28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Qrazy]

Which ones, may I ask? Sansho the Bailiff is my #2 of all time, both Ugetsu and Life of Oharu I found very good but lacking somehow (both need repeats), and The Taira Clan Saga I found dull (as mentioned a page ago). The Crucified Lovers is on my radar now, especially since it's available on R2 as part of a twofer with The Woman in the Rumor, which is supposed to be great as well.

I agree with your assessment of Life of Oharu but not Ugetsu, which I view as his best.

[Spinal]

For creepy films about fish-out-of-water Americans backpacking through Europe encountering horror as expressive of sexual pressures and basic Western corruption of democratic curiosity (rather, American refusal to engage in a foreign culture on its own terms), An American Werewolf in London is leagues ahead of Hostel. Funnier, too. Just saying.

Is this even debatable?

[Qrazy]

Is this even debatable?

That dream sequence with the pig-like animals is pretty fucked up.

[Qrazy]

Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Schlondorff continues to underwhelm me.

[MadMan]

This is a strange thing to say. You are disappointed the man loved it? It is actually lame he didn't will himself to not love the film because you wanted to see him disappointed?

Anyway, I'm seeing it in about six hours. I hope I'm not disappointed. That would be lame.Once again I was being tongue in cheek (I tend to make poor jokes from time to time). But seriously it was predictable. He didn't even have to put a rating for the film in his sig. Everyone and their dog knew he was going to love the film. I think you'll like it Raiders. But I could end up being wrong.


The 8.7 average rating on RT means absolutely nothing then?I'm refering only to you. I'm sure the movie will be good stuff. Although I don't really take RT seriously as whole, considering some of the critics' reviews they use.

[Winston*]

Not sure tongue in cheek is a look that suits you, MadMan.

[Bosco B Thug]

For creepy films about fish-out-of-water Americans backpacking through Europe encountering horror as expressive of sexual pressures and basic Western corruption of democratic curiosity (rather, American refusal to engage in a foreign culture on its own terms), An American Werewolf in London is leagues ahead of Hostel. Funnier, too. Just saying. Huh, I never thought to read much into AWiL... cool! Intriguing parallel with Hostel! They're thematic sister films now, awww.

[MadMan]

Not sure tongue in cheek is a look that suits you, MadMan.I guess not. To me most of life is a joke. I personally think that God has a sense of humor. If only because it explains much of what happens down here.

I'll never see Hostel. An American Werwolf in London I'm putting off until Halloween 2008.

[Philosophe_rouge]

The Miracle Woman (1931) is below-average by Capra's usual standards, despite still championing his favourite themes and ideas. On that level, it's fairly interesting and compelling as it holds up to his other work, but narratively it feels rushed and not enough attention is paid attention to the story and how it effects the characters. Since so much time is condensed and rushed through, some of the dialogue is blunt and the interractions weak. Stanwyck is great though, and the final 15 minutes make the whole film worth watching. A definetely sign of greatness to come.

Also watched, Quebec cult classic Cruising Bar (1989) as the film's long awaited sequel opened last night. I was testing the waters as to whether this deserved a theatrical viewing, and I'm leaning towards no. The film is a purposefully episodic look at the lives of 4 men and their bar cruising for girls in the 1980s. All characters are played by one of my favourite local actors, who really is spectacular in his physical transformation of each individual. Each character embodies some bar stereotype, from the married man looking for some extra-marrital sex, to the yuppie who takes lessons on how to be the ultimate seductor. In the end the film offers very little insight into any of their lives or behaviors, aside from the extent people are willing to push themselves for sex and affection. It relies heavily on caricature, but there is a great deal of empathy for the characters as each indidivual's struggle is more pathetic than the last. It's an interesting film, but I think I'll wait for dvd on the sequel.

[Yxklyx]

Help! was not as good as I remembered it.

Dalas 362 was very very very good.

I've been assimilated. WALL-E was indeed excellent!

The Forest for the Trees: ouch! The best live-action digital film I've seen. The ending was...

Oh yeah, and it ranks as the most squirm inducing film of all time.

[megladon8]

Anyone heard anything about the remake of Hellraiser supposedly coming out in January (moved back from this fall)?

[Grouchy]

Anyone heard anything about the remake of Hellraiser supposedly coming out in January (moved back from this fall)?
I know that it's a terrible idea.

Vampires is very good, by the way. One of the few movies to present truly physical bloodsuckers convincingly, with no religious or telepathical attributes.

[Spinal]

Hellraiser is a case where I find the violence so repulsive that I have difficulty deciding whether the film is any good or not. In My Skin is another one.

[Bosco B Thug]

Anyone heard anything about the remake of Hellraiser supposedly coming out in January (moved back from this fall)?
The directors of the French film Inside were supposed to be directing it, but they got dropped. Apparently the SAW guy Bousman is in talks. Bleeeeeerrrgggh.

[megladon8]

The directors of the French film Inside were supposed to be directing it, but they got dropped. Apparently the SAW guy Bousman is in talks. Bleeeeeerrrgggh.


Oh great.

So instead of a telling story looking at the extremes of human desire and the "S&M freak" apparent in all of us, we're gonna get torture porn.

Clive Barker needs better connections for bringing his work to the silver screen.

[Sycophant]

Wanted was 108 minutes of messy stupidity (that occasionally had me vainly looking for a social or religious metaphor of any kind of value) with just enough technical grace notes and interesting choices to keep me interested and somewhat entertained.

[Rowland]

Hey, I just wrote something similar over at RT. Copy-and-paste time:

Wanted is a stupid, stupid, stuuuupid movie. It does have its moments though, and I admire Bekmambetov's directorial verve... but he also has no sense of rhythm in how he applies his computer-aided formal trickery, which drains his action sequences of much of their potential visceral excitement level. I had a pretty decent time, but I can already feel its impact slipping away. If nothing else, its striking similarity to The Matrix only highlights that vastly superior movie's qualities.

[Watashi]

See, I think Wanted was stupid too, but stupidly good (if that makes sense). I agree with Slant's review that Jolie's animalistic portrayal was easily the hot spot. Plus, the train set piece, no matter how ridiculous, was more satisfying than any stunt in Die Hard 4.

[Rowland]

Ehh, Crank and Running Scared are stupidly good. This is predictable, unimaginative stupid. Both of those movies are aesthetically superior as well.

[Watashi]

Running Scared is one of the worst movies I saw that year, so no... it wasn't stupidly good.

I'd place Wanted in the same realm of Shoot Em Up over Crank.

[Rowland]

Running Scared is one of the worst movies I saw that year, so no... it wasn't stupidly good.

I'd place Wanted in the same realm of Shoot Em Up over Crank.I didn't care much for Shoot Em Up either, so I suppose our taste in this area is notably different.

[Silencio]

The best thing Wanted has going for it are some interesting and moderately inventive action sequences, a few instances of well-timed humor, and the underused Angelina Jolie. Everything else can pretty much be summarized with a typical action movie check-list. Still a fun time, though.

[Qrazy]

I saw Night Watch and I was like this is a director I do not want to see anything more from.

Yeah pretty much.

Wall-E was excellent but not perfect. That is to say what could have been a sci-fi masterpiece ends up falling a bit too snugly into the Pixar formula (albeit an effective formula). Still, animation-wise it's probably the best thing the studio has done yet. I'd rank it easily in the top third of the studio's output.

I really don't think we need a Cars sequel.

---

Get Smart was funny about 15 percent of the time. The script was fairly garbage, the direction pedestrian... unfortunately the cast (James Caan, Terence Stamp, Alan Arkin to name a few... Carrell and the rest... even a cameo by Bill Murray) is almost completely wasted. Not recommendable.

[Sycophant]

I'd say Wanted was more in the realm of Shoot 'Em Up over Crank indeed, which is not a compliment.

Throughout Wanted, I kept expecting something to happen that would really put into perspective the cost in human lives, the perversity of the endeavor, the laughability of "fate"--something that would have made any of it mean anything, but it didn't. It just kind of came off as solipsistic and misanthropic and morally loathesome.

[Watashi]

Yeah pretty much.

Wall-E was excellent but not perfect. That is to say what could have been a sci-fi masterpiece ends up falling a bit too snugly into the Pixar formula (albeit an effective formula). Still, animation-wise it's probably the best thing the studio has done yet. I'd rank it easily in the top third of the studio's output.

I really don't think we need a Cars sequel.

---

Get Smart was funny about 15 percent of the time. The script was fairly garbage, the direction pedestrian... unfortunately the cast (James Caan, Terence Stamp, Alan Arkin to name a few... Carrell and the rest... even a cameo by Bill Murray) is almost completely wasted. Not recommendable.
Why the low score for The Cat Returns?

[Boner M]

I saw Night Watch and I was like this is a director I do not want to see anything more from.
Where did this post go? Deleted? Cos I was about to rep it.

[Winston*]

Where did this post go? Deleted? Cos I was about to rep it.
I didn't feel it deserved the rep I sensed it would receive from you so I pre-emptively removed it.

[Boner M]

I didn't feel it deserved the rep I sensed it would receive from you so I pre-emptively removed it.
I see. I don't think I'll be repping this post in compensation, mind you.

[Boner M]

Female Trouble wasn't as funny as I expected, but it is quite amazing in it's breathlessly anarchic spirit and go-for-broke satire of the fashion world, which easily transcends Waters' non-existent filmmaking abilities - the artless static-frame style seems to encourage the relentless exhibitionism and depravity of his performers, making the whole film seem even more frenzied. Still not sure if I wanna watch Pink Flamingos, tho (I rented the twofer DVD).

[Winston*]

I didn't like The Cat Returns at all btw. Took my brother to see it at the cinema a few years back. Could understand digging it if you were an eight year old girl or Watashi, I guess.

[Ezee E]

Boy, Smiley Face is obnoxious. I couldn't finish it.

[Watashi]

I didn't like The Cat Returns at all btw. Took my brother to see it at the cinema a few years back. Could understand digging it if you were an eight year old girl or Watashi, I guess.
Or if you like good movies.

[Yum-Yum]

Female Trouble wasn't as funny as I expected, but it is quite amazing in it's breathlessly anarchic spirit and go-for-broke satire of the fashion world, which easily transcends Waters' non-existent filmmaking abilities - the artless static-frame style seems to encourage the relentless exhibitionism and depravity of his performers, making the whole film seem even more frenzied. Still not sure if I wanna watch Pink Flamingos, tho (I rented the twofer DVD).

My mother and I watch Female Trouble every Christmas (we're non-practicing Satanists). Anyway, I was disturbed by the fact that weren't able to fit Mink Stole's name into your blurb, but I'm glad you liked its "anarchic spirit."

My favourite line: "I wouldn't suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there was oxygen in your balls!"

[Bosco B Thug]

Oh great.

So instead of a telling story looking at the extremes of human desire and the "S&M freak" apparent in all of us, we're gonna get torture porn. Or just a really really lame look at sadomasochistic impulses, which we'll probably get really really soon anyway with REPO!!!!!


A whole roster of blogs seem to be giving Lifeforce a little 15 minutes of fame here (http://finalgirl.blogspot.com/2008/06/film-club-lifeforce.html). Most of them are the usual notings of its "Naked space vampire" proposition and camp outrageousness, but this (http://cinevistaramascope.blogspot.co m/2008/06/web-of-destiny-carries-your-blood-and.html) one had a neat little sum-up of the functioning tonal rhetoric of the film: "... with its uneasy combination of kid-friendly special effects and monsters and near-constant nudity, [Lifeforce is] a horror movie for adolescent boys faced with the growing suspicion that their penises are about to get them into trouble."

[Russ]

My mother and I watch Female Trouble every Christmas (we're non-practicing Satanists). Anyway, I was disturbed by the fact that weren't able to fit Mink Stole's name into your blurb, but I'm glad you liked its "anarchic spirit."

