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Connie Lane Gives A Long Clear Look At BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 9!!!
Call me Connie Lane.
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Upon checking in, we were each given an envelope with three tickets - one for an official BNAT shirt, one for our swag bag, and one for a surprise item that we would be told about later. I quickly took in the new surroundings. It was strange, for example, having looked at the old-school marquee all those years, to see the new digital marquee as I walked through the front door of the Ritz. And for some reason the flat screen TV in the lobby was playing a lot of Bill Murray clips.
Harry was seated at the back this year, and a camera was set up so that he could appear in front of us on the screen. There were the usual pre-show clips and introductions, the mention of our first film, and the assurance that we would be seeing the usual array of the coolest trailers ever. One of these trailers was, of course, the famous STUNT ROCK trailer, which this time concluded with Tim League, dressed as King of the Wizards and slamming his staff on the stage, sending confetti everywhere (which the Alamo staff would spend the next 24 hours trying to sweep up). The show had officially begun.
What happened before our first movie, though, was that we got a walk-through of how HD-DVD works and what you can do with a HD-DVD player. This might have seemed superfluous, but we had just been told that WE WOULD ALL BE RECEIVING TOSHIBA HD-DVD PLAYERS ON OUR WAY OUT THE NEXT MORNING. TADA! TADA FOREVER! After that excitement, it was finally time for our first feature.
THE GREAT MCGINTY (1940)
This film was chosen in honor of the writers' strike, because Preston Sturges was paid a whopping $10 for writing it - possibly the biggest screw-over of any screenwriter. Of course, Sturges also got the privilege of directing this film, and his screenplay won the Oscar, so that worked out pretty well for him.
This is a movie about a guy who's played crooked all his life and was able to make it all the way to the office of governor. He could have reached any level of power he wanted, using his brains and lack of scruples, but he slipped up and did something good (fell in love with his wife and family, and tried to make them happy) in "one crazy minute" and lost it all.
This movie has a lot of great character actors - the kind you'll swear you've seen before but you can't quite place them. The movie also has a lot of man-tussles between McGinty and The Boss. It isn't Sturges' best, by any means, but it's definitely a classic and worth checking out. It's always amusing to witness the crowd reactions at BNAT. There are a lot of moments in this movie that were (probably) unintentionally funny, but it was great to watch our crowd melt at the family scenes with the kids and the dog.
CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR (2007)
Most of the reviews I've read for this movie are by people who don't seem to like it very much, but I found it incredibly compelling.
I was concerned, watching the previews for this and having never read the book, that the movie was glorifying what America did in Afghanistan and overlooking the fact that, for all the good it did in our conflicts with Russia, it created a new conflict with a new enemy - one that we are still dealing with and are still no closer to resolving. But of course the movie doesn't overlook it. They just can't push that in the trailers, because that's the twist of the story. Well, not twist in the sense of something we suddenly learn, but it's kind of the poisonous punch line of the film.
The meat of the movie belongs to Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I had all but given up on Hanks as an interesting actor. For the past several years, he has seemed to be just playing the Tom Hanks character in any movie he was in, but his Charlie is a refreshing step in a new direction. It's unnerving at first to see him in a hot tub with a bunch of hot naked babes - not to mention the rear nakedness of Hanks himself - but he's very believable as a deeply flawed politician who has charm and at least a drop of human decency (though not much more). Hoffman is always amazing, but he really takes a bite out of Sorkin's writing and goes to town with it.
Oh yeah, Aaron Sorkin. He of the occasional platitudes and preachiness, but don't you wish you could preach like he can? This is one of my favorite bits of Sorkin writing. It's not as stirring as some of his most characteristic writing. It's much more subtle, and I think all the stronger for that. It pushes buttons, certainly, but you'd never really know it. It brings the point home firmly but quietly, without fanfare. Perhaps it's Mike Nichols' direction that reigns it in, but there are no great speeches about how the victory in Afghanistan has led to our troubles in the Middle East. Just a story Hoffman tells about a Zen master and a quote from the real Charlie Wilson about how yeah all this was great, but then we messed it up in the end.
Critics who slam the film for painting the US as the white knights are missing the point entirely. This is what America has always done - go in to some situation we know very little about, put a band-aid on it, and then leave, not thinking or caring how what we've done affects the future. Perhaps this movie doesn't really tell us anything we don't know, but ... I'd be willing to bet that lots of people who will go to see this movie don't know already what the movie is trying to tell them.
