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FilmEra |OT| February 2018

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lordxar

lordxar

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Oct 25, 2017
1,103
I logged 32 films in January. Well, more accurately, 32 items. Letterboxd has the Black Mirror S4 episodes up so I logged those because they were there. Technically I watched a total of 25 films and I'd say the month was pretty well stacked. What surprised me was the stuff I didn't like...

The top ten:
  1. Logan
  2. The Fall
  3. Arsenic and Old Lace
  4. Brawl in Cell Block 99
  5. Paris, Texas
  6. The Last Witch Hunter
  7. Le Samouraï
  8. The Third Man
  9. John Wick: Chapter 2
  10. New Year's Evil
It's hard to rank the Godzilla films in among that top ten, but I've really been enjoying the series.

Now, for the top ten disappointments. (oddly this list doesn't include Samurai Cop...)
  1. Dunkirk - I was really looking forward to this and it sucked. It might be a good study on fear but as a war movie, it blew.
  2. Knight of Cups - I love Malick's films quite a bit and was really looking forward to this but its too far out there.
  3. A Ghost Story - Another that I really looked forward to and was completely let down by stupidly long takes and that idiot spewing his drunken crap in the middle
  4. Rings - Sadly this could have actually been good but the series has been left to rot
  5. Thunder - I know, I know. It's a shitty b movie, Why wouldn't it be at the top of this list? Because I needed a number 5 and this should contrast how disappointing those above are for me.

Edit: Pick 3 me.
 
jett

jett

Community Resettler
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Oct 25, 2017
44,767
Before Sunset is the best "romance" movie of all-time.

As far as rom-coms go, I like High Fidelity the best.
 
admataY

admataY

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,791
The best romance is " Commando " . I wish my significant other would desire me the way Bennett desire John matrix .
 
Vern

Vern

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,097
Just finished Blade Runner 2. Haven't seen the original probably since the mid 90s so didn't really remember much about the universe. Film was very pretty so I enjoyed looking at it, but didn't really understand why that mixed baby or whatever would upset the balance of the world. I also dozed off at least once. Overall 6.3/11
 
ronaldthump

ronaldthump

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Oct 27, 2017
2,439
jett said:
Before Sunset is the best "romance" movie of all-time.

As far as rom-coms go, I like High Fidelity the best.
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Best romance movie. Pretty Woman + La la land.

Rom Coms. Bridget Jone's Diary or Four Weddings. I find the english do them better.
 
Fancy Clown

Fancy Clown

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,488
Vern said:
Just finished Blade Runner 2. Haven't seen the original probably since the mid 90s so didn't really remember much about the universe. Film was very pretty so I enjoyed looking at it, but didn't really understand why that mixed baby or whatever would upset the balance of the world. I also dozed off at least once. Overall 6.3/11
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Replicants are a lower social class and they are kept that way partly because their production is controlled. If replicants can reproduce then they are in control of their own "species", and can foster a revolution and pass on culture and DNA.

Vern said:
People always abbreviate titles on this forum.
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He's just saying "Blade Runner 2" looks weird lol. Which is why they didn't give it that title. He's not beefing with you abbreviating it.
 
Vern

Vern

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,097
Fancy Clown said:
Replicants are a lower social class and they are kept that way partly because their production is controlled. If replicants can reproduce then they are in control of their own "species", and can foster a revolution and pass on culture and DNA.



He's just saying "Blade Runner 2" looks weird lol. Which is why they didn't give it that title. He's not beefing with you abbreviating it.
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No beef either lol. Thanks for the synopsis.
Why only one successful birth in 30 years? Seems they aren't really in control of their species still yea?
 
Fancy Clown

Fancy Clown

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,488
Vern said:
No beef either lol. Thanks for the synopsis.
Why only one successful birth in 30 years? Seems they aren't really in control of their species still yea?
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Probably either a mutation or error in "manufacturing" (or a religious interpretation). Either way they have the living key to figure out how to potentially reproduce on their own now, which is a pretty potent symbol of hope for a class that's already on the verge of open revolt. It also represents the last shattering of the illusion that replicants are somehow lesser than humans because they can't create life,which is another tool humans use to subjugate the replicants. Not so easy to use that propaganda now.
 
ronaldthump

ronaldthump

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DownSizing.

It was a better film before they cut away from the real world. They ought to have been more interplay btw the two worlds. Instead, it started off somewhat cute and interesting and then devolves into a boring social politcal movie trying to win you over with some sort of big message but ends up being very very boring. This is a movie with nothing to say considering its premise.

