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508,666 | 453,068 | 56,847 | 8 | near-underground film adaptation of a stage play and , as with others , makes me excited for the play much more than the actual film itself | I never heard of The Balcony until someone recommended it highly to me , and perhaps it's understandable why it sits still in obscurity . The name Jean Genet is far from unfamiliar to theater-buffs , and in fact he was one of those real surrealist playwrights that stretched the boundaries of what was possible to portra... |
508,625 | 453,068 | 52,993 | 8 | a very fine western in due to its mounting complex look at justice and star power | Last Train from Gun Hill has the star power to help back up a storyline that is , on the surface , seemingly too straightforward : a Marshall ( Kirk Douglas ) finds that his wife has been killed . When he finds out that it is the son of a cattle baron ( Anthony Quinn ) , despite his old friendship with the baron , he d... |
509,444 | 453,068 | 69,966 | 8 | hip , well-acted and slam-bang action / police flick in the guise of blaxploitation | Arthur Marks somehow knew how to do it : combining the tough and thoughtful police-thriller with a seeming exploitation ( or blaxploitation ) flick into something worthwhile . It may not be for some ; matter of fact , from all I can tell looking at various reviews it's made little of an impression aside from negative .... |
508,293 | 453,068 | 104,652 | 8 | not quite there with my absolute favorites of Miyazai , but still a rousing ride | Porco Rosso , a film by Hayao Miyazaki , tells the tale of the title character , a man who has been somehow transformed by a curse into a pig-man . Unlike in some other Miyazaki films , the curse is not largely expounded upon , and instead we're given the main course of his story . He's a bush-pilot / bounty-hunter , w... |
510,698 | 453,068 | 22,462 | 8 | how to turn such a matter-of-fact physical activity like swimming into cinema | Jean Vigo knows he can't be too bland with a subject like swimming , no matter how good the swimmer might be in his style and speed and graceful varieties of stroke ( so to speak ) . Jean Taris is actually an excellent swimmer , as Vigo makes abundantly clear within the first minute : in a simple over-head shot , with ... |
510,655 | 453,068 | 64,689 | 8 | more impressive as a time capsule / social document than as a rock concert film | At the height of the hippie culture and music scene , filmmaker DA Pennebaker went to the first ' event ' concert . It lasted three days in Monterey California , and hosted almost all of the pivotal , immortal acts in the rock n roll scene of the say - Simon and Garfunkel , the Mamas & the Papas , Canned Heat , the rem... |
510,140 | 453,068 | 70,034 | 8 | It hits all by itself . . . One of the first , mandatory stops on the tour of MA movies | I finally saw Enter the Dragon all the way through ( in the past I caught snippets on late night TV and never got into it before changing the channel , no offense ) , and I must say this is indeed a highly likable , engrossing , and influential film , for all the right and wrong reasons . Right because it has influence... |
508,725 | 453,068 | 82,966 | 8 | probably not always a very good movie , but it is an excellent Giallo , for what it's worth | I would pretty carefully recommend House by the Cemetery to friends of mine : it would come with a caution that not always will Lucio Fulci make something that is totally sensible . Or , if it is , it's not always very well acted - matter of fact , some of the acting here is wooden or strange or , in the case of that n... |
510,542 | 453,068 | 373,469 | 8 | a witty , self-conscious send-up of detective noir , a big plus being Downey Jr | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is meant to be Shane Black's comeback following a decade spent in the action-movie desert ( albeit only a creative one , he financially has nothing to cry about ) , and it's not a bad way to resurface on the Hollywood scene . For one thing , his film is clever - maybe too clever by half but clever a... |
509,997 | 453,068 | 360,845 | 8 | Godard's first really good film in a while | I first saw Notre Musique at the NY film festival , and responded to it strongly because it was , after going through a slew of his more recent work of the 80s and 90s ( often hit or miss , more miss ) , a very well structured , interesting picture with a very distinct look and feel that balanced the elegiac and darkne... |
508,563 | 453,068 | 118,158 | 8 | could've been corny and preachy but is actually rousing and tough and formidably directed | White Squall is based on a true story ; ultimately tragic but also of the ' inspiring ' sort we get often at the movies . It could've been the kind of corny ' this is what I learned and now I'm blah blah ' kind of storytelling that gets excruciating after a while in Hollywood movies . Apparently , thankfully , Ridley S... |
510,060 | 453,068 | 109,348 | 8 | takes on the egotistical qualities in artists - and gangsters - in Allen's very funny send-up of Broadway | Now this is something sort of rare , though not really : Woody Allen mixing satire and drama , and the satire actually even more convincing than the drama . The opposite was in a more serious affair , Crimes and Misdemeanors , where art and murder and infidelities all get into one big pot of personality crises . This i... |
