Yeah, Portman was fantastic in the closing sections. The problem was that her character was so fucking flat for the first third, to the point of being a cliche. Surely there are better ways of conveying that her character is a crazy, frigid case of arrested development than painting her room pink and filling it with teddybears. Or the Mother who has a room full of creepy paintings of the daughter? GAH! How many cliches does this guy want to cram into his film?Originally Posted by Scots Taffer
She was completely fantastic throughout the movie really, especially when you consider the handicaps of the script she was handed. I liked Vincent Cassel as well.
What about the mirrors? There are so many fantastic ways mirrors can be used both for symbolism and inventive cinematography. The flower mirror that was at the entrance to the appartment always wowed me when she entered. But the fact that they stooped to the "mirror image coming alive" ploy was retarded. So many things about this movie make me angry because I feel like it had the potential to be exponentially better than it turned out.
I watched The American last night. It started out great and I loved the pace and the cinematography as well as the scenes of him constructing the rifle, suppressor, etc.
However, what started out great for the film (pace and cinematography) quickly caused the movie to fall apart as it never picked up. It became very boring and predictable. The ending was terribly uncreative. Two thumbs down!
^ Yeah, that. I can appreciate the slow languor and the sense of place, but the utterly run of the mill story and wooden acting stopped it short of being anything near a worthwhile watch. 'What do you do when you don't like the story, the protagonist, and everybody else in a movie?' I asked my friend while we were seeing it. 'Usually,' she said, 'you walk out on it.'
After it was over, we both agreed that we should have.
Anyway, anyone seen Buried? Saw it recently, and it's good but I couldn't help feeling that the acting/writing was slightly hokey at points. Guy finds he's buried alive in a coffin with a mobile and he spends most of the first couple of minutes speaking at his estranged wife's voicebox instead of calling people who can help? He has a fight with his wife's friend instead of explaining the situation instead in a mere couple of words?
His employer does the whole 'fire you to wash our hands clean of any personal responsibility' and he just lets them go through with it instead of hanging up and conserving battery juice/calling someone else?
I understand that latter's supposed to be satire, but it's blatantly ridiculous in a movie that's deadly serious.
Great concept, mostly brilliant execution, needs better writing.
Having reached the fourth season of Stargate, I'm pleased with how it's progressed. The first season, composed largely of planet-of-hats go there, meet the culture, beat the bad guy/solve the puzzle, were largely mediocre (Air Force scientist beats Mongol warlord in hand to hand combat, whaaaat). When real villains and some interesting secondary characters were introduced, the series got much better.
So I've got the evening to myself... wife is out of town and I'm at home with the young kids. After they go to bed I have the whole universe of Hollywood to watch, but I need some help. Any suggestions? No romantic comedies please!
Completely agree. The first season or two were pretty weak on the whole but they got into their stride by the third and fourth season. There were quite a few storylines that worked well with the characters or left you guessing until quite late in the episode about how things would develop.
I didn't feel that they maintained that high point towards the very end - but there are very few series that have managed to keep their standard up over ten seasons.
I saw The Fighter tonight, and while it was fairly predictable on the whole, the acting, pacing, and cinematography were all excellent, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.
Lately, I've been watching my mortality face me in the mirror.
It's not so bad, regular life. Go the office, work, chat with colleagues, eat, go out with friends, drink. It's routine and maybe every once in a while it's comforting. Every other once in a while, though, it isn't. Sometimes, even though you're happy - maybe because you're so happy - you can feel life ebbing away from you. Like there's something inside you saying, 'there's only so much of these moments left', and the blood drains away from your face. Like you could turn around and see the trail of your life unwound behind you, unravelled from you, and when you look at yourself... there's only so much thread left on the spool.
We're all born and then we die. Every little baby step you learn to make, every breath you take from the moment you gasp that first lungful in, is just one step, one breath closer to the final one you make, until you can't carry yourself any more, until you fall down and the breath is shaken from you in one final heave, and you are unravelled, unspooled, spent.
