A few films recently watched.

  On 3/10/2011 at 9:33 PM, disparaissant said:

cat-insignificant-difference-of-opinion, maybe?

:(

just wanted to see some action...

  On 3/10/2011 at 8:41 PM, thanks robert moses said:

Paths of Glory

Received the Criterion Blu Ray as a gift for Christmas, absolutely beautiful film! That reverse tracking shot through the trenches... A technique I dont really remember seeing in any other films of that time period.

saw Pandorum....was half surprised at how cool some of the ideas were, and half disappointed by the weird Mortal-Kombat action sequences...they seemed so very, very unnecessary...and it definitely ruins the creepiness of the plot/narrative when you karate kick the shit out of one of those seemingly invincible man monsters.

like i love the stop-motion type cuts they do to show how much faster the monsters move..but why do they get so easily fucked up when they take a human head on?

but the ideas/setting is good...i always love horror movies or "space adventure gone horribly wrong"....perfect movie setting for me.

im not sure what to grade it....maybe a 5.5/10?

also, i cant stand Ben Foster. I dunno what it is, his face, or the way whenever he gets hit in this movie he makes THE EXACT SAME FACE AND SOUND EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME

  On 3/10/2011 at 9:59 PM, goffer said:

  On 3/10/2011 at 8:41 PM, thanks robert moses said:

Paths of Glory

Received the Criterion Blu Ray as a gift for Christmas, absolutely beautiful film! That reverse tracking shot through the trenches... A technique I dont really remember seeing in any other films of that time period.

i was just watching blackadder goes forth, specifically the episode where he shoots melchett's prized carrier pigeon and is court martialed in a pretty blatant parody of paths of glory, haha.

  On 3/10/2011 at 4:37 AM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

you put words in my mouth, i didn't say it was good quality, i just think it is a bit stretched being that anal about a movie like machete (that makes you sound so much like an hater lol), cause after all, it's just about fun, maybe you think the idea about the whole movie is a bit pretentious, well, fuck it, maybe it is, but to me, it's just good lols

i didn't think it was pretentious i think it was an extreme misfire on every level. Almost nothing worked about the movie besides the really entertaining opening scene in Mexico, everything in the US was boring as fuck. I hope you're using the word hater as a parody of an insecure teenager!

  On 3/10/2011 at 8:41 PM, thanks robert moses said:

 

 

Next up: Paths of Glory, Straw Dogs.

There were aspects of Straw Dogs i found very hard to have suspension of disbelief over, but its worth watching because of what it builds up to at the end. Its one of those movies where the female characters make so many bad decisions that at one point you just want to punch them in the face (and no im not saying she was asking for you know what)

i was very disappointed when i eventually saw Straw Dogs but Paths of Glory is one of Kubrick's best films.

  On 3/10/2011 at 4:24 PM, Haldermaniac said:

  On 3/10/2011 at 12:37 PM, disparaissant said:

it's still the best damn sci fi show ever.

 

respectfully disagree, the pilot episodes are good, but it doesn't hold a candle to TNG or X-Files

i have to agree, the continuing story arc of BSG was it's downfall in my opinion. They needed to create a situation where they had more freedom to be creative and do more one-off episodes.

You mean like season 3, the worst BSG season?

U R RONG ABOUT BSG ON THA INTERNARD

edit: the only problem with the continuing story line is that a rough draft of a resolution obviously never got with 37 meters of the series bible.

lol, I said "bible" Glen Larson is a Mormon lol

campy is probably the wrong term, I should have said cheesy or silly. I could not stand starbuck from the first episode and I quit watching around when they landed on that planet.

fair enough but i still can't see it as being cheesier or sillier than tng or x-files. if you only saw up until new caprica, you missed a hell of a lot of hopelessness, though.

If you stop watching BSG about halfway through Season 4 it's the most delightfully bleak ending evar.

  On 3/11/2011 at 12:54 AM, baph said:

If you stop watching BSG about halfway through Season 4 it's the most delightfully bleak ending evar.

that's where i like to pretend the show ends.

Me too. I have yet to purchase Season 4.5 and complete my household BSG collection, even though my gf is a supa-fan and is all: Y U NO BUY BSG FOR BY BIRTHDAY?

Actually, though, I thought Caprica (Series) was doing an admirable job of filing in the God-shaped plot hole that brought BSG down in the end. For me, anyway. Caprica started a little silly but it was going a bit pleasantly hard-SF/cyberpunk near the end and exploring the idea of Cylon God as Cylon AI. It didn't have a chance to explore that fully, but it was clearly a goal.

edit: I feel like I've made this post nearly verbatim before so sorry if I'm solo jazzing.

