Films I have watched while convalescing from my hernia operation

The Incredible Hulk, dir. Louis Leterrier, 2008
This was fun, and at times looked quite good (the favelas!), but too much of it had old green guts shot against... grey stone, or green grass / trees, i.e. nothing as jaw-droppingly beautiful as Ang Lee's vision of Hulk bouncing through a red desert. Norton basically reprised his Fight Club role. Not arsed to watch again, but I enjoyed it.

Cloverfield, dir. JJ Abrams, 2008
Saw this in the cinema and was... invigorated by it. Em had no desire to see it again, but it was on the shelf next to Clockwork Orange when I hired that from the library (at Em's request), and I wanted to see if it stood up. It pretty much did! Love that it's so short, and that nothing is explained. Plenty of jump / shock / iconic moments. Did it live up to the pre-release hype? Hard to say; I think so, in that it's a great little self-contained b-movie monster shocker, but there's no sense of it having any kind of wider cultural impact. So... kind of like a fairground ride, I guess. They don't really become cultural icons, either.]

LA Confidential, dir. Curtis Hanson, 1997
Not watched this in years, and Em had never seen it; she loved the look of it, particularly Straithairn's house and Bassinger's boudoir. How many Aussies in the cast? Despite having seen it loads, the labyrinthine plot still had me confuzzled as to exactly how it fitted together. The "no, she really IS Lana Turner" bit still makes me laugh like a drain - Spacey's face!

Bullitt, dir.Peter Yates, 1968
Never seen this before; it was fun, and looked great, but... it didn't really seem to be about much, y'know? And there wasn't nearly enough of fast cars driving around San Francisco. Old films move SO SLOWLY; am I a bad film-viewer for liking things at a more modern pace?

A Clockwork Orange, dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1971
Em hadn't seen this all the way through, and I'd not seen it since an initial viewing when it was re-released, I don't think. It was... well, it reminded me of why I'm not too fussed about Kubrick. He's too... Brechtian? Perhaps that's what I mean. It's so consciously A FILM, a fabrication, that I can't get emotionally involved with it - take the early scene in the old cinema / theatre, when the rival gang are stripping the girl in preparation for a gangrape - the movements, motions, are like a piece of highly choreographed dance. Well, not like - they ARE a piece of highly choreographed dance. And, like Bullitt, it moved SO SLOWLY by modern standards. Also, giant wibbling penis sculpture.

Predator, dir. John McTiernan, 1987
Bought this (and P2) dirt cheap in HMV; not seen it in years, but it's an obvious classic. Really quite genre-mashing in hindsight, too - is it sci-fi, horror, action, war? Not as good as Die Hard (which is just so taut in the plot), and the infra-red effects seem very, very luddite now, it nevertheless invented a whole host of action film cliches. Kind of mental to think that a cast made up of an American footballer, a wrestler, and a body-builder now boasts TWO state governors. Fuck me @ America.

Mission Impossible 3, dir. JJ Abrams, 2006
This was on TV at the exact moment I stopped watching the above on DVD; perfect timing. Silly, but fun. Not enough made of either Monaghan or Seymour-Hoffman. How did Abrams make Cruise look so young in the opening scenes? Unsurprising JJ Abrams about-face plot double-cross. Like all 7 seasons of 24 squeezed into 2 hours; a good fairground ride, and great to watch on a Sunday evening when Em's gone to bed.

Felt the same thing about Bullitt when I saw it a few years ago, I'm ashamed to admit. McQueen was awesome tho.

bullitt is zzzzzz

otm about all.

My scar, for reference:

http://flickr.com/photos/njsouthall/3284572464/

Like all 7 seasons of 24 squeezed into 2 hours
But without the dubious politics?
I think I liked MI3 the most of all three.

I think my favourite of that lot is LA Confedential even though it makes watching Babe more difficult - Farmer Hoggett!

Try watching "Star Trek: First Contact" for balance...

More, more!

Spacey looks exactly like Dale Winton in LA Confidential.

My scar, for reference:

http://flickr.com/photos/njsouthall/3284572464/

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Monday, February 16, 2009 12:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you gotta be fuckin kidding!

should not have clicked while eating curry. ned otm about babe/la confidential.

Hey, that scar's tiny! And they didn't even have to shave off yr pubes. Bastard!

