RIDLEY SCOTT

actually i think i know the answer, nm

lol

lol

I've seen one since Blade Runner.

The Duellists was OK.

Number three, then?

g.i. jane landslide

anyone seen Someone To Watch Over Me?

Thelma & Louise is my pick.

thelma + louise

^accurately called "feminist claptrap" by Armond White

i <3 feminist claptrap

b-b-but most of his movies (even the good ones) are claptrap!

it's also a buddy movie. i <3 buddy movies.

those are some real stinkers between T&L and black hawk down

gladiator was pretty weak imo

yeah i hate to remember that he directed gladiator.

lol xpost

i srsly dislike gladiator, but the first scene in the arena is near perfect

White Squall is worth it for shots of pre-steroids Christian Bale leading just-legal beautiful boys.

guys i kind of like legend :/

did nobody else see matchstick men?

oh morbs... I think you forgot something...

http://cindyjacks.com/images/bradpitt.jpg

studs /= good movie

http://www.markdecarlo.com/images/head_shots/smile.jpg

"Says you!"

gladiator was just a warmup for kingdom of heaven, which is actually really good

i think people were sick of the braveheart/gladiator thing when it came out so it got ignored (plus it wasn't as much a tale of a single hero, plus it starred orlando bloom)

i don't even remember kingdom of heaven. also have people seen body of lies?

i sorta wanted to but at this point i guess i'll just catch it on dvd.

still haven't seen black hawk down

Went for Someone to Watch Over Me. Haven't actually seen it in about a decade or more, but I dug it. It's like an un-flashy, non-futuristic and stripped down sequel to Blade Runner (I know stylistically Black Rain is more akin to BR, but the thing about Black Rain is, it's a bit shit + Tom Beranger >>> Michael Douglas).

guys i kind of like legend :/

― horseshoe, Friday, November 14, 2008 1:34 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dont front girl this is top-5 RS for me

gladiator kind of sucks, but once you get it into your head that it sucks it becomes a pleasant surprise

also such a great movie to watch when all your friends come back to your house to crash after a fun/crazy night

I saw all but the last 20-30 minutes of Body of Lies. I didn't want to walk out but work called and I didn't get to go back in.

It was OK. Leo's good, Russell Crowe plays Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Iranian love interest is super-cuet.

i've seen black rain several times for some reason, dunno why

guess what i voted for y'all

a good year

wow american gangster was such a dud eh

i liked it tbh but i think it had more to do with the supporting cast and setting, i like those '70s nyc cop movies. denzel was pretty weak imo, crowe wasn't that interesting. it was pretty ridiculous.

Scott's movies this decade are mostly kinda fugly looking, cinematography-wise.

i've seen black rain several times for some reason, dunno why

Gotta be the signature vineyard shot.

max! i thought i was all alone! it's sort of boring but it's so pretty.

Matchstick Men zipped by pleasantly enough when I watched it on DVD, helped greatly by a typically barmy Cage performance. Hardly a classic though.

haha horseshoe its sort of WAY boring but it is really amazingly shot--plus fantastic sountrack and a++ super hot mia sara--hate to go here but perfect movie to watch stoned

you know what has a++++ super hot mia sara is timecop O_O

first google result for mia sara timecop:

Beautiful Sex Scene Movies: Mia Sara in Time Cop
Aug 3, 2007 ... Mia Sara in Time Cop. Celebrity Mia Sara having great sex pleasure with Van Damme in the movie Time Cop. Mia Sara in Time Cop - Watch the ...
beautifulsexscenemovies.blogspot.com/2007/08/mia-sara-in-time-cop.html - 56k - Cached - Similar pages

Mia Sara having great sex pleasure

i think Thelma & Lousie remains an awesome movie
i mean, even tho it has no alien or constant downpour

oh this is a dif poll!
alien is my comfort movie

awesome

Matchstick Men was a surprisingly good, for a con man movie.

I mean, it had all the typical con man movie cliches, but it also managed to build some meat around them and get something interesting out of the whole thing.

Voted The Duelists; I don't suppose it's better than Blade Runner, but fewer people have seen it and it needs some love.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

More than any of the many Scott flicks I've missed, I am now most curious to see Time Cop again.

It was OK. Leo's good, Russell Crowe plays Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Iranian love interest is super-cuet.

― sad man in him room (milo z), Friday, November 14, 2008 2:25 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^this is otm. is Aisha really an irani name?

think it's both an arabic and persian name. i liked that movie fine.

aisha was muhammads fave wife

yea it was a bit long, but well done

i gather there's a long thread on ilx right now about how Leo sucks but i don't mind him, i have to say.

been consistently entertained by his post-titanic movies, except revolutionary road

i don't mind leo. he's kind of limited in his range but he's fine when appropriately cast.

I woulda voted Black Hawk Down.

