Movies

[Grefter]

Fucked up and damaged is the character down perfectly.  Not seen the second yet for some reason.  No idea why not. Liked the first one, loved the comic, love Guillermo Del Toro.

[Bouke]

Inglourious Basterds premiered last Thursday in Cinema's here in Holland. Needs to check my schedule to see when I can go watch it. Curse myself and my evening workhours.

Other than that, the last couple of DVD's I watched during the last two weeks are among others:

Andrei Tarkovsky - Nostalgia (seen most of his movies now. Tarkovsky was a cinema Giant.)

Krzystof Kieslowski - Dekalog (the first 3 episodes. Also loved his Three Colours trilogie and La Double Vie de veronique)

Wojciech Has - The Saragossa Manuscript (Mr Bongo films 182 minutes version. Fucking awesome)

Michael Haneke - La Pianiste (Isabelle Huppert > most. Other then that, yay for lots of Schubert. Very disturbing film, but pales in comparison in that particular aspect to dun dun dun)

Pier Paolo Pasolini - Salo. The 2008 BFI DVD version. (or rather a scholarly view on Fascism. Funny that I found more links to Dante rather then  to Sade. Brilliantly filmed, but I do confess to being grossed out during some of the shit eating scenes =/)



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[Shale]

Quantum of Solace: Good movie, not Casino Royale's level but far closer to it than to Brosnan's later oeuvre.  Good cast, did some nice things with M and Bond's fellow spies. Good use of Bond girls, although what they did with Fields took a while to pay off. Didn't care for the climax much, mainly because the stuff blowing up crossed the line into unignorable absurdity.

Spoilery bits!

I freaking KNEW Mathis was innocent. Shame he died so easily.

Anyway, my big complaint with the movie is a relatively small point - Vesper's boyfriend. In Casino Royale, she was a genuine tragic heroine, locked in a no-win situation -- betray her duty and country or sacrifice the life of someone she loved (later, throw another person she loves on the left-hand side of the ultimatum). No right answer, and the only way she could even hope to save everyone was to sacrifice herself. Very effective, executed to perfection, and it made for one of the best endings a Bond movie's ever had. Now we find out that she was being tricked from the start, and she could have just told Quantum to get stuffed without sacrificing anything at all? That cheapens the whole thing.

On the plus side, if they were willing to juggle the plot around like that to give Bond's quest for revenge a bit of closure without killing White, he's likely being groomed as a recurring villain - wouldn't be surprised to see him filling Blofield's shoes. I hope so, he's good.

Edit: Green Lantern: First Flight. Meh. It's pretty, and the second half is reasonably good, but it's also serious, and I couldn't take it seriously by that point because the first half was just one long storm of cop-movie cliches. Also, can DC please, please please stop pretending that Sinestro turning evil is a plot twist? Even if he hadn't been Green Lantern's biggest villain for the last forty years, his name is Sinestro.

Also, and this is a really nitpicky thing, why name a planet Qward when it clearly isn't Qward? I know it doesn't change a thing about the plot, but it throws me out of the flow of the movie when they use a reference that only the comics nerds will get and then screw it up in the same breath. Instead of saying "hey, yeah, I know that place!" I think "hey, wait, that can't be right, Qward's in a different universe."

[Grefter]

Inglorious Basterds - Stuff you heard about this being good is true.  The stuff you may have read about this not really being about Jew revenge killing is also pretty much true.  There really isn't much of a villain in this, it is pretty much Tarantino being Tarantino.  It is a great movie up until a specific point.  The perfect use of a David Bowie track makes this movie into brain sex for me.  Great stuff.  Not a moment I wasn't having fun.

[Sierra]

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter: Grefter mind-control rays kicked in. Yeah, it's fun.

[Grefter]

Fuck yes.  Now Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

[Hunter Sopko]

Speaking of, you watch Hard Rock Zombies yet, Gref?

[Grefter]

Not yet.  I have a lot of things to watch and way to much time spent at work up near the centre manager, so not much movie time.

