DVDs and Films You Have Watched Recently #2

[Carbomb]

His Buffalo Bill gimmick grates quite quickly though. That detracted somewhat from the sense he was making. I loved his questions to people about "Describe the character of Han Solo" and everyone went rogue, handsome, obsessed with money or whatever and then he asked them "describe the character of Qui-Gon" and everyone looked blank.

 

Surely "wise, but hot-headed sensei"? At least, that's what I thought.

[Famous Mortimer]

Really enjoying that Star Wars video, thanks!

 

Problem is, in part 2, there's a bit about the Trade Federation, and why it's got armies and shit. Well, the East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company both behaved in remarkably similar ways - it's a weak point that someone as clever as this guy is should have picked up on and cut from the end product. Pretty much everything else he said I agreed with, so far, though.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Famous Mortimer

[JLM]

Surely "wise, but hot-headed sensei"? At least, that's what I thought.

 

Well yeah, you can state the obvious, but even then that's basically all you've got. Also, "sensei" pretty much describes his role. The challenge he sets them is to describe them without saying what they look like, their costume or their job title/role in the film. So calling him a sensei isn't far off calling Solo a smuggler. Fair enough you're not specifically saying "Jedi Knight" but it doesn't expand much beyond that in terms of painting a picture of the character.

 

If you watch the video you'll see the contrast. It's not that there's nothing at all to say about Qui Gon. I don't think anyone missed that he's meant to be old and wise and Obi Wan's mentor, but his character is almost non-existent.

 

Solo: He's dashing, he's charming, he's arrogant but not so much that you dislike him. He's a rogue, he's out for himself and will do whatever necessary to survive. At the same time he has a good heart, he falls in love, he gets jealous, he has a loyal bond with Chewie, he's a hero when it comes to the crunch, he sticks up for the people he comes to care about.

 

Qui Gonn: Umm. Wise. Stoic. Jedi-like. Erm. Has a beard. Can't say Jedi-like. Shit. Erm. I'll go with wise and stoic. I guess a tiny bit rebellious but only because his micro-organisms tell him to be.

Edited January 20, 2010 by JLM

[Vito]

Before the snow hit I brought a couple of DVD's from the Play.com sale. I brought; Ed Wood, Ghost Dog, Broken Flowers, The Fountain, The Hellraiser Trilogy, Coffee & Cigarettes, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Some of you may have noticed that fifty percent of those titles feature Bill Murray in some fashion, this was intentional.

 

Last night I watched The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, I'd heard the name Wes Anderson mentioned a few times in the past but I thought they were talking about the guy who directed Event Horizon, as it turns out that was Paul Anderson so I was half right. Having never seen any of Wes Anderson's films I didn't know what to expect from this, I really only brought it because of Bill Murray as I'd recently decided to buy all of his movies because, simply, Bill Murray is amazing and he deserves my money. As it turns out this film was great, in fact I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice in the same day. In this movie Murray plays a famous Oceanographer named Steve Zissou who after watching his best friend be devoured by a beast Zissou christens "the Jaguar shark" decides to go on one last voyage to hunt down and kill the creature. Along the way Zissou meets a young man named Ned (played by Owen Wilson) who may or my not be his son. This is a comedy which tugs on the heartstrings, there are some exceptionally funny scenes and dialog and unlike a lot of directors Anderson understands how to film an emotional scene without coming across as manipulative or overly sentimental.

 

Tonight I watched The Royal Tenenbaums, another Wes Anderson film. Under normal circumstances seeing the combination of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller on the front cover of a film would be enough to make me recoil in disgust, thankfully I had enough faith in Anderson as a storyteller to make this potential disaster work... and I was not disappointed. I loved every second of this film and if I hadn't started watching this so late in the day I'd have watched it a second time. The story revolves around the Tenenbaum family, a family of gifted people who despite experiencing success in their younger days have ultimately become failures as the years progressed. When the estranged father figure, Royal Tenenbaum, who the now grown up Tenenbaum children hate for various legitimate reasons, reappears on the scene and reveals that he has stomach Cancer he faces the challenge of winning his family back by making amends for his past mistakes. Despite sounding like a generic family comedy drama this worked because the characters remain grounded in reality, for example Ben Stiller plays a father of two young boys who is so traumatised by the recent death of his wife in a plane crash that he constantly tries to wrap his sons in cotton wool, I find Ben Stiller nauseating at the best of times so it was refreshing to see him playing a real human being for a change. As with The Life Aquatic this was very funny with a slight dash of heartache, fortunately the film ends with one of the strongest jokes so you're left on a high when the credits roll.

