8187 replies to this topic

[M_Rots]

I think my ultimate problem with Shyamalan isn't whether the endings are a surprise or not, but that they could work so much better as the jumping off place for films. The Village's premise, revealed at the end, would be a much more interesting idea if it was the movie's opening conceit.

What does it do to a group or family when everything is based on a choice to lie, and to flee? What kind of morality can be said to hold sway when you teach your children nothing but fiction and fears and superstitions; is what you're protecting them from really more awful than you? Or your solution?

By making these ideas nothing more than a punchline, he robs the films of the power they might otherwise have had; makes potentially compelling drama into shaggy-dog stories. Rather than being an exercise of the imagination, they become the opposite. What a shame.

[brobee]

I think my ultimate problem with Shyamalan isn't whether the endings are a surprise or not, but that they could work so much better as the jumping off place for films. The Village's premise, revealed at the end, would be a much more interesting idea if it was the movie's opening conceit.

What does it do to a group or family when everything is based on a choice to lie, and to flee? What kind of morality can be said to hold sway when you teach your children nothing but fiction and fears and superstitions; is what you're protecting them from really more awful than you? Or your solution?

By making these ideas nothing more than a punchline, he robs the films of the power they might otherwise have had; makes potentially compelling drama into shaggy-dog stories. Rather than being an exercise of the imagination, they become the opposite. What a shame.

very well put.

[Bleep Blop]

Speaking of twists and turns in movies..except this one was great:


Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Boy oh boy is revenge on the brain in Park Chan-Wook's movies! Or uh,at least the couple I've seen. This was so great though, everything was done really well..not really too over the top, but pretty fucking over the top at the same time. I mean, I don't think you can really call car battery torture or cutting someones Achilles tendon underwater not over the top, but it seemed about right in the situation. Oh, and I think the autopsy scene left my mouth wide open for longer than any movie I've seen. Good accomplishment.

Uh, all that said, it was really enjoyable and should probably be seen by more people. Most of the bad stuff was more mental than visual, which I always think is the more terrifying way to go anyways. Will watch the last of the revenge trilogy soon.

(badass movie poster, by the way)

[velocity]

Just finished this. A good movie,But after viewing it I feel very depressed about the world for some reason(I've seen this before and I don't remember feeling quite this way.). I need to go grab a comedy or something.

If you close your eyes when he's talking, Murphy sounds alot like Obama. And vice versa.

[AFTERSHOCK]

I think my ultimate problem with Shyamalan isn\'t whether the endings are a surprise or not, but that they could work so much better as the jumping off place for films. The Village\'s premise, revealed at the end, would be a much more interesting idea if it was the movie\'s opening conceit.

Ah. That would be Memento, right? Loved that idea. Worked beautifully.

If you close your eyes when he\'s talking, Murphy sounds alot like Obama. And vice versa.

Dude - that shit\'s hilArious!

[brobee]

If you close your eyes when he\'s talking, Murphy sounds alot like Obama. And vice versa.

Dude - that shit\'s hilArious!

only if you've never read naomi klein.

[Agrimorfee]

Finally got In Bruges in last night.


Quite a charming movie, with something to offend nearly everyone. I hate how this was marketed as a "Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" movie, when it has very little to do with that brand of British mob genre. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell were fookin' excellent, while Ralph Fiennes was almost unrecognizable as he somehow channelled Ben Kingley's Sexy Beast role. The ending took too long to wrap up.

[Elemeno P.T.]

Holy shit.

You know, when it all comes down to it, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, and Tropic Thunder were all equally uneven in my eyes. Not sure where I would rank them on a year-end list.

But this. Goddamn. I expected it to be funny, but man. Man.

I want to watch it again.

Like Anchorman, it just keeps getting better with multiple viewings.

[held]

I think my ultimate problem with Shyamalan isn't whether the endings are a surprise or not, but that they could work so much better as the jumping off place for films. The Village's premise, revealed at the end, would be a much more interesting idea if it was the movie's opening conceit.

What does it do to a group or family when everything is based on a choice to lie, and to flee? What kind of morality can be said to hold sway when you teach your children nothing but fiction and fears and superstitions; is what you're protecting them from really more awful than you? Or your solution?

