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AlternateAccount posted:http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2003/jun/06/artsfeatures1 From the article: quote:It turned out that the story I had come to find in the upper midwest never existed. Yes, she had come to the upper midwest to kill herself. But not because of Fargo. It seemed the whole treasure story was nothing more than a Coen brothers-style series of tragic misunderstandings. Nothing more than the figment of an earnest policeman's imagination. Nothing more than a tale that people wanted to believe.
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Jan 12, 2012 11:49
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Voodoofly posted:You are right, though. It specifics don't matter. He believes he needs money, and we believe him. Everything else is just icing. Isn't the whole thing basically just a MacGuffin?
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Jan 12, 2012 15:32
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twistedmentat posted:...that made me wonder what the general consensus on Woody Allens comedies like Sleeper, Bananas and such? I saw Sleeper when I was very young and thought it was the greatest thing ever. I watched it a year or two ago and was underwhelmed for some reason.
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Jan 12, 2012 23:23
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Sand Monster posted:Isn't the whole thing basically just a MacGuffin? From what I understand, it pretty much is. We just need to know that Jerry is either stupid or desperate enough to believe that a "no-rough-stuff type deal" with two crooks could work and ultimately, from his perspective, no harm done.
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Jan 13, 2012 00:40
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edit/quote.
BeigeJacket fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Jan 13, 2012 |
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Jan 13, 2012 00:51
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Detective Thompson posted:Sounds more like Malcolm McDowell to me, but I can't find anything to back that up. Nah, it's some BBC voice-over guy. I recognise his voice from other historical docs. Oh, and that old German guy in the clip, Jesus Christ...  E: Oh, and speaking of Allen, what's the consensus of what his last genuinely good film was? I've always had a soft spot for Everyone Says I Love You, but can appreciate it's a lightweight, but enjoyable, piece of fluff. Allens career trajectory is fascinating. The man has gone through the sharpest decline of a major American artist that I can think of, and it all started about the time he started banging his step-daughter. I can't even watch the more recent films, they're just awful, Match Point was one of the worst things I've seen in years. At least he's stopped casting himself in roles opposite women 40 years younger who are throwing themselves at him. Husbands and Wives might be his last solid piece of work and that was over 20 years ago. BeigeJacket fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jan 13, 2012 |
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Jan 13, 2012 01:04
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BeigeJacket posted:E: Oh, and speaking of Allen, what's the consensus of what his last genuinely good film was? I've always had a soft spot for Everyone Says I Love You, but can appreciate it's a lightweight, but enjoyable, piece of fluff. Well the general consensus is that Match Point was pretty awesome (and I agree with said consensus).
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Jan 13, 2012 03:35
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BeigeJacket posted:E: Oh, and speaking of Allen, what's the consensus of what his last genuinely good film was? I've always had a soft spot for Everyone Says I Love You, but can appreciate it's a lightweight, but enjoyable, piece of fluff. Midnight in Paris is a top 3 Woody Allen movie to me.
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Jan 13, 2012 03:39
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona
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Jan 13, 2012 06:51
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Jesus christ, what is wrong with you people? Match Point was pretty bad (and I say that as someone who profited from its success), Scoop even worse, and while VCB was not a bad film per se, it sure as hell wasn't a good one either. I have noticed that people from Britain, who have some idea of what life here is really like, think much, much less of Match Point than Americans (well, all foreigners) do. I think it is perhaps because it presents a view of British life that is consistent with an outsider's perception but actually bears not much resemblance to reality. Here, the film is laughable.
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Jan 13, 2012 12:05
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therattle posted:Jesus christ, what is wrong with you people? Match Point was pretty bad (and I say that as someone who profited from its success), Scoop even worse, and while VCB was not a bad film per se, it sure as hell wasn't a good one either. E: Match Point got great reviews in Britain by the way.
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Jan 13, 2012 14:01
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nemoulette posted:I think Match Point was massively overrated, Scoop wasn't very good and Whatever Works was atrocious, but both VCB and especially Midnight in Paris were both good fun. I've just checked some online reviews: both Guardian reviewers gave it 2/5, and the Telegraph review was pretty scathing. The Independent summarised it thusly: "There's a rumour being circulated that Match Point is a work of disturbing moral seriousness, but you'd have to be deranged, or American, to buy into its flimsy caricatures."I couldn't find a review in The Sun, but the Mirror's review began "Oh, Woody. Oh Woody, Woody, Woody. What were you thinking? Or, being brutal, were you thinking at all? It's the first week of the new year and already we have what could be the biggest stinker of 2006." Time Out London said: "There was a time when Woody Allen’s dismissals of his own work as ‘mediocre’ and ‘miserable’ translated as false but endearing modesty. These days, they sound increasingly like confessions." http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/82717/match-point.html http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/film/2006/01/06/match-point-115875-16550377/ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/match-point-15brexiles-15brjust-friends-12a-521713.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3649152/Still-waiting-for-Woodys-comeback.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3649152/Still-waiting-for-Woodys-comeback.html No, I do not believe it got great reviews in Britain. Please note that I did not find positive UK reviews which I ignored - these were all the ones I searched for and found. 
