flix we partook of over the hump

[JediTricks]

Did you see The Rock? After viewing it, I realized the title referrs to that object between Bay's ears. It's almost hard to beleive this guy started his moviemaking career BEFORE seeing Speed 2:Cruise Control, I picture him sitting through that film thinking "this is exactly what we need more of in Hollywood!"

Spielberg could direct "Naked College Girls Making Oatmeal", that guy may or may not have the range to do it, but he'd DO it anyway. And Lucas could direct an R-rated film, he'd just have to fight all his parental instincts. I can see him doing it, but he'd be blushing and running back to the MPAA with additions over and over every time the film got a PG-13.

Kevin Smith should direct a Merchant Ivory film and follow that up with another sequel to Koyaanisqatsi.

[bigbarada]

GL directed THX-1138 which showed Robert Duvall masturbating to a naked dancing girl on TV, while his "wife" poisoned his dinner. Although, that was in his younger, wilder days.

Did you know David Lynch (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway) was offered directing chores for ROTJ? He turned it down, but imagine how different the movie would have been if he had accepted?

[vulcantouch]

bb: "it is about films we've enjoyed between Ep1 and 2. Right?"
-sure, why not actually, my term Hump originally referred to the 99/00 xmas/newyears break, & axed what flix my fellow forummers had partook of during that typically-VacaTion time after that it evolved into weekly wrapups of same (since wednesday's sometimes referred to as "hump day" ), but if you wanna make it about your ep1-2 interval, g'head g'head ( http://www.geocities.com/winddancer44/R_Palillo3.jpg )

"Trying to translate most of this thread from vulcantouch-ese"
-people occasionally express this sentiment i always welcome feedback so feel free to lmk which of my expressive tendencies you may find confusing, or if there's any specific clarifications i can provide, happy to do it

rt: "show bidness" = "show" + "bidness", eh?
ambition analysis: if one strives to be lucas as opposed to solondz, i'd say one aims to have it both ways, i.e. enormous recognition & success while very slightly pushing the boundaries of aesthetic acheivement. an understandable ambition; what artist Wouldn't like real-world power without sacrificing the cachet of ART? after all, it's only with both that one'd snag the top-drawer fillies, and we all know the real reason guys go into directing is to score da chix but ambition and merit are two different things.
i agree that the dichotomy between enjoyment and artistic merit is a false one. ("if art isn't supposed to be enjoyable, then what Is it supposed to be, Punishment?" -pauline kael ) there is, however, an enduring dichotomy between mass acceptance and aesthetic adventurism. not that that's a bad or unavoidable thing: the majority of the audience will always have relatively provincial "meat & potato" tastes, while a much smaller segment will have broader, more adventurous palettes. both go after & get what they want, & that's as it should be.
mainstream success and artistic merit are not mutually exclusive. even so, while a tendency to pander so as to maximize financial success may sometimes yield aesthetically interesting results (after all, in art Anything's possible; carried to an admirably straightforward extreme, it's what the campy appeal of b-flix are based on ), it typically yields mainly pandering.
that said: while jt's fast-food analogy is apt, let's remember mcdonald's does have its place; i worked in one as a teen, and found much to admire in their efficient, standardized process & result i still go, but only once a week when i can get 7 cheeseburgers for $.39 each; i save my bigger eat-out bucks for more encompassing, nuanced, non-chain restaurant experiences that deserve em
re "director stunt-casting": allen's already done scifi (Sleeper), whodunnit (the superfun manhattan murder mystery) & a musical; how many directors can boast that kinda VarieTy? a while back there was tawk of bringin in a personal-style director to reinvigorate the trek film franchise, a la david lynch, coen bruddahs etc. mighta been interestin.
my fight club hump: superfun, heady, cultish dissatisfied-young-white-man iconoclasm, w/prosthetic-bosomed meat loaf hammin it up looking forward to Snatch despite its universal panning, cuz i loved another flick ritchie did a pal took me to a Jay/Silent Bob drive-in showing this summer, it was fun; jay remains a cuss-word Poet not sure why everyone hates Hannibal (not horror-filmy enough for 'em? ), i enjoyed it haven't seen Ambeaut since theatrical release but enjoyed it at the time; lookin forward to re-watching it when i show it to a pal (i tend to avoid re-viewing flix unless it's a favorite i'm showing to a "virgin", so i can re-experience it anew thru their eyes ) only mamet helming i recall seeing is Spanish Prisoner, which fell surprisingly flat for me Annie Hall deserved best picture, but i thought Julia stole it from sw that year, no? anyhoo allen remains essential, even his failures offer more insight into an interesting mind than most peoples' successes. speaking of such insight i recommend wild man blues, a lively, fascinating, gorgeously-shot documentary of a european concert tour he & soon-yi took with his nawlins jazz band
i respect solondz' doggedness, he's got a particular, entertaining pov, sticks with it and sez to hell with the slaggin he gets as a result i've zero interest in seeing LOTR, but sometimes certain kinds of word-of-mouth (not necc. glowing either) can intrigue & change my mind- not that i anticipate that'll happen in this case. hope to get around to Moulin Rouge this holiday season, i imagine its baroque sumptuousness'd really hit the spot, like Eyes Wide Shut did last holiday season haven't seen Last Action Hero or Gladiator yet, i'll get around to em, but in my own time only bay i've seen is Armageddon, wasn't struck much either way (but still glad they made a 'dillo micromachine ). might someday see Rock (i'm a sucker for balconies of the sort i saw in a Rock clip), but remain wholly unintrigued by the rest of bay's fare so many flix, so little time; life's too short to not trust one's instincts & let em lead you to (or away from) whatever they may
thanx for bringin up supertrip flik Koyaan jt, saves me the trouble
vt
np: glass, "the grid" from Koy score

