ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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Watched the Watchmen (arf) tonight, too. It's good, but it's so similar to the comic book that I felt like I was watching something I already knew quite well anyway. :hmph:

Also I can confirm that no aging avians were harmed in the making of this film.

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Just saw Watchmen DC, and I loved it.
Uh, I mean... I mean to see it. And when I do, etc.

What the hell...? Explain yourself... I'm planning on seeing it in LA when I'm over there.

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Are you trying to get him to incriminate himself? :D Seems fairly obvious he downloaded the leaked version.

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Anyone care to explain why I should care about the Director's Care edition? I can't find anything particularly succinct or compelling about it via Google.

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A director's cut and an extended edition of the film, with Tales of the Black Freighter interspersed through the main storyline in a manner reminiscent of the comic, is also forthcoming.

In the original comic, 'Tales of the Black Freighter' was a comic within the comic. I think it's definitely something fans will appreciate. Adds like 20 minutes.

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I'm guessing the draw is a fuller representation of the comic - as if the original cut wasn't slavish!

Even though I liked the cuts they made, making it a baggy, but not-too-baggy monster, I'll still like to see how they tackled the supporting-supporting characters - the psychiatrist, the news vendor and the kid on the street. And, also, the spoiler bit that Toblix didn't see.

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I really enjoyed the theatrical release of Watchmen - so I'm sure I'll like the DC even more. And yeah - Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach totally blew me away (-IGN.com).

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I saw a History of Violence, god the movie was awesome but sucked compared to the comic in my opinion, anybody got a taste of both mediums ?

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I saw a History of Violence, god the movie was awesome but sucked compared to the comic in my opinion, anybody got a taste of both mediums ?

I have a friend who felt the opposite; he thought the film was far superior to the comic, which he found to be poor. I haven't read the comic myself (mainly because of his opinion--we share a lot of opinions about film and books and so on), but I enjoyed the film.

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That film's based on a comic?! I had no idea. The FULL-MOTION PICTOGRAPHIC ENTERTAINMENT MODULE was very good, though. As was Eastern Promises, which was wozzname's next film, wasn't it?

I watched The Woodsman yesterday. It was pretty good and helped me keep my quota of extreme filmic unease nicely topped-up. Both that and History of Violence make me think about the relationship or difference between points in time and on-going periods, and the nature of identity, and of blame and guilt and responsibility and stuff like that. Which, I suppose, is nothing too ground-breaking, but a whole lot of films don't make me think about anything at all because I am uncultured and lacking in perception.

I also watched Road to Perdition, which was very well-shot. That sounds like I'm tactfully avoiding the film's content itself; I'm not, and it was good, but I don't have much to say about it. Which, incidentally, was apparently also based on a comic/graphic novel/whatever. Is the whole of Hollywood secret based on comics or something? No, of course not. The Woodsman was based on a play. Comics and plays. Maybe a book or two.

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I have a friend who felt the opposite; he thought the film was far superior to the comic, which he found to be poor. I haven't read the comic myself (mainly because of his opinion--we share a lot of opinions about film and books and so on), but I enjoyed the film.

Do you think it depends of the understanding you have of the given medium ? To me the comic was pretty intense,

for instance, in the comic, at the beginning, the mafiosi stalking... hmm sorry S.T.A.L.K.I.N.G his familly continually apear in the corner of a case, in the background and so on, and at the end, when it becomes white on black it's the same with him, you can see him in the corner, a shoe, a hand and so on, it just inverses the roles and I found it very very well done. Also, I hated his wife in the movie but really liked the way she understands who he is and respects that in the comic rather than freaking the fuck out.

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I also watched Road to Perdition, which was very well-shot. That sounds like I'm tactfully avoiding the film's content itself; I'm not, and it was good, but I don't have much to say about it.

Really enjoyed it in the theatre for its cinematic spectacle, but came away not really caring about the characters or story.

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Went to see Public Enemies the other day, wouldn't recommend it.

The story and setting are quite interesting, but the film itself is pretty dull. Depp is excellent as Dillinger as one would probably expect, Bale is his usual dull stern faced self.

In terms of direction / editing, I found it extremely irritating to watch, which is not something I've ever been able to say of a film's direction before. Large parts of the film seem to be untreated and end up looking like an episode of COPS or some other "live" handycam type show.

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Writing this from the theater I work at, but sadly haven't seen any movies lately because I'm too busy getting them onscreen. Still, I've been looking forward to Public Enemies since first seeing the trailer, so I'm going to that no matter what you say, eljay. (:P) Also, it would seem that Moon has finally come to Calgary, so if I can convince the girl to go with me in the next couple of weeks, I hope to be seeing that.

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I think Public Enemies is definitely worth seeing, as it has terrific acting and some well directed action scenes. Also some badly directed scenes. Mostly it's just needlessly documentary in its approach. There's no kind of story arc really.

They used a digital camera to film it, and boy does it look fugly compared to proper film, especially in night scenes and indoor scenes. Also, the guy handling the camera likes to focus on peoples' shirts or hair rather than their eyes.

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That seems fair, I guess the digi-cam aspect of it grated on me more than it may with others. Also I'm pretty tired of Christian Bale by now as his range is almost non-existant.

