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510,499 | 453,068 | 342,275 | 10 | As much as I loved this film-buff docu-delight , it's hard for me to give it a grade . . . | . . . and my reasons for which are simple - there are so many great films presented and discussed here ( most of them by their own directors and stars ) , so many clips of infamous moments in 70's movie history , and in fact a number of films I have yet to see , that it wouldn't be fair to grade this work . By this log... |
509,865 | 453,068 | 38,913 | 10 | DeSica's first true mark on the world of neo-realism is a small ruby of its time and place | Sciuscia , or Shoeshine , tells a tragedy involving two boys , Pasquale and Giuseppe , both of whom try and make money from shining shoes , and also in dealing with black market goods . They hope to buy a horse one day ( a wonderful opening shot of a horse running fast gets this point across since this is at its core a... |
510,799 | 453,068 | 61,418 | 10 | one of the very best films I've ever seen ? not sure , but it surely invites another viewing | Bonnie and Clyde is , to put it in most basic terms , what Warren Beatty said to Jack Warner when the lights came up after the screening for the late studio head after he asked Beatty , " What the f did I just watch ? " Beatty replied , " It's what the French would call an ' homage . ' " Warner's response : " Ok . . . ... |
509,674 | 453,068 | 52,618 | 10 | still a gigantic achievement in epic film-making | What distinguishes Ben-Hur as a powerful film in epic scope is not simply that it is shot and stylized and acted and executed in action sequences to iconic effect ( though there is that to a degree ) , but that it's human dimensions stay intimate in scope . I was expecting what I had heard about with Ben-Hur , and got ... |
509,261 | 453,068 | 65,234 | 10 | He is Alive ! | Z is one of top crop of the truly incisive , daring and most cinematically successful conspiracy / political thrillers . It is this because of its attention , lucidly surprisingly given its often non-linear structure , to its plot filled with many strands and possible loose ends , and because its director Costa-Gavras ... |
508,150 | 453,068 | 91,209 | 10 | some kind of insane and intensely tense thriller that rarely comes around anymore | The Hitcher is guided to being such an awesome feat because it features a character and a performance that lift reality into hyper-reality , and it's frightening and fascinating to see how the character John Ryder becomes like a presence as alarming as just a state of mind than as an actual threat . It may be a super a... |
509,751 | 453,068 | 35,160 | 10 | A daring debut , fusing melodrama , film-noir , and a realistic approach later to flourish after the war . . . | Ossessione , adapted loosely ( or if it is as loose or close to the version I saw of James M . Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange I can't be certain ) by first time director Luchino Visconti , is no less outstanding with usage of mis-en-scene , music ( both diegetic and non-dieg... |
510,040 | 453,068 | 365,190 | 10 | If you love diving into a character via roadhouse blues in France , you'll really like this movie , if not love it | The first thing to take note in Red Lights is that the story is not rushed : Antoine ( Jean-Pierre Darrousin ) is perhaps a passive-aggressive , or maybe just having a mid-life crisis . He and his wife Helene are planning for a trip to pick up the kids from summer camp . But the drive hits some things in the way - he h... |
510,509 | 453,068 | 118,694 | 10 | the quintessential romance of Wong Kar Wai | In the Mood for Love , a film shot in an improvisational style with the actors and , frankly , the most mature and least feverish lensed and edited work of Wong Kar Wai's career , is about two people who know exactly what is right and what is wrong , but have the feeling , the emotion , to possibly cross the line . Why... |
507,903 | 453,068 | 338,013 | 10 | an modern artistic triumph for all involved | Michel Gondry , credited as the director and co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , is only partly responsible for the success that the film achieves . He implements a awe-inspiring blend of style to a story that is perfectly non-linear . But then there is also the madman genius of the current screen writ... |
508,083 | 453,068 | 112,641 | 10 | One of the Best films of 1995 | Casino shows that even with a re-visited GoodFellas ( in Las Vegas ) can still be well done when a Duo suck as Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi does it right . With great performances by 3 time teamed up Robert De Niro and Joe pesci and also by Sharon Stone , this film is for people who are fans of mob films , Scor... |
508,958 | 453,068 | 87,843 | 10 | A sprawling , deliberately paced , and generally a superbly crafted piece of work | It's been said that when one watches a " spaghetti " western ( one of the " Man with no name " films with Clint Eastwood ) filmmaker Sergio Leone's trademark cinema style and flair for clear storytelling is instantly recognizable . This is no truer than in his most ambitious effort , Once Upon a Time in America , in wh... |
509,771 | 453,068 | 854,678 | 10 | inspires the righteous outrage every American ( or just anyone period ) should have about torture " policies " | Taxi to the Dark Side accomplishes what a documentary , or just a concise analysis , regarding all of the facts in one of the many nightmares the United States ' involvement in the middle east should : to inspire the utmost disgust and condemnation of a system that has become as corrupt as it has ( or rather always has... |
