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What is the last film you watched?


Mr. Breathmask

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At least we can agree on the score! It's very good, and I look forward to buying that and The Dark Knight this week at some point.

I will be getting my score to The Dark Knight in New York, where Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Howard will both sign it.

I predict you will have to stand in some sort of a line to make that happen. And that it will be worth it.

Dangerous Days: The long Blade Runner documentary. This was the first time I saw it.

I loved that documentary. I especially enjoyed the use of all the outtake footage; that was a great use of footage that would otherwise never be seen, and it fits really well with a behind-the-scenes doc.

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At least we can agree on the score! It's very good, and I look forward to buying that and The Dark Knight this week at some point.

I will be getting my score to The Dark Knight in New York, where Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Howard will both sign it.

I hope for your sake that they won't sign it with a quill. "The pen is truly mightier than the sword"

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Dangerous Days: The long Blade Runner documentary. This was the first time I saw it.

I loved that documentary. I especially enjoyed the use of all the outtake footage; that was a great use of footage that would otherwise never be seen, and it fits really well with a behind-the-scenes doc.

I think most of that footage came from the deleted scenes section on disc 4.

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At least we can agree on the score! It's very good, and I look forward to buying that and The Dark Knight this week at some point.

I will be getting my score to The Dark Knight in New York, where Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Howard will both sign it.

I predict you will have to stand in some sort of a line to make that happen. And that it will be worth it.

Yep, I will be at the Virgin Store when it opens at 9am, get my wrist band that ensures I get to meet them, and wait until 7pm when the event starts.

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Just watched the new Criterion DVD of The Last Emperor. Wonderful crisp picture, and a fantastic film. Very moving, and easily deserving of the oscars it won. Now I have 2 disks of documentaries to watch!

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Just watched the new Criterion DVD of The Last Emperor. Wonderful crisp picture, and a fantastic film. Very moving, and easily deserving of the oscars it won. Now I have 2 disks of documentaries to watch!

Let me know how those are. I only breezed through the (hefty) book that came with it.

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Just watched the new Criterion DVD of The Last Emperor. Wonderful crisp picture, and a fantastic film. Very moving, and easily deserving of the oscars it won. Now I have 2 disks of documentaries to watch!

Good score, Hansy worked on it :P

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Tora, Tora, Tora!.

A very good film that details the attack on Pearl Harbor, told from both sides. Unlike Midway there are no silly subplots, just the straight presentation. The Japanese storyline is the better part of the movie. Goldsmith's sparse score is very effective.

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That film sucked.

It's a shame a more competent director couldn't have directed that film and done away with boring Ben and that boring love story angle.

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I caught Hellboy II on Friday.

I really enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of the universe and thought it was just as good as the first. Guillermo really stretched his budget here and you can see every penny on screen. I've read countless interviews of the long shoots the cast had to endure (poor Doug Jones) but glad to see that it all paid off. My only real qualms were that A) I unfortunately knew the bulk of the story, so there were really no surprises and B) the drama didn't hit as hard as it should've. Maybe some scenes could've been taken out to bulk up the story between Red and Liz, as well as Abe and the princess. They just felt a little glossed over.

I mean, who really would've thought Hellboy might actually die? Not a chance of course (in this movie anyway). So any drama surrounding that felt pretty thin.

Overall though, a great comic book flick and one of the better ones I've seen this year (right behind Iron Man). I love the characters and enjoy spending time with 'em. I honestly wouldn't mind if the flick was a bit longer. It'll be a long wait for Hellboy 3.

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Tora, Tora, Tora!.

A very good film that details the attack on Pearl Harbor, told from both sides. Unlike Midway there are no silly subplots, just the straight presentation. The Japanese storyline is the better part of the movie. Goldsmith's sparse score is very effective.

I need to see that again, I haven't since high school.

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He made a synth sound or two, that's all.

And yes, this score together with Bertolucci's images is wonderous.

Only Sakamoto's part. Byrne's part is nothing notable. But Sakamoto's contributions are stunning.

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Just watched the new Criterion DVD of The Last Emperor. Wonderful crisp picture, and a fantastic film. Very moving, and easily deserving of the oscars it won. Now I have 2 disks of documentaries to watch!

