Shrike
Trooper
Re: Classic cinema / current cinema - thoughts and questions
1. What are your favorite films?
The movies I consider "perfect 10s" are:
Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia
Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain
John Woo's The Killer
Chan Wook Park's Oldboy
Zhang Yimou's Hero
Sammo Hung's The Prodigal Son
The Coen Brothers' Barton Fink
Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat
Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I
Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction
At least according to my imdb vote-history
Though I think that's quite representative of my film-tastes in general.
2. Do you also appreciate older films? Which ones?
Indeed I do. I can't say I have an extensive collection or anything like that, but I don't have a problem with black and white, and think that some of the best looking movies ever are B&W. Jarmusch's Down By Law is one of the most beautiful films I've seen. I've been wanting to get into Bergman, but never got around to it. I plan on seeing The Seventh Seal sometime soon, though. My fave classic or black & white movies would be:
Seven Samurai
Down By Law
Casablanca
North By Northwest
Gone With The Wind
The Big Sleep
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Also, pretty much anything with Bogart gets my vote. The guy's quite probably the coolest man that ever lived.
3. Do you have favorite directors?
Definitely. Right now Chan Wook Park is definitely on top. After JSA and the Vengeance trilogy I've sworn my allegiance. I've yet to see I'm a Cyborg, but that's Okay yet, but I'm sure I'll like it. Bong Joon Ho is also one of my favourite current directors. Memories of Murder is my favourite crime-story, and The Host is bar none the best "big monster"-movie ever made. Yes, it beats the crap out of the original Godzilla, and even Jaws imo. Though he hasn't had too big a track-record, I'm loving his work so far.
For more famous ones: The Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, John Woo (pre Hollywood), Jean Pierre Jeunet, and Joss Whedon (who's only directed one movie, but tons of TV, and the man's a genius. Firefly FTW!).
4. Do you have favorite actors?
Johnny Depp. There just isn't a part this man can't play. From Raoul Duke to Ed Wood and Jack Sparrow, he's a genius through and through. The best actor living today. Bar none. It's a shame he hasn't been more recognised. He deserves to have at least a few Oscars by now. But that's how it goes when you do comedy and indie-stuff. I'm sure he'll get a sympathy-nod for At World's End, but that's really an insult to his career.
Notable mentions: Chow Yun Fat, Song Kang Ho, Shin Ha Kyun, Choi Minsik, Kevin Spacey, John Goodman, Christian Bale, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Bill Murray, Tom Waits.
5. Which genres do you prefer?
I move fairly freely throughout any genre. The only movies I don't watch are pretty much parodies (think Scary Movie) and teen-comedy (She's All That and so on). As for my favourites, I'd say dramas (Magnolia, The Fountain) dramedies (Fargo, Ghost World, Punch Drunk Love), scifi (Star Wars, Serenity, Blade Runner, The Fountain), martial-arts (Hero, Prodigal Son, Flying Daggers), action (The Killer, Hard Boiled, Die Hard), off-beat comedy (Big Lebowski, Amelie, Delicatessen, Withnail And I) and a little side-dish with Zombies (the Romero-series, Shaun Of The Dead etc).
Phew. Now I just need room to reply to all of you guys' posts
I know how you feel, while Romero's trilogy is classic (though I prefer Dawn to both Night and Day) most of the stuff today is quite average. However, I think that three noteworthy Zombie-movies have been made in the 00s:
First of all, Romero's Land Of The Dead. It might be inferior to the originals (though I might place it above Day), it still showed that zombie-movies can still be social commentary. Sure, he didn't pull it off quite as elegantly as he did in the original Dawn, but he still makes points about our society that are just as valid. And I think it's great to see that the creator of the genre can come back and make a movie that if nothing else is thoroughly entertaining. I'm really hoping he chooses to continue the mythos somehow. His Diary Of The Dead looks very promising, and hopefully will be a new take on the genre.
Second, Shaun Of The Dead. If you haven't seen it yet, you have to. It's a "romantic comedy... with zombies". And the thing about it is that it works, on every single level. The writing is brilliant, the zombie-parts are genuine, they aren't a parody of the zombie-movies, but just the elements reused in a new setting. The creative team behind it love the genre, and treat it with the utmost respect, while making a hilarious and emotionally charged movie. It might be my favourite Zombie-movie second to Dawn.
