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Author Topic: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 395656 times)

GothamCity151

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #440 on: June 22, 2010, 07:41:24 PM »
Reassemblage vs. St. Elmo’s Fire


Reassemblage



I am not so sure that this film should be included in this bracket, considering that it is a 40 minute short. But since it was assigned, I shall review it. I did not get this movie. It is boring and infuriating. The director wants to be really artistic and show what she can do as a filmmaker. I’ll give you an example. Throughout the movie, she will deliberately cut the sound. I thought it was a problem with the copy of it that I had, but, actually, after having done research, I found out that it was supposed to happen. Is this profound? Frankly, I found it annoying. Also, she will cut to a closeup of a woman’s bare breasts constantly to go, “Look, in Senegal not all women wear tops.” Yes, we get this after one cut to it. You do not need to do it 45 times. There is no narrative to be found in this “experimental” film. No person to latch onto. It is just a filming of their daily routines, which is not that interesting. They farm and mash corn. That’s about as much insight as you get in this. I am glad that it was only 40 minutes. I wish it was shorter because that is time I will never get back. Do not see this film.


St. Elmo’s Fire



Joel Schumacher, one of my least favorite filmmakers, presents the Razzi winning film St. Elmo’s Fire. The IMDb synopsis for this film reads: “A Group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood. Their main problem is that they're all self-centered and obnoxious.” That is exactly one of the big problems with this movie is that the characters are so annoying and obnoxious that you just do not care about any of them. The movie personifies everything that people want to forget about the 80s (the big hair, synth music, and Rob Lowe). If you want to know why many people want to forget the 80s, watch this film because it has it. The acting in the film is terrible, capped off by the Razzi winning performance of the before-mentioned Rob Lowe. Schumacher and Carl Kurlander’s script is filled with awful dialogue and a structure which is annoying. I think that is the perfect word for this movie: annoying. Everything about it is annoying. I hope to never catch this film again.


Winner And Advancement To Next Round: I wish I could not pick either of these and choose the loser of my last matchup Better Of Dead..., but I guess I’ll choose St. Elmo’s Fire and just hope in the next round it loses.

Bondo

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #441 on: June 22, 2010, 07:47:18 PM »
At this rate you are going to do half the bracket :D

Good call on tossing out experimental documentaries. Those two words do not belong together.

michael x

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #442 on: June 22, 2010, 07:51:37 PM »
Shame you had a bad pairing.

GothamCity151

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #443 on: June 22, 2010, 07:56:44 PM »
I know what the problem was: no ellipses in the titles.

roujin

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #444 on: June 22, 2010, 09:22:49 PM »
experimental documentaries

The greatest.

smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #445 on: June 22, 2010, 09:31:56 PM »
Mr. Hoover & I

Disclaimer: I’d never heard of De Antonio before watching this film (his last), and I’ve never seen his previous work, so any opinions I have formed about him while watching this autobiographical documentary are sure to lack context.

I’m not sure what to make of Emile De Antonio, the director and subject of this film. He’s a political and social activist, and the “controversial” director of 10 documentaries on subjects ranging from the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings to the New York art scene from 1940-1970. This film is a memoir of sorts about De Antonio’s experiences living under J. Edgar Hoover’s watchful eye.

Apartently the FBI had a file on De Antonio no less that ten thousand pages long. He talks about being under surveilance and being threatened by men in black suits because of his marxist views. But that’s not all he talks about... the documentary really wanders around. We see his wife giving him a haircut and the somewhat awkward conversation they have while the camera is rolling (I guess an attempt to show De Antonio’s personable side), they don’t talk about anything of consequence. We see him talking philosophy in the kitchen of a friend's apartment. We see footage of De Antonio giving a lecture to a half-full auditorium of students (it’s really him telling anecdotes about his run ins with the law). We see archival footage of Hoover and McCarthy yelling into microphones. And sometimes all we see is De Antonio standing in front of the camera, set up somewhere in his home, and he speaks on different political subjects of past and present (present being 1989). All these scenes come and go in a mixed up manner.

If I had an interest in this man’s career then Mr Hoover and I might’ve been fascinating, but I don’t, and it wasn’t (Sorry, that came out all In Bruges-y). The doc just dives right in and assumes you know everything about the man and what he’s done. I literally had to stop 10 minutes in, go on imdb, and look up who he was and what he’d done because there wasn’t so much as a title card to set anything up (even his name was a mystery!). After reading his wiki and other internet blurbs all I really wanted to do was go back and watch his other work, all the stuff that made him famous in the first place (I think I will). Would I come back and watch this film afterward? Probably not. It still doesn’t strike me as being a particularly interesting doc.

Mr Hoover and I is out. It's just wrong for the bracket. Maybe we can switch it for his other film from the decade, In The King Of Prussia... *shrugs*


Ferris Bueller's Day Off

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Disclaimer: I've been receiving subtle threats via private message from ferris every day since I got this match-up. Let me quote one: "Oh hai, it's ferris again. Did I ever tell you about how I have a bunch of friends in high places in Winnipeg? Neat huh? Well, anywho... have a nice day". Lately though they've been less subtle: "Hey, it's ferris again. If you don't move FBDO through to round 2 I'll firebomb your house, and then firebomb the ashes that used to be your house. Well, anywho... have a nice day". I just figured I should mention that up front.

Obviously I'm just kidding around, ferris never sent me any private messages. But if he had I would've told him not to sweat it; I really like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's just one of those movies that makes you feel good through sheer fun-ness. Every scene gives you something to different to remember the movie by. A line, a shot, a song... there's a reason it's such an iconic film.

The cast deserves as much credit for this movie as John Hughes. They're great! Every one of the them! Maybe too good. I mean 25 years later it's still the first movie that comes to mind when I think of Broderick or Ruck.

Anyways, I've run out of things to say. I think everyone is pretty familiar with this movie already, so I'll end it here. Bueller is moving on :)

GothamCity151

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #446 on: June 22, 2010, 09:40:14 PM »
Glad to see Bueller moving forward.

pixote

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #447 on: June 22, 2010, 09:41:37 PM »
Glad to see Bueller moving forward.

...even though First Contact is better.  :P

pixote
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smirnoff

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #448 on: June 22, 2010, 09:42:16 PM »
Glad to see Bueller moving forward.
...even though First Contact is better.  :P
Totally ;D

jbissell

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Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #449 on: June 22, 2010, 10:19:18 PM »
God, you guys need to slow down with these verdicts.

 

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