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TheCentralScrutinizer
"After the war, many resistance figures famously put their newly learned talents to use by either going into crime or politics. Melville went into movies." - TrevorAclea
Many folks here engage in the arrogant self promotion of their cleverness by listing their past signature quotes; and, let's face it, I'm no better.
Here's a list of the ones I can remember at the moment:
Moral indignation is just jealousy with a halo.-H.G. Wells
The ships hung in the sky in exactly the way bricks don't
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
Where is the Cannes film festival being held this year?-Christina Aguilera
There's nothing wrong with you that can't be cured with a little Prozac and a polo mallet.
Most people wouldn't know good music if it came up and bit them on the ass.--Zappa
September 11th, 2001: An excellent example of the results of faith based initiative.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue
But, I sang you the potato stuffings! Come on, I sang you the potato stuffings!-Moe Sizlak
Man will never truly be free until the last king has been strangled with the entrails of the last priest-Denis Diderot
Oh my God, the dead have risen and they're voting Republican!-Bart Simpson
Only a fool looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart
If they stop talking, he theorized, their brains start working.-�
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
...Then get me his non-union, Mexican equivalent!
Some Favorite Films:
Brazil
Synecdoche, New York
Mulholland Dr
The Deer Hunter
Raging Bull
The Manchurian Candidate(1962)
The Descent
The Haunting(1963)
Wild Strawberries
Love And Death
28 Days Later
Natural Born Killers
Seven Beauties
Lost Highway
Inland Empire
Night Of The Living Dead(1968)
The Big Lebowski
12 Monkeys
Fargo
Barton Fink
Audition
O' Brother, Where Art Thou?
'Round Midnight
The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
Werckmeister Harmonies
In Bruges
Heat
Tombstone
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Last Of The Mohicans
Harvey
The Dreamers
Dr. Strangelove
American Psycho
Blazing Saddles
Immortal Beloved
Pi
Requiem For A Dream
Being John Malkovich
Donnie Darko
Time Bandits
Tideland
Slap Shot
Duck Soup
Eraserhead
Airplane!
The Outlaw Josie Wales
Contact
AI:Artificial Intelligence
Magnolia
Boogie Nights
The Royal Tennenbaums
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Irreversible
City Of God(2002)
The Exorcist
Blade Runner
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia
Bird
Murder By Death
Kansas City
Monty Python And The Holy Grail
Life Of Brian
The Meaning Of Life
This Is Spinal Tap
Arthur
Blue Velvet
The Fly
Videodrome
Existenz
A History Of Violence
Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory
The Others
The Godfather
The Godfather II
The Glen Miller Story
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
Fantasia
The Party Animal
The Muppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Story
The Bicycle Thief
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Good Will Hunting
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Artificial Intelligence:AI
Burnt By The Sun
Pan's Labyrinth
Session 9
[REC]
Trumbo
Rushmore
The Hudsucker Proxy
Miller's Crossing
The Man Who Wasn't There
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
28 Days Later
Moon
Solaris(1972)
The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
The White Ribbon
Narc
Your Friends And Neighbors
Last Year At Marienbad
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Artist
Withnail & I
Persona
Winter Light
Inherent Vice
Upstream Color
Birdman
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Reviews
Black Mirror: The National Anthem (2011)
Effective satire needs to at least be remotely plausible.
I gave this 3/10 and all three points are for the actors, who must have strained mightily to make this thing something other than a half-assed attempt at a 45 minute Monty Python skit, and not an especially good one at that.
To call this show ham-fisted(didn't realize the pun until I'd typed it) is to do a disservice to both pigs and fists. There is simply not even the slightest chance that any person in any position of leadership whatsoever would even begin to contemplate doing what this person(the PM of England, no less)agreed to do. No chance whatsoever. Period. Nor would anyone advising him even begin to think about suggesting it.
It turned what may have been an interesting statement about the poisoning of our collective societal well that is social media, and made it an asinine farce.
I gave this series a shot based on a recommendation. If episode two is as flatly stupid as episode one, I'm done.
Miles Ahead (2015)
Interesting enough, but, ultimately a bit disappointing.
