inri222

It's good to see that Friedkin still has it at 77. 10 years ago people said that he was washed up.
He made the right move and distanced himself from the big budgets & major studios.
In order for the man to shine you have to give him free reign.


Last 5 films & their budgets.

Killer Joe -----------------$10,000,000
Bug ----------------------$ 4,000,000
The Hunted ---------------$55,000,000
The Rules of Engagement - $60,000,000
Jade ----------------------$50,000,000

Dan

I was going to wait to see this until I got back home (I'm in DFW right now, but my wife also wanted to see it), but it looks like it's off the schedule entirely for my city.

So, I guess I'm driving to Dallas to see it at the Angelika tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. Unless I go to Austin for the day... dammit...

Finisher

It's like a white trash Coens movie, with the dark humor dripping off the screen. Unsurprising that Joel Coen saw it twice and loved it.

The cast really nailed it, across the board. Would've been a disaster with the wrong actors.

Dan

So, I saw it today.
While I didn't love the ending, I still enjoyed it. Like someone else said, there's a lot of uncomfortable moments, but it's an excellent film.

JumpCutz

Great post inri222.

A career renaissance indeed. Here's hoping Friedkin finds some material of interest and makes another film or two before hanging it up.

SPiRAL

I loved it. MM is 2 for 2 in a row, of movies I've seen of his. ( Magic Mike & this ). He absolutely rules in both films. I'm excited for his upcoming projects. BTW Gina Gershon's character intro got a lot of laughs.

Hazel Motes

best movie out of 31 new movies I've seen this year. Great performances across the board. It reminded me a lot of No Country For Old Men. Dare I say it might even be the better of the two films! Matthew Mcconaughey has gone nearly 20 years without people knowing he's a GREAT actor. Well Matt, the word is out now, so what are you gonna do with it?!

Solid Snake

Goddamn. That's a selling quote right there.

Meglos

Saw this last night. LOVED it.

AnonomusBob15

i really can't wait to see this now.

Osiris3657

This was awesome! McConaughey was fantastic. A must own on blu.

It was a mix of No Country For Old Men and The Killer Inside Me, but with a surprising amount of dark humor. There were enough laughs at the theater showing I was in that you'd think you were watching a full blown comedy.

I am a bit surprised at the NC-17 rating , which was more comedic than sexual.

RagingBull80

I wasn't really all that excited about this but after reading this thread and hearing good things I'm anticipating seeing it more and more.

Solid Snake

Now give us a BD of Sorcerer! The man's hot right now...that means they'll be some financial positive out of releasing his shit! Do it now, confused studios!

PopcornTreeCt

Going to see this or Cosmopolis tomorrow. Probably this.

RagingBull80

^ Damn right Snake. We need a better copy of Sorcerer on the market.

Solid Snake

I'm hoping so bad that Criterion gets it cuz it's right up there alley plus...then they'd have the original..and the remake of Wages of Fear. Again...that film's history and quality pretty much is what CC strives for.

RagingBull80

Considering the trouble the film had, a Friedkin commentary would be amazing.

JumpCutz

There you guys go getting me all worked up about a Sorcerer BD again. Bastards!

RagingBull80

You must suffer like the rest of us!

Dan

The more I think about this film, the more I want to see it again.

JumpCutz

Cosmopolis is definitely worth your time, but Killer Joe is just a whole nother thang.

PopcornTreeCt

Just got done watching this and not sure what to think. It reminded of one of those dark 90's movies like Clay Pigeons. Substitute McConaughey for Vince Vaughn and Hirsch for Joaquin Phoenix. Granted this was a bit more complex than that one.

Great performances all around. I like the white trash Coen brothers description, I think that's pretty accurate. I don't know what to think of the ending. On one hand, it was unexpected and enjoyable but on the other, I can't stand abrupt ambiguous endings.

Definitely one of the better movies I've seen this year. 4 out of 5 stars.

Bobby Shalom

I'm a little surprised at all the positive reviews. I was looking forward to this, and was pretty disappointed. To me the only standout actor was Thomas Haden-Church, I thought Emil Hirsch and Gina Gershon were fucking terrible. MM was pretty good, nothing special and Temple was kind of irritating to me.

This reminded me of an awful Canon movie from the 80's. The tone was just fucking goofy - campy and way over the top... but not over the top in a way I like, it was just heavy handed in a theatrical, "Texas heavy accent," stupid way.

Maybe we are getting such a lack of hard core gritty crime films, that this one is held up as great, but I don't get it.

JumpCutz

I respect your opinion, but thought MM was much better than pretty good.
For my money, Hirsch and Gershon nailed their performances, these were obviously unsavory characters and I thought they were just over the top enough to sell this material.
The tone was entirely intentional and the theatricality reflected the stage play.

Your Cannon film comment got me thinking I need to see (other than their action films) more of them.

I can certainly understand that this film is not going to be everybody's cup of tea.

Nice to hear a dissenting opinion, Bobby.

Bobby Shalom

To be fair, there were some awesome Canon Group films: 52 Pick-up, Barfly, and even Shy People.