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508,420 | 453,068 | 44,386 | 8 | as conventional storytelling it's pretty standard , but as a Bunuel picture it's got plenty of subversion in store | In maybe his only time of giving into a commercial project , Luis Bunuel , deliciously notorious surrealist and satirist , took off his usual run of Mexican-produced films of the decade and adapted The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe . On the surface , if one weren't familiar with the director's works at all , it has the... |
507,855 | 453,068 | 59,817 | 8 | less like Olympia and a little closer , though not totally , to being like the Olympic answer to Woodstock | While I've yet to see all of what many consider to be THE document of 20th century Olympics in Riefensthal's Olympia ( it is , of course , a very long movie , and we only saw bits in a class ) , this document of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by Kon Ichikawa is quite the spectacle on its own . Ichikawa understands something t... |
510,983 | 453,068 | 385,880 | 8 | if you ever wondered what a Spielberg / Zemeckis-produced Goosebumps serial novel would look like , this would be it | Goosebumps , if not familiar , was a series of novels from the 90s which dealt with various spooky , unexplained , supernatural , and just plain weird stories meant for kids to take in in all its simplicity and imagination ( or re-imagination to put it another way ) . Monster House is kind of like one of the books neve... |
509,820 | 453,068 | 90,633 | 8 | has a charm that is totally undeniable and appealing for ( most ) children | As a kid I watched this film many times , as it had four key things that it had ( and still has ) going for it : 1 ) a story that does not skim on really putting peril for the characters ( the separation sequence on the ship is absorbing , but also devastating if you're heavily invested in Fievel and his father ) ; 2 )... |
510,260 | 453,068 | 149,460 | 8 | not as great as the Simpsons , but I'll watch it every now and again - certainly a very smart sci-fi comedy | The first Futurama episode was must-see for anyone who was already well affiliated with the world Matt Groening already established with the Simpsons . It was new and strange , as Fry ( voiced by the great Billy West ) gets frozen , and awakes a thousand years later to find all these crazy things ( hey , it IS the futu... |
510,433 | 453,068 | 734,600 | 9 | one of the great modern re-tellings of the boy who cried wolf , Twilight Zone style of course | Amazing to say , I had never seen the original Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20 , 000 Feet , even as it's one of the most notorious / popular episodes ( two sides of the same Rod Serling coin ) . Needless to say I already knew what was coming - it's a major credit to the episode that the episode spurred on many im... |
509,780 | 453,068 | 52,556 | 9 | a near masterpiece of the sadness and touching escape of love | Louis Malle had quite a running start in his mid-20's . Following the amazing noir feature Elevator at the Gallows - so hip and cool a film that Miles Davis himself did the score - Malle made The Lovers , a drama about a bored and unfulfilled housewife who has a one-night fling with a man she just met by the side of th... |
510,410 | 453,068 | 43,972 | 9 | maybe not the perfect film it's hailed as , but it is a classic tale of coming-of-age , the continuous loop of life , all in embracing Technicolor | The River is , understandably , very high on top of film-buffs ' lists of favorite Jean Renoir films . It's also a picture that needs a little patience on some more modern viewers ' parts - it's more meditative than it looks at first , and despite the narration from adult Harriet ( taken , I would guess , verbatim from... |
510,759 | 453,068 | 879,843 | 9 | stripped of sentimentality , superb performances , unflinching direction | I should mention upfront , before this I had yet to see an Andrzej Wajda film , not without trying of course ( started to watch Ashes and Diamonds , didn't get through it , yet ) . His films aren't too well known outside of the art-house circles , but his name is always known to those who peek into the new-waves of the... |
510,530 | 453,068 | 101,258 | 9 | A tragic , supreme meditation on youth , with an impressionable cast | The only other film of Wong Kar-Wai's I have seen is Chungking Express , which asks a second viewing on account of not , like with a Godard film , being able to really soak up everything that he was putting forth with his characters . On the other hand , his second film I have seen , Days of Being Wild , kept me in tun... |
510,963 | 453,068 | 390,336 | 9 | a documentary about fame , or lack thereof , in Hollywood , and more | I kept hearing about the Boondock Saints for a while before I saw Overnight . It was the kind of film that was always on the shelf at Blockbuster , with Willem Dafoe and several other indie actors on the cover , and several people on IMDb put it on their favorite films ever made . It is a cult film , but it's one of th... |
509,543 | 453,068 | 56,371 | 9 | an imperfect but vital film of poetic ideals in love and politics | On occasion while watching Bernardo Bertoulcci's Before the Revolution , which I have done about four times within the past year , I really felt like I was watching someone with a full love of cinema . Not just of how it can distort our perceptions of reality by how close or far or following the subjects are , but that... |