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953)
Richard Widmark is Skip McCoy, a pickpocket who lifts a wallet from a girl named Candy, unknowingly setting off a disastrous chain of events. Unbeknownst to Skip, Candy's wallet contained a film that she was supposed to deliver to an associate of her ex-boyfriend's. Candy's ex forces her to find whoever took the film and get it back, by any means necessary. What Candy doesn't know is that this film contains top-secret information that she was (also unknowingly) passing to Communist spies. She manages to find Skip and tries to seduce him and bribe him into giving her the film, but his price is far too high. In the middle of all of this is Thelma Ritter, playing an unofficially paid police informant who sells stolen neckties as a front.
The relationships in this are interesting. Candy falls in love with Skip, and he obviously likes her as well, but it's rather a funny setup and it makes Candy look not so bright for falling for him. They'll be slapping each other around, stop for five seconds, and Candy would just melt for him. Then, after a few moments of passion, Skip would ask if she brought the money he was trying to get for the film.
This is another film that heavily features man-tussles. There's an especially intense man-fight at the end, in a subway train. The movie essentially belongs to Skip and Candy, but its heart is Thelma Ritter, who I think was never better (or more heartbreaking) than she is here.
MONGOL (2007)
This is apparently the first part of what is hoped to be an epic trilogy spanning the life of Genghis Khan. MONGOL covers his early life and shows us a side of him that we don't normally read about in history books - the son, the lover, the father, and the warrior.
We first meet the man who would be Genghis Khan, known to us only as Temudgin, when he is nine years old and traveling with his father to choose a bride. However, on their way there, they stop at another village and Temudgin chooses a bride from that clan instead, paying a great insult to the other clan and setting up a later conflict.
Temudgin eventually becomes a slave, but with a bit of help, manages to escape. In his twenties, he returns to marry Borte, the bride he chose as a child, but she is soon taken from him. He enlists the help of a childhood friend to get her back (though the friend makes him wait a year to get this help), and they succeed, but Temudgin refuses allegiance to this friend when he suggests that Temudgin be his second-in-command. Temudgin leaves his friend, taking a few of his most trusted warriors with him, and this creates a rivalry between the two Khans. Temudgin suffers several more trials and eventually breaks out of prison (with the help of Borte). There is a great battle between his army and the much larger army of his former friend. Temudgin's army is the victor, and the film closes here, only slightly glancing ahead at the legend Temudgin would become.
A gorgeous movie, and I would gladly see it again.
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971)
This is an absolute classic cult film, but I had never seen it before, and it was great to see a really beautiful print of it. There are some really hilarious bits with the Inspectors and Scotland Yard, and the music gives the film a lot of its character (I particularly love the organ rendition of "Over the Rainbow" that accompanies the closing credits). But the film's real allure comes from Vincent Price, who is so delightfully campy and over-the-top. His character speaks through a sort of primitive vocoder that attaches to the side of his neck. His refrain of "Nine killed her ... nine shall die!" is a thing of cheese-o-rific beauty.
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007)
Let me get this out of the way first. People who are talking about this film's Oscar chances are probably wasting their breath. I see Depp possibly getting a Best Actor nod, but this is not a "Best Picture" kind of movie - maybe at the Golden Globes, but not the Oscars. That is not to say - AT ALL - that this is not a good movie. It's a wonderful movie, a great piece of film, and what I think is the perfect film that could possibly have been made from the stage musical. It's just not the kind of movie that Oscar voters tend to recognize. This isn't just because of the stylized violence and blood - though that's probably part of it - but it's a very particular kind of movie, and (much to its credit) it doesn't try to be anything else.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the basics of the story, but here's a recap. Sweeney Todd was once known as Benjamin Barker, a barber who had a good life, a beautiful wife, and a baby daughter. Judge Turpin lusts after Mrs. Barker, and uses his power to have Barker sent to prison for life on a false charge. Barker breaks out of prison and returns to London fifteen years later, only to find his wife and child gone. He swears revenge on the Judge his stooge, Beadle Bamford, and after missing what might be his only chance to kill the judge, he decides to practice and sharpen his razors on the throats of his customers. His neighbor, Mrs. Lovett - baker of meat pies with no meat - is besotted with him and helps him, eventually cooking up (*cringe* so sorry for that awful pun) a scheme in which they'll dispose of the bodies by using them as meat for her pies, which become the culinary hit of London. And of course, as in all great stories, complications arise, secrets are revealed, and almost everyone dies. Great holiday entertainment for the whole family!
