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What do you think of Bored to Death?

 

I thought the titled was very fitting...

 

Hah! Well I am a Jason Schwartzman fan and actually, I really enjoyed the dynamics between him, Galifianakis, and Danson. I'm gonna have to give it another watch through but overall I liked it. Its certainly not a laugh-a-minute comedy but some pretty great subtle stuff.

 

And Life and Times of Tim is absolutely wonderful.

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Guest Runaway Jim

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The Box

 

Nothing like what I was expecting, that's for sure. I enjoyed watching it, but did not much care for the last 1/3 of the movie. Just didn't like where the story went.

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The Life & Times of Tim is outrageous! I'm so glad its back on! 2nd Season is off to a great start!!!

 

 

 

Just got through the first season from each of these shows. Some pretty great stuff from HBO.

 

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Guest Runaway Jim

That one's good, but to me it's just a prologue to Toy Story 2.

 

My friends and I used to frequent a bar named Mickey's on Chicago's northside, that's since been closed by the health department, I believe. In the bathroom, there was the usual graffiti - shit about women, sex, etc. And then in big red letters was "Toy Story 2 was OK".

 

Best graffiti ever.

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Sunshine (2007 - Danny Boyle)

I liked it (I am an unapologetic sucker for Sci-Fi), but didn't love it (to borrow a phrase from this thread). Interesting visuals, a few great moments of tension and drama but a somewhat tired plot. And, didn't like the 3rd act at all. A little too slasher flick for my tastes.

 

This was my favorite film going experience of 2007. My jaw was dropped from beginning until close to the end. :shifty

I can kind of agree on the 3rd act, but it didn't detract me from not loving all that preceded it.

A great example of what a tight budget can do to make a film look organic and fresh as opposed to all CGI. Moon also had a similar feel.

Interestingly enough I saw both movies in the same exact theater with the same exact person around the same time of year July.

 

Side note: Quentin Tarantino listed this as one of his favorites of the last decade. I was shocked that he would list it out of all of the other films that came out. He also said the same thing about the "zombie" 3rd act. It must be something about Alex Garland. He wrote 28 Days Later.

 

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The Box

 

Nothing like what I was expecting, that's for sure. I enjoyed watching it, but did not much care for the last 1/3 of the movie. Just didn't like where the story went.

 

The Box was one of my favorite films of last year. What an interesting mix of philosophy, religion, psychology & horror. I posted an interesting question in one of the "religious" threads about this film's misogyny (which I don't really see, I guess it's up to the viewer). Maybe I'll find that today and post it in here. Basically, in a nutshell I read a lot of IMDB (& elsewhere) reviews that were pissed that Diaz pushed the button on the box and apparently so did all the other women in the film. It immediately brought to mind mythology and religion (Pandora's Box & Eve and the Apple). I defended Diaz' choice and well, I'd rather find my post that getting into that.

 

 

I wish I were a bit more excited about Toy Story 3, but the trailer wasn't kicking my ass and making me its bitch.

 

I read the synopsis of Toy Story 3 and I really found it really special and nice.

 

The film is about being grown up and pushing aside toys for other means of entertainment etc. (insert Woody joke here)

 

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My review & analysis of The Box.

 

I'll post it as a spoiler, since I'm sure most people missed it in theaters and it will save room this way....

This came from The New Atheists thread, so some things may seem out of context.

 

 

Alright, I'm kind of fascinated by what people think of the Adam & Eve story and Pandora. Bear with me I'm going to try and connect these ideas with a recent film that received some misogynistic reviews.

