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Monopolyman

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Posts posted by Monopolyman

  1. Posted

    Well, I got into an accident that was my fault a few months ago. I was driving to an exam in the pouring rain when I saw someone beaking to turn right. I slammed my anchors on, but the road was too slippery and therefore rear-ended them.

     

     

    Other than that, I'm a fucking fantastic driver.

  2. Posted

    Ok then:

    So, Tarantino makes homages, right? It's what he does.

    So, he decides to make an homage (and pay attention... it's an homage, not a spoof) to everything bad about the 70's. Okay, this could work... except it doesn't! Tarantino's magic touch works this way: he picks up dog shit from the floor, embraces it and molds it into something good. Except... this one time, he made it worst.

    I understand that the movie is an exercise in style... but Tarantino's charm is that he always follows that style with some sort of awesome plot. So, consider this, because here it is: he decides to make a plotless gore-fest about nothing... and guess what? It sucks. There's no point to to film, it's not enjoyable, the action and the gore look ridiculous (sure, it's on purpose, but I don't care how many times you poop on your mom's head on purpose, it's still fucking ridiculous) and the music is great. So, this sounds right... but feels and looks awfull, right? So... let's release it worlwide!!! And he did it. Peer pressure led for many people to enjoy the movie just because they believe they should... and while it may be the sweetest wet dream a nerd mind can have, that doesn't change the fact that the movie has an awful plot, no message whatsoever, absolutely no meaning and an absurd presentation. And yet people seem to consider it "good" just because it's conscientiously bad.

    A good film is a work of art. Art has meaning... a soul, intricate interpretations. Kill Bill has blood, ass, guts, a blonde Bruce Lee with tits and absolutely no soul whatsoever. It's not art. It's Superbowl meets porn.

     

    Yeah, I'm a bit late into this arguement, but I'll have to disagree here. The Kill Bill series was a masterfully created film. Reading your post, it seems that you're just judjing Vol.I, but I think it's best to view both Vol. I and II as one film, the first being the action, and the latter focusing heavily on the story. I also don't think that there is anything wrong with Kill Bill being homage driven either. True, it was supposed to be a homage of the 70's Bruce Lee type kung-fu flicks, but it was well created. Notice that KB has all the elements of one of these films; for example, a lot of violence, hell of a lot of blood, extreme gore over realism, the old, wise and almost invicible teacher; the cryptic yet fatal move which is extremely hard to pull off etc. Personally, as a kung-fu flick following this list, I can see very few flaws.

     

    (BTW, there are going to be some slight spoilers in this next paragraph)

     

    And I don't by this criticism of Kill Bill, as a film, being empty, or a style-over-substance film. I mean, it has a beginning, a middle, an end, characters you can care about and skillful writing and directing. For example, Tarantino managed to characterize 'The Bride' quickly in Vol.I as powerful and highly trained, which in portrayed in many ways, such as her ability to realise that she has been in a coma for 4 years by looking at her hands. Also, Tarantino is a great writer and a fantastic director and shows it in these films. I'll prove my point by looking at the scene where Bill has shot The Bride, and is about to bury her alive in that coffin. Of course, we are going to have to see the bride whilst she is in this dark coffin, so a light is needed to let the audience see what is going on. Rather than come up with some ludicrous explanation for Budd to give The Bride a light, Tarantino's script just lets Budd explain that "[not exact line, but anyhow] if you're good, you get a light, but if you're bad, you get the pepper spray". Also, when burying The Bride, rather filming the actual burial/dumping of the soil like a lesser director might do, Tarantino films it from inside the coffin The Bride is in, where you can hear the soil being dumped on the wooden lid of the coffin, giving a sense of claustrophobia.

     

    Anyway, I respect your opinion no matter what you think of Kill Bill, but I hope I have shown that it is more than just a cheap entertainment flick.

     

     

     

     

     

    Anyway, the film I've seen for the first time (which is quite a while ago, actually) was American Gangster, and I don't know what to think of this movie. 'm in two minds about it.

     

    I love the Gangster genre, and American Gangster has all the trends of a gangster movie. Violence, gangs, betrayal, the appeal of easy money, power, the traditional rise & fall story and such; but what I also liked was how Lucas's fall was not simply introduced at the end, but was continuosly told from the start, thanks to Crowe's parralell story (who gave a fantastic performance, along with Washington.)

     

    However, there were some gaping flaws in the film that stopped me from loving it. My main criticism being that it had some major pacing problems. Crowe's story took too long to get into. We hear about his story about how he found one million dollars in unmarked bills and turned it in, and his divorce, way too much before the ball starts rolling. On the other end of the scale, Lucas (Washington) seemed to meet up with his soon-to-be wife and propose to her too fast, but the audience doesn't really see anything between them. Despite that though...

     

    7/10

  6. Posted

    I think that was highlighted for the pure pointlessness of the law. Surely that's commonsense.

     

    Yeah, I know, I know. Fair point.

     

    Still, I suppose sometimes it's good to put something in legal writing, y'know, incase there's idiots who think it's OK to do so because there's no law

  7. Posted

    Blade Runner

     

    Saw it again. It's slow pace is still a little polarizing, but is still thematically rich, and looks breathtaking (particularly the opening shot). Might watch it again in a couple of days, in fact.

     

    8.5/10

     

     

    And, although I'm a bit late to join this arguement, I have to agree with Oxigen, in saying that The Incredibles wasn't all that. It was OK, but how anyone can rate it above Toy Story 1&2 is beyond me.

