I very much forgive it in No Country, because that kind of thing is a Coen Bros trademark, if not partial invention.
― kenan, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Gary Oldman? I thought that was short-story writer Stuart Dybek.
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/images/2007/09/dybek1_infusino.jpg
― Eazy, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:32 (fifteen years ago) link
just saw this in IMAX. it was pretty good.
― amateurist, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:34 (fifteen years ago) link
it only happened a few times in NCfOM, though, compared to all the freaking time in tDK. and anyway that wasn't a PG-13 "superhero movie".
NCfOM actually pretty great at keeping the violence off-screen!
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:35 (fifteen years ago) link
almost all the gore (if not violence) was kept offscreen in THE DARK KNIGHT, i noticed. still felt very brutal, especially when... i guess i shouldn't spoil it.
― amateurist, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:36 (fifteen years ago) link
I've gone off before about the sequence in No Country when Tommy Lee Jones drives up just in time to see the aftermath of what must have gotten pretty ugly. One of my favorite sequences.
― kenan, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:37 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost
i think that is the difference between R and PG-13.
it was always: dude looks up at camera, reverse-angle shot with someone drawing the gun, sudden cut to black accompanied by a super loud BANG
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:38 (fifteen years ago) link
well, not always, but you get the point.
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:39 (fifteen years ago) link
I can't believe this only got a 12A in the UK.
― Gukbe, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:39 (fifteen years ago) link
The one half of Two Face's face looked pretty R to me. Sickening. Good job, I guess I mean.
― kenan, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Little details, like the blood on his pillow... ugh.
― kenan, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:41 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah but it kind of killed "suspension of disbelief" a bit. could anybody really walk around like that?
think of how much brainpower went into director-producer discussions on how to make this as violent and visceral as possible without pulling an R rating.
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I have kind of a big question about the ending of TDK and wanted to gauge satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Maybe after the weekend when more folks have seen it.
I want to see Aaron E. do Glengarry in that makeup.
― Eazy, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:42 (fifteen years ago) link
could anybody really walk around like that?
OR SPEAK!
― kenan, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
put me down as extremely impressed by the middle third but dissatisfied with the ending. i give it 7/10.
i've been thinking a lot about "hannibal" lately, partly because of anthony hopkins vs heath ledger comparisons i've been hearing. i thought maybe it would've been better if they did two-face sort of like gary oldman in "hannibal". but maybe that's too far off from the comic book.
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
oldman in hannibal = i don't think i've really seen anything as disgusting in the movies since. well, maybe the few post-irreversible head-smashing scenes. there was one in "pan's labyrinth", where was the other?
― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 18 July 2008 20:45 (fifteen years ago) link
the sequences shot on 70mm were pretty spectacular when projected in that format. people gasped.
― amateurist, Friday, 18 July 2008 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I will not sit idly by while people defend Batman Forever.
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:48 (fifteen years ago) link
this movie was so long. aaron eckhart stuff completely unnecessary. i agree that the cops vs joker thread was way more compelling than anything bats did. gotham central would make a terrific movie.
― adam, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:49 (fifteen years ago) link
aaron eckhart really sucks.
― adam, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:50 (fifteen years ago) link
he was better than you were in the movie
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:50 (fifteen years ago) link
you did portray the rottweiler right?
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:51 (fifteen years ago) link
eckhart was fine.
a LOT of british and australian talent here
nolan = english bale = welsh ledger = australian caine = english oldman = english
― amateurist, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
i thought eckhart was good. adam smokin' crack.
― latebloomer, Friday, 18 July 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
at least in terms of the principals, they seem to outnumber the americans (gyllenhaal, eckhardt, freeman...)
also:
didn't care much for the proper score,
but the low- and high-pitched electronic drones worked REALLY well! sort of lynchian--they were clearly not coming from anything IN the film, but they weren't exactly proper "scoring" either.
― amateurist, Saturday, 19 July 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
and i reiterate: you should see this in IMAX, the helicopter shots of chicago were especially magnificent.
i don't really go back on what i said earlier, not entirely anyway; the ideas behind the film didn't seem as compelling as some (ebert, et al) would say, and i think there was a degree of incoherence that reviewers aren't acknowledging. and i thought some minor plot points were a bit botched in the telling. but overall this was quite fine.
