I agree with pretty much everything you said. The twist in Fight Club did not strike me as lame, although this does not mean that it wasn’t somewhat predictable. For me it was no better or worse than the twist in The Sixth Sense, except the rest of the movie was much better.
This was one I only saw recently, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Better than Apocalyse Now or Platoon, in my books. Robert Goran is fantastic. The dialogue was very sharp for the most.
Yeah I get a sense of this; which is why it isn’t higher on the list.
Well I was not exposed to its ‘rating’ beforehand, so didn’t know what to expect. I really appreciated the sense of humor.
Well I can see how it might be a satire, though I must say it inspired a certain foreboding even when I was tempted to smile or laugh. There was just something disturbing about it, something that was almost absurd, and which kept me in tension. The whole film was on an edge, hinting at something. When I think about the film, I keep remembering that expression on Tom Cruise’s face, with that bloody piano note ringing out; he had this suspicious look, like he was unsure whether to laugh or not. If you want to call the film a satire, then I think you need to keep in mind the ambiguity of that look; that near craziness which crept up in his eyes as he was progressively taken out of his comfort zone, his sense of order and norm. It seemed on the brink of releasing something almost animalistic in him. I loved how the sense of the movie as a whole was caught up in that ambivalence and that hesitancy.
Such a classic movie… the product placment could be considered as in the top 5 of all time.
This is a very funny line.
Should be higher… just my opinion.
It’s strange. I felt that, but I also felt that he should be dropped out the list, as his films seem private pleasure which I peek into, and in that way a bit adolescent, and maybe a film should be more. Also he doesn’t make enough of them, or move on to new and different levels. That being said, Dune was very underrated and distinct.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. The twist in Fight Club did not strike me as lame, although this does not mean that it wasn’t somewhat predictable. For me it was no better or worse than the twist in The Sixth Sense, except the rest of the movie was much better.
You compare one lame twist with an even lamer one. We might as well throw the Crying Game in there
Better than Apocalyse Now or Platoon
Agreed. Maybe try The Deer Hunter. I’ll confess that I’m not a fan of Vietnam War movies. Rambo might have been the best.
I really appreciated the sense of humor.
Don’t you think his other movies, Rushmore and even his last The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou one, was in my opinion better/funnier.
I think it’s an excellent movie and underrated by many. It overrated as erotica, there’s nothing in the movie that hasn’t been seen elsewhere but underrated as a comedy.
The scene when Cruise is awkwardly negotiating with the (unrealistically beautiful) prostitute is hilarious.
Cruise: So, should we talk about money…?
Hooker: That depends on what you wanna do… What do you wanna do?
Cruise: I don’t know… What do you recommend?
Note also the absurd way that every female (including Milic’s daughter) in the film is gorgeous. The proliferation of Christmas lights, the overly rich colouring (especially in the marital bedroom where the couple get stoned and Kidman delivers that chilling monologue where she slices through Cruise’s ego like an iceberg through a ship) and the fact that most of the story takes place at nighttime all produce a fantastical quality, brought down to earth by the final line where Kidman says that Cruise and herself need, above all else, to go home and fuck. If Kubrick hadn’t intended for the movie to leave a smile on our faces then why choose such an inappropriately coarse final gag?
Well, for Muholland Drive I felt like I was rather having HIM show ME something… when it ended I literally sat there for an hour and tried to figure it out… so at least for that one I found it more of an interactive experience… rather than a passive ‘look at the nice shots’ type of thing. I can’t really remember Lost Highway that much… but Dune was really good. You’re right though… he doesn’t make enough films.
I feel like I have been in a bubble all these years and rarely sit down to watch a movie. I plan on renting some of the ones you mentioned.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Pulp Fiction
Wuthering Heights
Top Gun
Uncle Buck
Amelie
A Man and a Woman
The Red Balloon
My Cousin Vinny
The Wizard of Oz
Gone With the Wind
First Knight
Bridges of Madison County (I have lived it so… duh)
Princess Bride
Moonstruck
When Harry Met Sally
Body Heat
(if Dr. Satanical still thinks I am a boy after this list, I will plutz.)
I don’t think that movie was so much about Hugh Grant, but about friendships, loyalty and true love. It spoke to me and I laughed all the way through it. Saying “Oh dear” seems disrepectful. Is your opinion of my favorite movie more important than mine? Hmmm.
The scene when Cruise is awkwardly negotiating with the (unrealistically beautiful) prostitute is hilarious.