  On 3/11/2011 at 1:26 AM, baph said:

Me too. I have yet to purchase Season 4.5 and complete my household BSG collection, even though my gf is a supa-fan and is all: Y U NO BUY BSG FOR BY BIRTHDAY?

 

Actually, though, I thought Caprica (Series) was doing an admirable job of filing in the God-shaped plot hole that brought BSG down in the end. For me, anyway. Caprica started a little silly but it was going a bit pleasantly hard-SF/cyberpunk near the end and exploring the idea of Cylon God as Cylon AI. It didn't have a chance to explore that fully, but it was clearly a goal.

 

edit: I feel like I've made this post nearly verbatim before so sorry if I'm solo jazzing.

i watched caprica up until patton oswalt showed up. that was a bit too much, couldn't suspend disbelief anymore. had a hard enough time with lance the heroin addict and his daughter ann "mayoneggs" veal, haha. i'll probably give it another go if i get bored enough.

  On 3/10/2011 at 8:54 PM, The Overlook said:

Absolutely. I think zaphod and myself, possibly others, have also expressed sheer delight and a bit of amazement at the DC of Kingdom of Heaven.

  On 3/10/2011 at 8:41 PM, thanks robert moses said:

Next up: Paths of Glory, Straw Dogs.

/hi5

 

Now there's a double feature!

I am so down with this. Straw Dogs is fantastic. Not going to bother elaborating, but it is a fine film.

rosso come il cielo - 8/10

A Serbian Film - this was the cut version I presume, as watmm had spoiled the "baby fucking" for me, but it ended up not happening on mine. Anyway it was a stupid fucking film, they had a pretty strong idea and they threw it all away.

Notes on how not to make a film:

- do not show the climax of the film in flashbacks. It robs it of all vitality. Clearly they thought all the degrading scenes were getting a bit "same-y", so they tried to mix up the time frame a bit, but fucked it up in the process.

- if you're going to start making a psychological portrait of someone, don't give up partway through. The filmmaker was an interesting guy, but it seemed like they just decided to stop trying to explain why he was doing what he was doing.

- gradually increase the scale of the shocks you give the audience. If you stick a baby fucking midway through your film, everything after will be anticlimactic...

- don't pull your punches. I was surprised that for a shock film it was actually rather tame. It had a typical ass kickin' finale, rather than the harrowing, uncompromising punch to the gut I was expecting.

In summary: go see Animal Kingdom instead, much more shocking and nerve wracking.

  On 3/11/2011 at 8:03 AM, lumpenprol said:

If you stick a baby fucking midway through your film, everything after will be anticlimactic...

lol i don't think i'm going to let you live this one down lump.

Elite Squad 2: 7/10

(Enjoyable & fairly intelligent but there was something missing...)

Waste Land: 8/10

(A little too knowingly sentimental & not critical enough however)

My Joy: 8/10

(Bleak)

  On 3/11/2011 at 12:59 PM, keltoi said:

  On 3/11/2011 at 8:03 AM, lumpenprol said:

If you stick a baby fucking midway through your film, everything after will be anticlimactic...

 

lol i don't think i'm going to let you live this one down lump.

funny thing is I didn't even see it as my version didn't have it - I had my remote in hand, ready to stop if it got too revolting, and then nothing happened. I guess in the safe version, they have the in-movie director spell everything out for you: "Don't you get it? Newborn porn!" he shouts, and that's it.

Elite Squad 2 - Dunn liek it, should have been more like the first one but I guess they felt guilty and chickened out and tried to be all but it ended up looking like a high production Miami Vice episode. First one is still class though.

ok so after turning it off prematurely and dissing it before, I decided to give the king's speech another chance. Made it through to the end, actually a good film despite the fact that it was clear Oscar bait. Heartening for those of us with a fear of public speaking. 8.5/10

  On 3/12/2011 at 12:56 AM, vasio said:

Elite Squad 2 - Dunn liek it, should have been more like the first one but I guess they felt guilty and chickened out and tried to be all but it ended up looking like a high production Miami Vice episode. First one is still class though.

Adaptation - 3/10: no comment

À bout de souffle (Breathless) - 8.5/10: great!!!

  On 3/12/2011 at 7:21 AM, kokoon said:

Adaptation - 3/10: no comment

a score that low on a movie that isn't that bad... i'm curious and kind of want a comment :P