₦airaland Forum

Another I failed to mention was 'Jaffar' from Disney's 'Aladdin' and 'Ratatouille's' Anton Ego

I like Danny Boyle though strangely it's his 'Millions' that does it for me (with 28 Days Later very close behind) but I'll check this out though.

Saw 'Burn After Reading' and 'Babylon A.D.' yesterday and I'm wondering why. 'Babylon A.D.' felt like I fast-forwarded through a movie just taking in the highlights while 'Burn After Reading' felt like a palate-cleanser for the Coens after the grimness of No Country. It's very Big Lebowski-ish with George Clooney channeling Ulysses Everett McGill from 'O Brother'

iice, do see Mongol and if you can Thank You, too. The scene with the Malboro Man alone is worth the price of admission, when you watch it you'll get.

@Gamine; I believe that to be Esse Agese-Agoro on 'I wish You Happy Birthday'

TDK
Taken
Fallen

@ice_zik you forgot Isaac Mendes's girlfriend and her dad too

@iice: 'No Reservations' with Abigail Breslin as the little niece abi? Did you ever get to see Eckhart in 'Thank You For Smoking'? You really should.

Accidental Husband was ok, totally harmless but worth a smile and warm feelings.

Eagle Eye: Hmmmm, well it was ok while the ride lasted but I forgot everything about it once the lights came up. Besides Shia felt much to young for MM and I really didn't get his motivations throughout the movie.

Saw Mongol, it was lovely! The cinematography was impressive and Genghis Khan's life as a love story totally worked for me.

Have access to Bangkok Dangerous but haven't convince me to watch it yet.

Taken with Liam Neeson is a must if you loved the Bourne trilogy and are a fan of gritty and taut thrillers.

In the light of Heath Ledger turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight, he immediately jumped to the top of my favourite/best movie "baddies" alongside Auric Goldfinger and Hans Gruber. Who are yours?

Hot Shots Part Deux!


For those in the know

Ok now this is really exciting but I fear Heroes III is turning into 24 V. As in the pacing and bumping off people.

The Asimov track leads down many questions. The I, Robot movie does another thing seperately. I've read the book and that's another 'another'.

If SONNY was messianic, as MM asked "how'd robots know to turn to him?". This question is validated by the fact that if SONNY is the only one of his ilk/kind only he would be capable of know where/how to turn to something or ever experience "hope" both as a concept and as an action/decision. Except if by some means he can also replicate VIKI's zombification of the NS-5s.

"Eagle Eye" (the Shia movie) tries to approach a similar dilemma as well.

@ vesc. If you torrent hit up TPB, Mininova or the little green guy. Search for "Sirius Share". He mainly posts "oldies". Lemme know.

Taken as in the Liam Neeson movie not Taken the El Spielbergo serial.

"Folk"? Hmmm, stretching it a bit but I guess it can fit  

@ Vesc, I couldn't diss Asa if I tried. She has a brilliant piece out, arguably one of the very best debut albums ever.

i saw Taken and it was really cool. Almost everyone who has seen it seems to agree. Kinda like if Jason Bourne ever got old and you messed with him.

On the oldies tip, well how'd you want it to go?

@ vesc: 'No one knows'? Only Asa song I have on my iPod
The appearance of RDJ was as Tony Stark and it's supposed to help tie it into the upcoming Avengers movie. As a fan of the 'oldies', I believe the movies of our age will not live up to the movies of the 40's -70's era. Getting them is hard sha as you'd have to torrent them or watch them on VHS or buy them in compilation DVDs still,

How do you generally get your movies?

@Gamine+Ex: It's A Wonderful Life,

@ Ex. Sorry about your job specs.

@vesc: you still into the oldies? I should be on a lot more often now so I'm up if you are.

@ice_zik: Dr Who is fantastic, 'Blink' (Season Three, Episode Ten) is one of the very best tv-show episodes I've ever seen.

It's almost Oscar season again and all the contenders are beginning to take their bows. The Secret Life of Bees? I see at least one nominee coming from that one. WALL-E is taking animation gold for Pixar but I'd love to see it get a nomination for Best Pic.

TDK is re-releasing in January to remind the Academy what to vote for too,

I'm going to see Taken and Mongol before the week runs out. Still have yet to see Zohan completely.

Watched parts of the Bourne Ultimatum again, I can see why Spielberg was so tripped with the camera angles and the editing again.

, And I finally saw the coda at the end of Iron Man with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Not a big fan of the Ultimate Universe but I guess reboots are the order of the day.

With most shows, Season(s) 1 are pretty unmatched. I believe it's mainly because most shows don't know if they'd get second seasons so they pour themselves into the first to get picked up.

Heroes 3 is not bad but it does go down too many blind alleys that they'd need a reboot to get over.

