Looking at the IMDb rating and rotten tomatoes audience score I got the impression it's a bit of a classic in terms of comedies from the 80s. To be fair I didn't really see why it is that highly scored though, but I guess alot of people born in the late 70s will perhaps have grown up with it and have a soft spot for it.

Clue, from what I remember of it, is cute. You can definitely feel it's low budgety-ness, and you definitely shouldn't try to take it seriously. It's one of those movies that's remembered for being sort of weird and off the wall, and because "How da f- do you make a movie out of a board game??", that it just sort of got a reputation as being one of "those" movies.

But highly regarded...not so much.

Really? Weird, I've only ever heard people talk about in the "Wonderful World Of Filmographical Curiosities" way.

Strange.

That's probably it.

It may be one of those things were those who actually see it, and know what to expect, enjoy it for what it is. My sister likes it, for example, mostly I think for Tim Curry. I on the other hand have consciously avoided it

One of these independent kickstarter movies written, directed and shot by one person (but looks more expensive than that).

Great acting, great tension, good story. Didn't have much to say, but said it well. Nice tight little revenge thriller. Well worth watching for something different.

Over 90% on the Tomato-meter. Do yourselves a favour, guys.

That Blue Run film looks interesting, great poster.

The first 10-15 min of Blue Ruin are killer.

After that it slips into being a movie where I was predicting what was going to happen before it happened--and I'm not that smart.

Specifically, there's this high-ension showdown moment in which the tension is finally broken w/ help from an unexpected source--except I was expecting it. It was the kind of thing where you're saying "Oh now so-and-so is going to appear and do this," and then, pow, right on cue that's what happens. Kind of lost me there. I wouldn't call it a bad film, though. Lead actor was interesting.

Well, shit. I finally saw Amadeus. And was hugely surprised by its tone and accessibility. I was completely expecting something stuffy and pompous, but it's really just a good story that is solidly executed, with a world and characters that genuinely feel real (and modern). I'm impressed, and I will no doubt be revisiting it at some point in the future.
If you've put off seeing it for one reason or another, give it a go. I think the only complaint is the run-time, so just watch it when you're in the mood for a film of that length. Thumbs up though.

Last edited by Herc (2014-07-15 05:17:41)

Disclaimer: if you dislike the tone of a post I make, re-read it in a North/East London accent until it sounds sufficiently playful

Saw some stuff this week, brace yourselves. Gold rating is the IMDB score.

Need for Speed (2014) - 5/10 (7.0)

Lllllllllllllllladies...

Video-game based, completely braindead plot, don't even think about it. Aaron Paul is a guy who needs to race in an illegal street race for some reason. Whatever. The game probably made as much sense.
Several cringe-inducing moments.
Still, I was able to shut my brain off, and to be fair the cinematography is great overall, camera work during car chases is great, and the soundmix and design is pretty darn spectacular. Haven't heard car engines sound this nice in any movie probably.
It's probably a 3/10, but I saw it on a good day so I'm feeling generous.

Casino (1995) - 8/10 (8.2)

Hadn't really seen it before. Realized how much this reminds me of "Wolf Of Wall Street". De Niro plays a guy who gets up in the world as a Casino owner in Vegas. Things predictable take a turn for the worse at some point.
Great, really great acting by all involved (Joe Pesci in particular is fantastic to me, as is Sharon Stone), lots of narration over on-screen action and great editing. So much of this film is set to music and it helps the 3 hours really fly by, there's a rhythm to the film almost always that makes it roll along.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Director's Cut) (1977) - 8/10 (7.7)

Hadn't seen it before, only a scene here or there. Overall it's great, the entire movie is a slow buildup to the final 4th of the film. At several times during the film I was in awe of the cinematography and effects. Simply gorgeous throughout.
The characters kind of get a bit lost at the end in the grandeur of everything else happening, but it's still a very nice film, although probably not as thematically strong as you'd perhaps expect from Spielberg. It's more a straight line from beginning to end, as opposed to a movie that sets up themes and ideas early and then reinforces them or reincorporates them into later decisions or events.

