Author Topic: Bondo's Great Directors  (Read 70449 times)

Bill Thompson

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #110 on: May 30, 2010, 02:29:19 PM »
1) You're way off the mark about Ponyo, it's an amazing film.

2) Fantasy is exactly that, fantasy, you don't need to know or understand why things happen, it's not a strict science picture, it's a fantasy picture.

3) The voice acting in Ponyo is very, very good, and in most Miyazaki anime the voice acting is always superb.

Bondo

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #111 on: May 30, 2010, 03:55:46 PM »
3) The voice acting in Ponyo is very, very good, and in most Miyazaki anime the voice acting is always superb.

Which dub? I mean seriously, you aren't willing to accept that it is a valid critique that there is a lot of deliveries in which the choice is simply to scream the line and that they aren't necessarily justified? Methinks you are blind (well, deaf I suppose in this case) to Miyazaki's potential flaws. Spirited Away has a number of these too and I'm not sure I love them there, but they are only in a few spots so it doesn't grate as much.

Bill Thompson

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #112 on: May 30, 2010, 04:08:37 PM »
3) The voice acting in Ponyo is very, very good, and in most Miyazaki anime the voice acting is always superb.

Which dub? I mean seriously, you aren't willing to accept that it is a valid critique that there is a lot of deliveries in which the choice is simply to scream the line and that they aren't necessarily justified? Methinks you are blind (well, deaf I suppose in this case) to Miyazaki's potential flaws. Spirited Away has a number of these too and I'm not sure I love them there, but they are only in a few spots so it doesn't grate as much.

What's a dub? There's only one version of a film and it's the subtitles version. And I'm not blind to Miyazaki's flaws, I haven't given every movie he's made a perfect rating, but I'm not as hateful towards film as you are, nor do I nitpick as much.

Bondo

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #113 on: June 02, 2010, 11:37:14 PM »
Lady In The Water (M. Night Shyamalan, 2006)

This is one of those films where I know I'm too much of an M. Night apologist. I can spot all the things that are terrible about this film. The film critic character is just painful overt meta. There is too much exposition and not enough showing us things. It all feels a bit clunky.

Yet, I can't help but to love the idea enough to still almost want to give the film a pass. I honestly think the idea of this parallel world of beings trying to save us from ourselves, these various creatures playing different stories in this fairy tale for good or evil, the various humans who must carry out their part, all to make for the happy ending. But I ultimately end up wishing Guillermo del Toro could make the film instead.

M Night's telling just gets too twisted up in misdirections. The beauty of a fairly tale is in its simplicity. The interest to me isn't figuring out which of the dozen or so sets of people who are the relevant role, but seeing how that role actually functions or what it means for that character (what about their story makes them fit). Spoiler (I guess, this film lacks any great sense of tension) but we ultimately find out that Cleveland, the super for the apartment complex, used to be a doctor until his family was killed and he kind of dropped out of life. That he ultimately is revealed as the Healer could have a power to it. For him it would be a return to this function he played not only in the story but in the world; his effort to help others in the story would work to help him. If you could find similarly useful stories for the other roles, you would have a pretty good base. So this film acts as a bit of a disappointment but a respectable one.

One thing of note is that M. Night gives himself his biggest role yet. Some are critical of his tendency on this, but I actually think he does a good job here (as he has in his other cameos). Not to jump the gun, but I have a lot of similar sentiments of good idea gone wrong with The Happening, which will be my final entry in the M. Night marathon (for the time being). I still think it is impressive that M. Night has worked in ghost/thriller, comic book, alien, period and now fairy tale genres. The Happening is sci-fi and Airbender is martial arts. Even if his talent sometimes lets him down, his dexterity and creativity still seems pretty special.

Rating: 3/5
« Last Edit: January 08, 2011, 12:03:31 PM by Bondo »

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #114 on: June 02, 2010, 11:47:25 PM »
I kinda like this one, but I imagine on a revisit it will not hold up as well as it does in my memory.

Melvil

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #115 on: June 02, 2010, 11:57:41 PM »
You certainly pick weird things to be generous about. ;) But I pretty much agree with you in this case, it isn't nearly as bad as most people make it sound. I find it to be a pretty harmless silly fantasy, and there's some good stuff in it.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #116 on: June 03, 2010, 08:05:13 AM »
M. Night's acting in this film >>>>>>>>>>> Paul Giamatti's acting

Bondo

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #117 on: June 03, 2010, 09:23:13 AM »
M. Night's acting in this film >>>>>>>>>>> Paul Giamatti's acting

I pretty much agree...ugh, that stutter. M. Night is playing a person, Giamatti is playing a character.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #118 on: June 03, 2010, 09:55:13 AM »
Indeed. But I mean Giamatti's entire career as an actor.

Bondo

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Re: Revisiting Great Directors
« Reply #119 on: June 03, 2010, 09:56:17 AM »
Indeed. But I mean Giamatti's entire career as an actor.

Well, I'm a big fan of Sideways. Giamatti's character there is a big influence on my wine drinking habits (I'm not drinking any effing Merlot).

 

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