[Focker]

  Lone Survivor ( 2013) 8/10
 
 
Superb as an action movie. But that dose of humanity in the ending spoiled the movie in my opinion. Couldn't believe that an afghan tribe would risk life of the whole village in order to save a single american soldier.
 
 

 
 
I thought that was unrealistic, as well, until they explained it. Then I thought it was inspiring to see a people so willing to honor their culture. 

 

[metalsonata]

   
The first anime or manga ( can't make a difference) film I watched in my life. 

 
Anime = film, manga = print. A good first choice though--can do no wrong with Miyazaki. Or at least I'm assuming you can't--I haven't seen The Wind Rises yet, though I'm looking forward to it.

 

[2015071]

The Prince Of Egypt: 9.35/10
 
When it first came out I was emm... 4. Even I'd watched it, I will have no memory about it after all. So, I picked up the movie and it amazed me. The music is awesome (while some parts are too forced). The characters (Moses and Remesy) is thoughtout pretty well, while the side characters are a little bit dull. The artwork is amazing, especially the CGI effects. The story, well it's an old popular story, which proofs itself a good story, is fabulous. This literally, got the balls to rape and kill Disney. So long Disney!!!

 

[kkl10]

Yi Yi: A One and a Two (2000) - 9,5
 
First time I see this work from Edward Yang, one of the leading names of contemporary Cinema of Taiwan, whom I completely ignored until now.
It brought A Separation from Asghar Farhadi back to my memory, another movie which also depicts the everyday hurdles of a family and with reminiscent aesthetics although not as fleshed out and subtle... I felt that movie was trying to achieve something similar but in much lesser scale, and yet it failed to exert in me a positive impression like the charming Yi Yi.
The thing that lacked in the iranian movie was present in the taiwanese in just the right doses to add that touch of nuance so necessary for the authenticity of human relations: affection/tenderness between people of different genders.
You'd think this is a ridiculously basic thing to bi**h about, anyway to me any serious familiar drama must be able to depict the fundamental reason why families are formed: love between different gender people (assuming we're talking about hetero relationships, of course)... this can be shown in all sorts of subtle ways, but it was almost non-existant in A Separation, and at times women seemed to have a sort of manly manner to their way of being... very very weird and of putting to me...
This, among other things, very much limited the power of persuasion and the ability to touch me of the iranian work, I didn't connect, it felt flat and boring... I guess the fact that it was a familiar drama filmed almost as a sort of thriller didn't help... there's nothing thrilling in familiar quotidian life, it's mostly emotional, an aspect where it felt short for me...
All this just to say that contrary to A Separation, Yi Yi is pretty much a perfect family drama, but pointing out this mere evidence (in my eyes) is an insult to the taiwanese work, it's much! more than that.
I see Yi Yi as a bigger, better, easier to live through, a trully satisfying cinematic experience.
 
Yi Yi is an epic drama story, the focus of attention are the life probations of a family where kids, adults and an old lady are all main characters of life and they go through many eye opening experiences that touch us, amuse us, humiliate us, intrigue us, makes us think... life lessons.
It lasts for 3 hours and although this amount of time actually seems small for the thematic ambition of this work, Edward Yang manages to develop each theme, human relation, challenge with sensibility and intelligence, in a calm and confident pace and leave nothing left to say.
There's indeed no need to say anything more, the premisse is fully fullfilled, by the time the movie ends we are left with the feeling of having watched something as epic, deep and bittersweet as life itself with an extra alluring spell carved by the wonderful cinematic mastery of Yang.
The only thing I'd wish to be changed is the soundtrack, it's a bit too trivial... it almost cheapens the experience for me, but maybe I'm being excessively critical here, probably just a matter of taste, I dunno... fortunatelly it lasts little time and it's easy to forget...
That's the only complain, all other technical aspects are more than good enough, the acting is excelent all around.
What a wonderful movie, I highly recommend it!
 
