tomandrachelle wrote:
I haven't been a Quinten Terrinteno fan in the past. I think that his movies lack substance. I also think that he tries to hard to be crude. almost like he is still trying to piss off his parents with his movies. I guess I am sceptical of his latest movie. So far to me it looks like a netflicks rental.


I completely disagree, he is one of the few directors who actually have substance. Go look at Michael Bay, Joel Schumacher, Brett Ratner, DJ Caruso, MCG, Roland Emmermich, etc, etc, etc....Taratino I seriously one of the top dogs IMO...he can direct circles around every single one of them and delivers on sooooo many levels...plus he writes some of the best dialogue around....and for all of the action and everything he completely shadows that with the story, dialogue and interactions between characters, etc. The only one I'll give you is Kill Bill Part 1....HOWEVER Kill Bill wasn't supposed to be 2 films, it was shot as one and Miramax made him split it up. They're re-releasing the DVD pretty soon here with it re-cut to it's original form, so I'm interested to see how that movie flows and if that can deliver like his other films.

The dialogue in Basterds is spot on again, and actually is far more talking than action. Which is great because Taratino goes all out in the few action scenes and if there was any more of it, I think it would be an overload. So he struck a perfect balance with me personally. But man, his writing in this movie is arguably his best in my opinion...especially every single scene with Christoph Waltz (the main bad guy Col Hans Landa). I'm not sure if any of us know who he is (unless any of you are familiar with German cinema???) but my god he was absolutely brilliant....I really hope he wins some awards for this and gets some attention in the film industry, Waltz is talented.

When I mentioned substance I guess I should have said depth of emotion. There is also a lack of morality in his movies. In all of his movies every one seems to be as in moral as possible. If film is truly an art form, and Art is suppose to be a persons representation or perspective on life, I guess I would have to say I am not fond of his perspective.

I see I see

I do agree with the over lack or morality, his issues that are in his films are usually issues that go completely against any natural moral values....but I think he does do a good job of squeaking nice little snippets of contrasting morality and values in characters in certain predicaments.

Such as Resevoir Dogs where you have this gruff, rough, tough and badass gangsters that take no crap and don't give a crap to boot, but then the circumstances weigh so heavily on them that they start to show compassion and humility and morality ...etc. This is mostly referring to Mr White....not Mr Blonde at all lol.

This is showcased really well in Basterds too....and while I don't think morality is the right word....but he actually kind of messes with the audience's emotion/reaction to certain things by using the characters and their actions to completely counteract eachother. I wrote a little section about it but I decided to delete it because I don't think I can properly describe it without ruining some of it, or letting you form you own feelings while watching it since it's not something that is thrown in your face, it's nice and subtle.

If you don't see it in theaters at least rent it...And if not for a Taratino film...for Christoph Waltz's performance....that alone warrants a viewing or two (I also really liked Melanie Laurent)

He does glorify violance and other things that are not fitting with the best morals. But I always thought it was a reflection of how cruel the world can be and is. Not that he personally believed that is the way it should be, just the way it is. In this way I though he has always done a good job of having his art reflect or represent life.

He did make being muscle for a herioen kingpin look pretty cool. Same with killing the Crazy 88.

I might rent Inglorious Basterds, but I haven't decided yet. I don't have a problem with Tarentino's amorality (it's a part of the human condition, so why not explore it?) and I've enjoyed some of his movies (especially Pulp Fiction), but I hated every second of both parts of Kill Bill. Part of the problem was Uma Thurman's inability to play any character but Uma Thurman, but mostly the movie felt like a pastiche of Japanese culture as filtered through a shelf of discount manga comics. I'm fully willing to accept that I simply wasn't in the movie's target audience, but even so I thought it was a stylish but ultimately vapid bit of fan service for Japanophiles. I'd love to hear what any of you got out of the movie, though.

I dug the Kill Bill movies an am personally looking forward to the re-release with them re-cut into their entire, original form. As in 1 film.

If you have an issue with that style, then I don't blame you for hating it because it was purposely made to be exactly what you described it with a bit of a Spaghetti Western flare to it. He actually wrote part of it while in Japan and that's how he found the band that was in it and got a lot of his inspiration behind a lot of the themes. Etc Etc Etc So you're definitely correct for thinking it is exactly that lol.

Kill Bill V1&2 are the only Taratino movies where I actually turn off my brain and just enjoy it. I don't take anything away from it like I do Pulp Fiction / Reservoir Dogs / Inglourious Basterds....I just watch those movies purely for entertainment and not much substance. Which may also go to show the weakness in these two films. I believe that his films have a lot of substance but not so much Kill Bill. Maybe VolII but not so much VolI. Outside of the actual film I really like watching his manipulation of the camera...I still think he's one of the best directors out there off of his camera work alone...and there are a few parts in those movies where he just nails a scene and I soak it up. Other than that, I actually think I probably just like them because the violence is pretty excessive and fun for the most part...I hate Uma Thurman but give her a pass in KB for some reason...and I hate all that Manga stuff too but I don't think it reaches that level for me. It's JUST ridiculous enough for me to enjoy but not be actually annoyed by. And while I do like them, they are on the bottom of his film totem pole.



and man... I still say for the doubters that if you have a free few hours...go see Inglourious Basterds...matinee if need be. Hell a matinee would be the same price to rent anyways...minus the experience of seeing it on the big screen. That movie is seriously awesome. And I'm not even talking about what little actual action there is (this movie is definitely a lot of talking and a few action scenes...but the action is enough to satisfy if you are wanting the movie just for that)...just the characters and dialogue are great. I'm going to see it again this weekend just to watch his directing again (which is great...regardless if you hate his movie or not, he knows how to work a camera for sure) and then to see Christophe Waltz and Melanie Laurent's characters again....love it.

So I saw 9 and while it has tons of potential it kind of ended up falling flat for me. I was really excited going into because I've followed the making of 9 ever since Shane Acker's short film. There was no real story to his short film outside of the 14 minutes that he made it, so I think that really hurt the film, trying to expand a non-existant story into a full fledged film script. So the movie started strong, was very entertaining but towards the end the whole plot just completely crumbled. So the ending kind of deflated the whole thing for me. Still worth seeing, but maybe not in theaters.

I also saw Gamer and didn't like it...it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't really fun nor exciting either. I loved Michael C Hall as the bad guy...he was awesome...but the rest of the film was just plain boring. I was surprised about how "deep" the actual backstory is to how they control the people and the evil plan and all that jazz...wasn't stellar, but had more than I was expecting. But the directing sucked ass....especially from the guys who did Crank and Crank 2 which is really fast paced, in your face, exciting, fun, entertaining....the battle scenes in this were completely lame. I would not reccommend it.


This weekend I'm seeing Paranormal Activity (awesome looking indie horror film, only 2 showings in seattle this weekend, midnight Friday and midnight Saturday...check it out!!!!)....and probably either The Surrogates or Pandorum

Thanks for that, DSAhawker. I agree with you on Tarentino's camera work -- even when I don't like the content of one of his scenes, the technical aspects are always well done. I think the short bit of Sin City that he directed was by far the best shot scene in the entire movie.

I'm sorry to hear that 9 ended up being exactly what the previews made it look like: pretty, but directionless. I'm also thinking very hard about seeing Pandorum because I've been going through Aliens sequel withdrawals for years now (AvP doesn't count as it is a steaming turd), but I'll probably wait until it hits the dollar theater.

Yessah! I agree about the Sin City observation as well...goes to show how superior QT is to his butt buddy Rodriguez

Yeah I was pretty sad about 9. Being an "animator" myself (working towards being one that is) it was pretty awesome and inspirational about how this movie came about. How Acker worked away for years making the short in his basement, it gets some film festival love and etc etc etc etc then frikin Tim Burton is knocking on your door. I've been working on a lot of animation projects and graphic novel type stuff and film premises (have a lot of notes but just now started writing some scripts...I need to find a writer to help out a bit I think ) ....so blah blah blah blah blah that just kind of gives me a glimmer of hope. That why District 9 was so awesome to me (ontop of being such a great flim for first timer Blomkamp), and how Mark Millar is getting his comics Wanted and Kick Ass made into feature films. And Duncan Jones' MOON....so amazing.

Also did you hear that Ridley Scott is coming back to make an Alien prequel???? It's not a reboot either...just taking place before his first film. I was a little nervous at first because you just can't touch Alien and Aliens....but then I realized that 1) It's Ridley frikin Scott... the man who has brough us 2 of the best sci fi films Alien and Blade Runner...and then 2) We've been watching the steaming piles of crap that AvP is for the last few years and without Scott coming back that is all we could expect, hack directors and hack efforts bringing down two awesome franchises at the same time. Such a travesty.

But yeah...Ridley Scott ...Alien Prequel...gonna be sweet

Paranormal Activity was the most fun I have ever had at the movie theater. The best experience ever...packed crowd at the small Neptune Theater in the U district and EVERYONE was into it, whooping, hollering, screaming, laughing, some even crying. Everyone on the edge of their seat. It was an absolute blast....freaky stuff too, not scary, but freaky...gave me the chills more than once.

And all of that for $11,000.00 over the course of a few days...with 2.5 actors and 1 house...it was great

Zombieland was friggin awesome

i like 007 series movies