demagogue on 23/8/2012 at 11:14
Quote Posted by faetal
A really interesting film, starring none other than The Thin White Duke, Dame David Bowie, called Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence was set in WWII and can be interpreted completely differently if you speak Japanese, since none of the Japanese dialogue is sub-titled.
That reminds me the really great movie that pulled off the kind of subversive thing I mentioned was Clint Eastwood's
Letters from Iwo Jima. Now it's the American soldiers who were caricatured thugs and we could feel the patriotism of the two Japanese foot soldiers, both good kids, fighting for Japan without thinking their fascist government or maniacal soldiers were ok. (They didn't like the extremes of the military-types either).
SubJeff on 30/8/2012 at 23:40
So we watched the 90s version last night (gf hadn't seen it) then went to see the new version today.
Bleh.
It starts off really well actually. I went in with an open mind, not expecting the plot to go the same way as the original. Of course it looks a lot better than the Arnie version and the environments are actually convincing this time. The action is much better, the effects much better and yes the acting is much better.
And I liked it a lot.
Up to a certain point in the movie and then it all went wrong. Why, just why? It was going so well, I was thinking "a remake that's actually going to stand up and be decent" and then...
I'm not going to spoil it but lets just say this; when are these movie making dolts going to realise that sci-fi is about the idea, not just the execution. What's right with the Arnie version is the entire idea. It's also what's so wrong with this, ultimately anyway, and what is wrong with rubbish like I Am Legend. Why is it so easy for them to mess up a good idea? Its not as if it's going to make less money if you decide not to be idiotic for once.
Gaaaaah.
Kolya on 31/8/2012 at 01:14
Didn't they change I am Legend's ending because test-screenings indicated it would make less money if wouldn't do something completely idiotic, like changing the ending and hence do away with the whole point of the story?
catbarf on 31/8/2012 at 02:33
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
So we watched the 90s version last night (gf hadn't seen it) then went to see the new version today.
Bleh.
It starts off really well actually. I went in with an open mind, not expecting the plot to go the same way as the original. Of course it looks a lot better than the Arnie version and the environments are actually convincing this time. The action is much better, the effects much better and yes the acting is much better.
And I liked it a lot.
Up to a certain point in the movie and then it all went wrong. Why, just why? It was going so well, I was thinking "a remake that's actually going to stand up and be decent" and then...
I'm not going to spoil it but lets just say this; when are these movie making dolts going to realise that sci-fi is about the
idea, not just the execution. What's right with the Arnie version is the entire idea. It's also what's so wrong with this, ultimately anyway, and what is wrong with rubbish like I Am Legend. Why is it so easy for them to mess up a good idea? Its not as if it's going to make less money if you decide
not to be idiotic for once.
Gaaaaah.
I'm curious as to what moment you thought killed it,
are you referring to the invasion sub-plot?Also, Kolya, yes. The original ending doesn't exactly redeem the movie, but it does make it a hell of a lot more interesting.
SubJeff on 31/8/2012 at 08:50
From the scene where they realise its a trap and the authorities arrive. Every thing form character motivation and plot goes out the window.
I don't care for the alternate ending of I Am Legend either. Why can't they end it like the book?
DDL on 31/8/2012 at 09:08
Of course, even the original total recall didn't go full-on "we can remember it for you wholesale", because that shit be crazy toward the end.
(though not having seen the new one, if what catbarf has spoilered is true, maybe this one does go the distance?)
demagogue on 31/8/2012 at 09:45
The original does hint at the end that everything from when he stepped into the recall machine until the end might be implanted... But maybe I'm not remembering what that phrase meant in the PKD story.
DDL on 31/8/2012 at 09:55
They try to implant a false memory that he saved the world from hamster-sized aliens when he was a boy, but then find a suppressed one is already there, and that hamster-sized aliens will invade the world if he remembers that he actually did save the world from a legion of hamster-sized aliens when he was a boy.
Phillip K Dick stories were weird.
SubJeff on 31/8/2012 at 10:06
Well we've been talking about Ubik and Three Stigmata as films. PKD is good but I find a lot of it quite uncomfortable reading precisely because it's just. so. messed. up.
I'm reading Flow My Tears The Policeman Said right now. Starts ok, gets bloody odd.
june gloom on 31/8/2012 at 10:31
PKD was a very weird, very unhappy person who seemed to have a lot of issues with women, or at least a woman, if his female leads are anything to go by. His death was a loss.
I've always felt his finest book is the one that is one of his most personal works yet grounded in reality -- A Scanner Darkly. A more potent critique of drug/anti-drug culture I've not seen.