 
 

 

[Za Warudo]

  Yi Yi: A One and a Two (2000) - 9,5
 
First time I see this work from Edward Yang, one of the leading names of contemporary Cinema of Taiwan, whom I completely ignored until now.
It brought A Separation from Asghar Farhadi back to my memory, another movie which also depicts the everyday hurdles of a family and with reminiscent aesthetics although not as fleshed out and subtle... I felt that movie was trying to achieve something similar but in much lesser scale, and yet it failed to exert in me a positive impression like the charming Yi Yi.
The thing that lacked in the iranian movie was present in the taiwanese in just the right doses to add that touch of nuance so necessary for the authenticity of human relations: affection/tenderness between people of different genders.
You'd think this is a ridiculously basic thing to bi**h about, anyway to me any serious familiar drama must be able to depict the fundamental reason why families are formed: love between different gender people (assuming we're talking about hetero relationships, of course)... this can be shown in all sorts of subtle ways, but it was almost non-existant in A Separation, and at times women seemed to have a sort of manly manner to their way of being... very very weird and of putting to me...
This, among other things, very much limited the power of persuasion and the ability to touch me of the iranian work, I didn't connect, it felt flat and boring... I guess the fact that it was a familiar drama filmed almost as a sort of thriller didn't help... there's nothing thrilling in familiar quotidian life, it's mostly emotional, an aspect where it felt short for me...
All this just to say that contrary to A Separation, Yi Yi is pretty much a perfect family drama, but pointing out this mere evidence (in my eyes) is an insult to the taiwanese work, it's much! more than that.
I see Yi Yi as a bigger, better, easier to live through, a trully satisfying cinematic experience.
 
Yi Yi is an epic drama story, the focus of attention are the life probations of a family where kids, adults and an old lady are all main characters of life and they go through many eye opening experiences that touch us, amuse us, humiliate us, intrigue us, makes us think... life lessons.
It lasts for 3 hours and although this amount of time actually seems small for the thematic ambition of this work, Edward Yang manages to develop each theme, human relation, challenge with sensibility and intelligence, in a calm and confident pace and leave nothing left to say.
There's indeed no need to say anything more, the premisse is fully fullfilled, by the time the movie ends we are left with the feeling of having watched something as epic, deep and bittersweet as life itself with an extra alluring spell carved by the wonderful cinematic mastery of Yang.
The only thing I'd wish to be changed is the soundtrack, it's a bit too trivial... it almost cheapens the experience for me, but maybe I'm being excessively critical here, probably just a matter of taste, I dunno... fortunatelly it lasts little time and it's easy to forget...
That's the only complain, all other technical aspects are more than good enough, the acting is excelent all around.
What a wonderful movie, I highly recommend it!
 
 
 
 
 

I love Yi Yi.  You should watch his other works if you have a chance.  A Brighter Summer Day is his masterpiece and even more epic in scale than Yi Yi.  The Terrorizers is very different from other works in style but it's remarkable as well.

 

[Makiah S]

  I love Yi Yi.  You should watch his other works if you have a chance.  A Brighter Summer Day is his masterpiece and even more epic in scale than Yi Yi.  The Terrorizers is very different from other works in style but it's remarkable as well.

... Thank you guys... a lot those movies LOOK AWESOME, I'm renting them now! Impressions to come

 

[kkl10]

  I love Yi Yi.  You should watch his other works if you have a chance.  A Brighter Summer Day is his masterpiece and even more epic in scale than Yi Yi.  The Terrorizers is very different from other works in style but it's remarkable as well.

 
Will try to checkout more works from Edward Yang for sure.

 

[metalsonata]

Marie Antoinette (2006): 6/10
 
Style over substance, and one of those unfortunate cases where the abundance of style doesn't make up for the lack of substance. Hell of a great soundtrack though: Aphex Twin, The Cure, Gang of Four, New Order, Siouxie and the Banshees, etc. 

 

[oqvist]

Das Leben der Anderen 8/10
 
Great story makes the movie.