[jeddah]

Evenin',

RT, I really enjoyed your posts, nice to listen to someone on the inside and I loved Oceans 11

Vulcan'No Parlez'touche, mon ami, take the Goddemi backslap willya! - I remember telling you that you receive comfort like cold porridge years ago, I see you've not adapted. Be efficient or she'll be disappointed

i still like rw's "millenium" single cuz it interpolates the YOLT bond theme (john barry wasn't zactly taken by the homage

I shall have to include (in your package) a studio interview with the producers who explain the problem they had with RW and retakes, but more interestingly, about how they had to reprogramme the strings section from scratch due to copyright restrictions (if my memory serves me well - you know how reliable that is - but is seems your comments of Barry's unhappiness would bear this out).

I am also at a loss as to why Hannibal was slated. Was it by people who read the book?

I loved the colours and romance of the thing. A Century before, dear Lucia was being wooed at the Arno and here in Hannibal we had Hannibal courting the stellar Clarice in Firenze too! The dark red woods and amber lighting of the piazzas and Uffizi were soo atmospheric and beautiful, directly referring the subconscious to the dark colours of the many scenes of various forms of evisceration. I guess we all take something different from films.

For example I passionately loved the Casserta influence in EP1 and the hyperneo-classical statues of Coruscant.....At times it was like living in an Alma-Tadema canvas . Anyway, I don't want to start rattling on about the Royal renaissance of Naboo

Although I considered AMBeaut a waste of my time (and I do so love Kev) I did enjoy the one scene when the subject of the title screams petulantly from the wall the alternative name for a hoohoo (anyone seen Boys on the Side?). Peversely, I chucked one of the most satisfying films I have ever seen into the video last night;

Dogma for someone who had never seen it before. I think films like this show what good collabs the US and UK can come up with. Alan Rickman obviously had to keep his appearance low or he would have clearly stolen the film á la Maggie. I just bring this up because I wanted to echo VT's sentiments that there is something so enjoyable watching a film you love with someone who's never seen it before.

I enjoyed Gladiator in an eye candy sort of way. I was very let down by the lack of the use of SFX to recreate a splendid Rome - the glimpses too short, or fast panned to enjoy. Also, Commodus' sister at the end of the film is wearing an anachronistic headdress but that fact is too nitpicky to hold against the film. I must confess that after Jurassic Park came out nearly 10 years ago, I was looking forward to massive biblical epics, correcting De Mille's glorious attempts. The nearest we've got to this is Gladiator. It didn't do it for me as it was too gung ** and dareIsay 'americanised' in the way that JT refers to films like Armageddon.

To completely invalidate my tastes in your eyes, I would like to say that I have seen Titanic over 5 times and fall in love with it every time. Why did Katie have to release a song! She got her life together and lost her weight (she certainly doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania) and releases a song that will tarnish her career And to add insult to injury we were born/lived in the same village!