510,301 | 453,068 | 112,819 | 9 | might be my favorite Hughes's brothers film ; gritty , hard-hitting , relevant | Dead Presidents has in its story a tale of desperation and sorrow for a period where young men were perpetually let down by those around them , and took the easy way out through crime . But somehow , just as much as Menace 2 Society in its own style , is relevant for today , or at least the period it was made in a doze... |
509,043 | 453,068 | 65,143 | 9 | Argento's first film is his first Giallo , and one that is sharply crafted , amusing , chilling , and even eerily jazzy | Dario Argento's first dip into the directorial pool is a pot-boiler somewhere in the realm between Hitchcock and Jack the Ripper , classic noir and the " modern " cat-and-mouse serial killer picture . Argento's method's may still be in a slightly embryonic state ( i . e . his intense stylistic flourishes , which by the... |
508,545 | 453,068 | 416,044 | 9 | awesome blockbuster entertainment from , of all places , Kazakhstan about the notorious conquerer | Mongol could really be called " The Mighty Years of Genghis Khan Part 1 " , which might be a little helpful for some coming and expecting to see in the film what's known best about Khan - a murderous , wild conquerer of a good chunk of the world ( at least for the period ) . The filmmaker , Sergei Bondrov , decided to ... |
509,558 | 453,068 | 405,159 | 9 | boxers ' blues - one of the more notable points in Eastwood's career | Something a friend of mine talked with me about after he and I had seen the film was a good point about the film's dramatic structure ( which prompted me to see the film a second time , aside from knowing intrinsically it would get doused in Oscar liquid ) . It's like a darker , slightly harsher Aesop tale , with simpl... |
510,593 | 453,068 | 112,740 | 9 | before Tony Scott lost his mind style-wise as a director ; great star / suspense appeal | Crimson Tide is a real ' guy ' kind of movie , and with a good foot set in the nuclear war debate . It's almost a throwback to those star-packed movies from the 60s , only now it's been given a better grip with the performances , the direction , and when it happens the action . But this is not really as much an action ... |
509,191 | 453,068 | 52,698 | 9 | as solid as they come , and if you can find it on the big screen , go ! | The film Classe tous risques directed by Claude Sautet was not a film , to be honest , I had ever really heard of until the Film Forum in NYC said that they would have a 2-week screening of the film , with new English subtitles . When I also read that it was in the vein of the classic French crime films ala Jean Pierre... |
509,432 | 453,068 | 65,152 | 9 | a contradiction in terms : Dostoyevsky by way of Bresson , but somehow it works , affectingly , a tale of doomed possession | Robert Bresson would be the last filmmaker I would think to adapt any story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky , a man who might be the greatest writer of melodrama - and melodrama as in gut-wrenching , emotional stuff , with a characters in , for example , Crime and Punishment having a big screaming or dramatic fit , all described... |
508,392 | 453,068 | 87,909 | 9 | Dario Argento is twisted and , in his own way predictable , but his film Phenomena is irresistible for connoisseurs of horror style over substance | Dario Argento is a macabre master of technique , and with Phenomena he reuses a previous premise ( many times has this plot happened with Argento with the young girl going to a boarding school of some sort with a murderer in the midsts after the main girl ) , but with startling , uproarious but effective results . We s... |
509,895 | 453,068 | 87,932 | 9 | a near classic of modern film acting | Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke make an unforgettable pair in Stuart Rosenberg's film ( by way , in part I've read , of Michael Cimino ) , because they both take skills they've picked up as actors and applied them wonderfully to two roles that bring out their best . They play , essentially , a version of the Mean Street... |
509,124 | 453,068 | 95,515 | 9 | even if the music doesn't strike you completely , the man and the methods of film-making are staggeringly intriguing | Bruce Weber's obscure documentary ( currently on two screens at New York's Film Forum ) on Chet Baker is the best possible way for those who aren't terribly familiar with his work or who he was - like myself - and I'm sure will more than please his avid fans out there . For the former , Baker is one of the " cool " wes... |
510,064 | 453,068 | 405,094 | 9 | a strikingly human suspense-drama about the changes that can come in good people | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has here one of the better debut features I've seen in recent years , and until the last ten minutes has on his hands a tough , powerful gem out of Germany . His film brings memories of films like the Conversation , where a surveillance man got changed into a paranoid , The Trial , wher... |
508,480 | 453,068 | 167,260 | 9 | Minor flaws aside , LOTR proves itself one of the most successful trilogies in modern film | In Return of the King - which follows the book ( that I have not read , though heard what is in it that is not in the film ) as close if not closer than the past two - co-writer / co-producer / director Peter Jackson brings Tolkien's grand tale of the quest to destroy the ring to an end . The story strands follow along... |