     

    And while I'm on about this, Monster's Inc. was average at best aswell.

  8. Posted

    Y'know, I'd like to hear the stories which lead to these laws being made. I wonder what the hell happened which the state of Florida pass a separate law saying unmarried women can't parachute on Sundays.

     

    It is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle in Alabama (6%)

     

     

    ...fair enough?

  9. Posted

    Bad idea - because it won't stop younger people from drinking but instead of doing it in a controlled surrounding eg. a bar, pub, ... they do it alone with friends and probably not with beer but vodka, gin and harder stuff.

     

    Exactly. If there is any 'anti-social behaviour' reasoning or similar behind raising the age limit, the it's ust going to make mtters worse, because more people will just drink elsewhere, and could possibly get out of control.

  12. Posted

    I'm not too sure about The Usual Suspects being a 'bad' ending. Sure, the person in question was an antagonist, but, y'know, you sort of rooted for him. I completely agree with Arlington Road though. I was completely blown away by the ending (even if the rest of the film was pretty meh).

     

    Anyway, to add to the list, Carlito's Way

  13. Posted

    Also: Full Metal Jacket. 9.5/10. Fuck yeah man, great film, well presented but the last 20mins weren't as captivating as the rest of it. Great script, spawned some genius one liners :heh:

     

    Agreed, except for the part about the last 20 minutes. For me, that was the most engaging part of the film. The sniper, the vietnamese girl, the mickey mouse chant, right through to The Rolling Stones' 'Paint it Black' playing over the credits. It was, at least IMHO, perfect.

     

    Anyway...

     

    Eastern Promises

     

    Decent gangster film. Worthy plot for a crime drama and a script to match. Cronenberg did a good job portraying a gritty, dark and realistic London, and I liked the whole part of tattoos & the Russian mafia. One large critisism of it I have though, is that, even though the main focus was supposed to be around Viggo's character, I was much more engaged by Naomi Watt's character, which sort of threw me of a little. Still a good film, though.

     

    7.5/10

  16. Posted

    Apparently the S60otSS pilot owes half its script to Network. Must catch it.

     

    Inside Man: Jodie Foster nearly kills this thing, but it's a good movie. The twist could have been twistier, that's all I'm sayin.

     

     

    Yeah, I remember seeing that a few month ago. The opening is similar to Finch's speech, and they kept referencing it throughout the show. Wasn't particularly interested in it.

  18. Posted

    Well...

     

    - I woke up with a spasm in my leg which I'm still feeling.

    - I spent my first two lectures trying to finish off some homework, which is probably shit.

    - This was followed by a lecture with the biggest bellend I've ever met.

    - My lunch break finishing off coursework which I was up until 3am the night before trying to finish, which was too damn stressful

    - Spent ages trying to find the dickhead who set me the coursework to hand it in

    - I asked that guy if I could hand it in via e-mail. He said no, so I have to hand it in tomorrow, possibly with marks reduced

    - Got home late, and now I'm about to queue up for 20 minutes for a shit meal.

     

     

    ...but thanks for asking.

  19. Posted

    Yeah, I know you wern't saying that Rock was anywhere near as good as Pryor, but I just don't think Chris Rock is that good a comedian. I have laughed a couple of times at his jokes, but ultimately he doesn't really do anything for me. Personally, I think Dave Chappelle would be a better comparison.

     

    But, yeah, I know what you mean.

  20. Posted

    I can't stand it when people do not vote. You should be proud to live in a country where we get a choice of who runs it and should show it by voting.

     

    I don't know about this. I've been thinking about this philosophy for a while.

     

    I used to agree with it like most other people, but thinking about it, nobody would win from forcing/guilting people who have no political interests what-so-ever to vote. Although I agree that if you don't vote, but bitch and moan about how this country is run, you're a hypocrite, but for the people who don't really give a toss about voting, guilting them into it is forcing them to do something they don't want to do, and also they just vote for just anyone on the ballot sheet, distorting the ballot, which is prehaps unfair on those who genuinely do care about politics. Not to say I'm 100% on this, but it's still worth thinking about for me.

     

     

    Anyway, to make sure this doesn't go off topic, I agree with the majority (I think). Brown probably should have held the election, mainly because right now, depite what the opinion polls say, Labour would most likely win the General Election. But having said that, I'd like to see a bit more Brown as PM to make up my mind.

  21. Posted

    Richard Pryor has to be an all time favourite for me. I watched some of his standup just recently, Live on the Sunset Strip I think it was, and man, it was fantastic.

     

    The man had a nasty childhood. Both his parents died when he was a young age, and only had his grandmother to look after him who worked in a brothel, which he had to go to with her sometimes as well. He grew from that to become a profound, yet ultimately entertaining comic. His material involving race is spot on, and never takes it too far; the way he can jump in and out of characters is highly idolised, and he (like most other comedians, granted), never took himself too seriously, even joking about his most tragic moments in his life (for example, after his incident of setting himself on fire, he got on stage, lit a match and said something along the lines of "What is that? It's Richard Pryor walking down the street!").

     

    A lot of his movies were good too, but nothing will ever top his stand up. He will sorely be missed.

     

    Chris Rock = Closest thing this generation has of a Richard Pryor.

     

    If you ever say that again, I'll track you down, gouge you're eyes out ans skullfuck you.

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