Apocolypto

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

Anyone see this yet? I thought it was astounding. Quite graphic....it sure didn't sugar coat history. Great flick.

[weez]

saw it tonight, and was impressed. not sure why those guys didn't rush those fuckers at the top of the pyramid, though.


and don't you find that guy looked like Ronaldinho?

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

saw it tonight, and was impressed. not sure why those guys didn't rush those fuckers at the top of the pyramid, though.


and don't you find that guy looked like Ronaldinho?

Ronaldinho?

[weez]

this guy. (http://www.food-force.com/images/ronaldinho.jpg)

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

...I can definately see that.

[abcdefz]

I saw Apocalypto yesterday and liked it quite a bit.

It probably would've done just as well without the "end of times" portents, which don't really seem to amount to much. It's just a chase movie with sights we haven't seen before.

Violent and graphic, but not NEARLY as gore-filled as we've been warned.

The digital photography looked good, but still looked digital, especially in night scenes with fire. But it's smartly photographed. Something happens at a waterfall which was just beautifully, beautifully handled.

The lead actor's got some charisma, and overall, the performances are good. One of the particularly ugly bad guys is just a bit too telegraphed, but it wasn't too distracting.

B-. (y)

[QueenAdrock]

I'd see it but I definitely don't want to support Mel Gibson's crazy ass.

[abcdefz]

I'd see it but I definitely don't want to support Mel Gibson's crazy ass.



Yeah, well. I can understand that. I don't go see John Landis movies since he unrepentantly kills underage workers and a Hollywood veteran, then signs autographs for the jury and laughs when his stinking ass walks.

[abcdefz]

A little note about something in Apocalypto:




TEENIEST OF SPOILERS AHEAD





....did anybody else notice that there's a moment during one of the sacrifices where we've been watching part of the action through the victim's eyes -- he's lying across the altar, so the priests are upside down, etc. -- and they cut out the heart, and he's still able to move a little as he dies, and then they cut off his head and as they toss it, it cuts to his point of view again, as if his brain's actually able to register this last sight for a moment, as his head is lobbed down the steps?

I thought that was pretty audacious and, on paper, would've read like a Sam Raimi joke, but it really worked. (y)

[kaiser soze]

^ yup noticed that

The alter was also clean of blood...hmm

I thought the movie was good, but the ending was too good feelin' for me.

Some of the digital effects were obvious, especially when the captive was thrown off the cliff and he fell through the trees

Don't you think if you're impaled twice you just might bleed to death internally?

Visually intense, some cliche'd action, and not as emotionally effective as Braveheart/The Passion for me

Good movie, not as great as I thought it would be.....at some points I felt like I was watching Rambo

[weez]

the ending didn't seem that good feeling to me.....considering they were probably killed anyway...


oh, and i saw Deja Vu friday night too. that movie was deadly.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I thought the movie was good, but the ending was too good feelin' for me.

I see what you mean, but after all the atrocities that took place during the movie, it had better have a damn happy ending. And thankfully it did.

I need to find it online somewhere for download. I can't wait 6 months for the DVD.

[Tzar]

you won't need to wait 6 months for it to come out on dvd.
shit like mission impossible 3 and tokyo drift (god banish them all) are already on dvd. only noticed how quickly they've moved just the other day... crazy

[abcdefz]

I haven't seen The Man with No Face (or whatever it's called), but of the rest of them, this is my favorite Gibson movie at this point.

I thought it was a beautiful, sad touch when the old, nagging mother-in-law gets released at the auction. Here, she's been calling her son-in-law worthless, worthless, worthless, and then she winds up free, ironically, because she has zero value to these people. And the look that passes between the son-in-law and her -- so sad.

[Otis Driftwood]

Wasn't Man with no Face the Coen movie with Billy Bob Thornton? Where he's the hairdresser?

[abcdefz]

No -- that was The Man Who Wasn't There.

In America, anyway. I think in France it was The Barber.

[abcdefz]

Here we go -- The Man Without a Face. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0107501/)

[Otis Driftwood]

Haven't seen that one, honestly.
The man with no past was actually from Kaurismäkki (who also did the Leningrad Cowboys movies)
The Coen brothers movie:
The Man Who Wasn't There
Both recommended

[na§tee]

Yeah, well. I can understand that. I don't go see John Landis movies since he unrepentantly kills underage workers and a Hollywood veteran, then signs autographs for the jury and laughs when his stinking ass walks.
yup. that's pretty shocking. i swear i saw video footage of this a couple of years ago, am i imagining this? um. not that i should be looking for video footage because that's sorta sick, but still, i'm just wondering if it was a trick of the mind.

