On September 28 2012 08:47 ZapRoffo wrote: On the layers of reality/illusion and the what is real? sci-fi sub-genre, I go to Stanislaw Lem's novel The Futurological Congress as my favorite, most incisive and defining work. And it really felt ahead of its time to me. Also I think it could have adapted into a killer movie, only nowadays it wouldn't feel fresh at all since we've all seen such big works like The Matrix and Inception use the ideas.
The entire The Star Diaries (in English also Memoirs of a Space Traveller, as it was printed in 2 volumes instead of one) by Lem are awesome.
On September 28 2012 08:47 ZapRoffo wrote: On the layers of reality/illusion and the what is real? sci-fi sub-genre, I go to Stanislaw Lem's novel The Futurological Congress as my favorite, most incisive and defining work. And it really felt ahead of its time to me. Also I think it could have adapted into a killer movie, only nowadays it wouldn't feel fresh at all since we've all seen such big works like The Matrix and Inception use the ideas.
The entire The Star Diaries (in English also Memoirs of a Space Traveller, as it was printed in 2 volumes instead of one) by Lem are awesome.
Yeah I haven't read that yet but I know it, my sister is a huge Lem fan and she tells me about all of his stuff. But from what I have read so far, I put him as one of the greatest sci-fi writers ever. And it seems like he's one of those who has tons of ideas that end up showing up in modern movies (usually in less interesting form, like how Inception has to follow a very familiar formula--the heist movie--to be digestible to a blockbuster audience).
Too fucking true. I can't believe I didn't see it until sophomore year of college... but then again, maybe it was best I watched it then so I could fully appreciate it.
Have you seen any of his other movies? I watched reservoir dogs a few weeks after that one, and it was good but not as good as pulp fiction.
Pulp Fiction is definitely his best. The different stories, the natural characters, the cinematography... brilliant. Next I like Inglourious Basterds, then Reservoir Dogs, then Kill Bill. I actually didn't like Kill Bill that much, I feel it is really overrated. I never saw Jackie Brown, but it's definitely on my to watch list.
Jackie Brown was a fantastic movie. S.Jackson was a total badass evil dude. He would make my top 10 most evil people in movies (not movie villains mind you).
I also agree with you on all of those points ,although I can't say if I liked Bastards better then dogs, but thats a close one. I think i'd have to say that Reservoir Dogs was a better movie, but Inglorious Bastards the better experience.
On another note, I watched recently re-watched Shawshank Redemption because of one of the new 5SF's.
I've seen that movie so many times, yet I still enjoy just watching the movie. Over time, I can say that some of the lines have become a little bit cliche, but I supposed I don't mind that too much. Still has to be my all time favorite movie.
....
One thing that I really loved in Reservoir Dogs was the scene that reminisces back to A Clockwork Orange, where + Show Spoiler +
the cop is getting tortured. I like this scene because it contains heavy, brutal violence accompanied by happy/ energetic music. I mean jesus fucking christ is that powerful or what? Seeing someone get cut like that and have the cutter be dancing? Nothing emphasizes fucked-up more than that. There's a similar scene in American Psycho where + Show Spoiler +
the anti-hero kills that man in his apartment, while talking about pop music (sorry I can't remember names)
And speaking of A Clockwork Orange...
This movie. This movie, man. There are no words. Brilliantly filmed, brilliantly written, absolute GENIUS by Stanley Kubrick. I mean, even TODAY the rape scene is shocking. Think about that in 1971, holy shit. And again, it started that whole style of brutal violence accompanied by happy music that is so off putting (See: Reservoir Dogs, American Psycho).
This movie is truly iconic. I mean, Alex DeLarge is like the classic anti hero. He is like the incarnate of evil, but slowly and subtly you kind of start to root for him, in a twisted way. And then it ends on such a note, so... foreboding.
......
That Reservoir Dogs scene was so creepy and excruciating. Honestly, my relief when that scene was over was some of the greatest relief I've ever felt in a movie. My enmity towards that character + Show Spoiler +
Mr Blonde
was more powerful than I've ever felt in a movie, and my desire for vengeance has never been more fulfilled then when + Show Spoiler +
Mr Orange shot Mr Blonde
.
