re: Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon.

for people of the Far East (of which i am a member) CT, HD wasn't that great of representation of the wuxia genre. there are plenty better. even hero/house of flying dragon is not the greatest but i think these wuxia films are geared towards the West. if the West saw a more authentic wuxia film, they'll think it's too melodramatic/silly.

I think that was the point of Crouching Tiger - not to be representative of wuxia films, but to mix wuxia with a western sentament and come up with something a bit new and different.

As far as Sin City - I saw it yesterday. It's pretty good, not great - like my much beloved Star Wars films, a lot of Miller's dialogue is fine to read, but impossible to actually say. Still, it's super atmospheric and does good service to the source material, as well as the genre that Sin City came from in the first place.

That was my fear of Sin City. Alot of Miller's dialog works great in comic form but if it's stuck to to the letter when said I'd imagine it can come out pretty melodramatic.

Ah, well, I'll still see it anyway.

<<<-- Originally posted by Ian Poirier : That was my fear of Sin City. Alot of Miller's dialog works great in comic form but if it's stuck to to the letter when said I'd imagine it can come out pretty melodramatic.

Ah, well, I'll still see it anyway. -->>>

Don't worry. It works more often than it doesn't.

Reviews thusfar of Sin City have been good:

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=19663
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=19683

Yeah a review on killer movies said it was great too. I have high hopes now.

I don't trust any review on Aint-it-Cool News. That place is a den of slobbering fanboys.

Yeah, Killer Movies is kinda similar. Still I hope.

Boy, we kinda hijacked this thread, huh? So abou those movies that we have seen and didn't like...

7
The Ring
Lord of the Rings 1&2

And Just about anything M. Night did (except for 6th Sense.)

Totally on board with M Night. One trick wonder movies.

I adore LOTR though. Super geek-fanboy since I was eight, can't help it. My only complaints would where they deviated from the actual books, but I'll digress.

Gladiator: ridiculously over lauded.

Highlander 2. Only flick I ever walked out on.. Also, how can you not like "Donnie Darko"? I agree with all the discussions on the matrix though, I saw the third film in the theatre, with my old man, (he is still waiting for "roadhouse 2 to come out)we felt at that time that the jury was still out whether we liked it or not. Sure enough, six months later, I borrowed it on DVD from a friend... Needless to say, after watching it a second time I just felt dumber. What a loss....

Funny thing about the Matrix - the third one is the only one that Theresa will sit through. She finds the rest of them boring. Go figure.


On Highlander 2 - did you ever see the Renegade cut where the director got some more money ten years later, finished shooting the scenes he'd meant to shoot when the plug was pulled, and re-edited the film to what it had been written to be? It's still not a great film, but it is much, much, much more comprehensible than that thing the money men put into theaters way back when (what was that, 1990?)

Recently walked out of "Alexander" and I left some wake turbulence in the theatre. What a waste!
Others I have walked out of:
The World according to Garp (anything with Robin Williams is hard to sit through),
Meet Joe Black
Cape Fear
Mulholland Drive (I should have, but didn't)

The first Cape Fear or the remake? ;)

Wow, Mullholland Drive, huh? That's one of my all time favs. I find it to be absolute brilliance and Lynch's best work (with Blue Velvet and excruciatingly close second).

Training Day: that was one huge, completely improbable, contrived disappointment that critics seemed to like for some reason.

Mulholland Drive is one "polemic" movie: there are various boards with 100 or more posts about the subject. People love the film or hate it.
I didn't walk out (it's not that kind of film) and it has great stuff, but in the end I didn't think Lynch had any idea what he was doing, apart from simply confuse the viewer by throwing in random elements, hoping people would consider it Art. Irritatingly arrogant and vain.
But as I said before: some great scenes (and acting).

I like films that don't answer every question they raise. I loved the commentaries on identity and personally viewed reality. I think if you ever knew what if any element was not a dream or what version of each person was "real" the movie would have failed. Each of are constantly creating identities that other people don't see based on fantasies and what if's. Every person carries a their own reality in their mind. Sorry, waxing philisophical and diverting the thread a bit here. The movie is absolutely gorgeous from a cinematography viewpoint. That much I think anyone would agree on. Like you said, this discussion has been had too many times before.

So, back to flaming movies we don't like!