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What are you watching now?
- Thread starter Jade Jaguar
- Start date
KoshFan
Regular
Last night I watched "Patton" for the first time. Scott was indeed impressive, although the overall impression I got was, "This is a fascinating man to watch... from a safe distance." I also got a kick out of hearing all the quotes attributed to him worked into the script; it was all pretty accurate, as far as my studies can tell me.
Of course, to a degree this was "Patton as told by Omar Bradley," who would have been in a great position to know a lot... and wasn't exactly fond of Old Blood and Guts.
Of course, to a degree this was "Patton as told by Omar Bradley," who would have been in a great position to know a lot... and wasn't exactly fond of Old Blood and Guts.
Jade Jaguar
Regular
I saw Patton on the big screen, when it first came out. I found it stunning. Scott was just about born to play the role... I loved his disdain for Monty... 
GKarsEye
Regular
I recently watched two pretty cool flicks:
1. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
I got a hold of this because this is supposed to be the movie that inspired the Wu-Tang Clan to develop their image (their landmark debut album is of course The 36th Chamber). Haven't seen a kung-fu flick in a while and it was fun- came out in '83, about a guy whose family is slaughtered by this evil warlord general, runs off to the legendary Shaolin temple and in 7 yrs masters all 35 "chambers," where each chamber is a specific skill. He wants to create a 36th chamber in which they would teach those skills to the masses. Since this is forbidden he's kicked out, and of course uses his skills to topple the evil warlord general.
Great clever training sequences and choreographed fights.
2. Synechdochy, NY
The directorial debut of wacky meta-self-referential screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). So if I like those, you'll like this one I think. Stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director who directs a play about directing life about a play... or something... I dunno, it's deliberately non-logical and plays on impressions and themes. If it sounds pretentious it certainly is, but they make it work here by using lots of dark humor and good performances. I watched it twice.
1. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
I got a hold of this because this is supposed to be the movie that inspired the Wu-Tang Clan to develop their image (their landmark debut album is of course The 36th Chamber). Haven't seen a kung-fu flick in a while and it was fun- came out in '83, about a guy whose family is slaughtered by this evil warlord general, runs off to the legendary Shaolin temple and in 7 yrs masters all 35 "chambers," where each chamber is a specific skill. He wants to create a 36th chamber in which they would teach those skills to the masses. Since this is forbidden he's kicked out, and of course uses his skills to topple the evil warlord general.
Great clever training sequences and choreographed fights.
2. Synechdochy, NY
The directorial debut of wacky meta-self-referential screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). So if I like those, you'll like this one I think. Stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director who directs a play about directing life about a play... or something... I dunno, it's deliberately non-logical and plays on impressions and themes. If it sounds pretentious it certainly is, but they make it work here by using lots of dark humor and good performances. I watched it twice.
KoshFan
Regular
Scott was just about born to play the role... I loved his disdain for Monty...
Right out of history, although Monty was easy to dislike. (A joke that made the rounds at the time: A psychiatrist is summoned to Heaven. St. Peter tells the shrink, "God's not feeling well. He thinks he's Monty.")
As soon as Netflix gets itself untangled -- my change of address confused them -- I'll move on to more Prisoner. Until then: Daily Show!
darth_librarian
Regular
The Kung-fu film sounds awesome. I've not seen a proper old one in years.
GKarsEye
Regular
I watched The Postman. It's sort of infamous as being one of Kevin Costner's epic flop, memorably mocked on The Simpsons and everything. I DVRed a while back and was finally in the mood.
Yeah, it loves up to its reputation. It's like a slightly better directed Battlefield Earth. It's 3 hrs, but amazingly enough there are moment between scenes where it feels like they jumped across time and plot way too fast. The story is ridiculous but could have been fun in a Mad Max type of way, instead it's just interminable. And yet I could not stop. And then Tom Petty shows up for some reason (for reals) and it kept switching between summer and winter randomly... and wow, what an abortion of a film.
Up next.... Ishtar?
Yeah, it loves up to its reputation. It's like a slightly better directed Battlefield Earth. It's 3 hrs, but amazingly enough there are moment between scenes where it feels like they jumped across time and plot way too fast. The story is ridiculous but could have been fun in a Mad Max type of way, instead it's just interminable. And yet I could not stop. And then Tom Petty shows up for some reason (for reals) and it kept switching between summer and winter randomly... and wow, what an abortion of a film.
Up next.... Ishtar?
Jade Jaguar
Regular
Ishtar is terrible...
I actually kind of liked The Postman, when I finally realized that the real premise was this is the final triumph of the artists, intellectuals, and hippies, over the right wing militarists/survivalists.
But then, I liked Waterworld too. Not that either were great films... I dug the put downs for Waterworld - it was called "Fishtar," and "Kevin's Gate," a reference to Heaven's Gate. I do think Heaven's Gate is an excellent film, and isn't too long. In fact, it's too short - it passes over some important happenings, trying to reach an end more quickly. Umm, make that less slowly...
I actually kind of liked The Postman, when I finally realized that the real premise was this is the final triumph of the artists, intellectuals, and hippies, over the right wing militarists/survivalists.
But then, I liked Waterworld too. Not that either were great films... I dug the put downs for Waterworld - it was called "Fishtar," and "Kevin's Gate," a reference to Heaven's Gate. I do think Heaven's Gate is an excellent film, and isn't too long. In fact, it's too short - it passes over some important happenings, trying to reach an end more quickly. Umm, make that less slowly...
