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The Coen Brothers thread got me thinking about The Ladykillers and how much everyone seems to agree it's their worst film. I love Ladykillers and crack up every time I watch it made me realize how many movies there that I like or love that others either never heard of or are universally panned. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story : I swear it seems that almost nobody has ever seen this film. It's one of my favorite comedies of all time and John C. Reilly is just great in it, as usual. It plays a lot the better Wil Farrell comedies. Extract: Another overlooked comedy by Mike Judge, who I almost always like. It's not as funny or as clever as Office Space or Idiocracy but I thought it was damned funny. Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2: These movies certainly have their problems but I like them both better than any of the Raimi films. The romance, for once, don't bog the movies down and Garfield and Stone have great chemistry. The suit in 2 is sheer perfection. I really loved the action scenes in both and overall think they get a bum rap. Open Water: Doesn't seem to get a lot of love but I was impressed at how they pulled off a shark movie since no one's been able to do it since JAWS. The tension throughout is palpable and the sense of isolation and dread is communicated very effectively in a slow burn sort of way. Lord of the Flies: The late 80's remake. I enjoy this film every time I watch it and like it much more than the original B&W version. For once, most of the child actors are very good. The cinematography is terrific. The Man Who Wasn't There: Another overlooked Coen Brothers movie that has some really great performances, especially from the two leads, and has stellar use of lighting and composition. Very underrated film. Bob Roberts: One of those films nobody seems to every heard of. It's a mockumentary starring and directed by Tim Robbins that turned out to be a very prescient examination of what right wing politics, FOX News and talk radio has become, culminating in the election of Donald Trump. It's probably more relevant now then it was then. For Your Consideration: Another mockumentary by Chris Guest of Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman fame. This one's not as good as his other movies but it's still pretty entertaining. Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara are terrific in it. The only thing hurting this film, IMO, is the inevitable comparisons to Guest's other triumphs. It's still funny. Homegrown: A pretty funny and generally overlooked movie about pot farmers in Humboldt county. Billy Bob Thornton is in this one too and so are John Lithgow, Ted Danson and Jon Bon Jovi. You don't have to be a stoner to appreciate it either. Bad News Bears (remake): Thinking about Billy Bob reminded me of this one. I love the original and even though this remake falls under the category of "unnecessary", it's still not bad and only suffers because the original was so good. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: This is the only one of the trilogy that I really liked and, while it's bloated and has way too much action, I enjoyed a lot of it more than LOTR. Man of Steel: Everyone hates this one but it's by favorite Superman movie. I thought the Kryptonian elements were handled really well and I appreciated the overall take on a character I really don't like that much. I've never gotten the hate for this one and how divided everyone remains over it. Really good film with terrific action sequences and overall good performances and direction. I have a lot more but these are off the top of my head. I know some of you must have movies that you like that you find criminally underrated.
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Mar 5, 2017 17:20
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Tron: Legacy Looks great and has one of the best soundtracks ever put into a film. Story is merely "fine" but it has lots of good action sequences and visuals. Lots of thought put into the prop design and backgrounds/effects. Crank 2: High Voltage Jason Statham plays a man who has his heart ripped out and he has to continually find ways to charge his artificial replacement. Has an absolutely unexpected sequence with miniatures (think Power Rangers) and takes every stylistic liberty imaginable. It's a delightful assault on the senses and highly offensive, which is what makes it so good. Step Brothers loving hilarious film John C. Reilly and Will Farrell as two fully grown unemployed man-children who find themselves suddenly in the same family. Lots of low brow childish humor but accomplished really well in a way similar to Beavis and Butthead. The Hunter Willem Dafoe wanders around Tasmania for an hour and a half and shoots things with a fancy rifle. I don't why but I get Antichrist vibes from it. Also very beautiful cinematography.
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Mar 5, 2017 18:06
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Bulworth is pretty good but nobody ever talks about it. Well, catch ya later.
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Mar 5, 2017 18:52
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Citizen Kane - I know this is a really obscure pick but hear me out - this oft-overlooked early work from Orson Welles is actually a real gem. If you can overlook some shoddy editing (clearly the studio interfered - we get almost nothing of the main character's early life) and black and white cinematography I think you'll find it's actually a pretty good movie. Sure, it doesn't stand up to his work as Unicron in Transformers: The Movie, or even his lesser masterpiece, the multi-part series he did for Findus Peas, but as a beginner solo work there's some stunning examples of budding genius.
