Both Tarantino and Allen make nice, enjoyable movies, both have several films I have liked. In both cases I don't really understand why fanboys are declaring them as the best thing ever.
Requiem for a Dream was a great film. Sure, it gave no surprises, but that was only bringing in the sense of doom to it. Technically again a superb film, and actors did great jobs, especially Ellen Burstyn. But I'd guess if you are looking for a story it kind of disappoints :)
Yeah, at the end of Requiem I was like, so what's the message here? That drugs will chew you up and leave you a hollow shell of your former self? Well, duh.
Hehe; you should; I am Sparticus :)
Gone with the Wind; sheesh.Frankly my dear Valegrim, I don't give a damn.
"Kill Bill" only works if you realize it's a pastiche and can identify at least 300 out of the 550 references and source films. If you watched it and had no idea what it was... that every detail of costume and casting and events is a piece of one of Tarantino's favorite shows or movies... well, then it probably sucked for you.
300.
When they started spouting off speeches about freedom, I nearly threw up. I also couldn't stand how they had to yell...constantly.
2001: Space Odyssey - I fell asleep when the guy goes into the space station. I tried to stay awake, but simply couldn't.
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300.
When they started spouting off speeches about freedom, I nearly threw up. I also couldn't stand how they had to yell...constantly.
2001: Space Odyssey - I fell asleep when the guy goes into the space station. I tried to stay awake, but simply couldn't.
So you dont like Samuel L Jackson either since almost every character he has played yells. :)
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That's Hollywood for you. Incidentally, 300 was so tacky I enjoyed it a lot, FREEDOM! and all. I was kind of expecting a children's choir starting to sing Star-Spangled Banner on that one.Please, please, please, quit screaming "FREEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!"
I like freedom and all, it's just overly cheesy.
Nice! Almost all the dialogue in 300 makes me giggle. Too bad I rather like the soundtrack, otherwise, I'd watch it with the sound off.
Other, supposedly good but actually awful, movies:
* Braveheart: Gorgeous cinematography, but everything else sucks (it kinda resembles 300 in that way). At the end, I wanted Mel Gibson to die slowly. Even worse: it is now a cult fave for Scottish neo-nazis.
* Forrest Gump: Dull, boring twaddle masquerading as art since Tom Hanks plays a, um, developmentally challenged man. A cheap, cheap Oscar.
* Titanic: Could have been OK if James Cameron had spent any time or money on a script instead of throwing it at CGI.
* Casablanca does absolutely nothing for me. "We'll always have Paris"? "Play our song, Sam"? Staged and cheesy. Bogey was much better in The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.
And, for the record, The Godfather 1 is much better than The Godfather 2.
* Forrest Gump: Dull, boring twaddle masquerading as art since Tom Hanks plays a, um, developmentally challenged man. A cheap, cheap Oscar.
* Titanic: Could have been OK if James Cameron had spent any time or money on a script instead of throwing it at CGI.
* Casablanca does absolutely nothing for me. "We'll always have Paris"? "Play our song, Sam"? Staged and cheesy. Bogey was much better in The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.
And, for the record, The Godfather 1 is much better than The Godfather 2.
This is kind of eerie. I thought I was the only person with these opinions. I must remember to copyright them next time.
Jade,
You are correct about Titanic. I would have dumped Kate Winslet in the ocean and used the raft for myself, when I tell this to people they all look aghast ;>
That's because they're not survivors.
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Reading through some of the other threads made me think of this movie:
American Beauty
We get it...your having a mid-life crisis and want to do the 15 yo cheerleader...so lets make it into a 2 hour long movie...ugh.
Not to mntion that your neighbor is a repressed, self-loathing, in the closet homosexual who compensates by engageing in extreme homophobia. Not Kevin Spacey's best work.
Not to mntion that your neighbor is a repressed, self-loathing, in the closet homosexual who compensates by engageing in extreme homophobia. Not Kevin Spacey's best work.Reading through some of the other threads made me think of this movie:
American Beauty
We get it...your having a mid-life crisis and want to do the 15 yo cheerleader...so lets make it into a 2 hour long movie...ugh.
I got nothing out of American Beauty. I understood the themes of being psychically trapped in suburbia and lives they didn't want, but I got a heavy sad dose of the same from an earlier movie, The Ice Storm. It had its own thing, to be sure, but it did not speak to me personally. I could see it really affecting people who felt trapped in that way, though.
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I hadn't seen The Godfather trilogy until last year, and when I finally did, I was... unimpressed. I did really enjoy the first film, but the second (which everyone keeps telling me was the best) didn't do much for me. And I didn't mind the third much, except I think Sofia Coppola is better off behind the camera rather than in front of it.