Dead on, (and you’re right to be precise about “erotica”). Even more telling is the scene sequence where Kidman and Tom have their pot-smoking soul-bearing talk, and we are supposed to feel, ah…the surface is finally stripped bare, finally some substance, (which you describe perfectly) but then notice, Cruise goes on a house call, and the couple he visits is a visual and emotion parody of Kid and Tom, a cartoon of both their serious, “true” selves, and even of the two of them as a celebrity couple. Beyond hilarity. Who even knows if Tom even got the joke within the joke, within the joke.
when it ended I literally sat there for an hour and tried to figure it out…
I know what you mean, but Lost Highway was even more inviting than Muholland Drive in terms of feeling you might be able to figure it out, but can’t. M.D. just went too far, so one just gave up – or at least I realized that this was Lynch’s game. I knew there was no answer. It had excellent eye candy though, incredible opposite casting, proved the beginning of the wonderful Naomi Watts.
(man… I really need to watch a Kurasowa movie)
No, if you don’t mind me saying, you need to watch like ten Kurosowa movies. No one movie will give you the sense of his mastery – nothing made my top 10 list. It is the incredible depth and variety of his powers. No director even comes close to the diversity of films he made. He practically invented the cop buddy movie with Stray Dog (Lethal Weapon borrowed heavily here), and the kid-nap drama in High and Low. Empire Strikes Back was said to be taken from his epic Hidden Fortress (see C3PO and R2-D2 as human beings first), the western The Magnificent Seven from his Seven Samurai. His pairing with Mifune makes “Scorsese and de Niro” seem like kids playing with the super 8 in their backyard. The man filmed violence, pathos, romance, war, comedy, morality, murder, crime, perfecting genre form after genre form, inventing techniques and styles. Its almost ridiculous. But if you see only a film or two, you may just say to yourself afterwards, “what a well-made film†or “how interestingâ€, and little more. Anyways, that’s my rant on Kurosawa.
The best Hugh Grant vehicle is The Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain
That’s funny…Divine Brown said it was a rented BMW.
Dunamis
p.s. actually Polanski’s delicious satire Bitter Moon was pretty damn good, if only a bit twisted. Though I’m not sure a cruise ship would count as a Hugh Grant vehicle.
Westley: You’re that smart?
Vizzini: Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?
Westley: Yes.
Vizzini: Morons.
is one of the all time written and delivered comedic lines ever. It still makes me laugh. To me the film is near in class with the wonderful Young Frankenstein and Life of Brian.
The Man In Black: You guessed wrong.
Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong - that’s what’s so funny. I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha-ha, you fool. You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”, but only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line.”. Hahahahahah.
I coulda swore he said “never try to match wits” or “never have a battle of wits,” instead.
No? Am I totally off or does that also sound more familiar to you?
Yeah, that specific scene was one of the highlights of that excellent movie.
Remember the scene when they roll down the hill accidentally, and the scene is drawn out so long it becomes obvious the directors are being sarcastic. If you remember that directors too are aware of those classic car chase scenes where in one frame the car is like thirty feet away from the wall and going fourty miles an hour- and then a good minute or two passes before the car actually hits the wall. Ha! That’s what you call “movie time.” Extended scenes that build into a climax can be purposely drawn out just a little, passing unnoticed, to increase the anticipation and satisfaction for the movie.
So the directors of The Princess Bride were probably making a parody of the technique of extending segways, and using “movie time.”
You are spot on. What I like is that Kubrick disguises this parody by heavily implying that this is nothing more than the first temptation of many (the prostitute Domino, Milic’s daughter, the orgy in the mansion) for Cruise that night. You may also remember a moment later in the film when Cruise rings up the daughter of the deceased (who doesn’t want to marry Karl) and Karl (the maths professor - as you say a sort of exaggeration of Cruise’s role as a doctor) answers the phone - to whom Cruise has nothing to say. This is possibly meant to symbolise how Cruise cannot actually confront his fear and jealousy but can only wage war against it. He cannot stop the fantasy his wife has revealed, but he can go one better by actually sleeping with someone else.
Unlike many Kubrick movies I’ve never read the novel on which the film is based. Apparently the original was set in turn of the century Vienna, but you can understand why the setting is shifted to the now fashionable city of New York. Though a lot of the movie was shot in Chelsea, London.
One other aspect - the masks at the orgy. The woman who eventually redeems Cruise, and who warns him of the dangers, wears a preposterously large mask with feathers protruding all over the place. I’m sorry but there’s no way a man of Kubrick’s attention to detail would have had such a key character wear such a ridiculous outfit (remembering she is naked apart from a glitzy thong and the mask) unless he intended it to have a comic effect. The masks are yet another common symbol of dreams which pervade the whole movie.
