My big three: David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Wong Kar-Wai. Toss in some Sergei Parajanov for flavor (I need to find a way to see more of his work, though).
Film Snobbery
- Thread starter Hey Joe
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Well it was a bit embarrassing that the 80s cartoon movie had better acting, plotting, scripting, action and looked better. The script was absolutely tits (in the good sense, well good cheesy sense):TomNook said:
"Come on, I got better things to do tonight than die."
"But Prime, I'm just a soldier."
"Now all we need is a little energon and a lot of luck."
"Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost."
"Turbo rubbing young punks." (Swear to god Kup says that to Hot Rob and Daniel).
"Such heroic nonsense." *Blasts Ironhide in the face*
Kup: Reminds me the Nitith slave mines on Galganas 7.
Hot Rod: Every place reminds you of some place else.
Kup: Experience, lad. You should learn to appreciate it.
Hot Rod: A lot of good it's done us so far.
Quintesson: Quiet or you'll be held in contempt of this court.
Hot Rod: I have nothing but contempt for this court.
Galvatron: I, Galvatron, will crush you just as Megatron crushed Prime!
Ultra Magnus: And you'll die trying just like Megatron.
basically bruce willis is a representation of america. the dirty eastern europeans terrorists are the dirty russian communists. And its the idealised version of america kicking the shit out of the communists and blowing stuff up. Oh and theres a happy ending after he really gives it to the terrorists, which america is still waiting on.rossatdi said:
But they're German not Eastern European, well East German, granted but still they're not exactly communists. They're bank robbers not terrorists. McClane states early on he'd be happy to leave if Gruber would open the front door. McClane openly mocks cowboy macho-ism (I always liked those sequin shirts). An idealised version of america is a burnt out cop with a failed marriage and a smoking problem?corporate_gamer said:
In fact Die Hard has, at least in the first two films, openly mocked the US's institutions portraying high ranking cops as sycophantic idiots, the FBI as callous yahoos and the US army as easily corrupted (Die Harder, two entire platoons of the army defect for money).
i can sit through any movie without falling asleep and still be able to think of it as a good experience. it's not so much what the movie presents to you, it's what your mind can get out of the movie. you want to limit yourself within the confines of critique, because you don't understand? fine, but don't limit others.
Damn, i said it a lot better in my essay. You right, from the revisionist point of view of the Cold war. Oh and they were eastern german, just on the right side of the big ol' fence. The Point was, there was enough links to be made to write an essay. Although my history teacher was not impressed.rossatdi said:
Ha ha, okay. I'll let you off. They are Eastern Europeans though, judging by their passports and cigarettes.corporate_gamer said:
The best one my brother did (but I wrote) was comparing Firefly to westerns in the parallels with the Civil War. Independents = Confederates. Alliance = Unionists. The Alliance even have similar coloured uniforms to the Union. The Outlaw Josey Wales is a clear inspiration for Mal.
Nope, my definition of a good film is: I enjoyed watching it.
This leads to everything from Ridley Scott epics to written, directed by and starring Steaven Seagal living within my DVD cabinet in perfect harmony. Although occasionally Steaven tries to smile, that never goes down well...
This leads to everything from Ridley Scott epics to written, directed by and starring Steaven Seagal living within my DVD cabinet in perfect harmony. Although occasionally Steaven tries to smile, that never goes down well...
I believe that when a film snob drops director's names they do so as a way of saying that the director's films are, in fact, usually packed with this great content you seek. If I were to say I like Kubrick (no opinion on the matter, seeing as I've only seen FMJ) it would be because I've seen most of his movies and think they're all fine pieces of celluloid. If I said I disliked Uwe Boll it would be because I thought all his movies lacked this impressive 'content'. I believe Hey Joe was using these directors in the sense that I used Kubrick above - and lo and behold, the ones whose names I recognise are widely believed to be consistent Golden Egg layers. Kurosawa's films, though they have their detractors, are agreed to be outstanding. Ditto Miyazaki. De Palma, I'm fairly sure, is the same.beddo said:
So don't be a smarty pants.
