Modern entertainment

[Blair]

Interesting list Cory.

City of God, yes very disturbing and well worth seeing.

Thirteen, likewise.

The Last temptation of Christ is another good one, as is Taxi Driver.

A few others:

Requiem for A Dream
Se7en
The Sea within
Panic

[Shardrol]

Prince, I'm curious to know what you liked about Requiem for a Dream.
.

[sue hindmarsh]

To Kevin's list of well written comedies I'd add:

"Spaced"

"The Norman Conquests" (with Tom Conti)

"Coupling"

"Just Good Friends"

"The Good Life" - another enjoyable Brit comedy with an interesting plot.

-

An outstanding series (also British) was "Sherlock Holmes". Jeremy Brett brought the sleuth alive from 1984-94.

-
Sue

[Cory Duchesne]

oh yeah:

'thumbsucker'

is a hilarious and fairly truthful movie

Along with 'eternal sunshine and the spotless mind'

[Tomas]

Kelley's Heroes

Apocalypse Now

They're Here

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Trading Places

Harry In Your Pocket

Full Metal Jacket

About Schmidt

Easy Rider

Combat Shock

Back To The Future

[Matt Gregory]

I'm not a huge movie buff, but V for Vendetta was a movie with inspiring dialogue and good visual effects. Great movie for this time period. Dissapointingly, I think most people missed the point of the movie.

I rented it the other day and I have to say it's now my favorite movie of all time. A true cinematic masterpiece. Thanks for the recommendation!

Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

[Rory]

I'm not a huge movie buff, but V for Vendetta was a movie with inspiring dialogue and good visual effects. Great movie for this time period. Dissapointingly, I think most people missed the point of the movie.

Huh.
One of the most interesting things about the movie to me was sitting on the outside and listening to the dialoge over whether he was good or bad before having seen the movie myself. Because the point to me seemed to be that he was both at once. Or neither, depending on how you want to look at it.

The point about fear, though, did get missed by all too many people - including myself the first time I watched it. I rewatched it with some friends recently and realized that.

-Rory

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Fight Club - has philosophical insight if you are open to it
A Beautiful Mind - inspiring
Thirteen Days - grounding, awakening
Malcom X - awakening

[Dan Rowden]

In what sense was "A Beautiful Mind" inspiring? I mean, any more than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who rise above the adversity of a mental illness?

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

In what sense was "A Beautiful Mind" inspiring? I mean, any more than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who rise above the adversity of a mental illness?

Well, I would say that Nash rose a bit further above it than hundreds of thousands of others.

He was inspired to greatness and demanded nothing less from himself than "an original thought." When he realized his gift was cursed, and that the doctors could only lift the curse by taking the gift, he used reason to snatch his gift back from his curse.

Rationality is the "hero" of this film - which I found inspiring. The same theme may have been done before, but the intellectual aspects and the height of achievement really struck a chord in me.

[Blair]

That's because you think yourself something you are not.

[Jamesh]

I rented it the other day and I have to say it's now my favorite movie of all time. A true cinematic masterpiece. Thanks for the recommendation!

Yeah, it suited my current mindset, which is one of pretty well utter disgust for government and business. Not many mainstream films are as intelligent. All the so called recognised films of some intelligence, are generally about boring old emotional issues.

Glad to see that it wasn't too americanised, regardless of what the comic writer thinks.

Wiki
Alan Moore, however, distanced himself from the film sight unseen, as he has with every screen adaptation of his works to date. He ended cooperation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the movie.[9] After reading the script, Moore remarked that his comic had been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country.... This film is a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives — which is not what the comic 'V for Vendetta' was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about England." He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest what was going on in America, then they should have used a political narrative that spoke directly at America's issues, similar to what Moore had done before with Britain

[Matt Gregory]

It sounds to me like Moore is just pissed because he wanted a movie that was specifically about his comic books. I think the Wachowskis did the right thing by taking whatever elements that inspired them and combining them into something fitting for the film medium and themselves.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

I'm not a huge movie buff, but V for Vendetta was a movie with inspiring dialogue and good visual effects. Great movie for this time period. Dissapointingly, I think most people missed the point of the movie.

The point about fear, though, did get missed by all too many people - including myself the first time I watched it. I rewatched it with some friends recently and realized that.

In my view, the point lurking in the back was to question the fascist system as well as the deranged terrorist-hero character. But since heroes are worshiped by default by the believing masses (like the One in the Matrix series) the Wachowski brothers did a little mind-fuck with the audience here, again.

