Jesus good or Jesus bad? ... rented, but never got to watch it. I was debating buying a previous viewed copy the other day as TLA is having a big sale on a ton of new stuff under $10 (buy 3+ and get an additional 20% off). So was Inland worth it?
Also- for that matter did anyone see Host - the Korean "crab-monster" film? (also under $10) I heard it was decent. Should I pick it up?
jesus good and jesus bad, i think. no script for this one.. just pages given to actors as he went along. pretty intense.. and long. i like it mostly because after i watched it i was in a groovy mood... kind of like waking from a fantastic dream. peep the extra features.. there are lengthy interviews with lynch that are enlightening/interesting/funny as usual.
i actually saw the host in the theater... it's good. a monster flick with humor and a real sense of character. there is also a bit of political commentary. i recommend.
I haven't caught Inland Empire yet... but I did, of course, see The Host pretty much opening night.
There's a lot to like about it... it's almost a weird "indie" dramedy about a dysfunctional family -- who just happens to get caught up in a giant monster attack & the deeply f*cked up government response. The family's got to pull their sh*t together to save one of their own, and the results range from laugh-out-loud funny to schmaltzily sentimental to genuinely affecting -- to kinda boring in a second act stretch that goes on about 15 minutes too long. (I'd only give this movie 3 stars out of 5, but strangely there's not a lot wrong with it that couldn't have been fixed with a brutal Harvey Weinstein style edit session. However, be advised, the non-movie geek citizens I dragged to this show more or less hated it straight up.)
This core notion -- of cross-breeding the Kettle Drum Banging action of a Big Event movie with the quiet quirks of a character drama -- seems to be a recurring theme of late: The Host reminded me in some ways of Spielberg's War of the Worlds and it looks like this forthcoming Cloverfield thing is doing a similar schtick.
(And of course, taking this kind of tack is not without its forbears -- witness (of all things) Lary Cohen's Q the Quetzlcoatl, an utterly bizarre giant monster movie wherein a flying serpent is picking sunbathers off the rooftops of New York City. At the center of this insanity is a wholly unexpected method-style performance by Michael Moriarty as a seedy, wife-beating thief who just happens to hold the key to the mystery.)
i think the character quirk vs. big event movie really is spielberg's forte. close encounters, e.t., jaws.... pretty much everything he's done. minority report being an exception because tom cruise has no character quirks. he is, in fact, an automaton.
OG- black rain... gotta check it. there is something so gratifying about seeing michael douglas stressed out (unlike with harrison ford)... plus it's a ridley "supertoot" scott jumpoff.
anyways, you should all see inland empire so we can discuss it. it is definetly a trip.
Brow: You're so, so right. It's easy to forget that JAWS and CE3K seemed refreshingly different at the time of their release. (And at some other point, remind me to do my breakdown on Raiders... Despite a generation of execs and hacks trying to recreate its success, nobody seems to realize that at its core, all its beats are character-driven and defy or invert many of the standard-issue rules of screenwriting. (I defy you to find any other big action movie where the hero's big rescue mission consists of failing the heroine yet again and whose decisive action is not kicking ass, saving the day, blowing up the bad guys, etc., but merely shutting his eyes. Because the movie isn't really about the Lost Ark at all... it's about a deeply flawed man overcoming his own greed for knowledge and blind ambition.)
so i just saw inland empire tonite. and brow you're my boy and i know you enjoyed this movie...but to me it was another disengaging david lynch stinker. a total drag imo.
there's a story in there somewhere. but lynch needs to recall how to be a storyteller. he's more like a magician, some wizard of oz: smoke and mirrors storytelling, a waste of time. it's shocking a first and then it just becomes dull and amateurish. i did, however, like the opening shot.
but yo, come on: each one of us could make a zig-zagging story with a bunch of nonsense shots and characters speaking in polish and shit. i think it's more challenging to tell a compelling story than force your watchers into thinking the shit is "mad deep".
Jesus good or Jesus bad?
... rented, but never got to watch it.
I was debating buying a previous viewed
copy the other day as TLA is having a big
sale on a ton of new stuff under $10
(buy 3+ and get an additional 20% off).
So was Inland worth it?
Also- for that matter did anyone see
Host - the Korean "crab-monster"
film? (also under $10) I heard it was decent.
