The last movie you saw
i saw an anime film in the theatre last night (for the first time ever, unless you count watching Princess Mononoke on a large screen in FILM 1000); it was called Paprika, and it was about the theft a device that allows you to control your own dreams which is being used for psychotherapy. The thief then begins to influence the subconscious minds of other people through their dreams, leading to a blurring of the line between murder and mayhem.
So, The Cell meets eXistenZ meets The Matrix.
The plot, in its overall structure, was incredibly simplistic and cliché, but the way that you can portray dreams in an animated environment is simply far superior to anything that can be done with live actors, despite ridiculous leaps and bounds in CGI these past few years. The dream sequences are often really, really cool, and I wish I had been high for this film (it's trippier than Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly) but what can you do.
There was some really great music, too; I'm not sure if it was newly composed or just sampled from elsewhere. But there were also some annoying "happy hardcore" techno tracks in there.
One thing I really liked about this film was its self-consciousness. Postmodernism is really more fun in cinema than any other medium (imo), and the characters repeatedly discuss movies and how they influence their dreams.
(SEMI-SPOILER: Right near the beginning, one of the main characters is dreaming, and his dream recreates, shot-for-shot, scenes from Roman Holiday, From Russia With Love, and a couple other movies, except with him and his therapist in the place of the characters. I was really proud that I recognized those two -- there were a few more films but I didn't recognize them at first, I don't think, and I forget what they were now. But I've never really seen anything like that before, not just explicitly referencing a scene to another movie, but doing so in anime made it really cool.)
There was more I was gonna say but I'm hung over and I have to shit, so go see Paprika, I'll give it a 7.75 out of 10.
So, The Cell meets eXistenZ meets The Matrix.
The plot, in its overall structure, was incredibly simplistic and cliché, but the way that you can portray dreams in an animated environment is simply far superior to anything that can be done with live actors, despite ridiculous leaps and bounds in CGI these past few years. The dream sequences are often really, really cool, and I wish I had been high for this film (it's trippier than Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly) but what can you do.
There was some really great music, too; I'm not sure if it was newly composed or just sampled from elsewhere. But there were also some annoying "happy hardcore" techno tracks in there.
One thing I really liked about this film was its self-consciousness. Postmodernism is really more fun in cinema than any other medium (imo), and the characters repeatedly discuss movies and how they influence their dreams.
(SEMI-SPOILER: Right near the beginning, one of the main characters is dreaming, and his dream recreates, shot-for-shot, scenes from Roman Holiday, From Russia With Love, and a couple other movies, except with him and his therapist in the place of the characters. I was really proud that I recognized those two -- there were a few more films but I didn't recognize them at first, I don't think, and I forget what they were now. But I've never really seen anything like that before, not just explicitly referencing a scene to another movie, but doing so in anime made it really cool.)
There was more I was gonna say but I'm hung over and I have to shit, so go see Paprika, I'll give it a 7.75 out of 10.
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[xeno]Julios
- Posts: 6216
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 1999 8:00 am
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[xeno]Julios
- Posts: 6216
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 1999 8:00 am
ahaha i love this review:
...Many religious, philosophical and political organizations hand out annual awards to films that best embody their beliefs, such as Peta's "best animal-friendly movie."
If nihilists have such a group, its hands-down best picture of 2007 will be "28 Weeks Later."
This is a bitter and pointless sequel to Danny Boyle's terrifying and gripping "28 Days Later," a surprise hit from the summer of 2002. Where "28 Days" was a horrific tale of survival, "28 Weeks" is a horrific tale of slaughter.
Most post-apocalyptic thrillers make you wonder if humanity will survive before the film ends. This one makes you wonder how much of your own humanity will be lost before then.
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[xeno]Julios
- Posts: 6216
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 1999 8:00 am
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Tormentius
- Posts: 4108
- Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 8:00 am
Transformers
wwtt/10
seriously. before translating a concept like this, first decide what kind of movie you want to make. you can go realistic Clancy-esque (Enemy of the State), or teenieboppy (Spiderman), lighthearted over the top (Men in Black) or even overly dramatic (Pearl Harbor). but for the love of all that likes cheese, dont try all four of them.
it was the overly eclectic script that killed this movie, not the inconsistencies with the comics/cartoons and (obligatory) changes.
and im not a tranfsformers purist at all so no I didnt write this off because Bumblebee was a camaro
wwtt/10
seriously. before translating a concept like this, first decide what kind of movie you want to make. you can go realistic Clancy-esque (Enemy of the State), or teenieboppy (Spiderman), lighthearted over the top (Men in Black) or even overly dramatic (Pearl Harbor). but for the love of all that likes cheese, dont try all four of them.
it was the overly eclectic script that killed this movie, not the inconsistencies with the comics/cartoons and (obligatory) changes.
and im not a tranfsformers purist at all so no I didnt write this off because Bumblebee was a camaro
[rant]
One thing I never understood with movie/book/etc reviews is the concept of half-points. If you're going to give a x.5/10 rating, why not just make it a 20 point scale?
