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shrugtheironteacup
man of tomorrow
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Location: a meat
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 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:53 am |
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parkbench I think you mean Jeremy Piven (or as I prefer to call him "Cupid").
I had an odd appreciation for the way the whole movie seemed to be slowly building to Insane Mayhem only to have the mayhem be relatively low-key. I mean, a rapper gets hit in the face with a playing card, the Mad Max rejects go on a relatively brief and unsatisfying rampage, some feds get shot with a Really Big Rifle and return fire in a really irresonsible fashion.
It seemed to me, like the way death was treated terribly seriously on several occasions, like it was taking the piss out of its own joke by suddenly grabbing for near-realism. Which is a delicate thing and I don't think Carnahan quite pulled anything too interesting/relevant out of it, but it still struck me when I watched it.
This post brought to you by my commitment to Nothing Particularly Interesting.
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SplashBeats
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:08 am |
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| 108 wrote: |
| Joe wrote: |
I'm sorry that man is incapable of having fun with a fun movie. I guess this is what years of physics envy liberal arts academia does to a dude. I bet his friends won't watch movies with him :(
Edit: Oh god, I just read his critique of The Dark Knight Returns. Ahahahahahaha. |
holy shit
kind of upset to not, in reality, be the creepiest man on the internet anymore
or i guess i wasn't all along
must try harder |
What?
I thought he was mistaking the tearing down of a beloved cultural icon to a fascist, sadistic lunatic as a celebration of said fascism and lunacy. If anything, DKR is satirizing those who cheer for said vigilantism and black & white thinking, and is seeing exactly how far it can go before people stop cheering. That's what I took away from it, at least.
(Before any of you say what I just posted contrasts with what I said early in this thread about finding meaning in things, realize that my thinking has no logical consistency.)
I got the impression that the guy was utterly missing the point. If all of that stuff is a joke, then, well, it's not a terribly funny one. |
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haze
la belle poney sans merci
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:38 am |
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| Joe wrote: |
| Also, that critique is awful. I'm sorry that man is incapable of having fun with a fun movie. I guess this is what years of physics envy liberal arts academia does to a dude. I bet his friends won't watch movies with him :( |
oh heh i just noticed this irony. you're using your beloved catchphrase on the very guy who invented it, way to go!
or actually maybe he didn't entirely invent it since apparently it's used to describe EVERYTHING LESSER-THAN-PHYSICS OH MY GOD. man, what wankery involved to even use that phrase, I can imagine everyone uttering it as some assburgers Linux nerd who can't understand anything beyond cold logic. Physics is PERFECT dont ya know.
I didn't even mind the Joss Whedon thread because it's all 'lol nerds,' everyone's just arguing over who likes Buffy or Firefly or whatever. (except for Joe whose only tactic is to go "I LIKE FUN. YOU HATE FUN. GRR" ad hominem to anyone who dares to disagrees with his tastes.)
but THIS thread very quickly became that SB stereotype that everyone loves to project when they feel Persecuted... you know the one, that it's become a battle of Intelligentsia VS Those Who Don't Hate Fun aka Hivemind vs Hivemind. it's making me a little sick, but I can't look away because I have to get Batman-styled revenge on whichever one of you bastards killed my mom by giving her breast cancer. |
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SplashBeats
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:43 am |
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That's either the worst post ever made on these forums or the best post ever made on these forums.
Keep shooting for the stars! |
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Max Cola
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Location: a shotgun shack
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:48 am |
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| Joe wrote: |
That's either the worst post ever made on these forums or the best post ever made on these forums.
Keep shooting for the stars! |
Because it criticized what you said? Awesome.
I like how quickly threads around here can turn into fireworks shows!
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108
fairy godmilf
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: oakland, california
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:05 am |
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| Joe wrote: |
| 108 wrote: |
| Joe wrote: |
I'm sorry that man is incapable of having fun with a fun movie. I guess this is what years of physics envy liberal arts academia does to a dude. I bet his friends won't watch movies with him :(
Edit: Oh god, I just read his critique of The Dark Knight Returns. Ahahahahahaha. |
holy shit
kind of upset to not, in reality, be the creepiest man on the internet anymore
or i guess i wasn't all along
must try harder |
What? |
i think i quoted the wrong post
i meant, the guy who wrote that shit is creepier than me
et cetera
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SplashBeats
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:51 am |
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| Max Cola wrote: |
| Joe wrote: |
That's either the worst post ever made on these forums or the best post ever made on these forums.
Keep shooting for the stars! |
Because it criticized what you said? Awesome.
I like how quickly threads around here can turn into fireworks shows! |
Alright, man, if you have trouble with me being silly about things:
I defend my tastes with 'it's fun' because that's my main criteria for enjoying things! Honestly, I can accept and understand pretty much any reason you might have for liking something. It's just as valid as mine!
