Films

[betsmate]

6 months ago I cancelled my subscription to Sky Movies and joined LoveFilm.com. The films are delivered to my door and when I have watched them I pop them back in the pre-paid envelope they came in and post them back. For a monthly fee that has ranged between £2.99 (3 month introductory offer) and £9.99 (current price), I am "allowed" to have any two films out at a time, and keep them for an unlimited period of time. In these six months I have rented the following films...

24 Hour Party People
A Bout De Souffle (Breathless)
A Very Long Engagement
Amores Perros
Apocalypse Now
BASEketball
Bourne Identity
Bourne Supremacy
Bowling For Columbine
Bugsy
Carlito’s Way
Carlito's Way - Rise To Power
Casino
Catch Me If you Can
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Chinatown
City Of God
Confidence
Dead Man's Shoes
Donnie Brasco
Downfall
Fight Club
French Connection
French Connection 2
Gangs of New York
Gangster No. 1
Godfather
Godfather Part 2
Godfather Part 3
Going Off Big Time
Good Will Hunting
Goodfellas
Heat
Intacto
Intermission
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill Vol 1
Kill Bill Vol 2
Layer Cake
Leon
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Man On Fire
Memento
Mindhunters
Mr and Mrs Smith
Oceans Twelve
Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon A Time In The West
Platoon
Pulp Fiction
Raging Bull
Reservoir Dogs
Road to Perdition
Ronin
Scarface
Schindler's List
Sideways
Silence of the Lambs
Sin City
Snatch
Spartan
Subway
Super Size Me
Taxi
Taxi (2004)
Taxi Driver
Taxi II
Team America, World Police
The Aviator
The Code (aka La Mentale)
The Cooler
The Day of the Jackal
The Interpreter
The Italian Job 2004
The Long Good Friday
The Manchurian Candidate
The Untouchables
The Usual Suspects
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
Touching The Void
Traffic
True Romance (Director's Cut)
War Of The Worlds
Withnail And I

Currently in my rental queue are...

American Beauty
Boiler Room
Crash  
Million Dollar Baby
On the Waterfront
Swingers
The Consequences Of Love (aka Le Conseguenze Dell'Amore)  
Touch Of Evil
Two For The Money  


I am starting to run out of ideas about what to add to my queue next! Anyone got any ideas??? Are there any glaring ommisions for the above list?

 

[Euronymous]

Off the top of my head:

Cobra Verde
Fargo
Das Boot
Irreversible
Glengarry Glen Ross
L`Enfer
Patton
Ran
Seven Samurai
The Big Lebowski
Three Colours Red

 

[betsmate]

Thanks, I have been looking at a few of those. With Three Colours Red is it worth watching White and Blue first?

 

[Euronymous]

Not especially, you dont lose anything. But there are little connections between all three films. Certainly you`ll want to see Blue and White afterwards.

 

[Harbinger]

You've got good taste betsmate! I'd exhaust everything they have by Scorsese, Michael Mann, Kubrick, Oliver Stone, Coppola, Coen Brothers, Terrence Malick, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and Michael Bay.





(I'm joking about Michael Bay. But get The Rock out anyway!)

 

[betsmate]

Added so far...

Irreversible
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Big Lebowski
Three Colours Red
Rumble Fish
Any Given Sunday
Badlands

Keep them coming!

Gareth - I have seen Armageddon, Bad Boys, Pearl Harbour and the Rock; thus cementing Michael Bay's place in my Portfolio!!!

 

[sunybay]

Crounching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Seven Samurai
House of flying daggers
Road to Home
Hero
In the mood for love
Chungking Express
Not one less
Red Sorghum


Million dollar Baby
Match Point
Blade Runner
Doctor Zhivago
Casablanca
Hotel Rwanda
Life Of Brian
Once upon a time in America
Witness for the Prosecution
Groundhog Day




Most of John Ford or Hitchcock

 

[sunybay]

Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jan 29 2006, 01:02 AM
You've got good taste betsmate! I'd exhaust everything they have by Scorsese, Michael Mann, Kubrick, Oliver Stone, Coppola, Coen Brothers, Terrence Malick, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and Michael Bay.





(I'm joking about Michael Bay. But get The Rock out anyway!)

Oliver Stone?? :brows:

 

[Harbinger]

JFK, Nixon, Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers...

 

[betsmate]

Thanks Suny, I have seen a few of those and must confess to not being a huge fan of the Chinese/Samurai genre.

I am the sort of person who appreciated Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon until they started flying!

Hotel Rwanda added.

 

[sunybay]

Of the 9 asian films
most of them are not art martials film.

 

[Euronymous]

Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jan 29 2006, 12:32 AM
JFK, Nixon, Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers...