510,002 | 453,068 | 39,545 | 8 | a Chandler novel turned into a film with a novelistic approach , sorta | Lady in the Lake is maybe not the best of the Phillip Marloe murder mysteries put to film , but it is quite successful in its own right as an ' experiment ' . But this experiment by star / director Robert Montgomery , works in ways that had me grinning and interested as an avid detective / crime / film-noir type movie ... |
510,395 | 453,068 | 53,146 | 8 | if you watch it for the spectacle , music , and often terrific direction , you'll get your money's worth | I don't know why though I didn't find Black Orpheus to be a flat-out , blow-me-away masterpiece . Maybe my expectations were a little high ; hearing for years about it from my mother ( into Brazilian music ) , and that it won a simultaneous golden palm and Oscar in 1959 . And for quite a while , despite being directed ... |
509,867 | 453,068 | 286,716 | 8 | One of the few comic book adaptations grounded on the theme of mood over action ; pros to serious movie-goers , cons to others | Ang Lee's filmed version of The Hulk , unfortunately , won't appeal to all those within the mainstream spectrum of movie-goers . I can guess ( hearing from a few of my friends who are true-blue comic book addicts ) fans of the comic will be pleased , however those who may not be fans or admirers and are simply looking ... |
508,970 | 453,068 | 190,590 | 8 | a rollicking good time | The Coen Brothers ( them being Joel and Ethan ) have a pretty good film here ; recommendable to say the least . If it's not one of their very best it might be because it goes for so much within the framework of the Odyssey that it threatens to run off the tracks . But there's a great deal of originality here too , from... |
507,837 | 453,068 | 206,601 | 8 | of most interest to Fellini fans ; casual viewers , per usual , will be baffled but amused I'd figure | The Director's Notebook , a very off-the-cuff , stream-of-consciousness documentary by Federico Fellini , reminds me of what Terry Gilliam said in his introduction on the 8 DVD , of which this is so generously included . He said that once he went and shot a film in Italy and more specifically in Rome , he guessed that ... |
510,078 | 453,068 | 52,832 | 8 | neither Williams , Lumet , or Brando's best , but it's still pretty damn good ! | The Fugitive Kind is a hot story of desire and loss and craving and heartbreak between a man and two women set in the deep south . Sounds like quintessential Tenessee Williams , and it is in spurts . Sometimes Williams leans towards being a little preachy , however true ( little moments like when Brando and Stapleton h... |
508,183 | 453,068 | 39,881 | 8 | for directorial style , performances , for narration | T-Men might be one of the great film-noirs of the period - certainly a high point for Anthony Mann who already has Raw Deal as one of the masterpieces of the period - if only for one fatal flaw : the narration . While it would probably work well enough in a pulp magazine or wherever a story like this would turn up in p... |
510,973 | 453,068 | 65,867 | 8 | a little over-long but with plenty of insightful , touching moments about the lack of connecting with others | John Cassavetes has a wonderful yet also curious way of how he deals with his protagonists - not just in Husbands but in elsewhere - that brings to mind someone like Bergman but not at the same time . His characters , to me anyway , seem like they're full of life and vigor and laughs and what may be called braggadocio ... |
510,587 | 453,068 | 104,952 | 8 | one of those movies to watch , at least most of the time , when it's on TV | Taking aside when it's edited down for its content and for time , this is really a neat movie to watch when it comes on TV , which - if you have cable - is pretty often . It's also one of the best vehicles for Joe Pesci that was ever made ( even if it didn't technically originate with him ) , and will probably make for... |
511,014 | 453,068 | 29,947 | 8 | a lot of fun , but maybe not as great as its newfound reputation | When originally released , Bringing Up Baby was a commercial and critical flop , and was discarded for some time as something not quite as worthy as other works in Howard Hawks's body of work . Today , after years of rediscovery by fans of the stars Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn , it's considered a classic of the ' ... |
508,469 | 453,068 | 182,890 | 8 | a romantic tragedy / comedy with an almost ' Blair With ' edge | Chi Girl reminded me of the Blair Witch Project for a couple of reasons , however in a slightly different ballpark . While Blair Witch is a more ' accessible ' film to the audience ( via young people terrified in the woods ) , the idea is similar : if you didn't think that someone had written and directed this film , a... |
507,929 | 453,068 | 69,822 | 8 | quite well acted , but it doesn't change some of its clichés or fabricated conflicts | What a , uh , interesting year for Clint Eastwood in 1973 . Edged between his first directed western , High Plains Drifter , and his second Dirty Harry film , he found time to direct Jo Helms's screenplay Breezy , which posits that middle aged men can have affection and love for unpretentious hippie girls in their earl... |
510,100 | 453,068 | 91,939 | 8 | a tale that takes a feminist critique of a situation , and gives it a male viewpoint too | I read one review on here that labeled She's Gotta Have it as Spike Lee's ' feminist view ' . I would agree with this in part because he doesn't show anything - the characters really - on any one side . We see her follies completely . But I think there is a male view going on with his look at these characters too ; aft... |
