IMO Taken is beyond all considerations on acting, it's basically what a security guard will jerk off to, speaking with all respect due to all the sane guys who work as security guards.
Basically it has only two nice things in it, the first few sequences (Everything in its right place etc), and one quote which I won't tell you in case you decide to watch the movie.
Since there are at least two people claiming ALO is massively better than the remake, I will offer my contrasting opinion:
Vanilla Sky is better acted and photographed, while ALO is very low budget and besides deserving the credit for the story (which isn't exactly thrilling however if you've read your share of SF anyway), it's not a movie I'll ever consider watching a second time.
It's a classic, if you liked the mood be sure to check out Brazil by the same director.
A couple that I would recommend for those who are tired of rehashed blockbuster garbage:
Luis Bunuel's "Un Chein Andalou" (Salvador Dali also had a hand in this one)
Woody Allen's "Love and Death" (read some Dostoevsky first)
Tom Tykwer's "Lola Rennt" (Run Lola Run in the states)
And by garbage I'm not referring to anyone's post specifically, it just seems like the industry ran out of ideas a good 10 years ago and great movies are few and far between these days.
Great little movie, I also really loved Winterschlaefers from Tykwer (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin didn't really cut it for me), both are completely different from Lola anyway.
I watched 'Sex Drive' the other day, rated 7/10 on the DB which means it fell into my 'worth a watch if its free' category (cinema films must be >8). Quite enjoyed it actually, fairly poor story and ending, but a fair few laughs along the way, which was really all I was looking for to fill the evening
Its also very easy to lambast someone when they disagree with yours
But I digress.
Bottomline, subtitled films in english speaking countries AREN'T mainstream, that is how it is, of course, its maybe not how it should be.
Me personally, I am a FILM fan, I really dont care if its subtitled, mainstream whatnot, if its good, its good, I'd never not watch a film because it had X in it, or was directed by B.
There are a certain set of film fans who think just because something has subtitles its good, and its those same set of people who wont watch film Y because (delete as required) Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves etc etc are in it.
I find that to be an odd and mostly-out-of-place statement. I even back-tracked quite a bit in the thread to try and see how it tied in. Perhaps I'm missing some clue, which isn't something new.
All American films are foreign language around here but they do appear to be mass market. Also, consider the amount of Chinese or Spanish-speaking people on the planet and your idea of "mass market" will change drastically. But, more to the point - what does "mass market" have to do with anything? * [post edited further down to reflect danowat's interim reply]
Anyhow, movies I enjoyed recently:
Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" - can't really go wrong with a boat full of Steinbeck characters - and oddly enough I kinda fell for "High Noon", a really typical western that somehow sort of stood out differently to others of the same era I've seen in the past, or maybe it was the wine talking.
Watched a few of the movies already recommended here. I was quite surprised with "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" - we watched them in reverse sequence to what I wrote just now - and the effect was pretty strong. Totally different to what I expected really as I hadn't read a thing about those two. "The Escapist" and "Doubt" were highly enjoyable flicks as well for totally different reasons each: the former's ambience, especially the audio work, was amazing and the latter's conflict of characters despite there not being "much" going on was quite compelling and actually forced the viewers to take sides, something I guess you get with good acting.
Further on we went through "The boy in the striped pyjamas" - interesting semi-alternative approach on the story of concentration camps. Not having read the book the movie left me with a sense of the story being sort of a soppy guilt-driven deal but that's probably just my knee-jerk reaction to the abundance of Holocaust related films.
Sometime later this week I'm looking forward to some mindless over-the-top violence with Punisher War Zone.
* Ah - so that's what you were driving at. Yeah, I kinda share the same view - only difference is that I will be cautious to approach movies from directors or actors that have let me down in the past; and if they do let me down again, well I just blame myself until next time.
nice to see someone who watches the old stuff, have you ever seen the remake called lifepod? from 1993 (not the horrible film of the same name that i recorded by accident the other day thinking it would be the one i wanted) it gets a lot of stick but once again it's pretty good on the charector stakes and the way the villain dies has semi haunted me since i saw it.
You're lumping everything together, what can be perceived as snobbish can be broken down to two entirely different types:
Posers are those who say 'I watched this' 'I ditched that' because doing so projects a certain image upon them. They have no clue of what is what because the only thing they're interested in is how people look at them.
The other type are people who have a limited amount of time (who hasn't?) and can't really see everything. Those will have to make choices so there's an easy technique.
You follow artists that look genuinely good to you and mark as crap those who let you down (basically what xaotik said) e.g. Tom Cruise besides looking like a creepy person and a wooden actor, is often in interesting films, e.g. Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, and so on. So whoever skips movies with him in them, is obviously going to miss something sooner or later.
If the choice is between watching a disproportionate amount of drivel (well Cruise does not really fit in this example) and missing something, payoffs are obviously going to lead the person to miss something from time to time.
It's easy to pass as a snob because many popular artists play it safe and capitalize on their success. E.g. Nicolas Cage.