I also wonder if Matt Damon had a plastic bald scalp on because he looks horrible bald; but he also looked horrible bald in elysium. I wonder if the Vietnamese actress is really 1 legged and she was mostly annoying except for the 1 scene where she emotively talks about denmark and visiting denmark and nearly won me over.

4/10
 
BrokenFiction

BrokenFiction

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,360
ATL
Hello FilmERA! I've lurked this thread enough.

1. What's your favorite Movie?
If this means something I've watched the most, probably Star Wars (1977) or Raiders of the Lost Ark. One I objectively think is the best is Seven Samurai.
2. Who's your favorite director?
This is like trying to pick between 30 of my favorite children. Gun to my head, Kurosawa and Spielburg.
3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?
Changes from film to film sometimes. Right now I'm in love with Gene Hackman.
4. Favorite Genre(s)?
Probably sci-fi and old Hollywood comedies, but I'll watch anything.
5. What's your favorite performance in film?
Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot. Also, the best ending of all time.

https://letterboxd.com/BrokenFiction/
(I just started this, so it's mostly empty still!)
 
janusff

janusff

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,298
Austin, TX
Never got around to doing this cause it intimidated the hell out of me. But here we go

1. What's your favorite Movie?
Maybe Raiders of the Lost Ark? To pick just one is mean.
2. Who's your favorite director?
Almodovár, Malle, Soderbergh, W. Anderson
3. Who are your favorite actors/actresses?
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Simone Signoret, Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Henry Fonda
4. Favorite Genre(s)?
Noir, Western, Drama, Historical Fiction, Star War, French new wave cinema
5. What's your favorite performance in film?
Perhaps Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs or Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Capote or really anything else. I'm still not over that dude passing away. What an actor.

I guess I should also point out there are dozens of more answers for these questions. So yeah.
 
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Deleted member 3542

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Oct 25, 2017
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I have to think a bit on some other January views, I got caught up on a lot of TV binging, but I do know that my favorite new watch, by far, was Paddington 2.

Worst, by far, was Bright. Holy shit.

Best rewatch was The Apartment, was able to get that Arrow limited edition Blu. One of my favorites.
 
MidnightCowboy

MidnightCowboy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,758
January Top 5:
1. Mur Murs
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. Branded to Kill
4. Faces
5. Frances Ha

Pretty solid month I must say. Gonna finish off my Pick 3 later today, sign me up for the next one Flow
 
Tophat Jones

Tophat Jones

Alt Account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
14,946
Rewatched Django Unchained for the hundredth time. Not sure why it's not regarded as well as Tarantino's others. I think it's a masterpiece and it's tough to even put it barely below Basterds as my favorite Tarantino. Foxx and Jackson are perfect. Waltz kills it again in a role written just for him. Leo was robbed of an Oscar, not to mention a nomination. Story is awesome, soundtrack is great, hilarious scenes, great action. I love everything about it.

Basterds to Django I think is peak Tarantino (so far at least, can't wait for his next one.) Hateful 8 was great but definitely a step down from these two.
 
Creamium

Creamium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,825
Belgium
Top 5 in january

1) Columbus
2) Good Time
3) Nocturnal Animals
4) Detroit
5) Mother!

The top 3 were all 9/10 movies. Columbus and Good Time are my n°2 and 3 for 2017 currently.
 
CloudWolf

CloudWolf

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,909
January Top 5

1) Call Me by Your Name
2) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3) Night Is Short, Walk on Girl
4) A Ghost Story
5) Insect

I've mostly been catching up to 2017 stuff I missed, so I might've forgotten what stuff I watched in January vs. Earlier in 2017. Months go by way too fast. Letterboxd will help with that for the rest of the year.
 
Tophat Jones

Tophat Jones

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Oct 26, 2017
14,946
January top 5, only movies that I had never seen are eligible, right?

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Phantom Thread
3. Magnolia
4. The Death of Stalin
5. I, Tonya
 
captscience

captscience

Member
Oct 25, 2017
172
January Top 5

1. Ghost Story
2. Personal Shopper
3. Phantom Thread
4. Columbus
5. Paddington

Hoping to see Faces Places, CMBYN, and Paddington 2 in the next few weeks.
 
shaneo632

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
29,391
Wrexham, Wales
I saw 35 films in January.

