I agree with the entire post (except the "bad film" part, it just wasn't near as good as it should have been) esp the quoted part.

It's bad by Malick's standards but compared to all film it's obviously far above average.

Fair enough, and obvious I guess. Still, one more lonely frog climbing a stump amidst the carnage it might have been worse than mars attacks or whatever

I love both The Thin Red Line and Mars Attacks.

Seriously, there is nothing caricaturish or overblown about TTRL. Juxtaposing the calmness of nature and natural people against the mayhem of war and those who fight wars is not a plastic bag blowing in the freaking wind.

Jeez.

Rushmore is correct, of course. Examine the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film. Those few minutes convince me of its greatness, and the images that occur there re-occur throughout. There's a wonderful shot when Witt recalls his mother's death and looks up past the room towards the ceiling, which is then transformed into the sky. Notice the V formed by the walls. Malick uses this same image late in the film when Witt approaches Sean Penn's character on the porch of the nearly destroyed house, and he uses the bird cages once again. I'm not sure why I like this, but I do.

Every time I see the film, it just gets better and better. I see things I've missed before. and like JC said before, just figuring out which characters are doing the VO during certain scenes is crucial.

Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) tweeted at 9:29 PM on Sat, Apr 06, 2013:
The new "serious" Evil Dead is disastrously literal-minded. The giddy rain of blood sequence is a nice try but overall: an annoying remake.

LOL at bee complaining about literal mindedness

Not to form a mutual admiration society, but John kills it right here. This is an excellent example of what Malick does throughout the film. There are literally dozens of genuinely excellent scenes in this film. And no, it is not just a collection of excellent scenes. It is a coherent series of excellent scenes that are perfect together in every way. In John's example, there is so much going on, so much to interpret. Witt is now remembering another mother of his in the latter scene. Or maybe he is not. Maybe he is experiencing the same sort of lament he had earlier, only this time for himself. It would be crazy not to ponder it.

And to deny that this is done well is just hard for me to understand.

And yes, when Nick Nolte was absolutely awesome.

i've only seen The New World and The Tree of Life and have since have planned on watching Badlands and TTRL but haven't gotten to them yet. I like Malick and respect everything i've seen, but he's just personally not ever going to be one of my favorites, but obviously this can change after i've seen TTRL based on how man of you feel about it.

his next project has Christian Bale and Natalie Portman so we'll see how that goes

The talent I'm watching out for these days is Ben Wheatley. He made the astonishing Kill List in 2010 (think downbeat documentary-style hitman drama segueing into The Wicker Man), and now I've seen his more recent movie "Sightseers". It's a gloriously funny dark comedy/romance about a couple of sightseers who descend into murder. The only way I can describe it is if someone remade Badlands with the most dowdy characters from The Office (UK version), with a sprinkling of Withnail and I.

Try and catch either if you haven't seen them.

I haven't seen much of Nolte's other stuff, but he's very good in The Thin Red Line. He has a great speech during that stand-off scene with (I can't remember).

The movie overall is awesome though. The sound/editing was handled really well during the storming of the hill. Great tension.

And the ending is sublime like most of Malick's endings. I love the way The New World ends. He uses simple compositions, but they're suggestive/ambiguous.

I think Days of Heaven is the most beautiful film.

Saw End of Watch. It was an entertaining, fun movie.

I would watch four hours of Gyllenhaal and Pena talking in a police car.

Love Kill List and Sightseers has not been released here yet. I posted a tweet to the effect of "The visuals in Kill List are beautiful. Kudos DP!" The DP replied, THANK YOU! I guess he monitors tweets about Kill List, that was pretty cool!

yeah, i really likd it too, dunno why it's not more popular

When you get to see it, so you know, the tiny scene with a giant pencil was the bit that made me laugh the most.

Also the bit where Tina finds a picture she didn't expect on a camera, and she shouts something also made me spit out my tea.

Upstream Color just opened up pre-orders: http://watch.upstreamcolor.com/buy

Pricey but I think it's kind of badass that he's charging so much. You can get $5 off if you use the coupon code "ropeofsilicon"

Of course, I had to watch it again, given the comments. I just had to know.

It is magnificent. I almost feel bad singling out a particular aspect, but let's start with the soundtrack.

It is remarkable. You could not possibly couple the scenes with more effective music. It might be...perfect.

As for the film...I cannot find a single thing wrong with it. I love it with no reservation whatsoever. I honestly believe that over time it will become appreciated as one of the finest artistic achievements of its time.

Sorry guys.

The evil dead was awesome. I came in ready to hate it and was even more prepared after seeing the trailer for Carrie but what an intense ending. I might see it again.

now i have to watch it again

I mean it's nothing major, and certainly not worth paying $13 or whatever for. Just something kinda cool.

I watched Dogtooth the other day, what an absurd movie. Def worth a watch though.

Talent matters.

i just watched Magic Mike because it was made by Soderberg. If it was made by almost anyone else I wouldn't have bothered.

But this was a good, entertaining movie. I liked it quite a lot. Channing Tatum was awesome.

But a good filmmaker can make a good movie about any subject - even male strippers!