510,037 | 453,068 | 70,644 | 10 | One of Bergman's most interesting works as a director and one of Ullman / Josephson's very best | Scenes from a Marriage ( the TV version , even as the theatrical cut is still very good and worth the time if the only copy available ) is an intimate , naturalistic portrait of a couple , who at first are seemingly happy , then aren't , then try and find out where they go wrong . It's involving drama at its nexus , an... |
508,479 | 453,068 | 61,395 | 10 | One of Bunuel's more well-known works ; an interesting morality story with Deneuve | Luis Bunuel , notorious for his use of simple , striking , yet un-cannily affecting surrealism in movies , keeps it down to a lower ( yet still imaginative ) key for Belle Du Jour . This works though because un-like a film like Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie where surrealism was like another character amidst the oth... |
510,843 | 453,068 | 1,017,495 | 10 | one of the funniest new shows on prime-time ; it's charming and witty , and with enough ' quirk ' in dialog and style | Barry Sonnenfeld was the right director to helm the opening of Pushing Daisies , an original mystery / comedy yarn about a pie-maker named Ned ( Lee Pace ) who can bring a person back to life with a touch , but there's a catch , more than one , in scheme of things . It's also about a childhood friendship that went awry... |
510,819 | 453,068 | 52,311 | 10 | the classic , deluxe film-noir by Orson Welles | Orson Welle's Touch of Evil is so good a film that I would probably place it right behind Citizen Kane ( or , at least , on par with the Trial ) . He brings to the screen a distinct sensibility to what would be just otherwise B-movie pulp entertainment . It is just that , entertaining , but it's one of the rare moments... |
509,583 | 453,068 | 30,341 | 10 | A merry-go-round of a Hitchcock mystery , bordering brilliantly on a yarn | Alfred Hitchcock's 2nd to last British based film in the thirties is this classic little tale of a little old lady ( played in such sweetness by Dame May Whitty ) who disapears on a train . What makes this such an interesting story to unfold in the Hitchcok tradition is that is starts off as almost a comedy of manners ... |
509,063 | 453,068 | 83,946 | 10 | the most operatic documentary-style epic ever made - fearlessly unique | The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald , aka Fitzcarraldo , is as much the story of his magnanimous pie in the sky ideal to push a boat over a mountain as it is Werner Herzog's own mission to film it . More than a mission - as anyone who saw Burden of Dreams can report - an obsession that might cost a few lives , a good... |
508,034 | 453,068 | 108,755 | 10 | Smarmy , cynical , satirical - truly a cult of a cartoon comedy show | Duckman was a show that used to be on during the last hour or so before it was time to sleep about ten or so years ago . It was a contrast to a lot of the kid-type of animation I was watching at the time ; I was still a minor junkie for Disney and Looney Tunes stuff , and most Saturday morning cartoons were still on th... |
509,987 | 453,068 | 412,019 | 10 | one of Jarmusch's ( and Murray's ) best | It would be hard for me to recommend this film to some people , even if as a particular film-goer as myself it kept me in my seat as it went by with its deliberate ( or slow as most would put it ) pace . For an actor like Bill Murray , this is a 180 turn from his classic comedy roles in Caddyshack and Ghostbusters ( bo... |
509,603 | 453,068 | 21,749 | 10 | Lady and the Tramp , before animation and at the start of talkies - one of the most wonderful films ever conceived and executed | If there is one Charlie Chaplin film to recommend , as others have pointed to in the past , City Lights is the one . Though Chaplin played his Tramp character superbly in other movies , like Modern Times and The Gold Rush , City Lights displays the Tramp at his funniest , his bravest , his most romantic , and his most ... |
510,031 | 453,068 | 1,157,605 | 10 | documentary and metal fans rejoice ! | Anvil : The Story of Anvil has got those absurd moments ala Spinal Tap , to be sure . Indeed at one point when the camera follows the band walking down a hallway about to go on stage I put a hand over my eyes thinking they were about to get lost . But it's also got the heart and some similarity to The Wrestler . This i... |
510,248 | 453,068 | 83,907 | 10 | The only horror movie , make that movie period , you will ever see a possessed tree limb act as a dildo . | While that first line might be a bit of a stretch , it gives a bit of mind about what to expect from Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead , a horror movie so vulgar , so gorish , so unexplicably twisted , that it's incredibly ingenuous until the last shot . Even for a low budget film noticably shot practically on a shoe string fr... |
508,885 | 453,068 | 533,466 | 10 | definitely one of the high points from the series ; even better live ! | I'll be honest , I don't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer regularly - not now or even really much when it was on more in syndication and in its original run - but I did watch it casually sometimes with friends , and did enjoy the occasionally corny fights and angsty teen drama thrown in ( plus , Anthony Stewart Head is q... |