There's only so much life to life. In the end it's a single measure that can't be replenished. I've been watching, and understanding that lately.
I'm 27, and in the mirror every so often, there's a strand of grey I didn't notice the previous day.
yeah, reading megathreads does that to me too
You're not a spool that gets unwound. You don't become less as you get older. Think about it.
BLADE RUNNER IS THE PINNACLE OF MODERN CINEMA.
Goddammit Kolya, you don't understand. This is about life, not spirituality.
Well, most of the cells in your body get constantly replaced, but not the neurons. The older you are, the less neurons you will have.
So yes, you become less.
You can try to fight it by getting fat.
I've been watching a whole lot of LPs, mostly blind ones, and I reached the following conclusions.
1. Most people playing videogames fit the image of an ADD exbawks player almost perfectly. Actual platform, gender, nationality or age don't matter.
2. Most people are really bad at videogames.
3. A site where anyone can upload any movie they made for free is a really fucking horrible idea.
Well "life" doesn't consist solely of your ageing body either. There are more things taking part in it - and arguably more important things - that don't diminish with age: Experiences, knowledge, wisdom. Although that's not an automatic process, as tBM proves, it's still more likely to happen at an older age. And you might just find that your view on things which worried you a lot in your twens becomes more relaxed only a few years later (eg my grey strand of hair looks cool), which can be quite a relieve.
In a practical manner you may find out that many women only reach their highest heights of sexual activity and enjoyment after 30. So in a non-spiritual way there are also some things worth looking forward to.
Isn't it arguable that those things do diminish with age? Brain cells die the same as every other cell in our body, don't they? Given enough time, our mind wouldn't contain all those things anymore.
Pick apart Kolya's take on aging if you must, but I know who I'd rather hang with as our wrinkles deepen and life experiences accumulate like killer jobs on a resume
Wayne Coyne?
Given enough time you might develop Alzheimer's, but such unfortunate events not withstanding your experiences and knowledge should become more. Maybe I misunderstand you, because the relation I mean seems self-evident.
You accrue enough of those things up to a point, after which the progression of age causes senility or Alzheimer's or whatever to encroach on those things and rub them out.
Nevertheless, my take wasn't on aging, it was on the fact that life is a limited and non-replenishable quantity; aging is just a side-effect of that.
I'd probably pick Wayne Coyne.Wayne Coyne?
What would you care about those happy moments if life wasn't finite?
Maybe you just need some change rather than brooding about death at 27.
Lately, I've been watching my mortality face me in the mirror.
It's not so bad, regular life. Go the office, eat, chat with colleagues, eat, go out with friends, eat. It's routine and maybe every once in a while it's satisfying. Every other once in a while, though, it isn't. Sometimes, even though you're full - maybe because you're so full - you can feel life sagging down on you. Like there's something inside you saying, 'there's only so much fat you can have', and the blood drains away from your face. Like you could turn around and see the trail of pizza boxes, crisps packets, and empty doggie bags littered behind you, discarded from you, and when you look at yourself... there's only so much more lard you can stock in your larder.
We're all born and then we consume. Every little baby suckle you make at the teat, every bite you take from the moment you crunch your first french fry, is just one beer, one bite closer to the final one you take, until you can't carry yourself any more, and you fall down and the half-eaten triple cheeseburger slips from your grasp and in one final belch, your arteries are enplaqued, enclogged, shut.
There's only so much healthy food to healthy food. In the end it's a single measure that can't be regurgitated. I've been watching, and understanding that lately.
I'm a 180 pounds, and in the mirror every so often, there's a gram of fat I didn't notice the previous day.
Last edited by Sulphur; 26th Jan 2011 at 07:26.
I've watched Cowboys & Aliens trailer.
Ha, ha, ha!
What the hell? This can't possibly work, can it?
Must watch it.
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