[glossolalia]

speaking of film criticism i've always admired how david bordwell can talk about stuff like the average number of frames per cut and not sound like a horrible aspie.

[costel]

[sawtooth]

gloss re: GitS: Not to excuse it from being crude and sexist and unfunny, but i thought the 'period' joke was a worthy setup to the movie's main themes. It sets up the movie's concepts of mind and body in just two lines, and immediately points out where it all gets fuzzy. If it's not the content but the style of dialogue, that sort of expository-old-hands-on-the-job talk is everywhere in movies and tv. I don't mind it at all.
I agree with you on the other points, but I think my expectations were lower. My only other exposure to the franchise are those sexy pages from the manga that i saw when i was like 13.
_________________
(  (  

[Dracko]

_________________

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

Y'all's should read the book. It's pretty good.

[guest253]

saw the new ghibli film, Karigurashi no Arrietty.
apparently it's based one some book that everyone but me knows (The Borrowers?).
basically it's more of the same, not adding much to the ghibli library, but i'm not tired of ghibli yet and "more of the same" is fairly impressive considering the change of director.
and the animation and sense of scale are great.
the first song had me worried (it's loud and dramatic and crashes in arbitrarily over some mood-setting scenes where absolutely nothing is happening yet) but fortunately there's only one such mishap and the rest of the music is pretty nice.

[This Machine Kills Fascis]

I thought Spirited Away had some inappropriate music cues, too--not to mention some melodramatic piano pieces. Maybe it's just a Ghibli thing?
_________________
"Godzilla could be anyone."

[guest253]

maybe. this was quite spectacularly off though.
and the english vocals on top made it stand out really weirdly.
given how well done the rest of the music placement was (though yes sometimes a bit melodramatic) it's mind-boggling that no one saw a problem there.

notable point of awesome: you can tell the scale of a scene from the cohesion of liquids.

[boojiboy7]

Wait, Ghibli made a Borrowers movie? Huh.

[evnvnv]

i really liked the music in spirited away :(
_________________
The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[guest253]

i do too, to the point of owning the OST, even.
but i can't say it doesn't have its melodramatic moments.

[Swimmy]

James Cameron should have saved his Piranha 3D hate for this.
_________________

[Take It Sleazy]

finally. 3D conversions of the blu-ray reedits of the 2004 dvd edition recuts of the special edition remakes of star wars the way lucas always intended

[This Machine Kills Fascis]

If I could scribble "Stars Wars: 3d + bluray" on a napkin, hand it to a subordinate, and be $10 million richer a year later, I'd probably do it.
_________________
"Godzilla could be anyone."

[BalbanesBeoulve]

_________________

[evnvnv]

i actually think it would be kind of cool to see the OT in 3D. I mean, I would rather see that than virtually any other 2d to 3d conversion (including "3D" films for which this is simply done in post-production, such as "Clash of the Titans.")

mainly because i still, you know, like star wars. a lot. i have very little tolerance for any of the EU stuff, and i think this is what has enabled me to continue enjoying the films. the only "special edition" quirk that really bothers me is the extended sequence in jabba's palace in jedi, but jedi is my least favorite of the OT anyway. in fact i may even prefer revenge of the sith to return of the jedi. i recently watched all six SW films and i can safely say empire strikes back is still one of my favorite movies. seeing X-Wing dogfights in 3D will at least be a fun novelty.

anyway, while we are on the subject: even though the prequel trilogy is, for the most part, an abomination of cinema, i found that the little embellishments to the narrative actually make the OT a whole lot more interesting. now you know that when obi wan calls R2D2 "Old friend" he is not just being a congenial oldster, and you can get into all sorts of arguments w/ your friends about whether or not Darth Vader had a plan to use luke as a way to dethrone the emperor all along. based on what we learn about the sith from the prequel trilogy, it seems like this kind of betrayal is par for the course for sith--the emperor probably saw it coming too, and knew he had to work extra hard to make sure vader stayed the subordinate.

phantom menace is still disturbingly irrelevant, but the core concepts and structure of the second 2 films makes sense--it is just executed SO AWFULLY that it is only possible to enjoy in retrospect. another benefit of the prequels being so overloaded with CGI creatures is it really drives home the concept of the Empire as genocidal space nazis: aliens of all shapes and sizes participate in politics in the galactic senate, but the empire is a strictly humans-only affair (i don't know if this is the case in the EU, whatever). same goes for the rigid oratory style and coldness of the jedi vs. the rag tag, scrappy tenor of the rebellion: the jedi might have been the proverbial shit in their own time, but it is clear that (even if they hadn't all been executed by darth vader) the methods of the jedi would have been useless against the empire. contrasting the coldness of the prequels with the genuine warmth and emotion of the OT can even make you think of the star wars saga as being an imaginative parable about the birth of romance (in the traditional sense) and the victory of passionate, individualistic 'liberalism' (of a sort) over the dogmatic ontology of monarchic/feudal society. not only do the rebels conquer the empire (itself more of an outgrowth or consequence of the pseudo-aristocratic galactic senate than something truly in opposition to it), they also learn how to be in love with one another more effectively and powerfully than padme and anakin. sure, padme and anakin were in love, but they could only express it in the awkward, stilted staginess of their generation--and maybe this was their downfall. it's actually quite brilliant.
_________________
The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[This Machine Kills Fascis]

That Weird Al "American Pie" parody song makes the Phantom Menace sound pretty good.