509,667 | 453,068 | 78,295 | 9 | a couple of small flaws aside , this is a very good cat and mouse thriller | John Carpenter made this , probably unintentionally , as a kind of practice-run for Halloween , which he started shooting very soon after he finished this film ( though Halloween came out before Someone's Watching Me ) . We have the stalker and the victim , like in Halloween , but where Carpenter's classic film is a se... |
508,791 | 453,068 | 765,429 | 9 | a big , intense American crime movie , led by stars and director in top form | American Gangster seems on the surface to be what has been dubbed by some critics as " the black Scarface . " As Ridley Scott's new film details , this isn't really the case aside from the point of ' rose up from nothing became something through crime ' , which could be said about almost every gangster film including t... |
508,337 | 453,068 | 21,814 | 9 | Creatures of the night . . . what music they make | Tod Browning's Dracula suffers so many decades later for one simple reason , and a second one that's more subjective : first , we all know Dracula , like a quintessential Shakespeare or Jack and the Beanstalk , we all know what Dracula is about because the lore is given to us as kids and it's taken as it is , which lea... |
510,894 | 453,068 | 424,934 | 9 | not quite the level of unforgettable stories and jokes as the last one , still very funny | Killin ' Them Softly , what I consider to be Dave Chappelle's non-cinematic breakthrough ( the cinematic could be with Half Baked ) , was a very potent mix of comedy , dealing with some celebrity jokes and great humor involving the hood ( the ' baby ' bit is classic ) . With this special , Chappelle comes off from his ... |
508,350 | 453,068 | 38,991 | 9 | one of Welles's most audience-accessible films is also one of his most entertaining | Sure , the Stranger is one of the ' studio ' projects for filmmaker Orson Welles , and in the story one might think from the story description on this site it might not be his kind of territory ( Welles himself said this was his least favorite of his directed films ) . But it is in the directorial style , and in the pe... |
508,109 | 453,068 | 70,643 | 9 | unusual character study / road movie that could only be made in the 70s | Scarecrow is a low-key film that succeeds on all its ambitions , but not because it tries to aim low . That the tone at times doesn't feel as emotionally incredible or intense as some other films Gene Hackman and Al Pacino got their star-making turns in the 70s ( French Connection , Dog Day Afternoon , Serpico ) doesn'... |
510,452 | 453,068 | 70,165 | 9 | Bakshi's most personal work is a completely outlandish , crude , overtly abstract New York satire | Heavy Traffic is , like many of Ralph Bakshi's films , a like it or hate it affair , but for those that respond to it , the film provides many a surprising attack on sensibility , decency , and what it means to get by in urban sprawl . It's almost too personal ; one can see Bakshi or friends of his having gone through ... |
509,501 | 453,068 | 780,536 | 9 | melancholy drama-comedy of career criminals in moral jeopardy | Playwright McDonaugh's debut feature , In Bruges , works only up to a point as a crime comedy ( however considering up to what point is quite remarkable ) , featuring a supporting cast ranging from quirky Euro-trash and plain old jolly eccentrics . But as a moral drama , it's almost as top of the pops one could ask for... |
509,738 | 453,068 | 368,653 | 9 | about as raw as rock concert / docs get , a magnificent time capsule | Metallica in 1986 got perpetually shattered when bassist Cliff Burton died one of the more tragic and unexpected deaths in rock history . In the interim of finding a new bass player , they compiled together this very rough , raw collection of performances , back stage footage , screwing around footage , drunken bits , ... |
509,263 | 453,068 | 497,465 | 9 | Woody en Espanol | Vicki ( Rebecca Hall ) and Cristina ( Scarlet Johansson ) are the two main characters of Woody Allen's latest romantic comedy , but part of the ingenuity of the film is that the third name , Barcelona , is a character itself . Aside from the locales and hot-blooded , romantic atmosphere with Spanish guitars and wine in... |
510,316 | 453,068 | 87,755 | 9 | Enjoyable mostly on nostalgic terms , and great with an audience | Throughout this film , you might think this film is just for kids . Well , it is mainly pointed towards them , but it's also well-rounded enough with the jokes pointed also at the adults in the audience . This time around , the Muppet gang try to get on Broadway , with the dire straits keeping them from getting it prod... |
509,323 | 453,068 | 74,084 | 9 | Bertolucci's most ambitious production , if not perfect then with the aspirations of great art | Here it is , finally after over thirty years of wait , 1900 ( Novecento ) is out on DVD for those who never got to see the full uncut version ( which were most Americans , particularly those who didn't see it on VHS years ago ) , and it's happy to report that the picture comes in a small variety of language / subtitle ... |
509,799 | 453,068 | 342,172 | 9 | one of the most fascinating documentaries to come out of HBO films | It's been useful to watch Capturing the Friedmans a few times since first seeing it in the theater three years ago . It's a film that , much like in daily-life , deserves more than just one glance over with such devastating events . The film depicts not so much the facts or testimonies in the case of Arnold and Jessie ... |
