| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.121.214.11 |
I found out why this bombed so badly. It sucks. It's a big sprawling mess of a film with too many ideas and no coherency to the storyline. It doesn't have the visual flair of a David Lynch movie to carry it through on style points over substance and comes off as a huge disappointing farcical attempt at film-making. With Donnie Darko he had all these ideas floating around but left them hovering under the surface to give a multi-layered involving story with several interpretations. With Southland Tales he's let the ideas take over any sense of coherency or character or story development. He wants only one interpretation so he's telling us evrything and that makes it wrong on two points - a) the ideas here are shit, and b) the ideas here are shit. I know that that's technically the same point but it's such a biggie it deserved a second mention. and c) we like as film watchers to be credited with the intelligence to interpret things our own way. We don't want things spelled out for us. (Well maybe Craig does with his templates) I hate to say it but this is definitely one to avoid. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.10 |
I liked the bits I saw. I thought it had the mad sense of being dreamlike. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Weber - I picked this up on Sunday, then put it down in favour of The Life Aquatic, We Own The Night, and because they were cheaper, even combined. I'm still curious though, despite a rather succinct review. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.245.27 |
I read the script a long while back, Weber... it had a strange frenetic energy to it... it was like an attempt to Tarrantino-ize Robert Altman... it even reminded me at the time, in odd and distant ways, of THE WATCHMEN (probably if I went back and revisited that comic, I'd realize how very, very off I was, but...). The script was a mess, all over the place, but - it's very strange, it was bad, but PRO-bad... for all I can't stand this guy, he wrote a script that failed on a higher level: it was wild and energetic, and disgustingly "pretentious" (yes, pretentious, I'm using pretentious to describe it), but... gotta admit, there was a certain something to it, that separated it from the pack... though has yet never been able to crest my inactive-desire to actually rent and see it.... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.10 |
I think I must have tuned into its madness because i liked the bits I saw very much. I think the pretentiousness was meant to be part of it, if that makes sense - it suited the material. And really, anything with ideas is sort of always better than something with none. Life Aquatic was one of the dullest dvd experiences I've had in recent years. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Life Aquatic was one of the dullest dvd experiences I've had in recent years. Ha! Boring, wasn't it, Tone? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.10 |
It was less affecting than just looking at a series of stills. In fact, it was un-unaffecting, as if someone were setting out to make something that would make you feel hollow. Odd, really. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
I didn't mind LIFE AQUATIC - at least I reached the end, which is more than I did with SOUTHLAND TALES. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Philistines. The Life Aquatic, boring????? So, I shudder to think what you made of The Royal Tennbaums? That was addressed to Tony/Zed. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The Royal Tennenbaums was ok: vastly overrated. To be honest, I recall very little about the film other than the fact I reasonably enjoyed it. Nowt flash, as they say in my part of the world. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The Life Equatic = trendy film people pretend to like.  | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
The Life Equatic = trendy film people pretend to like. Hah! You're just saying that 'cos your attention span has plummeted since you started having those Sugar Frosted Chocolate Bombs for breakfast! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.10 |
I watched it just feeling absolutely nothing, that it was an experiment. Kind of like Andy Warhol art - defying feeling. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.244.175 |
I enjoyed THE DARJEELING LIMITED when I saw it... but have only just remembered it, half a year later, by this thread.... | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Zed - stop with the class warrior stuff, mate. We both hail from the same background.  | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.121.214.11 |
I agree with Zed on the Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic never appealed to me. Zed sums it up with his acerbic little jape earlier. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
The Life Aquatic being the film about a Jacques Cousteau wannabe? If so, I really liked it: a bittersweet, painful portrait of professional and personal failure, and a tribute to a bygone era of natural history TV. It gained more poignancy with the death of Steve Irwin. The final scene is quite breathtaking. Maybe you have to be middle-aged to get it. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Maybe I just need to watch it all the way through! I dunno - if only I was FEELING anything. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Tony, I saw it being rather like a film with Ed Wood encountering real aliens. Bleak comedy, irritation, sadness and finally awe. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
I'll give it another whirl. It's happened too often, me not 'getting' a film first time. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Tony - Oh, so Joel says it's worth the watch, but when little old Frank says the same thing....  Joel - if there's ever a war, I got yer back comrade. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Like Tony, I never made it all the way through. It bored me - something I simply won't stand from a film. And I usually love Bill Murray (have done ever since STRIPES, back in the 80s). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Probably because Joel didn't start with the word 'Phillistines'! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.38 |
Which director said "there are no rules in film, only sins, and the worst sin is to be boring"? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Paul Schrader? No - he said an audience would rather be confused than bored, didn't he... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Jeremy Thomas. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Gerald! Gerald Thomas! Oh, balls. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.38 |
No, it's an older director. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Billy Wilder? He coined the Eleventh Commandment, anyway: 'Thou shalt not bore.' | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
I was sort of joking, naming a Carry on director...  John Ford? Hitch? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Thing is, which director ever thought it a good idea to bore the audience? Apart from Andy Warhol, that is, or that Life Aquatic guy... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.38 |
Sorry, I didn't know who directed those. God, there's absolutely NOTHING to redeem those films, is there? Even behind the scenes, there's only alcoholism and suicide. If I could go back in time, I'd destroy the Carry On series, for the good of Britain. Bad Britain! Now don't do that again. Oh yeah, I think it was Billy Wilder. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
At a guess, Tony, whichever twunt was answerable for Exorcist II. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.38 |
Wash your nethers out with soap! That was the (once) great John Boorman. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Egad, Proto, you're right. Forgotten. What the hell was he thinking when he inflicted that heap of shite on the world? Ah well- he did give us DELIVERANCE, EXCALIBUR and POINT BLANK so I'll forgive him. I can only assume he had a bad coke habit or something at the time. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
Nooo! CARRY ON SCREAMING! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.211.38 |
What about the one Kenneth Williams wrote? Carry on Wanking Bitterly in a Empty Room under a Naked Lightbulb? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Hey! I LIKE Exorcist II! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Kenneth Williams - what a misery. Stuck in his own mud and moaning about it. Maybe if he'd had his piles done he would have been happier. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.208 |
Comparee with Vincent Price, stuck in a type, but having fun with it. And it showed. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Philistines. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Tony - are you saying if I hadn't began with 'philistines' you're answer would have been different. Strange. Relax, I was only gently prodding. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.88.98 |
I know! I was joking too, though probably with a grain of truth... |