509,322 | 453,068 | 95,765 | 8 | sentimental but very memorable tribute to anyone who loves to go to a movie | Cinema Paradiso works very well because Giuseppe Tornatore , for all his schmaltzy moments with his characters , loves cinema incredibly and especially the communal and personal act of going out to see a movie . It also works because for all the sentiment , he makes it a story essentially about a boy , Toto , without a... |
508,596 | 453,068 | 83,281 | 8 | on its own low-key / aimless level it's exceptional , but still low-key and aimless all the same | It's strange to see an Errol Morris film that works and doesn't work all the same . The film is short , maybe too short , and doesn't really take much time to going into much of what the town of Vernon is about , or if these interviewed are its only residents . There's no unifying theme though to the work , which is th... |
510,345 | 453,068 | 65,963 | 8 | witty and with enough emotional depth and intelligence to carry the subject matter ; good debut for Ashby | As one of the scruffy underdog filmmakers of the 1970s - who's career unfortunately faltered in the 80s before his untimely death at 59 - Hal Ashby was good at taking a set of characters and a particular idea or theme and getting under the surface just enough to make a mark , while also keeping it an oddly entertaining... |
508,345 | 453,068 | 64,911 | 8 | much better than I expected | William Smith was a very good casting choice for the lead , Angel is his name of course , for Run Angel Run . He's got a sympathetic side to his personality that somehow makes him work for Angel , who is sort of a rat talking to a magazine and getting a cover photo followed by the obligatory " I'm done with this , goin... |
508,215 | 453,068 | 884,328 | 8 | a near-classic throwback to 1950s sci-fi movies , with an emphasis on cool , creepy monsters and a chillingly human atmosphere | The Mist is one of the bleakest horror films to come out of Hollywood in many a moon , but with some points that can be taken . This isn't trash or torture-porn , but an expertly crafted piece of sci-fi / horror fiction that can only come from someone as bravely demented as Stephen King ( or rather from what appears to... |
509,457 | 453,068 | 64,897 | 8 | a collection of taut mind-games and gripping and revealing dialog . . . and then there's the last scene ! | I'm one of those : Ingmar Bergman is a true artist , a great filmmaker who's connection with the brightness and deepest darkness of human nature , of faults with religion , with close relationships , horrors of the mind , dreams , was so strong that it's hard to believe that he made so much and didn't succumb sooner to... |
508,389 | 453,068 | 74,695 | 8 | a little spotty , some acting flaws , but it's still got the verve and punch of a harrowing anti-war classic | There are reasons I could not recommend Cross of Iron , but they're mostly surrounding little things that strike as being a little more ' ordinary ' or just conventional . There's some moralizing from the perspective of the German side , there's a little acting that doesn't quite click ( mostly due to accents that are ... |
509,643 | 453,068 | 65,976 | 8 | Let it Be . . . Released on DVD for Pete Sakes ! ! | OK , so let me get this straight : Magical Mystery Tour , which I've yet to see but have heard is quite bad and pretentious and dated , is allowed to be on DVD , but this is banned by the Beatles ? Why ? Because at one point Paul and George have a little argument over a song ? As the British would say , bullocks ! What... |
511,049 | 453,068 | 391,024 | 8 | life on the front-lines , by way of Al-Jezeera , and the American invasion of Iraq | Let's face facts folks , especially at this point if not the should-have-been start : American invaded a country that had nothing to do with . This isn't the core message of Control Room , but it's certainly all encompassing for what Jehane Noujaim wants to say in her documentary Control Room . The argument could be ma... |
508,373 | 453,068 | 317,219 | 8 | Pixar knows how to do formula just right - a lot of fun in an " old-fashioned " story | Cars is the kind of animated film that , considering how computer dominated the realm is now and might be for a while , knows what it is and is successful almost in spite of what it could've been . It could've been , for example , a clunker of a formulaic animated movie where not only do you know what will happen every... |
510,681 | 453,068 | 47,444 | 8 | a good start to a handsomely done , ' old-school ' epic trilogy | I watched the first part of the Musashi Miyamoto trilogy , dubbed simply Samurai 1 on the video , thinking that it might be a lot more stylish & / or violent than I was led to believe . It is the first part , but of the second part it is but only up to a point . This is a 1950s style epic tale through and through , and... |
509,875 | 453,068 | 462,200 | 8 | a pure Blues movie , if not a great one , with Jackson in one of his coolest performances | I didn't quite get what I expected from Black Snake Moan , but by the end I didn't mind too much either . I went into it thinking I was going to get a real low-down , Southern-Fried exploitation flick where race relations get turned around in a small town and the " wickedness " that Sam Jackson's blues-man character is... |
