hagren

Yeah, Sopranos could be described similarly. It needs 4-5 episodes to really kick off the plot, and it may slown down a tad during a season, but I really don't mind that as long as what's on the screen is interesting and well-executed.

I noticed that most of the mentioned shows come from HBO- that's where the good shows are at, eh?

I also learned that all of these shows have to be imported...freaking German TV channels and their unexplainable love for mediocrities ala "Desperate Housewives".

Thanks guys! Of the shows you mentioned, "Oz" and "The Wire" sound most appealing to me, so I'll check those out next (Carnivále has also an intriguing premise, but I'm not sure wheter it's available around here). Which of these are comparable to the gritty, yet very down-to-earth style of the Sopranos?

I've seen Six Feet Under and Dexter, yes, and liked both of them. Not as much as Sopranos or Nip/Tuck, but still worthwile entertainment.

Comparable? How about better? Flight of the Conchords, baby!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FArZxLj6DLk

O...K...

Pretty funny :) Has a certain IT-Crow-vibe to it. But how is it related to the Sopranos? :D

Benjamin Button

I dug this one quite much, possibly though not for the right reasons. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the early to mid 20th century along with the SFX, set pieces, general design and music so much that I diverted my attention from the fact that the story is not remotely as smart and edgy as it may appear superficially. The acting was solid to top-notch as well so I didn't even mind its longevity, lack of creativity or not. The metaphor with the clock that goes backwards was a nice touch, mind.

Twilight

Tried to watch this after my sister declared it "Not so bad", but the story was so ludicrous, so disposable that I simply could not bear more than an hour before all the teenage bullshit drove me insane. The writing, acting and effects were so abysmal, so tepid, that it was comparable to watching Charmed on the big screen, but without any morsel of entertainment or personality. Heck, even the throwaway vampire-slasher Dracula 2000 had some nice analogy with St. Peter, but there's nothing clever about this one. I mean, seriously, twinkling Vampires???!!! Who in their right fucking minds would think of such idiocy? Not to mention that the whole plot was completely unrealistic. Permitting students to leave school because of good weather conditions? Thriving for a monster that may have killed a friend of my father? Jesus Christ...

Currently going through all the Sopranos episodes, at the moment idling at the 4th episode of Season 6.1.

As Abhi said, absolutely brilliant television with complex characterisation, surprising story twists, almost impeccably realistic acting, believable setpieces, great, cinematic atmosphere, sharp writing and too much spectacular moments to even start a list. There will be a part of me that dies when I'll finish the show, the Sopranos became my relatives fom the first moment I lay eyes on the screen.

Sure, it always takes some episodes to kick into high gear, and the dream sequences are able to overshadow the wonderfully down-to-earth plot, but apart from that, it truly is a masterpiece which makes time fly by and other shows obsolete compared to it- One particular aspect that is out-right innovative is the characters repeating lines. To my mind, many writers are so busy to form intelligent, unique sentences that they forget that not everyone is necessarily talking on a university level, and they especially think that good writing consists of exclusive dialogue. It does not- Life can be very mundane, and it repeats itself, as do we.

Is there any show that's comparable to it, recommendable?

Apart from the aforementioned relevation, I also watched some Mythbusters S1. Not as great as I expected, since there's actually little explanation to their experiments and many of their myths are either obviously hoaxed or just simply dull, but when they fool around for the heck of it or simply kid their way through the show, it can still be quite entertaining. The style is definitely not my cup of tea, however.

Cool!

For 15€ per pop, one can't really go wrong, then. I luv me some Mafia action. And all the technological references are really funny :) Not to mention how they're able to show how animalistic these mobsters are, yet you still root for them. You remember the episode were Tony's "Uncle" is officially elected as boss, and some waiter shoots pics with a hidden camera? I went "Oh come on! Foul play! Poor Mafiosi, why are they doing that?" :D

I've bought the first two seasons of Sopranos and am pleasantly surprised how well it's made, feels much more like a film than a show. Nice multi-layered characters, well presented, smooth title song, and neat style. Are all the seasons as good as the first 6 episodes I've seen? (Although, I have to admit, I'm more in for the Mafia clichés than the interpersonal drama).

I continued watching it, and it did get a little better- Rush Hour 2 and Robocop were hilarious, and the Indian girl brought charm and light to the flick. Still, there were less remakes in it than I expected, which resulted in lesser laughs than I would have required from a comedy. Btw, aren't parodies filed under "fair use"? Or do the 20$ per pop void the principle?

