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385,094
391,152
100,274
9
Godard's most beautiful film ; definitely the best of his later work that I've seen
Most people will not like this film . It's difficult to understand what's going on in the narrative . This isn't uncommon in Godard's work , but it's especially true of his later work . I've seen , besides New Wave , First Name : Carmen , Hail Mary , and his segment from the omnibus opera film Aria . That segment is ac...
384,732
391,152
29,490
9
Great
The River is a very wonderful documentary , covering the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States . It's Depression-era propaganda , yes , but it's so beautifully filmed , edited , and written , as well as read . The narration is absolutely poetic . This is a must-see if for all documentary enthusiasts ...
384,583
391,152
203,612
9
Near masterpiece , at least ; the next time I watch it , it will probably be a masterpiece
Teshigahara's debut , at least as a feature length director of fictional films . Like his most famous work , his sophomore feature A Woman in the Dunes , Pitfall is based on the work of Japanese author Kobo Abe . While Pitfall is far less famous than A Woman in the Dunes , it is at least as good . It's been a while sin...
385,460
391,152
492,466
9
Best doc of ' 06 , and one of the best films , period
Well , I finally found the very best documentary from 2006 . This exploration of Iraq is reminiscent of the beautiful ethnographic documentaries ( and faux-documentaries ) of pioneer Robert J . Flaherty . The images are awe-inspiring and completely indelible . The film is broken into three parts . In the first segment ...
384,919
391,152
25,590
9
Great Fields , Great Entertainment
If anything , this film is a must-see for two of W . C . Field's scenes : 1 ) Fields ' first meeting with Baby Le Roy ( who also appears in It's a Gift ) , which is easily one of the best comedy scenes in the movies , and 2 ) Fields ' juggling routine , for which he was very famous when he was a vaudevillian , justly s...
385,527
391,152
27,518
9
Very good
I taped this based on its title alone . It's the kind of classic Hollywood film I really love because , while it's definitely a quality picture , it's also goofy in a lot amusing ways . The Devil Is a Sissy stars three child stars of the time , Freddie Bartholomew , Jackie Cooper , and Mickey Rooney . Bartholomew is a ...
385,419
391,152
257,044
9
Great , but flawed ; Tom Hanks is wrong for the role
A great film with a painful amount of flaws . Technically , it's gorgeous . Conrad Hall's cinematography is original and stunning , and Thomas Newman's score is one of the more memorable of recent years ( and it's only rarely overused ) . Mendes keeps up his great technical direction . And the supporting actors are mag...
384,890
391,152
18,737
9
A great film , but it loses a little steam early on
I had been hearing about this film for years now , and I have finally seen it . I must say that I was enormously impressed with the first third , up until the courtroom sequence . After that , it gets a little random . There's nothing necessarily wrong with that - none of those episodes is less than great - but if it w...
385,323
391,152
311,289
9
A great adaptation
Holes , the novel , was forced on me in an education course . I didn't think I would like a children's novel ; plus , the other couple of books I was forced to read for the class were really bad . But , to my surprise , I absolutely loved Holes . It really is one of the most perfectly written novels I've ever read . I ...
385,754
391,152
1,028,528
9
The European / DVD cut is just as good as the Grindhouse cut , if not better
I honestly don't get the hate here . Tarantino is a smug bastard , to be sure , but he makes fairly entertaining movies . People complain about the endless dialogue , but I quite enjoy it here . I like the bad , B-movie dialogue of the first half of the film , as well as the more Tarantino-esquire stuff of the second h...
385,139
391,152
42,593
9
Fantastic film with Bogart at his very best . Gloria Grahame also gives one of her best performances .
The story concerns a Hollywood screenwriter ( Bogart ) who is suspected of being a murderer . Grahame , a neighbor , steps in to defend him ? she saw the murdered woman leave his apartment alone . Afterwards , they begin a relationship . But Bogart's nature is a violent one , and that violence keeps pushing forward . I...
385,690
391,152
82,926
9
Crazy send-up of American family life by John Waters
This is almost as good as Desperate Living , my favorite Waters flick . Divine stars as a beaten-down housewife married to a philandering porno theater owner . He leaves her for Mink Stole and hounds her relentlessly . Her daughter's a knocked-up skank and her son huffs like crazy and lusts after women's feet ? which h...
