Eyes Wide Shut would have worked a lot better if Kubrick didn't attempt to use Cruise/Kidmans' own celebrity relationship for his own ends.
Bring in unknowns / ruin their future careers. Its the Kubrick way.
― Least-satisfying overall (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:16 (seven years ago) link
Warner Bros and Kubrick both knew you needed stars for a big expensive Arthur Schnitzler adaptation
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:22 (seven years ago) link
Brit mainstream authors seem to do rather well when they dip their toes in spec fic.
Does Atonement count here? The twist at the end is some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit.
Children of Men is incredibly exciting first time 'round but just too grim to rewatch.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:23 (seven years ago) link
McEwan actually did a dystopic sci-fi thing earlier in his career with The Child in Time
― Number None, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:27 (seven years ago) link
28 Days Later fits in here somewhere too. It gets lumped in with the latter-day zombie craze, but I think it was genuinely exciting at the time of release and had some crossover/mainstream appeal. Not high-minded, especially, but I'd argue that CoM isn't either.
― rb (soda), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:30 (seven years ago) link
you'd love to know what i've seen, but cinema convo w/ middle-aged Rogue One viewers nah
lol yeah middle-aged Rogue One viewer, you sure got me pegged. Now that I re-read your post I notice that you don't claim Eyes Wide Shut was particularly insightful about marriage just that it was one of the best films *about* marriage, although I'm not sure how it could be the latter without also being the former, maybe it's possible idk
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:38 (seven years ago) link
Where's calum to settle this?
― rb (soda), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:41 (seven years ago) link
None of the paranoid classics from the 70s seem especially "high minded" either but you don't need to be a paradigm-shattering genius to guess what dumb, self-destructive tricks our species is going to get up to next
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Tuesday, 3 January 2017 23:43 (seven years ago) link
Now imagine Charleston Heston in this.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:02 (seven years ago) link
imo it got Tom Cruise's marriage to a T
the viewpoint is from his scientology handlers -- Nicole wasn't their favorite but he should stick with her because the outside world is full of creepy sex perverts and life destroyers. best to stick to the church and a mediocre marriage
that is why the scientologists killed kubrick iirc
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:05 (seven years ago) link
Hey so is it true that Xenu = Darth Sidious?
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:09 (seven years ago) link
"overrated (by me at first too)
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius)
Terrifying that even morbius was right, once, for a while; reassuring that all is now returned to normal
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:11 (seven years ago) link
Children of Men is way better than Kubrick's indentured marriage drama.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:28 (seven years ago) link
I like both
― mh 😏, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 01:56 (seven years ago) link
OTM, and thanks! I've been looking for a new dn!
― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 02:10 (seven years ago) link
everyone knows the best movies about marriage are: the shining, desperate characters, safe, don't look now, and gaslight.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 4 January 2017 02:29 (seven years ago) link
i knew someone would bring up the boooooring horror movie
the UK original version of Gaslight, scott!
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 02:35 (seven years ago) link
What do people think about Carnal Knowledge these days? Did anybody put Ballbusters On Parade in the redditor youtube canon?
― wrinkled sweater guy (los blue jeans), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 03:23 (seven years ago) link
Carnal Knowledge of Men
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 03:47 (seven years ago) link
Brad and Angie and Ted and Alice
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 03:49 (seven years ago) link
only good Chris Hardwicke joke is that the Twilight Zone should have been named "nice try, asshole"
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 4 January 2017 03:55 (seven years ago) link
Rewatched this and felt even slighter (and longer) than it did the first time around. Some nice camerawork/sets, a few good action sequence, sexy sexy Clive Owen and not much else to dig into.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 January 2017 14:52 (seven years ago) link
Watched this for the first time last week. First half was very impressive, second half was a let down. All the 'commentary' and plot was in the first half, the second was just a big action packed part consisting of one premise: get to the boat alive and asap. All action, no depth. While it was really done extremely well, camera wise, I got nothing out of it and found myself thinking: yeah yeah, get to the boat already, you won't get shot anyway.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 14 January 2017 16:02 (seven years ago) link
action is depteh
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 January 2017 16:07 (seven years ago) link
depth too
I didn't totally buy the justification for going to the refugee camp. Obviously it's set up as the only way to reach the boat, but that felt more like an excuse to have the sequence. But the camp is my favourite part of the movie. I love the characters we meet there like the Roma lady and the old Greek (iirc?) couple who have somehow managed to create a comfortable home sealed off from the camp.