I think the .5 is just for people who can't make up their mind between two numbers. 5 is not bad, 6 is okay, 7 is good, 8 is great, 9 is fantastic, 10 is perfect. A half point is like some wishy-washy answer like, "it was really good but not great, I kinda liked it, umm... 7.5."
[/rant].
One thing I never understood with movie/book/etc reviews is the concept of half-points. If you're going to give a x.5/10 rating, why not just make it a 20 point scale?
I think the .5 is just for people who can't make up their mind between two numbers. 5 is not bad, 6 is okay, 7 is good, 8 is great, 9 is fantastic, 10 is perfect. A half point is like some wishy-washy answer like, "it was really good but not great, I kinda liked it, umm... 7.5."
[/rant].
This was covered on page 9. :icon32:obsidian wrote:[rant]
One thing I never understood with movie/book/etc reviews is the concept of half-points. If you're going to give a x.5/10 rating, why not just make it a 20 point scale?
I think the .5 is just for people who can't make up their mind between two numbers. 5 is not bad, 6 is okay, 7 is good, 8 is great, 9 is fantastic, 10 is perfect. A half point is like some wishy-washy answer like, "it was really good but not great, I kinda liked it, umm... 7.5."
[/rant].
Life of Brian: 8/10
hilarious, as with every monty python, but the sound mixing was terrible and sections of dialogue are impossible to make out
The Last Temptation of Christ: 6/10
Falls into the same trap as Passion of the Christ: yes, we do all know who Jesus, Judas, Mary, Peter, Saul, Lazarus, and John the Baptist are, but you still have to develop them in a way that makes us care about them. As in Passion, I felt it picked up far too abruptly and just got swept along by the biblical (or in this case, bible-derived fictional) flow of events and never paused to consider that an audience might not feel at all emotionally involved with any of the characters. Willem Dafoe puts a lot into his performance, but I can't see Harvey Keitel without thinking of Tarantino movies so his playing Judas kind of fucked the movie over for me (even though his acting was relatively good).
The Set-Up: 8.49999999997382710002/10
Classic film noir. How is it that in the old days, even on a shoestring budget, they could pack so much more into 72 minutes (that's the running time including closing credits) than we can into 2.5 hours, even bolstered by millions of dollars and the latest-greatest CGI technology (think Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers)??? It blows my mind.
hilarious, as with every monty python, but the sound mixing was terrible and sections of dialogue are impossible to make out
The Last Temptation of Christ: 6/10
Falls into the same trap as Passion of the Christ: yes, we do all know who Jesus, Judas, Mary, Peter, Saul, Lazarus, and John the Baptist are, but you still have to develop them in a way that makes us care about them. As in Passion, I felt it picked up far too abruptly and just got swept along by the biblical (or in this case, bible-derived fictional) flow of events and never paused to consider that an audience might not feel at all emotionally involved with any of the characters. Willem Dafoe puts a lot into his performance, but I can't see Harvey Keitel without thinking of Tarantino movies so his playing Judas kind of fucked the movie over for me (even though his acting was relatively good).
The Set-Up: 8.49999999997382710002/10
Classic film noir. How is it that in the old days, even on a shoestring budget, they could pack so much more into 72 minutes (that's the running time including closing credits) than we can into 2.5 hours, even bolstered by millions of dollars and the latest-greatest CGI technology (think Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers)??? It blows my mind.
haha... reminds me that i still havn't bothered watching ep 2 or 3.tnf wrote:I watched some of episode 1 and episode 2 (Star wars) on HBO yesterday and today. I had forgotten how utterly complete the ruination of star wars was once the first episode had been released. The second one was only a bit more tolerable. Christ those things suck balls.
the horror of watching fagtastic menace in the theater was enough to turn my stomache whenver i see the prequal boxes @ blockbuster.