Peace wrote:Watched Lars and the Real Girl last night. Been a few years. Of course I love it. 10/10. Gosling is great. Really everyone in the film is good. The film touches close to home when it comes to the brother dynamic. Great stuff. Where was all this love for Gosling back then?
I remember watching All Good Things and saying I really love Gosling for the roles he goes with and how he is one of the few actors who isn't selling out to do comic book films. I think IWATCH jumped on me for that.
Anyway glad more people have come around. I have certainly grown to love him even more.
It's a very good film, although I wouldn't rate it a perfect 10, and Gosling's performance is great. I have yet to see Blue Valentine, and I hear Gosling's performance in that is a tour de force, but Lars ranks up there with the best of his performances. My favorite performance of his is Half Nelson. If I had to rank his top performances they'd probably go:
Half Nelson
Drive
Lars & the Real Girl
**I hope that his performance in Place Beyond the Pines and Only God Forgives rank up there with those performances as well.
Dude Blue Valentine man. You have no excuse for having not seen it
Check it out asap.
It's hard for me to rank his roles.
Half Nelson and Blue Valentine are my two favorites but I mean Lars is great. Drive as well.
So I guess my top four of his are in no real order I guess:
Blue Valentine
Half Nelson
Drive
Lars
Like you I'm hoping Pines and OGF land on that list.. honestly even though I have not seen them I know they will.
But I also like some of his other work.
Ides
Fracture
United States of Leland
The Believer
All Good Things
Notebook didn't do much for me.
Overall Gosling has a fucking impressive body of work.
No Expectations/ Reality scale this time, as I couldn't clarify my expectations well enough to put it on a scale (which is probably the best way to go about things, actually ). Now, the film. It was...alright, is really the only adjective I can describe it as. Very slow and talky, which I don't normally mind, but it was a little overlong for my tastes. The second half was better than the first, although admittedly there was more going on, I suppose. Also, I found that some of the more brightly-lit sequences (e.g. the Orc mines) looked more like video-game cutscenes; it seemed too clean and shiny, which was highly distracting sometimes.
On the plus side: very glad Howard Shore returned to do the music. Great once again, particularly the repetition(s) of the LOTR cues (which was obvious since, you know, it's a prequel ) and some of the visual throwbacks to the trilogy too. The casting was spot on as well: Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo and I particularly liked Richard Armatage's Thorin as well as Fili and Kili. The film looked bloody gorgeous too apart from the aforementioned jarring sequences, so that's another plus.
Overall fairly mixed. I'd go and see the next two because I've started another film series, so I have to finish it (this was a downside with Twilight). If it was a standalone film it would probably be a different story, however.
MikaHaeli8 wrote:The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
No Expectations/ Reality scale this time, as I couldn't clarify my expectations well enough to put it on a scale (which is probably the best way to go about things, actually ). Now, the film. It was...alright, is really the only adjective I can describe it as. Very slow and talky, which I don't normally mind, but it was a little overlong for my tastes. The second half was better than the first, although admittedly there was more going on, I suppose. Also, I found that some of the more brightly-lit sequences (e.g. the Orc mines) looked more like video-game cutscenes; it seemed too clean and shiny, which was highly distracting sometimes.
On the plus side: very glad Howard Shore returned to do the music. Great once again, particularly the repetition(s) of the LOTR cues (which was obvious since, you know, it's a prequel ) and some of the visual throwbacks to the trilogy too. The casting was spot on as well: Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo and I particularly liked Richard Armatage's Thorin as well as Fili and Kili. The film looked bloody gorgeous too apart from the aforementioned jarring sequences, so that's another plus.
Overall fairly mixed. I'd go and see the next two because I've started another film series, so I have to finish it (this was a downside with Twilight). If it was a standalone film it would probably be a different story, however.
Ben Cum playing a dragon in the sequel has me pretty excited.
MikaHaeli8 wrote:The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
No Expectations/ Reality scale this time, as I couldn't clarify my expectations well enough to put it on a scale (which is probably the best way to go about things, actually ). Now, the film. It was...alright, is really the only adjective I can describe it as. Very slow and talky, which I don't normally mind, but it was a little overlong for my tastes. The second half was better than the first, although admittedly there was more going on, I suppose. Also, I found that some of the more brightly-lit sequences (e.g. the Orc mines) looked more like video-game cutscenes; it seemed too clean and shiny, which was highly distracting sometimes.
On the plus side: very glad Howard Shore returned to do the music. Great once again, particularly the repetition(s) of the LOTR cues (which was obvious since, you know, it's a prequel ) and some of the visual throwbacks to the trilogy too. The casting was spot on as well: Martin Freeman was great as Bilbo and I particularly liked Richard Armatage's Thorin as well as Fili and Kili. The film looked bloody gorgeous too apart from the aforementioned jarring sequences, so that's another plus.
Overall fairly mixed. I'd go and see the next two because I've started another film series, so I have to finish it (this was a downside with Twilight). If it was a standalone film it would probably be a different story, however.
Ben Cum playing a dragon in the sequel has me pretty excited.
I did think of adding "[see the next two because] Benedict Cumberbatch is a MUTHAFUKKIN DRAGON IN THE NEXT ONE" buuuuut that might make me seem too fangirly.
As a person who didn't particularly enjoy this film first time around but enjoyed the second, this time I'm in between. It has the very different feel compared to other films of today, and its somewhat of a colorful neo-noir. What this film didn't achieve is a fluent pace; it stalls in one scene, and then is fast-paced in the next. And I don't think it explored the themes of sacrifice and selflessness very well, but you know they're there. But when I was watching the film, I realized that some things in the film have become somewhat iconic since it was released in 2011. With things like the scorpion jacket and the soundtrack, it is slowly becoming rather well-known amongst film buffs.
I tried getting through Warrior recently. It had been at least six months since I'd last seen it, but still, it's replay value is drained.
I recently watched Bergman's Seventh Seal. I can't say I found it nearly as intoxicating as Wild Strawberries. It's fairly apparent that it lacks the same kind of film craft as the latter, although Vader tells me he believes this is on purpose (I can't imagine how on purpose being able to see the outline of a forestry set is, though). However, it does convey some insanely frightening albeit fairly explored themes, mainly death. Some moments, which I won't spoil, are frighteningly beautiful at depicting this fear.