This is all nice and dandy but in the end the stylistic scenes and overloaded dialogs made it into a terrible movie and defies any point about anarchy it might have intended. It's very nihilistic and decadent all the way. Ultimately a feminine movie.

For a braver attempt using the same themes watch the recent Children of Men for a more, unembellished in your face approach. Most people won't 'get' the symbols in that movie either but that's okay. At least it's less glossy.

[millipodium]

In what sense was "A Beautiful Mind" inspiring? I mean, any more than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who rise above the adversity of a mental illness?

Dan Rowden stole joy from the universe and keeps in a lucite cube and lets other see it sometimes.

[kowtaaia]

...for a buck and a half.

[millipodium]

...for a buck and a half.

Dan Rowden

[Rory]

In my view, the point lurking in the back was to question the fascist system as well as the deranged terrorist-hero character. But since heroes are worshiped by default by the believing masses (like the One in the Matrix series) the Wachowski brothers did a little mind-fuck with the audience here, again.

I believe you did not look at the movie deeply enough. The fascist system, the anarchy, and the deranged terrorist hero character were so surface that the kid down the street could see them. Look at the fear aspect a little harder though.

The movie starts with what appears to just be a fear of being late. Then it escalates with the fear of breaking a law. Then a fear of being a victim. Then a fear of being a victim of the law. Then we start seeing that not only is this woman afraid, but the entirity of society is afraid. They are either afraid of the government or they are afraid of the things the government says it is protecting them from. The government is afraid of V and internally many of the members of government are afraid of one another.

On the surface the only person not terrified is V himself, but in reality, V is afraid also. Afraid that he will frighten people? or that he will be laughed at? Something is frightening him into keeping that mask on, even when the woman who loves him wants to kiss him.

He tortures Evey into giving up her fear, but even after that she says "my heart skipped a beat and I was so scared for a moment..." when refering to running into an old friend. So the fear remains even when we think it doesn't.

-Rory

[Matt Gregory]

This is all nice and dandy but in the end the stylistic scenes and overloaded dialogs made it into a terrible movie and defies any point about anarchy it might have intended. It's very nihilistic and decadent all the way. Ultimately a feminine movie.

I thought that was one of the most brilliant aspects of the film! Fast-paced, over-the-top caricatures are what film is best at, so I thought it made perfect sense to go with that and push it to the extreme. Film is just best at comical things and when people try to turn a film into something serious, it always becomes somewhat pathetic in the process. What I mean is, film needs to deliver its impact quickly, far more quickly than a graphic novel, and deep issues just aren't amenable to that. I thought they fully acknowledged that aspect of film in the production and worked with film's strengths rather than fighting its weaknesses.

I didn't see it as a movie about anarchy, just about change.

[Dan Rowden]

In what sense was "A Beautiful Mind" inspiring? I mean, any more than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who rise above the adversity of a mental illness?

Dan Rowden stole joy from the universe and keeps in a lucite cube and lets other see it sometimes.

Care to explain yourself here? In doing so, please make an effort to be lucid. A change is as good as a holiday, so they say....

[Matt Gregory]

Okay, I've got it:

The entire point of V For Vendetta is to get young people to vote. V represents voting.

[millipodium]

In what sense was "A Beautiful Mind" inspiring? I mean, any more than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who rise above the adversity of a mental illness?

Dan Rowden stole joy from the universe and keeps in a lucite cube and lets other see it sometimes.

Care to explain yourself here? In doing so, please make an effort to be lucid. A change is as good as a holiday, so they say....

Not really.

[DHodges]

Care to explain yourself here?

Not really.

Dan, he's got nothin'.

[millipodium]

Care to explain yourself here?

Not really.

Dan, he's got nothin'.

It's not that I got nothing. It's that what I said was so simple, it needs no explanation. It's pretty obvious I was calling dan grinchy for finding the mundane joy of overcoming illness to be insufficient dramatic content for a feature film.

[Rory]

It's not that I got nothing. It's that what I said was so simple, it needs no explanation. It's pretty obvious I was calling dan grinchy for finding the mundane joy of overcoming illness to be insufficient dramatic content for a feature film.

I didn't really think it was, either. I mean, dozens of people I know, including myself, struggle with mental illness every day, and frankly I thought it was overdone. Small victories are much more significant than becoming "all that"

-Rory