Movies

[irishjayhawk]

Yeah, so I saw a lot of movies this weekend.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Mediocre, at best. Slow and dragged on. Shorten it to 2 hours and it's golden. It's not, so it fails.

Michael Clayton - Amazing. Everything about it is awesome. However, it's VERY complex and mind bending. You have to think, so be prepared. I still feel like I'm missing key details of exactly what happened. Gotta see it again.

Across the Universe - Perfect is one word that comes to mind. It just works. And, contrary to many people I bet, the movie is best viewed sober. Trust me.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Yeah, I guess if you don't count infidelity (or at least an openness to it), dishonesty, and sexual interest in an underaged girl faults, you've got the Bateman character nailed.

[Reaper]that I don't recall the specifics of the movie is testament to it's suckiness[/Reaper]

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Yeah, I guess if you don't count infidelity (or at least an openness to it), dishonesty, and sexual interest in an underaged girl faults, you've got the Bateman character nailed.

Welp, I was wrong. Damn; Juno was some forgettable shit. I would watch it again so as to make a proper assessment but there are cheaper and faster ways to annoy myself.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Welp, I was wrong. Damn; Juno was some forgettable shit. I would watch it again so as to make a proper assessment but there are cheaper and faster ways to annoy myself.

You KNOW I had to quote that for posterity.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

You KNOW I had to quote that for posterity.

You KNOW I had to post that after your post specifically for the lulz.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Welp, I was wrong. Damn; Juno was some forgettable shit. I would watch it again so as to make a proper assessment but there are cheaper and faster ways to annoy myself.

Fair enough, LOL

[NewChief]

Watched Inglorious Bastards tonight. I really, really enjoyed it. I'm glad for the mixed reviews, because it lowered my expectations quite a bit to the point that I wasn't even sure going in that I'd like the movie. As such, I ended up loving it.

I'd probably rate it in the top tier of QT movies for my personal tastes. Take out all of his QT film-geek homage nerdiness and soundtrack brilliance and all of the other artsy shit that make him great, and one fact remains: QT can just spin a good ****ing yarn.

[NewChief]

Also saw District 9. I enjoyed it, but the cinematography bothered me. They tried to keep the mockumentary roots of the youtube short by splicing in little documentary pieces and surveillance video footage. But that made no sense, because other parts of the movie were just conventionally shot. As such, it made from a completely inconsistent point of view for the movie. I still liked it, but that kept bothering me. I'd just as soon they completely scrapped the mockumentary roots of the movie and just shot it conventionally as trying to make some kind of hybrid mockumentary.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by NewPhin

Watched Inglorious Bastards tonight. I really, really enjoyed it. I'm glad for the mixed reviews, because it lowered my expectations quite a bit to the point that I wasn't even sure going in that I'd like the movie. As such, I ended up loving it.

I'd probably rate it in the top tier of QT movies for my personal tastes. Take out all of his QT film-geek homage nerdiness and soundtrack brilliance and all of the other artsy shit that make him great, and one fact remains: QT can just spin a good ****ing yarn.

Unlike any other QT movie, this one has intellectual shit going on. Take the climatic theater scene for instance. The Germans are watching a propaganda flick in which dozens upon dozens of enemy soldiers are killed. The crowd hoots and hollars and cheers wildly each and every Allied forces death. Then the twin plans of the Basterds and Ms. Mimeuix come to fruition and the Nazi elite are mowed down with gunfire as the theater burns to the ground. And we, the audience watching a movie, cheer with relish each and every one of the German deaths. In effect QT turned us all into what we so wish violence upon -- our reaction to the Nazis dying is the exact same as the reaction of the Nazi audience watching Allied soldiers die! It harkens back to the speech in the film's first, tremendous scene where Landa remarks that people hate Jews for no real reason, that people just know deep down that they don't like rats/Jews. Well we obviously don't like Nazis; we throw justice overbpard in favor of fiery, bloody revenge.

Think about it: QT could cast any actor he wants. For the role of The Bear Jew, in a film that is largely about violence (and propaganda) in movies, he casts the director of films whose audience adores the "torture porn" of it all. It is not a coincidence.