That said, I like to heckle the people who perform rigid analysis of works of art and present their conclusion like it's some cold, hard, ineffable truth. It's pretentious! The fact that there's an entire branch of academia devoted to this makes me frown sometimes.
See, I'm doing it right now :(
Though, again, I don't promise logical consistency in any of my patterns of thought. It's rather overrated! |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:49 am |
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The only thing that really needs to be said about this "genre":
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What I blame Tarantino for is that he invented a volatile formula and everyone else is too fucking stupid to handle with care. The Tarantino method of using characters that are all over the moral spectrum is like nitroglycerin. When Tarantino does it, his movies are fucking EXPLOSIVE! When your average NYU grad dipshit does it, the shit blows up in his stupid fucking face, and when the formula blows up on YOU, rather than in the theater, all you have onscreen is boredom incarnate. I just can't get into a movie with characters that are stupid, mean, unimaginative, humorless, willing to murder innocent people just to get away with something petty, lazy and in no way curious about the world around them. I hate The Matrix because there's a scene where, because he lacks the imagination to say something like "Give me the power to teleport", he chooses to murder a bunch of innocent security guards and police officers while rescuing Morpheus.
The Rodriguez influence is that most people are too stupid to pay attention to an action movie with such a fast pace as El Mariachi. Yeah the story is just there to set up the action, but the story actually DOES set up the action. Rodriguez brings good guys into contact with the people who ruined their lives. The gunfights happen because the characters have good reason to want each other dead, and that's where viewer interest comes in.
The worst thing about Smoking Aces is that most of the gunfights are entirely unmotivated. The plot doesn't provide any reason for the characters to want each other dead except Buddy Israel vs. the hitmen, and that conflict never comes to a head. Rather, the plot bends over backwards to make the characters bump into each other, then throws away carefully crafted development so we can have a shootout. Why in the hell would the black chick start shooting at the police when they had her cornered in the elevator? She's smarter than that. All she had to do was drop her gun and stick to the plan of pretending to be a call girl. Why in the hell did the music tell us to be scared of Common, the black chick and Ryan Reynolds bumping into each other in the stairwell, when it had just been established that neither party was interested in the other? I could buy that the Tremor Brothers would kill the bail bondsmen for no reason, but they explicitly stated they did it to steal their car, and then they didn't steal the car. The movie has all the right moments in all the right places, but even with an hour long first act, it didn't make any effort to earn those moments. Why did Reynolds kill the two mobsters in the end? Just to say "Fuck you" to his boss? Then why not kill his boss instead of a hardworking FBI agent who gave up his identity just to fight crime?
So my problem with the influence of those two is that they've developed delicate styles that turn into emotionally uninvolving shit unless they're in the hands of a master. That's my main problem with all movies today is that they try so hard to break tradition like Tarantino and Rodriguez did, they wind up just falling flat on their faces and leaving me with a limp dick. I liked Domino because it seems to be deliberately making no sense. I liked Running Scared because it threw conventional plot out the window so we could have four heroes, a million evil monsters, and one badguy who redeems himself in the end. And now they need to quit it with the nonsense piss yellow action flicks. It's been perfected, leave it be. |
To wrap up: Pulp Fiction doesn't really belong in this "genre," and Running Scared is probably its pinnacle.
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evnvnv
hapax legomenon
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: the los angeles
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:07 am |
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I mean, look at your responses! This stuff "rubs" you "the wrong way"? He can't have "fun" with " a fun movie"? Dark Steve's response, as I understand it, boils down to his arguments are old. |
What I meant by my response was that reading the website gave me this really unpleasant urge to sit down in front of the computer for a good two hours typing mindlessly to try to explain why I didn't like it, but then I realized that would be like Luke Skywalker being like "Oh, ok dudes ur right the dark side is wicked" because the root of my problem with the guy's reviews is that they are so... negative...
And I don't mean that I think he should like the movies he doesn't like, I honestly can't defend most of those movies as like Important Cultural Landmarks or whatever, it's just that his negativity seems so personal and that irritates me. A lot of people have a big vendetta against 'cultural criticism,' or any kind of intellectual dissection of pop culture. This is where the "fun police" come in, I guess. The thing is, being a big stupid liberal arts educated film studies nerd, I really like cultural criticism and media theory and shit like that. I just think that in order to be good at it you have to have a certain kind of glee about your work, even when you are writing about things that outrage and terrify you. Being aware that these particular emotional responses don't and shouldn't be anything like those of people who haven't devoted their lives to picking this stuff apart helps, too. Otherwise the line between 'intelligent criticism' and 'sociopath internet guy' becomes too small.
