Good Movies Recommendations

[TamaraLeeLee 13]

Really like your new area where you mention a movie that you thought was Good! I watched Mistaken For Strangers after you recommended it, and, of course, you were right. Really great movie.

 

I'd like to open up a topic on great movies we can recommend (I couldn't find this topic on the forum already).

I'm sure y'all have already heard of most things, but you never know…. maybe some unknown gem will show up?

[TamaraLeeLee 13]

I'll start by shouting out THE HUDSUCKER PROXY.

 

If you love the Cohen Brothers like I do, this is the total unsung hero of their collection. It's hilarious, completely tips the hat to 1950's genre, and outstanding acting.

 

and it's You know… for kids!

[jarrycanada 2483]

This is one of those cable tv movies that's on every weekend. and i had seen bits and pieces of it over and over again so many times that I was forced to break down and finally watch it on itunes. i really like Tim Robbins movies. he was recently in The Spoils of Babylon a great tv show that was about bad film making ideas, must watch for anyone who enjoys bad movie making.. I don't think there is such a thing as a bad Cohen Brothers, movie is there.

[TamaraLeeLee 13]

Agreed, they are solid. And Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Good break down.

 

So Spoils of Babylon is your recommendation? Any other lesser known movie gems to suggest?

[jarrycanada 2483]

The last good movie I watched that I really enjoyed was this documentary called "Jodorowsky's Dune " before david lynch had made dune. there was another director out to make that film. Mind you a lot of directors wanted to make dune into a film. but Alejandro Jodorowsky was a crazy nut who had a real vision for what he wanted it to be like. I really enjoyed this movie/ documentary.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqh82Dz84Q

 

I've never watched any of Alejandro Jodorowsky's movies, I tried to watch The Holy Mountain once but didn't get very far into it before I hit the eject button

[seanotron 2307]

Jodorowsky's Dune is indeed a great documentary. He's a delightful nutter and his movie (despite claims by his cohorts during the doc) could never, EVER have been made, but it's totally fascinating stuff. It's one of those things that's more fun to imagine than it probably would have been to watch. We can still thank him for assembling that team, since they eventually gave us stuff like Alien, Blade Runner, etc.

 

I did feel bad for him because you get the sense he's still really hurt that it didn't happen.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Speaking of Blade Runner, when I watched the super duper directors "The Final Cut of Blade Runner

" or the seconded milking as I call it. Ridley Scott at one point talks about how he wanted to originally made dune but never got the rights to it. David lynch had beat him to it.

 

Alejandro Jodorowsky's should of done was sell that storyboard book as a limited edition coffee table style book. he could of made a lot of money with that book alone. wounder if it's on the bluray disc..

[seanotron 2307]

Scott was supposed to direct it after De Laurentiis got the rights away from Jodoworsky, but he said the process of writing the script was really rough so he backed off of it in order to do Blade Runner. I think his older brother died around the same time, so that had something to do with it.

 

I would totally buy that book! Also, can we talk about the fact that Jodoworsky is 85 but looks maybe 65? His enthusiasm must keep him young.

[ElieB 238]

Got into a natural disaster movie kick this week and did some deep digging for fresh selections cause there really aren't that many good ones. My search veered off into post-apocalypse suggestions and I came across this, apparently made for tv, movie called 'The Day After' from 1983. Seems to have a massive cast, including the 'Gute' Steve Guttenberg and John Lithgow, following all kinds of interconnecting stories. Watching it now and I'm super into it. The combination of easy, simple 70's life and he onset of nuclear apocalypse is beautiful. Including a ton of totally non-CGI missile launches. God I envy baby boomers in spite of my smartphone and internet addiction.

[RyanSz 3140]

I'll just list a few that I've watched this year that just blew me away for a variety of reasons.

 

Blood Father: Mel Gibson as a recovering addict/convict who gets pulled into a escape plan from the Mexican Cartel by his estranged daughter. Gibson shows he can still act the shit out of an action movie while being comedic at the same time. Also watch Get the Gringo starring Gibson which can be seen as a spiritual sequel to Payback.

 

Hell or High Water: an amazing modern western/heist movie that mixes Heat and No Country For Old Men, if Ben Foster doesn't at least get nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars it will be a crime.

 

The Accountant - surprised me with where the movie took me and one of the rare times where a trailer doesn't completely spoil the movie for you.

 

The Death of Superman Lives - a great documentary on the failed Tim Burton/Nic Cage Superman movie. Goes real in-depth with almost everyone involved with the project and shows how far a movie can be made while not actually ever being made.

[NathanGordon 1096]

I really enjoyed Arrival for a bunch of reasons. It's one of those rare sci-fi films in theaters that manages to tell a smart story in a smart way. I didn't read reviews or watch the trailer beforehand, and I'm really glad I didn't. It's not perfect but it's well executed. So far, Villeneuve has been pitching a perfect game, in my book.

