Movies and TV

[Doolio]

I am glad for that:) I mean, being used to the various forums, I expected a bunch of ranty posts from people that disliked the series and I really like it that the community here is phenomenally friendly and laid back:)

[Psychotime]

I still don't like EVA much, but every once in a while I run across people with legitimate examination and praise for the series, and they set themselves apart from the much larger crowd of teen idiots that focus on the hackneyed judeo-christian/kaballah imagery or think cynicism is inherently profound.

When those people show up, I have nothing but respect for their opinions.

Welcome to the site, Doolio.

[Doolio]

Thank you for the welcome:)

And yes, I would say your description of a typical eva crusader is pretty much spot on:) I guess it's like that with everything that possess certain appeal and potential to be "culted", which is...everything?:)

[Triggerpigking]

As someone who really dislikes evangelion(the second half of it anyway) your analysis of the series was actually quite interesting, I might rewatch it again sometime now, I still stand by that the series ending felt uneedlessly artsy and jarringly out of nowhere, there's probbly stuff that I missed in it but what I remember of it felt like it could have been said if they'd had a few episodes added on, it's been a good 3 years since I watched the series though so it's probbly about time I went back and watched it again.
I'm also with Eduardo on the rebuild series I love them alot although i've heard meh things of the 3rd, the character development is definieitly more blunt in it but I don't see that as a bad thing the characters still manage to be quite deeply made and i actually found myself enjoying the chars of asuka and shinji for once(I never was truly annoyed by him in the original series like some people though). oh and welcome to the site doolio.

Anyway does anyone watch Sherlock by any chance? That finale to s3 was incredible I heard alot of people complained about the prior episodes for not havin enough crime solving(these season has primarily been abotu character development so I did'nt mind) but they managed to link up both the episodes in one way or another here most of what happens has been subtley foreshadowed, that and I personally think this episode has some of the best acting out of the entire series Freeman manages to act even more amazing then usual,(him and moriarty are by far the best actors in the show I think) the scene with his wife and sherlock in sherlocks flat(I don't know anyway to describe it without spoiling it) being a standout actually i've noticed he's very good at acting with his eyes.
And the villain Charles magnussen, I don't even know where to start, his actor plays him so perfectly that I actually felt a bit awkward and angry watching some of his scenes, the flicking one is a great example. Usually these kind of villains can end up a bit boring, it's easier to make an insane homicidal maniac like moriarty entertaining because, I don't want to say they lack subtley as there are quite alot of layers to moriarty but these types of villains can be easier to make because they can make them over the top I think.
A master blackmailer like Magnussen on the other hand who is perfectly sane even if evil I think the role is mostly actor driven and he does play it perfectly.

Spoiler

part of me is disapointed he died so soon but as long as it has ramifications in the long run for sherlock i'm fine with it, this is the first time we've ever seen someone truly beat him and force him to resort to murder to win.

As for the very end of the episode...if you don't watch the show you won't know what i'm referring to but eeeh I have mixed reactions to the reveal at the end.

[Psychotime]

I only saw season one but I can see why it's so popular. It's fun, as long as you don't think too hard about the cases themselves and just run with it.

It's been a while, but I remember the cases not being as tightly written as they could be.

Either way, I need to watch season 2 and up. I THINK it's on Netflix now.

[nelson]

I always prefer to watch movies and TV shows about tourism because these are informative for my knowledge about travelling and worlds attractions. Globe Trekker is my favorite TV show. It is very informative for me and like a travel guide. Globe Trekker Known for an authentic look at real culture, it is a show that has filmed over 130 episodes. The show is hosted by a total of 26 people, which tends to give it a unique feel depending on who is hosting that episode. It is a travel show in every sense of the word, acting as a tour guide while showing the viewer the area.

[Psychotime]

Just saw Dr. Strangelove.

It took a half hour to get entertaining, but it was entertaining up until the ending. Did Strangelove himself have any point at all? The movie could have saved a few minutes by removing him entirely.

Anyway, precious bodily fluids.

Spoiler

And preversion.

[Amit Dutta]

Is this a TV and movie show thread or an evangelion diatribe?
Anyway, I recommend the following as series.

