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Last really great movie?

Robin Masters

By Robin Masters
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Robin Masters

Robin Masters 122

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I first noticed how shit movies were getting when The Hurt Locker won best picture. It was OK, but c'mon, best picture? Same for Argo a few years later. For me the Shape of Water also falls into this category. If it was the 1950s that would be on at the drive-in with Creature from the Black Lagoon and it wouldn't get top billing. Then again I've also seen Dunkirk, Three Billboards, Lady Bird, and Get Out and they were no better.
Looking through the best picture nominees it just seems like the quality is dropping. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture#2010s

I go back to Inception before I see what I think as a real classic and it's a little to sci-fiey. Then its There Will Be Blood. Then a big gap to The Green Mile and Saving Private Ryan. Both of those, there's just no flaws, you have to be kind of a huge asshole to not like those movies.
I'm not saying there's no good movies. Most of the nominated movies are good, though there are more and more clunkers, I mean something spectacular, that if not up there with The Godfather and Citizen Kane, would certainly make a lot of top 20 lists. Is it just me getting old and remembering older stuff with nostalgia, or is this top top level not being reached anymore for whatever reason?

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Robin Masters

Robin Masters 122

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Yeah I could probably put Old Country on there as well. One of the all time great bad guys. The ending kind of fizzled out for me a bit, and I think part of my like for it is how familiar it all is. My grandparents had that Granada, and there's a painting on the wall in the hotel that they must have bought at an aunts yard sale, or there's just a million copes of it, lol, but to me they really nailed that aesthetic.

 

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TexArcher

TexArcher 37995

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The movie No Country For Old Men is about 3% as good as the book.  And that's not really a knock on the movie.

Inception is an excellent movie all the way around.  So is The Dark Knight.

The problem with movies is that almost all of the acting, writing, and directing talent has gone to television.  We can all name more great series than movies in the last 20 years.  Hell, Tarantino and Nolan are about the only people making great movies anymore.

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Hell or high water.

 

Thought it depicted multiple facets of society ranging from family guilt/ conflict, rural poverty, on the job racism/ hazing that actually builds the relationships, and absence of conscience when it comes to stealing from the gov't.

 

Oh yeah, vengeance/ retribution on multiple layers...

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Robin Masters

Robin Masters 122

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Yeah you're probably right on Inception, and that's why I say, its too sci fiey, but it is memorable. Haven't seen Hell or High Water, but now that I look at it I remember seeing part of it in a hotel and thinking shit I need to turn this off and watch the whole thing before I fuck up a possible good movie. And then forgot about it, will remedy that soon.

I thought the acting in 3 Billboards was great but what they were acting was rubbish. To me it's got to be more the stories or directing that's lacking. Maybe the good edgy stories never get the greenlight so they can do a remake of something. Sadly friggen Rapestein probably took more chances than most. 

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seven

seven 1367

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2 hours ago, TexArcher said:

The movie No Country For Old Men is about 3% as good as the book.  And that's not really a knock on the movie.

Inception is an excellent movie all the way around.  So is The Dark Knight.

The problem with movies is that almost all of the acting, writing, and directing talent has gone to television.  We can all name more great series than movies in the last 20 years.  Hell, Tarantino and Nolan are about the only people making great movies anymore.

the book read exactly like a script with 1 extra scene, i think you're playing this up a little.

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12887

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So 

1 hour ago, RCRanger03 said:

Don't look at the academy awards if you're looking for truly great movies

This. The Oscar lists aren't always filled with what the lay person would call "great movies."

It's also hard to tell if a movie is truly a great movie in its own time. We are only a few years out from the movies you are talking about, the real question is are we talking about them in 10-20 years? You go back to the 90s, we still talk about a ton of those files - Shawshank, Silence of the Lambs, Saving Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction. I would say come back in 10 years and revisit the list of the 2000s to really get a feel for the greatness of those movies.