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Mar 5, 2017 19:46
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Magic Hate Ball posted:Citizen Kane - I know this is a really obscure pick but hear me out - this oft-overlooked early work from Orson Welles is actually a real gem. If you can overlook some shoddy editing (clearly the studio interfered - we get almost nothing of the main character's early life) and black and white cinematography I think you'll find it's actually a pretty good movie. Sure, it doesn't stand up to his work as Unicron in Transformers: The Movie, or even his lesser masterpiece, the multi-part series he did for Findus Peas, but as a beginner solo work there's some stunning examples of budding genius. This made me think of one. 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick. Much like Dark Star (though perhaps not as well known), this is an example of a talented director's first foray into science fiction. You'd be surprised how good this movie actually is considering its creator's earlier works, Fear and Desire and The Seafarers, weren't anything to write home about. But Kubrick really comes into his own with 2001. The best thing about it is the special effects - there are some monkeys in an early segment that you would swear were real. It's a fun flick, and everyone should check it out of it's ever on TNT or something.
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Mar 5, 2017 22:57
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Spatulater bro! posted:This made me think of one. 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick. Much like Dark Star (though perhaps not as well known), this is an example of a talented director's first foray into science fiction. You'd be surprised how good this movie actually is considering its creator's earlier works, Fear and Desire and The Seafarers, weren't anything to write home about. But Kubrick really comes into his own with 2001. The best thing about it is the special effects - there are some monkeys in an early segment that you would swear were real. It's a fun flick, and everyone should check it out of it's ever on TNT or something. Speaking of sci-fi, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is a little-known film by the same director that did American Graffiti (highly obscure art film). It's a lot like old Flash Gordon shorts but with some updated special effects. Although if I had to choose a great space adventure film it would not be my first choice (that would be Dune).
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Mar 5, 2017 23:52
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Spatulater bro! posted:This made me think of one. 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick. Much like Dark Star (though perhaps not as well known), this is an example of a talented director's first foray into science fiction. You'd be surprised how good this movie actually is considering its creator's earlier works, Fear and Desire and The Seafarers, weren't anything to write home about. But Kubrick really comes into his own with 2001. The best thing about it is the special effects - there are some monkeys in an early segment that you would swear were real. It's a fun flick, and everyone should check it out of it's ever on TNT or something.
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Mar 6, 2017 00:09
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Liking a movie that most people don't does not make it underrated.
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Mar 6, 2017 00:21
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I enjoyed the 1997 thriller "Breakdown" starring Kurt Russell. It's one of those movies that just kind of faded away.
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Mar 6, 2017 00:24
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Pedro De Heredia posted:I enjoyed the 1997 thriller "Breakdown" starring Kurt Russell. It's one of those movies that just kind of faded away. The ending is kind of dumb, but it's otherwise brilliant.
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Mar 6, 2017 03:03
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Pedro De Heredia posted:I enjoyed the 1997 thriller "Breakdown" starring Kurt Russell. It's one of those movies that just kind of faded away. This was the first movie that popped into my head when I saw this topic. That and Deep Rising.
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Mar 6, 2017 04:06
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The Sadist (1963), for sure.
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Mar 6, 2017 04:29
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Everyone knows that Crank: High Voltage is perfection.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:38
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Wilhelm Scream posted:This was the first movie that popped into my head when I saw this topic. WTF? I began watching it again yesterday. It is great. The Faculty also.