 

OK. Adam & Eve. Eve is offered fruit from the Tree of Knowledge from the serpent. She takes it and eats from it. I'm sure anyone at that point would eat from it, since it was the Tree of Knowledge. I guess the problem with it is that certain groups use it to put down women. I know that one woman named Eve is not indicative of any other woman's actions, but let's play along. What if Adam was offered the fruit first instead of Eve? Would he have accepted it? I think he would have. He did accept it when Eve offered it to him. Then he blamed her and she blamed the serpent. So I guess my question is "what is the big deal with her wanting to gain knowledge"? Curiosity? I'll get to Pandora in a bit. I know that I'm not the only one who sees the irony and beauty that Eve is the one to eat the fruit first and she is also herself a creator of children. It's almost really empowering if you think about it. She has eaten the fruit and can bear children. Of course, God banished them from the garden and then Adam lives for over 900 years? On a side note I came across an interesting site that claimed that liquified gold can bring about an extended life. (I won't get into who came here to mine it ) Anyways, it seems that this story kind of put women in their place for the course of history.

 

Pandora's Box. Pandora is the 1st woman in Greek mythology. Pandora opens the box or a jar against Zeus' wishes. She opens it out of curiosity and not malicious intentions. And much like in Adam & Eve, evil is released into the world. She closed the box after seeing what she unleashed onto the world and hope was left lying at the bottom of the box. Were these myths created to blame women for evil? I think there's more to it than that. In both situations the woman was tricked it seems. The jar was a gift given to her from Zeus. The fruit was offered by the serpent.

 

SPOILERS:

The Box. ( a remake of an old 80s Twilight Zone)I don't think anyone saw this film. I remember going onto the IMDB to read what people thought about it. I remember one woman was furious that the film was misogynistic. The premise: In 1976 a creepy disfigured old man shows up to this couple's house with a box. If they push the red button they receive a million dollars. And one person that they don't know will die. The husband has serious reservations about the man and the box. His job promotion is also in jeopardy. He doesn't want to push it. The wife wants to push the button because she wants to pay for her son's tuition and figures it will help them out in the long run. She is a school teacher. She pushes the button.

 

This is where the woman on IMDB got pissed. She was upset that a woman was portrayed in this light again as in Adam & Eve and Pandora's Box. In this instance I see things a bit differently. I felt that it was that woman's maternal instinct to provide for her son and family that made her push the button. Also, it may have been her frustrations for having the salary of a school teacher and not something more due to the times in which she lived. The fact that someone else will die is huge, but keep in mind that it was 1976 and people were less connected for obvious reasons. Still it's no reason for someone to have to die, but it does create interesting moral questions and dilemmas.

 

But as the film went along you noticed that it seemed to be women that pushed the button. Hmm. Interesting. I guess being a guy I can be upset that that man wouldn't want to receive a million dollars to provide for his family. Especially since his promotion didn't come through. He seemed a bit passive on the decision almost like you could say Adam in the Garden. Where was Adam in the Garden? Was he not wandering around? Was Eve the one wandering around the Garden because she was curious?

 

I will say that The Box is a psychological philosophical religious thriller. It's pretty obvious that the red box is an allusion to the fruit in the Garden of Knowledge. So is the mysterious man. He could be the devil or something completely different.

 

I won't spoil the ending of The Box, but I just wanted to know what people felt about these stories. And if anyone has seen The Box did they feel similar and ask questions.

 

 

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Guest Runaway Jim

Re: The Box

 

I just thought it was going to be more about their decision to push the button, not about all the crazy fucking shit that happened after. Like I said though, I enjoyed watching it. It's freaky and weird and that's what you get with Richard Kelly, I suppose. I liked the perfomances. I just didn't like where the story went.

 

I love the explanation of why it was a box. Fucking classic.

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My wife is a fan of Project Runway, and so she rented "11 minutes", which document Jay McSomething (Season 1 winner) putting on a fashion show. Anyway, I stuck around long enough to watch the previews, and saw one for a movie about Salvador Dali. I was intrigued, until I realized that Dali was being played by Robert Twilight Pattinson. Are you fucking KIDDING ME???

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An Aussie/Grant Page/Brian Trenchard-Smith doublebill

 

Watched this last night:

 

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The movie jumps between the antics of stuntman Grant Page and the hard rock band/magic act Sorcery. No real plot but good fun 70s style.

