Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[BarTopDancer]

We had a movie marathon yesterday.

I finally saw all three Saw movies - really good storyline beyond the gore. I liked the first one the best. The third was really good and ties a lot of things together and the second was OK. The first wasn't super gory and the gore was 'necessary' or implied. In the second and third the directors admitted using gore for the sake of gore. We watched the extra features and the making of. Great stuff.

Little Miss Sunshine - Bought it. I love that movie. Second time for me, first time for the rest. They loved it too.

Brokeback - Bought it. Love that movie. Watched it with my friend who hasn't seen it. He loved it and is now walking around saying "I wish I knew how to quit you" with a fake drawl. Roommate and crowd didn't want to watch a movie about gay cowboys. Uh cowboys = yum. Duh.

[Alex]

Poor friend. Finally gets the joke and it was old 18 months ago.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Poor friend. Finally gets the joke and it was old 18 months ago.

He got it then too.

[Strangler Lewis]

For years I had it in my head that the line "Could be worse. Could be raining" was from the crucifixion scene in "Life of Brian." This weekend I re-watched "Young Frankenstein," and found that I was wrong. I felt, well, "Life of Brian" must have copied the line, but the script I looked over online says no. Nonetheless, I still have a very strong visual in my head about this scene having occurred in "Life of Brian." Strange.

[Ghoulish Delight]

We watched Stranger Than Fiction over the weekend. I really enjoyed it, definitely Ferrel's least annoying performance ever.

It suffered some in my mind simply because it kept bringing to mind other films/stories that are much better. With the whole watch thing, I couldn't help but think of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it was a very Adams-esque device, but not executed with quite the cleverness (close, but not quite). Hoffman's character and performance couldn't help but be compared to his role in I [heart] Huckabees. And, being of the "wacky actor turned serious" genre, Eternal Sunshine was in my head the whole time.

I like all three of those better than I liked Stranger than Fiction. But I still quite enjoyed it and it continually surprised me in its cleverness, even if some of the elements came up a bit short.

At least it was leaps and bounds better than the other work that my brain decided to compare it to, Adaptation.

[katiesue]

We watched three movies this weekend.

The Illusionist which I really enjoyed even though I figured it out really early on. It was still really well done. I liked the score and they way they did the lighting. It made such a great atmosphere.

Zoom-Academy for Superheros - This one was actully much less sucky than I thought it would be. I wouldn't run out and rent it but it was a kind of fun movie for what it was.

Man of the People - This was the worst movie I've seen in forever. I kept trying to turn it off but Madz kept saying she liked it, even though she had no idea what was going on. It's definately not a comedy. It's actually an interesting premise but it just went no where. It was just plot that went no where interspersed with Robin Williams rants. Lucikly I had to take Madz to her Dad's before it was over so I didn't have to sit through any more of it.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Saw Ghost Rider. Wouldn't waist any time saying that it sucked big time. Nothing worth talking about. It'd be more worth your time sitting in your bathroom and cleaning the scum off the base of your toilet than to sit thru this movie.

2 Bornieo's out of 10 (2 because the female lead was in a hot outfit)

[mousepod]

During a break in MousePod production this weekend, I watched I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. What a great flick.

I was talking with LSPE this weekend and it struck me that I'm really less and less excited with mainstream cinema lately as a vehicle for good storytelling. Short films (less than 30 minutes) tend to be worthwhile, because the time constraints force a certain amount of directness to the storytelling, and long-form drama like HBO's The Wire are great because they allow for real character development along with a more complex and ultimately satisfying plot.

Somehow, the films made in my two favorite eras (the '40s and the early '70s) seemed to be able to work. The "dumbing down" to the lowest common denominator for the world market has hurt mainstream films as much as studio bloat did in the '50s.

Thank god for DVDs and TCM.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by mousepod

Thank god for DVDs and TCM.

Amen!

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by mousepod

I was talking with LSPE this weekend and it struck me that I'm really less and less excited with mainstream cinema lately as a vehicle for good storytelling. Short films (less than 30 minutes) tend to be worthwhile, because the time constraints force a certain amount of directness to the storytelling, and long-form drama like HBO's The Wire are great because they allow for real character development along with a more complex and ultimately satisfying plot.

The recent Wired magazine has an article about this. On the one hand You Tube is shaking up traditional media by making certain things "snack-sized" - why watch all of SNL, or Letterman when it's just one sketch, band, or monologue you really want to see? Of course on the other side, HBO style mini-series, Tivo, and Net Flicks makes it easier to tell a really elaborate story without the normal constraints of traditional broadcast media.