On topic of A Clockwork Orange, I've never seen the movie but I've read the book, with the intended ending, not the American ending pre-1986. In the end of the book, after a few years have passed and Alex has matured, "Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has lost all energy for and thrill from violence and resolves to turn his life around". I'm quoting from wikipedia cause I'm too lazy to describe it myself, and they did a well enough job. I looked up the ending to the movie, and was displeased to find it followed the American ending, and not Anthony Burgess's original ending, which makes me kind of disappointed and reluctant to see the movie. It really grind my gears that the final, and most pivotal, scene from the book is abandoned for the film.
Actually personally I prefer the way that the movie ended. I like foreboding, sad, or just generally unhappy endings, and I felt it was way more realistic. It certainly sent a much different message than the movie did, but I feel that message is just as if not more worthy of admiration (and I don't mean like admiration in the sense of "Oh let me go and do what Alex did.")
Hmm, I typically prefer more positive resolutions I guess. The ending of the book highlited the fact that growth is supposed to occur naturally and not forced, like was done with the conditioning. The ending of the movie sounds like it leaves the idea of "violence prevails", which I don't agree with as much. I don't know, I'll have to watch the movie sometime, right now I'm just basing it off how I read it ended...
Too fucking true. I can't believe I didn't see it until sophomore year of college... but then again, maybe it was best I watched it then so I could fully appreciate it.
Have you seen any of his other movies? I watched reservoir dogs a few weeks after that one, and it was good but not as good as pulp fiction.
Pulp Fiction is definitely his best. The different stories, the natural characters, the cinematography... brilliant. Next I like Inglourious Basterds, then Reservoir Dogs, then Kill Bill. I actually didn't like Kill Bill that much, I feel it is really overrated. I never saw Jackie Brown, but it's definitely on my to watch list.
Jackie Brown was a fantastic movie. S.Jackson was a total badass evil dude. He would make my top 10 most evil people in movies (not movie villains mind you).
I also agree with you on all of those points ,although I can't say if I liked Bastards better then dogs, but thats a close one. I think i'd have to say that Reservoir Dogs was a better movie, but Inglorious Bastards the better experience.
On another note, I watched recently re-watched Shawshank Redemption because of one of the new 5SF's.
I've seen that movie so many times, yet I still enjoy just watching the movie. Over time, I can say that some of the lines have become a little bit cliche, but I supposed I don't mind that too much. Still has to be my all time favorite movie.
....
One thing that I really loved in Reservoir Dogs was the scene that reminisces back to A Clockwork Orange, where + Show Spoiler +
the cop is getting tortured. I like this scene because it contains heavy, brutal violence accompanied by happy/ energetic music. I mean jesus fucking christ is that powerful or what? Seeing someone get cut like that and have the cutter be dancing? Nothing emphasizes fucked-up more than that. There's a similar scene in American Psycho where + Show Spoiler +
the anti-hero kills that man in his apartment, while talking about pop music (sorry I can't remember names)
And speaking of A Clockwork Orange...
This movie. This movie, man. There are no words. Brilliantly filmed, brilliantly written, absolute GENIUS by Stanley Kubrick. I mean, even TODAY the rape scene is shocking. Think about that in 1971, holy shit. And again, it started that whole style of brutal violence accompanied by happy music that is so off putting (See: Reservoir Dogs, American Psycho).
This movie is truly iconic. I mean, Alex DeLarge is like the classic anti hero. He is like the incarnate of evil, but slowly and subtly you kind of start to root for him, in a twisted way. And then it ends on such a note, so... foreboding.
......
That Reservoir Dogs scene was so creepy and excruciating. Honestly, my relief when that scene was over was some of the greatest relief I've ever felt in a movie. My enmity towards that character + Show Spoiler +
Mr Blonde
was more powerful than I've ever felt in a movie, and my desire for vengeance has never been more fulfilled then when + Show Spoiler +
Mr Orange shot Mr Blonde
.
On topic of A Clockwork Orange, I've never seen the movie but I've read the book, with the intended ending, not the American ending pre-1986. In the end of the book, after a few years have passed and Alex has matured, "Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has lost all energy for and thrill from violence and resolves to turn his life around". I'm quoting from wikipedia cause I'm too lazy to describe it myself, and they did a well enough job. I looked up the ending to the movie, and was displeased to find it followed the American ending, and not Anthony Burgess's original ending, which makes me kind of disappointed and reluctant to see the movie. It really grind my gears that the final, and most pivotal, scene from the book is abandoned for the film.
