Posts by slyrider16

( Richard Hernandez13, my bad, just lost it for a second 😁 )

Best movie—Probably Chicago, though All About My Mother is super close.
Worst movie—Russian Ark.
Worst movie in the last 3 years—Russian Ark
Worst single shot in a movie—Russian Ark
Worst Russian film ever—Russian Ark
Best directing—A tie between Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch Drunk Love and Roman Polanski for The Pianist... mostly because for Chicago, I think the editor deserves more credit than the director.
Best editing overall—Chicago
Best scene transitions—Hulk
Award for untapped directing potential, specifically regarding atmosphere: Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation
Best "blue-collar" directing—unflashy, no glam, just solid work: Peter Weir for Master and Commander
Biggest personal growth award—going from crappy 80s directing to really strong recent stuff: Clint Eastwood for Mystic River
Best original screenplay—All About My Mother
Best adapted screenplay—Master and Commander. Runner up: Rules of Attraction (since nothing else was actually good)
Best actor—Nicolas Cage in Adaptation / Adrien Brody in The Pianist
Best actress—Julianne Moore in The Hours / Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation
Best supporting actor—Chris Cooper in Adaptation, runner up: Paul Bettany in Master and Commander
Hottest—Scarlett Johansson and/or Jennifer Connelly
Worst actor—Keanu Reeves. (With caveats)
Worst screenplay—Bruce Almighty
Worst directing—Alex Sokurov for Russian Ark
Biggest quality pivot: The Pianist, went from mediocre to amazing after that train scene heading to Treblinka.
Cinematography—Master and Commander
Production design—Master and Commander / The Hours
Worst waste of locations—The Two Towers
Music—None. A total year of soulless tracks.
Best use of music that isn't even worth mentioning on its own (original scores only): that weird guitar vibe in Kill Bill.
Overrated—Russian Ark, runner up: Far From Heaven
Underrated—Nothing.
Best scene—The anime sequence in Kill Bill. Runner up: That puppet musical number in Chicago
Saddest scene—Russian Ark. Runner up: The final showdown in Hulk
Why, just WHY?!?!? – Russian Ark – the entire damn movie.
Best ending—Terminator 3. Runner up: All About My Mother
Worst ending—Matchstick Men
Worst final shot—Adaptation
Best song usage—Probably Roxie in Chicago
Most terrible song usage: I Will Survive in Little Manhattan
Best line—“I want to smash your face with a hammer” from Punch Drunk Love
Best movie hook/opening—Rules of Attraction. Mostly just because of the timing.
Pleasant surprise—Anger Management, All About My Mother, The Pianist
Bad surprise—Bruce Almighty, Russian Ark
The absolute worst—Those damn high-concept movies where EVERYTHING is sacrificed for one gimmick, including the actual quality of the film.
Best action scene—The sword fight in Revolutions / the first scrap in Master and Commander / Hulk escaping prison in Hulk
Worst action scene—The fight at the end of Hulk
Special mention for pure megalomania in an otherwise mid scene: the final battle in Matrix Revolutions
Best bad guy—None
Biggest face—None
Biggest cliché—Pretty much the whole Bruce Almighty thing
Biggest waste of a genre—Bruce Almighty
Best fight—When Sandler beats people up in the car in Punch Drunk Love
Best filmed car crash—Adaptation
Some great touches—The motor oil in Kill Bill, the cops "following" that guy in Little Manhattan, and the "mine, mine!" line, the perfect escape plan, and the sadistic girl... all from Finding Nemo.
Best clever bits—The camera shake in Punch Drunk Love, the messy framing in Rules of Attraction, the handheld look in Rules of Attraction, and the way they used subtitles in the final scene of All About My Mother.
Scariest scene/movie? None. (don't watch much horror)...
Best sound— probably Master and Commander
Best visual effects overall— Master and Commander. Runner up: Two Towers
Best single visual effect— Gollum in Two Towers, no competition
Prettiest short shot— that first shot in Lost in Translation
Most intense shot— the girl's face in Rules of Attraction
Worst dialogue— the Matrix movies.
Best newcomer— Paul Bettany in Master and Commander
Solid example of a typical Hollywood blockbuster: Pirates of the Caribbean, runner up: Anger Management
Bad example of a typical Hollywood blockbuster: Bruce Almighty
The "Get a Grip" award for most self-indulgent directors of the year— a tie between the Wachowskis and Quentin Tarantino
Best movie I ever saw on TV/VHS— Mangold's Heavy
Annual breast award— Scarlett Johansson
Character of the biggest (hidden) bitch you definitely wouldn't want as a wife— Laura Linney's character in Mystic River
The biggest "give me an Oscar!!!" movie of the year— The Hours
Award for killing off a precious animation genre: Sinbad

