Arthur Brain
Well-known member
A place to talk about the big screen. Fave films, fave genres etc etc...
Movies And All Things Film
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annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
Favorite genres: Spy thrillers, heist movies, police procedurals, escapes, certain kinds of dramas. Not opposed to, but don't often seem to choose comedies. (Dark comedies accepted, though. I liked the first Knives Out.) I rarely watch romance/romcoms although exceptions there too, I did like Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, also I liked Her with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and again, Scarlett Johansson. Both of those I've seen more than once, always high praise from me.
But usually things like: Bourne Identity, The Italian Job, The Accountant, Man on Fire, Goodfellas, Die Hard, etc. Not a big fan of the Mission Impossible franchise, oddly enough. I like some dystopia, but only to a point. Anyway, many more movies I can't think of off the top of my head because I'm not good at listing, and forget ranking, I can't rank anything to save my life. But there has to be good writing or it hurts my head.
Good chases don't make up for wooden dialogue and plot holes too big to forgive.
But usually things like: Bourne Identity, The Italian Job, The Accountant, Man on Fire, Goodfellas, Die Hard, etc. Not a big fan of the Mission Impossible franchise, oddly enough. I like some dystopia, but only to a point. Anyway, many more movies I can't think of off the top of my head because I'm not good at listing, and forget ranking, I can't rank anything to save my life. But there has to be good writing or it hurts my head.
Good chases don't make up for wooden dialogue and plot holes too big to forgive.
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Arthur Brain
Well-known member
Favorite genres: Spy thrillers, heist movies, police procedurals, escapes, certain kinds of dramas. Not opposed to, but don't often seem to choose comedies. (Dark comedies accepted, though. I liked the first Knives Out.) I rarely watch romance/romcoms although exceptions there too, I did like Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, also I liked Her with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and again, Scarlett Johansson. Both of those I've seen more than once, always high praise from me.
But usually things like: Bourne Identity, The Italian Job, The Accountant, Man on Fire, Goodfellas, Die Hard, etc. Not a big fan of the Mission Impossible franchise, oddly enough. I like some dystopia, but only to a point. Anyway, many more movies I can't think of off the top of my head because I'm not good at listing, and forget ranking, I can't rank anything to save my life. But there has to be good writing or it hurts my head.
Spy/political/conspiracy thrillers are all genres that I enjoy when they're done right and like you, the one genre I don't go for in the main with film is comedy although I do love a decent comedy drama (The Holdovers) and there are exceptions (Groundhog Day). Knives out works on many levels and is a fave of mine too. Funnily enough the one subset of comedy I don't go for at all is romcoms and the two you list are favourites of mine as well but I don't consider either to be a romcom. Lost In Translation I view as a drama in the main and a beguiling character study of two lonely characters bonding in a foreign environment. The closing, where we don't hear Murray's words to Johansson says more than any script could have. "Her" is an enthralling sci fi character study again so I wouldn't have classed either as a romcom as such but they're both great films regardless.
I'm not one for franchises but The Bourne Trilogy (Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum) are all fantastic films. For intelligent, well written spy/conspiracy thrillers with brilliantly choreographed action they're hard to beat. Die Hard is an action classic and I rewatched The Accountant last week and it was thoroughly entertaining.
Besides that I pretty much love character driven dramas (Good Will Hunting/Whiplash) through sci fi (The Andromeda Strain/Blade Runner) and dystopian dramas I do have a penchant for (Children of Men/District 9) through to horror (The Shining/The Thing) and all in between (for the most part)
Totally agree on your latter. A film can boast fantastic special effects and set pieces galore but if the script comes off the back of a crisp packet then all that counts for nought,
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annabenedetti
like marbles on glass
Yeah, first I said romcoms and then changed it to romance/romcoms and should have been clear that both of those fall into the romance category. I'd so love to know what he said to her Lost in Translation, that's always stuck with me. Memorable movie. Her was memorable too, in different ways.
Ben Affleck was surprisingly good in that, I thought. And then remember the actress from the first Bourne, Franka Potente, in Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)? She was great. You and I disagreed on the meaning of the ending of that, as I recall.
Good Will Hunting, yes. I like selective sci fi (more Severance than Star Trek), don't go for gore or torture so that rules out most horror and a lot of police procedurals that go in for more graphic violence. I think the same regarding violence as I do sex scenes, that neither needs to be graphic to get the point across.
Arthur Brain
Well-known member
I know what you mean but I think that scene works so well because it's left to the imagination to fill in the blanks. It's a beautiful ending to a beautiful film and I'll have to watch it again soon. The same with 'Her'.
Ben Affleck was surprisingly good in that, I thought. And then remember the actress from the first Bourne, Franka Potente, in Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)? She was great. You and I disagreed on the meaning of the ending of that, as I recall.
He was. Affleck is someone I rate more as a director than an actor but he was good in that. He's a bit like Keanu Reeves for me, not much range and neither are going to trouble the oscars for acting performances but they fit certain roles well. Yes, there's an injoke in Identity where Damon says to Potente "I can't run with you" that I liked and yes, we did differ on interpreting the ending to Lola Rennt but it's kinda ambiguous anyway so it's cool...
Good Will Hunting is easily in my top 100 films and for me it's Robin Williams' best ever performance, closely followed by 'Dead Poets Society'. Like you (as much as I love Star Trek) I prefer science fiction that runs along actual science than space operas. To be fair, there's a lot of horror that isn't gory, I just tend to find a lot of even the atmospheric stuff is pretty generic or too reliant on jump scares. I am looking forward to 'Backrooms' when it's available to stream though...With you where it comes to gratuitous sex scenes and violence. I find the former is often needless in certain films and just slows things down as much as anything. Don't mind violence as long as it's done well and not purely for its own sake.
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Idolater
Popetard
Yeah, first I said romcoms and then changed it to romance/romcoms and should have been clear that both of those fall into the romance category. I'd so love to know what he said to her Lost in Translation, that's always stuck with me. Memorable movie. Her was memorable too, in different ways.
Ben Affleck was surprisingly good in that, I thought. And then remember the actress from the first Bourne, Franka Potente, in Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt)? She was great. You and I disagreed on the meaning of the ending of that, as I recall.
Good Will Hunting, yes. I like selective sci fi (more Severance than Star Trek), don't go for gore or torture so that rules out most horror and a lot of police procedurals that go in for more graphic violence. I think the same regarding violence as I do sex scenes, that neither needs to be graphic to get the point across.
Sex scenes are fan service (which is a disgusting and accurate term I've had the misfortune of discovering by accident one day). Include nudity, "gratuitous" or otherwise, in that same bucket. Think Titanic and the Godfather. It's just base fan service and it's disgusting.