Movies, movies, movies! My TBW
Today it’s Prometheus, of course — but I saw this movie mentioned here (one of my favorite blogs, actually) and it looked exactly like the sort of thing I’d like:
The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch
Which is available for streaming on Netflix and for rent at Amazon (though free if you’re a Prime member.)
And while at Amazon, I noticed this in the recommendation queue below The Heir Apparent: Rapt
So I’m putting that in my list, too. And I see that Netflix fixed the subtitle problem with Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, so I’ll probably try to watch that again soon, too.
Then I’ll probably return to watching revenge movies, but that’s another post.
Jun 08, 2012 @ 10:25:25
Ohhh yay Detective Dee on Netflix! Subtitles are a good thing I *suppose*
but yay for it being available! I tried to find it a while back when people mentioned it.
Jun 08, 2012 @ 14:30:55
I really tried to go without subtitles but, alas, I finally gave up.
Jun 08, 2012 @ 16:14:32
I haven’t seen any of these movies!!!
Jun 08, 2012 @ 16:32:03
I haven’t seen them either
this is my to-be-watched list.
Jun 09, 2012 @ 08:08:28
I saw that Largo Winch film a while ago. A somewhat standard but fun action film. There’s another Largo Winch sequel, out last year: The Burma Conspiracy. Same leading actor. Haven’t seen this one, though.
Rapt was okay. It’s essentially a character study of a flawed man and his family during the whole kidnapping drama. I still can’t make up my mind whether I liked it. I’m leaning towards Yes.
Detective Dee – although a little patchy, it was fun. Does what it says on tin. Having said that, I found this Korean film “Jeon Woochi: The Taoist Wizard” – which I saw after Detective Dee – a lot more enjoyable. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1274293/
I didn’t know you like revenge films, though. What are your favourites so far?
Jun 09, 2012 @ 15:12:30
For the revenge movies, it’s pretty much whatever Netflix has/suggests to me (we don’t have a nearby video rental store anymore.) I started with Oldboy because I saw it mentioned in a comment at Pajiba as the best revenge film ever.
I’m still trying to decide whether I love the end, or if it’s the worst ending ever, or if it’s happy or not. But then I think I watched Kill Bill, because I don’t really like Tarantino so I put it off for years. I enjoyed bits of that, but it never felt as OMG! as parts of Oldboy did (instead it was all stuff that I’d seen before or expected, even if it was entertaining.)
So I watched Lady Vengeance and I Saw the Devil, and liked them both much more than Kill Bill, though I cringed my way through parts of I Saw the Devil.
I guess it’s not that I like revenge films (though I do like those I’ve watched, apparently enough that Neflix recently added “Korean Revenge Thrillers” as a category on my front page) — I’m more in the process of discovering them, but the last one made me take a quick break. I’ve got The Chaser, The Man from Nowhere, No Mercy, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance up next.
Jun 09, 2012 @ 17:18:07
Wow, what a list. I thought you were going to list just US films. In spite of numerous discussions with friends, I still have mixed feelings about Oldboy.
I really can’t wait to hear what you think of The Chaser (warning: it’s somewhat a little more emotionally devastating than I Saw the Devil). The Man from Nowhere was so-so (found it predictable) but everyone I know loved it, so it’s just me. Haven’t seen No Mercy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, so I look forward to hear what you think.
Do put ‘A Bittersweet Life’ on the list when you can.
I’m torn on whether to suggest ‘Bedevilled’, which is IMO the ultimate woman’s revenge film. Events that eventually sparked one woman’s cathartic journey of revenge – and its conclusion – left me rather emotionally devastated. Interestingly, male friends didn’t share my reaction while female friends did. Anyway, if Lady Vengeance is an elegant take on a woman’s revenge, then Bedevilled is an almost emotionally raw take on a woman’s revenge.
“I don’t really like Tarantino” — marry me. You have to, in fact.
Jun 09, 2012 @ 22:59:53
I will add those (and will be prepared.)
Tarantino: it’s one of those things that I can’t really explain, because I’m not good at reviews at all (and movie reviews even less.) I wondered for a while if I was having a mental backlash against the Pulp Fiction hype, because I didn’t love it at all. (I did like the soundtrack, though, especially this–
It’s like my anthem when other songs aren’t busy being my anthem.)
ETA: Well, hell. The embedding isn’t working at all.
But also the genre just isn’t my favorite, I guess, and Travolta REALLY didn’t help, because he’s like a male Julia Roberts to me, where I have this GOD NO PLEASE reaction when he/she shows up in a movie. But anyway, I tried a few others and there’s always a sense of … smugness? that I get from his movies that really just rubs me the wrong way.
Which is a very long way of saying that it will be a long time before I bother with Django Unchained.
Jun 10, 2012 @ 12:40:48
Ah, and I bothered myself by writing that the movies seemed smug without backing that up, because if I ever read a review of my work that said “wow, these books seem really smug” without an explanation, I’d be all: WTF?
So I spent part of the night thinking about what it is in Tarantino’s movies that gives me that impression, and I’ve realized: It’s because I don’t believe in any of his characters. Instead they all feel to me like different people/actors speaking with the same voice (even if it’s different aspects and facets of that voice.)
I guess I think of it in terms of writing — there are some writers who have a voice that’s so strong that it bleeds through their characters, so that they all have a certain sameness even when they shouldn’t. Sometimes, this works, especially if the voice clicks with me as a reader. Other times it doesn’t, and instead I’m irritated by the book, and then I get that irrational sense that the author is incapable of hiding her voice beneath a character and/or is so in love with her voice that she refuses to. (The latter is probably a not-very-kind personal projection, and has no foundation other than my own irritation with such books. It’s impossible to know what the author was thinking, but by gosh, I will ascribe SOME motivation to her, no matter how false — and that’s not fair.)
But that’s the way I feel with Tarantino’s films — that I’m never allowed to forget that this is a Tarantino film, and that the characters are just different mouthpieces with a single voice (maybe not his, but after a while, it doesn’t matter who it belongs to). And so that leaves me with a (perhaps unfair) feeling that voice is more important than the character (and that just really, really grates on me.)
Jun 11, 2012 @ 13:58:00
Jilt Maili, marry me.