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Random movie thoughts

Kevinicus

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But is that a BOLD font, or just a LARGE one?
 

Gaith

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Either way, I've avoided it, for exactly that reason. :-D
 

TV's Frink

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Gaith said:
Either way, I've avoided it, for exactly that reason. :-D
mindblownp1.gif
 

TV's Frink

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TV's Frink said:
Crap, I just used this in another thread and forgot I already used it here. I try not to repeat these. Please forgive me everyone. ;)
 

Omaru1982

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nOmArch said:
Aahhh Deuce Bigelo one of my most guilty pleasures.

I got to a stage where my friend would select it every few weeks, I thought I was being witty by calling it 'Douche Bagelow'
Then that term was used in the sequel and I forever bit my tongue on the matter.
 

Gaith

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Fight Club - I gave up a bit more than part-way through


fightclub.jpg



Roger Ebert:
Although sensible people know that if you hit someone with an ungloved hand hard enough, you're going to end up with broken bones, the guys in "Fight Club" have fists of steel, and hammer one another while the sound effects guys beat the hell out of Naugahyde sofas with Ping-Pong paddles.

... Helena Bonham Carter creates a feisty chain-smoking hellcat who is probably so angry because none of the guys thinks having sex with her is as much fun as a broken nose.... Women, who have had a lifetime of practice at dealing with little-boy posturing, will instinctively see through it; men may get off on the testosterone rush.​
Well, at least one man didn't - Nathan Rabin, AV Club:
A tremendous technical accomplishment, a masterpiece of set design, editing, scoring, and precise direction. [But...] Everything about it conveys a smug, adolescent nihilism that's as emotionally powerful as it is shallow, and while it may be interpreted as an anti-fascist/anti-cult parable, it also draws most of its power from the same conformist, hyper-masculine ideology.

... [It] never really has any humanity to speak of.​
One of the pleasures of reading Ebert's reviews is that of watching him toss off piercing insights, such as the one about Carter's Marla Singer. Why does the unnamed protagonist (a cheap writer's trick that must be offset with genuine dramatic energy to work; see, Ewan McGregor's lovable rube The Ghost Writer) not forget all about Tyler Durden and lose himself in the delights of such a lithe and pliant barbie doll of a Hollywood Love Interst? The movie doesn't bother to offer an explanation, which can only be interpreted to mean: "because the plot requires him not to." At their cores, both The Ghost Writer and Fight Club carry sophomoric and hollow statements about the World at Large, but only one of them bothers to wrap it in a compelling narrative and lively characters.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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yes, Fight Club isn't nearly as much charming fun as Fired Up...

























...

big_lebowski_3.jpg

 

Gaith

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It sure the hell isn't. And Fired Up! is a good fifty minutes shorter, also. ;)
 

nOmArch

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Well it is the random movie thoughts thread, and I think that definitely qualifies!
 

Rogue-theX

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Dont eat anything while watching The Host. Just dont.
:fish2: :spider: :pizza:
vomit-boy01-vomit-puke-sick-smiley-emoticon-000652-large.gif
 

theslime

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while it may be interpreted as an anti-fascist/anti-cult parable, it also draws most of its power from the same conformist, hyper-masculine ideology.
Nathan Rabin is completely right about this. (And it's interesting to see how a lot of people love Fight Club for all the wrong reasons.) I fail to see, however, why having this weird dynamic in a film is a bad thing. It's what makes it interesting. Why does it have to believe in its own "power"? Depicting it should be enough.

To put it in a different way: The minute you understand that Chuck Palahniuk (and Fincher) may not actually be cheering Tyler on, is the minute it goes from entertaining spectacle to genuine food for thought. He doesn't just pull the narrative rug out from under the viewers, he pulls the ideological rug too. That's why the twist - which seemed gimmicky to me on first viewing - is essential, and it's why I don't buy Ebert's and Rabin's conclusions. (Both have good points, and are interesting to read, though.)
 

nOmArch

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That's absolutely brilliant news, and about god-damn-time!
 

veggieguy12

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Fight Club spoilers here!

Gaith said:
Roger Ebert:"...a feisty chain-smoking hellcat [character Marla Singer] who is probably so angry because none of the guys thinks having sex with her is as much fun as a broken nose...."
Wait a sec - when did Marla ever see "the guys"? All she ever saw was Edward Norton's 'Narrator' character. Tyler Durden does not exist, and she only saw anyone from Project Mayhem when she stopped into the house one time, and later when they retrieve her from the Greyhound bus and bring her to the Narrator in the empty skyscraper. She's angry (more miserable, was my understanding) because she hasn't led a life worth living. And she's lonely. She acts-out for attention.

Gaith said:
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: "Everything about it conveys a smug, adolescent nihilism that's as emotionally powerful as it is shallow, and while it may be interpreted as an anti-fascist/anti-cult parable, it also draws most of its power from the same conformist, hyper-masculine ideology."
Who interprets this as an anti-fascist parable or a warning against cults? Is that a common take on the movie? I thought it was much more about being comfortable with who you are, living a life you will feel satisfied with, taking chances toward your goals, abandoning the notions of consumer society, rejecting advertising's mission, resisting corporate monopoly of culture, and accepting death as inevitable & not to be feared. Nihilism? It's hardly nihilistic. The narrator's alter-ego tells him to re-make himself, and he does, and the alter-ego very nearly comes to takeover the actual person. This movie is about sanity, and losing it, but also (or in doing so) giving-up on the superfluous things that we allow or even choose to be bound with.

Gaith said:
Why does the unnamed protagonist ...not forget all about Tyler Durden and lose himself in the delights of such a lithe and pliant barbie doll of a Hollywood Love Interst? The movie doesn't bother to offer an explanation, which can only be interpreted to mean: "because the plot requires him not to."
Norton's character had no girlfriend, no pornos, no calendar pin-up girl, no calling a phone-sex 900-number - could it be that he just isn't a highly sexual person, or that he's so buried in working, and striving to attain that one more bit of completion (the new shelf, the latest hi-tech saltshaker, the coolest dining table) toward perfection that he just doesn't really live, I mean really live, or even interact with anyone? Who are his friends? A single one is not shown. And he is constantly traveling, fails to get adequate sleep, frequently deals with death and injury found suddenly as the result of corporate greed and disregard - might these factor explain the psychotic break he undergoes, resulting in the formation of a drastically different personality he elects to 'follow' and have lead him?

It's not that the plot requires Norton to stay unaware of his delusion about Pitt, it's that the audience does; if I wanted to see a movie about a character having a mental problem and getting treatment and recovering in the typical, common ways, I'd TiVo the Lifetime Network for a couple days. There are movies about mental disorders and their treatments; to me, this is another, but the story Palahniuk gave us has the character go untreated and venture so far from his day-to-day world with his schizoid personality, that is why I like this film.

Gaith said:
I gave up a bit more than part-way through
Oh, well that explains a lot. If you're not bothered by the spoilers above, maybe you should watch the whole thing. You'd have a better ground for your critique, if you still hold that position by the end.
 

Gaith

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Oh, I've read all the spoilers. I knew the big spoiler going in, actually. :)

veggieguy12 said:
Norton's character had no girlfriend, no pornos, no calendar pin-up girl, no calling a phone-sex 900-number - could it be that he just isn't a highly sexual person, or that he's so buried in working, and striving to attain that one more bit of completion (the new shelf, the latest hi-tech saltshaker, the coolest dining table) toward perfection that he just doesn't really live, I mean really live, or even interact with anyone? Who are his friends? A single one is not shown. And he is constantly traveling, fails to get adequate sleep, frequently deals with death and injury found suddenly as the result of corporate greed and disregard - might these factor explain the psychotic break he undergoes, resulting in the formation of a drastically different personality he elects to 'follow' and have lead him?

... maybe you should watch the whole thing.
That's what you said. Here's my mental gut reaction:

veggieguy12 said:
Norton's character is that of a boring idiot.

... maybe you should watch the whole thing.
Not going to finish a movie that bored me about a boring protagonist, sorry. ;)
 
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