The Wire (Gritty, for want of a better word "cop" show. Set in Baltimore. Seriously awesome characters and acting)
Treme (Post Katrina New Orleans - Music focus. same producers as above)
Black Mirror - Brit sci-fi. You want smart sci-fi this is it. Forget about Pacific cRap-IM
Farscape - (Aussie produced sci fi) Yes it's a bit camp and cheesy at first, but damn it's fun and the character designs are surprisingly great and high spec.
Firefly - Sure sure, Whedon doing a thing. Fun times.
GoT - just because no one mentioned it

Movies
Sooo many, but some ones that stick in my memory by being so visually beautiful as well as with substance that you will NOT find in American counterparts:
Solyaris - Tarkovsky
Stalker - Tarkovsy
Dersu Uzala - Kurosawa
Seven Samurai - Kurosawa
Yojimbo - Kurosawa
(actually let's face it...watch anything Kurosawa, you won't regret it)
Definitely anything by Kubrik
Dr Strangelove
Clockwork Orange etc etc
I'll stop now because there are just too many to list

[Doolio]

Is this a TV and movie show thread or an evangelion diatribe?

I didn't see the thread got derailed because of it or that those posts were off topic. Nor I see that exchange as a diatribe. Also, the thread pretty much moved on.
And it would be perfectly normal if, for example, Tarkovsky, became the "sub-topic" for a period, because you mentioned him and somebody could respond to that (and should respond to that if they want to).
I think it's perfectly fine for a thread about cinematography to have multiple topic arcs about specific movies and series and not to simply boil down to members listing favourite titles. On the contrary, I would find such "voyeuristic-exhibitionistic" topic rather pointless.
Also, the topic is only three pages long, it's normal for a single sub-topic to be a relatively large part of it.

I am sorry for this digression, but your comment just seemed too sarcastic, however light its intended weight was. I might be wrong though, but then again, that aside, I do believe that topic is intended to be part listing and part discussion, not just listing, from the start.
And it's not about seeing "evangelion" in red letters, your comment would still confuse me, regardless of what title you've mentioned:)


Speaking of which, I'll do my listing part for a bit (stuff I can put down from the top of my head at least lol).

One flew over the cuckoo's nest - I've always loved this movie, although I think it's objectively excellent but short from being a masterpiece, mainly because of some "americanny" cheesiness. But, it's pretty much toned down and the movie is good enough to override that. On a personal level, objectiveness aside, this movie is among top of the crops for me:)

Alexander Nevsky - I was blown away when I saw it for the first time, it's just too masterfully done for its time. Photography is simply abnormal. I really think I've never seen better shots in any other movie, new or old.

Monkeybread, you mentioned Tarkovsky and Kurosawa. I praise both of them to no limits:) I find it a bit sad that in these "turbo times" people often simply can't watch Tarkovsky, unless they are " serious movie watchers" and have the ability to "get in a serious focus mode". With Kurosawa that of course is not a problem:)

Kubrik I don't like personally, though I do like the rendition of Clockwork orange. Kubrik stuff doesn't click with me emotionally, I don't get any buttons pressed when watching his movies:)

The wire I guess I would have to watch sometime. I developed this teenage anti-hype thing about stuff that promise characterization and such, because nine times out of ten I get disappointed, as standards for that are EXTREMELY low lately. But about the wire I've heard good stuff even from the people I know they know what they're talking about. One thing I'm afraid of is that grittyness and authenticity could "emulate" characterization, because they can be effective in themselves, but I would feel "cheated":). So, Monkeybread, could you elaborate a bit more on the wire on that regard? Not much, just like two sentences.

Apocalypse now

Valhalla rising - surprisingly good movie, for me at least. With this one I am not so sure about whether I could break it down objectively. The stuff I find it so good for, they're just too vague and I'm simply not sure whether they are brilliant or it's myself that's connecting random gibberish and getting delighted over bunch of suspicious material:D


Interesting thing is that in recent, like, five years, I got really fed up with the kind of cheesiness in hollywood movies (yes, the kind of cheesiness, not cheesiness itself:) ) and I usually can't stand it for a milisecond, even if the movie is just mindless or not so mindless fun which you watch and accept that stuff at face value. But sometimes I can get myself in a "mood" and enjoy various stuff. So, I got entertained by, for example, Nolan's movies, because they are expensive, large and well directed.

[Triggerpigking]

Yeah I don't consider this an evangelion diatribe, in fact considering most of us here dislike it, it's been fairly tame, hell after Doolio's analysis i'm gonna rewatch it at some point.
Speaking of which Doolio you ever seen an anime called Welcome to the N.H.K, watched it years back and I plan to rewatch it soon but in terms of characters its actually a very deep anime, you'd probbly enjoy it :).

I freakin love one flew over the cuckoo's nest, have'nt watched that movie in years actually, I should rewatch it.
I personally love Kubrick, I've only seen the shining, fullmetal and clockwork orange(yeah i'm still kickin myself for not watching space oddyssey yet).
Clockwork orange I love and the Shining while it has'nt aged badly, it does come off a bit cheesy in parts but I mainly love it because of the atmosphere of the whole movie still stands as some of the best i've seen, plus some parts really did freak me out when I first watched it, still ten times better then half of the so called "horror" movies released nowadays.
Fullmetal is also really good but I felt like there's a slightly weird shift later on after Pyles mental breakdown though.

