Three somewhat obscure movies, everyone should see

[azza33]

 

And at the risk of sticking my neck out, I will repeat my comment that I consider it to have a lock on this years Best Movie at the Oscars. Azza can have his revenge if I am wrong.        

 

One film that won't win the Oscar is Pain & Gain. Of that you can be sure.

 

You're probably correct but I'd rather see it go to American Hustle.

 

The best thing i can say about Gravity is it only cost me $3 maybe $4 in Kuala Lumpur.... about its correct value.

[JaiDee]

Haven't seen Gravity yet but I will.....although I find it hard to believe that *anything* Sandra Bullock is in could be very good, I like Clooney a lot.

 

   Watch Inception again Paccie, it's pretty trippy.

[azza33]

 

I watched Mullholland Drive on TV, no idea what it was about. The action stuff was simple enough but the underlying twist, dunno, I knew something was going on but what? Not a clue

 

Same boat i think.

 

Watched the "Watchmen" again over last couple of nights (3hrs directors cut) - must of been paying attention 2nd time around as i quite enjoyed it.

[pacman]

Haven't seen Gravity yet but I will.....although I find it hard to believe that *anything* Sandra Bullock is in could be very good, I like Clooney a lot.

 

Gravity is most definitely NOT your standard Sandra Bullock movie. A light weight chick flick it is not. Plus she must have put in some hours in the gym, when she strips down to shorts, she looks fantastic. I posted her pic on page 54, post number 481, I won't post it again but she must have the best legs & arse of any 49 year old female anywhere. She really does a good job even if I wasn't rapt in all the dialogue. Thinking about it, I can't think of any big name female actor who could have done better.

 

   Watch Inception again Paccie, it's pretty trippy.

 

You may have misunderstood my post, I didn't say I didn't like Inception, I said it was convoluted but it was a decent romp that I was glad to see. I will only watch it again if it gets a run on TV & I don't have anything else to do. That's not a criticism, that's how I feel about most movies these days.

[pacman]

While I am on the subject, the three obscure movies I most "enjoyed" are:

 

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

 

The Stoning of Soyara M

 

A Separation

 

I don't know if I could sit through the first two again, they were very harrowing. The word "enjoyed" is in inverted commas because I was using the word in an ironic sense. I was profoundly moved by both those films but they are entertainment only in the loosest sense of the word.

 

A Separation was simply a revelation. How can an Iranian director with no budget, no props, no special effects, just a cast of unknowns filmed in several modest locations make something so perfectly executed? And the subject cuts to the very heart of the dilemma faced by devout Muslims when their religion impacts on their daily life. With no other plot device I was totally absorbed in the machinations of how Iranian society gets around the problems their religion presents them on what must be a daily occurence.

 

The film is so well done I kept thinking I was watching one of those documentaries where they hide a camera to eavesdrop on the protagonists. It really puts some of the highly lauded stuff out of Hollywood into perspective. 

[JaiDee]

   Was playing around with my hard drives this past weekend and sat down and watched some terrific movies which I hadn't seen in a while but which are always worth another look.

 

   The Sting - all-time classic

 

   Double Indemnity - from 1944, if you like old-time Hollywood stuff this is a great flick.

 

  Swimming to Cambodia - from 1987, the actor/poet Spalding Gray's monologue about his time spent making the movie The Killing Fields in Thailand 3 years earlier.  Great stuff.

 

   Nobody's Fool - IMO another Newman classic, this one didn't get the credit it deserved;  Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith were in this one also.

[SiamSam]

Funny you mention "The Sting" JD. I too for some unknown reason re-watched it about a month ago. Thoroughly enjoyed it again. 

[JaiDee]

Yeah, saw it in the 70's and watched it just yesterday; still just as good    

[SiamSam]

Robert Shaw always plays the perfect prick. 

[Lefty]

I have only seen The Sting once, but recall thinking at the time it was one of the most clever movie plots ever. I need to see it again too. Wonder if I would like it as well the 2nd time. 

[Lefty]

I watched Mullholland Drive on TV, no idea what it was about. The action stuff was simple enough but the underlying twist, dunno, I knew something was going on but what? Not a clue. 

