The Movies I Liked

[gurubhai]

The Gold Rush is my personal favorite among Chaplin movies. Nice going Esantosh.

Watched The Strawberry Blonde (1941) yesterday. Beautiful movie.

 

[esanthosh]

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

The best spoken words to me are often... silence. It's rare that silent movies could capture one's attention - as they do not often have names for you to connect with, great dialogues to manipulate and neither age nor technology on their side. I had already mentioned about Nosferatu earlier. Coming from the same director, F. W. Marnau, I was all eyes for this one. Nosferatu, though a bit ahead for it's time - aged. To appeal to an audience 80 years down the line, it requires you to appeal to raw human emotions, which this film does.

The story is simple - Peasant husband, on advice from the "woman from the city" sets out to kill his wife and move to the city. But, he does not. Instead they rediscover love. With a not so significant plot, Murnau was able to capture my usual short attention span and keep it on the screen till the end. Most of the film is visual; title cards are rarely used. However, I like it when you write the title cards for the film in your head . In short this movie is what one of the initial cue cards says - Life is sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet.

What pleasantly surprised me was for that time, Cinematography is excellent. Some of the shots, especially in the first 10 minutes were really good. The acting, as-is to be expected, is not too subtle, but only on a few occasions does it strike me as over-dramatic. Janet Gaynor reminded me quite often of Drew Barrymore. George O'Brien may not have matched her, but was effective.

In my short experience of 6 silent movies, this is the best thus far, followed by "Nosferatu", "The General" and "The Gold Rush" in no particular order. Of course, as you all know... YMMV

PS1: "The Great Dictator" was not as great as I expected. A good movie which satirized Hitler and Mussolini while they were still looming large. But, apart from that, I still stick with "Gold Rush" and "City Lights" as Chaplin's finest thus far.

PS2: Rain drizzling outside, a rare free Monday afternoon with nothing else to do & watching movies... think I cannot ask for more Time to get back to work

 

[metalbandit]

I once again thank you all for being in this guess game, well the movie is "Unthinkable".

The story hovers around a terrorist who has planted three nuclear bombs in United States of America and a black ops interrogator who is responsible to make that surrendered terrorist in divulging the locations of those bombs. As the story progresses it is witnessed that a combination of psychological techniques and extreme torture is applied on the terrorist who knows more than he claims he knows. However failure in able to crack the terrorist, the interrogator thinks the Unthinkable, applying the similar brutal methods on first his wife and then his kids and no one can dare to stop him for he has the clearance from the highest authorities. The movie is a tug of war between the terrorist and the interrogator and no one is ready to give up.

Unthinkable (2010)

V.

Saw this one on the weekend. I would say, anyone who appreciates sensible moviemaking and wants something different from the regular bang bang action movies, should watch it. The acting is awesome; this movie shows why Samuel L. Jackson is one of Hollywood's best actors today. The dialogues are very well written, and I found myself going back a few seconds and listening to some of them again and again. Carrie Ann Moss is cast well, but due to the nature of her character, does not get to deliver the best dialogues, which are reserved for "H" the character played by Samuel L. Jackson. Michael Sheen delivers a rocking performance as "Steven Younger", the guy who plants the bombs. The director succeeds in keeping the viewer on the edge of his seat till the very end; there are no slack moments at all.

Thanks again Vinay for recommending this flick....

 

[santanusinha]

You just can't go wrong with Michael Sheen and Samuel L Jackson. "Unthinkable" really is one hell of a movie. I literally found myself sweating and tense after the movie ended.

Why don't you guys try the following uncommon movies:
1) Insomnia - A thriller by Chris Nolan starring Al pacino, Hillary Swank
2) Contact - A film by robert zemeicks and Carl Sagan starring Jodie Foster
3) Heaven and Earth - Vietnam war story by Oliver Stone
4) The Brave one - Starring Jodie Foster
5) LA Confidential - Starring Rus Crowe, Kelvin Spacey
6) The prestige - A movie about magic by Chris Nolan
7) The illusionist - A movie about magic starring Ed Norton
8) The machinist - Christian Bale at his best
9) Event Horizon - Horror ...

I can name quite a few more ... but these I think are the ones that will be universally liked. Some of these are not quite as uncommon though.

 

[venkatcr]

Recently I saw two movies that I liked a lot.

