Congrats again to @jimmyjames! Seems like @sbstep couldn’t keep up with you this month so you’re back on spot number one. Enjoy your prize and September competition will start soon, so stay tuned. Members will be again receiving notification email with exact time and date of new competition. Sorry for the delays this week but [...]
@jimmyjames wasn’t that far off when guessing that this film could be The Road. The main idea is the same, group of people are traveling through barren landscape, trying to avoid the dangers of environment and decaying civilization. There are few more similarities (cannibalism) but make no mistake, The Road is way darker and has bigger [...]
Genious Christopher Nolan dropped this bomb between two batman movies in 2006. It’s good as you would expect with surprising WTF twists and strong narration. The Prestige shows hidden world of illusionists and it’s practices in 19th century, something that I haven’t seen to date which makes it unique in my world right away. The perception [...]
Untouchable A.K.A. Intouchables is a major hit in Europe, not really known to US audiences (well some of them are certainly familiar with it). It’s touchy and feely film about a paraplegic and his caretaker. However the main strength of the movie lies in couple of really funny scenes (painting auction, birthday party) that make the [...]
I’m gonna say right off the bat that Richard Linklater is my favorite director (maybe ever?) and this movie, along with its prequel Before Sunrise is the top notch stuff. Rumors are that the series are based on Linklater’s life with him having met woman named Amy and spent night together. Before Sunset is directly tied to [...]
Step Brothers is a little cool comedy. The humor originates in childish behavior of adult step brothers that are “forced” to become friends. The pranks and gags are not ingenious, they’re simple and vulgar which resonates with main characters’ egos – sort of reminding me of some Jim Carrey’s era. Director’s affiliation is obvious – Adam [...]
Had a bit of Peter Weir session last week. Eleven years later he came up with Fearless, a drama about a guy that survives plane crash – which changes him (Jeff Bridges) profoundly. It’s got one of the best editing I’ve seen that goes hand in hand with fabulous script. I know I’ve been praising [...]
This 1982 feature film from Peter Weir (The Way Back) has some the features of exotic romantic movie like Casablanca. At first the film feels much more like political drama as it takes place in 60s in Indonesia’s capital – Jakarta during political turmoil of Sukarno’s government. Very young Mel Gibson (he starred in Mad Max 2 [...]
Jimmy has done it! There is no higher rank than Grand Master according to the rules. The site is up since March and @jimmyjames has collected 50 points throughout the past 4 months (approximately 12 points each month). This is a one time bonus for everyone that gets this far, so congrats and I wish [...]
I just saw this one on HBO while staying at my in-laws (we don’t have subscription at home so we’re freeloading while we’re over there ). This flick is sorta feel-good in nature and if you’d be flipping through channels and stumble upon this one, you’d probably didn’t pay much attention to it. While Romy [...]
… @sbstep! Congratulations! There is finally someone who beat @jimmyjames @sbstep joined us in the middle of the competition and he (I’ll go with “he” since his name says Seth) managed to quickly gather points. The victory was very close this month and it looked like there would be a tie. The rules say that [...]
OK, these are the last shots, the competition will be closed on Sunday 29th at midnight CET, your submissions will not be accepted after that. Good luck!
This movie is purely bizzare but I put it amongst one of my favorite movies. Sure it’s not the stuff I’d rewatch every year but every three or four. I stumbled upon it in my Plex library this tuesday and only snapped the pictures for competition. I decided that I’m gonna watch it again, probably [...]
This movie is very dear to my heart as I saw it like million times when I was a kid – the good old VCR days. The tape copy had czech language dubbed over the original – a practice very common in our country. It wasn’t even original but copied over from the rental company [...]
I just spent whole weekend consuming Alien franchise: this included Alien that is in today’s screenshot but Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection and couple of Alien vs. Predator movies. I just saw Prometheus last week and after experiencing few puzzled scenes during the film I decided I’d remind myself a bit. Needless to say Alien from [...]
Welcome Seth and congrats on your first guess! Miss Potter is rather mediocre family flick directed by Chris Noonan who did Babe back in 90s. It is somewhat cutesy and “heart warming” as Babe and not exactly my cup of tea. There wasn’t anything original about it but it does its job at conveying the [...]
I love this psychedelic masterpiece by “not-then-so-famous” Alex Proyas (The Crow, I Robot) because it did the whole matrix thing (sort of) one year before Matrix came out. Now that I’ve spoilt it for those who haven’t seen it I can tell you a bit more about it. Dark City takes place in a strange [...]
Sweet. Sam Raimi: in the Hulla Hoop manufacturing sequence as one of the Hudsucker brainstormers. We don’t see his face, only his silhouette and we hear his voice. (link)
This movie was pretty hyped before its release date. It was mostly due to the involvement of J.J. Abrams as a producer and prominent teasers. When it came out, the reviews were mostly mediocre but if you think about the context of the genre it manages to be quite original. There is no point in [...]