So, Miles Ahead.....
Just finished watching it.
Now, as a professional musician, the influence and inspiration I have gained from Miles Davis cannot even be measured, so, to say I was eagerly awaiting this film is, to say the least, an understatement.
That being said, I may be the victim of my own misplaced expectations, but, while I did avoid any detailed synopsis of the film before I watched it, I saw it referred to in articles and promotional materials as a "biopic" repeatedly in the preceding months.
If that was a biopic about Miles Davis then Yellow Submarine was a biopic about The Beatles.
I think I'll just leave it at that. It's an entertaining enough way to spend a couple hours, and Don Cheadle is, as always, excellent, but, in my opinion, any insight into the life and works of Miles Davis in this film is strictly coincidental, and, if it was meant as allegory, I missed it.
Anyway, if you have any interest in such subject matter, check it out and judge for yourself. It's at least worth a look.
The War of the Worlds (2005)
Wow, just, wow.
Let me begin the review by getting to the crux of the matter with a liberal dose of quoting from Bloom County's Opus the penguin. This movie: "...has brought the word 'BAD' to new levels of badness. Bad acting. Bad effects. Bad everything. This film just oozed rottenness from every bad scene
Simply bad beyond all infinite dimensions of possible badness
.
Well maybe not that bad, but Lord, it wasn't good."
That pretty much covers it.
At first I felt some trepidation about judging this film too harshly, as it has all the appearances of the fledgling effort of a precocious ten year old with his new laptop, and who wants to disparage such an aspiring creative soul? Then I found out that Timothy Hines is a fully grown adult and I got surly.
So, The War Of The Worlds, we all know the plot, the Martians invade the Earth and things get ugly, and then uglier, and then uglier still, then the Martians catch the flu and they all die, end of story. Simple enough.
It's hard to know where to start with this film in the descriptions of the many different kinds of badness. The editing is choppy and baffling, the lighting flips from a sort of bizarre sepia tone golden hue to a kind of cobalt blueish tone, often from shot to shot within the same scene. The special effects are a weird blend of CGI, Green Screen, and a sort of poorly crafted Ray Harryhausen-like superimposing technique where, I swear to God, there are times which you can see through some of the super imposed characters and images to the scenery behind. The effects were so poorly done at times that I was unsure what I was seeing. Was it bad CGI, bad Green Screen, poorly crafted live action? Usually it was a bizarre blend of the three. Rarely allowing one to forget even for a moment that this was nothing but a film, and a poor one at that.
It really is difficult to describe how laughably bad it all is. It's surreal. You really have to see it.
Then there was the Martians. Suffice to say they looked something like a multi-tentacled CGI meatloaf crossed with one of the ghosts from Pac-Man. I'm not sure if it was Inky, Blinky, Stinky, or Clyde.
As for the acting, I really want to find something good to say about this film, at least one thing, so I'll give some props to the lead, Anthony Piana. He shows a respectable ability to emote, deliver a line, and sell what must have been a nigh on unsellable screenplay. Sadly he's the exception. Most of the lines are delivered in that sort of caricature British stiff upper lip way that defies all believability, regardless of the circumstance.
It was done in a manner thusly:
First Brit: Oh, bother. It seems my flesh is being melted from my skeleton by that bally Martian death ray, old chap. What a jolly cock-up.
Second Brit: So sorry, old fruit. If my face weren't on fire I'd douse you with a pint of bitter. Cheerio!
Finally there's the running time(and I do mean "running" time). It does in 180 minutes what could have been safely accomplished in 110.
Safely accomplished indeed, but for the running.
Our protagonist runs, as do the supporting cast in the sub-plot(a sub-plot never fully resolved, now that I think of it). He runs, and he runs, and he runs, and he runs some more. Then, to break the monotony, he buggers off for a bit, scarpers, takes to his heels, gets on his horse, hauls ass, makes for the hills, bails, flees, and withdraws.
A full 45 minutes of film is occupied in this fashion.
In a nutshell this has to be seen to be believed. As camp, as kitch, as cautionary example, whatever.
I know I've rambled a bit here, but then again, so does this film. It's simply mind boggling in its badness.