tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post5220660671358874259..comments2024-02-23T05:17:08.682-05:00Comments on The Film Freak Central Blog: SpilloverBill Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14011398543859221282noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-38092787213410435992008-02-07T20:45:00.000-05:002008-02-07T20:45:00.000-05:00Hmm. Yeah. But Seraphim Falls is bad art and Swe...Hmm. Yeah. But <I>Seraphim Falls</I> is bad art and <I>Sweeney Todd</I> is good art. I only started talking "dismal tide" after I heard it in <I>No Country</I> so blame the Coens for having the finger on the pulse, not me. I'm just a good student. Being bad art, though, doesn't make <I>Seraphim Falls</I> exempt from the zeitgeist. In a lot of ways, you make my point.<BR/><BR/>But why'm I Walter_Chawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14314737706201691225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-76042748906479962362008-02-06T13:59:00.000-05:002008-02-06T13:59:00.000-05:00RE: "Juno" what's it all about?Juno is about ninet...RE: "Juno" what's it all about?<BR/><BR/>Juno is about ninety-five minutes. A glib response, but still the one that seems the most appropriate answer to Bills’ question. My own modest praise of the film stems mostly from my expectations that it was going to be unbearably awful—and the subsequent surprise that it really was halfway decent. The overwrought and occasionally downright clunky dialogueAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-31527151321066179362008-02-06T10:12:00.000-05:002008-02-06T10:12:00.000-05:00Uh-oh, a fan has questioned The Chaw.Uh-oh, a fan has questioned The Chaw.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-52806091727552382992008-02-06T07:43:00.000-05:002008-02-06T07:43:00.000-05:00If there's a Godwin's Law in current criticism, it...If there's a Godwin's Law in current criticism, it predicts the occurrence of our commonest and most meaningless epithet: "hipster."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-4570126524539909612008-02-06T02:46:00.000-05:002008-02-06T02:46:00.000-05:00How Walter can accuse Seraphim Falls of being a re...How Walter can accuse Seraphim Falls of being a retarded sermon on the toll of revenge, only to praise the egregiously simple-minded Sweeney Todd for its dead-end nihilism take on the toll of revenge is beyond me. Oh, but it reflects our "dismal tide", and it ties in to his 2007 thesis about the past being a lie that he harps on about in every other freaking review, so of course it's brilliant. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-56472511716134709462008-02-05T21:33:00.000-05:002008-02-05T21:33:00.000-05:00I think Walter may have been overly hard on The Hi...I think Walter may have been overly hard on The Hills Have Eyes II. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic, but I enjoyed seeing what essentially boils down to a straight exploitation slasher in our age of neutered remakes and faux-philosophical sludge like the Saw series and Hostel II. Sure, it exploits our modern Middle East interventionism for "commentary" that is both cheap and highly dubious, but Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-86244718207163750212008-02-05T20:42:00.000-05:002008-02-05T20:42:00.000-05:00I found the Robot Chicken Star Wars special excruc...<I>I found the Robot Chicken Star Wars special excruciatingly bad, certainly on the level of Date Movie/Epic Movie/Meet the Spartans(?).</I><BR/><BR/>Oh fucking please. At the outside, maybe "Shrek 2." Robot Chicken is admittedly hit-or-miss and Love Gorilla certainly pinpointed the special's weakest moments, but still, if you can't find the humor in Darth Vader sleeping on Star Wars sheets, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-89791592297131759522008-02-05T03:50:00.000-05:002008-02-05T03:50:00.000-05:00James: I suppose it is an inevitable problem when ...James: I suppose it is an inevitable problem when you take an entire narrative structure head-on, but I think "hostile" is the appropriate word for "Blue Harvest". Its attempts at meta-comedy are a little like <A HREF="http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess.htm" REL="nofollow">snarking at those old Hostess minicomics from the '70s</A>--at a certain point you have to stop and consider that stories about Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-72039023541874804592008-02-05T03:47:00.000-05:002008-02-05T03:47:00.000-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-83200614785652617832008-02-05T02:49:00.000-05:002008-02-05T02:49:00.000-05:00Agree with everything you said Love Gorilla! Thoug...Agree with everything you said Love Gorilla! Though Ian makes a convincing case, I found the Robot Chicken Star Wars special excruciatingly bad, certainly on the level of Date Movie/Epic Movie/Meet the Spartans(?). The "Yo Mamma Fight" segment has to be one of the ugliest most unfunny bits of parody I have ever had the misfortune to see.<BR/><BR/>One of the discoveries of List of Bests is how Alex Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13028946403342782184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-84786202752339811952008-02-05T01:42:00.000-05:002008-02-05T01:42:00.000-05:00I think Robot Chicken is, for the most, uninspired...I think Robot Chicken is, for the most, uninspired and cheap. It goes for easy laughs, which it wouldn't get away with if it was, say, a live action skit show rather than staged with action figures. I'm a toy collector, btw, and many of my collector associates love the show solely because it's all done with toys in stop motion, and I think that's where a lot of the appeal lies. The show gets awayRyanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03940764967908491433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-57964011143911065072008-02-05T00:36:00.000-05:002008-02-05T00:36:00.000-05:00Speaking of TCM ...<A HREF="http://laist.com/2008/02/04/a_message_from.php" REL="nofollow">Speaking of TCM ...