Nabob, you stole my word ("slapstick"). I watched The Spirit today, and the best way I could describe it to my friends afterward was "In the 40's, Will Eisner made a comic that re-defined the medium and maybe a genre, and set forth artistic and story-telling techniques that would be used for decades to come. Sixty years later, Frank Miller made a slapstick comedy about it."
The visuals were absolutely stunning (although I agree with whoever said that the stark-white sneakers were sometimes a distraction). The internal monologue was really nice (I have a soft spot for hard-boiled, noir-y internal monologues, and I have a huge soft spot for characters who exist in some sort of a symbiosis with cities, whatever that might mean; the internal monologues in this movie combined the two things). That was pretty much all I liked.
I really enjoyed Frank Miller's Will Eisner's The Spirit.
Terrible film. Absolutely terrible.
Extremely entertaining, though. It's definitely one of those movies that's really awful and has a ton of holes in it, but still manages to be a lot of fun to watch. Probably a future cult classic.
That movie was horrible. Really, really horrible. It moved at a snail's pace, the dialogue was trying way to hard to be pulpy and just came out silly, the plot (when it did go) was thoroughly unsatisfying, etc, etc. I went in expecting a silly tongue-in-cheek romp, my friends went expecting a gritty crime story, and we all left unsatisfied.
I couldn't tell if the movie was taking itself seriously or not, and not in any sort of good way. For instance, in the flashback where the cop 'names' him, we find out that he knows who the Spirit really was (aka his daughter's husband). That information is quickly dropped and never mentioned again. The whole scene with Plaster of Paris was stupid (hey everyone, in case you couldn't tell who the bad guys are, now their Nazis!) the action scenes were boring (of which there were two) the comedy was tired and forced, and even the visuals seemed worn out.
Two best parts of the movie:
1. The foot-clone-thing. I at least chuckled at it.
2. The line "Something smells dental...and Nazi."
Overall I wish I'd seen Frost/Nixon.
Here's the thing about the Spirit...
if you view it as being Meta and Ironic, it's fucking fantastic.
If you view it as a serious attempt at anything, it sucks balls.
Isn't this the same description people use for All Star Batman?
I dunno... but it's quite possible. Frankly, if Miller was being serious when he made the Spirit, he needs to be stopped. But not taking anything seriously, I laughed my ass off at the movie. I kinda thought I was supposed to. Now I'm not so sure.
Man, my friends and I like to watch bad movies for fun, and we could hardly stay in the theater. It wasn't funny bad, or even funny ridiculous. It was painful. The few times I laughed were the times when I realized that someone had actually produced this thing. That people had seen it, and said to Miller and the actors "You know what? This is fucking brilliant. Ship this thing right now."
I never said it was funny in a "funny bad" kind of way.
I don't think it's bad at all... unless it's supposed to be serious, and then it's awful.
I'm sorry, but if you can't laugh at Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johanson dressed as Nazi's, then trying to convince a super-hero they exactly like them... then I don't know what to tell you. That shit is hilarious on like, three different levels.
Sentry on
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wrote:
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
while i haven't seen The Spirit (and don't really plan to), The Punisher Warzone definitely falls into the category of "hilaribad", but i'm almost certain it's intentional, whereas i'm not so sure if that applies with The Spirit
while i haven't seen The Spirit (and don't really plan to), The Punisher Warzone definitely falls into the category of "hilaribad", but i'm almost certain it's intentional, whereas i'm not so sure if that applies with The Spirit
There were two scenes of Warzone that I actually found funny:
The Italian Stereotype club at the beginning had me fall out of my seat laughing. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a movie in years. It wasn't even a joke or anything, it was just that there were so many of them and they were so stereotypical
Then, when the free runner guy got rocket-shot.
The rest of the movie was just bad-bad, painful-to-watch-bad. I think parts of it that weren't funny were designed to be funny, and the parts that were funny were designed to be brutal/metal/hardcore.
I wasn't sure how the Spirit would be. Even with the slapstick, it still seemed like it might have been trying to be..... I don't know. Semi-serious? But then there was a pivotal scene, and everyone who's seen it will know the scene I'm talking about. It was a scene that was so strange, and somewhat out of place in the movie so far, that it completely changed the trajectory of the film. And after that scene, I had already made up my mind that it was a lot of fun.
Tell us what you think Servo. So far, I think everyone is right about it. lol
Sentry on
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wrote:
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
The visuals were absolutely stunning (although I agree with whoever said that the stark-white sneakers were sometimes a distraction).
i thought the sneakers, if nothing else, were a pretty clear visual signal that frank miller was purposefully putting his own spin on the movie.
i agree with everyone who said that the movie was hilarious and intentionally so. i found the henchman far more amusing than i probably should have and you just have to look at the spirit's conversation with ellen right after he fights the octopus for the first time in the beginning to see that it was pretty much a flat out comedy.