I actively like him in his first three Scorsese films, even Gangs Of New York except for his scenes with Cameron Diaz

tbh even though his face did not survive his teenhood, i think he's kind of dreamy in the departed.

yea id almost go as far as saying im a fan of leo

tbh even though his face did not survive his teenhood, i think he's kind of dreamy in the departed.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 9:56 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah what happened? its like all his features stayed in the same place but someone put an air pump in his neck and blew up his head to like twice the size

plus: ill-advised facial hair, always

Complete retro at Lincoln Center. (and one can only wonder why)

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/past-and-prologue-the-films-of-ridley-scott

First time anyone has cared about Someone to Watch Over Me since it was released...

White Squall OK-ish as a pervish A&F Lord of the Flies/Bounty thingy.

Ah, I see Alfred beat me to obligatory leery post from gaylxor.

p much the first thing I'd head for. Or maybe reduce my unseen Oscar winners gulag by one with Gladiator.

thelma + louise

― horseshoe, Friday, November 14, 2008 6:22 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^accurately called "feminist claptrap" by Armond White

― Dr Morbius, Friday, November 14, 2008 6:23 PM (3 years ago)

isn't that what AW says about 'the silence of the lambs'?

Complete retro at Lincoln Center. (and one can only wonder why)

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/past-and-prologue-the-films-of-ridley-scott

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Monday, April 30, 2012 10:40 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a lot of these films really do not need another airing. black rain? g.i. jane? a good year? fucking robin hood?

ok, i'm going to go through these and let you know what's up:

PRETTY FRESH
Alien
Blade Runner
The Duellists

GOOD, WOULD WATCH AGAIN
1492: Conquest of Paradise
Black Hawk Down
Kingdom of Heaven

INDIFFERENT
Body of Lies
Hannibal
Matchstick Men
Thelma & Louise
White Squall

MORE-THAN-FAINTLY EMBARRASSING
Legend
American Gangster
Black Rain
Someone to Watch Over Me

F.F.S.
A Good Year
Robin Hood

dude peaked early.

i admit i haven't actually seen g.i. jane, maybe it's a masterpiece. so i left it off.

oh and i forgot to put gladiator under "more-than-faintly embarrassing"

someone to watch over me looks really nice but has a dreadful script, as is often the case with this guy.

new uneven answers

i'd bump american gangster up one tier - i really dig the slavish recreation of early 70s nyc & jersey, and there's some funny/entertaining scenes

black rain is bad bad bad, im 100% convinced that he only made it so he could shoot a movie in japan. it does look incredible, to be fair

i thought robin hood was a new low in overall laziness from this guy, one of his worst ever

still need to see much vaunted kingdom of heaven director's cut

kinda intrigued by black rain but man if H4A can't rep for it...

its like a slurry of every 80s cop movie cliche, with racism sprinkled on top. its basically a reskin of Red Heat right down to the ending airport scene where american cop and foreign cop have a meaningful exchange that shows how much they've come to respect each other despite cultural differences. osaka is beautifully shot in it though

funny that it came out the same year as imamura's black rain

I just watched the trailer on youtube - looks like a real dog's breakfast, loved the shots of japan tho

a good year is by far the worst of his crap films

black hawk dawn was sort of vile but not in a distinguished way

i sort of enjoyed a good year when i saw it, but i can barely remember it + couldnt defend it

every shithead broker in london says they will retire at 40 and buy a villa(ge) in provence and the film is like the wish fulfillment version of that in which they magically inherit a first class vineyard and get to schtup marion cotillard

the mixture of old school clubbable anti-frog sentiment and 'a year in provence' fancifulness is quintessentially english and terrible

heh i think thats what i found fascinating about it, im sure it would've been repulsive to me if i was english

blackhawk down is politically pretty vile but fairly engrossing as an action movie IIRC.

funny that it came out the same year as imamura's black rain

man, if ever two films were NOT alike...

TBQH i'd rather watch top gun again than most of RS's movies, but maybe that's just b/c i haven't seen top gun since 1986.

MORE-THAN-FAINTLY EMBARRASSING Legend

gtfo. horseshoe where you at?

actually its entirely embarrassing but for some reason i kinda love it.

looking at this list i am kinda amazed this guy could bank an entire career on two, maybe three movies.

is your love strongo enough?

kinda intrigued by black rain but man if H4A can't rep for it...

― dayo, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 11:37 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its like a slurry of every 80s cop movie cliche, with racism sprinkled on top. its basically a reskin of Red Heat right down to the ending airport scene where american cop and foreign cop have a meaningful exchange that shows how much they've come to respect each other despite cultural differences. osaka is beautifully shot in it though

funny that it came out the same year as imamura's black rain

― these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 11:48 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in my memory this is otm despite my having seen it multiple times, i think i watched it so often bc i was amazed at how cool japan looked. i haven't seen it since i was 16 though tbh.

it sounds like maybe 'the martian' breaks the losing streak he's been on?

yeah it's OTM (re: black rain) - we watched it a few months back. (sometimes) gorgeous to look at but a real garbled melange of cliches. i love how it's obvious from like fifteen minutes in that michael douglas has no particular business being there and is fucking everything up and yet the movie insists on treating him as the hero up to the end, based on ... nothing. also lol at kate capshaw already being typecast as "the blonde expat working in an asian bar." but basically it's good-looking trash.

might be interesting to assemble it in some kind of program with gung ho and other 1980s american japanese paranoia films. so much dumb speechifying in black rain about how "for us, we do what is necessary for the group!" and michael douglas just kind of flailing about yelling at them about how sometimes you gotta take the law into your own hands, but then takakura reaches him by invoking the shame he brings upon himself and his badge by taking bribes. ughhhh and the secondary bad guy's big speech about hiroshima.

from like fifteen minutes in that michael douglas has no particular business being there and is fucking everything up and yet the movie insists on treating him as the hero

sounds amazing imo

i feel like about 30% of his dialogue starts with something like "hey pal!" like "hey pal, you listen, in america we have this thing called getting the job DONE!" or "hey pal, get off my back - your eastern sense of honor isn't going to help us find that cocaine!" he might never actually say these words but the whole movie is like an extrapolation of them. also in the very first scene we learn he supplements his police income by participating in illegal motorcycle races under the FDR, then the whole rest of the movie teases you with situations where he might plausibly get on a motorcycle before finally remembering to do it in the climax. i guess to demonstrate how completely his character has not changed over the course of the film.

most memorable scene in the film involves him stuck behind a fence, impotently watching as on the other side motorcycle dudes zip by with swords and behead his best pal.

that was cool, although you kinda knew best pal was dead meat from about two or three scenes previous. like from the moment he steps up to sing karaoke he's got seven, eight minutes left max.

honestly what sticks out in my memory really is the photography of osaka - the street where they're drinking/eating outdoors while waiting for news (on a stakeout?), and the big shower-of-sparks-in-darkness factory where douglas listens in (kind of bafflingly since he doesn't speak or understand japanese) on the big yakuza meeting. those looked fantastic, and i'm usually not someone who goes the "well, hey, at least it was visually satisfying" route. ridley scott can assemble some really gorgeous frames. maybe the movie should have just been a coffee table book.

crit David Ehrlich on The Martian:

in space, literally everyone can hear you tell & tell & tell & not show for 2 hours of tedious science porn in crap 3D.

Abba, tho.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/ha-ha1.gif

god this was a waste of resources for all involved. looks great, a better film than prometheus, but what was the point of any of it? felt like a series of webisodes from an intergalactic gardening vlog for two hours. no sense of tension, danger, just facile, cutesy internet-style humour. its just a generic rescue movie, it could be set anywhere, which might have been fine, but even for that, it seems to resist anything you would get from a normal rescue movie. no peril, no suspense, its all just there unfolding as you would expect. or maybe this is purposely thwarting genre expectations, a film for kids reared on webisodes.

also i think nolan and scott watched (or maybe heard about) primer and thought they needed to start working in tons of real science talk into their movies

am also just not sure what was so special about damons character to warrant us caring quite so much about his fate? i would have left him there personally. he had potatoes (at least until the jeff daniels character, said something like, 'he'll be fine unless something goes wrong', and then whaddaya know, something DOES go wrong in the very next shot)

don't know how this got a PG-13, should have been G

also i think nolan and scott watched (or maybe heard about) primer and thought they needed to start working in tons of real science talk into their movies

i wished it was more real! any vaguely scientific idea was always interrupted by some character being like "can you say that in English???". and when damon said "LET'S SCIENCE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS!!" i was just done.

i like the thought of respecting science (a radical thought to millions of people who will watch this) as a core message of the movie, but man did they beat you over the head with it. they literally lecture you on it at one point!

but really i'm the dummy because i went in expecting a different kind of movie. i didn't read anything about it beforehand, and know nothing of the book. i assumed that being trapped on mars would be a harrowing experience and maybe matt damon would lose his mind and psychotic shit would happen. i didn't realize it was a family movie and that any terrible event would immediately be counterbalanced by matt damon handling everything incredibly well and making early 2000s NBC sitcom-style jokes.

this is the new apollo 13, and that's what it was supposed to be.

you guyz could read reviews before spendin ya money

just facile, cutesy internet-style humour.

yes, this. i guess i'm an asshole for saying this because this describes lots of people, but if you've ever said that you heart something, you will love the humor in this movie

xpost i can't avoid big budget space movies. i like to look at space, can't help it.

you guyz could read reviews before spendin ya money

Dargis liked it and momentarily made me think maybe I wanted to see it tbh

just facile, cutesy internet-style humour.

i'll third this.

absolutely dire. felt, in tone, no different from Armageddon or any other rah-rah space hero movie (except now we're saving Matt Damon instead of the whole human race).

when the camera panned to Kristen Wiig at NASA HQ trying to do her tears-of-joy face I was in disbelief.

i also liked that scene where the Mars mission lead guy was asked "do you believe in god?", and he responded "hmm, i forgot that we haven't mentioned god in this movie yet, which could lead to the criticism that it's an atheist movie. so...yes, i do, but i was raised by people with beliefs that could apply to a number of different religions around the world, not just christianity. but i'm not ruling out christianity either. let's just be clear that i'm spiritual - not an atheist - so anyone watching this around the world, and i hope this is an international blockbluster, will be able to find a way to sympathize with my religious beliefs or at least by reassured that i'm not totally godless, which would be unforgivable, of course. now let's science the shit out of this and save matt damon"

Have any of you read the book? I thought the book was solid, and one of its nice twists was that he wasn't sad/panicked/depressed, and in fact was picked for the mission largely for his upbeat personality. I can see how the movie (which I have not seen yet) may not be as solid, but the book was a pretty great read, not as a thriller but as a journal (more or less) of this guy in a doomed situation making the best of it and using his McGuyver skills to survive. The author, if I recall, is an honest to goodness U of C nerd (go Maroons) with a background in nerd stuff, and the book was exactly what I expected from said nerd.

More importantly, anyone else getting any Don Henley vibes from Ridley as of late?

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQzsIA-40eMPSFXIlxwGBrhTmLAZ9_rQ469DOZGznR1SVxAjkIL
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/adv-media/width620/img/entertainment_news_national_desk/photo/17530579-mmmain.jpg

Well, yeah

Henley claiming in interviews that Don Felder was always a replicant.

enjoyed this thoroughly, the corny humor seemed very appropriate to the kinds of ppl that would be involved (you guys know john glenn was an astronaut right?)(i mean i'm going to science the shit out of this is totally a thing a scientist or engineer would say before tackling a huge problem), am relieved there wasn't any dark night of the soul, happy for an emphasis on problem solving over always value yr feels nolan nonsense. most relieved to not read the book now, which obv was super popular but was written by an engineer iirc so ehh idk man, i'll stick w/ kim stanley robinson thx. gravity was better, easily, but if regular 'what if we put a man... in space' movies where someone somewhere consulted w/ someone (or even multiple ppl) w/ stem degrees becomes a new blockbuster mode i'm cool w/ that, esp if they could conceivably inspire little girls to go into stem. comparing this to armageddon feels like comparing contagion to outbreak.

i'm guessing it's in the book cuz it would be weird if they weren't involved but the late arrival of china to the story did feel a bit like the kind of plot shoehorn w/ an eye towards the international market you get now

u guys may enjoy

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/release_boxshots/3103-dabd6e24d777380856b6537a248f2aae/404_BD_box_348x490_original.jpg

China stuff is most definitely in the book.

"absolutely dire. felt, in tone, no different from Armageddon or any other rah-rah space hero movie (except now we're saving Matt Damon instead of the whole human race)."

yes, i didnt understand why we had to care about one man, who despite being likeable and everyman-ish (this is what everyone says about damon), didnt seem particularly notable.

the way chastain seemed to talk about leaving him there at the end, it seemed professional rather than emotional. the way you might go back to the office when you forgot your dinner in the fridge rather than you left a human being on another planet.

if the stakes were a tad higher, i could at least be a bit more invested in it, but when its just one guy, one very NORMAL guy, who yes, can grow potatoes on mars, but apart from that, didnt seem that special (which ok, is prob the whole point, but are people that allergic to drama now that EVERYthing has to be crushingly banal and everyday?), which doesnt make for a very interesting movie.

if it was that earth could no longer grow potatoes and damon had to show them the way to do it on mars so the human race could continue eating carbs and starch shuttled to them from another planet, i could get behind that a little easier.

also, WHO were his videos for? was it ever explained? was it for his family? or just for posterity? or just to keep him sane?

tomorrowland did family-oriented sci-fi much better, and actually had a slightly more interesting message (why are we so obsessed with seeing foreboding forecasts of the future? where has humanity's optimism for the future gone? that actually made it a bit of a meta sci fi film in a sense, but the fact that they developed that inside a family sci fi movie with clooney makes it much more interesting than the martian's 'just one man and his potato crop' narrative).

also, the lord of the rings joke that featured sean bean

The book is essentially a blog written by a Mars engineer. OK with that, but have little desire to see a filmed version.

A little surprised at the pushback to the idea we would months and months and spend billions of dollars to rescue one normal dude left behind on Mars. This seems exactly like something we would do!

Also, forget science, even if "The Martian" is a turd I find it utterly implausible that "Tomorrowland" is better. That movie was like watching CGI paint dry.

