MasterKiller, this ROTK review is for you.

[Chang Style Novice]

So, we're in the Dead Zone of movies for a few months, unless the Oscar-Bait pictures that got their official releases at years end haven't made it out to your stick of the sticks yet. I mean look at the "Upcoming releases" section of IMDB.com today.

The Butterfly Effect (Asheton Kutcher Matrix ripoff)
Mindhunters (Val Kilmer and LL Cool J serial killer thingy)
Along Came Polly (Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in a ... just kill me now)
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Teen comedy with some folks I've never heard of)
Torque (Fast and Furious ripoff with folks I've never heard of)
The Perfect Score (teens steal key to SAT)
The Big Bounce (con man scam comedy with 2nd Banana from "Shanghai Noon/Knights)
Saved (religious afterschool special for the big screen)
You Got Served (stars Raz B and Lil Fizz. That's right, THE Raz B and Lil Fizz!)
Latter Days (a gay man falls in love with a Mormon Missionary)

Looks pretty sad, huh?

Anyway, I did finally see "Lost in Translation" and "Master and Commander" this weekend, and they were both pretty good for what they were, but nothing revelatory.

Anjou?

[KC Elbows]

The add for "The Butterfly Effect" struck me as being much closer to being a Lathe of Heaven ripoff than anything else. It looked more a stylized drama than a stylized action flick to me, but I was probably drunk when I saw it, as it was before ROTK, and I saw that in a theatre that serves wine, and wine is my precious, don't touch, stinking filthy false hobbitses.

Last I heard, Kill Bill part two comes out Feb 9th.

That list sounds pretty dreary, though I have to give cudos to whoever made a movie pairing mormonism and ****sexuality into one theme.

Watching Leon right now.

[Chang Style Novice]

Meh - I saw a barely coherent hunk dancing back and forth between science fictiony realities trying to figure out what real (...I think) and thought "Matrix." If I'm wrong, it'll never matter 'cuz I'm not watching it anyway.

Thanks for reminding me of Kill Bill 2 - and I think The Ladykillers may be up before the summer rush, too.

[Vash]

What I got from the previews of butterfly thingie was he could change reality by dreaming it or something, but everytime he changed it, he fugged someone up real good like.

[MasterKiller]

I watched Whale Rider last night. It should be a strong candidate for Best Foriegn Film. Not as emotionally charged as Once Were Warriors, but still very good.

In 2004, we'll have

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Spider-Man 2
Hellboy
Elizabethtown
The Brothers Grimm
The Aviator
The Incredibles
Alexander
Troy

and for the art-house inclined:

Almost Peaceful
The Butterfly
De-Lovely
Face
Goodbye Lenin!
Hiding and Seeking
Kitchen Stories
Klezmer on Fish Street
La Mentale: The Code
Latter Days
Monsieur Ibrahim
The Tracker
Tokyo Godfathers
West Bank Brooklyn

[Judge Pen]

Anyone heard about "The Village" ? The trailer for it looked promising.

[MasterKiller]

M. Night Shyamalan is getting pretty predictable. There will be a monster/ghost/alien, there will be someone emotionally/spiritually lost, and that person will find new emotional/spiritual comfort when they kill/release/help the monster/ghost/alien.

King Arthur could be promising, or it could be another BraveHeart. I can't really tell by the trailer.

[Judge Pen]

Well we know that there's something in the woods. Even if predictable, at least he has a good style about him and he knows how to tell a story. And he doesn't seem to dumb down to the audience.

"King Arthur could be promising, or it could be another BraveHeart. I can't really tell by the trailer."

Most people would consider it a compliment to compare their film to an Oscar winner. I'm not expecting much from this movie, but I could be surprised.

[MasterKiller]

Most people would consider it a compliment to compare their film to an Oscar winner.

I expect to like ROTK as much as I liked Titanic. I'll find out in a year when it comes on Starz, I guess.

just yankin your chain

Braveheart isn't bad....it's not great, either.

