About me: I have prehensile eyebrows. I speak 9 languages fluently, one of which other people can also speak. When backed into a corner, I fit perfectly - having a right-angled arse.
Xamonas Chegwé wrote:Am I the only person here that liked the film?
I loved the randomness of it. I liked the way that things just happened that weren't telegraphed hours in advance and there was no message, no resolution, no plan. I like films like that. I like being left in mid-air, guessing what happens next or what it was all about.
I keep meaning to read the book.
[spoiler alert]
You couldn't tell Josh Brolin was dead the moment he picked up that money?
I guess randomness could be seen as the message of the movie-- what with the coin-flipping and all. Though, as the wife pointed out, the coin wasn't really making the call...
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
Actually, no, I couldn't tell he was dead at that point. I had a pretty shrewd idea that he either would be, or would have one hell of a job not being, by the end of the film, but I didn't know for certain that he was going to die. In fact, the character that I felt most sure would come to a sticky end was Badem's killer - that is the way these sort of films always end, right? With a huge, set-piece shoot-out? With hero and villain coming to blows and the hero triumphing despite the villain's use of underhand and ungentlemanly tactics? Him getting hit by a car was a great twist - "Poetic justice!" shouts the audience - but no, he gets up and limps off into the sunset. Nice touch - life plays no favourites - if there is a message, that is it.
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic. House MD Who needs a meaning anyway, I'd settle anyday for a very fine view. Sandy Denny This is the wrong forum for bluffing Paco Yes, yes. But first I need to show you this venomous fish! Calilasseia I think we should do whatever Pawiz wants. Twoflower Bella squats momentarily then waddles on still peeing, like a horse Millefleur
Xamonas Chegwé wrote:Am I the only person here that liked the film?
I loved the randomness of it. I liked the way that things just happened that weren't telegraphed hours in advance and there was no message, no resolution, no plan. I like films like that. I like being left in mid-air, guessing what happens next or what it was all about.
I keep meaning to read the book.
[spoiler alert]
You couldn't tell Josh Brolin was dead the moment he picked up that money?
I guess randomness could be seen as the message of the movie-- what with the coin-flipping and all. Though, as the wife pointed out, the coin wasn't really making the call...
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
Actually, no, I couldn't tell he was dead at that point. I had a pretty shrewd idea that he either would be, or would have one hell of a job not being, by the end of the film, but I didn't know for certain that he was going to die. In fact, the character that I felt most sure would come to a sticky end was Badem's killer - that is the way these sort of films always end, right? With a huge, set-piece shoot-out? With hero and villain coming to blows and the hero triumphing despite the villain's use of underhand and ungentlemanly tactics? Him getting hit by a car was a great twist - "Poetic justice!" shouts the audience - but no, he gets up and limps off into the sunset. Nice touch - life plays no favourites - if there is a message, that is it.
Ahhh, yes-- the spoiler button would have been appropriate. Oops.
Trigger Warning!!!1! :
I've seen enough dark westerns that I wasn't surprised, in this case. Though I'll admit to hoping otherwise.
The green careening planet
spins blindly in the dark
so close to annihilation.
Seth wrote:Lost me with the first incident with the cattle-killer. I'd have shot the fucker dead long before he got within range to use it. And a shotgun silencer? I don't think so.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
Seth wrote:Lost me with the first incident with the cattle-killer. I'd have shot the fucker dead long before he got within range to use it. And a shotgun silencer? I don't think so.
I didn't really get the cattle-killer device, either. Maybe if the story had made more of an issue of ballistics evidence, it would have made sense. But instead it seemed like something that was trying to be menacing, or dehumanizing, but just came across as unnecessarily clunky.
For a second, I was going to say-- if it had been a gun of some sort, the cop in the beginning would have confiscated it. But Javier killed him anyway, and could easily have gotten the gun back after.
No cop who didn't deserve to get slaughtered like a cow would have let the guy within 20 feet of him with that device. He'd have been held at gunpoint and shot if he'd failed to drop it. No cop is going to allow a suspect to carry a high-pressure gas cylinder attached to a hand-held device capable of firing a lethal projectile. It was stupid, and the cinematic intent was to portray Joe Average cop, and Joe Average convenience store clerk as idiotic cattle.
My version of the movie would have ended almost immediately with the "assassin" dead in the first scene, with the cops standing around shaking their heads and saying "What a dumb motherfucker. What WAS he thinking?"
Once that idiotic device appeared, the whole movie turned into a bad joke.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
About me: I have prehensile eyebrows. I speak 9 languages fluently, one of which other people can also speak. When backed into a corner, I fit perfectly - having a right-angled arse.
FBM wrote:I liked it. I think I watched it twice, a few months apart. Maybe I'm just easily amused.
Me too
You, me and XC should start a clique, then.
That sounds like a pretty sweet clique to me
Think we need a secret handshake? Maybe a hidden, devious agenda?
Our own special cheese...?
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic. House MD Who needs a meaning anyway, I'd settle anyday for a very fine view. Sandy Denny This is the wrong forum for bluffing Paco Yes, yes. But first I need to show you this venomous fish! Calilasseia I think we should do whatever Pawiz wants. Twoflower Bella squats momentarily then waddles on still peeing, like a horse Millefleur
Hmmm...I'm sure we can work out some sort of cheese-bacon combo. Ideas, Rachel?
Thanks for starting the list of things with neither cheese nor bacon in it, but we might have an easier job of it if we start at the other side of the barn, don't you think?
"A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it." ~ H. L. Mencken
"We ain't a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion."
That sounds like a pretty sweet clique to me 
)