510,657 | 453,068 | 405,496 | 9 | stop the channel and keep this on if you find this on TV , or on DV | For the movie buff in us all , whether casual or die-hard , the story of Jerry Harvey , who pioneered independent pay-TV services , is the story of the tragic hero , whom for the people who subscribed to his Z channel got the best of the best in international cinema , and then some . He started out booking films into t... |
509,922 | 453,068 | 70,215 | 9 | very likely the funniest spaghetti western ever made , or at least most kidding with the genre conventions | Sergio Leone picked a good director to helm his production of My Name is Nobody , as Tonino Valerii brings a sensibility that wouldn't of been the same had Leone taken the helm . It's not that Valerii steers too far away from certain trademarks of the quintessential spaghetti western director : expansive close-ups , be... |
507,979 | 453,068 | 256,009 | 9 | a grisly ghost story , for its dedication to simplicity with characters , absorbing style and a bleak perspective | Guillermo del Toro is fascinated by characters who aren't apart of the battles during war , but at the same time he's also just as , if not more , compelled by the plight of children caught in the cross-hairs of good people and very bad people . It's also all the more an amazing view after seeing Pan's Labyrinth , the ... |
509,111 | 453,068 | 70,242 | 9 | a man who could play the coolest blues , the most far-out rock , and a good man behind the ultimate tragedy | Jimi Hendrix chronicles the story of the man , the myth , the legend , the left-handed dude with a love of the blues and Bob Dylan , and who took rock and roll almost to another planet ( just listen to some of the tracks off Electric Ladyland and see how he goes into music like the equivalent of a crazy science fiction... |
508,497 | 453,068 | 39,224 | 9 | near classic prison noir / melodrama with excellent performances | Brute Force is hard-hitting and ultimately quite tragic because the director , Jules Dassin , and his screenwriter Richard Brooks don't go for a simple , self-righteous " bad guys always lose " policy that movies had at the time thanks to the Legion of Decency and the Hayes Code . By the end of Brute Force , without gi... |
509,856 | 453,068 | 21,577 | 9 | Like walking into Bunuel and Dalis ' brains and going through the doors they have wide open - plenty of unforgettable moments | Luis Bunuel was a filmmaker of great imagination and scathing wit , and Salvador Dali was a magnificent , albeit demented , artist and painter . Combined they made Un Chien Andalou ( The Andalousian Dog ) , a short-film that somehow made it through the decades to reach another generation after another . This is because... |
508,395 | 453,068 | 65,446 | 9 | an uncommonly sweet film from Peckinpah ; can't wait to see it again ! | The Ballad of Cable Hogue isn't exactly a " light " offering from Peckinpah , but then again what would be ? This is however not something almost unthinkable at the time like the Wild Bunch . If anything , after that film , Peckinpah decided to go onto something that would let him focus even more on just character , an... |
510,840 | 453,068 | 65,466 | 9 | on the contrary to a couple of reviewers , I LOVED the ending ; the rest is very good , if not great , exploitation film-making | By 1970 Russ Meyer had established himself as a ' like-him-or-not ' director , fiercely independent , with the kind of edge that set him apart from other burgeoning independent American directors ( he's certainly not Cassavetes ) as well as shlockmeisters and pornographers ( too experimental and in love with comic timi... |
510,325 | 453,068 | 61,177 | 9 | not for all tastes , but if you're in the right crazy-comedy mode it could be one of Woody's funniest films | In its own nature , the film being made fun of within the film What's Up , Tiger Lily is inherently silly . It's a James Bond rip-off done to the Nth degree , where based on only a few films its Japanese B-movie counterpart does everything just in imagery alone to make it a ludicrous action-movie experience . Just in t... |
508,620 | 453,068 | 66,534 | 9 | plenty of scabrous bits of Bunuel's Catholic - and faith-based - criticism and questioning ; the parts are much greater than the whole | I might be tempted to call the Milky Way a masterpiece , but for all of the excellent scenes that dance along on the edge of being silly , strange , dead-serious , and scathing in attack , Luis Bunuel doesn't make it quite an easy first viewing . It is , alongside Phantom of Liberty , though maybe more-so considering i... |
510,780 | 453,068 | 74,119 | 9 | a tight ball of a mystery movie , gets better with more viewings | The first time I saw All the President's Men I wasn't very impressed or , actually , that involved . But it was also also at a time when I wasn't paying much attention to what was on the screen ( school-time , middle of the day , that sort of thing ) . After seeing it a couple more times , and from reading more and mor... |
511,046 | 453,068 | 43,567 | 9 | a pick for best cinematic translation of Strindberg to screen | Alj Sjoberg's Miss Julie is superior film-making to the kinds of expected adaptations of iconoclastic plays one might usually see . This Miss Julie moves , when at its best , like a real MOTION PICTURE ( not to overstate it , just to put the words in bold ) , where Sjoberg's camera moves in fast and smooth , transfers ... |
