Talk about FILMS you’ve just seen!
- This topic has 137 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 6 days, 3 hours ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’ve been watching some Wam & Vennerød films these last weeks (the ones I could find online, the others I have to watch physically at the National Library). In hope of an interview with composer Svein Gundersen (I haven’t asked yet, I want to have a research head start first). Probably means nothing to anyone but Norwegians here.
Wow, I hope that interview comes to fruition. His “1000 Lys” from DRØMMESLOTTET is one of the best norwegian score tracks ever.
Probably means nothing to anyone but Norwegians here.
Indeed, never heard of that. Or it has a totally different name here. What is that?
Wam & Vennerød was a Norwegian director/producer duo that made 14 films, mostly in the 70s and 80s, and with a strong political edge. Often ridiculed due to the dialogue and acting style, but appreciated more in recent years. The scores by Svein Gundersen, however, are excellent. Some of it is even reminiscent of Frank Duval’s DERRICK music, which we talked about elsewhere. Beautiful pop music, often with a melancholic vibe.
Just back from watching PROJECT HAIL MARY – first visit to the cinema since the pandemic – and I wasn’t that impressed with it.
I just didn’t buy in to any of the alien or the bromance. So many aspects of the technology/science you just have to accept happens.
Daniel Pemberton’s score was at its best when he used the choir. But that was purely because of the quality of the music per se rather than having any emotional impact since I didn’t really buy into any of the alien-human relationship.
I will certainly keep an ear out for tbose choral tracks when I get around to listening to the score.
Same here, Alan. Some good things, but mostly issues. But I’m guessing it will be a fine crossover film for 10-11-12-year olds who graduate from kiddie flicks to more adult fare. It has that “inbetween” quality.
Yesterday watched Zemecki’s ALLIED the first time. Thought I saw it already but apparently didn’t. “Liked” that there was no happy end, although I found that epilogue unnecessary and had the end credits start right after the finale. Fitting Silvestri score although nothing spectacular.
That’s extremely generous for a movie like that. Only my all-time favorites ‘might’ have a 9/10.
Nah, credit where credit is due. I have to use the scale pragmatically and not just reserve 10/10 (or rather 5/5, as it is on MUBI) for the all-time classics. That would be pointless when you watch so many films. So every year, there is at least a handful of 5/5 titles on the top list. I see I actually gave A QUIET PLACE 5/5 on MUBI, even though it was 6th (which would probably translate to 9/10 in that scale). It was a good year.
I give 10/10 to what I think are the best movies and 1/10 for what I think are the worst movie. I think for a scale to be relevant, the entire scale should be used.
I’d give A QUIET PLACE 6/10 (or 3/5).
I think it was a well made (well directed/acted etc.) monster movie with an original premise, but I found the creatures to be rather unbelievable, I just didn’t really buy them. I understand the concept, but based on the size and biology of the creatures and the way they got here, I found them to be way too powerful to really buy into them. I mean, it seemed they basically wiped out most of mankind and are virtually indestructible and superfast and superstrong, and super aggressive against anything that makes sound for no apparent reason, but on the other hand, they are hardly larger than a bear.I’ve always been a bit skeptical of rating scales, and especially if they are used inconsistently, but I can see their use.
Here’s basically how I rate movies (when I rate them) with examples.
9/10 — Great movie. Essential. Classic. Top of the top.
Transcends genre. Has artistic, thematic, or cinematic significance beyond its premise.
Examples: CHINATOWN, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, BLADE RUNNER, JAWS, CASABLANCA7/8 — Very strong film.
Delivers above expectations. Shows ambition, craft, or emotional or film historic impact that elevates it.
Not quite transcendent classics, but clearly superior to most films in its category.
Examples: AVATAR, SOUL, THE STRAIGHT STORY, WOLFEN5/6 — Good within genre expectations.
Delivers on its premise.
Doesn’t surpass the genre, but doesn’t fall short.
Competent, coherent, satisfying. If you like the genre, you may enjoy the film, if the genre isn’t for you, you can probably skip it.
Examples: DEEP WATER, A QUIET PLACE, RUST3/4 — Flawed, proceed with caution. May be interesting under certain conditions.
Parts work, parts don’t. If it’s a genre film, it may still be of interest to genre fans, but probably holds none beyond.
The film may have a strong idea, a few standout scenes, or good performances, but structural or tonal issues hold it back.
You can see the movie it wanted to be, but it just doesn’t hold up. Or maybe all the parts are good but the concept/idea is bad.