509,555 | 453,068 | 77,914 | 10 | A dark family drama in the guise of a typical Romero horror-fest ; one of his best as writer / director | One of the two horror film sleepers of 1977 were not necessarily definable under the usual typecasts of the genre : David Lynch's Eraserhead , which drew itself more to a kind of surreal horror from paintings and animation ; and this film , George A . Romero's Martin , where the horror is not what is usually expected f... |
508,717 | 453,068 | 1,010,048 | 10 | one of Danny Boyle's best ! | When film can uplift someone emotionally by having two characters who should be together , ( mostly ) want to be together , and who are as the cliché goes " made " for each other , and it's done without false sentimentality ( different from sentiment , which Slumdog has in spades ) , it can be one of the best things in... |
510,527 | 453,068 | 83,922 | 10 | ( review of the 5-hour cut ) A total , un-abashed work of art that you'll love or hate . I loved it , and it's likely one of the great epics I'll ever see | As Ingmar Bergman's " swan song " ( which wasn't necessarily the case once After the Rehearsal and the recent Saraband were released ) , Fanny and Alexander was a film I saw many months ago , in its truncated , 3-hour version . I knew I had witnessed something special , something life-affirming , and above all a work t... |
510,114 | 453,068 | 56,663 | 10 | Godard has a great piece of Parisian character-fiction | ( minor spoilers ahead ) I've started to get a little more used to Godard , and now by My Life to Live I know I can expect anything from him , though it's sometimes a style that he presents frankly , stylishly , or in an experimentally real approach . Along with his masterful cinematographer Raoul Coutard , the mis en ... |
510,061 | 453,068 | 52,330 | 10 | shows Tarkovsky's incredible control of direction for the most part ; surprisingly sharp Hemingway | Although I did like the 1946 adaptation of the Killers , I wasn't sure how a Russian , let alone someone who is usually much more into the visual prowess of things like Andrei Tarkovsky , would tackle Ernest Hemingway's brief , pulpy story of men on a mission and a man in hiding from those men . Turns out it's one of t... |
510,885 | 453,068 | 48,021 | 10 | a truly methodical , cool hybrid of old-school classy heist films with some extra element . . . | Rififi , directed by Jules Dassin , is in line with the Melville crime pictures ( particularly Bob le Flameur and to a point Le Cercle Rouge ) of being totally focused on story and character and making sure not a word is spoken that doesn't need , and was ahead of its time . Ionically , it still has a kind of professio... |
508,144 | 453,068 | 35,015 | 10 | Fractured Magnificence ; one of the great tragedies of cinema ( not the film per say , but its history ) | It's almost common knowledge in the realm of the film world about the history of the Magnificent Ambersons , which leaves a minor problem when trying to criticize it . Orson Welles made the film's final running length at around two hours and fifteen minutes . While he was out of the country filming ' It's All True ! ' ... |
508,613 | 453,068 | 70,212 | 10 | astonishing performances , absorbing play , direction that keeps things moving | It was a wise decision on the part of producer Ely Landau - one of the only wise ones , as seems to be the history of the flawed ambition of the American Theater Company's movie adaptation productions - to hire John Frankenheimer as director . He was known at the time in the movie industry for churning out high-charged... |
508,698 | 453,068 | 828,154 | 10 | Freud on brilliant parade with a mind-expanding look at the powers of cinema , and what makes up fantasy and / or reality | There's the danger with the critic / philosopher Slavoj Zizek with his film , directed by Sophie Fiennes , which takes together a wonderful amalgam of silent , horror , sci-fi , surreal and other contemporary thrillers together to make his points ofr Freudian comparisons to overload . But in the Pervert's Guide to Cine... |
510,615 | 453,068 | 39,417 | 10 | Marvelous study of character and atmosphere , a neo-realistic triumph . . . | One of Roberto Rossellini's masterpieces , Germany Year Zero , suffers only from one minor liability , which is not totally the filmmaker's fault . The film was shot in German with the native language , but it was later shown around the world ( at least I think around the world ) in an Italian-dubbed print , which is a... |
508,425 | 453,068 | 382,932 | 10 | truly devilish fun and mind-blowingly entertaining as classic cartoon style , but also very successful in storytelling - magnifique ! | It's pretty easy to make little rodents charming and fun characters ( just ask Disney himself , to a clichéd extent ) , but it's even harder to make them work in such a way that's original and exciting as comedy in conventional ways for today's audiences . But Brad Bird shouldn't be lumped into the group of today's CGI... |
510,356 | 453,068 | 118,276 | 10 | sometimes classic teen soap , sometimes classic wild comedy , always witty and kick-ass and heartfelt | This is Joss Whedon's baby , at least for most of the time ; towards the end of the series he wasn't quite as involved as he was at the start . Which sometimes happens , unfortunately for most viewers , towards the end . But for a very large majority of the run of the series , this was some of the most intelligent stuf... |
