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2 for the price of one
Sounds a bit like the '50s and '70s versions of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. The latter is still one of my favourite paranoia movies - and that bloody hobo-dog hybrid still gives me the shivers.Originally Posted by theBlackman
*cue jpg of Donald Sutherland pointing and shrieking*
2 for the price of one
*kisses Namdrol gently on the forehead*
What a great movie.
Can't seem to find the TV show thread, but I've been watching the British Office lately. I laugh a lot less than I do watching the US one, but I have to give it points because of just how much harsher and uncompromising it is.
Last edited by Taffer36; 16th Sep 2009 at 14:44.
@Taffer36: out of interest, did you like Stéphane (the Gabriel Garcia Bernal character) in The Science of Sleep? I'm asking because I thought he was a self-involved, self-centred twit, and I felt that the film wanted me to like him. Only in the last 10-15 minutes did I feel that the film was actually a bit critical of him, and at that point it was too late.
I can see how that could hurt the movie in your eyes.
Personally, I guess I kind of pitied him a bit. I thought the film did a good job of getting across that he was completely innocent in his actions (helped to balance out the creepiness of how he attempted to show his affection). I viewed him, basically, as a child.
I guess I'm a bit biased, though, because I'm a fan of Gondry's work (Eternal Sunshine is up there as one of my favorite all-time movies). I'm also a sucker for films that play around with perceptions of reality, the human mind, hallucinations, etc.
I guess that's the main thing that threw me - I'd also consider Eternal Sunshine as one of my favourites, but I felt that Gondry's directorial style and Kaufman's script worked well together. Science of Sleep struck me as self-indulgent, the humour didn't work for me, and while I also saw Stéphane as a child, I didn't really feel any sympathy for him - something which happens rarely with me, since I usually feel sympathy for the kind of characters many other people hate with a vengeance. I just couldn't throw the feeling that he was an overgrown kid throwing a temper tantrum.
I enjoyed the dream visuals to some extent, but after a certain point there was just too much of them - without a good story or characters that I wanted to spend time with, they started to feel self-indulgent themselves.
I guess that I was doubly disappointed with Science of Sleep because theoretically it should've been one of those films I like a lot, for some of the reasons you've mentioned. Perhaps it boils down to this: if there had been an element of self-awareness in Stéphane and/or a sense of melancholy, it might have touched me, but as it stands it came across to me as childish rather than child-like.
I actually thought about it for quite a bit after you asked me this, and I think that eventually I DID sympathize with him. But I viewed it as though he were incapable of expressing his emotions in a more adult manner. All that he wanted were things that you can relate to - wanting a job where he could act creatively and wanting the girl. Sure, the ways that he goes about reaching these goals are quite immature and questionable, but at least I could relate with the end goals that he wanted.
I never felt like the film wasn't critical of him, either. I believe that it probably was Gondry's goal to make him a child in the eyes of the viewer. Hence why he placed him in his old bedroom (so we see him with imagery that reminds us of childhood), why he gave him a mentor, and why the girl had to pity him somewhat. Although it took place in his dream, the bit where his parents say that they were worried about his trouble with discerning reality also helped to show that his "condition" could have been troublesome, instead of happy fun-times forever.
And as the movie progressed we saw a distinct lapse in his brain. The more time he spent in his dreams and the more trouble he had discerning reality, the more of a child he became, until the end scene where he foolishly jumps around and collapses on the bed into a slumber. I sympathized with him and therefore wanted to know what would happen next, but perhaps it was because I wanted to like the film due to my bias with the subject matter so I found a way to do so early on. Without that connection, I could certainly see how the film's quality would degrade in your eyes.
I watched The Exorcist for the first time last night. The '73 version, that is. Good movie, and I found the stuff in Iraq at the beginning to be architecturally inspiring.
Little Miss Sunshine.
Couldn't be bothered, then got caught within 2 or 3 minutes.
One of the funniest films I've seen.
Gentle but hard as nails.
I mean Grandad is chopping up and snorting in the first few scenes.
Just superb. And satisfying.
Deadgirl.
What a piece of shit. I thought it might be an interesting zombie movie. But it's all about some teenagers who rape imprisoned woman. Worst film ever.
You obviously haven't seen Demonium, then. There's a candidate for the most hateful piece of garbage of all time.