Examples: ROBIN HOOD – PRINCE OF THIEVES, MR. & MRS. SMITH, LIFEFORCE1/2 — Poor. Garbage. Boring. Uninteresting. Objectionable. Bottom of the Barrel.
Fails to deliver on its premise.
Major issues in writing, pacing, acting, or direction.
Occasionally watchable for curiosity or unintended comedy, but not successful on its own terms.
Examples: CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, THE ROOM, THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIALI just didn’t really buy them. I understand the concept, but based on the size and biology of the creatures and the way they got here, I found them to be way too powerful to really buy into them. I mean, it seemed they basically wiped out most of mankind and are virtually indestructible and superfast and superstrong, and super aggressive against anything that makes sound for no apparent reason, but on the other hand, they are hardly larger than a bear.
Right. That’s what I thought as well. Movie well made, some good scenes. But the whole setup with these creatures and how they act not very credible.
Just back from THE DRAMA. What an annoying waste of time. Not one scene rang true for me. Every character was either awkward or a tw@t. Like DREAM SCENARIO, the last film by Borgli & Aster, it’s got an interesting central premise, but is half-baked and ends up going nowhere. He must have said to composer Daniel Pemberton “just bring some flutes”. I need to steer clear of ANYTHING with the name Ari Aster on it, cos I’ve hated everything he’s done since laughing/rolling my eyes throughout HEREDITARY. Me and him just don’t mix.
Just back from THE DRAMA. What an annoying waste of time. Not one scene rang true for me. Every character was either awkward or a tw@t. Like DREAM SCENARIO, the last film by Borgli & Aster, it’s got an interesting central premise, but is half-baked and ends up going nowhere. He must have said to composer Daniel Pemberton “just bring some flutes”. I need to steer clear of ANYTHING with the name Ari Aster on it, cos I’ve hated everything he’s done since laughing/rolling my eyes throughout HEREDITARY. Me and him just don’t mix.
I was not thrilled with THE DRAMA either, as I alluded to in an earlier post. But unlike you, I do like Borgli’s previous films.
Aster & Eggers are strange cases for me. Celebrated by many, and I can understand WHY it is so. I can see the quality in much of what they do. I just can’t connect to most of their films on a personal level; I find myself irritated or indifferent. I do like Aster’s MIDSOMMAR, which I’ve seen a couple of times and captures that WICKER MAN vibe pretty well. But that’s about it from him. Never understood the big deal about HEREDITARY, and found both BEAU IS AFRAID and EDDINGTON pretty awful. I like Eggers’ THE VVITCH and bits and pieces of NOSFERATU, but can’t stand THE LIGHTHOUSE and THE NORTHMAN. Yeah, I know. I’m the odd one out.
I like MIDSOMMAR, and I think HEREDITARY was one of the best horror movies of recent years, rich on atmosphere and creepy moments. BEAU IS AFRAID was interesting… like a nightmare of someone too afraid to live his life, thereby causing his life to get worse and worse. Eggers is a different story. I did like THE WITCH, very much so, but THE NORTHMAN, while well acted and good looking, just didn’t do anything for me. It was “empty”. Likewise NOSFERATU, which had some great visuals and moments, and Count Orlok was definitely the most repulsive representation of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA I’ve ever seen on film, but I wasn’t sure what the movie was really about. Haven’t seen THE LIGHTHOUSE yet; have it on my “to watch” list for some time but never got around to it.
Saw the neat Dutch-British sci fi/survival/psychological thriller film THE OCCUPANT (2025) last night. Really irritating that I didn’t discover it earlier, as it would have been a contender for my top list of last year. I just love to find well-made indie genre films like this.
Today, I finally got around to Park Chan-wook’s new film, NO OTHER CHOICE (2025). Well, I was rather disappointed, to be honest. It’s a story about class structures, poverty, lay-offs and desperate measures to protect your family, much like PARASITE by his Korean colleague Bong Joon Ho, and in fact Chan-wook tries to infuse it with the kind of Roald Dahl-inspired, burlesque quality that Joon Ho is (occasionally) known for. But the comedy was off here, the story is way too drawn out and the central premise is simply not very interesting. But I loved the deep, autumnal colours and settings. Kudos to cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung.
BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN – my third or fourth viewing, enjoy it more every time, despite its flaws and Shostakovich inaccuracies. Things I really like about it:
Michael Caine at his zenith as a spy, just a few years away from his gangsterish best in Get Carter and slightly more bitter than in the first two Palmer films.
Karl Malden and Ed Begley as the demented Americans with very different agendas.
A strong supporting cast including Valdez Sheybal, Oscar Homolka, Françoise Dorléac.
