Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Gemini Cricket]

I have a special place in my heart for all three films (extended and theatrical). They helped me survive three years of the Bush administration and three years of living in Monterey.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Yeah, the 2nd Harold & Kumar wasn't as funny as the first.

[Gemini Cricket]

Goodness.
I just watched the end of Bullets Over Broadway and totally noticed a huge f*ck up! In the scene where Rob Reiner is yelling at John Cusack from his apartment window, you can totally see a C-Stand and a lighting rig in Rob Reiner's window. It's huge and obvious. lol!
Never saw that before.

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Goodness.
I just watched the end of Bullets Over Broadway and totally noticed a huge f*ck up! In the scene where Rob Reiner is yelling at John Cusack from his apartment window, you can totally see a C-Stand and a lighting rig in Rob Reiner's window. It's huge and obvious. lol!
Never saw that before.

Maybe he was about to shoot some amateur porn in his bedroom?

I'll have to look for that. It's really a fun, clever movie.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Watch The Godfather this morning.

Believe it or not, it was my first time ever seeing it, though I obviously am familiar with a good portion of it from it's proliferation through pop culture.

I found it to be a 99% excellent movie. Powerful, well paced, a rare movie that I felt deserved to be 3 hours long.

However I found one major shortcoming that kinda bugged me. In a 3 hour movie, they couldn't find the time to make Michael's transformation from war hero all American boy to mafia Don make some sort of sense? I mean, sure it's obvious that he was driven to it by the attempt on pop's life. But we aren't shown the tiniest bit of that transformation. I think Michael has all of 3 lines of dialog between, "That's my family, not me," and, "I know, I'll shoot those two guys and become king of the underworld!"

[Moonliner]

I just saw that "Starship Troopers 3" is now out on DVD/Blu.

I think the most interesting thing about that is: There was A Starship Troopers 2?

I can't begin to imagine what kind of horrid this movie must be.

Although I did enjoy the original Starship Troopers even if it did mangle Heinlein's sublime concept of power armor. I'm a sucker for naked Denise Richards.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

I just saw that "Starship Troopers 3" is now out on DVD/Blu.

I think the most interesting thing about that is: There was A Starship Troopers 2?

I saw the commercial for the ST3 disc on SciFi and had that exact reaction! When the hell did ST2 come out

[NickO'Time]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

It just occured to me that two Kevin Costner movies I like are not available on DVD in their theatrical release form (JFK and Dancing With Wolves.) I love these movies, but the "special editions" suck.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but Dancing With Wolves won the Oscar for Best Picture. How could THAT film not be on DVD??? Lame.

Dances with Wolves was too me the last film that left me leaving the theater in awe.
I have it on DVD with a Special Edition from Korea. It has all the languages and has the Diary cover like the one in the film with the famous feather and with the Diary entries.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

In a 3 hour movie, they couldn't find the time to make Michael's transformation from war hero all American boy to mafia Don make some sort of sense?

They certainly didn't want to telegraph the transformation, or the end would have been less powerful. I guess they might have erred in going too far with that ... but i haven't seen the film in a long, long time and won't be watching it any time soon. (Mafia movies freak me out ... um, these particular folks who lived in my home town and who's grandkids I played with freak me out even more.)



* * * * *

Ya know, if you cut out about half the stuff in the middle of the picture, Peter Jackson's King Kong is absolutely brilliant. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the New York stuff that bookends the film, the sailing to Skull Island is brilliant, the stuff on the Island is fantastic through Kong's 1st appearance and from Jack's rescue of Ann onward.

There's really only that pesky middle part. Half of that stuff is very good, and the other half is godawful.


You tend not to think about it, but the New York segments are full of special effects. Jackson shows amazing restraint and demonstrates a keen ability to show just enough to tantalize, but not enough to induce growning. Yet he seems to lose all sense of that when dinosaurs are concerned. It's like two different people directed this movie.


Hmmmm, come to think of it, it's like two different people directed Lord of the Rings also. Maybe he's got a Smeagol problem.

[Gemini Cricket]

I've never read the Godfather novel. I wonder how Puzo handles the transformation.