510,605 | 453,068 | 78,481 | 8 | not the best Altman , but very far from the worst - it's ensemble time ! | A Wedding may not be the most wholly successful of the classic Robert Altman big ensemble films ( the others I would note off the top of my head are Gosford Park , Nashville and Short Cuts ) , but there's enough solid nuggets to please fans and even a few newcomers . It's a whole mixture of soap operatic and melodramat... |
509,894 | 453,068 | 69,865 | 8 | mostly crackerjack heist plot with a few great performances | This is a little like if Jean-Pierre Melville were forced to do a recreation of No Country for Old Men . Rather than that , it's a Don Siegel picture , which means there's things about Charley Varrick that make it both wonderfully character-centric and rather cold and vicious deep down . The latter isn't necessarily a ... |
510,607 | 453,068 | 57,261 | 8 | some of the most memorable child acting outside of a musical or comedy | I was one of a handful of kids who didn't get to read Lord of the Flies at the time when it would've been most appropriate - back in grade school where I could relate to what is the quintessential story of boyhood Id gone amuck ( that is Id without any girls or parental guidance ) . So I had to be content with , years ... |
508,947 | 453,068 | 100,456 | 8 | while only director , it still is , and feels , looks and sounds like , a Jodorowsky film , a very good one | How criminal is this - the only format that has ever been available for The Rainbow Thief in America is on VHS . Imagine this , a film starring Omar Sharif , Peter O'Toole and Christopher Lee , regardless of who directed it ( though in this case the iconoclast / cult-icon Alejandro Jodorowsky ) , never got released in ... |
509,217 | 453,068 | 303,353 | 8 | like Evans himself , this documentary isn't as great as it thinks it is , but it is watchable throughout | Robert Evans's book version of this documentary , The Kid Stays in the Picture , is still un-read by me . But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's , and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew - his huge ego , his drug addiction , his proclivity to lots and lot... |
508,133 | 453,068 | 280,665 | 8 | DePalma's best since Carlito's Way , possibly since Untouchables | Femme Fatale is one of those movies for people who love craft in movies , since it contains nearly all of the styles in the book - slow motion , split screen , use of shadows , reflections , and more that I might have not caught on the first viewing . The opening shot / scene is an eye-opener that makes a great re-crea... |
509,759 | 453,068 | 74,811 | 8 | ingenious in its own Twilight Zone approach , but doesn't quite feel like a major Polanski work | I can understand how fans of filmmaker Roman Polanski could love this movie - and I could understand how some could totally hate it ( Ebert was one of the few who couldn't understand why people weren't running out of the theater ) . After a first viewing , I'm not sure I could fall into either category , however as som... |
508,618 | 453,068 | 79,116 | 8 | solid prison-breakout flick with machismo wit and fine touches of ambiguity | The last of the five collaborations between director Don Siegel and producer / actor Clint Eastwood , Escape from Alcatraz isn't a great blockbuster action flick like Dirty Harry or an experiment like the Beguiled . It is more the former , if anything , and a crackerjack example at best of what to do in crafting suspen... |
508,319 | 453,068 | 456,396 | 8 | almost great film about the momentary damnation of a single act | At the end of L'Infant , I knew I had seen a good movie , but it isn't until now thinking a little more about the nature of its characters and its conclusion that I like it a little more . But saying ' like it a little more ' may be a bit much , as this is a rather depressing story , as much akin to Robert Bresson film... |
509,548 | 453,068 | 285,005 | 8 | a crime film that focuses more on the personal side of the hit-man , of innocence shattered , and the possibility for redemption | Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2 : Birds is loaded with allegory and symbolism , some that works ( like having feathers continually popping up from time to time in the midst of murders , or the sometimes mentioned comet representing wonder in the unknown ) and some that doesn't ( the re-appearances of the wings on the b... |
509,703 | 453,068 | 44,953 | 8 | for the most part a very fine western thriller , good characterizations , but a frustrating ending | The Naked Spur marks a good note in James Stewart's career , as , up until the very end , he seems like a real anti-hero , if hero at all . He lost his land , his wife is gone , and now all he has is money on his mind - and a bounty to catch in the form of Robert Ryan's character Ben . But at some point - namely the en... |
508,318 | 453,068 | 64,107 | 8 | memorable moments in a good animated movie | This is another of the few Charlie Brown specials / movies that still sticks around in my mind . In fact , there are some scenes that , for one reason or another , still seem as fresh as ever . It's not the best of the specials , but it is a very good way to introduce one not terribly familiar to the Peanuts world beca... |
510,414 | 453,068 | 64,002 | 8 | fun and incendiary , it's a nifty flashback and more than a little resonant | You've seen the kid with the long hair who's told ' cut it ' , and won't . And then there's a misunderstanding like the one in the story of Alice's Restaurant , where it's a weird downward spiral where garbage , the law , and Vietnam get intertwined . The actual dramatization of the events that are detailed in the now ... |
