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Recent Viewing Part IV
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- CommentTimeNov 30th 2013
"10.000 BC" and
"2012"
were god awfulBach's music is vibrant and inspired. -
- CommentTimeNov 30th 2013
Thomas Glorieux wrote
Thor wrote
I think I'm one of the few who loved the Emmerich GODZILLA, far more than I've ever enjoyed any of the old ones (not that I've watched that many).
I loved it too Thor, a fun likeable over the top movie that has humor, entertainment, amazing effects and great music, what's not to love?
... Well, I suppose you're not wrong about the music. -
- CommentTimeNov 30th 2013
Captain Future wrote
"10.000 BC" and
"2012"
were god awful
I thought 2012 was great! One of the best 20 films that year, IMO. 10.000 BC was ok-ish, but not my favourite.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeNov 30th 2013
2012 on the other hand was ridiculous, goofy, outrageous fun.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeNov 30th 2013
The World's End
The third in the Pegg-Frost-Wright 'trilogy', and it is perhaps the Return of The Jedi/The Dark Knight Returns of the bunch. It is good, it has moments of genuine emotion and a few laugh out loud moments, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. It treads all too familiar ground to really stand out from the last two films, with the archetypal (and possibly over used) quick-zoom-and-edit technique, the familiar pub settings and the drunk loser who becomes the hero. It works very well, but it's already been done and done better with Shaun Of The Dead.
That said, if you are a fan of those previous two films, it stands to reason you will enjoy this. Just expect Shaun of the Dead with [spoiler]robot aliens[/spoiler]. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Timmer wrote
2012 on the other hand was ridiculous, goofy, outrageous fun.
Indeed so. Really enjoyed it. Godzilla and 10,000 BC were not in that category for me though. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Watched the first three Indiana Jones films lately. Last Crusade is my favourite, I think. Connery, obviously, steals the show. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013 edited
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- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013 edited
Southall wrote
Timmer wrote
2012 on the other hand was ridiculous, goofy, outrageous fun.
Indeed so. Really enjoyed it. Godzilla and 10,000 BC were not in that category for me though.
Absolutely! It's hard to compete with California tipping into the ocean, an airliner narrowly missing getting hit by a subway train and a submarine crashing into Mt. Everest.On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
"2012" was crap spruced up with polish.The views and opinions of Ford A. Thaxton are his own and do not necessarily reflect the ones of ANYONE else. -
- CommentAuthorAnthony
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
You can't polish a turd. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Quite the contrary, it's a celebration of film as an audiovisual medium with some fantastic setpieces and ideas, however unlikely. There isn't much in terms of complexity, but that's not what Emmerich is about (there are subversive elements, though which he almost always does well -- like Joe Dante).I am extremely serious. -
- CommentAuthorTimmer
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
WTF!????
Martijn, have you seen this?On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Anthony wrote
You can't polish a turd.
You can. Look at Kanye or Cyrus.Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013 edited
From the accompanying text:
Classic cartoon intro ripped from an old VHS. Enjoy!!
Riiiight!
It's a joke! As the maker admits to himself:
I'm kidding, this is an animation which I made, thanks to everyone for the attention and praise it has received.
Pretty funny!'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013 edited
I saw "Counselor" yesterday. I thought "What the hell? Cruz, Bardem, Pitt, Diaz, Fassbender and it's a Scott film!" I still cry for the money I gave for the ticket. Ok, there's the pool scene which my boyfriend ( ) and every other male in the cinema liked but apart from that... such a pity!Whatever you gaze rests on,do not use your vision, but the eyes of your soul...She knows better... -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Once Upon A Time, season 1
Just started.
Fairytale characters getting stuck in our world due to an ancient curse by the Evil Queen...who herself seems to be beholden to a very ominous Rumpelstiltskin...
A plot that we've seen several times over the last few years, with some intriguing twists and a likable cast.
I'll stick with this one for a bit. Curious to see how it pans out.
