24 August 2008

Everyone is Entitled to an Opinion, Foreign Language Version


The Internet Movie Database provides a message board space for all movies and TV shows. This allows people to initiate a discussion on a movie or ask questions or post a comment and get responses.
As one would imagine, there are a wide range of opinions on films. Last month I copied and pasted some scathing comments about some of America's most beloved films. Now I provide some choice words from IMDb users about some highly respected language films Remember, we are ALL entitled to our opinion.

Aguirre, Wrath of God
This is by far the worst film I have ever seen. Its slow, undeveloped plot and general storyline carry on a horrible progression of insignificant and confusing scenes. Its acting is none the better; but worst of all is the script. The actors ramble on with pointless monologues and unrealistic dialogues. All in all, this movie SUCKS!!!

Grand Illuison
except for the last 30 minutes, i dont know why people keep this film in such high regard. "one of the best of all time", "brilliant", blah blah blah.. someone explain to me whats so special about this movie..

Seven Samurai
I don't care about or appreciate film history, I studied it at university for 3 years and never found it remotely interesting. That's not to say I don't like old films, most of my favourite films are from the 40's and 50's, but this film is so dreadfully boring. Admittedly I only watched 1:30 of it but I couldn't handle it anymore it was so boring I kept falling asleep. I know why people interested in the history of film are interested in this, but is there any regular film viewers who like this? Its so boring

400 Blows
Recently i felt in the the mood for watching french movies (prefrably films from the french new wave) so i decided to watch the 400 blows.
What a pile of crap, why do people hold this film in such high regard. While i admit i do admire Truffaut for making very personal films but i felt that the film left me cold.
But before you say i have no taste i tried to watch Jean-Luc Godards extremely nhilistic and misanthropic film Weekend and i thought it was one of the best films i seen in ages.


Breathless
I bought this movie due to the wide recognition it seems to have. However, I was sorely disappointed, yes it seems to have some experimental editing - though according to some it could be due to Godard being forced to make cuts, so even that isn't an artistic point, just a pee'd off director trying to get one on the studio.
For me the acting was wooden to the point of making Keanu Reaves seem like the next De Niro. The script seemed hardly that great. I've also also seen far better cinematography well before that time.
I think this is strictly for flim studies students. Are there any Godard films really worth watching? Are films by Renoir and Fellini also equally dull, historical context apart? (BTW I returned Breathless and got Central Station, an utterly brilliant movie)


All About My Mother
I consider myself to be a moviefreak, I see all kinds of movies: Spirited Away, Oldboy, Amelie From Montemarte, Mysterious Skin, Godfather, The Downfall and also a lot of "slow movies" (just like this: Le Vita e bella, Citizen Kane, Gosford Park and The Hours.. I watch everything and I know when I see a good movie.
Before watching "Todo Sobre Mi madre" I had pretty high expectations, they were not fulfilled.
This was a crappy movie, end of story. Sure the acting was good and the music/score were faboulus. But it was just so BORING! And all the plot holes.....
If you haven´t seen this movie, don´t waste your time


Lives of Others
I'm not going to come on here and say it was the worst movie I ever saw or anything, because that's simply not true. It's decent, actually.
But nothing more to me. I'm continually surprised to see how many people trumpet this as one of the best movies ever made, or honestly even as one of the best movies of '06. To me, it's a movie that succeeds technically, but never really gets ambitious. It felt familiar when I watched it... not as in I could nail down its ripping off something else, but just that I had this nagging feeling that I've seen this movie done before, better.
I also thought the death of the wife was a missed opportunity, but that's a minor nag.
We watched this as part of my German class, and the people I talked to afterwards spoke very highly of it. A couple of people I've talked to since have shared similar sentiments to mine.
I wound up giving it *** out of ****, with the tag that I don't really LIKE it all that much, I just have a respect for its technical prowess.
Maybe it's just one of those things?


Y Tu Mama Tambien
what the hell was the point of this movie? Is it about two closet gay guys with an older woman learning about, what life? Sex? Wtf is the point? The cinematography sucked, the milf is really pretty ugly, and the use of the narrator provided such stupid and useless information like "the pigs got slaughtered" or whatever the hell it said. the cast was alright, just, what the hell? Oh, and people are talking about how realistic the sex scenes are. It's really not that difficult to put a girl on the bottom, the guy on top, and do pelvic thrusts into the air. In fact, if they wanted to make it really realistic all they would have to do is sleep with each other for real, but that would make it porn, not this "high art" subtitled Bulls hit. This is further proof that roger ebert needs to be killed. four stars my a ss. i gave it 5/10, and thats only because of a few decent shots and the two actors that had some good moments. other then that, stupid waste of time about f ags and some lady with cancer who wanted to get laid. i've seen two cuaron movies so far, this and harry potter, and of course i hated harry potter, but he did a decent job considering the stupid material. This was just stupid, imo. and i gave my reasons. if someone can explain to me the genius of this garbage i will be very happy. thanks.

City of God
I recently rented this movie because of all the hype it get's on IMDB, and I must say that I was very dissapointed. I won't say that it's a bad movie because it wasn't, but I expected so much more from a movie with such a high rating.
People can't say that I didn't like it because of the subtitles, because I personally enjoy subtitles in movies. I think part of it had to do that I didn't find myself attached to the characters at all. Knockout Ned was pretty good, but everything in this movie I found very predictable and nothing special. (I do realize that this is based on a true story, but I am unaware as to how much of it is actually fact.)

Farewell My Concubine
I wish I had a concubine while I was watching this boring flick. Then maybe I would have fell asleep happy!!! This movie had so much hype behind it. Everytime I looked into asian cinema this flick came up as a must see. I have to say I was not impressed. It had all the qualities of an epic but it had no soul. It never ended. I could have cut this movie into an hour and a half or at least an hour and 45 minutes easily. NOT ALL LONG MOVIES DESERVE EXCELLENT RATINGS PEOPLE! I loved the cinematography, acting, props and even the story could have worked (if the director and writers didn't drop the ball) but the screenplay dragged on foreverrrrrrrrrrr. I found myself hoping that they would move to Hiroshima or Nagasaki sometime during WW II just so I could see this piece of "candied crap apples" end with a bang! However I am sorry to say that they didn't move and now I must regret (for the rest of my life) the 3 hours I wasted watching Farewell,My Concubine. Farewell?----- more like get the hell out! DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME UNLESS YOUR TIRED!

The Seventh Seal
What about a remake? I really see Vincent Cassel playing Antonius Block (Max von Sydow)and Russell Crowe as Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand)
What do you think !!

2 comments:

Rocket Video said...

wowie-zowie!!
if you were "very dissapointed"
with a masterpiece like....
CITY OF GOD
then what do you like?

(by the way it's spelled.... disappointed)

-sweeneyrules

Richard Hourula said...

Really fella, you should have read the intro. This is a compilation of comments from IMDb's discussion board.