508,287 | 453,068 | 39,286 | 9 | a very keen mix of message and craftsmanship ; excellent performances | A film like Crossfire puts another film that spreads around its social consciousness - i . e . the recent film Crash - almost to shame . Not necessarily because either one puts forth its message of intolerance-is-rotten more significantly ( although I'd wager Crash throws the hammer down much more thickly in comparison... |
508,942 | 453,068 | 765,120 | 9 | Wong strikes up sublime film-making again in familiar territory in foreign terrain | This is a wonderful work of romantic intuition . This goes without saying that My Blueberry Nights is the work of a true auteur , even if it's one nestled comfortably in the art-house mold , so that for pretty much his entire oeuvre he has been making the same film . One almost takes for granted his jazzy style of edit... |
510,874 | 453,068 | 74,156 | 9 | on par with its inspiration ( s ) ; a must see Carpenter classic | Ackowledged by it's own creator on the DVD , Assault on Precinct 13 is a bit more of a hybrid than just a sheer homage to Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo . It has traces of that ( editing name , ho-ho ) , and of the Western specifics in bits of the storytelling devices and stereotypes . But it also has traces of the horror fi... |
510,609 | 453,068 | 65,528 | 9 | a seriously funny movie about insane reality | In 1970 , MASH and Catch-22 were the main contenders in the unofficial bout of military satire movies , and while MASH ended up making far more at the box office and keeping its acclaim so high that Robert Altman had a sweet career in the 70s ( and , arguably , made far greater films ) , I might be in that minority tha... |
510,145 | 453,068 | 347,149 | 9 | loaded with enough imagination and sweet vibes for three movies ! | I can't say for certain , especially after only seeing the English-language dub of the film in the theater ( and seeing bits of it again on TV ) - that Howl's Moving Castle is one of the very best of the great Hayao Miyazaki's feature films . But I didn't leave it feeling un-happy in the slightest , and if anything I r... |
508,317 | 453,068 | 60,675 | 9 | even through its moments of experimentation it's a fun , fully intriguing Godard flick | I saw Masculin Feminin in a class last year and like with most of Jean-Luc Godard's films I was taken aback by how much the film doesn't stick to anything expected for the audience . This is Godard at the peak of his powers as a director for what has become a line associated forever with Godard - the Marx and Coca-Cola... |
510,390 | 453,068 | 351,540 | 9 | before Machete , there was . . . Daniel Daniel ! | This is a fun , rough and buoyant example of homage from the guys who would later collaborate on Man Bites Dog . It's an extended " trailer " for a spy movie with the hero , Daniel Daniel , and his attempts to stop a bomb plot or other . What the plot really is I can't say exactly , but there are some horrible but hila... |
508,099 | 453,068 | 69,945 | 9 | wouldn't we all want to be in Benson Arizona ? | Dark Star is one of the best student films I've ever seen - and I stress the term " student " here as it is more than anything the inklings of talent , the audacity on display for fellow film-making students and peers and ( of course ) the filmmaker's own professors to see what they can do . It's rough and crude scienc... |
510,415 | 453,068 | 245,429 | 9 | An anime treat | Spirited Away , the latest film from writer / director Hayao Miyazaki ( a genius to Disney animators , such as to Toy Story director Lasseter who executive produced the film for the US ) , is a wonderful family film , that works on numerous levels for kids , not the least being the creative storyline , and for older ki... |
508,752 | 453,068 | 56,905 | 9 | a film that challenges audience's expectations to the conventions of a war film | One of Godard's better films from the 60's , which like a number of his films from his prime era is usually either liked a lot or detested to hell , is almost audience-dividing on purpose . His film is a black comedy that sometimes is ( successfully ) deceptively a bleak drama of corruption of the working man in times ... |
508,004 | 453,068 | 109,508 | 9 | the outsiders who make it and the ones that don't ; a documentary with true rhythm and honesty | Documentaries about artists can go one of two ways , either very insightful , with images that stick with you , as well as possibly entertaining , or very boring . This will often depend on the merit of the filmmaker , and how personally they connect with the artist and the work itself ( some of it is more made for fil... |
510,755 | 453,068 | 1,091,722 | 9 | such false advertising ! and now on to the compliments . . . | The big label on top of the title of the poster of Adventureland says " from the director of Superbad " . This is a given since it's true , they have the same director , but from the look of the poster and by some of the ads it looks to be very much in the vein of the gross-out sex gags and super vulgar humor that popu... |
509,498 | 453,068 | 100,828 | 9 | it's not Chinatown , Jake , but it is nearly classic throwback to detective fiction | To compare Chinatown and the Two Jakes , which would probably take more sufficiently a whole entire other article , one I wouldn't print here , it might be noteworthy on the surface to also make a co-comparison in terms of iconic films . The Godfather 2 and Chinatown both came out in 1974 , and then both saw their resp... |
