I did not care about 94.7% of the film, liked the last 8 minutes. Thought Bane was a joke, a weird cross ’tween Sean Connery, Darth Vader and a WWE bad guy. The first act was incredibly weak, and while I appreciate some misdirects, overall the script seemed lazy. Though I am interested to see what follows.
Okay, we have come to know what to expect for superhero movies, and one of those things are interesting bad guys.
Nolan’s Dark Knight films were strong in that respect in the first two installments, but I think failed miserably in the Dark Knight Rises.
Catwoman isn’t really a bad guy, she’s a Chess partner (and Hathaway looked nice — I finally came around on her after Rachel Getting Married and Love and Other Drugs), and a well-executed misdirect aside, Bane was laughable.
It was like Darth Vader as portrayed by Sean Connery.
I like Tom Hardy, but his skill as an actor was just not put to use here and the sound mix on his voice was poor.
Zod, I think, is the greatest superhero movie bad guy.
But recently, the past two years, the bad guys have been duds. I think it’s a studio strategy, audiences we’re liking the bad guys more than the good guys.
And then Bane, he was just not good at all, I literally wanted to laugh with every line of dialogue.
While I agree with you House, what makes a great villain?
In Vader, Gran Mof Tarkin, Boba Fett, Jabba, Darth Maul and the Emperor, the Star Wars films has a great collection of baddies. A Collection not equaled I feel, partly because the comic book movies fail to dig deep into history and grab different bad guys.
How many times do we need to have a Joker, or Catwoman?
With people leaving all the time, but then turning around and coming back (this makes little sense for supposed serious members who have rated all kinds of films, commented on many films, built many lists, ‘cause when you kill off the profile, while the forum comments remain, all the others stuff is gone), I’m wondering about who does one come back as.
Santino was Fredo and it can be assumed he’ll return as Michael or possibly Tom, or maybe even Vince, though Joey Zaza would be a great one for him to return as.
RUS always returned as RUS and so on…
But if YOU were to leave, who would you return as?
Scottie, feel free and I will defend my choices, but all I ask is that one you give strong reasons why they are fairly rated. And I disagree with fully on the Conversation.
And I’m sure those masterworks were written with reverence in mind.
Films like 2001, Citizen Kane, the Godfather, Pulp Fiction, etc have this built in safety that if one does not like them, they must be an imbecile and cannot understand films, which is patently untrue.
Citizen Kane, while beautifully photographed, great editing and impeccable story structure is hindered by the melodramatic acting. The acting was certainly a product of its time, but one could see how some may find it overrated. I do not agree that it is overrated.
2001 is a fine piece of art with some stunning visuals, but is one of the coldest, soulless films ever produced.
The Godfather is the only film I think is perfect.
Pulp Fiction is not the masterwork people scream that it is, while Sam Jackson is brilliant, and Keitel is fun, but that’s it. tarantino depends too much on verbal pyrotechnics and the story structure that people felt was amazing came about in the edit bay when it was realized the film was a failure, and hence moved the strongest piece to the end to try and go out on a big note.
I find Hitchcock films uninteresting and at times tedious. I understand that I am in the minority here, and that happens to everyone at some point.
i getting ready to leave, did have a great deal of mind, and peabody you know I don’t give a shit about what you think, just as I’m sire you don’t give a shit about what I think.
Are you all willing to say that people who go into writing a paper or a book on a film or director they already love are going to be objective? There no such thing. They are going to be reverential to the subject, glowing, like Ahmad Rashad talking about Jordan or a conservative talking about Reagan.
And Jerry as I pointed out already, I was on my way out the door when I typed that small bit up.
But let’s be honest, truly honest, and admit that because a film liked Casablanca is on a billion top ten lists that it must truly be one of the top ten best ever, when, in fact, some supposed scholars feel they must exclude certain titles on their list or be ostracized from their colleagues.
How many variations do we see in the lists of supposed scholars?
We even see it here, the herd mentality.
And peabody, jerry, Scott, Brad, I ain’t saying you are wrong, you’re not, and neither am I, we just disagree.
Just because someone grazes in a different field doesn’t mean they are wrong, it just means they prefer a different view while they eat.
I don’t think there is such thing as taste any longer, I think we are all in a long line to eat what we are feed, like in some cafeteria.
There may be a selection of things to eat, one group eats this food, likes this film, while others eat that and like that.
