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Friends In Your Head | Forums → Posts by bullet3
It's Sunshine V2, it really is. I thought it was AWESOME for about 45 minutes. Then it goes off the rails and consistently stops making sense. Props for having an original R-rated sci-fi movie, and there's definitely some fucked up, memorable stuff, but the writing just spirals downward into terribleness. Also, such un-inspired creature design. And the scientists do so much dumb shit that makes 0 sense. And that ending.....ugh.
Fuck Lindelof.
- Anything Scorcese pre-Goodfellas. Really need to, but never seem to have them available or feel like watching.
- A whole lot of Hitchcock, which I really need to get around to, because I adore Rear Window, North by Northwest, and Rope.
- Schindler's List
- Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and Gone with the Wind
Gonna lay some Asimov on ya.
Namely, the Foundation series - Amazing sci-fi saga, continuously throwing cool concepts and twists at you.
The short version: Set in the super distant future, humanity is dispersed along a giant galactic empire, and a brilliant mathematician has come up with a new approach combining math and psychology which allows him to predict large-scale events into the future. From his formula's he realizes that the empire is about to collapse, and in an attempt to preserve human knowledge/culture, he establishes 2 hidden "foundations" at opposite ends of the galaxy. He's predicted the perfect sequence of events to minimize the damage from the collapse of the empire and help the galaxy recover as quickly as possible. What's cool is that the foundation is purposefully not given the knowledge of how to predict the future, because that will affect the predicted sequence of events and break this perfect sequence, so the residents there have to follow on faith that they're doing the right thing.
What's also cool about it is there is no central protagonist, the books basically follow different inhabitants living in the foundations through various crisis points when the Foundations are in danger of being destroyed, jumping ahead at intervals of 50-100s of years at a time.
Suffice it to say, the story goes to some pretty awesome places, and I find Asimov is particularly good at pulling twists on you that make complete sense in retrospect, but blind-side you in the moment.
Also, the series exists in vaguely the same universe as his robots books, so it's a good gateway into his universe of stories as a whole.
Exegesis by Astro Teller (yes really).
I think I got it randomly at a yard sale back when I was in high-school or something, was really pleasantly surprised by it.
Actually just picked it up (read it like 10 years ago) and started reading a bit, man this was so clearly written by a Software Engineer, I didn't realize how accurate this is to a lot of actual CS research I've seen.
Edit: figures, written by a guy with a PHD in AI, who heads up Research and Development at Google
Not to digress, but that kinda reminds of this very interesting "found-footage" novel, about a researcher who discovers her AI research project has become sentient. The entire book is told as a series of email exchanges between people involved with the project and the AI itself.
Squiggly_P: You're right! I totally forgot about Executive Decision, that's a really awesome example of that, especially because Steven Seagal not only never dies in his movies, but usually never even gets injured or has to put up much of a fight at all. That movie rules. Deep Blue Sea is the only other big subversion that I can think of off the top of my head.
IT sucks because there's great potential for someone to make a subversive Snow White story, where the Witch ends up actually being a totally reasonable leader, and Snow White is being used as a puppet prophet by religious rebels from the haunted woods trying to insight violence and take over the kingdom.
Speaking of the "chosen one" thing, I desperately want one of these movies to start out that way and then have the chosen one get brutally killed 1/3 of the way through, and have the rest of the characters have to deal with the ramifications.
I second Le Cercle Rouge as a fucking outstanding heist film, seriously check that out.
Similarly, I would throw in Jean Pierre Melville's other genre classic, Le Samourai, which is basically the prototypical lone hitman movie. It's purposefully completely minimalistic, very little dialogue, all mood and atmosphere, probably a bit less accessible than Le Cercle Rouge but more influential. You see it's DNA all over the next 30 years of genre movies, from French Connection (specifically the subway cat and mouse sequence), to The Killer, and Leon: The Professional, to Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (which you really should see, at least for the awesome Wu Tang soundtrack).
I really want Westerns to come back and be a big genre again. At least so John Carpenter can make his damn Western already while he's still alive.
I've always said that they should do a remake of The Running Man. I realize we've kind of had that happen with things like The Condemned and The Hunger Games, but I mean specifically taking advantage of the future society in Running Man. That always felt to me like a movie full of awesome concepts that just didn't have the budget to deliver on everything it wanted (and I say that as someone who really likes that movie). The game show aspect could be played up even more nowadays, introduce stuff like people worldwide texting who they want to die next, what villain they want to drop into the arena next, a la American Idol.
I see 0 reasons why someone can't, I just don't see anyone stepping up and attempting to do so. The guy who made Monsters is now doing the Godzilla reboot, Totally Rad Show guy's portal fan film largely got him a big studio gig, and the there's Paranormal Activity, which has turned Oren Peli into somewhat of a horror brand name. If the youtube generation isn't graduating, it's their own damn fault for not taking any chances, and I think BigDamnArtist is completely right about the reasons why.
