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- Thread starter Mad D
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while i'm deeply cynical about ego-stroking awards shows like the oscars, i wouldn't say that there's nothing you've missed among this year's crop of best picture nominees. i certainly cannot speak to your personal tastes in film, but i can offer a few very quick reviews. spike jonze's "Her" was f***ing fantastic, a lovely contemplation about what it means to be human, and hands down my favorite film of the year. alexander payne's "Nebraska" is wonderfully spare filmmaking that strikes all of the right comic notes as it mines the depths of tension that result from familial relationships, while also exploring the authentic love that makes the tension worth fighting through...
martin scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" is an on-screen bacchanalia for the ages, at once plunging the viewer into the physicality and sexuality of greed while subliminally eviscerating the cultural and political attitudes that lead to such wanton behavioral excesses. and alfonso cuaron's "Gravity" is, if nothing else, a stunning visual achievement and an absolutely immersive movie going experience (though i suspect that the suffocating, all-consuming blackness of space would not be as dramatically effective when viewed at home). i haven't yet had the courage to approach "12 Years A Slave," though i'd say that any film genuinely attempting to confront our nation's history of slavery is certainly worth our time as a viewing public that too often goes to the movies to escape from damning truths...
martin scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" is an on-screen bacchanalia for the ages, at once plunging the viewer into the physicality and sexuality of greed while subliminally eviscerating the cultural and political attitudes that lead to such wanton behavioral excesses. and alfonso cuaron's "Gravity" is, if nothing else, a stunning visual achievement and an absolutely immersive movie going experience (though i suspect that the suffocating, all-consuming blackness of space would not be as dramatically effective when viewed at home). i haven't yet had the courage to approach "12 Years A Slave," though i'd say that any film genuinely attempting to confront our nation's history of slavery is certainly worth our time as a viewing public that too often goes to the movies to escape from damning truths...
I respect your enthusiasm. I simply do not share it.
Tweet of the night:
GregGutfeld @greggutfeld 32m
It Would be awesome if all those statues behind Ellen came to life and started eating the audience.
Tweet of the night:
GregGutfeld @greggutfeld 32m
It Would be awesome if all those statues behind Ellen came to life and started eating the audience.
Fortunately for me (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), as a faithful listener to The Tony Kornheiser Show, I don't even have to worry about that. In about six hours or so, I'll probably be able to write an essay entitled, "Everything I Never Wanted to Know About the Oscars (But Was Forced to Find Out)."
S£im, have you ever read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' series of stories other than Tarzan? You've read Heinlein, I take it. I just watched the $250 mil production called John Carter and they blew it. They created a wonderful reproduction of what I thought Mars should look like as Burroughs saw it and the many warring tribes but the plot was missing. It ticked me off. In the end it was better than the first attempt at the movie of a decade or so ago but what could have become the start of another Star Wars series became nothing but eye candy. I resume they lost money.
I've read A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars. I started reading The Warlord of Mars, before I had to return them to the library, and I haven't been arsed to go try and check them out again. Aside from the bizarre justification for Carter coming by the Dotar Sojat name, I didn't think the movie was all that bad; it could have been better, sure, but it was "tol'able."
I also thought that the casting was fine: obviously, they couldn't have depicted Dejah Thoris as she was in the books, and still kept their family-friendly rating, but I thought it was acceptable. I would have preferred an actor who was a little more... shall we say, robust, for the role, but Ms. Collins acquitted herself well. In fact, I thought that she looked much better done up as Dejah than she has in anything else I've ever seen her in. And then you've got Mark Strong, who seems to have the whole villain thing down pat.
I also thought that the casting was fine: obviously, they couldn't have depicted Dejah Thoris as she was in the books, and still kept their family-friendly rating, but I thought it was acceptable. I would have preferred an actor who was a little more... shall we say, robust, for the role, but Ms. Collins acquitted herself well. In fact, I thought that she looked much better done up as Dejah than she has in anything else I've ever seen her in. And then you've got Mark Strong, who seems to have the whole villain thing down pat.
If you hadn't read the book, you would have been confused as they threw in everything but the kitchen sink to try to stay true to the book but I think it cost them a little coherence. Normally I wouldn't complain but there was a lot to grasp. "More robust?" This guy was a wimp and every Edgar Rice Burroughs male star is a superman. He also couldn't act. The landscape and creatures were incredible. My big problem being that I want perfection I suppose. It's one of my favorite books so I wanted it to be better.
Loved Woola. Everybody needs a Woola. I'd take Dejah home with me.
A lot can be found on Kindle.
Anyway, I'm going to re-read some Heinlein. I'm in the mood.
Loved Woola. Everybody needs a Woola. I'd take Dejah home with me.
A lot can be found on Kindle.
Anyway, I'm going to re-read some Heinlein. I'm in the mood.
I wasn't referring to Taylor Kitsch, I was referring to Lynn Collins. I was using "actor" in the gender-neutral sense: I would like to have seen a more 'robust' actor (or "actress," if you prefer) cast as Dejah Thoris. Perhaps Christina Hendricks, if she weren't so pale, or Catherine Bell, if the movie had been filmed ten years earlier. Or maybe even go completely off-book, and cast someone like Jerrika Hinton.
Ahhhhhhh!!!! I take it you have seen the pictures that accompanied the early books. Robust, indeed.
Kitsch aggravated me so much I would have preferred a buffed Tom Cruise and you don't know how much I detest Cruise. I swear I have read every EGB story and they all have supermen and superwomen that can't exist in real life. Well, Ahnold would be fine but the women are impossible as they not only would have to be able to walk upright but also be incredible athletes.
Ya know, I don't remember what Stranger in a Strange Land is about although I grok grok. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
Kitsch aggravated me so much I would have preferred a buffed Tom Cruise and you don't know how much I detest Cruise. I swear I have read every EGB story and they all have supermen and superwomen that can't exist in real life. Well, Ahnold would be fine but the women are impossible as they not only would have to be able to walk upright but also be incredible athletes.
Ya know, I don't remember what Stranger in a Strange Land is about although I grok grok. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
Ahhhhhhh!!!! I take it you have seen the pictures that accompanied the early books. Robust, indeed.
Kitsch aggravated me so much I would have preferred a buffed Tom Cruise and you don't know how much I detest Cruise. I swear I have read every EGB story and they all have supermen and superwomen that can't exist in real life. Well, Ahnold would be fine but the women are impossible as they not only would have to be able to walk upright but also be incredible athletes.
Ya know, I don't remember what Stranger in a Strange Land is about although I grok grok. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
Kitsch aggravated me so much I would have preferred a buffed Tom Cruise and you don't know how much I detest Cruise. I swear I have read every EGB story and they all have supermen and superwomen that can't exist in real life. Well, Ahnold would be fine but the women are impossible as they not only would have to be able to walk upright but also be incredible athletes.
Ya know, I don't remember what Stranger in a Strange Land is about although I grok grok. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
Disregarding my theory for the moment, I have to say that I am completely and utterly fascinated with the Roscoe subplot. I am captivated by the way they have inverted the gender roles between him and "Lex." And, as the father of a biracial, teenage boy (and how many other posters here fall into that demographic?), watching Marty's reaction to their relationship, and seeing how it all plays out is of particular interest to me.
