Ive studied film extensively in college. I've watched everything and anything film including Leon The Professional,
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Sabbath51 — 13 years ago(July 15, 2012 03:12 AM)
I gave this a movie a ten as well ( a rating I reserve for my top 10 movies all-time) and I got to disagree with a few things.
What I liked about this film was the good cinematography, underlying themes, stellar acting (from the 3 main characters), and really just Leon's bad-assness. I also did not find the movie predictable and some of the dialogue COULD have been written better
I could see why people wouldn't like Oldman's performance, but I for one thought it was great. It was over-the-top and I think it needed to be over-the-top, and if you were to classify his performance as "over-the-top", you'd have to admit he did still bring authentic intensity into the role.
Some people arguing about ratings, etc. whatever. People are going to like the film, people aren't going to like the film, some people are going to hate on it just solely for the reason that a lot of people like it. But I put this film right behind TGTBTU, Blade Runner, and Pulp Fiction. Tied with Saving Private Ryan, Fear and loathing & Raging Bull in that next tier -
Sabbath51 — 13 years ago(July 15, 2012 12:34 PM)
I mean the final battle is pretty epic, but there's just something so hauntingly beautiful and terrifying when Oldman grabs that shotgun and enters the apartment.
I also like the scene where Leon's training Matilda, the one where he is showing her where to shoot with the paintball gun.
You got any favorites? -
Burning_Sosobra — 13 years ago(July 16, 2012 11:37 PM)
It's all subjective, most found it to be at the very least entertaining, if not quite a masterpiece. Some, a minority, disliked it for whatever reason. It doesn't really matter. This film is no Acadamey Award winning, breathtaking masterpiece. But in my opinion, it's a great fvcking movie. I loved it when I first saw it, and I love it still after seeing it numerous times since its release. Oldman may have been over the top in his performance, but I still found him to be electrifying and so enjoyable to watch, even as you watch him kill women and children with a shotgun. But I've always thought Oldman was a great actor.
"Beethoven's overtures just get my juices flowing, but after the openingI must admit, he does tend to get a tad fvcking boring. That's why I STOPPED!" You gotta love his crazed, drugged out, maniacal madman performance. Gary Oldman does it well.
They burned Sosobra, God of bad luck! -
tom-yanowitz — 13 years ago(November 22, 2012 05:38 PM)
People need to understand that the IMDb top 250 is nowhere near to being a serious "greatest films" list, especially when it comes to 90s and 00s movies, because a whole lot of users aren't curious enough about cinema to dig further in its history, which leads in tons of movies from de last decades being massively overrated.
As a comparison theyshootpictures.com gathers all the "greatest films" lists from critics around the world and tries to present a mean to all of them:
The Shawshank arrives 474th, not freaking first.
No Besson movie is in the Top 1000.
So to sum it all up, the IMDb 250 does okay for old films, because well, they're rated by people who know a bit more about Cinema than Shyamalan and Michael Bay, but this list tends to overrate the "cult" movies of our younger generation (I'm 22) -
DFC-2 — 13 years ago(November 23, 2012 07:04 AM)
Though I fully agree that the IMDb 250 is not (and makes no claim to be) a greatest film list, I completely disagree that www.theyshootpictures.com (TSPDT) is better. Greatness is necessarily a subjective measure. There is and can be no universal set of facets (e.g. acting, script, cinematography, artistic style, symbolism), nor a universally agreed upon weighting of each facet (e.g. acting counting for more than cinematography or script or style). Under the circumstances, all any critic can claim is a respected set of biases, not objectivity about greatness.
The IMDb 250 list is better balanced than TSPDT and represents a decent statistical sample. TSPDT titles often have fewer that a few thousand endorsements each. A substantial percentage of these titles are obscure films that relatively few have seen. Also, TSPDT is heavily weighted towards top ten lists garnered from critics. Such lists favor name recognition (e.g. recommended films from the past). When reviewing the thousands of titles any respectable critic has seen over a lifetime, the titles that come to mind most easily are those others have mentioned in the past. TSPDT, and its most important contributing list the Sight & Sound decade poll, are largely petrified and very poor when it comes to newer films.
Films that achieved renown in the 1950s and 1960s, because of young Cahiers fan boys, are permanent fixtures on TSPDT. Critics like Godard established an intellectual standard that had not existed before them. However, he and others were also egotistical young fan boys. Godard not only ranked his own films as great, but also a number of American directors that he had loved as a young man. Just like the Nolan fan boys now, Godard and others lionized directors of their youth and uncritically endorsed a large percentage of their output as great because they were in love with their style, not because they were all truly better than every other film.
Those not so enamored by style rarely grant any director more than a few truly great films. TSPDT still has a laughable bias with as many as dozens of films from a small group of 50s & 60s directors. You can complain that several directors on the IMDb list have more titles than they should, but this bias is much reduced before 2000.
IMDb 250 offers:- Current popular resonance (a true standard of greatness for any media designed to be projected for the viewing pleasure of many)
- A well-designed opinion poll (e.g. 160,000,000 IMDb members, high minimum number of votes, comparing ratings of every title seen, rather than just thinking up a top ten)
- Humility about the hundreds of different facets (and the comparative weighting of these facets) that contribute to the greatness of any film. IMDb doesnt pretend that their 250 represents the greatest films, nor should any responsible site
TSPDT offers: - Safe choices for those worried about being embarrassed
- The elitism of a canon
- A nostalgic refuge for those who think everything in the world is getting worse
I'm 60, and have been reviewing and showing films to audiences for many decades.
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ancatdubher — 12 years ago(March 05, 2014 03:15 AM)
IMDB's rating is no indication of whether or not YOU will like a particular movie. It's just a summary of what other people thought of this movie. I have disliked movies that others have called masterpieces. Nothing to be baffled about. Taste is subjective.