Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

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I have decided that when Aimless or Gear refer to "film school kids" they are talking about Shakey Mo and Morbius, since those are the people on this thread I would most like to see referred to derisively. Semantics in the eye of the reader.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:00 (eighteen years ago) link

I know this film school kid whose oft-recited top ten reads like the most predictable canon ever assembled. "Godfather, Taxi Driver, Searchers, Vertigo blah blah blah..."

the only good bit about TMWWT was Tony Shaloub.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

only thing I hate more than informed film snobs are uninformed ones, who shall never deviate from the AFI lists or Tarantino/Kevin Smith films!

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link

i.e. most everyone I went to film school with (though admittedly they might be even worse, as I recall one time before class when everyone gushed about how awesome Clay Pigeons was)

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:04 (eighteen years ago) link

can we turn this into a tony shaloub thread

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link

I have to admit when I walked into a coworker's friend's basement home theater room and he demonstrated his $4000 setup for us with Blade, referring to it unironically as the greatest film of all time, I probably overestimated his personality and strength of character.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I own the Blade DVD but it remains unopened, out of fear that I will diminish its trade-in value. I might keep Blade II though.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

blade is good! stop hating everything

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

to be fair Blade was the movie that taught me Stephen Dorffff was not the worst actor ever, it's just that he plays only one role ever.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah blade is awesome you maniacs

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

blade 2, did not care for.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Ron Perlman, you nut!

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link

it was lame, RP notwithstanding

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link

to me, blade's thing of vampires-as-club-kids was totally more fun than blade 2's lame old vampires-as-goth/metal-losers

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I can understand that point.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

The only discussions I ever see about Spielberg movies are whether or not they suck, quite frankly. If that's being thought provoking, well then hog tie me and call me ma'am, I'm fucking wrong about him not being thought provoking, but you people have a seriously warped idea of "thought provoking" if 8,000 internet discussions that boil down to "HE FUCKING SUCKS" "NO HE DOESN'T" "HELLO I AM CAPTAIN PICARD" etc are an actual qualification as to why a film could be considered "thought provoking."

A 200+ thread about how Minority Report's ending sucks /= the film explores deep, dramatic, adult issues in a refreshing and/or interesting manner.'

Blade is one of those movies I have seen all of, but not in the correct order or all at the same time, I am pretty sure.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Nobody said Blade was bad!!! I was just saying that yeah the "film student" sheep parade made it seem so dope that somebody would call it the greatest film of all time and mean it! It was like I instantly assumed he would have another 24 films underneath it rounding out a selection of strangely brilliant but often disregarded/overlooked films and that he would be cool to talk to about movies, but he actually turned out to just be a Crutchfield gearhead with a modicum of interest in well-executed screen violence.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I think the reason why Steve Spielberg annoys me as much as he does isn't because most of his movies actively suck, most are passable, fine, whatever. It's that most of them have the potential to be great movies, brilliant movies, fantastic movies, best movie ever type movies if anyone, ANYONE AT ALL, else directed them! I mean, like, maybe even Pauly Shore could be more subtle. He's got the biggest hamfists in the industry and I can't get past the over-obvious, Hallmark-movie-of-the-week emotional jizz he wants to bukkake his stories with.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember the aforementioned film school douchebag laughed at me when I said Sergio Leone was a slightly better director than Stanley Kubrick and that Repo Man was better than Raging Bull ("Impossible! That's the Best Film Of The Eighties!").

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I still maintain that Sugarland Express is Stephen Steilverb's (sic) best film.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

YOU LIE LIKE A KITE NO ONE SAID THAT THING ABOUT THE EIGHTIES!!!!! :O

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

A BOLD PROCLAMATION I REALIZE

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

THAT'S NOT EVEN SCORCESE'S BEST FILM FROM THE 80S!!! I WILL HURT THAT PERSON.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate this thread!!!!!!

