I saw a midnight showing of Wall-E last night… and it was fantastic. Maybe even the best film Pixar has made (at least since Toy Story 2). I also can’t remember the last time I saw a genuine love story that was this good. Believe it or not, they manage to capture a lot of subtle emotional miniuate just using two beeping robots.
But the great shame is there’s going to be a whole bunch of people who think this movie sucks and is pushing some stupid liberal agenda.
And that’s a horrible shame. The politicization of environmental issues drives me nuts cause the integrity of the issue should be exclusive from that stuff. But whatever the film works as part satire and to let your political bent prevent you enjoying a film is just ridiculous.
Take it the other way for example: a lot of films feature vigilantism or massive amounts of violence or assassinations, etc. All of which are things I’m obviously “politically against.” Just because this film deals with the environment and the laziness of modern man doesn’t mean you should politicize it and let it get in the way. Those elements are freaking satire anyway.
Those of you who already know who he is, are more than likely incredibly saddened by this news.
To those of you who don’t know who he is, here ya go:
Stan Winston was THE BEST practical effects guy in modern Hollywood. What’s that actually mean? It means he was the guy responsible invention and creation for all those amazing images that you know and love? Don’t believe me?
This guy had his hand in EVERYTHING. His speciality was make/up and creatures and worked on every single Tim Burton movie (meaning he designed: Edward Scissorhands and the Batman suit). He worked on every single James Cameron movie (designing The Terminator, Aliens, and in the upcoming Avatar). He did all of Speilberg’s creature stuff (Jurassic Park, AI, etc). He designed The Predator from Predator for pete’s sake. He did a lot of workman-like stuff too with Consantine (the only good part of the movie). Most recently, he even did the incredibly awesome Iron Man suit.
Apparently he’s just the nicest guy, who happened to be the most enthusiastic worker too.
It’s really sad.
One comment on a me-fi thread (props to Kevin for this)
I really don’t know what to say. It’s not like he’s a bad actor. He’s never sucked in anything he’s done.
It’s just he hasn’t been that good either.
Am I crazy? His breakout film Primal Fear, was a gimmick performance. Don’t get me wrong, he was more than serviceable in the role, but it’s a gimmick movie centered around a gimmick performance. We see them all the time on Law and Order, and CSI. It’s not all that remarkable. All those accolades heaped on Edward after the film’s release always left me puzzled.
Since then he’s showed up in every film, delivering his straightforward lines with the same bland, monotone voice. Sure, it’s not Keanu levels of absurdity or dumbassery, but the same even keeled delivery is there.
Edward’s big advantage is he seems like a pretty smart guy. I know he likes to write and contribute to the screenplays of his films. That I can respect (mostly because of the good results). He always seems to pick good projects and good roles, which again is a total compliment. In the age where most actors don’t seem to really get it, he gets it. For example, most actors like to mix it up between pay gigs with strategic prestige gigs… only they have no idea how to pick either. Instead Norton likes to do both but always approaches it from the strength of material perspective first. It’s nice to see.
I’m actually pretty excited for The Incredible Hulk (mostly cause I hear it’s pretty fun)
But still. As an actor? Just regarding performance?
He’s just not that good.
UPDATE: I saw the Hulk last Thursday, and dare I say it: I really liked him in that movie. He had a nice calm and focused performance. Good show ole’ chap.
Ever since I made an offhand reference to Lt. Frank Drebin to my friend Puddy and he informed me how Police Squad! Is his favorite TV Show, I’ve been going back and watching clips episodes constantly. I’m amazed how well it still holds up.
Sure the show is mostly gags and 1/2 of them are pretty lame but in Puddy’s words “when they work they work so well.” The dude’s right. The show is freaking hilarious. To be fair, there’s a part of me that will always love the absurdist, lead age comedy of Marx Brothers on down. But you can totally see how Police Squad! has inspired a lot of stuff that has came since. I’m NOT talking about about the Epic Movie spoof nonsense. I’m talking about the goods: The Simpsons, Adult Swim, Arrested Development, Family Guy, 30 Rock.
The Sex And The City movie comes out tomorrow. As such, the influx of advertising has caused a tensing up in the sphincters of good ole’ American Boys across the country. Just on the radio yesterday I heard a series of dreadfully stupid guys tearing the entire thing a new one. The internet is lashing into this fucker like a sadistic prick that it is (yes I just called the Internet a sadistic prick). The conversations are everywhere. I’ve had a few interesting ones on the merits of the series/image/culture of SATC with some male friends, but mostly I’ve been listening to a non-stop parade of asshats make fun of it.
