TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

Anyway, I think you're pretty off base.  I can't speak to Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss, The Killing, Lolita, or Barry Lyndon, but I've never seen a bad Stanley Kubrick movie other than AI, which I still think is pretty good to have been made by a dead guy, whereas it's very difficult to argue that Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, 2011, A Clockwork Orange, and the first half of Full Metal Jacket are not excellent.  That's five and a half excellent films.  That's pretty good.

I think you're off base.  You're obviously too entranced by static wide shots to notice his declining ability to edit properly in his last works.

LOL, speaking of editing:  2011. 

For what it's worth, I think the last half of Full Metal Jacket approaches excellence.

Fortunately, the rest of western civilization disagrees with you, as the first half was the best and only half.

Further, the Shining is widely considered excellent, and though it shouldn't be, all but one of its weaknesses are inherent to the source material (the eponymous Shining is, truthfully, a really incongruous and terrible interference, at least for my enjoyment of the movie), with the remaining major flaw a script problem (even if you pretend the Shining doesn't exist, the unlocking of the pantry door objectively establishes the existence of the supernatural in a movie that had heretofore masterfully played it ambiguous).  Nevertheless, it's still excellently directed.

Then there's Eyes Wide Shut, which isn't widely considered excellent, though it should be.  It's about fucking.  You should like it.

Kubrick benefited by actors such as Douglas, Nicholson, HAL and Sellers and their ability to frame the scene on the strength of their own acting ability, not the other way around.  While Kubrick can get kudos for letting actors do their thing by providing a sterile scene, setting up the camera and letting them go is no great accomplishment, particularly for someone who nitpicked endlessly over the myth of the "perfect shot".  He is the very definition of a passive director.

Beyond all that, Kubrick's movies aren't just art house curios, either.  They're beloved.  They're watched by everyone, forever remembered, endlessly, perhaps even sometimes tiresomely, quoted, and irrevocably established in the Western critical and popular canon.  That says something about the quality of the films that they're not just important and influential and masterfully constructed and blah blah blah; but they are richly entertaining on a very basic level.

I stand by my statement.  Overrated and overworshipped, the dramatic equivalents of Monty Python sketches: better appreciated the first and only time, not endlessly, even sometimes tiresomely, quoted by retardo Comic Book Store Guy fanbois.

So I don't think you can really overrate Stanley Kubrick, at least if you're not being hyperbolic and saying that he could do no wrong.  His reputation is fully deserved, both objectively, as wekk as comparatively--there's not many directors who have a more consistently great body of work.  He made a fair number of movies, and just about all of them for a quarter-century year stretch are great or border on greatness (again, with the caveat that I've neglected the protoype three, Lolita, and Lyndon--the first three because they're old and I never got around to it, Lolita for no obvious reason, and Lyndon because I will be the first to admit that shit looks boring).

Yes, and as you have neglected a substantial body of his work in defending somebody "watched by everyone", when he apparently hasn't been because they're "old", etc, I'm going to ignore your use of nifty words like "eponymous".

[Josephus]

I got that Kubrick set last year and it's fucking awesome.

The only movie I'm not a huge fan of is Barry Lydon. I know, I know it takes place during the Seven Years War and as a Languishite, that alone should make me cum, but I found it's a terribly slow-paced movie. Two viewings of it and I can't shake that feeling. It's a beautiful film. But ultimatley boring.

The rest of the movies in that set are all amongst my fave. Even Eyes Wide which was highly criticized is actually a pretty good film that holds up to repeated viewings. PLus it has Nicole Kidman in various shades of undress.

[The Brain]

Unless a movie consists mainly of people running from explosions CdM doesn't understand it.

[Eddie Teach]

Kubrick's made a lot of decent to good movies, but excellent is stretching matters a bit.

[The Brain]

Kubrick's made a lot of decent to good movies, but excellent is stretching matters a bit.

Let me guess: you think Bergman was "good, but no Michael Bay".

[Eddie Teach]

Seventh Seal was pretty good. Persona was a dull piece of crap. Haven't seen any Bergman since.

[Ed Anger]

Swedes. 

[Scipio]

Kubrick's problem is that he kept evolving past the point where his films communicated ideas to the audience. 

[Razgovory]

Stanley Kubrick is as overrated by his fanbois as Nietzche is by the 18-21 sullen white boys demographic pissed about their high school girlfriends not wanting to make the whole "long distance" thing work in college.

I never liked Nietzche.

Heh, my brother named his dog Nietzsche.  I asked if that is because he always comes back like some kind of 'eternal returning' dog.   He had no fucking clue what I was talking about.  Me, I named my cat "Brown Cat" on account that she is brown and to distinguish her from her sister "Grey Cat", who is grey.

