riczhang Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 (edited) Hollywood It's always difficult to strike the right tone when making a movie about the making of a movie; all to often, it turns into a mis-managed, factually erroneous, and extremely boring trifle. Luckily, Hollywood is none of that. Where it succeeds is that it doesn't try to present itself too seriously and too factually; Hollywood tries to satirise itself and presents itself as a comedy. However, there are still elements of truth in it all. Many movies go through production hell, and it's a very nice, albeit small, hat tip to these movies. Perhaps its also saying that if one sticks it through then finally one will get a breakthrough in one's later life and be able to finally establish oneself on the world stage. The entire story, therefore as a whole, is quite entertaining and proves to be rewarding as one feels oneself cheering for Bukowski and Sarah as the movie finally gets made and they are able to view it in the cinemas. The ending is a nice touch and it feels like everything has come full circle and has finally arrived back at the beginning of it all. However, even though the movie is meant to be satire, it perhaps has taken itself too loosely and at times it feels so over the top that it becomes totally out of character even for satire. This is particularly true for some of the sex, and the Faye Dunaway parts in particular. The legs part was just ridiculous. But, overall it is well acted, well scripted, and well done. It's well worth a watch when it hits theatres in November. 8/10 Was it my favourite? No. But it came close. I admit I have a soft spot for what was my favourite. Edited April 22, 2013 by riczhang 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dark Alfred Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 Thanks, that's a nice review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Ugh.... I had a review all written up and ready to go for Blue Belt but Google Chrome crashed and it's all gone now. I don't have the time right now to do a rewrite, so basically I liked it. I didn't really, really like it but it was decent-good. I'm not sure if taking it in that sort of direction tone wise was good or bad for the movie yet but I didn't mind it. 6.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Top 5 guessing time(or 25 if you really want)I'm not done my top 25 by any means as Part 1 isn't closed and I haven't read everything. However, you can predict now. There might be a prize for the winner (). Predict my top 5 and the order in which they'll be. You get 1 point for each correct movie, and 1 additional point for each correct placing. If you get all 5 movies right (regardless of place) you'll score 1 additional bonus point. If you get at least 3 movies as their places correct you'll get 1 additional bonus point. Winner is the highest point total (or maybe if someone can come up with a frighteningly accurate top 25)And go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 I've decided that the prize will be the ability to unknowingly influence the actuals for one film next year. (Details of how this will happen will be announced later) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 1. The Rise & Fall Of Julius Caesar 2. Risk Management 3. The Three Month Funeral 4. Le Plaisir Faux 5. The Rich & Famous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 Top 25 is taking a bit of time to compose right now. I've read all the films up so far and have started to put together a preliminary list. It's really hard. I've got films I think would normally be a 10-15 film in the 15-20 range and etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 I'll take one extra request from each person. Don't really care what it is. I'll try to review them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezen Baklattan Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 (edited) Heavy Rain It hasn't gotten much buzz, but I'm interested in seeing what you think of it. Edited April 28, 2013 by Spaghetti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blankments Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Miserable Fans. I may already know your opinion on it, but it's my only big original project left without a review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Here Comes Peter Cottontail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4815162342 Posted April 28, 2013 Share Posted April 28, 2013 Justice League Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 Heavy Rain It's strange. Strange is perhaps the best word to go about it. But, like Hugo, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. It just means that it's strange. Also just like Hugo, it's a very oddly shaped movie and could almost be construed as two movies. It's spread quite unevenly which results in a movie that's very heavy at both ends. The first half is decent. It feels too long and too drawn out though, spending copious amounts of time setting itself up but not really going anywhere. The origami challenges are particularly a problem. There's just so many of them and by the time the fourth or the fifth comes along one's like "Here we go again." However, then the second half comes along and it is (still after reading the rest of the films of the year) some of the best this year. It's gripping, tense, and sets itself up for a very satisfying end. 8.5/10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 Barring any new 10K+ word film posted today that'll take me more hours to read than I have time right now, countdown will start tonight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 (edited) And so the countdown starts soon. The guidelines of the countdown are simple. The films will be revealed in ascending order by the Director's last film project's gross. This however is defined as the director's last RL film, and directors who haven't done film projects before were assigned a number such as viewership of a TV show they produce or direct, or the number of copies that their last book sold. Unknowns were assigned a value of 0.000. The films are necessarily the director's last directing project, as it was the first gross that showed up on their BoxOfficeMojo page. If the director in question's BoxOfficeMojo page's default tab is actor then I took their last acting gross, and so on and so forth. The Top 10 will be released at a later time. Oh and the list also includes the 10 HM's. And guys, don't forget to guess my top 5 (films and their rank) for a chance to influence next year's actuals. Edited May 1, 2013 by riczhang 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 And if this sounds really complicated I apologise. I'm running out of creative ways to unveil my top 25. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 With a gross of 0.00 Million (Unknown Director) 24. Frindle With a gross of 0.107 Million 23. Ken Loach's White Cargo With a gross of 0.425 Million 18. Jim Jarmusch's Hollywood 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riczhang Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 With a gross of 4.2 Million 25. Noah Buambach's Seeing Her With a viewership of 5.7 Million 12. Owen Trevor's Top Gear Great Adventures: Our 'Nam With a gross of 15 Million HM. Martin McDonagh's Blank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChD Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 (edited) 12. Owen Trevor's Top Gear Great Adventures: Our 'Nam That's awesome. Means you probably love Top Gear ^^ Edited May 1, 2013 by ChFloppit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
