So Showgirls is one of the worst movies huh, ever heard of a little flick called Catwoman or here’s an idea go to Wal-Mart check out the bargain bin and buy a little movie called Boardheads. Then and only then shall you know the true depths of depravity that is the worst film ever. (Watch them back to back and an actual portal to hell opens at you feet)


Well someone sounds a bit elitist, and no not just for taking a stand on gratuitous nudity. You know if you see more of the lowly populist fare it would make you surefire classics even the more grand and meaningful. I just saw Closer as well and I found it tremendous, mostly for the performances I was just blown away by all four leads. Actually I agree with you as well on the nudity point. I mean she was playing a stripper in the setting of a strip club there is no reason to show nudity in that scene. To even think of objectifying a woman it that setting would just be totally ignorant. Although this film avoided it at least it didn’t do any of that contrived foreground blocking to hide the nudity, which I can only assume you would dislike as well for being the opposite of what you seem to like, where the artistic integrity seems compromised to fit in with our American/Puritan morals.
I’ll have to admit though that I do add a few points for good nude scenes. Hey I don’t really enter each movie looking for something that will be talked about for years to come. I’m not looking to place anything in the history book when I go see a movie; I go for entertainment (both shallow and deep). Especially when I’m talking to other people because most of the people I know don’t care about Seven Samurai being the blueprint for the Western Genre and so don’t care about homages and specific technique. Is it immature sure, but boobies do fill in plot gaps pretty nicely.

Show nudity, nothing wrong with it. The point I was making was not whether it not it's right to show nudity. I was saying that I think it's stupid to rate a movie better just because you saw some more tits in it.

Duck Soup - (McCarey;1933;USA) - ****
Rufus T. Firefly becomes dictator of Freedonia. Freedonia soons falls into a war with Sylvania.
I thought I would not find the dated jokes funny but I was pleasently surprised. Groucho Marx is great as the wiseass dictator. The first Groucho scene is classic with insult after insult. What do you Marx Bros. fans suggest I see next?
#95

Collateral-a slightly better than average film, nowhere near as good as DV makes it out to be... WAY too many establishing shots... only reaffirms the knowledge that Tom Cruise cant act for even 3 minutes.

The Seventh Seal- A highly unsuasal, very well made film about death. I loved the spooky camera work w/ Death POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING especially the shot wherew the head fool starts to climb the tree and Death appears out of the shadows.

Yojimbo-As much as I enjoyed the story, I cant say I am as much of a fan of Japanese cinema as I am of European and American. Something just felt off about watching it, though I enjoyed the introduction.

White Heat-I know there's going to be an angry mob after me, but....I found this movie to be highly overrateds on this board. A great film it undoubtedly is, and Cagney is amazing, however it didnt live up to expectations I had. It really wasnt a Gangster film, more of a crime and/or noir.

Public Enemy- However lacking it was in character development it made up for in cinematography. One of the best visual pieces Ive seen from that era.

When I get enough time, I'll post reviews of all of these films on the Movie Board.

I think Collateral is a great film, you don't, ok. But, what establishing shots?

And as for Cruise I felt he gave a great icy quality to the character. Cruise was great in this and Magnolia.

Max was driving around the city...OK we get this, we dont need to be reminded of this every 15 seconds with roughly the same establishing shots we saw in the opening. This kept getting on my nerves.

My God, two very disagreeble reviews of two movies that plain ROCK!

Really man, imagined if Antoine Fuqua(or "Fuckya" as some hating movie fan-friends know him as), who was going to helm this project before leaving to do that lame-ass KING ARTHUR, had done COLLATERAL. Fact is, COLLATERAL the original script is indeed a high-concept of a premise, but under any other mediocre filmmaker(like Fuqua) it would have been forgettable.

However, Mann, with all possible intellectual and artistic strength at his disposal, pulls off one of the best damn movies of 2004, and besides nabbing Jamie Foxx a Best Actor Oscar nod(sorry, but "Supporting Actor" Oscar crap my ass!) and Cruise, I would have picked him for Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Not to mention an Oscar to the film as well for Cinematography(which is memorable) and possibly for Editing as well. Not to mention maybe an Oscar nod for Best Director to Mann as well.

Now YOJIMBO.....I have no comment. I mean jesus christ, look at all those American/European movies that were based on this damn movie(from Leone's FISTFULL OF DOLLARS to Walter Hill's LAST MAN STANDING).

"Max was driving around the city...OK we get this, we dont need to be reminded of this every 15 seconds with roughly the same establishing shots we saw in the opening. This kept getting on my nerves."

