Movies

[Kathy Li]

meteorite: I'm just completely floored that the entire movie was shot digitally. Not one foot of film. One wonders how this (and Mirrormask) are going to affect what happens in small-budget indepenent film-land, and how comics creators are drawn into Hollywood.

I have a feeling that, perhaps, comics creators might be given more respect and input on films based on their creations, but that they'll still be relegated to "consultant" status, and Miller and McKean pointed to as exceptions-to-the-rule.

But I do think that a lot of filmmakers in the low-end digital-video range of film-making budgets have suddenly had their eyes opened. And I, for one, am really wondering what Quentin Tarantino's gonna do with the knowledge.

[Peter Murray]

Quentin Tarantino? I haven't seen anything by him, either.

But... small budgets and personal projects?

I want to know if this means that we might actually see Terry Gilliam's Good Omens!

[Cress]

I didn't know the thing about Zaphod's head. I just knew it wasn't there for part of it.
I like The Prince and Me. Actually I was really rather obsessed with it for a while. And I thought the Prisoner of Azkaban was the best of the three movies. Although that's not saying too much, I liked it. I'd have to agree with The Cinderella Story though. Haven't seen the others, so no opinion there.

[papercrane]

PM, you've never seen Kill Bill? Lots of fake-violency goodness.
Cress: I thought the premise was weak, the execution poor, the acting mediocre, and the storyline cliche and uninspired. But that's just my opinion...
The Prisoner of Azkaban violated everything good in Harry Potter. The kids suddenly became 'trendy,' They had Hitler play Lupin, and left out just about every relevant fact in favor of 'artsy' fadeouts.

[Cress]

About the Prince and Me-um, it's a chick flick. Did you really expect anything OTHER than a cliched plot line? I kind of ignored that stuff and went with the flow, and it worked for me. I do that a lot in chick flicks, and it makes life a lot funner.

[papercrane]

Heh...I guess I'm just not really a fan of chick flicks in general. If I have to ignore the plot, dialogue, and purpose to appreciate it, it's not for me. Much prefer action flicks for mindless escapism. Jacky Chan is good.

[Cress]

Ok, not the ENTIRE plot, dialogue etc. Just suspend reality and go cheesy for a couple hours. I would rather suspend reality and let myself believe that cheesy happily ever after endings could happen than go to an action flick involving death and violence, but that's just me. I mostly go for the romance part. I'm horribly horrible when it comes to romance. I'm a complete sucker for it.

[papercrane]

Oh, I definitely absolutely know what you mean. Still, it just doesn't click for me if it's not done to a certain standard. I have to be able to believe it might happen under the circumstances and like both of the characters. That's part of why I like Spike/Buffy but not Angel/Buffy--Angel is simply not a character I am fond of, partially because I don't see much depth to him, whereas Spike I think is much more of a vibrant, complex figure.
Action flicks, on the other hand, have swords or guns or both. And generally cool shots. The violence is a plus, too.

[Kathy Li]

ppc: I'm just guessing, but you never watched Angel, did you?

I think I have equal problems of suspension-of-disbelief whether a film is a chickflick with a happy romantic ending or an action film (aka guyflick) where the hero saves the world/universe. When things stop being appreciably character driven, I just get bored.

I think the worst thing that can ever happen when you're watching a movie is to suddenly think, "Oh, come on! There's NO WAY the character would EVER do that!!"

As in, say Episode II, when you suddenly realized Princess Amidala was falling for a kid she used to babysit... Eyew!

[papercrane]

I cannot lie--I didn't. Thus my analysis may be incredibly skewed, and I should have added the qualifier 'in BtVS'.
However, it was a poor choice of words on my part right there. I should have said, 'I don't find Angel as interesting.' Because I don't. Whatever went on in his past, he mostly mopes, provides a Walk on the Wild Side Within Acceptable Boundaries for Buffy, and occasionally goes batcrap crazy to move the plot along. Spike hates and loves with a vehemence and desperation unmatched by any other in the Slayer crew; he is at once absurdly sentimental and something the censor won't let me put here, so I'm not even going to try; he wants to belong with the scoobies just as much as he hates all that they are. Also he is blond, and British.

Re chick/action flicks: Well, for the smaller-scaled (as in, less 'world' and more 'individual' or possibly 'SO') like Samurai Noon...I find it rather easier to appreciate the film as escapism.

[Kathy Li]

I know what you mean. Most of the fangirls go for the Spike. Or Angel. Me, I'm weird. I was rooting for Riley.

Man, is June never going to get here? I sooooo wanna see Howl's Moving Castle. The trailer on the nausicaa.net site was incredibly cool. I could actually figure out who the characters were all supposed to be.

[Birdhead]

As in, say Episode II, when you suddenly realized Princess Amidala was falling for a kid she used to babysit... Eyew!

YES! OH YES, OH MY GOD, YES.

I'm a little capslock about SW at the moment because I swear that trailer is the best piece of cinematogrphy George Lucas has ever done ever. Ever. And I KNOW the movie won't be good. It'll be rubbish. But the trailer MAKES ME WANT TO GO. *crying*

The only movies I've seen lately are Hitch and Closer.. Yeah, enough said.

[Cress]

Kli-You like Riley!? Seriously!? I do too! Ok, I don't actually like Riley himself, more I like Riley/Buffy. Riley by himself just bugs me severely, I think it's the whole army thing. However I think he and Buffy were completely meant for eachother. Angel/Buffy just doesn't work (obviously, I mean notice the losing of the soul incident) and Buffy doesn't really actually love Spike. I mean, she loves him sort of as a friend, but not really LOVE him.
I like Spike FAR more than Riley, but he's not meant for Buffy. But at the end of the sixth season I get SO sad for him. I spent most of that part of Buffy almost crying because nothing happy happened. And although I think him getting his soul is a good thing, it made me really really sad. I mean, come on, the guy just wants to go back to being a normal, thoughtless vampire, go on a good rampage, get some revenge and generally just let loose, and instead what does he get? A soul, which is really not a fun thing for a vampire to have. How great for him.
I would SO have to agree about the Amidala thing, but it was kind of "destiny", which gets annoying sometimes.
I like Hitch. Really funny.

[Gryphon]

We watched a little bit of The Day After Tomorrow in history class today. Normally every minute of class is valuable to the teacher, but today we got to relax a little. Anyway, I didn't like it the first time I saw it. The second time I liked it better, but the third time, today, it was just plain stupid. Kinda wierd how movies do that.

Wait, what!? THAT'S SICK!!! (about Amidala)

[Kathy Li]

Alla, it looks like someone's selling off a bunch of props/costumes from PotO on E-bay. You should take a look, just for the fun of it.

No movies out I wanna see, so I've been watching lots of movies cable. I tried watching The Manchurian Candidate (the original B&W one), but I couldn't get through it. I did manage to catch this chickflick, Under the Tuscan Sun, which was a lot of fun. It was about an American woman who impulse buys a villa in Tuscany while on vacation. Kind of like Enchanted April, only modern and American. So, not really much like...

Gryph: I do not lie. Watch Episode I again!

And, btw, you will note that the big pod-race in Episode I is a boiled-down version of the big chariot race in BEN-HUR (the 1950's color one with Charlton Heston, not the B&W silent one with Ramon Novarro). It even ends the same way.... except that in the '50s you had the patience to sit through nine laps around the coliseum, while these days, you can only sit through three.

Someday, I'll tell you all the story of how Lucas quoted The Adventures of Tartu for some of the Deathstar scenes in the original Star Wars movie.