510,229 | 453,068 | 841,046 | 10 | beat for beat , second for second , the funniest parody I've seen in years | . . . and remember it doesn't say Cox , unless I say it tastes like Cox . This is an example of prime send-up , a parody that lovingly references everything in rock-music-bio-pics , from ( the obvious centerpiece ) Walk the Line , Ray , Don't Look Back , Elvis flicks , The Doors , and countless others , including a m... |
507,844 | 453,068 | 74,028 | 10 | easily my favorite ' variety ' show of the 1970s ; so many memories , laughs , songs , and strange creatures and friends | I used to watch the Muppet Show a lot when they re-ran old episodes on Nickelodeon in the 90s , and saw a large variety of episodes , some that they released on DVD in patches a few years ago . It made me very , very happy though when I got my hands on the season 1 DVD set ( albeit with some cuts made due to song right... |
508,586 | 453,068 | 412,142 | 10 | certainly the most entertaining , riveting , and wholly satisfying medical show on TV , at least now | When one gets a little tired of there being too much about the doctors and not enough about the patients - or at least that so many overlapping characters and plot lines get thrown together - on ER , there's the temptation to go elsewhere . For fans that is ; I was always more of a casual admirer of the show , but coul... |
510,858 | 453,068 | 56,801 | 10 | one of the first foreign films I saw is still in my top 10 of all time | Federico Fellini is a genius of cinema , which many would attribute to this , La Dolce Vita , and many of his films of the 1950s . At the time I first saw this , I knew I was seeing something special , almost not of this planet , but I was also too young and not familiar with films in general to really appreciate it . ... |
508,833 | 453,068 | 568,048 | 10 | watched it mostly cause it's a QT episode , his trademarks included , but still quite sharp and dramatic for regular fans | I must confess , I'm not an avid , or even really regular , viewer of ER . A few episodes sometimes stick out that I have seen , a few really indelible images ( i . e . there's one episode , which I can't totally recall , that has a woman with a bug in her ear that creeped me out intensely ) . But as with CSI , another... |
509,868 | 453,068 | 105,236 | 10 | Practically tailor-made for a film buff ( as well as for a viewer who watches occasionally ) , ' Dogs ' is a picture loaded to the brim with terrific visceral energy | Whenever the name Quentin Tarantino is mentioned nowadays , people treat him with the same reverence as Scorsese , De Palma , and other directors as such who have fiddled around with the crime / gangster genre to create personal , heavy-duty masterworks . However , at the time this film was first released , as was with... |
508,212 | 453,068 | 368,794 | 10 | strangely insightful , feverish trip into the consciousness of Bob Dylan - public as well as mythic and personal - and great tunes ! | It's not quite as the ads have said - there aren't six people specifically playing Bob Dylan . It's fragments , pieces , all making up a tableau regarding the myth , history , pop-mania , arrogance , self-deprecation , strange humor , and undeniably powerful musical ability of Bob Dylan . It's Todd Haynes working wonde... |
509,018 | 453,068 | 70,290 | 10 | They don't seem to make movies like this anymore , do they ? | While the question is a bit rhetorical , I do mean it - you don't see that many movies made anymore like this , The Last Detail by Hal Ashby ( Being There ) and Robert Towne ( later to write another Nicholson gem , Chinatown ) , where the story is just a baseline to the characters studied in subtle and not so subtle wa... |
510,712 | 453,068 | 66,491 | 10 | melodrama lifted up into perverse tragedy as only Bunuel can do | It might appear to the uninitiated that Luis Bunuel is making with Tristana at first a good but very predictable melodrama that turns somewhere in the second half mark into a strange power-play of desire turned on its head . But in reality , when looking at it after seeing a couple of his films , Bunuel's work with Tri... |
510,315 | 453,068 | 83,791 | 10 | The beginning of the new and improved Muppets ; one of Henson-and-company's best | This sprawling , part-homage-part-totally original fantasy brings us Jen , the last of a group of near extinct creatures who is the only one who can save all existence by bringing a crystal shard back into the balance of the dark crystal , in order to save the world from the evil Skekses . This is quite an enthralling ... |
508,901 | 453,068 | 70,334 | 10 | One of my favorite Altman films , though it goes without saying . . . | I've seen this film on TV several times now , and it is one of the best treatments of a Raymond Chandler novel to date . Mostly because of its filmmaker , the unconventional-by-necessity Robert Altman , who brings a much more spontaneous feeling to Chandler's trademark wit and cynical character Philip Marlowe . Like wi... |
510,354 | 453,068 | 100,873 | 10 | a vibrant , strange , and completely absorbing look at the strife and creation of two brothers | Robert Altman makes one of the great films about artistic expression , the utter and complete frustration with it , the dregs of having to go through the motions in a capitalistic society where taste is so subjective that it combs over the fact that an artist needs some recognition . We never see Vincent Van Gogh , via... |
