Ex-ILG-mod Laura Hudson writes a wonder excoriation of the sequel to "Ready Player One," which will no doubt sell enough copies to get a cinematic adaption, God Forbid:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/07/armada_by_ernest_cline_follow_up_to_ready_player_one_reviewed.single.html
Armada often feels like it's being narrated by that one guy in your group of friends who never stops quoting the Simpsons, a tic that feels increasingly tiresome and off-putting in the face of the novel’s supposedly apocalyptic stakes. On more than one occasion, soldiers salute each other en route to world-ending battles by solemnly swearing that “the Force” will be with them, and one character flies to his supposedly tragic and moving death while screaming quotes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is a book that ends with someone unironically quoting Yoda.
― Purves Grundy (kingfish), Wednesday, 8 July 2015 00:18 (nine years ago) link
https://41.media.tumblr.com/63a95879df23d5d1045375321e8448b4/tumblr_nxinqnt4pq1r5cyr0o1_1280.jpg
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Sunday, 8 November 2015 22:08 (eight years ago) link
RIP Vilmos Zsigmond
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_v0fV15P7uQo/S8pIpdzirnI/AAAAAAAAHfk/Wx_B61uzi-8/s1600/ce3k+points.jpg
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 4 January 2016 13:38 (eight years ago) link
OK, put me down as a lifetime Spielberg hater, or to less harshly a Spielberg non-believer, but holy fuck on rewatching Jaws is quite awesomely directed! I will take the first 2 Indy films, Duel was alright, EOTS I appreciate from a Ballard fanboy POV, but everything else falls on the spectrum of *shrug*>ACTIVELY DESPISE to me. Like, as a pre-teen in the 80's I genuinely got into fistfights (not initiated by me) because I didn't like E.T. or Close Encounters. And suddenly on my whatever-number viewing of Jaws I am appreciating the composition and framing and suchansuch of a shortbread tin director? Maybe I should rewatch some of his later work to see if my newfound appreciation carries over. I recall Lincoln and eh Minority Report being not overly bad.
Not rewatching Bridge Of Spies though, that was bad.
Like, BAD bad.
About half as good as the Hateful Eight, which was pretty rubbish.
OK, this Jaws rush is wearing off now, fuck Spielberg.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 15:40 (eight years ago) link
Jaws is amazing.
I watched War Horse at home the other night, and there was lots that I liked about it. Even the hokiest parts were done with restraint. ((Good restraint--not what Lester Bangs called "tasty licks and all that Traffic twaddle" restraint.) Thought the scene where the British and German soldier tended to the horse was excellent, ditto Niels Arestrup as the grandfather.
― clemenza, Friday, 29 January 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
War Horse is the only recent Spielberg I never watched. My Mother saw the stage version and was blown away, then hated the film version and warned me off it, and I generally do what she tells me. But that may just have been a comparison-based attitude, I can see the film being underwhelming after that mechanical puppet horse bisnes.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 16:11 (eight years ago) link
it has one great scene of the horse running through the battlefield.
the Great Man's films are obv wasted on you of course
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
OK I won't bother rewatching then, I'll just wait until I get my perfect nuclear family set up then I might identify better. I don't dismiss your opinions (Amour Fou was great) but Spielberg just baffles me, I cannae see the craft in it and I don't get any emotional hit from his works.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
Spielberg's families do not generally fit that model. One often wonders what the haters are seeing.
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 17:18 (eight years ago) link
One one might. Another one might question the level of animosity it should even been seemly to exhibit over middle of the road dripping such as Spielberg has produced in his latter worthy phase.
Catch me if you Can was rly good tho.
― broderik f (darraghmac), Friday, 29 January 2016 17:37 (eight years ago) link
I'll just wait until I get my perfect nuclear family set up then I might identify better.
this is flat out wrong
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 17:40 (eight years ago) link
I think I'll start the big Spielberg rewatch, one a day, starting Monday (I'm going out drinking shortly, I cannot vouch for my opinions over the next coupla days, and I want to do this PROPER). Looking it up, I'll start with Duel (not seen in decades, I assume still competent), are Something Evil and Savage things I need to watch, or can I move on to Sugarland Express on Tuesday? (which btw I forgot about up there, but I know is AWESOME).
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 17:46 (eight years ago) link
Something Evil and Savage must be TV, like Night Gallery or Kojack or something.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 17:48 (eight years ago) link
Aye but so was Duel, and I ain't skipping that.
I am sure I have seen Catch Me If You Can, also The Terminal, I am struggling to remember a single scene from either tho, oh well I'll get to them sometime in a coupla weeks.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 17:50 (eight years ago) link
No, I mean, Duel was a movie that he made for TV. But he also did a couple of episode for hire regular TV things.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:22 (eight years ago) link
yeesh, if there's any director who isn't all about "the perfect nuclear family setup" it's spielberg -- "close encounters" is basically about a guy who abandons his family, "e.t." is about a lonely kid, the fathers in all of his films tend to be shitty and inattentive or non-existent.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 January 2016 18:29 (eight years ago) link
he used to be anyway, in the director commentary for CE, he said he wouldn't have made that movie today, due to his feelings about family. Which basically tells me everything I need to know about modern Spielberg
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:41 (eight years ago) link
Having not rewatched this shit (yet), isn't the point of Close Encounters the creation of a new perfect family? Wait, and E.T., it's all about building a new family unit with an alien, I am totally ready to accept that I am wrong here, til I get round to these. But I wasn't suggesting these films initially portrayed a perfect family, just that that seems to be Spielberg's ideal, his happy ending.
