Ulukai on 13/2/2012 at 23:08
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Let me know your opinion of
Ides of March. I've not seen it, but a good chunk of it was filmed here in Cincinnati.
It was also roundly trashed by the dittoheads as "leftist liberal propaganda."
I saw it last week for want of something better to stream off XBox Live. As an Englishman, my interest in American politics amounts to laughing at Sarah Palin; any subtle political overtones went straight over my head.
It passed the time as an OK political drama but had a strangely unsatisfying ending.
heywood on 14/2/2012 at 07:35
OK, the initial getaway scene in Drive was really good, and unconventional. But the second getaway (main chase scene) and the night chase were pretty weak, made almost LOL-worthy by the constantly accelerating Bullitt-esque soundtrack.
FWIW, I don't think much of the car chases in the Fast & Furious movies either. I don't care for well choreographed chase scenes where two cars remain within feet of each other and trade places like dancing partners, especially when they're poking along at speeds well below what the cars are capable of. I prefer something that at least feels more real, like in The Bourne Identity or The French Connection.
Scots Taffer on 14/2/2012 at 10:56
Or The Blues Brothers?
demagogue on 14/2/2012 at 17:06
Finally saw Source Code. Hard to think of a movie that more blatantly stole an idea of mine... After I played the IF game Rematch, I scripted an FPS game where you have to find & defuse a bomb that goes off at a basketball game when the clock hits zero, so you replay those 2 minutes over & over. The movie is pretty much just this mechanic at its core, though I still think it'd make for a better game than a movie.
In the line of parallel-world movies, I guess this is notable for mixing the "real" and "imagined" worlds: memory (it's all just going on in your head) & quantum-branching (it's still tapped into the "real" world, so you can see things you didn't see in memory). So it solved a problem the the "dream world" mechanic has always had (where memory can't see beyond what's recorded, and it can never change, when a movie needs both of those things happen to drive a plot), without resorting to "it's magic" (Butterfly Effect, Groundhog Day) or other people are in the parallel world with you, so even if it's "all just a dream" they're still affected (Matrix, Inception, Existenz), or it is all a dream world but others "share" their own versions and it affects the protagonist (Spotless Mind, Jacob's Ladder), or the line between real & imagined world is blurred (Jacob's Ladder, Shutter Island).
I'd be interested if anyone has written a good article classifying all the ways these different parallel-world mechanics work and relate to each other. The route that Source Code took is the one that gets closest to the "best of both worlds" (alternative things can happen and it still tap into the "real" world) without resorting to magic, but also by doing a lot of hand waving... They had the "dream world", and the "brain in a vat", and "quantum reconstruction", and "shady secret gov't agency", and a little "24", like they were just packing as many things in as they could. Not that that hurt the movie too much; it got the payoff it wanted by having a plot we cared about progressing, as long as you didn't mind them switching between the more "memory" side of the coin (you just have the 8 minutes) and other times the more "branch-world" side of the coin (you can see new things & alternatives can happen) whenever it suited the story. The ending twist was respectable... in one sense just a gimmick tacked on at the end because it didn't "really" change anything, in another sense kind of sensational in that it implies every world we just saw had its own branch that goes on, and in a 3rd sense back to not really changing anything (because those branch worlds would have happened anyway since that's what quantum-branching does; makes parallel worlds for every possibility; we just got to see a few of them). But it's not like the movie was really about the branching since it was just tacked on at the end. Another movie could have a lot of fun finding a way to travel between quantum-branches if written well (sounds like a cheesy tv show I saw though).
The movie was really about those 8 minutes, and the meaning of a span of life... Reminds me of Nietzsche's demon that tells you the secret that you're going to relive your life over & over in eternal recurrence, and would you think that's a good thing or bad thing. It's supposed to get you to reflect on what you make of your life by focusing on what actually happens. I think the movie was largely a Philosophy 101 mediation on that, with some blackops & explosions. I liked it anyway, and it made me think about this mechanic in some new ways. Makes me want to make that game I scripted since I still think it's a cool mechanic for an adventure game.
heywood on 15/2/2012 at 11:02
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Or
The Blues Brothers?
I've always loved you.
:cheeky:
Fafhrd on 16/2/2012 at 07:10
Alright, so this is a bit late. 2011 was a pretty weird year for me, what with moving to another state, so a lot of stuff kind of slid off my brain in ways that it shouldn't have. I'm not going to really rank anything other than my top 2, and I'm starting from
1. Hanna. When I did my 2011 re-watch at the end of the year, I was palpably excited when I got to Hanna, which I wasn't really for anything else. The idea that Oscar bait director Joe Wright could make an action/chase movie this brutal and clever and tight is still pretty astonishing to me, and absolutely everybody in the cast delivers in spades. And it's one of the most beautifully shot movies of the year (I don't think it got a cinematography nod, which is a shame).
2. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Still only seen it the once, but I could seriously watch another six hours of this cast sitting in smoky rooms talking.
No more numbers:
Kung Fu Panda 2. Yep. Two years in a row that Dreamworks has beat Pixar, and while How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 were fairly close quality wise, KFP2 kicks Cars 2's ass pretty handily.
Attack the Block.
Thor. Probably the closest in quality to the first Iron Man of the Marvel movies. The cast is obviously having a lot of fun, but Branagh's Shakespearean sensibilities bring a lot of heart and tragedy to the proceedings.
Captain America. Joe Johnston nails the old school adventure serial vibe. It's comfort food comic book filmmaking, but the best mac & cheese I've had in a while.
Drive. This one's hard for me to like. And I think that's kind of the point, which does bring it back around to kind of brilliant, but it's so uncomfortable and awkward it left me unable to connect to it (some people will probably think this says more about me than the film, but I think it's telling that my reaction to a shocking character death wasn't shock, but rather 'that was an awfully clever way to kill a guy'). It's 2011's Black Swan, I think.
More movie thinks to come...
Angel Dust on 16/2/2012 at 08:28
I haven't seen as many films as I usually do this year (baby #2 arrived! :D )but the majority of what I've seen has been good-to-great (and easily better than Inception :p), and the upcoming adult/award film season roster looks to be chock full of interesting films.
Anyway, my films of the year.
#1
Take Shelter
Tapping into a very resonant sense of unease this films tells the story of a simple family man in rural America who is plagued by increasingly disturbing dreams and apocalyptic visions. Brooding, eerie and full of brilliant, naturalistic acting (Michael Shannon is the stand-out as the tormented lead character), this is the best thing I've seen all year.
Great
A Separation
This, surprisingly suspenseful, account of a marriage break-up in contemporary Iran was a close contender for the number one spot. It never takes a side and all the characters are rich and complex, which makes for some extremely engrossing drama. Don't write this off as some kind of dry, slice-of-life drama either because as the story of the marriage unfolds and the layers of deception are peeled away it almost morphs into a kind of thriller. Check. It. Out.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
I saw this on a whim during the local festival and I'm very glad I did (and it makes up for my missing Martha Marcy Mae Marlene :mad:). Taking place during a single night it follows a group of men (cops, doctors, grave diggers, civil servants and a murderer) as they travel through the countryside, attempting to locate the body of a murder victim. Consisting largely of free-ranging dialogue between the different men, it has a quiet power that sneaks up on you and the moody cinematography creates a haunting backdrop for its humanistic drama.
Drive
While I don't think Scot's Terminator comparison is particularly accurate I do agree on Drive's all-round excellence. It's like Tarantino and Herzog teamed up to take a crack at a Jason Stratham vehicle, the result being a stylish, meditative, slighty off-beat and horredously violent action film. Albert Brooks almost stole the entire movie.
The Guard
Like Drive this film is a reworking of an action genre staple - this time the buddy-cop movie. It strikes the perfect balance between adhereing to and subverting genre conventions and it's the funniest film of the year too. Brendan Gleeson's mug is a god damn cinematic treasure.
Meek's Cutoff
Kelly Reichardt's (Wendy and Lucy) best film yet. A slow, hypnotic and starkly beautiful western that follows a wagon train of three families and their tracker as they journey across the desert plains. A chance encounter with a solitary Native American upsets the delicate balance and lots of gripping ambiguity results that is wisely not all resolved by the end of the film.
Good
The Artist
A charming tribute to silent film, it has all the substance of an after dinner mint but all the sweetness too! (that was awful, I do apologise :p)
Bridesmaids
I don't know why Melissa McCarthy is getting all the awards season love because as good as she is, Kirsten Wiig owns this movie; her meltdown at the bridal shower was the highlight.
The Trip
Coogan and Brydon have such wonderful chemistry together you don't really mind that the film isn't really about much at all.
My Afternoons with Marguerite
Predictable and treacly to be sure but the wonderfully warm performances from the two leads - Gerard Depardieu as a simple gardener and 95 year old Gisèle Casadesus as the sprightly little old lady who teaches him the joys of reading - elevate this, oh so French, comedy/drama.
faetal on 16/2/2012 at 13:58
They made a film of The Trip?! Amazing. Must get that.
Fafhrd on 16/2/2012 at 16:05
It's just bits from the series edited together into a movie.
faetal on 16/2/2012 at 16:10
Ah right. I watched the series plus the bonus extras, so I've already had the goodness.
Blind Corner. Trevor Eve. Wednesdays nine-thirty. BBC 2.
