posted
The new 24, which I gave up on sometime during season 3, is looking pretty good. I think it would be better if Jack was a proper psychopath, picking off special ed kids at the funfair, or Washington sniper, but still a hero! Even better - wouldn't it be great if he developed full blown paranoid schizophrenia, the only conspiracies in his head?
Posts: 5190
| IP: Logged
posted
I'd like Bauer to join the terrorists. But not in the usual undercover way, whereby he's really working for CTU. Instead perhaps he gets talking to a terrorist leader who informs him that the US Government is under control of a devastating evil. Bauer pledges to join the terrorist cause as it's the right thing to do. He is mutilated during an epic battle with his former colleague Michelle, and gets patched up (by the terrorist leader and his goons) in a robotic suit / life support system.
posted
I don't know. I didn't see any of season 4 and she hasn't popped up in season 5 yet (we're only two episodes in). I dearly hope she died slowly, subjected to splendidly imaginative horror. Maybe her remains were fed to cougars? If there was a God...
Prison Break is a good concept, but not such a great series. I miss Oz. Really enjoying House - don't care at all about the medical investigations or whatever it is he does, I just like Hugh Laurie's character.
posted
I saw Munich, which I felt didn't trip the emotional responses in me it was supposed to; Spielberg is normally masterful at manipulating you into the response he's looking for, if nothing else, and over these two-to-three hours my engagement was a flatline with odd blips. I could sense that I was meant to feel some sense of conflicted twist when the gang of assassins glimpse kindness and courtesy in their next victim, or share a room with enemies in temporary, makeshift bonding, then meet again on a shoot-out street and hesitate before firing at each other, but apart from one moment when a woman had a pet cat, I was shruggingly unable to see why these "soldiers" had any problem wiping out their targets. So one of them has a kid . Is it supposed to matter that she's cute if you like curly-haired French kids, or be an unforseen shock that someone who organised a massacre could have a family?
I also expect a bit of storytelling flair from Spielberg, but the hoary trick pulled out of his hat at the end was cutting a bloodbath together with a sex session -- a hoary technique that I'm sure has been seen many times since Eisenstein first did it in 1926, and which should have been cut together with me alternating shots of me wiping my nose and checking my watch.
The last shot is interesting in its predictability, and gives me 2 examples now for my forthcoming (2011) chapter on "The WTC Towers as Final Shot of 21st Century Feature Films", see also Gangs of New York.
posted
I've been waiting for someone else to see Munich, and I do want to make some observations of my own, but right now I'm preparing a Valentine's dinner (for me and the missus, I'm not a cook or anything)
So I'll post my thoughts tomorrow. Bet you can't wait, TMO.
Posts: 2434
| IP: Logged
posted
I thought Munich was excellent, but then I have no taste. Nor a girl Maybe I shall enjoy a long hot bath, candlelit wank and a spot of wrist slashing.
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: I like Life On Mars marginally more than I like The IT Crowd. They, along with My Name Is Earl, are the only three things worth watching on the telly at the moment IMNSHO.
I forgot about Shameless. Shameless is fucking ace.
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: So: which of the below should I prioritise for this weekend's viewing entertainment?
Capote - not seen, but his voice is annoying, looks beautifully shot though Good Luck, & Good Night - very good, understated, great performances, beautifully shot, pointless Robert Downey sub-plot Lucky Number Slevin - looks shite Munich - heavy handed, from start to finish Walk the Line (I'm guessing not this one from various forites' reviews) - Reese withespoon has a weird head
-------------------- If Chuck Norris is late, time better slow the fuck down Posts: 2741
| IP: Logged
posted
charlie brooker was on TV last night, doing a tv version of his column. It was alright, better than you'd think. He looked quite nervous sometimes, bless him. Anybody see this? It was on BBC Four.
posted
At the weekend, I finally got round to watching a couple of films that have been on my list for years - the softcore French porn of Buffalo 66, and the retro fairy tale charms of Gallo's The Story of O.
I really really liked Buffalo 66, even though I was all set for finding it boring. It's on so many 'hidden gem' lists that it may as well be retitled "Cult Indie Favourite: Buffalo 66". I was expecting something horribly bittersweet, held together by huge amounts of self consciously cool design and photography, with minimal dialogue and ultra low production, which is pretty much exactly it, only the bittersweet isn't horrible.