[abcdefz]

Could very well be. I know that it actually got played on TV, on the news.

That was a nasty bit of business. The children couldn't speak English, and their parents were kept separated from them, so all they had were these other adults to sort of rely on, and Landis kept pushing for the helicopter shot even though it was way after the time they could legally keep working, the pyrotechnics were too big and the action designer was telling him Landis it was unsafe. But Landis kept shouting orders to the helicopter pilot to fly lower and lower, closer to the actors and the explosions, and one finally rocked the helicopter and it went down and decapitated Vic Morrow and one of the kids and crushed the other kid.

Landis violated a ton of codes on that, and was even using live ammunition. Obviously, each worker involved could have just quit, so there's plenty of blame to go around, but Landis was a maniacal director, and it's a director's set, after all.

Rolling Stone ran a huge old exposé about it; the "official" trial outcome is way watered down. It just found "no one was culpable," which is bullshit.

[na§tee]

i think on the video i saw you could hear him shouting lower! lower! as well. what a cock. the helicopter was way too low and the explosives were way too close. how retarded to have those kids there, especially. illegal workers and all that jazz.

i heard that landis went to vic morrow's funeral (unwelcomed) and made some eulogy that just sounded like a big advertising campaign for the movie and said something like "i was proud to direct vic on what he thought was the best movie of his career and blahblahblah.." ha!

also, steven spielberg maintains he was not on set that day but, like.. dozens of eyewitnesses say otherwise. oh well. hollywood eh?

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

you won't need to wait 6 months for it to come out on dvd.
shit like mission impossible 3 and tokyo drift (god banish them all) are already on dvd. only noticed how quickly they've moved just the other day... crazy

Some flicks definately get rushed to DVD, but I don't think Apocolypto will be one of them.

[Schmeltz]

I just got back from this movie and I thought it was fantastic. The story is very nuanced and it's brilliantly told. In particular I thought the actors did a great job of defining and communicating their characters through actions and emotions rather than through the limited dialogue. Definitely recommended.

[Documad]

I read a couple of good books on the Twilight Zone case. There is footage of the crash because they were filming it for the movie. Spielberg wasn't there that night but he had to know that underage kids were being hired outside the rules. He and his producers (who still work for him) come off badly. Speilberg also looks like a real shit because he runs for the hills instead of standing by his good buddy Landis.

I enjoyed reading about the trial. This might be the only true case I've ever enjoyed reading about. Landis and some other people were charged with felonies for their conduct and they were acquited. It's a good illustration of how you can be responsible for money damages but not a criminal beyond a reasonable doubt. Landis comes off as a total ass who just wanted bigger and bigger effects. His attorney did a marvelous job (his attorney was the guy who got Ford Motor Company acquitted of criminal charges for the exploding gas tanks). The prosecutor was a disaster who enjoyed the media and played every card wrong (very much like Marcia Clarke would be years later).

I never liked any of the Landis films until a couple of years ago when he made movie called Slasher, which is a documentary about a used car salesman.

[jackrock]

Good show. I couldn't agree more with Schmeltz. But I wish it had showed where/what happened to that group of kids who were left behind.

Pass the Tapir balls, please.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

Good show. I couldn't agree more with Schmeltz. But I wish it had showed where/what happened to that group of kids who were left behind.


They survived by eating Tapir Balls. It was the only way.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I just got back from this movie and I thought it was fantastic. The story is very nuanced and it's brilliantly told. In particular I thought the actors did a great job of defining and communicating their characters through actions and emotions rather than through the limited dialogue. Definitely recommended.

Phendrana Drifts eh? Seems like that should be my location, with the avatar and all. :cool:

[abcdefz]

I never liked any of the Landis films until a couple of years ago when he made movie called Slasher, which is a documentary about a used car salesman.



...you didn't like Animal House?




Pass the Tapir balls, please.



:D

[skinnybutphat]

Could very well be. I know that it actually got played on TV, on the news.

That was a nasty bit of business.

Wow, I didn't even know about this. Trading Places will still be one of my all time favorites though.

[abcdefz]

Wow, I didn't even know about this. Trading Places will still be one of my all time favorites though.


I remember that one being good. That or Twilight Zone was the last time I saw any of his stuff. I won't even rent it or the old stuff any more. So, I think that Coming to America was the first movie after the boycott started. :rolleyes:

But, anyway. Yeah.