510,978 | 453,068 | 74,285 | 9 | one of the more entertaining , chilling , and tragic stories ever about High school | Carrie is from a novel by Stephen King , and directed by Brian De Palma , and it can more than likely be found in any horror section of the video store . But to me the film may lend itself more to being a kind of weird , darkly satiric take on High school life that only really gets into the outright horror in the last ... |
510,215 | 453,068 | 56,884 | 9 | the first moral tale is decidedly one-sided , but full of the strengths of both Rohmer and the New Wave | Eric Rohmer's The Bakery Girl of Monceau isn't a very great film - the chief liability is Barbet Schroeder , the ' Young Man ' as he's called , who isn't expressive much at all , almost stilted when he has to say his lines outside of the narration which is when he does fine - but it's one that has some very solid ideas... |
510,557 | 453,068 | 74,254 | 9 | another Altman de-mythological exploration mixed with show-biz satire , but it's very underrated with a great Newman performance | A lot of reviews on this site keep this down as something of a misfire from director Robert Altman , that it might have been too easy a target or that it's being too cynical . Can there be enough cynicism in looking at the history of Old-West Americans and American Indians ? After so many years of Westerns showing thin... |
510,844 | 453,068 | 109,424 | 9 | I like to revisit this movie every now and then , like a quirky , quintessentially cool photo in a pineapple frame | One of Wong Kar Wai's most experimental features ( and this is even for old Wong folks ) is one of his earliest efforts , done while in a creative struggle making his epic Ashes of Time . Chungking Express is light and frothy , featuring funny monologues about the importance of pineapple preservation and a charming , a... |
510,792 | 453,068 | 260,776 | 9 | maybe the most light-hearted piece Cronenberg ever made , still with one or two creepy moments | Camera is a loving exercise to the magic of movie-making as the subjects are an aged man who became that way while watching a movie in a theater ( based a dream Cronenberg really had ) , and a bunch of kids who have a 35mm camera and sound equipment and are getting ready for a shot . " They just figured it out , " says... |
508,155 | 453,068 | 22,286 | 9 | Jimmy Cagney , of course , takes this to another level ; very good direction to boot , a near-classic | The Public Enemy is not the best that the 1930s gangster movie period had to offer - Hawks ' Scarface and Curtiz's Angels With Dirty Faces certainly top it in terms of overall quality and bravura performances - but it is still one you wouldn't want to miss to understand the force that was and remains so potent today of... |
508,467 | 453,068 | 53,168 | 9 | simple is as simple does , which includes stealing and living an isolated life | Robert Bresson's Pickpocket has many great moments , even as it didn't quite do it for me on a first viewing as a ' masterpiece ( some have said to see it twice , perhaps I will ) . Bresson's use of the camera is often intoxicating in the most subdued of ways ; at times it does take on the prowess of literature . But m... |
510,910 | 453,068 | 78,754 | 9 | a cheerfully ironic and devilishly self-indulgent plunge into the spirit of Bob Fosse | I should be inclined to say that All That Jazz is much too full of itself to really pull off as an entertaining comedy-musical . But then again , the whole tone of Fosse's " semi " autobiographical splurge , less so much a typical film , is to comment on self-indulgence in movies , while at the same time embracing it ,... |
508,369 | 453,068 | 65,794 | 9 | an exciting , bizarre-bravura turn of pushing-the-boundaries-of cinema | The Grandmother , like other surreal short films ( and , of course , like the rest of Lynch's work ) , is not that concerned with logic , at least in conventional terms . If there is anything at all conventional about the the film is that it has at its core that small statement on youth and innocence that can be interp... |
509,013 | 453,068 | 910,936 | 9 | truly , insanely and shamelessly entertaining pot-movie spoof on action movies | It's a given that when you go to a Judd Apatow movie now ( and he's only directed two , but they're still ' movies ' anyway , despite the growing stable of directors ) you'll know what to expect more or less . After 40 Year Old Virgin , Knocked Up , Superbad , Walk Hard , and to a lesser extent Forgetting Sarah Marshal... |
509,064 | 453,068 | 206,634 | 9 | recommended for anyone interested in a ( rewardingly ) bleak futuristic thriller | Alfonso Cuaron , make no mistake , knows what he's doing with the style of Children of Men . Following from the same cues he started off with Y Tu Mama Tambein , his and Emmanual Lebiznaki's camera never stops to go onto a dolly or just to stand still , it's always hand-held and on edge with the characters and the dire... |
510,653 | 453,068 | 29,850 | 9 | not perfect , but still a vital and truly virtuoso epic | Watching some of the sequences ( err , the entire of the film devoted to the battle on the ice ) in Alexander Nevsy , a film directed by the Russian legend Sergei M . Eisenstein ( co-directed by Dmitri Vasilyev in his only significant credit ) , made me realize how much must really go into directing , at least on a sca... |
510,711 | 453,068 | 109,228 | 9 | with the Beatles , Maysles style ! | It was madness , a frenzy , a pop-music explosion that still has barely been topped in the US for sheer virtuosity and awareness . After holding off on an official US mini-tour until they got some top 10 hits - and then suddenly getting THREE that were simultaneously number 1 - 72 million people , more or less dependin... |
