28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[D_Davis]

I bought a lot of DVDs from Hong Kong produced in the late nineties and early aughts. Translations on your standard HK disc are pretty good these days, but oh god, the things I've seen (and attempted to contextually interpret). I think a lot of exposure to these have warped my understanding of what works in standard English.

At least, thanks to Love on Delivery, I think the phrase "Take your advantage" is 100% legit.

So many excessive obscenities abound, as do instances of gendered pronoun confusion.

Yeah. Or how about those old burned in subtitles, with the big traditional Chinese on top, and the tiny English on the bottom? All in white, with now outline/drop-shadow...so you hoped the film you were watching didn't contain the White Lotus Cult, or you weren't reading anything. Or the "aspect ration," in other words the place where the burned in border was placed, constantly changed from scene to scene thus cutting off most of the subs.

However, gotta love the fact that having some/any subs at all was a law in HK. It made it much easier for all of us Foreigners to at least have a basic understanding of the plots. It also did a lot to expand the love of HK cinema.

[Boner M]

Anyone got the recent Jean-Pierre Gorin Eclipse set? Or seen the films via other means? Watched Routine Pleasures last night and basically loved it, though I'm biased as a both fan of Manny Farber and someone who was fascinated by model train sets as a child. In the film Gorin puts the work of both Farber (two of his oil paintings & his writings esp. the 'White Elephant vs. Termite Art' essay) and a tightly knit group of model train enthusiasts into a dialectic that investigates, among other things, the fascination of process and variation in fields of sameness. The ambivalent attitude towards the valorising of both Farber's beloved 'termite art' and the hobby that Gorin documents is best embodied when he admits being both 'joyed and scared' at finally deciphering some of the train enthusiast's jargon. One of the loveliest essay films I can think of.

[Qrazy]

Huh, that's a pretty harsh scene. I never found it funny.

I think Midnight Express is a competently made movie that's full of shit.

Not intentionally hilarious, but his inane babbling coupled with his attempt to suck on her breast through the glass makes it hilarious.

[dreamdead]

I find myself perplexed by so many of Julie Taymor's director decisions in The Tempest that I was left frequently wondering whether Titus is the inevitable mirage in her filmography. And even that one I'm now hesitant to return to and review for fear of realizing that it, like the Tempest, is a barely competent film featuring solid lead performances that are frequently upstaged by ludicrous, overblown musical cues and effects.

When Taymor stays out of the way, the film plugs away well enough, but too often she insists on clouding the narrative with supercilious excess. That epilogue over the credits kills one of Shakespeare's greatest finales. And Djimon Hounsou was oddly devoid of any empathy for me. Strange. Only Mirren really escapes this one unscathed.

[Qrazy]

I find myself perplexed by so many of Julie Taymor's director decisions in The Tempest that I was left frequently wondering whether Titus is the inevitable mirage in her filmography. And even that one I'm now hesitant to return to and review for fear of realizing that it, like the Tempest, is a barely competent film featuring solid lead performances that are frequently upstaged by ludicrous, overblown musical cues and effects.

You will definitely find this to be the case. The last act of that film is terrible. Bullet time candle stick murder for the fail. Final shot sucks too.

[MadMan]

Presto was merely solid, but the last half of that short saved it. Defiantly one of Pixar's weakest short films.

Which is weird considering that the feature film its attached to, Wall-E was truly great. I'm not sure if its better than Up or not despite both getting the same rating, however for now I consider them in a tie for the best Pixar film I've seen. All I have left now feature length film wise is Toy Story 3, which I eagerly look forward to, and both Cars films, which I'm dreading.

[Watashi]

Has there been a better romantic comedy in the past 25 years than Say Anything? I'm struggling to think of many.

[Pop Trash]

Has there been a better romantic comedy in the past 25 years than Say Anything? I'm struggling to think of many.

ritch:

1989 is one of my favorite movie years in general. I think only '84 tops it for me in terms of 80s movie years.

[Boner M]

[Spinal]

Presto was merely solid, but the last half of that short saved it. Defiantly one of Pixar's weakest short films.

Madness.

[Grouchy]

Has there been a better romantic comedy in the past 25 years than Say Anything? I'm struggling to think of many.

If you count Punch-Drunk Love, then that.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Has there been a better romantic comedy in the past 25 years than Say Anything? I'm struggling to think of many.

Almost Famous.

[transmogrifier]

I found Say Anything deadly dull, if I remember correctly.

[Watashi]

Almost Famous.

It's a good thing I saw both on the big screen last night.

[Watashi]

I found Say Anything deadly dull, if I remember correctly.

You remembered wrong.

[B-side]

Defiantly one of Pixar's weakest short films.

It truly defies the odds.

[Irish]

Has there been a better romantic comedy in the past 25 years than Say Anything? I'm struggling to think of many.

Yes.

High Fidelity, Love Actually, About a Boy, Knocked Up, Sideways, Amelie ...

Say Anything's third act is utter garbage. The subplot with the father throws the entire tone of thr movie off.

Which is a shame because 2/3 of it is just fantastic.

[Derek]

It truly defies the odds.

What it really needed was more subtitlety.

[Pop Trash]

Say Anything's third act is utter garbage. The subplot with the father throws the entire tone of thr movie off.

The tone of YOUR FACE threw me off when I looked at it.

[Rowland]

Pulled an all-nighter yesterday finishing a paper on Tarantino's Death Proof, analyzed using the feminist/psychoanalytic concepts deployed by Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Anybody familiar with it? Anyway, I had a good time going into such depth with the film, I wrote about ten pages but could probably have tripled that if I'd so desired, such richness is there to be mined from it.

[Irish]

The tone of YOUR FACE threw me off when I looked at it.

:lol: I swear, I thought this was posted by Watashi at first.

[B-side]

What it really needed was more subtitlety.

He was gonna watch it, but then he didn't.

[Qrazy]

Yes.

High Fidelity, Love Actually, About a Boy, Knocked Up, Sideways, Amelie ...

Say Anything's third act is utter garbage. The subplot with the father throws the entire tone of thr movie off.

Which is a shame because 2/3 of it is just fantastic.

Actually it's the only thing that makes what would otherwise be an utterly slight film somewhat worth watching, but just barely.

[Watashi]

Actually it's the only thing that makes what would otherwise be an utterly slight film somewhat worth watching, but just barely.

Your face is utterly slight.

[Watashi]

Pulled an all-nighter yesterday finishing a paper on Tarantino's Death Proof, analyzed using the feminist/psychoanalytic concepts deployed by Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Anybody familiar with it? Anyway, I had a good time going into such depth with the film, I wrote about ten pages but could probably have tripled that if I'd so desired, such richness is there to be mined from it.

I'm unfamiliar with that theory, but I would like to read it.