[Judge Pen]

Originally posted by MasterKiller
I expect to like ROTK as much as I liked Titanic. I'll find out in a year when it comes on Starz, I guess.

just yankin your chain

Braveheart isn't bad....it's not great, either.

I liked Braveheart, although it's a flawed movie. There were actually moments in Titanic that were brilliant, but the whole of the movie was too melodramatic. A couple of transitions in that movie, though, make you realize how talented Cameron really is.

[MasterKiller]

The only scene that really impressed me, and granted, I haven't seen the whole movie in one sitting, was when he pans out about 100 yards from the boat while it's sinking, and it's quiet, almost serene. That was a good shot. I don't think his directing is bad. In fact, he's pretty competent when sticks to what he does well. I think the writing was awful, though.

[Chang Style Novice]

Just checked - The Ladykillers is out in march. YES!

Normally I'm not real keen on remakes of classic pictures, especially those that were just about perfect the first time - like The Ladykillers. However, this is a Coen brothers remake, and one that seems perfectly suited to their talents, and is Tom Hanks' return to comedy (I'd rather watch "Bosom Buddies" reruns that "Philadelphia" anytime) and the rest of the cast looks great as well, and so, well...

I'm hyped.

re: King Arthur

This is the first I've heard of it, but between Monty Python's Holy Grail and John Boorman's Excalibur, I kind of doubt I have any room in my heart for more movies on this topic. i guess I'll find out, though.

[Judge Pen]

King Arthur: Anything with Jerry Bruckheimer screams style over substance. That and Guinevere looks like Sheena warrior princess.

Titanic: The shot that impressed me when I first saw the movie was the bow shot where he is singing to her and they are having their cheesy lovers' moment, the camera pulls back and the boat with the nice sunset dissolves into the corroded wreck of a ship at the bottom of the ocean. The camera telling the audience that all things beautiful will fade and wither away with time. Later, Cameron does the same thing with Rose's eye. The writing was bad, but Cameron and his camera made the film watchable.

[MasterKiller]

Part of the reason "good" movies are so hard to make (especially in the Hollywood machine) is that they are such a collaborative effort.

You can have a good script and great actors, but if the directing sucks, or if the costumes look fake or out of place, then the project fails. I mean, who is the artist most responsible for the final product? The director? The writer? The producers? The editor? The sound engineer? The actors?

I hate actors mostly because they see themselves as the center of a larger creative effort, when really, it takes a lot of extra people to make something valuable out of their effort. How many actors can write, produce, direct, star in a good movie? Not many, and the one's who do, like Woody Allen, are pretty hit and miss when it comes to quality. That's why when I see someone like Mel Gibson pull a primaddona stunt, it chaps my hide. If you are hired to act, then act. Just because you think you do one thing well doesn't mean you can do everything well.

It's the same problem I have with pop musicians. They don't write their lyrics, compose their music, or produce their albums, but they are more than happy to take all the credit for the success of an album.

[Judge Pen]

I know what you are saying. I guess in some ways, that's why I have such respect for the Lord of the Rings Movies. The first time I saw FOTR, I thought it was good, but I wasn't blown away. I really had to process it first. Yes, even as well done as it was, some of the effects could have been done a little better. Some of the acting was off, and Jackson lingered too much on Frod's anguished "b!tch look" to convey the effect the ring was starting to have on him. But then I watched the special features on the Extended version and saw how much work went into this movie from hundreds of nobodys. Armor Smiths, model makers, make-up and latex artists, stuntmen and horse riders. Many of them were not Hollywood professionals, but people that either loved the books or loved the style that the movie was protraying (think of every SCA geek you have ever met).

Now I'm the type of guy that will watch the credits at the end of the movie. I watch all the special features on a DVD even the crappy Jim Carrey movies. Nothing compared in scope to the making of these films. I gained a new respect for this and for Jackson for being able to orchastrate all the madness. If there are flaws in these movies (and they are few and minor) they are easily forgivable.

And the actors were mostly no-names (with the exceptions of Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchet, and, arguably, Hugo Weaving) No primadonnas there.