Seen ca. 30 minutes of Be Kind Rewind- I'm usually a fan of Jack Black (Those MTV movie awards skits were hilarious, as are the Brütal Legend adverts), but this didn't do it eiher for my sister or me- The film started off with a little lesson about Jazz- Could there have been anything more dull to begin a comedy with?- and crawled onwards from there, with not quirky, not damaged, but flat-out bland and unlikable characters, dry dialogues, depressing colours and muzzak. Mos Def was barely understandable with the way he muttered through his lines. After 20 minutes have passed and only two laughs emitted from deep down our bellies, we thought it may kick off when they start re-filming lost titles, but it didn't -at all. I disappointedly removed the DVD from the player at that point, with a half aggravated, half sleepy look on my face. Another case of great concept/trailer, meh execution/feature presentation. It's going to need a shitload of IT crowd episodes to cheer me up.

Watched a plethora of films again the last few days:

History of Violence

I saw this one already on DVD and it held up very well the second viewing, too. The staircase sex scene is still puzzling, as does the last scene feel detatched, purposefully I presume.

Whilst kind of a slow-paced film, I like its sober style with our most inner instincts creeping through more and more as the picture unfolds. Great film with top-notch performances, yet I still haven't read the source material- Should I?

Death Proof

Kind of disappointed with this one. When there actually were chase/crash scenes it felt like a wild and exciting ride, and some of the castmembers were appropriately palatable, but I felt that too much of the screentime was devoted to girls yapping on about sex-related themes which -for the most part- were nowhere near as witty or hilarious as anything Tarantino wrote in KB/PF. I remember enjoying the far more apparent camp of Planet Terror considerably.

Arlington Road

I've seen this film at least four times already in multiple languages, and I still was left shaking my head in disbelief, shock and horror when the credits ran, even if it ventured pretty heavily into clichéd-thriller-camp occasionally.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

After having read the book for the umpteenth time I found myself in the mood to re-watch the film as well, and I was satisfactorily entertained, with even the acting bothering me less than expected, bar some akwardly realized scenes. The most impressive aspect of it was the set design, and of course, Williams' wonderful soundtrack, however as an adaptation, I have a sackload of issues with it, as the pacing and some of the alterations did the book no justice- the former however may have added to the film's appeal.

Saw a couple of movies the last few days-

Wild at Heart

Most possibly one of the simplest and most linear of Lynch's work, and unimpressive at places because of it; there were many references to TWoO which even I catched although I've never seen the musical, but it actually had a straightforward plot to follow behind his back- made some of the sequences seem even more akward than they would be separately, most outstandingly the Big Tuna trailer park scene. Dafoe was sufficiently creepy however, far more than the main villain, the evil witch, has been with all the exaggerated mimics and voices. I also learnt that Cage is a formidable singer- Perhaps he should've taken that career path instead of acting, of which he didn't do much in this flick either- Dern, on the other hand, performed solidly, with a somewhat charming naivity. Didn't impress me nearly as much as Mulholland Drive or Twin Peaks S1 did, but at least it didn't leave me puzzled as Lost Highway did back in the day.

Silent Movie

Not much to say about this, really. Similar plot to The Producers, only without the wit and side-splitting hilarity that is Wilder. But even with this unique type of parody and humour it held less amusing moments than Space Balls.

40-year old virgin

I saw this one already in German, and this second, English viewing actually lessened the film in my eyes- there's charm in the romantic plot that is going on between the hapless main character and the E-Bay-store owner, and there are quite a few genuine laughs to be had, but the juvenile, predictable and appaling style of humour used in-between moderately reduces its appeal to me, as likeable Andy may have been. Still decent however.

Zack and Miri make a porno

An almost puristically simplistic film with very little story or character development, yet an impressive feat- Impressive for an exorbitantly high level of foul language and sexual references which are handled so informally, so honestly, that it made me laugh constantly and, as a side-effect, emotionally connect with the two main characters. The scarce porn parodies were cleverly done as well, and luckily, they did not waste much time with drama, even though I could have taken some more nonsensical rambling. Highly recommendable.

I just found out that District 9 comes out end of October in German-speaking countries, if at all. I'm miffed- the trailer looks so delightingly sick!

Yes, it's a pretty ho-hum flick except for the plane sequence you described, that was pure brilliance- I also dug the ending (pun intended).

Yeah, I can see why a lot of people don't like Pushing Daisies but I always blame those people for the world sucking

 

It is very stylised but it really is very funny in amongst the cuteness. Even the cynical can latch onto the show's secret weapon, grumpy private eye Emerson Cod (plus Anna Friel is adorable).