Again, the thing that counts with ARMA is the engine improvements. I don't give a damn what they do in terms of missions and features, because I'll be playing custom online clan missions anyway, and there'll probably be a whole series of realism mods on top of it.
That Sync show is pretty decent looking, judging from the first episode. Neat idea. Unfortunately, it's got a lot of problems other web series have in terms of how it looks and the way it's shot, edited, written and performed. Not just talking about Sync here unless I specifically say that:
1) Ever notice how all the tutorials and information out there on color grading and general 'look' of video tend to focus on making everything look like a Micheal Bay movie? Why is that, exactly? It looks like crap. People on the internet should stop doing that. Sync isn't all that bad, but it's close in some sections.
2) Every shot is handheld. Every other shot is some kind of gimmick shot where the camera is panning up or down or snap-zooming or shot from above, or shot from the ground, or doing some sweeping move, etc. Further, most of these series don't have many interesting angles. They're mostly shot in a very basic way to either get as much of the action in camera as possible or with the focal point being dead-center frame the whole time. They're either being flat and boring or trying WAY too hard.
3) The editing is very basic. Cut to the guy saying the line. Cut to the beginning of the action and cut after the entire action has taken place. A leads to B leads to C. It's usually not BAD, but it's very simplistic and dull. Predictable.
4) The writing in Sync is interesting because the concept is interesting. I liked how they approached the first episode, so I can't fault the writing there. Normally the writing in web series is as predictable as the editing. The dialogue however... The dialogue is typical. Every line is trying to be the most clever or bad-ass line ever written. The characters in these series often end up being the same character, or one of a few different archetypes. They are generic, though that is also partly due to the acting...
5) The acting sucks. It's a web series, so maybe I should grade on a curve or something, but the acting in most of these things is pretty terrible, bordering on mediocre if you're lucky. Line delivery is an issue, but often the real issue I have is the way things are happening. I'm an actor standing here waiting for my turn to say my line. This guy has said his line, and I'm reacting to it. I need to move to this spot here and then say this line and then do this. When they're not speaking, they just sit there or stand there. I dunno if these guys have gone to film school or taken an acting class, but if you watch more than a few truly good movies, you kinda notice that most decent actors don't just sit there waiting for their turn to deliver a line. They do stuff. There's a back-and-forth between them and the director where they try different things.
Overall, I think the main problem with web shows is that they go way overboard in some aspects and then barely try at all when it comes to the actual story and performance. You can tell they're trying to go for a big-budget sort of 'feel' to things with all the crazy ass color grading and the effects and camera moves and the clever / bad-ass dialogue and shit, but they end up trying so hard that it's too much. Not to mention the fact that movies like that generally suck balls, so why the hell people keep trying to make that sort of crap without any money I'll never know.
I get that these are little low-budget hobby things a lot of the time, but you can make a really good scene that relies very little on effects or gimmicky shots or overly clever writing or crazy genre concepts or anything like that. If I had a camera that could shoot video and friends I would do them myself. Unfortunately I have none of those things.
Also, case-in-point of a series that actually has great effects, but is well written, shot and edited in an interesting way, has a neat concept and I, for one, think that the middle bit is pretty well acted. The dialogue is good, the characters are characters... It's got some rough edges and shit - the last bit could have been read a bit better - but fucking great overall:
This is something that's been bugging me a ton the last few years. I don't know if the shitty hollywood blockbusters are to blame, but I'm seeing incredibly talented people on youtube wasting all this hard work and crazy vfx on terrible writing, acting, and general fan-wankery. The advent of digital technology was supposed to enable anyone to be a film-maker, and it has made this much easier, but it seems to me that people are simply not embracing the opportunities at all. I've brought this up before, but you look at some of the early John Carpenter films, like Assault on Precinct 13. Those were made on a shoe-string budget back then, nowadays you could probably make the same exact film for under 10 grand if you were creative about it. So why are we not seeing more young film-makers making simple genre films in that type of mold? Obviously not all of them would be successful/good, but it seems to me that people aren't even making the attempt for the most part. I see the behind the scenes stuff in FreddieW's channel, and they have so much talent/equipment/stunt-people at their disposal, it staggers me that they don't apply that towards a simple narrative genre film, which would be not a huge leap from the work they do now.
Monsters is the only real recent example I can think of where someone really went for it and applied their hobby VFX skills to make a good breakout feature film. I kind of hoped we'd have a whole wave of that kind of thing, but it seems to not be happening.
Proper Vehicle and Ragdoll physics!! Underwater combat!! Real Muzzle Flashes! Oh man I can't wait to see what the map creator community does with this, there's some amazing potential, especially with the underwater stuff. We can finally recreate the ending of Thunderball in videogame form! If they're modelling underwater, I wonder if it'd be a stretch to add submarines to the game? Full on naval battle tactics would be so cool to try out.
