What movies made in the last five years are worth watching?

A Scanner Darkly

Sunshine

A Prophet

The Town

Just IMDB links for the lazy. And thanks for the recommendations. I completely ignored all the Anime stuff. I cannot get most anime. I know there are some really good stories, but I am just not mature enough to not see cartoons all the way through.

Thank you though. Some of those look pretty good.

IMDB.... The screenshots for A Scanner Darkly make it look like a real movie, but the trailers are clearly animated... Hmmmm. I am on the fence on this one.

 

What they did was almost like Ralph Bakshi-style animation, where the animation is superimposed over live-action (If you've ever seen Wizards, they do a little bit of that in some scenes in that film). I'm not a big fan of "A Scanner Darkly" myself, but it is interesting in its own way (i feel that way about most things inspired by PK Dick -- with the exception of Blade Runner, I feel they have not been all that good, but many of them are... interesting at least).

I personally don't mind 'animation', myself. But I've never found 'Anime' to be watchable. I may be of the wrong generation myself. Many years ago, I remember, before Japanese Anime ever hit the U.S. in a big way, they used to show authentic Japanese animation at the world science fiction conventions, and those were moderately entertaining because they had live English-speaking narration and the guys narrating wouldn't actually take any of it seriously (think "mystery Science Theater 3000). But that was my limit. Every time someone says "I have to see..." whatever, i have not been able to sit through an entire film. They just come off either as far too silly, or nonsensical or incomprehensible.

BTW, a couple of times I've had to sit through some real children's anime with my nephew... I swear that stuff must cause brain damage.

 

The term you are looking for that type of animation is "rotoscoping"

I generally hate anime too, with a few very rare exceptions, like Paranoia Agent, Serial Experiments Lain, Trigun, Perfect Blue, etc. The really popular stuff like Naruto and Death Note can be as terrible as daytime soaps that last ten years and never go anywhere. And they often come with terrible fandoms, of course. As an Asian American, I try not to broadcast to others that I even read manga or watch anime, because there's always those people who think Japan is some sort of holy land, and then they punctuate their sentences with badly pronounced Japanese words. It is kind of awkward...

Anyway. A really good anime film I saw recently was Tekkon Kinkreet. It's about a group of orphaned kids living together in a dystopian world, and they are trying to fight this corporation that wants to take over their territory/home. It's on par with Akira, but more lighthearted in some parts, and a bit less incoherent.

 

Howls Moving Castle is definitely not a soap opera, though it's not Miazakis best one storywise. I never liked Anime before and I've only watched a few that came with tons of recommendations, and was impressed.
But yeah, I understand completely if they're not your thing

I just looked through my DVDs again and found another:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/
It's called "The Help" and is from 2011. It's about a young white girl in the 60s in suburban USA who is aspiring to be an author. Well, she kind of notices how black maids are treated and decides to write a book about that, with predictable consequences
It's very interesting, moving and pretty funny at times, with mostly great actors. Emma Stone is a bit meh in this one, but especially the maids and Hilly are awesome

 

It's such a broad genre that you're bound to find something to your liking if you're open to watching animation.

So you've got everything from FLCL:


To Monster:


The first is a psychedelic adventure, the second a super serious story about the search for a serial killer played out over a decade in germany.

Or compare:
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan (Club to death angel Dokuro chan).


Kaze No Yojimbo. (Based on the classic masterpiece movie Yojimbo).

 

Chronicle - A story about 3 friends who acquire telekinetic powers. I like it because it follows an anti-hero perpective, it's an all around interesting movie.

Grandma's Boy - Follows the story of an older video game tester and his trials through love and career in hilarious pot induced ways. Did I mention video games, weed, alchohol and bathroom mishaps? Its a very good and funny movie.

The Man from Nowhere - The gritty and violent story of a man without a past hell bent on rescuing his one true friend who happens to be a young girl. It's a pretty awesome Korean(I think) film with some awesome action scenes and a great climax. Found this movie thanks to Netflix.

Ip Man - A very sweet looking foreign action film. One of the best Kung-fu movies I've seen in a good long while with a decent story, great fights and a awesome main character. ( This movie has a sequel as well. )

I saw The Devil - A very dark foreign revenge film with great characters, actors and action. Lots of gut wrenching and "Oh Noo!" moments. This is definitely a movie you'll love to hate.

These are a movies I've seen in the last few months that really come to mind.