385,795
391,152
99,902
9
Just a wrung below Raise the Red Lantern
In ten or twenty years , Zhang Yimou will be regarded as one of the greatest foreign directors . I think his film Raise the Red Lantern is one of the greatest films ever made , easily . Ju Dou is just one step below it . Its positive points are too numerous to mention in any great detail . Just let me warn you that , l...
385,482
391,152
253,754
9
Don't listen to the critics on this one
I'm not a big enough fan of Star Trek to deserve the title " trekkie . " I've only seen about six whole episodes of the original series , and only the last three of the original movie series . And I've probably watched about three episodes total from the three most recent series , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , and Enterp...
385,801
391,152
60,153
9
A helluva lot of fun
They were aiming for pure cornball with the 1960s Batman television series , and they hit a bullseye . This movie , which followed the first season , was given a lot of money to work with ? all of which was promptly ? and happily ? blown on some new bat-themed vehicles , the bat-copter , bat-boat , and bat-cycle , whos...
385,719
391,152
443,455
9
Maddin should have dropped the narration for general release , but the film is still gangbusters
First of all , I have to say : finally ! I was almost positive that I was going to have to wait for DVD for this one , and God knows how long that was going to take . Secondly , I have to speak my only criticism of the film up front : the live show experiment might have been something truly awesome . I'll never know . ...
384,748
391,152
209,144
9
Truly , utterly brilliant
I had grave doubts going into this one . Its fans seemed to me to be the same people who like a lot of the movies I really hated over the past five years or so , movies like The Matrix , Run Lola Run , Fight Club , and many others . I avoided it for a long time , though I always thought I had to see it no matter what ....
385,468
391,152
20,492
9
Gripping Whodunit
This isn't a typical Tod Browning film . It's more or less a very basic filming of a stage play ( I gather ; I don't know that for sure , but it feels very stagey ) about a group of rich people who hire a medium to find out who killed their friend ( and , to some of the group , an enemy ) . When they go into their sean...
385,548
391,152
48,947
9
Well deserved Oscar for Ingrid Bergman
Excellent film about a group of Imperial Russian expatriates who try to pass off a nobody as the Grand Duchess Anastasia , who was supposedly executed along with the rest of her family a decade ago . No one knows , not even the woman herself , whether she is or is not Anastasia . Ingrid Bergman plays this woman in her ...
385,318
391,152
51,361
9
The earliest Suzuki Seijun film available in Region 1 ; it's newly released on DV
For those who doubt the talent of Suzuki , for those who think that he was just some kind of a nut who really just didn't understand how to make a coherent film , I present to you his seventh film , Underworld Beauty , newly released on DVD by Home Vision Cinema . This is the earliest available Suzuki film , and the ea...
385,862
391,152
35,937
9
A brilliant thriller
A brilliant thriller . It's not as beautiful as some of the other Val Lewton movies ( I really think the director must make a difference ) , but the script makes up for any lack in such a quality . Apparently the story was stolen ; a subsequent lawsuit is the reason that this one is so rare . The film concerns a ship's...
385,861
391,152
25,423
9
John Ford is by far my favorite director
No director impresses me more consistently than John Ford . Add The Lost Patrol to the list of his second tier triumphs - it's a cliche , but if anyone else had made this film , it would probably be their masterpiece . A British officer , riding through the Arabian desert in 1917 , refuses to share his orders with his ...
385,200
391,152
33,945
9
Almost perfect ;
One of Fields ' best ( is there anything that's not ? ) , Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is basically his swan song . Never again would he star in a motion picture . And it is a glorious swan song , nearly as funny as his greatest film , The Bank Dick . It may even be his second best film , although several fight fo...
384,620
391,152
60,050
9
Underrated
John Ford's swan song is very underrated . Anne Bancroft plays a chain-smoking doctor who has fled the United States ( for reasons unknown , unless they were explained during the minute or so I was away to answer the phone ) to work at a mission in China . Margaret Leighton plays the head of this mission , a devout Chr...
385,883
391,152
69,400
9
Almost as good as Tati's best films ; very underrated !
Tati's final theatrical film , which is often considered his greatest failure , is in actuality nearly as good as his masterpieces . In this film , Tati stars for the fourth and final time as M . Hulot . This time he has a job as an automobile designer , and it is his job to get his company's new Camping Car to Amsterd...