So I guess you rather have a Michael Bay or Antoine Fuqua or worse, Renny Harlin quick-pace ADD-fueled movie where there is an explosion every 15 minutes and oh ya, exposition for the sake of covering up many plot holes that the filmmakers didn't bother to explain naturally and organic.

Sorry if I'm being mean, but......

Did you watch a different movie? Exposition shots weren't showed that often. I can only remember one bird POV shot. And those shots were IMO, great use of cinematography.

I'm sorry but I dont see Collateral as "just plain rock"ing.I said it was above average (mainly because of Foxx) which is a lot better that comments I give to a lot of other films. My comments have nothing to do with who could have directed it.
I also stated that I loved the story of Yojimbo. However, there are vast cultural diffrences between Asia and Europe and these often come out in film. I have nothing against Yojimbo, nor do I think it is anything less than a great film, I was merely saying that I prefer to watch European films rather that Japanese.

You seem to be missing the point of my reply. As I was watching the film Birds Eye View shots kept appearing of Max's traxi cab. Hopefully, every the audence members you mentioned know Max is in his Taxi cab driving around the city. We dont need more of these shots.

This movie needs to be more like The Core, explosions in every scene, absolutely no plot whatsoever, oh yeah, thats the stuff :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :p
NOTE- Hopefully no one will take my last comment seriuosly.

Your Loss!

Here's a question...you know the part in Collateral when the wolf or coyote thing walks in front of the cab? What was that all about? It was like all of a sudden, it was a different movie for 3 seconds. What was the purpose of that?

And I really liked Collateral, I thought it was very entertaining

There could be different thoughts. Mann often includes musical moments like that in his films. The coyotes symbolize Vincent as a predator almost out of place in the city. It could also be a foreshadow of the end, especially with the look on Vincent's face.

I agree only with what Don Sonny Corleone said in that Collateral was a good movie, even a great movie, but I don't think it was a masterpiece or as great of a movie as others on here have made it out to be. Sure we all have difference of opinions (I'm sure no one on here loves the Kill Bill movies as I do). I did love the fact that Tom Cruise was a bad guy and he did a great job as one too. Jaime Foxx was also very good, but overall, it's great but I've seen better

Adding to Vercetti's interpretation, I would like to add Mann's own thoughts in his rather good commentary track for COLLATERAL where he says, paraphrase-wise, that the human civilization that L.A. displays, despite the structural acheivement by our species, it won't last forever, while nature itself flourished before our species escaped from being ape-man beasts, and will indeed run wild(pun intended) once mankind has had its day in the sun.

Fight Club - (Fincher;1999;USA) - ****
A materialistic insomniac office worker turns to apathy when he meets Tyler Durden. They start a fight club to free themselves but Durden has larger plans.
A love or hate film. The errors I find are minor, such as unnecessary CGI or two small plot holes, one of which the book reveals. Fincher directs the film greatly overall and the product is a very solid film with many interpretations from the degradation of society or an anti-consumerism/materialism rant. It adapts the creatively written novel by Chuck Palahniuk very well and even comes up with a better climax, although I enjoyed the ending of the book just as much.
#23

Secret Window - (Koepp;2004;USA) - ***
A writer is harassed by a man claiming that he plagiarized his story from his.
This could've easily been an average film with nothing remotely special. This becomes a good film, just good mostly from Depp and Turturro's performances. David Koepp doesn't impress me much making this movie which has an ending cliche by today's standards even though at the novel's time it wasn't. Koepp does do a good job of making the cliche ending a little further from cliche by bringing it on a little more interestingly.
#96

Fight Club is excellent, one of my favorite movies

Mississippi Burning *** (5th Time)
1988, Parker, US
Two FBI agents investigate the murders of three civil rights workers, two of whom were white.
Powerfully acted account of racism in the segregated south of 1960s America, presented as a good old-fashioned police procedure, in which the suspects happen to be cops.

Woodsman, The ** (1st Time)
2004, Kassell, US
After twelve years in prison for child molesting, a paedofile is released back into a community overlooking a children's school.
Sensitive subject tackled with courage, but is more to do with the how than the why, which begs for sympathy in its main character; it decides to cop out in having him succeed at redemption by beating up another child molester he has been spying on. If only the world was this simple...