 

Two great films, one great director, tomorrow comes Rushmore which I hope can measure up.

[FLips]

Before the snow hit I brought a couple of DVD's from the Play.com sale. I brought; Ed Wood, Ghost Dog, Broken Flowers, The Fountain, The Hellraiser Trilogy, Coffee & Cigarettes, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Some of you may have noticed that fifty percent of those titles feature Bill Murray in some fashion, this was intentional.

 

Last night I watched The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, I'd heard the name Wes Anderson mentioned a few times in the past but I thought they were talking about the guy who directed Event Horizon, as it turns out that was Paul Anderson so I was half right. Having never seen any of Wes Anderson's films I didn't know what to expect from this, I really only brought it because of Bill Murray as I'd recently decided to buy all of his movies because, simply, Bill Murray is amazing and he deserves my money. As it turns out this film was great, in fact I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice in the same day. In this movie Murray plays a famous Oceanographer named Steve Zissou who after watching his best friend be devoured by a beast Zissou christens "the Jaguar shark" decides to go on one last voyage to hunt down and kill the creature. Along the way Zissou meets a young man named Ned (played by Owen Wilson) who may or my not be his son. This is a comedy which tugs on the heartstrings, there are some exceptionally funny scenes and dialog and unlike a lot of directors Anderson understands how to film an emotional scene without coming across as manipulative or overly sentimental.

 

Tonight I watched The Royal Tenenbaums, another Wes Anderson film. Under normal circumstances seeing the combination of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller on the front cover of a film would be enough to make me recoil in disgust, thankfully I had enough faith in Anderson as a storyteller to make this potential disaster work... and I was not disappointed. I loved every second of this film and if I hadn't started watching this so late in the day I'd have watched it a second time. The story revolves around the Tenenbaum family, a family of gifted people who despite experiencing success in their younger days have ultimately become failures as the years progressed. When the estranged father figure, Royal Tenenbaum, who the now grown up Tenenbaum children hate for various legitimate reasons, reappears on the scene and reveals that he has stomach Cancer he faces the challenge of winning his family back by making amends for his past mistakes. Despite sounding like a generic family comedy drama this worked because the characters remain grounded in reality, for example Ben Stiller plays a father of two young boys who is so traumatised by the recent death of his wife in a plane crash that he constantly tries to wrap his sons in cotton wool, I find Ben Stiller nauseating at the best of times so it was refreshing to see him playing a real human being for a change. As with The Life Aquatic this was very funny with a slight dash of heartache, fortunately the film ends with one of the strongest jokes so you're left on a high when the credits roll.

 

Two great films, one great director, tomorrow comes Rushmore which I hope can measure up.

 

Rushmore is just as good, though Life Aquatic still remains my favourite. I got the three of them in a box set for around a tenner online.

[Carbomb]

Surely "wise, but hot-headed sensei"? At least, that's what I thought.

 

Well yeah, you can state the obvious, but even then that's basically all you've got. Also, "sensei" pretty much describes his role. The challenge he sets them is to describe them without saying what they look like, their costume or their job title/role in the film. So calling him a sensei isn't far off calling Solo a smuggler. Fair enough you're not specifically saying "Jedi Knight" but it doesn't expand much beyond that in terms of painting a picture of the character.

 

If you watch the video you'll see the contrast. It's not that there's nothing at all to say about Qui Gon. I don't think anyone missed that he's meant to be old and wise and Obi Wan's mentor, but his character is almost non-existent.

 

Solo: He's dashing, he's charming, he's arrogant but not so much that you dislike him. He's a rogue, he's out for himself and will do whatever necessary to survive. At the same time he has a good heart, he falls in love, he gets jealous, he has a loyal bond with Chewie, he's a hero when it comes to the crunch, he sticks up for the people he comes to care about.