 

I watched a ton of 80s horror films last month, and my favorite one that I hadn't seen before was Elves. It would be perfect for this podcast, but it's probably too obscure. Let me just give you IMDB's summary of the storyline:

 

A young woman discovers that she is the focus of an evil Nazi experiment involving selective breeding and summoned elves, an attempt to create a race of supermen. She and two of her friends are trapped in a department store with an elf, and only Dan Haggerty, as the renegade loose-cannon Santa Claus, can save them.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a good time to you.

 

[bella_008 188]

I really enjoyed Arrival for a bunch of reasons.

I watched it last weekend and loved it there were some things that i thought could have been done better but I thought overall it was really interesting, although I could hear when it ended a lot of people were excpecting more of an action movie and were disappointed.

[RyanSz 3140]

I forgot about Arrival, that movie is the kind of hard sci-fi movie that Intersteller wished it was. It worked well and how it handled timelines and linguistics worked really well. As for people expecting it to be an action movie, for some reason when some people see and explosion or big alien they expect it to be an action movie without looking any further into it. That reminds me of the woman who sued the makers of Drive because they thought it was going to be like Fast & Furious rather than a slow burn thriller.

[ElieB 238]

I liked Arrival and respect that it was quality hard sci-fi. But I still far prefer Interstellar for its scope, production value, soundtrack & characters. Arrival relies far too much on suspense, mystery and reveal to the point of losing any rewatchability once you know the twists. It's also just a one woman show... The rest of the cast is given too little to do and given no development or stakes. Also thought the soundtrack was appropriate but totally underwhelming.

[RyanSz 3140]

I liked Arrival and respect that it was quality hard sci-fi. But I still far prefer Interstellar for its scope, production value, soundtrack & characters. Arrival relies far too much on suspense, mystery and reveal to the point of losing any rewatchability once you know the twists. It's also just a one woman show... The rest of the cast is given too little to do and given no development or stakes. Also thought the soundtrack was appropriate but totally underwhelming.

My problem with Interstellar was it took so many things from other sci-fi movies and tried to play it off as new, like the scene where wormholes are explained is literally bit for bit a steal from Event Horizon. I was more interested in the goings on in Earth that Nolan created like the aggro-centric society that tried to whitewash man's successes in technology and space, but the movie sort of fell flat when you could see the twist coming from a mile away with time and wormholes. It also didn't help that the end was basically what the How I Met Your Mother finale was in regards to the relationships between key characters.

[ElieB 238]

Continuing my run of natural disaster/apocalyptic movies, i'm watching Miracle Mile (1989)

synopsis:

 

"A young man meets and falls in love with a young woman at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. This area is known as Miracle Mile, and the whole movie takes place there. They make a date, which he misses, and while he is searching for her, he accidentally finds out that we (the United States) are about to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. He frantically searches for her so that they can escape Los Angeles."

 

He finds out by answering a call over a pay phone outside some dinner and the entire movie is framed with the suspicion of wondering whether the call was real or not. It's great. Almost reminds me of playing that one 1980's grand theft auto. Moves at a great pace, characters are all pretty great, good suspence throughout, stands up well for an 80's flick. Hell it would be a great movie to reboot actually.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

+1 recommendation for Hell or High Water!

 

Also recommending Captain Fantastic, The Invitation, Hush, and Moana!

 

Oh and seriously for serious if anyone hasn't seen the Lemonade film then I fucking beg everyone to watch it. It's absolutely beautiful and so much more than just a string of music videos, which I actually saw some dumb person say lol.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Y'all...Loving. It's so fucking good. If you like Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special), then Loving is right up your alley. It's not the movie I was expecting, but it was 100% Nichols.

 

Also, The Edge of Seventeen was really great. If you were kind of an antisocial shit in high school, you'll basically spend the whole movie either relating or cringing (but not in an awful way) to Hailee Steinfeld's character.

 

Other favorites of the year: Green Room, Krisha (probably my favorite movie of the year so far), The Lobster (probably my 2nd favorite), Sing Street (now on Netflix!), and Swiss Army Man

[tomspanks 9039]

Other favorites of the year: Green Room, Krisha (probably my favorite movie of the year so far), The Lobster (probably my 2nd favorite), Sing Street (now on Netflix!), and Swiss Army Man

 

Explain The Lobster's ending.

[RyanSz 3140]

The Lobster's Ending =

Colin Farrell basically figuring out if he should really blind himself out of love for Rachel Weiss by having a stupid thing in common as promoted by the hotel or if he can fake being blind like he faked it before with other women and let their real love connect them.

At least that's how I saw it.

