Friday,
August 23, 2013
11:13:37
PM
Movies
How
many films have i watched ?
Never
mind TV Programs, or even Made for TV ‘Movies’.
Prior to Cable & Netflix
At least 4 a Week on TV, Probably much higher.
There were a lot of Afternoon Films, really old ones,
& Featured Films on Given Days, & Late Night Movies was a Given.
From 1963 to 1990 with a few substantial Gaps for homelessness & periods that i was institutionalized :
52 x 4 x 27 = 5,616
Then with Netflix & Cable :
Catching up on many films that are comparatively obscure, foreign films, popular films & such…
1990 to 2013
6 films a week
52 x 6 x 23 = 7176
Comes to about 12,792 ±
-
-
A
lot of these films are going to be repetitive, according to genres &
general laziness—
But occasionally a film is so packed with plagiarism that one has to
consider that they are attempting to pay homage to previous films
that The Makers Admired.
But.
That
interpretation is sometimes hard to cough up.
-
-
The
Recent Film ‘Oblivion’ with Tommy Cruise is so packed with
Segments & Scenes pulled from previous films, that i often
thought that i was watching a collage, rather than an original film.
-
-
As
someone that makes a lot of collages myself, this seems like a
particularly hypocritical criticism, But i have often thought that
The Bible’s Parable warning The Traveler to hold their tongue when
informing their companion that they may have a mote of dust in their
eye, while they may have a timber in their own eye.
i
have never seen any problem with The Pot telling The Kettle that it
is Black.
Would
its own Burnt Sides make The Kettle any cleaner ?
No.
Of Course Not.
If
i am dressed in rags, would it not be prudent to tell The Man in The
Suit that his Tie is spotted with Gravy, so that he might change it.
Wouldn’t
this be showing consideration & concern ?
-
-
It
also seems to me that there’s Collages & then there’s
Patch-Works.
Oblivion
is a Patch-Work.
It
just seems to me that when The People that wrote this travesty were
sitting around & discussing various scenes, & someone
suggested that they include a battle scene with spaceships careening
through a Gorge—
Someone
else would have mentioned that Not Only has this been done to death,
but it’s been parodied to death as well.
And
The First Person would say; ‘But I Love it, It’s so Cool!’
And
someone else would suggest; ‘OK, But if we’er going to go in that
direction, lets pump it up a little, go off in a different direction,
Add some kind of Additional Something to it…
( ? )’
And
The First Person would say; ‘NO! That would ruin it, It has to be
just like The one from Star Wars !’
And
so it was.
-
-
They
didn’t mean to pay Homage or Parody this; This is a film with an
Amazing Absence of Clever Dialogue or Humor of any kind.
i’m
sure that they thought that copying The Battle Trench scene from Star
Wars was going to be really good.
This
wasn’t The only Example;
There
were clips from many other films.
In
fact; The More i think about this film ‘Oblivion’, i have come to
suspect that it’s an ‘Experimental’ Film, of The Genre that
‘Forest Gump’ Was. Forest Gump was a film whose elemental plot
was thin at best, but contained numerous CGI Special Effects that
were Cutting Edge at that time. That was The True Theme or Intention
of Forest Gump, to provide The Film Makers with a Template or Medium
to Showcase Several comparatively New Special Effects &
Demonstrate & Refining of Effects that had Previously been done,
but may not have been as convincing as they could be Now.
While
i am reluctant to give Oblivion any Credit where no Credit is Due; i
now suspect ( after thinking about it for 2 days ) that if The Film
were to be Divided into Pieces, each representing an ‘Idea’ or
‘Effect’; There would be No Original Ideas at all. Each Division
would represent a Snippet from a Previous Film. Was this Intent of
The Film Makers ?
-
-
And
this brings up another point.
Do
these Class A Actors Not Know that they’re making stinkers ?
It
seems to me that if i were a class A Actor, i would insist on seeing
a fully Story-Boarded Film, & not just the Script before
committing myself to it.
And
then; If i did discover numerous egregious problems, i would use my
Star Leverage to Insist that it be fixed.
Don’t
they Care, or is Tom Cruise an Imbecile ?
