I just watched it this weekend. The meta-tasticness and exploding heads got a bit much about 2/3 through, but they seemed to be having so much fun with it.
If this is the thread for movie recommendations, let me toss one in for "The Raid: Redemption". Proof that the spirit of John Woo is alive and well in Indonesia.
In thirty years it will turn out to be sexist
The sequel, Glue, is supposed to be lame.
3: I am damned excited for that movie.
I am glad to hear that, Stanley, because I had conceived something of a desire to see this movie, after having seen previews, but was uncertain whether it would be worth my while.
You're turning into a fine young man.
6: I didn't know anything about it going in, and I think it was actually better that way. It was great.
Speaking of moving images on screens accompanied by sounds, was it just me or was the Game of Thrones second season premiere practically a parody? I don't think it is going to stand up well to the broadening to so many narrative streams. "Here's 30-seconds of people in the desert, now someone's dying, now there's fucking, Oh look, the little guy."
I would like to acknowledge, though not necessarily commend, the pun in the post title.
9: Yes, but that's the visual equivalent of Facebook's "It's complicated".
Yes, Rubber has been highly recommended to me. Maybe after Dekalog
The Last Psychiatrist ...dissing Jezebel and THG
So this is why we have a book about a post-apocalyptic killing game that spends zero pages describing how Katniss kills anyone but spends countless pages on how she is dressed, how everyone is dressed. What will she wear? What kind of jewelry? Hair up? Will the "sponsors" like her better this way or that? Her chief weapon isn't a bow, it's her appearance.That's why The Hunger Games is such a diabolical head fake. Forget about it being entertaining, which I concede it is. It has managed to convince everyone that a passive character whose main strength is that she thinks a lot of thoughts and feels a lot of feelings, but who ultimately lets every decision be made by someone else-- that is a female hero, a winner.
b) Tarsem Singh has made a Mirror, Mirror into a Sikh allegory about the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and ignorant Americans don't notice. "Daggers? Mirrors?"
Fucking love it. I take it back, there is a ton of stupidity around.
Movie thread. Outbound to SFO: Admiral Yamamoto.
Verdict: nothing to impress Bob, but interesting to see the Japanese version of a big budget Hollywood bio pic. Does a pretty good job on the pre-war politics between the Navy and the Imperial Way clique on the general staff. Mostly framed through the career of a journalist who goes from being a reporter, to being a warmongering fascist hack, to being a post-war conformist.
Return: Drive
Verdict: Kitsch, but good quality kitsch. Really violent violence (in my view a good thing - if you're going to have violence it ought to be sickening). Fortunately for Ryan Gosling, he hardly has to speak and his character is a bit of a you're-not-too-smart-I-like-that-in-a-man noir lunk. Christina Hendricks really shouldn't have bothered. And the teal-and-orange colour balance thing is really out of control - the walls are the colour of a Dutch football shirt and the sun's reflection on a red car is sky blue.
I didn't notice the pun, until it was pointed out, which might make it commendable.
I don't think it is going to stand up well to the broadening to so many narrative streams.
JUST YOU WAIT
As long as we're talking about Game of Thrones, I'm curious about something from the NYT review of the second season. (Spoiler alert!)
In the second-to-last episode last season, "Game of Thrones" in effect ate its own heart by killing off its main and most noble character, Ned Stark, who was played by Sean Bean, perhaps the best-known actor in this cast-of-thousands extravaganza.
Does this depart from the book? (I gave up a couple of chapters in.) If not, what's Neil Genzlinger whining about?
Not that an adaptation can't choose to depart from the original, but Genzlinger should at least note that the character is killed in the book but he wished the TV show had changed the plot.
Even if it does depart from the book, he's still pretty whiny.
The joke goes something like: Every time a fan whines about how long the books are taking, Martin kills off a Stark.
SO THERE'S THAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO.
17: Yeah, that review was awful. I thought my attention span for damned near everything had slipped badly in the past two years but Genzlinger must have that of a mayfly.
21
Does this depart from the book? ...
It's the same as the first book where Ned Stark is killed near the end. I haven't watched any of the TV show so I don't know how closely it followed the first book but I thought the books went downhill as the series went on so the TV show might be wise to depart from the books (or at least use them very selectively) at some point. And the fact that the series is unfinished (and seems likely to remain so) is a problem for plotting a show based on it.
21: There's apparently some anxiety about his ever finishing the series:
22: Jesus Aitch. "Get off your fat ass and write our books, George, you fucking fatass!" There's fandom for you.
No worries, though. If he kicks off too early they can just hire somebody to finish off the series from his notes. Question is, who? I'm thinking Susanna Clarke would make a nice change of pace.
Movie Thread:
Drive was indeed pretty sweet. Especially watching Albert Brooks play (brilliantly) against type as a murderous stabby villain.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is really good (as mentioned on the "Movie Trailers" thread). It had the not-insignificant flaw that it's waaaay over-compressed -- perhaps an extra twenty minutes or so to allow a touch more context for the key scenes woudn't have killed them? -- but also a masterpiece of subtle directing, composition and juxtaposition (if you're watching closely, everything that needs to be there is there). There's nothing like a good Le Carre story to bring home a depressing and dispiriting commentary on the spook lifestyle that you won't get from Bond or Bourne. Stonking great cast and Gary Oldman's updating of George Smiley is definitive.
What "Game of Thrones" needs if it is to expand its fan base beyond Dungeons & Dragons types is what most of the United States didn't get this year: a hard winter.
Didn't Gina Bellafante make this joke -- couched as "this is boy stuff girls don't like!" rather than "this is stuff only basement dwellers enjoy!" -- almost exactly a year ago? It's a really successful show; the fan base clearly extends beyond people who know the material components of Bigby's Interposing Hand.
22
There's apparently some anxiety about his ever finishing the series:
Well justified in my opinion. I suspect he realizes the series is FUBAR at this point and he would rather not continue to work on it.
Yeah. Books 1, 2, and 3 are throat-grabbers, and 4 is just a fucking slog. (To be fair, as a slog it took me three times as long as the other volumes, which in practice meant a week instead of two days.) I'm fine waiting for paperback on 5.