[CountDeMoney]

Me, I named my cat "Brown Cat" on account that she is brown and to distinguish her from her sister "Grey Cat", who is grey.

Cats actually appreciate that kind of pragmatism.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I usually call Cosmic Creepers Calico Cat. She doesn't appreciate either one, especially since she went deaf.

[Josquius]

My great aunt had a dog called Reagen. I never knew why.

[HVC]

Rick's half assedness is starting to piss me off. Also, was that the one handed brother in the preview?

[Ideologue]

I think you're off base.  You're obviously too entranced by static wide shots to notice his declining ability to edit properly in his last works.

And fuck David Lean too!

Although the idea that Kubrick movies are built out of static shots is... odd.  Isn't the Shining like 50% steadicam and tracking shots?  Unless you mean that (in part because of the steadicam) the focus of the image remains (relatively) static.  But that's still not a static shot because the surroundings are moving across the frame.

I'll accept zooms as static shots.  I forget how often that was used in Clockwork; I understand it was used a lot in Lyndon.  Certainly the well-known Korova Milk Bar shot is reasonably static, but in anticipation of one of your later points, it's composed (and structured) like an elaborately staged photograph would be.

LOL, speaking of editing:  2011. 

Depends on what you mean.  The editing in the sense of narrative cohesion and aesthetic value is great.  If you mean pacing, that's arguable and I can cede that.  I didn't like 2001 when I was a kid, and there are adult humans whose opinion I respect who don't like the movie as a whole--although they still tend to think the last hour is good.  I think that's acceptable, but it's a shame that folks can't enjoy the silence.

Fortunately, the rest of western civilization disagrees with you, as the first half was the best and only half.

I dunno.  It might've been Ebert who said that the latter half is perfectly fine, but it just pales so in comparison with the dynamite first half that it seems worse than it is.  Maybe it was my dad.  In any event, I agree.

Kubrick benefited by actors such as Douglas, Nicholson, HAL and Sellers and their ability to frame the scene on the strength of their own acting ability, not the other way around.  While Kubrick can get kudos for letting actors do their thing by providing a sterile scene, setting up the camera and letting them go is no great accomplishment, particularly for someone who nitpicked endlessly over the myth of the "perfect shot".  He is the very definition of a passive director.

See, I don't get this.  2001 is a movie made almost 100% out of highly structured shots, and Shining, Eyes, and large parts of Clockwork are composed in a highly structured way.  It's not just guys in front of a camera convincingly reading their lines.

I stand by my statement.  Overrated and overworshipped, the dramatic equivalents of Monty Python sketches: better appreciated the first and only time, not endlessly, even sometimes tiresomely, quoted by retardo Comic Book Store Guy fanbois.

Well, people who overquote suck.  Is that the argument?

Yes, and as you have neglected a substantial body of his work in defending somebody "watched by everyone", when he apparently hasn't been because they're "old", etc, I'm going to ignore your use of nifty words like "eponymous".

Four movies is substantial, I suppose, but it's analogous to someone forming a strong opinion of Christopher Nolan without having watched Following and Insomnia.  A lot of people haven't, and I still haven't seen Following, but it does not follow that Nolan is not a highly watched filmmaker.  I don't think I need to see The Killing to form a strong opinion about Kubrick's body of work nor to state as fact that a lot of people have seen his movies from Spartacus going forward.

(Oh, and speaking of Nolan, I should have given him more credit than I did earlier.  He probably is, in some ways, akin to Kubrick, in the sense that he is critically and popularly successful with few missteps, and interesting from a formalistic standpoint while still being basically entertaining.  Thing is, I always forget that most people like the Nolan Batman movies a lot more than I did, and don't consider those films to be rife with--or in the case of Batman Begins and maybe Dark Knight Rises, manufactured almost entirely out of--profound mistakes.  Although if you wanna talk about a movie that owes almost nothing to its director and almost everything to an actor, Dark Knight is definitely your movie.)

[Duque de Bragança]

Ide, you should get this:

'Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski: A Film Legacy'

Aguirre, The Wrath of God in Full Frame Presentation (1.33:1)
Woyzeck in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Cobra Verde in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)
Nosferatu in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) - German Language Fitzcarraldo in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
My Best Fiend in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1)

http://www.amazon.com/Werner-Herzog-Klaus-Kinski-Legacy/dp/B00005YKXQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350844613&sr=1-2&keywords=Werner+Herzog

I'm just about to order it, if I can find a uk supplier.

It was released in the UK, as a PAL Region 2 release, so no excuses Mongers.