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Wrath of Khan was ok but I've never enjoyed any of the other movies, including the recent reboots which do nothing for me. They sort of remind me of the Man From Uncle remake from last year. Actors going through the motion but no soul like the originals.
An intriguing love story unfolds with a pair of performances to savour from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. As Carol and Therese slowly circle each other with increasing interest. The film tells the story from the point of view of the two women. It also holds the feminine gaze rather than the masculine. The language - both verbal and body - relating to two women drawn to each other. The male characters are the antagonistic ones. Mystified that either of the central women don't want exactly what they, the men, demand.
Directed with vision and subtlety by Todd Haynes. Considering his previous work - especially on 'Far From Heaven' Haynes seems like not only the obvious - but also the perfect - choice to guide us through the world of 'Carol'.
The cinematography by Edward Lachman (who has done idiosyncratic work for director Haynes before as well as for Soderbergh and Sofia Coppola's dreamy 'Virgin Suicides') is a real standout combining elegantly with the costume, make up and set design to recreate the early 1950s in New York so well. The memorable music is provided by the Coen Brother's loyal composer Carter Burwell. The main theme conjures a yearning and haunts the characters throughout the film.
Blanchett's title character, like a Hitchcock blonde, appears confident, aloof and untouchable. But unlike a Hitchcock blonde she is not to fall into the arms of a man or acquiesce to his expectations. The drive to realise her own desires is stronger than being both emotionally and literally blackmailed into conforming to misery.
As Therese, Mara has the quieter role. But her uncertainty is not based on questioning her sexuality, but rather the affliction of youth. She sees in Carol a formed character. One who has wisdom and experience of life. Someone who has initially chosen a well-trodden easy path and now is forging her own track through the untamed wilderness. There is an attraction toward Therese because she has an innate strength of character that Carol can immediately detect. A lack of pretension and a willingness to say 'yes' to everything. Something that Therese herself later laments but Carol, and I suspect the audience, applaud.
By the end of the film, and indeed well after the credits have rolled, the attraction between the two resonates because the characters stay true to themselves. The film is unusual, maybe even unique, in mainstream cinema in that the gay love affair doesn't descend into tragedy or ever make the protagonists succumb to a guilt over their desires. Because of the semiotics it was like witnessing a foreign culture - it is love seen through the prism of female desire and lesbian attraction. A story told via a different means of communication and the pace of the romance tells us so much about the temperament and maturity of the characters.
One of the most affecting and memorable love stories of recent times.
The space dock sequence is brilliant, looks great on BD and Goldsmiths theme is one of his best captures the imagination.
Star Trek Beyond for the third time the film is growing on me, the character interactions do indeed evoke the show. Being more objective I am glad these films are still being made, though reading the credits at the end the amount of companies involved with production was alarming.
Started off very good, then at about the 1:10 mark (30 minutes remaining) i was starting to look at my watch. Which is a shame as i wanted to like this movie more then i did.
Still it had lush cinematography and a great score by non other then John Barry.
While i watched the film, i was like man this score is good, who has done it? Then at the end credits when it said, music by.... John Barry, i was like: off course who else!
Still thumbs up from me though, but i just wished i liked it more as i believe it to be a pretty good film.
I was in the mood for (as @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 would say) some geriatric action heroes, so I went with 2 favorites of mine: Denzel Washington in Safe House (2012) and Liam Neeson in Run All Night (2015).
I really can't get enough of both Denzel and Liam being total badasses and destroying a lot of bad guys. 'Safe House' is very much in the style of the 'Bourne' films, as it is basically 100 minutes of non-stop action, with a great soundtrack and foreign locations (in this case, South Africa). As for Liam, he doesn't give a sh*t in 'Run All Night', he is a stone cold badass, has a lot of badass moments (shooting someone while smoking a cigarette, going to a bar and killing 10 goons in a few minutes, and his final kill is epic). This is one of my 3 favorite Neeson action flicks, alongside Taken and The A Team. But even compared to Taken, I still describe 'Run All Night' as the ultimate revenge film from Neeson, as he even manages to go back in time to save his son.