What exactly is Angela Petrelli's power and how is it different from Eden's?

Hi, Ex sadly I didn't invent the term or the concept of 'reboot'-ing a franchise so I did not make it up, I googled it to be sure

Tim Burton's Batman had his trademark gothic-style over it which is not consistent with the mainstream Batman comic. Spider-Man for instance, has his webbing come from inside him; in the comics prior to the movie he makes the webs artificially. Another example would be the current 'One More Day' run in the comics; Spider Man is no longer married to MJ and has reverted to his fresh-outta-college persona; DC Comics '52' and 'Countdown' line-up or even the Ultimate Marvel Universe where Nick Fury is black and looks like Samuel L. Jackson. Perhaps I didn't express clearly enough so I felt the need to add this long-winded bit.

I'm not really a Jolie fan but I liked Wanted, it was unpretentious and she played it with a semi-permanent smirk on her face throughout the movie. If you think the movie's convoluted, get the comics and you'll trip.

30 Rock really is clever! Damages was not an easy sell though Glen Close earned that gong. I'm glad House won something jo!

In terms of art style and characters, yes but in play by play? I understand the Black Freighter is being given the Animatrix treatment or so

Batman was more reboot than remake, the Incredible Hulk too. All that was common was the characters. King Kong was a remake so is The Day The Earth Stood Still, Martin Scorceses' The Departed' and Brendan Fraser's version of 'Bedazzled', you can't really call 'I Am Legend' even though it's based on 'The Omega Man'. So I am voicing against the former not the latter.

The Oscar movie season is not yet here but I'm catching early buzz for Clint Eastwoods' Changeling,

Hi, been a bit, shey everyone's good?

I have one small issue. 'Remakes', why? 20 years down the line, will we want to bee a TDK or LoTR remake? I somehow doubt it.

I am one of those people who think TDK invented sliced bread and discovered electricity so I have nothing to say to non-sympathizers.

On the Watchmen, I'm all wait and see. One thing I know for sure it cannot be a faithful adaptation but if it's even a derivative like Wanted was I'm okay with that.

Seen recently and recommending: Mr Deeds Goes to Town, Big Fish, Bedazzled, The Mentalist (tv show preair).

The Hobbit needed to come before LoTR as humour because bleakness has never overcome. If Tolkien had written The Hobbit as dystopian and nihilistic as RoTK and TT appeared it wouldn't have flown. That only underlines why FoTR was so important, as you have fantastically pointed out. Loth Lorien and Rivendale need to be real to us to accept the scorched earth of TT and RoTK. In FoTR, evil wasn't far off, it was just kept and bay and that could only serve to magnify the beauty and surreality of Elfin life. Outside that I'd've like to see how PJ woulda come up with an ancient good that would be able to take on Saruman's liar without trashing the nature-loving, tree-hugging appeal of the Ents, in that Tolkien is faultless.

Heath Ledger wasn't that big a box office draw when he was alive, so attributing TDK's intake purely to his dying's a little weak. The opening weekend's 158m could be accounted to that, but if you look at how much Iron Man -an arguably lesser film- took in, 375-400m would have been perfect as a total gross for TDK but no, this one is pushing towards Titanic's gates because genre-movie or no, it is a stupendous work of visionary art that works on every level not on one dimension which were what killed the sequellicious PoTCs and Matrix's.

I agree that Ledger's Joker is unbridledly and incoherently evil, defined only because it is the opposite of good. It exists to be 'not good'. Very few villains (except like Goldfinger) have that as a reason for existence. TDK tried to examine the cost of escalation, the price of commitment and the defining line that is between being a hero, a bully and a vigilante and even the nature of those roles. The clincher was getting it to relate to our current world events with 'terrorism' and 'privacy' concerns. That is what I believe moved TDK post-$440m and not because Heath Ledger conked himself on the head.

The Hobbit is a comedy. I don't know how good Peter Jackson does with humour (think I said that already sha), that he'd capture the essence of 'The Hobbit', yes but as a companion piece to LoTR in it's current (movie) incarnation may bring the wrath of the Tolkien-ites Anonymous. I still consider The Fellowship to be the best of the three movies but even that movies is not as 'light' as Hobbit.

On the translation from the books to the movie, I totally get your point. The music in the movie is movie-music, the actual story/book soundtrack probably might not have translated as well. On pacing, a number of movie can handle slow-paced action pieces, Fellowship did. As for condensing/distilling movies out of books, I'm all for it as long as the essence isn't lost (Caspian!), I tend to treat the movies as extracts or variants rather that whole-scale reproductions and in some cases the movies are infinitely more accessible and coherent (Wanted). I actually thought the Ents were good and there was no way he'd have gotten away with excluding them. If they'd shown up with no back-story just to attack Saruman/Sauron, it'd've broken the coherence of the story.

