*** MEDEA *** by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1969)

This is an adaptation of the classic Greek myth. Medea was a foreign sorceress who helped Jason to get the golden fleece. They got together but their relationship turned sour over the years so she seeks revenge when she hears that Jason is getting married to another wife.

Most of the Greek mythology in the cinema has been represented through the Hollywood point of view as those classic tales offers a good supply of adventures. But being US, those adaptations naturally lack of European traditional roots and a sense of the spiritual realm inherent to those myths. Here comes our dear Pasolini who drops all the fluff (it's better to read the story beforehand as there aren't much dialogues) to create his own representation of an era filled with mysticism in an undefined world vaguely set around the Meditteranean Sea. The wonderful soundtrack also adds to the sense of the worldwide spirit of traditionalism as it mixes classic folk music from faraway lands (even Japan). In itself, the movie gets back to the core of the tale by being unapologeticely raw and dark as the tragedy unfolds. Being a famous opera singer, Maria Callas (my grandmom had a lot of vinyls dics of her), plays the role of Medea with her guts, always between hatred and sadness (she also played the role in her operas). Aside from the beautiful cinematography and scenery, I really liked the care on details of the various historic costumes (the blu-ray is heavily recommended to appreciate the work done on this aspect).

So, yeah, this is a fucking good movie and even more so if you dig stuff about the traditional European spirit.

The "trailer" (just some stills) which has some excerpts of the soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1GAQwyAKgQ

(spoiler free)

Last night I watched The Revenant, starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Well, I have mixed feelings about that movie; while the action sequences were awesome and sometimes even stressful, the photography was great and the location(s) where the movie was filmed were beautiful (and the wide lens used in many shots revealed the whole beauty of them), unfortunately, I can't say the same about the story.

A story not overly bad, but for some reason I kept losing focus and many times I just found myself wondering why should I care about the characters. I wasn't particularly attracted to any of them to be honest, except maybe Fitzerald (Tom Hardy). Speaking of characters, Glass (Di Caprio) managed to break my immersion countless times because of his totally unbelievable feats. I mean, whoa dude, this can't really happen! Obviously, i can't say more or I'll spoil it.

Anyway, I recommend the film for it's beautiful cinematography & the (brutal) action scenes, but don't expect anything nail-biting story wise.

Of course it can, in The Departed he managed to live in about 4mths all the events and experiences that took Chan Wing Yan 10yrs in the original Internal Affairs films. Di Caprio is magical! ;-P


EDIT: To clarify, just messing with my pal Vythonaut, haven't watched the film yet.

Hope you saw it in 4K HDR.

Actually it did, kind of. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but everything with the bear, and the injuries he suffered, and being left for dead and all that was absolutely true. There were really only two major changes to the true story which I won't mention in here.

Doctor Strange

I am not a fan of Benedict, tho I will admit he is a very good actor, he was great in this movie. Definitely one of the better Marvel movies that came out the last few years (incl. Deadpool). Tilda rocked, like always :D And I only wish Mads Mikkelsen got more lines and wasnt covered in so much make-up. I would definitely recommend it.

Damn, we've got this in two threads now :P My (not nearly as enthusiastic) opinion is here.

Sidenote- Deadpool isn't Marvel's movie, unless you just mean based on Marvel comics.

That reminds me, I finally saw Deadpool last week and I loved every second of it.

I just watched Limitless

It wasn't excellent, but it was good enough for me to want to see the series. Will begin watching it in the next few days.

Isn't the series just another case of "let's take a really interesting concept and shove it into a generic cop show, thus removing any and all of the concept's potential."?

Do give us your impressions on the show when you watch it.

Will do. I haven't read any reviews, so I have no idea of what to expect.

I've seen a few doozies lately. (in fact I just had to go look up the names because I couldn't even remember they were so mleh)

The Homesman - Tommy Lee Jones tries to direct and does a flailing job. Of course it doesn't help that the story is a bunch of nonsense. I could elaborate, but, it's not worth the energy.

Arizona Dream - just dumb all around and again not worth spending energy on saying why, just stay away!

I tried watching I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House or whatever the hell, but after 15 excrutiatingly bad minutes, had to turn it off.

Are you saying that "Zodiac" didn't really float your boat?

Haven't just watched it, but I've been rewatching Antz a bunch of times. What a visually stunning, funny film. I really like the stylized macro-photography approach they took with both the insects and the world around them (including any close-up shots of humans).