385,936
391,152
49,261
9
Gorgeous piece of work
I thought Doctor Zhivago had totally ruined me for epics . I had taped Giant months ago , and had avoided it until this morning when , circa 5AM , I decided to watch it as an attack against my insomnia . It had quite the opposite effect . Giant is a marvelous film . I'll be the first to say that it has a lot of rough e...
385,283
391,152
65,054
10
Fosse's first film ( and big bomb ) is remarkable
There's just something about this movie that I love . I had seen bits and pieces of it some half a dozen times in the past couple of years . Tonight I finally sat and watched all of it . In theory it sounds like blasphemy : a musical remake of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria . But somehow first time director Bob Fosse pull...
385,773
391,152
28,212
10
Easily one of Hitchcock's greatest films
Ah , yet another Hitchcock movie that is less than famous but then turns out to be one of the best films ever made . Every Hitchcock film that I see just makes me want to the rest of his films . Sabotage has a lot going for it . It is based on a novella by Joseph Conrad , the master writer who wrote Heart of Darkness (...
385,909
391,152
15,324
10
Almost certainly the funniest comedy I've ever seen .
Yes , counting all the comedies I've ever seen , silent or talkie , this is probably the funniest . I was lucky ( boy , was I lucky ! ) to see this in a theater with a live piano player . Ever scene is brimming with comic genius , cinematic inventiveness , and just plain perfection . I laughed almost nonstop from begin...
385,347
391,152
30,643
10
Like Being Punched Really Hard in the Gut
I took a class in French Poetic Realism and Italian Neorealism this past Fall in which I saw many of the best films I will ever see . The third film we watched in the class was Jean Vigo's L'Atalante , which is just about the most gorgeous experience in film viewing I have ever experienced . I left the building in a cl...
385,249
391,152
32,551
10
Note Perfect
There's probably nothing new I could say about this film - just the regular and much deserved praise : John Ford's direction is perfect , perhaps only surpassing it in The Searchers , as well as Greg Tolland's cinematography ; the next year , he would photograph Citizen Kane , and his work there is just the slightest h...
384,888
391,152
19,563
10
A small masterpiece from director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney
Tod Browning is a marvelous director . I guess I've known this since i've seen his two most famous films , Dracula ( the Bela Lugosi version ) and Freaks . But neither of those films could have prepared me for the two films that I saw tonight ( well , okay , maybe Freaks did ; Dracula's not all that great a film ) . Fi...
385,203
391,152
36,891
10
Preston Sturges just could not go wrong
Yet another perfect film from Preston Sturges , Hail the Conquering Hero is perhaps his most touching film , too . If you've seen Miracle at Morgan's Creek , then you have to see this one , and vice versa . They are sister films : Bracken plays a young sap who couldn't fight in WWII because of health reasons . Where Mi...
385,315
391,152
56,371
10
One of the most stunning pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen
Before the Revolution , Bernardo Bertolucci's second film , is kind of a mess . He was only 22 when he made it , and he must have made it immediately after he finished his first film , Grim Reaper . It's obvious that he's a genius from this film . Like I said , it's kind of a mess , but no more beautiful mess has ever ...
385,574
391,152
30,711
10
Among the best animated shorts ever
I love musical animated shorts , so I was pretty much guaranteed to love this one . However , I think the animation of the title character , Sally Swing , who is discovered by Betty Boop when she's looking for someone to lead the swing concert at a college , is superb . I've never seen more fluid dance animation anywhe...
385,040
391,152
290,329
10
A vile masterwork
Visitor Q is hard to deal with , but I think I'd call this a masterpiece . This is an update of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema . It's often compared to Pasolini's Salò because of its shocking content , but , plot-wise , it's virtually a remake of the 1968 film , brilliantly updated and moved to modern Japan . Teorema is...
384,896
391,152
23,814
10
How shocking that this turned out to be so great . Stanwyck is miraculous .
During the opening ten minutes of The Bitter Tea of General Yen or so , I was absolutely cracking up . I mean , it was the most preposterous , dated , and unintentionally funny film I thought I ever had seen . The film opens with a wedding ceremony where a priest tells a story of his missionary days in Mongolia : " I w...