My favourite line: "I wouldn't suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there was oxygen in your balls!"
How about this one: "I've DONE everything a mother can do: I've locked her in her room, I've beat her with the car aerial. Nothing changes her. It's HARD being a loving mother!"

Yep, it just ain't Christmas without cha-cha heels.

Boner, try watching Pink Flamingos with Waters' commentary first. He has a very disarming demeanor and his observations are, if nothing else, very funny.

[Boner M]

Boner, try watching Pink Flamingos with Waters' commentary first. He has a very disarming demeanor and his observations are, if nothing else, very funny.
Cool, will do.

On another note, Hal Ashby kinda rocks. The Last Detail is quintessential bait for folks who like to rightfully bitch about how infinitely superior American cinema in the 70's was. You can really see Asbhy's roots as an editor in this film, as there's lots of experimentation here in that area; this film has some of the most strange yet effective use of long dissolves I've seen, sometimes using them in shot/reverse-shot conversations. I really liked how the hotspots and essential activities of the men's itinerary end up being something of an afterthought - my favorite instance of this was the post-coital intimacy between Quaid and the hooker and how that registers rather than the sex. Nicholson is awesome, natch - his delivery of "Y'know, kid... you got a helluva knack for killin' a conversation" is one of the best line readings ever.

[dreamdead]

Ann Hui's Hong Kong film July Rhapsody is never quite transcendent in that everything in this drama remains in the circumscribed space of family issues and never extends to any wider reach of culture or and globalized society. Instead, what we have here is a slow burn of (Jacky Leung's) teacher Lam who must face whether or not he should commit adultery with a high school girl who's attracted to him. It's subtly, delicately framed by Hui and never submits to masculine titillation, but the film, despite its focus on Chinese poetry and how that poetry acts as a conduit for desire, seems content to to maintain its focus on a solitary family and never quite broadens the portrayal to get any sense of whether or not this is an isolated crisis. As such, it's effective on a interpersonal level, but not quite on a societal level.

[Mysterious Dude]

Boner, try watching Pink Flamingos with Waters' commentary first. He has a very disarming demeanor and his observations are, if nothing else, very funny.
I can see how this would make the experience easier. Though Pink Flamingos is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, I couldn't bring myself to dislike Waters for it, after watching him present outtakes for the film after the version I saw.

[megladon8]

The Machine Girl was insanely awesome.

If you took the best partsof Kill Bill and Riki-Oh and slapped them together, this is what you'd get.

It's cartoonish, outlandish, totally twisted, and one of the goriest movies I have seen in my entire life.

Solid entertainment. There were a couple of lulls, where the self-aware melodrama got a little tiresome. And some of the effects are quite bad (during the very, very few times when there was CGI).

But on the whole, man that was a kickass good time.

[Qrazy]

Why the low score for The Cat Returns?

It's alright, but it's the second weakest Ghibli I've seen (Earthsea being weaker) so I guess I'm rating it more in relation to their output than to films in general. I could probably bump it to a B-. As for my actual complaints... it never really felt like anything was at stake to me and as such there was no dramatic weight to any of the proceedings. The characters weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked and in general it just felt sort of derivative of other Ghibli ventures I've already seen. There weren't many moments that felt uniquely creative or incredible to me (one that did was the bird stairway).

Bear in mind that my scale... F - failure, D - Below average, C - average, B - above average, A - excellent.

[Qrazy]

This Sporting Life was very good but I found it's focus on the lead character to be both a strength and it's greatest weakness. Peripheral characters like the two children seem to barely exist in the film's world, it would have been interesting to spend some, even a little time with them. It made me think of similar modern, self-destructive man type films like Raging Bull and Godfather Part II which both give at least a little screentime to peripherals... like some Pesci moments in the former or the shot of the kids in the hall when Michael and Kay are fighting in the latter. Other than that a few scenes didn't quite reach their dramatic peak and there were a couple bizarre stylistic choices... punching a spider?

Vengeance is Mine was alright but I can't really say I'm feeling the love. I actually prefer all the other Imamura films I've seen so far (Insect Woman, Pornographers, Ballad of Narayama).

[soitgoes...]

This Sporting Life was very good but I found it's focus on the lead character to be both a strength and it's greatest weakness. Peripheral characters like the two children seem to barely exist in the film's world, it would have been interesting to spend some, even a little time with them. It made me think of similar modern, self-destructive man type films like Raging Bull and Godfather Part II which both give at least a little screentime to peripherals... like some Pesci moments in the former or the shot of the kids in the hall when Michael and Kay are fighting in the latter. Other than that a few scenes didn't quite reach their dramatic peak and there were a couple bizarre stylistic choices... punching a spider?

Vengeance is Mine was alright but I can't really say I'm feeling the love. I actually prefer all the other Imamura films I've seen so far (Insect Woman, Pornographers, Ballad of Narayama).
Yes and yes.

[Grouchy]

http://www.elcine.ws/sitio/images/stories/peliculas/argentina/aniceto/aniceto04.jpg

Leonardo Favio is one of the most underseen directors in all of Argentine cinema and probably the only one with a style and something to say. Of course, I'm being something of a hypocrite by saying this, since I've heard more about him than what I've seen myself - (incredible) scenes of Juan Moreira in class and now his latest, Aniceto. Which is a ballet remake of his earlier film El Romance del Aniceto y la Francisca [Romance of Aniceto and Francisca].

I'm not big on ballet, actually, but I never found this movie boring despite the extended dance sequences. Favio really knows how to use light to create environments, and despite the theatrical surroundings (almost every location is a stage, and that includes the moon, sky and clouds) the picture never feels less cinematic, because of the smart, intense editing. It's a crime that Aniceto lasted less than a week in theaters. Now they're sending it to the Venice Film Festival to bring it back to the screens here in Argentina only if it wins any awards there, which is completely ridiculous.

In the United States people over-canonize their idols and destroy them when they take a fall. In Argentina, we simply forget them.

[Ezee E]

Mean Girls - a surprisingly good teen comedy. Everything about it is pretty obvious as far as where the story goes, but the characters remain enjoyable throughout, and some of the quick cut scenes are hilarious. Maybe it's a crush on Tina Fey, but she owns every scene she's in. How was Baby Mama?

Smiley Face - Could've worked as a short film, instead, it's the same overreacted performance for what I'm guessing is the full film. I couldn't finish it because it just got too annoying, and I like Anna Faris a lot.

Jesus Camp - quite the scary documentary to watch because of the influence over the kids that can be made. The funny thing is that the adults seem like the happiest people you've ever seen, perfectly content with the life they're living. It's just a little worrisome of how deep the faith is.

Postcards from the Edge - started out with a load of potential about a celebrity going through rehab. Unfortunately, it decided to become a comedy, and fell apart after its first half hour.

[Qrazy]

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was pretty solid. It's not earth shattering filmmaking... the acting, cinematography etc are all pretty average but it works well enough and scores huge nostalgia points from me as a Jew living in Montreal.

[Grouchy]

Wow, Sick Nurses is one of the most entertaining B movies I've seen in a long time. This Thai film combines slasher film, J-Horror and comedy with a story of seven nurses and a doctor involved in organ trade. When one of them, who's having an affair with the doctor, discovers he's cheating on her with her sister no less, she loses it, threatens to call the police and signs her own death sentence. Seven days after the murder, the ghost comes back to torture and kill each of the nurses, styling the killings after their beauty-related flaws, like bullimia nerviosa, narcissism or obsessive bodybuilding.

From start to finish, Sick Nurses uses every possible camera trickery to dazzle and spin the viewer in what's kind of a "spot-the-ghost" game. Although the CGI is sub-par, the camerawork is incredible and maybe the real reason to see the film. The gore is pervasive and the ghost a top sadist, so be warned - it's not a movie to watch while eating. The plot twists (including a key one near the end of the movie) are increasingly outlandish, and sometimes I had to watch things twice to make sure I was fully grasping the insanity. The movie is also very clearly a satire of J-Horror, specially Ju-On (it borrows more than a couple of ideas from those movies), so it'd be unfair to complain about the stereotypes in the story. It also helps that every victim is a gorgeous Asian girl in skimpy nurse uniform or little clothes, although surprisingly there's no nudity.

[Winston*]

Seraphim Falls was okay. Didn't really find the execution impressive enough to be roped itnto the lyrical vibe or whatever it was going for (not really surpsed the directors done so much work for TV) and everyone in it speaks like they've been cut out of Unforgiven. Also, Liam Neeson does a bad Michael Wincott impression with Michael Wincott right beside fim.

[megladon8]

Question - why is it that Battle Royale has still never had an official R1 release?

It's incredibly popular. All of my friends have seen it, even those who are totally ignorant regarding the film world.

Even my younger sister knows of it, and she only really watches Disney and chick flicks.

I'd think that a nice special edition of this would be a big seller.

I'm surprised someone like Tokyo Shock or Tartan hasn't picked this up.

[Spinal]

Question - why is it that Battle Royale has still never had an official R1 release?

http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/movie/banned.html

[monolith94]

By failing to release Battle Royale for so long, I suspect they really killed any chances of having commercial success here. Already, most of those who'd be interested in the film have already seen it either through a regionless dvd player or downloaded onto their computers.

[Winston*]

Looking up censorships, it appears the version of Hostel II released here is missing at least one Heather Matarazzo torture sequence. This is of grave concern to me as I have often proclaimed my desire to see the star of Welcome to the Dollhouse murdered in a gruesome and painful manner.

[Qrazy]

Sweet Movie was an experience... certainly preferable to and more intelligent than Pink Flamingos but that's not saying much. Because it's not very intelligent or revealing or much more than disgusting or just stupid for most of it's runtime. There were one or two moments of either insight or humor where I thought it began to rise above and justify it's muck, but ultimately no, this did not happen.

I still have yet to see a film with explicit sexuality that I feel fully/genuinely warrants it's usage... not this, In the Realm of the Senses, Eyes Wide Shut or others. Which is not to say that I think sexual openness (genitals/penetration captured by the camera) is a bad thing, in a way it's more honest. But it's like gore, it has to be used purposively. I have seen films where I felt showing the violence/gore was necessary, even essential (Come and See, Andrei Rublev, etc), and a slew of others where it wasn't, but I still haven't seen a film with penetration where it seemed completely necessary... not to mislead actually there is no penetration in Sweet Movie, although there's induced vomiting and shitting which is much more unpleasant and requires even more justification.

I have no use for taboo breaking in art for it's own sake, but I have great use for taboo breaking when there's some force, insight and meaning to be gained from it... I didn't feel there was much in Sweet Movie.

[Dead & Messed Up]

For creepy films about fish-out-of-water Americans backpacking through Europe encountering horror as expressive of sexual pressures and basic Western corruption of democratic curiosity (rather, American refusal to engage in a foreign culture on its own terms), An American Werewolf in London is leagues ahead of Hostel. Funnier, too. Just saying.

I continue to support the first Hostel as a smarter-than-necessary horror flick that creeped me out and grossed me out in equal measure. And repeat viewings have me impressed with how effectively Roth switched from genre to genre (sex-com to mystery to geek show to revenge picture).

Having said that, An American Werewolf in London kicks all kinds of ass. I'd call it Landis's finest moment.

[Grouchy]

In the Realm of the Senses, Eyes Wide Shut, Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers justify its open sexuality in my book.

[Qrazy]

In the Realm of the Senses, Eyes Wide Shut, Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers justify its open sexuality in my book.

Yeah I meant to go back and edit that I meant more to say not only justifies but capitalizes upon... that is to say that I don't find the first two to be exceptional films (although I know some disagree) and it's not because of their sexuality. I haven't seen the latter two. But I"m still waiting for a sexually explicit film that I feel truly ranks with the best, and I'd like to see one because sexuality is such a big facet of the human condition. I'd particularly like to see a film that celebrates and shows the organic beauty of making love, rather than dwelling on the grotesque or perverse side... although I suppose that would be hard with a close-up of penetration... Dumont's Life of Jesus also had penetration if I remember correctly.