Ya, it's more just not my cup of tea. I can see how it was funny when they started out, but it's kind of crazy that the series is still going and actually trying to justify storylines and mythologies and what-not, and that stuff doesn't work for me. I think I'd have loved this thing back in high-school (and I really remember the days of Halo machinama being a big deal in my friend circles), but I think I've outgrown it and looking back, it's pretty silly.
With the animation team they have now though, and the apparent free reign from Microsoft to do whatever, I wish they'd just do a spin-off series or something that's not connected to the old series. I think with a more serious bent and better writing they could do some outstanding stuff. It kinda reminds me of that Starship Troopers CG cartoon from the early 2000's.
While I don't like Red vs Blue or give a shit about its terrible convoluted story or mythology, Monty Oum has been doing some of the most impressive action choreography I've ever seen since he joined that series. Someone seriously needs to get that guy into a pre-viz department, or fund an animated film of his.
Look at 1:25 onward in this: http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=376 … re&s=9
And the trailer for season 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN1IwxXU748
I hate VGHS, and wish FreddieW and his friends would use their considerable talent and money to make a REAL movie instead of more internet/video-game fan-wank.
^^ Network is a great time and totally rewatchable, though you are correct about most of those
I'm keeping an open mind till I see it, since I'm seeing reviews completely all over the board. It's tough because everyone brings such differing expectations into it so it's hard to say if people are disliking it for things I would actually enjoy. I'm seeing people criticizing it for being too horrorish and not being enough like 2001, I'm also seeing the opposite, with people complaining it's too slow-paced with not enough horror.
I shall see in a week, but that kind of response gives me hope, because it tells me the movie at least isn't generic but is taking some chances and doing some things outside the box.
Better to be divisive than being generic but universally liked a la the Avengers.
Regarding A Bridge Too Far, I agree, it's insanely impressive on a technical level but doesn't quite work narratively. That's the feeling I get with a lot of the older "historical" WW2 films. As a military buff it's interesting, but there's just a real lack of story thru-line that distances you.
Tora Tora Tora is another interesting case, because it's literally more like a big budget National Geographic special than an actual movie, there's basically no "characters" or "character storylines" of any kind, it's just rattling off historical events/quotes. Then for Pearl Harbor they tried to add that stuff in to help dramatize it and swing WAAAAY too far in the opposite direction.
^^^ Agreed.
To add a few:
2001 and Lawrence of Arabia, specifically if you ever get the opportunity to see them in 70mm cinerama (they play them like that every year here in Seattle, lucky us), as it will blow your mind in a way 3d never will.
Also, check out Where Eagle's Dare for the absolute best damned men-on-a-mission movie ever made. It's seriously one of the coolest WW2 flicks you'll ever see, they spend an hour infiltrating the Nazi base in the alps and setting up parts of their escape, and then the last hour is the escape, where you see all the pieces of the plan meticulously falling into place.
If by some chance you haven't seen Cowboy Bebop yet, fix this immediately (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh8JkogEaFs&t=2m1s). It's a great gateway drug into anime, an awesome piece of pop sci-fi (very reminiscent of Firefly), and has one of the best Jazz soundtracks ever made. Samurai Champloo is also pretty good.
Police Story 1 is possibly my favorite Jackie Chan film, the shopping mall climax is one of the all time great action set-pieces. Love Operation Condor as well, though with Jackie films I always struggle with the abrupt tonal shifts (police story really has this problem, it swings between being like a light romantic comedy to a gritty/brutal dirty-harry type flick).
Ya, it's an awesome setup for a thriller, and the movie just drains you emotionally with how much shit it throws at the protagonists. Funnily enough, it kind of represents the end of the 70s wave of successful auteur cinema, and the dawn of the modern summer blockbuster, as it came out the same summer as Star Wars and got completely crushed at the box office.
Also, the fact that is was PG back then is INSANE. The movie would be a hard-R today, there's graphically burned human corpses, people shot in the head, blood, swearing, etc. It's draining to watch as an adult, I can't imagine what it would do to an 8 year old.
I also still haven't seen Wages of Fear, gotta get on that.
K, I'll try to not do too many repeats, though I must emphasize
Apocalypse Now, Godfather 1/2, Heat, and Blade Runner
William Friedkin's criminally underseen Sorceror, seriously track down a copy of that, it will pummel your soul. I still have no idea how the fuck he shot some of the stuff in that movie without killing everyone involved.
Also the more obvious French Connection, and the admittedly kinda dated To Live and Die in LA.
John Woo's The Killer and Hard Boiled, and more recently Red Cliff, to see what action movies are capable of.
The Man with No Name trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West as a gateway drug into Westerns.
Also in the criminally under-seen department, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (original, not the terrible Tony Scott remake).
Friends In Your Head | Forums → Posts by bullet3
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