Must... resist...

No need to resist. The first half of WOTW was great filmmaking don't you think?

I wouldn't know. It has 4 strikes against it which prevent me from spending any amount of time watching it:

1. Tom Cruise
2. Steven Spielberg
3. Re-make
4. Minority Report.

Um. No. Not really.

1. Who cares about actors?
2. You watch all sorts of TV schlock but won't watch a film by a master filmmaker?
3. No it isn't. It's another version of the novel. Is every film of Hamlet after the first a remake?
4. Has nothing to do with WOTW

The George Pal version of WoTW was so much better...

How could it have been better? It conveyed the tension of the book perfectly. That shot of the train wasn't great?

Minority Report is great.

Hm, I liked it ok, except I was so conscious of my Tom Cruise hate at the beginning that it made it difficult for me to empathize with his character once the tables turned. And I thought the resolution was contrived.

Here we go...

1. If an actor's work in a role fails to convince me, I can't get into the story. If they consistently fail to engage me in additional projects (like Mr. Cruise) I won't waste any additional time in anything they're attached to.

2a. Spielberg may be a master filmmaker (and I do enjoy some of his movies, to be sure) but much of his later work strikes me as over-produced in regards to visuals & sound (ie: too slick) with spotty character development and glaring holes in the story arcs. Which would be just fine if the films weren't so p.r.o.fessionally done. You'd think someone with his attention to detail (and resources) would be able to balance out style-vs-substance a bit more often.

2b. Plus when your only TV time is after work around 6am, shlocky TV is the perfect thing to conk out with. The production & acting might be weak, but there's often some pretty damn fresh story ideas floating around the occasional snatch of clever dialogue. And besides, I hate falling asleep to something that genuinely entertains me on numerous levels, simply because I'm far too tired to appreciate all the nuances (sigh... I miss having days off.) So - another round of Garth Marenghi's DARKPLACE, anyone?

3. Yes, it's a remake simply because the medium is the same as an Established Classic (gotta love those George Pal effects - wires and all). We all know there's one Established Classic written version of the story: the original novel (which I'd be willing to bet wasn't the first time mankind looked at Mars and thought, "hmmmm"). Now, I can see the attraction to adapting a story from one medium to the next, but why do we need multiple versions - especially if one attempt has already become a cultural icon? (Wizard of Oz fans take note: yeah, we all know the original story was so much darker than the Established Classic movie [which also wasn't the the first attempt to translate the text to film] but it's useless to reinvent the idea of translating it into yet another film once a particular version has been stamped into our culture as THE MOVIE regardless of how much it connects or deviates from the original text. But there's nothing stopping you from translating it to a new, different medium - right? How about a virtual reality version? Or a holographic one? That'd be totally cool.) Besides - why do we need more adaptations of the same basic story anyway? Why can't we just create new stories? This sort of thing irritates me because it seems like we're intentionally crippling our cultural development by simply repeating ourselves. And spending an awful lotta money & time doing so, to boot.

And we ain't talkin' Hamlet comparisons simply because Shakespeare's fantasies will always be associated with more highbrow audiences than Wells's Martian invaders. Sci-fi just doesn't get quite the style of respect as ol' Will, but whatyagonnado?

4. Minority Report = Tom Cruise + Steven Spielberg + sci-fi + point #2a above = War of the Worlds.

Character dvlp and story arcs are spotty in virtually all American filmmaking these days. You hardly ever see three acts anymore. Spileberg's actually better than most of the others.

It's the lack of connection to Western traditions that's diluting the culture not an over-reliance on it. They just determined that most of British youth didn't know that Winston Churchill was a real person. That's not due to too many adapatations of great literature. Also Wells is a fully canonical writer of English Lit. He's not regarded as a pulp writer as opposed to 'highbrow'. Nabokov thought him superior to Conrad.

If a video game designer wants to do those other things cool. We're talking about films though.

I watched 8 episodes of Lost over the weeekend. I'm trying to catch up so I can watch the new ones.

Last night I watched this:


It was a really great story. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I ♥ Peter Sarsgaard.

I ♥'ed the SNL pirate sketch. 'Aaaarr!

joe's smokin- ace.

I just watched this myself last night and while I was both amused and surprised by the casting and brutal carnage at times. By the end I so didn't buy the whole related/hidden agent conspiracy thing and was just dumbfounded by how stupid films tend to be when they involve Ryan Reynolds. This was just garbage...

Carnahan on casting Alicia Keys;
As far as Alicia, she plays one of the assassins, along side Taraji. "I went to see her in Oakland at the Paramount Theatre; I said something along the lines of, 'Don't let people put you in some chicken sh*t romantic comedy. Let's go do something really interesting.' She really loved the written material; she loved this idea of this deviation and departure from Alicia Keys, the Grammy winning hugely famous rock star."

so hollowwood-putz.

edit-if I was guy richie, I'd kick his ass.

I watched the first twenty minutes of Smokin' Aces on HBO a couple weekds ago and turned it off. I was hoping for stupid fun. It was just stupid.

True dat.

(And EWS is Kubrick...so your point is?)

I know you weren't asking me, but...it's fine "popcorn" moviemaking to be sure, but not really substantial cinema.

Do you think 'The Road Warrior' is substantial cinema? I do.

after the 1st 20 minutes it gets watchable, the exposition was just too much too fast for too long

Actually, I was talking about artistic development & storytelling adaptations using various medium (that was the thing about remakes, right? Just checking...) But I'm sure you got the point - I just want more stories in our culture!


