Michelle got screwed.

I knew Tark was a pretty big fan. I didn't know they met. Kurosawa-Ming.

Was Kurosawa a tall dude, or Tarkovsky a short dude?

AK: 5' 11.5"
AT: 5' 7.5"

Damn, Kurosawa-san was a tall Jap.

And because no one reads the Mizoguchi thread...

After watching Life of Oharu, I will never be mean to a girl ever again. Fuck, man.

Nice little treasure trove here for y'all that I found... http://www.youtube.com/user/modernrocks ... eos?view=0

The Apartment
10/10

The Hole

This had potential, but it falls apart very quickly. There are some nice, eerie moments that you don't really get in a lot of horror films, but overall this is pretty bad.

Tyrannosaur

I watched this with a friend who joked that "This is a Lifetime movie for men."

Hugo

There are a lot of boring parts in this, but the last half hour or so is pretty great. I'm usually not a fan of films with a good resolution, but this film really surprised me in a lot of ways. There's something very subtle about the shift in tone towards the end that I really dig. I'm not smart enough to put my finger on exactly what it is though.

Lost in Translation

I feel like this film is relaying something thematic that I just can't relate to. I can see the greatness there but it doesn't engage with me on a personal level. The music, casting, and everything is great but it isn't elevated on a personal level for me.

Garden State
8.8/10

Savages

The trailer made this look like an exciting tale of action and revenge, and while a certain advertised scene worked well in this regard, the movie in general was slower and more dramatic/procedural than I would have thought. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but whatever Savages wants to be, it doesn't quite pan out.

It talks about the drug trade and shows the sort of things cartels are capable of, but isn't a convincing story of that world. It has a key artsy scene that meditates on the definition of "savage", but if this movie has anything to say, I'm not seeing it. Characterization isn't a total loss, but it's hard to get too invested in the fates of these characters when some of the acting isn't that great (particularly Travolta's) and the leads have lives I can't relate to at all. Benicio del Toro gave the most memorable performance, but as sort of a villain-without-a-cause. Maybe it's just meant to be a pulpy crime story a la Tarantino, and it has its moments in that regard, but it wavers too much. It spreads itself thin jumping from goal to goal instead of finding any one purpose and doing it well.

5 or 6/10

The Hobbit - 8/10

Having not read The Hobbit yet, I can't say much about how the movie matches its source material. All I can say is that it's an decent watch, even just for the visuals. As usual, Jackson knows how to awe, and the swooping crane shots that peppered the old trilogy are still here. As for the story, I found it okay, but I didn't feel the "I am witnessing something magical here" vibe I did with the original trilogy. Don't get me wrong: it's still an entertaining film, but I just couldn't connect with it as much as I thought I could have. It's great for watch a movie for plain good fun, but it isn't very revisitable for me. I just felt detached from it in a way I couldn't explain; it got me worked up on a surface level, but there was no emotional connection. Maybe that's not why one would watch the film, but that's slightly what I expected going into it. Oh well, I guess it has potential, but the ending was weak and cliched, in my opinion. I'm still excited for Part II, though.

This sounds like Jackson. The first trilogy was technically very well constructed, but nothing spectacular beyond that. Once you get passed the excitement of the LOTR world and character introductions that come along with it in the first film the trilogy progressively gets worse. By the time you get to the third film, it is completely dragged out with the same repeated formula happening over and over again.

where?

I feel the same way about the film and the abundance of CGI makes it look like one of the Chronicles of Narnia films.

I think the interplay between Murray and Johansson is great. Unlike Joe, I feel completely connected with Lost in Translation. From the slow pacing to the mutual vulnerability between the two characters to the exploration of Tokyo, I dunno, I just loved all of it.