Tim's Vermeer (2013) (Documentary) - 8/10 (7.9)

Thanks for the recommendation Teague. This documentary was great, like a really long Mythbusters episode. Never had much of an interest in art but this was more about the science behind it, which was fascinating.

Dear Mr. Gacy (2010) - 8/10 (6.5)

Based on a true story apparently. A student writes convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy in prison, trying to get into his mind and find out more about his crimes, of which Gacy officially still claimed he was innocent. Not sure how much is true to the real events but the relationship with the convicted serial killer quickly spirals out of control, and you wouldn't think there was that much to fear from a guy in jail. Also you start wondering where the interest in the serial killer from the main character really comes from.
Seen some comparisons to Silence of The Lambs, and DMG does feel a bit like if SotL only focused on Sterling and Lecter. Definitely worth checking out.

The Ledge (2011) - 7/10 (6.6)

Overall I enjoyed it. Charlie Hunnam (Sons Of Anarchy) stands on a ledge ready to jump, as he tells a cop the backstory to him being there. He's an non-believer who falls for his christian neighbors wife, and starts trying to flirt with her.

If you've seen "The Man From Earth", The Ledge feels a bit like that, where the movie was the project of a writer who focused mainly on the script. The flms deals with theology and belief and non-belief, though it doesn't really make any solid, well-conveyed points in the end
The characters do, at times, feel a bit... flat... I wanna say. Like the actors perhaps don't really have that much material to sculpt them into fully fleshed out characters. It also feels a bit too safe throughout, like we know it's building to a specific point of Hunnam being where he is, so there isn't as much tension as there is potential for. The movie would probably have been better off if it scrapped the framing device of the jumper and the cop, though there is a reason for it being there aswell.
I really like Patrick Wilson, and he, as the christian husband to Liv Tylers wife, has a fantastic section in the film where he outclasses everyone else in the movie in skill.

The Presence (2010) - 4/10 (4.5)

"The Shining" in slow motion. Girlfriend and boyfriend alone in wooden cottage, spirits influence their psyche in bad ways.
Didn't do much for me unfortunately. More psychological drama than anything really.

Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) - 7/10 (6.8)

Considering the great reception "Cabin In The Woods" got, this movie, released before it, really deserves alot more attention. Shot on a very small budget apparently. It dissects the tropes of horror films and explains the conventions in a very meta way.
The premise of the movie is that all the classic movie killers and cities are real, like Mike Myers, Freddie Krueger, etc, and are treated as actual people who live in the world of the film.
Now a student sets out to find and interview a legend in their town, Leslie Vernon. As it turns out he decides to allow them to tag along and document the behind the scenes of a killer in these movies. Along the way we meet retired killers, find out various techniques for creating the situations one often faults cheap horror films for, and our crew starts getting more and more moral qualms about them documenting the work of a killer.

I really do recommend it, the style of the film will probably seem at first a bit cheap and juvenile once we meet Leslie and there are some, probably intentionally, cringey attempts at comedy, but once you realize the tone they are going for, it's a very endearingly made film. There's also a bit more than meets the eye.

Ils (Them) (2006) - 5/10 (6.5)

Seen this horror/home invasion film before many years ago. It doesn't really hold up unfortunately, I spent the majority of it berating the two main characters, in peril from attackers in their secluded Romanian home, for seemingly making as much noise as possible when hiding from people.
There are worse home invasion films, but this one, although at times very effective, is ultimately frustrating and not really anything new at all. It does get points for an almost perfect buildup however.

Very true about the rebellious part, need to see it again since that aspect about Amadeus didn't ring a bell.

We didn't even get asked what types of movies we normally watched. You had pupils who only played soccer and hung out suddenly trying to dissect Amadeus. It's to me a bit like starting Maths on equations before you even get to the plus and minus part.

Conversely, I had a film course in the equivalent of high school, and there we actually went through some concrete examples. Just something simple like shot-reverse shot inconsistencies due to recording on different days and such. Stuff you didn't notice unless you were looking for them. Those kinds of things quickly opened my eyes to there actually being a process being making a film. Anyways, wrong thread I suppose but was just a tangent from my part.