Should I pick it up?
never saw either of these, but i'm gonna throw this lynch joint on the ole netflix.
i just rented black rain for the first time. kindof 80's over the top, but still kinda flavor. subtle in parts. great cinematography.
jesus good and jesus bad, i think. no script for this one.. just pages given to actors as he went along. pretty intense.. and long. i like it mostly because after i watched it i was in a groovy mood... kind of like waking from a fantastic dream. peep the extra features.. there are lengthy interviews with lynch that are enlightening/interesting/funny as usual.
i actually saw the host in the theater... it's good. a monster flick with humor and a real sense of character. there is also a bit of political commentary. i recommend.
I haven't caught Inland Empire yet... but I did, of course, see The Host pretty much opening night.
There's a lot to like about it... it's almost a weird "indie" dramedy about a dysfunctional family -- who just happens to get caught up in a giant monster attack & the deeply f*cked up government response. The family's got to pull their sh*t together to save one of their own, and the results range from laugh-out-loud funny to schmaltzily sentimental to genuinely affecting -- to kinda boring in a second act stretch that goes on about 15 minutes too long. (I'd only give this movie 3 stars out of 5, but strangely there's not a lot wrong with it that couldn't have been fixed with a brutal Harvey Weinstein style edit session. However, be advised, the non-movie geek citizens I dragged to this show more or less hated it straight up.)
This core notion -- of cross-breeding the Kettle Drum Banging action of a Big Event movie with the quiet quirks of a character drama -- seems to be a recurring theme of late: The Host reminded me in some ways of Spielberg's War of the Worlds and it looks like this forthcoming Cloverfield thing is doing a similar schtick.
(And of course, taking this kind of tack is not without its forbears -- witness (of all things) Lary Cohen's Q the Quetzlcoatl, an utterly bizarre giant monster movie wherein a flying serpent is picking sunbathers off the rooftops of New York City. At the center of this insanity is a wholly unexpected method-style performance by Michael Moriarty as a seedy, wife-beating thief who just happens to hold the key to the mystery.)
i think the character quirk vs. big event movie really is spielberg's forte. close encounters, e.t., jaws.... pretty much everything he's done. minority report being an exception because tom cruise has no character quirks. he is, in fact, an automaton.
OG- black rain... gotta check it. there is something so gratifying about seeing michael douglas stressed out (unlike with harrison ford)... plus it's a ridley "supertoot" scott jumpoff.
anyways, you should all see inland empire so we can discuss it. it is definetly a trip.
just picked up Inland and Host.
Hope to watch 'em by the weekend.
Brow: You're so, so right. It's easy to forget that JAWS and CE3K seemed refreshingly different at the time of their release. (And at some other point, remind me to do my breakdown on Raiders... Despite a generation of execs and hacks trying to recreate its success, nobody seems to realize that at its core, all its beats are character-driven and defy or invert many of the standard-issue rules of screenwriting. (I defy you to find any other big action movie where the hero's big rescue mission consists of failing the heroine yet again and whose decisive action is not kicking ass, saving the day, blowing up the bad guys, etc., but merely shutting his eyes. Because the movie isn't really about the Lost Ark at all... it's about a deeply flawed man overcoming his own greed for knowledge and blind ambition.)
Couldn't you say the same thing about
Eddie "Hudson Hawk" Hawkins
in the exquisite film of the same name?
Seriously though- what about
Big Trouble in Little China's Jack Burton [WHO?] ? even though it's essentially a parody.
There's another example on the tip of my
tongue... damn.
Gotta go eat some homemade, ChickenPotPie!
so i just saw inland empire tonite. and brow you're my boy and i know you enjoyed this movie...but to me it was another disengaging david lynch stinker. a total drag imo.
there's a story in there somewhere. but lynch needs to recall how to be a storyteller. he's more like a magician, some wizard of oz: smoke and mirrors storytelling, a waste of time. it's shocking a first and then it just becomes dull and amateurish. i did, however, like the opening shot.
but yo, come on: each one of us could make a zig-zagging story with a bunch of nonsense shots and characters speaking in polish and shit. i think it's more challenging to tell a compelling story than force your watchers into thinking the shit is "mad deep".