510,687 | 453,068 | 95,967 | 9 | into the methods and mind and soul of Tarkovsky | It's of the utmost value for anyone interested in film-making - those who just love watching how they're made or want to be / are filmmakers - to see this documentary , which chronicles the making of Tarkovsky's last film , the Sacrifice , as well as peers into the personal dimensions of him as an artist . If only for ... |
510,041 | 453,068 | 78,346 | 9 | Immensely entertaining start to a wonderful , exciting saga | Superman is not exactly a pinnacle in film history , but is a great film never-the-less . There is so much to like about this film it boggles the mind . First off , Marlon Brando playing Jor-el in the way only Brando could . Second , you got Gene Hackman as one of the major bad-asses of comic-book adaptations . Even pa... |
507,854 | 453,068 | 113,568 | 9 | about as visually striking as futuristic / sci-fi anime can get ; possibly Oshii's finest achievement | This has been counted by some as one of the best anime films , particularly out of the Manga group , of the 90s , and even by some die-hard cultists as one of the all-time great science fiction films . I might argue that not to be so ; it's too short to really take its full-on effect , and at the moment my view on the ... |
508,426 | 453,068 | 64,855 | 9 | smart , sharp , cutting edge , and a big middle finger to the establishment , now as then | When someone refers to the independent cinema realm in the United States it's often inferred that it means the filmmaker or people behind the project had much more creative freedom and did what they wanted . This , today , is not really always the case unless someone is a solid " auteur " and creative freedom still com... |
510,663 | 453,068 | 69,704 | 9 | Fellini's I Vitelloni transposed to rock n roll , teens , cruisers , and good vibes | They're each on the crossroads of High School into real life , either still deciding ( Richard Dreyfuss ' character Curt ) , or more just in the moment of their lives on a specific night following graduation ( Ron Howard's Steve , Charles Martin Smith's ' Toad ' , Paul Le Mat's Milner ) . It's a night filled with ridin... |
509,107 | 453,068 | 64,861 | 9 | The makings of Greek tragedy , but Chabrol has more up his sleeve in revenge flick | In taking a slight cue from Alfred Hitchcock ( one of Chabrol's heroes ) , but going another step further , This Man Must Die follows a logical turn of events for a single father who's son is run over in a hit and run by some cruel man in a fast car . In Hitchcock's hands this might be led by elegant stars , have even ... |
510,389 | 453,068 | 360,130 | 9 | a Terence Malick production of a David Gordon Green film . . . so you know the stakes | David Gordon Green explores the story in Undertow with an intention to tell the story , but there's also an intention to explore the spaces his actors inhabit , or run to , or from , and occasionally with the lyricism of a grungy street poet . This isn't to say the film is pretentious ; it can be enjoyed by those who j... |
510,982 | 453,068 | 369,339 | 9 | constantly re-watchable with entertaining storytelling , a good serious neo-noir | Michael Mann's skills as storyteller , stylist , and controller of mood and psychology of characters is in one of its finest forms in Collateral , a summer blockbuster that's with equal measure of excitement and thought , dark humor and tough moments of violence and suspense . It's also one of only a handful of times i... |
511,008 | 453,068 | 902,272 | 9 | near great straight-to-video movie that celebrates the legacy of JL | I'll be honest - I've never read a Justice League comic book , or watched much of the show . All of the superheroes featured here in the ' origin ' story of the Justice League are , however , either more than well known to me ( Superman , Batman ) or marginally more-so ( Flash , Green Lantern , Wonder Woman , Aquaman )... |
509,968 | 453,068 | 265,086 | 9 | One of Scott's best films , but not quite on my top 10 list for 2001 | Ridley Scott seems to have a knack for high intensity in movie-making ( Gladiator , Blade Runner , Hannibal and Thelma and Louise among others come to mind ) and Black Hawk Down , a war picture set in Somalia , is another prime example of his knack . Black Hawk Down is a war movie that does something I haven't seen muc... |
508,669 | 453,068 | 25,919 | 9 | not the all-time best Screwball-comedy , maybe not the funniest , but it has guts and energy and two giant performances | John Barrymore appears on screen under an ostensibly ego-centric persona . It's Oscar Jaffe's Oscar Jaffe by Oscar Jaffe in the Oscar Jaffe theater , so it's suffice to say he thinks highly of his craft . . . until he meets his match with Lily Garland ( once Mildred Plotka ) , a tender actress who just wants to act and... |
510,777 | 453,068 | 95,800 | 9 | one of my favorites from childhood ; leaves quite the impact | At a time when I was around 6-10 years old , give or take , I had an obsession with bears . Through nature documentaries , as well as the first inspiration being Winnie the Pooh , something about these creatures sparked my interest at that age . This film , in particular , had a very special place in my life at the tim... |
