Oh my God, you have to watch Panic. Without question, it's William Macy's best performance, and that's really saying a lot. Terrific, terrific film, and it's on my top 100.
Is this what our country has turned into? Drawing battle lines as to whether films are conservative or liberal?
Seems to me that the conservative media wants to do nothing more than cry wolf over this alleged liberal monopolization of the media, which is utter bullshit. For the most part, the liberal list of films is pretty accurate, but some of the choices on the conservative list are just baffling: Carnal Knowledge? Dumbo? (I didn't know the floppy-eared pachyderm was a flunky for the capitalists) The Bicycle Thief? Did the National Review see any of these films? And better yet, just because Rambo shoots up a bunch of Vietnamese in Rambo: First Blood Part II doesn't mean it's a film the conservatives should laud.
I, for one, am getting might f**king sick of all this conservative vs. liberal talk. Anarchy now!
I've decided to forgo the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ by not reading any articles or commentary, from both sides, regarding the film, but Frank Rich, eloquent as ever, is to be hailed for calling out both Gibson and the Hollywood movie making machine. They're both hypocrites.
I have two tickets to see the movie this Thursday. As much as I would like to see it, the film has attracted many within the Baptist community here who feel compelled to writhe and shake as if they're encountering the Rapture. I'd like to see it in a quiet movie theatre without the histrionics, but I don't think that's going to happen here.
If I do see it, I'll be sure to give you my feedback.
You're right about Michael Moore being one-sided with his commentary in Bowling for Columbine, but it's not as if he's being hysterical about it. Americans are extremely obsessive about guns, and I have firsthand knowledge of this being that I live in the South. You can pretty much do whatever to a man except take his gun and his pickup. That's whom Moore was assailing in his documentary.
This must be a crap last few weeks for us Listologists. I was absolutely useless last week, having contracted strep throat, which made eating and drinking completely undoable. I don't think I've ever been this ill in my life. Then again, I hardly ever get sick, so I don't have much of a point of reference there.
Anyway, Banger, hope you get better very soon. And please let us know how Bobby D's doing.
My, my, AJ, wonderful exploration of songwriting there, and the fact that you've quoted the late, great Gram Parsons gets you a bucketfull of kudos in my book.
We ought to come up amongst ourselves with more of the same examples of cliches turning on themselves.
It's not unusual for there to be two winners in the same category, and it's happened before (1969, Best Actress, Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand). Unfortunately, since Bill Murray's still foolishly seen as a "comedy" actor, he lost out to Sean Penn. However, losing out to Sean Penn in perhaps the performance of his career isn't such a bad thing after all. But, yeah, Bill shoulda won it.
I can certainly understand your feelings regarding Lars Von Trier. He's certainly our most leading misanthrope. I caught The Kingdom (which Stephen King has stupidly remade for ABC) some months ago, and while it's interesting, Von Trier's meditations on mankind are sometimes hard to swallow.
Say, have you caught a short cartoon IFC's been playing lately, about a Von Trier-like director? It's pretty damned funny, especially when the "director" screams "Von Trier's a pussy!"
Wait, that's all? There are so many beautiful women rocking out there, I'm sure you could come up with a few more. But if Kate's the only woman who makes your monkey wiggle, that's not a bad choice after all.
Dylan performed in Asheville last March, to a half-empty arena. Of course, the Civic Center where he performed is a festering dump, and I wouldn't wish for a Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer package tour to play here. Hence the reason I didn't see him. Guess I should have, though...
The problem with future Bond films is that EON Productions is wanting to cater to a younger audience by enlisting such current heartthrobs as Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom. Sure, the money's going to be flowing in with all the tickets that are going to be sold, but they're only ending up alienating the core audience - and believe me, there's a million-wide audience that makes up this core. It's also painfully obvious that Bond, the character, has become somewhat irrelevant. The only way I strongly believe life can be injected into the series is to revert back to what made Bond work during the Sean Connery era. Hiring Britney Spears as a Bond girl won't work at all.
So, without further ado, here's my pitch: We know Bond is a commander in the British Navy. We also know that Bond graduated from Cambridge (mentioned in You Only Live Twice. And if you know your history, Cambridge and Oxford were breeding grounds for spy recruitment, evidenced by the infamous Cambridge Five case (quick primer: five British students were recruited by the KGB in the 1930's to work for British Intelligence and spy against them). Being that Bond films worked best in the Cold War era, wouldn't a prequel of sorts work best? Let's say Bond is merely a bright, unassuming student at Cambridge, whom is recruited by someone at MI6 who sees potential in him (a certain moral flexibility, perhaps?). After giving it some thought, he agrees to join British Intelligence and is groomed to become 007. This idea in turn would lend more creedence to casting someone like Orlando Bloom who could lend some youthfulness to the role without vainly trying to attempt to make the role his own and failing miserably.
Applause for the movie theatre in question for having a tremendously subversive sense of humor. I mean, what theatre would offer midnight showings of Jesus and The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Subversive, indeed!
Y'know, if we had a Rolodex full of numbers, I'm sure we both could have these ideas greenlit and hash out a screenplay in no time. But I seem to have lost my Rolodex full of important numbers...
I don't know about Tarantino; Bond films just aren't grindhouse enough for him. I'm at a loss as to which director should helm this retro project of ours (heh, heh). But I do like Jason Flemyng as a young Bond.
Oh, who are we kidding. Orlando Bloom is going to play Bond and he gets to chase Britney around (who will, most likely, sing the theme song).
Oh my God, you have to watch Panic. Without question, it's William Macy's best performance, and that's really saying a lot. Terrific, terrific film, and it's on my top 100.
Is this what our country has turned into? Drawing battle lines as to whether films are conservative or liberal?
Seems to me that the conservative media wants to do nothing more than cry wolf over this alleged liberal monopolization of the media, which is utter bullshit. For the most part, the liberal list of films is pretty accurate, but some of the choices on the conservative list are just baffling: Carnal Knowledge? Dumbo? (I didn't know the floppy-eared pachyderm was a flunky for the capitalists) The Bicycle Thief? Did the National Review see any of these films? And better yet, just because Rambo shoots up a bunch of Vietnamese in Rambo: First Blood Part II doesn't mean it's a film the conservatives should laud.
I, for one, am getting might f**king sick of all this conservative vs. liberal talk. Anarchy now!
I've decided to forgo the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ by not reading any articles or commentary, from both sides, regarding the film, but Frank Rich, eloquent as ever, is to be hailed for calling out both Gibson and the Hollywood movie making machine. They're both hypocrites.
I have two tickets to see the movie this Thursday. As much as I would like to see it, the film has attracted many within the Baptist community here who feel compelled to writhe and shake as if they're encountering the Rapture. I'd like to see it in a quiet movie theatre without the histrionics, but I don't think that's going to happen here.
If I do see it, I'll be sure to give you my feedback.
You're right about Michael Moore being one-sided with his commentary in Bowling for Columbine, but it's not as if he's being hysterical about it. Americans are extremely obsessive about guns, and I have firsthand knowledge of this being that I live in the South. You can pretty much do whatever to a man except take his gun and his pickup. That's whom Moore was assailing in his documentary.
This must be a crap last few weeks for us Listologists. I was absolutely useless last week, having contracted strep throat, which made eating and drinking completely undoable. I don't think I've ever been this ill in my life. Then again, I hardly ever get sick, so I don't have much of a point of reference there.
Anyway, Banger, hope you get better very soon. And please let us know how Bobby D's doing.
My, my, AJ, wonderful exploration of songwriting there, and the fact that you've quoted the late, great Gram Parsons gets you a bucketfull of kudos in my book.
We ought to come up amongst ourselves with more of the same examples of cliches turning on themselves.
It's not unusual for there to be two winners in the same category, and it's happened before (1969, Best Actress, Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand). Unfortunately, since Bill Murray's still foolishly seen as a "comedy" actor, he lost out to Sean Penn. However, losing out to Sean Penn in perhaps the performance of his career isn't such a bad thing after all. But, yeah, Bill shoulda won it.
I can certainly understand your feelings regarding Lars Von Trier. He's certainly our most leading misanthrope. I caught The Kingdom (which Stephen King has stupidly remade for ABC) some months ago, and while it's interesting, Von Trier's meditations on mankind are sometimes hard to swallow.
Say, have you caught a short cartoon IFC's been playing lately, about a Von Trier-like director? It's pretty damned funny, especially when the "director" screams "Von Trier's a pussy!"
Wait, that's all? There are so many beautiful women rocking out there, I'm sure you could come up with a few more. But if Kate's the only woman who makes your monkey wiggle, that's not a bad choice after all.
Dylan performed in Asheville last March, to a half-empty arena. Of course, the Civic Center where he performed is a festering dump, and I wouldn't wish for a Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer package tour to play here. Hence the reason I didn't see him. Guess I should have, though...
The problem with future Bond films is that EON Productions is wanting to cater to a younger audience by enlisting such current heartthrobs as Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom. Sure, the money's going to be flowing in with all the tickets that are going to be sold, but they're only ending up alienating the core audience - and believe me, there's a million-wide audience that makes up this core. It's also painfully obvious that Bond, the character, has become somewhat irrelevant. The only way I strongly believe life can be injected into the series is to revert back to what made Bond work during the Sean Connery era. Hiring Britney Spears as a Bond girl won't work at all.
So, without further ado, here's my pitch: We know Bond is a commander in the British Navy. We also know that Bond graduated from Cambridge (mentioned in You Only Live Twice. And if you know your history, Cambridge and Oxford were breeding grounds for spy recruitment, evidenced by the infamous Cambridge Five case (quick primer: five British students were recruited by the KGB in the 1930's to work for British Intelligence and spy against them). Being that Bond films worked best in the Cold War era, wouldn't a prequel of sorts work best? Let's say Bond is merely a bright, unassuming student at Cambridge, whom is recruited by someone at MI6 who sees potential in him (a certain moral flexibility, perhaps?). After giving it some thought, he agrees to join British Intelligence and is groomed to become 007. This idea in turn would lend more creedence to casting someone like Orlando Bloom who could lend some youthfulness to the role without vainly trying to attempt to make the role his own and failing miserably.
That's my pitch...so there!
Applause for the movie theatre in question for having a tremendously subversive sense of humor. I mean, what theatre would offer midnight showings of Jesus and The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Subversive, indeed!
Y'know, if we had a Rolodex full of numbers, I'm sure we both could have these ideas greenlit and hash out a screenplay in no time. But I seem to have lost my Rolodex full of important numbers...
I don't know about Tarantino; Bond films just aren't grindhouse enough for him. I'm at a loss as to which director should helm this retro project of ours (heh, heh). But I do like Jason Flemyng as a young Bond.
Oh, who are we kidding. Orlando Bloom is going to play Bond and he gets to chase Britney around (who will, most likely, sing the theme song).
Barbara Broccoli is to the Bond series as Christine Hefner is to Playboy. Enough said.