508,835 | 453,068 | 74,860 | 8 | not exactly " safe " , as it's attained more of a cult-status than a full-blown mainstream success | Marathon Man worked best for me seeing it really late at night , all the lights off , almost close to the twilight hours . It was here that the film was able to put forward its full power of thrills and chills , so to speak , but also with a very thick , icy comedy to some moments of it . It's also got Dustin Hoffman w... |
508,427 | 453,068 | 82,639 | 8 | We are professionals . . . | Ah , punk rock , how it came , saw , went , came back again , and maybe another time , and is now in so many varieties that one could just spend an entire semester in college studying all of the bands that have come from the early to mid 70s and beyond . Ladies and Gentlemen , the Fabulous Stains , is a satirical docum... |
508,937 | 453,068 | 82,484 | 8 | saga of the ape-men | Quest for Fire straddles a line that is somewhere in the range of nature documentary and sillier caveman films of the olden days of B movies . There's luckily more intelligence and storytelling power that keeps things from turning into a silly epic , and the action that occurs is supported by characters we do kind of c... |
510,081 | 453,068 | 67,324 | 8 | a very sad but rewarding experience about those who can feel but can't see or hear | Land of Silence and Darkness was Werner Herzog's first documentary . He still had a little bit of ways to go in terms of his style in a straightforward mode ; the same year he made an experimental abstract documentary called Fata Morgana that showed him already a master of " directing landscapes " and getting a mood an... |
508,274 | 453,068 | 102,175 | 8 | one of those cases where the acting and direction ( most of the time ) is better than the script | Spike Lee's films are consistent in one respect , even for the lesser ones , which is that they're always pressing buttons . In the case of Jungle Fever , it's another work where messages come out more than from a guy on a postal route . But that's perhaps part of the point , where such points come in many forms and so... |
510,613 | 453,068 | 60,305 | 8 | not bad at all , actually very good and meticulously structured heist movie , but not great | I had seen nearly everything that is readily available from Jean-Pierre Melville in the United States by the time I got to Le Deuxieme soufflé , which may be part of why I didn't respond overwhelmingly to it . After such challenging , methodical and precisely existential crime masterpieces as Le Samourai , Le Cercle Ro... |
508,406 | 453,068 | 500,178 | 8 | Not the best season , but . . . | This is actually the third season of the hit HBO show Spawn , but it lacks at times some of the power and vigor of the first two seasons . There seems to be more of an emphasis on plot lines that don't have as much significance - as in for example the Billy Kincaid plot line in season 1 - for Spawn's fate . But if I ha... |
510,579 | 453,068 | 473,444 | 8 | sometimes a grandiose historical epic , but mostly a lurid , totally absorbing royal family drama ; one of Yimou's best | Even with flaws and all - and there are a couple at least here in Curse of the Golden Flower - I can only think of a handful of filmmakers that have shot to the moon like this and gotten away with it . Zhang Yimou tried it before with Hero and , for me , sort of didn't pull through completely successfully ( not that it... |
508,799 | 453,068 | 60,315 | 8 | if you can ignore the wretched dubbing - one of the worst outside of Godzilla - it's an enjoyable whirlwind of a spaghetti western | Sergio Corbucci is not really a great director , but if I hear his name I perk up in a genre-geek sort of way . Having seen a couple other movies by him , Navajo Joe and Il Grande Silenzio , I knew what to expect with Django , which is some of the same only ( hopefully ) more violent and serious and convoluted . Actual... |
510,830 | 453,068 | 373,889 | 8 | one of the best Harry Potters yet - much better than you might have heard ! | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has a gripping main story involving the continuing peril for Harry and his arch nemesis , the dark lord Voldermort ( Fiennes , as sinister as possible ) , but what surprised me a little was seeing that there's even a kind of political subtext to the story at Hogwarts . This is ... |
508,748 | 453,068 | 425,598 | 8 | misleading ( thought not disappointing ) if you're looking for a Chappelle comedy movie . . . | . . . However as a rap-concert movie , it's one of the better ones I've seen in quite a while . It works for a few reasons , though for some it may not work as well as for others . Basically , if you're coming into this expecting Chappelle doing more of his stand-up & / or sketches , you'll wonder how you could've been... |
510,208 | 453,068 | 829,160 | 8 | maybe not long enough , but the history of independent film is too expansive anyway | I was glad I saw Edge of Outside , and I know if I was just starting to become a full on film-buff it would be very helpful in knowing which directors who not only worked independently of the studio system , but those who were able to be individualistic while still being in some sort of system nonetheless . As someone ... |
