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The Joys of Repeat Viewings

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I'm not huge on repeat viewings myself. Some films are worth a second look, obviously, and some far more than that. TV is rarer still in that regard. Overall, bar a few favourites and exceptional efforts, I tend to just watch something new instead.

 

Of course, films like Memento and Shutter Island are structured like clever puzzles and designed explicitly to be watched more than once.

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Speaking of TV shows and multiple viewings: Battlestar Galactica is great to re-watch when you know a lot of the later twists.

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Am going through Lost again at the moment. I remember when Abrahms said there was a clue to the overall plot in the pilot, so was nice seeing that. Only up to the start fo season 2 so the major stuff hasn't started yet.

 

Babylon 5 was good watching through a second time, better the first time but still good TV. The critics of the day were definitly correct when comparing B5 to a long novel, it has a proper beginning, middle and end. Just goes to show what can actually happen when you plan a five-year arc down to the minute details.

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I'm not a big fan of repeat viewings, mostly because I feel most of the time I absorb things on first time watching. Also, I have The Fear Of Wasted Time.

 

Toy Story 3 is the only film I've rewatched in recent months. I'm still gasping. So good.

 

(And I rewatched Closer a couple of weeks ago, but that was more of a joke thing).

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The idea of watching Lost again makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a heated spoon.

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I'm not huge on repeat viewings myself. Some films are worth a second look, obviously, and some far more than that. TV is rarer still in that regard. Overall, bar a few favourites and exceptional efforts, I tend to just watch something new instead.

 

Of course, films like Memento and Shutter Island are structured like clever puzzles and designed explicitly to be watched more than once.

 

If you've not watched 30 Rock several times you're doing it wrong.

 

I'm kind of the opposite. I will quite often rewatch something over watching something new. Sometimes I'm in the mood for something 'comfortable' (i.e. I know I like it).

 

The idea of watching Lost again makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a heated spoon.

 

FYI that's a cheap way of removing tattoos. In case you ever got yourself a tramp stamp.

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Remebering_Lost_c.jpg

 

That is all.

 

Biggest waste of time in my entire life. Hands down the hugest disappointment I've ever had. Spiritual sequel to Twin Peaks my ass...

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I actually enjoyed a lot of it. There's no 'great mystery' though, and retrospectively you can see that huge swathes of the early seasons are meaningless twaddle. I have no desire to ever watch it again.

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I actually enjoyed a lot of it. There's no 'great mystery' though, and retrospectively you can see that huge swathes of the early seasons are meaningless twaddle. I have no desire to ever watch it again.

 

Pretty much.

 

In all fairness it's not a bad show at all... It's a decent show with very good characters and a nonsensical plot that has the worst payoff ever.

 

Which reminds me:

 

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I very rarely buy DVDs of films I see at the cinema. I tend to buy films on DVD that I missed first time around, or they're old and so obviously I didn't see them. A lot of things I see at the cinema would be "hollywood" stuff that is good for one viewing and then never again. Plus "chart" DVD's are so expensive.

 

I did ask for (and get) Inception and Toy Story 3 on DVD for Xmas though, as I enjoyed both and wanted to see them again.

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Rewatched Inception tonight, at Film Society. The theme this week is "Imagination" (with Europa, Synedoche, New York, 8½, and The Player showing throughout the week) -- it was cool to see Inception there, because usually the films played are quite obscure/art(y)(house)/critically acclaimed; my favourite thing in life is when people who obviously have great taste appreciate mainstream things.

 

For some reason, the EQ was really weird for the first half hour or something. It was loud enough, but strangely whenever there was music playing, it'd drown out the voice of anyone speaking. I couldn't hear anything Ken Watanabe said, because of his tone. You could hear Leo and Ellen Page, just. I was surprised -- its a state of the art auditorium, and usually the sound quality is superb. Someone must have played with the EQ. It was fine by the end of the film though.

 

Of course blown by the visuals. Of course blown by the concept of reality/dreams, and how I sympathise with the point of view of the suicidal wife, since if you were in that situation, who's to say your whole life isn't a dream anyway. That said, you might as well live -- there's no reason to die. You might as well take risks all the time in order to stun, and be great in life.

 

Nothing new was added by rewatching it though. Pretty much understood it perfectly first time through. Only increased my disapproval for Ellen Page's character. Her actual character was pretty much a non-thing. The film would have been exponentially more stunning without her in it, her character plays the "narrator" role really unsubtly; effectively ruining the stunningness that would be there without her.