I love most of Nolans movie, they have that hollywood cheese yeah but in terms of characters they are much deeper then most of hollywood say like micheal bay or emmerichs movies, besides being an addict for crazy villains I fell in love with Heath's joker, the third movie though....speakin as someone who adores the first two, Dark knight rises sucked, Tom hardy was awesome as bane but 99% of the movie felt like hey lets just copy the dark knight and do it badly, I had alot of problems with it, some to do with Talia al ghul but I forgot half of my problems with it, the movies just that unmemorable.

have'nt watched the wire but i've heard alot about it, my friends brother keeps having a go at us to watch it.
And I really need to watch Kurosawa's movies at some point, not just because they're meant to be fantastic movies but also because Yojimbo inspired my favorite director of all time Sergio Leone, who I will not rant about now because god help me once I start ranting I don't stop.

[Doolio]

Speaking of which Doolio you ever seen an anime called Welcome to the N.H.K, watched it years back and I plan to rewatch it soon but in terms of characters its actually a very deep anime, you'd probbly enjoy it :).

Ah, Eduardo suggested it to me and I watched it like two weeks ago:D
I liked it quite a bit, I think the thinking processes of main character(s) were done excellently. The development of overthink patterns, for example.

lol, I somehow didn't know that fullmetal jacket was made by Kubrick:) It's one of my favourite movies lol:) I just forgot to mention it.

love most of Nolans movie, they have that hollywood cheese yeah but in terms of characters they are much deeper then most of hollywood say like micheal bay or emmerichs movies, besides being an addict for crazy villains I fell in love with Heath's joker, the third movie though....speakin as someone who adores the first two, Dark knight rises sucked, Tom hardy was awesome as bane but 99% of the movie felt like hey lets just copy the dark knight and do it badly, I had alot of problems with it, some to do with Talia al ghul but I forgot half of my problems with it, the movies just that unmemorable.

Yes, of course, Nolan has nothing to do with Emmerich or Bay, I mean, for me, they are so much trivialized and "hollywoodized" that they are living parodies of that approach, sadly, unnintentionally:)
But, that's exactly why I have a slight "problem" with Nolan. I mean, if I enter the "yay movies pew pew" mode, I LOVE Nolan. But, on the other hand, I have a strong impression that he wants to do something without actually doing it. I mean, for example, look at the dark knight rises. I'm not talking about quality, I'm talking about approach. Nolan kinda tried to criticize pure capitalism and then he was like "nah, I better not" and the result is a messy mess of messiness and blandness:) It's quite hard to try and go non-hollywood while in fact going pro-hollywood, so I think he should decide or simply make quality blockbusters without analyzing much, because he is an EXCELLENT director per se. Or go and make indie movies for million times less money that now, but with freedom to actually do some analysis and question some things.
That's why if I don't enter the lollywood mode, I might criticize Nolan even more than Emmerich:)

But yeah, for me, Emmerich is so unbelievable in his emmerichness that it's ridiculous:) I really, really can't fathom how he makes movies, all taken into consideration. I can understand even Bay (pew pew orange blue pew pew slapstick pew pew moneyz splosions), but Emmerich went like five circles in the most stupid direction with his movies that I would think even the most ridiculous kinds of viewers would find his movies simply bad and too much over the top.

And I really need to watch Kurosawa's movies at some point, not just because they're meant to be fantastic movies but also because Yojima inspired my favorite director of all time Sergio Leone, who I will not rant about now because god help me once I start ranting I don't stop.

rant? You meant praise?:)
Well, if you like Leone, then yeah, you should close the forums now and go watch Kurosawa, you'll like it:)

[Triggerpigking]

Ah, Eduardo suggested it to me and I watched it like two weeks ago:D
I liked it quite a bit, I think the thinking processes of main character(s) were done excellently. The development of overthink patterns, for example.

yeah Eduardo actually reccomended it to me too before I mentioned i already watched it, it was such a long time ago I barely remember the series aside from loving it(I was 13 or 14 when I first watched it I think)

lol, I somehow didn't know that fullmetal jacket was made by Kubrick:) It's one of my favourite movies lol:) I just forgot to mention it.

Yeah that movies great, while I do remember the first half being better then the second and the shift being a bit jarring, I honestly can't remember what I thought of the second half of it, I should rewatch that as well.