Not sure there's much that's labyrinthine about LA Confidential, but it does look fantastic. Love that movie. A friend who's a costume designer said that the women's costumes in it are way over the top, really quite silly for the period, but the men's costumes are 100% perfect. I didn't ask, but I'm thinking that happens in a lot of movies?

also, nick, sincere congrats on the scar! It healed up very pretty.

Akira, dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, 1987
http://www.nautiljon.com/images/perso/miniatures/Akira/nezu.jpghttp://www.zuguide.com/image/Jon-Voight-Heat.8.jpg
Still fantastic, if a little batshit and ambitious. Added relevance, possibly, given the parallels between NeoTokyo and present-day London - both preparing for an Olympics, both in a state of political unrest. Hopefully there's not the remains of a god-child underneath the athletics track... Satisfies me in a way 2001; A Space Odyssey doesn't, even though I do really, really like 2001.

That Nezu / Jon Voigt in Heat thing HAS to be deliberate on Michael Mann's part, right?

Fight Club, dir. David Fincher, 1999
Rewatched in light of the Fincher poll; I haven't seen this in years, after having watched it... well, at least a dozen times when I was 20-21, around the time it came out. I'm going to be 30 soon, and yes, it resonates slightly differently now! The final twenty minutes or so, always my least favourite part, actually became piss funny. It still looks fantastic, aside from some of the CGI macro stuff being a little too 'clean'. Maybe I was hasty in my vote; perhaps this IS Fincher's finest? Zodiac seems the mature choice, but a little dull. Turning acts of terrorism, albeit Situationist ones rather than religiously dogmatic ones, is probably a satire too far in the post 9/11 world. I'm glad this got made when it did.

Oh my gosh, Mr. Mouthy, that is some scar!

(xpost) I love the bit where Edward Norton escapes from the police station.
^^^ I nearly wrote Graham Norton there. That would have been a different movie... "I am Jack's smirking stupid laugh"

The Thin Red Line, dir. Terence Malick, 1998
Is it too long? Possibly. I was making salsa during the second assault on the hill bunker. But even so, it made me well up, when Koteas left, when Caviezel died, when Chapman got the letter from his wife. Awesome, awesome film. It's just beautiful. Not perfect, by any means, but... beautiful.

Children Of Men, dir. Alfonso Cuaron, 2006
This is my favourite film. I don't think I'll ever get bored of it. I notice new stuff all the time; today, that Theo repeatedly comments on other people's breath and teeth, while clearly being a stinky-mouthed alchocolic smoker himself. The car chase and firefight scenes still astound me from a technical POV, but it's all about the characters and the performances; Peter Mullan! Michael Caine! Brilliant.

I'm puzzled at yr finding Bullitt "too slow" yet liking Thin Red Line. Perhaps speed is neither here nor there.

malick gives you a bit more to look at

Bit more to think about, too.

Also, wow @ my spelling of alcoholic.

Also, can anyone recommend anymore period films that look as good as LA Confidential?

^the conformist

Apropos of nothing, I suggest you watch "Mulholland Drive" and "Jacob's Ladder".

I can see Bullitt appearing too slow. Besides the car chase, I like this weird "modern" element that keeps making appearances in the movie -- the care the cops take in operating the fax machine thingy, the way the camera lingers on the enclosed ramp walkway gangplank meeting the side of the airplane...

It's a weird element that I sort of associate with Dirty Harry. Not just because they're both in San Francisco, but because they both offer this "Here's what your 20th Century is offering ya!" kinda vibe that isn't completely positive (well, especially in DH's case.)

> Apropos of nothing, I suggest you watch "Mulholland Drive" and "Jacob's Ladder".

Is dude on vikes?

I thought, at the outset, that Bullitt would be quite fast paced, for three reasons - it's called Bullitt, and bullets are fast, the iconography is of Steve McQueen and a fast car, and when the witness is first introduced it's pointedly noted that they only have to watch him for 48 hours until he testifies. Which left me thinking, woo, here comes a zippy 90 minutes covering 48 hours of thrills and spills as they try and guard this guy. But then he dies, STRAIGHT AWAY, and McQueen spends the next 20 minutes having dinner / breakfast / picking a sweater / etc, and I just went... "oh".

