Killer Joe
...so good.
Attachment 23355
Printable View
Killer Joe
...so good.
Attachment 23355
After Earth
Junior
21 Jump Street
Lightning Swords of Death (aka Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U33hXzD51I4
Sound of My Voice (2012) - interesting psychological drama/thriller
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ice_poster.jpg
American Hustle(2013) 8.5/10
Black Fish(2013)7.5/10
Once Upon a Time in the West (5/5...10/10...100%)
Attachment 23356
...forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been several years since my last viewing of this transcendent samurai-western.
Good flick :thumbup:
Once Upon a Time in the West is much more polished.. but still doesn't beat the classic finale of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo..
:outtahere:
Sorry, but no. That's not even the best of his Eastwood films. Leone gave it an epic backdrop but The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the Led Zeppelin IV of Leone's westerns.
edit: for clarity, so maybe Orlok will get it
Not quite sure what you mean by that, but if you're bashing one of THE most classic westerns of all time. :dislike:
A Clockwork Orange
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
(aka: Wolf with Child in Tow: Now We Go to Hell, Daigoro!)
Hook (1991) :2thumbs:
http://www.theeffect.net/wp-content/.../hook-1991.jpg
Basically, there's nothing wrong with it. It's a great album. But all of their albums are great. Unlike any other band I can think of, they have no weak album, no weak song on any album and they never repeated themselves. Ever. As a whole it's (IV) only the most popular album. It's the "pop" album (de facto, not by design). It's not their most experimental or their most musically rich. It's the one everyone is supposed to like. It's the only one that gets any radio play. It's the one your girlfriend likes and knows about. Basically if that's the only Led Zep album someone has they don't know Led Zep.
Anyway, my point is, the third film in The Dollars Trilogy is the one everyone makes a point to have in their "Top X", to praise. Really, though it's an entertaining film, it doesn't have same sort of solid storytelling foundation borrowed for the first or the delicacies and subtleties found in the second (much less Once Upon a Time...). All that's replaced with bombast, sharing more in common with what, by this time, had become a craze in Italian filmmaking: the Spaghetti Western.
Placing the story within the Civil War gives it an epic and important feel but all that's really just background. Just decoration. This is just a heist movie. None of the characters, not Blondie, not Angel Eyes, not Tuco, none are really effected by or effecting on their environment and so the epicness is ultimately superficial. It's just bandits going after rich stuff and not much more.
This stands in stark contrast to the backdrop for Once Upon a Time in the West. Here we have the beginning of the transcontinental age. All of the characters are fully aware that they're witnessing the beginning of the end of the American Frontier period. Not only are each and every character effected by what is happening around them they take part in making it a reality. The themes of revenge and greed, central to the Dollars Trilogy, are still present but here you have the most complex web of characters Leone has yet put into a Western. Here you have something almost totally absent from the Dollars Trilogy: humanity and compassion. You have change. Here you have, for the first time in a Leone western, anti-hero turned hero.
Leone continues this approach in his swan song Western Duck You Sucker! While his Dollars Trilogy is wildly entertaining and important stuff it's his last two that are actually Best Picture worthy. And I'm sorry, but I don't find the ending to TGTBATU more exciting or satisfying because ultimately it's not about someone's lifetime quest coming to a climax or justice or even vengeance it's about money. There's no emotional payoff at all. Basically, TGTBATU isn't really "about" anything. It's almost Leone falling into self-parody. It's a really good film from a great director, but it's a lesser film compared to Once Upon a Time... and Duck You Sucker! (and The Wild Bunch and even Django Unchained, by my estimation).
Anyway...
Kiki's Delivery Service
TGTBATU is a character-driven piece, which I'm fine with because plot doesn't always have to be the most important thing in a movie. No, it isn't necessarily about character development.. I don't think every movie should have character development, either. The brilliance is in contrasting these 3 characters, that are essentially the same.. and who all want the same thing. That's why the finale is so epic, because it's basically just the journey of these 3 characters.. all ending in one final showdown.
As for "humanity and compassion", a movie that can make you feel sympathy for a bloodthirsty Mexican bandit (Tuco)... more powerful than anything else Sergio Leone has done. In fact, that has to be the best performance and best character in any western ever created (if you notice, the movie is mostly about Tuco).
So I don't agree with some of your points, although I will say that Once Upon In The West is definitely a way more polished film..
Simply defined, two-dimensional characters converging in a showdown. Yeah, that's epic.
Tuco, the greatest performance in Westerns?
Carry on. LOL.
Basically, saying it's your favorite, that's perfectly valid. Nobody can argue with that. Going further than that, to this level of proclamation. That's just ludicrous.
Any half-assed storyteller can make you sympathize with a villainous character. Tuco's bandit is nothing compared to what Rod Steiger makes an audience feel for his Mexican bandit in Duck You Sucker! That's a real character driven film.
I haven't seen Duck You Sucker!, maybe it is supremely underrated, but it would be hard-pressed to be as entertaining or as memorable as TGTBATU.
It's up there as one of the greatest performances.. and you mocking me shows you don't have much of an idea of what you are talking about. Your arrogance blinds you. :coolblank:
I've seen The Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon A Time In The West. None of them have affected me as much as TGTBATU.. it's truly great film making and it's a shame you can't see that. The final 30 minutes or so has to be the greatest in all of the history of cinema (not just westerns). It's pure cinematic bliss.Quote:
Basically, saying it's your favorite, that's perfectly valid. Nobody can argue with that. Going further than that, to this level of proclamation. That's just ludicrous.
I disagree, it takes a great actor to achieve that and yes, it can be easy but very rarely done well.Quote:
Any half-assed storyteller can make you sympathize with a villainous character.
Another Earth (2011) - pretty good drama/sci-fi.. Brit Marling seems to have some talent. :hmmm: