Random Picture Thread

[Philboid Studge]

I used to think it was the best SF flick evah; but now I'm not so sure it holds up.

[Kate]

[inkadu]

I'm tempted to say any movie in which you can recognize a passing photograph after (how many years?) certainly has to be good enough.

I just watched it a few weeks ago, and it holds up. The only two things that strike me as dated was the Corporate Replicant chick Deckert makes out with. She's too clearly an 80's girl trying to look futuristic via the 50's, and the police chief is all wrong for the film.

Oh, and one small quibble, Rutger's Hauer's death scene should not have had the several cuts to Harrison Ford's wooden reaction.

But everything else is perfect. The set, the lighting, the atmosphere ("One more kiss, dear.... one more sigh)... The theme about what it means to be alive -- and to die -- is something every atheist struggles with once they really grasp what it means to be "merely" a collection of matter. And, unlike most movies that are fun to think about, it's emminently watchable.

I'd only by the final collection if it includes the original narration. I'm partly curious, and I also think the movie is a bit oblique the first time through.

Cookies for Philboid! Special made by the cookie messiah!

[Coatsy]

[Philboid Studge]

Inky wrote

I'm tempted to say any movie in which you can recognize a passing photograph after (how many years?) certainly has to be good enough.

I just watched it a few weeks ago, and it holds up. The only two things that strike me as dated was the Corporate Replicant chick Deckert makes out with. She's too clearly an 80's girl trying to look futuristic via the 50's, and the police chief is all wrong for the film.

Oh, and one small quibble, Rutger's Hauer's death scene should not have had the several cuts to Harrison Ford's wooden reaction.

But everything else is perfect. The set, the lighting, the atmosphere ("One more kiss, dear.... one more sigh)... The theme about what it means to be alive -- and to die -- is something every atheist struggles with once they really grasp what it means to be "merely" a collection of matter. And, unlike most movies that are fun to think about, it's emminently watchable.

I'd only by the final collection if it includes the original narration. I'm partly curious, and I also think the movie is a bit oblique the first time through.

Cookies for Philboid! Special made by the cookie messiah!

Well it's not just a passing photograph; they linger over it in a rather long scene in which the photo is featured in precise detail. (But I too saw it recently)

I didn't mind that Sean Young had an 80s look. Daryl Hannah's look on the other hand ... yikes. Edward James Olmos looked like Vito Scotti. I liked the Joe Turkel character; I kept wanting to order a drink from him (he played Lloyd in The Shining)

Anyway, I thought the dialog was weak: hackneyed film noir stuff. I agree that the atmosphere(s) were done well; very beautiful sets -- and give Ridley Scott credit for creating an interesting, and plausible, future. He (and Terry Gilliam) were among the first directors to see the future not as a gleaming, sterile landscape but as the receptacle of 20th century garbage (and it looks good!).

Still, too many scenes are just p l o d d i n g . . . .

Can I trade my cookie for a brownie?

Vito Scotti (I think this is from Gilligan's Island):


E.J. Olmos in Bladerunner (separated at birth?):

[inkadu]

The movie's pacing is deliberate, I think. It's all kind of hoepeless and despairing ... I disagree with you about the dialogue, though, because I don't remember having a cringe-response, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to that kind of thing. Daryl was freaky lookin', but I didn't care. It's the future, style's change, and she's clearly having some issues.

When you said you don't know if it woudl "hold up," I assumed you meant that it would seem dated or just not a good movie. Movies from childhood are especially prone to this. "Dark Crystal" is unwatchable to me know -- so effin boring, even if the ideas and an occasional visual is arresting. "Time Bandits" has held up absolutely gloriously, tho, I'm happy to say. But some movies are just terrible, and, for some reason, people like them long enough to make them famous. That Howard Hughes bio-pic that came out a few years ago? Total. Piece. Of. Shit. Yet it won a bunch of awards. I don't understand it at all. You won't be seeing that movie on anyone's "Top 100" list in a few years -- it's probably already off the lists now.

Bladerunner wasn't a popular success when it came out. Critics panned it. Yet it hung around, grew in popularirty, etc. I'd say that's a fairly objective way to tell if something's going to stick around. Other than 2001, can you think of another SF movie that's had the impact of Bladerunner? Oh, yeah, Planet of the Apes -- now THAT's a plodding film.

K. Here's your Brownie.

[Professor Chaos]

[Philboid Studge]

Ink wrote

Bladerunner wasn't a popular success when it came out. Critics panned it. Yet it hung around, grew in popularirty, etc. I'd say that's a fairly objective way to tell if something's going to stick around. Other than 2001, can you think of another SF movie that's had the impact of Bladerunner? Oh, yeah, Planet of the Apes -- now THAT's a plodding film.

Certainly Star Wars had more "impact" whatever that is, but so what?

