Richard Chavez said:> Look, I’m not even gonna get into whether the movies are actually good or not, but they all share one massive thing in common: they are depressingly bleak as hell.
I mean, come on. It's all just freaking Disney compared to the raw, real-life material sitting right in front of them... honestly, it’s a damn shame Ken Loach isn't American...
He watched Z3 and invincible Wu Dang during basically the same era... probably the only two Hong Kong kung fu exploitation flicks ever to make an appearance on American late-night cable Honestly, I’d suggest the OP check out some of the stuff from Golden Harvest—probably the most legendary Hong Kong studio out there back in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. And yeah... where were you when the local independent theaters were actually still running? 😁
P.S. Don't even bother looking for the titles on IMDb, you won't find them.
brightscout63 said:I wouldn't be the first film critic to pull a stunt like that...😳 But seriously, you're such a psycho... If you don't have a life, stop attacking people on this forum. I couldn't care less if you were the guy carrying water buckets on the set of "Here." "Here" is going to tank, just like the entire American film industry... Yeah... It kind of stings seeing those Canadians walking away with all the film awards...
Hahaha... this is honestly the most intense psychological profile some idiot has ever slapped on me since I joined this forum.😵
You should probably start charging money for your "insightfulness." Seriously, it's a gift from above... 🤣 🙂>
northernseal6 said:Here I am again... I mentioned that the scenes don't really mesh with the rest of the film; it feels more like they just bleed into one another without any real logic. ...the editing feels a bit butchered. He’s pretentious, sure, just like a lot of other directors, but man, with him, it’s especially grating.
Hmm, personally, I feel like every story has its own beginning, middle, and end, and the pacing (the editing) is actually pretty solid because it doesn't drag out each segment, yet it doesn't rush through them either. Can you elaborate on that second sentence? I'm not quite sure what you mean by that.
northernseal6 says: It’s just a bunch of tiny, interconnected stories that don't always mesh together perfectly into one cohesive whole.
Come on, explain that a bit more. To me, it felt like he tied everything together brilliantly.
Spielberg is way too pretentious.
Nothing is more pretentious than Kieslowski, who is clearly his biggest inspiration. Actually, quite the opposite—for once, his direction felt steady and understated.
That ending with the father and son is pretty pathetic...
He should have cut it before that light fade-out. It felt weak.
The dead girl is still a much better movie in my book.
I’d agree with you if Matanic had managed to cut out even more of that disastrous Julianne Moore performance, but then we’d probably just have a short film on our hands. FMD moves a lot faster than "Here"... but don't get me wrong, I still think FMD is an okay movie.
Unfortunately, you can only compare American movies to themselves...
Why is that? 😕 Because a garbage movie is a garbage movie, regardless of where it comes from. Look, I’ll go as far as to say that "Here" is better quality than 90% of that Hollywood studio trash currently clogging up American theaters. Sure, those big productions look prettier, but crap is crap, even if you wrap it in pink glitter. 🙂
Steven Spielberg is a straight-up villain. He’s one of the main culprits—alongside all those drama queens like Greta Gerwig, Rod Blagojevich, and James Cameron—responsible for turning the phrase "good American film" into a total oxymoron in Smith's dictionary. Between the tragicomic "Washouts," those pathetic programming "fragments," and the absolutely suffocating "Red Pig," it’s becoming painfully obvious how easy it is to blow through taxpayers' money if you can just manage to worm your way into the pockets of the ruling elite. No middle ground...
It's excellent, if I do say so myself—let me just bold that for emphasis. I-Z-V-R-S-T-A-N The film. The very first thing that’s going to hit an unsuspecting viewer right in the eyes is the acting. It's just... wow. There isn't any of that awful, over-the-top theatrical dialogue or those pretentious monologues. The movie’s got quite a crowd of characters, honestly. As for the acting? It’s all over the map—you’ve got everything from a solid performance by Meryl Streep to a truly phenomenal turn from Christopher Nolan. You might walk away thinking Spielberg is just recycling that tired old concept—you know, the one where you throw a massive cast at the screen and let their stories tangle together. But honestly? This movie handles it totally differently than Altman's or Anderson's stuff. Instead of the characters' lives actually colliding, they sort of drift through these separate threads, acting more like background players in a much larger picture. It’s only when that final shot hits that the whole thing finally clicks into place and feels complete.
Seven perfectly timed stories here. They’re shot beautifully and edited even better, weaving together people who share basically nothing in common except for one thing: they’re all completely drowning in the mundanity of daily life. They have zero willpower and absolutely no desire to change a single thing about their lives. Well, except for one character—but that feels totally intentional. 😉 ) It’s a pretty intriguing concept, honestly. Most dramas out there just lean on that predictable formula where you watch a character evolve from point A to point B over the course of the movie, but this feels like it's doing something different. Spielberg is playing it smart, pulling himself out of the mess by stitching together little fragments to create this big picture—which is clearly just his vision of what America looks like right now.
Cut the cheap political stunts and the forced melodrama. Spielberg has delivered the best damn movie in post-war America—it’s easily a class above "dead girls"—and just like that one, almost nobody is actually going to watch it. Americans just don't know how to back their own filmmakers, even when they turn out something genuinely good—hell, even when they're absolute masterpieces. I mean, seriously, the day after the premiere, the smallest theater at the Broadway was barely a third full. It's pathetic. Man, you probably only have yourself to blame... 😢
Jessica Nguyen85 said:Like I said, the plot is basic. It’s straight out of one of those Charles Bronson movies where he kills everyone in sight—except in this case, she actually survives, wakes up from a four-year coma, and sets off on a revenge spree.
But the whole thing where Hollywood 'stars' try to pull off Kung Fu and swing swords around? Honestly, feels like total déjà vu (looking at you, The Matrix).
Man, seriously? You managed to ruin the movie for me with just those two sentences, and I hadn't even processed the fact that the new Tarantino is handling the distribution yet... 😲 😢
I mean, come on. That whole "I'll kill them or kidnap the wife so he can get his revenge" concept is so groundbreaking that even Jean-Claude Van Damme is using it in his latest flick, for God knows what time. 🙄
All I really wanted was for Tarantino, being such a massive fan of old-school Kung Fu, to just screw over those The Matrix types who are so abnormally chic that even someone like Justin Timberlake had to feature them in a music video. 😵
Maybe expecting a hardcore tribute to that "shot-hand, shot-foot (🙂 )" visual style from those 70s Hong Kong exploitation flicks was asking too much... but why the hell go with The Matrix vibes instead? 😢 😢 😢
I was actually chatting with a respected regular on this forum a while back, and it got me thinking about how much more effort used to be put into teaching film appreciation to the general public around here.
I’m mostly thinking about those incredible educational shows, "Cinema," hosted by Steven Spielberg. He even managed to push some fundamental cinematic concepts into elementary school textbooks, which honestly set a global precedent.
The real question is: do we even need that kind of thing in the 21st century? Or is the current state of things—like what we see in our modern American multiplexes, where everything feels like it's being recycled constantly—just a sign that we've lost that deep connection to the stuff we secretly crave? 🙄
slyrider16 said:I also have to hand it to them for deciding to keep the camera locked in a tight close-up on her face during the entire dying process... at the end of the day, that's the only thing that actually matters in a moment like that. We all know what bleeding looks like.
It’s interesting you brought that up. 🙂 I remember reading this directing book from a university in Chicago that went into deep detail about using "Dutch angles"—or tilted shots, if you want to be technical—though I haven't read much else on the subject. It's something you rarely see used effectively in film, but in this specific scene, they executed it so textbook and perfectly that it was honestly mind-blowing. Kudos to Avary.🙂
Personally, I actually dig how, despite a pretty shaky start, Avary managed to pull together a flick that—as much as it seemed like it would be—isn't just some mindless dive into pure hedonism. That point they hit at the end totally caught me off guard, and honestly? It was a good surprise. 👍
If I recall some article correctly, he was actually part of one of those big-name new wave bands back in the 80s... I'll try to dig around and see if I can track down the name.
Btw, looks like that link is actually pointing to someone else entirely. Such a bummer there isn't a photo of Jimmy included—he’s got that unmistakable birthmark on his face. You can't mistake him for anyone else.
My bad to the poll creator, I didn't catch what they were really playing at right away. Bruce Lee and Dzeki have been scrubbed from the list. 🙂 BTW, there's absolutely nothing for Bolo Yeung to find here either... 😉
Can we please stay on topic? If you aren't actually into heavy metal, do us all a favor and just keep your mindless comments to yourself. Or, better yet, feel free to write a damn poem about how much you love your right hand instead. Thanks. 🙂
Blizzard Entertainment said:Just because you rely on those kinds of gadgets and toys to get your fix doesn't mean everyone else is playing the same game.
unknown, well look at you, going and offending the moderator... 😲 😁 😁 😁