While the same old blockbusters rule the box office, the same old so-called classics rule the best-ever lists, some other old nonsense rules the critic’s POV.
It’s not just films, but music and books, fashion and, yes, food too.
We just have to admit we all are sheep, there is nothing new out there.
We are not creative, we are not free thinkers, we are just part of group longing for leaders.
We are the exploited masses waiting for marketers to throw things in our general direction.
Critics are not these great beings helping us rummage through the trash, they are but a part of the machine.
Academics are no better, and they just push the party line of one of the few groups that make up the world.
No one here is special, and the ones who claim they are in denial, yet they are at least better than the ones who have mainlined the punch and pretend that it’s okay.
Can we any longer make our own decisions?
I say no.
Any one who says different is lying to themselves and to everyone else.
It is no longer Human Nature, but Learned Nature and Human Learnings. We are so far removed from what is natural in life. “We” meaning the society we live in. Someone somewhere may be completely alone and living a natural life, the Survival-of-the-Fittest life, but that is somewhere far from here.
The simple fact is everything we do is Learned; some may say that this is the “Natural Way of Things,” but how do we know? All we really do know is what we have been taught.
We are taught in many different ways throughout our lives, from just observing we see how people treat each other and pick up certain things, we see all the Deadly Sins displayed before us and we accept this as Natural for this is what we see everywhere.
Some of us attend Church and hear all about burning bushes, frogs, famines, parting seas, men being nailed to crosses, etc, etc, so on and so forth into infinity. Are the things taught in Church Human Nature?
Is “Looking Out for Number One” Human Nature? Is Selfishness Human Nature?
We cannot go back and see what Human Nature really is; we are so far gone from the truth of Human Nature that we cannot even read first person accounts of learning to live. Even a brilliant novel written by a brilliant person about escape from the “Rat Race” to the Glorious Solitude of Loneliness wouldn’t be able to capture what Human Nature is for that brilliant person’s brilliant novel is written on the basis of a Learned Nature.
We smile and joke about the Anti-Pot Smoking PSA “I Learned It By Watching You Okay,” but that’s the life which we live, “we” learned it by watching “you.”
From books to newspapers, television to Internet, cinema to songs, this is where we learn our nature. If we wish to live in a calm society, we must witness calm, but we live in a violent society, so we as a society are violent, not every individual, but on the whole. That “whole” is inflicted with Greed, inflicted with Lust, inflicted with Wrath, inflicted with Pride, so some individuals within this “Whole” take firm grasp of these vices and others rail with Gluttony, Sloth and Envy.
The Nature which has been taught us is a Sinful Nature, but is that Human Nature? We truly cannot say. Some will tell us that this is completely True, and they Believe is this Truth, that they have Faith in this Truth and that they Fight for this Truth in the Name of God and Jesus Christ; well, that is what they have been taught, that is what they have Learned, but that is by no means The Truth of Our Existence.
Must we not fight against what has been thrust upon us as the Truth? Must we not attempt to look past what is before us and delve into ourselves and into those wading through this life beside us; find within us what Human Nature truly is?
It is Easy to step through life and abide the confines dictated to us by supposed Learned People; it is Easy to step through life as another sinner, dismiss humanity as nothing more than a station to another Plain of Existence; but should Life be Easy? Or should Life be a struggle to divine the Truth from the dim-watted light teachings passed down and down and down through years of simplistic considerations of our inner beings?
And then we see more dismissive words through insult.
The horse, Dkarikomi, are the followers, “You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will send you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds.”
Brad, it’s not anti-teacher, for a good teacher allows a student to learn, a poor teacher, a preacher so to speak, tells students what is and demands acceptance of those words.
Throwing stones and breaking the glass of framed photographs depicting the days of former wonder. We come upon a place in time where wonder is a blanket in the sun where we sit when we dwell on those former days and on occasion wonder where we went wrong. We stepped and stepped on some path and ended up here, the great wherever. And some of us continue to step while others are pretty content with this wherever. There are ladders which lead to other plains, other wherevers, some are better than others, more brightly lit, or dim and comforting for we cannot see the faces of the others wandering on this plain. We stand at edges from where we can see nothing, yet we can feel the immense heaviness of existence, its expansiveness, its never-ending trickle into tomorrow. We could step here in our travels and fall away into memory, yet we know, well, we hope, there are memories yet to be made and so we turn and head back to brighter plains and find like-minded souls whom we converse with and we find an ear and we find a voice and see the eyes, feel the soft breath, intangibles to carry us into relationships. We metronome our way through years and somehow find that we have become happy, it’s almost as if we have waken from a simple eight-hour night’s sleep and here we are now with a family and a mortgage. We can barely remember our times visiting the edge, and the great wherever is replaced by home, the brighter lit plains are now Sundays at the park, the dim recesses are easily seen into and explained as childish fears.