Off-topic, but man, that big shot from back in the day has really lost his edge over the last decade or so. Half the roles he takes now are just him making fun of himself. It's kind of sad...

Remember when I mentioned The Iron Giant to you, Melissa Moore32? You’d probably love watching it right about now... 😁 But I was an idiot and recorded it on a tape, and then some stupid accident trashed the whole thing. 😢 Maybe one day when I actually have decent internet access I'll just download it.

Anyway, The Incredibles are mostly awesome. That line about "penetrating our bureaucracy" is totally original—it's just a literal translation, even in English.

The ONLY thing that bugged me (and yeah, Melissa Moore32 will get why) is how they hyped up this giant robot destroying the city, only for the bot to show up and... barely do anything. When am I finally gonna see a high-budget film (or just really good animation) about m a s a o V n o m destruction of a massive US metropolis during a fight between giant robots? 😁 And no, I haven't seen Sky Captain yet, someone tell me if it actually has stuff like that.
👋

Tonight was the final night of the main lineup, basically the last supper of screenings. Total letdown. Looks like Friday was actually the peak... Honestly, 90% of what they showed was straight garbage—pretentious, cheap philosophy, just overacting... *Surface and Time Take #4* would’ve been the king of this mess. It was just 10 minutes of a static shot of some construction site. And it was such a long shot you couldn't even see anything besides the building. The sound design was trash too, totally pointless... a complete disaster. The only things that saved the night were that Italian flick 'Once Upon a Time a King,' which looked pretty but was conceptually hollow... and those American ones, 'Artifacts'... I guess it was okay, probably just some amateur Hollywood knockoff made by some college kid.

To wrap things up, I couldn't help myself and stayed for Kiarostami's Quote : documentary *Pet*. Good grief, I thought last year's selection was a black hole... but this is way worse. Whatever, at least the first half was tolerable, then I just walked out. 👎

Christian Sanchez44 said:😂
this whole festival is just massive hype for nothing.

If you ask me, they’re making way too much of a big deal out of this thing. Honestly, enough one-shot films get made every year to justify having a festival at all. Hell, some people probably start filming just to try and get in. But let’s be real—it’s mostly amateur stuff, and the main lineup is always gonna look like that. You basically have an amateur film fest on one hand, and then this side program filled with actual movies that's three times bigger and has way more catchy titles to draw people in.

Personally, I wasn't feeling that Andrei Tarkovsky flick last year at all, but if it had been the big headline act, people would've lost their minds. Once you strip away the noise, this year feels just like the last. I’d even say the main lineup is slightly better this time around... but whatever, you need like five or six years of data before you can actually call it a trend.

They should just focus on the main lineup. Use what they've got and move on. That's it.

The festival basically runs three different tracks. First, there’s the main competition—mostly just low-budget indie flicks shot on video fighting for an award.
Then you’ve got this "almost one" side program. These are high-quality entries that didn't quite make the cut for the main competition, even though they're known for those long, complex shots.

Finally, there's the guest program, which I think includes 9 Songs Michael Winterbottom. Unlike the first two, the organizers actually hand-picked these themselves, specifically looking for films with those heavy, drawn-out takes. We're talking actual feature films and docs here, not just video stuff.
That's about it.

