sign you are watching a good movie

[BareBones]

such a great thread...

how about a shot where someone is walking casually in slow-mo towards the camera, away from some huge explosion he (or she, but it's pretty much always a he) has caused, and he doesn't even flinch, or even turn around and watch, as if he's seen a million explosions before and just finds them really boring.

I watched this terrible 80s film on telly at the weekend called Tough Guys. It was a comedy with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster as two ageing gangsters released from prison and trying to cope with life on the outside now that everything was all different and modern. It had a scene where Kirk was at a stereotypical 80s gym and this girl, about 40 years his junior, was perving on him, and she says "it's nice to have a real man around here for a change, usually this place is just full of gays". Then they go to a red hot chili peppers gig together and kirk is slam dancing, dressed in this "hot" outfit which he picked up in this weird boutique where the shop assistant speaks to him from a TV screen, and there's one of those scenes where he keeps coming out of the wardrobe in different hilarious outfits, and the assistant is shaking his head disapprovingly.

 

[IdleRich]

It had a scene where Kirk was at a stereotypical 80s gym and this girl, about 40 years his junior, was perving on him, and she says "it's nice to have a real man around here for a change, usually this place is just full of gays".

Yeah but you missed out the bit about how she goes "you're not gay are you?" and he says "why would I be gay, I've just spent twenty-five years in jail" and it's supposed to be that he doesn't know that usage because it didn't exist when he was last out.

"how about a shot where someone is walking casually in slow-mo towards the camera, away from some huge explosion he (or she, but it's pretty much always a he) has caused, and he doesn't even flinch, or even turn around and watch, as if he's seen a million explosions before and just finds them really boring."

Yep, a classic scene, I'm seeing Antonio Bendyass in Desperado now but it could be anyone.

 

[BareBones]

Yeah but you missed out the bit about how she goes "you're not gay are you?" and he says "why would I be gay, I've just spent twenty-five years in jail" and it's supposed to be that he doesn't know that usage because it didn't exist when he was last out.

shit, i missed that part! i must've been laughing too hard at the previous comment that i didn't hear it. I did catch the bit where he was weightlifting and she keeps coming out with all these double entendres - "can't you get it up", "there's other ways to build up a sweat" etc... incredible.

Yep, a classic scene, I'm seeing Antonio Bendyass in Desperado now but it could be anyone.

haha, i just watched the trailer for the new wolverine film and it actually has a perfect example of this in it

 

[nomadthethird]

Anybody here seen Heathers?

It's pretty good for explosions/fires/creepy revenge scenes.

 

[nomadthethird]

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=7072&highlight=revolutionary+road

I'm thinking, after reading yours and others reactions, that this is the sort of book that's better as adapted to film, being so dialogue-heavy, full of dramatic conflict and a little low on substance.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

re: Revolutionary Road, I just ran across this. It's as scathing a review I've read in recent memory, so be forewarned, but the film it describes is more along the lines of what I expected. The line "one of the early entries in the stultifying-suburbia subgenre" pretty well sums up the novel (though at least it's well-written). As for the film itself everyone gets it pretty bad, especially Mendes & DiCaprio.

The key passage; "This is an “actor’s picture,” without a doubt, and more than any film in recent memory it vividly demonstrates the precept that the critic’s adjective “powerful,” when applied to the thespian art, most often denotes “loud” and “bad.”"

Again I havent seen it, don't think I will, maybe eventually on Netflix I suppose I've just had enough of films about oppressive nature of the 50s (which is itself a movie creation just as fake as the original Leave It to Beaver version), the awfulness of the suburbs (is there an easier target?) and blatant Oscar Bait, so a movie that combines all 3 doesn't really have that much appeal.

On the other hand I whole-heartedly agree on Heathers, a fantastic movie IMO as fresh as the day it was released, and one that does get it right about the suburbs and conformity and teenage angst.

 

[IdleRich]

"Again I havent seen it, don't think I will, maybe eventually on Netflix I suppose I've just had enough of films about oppressive nature of the 50s (which is itself a movie creation just as fake as the original Leave It to Beaver version), the awfulness of the suburbs (is there an easier target?) and blatant Oscar Bait, so a movie that combines all 3 doesn't really have that much appeal."

In fairness the awfulness of the suburbs as a topic may not have been such a cliche when the book was written.

"On the other hand I whole-heartedly agree on Heathers, a fantastic movie IMO as fresh as the day it was released, and one that does get it right about the suburbs and conformity and teenage angst."

The bit when Shannon Doherty shouts out "stop pulling my dick" stuck in my mind for some reason.

 

[nomadthethird]

re: Revolutionary Road, I just ran across this. It's as scathing a review I've read in recent memory, so be forewarned, but the film it describes is more along the lines of what I expected. The line "one of the early entries in the stultifying-suburbia subgenre" pretty well sums up the novel (though at least it's well-written). As for the film itself everyone gets it pretty bad, especially Mendes & DiCaprio.

The key passage; "This is an “actor’s picture,” without a doubt, and more than any film in recent memory it vividly demonstrates the precept that the critic’s adjective “powerful,” when applied to the thespian art, most often denotes “loud” and “bad.”"