At the most there are two good films in that list.

 

[krizon]

L.A. Confidential (fantastic cast: Spacey, Crowe, Pearce; wonderful plotting)

Mulholland Falls (apparently weird - one I want to see)

Mulholland Drive (not to be confused with the above! Gripping)

Lantana (watched it last night - excellent twists and turns in relationships with Anthony LaPaglia as a disillusioned cop in Australia, and a great mystery story backing it up; cast includes Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey)

Just about anything with Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson in it. Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy is a beautiful study in human/social relationships.

Mystic River (frankly, I found the tone deliberately, unremittingly gloomy, and Sean Penn permanently on the verge of hysteria, but there's no doubting Eastwood's ability to keep the film moving, if slowly, towards an unexpected conclusion)

Bad Day at Black Rock (with Spencer Tracy playing a one-armed investigator - it's a strong film with quality in depth throughout)

I doubt that you'll be disappointed in American Beauty, by the way. Fantastic acting, storylines, wry humour, satire, and a conclusion to knock you off your sofa.

Donny Darko (an unexpected ending to an intelligent and very poignant film, with newbie Jake Gyllenhall acting his high school socks off. Don't be put off by trailers showing a giant rabbit!)

Se7en (Brad Pitt shines, Gwyneth is a bit sidelined, the storyline of gruesome, cryptic serial killings is a bit visceral for some people, but the increasing build-up of a sense of menace is brilliant. If you don't know the ending, I have to commend it to you as one of the many twisty ones I've apparently specialized in watching! Morgan Freeman is also terrific in this as the seen-it-all cop.)

If you haven't seen Clint in Unforgiven, you must remedy that right away! Loads of top actors, brilliant from start to finish.

Not a lot of fun among these, it's true, so maybe you need to hoist out good old Blazing Saddles to remind yourself how much fun baked beans can be, or Airplane! to redress the balance.

 

[betsmate]

Thanks for reminding me about L.A. Confidential, I have been meaning to watch this again for ages. Added to the list!

 

[krizon]

Bets, have you seen Twelve Monkeys? It's a rather surreal, but involving film, directed more or less by Terry Gilliam (ex-Monteeee Python).

Not sure if you like Arnie's catalogue of work, but Terminator: Rise of the Machines is terrific stuff! If you haven't seen it, give it a try. Likewise, in a different and more evolved mode, is AI (Artificial Intelligence) which is a murder mystery, where a super-evolved robot MAY have overridden the First Law of Robotics: to do no harm to any human. Involving stuff, smartly-scripted. And luvverly CGI robots!

 

[Will]

I would recommend Mulholland Drive as well.

 

[PDJ]

Three fantastic French films to watch

la Haine
Le diner des cons
Taxi.

All are well worth watching. " are comedies and La Haine is fantastic drama.

I would also recommend Pi, a film I really anjoyed.

 

[Harbinger]

Originally posted by Euronymous+Jan 29 2006, 01:51 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Euronymous @ Jan 29 2006, 01:51 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Gareth Flynn@Jan 29 2006, 12:32 AM
JFK, Nixon, Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers...

At the most there are two good films in that list. [/b][/quote]
Which two? Ratcheting my quality-sensor up to it highest setting suggests that Salvador, JFK* and Nixon are all unquestionably excellent.

*as a film, not as a theory.

 

[betsmate]

Kri - I have seen Twelve Monkeys and most of Arnie's catalogue. The latter's comedic value just about salvaging the dire sci-fi genre for me!

Mulholland Drive, la Haine, Le diner des cons and Pi added. Along with Fargo, Dr Strangelove, Three Colours White and Three Colours Blue.

Thanks all for your input.

 

[sunybay]

I found Nixon boring.

 

[Colin Phillips]

The film or the subject, suny?

I have just read All The President's Men and am halfway through the follow-up The Final Days and I find Watergate and the revelations far from boring.

 

[Merlin the Magician]

I have downloaded and copied this last couple of weeks NARNIA & HARRY POTTER for my granddaughters I never watched them as such ...but others I have downloaded and yet to watch are as follows..

LOLITA
PLATOON
FULL METAL JACKET
JARHEAD
KING KONG
INDIANA JONES
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR
***************************************
currently doing APOCALYPSE NOW........

 

[Hunneyb]

If you get JFK ask for the director's cut.

Try Beyond The Sea....Kevin Spacey in fine form, and does all his own singing.

 

[sunybay]

Originally posted by Colin Phillips@Jan 29 2006, 01:25 PM
The film or the subject, suny?

the film.



Nixon was a great president.

 

[The Pro]

I watched that Wolf Creek a few days back, its not bad at all.