Scrivener

I've been around... lurking in the shadows. Actually, I've been looking into getting a new job in graphic design now that I've graduated. I'll miss all the free stuff from Sony but, hey, I'll be able to actually afford that stuff on my own now. Spent the weekend catching up on movies.

The Fountain is not a movie you watch. It's a movie you experience. It washes over you like a dream, a vision, a wave of emotion. It's magnificent, and unlike anything you've ever seen. If you have any interest in film as transcendant art at all, you owe it to yourself to see this on the big screen. I rarely cry during a movie - but I cried during the Fountain, and after. It's not that it's a sad movie, though it is that - but because it's so overwhelmingly beautiful that it's impossible to keep bottled up. I can't wait to experience this again. 10/10 The less you know, the more appreciate this movie - but at it's core it's a love story and a tritise on life and death. It takes place in three time periods, each of which may or may not be real or fiction or possibly both. It's about a quest for immortality and the point that, even if it were attainable, you would not and should not pursue it.

Skipped this at theatres and boy am I glad I did. The movie opens with a girl running inexplicably through the forest while very, very, VERY campy music plays. This is the kind of horrible music that makes you think "Ok, they're shooting a student film or something..." except, in fact, they're not. It's the actual honest-to-god soundtrack... and the cheap, lousy, made-in-Apple-SoundTrack music we used to get in horror movies in the early 80s. Unfortunately, this is also one of those instances where the director felt the need to have music playing lowly in the backround of every-single-scene... and the music is not only poor, but often doesn't fit the mood at all. It makes no creative sense whatsoever. The editing is pretty bad as well, as the film feels very loose and unrefined - not to mention voiceovers where there should be silence and the fact that just about every shot in movie lingers way too long (it's only 83 minutes, so maybe they felt that cutting more would have left it too short?). It's a shame, because the footage is pretty good even when the performances are weak. If I had been given a week in the editing room I am absolutely positive I could have turned out a movie a hundred times better than this amateur mess. A good editor can usually make mediocre material watchable (look at Memento) - unfortunately, whoever was working on this film just sucked. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your money. 2/10

Anyone see Borat on SNL last night? Best SNL in a very, very long time.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: aha! Thats what I thought. === SPOILER ALERT. HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO VIEW IT === So, the magician who died in the experiment, was a perfect clone. Now I see why he tried to shoot him. And the position of the hats also explains why when the clone was created in the wrong place in the theatre where he was performing. So, my question is this. Since he performed that act several times (I think), what happened to the other clones? More spoilers... The Danton clones went on to do the next show. The originals, however, dropped through a trap door into the water tank where they drowned. Each night after the show, Danton's men rolled the water tank with the corpse into the old theatre, and stored it in the basement. That's why there were a bunch of tanks lined up down there at the end when he was shot. Basically, he was drowning himself every night... not that the new clone would remember it since the clone was created before the drowning... hence the limited engagement. As for the experiment in the danky theatre, the clone was the first to reach the gun - thats why the one guy was in the process of saying "I'm the original!" when he was shot. This is also how he figured out how to adapt the device to his trick... you have to kill the original.

=== SPOILER ALERT. HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO VIEW IT === The device created duplicates (clones), whereas Tesla expected it to be a simple transportation device. He wasn't too far off. [ 10-26-2006, 01:58 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

Wonderful movie, though very complex. The film is about a rivalry between two magicians during the turn of the century. The film is edited in a non-linear manner that requires you to keep track of as many as 3 time lines at once. It's confusing at first, but starts to make sense further into the film. Before seeing this, a friend of mine told me to avoid it - as the story was slow and there were several twists at the end that come completely out of left field. I saw it anyway (negative reviews hardly ever stop me)... and that is not the case at all. In fact, my little brother and I had both figured out all the major third-act twists by the 1 hour mark... you just have to pay attention. This is not a passive movie... it's like a whodunnit with some very unorthodox elements that are sure to throw off many an unsuspecting audience member. If you like to figure out movies like I do - this is just the thing for you. Like the subject matter (not coincidentally), the movies secrets really aren't hard to figure out when you know what to look for. The script, acting, and atmosphere is perfect. Bale and Jackman are perfect as the rivaling magicians, and Bowie was magnificent as Nikkola Tesla. I hope these guys get serious Oscar attention this year, because they all deserve it. 10/10

It's about how this girl copes with the horrible world around her. Gilliam has always said that he thinks healthy kids are much tougher than adults (and certainly tougher than adults give them credit for), and this movie carries on that theme in his work. It's hard to describe, as there's no clean narrative. The only real question is "What is going to happen to Joliza-Rose?" In the end, that question is indeed answered.