510,993 | 453,068 | 294,097 | 9 | at best , 15 minute mini-masterpieces of parody , at worst . . . it's still funny | This is a series that , as with Robot Chicken and Metalocalypse and other Cartoon Network programs , never overstays its welcome . Even when not all of its silly jokes connect there's still a charm to the program , not as crude as ' Chicken ' but with a similar aim : make it quick and fast and try and fill up the time ... |
508,874 | 453,068 | 420,251 | 9 | Dumplings : ; Cut : ; Box : ; overall a very nifty , varied set of Asian horror | While not one of the three films in the collection of shorts put under the name " Three Extremes " will ever shock to the point of no return , they represent some of the sharpest wit , guts ( literally and figuratively ) , and psychological insight into what really creeps out , entertains and sticks with us as viewers ... |
510,523 | 453,068 | 83,325 | 9 | how to act and love , by Demme and Vonnegut , starring Walken and Sarandon , what more could you want ? | To answer that question : that it was longer . Then again to counter that own point , maybe this was a film that was very close to Vonnegut's original story , thus not extending it to feature length or making it an actual theatrical release . As it is it should be just a trifle , but it's more than that . Director Jona... |
510,703 | 453,068 | 104,706 | 9 | not quite science fiction , not quite documentary - science-reality ? | While Werner Herzog has stated that he looks at his 1992 film Lessons of Darkness as a work of science fiction , it shouldn't be discounted as a documentary either . But unlike the recent Wild Blue Yonder , where Herzog made a true science fiction documentary , this time the line is further blurred by making everything... |
510,975 | 453,068 | 92,007 | 9 | the crew of the enterprise saves the whales , visits San Fran , other follies , very entertaining | This is probably one of the best examples of Star Trek being able to reach past its main fan-base . It's got some action out in space , but for the most part the story takes place all on Earth , particularly in San Francisco , and out in the ocean . It also boasts a very good supporting turn from Child's Play / 7th Hea... |
510,643 | 453,068 | 87,089 | 9 | Coppola's gangsters and dancers saga that succeeds on its ambitions , if just by a hair | The Cotton Club has a reputation , in the movie world as well as in the history books , as being a notorious heaven / hell for most involved . Desptie it being over-budget and under-whelming at the box-office , what remains is probably one of the director's most provocative turns , with so much thrust into it that one ... |
508,798 | 453,068 | 152,183 | 9 | Suck Satan's c ! crazy , amazingly funny stand-up | How did it take me so long to come to Bill Hicks ? I'd heard about him for years , but only until a DVD was released with a few of his specials , and suddenly his lucid , spot-on sarcastic observations grew on me almost immediately . He goes from JFK to Terminator 2 stunts done by cripples to ' happy LSD trips ' to fun... |
509,925 | 453,068 | 497,116 | 9 | might be the greatest power-point presentation put on film this decade | And I say that opening summary line in saying that , perhaps , this isn't a perfect film . Al Gore , the would-be SHOULD be president ( political views aside for now aside from that bit ) , tells some bits from his own stories here and there in the film as cut-aways from his slide-show presentation to his audience , an... |
510,429 | 453,068 | 92,020 | 9 | a contender for my favorite Quay brothers film | I like the Brothers Quay work in small doses , and all at once with one film coming after another it becomes too staggering an experience to handle . But seeing Street of Crocodiles really made it for me in terms of connecting it to other Quay brothers work , in terms of how their surreal representations and obsessions... |
509,123 | 453,068 | 113,409 | 9 | Carpenter at his most surreal , most sickening , and , in his own devilish way , most self-deprecating | I think In the Mouth of Madness falls into that column of John Carpenter films that fans of his will either like a lot or wont , and I could understand the points made for the latter . It is a little hard to get into , at first , as being a very strong film based on the sharply timed shocks and paranoia of Carpenter's ... |
509,921 | 453,068 | 43,048 | 9 | to the joy of Bergman and combining drama and music | Ingmar Bergman's seventh film , To Joy , is actually a fairly bitter film , more often than not , in looking at the destructiveness of a marriage between two people who somehow got stuck with each other to fall in love . And yet there are some moments that are quite joyful , or at least in the terms that Bergman will a... |
510,067 | 453,068 | 245,574 | 9 | Another prime example of film-making from Mexico | Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Bien is one of the better films of the year ( not quite best , but still highly recommendable ) . Cuaron , who scripted with his brother Carlos , tells a story with such a level of stark and touching realism that the audience will not only feel for the three main characters , but will feel li... |
508,614 | 453,068 | 104,779 | 9 | a hot and heavy tale of romance gone bad , by Roman Polanski | I'd have to wonder how much hotter the book that Bitter Moon is based on is . I'm not sure if I would ever read it , but it definitely wouldn't be boring . Neither is the movie ; if anything , Polanski goes to such dark depths here that it's almost neglectful not to say that there's something old-fashioned stirring in ... |
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