[Qrazy]

What's with Lindsay Anderson putting one instance of weird ass shit in her films? This Sporting Life - Spider punch, O Lucky Man - Sheep man, If.... - Priest in a drawer in the headmaster's office.

Anyone?

[Sycophant]

Pssst... Lindsay Anderson was a dude.

[Qrazy]

Pssst... Lindsay Anderson was a dude.

Oh... well... this is awkward...

For him, because his name is Lindsay.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I watched Zodiac again last night (first time since theaters) and it was even better the second time around. It might be my favorite Fincher, and it's certainly one of the best films, if not the best, of the decade thus far.

[Qrazy]

I will say one thing for Sweet Movie. Chocolate covered vaginas are a rather enticing proposition.

[MadMan]

Clue was pretty entertaining, and I thought that the multiple endings was an interesting gimick (even though the first ending was the best of the bunch). I liked most of the jokes and gags, plus the sharp humor, even if I didn't find all of it funny. I also noted that the mystery/suspense elements were surprisingly strong, and the cast really made this film work extremely well. Not only of the best comedies of the 1980s but certainly one of the most intelligent and satisfying.

Stripes was pretty damn funny from start to finish. It didn't hurt that the cast included Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and John Candy, and that Ivan Reitman was behind the camera. I think its noteworthy how the film blended satire with straight up goofy humor, and man do I want to get my hands on that badass army Winabago. My favorite line exchange from the film, which I'm amazed that Ramis was able to deliver the reply to it with a straight face, goes as follows:


Recruiter: Now, are either of you homosexuals?
John Winger: [John and Russell look at each other] You mean, like, flaming, or...
Recruiter: Well, it's a standard question we have to ask.
Russell Ziskey: No, we're not homosexual, but we are *willing to learn*.

[Pop Trash]

Yeah I meant to go back and edit that I meant more to say not only justifies but capitalizes upon... that is to say that I don't find the first two to be exceptional films (although I know some disagree) and it's not because of their sexuality. I haven't seen the latter two. But I"m still waiting for a sexually explicit film that I feel truly ranks with the best, and I'd like to see one because sexuality is such a big facet of the human condition. I'd particularly like to see a film that celebrates and shows the organic beauty of making love, rather than dwelling on the grotesque or perverse side... although I suppose that would be hard with a close-up of penetration... Dumont's Life of Jesus also had penetration if I remember correctly.

I thought Shortbus was really good.

[Bosco B Thug]

I enjoyed Hannah Takes the Stairs. Mostly due to an expressive script and performances, rather than being impressed by anything in the filmmaking. The movie was dramatically involving, even if the film's probably the opposite of "uncontrived." I was expecting the worse, though, after those blazingly precious opening credits. 1812 Overture for the Twentieth Century I think not. Thankfully the film made no moves to characterize "the Twentieth Century," the Tchaikovsky (sp?) song's nationalistic strains, and aggrandize its social portrait as any more than the neurotic conquests of its title character. On the contrary, the film very satisfactorally drilled at its hazardously unsatisfied main character and wrung out the awkward scenes of her rambling and sulking, showing the movie wanted to reveal her murderously repressed and malnourished narcisissm instead of hide it.

All That Heaven Allows was very good... beautiful visually, but also strikingly banal and uncomplicated (and I think I mean this in a good way). Far From Heaven and Fear Eats the Soul amp up the social stakes with race, federal policy, and more extreme emotions, but Sirk has a frighteningly objective touch. He doesn't apologize for the ordinariness of neither the love affair (Wyman's character never really transcends the "A gentle soul by nature" virtue, and Hudson is merely just a good guy who is just really naturally attracted to her grace and beauty, not much else) or the adversity (the kids and town throw a hissy fit and don't come home for a weekend, and the stakes don't rise above that). I guess it is Sirk's suffocating sense of storytelling simplicity that make this story of this ordinary woman falling in love as acceptably satisfying as it is, even if it doesn't take on a complicated world (although it does take on the necrotizing effects of upwardly mobile comfort and ambition, which lies pretty dead center in the problems of the world). Sirk's emphasis on nature (a notion of beauty that's most banal and unapologetically simple, to push a point) and the story's repeating mantra of "You're making what should be a simple decision really difficult!" help make potent his crystalline vision... and finally, Sirk's directing and artistic design is consistently very smart, too.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Was there ever a director so dedicated at creating a goddess of his star than Sternberg of Dietrich? Her unusual beauty, highlighted by the diversity of shots and precision of lighting is enough to sustain even his most banal films. The Scarlet Empress is a tribute to her sexuality and cheekbones, though never boring or trite. Sternberg's obsession with ceremony and opulance make for a film that's style becomes content. Dietrich uses her presence and flexible sexuality to further her character's arch, as the lightning becomes harder and more confidant the closer Catherine comes to the throne. One of the most beautiful films Ive ever seen.

[soitgoes...]

Sukiyaki Western Django is one of the most disappointing viewings I've had in awhile. Visually striking, my major hang up is that this was made in English. How am I supposed to care about these characters, when I'm pretty certain 90% of the actors have no idea what they are saying? Dubbing this movie would've been a better choice on Miike's part. It would give it more of the spaghetti western feel I think he was striving for, and I would be able to follow the film or at least care about it.

Two side notes: Tarantino has no business "acting" in any movie, ever.
The phrase "lily-livered' should be off-limits to all non-whites. I'm pretty sure this saying can only be said by either those living in 1800's American West or those acting in films set in said time and place. Any other instance will bring about snickering from others which is completely warranted.

[soitgoes...]

Was there ever a director so dedicated at creating a goddess of his star than Sternberg of Dietrich? Probably not exactly what you mean, but Hitchcock made an already beautiful Grace Kelly so striking in To Catch a Thief that I think it to be a better movie than it probably is.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Probably not exactly what you mean, but Hitchcock made an already beautiful Grace Kelly so striking in To Catch a Thief that I think it to be a better movie than it probably is.
It's not exactly, but close enough. I really have a soft spot for To Catch a Thief, and I think it has a lot to do with how beautiful Kelly looks. I don't think she's ever looked quite so beautiful. The whole film though has great colouring, it's like candy for the eyes.

[Derek]

It's not exactly, but close enough.

How about Shyamalan and Wahlberg in The Happening? It's like he wanted to explore every vein in his eyeballs. ;)

But seriously, I agree with you about von Sternberg's dedication to photographing Dietrich's face. Pabst/Brooks and Godard/Karina also have to be up there and to a lesser degree Naruse/Takamine.

[megladon8]

So...Wanted...:rolleyes:

[origami_mustache]

Interesting commercial in which Scorsese directs an incomplete Hitchcock script using his style.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P5nAxzH4OPs/default.jpg (http://youtube.com/watch?v=C8WiUsX_fNU)

[Spinal]

But seriously, I agree with you about von Sternberg's dedication to photographing Dietrich's face. Pabst/Brooks and Godard/Karina also have to be up there and to a lesser degree Naruse/Takamine.

Asia Argento/Asia Argento.

[Boner M]

Halfway through Satantango, and it's rockin' my world. Would've watched it in one sitting but my mum interrupted cos she wanted to go see The Band's Visit with me, which I'd promised last week. Movie was certainly nice - funny, warm, humanistic, all those good things... but it kinda just disappears when held up against Tarr's behemoth. Looking forward to finishing the rest tonight.

[Ezee E]

I watched Black Snake Moan again yesterday. That movie gets better and better each time I watch it.

[balmakboor]

Was there ever a director so dedicated at creating a goddess of his star than Sternberg of Dietrich? Her unusual beauty, highlighted by the diversity of shots and precision of lighting is enough to sustain even his most banal films. The Scarlet Empress is a tribute to her sexuality and cheekbones, though never boring or trite. Sternberg's obsession with ceremony and opulance make for a film that's style becomes content. Dietrich uses her presence and flexible sexuality to further her character's arch, as the lightning becomes harder and more confidant the closer Catherine comes to the throne. One of the most beautiful films Ive ever seen.

Fassbinder was pretty much doing his version (parody?) of the Sternberg/Dietrich thing with Hanna Schygulla.

[Grouchy]

Yeah I meant to go back and edit that I meant more to say not only justifies but capitalizes upon... that is to say that I don't find the first two to be exceptional films (although I know some disagree) and it's not because of their sexuality. I haven't seen the latter two. But I"m still waiting for a sexually explicit film that I feel truly ranks with the best, and I'd like to see one because sexuality is such a big facet of the human condition. I'd particularly like to see a film that celebrates and shows the organic beauty of making love, rather than dwelling on the grotesque or perverse side... although I suppose that would be hard with a close-up of penetration... Dumont's Life of Jesus also had penetration if I remember correctly.
Well, I disagree. The honesty of the fornicating scenes is pivotal to the success of Eyes Wide Shut - it's the whole point, to look at the whole sex scenes free of social implications and erotic titillation. Of course, the quality of the movie is another debate entirely. 3rd best movie ever made for me. Heh.

I thought Shortbus sucked, by the way. Not trying to make a joke here. Entertaining because of some of the weird-ass people in it, but a contrived mess all around.

[Stay Puft]

Jeffrey Lau's two-part A Chinese Odyssey doesn't reach the stylistic heights of a movie like Bride with White Hair (shot by Peter Pau, so no contest) or even A Chinese Ghost Story, nor does it reach similar heights in its action. But it has its own strengths (and is at least superior to anything in the first half of A Chinese Ghost Story where comedy and story is concerned). I suppose I compare these films only because I have watched all of them in a very recent span of time. Truth is that genuine comparisons are difficult and perhaps superficial.

Jeffrey Lau's two films are unique in the way they communicate narrative information, not simply because they are meant to be seen together to tell a single story. They are funny and charming and playful films, sure, as any vehicle for the antics of Stephen Chow and Man Tat Ng would be, but what surprised me is how Jeffrey Lau structures these two films in such a way to invite a peculiar sense of playfulness unseen in other Chow films. As the plot unfolds, particularly as we shift from part one to part two, A Chinese Odyssey launches an assault on temporal and spatial coherency, and eventually even character identity. What manifests is a specifically cinematic logic of movement and juxtaposition, perhaps first articulated clearly when Joker attempts to save Pak Jing-Jing by repeatedly travelling through time to find out who killed her, while "Assistant Manager" cradles his newborn child, waiting for the Spider Woman to finish fighting King Bull inside King Bull's body.

Anyways, very fun movies. I could go on but I'm tired.

[Sycophant]

A Chinese Odyssey launches an assault on temporal and spatial coherency, and eventually even character identity. What manifests is a specifically cinematic logic of movement and juxtaposition, perhaps first articulated clearly when Joker attempts to save Pak Jing-Jing by repeatedly travelling through time to find out who killed her, while "Assistant Manager" cradles his newborn child, waiting for the Spider Woman to finish fighting King Bull inside King Bull's body.
This is just about the funniest sequence in anything ever.

[Lucky]

I watched Black Snake Moan again yesterday. That movie gets better and better each time I watch it.

I'm having the same effect with Southland Tales.

[Rowland]

I watched Black Snake Moan again yesterday. That movie gets better and better each time I watch it.This was one of my favorite movies last year, so I'm glad to hear it holds up to repeat viewings.

[megladon8]

Well, I disagree. The honesty of the fornicating scenes is pivotal to the success of Eyes Wide Shut - it's the whole point, to look at the whole sex scenes free of social implications and erotic titillation. Of course, the quality of the movie is another debate entirely. 3rd best movie ever made for me. Heh.

I thought Shortbus sucked, by the way. Not trying to make a joke here. Entertaining because of some of the weird-ass people in it, but a contrived mess all around.