 

Not for everyone, but if you can cope with the style then there are some genuinely original and fun whodunnits among the pie-making and quirkiness.

 

Hope she likes it.

We've seen 5 or 6 episodes so far, and while we enjoy it for the humour and quirkiness, it's far from perfect- the blue screens are too blunt to even be called "stylized", the narrator can get pretty annoying (most evident when mentioning unnecessarily verbose ages, spoonfeeding the audience with already known or crystal-clear information or pulling the "Cindy felt funny" "I feel funny"-joke for the umpteenth time), and sometimes it wanders into exaggeratedly random-land and I get sensory overload from all the sugar :P I generally like the style, but I've seen too many Burton movies and Amelie-knock-offs to see it as overly unique or essential, and the score doesn't do it for me always either. What saves it are the actors and the characters they portray, they're very personable and cute without having a nauseating effect. The writing can be pretty clever at times as well. And the cakes...are there really pie shops of this kind in America? Mmmm....

The last film I watched was Juno. Charming little film, but a tad predictable and typical. Thus, while I enjoyed it especially for Page's nonchalant performance, it's not necessarily an essential title in the sea of indie flicks.

Yeah, the teachers are acting very well, I especially love Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. As for the SW prequels, there's McGregor, McDiarmid and Neeson who are able to make the best out of the script.

All the good actors in the world wouldn't have saved that script or it's director.

They were all just mere props before a green screen.

 

Spare us Hagren next thing you're going to wax lyrically about the Matrix Trilogy.

I said "made the best out of it", not "saved", there's a difference. I was surprised myself how much they relied on green/blue screens.

No need to be consdescending about it though, Testy- the point of a message board is discussion, and if we'd always agree about everything, there would not be much of it. I can only repeat that I did not deem the PT to be well acted or written for the most part.

And just for your information, I already reviewed the Matrix trilogy once and found the sequels to be a far cry in quality and ingenuity from the first, and especially the third to be a terribly repetitive and lackluster film, awfully written, realized and acted.

Yeah, the teachers are acting very well, I especially love Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. As for the SW prequels, there's McGregor, McDiarmid and Neeson who are able to make the best out of the script.

How would you have handled that scene, then? I mean, he's supposed to be angered, so why does he accept Padmè's death so easily, when he was promised to be able to keep her alive by using the Dark side?

I don't see why this is so hard to agree with. The first three HP movies were desecrated by cringeworthy adolescent acting with no sense of delivery, bad pacing/editing and unnecessary comedy. Ep. III had order 66, a great McDiarmid, a vulcanic light saber duel, Vader's "birth" and clone troopers. What do those HP movies have?

 

Besides, I'm not taking drugs of any sort. Except if you count stinky cheese and raw meat as stimulant, then yes, I'm drunk on it, mad.

 

you're crazy, dude! I think you could make the case that the first two Potter flicks were rather pedestrian, but those would still beat the first two prequels. Prisoner of Azkaban doesn't just beat Revenge of the Sirth, it annihalates it. Sith has some, some decent moments, but Azkaban is a fantastic film with awesome direction and the first really good performances in any of the Potter flicks. it's impossible to agree with you on this. Really, what are you on?

As I already said, I thought that Attack of the Clones was abysmal and one of the worst films I've ever seen- Thus, when I talk about the prequels, it's mostly episode I/III, with the emphasis on the latter (I thought that Ep. 1 was an enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable film).

As for the acting, you could be right; it's actually quite a long time ago that I've seen the Harry Potter movies, but I remember that especially Radcliffe had awful line delivery skills (Similar to Hayden Christensen from the SW prequels), you just couldn't take seriously what he said), which marred my experience significantly.

All of the films just contained so many moments for me which I would have solved differently.

I never said that the soundtrack is bad, mind- I like it (The main theme is especially memorable). But there were also some good pieces of music in I/III (Duel of the fates, for example)- I actually commented that there's not much that stands out from the score, btw.

Red: Wholeheartedly agree. I would have had Vader attack the emperor for not keeping his promise, with the Emperor putting Vader to his rightful place.

JasonT: I guess it's about the mood with some films.

Btw, guys, thanks for the recommendation on I Love You, Man. Thoroughly enjoyable movie that I would not have watched had Mark, Malin and Balthy not said good things about it. Very entertaining. Segel plays essentially the same character in all his work but it's a very likeable one. Ditto Rudd. Some great awkward humour too.

That's the one with the best man, right? Heard good things about that one ,too.

