Sulphur on 4/1/2011 at 22:48
That reviewer seems to be searching for stuff in the movie to tick him off. I'll admit some of the things they did to Knives were a little on the needlessly cruel side, but it's pretty much an honest portrayal of a male adolescent jerk (which I was once upon a time) and his coloured views of the world around him.
Take it all with a grain of salt. I found the movie nice enough to view while it unspooled its effects shots and quips, but difficult to love, because I can't like any of the characters in it. Too many archetypes and stereotypes and cynicism and not enough real, actual personality for me.
Also, navigating TTLG when it's not updating the thread lists now is like flying blind. Clicking on a thread is like a treasure hunt - there may or may not be new information in it at the end!
Pyrian on 6/1/2011 at 22:53
Quote Posted by David
Tron Legacy. Watchable because it was pretty. The story was utter shit, plus it was essentially the same story as the Tron 2.0 computer game, which was similar to Tron.
How so? Aside from the basic "person is unwittingly sucked into computer, forced into gladiatorial lightcycle games, and must fight their way out alongside a program woman", essentially the bare minimum for the series, I don't see this at all. If anything, Tron Legacy and Tron 2.0 are separate branches from Tron, taking it in very different directions; most of what they have in common comes from the original, and I didn't get any sense from Tron Legacy that its creators had any familiarity with Tron 2.0 whatsoever.
...Which is kind of a pity because I still think Tron 2.0 was the apex of the setting so far. :cool:
Let's see, Tron Legacy and Tron 2.0 feature (different) male children of Tron's characters, and each have a fight scene in a (in-computer) bar. Both protaganists' fathers' end up in the computer, but in very different ways and rather different capacities. Cora and Mercury fight while their Tron equivalent does not, although I suspect that's more a product of the changing times. That's about all I can come up with that compares them while contrasting from the original. I've gotta be missing something (Tron 2.0 is a full-length FPS/RPG and has a lot of plot compared to either movie), but c'mon.
Meanwhile, in Tron Legacy and Tron, the primary antagonist is an out-of-control megalomaniacal master program, as contrasting with Tron 2.0 where the primary antagonists are people. (Diiscussions of Ma3a and Cora would be appropriate here, but longer than I want to go into - suffice it to say that they're both interesting but separate concepts in their own right, even though like much of the setting neither really make sense if you try to think about them too hard.) The eeevil corporate executives are front-and-center villains in Tron and Tron 2.0, but little more than a side-show in Tron Legacy. Tron Legacy features programs adopting humanoid form in the real world, a capability absent from either of its predecessors. Bit and Byte don't have any obvious counterpart in Tron Legacy. While Tron 2.0's "correction algorithms" have a similar plot role to Flynn's disc in Tron Legacy, the corruption and its victims has no equivalent whatsoever in either. It seems like I should be able to think of an equivalent for Zeus - he's such an archetype - but I think he's basically unique to Tron Legacy (and frankly kind of disappointing - he's the wrong archetype to evince such naivete - biggest letdown of Tron Legacy IMO). And so on...Scots Taffer on 6/1/2011 at 23:34
I watched Black Swan last night. As expected from an Aronofsky directed take on obsession and identity, it was a mind fuck but I probably expected more degradation of Nina's mental state sooner and more playing with the horror imagery than dwelling on the psychosexual side. To me nothing felt more powerful than the idea of Nina shedding all that she currently is with her pink fluffy toy stuffed, overmothered and closeted existence and "losing control" of who she was and not knowing what she was going to become. I understand that the whole lesbian angle was to explore the "dark side" of her personality, the carnal, lustful and forbidden, but it's a bit tired to be honest. I far preferred the scenes where you weren't sure whether you were seeing her mind play out personifications of the dark side (the scene between Lily and Thomas backstage after the lights go out for example, or the scene between Nina and Beth at the hospital where she has the bloody file in her hand in the elevator) than the girl on girl action.
It's not a subtle movie, it's on the nose to the point where the biggest criticism I have is with the CG "transformation" scene onstage (I didn't mind the legs part because that was totally fucking freaky and she was losing it at that point). In my opinion it actually detracts from the power of the moment for Nina's character and could have been achieved in far smarter and subtler ways without distracting from the emotional peak of the movie.
Portman is a fucking revelation here, this little girl full of fragile hope and aching desire to be perfect becoming a creature of passion, violence and beauty, and in that moment achieves what she desires. She is a shoe-in for an Oscar nom, but she also deserves it. The end will probably leave some cold because it's not even remotely realistic (she has blood on her in the dressing room then none on stage then gushing out on the mattress, what), but I'm not entirely convinced it's real anyway and is potentially a metaphorical death of the white swan and Nina's old self. In fact, I will have to ponder whether or not if that metaphor is true what else could have been completely fabricated - seeing as her mother was in the audience and Lily wasn't dead, and so on, though I'm not sure how much more there is to be gained from the movie by trying to separate the real from the imagined as that was pretty much part of the point.