I think Sofia Coppola is better off behind the camera rather than in front of it.
Ya think?! ;)
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I got nothing out of American Beauty. I understood the themes of being psychically trapped in suburbia and lives they didn't want, but I got a heavy sad dose of the same from an earlier movie, The Ice Storm. It had its own thing, to be sure, but it did not speak to me personally. I could see it really affecting people who felt trapped in that way, though.
That's the thing with a lot of these 'best movies you didn't like' or 'bad movies that you did like,' lists, a lot of it comes down to where you were in your life when you saw it. For example, one of my favourite movies is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which generally people don't see as being a good movie; it's OK at best, folk will say.
However, I was at a place in my life where the theme of connecting with one's father was really significant to me. In fact, this is one theme in movies that always gets me. Big Fish, C.R.A.Z.Y, and pretty much all of Wes Anderson's films all connect with me.
So for American Beauty, it'll be more effective if, as you say, you're "trapped in that way." The closer you are (or, by extension, more distant you are) from a subject is going to alter your perceptions of it significantly.
Anyway, I just spent three paragraphs restating the obvious so I'll just go watch some more 'good' movies and see how I feel about them right now!
Ya think?! ;)
Hell, I think I could've pulled that role off better with enough make-up.
I got nothing out of American Beauty. I understood the themes of being psychically trapped in suburbia and lives they didn't want, but I got a heavy sad dose of the same from an earlier movie, The Ice Storm. It had its own thing, to be sure, but it did not speak to me personally. I could see it really affecting people who felt trapped in that way, though.That's the thing with a lot of these 'best movies you didn't like' or 'bad movies that you did like,' lists, a lot of it comes down to where you were in your life when you saw it. For example, one of my favourite movies is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which generally people don't see as being a good movie; it's OK at best, folk will say.
However, I was at a place in my life where the theme of connecting with one's father was really significant to me. In fact, this is one theme in movies that always gets me. Big Fish, C.R.A.Z.Y, and pretty much all of Wes Anderson's films all connect with me.
So for American Beauty, it'll be more effective if, as you say, you're "trapped in that way." The closer you are (or, by extension, more distant you are) from a subject is going to alter your perceptions of it significantly.
Anyway, I just spent three paragraphs restating the obvious so I'll just go watch some more 'good' movies and see how I feel about them right now!
No, I'm glad you elaborated.
Life Aquatic and the rest of Anderson's work really grab me too, probably for very similar reasons, though Darjheeling Express, though good, didn't do the same things for me. Whatever seems to move Wes and his brother (who helps with art and brainstorming) touches me as well.
I wonder if simpatico with the theme is actually a main factor in determining whether a movie is good or bad? As important as good direction and well honed dialog.
I guess this is not the thread to say it in, but I loved Big Fish.
I guess this is not the thread to say it in, but I loved Big Fish.
Probably not the place to translate Big Fish into Swahili either.
For some strange reason, the only words I learned in Swahili, from a peace corp girl, were big, fish, knife, and I love you.
It was a long time ago, but I think it sounded something like 'keeso kubwa'. Big knife was 'samaki kubwa', and I love you was something like 'me me na penda'.
As you were...
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I got nothing out of American Beauty. I understood the themes of being psychically trapped in suburbia and lives they didn't want, but I got a heavy sad dose of the same from an earlier movie, The Ice Storm. It had its own thing, to be sure, but it did not speak to me personally. I could see it really affecting people who felt trapped in that way, though.
Ugh. I hate American Beauty. Maybe I'm just not enlightened enough, but I find the message that achieving personal fullfillment at the cost of forsaking your duties to your spouse and family to be repellant. And I particularly don't like seeing domestic violence depicted so sympathetically (e.g., the scene where Kevin Spacey throws a dish to get his wife's attention).
And the bag blowing in the wind?!?!? Gag me.
All that being said, I now have sympathy for the idea of having a job with as little responsibility as possible. I can't condone trading family security and prosperity for such a career move, but I no longer think "My god, that's stupid."
If I want a movie depicting the possibility of pedophilia as cathartic event, I'll take Beautiful Girls, where it remains much more in the realm of possibility. That movie is in my top 10.
A lot of people give Dogma high marks, but to me it is truly a dog - pretentious dialogue, miscast, complete lack of a director.
For old classics, I do not care for Streetcar Named Desire. Brando was very good, but Vivian Leigh gave a rehashed/camped up repeat of Scarlett O'Hara.
More recently, I did not care for Crash. All the characters devolved to the least common denominator. Am I supposed to feel good about this? I felt cheated and confused.
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I think the problem that Ihave in pick out movies to talk about is who defines what are the "best movies?" If I can't sand them I don't particularly feel inclined to call them the best movies. However, if they are defined as movie that others reccomended that is a different stoy. Using that defenition I could add Chronicles of Riddick and Runaway Train to the list.
I guess this is not the thread to say it in, but I loved Big Fish.Probably not the place to translate Big Fish into Swahili either.
For some strange reason, the only words I learned in Swahili, from a peace corp girl, were big, fish, knife, and I love you.
It was a long time ago, but I think it sounded something like 'keeso kubwa'. Big knife was 'samaki kubwa', and I love you was something like 'me me na penda'.
As you were...
So...me me keeso kubwa penda? (I can only imagine what I'm doing here and laugh. Maybe you're tricking me into insulting or embarassing myself in Swahili.)
Ugh. I hate American Beauty. Maybe I'm just not enlightened enough, but I find the message that achieving personal fullfillment at the cost of forsaking your duties to your spouse and family to be repellant. And I particularly don't like seeing domestic violence depicted so sympathetically (e.g., the scene where Kevin Spacey throws a dish to get his wife's attention).
And the bag blowing in the wind?!?!? Gag me.
All that being said, I now have sympathy for the idea of having a job with as little responsibility as possible. I can't condone trading family security and prosperity for such a career move, but I no longer think "My god, that's stupid."
Who are you and what have you done with Sebastian? What happened to the role of Devil's Advocate? Oh wait that was a different movie. ;)
As for AB, I found it depressing. Stupid and depressing. Basically an everything sucks in my life movie.
Russel Means (leader of the American Indian Movement and Chingachgook in Michael Mann's "Last of the Mohicans") said he despised it as well (along the lines of "so what if the American Indians are all presented as being perfect? They're still 2-dimensional! And they still get a white dude to do all their thinking for them!").
Wow. I would assume you don't have a working knowledge of Russel Means or his true beliefs. If you did, you would know that Russel Means bashing a movie starring a white man is at the very best ironic (Means has starred in many such movies), and at the worst reverse-racism.
I'm of the opinion that its the latter, as living where I do, I deal with Russel Means' racist drivel almost monthly. He veils his severely anti-establishment, anti-american, anti-caucasion beliefs by playing the guilt card on every 'white' american for what happenend to the native american people over a century ago. It is reverse-racism in its highest form.
To conclude this rant I'll say this:
The vast majority of Native Americans, even those with the same Tribal Affiliation as Means, denounce his beliefs and actions. So please don't hold Russel Means up as a spokesman for an entire people whose word is law.
/endthreadjack
I liked American Beauty. All the stuff Lester goes through shakes himself out of the blinder-wearing lethargy he's existed in as a suburbian drone. And through an epiphany or three, he achieves internal peace with his life, family, and himself. It's like the rest of the things he's done in the movie have been a cleansing forest fire, burning out all of the choking undergrowth but leaving all of the important parts able to grow again, and better.
And then the punchline hits.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
So...me me keeso kubwa penda? (I can only imagine what I'm doing here and laugh. Maybe you're tricking me into insulting or embarassing myself in Swahili.)
Although that would be clever of me, I'm never that many-layered.
Perhaps it me me na penda was "I love..." and not "I love you." Can't remember. If the former were true then "Me me na penda Kiso Kubwa" would be I love big fish.
I did a song for a film I never made... a mixture of Gregorian chant and Swahili... and since all I knew how to say was I love big knife, I love big fish, I did just that. I even had a fish knife written into the film to make it all make sense. No wonder the film floundered.
GET IT! DO YOU GET IT?! ;)
Audiences are tasteless, fickle, ignorant basstards.
No break-fast for you. All you get is fish.
basstards.
Oh, that one almost slipped by me? Are we going to do fish jokes just for the hal-i-but?
Perhaps it me me na penda was "I love..." and not "I love you." Can't remember. If the former were true then "Me me na penda Kiso Kubwa" would be I love big fish.Assuming Swahili sentence structure mimics English.
When I'm talking out of my depth about a language I only know six words in... there's gotta be a lot of assuming going on. <G>
The Crying Game...a movie about a chick with a trick up her skirt. And ?
Oh, and ANYTHING Harry Potter...what vile bits of rubbish those films are.
When I'm talking out of my depth about a language I only know six words in... there's gotta be a lot of assuming going on. <G>Perhaps it me me na penda was "I love..." and not "I love you." Can't remember. If the former were true then "Me me na penda Kiso Kubwa" would be I love big fish.Assuming Swahili sentence structure mimics English.