A great and motley set of minor roles, including Susan George as a little girl on a train in her first film, Michael Caine’s brother as a postie, and the voice of Donald Sutherland.
Ken Russell’s dynamic direction. Even though this was a reluctant gig for him some of the camera-pointing is exceptional. Kudos of course for cinematographer Billy Williams and production designer Syd Cain.
Richard Rodney Bennett’s grandiose score, lots of pianos, lots of atmosphere.
The vehicles! A stretched Zodiac is the automotive highlight, but Canberras doubling as Soviet aircraft, the troop carriers in the incursion into Latvian, marvellous stuff.
I also enjoy knowing that the Shostakovich symphony described by Colonel Stok with patriotic tears in his eyes as the 7th (The “Leningrad”) is actually the final movement of the 11th. Although the “Invasion” theme from the monumental first movement of the 7th is actually played (under Mravinsky, should you care) while General Midwinter’s troops are being mobilised.
I’m not going to dwell on its weaknesses, feel free to mention them if you feel you need to 🙂
Never actually seen it, but I’ve heard of it — mostly because of the Richard Rodney Bennett connection. You make some good sales points!
I just saw Flow, and after it, immediately watched Gints Zilbalodis’s first feature, Away, which is a thematic and structural dry run for Flow, in a way that’s interesting. I was playing it for my father, intending to work in the background, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It’s serene, but matters. It has nowhere near the level of drama implied in the trailer, and that’s a positive. The image rendering is not at 2024 levels, yet it remains visually sumptuous.
Everyone is speaking so warmly about FLOW. I should get around to it, I see it’s on our free streaming library service, so no excuse. Thanks for the reminder. Slow and serene is up my alley!
Van Wilder (Walt Becker, 2002) 1/10
You know how there are some movies that may have been funny at one time long ago but are not really funny anymore? Perhaps they were funny once because we were younger, less experienced, less mature, or perhaps because the humor of the movie feels now, years or decades later, hard to relate to, or maybe no longer topical, no longer up to date. You know these types of movies? Well, this is not one of those movies. We don’t know how many parallel Universes may exist, but I assure you, there is no Universe in which this film was ever funny. It is a grating, tasteless, boring, totally unfunny piece of… well, you know.
What VAN WILDER achieves, though I don’t really like to have the word “achievement” anywhere near this movie, is the cinematic equivalent of being trapped at a frat party hosted by people who think being loud and obnoxious is the same as being witty. I’ve seen car crashes I found more entertaining. And I’m not at all the kind of person who finds car crashes entertaining.
Ryan Reynolds can be happy hardly anyone seems to remember this movie, he still became a big star. Heck, there are several people in this movie who managed to survive it (Aaron Paul for example has a small role as a wasted party goer, who is credited as “wasted guy” in the end credits.
The script (though it may be presumptuous to say the word “script”… it may just have been smeared words on a beer-wet paper napkin jotted down at a party while stoned and drunk) is… well, the best thing you can say about the script is that it’s full of clichés (all of which have been done better). The gags in this movie are not just juvenile; they are the kind of jokes that make juveniles say “grow up”. Old dad-jokes are fresh and hip compared to even the best gags in this movie.
Roger Ebert once said that no good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough. Van Wilder feels like it violates the Geneva Convention by existing for more than five minutes. I watched the whole thing though yesterday and held through to the end… because while watching it, it became quickly evident to me that I had no choice but to make it a life mission to warn people about it.
I didn’t really seek it out, in fact, I had not even heard about this movie until I saw it yesterday. We were just looking for a short, simple comedy movie and this was just suggested (by Prime Video)… so the movie did find me rather than the other way around. Now I’m in hiding.
Saw BONE LAKE yesterday, the 2024 film that only got a Norwegian release this year.
I had heard good things about it, so I was curious. But as it turns out, it was a rather stale, predictable horror thriller – reverting to the usual tropes (escalating conflict between the couples, bloody ending etc.). For a better ‘couple terrorizes another couple’ film, I’d recommend SPEAK NO EVIL instead (go for the original, Danish film from 2022, although the slightly milder Hollywood remake from 2024 wasn’t too bad).
Just came back from Antoine Fuqua’s MICHAEL – the new Michael Jackson biopic, starring his nephew in the title role. It’s fairly OK, but I had expected something a little more spectacular and engrossing, given that it’s a celebration of his life as an artist and musician (none of the controversial elements of his life are in it, and that’s fine – that’s not what it’s about). And the fact that Fuqua is usually a very visually energetic filmmaker. It’s surprisingly intimate, so the IMAX screening felt a little too much.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.