 

As for Swiss Army Man I saw that in theaters and the crowd was literally stunned into silence by what we all just saw. I thought it was good in a weird way but was really hoping for a Jacob's Ladder scenario in concern to the beginning where he's stranded on the island. I loved Green Room as it was a very realistic take on a standoff scenario between a band of skinny punk rockers and hardcore skinheads where there isn't any real deus ex machina that's going to save the good guys and no one is safe from the danger that they are in except for themselves. If you want further movies to watch, the director of Green Room Jeremy Saulnier also made Blue Ruin which is a modern revenge crime movie and Murder Party which is a low budget slasher comedy but still really good.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

The Lobster's Ending =

Colin Farrell basically figuring out if he should really blind himself out of love for Rachel Weiss by having a stupid thing in common as promoted by the hotel or if he can fake being blind like he faked it before with other women and let their real love connect them.

At least that's how I saw it.

 

As for Swiss Army Man I saw that in theaters and the crowd was literally stunned into silence by what we all just saw. I thought it was good in a weird way but was really hoping for a Jacob's Ladder scenario in concern to the beginning where he's stranded on the island. I loved Green Room as it was a very realistic take on a standoff scenario between a band of skinny punk rockers and hardcore skinheads where there isn't any real deus ex machina that's going to save the good guys and no one is safe from the danger that they are in except for themselves. If you want further movies to watch, the director of Green Room Jeremy Saulnier also made Blue Ruin which is a modern revenge crime movie and Murder Party which is a low budget slasher comedy but still really good.

Ryan Sz, dude...I disagree with your assessments on The Lobster and Swiss Army Man (but still accept them as valid interpretations). But, fucking what you said about Saulnier makes me want to be best friends with you. He's one of my favorite up-and-coming directors. I saw Green Room at Fantastic Fest 2015 (and it blew the fucking roof off the place during

the part where Imogen Poots hits that shotgun fucker in the neck

), and he did a Q&A afterwards. Someone asked a very drunken Saulnier why he makes such violent-yet-grounded movies. And he said, "I have a happy home life and shit, but, like, murder is fun, right?.....In movies, I mean." Despite dying a bit inside hearing Captain Picard say the n-word, that's probably the most intense/fun movie I've seen (and I LOVE Blue Ruin...and Murderparty is good weird fun that made me love Macon Blair)

[RyanSz 3140]

The Lobster was an interesting look at relationships and how people view what works and doesn't but I felt the ending felt a little too sudden for me. I also wanted to know what the animal that no one wanted to be was. As for Swiss Army Man it was one of those movies that there is a sense of magical realism with the idea of maybe he's just crazy. Then it gets thrown out the window near the end with the little girl who comes across Radcliffe and Dano and how she interacts with them. Again thought it was a good movie in a "one time viewing" kind of thing but I was kinda ashamed that there weren't Youtube copycats trying to copy using a buddy as a boat powered by farts as a boat.

 

I loved Stewart in Green Room because it was such a diverge from what he has been doing and I laugh a bit during his speech to the skinheads about coming to the workshop on Saturday but to check the schedule the day before to see if it's still happening. With his tone I was just waiting for him to add "and Sally will be bringing cookies but if you want juice you will have to bring your own."

[tomspanks 9039]

The Lobster's Ending =

Colin Farrell basically figuring out if he should really blind himself out of love for Rachel Weiss by having a stupid thing in common as promoted by the hotel or if he can fake being blind like he faked it before with other women and let their real love connect them.

At least that's how I saw it.

 

I think

he bolted.

 

[FisterRoboto 7499]

+1 recommendation for Hell or High Water!

 

Also recommending Captain Fantastic, The Invitation, Hush, and Moana!

I finally got around to Hell or High Water and Captain Fantastic this weekend. I thought Hell or High Water was okay, but I didn't love it the way a lot of people seem to (although I couldn't stop laughing for most of the movie because Ben Foster looks like a skinny Guy Fieri in it).

 

But Captain Fantastic?! OMG so good. The funeral scene made me feel all the emotions all at once. Also, any time I've seen someone drinking a soda for the past few days, I've wanted to tell them it's "poison water."

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I finally got around to Hell or High Water and Captain Fantastic this weekend. I thought Hell or High Water was okay, but I didn't love it the way a lot of people seem to (although I couldn't stop laughing for most of the movie because Ben Foster looks like a skinny Guy Fieri in it).

 

But Captain Fantastic?! OMG so good. The funeral scene made me feel all the emotions all at once. Also, any time I've seen someone drinking a soda for the past few days, I've wanted to tell them it's "poison water."

I get that.

 

I finally got around to Sing Street yesterday and I thought it was okay as well. The music is ah-mah-zing (Casey Wilson voice) but the story seemed to fizzle out for me and I was left feeling like there was a lot left to desire. And I know a ton of people who thought it was the best movie of the year so I'm kinda like wait what.

 

But Captain Fantastic!? Fuckin' omg that movie is perfect.