-
-
As
a small side point;
i
have noticed that in many of these films that i’ve been watching
lately with Gratuitous Violence, The Film-Makers use perfectly
conventional Weapons.
The
Most appalling example of this ( ? ) was when The Aliens in StarGate
SG-1
( which is a little Redundant ) used ordinary Guns.
i
thought ( at that time ) that it would be fun, if whenever an alien
used a weapon of some kind, it would always be different each time, &
it would be really kooky.
StarGate
SG-1
would often use kooky weapons, so they knew that this was The
Principle that they should be using, but then they’d falter. ( ! )
Being
Creative really isn’t that hard. Especially when you’re rewriting
something. You simply identify those places where you used a cliche
or plagiarized something, & switch it up, changing some
elementals of The Idea, Subtracting or Adding this or That, or adding
something irrelevant.
-
-
i
was just this afternoon ( trying ) to watch an episode of _30
Rock_ which i have loved for a few years now, but it suddenly
occurred to me that while watching this episode, they were using this
technique a little too much.
Everything
that The characters were saying, was, just crazy.
It
was way beyound being quick or clever; they were instead exhibiting
dangerous schizophrenia.
i
used to like that; But like a dog that suddenly decides that they’ve
had their belly scratched enough, i had to twist around & snap
The Video off.
i
had had enough of _30
Rock_.
-
-
Some
Programs that i think exhibit just The Right Balance of Clever Wit,
Intelligent Banter, Crisp Innovation & Bumper-Car Surrealism,
While Providing a Solid Foundation of Commonality to allow our brains
to hold onto The Railings.
Not
in any particular order.
Rabbit
/ 2005 by Run Wrake / Short Animation
The
Good Fairy / 1935 / “I’m
going to buy a pencil sharpener with a handle!” Dr. Max Sporum
Panique
au Village / A Town Called Panic
( Best Stop Action Film
The
People vs. Larry Flynt (
Best Freedom of Speech Documentary
The
Professional
Charade
(1963) The
only flaw to this film was when James Coburn uses the phrase
‘Greenhorn’ twice in one sentence.
Major
Barbara / 1941 / Best
AntiWar Film with The Prince of Death as it’s Hero
Aliens
: The
Directors Cut — is much better than The Theatrical Release
Aliens
4
District
9 (
Best Alien Film Ever
Zombieland
(
Very Good Zombie Film
Fido
(
Best Zombie Film Ever
Kung
Fu Hustle (
Best Kung Fu Film ( Terrible Title !
The
Life of Brian (
Best Monty Python Film
Unforgiven
( 1992
Wreck-It-Ralph
( 2012 (
Best Remake of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Eraserhead
(
Best Surrealist Film Ever
Charlie’s
Angels I (
i very rarely watch any film more than once, but i watched this one
about 5 times, The night i got it.
The
President's Analyst / 1967 (
Best Political, Military Industrial Complex Film Ever
Pushing
Daisies
Frank
Capra’s WWII : Why we Fight (
7 1_h± Films Terrific Historical Analysis of WWII
The
Lost Room
The
Teletubbies
Xavier:
Renegade Angel
True
Grit 2010
( Wonderful Dialogue
Crank
/ Crank 2 : High Voltage (
Best Remake(s of DOA
Paint
Your Wagon ( 1969 (
Best Musical Comedy
Kick
Ass (
Best Super Hero Film; Along with _My Super Ex-GirlFriend_
Terminator
2: Judgment Day (1991) Best
of Series
Run
Lola Run (
Best Recursive Time Loop Film
Oldboy
(
Very Good Surrealist Mystery
Our
Man Flint / In Like Flint
Once
Upon a Time in the West (1968)
( Fabulous Epic with 3 Bad Guy Cliques
Save
the Green Planet! (
Excellent Mystery/Crazy Person Film
The
Nightmare Before Christmas /
Best Halloween/Christmas Cross Over
Watchmen
(
Best Over The Top Epic Scale Superhero Film
Wallace
& Gromit (
Series
Despicable
Me
Toy
Story ( Series
Time
Bandits (
Best ( ? ) Terry Gilliam Film
Being
John Malkovich / Best
Main Stream Surrealist Film
Cabin
in The Woods / 2012 / Best Teens with Monsters in The Woods Film
Zero
Effect / Best Crazy Detective Film
Equilibrium
Ted
( 2012 / Best
Film of a Stuffed Animal Magickally Endowed with Life
Ink
Little
Miss Sunshine
Love
Me If You Dare (
Best Love Story
My
Super Ex-Girlfriend (
Very Good Superhero Film
Sick:
The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, SuperMasochist ( 1997 / As
a Documentary, this lags quite a bit from time to time.