Good score, Hansy worked on it :thumbup:

Yes, I noticed he is credited as Hans F. Zimmer!

I'll probably watch discs 3 and 4 later this week and post what I think of them.

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He made a synth sound or two, that's all.

And yes, this score together with Bertolucci's images is wonderous.

Only Sakamoto's part. Byrne's part is nothing notable. But Sakamoto's contributions are stunning.

I know people who don't like Sakamoto's contributions. I'm one of the lucky ones for I enjoy both Sakamoto and Byrne. :thumbup:

Just watched the new Criterion DVD of The Last Emperor. Wonderful crisp picture, and a fantastic film. Very moving, and easily deserving of the oscars it won. Now I have 2 disks of documentaries to watch!

Good score, Hansy worked on it :lol:

Yes, I noticed he is credited as Hans F. Zimmer!

I'll probably watch discs 3 and 4 later this week and post what I think of them.

Excuse me, 4 discs for The Last Emperor? What's included?

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Sakamoto actually sounds more western than Byrne in that score. But although I greatly enjoy both sides of the score, Sakamoto's contributions are, as Morlock said, simply stunning.

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Holy Macgyver!

Sakamoto actually sounds more western than Byrne in that score. But although I greatly enjoy both sides of the score, Sakamoto's contributions are, as Morlock said, simply stunning.

I always liked that they sorta reversed roles.

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Syriana: Very good thriller. It's a complicated film and you need to focus all your attention to it. Don't watch it if you're looking for easy entertainment. Alexander Siddig, as prins Nasir, is very memorable. I'm glad I bought the DVD. It deserves to be seen twice.

Alex

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I liked Syriana when I saw it. Though I'm not sure it would hold up to a second viewing. I felt that the structure was a bit coy, in presenting itself as a serious, hard to follow film, yet really being a big old issue film. It could have been called OIL!!!!!!!!. But the pretensions not withstanding, I did like it when I saw it.

I'm quite pissed off to see that my long post about the the films I saw at the film festival on Sunday didn't make it........I spent a long time on it. For now at least, two memorable screenings.

The first was 24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film about the Manchester music scene in the late 70's/80's. It was shown as part of retrospective on Winterbottom, who was a guest of the festival. I hadn't seen it before, and I loved it. It alernates between controlled chaos and real chaos to great effect. It is always very warm, and very, very, funny. Steve Coogan is perfect in the lead. As an unexpected bonus, Winterbottom showed up for a Q & A after the screening, which he was not scheduled for. He was the nicest, most open, and most enthusiastic guest I've ever seen at a film screening. He went into such depth, and lept at every question with such enthusiasm, that he ended up answering 5 questions over 45 minutes. After the screening, I went up to him and asked him about his collaboration with Michael Nyman, and he was very animated, talking to me about Nyman and film music for a few minutes. A fantastic experience.

The second film is a film that I've been grappling with ever since I saw it- Charlie Kaufman's Syndecdoche, New York. As a Kaufman fan, I thought I was ready for this film. I was not. At all. It starts off in a rather straight-forwards fashion, but then goes wildly into so many different areas.....I found it to be a fscinating mess, though I expect (and hope) that it will become more legible with future viewings. I was not expecting at how wide the range of issues the movie grapples would be....it really feels like Kaufman's 8 1/2, yet he's done it after 6 films. Among other things, the film ruminates on the role of an artist , the limitations of an artist, the pretensions of an artist....and mortality in general, story-telling in general. And it's the rare artsy film that comes off as rather modest, and rather optimistic.

Still, I can't say I liked the film (it struck me as the most incomprehensible film I'd seen), but I appreciated it. Enough so to make me think that it'll grow on me with time. Lots of terrific performances in there, as well as weird, inspired casting (First movie I've seen in which Tom Noonan is not at all creepy). Jon Brion's score is quite good, does a terrific job of bringing the film together, emotionally speaking.

I'm now in St. Petersburg, Russia, and I haven't seen any films since Sunday....but on Friday, I've got a big day ahead of me. Seeing Scott Hicks' Philip Glass documentry and attending a Q & A with John Malkovich, for starters.