It starts with a lovely animated credits sequence, highlighted by the underscore to the omitted "Ballad of Sweeney Todd." There have been complaints about leaving this song out, but I didn't really miss it. The orchestration of it permeates the film, and "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd ... his skin was pale and his eye was odd" is just not the way to start a film. A play, yes - a film, no. In addition to the Ballad, two other whole numbers were cut - the Judge's song "Johanna" and "Kiss Me." "Johanna" is a wonderful characterization piece that has what I call a sort of masturbatory melody - very fitting for what we are learning about the character. But on film, we learn all that we really need to know on that score when we see the Judge look through a peephole at his 16-year-old ward, Johanna (who also happens to be Todd's estranged daughter). I have never been a great fan of "Kiss Me," and felt it was stretching the bounds of acceptable levels of over-the-top-ness, even on the stage, and would have killed the film. So I didn't personally miss it.
As far as other songs go, they're all there, though not necessarily in their entirety. That being said, there are quite a few bits of extended singing (I'd say about 75-80% percent of what is communicated in the film is sung, not spoken), and Sondheim's songs are very dense in lyrics, so if you're not familiar with the show and the songs, I recommend being a very careful listener. One of my handful of concerns with this film is that people might miss important things that are being said because they're part of a song. Because we're not really used, as audience members, to actually listening to what people are singing on screen.
The performances are all superb. Depp, as usual, is stunning. He's only the slightest bit overdone, but that is essential to the character and the style of the film itself. And his singing voice, while not the roaring monsters of Len Cariou and George Hearn, is instead subdued, which is perfect for the medium of film (but he does know when it's time to roar, and does it admirably). I was surprised how much I liked Helena Bonham-Carter. I was not wild about what I'd seen in the previews, and as much as I adore Mrs. Lovett as a character, I can't stand most of the portrayals I've seen of her. Sacha Baron Cohen is only in a couple of scenes, but his Pirelli owns them both, as well he should. Alan Rickman seems a bit over-the-top in diabolicalness, but again, I think that's part of the style of the story and the character itself. His duet with Johnny, "Pretty Women," is one of my favorite moments in the film. Jayne Wiseman and Jamie Campbell Bower are lovely, with even lovelier voices, and I enjoy their part in the story - they're kind of like a Disney couple who took a wrong turn and ended up in a horror movie. I've always thought that you could play the story in a loop, because Anthony and Johanna are setting themselves up for the same kind of fate that befell Sweeney and his wife.
The real find in the cast is Ed Sanders, who plays Toby. On the stage, Toby is traditionally played by a man in his late twenties or early thirties. This gives the impression of Toby as a sort of man-child - a boy in his late teens at the youngest, who never quite developed into an adult. But Sanders is an actual child, probably about 12 years old, which creates a very different dynamic. There's a difference between Pirelli smacking a man around and smacking a child around. There's a difference between a grown man singing to Mrs. Lovett "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around" and a child singing that. Sanders plays Toby as a Dickensian child, abused by 19th Century London and the people who inhabit it. A disturbingly chronic (especially for a child) imbiber of gin, but literally the only truly selfless character in the story.
As a total package, this is a FANTASTIC movie - a home run for Burton and everyone involved, as far as I'm concerned - and I can't WAIT to see it again. It's not an "award-bait" kind of movie, and the stage show wasn't an "award-bait" kind of show. But it's a success in every way that I think matters, and it's an armful of absolute joy, coming out just in time for Christmas. I hope everyone loves it as much as I do.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to declare my love for whoever came up with the idea to bake 200-something meat pies and pass them out to everyone in the middle of this movie. That was an absolutely perfect touch.
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962)
This was probably my favorite "classic" that we saw. It stars Kirk Douglas, in what he has said is his favorite movie. There is an incredible supporting cast, including Walter Matthau, Gena Rowlands, and Carroll O'Connor in one of his first movies (well before his Archie Bunker days).
Douglas plays Jack Burns, a transient worker and ranch hand, much like the old-school cowboys. He rejects much of the modern world - he won't get a driver's license or social security card, and there's an hysterical scene at the beginning where he tries to ride his horse across highway traffic. A friend of his was sent to jail for trying to help illegal immigrants, and Jack purposely gets arrested so that he can go to jail and get him out. The friend refuses to try and escape, because things will be worse for him if he's caught, but Jack breaks out himself and is on the run from the police for much of the movie.
Apparently Sylvester Stallone was inspired by this movie in writing FIRST BLOOD, and there are many obvious similarities. This is a gorgeous film, and it's well-acted and mostly well-directed and written. But it does suffer from an almost unbearably long chase/pursuit section. It's still wonderful, though, and definitely my favorite of the older stuff.
THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2007)
This was introduced as a documentary. It didn't take long at all for me to figure out, however, that what we were watching was not a documentary at all. But we were clearly supposed to think it was, even down to some ambiguously formatted closing credits.