Sindatur
Regular
So many people have talked about how great Avatar Last Airbender is (both here and a Stephen R. Donaldson site I hang out at) and I saw Book 1: Water Volume 1-5 for $3.00 each at Walmart this morning, so I picked them up. Now to find the time to watch them (and then of course, if I like it as much as everyone makes it sound like I will, I guess I'll have to pay full price for the other 2 seasons)
Sindatur
Regular
So, I've now watched the first 8 eps of Avatar The Last Airbender. The humor is a bit on the juvenile side, but, I really like the premise and I'm anxious to see how the arc plays out. Youc an already tell, even from the first episode that this was a very planned story arc.
Thanks VL for turning me onto it by your frequent praise
Thanks VL for turning me onto it by your frequent praise
Jade Jaguar
Regular
I just saw a great old Jean-Paul Belmondo film I had never seen, called Le Doulos, literally "The Hat," but slang for the informer. It's a convoluted French gangster tale, well-written and well-acted. Lots of good plot twists. Things are such that you find out at the end that much of what you thought was true isn't. This made me want to see it again very soon, to pick up on any cues I missed.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054821/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054821/
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darth_librarian
Regular
GKarsEye
Regular
Last week I watched the single greatest achievement in cinematic history:
Put this on while doing some stuff @ the computer for background noise and occassional eye candy. 10 minutes into it the laptop is tossed aside and I'm completely engrossed in this ridiculous but awesome film.
It hits every teen comedy cliche like a series of bullet points with such speed and style that you can't help but dig it. The silly audition montage; the ridiculous training montages (with narration, natch); the rebellious out-of-towners; the bitchy pretty girls; oh and the ethnics, yes, the ethnics.
Kirsten Dunst = cloyingly adorable blonde cheerleader trying to do the right thing.
Eliza Dushku = cynical bad-ass from the Big City who gets sucked into the joy of cheering
Gabrielle Union = sassy urban ethnic with a heart of gold
I mean the eye candy of the latter two alone would be worth it, but then there's the many many gay jokes, one girl throwing up in another girl's face, the requisite bikini car wash scene, etc.
This movie was better than Citizen Kane and lesbian porn put together.
Put this on while doing some stuff @ the computer for background noise and occassional eye candy. 10 minutes into it the laptop is tossed aside and I'm completely engrossed in this ridiculous but awesome film.
It hits every teen comedy cliche like a series of bullet points with such speed and style that you can't help but dig it. The silly audition montage; the ridiculous training montages (with narration, natch); the rebellious out-of-towners; the bitchy pretty girls; oh and the ethnics, yes, the ethnics.
Kirsten Dunst = cloyingly adorable blonde cheerleader trying to do the right thing.
Eliza Dushku = cynical bad-ass from the Big City who gets sucked into the joy of cheering
Gabrielle Union = sassy urban ethnic with a heart of gold
I mean the eye candy of the latter two alone would be worth it, but then there's the many many gay jokes, one girl throwing up in another girl's face, the requisite bikini car wash scene, etc.
This movie was better than Citizen Kane and lesbian porn put together.
darth_librarian
Regular
Sold. Added to love film.
Jade Jaguar
Regular
Definitely my favorite Antonioni film. Having Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and The Yardbirds imitate The Who is also interesting. During B5's run, I kept expecting Blowup's star, David Hemmings, to show up. That's because his two contemporaries, Michael York, and David Warner, both had parts on B5.
Jade Jaguar
Regular
I watched a bunch of movies on cable this weekend...
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen. :scream:
Goya's Ghosts, a Milos Forman period piece, starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgard was decent, but not great. It suffered from a 4x3 presentation, cutting off much of the film.
Intermission is an interesting Irish film with lots of characters whose lives intertwine, often not for the better. At one point, I wanted most of them to meet in a big car crash, and get killed. For a bit, it looked like they would...
Probably the oddest film I watched was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It has a stellar cast, with Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Angeilca Huston, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Bud Cort, and others. It seems to want to be a comedy, based on Bill Murray as sort of a Jacques Cousteau character. But, the film is all over the place, and full of pathos. It was interesting to watch, and unpredictable, but didn't quite gel for me.
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider is one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen. :scream:
Goya's Ghosts, a Milos Forman period piece, starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgard was decent, but not great. It suffered from a 4x3 presentation, cutting off much of the film.
Intermission is an interesting Irish film with lots of characters whose lives intertwine, often not for the better. At one point, I wanted most of them to meet in a big car crash, and get killed. For a bit, it looked like they would...
Probably the oddest film I watched was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It has a stellar cast, with Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Angeilca Huston, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Bud Cort, and others. It seems to want to be a comedy, based on Bill Murray as sort of a Jacques Cousteau character. But, the film is all over the place, and full of pathos. It was interesting to watch, and unpredictable, but didn't quite gel for me.
GKarsEye
Regular
Yeah I'd say you're reaction to Life Aquatic was pretty common. Wes Anderson is one of those directors that built up a loyal cult following based on "quirk" and a specific style, and usually those types of directors (and musicians and writers) hit a point where they end up spinning their tires in the mud after a while.
Best part of the movie was the soundtrack- acoustic Brazilian versions of David Bowie songs.
Best part of the movie was the soundtrack- acoustic Brazilian versions of David Bowie songs.