The sex scenes in Shortbus were real...but were the scenes in Eyes Wide Shut done that way too? People really having sex?

[Rowland]

I was bored by Shortbus, seeing as how it was populated by annoying people speaking obviously improvised (and thus mostly inane) dialogue, all shot with ugly digital cinematography and no formally interesting qualities to speak of, save the opening five minutes. And that ending with the hilariously OTT uplifting music... bleeech.

[origami_mustache]

Shortbus taught me how to orgasm.

[Qrazy]

So yeah Speed Racer was as awful as I thought it would be. I kind of expected the bad acting, storyline and dialogue, so that didn't really bother me all that much. It was the editing that I really could not stand. Two major issues stood out for me, first off the transitions/wipes. I really dislike this technique in general but I absolutely hated it here. It robs the world of any kind of physical depth or reality, everything becomes completely surface because the wipe draws attention to the two dimensionality of the imagery, and any illusion of depth is completely destroyed. This is not an inherently bad technique (although I can't think of anywhere I'd like to see it) but it's particularly bad when you're a) Trying to build a fantasy/science fiction world. It completely undermines world building also b) When you're trying to create any dramatic urgency or visceral thrill in a chase/race sequence. This brings me to the second issue that undermined any dramatic tension for me, which was the constant inter-cutting in time and location. The only element I really cared about (since all the family nonsense was throw away garbage) was the racing sequences, but they aren't able to build any momentum because they're inter-cut with all that worthless cookie-cutter crap. So, end result... epic fail.

[Ezee E]

I'm having the same effect with Southland Tales.
Really?

::shutters::

[Sycophant]

Stockholm syndrome?

[Raiders]

So yeah Speed Racer was as awful as I thought it would be. I kind of expected the bad acting, storyline and dialogue, so that didn't really bother me all that much. It was the editing that I really could not stand. Two major issues stood out for me, first off the transitions/wipes. I really dislike this technique in general but I absolutely hated it here. It robs the world of any kind of physical depth or reality, everything becomes completely surface because the wipe draws attention to the two dimensionality of the imagery, and any illusion of depth is completely destroyed. This is not an inherently bad technique (although I can't think of anywhere I'd like to see it) but it's particularly bad when you're a) Trying to build a fantasy/science fiction world. It completely undermines world building also b) When you're trying to create any dramatic urgency or visceral thrill in a chase/race sequence. This brings me to the second issue that undermined any dramatic tension for me, which was the constant inter-cutting in time and location. The only element I really cared about (since all the family nonsense was throw away garbage) was the racing sequences, but they aren't able to build any momentum because they're inter-cut with all that worthless cookie-cutter crap. So, end result... epic fail.

Sanity!

[origami_mustache]

It was the editing that I really could not stand.

my favorite part

[Qrazy]

my favorite part

I'm sure it was.

Because you told me so.

[megladon8]

Wanted

a review by Braden Adam


Pure male fantasy can be fun. Any man who says he wouldn’t want to give up his day-job to become a millionaire superhero would be lying. That dream of being a total badass who is practically invincible, admired by his peers, and always gets the girl is something that’s ingrained into our consciousness as the very definition of a “man”. To feel that your presence is wanted somewhere - that you are the only one who can do something that is going to change the world, and everyone that you look up to will love you for it. And so, with the aptly named Wanted, a story is told that’s part Fight Club, part The Matrix, and completely ridiculous.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/wanted3.jpg

A ridiculous movie can be fun, as long as the ridiculous-to-self serious ratio is kept in check. Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik! is possibly one of the most ridiculous movies ever made - the hero actually utters the classic line “This suit is so strong, I could swim through the center of the sun!” - but it never forgets what it is. Wanted on the other hand has a near schizophrenic mix of self-satirizing action (such as a hitman running so fast through an office building that all the papers in the offices are blown into a frenzy from his speed), and dialogue delivered so seriously that it seems the writers and filmmakers actually took these ideas seriously. The “Loom of Fate”, weaving cotton into a plain white cloth, which, when looked at under a magnifying glass, has a series of misweaves that can be read as binary code for the names of people who need to be killed in order to restore balance to the world? WHAT? Morgan Freeman delivers his expository lines with such serious demeanor that it leaves one to wonder how he can do work like this and Dreamcatcher, then turn around and say Batman Begins was the first movie he ever did strictly for the money.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/wanted1.jpg

Wanted’s ruminations on the “anti-establishment” mindset and conspiracy theories make Laurence Fishburne’s philosophical rants in The Matrix feel subtle. As Morgan Freeman talks about the history of “The Fraternity” and their quest to keep balance in the world by executing anyone that “The Loom of Fate” sees as being an evil-doer, it’s hard to keep a straight face. It’s even harder when we are shown the members of “The Fraternity”, consisting of Angelina Jolie, rapper Common, and a fat guy with a Cuban accent worthy of “Al Pacino’s Stamp of Approval”. These actors ham it up with an intense desire to look and sound as cool as possible. Again, things would be different if they had embraced the inherent ridiculousness of the story and its action, but every twist the movie throws - and there are plenty - just makes things more convoluted and stupid, resulting in one leaving the theatre feeling like a gunplay soap opera was shown, rather than an action movie.

The action is impressive at the beginning of the movie, as we see a few people get shot in the head in super-slow motion, focusing on the journey of the bullet through their brains, then backwards through the air and back into the gun that shot it. But the film quickly becomes a one-trick pony, as this technique is used repeatedly in every action sequence throughout the movie. Imagine if “bullet-time” had been used during every violent encounter in The Matrix, then it wouldn’t have seemed nearly as amazing when Neo did his pivotal bullet-dodge on the rooftop. Such is the problem with Wanted - it’s so overdone to start off with, that by the end when we see James McAvoy in action - a regular “prodigal son” whose power exceeds everyone else’s combined - it doesn’t seem too impressive. Everything the film has to offer is covered in the first half hour.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/megladon8/wanted2.jpg

Is this really what we’ve come to? Does it really take this kind of posing, slow-motion and inhumanly fast editing to entertain us? Having recently watched Heat, the assault rifle fight in the middle of a crowded L.A. street is easily one of the best, most intense action sequences in American cinema, and not one superhuman assassin is present. That unreality can be fun, but it can also go too far and take us out of the experience - particularly when there’s an abundance of poor CGI, something Wanted suffers from greatly.

Is it entertaining? At times. In the same way that Crank was entertaining, but it doesn’t know it. Wanted thinks it is The Matrix, as if it is redefining what makes an exciting action sequence, and giving us this “bullet-cam” technique which could be the next big thing in American action cinema. I certainly hope not, because the world was given enough of it in this one film alone. Poor, nerdy Wesley Gibson’s journey from computer-jockey to gun-toting badass is a shallow one, and completely unbeweavable.

[origami_mustache]

I'm sure it was.

Because you told me so.

http://www.ket.org/images/nola/RERA__.1037773.200x150.jpg

...but you don't have to take my word for it...badum dum!

[Sycophant]

I desperately wanted Wanted to become self-reflexive enough to account for the shit it pulls in its first hour and a half. Maybe it was foolish of me, but I kept hoping for it right up to the final few minutes. My friend said this director makes films based on 12-year-olds' wet dreams, and I'm afraid that that really is the level of thought they're capable of engaging on. The movie's pretty much reprehensible.

Also, I'm apparently either not much of a man or lying, because I really don't want to be a hitman.

[Qrazy]

I quite enjoyed the music/editing in this, so I thought I'd share.

(Jacques Demy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT-464d1K6U

There's a Jeanne Moreau retrospective at the local theater so I should probably go check out Bay of Angels in the next couple of days. I'd also like to see Les Amants (Malle), The Immortal Story (Welles) and La Truite and/or Eva (Losey).

A few others that I"m not sold on but maybe someone can sell me... Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Vadim)... I don't like the source material but I do like And God Create Woman... Querelle (Fassbinder), heard mixed things... Nathalie Granger (Duras).

Films they're playing that I've seen... Jules et Jim, The Trial, Elevator to the Gallows, La Notte, Chimes at Midnight.

[Qrazy]

Also, I'm apparently either not much of a man or lying, because I really don't want to be a hitman.

Yeah I was going to say something about that as well.

[megladon8]

Yeah I posted this here before I had edited it.

Re-read the first paragraph and see if that's better.

[Watashi]

I don't see Wanted taking itself seriously at all. It's pure fantasy through and through. We had someone complain at the theater that the movie was horrible because "there is no such thing as curving bullets".

[Sycophant]

Well, then it shouldn't have wasted any of my fucking time with its heavy plot then.

[Rowland]

Seriously, after the first action sequence, there is a solid hour of "training sequence" in Wanted. At least The Matrix mixed a fight or two into its training sequence, and it was shorter to boot... and it actually had things on its mind besides fascist, misogynistic male fantasy. Why are the critics being so kind to this again? I'm already rethinking my score.

[Sven]

I really dislike this technique in general but I absolutely hated it here. It robs the world of any kind of physical depth or reality, everything becomes completely surface because the wipe draws attention to the two dimensionality of the imagery, and any illusion of depth is completely destroyed. This is not an inherently bad technique (although I can't think of anywhere I'd like to see it) but it's particularly bad when you're a) Trying to build a fantasy/science fiction world. It completely undermines world building also b) When you're trying to create any dramatic urgency or visceral thrill in a chase/race sequence.

How do you reconcile this with your esteem for Kurosawa?

[MadMan]

I wouldn't mind being a CIA hitman ;) (Is he joking? Is he serious? You decide).

That said, I have no desire at all to see Wanted and I'm an action junkie. Especially since Wall-E is in theaters.

[Qrazy]

How do you reconcile this with your esteem for Kurosawa?

Because they aren't as frequent, when they come I can easily ignore them and as I also stated wipes aren't inherently bad (Kurosawa probably uses them best out of anyone I've seen), wipes can be a good way (used sparingly) to transition while keeping the pace clopping. They are detrimental in my opinion in Speed Racer for the reasons I've already provided.

Also Kurosawa's films are about something of substance.

[origami_mustache]

Because they aren't as frequent, when they come I can easily ignore them and as I also stated wipes aren't inherently bad (Kurosawa probably uses them best out of anyone I've seen), wipes can be a good way (used sparingly) to transition while keeping the pace clopping. They are detrimental in my opinion in Speed Racer for the reasons I've already provided.

I found them to be a lot more fitting in Speed Racer than in anything Kurosawa has done, as his films are more based in the realm of realism and Speed Racer was intentionally over the top, as it should have been.

[soitgoes...]

I find Angelina Jolie to be one of the most over-rated people working in Hollywood. Discuss.

[Qrazy]

I found them to be a lot more fitting in Speed Racer than in anything Kurosawa has done, as his films are more based in the realm of realism and Speed Racer was intentionally over the top, as it should have been.

I can't say I much like them in either but Kurosawa at least used them much less frequently and less and less later in his career. I don't mind a wipe here or there, I wouldn't have minded a few in Speed Racer, it's the frequency that I can't stand and the constant inter-cutting in space-time during scenes, robbing them of their dramatic urgency.

[Spinal]

I'm bewildered as to what depth perception has to do with creating a captivating fantasy world. Makes no sense to me.

[Qrazy]

I find Angelina Jolie to be one of the most over-rated people working in Hollywood. Discuss.

Most of the movies she's put out have been fairly poor, her acting is passable, and she's attractive so... C+.

[Spinal]

I find Angelina Jolie to be one of the most over-rated people working in Hollywood. Discuss.

Disagree. There is a long, long list of people in front of her.

[Qrazy]

I'm bewildered as to what depth perception has to do with creating a captivating fantasy world. Makes no sense to me.

A habitable fantasy world, one where I believe these characters could live, breathe and die and that I might like to visit... but I can't visit it, because it lacks any physical reality, it's just plastic.

