Has that not been linked here already? I like this one.
Magpwned. (I don't know how to link to specific comments; it's #77.)
(I don't know how to link to specific comments; it's #77.)
Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the "link to this comment" link and copy the link location.
HOO-AH
BTW, I enjoyed "Grindhouse", particularly the Rodriguez part. The "machine-gun leg" is a really stupid way to advertise the movie, since she's the main character and she doesn't even lose the leg until more than halfway through the movie, and the machine gun only appears at the end.
5 - I saw it this weekend and I agree. The reviews I've read all seem to like the Tarantino part better than the Rodriguez part but we all thought the opposite. However, Dave correctly identified the best part of the movie.
1: That's the best remix yet. Frosting!!
The Tarantino part really takes "self-referential wankery" to new heights. My friend the film-critic accurately described it as having the typical constituents of a real low-budget car-chase movie of the 70s, if you took out all the long, boring segments of cliched dialogue and half-assed exposition, and replaced them with long, pointless segments of self-referential nonsensical conversation. Fine, it's a bit funnier this way, but you did remove the plot by doing that, QT, and with no plot there's no suspense.
I like the new tie-in Sega video game.
4: Got it. That should have been blindingly obvious.
Maybe I *do* need to spend more time in a cold place.
The Rodriguez part mixes horrific violence with humor fairly effectively, and while it doesn't have any internal coherence or anything, is fine.
The Tarantino part is great, does things with audience expectations that I've long thought more films should do, is consistently suspenseful, has well-developed characters, top-notch pacing, and is basically great.
I also saw the movie at a slightly different phase of the hype cycle than others (Tuesday of two weeks ago), which might have changed my impression.
The Eli Roth trailer linked to at one remove in 6 is very upsetting. I don't want that movie to be made, because then I would be tempted to see it, and then I would be even more upset.
I think I like horror movies out of some sort of masochism. Has anyone who studies negative emotions in art seriously explored the idea that people who watch horror movies are really just like people who are constantly attracted to abusive relationships?
I felt absolutely no suspense at any time in "Death Proof", nor did I care about any of the characters, but to explain further would create spoilers. I more or less agree with this review.
I absolutely loved Death Proof--I thought it was by far the better of the two. That final car chase? The Captain's Mast? Fucking awesome.
15, the last two sentences of that review contradict each other.
the movie as a whole will be most appreciated by film buffs who recognize the genre conventions Tarantino so flagrantly subverts.
So okay, it's fine that I thought it was pointless and boring, because I'm not a bad-film buff who recognizes that there are conventions being subverted.
If the average grindhouse flick had possessed even half this much wit and imagination, we'd have something worth lamenting.
In that case the grindhouse films would have had a completely different audience, wouldn't they? And then the nostalgia would be different, and their conventions couldn't be subverted in this way because they wouldn't be so easy to subvert.
The Captain's Mast? Fucking awesome.
Sure, if you're in the market for a movie like this.
Stunts for the sake of stunts? Okay, so these people are daredevils and risk their lives for no reason. No suspense there. Suddenly some random maniac appears? Well, he has no motivation behind his actions, he could do anything. No suspense there.
DAMMIT I am falling into the trap of criticizing the part of something I don't like, rather than extolling the part of something that I like. OH WHY MUST HUMANITY BE SO INCLINED TO TEAR DOWN OTHERS? I ban myself.
Ned, didn't the reviews kind of tip you off that that was the kind of movie you'd be seeing when you walked in the theater door? Insistence on making sense and caring about characters should have gone right out the window.
That said, the problems I had with the Rodrigues half of the flick grew out of similar issues, hampered additionally by the strong suspicion that Rodriguez is simply incapable of making a movie that actually makes internal sense--Tarantino I knew was putting it on for show.
Basically, a movie doesn't have suspense unless it makes sense and you care about the characters.
A car-chase movie with no suspense is a big waste of time because I don't care what the result of the car chase is (another example would be "The Matrix Reloaded"). A zombie fireball explosion stripper escape-from-prison medical emergency movie with no suspense can still be composed largely of awesome moments. I guess that's my point.
Yeah, Ned, why can't you keep it positive? I fucking hate people like you.
I am to blame for society's crimes. Or the other way around, whatever.
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!
I think a much more entertaining Grindhouse flick could be made from when the girls from Death Proof are caught and sent to prison. Stuntwomen behind bars!
!!!END SPOILERS!!!
20: Basically, a movie doesn't have suspense unless it makes sense and you care about the characters.
Oh, you can have suspense without those things, it just depends how you go about it. Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi had no plots, characters or linear logic to speak of, but worked for me via a kind of visual suspense, waiting to see how one vignette would play off the next and what the overall gestalt would be. Gambling, Gods and LSD worked in a somewhat similar wat. Lynch's Mulholland Drive didn't make sense, and I didn't care about the characters all that much, but there was a certain suspense in wondering what kind of weird turn it would take next and whether there would be any more lesbian makeout scenes.