385,132
391,152
407,304
10
The best film of 2005 , in my opinion
As this was one of the more memorable films I saw in 2005 , and as it was also one of the most obviously flawed , I was afraid it would be worse upon a revisiting . I'm glad to say I was entirely wrong about that . It got better . In fact , when you know the flaws are coming , it's easier to concentrate on its strength...
384,616
391,152
50,598
10
Vastly undervalued Chaplin masterpiece
It's not only one of Chaplin's best films , but one of the most important films about America ever made . Thrown out of the US for his liberal views , Chaplin became very irate at America . This is his response , a bare-knuckle boxing match with Uncle Sam - and this tramp doesn't pull punches . He doesn't leave a stone...
385,830
391,152
87,884
10
PLEASE ! RELEASE THIS TO DVD ! ! !
I have been in love with Wenders ' Wings of Desire since I first saw it several years ago , so I taped this movie off of HBO2 or some such channel . I could NOT find this at a video store , and they don't sell it in any format anymore . The only thing left to be sold is the soundtrack , which doesn't make any sense to ...
384,719
391,152
112,767
10
One of the best films I've seen in a while
The setup sounds a bit like The Bicycle Thieves , with a poor Saigon teenager getting his rented bicycle-taxi stolen by a group of gangsters . I was pretty sure this was going to be a film of the " sucks-to-be-poor " genre so common throughout foreign cinema , but Cyclo veers into much darker territory . The teen is fo...
385,634
391,152
70,544
10
Beautiful - a masterpiece
Science fiction is the perfect genre for animation . Unfortunately , very few films have taken full advantage of that . Fantastic Planet , though , uses the medium to its fullest extent . It is , without a doubt , one of the most imaginative films ever created . The animation is simple , with few drawings per second , ...
384,753
391,152
24,025
10
Grade A Entertainment ! An Underrated Gem !
Flying Down to Rio will always be best known for being the movie that first paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , but , believe me , its worth goes far beyond just that stunning accomplishment . The lead actor is Gene Raymond , who was one of the funniest actors in early Hollywood . My other favorite Raymond movie is...
384,997
391,152
41,931
10
A vastly underrated masterpiece
An enormous step forward from his three neorealist classics listed above . Unfortunately , I think it might still be suffering from its original backlash . It was pounded by the critics at the time , but that was all for reasons outside the film itself ( well , not exactly ; the film seems to mimic real life at the tim...
385,563
391,152
43,809
10
Weird and wonderful step away from Neorealism by Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavattini
Perhaps the last film you would expect to come from Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavattini ( who wrote the novel on which this film is based ) . It's a neorealist fantasy , kind of an oxymoron , really . An old woman finds a baby in her cabbage patch and raises him as her own son . After a few years , the baby is a youn...
385,313
391,152
32,728
10
One of John Ford's best . Maybe THE best .
The Long Voyage home is not a typical film from this period . It differs in that it focuses on an ensemble cast instead of on a star . That's common nowadays , but not back then . Ford's Stagecoach , made the previous year , had quite an ensemble cast , but the film was always focused on Ringo and Dallas . Here , John ...
384,857
391,152
37,077
10
Not only funny , but completely lovable
There are some scenes which are just perfect in their comedic ability , such as the scene where Trudy subtly tries to make Norval propose to her . Much of the comedy is not of the laugh-out-loud variety , but rather of the smile and maybe giggle variety . Plus , it may be a bit hard for younger people to enjoy , for it...
385,920
391,152
38,991
10
Vastly underrated Welles - one of his best films , one of the best thrillers ever
The Stranger is a little slow to start . Edward G . Robinson , playing a war crimes detective named Wilson , lets loose one of the right-hand men of an important Nazi war criminal named Franz Kindler ( Orson Welles ) who escaped prison and managed to erase his identity . He was the mastermind behind the concentration c...
385,944
391,152
52,311
10
Probably the single most entertaining masterpiece ever made
Most movies that are agreed to be masterpieces are usually somber films that almost take a film class to fully " get , " or at least a few viewings . Touch of Evil is different . It is so entertaining , that I was thinking , " This is too easy to enjoy to be a masterpiece . " It is one of the most exciting and perfectl...