509,704 | 453,068 | 381,849 | 8 | as solid , violent , and sophisticated a Western you'll see this year | The best western I've seen since the Proposition - which might not mean a lot since it's been a year since that film came out . But while Mangold's film may not have the existential resonance and eerie quality of the Aussie feature , we do have a better-than-average feat of genre film-making , loaded with great machism... |
508,918 | 453,068 | 36,027 | 8 | not as scary as Cat People , but probably just as creepy , with a pure voodoo mood | I Walked with a Zombie shouldn't be too misleading for today's post-modern horror geeks : this won't have the trademark biting and flesh eating , or running for that matter , when it comes to the un-dead . In this case it's more " old-school " . Jacques Tourner , and his producing partner / collaborator Val Lewton , co... |
510,425 | 453,068 | 465,551 | 8 | minor quibbles aside , this is one of the sharpest tragic-comedies this year , certainly regarding obsession and psychological mind-games | Rarely have I seen Dame Judi Dench on top of her game as with Notes on a Scandal . She's usually a good show in any film she's in , but here she's perfect for the role of Barbara , who has been a professional teacher in a high school all her life , and is well respected , but can't seem to get enough of her attachments... |
510,302 | 453,068 | 179,074 | 8 | pimpin ' ain't easy , but it sure is fun , as the song goes | American Pimp , a film by the Hughes brothers , is probably more entertaining , almost in a manner that crosses between a typical documentary and as one of the film clips shown from the Mack as an exploitation film , than it deserves to be . But then the Hughes brothers have made a film about exploitation , the self-gl... |
508,396 | 453,068 | 817,910 | 8 | a dark romp with vampires and ghosts | Hellboy : Blood and Iron is about vampires coming back after many , many years in wait , and also about ghosts and memory and all those things left behind . If it were about these things more-so in-depth ( or rather the kind of attention that Guillermo del-Toro would pay to the subject matter if he directed ) , it woul... |
509,496 | 453,068 | 486,674 | 8 | on the contrary to the other commenter , this is very funny , and a slight comeback for Levinson | Director Barry Levinson hasn't had much luck lately - after Bandits , which was a good though not anything very noteworthy comedy caper , he had two colossal duds in a row - Envy and Man of the Year - which , despite an otherwise impressive host of films ( i . e . Diner , Rainman , Sleepers , even Toys ) could have thr... |
510,877 | 453,068 | 78,915 | 8 | Not sure if I watched a cut version , but some of these cartoons are cut ! | That being said , I have to say that some of my favorite Looney Tunes cartoons are in this first collection of shorts released in the span of the late 70's and 80's ( another I watched maybe more than this one was Daffy Duck's Quackbusters ) . Here and there I wondered if a couple of the shorts were complete ; they see... |
510,842 | 453,068 | 94,336 | 8 | gets better , or at least funnier , the more I think about it ( first viewing ) | Amazing I didn't hear about this one until recently , but that seems to be the song and dance with these " cult films " . Withnail & I is one , a film that was made in such short time and on such a short budget one of the executive producers ( Dennis O'Brien , usually the best of chums on the Monty Python films ) tried... |
510,466 | 453,068 | 121,731 | 8 | a tale of love and loss , as performed by mimes and severed heads | This is quite the rare case : a story performed entirely in mime-form , where everything is silent but done so for a very physical effect by the actors / performers , that actually works . Usually mimes can be a little irksome ( maybe not , depends on who's miming and how well the audience can take it ) , but Alejandro... |
508,652 | 453,068 | 174,666 | 8 | entertaining , raucous , absorbing stories make up this special | I never saw any of John Leguizamo's stand-up before I watched Freak , and after seeing it again on HBO comedy recently it was better , more enlivening and with things that , at the age of 14 , I couldn't understand quite before . Spike Lee did a wonderful job directing , keeping the visual angle up to par with Leguizam... |
508,234 | 453,068 | 106,308 | 8 | Raimi's evolved style of total comic book hilarity | Sam Raimi's third ( but possibly not last ) installment in his ' Evil Dead ' series shows Ash ( Bruce Campbell , a cult hero of sorts ) right after Evil Dead 2 , now back in medieval times , still fighting against the unpredictably grotesque and bizarre Necronomicon . This is just a set-up though , like with most comic... |
509,331 | 453,068 | 79,020 | 8 | Mexico seen through the ( surprisingly ) anthropological eye of Eisenstein | Considering that Que Viva Mexico was ( mostly ) made by Sergei Eisenstein , and funded by Upton Sinclair , the most happy surprise is that the film isn't overloaded with the kind of communist / socialist propaganda that would be immediately expected . It's not that this would be a bad thing in the technical sense ; Eis... |
509,464 | 453,068 | 165,895 | 8 | crazy little pseudo mockumentary - turned - dramatization of the events surrounding a serial killer in Texas | If you're wondering what might be an indication of recommendation for The Monster Hunter ( aka Natural Selection as it's called on IMDb ) , Quentin Tarantino has a quote on the back of the DVD case that reads simply as : " Great ! " And how could he not say that , mayhap , considering David Carradine and Michael Bowen ... |
