[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

Haha, a movie with that title can only be epic. Here's a longer trailer.

Anyway, surprising that it came out in august, as the list of Oscar nominations has been released and I don't recall seeing this movie in there.

Peter

Fantastic! I mean fantastic, sshhh....

Peter

The genre of musicals as films often feels awkward to me at first, since the absence of first hand interaction between stage performance and live music prevents the pieces from "living and breathing" as one would expect them to do in their natural theatrical environment. Nonetheless, LES MISERABLES was a terrific experience tonight, with Anne Hathaway's amazing rendition of "I dreamed a dream" standing out as a quintessential and absolutely classic moment. The orchestral arrangements suffer from an artistic dryness and an overly pretentious pompousness. But, allowing myself to forgive the flaws of the grammar of the genre, I ended up thoroughly enjoying some first class performances (Hathaway and Hugh Jackman) and my reaquintance with Victor Hugo's timeless tale. The tale is perhaps best experienced in its natural condition, as a novel, but it is a story that lends itself well to music however inferior this music may be in comparison to Hugo's thoroughly gripping, thoroughly moving, heart-wrenching tale that tells the story of human suffering as poetically and effective as any poet ever did - and this is thankfully percievable in the film. However, the cinematography seemed dull to me, in spite of its efforts to dazzle with epic details of grandeur. Still, a terrific experience overall since I was ultimately able to put my bias aside!

By the way, Russel Crowe's inconvincing opening recitativo in Les Miserables wasn't very charming! But he delivered decently in his aria later in the film, although it would probably have been better to cast a more expressive, more experienced baryton for the lyrical grandness of the song.

DJANGO UNCHAINED
Usually, Tarantino's movies are a joy to see in cinemas and this one is again, but it's not in the league of Inglorious Bastards for example. Against a background of another shameful chapter in history, it certainly creates a few disgusting moments. "niggers" is thrown around the whole time, especially by Samuel L. Jackson. But the star is again Christoph Waltz as Dr Schultz. It's the small scenes he shines at.

The movies got lots of smiles on my face, but it is too long. The last 20 minutes were not very interesting, and Tarantino's cameo was weird and distracting. It's a 100% Tarantino movie, nothing surprising or new.

Then of course the music. Not always appropriate (hip hop music!) and his use of over-the-top music is getting rather predictable. I recognized a few selections from Two Mules ... and some other famous spaghetti westerns. The new Morricone piece was absolutely lovely and was quite touching in the movie.

The Impossible

Slightly overlong and sentimental for my liking, despite the crushing realism. The tsunami sequence, however, is one of the most impressive set pieces I've seen in a long while - absolutely terrifying. No Roland Emmerich-style money shots - just total eye-level and heart-wrenching carnage.

DJANGO UNCHAINED was one of the films I saw at the Tromsø Film Festival. I enjoyed it -- it's impossible to dislike Tarantino's fantastic setpieces & references! -- but was overall a bit disappointed nonetheless. It was a bit too eclectic and fragmented for its own good and a far cry from the superb INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.

The Tarantino cameo (as an Aussie, no less!) was just embarassing -- his costumes, his mannerisms, his accent -- it was almost as if he just decided to step in front of the camera during the shoot!

My favourite film music moment was the appearance of Goldsmith's "Nicaragua" cue from UNDER FIRE as the party arrives at Candyland. Also liked Bacalov's "Django theme", the Morricone pieces and the rap song for when Django sees his girlfriend by the wayside (it was a bit 'forced' during the shootout, however).

End of Watch

A really wonderful film about two cops as close as brothers. If you hate shaky cam, stay away.

Watched a disturbing realistic depiction of the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain:
youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg

Less than a handful of music pieces, probably all tracked in, otherwise no original score.

Beasts of the Southern Kingdom

This is one of those films that packs more of a wallop after the fact. It started out a little slow but continued to build until the last few scenes were an incredible release of energy and emotion. The music is also solid, especially the last cue (leading into the end credits) which is among the best scored scenes of the year.

You mean BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, right?

I liked the film, but somehow it didn't connect with me emotionally as much as it has for other people I've spoken with.

Funny, i too confused this movie with Moonrise Kingdom over the time and i've done it more than a couple of times

Yeah. I wrote that at 5 AM so my brain wasn't quite getting to my fingers. I didn't think it would get to me and for a while, it wasn't but somehow, it came together. I can see it being a polarizing film, though.

It happened where i was..i found all the music in Django spot-on, the rapping was completely out of place imo.

Life of Pi

Hrm. I was very happy (and moved) with this movie until the last ten minutes, which ends on an anticlimax and blatantly violates "show, don't tell." Disappointing but it doesn't ruin the rest of what I saw. The movie is visually gorgeous and it deserves to take the Oscar home in that department.

Danna's score is very good. Unsurprisingly, the highlights on soundtrack are the best scenes in the movie as well. There's other scores last year that I prefer but of the five nominated, this one undoubtedly deserves the award.