507,904 | 453,068 | 299,478 | 10 | One of the very best films of the year ; Bergman's last cinematic out-pouring is sublime | With Saraband , writer / filmmaker Ingmar Bergman closes the book , so to speak , on his life's work . It's a sequel , which could have been thwarting ( why go back and do the same thing over again , one could ask ) . But it is the kind of sequel that bears significance . Bergman brings back two actors / friends he's w... |
510,536 | 453,068 | 841,119 | 10 | the best documentary you probably didn't see in 2007 | In Lake of Fire , a film that Tony Kaye - director behind American History X ( which he wanted to be named under the pseudonym ' Humpty Dumpty ' following a loss of final cut ) - has been shooting footage for over fifteen years , is about all you need to see to know the fundamentalist and existentialist ramifications o... |
510,891 | 453,068 | 39,192 | 10 | a melodrama that crackles with vitality decades on | Perhaps embarrassing to say , I've finally come to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger , the writer / director duo behind classics like this , Tales of Hoffman , the Red Shoes , and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ( this despite knowing for a few years already that they were a primary influence on Scorsese , one ... |
508,879 | 453,068 | 145,046 | 10 | you almost can't believe a man like Dieter existed , but here he is , in brilliant Herzogian detail | We see at the beginning of Little Dieter Needs to Fly Dieter Dengler , the subject of the film , an obsessive-compulsive . Or at least that's what he seems to be by way of constantly opening / closing doors and with his large stock-pile of food in the cellar . In a way director Werner Herzog sets up a central question ... |
508,206 | 453,068 | 74,235 | 10 | the stuff of legends , as they try not to be , as Woody Guthrie personifies the quest and struggle of the working man | Bound for Glory breaks the trends of the usual bio-pics on musicians because Woody Guthrie , unlike most , sincerely wasn't out for fame in the usual sense . He liked recognition from time to time , and to be able to get his voice out to as many people as he could . But - and this is from the looks of the film and from... |
508,577 | 453,068 | 56,736 | 10 | Like a personal blend of quasi-bourgeois drama filmed in a meticulous , documentary-implied style | While The Eclipse is one of the most superbly directed films I may have ever seen , on a first impression it was ( obviously ) a lot to take in all at once . As with his other films , L'Eclisse isn't for everyone . But Antonioni distinguishes himself here as a great artist of the medium by not only creating the kinds o... |
510,520 | 453,068 | 70,359 | 10 | In Paris , lovers have their own strange ways . | In what could have been seen as a coup towards the sexual " revolution " ( purposefully I use quotations for that word ) , Jean Eustache wrote and directed The Mother and the Whore as a poetic , damning critique of those who can't seem to get enough love . If there is a message to this film - and I'd hope that the mess... |
510,941 | 453,068 | 47,892 | 10 | For me this rivals Breathless as the first great French new-wave crime film - a character study with a great character | Bob Le Flambeur ( the gambler ) is played by Roger Duchesne in a performance that is as cool , concentrated , and amusingly intense as Jean-Pierre Melville's direction is . This is a film that's about a heist , but it's not primarily so . Bob is the main guy , " a legend of a recent past " , who makes it his pleasure (... |
509,199 | 453,068 | 52,357 | 10 | Favorite Hitchcock and likely one of the most challenging , harrowing great films ever | Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is probably his most discussed film , and I believe that since it is so controversial - and yet living up to such hype by having a level of mystery , daring and true human interest that is open to interpretation - it gets better with every passing year . It deserves more credit than it gets (... |
508,442 | 453,068 | 180,093 | 10 | A unique look at addiction by Aronofsky / Selby ; it's the best DARE movie never made ( or would be made ) | Mr . Aronofsky's Requiem for a dream definitely is unique - no other film I have seen on heroin and / or speed addiction has been filmed or acted like this . And it helps that I saw it again , because on a first viewing I looked more for the performances , and liked it , but didn't really regard the actual cinematic te... |
509,462 | 453,068 | 52,354 | 10 | might be Fuller's most underrated ( and one of his most under-seen ) films ; a great work merging pulp post-war drama and documentary | Samuel Fuller knows war , and is one of the only directors in American movie history who could accurately portray the horrific experiences of it in a form like the motion picture . His pessimism and idealism , if that sounds a little odd to mix together , work for him as a storyteller , and at the same time he's always... |
509,672 | 453,068 | 95,327 | 10 | a combination of Rome Open City and Wiesel's Night ( and like both , an extreme , personally felt story ) | In 1988 Grave of the Fireflies was placed on a double-bill alongside My Neighbor Totoro . Two of the most endearing films ever created - animated of otherwise - were paired alongside one another , more than likely to balance each other out ; after being submersed in a pure tale of innocence and delight like Miyazaki's ... |
509,475 | 453,068 | 70,379 | 10 | The Breakthrough | To say that this film isn't good and original is to insult film-buffs everywhere ( or unless you are the average film person ) . This was a amazing ( and original ) breakthrough for stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro ( who knew they could look so young ) and co-writer / director Martin Scorsese . Before this he mad... |
