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In Reply to: sad part posted by mart on August 10, 2002 at 05:10:42:
I have never been able to warm to Spielberg and I am nearly immune to the charms of Tom Cruise, hence my disappointment with Minority Report, which most critics hailed as terrific. (I'm a big fan of Phillip K. Dick, and sci-fi, but I'm still waiting for the next great sci-fi flick...maybe Solaris, though it'll have to go some to beat Tarkovsky's original.) There are some good things in MR, but Spielberg cannot resist the pull of the "Spielberg" moment. I know this point of view puts me squarely outside the majority.The only 2 films of Steven's that don't make me cringe are Raiders of the Lost Ark (a live action comic book, it is what it is) and Schindler's List. Close Encounters has some nice moments, and AI is an interesting failure. I must be the only person in the universe that is indifferent to ET. Spielberg is gifted, but his taste is something else again. I know movies are manipulative, but there's just something about Speilberg's cinematic sensibility that takes me out of his films. He will always annoy me at some point with that manipulation. Peter Jackson doesn't, Spielberg does. Lucas does. (Lucas can't write dialog to save his life.)
Opie gets trapped in the banal, and even with a good set-up, can't resolve his stories in a satisfying way. BTW, I credit much of A Beautiful Mind's triteness to sapmeister Akiva Goldsman, how this man won an Oscar for screenwriting is totally beyond me. It's not like he didn't have competition - Memento, Gosford Park, LOTR etc.
It's not that I'm too snotty to enjoy popcorn flicks, it's just that too many movie makers go for the big boring effects and idiot plot devices. I can fall in love with a blockbuster (rarely, but I did for LOTR). I just can't embrace dumb.
BTW, I might disagree with you about Tarentino. It's too early to tell, he's been too full of himself. I thought Jackie Brown was a step in the right direction. Burton is great when his obsessions dovetail with the material, but he's another one who has problems with dramatic structure.
I hope Miramax & Harvey Weinstein do right by Scorsese. Harvey - keep yer paws OFF Gangs of New York!
Follow Ups:
Spielberg can drive me nuts some times but I have just one word for your list of movies by him that you like. Jaws.
Totally agree with you, Harmonia! I'm not snotty either (at least no one who knows me thinks so), but my tastes are just out of the mainstream, I guess. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been moved to tears by a good many films, some blockbusters, some not. But, predictable plot devices turn me off big time. Jackie Brown is definitely a step in the right direction for Tarantino. And, how about Paul Thomas Anderson? I was absolutely stunned by the stylistic originality of Boogie Nights and Magnolia. And Sam Mendes isn't bad either. He seems to have mastered a formula for appealing to the masses as well as sophisticates. Opie is what I call a faceless director. He has good storytelling "skills", and seems to know a great deal about the mechanics of filmmaking and how to manipulate audiences, but he has very little recognizable style of his own, and he, like Spielberg, resorts to some awfully predictable, deliberately manipulative devices that ultimately distract me from total involvement. After all, film IS art, and I can only express my opinions about it. It's not just about the story, but how the story is told. It's interesting to me that my brother and sister, for example, thought Erin Brockovich was a totally forgettable, made-for-tv kind of film, where as I liked it a lot and didn't see it that way at all. Our opinions of A Beatiful Mind are polar opposites. Go Figure.
That movie is a keeper whereas the sequels sucked. At lot could be said about the caliber of acting, but they probably got a working mechanical shark.
;^>Anyway, to me boring FX are ring explosions & smooth CGI characters. Is till enjoy the proper blending of CGI & animatronics with Jurrasic Park. Although, acting caliber again is a great contributing factor. The only thing I can say for Stephen is he doesn't seem to work in a CGI "set". I absolutely hate those movies. It seems to even compromise an actor's ability when dealing with a non-existant set even over the traditional artificial ones.
» moderate Mart £ « Planar Asylum
I can't watch Jaws. I've tried, but I start twitching. This, as I said, puts me squarely into the minority. I hate it. I resent it (even though I love the cast). Moreover, I still remember newsreels of people beating sharks to a pulp on Americas beaches after this film debuted.Less talented directors have taken Spielberg's manipulativeness and stylistic exageration and nearly ruined Hollywood.
Not Nicolette
;^>Martin S has a manipulative stylistic exageration that I can't watch. I do realize I'm in the minority though.
» moderate Mart £ « Planar Asylum
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