And these are places we come to when we decide to finally find a place we feel we are worthy enough to call a destination.
The wayfarer,
Perceiving the pathway to truth,
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
“Ha,” he said,
“I see that none has passed here
In a long time.”
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
“Well,” he mumbled at last,
“Doubtless there are other roads.”
all things are borrowed words, borrowed ideas, this is all borrowed time.
we are merely biding time and doing the work for those who control the content of the world. The music we hear, books we read, films we see, clothes we wear, it is decided for us.
The Dark Knight Rises 10 months ago
I did not care about 94.7% of the film, liked the last 8 minutes. Thought Bane was a joke, a weird cross ’tween Sean Connery, Darth Vader and a WWE bad guy. The first act was incredibly weak, and while I appreciate some misdirects, overall the script seemed lazy. Though I am interested to see what follows.
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Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
Okay, we have come to know what to expect for superhero movies, and one of those things are interesting bad guys.
Nolan’s Dark Knight films were strong in that respect in the first two installments, but I think failed miserably in the Dark Knight Rises.
Catwoman isn’t really a bad guy, she’s a Chess partner (and Hathaway looked nice — I finally came around on her after Rachel Getting Married and Love and Other Drugs), and a well-executed misdirect aside, Bane was laughable.
It was like Darth Vader as portrayed by Sean Connery.
I like Tom Hardy, but his skill as an actor was just not put to use here and the sound mix on his voice was poor.
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Greatest Director of Each Decade 10 months ago
ug
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Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
less superhero, more anti-superhero
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Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
Zod, I think, is the greatest superhero movie bad guy.
But recently, the past two years, the bad guys have been duds. I think it’s a studio strategy, audiences we’re liking the bad guys more than the good guys.
And then Bane, he was just not good at all, I literally wanted to laugh with every line of dialogue.
Go to Comment
Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
But can it be agreed that there are too many weak bad guys?
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Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
When’s Aquaman coming and who was his arch-nemesis?
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Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
While I agree with you House, what makes a great villain?
In Vader, Gran Mof Tarkin, Boba Fett, Jabba, Darth Maul and the Emperor, the Star Wars films has a great collection of baddies. A Collection not equaled I feel, partly because the comic book movies fail to dig deep into history and grab different bad guys.
How many times do we need to have a Joker, or Catwoman?
I’d like to see some new kinds of bad guys.
Go to Comment
Superhero Movie Bad Guys 10 months ago
House, check out the message i sent you, since they made the change, we never know when have messages
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If You Left Here, Who Would You Come Back As 10 months ago
With people leaving all the time, but then turning around and coming back (this makes little sense for supposed serious members who have rated all kinds of films, commented on many films, built many lists, ‘cause when you kill off the profile, while the forum comments remain, all the others stuff is gone), I’m wondering about who does one come back as.
Santino was Fredo and it can be assumed he’ll return as Michael or possibly Tom, or maybe even Vince, though Joey Zaza would be a great one for him to return as.
RUS always returned as RUS and so on…
But if YOU were to leave, who would you return as?
Go to Comment
If You Left Here, Who Would You Come Back As 10 months ago
I’d come back as Blah Blah Nyborg, and I’d add a comment to the Glengarry Glen Ross thread I created.
It would be a fun name to have
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Most overrated films of all time? 10 months ago
Pulp Fiction
2001
Most all Hitchcock films
Fargo
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Most overrated films of all time? 10 months ago
And Tree of Life as well
Scottie, feel free and I will defend my choices, but all I ask is that one you give strong reasons why they are fairly rated. And I disagree with fully on the Conversation.
Go to Comment
Most overrated films of all time? 10 months ago
And I’m sure those masterworks were written with reverence in mind.
Films like 2001, Citizen Kane, the Godfather, Pulp Fiction, etc have this built in safety that if one does not like them, they must be an imbecile and cannot understand films, which is patently untrue.