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Robin Masters

Robin Masters 122

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Shawshank, Saving Private Ryan and Pulp Fiction were all at least nominated for best picture and Silence of the Lambs won, so it's not like these weren't instantly recognized at something special. Pulp Fiction was especially huge as everyone tried to copy Tarantino's out of sequence style.
I would say most years best picture is wrong,. It's trendy, or political or whatever, but you don't have a lot of misses when you include the nominees. Of course this year The Florida Project was better than any of the nominees I've seen, but I'm not saying it's an all timer. Just a good movie.

 

 

 

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RCRanger03

RCRanger03 1049

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3 hours ago, Red Five said:

So what was the last really great one?

That's an extremely subjective question and even if it weren't great is an ill-defined term. So prepare for an annoyingly long diatribe, but hey you asked

If I were trying to run a movie blog rating system it would go something along the lines of:

Acting Quality + Story Quality + Technical Quality = Rating, and also Rating + Subject Matter  + Personal Enjoyment = Personal Value to Me

Take one that people have mentioned above, Inception. 

Acting: Hardy good, Cotillard, Levitt and DiCaprio decent, Page was distractingly bad as usual and everyone else was passable.(3 of 5)

Story: Big boost for being original, bogs down a bit at times, interesting but shallow philosophic underpinnings  (4 of 5)

Technical: Pretty amazing visuals and effects, Sound work was top notch (5 of 5) 

Rating = 12 of 15 = 80%

Subject Matter: I like Nolan's brand of creativity, didn't have much beneath the surface though (3 of 5)

Enjoyment: Didn't regret seeing it in IMAX opening night, but also have yet to feel the urge to see it again (3 of 5)

Personal Value = 18 of 25 or 72%, definitely above average, but certainly not great by any means

For me a "great" movie is something that has a high rating and has subject matter that appeals to my mind or heart AND I enjoy (or enjoy breaking into with friends and/or fellow viewers). There's lots of Best Picture movies that I'd say are highly rated, but few that I'd say were great. Also I can agree that the subject matter's relevance to me might have no impact on someone else or even detract from a movie's rating.

A little known Irish movie a few years ago called Calvary is something I would call a GREAT movie.

Acting: Top notch across the board, from both pedigreed actors and no names. Brendan Gleeson deserved more attention. (5 of 5)

Story: Intense, Not formulaic or cliche, funny, deep, and a well crafted plot that didn't flinch or give up the ending, (5 of 5)

Technical: Well shot, beautiful cinematography and scenery, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing that distracted in the least which I appreciated (4 of 5) 

Rating = 14 of 15 or 93%, and I'd argue most people who did see it wouldn't rate it too much lower

However when we go to the second metric.

Subject Matter: I'm annoyingly Catholic, I train people at Catholic Parishes to prevent, recognize, and interrupt abuse situations, I lived IN a small Irish Community establishing and training Irish for youth programs and worked extremely close with both Irish Priests AND people who hated anything to do with the Catholic Church. Also I now work managing a community for the formerly Chronically Homeless here in Austin and I deal every day with profound brokenness both in my residents, the people who volunteer and work with us and myself. All this background connects me on a visceral level to this film and it's themes, and ideas. (5 of 5, and higher if I could)

Enjoyment: The in movie experience is a little raw (although deeply funny at times especially having my Irish experiences), however it's one of my favorite movies to show new friends and then right after have cut the bullshit let 's jump in the deep end conversations to digest the movie and talk about what it means to have shit going on in your life and how to help each other through that. (5 of 5)

Personal Value = 24 of 25 or 96%

For me that puts this movie at almost perfect and truly "great", but for a lot of people that second metric would depress the value a great deal bc they don't give a shit about any of the subject matter and would be at best depressed by the movie and they probably don't want to discuss it so even if it was well rated they wouldn't give it a "great" treatment.