Again I havent seen it, don't think I will, maybe eventually on Netflix I suppose I've just had enough of films about oppressive nature of the 50s (which is itself a movie creation just as fake as the original Leave It to Beaver version), the awfulness of the suburbs (is there an easier target?) and blatant Oscar Bait, so a movie that combines all 3 doesn't really have that much appeal.

On the other hand I whole-heartedly agree on Heathers, a fantastic movie IMO as fresh as the day it was released, and one that does get it right about the suburbs and conformity and teenage angst.

For me, it's definitely not something I'd call a masterpiece or anything, it was just much better than I expected, because what I expected was basically Titanic set in suburbia. Definitely don't rush out and buy a ticket it for it--not worth it!

P.S. I don't think it was ever the suburbs that were the problem, I think it was really a bigger socio-political one...

 

[nomadthethird]

I don't know, this review is funny...like, what kind of movies does this guy usually see, and can I see them? Because RR is really no worse than most movies that pass for Oscar worthy, or what make money at the box office. Weird.

Compared to The Holy Mountain or Suspiria, yeah, it's dumb bullshit, but compared to, say, No Country For Old Men, or There Will Be Blood, it's on pretty solid footing.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

...but compared to, say, No Country For Old Men, or There Will Be Blood, it's on pretty solid footing.

Heresy, heresy. Nah I know what you mean as but the essential difference to me is that when a film like There Will Be Blood fails at least it does so in an ambitious fashion. Plus I'm a massive Day-Lewis fan (score on to the Irish on his defection to Eire) and I'm quite content to watch him ham it up shamelessly for the Oscar voters

 

[petergunn]

Idle Rich, yr avatar reminds me of another sign you are watching a good movie:

cheap blank masks...

that's from that french movie, can't remember the title... is it diabloqiue?

also the film noir Kansas City Confendial has great masks:

or the Phantom of the Paradise by yr boy Brian DePalma (like Wes Craven, a king of these types of movies... his flick Hi Mom w/ Deniro is a great one...)

also, the obvious ones... Halloween, etc....

 

[nomadthethird]

Heresy, heresy. Nah I know what you mean as but the essential difference to me is that when a film like There Will Be Blood fails at least it does so in an ambitious fashion. Plus I'm a massive Day-Lewis fan (score on to the Irish on his defection to Eire) and I'm quite content to watch him ham it up shamelessly for the Oscar voters

I liked TWBB, and not just because it has my favorite Brahms Violin Concerto (in D) ever during the closing credits, which is probably the best use of Brahms in a film ever.

 

[Lichen]

Anybody here seen Heathers?

"I love my dead gay son!"

 

[IdleRich]

"that's from that french movie, can't remember the title... is it diabloqiue?"

Eyes Without A Face. You're totally right about the featureless masks - I'm sure I was watching a good example the other day but I just can't remember what it was.

"his flick Hi Mom w/ Deniro is a great one."

That's the one with all that "Be black" business isn't it? Strange film with some good moments.

 

[IdleRich]

It wasn't Onibaba that I was thinking about but it pretty much fits the bill

 

[BareBones]

onibaba is such a good film. lots of old japanese films i've seen have featured an evil/controlling mother character, i bet someone somewhere has written a thesis about it. another one just off the top of my head is Blind Beast, which is a supremely fucked up film.

 

[IdleRich]

"onibaba is such a good film. lots of old japanese films i've seen have featured an evil/controlling mother character, i bet someone somewhere has written a thesis about it. another one just off the top of my head is Blind Beast, which is a supremely fucked up film."

Yes indeed. At the end when they are just blind, trapped and lost in the dark, desperately cutting each other for pleasure it did seem totally bleak. Two dying people completely divorced from all humanity, entirely unmourned and alone.

 

[IdleRich]

"onibaba is such a good film. lots of old japanese films i've seen have featured an evil/controlling mother character"

Have you seen Kuraneko (I think it's called) by the same director, very similar to Onibaba in feel (and plot actually) although not as good. If I remember correctly it's about the mother and wife of a soldier of a soldier who goes off to war but in this film they get killed and turn into demons and kill soldiers who pass through their wood.

 

[swears]

Heresy, heresy. Nah I know what you mean as but the essential difference to me is that when a film like There Will Be Blood fails at least it does so in an ambitious fashion. Plus I'm a massive Day-Lewis fan (score on to the Irish on his defection to Eire) and I'm quite content to watch him ham it up shamelessly for the Oscar voters

I think of There Will Be Blood as a black comedy, makes it ten times more watchable.

 

[BareBones]

Have you seen Kuraneko (I think it's called) by the same director, very similar to Onibaba in feel (and plot actually) although not as good. If I remember correctly it's about the mother and wife of a soldier of a soldier who goes off to war but in this film they get killed and turn into demons and kill soldiers who pass through their wood.

nope, i'll add it to my lovefilm list... my girlfriend is sick of me renting out exploitation films and what she calls "woodland rape films" (eg i spit on your grave) so this should cheer her up