I'm not generally a huge fan of films, but I do like Miyazaki films. Spirited Away and Howl are my favourites, Howl, because it cheers me up.
This year I loved Persepolis, but I only saw it in the original french, though I hope to see the re dub too.
And Bubba Ho-Tep is awesomepants, to use Hey Joe's expression.
This year I loved Persepolis, but I only saw it in the original french, though I hope to see the re dub too.
And Bubba Ho-Tep is awesomepants, to use Hey Joe's expression.
I'm a bit of a film elitist with a healthy love of the quality block-buster. I'm a big fan of foreign cinema and enjoy my arthouse films. However I dislike experimentation for the same of experimentation and prefer good story telling over random madness.
Personal favorite directors are...
Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa, Danny Boyle, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (something me and Yahtzee have in common), David Cronenberg, Brian DePalma, Tarsem and others.
I still however have a healthy love of good blockbusters and I still regularly consume Spielberg, Scorcese and even less autuer directors like Gore Verbinski and Len Wiseman.
Personal favorite directors are...
Hayao Miyazaki, Akira Kurosawa, Danny Boyle, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (something me and Yahtzee have in common), David Cronenberg, Brian DePalma, Tarsem and others.
I still however have a healthy love of good blockbusters and I still regularly consume Spielberg, Scorcese and even less autuer directors like Gore Verbinski and Len Wiseman.
Don't be a pretentious and patronising idiot. You failed to read my comment as I had intended; 'film snobs' don't actually seem to enjoy films. This often seems to be the case because they have a tendency to judge them based on 'the vision' of the director and not the actual content.Saskwach said:
I think Stanley Kubrick's films are awful. Space Odyssey is one of the most boring things I have ever seen. It lacked subtlety, there was no emotion, the story was weak. The end sequence when he 'evolves' it was just a tedious use of the then available special effects.
Clockwork Orange, what an incomprehensible mess. Non believable storyline and outrageous characters. Totally boring and a waste of time and effort to watch it.
One of my favourite films is Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl. It's fun, exciting, engaging, you can watch it more than once. It's just an entertaining film.
I hate all these pseudo intellectual commentaries on life that are put into films. If these people were actually intelligent then they would write a book about it!
Aha beddo! But Gore Verbinski also falls into the category of a talented director with consistantly good films and content. His work on the NA version of The Ring was excellent, despite a weak, plot hole filled script. He didn't do so well with The Ring 2 and both of the Pirates Sequels were nutty, but still fun to watch. I love all 3 Pirates movies for the shear madness and spectacle they present however I would not for one second defend their plotting, it's batshit insane and in some cases overly cliched and nigh incomprehensible. But then again, Pirates 3 has Shipwreck Cove, that shit rules.
I'm looking forward to the Bioshock movie because he's the first truly excellent director to be put on a Videogame movie project.
I'm looking forward to the Bioshock movie because he's the first truly excellent director to be put on a Videogame movie project.
Being a film-guy myself, as well as an annoying pretentious elitist, it's odd to me how many people admit that they will watch anything just because something blows up.
Well if that is what you like then fair enough. I thought a Clockwork Orange was ok, though the book deals with the issues in a more graphic way.beddo said:
On the other hand I thought Pirates... was a badly written piece of tripe that had a poor plot and bad acting, which relied almost entirely on Johnny Depp to succeed.
To say that the intellectual uses words as his medium is a passé as an argument. Surely the most intelligent way to say something would be to get the attention of the maximum number of people. Films usually end up on television, after dvd release. So essentially you get three waves of diffusion, thus giving you a far wider audience than a book could.
Can't one enjoy both?KarmicToast said:
I love good story and clever direction but at the same time I'll never pass up a quality action film (Raiders of the Lost Arc being the formost example) or even a dubious one if it has significant visual flare (re: Die Hard: Live Free or Die Hard) or real stunt work.