384,989
391,152
26,529
10
Masterpiece ; one of John Ford's best films
Gypo Nolan ( Victor McLaglen ) is as poor as anyone on Earth . Living in 1920s Ireland , Gypo and his fellow Irishmen are part of an underground rebellion against the oppressive Brits . One particular rebel , wanted for murder by the English , arrives back into town secretly . He thinks he can trust his friend Gypo , b...
385,096
391,152
156,610
10
Very creative ; a masterpiece
In the final days of the year 1999 , most everyone in Taiwan has died . A strange plague has ravished the island . Supposedly spread by cockroaches , the disease sends its victims into a psychosis where they act like the insects . Eventually , they die . The Hole takes place in a crumbling apartment building ( which is...
385,915
391,152
100,998
10
Entirely Underrated . The Best Kurosawa Film I've Ever Seen
I have been exploring the works of Akira Kurosawa for about 6 months now , and I have seen most of those films which are generally considered masterpieces of film . There wasn't one of his films that I felt surpassed classics like 2001 , Citizen Kane , Raging Bull , or The Godfather . The one I had felt was the best wa...
384,730
391,152
23,634
10
A Whole New Ozu : The Old Ozu !
I like Yasujiro Ozu's work , but , even after seeing some of those works that are generally considered best , I was still skeptical of his minimalist style . But then I saw the New Yorker VHS of the silent I Was Born , But . . . Let me just say that it is absolutely amazing . It's a nearly perfect film , with great dir...
385,730
391,152
59,012
10
In desperate need of restoration . We should start a charity fund .
It has grown mythic in my mind since several Europeans that I talkto on the internet began to tell me many months ago that Chimesat Midnight was an Orson Welles film that they preferred even toCitizen Kane . Yet it was unavailable in the US , and I thought that Iwould never see it . But finally I found a copy at a loca...
385,621
391,152
85,838
10
One of Sayles ' very best films
Sayles ' second feature as director , and his first great film . It's not perfect , has its share of clichés and is certainly dated , but it's wonderful . Linda Griffiths stars as Lianna , a young mother of two who is constantly suffering under her smarter , controlling husband , a film professor ( Jon DeVries ) . Lian...
384,651
391,152
41,513
10
The best Faulkner movie out there ( of the many that I've seen )
This is easily the best cinematic version of William Faulkner's fiction that I've ever seen , and I've seen several of the most prominent ones . Filmed in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford , Mississippi , it really captures the feeling of Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha County . Intruder in the Dust is not one of Faulkner's be...
385,207
391,152
32,338
10
up there
Christmas in July is nearly as good as Sturges ' masterpieces , Sullivan's Travels , The Lady Eve , and Miracle at Morgan Creek . It's a nice film . The actors are good . It's funny and well directed . You couldn't ask for much more in a film .
384,812
391,152
243,017
10
May ( and should ) some day be considered a cinematic milestone
The worst part about Waking Life is that , after the lights come up , you find yourself sitting in a theater , stuck in utter reality . For 99 minutes , I almost believed I could fly , could do anything I wanted . Perhaps reality doesn't exist , I thought as the film progressed , and I am living in a dream . But then t...
384,987
391,152
63,442
10
A milestone ; one of the best films ever made
When I recently , for fun , ranked my favorite films in a top 100 list , Planet of the Apes ended up at 33 . It was the second sci-fi on the list , after 2001 , which ranked # 1 . I have always been disappointed and irked at the ill-will that some people have towards Planet of the Apes . I almost assaulted someone who ...
385,474
391,152
54,698
10
One of the most satisfying Hollywood romances ever made
I really could not praise this film enough , nor could I really find adequate words to do so . All you have to know is that it is the most perfect romantic comedy I've ever seen , in that it is entirely successful at being both , a romance and a comedy . It's also a stunning drama with excellent characterizations . Hol...
385,187
391,152
48,037
10
One of Bunuel's top works
Perhaps my favorite of Buñuel's Mexican years . As a child , Archibaldo de la Cruz willed the death of his young , sexy nanny through the device of a magical music box . As an adult , he finds this box at a pawn shop , and it awakens the exciting feelings he had as he stood over the corpse of his nanny checking out her...