 

I just watched Gran Torino.
That is one excellent movie. That is not quite accurate for an ending, but it would work out similarly in real life. I will not spoil it for those who have not seen it though.

Earlier I watched The Hurt Locker.
I hate this type of movie. It seems to almost glorify combat. But a few parts were accurate. (Meaning very depressing.) Not bad though.

A day or two ago I watched A Scanner Darkly.
I generally hate animated anything, but this is an exception. Not really my style though. But still better than an average movie these days.

Before that I watched Sunshine.
That was pretty ugly. There was nothing really good about this movie. It was better than watching CSPAN I suppose, but yuck.

I guess I am pretty picky. But who is not?

 

I loved The Hurt Locker, and I disagree that it glorifies war. I really think that it shows how War has damaged the main character to the extent that he cannot possibly lead a normal life. Among the most addictive chemicals are some of those actually created by the human body -- adrenaline, in this case. It also shows the innocent people caught in between the combatants. So I don't see this as glory in even a remote sense of the word.

Slightly OT, but related... There was a very interesting discussion on NPR recently by an author (I wish I could remember his book or his name but I can't), He said that people are, for the most part, non-violent except for when they are defending themselves or their family members. The evidence he had of this was that the army, when training soldiers, must harden them to the realities of war, because normal human being is not psychologically capable of dealing with it. Furthermore, the military strives to create an atmosphere that nurtures bonding between the soldiers -- people actually do not want to die for their country, but they are more than willing to die for their buddy ducking bullets right next to them. The primary reason why soldiers reinlist after experiencing combat is because they feel they are abandoning their brothers (ie. family). It's a conscious decision on the part of most militaries to nurture those kinds of feelings, because the more stereotypical 'rah rah freedom blah blah' does not hold up to actual combat. People don't generally fight for abstract principles. But put two brothers together with their lives in danger, and that's when people will start killing each other.

Obviously this is a gross generalization, not meant to be taken as an absolute, as I'm sure there are exceptions.

 

For more on this topic, check out the excellent book "On Killing" - which pretty much details how most people will not, even in combat situations, actually try to kill another person. Studies and analysis from WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War show pretty convincingly that nearly all people, when firing their weapons, simply don't fire them at the enemy. They aren't even really aware of it - but they fire into the air, endlessly reload their weapon - all sorts of things.

This has led to 2 interesting shifts in the military - a focus on indirect combat, which is less efficient than direct combat, but doesn't suffer from the irritating problem of morals - and a new way of training infantry to shoot at human-shaped outlines in practice, which can build up accuracy reflexes which can successfully over-ride the natural aversion to killing other humans.

It's very interesting, and also at least a little bit disgusting. Figuring out how to "get around" a person's natural aversion to killing! We win?

 

We are genetically programmed to do one thing: Replicate and try to keep our DNA in the pool.
This can be split into 3 things:
Keep your own DNA active, stay alive.
Keep your relatives alive, they share our DNA. That's why we love our children the most, they share 50% of our DNA.
Keep your species alive, they share lots of DNA with you and may keep you alive in turn.
It's unnatural to kill other people, genetically seen. It sucks back from an evolutionary point of view

 

I watched Bug a few days ago. Awesome movie, if you don't mind something abstract, low-budget, and exceptionally depressing when you actually think about the events which transpired.

Unfortunately the majority of what I watch is low-budget schlocky bad horror movies, so most of it can't be called "good" in anything but the loosest sense. Unless by "good" you mean "entertaining", most of them that aren't directed by Ulli Lommel are at least entertaining.

 

I liked Sunshine, but I can definitely see why someone wouldn't. It was very badly paced and the "twist" felt forced, like an M Night Shyamalan movie. On the other hand, the cinematics are pretty. But that doesn't necessarily make a good movie.

 

I'm not going be listing many recent movies, and I will probably edit this post later with a little bit more context for each movie and for organizational purposes, but here it goes:

As a forewarning a lot of these have some kind of 'romance' portion in them, but none can really be considered in the romance genre in my opinion.

Father Goose: A hilarious Cary Grant movie that everyone should see at least once. It, like most all of his movies, could be considered a romantic comedy.

Arsenic and Old Lace: A Cary Grant movie that is almost manic in it's comedy. You will be confused and amused until everything finally clicks into place about 2/3rds of the way through the movie, at which point you should just be amused. The 'face acting' in this movie is phenomenal as you watch whole lines of thought progress on characters' faces as their assumptions about what is going on changes. This is a spoof on murder dramas.