 

Inception I saw at the cinema, that was all about travelling back through dreams to change people's memory, or something like that. That wasn't so hard albeit it was very convoluted. I don't mind complicated plots as long as the denouement is clearly laid out & I don't leave the theatre only half sure what happened. 

 

Plus at the cinema I am focused, on TV I get distracted.

You should watch Mulholland Drive on DVD unedited. The key is to determine what is part of a dream sequence and what isn't.  It is worth watching just to see Naomi Watts in lesbian scenes.   

[Hefe]

Paccie I've heard that  "The Separation" is excellent, thanks for the reminder, it is pretty obscure.

 

Here are 2 obscurities that had a big impact on me a few years ago & continue to haunt me. This is actually a double feature offering, you know... like recommending "Fitzcarraldo" & "Burden of Dreams" as a back to back viewing event (& that's a freebie thrown in).

 

The plotted film is "Sin Nombre" & the documentary about the same subject (not about the film) is "Which Way Home".

The subject is about the youths from Central American countries that climb aboard freight trains traveling up through Mexico heading to the US. The trains are crawling with dozens of them up on the dangerous roofs of boxcars through bad weather, over canyons, through tunnels, sleeping on top & having to change trains at switchyards controlled by merciless gangs that pick off the weak or those that might have valuables.

I will probably go to my grave thinking about this little girl in the doc who looked to be about 11 years old traveling with her 2 small brothers to get to the US. I don't know that she would have a chance making it to the end.

 

Sin Nombre is really well done for a low budget & first time (I think) feature. (Out of curiousity to see what has happened since I just googled the director & SN won at Sundance that year & he has gone on to direct "Jane Eyre" & "True Dectective" now on HBO.)

 

These'll stick with you I think.

[pacman]

It's actually "A Separation", not "The Separation". Sorry to get pedantic but it will help you locate it online if you have the correct title. The writer/director is Asghar Farhadi & he released his latest film "The Past" last year. It hasn't arrived in Australia yet but I will definitely go & see it. Advance reviews are suggesting it isn't as good as "A Separation" but then again it's a very different film so it's one of those cases where one needs to see it & make up their own mind. 

 

I don't know how many times I have found myself disagreeing with a film critic. 

 

I do remember "Which Way Home" from a few years back & I regret to say I never saw it. It has been on TV so it's bound to pop up again. I remember the channel showing it ran a trailer for it & my impression was it was going to be a bleak movie. I can clearly picture the shots of the children hanging onto the train & the foreboding narrative hinting at some real sadness. 

 

It's so typical we allow ourselves to get upset about these cases where we get to see their struggle & for a moment can imagine being in their shoes. They are just the tip of the iceberg when the same thing is going on every day with 1000's of bad outcomes. What we can't see we don't mind. Or maybe we just can't handle worrying about stuff we can't do anything about?

 

As for "Sin Nombre" I know nothing about it but it looks interesting. It had a short season when it was on here, really short if memory serves me correct but I will watch out for it. Always appreciate a good recommendation.

[Hefe]

One of the weird unexpected bouses of a Netflix subscription is that there are relatively few films there that I immediately recognized I want to watch, big name ones, & that first mild disappointment at that limitation led me to dig a little deeper.

 

By digging with the google machine & staying open to foriegn language & doc films ( or international TV series) I now have about 350 items on my watchlist & I have seen a few that are really good that I had never heard of before. I am planning on cutting my cable TV soon & think this is going to be fine.

 

I guess I do need to learn about torrents, but anecdotally have heard about people locally being warned by their internet providers about the amount of torrents/bandwidth they are utilizing (by seeding?) so it may not be a long term solution, but again I don't know much about it yet.

 

But a lot of interesting "obscurities" to be found in Netflix.

[JaiDee]

Here's a pretty good list of the Worst Movies Ever made.

 

   Add your own!

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/how-many-bad-movies-have-you-seen

[dixon cox]

I watched a movie the other day ...

[pdogg]

Here's a pretty good list of the Worst Movies Ever made.

 

   Add your own!