Actually personally I prefer the way that the movie ended. I like foreboding, sad, or just generally unhappy endings, and I felt it was way more realistic. It certainly sent a much different message than the movie did, but I feel that message is just as if not more worthy of admiration (and I don't mean like admiration in the sense of "Oh let me go and do what Alex did.")
Hmm, I typically prefer more positive resolutions I guess. The ending of the book highlited the fact that growth is supposed to occur naturally and not forced, like was done with the conditioning. The ending of the movie sounds like it leaves the idea of "violence prevails", which I don't agree with as much. I don't know, I'll have to watch the movie sometime, right now I'm just basing it off how I read it ended...
Ooooh yeah, I really really recommend it. And I guess if that's where we differ in opinion, it would definitely cause us to have different points of view on the movie vs book.
Haywire - Was pretty excited to see this actually, heard good things about it and having Gina Carano in it was definitely a plus. I dunno, really didn't like it. It just feels very messy the way it goes about with all the flashbacks and everything.
Pumping Iron - This was awesome. A real eye-opening look not just into the world of competitive bodybuilding, but also during a period of time when Arnold Schwarzenegger was dominating it.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - From wiki, "The story depicts an extraterrestrial invasion in a small California town. The invaders replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface but are devoid of any emotion or individuality. A local doctor uncovers what is happening and tries to stop them." Was pretty damn good, and for one of the earlier sci-fi films, it set the bar pretty high. I heard the 1978 remake of it was good as well, have to check it out sometime.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi - "The film follows Jiro Ono, an 85 year-old sushi master and owner of Michelin 3-Star restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro, on his continuing quest to perfect the art of sushi." Follows the life of Jiro Ono, an 85 year-old sushi master, on his continuing quest to perfect the art of sushi. On the way you also kinda take some lessons away from this old man on how to live life to the fullest and with purpose. This is one of the best documentarys I have watched and I am sure I ever will watch. Definitely recommend this, regardless of how you feel about sushi :p
I couldn't watch Haywire. It was too all over the place. I lost interest in it so fast that I turned on the computer and essentially zoned out the movie on accident.
netflix forces me to watch a new movie at least every other day. Its a great thing, usually.
this time, however..
I mean, cute story I guess. But i have no idea how one supposes to have people watch over an hour of speech lessons culminating in his triump in delivering a speech. I mean obviously a little more weight is given to the tone of the film as it's real, and the events take place during WWII. But the setting is only important with regards to the speech as far as the film goes.
On September 28 2012 16:56 Enki wrote: Invasion of the Body Snatchers - From wiki, "The story depicts an extraterrestrial invasion in a small California town. The invaders replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface but are devoid of any emotion or individuality. A local doctor uncovers what is happening and tries to stop them." Was pretty damn good, and for one of the earlier sci-fi films, it set the bar pretty high. I heard the 1978 remake of it was good as well, have to check it out sometime.
Yes! Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the legitimately really good early sci-fis, and yeah, the remake is also really cool, apparently back then remakes weren't just exercises in creative bankruptcy.
I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
Rashomon is definitely a must-see IMO. Even if you don't like the theme/story/whatever, you'll enjoy something out of this film. If you like the thriller genre you'll love how it's made and how it pans out at the end. I was in awe compared to what we have nowadays most of the time.
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
:OOOOO
Just saw Paul Thomas Anderson newest film in theaters. I still do not know what to think of it. The acting is no doubt amazing, but I feel there was no cohesion like Anderson didn't know exactly what to do even if it was meant to be a purely character driven movie. Need to see it again though, if nothing else for the great acting.
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
:OOOOO
Just saw Paul Thomas Anderson newest film in theaters. I still do not know what to think of it. The acting is no doubt amazing, but I feel there was no cohesion like Anderson didn't know exactly what to do even if it was meant to be a purely character driven movie. Need to see it again though, if nothing else for the great acting.
I've been hearing that criticism a lot. I want to think it was intentional, leaving it a bit loosey goosey. Other people call it coy. But I think taking out all the practical or standards of narrative was risky but it paid off for me. I was able to just lose myself from moment to moment with each character. And in the way that our lives don't really have a movie-like narration or cohesion, although we build around it, it felt...I don't know it paid off for me. And the film was more interesting because I could do that, imagine and probe under the surface of it all.