And this is where I think the film crossed the line. There's a good kind of disturbing, and this was not it. I have a pretty damn good sense of humor, if I say so myself, for things that most other people find offensive or off-putting, but this film crossed my threshold. I love the HOSTEL movies, I think AUDITION is brilliant, and I think the whole furor over "torture porn" (and even that phrase itself) is terribly overblown by people who don't understand what other people find appealing or interesting about these movies. But this film is not HOSTEL or SAW or AUDITION. It presents the story as if it is absolutely factual, even though the writing and acting is such that any person with a lick of sense can tell otherwise. It plays on what I consider to be a rather disturbing trend in our culture of fascination with real-life horror - that thing that makes people want to watch real videos of war prisoners getting their heads cut off or the execution of Sadaam Hussein or even those investigative reporter shows where the story is reenacted by actors, but they're enacting things that really happened.
This movie revolves around the finding of some videotapes that a serial killer made of himself stalking, torturing, and killing his victims. And then the "FBI experts" show us their collection of the tapes - a ridiculously large amassing of videos, about half of which they claim are of one victim in particular, Cheryl Dempsey. We're shown some of Cheryl's tapes. The stalking is actually genuinely creepy, but when it gets to the actual torture ... I don't know. I think my real problem here is that this is presented as if it were real, and then the movie failed to make it feel real, and tried rather ham-fistedly to be absurd and darkly funny, which is completely out of place. The torturing of supposedly real people is not funny. Or entertaining. The thing about HOSTEL and AUDITION and these other films is that we know it's fiction, and those movies never try to pretend they're anything else. The films are saying something about people or about society and THAT is what we're meant to take away from those films.
I have nothing against "found footage" films, and I actually quite liked THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Where BWP succeeds and this film doesn't, I think, is that BWP put you completely in the point-of-view of the victims. You experience almost the entire story through their footage, and the emotions it taps into are the emotions that you share with the characters - fear of the unknown, the unseen. What we know is what they know. You care about what happens to the characters because you're with them every step of the way. In Poughkeepsie, we don't get inside like that. The audience is the all-knowing voyeur. I feel for people in the FBI who have to see stuff like this every day and witness these horrors with the context of the crime that the victim blessedly did not have. And I don't care for how this film pushes those buttons in me and almost physically nudges me, whispering annoyingly in my ear "Isn't that horrible? Huh? Huh? Doesn't that make you sick?"
Yes, it does. But if that's all the filmmakers had to say, I don't think it's something to be proud of.
TEEN LUST (1979)
I'd love to say I hated this movie, but I don't think I did. The timing of when this movie came out is significant, I think. If it had been made in the 1980s, it would have been a screwball sex comedy. If it had come out a bit earlier in the 1970s, it would have been a twisted mind-warp film like TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN. But being on the cusp of the 70s and 80s, it's kind of a bizarre combination of those two.
This is the movie that dares to ask "Can we fit some more boobs in this scene?" The nudity is exceptionally gratuitous, as to almost be laughable, but ... I think there's method behind the madness. It's almost as if this film is taking you directly into the minds of its characters (I use the term "characters" rather charitably here, it should be noted). All they think about is sex and T&A, so that's a good chunk of what we see.
There is certainly an element of badness (a rather large one, if I may say so) in this movie. Despite all the nudity, there's a lot of "tell, don't show" in the, uh, plot (for lack of a more accurate term). There's all kinds of things in the main character's family that are all kinds of wrong and most of the characters seem generally unfazed by it. There could be a drinking game from all the times Carol's dad asks her for a kiss, for example. It's bad, very bad, but sometimes bad movies can be good, you know?
STAR TREK: CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER
This was in HD-DVD, so you could REALLY see the blue eye shadow on the male actors, especially George Takei. Really beautiful on the big screen and in HD, though. And it was great watching McCoy go nuts. XD
FEELS SO GOOD
Picture (if you dare!) a short film documenting a urethroplasty, accompanied by Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good." This was probably the best "audience response" film of the entire event - lots of howls of terror and horrified laughter, and eventually we were all clapping to the beat of the music. Goodbye, TEENAGE MOTHER! There's a new sheriff in town!
GOODBYE UNCLE TOM (1971)
Okay, here's the thing. This was, arguably, the most painful experience of any BNAT I've attended. I think it manages to nudge TIPTOES out of the top spot there. But a lot of the time, it's strangely and unforgivably compelling. I think I may be a BNAT masochist, but I love seeing the painful stuff with this audience, too.