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:42 (eight years ago) link
in Lincoln and BOS the dads are decidedly chilly.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 18:46 (eight years ago) link
To me, the point of that movie is tied up in the "when you wish upon a star" motive that runs through the score -- ie, Dreyfuss' character was always someone who didn't quite fit into his own life, and even tho he didn't know how or why, he took his chance to follow a dream by leaving the Earth (and his family) behind. It's a bittersweet message at best, but I've always thought it was one of Spielberg's most honest depictions of humanity on film
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:46 (eight years ago) link
xpost No way. If anything, they're all about escape from unhappy, boring lives, and a willingness to chuck the family under the bus to do it. They're like Springsteen's "Hungry Heart:" pretty dark shit hidden in a pop song.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:47 (eight years ago) link
I will give my opinion on Close Encounters on eh Thursday, was there different versions of that? Like a directors cut or summat? Don't tell me I need to visit Family to accomplish this project...
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:49 (eight years ago) link
yeah, there was a special edition that featured a few new scenes in the body of the movie, but the main change was actually showing the inside of the ship at the end. Which frankly, you don't need to see and kind of spoils the mystery imo
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:51 (eight years ago) link
I want to say there are three cuts now?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:53 (eight years ago) link
he wouldn't have made that movie today, due to his feelings about family. Which basically tells me everything I need to know about modern Spielberg
criticism by express psychoanalysis sure beats thinkin'
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 18:57 (eight years ago) link
or watchin'
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 18:58 (eight years ago) link
Oh OK, I don't need to see Dreyfuss's new(clear) family.
I mean, I'm kidding, but that's 4 on my list chronologically, I recall it being annoying, but I am open to being proved wrong (as I admitted to for Jaws). And I like the first 3, Close Encounters is the first "Spielberg" Spielberg, I am open to re-evaluation, if it means Morbs will be nice to me..
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, 29 January 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
except when a new film comes out i havent got the energy for this anymore.
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:04 (eight years ago) link
it's mostly shorthand for messageboard talkin'. I've seen enough modern era Spielberg to know I don't find his movies very interesting or deep or emotionally engaging -- when I heard the quote in the CE DVD feature, it confirmed that feeling, and gave me a kind of retrospective, deja vu-ish feeling of "oh of course he wouldn't have made the movie like that today, because none of his movies are anywhere near as ambiguous or ambitious anymore".
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:07 (eight years ago) link
A.I.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
lincoln is pretty ambiguous and quite dark in some ways imo
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:11 (eight years ago) link
yeah, Munich isn't as ambitious as his early genre films! whaaa?
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:15 (eight years ago) link
I should watch AI again. I recall being disappointed, but maybe years removed from having to wonder what Kubrick would have done will make it easier to watch with fresh eyes.
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:18 (eight years ago) link
AI is heartbreaking in a really ambitious sorry of way imo. Like, equally smart and sentimental.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:22 (eight years ago) link
Kubrick gave AI to Spielberg (w/ same basic scenario), his death is not the reason he didn't direct it. (years of posts about this if you need em)
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:23 (eight years ago) link
AI is chilly as hell, the sheen of spielberg's sentimentality just makes it even more brutal
― nauru, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:32 (eight years ago) link
wheeeeeere is the sentimentality in that film?
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:33 (eight years ago) link
in the fake feelgood ending
― nauru, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
You've gotta be kidding. Do you understand what's even happening in it?
It's also in the Kubrick treatment, every bit of it.
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:39 (eight years ago) link
AI
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:40 (eight years ago) link
The think AI is hardcore cold, but it's pervaded by at least an eerie simulacrum of (not a pejorative) sentimentality. I mean, it is about a lost child looking for his mother, guided in part by his teddy bear ...
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:41 (eight years ago) link
Also one of the few movies to consistently reduce me to tears.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
Boy, I can't remember anything about Catch Me if You Can beyond the title sequence (which was great).
― Darin, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:46 (eight years ago) link
It's pretty good! It's got one of the few great recent non-kooky Walken roles.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 January 2016 19:47 (eight years ago) link
Josh otm about the simulacrum of sentimentality. Munich also boasts a queasy, compelling tonal mixture. His late pictures have been fascinating even when they don't fully succeed.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 19:48 (eight years ago) link
Will check AI this wkd again, because I would certainly *like* to like it. Funny, CMIYC was probably the last Spielberg I enjoyed straight away (and have to back to Jurassic Park before that), even if I didn't think it was a "great" film.
― Dominique, Friday, 29 January 2016 21:00 (eight years ago) link
I am open to re-evaluation, if it means Morbs will be nice to me..
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Friday, January 29, 2016 12:59 PM (1 hour ago)
I generally value Morbs' contrarianism on this site, but you're chasing a holy grail that just don't exist, man...
― if thou gaz long into the coombs, the coombs will also gaz into thee (WilliamC), Friday, 29 January 2016 21:03 (eight years ago) link
it's contrarianism to believe Spielberg is a great filmmaker?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 21:05 (eight years ago) link
Part of being a great anything, I think, is to include mystifying and garish passages in your work.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 January 2016 21:06 (eight years ago) link
No, I meant his general ilx curmudgeonliness. I agree with him on Spielberg.
― if thou gaz long into the coombs, the coombs will also gaz into thee (WilliamC), Friday, 29 January 2016 21:07 (eight years ago) link