508,114 | 453,068 | 61,132 | 10 | the most irreverent Italian satire you've never seen , this is one of Pasolini's very best | How I love a film that taps into the absurd while staying true to the symbolism , and in the process mocking it and then creating symbolism again . It's a very tricky thing - Bunuel was one of the masters at it - and Pier Paolo Pasolini , in one of his rare outright comedies , does just that . The Hawks and the Sparrow... |
509,158 | 453,068 | 56,732 | 10 | still one of the top comedies about utter frustration | The Exterminating Angel , what a movie - I've seen it twice now and each time it went against ( in the best possible way ) my better logic . It's a work that's the product of a kind of madman place , and it stays impressive forty plus years later due to its humor . Like Dr . Strangelove , or maybe more so akin to a Kaf... |
510,109 | 453,068 | 65,531 | 10 | One of my new favorite heist pictures : a smooth success for Melville and his cast | Jean-Pierre Melville is a director I've only recently gotten acquainted with ( I need to see Bob le Flambeur and Le Samourai again to fully grasp them ) , but in watching Le Cercle Rouge ( The Red Circle , supposedly based on a saying in Buddhism ) I realized I was watching as skillful and absorbing a crime film as I h... |
508,275 | 453,068 | 405,296 | 10 | one of the more imaginative , thoughtful , complex possible ' cult ' films of the decade | It's not very often that Phillip K . Dick's writings get adapted well on to the screen . Films like Paycheck and Impostor might have there moments , but there is much lacking where high-tech action scenes and dreary direction replaces more of the thought in his work . Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly , however , co... |
509,514 | 453,068 | 166,924 | 10 | Life is But A Dream ( after a reviewing ) | David Lynch's Mulholland Drive brings him in the territory of Twin Peaks , Eraserhead , but more-so a highly-charged form of surrealist thinking singular only to Lynch regarding Hollywood to make the best films of the year , and of his career . The film is a twisting , meticulously crafted and acted cinema piece about ... |
510,440 | 453,068 | 100,758 | 10 | A Great Film | Ninja Turtles . Anyone born in the 1980's remembers the phenomenon that swept the country during the late 80's and early 90's . And this movie proves what was once a big icon fad that was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . This movie is well made for a kids movie , and it is my favorite of the series of films . I even ... |
508,867 | 453,068 | 35,753 | 10 | a chilling mystery where psychology and sociological perspectives are a little more of the dramatic juice than the outcome | Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau is at once a story loaded with the kind of tension and thrills and dramatic questions that keep an audience guessing like any good mystery , and as well an indictment of the crueler , more paranoid and darker sides to all people . At the time it was looked upon as being quite controve... |
510,972 | 453,068 | 87,544 | 10 | a tale pure goodness , and the inanities of greed , in human beings , set in Miyazaki's amazing world | Before Princess Mononoke , which is still for me Hayao Miyazaki's greatest work , he made this film , Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind , which like that other later film addressed issues that are paramount for the filmmaker : the environment , and the Earth , and how human beings can have highs and lows in attention ... |
508,404 | 453,068 | 53,115 | 10 | one of the great ( anti ) war movies ever , certainly the pinnacle from Japan | The Human Condition isn't an easy trilogy ; it offers up tons of questions that even today have extreme relevance , particularly about man's duty to himself , to love and family , to country , to affiliation by an Emperor or Dictator , and what it is that's so insane about men in the staggering pit of hell known as war... |
508,405 | 453,068 | 53,114 | 10 | catching the humanism train . . . | Masaki Kobayashi's dream project was the Human Condition adaptation , and he pulled it off as a brilliantly told and filmed epic that tells of a man trying to cling to his humanity in inhuman circumstances . All three films have wonders in various supporting performances and set-pieces that astound with their moments o... |
508,141 | 453,068 | 69,895 | 10 | a classic of the 70s exploitation / drive-in era | The Crazies may not be ' high-art , but it shows what George A . Romero could do on such low-budget terms in making it seem epic in scope and design . The budget , it seems , was that of almost a Roger Corman film , just enough for the film , some dingy sets , to get no-name actors with big personalities , and cheap ef... |
509,141 | 453,068 | 217,505 | 10 | An American Epic . . . | . . . Gangs of New York is indeed an American epic , telling not only a tale of revenge , but also a tale of a time capsule , A New York not many know about , with the Civil War always looming over . There will be many a filmgoer that will consider Mr . Scorsese's work in Gangs of New York as rubbish , and true everyon... |
508,227 | 453,068 | 65,571 | 10 | One of the best films of 1970 | It's a fascinating blend of tense character study , torn love story , and a background loaded with subtext and history that writer / director Bernardo Bertolucci brings with The Conformist . But through the entire length of the film , even if you're not totally vested in interest in the main character ( who , indeed , ... |
