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

I saw it a few days ago as well. I've seen people trashing it and I'm not entirely sure why. If you watched the trailers and were expecting anything other than a dark comedy with stupid, fun action, you were watching different trailers than I was.

 

Yeah. It had plenty of ridiculous comedy. Suck things as the sight of the massive and oddly named ship being referred to as "He must have the smallest penis ever." being said by the wierdo woman captain of the George W Bush ship... Really, this movie made every side look stupid. And that was the point. I liked it.

 

I just watched Safe House. I hate most retarded spy movies. But this was a rare exception. It was not good, but was tolerable. That is high praise for the genre.

Half the movie made zero sense. And it was impossible gunfights and car chases all the way through. In particular, the point near the end were the main character learns his boss is crooked made the least possible sense. His boss would not have left him armed. No 'Effing way. He just said the words "You're a dead man." to his boss. And his boss left him armed? Are these the dumbest "Intelligence" operatives ever?

But I digress. If you like spy movies, watch this. If not, avoid it like anything including the names "James Bond" and "Borne" and all that mess.

 

John Le Carre (and to a lesser extent, Graham Greene) wrote some of the best spy stories ever, and some of them have made excellent movies. The difference is that, at least with Carre, is that he wrote about personal experiences in MI-5 and MI-6. They are nothing like any of the movies you've mentioned -- the stories aren't 'true' but they are very believable. They don't deal with super-humans like Bond or Bourne, but with real people.

Le Carre wrote several of the best spy novels ever written. "The Spy who Came in from the Cold" based on the novel of the same name, starred Richard Burton in a great performance, and the last 5 minutes of the movie (or last few pages of the book really leave you stunned and emotionally drained. He plays a spy who's far from perfect, who's disgruntled, drinks too much and so on. His life is falling apart. Carre writes about grubby people silently betraying each other in dark, dirty corners of the world, no chase scenes little to no fighting,, and when violence happens, it's more shocking than exciting.

Graham Greene also was a member of MI-6. He wrote "Our Man in Havana" about a British vacuum cleaner salesman struggling to make a living in Cuba and raise a daughter. He is recruited by British intelligence to spy in his spare time. It's really very funny, but at the same time, you can imagine a real person doing the same things that this poor man does to get by.

These are not what most modern movie-goers, raised on Bond and Bourne generally think of when they think of spy stories. But they are great stories, nonetheless.

I should also mention "The Falcon and the Snowman", which is actually based on a true story. It's one of the best American spy movies that I can think of. It starred Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn and both are really great in their roles.

 

BTW, I recently went to see a couple of films in the theater which I'll comment on, though at least for the first one, I can't give a detailed review:

Promethius -- I fell asleep during the film, maybe halfway through it, and didnt' wake up until about 5 minutes or so before the film's end (no joke). I think the darkness of it didn't help in keeping me awake. Ironically, a friend of mine also went recently -- I asked him about it, since I had missed most of the film, and it turned out that he ALSO fell asleep during it (well, he's in his 70s I think -- I'm only in my 50s so I don't have as good an excuse).

Safety Not Guaranteed -- this film I did NOT fall asleep during. I mostly went because I have no AC in my bedroom and insufficient AC in the house (at least until next week), and we are in the middle of a heat wave.

In any case, it was a very nice film, slightly quirky and mildly humorous (no big laughs). It's not a must-see film in any sense of the word, but it is a pleasant way to pass an hour and a half or so. It's not good enough that I must recommend it though. The main word that comes to mind when describing it is 'pleasant'.

 

Drive. This movie is just amazing. Excellent pacing, atmosphere, music. I'm terrible at describing films, only what I like about them. But I highly recommend checking this movie out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/

 

Excellent movie. It was good enough to put Ryan Gosling on my personal radar. I never really paid attention to him before that film.

It's kind of a character study/story about a person who's really good at one thing, and that's driving -- he seems amoral, and is equally likely to take a job as a stunt driver, as a courier or get-away driver. I just deleted more than half of my post about it because I realized that I nearly gave away too much of the movie. So I'll just say that I also highly recommend it.

 

Lol. Some people still think the Earth is Flat. Likewise some people think they are greatly more able to understand certain things. They may be. But I have yet to see evidence of most of the claims.

I have however seen people who really though that their thoughts altered reality. They would sometimes make an obvious mistake and then flatly deny it ever happened. It has been my observation that the belief of superiority over all others is the greatest weakness a Human can have.

Inception is the same general idea as The Matrix. The only real difference is that Inception was not a technobabble (Spelling?) movie and it did not end in a storybook happy-fairytale way. That all said, I enjoyed both of those movies.

 

I thought the ending of the Matrix Trilogy was a fairy tale sort. Too good for what they seemed pitted against. They could, and according to the legend in the movies, *Had* been annihilated many times before that point. But this time they had a reason to think they could possibly reach an agreement and have peace. Fragile perhaps, but the machines did keep their arrangements, and really had nothing to lose by keeping that one.


