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lauralhA week ago today I was watching A Bug's Life. Never seen it before. More or less a piece of fluff rendered beautifully, I guess. Having a godawful number of younger siblings, I've seen plenty of those fluffy kiddy films. I mean I liked it ok, I just thought Antz was better plotwise.
Today I watched Toy Story 2 for the first time, and I have to say it charmed me. I remember liking the first one ok, same in the fluff category, but this one felt a bit richer. And funnier. Maybe it's just fresher in my mind, but I'll rate it higher if you ask me today. And of course the geek in me went a little nuts for the rendering. "mmm, polygons." I'm just waiting for the day when any kid can write a screenplay, feed it into a computer program, and in a few hours have a full-length CG movie. Then just edit it herself, add more lighting to crucial scenes, et cetera.
Yesterday I watched Natural Born Killers for the first time. I think Hong Kong has desensitized me a bit to people getting shot (let's not even mention The Contenders here). I remember a friend of mine saying I wouldn't like it when it came out because it was "too violent." Well, it was just a touch more violent than I would have preferred, but that was ok. What wasn't ok was the utter lack of character development, which I suppose is one of Quentin Tarantino's signatures.
It was enjoyable, in that sensory overload kind of way, but when you're making a movie with no character development - the characters are merely a vehicle for the message - you gotta have a better message. (My personal view is that Morrissey did it better, more succinctly, and earlier.) I can always appreciate pretty films (A Walk on the Clouds) but I'm not gonna put them on my list unless they make me think, and I just feel like this one told me what to think.
Finally - I just finished watching The Filth and the Fury, the Sex Pistols documentary. Wow. It blew me away. I'm not really a huge Sex Pistols fan, though my older brother was (he had a poster of Sid Vicious on his wall in high school) so I know a little bit about them. And of course I know about their influence on the Smiths and the Cure (and some other bands thanks to 24 Hour Party People), and I knew that their manager just picked out Johnny Lydon because of his cool look, not really because he could sing. But the rest was news to me, and the presentation was phenomenal. The director really surpassed his other best-known work, Earth Girls Are Easy. Wait, that came out wrong. But anyway if you have any appreciation for 70s punk at all, you must see this. It really captures so much about punk, kind of how Velvet Goldmine captured glam (albeit in a fictionalized manner).
Today I watched Toy Story 2 for the first time, and I have to say it charmed me. I remember liking the first one ok, same in the fluff category, but this one felt a bit richer. And funnier. Maybe it's just fresher in my mind, but I'll rate it higher if you ask me today. And of course the geek in me went a little nuts for the rendering. "mmm, polygons." I'm just waiting for the day when any kid can write a screenplay, feed it into a computer program, and in a few hours have a full-length CG movie. Then just edit it herself, add more lighting to crucial scenes, et cetera.
Yesterday I watched Natural Born Killers for the first time. I think Hong Kong has desensitized me a bit to people getting shot (let's not even mention The Contenders here). I remember a friend of mine saying I wouldn't like it when it came out because it was "too violent." Well, it was just a touch more violent than I would have preferred, but that was ok. What wasn't ok was the utter lack of character development, which I suppose is one of Quentin Tarantino's signatures.
It was enjoyable, in that sensory overload kind of way, but when you're making a movie with no character development - the characters are merely a vehicle for the message - you gotta have a better message. (My personal view is that Morrissey did it better, more succinctly, and earlier.) I can always appreciate pretty films (A Walk on the Clouds) but I'm not gonna put them on my list unless they make me think, and I just feel like this one told me what to think.
Finally - I just finished watching The Filth and the Fury, the Sex Pistols documentary. Wow. It blew me away. I'm not really a huge Sex Pistols fan, though my older brother was (he had a poster of Sid Vicious on his wall in high school) so I know a little bit about them. And of course I know about their influence on the Smiths and the Cure (and some other bands thanks to 24 Hour Party People), and I knew that their manager just picked out Johnny Lydon because of his cool look, not really because he could sing. But the rest was news to me, and the presentation was phenomenal. The director really surpassed his other best-known work, Earth Girls Are Easy. Wait, that came out wrong. But anyway if you have any appreciation for 70s punk at all, you must see this. It really captures so much about punk, kind of how Velvet Goldmine captured glam (albeit in a fictionalized manner).