Well, it wasn't only the music (and I don't consider Episode I having a good score, as you either, bar "Duel of the Fates"), there's also Darth Maul, the clone troopers, the battle droids, the sets of Naboo, Coruscant at day, Kashyyk and Mustafar, and there are some well-realised light saber duels/battle scenes, short and few as they have been. Plus, it was a joy to watch McDiarmid, McGregor and Neeson acting, as well as the great-as-ever designed tech. With the creature design I can only agree (Those things in the Gladiator scene were really poor), but when it comes to ships/armour/weaponry/wardrobes, Lucas' art team got the eye. I also second what you said about the story/characterization/acting (Except the actors mentioned above), but as I said, that's not what I routed for when I planned to watch them, and as said, the prequels really can't hold a candle to the OT when it comes to characters. Thus, it's not really that we disagree, as you see, just that we've been looking for different aspects in these movies. It's like hating CnC cutscenes for being corny.

I made it through the first 6, then got desinterested (I did lend the last one out today though, I wonder how it is). But I'm in a hate/love relationship with the movies, since the humour (or lack thereof) and the pupil's acting partially ruin them for me, which is why I consider 1-3 subpar to SW I and III. (On a side note, as far as trilogies go, Matrix' was worse, imho. And as films? There are many without any redeeming features).

District 9 surely looks great, loved the trailer.

Oh I definitely could say the same thing about the Star wars prequels, which I did. If you look back, I already noted multiple times that the writing was mediocre or less in the prequels, only commended McGregor, Neeson and McDiarmid for their acting, found comedic elements such as Jar Jar annoying, rated Episode II far worse than I would any of the Potter movies, and mentioned where I felt Lucas going apeshit. What you forget is that the kids are a huge part of the movie, which is why it's a bigger flaw in the HP franchise, and almost everything the movie does right (The teachers are cast rather well and the sets look spectacular, for instance), the book does better. And being a children's movie, there's also far more of throwaway jokery.

Furthermore, it's just something I expected from the SW prequels- I knew beforehand that Lucas isn't much of a brilliant writer/director. What I expected was great set design, almost impeccable art design, solid music, some awe-inspiring tech battles and soapy fantasy drama- and got exactly that. I'm not quite sure what others were anticipating from them or George (I have to repeat that Episode II I loathed).

Whilst in HP, nothing really ever stood out for me regarding strong scenes.

In the end, I can accept that Ep. I and II aren't critically acclaimed (And am not wondering that Ep. II is generally considered weak), but there were too many decent scenes in Ep. III to condemn it, in my opinion. The only thing were George really dropped the ball in quality was characterisation- almost none of the new characters were fleshed out or set a mark. But I consider both Ep I and III perfectly watchable, warts and all, whilst with the first three HPs, my face changes from appreciative smile to agonizing frown almost every minute.

Now, mind that I'm not saying that any of the prequels are great cinema- they won't stand the test of time as the original trilogy did, and as far as acting and writing goes (as well as some story elements), there's not much to defend. Episode I is an enjoyable, but throwaway film, Ep II is abysmal, and EP III is only saved by its epicness and dark themes. But I feel that somehow, people viewed the films differently than they should have been and joined the bandwagon of prequel-loathery as if it's the cool thing to do. I'm not going to bash them in their entirety if there's something valuable in (some of) them.

So, not even Williams' music or the visuals did it for you?

Or else.

I don't see why this is so hard to agree with. The first three HP movies were desecrated by cringeworthy adolescent acting with no sense of delivery, bad pacing/editing and unnecessary comedy. Ep. III had order 66, a great McDiarmid, a vulcanic light saber duel, Vader's "birth" and clone troopers. What do those HP movies have?

Besides, I'm not taking drugs of any sort. Except if you count stinky cheese and raw meat as stimulant, then yes, I'm drunk on it, mad.

Not watching much television these days, since there's almost exclusively crap on the three channels I'm able to receive. Thus, I re-watched Nip/Tuck from start to finish, which still holds up very well, with the exception of the dull second Season (what a letdown it was!) and the horridly written last episodes of season 5.

I also watch The Clone Wars online, and while it's not even good entertainment by any stretch of imagination, it's alright for passing time.

Frankly, I don't know what to get, since it happened quite often in the past that hyped shows (Heroes S1 to name one) turned out to be disappointing. Dexter S1 was okay, but I'm not sure I'd ever need to watch it again, which goes for Californication as well.

Currently I'm "getting" Pushing Daisies for my sister. Any good?