Even if it was flat out comedy, it was just so boring. I've never seen people walk out of a movie like that before. Literally, a nearly full theater was half empty by the time the credits rolled around. The rest of the people there either seemed to be carrying on their own conversations about how bad the movie was, or sleeping.
I only stayed because I paid ten dollars for the ticket and I like to suffer.
Even if it was flat out comedy, it was just so boring. I've never seen people walk out of a movie like that before. Literally, a nearly full theater was half empty by the time the credits rolled around. The rest of the people there either seemed to be carrying on their own conversations about how bad the movie was, or sleeping.
I only stayed because I paid ten dollars for the ticket and I like to suffer.
I really don't know if it was an intentional comedy or not; I just know it was the first time I've ever felt like I was wasting my time in a movie theater.
Has Miller ever indicated any amount of self-awareness in his interviews, or are we just divided about whether or not to give him the benefit of the doubt?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that Miller simply woke up one morning and decided that he'd spend the rest of his career parodying himself.
I don't know, but if it wasn't deconstructionist and meta, then it was damn lucky. I don't know what you guys are talking about seriously, I liked this movie a lot.
Sentry on
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wrote:
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
Maybe he was just angry or depressed or something in the 80s.
Maybe it was Cold War paranoia that made him go light on the humor originally.
Eventually you just grow to accept that the world could end any moment, and you become less driven by political factors and mellow out a bit. I guess what I'm saying is, maybe he's always been like this but was just driven to self-censor when he felt the world was much more volatile and that so much more was on the line. Now he's probably learned some life-lesson about saying what you mean or some warm, fluffy shit, and just writes exactly what comes to him now without even a second thought.
I mean, who would say no to Frank Miller these days?
It's weird though, this recurring reaction to all of Frank Miller's modern work. "This is terrible ... unless it's supposed to be terrible. Then it's hilarious!"
If this movie does poorly, will Sin City 2 and 3 ever get made?
DouglasDanger on
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David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
edited January 2009
Without having seen the movie, I do understand the people who are upset about the adaption that was done.
When someone claims his reasons for doing a movie is "I can't let anyone else touch this", it does create the impression that he's going to do it so someone else wouldn't ruin it. Not so someone else wouldn't ruin it first.
That said, I'll probably still see it. Go go Gadget-freebie tickets.
If this movie does poorly, will Sin City 2 and 3 ever get made?
Since Robert had nothing to do with this, the fact that Sin City is a dark horse property, that Dimension did Sin City while Lions Gate did the Spirit, I'd ask why the hell you'd think this matters to the production of Sin City.
It's weird though, this recurring reaction to all of Frank Miller's modern work. "This is terrible ... unless it's supposed to be terrible. Then it's hilarious!"
Well, usually the stuff is still terrible, but at least that view of things allows Miller-work to be relentlessly entertaining, you know?
I don't understand the whole "it's supposed to be bad" approach. It's extremely obvious that "it's supposed to be funny." Both Spirit and ASBAR are clearly supposed to be funny. Especially Spirit, there's no way that someone actually watched that whole movie should even have a shred of a doubt as to whether its supposed to be a 'serious crime drama' or what the hell people are expecting out of it.
On a side note, though. A dude uploaded the full '87 Spirit TV movie on youtube the other day. It's not great, but I really like Eubie, the movie's answer to Ebony and there were a few points that had some physical humor in it.
The wife and I ended up seeing The Spirit after being stuck at dinner longer than we expected and thus missing the movie we wanted to see (Curious Case). She ended up going to sleep and I, good lord, I watched the entire thing. It was easily the worst film I've seen since...I don't know, Van Helsing. Just bad in every way.
Accualt on
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NogsCrap, crap, mega crap.Crap, crap, mega crap.Registered Userregular
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
If you hate yourself, Batman and Robin is a perfectly acceptable film. House of the DEad will make you want to die no matter your prior state of mentality.
I don't understand the whole "it's supposed to be bad" approach. It's extremely obvious that "it's supposed to be funny." Both Spirit and ASBAR are clearly supposed to be funny. Especially Spirit, there's no way that someone actually watched that whole movie should even have a shred of a doubt as to whether its supposed to be a 'serious crime drama' or what the hell people are expecting out of it.
On a side note, though. A dude uploaded the full '87 Spirit TV movie on youtube the other day. It's not great, but I really like Eubie, the movie's answer to Ebony and there were a few points that had some physical humor in it.
I think people were expecting it to be "any good".
Oh I haven't even seen it. But I'm of the opinion that Frank Miller lost his mind after 9/11, or at least the part not dedicated to thinking about hookers.
i recently watched batman and robin, you have to remind yourself of the approach of this movie, which is a kiddie style comic book flashy action fest, or something like that. the genius of the 90s batman was gone when tim burton left the set. simple as that.
i recently watched batman and robin, you have to remind yourself of the approach of this movie, which is a kiddie style comic book flashy action fest, or something like that. the genius of the 90s batman was gone when tim burton left the set. simple as that.
and those nipples why? they serve no purpose.