Mark Isham's music isn't bad, but not very noticeable either.'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentAuthorEdmund Meinerts
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Demetris wrote
Anthony wrote
You can't polish a turd.
You can. Look at Kanye or Cyrus.
I prefer not to look at Cyrus; no point in losing the lunch I just ate. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Martijn wrote
Once Upon A Time, season 1
O, yes, I love that series too!
"Once Upon a Time in the West" is my favourite episode. But
"Once Upon a Time in America" is very good, too.
VolkerBach's music is vibrant and inspired. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Martijn wrote
Once Upon A Time, season 1
Just started.
Fairytale characters getting stuck in our world due to an ancient curse by the Evil Queen...who herself seems to be beholden to a very ominous Rumpelstiltskin...
A plot that we've seen several times over the last few years, with some intriguing twists and a likable cast.
I'll stick with this one for a bit. Curious to see how it pans out.
Mark Isham's music isn't bad, but not very noticeable either.
His music for this year's season 2 is much much better.Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Edmund Meinerts wrote
Demetris wrote
Anthony wrote
You can't polish a turd.
You can. Look at Kanye or Cyrus.
I prefer not to look at Cyrus; no point in losing the lunch I just ate.
oh oh oh Bieber too how could i forget the mega-turd?; )Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders. -
- CommentTimeDec 1st 2013
Martijn wrote
Once Upon A Time, season 1
Just started.
Fairytale characters getting stuck in our world due to an ancient curse by the Evil Queen...who herself seems to be beholden to a very ominous Rumpelstiltskin...
A plot that we've seen several times over the last few years, with some intriguing twists and a likable cast.
I'll stick with this one for a bit. Curious to see how it pans out.
Mark Isham's music isn't bad, but not very noticeable either.
I've been following that show since its beginning. It's fairly good, although the kiddie/PC aspect makes it a little less appealing than more adult fare in the same genre. However, there are some pretty good story arcs ahead of you that should keep the interest going.I am extremely serious. -
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013 edited
Anthony wrote
You can't polish a turd.
Oh, so you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI
As you can see, they're helping to make his next film. ;-)The views and opinions of Ford A. Thaxton are his own and do not necessarily reflect the ones of ANYONE else. -
- CommentAuthorPawelStroinski
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013
12 Years a Slave
Saw a pre-premiere showing during a weekend of movies from the Polish Camerimage festival in Bydgoszcz. Every year they take the best movies to a cinema in Warsaw.
The movie is harrowing, brutal, unflinching and brilliant, but it's not just an exposition of slavery in America. Steve McQueen wanted to tell a story about a man being captured into slavery in America and it took them years to find the story of Solomon Northup, who wrote a memoir about his life in slavery.
I think this was a smart choice, because it just goes beyond a depiction of "how slavery looks like" and becomes a story of dehumanization and trying to retain dignity in such (very) dire circumstances. People are whipped, hanged, maimed. Treated as property. The owners can be psychopathic (Michael Fassbender's brilliant and nuanced performance as Epps makes the character utterly scared), they can be also genuinely good people (Benedict Cumberbatch's Ford), but stilll deep into the thinking that a human being can actually be property.
In his genius, I think, the director went as back as to late 19th Century movement, naturalism. I assume that the writers are well-known and well-read on this board. The program of naturalism, most famously defined by Emile Zola, was to bring the Darwinian concepts (then very fresh) into literature and making a novel a sort of piece of experimental (the program essay of Zola is called "The Experimental Novel") research into basic, primordial instincts. So the very modern theme of being dignified and trying to maintain humanity (as presented by very clearly established personalities) is put at odds with the animalistic treatment of the slaves and showing them in an action-reaction way, trying to maintain basic survival (though Northup says "I don't want to survive, I want to live", the opposition of survival and living is a central theme to the story). The naturalistic approach clashes with the humanistic one and that, I think, brings the most moving, painful, emotional core of the movie. Brilliant stuff.