The Tuxedo (2002)
Firstly, I want to point out that Jennifer Love Hewitt-Smythe ( :x ) is welcome in any film, I absolutely don't mind. Secondly, Jason Isaacs had to have screen tested for Bond. In this film, he looks like the living breathing version of that artists impression of Bond. In the event of James Purefoy not being available, Isaacs would be my next choice for Bond of the 2000's.
and...
Face/Off (1997)
90's action films, everyone gets two guns each, and no one needs to pause to aim. :D
He is your namesake, i'd expect nothing less in such a response. ;)
Hard Boiled (1992) and Con Air (1997). What a total blast that was. Starting with 2 hours of Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung in numerous shootouts, killing several hundreds of goons. One of my all time favorite action film. And of course, ending with a classic 90's style of pure entertainment thanks to 'Con Air'. Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney and Danny Trejo all give very charismatic performances in a wide range of insane characters. Mix it with a good dose of OTT action (huge shootouts and explosions everywhere), a killer soundtrack and some very quotable one liners, and you have an awesome film.
Literally nothing Nolan's ever put on film has let me down so far. INCEPTION is his own creation, from start to finish. It's a cerebral masterpiece, an inspiring fusion of several film genres. If I wasn't a fan of Nolan's filmmaking already, this one truly cemented my admiration for the man in 2010. As with most of Nolan's output, INCEPTION has its die-hard fans and caustic haters. I'm sure it has everything to do with the film's subject matter and narrative structure. Some roll with it, some disgorge nothing but vomit over it. I for one would like to see more of this kind of stuff. I can't find a single flaw in the film. Instead, I love every second of it. From acting to scoring, and every technical aspect in between, INCEPTION touches all my sweet spots. This film is among my favourite cinematic achievements of the past decade. Some say overrated, I say underrated. It's all a matter of taste. But if you haven't yet watched INCEPTION, I can only encourage you to do so.
Very good film.
Night Moves (1975)
Decent film.
Another Charles Bronson classic.
It is difficult to watch this movie and not think 'Even I could have done so much better'. I was hopeful that after the last two clunkers, the series would achieve renaissance - not in the slightest.
This movie encapsulates what I despise about many modern revisionist films - that they retell the original, but under a grimmer lens so that it is 'original'. No. No it isn't! In fact, the grim tone is what kills the movie. No entry in the series up to this point was this wholly grim and whilst I appreciate tonal consistency, I must admit that the campy elements of the previous films were what saved them - they did not succeed wholly as horror movies and therefore had to adapt themselves to fit the mold of horror-comedy. This is why the fourth and sixth entries are the strongest; not because they try relentlessly to scare you, but because they are self-aware and understand that they are B-movie entertainment.
Narrower complaints include: I despise the characters, they reduced the entirety of the original into 1.5 minutes in the crap opening prologue, Jason's mask holds none of the iconicity and evokes nothing, dialogue makes me wretch, soundtrack makes me scream for Manfredini (and most of Manfredini is subpar) and it makes no sense for Jason to kidnap anybody.
What a missed opportunity. Ranked higher than the last two because there is no body-jumping or androids complaining about their lack of nipples. Because that actually happened in the last two.
1/10
Ranking:
Jason Lives
A New Beginning
The Final Chapter
The New Blood
Part Two
Friday the 13th (1980)
Jason Takes Manhattan
Part Three
Friday the 13th (2009)
Jason X
Jason Goes to Hell
Interested in writing a treatise of sorts on my opinion of the series if anyone is interested.
Good to see another person who rates Part 6! That film is bonkers fun and my favourite of the series.
Curious - which do you think of the classic horror 'reboots' is the best - even if by default? Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on elm street?
As for your question... as undignified as it is for me to say it, I'll have to get back to you on that one, for I haven't seen either - but I'll get around to it when I give those series the same treatment. Of course, I found this reboot was pretty mediocre, so they'd really have to be trying to be worse.
The remake takes itself way too seriously as do the remakes for a nightmare on elm street and especially rob zombie's Halloween. Grimey and grim. All three try to give a serious psychoanalysis of their monster men which seems like its kind of missing the point. Zombie's at least feels like a passion project for him rather than just a simple cash-in as the others are. But I had no desire to see his sequel and I haven't seen the Texas Chainsaw reboots either. I realise the motivation for the relaunches is down to audience identification with brand recognition but none of them have been compelling in any way.