Secret Ninja Movie Club (aka what have you watched lately)

[Pedro Sánchez]

I'd give 6/10, the pacing was a bit off, the 2nd half was dragged out.

[wolf89]

a combination of gratuitous nudity, & dangerous stunts

This sounds appealing. Especially that it's made in the 70s

[New Sense]

I'd give 6/10, the pacing was a bit off, the 2nd half was dragged out.

Yeah for me too and I didn't even make it all the way through the second half.

[lloydnoise]

this is fantastic



quite nuts, bit of a Witchfinder General vibe but the dialogue is great and it has one of the best depiction of a trip i've seen in a film
also Tyres from Spaced is in it

[hutyluty]

^i thought it was absolutely awful. Maybe its cos ive never done mushrooms but seriously it was just unwatchable.

[lloydnoise]

^i thought it was absolutely awful. Maybe its cos ive never done mushrooms but seriously it was just unwatchable.

i only know one other person who's seen it, a girl at work, but she loved it. It's just a brave as fuck film. def not unwatchable

[defoxster]

Just saw Only God Forgives. Didn't get it at all. Quite glad it was only short as I wont be getting that time in my life back. So much of it was bad. Even the action or violent bits that people had told me about were lacking something!

[EliteLennon117]

place beyond the pines was sick. loved it 10/10

yeah I liked it 9/10

[hutyluty]

^i thought it was absolutely awful. Maybe its cos ive never done mushrooms but seriously it was just unwatchable.

i only know one other person who's seen it, a girl at work, but she loved it. It's just a brave as fuck film. def not unwatchable

Well yeah its brave for sure haha- but i think this might've been a bit too brave for me- it felt like the am-dram play put on by a historical enactment society and then went down the rabbit hole- and then went down another one for good measure.

I've been told to watch it again by others but i'm not sure i can put myself through it lol.

[New Sense]

Just saw Only God Forgives. Didn't get it at all. Quite glad it was only short as I wont be getting that time in my life back. So much of it was bad. Even the action or violent bits that people had told me about were lacking something!

All those long drawn out shots of a brooding Gosling standing in a corridoor. Little but poor dialogue delivered with no effort, Yeah, it tried too hard to be 'arty', style over substance imo as are most of Nicolas Winding Refns movies. Apart from Drive of course, that worked but mainly due to the soundtrack.

[Liam92]

Just saw Only God Forgives. Didn't get it at all. Quite glad it was only short as I wont be getting that time in my life back. So much of it was bad. Even the action or violent bits that people had told me about were lacking something!

Apart from Drive of course, that worked but mainly due to the soundtrack.

Don't get what's quite so amazing about Drive, I mean yeah, it was pretty good, but didn't think it was amazing, not much more than a 7/10 for me

[wolf89]

watch the director interview thing about drive on the dvd and it'll help spell out a lot of what's good about it a little more in terms of the thinking behind it.

However it should really be obvious why drive is good though just from enjoying watching it

[Forum]

Don't get what's quite so amazing about Drive, I mean yeah, it was pretty good, but didn't think it was amazing, not much more than a 7/10 for me

Thank you

[Laszlo]

Don't get what's quite so amazing about Drive, I mean yeah, it was pretty good, but didn't think it was amazing, not much more than a 7/10 for me

Thank you

I've been saying this for about a year. Got flamed on here for it as well. (Although 7 is a bit too high in my book)

[wolf89]

I don't know how people can not think Drive is a good movie. I don't get what isn't to like unless you wanted some fast and the furious type shit after watching the (really bad) trailer.

[Liam92]

I don't know how people can not think Drive is a good movie. I don't get what isn't to like unless you wanted some fast and the furious type shit after watching the (really bad) trailer.

It is good, just not amazing. For me it wasn't good enough to warrant the crazy reviews it got, didn't find it any better than good

[Laszlo]

Never saw the trailer. From what I remember it's just bland/lacking substance/hollow/too reliant on aesthetics.

[NickUndercover]

And Carey Mulligan looking like she got lost on the way to the studio next door

[wolf89]

Never saw the trailer. From what I remember it's just bland/lacking substance/hollow/too reliant on aesthetics.

The lack of speech or character background and stuff in Drive actually works for a reason though. When he's with the girl most of the love story aspect is told through the body language and way they behave around each other and it's more believable than most movies for it. People aren't constantly having interesting scripted conversations in real life and when you are stood in a lift or something you do stand about saying fuck all. Especially with the kid being present and the jailed husband in the picture their interactions of course are going to be a bit stifled.

Couple that with the fact that Gosling's character is basically the idea of the American hero with the idea of righteousness taking a forefront but with constant undercurrents of violence and a possibly dark past too and it's pretty necessary that he doesn't have much revealed about him. Clint Eastwood as the man with no name is probably the most obvious comparison to make in regards to why it's more effective to have a mysterious character who is only really revealed through select on screen actions.

The style is important too. The atmosphere is fantastic and less expected or obvious references to 80s vigilante style drive in movies within a movie with such beautiful visuals and a believable love story create a really interesting feel to the film and help portray this style of character even more. The violence is handled spectacularly well with the emphasis being on the build up and context to the actions along with the general tone being used for effect rather than purely the acts them selves. The stylistic and visual elements aren't purely for show either I think. For example the lift scene's use of lighting is fucking awesome with the way the light moves into the beautifully lit kiss before fading away to the brutally sudden head stomping scene adding a lot of impact to the scene and reinforcing the way the violence is built up to and portrayed like I said before. The style is used for impact I find. The fetishistic treatment of knives when Bryan Cranston is killed coupled with his reaction makes it seem such harsh scene with out being dramatically violent. The use of the mask by Gosling's character in one scene gives a really exciting horror feel to the scene. The strip club bit feels like James Glickenhaus' Exterminator in it's ridiculously to point use of violence and backs up the "man with no name" Clint Eastwood stlye of anti hero this film portrays (relating to the whole idea of the righteous but actually very dark violent ideal of the American hero again)

Everything seems incredibly deliberate in the film and honestly the only way it could seem hollow is if you're not thinking about it enough or expecting some huge action movie or something heavy on plot rather than a more subtle portrayal of characters and style based exploration of subjects rather than being dependent on script.

[Harkat]

Drive is one of my all-time favorites.