Gallo is fresh out the big house, and he abducts a young electroclash Ricci to pass off as his girlfriend to his parents. You can imagine what else happens, and you'd be right. However, it's rescued from this seemingly tired story by the gentle and intelligent way in which the Gallo character unfolds. Even though there aren't any suprises, it never gets mawkish, and the developments are handled carefully enough to make them seem believable and even heartwarming. I'll say it: This film warmed my heart. That's high fucking praise. Seriously, don't be put off checking this film out. I don't really Gallo - he strikes me as a **** of the highest order - but you can't take this film away from him.
I put Story of O on my lovefilm list ages ago, just after I read the book, and it sat on my shelf for a couple of months before I knuckled down and watched it. It's set in France, and it's about a woman who enters an S&M type environment in a bid to devote herself to her boyfriend, and quickly finds a deep (and in the novel, existential) devotion to submission. The book is great, but the film isn't really anything special. Not as dreamlike or intense as the book, it feels like a lite version of the story. The director also did Emmanuelle, and it's the same kind of thing, with a honey drenched camera and luscious loungey orchestration overseeing a parade of perfectly formed arses, tits, and bushy pubic thatches. The women in it are all beautiful, and all wear corset dresses that frame rather than cover their tits. It's good for a gaze rather than a wank, and would probably be the perfect accompaniment to a sunday afternoon spent mainlining horse. I suppose it's an unusual film, but even though I'd not seen it before, I was familiar with the look and feel because it's been copied or pastisched so many times. And maybe because I've seen the original Emmanuelle trilogy. Emmanuelle is better, even if the leading lady isn't quite as stunning.
[ 14.03.2006, 07:04: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
I saw Buffalo 66 several years ago and enjoyed it too, which is a shame since, as you say, Gallo is a prick of extreme magnitude. Not least for what he did to Chloe Sevigny.
I tend to like most of the quirky Ricci stuff though - I really liked Teh Opposite of Teh Sex, or whatever it was called, the one where she was the youthful nymphet seducing gay guys and generally running amok in the face of a disapproving Lisa Kudrow.
-------------------- i'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song Posts: 4243
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: I saw Buffalo 66 several years ago and enjoyed it too, which is a shame since, as you say, Gallo is a prick of extreme magnitude. Not least for what he did to Chloe Sevigny.
posted
Yeah I wondered whether that was what you were referring to, but I thought maybe there was some element I hadn't heard about, like he coerced her into it or something.
I dunno if you could sensibly claim that that was something "he did to her". This one time, I heard that women were responsible for their own actions rather than being held captive under the Svengali-esque hypnotic gaze of their lovers.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
you both make a fair point but it still feels a bit wrong to me, when the balance of power in that situation was so skewed in his direction. you won't sway me from my opinion that he's a mentalist dickhead so we'd probably better leave it at that.
-------------------- i'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song Posts: 4243
| IP: Logged
posted
I know what you mean, h1ppy. Vincent exploited Chloe in the sense that he used her for his own gain, but to a degree she's exploiting him for her own career.. You know, she could have said no, and part of her probably thought that if she did this then it would raise her profile, have her associated with what she much have thought would have been a succesful film. Or maybe she's a disgusting dick sucking slut, who doesn't care who sees her because she's a slut and that's what they're like.
Part of me wonders if really Gallo is like a huge joke, that he's taking the piss in a knowing way and one day will expose his life to have been an art performance. The alternative is too grim to think about.
[ 14.03.2006, 07:40: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
posted
I've not seen any of these recent films that have featured REAL SEXXX action. The one time I watched porn in a cinema, it was alright for a while, but after half an hour or so, it felt a bit...tense. When you're in a big room full of people all watching just the mechanics of fucking on a long single shot of say five minutes, it doesn't feel comfortable. It's like, at this point, there's no way you could be looking at this from a critical or narrative-focused point of view. You're all just there, thinking about boning. Together.
[ 14.03.2006, 07:46: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
. Is it supposed to matter that she's cute if you like curly-haired French kids, or be an unforseen shock that someone who organised a massacre could have a family? 
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Maybe I shall enjoy a long hot bath, candlelit wank and a spot of wrist slashing.
Printer-friendly view of this topic