That movie was like watching CGI paint dry.

i dunno that kind of sounds cool to me

Different strokes. You might like this, then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1JI_shx3n0

would buy criterion collection edition with bonus footage

better than Tarkovsky

why yie-odda..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(2002_film)#/media/File:Solaris2002poster.jpg

http://www.impawards.com/2002/posters/solaris_verdvd.jpg

http://derricklferguson.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/s-0080_solaris_quad_movie_poster_l.jpg

I rescree- saw Prometheus a couple days before this and thought:

the dust storm
the one person left behind in the storm
a survivor waking up in the dust with the system alarm alerting the survivor they were short on oxygen
the abdominal injury/surgery that required staples

were at worst pretty repetitive and at best rather coincidental between the two films.

That said, I liked both Prometheus and The Martian and am anticipating Prometheus 2: The Martian Chronicles when it comes out.

felt so bad for k wiig the sad PR lady everyone had to explain with great exasperation LoTR references and science

soderbergh's solaris is underrated. one of clooney's best movies.

though im not a fan of the original. the fact its always cited as the benchmark for sci-fi, or what sci-fi could be, if you know, it was less exciting, more ponderous, and less interesting, and far longer than it needs to be, probably makes me dislike it more (it might be one of those things where its self-satisfied supporters and fans make you hate the thing theyre a fan of more than you otherwise might). perhaps i need to watch it again though. all i remember thinking while watching it the first time was 'great shots of water'.

https://twitter.com/markcousinsfilm/status/649978676243730432

As I watched new sci fi film The Martian, I thought of Billy Wilder's great Ace in the Hole/The Big Parade. Then it became something softer.

Tarkovsky is boring as all hell.

Even though the drama/suspense was slight, I thought it kinda refreshing that it didn't adhere to the 'just when you thought the situation couldn't get any worse, it gets much worse' spiral that a lot of films have instead of a satisfying plot. Apollo 13 comparison is spot on too.

How does it compare to Moon?

It's quite different, lacks Moon's sense of slowly approaching dread, it's very much like Apollo 13, tonally.

ive yet to see mirror, but i found myself exasperated by stalker and solaris.

moon is more like 2001. the martian is more like a youtube tutorial.

"I thought it kinda refreshing that it didn't adhere to the 'just when you thought the situation couldn't get any worse, it gets much worse' spiral"

this is what i think, sort of, but i cant help thinking that there must be something better, than this, to replace the old rescue movie/survival movie arc with.

The Maryian = "I Fucking Love Science: The Movie"

This was Not For Me. I walked out halfway through.

Tarkovsky is boring as all hell.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, October 6, 2015 8:57 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Slow, maybe, but boring....no. There is more to unpack aesthetically, thematically and cinematically in a single frame of any Tarkovsky film than in the entirety of The Martian.

I loved a lot of the visuals in this, but the story was rough. The last hour was an incredible drag toward the inevitable. The palpable sense of danger that Gravity and Apollo 13 convey in very similar scenarios is absent in this. The disco jokes made me want to die.

The disco jokes made me want to die.

― polyphonic, Tuesday, October 6, 2015

qft

I walked in halfway through.

Heh

I will qualify my opinion by mentioning that I had a stressful weekend which might have predisposed me to be impatient with this movie

I walked in halfway through.

― hunangarage, Tuesday, 6 October 2015 19:26 (2 hours ago) Permalink

he was walking out, i was walking in...

If people on this hack director thread want to diss Tarkovsky a fitting punishment ought to be to watch this shite all the way through

man travels all the way to mars without taking any of his own music, then has the temerity to bitch about someone else taste in tunes for two hours. eat a bad spud & die, ya big shitfarmer

Also, "Hot Stuff" isn't the least disco song she has. It's more disco than several other songs in the movie!

that one guy bragging about finding an original pressing of abba's greatest hits, what a fucking n00b

maybe if you found one on mars, now that would be rare

this is what the orig swedish version looks like btw, much cooler i think:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/68/23/f1/6823f1e4db911c6e361e689e6aea7bef.jpg

this movie is so tepid. i wouldnt have minded 'robinson crusoe on mars' but this is more like 'mcgyver on mars'

Robinson so-so

Enjoyed this, and the book, to different amounts. But then again, I have two engineering degrees and went to Space Camp when I was 13.

Reading the book first definitely made the movie better, since I knew all the bits they chopped out, and really, did they chop out a lot.

Even when I read the book, I did think the disco jokes were some weak back shit. The script trimmed back some of the character's goonier aspects, tho.

If nothing else, I dug it as a big Hollywood movie depicting smart people doing smart people shit.

Openly laughed when the "Calculations correct" graphic showed up on the screen, tho.

Also, for a pg13 film, they got away with saying "fuck" twice

Slow, maybe, but boring....no. There is more to unpack aesthetically, thematically and cinematically in a single frame of any Tarkovsky film than in the entirety of The Martian.

People always say stuff like this about Tarkovsky, and while I've no doubt that The Martian is pretty rubbish, a: the whole "a single frame contains more artisanal human emotion blah blah" is hyperbolic bollocks when said about pretty much ANYTHING, and b: I'm a relatively sophisticated film watched, I've studied film, I've studied photography, I 'get' slow cinema, I have no issue with films from different countries, I used to run an academic film library, and I STILL think Tarjovsky is boring bollocks.

