Author Topic: Latest inspiring movie received (Read 217918 times)

Col.Stone · « **Reply #495 on:** November 30, 2009, 05:19:33 PM »

How the West Was Won; or The Macahans, Season 1 dvdbox woopie

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #496 on:** December 05, 2009, 10:30:45 AM »

First Squad
Wikipedia - Set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast are a group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities; the teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause. Pretty soon all the teenagers die, except for the protagonist Nadia. She is taken to a secret Soviet lab that studies supernatural phenomena, especially contacts with the dead. Nadia's task is to dive into the world of the dead for reconnaissance. There, in the Gloomy Valley, she meets her dead friends and tries to persuade them to continue fighting.

Dead snow - Snow, Mountains, some students on vacation and nazi Zombies

sometimes really disgusting, but cool

Zombieland - pretty cool, love it! Bill Murray as zombie!

archangel1 · « **Reply #497 on:** December 05, 2009, 09:38:26 PM »

Quote from: Prof.Witchheimer on December 05, 2009, 10:30:45 AM

Zombieland - pretty cool, love it! Bill Murray as zombie!

As far as I'm concerned, that's about all he'd be good at! Don't like him at all - too smarmy. Barely tolerated him in Ghostbusters. Highly overrated as being funny.

Helen · « **Reply #498 on:** December 05, 2009, 10:59:04 PM »

Quote from: archangel1 on December 05, 2009, 09:38:26 PM

As far as I'm concerned, that's about all he'd be good at! Don't like him at all - too smarmy. Barely tolerated him in Ghostbusters. Highly overrated as being funny.

I love Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation."

Helen

Mancha · « **Reply #499 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:27:33 AM »

I just finished watching Purple Butterfly, a presumably Chinese movie set in Shanghai in the early 1930’s. Its two themes are (1) two relationships, and (2) a Chinese spy group facing off against their Japanese brethren.

I found it a somewhat confusing movie, as it seems to jump around from the past, in flashback, to the present, and then to the past again, or maybe I just didn’t get it. Seemingly random events were occasionally portrayed as being related to each other, but it then seemed as if they weren’t related to each other, which might make sense given the title of the movie and that old butterfly’s wings concept (you know the one; a butterfly flaps its wings over the ocean, causing a breeze, which propels a boat, which brings a stranger to a distant shore…yatta, yatta, yatta…which leads to the end of the world). The female character is incredibly attractive, with pouty lips, almond eyes, unblemished skin, and the strange name Cynthia, but like everyone else in the movie, she never smiles (and indeed, what was there to smile about?). In fact, most of the movie is composed of scenes of endless rainfall and equally endless expressionless gazing of one character upon another, without blinking their eyes or showing any emotion at all. One wonders why they didn’t all kill themselves in ennui-driven angst (or would that be angst-driven ennui?).

Checking my impressions against those of Amazon.com, I find there:

"Zhang Ziyi looks as beautiful as ever in Purple Butterfly, a film that takes her out of the martial-arts world of Hero and House of Flying Daggers. She plays a member of Purple Butterfly, an underground resistance group fighting against the Japanese aggression in early-1930s China. The movie's central dilemma comes when her ex-lover, a Japanese agent (Toru Nakamura), returns to Shanghai and is earmarked for assassination by Purple Butterfly. This compelling-sounding set-up is frustratingly unfulfilled, as director Ye Lou (Shuzou River) opts for an opaque brand of storytelling, in which chronology is jumbled and drama short-circuited. The film looks gorgeous, but it is close to impossible to understand what is going on at any given moment. If handsome images and dreamlike editing are enough, the movie might work for a very select group of patient viewers and Zhang Ziyi fanatics."

Ah, I don’t feel like such an idiot anymore.

If anyone’s seen it and can explain what happened at the Japanese Club near the end of the movie, I’d appreciate it. Send me a PM. My (and Amazon's) criticisms aside, it was an interesting movie, and surely there’s some inspiration to be gleaned for hardcore historians from the inter-wars setting.

Mancha · « **Reply #500 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:32:29 AM »

Quote from: Helen Bachaus on December 05, 2009, 10:59:04 PM

I love Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation."

I agree. And he was fun as the badger in Fantastic Mr. Fox as well:

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #501 on:** December 09, 2009, 05:47:05 AM »

Quote from: Mancha on December 09, 2009, 05:32:29 AM

I agree. And he was fun as the badger in Fantastic Mr. Fox as well:

and he wasn't bad in "Broken Flowers". Actualy I like Bill Murray.

Helen · « **Reply #502 on:** December 09, 2009, 06:28:50 AM »

Quote from: Prof.Witchheimer on December 09, 2009, 05:47:05 AM

and he wasn't bad in "Broken Flowers". Actualy I like Bill Murray.

I've that movie too, but felt it was a little dry compared with Lost in Translation.

Helen

General Roos · « **Reply #503 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:32:44 AM »

Miller´s Crossing, The Untouchables, Once upon a time in America, Bugsy Malone and some prohibition documenatries on YouTube.

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #504 on:** December 09, 2009, 08:04:45 AM »

Quote from: Helen Bachaus on December 09, 2009, 06:28:50 AM

I've that movie too, but felt it was a little dry compared with Lost in Translation.

Agree. It's generally hard to beat Lost in Translation. But Broken Flowers has an own flair and a great soundtrack too.

Lowtardog · « **Reply #505 on:** December 09, 2009, 09:14:11 AM »

Quote from: Plynkes on November 19, 2009, 01:03:26 AM

It just finished on TV here. Good ending! If in doubt, end with the Man in Black.

(Um, SPOILERS, I suppose. But not really. Only if you don't want to know what tune they end the series with.)

What a song!