Planet of the Apes ruled! Dude: it has monkeys. On HORSEBACK!

I'm not saying BR wasn't popular. When a movie "hangs around" and grows in popularity, it is either an "objective" measure that it's going to "stick around" or an assmonkey's tautology. You decide!

Speaking of films that were unpopular, then later wildly popular: It's a Wonderful Life sucks arse.

"I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life, anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die."

If you didn't cringe at that, you're not as sensitive as you think.

Hey, I said I used to consider it best SF flcik evah. Now I realize I was just a bedazzled youth, impressed with flashing lights and Darryl Hannah's funbags.

That brownie looks more Christian than the Jeebus cookies. (Actually it looks more West Village; what is it, bukakke flavored?)

[inkadu]

Philboid Studge wrote

Certainly Star Wars had more "impact" whatever that is, but so what?

Duelling metrics!

Thanks for mentioning SW. I actually thought SW, with it's greasy X-wings and low-rent catnina bars was the first "gritty" future set.

Planet of the Apes ruled! Dude: it has monkeys. On HORSEBACK!

Should I try watching it again, or wait for the musical? I tried watching it on the TeeVee, but I know commercials can be a cruelty.

I'm not saying BR wasn't popular. When a movie "hangs around" and grows in popularity, it is either an "objective" measure that it's going to "stick around" or an assmonkey's tautology. You decide!

Back to metrics. My reasoning is movies are popular usually because they are in theaters and are being advertised. If a movie flops in theaters, yet still survives, it can probably weather shifts in taste -- i.e. "hold up," -- unless the reason it was popular was that it had something like a pink-haired musical number with electro-synth keyboards or something....

And, secondly, it's already a classic, and it's never going to stop being a classic. I think it's fair to say it might be one of those movies kids have to watch in school -- like Citizen Kane or 2001 -- that are drearily boring, yet "important," and that a popular audience is never going to dig it. Which is cool, because a popular audience never really did.

Speaking of films that were unpopular, then later wildly popular: It's a Wonderful Life sucks arse.

I don't see it as a movie. I see it as a ritual an ex made me go through every year around this time. You might enjoy the alternate ending. Although I did appreciate a little left-wing propaganda.

If you didn't cringe at that, you're not as sensitive as you think.

Dude! That's terrible. Is that the voice-over from theatrical release? You can't even get that anymore. The voice-over was put in under the protest of Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford. Harrison even did as bad a job as he possibly could in recording them in hopes they wouldn't use it.

Hey, I said I used to consider it best SF flcik evah. Now I realize I was just a bedazzled youth, impressed with flashing lights and Darryl Hannah's funbags.

Really? Wow. You really were an impressionable youth. Didn't the Victoria Secrets catalog get delivered to your house?

Oh, speaking of awful narration, you know what movie really sucks balls? Dances With Wolves. Sucks. Ass. No wonder Kevin Costner is confused as to what makes a good movie. The Postman was better.

That brownie looks more Christian than the Jeebus cookies. (Actually it looks more West Village; what is it, bukakke flavored?)

It comes with dental dams.

Here's Jesus in a rare DC appearance:

[Rhinoqulous]

Sci-Fi movies that stand the test of time?

[inkadu]

Rhinoqulous wrote

Sci-Fi movies that stand the test of time?

Brazil! Haven't seen that since effin' high school!

Unfortunately, too depressing to watch in this day and age. I prefer my cautionary tales before what they caution against actually occurs.

[DrunkMonkey]

Rhinoqulous wrote

I'm trying to decide if I want to buy the new "Final Cut" of Bladerunner. It's not going to have any new scenes, but they cleaned up the picture and sound.

So which one was that?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...runner&x=0&y=0

[WITHTEETH]

Rhinoqulous wrote

Sci-Fi movies that stand the test of time?

Creepy! Reminds me of that movie Dead Alive, the baby who lives in the basement with the grandmother...

Professor Chaos wrote

That's one awesome movie. Have you played the game? Endless computer puns. At one point you're on a transport (called a memory bus) and the hostess says "In the case of an emergency, a subnet mask will drop from your overhead bins. If you are travelling with subprograms, please install your own mask first."

If you thought that was funny, you're a geek. There is no known cure for this affliction.

[Rhinoqulous]

WITHTEETH wrote

Creepy! Reminds me of that movie Dead Alive, the baby who lives in the basement with the grandmother...

What's even creepier is that's Michael Palin behind the mask.

I have the 3-disc Criterion edition of Brazil, which contains the Gilliam edit of the movie, the "U.S. Loves Conquers All" version (which shows you how editing can fuck up an amazing movie) and a documentary on the making of the film (and the fight Gilliam had with producers over the edit of the film that was originally released in the States). If you've only seen the U.S version of the film, go find/rent/steal a copy of the directors cut, it's a different movie.