Anyway, when I first saw these reviews I assumed they were attempting to be something they're not. The more I read the more I realized that this guy is mainly just having a laugh and I am cool with that. All in all there's nothin wrong with that, even if he does come across as a little melodramatic and preachy sometimes. I mean, again, the internet.
Also I haven't seen smokin aces, though I have kind of been meaning to. So! Not entirely off topic! Eh!? |
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rabite gets whacked!
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:24 am |
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By "cultural criticism" do you mean "the use of moral indignation in the vilification of artworks?" I kinda got a vibe of "God! Frank Miller is such a fascist pig and I hate him! Batman sucks too." Perhaps not to the extent of Ebert or Rosenbaum, but yeah.
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| People who seek novelty will inevitably eventually succumb to ennui. |
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SplashBeats
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:31 am |
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| His moral indignation would at least be good counterpoint if he didn't miss the point of almost everything he reviews. |
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evnvnv
hapax legomenon
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: the los angeles
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:23 pm |
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| rabite gets whacked! wrote: |
| By "cultural criticism" do you mean "the use of moral indignation in the vilification of artworks?" I kinda got a vibe of "God! Frank Miller is such a fascist pig and I hate him! Batman sucks too." Perhaps not to the extent of Ebert or Rosenbaum, but yeah. |
no, that's what i mean by 'having a laugh' |
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Max Cola
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Location: a shotgun shack
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 12:46 am |
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| Joe wrote: |
| Alright, man, if you have trouble with me being silly about things |
No, sorry, I didn't mean to be a jerk :(
And I agree with you! I like to do fun things too.
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internisus
shafer sephiroth
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:18 pm |
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I've finally seen Lucky Number Slevin. I probably would not have noticed this movie if not for the reco, so thanks, because it was really excellent. I'll remember Bruce Willis's ghostly appearances with that droning music for a long time. Actually, I think this has more in common with The Usual Suspects than Pulp Fiction. No matter, though.
I rewatched Smokin' Aces awhile back and it wasn't as good as the first time. It lacks imagination, I admit. It's been a long time since I've seen Pulp Fiction, but remembering some of the conversations and monologues definitely puts it in a different class. Thread premise destroyed; good work everybody. |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:08 pm |
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I would just like to say that, despite the squabbling that goes on around here, SB is one of the only places on the internet where someone would dredge up an old topic just so say that he's had a change of heart on a controversial subject.
So uh, bravo I guess.
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Ashura
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Location: Far East of Eden
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| Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:26 pm |
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Glad you liked Lucky Number Slevin. It surprised me how good it was, actually. It was suggested to me by a friend... I watched it right after Smokin' Aces, and was just blown away by how much better it was.
I also liked that Lucy Liu played a part where she wasn't tough as nails serious.
Also, I'm with Cuba. It's pretty awesome that you resurrected this for different reasons than I thought it was resurrected.
As an aside: What exactly does 'if not for the reco' mean? I've never heard that phrase before. Is reco just short for something else and I'm being an idiot here? |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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Ratoslov
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:16 am |
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| Smokin' Aces is Metal Gear Solid 2. |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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internisus
shafer sephiroth
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:27 pm |
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| Ashura wrote: |
Glad you liked Lucky Number Slevin. It surprised me how good it was, actually. It was suggested to me by a friend... I watched it right after Smokin' Aces, and was just blown away by how much better it was.
I also liked that Lucy Liu played a part where she wasn't tough as nails serious.
Also, I'm with Cuba. It's pretty awesome that you resurrected this for different reasons than I thought it was resurrected.
As an aside: What exactly does 'if not for the reco' mean? I've never heard that phrase before. Is reco just short for something else and I'm being an idiot here? |
Yeah, it's just me for "recommendation".
Still feeling the reverberations of Willis in Slevin. I'm starting to realize that he's one of my favorite actors.
I noticed how unusual that was for Liu also. I don't think I've ever seen her so sweet and likable. Not that I mind, for instance, her role in Kill Bill, though (it makes that movie for me).
Guys, if you like my approach to this resurrection, you may be interested to know that I will be bringing back the Force Feedback thread on Half-Life 2 with some new ruminations as well. |
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:18 pm |
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| internisus wrote: |
| Still feeling the reverberations of Willis in Slevin. I'm starting to realize that he's one of my favorite actors. |
Yes - yes!
More people need to realize how fantastic Bruce Willis is.
Also: Michael Madsen. Wow. You say Lucy Liu made Kill Bill for you, but it was Michael Madsen who had my money. (Well and David Carradine but I guess that goes without saying.)
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Ashura
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Location: Far East of Eden
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| Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:03 am |
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| internisus wrote: |
| Yeah, it's just me for "recommendation". |
OH! D'uh. *slaps forehead* |
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