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/how-many-bad-movies-have-you-seen

I liked 4 of the movies on the list, not that they were great.

crimes of passion

Cocktail

roadhouse

showgirls

[pacman]

Here's a pretty good list of the Worst Movies Ever made.

 

What an utterly appalling list of movies!

 

What amazes me & what I can't understand, given how tightly controlled studio budgets are, how in God's name did any of this shit ever get the green light to be made?

 

Is there no one working in the big studios who understand that crap won't cut it in today's world? That someone could honestly think there are people just waiting to have their intelligence insulted by such banal dribble is simply unbelievable.

[SiamSam]

You have it all wrong Paccie. You over estimate the intelligence of of mass market audiences. You would be surprised what shit gets produced and how well it does for its intended market. There is a reason crap gets made. It makes a profit more often than not.  

 

When I was a young man in the business trying to get financing for a project I found a studio exec who helped. After the movie was made we screened it for him. I asked if he liked it. He said no. I was disappointed and then asked why he invested in it.  He told me if he made the kind of films he liked he'd go out of business. 

 

I've been proudly making crap ever since. 

[pacman]

Thanks Sam. I remember the adage from the TV industry - no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of their viewers.

 

I was annoyed when I wrote my post because it irks me that so much money gets spent on crap which could have gone towards something worthwhile. The teenage son of a friend of mine likes to talk about movies & is developing a taste for some quite *high brow* releases. He is studying film in an art course & talks about getting into the industry.

 

However whenever he catches up with his friends they go to see the worst films that rate one or two stars & get mercilessly lampooned  by the critics. He then complains to me about how bad they are. I have asked him why does he go when he knows the film is going to be awful. He said that his friends won't go to see anything else.

 

Thus the cycle of bad movies gets entrenched when half the audience haven't developed the taste to discern the difference in what they are watching.

[williethepimp]

Here's a pretty good list of the Worst Movies Ever made.

 

   Add your own

i think the worst ever big box office ive seen was Face off with john travolta and nick cage........(nick cage has done a lot of shite movies!).... It took $80 million at the box office!

I'm amazed anyone could like it-yet it was hugely sucessfull

[seven]

110. Freddie got fingered wasn't that bad

 

Van Damme  schwarzeneggger , ben affleck ( 3 times) rightfully make the list.

Titanic is the most overrated crap ever

[pacman]

i think the worst ever big box office ive seen was Face off with john travolta and nick cage........(nick cage has done a lot of shite movies!).... It took $80 million at the box office!

I'm amazed anyone could like it-yet it was hugely sucessfull

 

There's a coincidence for you Willie.

 

Many years ago I was given a video of Face Off to watch. It was given to me by a friend who swears it was the best thing he had ever seen. I wouldn't know, I never watched it & I only got around to throwing the video out a few years ago.

 

I didn't watch it because despite paying nearly $1000 for the then best Panasonic VCR, I only ever watched one movie on it before it stopped working. I would have had it fixed but I had just heard about some new technology which had movies on CD discs.

 

I can't remember who gave me the Face Off video. Whoever it is I haven't spoken to them in over 20 years. I wonder how they would react to your opinion of the movie. I'm sure he wouldn't agree.

[pacman]

Titanic is the most overrated crap ever

 

Oh seven, you are a scallywag....     

 

While this thread is current, here's a few movies I've seen this year -

 

Dallas Buyers Club, Tracks, The Monuments Men, Half of a Yellow Sun, Noah & Nymphomaniac. Quite an eclectic choice even if I do say so myself. Some I enjoyed much more than others. Some I had low expectations & was pleasantly surprised, some should have been much better than they were. 

 

In the latter category was The Monuments Men. An all-star cast with a large budget should have delivered more than just another clichéd war flick. But we got all the clichés with non-military academics dressed in uniforms who despite their senior years & lack of military training were able to outsmart the Germans at every turn. Was there ever any chance it could go any other way? Of course not.

