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Yeah i think tv is going through some kind of "golden age" at the moment, with a lot of talent from film going into cable shows-- not so much network tv. I'm always a couple of years behind because I don't get cable and I watch this stuff on DVD. e.g, i'm waiting for the DVD release of Treme, the latest David Simon project which currently shows on HBO, but I don't wanna pay $100/month just to watch it. Screwball comedies ended in the 30s and the role of women has changed since then. I don't know what would be today's equivalent. That pothead movie with Ana Faris? No-- Looks like comedy is a "dude's genre" these days, in 'Merica at least. I can think of some comedies I've liked in the past 10 years, none would qualify as screwball anyway, but none of it stars a woman either. It's always goofy dudes getting into shit. |
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i cant stand dicaprio...but he keeps ending up in some very good movies. havent seen this one yet and that is kinda why, i will break down and rent it though cause it does look interesting at least better than another night of watching cops |
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the departed was great |
I am sick of watching movies about gangsters or hitmen
I am sick of watching TV shows about doctors/lawyers/cops/etc. I am sick of watching cable TV shows about lowlife criminals treated as if they were heroes, whether they are murderers, serial killers, drug dealers, whatever... |
ME TOOOOO
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I'm surprised there is so much Departed distaste here. I thought that movie was absolutely stellar. I'll be fair and admit I haven't seen Infernal Affairs yet, but still I thought it was a quality movie.
But Shutter Island was abysmal. I wanted to enjoy that movie alot. But ugh. Oh well, I hated Mystic River as well, so maybe I just don't like Dennis Lehane stories. I think Scorsese can still put out interesting movies. I enjoyed The Aviator, Gangs, and Departed. But his former greatness is well and past. As for multi-character/plot quality movies. I dunno, I have pretty good memories of Gosford Park. Though I don't know if I'd call that one a masterpiece. |
I am really perplexed at all the hatred shown for Shutter Island, with even a guy saying that it was the worst movie he has seen in years?
Can any of you elaborate as to why exactly you disliked this film? I want to know what exactly about it has offended people. When I went to see it I really enjoyed it, I thought it was intelligent, there was no attempt at an easy resolution of the plot. How many Hollywood movies are like that? So what exactly is wrong with it? |
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I enjoyed it too! |
to me the only truly bad film he has made is gangs of new york. I didn't really like the departed but mostly because the original is hard to top.
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This and Gangs of New York were pure big budget 'highbrow' hollywood bullshit with esteemed names matched.
I disliked Gangs of New York more, but Shutter Island over all rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know if it was Leonardo's acting, the lame you-see-it-coming-a-mile-away plot twist or the overly dramatic nature of the whole thing... but I just couldn't get behind it. |
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My abiding memory of it is of DiCaprio spending most of the movie lighting matches in dark corridors in a role that should've gone to someone probably twice his age. It has no tension whatsoever and there are long spells where nothing seems to be happening at all. Either way, every great filmmaker is allowed to make one real dud in their career, and Shutter Island is Scorsese's, the same as Godfather III is Coppola's. Fortunately they've both done enough good stuff for us to just pretend that both films simply never happened. |
I can't think of a more boring and dulling film to watch than Goodfella's. Perhaps its popularity lies in its nurturing particular get rich quick playing by your own rules fantasies that are particular to a certain type of American mindset. That's all well and good for the average prole I guess, it turned out well in the end for Ray Liotta's character, he settled down to a quiet surburban life as if the mafia scenes were all just a dream. Back to normality after having an adventure. Quite childish really, but I don't think the average American could have tolerated seeing the really ugly side to "business". They get this sanitised fantasy version and lap it up, proclaiming the director as a "genius" and a "visionary" because they appreciate someone who knows just how far they are prepared to look at reality. Taxi Driver I also found to be mediocre and much over hyped. The character is lonely and "alienated", even from himself, making it into a female murder mystery is a cop out. Gangs of New York is also forgettable.
Now back to Shutter Island, hopefully people can give me a more reasoned explanation of what their particular problem with it was. |
You bought the "it was just a plot twist" explanation? Yet throughout the film, in the parts someone else claims there is "nothing happening", there is a barrage of evidence that points towards the "insane" and "sane" theories. That you would actually buy the plot twist as the only possible explanation for what happened shows that you were not paying much attention.
My personal take was that it was the island itself conspiring to make him insane, and that he was acting towards the end. The ambiguity of it was what made it so masterful. This is what I appreciate in a film, a genuine push towards abstraction and into fantastically speculative territories. Methinks some people cannot take a film that does not offer the simplistic plot resolution of the average cop show, or perhaps are too wired into that kind of faced paced style that they can't appreciate a slow and layered film that wants you to never be too sure of what is happening. The fun of a film like Shutter Island isn't simply going from A to B - he gets to the island, turns out he's mad, the end. The point is the experience of watching it, trying to piece together what's happening from the clues, those strange moments were you really don't know what's happening and all sorts of possibilities come into play. As for the remark on tension, if anything I think the film could have been even longer and slower. |
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10/10 Actually, I liked Departed. Shutter was no Departed. |
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Fuckin love you Man. |
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Bringing Up Baby, I think. |
for whoever asked:
the reason i didn't like the departed was because i found it 100% predictable, as predictable as a law and order episode, it did nothing for me and i was bored watching a 90-minute cop show. ok vera farmiga was kinda hot but her character was a sick bitch, which made her less attractive. so no. |
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Phoned in acting.....really shitty script......scenes upon scenes that just dragged......obvious allusions to "the catch" very early on......and a general dumbing down of everything he's done before. Never has he treated his audience like such morons.....muzak swelling whenever we are to be dictated how we should feel......fucking awful film on so many levels. |
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I love your passion for "the cinema" Skuj ;) I haven't seen Shutter Island yet.... but despite all the criticism, it just kinda makes we wanna see it more. I don't expect anything special though, thanks to all the negative reviews. |
About the last mainstream Hollywood screwball comedy that was good = Freddy Got Fingered. Okay, it wasn't, er, TOO mainstream (it did make a shitload of money, though -- I, for one, saw it in theaters THREE times!), but it was just.. god... AMAZING. Genuinely funny, surreal as fuck, just one hilarious absurdity, with no gay jokes, fat jokes, drug jokes, etc. Truly the best comedy to come out of Hollywood since.. well.. I dunno... DUMB AND DUMBER?!
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I havent read the whole thread, but I enjoyed shutter Island a lot.
from the soundtrack over the cast to the island. it was like 2 1/2 hours quotes and memories of quirky old films/television series |
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oh no, freddy got fingered isn't a "screwball" comedy-- neither is dumb and dumber-- screwball is a particular genre from the depression era that included strong female leads, "classy" settings, and elements of slapstick comedy and snappy dialogue. the best contemporary example i can think of is almodovar's "women on the verge of a nervous breakdown"--almodovar famously looks back a lot on classic hollywood films for inspiration. the reason i brought it up was because demoņo mentioned "desperate housewives" and there definitely was a strong element of that in the first year of that show (which i happened to witness, to my embarrassment). the heir to the screwball genre are more the "romantic comedies" you see today but they are fucking weak and pathetic. |
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I kind of agree with this. If anything I thought that Shutter Island was "bad" on purpose. Like it was just a film noir / hardboiled detective pulp throwback. With that in mind, it worked for me. |
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Yeah, it's very much that world populated by Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, with lots of razor-sharp, mile-a-minute dialogue (written at a time when Hollywood employed screenwriters who really could write). Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday pretty much define the territory - totally different animals to the likes of Freddy Got Fingered and Dumb and Dumber. It's pretty much disappeared now, besides in TV shows like Desperate Housewives and (to some degree) Ugly Betty. The Devil Wears Prada and Legally Blonde might be seen as a kind of attempt to revive the form for cinema but, as you say, its closest modern equivalent is probably more with stuff like 'Women on the Verge'. Archetypal Screwball comedy scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrMcNk3MUgs |
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exactly, I took it as a hardboiled (more hardboiled then noir) schizo film with a splash of scorsese. and I really enjoyed his use of music. despite his often good poprock music soundtracks. after watching it in the cinema I wasnt disappointed at all. maybe its because I love hardboiled/noir stories in general + scorcese made some of my favourite films, this combination couldnt fail for me |
there was NOTHING hardboiled about Shutter Island.
The whole fucking movie was one big soft boiled egg They cold have done the whole movie as a 30 minute twilight zone episode and it woudl have ruled all. if you want hardboiled read ANDREW VACHSS Shutter Island felt to me like an excercise in ambiance. the meat of it did not match the quality of the presentation, if you know what I mean. I got sick of seeing leo diCaprio squinting. |
after all this talk i am definitly gonna have to rent it
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rob refuses to see other ppl's perspectives? Get the heck out! |
thats why we love him
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I see them. does not mean I have to agree or give them some sort of value.
in talking about art subjectivity is the key. if we were talking about REAL shit...that's a different story! like I said, it looked fucking GOOD, but left me wanting. |
like a bad french whore
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Gangs of New York? Still a piece of shit |
Ah, I stand corrected re: screwball comedy, I always associated the term with... well, a more literal meaning. Like just another name for a wacky mainstream comedy without any specific theme (ie, not a spoof, not a stoner movie, etc) -- not a specific comedic subgenre. Interesting.
As for Shutter Island being an exercise in ambience.. I can see that, actually. It was clearly trying to be ambient, atmospheric.. it might have worked in a really nice theater, at least for a bit, but eh. It was just garbage. Just nothing to it. |
It was a nice film to watch. Very pretty. That said, it was also very predictable. So, despite the plot at least the visuals were nice so I'm going to say that it was "OK".
Should be added that the visual aspect of films have always been more important to me than the story. If both are good (like in say...Blade Runner or Alien 1 + 3), I'm in Heaven. Just not so common. |
How can we talk screwball comedy without including Some Like It Hot?
Jack Lemmon probably the finest actor I have ever witnessed. Him or Gene Hackman. |
Dave Letterman always said that John Cusack and jack lemmon were like brothers forma different mother, in what their roles and acting are like.
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Any director who's been doing movies long enough has a few clunkers in their filmography, same with actors.
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Dude....er......
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I dunno. Kitano's made films for 20 years and I wouldn't consider any even halfway bad. Fassbinder made 42 films and I've seen 41 of them and dug 'em all. I can think of plenty of directors with quite consistent filmographies -- and when they do fail, it seems to be because of studio interference, or some other unforseen circumstances. Scorsese, on the other hand, has released nothing but clunkers for a long time now, imo. |
I've never understood why some think people should quit, just because one may cease to stir interest the way they may have in the past. It's like saying "you should quit being an artist because you're old".
If ya don't like it, don't listen to it anymore. Don't watch it anymore. Forget the new stuff exists and fail to realize sometimes people just get older, less innovative, less whatever. Some of that earlier Scorsese stuff is tough to beat. I personally find it inspirational when older people are still creating something, even if I don't happen to dig the new as much as the old. Think Pharoah Sanders...think Ridley Scott....I'll always check out whatever they do, even if my hopes aren't tooooo high. We're talking about peeps that have little else to prove. Just, my take. Take it...or flush it. |
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