508,419 | 453,068 | 64,437 | 8 | for a film by a one-and-only-time filmmaker , it's very noteworthy in the annals of American independent film history | To get right out of the way , the quibbles I had with the Honeymoon Killers : once or twice in Leonard Kastle's direction the bravely amateurish quality goes into the unnecessarily over-dramatic ( the drowning scene in the lake is the most extreme example , maybe the only one worth noting here ) , a slow start as far a... |
508,552 | 453,068 | 86,637 | 8 | Funny film with exquisite editing | Woody Allen's Zelig is a funny and smart account of a fictional guy ( as in most Allen films ) who is a chameleon celebrity who blends in to whatever surrounds he has . More than humor , it shows how one struggles to be belonged in society and after being deemed a freak is bad . I found it funny as most Allen films ( n... |
510,871 | 453,068 | 95,174 | 8 | a near great thriller , sophisticated in its style with unnerving moments | I don't think Roman Polanski's 1988 film Frantic is one of his great works , and it does ( and after reading the cuts the studio imposed it makes a little more sense ) lack some of the great , horrific bits that underly his films from the 60's and 70's . But the good news for those thinking that it's just another Harri... |
508,788 | 453,068 | 120,866 | 8 | faithful to the source but original in interpretation through the medium , Titus is quite a sight | Titus , Julie Taymor's first film as director ( and possibly her best ) , is a scathing indictment of the vicious chain of violence - or circle , take your pick . First examined by the Bard himself , Shakespeare's play was - from all accounts I've heard - super violent and without too many redeeming qualities ( one fri... |
509,265 | 453,068 | 222,851 | 8 | cold and dark and extremely ( but not excessively ) violent tale of Kitano in L | Brother is another of Takeshi Kitano's ' Yakuza ' thrillers , though this time the Yakuza are only a small part of the picture and only sometimes set in Japan . Akani ( Kitano ) is a hit-man who has bitten off more than he can chew - killed some of the wrong people , if at the right place at the right moment - and is a... |
509,800 | 453,068 | 79,641 | 8 | magnificent on atmosphere and photography / visuals , so-so on some of the acting and horror | Werner Herzog's Nosferatu is one of the damnedest kinds of vampire movies I've ever seen . It may or may not be as faithful to the Bram Stoker novel of Dracula as the other films in its vein ( never read the book ) , but what Herzog is interested in may not be what is shared by more modern vampire-film fans . This is a... |
510,965 | 453,068 | 24,803 | 8 | this not quite short film another of Jean Vigo's precious works , but it goes without saying . . . | . . . that in Jean Vigo's all-too short-lived career as a filmmaker he didn't make one unsuccessful movie , despite his difficulties . But seeing Zero For Conduct , which was no doubt a big influence ( if only in the details of some scenes ) for Truffaut's 400 Blows , I do feel a little sorry for it in a way . Watching... |
509,774 | 453,068 | 48,272 | 8 | how much is dream and how much is reality , Bergman asks in this infidelity drama | Ingmar Bergman making a film with characters in a daze as to what to make of their indiscretions in their affairs with men , what a surprise ! Maybe there's too much sarcasm in that sentence , and perhaps for the period Bergman was working in ( pre Seventh Seal ) it's a little too close to a target to make . Bergman wa... |
509,659 | 453,068 | 117,028 | 8 | great concert footage , good in-between bits | For fans of the musical acts that performed at this one of a kind concert , Isle of Wight is a must-see look . The interview sections are not of the high quality of those of Woodstock where you might have taken away something from what was being said . Here it's mostly a lot of ultra-hippie types ( one who apparently g... |
508,372 | 453,068 | 374,294 | 8 | As I remember it not a very thrilling thriller , but it did hold my attention greatly | It's a good sight to see that Eric Rohmer's latest film - one that I saw on the same day I saw Godard's Notre Musique - is finally on release on DVD . Because , frankly , I was a little befuddled why I didn't see it get release in American theaters after it was screened that day I saw it at the NY film festival . It's ... |
508,310 | 453,068 | 59,653 | 8 | bare-bones B-Western , 101 | If I had to explain with complete certainty why Ride in the Whirlwind is better than average it wouldn't be very easy because on the surface it seems average through and through . It was made obviously for bargain-basement prices ( I think director / co-producer Hellman once said that he didn't think anyone would see t... |
509,327 | 453,068 | 48,347 | 8 | tour-de-force from Sinatra , and sharp direction , mark this as worth seeing | The Man with the Golden Arm was one of the first films to have as its main topic ( and , in some respects , the message ) the tragedy of heroin addiction . It's nowhere near a great film , but its importance lies in Otto Preminger's dedication to making it feel real and on the edge of melodrama and naturalism . What I ... |
509,344 | 453,068 | 381,061 | 8 | not an all-time champion Bond film , but one that makes me anticipate Craig - and more Bond movies like this - in the future | Casino Royale goes back to the basics in the sense that it's from an Ian Fleming novel , the first time in many years that the franchise reaches back into Fleming's old bag of tricks . That the filmmakers also decide to transfer the story - however much it sticks to the original source I can't say - from communist vill... |
