Last movie seen — Page 268

Space Hunter M said:

Since when have there been English dubs of Kurosawa films?

Since when they were fist released in the states you pretentious schmucks. I thought this crowd cared about alternate versions and such.

 I have no interest in the fist release thank you very much.

Mike O said:

The Ten Commandments- Cecil B. Demille's VistaVision 35mm spectacular, an endless biblical epic about Moses leading the Egyptians out of Exodus. A study in excess to make Peter Jackson look like a minimalist, it's a an unbelievably long, bombastic, silly, but often entertaining blend of soap opera romance, old-style Hollywood spectacle, sword-and-sandle battles, dated special effects, and colorful kitsch. It's hugely iconic scenes achieve a certain pop grandeur, but disappointingly, DeMille is no David Lean. The many matte paintings stick out, and the whole film is disappointingly stiff and dull, shot mostly in static long takes with Demille's usually stationary camera. Though seeing it on the big screen would be a cool opportunity, but in spite of the 6K restoration credits, the DCP shown by my local AMC wasn't a dazzler (presumably compressed or something) and the film's sluggish pacing didn't help matters. A classic to some, and probably plays much better on the small screen when you can pause it to get up and get food and go to the bathroom, but time hasn't been kind to it. Still, it's a cultural touchstone, and there's a certain fun to be had. Let my people go!

Freddy vs. Jason- Much better than it has any right to be monster movie mashup. Those looking for the intelligence found in the Craven films will be most disappointed, but if you've stuck with the franchise this long, that likely won't be an issue. Braindead? Sure. But way more fun than you'd expect. Screenwriters Shannon and Swift are obviously fanboys themselves, and they've clearly done their homework, and Hong Kong-bred director Ronny Yu Yan-Tai infuses the proceedings with lots of kinetic razzle-dazzle and the requisite blood and boobs. The characters are annoying stereotypes who exist solely to be killed off in gruesome ways, but it's very stylish-looking and the final showdown delivers what you expect. It is what it is, it knows what it is, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. And for once, that's good enough.

Ben Hur- William Wyler's sweeping, sprawling, massive biblical epic, seen as a DCP at my local AMC, and not a very impressive one either, curiously muted colors and somewhat muddy. Add to that the fact that you have one of a small handful of films ever shot in super-wide Panavision 65, and they put it on their smallest, dingiest, most pissant little screen in the whole multiplex. Still, I'll never see it 70mm or even 35mm, so a cinema screen is still a cinema screen. Anyway, the film is unwieldy, uneven, sometimes silly, and occasionally dated, but also robust, bold, engaging, exciting, beautiful-looking, sometimes thrilling, and frequently awe-inspiring, and has a well-deserved reputation at the kind of spectacle that CG has all but dulled completely. The kind of thing that cinema is all about, nearly four hours that get your your money's worth the whole time. And that chariot race? Wow. James Cameron, eat your heart out. 55 years later, it's still a breathtaking knockout. I'll never get to see it in 70mm, so I guess this'll have to do. 

No mods ever come to this forum, but if one ever does, they can feel free to attempt to fix the structure of that post. Don't know what the hell happened. God, we need nee forum software :(

No mods

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DominicCobb said:

Ew, dubs.

 I support dubs.

No matter what, if the film isn't your language, you're going to lose something. 

Subtitles means your eyes are going to constantly NOT be on the picture. This fundamentally changes the vieweing experience, especially for films as gorgeous as Kurosawa's.

Dubs are equally flawed, but in a different way. I'd rather not be distracted from the image when watching an epic, visually stunning Kurosawa movie.

For something like Ingmar Berman, I'll take the subtitltes, because there's so little speaking in something like "Persona." 

But both are still a compromise. 

TheBoost said:

Subtitles means your eyes are going to constantly NOT be on the picture. This fundamentally changes the vieweing experience, especially for films as gorgeous as Kurosawa's.

I can speed read through subtitles, so that isn't a problem for me.

Besides, I like hearing the voices of the original actors and the inflection they put behind their words even if I can't understand the languages they speak. Even with good dubs, that element's always lost (Unless they can get the original actor to record the translated lines, though, I suppose.).

TheBoost said:

DominicCobb said:

Ew, dubs.

 I support dubs.

No matter what, if the film isn't your language, you're going to lose something. 

