Damn. I was enjoying that

ha ha-- me too but i ran out of things to say. don't like to hammer over & over.

but

found an article last night talking about how scorsese's subject since goodfellas has been "the soul under materialism" (or something like that, can't recall the exact phrasing).

this is tracked from goodfellas to wolf, it even includes age of innocence in that (i had forgotten about age of innocence). also a good evaluation of casino under this framework that makes me want to watch it more carefully again.

i pretty much agree with that article in its entirety, from what i've seen and hear scorsese talk about in interviews plus his priestly aspirations etc ect.

talks abot the legacy of goodfellas and everything it enabled since (sopranos, breaking bad, etc-- plus some things made economically viable on cable due to soprano's success)

i can post you the link if you're curious.

If you would, I'd appreciate it.

I would say give Casino another try. Maybe if you try and forget Goodfellas exists you'll see it differently. I actually think it's one of his most underrated films.

my problem with casino is that it's too similar. but under this "soul" subject i might see it again-- it's been a while since i've last seen goodfellas anyway (maybe a couple of years?). so it should work.

here's the thing: http://filmmakermagazine.com/93889-o.../#.Veb7G3gQa20

i like particularly how it lists all the work that followed in goodfellas' footsteps. besides the obvious stylistical template, more having to do with moral ambiguity becoming permissible in big productions. in that he's altered us all forever.

Hey !@#$%!, did you ever respond to my Man of Steel question? I asked you thought it was the same kind of boring formulaic "ok-I-guess" kind of superhero film as the Cap films and I know you commented on Cap and Marvel in general, but I don't think you mentioned Man of Steel.

All other things aside (and anyone can feel free to chime in here), am I the only person alive who thought Man of Steel was flat out excellent? I can't seem to find a soul in the real world who agrees with me on this one. The best I can hope for is "it wasn't bad, but it was no Thor!" Ugh. Light years beyond any other film adaptation of any other superhero EVER except for Nolan's Batman (and, when I'm in some rate for of nostalgia, Tim Burton's Batman to a much much lesser extent).

Oh and I had some final thought on Scorcese and the influence of Goodfellas on both genre pics and ensemble pieces, but for the life of me I can't remember a goddamn word of it. Blah

Did you black out during the second half of Interstellar by any chance?.

i don't think i've bothered seeing man of steel. but if it's the one about amy adams in the north pole or something i think it was an unmitigated piece of shit.

for my taste anyway.

i'm really not much into superheros. really haven't been since i was 9. i went from superhero comix to astérix to war novels to fantastic novels to grownup novels to film.

i do like some children's films though. but superheros are in that in-between space that doesn't do it for me. miyazaki >> stan lee.

i did like avengers though because it was funny. joss whedon can do great stuff.

oh i also liked x-men 2.

oh and hellboy. del toro rules.

batman zzzzzzz. i had a batman scooter when i was 3 though. without even knowing what banging was, i wanted to bang catwoman.

I always love this flick.. its like Legend of the Fall only with less carbs and less filling. Its the Michelob Ultra of peak Brad Pitt era.. or maybe a Rolling Rock

I also somehow watched an hour of this in a fever haze ealier this week.. i had the realization that Fight Club is just a grittier version of this. Guy gets disillusioned.. falls for girl deep in his disillusioned experiment. Some overly masculine shit going on..its a buddy flick.. and then guy has deeper self realization and falls in love with the girl
.. happily ever after..

Does this make Fight Club brilliant or is Jerry MacGuire really brilliant? Neither? Don't judge me.

What about the ending? Where Coop and TARS go into the .. You know what.. And end up.. You know where/when... and ... yknow *morse code* and stuff....

I mean, as a whole, it seems quite sci-fi to me. Like the polar opposite of Gravity in many ways. Gravity was an isolation thriller that took place in space. It wasn't a film I'd compare to Interstellar. Gravity was realistic, with zero fantasy elements. Interstellar was science/speculative fiction plain and simple.

But I guess the genuine human quality in both stories was more realist than anything else. On that level, yeah, the two films share a Very human emotional core, with symbolic emphasis on parenthood and grief.

So I suppose I dig.

not to nitpick, but while gravity tries to look like science-fact, it's a little science-magical-realism. you now who i'm talking about (i'll try not to give out much).

also you can't dodge debris by turning your face away from it (though i'll admit i'm applying moronic logic here-- this is something we must allow in good faith)

but on the other magical-realist coat of vaseline, think about it. yes! and i like it.

i liked that movie a lot more than i had expected to like it btw. i went with "ugh, bullock & clooney" , but left smiling. (i'm losing my cynical edge, dammit...) but no, for real, great little movie.

Actually, I have more or less always felt that Jerry Maguire was sort of brilliant.

When it came out, I kinda resented the hard right turn into typical Hollywood romance land that the film takes about ⅔ of the way through. Mostly because the first half was really great from the get go... an almost Salingeresque take on the struggle of a single man to be genuine in an industry where conscience and integrity exist only as "pitches". Catcher in the Rye for the conscious capitalist, with a new yuppie breed of "phonies" existing in the space between other people's work and the money made by it.

The second half felt at first like a dim and predictable plot maneuver that didn't live up to the cleverness of the primary plot. But now I see it as a relatively realistic (for Hollywood) depictions of how "meant to be" partnerships actually tend to pan out especially when they revolve around someone as obviously confused and codependent as Jerry.
Yeah, it has a happy ending, and happy endings only occur in death. But the film grapples with some very real issues: Good men wanting to do the right thing, proposing for the wrong reasons to an underestimated woman he feels a misguided sense of responsibility for... guy really loves the woman's kid, or wants to love the kid, misinterprets random events for signs, and breaks a girl's heart. This shit happens. Happy endings do not.

That whole section of the film was tough for me for a long time. In real life, that "relationship" would probably have either fallen apart long before any vows were exchanged or all that unfocused passion and well-intentioned mutual admiration would have fizzled away into another loveless two bed marriage, and the kid would have been snorting oxys and throwing darts at pictures of his step dad's head by age 16.

But for a big time Hollywood romantic dramedy, Jerry Maguire is pretty much the best film that can be made using that very limited ingredients list. It does a better job than any others that come immediately to mind with the exception of The Graduate, and possibly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The only thing I just can't swallow is that "you had me at hello" bit.

First of all, I don't know if anyone else was paying attention, but motherfucket never said hello. Not at the beginning of that good-by-big-Hollywood standards speech, not at the beginning of their relationship. Never! You still hear that line come up in comedies and memes and word bubbles... "You Had Me At Hello" is one of the most quoted lines in the history of film. But 20 years later, O still have yet to see anyone point out this one simple fact. I've heard the argument that Zellweger's character was being deliberately cheesy, and a little cheeky, when she said that. And of course many people seem to think that the line is a universal code for "we good/it's ok/let's fuck" and that its an appropriate response to any accepted offer or plea.

Like this familiar bar scene..
---
Guy in bar: Hey there, whatcha drinkin?
Lady in bar: vermouth on the rocks.
Guy: You look like you could use a refill.. May I?
Lady: you had me at hello
Both: *explosive laughter, flicked wrists (oh you!) and pointing at one another (yeah you know that one, we know that one.. ahh, we have a thing in common!)
[silence]
Lady: ... wanna do lines off my ass crack and fuck in the can?
---
hey, I'd buy that if "you had me at hello" was already a romcom staple, and Zellweger's Dorothy was quoting, say, Casablanca or something, when she said it in the film. But it wasn't! Dorothy should have just said "shut up" and left it at that. Then she should have asked the room full of clucking bitches to get the hell out of her house so she could talk to her damn husband.

Aside from that wholly unrealistic ending (Jerry's speech, while touching, also would be a no-fly in the real world), I have come to genuinely think of Jerry Maguire as a great film.

I hate to be the one to break it to you.. but check the script. He did say "hello? I am looking for my wife"
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_s...pt-cruise.html

...

Fair enough.
...

Shit. Haha. Oh well. Woulda been a good talking point had it been true.

Still, if he said "hello?" to the whole room of hens, then just kind of hollered "I'm looking for my wife" into the din, to no one in particular, then it still misses the mark. In order for that famous line to work, then he would have absolutely needed to say "hello" directly to Dorothy at or near the beginning of his little speech.

I doubt he "had her" before she knew he was in the room. Good catch, man. Really. But I want to be a stickler about this because there's not enough stickling going on in the world.

Whatever was said before Dorothy makes eye contact with Jerry and gives her gaggle the stand down order is part of something before the iconic scene.

Definitely not your average sci fi crap, for sure.

I LOVE sci-fi in literature. Most styles and and sub genres and mini-movements and variations as well. I also love Fantasy, though somewhat less consistently. But sci-fi films are tough to pull off. They either have to be GREAT or they kinda suck. Occasionally greatness comes in the form of an odd, challenging, and maybe even a little bit stupid sleeper hit or cult flick. These films can end up being as great as the GREAT ones, but most sci-fi films make terrible decisions and end up in the "suck" category.

I agree fully that Interstellar was completely free of the gimmicky franchise pushing crap and the over-stated action-only payoffs that plague so many of these films. It's much more 2001: A Space Odyssey than Event Horizon or Fifth Element (though both those movies certainly have their fan hordes)

I'm glad you liked it. I would have pumped that film full of Oscar gold if I'd been whoever the fuck was minding the academy shop this year. Useless fucks. GREAT movie.

Asskiss is right you just over thinking it. He clearly said hello in general when walking into the house, and she clearly meant that she heard him when he came in saying hello to no one in particular and that she didn't need his speech.
You're ruining a lovely and romantic scene. Also just don't ever get into this same conversation with your significant other, wifey, momz, grandmomz, sister, homegirl or evening blind date. You will lose many points by expressing less romantic charm than Tim "The Toolman" Taylor

Driller Killer

love this. Kind of Richard Kern-ish. Always funny seeing it in the horror section. God knows what most people must think when they watch it.

