Movies205 Goes to the Movies! Discuss, Review, and be Merry!

[Movies205]

Premise is simple, you guys shall suggest movies, I will watch them, and then I will post my thoughts. Anyone else who'd like to post their thoughts is welcome to. How often I do this depends on my free-time which is scant, but I am always watching movies so... It should work out...

Additionally, you may ask for my thoughts on any movie, director, actor, or movie related question and I will provide an answer to the best of my ability. Even going as far as just asking how I'd rate a movie...

Let us begin this great experiment....

 

[Franklin Richards]

Compare and contrast these two movies.

 

[AlteredEgo]

i dare you. bwahahahaha!

 

[Movies205]

...

Compare and contrast these two movies.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” are two films that I like quite a bit. I’d say there strongest link would be in that they defy normal genre conventions by not being simply morality plays. The typical Superhero and Western films deal with Good Vs. Evil. These films seek to examine the gray areas of heroism, however in the end they both deal with some pretty clear depictions of Good and Evil.

“The Dark Knight” seeks to complicate Batman’s world by making the road to good a tricky one, by obfuscating the lines of good and evil through the Harvey Dent character. There is a clear contradiction in the Batman character in that he trying to clean up Gotham City, but he doing it through breaking the law. Harvey Dent is suppose to solve this problem, but in the end is corrupted and Batman makes the hard choice of becoming a symbol of evil. However, it is important to note that to the audience Good and Evil is always very clearly defined.

“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” shows a pacifist, Ransom Stoddard, that wishes to change a small corrupt town through his good nature. Through the course of the film, however Ransom is forced to face the evil that corrupts the town and believes he kills the man. The town then nominates him as councilman, but he wants no part of building a career on a dead-man’s death. He then finds out it wasn’t him, but his friend did it. The film deals much in the same themes as the Dark Knight in that its discussing how we need to do things for bigger causes then ourselves and even lie.

Obviously there are some differences; one is the practicality that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was a vehicle for James Stewart and John Wayne. Dark Knight is a franchise about a superhero thus The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a self-contained story with one moral, while Batman is a sprawling saga that’ll continue to morph. Another is in the fact that “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” is far more romantic in that it paints the death of violence with the death of Liberty Valance. For you see, the story is about one last hurrah for the west before it becomes civilized. The Dark Knight seems to accept the continual nature of violence and how it can’t ever be truly stopped, but its damage kind of minimized. In the end, Westerns and Super-Hero films share a great deal in common, but I’d say the biggest difference is in that romanticism about the old west, while Superheros are an expression of our want for a better world.

 

[Movies205]

i dare you. bwahahahaha!

No

 

[AlteredEgo]

No

double dog dare you.

 

[Movies205]

double dog dare you.

I've manage to avoid these movies for quite a while, you really want me to break this winning streak?

 

[AlteredEgo]

I've manage to avoid these movies for quite a while, you really want me to break this winning streak?

okay, i recant the double dare. youre lucky. i almost went triple.

 

[Movies205]

okay, i recant the double dare. youre lucky. i almost went triple.

HA, how are you... I haven't talk to you since the good ol'C4 days

 

[Kevin Roegele]

i dare you. bwahahahaha!

Every single good thing The Dark Knight does for cinema, Disaster Movie does the opposite. The Dark Knight is an uncompromising, ground-breaking movie that raises the bar for summer blockbusters, demanding they be proper films from now on and not just thrill rides. Disaster Movie is the the most lazy, cynical, wit-free collection of embarassing non-jokes and lowest denominator stupidity I have ever come across.

 

[Movies205]

Every single good thing The Dark Knight does for cinema, Disaster Movie does the opposite. The Dark Knight is an uncompromising, ground-breaking movie that raises the bar for summer blockbusters, demanding they be proper films from now on and not just thrill rides. Disaster Movie is the the most lazy, cynical, wit-free collection of embarassing non-jokes and lowest denominator stupidity I have ever come across.

Kevin, may I ask why in god's name you watch this movie?

 

[Untilteld]

Speed Racer.

 

[Movies205]

Speed Racer.

Its been to the top of my netflix queue list

 

[StylishHokie21]

I'm not sure if you've seen this or if you're a fan of John Carpenter, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this one.

 

[Movies205]

I'm not sure if you've seen this or if you're a fan of John Carpenter, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this one.

I've only watch the movie once however I am a huge fan of early John Carpenter. While I find Escape from New York to be over-rated I admire what it did on a shoe-string budget. The Thing is a horror masterpiece as well as being one of the few awesome remakes out there. Halloween, again I haven't seen in a while but was awesome. As for really specific comments I need to rewatch Big Trouble in Litte China, I haven't seen a John Carpenter movie in a long time, but I am a fan of his early stuff.

 

[JLBats]

Would you say you're more of a Bresson or Godard man?
How did you feel about Chris Marker's La Jetee?
When it comes to filmic editing, do you prefer conversation scenes be shot in one continuous take, with movement in the frame and choreography directing the eye to the point of interest, or are you more of a fan of many singles and every detail having one single shot devoted to it?

 

[StylishHokie21]

I've only watch the movie once however I am a huge fan of early John Carpenter. While I find Escape from New York to be over-rated I admire what it did on a shoe-string budget. The Thing is a horror masterpiece as well as being one of the few awesome remakes out there. Halloween, again I haven't seen in a while but was awesome. As for really specific comments I need to rewatch Big Trouble in Litte China, I haven't seen a John Carpenter movie in a long time, but I am a fan of his early stuff.

I agree. The Thing is one of my favorite horror movies next to Halloween. I just recently watched Big Trouble In Little China and thought it was pretty decent. I didn't realize Carpenter could make an action/fantasy flick.

 

[Untilteld]

Its been to the top of my netflix queue list

Good boy.

 

[Apollo]

Ghost in the Shell

 

[bullets]

 

[Movies205]

Would you say you're more of a Bresson or Godard man?
How did you feel about Chris Marker's La Jetee?
When it comes to filmic editing, do you prefer conversation scenes be shot in one continuous take, with movement in the frame and choreography directing the eye to the point of interest, or are you more of a fan of many singles and every detail having one single shot devoted to it?

To the third question because that is the easiest, it all depends on the nature of the film. Obviously, being an American growing up in the 90s I am more predispose to the latter mainly because I grew up to being told what I should be paying attention to, but I appriciate the amount of detail in the continuous shot. I like the minute touches that you're able to take from repeated viewings, albiet this is not conversation but if you've seen Goddard's "Weekend", the famous long take of them stuck in traffic is tremendous, everytime I see it, I notice something new.

Pardon my ignorance but I've never seen a Bresson film or Chris Marker's La Jetee. As for Goddard, what little I've seen Weekend and Breathless, he's fantastic. I am a fan of meta-film, or w/e term you prefer to use. The thing that I particularly like about Goddard's film is that there almost like visual essays, especially Weekend. Of course both of those films are in the period of goddard's work that's about film and I haven't seen his later films. Christ, I need to go watch another Goddard film

 

[Jennifer Walters]

 

[JLBats]

To the third question because that is the easiest, it all depends on the nature of the film. Obviously, being an American growing up in the 90s I am more predispose to the latter mainly because I grew up to being told what I should be paying attention to, but I appriciate the amount of detail in the continuous shot. I like the minute touches that you're able to take from repeated viewings, albiet this is not conversation but if you've seen Goddard's "Weekend", the famous long take of them stuck in traffic is tremendous, everytime I see it, I notice something new.

Pardon my ignorance but I've never seen a Bresson film or Chris Marker's La Jetee. As for Goddard, what little I've seen Weekend and Breathless, he's fantastic. I am a fan of meta-film, or w/e term you prefer to use. The thing that I particularly like about Goddard's film is that there almost like visual essays, especially Weekend. Christ, I need to go watch another Goddard film

As a lover of film, you need to watch La Jetee. Here's why:

The thing is almost entirely composed of just still images.
It may sound like this would be a total affront to the very nature of film, but he completely makes it work, and when there is a single 2 second shot of movement halfway through, it's deeply powerful. But it really does make you look at the whole art of cinema and the moving image and it makes you think about how it's really just a series of still images anyway, especially towards the end when he starts speeding up the stills, almost creating the illusion of movement. Also, it's just touching and profound and has some haunting **** in it, so I recommend, indeed, I recommend

As for Bresson, he will make Godard look like an action movie director to you. His movies are non-sensational, plodding, literally expressionless... but there's something, and I hesitate to say this because it sounds both odd, kinda gay and pretentious, but there's something SENSUAL about the way he makes movies.

I'm assuming you've taken in some Truffaut? What's your opinion on him?

What about Jacques Tati? The long takes, deep focus, "notice something new everytime you watch" style pretty much reaches its stylistic climax with him.

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

Troll 2, so bad it's awesome, beyond criticism

 

[Movies205]

As a lover of film, you need to watch La Jetee. Here's why:

The thing is almost entirely composed of just still images.
It may sound like this would be a total affront to the very nature of film, but he completely makes it work, and when there is a single 2 second shot of movement halfway through, it's deeply powerful. But it really does make you look at the whole art of cinema and the moving image and it makes you think about how it's really just a series of still images anyway, especially towards the end when he starts speeding up the stills, almost creating the illusion of movement. Also, it's just touching and profound and has some haunting **** in it, so I recommend, indeed, I recommend

I'll definately check it out

As for Bresson, he will make Godard look like an action movie director to you. His movies are non-sensational, plodding, literally expressionless... but there's something, and I hesitate to say this because it sounds both odd, kinda gay and pretentious, but there's something SENSUAL about the way he makes movies.

I'm assuming you've taken in some Truffaut? What's your opinion on him?

What about Jacques Tati? The long takes, deep focus, "notice something new everytime you watch" style pretty much reaches its stylistic climax with him.

I've never really watched a lot of French Cinema for some reason... I am really big into Ingmar Bergman and Fellini, like Persona, Seventh Seal, and Wild Strawberries are three films I swear by. Then again perhaps that's because I am very much into Bergman's stories.

What's your opinion on 1920s film? I am really big into that period of cinema, I find the atmosphere of silent films is really untouched to this day. They relied so heavily on visual imagery (especially due to the limited amount of movement with the camera) that it has that errie type of enhance stage play feel to it. You ever see Lon CHaney's "The Unknown".