384,572
391,152
32,376
10
Beautiful , powerful movie
I love classical Hollywood as much as anyone I know , but I am also aware that the films are often mechanical and emotionally distant . Very few reach the level of Dance , Girl , Dance . The plot is great . It is not exactly original , but it seemed that way to me . I was entirely hypnotized . This is due to the direct...
385,486
391,152
72,417
10
A short comment
To see A Woman Under the Influence is to see how poorly every other movie about mental illness deals with its subject . Take 1975's Best Picture winner , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . It's filled with quirky and amusing characters at whom we can giggle . If you extracted Gena Rowland's performance from A Woman , it...
384,759
391,152
48,055
10
Wow !
This is such a fantastic movie , a Western about a self-concerned man ( Jimmy Stewart ) going up to the Klondike for gold . On the way , he gets hassled by a local sheriff in Alaska ( John McIntire , giving a wonderfully evil performance ) , whom he hassles back . McIntire threatens that he'll be a dead man if he ever ...
385,233
391,152
30,448
10
Probably the best of all the Mickey Mouse shorts
I was obsessed with this cartoon when I was a child , and now that I have the new DVD box set " Mickey Mouse in Living Color , " I can watch it every day ! This is just filled to the brim with some of the funniest jokes Disney ever created . The animation is simply gorgeous , as it always was in this era of Disney Stud...
384,816
391,152
78,073
10
A vision of pure beauty
I'm at a loss over what I could say about Eric Rohmer's Perceval . I was so deeply affected by it . I'm guessing that many will be annoyed at the French New Wave style , which I personally love . I'm definitely a French New Wave fan . I'm not really a Rohmer fan , though . This is only the second Rohmer film I've seen ...
384,917
391,152
56,801
10
Peak
I believe that I have seen all of Fellini's significant films now with the exception of Amarcord . There are two interpretations of his career . One opinion holds that his peak was La Strada , and as things went on Fellini became more self-indulgent . Of course , Nights of Cabiria is very similar to La Strada in a lot ...
385,654
391,152
26,423
10
One of the best Silly Symphonies
This is just a superb retelling of the King Midas story , who asked that everything he touched be turned to stone . The jokes in this one are extremely clever . I especially like the visualization of the skeleton in the mirror and the elf . .
385,966
391,152
26,421
10
I think this is even better than ' 33
Even without Busby Berkeley's trademark musical numbers , Gold Diggers of 1935 would be an utterly delightful comedy . From start to finish , it's a ball . Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart star . The supporting cast is full of Hollywood's finest character actors : Frank McHugh , Adolph Menjou , Hugh Herbert , Alice Brady ...
384,667
391,152
120,663
10
Kubrick's Second best after 2001
I think the critics , even the ones who like this film , are missing the point . When 2001 came out , most every critic panned it completely . Pauline Kael , the uber-critic , called it dull and unimaginative . At that time , I can understand her view . Kubrick's famous films that far were The Killing , Paths of Glory ...
385,666
391,152
17,743
10
Not really a documentary , but some sort of masterpiece
Previously Merian C . Cooper and Ernest B . Schoedsack made Grass , a very great silent documentary inspired by the success of Nanook of the North ( which they hadn't even seen when they were flying off to the Middle East to film the long migration of a group of nomads ) . Grass was a real documentary , with little sta...
384,569
391,152
375,063
10
The best film I've seen so far from 2004
Jonathan Rosenbaum theorized that critics liked Sideways so much is because it was about critics , and that it appealed specifically to them . He's right . I'm sure every critic is someone who wished they could have been a director or screenwriter , but couldn't make it . But I say , so what ? The film wouldn't appeal ...
384,610
391,152
66,434
10
One of the best of its sub-genre and probably the best movie George Lucas has yet ( read " ever " ) directed
Sure , Star Wars is a lot of fun . It's a great way to waste some time or to keep people entertained at a party or something . However , it's unbelievable how crazy people have become about it . In fact , people are so insanely in love with it that they actually convinced themselves that The Phantom Menace was a good m...
385,516
391,152
120,681
10
Truly effective Gothic horror film
I wasn't expecting much from this movie . The critics passed it over rather quickly , saying a few kind words but without a strong recommendation . The couple of people I knew who saw this said that it was " good , " but never cared to say much more than that and have never brought it up again . As I sat down to watch ...