This is destined to be THE most polarizing movie ever made. Walking out, I didn't know how to feel. I felt a little dirty and a little depressed... just like the first time I saw Requiem for a Dream (or Naked Lunch)... but... I absolutely guarantee that anyone who sits through the whole movie is going to be faced with this very same dilema. I can tell you, however, that the friend I dragged to the show with me thought it was the single most horrible film he's ever seen. I really can't blame him, either. Tideland is sick, twisted, slow, and horrible to watch. The movie is about a little girl named Joliza-Rose, and it's told primarily from this girls viewpoint... but being as an educated adult and member of the audience, you know what is actually going on even when Joliza-Rose doesn't (often escaping into her imagination). It's a very, very, VERY challenging movie... so much so that it took me two full days to completely decide how I felt about it. This is one of the most important films ever made, and it is going to destroy Gilliam's career. ===MINOR SPOILERS=== Joliza-Rose cooks up the heroin for her druggy low-life parents, and even helps them inject themselves. Early on, her horrible abusive mother dies of an overdose. Her panicked druggy father then spirits her off to the prairie house he grew up in - which is falling apart in middle of nowhere. Once there she copes with death, starvation, isolation, and loneliness by escaping into her imagination. ===END SPOILERS=== The film addresses such sickening topics as: drug abuse, death, pedophelia, necrophelia, starvation, and more. I cried at the end, I felt so bad for this little girl - and her last words "I'm hungry" just broke me. In all, I can't give this a numerical score. You'll probably hate it. You're supposed to, though. This is a window into a horrible, horrible situation - through the eyes of an innocent, naive, imaginative little girl. If you find this playing nearby, I promise you only the most emotionally challenging cinematic experience you are ever likely to have. Nothing more.

This show just keeps better every week! Pissed off Indestructable Cheerleader is by far one of the coolest superheroes ever concieved. I was screaming with absolute delight at the end of last nights episode. I can barely contain myself from overexposure to such incredible coolness. As always, I regret having to wait a week for the next episode!

quote:Originally posted by Race Bannon IV: I like this show, so yea, it'll be cancelled. CBS just ordered a full season! Apparently, the show has been doing extraordinarily well. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30378 My only problem so far is that I'm a little frustrated with the narrow scope of the show. It's a very "small" drama set in a very "epic" situation. That may be part of the charm, but at some point the $#!+ needs to hit the fan or I'm just not going to care any more. I mean, the whole country was just nuked back to the stone age and this town seems to be hardly affected at all. Bump up the danger and the chaos, already... and please, for the love of god, stop teasing us with the mysterious black guy subplot.

Friggin awesome movie. Not only one of Scorsese's best, but also Damon and DiCaprio's - who give some of the best performances I've seen out of either of them. It's a pretty brutal cops vs mob movie, though - so I wouldn't expect any Oscars here. Regardless, this is one of the best movies released this year BY FAR. 10/10

Last nights episode was friggin wild. This show just keeps getting better and better. The only down side... waiting for each new episode every week.

The second episode convinced me... this is the best new show on TV. Man, I can't wait to see where this goes. Best of all, it seems like it's a very tidy 1-season package. 1 season = 1 story is always the best way to go.