509,900 | 453,068 | 1,130,988 | 8 | a very good metafilm / comedy , and a revelatory performance from its star | I never put much stock into Jean-Claude Van Damme , and really can you blame me ? Looking at his list of credits over the years he's practically always , if not just always , been in completely action-heavy movies that require him to kick some ass , for better or worse , and he's worked on stuff ranging from real kick-... |
508,660 | 453,068 | 120,915 | 8 | Not heartwarming , but fun | Episode 1 is a good film , but it is by no means the best of the series . True , this is technically the first of the series ( or the fourth ) , and it does set a good stage for the other films , but this film does have it's flaws . 1 - Jar Jar Binks ! What drug was Lucas on when he created that character . I haven't s... |
510,660 | 453,068 | 79,759 | 8 | the Orchestra as a microcosm of society , or a small Fellini exercise , you decide - I think it's both | In most of Federico Fellini's best films , he made big statements about the way we live and socialize with each other and deal with ourselves as much as the past , all within exciting , tragic-comic film-making style . Orchestra Rehearsal does the same , though in a shorter amount of time . We are given a ( union ) orc... |
507,989 | 453,068 | 114,194 | 8 | two names : Christopher Walken and Viggo Mortensen . . . actually , there's more | Filmmaker Gregory Widen learned a little , I think , from his previous outing with Highlander : it's not enough to get Sean Connery and have ridiculous immortals and beheadings . You need some fresh ideas that can live past their shelf life of the 1980s without going into complete repetitive mode . With the Prophecy he... |
509,446 | 453,068 | 66,765 | 8 | pretty good for me | I have only gotten in part in on Monty Python's Flying Circus , so this was good terrain for me to get through , kind of like getting one of those compilation records of the Beatles that they put out in mass droves when fans just didn't get enough from the actual albums themselves . Nothing apparently is ' original ' t... |
508,351 | 453,068 | 90,728 | 8 | a little goofy , as off-the-wall as can be , but also - for the right viewer - just the ticket | Big Trouble in Little China is a movie that is perfect for me IF I'm in the right kind of mood . Sometimes I turn the channels and see this on and can't bear to watch it if I'm on one of those overly ' bad ' days . But if things aren't too bad , and nothing else is going on too troubling in the world , this film does t... |
509,655 | 453,068 | 66,808 | 8 | pretty crazy , not altogether successful , but it's also very funny | Bananas is like a cookie-batter of all of those early Woody Allen jokes all plopped into a bowl and shaken around . It's a film loaded with political jokes , but without a direct focus aside from Cuba and dictators and the like . There are numerous sexual jokes , including one of Woody's funniest scenes involving a mag... |
508,540 | 453,068 | 48,140 | 8 | not a perfect musical , but it has a lot of great , pure moments , with great stars | It'd be easy to call Guys and Dolls great . It's got Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando ( and , contrary to Sinatra's original wishes , the casting works ) , it's got a really cool 1950s feel , even if it is basically transposed from stage to screen with only a little interruption . And most of the songs are often a lot o... |
510,082 | 453,068 | 63,671 | 8 | Corman's Terror Vs . the real deal ; Bodganovich's imperfect but effective look at stardom and mass murder | In one of the most daring displays of creative fortitude - and just one of the great movie-geek stories to tell - Peter Bogdanovich , an assistant for Roger Corman on the Wild Angels , was given carte blanche by Corman for his first film as director , with the only catch being that he had to use Boris Karloff for two d... |
508,352 | 453,068 | 94,980 | 8 | like its predecessor , it's about a certain cross-hair of a particular music scene at the time | I'll admit right off the bat that I didn't respond as strongly to the Decline of Western Civilization 2 : the Metal Years as I did to Penelope Spheeris's first film and documentary , even as I know I did like this film . The former was a kind of fly-on-the-wall ( as I recall , not as many direct interviews , more conce... |
508,280 | 453,068 | 377,091 | 8 | not flawless , but like Larry Clark / Harmony Korine collaborations , they get the grit of growing up teen male | I got uncomfortable sometimes during Mean Creek's second act , which is precisely what the filmmakers intentions were . I even flipped the channel for a second or two when things became a little too uneasy between the kids in the boat . I could relate to this situation very much , of kids who have no idea really how te... |
508,483 | 453,068 | 48,254 | 8 | Imperfect to be sure , yet a picture that holds the Kubrick touch - indie inspiration | Killer's Kiss holds the story elements of a down and dirty film-noir , made for the drive-in and smaller theaters of the mid 50's , and of a Davey , a boxer ( Jamie Smith ) . He's just lost his last fight , though that's hardly on his mind now . What is on his mind is Gloria ( Irene Kane ) , the woman who lives across ... |
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