Citizen Kane, while beautifully photographed, great editing and impeccable story structure is hindered by the melodramatic acting. The acting was certainly a product of its time, but one could see how some may find it overrated. I do not agree that it is overrated.
2001 is a fine piece of art with some stunning visuals, but is one of the coldest, soulless films ever produced.
The Godfather is the only film I think is perfect.
Pulp Fiction is not the masterwork people scream that it is, while Sam Jackson is brilliant, and Keitel is fun, but that’s it. tarantino depends too much on verbal pyrotechnics and the story structure that people felt was amazing came about in the edit bay when it was realized the film was a failure, and hence moved the strongest piece to the end to try and go out on a big note.
I find Hitchcock films uninteresting and at times tedious. I understand that I am in the minority here, and that happens to everyone at some point.
Go to Comment
Most overrated films of all time? 10 months ago
i getting ready to leave, did have a great deal of mind, and peabody you know I don’t give a shit about what you think, just as I’m sire you don’t give a shit about what I think.
Go to Comment
Most overrated films of all time? 10 months ago
Are you all willing to say that people who go into writing a paper or a book on a film or director they already love are going to be objective? There no such thing. They are going to be reverential to the subject, glowing, like Ahmad Rashad talking about Jordan or a conservative talking about Reagan.
And Jerry as I pointed out already, I was on my way out the door when I typed that small bit up.
But let’s be honest, truly honest, and admit that because a film liked Casablanca is on a billion top ten lists that it must truly be one of the top ten best ever, when, in fact, some supposed scholars feel they must exclude certain titles on their list or be ostracized from their colleagues.
How many variations do we see in the lists of supposed scholars?
We even see it here, the herd mentality.
And peabody, jerry, Scott, Brad, I ain’t saying you are wrong, you’re not, and neither am I, we just disagree.
Just because someone grazes in a different field doesn’t mean they are wrong, it just means they prefer a different view while they eat.
Go to Comment
Favourite Film of 2012 10 months ago
Detachment (based on LA release March 23, 2012)
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PETER JACKSON IS BEING RIDICULOUS 10 months ago
so, there we have it
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Is Vertigo the greatest film of all time? 10 months ago
No, it’s not
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The Sight & Sound Top Ten Film / Directors Poll 2012 10 months ago
I don’t believe in change for the sake of change, and that’s what the list looks like
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
I don’t think there is such thing as taste any longer, I think we are all in a long line to eat what we are feed, like in some cafeteria.
There may be a selection of things to eat, one group eats this food, likes this film, while others eat that and like that.
While the same old blockbusters rule the box office, the same old so-called classics rule the best-ever lists, some other old nonsense rules the critic’s POV.
It’s not just films, but music and books, fashion and, yes, food too.
We just have to admit we all are sheep, there is nothing new out there.
We are not creative, we are not free thinkers, we are just part of group longing for leaders.
We are the exploited masses waiting for marketers to throw things in our general direction.
Critics are not these great beings helping us rummage through the trash, they are but a part of the machine.
Academics are no better, and they just push the party line of one of the few groups that make up the world.
No one here is special, and the ones who claim they are in denial, yet they are at least better than the ones who have mainlined the punch and pretend that it’s okay.
Can we any longer make our own decisions?
I say no.
Any one who says different is lying to themselves and to everyone else.
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
Is there anything original any more?
Humanis Naturalitis
It is no longer Human Nature, but Learned Nature and Human Learnings. We are so far removed from what is natural in life. “We” meaning the society we live in. Someone somewhere may be completely alone and living a natural life, the Survival-of-the-Fittest life, but that is somewhere far from here.
The simple fact is everything we do is Learned; some may say that this is the “Natural Way of Things,” but how do we know? All we really do know is what we have been taught.
We are taught in many different ways throughout our lives, from just observing we see how people treat each other and pick up certain things, we see all the Deadly Sins displayed before us and we accept this as Natural for this is what we see everywhere.
Some of us attend Church and hear all about burning bushes, frogs, famines, parting seas, men being nailed to crosses, etc, etc, so on and so forth into infinity. Are the things taught in Church Human Nature?
Is “Looking Out for Number One” Human Nature? Is Selfishness Human Nature?
