icecreamdisco presents: THE YEAR IN FILM (1 Viewer)

[nwatts]

it's a common thing for people to 'poo-poo' Spielberg, and whilst he has made some shithouse movies, he also directed Raiders of the Lost Ark. He sure knows how to pace an adventure (The Duel is not too bad either).

It's a common thing because most of his films are terrible. Duel is appalling. Bad acting, stupid/banal story, a few tense scenes, majorly predictable. It wreaks of "this is my first film" syndrome, employing edits/angles that only first-timers use (for good reason). The only reason anyone has ever heard of this old crappy made-for-TV movie is because it was Spielberg's first feature.

Jurassic Park is probably his best film. Close Encounters is also good. The first half-or-so of War of the Worlds was even good. When he's directing a suspense scene/film, he's fantastic (apart from Duel). When he's doing anything else, he sucks. You can feel this overbearing arrogance through his films. "You don't know what to think so i'm going to tell you. And while Im at it Ill make you cry."

 

[Benny_]

it's a common thing for people to 'poo-poo' Spielberg, and whilst he has made some shithouse movies, he also directed Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Everyone seems to love Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I always had more fun with The Last Crusade.

Fingers crossed for Match Point, the reactions have been very positive pretty much across the board so yeah, i am getting my hopes up

I'll also add Russian Dolls to my honourable mentions list.

 

[crazyhomo]

it's a common thing for people to 'poo-poo' Spielberg, and whilst he has made some shithouse movies, he also directed Raiders of the Lost Ark. He sure knows how to pace an adventure (The Duel is not too bad either).

i think the first 30 mins of saving private ryan is all the proof you need that has amazing directing skills

 

[crazyhomo]

It's a common thing because most of his films are terrible.

Munich (2005)
War of the Worlds (2005)
The Terminal (2004)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Minority Report (2002)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Amistad (1997)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Schindler's List (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Hook (1991)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
The Color Purple (1985)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Jaws (1975)

maybe i'm just not as smart as you when it comes to films, but i thought most of these were pretty damn good

 

[spiny norman]

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Hook (1991)

maybe i'm just not as smart as you when it comes to films, but i thought most of these were pretty damn good

Huh!?

Anyway, Spielberg's decent. Not the best director ever, but he'd make my top ten. He can be inconsistent, but so was Hitchcock and nobody begrudges him.

Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, ET, Last Crusade and Schindler's List are all excellent.

 

[walrusbear]

It's a common thing because most of his films are terrible. Duel is appalling. Bad acting, stupid/banal story, a few tense scenes, majorly predictable. It wreaks of "this is my first film" syndrome, employing edits/angles that only first-timers use (for good reason). The only reason anyone has ever heard of this old crappy made-for-TV movie is because it was Spielberg's first feature.

Jurassic Park is probably his best film. Close Encounters is also good. The first half-or-so of War of the Worlds was even good. When he's directing a suspense scene/film, he's fantastic (apart from Duel). When he's doing anything else, he sucks. You can feel this overbearing arrogance through his films. "You don't know what to think so i'm going to tell you. And while Im at it Ill make you cry."

damn you're harsh on duel
there's no point in criticising his first film for being his first film the premise is so delightfully silly i can't help but enjoy it. it's fairly well paced too.

i'd say the worst thing about spielberg is his surrender to 'family values'

 

[icecreamdisco]

i think spielberg's really hitting his peak now. a.i. is, for my money, a masterpiece - totally creepy in it's blend of uneasy, overt sentimentality and cold cynicism. and war of the worlds is uneven but it has some of the best moments of any film in the last few years. minority report was good too. haven't seen the terminal or catch me if you can yet, but plan to catch the latter soon.

as for duel, how can anyone possibly hate it? it's super-neat, and a great showcase of top-notch visual storytelling.

 

[walrusbear]

i think spielberg's really hitting his peak now. a.i. is, for my money, a masterpiece - totally creepy in it's blend of uneasy, overt sentimentality and cold cynicism. and war of the worlds is uneven but it has some of the best moments of any film in the last few years. minority report was good too. haven't seen the terminal or catch me if you can yet, but plan to catch the latter soon.

as for duel, how can anyone possibly hate it? it's super-neat, and a great showcase of top-notch visual storytelling.

a.i. is an interesting one. i'm one of those people who doens't like the ending much - i'd still prefer it ended with the kid (can't remember character names, haven't seen this in ages) metres away from his goal. the aliens etc. seemed a bizarre coda.
certainly had some interesting moments though. when the haley joel osment characters destroyed the replicant of himself it was rather unsettling.

 

[Lundy]

AI was the victim of a drawn out, silly ending.


Icecream: I wasn't a fan of Catch Me if You Can, but I enjoyed The Terminal much more than I expected to.

 

[crazyhomo]

Huh!?

how can you not love hook?

 

[walrusbear]

hook was terrible

 

[walrusbear]

it has a few redeeming qualities (good performances, esp. tilda swinton) and it gets better as it progresses, but overall it's the same clean-cut 'hallmark indie film' bullshit (sountrack by elliott smith and the polyphonic spree- go figure) that suggests the suburbs are full of overmedicated losers and ignorant parents and everyone's better off moving to the city. ironic that a film that tell us 'it's ok to be different' is so cliched an unimaginative. compare it to me and you and everyone you know's depiction of suburbia and it seems especially simplistic.

but yeah, most people liked it, so maybe you will too. i'd be interested to hear what you think.

i saw thumbsucker this afternoon and those criticisms are pretty spot-on
i especially didn't like the end shot (and the polyphonic spree are shithouse).
i felt there were things to like in the film, however. i wouldn't discredit any of the performances and i didn't mind the elliott smith cover of 'thirteen'
it's biggest problem lies in how many times this sort of thing has been done and done better.

 

[Benny_]

Critic's top 10 lists 2005

Interesting to see that only a handful of critics had Broken Flowers in their top 10 when everyone on BOS seems to love it. Also interesting to see 2046 doing so well. The Squid and the Whale is now on my to watch list.

 

[walrusbear]

that reminds me benny, i finally saw 'in the mood for love' last night
now i can check out 2046

 

[Espo15]

what i can remember from this yr:
i'd have to say little fish was probably my favourite for the year. also really enjoyed inside deepthroat, was entertaining, funny and gave interesting perspective on the evolution of the pornography industry. i heart huckabeeswas good, but i saw it ages ago, so i'm not 100% sure i'd feel the same way now. sin city was good, but it was a big task for it to live up to the massive hype everyone had given it. also, i hadn't read the comics or anything until after so i guess i couldn't fully appreciate it. also really enjoyed enron.

really didnt like the life aquatic, not sure why.. i just didn't. i didn't mind crash, but it really wasn't as good and deep as alot of stupid people told me it was.

want to see: you and me and everyone we know, wolf creek, broken flowers, the proposition.

 

[Benny_]

that reminds me benny, i finally saw 'in the mood for love' last night
now i can check out 2046

What did you think?

 

[walrusbear]

put simply, subtle and impressive

 

[Espo15]

also i couldn't figure out if i was missing something in regards to napoleon dynamite.

 

[walrusbear]

napoleon dynamite was 2004 methinks
same for i heart huckabees (well, i think it was released here in 2005 - but it's a 2004 movie)
inside deep throat was entertaining but felt like the project could have made more of itself

 

[Benny_]

A History of Violence has replaced Wolf Creek in my top 10 for the year.