It's the sort ofsnuff death torture pornmovie that makes you want to slice chunks of grey matter out until you can finally remember nothing but nothing about it whatsoever. I'm never going to forgive whomever it was here that saw the disc and said, 'hey, looks like that could be a good horror movie'.
Just finished Season 1 of True Blood. At first i was all 'meh' about it; just another vampire love story.
But after about mid-season it totally ramps up the character acting and blood/tits/sex/gross-out moments vampires go kerboom!.
Keen to see Season 2 now but i can understand how its up there with the Sopranos in the top rated HBO shows.
Also Better Off Ted - been watching season 1 of that and I'm happy to see its been renewed, very very funny - anyone else caught this?
Oh and also from HBO; Hung. I find I enjoy this show, but I dont understand why and it scare and confused me.
Season 2 is as good as the first one. Fortunately, sex scenes are somehow useful for the plot in this season. Unfortunately, it ends in the most interesting moment.
Coolio; I didn't realise that its based off a series of books about Sookie (dumbest name ever).
Just watched the first episode of season 2 - i love how the story clips along at a good pace but there's a ton of character development moments.
Season 2 looks like it'll be as fucked up as the first one too!
Be warned. Some episodes of season 2 are really funny (when Jason and Andy team up).
But the greates TV show right now (excluding Dexter) is Breaking Bad. Season 2 was incredible.
I felt the same way about Juno, too - and both turned out to be fantastic movies.
I just re-watched Mother Night for the umpteenth time, still one of the best films around, and is the only Vonnegut adaptation worth a damn. Now I'm getting ready to watch an oldie but a goodie, on VHS no less, called: Penn and Teller Get Killed - a rare, and utterly fucked up little film.
Recently watched some animes:
-"Gantz"
-"Vampire Knight"
-"Hellsing" (not OVA yet, I'll watch that when part 7 comes out)
-"Nabari No Ou", just started and had some good impressions, just too bad I started it on a monday... Oh well.
Also, I'm rewatching "Friends" and slowly trying to work my way through "Supernatural" season 1 and building courage to start "Black Adder" season 2.
I guess that's pretty much it, though I've watched some movies too lately:
-"Forrest Gump"
-"Jacob's Ladder"
-"Awaydays"
Probably something else I forgot, but hey, I've been quite busy lately, don'cha agree?
I'm slowly pushing my way through Monster. S'good.
I've been watching some C-span.
Also, something on Boomerang:
Just watched There Will Be Blood, and I have to say despite all the critics and fanboys wanking themselves raw over it for the last two years I didn't really like it at all.
The use of music was especially annoying. I know it was supposed to be setting the foreboding mood of the film, but the constant loud, dissonant strings got extremely annoying after awhile. The only piece from the soundtrack I liked was the Brahms violin concerto, but even that didn't really fit the scenes where it was used.
Also, there are literally no likable characters throughout the entire film. The only one who is obviously supposed to be sympathetic (Daniel Plainview's son) acts in such an annoying fashion for 90% of the time I couldn't feel anything for him either. I know a film isn't required to have awesome likeable characters all the time, but it would have been nice if there were someone in this film who wasn't an annoying dick at all times.
And what the hell kind of character was Daniel Day-Lewis trying to pull off? He acts completely crazy half the time and yet we are supposed to believe he's this genius businessman. Also, that completely oddball accent he's channeling is just so fucking annoying and fake it undercuts any kind of believability for the character right there.
Gah, horrible, horrible film.
You're a bastard from a basket.
If you were to ask me, and you should, I'd say he was channeling a coked up crazy John Huston for that performance. Just watch any interviews with the guy, and compare it to the way Plainview talks. You'll see they have the same cadence, tone, and everything.Also, that completely oddball accent he's channeling is just so fucking annoying and fake it undercuts any kind of believability for the character right there.
Saw District 9 yesterday. Hated it.I worry that I'm turning into a grumpy neophobe.
I also didn't like it.
This decade I've found myself disagreeing with mostly everyone about films, though I refuse to get into debates about it since it is actually my loss for being this picky in the first place.There just haven't been many movies made over the past ten years which made me feel much of anything.
*moan, moan, ROAR*
At some point it stops being about personal taste and starts being about trolling.
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