Here's some stuff... (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/twilight_zone/1.html)

[Schmeltz]

Phendrana Drifts eh? Seems like that should be my location, with the avatar and all.


Heh. My hometown is basically the Phendrana Drifts for like eight months of the year. Especially right now since it's blizzarding quite heavily. I live for the two or three weeks where it's like the Magmoor Caverns. :p

*Spoilers start here*

A lot of the negative reviews I've read about Apocalypto have focused on the arrival of the Spaniards at the very end, and how this is supposedly meant to represent the salvation of the Mayans - ie, the Mayan civilization had degraded to the point where they were preying on each other in vain attempts to reconstitute the former glory of their culture and needed outside help to save them. I think these reviews are completely missing the point: the Spaniards are not meant to represent the redemption of the Mayans, but instead their ultimate destruction. Hence the quote at the beginning of the film (which implies a future destruction from outside, following the internal collapse depicted in the movie), and Jaguar Paw's significant rejection of his wife's idea that they go to meet the Spanish - he would rather find his own way, as a free man, than be associated with either the Mayan or the Spanish option.

I don't think Mad Mel intended to imply that the Spaniards rescued the Mayans from themselves, because history shows that they certainly didn't. Rather, the arrival of the Spanish ships and missionaries foreshadows the total eclipse (ah heh heh) of the Mayans as a kind of epilogue to their own failure to find a productive solution to the problems that they confronted internally. So, even if other criticisms about the movie's historical accuracy might be somewhat valid (though I tend to find fault with the basis for those as well), I think it wrong to consider that the movie intends to make that point.

Just something I wanted to say. This really is a great movie and I wanted to make some kind of response to what I've read.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

Heh. My hometown is basically the Phendrana Drifts for like eight months of the year. Especially right now since it's blizzarding quite heavily. I live for the two or three weeks where it's like the Magmoor Caverns. :p

Thoughts on Metroid Prime 3?

[abcdefz]

Heh. My hometown is basically the Phendrana Drifts for like eight months of the year. Especially right now since it's blizzarding quite heavily. I live for the two or three weeks where it's like the Magmoor Caverns. :p

*Spoilers start here*

A lot of the negative reviews I've read about Apocalypto have focused on the arrival of the Spaniards at the very end, and how this is supposedly meant to represent the salvation of the Mayans - ie, the Mayan civilization had degraded to the point where they were preying on each other in vain attempts to reconstitute the former glory of their culture and needed outside help to save them. I think these reviews are completely missing the point: the Spaniards are not meant to represent the redemption of the Mayans, but instead their ultimate destruction. Hence the quote at the beginning of the film (which implies a future destruction from outside, following the internal collapse depicted in the movie), and Jaguar Paw's significant rejection of his wife's idea that they go to meet the Spanish - he would rather find his own way, as a free man, than be associated with either the Mayan or the Spanish option.

I don't think Mad Mel intended to imply that the Spaniards rescued the Mayans from themselves, because history shows that they certainly didn't. Rather, the arrival of the Spanish ships and missionaries foreshadows the total eclipse (ah heh heh) of the Mayans as a kind of epilogue to their own failure to find a productive solution to the problems that they confronted internally. So, even if other criticisms about the movie's historical accuracy might be somewhat valid (though I tend to find fault with the basis for those as well), I think it wrong to consider that the movie intends to make that point.

Just something I wanted to say. This really is a great movie and I wanted to make some kind of response to what I've read.



I think that's on. It was pretty obvious, except for the note that Jaguar Paw said -- something about how they need to go away and begin again.

What reviews did you read that said the conquistadors represented salvation for the Mayans? That's a pretty willful misinterpretation, methinks.

[Schmeltz]

Here's one: (http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/apocalypto-review.html)


As the jungle hero escapes the evil city and is chased by his antagonists all the way to the edge of the sea (literally nowhere else to turn), Spanish galleons appear, complete with a small lead boat carrying a stalwart friar hoisting a crucifix. For Gibson, the new beginning for these lost Mayan people, the Apocalypto, evidently is the coming of the Spaniards and Christianity to the Americas.


I mean it's one thing to criticize Gibson for putting fourth-century artwork on tenth-century buildings to tell a fifteenth-century story, and you can make a certain case for an inaccurate or superficial characterization of the Maya themselves in the film, but this, I think, misses the point altogether. Like you said, it seems like a willful misrepresentation and that's coloured a lot of the reviews I've read of Apocalypto, which is always compared to Passion of the Christ and always refer to Gibson's anti-Semitism.


Thoughts on Metroid Prime 3?