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So, again, I'm not a fan of anime but I'm watching Ergo Proxy. I've seen four episodes and I'm loving it. It's a strange blend of cyberpunk, philosophy, science-fiction (as in general), noir, police procedural and a bit of biology/arts/physics (Haploid number appears, Michelangelo's Day and Night statue, etc).

The art style's pretty good as well.

20061031-screen-ergoproxy-v1.jpg

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So, again, I'm not a fan of anime but I'm watching Ergo Proxy. I've seen four episodes and I'm loving it. It's a strange blend of cyberpunk, philosophy, science-fiction (as in general), noir, police procedural and a bit of biology/arts/physics (Haploid number appears, Michelangelo's Day and Night statue, etc).

The art style's pretty good as well.

20061031-screen-ergoproxy-v1.jpg

Series directed by a guy who did a lot of various work on Samurai Champloo...

Maybe I'll need to go check this out somehow. Thanks!

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So is Tales of the Black Freighter in the Director's Cut of Watchmen or not? Watchmen was one of my favorite movies of the year so I'm getting the DC regardless, I'd just like some clarification there.

As to what I've seen recently:

-Just saw Terminator 2 for the first time.

Holy fucking shit. I haven't been this crazy about a movie since... I want to say The Dark Knight? Absolutely outstanding, 100 percent better than the original. Going out on a limb and saying best James Cameron movie.

I'm a little afraid to go ahead and rent T3 or 4 (when it comes out), mostly because I fear it'll kill Terminator/T2 for me. Thoughts?

-Harry Potter 6 was surprisingly good. As someone who's somewhat of a Potter fan (some of my friends are big into it, brought me to the midnight show) I really didn't like the last one compared to the book. However I thought 6 was a fantastic adaption, bringing the correct amount of humor and drama while incorporating some of the plot points ignored by the last movie, among other things. Only complaint I had was

Dumbledore's death

, which felt rather unceremonious especially since they cut

the funeral

.

-Transformers 2. What to say? I went with my girlfrend to see Bruno but couldn't get in (don't judge, I turn 17 in a month) so we bought tickets for the new Woody Allen movie instead. This was playing in IMAX at the theater next door. I remember having a lot of fun with the first one when it came out so I figured why not just run in. besides, it's IMAX, right?

Wrong.

Jesus fucking Christ what a trainwreck. Everything about this was horrible. The writing, the humor, the lack of Ratchet. The last thing I saw in this setting (local movie theater "IMAX") was Star Trek, and that looked and sounded absolutely fantastic despite not having any sequences specifically shot in the format. TF2, sadly, not only underuses the format (it's only used in a handful of shots, one big fight scene and spots near the end), but the scenes not in IMAX felt stretched out and pixelated. Astoundingly, Star Trek had none of this at all. That, and Barton Fink wearing a jockstrap and running around with Totally Not Kumar in the desert made me wince. Heavily. To hell with Michael Bay.

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So is Tales of the Black Freighter in the Director's Cut of Watchmen or not? Watchmen was one of my favorite movies of the year so I'm getting the DC regardless, I'd just like some clarification there.

From what I can tell, the Director's Cut of Watchmen only adds about 24 minutes of extra footage (bringing it just over 3 hours). That doesn't seem to include the Black Freighter bits, which are going to be added in a future edition.

More info here!

They sure do want to get people to double-or-triple dip. Over here in the UK, they're only releasing the theatrical cut first, and the DC hasn't been announced yet. (From what I can see, both theatrical and director's cut are being released on the same day in the US, right?)

Also, T2 is awesome! One of my favourite films when I was little - I should get around to getting the DVD sometime soon.

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From what I can tell, the Director's Cut of Watchmen only adds about 24 minutes of extra footage (bringing it just over 3 hours). That doesn't seem to include the Black Freighter bits, which are going to be added in a future edition.

More info here!

They sure do want to get people to double-or-triple dip. Over here in the UK, they're only releasing the theatrical cut first, and the DC hasn't been announced yet. (From what I can see, both theatrical and director's cut are being released on the same day in the US, right?)

Also, T2 is awesome! One of my favourite films when I was little - I should get around to getting the DVD sometime soon.

Thanks for the link! Also- yeah, both the director's and theatrical cuts are releasing here on Tuesday. Really sucks that the UK is getting shortchanged there but I guess that's studios for you. Could it, though, possibly be a rights thing? I'm not sure of all the politics behind Watchmen itself but a lot of releases get held up in certain regions because of rights issues.

Speaking of releases being held up in other regions, where the fuck are the Grindhouse and Kill Bill box sets? I want to give these people my money but they won't take it.

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-Just saw Terminator 2 for the first time.

Holy fucking shit. I haven't been this crazy about a movie since... I want to say The Dark Knight? Absolutely outstanding, 100 percent better than the original. Going out on a limb and saying best James Cameron movie.

I'm a little afraid to go ahead and rent T3 or 4 (when it comes out), mostly because I fear it'll kill Terminator/T2 for me. Thoughts?

My suggestion is to stop right now. T3 is just a pale imitation of T2. It's a passable action movie but not nearly in the league of the first two (though unlike you, I like the first movie almost as much as the second).

Terminator Salvation is garbage. It's a beautiful looking movie, but other than that it's a complete waste.

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