After much preamble, I can now talk about the film I saw last night;

The Dish - At the risk of sounding gushy throughout this entire post can I just say I was rapt withall. What is it about Australian flicks of late? They really have the knack to tap into Utopia! I suppose I like the provincial element in films, from the dusty moisture farms of Tatooine to the sublime Standbymeish environs of Fried Green Tomatoes. This has the sharp conversational humour of Australia and the tense (albeit hilarious) situation of the Apollo 11 landing. God, what a gem, my Dad's getting it in his stocking for Christmas .Of late, Sam Neill seems to be one of those crucial yet generous actors (In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon, JP) and is the same here, giving plenty of breathing space for the other actors, this film doesn't really seem to have a central character to pull things together for the audience. And it doesn't need one - the Moon landing is the focus and the community is the film. Rent it.

jeddah

[SWAFMAN]

Hannibal - I read the book a long time before seeing the film. That cut into my ability to enjoy the film on its own merits. Characters totally gone, characters changed, characters diminished in their significance to the story...... just incredibly frustrating. I recently rented the DVD because it advertised an alternate ending, and I wanted to see if it was the "book ending." It is NOT. They also had some other scenes that were cut from the movie. There is one scene where Lecter advises Pozzi on the local serial killer's recreation of portraits in the way he arranged the bodies of his victims. Leaving that scene in the film would've added some sorely missing depth to the Pozzi character and his relationship with Lecter. I find it impossible to not measure Hannibal against Silence of the Lambs. In my opinion, Hannibal, the film, missed three critical components that made Lambs so amazing. First, the death of Jonathan Demme killed the possibility of continuity in direction of the sequel. As much as Scott has proven himself a capable director, I can't help wondering what Hannibal would've been under Demme. Next, as amazing as Hopkins's Lecter was in Lambs, there was also an absolutely brilliant performance by Ted Levine as Jame Gumb. Most people remember Lambs for Hopkins's work - and rightly so -but I wonder how many people consider how critical Levine's whack-job Gumb character was as in holding the story together? As much as I like Oldman and am certain he could've carried a larger role in Hannibal, there simply wasn't any other pivotal role in Hannibal (the film) besides Lecter. I feel that shallowed the film by comparison to both its book and to Lambs. Finally, Hannibal the film lacked the psychological depth of its predecessor. Again, in the DVD they show a few scenes cut from the theatrical release that at least made some better attempt to deepen the emotional bond between Lecter and Starling. But the mindplay between Lecter and Starling, and Lecter and Pozzi are just too superficially presented in the film, in my opinion. Yes, the visuals of Florence were stunning. Had the film been truer to the book we'd have seen even more.

Gladiator - Intravenous check-your-mind-at-the-door action-flick. Gives the masses what they expect for $9.00 or whatever the going rate is for big city movie houses these days - bigger-than-life non-stop action & SFX. About the only thing I liked about this movie in a lasting sense was J. Phoenix's performance.

Fight Club - Sorry. It never "hit" home for me. I just couldn't get into the weird place it was trying to take me.

Snatch - Now, this was a great fun movie. Sorta like a cross between Reservoir Dogs and After the Fox. This role and his role in Meet Joe Black are about the only two things I've liked by Brad Pitt. But I thought he was great in Snatch.

Woody Allen - Not enjoyed much of his stuff in the last 10 years, but I did like Sweet and Lowdown.

Panic - I just really like Wm. H. Macy. I thought this was a decent small film with some good performances. Anyone else seen it? What did you think?

Eyes Wide Shut - Sorry again, VT. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but this one just never seemed to hit a stride with me where I felt it was telling a coherent story. It was like someone started writing without any outline and just drifted around trying to find where they wanted to go with the tale, then, just when they maybe thought they had an inklink of an idea of what they really wanted the story to be about, they ran out of paper and just ended it right there (hopefully that wasn't due to Kubrick's death during post-production). Going from what little I've seen of the trailers to Vanilla Sky, it looks like it may be sort of the same kind of movie. If so, I'll be waiting for it to hit the 50 cent bin at the local library before seeing it.

gotta go - the kiddies need supper. bye.....

[JediTricks]

Look at McDonalds as soon as Ray Kroc died - within days, the company stopped blanching the fries before deep frying them, the meat became thinner and smaller, and there were other, similar changes that affected the product. They took their fast food product and made it even cheaper without thought to quality. They lowered the bar for the entire industry and were so big that the customers merely accepted it.

That is exactly what Michael Bay, with help from folks like the late Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Disney's various studios (Hollywood Pictures and Touchstone) has done for cinema, they've taken a medium that was already filled with overblown junk movies and they took that concept to new lows - and the industry followed because that's what they do, they follow the money like lemmings, even if it takes them off a cliff.


As for Woody Allen, I enjoyed one of his latest films, Small Time Crooks, one of the few films I've seen since Ep 1 was released.