Hans' score plays with that very well. Yes, the main theme is basically The Thin Red Line/Inception in terms of development, though the undercurrent melody is quite similar to the main theme... from Gravity (also a movie exploring extremes, interestingly), I don't think there was mutual inspiration at hand, because the session dates might have been very different and I think Hans recorded it earlier. On the other hand there is a very primal soundscape for the most scary scenes (the slavery-ship-from-hell sequence, look how McQueen NEVER shows the ship in its entirety, it's filmed as a living beast from hell, is scored through primal percussion combined with a low droning sound, not unlike the Inception chord, but achieved through unison and played by 4 basssoons). It's another clash in the story.
Piece of trivia, the only additional composer on the score (I am not counting the additional credit for the guy who wrote the spirituals the slaves sing during work) is Dario Marianelli's orchestrator and conductor - no one other than Benjamin Wallfisch.
The movie is heavily recommended, but not for the faintest of hearts. It's harrowing and brutal.
Saving Mr. Banks
A touching, if lightweight, telling of the life of P. L. Travers as she recalls her childhood when negotiating the deal for the Disney adaptation of Mary Poppins.
Emma Thompson owns the character, she's nuanced, brilliant, playing mostly through little and subtle gestures, facial changes and she's great. Tom Hanks, in a somehow smaller role, is also quite good (though not as great as he is in Captain Phillips, where the final scenes are just devastating). There is a lot of humor and a lot of poignancy in the flashback scenes of the movie, with a very good turn from Colin Farrell as her loving and very troubled father.
Thomas Newman's score is great, combining a slightly quirky approach for the "present-day" (aka negotiation) scenes, where it's actually used quite sparsely to a very classical (for his standards, of course) scoring of the flashback scenes. The themes are beautiful and take note of a prolonged scene with a very dramatic cue, some really desperate and amazing string writing there.
All in all, good movie. I'm glad I could see them both thanks to a friend and thanks to the Warsaw cinema who brought these movies from a festival just to give a showing of them 2 months before they premiere in my country.http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website -
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013
I haven't seen 12 Years A Slave yet (although I'm sure I will at some point), but reading the reviews I am getting a little concerned that this is yet another simplistic 'slavers are evil, mkay' film.
While the very concept of owning a human being (literally, not metaphorically like late 19th century/early 20th century social 'bankers own home owners' or 'employers own workers' commentaries) goes against every sense of justice and morality, the trend to depict American slavers as psychotic demons is a disturbingly unhistorical one.
Yes, I recognise the dramatic need for unambiguity here, and the current political reality of being unable to take any kind of nuanced stance on a concept as vile as slavery, but my sense of historical accuracy keeps being massively offended by the liberties taken against reality.
I don't even think it would be a major point to bring up, but the main reason I do is because in every single review I've read the film is being compared to (the entertaining, but ultraviolent and factually ridiculous) Django Unchained, which was as much of a social commentary on slavery as A Fistful Of Dollars was an accurate depiction of the 1860s frontier or They Saved Hitler's Brain an indictment of the Nazi regime. (I think Tarantino would be the first to rail against Django having any value above and beyond an entertainment and pop culture one, by the way).
But increasingly it seems these lines get blurred, and (public perception of) history is being rewritten and revised by latest Hollywood trends.
Just having watched the extremely gloomy and depressing 1984 (the 1984 version with Richard Burton and John Hurt), where Winston continuously adapts old newsreels and newspaper clippings to reflect current political needs, I find this a little disconcerting.
I think things could goa long way towards an accurate depiction if film makers would dispense with the constant graphic bombardments of (really historically relatively rare) psychotic barbaries of mutilation and maiming and concentrate on the very essence of slavery which Pawel very eloquently elaborates on above.
The very impact on the soul of being considered by society in law as well as morality as property makes for a harrowing and disturbing enough mental and creative exercise.
Without the apparently required shock value of blood and gore.'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentAuthorPawelStroinski
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013
Well, they go with the original source, though the script changes Northup's second owner into an overseer for the first one.