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is one of those better sequels to come out in recent years. Technically it’s a prequel, uncovering the history of ape’s domination over humanity that is depicted in the original Planet Of The Apes (1968). It’s not a first “makeover” in recent years, in 2001 there was mediocre [...]
Congratulations again Jimmy. He’s amassed total of nine points, the other contestant Cameron_Parker received one point only making him the second. Jimmy receives $25 in cash, another competition is starting tomorrow.
Oooh M.Night Shyamalan’s piece of garbage you might think reading the title. Aaaand… you’re sort of right – Zooey Deschanel and Mark Wahlberg is terrible choice of actors but the Shyamalan weird factor is here (unlike Lady In The Water). The premise of “something in the air might kill you” is enough for me to [...]
Who doesn’t like Scorsese here? Raise your hand! Well if you don’t you should go away because Scorsese is rightfully among best directors of all time and rightfully so. He’s been consistent with his theme throughout his whole career, well almost (Shutter Island being one example). I’m always curious who’s he’s gonna pick next. In [...]
Congrats again to @jimmyjames! Seems like @sbstep couldn’t keep up with you this month so you’re back on spot number one. Enjoy your prize and September competition will start soon, so stay tuned. Members will be again receiving notification email with exact time and date of new competition.
Sorry for the delays this week but I had some other important stuff to do, September competition will be a bit shorter this time but I’ll be back in full swing in October so be sure to expect daily shots.
Rankings for August:
1. @jimmyjames: 12P
2. @sbstep : 3P
Also of note is that @jimmyjames reached the highest rank possible which means he got one time extra $25 on his paypal account.
@jimmyjames wasn’t that far off when guessing that this film could be The Road. The main idea is the same, group of people are traveling through barren landscape, trying to avoid the dangers of environment and decaying civilization. There are few more similarities (cannibalism) but make no mistake, The Road is way darker and has bigger impact psychologically. Hell is more of an action movie, its mission to entertain than scare is obvious (car chases, molotovs etc.)
Budget must have been tight so we have selection of unknown actors that are doing a pretty decent job. I applause the director for bringing up a lot of creativity that makes up for it – unlike the mention McCarthy’s adaptation, this movie has lots of light, really lots of it and is literally “undark”. You see “hell” means bright in german and this fact is widely exploited.
Just like Mad Max, the movie is set in sort of desert-ish nature but the cause of apocalypse is the sun itself which burns so brightly that it makes living outside (at least during daylight) practically impossible. There is no water, no crops and dead animals are laying all over the place.
This “brightness” is used as a stylistic element, for example the glare from the sun conceals subjects on purpose and this has also other effect – it hides the stuff which would have to be built otherwise, like expensive props (much like Mad Max). I really liked how the sun and shadow creates “safety zones”, it physically limits the movement of subjects and creates even more suspense.
There isn’t many information about german director Tim Fehlbaum and I didn’t even do a proper research but I’ll keep an eye on him as his future looks promising.
P.S.: The film was produced by Roland Emmerich so be aware of that (which means it’s not super sophisticated but I still found it interesting in some areas – see above).
Genious Christopher Nolan dropped this bomb between two batman movies in 2006. It’s good as you would expect with surprising WTF twists and strong narration. The Prestige shows hidden world of illusionists and it’s practices in 19th century, something that I haven’t seen to date which makes it unique in my world right away. The perception of reality is a strong theme running across Nolan’s work, here it’s more subtle, opting for Rashomon style narration via journals of Borden and Angier – two protagonists who are at war with each other.
The film team managed to create some creepy atmosphere here, especially in latter part of it when it’s escalating with more and more strange stuff. I immediately noticed use of dark ambient music (composed by David Julyan) which is very prominent in the first Angier’s performance of transported man (yes, it is exactly what it sounds like, moving yourself from one place to another).
It wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t mention Christopher Priest, a writer whose book of the same name became inspiration for the movie, so lots of work and originality of the script comes mainly from it. I could write a whole page about why The Prestige is great – David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, great camera and setting, good timing in script and actor performance (Michael Caine), but I won’t. By now, the movie has become a classic and sort of beloved gem amongst Nolan’s fans, it feels pointless to spoil it for those who haven’t had chance to watch it or those who had… they already know what I’m talking about.
The Prestige can be bought on cheaper Blu-Ray edition for $7.99 or DVD for $9.99, as always it’s on Amazon Instant Video for only $1.99 (rent) or $9.99 (download).
Untouchable A.K.A. Intouchables is a major hit in Europe, not really known to US audiences (well some of them are certainly familiar with it). It’s touchy and feely film about a paraplegic and his caretaker. However the main strength of the movie lies in couple of really funny scenes (painting auction, birthday party) that make the film bit above average. Some people will laugh their ass off and (maybe) cry in the end, for me it is professionally executed drama with funny bits. If you come along this one, watch it as it won’t be a waste of time.
Congrats again to @jimmyjames! Seems like @sbstep couldn’t keep up with you this month so you’re back on spot number one. Enjoy your prize and September competition will start soon, so stay tuned. Members will be again receiving notification email with exact time and date of new competition.