Stranger than Fiction: The only Will Ferral movie that I enjoy. He plays a somewhat more grown up role than is the norm for him. This is another which could be considered a romantic comedy.

You've Got Mail: A fully fledged romantic comedy. You would probably hate it Omni.


Morning Glory: A cross between a drama and comedy.

Spanglish: One of my personal favorite movies. This is probably Adam Sandler's most serious (and, in my opinion, best) roles that he has ever played. It is a drama / romance with bits of comedy.

When Harry Met Sally: Drama / Comedy / Romance. Equal parts sad, happy and funny. One of my favorite movies.


The Princess Bride: A classic comedy. Silly and lighthearted, it makes you feel good from start to finish.

Young Frankenstein: Comedy

See No Evil, Hear No Evil: Comedy

Groundhog Day: Comedy. If you haven't seen this then shame on you!


Space Cowboys: Action Movie

The Last Samurai: Action Drama, Sad?

Kingdom of Heaven: Action Drama, Sad

I grew tired of writing things about them, so that is all you get for now... I'll come back and edit it later.

EDIT:

p.s. Please don't watch this. It makes little to no sense as a story and might as well be missing the last 15 minutes of the movie (it just... ends right when the movie should be wrapping up). If you would like to watch some Ghost in the Shell, the anime series sharing the same name (and the actual story that the movie is very, very, very loosely based on) is fantastic. It is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (this is season 1 and a complete story arc), Ghost in the Shell: The 2nd Gig (This is season 2 and it is a completely new story arc with the same characters) and Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society (this is a movie which acts a a continuation of the world storyline / timeline and wraps up some personal character story).

As far as Miyazaki goes, all of his films are a little bit out there and he is obviously pushing a 'green' agenda in them. But they are all still fantastic if you can get used to his style and some of the 'weirdness' that goes with it.

My personal favorite of Miyazaki's is oddly the one that isn't really 'HIS' movie, but just the first he directed. That being Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro.

 

P.S. Anime is just like every other genre out there: There are plenty of bad ones and some that are vastly better than what you are probably spending your time watching normally. They key is to not get stuck on the bad ones.

That is a truly fantastic movie.

Not being picky is called having terrible taste (in everyone's eyes!) At least if you're picky you only have poor taste in some people's eyes, not everyone's.

 

Thumbs up for these. All are really excellent.

If you thought Spanglish was a good example of Adam Sandler in a serious role, I suggest you check out Punch Drunk Love. It's pretty fabulous, and Adam Sandler is phenomenal in it.

 

I agree here. Recently watched the series (both seasons) for the first time, and it was very...not together. Both story arcs tied up in a very rushed, unsatisfying way. And it is chock full of those terrible, "i can tell you're doing this to cut production costs" anime moments when it is basically two dudes monologing to one another with dramatic music and camera angles so that the viewer does not die from boredem. I mean, they even have mental communication so they don't have to draw new frames for moving lips sometimes. Very disappointing after the more promising movies. The soundtrack is great though!

If you are craving something that has a cyberpunk, futuristic feel, Serial Experiments Lain does a much better job (although it suffers a little from pacing close to the end). Paranoia Agent has similar themes, although it is set in modern times. Both are much more coherent and do it better. And maybe Gantz? Although I've only read the manga, not seen the anime.

 

I couldn't even bring myself to finish GitS: SAC... too boring. Ergo proxy was better but I lost interest partway through that as well. I don't remember if Texhnolyze counts. There's some decent crossover ones(multi-genre, like how the appleseed movies are very cyberpunk, but it's also mecha), and movies(armitage 3, parasite dolls, etc), but not that many good straight up cyberpunk series.

 

I think you might be disagreeing with me Skymuffin.

I think the 'original' movie is horrendous, completely misses the point of the original story and suffers from a disjointed and unfinished story. It is all 'shock factor' and sheer I-hope-you're-high crazyness like another lauded anime title it shares a lot in common with, Akira. The second movie is better, but not much... it has a decent soundtrack though...

On the other hand, I think the anime series is excellent.

 

I just watched Iron Sky. Not bad. I generally hate nazi movies, but this one effectively trivializes them but demonstrates how everyone, not just the nazis are really really messed up.

It is only mildly entertaining, but it has nice special effects and is sadly accurate about what the world would do for energy independence.