 

[kkl10]

Stalker (1979) - 8,5

First Tarkovsky premiere in my short cinematic vocabulary.
Probably not the most acessible initiation but something tells me that previewing any other films from the russian director wouldn't make Stalker any easier to digest.
It's a difficult movie of very slow pace, sober camera work and a plot device apparently propelled by pure intellectual premisse.
The cinematic aesthetic is distinctively bleak, one of the bleakest I've ever seen, and yet the cinematography has a singular quality that fascinates me.
I look forward to the day Stalker receives Bluray treatment, watching a dubious quality DVD rip on an HD capable screen doesn't work it any favors... this was the main reason why I've been delaying the view of Stalker... and Come And See (this one's rip looks even worse, gah...).
Not easy to fully dissect what a first view unravels but I'll say it seemed to me an essay/allegory about faith, about the eternal search for the Truth and about the way how different thought paradigms deal with the task.
I liked the way how this last point was worked out.
3 characters: "Stalker", the one who guides the other 2 through "The Zone" seems to represent the religious or moral paradigm, the "Writer", the Art paradigm and the "Professor" represents Science. Each character, ie, each paradigm has it's own point of view and it's own reason to search for the Truth, the way how their interaction was developed seemed well judged and congruent to me. At the edge of the room where the Truth is to be finaly consumated, the 3 paradigms start fighting between each other and with their own reasons, naturally no one goes into the room because the Truth can only be aimed at from a distance, we still cannot touch it.
Hard to give a rating here, this is quite different from most cinema, it's a unique language or Tarkovsky simply masters it like no one else.
I feel like it makes no sense to rate it lower than 10, nor higher than 0 depending on the love hate camp we land at... hard for me to see this work in the same scale as most other films, a feeling I share with Eraserhead and The Tree of Life (saw this one a few weeks ago and still haven't decided).
I don't love it (close but not yet) nor hate it, but I highly respect it.
In one hand I enjoyed very much the dreamlike quality of the whole experience, the bleak and surreal atmosphere carved by the singular cinematography and camera work, the very interesting "intellectual plot" (I guess it's more accurate to just describe the whole work as an allegory), the excelent dialogues and something about the "Stalker" character that just doesn't go away from my head, his angular face is quite an unforgeteable view, seriously I can't think of anyone else to play his role (I know it sounds weird...), nice acting.
But on the other hand this film is almost turtuously slow at times, unnecessarily so, a few scenes could had been chopped a bit, but maybe compressing it all to a shorter work would take away some of the immersion factor and post-impression this film produces on it's viewers... I'm still digesting what I saw and I'm gonna lay my eyes on it at least one more time.
I think I will dream with Stalker one day some night...
 
Rating might get revised as I see more Tarkovsky works.
Solaris is next.

 

[mutabor]

  Stalker (1979) - 8,5

Probably not the most acessible initiation but something tells me that previewing any other films from the russian director wouldn't make Stalker any easier to digest.
 
Solaris is next.

 
Stalker is probably the slowest and most claustrophobic of his films. Solaris is a bit easier to watch.

 

[oqvist]

Skip Solaris and go straight to play the game Stalker. Call to priphyat would also work. I am astonished how well they preserve the stalker atmosphere. May argue they have the same issue regarding the quality of the graphics but it should be dirty so it kind of work in it´s favour.

 

[metalsonata]

  Skip Solaris and go straight to play the game Stalker. Call to priphyat would also work. I am astonished how well they preserve the stalker atmosphere. May argue they have the same issue regarding the quality of the graphics but it should be dirty so it kind of work in it´s favour.

 
Ehhhhhhh. Stalker is very, very, very loosely based on the film--about all they took was some of the atmosphere and terminology. Definitely do not skip Solaris under any circumstances--as a sci-fi film it is somewhat disappointing (I think the Soderbergh version handled the sci-fi aspects better), but as a mystery/psychological drama it's top-tier stuff. Make sure that you hit Andrei Rublev, as well--I think it's Tarkovsky's best non-sci-fi film. 

 

[Za Warudo]

My fav Tarkovsky's are The Mirror and Andrei Rublev, both of which I've seen on the big screen.

 

[metalsonata]

My fav Tarkovsky's are The Mirror and Andrei Rublev, both of which I've seen on the big screen.

 
Very jealous. My local art house does this thing once a year where people can vote on films that they'll show on the big screen--I've been lobbying for some Tarkovsky for a while now (in addition to Visconti's The Leopard, which is surely one of the most beautiful films ever), but no luck as of yet! I imagine those were amazing experiences.