I wanted to ask if anyone here has seen Il Conformista, also known as The Conformist. Ive read that its pretty good, I liked the general concept, and Im pretty interested in seeing it, but the chances of that happening without me signing up for Netflix seem like next to nothing.

Here's a link for anyone unfamiliar with this film.

Anyone seen it?

I haven't seen it but I have a TCM print taped. It's supposedly one of the greatest films. I haven't watched it yet because TCM played it dubbed in English. It's coming out on DVD some time in the near future.

Thats good news. Hopefully somewhere around here will actually carry it.

I just watched Seven Samurai for the first time. What an amazing film it is. One of the best I've ever seen.

Thats another one Ive been meaning to pick up. Im interested to hear you say that its one of your favorites after your first viewing.

For almost all of my favorite films, I didnt realize how much I liked them until after repeat viewings, with some notable exceptions. But if this film has become one of your favorites after one viewing, it really must be pretty damn good.

Just interested to know, what other films do you consider your favorites? Maybe if we have similar tastes Ill also like this movie.

I never said it was one of my favorites -- I said it was one of the best films I've ever seen. There's a difference.

My favorite movies include The Deer Hunter, Unforgiven, Mean Streets, The Godfather part 2, and Memento.

You know what else is Waiting? My refund from Steven Spielberg.

The Terminal (2004; Speilberg) **

A very decent film by Speilberg about a man with no country stuck in a New York City Airport Terminal. Very good performance by Hanks, though they both have done better.

Glad You liked it, and nice to see You back DVC
Seven Samurai is an amazing movie, right behind The Godfather II and The Godfather I in my book. A timeless masterpiece.

And Dr. Zhivago boring? I mean I can understand why some people have a problem with its length, but to me this is another masterpiece, not as good as Lawrence of Arabia but still very good. Omar Sharif and the beautiful Julie Christie are simply great in it.

Every fucking movie in the world is too fucking boring for you. Argh. [/b][/quote]Apparentely NOT since I did enjoy many movies this year including Sin City, Batman Begins and recently A History of Violence among others

No I did like the direction somewhat but it was moreso the story. Usually, when I'm counting down the minutes to when a movie will end and I'm pulling my hair out waiting, it's boring

Unleashed **

More story than a$$ kicking. This is only the 2nd Jet Li movie I've seen. Bob Hoskins who plays his Uncle Bart did a great job in it!

Glad You liked it, and nice to see You back DVC
Seven Samurai is an amazing movie, right behind The Godfather II and The Godfather I in my book. A timeless masterpiece.[/b][/quote]Thank you, and yes, I would rank The Godfather parts 1 and 2, and Seven Samurai as the top 3 movies in terms of story telling.

Just curious, are your ratings by quality or entertainment?

Entertainment

Thanks for the explanation Ronnie.

Another movie yesterday night:
Station Agent
Small budget movie about 3 interesting characters. It is basically a character study, not much of plot. For 1 hour and 10 min, a good movie.

Neighbours ***
1952, McLaren, Can 1st; big screen
Two neighbours find a flower exactly in the middle of their houses, and quarrel over who it belongs to.
Groundbreaking pixelation animation, crudely done but opening up all the possibilities its kind presents. The story, of two quarrelling neighbours fighting until almost naked (over a flower) is by today's standards disturbing with its homoerotic overtones. But the moral is valid, if obvious.

The Wolfman ***
2000, Hope, GB 1st; big screen
A demented wolf flies on a rocket into a planet.
Award-winning, breakthrough animation for Hope; a bizarre little beast of a film which was later made into a Playstation 2 commercial.

Street of Crocodiles ***
1986, Quay, GB 1st; big screen
A society which breeds robot-like workers, with no room for individual thinking.
Animated short from the Quay brothers, an indictment of the society it depicts, starring brainless, eyeless puppets.

The Bible ***
2004, Amundlien, Nor 1st; big screen
A one minute, quickfire dissection of The Bible.
An animated mockery of The Bible which ends with a Big Bang of sorts. In essence, this is it; no further reading required.

Leonidestorm/Leonid Shower ***
2004, Næss/Engaas, Nor 1st; big screen
Animation to various soundbites of people's wishes in life.
An affecting short which presents a mixture of paradoxical and complimentary visuals to the audio, giving the piece a sense of mounting immediacy.

Save Me ***
1994, Hilton, GB 1st; big screen
The survival of a disaster due to a miracle.
Abstract short which for the most part uses animation and multi-layered sound to conjure up a real sense of atmosphere.

Mick

Kicking & Screaming *

Not Will Ferrell's best (it's rated PG) but it had it's funny parts. A kids movie that won't be missed any time soon

Gjennom mine tykke briller/Through My Thick Glasses **
2004, Sapegin, Nor 1st; big screen
A stubborn, young girl is told by her grandfather of the Nazi occupation and how he learned to love his hat.
An off-beat animation, sentimental storytelling, but the technicalities and visual metaphors compensate.

Mick

Ben-Hur - (William Wyler;1959;USA) - ****
After a Jewish prince is betrayed by an old friend, he vows that revenge will be served.
One of the greatest epics ever. Everything about this film shows us how great Hollywood was. I don't think Heston's performance was one of the best of all time like many believe, but he had a powerful presence in his role. The famous "Chariot Race" has to be one of the greatest action sequences in cinema, period. It left me amazed at how they could've done it back in the late 50's. It looked more realistic then most films that use CGI today. I'm also amazed at how it flowed so well, never even feeling overlong at nearly four hours.

Ben Hur...one of my favorite movies. Flat out AMAZING.

That one film i still havn't seen

4 hours, christ.

Even with GFII being 3 1/2 hrs long, I still find myself glancing at the time when Im watching it, even though it is flat out my favorite film of all time.

Kingdom of Heaven *

I'm not saying the movie wasn't bad (it was made nicely) but I just didn't find the story interesting. I saw it in theaters and didn't like it so decided to give it another shot and still didn't like it. I thought Orlando Bloom was a horrible chioce for the lead role and they could and should have gotten someone else

IMO, movies should not be rated on entertainment. But on quality.

Now watching films to be entertained is awhole different story.

Honestly, with Ben Hur, it feels more like 2 hours. I usually glance over the time a lot too, but I didn't do it ONCE when watching Ben Hur. Very very well shot film.

Bah, the original cut of Once Upon a Time in America was six hours to be released in two parts.

I heard this a long time ago but I think Martin Scorsese had to cut up to 45 minutes befor Gangs of New York hit theaters. I would have always liked to see the extra footage, even if the movie ended up being close to 4 hours

First Blood - (Ted Kotcheff;1982;USA) -
A Green Beret retreats into the forest after he's harassed by the local police.
This turns out to be a solid film with intelligent action most of the time. It's pretty good. In fact it's probably the only good movie Stallone was in during the 80's. The original ending would've been better. The dark look of the film also adds to the tone.
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