Yes, of course, Nolan has nothing to do with Emmerich or Bay, I mean, for me, they are so much trivialized and "hollywoodized" that they are living parodies of that approach, sadly, unnintentionally:)
But, that's exactly why I have a slight "problem" with Nolan. I mean, if I enter the "yay movies pew pew" mode, I LOVE Nolan. But, on the other hand, I have a strong impression that he wants to do something without actually doing it. I mean, for example, look at the dark knight rises. I'm not talking about quality, I'm talking about approach. Nolan kinda tried to criticize pure capitalism and then he was like "nah, I better not" and the result is a messy mess of messiness and blandness:) It's quite hard to try and go non-hollywood while in fact going pro-hollywood, so I think he should decide or simply make quality blockbusters without analyzing much, because he is an EXCELLENT director per se. Or go and make indie movies for million times less money that now, but with freedom to actually do some analysis and question some things.
That's why if I don't enter the lollywood mode, I might criticize Nolan even more than Emmerich:)

Them two were probbly bad examples to compare to Nolan, but they're the only two hollywood examples I could think up of the top of my head, I actually find Bay alot more annoying then Emmerich while his movies are awful atleast some of his older ones are atleast somewhat fun.
Bay...I find his movies downright offensive sometimes, fuck I even got really annoyed at what he was doing to transformers and I don't even like them, I just know how much of an impact they've had and see him clearly ruining them.
Nolan, I think he has the capacity to make a more deeper movie if he tried but he defineitly shys away from it like you said(weirdly I never noticed the capitalism thing in rises, I think my brain was asleep by that point).
I think Nolan mainly excels at characters especially villains, which is once again my problem with 3, you can't just pull Talia out of a hat and expect people to like her after giving her a quick crappy backstory synopsis, catwoman as well was just bland, Bane really was the only saving grace of that film if only because Tom Hardy is a great actor.
So yeah while his movies are mainly just fun blockbusters I think they do have some complexity to them if only because of the characters....just to hell with 3 seriously...my dislike of that movie has only gotten worse over time.

rant? You meant praise?:)
Well, if you like Leone, then yeah, you should close the forums now and go watch Kurosawa, you'll like it:)

lol, I tend to use the word rant to mean just speaking or typing at length about something regardless of if I love it or hate it, don't know why actually it just became a habit of mine at some point I guess.

[Doolio]

weirdly I never noticed the capitalism thing in rises, I think my brain was asleep by that point

Well, basically the whole movie is about that, on one side you have catwoman and bane and on the other gotham. And then you have batman, who is filthy rich, but uses that resources to "fight crime", but then again, by being rich, he inevitably is part of the problem because there is only fixed amount of "wealth" in the world blah blah blah distribution blah blah corruption blah exploatation etc. Whole agenda is about that disbalance.
So, he started with basically a criticism of all that and then he changed his mind and decided to revert it in a bit weak and bland way - "well, yeah, that's bad but the alternative (bane's idea) is even worse", and at the end of the movie he went full circle and we have a rich couple (minus some relatively insignificant sum, for orphanage and stuff) enjoying their richness and youth somewhere in Florence (was it florence?) and not giving fuck:)

Well, this is extremely compactly put, but you get the gist of things:) So at the end, we have a movie that starts to say something, but not too much, then wants to say something else, but not too much, and then doesn't say anything:) It's like, guys, I wanted to say something, but I don't want anybody to be angry with me, so then I said everything and got a big "wat?":)
I mean, don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a movie that doesn't "tackle stuff". But this movie does want to do it, but then it doesn't. And that's the problem. He could have either made a pew pew batman with expensive cgi and actors etc. or some other analytic social variant, but he decided on neither and it shows.

I guess you simply haven't thought about it while watching the movie. But, for example, if you were to watch it again, you would see the parable being made in every other sentence:)

Speaking of that, it's something that I recently discovered in Nolan's movies and it started to kinda bother me:) There are no ordinary shots or even more so, ordinary lines or dialogues in his movies. EVERYTHING is epic and important and foreshadowing or some kind of pun or grand statement. It can be a bit tiring when you realize it and start to see it:) You know, you could have a random girl bying milk at a random store and it would be something like "miss, that would be 2.99. hm, the storm is coming" -"yes, who knows what tomorrow brings". and then some zoomed in fade to black:) EVERY TIME IN EVERY CONVERSATION:)

Maybe he needs more "pillow shots" or scenes or whatever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9WEyuMq0Yk (5:00)

But nevertheless, Nolan is for me the most respected blockbuster director and perhaps an epitome of what a good blockbuster director should do. But if I continue to criticize him, I could add that his movies have a lot of "shock value" - in a sense where the awesome directing and acting (and moneyz) simply conceal some stupid stuff. Almost every time I watch his movie I'm like DAYUM THIS IS SO AWESOOOOOMEEEE and if I watch it for the second time, there are a lot of "less pretty truths" that start to sprout when I'm not "blinded by awesomeness":)

For me, Nolan excels in directing, in the purest sense of the word:) In a sense that he can overwhelm you with that skill of his and you'll be immersed and 90% scenes would make an impact on you, even if objectively that shouldn't be the case. If I wanted a scene of me writing this be epic, dark and impactful, I would hire him and he would pull it off somehow:) And it wouldn't be over the top or cheesy (like with bay/emmerich). I don't know how, but somehow he would:)

Well, yeah, Emmerich and Bay are for me, THE most ridiculous parody of hollywood there is:) I don't necessarily put one before the other as they are very close in that regard, at least for me... Maybe a director that's "blockbusterry ridiculous" but not disgusting would be James Cameron - I see him as a shallow master craftsman:) He goes and takes EVERY single cliche there is and makes the movie out of them and that movie turns out to be quite watchable blockbuster and I even care for the characters at the end:) But of course, there is literally no trace of anything worth thinking about in his movies.

[Amit Dutta]

Yeah sorry, i did use the wrong choice of word. :) not bagging the discussion at all, more power to it. Hehe, just I got quickly ass deep into a discussion that wasn't what I expected...was just being a tad sarcastic.

Anyway Doolio, I totally get your anti-hype stance. I will raise your anti-hype stance by one anti-mainstream stance. I am guilty of this and so am often dubious about recommendations like this made to me. In fact I begrdugingly watched the wire fully expecting it to be crap and over hyped, but besides one other show, it totally surprised me, which is why I now do what I never do with movies or tv, and that is recommend it to others. I won't go any further because I will leave the treat of discovering it to your own timeframe, but in terms of a non norm character, hardcore bad ass black gay projects stickup dude. It sounds almost like some ridiculous caricature but he was one of my favorite characters in the series. All the characters show real nuance and development and just feel real. It's not forced...it doesn't use "grittiness" as a tool, for example shitty hand held non steadycam camera work that we've all seen...it feels gritty because the characters and situations feel so real. The acting and dialogue is superb too. What happens when you have actually good script writers working for you. Hollywood assholes could learn a lot from this team. It's basically the way real tv shows should be...ie teach you something insightful about yourslef, something about the world as well as be plain entertaining. But yeah, enough said.
I love Kubrick, I totally gel with his stuff, so yeah funny how different we all see things. Tarkovsky absolutely blew me away. Valhalla rising I enjoyed, but i sensed an undercurrent of trying a bit too hard to be vague for the sake of it which I didn't really like so much.

Btw Doolio, as the anime buff what do you think of serial experiments Lain? I figure it would be right up your alley. I loved it.

Oh damn also....if you haven't seen it yet... Twin Peaks!!
David Lynch is seriously messed and awesome. Also what about David Cronenberg stuff? Existenz, naked lunch, the fly, scanners, videodrome etc

And I like Nolan, enjoyable brain-off food and an entertaining 3 hours or whatever, but if he is the best of the bunch well....for me personally, I'm just so over this lame superhero tripe/meme hollywood just won't leave alone until it's flogged and bleeding and they extract every last cent out of it. Its almost like the two hour or whatever long scene of jesus walking up to golgotha in the passion of the christ, with multiple and repeated slow motion collapsings and gettings up...just put him, me and everone else out of our misery already. What could have been done in 5 minutes was dragged and scraped over hours. I guess i just think most superheros are past their use by date in terms of relevance to current society, but I'm probably in the extremely small minority on that one.I mean for f@s sake, they already treat us like morons by forcing their regurgitated crap onto us, which we seem to keep going to and paying for. I have a brain. I like having it. I particularly enjoy when it is suitably stimulated, not dulled down by the other hordes of moronic zombies that seems to be the target audience of blockbusters these days.

I also don't quite get the attitude of,"if you switch your brain off it will be fun" ala pacific rim and its ilk. And i was so let down considering it was a del toro movie....i mean wtf happened???..pan's labyrinth, pacific rim, pan's labyrinth, pacific rim. What the absolute f@ck del toro? Talk about totally losing your mojo. I actually watched the original Gojira for the first time back to back before watching PRim and I can honestly say Gojira was the better movie in almost every way, including the effects! A dude in a gojira suit is beyond entertainment value :) I mean are we really at that stage with an art form, where turning off your thinking functioning bits is considered a need to have to enjoy something. I may as well just draw hentai or furry porn, tell people to switch off their brains and it will be good, and not worry about a damn thing from then on.Jesus. Don't get me started,

[EduardoGaray]

Speaking of which Doolio you ever seen an anime called Welcome to the N.H.K, watched it years back and I plan to rewatch it soon but in terms of characters its actually a very deep anime, you'd probbly enjoy it :).
Ah, Eduardo suggested it to me and I watched it like two weeks ago:D
I liked it quite a bit, I think the thinking processes of main character(s) were done excellently. The development of overthink patterns, for example.

I just started to watch Welcome to the NHK again. xD

Also, seeing that Monkeybread mentioned it, i was interested in Serial experiments Lain, but seeing that is considered the "Evangelion" of Seinen i highly doubt i will be able to even grasp what the show is about.
The one i started watching is Texhnolyze, because i'm addicted to Tsutomu Nihei's work (The guy behind mangas like Blame! or Biomega, and also the Halo graphic novel and some wolverine comics) and i needed something even remotely similar in anime format.

I got what i wanted.
A depressive cyberpunk setting, body horror, action, and so far an interesting story.
And very different from your usual anime.

[Doolio]

Anyway Doolio, I totally get your anti-hype stance. I will raise your anti-hype stance by one anti-mainstream stance. I am guilty of this and so am often dubious about recommendations like this made to me. In fact I begrdugingly watched the wire fully expecting it to be crap and over hyped, but besides one other show, it totally surprised me, which is why I now do what I never do with movies or tv, and that is recommend it to others. I won't go any further because I will leave the treat of discovering it to your own timeframe, but in terms of a non norm character, hardcore bad ass black gay projects stickup dude. It sounds almost like some ridiculous caricature but he was one of my favorite characters in the series. All the characters show real nuance and development and just feel real. It's not forced...it doesn't use "grittiness" as a tool, for example shitty hand held non steadycam camera work that we've all seen...it feels gritty because the characters and situations feel so real. The acting and dialogue is superb too. What happens when you have actually good script writers working for you. Hollywood assholes could learn a lot from this team. It's basically the way real tv shows should be...ie teach you something insightful about yourslef, something about the world as well as be plain entertaining. But yeah, enough said.
I love Kubrick, I totally gel with his stuff, so yeah funny how different we all see things. Tarkovsky absolutely blew me away. Valhalla rising I enjoyed, but i sensed an undercurrent of trying a bit too hard to be vague for the sake of it which I didn't really like so much.

Yeah, it's very satisfying when you actually get blown away by something you approached like "oh, okay, just shut up already, I'll watch that piece of crap":D
What you wrote is essentially what everybody told me about the wire, it does seem they succeeded in bringing in the authenticity, which is something almost nonexistant in high level movies and series these days (or on the other hand, ridiculously overplayed, so you get the same old fantasy characters but on the angsty and gritty end of the spectrum:) ).

About hollywood assholes:) well, they clearly don't WANT to learn, as it's going quite good for them doing what they do, due to extremely large target audience. I often get a bit skewed picture, being surrounded with, well, more "normal" people, so sometimes I get the impression that hollywood is facing some kind of inbred fail (when I talk with people and realize that ten out of ten sees movie x as a fail), and then I see which movies earned what amount of money and adjust my perception:)

Yes, that's exactly problem with valhalla rising. It clicked with me emotionally and I (thought?) I got it to some relatively high degree, but then again, who knows. And I absolutely can't pinpoint some kind of objective value of that movie.

Btw Doolio, as the anime buff what do you think of serial experiments Lain? I figure it would be right up your alley. I loved it.

It's in my "to do" list:)
Actually, I went into anime -relatively- short time ago (I mean, I always liked it when I run into it or something, but never to a, say, hobby degree) as an "expatriate viewer", mainly from hollywood:) And, while I quickly caught up with it (I watched like 100 titles or something), I've yet to watch bunch of cult shows - common "problem" when you enter something that's already established. And, as with everything, a lot of cult shows are cult for reasons other than quality, or they were the first to do something but aren't that good objectively etc. So basically, being old enough not to be mesmerized by "hipsterized approach" I tend to watch something that I deem as good, regardless of it being "classical literature" or not:) So, if I was going into the tv series now, I would watch The Wire because it's good and probably "comfortably modern" for my senses, instead of "friends" or something.
Long story short, I've yet to get to serial experiment lain, but I'll watch it in some near future (I have it). I've heard a lot of different opinions about it (then again, lol, look at evangelion and opinions:) ).