[origami_mustache]

I can't say I much like them in either but Kurosawa at least used them much less frequently and less and less later in his career. I don't mind a wipe here or there, I wouldn't have minded a few in Speed Racer, it's the frequency that I can't stand and the constant inter-cutting in space-time during scenes, robbing them of their dramatic urgency.

I felt the frequency and commitment to it is what made it work so well, not to mention that it was a creative way of throwing in the reaction shots without completely cutting away from the action.

[Spinal]

A habitable fantasy world, one where I believe these characters could live, breathe and die and that I might like to visit... but I can't visit it, because it lacks any physical reality, it's just plastic.

Does Bugs Bunny live in a habitable fantasy world?

[Duncan]

I hadn't seen a movie in about a month until seeing North by Northwest at the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. I think it was the right one to ease me back into film watching. Such a movie movie. Very funny too.

On the plane ride back I watched The Golden Compass (sucked) and Leon (not as good as I remembered).

On the plane ride there I watched I am Legend (surprisingly not bad) and The Savages (awful awful awful).

[soitgoes...]

Most of the movies she's put out have been fairly poor, her acting is passable, and she's attractive so... C+.
Almost correct.


Disagree. There is a long, long list of people in front of her.
Incorrect.

I think my disdain stems from the Tomb Raider movies. I don't know. I have a hard time bringing myself to watch any of her movies. I know it's either sacrilege to say so or I'm just putting on a "He must be gay!" label, but I don't find her all that attractive. But hey I'd do Brad Pitt.

I mean, damn Angelina's hawt!! :eek:;)

[Spinal]

I think my disdain stems from the Tomb Raider movies.

Those movies are better because she is in them. Otherwise, they'd be worse than they are.

[Qrazy]

Does Bugs Bunny live in a habitable fantasy world?

No, which is why I have no interest in visiting his world. Either way I watch those for the gags, and the gags in Speed Racer were not funny.

[Qrazy]

I felt the frequency and commitment to it is what made it work so well, not to mention that it was a creative way of throwing in the reaction shots without completely cutting away from the action.

Ok.

[origami_mustache]

Ok.

Anyways I can understand why people loathe it, as I usually find it to be a tacky technique myself, but I happened to like it in this instance.

[Boner M]

I don't like Jolie much at all either. She was way hot around '99 but her looks have gone progressively downhill to the point that she looks like a caricature of an attractive woman. I can't stand her carefully manufactured 'bad girl' act, which Wanted seems to be a vehicle for, and I disliked her equally transparent bid for gravitas in A Mighty Heart. I'm looking forward to Eastwood's new one much less because she's in it.

[origami_mustache]

Jolie only looks somewhat presentable after caking on the makeup...not my type I guess.

[Ezee E]

Bah. Jolie is hot, and her acting is okay. She generally picks movies that either suck or I have no interest in seeing.

I will be seeing Wanted and the Clint Eastwood film though.

[Rowland]

Jolie only looks somewhat presentable after caking on the makeup.Wow, high standards around here.

[origami_mustache]

Wow, high standards around here.

I don't think my standards are that high...I just don't like women who look like white trash.

[Watashi]

Jolie was hot in The Good Shepherd.

[Sven]

A habitable fantasy world, one where I believe these characters could live, breathe and die and that I might like to visit... but I can't visit it, because it lacks any physical reality, it's just plastic.

What about transparent CG? You like Lord of the Rings, right? Does the sheen of its computer effects not have the same effect of plasticity? Because seriously, good as effects are getting, that cave troll and Golum and the dragons and the big panoramic settings and the water horses and ring wraiths and the balrog and etc etc etc... that stuff does not look real.

Oh, and I disagree about the frequency of Kurosawa's use of the wipe. Until I've seen a quantification, all I'll say is watch Seven Samurai again and behold the glory that is the wipe.

[origami_mustache]

Just finished The White Sheik. It was interesting to see Fellini handle a romantic comedy. The scene with Cabiria was my favorite part. I also noticed a moving shot of a fountain that is almost identical to the shot from Roma.

[balmakboor]

You wanna know what pressure is? 16-year-old Dagny Knutson tied 15-year-old Elizabeth Beisel for 8th place in the 200 IM semis today. The top eight go to the finals tomorrow. They will be in a swim-off, probably tomorrow morning, to determine who is number eight. I watched a swim-off at the high school state meet last year and that was pressure packed enough. This is the fucking Olympic Trials.

It's news worthy for me because I've been watching Dagny swim at local club and high school meets for years and have been maintaining a web page for her during her prep for the Olympic Trials. Man I hope they televise it. Pissed me off that they didn't even show the women's 200 IM semis tonight.

Anyway, back to cinema talk.

[Spinal]

Taking shots at Angelina Jolie's looks is comical. Simply comical.

[Qrazy]

What about transparent CG? You like Lord of the Rings, right? Does the sheen of its computer effects not have the same effect of plasticity? Because seriously, good as effects are getting, that cave troll and Golum and the dragons and the big panoramic settings and the water horses and ring wraiths and the balrog and etc etc etc... that stuff does not look real.

Actually, if you knew anything about how the Rings films were made, you'd know that like Spielberg, Jackson uses a lot of different techniques involving matte paintings, bigatures, animatronics, on location sets, make-up, etc to achieve the effects in his films and that's why there is a sense of:

Dirt (Frodo's hands, hobbit feet, orcs/goblins)

http://www.warofthering.net/gallery/galleries/albums/theshadowofthepast/images/PDVD_460.jpg

Wetness (the water beast outside Mordor, Gollum's skin in Faramir's pool) and Blood

http://www.warofthering.net/gallery/galleries/albums/tttorcs/images/twotowers886.jpg

Environmental Reality

http://www.warofthering.net/gallery/galleries/albums/tttfrodo/images/twotowers391.jpg

In fact there's nearly always a sense of physical reality to the films lacking in something like Lucas's prequel trilogy or Speed Racer. Obviously the cave troll, Gollum etc do not look like real creatures from our world, but they do look like they have physical presence and reality in their world, they are not 'sheen' as you claim. Especially the ring wraiths given that most of the time they're just people in cloaks, not CGI generated.

http://www.warofthering.net/gallery/galleries/albums/returnnew/gollum/Rotk0510426.jpg


Oh, and I disagree about the frequency of Kurosawa's use of the wipe. Until I've seen a quantification, all I'll say is watch Seven Samurai again and behold the glory that is the wipe.

How about instead you watch it again, count how many times it's used, then count how many times it's used in Speed Racer and give me the numbers. There happen to be (if memory serves) zero wipes in Ran.

[Qrazy]

I don't think my standards are that high...I just don't like women who look like white trash.

Juliette Lewis is white trash, this is not white trash.

http://sharkooseh.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/angelina_jolie_wallpaper_1024x 768.jpg

[Qrazy]

If you consider that white trash then give me the address of your trailer park please.

[Spinal]

Even Juliette Lewis is on the 'hot' end of the white trash scale based on my experiences at my local grocery stores.

[Qrazy]

Even Juliette Lewis is on the 'hot' end of the white trash scale based on my experiences at my local grocery stores.

Is there such a thing as Black or Yellow trash or is that racist? And if so what would they look like?

[Qrazy]

Anyone seen any of these?

# Fifi la plume (1965)
... aka Circus Angel (USA: TV title)
# Songe de chevaux sauvages, Le (1962)
# Voyage en ballon, Le (1960)
... aka Stowaway in the Sky
# Bim (1950)
... aka Bim, le petit âne (France)

---

# Deux frères (2004)
... aka Two Brothers (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
... aka Deux frères (France)
# Ours, L' (1988)
... aka The Bear (USA)


Thoughts?

[Sven]

Q-baby, first, you are assuming that I don't know of the many processes Jackson used to make the movie (of course I do, silly). By doing so, you're also assuming that I'm suggesting that those films contain no reality (of course I'm not, silly). You claim that Golum and the cave troll have physical presence, to which I say "nuh-uh" and we're back at square one. In the later films, when Samwise is wrangling with him, it's just as silly-looking as when Bob Hoskins picks up Roger Rabbit by the ears. As for the "sheen", I'm referring to that hard-to-define shininess (or maybe "smoothness" is better) that indicates a computer-enhanced or -generated image, of which I clearly remember in all of the examples I gave.

My point, ultimately, is that Speed Racer makes no pretensions about its fabrications, whereas Jackson tries to mask them as "real" even though we are still at the point where the vast majority of them are just as transparent as Speed Racer's hyper-pink gravity-defying racetrack. That, to me, is a worse crime when trying to construct a hermetic universe. I agree that the Lord of the Rings is more "physical", but I do not think that it is more "solid"


How about instead you watch it again, count how many times it's used, then count how many times it's used in Speed Racer and give me the numbers. There happen to be (if memory serves) zero wipes in Ran.

Why would you balk at the opportunity to watch Seven Samurai again? At any rate, is this a contest? Will you like Speed Racer more if it ends up the lesser offender? I thought we were talking about the technique and your admiration of Kurosawa. And I'm saying, Seven Samurai should be enough to readjust your impressions of the technique's frequency in his work. Or if you don't want to watch that one, watch Yojimbo or Rashomon or The Bad Sleep Well or The Hidden Fortress. I remember it in all of those, though I believe it's strongest in SS.

[megladon8]

Angelina used to be gorgeous, but her self-admitted anorexia really hasn't done anything good for her. I hope she gets past it.

[Qrazy]

Q-baby, first, you are assuming that I don't know of the many processes Jackson used to make the movie (of course I do, silly). By doing so, you're also assuming that I'm suggesting that those films contain no reality (of course I'm not, silly). You claim that Golum and the cave troll have physical presence, to which I say "nuh-uh" and we're back at square one. In the later films, when Samwise is wrangling with him, it's just as silly-looking as when Bob Hoskins picks up Roger Rabbit by the ears. As for the "sheen", I'm referring to that hard-to-define shininess (or maybe "smoothness" is better) that indicates a computer-enhanced or -generated image, of which I clearly remember in all of the examples I gave.

I-ball, you said: "that cave troll and Golum and the dragons and the big panoramic settings and the water horses and ring wraiths and the balrog and etc etc etc... that stuff does not look real."

I've already debunked your ring wraith example, if they don't look real to you that's your problem because they were real. Many of the panoramic settings are matte paintings or actual locations so there you go for that. There were no dragons in the film, perhaps you're referring to the Fellbeasts? Also Gollum is spelled with two l's. Those two and your other three concerns (except Gollum depending on the film) don't actually take up very much of the runtime but they're as well rendered as the best CGI out there (Jurassic Park, Minority Report). If it's not photorealistic well nor is the puppeteering in Jim Henson's films totally fluid or the stop motion in HarryHausen films. That's an issue for every film in the fantasy genre. If you want to see fantastic things they're not going to be photorealistic. But at least people like Henson, Spielberg, Jackson and Del Toro know to give their creatures texture... dirt, fluid, etc. If you're just indicting the CGI elements in The Lord of the Rings, then you're indicting the CGI in every other fantasy film ever made.


My point, ultimately, is that Speed Racer makes no pretensions about its fabrications, whereas Jackson tries to mask them as "real" even though we are still at the point where the vast majority of them are just as transparent as Speed Racer's hyper-pink gravity-defying racetrack. That, to me, is a worse crime when trying to construct a hermetic universe. I agree that the Lord of the Rings is more "physical", but I do not think that it is more "solid"

The cave troll has weight when it falls and dies. Characters stumble. The cars in Speed Racer on the other hand don't have any weight, their physical reality is solely a deus ex machina such that when it's convenient or necessary to drive a car straight up a cliff, or to Car Fu another vehicle across the tailpipe, it's possible to. When Trinity broke through the window at the beginning of the first Matrix there was some physical reality to it, by the second and third films Agent Smiths were bouncing off one another like pingpong balls.