― amateurist, Saturday, 19 July 2008 00:02 (fifteen years ago) link
////SPOILERS?////
and the whole batman-as-jesus thing was a bit dubious, although i think they set up the next film nicely, but putting b-man in a very different place. although, i sort of remember one of the earlier films doing this too, maybe batman returns? it's been 15+ years though, so i'm not sure i remember perfectly.
― amateurist, Saturday, 19 July 2008 00:03 (fifteen years ago) link
x-post
yeah, it's actually kind of a messy film. but really really good.
― latebloomer, Saturday, 19 July 2008 00:05 (fifteen years ago) link
SPOILERS][][
my crack smoking aside did yall really buy his 3rd act flipout? dude was totally hamming it up all blandly and nothing in the face of ledger/bale ham.
i liked the rottweilers.
― adam, Saturday, 19 July 2008 00:51 (fifteen years ago) link
but the low- and high-pitched electronic drones worked REALLY well!
soundtrack should have been all dubstep.
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 01:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Bring it on, Mr. Humorless. I'll go get my rubber outfit.
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 01:58 (fifteen years ago) link
It was a steaming pile! STEAMING PILE!
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:01 (fifteen years ago) link
No, it was spectacle, and camp, and very shallow, and totally pissed on any notion of Batman as brooding Nietzschian superman. Schumacher's Batman is much different, much sillier animal.
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:13 (fifteen years ago) link
not to mention it was zzzzzzzzzzZZzzzzzzzzzzzz and too self-aware at times
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I'll take self-silly over self-serious any day
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:17 (fifteen years ago) link
i love how movies that don't completely take themselves seriously get let off the hook as if standards go out the window once you wink at the audience
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:18 (fifteen years ago) link
That's unfair. I didn't say it was a great movie (and I kinda hate Tommy Lee Jones in it), I said it was fun.
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:20 (fifteen years ago) link
A night in with whatever's on cable, like.
I thought Val Kilmer looked totally out of place, didn't enjoy myself at all (and I was only about 15 at the time!). but hey, that's me...
― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:21 (fifteen years ago) link
You do hold the majority opinion.
― kenan, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:22 (fifteen years ago) link
it's easy to call a movie "deeply underrated" when most people would give it 1/10. even arguing for 3/10 is a 300% improvement!
― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:31 (fifteen years ago) link
i wouldn't say it's good, i would say "not entirely without merit"
kilmer's not that bad, but tommy lee's awful. the script is great in the way pixar movies are great - those schumacher movies are not unlike live-action cartoons?
― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:32 (fifteen years ago) link
^^ this is awful logic: "batman forever reminds me of pixar movies" != "it is great in the same way pixar movies are great"
still, maybe a conversation starter
― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:36 (fifteen years ago) link
that was pretty awesome, even if it was about 20 minutes too long (hong kong action could easily have been lost, for instance). lived up to my really high expectations (based on nothing but the first film - i've been avoiding finding out anything else about this one, other than that it had heath ledger as the joker). pencil trick was particularly memorable, but basically so many good bits. when can we discuss this properly? what are people doing reading this thread who haven't been but are planning to, anyway?
oh, and yeah, bale's batman voice sucks.
― toby, Saturday, 19 July 2008 02:56 (fifteen years ago) link
i want to watch it again just to see anthony michael hall, totally had no idea he was in there.
― colette, Saturday, 19 July 2008 03:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I saw him in the credits too and wondered who he was.
Only downside to this movie is that the next 10 Halloweens will look like this: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/darkknight-crowd1.jpg http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/darkknight-ethanjoker.jpg
― Eazy, Saturday, 19 July 2008 03:16 (fifteen years ago) link
i loved this but
-- toby, Friday, July 18, 2008 9:56 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
otm
― gbx, Saturday, 19 July 2008 03:21 (fifteen years ago) link
yes
― amateurist, Saturday, 19 July 2008 03:33 (fifteen years ago) link