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I liked Syriana when I saw it. Though I'm not sure it would hold up to a second viewing. I felt that the structure was a bit coy, in presenting itself as a serious, hard to follow film, yet really being a big old issue film. It could have been called OIL!!!!!!!!. But the pretensions not withstanding, I did like it when I saw it.

I was surprised to learn that this film is from the same guy who wrote Traffic, which I didn't like at all. I think I liked Syriana because the overall tone is more subtle than Traffic. Just look how Matt Damon, who is in denial, gives up on the rest of his family (especially his other son). That was subtle but lightning striking hard. Or, look how youngsters are recruted for terrorist attacks.

Alex

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Excuse me, 4 discs for The Last Emperor? What's included?

Disc 1 is the Theatrical version of the movie restored digital transfer. Audio commentary featuring the director, producer, and RYUICHI SAKAMOTO! (I'll be listening to that next time I get 3 free hours!)

Disc 2 is the longer TV version in a restored theatrical transfer.

Disc 3 is a 53 minute documentary tracing the director's geographic influences, a 51 minute documentary on the making of the film, and another 45 minute documentary featuring key members of the crew.

Disc 4 is a 66 minute BBC documentary, a 30 minute interview with the director, and an INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BYRNE.

It's all the usual top shelf Criterion stuff.

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I'm envious that you got to see Synecdoche, Morlock. Also glad to hear that Brion's score was good (he's going to be doing a live scoring of Punch Drunk Love this month in California that I would love to see)

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The Dark Knight

It's been a while since I was this impressed by a movie. All the hyperbole is justified: it really is that good. I doubt Oscar is going to have the sac to nominate it for Best Picture and Best Director, but there is zero doubt in my mind that by year's end, it will richly deserve that kind of canonization. And there's no telling how much money it's going to make. People who are predicting a sharp dropoff after the first weekend may be in for a rude awakening. Any studio opening a movie between now and Labor Day may be in for an even ruder awakening.

Additionally, it has raised the bar for superhero/comic-book movies to a nearly unfair height. Whatever you think the best superhero movie ever made is, go ahead and bump it down a notch: The Dark Knight knocks its socks right off.

What to say about Heath Ledger...? His death has helped to give his final performance a sort of a sheen (or is that a pallor?) that it might not otherwise have had, but trust me, people would have gone nuts over how good he is in this movie anyways. If he were still alive, you'd still be hearing all the same things. I certainly wish he hadn't died, but I gotta say: as far as final legacies go, this one is as good as they get.

I could write about this movie for a couple of hours and not even slow down.

Final thought for now: as impressed as I was by The Dark Knight, I was almost as impressed by the trailer for Watchmen. That book has been one of my favorites ever since I read it a decade ago, and I've been cautiously excited for the movie ever since it was announced. Well, now I'm full-blown stoked for it. It looks g-damn terrific, and appears to be extremely true to the sprit of the comics; even Alan Moore may have to give in to this one when next spring rolls around.

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Where can I find the Watchmen trailer?

As far as I know, it's not online, but surely that'll change at some point very soon.

The obvious place to see it would seem to be in front of The Dark Knight, but that'll be dependent on individual theatres. The trailer isn't attached to the print, so it'll be up to individual projectionists to get it on-screen.

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Watched Vantage Point last night in HD, having missed it in the cinema.

It started out very well actually, and the premise is interesting, but it starts to unravel towards the end. It's the story that holds all the problems. There are the usual problems of preposterous stunts/plot twists, but it goes deeper than that. Near the end a good guy turns out to be bad, resulting in a huge and overlong car chase, but what he wants/what he did/why is never explained. It's like they made it up on the day they shot it.

The huge finale revolves around getting the president to safety (that isn't a spoiler - the plot of the film is he's shot and subsequently rushed away from the venue), but the amount of bad guys involved by the end becomes too complex for its own good, and the final 'emotional' sequence stretches the limits of rational thought, using a rather convenient plot device that doesn't have anything to do with the main story.

It was worth a watch, but I think needed a few more story drafts, less villains, and a better ending.

