Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room What are you watching?

Just ordered Bladerunner on blu-ray.

The films of Peggy Ahwesh...

http://www.ubu.com/film/ahwesh.html

I particularly like Martina's Playhouse

Departures directed by Yojiro Takita (2008).

This film is actually going to be shown on FilmFour tonight Wednesday at 10.50pm, I originally watched it earlier this year on DVD back in February and I meant to post a review on here but the tragic events that happened in Japan in March made me delay mentioning it.

http://www.suite101.com/content/departures-film-review-a131330

This is quite a superb film with a very tender, thought-provoking, and enlightening story that deals with the subject of death, ritual, and burial, and is gently amazing in places.

Its neither too indies or slavishly mainstream, though admittedly its directing style has a few fleeting slick moments, but overall there is a fantastic peaceful and hypnotic flow to the tone, with some very subtle but resonating scenes, two particularly stay with me: the apprentice Daigo having a meal with his funeral director boss Sasaki who explains how he copes with the job of being an undertaker, and that we all must eat the dead to live, and a scene with a smartly suited crematorium worker whose job is to be the last person to send the deceased on their final journey. I really recommend this film if you get a chance to watch it.

It's a beautiful film, one of the finest I've seen in a long time - thanks for the recommendation...

Rob

Recorded it & hope to watch it over the weekend.

Been a while in replying to this, but finally found a moment to watch Departures again myself, glad you liked it Rob, (hope you also enjoyed it Scott). Its one of those films that had me desperately wanting to talk about the next day at work, but I found it’s subject hard to just pull out of the air, when I did finally mention it to a work colleague my awkward burbling was met with a casual response, so I’m pleased that on the forum its uniqueness has been appreciated.

Here where I am right now its grey, cold and miserable, such a shame as midweek its was quite sunny and blue, yesterday there was a stillness in the air after the high winds that buffeted Scotland recently, anyhow, its lunchtime, its Friday, so ignore the weather and lets get groovy baby...

Kassiopeia, not only has this got Russia's very own Richard O'Brien freaking out in a Rocky Horror dance mode but it gets very interesting at the 1.30 mark with the appearance of a really fab robot woman -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vahwgAQLm5U

Yep, the Empire striking back was definitely the best one out of all six of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmTpOQrqoO0&feature=related

Funés Piti piti pa -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Jm2igz64Q&feature=related

Tron: Legacy Directed by Joseph Kosinski

(Alex I know you previously gave Tron Legacy a favourble review in this thread and I don’t want to spoil or detract from either your good piece of writing or your enjoyment or enthusiasm for the film by the addition of my scathing, and long, review here, so I want to apologise publicly for it beforehand. My tongue is in my cheek, but its um, a bit harsh, I cant help it, I’m a bad person and I should be digitised and confined to the Grid and made to clean tables in Michael Sheens café, God help me, for I am just a mere pixel in the wider scheme of things).


1.

Almost ten months after this film was in the cinema, and having read no official reviews I finally caught it on Sky’s Movie Channel recently during a period when the Matrix Reloaded and the Matrix Revolutions also seemed to be on constant repeat rotation on TV, (they should have made the fourth part of the trilogy and called it Matrix Repetition). Along with seeing Tron Legacy I tuned in for the twenty minutes or so that’s worth watching for me from each of these Matrix sequels, namely the special effects sequences of a big fight between Neo and the multiple clones of Agent Smith, and the big fight with Neo’s comrades on a rush hour highway that’s being inter-cut with the big fight with Neo on a grand stairway, and finally, yet another big fight, this time between Neo and the infinite clones of Agent Smith getting very wet and angry in the pouring rain.