Assuming is half the fun. True story:
I once had a dream, in black and white, about my dad and me being behind enemy lines. Did I mention the enemy in the dream were the Nazis? In the dream, we discovered that simply by speaking in a silly German accent and using the few German words everybody knows, we completely passed as Germans as we went about our undercover work. The dream treated all of this in a very straight manner: we were initially tense as to how we could pull it off, then surprised and delighted to discover that German is a silly version of English anyone can imitate. In only real life were like dreams...EDIT: @ Flynnster - the only thing that really bothered me was the fight scene with the basilisk. I mean, come on!
The Crying Game...a movie about a chick with a trick up her skirt. And ?
you have named 'what should never be named'.
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When I'm talking out of my depth about a language I only know six words in... there's gotta be a lot of assuming going on. <G>Perhaps it me me na penda was "I love..." and not "I love you." Can't remember. If the former were true then "Me me na penda Kiso Kubwa" would be I love big fish.Assuming Swahili sentence structure mimics English.
As far as I can tell, using an online translator (talk about assumptions), the Swahili would be (something close to) "ninapenda (I love) samaki (fish) kubwa (big)."
"isi" was also given for "fish".
All this is assuming (again) that movie titles are translated in Swahili. Some languages don't translate titles and such, in which case it would be "ninapenda Big Fish."
Assuming is half the fun. True story:
I once had a dream, in black and white, about my dad and me being behind enemy lines. Did I mention the enemy in the dream were the Nazis? In the dream, we discovered that simply by speaking in a silly German accent and using the few German words everybody knows, we completely passed as Germans as we went about our undercover work. The dream treated all of this in a very straight manner: we were initially tense as to how we could pull it off, then surprised and delighted to discover that German is a silly version of English anyone can imitate. In only real life were like dreams...
If real life were like my dreams you'd all better run. I have three speeds, a bright eyed lad seeing the strange world for the first time, me going through my daily motions and Cloverfield.
That's why Forest Whitaker comes back later with guns and a samurai sword and kills 'em all.
As far as I can tell, using an online translator (talk about assumptions), the Swahili would be (something close to) "ninapenda (I love) samaki (fish) kubwa (big)."
"isi" was also given for "fish".
All this is assuming (again) that movie titles are translated in Swahili. Some languages don't translate titles and such, in which case it would be "ninapenda Big Fish.
You found a Swahili translator? Cool! Link please.
I could remember which was knife and which was fish. Samaki fish... kiso... knife. Thanks.
The Crying Game...a movie about a chick with a trick up her skirt. And ?you have named 'what should never be named'.
Oh, ok...I'll turn myself in rather than be visciously wounded with vitriolic verbage.....
That's why Forest Whitaker comes back latter with guns and a samurai sword and kills 'em all.
Ghost Dog did absolutely rock...I found that with multiple viewings (something I rarely do) I caught different nuances....what a good film...
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As far as I can tell, using an online translator (talk about assumptions), the Swahili would be (something close to) "ninapenda (I love) samaki (fish) kubwa (big)."
"isi" was also given for "fish".
All this is assuming (again) that movie titles are translated in Swahili. Some languages don't translate titles and such, in which case it would be "ninapenda Big Fish."
You found a Swahili translator? Cool! Link please.
I could remember which was knife and which was fish. Samaki fish... kiso... knife. Thanks.
I found a single word translator here.
I looked a few things up and tried to get a feel for basic sentence structure from the example sentences given in a few of the word translations.
I found a single word translator here.
I looked a few things up and tried to get a feel for basic sentence structure from the example senteces given in a few of the word translations.
Ah, so kisu is how you spell knife? Thanks, Ungoded. I added this translator to my Writing Resources folder.
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Assuming is half the fun. True story:
I once had a dream, in black and white, about my dad and me being behind enemy lines. Did I mention the enemy in the dream were the Nazis? In the dream, we discovered that simply by speaking in a silly German accent and using the few German words everybody knows, we completely passed as Germans as we went about our undercover work. The dream treated all of this in a very straight manner: we were initially tense as to how we could pull it off, then surprised and delighted to discover that German is a silly version of English anyone can imitate. In only real life were like dreams...
That's nothing. The other night I dreamed that aliens stole my car, but my key fit one of the company cars so me and my students loaded up to gank my car back from the aliens. They ended up capturing us but we managed to discover that the whole thing was an elaberate ruse created by Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld to con everyone into thinking Earth was being invaded while they secretly manipulated things so they could win a million dollars from a contest sponsered by a laundry soap company.