What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I still haven't seen either version of Assault on Precinct 13, but I hope to eventually watch the Carpenter original. There was this oddly compelling terrorist in Escape from New York played by an actor who apparently has a larger role in Assault. He was the punk-looking guy who proves that they have the president by presenting the authorities with the president's severed finger.

I think there's an interesting dividing line between Heavy Metal, the magazine, and Marvel's similar Epic Illustrated. I think too many contributors to the former went in with trash "weird" ideas just to showcase how weird they could be. Much of it was about performing visually ("This is how awesome a commercial artist I can be!"), as opposed to telling a story. Epic, under the firm hand of Jim Shooter, was quite different. This was Marvel's creator-owned outlet and these guys were telling stories that they'd wanted to tell for years and hadn't been willing to surrender to the usual work-for-hire situation. So there's a much higher ratio of quality to meh in Epic Illustrated than there was in HM because most of the creators put story first (which is something Shooter would've demanded, anyway; "Every read is someone's first", etc.)

As for the film, it's the first movie I ever got as a bootleg. It was available in the UK, but tied down by rights issues in the US, so I got a copy of it through a friend who had a trade network going through the old usegroups, where he'd send stuff they couldn't get over there (lots of sitcoms) and they'd send back what we couldn't get (a lot of Dr. Who, in my friend's case.) I held on to that VHS bootleg for a long time. The film certainly isn't great, although I will insist to my dying day that the Harry Canyon segment is vastly superior to The Fifth Element ripoff of it. But there's some great work by Berni Wrightson and Moebius, so I'm still fond of it.

I was a fan of Epic Magazine at first, thanks to the excellent Dreadstar installments. But a fair amount of Epic seemed to be shocking for the sake of shocking. Some of the violence was extreme, and there were at least a couple of rape scenes, including one involving an octopus. I vividly recall a sci-fi story involving gang violence, and one gang member picks up the freshly-severed head of another gang member and kisses it on the lips. Some of Epic's content was funny, some of it was grimdark, and more than half of it was trash. By comparison, Heavy Metal had more gratuitous sex and nudity, and the top content was not quite as good as Epic's best material.

Late to the party as usual, I finally got around to watching The Prestige. I hadn't explicitly sought out spoilers, but I must've soaked up enough through osmosis to figure out what was happening with Danton pretty early. Borden had me fooled though. I liked it,

The Prestige is one of my favorites. And while you can only be surprised by it once, repeat viewings will only further your appreciation for it.

While i have enjoyed (maybe admired is a better term) almost every nolan film I've seen (Interstellar being the main glaring exception) something about them leaves me cold, I've only ever seen the first 2 batman films a second time or more. TENET is a good example of a tight script, intricate plotting, meticulous cinematography, but something in there spoiled the brew (for me).

jason10mm wrote: While i have enjoyed (maybe admired is a better term) almost every nolan film I've seen (Interstellar being the main glaring exception) something about them leaves me cold, I've only ever seen the first 2 batman films a second time or more. TENET is a good example of a tight script, intricate plotting, meticulous cinematography, but something in there spoiled the brew (for me).

"Are we gonna keep watching this?" from my wife (correct answer: no) ruined it for me. Although to be fair, I wasn't really feeling it either.

I think that The Prestige might be Nolan's best movie. That or maybe Memento, though I admit that I haven't seen any of his movies since the third Batman movie. Nolan tends to overload his movies with ideas and plot twists, and sometimes the compressed storytelling rushes past important points. For example, Inception had some cool ideas, but the decision to have the final mission involve three levels of dreaming was one level too many. The viewers had their attention spread too thin, and an excessive amount of shouty exposition was required to bring the audience along. Adding the whole angle with the dead wife was a cool idea, but one more tricky element for viewers to take into account. Some of it works, and frankly some of it only rewards repeated viewings. Which can be fun for easter egg elements like in an MCU movie, but is suboptimal for major story elements in a standalone movie.

jason10mm wrote: While i have enjoyed (maybe admired is a better term) almost every nolan film I've seen (Interstellar being the main glaring exception) something about them leaves me cold, I've only ever seen the first 2 batman films a second time or more. TENET is a good example of a tight script, intricate plotting, meticulous cinematography, but something in there spoiled the brew (for me).

I've read the plot summary a couple times and even that left me confused; I can't imagine trying to digest it while watching the movie.

It's all already spoiled if you watched the film, but the reveal in the novel The Prestige is based on is absolutely wild.

Especially so with with no visual clues to tip you off.

I skipped Enemy at the Gates (2001) when it was in theaters. The premise sounded too contrived, with dueling snipers stalking each other in Stalingrad during WWII. My gut instinct is that a wartime enemy tends to be faceless at any level below general, so it would take an extreme level of contrivance to set up a grudge match like this especially with snipers. And the response at the time was pretty negative in both Germany and Russia, calling into question the notion that this movie was based on a true story.

Finally, I gave it a try last night, and it was so-so. The troop transport scene was hellish, and 100% a response to the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan. The subsequent infantry charge was horrific, especially for all the Russian soldiers who were given bullets but not guns. I was starting to come around to the idea that this might be a pretty good war movie, but then there was the obligatory love interest, puffed up into a dramatic love triangle that leaves the Jewish guy looking like a second-rate villain. The bit about the spy kid seemed too convenient, and the promised sniper duel seemed to require psychic powers of both of the participants. The best part of the movie is the action and the performances by leads Jude Law and Ed Wood. I was also glad to see Ron Perlman in a minor role. Otherwise, Enemy at the Gates is just okay.

Was Enemy at the Gates based on a true story? Maybe, it was based on a non-fiction book about a Russian soldier who was the subject of Russian propaganda at the time, and the movie definitely handles the propaganda aspect. But Germany has no record of a sniper in Stalingrad that matches up with this account, and Russian veterans were offended by the grotesque portrayal of Russian officers in the movie.

I read the book a long time ago. Haven't seen the movie in years but thought it was decent.

charlest wrote: I read the book a long time ago. Haven't seen the movie in years but thought it was decent.

Same for me. My mind could be playing tricks on me, but I seem to recall the book was a fairly conventional detailed look at the Battle of Stalingrad, and definitely needed more Rachel Weisz.

I thought there was a recorded sniper/counter sniper duel (or at least opposing sniper teams operating in the city at the same time) that the book is loosely based on, but its been a long stretch since i thought about it.

The bit where they are jumping the gap is just horrific in how any level of predictability can be used against you.

Its interesting how romanticized snipers can be. Somehow their use of the scope and stalking seems to harken back to some ancient deep seated respect for that kind of precise killing (glorification of Robin Hood as an archer extraordinaire and perhaps even David the slinger versus Goliath is kinda similar IMHO) and they are often national heroes on par with generals.

How many times has the first Swagger book, "Point of Impact" been given a treatment? I can think of at least three (Markie Mark, Ryan Phillippe, and one of the Wayans IIRC) and there are probably others that are more loose adaptations.

Shellhead wrote: ... Ed Wood. ...

Was Enemy at the Gates based on a true story?

Actually Ed Harris, Ed Wood is a totally different guy! And Vasili Zaitsev (sp) is a real guy. How real any of the events of the film are... no idea.

I recall enjoying it, but it has been a while.