Yes, in lieu of a decent script, plot, dialogue, dramatic tension, and sympathy with the lead character, all that’s left is the big fights. What’s this have to do with Tron Legacy you say? Well this review is more about the ups and downs of the Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, and Tron was the most recent instalment that I’ve watched in the ongoing mega-bucks saga that initially takes shape in the Hollywood Gods boardroom, a place far far away from its target audience of mere mortals that it occasionally looks down in attitude upon from up on high. Matrix parts two and three is a classic example of lots of money and talent being brought together to prove the theory that more equals less, leaving the discerning watcher to either struggle through or chose to avoid the hours of wasted footage concerning Neo’s gobbledygook Max Headroom encounter with the Architect, or Neo having a quiet snooze in an underground station, or Neo’s quasi-religious status and whether his electro-high priests black outfit is far too tight for him to fly in through the air with ease, until finally at the trilogy’s climax we are forced to run screaming from the cheesy pulp-fiction destruction of Zion being machine-gun riddled way too much, along with pointless sub characters machine-mouthing way too much bad dialogue. Both these films really are such a waste of excellent special effects being produced by talented and dedicated artisans, and I like to think of the Matrix trilogy by its other title of ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’. Tron Legacy despite the potential inherent in its very idea also enters the frame as yet another film propelled by special effects that becomes a hollow theme park, though fortunately not as disappointing for me as those Matrix films as I didn’t have any preconceptions for the film and knew little about its content beforehand.

I could make this review easy for myself and easy on the reader now by summing up Tron Legacy as being for me just thus: ‘A Great soundtrack, but a pity about the movie’, however, there are some things that come to mind, one of which is this aforementioned Hollywood approach to science fiction that randomly emerges like a beast in the night, and whether it’s a big budget film or a B-Movie of old does not matter. Disney seem to have stifled the intriguing world of Tron with that cinema popcorn tradition where it’s a given that its only a science fiction movie, so its rubbish anyway, and the audience surely want to leave their brains behind and just let a few special effects convince them that there really is a race of beautiful randy Amazonian women living on Saturn who are all hungry for men, or believe with their eyes that those patently obvious hubcaps dangling on wires over the White House really are flying saucers from outer space, well, it’s all far more plausible than the paper-thin stupid plot and the stilted acting.

Its clear from Legacy that long gone is the old Disney studio ethos of labouring away for originality or even providing a half-decent story to draw you in, priority has been given over to selling a product as painlessly or as effortlessly as it can. Disney knows full well that a good story doesn’t have to be complex, it can be simple, but it has to effectively suspend disbelief to make you relate to a wooden puppet who wants nothing more than to be a real boy, or an abandoned child Princess who befriends seven old dwarfs in a wood, and then grows in touch with her own adult destiny through interaction with the varied facets of human character portrayed by each of the individual dwarfs. Just providing a spectacle (or otherwise) of ‘special effects’ really does not count as providing an entertainment, though of course it does for the cash hungry Hollywood suits, and ticket sales prove to them that we’ll pay to have a look at the big fireworks, but afterwards we realise that its not always enough to make us want to remember anything else we saw.


2.

This idea of there being a ‘legacy’ is a conceit on Disney’s part that’s really just the re-writing of history, another trick up the sleeves of marketing execs in a slight of hand pretending that a Tron cult status needed to be given a new church to worship at. Sure, the original film no doubt inspired people on into the computer games/graphics industry, and it was unquestionably an original (and quite visually beautiful I feel) achievement in movie-making techniques, which (along with The Black Hole) was Disney’s entry into taking on the fight against Lucas and Spielberg’s hold on populist entertainment. But it was more than a decade later after 1982 when Disney started to carefully re-market Tron in various ways (just as they do with everything they own to keep on making revenue on their back catalogue) that likely kept the films profile up. So when that Government Census form comes around every ten years and you have to fill in the part about whatever religious beliefs you practice do you chose to write ‘Jedi Knight’, or do you instead, according to Disney, write ‘Tron User’?

Contemporary advancements in visual depiction have allowed Disney to be lazy now, and to give the film over to a CGI factory whilst getting the plot from the local Costco or Poundsavers, yup, I’m pretty sure the script cost all of 99 pence to produce, and abandoned is the history of inventiveness of some of Disney’s past productions. The first Tron also had a poor script and lightweight plot but its strength was the type of visual innovation that had always been Disney’s real legacy. But CGI is so commonplace everywhere you turn, even today an anthropomorphic Meercat can magically ‘compare the market’ for you on a TV advert and simultaneously be a cute aristocratic mammal you’d like to call a friend, thus, Disney has taken the path of least resistance regarding imprinting Tron Legacy’s visual identity in the subconsciousness, and has simply followed rather than led.