Why does the entire idea of a movie about fashion, dating, and older women make you want to be a colossal jerkass? Who cares? It’s just a movie and you don’t have to see it. Do you know how many movies are aimed at our (men’s) interests? About 88%. And most of those interests are borderline retarded. The other 11% of movies aimed at women are pandering romantic comedies that work so poorly that they make me want to dig up Charles Lederer’s corpse so he can start scripts again. And that leaves a measly 1% of movies that are for women and have a decent shot of being somewhat interesting. Sex and the City has a good shot at being in that 1% so what’s the big problem?
I’ve actually heard the movie isn’t that good, but that’s kind of irrelevant. What’s may be more relevant is my defensive stance probably comes from the fact that I enjoyed the show. I’ve seen every episode and once I let down my guard I realized the series has a a nice absorbing nature to it. Most of the time, it’s genuinely funny. The writing is cute but undoubtedly sharp. My favorite aspect is how brave the actresses are. This may sound lame, but it’s not. They’re completely unafraid to make themselves look silly/unglamourous (rather interesting for a show perceived as glamorous) and they realize that playing it straight is the way to go. Sure the show’s run has had some problems, but they’ve hardly been dehabilitating. While I don’t think the 1/2 hour format will lend well to a movie, none of that really matters. Mostly because there’s a lot of assumptions being tossed about and most of them aren’t really that accurate. SATC is not shallow. Sometimes they do deal with a shallow world/setting, but often it’s about the reality of those situations.
There’s also a lot of people bitching about how Sarah Jessica Park is ugly. This I don’t understand. She’s not ugly. Yeah, her face is a little weird, or unique depending on your view (the NYTimes called it “cubist”)… But that’s it. And most of the time she’s lighted fine on the show so it’s a completely non-issue. She happens to be a good actress who totally sells her part. Put in whatever dumbass girl you think is hot in the role (jessica alba for example) and it would fail… miserably. And even if you do think SJP’s ugly, what the hell does that have to with SATC being the hellspawn of satan? The best part of this is the majority of the negative reaction is largely confined to geek movie internet sites, where I can only guess they’ve never even conversed with someone as attractive as SJP in their entire lives.
The whole thing is adding up to this weird contrarian/backlash/sexist reaction that comes off as pretty asinine.
Look, I’m not above making fun anything. EVERYTHING is fair game. Just realize there’s an art to making fun of things that will reflect your maturity/personality. The funniest comment about SATC actually comes from Family Guy where they say “So this show is about three hookers and their mom?” That’s hilarious.
Comparing SJP to Mr. Ed and talking about how that movie must suck cause they’re old whores who like fashion is not. The “Ewww! It’s a girl movie!” shit has got to stop.
Sydney Pollack is an actor and director who made a bunch of stupid movies in the 80s and other various decades. Did you ever see The Interpreter? I didn’t. But the trailer was really shitty. For some reason I think he wore suspenders a lot and nothing says “out of touch” like suspenders. I’m trying to remember the names of his movies but they escape me. I’m pretty sure he left his wife too, yes, for a woman half his age! I have it on good authority he didn’t tip waitresses and might have molested a teenager-
Sorry, hold on, someone’s trying to tell me something.
…
Oh… apparently Sydney Pollack just died… This is awkward.
Okay enough of that. Why spread malicious rumors about Sydney Pollack on the day of his death? Cause he probably would have found it funny.
The truth is Sydney Pollack is probably the classiest classy in classville. I love his performance in Husbands and Wives and absolutely adore two of his early seventies features: Jeremiah Johnson and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? And that was before his golden era of the 80s. He had the quality of being both intelligent and literate. It is amazing how many people in Hollywood are the first and not the second. The other person I think of is Anthony Mingella who also just died (coincidentally, the two were producing partners). No matter what project he worked on he always brought a kind of “realistic gravity” with his presence that was somehow devoid of gravitas. It’s a rare feat and something that had to be intrinsic to his being. We’re talking about a guy who made “Tootsie” into a kind of legitimate gender commentary, while also being earnestly fucking hilarious.
I’m pretty sad that he died when he still had some good work left in him. This one sucks.
I saw The Fist Foot Way yesterday and it was pretty freaking hilarious. It was shot for 70,000 dollars (read: nothing) and while it looks like it, it still totally rocks. The entire thing rests on the shoulders of Danny McBride who plays Fred Simmons, “King of the Demo”. McBride is absolutely hilarious and rather than just be a vehicle for jokes, he ends up giving the kind of performance that turns this movie into a strange, little character piece. It’s kind of a remarkable feat given how rarely that happens with this kind of humor. A lot of people who have seen this and McBride’s other work think he’s going to blow up. I’m one of them. I caught Pineapple Express a few months ago and he’s fantastic in that too. The Fist Foot Way is being released pretty shittily in the summer against Sex and The City. Even with Will Ferrell’s and Adam Mckay’s names attached as presenters it won’t help cause nobody knows.