Top 5:
1. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
2. God's Own Country (2017)
3. Lucky (2017)
4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
5. Coco (2017)

Bottom 5:
1. Acts of Violence (2018)
2. The Open House (2018)
3. Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2018)
4. Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
5. Wonderstruck (2017)

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Film Plans for February:
Phantom Thread (Feb 2 - Cinema)
Den of Thieves (Feb 2 - Cinema)
Winchester (Feb 3 - Cinema)
Black Panther (Feb 8 - European Premiere)
Fifty Shades Darker (Feb 9 - Cinema)
The 15:17 to Paris (Feb 9 - Cinema)
When We First Met (Feb 10 - Netflix)
The Mercy (Feb 10 - Cinema)
Seeing Allred (Feb 11 - Netflix)
Father Figures (Feb 16 - Cinema)
Irreplaceable You (Feb 16 - Netflix)
Looking Glass (Feb 16 - VOD)
Hellraiser: Judgement (Feb 17 - DVD)
Mute (Feb 23 - Netflix)
Finding your Feet (Feb 23 - Cinema)
The Cured (Feb 23 - VOD)
 
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n8 dogg

n8 dogg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
671
Dan in Real Life and While You Were Sleeping are very underrated romantic comedies
 
luca

luca

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,013
(500) Days of Summer is a romance I hold close to me. But the one that I hold incredibly dear is 2004's The Notebook. It may be cliche and I may be biased, but I watched this one on my summer vacation, when I also got my first real girlfriend, and much of it was so true to my own experience. And today the part about the old people also hold true as I see my old man unfortunately developing some kind of the same sickness. I don't know, the movie is just so true to my heart that I've watched it more than 10 times. I will have to rewatch it this month and see if I feel the same.

Also, I've decided I won't watch Before Sunset until my next relationship which may be in a while as I look to improve my life. And then I'll watch the sequels with 10 years in between. I want those movies to feel special.

CloudWolf said:
Finally made a Letterboxd and spent around 4 hours entering every movie I remember watching as watched.

https://letterboxd.com/JWitjes/
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I followed you Wolf! :)
 
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Cripplegate

Cripplegate

Member
Oct 27, 2017
166
Toronto
Yo Flow sign me up for the film swap.

We used to do this all the time on an old movie forum, way back in the day. We'd all sign up every month, get put into pairs, and then recommend each other a film to watch. We'd watch them and post reviews at the end of the month. We always referred to it as a film swap (call it whatever you want, but I'm going to refer to it as a film swap out of habit). We only did one film at a time, though, instead of a pick 3 thing. But it was a lot of fun, and a great way to discover new films, or explore outside of your comfort zone.

The last time we ever did this, long after our community had started to dwindle, I recommended my partner The Vertical Ray of the Sun. He ended up disappearing from the site and never returning. He still owes me a review. So just fyi to anybody who gets me as a partner, you're watching The Vertical Ray of the Sun (assuming you haven't seen it, and let's be honest, you probably haven't).
 
Edgar

Edgar

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Oct 29, 2017
7,180
Speaking about romances. I really liked stuck in love, I thought most characters had entertaining dynamics with some solid drama. But mainly Logan Lerman and Lilly Colins segments were the highlight due to contrasting personalities /life.
Another one I fondly remember is About time, has pretty cool sense of humor and I like Rachel McAdams in near everything I have seen.
I would also recommend first time, for those who don't mind more teenage oriented focus and are dylan O'Brian fans (I certainly am)
And lastly, a week ago I finally watched big sick, and honestly expected better. Humor is hit or miss, but main issue lack of chemistry between main couple. I really think the casting for female lead was just eh. Family scenes were kinda highlight. 3/5.
 
MidnightCowboy

MidnightCowboy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,758
Hiroshima mon amour is not exactly a romance movie, but it kind of is, and it's fucking great so I'm going to recommend that.

But yes, Before Sunset is the GOAT.
 
Sean C.

Sean C.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,847
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
32 films logged in January (30 if you don't count the two episodes of Black Mirror, which Letterboxd has up on its site).

