How did you like that movie / TV show / book?

[LeeVanCleef]

LOL! I'm certainly not the biggest anime fan, but that Food Wars clip was pretty funny!
I didn't see Theory. I opted for The Imitation Game. After that, I felt that one movie per Oscar season about a Brit scientist was quite enough. But it was pretty good. Benny Batch does a fine job.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i'm a fucking idiot

 

[LeeVanCleef]

What, because you're not neck-deep in the swill of pop culture? I don't think that makes you an idiot, my friend.

 

[sleepy]

Then For God's Sakes, Get Me Out of This Pop Culture!

 

[StevOz]

Then For God's Sakes, Get Me Out of This Pop Culture!

How about sum racing non pop then...

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Then For God's Sakes, Get Me Out of This Pop Culture!

You're soaking in it!

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[sleepy]

And it's not playing Nice with my Liver.
But Don't Drink it!

So, maybe you think you're a body builder, eh? I'll see your Madge and raise you one Kim B. I've seen a lot of guys build up something by using this miracle ingredient.

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So, is it the secret ingredient, or is it the model* that does the trick? Who can say?

*Model not included.

 

[sleepy]

I think she's my cousin Nancy.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

LOL! That's the most hard-core acting I've ever seen come out of Kim Basinger!

 

[sleepy]

Maybe it was the beer?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

thanks, maties. i've been a little off the rails, lately... appreciate your support. sincerely.

so last night i watched "boyhood" (2014) by one of my favorite directors of all time, richard linklater.

okay, for sure it was a beautiful concept and a fantastic exposition, but... hmm... i guess i still think that a 'great movie' still needs to be great in order to be a great movie.

agree / disagree...?

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I don't know that I agree with that one. Or maybe I do. I think the audaciousness of the project makes it great in and of itself. You can honestly say that, outside of a documentary, there's never been a movie like it. It also would have left the door open for a certain amount of showboating on behalf of the filmmaker, but Linklater doesn't let his experiment get in the way of telling a great story. Frankly, maybe I'm just hungry for a movie whose biggest special effect is watching the cast age 10 years. And no one wears spandex or a cape.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

it could be that i've seen this kind of american story so many times before that i sort of hunger for fresh vistas or whatever.

maybe other countries find this fascinating. i mean, they watch this one... ghost world... whatever else, and are rightly fascinated from where they be standing... while i have a sort of deep hunger for how other peoples live across the world.

and yet i think what commander snobbily-snobhead is trying to say is that he doesn't really have some hateful bias towards great american movies or great american feel-good movies.

shawshank
philadelphia story
the shining
lebowski
jungle book
witches of eastwick

godammit, leftenant-- can you just give me a fun american movie or something that teaches me about the world? (otherwise i thrust my snout in the air and you forced to make bacon of me)

 

[LeeVanCleef]

shawshank
philadelphia story
the shining
lebowski
jungle book
witches of eastwick

Dude, that is one crazy list of movies! I'm still trying to figure out what category your crazy goddamned brain thinks these go in! I think I could do a short review of them all, though:

1. Melodramatic popcorn porn
2, Oh, boy! A movie based on a play! I can't wait toZZZzzzzzzzzz...
3. Uh... what was that again?
4. Overrated (funny, but overrated)
5. Naturalment! The Aristocats!
6. An insult to the word "movie".

Meanwhile, Ghost World is fucking awesome! Plus, I have a personal attachment for creepy old men that date Jewish girls 18 years younger than they are. It's not that I don't enjoy a good foreign film, but it often seems like a task to watch one. That and the fact that the one friend I depended on to tell me which ones were really worth my time (Umbrellas of Cherbourg, nic... I wouldn't steer you wrong!) passed away. Now I'm just another American slob, shoving Mike & Ikes into my mouth and wondering when Star Wars #19 is gonna start.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Nic, if you're looking for an American movie with a foreign sensibility then I have one question for you: have you ever seen a Cassavettes film? Mind you, they're not for everyone. Hell, I'm not even sure if they're for me. But they do stand as a testament of what can be accomplished when talent far surpasses budget. And some of the best are available for free. Give one a shot, tell me what you think. (Come for the Cassavettes, stay for every Kenny Rogers Gambler movie ever made!)

http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/film/drama

EDIT: Thinking about that list you made, I think it's necessary that I clarify a point I made earlier in the thread: I would rather watch Starship Troopers than any of them. I would rather watch Starship Troopers than Cassavettes. Would you like to know more?

 

[sleepy]

And Peter Falk wants to ask the pretty Japanese Escort, something to the effect of, "Dammit! Do you Expect Me to Suck Wheem?". (sp?)
At which point, the lady breaks down and cries.

This is his attempt with somebody else. He has a wife and kids back in New York, and he is not a dedicated cheater:

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[LeeVanCleef]

Far be it for me to recommend a course of action that I, myself wouldn't take. So I got myself good and prepared () and decided to see how far I could make it through Woman Under the Influence. I made it about 45 minutes, which really isn't bad, since my head hasn't really been in a " movie" place lately. Cassavettes' filmmaking is a good example of the whole improvisational-based type of stuff that gained popularity in the '70s... but I can't say that's really my cup of celluloid. At least not more than a couple times a year. And I found Gena Rowland's approach towards portraying a woman suffering a mental imbalance... let's say "interesting". So, an almost-enthusiastic "thumbs up" to the first 45 minutes! Now I'm going back to that Peter F. Hamilton audiobook. That damn thing really is the best sci-fi I've read in many a moon!

 

[sleepy]

There was a t.v. movie on CBS maybe 10 years ago (???) with Mia Farrow as an altzheimer victim,
and it was so well done that I couldn't take it. That one, I lasted 5 minutes.

 

[sleepy]

Nooo! Don't Modify Your Avatar!

 

[sleepy]

There is a local joke about "going blind for having your eye stuck in the viewfinder all day".
I told them that I refuse to work in Hollywood, given their tempermental nature and sense of jealosy.
So they punched me in the eye instead.

This was after I suggested a through-the-lens video camera and external monitor as a viewfinder for analog film, and later, digital cameras and external monitor. So they took that too.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Nooo! Don't Modify Your Avatar!

Never! But the signature... that's a horse of a different flavor.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I completely forgot that one of my favorite movies from last year was a foreign film. It will take you to a place like no other you've ever seen in America. The amazing thing is that it's an English film. Northern Soul takes place in a grimy part of northern England in the '70s, and it's full of grimy Englanders. The story itself is pretty predictable coming-of-age fodder, but the setting and the society is like nothing I experienced growing up in a grimy part of southern Kansas in the '70s. Oh, and the soundtrack is perfection. If you hear another song as good as this one in a movie this year, let me know... 'cause it must be one heck of a song to beat this one!

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[sleepy]

So the cinematography of the setting is different from the typical grinder flick?
Most conventional films shoot straight on, or angle-up, overlit, and not at all what I might see if I was there.

That's why I liked "Goodfellas". The handling of the shots and what was seen. Norman Jewison, I believe, also did a great job of locale with "Family Business", capturing that New York state-of-mind.

It's been a long-standing bitch with my folks. I keep telling them that I want to see the rise on a knoll like the east coast, or the vertical rises along steep and narrow, curved and winding hillside streets of villas and Italian architecture like in the Hollywood Hills, or on Laurel Canyon Dr. Do I Have To Do It Myself??

That clip from "Husbands" is also some great cinematography and editing.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

This one is more often angle-down and from a distance in the establishing shots. That, in itself, puts the viewer in the place of an observer, sort of a "through-the-telescope" view of the city. Or the cinematographer just liked the way light of the setting sun hit the industrial ruin of their town. Or was it their Empire? Either way, a very pretty sunset.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Dude, that is one crazy list of movies! I'm still trying to figure out what category your crazy goddamned brain thinks these go in!

just american feel-good bullshit movies with hints of this and that. starship poopers is definitely on that list for me... dangerous liaisons... 9 1/2 weeks... gattaca... batman (1989)... naked gun... eastwood westerns... indiana jones... house of games... confessions of a dangerous mind... goodfellas... dances with wolves...

point is, i'd rather see that kind of stuff than modern movie fare OR the examinations of modern american life.

ghost world, i prefer to read clowes' graphic novels. linklater... i'd rather watch his stream of consciousness and rotoscoped stuff.

american life and culture just isn't very interesting to me. we're a bunch of artless spoiled brats who can't stop flapping our jaws for the most part.


anyway... cassavetes, thanks. i'm familiar with the guy as an actor but i don't remember seeing any he directed. i'll have to watch some clips or something.

umbrellas of cherbourg, cool... haven't seen it. but i have a problem right now in that the movies i'm watching these days are streamed, meaning foreign ones usually dubbed. i suppose i can start trying to download them instead, and then patch them with the matching subtitle files... just that it's been very hit or miss with that. took me many tries to get "raise the red lantern" subtitled correctly and i was very lucky that "jiro dreams of sushi" worked correctly.