I'm not on any painkillers anymore and don't have MD or JL in the house, I'm afraid.

boo

Besides the car chase, I like this weird "modern" element that keeps making appearances in the movie

In Kiss Me Deadly (which I wholeheartedly recommend) the modern element is the telephone answering machine (built into the wall) which appears twice and both times the movie grinds to a halt as Mike Hammer retrieves his messages on reel-to-reel tape.

I'll watch it only if the remastered edition features the Lita Ford song over the closing credits.

> Also, can anyone recommend any more period films that look as good as LA Confidential?

road to perdition.
the man who wasn't there.

bugsy malone 8)

I adore McQueen drinking glasses of milk while being berated in that hospital scene. Bullitt is genius, I think!

And the 7-minute car chase with no dialogue whatsoever?? So not what I expected, and so enjoyable. I didn't even notice that there wasn't any dialogue until much, much later!

What should I watch tomorrow? Here are the options: (asterisks indicate films not previously seen)

Days of Heaven
The New World
*Chinatown
The Dark Knight
Dead Man (Jarmusch)
Alien
Aliens
King Kong (Jackson)
Sin City
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
*Mean Streets
Any one of the Bourne trilogy
*The Fall (if it arrives)
*Peeping Tom
Pan's Labyrinth
The Truman Show
Waking Life
This Is Spinal Tap
*The City Of Lost Children
Leon

That's not everything in the house, but it's a decent selection of things I'd be happy to view.

I will watch two of these. I will also watch La Jetee, as it's only 30 minutes long.

oh come on, you HAVE to watch "Alien" all things considered

since you haven't seen em, watch chinatown, peeping tom & city of lost children. all great. fall is amazing to look at, but got irritating towards the end, IMO. still, eye-candy value is tops

The Fall or City of Lost Children for sure, would make a good double bill too. Not seen CoLC for a few years but it's tremendous, and one particular scene (which I won't spoilerize) is amazing in conception and execution, as well as being incredibly beautiful.

I would say watch Chinatown, Mean Streets, and Peeping Tom (the movie with the German guy from the original "Flight of the Phoenix"?), in that order.

Unless anyone goes mental for something else in the next two hours, I think consensus between this board and another one I put the list on means that I'll be watching Leon, City of Lost Children, and La Jetee, which makes for a nice, French-themed day.

dude watch chinatown

The Silence of the Lambs, dir. Jonathan Demme, 1991
This was on ITV2 late last night (started 10pm), which means several things: 1; it was pan & scan, 2; the image quality was pretty grainy, and 3; I fell asleep. IMDB tells me it's up 13% in popularity this week. I've seen this, I realise now, several times, more than five almost certainly, but seldom if ever uninterrupted from titles to credits, whether it be by sleep or other activities. Caused a fuss in 1992 by winning a load of Oscars even though it had been released the previous May. It's an odd film. Foster and Hopkins are both good, and it creates great tension at points, but other than that I find it pretty unremarkable. I can't remember masses about it, I hold it in no great affection... and yet, every time it comes on TV, I watch it. Again and again. Maybe it's the nightvision bits. Nightvision is cool as fuck.

Chinatown will definitely be being watched this week, as it's borrowed off a neighbour; I think I'll stick with the French trio today, though.

from the already seen films i would go for Days of Heaven, from the unseen ones i'd say Mean Streets. The Fall was pretty bad i thought, but City of Lost Children is fun.

Prior to my film-watching today, I made a book rainbow.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3573/3289405325_aea08042db.jpg

Convalescence does odd things to your brain.

You must watch Peeping Tom. I only got round to it last summer, presuming it was some late-period Powell curio (it pretty much killed his career at the time), but it's absolutely essential. Also, top St St Etienne sample-spotting ops.

Also, can anyone recommend anymore period films that look as good as LA Confidential?

miller's crossing.

You know what I love about Miller's Crossing? Smoking guns! There's way too little of that in movies. I love that shit in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly too. It makes them seem so much more monstrous.

if you haven't seen chinatown see chinatown

^^^

http://wa2.images.onesite.com/capcom-unity.com/user/s-kill/ohyeah.gif

I actually bought Miller's Crossing at the weekend for this exact reason.