One was Ghost Town. This is the story of a uptown dentist in NY who is a pain in the neck to all. Ricky Gervais superbly plays the role of Betram Pincus, the dentists. During a minor surgery, Pincus actually dies for a few minutes, before he is revived. Because of this, he starts seeing ghosts walking the street of NY. When they realise he can see and hear them, they start chasing him to complete their unfinished business. A hilarious comedy with some heart rending scenes as well superb dialogues.

Another was In The Valley Of Elah. My favourite actor, Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield, a retired military investigator. His son disappears after returning from Iraq. Hank drives down to Fort Rudd, his son's base to trace him. On the second day, they find the son's body chopped into small pieces and brunt. Setting aside his loss, Hank goads local authorities to get to the bottom of his son's death and book the killers. Super acting by Tommy and excellent performance by Charlize Theron as the Police detective.

Cheers

 

[esanthosh]

Been watching movies like crazy in the past few nights. Here's a short summary:

Silent Films: Chaplin's "The Kid" (1921), "A Dog's Life" (1918), "Circus" (1928) - of which I liked Circus. It was supposed to be one of the not-so-funny movies of Chaplin. But, I liked it. The kid's performance in The Kid was interesting, but then I did not like it as much.

Film-noir: This is one genre I always wanted to see, but never did...so far. I have only watched "China Town" and "Maltese Falcon" in this genre.

Double Indemnity (1944): A fast talking insurance agent, a bad girl in marriage to a wealthy man, a double indemnity accident insurance (that gives double the life coverage under certain conditions) and a very shrewd insurance investigator whose "little man" always tells him when something's wrong - mix it all up and you got "Double Indemnity".

The Big Sleep (1946): Humphrey Bogart may not be the greatest of actors, but he sure has a great voice that has a personality of it's own. I'm yet to see a (at least among old ones) film where if you lose attention for a few mins, you lose track of the plot. Various characters are introduced at lightning speed without giving a chance to get familiarized. The only man who seems to have some bit of understanding is Det. Philip Marlowe (Bogart). He outwits and sees through every other character in the process. Some have called this a "confusing film". It's not so, but it's easy to get lost in the sea of characters and the links between them if you are not so attentive.

Also caught up on Capra's It Happened One night (1934) and It's a wonderful life (1946), both of which I liked in varying degrees. In deference to their respective IMDB ratings, I liked the former better.

Not so liked...

The Third Man (1949): This film has been in many "best of.." list I came across. It is shot very well in Vienna, features Orson Wells in a near cameo, but.... it's the zither constantly playing through out that got to me. Never has music dictated how I like a particular movie - in the end, it got on my nerves. Besides, it did not interest me what Holly Martins dug up on Harry Lime.

In a IMDB thread, someone mentioned that people do not "get" The Third man or 2001. I say, 30 mins with monkeys, monolith and no dialogues - bring it on any day - I'd love it . But somehow I don't "get" what's so special about The Third man. Someone else mentioned that he watched this film 5 times to "understand the greatness". I'm going to pass that opportunity and see 4 other "great" films

Next up - the 4 3 films likely will be - Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), Faust (Murnau, 1926), von Strohiem's Greed (1924) - if possible, the 4 hour restored version and in film-noir, Sunset Blvd., (1950)

Any more recommendations?

Edit:

Sunset Blvd (1950)

Yet another Billy Wilder movie that begins with the ending and shows what led to it. Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is a forgotten silent movie star of 20 years ago. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke script writer accidentally enters her mansion in order to save his car from the finance men chasing him. With practically no outside contact, the actress is trapped in an illusive world where she is still a star, trying to make her "return" with the script she is writing all these years. With no job and lot of money being offered, Gillis agrees to be a ghost writer. Then he truly begins to understand the obsessive nature of Norma. He wants to escape her clutches, but is not ready to leave her money.

To me, this on first viewing at least, does not strike as a great film. Sure, it's a good film, but #32 on IMDB Top 250? The dramatic acting of Gloria Swanson did not sit well with me. But, it's understandable since in the movie, Norma is a star 24 x 7 and a silent era one at that. It's an illustration of how success gets to your head and no matter what you still want to be in the spotlight. Hmmm... reminds me of "The Wrestler", which I liked much better. Anyways, to each his own (taste) and this won't be the first or the last time my taste disagrees with IMDB ratings.

 

[thevortex]

eSanthosh - when are you going to break into the post Independence era?

Appreciate your zest and zeal for movies, Santhosh!

 

[gurubhai]

I myself watched Double Indemnity a few days back & liked it. Great acting by three lead stars.I especially liked Mr. keyes (with his little man). There are no secrets/twists here yet the movie manages to keep you on the edge.