First off, all the bad buzz is completely unfounded. The movie was really, really good. Just a total joy. I would even say it was right on par with the others… to a point.
That point being a very specific point in the movie (very deep into it actually) where things become… weird. It isn’t the idea of what happens is weird. I actually like the idea VERY, VERY much and many people are already lining up to blame the idea itself for the implosion. That’s SO not fair. It’s just the idea is executed in such a muddled, weak, strange, flat, uncaring, and lazy fashion that you swear someone else was directing. This can’t be the same guy who’s done the rest of this wonderful movie right? It’s like Spiels got 80% done and then walked up to a PA and said “i’m gonna take a cig break, you wanna finish this thing?”. All perspective, tone, gravitas, and urgency just went out the window and suddenly a bunch of shit is just happening. And it all seems like important shit too… It’s just executed… weirdly.
And thus everyone is saying the entire movie is exactly like the ending… and that’s horse-poop. It’s a great movie almost the whole way, but the audience suddenly forgets about that. It gets into the much discussed issue of people who internalize movies versus people who process movies. And oddly enough this movie kind of requires a little processing to understand why the entire audience walks out with a weird reaction. That might be the anti-thesis of a summer blockbuster, but they have to realize the ending doesn’t speak to the entirety. There’s a reason you don’t ask someone about a movie the second it ends. Because you have to digest it. Sadly, that seems to be the last second someone thinks about it… including what seems to be a lot of reviewers.
Just don’t forget, you’ve been watching a GREAT movie.
The modern world contains many inconveniences and annoyances. Between grand-standing politicians, annoying TV personalities, and rising gas prices, it seems like there’s no shortage of ways in which society can bring me down. That being said, nothing quite sticks in my craw like the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
For instance, it was recently reported that Steven Spielberg has withdrawn as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Olympics, due to China’s inaction in regards to Darfur. Way to go genocide! Now he’ll probably be replaced with Michael Bay or something, and the Opening Ceremonies will culminate in the torch being lit by an RPG fired by Josh Hartnett.
Unfortunately, genocide is nothing new, and although historians have debated about when exactly the first genocide occurred, it is generally agreed upon that the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917 was the first genocide of modern times. The genocide began when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Russian forces in the early days of World War I, and the Ottoman military blamed the loss on Armenians who collaborated with Russian forces. Now right now you’re all probably thinking: “They were collaborating with the enemy. They had to be destroyed. What else could they have done?”. Now normally I’d agree with you, but here’s the thing: THEY WEREN’T REALLY TO BLAME FOR THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE’S LOSSES. THEY WERE JUST BEING SCAPEGOATED BY THE MILITARY TO DEFLECT BLAME FROM THEMSELVES. All of a sudden genocide doesn’t sound like such a good idea, huh? Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed just because the Turkish military didn’t want to accept responsibility for their failures. Talk about an overreaction!
Another annoying thing about genocide is that it’s so awful that other atrocities get overlooked. People may suspect that the days before genocide were a simple, peaceful time. However, this simply isn’t the case. Society was replete with all sorts of terrible crimes that struck horror in the heart of men. Things such as stagecoach robbery, pretty girls being tied to railroad tracks, and muttonchopicide (the forcible removal of mutton chops). However, nowadays, you don’t hear as much about these things because the public can only process so much horror before it grows indifferent. But does that make a man being ambushed by a band of Comanches any less tragic?
Now don’t get me wrong, we’ve all had times where we wanted to commit genocide (I’ve wanted to get rid of “Lord of The Rings” fans for years now), but history has shown that it never really works out. Much like suicide, it’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem. If instead of flipping out and killing everyone, the Turks had sat down with the Armenians and had a frank & open exchange of views, things might have turned out a lot better for everyone. It may be tempting to think that genocide only affects small groups of social undesirables, but history has shown us otherwise. Genocide is something that truly affects us all, by forcing us to wear ugly ribbons and/or wristbands.
Helpful Hint: To find the nearest genocide, go to a local college campus and find a liberal arts major. He/she can give you a long-winded spiel about the nature of the conflict, and make you feel guilty about not donating money to help.
Fun Fact: Everyone knows about the Holocaust, but did you know that there have been plenty of other not-nearly-as-interesting genocides? For example, in Rwanda in the 90’s, tensions between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority escalated to the point where…oh fuck it, it’s too boring.
Silver lining: The ending to “Future Legend” off of Diamond Dogs, where David Bowie goes “This ain’t rock n’ roll! THIS IS GENOCIDE!!” is pretty sweet.
Author’s Note: Although Kate Nash has no known ties to genocide, I found the picture irresistibly adorable.
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environment, like, movies, politics, socialization | Tagged: american laziness, cartoons, cute, environment, environmentalism, eve, Laziness, lazy, pixar, robots, wall-e, worker laziness | 
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