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Mar 6, 2017 09:16
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Predator 2
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Mar 6, 2017 10:03
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angel's melancholy
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Mar 6, 2017 13:34
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Trying to think of something that others might not mention. I might have a few more later. None of these are masterpieces, but they are all decent enough. Soldier Penned by the main Blade Runner writer (and supposedly a spiritual sequel) The first 30 minutes or so is pretty great. Kurt Russell plays a soldier brainwashed from birth. He plays it as this emotionally damaged mess. I am not saying it's an under appreciated masterpiece, but it's worth a watch if only for some prime Gary Busey. Kubo and the Two strings. I had heard nothing about this film and one day I was at a loose end so I went into see a movie. I landed on this because it was made by Laika studios who originally made Coraline and Paranorman. It's about the son of a Samurai whose demon Grandfather stole his eye as a child and is chasing him for the other one. It's mostly amazing hand done stop motion animation. It's got a great voice cast and a fantastic score. A solid movie that occasionally reminds you it's meant to be a kids film. It will have most people crying by the end. Criminally unappreciated in my opinion. Frailty I have been mentioning this a lot recently since we lost Bill Paxton. (He directed it!) A pretty decent thriller. A loving father of two sons comes home one day saying that God has chosen him to be his instrument on earth and kill demons disguised as normal people. What's great is the personal struggle he has with this revelation and specifically with one son who quite understandably thinks he is a serial killer. Falls under that same umbrella as movies like Breakdown and Fallen. Slightly flawed movies with incredible performances. Patriot Games/ Clear and Present Danger I re-watched them a while ago and they are great mid 90's spy/action movies. Back when Harrison Ford gave a gently caress. A Perfect World Another mid-90's movie. Set in the 60's Directed by Clint Eastwood, it's the story of an escaped convict who kidnaps and develops a paternal bond with a emotionally withdrawn kid. Kevin Costner is the convict, Eastwood is the Marshall chasing him with the help of a criminologist played by Laura Dern. Dog Soldiers and the Descent Two pretty awesome horror films by Neill Marshall who directs the big battle episodes of Game Of Thrones. Dog Soldiers is about a bunch of British squadies who go on a training mission in the Scottish highlands and run afoul of werewolves. Stars Kevin McKidd and Jason Isaacs. Wonderfully cheesy. The Descent is a prime example of a fantastic genre movie with an all female cast. A group of horror movie stereotypes go cavediving and discover some horrible poo poo. Not saying anything more. La Femme Nikita You could do a whole thread on foreign language films that are under appreciated, but I recently re-watched this and it's such a great movie. Directed by Luc Besson who also made Big Blue, Subway, Leon (Or The Professional outside of Europe) The Fifth Element which I think is a film ahead of it's time in a lot of ways. And he also made the great post apocalypse film La Dernier Combat (The Last Combat) Nikita is a film that inspired a hell of a lot of Hollywood directors. It's about a 19 year old drug addict who murders a cop and is taken in by a shadowy government organization who fake her death and offer her the opportunity to be a badass assassin. (It's actually handled much better than it sounds.) The film is great as it feels like a mixture of classic French romance movies and late 80's action. It is also one of the first Neon Noir films. Besson took a lot of inspiration from Hollywood and the critics in France thought the film was pandering shite even though it was well loved. Watching it now, it has aged well. Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 14:28
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I would love to know what the OP sees, if anything, in Extract.
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Mar 6, 2017 14:46
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Fine, I'll say it: The A-Team. It's a willfully silly action movie where every single authority figure in the US military and CIA is explicitly either corrupt human garbage or a sucker. Side note, the extended version (which is the one usually shown on TV) is much worse than the theatrical version.
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Mar 6, 2017 16:23
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Running Scared: Do you like Paul Walker? Do you like seeing lots of people get shot with big, nasty squib effects? Do you dig surreal pseudo-noir like Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet? Do you like the idea of that kid from Ultraviolet and Birth telling his angry Russian dad that John Wayne was a fag? If the answer to all those questions is yes, watch Running Scared yesterday, it loving owns.
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Mar 6, 2017 18:20
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I would love to know what the OP sees, if anything, in Extract. Eight years later and I'm still mad at myself for paying to see that garbage in a theater.
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Mar 6, 2017 18:44
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I say I like it because my friends love it. I do not mean these things and am just being nice. Only thing I remember from it is TJ Miller.
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Mar 6, 2017 19:18
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I would love to know what the OP sees, if anything, in Extract. I found it funny and I tend to really like Mike Judge. I liked Affleck's character, JK Simmons, the retarded pool cleaner guy, the annoying neighbor and thought that Jason Bateman played the frustrated loser everyman lead pretty well. Gene Simmons was funny as the cheesy trial lawyer.