508,261 | 453,068 | 360,717 | 10 | quite simply the most ambitious , brawny , throw-in-everything remake in quite some time , definitely of the year | Peter Jackson should be proud of this movie . But this is , of course , a popcorn movie first and foremost ( and the original was that much more enjoyable as almost the first ' blockbuster ' of it's kind ) , and on that level is really where this film strikes the goods . I heard much hype around it , and knew that at t... |
510,219 | 453,068 | 64,612 | 10 | an excellent look at morality in relationships , or what is perceived as morality | My Night at Maud's is a " talky " film , though like the main character of Jean-Louis in going after the woman to marry this actually is a perception that is on face-value a little demeaning . This is such a rich screenplay because it takes its characters seriously and honestly , and there's nothing cheating in dealing... |
508,608 | 453,068 | 39,631 | 10 | a black comedy of manners ; stunning performance from Chaplin | It would be hard to imagine anyone else playing Monsieur Verdoux ; Charlie Chaplin was the only one who could pull it off in any form or style or way that wouldn't make the character as just an unlikeable killer of women . As it's written on the page the character , if played by someone with less charisma or charm or c... |
509,992 | 453,068 | 96,219 | 10 | Still one of Oliver Stone's directorial triumphs ; Bogosian is captivating | In one of the more under-seen films of the late 1980's , at a time when Oliver Stone was riding high with Platoon and Wall Street ( and before his opus Born on the Fourth of July ) , he co-scripted and directed this look at the world of radio , specifically one radio host in the middle of Texas . This man is Barry Cham... |
510,134 | 453,068 | 364,569 | 10 | a revenge picture that isn't very pretty , and loves it that way | Oldboy was a film I saw twice in the theater , in New York City ( the second time not totally intentional , just the only thing playing worth seeing ) , and saw again recently . I'm still struck on how balls-to-the-wall director Chanwook Park goes with his story . It's actually not a bad story , but it needs a certain ... |
510,294 | 453,068 | 65,649 | 10 | obscure and underrated ; it's another of Kurosawa's dramas on the lower class , this time bleaker , a little more abstract , still a masterpiece | If there was anything Akira Kurosawa did wrong in making Dodes'ka-den , it was making it with the partnership he formed with the " four knights " ( the other three being Kobayaski , Ichikawa , and Konishita ) . They wanted a big blockbuster hit to kick off their partnership , and instead Kurosawa , arguably the head ch... |
510,441 | 453,068 | 109,445 | 10 | One of the Best Independent Pictures Ever ! | Kevin Smith's Clerks is a very good piece of cinema and comedy . It was made for no more than $27 , 000 and it is one of the best films of the decade . It introduced us to the Clerks . Their lifes , their loves and tribulations . And of course , who can forget the only two people in every Smith film , the dimatic duo J... |
508,872 | 453,068 | 56,869 | 10 | both absurd and completely terrifying , a film of massive intelligence and enthrallment | What a repeat viewing will bring : The Birds is Alfred Hitchcock's blockbuster entertainment that somehow can appeal to the " art-house " movie-goers as well . Meaning that even more than with Psycho , and certainly on a much grander and ambitious palette than North by Northwest , we have Hitchcock the grand ol ' Maste... |
508,343 | 453,068 | 303,461 | 10 | You can't take the sky from me | Intrigued by the film Serentiy , which I saw before Firefly , as well as a lot of the work Joss Whedon has put out , I checked out the entire series ( which , sadly , is only 14 episodes including the original pilot ) , and it is everything positive that I've heard about it , and then some . What Whedon does best here ... |
509,760 | 453,068 | 43,338 | 10 | a cynical and absorbing look at the relevance of a hard-boiled journalism and humanity | Ace in the Hole's main character , Chuck Tatum ( a classic turn from Kirk Douglas ) , creates all his own problems for a glory that , as for any addict , is practically unattainable . This is because for all of his pontificating about the greatness of ' human interest ' stories , if it'll suit him the story can go on f... |
508,232 | 453,068 | 53,221 | 10 | not one of my top five favorite westerns , but it is a damn entertaining classic western | There's almost a kind of bridge between the westerns of old and the sort of last legs of the western in this film - it has the good ol ' sensibilities of the classics ( loyalty , honor , the power of the sheriff , the quirkiness and durability of the ones around him , shoot-outs ) , while also giving some room for some... |
509,277 | 453,068 | 78,788 | 10 | In my top five favorite films ever made | Apocalypse Now is not only my personal favorite work by Francis Ford Coppolla , it's also one of the great visions ever put onto cinema . It makes what was horrific , strange , and ironically exciting and mysterious about the Vietnam War into this mad tale of obsession , death , loss , and the dark side of humanity . W... |
