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marantzo

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 2:35 pm

Guest

Memento was the only movie of his that I really liked. Was very disappointed by his movies after that. I was expecting a lot of good things from him. There wasn't.

jeremy

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 4:14 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

The Rise of The Guardians is apparently based on a book, The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce. I say apparently because the film felt like it had been written by a committee. Judging by the generally positive critical response, maybe they were right to believe what their focus groups were telling them, but for me, this attempt by Dreamworks to leave behind its signature wisecracking territory and march on Disney’s magic kingdom was a failure. I’m not normally a natural ally of Disney, but, for all their sentimentality and self-proclaimed values, they usually make an effort to preserve a degree of enchantment and whimsy in their films. There was no doubting the quality or success of Dreamworks’ Shrek franchise, but, much though I enjoyed the films, I remained uncomfortable at what I felt was their lazy deconstruction (or destruction) of the Disney oeuvre and the post-modern assumption that we have to filter emotion through irony. The adults buying the tickets may have loved them and their children may have laughed along, but where was the fairy dust.

In its failings, The Rise of The Guardians reminds me of Hook, Steven Spielberg’s re-imagining and updating of “Peter Pan”, a film that similarly tried to wring something new from something cherished, but only succeeded in squeezing out the charm. The Rise Of The Guardians takes five unconnected childhood characters, Santa Claus (Father Christmas) The Sandman, The Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and a particularly misjudged Easter Bunny, and turns them into a depressingly martial, Justice League Of Dreamland, who do battle with the Boogie Man (or bogeyman as they say in the old country). In so doing, the film strips them of much of their cultural context and meaning and, as a result, their magic. It might have got away with this had there been more humour or, if what there was of it, had been more gentle and subtle. However, The Rise of The Guardians was both earnest and obvious.

**(out of five)

_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

marantzo

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 6:21 pm

Guest

Thanks Jeremy, I wont put it on my list.

Syd

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 7:44 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12892 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

I really liked the film.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

jeremy

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:53 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

In fairness, it wasn't terrible, I just reacted against its tone and premise. We're living in a world where diversity is supposedly valued, but I find children's films hopelessly conformist.

billyweeds

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:28 am

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

jeremy wrote:

In fairness, it wasn't terrible, I just reacted against its tone and premise. We're living in a world where diversity is supposedly valued, but I find children's films hopelessly conformist.

My daughter and son-in-law are outraged by the philosophy behind current child fave character Thomas the train engine, who with his friends promote a rule-following conformity that is, they say, hopelessly stifling.

carrobin

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:30 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

Last night, "The Simpsons" was a repeat of the episode in which Homer and the father of a Japanese girl drink some weird stuff and have anime hallucinations (talking buses, walking shops, dragon bullies). Pretty brilliant--and I'm glad i've seen a couple of the movies, or I'd have thought the artists were hallucinating too.

jeremy

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:23 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

billyweeds wrote:

jeremy wrote:

In fairness, it wasn't terrible, I just reacted against its tone and premise. We're living in a world where diversity is supposedly valued, but I find children's films hopelessly conformist.

Very funny Billy, and I guessed I asked for that. Incidentally, he's called Thomas the 'Tank' Engine in the UK and the narration is by Ringo Starr. I'm guessing the US version is different. I'd also wager that in America, 'The Fat Controller' is not called 'The Fat Controller'.

It's probably for another time and for somebody better read, but there's a discussion to be had on the value sets propagated in Hollywood cartoons. But I guess my main beef with "The Rise Of The Guardians" was its craft couldn't mask the fact that it had no reason to exist other than to fill a slot in a multiplex.

Last edited by jeremy on Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

jeremy

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:27 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

carrobin wrote:

The Simpsons is often very rich in references to film, art and popular culture. I suspect that I miss most of them.

bartist

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:03 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6945 Location: Black Hills

OMG, Harlan Ellison* was a guest on that episode! I must see this, ASAHP. "Married to the Blob" is the title. Whew, you got me to use an OMG net-ism, something I was pretty sure I had sworn off some years ago.

The last hallucination episode I saw, back when I watched regularly, was the one where Homer meets a mystical coyote who, IIRC, is VO'd by Johnny Cash. My son, an aficionado of hot peppers, still makes reference to "Guatemalan Insanity Peppers," on occasion.

* one of the greatest sci-fi short story writers (and screenwriter, in that genre) to ever walk the face of the Earth.

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

gromit

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:13 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

Yeah, the Chili Cookoff Hallucination episode is classic.

There's also the intro/couch gag where the S Family are all Japanese anime superheros. That's fun.
I'll have to look for this Jap Anime hallucination episode.

Harlan Ellison's "Repent Harlequin," said the Ticktockman is a great short story. Unfortunately, he guards his stories rather thoroughly, so it's rare to find any on the internet for free. The consequence of that vigilance is that I've read very little of his writing, and he's not nearly as well known by the general public as he should/could be. His right to choose that path, but I only know Repent Harlequin because it has been anthologized.

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

jeremy

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:31 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Futurama's 'toonists had great fun in one episode, I think it was called "Reincarnation", in which the characters go from being drawn in a thirties Popeye type or early Disney mode, to a low resolution computer game to anime. The last section is particularly brilliant, nailing not only the drawing style, but the fierce tone of much Japanese anime.

In that vein. I finally caught Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman on TV the other day. I enjoyed it in a low-key way, but what struck me most was the uncommented, low-value placed on human life. This was different from the hypocritical disdain for collateral damage present in most action movies or the cold irony with which modern action heroes dispatch their enemies; the film really gave a sense that if you were a nobody your life was worthless.

marantzo

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:12 pm

Guest

Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman is a favourite movie of mine. I went to see it a number of years ago. I thought I was like it and I more than liked it, I loved it. To top it off, there was a terrific ending tacked on with a wonderful song by The Stripes and a crowd of people on stage and off. (everyone was happy)

Very Happy

Very good story!

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 1:06 pm

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

Two documentaries streaming on Netflix are Blackfish and Tabloid. The latter is directed by the great Errol Morris and worth seeing. The former is a must.

Blackfish is an unforgettable expose of the treatment given killer whales (orcas) at SeaWorld in Orlando and San Diego. A practically airtight argument is made for the idea that confinement turns these fiercely intelligent, inherently gentle creatures into psychotic killers. Capitalism has seldom seemed so totally evil. The movie premiered at Sundance last year, was released last October, and has happily caused a lot of problems for SeaWorld.

Tabloid is basically an interview with a very strange women, Joyce McKinney, who became a tabloid sensation in 1977 and thereabouts when she abducted her boyfriend, who was on a Mormon mission, and forced him to have sex for days and days. It's fascinating although ultimately rather pointless. But Errol Morris is a great director and makes it hold your interest for most of the way.

carrobin

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 1:34 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

I don't think I could watch "Blackfish." Years ago I proofread a book by a woman who studies whales, and who lived on the coast of Alaska and became familiar with several pods. Her descriptions of the families and the "language" and the intelligence of whales were impressive, and she gave very convincing arguments against imprisoning them in SeaWorld-type enclosures. When I hear about a whale killing a person, I can't blame it.

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