Why would you balk at the opportunity to watch Seven Samurai again? At any rate, is this a contest? Will you like Speed Racer more if it ends up the lesser offender? I thought we were talking about the technique and your admiration of Kurosawa. And I'm saying, Seven Samurai should be enough to readjust your impressions of the technique's frequency in his work. Or if you don't want to watch that one, watch Yojimbo or Rashomon or The Bad Sleep Well or The Hidden Fortress. I remember it in all of those, though I believe it's strongest in SS.

Don't be a tool. Saying 'go watch X again' is the equivalent of saying your memory of X is flawed. So why don't you go watch them again and count the uses and tell me how many there are, although it will be irrelevant given that I said from post one the technique itself isn't the primary or sole problem robbing scenes of their tension and urgency. But if it's so important to you, then do it. Rewatch the films, count those wipes.

[Qrazy]

Did anyone watch that Jacques Demy related video I linked to?

[Pop Trash]

I didn't see a thread for it but I just finished Persepolis. It's good, maybe even very good but there's a little bit of holier-than-thou quality to it. It seems like the kind of movie that if you claimed you didn't like it, people would think you are some kind of asshole. Parts of it seemed to be an excuse to give you a history lesson on the last 30 years of Iran. I actually liked the parts in Vienna the best. I have a thing for movies about being lonely in a foreign country (Lost in Translation to name one) Overall: 7/10

I'd also like to congratulate Qrazy for not drinking the Speed Racer kool-aid. You, me, and Raiders should create the "yeah we didn't like Speed Racer" club here. But I do have to say your criticism was even more harsh than mine (I gave it a 5/10 which is about a "mediocre" on my scale) and I actually thought the editing wipes were one of the few interesting things it had going for it. The first 30 minutes were good as well.

So am I the only one here that really liked Shortbus? I'm not even gay but I still enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Qrazy]

No one told me Celine and Julie Go Boating was so god damn long.

[Derek]

No one told me Celine and Julie Go Boating was so god damn long.

Did you miss the "directed by Jacques Rivette" credit?

[Spinal]

No one told me Celine and Julie Go Boating was so god damn long.

It feels even longer than it is.

Last hour or so is brilliant though.

[megladon8]

So am I the only one here that really liked Shortbus? I'm not even gay but I still enjoyed it thoroughly.


I'm not a transvestite with a 1-inch nub for a penis, but I really liked Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

And hey, they're both by the same guy. Groovy.

[Qrazy]

Did you miss the "directed by Jacques Rivette" credit?

First one for me... half hour in... have to go to sleep or I'll miss class.

[Qrazy]

I'm not a transvestite with a 1-inch nub for a penis, but I really liked Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

And hey, they're both by the same guy. Groovy.

Hmmm I found Hedwig pretty mediocre, probably won't see Shortbus with that realization and it's general reception.

[Qrazy]

So Ocean Waves is Ghibli's worst film.

[origami_mustache]

Juliette Lewis is white trash, this is not white trash.



tomaaaayto...tomato

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r269/dontslatahate/angelina019.jpg

[origami_mustache]

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r269/dontslatahate/encounters.jpg

In his latest film, Encounters At The End Of The World, Werner Herzog narrates, directs, and even does production sound, which mostly consists of him randomly pontificating about science, philosophy, nature, and the inevitable demise of human existence. The underwater photography was gorgeous, and it was fitting that it is juxtaposed with choral music, as Herzog hints at a spiritual force that coincides with nature. Aside from the seal noises that sound like a Merzbow or Black Dice album, the suicidal penguin and Herzog's absurd and sometimes egotistical narration were my favorite parts.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t178/sadiebrock/06102008_encountersattheendoft hewor.jpg

production sound FTW!

[Sven]

I've already debunked your ring wraith example, if they don't look real to you that's your problem because they were real. Many of the panoramic settings are matte paintings or actual locations so there you go for that. There were no dragons in the film, perhaps you're referring to the Fellbeasts? Also Gollum is spelled with two l's. Those two and your other three concerns (except Gollum depending on the film) don't actually take up very much of the runtime but they're as well rendered as the best CGI out there (Jurassic Park, Minority Report). If it's not photorealistic well nor is the puppeteering in Jim Henson's films totally fluid or the stop motion in HarryHausen films. That's an issue for every film in the fantasy genre. If you want to see fantastic things they're not going to be photorealistic. But at least people like Henson, Spielberg, Jackson and Del Toro know to give their creatures texture... dirt, fluid, etc. If you're just indicting the CGI elements in The Lord of the Rings, then you're indicting the CGI in every other fantasy film ever made.

The wraiths were most certainly CG-enhanced most of the time. Sure, dudes in cloaks, but their height and their eerie waviness were not unaided by computers. The panoramas I'm talking about are the ones where the camera swoops in and rotates around their hugeness, the way it does for nearly every shot of either of the titular two towers. You know... the ones that look fake. I am sorry i didn't know the name of the Fellbeast or that "Gollum" has a second "L", perhaps you are grasping at straws in an attempt to discredit my opinion? If you've got a flying lizard, to me and pretty much everyone else, it's a dragon. The rest of the runtime that isn't taken up by my listed criticisms should be well covered with my "etc etc etc" because there is much more to the list.

All this is beside the point--you're turning this argument into something else. I am saying that the effects are not perfect. That most of the time, they are transparent as effects. And that Jackson, in his nerdy ambitiousness, is attempting in the LotR movies (just as Spielberg did in Jurassic Park) a photorealistic dramatization. Until effects reach the point where you can create a photorealistic cave troll that doesn't merely present the illusion of weight when it falls, you're going to have a hole in your intended dramatization. If you can overlook the elasticity and obviousness of the computer effects in an effort to fall into the world, or desire to be a part of it, wonderful. If that's what's important to you, more power to you.


My point is (and has been all along) that I see something potentially contradictory in criticizing Speed Racer for its intentional fantasy construction of plasticity and weightlessness, and then giving a free pass to a film attempting photorealism that unsuccessfully masks these same qualities.


Don't be a tool. Saying 'go watch X again' is the equivalent of saying your memory of X is flawed. So why don't you go watch them again and count the uses and tell me how many there are, although it will be irrelevant given that I said from post one the technique itself isn't the primary or sole problem robbing scenes of their tension and urgency. But if it's so important to you, then do it. Rewatch the films, count those wipes.

You have this uncanny ability to subtly alter the nature of the subject discussed. I'm not talking about comparing the two. I'm talking about your disdain for the technique, your admiration for Kurosawa, and how you reconcile the two. You define Speed Racer's plasticity with its use of the wipe, and if that is your criteria for plasticity, then it reasons that you should consider many of Kurosawa's films to be plastic as well. Your argument was that he uses the technique in greater moderation. My response is that if you think that is the case, you are incorrectly remembering the frequency with which he uses it. Forget my suggestion to rewatch the films. I will just be content to tell you that you are wrong. And if being right is so important to you, you'd rewatch the films and/or change or clarify your criticism.

[Sven]

For the record, since I'm up and killing time before class, the first ten minutes of Seven Samurai (excluding credit time) include 4 wipes.

[Wryan]

and Leon (not as good as I remembered).


Inconceivable!

[Boner M]

Sátántangó lived up to my expectations. Whadda film. Have to say that I wasn't mesmerised for all 7 hours, perhaps because I was reading the mordant dark comedy element in the first 1/3 or so as standard European art-film lugubriousness (not that that's an inherently bad thing; didn't hurt Tarkovsky), though my only problems are exactly the sort of things that I can easily see being cleared up with future viewings, which I greatly anticipate (every few years or so, mind you). Standout moments: the villagers' noisy wagons stopping in unison, revealing the sound of the rain; the girl wrestling with the cat as dust clouds form around them; the titular dance; the zoom into the owl's eyes.... the list goes on. Pretty much the best film I've seen for the first time this year, I reckon.

[NickGlass]

So am I the only one here that really liked Shortbus? I'm not even gay but I still enjoyed it thoroughly.

No, I love Shortbus. It's deeply emotional and succeeds mostly due to its wide scope in tackling the conflicted inhabitants of Manhattan, its brilliant use of Animal Collective’s primal "Winters Love" and the honesty of its characters and performances. In Robert Altman’s wake, Shortbus was the only film to pay homage, and not bastardize or oversimplify, his mosaic paradigm. It's a candid depiction of sex and alienation in an increasingly modern world that could easily seem to be calculated--but, shockingly, it feels entirely genuine.

[number8]

Missing scenes from Metropolis discovered (http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/41-news/3628-missing-scenes-from-fritz-langs-qmetropolisq-discovered.html).

I adore Shortbus and seeing it on my DVD shelf brings a smile to me. Didn't know that being gay was a prerequisite for it.

[Spinal]

Missing scenes from Metropolis discovered (http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/41-news/3628-missing-scenes-from-fritz-langs-qmetropolisq-discovered.html).



Link doesn't work for me, but if this is true .... :eek::eek::eek:

[Sven]

Link doesn't work for me, but if this is true .... :eek::eek::eek:

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/27/bg-metropolis-en?1

[Spinal]

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/27/bg-metropolis-en?1

Wowzers.

[Yxklyx]

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/27/bg-metropolis-en?1

:pritch:

[balmakboor]

http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/27/bg-metropolis-en?1

That's a pretty big deal. Searches for an understatement smiley.

[Sycophant]

That's phenomenal.

Also, I though Shortbus was pretty good.

[Wryan]

So glad I didn't buy that last dvd edition of the movie.

[Spinal]

So glad I didn't buy that last dvd edition of the movie.

Heh, I did.

I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this news. I really, really hope there's no mistake here. I seem to recall from my high school German classes that Die Zeit is a reputable source.

[Raiders]

I never even knew any were supposedly missing. Maybe I'll like it more now.

[megladon8]

I'm glad I rewatched Bride of Frankenstein, because I liked it significantly more than I did before.

But I still believe the first film is much better.

I had a hard time discerning whether or not James Whale intended Bride to be slightly tongue-in-cheek, or if he was still going the horror route and things just ended up a little goofy.

Some fantastic effects work, and it's a great piece of entertainment.

[Spinal]

I never even knew any were supposedly missing. Maybe I'll like it more now.

I've seen two different versions and both had sections with stills and descriptions of scenes that were missing.

[Raiders]

I've seen two different versions and both had sections with stills and descriptions of scenes that were missing.

I have an old VHS copy, and I swear I have no recollection of this. Maybe I ought to watch it again.

[Spinal]

I have an old VHS copy, and I swear I have no recollection of this. Maybe I ought to watch it again.

Yeah, you may be right. I know there's many different versions out there, so it's possible they weren't in this one.

At any rate, the most recent DVD is the best out there ... for now.

[balmakboor]

I think some wiseguy back in 1927 said, "Let's stash this thing in South America or something. It'll be worth a fortune in double-dip dvd sales some day."

My favorite version is still the one with songs by Queen and stuff. fwiw.

[megladon8]

I wish one of the douchebags who claims to have a copy of London After Midnight would give up their selfish crusade already and let a studio release it.

They'd make mega-money, so I don't know what the hell they're waiting for.

[MadMan]

I wish one of the douchebags who claims to have a copy of London After Midnight would give up their selfish crusade already and let a studio release it.

They'd make mega-money, so I don't know what the hell they're waiting for.Is that the old school horror film from the 1920s, with the bad guy sporting an extremely creepy grin? It sounds familiar, and I think TCM showed it last October....

[Pop Trash]

I adore Shortbus and seeing it on my DVD shelf brings a smile to me. Didn't know that being gay was a prerequisite for it.
Clearly being gay is not a prerequisite, but whenever I bring the movie up to my straight friends, they give me looks like 'why would you want to watch that!?!?'

[Spinal]

Clearly being gay is not a prerequisite, but whenever I bring the movie up to my straight friends, they give me looks like 'why would you want to watch that!?!?'

Watching gay people doing gay things might turn you gay!