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Jan 13, 2012 14:27
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therattle posted:I've just checked some online reviews: both Guardian reviewers gave it 2/5, and the Telegraph review was pretty scathing. The Independent summarised it thusly: "There's a rumour being circulated that Match Point is a work of disturbing moral seriousness, but you'd have to be deranged, or American, to buy into its flimsy caricatures."I couldn't find a review in The Sun, but the Mirror's review began "Oh, Woody. Oh Woody, Woody, Woody. What were you thinking? Or, being brutal, were you thinking at all? It's the first week of the new year and already we have what could be the biggest stinker of 2006." E: On the subject of the actual movie, I think its "flimsy caricatures" is the least of its problems. Every Woody Allen movie set abroad (and in the US, arguably) is like that. It's almost like a movie convention that you have to come to accept, just like every one of his movies end with him, or someone standing in for him, running away with a girl far too young for his age. widunder fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Jan 13, 2012 |
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Jan 13, 2012 14:40
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quote:There's a rumour being circulated that Match Point is a work of disturbing moral seriousness, but you'd have to be deranged, or American, to buy into its flimsy caricatures." Sick burn, The Independent.
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Jan 13, 2012 16:57
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I just watched The Stuff, and it's a lot better than I thought it would be. Great cast, one of those goofy yet compelling concepts and just enough self-awareness to pull the whole thing off. Is there anything else by Larry Cohen worth checking out? I watched It's Alive when I was a kid and remember disliking it, but it might be worth a revisit.
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Jan 14, 2012 20:10
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At the very least, It's Alive has a fantastic opening. I'd say its worth a watch. I can't say it's a 'good' movie, but I have a real soft spot for Q: The Winged Serpent. Also, I haven't seen it, but I've heard very good things about God Told Me To. Edit: Oh, and he didn't direct it, but apparently he wrote Maniac Cop, and that movie rules.
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Jan 14, 2012 20:15
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God Told Me To is GREAT.
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Jan 14, 2012 22:25
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I thought Match Point was well-made, but the complete lack of subtlety in the ending kinda ruined it for me. I also didn't like how the wife was made to look like this naive buffoon because she doesn't agree with the protagonist's nihilism. I think it's a potential pitfall whenever you have adultery in a story, but it felt wrong. Midnight in Paris was decent, though. No more subtle, but it felt more like a fun story and less like a thesis.
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Jan 14, 2012 22:46
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In Batman Begins, after Batman saves a poisoned Rachel and drives through the city pancaking cop cars, he gives her the antidote for the poison and then says he is about to sedate her. He also gives her instructions for when he wakes up: 1) Take one of these antidotes and give it to Gordon to save himself. 2) Give the other to Gordon for him to mass produce. Why doesn't he just mass produce it himself, how does he expect Gordon to get it produced, why doesn't he just deliver it to Gordon himself and not depend on a sedated and possibly still insane woman... I realize it's to further the plot but I think this is a big hole.
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Jan 15, 2012 00:07
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Hexum posted:In Batman Begins, after Batman saves a poisoned Rachel and drives through the city pancaking cop cars, he gives her the antidote for the poison and then says he is about to sedate her. He also gives her instructions for when he wakes up: You should probably move that to this thread, this isn't really the place for that kind of thing: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3435382
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Jan 15, 2012 00:11
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penismightier posted:God Told Me To is GREAT. God Told Me To is loving great. I remember when The Dark Knight came out and thought it was really cool how the assassination scene is a straight rip from the scene with Andy Kaufman (!) in it.
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Jan 15, 2012 05:43
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I saw a production of West Side Story last night and enjoyed it, but was surprised by how much more explicit the play was than the movie. There was a lot more liberal use of racial slurs and the assault on Anita left less to be inferred. I'm curious, was the original production toned down when they adapted it to a film, or have I seen a more modernized production? Hibernator fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jan 18, 2012 |
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Jan 18, 2012 18:48
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How do American WW2 films fair in places like Europe? EG. Did Saving Private Ryan do well in Germany?