[GNT]

Originally posted by jeddah
After much preamble, I can now talk about the film I saw last night;

The Dish - At the risk of sounding gushy throughout this entire post can I just say I was rapt withall. What is it about Australian flicks of late? They really have the knack to tap into Utopia! I suppose I like the provincial element in films, from the dusty moisture farms of Tatooine to the sublime Standbymeish environs of Fried Green Tomatoes. This has the sharp conversational humour of Australia and the tense (albeit hilarious) situation of the Apollo 11 landing. God, what a gem, my Dad's getting it in his stocking for Christmas .Of late, Sam Neill seems to be one of those crucial yet generous actors (In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon, JP) and is the same here, giving plenty of breathing space for the other actors, this film doesn't really seem to have a central character to pull things together for the audience. And it doesn't need one - the Moon landing is the focus and the community is the film. Rent it.

Its so good to see Australian movies mentioned

[jeddah]

Do you guys actually eat McDonalds'?

GNT, they goshdarn well deserve it!

I learnt form Swaffy that J Demme had died! I never knew that.

jeddah

[vulcantouch]

speakin of which:
jdah: "dear Lucia"
-oh dear indeed ("somethin else i wouldn't mind eatin, but right now food will do" -yaphet kotto, Alien) she's kinda like neve campbell in that from some angles she's rapturous, while others make her look like a ufo alien in bonham-cutie's case, i'd take the good w/the bad -as would tim burton, it seems; see what i mean about directors motivated by choice nookie acquisition (post 23 above)?

"De Mille's glorious attempts. . . seen Titanic over 5 times and fall in love with it every time"
-in light of above comments (and your xmas lecture-link), you're much more on the same page as pagan winslet-fan paglia than you imagine personally i still don't buy for a Minute the scene when leo (in steerage) spots kate (in 1st class section) and gets love-at-1st-sight-itis if it was hbc, yup; jami gertz, hoa yeh; ione skye, yew betcha (i'm dyin to see Dream For An Insomniac, she looks great in its previews ) but kw? no ah don THINK so, miss thang

jt: "the company stopped blanching the fries"
-i was never crazy about mcfries, if you don't down em all before they cool off they leave a pasty film on the roof of your mouth burger king never had that problem, cuz they didn't use frozen potatoes anyhoo i never buy fastfood fries Or softdrinks cuz they aren't a good value (they & bevs are where fastfood makes its $$; a 16-oz coke only costs them about $.05 )
i'm quite sure standard mcpatties are still 1/10th of a pound precooked weight just like they always were; maybe it's just We who are bigger glad to hear STC was fun, i'm on track to see it one of these saturday nights "anybody seen the latest woodsy allen?" -marge simpson trying to make sophisticated dinner conversation

swaffy: didn't overlook post 14 above, didja? my jan. 24 humps of:
sweet & lowdown- amusing pseudo-bio (a la Zelig) about sean penn's thoroughly loutish, eternally-second-best jazz guitarist. uma thurman's frivolous, artsy flapper's lotta fun
eyes wide shut- though it's disputed whether the mild unsatisfyingness of the conclusion of this, kubrick's absorbing, visually-lush swan song, was intentional (let alone called for) given the theme, the resta the ride was still fun in addition to the chant & middle-eastern sounds used effectively during THOSE SCENES (You know the ones i mean), jocelyn pook's score consists of starkly simple but surprisingly disconcerting piano taps, akin to what a toddler might peck out if he wanted to make some Skeh-weee Myuzik
hump means many tings; dat's da beauty of it

"Vanilla Sky. . . looks like it may be sort of the same kind of movie"
-DOESN'T IT THOUGH?? to paraphrase david spodely-dodely, "i really liked vanilla sky the first time i saw it. . . WHEN IT WAS CALLED EYES WIDE SHUT!"

gnt: aussie flick mentions?? ok then, here's a coupla aussie flix mentions i dug muriel's wedding and Proof, which featured not only a pre-famous crowe, but hugo weaving before his perfect mark-hittin as Matrix's agent smith found Love Serenade somehow unsatisfying despite its strengths, but liked Forgotten Silver (oh wait, that's an enzer production, right? sowwy; i know that, much like norway & sweden, oz & nz get real insulted when they're mistaken for one another; relax & eat a choy on me, maite )
so mods, what Do you think of gnt? ;D
vt
np: incognito, "always there" (morales mix)

[SWAFMAN]

...looks like we're on the same page in many of our observations. Is it a case of WT&EMTA do you think?

(Wonderfully Twisted & Eclectic Minds Think Alike)