Movies

TenderLovingKiller® said:
Also, I REALLY hated Signs. The ham-fisted spiritualism was bad enough but the idea that an advanced race of alien beings would travel down to a planet the is 70% water a substance so prevalent that it literally rains down from the sky regularly but didn’t realize that substance was poisonous to them is so fucking stupid. “Swing Away” FFS that movie made me angry after it was over.
Click to expand...
THIS. So much this. I'm still seething over giving that movie any of my time. Funny enough, that's also how a lot of people seem to feel about The Village, but I quite like that one.

The Happening was dumb af, but I went into that one knowing it would probably end up that way, so I was mostly just disappointed in myself in the end.
 
EvanBenner said:
The Happening was dumb af, but I went into that one knowing it would probably end up that way, so I was mostly just disappointed in myself in the end.
Click to expand...
Funny enough, the better half and I were on vacation this past week and were relaxing the hotel room and this came across the tv. I hadn't seen it in years (intentionally so, I imagine).

And within five minutes I said to my wife, what is up with this fucking dialogue. I feel like there were stage notes to make Wahlberg and Deschanel sound as stupid as possible. Wahlberg sounded like Samberg doing his impression of Wahlberg. The children actors actually delivered there lines halfway decently. But what was going on with the leads?
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
For me it’s his incessant need to overly explain everything. He treats his audience like they’re a bunch of children with ADD and if your going to make plot twists/revels as your calling card you better not make them so forced and obvious. He would rather be seen as “clever auteur” than make good movies.

Every movie he has made would have worked much better as a hour long episode of the Twilight Zone. And even then Rod Sterling woulda probably had to come in and prod him to leave some of the mystery up to the audience for interpretation.

Also, I REALLY hated Signs. The ham-fisted spiritualism was bad enough but the idea that an advanced race of alien beings would travel down to a planet the is 70% water a substance so prevalent that it literally rains down from the sky regularly but didn’t realize that substance was poisonous to them is so fucking stupid. “Swing Away” FFS that movie made me angry after it was over.
Click to expand...
Funny enough, I watched Signs while locked in last summer as the air outside was too smoky from forest fires; it's a weird milieu for watching a movie about people stuck inside watching the news and grasping to find out what's going on across the world.

But yeah, I can't argue with any of these problems; they're all baked into his style, for better or worse, and I guess I'm trying to pull for the concept that if you plant your tongue in your cheek and just accept what's put in front of you at face value, they're for the better. He's got an imagination, and I can't fault him for it being a slightly dopey imagination. I recently described Glass as a superhero movie that grabs you by the lapels, shakes you, and shouts "why do you like superhero movies so much?" over and over for two hours; he likes to be convoluted and blunt at the same time.

It does feel like the bloom came off the rose for most people with Signs and moreso with The Village, and people said "he's starting to get bad." But I think he's always been kinda bad, and the more movies he does post-After-Earth, the more he seems keyed into that being an actual, distinctive style, yet I don't hear about these recent movies when people drag him. True, if you hated the spiritualism of Signs, the "my kids are growing up too fast" parental angst of Old isn't going to do it any better for you because it's equally ham-fisted. Though he does abandon the navelgazing for the more immediate questions, like "what is happening on this beach?" and "is something happening with time on this beach?". And the logic is similarly pat and shaky, leaving questions like why isn't there a fuckton of bones left on the beach?
 
PadishahEmperorDiaperBaby said:
100% agree. Really enjoyed it. I like that Nic Cage. It was no Ghost Rider. But I like that Nic Cage.
Click to expand...
Yeah completely agree. He really suited the role and I like how mysterious of a character he was. Much better than a cheesy background flashback or a side-character saying "OMG thats.......from......born......etc".
 
Selaws said:
Just watched Pig.

Such a great film, I don't really know what I was expecting but it wasn't that. Really enjoyed it and I can see myself watching it again for sure.
Click to expand...
I forgot it was Nic Cage after like 30 minutes in, great performance by him (first good non-wacky Cage performance since... "Joe"?) It's not a perfect film but it's the kind of film that should be made much more often than it is. Super glad it's getting buzz.
 
Selaws said:
Yeah completely agree. He really suited the role and I like how mysterious of a character he was. Much better than a cheesy background flashback or a side-character saying "OMG thats.......from......born......etc".
Click to expand...
My wife liked it but she wanted to know the significance of the pig (like how he got it; e.g. John Wick the dog was a gift from the deceased wife) or how the wife died.

But I contest that the outlines and shadows, rather than a full picture gives emotional heft; since emotions are often outlines and shadows universal to us all and then expressed through particulars. Whether he got the pig from the wife, right after he died, or he got it years later didn't matter. It became the focal point for any love he had left in his tank. He didn't need it for anything other than something - the only thing - left to love in the world.

