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I Tried to be a Serious [FILM] Thread
Fatboy Roberts
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Once upon a time, America was a place where we made things. Physical things. Things wrought from iron and steel, widgets and plastic gewgaws and doodads that our parents, and our parents parents, would trudge into factories to create. They got a good wage, and a sense of satisfaction from this physical, sweaty, greasy work, and thanks to that work, we were fed, and we were clothed, and we were left at home with a big fucking television with which to watch the only product America seems to be great at making anymore: Pop-Culture, in general.
Films, in specific.
But this is not merely a thread about American movies, for there are directors like Jean Luc Godard and Jean Pierre Jeunet, Lucio Fulci & Federico Fellini, Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish, whose works deserve just as much thought and appreciation as directors like Steven Spielberg & Francis Ford Coppola, or Martin Scorsese & Christopher Nolan. Sometimes these titans of cinema get in fights with each other like any co-worker or peer will. For example:
- Ingmar Berman on Orson Welles:
“For me he’s just a hoax. It’s empty. It’s not interesting. It’s dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of — is all the critics’ darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it’s a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie’s got is absolutely unbelievable.”
- Spike Lee on Tyler Perry:
“We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?”
- Tyler Perry on Spike Lee:
“Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that… Spike needs to shut the hell up!”
- Jacques Rivette on James Cameron:
“Cameron isn’t evil, he’s not an asshole like Spielberg. He wants to be the new De Mille. Unfortunately, he can’t direct his way out of a paper bag."
- Kevin Smith on Paul Thomas Anderson (specifically, Magnolia):
“I’ll never watch it again, but I will keep it. I’ll keep it right on my desk, as a constant reminder that a bloated sense of self-importance is the most unattractive quality in a person or their work.”
- David Gordon Green on Kevin Smith:
“He kind of created a Special Olympics for film. They just kind of lowered the standard. I’m sure their parents are proud; it’s just nothing I care to buy a ticket for.”
- David Cronenberg on M. Night Shymalan:
“I HATE that guy! Next question.”
We can discuss that, because it's fun to realize that even though they commandeer giant productions, even though they are field generals who spend large chunks of their lives under enormous pressure spending millions of other people's money, often they're still maladjusted nerds who haven't really gotten over a high-school mentality. Like a lot of us.
This isn't just thread about summer blockbusters, either - although it can be that, too. There's no need to chain the topic of discussion to limited release indie films, things Steven Soderbergh has dreamed about, or a $2 documentary about Giraffe Farts that you saw on Netflix last night that really spoke to the essence of the human condition. Those things are worthy of discussion, yes, but sometimes you want to smash "The Matrix" up against "Inception" like a 6 year old in a sandbox, playing with tonka trucks. Sometimes, some of the most insightful discussion about filmmakers can come from the most surprising sources - like for example, Michael Bay:
In Which We Glimpse Our Hero in His Youth
Michael Benjamin Bay grew up in a middle-class household in Southern California, the adopted son of Jim and Harriet Bay. In school, he had trouble focusing—what would probably now be diagnosed as ADD—but showed an early talent for physics, photography, the making of things.
Bay: I grew up in the Valley. My dad was an accountant, my mom was a therapist for kids.
Brad Fuller (partner, Platinum Dunes, Bay's film company): I met him at Hebrew school, but I think he denies that.
Bay: I was a shy kid, but I was very good at baseball for my age. I won MVP many times. I was like a quiet jock. I also did theater. I did The Pirates of Penzance. I had to memorize an hour and a half operetta.
Harriet Bay (mother): He was the lead, singing Frederic. I never laughed so hard in my life.
Bay: I was into these very advanced trains sets, with towns and cities and whatever, the detail of it. I remember my parents came to me: "Michael, we think you need to get outside more." And I'm thinking, "Am I fucked up?"
Harriet Bay: Some people these days call energy like that ADD-kind of energy.
K. C. Hodenfield (first assistant director, various Bay films): I had started a softball team at Lucasfilm, and there was this whiny teenage kid who would come around with the president of the company's son, wanting to play in the games. So I gotta get this kid some playing time. Ends up it was Michael Bay.
Ian Bryce (producer, various Bay films): In 1980 I was parking cars at Lucasfilm, and Michael was a summer intern; he was filing Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboards in the photo department.
Bay: I was 15. The first thing I ever said to Steven [Spielberg] was, "I really thought Raiders of the Lost Ark was going to suck."