Third, the remake of Dawn Of The Dead. It changed the game, and many people disliked that. However, it did so with respect in my opinion. They knew they couldn't make the same thing over again, so they took the main elements, and made a kickass action-horror-film with great writing. If all summer blockbusters had scripts that great, I'd be a happy camper.
And as a footnote, Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus. A call-back to the Evil Dead school of film-making, this low-budget Japanese Zombie-actioner is absolutely brilliant. Funny, tons of zombie-slaughter, and great action. Not a master-piece by any means, but great genre-filmmaking.
While I generally agree with that statement, I'd like to emphasise that it's (in my opinion) the "mindless" aspect of this that is the problem. RotS is a great example. At the end we had a duel for the ages. Obi Wan vs Anakin, an event that was possibly even more pivotal than Luke vs Vader in ESB/RotJ. It should be a historic even. However, they went completely gung-ho due to the possibilities they had. It became Jedi-Tarzan on a river of Lava instead of the grim duel between to icons. If they'd just have taken the setting, with the place falling apart, but Obi Wan and Anakin fighting it out with each other, and not with the environments, it would have been a much more interesting piece of cinema. Especially if you throw some dialogue in there, but if they did it well enough, they wouldn't have had to.
I'm a strong believer in that action can be an expression of emotion even without the use of dialogue as explanation. And CG and SFX can make it all the more beautiful and powerful, but it's this "mindless" use of it that's destroyed some films. I already mentioned I love Hero, and Zhang Yimou's movies are perfect example of how to marry CG with action and powerful result.
1. What are your favorite films?
The movies I consider "perfect 10s" are:
Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia
Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain
John Woo's The Killer
Chan Wook Park's Oldboy
Zhang Yimou's Hero
Sammo Hung's The Prodigal Son
The Coen Brothers' Barton Fink
Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat
Bruce Robinson's Withnail And I
Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction
At least according to my imdb vote-history
Though I think that's quite representative of my film-tastes in general.
2. Do you also appreciate older films? Which ones?
Indeed I do. I can't say I have an extensive collection or anything like that, but I don't have a problem with black and white, and think that some of the best looking movies ever are B&W. Jarmusch's Down By Law is one of the most beautiful films I've seen. I've been wanting to get into Bergman, but never got around to it. I plan on seeing The Seventh Seal sometime soon, though. My fave classic or black & white movies would be:
Seven Samurai
Down By Law
Casablanca
North By Northwest
Gone With The Wind
The Big Sleep
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Also, pretty much anything with Bogart gets my vote. The guy's quite probably the coolest man that ever lived.
3. Do you have favorite directors?
Definitely. Right now Chan Wook Park is definitely on top. After JSA and the Vengeance trilogy I've sworn my allegiance. I've yet to see I'm a Cyborg, but that's Okay yet, but I'm sure I'll like it. Bong Joon Ho is also one of my favourite current directors. Memories of Murder is my favourite crime-story, and The Host is bar none the best "big monster"-movie ever made. Yes, it beats the crap out of the original Godzilla, and even Jaws imo. Though he hasn't had too big a track-record, I'm loving his work so far.
For more famous ones: The Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, John Woo (pre Hollywood), Jean Pierre Jeunet, and Joss Whedon (who's only directed one movie, but tons of TV, and the man's a genius. Firefly FTW!).
4. Do you have favorite actors?
Johnny Depp. There just isn't a part this man can't play. From Raoul Duke to Ed Wood and Jack Sparrow, he's a genius through and through. The best actor living today. Bar none. It's a shame he hasn't been more recognised. He deserves to have at least a few Oscars by now. But that's how it goes when you do comedy and indie-stuff. I'm sure he'll get a sympathy-nod for At World's End, but that's really an insult to his career.
Notable mentions: Chow Yun Fat, Song Kang Ho, Shin Ha Kyun, Choi Minsik, Kevin Spacey, John Goodman, Christian Bale, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Bill Murray, Tom Waits.