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Mar 6, 2017 20:26
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Ah boy, this topic. I have a very long list. I seem to collect unloved movies. In fact I may just have to post a bunch of them to get things rolling- kinda PYF I know, but otherwise I'll be here all day. The Avengers- Not THAT one, the 1998 Jeremiah Chechik adaptation of the 1960s UK TV series. Warner Bros. butchered this one in the editing room, cutting out a half hour of footage after a poor test screening and so a lot of people just plain were not able to follow the story, but I had no trouble. Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman don't have the chemistry that Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg did, and I can appreciate that for many fans that was the whole point of the show so without it you've got nothing, but I love the phantasmagoric surrealism of it- it really feels like an authentic fantasy world where anything can happen. It's beautifully shot and genuinely dreamlike at times, more like a fantasy than an action/spy movie. Dune- even David Lynch himself has kinda disavowed this, and I get why (It's the one movie of his where he didn't have creative control), but man there's a power and a majesty here that I haven't seen in any other sci-fi movie. While everyone else was trying to rip off Star Wars, Lynch made a goddamn David Lean epic. It's a work of visual art, as clumsy as the exposition can be. Sorcerer- This one's kinda gotten a reappreciation lately thanks to the 4k restoration and the Blu-Ray release, but man, at the time the critics were basically "You remade a French classic! gently caress you!" Friedkin needed comeuppance and a great movie was ignored in the process. This is an amazing accomplishment as a movie- one of the most purely intense and unforgiving white-knuckle thrillers ever made. Exorcist II: The Heretic It's nowhere near as well made as the first, and is clumsy on the literal storytelling level, but you rarely see a horror movie this conceptually rich. John Boorman basically made a tone poem. Speed Racer- Say what you will about the Matrix sequels- the Wachowskis more than redeemed themselves with this. A gorgeous, imaginative, hopeful fantasy about finding the purity of sport within all the money and corruption. Shock Treatment- May technically be better than Rocky Horror. John Carter Cloud Atlas Superman Returns Look it's a long list I'll get back to this later
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Mar 6, 2017 21:28
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Maxwell Lord posted:Speed Racer- Say what you will about the Matrix sequels- the Wachowskis more than redeemed themselves with this. A gorgeous, imaginative, hopeful fantasy about finding the purity of sport within all the money and corruption. I never saw this because it looks like rainbow diarrhea, but wasn't it pretty universally praised in CineD upon its release?
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Mar 6, 2017 21:49
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Maxwell Lord posted:Ah boy, this topic. I was really tempted too, to just list movies out for people, but I think it's worth mentioning why you think it's unappreciated. I personally have no interest in revisiting Superman Returns, so why do you think I should? Not being a dick, just asking. As for Lynch's Dune, He actually did a fair job of capturing the book in a lot of ways. He only disowned it because the studio messed around with it so much with his version. They were given a bonkers film and had no idea what to do with it. The mini-series that the SyFy channel did back in 2000 was a pretty decent attempt at it. Worth a look. And as much as I wish we got Jodorowsky's version, I am kind of happy we didn't. Because then we may not have had the batshit insane Incal or Metabarons comic books. In honor of badly received films with multiple cuts I submit Alexander A film that has about 4 cuts of it going around. I have only seen 3 of them and they all change the tone of the film massively. I don't think the problem is as much with Oliver Stone's directing style (although that does deserve a lot of the blame) But with the story itself: A man becomes a king and conquers most of the world and then dies having never lost a battle at age 33 . It's hard to put that into a 3 act structure. It's a very flawed film, but one that I find compelling. It's very unconventional in a lot of ways and some cuts tend to highlight or downplay his sexuality. (You can tell by how much they show Rosario Dawson's tits) It's a film worth checking out if only for the bizarre decisions. Don't even think about mentioning Troy, that film can gently caress right off. They cut so many scenes from the original poem that would have looked so cool on film. Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 21:49
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Wrath of the Titans. Both the original '81 film and the remake are kind of dull. Then there's a sequel to the remake that's fantastic. It's basically a western with Greek gods. I think the secret to making good unexpected films is to make them secretly westerns.
