Your perfect or near-perfect movie...

There Will Be Blood, man that's a weird movie for me...I really like it, it looks incredible and DDL's performance is phenomenal, and yet I'm simultaneously disappointed that it could've been even more than it was.

NCFOM and The Road are really faithful to the books so they're inherently good IMO, but if you don't like McCarthy, you'll hate those movies lol.

 

Off the top of my head, a movie in the last decade that really steps forward and says, "I'm worth mentioning"... the closest I can come was Ex Machina. I thought that was a strong movie. I don't know how it stacks up in comparison, but that would be my candidate off the top of my head. Got no problem rewatching that, anytime.

 

The book was quite awful, I thought.

Really enjoyed the movie and the acting in it.

 

Ill have to give it a shot then

 

Watched another of my favorite relatively recent movies yesterday. Gran Torino. Terrific movie by Eastwood who reminded me of my uncle Mike who was a Korean war veteran.

 

Gran Torino, there is an excellent mention. That movie was incredible. I'm sitting here trying to think of some more recent movies that I really loved. I'll try to rattle some off:

* Logan. This was the ideal "Superhero" movie in my opinion. Spectacular from start to finish
* Arrival. I am a sucker for Sci Fi. I cant mention which aspect of sci fi is my favorite for fear of spoiling the movie. I quite liked this one though
* Whiplash. This movie is a real standout for me for its uniqueness. The last ~5 mintues or so had me more completely "in" a movie than I can ever remember. It was like nothing else existed but that movie. Great film
* Interstellar. yeah, im definitely a sucker for Sci Fi. The concept of Time Dilation in space always fascinated me and the way Interstellar displayed it via emotions rather than math was really awesome. I saw this movie in IMAX without knowing anything about it other than it was space sci fi and was (kinda literally) blown away
* Sicario. I felt like this was an under appreciated action movie. SO INTENSE.
* Moneyball. Cmon. Moneyball!

Honorable Mentions:

* WonderWoman - I have a very serious and very childish crush on Gal Gadot. Its embarrassing. Shes gorgeous. She is on both my and my wife's "celebrity would hit it list" though, so its not all bad!
* The Imitation Game - I dont think there was anything unique about this movie but it was a very well made film from start to finish.

 

In terms of "perfect movie" - For me its Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan. Braveheart narrowly misses the list because it is too long in spots.

From another angle, "legally blonde" is the perfect "chick flick" and Ferris Buehlers Day off is the perfect High school comedy.

Remember the Titans is the perfect sports movie.

Lord of the Rings part 2 the perfect fantasy movie.

I'm trying to pick my favorite scifi but its too hard.

 

Last Post. "Kung Pao" perfectly encapsulates the "lol that was random xD" era of childhood comedy. I admit to still quoting it

 

I retract my Ex Machina nomination for this past decade - not because it wasn't a great movie, but because I just remembered one better.

Black Swan was a masterpiece. That would be my nominee of recent memory.

 

I do so lust after Gadot also. And the movie itself was pretty good. Can't wait to see her in whatever her next movie is.

 

I’m about 5 years off on the last decade thing but a pretty recent movie that is just incredibly well made in so many ways is Open Range.

The cinematography, the period dialogue, the storyline, themes... one of my favorite movies ever.

Who doesn’t like a really good western right?

Another really underrated movie is All the Pretty Horses. It’s one of those movies I never pass up when it’s on cable.

 

All the Pretty Horses is my favorite McCarthy book but I didn't care for the film at all.

 

Really? Why is that? Dang. Maybe I need to read the book, because I thought the movie was really well done.

 

There's just too much of the story cut out...I mean, obviously most any book is going to suffer in that area when made into a film, and legend has it Billy Bob Thornton's original cut was well over three hours long and Harvey Weinstein made him cut it to under two and re-do the score, so somewhere out there may be a version of it that I'd like, but this one just misses too much.

And honestly I think the biggest problem was the casting...John Grady and Lacey were 16 years old in the book, but Matt Damon and Henry Thomas were almost 30 years old when the movie was shot...it completely changed the dynamic for me of their motivations for going to Mexico and ending up caught up in the situations they did...I found it a lot harder to believe at the ages they're portrayed in the film that they would've made the same choices.

 

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but my wife mentioned the Martian. A movie that is actually almost as good as the book, which was fantastic. Great writing, great acting, great direction.

 

You're right, I thought about that as well...I think I mentioned one that just barely misses the ten year mark. The Coen brothers' 2007 classic,"No Country For Old Men".....If not, I should have put that on the list. Bardem was as terrifying as any movie villian ever was....I loved that movie.

 

I really didn't like the movie Moneyball not because it wasn't well acted(it was) but I didn't believe it protrayed the A's manager, Art Howe, fairly. He was a terrific manager and got made to look like a buffoon as it did the A's scouting department which my opinion is were the read two reasons why the A's did so well for a lot of years, not because of sabernetics as much as the book claimed.

 

I re-watched WE WERE SOLDIERS yesterday. It did hurt watching it because a lot of the scenes are so well done it is a reminder of what that war was like. Like him or not Mel Gibson can make a wonderful movie as Hacksaw Ridge and Braveheart were prime examples. As much as I enjoyed other war movies, those three were right up there in the best ever made.

 

IMHO, you can add "The Patriot" to that list of Mel Gibson war movies.

 

Good call on Open Range. Costner really is in his element in westerns. And Robert Duval might very well be the best actor of all time in my book.