I should probably watch Sword and the Stone again. I don't think I've watched it in it's entirety since I was 5 or 6 years old.
I watched Being Elmo, it was a pretty light hearted documentary on Kevin Clash (the guy who is the Puppeteer for Elmo). It's pretty insane how much of a time soak it is to be on Sesame Street, it seems to have had a profound poor effect on his family which I wanted to see explored but it was only hinted at and implied.
Whoever has the rights to The Little Prince has been milking them for cash hardcore for quite a few years now. The level of Little Prince merch is on the tier right underneath Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Not really into it. It's nicer to leave the classics non-commercial.
I got around to watching Interstellar, it was a good science fiction story. However I felt as if Nolan's self indulgence became apparent. The introduction of the theme of love was incredibly jarring but workout well by the end of the film. I think the theme would have been far more palatable if it wasn't presented in such a confronting manner to the audience, if it was slowly introduced or present in the subtext the movie would have been great.
Character progressions were incredibly well written and acted.
Dr. Mann's position was quite obvious to the audience as soon as they woke him up so when he turned on Cooper it was expected rather than a surprise. The ending was surprisingly neatly wrapped up.
I wouldn't say it was worthy of the "OMG loose your shit on how great this is" hype but it was a solid 4/5 for me.
Mad Max: Fury Road is incredible. The film is everything impeccable about George Miller's original movie kicked up to modern day practical effects, acting, and choreography. This an instantaneous classic. For a 2 hour movie, it uses about 20 minutes total for setup showing off the world and characters. There is phenomenal detail in all the little things from the real metal items that are modified to War-Rigs and all the mutants have small touches to identify one from another. Once Mad Max, Furiosa and Nux get going, it is a nonstop, action thrill ride. Everyone plays a part fighting Immortan Joe and they use so many creative ways to fight one another with edged cars and diesel-punk weaponry. The sense of 80s cheese is not lost either with the cuts to driver's faces and getting one rig just for the sake of having a guy play a double-necked flamethrower guitar. (Who looks like a mix of Les Claypool and Vic Rattlehead)
Seriously, go see this movie. If one iota in your body is interested in action films, even if you never have seen any of the originals, go watch this. You will not be disappointed.
The sense of 80s cheese is not lost either with the cuts to driver's faces and getting one rig just for the sake of having a guy play a double-necked flamethrower guitar. (Who looks like a mix of Les Claypool and Vic Rattlehead)
They have a pretty good explanation for the Doofwagon - according to the filmmakers, with old army columns, you'd see bands, pipers, drummers, so on. Obviously, you're not going to hear a piper over all the ridiculous cars, and it is Australia, so instead of that, they have a guy on the front of some giant stacks playing power chords, and a legion of drummers up the back that he's keeping in rhythm.
The Gigahorse looks like something Xzibit would've made. Yo dawg we heard you like coupe de villes. So we took a coupe de ville and stacked another coupe de ville. So you can reign terror while you reign terror.
The sense of 80s cheese is not lost either with the cuts to driver's faces and getting one rig just for the sake of having a guy play a double-necked flamethrower guitar. (Who looks like a mix of Les Claypool and Vic Rattlehead)
They have a pretty good explanation for the Doofwagon - according to the filmmakers, with old army columns, you'd see bands, pipers, drummers, so on. Obviously, you're not going to hear a piper over all the ridiculous cars, and it is Australia, so instead of that, they have a guy on the front of some giant stacks playing power chords, and a legion of drummers up the back that he's keeping in rhythm.
And yes, it's actually called the Doofwagon.
Because it makes sense, that makes the film even better. My audience did laugh a lot when the Doofwagon got any kind of attention. He's held on bungee chords even when sleeping.
The Gigahorse looks like something Xzibit would've made. Yo dawg we heard you like coupe de villes. So we took a coupe de ville and stacked another coupe de ville. So you can reign terror while you reign terror.
What do you do to show you're the man in charge, when everybody has nothing? Two of everything. Two coupes, two V8s strapped together. This is the actual reasoning.
It was probably the best action movie of this decade so far. I can't really figure out a way to complain about it. Though if you don't like vehicular violence you probably won't like the film :-p
As an art film, I can appreciate it for the gimmick of letting the actors age naturally as the film was shot over the course of many years.
Outside of that, though, it's a VERY LONG trope-ridden mess with no payoff.
If it were a documentary then that'd be OK I guess, but as a work of fiction it's extremely mediocre. As a proof-of-concept/piece-of-art showing off a neat idea... OK, but 3 HOURS of that... meh.
We watched the original Mad Max tonight. I really enjoyed it, though admittedly quite a lot of that was nostalgia. Juliane hated the music, which is SUPER dated. We'll go see Fury Road some time this week, I'm sure.
Watched that old kids movie Anastasia. The problem that I had with it was the role of the villain. The guy's Rasputin, and he had magic so I was really excited to see what he'd do. The problem was he was so detached from the other events of the movie all he really was was a mechanism to stop the moments of peril being contrived coincidences. But the moments of peril also didn't feel like they added anything. The basic lost princess with amnesia plot would have still worked without any of that but a lot shorter...
Mad Max is easily the best action movie I've watched since Terminator 2, and Terminator 2 didn't have me periodically bursting into fits of maniacal laughter for literal days because of how absurdly fucking metal it was.
Mad Max was basically a 2 hour skullfuck via heavy metal car chase and it still managed better, deeper, and more efficiently conveyed thematic content than 99% of movies out today.
Best fucking movie and really well-done feminism and commentary on methods of control, among other thing.
Comments
I watched Being Elmo, it was a pretty light hearted documentary on Kevin Clash (the guy who is the Puppeteer for Elmo). It's pretty insane how much of a time soak it is to be on Sesame Street, it seems to have had a profound poor effect on his family which I wanted to see explored but it was only hinted at and implied.
Here's the international trailer.
However I felt as if Nolan's self indulgence became apparent.
The introduction of the theme of love was incredibly jarring but workout well by the end of the film. I think the theme would have been far more palatable if it wasn't presented in such a confronting manner to the audience, if it was slowly introduced or present in the subtext the movie would have been great.
Character progressions were incredibly well written and acted.
Dr. Mann's position was quite obvious to the audience as soon as they woke him up so when he turned on Cooper it was expected rather than a surprise.
The ending was surprisingly neatly wrapped up.
I wouldn't say it was worthy of the "OMG loose your shit on how great this is" hype but it was a solid 4/5 for me.
Seriously, go see this movie. If one iota in your body is interested in action films, even if you never have seen any of the originals, go watch this. You will not be disappointed.
And yes, it's actually called the Doofwagon.
I want my 3 hours back.
As an art film, I can appreciate it for the gimmick of letting the actors age naturally as the film was shot over the course of many years.
Outside of that, though, it's a VERY LONG trope-ridden mess with no payoff.
If it were a documentary then that'd be OK I guess, but as a work of fiction it's extremely mediocre. As a proof-of-concept/piece-of-art showing off a neat idea... OK, but 3 HOURS of that... meh.
WITNESS IT
What a whopper of a film, really put in to perspective how much of a let down Ultron was.
I'd say it's great.
Mad Max was basically a 2 hour skullfuck via heavy metal car chase and it still managed better, deeper, and more efficiently conveyed thematic content than 99% of movies out today.
Best fucking movie and really well-done feminism and commentary on methods of control, among other thing.
The entire movie is a car chase.
The ENTIRE MOVIE IS A CAR CHASE.
They don't stop to refuel, either. I will be sorely disappointed if the video game version doesn't have mantling on and over moving vehicles.
Exploding car chase is just a bonus.