Strictly
Ballroom
The
Jacket (
Best Psychological Time Travel Film
Delicatessen
Kingpin
Miami
Blues (
Best Petty Criminal / Chase Film
Shakes;
The Clown
The
School of Rock
Searching
for Bobby Fisher
Archer
( Cartoon Series / Sterling Archer is a Super Spy for a Privately Run
Security Agency, but doesn’t have any Spy Gear & Each Episode
features only a small amount of Gratuitous Violence. It’s mostly
just chit-chat between Sterling & Lana ( Female Spy ) & The
Other Characters. Very Witty.
Bob’s
Burgers / Cartoon
: The Voice of The Main Character ‘Bob’ is provided by H. Jon
Benjamin, The Same guy that voices over Sterling Archer in The
Cartoon Series ‘Archer’. These Two Characters couldn’t be (
hardly ) more Opposite, but once this is overcome, The Other
Characters in Bob’s Burgers makes it very endearing & Very
Surrealistically Witty.
Wilfred
/ The
Basic Premise of this TV Series is that A Drug Addict perceives a
neighbor’s dog as a human in a dog suit, wears thin very quickly.
But The ‘Buddy’ Chemistry between The Two Main Characters is
Amusing.
Boston
Legal / The only flaw to this series was in one of the best episodes,
a female character is introduced that has a very peculiar speaking
cadence, which at the end of the episode, we discover is fake! But
then; in a slightly later episode, this character is brought back
with fake speaking cadence as her natural inflective accent.
Buffy;
The Vampire Slayer ( 2001- ?
Call
The Midwife / 2012 Season One / BBC 6-Part Series
Django
Unchained / 2012 / Best Nuevo ( Black ) Spaghetti Western
Resident
Evil ( Series
Northfork
/
How much of this was Real & How much was a fever induced
hallucination ?
Northern
Exposure
Forbidden
Planet (
Best Skiffy Film before 2001: A Space Odyssey
Shakespeare
in Love
GhostBusters
Hoodwinked
(
Best Fairytale Film
The
Bone Orchard / Film within “Mythic Journeys” / 2009
Profit
(1996) The Best TV Series Ever ( ! )
Fantastic
Mr. Fox
Fight
Club
Sealab
2021/ Season One /
St.
Elsewhere / Parody
of many Hospital Programs from this era.
What
did you do in The War Daddy?
Casino
Royale : With David Niven (
Best 007 Film
Cat
Ballou
Chicago
Hope
/ A Slightly more Serious Version of St. Elsewhere
Star
Trek : Original Series
Stargate
SG-1 / Very
long lived, but deeply flawed, rather cheaply made series. The
Principle Strength of it was that all The Characters were so
enjoyable to watch.
Special
Unit Two (2001-2002) / SU2 / This
was a very short lived, cheaply made show, but i loved it. It was on
right before -Seven Days-, which came on before -Enterprise-, and
when Enterprise ended, they took out this whole block of programs,
even though Seven Days and SU2 were doing pretty well in the ratings
( ??? )
The
Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
The
Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy
The
Lost Room / Very
Original Premise, In which Objects from a Lost Motel Room have quirky
quixotic properties.
The
Mentalist ( First few Seasons
The
Prisoner
/ TV Series / Weak Conclusion
The
Riches
/ Ends before Required Final Season !!!
The
Rocky & Bullwinkle Show
The
Tick
Veronica
Mars ( Season One 2004-05
Wonderfalls
/ This
has one of the best endings of any show i’ve seen. It still gives
me the chills when the joan of arc character is told by the bronze
monkey bookend why she was selected as their emissary.
Xavier:
Renegade Angel
Xena:
Warrior Princess
Plus
all The other films &; TV Series that i loved,
But
am ashamed to include in this listing.