 

In the pleasantly surprised category was Noah, a film I had been psyched up to expect a ridiculous version of an already ridiculous story. Not ridiculous if you are devout but highly unlikely given Noah was responsible for the survival of every animal on the planet. However all that aside, Aronofsky  has made an entertaining romp that had me enjoying it more than I thought possible. Once I overcame my aversion to the totally implausible parts such as giant rock men called the Watchers, I just got into a rollicking yarn where good in the form of Noah battles evil in the form of Ray Winstone. And are there two better actors for delivering, no, make that bellowing their lines at the sky where they implore God to favour them? I think their casting made the film work. And I am not a big fan of Russell Crowe but credit where it is due. And Winstone is equally good.

 

Noah won't big any major awards but I found it far better than many of the negative reviews I have seen for it. Aronofsky is an intelligent film maker & the 18 months he spent on post-production has honed this into something reasonable. IMO.

 

Tracks was great. The simplest plot made on a small budget, it is so nicely done that once I invested in the outcome of the young girl, which I already knew as it is based on a true story, I was hooked. Amazing! I know she makes it, she wrote the book on which the film is based, but I sat there worrying for her welfare for most of the film. Mia Wasikowska carries the entire film. She is immersed in her role, I really believed she walked 2000 kilometres across the desert alone.

 

Dallas Buyers Club was OK. Better than OK with excellent performances. I liked it but I didn't run around recommending it to everyone I know because it's the sort of film that will divide those watching it. Some will love it, some will like it (me), others will hate it. I haven't read any hate written about it but films about AIDS patients being left to die & many of them being homosexual, well you just know that it's a subject that will divide opinions. And these days it is very non-PC to say a word against anyone following a different lifestyle. Jared Leto gives the most poignant performance. It's worth the price of admission alone.

 

Half of a Yellow Sun never had a chance to shine. Pun intended. It was let down by a soundtrack that at times was impossible to follow. I would like to watch it again on TV with subtitles so I can get the bits I missed. It wasn't all lost but when people are speaking & you don't know what they are saying, there's no chance to know exactly what's going on. It's a fascinating subject, the civil war in Nigeria that followed the granting of independence by the British & how those from different walks of life coped. If you were Biafran you didn't cope well.

 

The last film on my list is Nymphomaniac by Lars Von Trier. The consensus is he is mad but he makes a beautifully crafted film. He doesn't set out to glorify nymphomania, in fact he shows it as the dreadful condition it is. Despite the most graphic sex scenes that wouldn't be out of place in a porno, the film is really anti-sex. I sat through Parts 1 & 2 in one sitting, all 4 hours of it! And this isn't Von Trier's original film, that goes for 6 hours. FFS! With his permission it was edited to two films which need to be seen together to fully make sense of the whole thing. IMO.

 

I am still deciding what to make of it all. The whole thing is beautifully presented, there's no sense of being rushed, each scene is given the luxury of time though with 4 hours to play with, what else was he going to do? I am tending towards it being a masterpiece, an accolade I don't hand out lightly. I think I am leaving myself wide open to criticism especially if someone goes to see it on my recommendation. I can just hear the condemnation now but that's OK. 

 

I have more to say about it but I would really like to hear from someone else who has seen it. Please add a post even if you hated it. I can understand that, if it wasn't for some of the creativity in the film I would agree with it being shite. I will only defend it so far but as the time has passed since I saw it, I am finding the memory of it brings a smile to my weary dial.

[Hefe]

Luckily I've missed virtually all of the "worst" movies except for the old b&w ones at the top (Reefer Madness, Robot Monster) that are very entertaining to watch now.

 

I had never heard of "The Room" until last autumn when I happened to hear a radio show about it. It has developed a large cult following as the "worst" movie ever in that people will rent out a theatre & sell out & have their pic taken with the "stars". It is a one-man idea, script, direction & lead actor but he's not Orson Welles. Apparently the actors realized he had no idea what he was doing, or even what the movie was about & some tried to salvage it. 

 

I bring it up because unlike most "worst" movies it has no aliens or monsters or supernatural gimmicks, it's a simple coming of age piece that makes no sense but is really sincere & heartfelt, probably like "Glen or Glenda" was. Also Orson jr. did the financing himself as well, according to one of the actors, which is remarkable in that the guy was a penniless immigrant who was selling souvenirs to tourists in California & just a few years later managed to raise all the $$$ to self finance his dream before it went terribly wrong.