 

 

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Eskimohorn

Eskimohorn 5642

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That's an extremely subjective question and even if it weren't great is an ill-defined term. So prepare for an annoyingly long diatribe, but hey you asked
If I were trying to run a movie blog rating system it would go something along the lines of:
Acting Quality + Story Quality + Technical Quality = Rating, and also Rating + Subject Matter  + Personal Enjoyment = Personal Value to Me
Take one that people have mentioned above, Inception. 
Acting: Hardy good, Cotillard, Levitt and DiCaprio decent, Page was distractingly bad as usual and everyone else was passable.(3 of 5)
Story: Big boost for being original, bogs down a bit at times, interesting but shallow philosophic underpinnings  (4 of 5)
Technical: Pretty amazing visuals and effects, Sound work was top notch (5 of 5) 
Rating = 12 of 15 = 80%
Subject Matter: I like Nolan's brand of creativity, didn't have much beneath the surface though (3 of 5)
Enjoyment: Didn't regret seeing it in IMAX opening night, but also have yet to feel the urge to see it again (3 of 5)
Personal Value = 18 of 25 or 72%, definitely above average, but certainly not great by any means
For me a "great" movie is something that has a high rating and has subject matter that appeals to my mind or heart AND I enjoy (or enjoy breaking into with friends and/or fellow viewers). There's lots of Best Picture movies that I'd say are highly rated, but few that I'd say were great. Also I can agree that the subject matter's relevance to me might have no impact on someone else or even detract from a movie's rating.
A little known Irish movie a few years ago called Calvary is something I would call a GREAT movie.
Acting: Top notch across the board, from both pedigreed actors and no names. Brendan Gleeson deserved more attention. (5 of 5)
Story: Intense, Not formulaic or cliche, funny, deep, and a well crafted plot that didn't flinch or give up the ending, (5 of 5)
Technical: Well shot, beautiful cinematography and scenery, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing that distracted in the least which I appreciated (4 of 5) 
Rating = 14 of 15 or 93%, and I'd argue most people who did see it wouldn't rate it too much lower
However when we go to the second metric.
Subject Matter: I'm annoyingly Catholic, I train people at Catholic Parishes to prevent, recognize, and interrupt abuse situations, I lived IN a small Irish Community establishing and training Irish for youth programs and worked extremely close with both Irish Priests AND people who hated anything to do with the Catholic Church. Also I now work managing a community for the formerly Chronically Homeless here in Austin and I deal every day with profound brokenness both in my residents, the people who volunteer and work with us and myself. All this background connects me on a visceral level to this film and it's themes, and ideas. (5 of 5, and higher if I could)
Enjoyment: The in movie experience is a little raw (although deeply funny at times especially having my Irish experiences), however it's one of my favorite movies to show new friends and then right after have cut the bullshit let 's jump in the deep end conversations to digest the movie and talk about what it means to have shit going on in your life and how to help each other through that. (5 of 5)
Personal Value = 24 of 25 or 96%
For me that puts this movie at almost perfect and truly "great", but for a lot of people that second metric would depress the value a great deal bc they don't give a shit about any of the subject matter and would be at best depressed by the movie and they probably don't want to discuss it so even if it was well rated they wouldn't give it a "great" treatment.
 
 



Excrement. That's what I think of Mr. RCRanger03. We're not laying pipe. We're talking about movies. How can you describe movies like American Bandstand? "Oh, I like Ladybird. I give it a 42, but I can't dance to it."
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RCRanger03

RCRanger03 1049

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Excrement. That's what I think of Mr. RCRanger03. We're not laying pipe. We're talking about movies. How can you describe movies like American Bandstand? "Oh, I like Ladybird. I give it a 42, but I can't dance to it."


You may not be laying pipe


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Whitman

Whitman 694

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Go back to the link and look down at the 50's and 60's, and look at the movies that didn't win some years.  What I take away is the depth of very good movies in a lot of years.  I don't know if that is because of the distance (time) that we are from them, or if the medium just isn't as important anymore.  Maybe there is reason that I like to watch TCM.

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29194

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i didn't especially love anything from the last two years, but 2015 was really good.

spotlight, the big short, the martian, mad max, inside out.  even bridge of spies, brooklyn, sicario, room, the revenant, straight outta compton were notable.  and i guess someone thought the hateful eight was great. 

time will tell on lots of these.

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retread

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1 hour ago, henrygandorf said:

i didn't especially love anything from the last two years, but 2015 was really good.

spotlight, the big short, the martian, mad max, inside out.  even bridge of spies, brooklyn, sicario, room, the revenant, straight outta compton were notable.  and i guess someone thought the hateful eight was great. 

time will tell on lots of these.