Read More http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201107/michael-bay-oral-history#ixzz1UqvbfdlB
George Romero. Ghostbusters. The Coen Brothers. John Williams. Welcome to Earf. I hid under your porch because I love you. Superman. Swear to Me! Don't say the Zed Word. The Maltese Falcon. Tears in rain. I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is The Cup Test. PC Load Letter? What the fuck does THAT mean? The Horror...the Horror. Die Hard. Predator. Wallace and Gromit. Peter Lorre. Danny Trejo. Gandalf. Magneto. TETSUOOOOOO! Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I'm getting too old for this shit. Tell your sister you were right.
It's our time down here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSEYXWmEse8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP1-oquwoL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0g3tEcM0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GroDErHIM_0This is the film thread.
The best show you've never heard
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Fatboy Roberts on
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Sorry guys. I almost never try to start threads - shoulda known I'd fuck it up somehow
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
OP/Perry 2012.
Voting? Bah, that's the pussy way to solve this.
I say Fatboy Roberts and wandering fight to the death.
Screw the haters, Silent Hill was good.
I hope Silent Hill 2 can fix the problems of the first and transcend all the hate.
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Is Gans coming back for the sequel? I really liked Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Steam
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
The opening is honestly just as good, if not a little better than the one in the 2nd film.
Normally I think 3D is a tacky gimmick, and I especially thought this when I heard they were gonna do this one in 3D, because the last one was 3D as well. But the 3D in this one was perfect and well-used. Granted, the opening credits are annoying and cheesy, but that was the worst use of 3D in the entire movie.
And I don't say this about very many films, but this was one movie where, when it ended, I was surprised, as in, "WHAT? IT'S BEEN 95 MINUTES ALREADY?!" Normally movies drag through the running time. But here, aside from the opening credits and
And if you want ultraviolence and ridiculousness, this has it in spades. The bridge scene proves that.
Steam
The Wife already subscribes to Netflix Instant. 7.99 a month, we use it pretty liberally.
I am considering subscribing to Hulu Plus for another 7.99 a month, to complement the Netflix subscription.
I know there is a fair amount of overlap between the two when it comes to television shows. It seems that Netflix has the deeper bench when it comes to programming and movies - but Hulu Plus has a LOT more recent television programming, kept up-to-date much faster, AND they have access to the Criterion Collection library, plus pretty much every Universal and Fox movie I'd want to get my hands on that I don't already own on DVD (Star Wars/Alien Trilogy/Back To The Future)
Basically, if I do this, I'll be doing it to stay up to date on Comedy Central/Fox/NBC shows, but primarily for the access to the Fox/Universal film libraries, and ESPECIALLY the Criterion stuff
Is this a good call?
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
It was a return to form and easily as good as the first 3.
The series knows what's up and there are frequent callbacks to the other movies hidden throughout the film, not to mention that tongue-in-cheek tone the movie took on.
Basically, this is a send off for the franchise for anyone who has enjoyed the past films.
and I think it will be the last, if my screening was any indication. (I live in a college town and there were maybe...50 seats sold.)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50798
This story might get very interesting.
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
It seems that it's more that The Lone Ranger is overly Amerocentric to make a good tentpole.
I'm thinking about not getting dvds from netflix and doing exactly this, I tend to watch more things on streaming than actual media anyway.
Who knows, maybe he nailed it.
I don't really buy the 'Amerocentric' concerns. At this point I think that large parts of Europe and Russia may actually have a more romantic outlook on the Wild West than America itself does. Me, I know most of the basis of the Lone Ranger from Far Side comic strips and little else. I doubt if there was enough meat on the project to justify the pricetag, particularly with a lesser-known lead actor involved. Now, if Tron Legacy had been a clear-cut success, and Prince of Persia had performed better, Disney would've rolled right along with it, but I can't help but wonder if they've taken on a few things in the past couple of years that didn't perform entirely as expected for them, and felt this one was a bit light in the boots, so to speak.
even I like that guy
e: the word 'like' is perhaps not strong enough to be fully accurate
big fan of the movie but I haven't watched it in a couple years. probably in the next few nights I'll get to it. jarmusch mmm
Love this cheesy ass movie
If you plan to use to watch current TV shows do some research first. Some shows on Hulu Plus are "web-only" and unwatchable on the Xbox version of the service. I haven't run into this with any of the movies, but a HUGE swath of the television shows won't work on your Xbox anyway. If they are shows that you watch on TV or don't watch at all anyway, then it's worth it. But I'll be cancelling mine before the next sub fee comes up because too many of the shows I want to watch with it are "web-only"
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie