The last movie I saw was The Last Movie.
Dennis Hopper proved he had no idea of what to shoot and how to edit a movie. Too bad, the idea beneath the film was interesting.

:D :D :D

i just started watching SLEEPING BEAUTY.

looks good in spite of the creepy subject. but it got late and we saved it for the day.

It's definitely just pure economics at this point. The money that franchise makes is mind-boggling. I'm sure everyone involved reckons it needs to die but they're just making too much money keeping it alive.

maybe it's because fast cars are the last mythical vehicle of our time and any show of them people will be like

UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I heard Jason Statham and Dwight Johnson are making a spin-off or something? Like, in retaliation to the actual franchise, presumably doing something they didn't like? I actually don't think either of those actors are in any of the movies, but who the fuck can tell anymore?

I think 99.9 percent of franchise films just totally and epically suck. Not counting trilogies, of which there have been some goddamn good ones like Evil Dead, Dark Knight, the "Dollars" trilogy (aka The Good, the Bad & the Ugly and predecessors), The Godfather, Polanski's Apartment trilogy — but once you get past 3, you're pretty much guaranteeing either commercial or critical failure and humiliation.

The exceptions are, I guess,
- Harry Potter, in the sense that all of the movies are fun to watch and hit their mark
- Stars Wars, if you exclude the prequels
- Star Trek if you exclude everything from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to the 2009 reboot
- and Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies. Yeah, they might look like separate interconnected series and trilogies, but let's be honest... they're all just one big circle-jerk, from Iron Man to Doctor Strange. But they hit their mark and none of them eat total shit, so that's a success story baby!

That's all I can think of. What's that you say? James Bond? I challenge you to watch those movies as an adult and tell me that more than three of them are actually good films.

What the fuck was I talking about when I started this? Oh, Fast and Furious. Yeah. Never seen a goddamn one of them. Caught a few minutes on Tv once and learned all I needed to know.

Wait, what? What movie are you talking about specifically?

They were both in Furious 7 and Dwayne Johnson was also in the 5th one. But yeah, I've heard about a spin-off too.

Re franchises. I suppose trilogies have a certain cultural credibility, given their origin in Greek drama, but past 3 is hard to justify on any creative grounds, except for the rare exceptions you mention.

I defend the James Bond franchise on its own terms for its apparently unique ability to evolve while somehow staying true to its basic idea (Bond, mega-villain, Bond-girl, car, gadgets, Q, exotic locations). If ever there's an example of how a franchise can work both commercially and creatively it's that, regardless of if you happen to like the films or not.

an australian one, distributed by ifc, with some redheaded girl that looks kinda russian to me (emily browning), and parts of the movie are a bit salò-like. i went in with low expectations, then liked it, then i didn't "get" the end, but i still liked it

eta: this one:

Serenity was on TV the other day. It's a weird one, parts of it were very good, other parts not so. The spaceships looked very fake to me, like they came of a very low budget SciFi Channel movie.
Perhaps I missed too much though, I kept channel hopping during the commercial breaks and then forgot to switch back...

why do all of the 20+ channels always have commercial breaks at exactly the same time ??

Pulp Fiction

I'd run out of new DVDs to watch so returned to this and, maybe because I expected it to annoy the shit out of me, I loved it. The dialogue doesn't feel half as irritating as I'd remembered. I've come to the conclusion that he writes in a very hard-boiled style which works fine in hard-boiled films like this. The problem is every film he's made after Jackie Brown hasn't been in that style, which may be why they've jarred so much for me. Anyway, not wanting to re-open the whole Tarantino debate, just saying.

PS. I'd completely forgotten how good Bruce Willis is in it. Samuel Jackson made a career off the back of his role but BW totally steals the film for me.

It's a great fucking movie. All can agree on that. Fucking great.

Coillusion. Radio stations do it too. It is pre-arranged by the station owners so that the audience is frustrated if it tries to channel/station switch during commercial breaks.

same reason all gas stations near each other change their prices simultaneously, and keep their prices within one cent of each other.

USA claims it follows free enterprise but what actually happens is that choice is severely limited by the corporation that owns the businesses in question. There are dozens of car manufacturers in the world that are not allowed to sell their cars in USA, for example. limit the customer's choices. free enterprise is a crock of shit.

well it's not a crock of shit-- it's desirable as your post implies

the claim that we have a perfect free enterprise system is what's the crock of shit though.

but the convergence towards schedules/price points doesn't require collusion-- just competition

i.e. gas station that prices a dime higher will lose-- is forced to match

tv channel that plays commercials at a different time will be tuned out

it's easier to imitate than to coordinate en-masse

herd behavior is common in nature for a reason

tell that to the better business bureau, a completely made up association of car dealerships who were sued in the 70's for price fixing and collusion and who created the BBB as a way to do "self-governance." Now the BBB (always a bullshit organization) is being sued because they strongarm businesses into giving them donations in exchange for good BBB ratings. IT IS ALL A CROCK OF SHIT.

i never said that collusion doesn't exist! i only said that the examples you quoted do not require collusion, just natural, spontaneous, safety-in-numbers, herd behavior.

i also said that free enterprise is desirable per your post-- if collusion is bad, then free enterprise (and being able to buy whatever car you want from any manufacturer, etc) is good, and therefore not bullshit.

as to "all" being a crock of shit. ah ha ha hahaha! come on! YES! the universe is an absurd joke. enjoy it while you can.

Well, coordinating en masse, or true collusion between gas companies, would lap free enterprise and become straight up price-fixing. Imitation is the only legal course of action here.

I see gas prices fluctuate by 5-10 cents in rural gas stations that are in the same general area. But I think it works a little differently here than it did in the city. Folks care deeply about whose gas is the most pure, which station's pumps are less likely to contain more than a certain percentage of water, etc. Rural America is fucked in a lot of ways, but small town folks still kind of police commerce in a way. I see Facebook posts like, "Hey everyone, so-and-so is up 5, steee clear," and then 150 people like and share.

It's weird.

This is not my natural environment. Sometimes I feel like my adventures trying to navigate this bizarro-land are being narrated by David Attenborough and screened for aliens somewhere.

my survival mantra in strange anthropological situations, like being trapped in a mall, or visiting a girlfriend's ultranormal family, has been reliably for years: "national geographic... national geographic... national geographic..."

whoa, i just read that jonathan demme died. wtf??

The same...

age + cancer = death

I just read it too on David Byrne's newsletter.

http://mailchi.mp/davidbyrne/jonatha...e?e=cc4a97740b

Whaaaaa?


*puts on Stop Making Sense immediately*

RIP

Big Trouble in Little China

We've all seen it. We all love it. Right?

funny thing, i always perceived him as a "youngish" sort of director, kinda like gus van zant does that to me too. i know they're boomers, but they feel closer to gen-xers for some reason.

i wasn't aware that demme was already 73 (or that he had cancer, for that matter).

also, my keyboard is starting to eat letters and i had to edit this twice. pain in the ass keyboard. but okay.

IN ANY CASE what a fucking bummer about demme. the last of his movies i really liked was rachel getting married. not because of the pretty big-eyed lady, which was so hyped and i used to hate at the time, but rather because it was such a funny, human and joyous movie that really kept me going back to it. great ensemble cast. very altmanesque.

i only saw it recently and YES. hilarious/absurd/great

Jurassic Park

this was way better than i expected!

A+++ for an interesting character we don't get in movies much... no... 2 interesting characters. great movie when you let go of preconceptions.

En-Ra-Ha!

lololol

yeah! a really good Mike Leigh one.

Risky Business

Sort of a less comedy-driven Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Seems to have acquired cult status. It is very stylish but the best thing about it is probably the Tangerine Dream soundtrack.

chan-wook park's THE HANDMAIDEN



this guy this guy this guy. he keeps getting better. why is he so good? how is he so good?

he always makes the most beautiful images. he's always very serious and very funny. he always has these great plots full of suprises. he's great at his craft and he's great at his art. he's just fucking great. god damn.

I don't think I've seen any of his stuff. :confused:

Thirst and Oldboy are good starters

i recommended him thirst a long time ago, i think it was halloween, he liked the shot with the fluorescents in the room said he had to see it

thirst is good but not his best or most celebrated one, still i liked it tons

i think the order to start is:

1. sympathy for mr vengeance
2. old boy
3. lady vengeance

which is the order the "vengeance" trilogy was shot

from there springs the rest of his work i think

joint security area was cool and earlier but a bit clumsy in the production. which was you know fine, as he was a brilliant beginner, but it's not as memorable as what followed

and what's so great about the guy i think is that he was a philosopher first, then got involved in film, so that he always explores these not necessarily "intellectual" situations, but he finds these existential situations that always make for a great and thrilling flick, and intricate plots, and he has such a sense of visual beauty to go with it, it's just great stuff

Oh I remember when you recommended that to me. Yes.

I've seen parts of Oldboy but didn't know this was the director. I also have never watched the whole thing because at some point someone told me it would probably upset me. Apparently it has the very specific kind of violence that disturbs and unsettles me (graphic rape, innocent lives lost/taken seemingly at random, etc.).

I forget who told me to steer clear of Oldboy, but whoever cautioned me against it compared it to Irreversible, a movie that I couldn't make it through despite being a fan of all the actors involved. The gratuitous rape shit just doesn't land well with me, even if I know it's going to be avenged in a bloodbath of epic proportions.

So... knowing that Irreversible was too much for me, and that scenes like the one in Nocturnal Animals deeply disturb me ... should I watch Oldboy?

there's apparently an english version of oldboy i have consciously avoided. get the korean stuff.

and start with sympathy for mr. vengeance. forget oldboy for a moment. don't say oldboy again. don't...! lol

sympathy for mr. vengeance. korean. fucking great. start there.

--

ETA: speaking of disturbing sex, have you noticed how most english speaking movies feature sex that looks like rape? a lot of violent motions and screaming and shit. it's always like some brawl, and painful grimaces. ha ha ha ha. it's not brazilian jiu-jitsu, motherfuckers! get yr shit together & stop the sports contest

Yah, but you kinda evaded my question. I'm really not interested in watching something that's got really disturbing rape shit in it, even if the rape is avenged. Knowing that, should I proceed with the aforementioned films?

:( I really wanna know. I don't like it when movies make me cry and sent me into a pit of existential despair and make me hate people.

But yes American movies have some fucked up sex scenes. I've never thought of it as an "American" thing, but perhaps it is. I don't recall seeing many French movies that depict sex this way. Italian movies kind of do.. especially crime films and horror. But that's usually just actual rape, or torture. I don't think they color their love-making with the same brush.

well what i was trying to imply is that maybe the american oldboy is creepier due to the american penchant for confirming andrea dworkin's statement that all sex is rape

park DOES have a tendency towards gory & disturbing shit though, so YMMV, but i don't recall oldboy being particularly rapey. i'd have to rewatch & see. also, sympathy for mr. vengeance was more coen brothers than anything else--but with a twist. or twists. sad. but so great.

the thing about it though, this prejudice of a sad premise of "rape and revenge" is very hollywood, and park is not that sort of simpleton. he finds ways to make the disturbing interesting past the graphic shit. he gives it a reason. i like him for that. his violence is not gratuitous and tends to serve a larger purpose, which is usually some sort of "big question" about human nature.

speaking of which, i believe ilducio hates gratuitous violence and yet he recommended you it.

wait. the american oldboy was a spike lee joint. i couldnt say if it was good or not. but the original, which was based on a manga, was just so fucking great. hardcore and disturbing sure, but not without a purpose.

IN ANY CASE

it's just movies, not death or taxes. you can avoid if you wanna.