5. Which genres do you prefer?
I move fairly freely throughout any genre. The only movies I don't watch are pretty much parodies (think Scary Movie) and teen-comedy (She's All That and so on). As for my favourites, I'd say dramas (Magnolia, The Fountain) dramedies (Fargo, Ghost World, Punch Drunk Love), scifi (Star Wars, Serenity, Blade Runner, The Fountain), martial-arts (Hero, Prodigal Son, Flying Daggers), action (The Killer, Hard Boiled, Die Hard), off-beat comedy (Big Lebowski, Amelie, Delicatessen, Withnail And I) and a little side-dish with Zombies (the Romero-series, Shaun Of The Dead etc).
Phew. Now I just need room to reply to all of you guys' posts
Metal_made said:I just don't get it, why such movies were able to create all that without all the new things, one would think, that with better Special Effects, the movies should be even more awesome, but IMO it seems to go all the other way around. I don't like to think that the art is not anymore what it used to be, something to transmit ideas, feelings... But now, it seems like money sits down in the director chair and makes the movies.
There is some new good stuff, but all that I pointed out, everyday comes out less and less.
I know how you feel, while Romero's trilogy is classic (though I prefer Dawn to both Night and Day) most of the stuff today is quite average. However, I think that three noteworthy Zombie-movies have been made in the 00s:
First of all, Romero's Land Of The Dead. It might be inferior to the originals (though I might place it above Day), it still showed that zombie-movies can still be social commentary. Sure, he didn't pull it off quite as elegantly as he did in the original Dawn, but he still makes points about our society that are just as valid. And I think it's great to see that the creator of the genre can come back and make a movie that if nothing else is thoroughly entertaining. I'm really hoping he chooses to continue the mythos somehow. His Diary Of The Dead looks very promising, and hopefully will be a new take on the genre.
Second, Shaun Of The Dead. If you haven't seen it yet, you have to. It's a "romantic comedy... with zombies". And the thing about it is that it works, on every single level. The writing is brilliant, the zombie-parts are genuine, they aren't a parody of the zombie-movies, but just the elements reused in a new setting. The creative team behind it love the genre, and treat it with the utmost respect, while making a hilarious and emotionally charged movie. It might be my favourite Zombie-movie second to Dawn.
Third, the remake of Dawn Of The Dead. It changed the game, and many people disliked that. However, it did so with respect in my opinion. They knew they couldn't make the same thing over again, so they took the main elements, and made a kickass action-horror-film with great writing. If all summer blockbusters had scripts that great, I'd be a happy camper.
And as a footnote, Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus. A call-back to the Evil Dead school of film-making, this low-budget Japanese Zombie-actioner is absolutely brilliant. Funny, tons of zombie-slaughter, and great action. Not a master-piece by any means, but great genre-filmmaking.
Shadow said:Computer technology has increased the possibilities of cinema enormously, for good and bad. For while it's now possible to realistically depict more things than ever before, the story inevitably suffers from over-emphasis on visual effects. Film-makers have so much fun creating and enhancing the effects they completely forget about good scripts, acting and directing - in short, the things I like the most about older films. While I'm sure the obsession with computer graphics is very much a passing phase, it always annoys me when a film that could have been great is spoiled by mindless action scenes (Revenge of the Sith, anyone?).
While I generally agree with that statement, I'd like to emphasise that it's (in my opinion) the "mindless" aspect of this that is the problem. RotS is a great example. At the end we had a duel for the ages. Obi Wan vs Anakin, an event that was possibly even more pivotal than Luke vs Vader in ESB/RotJ. It should be a historic even. However, they went completely gung-ho due to the possibilities they had. It became Jedi-Tarzan on a river of Lava instead of the grim duel between to icons. If they'd just have taken the setting, with the place falling apart, but Obi Wan and Anakin fighting it out with each other, and not with the environments, it would have been a much more interesting piece of cinema. Especially if you throw some dialogue in there, but if they did it well enough, they wouldn't have had to.
I'm a strong believer in that action can be an expression of emotion even without the use of dialogue as explanation. And CG and SFX can make it all the more beautiful and powerful, but it's this "mindless" use of it that's destroyed some films. I already mentioned I love Hero, and Zhang Yimou's movies are perfect example of how to marry CG with action and powerful result.