[Sierra]

Fuck yes.  Now Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

I watched that a while ago.

EDIT: While we are on the topic of completely batshit movies, watch Repo Man, Grefter. I will consume headgear if you don't actually like it.

[Shale]

Wait, Grefter hasn't watched Repo Man?

[Sierra]

I dunno. I mentioned it once before and didn't get confirmation either way. Figure it doesn't hurt to be sure.

[Grefter]

I have seen Repo man ages ago.  I watched it for the first time in a long while this year though when I bought it.  I think I even posted about it here.  Repo Man is Jesus.

[Lady Door]

Am going to see 9 on Saturday with math and science geeks. Yay~

Anyone seen it yet?

[Sierra]

I have seen Repo man ages ago.  I watched it for the first time in a long while this year though when I bought it.  I think I even posted about it here.  Repo Man is Jesus.

Oh yeah, if you haven't done so already, watch the DVD extras. I normally don't bother with such things, but Repo Man's are special. They include: an interview with Harry Dean Stanton in which he explains his belief in predestination and just generally demonstrates himself to be one of the craziest motherfuckers around; deleted scenes with guest commentary by the real-life inventor of the neutron bomb. Interviews with the writer/director/producer gang are less surreal but some of the bacdkground is still fun. Apparently Emilio Estevev's agent didn't want him to be in the movie and they had to stalk the actor personally to get the script to him (his agent thought he should only take teen comedies. Result: Repo Man is one of the only good movies he ever made. I'd say the only, but Breakfast Club is at least watchable.)

[Cmdr_King]

Inglorious Basterds- Saw this last week.  Pretty good.  Oddly, despite the trailers being misrepresentative, Brad Pitt was such a scene stealer that anyone fooled by it probably got their moneys worth anyways.  Not much to say, very Tarantino in all respects.

9- alright.  I dunno, it sorta felt like something was missing honestly, in terms of plot and detail.  Could just be that video game bias kicking in again.

[Shale]

The Prestige: A very well-crafted movie all around. Good performances, interesting plot, solid directing, David Bowie, the whole nine yards. Alfred's revelation was seeded through the film beautifully. One thing that I can't figure out whether it's a plot hole or I just missed it:

Angier goes to Tesla asking for the same machine he made for Alfred. But we later find out that Alfred doesn't need science fiction to pull off the Transported Man. I can't remember Tesla or his assistant's reaction to Angier namedropping Alfred, but is it just pure coincidence that he really had made a teleporter before?

[NotMiki]

Yeah, The Prestige is a good one.  Unexpected, that's for sure.

[Grefter]

Angier goes to Tesla asking for the same machine he made for Alfred. But we later find out that Alfred doesn't need science fiction to pull off the Transported Man. I can't remember Tesla or his assistant's reaction to Angier namedropping Alfred, but is it just pure coincidence that he really had made a teleporter before?

Errr not sure I follow what you missed?  Alfred used the machine once and made a clone then just used regular stage trickery to pull it off and a ridiculous amount of dedication to uphold the illusion.  Angier took the easy, stupid, brutal and unimaginative way out, which was the whole point of the story.  Once again, Angier totally missed the damned point and totally fucked everything up and this time did something absolutely atrocious.  Tesla never claims to have made a teleporter and never did, he made a machine that duplicates things.  Angier just didn't understand properly what he was doing.

On that note Shale, if you haven't caught The Illusionist from around the same time, it sounds like they are doing the same thing, but it is something else and equally fucking awesome.

[Shale]

Huh? But the entire reason Angier thought he was being duped was because Tesla didn't expect the machine to work like it did. The hat stayed put, so he didn't think to go out and look around for where the teleport might have ended up. Moreover, the Bordens couldn't figure out the trick behind Angier's teleport; if they'd known Tesla could do that, they wouldn't have been so puzzled. (Note that in the original book, it's spelled out in black and white that "Alfred" is identical twins, Albert and Frederick Borden, hence the name)

But yeah, the difference between Angier and Alfred was pretty clear. One devotes himself completely to his art to the point where every moment of his life is part of the act, while Angier just brute-forces it to the point where he's literally killing himself to make it happen and doesn't care. Of course, the "Alfred" illusion ends up killing Sarah and possibly Julia as well, so it's not like the Bordens are pure as the driven snow, they just inflict their damage less directly, and actually feel regret about it.

Yeah, I saw The Illusionist about a year ago. Good stuff.

[Sierra]

Yeah, they were pretty clearly twins from the start, as I recall. He/they didn't expect Angier to accomplish anything by going to Tesla; he was sending a professional rival on a wild goose chase and it was just a coincidence that it happened to accomplish anything.

I still marvel at the sheer fuckedupness of Angier's plan. There's just no other word for mass clonicide.

I wasn't nearly as impressed by The Illusionist. It was okay, just nothing to shout about. Not sure it needed the happy ending. Definitely nice to look at, though.

[Shale]

I was fine with the happy ending; what it didn't need was the montage explaining everything.

[Grefter]

Eh I always saw it as if you build a machine to duplicate things you don't expect them to duplicate outside the building.

I may just be misinterpreting it out of obsession with David Bowie and Nikolai Tesla though.  I feel for it to be entirely unintentional cheapens the ultimate story a bit and it hardens up Alfred to much for him to send Angier on what he thought was a wild goose chase.  Giving his rival a puzzle to solve and at the end of it the solution to his greatest trick gives off that sense of professionalism and respect that Michael Caine's character is promoting and ultimately shines through in Alfred's character.

The key to the whole thing is, he had the trick planned out and had got Tesla to build the tools for it before he ever met Angier and that is part of what makes the secret so profound.

To have them just be identical twins from the start, to be PERFECT duplicates as twins that grew up perfectly the same without either getting damaged in their own unique way or having differences in hair or whatnot in a movie where the central plot point is essentially cloning is kind of being a bit overly obtuse and you know all the Chekhov's Gun/Occam's Razor stuff being applied.

For the pair having individual names, that is the easiness of an intelligent man knowing what he wanted to do with this whole thing and his exact duplicate at work.  One just adopts a new name, because before he cloned himself he already knew it would be totally fucking worth it AND picked out a name he liked.

Also just want to note my favourite part of Angier's plan just to show in spite of all his flaws and arrogance just how ballsy he is.  It is the DUPLICATE that appears at a distance away from the machine.  So every time he does the act the "Original" is the one that is being killed (Obviously last times clone each time).  He has voluntarily dropped himself into a water tank to drown 50 times by the time he gives up and stops doing it.  Fucking ballsy shit.

[Idun]

Hunger
Fish Tank
The White Ribbon
Funny Games
The Beat that my Heart Skipped
Thirst (Bakjwi) by Park Chan-wook

These are the movies I want to see. I believe... Fish Tank currently has no US release since it's farily new, The White Ribbon is going to be released in December, and Bakjwi has no US release date so far. At least, these are Cannes related films I want to see. If anyone's seen Hunger with 300/Inglorious Basterds Fassbender or if anyone's seen The Beat that my Heart Skipped, feel free to share your opinions. >.> 

[DjinnAndTonic]

I just saw Wild Zero.

Wow. Just... wow. A Japanese friend I just recently made pointed me towards this interesting gem and I was thoroughly entertained.

I don't have the words to describe how awesome it was.

Luckily, I don't have to as after a few minutes of surfing, I found a well-written review. http://www.the-isb.com/?p=144

Sample:

With Guitar Wolf out of bullets, they go hand-to-hand for a fight so intense that green lightning erupts from the combatants, which has the unforeseen and inexplicable side-effect of giving the Captain super-powers. Luckily, after only six or seven explosions resulting from lightning fired from his eyes, the rest of the band shows up with a rocket launcher and blows him up but good.

And then the aliens show up.

And then Guitar Wolf pulls a sword out of his guitar, cuts a spaceship in half, blows it up, and saves the world.

[Idun]

My Netflix queue is bumpin'.