To be fair, your nipples probably don't serve any purpose either.
i recently watched batman and robin, you have to remind yourself of the approach of this movie, which is a kiddie style comic book flashy action fest, or something like that. the genius of the 90s batman was gone when tim burton left the set. simple as that.
and those nipples why? they serve no purpose.
To be fair, your nipples probably don't serve any purpose either.
Posts
The visuals were absolutely stunning (although I agree with whoever said that the stark-white sneakers were sometimes a distraction). The internal monologue was really nice (I have a soft spot for hard-boiled, noir-y internal monologues, and I have a huge soft spot for characters who exist in some sort of a symbiosis with cities, whatever that might mean; the internal monologues in this movie combined the two things). That was pretty much all I liked.
Terrible film. Absolutely terrible.
Extremely entertaining, though. It's definitely one of those movies that's really awful and has a ton of holes in it, but still manages to be a lot of fun to watch. Probably a future cult classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szwxElvYzMg
The Dollar Bill shot surprised me.
Man, my friends and I like to watch bad movies for fun, and we could hardly stay in the theater. It wasn't funny bad, or even funny ridiculous. It was painful. The few times I laughed were the times when I realized that someone had actually produced this thing. That people had seen it, and said to Miller and the actors "You know what? This is fucking brilliant. Ship this thing right now."
I don't think it's bad at all... unless it's supposed to be serious, and then it's awful.
I'm sorry, but if you can't laugh at Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johanson dressed as Nazi's, then trying to convince a super-hero they exactly like them... then I don't know what to tell you. That shit is hilarious on like, three different levels.
There were two scenes of Warzone that I actually found funny:
Then, when the free runner guy got rocket-shot.
The rest of the movie was just bad-bad, painful-to-watch-bad. I think parts of it that weren't funny were designed to be funny, and the parts that were funny were designed to be brutal/metal/hardcore.
I wasn't sure how the Spirit would be. Even with the slapstick, it still seemed like it might have been trying to be..... I don't know. Semi-serious? But then there was a pivotal scene, and everyone who's seen it will know the scene I'm talking about. It was a scene that was so strange, and somewhat out of place in the movie so far, that it completely changed the trajectory of the film. And after that scene, I had already made up my mind that it was a lot of fun.
Just saying.
i thought the sneakers, if nothing else, were a pretty clear visual signal that frank miller was purposefully putting his own spin on the movie.
i agree with everyone who said that the movie was hilarious and intentionally so. i found the henchman far more amusing than i probably should have and you just have to look at the spirit's conversation with ellen right after he fights the octopus for the first time in the beginning to see that it was pretty much a flat out comedy.
I only stayed because I paid ten dollars for the ticket and I like to suffer.
I really don't know if it was an intentional comedy or not; I just know it was the first time I've ever felt like I was wasting my time in a movie theater.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that Miller simply woke up one morning and decided that he'd spend the rest of his career parodying himself.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Maybe it was Cold War paranoia that made him go light on the humor originally.
Eventually you just grow to accept that the world could end any moment, and you become less driven by political factors and mellow out a bit. I guess what I'm saying is, maybe he's always been like this but was just driven to self-censor when he felt the world was much more volatile and that so much more was on the line. Now he's probably learned some life-lesson about saying what you mean or some warm, fluffy shit, and just writes exactly what comes to him now without even a second thought.
I mean, who would say no to Frank Miller these days?
When someone claims his reasons for doing a movie is "I can't let anyone else touch this", it does create the impression that he's going to do it so someone else wouldn't ruin it. Not so someone else wouldn't ruin it first.
That said, I'll probably still see it. Go go Gadget-freebie tickets.
Probably. It's not like Frank Miller was going to direct those.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Since Robert had nothing to do with this, the fact that Sin City is a dark horse property, that Dimension did Sin City while Lions Gate did the Spirit, I'd ask why the hell you'd think this matters to the production of Sin City.
Well, usually the stuff is still terrible, but at least that view of things allows Miller-work to be relentlessly entertaining, you know?
On a side note, though. A dude uploaded the full '87 Spirit TV movie on youtube the other day. It's not great, but I really like Eubie, the movie's answer to Ebony and there were a few points that had some physical humor in it.
EDIT: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4224975641/ watchmen video I had yet to come across. It has a few clips I hadn't seen elsewhere, including a good shot of moloch.
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Thread over.
I think people were expecting it to be "any good".
Oh I haven't even seen it. But I'm of the opinion that Frank Miller lost his mind after 9/11, or at least the part not dedicated to thinking about hookers.
and those nipples why? they serve no purpose.
To be fair, your nipples probably don't serve any purpose either.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Burn!