Top 5 New Watches of January

1. In A Lonely Place (1950)
2. The Shape of Water (2017)
3. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
4. The Post (2017)
5. Molly's Game (2017)

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938): One of Ernst's Lubitsch's late 1930s films that I had yet to see, made available due to TCM scheduling a theme day around the actress Claudette Colbert, one of the best screwball comedians of the Golden Age, who did some of her best work with Frank Capra and later Preston Sturges. That seems like a promising fit for Lubitsch. She's paired here opposite Gary Cooper, one of the male leads of Lubitsch's earlier Design for Living. I normally find Cooper to be extremely boring onscreen, but he's surprisingly lively here (that was also true, albeit to a lesser extent, with his earlier film appearance for the director). He's still an odd choice for a role that might at first glance seem to call for Cary Grant or even Lubitsch's old leading man Maurice Chevalier. The film was also the first collaboration of screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and the result is a bit sourer than the director's other work, in a way that I'm not sure quite fits his style (they'd be much more in sync on his next film, the classic Ninotchka).

It's A Wonderful World (1939): Another Claudette Colbert film, this timed paired with Jimmy Stewart and directed by W.S. Van Dyke. Van Dyke never became a "name" director, not even retrospectively, but he was a highly in-demand director of comedy in the 1930s, principally responsible for the first several Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. With that pedigree, you'd expect a pretty good film, but this really doesn't work. It's weird, because plenty of scenes feel like they'd be a solid premise for a comedic moment, but there never seem to be many actual jokes. Colbert and Stewart don't particularly have any chemistry either.
 
andrew

andrew

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,906
Pachimari said:
Also, I've decided I won't watch Before Sunset until my next relationship which may be in a while as I look to improve my life. And then I'll watch the sequels with 10 years in between. I want those movies to feel special.
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Man. That is hardcore. I gotta say: just watch them. As someone who watched them in a single summer while not in a relationship I can guarantee they can still be special. And what if you don't find them special! What if you wait years to watch each of them and don't really like them? That would be a bummer. (If you do intend to stick with this though, remember that they've come out every nine years. Which should mean we're under five years away from Before...Noon?)
 
okayfrog

okayfrog

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,968
Do I just say Flow to be added to the Film Swap? Anyways, Top 5 in January:

1. Phantom Thread (7.5/10)
2. Call Me By Your Name (7.0/10)
3. Blade Runner 2049 (6.5/10)
4. I, Tonya (6.5/10)
5. The Shape of Water (6.5/10)

And my ratings on Letterboxd are borked. I made a list recently of all the films I ought to rewatch and ended up with 300+. I can't see that ever happening seeing as how my watchlist is at like 1500+.
 
luca

luca

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,013
andrew said:
Man. That is hardcore. I gotta say: just watch them. As someone who watched them in a single summer while not in a relationship I can guarantee they can still be special. And what if you don't find them special! What if you wait years to watch each of them and don't really like them? That would be a bummer. (If you do intend to stick with this though, remember that they've come out every nine years. Which should mean we're under five years away from Before...Noon?)
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It's just a fun idea I wanted to stick with. I think I decided on doing it this way a few years ago. There's a lot of other films to watch so it'll be fine. :)
 

Mi goreng

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,244
Melbourne
I watched two mega art-house works yesterday. Daises - 1966 and Post Tenebras Lux - 2012. Both are all about mood, moments and underlying themes with a peppering of unpredictability. Both 5 Stars.

Got myself a print of this crazy cool hip poster on its way
r47O9K1w1wtM6hDlSpdAmxlBfGM-0-230-0-345-crop.jpg


also Flow i'd be down for pick 3 (duno how to tag)
 
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lordxar

lordxar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,103
Unless this gets drastically better in the next 30 minutes, Under the Skin is an incredibly boring waste of time...

EDIT: Nope. It sucked ass from start to finish
 
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Mi goreng

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,244
Melbourne
lordxar said:
Unless this gets drastically better in the next 30 minutes, Under the Skin is an incredibly boring waste of time...

EDIT: Nope. It sucked ass from start to finish
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It's one of the best recent art-house films and works incredibly well for having landed ScarJo in the main role. Watch Jonathan Glazer's earlier films Sexy Beast and Birth to see his evolution in style and how he arrives at a challenging modern sci-fi masterpiece with Under the Skin. It's all about the atmosphere, the sense of underlying dread and picking apart the many themes that can be interpreted. It's definitely worth trying again, without expectations of what it should be. Take it as an otherworldly experience.
 
UberTag

UberTag

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
15,649
Kitchener, ON
Any word on when the Best Films of 2017 thread polling is kicking off?
Voting in last year's thread commenced right around the time Oscar noms came out in mid-January, votes were compiled until Oscar night with the winners unveiled a week later.
This thread has been run since 2007 so I'm a little perplexed as to why it has yet to surface with seemingly all of the other "best of" polling threads wrapping up.
 
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