Mont des Cats / The Spectacular Now (2013)

Alright, reversing the order for this trip. The beer definitely stood out from the movie.

Mont des Cats

I was very excited to try this one, as it looks elegant, smells sophisticatedly enjoyable and just has that air of traditionally brewed abbey trappist beer. Technically, it can't be called a trappist, since it's not brewed in the abbey of Mont des Cats; Chimay takes care of that part for them. Could I just attribute it to Chimay then after all?

Anyway, it's a fiiiine, fine drink. Sweetly sour, brightly dark, softly sharp, but incredibly wet. The amount of layers I found inside were amazing. It got more attention than the movie I'd chosen to get into after all. Complimented by some basic snacks, I couldn't be more happy with having tried this beer. Instantly, it's up there with my very favorite beers so far (Rochefort, St. Feuillien and Ename coming to mind as equally epic beers).

Then getting to the side dish ;)

The Spectacular Now (2013)

Had not realised until after the movie; it's directed by the same guy who did 500 days of summer. Which makes sense; it feels very much the same.

I guess it is a great movie for high schoolers or adolescents facing similar 'growing up'-issues. The movie tackles issues with class and doesn't offer any easy answers. 

However, the character in the lead is just a prick abusing everybody around him, making it extremely difficult to feel for him. After his final realisation (that is he a dick) he still makes a strange choice. The open ending makes the final scene acceptable, but I feel that he has not changed one bit after having been through his self-realisation.

All in all, it's a pretty decent movie. Acting counts in this movie, and the new girlfriend carries her acting very well. 

7/10 in total.

Movie posters

This clip on Youtube inspired me to be more conscious about movie posters. Whereas before I'd hang my wall with my favourite movies, nowadays it feels like movie posters are so much more of an afterthought rather than an essential piece of art accompanying the movie. Perhaps I've also grown a tad too old for plastering my walls with them ;)

It's part of the fun to walk through the cinema checking out the posters and feeling compelled to watch a movie. I'd love for studios to start putting much more effort into this again.

I've got to thinking which movie posters just kick ass. It's far too easy to find examples of terrible movie posters (it's the majority). I feel like I might do more of these posts. Compiling the list below was really fun. 

Flipping through my IMDB watchlist, I just love these movie posters:

1. Band of Brothers

The artwork matches the theme of the series. Simple, effective and beautiful in the end. I guess silhouettes just kind of work for me. The artwork also works through in all the artwork for this show. Well done! While on the subject of silhouettes, The Exorcist also caught my attention:

2. Platoon

I mean, DAMN!

3. Kill Bill

Symbolic, powerful colors, well thought-over. I like.

4. Psycho

The sickening contrast, the colors, the font and letter art. Beautiful stuff. I'd hang this on my wall.

5. Dr. Strangelove

                                 

Well, first of all it's Kubrick. Probably this poster is chock full of obscure symbolism, references, implicit themes and all. But just look at it... JUST LOOK AT IT!

6. Mean Streets

Bad movie, fantastic artwork.

7. Grease

Awful movie, good poster actually!

8. L'Année Dernière à Marienbad

Art = Art. Turns out one of my all-time favorite movies has a great poster accompanying it. Beautiful!

9. The Blair Witch Project

As far as scary movies go, this is my scariest by far. Cool poster, though not the original one, as I remember the one with the girl looking scared into the camera as THE Blair Witch poster (you'll know it when you see it.

10. Walk the Line

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash!

Rounding up, you can also check out this really enjoyable website with alternative minimalist posters. Good stuff!

Unforgiven (1992)

A grand epic contained in only 2 hours. I love it!

The beauty
The movie manages to capture an incredible rawness; the character development and emotions can be felt to the bone. It shows gorgeous landscapes and made me actually SMELL the outdoors while Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman were riding through the wheat-fields, those green pastures and the rain pouring down.

The story also makes this movie. Though it seemed like it is trying for realism, a less than believable shoot-out in a saloon more or less breaks that down. However, it is an undeniably solid story, with edges at the right moments.

A shout-out needs to be done for the lighting in this movie. It is pivotal in changing a lot of scenes from good to fantastic. Well done Clint!

And oh yeah, the final scene might be one of the most bad-ass scenes in all of movie history.

Westerns
The time and place offer a really nice environment for great movies. I still feel some sort of bias towards westerns as being cliché, boring, far too long and bland. The opposite has been true for my experiences over the last years. Most notably, the 'modern' westerns True Grit and Django Unchained were great films.

I should look into the older ones again, I'm hoping the same grandeur as Unforgiven.