They probably should have had Weird Al write the rest of the prequel trilogy.
_________________
"Godzilla could be anyone."

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

[rabite gets whacked!]

Abel Ferrara Fuck Yeah.

So hey, Gran Torino was really terrible, yeah? Has anybody made a youtube yet of Grandpaw Clint intercut with snarling dogs? (Actually, the camp half was better than the melodrama half, at least).

Everyone should watch Le Trou cause it's seriously committed. This is how you break out of prison, motherfuckers. I liked it better than Rififi.
_________________

[Dracko]

lol :(

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

First the rewrite, now this >:(

[evnvnv]

[Dracko]

Incidentally, Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven got pushed back to December despite the fact it's complete, for reasons that have yet to be revealed.

So yeah, people are dumb jerks. :(
_________________

[rabite gets whacked!]

I was expecting more from Control, given all the hype. Beyond the B&W and aesthetics just a touch beyond purely functional, it's a pretty standard biopic, and one centered on a character without enough real content to prop up a feature length film (at least not the way he was portrayed in it). It's kind of Debbie's movie anyway, and I almost would have rather seen the whole thing from her perspective, especially with Morton in the role. Riley (and Kebbell) was fine too, but he wasn't really much of a character until maybe the last quarter.

My litmus tests for biopics is "If this was fiction and not based on existing figures, would it be a good movie?" Very few pass (actually, I can really only think of I'm Not There off the top of my head).
_________________

[evnvnv]

malcom x is pretty good too
_________________
The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

Andrei Rublev, Edvard Munch and Raging Bull

[elvis.shrugged]

Saw Three Colors: Red today! This trilogy is becoming one of my favorite things. I haven't been able to get that ending out of my head all day.
_________________
last.fm
tumblr

[costel]

[boojiboy7]

Have you watched Hatchet 1? It's largely just as repulsive, gory, and stupid, and a shitload of fun for it.

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

[Winona Ghost Ryder]

shrug/ronk movie

[Dracko]

_________________

[costel]

[Ghost Dinosaur]

Finally saw Aguirre, The Wrath of God.










It was pretty lame.

[rabite gets whacked!]

I don't think Herzog has quite the touch with nature as say, Malick, but on the whole:




You're pretty lame.
_________________

[Mr Mustache]

Ugh, why burden us with your consistently terrible taste ghost_dinosaur?
_________________
The people are like wool to me

[Ghost Dinosaur]

EDIT: Aw, Cocaine Socialist deleted his comment. My first paragraph is in response to the fact that he found my mubi profile (located here for haters looking for more ammunition) and commented on the fact that I like Twilight 3 stars worth and dislike The Shining 1 stars worth, which is a somewhat arbitrary comparison except that I guess everyone hates Twilight and everyone loves The Shining.

I make no apologies for my defense of Catherine Hardwicke (and I'd be happy to do so if I thought anyone in this community would be interested in actual dialogue instead of the usual one-line smarminess) and utter lack of tolerance for Jack Nicholson's all-consuming narcissism. 1 star is probably too low for The Shining, but 5 stars with no halves doesn't allow for much wiggle room and I wanted to make it clear the difference between movies I found to be somewhat interesting failures and movies I would prefer to not ever see again.

Also mustache I would assume the answer to your question is the same reason you burden us with your mediocre attempts at being snarky -- boredom?

As for Aguirre, I'd actually be somewhat curious to see why people do like it. Cause what I saw was a lot of smug moralizing about the Catholic church (oooh, the church is greedy and prefers power to humanitarianism!) and a farcical representation of Hitler that's a little too on the nose for me to get much out of it in 1972 (at least it was better than Downfall, though). The ending is cool and I can see why people reference it as being an Awesome Moment in Cinema, but for me it was too late to salvage the rest. I imagine it's a movie, much like its successor Apocalypse Now, that is more fun to read about stories of what happened during the shooting than it is to actually sit through the end product.

[Dracko]

the church deserves all the moralising it gets imho


_________________

[Ghost Dinosaur]

Yeah I thought my phrasing might come off as defending the church, which I'm not, but I just didn't find anything profound or exploratory or even especially comedic about what it was saying.

[rabite gets whacked!]

It sounds to me like you spent a lot of time thinking allegorically instead of really watching the movie, Ghost. I liked it for its portrayal of the dissolution of human psyche and society when confronted with (and immersed in) the scope of the natural world beyond man's control. I thought Kinski played it perfectly. I thought the Popol Vuh score was fantastic. And I think that getting it all made was an astounding act of creativity.

[Dracko]

I do: Encounters at the End of the World and Bad Lieutenant were a blast.
_________________