Movies you've recently watched

[Neil]

Yeah, good old Doogie was fevershly working on getting bug regime change to work out.

Bunch of materialistic, empty-headed white kids off to join the army in an increasingly militarized, anti-intellectual society until they are radicalized by a terrorist attack on their city, at which point they all sign up for military service to attack the source of the terrorist attack (which is apparently a massive security threat to Earth, even though it is a long ways away on an obviously largely barren, poor environment). 

I didn't see their society as particularily anti-intellectual.

[Caliga]

I didn't see their society as particularily anti-intellectual.

They didn't prattle on nonstop about Armenia and Kierkegaard and anti-Mormonism, therefore they were anti-intellectual.

[Ed Anger]

The grinch cartoon.

[Sheilbh]

Can you give a more detailed report than ""?  I've been meaning to get it for months, but never have the time.

Yeah, sure

I went to see it in the cinema and found it really overwhelming.  It's difficult if you don't have a decent knowledge of the figures involved.  Many of the characters are, I imagine, instantly recognisable to Italians - like a Brit film about Thatcher(Thatcher said of him that 'Andreotti seemed to have a positive aversion to principle, even a conviction that a man of principle was doomed to be a figure of fun').  For a foreigner who didn't know much about Andreotti, the allegations around him or the tangentopoli scandal the first viewing is difficult.  A film that starts with a 'Glossary of Italian Political Terms' meaning P22 and so on is going to require concentration.  But I really enjoyed it so I bought it again and, having read up a bit, and seen it before I was able to enjoy it more because it wasn't quite so mind-bogglingly complex.

I think the thing that really does it for me though is it's style.  It's not a political film that's structured like any sort of traditional political film.  Rather it seems to pastiche a whole array of genres at different points which sort of suggest different links and sort of ways of seeing this figure and scandal.  At one moment it seems to nod towards almost a spaghetti western, at other times it's like a mafia film and at others it uses the Fellini ultra-close-up really well.

But the stylishness of the writing and the directing I think depend on Servillo's performance as Andreotti which is superb - there's one section in particular which is just excellent.

For me it's a cracking film.  The best comment I've heard was from the Guardian review which described it as being an epic tragic opera to the comic buffonery of Berlusconi.  He's worth a laugh but at the centre of all this chaos and murder and corruption is a guy who seems like a charmless non-entity, whose interest isn't the call girls or saving himself from prosecution but power itself. 

Great soundtrack too

[Neil]

I didn't see their society as particularily anti-intellectual.

They didn't prattle on nonstop about Armenia and Kierkegaard and anti-Mormonism, therefore they were anti-intellectual.

In fact, who was the most respected person in the whole movie?  The philosophical teacher, who when war comes picks up a rifle to serve his people.  Their society also seems to place a high value on research, learning and self-discovery.

[The Larch]

I went to see it in the cinema and found it really overwhelming.  It's difficult if you don't have a decent knowledge of the figures involved.  Many of the characters are, I imagine, instantly recognisable to Italians - like a Brit film about Thatcher(Thatcher said of him that 'Andreotti seemed to have a positive aversion to principle, even a conviction that a man of principle was doomed to be a figure of fun').  For a foreigner who didn't know much about Andreotti, the allegations around him or the tangentopoli scandal the first viewing is difficult.  A film that starts with a 'Glossary of Italian Political Terms' meaning P22 and so on is going to require concentration.  But I really enjoyed it so I bought it again and, having read up a bit, and seen it before I was able to enjoy it more because it wasn't quite so mind-bogglingly complex.

Heh, I guess that a briefing/small lesson about Italian politics from the 60s to the 90s is needed to fully understand the film. All the stuff about the P22, the stratey of tension, Gladio, the Red Brigades, the lead years, Tangentopoli, the context of the Aldo Moro kidnapping, etc. Quite massive for a non-Italian, I guess. Which is the time period covered by the film?

Great soundtrack too

Lots of San Remo winners, I hope. 

[Sheilbh]

Heh, I guess that a briefing/small lesson about Italian politics from the 60s to the 90s is needed to fully understand the film. All the stuff about the P22, the stratey of tension, Gladio, the Red Brigades, the lead years, Tangentopoli, the context of the Aldo Moro kidnapping, etc. Quite massive for a non-Italian, I guess. Which is the time period covered by the film?

It focuses on his 7th premiership, his failed campaign to become President and the start of the investigations with frequent digressions into the 70s and earlier.  Aldo Moro's a constant presence.

[Josquius]

Different =/= Bad. I personally love the movie to bits, despite the changes to the basic storyline. The cinematography is gorgeus, the soundtrack is awesome, the characters, even if bombastic and cliche'd are memorable, what's not to love?

I can't stand people who whinge on about how different the book was and that the movie failed to adapt the book (yes, it tried to copy the book exactly but it failed in doing so. Because you know. The director like never read it!). They're all too common amongst the ranks of the web's faux-intellectuals and they need shooting.

[Fate]

Red Cliff



Sun Tzu would approve. Prime Minister Cao Cao, the puppet master of the young Han Emperor, leads a grand army south to the Yangzhe River in order to conquer the realms of the rebellious warlords, Liu Bei and Sun Quan...

Time to go reinstall Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is in serious need of an update.  That was a badass game.

[ulmont]

I thought a new Romance of the Three Kingdoms game came out every year...aren't they up to like ROTK XI by now?

[Jaron]

Its become more of a fantasy game by now.

"Summon lightning bolts"

[Admiral Yi]

Nice looking broad.

[Eddie Teach]

I can't stand people who whinge on about how different the book was and that the movie failed to adapt the book (yes, it tried to copy the book exactly but it failed in doing so. Because you know. The director like never read it!). They're all too common amongst the ranks of the web's faux-intellectuals and they need shooting.

Are you talking in particular or in general? Because some films are quite clearly inferior to the books that spawned them.

[Josquius]

I can't stand people who whinge on about how different the book was and that the movie failed to adapt the book (yes, it tried to copy the book exactly but it failed in doing so. Because you know. The director like never read it!). They're all too common amongst the ranks of the web's faux-intellectuals and they need shooting.

Are you talking in particular or in general? Because some films are quite clearly inferior to the books that spawned them.

Starship Troopers.