If it's anything like the first two it'll be awesome. The whole "corruption" thing sounds pretty cool and I'm interested to see where they take the whole evolution theme that runs through the series.

[Audio.]

this movie is a joke. Mel Gibson got it all wrong from the start.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

If it's anything like the first two it'll be awesome. The whole "corruption" thing sounds pretty cool and I'm interested to see where they take the whole evolution theme that runs through the series.

I agree...they're take a different direction with the final Prime (yes, Retro did say this was the last installment in the Prime trilogy unfortunately) title. You'll be going to multiple planets, cooperating and fighting against different bounty hunters (Trace from Metroid Prime Hunters is rumored to be in the game)...and the Phazon is supposed to finally be destroyed.

Looks good (y)

[cookiepuss]

*spoilers present, if you care don't read this.*

I rented it over the weekend and was surprised that I enjoyed it so much. I thought that the message about fear was very powerful and the actor who portrayed the Mayan chief/father of Jaguar Paw was outstanding at conveying a man facing death who wasn't the least bit afraid of his fate. it was beautiful.

But I knew I was watching a Mel Gibson movie upon noticing that the subtitles said "he's fucked" when that Aztec guy gets bit in the neck by that bushmaster snake. Um....yeah pretty sure the Mayans and Aztecs were unfamiliar with the word fuck since it really hadn't been invented yet...sure they might have had something that would be a rough equivalent...but that was pure Mel in my opinion. it made me chuckle.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I bought it a couple weeks ago....I still say it's in my top 3 films of '06.

[cookiepuss]

I said something here earlier but..

nevermind. I'm all confused. but yeah I was just looking up some histroy and the dates are all fucked in this movie the mayans civilization fell around 900 a.d. and the spainsh didn't come til like 1500 something and they mostly encountered the Aztecs....sooooo ...ummmm....whatever. I'm lost.

[Rock]

Saw it this weekend and liked it.

The only things that got to me were: (Spoilers below)

When they are walking back and the tree falls and the one guy who was the head of the gang was like "Hey! I'm walking here!!!!" uggg.

When Jaguar Paw (who my friend dubbed the Mayan Anthony Keidis when he first saw him) was running from the jaguar it looked like Mel Gibson's Mayan version of the end of the "Under the Bridge" video.

It was pretty obvious that he was going to go all Rambo on them by fighting in the jungle with traps and what not. But I couldn't imagine it going any other way. So I was more pleased than disappointed with that.

When the baby's head popped out of her vagina in the water it looked like Orca's kid right before he got sprayed off of the boat, so I couldn't stop laughing.




A great part was when Jaguar Paw makes it past the corn field and falls in the pit of bodies, I felt a bit sick because I thought I could smell it. That was kick ass.

Another thing that made me laugh was that Mel Gibson worked so hard on making the movie authentic and then there was a 4 minute scene about balls.

Overall it was a good entertaining movie. (y)

[icy manipulator]

i want those 2 hours of my life back

[abcdefz]

That movie's a good ride. (y)

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I think my favorite part was just after Jaguar Paw goes over the waterfall, and he gives the pursuers the whole "this is my forest" speech. It gave me chills.

[cookiepuss]

When Jaguar Paw (who my friend dubbed the Mayan Anthony Keidis when he first saw him) was running from the jaguar it looked like Mel Gibson's Mayan version of the end of the "Under the Bridge" video.


I thought he looked pretty hot. hotter than anthony keidis.

[Schmeltz]

I think my favourite part is still when Jaguar Paw and the other dude both make a play for the war club. "Almost." That shit is intense.

[HEIRESS]

I should buy it too. twas a great holiday season movie

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

Tapir balls also make a wonderful stocking stuffer.

Jus' sayin'

[abcdefz]

Tapir balls also make a wonderful stocking stuffer.





...so to speak.

[avignon]

I see what you mean, but after all the atrocities that took place during the movie, it had better have a damn happy ending. And thankfully it did.

I need to find it online somewhere for download. I can't wait 6 months for the DVD.

I don't understand why y'all keep saying that it was a happy ending? The Spanish showing up did not make peace and unity and happiness for the natives.

[abcdefz]

It's ethnocentrism-happy-good.

You know.

I mean, the savages are fun to watch for 2:16 hours of amusement and all, but for a truly happy ending. Well, you know: Manifest Destiny and all.

[Deep_Sea_Rain]

I don't understand why y'all keep saying that it was a happy ending? The Spanish showing up did not make peace and unity and happiness for the natives.

A happy ending for the family...not the culture.