[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

He, he...yeah, it was an advance showing.

I liked the part where it ended. That was certainly a resolution.

Maybe I spoke too soon.

I'm, watching the season premiere of "South Park" and there's a serious drop in writing quality.

And Cartman's voice is off. Butters, too. And what's this? Officer Barbrady actually gets to speak for the firtst time in about two or more seasons. But his voice is off as well.

The whole thing was not funny. It was tedious to watch. It was boring and not engaging.


This is the worst episode of "South Park" I have seen. It took 17 SEASONS, but I finally found a bad episode. Skip it.


Maybe they aren't feeling so confident about making episodes either, as they are only showing ten episodes for this season. Previous seasons had 14 episodes.

Though I'm not sure I'd call Taken 2 boring, once it gets going, it just had several other flaws. What I dislike most is the over edited fight sequences, with shakycam and so fast cutting that it gets so confusing that you've no idea what's going on and it even made me feel nauseous at one point.

Speaking of shakycam, I saw The Bourne supremacy last night, and while it's a good movie, the cam shakes like there's no tomorrow. Even when Bourne is sitting and reading a newspaper article, the camera is shaking so much that it's hard to catch what the article is saying, even though it's essential to the plot. I can appreciate the technique to convey urgency and chaos, but so many movies overuse it, and it becomes ridiculous instead.

Peter

"Never Forget" (1991)


TV movie based on the real life family, the Mermelstein's and their father Mel, a Jewish Holocaust survivor. One day he gets a letter in the mail from a Holocaust denier group, shoving in his face a large reward for anybody who can prove the Holocaust actually happened.

Everybody tells him, from lawyers to the Anti Defamation League, that it's nothing more than for the evil group to make fun of him, ridicule him in their kangaroo mock court. But he wants to respond as he gives talks on the Holocaust, in which his family died, and cannot let it go. Then, he finds a lawyer witha plan.
This really happened.

Mel is played by Leonard Nemoy. He is quite convincing and displays some ncie range.

The film is moving, but unfortunately it doesn't go into enough detail. The ending court case just shows the beginning, then the judge speaking after it, igoring all the witness testimony and other dramatic moments that could have given some serious weight to the end.


The orchestral score by Henry Mancini is unremarkable and very short. The film needed a better score than it got.

"The Enchanted" (1984)


I was exchanging some e-mails with the director, who's only done two films, to clear up some information and he offered to send me both films, so I figured why not -- it'll give me a chance to hear the scores and you never know what you'll discover film wise. And if I don't like them, hey -- they were free. I did promise I'd write a little review for each in this thread.


Wish I could tell you more about it -- the DVD stopped playing about 26 minutes in and everytime I try to start it again, it freezes up the player.

The back of the DVD says:


What I found so far was an old black man, a convincing old man who lives alone and fishes with his dog. A white young man who returns and to where his family was and decides to live in the old house and breed cows.

A group of people who don't say much, show up and start working his land. He lets them on advice from the black man who tells him not to say much, don't ask where they're from, and don't get too friendly with them.

The pacing is repsectably slow, but it earns it for the most part, instead of being slow just to make it apopear slow. It's nicely shot, the writing is good, and the characters belivable.


The score is by somebody named Phil Sawyer. It's an unremarkble synth work that doesn't go with the picture and even somewhat dates it. It's spuratic and badly placed most of the time. At one point I was watching the film and thinking they shoot too close to real civilization in the film -- I can hear a police siren going off. No, turns out that was part of the score. Why? I have no idea. The group of folks were working the land in a bright & sunny day. It was very distracting.


I'm going to try playing it again next time I restart the computer.

I give things a chance based mainly to hear the scoring. If the score sucks, I move on quickly, unless the film is interesting in some way.

It sure beats the pants off anything in the theaters for about the last decade. I wouldn't trade anything in theaters for having watched "The Defection of Simas Kudirka", for example.

You might want to give it a try some time. I mean, I know they're longer than 30 minutes. ;-)

Thanks, Timmer. I wasn't aware of that. I'll check it out.

Oh, GRAND!
I *love* stuff like that!
Thanks, Timmer!

Heh. and I just Brian Blessed in an old Blakes 7 episode.
The circel is now completed.

Is that surname common in England? It sounds like there was a halo over his head.


Volker

"Where Pigeons Go to Die" (1990)

Old forgotten movie about a man who goes back to his grandfather's old broken down house to decide whether he wants to sell it or not. While there he remenices about spending time with his grandfther during the 1950's, when his father taught him to to train white birds to fly competitively and come home.

One day while at the house, grandfather has a stroke and collapses to the ground unconscious and the boy, freightened out of his mind, doesn't know to do and when he picks up the phone, he ends up trying to cal lthe family doctor, and his mother.

A sad tale about a boy and his grandfather and their final days together, with a touching old fashioned film ending.

Starring Michael London.


The orchestral score is by Leonard Rosenman. It's plesant enough, but didn't grabd me particularly, but I can definitively see people liking it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0XHuKPa7CM

Pacific Rim

Giant robots punching giant monsters in the sea. Sounds like a fun premise, and it could have been a fun film had they settled on the right tone. Instead, it's an awkward mix between tongue in cheek and an attempt at serious drama (which fails magnificently). The phony love story, paper thin characters, pointless back stories, embarrassing clichés and an overly long running time all add up to a pretty disappointing affair.

Pity. It has some cool visuals and a catchy score though.

*phew* no spoilers

Just finished watching the first season.

Had the writers of the last season of Dexter got their hands on Breaking Bad, minus the aliens, I imagine this wouldn't be far off. Fuck the last season of Dexter.