385,404
391,152
68,379
10
Strange , hypnotic , and somehow quite affecting
Ciao ! Manhattan is an avant-garde film that makes the films of Jean-Luc Godard seem conventional . That's not to attack Godard , mind you . I'm just comparing the two to express how far out Ciao ! Manhattan is . The slight narrative concerns a young Texan hippie traveling the American countryside just because he likes...
384,578
391,152
74,235
10
Passionate , poetic , exceptional filmmaking
At its base , Bound for Glory is just a simple biopic about Woody Guthrie . In execution , it turns out to be a lot more . We actually learn very little about Woody Guthrie's life . I don't know the exact statistic , but I would guess that it covers no more than a few years , with an end title that tells us briefly of ...
385,182
391,152
19,959
10
Deeply moving
A gorgeous , all-black masterpiece . King Vidor directs a group of ( mostly ) non-actors to depict a picture of black life in the South . Daniel L . Haynes stars as Zeke , a none-too-smart cotton farmer who is tricked into wasting half a year's pay on gambling by a sexy little hoochie ( Nina Mae McKinney ) . When Zeke ...
385,945
391,152
417
10
As much a masterpiece as any other bona fide masterpiece
The Voyage to the Moon should be included in the handful of bona fide masterpieces which includes Citizen Kane , the Godfather , and 2001 . It is short , but it is so delightful . The effects are not as crude as many might believe . The director was very surrealistic in his design . He had no misconceptions of what he ...
385,496
391,152
180,073
10
Philip Kaufmann has produced yet another amazing piece of work
Quills is one of the best films of 2000 , in my reckoning , second best only to You Can Count on Me . It is one of the most brilliantly directed , acted , produced , and written films I've seen in a very long time . There is not a ( major ) character in this film that is not very complex , and the issues at stake are u...
384,928
391,152
56,736
10
A masterpiece
I saw this several years ago in a class . This was long before Criterion had a DVD , and the VHS we watched was simply awful . The subtitles were completely illegible , so I didn't get much out of it . I did like it , however . But revisiting it on DVD , the film is a revelation . It easily ranks as highly as any of An...
385,913
391,152
32,976
10
The very definition of " Haunting "
I was quite interested in the film while I was watching it , but when it ended , I didn't feel impacted . Very soon afterwards , however , my mind began to feel very heavy . The first words of the film came floating back to me : " Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again . " I ruminated over the events of the film ...
384,998
391,152
361,127
10
One of the best films of 2004
The most underrated film of 2004 is this subtle , powerful and sad little independent starring Kevin Bacon . He plays a man just out of jail after 12 years ; he was there because he molested pre-teen girls . The movie perfectly captures the mind and existence of this man . His life is impossible . He can't look another...
384,744
391,152
765,120
10
I for one thought this was brilliant
Famously shoved aside at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival , which it opened , and barely plopped into theaters early in 2008 , with a couple of swears cut out to insure a PG-13 rating . I've seen all of Wong Kar-Wai's films , and while My Blueberry Nights has generally been considered a good example of wheel-spinning by m...
384,772
391,152
74,360
10
Simple , but labyrinthine . Truly fantastic .
A perfect sister film to one of my absolute favorites , Spirit of the Beehive . It also stars Ana Torrent and has similar themes . And I like it probably as much . Torrent , three years older but looking pretty much the same , plays the middle child of three girls . At the beginning of the film , their father has just ...
385,592
391,152
45,152
10
I love this film , but . . .
I think the dance numbers , and even some of the songs , are less amazing than those of its immediate predecessor , An American in Paris , made by gene Kelly a year beforehand . I know that the An American in Paris songs were just adaptations of Gershwin songs , but they're great , and they work . That rendition of " I...
384,533
391,152
154,420
10
In the near future , say fifteen-twenty years , The Celebration will be ranked among the best films of foreign cinema
The Celebration is a remarkable film . It is actually the second Dogma film I've seen , after the Idiots . I am one of that film's few supporters ( there aren't even many people in the US who have seen it , and most who have , whether an American or not , don't like it ) , but The Celebration blows it away . Idioterne ...
385,545
391,152
18,119
10
Pretty amazing
Robert Florey's Loves of Zero is , as we are told by an opening placard , " an impressionist film made for less than $200 . 00 . " And that it is ! Great-Grandpappy was right , though . You used to get a heck of a lot for your money back in the good old days . This is mostly just a few friends having a ball on film , p...