Hell yes.

The Road Warrior is one of the best action movies ever made. Everything from the characters, the music, the costumes, the outstanding photography is right on-target. I always liked the film, but didn't see the wide screen until a few months back and the shot phrasing & editing just blew me away. That viewing pushed the film from "cool action flick" to "genuinely brilliant movie" in my world.

I like apples and oranges, too.

not as good as 'for martha'

3:10 to Yuma

I kinda dug this, mostly due to the interaction between the 2 leads. Crowe gets points for one of the coolest badguys I've seen in a while. The third act falls apart a little when the bullets start flying - but hey - it's a Western. Of course it's gonna get a little over-the-top. Even so, there's some great dialogue, photography & editing.



His Girl Friday

Loved this movie. Fast-paced, sparkling dialogue, perfect casting. I've been wanting to get into more Cary Grant films and this one is a-poppin' from start-to-finish. Plus there's a few in-jokes bouncing around the background, which always makes the film more entertaining.

Dude, if you liked this, you should be checking out Preston Sturgis' films, specifically Sullivan's Travels and The Lady Eve.

Better Off Dead

Stardust

I Heart Huckabees

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

3:10 To Yuma

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

That last one is brutally good, where's the SOMB hype been on it?!

better off dead = all time classic

i've never seen better of dead. i've been told of another classic...hmm, i think christina applegate is in it as is the line 'the dishes are done, bitch'. whatever that movie i guess i'm supposed to watch it.

don't tell mom the babysitters dead.
classic film
the great josh charles is in it.

'His Girl Friday' was the last of three ridiculously great films Cary Grant made iwith Howard Hawks in the late 1930s. Bringing Up Baby, 'Only Angels Have Wings' are the other two.

What a sublime metamorphosis is the Lane Meyer...

Love HGF--still so relevant--

BUB is great, guess I need to see OAHW

I've been watching this in 20-minute spurts before bed the last few days. Very funny

i downloaded atonement, margot at the wedding, into the wild, and american gangster lst night.
i'll probably watch margot at the wedding first toinght if i have time, squid and the whale was one of my favorite movies from the last few years.

I absolutely loved Squid and the Whale, and could not have hated Margot much more. Curious what you'll think.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Would have been breathtaking on the big screen. Still, looked great on my dad's massive 60" TV. Great film with great performances. Brad Pitt was good as ever, but Casey Affleck stole every scene he was in. Plus, it has my favourite working actor, Paul Schneider, in it. I loved the very human portrait of Jesse James that manages to deconstruct his legend, yet still treat him with some reverance. Will be at, or very near the top of, my list.


Duck, You Sucker: Great epic western. James Coburn plays a wanted IRA explosives expert who ends up in league with Rod Steiger's Mexican bandit. Together they get swept up in revolutionary activities in Mexico. Lots of fun with great performances by Coburn and Steiger.

Nice. The moment I finished His Girl Friday I went online & ordered a few more. Those 2 you recommend are already on the way!

Cary Grant is rapidly becoming my favorite actor.

EDIT: Currently killin' time with a movie that I can't believe I've never seen, yet is so bad I can understand why:



Meteor

I just saw Once.

Squid and the Whale is a favorite of mine too but Margot just seemed kind of pointlessly cruel

I still kind of enjoyed it, his awful white people are pretty watchable for me. My cousin goes to the same private school as the kid in that movie, from now on I'm going to assume that's exactly how her family behaves among themselves and with other people of their class

What didn't you like about Margot? It had the bite of a great short story.

Stayed up far too late last night watching Planet of the Apes and the first half of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Quickly skimmed the plots of all the remaining films on wiki before crashing. Kinda glad I didn't stay up 'til 4 am to finish Beneath. What a depressing ending.

i remember in high school the ran a marathoon of the ape films on tv, i was like okay i'll bite. watch planet of the apes. the second film, then they skipped the third. and watched the rest of them. needless to say got to bed around 4 and had class the next day. gotta say i really like the films, wish that they had better production values on the last few but still i enjoy the story

just finished margot, it was pretty funny, but otherwise kind of an overdramatized piece of shit. i would like to watch it again sometime, but years from now. i am kind of in love iwth nicole kidman in the movie, she is a crazy nympho bitch, the very best kind of woman.

I thought that Squid and the Whale had funny moments, mixed in with the drama, as well as hitting that feeling of being pulled between two warring parents dead on. Given, I am a child of divorce.

Margot was just thoroughly unenjoyable for me. It was interesting to see such a full depiction of such a selfish narcissistic character, but there was just nothing enjoyable about it. I didn't laugh. I just felt like it was cruel and miserable.

i agree with that assessment, though i think i found a little more humor in margot's character than you did.

Norbit

Not the shittiest Eddie Murphy movie I've seen (Showtime is the winner there), but still pretty bad. However, since it had no pretenses about being a good movie in the first place, it still had some charm to it. Still, not that good though.

48 Hrs.

Still holds up after all these years.

^^^
reminded me that i saw this:

a few weeks ago.
love this movie.
loved it as a kid.
love his speech at the end, improbable but great speech

Caught about five minutes of Easy Rider on AMC last night, which is five minutes more than I'd watched previously. One of the literally thousands of classic films I've never seen. This one's pretty good, right?

hmm, sounds like my kind of film. i had it on my list of things to see, but nicole kidman and her weird duck face always keep me away from whatever its in. suppose ill have to ondemand it.