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Mar 7, 2017 02:05
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Woof Blitzer posted:Tron: Legacy everyone likes step brothers, op, because it's hilarious
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Mar 7, 2017 04:13
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Well if nobody else is going to take this bullet I guess I'll Grandma's Boy - It's a Happy Madison movie that doesn't star Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider, instead revolving around perpetual Sandler movie hanger-on Allen Covert's mid-thirties game programmer Alex. The basic plot (really, really basic) wastes no time in kicking Alex out of his home, shuffling him around before finally dropping him into a living arrangement with his grandmother (Doris Roberts) and her two friends. There's a subplot about Alex proving his chops as a better programmer than the Matrix-obsessed lead programmer JT, designing his own game in his spare time, but it just ends up being whatever. It's eminently watchable and I just don't know why. The chemistry of the cast is good, and it's the rare movie that lets me tolerate Nick Swardson. Hell, I even like Covert as the lead in this. LORD OF BOOTY posted:Running Scared: Do you like Paul Walker? Do you like seeing lots of people get shot with big, nasty squib effects? Do you dig surreal pseudo-noir like Wild at Heart or Blue Velvet? Do you like the idea of that kid from Ultraviolet and Birth telling his angry Russian dad that John Wayne was a fag? This movie is my favorite modem day fairy tale bar none ElectricSheep fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 04:26
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Anything directed by Hal Hartley, but especially the Henry Fool trilogy. The original Henry Fool is especially prescient now since the election plot in it is pretty much Trump's America 1.0 This is a pretty great thing about him: http://www.salon.com/2015/04/03/hal_hartleys_epic_oral_history_the_henry_fool_trilogy_parker_posey_and_the_real_sage_of_90s_indie_film/
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Mar 7, 2017 04:35
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As far as underrated movies go I thought Sin City: A Dame to Kill For got a bit of a bum rap. Egbert Souse posted:I think the secret to making good unexpected films is to make them secretly westerns. Like its funny to me that there are people who will never watch a John Ford western but then will talk about how much they love Taxi Driver. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 11:33
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For some reason, I feel Puzzlehead is an underrated film that I only watched on accident and I still think there's something sort of deeper going on in the film than the trailer and descriptions let on. In a mildly dystopian near-future a scientist builds an android replica of himself in a world where anti-technology purges has made such a creature pretty much illegal. As the android gets more and more active in the outside world, he forms a relationship with a woman which leads the creator to become less compassionate towards his creation and more controlling. I was really surprised according to IMDB that the director made no other movies after it and the lead actor himself died about 4-5 years ago. It's not flawless, but it's one of those films that had it had a larger budget or gotten enough interest in doing a larger budget remake, it'd be sort of more well-known.
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Mar 7, 2017 12:43
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Raxivace posted:As far as underrated movies go I thought Sin City: A Dame to Kill For got a bit of a bum rap. I wish I could agree. I revisited A Dame to Kill for after rewatching the original Sin City and I have to say it's still garbage in my opinion. It's a shame, because Sin City is not a great film, but what it does, it does really well. There is no reason A Dame To Kill For should not have worked the same way. Maybe it's because the stories themselves in A Dame to Kill For were weaker. The first one seemed to have more balls. Modern Westerns are connected to John Ford through decades of cross breeding and growth. A Western nowadays is more about a mood rather than a place. It's more similar to Noir. There is a fatalism to westerns now that I think came into focus heavily with Leone and a lot of those 70's-80's westerns. Some of that DNA comes from Unforgiven who basically stripped westerns of the clean coat once and for all and Deadwood that took it much further. These guys were all gently caress up drunks and criminals who were just trying to get through their lives the best way they could. Ironically, a genre best known for black hats versus white hats offers us the most morally grey backdrop for stories and characters. The funny part is that Ford had a lot of this complexity and fatalism in his movies, but it took the later generations over the course of the 20th century to develop and refine it. Which is my way of saying people should check out Ford. As for modern or future set westerns be it the Hell or High Water style or Outland, it just needs to plug in the genre conventions, mood and you have a visual language and archetypes that are universal. Which is awesome because you can play with expectations like in No Country For Old Men. Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 17:46
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Lonos Oboe posted:Modern Westerns are connected to John Ford through decades of cross breeding and growth. A Western nowadays is more about a mood rather than a place. It's more similar to Noir. There is a fatalism to westerns now that I think came into focus heavily with Leone and a lot of those 70's-80's westerns. Some of that DNA comes from Unforgiven who basically stripped westerns of the clean coat once and for all and Deadwood that took it much further. These guys were all gently caress up drunks and criminals who were just trying to get through their lives the best way they could. Ironically, a genre best known for black hats versus white hats offers us the most morally grey backdrop for stories and characters. The funny part is that Ford had a lot of this complexity and fatalism in his movies, but it took the later generations over the course of the 20th century to develop and refine it. Which is my way of saying you should check out Ford. The great thing about getting into Westerns is it also leads you down the road to Kurosawa. There's a clear line you can draw from Ford, directly to Kurosawa who was criticized for making films that were too Westernized(i.e. like John Ford), and then to Leone who remade several of Kurosawa's Ford inspired films back into Westerns.
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Mar 7, 2017 17:53
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Raxivace posted:As far as underrated movies go I thought Sin City: A Dame to Kill For got a bit of a bum rap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K3rENCfXxk
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Mar 7, 2017 19:29
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CelticPredator posted:Can't imagine why. Is that the actual movie? If so, wow. Glad I passed on that one.