The City of Lost Children, dir. Jeunet & Caro, 1995
This was great fun, visually awesome, as you'd expect from Jeunet and Caro, and more than a little bonkers, too. Did JJ Abrams nick the green mist dream message for the security device in Lost? How come every good children's story seems to revolve around children being kidnapped? If this is a kid's story, that is. Quite impressed with the flea CGI, too. Jeunet & Caro are better than Tim Burton, and up there with Gilliam. Speaking of whom..

La Jetee, dir. Chris Marker, 1962
Barely 27 minutes long, this is still... so awesome. So beautiful. So strange. A massive mindfuck. The simplest, shortest sci-fi film ever made. I'll have to rewatch 12 MOnkeys again soon.

Glad that you liked CoLC! the bit I alluded to above was the sequence set in motion by Miette's tear when One is throttling her which is a high water mark for Jeunet & Caro's style IMO. The CGI in the film still really stands up as well, impressive considering its age and restricted budget compared to many Hollywood contemporaries. Goes to show what a bit of real artistry adds to it I guess.

Also, impressive book rainbow.

His refusal to watch Chinatown is like cutting his nose to spite his face.

oh wow im totally making a book rainbow later

Quickest (or at least, a quick) way of doing that would be to get the Pelican Freud Library...
http://www.informationasmaterial.com/Freudedit.jpg

Also, can anyone recommend anymore period films that look as good as LA Confidential?

mulholland falls!!!! also clint eastwoods changeling. both of which, incidentally, feature john malkovich.

another vote for millers crossing in the period film category. or in the anything ever category. god i love that movie.

Leon, dir. Luc Besson, 1995
Hadn't seen this in years, and, once again, thoroughly enjoyed every second of it, every shot, every line. Did feel slightly wrong knowing that I've seen Mathilda's naked bum being fondled by Jason Schwartzman in the short film attached to The Darjeeling Limited. This (Leon, not Portman's posterior) made me cry again. Wonderful.

Eden Lake, dir. James Watkins
Literally just finished watching this. Glad it was short, because it was... a bit of an ordeal. I enjoyed it, I guess. Found it scary. Fucking horrific. I knew it was going to be nasty, but I didn't know quite how nasty. Cooky from Skins! Bastard. I can't even begin to comprehend the moral compass of this film. Fucking hell.

Ooh, Eden Lake is 2008, obv.

Jesus, Eden Lake sounds horrifying

Also, can anyone recommend anymore period films that look as good as LA Confidential?

Or, ya know, CHINATOWN!

I WILL WATCH CHINATOWN TOMORROW, FFS.

I bet I don't like it, though; it's 70s Hollywood boys' club, innit?

Eden Lake makes The Descent look like Sesame Street, only the monsters are teenagers rather than sub-evolutionary beasties, and its moral compass is all. fucked. up. I'd recommend it, just to see how the fuck people deal with the questions it throws up. Like... it resolves nothing. At all. So wtf happens next? How would the police deal with the situation if they found out about it?

Chinatown is worth watching for the sole reason that Faye looks beautiful. (as always)

Eden Lake added to netflix queue

Desire to make a book rainbow added to the desires queue.

i'm gonna hate for a second and say that book rainbows are foolish and bad organizational policy in general.

done now.

Oh, I agree entirely. I own alphabetical CD dividers.

But book rainbows PRETTY.

why wd you want to ruin La Jetee with a repeat viewing of 12 Monkeys?

(I have to say that, based on the plot summary I read, "Lake Eden" seems like "Funny Games" with all of the abject stupidity taken out of it)

Chinatown, dir. Roman Polanski, 1974
OK, this was awesome.

Never seen it, always wanted to, had it saved on the Sky+ for about 2 years.

One of my favourite films, FWIW.

what's next?

i was browsing my imdb database (1200 films) and bored to death with my own taste, it seems the only time i give a film an 8 it has to be a boring tearjerky classic like Schindler's List or One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest.

i am going to randomly recommend Man Without A Past, by Aki Kaurismaki, cause it's awesome.

Ludo, cleanse your palette - quit movies for a month ;-)

hah no way. ;)
it's just that i seem to have only 4 options. bad movie > 5, almost all movies > 6, great movie >7, big hollywood tearjerker classic > 8.
(even the artsy films that get an 8 have almost become a cliche: Festen!)