I love 'It Happened One Night' even though I had seen many remakes of this movies before I got to watch the original. The Indian ones Chori-Chori (Raj Kapoor, Nargis ) & DHKMN(Amir Khan, Pooja Bhatt ) are nice too.

The Talk Of The Town really good movie made even better by delightful performances by the three lead actors.
Nicely done.

 

[esanthosh]

eSanthosh - when are you going to break into the post Independence era?

Not for sometime - subject to availability of time and the mood remaining similar. These movies are in my Watch list for so long. With the kicker provided by sam9s competing against me in iCheckMovies, I had no choice but to go where not many men dare to go

One movie I do want to see is "Inception". But there's too much talk about it that I decided to postpone watching it for at least a few months. In the mean while, I might cover select filmography of Masaki Kobayashi, Tarkovsky and Fellini, breaking into "Into the Wild" or a "Chungking Express" once in a while

 

[prakasse]

Inception:
I watched this movie in Urvashi, Bangalore. The movie is too good but needs repeated viewing to understand better. Like Dark knight the audiography in this movie is very good. I also would say that these multiplexes should learn a thing or two from Urvashi theatre. Bass is awesome and projection is too good. Looks like they have changed the screen and they don't charge a bomb like multiplexes which is another good thing.

Couple of weeks back watched Raavan in Fun cinemas and the audio was utterly disappointing

Thanks, Prakash.

 

[denom]

Watched SPREAD last night & was quite happy. For starters its got a totally different storyline with the lead actor Ashton Kutcher narrating his autobiography on his life so far & such. Pretty graphic scenes involved but then the storyline demands their presence. The movie also portrays the current FB (F&#K Buddy) lifestyle that the americans have developed & the downward spiral of current moral values in their culture.
Out of the box kind of movie which i found interesting. Can anyone imagine a lifestyle as that of 'Nikki' played by ashton kutcher???

 

[aneelr]

Ocean's 11 [2001][Bluray]

Ocean's Eleven (2001)


Ocean's 12 [2004][Bluray]

Ocean's Twelve (2004)


Ocean's 13 [2007][Bluray]

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)



A good Crime/Drama movie, i would refer to this as comedy rather than a serious crime action movie..........George Clooney's and Brad Pitt's characterization are really well done........with some added guest appearance from Bruce Willis and supporting performance by Vincent Cassel and Catherine Zeta-Jones.......this is a good time pass movie.



cheers.

 

[idlebrain]

Double Indemnity (1944)[/B]: A fast talking insurance agent, a bad girl in marriage to a wealthy man, a double indemnity accident insurance (that gives double the life coverage under certain conditions) and a very shrewd insurance investigator whose "little man" always tells him when something's wrong - mix it all up and you got "Double Indemnity".

I watched JISM..Debut of Bipasa and John Abraham when it was released and I have all the appreciation for the makers for trying such a typical and different idea. After few years I picked up this movie from a rental purely based on IMDB rating. Then I understand from where our Great Bhatts got the idea of Jism.
Double Indemnity is a good film and certainly better than our freemake even it was made decades ago.

 

[kannanokannan]

would like to add "Inception" in list... waiting to watch again....
after Matrix a geniune Sci-fi thriller...

 

[gurubhai]

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
A playboy receives a letter from a woman apparently unknown to him.

 

[vinay]

Plot Summary for

Invictus

The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

Invictus (2009)

V.

 

[prakasse]

Out of Time:

Out of Time (2003/I)

Good movie, but the first 30 mins is a bit of drag. Once the crime scene is set it takes the shape of a good thriller. Denzel and Eva Mendes have acted well.

Thanks,
Prakash

 

[prakasse]

The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski (1998)

A cool Movie and a good laughter theraphy. Strongly recommend this. There is a characted named Walter in this movie and is sure to bring the hosue down.

Thanks, Prakash

 

[denom]

Vinay,

Invictus is a good watch.

Venkat,

Thanks for advising viewing of 'Ghost Town' & 'The Valley Of Elah'. Watched both during the weekend & enjoyed them.

 

[alokbharti]

Inception

awesome movie.. you leave the theater still thinking about the movie for a long time later on..

I watched it last Friday.. spent sat/sun reading blogs and forums discussing different possible endings..

Note:
Inox Hyd had English subtitles throughout the movie.. Initially I thought it is just for the Japanese dialogs in the opening scene..