Generally, speaking of anime, to my joy, the industry as a whole (still) pays attention to characterization and also doesn't mind doing whatever it takes to bring out the intended message - for example, killing the characters or doing irreversible things to them or simply having a well rounded arc without cliffhangers in hope of prolonging the series based on nothing etc. Of course, not in all the cases, but still. And also, I've found even the most lighthearted anime shows, targeted at teens or kids, having subcontexts and developed characters, which I found almost disturbing in a way, when I compare it to their western counterparts:)
I am always fascinated by, for example, their coming of age shows, which always treat the subject as "let's learn what's life, good and bad and let's mature and handle stuff" as opposed to "blind girl sees at the end" type of thing we see in usa shows of the same nature:)

Also, they have some weird fascination with freud, jung and such, I guess it's new and interesting to them, so they tend to apply it vigorously:)

Oh damn also....if you haven't seen it yet... Twin Peaks!!
David Lynch is seriously messed and awesome. Also what about David Cronenberg stuff? Existenz, naked lunch, the fly, scanners, videodrome etc

I watched Twin Peaks, but I shouldn't count that, as I watched it when it aired, so yeah:)

With Cronenberg I have an "issue", basically, his directing doesn't seem to click with me, I always find his movies to be kinda blunt but they don't make an impact on me, I don't know how to describe it. I have a feeling that if me and Cronenberg were like an inch closer, we would be cool buddies, but that inch is firmly set between us:D

And I like Nolan, enjoyable brain-off food and an entertaining 3 hours or whatever, but if he is the best of the bunch well....for me personally, I'm just so over this lame superhero tripe/meme hollywood just won't leave alone until it's flogged and bleeding and they extract every last cent out of it. Its almost like the two hour or whatever long scene of jesus walking up to golgotha in the passion of the christ, with multiple and repeated slow motion collapsings and gettings up...just put him, me and everone else out of our misery already. What could have been done in 5 minutes was dragged and scraped over hours. I guess i just think most superheros are past their use by date in terms of relevance to current society, but I'm probably in the extremely small minority on that one.I mean for f@s sake, they already treat us like morons by forcing their regurgitated crap onto us, which we seem to keep going to and paying for. I have a brain. I like having it. I particularly enjoy when it is suitably stimulated, not dulled down by the other hordes of moronic zombies that seems to be the target audience of blockbusters these days.

I also don't quite get the attitude of,"if you switch your brain off it will be fun" ala pacific rim and its ilk. And i was so let down considering it was a del toro movie....i mean wtf happened???..pan's labyrinth, pacific rim, pan's labyrinth, pacific rim. What the absolute f@ck del toro? Talk about totally losing your mojo. I actually watched the original Gojira for the first time back to back before watching PRim and I can honestly say Gojira was the better movie in almost every way, including the effects! A dude in a gojira suit is beyond entertainment value :) I mean are we really at that stage with an art form, where turning off your thinking functioning bits is considered a need to have to enjoy something. I may as well just draw hentai or furry porn, tell people to switch off their brains and it will be good, and not worry about a damn thing from then on.Jesus. Don't get me started,

Ah, with that, I developed some kind of proactive compromised approach, as I think it works both in my favor and in favor of those "shitty" movies when I watch them:)

For example, let's say we have an "art tier list". In tier1, we could put, for example, Dostoyevsky, Bach, Michelangelo etc. In tier2 there could be mendelsohn, nabokov etc, tier4 could have the godfather, tier7 Rocky, some one hit wonder pop bands, tier10 could be sharknado etc. (I semi-randomly put these, blah). Well, I have no problem with any of those tiers:) In my case, there's time and place for everything and I can enjoy bunch of stuff. And, if some of those stuff have some kind of "requirement", such as that the viewer helps a bit with willingly maintaining his suspension of disbelief, so be it. If the end result is positive for that viewer. Kind of that arrogant friend you have but who's good at basketball, so you "emotionally calculated" that, even though you hate his arrogance, you like playing basketball with him, so you decided to keep in touch after all.
And, of course, you reap the best rewards when enjoying tier1 stuff, but you also pay in time and energy to be able to enjoy that stuff (if you don't read, you won't be able to comprehend tier1 books) and people have limited capacity, so for example, I can enjoy tier1 literature, but not tier1 music - and I'm not talking about taste, I am literally too low a level for it:)

BUT, but, but, Pacific Rim isn't something that's on this list, for me. It's in a special tier - fail tier:D Fail tier is reserved for stuff that's, well, bad:) My policy is that you can have a badly executed sharknado and a good executed sharknado. Even the good one is trash and a shitty movie (regardless of whether it's intentional or not), but you get what you bargained for. The problem is when a movie (or book or whatever) behaves and aims for a higher tier than that movie actually is (we could call it pretentiousness perhaps). And I think that's the problem with Pacific Rim. Now, I must say, when I say "higher tier", it doesn't have to be shitty movie that goes for andrei rublov tier:) It could be like a one or two tier difference:)
So, for me, if Pacific Rim was a bit more stupid, it would be fine. I would watch it as an overly-over the top action parody. Or if it was a bit less stupid:) But as it is, it's simply in some limbo when it tries to be a "normal" expensive action movie, but instead it's sharknado, but doesn't take itself for a sharknado:) For example, actors do parody their respective archetypes, but not enough - so you get that kind of undefined bad acting instead of either "normal acting" or full over the top acting.