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I also maintain that Matrin Scorsaysay (sic) is one of the most overrated directors ever. And that Bringing Out The Dead is his best film.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link

oooh... you go you grate big contrarian you.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:44 (eighteen years ago) link

you are very bold, congratulations

xpost

― derrek j. ballwash, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Trust me, it's not for the sake of being contrary. I would love to see what the rest of the world sees in Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, but they don't really do much for me. Scorsese often seems a little too wrapped up in potential accolades to let himself go and make entertaining/involving films.

To bring the topic back 'round, though, Spielberg & Scorsese together might make an interesting movie.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Black man named Spike Lee makes Malcolm X = high-school filmstrip

Allyzay, you have hit it on idiot-male 'debates' on the internets! However, you're still all wet on equating Spielberg with run-of-the-mill schmaltz. (at least post-Color Purple, that was a mistake)

I'm glad you guys hate S.S. given the snarky twaddle you like tho. "Schindler's List" has more intentional laughs than several Coen films.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link

sure you meant intentional there?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

...snarky twaddle...

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...), July 28th, 2005.

IRONY

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:05 (eighteen years ago) link

hey, I went to film school and I hardly know anybody who really likes Spielberg too much!

Excepting Jaws and Close Encounters and maybe Jurassic Park (<1997) I don't really care about him.

My big issue with his films is the race/gender-handling and how awkward-but-well-intentioned-he is w.r.t. this.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I dunno why I'm getting lumped in with Morbius here, since we don't agree about many films at all, and especially not Spielberg in particular...? but whatever I AM AN IDIOT yes, oh the critical depth of the internet...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link

I see from older threads Tombot always has been.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

(altho I do enjoy Morbius' sparkling wit and winning smile)

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Ally, you're totally right about the hamfistedness. The way he handles scenes sorta remind me of a fat man at a pig roast.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:17 (eighteen years ago) link

he handles scenes hungrily and excitedly?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.mrfa.org/images/Ayres2.jpg

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Name one of these 'hamfisted' scenes in "E.T.," which is impossible to think of in terms of being done better by anyone else.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i feel like steven spielberg on a movie shoot (xp)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't like E.T.! It's sorta like being assraped by an apologetic emo kid who cries at cruelty and listens to Dashboard Confessional.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:22 (eighteen years ago) link

so why don't you like it then?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link

to me the best stuff in ET isn't the sentimentality, it's the scary parts!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

I really like Close Encounters, though. Even though Dreyfus sorta annoys me, Truffaut makes up the lost points in cuteness at the end.

(And I don't rememeber ET that well, just that I found it profoundly mawkish. I think if I saw it again I might like exactly what you like, M., - the weird and freaky bits.)

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:27 (eighteen years ago) link

especially when the family home is covered in plastic and ET is all white and chalky! brrr.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:29 (eighteen years ago) link

The best stuff about E.T. is sad. The worst stuff about E.T. is bad. The stuff I don't care about in E.T. is Dad.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:12 (eighteen years ago) link

not sure why Schindler's List catches flak, because sure, there are several moments that stand out as being wrongheaded, but the rest is pretty amazing.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I have an irrational hatred of sappy Holocaust films. I only saw Schindler's List once - when I was a teenager - and I remember that I really lost interest as soon as all moral ambiguity was removed from Schindler's character, somewhere around halfway through. Without that internal conflict driving the story (why is Schindler doing this, what are his motives, etc.) making things more complicated, I quickly grew bored with it. There were no characters with the adequate depth to hold my attention. Plus the ending with all the old people planting flowers on his grave = puketastic.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I'll take Soderbergh over Spielberg any day. Yeah, his attempts at depth are painful (cf. Solaris) but he's much better at making energetic pop fun (which seems to be Spielberg's main defense here), as he has less of a tendency to try for Grand Statements and mawkish sentiment.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Sugarland Express, Duel, Raiders, most of what I remember of Close Encounters = CLASSIQUE (Empire of the Sun is pretty good too--although it seemed better when I was 13.) Everything else basically = DUD.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link

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