Dark Knight and Wall-E will be following very soon. And I have astronomical expectations for both :|

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saw the trailer for 1776 on Robot Chicken last night, can't wait

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1776? Didn't they make that already?

It was a fake trailer Morlock, using stop motion animation,

from the producers who brought you the 300, now bring you 1776.

I loved the scene where John Hancock jumps over everone to sign the Declaration of Independence.

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How I hate Snyder's overuse and style of stop motion. I absolutely adore the graphic novel, but my expectations are pretty low for this movie.

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There hasn't been anything with the production that's worried me too much about it (I'm just happy they're religiously staying as close to the look and feel as possible)

Though I would still have loved to have seen what Greengrass (or Gilliam for that matter) would have done with it

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Judging from track record alone, there's nothing that makes me believe that Snyder is the right director for this. He might pull it off, but I'm not optmistic. Why does everything look so plastic, this was suposed to be gritty and grainy.

I'd much rather see something like Watchmen tackled by someone like Gilliam, Aranofsky or Fincher.

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The cast (with the exception of Ozymandias) looks great. Production design has been fantastic. Score is TBD but I'm not too worried. The CG so far is mixed but they still have time. The slow-mo in the trailer might be just for the trailer (I hope) and your other gripes I can understand, Merkel

but the mere fact that they've got a shot of the Comedian in Vietnam with a 300 ft tall Dr. Manhattan (like Snyder promised to include a year ago I think) in the background gives me some reassurance

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Dr. Manhattan and Rorshac do look spot on. But the whole thing still looks to plastic to me.

I'll hope for the best and the prepare for the worth. I'll be in the theater on opening day, that's for sure.

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Are you talking about the costumes? Because as the comic book was a commentary on the superhero genre (with their costumes for example), the costumes in the movie have been changed a bit (most noticeably in Nite-Owl and Ozymandias) to comment on superhero movies (note nipples on the suits)

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No, not the costumes. I was reffering to the overal look, namely cinematography. It looks too much like a video clip judging from this trailer alone. I would much rather have cinematography similar to Munich, for instance.

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The Dark Knight (****)

I'm not going to go into too much detail, because you have to experience it yourself. I'll say that the score works pretty much flawlessly within the film. It's a shame so many of you severely bashed it based on a couple first listens. Hell, I even thought it was "meh" when I did a first listen. There is actually very little music in the movie. The cue that makes the most appearances is Joker's theme, and when it kicks in, you prepare for something to happen, much like JW's Jaws. Yeah, that's right, I just made that comparison.

It's a shame Ledger is no longer with us, there would have been much more options with a sequel. I would actually be fine without another film, no one should try and top this masterpiece.

It's easily the best comic book adaptation ever made. It's definitely one of the best crime dramas ever made. It's a stretch to include it in the best movies ever made, but it does have one of the finest character performances in a movie.

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Does it still feature those fights where the camera is so close that you don't see a thing? Or that stupid, corny foolishness with commissioner Gordon, like in Batman Begins?

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Wellington Film Festival has just started

Man on Wire

Fascinating documentary on Phillipe Petit and his journey to doing a highwire walk over the twin towers. The combination of archival footage as well as stuff filmed for the doc is great but it's the inclusion of the real people, especially Petit, that makes it worthwhile because they're all so unique and camera-friendly. It's really an awe-inspiring film. Michael Nyman also provides a good score.

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The Dark Knight (****)

(...) I'll say that the score works pretty much flawlessly within the film. It's a shame so many of you severely bashed it based on a couple first listens. Hell, I even thought it was "meh" when I did a first listen. There is actually very little music in the movie. The cue that makes the most appearances is Joker's theme, and when it kicks in, you prepare for something to happen, much like JW's Jaws. Yeah, that's right, I just made that comparison.

(...)

There is no denying the score works in the picture, but it doesn't really make it good music just because of that. What Zimmer offered for Joker was perhaps a little more than a sound effect. You compare it to Jaws, but the shark theme is so fantastically built that it makes it amazing also outside the picture. And in the case of TDK we just have generic noise (not even close to the artistic one from guys like Penderecki).

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