And I would say action is plot too. Plot is everything that happens, not just everything that's easily paraphrasable.
― jmm, Saturday, 14 January 2017 16:15 (seven years ago) link
https://newrepublic.com/article/147849/will-hollywood-ever-make-another-children-men
(also the bobby more headline in the image at the top of that piece is extremely Real England)
https://images.newrepublic.com/8bedf9706b95ec9260b21cb3e623a36ffffa0fb7.png?w=1000&q=65&dpi=1&fit=crop&crop=faces&h=667
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 23 April 2018 23:07 (six years ago) link
interesting take, similar to what I read after Blade Runner 2029 'bombed'...studios aren't going to invest that kind of money on that sort of thing at this point (expensive looking heady intellectual sci fi art films).
― akm, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:07 (six years ago) link
damn, look at all that world-building in those newspaper headlines (the art department spelled 'violence' wrong tho ffs)
i need to watch this again, one of my favourite movies of the 21st century
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:11 (six years ago) link
CHARLES SHOULD BE THRONE OUT
― wmlynch, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:42 (six years ago) link
that, along with 'fa cup cancelled', suggest that there were at least a few bright spots amongst the unremitting misery of the film's alternate future
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 13:45 (six years ago) link
i've seen this film more times than any film I think... it's so good
― brand new universal harvester (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:03 (six years ago) link
it's so good that not even charlie hunnam can sink it
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:08 (six years ago) link
did i dream it or was there talk of doing a TV series?
― brand new universal harvester (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:10 (six years ago) link
that rings a very vague bell, but i don't think anything ever came of it
seems like the handmaid's tale would have stolen whatever sci-fi infertility-dystopia momentum it might have had, anyway
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:13 (six years ago) link
oh yeah
― brand new universal harvester (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:16 (six years ago) link
Which basically points up to the real outcome here. Yes, Children of Men could get made in 2018 ... as a Netflix series.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:19 (six years ago) link
And Cuaron arguably knows it.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:20 (six years ago) link
10 episodes with only enough plot for four
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:23 (six years ago) link
yes, and ugh
― mh, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:25 (six years ago) link
My second viewing of COM in December 2016 confirmed my affection, but the enthusiasm baffles me a little.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:28 (six years ago) link
this is one of my favorite movies
― marcos, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:29 (six years ago) link
i have so much affection for jasper, what a great character. i wanted to watch another hour of him and theo hanging out, listening to records and talking politics
― marcos, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:31 (six years ago) link
love that he had Test Dept as his alarm sound
― sleeve, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:33 (six years ago) link
the enthusiasm baffles me a little
one of the things i love most about it is that it's such a great example of sci-fi not really being about the future but a reflection of the present - it shows a dying society which has entirely given up on maintaining a sustainable environment, where immigrants face utterly horrifying everyday hardships, where bombs in the street are so commonplace that an explosion in a coffee-shop you were just in can barely raise a shrug
it just feels like a really lived-in world, way more than a casual read of a plot summary would suggest, and it feels like it's just around the corner
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:41 (six years ago) link
the relative subtlety of the whole enterprise makes it something that's not wearying to be enthusiastic about, imo
― mh, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:43 (six years ago) link
xp More that everything is already long set in motion and there's no reversing it now.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:43 (six years ago) link
yeah, that long slow defeated slump into oblivion just hangs over the film like smog
― Mahogany Loggins (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:48 (six years ago) link
Also, the least happy "happy" ending since A.I.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 14:52 (six years ago) link
have to admit i was nonplussed the first time i watched it. i was expecting something else. it really clicked the second time round
― brand new universal harvester (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 15:32 (six years ago) link