385,435
391,152
62,622
10
By Light Years the Best Film Ever Made
2001 warps beyond every other film ever made . I have seen it nearly a dozen times since I first saw it in 1997 . I bought it right away on VHS , and when I got DVD , it was the only VHS tape I replaced with a DVD . So why is it the best film ever made ? Simply because it transcends narrative . No other film has really...
385,433
391,152
109,508
10
One of the most ignored Masterpieces of our time
Crumb has not gotten its due credit . Very few films of the 1990s have been universally accepted as masterpieces . Crumb should definitely have been one of the few . On the back of the video's box , it proclaims " one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time . " It is probably the only film of the decade besi...
385,857
391,152
116,209
10
Underrated
This movie has suffered from an undeserved Oscar backlash . It is truly a powerful film experience . The writing , direction , and acting are all perfect . All the passion of this film is overwhelming ! What did this film do wrong to anger so many people ? Was it the complexity of the characters and the situations that...
385,308
391,152
65,622
10
A great masterpiece
Pier Paolo Pasolini might be the most underrated director of all time . You hear almost nothing about him nowadays , except how disgusting Salo was . But , in my mind , Pasolini ranks evenly with the other great masters , Fellini , Visconti , De Sica , Antonioni , and Rosselini , perhaps better than them . Pasolini is ...
385,918
391,152
140,384
10
An S & M masterpiece ; Please , release more stuff like this !
A discovery like this reminds me how much more there is to Japanese cinema besides Kurosawa , Ozu , and Mizoguchi . Well , my two favorite Japanese filmmakers are Sezuki Seijun and Shinya Tsukamoto , maverick filmmakers in their own country . Yasuza Masumura may be thrown on that list pretty quickly here , although thi...
385,316
391,152
45,112
10
Life's a bitch !
Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu is the tragic , humanistic tale of , well , the life of a woman named Oharu . Born into luxury , she errs with a man of lower class . For this offense , she is exiled along with her parents , convicted of letting their child run wild . As the film progresses , Oharu goes through about a ...
385,222
391,152
366,721
10
Angelopoulos can do no wrong
I think anyone familiar with Angelopoulos knows what to expect with his films : long , drawn out , meticulously planned shots that slowly scan environments , with the image composed of not only the foreground but hundreds of yards into the background . I guess some are not impressed with the director's style , but that...
384,559
391,152
104,652
10
Beautiful masterpiece
This has dropped slightly in my esteem since my first viewing , when I thought of it as Miyazaki's second best and one of the best ever made . Well , yeah , actually , I still consider it one of the best films ever made , but that definitely covers everything he's ever done . What can I say ? I'm an unabashed fan . Por...
384,962
391,152
56,869
10
Fascinating ; Freudian analysis of The Birds
One would think , not having seen this film , that it is just a normal horror film where a mass of animals attacks people who run from them and scream . Well , this film is different , in that it was directed by the single greatest director of all times , Alfred Hitchcock . The Birds was made during his peak . It follo...
384,708
391,152
74,254
10
Far , far , far better than it is given credit for . A great film , really
I can understand some of the arguments that people have made against this film through the years . Its revisionist history can seem pretty simplistic , and its depiction of Indians seems stereotypical and not particularly enlightened . Or at least that all seems true on first glance . But I can also understand why a fe...
385,087
391,152
51,047
10
One of the great Westerns
I have seen the previous Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott collaboration a short while back , Seven Men from Now . It was good , but not particularly memorable , except for Lee Marvin's ambiguous villain . The Tall T , on the other hand , is pretty much perfect , the kind of taut Western that Anthony Mann was making aro...
384,878
391,152
60,827
10
Rambling on . . .
I don't know what to say about Persona , but I know I have to say something . I can say straight out that I did not fully grasp it , nor do I believe that it is fully able to be grasped . Like my favorite film , 2001 , Persona allows for a plethora of interpretations , none of which can ever be said to be correct . But...
384,683
391,152
53,198
10
Perfection
I first saw this film around three or four years ago for the first time . I had watched it late at night , and I was very sleepy after it ended . I was rather ambivalent towards it . To tell you the truth , I don't know whether I had even heard of it before I rented it . And I don't even remember if it was my first fil...