I'm curious if any Fight Club book and/or film fans have checked out Fight Club 2, the comic book sequel written by Chuck Palahniuk.

I hope so. Those two movies have done more to rekindle my faith in hollywood than anything i've seen in some time.

Whoa. I didn't have any idea this was even happening. I read a Tyler Durden short story Palanhniuk releases last year. It was interesting, but not even in Fight Club's style.

This, on the other hand, looks unmissable. And potentially disastrous. Interesting medium jump.

I think Pahluniak is one of the worst excuses for a writer ever.

I'm going to see this this week and expect it to be magnificent

I like Chuck's ideas but yeah, his actual prose and particularly dialogue is terrible. And i say this having read all of his books

Fuck this movie 12 Years a Slave..

Fuck this movie.
Fuck this movie.

I've only read Fight Club and Survivor, and a bit of his short fiction, like the aforementioned Tyler Durden story.

I am not a fan of his writing either. He appeals to the same crowd that Brent Easton Ellis appealed to in the 1980's. Young, rich, privileged, white urban lushes. That's not to say either writer is bad... Ellis is much better of course... But what irritates me about Palahniuk is the repetitive style, the constant cynicism and the pomposity of those short abstract declaratives... I am ----'s [body part]"... "I am [Nihilism]'s [self-appointed generational spokesman]."

It's been a long time since I've thought much about the guy, and I don't think much about him now. But I do think Fight Club was a good book with an excellent story that was turned into a fan-goddamntastic film.

i read choke and lullaby and found them entertaining. definitely not high literature, but entertaining enough. then i made the mistake of buying "haunted" at an airport. what an unmitigated piece of shit (2nd time i say that this week i think).

fincher is a decent enough director though.

i read choke and lullaby and found them entertaining. definitely not high literature, but entertaining enough, and i even thought choke had a kind of morality about the necessity of freaks and outcasts to band together. "punk," in a way. then i made the mistake of buying "haunted" at an airport. what an unmitigated piece of shit (2nd time i say that this week/thread i think). haven't been able to touch him since.

fincher is a decent enough director though. movie came out alright. for my taste most of the credit goes to edward norton though-- he's the one memorable thing about it when you look back.

How was ir?

I think Survivor is the best.. it plays most into Chuck's style and usual themes. That being said, while i think his writing is not particularly good, i feel his ideas and imagination are original enough to merit reading. As was said, high literature its not, but its still more imaginative than the usual pulp fiction on the best seller lists

I myself do like his early novels. I think Survivor is my favorite but really like Invisible Monsters as well. His first three novels are in my opinion his best, I've read Choke and Lullaby and was not as into them and it's been quite some time since I've returned to reading any Palahniuk, but Fight Club 2 does have my curiosity at least.

I liked this flick. He should've kept the money though.. the ending wasn't too bad, i kind of liked how they randomly met again as it seemed the movie was going for "fresh start"

A PROPHET

french movie about an arab kid in prison

not very appealing description i know but holy fuck turned out to be a great movie

Left Behind - The Trilogy

Based on a series of evangelical christian novels about the rapture and tribulation. I'm not an evangelical Christian (or a Christian at all) but that whole thing sort of fascinates me.

Hollywood remade the first one with Nicholas Cage but downplayed the Christian angle and tried to turn it into an action/disaster movie. In these, though, the religion's pushed firmly to the forefront. Lots of scenes where really clean looking American people, who all look like shopping channel presenters, take time out to pray, and smile knowingly whenever god's mentioned. The head of the UN (a Russian) is portrayed as the anti-Christ and his plan to create a single economy is presented as some kind of commie/satanic plot. Christianity as conspiracy theory.

Crap but brilliant at the same time.

haven't seen it yet, have to go up to the big citay to see it, we don't get shows like that in Tiny Town. I expect it will be on par with Songs from the 2nd Floor and the rest of his oeuvre, which I think are some of the best and funniest social commentaries ever done.

Hey, just watched this the other night. Omar, man o man, what a good movie. A real fine combination of a great tragic story, good acting and dialog, and surprises and plot twists. One of my favorite movies in a long, long time.

Also didn't hurt at all to look at her:

have you seen OMEGA CODE???? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203408/

No, but having just read about it it seems like just what i'm in the mood for.

One review described it as 'shockingly incompetent'.

Can't wait.

Thanks!

SHOCKINGLY incompetent.

I read the first book of that/ and for the most part I was actually enjoying it. Then the ending happened and refused to even consider the second one.

Watched Abel Ferrera's new film about the last two days of the life of Pier Poalo Pasolini, with Willem Dafoe as Pasolini. It was quite watchable, liked it more than I tend to like Ferrara's movies (but not as much as Welcome to New York) and it has one of the best orgy scenes I've ever seen. Willem Dafoe's wife is in it and she has the hottest eyebrows of all time.


Anywho, the film left me almost none the wiser about Pasolini. But it did make me read his wikipedia page, turns out he was quite the man about town.

Same here. I got about half way through then gave up, but I couldn't shake the fascination so when I found out about the films I jumped on them.