What would you say was the last great movie? I know you watch a lot of movies.

I love movies, but I don't watch new ones like I used to.

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shakahorn

shakahorn 1645

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That's an extremely subjective question and even if it weren't great is an ill-defined term. So prepare for an annoyingly long diatribe, but hey you asked
If I were trying to run a movie blog rating system it would go something along the lines of:
Acting Quality + Story Quality + Technical Quality = Rating, and also Rating + Subject Matter  + Personal Enjoyment = Personal Value to Me
Take one that people have mentioned above, Inception. 
Acting: Hardy good, Cotillard, Levitt and DiCaprio decent, Page was distractingly bad as usual and everyone else was passable.(3 of 5)
Story: Big boost for being original, bogs down a bit at times, interesting but shallow philosophic underpinnings  (4 of 5)
Technical: Pretty amazing visuals and effects, Sound work was top notch (5 of 5) 
Rating = 12 of 15 = 80%
Subject Matter: I like Nolan's brand of creativity, didn't have much beneath the surface though (3 of 5)
Enjoyment: Didn't regret seeing it in IMAX opening night, but also have yet to feel the urge to see it again (3 of 5)
Personal Value = 18 of 25 or 72%, definitely above average, but certainly not great by any means
For me a "great" movie is something that has a high rating and has subject matter that appeals to my mind or heart AND I enjoy (or enjoy breaking into with friends and/or fellow viewers). There's lots of Best Picture movies that I'd say are highly rated, but few that I'd say were great. Also I can agree that the subject matter's relevance to me might have no impact on someone else or even detract from a movie's rating.
A little known Irish movie a few years ago called Calvary is something I would call a GREAT movie.
Acting: Top notch across the board, from both pedigreed actors and no names. Brendan Gleeson deserved more attention. (5 of 5)
Story: Intense, Not formulaic or cliche, funny, deep, and a well crafted plot that didn't flinch or give up the ending, (5 of 5)
Technical: Well shot, beautiful cinematography and scenery, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing that distracted in the least which I appreciated (4 of 5) 
Rating = 14 of 15 or 93%, and I'd argue most people who did see it wouldn't rate it too much lower
However when we go to the second metric.
Subject Matter: I'm annoyingly Catholic, I train people at Catholic Parishes to prevent, recognize, and interrupt abuse situations, I lived IN a small Irish Community establishing and training Irish for youth programs and worked extremely close with both Irish Priests AND people who hated anything to do with the Catholic Church. Also I now work managing a community for the formerly Chronically Homeless here in Austin and I deal every day with profound brokenness both in my residents, the people who volunteer and work with us and myself. All this background connects me on a visceral level to this film and it's themes, and ideas. (5 of 5, and higher if I could)
Enjoyment: The in movie experience is a little raw (although deeply funny at times especially having my Irish experiences), however it's one of my favorite movies to show new friends and then right after have cut the bullshit let 's jump in the deep end conversations to digest the movie and talk about what it means to have shit going on in your life and how to help each other through that. (5 of 5)
Personal Value = 24 of 25 or 96%
For me that puts this movie at almost perfect and truly "great", but for a lot of people that second metric would depress the value a great deal bc they don't give a shit about any of the subject matter and would be at best depressed by the movie and they probably don't want to discuss it so even if it was well rated they wouldn't give it a "great" treatment.
 
 

Derka?
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LCHorn

LCHorn 2626

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This thread is predicated on a really stupid question.  “Great” is entirely in the eye of the beholder.

 

Maybe the question you mean to be asking is “why aren’t the studios making more movies that appeal to you”, or, “why am I seeing less movies that seem inspired to be great?”.  

For example, I just saw “ Call Me By Your Name,” which is a terrific coming of age romance, and it checks a lot of boxes for greatness.  That said, it’s also about same-sex romance, so if a viewer can’t get past that aspect (and there’s no shame in that), they aren’t going to respond favorably.  In another respect, it’s an independent movie with no major stars, so  it’s quite possible a potential fan might not even be aware of it. 

 

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