Okay, I’ve seen two people say that the Matrix is one of the best movies made in the last ten years. I have to ask, is this the same Matrix that stars Canoe “I know Kung fu” Reeves? If it is, you guys must smoke some great weed, or do crack cocaine, or sniff dirty gym socks, or something.
And Southpark? Puhlease. :rolleyes:
Sorry, you’re right, I didn’t line out my thoughts on that very well. See my post to Miller. What I was trying to convey, was that I hadn’t seen a movie that was THOUGHT OF as being great, or a classic according to general consensus. It seems as if all that one hears is griping and complaining about most movies that come out, regardless of how others feel about them.
I swear, I have seen JUST as much griping about the movies he lists and you list as praise about them. I frequently go to EXACTLY the opposite of what the movie reviewers suggest for exactly this reason. They often praise the sucky movies and thumbs down the good ones.
Well, I suppose that’s possible someday for some of the movies you mentioned, but right now, it seems as if all folks do is bitch about movies, and insult others’ taste in movies. It does get old.
See? This is EXACTLY what I mean. For everyone that thinks a particular movie is “great” someone else will come along and “diss” it. So what, in this day and age, can be said for certain to be “great”?
Something that at least makes an attempt to explain plot holes that you could drive a star cruiser through would be my first guess.
Yes, I’m sure they do. So what?
Why not? Define “great classic” for me.
Well DUH! Do you think there’s an objective standard to artistic quality? It’s all just opinion, and all that differentiates one opinion from another is how well the person who holds it can defend it.
So, a “great” or “classic” movie is one which everyone agrees is really, really good? By that definition, no one has ever made a classic movie. Or, for that matter, a classic book, play, song, painting, sculpture, or building.
Do you recognize a difference between insulting a movie, and insulting someone’s taste in movies? IME, at least on the SDMB, the latter is exceedingly rare.
Again, that describes every single work of art ever made, anywhere. You think there aren’t people out there who hate Citizen Kane? Or Casablanca? Of course there are. I could link to specific posts on this very board, if I wanted to make the effort to seek them out*. There is no such thing as universal appeal. Hell, even Shakespeare has his detractors.
Bottom line is, a film is great if I say it’s great. There’s no way for me to objectively prove that I’m right, of course. But then, there’s no way to objectively prove I’m wrong, either. That’s because we’re discussing art, which is entirely, 100%, subjective.
And subjectivly, AotC sucked donkey balls.
[sub]*I don’t[/sub]
Sure, it was a great action flick. Not deep or meaningful or anything like that, just a lot of kick-ass action sequences. I don’t feel that action movies are any less important as a genre than any other, and The Matrix was absolutely on top of its game as far as that goes.
The sequels, not so much.
And I smoke some fucking fantastic weed. However, I do not believe this impacts my ability to judge the relative merits of a movie.
Oh, fuck yeah! South Park in general is one of the most brilliant pieces of social satire in decades, and the movie was the absolute pinnacle of the form. It is also a kick-ass musical, a form that’s been sadly in decline for far too long.
No, of COURSE not!!! But one in which at least a decent percentage of people agree. And that’s not the case in a large number of modern movies. Again, it seems as if just as many people AGREE with whether a certain movie is good, as disagree.
Jeez, you’re the crabbiest damn thing sometimes, have another joint! Did I say anything to or about YOU? No. I did not. I was just talking in general about how people tend to gripe and be movie snobs, and to an overkill degree these days. Nowhere did I single out you, or the movies you liked or didn’t like.
Quote:
Well, I suppose that’s possible someday for some of the movies you mentioned, but right now, it seems as if all folks do is bitch about movies, and insult others’ taste in movies. It does get old.
And do YOU recognize that i said “people” not Miller, and not “people in THIS thread”? Again, I was talking in general. And in answer to your question/statement, Yes as a matter of fact I have seen people insulting others’ taste in movies, music and so on, and on this very board and not so “rarely” either.
This is really rich. We list off some great movies within the past decade, and CanvasShoes gets to look over them and either say “haven’t seen them” or “meh, not that good.”
CanvasShoes has a vested interest in maintaining the stance that no movie within the past 10 years is a lot better than the new Star Wars movies in order to save face in this argument.
Here are some great movies:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Got a record tying 11 Oscars this year!
**The Green Mile
American Beauty
Traffic**
All substantially better than the Star Wars prequel movies.
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and it’s grainy and it gets everywhere. Not like you” Anakin gently caresses Amidala “you’re soft and smooth.”
Yep, that’s what I call good acting. :rolleyes:
Sigh
“I don’t like sand. It’s course and rough, and it gets everywhere.”
If you’re going to mock shitty lines (which even I can admit to for this one), at least get them right. 
I like sand!
The mind just boggles that there’s actually a person out there that can’t think of a better movie than the craptastic Star Wars prequels. They were SO AWFUL. Awful plots, awful acting.
I am a movie-aholic. I see a new release every week and have a very active Netflix queue. I like Big Budget hollywood movies (The Matrix, LOTR) and I love small, independent films (Station Agent, City of God, Thirteen, Owning Mahowney) and I love documentaries (Stevie, Spellbound, Winged Migration).
Even movies I didn’t like (Daredevil, Starsky and Hutch) I liked more than the bloated, ego-heavy prequels!!
It’s tough to do what you ask and name ONE film that’s better, if I had more time, I could name 100!
*coarse
Yes, but again: so what? Quality isn’t a popularity contest, it’s an individual judgement call. The fact that a movie like, say, Lost in Translation, has a 50/50 split between people who loved it and people who hated it means nothing. You know Moby Dick? Widely regarded as one of the Great American Novels? Universally panned when it was first published. Nobody liked it. Fifty years later, it’s rediscovered by people who “got” it, it starts getting taught in colleges and later in high schools, and now it’s an indelible part of our cultural heritage. The popularity of any given work at any given time is not an indication of its value as a work of art.
Yeah, well, the thing is, I’m a person. So when you make generalizations about “people”, and more specifically, people who like to slam the later Star Wars movies (as you were in your first post), you’re talking about me. If you didn’t mean to talk about me, stop making fucking generalizations and start talking specifics. Give us a link to an example of one of these “movie snobs” you’re talking about. You say people on this board insult other people because of their taste in movies? Don’t be shy: name some names. Let’s see exactly what you’re talking about, so we can judge for ourselves if you’ve got an actual point, or are just babbling about shit you don’t have clue one about.
And how about that list of movies you’ve seen that are worse than AotC? I took the time to type mine out, least you can do is return the courtesy.
Why you think they’re worse than the prequels would also be illuminating.
How can you guys be ripping the scripts?
** Have you forgotten the drama?**
Count Dooku: I have good news for you, my Lord. War has begun.
Darth Sidious: Excellent. Everything is going as planned.
Count Dooku: Join me, and together we can destroy the Sith.
Obi-Wan: I will never join you.
Count Dooku: It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force… but by our skills with a lightsaber.
The witty comedy?
[R2-D2 is pulling C-3PO’s head back towards his body]
C-3PO: This is such a drag.
[his head is placed next to his body]
C-3PO: I’m quite beside myself.
The romance?
[Anakin uses his Force levitation to slice a fruit for Padme]
Anakin: If Obi-Wan caught me doing that, he would be very grumpy.
Anakin: When I’m around you, my mind is no longer my own.
Anakin: Don’t be afraid.
Padme: I’m not afraid to die. I’ve been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.
Anakin: What are you talking about?
Padme: I love you.
Anakin: You love me? I thought we had decided not to fall in love. That we’d be forced to love a lie and that it would destroy our lives.
Padme: I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly… deeply… love you and before we die I want you to know.
And the keen insights:
Yoda: Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
I am utterly serious when I say that I can’t see how MST3K could parody that film.
To be perfectly fair to Hayden Christensen, could anyone deliver those lines well?
I agree his acting wasn’t exactly fantastic, but let’s not hold the actor responsible for the mortal sins of the scriptwriter.
Well, it’s quite possible the movie will be torn apart in the amazingly unlikely situation it displays any quality. Most people did not watch the surprisingly good (and un-Lucas touched) Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. The animated shorts more or less set up the third movie. Those who didn’t watch them (i.e., most of mainstream America) will be confused.
Unless the shorts really have nothing to do with the movie and are just a simple form of advertising. Then you’ll see a lot of angry Star Wars fans.
Just out of curiousity, I wonder if Lucas will be in the country when the third movie makes its nation-wide premiere…
– Imran
Listen to the idjit fanboys continue to whine about the SW prequels.
“I hate it! It’s got CGI! I wanna see SF the way it’s SPOZED ta be, with little tin rocketships on strings with steam puffing out their butts! I want aliens that look like kids in Halloween costumes! THAT’s SF! I don’t care if the the story’s good or the imagery is beautiful, Lucas wrote a couple clunker lines in there! So I hate it! I’ve seen every dam SF movie that came out since 1953, and I didn’t like ANY of them, cuz I’m a really hard-ass fanboy, I am!”
Are we reading the same thread?
Hang on now, are the movies supposed to be homages to sci-fi serials or aren’t they, now? I’m awfully confused. Could we please establish a consistent view on why all those who didn’t find the prequels The Best Thing Ever are wrong? Because a few posts ago, the movies were supposed to be shit because that’s what old school sci fi was like, so we couldn’t dislike it for that reason, and now they’re not supposed to be like old school sci fi, so everyone who dislikes them must be some sort of fogeyish freak. Which is it?
Couldn’t it just be that lots of people found the prequels deeply disappointing for rather basic reasons of plot, character and entertainment value? Or is this ludicrously simplistic? I know it’s why I hated them, having never seen a 30s sci fi serial yet somehow having managed to enjoy the original films. And I have nothing against a good bit of CGI here and there, I just like it to augment a film that isn’t fundamentally shite. Too much to ask?
The scriptwriter is mostly to blame, but Christensen’s acting is also completely wooden and unconvincing throughout the movie, particularly when it comes to his romance with Padme.
With that particular line though, not even the most skilled actor could have salvaged that one. Trying to act that line out better would be like trying to polish a turd.