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What was the last film you saw?


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I've sadly only seen the remake of Precinct 13, which I found forgettable. I need to see the original. Was it on Netflix, Nick or did you DL it? Last film I saw was this:

 

220px-Last_Stand_2013.jpg

 

To put it on the current aging action star film spectrum: I enjoyed it way more than Die Hard 5 and slightly less than Expendables 2. The film suffered most from the godawful script and pacing. There were so many opportunities for great one-liners just pissed away. Arnold's character was old and kind of broken down, and so was his performance. I like Johnny Knoxville, so his part as the eccentric town gun enthusiast/comic relief was entertaining for me. Luis Guzman had one of his best scenes ever, and Forrest Whitaker played the by-the-book FBI agent w/ his usual talent. I'd say it's a safe bet as a rental or DL for Arnold/action fans.

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I recently watch Do the Right Thing and 28 Days Later, both of which were disappointments relative to their hype, to different degrees.

 

28 Days Later was only slightly disappointing. It was still pretty good, and the story, while not ground-shattering, was also not a cookie-cutter zombie plot, so it did keep me guessing. I had heard that it was the movie (along with the Zack Synder Dawn of the Dead remake, which I liked) that began the whole zombie film renaissance, but I think I may been spoiled by The Walking Dead, because I was expecting something more, which was a tad unfair.

 

Do the Right Thing was a lot more disappointing. I've heard for years that it was one of the greatest films of all-time, that it got snubbed at the Oscars, etc, etc. I watched Malcolm X for the first time a few weeks ago (I forgot to post about it back when I had just seen it), and I really liked it, so I was hyped to the other of his two most popular, critically acclaimed films. Unfortunately, when I searched the internet for criticisms of the film, every one I found was drenched in pretty racist language. Anyway, I haven't seen many Spike Lee movies/joints, but this was the first one that disappointed me, so I'll check watching more.

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Spike Lee is... not a very good director, honestly. Don't get me wrong, the movies he makes aren't absolute shit, he's just one of those directors like Kevin Smith who does nothing special with the camera or the staging. His movies come across like plays which just adds a stilted falseness to the whole proceedings that makes them less interesting and dynamic. His documentaries are usually pretty good though.

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Spike Lee is... not a very good director, honestly. Don't get me wrong, the movies he makes aren't absolute shit, he's just one of those directors like Kevin Smith who does nothing special with the camera or the staging. His movies come across like plays which just adds a stilted falseness to the whole proceedings that makes them less interesting and dynamic. His documentaries are usually pretty good though.

Isn't all that the job of the director of photography? If it isn't, what's the DP's job?

 

Anyway, I don't think his other movies were poorly shot, and I didn't think DtRT was poorly shot either. It had a bunch of jarringly, artsy shots actually that kind of take you out of the moment, but he didn't "do nothing special with the cameras."

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The director is still responsible for setting up scenes and if their scene is set up like a play then it ends up playing like a play. And I'm not really talking wanky art school shots when I mean "do something with the camera" as much as I mean "making the scene look natural instead of like a scene." The Director of Photography is technically in charge of that but a good director is still involved in the process.

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The director is still responsible for setting up scenes and if their scene is set up like a play then it ends up playing like a play. And I'm not really talking wanky art school shots when I mean "do something with the camera" as much as I mean "making the scene look natural instead of like a scene." The Director of Photography is technically in charge of that but a good director is still involved in the process.

I see what you mean w/ making a scene look natural rather than just like a set, but I also think making the scene look interesting, the composition of the shot (lighting, props, actor placement, etc.) is where the big collaboration between DP and director comes in. I think technically the DP is really responsible for just the lighting and the director for everything else in the scene, but the great directors seem to use their DPs more as collaborators rather than just as "the guy who does the lights."

 

Also, to elaborate a bit on composing a shot, a good example of this is a film that came out a few years back but I only saw recently, The American. The story is simple, but the scenes are all just set up so beautifully. That's not always so hard w/ exterior shots b/c it was on the Italian coast, but even simple shots of like meeting in an empty restaurant were set up surprisingly well. You could hit pause on almost any establishing shot and get a photograph worthy of framing and hanging on a wall.

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Just watched Jack the Giant Slayer. It was pretty cool. Took a bit to get to the action, but had some cool stuff. Good for a rental at least. I hope this isn't evidence of what to expect from Singer in the future though.

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Was Valkyrie really a disappointment? It wasn't spectacular by any means, but it wasn't bad either. At worst I'd call it meh.

 

It was like watching a really well-produced History Channel documentary. A plot about a rag-tag group of rebel Germans doing a heist-like plan to assassinate Hitler could have and should have been far more entertaining.

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