Another way of putting this: when Caine goes down doing the "pull my finger" routine from the opening, that fits a well-known story convention -- character goes out defiantly doing the same stuff that made us like him. But there's a reason people like that convention, and depending on how a film treats it, it can read as either succumbing to lame formula or just effectively pushing the emotional button that gets pushed when we see this sort of thing happen.
xpost -- Shakey, are you keeping the air strikes in account?
― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link
And now...your moment of zen.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/im52xmax/skowie8F07-047.jpg
x-post Nabisco you make a pretty decent point, though I think you're so determined to protect the basic tenets of narrative (which I am not challenging) that you're not acknowledge the presence of cliche at all (just as I'm undoubtedly overstating it on the relative scale of cinema today).
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:58 (seventeen years ago) link
i guess i just dont get the fuss :/
― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link
x-post to Nabs.
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:02 (seventeen years ago) link
Ryan, what do you mean when you say the movie "was sort of morose without any intelligence and lacking really anything to get worked up about"? Did you perhaps see "The Cleaner" by mistake???
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:06 (seventeen years ago) link
hmm you have a good point there but assuming characters get killed isn't the same as showing them being picked off - in terms of supporting-cast-whose-deaths-you-don't-see I was thinking of the rich dude and the gypsy. Marika (sp?) may have been my favorite character.
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link
I think Ryan is getting at part of the problem I have with these types of movies, which is that the second you start taking on some political pretensions (which it'd be really facetious to claim this movie didn't), I start holding it to a higher standard than I do, say, Crank.
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link
Ryan I think somebody else linked to an interview where they said the blood on the lens thing just happened by accident and they decided to carry on with it.
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Yeah, by someone WHO IS BATSHIT CRAZY.
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― elmo argonaut (allocryptic), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link
Sure it is! Speculative fiction, anyway. It's much more sci-fi then, say, Alien, which is just a horror movie in space.
― Charlie Brown (kenan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link
dune and star wars and logan's run are all totally pastoral you senile doosh
― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:35 (seventeen years ago) link
TOMBOT, the desert is not the countryside.
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link
*the exact moment everyone stops listening to what I have to say about movies
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link
I get the idea I'm just gibbering in the corner while you lot talk seinsibly.
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― TOMB07 (TOMBOT), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― geoff (gcannon), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
i dunno i just got a "omg NY was nuked, no more babies, isnt that terrible!" --- it doesn't go beyond the cliches in that department really.
Is it a stretch to argue that those aren't the meat of the story, and thus their relative superficiality is irrelevant?
― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 18 January 2007 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link