especially with Willis, Freeman, and Hartnett. They sell so much of the dialogue by themselves.

The thing that'll be most interesting to watch for the second time around is the foreshadowing; apparently there's a whole lot of it going on. The one thought I do have now, still having only watched it once, is that I didn't particularly like the decision to fake Lindsay's death. If it were real, fine. If it never happened at all, fine. But for Slevin to confess the whole thing to her a day after meeting her? Not a fan of that decision.

kobe, are you acquiring these or finding them streaming online?

I take the fifth.

[Oznogrd]

Fair enough. I was just looking for somewhere to watch these. Moving on. Will watch 1-several of these tomorrow most likely

[Oznogrd]

Dear Zachary

Holy Shit. If the description is accurate then i'm the biggest homosexual on the planet. I cried giant manly tears. The movie is touching, yet twisted. Wonderful, yet brutal.

to quote the movie? THAT FUCKING BITCH! that psychotic cunt got away with murder of what appeared to be a great guy and an infant child. All because the government is slow as shit. Bitches like this are why I believe in capital punishment...holy fucking shit.

Just...wow...I hate humanity sometimes and this movie definitely reaffirmed that. Fuck either benji or Jae, whichever one of you bastards recommended this.

I'm going to have to recommend all fairy tale happy movies just to balance this shit out. Fuck you all.

Truth is? Great fucking film, but be prepared to have every part of you wrenched out. This is a watch once then never see it again because if I do i may become a vigilante like batman. Watch it now so you can share in my rage.

As far as a flaw, i felt it lacked a little direction..jumping back and forth between "touching" and an episode of "who the bleep did i sleep with?" Thats partially due to the events that happened. Just yeah..

You know what? fuck canada

Thats all i have.

[Oznogrd]

Lucky Number Slevin

So I actually watched the summer after I graduated college. I didnt remember much of it, but i definitely remembered strongly disliking it despite the credentialed cast and all around decent premise.

As i watched this movie again I realized something. I hated everything but Dr. Horrible and Firefly that summer because i was depressed about leaving lol.

Seriously, so many quotes that are epic, great performances from almost everyone involved, Great atmosphere etc. I somehow cant believe i disliked it the first time.

My only beef with it is I do remember predicting it the first time I saw it...so maybe thats why i disliked it partially then too. This time i wasnt so much focused on that as just enjoying the ride.

It worked. Yall should watch this

Are anyone but me and kobe who havent already seen all of these doing this? lol

[koberulz]

Two Hands

So it's basically The Mexican, except set in Sydney? And, what with the kid coming in and killing everyone at the end, it's very much a shoot the shaggy dog story, too.

That said, I enjoyed it. It was certainly better than The Mexican. Not terribly fond of anything that involved the older brother, though. The supernatural element just didn't fit, and the opening was downright weird. The robbery scene was awesome, up until the cops shot a guy for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

[shadowgrin]

This is a watch once then never see it again because if I do i may become a vigilante like batman. Watch it now so you can share in my rage.

Silly Oz. Batman has legs.
Anyway, Oz's review got me really interested in seeing that movie first.

[koberulz]

The Warriors

The "come out to play" bit was just plain Narm. Why was it set "sometime in the future"? There didn't seem to be anything that wouldn't have existed in 1979.

It wasn't so bad it was horrible, but it was too bad to be good because of it. The guy getting run over by a train and nobody noticing or caring, the ridiculous gimmicks that would have been more in place in 1980s WWF, the constant Mook Chivalry, the completely inexplicable running away constantly, despite the fact that even after exhausting themselves by running they could just turn around and completely demolish everyone in mere seconds, the horrible fight scenes, and the constant need to get laid that trumped the need to, y'know, live.

Also, who was Luther talking to on the phone?

[koberulz]

Leon

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Leon managed to pull off the "hitman with a heart" schtick without it being over-the-top or annoying like it was in The Mexican. Stansfield was awesome.

Didn't really get Mathilda, though. One minute she's running around killing people and trying to convince Leon to have sex with her, then the next he dies and for no reason whatsoever she turns her life around. I watched the extended version, which adds in a whole lot of the former; maybe it makes more sense in the American theatrical release. Even if it does, that's really no excuse.

My biggest problem with the film, though, is that they kept using the word 'client' completely wrong. It's the person who's paying you, not the person you're trying to kill.

[shadowgrin]

My biggest problem with the film, though, is that they kept using the word 'client' completely wrong. It's the person who's paying you, not the person you're trying to kill.

Someone is certainly 'in the know' about the assassin business.

[koberulz]

It's not an assassin issue, it's a grammar issue. The person paying you to perform a service for them is the client. A cleaner wouldn't call the house his client.

Also, did we ever find out who was cutting the drugs in the first place?

I'm all done with these. Not going to watch Ravenous or Dear Zachary; the former is a horror movie and the latter sounds way too depressing. When's round two?