Ford is presented as a very sensitive man, who is mindful of his slaves, there is another short-timed owner (the psychotic Epps gives his slaves away, because he thinks his crops are bad because of them being against God's will, I kid you not) and again, it's a time where the slaves are respected. Epps is shown as the total psychopath. There are owners who treat their slaves very well, but, if anything, they have bad overseers.
There's also Mr. Bass, who is a Canadian against slavery. The attitude of Ford is presented as "I am so sorry for you, you're a great guy, but I bought you andI have a debt. Don't tell me to set you free! I have money to pay off!".http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website -
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013 edited
Well, it's not about 'frames of mind' (That's the old 'but there were good Nazis too' chestnut, which is true...but irrelevant!). It's about the actual historical context. For example, I've never heard mention in any of these films of the actual law (which was stringently enforced in many states) that obliged slave owners to handle their slaves with care and dignity and forbade them to do harm. Several slave owners were actually prosecuted under that law.
As said: that's just one example.
The societal framework was FAR more complex and -in their own minds and historical setting- balanced and fairminded than Hollywood would have us believe.
Thing is that, historically, it would be far more accurate to compare the (American) owner-slave relation as a modern day equivalent of that between a master and his dog (which carries a great deal of responsibility and accountability in the eyes of the law AND society).
Not as between a man and -say- a piece of driftwood.
But as I suggested above, that simply isn't "heavy" enough: especially for film, things need to be shown up to (and often beyond) the extreme, which is then presented as the norm.
And my point, again (it can't be stressed enough), is that the whole practise was already inhuman enough, and gives more than enough food for thought on the human condition when you take the historical reality.
If that gets 'pimped up' by blood and gore it passes far too easily into the realm of exploitation, which nullifies any meaningful debate or exchange of thoughts.'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentAuthorPawelStroinski
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013
I have to say that I think McQueen goes a bit beyond political debate, because from the beginning when he got the idea of making a movie about slavery, he was reportedly very adamant to tell a story about a free man who gets captured into slavery and it took them years to dig out Northup's memoir, which they decided to, eventually, do.
So rather than exploring what slavery is like, he tells a story that combines between a fight for dignity and being resorted to a property, often in terms of exploring the extremes of humanity. Frankly, this is my first movie by Steve McQueen that I have seen, I'd like to watch both Shame and Hunger now, because I might find thematic similarities there, maybe (maybe Michael would elaborate on that, I surely hope so).
While hanging, rape, whipping is present in the movie... It was compared to Schindler's List, but at the end of the day, actually I would say that McQueen's movie isn't as graphic, except maybe one scene. It's more of an atmosphere that something might be happening any time to you that is more harrowing than the depiction of graphic violence itself (whipping, beating happens on screen, but rarely the immediate effects on the body, except that scene, or rather take, etc.).
So I would say that while a story like this always has obvious political undertones, the film itself is more about the universal human condition in its extremes than discussing a certain period in time.
An interesting question would be, and you seem to be knowledgeable here, if there were actually white slaves during that period.http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website -
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013 edited
Thor wrote
Martijn wrote
Once Upon A Time, season 1
I've been following that show since its beginning. It's fairly good, although the kiddie/PC aspect makes it a little less appealing than more adult fare in the same genre. However, there are some pretty good story arcs ahead of you that should keep the interest going.
Hmmmm, four episodes in, and the almost singleminded emphasis on Disney as the fount of all fairytales is already starting to grate on my European mind (much as I love the old DIsney flicks, mind!).
I'll stick with it for a bit, if only to see how the storyline with Robert Carlysle (whom I always enjoy seeing) plays out.
(Oh, and it certainly helps that I think the Evil Queen -Lana Parilla- is VERY attractive )'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentTimeDec 2nd 2013 edited
Robert Carlyle is the best part of the show, for sure!
They do tap into quite a bit of other fairytale figures later on, not only those adapted by Disney (but yeah -- the Disney stamp is felt throughout).I am extremely serious.