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
:OOOOO
Just saw Paul Thomas Anderson newest film in theaters. I still do not know what to think of it. The acting is no doubt amazing, but I feel there was no cohesion like Anderson didn't know exactly what to do even if it was meant to be a purely character driven movie. Need to see it again though, if nothing else for the great acting.
I've been hearing that criticism a lot. I want to think it was intentional, leaving it a bit loosey goosey. Other people call it coy. But I think taking out all the practical or standards of narrative was risky but it paid off for me. I was able to just lose myself from moment to moment with each character. And in the way that our lives don't really have a movie-like narration or cohesion, although we build around it, it felt...I don't know it paid off for me. And the film was more interesting because I could do that, imagine and probe under the surface of it all.
Love. This. Movie.
I love when directors throw caution to the wind and mess with the standards of narrative (Monte Hellman's recent Road to Nowhere for instance, had to see that one multiple times :D), but there needs to be depth within the narrative structure for me to fully enjoy it. After the first viewing the acting was really the main attraction, it felt more like a confused film overall than say like the endless depth created by Antonioni in his unconventional 1960s narratives. We'll see once I check it out again though. I could have missed a lot of subtext while I was entranced by Joaquin Phoenix and his gestures.
On September 29 2012 07:24 duckmaster wrote: I just watched Rashomon. Had pretty big expectations considering it's directed by Kurosawa and I really liked Seven Samurais. But honestly Rashomon was a pretty big letdown. Yes, people are selfish by nature, am I missing a bigger theme here though?
was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
On September 29 2012 07:33 WniO wrote: was it well filmed? i havent seen it, but would like to at some point. i think tokyo story was pretty overrated for being on those lists with 8.5 and citizen kane. @kingsspeech. it was the best film that year, but social network imo will overtake it in time.
Yep, it was well filmed and acted, just the storyline was tiresome for allegedly one of the best movies ever.
Just stumbled on this thing David Bordwell (one of the leading film professors, he wrote the film history text I used in class) wrote on Nolan which might be interesting here in light of recent discussion. The part under the heading "Synching story and style" I feel like is close to what I was trying to argue is his strength. There's interesting stuff also about what's innovative and not innovate, his technical strength (or lack thereof) and how he approaches raising different thematic things and their ambiguity. I think it's a pretty great covering and examination of the Nolan's work.
Also saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the theater, that was fun. There was a raffle at the start for some pairs of the coconut halves, which the people who won employed with moderate vigor at the appropriate times.
On September 29 2012 01:14 Gene wrote: I couldn't watch Haywire. It was too all over the place. I lost interest in it so fast that I turned on the computer and essentially zoned out the movie on accident.
netflix forces me to watch a new movie at least every other day. Its a great thing, usually.
this time, however..
I mean, cute story I guess. But i have no idea how one supposes to have people watch over an hour of speech lessons culminating in his triump in delivering a speech. I mean obviously a little more weight is given to the tone of the film as it's real, and the events take place during WWII. But the setting is only important with regards to the speech as far as the film goes.
ARE YOU HATING ON MY FAVORITE MOVIE?!?!?! I really don't know why, but I just love this movie, lol. It's just so.......human? I guess?
What makes this movie special to me is the way the characters flow across the night and their stories intertwine without it trying to be some sort of puzzle or gimmick or anything, which really makes sense for a high school story since that what most peoples' high school experiences are like--there's not like "the clique that never interacts outside itself" and "everyone else" like a lot of others seem to show, and it's also not like in Linklater's previous Slacker (which is good and interesting itself) where lives fleetingly intersect at one point (they are a variety of people who have lived in your town and gone to your school for years, they mostly have an ongoing story with you). And it's just a cool story to tell.
Since I love Linklater so much, I have to say, I am dying of curiosity to see how Before Midnight, which apparently is happening, turns out. Before Sunrise seemed like lightning in a bottle I'm sure, but then he goes and makes Before Sunset and it's somehow pretty much perfect and even better, so what is Before Midnight going to be like? There's also a sort of dread there, not even that it will be bad, but more that bad stuff happened to the characters in the interim. If it turns out great though, then I think the Before... Series is going to turn out to be a completely unique, altogether amazing thing and one of the great movie journeys there is.
Acting is passable, though nothing to cry home about as not all of the actors are good. The fact that it's in high school makes it slightly harder to identify with. It's like any other movie with a weird guy and a cute girl. Still it's a good movie.
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