Subtitles means your eyes are going to constantly NOT be on the picture. This fundamentally changes the vieweing experience, especially for films as gorgeous as Kurosawa's.

Dubs are equally flawed, but in a different way. I'd rather not be distracted from the image when watching an epic, visually stunning Kurosawa movie.

For something like Ingmar Berman, I'll take the subtitltes, because there's so little speaking in something like "Persona." 

But both are still a compromise. 

Of course that's the shame of linguistics in general. It's a question of the lesser of two evils. However, one is much less evil. To me, seeing dubbed mouths is as distracting as reading subtitles. More importantly, dubs are usually of poorer quality. I highly doubt Kurosawa directed the actors who performed on the dub. Plus, how great of actors are these dubbers anyway? Better than Mifune and Shimura and co.? Doubtful. 

And obviously to truly appreciate a masterpiece like Seven Samurai you need to watch it more than once.

I don't think dubs are ethically wrong or they should be burned or anything. I do think they should be preserved. But you won't catch me watching something with a dub (well sometimes I make an exception if it's lesser fare - Bruce Lee, Godzilla such). They just don't sit right with me. Hence, "ew."

Of course, who wouldn't do that?

God, how I wish I had that painting on my wall*.

*The wall not directly facing my bed, of course.

The typo in the title never ceases to annoy me.

Tobar said:

Pet Sematary (1989)

That was MESSED UP. Not what I thought it was about at all.

Miko Hughes suggests you read the book. It's much better!

Some like, early 80s Sci fi flick my son wanted to watch. "Star War" or something. Kinda a hoot, I guess.

9 spacebears out of 10.

FanFiltration said:

"Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" (with deleted scenes re-inserted)

10/10 

 In all honesty, I actually said, "Holy F**king Shit!" out loud when I scrolled to that picture. 

ALHFS

ALHFS x 2

The Sword in the Stone.

Well this is odd for me it's a classic Disney movie I had never seen before and I didn't plan on watching it this morning I was just dubbing the tape to Bluray for my little brother and sister and I intended to go play Halo while it ran but you know what it sucked me in.

Now it is from the period when Disney was having to cut budgets so it doesn't look as good as the older stuff and if you are looking for an accurate telling of the king Arthur legends you have to look elsewhere,this is Disney telling the story of when Arthur was a kid.

Still the animation for all it's roughness works and it has a lot of character and there are a ton of fun moments,I liked the characters and the world,and the songs were catchy. This may not be Disney at it's best but it is still a good animated film and since I liked it as an adult I would assume most kids would love it and I am sorry I didn't see it years ago.

There is just one thing I am surprised a certain scene has not been parodied to death either on TV or the internet. In it Merlin seems to be telling Arthur he has no choice but to have sex with a squire. I am not kidding,he tells Arthur it is no good fighting the female squire who is forcing herself on him.  I know I am reading into a kids movie but watching it for the first time as an adult it is really strange and made me laugh because I just kept thinking about jokes I could make about this scene.

Oh and is it just me or was the wizard battle in this movie far more creative and exciting them the ones we got in the Harry Potter movies?  I am not joking,I know it was played mostly for slapstick comedy but when i think of two Wizards fighting the type of stuff that was happening in this movie is what pops into my head.  In Harry Potter they just pushed each other around and stood still firing bolts of light at each other. In this movie they turn into things,run around,and there is a real sense or energy and that they are being creative and using every spell they can think of to get the upper hand.  Again I am not joking I found this slapstick fight more creative and exciting then the battles between Wizards in the Harry Potter films.  This is the way Wizards should fight if you ask me.

If I had one complaint about the movie it would be that it sort of fizzles out at the end and doesn't have a real climax,Arthur gets the sword and that is it,the end.  Still I see that as a minor complaint and while this may not be Disney at it's best it's still better then ninety percent of the kids films out there so I say if you have kids in your house hold or are just a fan of classic Disney films give this movie a shot you may be surprised by how much you enjoy it.

I give it 7.5/10.

P.S Merlin in this movie kind of strikes me as what you would get if you combined the first and second Doctors into one person so that added to the movie's appeal for me.

Antisocial (2013)

Not terrible, generally interesting, but marred buy some extreme silliness...If you ever have to drill into your own head, I doubt you could do it without so much as a whimper.

And the ending makes even less sense than some of the other things during the movie that don't make sense.

5/8 status updates.