101 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

With Akira, I remember being freaked out seeing it as a kid on cable, but at this point I barely remember anything about it, so its hard to say either way.

If you want to get into anime, you watch Cowboy Bebop, since its distinctly riffing on Western genres and tropes, it's probably one of the most accessible out there (and genuinely awesome throughout). I'd also recommend Grave of the Fireflies, which is a completely straight-ahead war film that just happens to be animated (and is unflinching and bleak as hell).

But ya, I also have a tough time with anime, because the cultural sensibilities and writing just make most of it impossible to get into at all.

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102 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

http://manilovefilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/go-poster.jpg
Decided to check out GO, Doug Liman's late-90s riff on Pulp Fiction. I'm a sucker for the "shit going crazy during a single night" genre, so it was a lot of fun. This is probably one of the best of the Pulp Fiction knock-offs, though it's still hard to shake how derivative so much of it feels. And ironically, where Pulp Fiction feels timeless, this ends up feeling kinda dated, with the lame 90s techno vibe throughout.

Still, there's a lot of entertaining stuff, and the cast really makes it work. In particular, Sarah Polly, Timothy Olyphant, Taye Digs and William Fichtner are awesome, and Katie Holmes is at peak hotness in this.

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103 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I had a similar feeling Trey, and was wracking my brain trying to think of what the "fix" is.

SPOILER Show
It's a weird case, because the crew's decision to stay and fight feels very unearned. It doesn't seem like a crucial objective they're accomplishing, and you don't get the sense that any of them are suicidal, so it feels like a narrative cheat. But on the other hand, it's clearly by design. The point is that any objective is kind of equally pointless to die for, so if the movie did have them doing this as some massive heroic gesture, that would feel like a cheat too.

I think the obvious comparison point here is the ending of the Wild Bunch. In that one, the decision to walk into certain death is made to defend a very specific moral code. They'd rather all die than let one of their own be humiliated and murdered. You totally buy why they're walking into this, so it really works. The other reason it works is that the firefight itself is fairly short (3-4 minutes), which keeps it believable. The battle in Fury goes on way too long in my opinion, to where it really starts to feel like a different movie where suddenly the germans are incompetent stormtrooper villains, which goes against the tone of the rest of the film.

I think if there was a better justification for the battle (not necessarily in the context of the war, but something really personal to the tank crew), and the battle itself was shorter, Fury might've been great.

Instead, it's just really, really good.

Edit: Also, between Gravity and now this, Steven Price is really kicking ass with his film scores

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104 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I think Fury is a lot better than you give it credit for. It's incredibly hardcore un-sugarcoated violence, and it's aggressively focused on avoiding most of the cliches of war movies like Saving Private Ryan. There's no inspirational speechifying, no talking about the family back home, no stirring patriotic music, no "but its all for the greater good" bullshit. It's also the extremely rare WW2 movie that's sympathetic to the german soldiers and civilians, showing how their life is utter hell, and they're only fighting under threat of hanging. On top of that, it looks fantastic and brings a lot to the table visually, using tracer rounds to make the battles both extremely dynamic, and easy to follow.

I think the action climax somewhat abandons the gritty realism the rest of the movie accomplishes, but it's still a pretty uniquely dirty, uncompromising entry in the war genre.

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105 Reply by bullet3

(248 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Tell him that a Pink Five feature film has been green-lit as the in-between movie for Episodes 8 and 9

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106 Reply by bullet3

(248 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I know it won't happen, but I seriously want the coma prank to happen

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107 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Ya, I honestly need to sit with it for a few days before I can really decide how I feel about it.

On the one hand, it's a hilarious black comedy (didn't expect that), with awesome performances from everyone (Who knew Tyler Perry could be this great?), expertly directed, looks and sounds great, that might be one of the strongest Fincher movies thematically.

On the other hand, the 3rd act is so batshit crazy, that I have to wonder why Fincher keeps coming back to such weak source material. Could he tackle these themes in a plot that wasn't this ridiculous and wildly implausible?

My gut feeling is this is definitely one of the lower tier Fincher entries for me, better than The Game and Panic Room, worse than Dragon Tattoo (which itself is a middle entry). Then again, I enjoyed the hell out of it, so maybe it'll move up on a rewatch.

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108 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Gone Girl is fucking DARK you guys. Fincher you lovable nihilist. Jesus.

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109 Reply by bullet3

(248 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Fuck, was offline for a day and I missed this.

What really gets me is the insane randomness of it. It wasn't risk-taking, it wasn't some genetic medical condition. Nope, a random car hits THAT spot at THAT time. It could be any of us, today, tomorrow, next week. How fucked up the universe is.

I wanna think he would laugh at the irony of it, a confirmation that the universe doesn't care and wants to kill you.

I hope he's able to fight this, to say screw you and come back at 110%, because that's what Mike would do.
Look forward to hearing him on the podcast again soon.

