Recently in movies Category
Interesting discussion on Kottke about the correct order for a small child to watch the Star Wars movies.
I just reviewed DVD Delirium: The International Guide to Weird And Wonderful Films on DVD: Redux:
1 of 5 stars
Written by Morons
Yes, this book may list some movies you've never seen and that you may want to check out, but it is riddled with errors. Any given perusal yields factual mistakes that any writer willing to Google the movie could correct. I can't believe this is a revised and expanded edition! To give a few examples: The DVD image for The Arena with Pam Grier shows the wrong movie. There's a Miss Marple reference on The Mirror Crack'd that refers to the movies from the 1950s, but they were made in the 1960s! Angel Heart is refered to as a great movie from the 1990s, but it was made in the 1980s! Oh, but it's not just facts they get wrong. There are a couple of paragraphs in Aguirre, the Wrath of God that are clearly about one of Herzog's other films (Fitzcaraldo), another film he made in the Amazon. It's like they remembered some rumor, and then attributed it to the wrong film. No fact-checking! No editing! After five minutes of reading, I started to wonder if I could trust anything they were saying. If you love movies, this is a great list of movies. If you love reading something that is written in a way that would get more than a C-grade in a high school English class, this isn't for you. The morons who wrote this book could've had one good editor read through their essays and point out the errors, but one gets the idea that the essays were spontaneously produced late one night while the writers were drunk or stoned, a review never to be reviewed again. Then again, I suppose there are not too many Ph.Ds or rocket scientists who spend time deciding what the weirdest movies are in the world or writing Amazon reviews. I'll just mention one more movie, in the world of _Idiocracy_, these guys would be D. V. Didiots. Your stupid minds. Your stupid, stupid minds.
1 of 5 stars
Written by Morons
Yes, this book may list some movies you've never seen and that you may want to check out, but it is riddled with errors. Any given perusal yields factual mistakes that any writer willing to Google the movie could correct. I can't believe this is a revised and expanded edition! To give a few examples: The DVD image for The Arena with Pam Grier shows the wrong movie. There's a Miss Marple reference on The Mirror Crack'd that refers to the movies from the 1950s, but they were made in the 1960s! Angel Heart is refered to as a great movie from the 1990s, but it was made in the 1980s! Oh, but it's not just facts they get wrong. There are a couple of paragraphs in Aguirre, the Wrath of God that are clearly about one of Herzog's other films (Fitzcaraldo), another film he made in the Amazon. It's like they remembered some rumor, and then attributed it to the wrong film. No fact-checking! No editing! After five minutes of reading, I started to wonder if I could trust anything they were saying. If you love movies, this is a great list of movies. If you love reading something that is written in a way that would get more than a C-grade in a high school English class, this isn't for you. The morons who wrote this book could've had one good editor read through their essays and point out the errors, but one gets the idea that the essays were spontaneously produced late one night while the writers were drunk or stoned, a review never to be reviewed again. Then again, I suppose there are not too many Ph.Ds or rocket scientists who spend time deciding what the weirdest movies are in the world or writing Amazon reviews. I'll just mention one more movie, in the world of _Idiocracy_, these guys would be D. V. Didiots. Your stupid minds. Your stupid, stupid minds.
Is it just me or is art in decline through its patent excesses? Weren't we all a lot better off before CGI graphics made it possible for someone to semi-easily implement the dancing breakfast in which "Breakfast gets down and busts some bacon-y smooth dance moves"? Will some child look back at this commercial, like people my age look back at the wit and calm charm of the Mr. Turtle/Mr. Owl Tootsie Pop commercial? I think not.
Hopefully, someone with some class and taste will ultimately figure out the best use for our new-found graphics technology. I don't really want to sound like the crabby 'old skool' guy, but I really prefer cartoons or puppets.
The obvious example of CGI excess is the Lord of the Rings movies, but Jacksons paean to Tolkien is atleast comparable the emotional excess of cinematic technology when it was still young, but how long until the artist-at-large gets his chops and is the master of CGI and not the victim of its excess?
In the mean time, give me guys in rubber suits any day over most of this CGI crap. (Pixar excepted from rant)
Hopefully, someone with some class and taste will ultimately figure out the best use for our new-found graphics technology. I don't really want to sound like the crabby 'old skool' guy, but I really prefer cartoons or puppets.
The obvious example of CGI excess is the Lord of the Rings movies, but Jacksons paean to Tolkien is atleast comparable the emotional excess of cinematic technology when it was still young, but how long until the artist-at-large gets his chops and is the master of CGI and not the victim of its excess?
In the mean time, give me guys in rubber suits any day over most of this CGI crap. (Pixar excepted from rant)