My IMDB ratings are all 8s 9s and 10s, but that's cos I've only rated about a dozen films and they're all favourites.

The Fall arrived, so I think I'll watch that. What else should I watch tomorrow?

Previous list:

Days of Heaven
The New World
The Dark Knight
Dead Man (Jarmusch)
Alien
Aliens
King Kong (Jackson)
Sin City
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
*Mean Streets
Any one of the Bourne trilogy
*Peeping Tom
Pan's Labyrinth
The Truman Show
Waking Life
This Is Spinal Tap

New additions:

Ping Pong
X3; The Last Stand
Swingers
Wall-E
Y Tu Mama Tambien
A Matter Of Life & Death
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
* A Fistful Of Dynamite
* The Wild Bunch
Amadeus

What are the *'s for?

Watch The Wild Bunch

A Fistful Of Dynamite is worth it for the soundtrack alone

from the new additions i'd say Wild Bunch, it's spectacular. (i probably gave it a 6 on imdb though, nope 7)

* = not previously seen.

Wow, 4 great films too!

all 4*

* A Fistful Of Dynamite
* The Wild Bunch

excellent double feature imo.

in that order.

I'm in favor of watching mixed genres as a double feature. Mean Streets + Wild Bunch

of your remaining movies ping pong might actually be the best imo

I'd go on a Polanski bender if I'd just watched Chinatown and loved it.

Not that there's anything wrong with a Peckinpah/Leone bender.

The Fall, dir. Tarsem, 2008
There were a couple of points early on when I feared for this, and the phrase "if this guy had a plot, he'd be dangerous" flitted across my mind. But he pulled it back pretty well; the narrative is still a little... slim, but it at least had a lot of feeling and not too much sentimentality (but it only just veered on the right side of sentimental!). Visually... give the location team an Oscar. Not quite so sure about the fantasy costume design, but then again it's a little girl's imaginations, not Lord of the Rings, that we're dealing with, so some slack can be cut. Much more satisfying than The Cell, although much less dark, too; the unrelenting lightness and colour made for that feeling like listening to too much major-key music - sometimes you need a little shade and misery to cushion it. I'd love to see this guy get a big, classic, fantasy plot and make a proper adventure film; there's only so much you can do with fairy tales and subconscious projections.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/3295123540_32499198b8.jpg

Finding things may become tricky.

nice collection :)

i really liked the ending of the Fall, really touched me, when they're watching the old school movies, stunts, hated the fantasy bits though.

I have watched no films today so far. Instead I have colourised books and DVDs, read a bit, and bought a pork pie, cherry tomatoes, and some nice bread.

ok read that as "coloured book" and i thought 'that sounds like the best day ever, i need some colouring books'.

i didn't like chinatown, couldn't finish it tbh.

Leave it, mac.

Man on Wire, dir. James Marsh, 2008
This was awesome, very beautiful and very charismatic, thanks to Philippe the wirewalker. And some great editing and cinematography. However, I was left vaguely disappointed by it; right at the end, when they started dealing with the reaction to what Philippe had done, revealed his fame, his immediate infidelity, etc, I wanted to know more. Why did he change. Why did Jean-Louis cry. Why was Annie so easy to resign herself to letting him go. Philippe could not have done what he did without his team, yet he left them behind, dropped them. I thought it could have said something very interesting about the nature of fame, and about Philippe's extreme psychology, but it left me wanting. Still terrific, though.

The Bourne Supremacy, dir. Paul Greengrass, 2004
Fell asleep. Only saw ten minutes. Seen it before though, and like it a lot.

The Dark Knight, dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008
This is still great, dark fun. Ledger remains the most compelling thing about it though.

Why did he change. Why did Jean-Louis cry. Why was Annie so easy to resign herself to letting him go. Philippe could not have done what he did without his team, yet he left them behind, dropped them. I thought it could have said something very interesting about the nature of fame, and about Philippe's extreme psychology, but it left me wanting.

yeah definetely the most fascinating part. i think there's a big difference between Jean-Louis, the helper and in the end simply observer of the "act", and Philippe who did it. Philippe has a huge rush of adrenalin, while JL is so enormously glad/relieved it's over he almost HATES Philippe (and himself for helping him)