I kinda liked this (which continues my streak of liking most recent Ridley Scott films). it was a lot weirder than it initially comes across, almost anti-drama in its insistence on problem solving. movies as engineering.

Can't help but imagine Scott thought of himself as Watney throughout production. Sciencing the shit out of cinema.

Openly laughed when the "Calculations correct" graphic showed up on the screen, tho.

― Purves Grundy (kingfish), Wednesday, October 14, 2015

OTM. i was like, this is the science-y science movie of science i was promised?

"used to run an academic film library, and I STILL think Tarjovsky is boring "

http://media.aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/TARKOVSKY_1975_Mirror_00-33-30.jpg

I've commented on this elsewhere, but -

As much as I liked the book a lot more (there is more in the book to like), and as much as I think this movie was only OK (would have made a better mini series), it nonetheless features a diverse, non-patronizing cast of women and persons of color in important roles solving problems with math and physics, was appropriate for younger viewers and featured (a la Interstellar, actually) no guns, shooting or military fetishism. Frankly, as a father of girls that means a lot to me, and more than makes up for its many deficiencies.

had not even considered the possibility of taking my daughter to see this, that's good news

there was military fetishism, it was just something that resembled the actual military instead of michael bay american flag flapping in the wind-woman holding a young child near a barn-voiceover monologue beginning w/ the word "gentlemen" corny bs military fetishism

There was NASA fetishism for sure, but iirc not a single person in military uniform or in a position of ranked authority, and again not a single gun on display, not even as a sidearm. Two of the astronauts note they are military, but only in the fleeting context that they may be court martialed for mutiny. Am I forgetting something?

I took my older one, who is 11. The only issue at all was an early scene where he staples shut a gory wound, which made her cover her eyes and turn away.

his buttocks are in full view, let's not forget

His stunt buttocks. Weirdly, she said nothing about that beyond exclaiming, "Wow, he's skinny!"

did he use a double for that? (is that what you mean by stunt?)

yeah pretty much everything chastain and pena do is tied to their military bearing

it took a hundred posts for someone to mention buttocks.

Sandra Buttock was in the other lost in space film.

I thought it was pretty clear that Damon did not go all method in this and go from ripped to starving for the shoot. You never see his face in that butt scene; he's conspicuously drying his head with a towel.

my guess is he lost a lot of weight (as seems evident in some later scenes) but didn't lose enough for the audience to *notice* so they got a body double.

that scene pissed me off

Actually he did lose a lot of weight for the production. Here's what he looked like before he lost all that weight:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRYR0ZSVAAAu6kG.png

Moon, man.

The Martian nom'd for Best Musical/Comedy by the Golden Globes

(they didn't specify which)

still haven't seen it

still not missing anyting

i feel like about 30% of his dialogue starts with something like "hey pal!" like "hey pal, you listen, in america we have this thing called getting the job DONE!" or "hey pal, get off my back - your eastern sense of honor isn't going to help us find that cocaine!"

doctor casino i've incorporated these into my memory based screenings of BLACK RAIN

There's tons of disco in The Martian so I'd say musical.

it was kind of weird that they cast so many comedy people in the martian given how unfunny the 'jokes' are.

was it a joke that 'starman' was considered disco?

doctor casino i've incorporated these into my memory based screenings of BLACK RAIN

― nomar, Thursday, December 10, 2015 12:22 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey pal, go get your own movie! sometimes you have to be your own man, you know what i'm saying? ahhh, hey, pal... who am i kidding - you don't understand a word i'm saying.

crazy story abt the guy who played the main villain in that movie:

In 1988, Matsuda was diagnosed with bladder cancer, before shooting began for Black Rain. Matsuda refused chemotherapy, as he thought it would affect his ability to act in the film.[4] After his death, his first wife, who had experienced him ignoring an ear infection until it required surgery to prevent deafness, wrote that she suspected that he did not actually realize the seriousness of his illness.[4] During the filming, he was urinating blood. By the time shooting finished, in March 1989, his cancer had spread to his spine and lungs, making it inoperable. On October 7, 1989, Matsuda was hospitalized. A month after he was admitted, Matsuda died at 6:45 PM JST on November 6 at the age of 40, at a Tokyo hospital.

per People interview: Obama’s favorite movie of the year

xpost jesus, that's awful.

There's a local small town booster advertisement near where I get my haircut, one that has a photograph of our historic local movie theatre. And one of the films up on the marquee, along with Iron Man 2 a and a few other things, is Robin Hood. And every time I see it I have to remember that, oh yeah, Ridley Scott made a Robin Hood movie.

I liked The Martian fine--the rescue (hokey enough to make Errol Flynn blush) moved me, I enjoyed the obvious soundtrack (I don't think "Starman" was there as disco), the 150 minutes went by quickly. Ridley Scott's 78 now; thought Damon's final speech to his class might have been Scott's reflection on getting a film made.