By making these ideas nothing more than a punchline, he robs the films of the power they might otherwise have had; makes potentially compelling drama into shaggy-dog stories. Rather than being an exercise of the imagination, they become the opposite. What a shame.

the arguement could be said about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Besides, there are plenty of closed socities that do exist and raise children to follow different doctrines that are far and away as absurd as the movie suggests.
only whats really hard to swallow is how its suggested that the modern world had honestly never eclipsed their village but whatever. It's just a movie right?

[M_Rots]

I think my ultimate problem with Shyamalan isn't whether the endings are a surprise or not, but that they could work so much better as the jumping off place for films. The Village's premise, revealed at the end, would be a much more interesting idea if it was the movie's opening conceit.

What does it do to a group or family when everything is based on a choice to lie, and to flee? What kind of morality can be said to hold sway when you teach your children nothing but fiction and fears and superstitions; is what you're protecting them from really more awful than you? Or your solution?

By making these ideas nothing more than a punchline, he robs the films of the power they might otherwise have had; makes potentially compelling drama into shaggy-dog stories. Rather than being an exercise of the imagination, they become the opposite. What a shame.

the arguement could be said about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Besides, there are plenty of closed socities that do exist and raise children to follow different doctrines that are far and away as absurd as the movie suggests.
only whats really hard to swallow is how its suggested that the modern world had honestly never eclipsed their village but whatever. It's just a movie right?

call me when you think of an argument.

[Slackmo]

Who knew Mike Leigh could do genuine charm? Phenomenal movie--highly recommended.

[Elemeno P.T.]

Who knew Mike Leigh could do genuine charm? Phenomenal movie--highly recommended.

Great to hear. Leigh is one of a handful of directors that I look forward to everything he does...hope this plays the burbs. Had to wait for DVD for Vera Drake.

[Tony]

Who knew Mike Leigh could do genuine charm? Phenomenal movie--highly recommended.

You didn't think Topsy Turvy was charming?

[caley]

We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals, and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead, and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns, Mrs. Barham, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices

The Americanization of Emily: Wow, this was quite a movie. James Garner is Charlie, a dog robber, that is, a man whose sole purpose in the military is to acquire certain things (Chocolate, booze, and women) for his superior. When his superior orders that Charlie make a movie about the first man to die on Omaha Beach and to ensure that that dead man is a navy man, Charlie panics as he is a self-styled coward and self-preservationist. Emily (Julie Andrews) is the driver who simultaneously falls in love with Charlie's love of life while abhoring his cowardice. It's all shot in beautiful black and white, with great performances from Garner, Andrews, and James Coburn as Charlie's rigidly militaristic pal who sees their appointment as movie-makers on D-Day as an honour.

[held]

call me when you think of an argument.

yeah. right after I solve world peace and the common cold.

[AFTERSHOCK]

Caley - I like your reviews.

[Slackmo]

Who knew Mike Leigh could do genuine charm? Phenomenal movie--highly recommended.

You didn't think Topsy Turvy was charming?

In stretches, certainly. But I also found it to be a little bit of an endurance test, too. (Also, I think I tend to forget that TT was Leigh's.)

[Ogawa]

Caley - I like your reviews.

Same here.

[M_Rots]

call me when you think of an argument.

yeah. right after I solve world peace and the common cold.

One dumb reply deserves another, I suppose. The problem with your argument, held, is that the premise of The Village isn't the same as what the adults do to their kids. Kids who are taught to believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny live in the world and will learn, as often as not through peers, that Santa Claus is a fairy tale told them by their parents.

Forcibly removing themselves from the world and teaching their kids that the woods are full of monsters and that the outside world for all intents and purposes doesn't exist, is a vastly different matter.

When kids learn there is no Easter Bunny, Santa or Tooth Fairy, we rarely see psychic trauma from which no practical recovery is to be expected. When the kids in The Village discover that every single part of their world is a lie, one would expect them to break down in ways which may have no cure. How will they trust anything, including the fundamental bond of unconditional love between a parent and child, again?

Wrapping your argument in the rationalization that "it's only a movie" doesn't even belong in the discussion. That's the same folly as saying to people in the LOPP/SOMB debate, "Hey, it's only a message board!" or "It's only the internet!" Obviously, it is only those, but just as obviously, everyone participates in a certain consensual delusion that both constitute a kind of reality while they're "in" them.

A minimization of that is only a minimization - not a true rebuttal.

[Slackmo]

I like Caley's reviews.