Same with the wife. Whether she died from a long illness, an accident, a crime, etc., etc., etc...he was broken from that loss and in that case a loss is a loss is a loss regardless of the particulars. We aren't told and I think for the better.

Plus it gives more weight to his intersection with the son/truffle dealer and the father/rare food king. The emotions he is able to elicit from himself and with them that may have long been dormant and almost the extremes food can have between deprivation to satisfaction to gluttony/greed did better to bounce around in an amorphous, unexplained universe, IMO.

EDIT: just to tag the wife @MsLoganHenney since we watched it together and she might like to join the discussion/give her thoughts
 
Last edited:
PadishahEmperorDiaperBaby said:
My wife liked it but she wanted to know the significance of the pig (like how he got it; e.g. John Wick the dog was a gift from the deceased wife) or how the wife died.

But I contest that the outlines and shadows, rather than a full picture gives emotional heft; since emotions are often outlines and shadows universal to us all and then expressed through particulars. Whether he got the pig from the wife, right after he died, or he got it years later didn't matter. It became the focal point for any love he had left in his tank. He didn't need it for anything other than something - the only thing - left to love in the world.

Same with the wife. Whether she died from a long illness, an accident, a crime, etc., etc., etc...he was broken from that loss and in that case a loss is a loss is a loss regardless of the particulars. We aren't told and I think for the better.

Plus it gives more weight to his intersection with the son/truffle dealer and the father/rare food king. The emotions he is able to elicit from himself and with them that may have long been dormant and almost the extremes food can have between deprivation to satisfaction to gluttony/greed did better to bounce around in an amorphous, unexplained universe, IMO.
Click to expand...
I completely agree. I actually think that the pig could have been anything at all, it's more the fact that he poured his emotions into this one entity after his wife passed away. I think this is kind of confirmed when
he tells Amir that he doesn't need the pig to find the truffles and that he can do it himself using the trees
. Gives that extra weight to the story and almost turns it into something else compeltely.
 
Selaws said:
he tells Amir that he doesn't need the pig to find the truffles and that he can do it himself using the trees
.
Click to expand...
Right, which also - and maybe I'm giving it more depth and credit than it was going for - gives more weight to purpose and meaning in life.
Like, how the pig collaborated with him and had a sense of purpose on truffle hunts although he didn't need the pig. Parallel to how Amir wanted to do what his father did. A father who, really, just treated him like shit; and who would set him up with a relaxed job/living. But he wanted to do what his father did. Even if his father set up roadblocks and didn't think he had the stones.
 
PadishahEmperorDiaperBaby said:
Right, which also - and maybe I'm giving it more depth and credit than it was going for - gives more weight to purpose and meaning in life.
Like, how the pig collaborated with him and had a sense of purpose on truffle hunts although he didn't need the pig. Parallel to how Amir wanted to do what his father did. A father who, really, just treated him like shit; and who would set him up with a relaxed job/living. But he wanted to do what his father did. Even if his father set up roadblocks and didn't think he had the stones.
Click to expand...
Oooh I like this!! Good shout!
 
gaporter said:
I have to admit, I've always wondered why The Happening has become the go-to so bad it's good M. Night Shyamalan movie when Lady in the Water exists. That movie is fucking insane.
Click to expand...
But yeah, his film trajectory has just been sad so I’m glad to see him somewhat regain his footing. Per IMDb:

The Sixth Sense 8.1/10
Unbreakable 7.3
Signs 6.7
The Village 6.5
Lady in the Water 5.5
The Happening 5.0
The Last Airbender 4.0

Time to go back UP the hill to go back down again

After Earth 4.8
The Visit 6.2
Split 7.3
Glass 6.6
Old 6.1

Not featured

Wide Awake 5.9 featuring Rosie O’Donnell and that kid from the Michael Keaton Jack Frost
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
But yeah, his film trajectory has just been sad so I’m glad to see him somewhat regain his footing. Per IMDb:

The Sixth Sense 8.1/10
Unbreakable 7.3
Signs 6.7
The Village 6.5
Lady in the Water 5.5
The Happening 5.0
The Last Airbender 4.0

Time to go back UP the hill to go back down again

After Earth 4.8
The Visit 6.2
Split 7.3
Glass 6.6
Old 6.1

Not featured

Wide Awake 5.9 featuring Rosie O’Donnell and that kid from the Michael Keaton Jack Frost
Click to expand...
Stuart Little is also missing! (although I suppose that doesn't count since he didn't direct it but it should count)
 
gaporter said:
Stuart Little is also missing! (although I suppose that doesn't count since he didn't direct it but it should count)
Click to expand...
Haha wooow forgot that he did the screenplay for that. Reminds me of this account

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
instagram.com instagram.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top