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110 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

There are many problems with Sabotage, which is a giant piece of shit of a movie, but Arnold isn't really to blame. It's just a terrible, terrible script, with aggressively unpleasant to watch characters, and bored, lazy filmmaking. You could throw DeNiro in the role and it would still be terrible (see Righteous Kill)

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111 Reply by bullet3

(16 replies, posted in Creations)

Alex, this is really tremendous, I love it!

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112 Reply by bullet3

(20 replies, posted in Episodes)

If Eddie didn't say it, I was going to. Forumers be slacking

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113 Reply by bullet3

(11 replies, posted in Episodes)

BTW Teague, thanks for suggesting Rick and Morty, it's absolutely fantastic. It's like all the best "crazy" episodes of Community spun off into it's own show, really great writing, and like you said, adheres to the 3-act setup/payoff structure.

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114 Reply by bullet3

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

You gotta watch House, the legendary crazy 70s japanese horror movie full of incredibly creative practical effects

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115 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

The man's on a bit of a downslope, no doubt about it  big_smile
But then I watch this again and I get excited. Even the bad movies look gorgeous.

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116 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I think I'm over the grieving process at this point and excited for new Ridley Scott movies again. Really if you look at his career it's always been hits and misses, with really big highs and really big lows. Just in the last decade, you've got Kingdom of Heaven, Matchstick Men, and American Gangster as highs, and Prometheus, Robin Hood, and The Counselor as lows. I'm super stoked for Exodus.

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117 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Ya I was really impressed with how much I liked the new one, having gone in with no expectations. It's creepy and intense as all hell.

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118 Reply by bullet3

(11 replies, posted in Episodes)

Sorcerer is fucking awesome, you won't be disappointed. It's like Apocalypse Now's less-well-known cousin in the "70s filmmakers with massive balls filming crazy sequences in the jungle" genre.

Phantom of the Paradise I clearly need to see based on this discussion, as I haven't seen much early De Palma.

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119 Reply by bullet3

(95 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I should clarify, I'm ok with fan-edits if they're done for your own personal enjoyment. If I wanna take my purchased blu-ray of a movie, take the time to make a custom edit that I like, and burn myself a copy to watch at home, I think that's fine.  I have a serious problem with it when you then post that online (often-times on piratebay), and start promoting it and making it about yourself, and stupid discussions start up about what the "best" fan-edit is for a particular movie, and whatnot.

Is there a certain what-if curiosity around potential re-edits of some movies in rare cases? Sure. The attempt to re-create Tarantino's original structure for True Romance is one example. However, the problem is that usually the people trying to do this stuff are not good editors, and so 95% of fan-edits online are garbage. Often riddled with mistakes, glitches, nonsensical choices, all because having a copy of Finalcut made them think they know how to edit. I think that's very disrespectful to the filmmakers and editors who busted their asses to make the movie they made.

If you want to try this stuff as an editing exercise (and it can be a valuable exercise), knock yourself out, but keep it to yourself.

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120 Reply by bullet3

(95 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It's different because you're explicitly fucking with someone's art and redistributing it with your name attached against their will. I kind of hate remix culture though so I'm the wrong guy to ask.

Talking about and critiquing a work academically and offering suggestions is very different.

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121 Reply by bullet3

(58 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Reviving this super-old thread to mention an absolutely fantastic episode of the Hollywood Gauntlet looking at where people thought the movie industry would go 25 years ago, where it has gone, and where it's going.
http://hollywood-gauntlet.blogspot.com/ … ovies.html

These guys do some of the most well-produced and polished podcasts on the internet, it's akin to a 3.5 hour mammoth NPR episode on movies. They only release a few episodes a year, but the quality is the best you're going to find on the subject.

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122 Reply by bullet3

(262 replies, posted in Episodes)

While To Live and Die in LA is good (in a bizarro off-the-wall 80s way), there are way better Friedkin movies they should do first. French Connection or Sorcerer for starters

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123 Reply by bullet3

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

All is Lost is on Netflix now so I finally caught up with it. Trey was right, what a fantastic movie. All visual storytelling, tense, believable, no bullshit. The thing I really didn't expect is how great it looks, there's gotta be VFX all over this thing but everything looked photo-real to me, and there's lots of stuff that had to be real that looks fantastic

SPOILER Show
There's a great shot over the shoulder of Redford in his lifeboat as he pulls away from his sinking ship just as it capsizes and goes under, and it's an unbroken shot. Can't imagine the tension setting that shot up.

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124 Reply by bullet3

(971 replies, posted in Movie Stuff)

Ditto Cameron with Terminator 2 (he needed a safe hit after The Abyss bombed), didn't stop him from bringing his A-game.

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125 Reply by bullet3

(164 replies, posted in Off Topic)

9 months into the year and the Hannibal finale is still the best directed hour of any Movie or TV all year.

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