Movies That Were Probably Made By a Spasm of Six Year-Olds on Acid: The Top 75 Action Films Poll Results Thread

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/childrenmen.png

#6

CHILDREN OF MEN

Alfonso Cuarón
2006
United Kingdom/United States
(628 points, 20 votes)

"Harrowing" is the best word to describe those action sequences. Plus, I love how arbitrary the series of events are: companions you think are going to help Owen are rubbed off sudddenly, wrenchingly, while characters you assume are peripheral suddenly step in. I also admire how Owen isn't given any cute character tags other than that he once had a kid who died young: he's a smarter-than-average guy suddenly thrust into a situation beyond his control.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

the long tracking shots are unreal. the action sequences are great because, while they owe a slight debt to Saving Private Ryan, they aren't indulgent; they aren't Michael Bay'd to death.

― don weiner

It has a badass opening (EXPLOSION! GO BOOM!) And all the action is pretty awesome: the ambush in the car, the refugee camp. At one point there is blood on the lens which isn't new but it's still a cool device (for me). The thing that works in it's favor the most is that no one spends any time languishing over the deaths of everyone. It could have been one I-will-always-miss-you scene one after another but instead it opts to distract me with more violence.

― earinfections (Nick Twisp)

i loved this but my audience was TERRIBLE - laughing at any halfway funny or surprising line, APPLAUDING when anything bad happens to anybody in the second half like its some fuckin die hard type action/revenge flick, and one frat-lookin dude started laughing really hard during the long awful shot of clive owen in the building, when dude was running up the stairs, and when his girlfriend gave him a wtf look he said as explanation 'there was chickens'

― and what

'Children of Men', the new Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi flick

terrific movie.

still waiting for him to make that gravity flick

there were so many surprising moments in it, the first time i saw it, that just blew me away

what color is the boathouse at hereford?

how the fuck should i know

lol

children of men is so good. so good!!! SO GOOD

I really need to watch CoM.

would love to see a movie where ronin teamed up with the children of men

The Wages of Fear is totally going in my queue. Diaboliques is pretty wicked.

He has made that gravity flick

he has?

children of men is one of those movies that is legit politically interesting. right wingers freaked out about about the obvious stuff (the hooded 'abu ghraib' prisoner, general visual level of sympathy for people in internment camps) but i feel like there's plenty of easy ways to explain what's going on in this movie from a conservative pov

It's out in November

off to work! will let you know about the top five shortly.

nice.

see, I like CoM, but I was happy just seeing it once. The action sequences are fab but it just never felt like a long-term keeper to me.

com, ronin and blade runner are probably my favorite movies of the 00s, 90s and 80s respectively.

love the no shoes bit in COM. Possibly a nod to Die Hard?

bit late on catching up with today's films but i was busy watching sorcerer (fucking awesome btw). also in my quest to see other movies by directors whose movies how up in ilx's top 15, i watched y tu mama tambien yesterday. it's kind of lol to think this guy is also responsible for CoM which is great too.

i'm sure i've mentioned this before but one day i locked myself out of my flat and my roommates had gone to see a movie so i went to the theater and actually paid for a ticket so that i could go in and get the keys. it had just started. it was called "children of men", and i had never heard of it. i figured well, i paid for the ticket, might as well see it. o_O

did u like it

Cuaron's filmography is kind of all over the place

see, I like CoM, but I was happy just seeing it once. The action sequences are fab but it just never felt like a long-term keeper to me.

― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, February 20, 2012 12:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

does seem true insofar as once you know the 'gotchas' it doesn't seem as worthwhile to watch

Children of Men is the best new movie I've seen in a decade. Confession: also one of the several movies I didn't vote for that placed today because I knew it would have strong support. I did this so I could promote all-time-awesomest movies I thought had less of a chance.

signed, 'rick roll video' xp

rick roll is not the video in my dn!! >:|

s1ocki i loved it. i had no idea what it was going to be about, not even what kind of movie it was. i had never even heard of it. this is the way to see movies imo

ya i think i saw it with very little foreknowledge, just heard it was really good or something

VIENNA.

As I said somewhere way upthread, the Julianne Moore car chase scene in CoM (no spoilers!) is probably one of my favorite action sequences of all time. It was genuinely thrilling and shocking and logistically impressive.

spoilers: two people, one ping pong ball

no rules.

really don't like com!

lol the whole list is a sham now that blade runner's on it. it's a fucking inaction movie

leon is the shit. my #6. besson's best work - portman's and oldman's too. venus as a boy!

heat's great, nothing new to say about it

i didn't vote for ronin. when i was 13-14 it was one of my favorite movies on the planet, for pretty much the same reasons as everyone else. i rented it from blockbuster and dubbed a copy so i could watch it any time. watched it again recently and couldn't get into it at all. maybe i just saw it too many times. the music during the car chases irritated the shit out of me, and i think it drags on too long with some of the double crosses and shit. i got this vibe from it where i felt like the irl version of deniro's character would be some kind of libertarian blowhard who reads a lot of harry turtledove novels.

still waiting for him to make that gravity flick

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Monday, February 20, 2012 12:29 PM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark

its in post-prod!

I have to go look at the thread to remember why tho

prob biggest downgrade on second viewing I've had in the last 20 years

After the midpoint, IT'S A RIDE

he Julianne Moore car chase scene in CoM (no spoilers!) is probably one of my favorite action sequences of all time

yeah, that motorcycle..

total claustrophobic panic

Car chase on CoM >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> its 'politics' but its been a long time since I've seen it. xp

oh no a ride

yes, films shd be films max

Rides are fun, max. Fun is the mind killer.

Ronin completely ruined Sean Bean for me. Every time I see him now in something, I just think of the loudmouth who pukes after getting into some raspberry jam.

Miffed that Heat ranked as low as it did, it is on my short-list of favorite films of all time, and apparently my #1.

Still holding out hope that The Thin Red Line makes its challopy appearance, but save for three films, my top 10 has been otherwise represented, though I'd say two of them have little chance of making it, and the third I am surprised is apparently going to rank this high.

PS Ugh, Hanna -- I knew there was a flick that I'd been meaning to go see in a theater, except now it's out in DVD already.

A NONSTOP ACTION THRILLRIDE amirite

It just occurred to me: is Saving Private Ryan gonna show up in the top five? The poll results thus far have largely and somewhat oddly eschewed war films, but that one must be a shoe-in for the opening sequence alone, right?

the car door into the motorcyle and resulting crash @ 2:12 is so amazing to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfBSncUspBk

spoiler screengrab

so I rlly am curious how many of you have seen this

http://www.criterion.com/films/370-the-wages-of-fear

(the Friedkin US remake bombed mightily)

the crunch of the motorcyle wheel hitting the hood