Oddly, this phenomenon doesn't seem to work in reverse.

[Sven]

At any rate, the most recent DVD is the best out there ... for now.

Or would be, save for the woeful absence of Georgio Moroder.

[Yxklyx]

Should I watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind with subtitles or in English?

[megladon8]

Should I watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind with subtitles or in English?


Is it the Disney-released DVD?

If so, the dub is good.

All those Disney-released Miyazaki DVDs have great english dubs with some high-profile actors.

[Watashi]

Should I watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind with subtitles or in English?
I usually hate dubwork, but the Ghibli dubs are some of the best.

Still, subtitles.

[Spinal]

Or would be, save for the woeful absence of Georgio Moroder.

I doubt I will ever watch it, so I will never be able to contradict you.

[Sven]

I doubt I will ever watch it, so I will never be able to contradict you.

I thought you said at one point that this was the first version of the film you saw... maybe I'm thinking of something else.

The dub of Nausicaa is good. It simplifies the complex story, which is nice, because if you're not entirely attentive, that film can lose you. The only dub that I advise steering far from is Castle in the Sky. Van der Beek!!

[megladon8]

I actually thought Christian Bale was the weakest link in the dub for Howl's Moving Castle.

His voice just didn't suit the character. Bale works better in darker roles, whereas here he was supposed to be a charming and playful magician. It just didn't work.

[Grouchy]

That Metropolis news is fucking amazing. And it was discovered in my city no less! How come I didn't hear anything about it? Gonna go read the papers. 210 MINUTES IN LENGHT!

There are people who own copies of London After Midnight? Huh?

As I understand it, James Whale really didn't want to make a sequel to Frankenstein, so it's very likely looking at the film that he intended most of it as a joke. But it's a very good joke, filled with fantasy, groundbreaking effects and atmosphere. I like the first film, but I think the second one is Universal's crowning Horror gem from what I've seen.

And count me as another one who thinks My Blueberry Nights is a coherent and worthy effort from WKW. No more, no less. If anything, I think it's more focused than his previous films, and objectively a lot shorter. It also wraps up all the loose ends on the story unlike his latest 2046. Beautiful, romantic, stuff, of course. About the performances - Norah Jones and Cat Power don't stand out, but they don't embarass themselves either. Jones does something of a non-performance which works quite well, and she looks tasty. David Strathairn is a God among actors. And I give full power to a movie capable of making me empathize with a character played by Natalie Portman of all people. The shot of her crying with the cowboy hat moved me to the point of wetting my cheeks a little.

[megladon8]

Is that the old school horror film from the 1920s, with the bad guy sporting an extremely creepy grin? It sounds familiar, and I think TCM showed it last October....


TCM put together their own version of it, using publicity stills and the story.

But the actual film has been lost, yet there are like 5 or 6 people around the world who claim to have full versions of the film in their possession.

Actually, one of them lives just a couple of hours away from Ottawa.

It's directed by Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks), and stars Lon Chaney as a vampire.

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/5417/chaneyse2.jpg

[Spinal]

I actually thought Christian Bale was the weakest link in the dub for Howl's Moving Castle.

Billy Crystal is what ruined it for me.

[Wryan]

Watching gay people doing gay things might turn you gay!

Oddly, this phenomenon doesn't seem to work in reverse.

Don't forget the fact that a gay couple having children would warp the children and turn them gay, just like their likely-straight-descended parents.

[Spinal]

Don't forget the fact that a gay couple having children would warp the children and turn them gay, just like their likely-straight-descended parents.

All it takes is a quantum of gay.

[Qrazy]

And that Jackson, in his nerdy ambitiousness, is attempting in the LotR movies (just as Spielberg did in Jurassic Park) a photorealistic dramatization.

Except they're not striving for photorealism and this is where your argument falls to pieces. You can't create photorealism for things that don't exist. Also most great directors are not striving for 'realism' as is abundantly apparent via color gels, dream sequences, editing, etc. In the case of fantasy directors they are striving for a stylized fantasy world which approaches certain elements of reality. To claim Spielberg and Jackson are striving for realism is a joke. They're striving for a sense of reality, of weight, of physicality and contour. Also the effects are not 'transparent' in the way they are in terribly CGI'd films... Deep Blue Sea, The Word is Not Enough... so I say again your arguments are not arguments against Rings but indictments of all CGI en masse.


You have this uncanny ability to subtly alter the nature of the subject discussed. I'm not talking about comparing the two. I'm talking about your disdain for the technique, your admiration for Kurosawa, and how you reconcile the two. You define Speed Racer's plasticity with its use of the wipe, and if that is your criteria for plasticity, then it reasons that you should consider many of Kurosawa's films to be plastic as well. Your argument was that he uses the technique in greater moderation. My response is that if you think that is the case, you are incorrectly remembering the frequency with which he uses it. Forget my suggestion to rewatch the films. I will just be content to tell you that you are wrong. And if being right is so important to you, you'd rewatch the films and/or change or clarify your criticism.

I have the uncanny ability to deconstruct assinine opinions when I hear them, yes. I own the film and once did a shot by shot deconstruction of it for a class (Seven Samurai, along with Citizen Kane), so I believe I know roughly the frequency of wipes in it. So no, you're wrong actually, go rewatch it and Speed Racer and count them since it's oh so important to you.

Again it's all a moot point and won't prove anything (speaking of 'altering the nature of the subject discussed' your reprehensible hypocrisy) because...

I SAID IN THE FIRST POST THAT IT IS THE MANNER IN WHICH THE WIPE IS EMPLOYED IN SPEED RACER COUPLED WITH IT"S CROSS CUTTING ACROSS SPACE/TIME MID-SEQUENCE THAT IS THE PROBLEM.


One example, Kurosawa doesn't resort to a wipe in the middle of a battle sequence. Although I know it's difficult for you not to reduce this to wipes = bad. Also speaking of grasping at straws the whole wipes conversation doesn't take into account the stupidity of the entire storyline, individual sequences, dialogue and acting.

[Wryan]

All it takes is a quantum of gay.

Careful, I'm sure there's a porn director out there that has already earmarked this.

A gay porn director.

[origami_mustache]

alright I think it's settled...Speed Racer is better than Seven Samurai.

[Wryan]

I always considered Bride of Frank to be intentionally tongue-in-cheek. I love that movie. Totally the first film's equal, but in markedly different ways.

[megladon8]

I always considered Bride of Frank to be intentionally tongue-in-cheek. I love that movie. Totally the first film's equal, but in markedly different ways.


There were scenes that led me to believe it was very tongue-in-cheek, but others also made me think "this is supposed to be a serious horror movie".

Maybe I'm just still being affected by the schizoid mess that was Wanted.

[Qrazy]

For the record, since I'm up and killing time before class, the first ten minutes of Seven Samurai (excluding credit time) include 4 wipes.

There's 22 in the first 15 minutes of Speed Racer, although once again let me make it clear that this is a side bet which has no bearing on the original critique.

Oh aside from not wiping mid-action sequence Kurosawa also doesn't wipe mid-emotive sequence.

[Sven]

Qrazy, there's no reason to call me names. I engaged you in discussion with a genuine curiosity to explore the issue, and perhaps I got a little snippy, as did you (as is wont in discussions of such a nature), but "reprehensible hypocrate" simply won't do. I want you to know that by calling me that, you've lost an interested peer in me.

[Qrazy]

Qrazy, there's no reason to call me names. I engaged you in discussion with a genuine curiosity to explore the issue, and perhaps I got a little snippy, as did you (as is wont in discussions of such a nature), but "reprehensible hypocrate" simply won't do. I want you to know that by calling me that, you've lost an interested peer in me.

Then stop your hypocrisy... would you have swallowed it if I wrote don't be hypocritical and outlined the hypocrisy? I apologize for making it explicit and I'll change it to that. Also pulling in other films such as Kurosawa's or Lord of the Rings is not a genuine curious exploration of a critique, it is an attempt at discredit. I'm through buying your faux-'genuine curiousity'.

[Wryan]

I'm convinced you two are the same person.

[Spinal]

Less Speed Racer talk! More gay porn talk! It's the only thing that will bring us together!

[Sven]

I would like you to specify where I was being a hypocrite, please.

[Grouchy]

I'm convinced you two are the same person.
Hah, I was gonna say the same thing. They both use over 70% of the dictionary to say very simple stuff, too.

[origami_mustache]

Anal ALL-Stars 9's handheld camera work mimics the curiosity of one discovering their own sexuality. A sprawling epic masterpiece for the gay porn genre.

[Spinal]

Anal ALL-Stars 9's handheld camera work mimics the curiosity of one discovering their own sexuality. A sprawling epic masterpiece for the gay porn genre.

Repped!

[Qrazy]

I would like you to specify where I was being a hypocrite, please.

In my initial post I made it a point to say the wipes aren't inherently at fault. You then made it a conversation about me feeling the wipes themselves were basically the problem. You then went on to claim that I was altering the nature of the subject discussed, when you had just done that. The hypocritical statement was 'you have a tendency of altering the nature of the subject discussed'.

[Qrazy]

I'm convinced you two are the same person.

The two hemispheres of my brain are competing?

http://www.timeout.com/img/14536/w513/image.jpg

[soitgoes...]

Anal ALL-Stars 9's handheld camera work mimics the curiosity of one discovering their own sexuality. A sprawling epic masterpiece for the gay porn genre.
Great use of the "wipe" too.

[Sven]

In my initial post I made it a point to say the wipes aren't inherently at fault. You then made it a conversation about me feeling the wipes themselves were basically the problem. You then went on to claim that I was altering the nature of the subject discussed, when you had just done that. The hypocritical statement was 'you have a tendency of altering the nature of the subject discussed'.

I wasn't speaking in terms of Speed Racer, really, ever. I was speaking about your disdain for the technique, period. In your first post, you write "I really dislike this technique in general..." THAT'S what I wanted to discuss. Wanting such, I asked about how you reconcile that general dislike with your admiration of Kurosawa. You said he uses it less frequently, and I said that he still uses it quite a bit. You suggested I quantify and compare the two which was totally not even what I was talking about.

[Wryan]

Great use of the "wipe" too.

From who? Director Wang Kar Wai?

[origami_mustache]

From who? Director Wang Kar Wai?

Gus Van Sant

[Qrazy]

I wasn't speaking in terms of Speed Racer, really, ever. I was speaking about your disdain for the technique, period. In your first post, you write "I really dislike this technique in general..." THAT'S what I wanted to discuss. Wanting such, I asked about how you reconcile that general dislike with your admiration of Kurosawa. You said he uses it less frequently, and I said that he still uses it quite a bit. You suggested I quantify and compare the two which was totally not even what I was talking about.

I also said I tend to either ignore it or in certain circumstances it can be used effectively. In both cases you're picking out a very small fragment of what I'm saying and riffing on it as if it were the majority of what I'm saying.

And actually you were talking about Speed Racer and juxtaposing certain elements of it with Jackson's and with Kurosawa's films and elaborating why the artificiality works for you in contrast.

[Russ]

Jeez, how about a quantum of "wrap it up"?

[number8]

No no, this can only be settled by letting them go on. I find this interesting. We can all just post around them. Continue.

I'm rooting for iosos. Not because I have anything against you, Qrazy, but just because it's indisputable fact that Speed Racer is, indeed, better than anything Kurosawa has ever done. Except Dreams.

[Spinal]

I'm a huge Kurosawa fan, but when it came to using trained monkeys, the man was clueless.

[number8]

I'm a huge Kurosawa fan, but when it came to using trained monkeys, the man was clueless.

That's not fair. He never got the chance to work with Emile.

[Qrazy]

No no, this can only be settled by letting them go on. I find this interesting. We can all just post around them. Continue.