So say someone starts with zero core strength, grinds out workouts for a long time, and finally gets those abs popping. Then they just stop... completely. What happens after a few months? Do the muscles just go soft while keeping that pumped volume? If so, that basically means all that work was a waste unless you're doing it for life... 😢

just watching some stuff on PBS now, and man, the visual vibe is just weird. totally different from how I remember renting movies on VHS back in the day. everything on TV now almost looks like someone just pointed a camera at a movie screen in a theater... 😁

🙏
Thanks! So the guy actually pulled it off and took his sweet time doing it... slow and steady wins the race, I guess. Got a link to that page where everything is laid out so cleanly?

I know, but Google didn't turn up anything about his commercials or ads... almost like the guy did zero work before Demolition Man. Maybe Google just sucks at this or I wasn't digging deep enough.
But if anyone actually knows the deal with Marc Brambilla's history, please drop it here. I'm dying to know. 😁

So I'm watching Demolition Man the other night (or maybe it was yesterday, who knows 😁) and it hits me—I have zero clue who directed this thing. Checked IMDb and saw some guy named Marco Brambilla. Looked him up and realized it was basically his big break, and he hasn't really done anything noteworthy since... (wondering why 😁) ... searched him on Google too, nothing much comes up, no early indie projects or whatever, which just tells me the guy isn't all that.

Seriously though, how does someone like that just suddenly land a massive Hollywood blockbuster like Demolition Man?? Just pops out of nowhere, like some random nobody gets the gig. What kind of connections you gotta have for stuff like this to happen??

Quote: Joseph Lee3

Joseph Lee3 said:Italian for Beginners
Tillsammans...
Happiness...
Amaro's Crime... damn.
Seven...
Bring him in...
Evil (Japanese horror—absolute genius within its genre)...
Life Whirlpool (American Beauty)...
City of God... or whatever, doesn't really matter the order...

That original title for this Japanese flick is actually pretty interesting... 😁😁😁

Haven't seen the movie (*Hundred Minutes of Glory*. wow, clever wordplay there) but even John Doe doesn't seem to know what he wants from this flick. The trailer makes it look world-class, probably the best technical production ever shown in San Francisco, but that doesn't mean the script or acting won't suck...

And the fact that John Doe swept the awards.... yeah. I was kind of hoping things would be fair, but I guess it’s not gonna happen that easily, at least not for another few years.
What trips me out is the audience award... how even??? Between Swilichic's film, the Night in Chicago, and even that half-baked John Doe, how could people actually like *Too Long a Dark Night*? Unless they're just total sheep screaming for John Doe. I don't get it...

Out of all the endless trailers flooding our feeds lately, I gotta pull one aside that actually hit different. It’s the second teaser for A.I.—not the one with the fingerprint on the glass, but the one with those seven words. It's just... different. No flashy, rapid-fire editing or a thousand variations of some overplayed cinematic score. Just hits you right where it counts.

"So, watched Nausicaä tonight... on DVD this time. (shoutout to slyrider16 for handing over the disc).

Don't really feel like typing much since everyone's already talked this thing to death, but honestly? This might just be Miyazaki's best work, hands down."

Hear hear! And hey, don't mention it. I'd probably make this required viewing for middle schoolers. 😁 Phenomenal. Anyway, what's the bonus content like on that other DVD?

As for those robots... man, I can't even. 😁 I swear I've never seen a movie (or series) with this much exaggeration and over-the-top nonsense. It kicks off crazy, second episode is solid—mostly thanks to Texas Mack—then the third one kind of drags and gets exhausting, but that finale... the last episode was a total miracle. Just when you think, 'okay, they can't get any wilder than this,' boom, new scene with even more insanity. Fantastic. 🙂 Sure, the critical rating is still pretty low—trash is trash, after all—but the series is one of a kind, a real little hidden gem for anyone into guilty pleasure subgenres.