On top of Disney’s conceit the execs also add some hypocrisy in the form of an annoying and unsympathetic main character called Sam Flynn, a rich kid who likes to give the latest app’ away to spite the bad men in suits that run his missing dads company. Sam’s too lazy to take the reigns himself, no, he’d rather jeopardise the entire computer workforce's livelihood while parachuting from tall buildings as he spouts trite clichéd dialogue. Baring in mind that Disney is itself a mega-company, one that never gives anything away for free (their classic movies are periodically remarketed as 2 disc box sets that never come cheap) so its laughable having their lead presented as a rebel having a pop at a faceless giant, and its a pathetic attempt to get down with the kids that fails miserably. This is further compounded by one of the most blatant moments of product placement in a film, its right at the start too, where a youthful Jeff Bridges of the original Tron period explains the world of ‘The Grid’ to the young Sam through the use of cool looking Tron figures and toys, all present day products of course, available now to buy online or from a good toy store near to you!


3.

There is rarely any genuine science fiction in our science fiction films, producers just label it thus because it’s a safe option and they don’t need to take risks, but If only Disney had side-stepped any pretence at science-fiction and gone instead for fantasy and let the imagination run riot with a genuine fantasy director at the helm, maybe the next up-and-coming Peter Jackson or Guillermo del Toro, or heaven forbid a Tim Burton. But instead of hiring any sorcerers apprentice they appointed an ex-architect and strait-jacketed themselves into a cul-de-sac. Despite this though, some of Tron Legacy is delightful to look at, and it’s a shame to waste it, so I propose approaching the film alternatively as a musical experience.

Start watching it at the scene where Sam enters ‘Flynn’s Arcade’, mute the volume and play in the background the excellent Daft Punk CD Soundtrack to the film (as Alex mentioned in a previous thread, it really is that good). Keep watching up till near the end of the film and the part of the proceedings where Sam and Quorra have been returned back to the Arcade, then manually fade out the soundtrack if its longer than this selected chunk of the film, or repeat it as necessary. Why not pre-arrange and add in a few of your own favourite Daft Punk tracks and settle back and watch the sight of four women stylistically clip-clopping like catwalk models towards Sam as they kit him out in his Neon Bodysuit. Ponder the solemn attitude of Jeff Bridges and his Zen-like character portrayal as he pretends to be the Buddha Of Suburbia confined within a 2001 A Space Odyssey inspired hotel suite, as he gazes out across a dark and brooding barren landscape towards the Grid, and course how could we forget the distinctive sight of the various Tron vehicles that appear within the environment, such as the light cycles, light jets, and the freighter.

Hmm, what else is there to enjoy whilst watching the visuals and listening to the music? Oh, did I mention Michael Sheen’s jaw-dropping role in the film, in which he inexplicably plays an ugly David Bowie as A Lad Insane playing the part of Castor The Friendly Nightclub owner? - Well Hang On To Yourself when I tell you that the resident club DJ’s are none other than Daft Punk themselves!
Michael Sheen is clearly living out his Memories Of A Free Festival, and quite Hunky Dory about having the French Synthesiser duo spin the discs in his Electric Café, which looks like an S&M club designed by Ikea. However, In Reality it’s all a bit of a Space Oddity and it makes me wonder why, oh why?
Why do some directors feel the need to have a camp clown in our sci-fi movies, was it the fault of Robbie the Robot saying ”Sorry miss, I was giving myself an oil-job”, or Is George Lucas to blame for having a Moonage Daydream and inventing fussy mannered robot see-three-pee-oooooh-ah-say, with its golden beach shining bodywork, arms held up high in the air, and a permanently alarmed look in the eyes, shocked no doubt by the sight of the Klingons attacking Uranus.

Did I mention Michael Sheen as Castor? On second thoughts maybe I’d better not, its best not to mess with The Jean Genie...

The DVD that comes with the re-issue of Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise, excellent content - highly recommended.

This Is Jinsy. Showing on Sky Atlantic.

This might creep up and grow on me, but then again, so is the hair in my ears, nostrils and eyebrows. Watched a couple of episodes so far, stylewise it looks like the production team have seen Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's City Of Lost Children, and the comedy runs along the lines of The Mighty Boosh, The League Of Gentlemen, and Monty Python and results in something like a childrens programme made for adults. I'm not yet convinced that its as funny as whatever has inspired it, but scenes of a device electrocuting things did make me laugh out loud (sad, I know). There are lots of well-known faces guesting, David Tennant appeared as the 'Gene Pool Lottery' host and was quite fascinating to look at in a role which made him resemble a botoxed Barry Manilow.