[Jerm]

So I was in Wal-Mart late the other night, found Munich for $4, had seen it in forever so I picked it up.

Forgot how good of a movie this is, love it...one of Spielberg's most underrated flicks.

[irishjayhawk]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Unlike any other QT movie, this one has intellectual shit going on. Take the climatic theater scene for instance. The Germans are watching a propaganda flick in which dozens upon dozens of enemy soldiers are killed. The crowd hoots and hollars and cheers wildly each and every Allied forces death. Then the twin plans of the Basterds and Ms. Mimeuix come to fruition and the Nazi elite are mowed down with gunfire as the theater burns to the ground. And we, the audience watching a movie, cheer with relish each and every one of the German deaths. In effect QT turned us all into what we so wish violence upon -- our reaction to the Nazis dying is the exact same as the reaction of the Nazi audience watching Allied soldiers die! It harkens back to the speech in the film's first, tremendous scene where Landa remarks that people hate Jews for no real reason, that people just know deep down that they don't like rats/Jews. Well we obviously don't like Nazis; we throw justice overbpard in favor of fiery, bloody revenge.

Think about it: QT could cast any actor he wants. For the role of The Bear Jew, in a film that is largely about violence (and propaganda) in movies, he casts the director of films whose audience adores the "torture porn" of it all. It is not a coincidence.

Though I didn't really think that much into IB, this makes a whole lot of sense. However, I have one nitpick. I consider there to be a difference between an audience laughing at a revisionist, caricature history and Hitler and the Nazi army and an audience laughing at troops killed in war. In other words, QT's audience hates the Nazis for a reason - not "no reason". If it was simply the German people with no affiliation to the Nazis, Landa would be right on the money. But I doubt any audience would be laughing at the German people getting mowed down. Just as I doubt there mainstream Americans despise today's Germans and Germany.

[KCUnited]

Got around to watching District 9. I found the beginning of the movie to be outstanding and then the same old story of the out of luck guy does something amazing for someone else crept in like almost every other movie. It was like Bruce Willis detonating the asteroid all over again. If you can get over the same underlying story its entertaining, I appreciated the look of the aliens and their pitch shifted voices. Every time they spoke I found myself yearning for a devastating guitar riff and a blast beat.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Though I didn't really think that much into IB, this makes a whole lot of sense. However, I have one nitpick. I consider there to be a difference between an audience laughing at a revisionist, caricature history and Hitler and the Nazi army and an audience laughing at troops killed in war. In other words, QT's audience hates the Nazis for a reason - not "no reason". If it was simply the German people with no affiliation to the Nazis, Landa would be right on the money. But I doubt any audience would be laughing at the German people getting mowed down. Just as I doubt there mainstream Americans despise today's Germans and Germany.

Sure. Revenge is a reason to hate, though not a good one but perhaps an inherently human one, and this film is certainly a revenge fantasy.

I'd wager that nearly everyone who saw the film would agree that they would prefer the IG defeat of the Nazis to the real-life way that the Nazis were defeated. The revisionist fantasy history is actually preferable. I see IG making a case for movies with this movie. The cinema has the power to make real the precise kinds of delusions that we crave. We long for story, for emotion, for propaganda to give us direction. Movies give us all of these. Movies are at the very center of IG; one could say that IG is all about the movies. IG makes a case for movies as a vital, necessary part of our lives.

[Buck]

I saw "The Hurt Locker."

Its sort of a mind-**** movie, in that it just depresses the hell out of you.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Buck

I saw "The Hurt Locker."

Its sort of a mind-**** movie, in that it just depresses the hell out of you.

The Hurt Locker, huh? Is that what they're calling the Chargers/Jets game out in San Diego this morning?

Sorry to kick you while you're down, but I couldn't resist.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by patteeu

The Hurt Locker, huh? Is that what they're calling the Chargers/Jets game out in San Diego this morning?

Sorry to kick you while you're down, but I couldn't resist.

I'll be watching The Bourne Identity later today. Figure out something for that.