And you mentioned godzila. The same thing I think I experienced when I was watching that new Clash of the titans, more specifically the medusa fight. In original, the medusa scene was genuinely eery and uncomfortable to the point. In the new movie, it was just mediocre and stupid. And I'm the LAST guy to blabber about "good old times" and carry the analogue camera and type on the typewriter:D It's not about that, it's just better craft-wise.

So, while I understand the "turn of the brain and enjoy the ride" approach (that doesn't mean I approve of neglecting the other stuff!), for me, Pacific Rim is just a bad movie and it's badness is due to the movie being bad, not because it's brainless per se:) A good brainless movie I can enjoy.

As for superhero trend, well, on the one hand, I like deconstruction/reconstruction stuff, and the new superhero movies try to go a wee lil bit in that direction. On the other hand, 90% of them are crap:)

Then again, I value authenticity, characterization and psychoanalysis the most (when in "normal mode" or perhaps "cultural enlightenment mode", not the "let's ride the brainless train" mode:) ). So, in that serious business mode, I tend to disregard plot and genre completely. So, a movie about a man going to buy bread and getting embarrassed because he didn't bring the wallet could very well top my list if it's executed with authenticity and insight. That's why I like Evangelion for example, as it wouldn't gain or lose anything if it was set in a family bakery or, say, in a form of discussion. I like Dostoyevsky for the same reason. Then again, you need something to work with - a forgotten wallet or an axed granny:D And superhero concept offers a beautiful field for doing all kinds of stuff. Unfortunatelly, I NEVER saw it happen.

is considered the "Evangelion" of Seinen

ahaha, now I have to see it:)
Sometimes they get really odd with classifications because they tend to mix genres, settings and demographics:) I mean, evangelion is, for example, shounen mecha, because you know, there are kids and there are robots, voila:) I mean, ok, I guess Lord of the flies is shounen also:)
Then again, there isn't that much genre stuff that can't be described simply by being in that genre. Again, I think it's due to the capacity of the author. You can't write Brothers Karamasov in Middle Earth because you simply can't accomplish it. Though I've heard that the Witcher series are in fact "brothers karamasov in middle earth" and I've heard the same (but sci fi wise) about Hyperion. Well, not that it has anything to do with cinematography, so I'll stop here:)

[Amit Dutta]

Lol....I watched twin peaks on a vhs boxset I think...I didnt have tv growing up in Africa so missed most things until I turned 18 and left. :)

Yep, I agree with you about the tier thing to some degree. I'm not saying I can't enjoy well made "low brow" movies...I grew up in the 80s, I can tolerate and enjoy a lot of cheese too. I just can't tolerate poorly made crap that make millions of dollars because they make me feel somehow stupider as a human being...like if aliens showed up, I'd have to excuse the bulk of humanity's poor taste in movies. Granted not everything that makes a lot of money is bad. I definitely look more to other places for decent fare. The french have a wonderful little industry that produces really great movies, then of course the old gold masterpieces, and arthouse and indie stuff.
I refuse to pay money any more to keep getting fed Hollywood's studio financiers idea of what the audience wants. By doing so we just perpetuate the crap by rewarding it. I'm sure there are lots of great movie makers in the mire, but they can't get their stuff out past all the shlock. Then again there is always a rising suspicicion in my mind that shlock is actually what people like in the States more than other places because of the local audience's general ignorance of the wider world and so it gets beamed out to the rest of us as well....the scary thing for me is that we seem on masse to lap it up too.

[Psychotime]

Just saw the original Assault on Precinct 13. That wasn't bad at all.

In the last half hour I was starting to think it felt like a zombie movie without the zombies (but being a 70's movie I didn't have any problem with it. To be clear, I think zombies need to stop these days). Then I looked it up and yeah, Carpenter was going for a little bit of Night of the Living Dead. Just with deranged cultist gang members who don't fear death.

He was also going for Rio Bravo, which is a Howard Hawks movie, so I'll make sure to watch it.

[Psychotime]

Just saw Robocop (1987)

I haven't seen this movie since I was 6 years old, but it was so worth seeing again.

Yeah, I'm not gonna bother with the remake.

[EduardoGaray]

Just watched the ending of Texhnolyze, when this song plays... i have to say, it was the most absolutely deppresing, heart wrenching, soul crushing ending i've ever seen. Yet, beautiful, in a really sad and strange way. Moved me to tears, such a masterpiece!