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What-cha-what-cha-what-cha Watched?

Mole

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Arguing and Conformity

I've just seen, "Easy A". It's about adolescents in high school. Their main life goal is to maintain conformity. And they do this simply by negative feedback. We see negative feedback loop after negative feedback loop. And it is the negative feedback loops that maintain the conformity and their sense of security.

After all, they are just about to leave home and the security their parents provide, so they seek security in conformity in their peer group.

I have noticed Central provides negative feedback loop after feedback loop and calls them arguments. Yet we all know arguments convince no one, instead they provide the security of group conformity.

So the purpose of Central is to meet a central life goal of adolescents.

How noisy they are, and how determined to argue, and how necessary it is for them to conform to the group. It is as though their life depends on it. And it does.
 

Snoopy22

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13 Ghosts (1960), which is similar to the 2001 Thir13en Ghosts. Considerably more primitive in its special effects, was interesting seeing Adam 12’s Pete Malloy and the Wicked Witch of the West in different roles.
 
B

ByMySword

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So I saw Machete today and I was very very disappointed. I was going in expecting a typical Robert Rodriguez grind-house style movie with a pretty good story and extremely exaggerated violence.

Instead what I got was 2 hours of pro illegal immigration propaganda with gratuitous violence and sex as a plot mover. The fact of the matter is that this topic is a very hot button issue in the nation right now and I felt it had no place in a film of this style. And while the movie had its moments, if Rodriguez's goal was to humor the issue, he should have jabbed at both sides it rather than choose a side. But he specifically labeled one side good and one side evil without really arguing either side other than using stereotypical responses that merely arouse unbridled emotion and downsized logic.

Another thing is that I feel that if you're going to make a movie that is based around a political ideology, that it should be done with a bit more grace in order to make it appeal to viewers from both sides. That is to say to make it more objective to the point where an audience can interpret it as to how it pertains to them.

An example would be V for Vendetta. Now anyone who knows anything about this movie and specifically the graphic novel that inspired it will know that it was written with the intention of being a critique of the Reagan administration. And yet even far right ultra-conservatives could appreciate the film/graphic novel on its own, without knowing of its original inspirations.

Songs are another example. The song War Pigs by Black Sabbath was a song protesting the Vietnam War, and yet even those who supported the war could listen to it and appreciate it as a milestone in rock n' roll history.

The point is that direct political references in art to me are unprofessional, unintelligent, and untalented. Referencing an ideology in a way that allows a person to think is far more appropriate and (even if I do not agree with it) far more noteworthy when analyzing an artist.

Now, I am anti-censorship all the way and I support the first amendment. So my argument against the manner Rodriguez chose to unfold his film is merely based around personal opinion, as I hold the same right as he does. I also reserve the right to refuse to watch or listen to art form that cannot express its ideology or philosophy in a more intelligent way than bashing and ad hominem arguments, which so often dominate political debate among entertainers. Machete fits into this category and as a typical Robert Rodriguez fan I must say that I was unpleasantly surprised.
 

Snoopy22

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The Big Sleep 1946
The Big Sleep 1978
Character development is much better in the 1978 film (with a much better representation of Carmen Sternwood), and keeping to the original story line. Unfortunately, basing Philip Marlowe in England is as disappointing as ordering gourmet German cuisine and ending up with a plate of fried pig entrails.
 

Will2911

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I am currently off work Sick... So I sat down today and watched a lot of Life on Mars....

Fantastic television.

DI Tyler is of course my favourite, but I can't deny the magic of the Gene Genie
 

Kanamori

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Recently I've watched True Blood, Sons of Anarchy, A Very Long Engagement, and The English Patient.
 

MacGuffin

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Let Me In
The American remake of the Swedish film from a couple of years ago (which I still have not seen due to the fuckups in the subtitles on the DVD). The setting's been moved Los Alamos, but it's still the early eighties and looks it thanks to some spot-on costuming and sets. Usually American remakes suck ass, but this one appears to be very well done. Some have claimed it's even better than the original, but I will leave that judgment to someone that's seen both. Very bloody at times, and both young leads are excellent in their roles. Suspenseful and violent and affecting.
Highly Recommended.

The Social Network
How do you make a entertaining movie about facebook where the narrative consists of flashbacks centered around lawsuit depositions? Get Aaron Sorkin to write the script, David Fincher to direct, and throw in a little Timberlake! Far more interesting than I'd have ever thought, and I loved the Sorkin rapid fire dialogue throughout (sometimes you couldn't laugh because the next line was already being said). No one is really the bad guy, they're all just following their nature. You understand why they do what they do, even if they don't. Accidental billionaires indeed. All the leads were great, even Timberlake as the the Napster inventor/douche.
Highly Recommended.
 

Mole

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Perfectly Italian, a Ruby Red Grapefruit

I'm just back from the Italian Film Festival at Manuka. And I walked back in the cool Spring evening after buying a Ruby Red Grapefruit for a bitter sweet taste after a bitter sweet movie.

It was a beautifully made movie about infidelity. It was totally believable and thank heavens without a happy ending. I get enough of those in American movies. No, it had a bitter sweet ending, with the emphasis on bitter. Yet it did not lead me to moralise on adultery as I am prone to do. Neither did it lead me to think anything goes. It had perfect pitch and good taste. It was perfectly Italian.

A ruby red grapefruit in short.
 

Mole

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The Town

I've just seen the movie, "The Town".

It reminded me of, "The Shire", in Sydney and a similar family of bank robbers in real life. And interestingly we made a movie of about this same family of bank robbers.

But overall I am left with the impression of how important it is to choose a good social environment for oneself.

And our movie had a more realistic ending as the family came to a bad end, but still we were left wondering, while the American movie had to have a happy ending, no matter how phoney it was.
 

disregard

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I saw The Social Network. Perfectly directed. Perfect cast. Great story.

Before I saw it, I thought JT was going to play Zuckerberg and Eisenberg Parker. They kind of look like each other. But it was the other way around, and Eisenberg knocked it out of the park with his acting.
 

You

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The Social Network
Watch it. I liked enjoyed loved this film. Will buy the DVD too.

Machete
I laughed. Action, over the top humor - enjoyable.
 

Mole

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Let me in.

Tonight I didn't see, "Let me in". It had a very good write up in the paper and it's in my favourite theatre. At first I thought I didn't go because it was a vampire movie, but it was because I was thinking. I was thinking how nice it is when the inside coincides with the outside. Or that we enjoy what we do. Then I thought I knew many who didn't enjoy their work and did it to survive rather than thrive. And mulling over this I decided I wanted to keep mulling and avoid the movie.

And as usual, I had to tell you about it.
 

Mole

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Where will it all end?

I don't know what's wrong with me. Tonight I had the opportunity to see two romantic comedies at the movies, and one of them Australian, but I didn't go to see either.

This is the third movie in a row I haven't seen.

It's a bit like me and reading. First I gave up reading fiction, then I gave up reading biographies, then I gave up reading altogether.

What, I ask you dear reader, if I started giving up romantic comedies, where would it all end?
 

prplchknz

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The Fall-amazing movie, and the little girl is so cute. very visually striking, I found my self close to crying a few times though.excellent story, and excellent cimatography. worth checking out.
 
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