I'm rooting for iosos. Not because I have anything against you, Qrazy, but just because it's indisputable fact that Speed Racer is, indeed, better than anything Kurosawa has ever done. Except Dreams.

Well, we're into the personal effrontery stage of the flamewar so usually here it will either end and a) we'll shake hands and make-up b) we'll shake hands and not make-up c) we'll throw more feces at each other or d) we'll begin talking about Speed Racer again but hopefully in a vein unrelated to wipes given that we've probably exhausted that option.

[Spinal]

That's not fair. He never got the chance to work with Emile.

True. He had to make-do with the likes of Mifune and Shimura.

[Winston*]

True. He had to make-do with the likes of Mifune and Shimura.

Racist!

[Qrazy]

True. He had to make-do with the likes of Mifune and Shimura.

Speaking of Mifune has anyone seen the one film he directed? Legacy of the 500,000? Karagarga doesn't seem to have it.

[Spinal]

Racist!

I'm not dismissing them because they were Asian.

I'm dismissing them because they were gay.

[Winston*]

I dunno, you did just indirectly call them monkeys with inferior acting ability.

[Sven]

I also said I tend to either ignore it or in certain circumstances it can be used effectively. In both cases you're picking out a very small fragment of what I'm saying and riffing on it as if it were the majority of what I'm saying.

And actually you were talking about Speed Racer and juxtaposing certain elements of it with Jackson's and with Kurosawa's films and elaborating why the artificiality works for you in contrast.

The argument parted, and what became a criticism of the wipe as indicator of "plasticity" evolved into a separate discussion about CG, where I did speak of Speed Racer. I never imposed any kind of quantitative worth on your opinion of wipes, but yes, I was riffing on something you said and it was completely fair of me to do so, this being a board where idea exchange was at one point welcome.

No, I will not be shaking your hand, because you calling me 'reprehensible' was still too much, and unfair.

[MadMan]

Less Speed Racer talk! More gay porn talk! It's the only thing that will bring us together!Jokes like this are why you get rep. And thus make me dislike you, and then I die inside. Its a horrible, nasty business. Damn you Spinal! *Shakes fist in a really angry fashion*


TCM put together their own version of it, using publicity stills and the story.

But the actual film has been lost, yet there are like 5 or 6 people around the world who claim to have full versions of the film in their possession.

Actually, one of them lives just a couple of hours away from Ottawa.

It's directed by Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks), and stars Lon Chaney as a vampire.

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/5417/chaneyse2.jpgYep, that's the one. Those 5 or 6 people if they really have an actual copy of the film should sell them for lots of money. But I guess they either really don't have an actual copy or maybe they like having an actual copy of the film and they don't want to give it up.

And yeah I decided to pass on seeing the film on TCM, if only because I didn't see the point of only being able to view it via photos and the story.

Oh and yeah Lon Chaney is damn creepy looking in it. I think that the 1931 version of "Dracula" that he did is the only film I've seen from Browning.

This site could use a good old fashioned flame war every now and then. Seriously if I want happy fuzzy love feasts I'll just head over to Icine :P

That said, iosos and Qrazy fit like an old married couple. I find it kind of hilarious.

[megladon8]

Film studios have been dying to get their hands on London After Midnight for several decades - to the point where it could never actually be as good and as scary as its legendary reputation.

I would think that a film studio would be willing to make some sort of deal with a person owning a copy of the film.

Being a huge fan of silent film (I wouldn't call myself an afficionado, since I haven't seen all that many) I really want to see it. I'm a fan of silent horror in particular. There's something about the old silent horror films that is unnerving in a way that absolutely nothing has been since then. The eeriness of a villain using just their face and body to convey a horror show is a great thing to watch.

Lon Chaney is still incredible to watch. The Phantom of the Opera is one of my top 3 favorite silent films, and The Unknown is heartbreaking.

Another one I'd love to see is He Who Gets Slapped, which has shown on TCM a couple of times but I always miss it. And it's not available on DVD :cry:

[Bosco B Thug]

My dad was watching You Can't Take It With You on TCM today, and I caught most of it, although with wavering attention. I'm afraid I have to sit on the "Kinda irritating, not particularly good in any way..." side of the fence.

[Yxklyx]

My dad was watching You Can't Take It With You on TCM today, and I caught most of it, although with wavering attention. I'm afraid I have to sit on the "Kinda irritating, not particularly good in any way..." side of the fence.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty dreadful and I like most of Capra's early films.

Repo Man was pretty cool.

[Qrazy]

The argument parted, and what became a criticism of the wipe as indicator of "plasticity" evolved into a separate discussion about CG, where I did speak of Speed Racer. I never imposed any kind of quantitative worth on your opinion of wipes, but yes, I was riffing on something you said and it was completely fair of me to do so, this being a board where idea exchange was at one point welcome.

No, I will not be shaking your hand, because you calling me 'reprehensible' was still too much, and unfair.

Be careful of the knicker twist, I hear it can cause permanent scrotal impairment.

[Qrazy]

Repo Man was pretty cool.

Repo Man was terrible, don't lie to yourself.

[chrisnu]

My dad was watching You Can't Take It With You on TCM today, and I caught most of it, although with wavering attention. I'm afraid I have to sit on the "Kinda irritating, not particularly good in any way..." side of the fence.
I haven't seen it for a couple of years, but I remember absolutely hating it. The main character is such an assclown.

[number8]

Repo Man was terrible, don't lie to yourself.

You have something against cool movies, it seems.

[Yxklyx]

:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool: :cool:

[Grouchy]

Peckinpah's Ride the High Country is an early example of all his themes and a Western masterpiece on its own right. It's funny, because while it's a movie from the early '60s (like, for example, The Sons of Katie Elder which is very classical), it feels more like something from the '70s, both because of the complex morals and the stunning camerawork. There's a shot of Randolph Scott racing into the camera with the horse which pans right as he passes by which is stunning. The final shot is also a superb and very meaningful composition. While it's one of the tragedies of cinema that this couldn't be filmed starring Gary Cooper and John Wayne as planned (Cooper died and Wayne lost interest), Scott and Joel McCrea are very solid actors and feed off each other wonderfully. Bloody Sam is one of my favorite directors, ever ever ever.

And bring on more flamewars! They're fun to read. They didn't even shake hands after this one.

[Bosco B Thug]

Magic, the creepy ventriloquist dummy movie with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Margret, caught me by surprise! It's an oddity as expected, but it's also a juicy and fascinating good time! Hopkins and Margret are delightful and appealing.

[Boner M]

Magic, the creepy ventriloquist dummy movie with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Margret, caught me by surprise! It's an oddity as expected, but it's also a juicy and fascinating good time! Hopkins and Margret are delightful and appealing.
Awesome, I saw this ages ago and have always been meaning to check it out again, though I've feared it wouldn't live up to my original vision.

Saw Shine a Light today; amiable if standard-issue concert film, where the fleeting verité behind-the-scenes shenanigans is more compelling that the music. Still a pleasant time at the movies, and Buddy Guy's guest appearance was most welcome (Jack White and Christina Aguilera, however, were not).

[Pop Trash]

Shotgun Stories; not bad at all. Produced by David Gordon Green and his influence is definitely there. It never quite reaches the transcendent artistry of Green's first two features but it is at least on par with Undertow and Snow Angels, possibly even better. Also shares similarities with other southern Am-Indie movies like Sling Blade and Junebug. Quite well made and well acted especially considering its probable limited budget. The lead actor in particular is very good. I imagine we will see more of him. Overall: a strong 7/10 approaching an 8/10.

[Winston*]

Christ, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead just goes on and on....

[number8]

Christ, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead just goes on and on....

Yeah, it's whiny and annoying.

[Ezee E]

Christ, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead just goes on and on....
Yup. It started out great, but then we need to see EVERYONE's reaction.

[Winston*]

Yup. It started out great.I think you might be mistaken. Lumet used an interesting technique in the first half hour, which was to show Marisa Tomei naked with enough frequency that your brain doesn't have time to register that it's not actually enjoying the movie proper. For some unknown reason (possibly alzheimer's), he then decided to jettison this technique in favour of much ACTING, a strategy which did not work quite so well.

[Boner M]

Eagle Vs. Shark is an abomination. Winston*, fuck you and your stupid country for producing this.

[Qrazy]

Eagle Vs. Shark is an abomination. Winston*, fuck you and your stupid country for producing this.

Haha yes it is, awful.

[Spinal]

It's funny that the first vehicle Popeye Doyle attempts to commandeer prior to the big car chase is a VW bug. If he had been successful, things might have turned out quite differently.

[origami_mustache]

Eagle Vs. Shark is an abomination. Winston*, fuck you and your stupid country for producing this.

I figured as much, but was considering seeing it after it was recommended to me. Good to know, I'll be sure to avoid.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's funny that the first vehicle Popeye Doyle attempts to commandeer prior to the big car chase is a VW bug. If he had been successful, things might have turned out quite differently.

:lol:

Was that your first viewing?

[Spinal]

:lol:

Was that your first viewing?

Yeah, it was probably highest on my list of "Why haven't I seen this yet?" films before last night. I wasn't sure I was digging it at first, but then it really sucks you in. I love how the meaning of the film completely changes in the final sequence. I realized then that the film was about more than I was giving it credit for.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yeah, it was probably highest on my list of "Why haven't I seen this yet?" films before last night. I wasn't sure I was digging it at first, but then it really sucks you in. I love how the meaning of the film completely changes in the final sequence. I realized then that the film was about more than I was giving it credit for.

It was on my list of "Why Haven't I" as well until about three years ago. I had actually sat down to watch it years before that, but after 15 minutes it wasn't grabbing me and I turned it off because I was really into the book I was reading. It's a pretty amazing film, and after a second viewing I was compelled to put it in my top 100.

[Spinal]

It was on my list of "Why Haven't I" as well until about three years ago.

I must have checked it out from the library six or seven times.

[Spinal]

Holiday weekend! (in the U.S.):

Be Kind Rewind
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

Gonna try some freaky Italian horror. Kinda nervous. :)

[Rowland]

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

Gonna try some freaky Italian horror. Kinda nervous. :)This one isn't that freaky. Kinda generic actually, like a watered-down take on a watered-down Argento. It looks pretty nice though.

[Sven]

I must have checked it out from the library six or seven times.

You should check out the sequel. I think it's better, and Hackman's performance is twice as good. They hook him on heroine!

[Spinal]

This one isn't that freaky. Kinda generic actually, like a watered down Argento.

Ah well, it's already on the way. May as well watch it.

[Spinal]

You should check out the sequel. I think it's better, and Hackman's performance is twice as good. They hook him on heroine!

The smack? The horse? The brown sugar? Say it ain't so!

[Sven]

The smack? The horse? The brown sugar? Say it ain't so!

It's so! It's so!

Also, I think that Frankenheimer is a more exciting director than Friedkin, so the sequel achieve an intensity surpassing the original. And the script is more experimental--much more character driven than procedural.

[Pop Trash]

Christ, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead just goes on and on....
I quite liked it. It nearly made my top ten of 07.

[Ezee E]

WEEKEND:
Wanted
Wall-E
Hancock

Naked
Vantage Point
City of Men

[number8]

Eagle vs Shark was pretty funn-ay.

Funnier than Flight of the Choncords, at least.

[Spinal]

Remember when The Pursuit of Happyness came out and they took all those homeless people to see it to inspire them? They should do the same thing with Hancock.

[Qrazy]

Eagle vs Shark was pretty funn-ay.

Funnier than Flight of the Choncords, at least.

This statement causes me physical pain.

---

I agree with Iosis that Frankenheimer is more exciting than Friedkin.

[Sycophant]

Weekend:
The Seventh Seal

And a big bowl of theatrical maybes:
Meet Dave
Hancock
Get Smart
Kung Fu Panda
Mongol

I also have a feeling I'm gonna rewatch some Woody Allen and/or Takeshi Kitano.