Ninja Scroll minus ten?!? Trash, seriously?!?! What??? That's straight blasphemy! 😁Just kidding, okay, sure, parts of it definitely lean into trash territory, but as a whole, it’s way more fun than something like 'Charles Bronson in the middle of nowhere 2'. Anyway, getting back to the main movie in this thread.
Akira really isn't dragged out or slow. Look, I'm not even a huge cyberpunk fan—never even read Neuromancer—but the movie is honestly a beautifully flawed masterpiece. It's kind of like the movie A.I. There are bits that are incredible and parts that are total misses, but the core message is what pushes it into greatness. Plus, once you hit the ending, it's hard to even call it a "cyberpunk" film anymore; it's more about the human race as a whole and the paths we might take next. Not saying it's groundbreakingly original, but they handled it pretty damn well. (Again, comparing it to A.I., but there the message was handled in a totally unique way)
The animation is king. I don't remember every single detail, but I doubt anyone could argue it isn't in the top 5 animated films ever. I'd almost want to hunt down whoever invented the computer. Ugh... 😠
When it comes to the end, what sticks with me most about Akira are those tiny moments—just quick shots or sequences that are so artistically stunning I actually want to make a remake just to keep those specific frames EXACTLY the same. 😁(for example: one second there are two guys in a hallway, then darkness, and the next frame their bodies are smeared across the ceiling and walls. Or that rabbit disintegrating... just gorgeous.)

Anyway Adam Wright56, come on, convince me to dive back into MAMA. I miss you guys and I'm such an idiot for not leaving sooner. Such an idiot... 👋

So here’s how I decided to read this movie.

S P O I L E R S !!!!!

The whole thing is basically a fairy tale. Right from the opening shot, you hear this voice (pretty sure it's Ben Kingsley) acting as our narrator, setting the stage for the story. Obviously, you can take this whole thing as a Pinocchio remake, which it totally is. But what matters to me is that it’s a Pinocchio for mechs (robots, ya know?). Throughout the flick, we see how people refuse to accept robots as equals—how they supposedly lack emotions and will never be on the same level as humans. At the same time, it shows just how much people rely on them to take over human jobs. At one point, Jude Law even says it’s just a matter of time before robots are the only ones left on the planet. And of course, that’s exactly what happens... at the actual end of the film, we have these mechs liberating a boy from the ice, and now they finally have the chance to be more human toward that robot-boy than humans ever were. So, they haven't just evolved from primitive machines into beings so real they’ve practically been swapped out for aliens, they’ve evolved emotionally too. They have real feelings and actual empathy. You also gotta notice how the main mech's voice at the end is the exact same voice (Kingsley, obviously) as the narrator from the start. It doesn't really matter how accurate the fairy tale itself is, or what actually happened versus what didn't... what matters is that the robots reached a point where they are the ones telling and retelling the stories. They are the continuation, the next phase of the human race.

Some thoughts on Solaris Tarkovsky: (Haven't seen Soderbergh's yet) After a decent enough prologue (which, considering how long it lasts, is incredibly thin and hollow), the movie just falls off a cliff. And it stays down there until the credits roll. The ideas are either way too on the nose—more often than not—or they're so abstract you start wondering if the director even knew what he was trying to say... Between those points, it's just one scene after another with zero purpose, just padding out stuff that was already covered at the start. The whole film is basically all plaster and no bricks.
Honestly, the lack of quality isn't on Tarkovsky the director (he’s got that Kubrick-esque style going on), it's on Tarkovsky the screenwriter. It sucks because even the beautifully shot frames get exhausting when there's no actual reason for them to be there. (Bonus points if anyone can explain why we needed a 5-minute shot of someone driving on the highway at the beginning...) It's such a shame, especially since the ending actually throws out some potentially interesting ideas... but by then it's too late. The previous 150 minutes didn't do anything to build up to it.
I have a feeling Soderbergh's version might be (slightly) better.

Kubrick wouldn't have even touched this movie if he hadn't been asked. Back in the early nineties, he and Spielberg actually started collaborating on the project, with Kubrick acting as writer and producer while Spielberg took the director's chair. Sounds weird, right? But Kubrick's whole reasoning was that Spielberg had this warmth in emotional scenes that was vital for AI. Basically, he was worried his film would feel too cold. Now that Kubrick's gone, maybe Steven went a bit overboard with the sentimentality and the mushiness, but he’s still more than capable, especially working with such a killer idea. Spielberg's version of the script is pretty much identical to Kubrick's original anyway. That's why that final scene—that whole ending—is so massive... it wraps up the entire arc, completes the evolution...

ahem.😁

The main theme in this flick... hmm, feels like it's based on that 'Sarabande' piece by Handel. Just slightly tweaked for the movie.