</A>Jefferson Robbinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05356665406917571985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-46593965880118312022008-02-04T18:29:00.000-05:002008-02-04T18:29:00.000-05:00Re: Ian on Family Guy: Blue HarvestInteresting rev...Re: Ian on <I>Family Guy: Blue Harvest</I><BR/><BR/>Interesting review, Ian. I can't say I disagree with your overall assessment (it was on the weak side), but I don't think I would describe it as "hostile." If anything, the episode was clearly straightjacketed by two things: 1) The need by all involved to be waaay too faithful to the film to the point that many <I>Star Wars</I> shots are James Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03964207789326645793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-72833181433395481292008-02-04T17:30:00.000-05:002008-02-04T17:30:00.000-05:00The Scorsese/Kent Jones Lewton doc was pretty swee...The Scorsese/Kent Jones Lewton doc was pretty sweet, scholarly without being dry. Normally I cringe at re-enactments, but Elias Koteas acquits himself well as the voice of Lewton. It's actually already on DVD if you can find it.Bill Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14011398543859221282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-35137469815327629782008-02-04T16:58:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:58:00.000-05:00Ian really nailed the FAMILY GUY: BLUE HARVEST rev...Ian really nailed the FAMILY GUY: BLUE HARVEST review, but I am not certain that there was ever a time where Seth MacFarlane and his crew weren't lazy.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00879652646989670889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-14054253568381613132008-02-04T16:09:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:09:00.000-05:00Juno defenders tend to argue that it's about her m...<I>Juno defenders tend to argue that it's about her maturation, in which she learns that hiding behind a veil of smug pop culture references and the company of like-minded others doesn't prepare you for the complexities of the world, or something. Of course, I can only assume they watched a different movie than I did.</I><BR/><BR/>Oh, that seems to me to be a pretty good defense in that most of Alex Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13028946403342782184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-36610204548620314882008-02-04T16:04:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:04:00.000-05:00Just a quick heads-up to anybody out there with TC...<I>Just a quick heads-up to anybody out there with TCM, tonight @ 10:30pm EST they'll be airing F.W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise. Absolutely vital viewing if you haven't seen it, and the DVD is OOP.</I><BR/><BR/>Dammit! Don't have TCM any more and <I>Sunrise</I> is my biggest blindspot. It's included on AFI's Top 100 Greatest Films (2007 edition), They Shoot Picture's Don't They?'s Top 100, Alex Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13028946403342782184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-28964079869462489482008-02-04T15:36:00.000-05:002008-02-04T15:36:00.000-05:00I'm not exactly a Juno defender, in fact a second ...I'm not exactly a Juno defender, in fact a second viewing intensified all that irked me about it, but I think the reason it's succeeded so overwhelmingly is the surprising slipperiness of the answer to "What the fuck is it *about*?" Because I don't think the answer is "nothing" because that would suggest that it's an empty movie, when it really isn't. There are indeed at least two really bad Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-66409301861353431562008-02-04T15:15:00.000-05:002008-02-04T15:15:00.000-05:00Juno defenders tend to argue that it's about her m...Juno defenders tend to argue that it's about her maturation, in which she learns that hiding behind a veil of smug pop culture references and the company of like-minded others doesn't prepare you for the complexities of the world, or something. Of course, I can only assume they watched a different movie than I did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-39147034413067898192008-02-04T14:38:00.000-05:002008-02-04T14:38:00.000-05:00I'm setting my DVR. I'm intrigued. Thanks, Bill.Di...I'm setting my DVR. I'm intrigued. Thanks, Bill.<BR/><BR/>Did anybody get into the Scorsese Val Lewton bio on TCM a few weeks back? I meant to record it and forgot. Did I miss anything stunning?<BR/><BR/>(I still remember my dad making fun of me when I was a kid for wanting to stay up late and watch a movie called <I>I Walked With a Zombie.</I> Even at age 8, my film radar was set to 'art.')Jefferson Robbinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05356665406917571985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-7356112982977974612008-02-04T13:48:00.000-05:002008-02-04T13:48:00.000-05:00Just a quick heads-up to anybody out there with TC...Just a quick heads-up to anybody out there with TCM, tonight @ 10:30pm EST they'll be airing F.W. Murnau's masterpiece <I>Sunrise</I>. Absolutely vital viewing if you haven't seen it, and the DVD is OOP.<BR/><BR/>Also, I have only one question for the <I>Juno</I> defenders: what the fuck is it *about*?Bill Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14011398543859221282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-3577321504469272052008-02-04T12:09:00.000-05:002008-02-04T12:09:00.000-05:00Read the "Teeth" stuff first...hmmm...I'd tread ca...<I>Read the "Teeth" stuff first...hmmm...<BR/><BR/>I'd tread cautiously when validating the fringe concept of "misandry" which is highly dubious and in its most "mainstream" evocations, mostly just a wing of gold old fashioned misogyny. Not to say that there aren't many examples of it in spirit; but, I'm usually cautious because I've never heard the concept explicated from anything other than theAlex Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13028946403342782184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-42382637844535747912008-02-04T11:28:00.000-05:002008-02-04T11:28:00.000-05:00That's no moon; that's yo momma.That's no moon; that's yo momma.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-88414909010686360872008-02-04T01:09:00.000-05:002008-02-04T01:09:00.000-05:00Thanks, LG, but no love for "Robot Chicken"? Here'...Thanks, LG, but no love for "Robot Chicken"? <A HREF="http://www.adultswim.com/shows/robotchicken/stuff/rcsw/ivcp/index.html" REL="nofollow">Here's their <I>Star Wars</I> special</A>, for anyone who's curious. You can really feel the contempt for Lucas' lame attempts to bring backstory to where it isn't needed--the man's own personal involvement in it sort of makes me wonder if he really knows Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9668842.post-14164830737256479752008-02-03T23:07:00.000-05:002008-02-03T23:07:00.000-05:00Ian, excellent Blue Harvest review. I dig the coda...Ian, excellent Blue Harvest review. I dig the coda, and I dig the Robot Chicken chatter, even though I hate Robot Chicken. Hate hate hate.<BR/><BR/>Did anyone see AVPR? Any thoughts?Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03940764967908491433noreply@blogger.com