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Mar 7, 2017 20:45
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Lonos Oboe posted:I was really tempted too, to just list movies out for people, but I think it's worth mentioning why you think it's unappreciated. I personally have no interest in revisiting Superman Returns, so why do you think I should? Not being a dick, just asking. For me, it's a film that's made with a very sincere love and care. It's kind of a dark take on Superman, in a sort of existential ennui way- he leaves us and comes back to find we've moved on without him, and sure he can still do good things and that's good but he doesn't quite fit. In the end it becomes a story about throwing off those last vestiges of "the past"- in Superman's case he literally throws a reconstructed Krypton out into space, and falls to Earth to be reborn. He finds a new place. I just love the tone of it, the look, the feel, you can tell this was really something Bryan Singer wanted to do and put a lot of passion into. And for all that it borrows from the Donner films it also has its own unique style, a bit more expressionistic and shadowy.
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Mar 7, 2017 22:00
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Cloud Atlas Yes its long. Yes, one of the storylines features a futuristic dialect that some people find annoying. Yes, not all of the "disguises" are not 100% convincing. I urge people to revisit it because of a few reasons: 1. The visual style of the Wackowskis is here, but its used in a more diverse way than ever before simply because of how many different settings the movie takes place in. Aside from the futuristic sections, there are storylines that take place in a few different eras of history and the production design during these segments is fantastic. 2. The epic scale of the story. Its a movie about souls finding each other throughout time, and the impact one life can have regardless of how short it may be. The Wackowskis go a lot further with those ideas than I'd expect almost any other directors to go, both because of the huge budget they are allowed and their sci-fi roots. 3. The structure of the story is really interesting, and I understand its very much changed from what it was in the novel. You can treat the different storylines as a puzzle, and its fun to try to trace which soul is in which body throughout the various decades. This is also why I've enjoyed rewatching the film, there are scenes that I was not able to connect to the overall narrative on first viewing. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 22:15
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Maxwell Lord posted:And for all that it borrows from the Donner films it also has its own unique style, a bit more expressionistic and shadowy. Returns' depiction of Metropolis is amazing, and really I just love the production design of the entire movie (especially Luthor's purloined yacht). Guy Dyas needs to get more work. Also, that sequence of Superman slowly realizing that something is horribly wrong when he confronts Luthor on the island, followed by Luthor and his goons getting their rocks off on him, is great.
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Mar 7, 2017 22:22
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Mr Shiny Pants posted:Is that the actual movie? If so, wow. Glad I passed on that one. The last time I watched it, to give it another chance. I literally turned it off when it got to the Jessica Alba story. I never knew a Sin City movie could look even lower rent than the first. Maxwell Lord posted:For me, it's a film that's made with a very sincere love and care. It's kind of a dark take on Superman, in a sort of existential ennui way- he leaves us and comes back to find we've moved on without him, and sure he can still do good things and that's good but he doesn't quite fit. In the end it becomes a story about throwing off those last vestiges of "the past"- in Superman's case he literally throws a reconstructed Krypton out into space, and falls to Earth to be reborn. He finds a new place. I just love the tone of it, the look, the feel, you can tell this was really something Bryan Singer wanted to do and put a lot of passion into. And for all that it borrows from the Donner films it also has its own unique style, a bit more expressionistic and shadowy. I must give it another try. After the last 2 Supes films, it might feel Like a breath of fresh air, cheers! On that one, I have to say Ang Lee's Hulk I feel like time might end up being kind to this film. It has an awesome flamboyant editing style, some great action (Not as much Hulk punching monsters as fighting the army) It's bogged down by a complex story about a man coming to terms with a lot of poo poo. Ironically, I feel it is one of the closest adaptations to a comic you could ever see. As I am sure, most of us know. Comics are not all like Frank Miller's 300 or Sin City with the subtext absolutely stripped from it. I want to check out Superman Returns and I suspect it might be in a similar boat. Where comic book movies had not matured to the level of being capable of being deep character studies and all we wanted was the big fight and spectacle. With characters like the Hulk and Superman, it's their humanity and weaknesses that make the comics so interesting to read. One thing I have to hand to Marvel is that they take the work their writers have done over the years and build on that foundation for these characters. Ed Brubaker wrote Captain America into basically what he is today. Warren Ellis did a lot of Iron Man, Greg Pak on the Hulk. They all added depth and humanity to these characters. It seems the most inspiration that Snyder took from the DC writers who worked on Superman was for the fight in BvS. All that said, bring on planet Hulk. As for Cloud Atlas For as flawed as it is, you can't help but admire it works half as well as it does. I think of it as a not great movie with some incredibly effective scenes. Lonos Oboe fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 22:26
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