510,319 | 453,068 | 74,486 | 10 | still likely the Strangest film I Have Ever Seen | David Lynch's Eraserhead makes Being John Malkovich , Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Lost Highway ( another Lynch flick ) combined look like they are chicken feed . And years later , having immersed myself in all of Lynch's work ( minus Twin Peaks ) , going through numerous other " cult " and nightmarish films , and even ... |
509,301 | 453,068 | 113,247 | 10 | best film of its year ; pure urban horror filmed in unflinching and poetic eyes | Matthieu Kassovitz shot out a wad , so to speak , of the kind of " issue " movie that had brawn and balls and didn't back down from showing the truth on all sides , and how it's all ultimately ugly and screams for change to happen . How much the film might have changed things in the ghettos of Paris I'm not sure , and ... |
509,560 | 453,068 | 60,827 | 10 | The most ambiguous , inviting , surreal , whatever-you-can-think philosophical experiment by Bergman | Writing from a hospital bed ( as he did with Wild Strawberries , two of these being films strung out from anguish ) , Ingmar Bergman put down almost anything that was in his head to start with ( the first five minutes - some of the most startling and thoroughly symbolic minutes he's ever directed ) , then transposed in... |
509,478 | 453,068 | 53,198 | 10 | The Best Truffaut film to see | I thought this was not only the best Truffaut film , but also one of the best crime films ever . Truffaut depicts a boy who is rejected ( in his mind ) from his parents , so he goes to a life of crime . Great drama , especially in the eyes of Truffaut and in black and white no less . Look for Francois as a man in the f... |
510,362 | 453,068 | 1,020,990 | 10 | great even if you've barely ever watched regular Robot Chicken ! | This was fantastic , crazy , immature and joyfully stupid / joyously witty parody on all things Star Wars . What's great is that you don't need to be a Robot Chicken fan ( though I'm sure it helps ) or even have watched it very much to decide either way . If you like your parodies quick and skit-like and random and som... |
510,920 | 453,068 | 65,724 | 10 | Easy in Bold letters | Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces is as decent and interesting as movies get , with great characterizations ( Nicholson is excellent as always , but the supporting performances from Black and others contribute also to the feel ) and some music that borderlines from fine to overdone . Many memorable scenes included , one ... |
510,688 | 453,068 | 91,670 | 10 | the soul of the artist / poet with his profound ' swan song ' , an elegy to life and death and the soul | It is perhaps too blunt a notion that Andrei Tarkovsky's the Sacrifice bears some comparison with Ingmar Bergman's films . More than a notion , it's right up there on the screen : Erland Josephsson , one of Bergman's great collaborators , as well as Sven Nykvist ( probably the best ) , as well as certain allusions in s... |
509,547 | 453,068 | 78,841 | 10 | a biting black comedy of a detached character in a particular state of mind | Being There will get you thinking about what it means to be taken in by television , as well as the government , and the better ( or lesser ) intentions of people in power , and works on more than one level . It's a pure slice of oddball life , the story of a man who got more than likely tucked away into some kind of p... |
509,828 | 453,068 | 29,957 | 10 | La Bete Humaine is a a mix of beautiful , naturalistic melodrama and the early inklings of film noir | I have yet to read any of the works of Zola , but I am familiar with what he wrote about in his time in a modern drama class I took - he was part of a naturalistic movement in literature and theater that tried to take relationship stories to another area , or at least to one that might have been frowned upon with some ... |
509,188 | 453,068 | 104,466 | 10 | One of my top five favorite Woody flicks | On a recent documentary I saw on Woody Allen's career , with him being interviewed , he said of this film that it was one of only a small number of times in his career he felt he carried over what he wanted on the page to the screen . Though I've never read the actual shooting script to Husbands and Wives , I can see w... |
509,656 | 453,068 | 814,187 | 10 | another scathing , amazingly laugh-plenty special from Mr . Black | While this time around Lewis Black , coming live from his hometown , takes some time in some of his ' bits ' . There's lots of story that he needs to cover , or at least the great pauses and inflections that come with them , chiefly his account of his staggering experience at the White House correspondent's dinner ( th... |
510,376 | 453,068 | 43,274 | 10 | one of only several films from Disney that work very well for totally different crowds | Alice in Wonderland is , as well as what the one-line summary suggests , is one of the more abstracted kind of animated films the Disney studio has ever released . And it needs this edge for what the material requires . Here is a film that means different times throughout a life , for some people . As a kid it's a wond... |
509,938 | 453,068 | 82,971 | 10 | Classic B film revitalized ; was worth seeing again after so many years | I hadn't seen Steven Spielberg / George Lucas's first collaboration , Raiders of the Lost ark , since I was quite young . When I saw it again today , I got a bit of a different perspective , in that I've now come to watch it again after seeing film after film after film that has been either inspired by it , or just pla... |
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