 

Qui Gonn: Umm. Wise. Stoic. Jedi-like. Erm. Has a beard. Can't say Jedi-like. Shit. Erm. I'll go with wise and stoic. I guess a tiny bit rebellious but only because his micro-organisms tell him to be.

 

I see what you mean.

 

Although I do think the comparison's a little unfair - Qui-Gonn's only around for slightly less than one movie, whereas Solo's around for three until the end.

[Vito]

Rushmore is just as good, though Life Aquatic still remains my favourite. I got the three of them in a box set for around a tenner online.

If it's "The Wes Anderson Collection" then I too brought that, got it for eight quid which isn't bad for five discs.

[FLips]

Rushmore is just as good, though Life Aquatic still remains my favourite. I got the three of them in a box set for around a tenner online.

If it's "The Wes Anderson Collection" then I too brought that, got it for eight quid which isn't bad for five discs.

 

Yeah that'll be the one. As an added bonus, the second disc of Life Aquatic has a rather long interview with Mark Mothersbaugh. Must have watched Life Aquatic about 5 times now and every time I notice little things I never before. The thing I love about Anderson is that he uses different types of humour as opposed to sticking to one. Black comedy like "a rattlesnake bit it in the throat", situation comedy like "watch out for swamp leeches", etc and he blends them so well. A lot of people accuse him of being a one trick pony but I don't think that at all. An auteur (sp?) definately, but none of his films are really that alike when you look past the recurring themes.

[Vito]

I completely agree. After seeing the stop motion animation and the massive open sets with people all moving simultaneously in Zissou I was expecting to see the same sort of thing in Tenenbaums too, but was pleasantly surprised when they didn't 'feel' the same at all. So far the only similarities are Wes' choice of cast members and the sad endings. Is it possible to watch the "I wonder if he remembers me" scene at the end of Zissou and not be moved? I doubt it.

[FLips]

Coming from the mouth of anyone but Bill Murray, that line would not feel the same at all. It's sort of bizarre how such an absurd story can be made to feel so real and connect you in such a way.

[Vito]

For some reason I always find Bill's roles to be very authentic, some people say he's a joker, others say he's a miserable prick, it's said that comedians often carry a secret pain behind their deceptive demeanor and I think that a lot of that comes out in his roles. A lot of people disliked Lost In Translation for various reasons, some criticisms were valid, most weren't, but I felt that Bill's role in that particular film was about as sincere as you can possibly get. Here's a guy that's rapidly approaching sixty, he has a boring life and a wife who doesn't give a shit, when suddenly he meets a girl half his age on holiday and is totally rejuvenated by the adventures they have together. Obviously I can't relate to being a pensioner but I can certainly can relate to feeling downtrodden and searching for an escape, even a temporary one. Zissou was the same, an aging man goes on one last adventure while trying to fix the mistakes he made in the past, again it's realistic problems that you as a viewer can relate to.

 

I've often wondered what criteria Bill uses when he chooses roles.

[FLips]

That sort of character is one of the recurring things through Wes Anderson's films, hence why most of the major characters are on some sort of pills, or take drugs, or smoke. I know exactly what you mean about Bill though as even in the films he isn't the lead character (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums) he often shines through as one of the most beleivably tragic cases. His entire role throughout Tenenbaums is very small, but every time he's on screen you can see his tragedy pouring out. The one case to point out is comparing him to Ben Stiller. Bill's pain compared to Ben's is nothing, but you couldn't tell that from the acting. The thing is too is that I don't even find him that good outside of these types of roles, like in Ghostbusters or Groundhog day he's good, but nowhere near this form.

I think his criteria is unfathomable considering he willingly played Garfield.

[Vito]

I want to believe that Garfield was one of those things he did because the studio offered him a tidy sum of money and also because it was voice work he wouldn't have to travel too far or stay away from home. That's what gets me through.

[Mr. Seven]

A lot of people disliked Lost In Translation for various reasons, some criticisms were valid, most weren't,

 

Do go on.

[Clumsy Dad]

Moon

 

I really can