sabrage wrote:Unless you have a pathological aversion to extreme violence (in which case, don't speak up) you're gonna love it. That goes for everyone else, too.
I went ahead and watched the other Takeshi Kitano movie on Netflix, Sonatine. The first 20 minutes had me thinking "holy shit, this is exactly like Outrage" but the movie really begins to open up. As a huge Jarmusch fan, it was hard not to wonder if Kitano borrowed some influence from his work... The middle third of the movie is surprisingly light-hearted, subtle, and even somewhat poignant, and the over-arching darkness of Outrage manifests itself more as an undertone in Sonatine. Still highly recommended, for entirely different reasons than Outrage. In other words, watch Sonatine with your girlfriend, and Outrage with your bros. The plot does have a few weak points - "Who is this guy? Why are we here? What the fuck just happened?" - but I'll chalk that up to Kitano's relative inexperience as a writer.
(Also, Kitano is short. For 5'5, he's a goddamned imposing midget)
sabrage wrote:I went ahead and watched the other Takeshi Kitano movie on Netflix, Sonatine. The first 20 minutes had me thinking "holy shit, this is exactly like Outrage" but the movie really begins to open up. As a huge Jarmusch fan, it was hard not to wonder if Kitano borrowed some influence from his work... The middle third of the movie is surprisingly light-hearted, subtle, and even somewhat poignant, and the over-arching darkness of Outrage manifests itself more as an undertone in Sonatine. Still highly recommended, for entirely different reasons than Outrage. In other words, watch Sonatine with your girlfriend, and Outrage with your bros. The plot does have a few weak points - "Who is this guy? Why are we here? What the fuck just happened?" - but I'll chalk that up to Kitano's relative inexperience as a writer.
(Also, Kitano is short. For 5'5, he's a goddamned imposing midget)
Yeah I like Sonatine. For some reason it was included in the box with his version of Zatoichi (which was ace). Have you seen Brother? That's probably my favorite Kitano flick.
Brave (2012) – I haven’t yet seen a Pixar movie that I consider to be “bad” – even Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life are more in the “mediocre” camp for me. This film feels like it is slightly better than those, but not up to snuff with the best of the studio’s films. As always in a Pixar movie, the aesthetics are excellent – the CGI work, the artistic direction, and the score are top notch (although the score that plays during the short beforehand is probably the best piece of music I’ve heard in a short in a very, very long time), and while the story has its charms it lacks the sense of wonder and introspection that are found in films like Up, Wall-E, or even Toy Story 3. Still, it had some great laughs, it kept my sleepy 2-year old’s attention throughout (I was sure beforehand that he’d be asleep before the short was over), and it makes for a nice family outing.
Grade: 3/5
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011) – There are a bunch of films sitting on my DVR that I need to watch before my machine gets switched out in a few weeks, and many of them are films that people on here have talked about over the past few years. This is one of them. I certainly appreciate the grindhouse-esque aesthetic at work here, and the gore is more fun than frightening, but the last half hour or so feels very anti-climactic and tedious compared to the lead up. I thought the lead actor did a nice job with the (fairly undemanding) role and that “Slick” was played to perfection, but the rest of the cast is pretty bad and the story often feels like little more than a vehicle for gore effects. Still, even those shortcomings make it a solid genre film, and I think a lot of folks here would enjoy it if they haven’t seen it.
Grade: 2/5
dsheinem wrote:Brave (2012) – I haven’t yet seen a Pixar movie that I consider to be “bad” – even Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life are more in the “mediocre” camp for me. This film feels like it is slightly better than those, but not up to snuff with the best of the studio’s films.
CARS 2 is their mediocre-est.
I think the idea of a BRAVE prequel could provide a better story with a better lead. The lead in BRAVE is a jerk.
dsheinem wrote:Brave (2012) – I haven’t yet seen a Pixar movie that I consider to be “bad” – even Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life are more in the “mediocre” camp for me. This film feels like it is slightly better than those, but not up to snuff with the best of the studio’s films.
CARS 2 is their mediocre-est.
I think the idea of a BRAVE prequel could provide a better story with a better lead. The lead in BRAVE is a jerk.
I can't bring myself to watch the Cars films and actively ignore them when my son has them on TV.