Scots Taffer on 8/1/2011 at 06:14
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
14.
Toy Story 3: This was not Pixar firing on all cylinders. This was Pixar going back to the well in a way that I hoped I would never see. Yes, by dint of
being Pixar they couldn't make anything less than a really, really good movie. But after Ratatouille, Wall-E and UP, to see them make something that felt as heavy handed and gag driven as this is just disappointing. They can do, and have done, so much better.
Given you prefaced your list with saying you didn't emotionally connect with some of them, I'm wondering if that's what happened here - hence why you think it's heavy-handed - as I think this might have missed you (and this is not intended to sound condescending) because it is clearly about being a parent and letting go of your children once they grow up. Except they did it with toys. Who commonly end up in the trash when they're done. And yeah,
they went there.I don't think anyone walking in blind would ever expect them to go there and certainly not at the stage of the movie where you almost believe it could be happening for real. To say this wasn't Pixar firing on all cylinders and taking chances (the tone of this movie is overwhelmingly bleak for most of the run time, one of the protagonists is portrayed as borderline delusional and pathetic, and bearing in mind it's still a fucking
kids movie) is staggering to me. As far as being gag-driven... uh, not sure what the hell you mean there, every one of them was funny and this one wasn't going for cheap gags either with the Barbie/Ken and Buzz/Jessie dynamics which were rich with their own gags. The ending may have felt like it laid it on thick with the final scenes of Andy relinquishing his toys and his childhood, but I think it was still done in such a way to not be trite and manipulative.
Muzman on 8/1/2011 at 06:45
I really have to see Black Swan, I think. Not least of all because it sounds so much like Perfect Blue it's not even funny.
Scots Taffer on 8/1/2011 at 15:23
OK, so now I have to reshuffle my list again to make way for Animal Kingdom - I loved the way it didn't pull any punches, built a magnificent sense of dread throughout and how the performances managed to be naturalistic and movie-realistic all at once. The plot didn't necessarily do much new, but I loved the way it played out; well acted, well written and well directed. I followed it up with the first episode of The Sopranos and saw how much it owed to that seminal show.
edit the first: seconding Angel Dust on singling out Pope's performance, truly chilling and unhinged character without ever acting stereotypically "off the hook"
edit the second: also saw Unstoppable in the cinema recently, ridiculously light and breezy fare that actually did about as well as any movie could with the premise, solid C flick overall and higher quality popcorn shit than most even though it did make me glad I have no history of epilepsy in my family as fuck-my-eyeballs-tony-scott-rape-editing didn't do that crowd any favours.
Ulukai on 10/1/2011 at 17:17
Got done with two more this past week. I can now add Scott Pilgrim to my great list; I was rather more impressed than my other half, although she at least used to play Nintendo so it wasn't totally lost on her.
Will admit to watching Hot Tub Time Machine (which was ok. It would have been better with beer.)
They could have done so much more with Chevy Chase. And he's looking old, neh?
Scots Taffer on 20/1/2011 at 22:48
The King's Speech was predictably solid. If you've seen the trailer you know exactly what you're going to get, there are no surprises but that doesn't stop the movie from excelling in most areas to provide 2 hours of polished entertainment. Firth's turn as the insecure and quick-tempered reluctant king is particularly of note and Rush provides the sort of supporting character chops that he seems to be able to do half asleep (though he isn't phoning it in here, by any means). The production values are spectacular also. Well worth your time.
Angel Dust on 20/1/2011 at 23:12
I saw The King's Speech yesterday too and I'm in complete agreement with you there, Scots. Oscar bait to be sure but finely crafted and highly enjoyable Oscar bait. Between this and A Single Man, as well as catching up with some of his lesser known past performances like Apartment Zero, Firth has quickly gone up in my estimations.
Fafhrd on 10/2/2011 at 01:57
Quote Posted by Aja
Soooo bad
I don't normally *hate* movies, but jesus, there was little to redeem this. I guess the acting was alright (ALRIGHT), but as a whole I'd rank it slightly below Human Centipede, which was at least provocative.
You're dumb and your opinions are wrong (though it occurs to me that you maybe think I meant 'Let Me In' the remake of 'Let the Right One In.' I can't think of any other reason you'd even mention Human Centipede). Just watched it and it flat out fucking
destroyed me. If I were to re-rank my list, I'd drop Black Swan from the top ten bump Social Network down and put Never Let Me Go in its place.