 

Halfway through this:

 

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The Wolfman - I actually went to go see this way back when I reviewed (bite sized) like 10 movies on President's Day. I took my dad and he liked it. I thought that the 1st 25 minutes or so seemed like they were directed by someone with ADD. Hopkins & Benicio kind of "said" their lines without any kind of focus. It's almost like they didn't stick. The words just kind of floated in the scene. Or it's like they woke up Hopkins from a trailer nap and he came in & was half asleep. It sounded lazy. So it was tough to pay attention and in the moment I couldn't tell if it was bad camera placement or a sound issue, but I blame the actors. OR the editor chose the "martini shot" and you could see the fatigue in the last shot of the day where they just wanted to be anywhere else.

 

Furthermore, I knew that this was kicking around the shelf for like 1.5 years. I knew that Universal had Joe Johnston recut it to make it tighter and leaner. Or maybe they kicked him off at that point. Then "plant" reports came out last fall saying it was great. I don't know if anyone saw the original cut? But I'm sure it'll make an appearance on DVD with a full on marketing campaign of "The Cut We Couldn't Show You In Theaters" or more like "This Is The Longer Cut That We Thought Wouldn't Do Well Because People Can Only Sit For 90 Minute Films errr Movies".

 

After all of this the movie got to be alright. I really loved the Wolfman mask that Rick Baker made. I'm happy as a little girl that it wasn't CGI. Although, I know that the transformation scenes were done with CGI. I'm not that stupid, right? :unsure

 

The only image that remains in my mind's eye is that of Lawrence Talbot's nightmare where he sees Emily Blunt's side boob. Some nightmare? :shifty Ok. If this is your dream Lawrence, have her turn around. You have the R rating.

 

And Benicio was really note perfect for this legendary character. It's hard to think that the last studio film that he was in was 2005's Sin CIty. In fact, he doesn't have as big of a filmography as you would think.

 

So in summation I guess I blame the studio for making this one seem and feel a bit disjointed in places. But on the other hand I'm not sure there's a good movie in here beneath the surface.

 

Next time I'll grace you with a handful of films that had theatrical release dates and then were yanked and sent to straight to DVD purgatory.

 

Edit: On a side note, Joe Johnston is doing the Captain America movie next. I enjoyed The Rocketeer & Hidalgo, but really hated Jurassic Park III.

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I haven’t watched much else in the last six weeks, but a few weeks back I had some surgery and was laid up for about four days. I grasped that opportunity to watch a bunch of DVDs. In order of preference:

 

Passing Strange / Spike Lee / USA / 2009

Bright Star / Jane Campion / UK / 2009

Che: Parts One and Two / Steven Soderbergh / USA / 2008

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs / Phil Lord and Chris Miller / USA / 2009

We’re No Angels / Neil Jordan / USA / 1989

[REC] / Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza / Spain / 2007

The Fall / Tarsem / USA / 2008

A Matter of Loaf and Death / Nick Park / UK / 2009

I.O.U.S.A. / Patrick Creadon / USA / 2008

What Just Happened / Barry Levinson / USA / 2008

Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom / Pier Paolo Pasolini / Italy / 1975

X-Men Origins: Wolverine / Gavin Hood / USA / 2009

Elvis: That’s the Way It Is / Denis Sanders / USA / 1970

9 / Shane Acker / USA / 2009

Shorts / Robert Rodriguez / USA / 2009

 

I also screened all of the animated shorts nominated for an Oscar. My vote is for the clever satire Logorama, which has the creative spark missing from the latest Wallace & Gromit short.

 

Finally, I watched these experimental shorts (all found as bonus features on the Wendy and Lucy DVD):

Boston Fire / Peter Hutton / USA / 1979

New York Portrait / Peter Hutton / USA / 1979

Scary Movie / Peggy Ahwesh / USA / 1993

Flight / Les LeVeque / USA / 1998

How to Fix the World / Jacqueline Goss / USA / 2004

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