Such an amazing feat that Ridley Scott was able to reshoot, in so little time, several torpid, sedentary scenes of people talking in large rooms.

— BANDZ STACKHAGE (@NickPinkerton) January 11, 2018

Watched the first episode of Raised By Wolves and Scott sure loves overt biblical allegory - especially after the death of his brother. Going to give it one more episode, but I'm not into this so far.

Yeah, there's about as much of a chance of me watching this as there is Westworld. I mean, I wish!

It's terrible. Some lovely visual things, but also much recycled from his earlier work. Plus the acting, even by good actors, is terrible, and the writing is pure balls. Also some really terrible costume and design choices.

The babies are creepy as hell.

Would've been much cooler if Tony was alive and had made this IMO.

Watched "The Martian" for the first time since whenever it came out. 1) Forgot how many people are in this! Jessica Chastain, Donald Glover, Kirstin Wiig, Sebastian Stan, Michael Pena, Chiwetel Ejiofor , etc. 2) This really could have been made by anyone today, any workmanlike straight to Netflix director, which is a credit to Ridley Scott, in a backhanded/roundabout way, because the direction is so smart and so chill and so straight forward for him. Like, his next movie was "Alien: Covenant," basically the bizarro version of this one. 3) Refreshing as always to see a movie about math and science and engineering and solving problems. Few and far between.

I thought that making all of the problem-solving on the surface into a montage was a big mistake. That was the thing people liked about the book. Not the disco jokes.

It's still, like, 90% problem-solving and 10% disco.

Kohl-eyed Eva Green is probably the most arresting visual in any of his films.

I can't quite believe how bad House of Gucci is. Did nobody watch what Jared Leto was doing? Doing nobody say "are we sure we want this"?

his entire career is like that

I guess I just don't get it. I don't understand him as a draw. And he's only barely the worst thing in this film.

a very divisive performance - I've seen a few people citing it as the best thing in the film!

Saw lady gaga on a chat show introducing a couple of clips, looked like a terrible TV movie.

Also saw The Martian on TV recently, such a nothing film, whole concept built on promise of stunning mise-en-scène, but everything felt completely flat and lifeless.

Has RS made an actual good movie since Blade Runner? I will not accept Thelma & Louise and Gladiator as answers.

T&L is way better than blade runner, a genuinely bad film that nerds like for some reason. this poll is antifeminist for ranking it over alien

Last Duel ruels

everything felt completely flat and lifeless.

So, true to the book, then.

IMHO, it's kind of telling that the version of Blade Runner without Ford's voiceover (which, as I understand it, he actively tried to make sound grating) is less engaging.

Last Duel ruels

― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Friday, July 8, 2022 11:36 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is the perfect kind of movie to watch on a long flight with zero expectations going into it. at least 30 minutes too long but couldn't have cared less with affleck's wonderfully hammy count pierre

it's kind of amazing that the film manages to have a plot that hinges on a assault, tackles it very seriously, and still lets affleck be that ridiculous without detracting from the gravity of it

Rewatched The Duellists for the first time in decades. I'm wondering if it's my fave of his? His whole career and much of its aesthetic descendents are all kinda right there from the get-go.

Napoleon is not my kind of a movie, to put it mildly, and I went solely as a show of support to a rep theatre I like that's teetering on the brink. Battle scenes are like car chases for me: I zone out within the first 30 seconds, no matter now expert the choreography. Only a couple here, thankfully, but they're endless.

I probably liked it as much as I could have hoped for, or I at least managed to stay awake through almost all of it. There are a few funny/campy lines, the final shot is good, and there's some interest in terms of Trump. I was going to post on the Trump Movies thread I started, but I figured that would paradoxically be grasping at straws and so obvious as to be unnecessary. There's a speech by the Duke of Wellington in particular--the one about vermin--that's so on the mark that I thought "So that's why you wanted to make this."

I'm almost always impressed by Joaquin Phoenix, but I thought he was just okay here. It felt like he never really figured out what he wanted to do with the character.

Uhhhhhh ... Gladiator 2?

Not a fan of Napoleon or anything (you do not have to hand it to him) but seems a very bad Trump surrogate, seems almost insanely flattering to the latter.

There are obvious points of similarity; looked around last night, and it comes up a lot in reviews. Analogies are never perfect.

Not a fan of Napoleon or anything

are you Russian

Alfred I'll let u know memorials to the many horrors of the Napoleonic invasions litter my home country of Portugal!

I don't know that there are that many obvious points of similarity beyond "caused a lot of trouble" and "kind of an asshole" (which tbf is most world leaders). Napoleon effected actual structural change and picked fights with major powers that he followed through on.

lol I'm not defending him

lol no I get that and my reference was also tongue in cheek, just have to fit in Portugal Things whenever I get a chance

six-hour director's cut is to be about the enactment of the code napoléon in vastly precise legalistic detail, it will rule

The Napoleonic Code--hey, I know that from A Streetcar Named Desire.

