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gromit

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 2:53 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

I've never seen a Star Wars movie. Except for maybe brief clips or scenes. I've also never seen a Terminator film.

Maybe one day i'll pick up a set and plow through them.
Maybe . . .

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

whiskeypriest

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:05 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."

gromit wrote:

I've never seen a Star Wars movie. Except for maybe brief clips or scenes. I've also never seen a Terminator film.

Maybe one day i'll pick up a set and plow through them.
Maybe . . .

I thought the first had an undeniable spirit that took it beyond the stilted dialogue and dime store philosophizing. But it has been a downhill run since. Still haven't seen the most recent.

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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed?

bartist

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 6:20 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6964 Location: Black Hills

Star Trek is for science fiction fans.
Star Wars is for fantasy/comix fans.

But props to Lucas for trying to expand his demographic by tossing in a pinch of eastern mysticism and a dollop of Kurosawa. The first 3 were fun and provided amusing characters to mimic and use as metaphors, e.g. wookie, Jabba the hut, Yoda, Han Solo (does that sound slightly, er, masturbatory? ), and Darth Vader, who induced an entire generation of kids to put various objects over their faces and breathe stentorously. Not to mention 134 billion D batteries sold, to power plastic light sabers.

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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

Syd

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 10:30 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12934 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

"I warrant you, Madam, the white cold virgin snow upon my heart abates the ardor of my liver." ??? Who knew that Shakespeare could sound so much like anime mistranslation. (And yes, it's straight from Shakespeare. I'm watching the 2010 version of The Tempest with Helen Mirren as Prospera. Fortunately Miranda and Ferdinand have the grace to giggle afterward.)

I'm having to postpone the end of the film because I'm recording Going My Way, which I've never seen. To tell the truth, The Tempest is not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and this adaptation is often inept. (I'm damned sure Shakespeare never used the word "fuck" although he had equivalents to work with.) There's one bit where Prospera divines that Caliban is conspiring against her through a series of inept special effects involving stellar astrological figures and kaleidoscopes. Ariel does manage an eerie version of "Full Fathom Five", a song, it should be noted, that describes the sea-change of a kid's drowned father--a father, who, incidentally, is very much alive. Ariel, you card.

_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter!

yambu

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 11:09 pm

Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area

Syd wrote:

"I warrant you, Madam, the white cold virgin snow upon my heart abates the ardor of my liver." ???...

In this instance, Will is using the liver as the seat of love. Other times, the liver is the home of cowardice, as in "lily-livered", somewhere in Lear.

billyweeds

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:33 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Syd wrote:

I'm having to postpone the end of the film because I'm recording Going My Way, which I've never seen. To tell the truth, The Tempest is not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.

Word on that. If there was ever an overrated Shakespeare play, it's The Tempest. Booooring.

As for Going My Way, meh to the max. IMO.

gromit

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:06 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

Rewatched Sita Sings the Blues the other night.
It's such an off-the-wall idea: Animated versions of the Sita and Rama story, interspersed with the writer/director's breakup and a trio of Indian Americans doing their best to recollect the Rama tales. All based around Annette Hanshaw recordings of the late 1920's. And somehow this pastiche all works.

What's nice is the narrators make a bridge between the modern and traditional; as well a cultural link between India and America.
And you can see why Nina Paley decided to use them, as their sometimes contradictory recollections allows her to have fun animating several versions and occasional dead ends/mistakes.

It's such a visually inventive film. I like small details such as one five headed king figure with revolving heads appears now and then. And now and then the eyes blink. Or the peacock phonograph player. I'm not really sure why Sita and Rama are drawn in three different styles -- one more Indian traditional, one rather Disneyesque and a 3rd rather cartoonish which usually features the Annette Hanshaw singing. But it's part of the vibrancy and creative outpouring the film is full of.

Pretty great film. Audacious.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

Syd

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:51 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12934 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

billyweeds wrote:

Syd wrote:

I'm having to postpone the end of the film because I'm recording Going My Way, which I've never seen. To tell the truth, The Tempest is not one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.

Word on that. If there was ever an overrated Shakespeare play, it's The Tempest. Booooring.

As for Going My Way, meh to the max. IMO.

GMW certainly hasn't stood the test of time well and seems to go on about 15 minutes after it should have ended. Liked Barry Fitzgerald, and much of the music, which includes a well-done scene from Carmen by the spectacularly talented Risë Stevens. Crosby's decent but not really Best Actor material here. (He was in "The Country Girl" but lost to Brando.) However his competition was weak, except for Barry Fitzgerald, who was up for both lead and supporting for the film, and Charles Boyer.

I note with interest that Father O'Malley's team was the St. Louis Browns, who were the last of the original 16 teams to make it to the World Series, which they did five months after this movie came out. Unfortunately they lost the series, so O'Malley's inspiration only went so far.

_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter!

Syd

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:55 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12934 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

I'm rewatching Kubo and the Two Strings, and, amazingly, it improves on rewatching, when you notice all the foreshadowings, and nice touches, like Kubo's narration of the opening scenes, when his mother and he are washed ashore from a huge storm, is word-for-word what he says before his tale in the village. The story of his father's quest is the same as what his mother tells him, except that his father's quest never was completed, and Kubo must complete his own.

And Kubo's instrument has three strings, not two. More would be telling.

Kubo gives you the feeling that you are actually watching Japanese mythology hot from the press. Kubo had an eye stolen in infancy, and his grandfather, the Moon King, and aunts want to take other eye so he can reside in their heaven, immortal but blind to humanity, in a realm without love. Kubo's mother was the eldest of the three Moon King's daughters, and she was sent to kill Hanzo, but his words and warmth of his gaze won her heart (and, incidentally, made her human and gave her sight, which her sisters and father don't have). Kubo makes a living in the village square, telling tales by bringing his origami figures to life through his Shamisen and his magical abilities (inherited through his mother and grandfather). His mother is catatonic during the day, and erratic at night, since she is after all a moon maiden and not entirely of this world. (The early scenes of Kubo and his mother are heartbreaking.)

Kubo can never stay out after sunset, because that is when his grandfather and aunts rule, but one day it is festival, on which day people light lanterns to talk to the dead. But Kubo's father doesn't respond, and it is sunset, and the scary aunts are after Kubo and his mother. So Kubo's mother must defend her son, and Kubo is off on his quest, to discover the sword, breastplate and helmet he needs to save himself, but which his father never succeeded in finding.

And yet, that is not the quest that Kubo actually needs to fulfill.

An unlikely, and stunning film, and perhaps the best of the year.

_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter!

knox

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 7:35 pm

Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1246 Location: St. Louis

Thanks, I want to see it. I like the way Japanese myths get deeply metaphysical in a down-to-earth sort of way.

My video viewings have been sparse. I have one in the stack with the "Another Earth" actress who is somehow involved with molecular biology and metaphysics and the design of the human eyeballs. I Origins, it's called.

Also saw the predictably disappointing remake of Ghostbusters, much CG with very little wit. The opening scene has one funny moment, parodying tours of historic Victorian manses, and then slides into puerile silliness. The original was very much
a singular work of brilliance, thanks to the Empyrean comic talents of Murray, Ackroyd, Weaver, and writing genius of the late Harold Ramis, and simply cannot be reattained, ever. Also, IIRC, the last MMP whose f/x were entirely analog.

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 1:50 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Zootopia, which for various reasons I have just happened to see for the first time, is for my money the best animated film in years. (Although I haven't seen Kubo and the Two Strings, which people I respect tell me is a masterpiece.) Zootopia is funny and engaging, and (as a buddy-cop-crime story) better than most mysteries, and well characterized, and beautifully animated, and feminist, and splendidly voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, et al. I'm not a sucker for animation by any means, and have had my problems with even such obviously excellent examples of the genre as Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Inside Out. But Zootopia is IMO almost without flaw. And it made me laugh out loud not once but several times. What's to complain about?

Finding Dory was okay but a severe disappointment after Finding Nemo, which was one of the very few animated films of the last couple of decades that I truly loved. Sita Sings the Blues, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story 2, Nemo. That's it. Until now, because now there's Zootopia.

marantzo

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:00 pm

Joined: 30 Oct 2014 Posts: 278 Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.

I saw Zootopia when it was at the theatres, in March I think. Loved it!!!

There were many animated movies last year and they were more very good ones than the one's from before 2016. At 2016 many of them were very good or great!

Laughing

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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts.

marantzo

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:01 pm

Joined: 30 Oct 2014 Posts: 278 Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.

OOPS!

_________________
Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts.

gromit

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 8:00 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

I was wondering about Zootopia.
I didn't hear much about it.
The dvd is around.

A recent animation release The Red Turtle is getting some raves. Stranded on a desert island. Dialogue free.
Think it opens in the USofTrump in March.

I picked up Toni Erdmann (2 hour 40").
and Nocturnal Animals.
The latter is reportedly rather sterile, which I can believe since Tom Ford's previous film A Single Man was.
I pretty much went with those two since they were the only releases of the past few months on my Watch List that turned up so far. Also I don't think they've been commented on here yet, so I can do my guinea pig routine ..

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

billyweeds

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:37 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

I thought I did comment on Nocturnal Animals, which I thought was pretentious and pretty unbearable.

P.S. I was right. Here's my review from Current Film.

Amy Adams is a genuinely talented actor who can shine brightly in the right roles--I'm talking Junebug, Enchanted, The Fighter, and Doubt. But she also seems to have a talent for getting herself into projects I disrespect. First it was American Hustle. This year it's a double-header. First the overrated cinematic sleeping pill called Arrival. And now a terminally artsy-fartsy piece of drivel by the name of Nocturnal Animals. Avoid.

This excerpt from the review by Richard Roeper (a critic I usually don't much like) says it pretty well:

"Movies with characters who have so much at stake should not hang on the screen like works of modern art.

"Movies like that should reach out and grab us.

"Everyone involved in Nocturnal Animals should go see Manchester By the Sea."

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