Dixon Hill

It's because of the height difference, isn't it? That's discrimination. You're all going to jail!

Couldn't have said it better! Just watched it last night, and I adored it. It left me with quite a feeling of some of guilt for whatever reason, like something stuck down my throat. I laughed a lot but every laugh was based on a sentiment of offensivness or the fact you couldn't believe someone would say or do something like that. Black humour at its best.
I do think that it started and ended so strongly that somewhere along the middle it kinda lost power and didn't feel it was really going anywhere. But these kind of films are more like that, less plot driven and like you said, character driven.
It's also interesting that -despite a lot of controversy was made by some people thinking this is a movie that glorifies that world- it's absolutely nothing like that. In fact one of the high points is that Scorsese never makes you feel any sympathy whatosever for Leo's character, and that's fucking brilliant. It's refreshing to have a character like that in a mainstream picture. And yes, every one of the actors was aces on their parts. DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and I especially adored Rob Reiner's perfomance. He was a pure joy to watch.
8.5/10

You'll have to speak up, yer boys flattened me trumpet!

Indeed. Unjustified choral elements are perhaps the quickest way to cringey scoring.
Re-record the original setting of the opening crawl. Let the rest of the score be new and shiny.

You believe he died of his wounds long ago?
*exchanges worried look with Balin*

Eh, I don't see the need.

That'll be decided by Conrad Pope on the scoring stage.

Rest in peace, Uncle Phil.

I'm just now listening to the score on real speakers rather than just headphones. Wonderful! The Forest River is even more spectacular than before; the overall recording quality is spot on for my taste. And Tauriel/Kili's theme is growing on me quite rapidly. Gorgeous. I suspect it'll be twisted into quite the heartbreaker next year.

You disappoint me, you could have went all Tolkien with this one!

There is another thread down below for that!
Comical that this is the thread that for some reason mutated into two separate ones. Good example of polythreadality.

The fact is that no one has done in-depth musicological work on Williams' music, and while there will always be some things about music that remain ineffable, there is a vast difference between pretending one can explain every note of a Williams cue and providing a mere glimpse of some of a cue's workings. We analysts on this board are all in the latter camp. I'd rather have this small amount of analysis than none at all since 99% of a great piece of music can be explained with music theory. The other 1% is magic.
And we're nowhere near that 99%, so we don't need your pity just yet.

Inside Llewyn Davis
*slight spoilers, but coded nonetheless*
Okay, so I'm sure most people won't actually like this film, but I really loved it. Very latter years Coen, felt like a blend of A Serious Man and Burn After Reading. There are some utterly fantastic moments, one of my favorites being the dinner scene where Llewyn loses control. Such classic Coen that scene. "Where's the scrotum, Llewyn? Where's the scrotum??" It's one of their few films without Roger Deakins, but the cinematography is equally brilliant. Great color palette of browns and grays, and the soft focus and lighting does wonders to the aesthetic. It gives the whole mood a washed out feeling, much like Llewyn's character. Speaking of which, his character is one I was able to connect with very well. I recall someone else mentioning that he was a horrible person, but I didn't really see that at all. I saw him as a broken man struggling to fulfill his passion for music. The continuing symbolism of the cat in junction with this overarching 60s folk underground scene in Greenwich Village really paired well to create a film about something more than just a few days in the life.

Really well done film, but certainly not for everyone, much like A Serious Man.

The characters and writing in the remake were wallpaper imo. Erased from memory the instant the credits rolled. Worse; it wasn't even suspensful. Movie wasn't a patch on the Carpenter original.
As B-movie sci-fi goes The Thing remake was an exercise in pointlessness and I'd rather just watch The Mist again instead.

He did a wonderfully ethereal motto piece for that movie.

Among other things.

Ken Burns is a master.

Oh no.
Here's one of my favourite concert pieces by Kilar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcxDNHFslw

Hmm, I was talking about people. What makes us human has nothing to do with where you live. People are the same everywhere. Sorry, Joey, I know this is hard for you to believe, but that's the way it is. And yes, Hollywood and soaps have the longtime habit of portraying people as exaggerated stereotypes. That's why a show like The Sopranos is great. It breaks with all that.
Anyhoo,
Talking about Spike Jonze, I watched Adaptation again and it's pretty near to brilliant. I do have a little problem with the ending of the movie. Even though I understand that we, the public, are a witness to Charlie Kaufmann (the main character in the movie played by a fantastic Nicolas Cage) finally yielding to Hollywood conventions, it does steer away with all that came before it. 9/10

Alexandre

Karol

Yes, it is charming. Between the Coolman and Snoozeman camps I'm definitely in the former.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
It's saddening that one significant consequence and byproduct of success is the inevitable streamlining and efficiency involved in the engineering of follow-up product, or art. So it was here then that my very first thought while watching the The Hobbit Part II was just how contained and artificial the movie looked compared to its elder, superior predecessor trilogy. Instead of the vast open air breeziness and tangible natural atmosphere of many great outdoor LotR character establishing shots; the eerily weird and painfully stagey first sight of Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins had obviously been colour-graded and post-procesed to within an inch of its life, the finished green haze of the eventually approved by PJ image wound up feeling like a Phantom Menace world away from the boots in the mud majesty and grit of Jackson's genre defining first venture into Middle-Earth. But at least it didn't cost as much as sending a small crew up a mountain for a night, making camp and waiting till the moon's real light was good, right?
These films, while earthy in dialogue and tone, increasingly seem to be adopting the "created inside a computer" look as pioneered and made profitable by George Lucas. I'm not a fan of this video game vista aesthetic at all. Middle-Earth no longer feels like a real place.
With that major downside and criticism out of the way, I'm going to talk a little about what I liked. And then I'll mention one moment I absolutely loved. (Psst, it's not the Smaug stuff). Then I'll complain some more.
The movie feels much better paced this time around - it feels nippy and brisk, well; apart from that one cringeworthy jailbird romance scene which had me reaching for the eyeballs uprighter tucked away in my pocketses. But even then the pain was eased somewhat by the incredibly gorgeous She-Elf (I'm in love). So yeah, decently propelled and - most importantly - without an insufferably needless set-piece throughout the entire runtime (*cough* Rock Giants, ahem).
Then there was the terrifically crazy Barrels Down the Bond, a sequence so raucous and thrilling that I found it particularly reminiscent of a certain Spielberg chase scene involving a falcon and a motorcycle. Been taking notes, Peter? The way the camera glided and swung between every smash and thunderous thump was a real treat and even though it was so utterly ludicrous it was a moment no less gleefully executed. One of two personal highlights of the movie.
Then into Dale, a wonderfully scored locale which unfortunately couldn't match the authentic timbre of Shore's returning good musical form and just ended up having the appearance of a George Lucas conceived medieval town on water, a straightforward cgi template dug up from one of his very large hard drives. This wasn't the iconic Dale I imagined in the book; this was just more uncanny videogame locales. Disappointing. Stephen Fry and Bard were okay, but couldn't save the phony gloominess of their surroundings.
Extra special mention to Howard Shore's music though. This, while largely lacking to almost entirely bereft of strong, memorable themes; still felt like a major step up from AUJ. The brooding, beautifully recorded underscore was a fresh new gothic and hard-fantasy piece of work which of all things reminded me of Poledouris and his Conan. The score sounded crisp and ancient at the same time. Good motifs, great overall film music. There was was plenty of it too - which was a surprise since I seem to remember some here saying the movie was strangely quiet in the music department. I completely disagree with that sentiment and was quite satisfied with what I heard. And there was no horrible tracking humdingers in there, phew!
When Gandalf went to Dol Goldur I was weary. Was Peter going to go crazy again? (he's a director who no longer feels like safe hands and instead now puts me on edge for what he might do next to upset me, and the film). But it was okay: when the iconic ancient evil came out to meet the Grey wizard on open ground I had my first gushing fanboygasm since the charge of the Rohirrim! Their confrontation had me holding breath with excitement. It was immense!
The big unveiling of Smaug though was a mixed bag. Short version: the awakening from his slumber and following conversation with Bilbo was terrific and even touched with brilliance. But then Sir Peter Jackson lost control again. So intent on 1-upping his Barrels sequence "just because" and out of a clear desire to milk the arrival of the big bad dragon for all its worth, the director just went absolutely mad with stacking one cheap roller coaster "because I can" thrill ride on top of another. It was exhausting and just boring. And that merely events inside the mountain; back at Date we had the thoroughly pointless addition of the prettiest dwarf on death's door in need of aid from the hottest elf to walk Middle-Earth. Because we apparently needed even more peril on top of the ongoing peril happening inside the mountain - you know - the already stupendously climatic thing we'd been building up to with the dragon all this time. Nope, Jacko needs to intercut and interupt that stuff with wounded left out dwarves. Idiot director lacks discipline! And don't get me on going on the sheer number of endless "the car won't start" moments dotted throughout the adventure, such as the tedious finding of the keyhole "suspense" for example. Dragging it out for dragging it outs sake is just unwelcome at this point.
But at least we ended on an absolutely badass cliffhanger which has somewhat made me look forward the final part. And I suppose I should mention the cool if cosy Legolas expansion, all very entertaining it genuinely was to have him back. So, overall, there and back again, back on track.
3/5

Like music, good home cooking is an art increasingly lost, at least in this part of the world. Some people treat it as if it's the most boring and tedious work, but to me it's complete relaxation.

Wonderful interview. Conrad is one of the most no-nonsense, down-to-earth, honest professionals in the field. It's great to hear and understand "how it's done". It really sheds light on the real job of film scoring.