Mick

Short Cuts (1993/Altman) 1st time

8.5/10

# 48

I bought "The Score" from the bargin bin at Walmart today, only $4.88! I'm so excited, I really like that movie

Chinatown
(1974/Roman Polanski)
**** out of ****
[First Viewing]

A private detective in 1937 Los Angles is hired to watch a city official. But soon, things get out of hand, and the detective has bigger fish to fry...

Nine minutes in, and I was on the edge of my seat. I can't think of another film that draws you in so soon. Everything is pitch-perfect; from Polanski's stylish vision to Nicholson's interpretation of the suave but sleazy Jake Gittes. The screenplay, with a message similiar to "Vertigo", is a nice tribute to the Film Noir flicks of the 40's. A must-see.
#44

Collateral - (Mann;2004;USA) - ***1/2
A taxi driver is used to drive a sociopath hitman around L.A. during a night that will forever change them both.
I began my Mann marathon a little early with my favorite. Tom Cruise gives a good performance as the chilling hitman, and although he shouldn't have won it, he should've been nominated for Best Supp. Actor, not Foxx, who was the main character. The blue-gray palette adds to the feeling of the film, as well as the great L.A. cinematography given great dimension with the digital photography. Mann's editing to the script are great, and add much more depth to the story. His direction is fantastic as always, with great music from Audioslave's "Shadow on the Son" and Antonio Pinto's "Requiem." A great action/drama that stands out, although it leans to mainstream in the office chase, but even that has a realistic touch from Mann. Foxx is also very good as the protagonist Max.
#1 (Note these are favorites, never best)

The Girl Cant Help It
Frank Taslin 1956

The classic `rock and roll' film of the 50's and the Jayne Mansfield movie, featuring her legendary strut down the street to Little Richard's title song while holding a pair of strategically placed milk bottles, melting ice and shattering glasses.


Around a simple comic plot - gangster hires alcoholic press agent to make a singing star out of his incredibly voluptuous but tone-deaf girlfriend - director Frank Tashlin creates a feast for eyes and ears in `the grandeur of CinemaScope' and glorious De Luxe colour.


Among the classic musical highlights are Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock, Gene Vincent's Be Bop A Lula, a very sultry Julie London singing `Cry Me A River' and an electric performance by Little Richard at his peak.

Haha, I bought it the other day for £1.00! (VHS, though.) I haven't seen it yet; only the stars attracted me.

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes/Aguirre, Wrath of God **** (2nd Time)
1972, Herzog, WGer
In 1560, an ambitious soldier in Pizarro's conquistador army leads a mission on raft down the Amazon River, and slowly goes mad.
Epic in all but running length, this is an ambitious and haunting study of despair and destiny, told in a visually inspired way; from Kinski's intense title performance to the on-location filming, it is one of the great achievements of cinema.
#3; Easily the best film of 1972.

Mick

Capo, how is Klaus Kinski acting-wise overall?

I've only seen him in the minor role as the hunchback in 'For a Few Dollars More.'

Another thing I noticed while watching is that Tom Cruise's eyes seem to glow when they pull away right after he gets in the cab for the first time.

More intense than anybody I've seen, and holds a greater screen presence than Brando at his best. Probably limited, but every performance under the direction of Werner Herzog is nothing less than profound. Check out Woyzeck (1979), which I think is his best (though I still have Fitzcarraldo to see of my Herzog/Kinski boxset).

Mick

The Philadelphia Story - (Cukor;1940;USA) - ***1/2
Two years after being kicked out by his wife, a man returns with a writer and photographer to ruin her next wedding.
Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart light up the screen along with the charismatic Katharine Hepburn. The plot is kept solid with the actors, even in slow parts the actors elevate the scenes. A great film with equally great humor.

Memento - (Nolan;2000;USA) - ****
A man with Anterograde Amnesia uses tattoos and notes to track down his wife's rapist/killer.
One of the best thrillers of the past several years. Nolan's direction takes what could've been an average film to it's fullest. The narrative pushes you into the eyes of the protagonist. The music is equally compelling, done by David Julyan, who also did the music for Following and Insomnia. The acting also flows with the film, especially with the three main actors.
#2

Watch it, you will enjoy it What is a £1.00 in U.S. dollars?

This is probably my second favorite movie of all time. I'm hoping to get it on dvd for my bday It's so funny and the acting is terrific. This was Hepburn's first big hit after being labled "box office poison," she first starred in it on stage. It was also remade into a musical called "High Society" with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra in Jimmy Stewart's role and Bing Crosby in Cary Grant's role. That's a cute movie too, though not quite as good. It was Grace Kelly's last film, before becoming a princess.