Sequels are not necessarily bad but I think Nolan's approach of taking each movie as a complete story is best.

That would be Sukiyaki Western Django? I've had access to that for a long time now but never got around to seeing it. It's supposed to be very pulp and funny too, I guess I'll see it sooner than later then.

I generally see the trend towards brainy & 'dark' action movies but somehow I'd like to see how Guy does, for a while it seemed Layer Cake marked the end of the era for British crime-flicks. Last thing I saw that really impressed me was the Hustle TV series (hated Season 4 though)

I missed out on the conversation about the LOtR books but I for one wished Peter Jackson found space for Tom Bombadil. Tolkein created a world; other authors create scenarios, landscapes et al. He built foundations, histories, languages and entire frameworks for civilizations. Tom Bombadil represented something that trancended the allure and power of the One Ring, relatively little is explained about him and his wife but in almost all situations there's an 'abberation' (if you will) that is beyond easy explanation. That is the only thing I feel was missing in the LOtR trilogy. The extended cuts of the movies did a lot to fill in the mythology sha (not to in any way belittle the excellence of Jackson's work). Peter Jackson extracted the soul/essence of what LOtR was and filmed what is essentially an impossible movie and pulled it off with a flourish and now the question becomes 'what next?'. I think he should just bone and direct on of the Tintin movies but I don't know how well he does humour but it would be certainly so far out of left field that it'd resist comparisons that derailed King Kong.

I just got notified that there'd been 100 posts since I was here last, that's so cool! It's so good to have people who are prolific enough to match my 'thread-fam' (hey iice, vesc!)'s output. Hi's to Ex-Inf, Gam & ice_z.

I have seen TDK (twice) & WALL-E. My year in movies is made. I have decided that this year will determine my faith in the Oscars depending on how they handle both movies. Both movies made me feel like Anton Ego in Ratatouille. I check TDK's box office climb daily  

While I agree with Ex that Christopher Nolan will eventually film what will considered a dud, any movie he makes now after TDK WILL be considered a dud, Peter Jackson has/had the same problem,  it's all downhill from here. And from the comic-book movie genre too, where can they go from here? It's kinda good that it was the last one out because if for any reason Iron Man had come after TDK, it would've unfairly been lost in TDK's shadow. And I fear for Pixar as well, they are inherently an unfair company; they shouldn't be making movies this good annually, a review I read felt other film makers must feel very sad when they have to go and see a Pixar picture, I agree. Whatever they drink or smoke at Pixar, I want some!

To all the budding writers/creators out (t)here: Keep at it because if you don't use it, you'll lose it. I know that as fact. Admittedly critical review/scrutinity can be fear-inducing/off-putting but remember Titanic is not the highest-rated movie ever, neither are Star Wars and TDK. Ideally the balance should be somewhere between critical acclaim and commercial success but then most of it comes from a trend/impression of having succeeded at meeting expectations of people not involved in the creation process.

QT's depiction of violence is much less artistic than John Woo's. QT has fallen my (and his own) hand. I don't know how he gets away with it, M. Night (unfairly) and the Wachowskis (justifiably) are crucified daily but QT gets to form like he invented a branch of sliced bread or something, I don't really like it but sha,

I actually have a .pdf version of the Chronicles is you can hit me up with a PM and your email, we're good. Except if your hate reading electronic books, I don't care much for them myself.

Saw Patton, vesc, you would love the opening sequence or have you seen it already?

@KarmaMod & bychance, welcome.

You guys are right. I was talking about pure 'star power'. Name one Will Smith movie that didn't cross $100m. That's what I mean by 'bankable' as in literally. Which other actor has that track record?

KarmaMod, you don't like Will Smith, I get. Brad is a better actor than Will? Wouldn't argue with you but when you say "Ive yet to say anything beyond "It was ok" to a will smith movie.",  I don't know what to say to that. Will Smith the actor is much like Will Smith the rapper; he ain't the best but he does have a lot of 'more than ok' moments/times.

Maggie, 'adorable'? Ok, I will have get back to you on that,   


@bychance: define 'lack of originality', please.

Finally saw 'Caspian'. Good movie, lousy adaptation.

Just saw Hancock yesterday. Will Smith is now confirmed as the single most bankable star in the world. The movie was not all that but he delivered.

@iice, do you know some background on our Will? I mean as per his M.O. of picking movies/roles? One thing that struck me yesterday is he does the popular genre but he tries to put some twist on it. Like when sci-fi blockbusters were in, he did ID4 and two MIB's, romantic comedies? He gave us 'Hitch' when biopics were on, he did Pursuit of Happyness and now that it's superhero/comic books, here's Hancock.