We cannot go back and see what Human Nature really is; we are so far gone from the truth of Human Nature that we cannot even read first person accounts of learning to live. Even a brilliant novel written by a brilliant person about escape from the “Rat Race” to the Glorious Solitude of Loneliness wouldn’t be able to capture what Human Nature is for that brilliant person’s brilliant novel is written on the basis of a Learned Nature.
We smile and joke about the Anti-Pot Smoking PSA “I Learned It By Watching You Okay,” but that’s the life which we live, “we” learned it by watching “you.”
From books to newspapers, television to Internet, cinema to songs, this is where we learn our nature. If we wish to live in a calm society, we must witness calm, but we live in a violent society, so we as a society are violent, not every individual, but on the whole. That “whole” is inflicted with Greed, inflicted with Lust, inflicted with Wrath, inflicted with Pride, so some individuals within this “Whole” take firm grasp of these vices and others rail with Gluttony, Sloth and Envy.
The Nature which has been taught us is a Sinful Nature, but is that Human Nature? We truly cannot say. Some will tell us that this is completely True, and they Believe is this Truth, that they have Faith in this Truth and that they Fight for this Truth in the Name of God and Jesus Christ; well, that is what they have been taught, that is what they have Learned, but that is by no means The Truth of Our Existence.
Must we not fight against what has been thrust upon us as the Truth? Must we not attempt to look past what is before us and delve into ourselves and into those wading through this life beside us; find within us what Human Nature truly is?
It is Easy to step through life and abide the confines dictated to us by supposed Learned People; it is Easy to step through life as another sinner, dismiss humanity as nothing more than a station to another Plain of Existence; but should Life be Easy? Or should Life be a struggle to divine the Truth from the dim-watted light teachings passed down and down and down through years of simplistic considerations of our inner beings?
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
Gooble Gobble, Roscoe, Gooble Gobble
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The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
You see, people trying to calm the opposing voice, no one should rock the boat.
“People all said sit down
Sit down you’re rockin’ the boat.
“And the devil will drag you under
By the sharp lapel of your checkered coat,
Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down,
“Sit down you’re rockin’ the boat.”
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The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
It says Roscoe, we should all find our own way.
And then we see more dismissive words through insult.
The horse, Dkarikomi, are the followers, “You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will send you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds.”
Brad, it’s not anti-teacher, for a good teacher allows a student to learn, a poor teacher, a preacher so to speak, tells students what is and demands acceptance of those words.
Telling is not teaching, learning is not obeying.
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
Plains
Throwing stones and breaking the glass of framed photographs depicting the days of former wonder. We come upon a place in time where wonder is a blanket in the sun where we sit when we dwell on those former days and on occasion wonder where we went wrong. We stepped and stepped on some path and ended up here, the great wherever. And some of us continue to step while others are pretty content with this wherever. There are ladders which lead to other plains, other wherevers, some are better than others, more brightly lit, or dim and comforting for we cannot see the faces of the others wandering on this plain. We stand at edges from where we can see nothing, yet we can feel the immense heaviness of existence, its expansiveness, its never-ending trickle into tomorrow. We could step here in our travels and fall away into memory, yet we know, well, we hope, there are memories yet to be made and so we turn and head back to brighter plains and find like-minded souls whom we converse with and we find an ear and we find a voice and see the eyes, feel the soft breath, intangibles to carry us into relationships. We metronome our way through years and somehow find that we have become happy, it’s almost as if we have waken from a simple eight-hour night’s sleep and here we are now with a family and a mortgage. We can barely remember our times visiting the edge, and the great wherever is replaced by home, the brighter lit plains are now Sundays at the park, the dim recesses are easily seen into and explained as childish fears.
And these are places we come to when we decide to finally find a place we feel we are worthy enough to call a destination.
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
the meaning is that best of lists are BS, opinions mean nothing because we are creations of hammered societies and no longer individuals.
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The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
the fact you are using an image in a meme used over and over and over again says a great deal; where is the originality?
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The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
The wayfarer,
Perceiving the pathway to truth,
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
“Ha,” he said,
“I see that none has passed here
In a long time.”
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
“Well,” he mumbled at last,
“Doubtless there are other roads.”
-Stephen Crane
Go to Comment
The Sheep "Baa" at the Screen 10 months ago
because their is nothing original anymore
all things are borrowed words, borrowed ideas, this is all borrowed time.
we are merely biding time and doing the work for those who control the content of the world. The music we hear, books we read, films we see, clothes we wear, it is decided for us.
Go to Comment