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Jan 19, 2012 02:55
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What was the first horror movie to use Creepy Little GirlsTM?
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Jan 19, 2012 06:23
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probably The Shining
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Jan 19, 2012 06:30
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It goes back to at least 1956 with The Bad Seed. Probably farther.
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Jan 19, 2012 06:32
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Village of the Damned was in '60, and that probably counts.
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Jan 19, 2012 06:34
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Rap Music and Dope posted:How do American WW2 films fair in places like Europe? EG. Did Saving Private Ryan do well in Germany? Saving Private Ryan did fantastic business in Germany, $28 million.
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Jan 19, 2012 12:19
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Rap Music and Dope posted:How do American WW2 films fair in places like Europe? EG. Did Saving Private Ryan do well in Germany? Hard to tell. Saving Ryan's Privates did pretty well in Germany: 3.75m admissions compared to 4.1m in France, so broadly comparable.
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Jan 19, 2012 12:45
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nocal posted:I actually think it's a part of the brilliance of the movie to not make it explicit. It could be as simple as credit card debt, or as complex as a loan shark, but it's not a necessary part of the story. I always assumed he was up to his eyeballs in debt simply because he was a loving terrible car salesman, but had to keep up his family's lifestyle to look like a big man in front of his father-in-law.
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Jan 19, 2012 13:50
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Rap Music and Dope posted:How do American WW2 films fair in places like Europe? EG. Did Saving Private Ryan do well in Germany? They do pretty well in Denmark, but most people I know roll their eyes when they get too "AMERICA gently caress YEAH  "
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Jan 19, 2012 14:42
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penismightier posted:It goes back to at least 1956 with The Bad Seed. Probably farther. I've always assumed this is the one that started it all. Very good movie, by the way. I like everything about it except that cheesy "curtain call" moment at the end.
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Jan 19, 2012 17:03
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caiman posted:I've always assumed this is the one that started it all. Was that ending pushed by the studio? It felt so incongruous with the tone of the film.
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Jan 20, 2012 09:53
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Rap Music and Dope posted:How do American WW2 films fair in places like Europe? EG. Did Saving Private Ryan do well in Germany? We know germans were the "bad guys" back then and I don't think that has any impact on the success of the movie at all. We might not agree with exaggeration like every little foot soldier being portrayed as head to toe-evil nazi, but that won't keep us from watching well made WW2 movies in general. Saving Private Ryan was the 6th highest-grossing film in 1998 in Germany (#1 in the US), beaten only by Titanic (of course), Armageddon, Mulan, The Horse Whisperer and Dr. Doolittle. Inglourious Basterds came in 15th in 2009 (#25 in the US). Schindler's List (#9 in the US) and our very own Downfall (Der Untergang - #162 in the US) both were 5th highest-grossing in their respective years. Band of Brothers is my and some of my friends all-time favorite (mini-)series and sold very well on DVD, too.
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Jan 20, 2012 15:23
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Wild T posted:Was that ending pushed by the studio? It felt so incongruous with the tone of the film. I'm pretty sure it was a Code issue rather than the studio.
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Jan 20, 2012 16:07
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Wild T posted:Was that ending pushed by the studio? It felt so incongruous with the tone of the film. In the ending to the novel, the mother dies from the gunshot, but the daughter still survives the poison. The bizarre 'death by lightning bolt' coda never happens. So, yeah, way darker.
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Jan 20, 2012 17:01
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morestuff posted:I'm pretty sure it was a Code issue rather than the studio. This is correct. You were not allowed to "let evil go unpunished."
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Jan 20, 2012 19:18
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penismightier posted:This is correct. You were not allowed to "let evil go unpunished." I love movies from all decades, but my God the Hays code really hosed things up for about forty years.
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Jan 20, 2012 19:32
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caiman posted:I love movies from all decades, but my God the Hays code really hosed things up for about forty years. Yeah, it did, but on the plus side it led to a few great things that never would've happened otherwise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu8JASfWb6A "Hitchcock also devised "a celebrated scene"[3] that circumvented the Production Code's ban on kisses longer than three seconds — by having his actors disengage every three seconds, murmur and nuzzle each other, then start right back up again. The two-and-a-half minute osculation is "perhaps his most intimate and erotic kiss."[4]"
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Jan 20, 2012 19:36
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 21:08 |
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The Hays Code at least forced writers to find ways around certain prohibited things, and some of them came up with some drat sharp stuff.
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Jan 21, 2012 03:59
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