Seen 4 reviews now for TDK and it's been all 5/5, two 100%s and one 4.5/5. I feel all warm inside,

Well it'd be the first post-humous Oscar in a long time. at the end of the day sha this was the performance that 'killed' him so they'd really go for it though the hype is already frenzied.

@iice, The first episode was so out of it. the lips of all the characters were just off-putting and Batman ended up looking drab as well. Are you following the RIP Batman going on in the comics right now?

Jake's sister in TDK so I guess that's not too bad abi?

vesc, we do have a thing going; I've been catching up on some classics I hadn't seen yet. Cool Hand Luke, Dr Strangelove and a little bit of Patton, I still have others lined up sha.

Jake Gyllenhaal's a good actor and everything o, but I'm totally with you guys on him not being ideal, Somehow Oded is just too slinky/weasel-like for me but "Mohindar" of Heroes has too-wide features. Well I'm sure they could "Asianify" Jake some more. My main fear is if he can carry a movie. Orlando Bloom obviously couldn't but his Jarhead didn't do so good either.

I saw a review of TDK on IGN and it was equated to 'sliced bread' so I don't really fear for it. Wall-E looks like ensuring Pixar's 'perfect record' is still as perfect as Christopher Nolan's and TDK will also extend his streak.

iice, I saw Gotham Knight, didn't like the first episode <the art was too stylized for me> part but it only got better after that.

Avatar: The Last Airbender


To all those new to Kyle XY, Heroes, Jericho and Day Break: WELCOME!

Heroes II was not really that bad, just very winded. House 4 ended with a killer hook.

I guess she must fill her resume with serious/deep movies to keep the awards flowing sha. The Indy role is laid back enough though I still think she was having a blast in 'I'm Not There'.

I haven't read the book but I am very familiar with the concept of Hitler being not dead. Who wrote it?

Yep, Matt Dillon was in the movie so I'm sure it's the same one you're referring to. I do remember Wild Things, it was amusing in parts. You've seen Vantage Point right?

The Hulk has always represented what happens when power is not under control so I can get your being unable to identify a fixed persona. Various writers have put their own spin on him and most modern ones are less heroic and more "tragic reluctant villain like". He's very ambiguous in that vein but he is definitely a hero. If you read comics and recently followed the Planet Hulk/World War Hulk arc you'd probably appreciate him more.

I tend to avoid reading reviews because of spoilers and also because most reviewers don't 'get' what they're reviewing most of the time.

Cate was Cate but I don't think she struggled with the role, in fact since I saw 'I'm Not There' I believe she's the greatest female actor of this generation.

Rashomon is worth digging out from wherever you can find it, it's better seen/experienced than read about. You write/ that's cool and interesting too. Did you see Liv Tyler in 'One Night at McCool's'?

The Great Dictator just shows up how unimaginative and trite most 'socially-aware' and 'politically-charged' today's comedies and movies are. Chaplin is/was genius.

Comedy then was good but nowadays comedy is really good as well. I just saw 'The Great Dictator' a few days ago and it really is something to see.

I like the fact that you can see where most of today's directors get most of their tricks from and when you watch oldies you wonder what the Nigerian movie industry thinks it is doing. Have you seen any effects in a Nigerian movie that matches The Ten Commandments, Thief of Bagdad or Clash of The Titans?

I like the elasticity of script and even the wit

Have you seen 'Rashomon'? You really need to. It is an experience.

What's your take on the Incredible Hulk and Indiana Jones 4?
?

Hmmm. 70's cinema was mostly populated by filmakers relishing their "freedom" by pushing limits on issues, nudity, vulgarity, shock-factor, neo-noir came; then gangster/crime flicks etc and by then special effects had started dominating movies meaning craftmanship started getting lost so I'm not as big a fan of that era as I am of the bygone years but they did have some fantastic movies. Have you seen Chinatown? Jaws was 70s just like Star Wars VI and THX dem. But still the post-30's movies had Charlton Heston filling the movie screen with El Cid, Ben Hur, Planet of The Apes and I loved him and all the sci-fi boom too is memorable so I'm into that too. I love Audrey Hepburn! and Lauren Bacall was it too. After Wizard of Oz dem I think Liz Taylor ended up sweeping the carpet under from dem Judy, Katherine Hepburn. Mickey was really good in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. James Dean was kinda like an icon, especially since he died young and everything.

I like Capra's style/cornyness. Mr Smith Goes to Washington wells me up like It's A Wonderful Life does too. James Stewart's 2nd phase of acting really is/was fascinating sha,

Fiddler On The Roof?

P.S. where'd iice go

@vesc: I'm a Capra fan. I'm also into Bogart and James Stewart a lot. I generally do movies with snappy dialogue and fantastic concepts.

@iice: if you really are catching those trips [pardon the pun], souvenirs for us o!