*Edit* The deal was specific. The cost of Neo's help was Peace. And it seemed the machines were inclined to accept and honor the agreement. At the end, they left Zion without the usual massacrer. That was something that had never happened before according to what was told in the trilogy.

 

I just watched No Country for Old Men.

Good movie. Lots of great ideas in this. Odd as it seems, I have used dimes as screwdrivers before. They often work as well if not better than cheap drivers because they use real metals and not pure garbage. I have also removed rock salt and lead shot from my legs and back before. But I did not have as much equipment. (My injuries were painful, but in no way life threatening. I was hardly bleeding until I pulled the pieces out.)

If I ever found a satchel full of cash, the very first thing I would do is take each bundle of cash and separate it from the rest in ziplock bags. Then once it was all removed from the satchel, I would take them one at a time and open them within the ziplock and remove anything but the cash. (I will not spell out exactly why, but half the people reading this already know this trick.)

I would then take all the other crap like the bill bands, devices and any ink thingamajigs that I found and put them back in the satchel and add a large glass jug of gasoline to it. I would put it somewhere as a trap for whomever went looking for it. I would find a nice spot to watch from and trigger if thugs showed up looking for it. (Not police or law enforcement types. Though I would simply have to make a judgment call on what group they are in.)

I would put ziplocks in many places I would know to look. But never anywhere as obvious as the ones used in this movie.

I could even see myself sending envelopes to half the people I know. But never from any post office I would normally go to.

Back on topic, the movie was good. A bit slow, but it managed to keep my interest all the way through.

 

I just watched Slumdog Millionaire.

Yuck. Awful movie. Destiny. Poverty. Injustices and greed. Nothing whatsoever about this movie is good. I cannot believe someone thought this was a good film.

 

I thought that "No Country for Old Men" was an excellent film. I actually think if I found so much money, I'd be afraid to try to keep it and would definitely contact the police. If I found a lose $10.00 bill, that would be different. But that much money and I'd think that some crime was involved and I would definitely tell the cops. Then again, my dad was an MP in the army, and then a Lawyer, and always very strict, so I generally try to do the right thing. That's just how I was raised.

I actually found "Slumdog Millionaire" to be very entertaining and well made. Yes, there was a lot of poverty, injustice and greed (heck without greed, there wouldn't be game shows to begin with). But at the same time, the film was very uplifting. Certainly, it was somewhat manipulative, but it was such a good film that I didn't care about that.

 

I too would report it. I would have to think long and hard before doing so though. Turning it in and filing a claim on it once the allotted time expired would actually get you the money. (If the police did not seize it themselves.) But I would talk to an attorney first. Then the police. No matter what they may whine about, they cannot convince me that my delay to speak with competent legal counsel risked anyone coming to harm.

Slumdog Millionaire. Yuck. Awful. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just want nothing to do with the mess that depicts. I would rather bury my head in sand until the movie goes away.

 

Yes and no -- a lot of the stories turned out to be untrue, though that was never reported (just the initial controversy). in actuality, it's my understanding that money was put into a trust for the child actors -- yes they were paid, but not immediately (they were required to go to school until age 16 before they could access the funds). There were lawsuits after the movie turned out to be succesful -- essentially the parents of the kids were trying to get more money. There was even a case where a step parent sued to try to gain custody of a child in order to get access to the child's funds. So while there certainly were problems, the children WERE paid what they were promised. You could argue that they weren't paid enough, perhaps, but they did get what they were supposed to.

 

Yes, it does. But, on the other hand, that also meant that they didn't get to lose the money immediately because of their lifes in the slums, and when they got old enough to use it, they had a better chance to put it to good use.

 

How could I forget to mention No Country For Old Men? It was a truly amazing movie, and one of the few where I thought they got the tone of the book.
Now: Read the book. Seriously. The book is one of my all-time favourites and a lot better than the movie, and that's saying a lot. That book really had a lasting impression on me. I do read a lot, in all genres, and that book really stands out. Then go read The Road also by Cormac McCarthy and be amazed all over again.
Also watch True Grit, also a Western by the Coen Brothers with an awesome Jeff Bridges Matt Damon doesn't really fit, but is ok.

Then: Welcome to the Land of the Shtis
Hilarious and Heartwarming and very French. I don't know how the English dub is, language plays a big part... I really recommend that one if you want a good time.

If you don't mind German Movies (we actually do some good ones ), here comes
Lammbock
It's a German stoner comedy, not comparable with the likes of So High though. This has a lot more niveau Don't know if you can find a dub, but I think there are some subs out there at least. Pretty good movie

 

If you like movies that are accurate with regards to the book, then check out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And the obvious Where the Buffalo Roam. The books were better. But Thompson had a "unique" style of writing and I doubt even the books were accurate to his methods. Mistakes were supposed to be included in the final polished version. They were there for a reason after all.

I just looked him up to see the title of that last movie. But now I see there was more that they made movies of that I never saw. Time to start checking for those too.

Where the Buffalo Roam
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

This next is the one I have yet to see.
The Rum Diary