 

I hate guns too. If you can dream anything [we are shown you can, when Tom Hardy dreams up a rocket launcher randomly (and then fires it at a completely different angle to which JGL was firing, but somehow hits the same target)], why not dream up a more effective weapon? A airborne virus which only affects projections. The gunfights scenes are tedious. Admittedly, I am completely and utterly stunned by the hotel scene, when they're scrabbling about for the gun, and at the climax of the pumping music when the gravity shifts direction, JGL fires whilst the thug is falling on top of him, because its such a fulfilling and exhilarating thing to experience. Pretty much am floored by that whole section. Hotel / gravity. Stune.

 

The music is the best thing. As is the fact La Vie En Rose is still so fresh in my mind, because Marion C is da best.

 

But yeah, waste of 2+ hours, when I could have been watching Battlestar Galactica.

Edited by chairdriver

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RE: Dreaming up anything; I think it's supposed to be that you can dream up anything 'realistic,' and that it ties in with the idea that the 'NPC' guys begin to notice/rush you the more the 'reality's 4th wall' is broken.

 

RE: Sound; I noticed that at the cinema. I remember that there was an entire scene of important dialogue that I was unable to hear (the 'sequel' to the opening sequence, if you get my meaning, was completely lost to me). I don't think much would be added for me on a 2nd viewing. Despite its premise, I don't think the film is especially layered for such purpose, and there is no real twist at the end that will make you view the film differently on a 2nd viewing. The deadwife thing is the only unconcrete element of the movie, in this regard, and really it's rather dismissable.

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I hate guns too. If you can dream anything [we are shown you can, when Tom Hardy dreams up a rocket launcher randomly (and then fires it at a completely different angle to which JGL was firing, but somehow hits the same target)].

 

*Shakes head feverishly*

 

Rocket launcher? You make me sick*. That shit was an M32 Grenade Launcher, which also explains the reason for the different angle of firing. At that kind of distance he would have needed to compensate for the arc of the grenades.

 

*Only because the M32 is the coolest weapon in the world though. I couldn't tell you anything about any other weapon, I just happen to know about this one.

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RE: Dreaming up anything; I think it's supposed to be that you can dream up anything 'realistic,' and that it ties in with the idea that the 'NPC' guys begin to notice/rush you the more the 'reality's 4th wall' is broken.

 

True. The weapons are conventional, but so is the 'city' they built so the illusion makes sense.

 

RE: Sound; I noticed that at the cinema. I remember that there was an entire scene of important dialogue that I was unable to hear (the 'sequel' to the opening sequence, if you get my meaning, was completely lost to me). I don't think much would be added for me on a 2nd viewing. Despite its premise, I don't think the film is especially layered for such purpose, and there is no real twist at the end that will make you view the film differently on a 2nd viewing. The deadwife thing is the only unconcrete element of the movie, in this regard, and really it's rather dismissable.

 

 

Same for me too. Note to Christopher Nolan: When you have a scene full of plot-essential exposition and dialogue being delivered by a man with a heavy Japanese accent do not set this scene in a helicopter

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Nolan seems to have a sound problem. Remember the final scene of TDK? Loads of people (me included) couldn't hear Gary Oldman over the score.

 

I don't recall missing bits in Inception though. Must be something to do with the sound having to be just right.

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That grenade launcher wouldn't happen to be in Uncharted 2, would it?

 

It's in everything. I first saw it in Goldeneye but the exact same gun is in Farcry 2 and a bunch of other games.

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If it's something i'm a big fan off, i'll always rewatch it when it's maybe on TV or if i'm in a particular mood to watch it. I quite like going back and watching the pilot episode of a TV show and se how different it was then to what it is nor, or what it finished up as.

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That grenade launcher wouldn't happen to be in Uncharted 2, would it?

 

Of course. :p

 

And I'm a real dirty mother fucker with it. mah fav weapon.

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Generally I'm too busy racing through a show to bother going back over an ep. After TNG I have Neep Dace Spine (lol) and a discovery channel called The Colony, then ofc it's Voyager and Enterprise. In between all this I'll have all sorts of shows I've neglected for a coupla months to catch up with, too.

 

Repeats I do watch tend to be scrubs/friends episodes, where there's no art to the proceedings just a light-hearted attempt to guess where in the series the ep is.

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