This felt like Paul Verhoeven without the fun. Also kind of ugly?

six-hour director's cut is to be about the enactment of the code napoléon in vastly precise legalistic detail, it will rule

― mark s

Directed by Albert Serra, mostly in close-up.

The Napoleonic Code--hey, I know that from A Streetcar Named Desire

That was an Animaniacs joke I remember as a kid - Napoleon appears, actually drawn as if he was Marlon Brando from the '50s, and he says "down here we have the Napoleonic Code - it says you don't start the party without me." It's like one of those WB cartoon jokes that introduces everyone to classic movie references long before they actually watch those films.

has it been noted how he rhymes with diddly squat

and cumquat

My gal is red hot!!

Your gal ain't Ridley Scott!!

mostly clean, sasquatch

Hid me pot

^accurately called "feminist claptrap" by Armond White

― Dr Morbius, Friday, November 14, 2008

Dr. Wrong-O.

Re Thelma and Louise. The action set pieces get tedious in the last half hour, and some of Brad Pitt's line readings are ridic (that body helps), but Sarandon + Davis give such lived-in performances.

i had no idea he directed this! i'm on my first viewing and good lord this a visual feast! there's a shot maybe 5 minutes in where Thelma walks over and opens her closet which should be taught everywhere.

I’m one of the weirdos who likes THE MARTIAN, in our household it’s the comfort food movie we put on after e.g. the chaos of Christmas lunch. Must have seen it six times now.

(and for the record I was underwhelmed and bored by the novel)

It's nothing special but I can def see how it would work as comfort food, kinda movie you could have on tv on a Sunday afternoon back when it mattered what was on.

I regret to inform u gladiator 2 whips ass

correction: DENZEL whips ass. Gladiator 2 the film was decent enough.

i expected it to be the absolute depths of boiled garbage but it was p watchable (except for the baboons, honestly wtf was that whole thing ugh)

i propose that Maximus Jr fill the coliseum w water & sharks & then freeze it for roman gladiator icecapades while atop a rhinoceros

is this late-period ridley scott run of the last duel, house of gucci, napoleon, and gladiator II "camp"? is it intentionally camp?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/28/i-turned-down-20m-to-do-terminator-3-i-cant-be-bought-dude-ridley-scott-on-directing-daleks-and-cherry-jam

Meanwhile, I got to go to his winery in the south of France. The wine is pretty good! And the gift shop is full of all sorts of stuff:

https://imgur.com/054cb4a8-d52c-4414-9034-de2b38378294

https://i.imgur.com/SPLQ8ho.jpeg

From that Guardian fan Q&A:

Were you really considering directing Terminator 3? bozo500

I’m proud about this. I turned down a $20m fee. See, I can’t be bought, dude. Someone said: “Ask what Arnie gets.” I thought: “I’ll try it out.” I said: “I want what Arnie gets.” When they said yes, I thought: “Fuck me.”

lol

https://deadline.com/2025/10/ridley-scott-hollywood-drowning-in-mediocrity-1236570875/

Asked if he has a go-to comfort movie, the British director said: “Well, actually, right now, I’m finding mediocrity – we’re drowning in mediocrity. And so what I do – it’s a horrible thing – but I’ve started watching my own movies, and actually they’re pretty good! And also, they don’t age.”

lmao

loved how in his WTF every time Maron began a question about one of Scott’ films, Ridley would interrupt as it was named to bark “Great picture!”

Should watch some Tony Scott joints

wow, Legend is a real drag... looks PHENOMENAL but then about three and half things, total, happen over the course of 89 minutes.

boooo how dare u

It stinks I tell ya!!! I swear they were in that dungeon for six weeks just mugging at each other. Pretty solidly my least favorite of the big 80s kids' fantasy movies, tho maybe there's one or two I haven't seen yet.

boooooooo

Finally watching HAWSAGOOTCHI i mean House of Gucci

this is like watching the expanded universe of a spaghetti commercial

the dialogue is so boring.
and the needledrops are baffling. watching the wedding i was like “no way are they playing ‘Faith’” moments later “oh they are really playing ‘Faith’ here”

Gaga is worthwhile, but idk about anything else.

Driver is so low energy

And Leto. This fucking human emoji. everytime his trash-ass does his Italian Christopher Walken i stare at everyone in the background waiting to see anyone cutting eyes or visibly dissassociating

I've always been obsessed with his Chanel commercials from the 80s and was wondering if he'd ever mentioned 'Last Year at Marienbad' as an influence as certain shots and the vibe are reminiscent. While googling, I only just now discovered that he directed Roxy Music's 'Avalon' music video (!)(his only) which has a very obvious 'Marienbad' influence.

excellent question and banging post

MHO, it's kind of telling that the version of Blade Runner without Ford's voiceover (which, as I understand it, he actively tried to make sound grating) is less engaging.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux)