Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.

Mal ,'Serenity'


Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video  

A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Sean K - Dec 24, 2005 8:30:54 am PST #9324 of 10002
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

Love that film. Lovelovelovelovelove.

Great story, great action sequences, and the cinematography....

I mean, the color composition of every shot is just jaw dropping to begin with, and then you turn around and add shots like the one after Jin and Mei finish making love, where the camera flies very low over them lying in the white grass of the field, Jin in his blue and Mei in her green, passes over them and a pulls away, revealing the hill in the background with its myriad red-orange autumn colors.

Guh.


Jessica - Dec 24, 2005 8:36:33 am PST #9325 of 10002
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

The last scene, where the action gradually devolves from gloriously coreographed masterful swordplay into two guys just beating the crap out of each other, and the snow is swirling around? Fucking amazing, that scene. The way it just goes on.


Volans - Dec 24, 2005 10:04:21 pm PST #9326 of 10002
move out and draw fire

So...is Munich introduced and epilogued with Eric Bana's character as an old man? Do the terrorists and the hit squad members carry walkie-talkies instead of guns?

Mostly kidding, but I totally get what you mean about "Spielbergian" being a plus and a minus.


Jessica - Dec 25, 2005 5:47:58 am PST #9327 of 10002
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

So...is Munich introduced and epilogued with Eric Bana's character as an old man? Do the terrorists and the hit squad members carry walkie-talkies instead of guns?

Heh, no. There is no voiceover at all, thankfully. And plenty of guns.

Mostly, it's an inability to be as harsh on his heroes as the story he's telling would seem to require. He doesn't give it a happy ending by any means, and the characters do go through hell, but the little details reveal him to still be a big softy at heart. The story he's clearly trying to tell isn't quite the story he manages to show.


DavidS - Dec 25, 2005 8:01:55 am PST #9328 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I have an image of Tony Kushner wresting the sappy ending out of Spielberg's hands, saying, "Dammit, Steven, ya fucked up all your last ten movies in the last 20 minutes. Just stop at the morally ambiguous place and let it go!"


erikaj - Dec 25, 2005 8:09:16 am PST #9329 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!

Like Lloyd Dobler "I know that I don't know, but least I know that I don't know. You know?"


Jessica - Dec 25, 2005 12:17:53 pm PST #9330 of 10002
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

Both The Producers and The Family Stone are bad, but The Producers is the only one I wish I'd walked out of.

It was painful. Matthew Broderick....ugh. Indescribably awful.


tommyrot - Dec 25, 2005 12:20:44 pm PST #9331 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Jessica, have you seen the stage musical The Producers ?


Jessica - Dec 25, 2005 12:34:28 pm PST #9332 of 10002
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

Yep. Didn't like it much either (the music is mediocre at best and all the good lines are quotes from the original, with the exception of Cady Huffman, who was brilliant), but it was nowhere near as painful to watch as this movie. Maybe being on stage gave it enough distance to be watchable, I don't know

I just want to find my copy of the original and hold it very, very close and never let it go.


tommyrot - Dec 25, 2005 12:49:22 pm PST #9333 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I loved the stage musical (saw a 'pre-opening' show in Chicago). I think I'll see the movie as a substitute for seeing the stage musical again.