Well, I had hoped to catch this in cinemas during it's limited release in LA, but it was so limited that no LA theatres ever found out they should play it. So jump forward to this afternoon. I'm in Walmart and the DVD just jumps off the shelf at me. Figuratively speaking, of course. I had no idea the movie was even coming to DVD. Apparently, the Canadian version has been out since June. Shoot, I would have ordered that one had I known. Anyhoo, I was there to pick up The Proposition (search this forum for my review) and just had to get both. This adaptation of the great english novel is moderately faithful to material. For a movie that tries to do the whole "this is the historically accurate version of the famous legend" thing, it fails miserably towards the end. It's really a shame, because three quarters of the movie is positively wonderful. The acting is great, the sets and costumes are all historically dead on (if a bit too ornate for the period), and the locations are positively stunning (they should be, the crew went through hell to film on location in Iceland). Instead of covering the whole Beowulf tale, this focuses only on the Grendel bits, ending with Grendel's mother. The filmakers take some creative license by introducing a "witch" character - one the movies biggest problems - that was intended to give some unity to the story, but only succeeds in being contrived and unneccesary. For starters, she is the only character in the entire movie with a jarring american accent (the rest of the cast is irish, with heavy accents), she's also not much of an actor, and her character could have easily been edited out of the whole movie for the better. Also, this film's "natural" ending is with the death of Grendel. However, it keeps going for another 20 minutes as Grendel's mother shows up to kick some butt. While it's sort of fun, it feels excessive and wanton. Worse, the whole witch thing turns into this whole messy non-canon plot twist that the movie was ultimately better off without. Anyhoo, perfect 10 for the first 80 minutes, 2/10 for the last 20. Taken as a whole, I'd give this a 7.7/10.

Watched the first episode online, then caught it again when I added to my Tivo season pass manager. The pilot was a bit on the slow side (aside from the one teenage girls story), but the series certainly has a lot of potential - especially after that pseudo-cliffhanger ending. Reminds me of X-Men, and I think the shows creators meant for it to be that way from the getgo. The comic fonts used in the opening credits - the constant references to pop culture (Star Trek, X-Men, etc)... it'll certainly be interesting to see how the show evolves.

Just got around to watching this on Tivo and it looks like a very unique and interesting new show. Mind you, Jericho is far and away my favorite of the new season so far - but this just earned itself a Season Pass all it's own.

I won't mind if it only gets one season, so long as they end it well. Season 2 would invariably have to end up like a TV show version of Fallout. In the meantime, so long as there are no bizarre twists and it's the simple "The world ganged up on the US and blew us back to the stone age" story I hope it is, I'll be happy. Anyway, the premise is awesome and I liked the first episode. But yeah, the shows I like most never last long.

Holy crap what an awesome show. It's a bit Donnie Darko and bit Lost (in that many of the characters are mysterious). My only problem was the whole prison bus thing (not a spoiler, really)... which felt like an executive-forced setup to introduce "more action" into (a) future episode(s). If they play their cards right, this could easily become the best show on TV. I just hope that station meddling dosn't screw it up.

Incredibly fun action flick. I'd say it's up there with Die Hard as one of the coolest action movies I've ever seen. 9.5/10

As much as I generally like Wolfgang Peterson, I do not trust Harris and Dougherty as writers. To date, their stuff has been geeky and tongue-in-cheek. Peterson is the right director, but it won't help a movie based on a lousy script written by douchebags who watch too many saturday morning cartoons.

Because of my sheer, unbridled hate for Oliver Stone and the crap smears on film he calls movies, I will not see this, even when it's the TBS afternoon movie when I'm old, wrinkled, and incoherrent in a retirement home in Florida.

I meant to write a review, honest. Yeah, Snakes on a Plane was everything I hoped it would be and more. Silly, over the top, B grade goodness. All hail the Playstation! 10/10

Go see it anyway. It's not one of those movies that really needs to be gory. It's not like they consciously censored it or anything. It's still pretty intense.

I've had the movie on DVD since last year. It's actually a very good survival horror movie, although the ending is really wierd and sure to put some people off (fake out ending). The movie isn't really all that gory as most of the "violence" happens off-camera and in the dark. Like a Hitchcock movie, you only see enough to get your imagination going as the sound conveys most of what's going on (4/10 on the gore scale tops). It's a very very dimly lit movie and most of it is environmental survival. The horror-genre stuff dosn't even show up until the last 20-30 minutes. 8.7/10 P.S. Yes I have the Region 2 UK version. I don't know what they changed for the US release and, to tell you the truth, I'm not really interested in doctored up American cuts.