Last Vegas (2013)

The movie pretty much is this trailer. It's got four legendary actors, it's got Las Vegas, it's got some chicks, it's got old-people jokes and it's very light on the eyes and mind.

It doesn't disappoint, it's an easy movie that could have been better. There's some unnecessary drama that doesn't really touch, but I guess it's not really meant to.

It's a commercial flick, what can I say. It's light entertainment... 6,5/10

The side dish

 

Well, not looking as fancy as this, but green tea anyway :)

Gravity (2013)

Promising movie that has a lot of potential! That's what I thought starting to watch this one. I mean, space is pretty awesome, George Clooney is a boss and the movie poster is pretty cool.

But then...

Turns out it would have been more enjoyable to just look at some space-pictures... because that's really the only nice thing to say about this movie; it offers some good-looking scenery.

And that's all there is to it. In fact, everything else about the movie destroys how nice that scenery looked.

Crap...

First of all, the movie has a really weird vibe going on. Space is all pretty much just fun and games it seems, and jetting around in open space is as chill as a theme park ride. Space debris smashing into your space craft? Oh well, let's just head out to the space station while joking around and making dinner-like conversation... When somebody is on his way to certain death, it goes with the light-heartedness of saying someone goodbye for maybe one month. 

George Clooney is great with that kind of attitude in other movies, but it's just plain weird here. Sandra Bullock is like a cleaner who just happened to end up in space. She's so helpless and dependent, how the fuck would someone with that attitude ever end up as an astronaut?

The story is just vanilla, unimaginative and boring, considering the environment and possibilities where they could have taken the story. Predictable and uninspiring, it makes me feel like it's just mocking such an unbelievable and fantastic environment of outer space. 

And the most annoying, frustrating thing about it is; HALF of the movie, you're just watching Sandra Bullock gasp for air and being miserable. I have more sympathy for the fucking space craft that gets destroyed than I have for her.

NEXT!

I don't even want to waste more time thinking about this. 4/10, and that's being generous for this forgettable piece of non-movie. Why not a 1? +2 for some nice pictures in there, +1 for George Clooney still being a boss after all, and +1 for making me appreciate a good movie again. Without terrible movies, there's not such thing as great movies!

Spend your time wisely, please watch Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie Moon (2009). If you'r into that, watch Star Trek or Star Was, for all I care something like Mars Attacks! or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Even a nice flick like Armageddon or Independence Day, but stay far away from this...

The Side Dish

Yeah, to make it even worse, I didn't even bring out a nice beer to enjoy...

So here's a nicely edited inspirational video to make up for it!

The Counselor (2013)

My first movie experience of 2014 is going to stick with me a for a while.

As a film by Ridley Scott, I had some expectations but doubted whether he still had 'it' after my relative disappointment last year with Prometheus. Not bad, but nothing special.

However, I was absolutely amazed by this one. Chills down my spine, brainwaves, shudders and surprise. The intensity of my feelings with this one made me appreciate the pure beauty of this movie.

I found out it gets a lot of criticism; unrealistic, too bleak, too obvious, dumb story, plot holes, unrealistic conversations, higher expectations of the superstar cast in this movie. I think that's completely missing the point though.

The Counselor is a moving painting. It's scenes of decadence mixed with horrific events on a catastrophic scope. It magnifies the bubble of gruesome violence, treachery and animalism by making it all as visual as can be. Everything is explained, depicted, magnified or nuanced by visuals. The story and actors merely serve as a set-up of this moving painting. The conversations (or better: philosophical monologues) are not meant to be part of the story; They serve as a soundtrack to the visual spectacle! Yes, the character traits are in-your-face obvious; that's the point!

The traditional criteria for judging a movie (analyzing the acting, the story, the character development, etc) absolutely wouldn't work here. Like objectifying a painting; just fucking don't!

I am thrilled I got to watch this on the big screen. It works in an absolutely unique way.


Conclusion
a hard 10/10. Ridley Scott rules again; Blade Runner-quality this is!


The side dish
An okayish cinema-pilsener.

Transcending the Mundane

Whut?

Realising i have been watching quite some movies, I feel the need to put my thoughts out there. Relating one to the others, putting my feelings into perspective and heightening my experience.

It could be some clips, some words, a review, getting a grip on my review of the movie or simply bashing a movie. Whatever I feel like.

Yes, there's probably a million other blogs doing exactly this. However, I am doing it for myself. If thereby somebody is entertained somewhere, that's just great!

What's a Cinema Pijiu?

One of those moments of grandeur in life; watching a moving film, combined with a moving beer... The ultimate luxury, ultimate bliss!

干杯！