Something the Ghost Rider thread made me think of...

[The History Man]

Silver linings playbook.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

Coolio - kinda one of the things I was hoping to get out of the thread - some recommendations of good films, that perhaps you wouldn't naturally / easily discover.

Both subtitled, but doesn't detract from them at all.

I might add, Hollywood have just remade oldboy; doesn't sound too good...

Report back Neil, I'd love to know what you thought of them (watch oldboy first :twisted: )

 

[lumos2000]

Joyeux Noel http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424205/

caught the beginning of this last night but it went on a bit too late to see the end, going to have to watch it again now. based on real events which is always good

 

[DrJo]

hidalgo.

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

The Straight Story. Old man goes for ride on a lawnmower. Hardly sounds great but great it is.

 

[Bpool77]

Harry Brown, sounded pretty grim then Michael Cane was in it stuck with it and now I class it as a surprising classic.

 

[KermitGKona88]

The worlds fastest Indian, Absolute class

 

[Neil]

Harry Brown, sounded pretty grim then Michael Cane was in it stuck with it and now I class it as a surprising classic.

Sorry - but watched that and thought it a mediocre, predictable story - yes, I get, some people will find it all exhilarating and all, but I watched it because of all the hype, then felt let down, and can only imagine most enjoyed it because of the nature of it (like Eastwood's Gran Torino), or slavishly about Caine's performance - which, to me, was just as I expected, no better, no worse.

 

[Bpool77]

Harry Brown, sounded pretty grim then Michael Cane was in it stuck with it and now I class it as a surprising classic.

Sorry - but watched that and thought it a mediocre, predictable story - yes, I get, some people will find it all exhilarating and all, but I watched it because of all the hype, then felt let down, and can only imagine most enjoyed it because of the nature of it (like Eastwood's Gran Torino), or slavishly about Caine's performance - which, to me, was just as I expected, no better, no worse.

Prob because I can sort of relate to bits of it? Same as ill manners? I'm not a film man really?

 

[Neil]

Harry Brown, sounded pretty grim then Michael Cane was in it stuck with it and now I class it as a surprising classic.

Sorry - but watched that and thought it a mediocre, predictable story - yes, I get, some people will find it all exhilarating and all, but I watched it because of all the hype, then felt let down, and can only imagine most enjoyed it because of the nature of it (like Eastwood's Gran Torino), or slavishly about Caine's performance - which, to me, was just as I expected, no better, no worse.

Prob because I can sort of relate to bits of it? Same as ill manners? I'm not a film man really?

I didn't dislike it - but for me, it wasn't what I was getting at in this thread - a film found organically (but without lots of recommendations or hype), or by accident, or well outside of it's normal time / era, that happened to be a real gem. For me, it was like what somebody said about Shawshank - it had a lot of people talking it up. Now whereas I very much enjoyed Shawshank - perhaps as much for the period aspect of it, as anything else, the story was far from exceptional, really, the acting was decent, though, and the craft was good - I can also get how some people dislike the saccharin aspect of it, and reject the hype.

I also get why people found similar with The Usual Suspects - but again, I think for some of these films, they were made in a sort of unassuming way, and just so happened to garner a groundswell of support and hype, purely organically from audiences - as in several cases, promotional budgets were modest, and in some examples, practically non-existent at first. Memento is another good example. Because of Sundance, it got a lot more exposure - but the exposure was on merit, rather than money thrown at it to get in the publics' line of sight.

For me, Harry Brown didn't resonate - too many people had raved about it, and when I watched it, I was disappointed. It wasn't a bad film, it was probably a thoroughly decent film, but it was certainly no masterpiece, and I think it surpassed it's potential based on two factors - the whole striking a chord with people with him getting one over on thuggishness, and Caine himself acting the lead role.