Jake Gittes

I mean, the movie itself is so uninterested in Anthony and Johanna it doesn't even bother to give them a decent ending.

Sweeney Todd is terrific whenever it doesn't have to deal with Anthony and/or Johanna.

Yeah it was so average it hurt. Waltz, for all of his overacting, might have actually been the only one in the film who actually did something unpredictable while everyone else seemed to be half-asleep. For what it's worth, I think he was good at playing Keane as a showman who grows more and more pathetic and insecure (in that sense, I thought the courtroom scene worked because Waltz didn't hold back at showing Keane at his absolute lowest), but didn't use any of the quieter moments to dig deeper into the character, so we end up with a shallow performance that occasionally hits the intended note.

I actually liked the editing. The way Kent cut scenes off right at the point where they were at their most suspenseful/awkward/cringe-inducing really put me into the main character's always stressed out state of mind in the first third/half of the film. Prime example is when the kid pushes down the girl and we immediately cut to him and the mother in the car. The scenes where she's listing through the book were damn well edited too.

Domestically, Despicable Me 2. Worldwide, Transformers 4. Adjusted, The Sound of Music.

One of the many things I liked was how we got that huge dramatic scene of Olivia leaving Bill, but when she breaks up with Jim no one acknowledges it on screen, and all we get is that unspoken feeling of "yep, that didn't work out either". It's also a good reflection of how Mason feels about it, since he's terrified of Bill near the end and being his stepson is clearly a painful experience for him, but then it's pretty obvious he doesn't care about Jim at all.

Since Little Miss Sunshine actually.

Hurm.

Based on a couple of reviews I'm already sold on THE WITCH. This is a good time for horror.

Bed and Sofa (1927) Brief Encounters (1967) A Long Goodbye (1971) Malpertuis (1971) Check-up on the Roads / Trial on the Road (1971) Twenty Days Without War (1977) My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1989) Prikosnoveniye / Contact (1992) Giorgino (1994) Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998) Pyl / Dust (2005) Chapiteau-show (2011) Mishen / Target (2011) 11 out of 14 are naturally Soviet/Russian

Not sure why you seem to be arguing with me, cause I couldn't agree more. I quoted that same interview on the previous page.

Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt are my favorite Hitchcocks. The former is easily his most personal and artful movie, and the latter is like a proto-Blue Velvet which I frankly enjoy more than Blue Velvet. Rear Window is great too. I still have like a dozen of his films I want to see.

If I did a similar list, though, The Birds would be a serious contender for my #1.

I wouldn't be that harsh on Psycho, its whole first half is fantastic (the rainstorm drive, the cop, Leigh and Perkins' performances especially when they have dinner), but I agree that once Leigh is gone it only has the second murder and the Mother's reveal going for it with a lot of tedium in between. Not one of my favorite films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj23pMdQBZ8

To be fair, Streep playing an aging rock star in a film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Diablo Cody potentially sounds like her most inspired and interesting role/project since Adaptation. Which was in 2002. (I'm not counting Fantastic Mr. Fox).

Stingray, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people taking care of this place. They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes.

Okay, you redeemed yourself. For now.

I'm going to go get my axe then. Come out, come out, wherever you are...

Seriously though, I haven't read King's novel past page 50 but I'm fucking glad Kubrick didn't go for character development (which by itself is something that tends to brainwash people into mindless adulation) and character study. The movie is Grand Opera from the very first scene, and its whole tone, including the performances, is perfect. I'm so over complaints about Nicholson being over the top. I've met alcoholics. They ARE over the top.

Get da fuck outta here.

Dead Man's Chest really suffers from being a dark, overplotted fantasy epic in one scene and a silly broad comedy in the next one. COTBP manages the balance a whole lot better, and so does Depp in his performance - in the first movie, Sparrow is a great character because he can outwit anybody by convincingly playing a clown; in the sequels, he's simply a clown. Also, Geoffrey Rush owns all the parts of COTBP that Depp doesn't.

And you really should edit the thread title to "top 250 films..." at this point.

I still want to see Zelig and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Those seem like the most promising of his films I haven't seen yet, but among his most celebrated classics (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters) I don't have any film I love.

And I like how the "top 25 films" includes 50 Disney animated movies. Now I'm picturing them all as one giant animated 80-year blob.