You may remember that a couple of years ago at BNAT 7 we saw a film called DRUM, which was introduced as - and I thought at the time pretty accurately - one of the most offensive movies ever made. GOODBYE UNCLE TOM covers some of the same ground that DRUM did - the extreme sexualization of black slaves in America, to pick a not-so-random example - but from a different perspective, and it dials the shock factor up several notches. Most of the movie is filmed as if the viewer is a journalist in the time of the Civil War (or is it that the filmmakers have traveled back in time?), being told about how slaves are brought in and sold, and how their masters see them and how the masters justify their treatment of them.
This is one of those films where, with some effort, you can see what the filmmakers were trying to do, but it's so misguided and screwy and intolerably exploitative that the boundaries are pushed, pushed, pushed to the edge and then over a cliff to the rocks below. There is one particularly painful scene where a 13-year-old slave girl is berated by her "Mammy" for being a virgin, then offers herself to the journalist (who is, lest we forget, the viewer) in an incredibly disturbing "do not want" manner. I'd try to describe it more fully, but I can't bear to. At one point, I heard my neighbor, who had been one of the more enthusiastic viewers of the urethroplasty clip, say "Please, make it stop." Sadly, it didn't. I don't know how long this movie actually is, but it felt like it lasted for several days.
And then there's this weird sort of coda to the film, where we're in present day (the 1970s, that is), and this black man is sitting on the beach reading William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner. The point here seems to be that race relations are the same now as they were during the days of slavery. And … yeah, there's just nothing to say to that.
I'm all for "telling it like it is" and not watering down the more colorful parts of our country's history, but damn. It should still be treated responsibly, and not like a piece of pornography. I also can't help rolling my eyes that this was supposedly the filmmakers' attempt to acquit themselves of racism after the poor reception of a previous movie. To which I can only say that if you want so badly to acquit yourself of something that you start soaking money into a moviemaking venture, you're probably not innocent of the charge.
TRICK 'R TREAT (2008)
This is a really cool film, styled after the multi-story, horror comic book structure of the CREEPSHOW movies. But with a twist. There are (I think) four stories. But they are all happening in the same place, and weaving into each other. So the story divisions are more time-related. We start with one story, jump back a few hours and meet some other characters in the same town on the same night having a few different adventures, then jump back again, etc.
There's no point even trying to explain the stories, because they all overlap anyway. And some of the stories - well, all of them, really - have rather nice twists that I hate to spoil. But here's a glimpse of some of the characters.
Dylan Baker is Steven, a school principal who has some rather morbid entertainment standards and carves some special jack-o-lanterns with his son. Brian Cox is his crotchedy neighbor who is visited by a trick-or-treater in a very distinct costume who appears at some point in all the other stories. Anna Paquin is Laurie, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and seen as the weak virgin in her group of four friends. And then there are a bunch of kids who go too far in a prank and end up getting more than they bargained for.
This is a perfect Halloween film. It really sinks its teeth into the holiday and the superstitions, there's all kinds of fun costumes, and there are some great creatures. It's also a wonderful take on the horror genre. There's not just one monster/killer, and it doesn't really follow the horror formula at all, which is quite refreshing. And afterwards we had a nice Q&A with the director Michael Dougherty, who was just an all-around cool guy and had stayed for the whole event.
Another great Geek Christmas - Thanks, Harry!
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great job connie, you made me feel like i was there... and dr. phibes is a personal favorite of mine... also loved your championing of ed sanders, he stole that movie right from under depp's nose
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Does it show Genghis Khan getting a sugar rush on twinkies,putting on a football helmet and beating a manaquin with a baseball bat?
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Why oh why don't I have the money to get my ass to Austin for this event... Denmark is too far away (cry)
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BNAT seems to be much more "classic" oriented (as opposed to loads of exploitation). As such, I prefer the content of Timpson's ones. Still - awesome lineup Harry, good to see some Trek in there. Plus any event where you get an HD-DVD player in your gift bag has gotta rule.
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And so far no Golden Ticket....
Well there's always next year. -
the clips of WALL-E we saw were so beautiful. I cannot wait to see this one next year.
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Have a Great Bash!
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With an HD-DVD player? other than play HD-DVD's?
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Why doesn't this year's movie line up seem that exciting? MONGOL is the only one that I think I would want to see on the big screen. The HD-DVD players are really cool though.
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Goodbye Uncle Tom is available on Netflix. Dare I?
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The plastic shell of the EVE unit looks just like a toy robot from the 80s. Beautiful, shiny surfaces.
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aaaarrrg. I would have rather played rock band on the Alamo screen for two hours....not really my bag...but a sequel about Auschwitz doesn't sound like such a bad idea.
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If you're looking at the titles and thinking it was a weak lineup, then you've missed the point. This is not about how many vintage films we "have to sit through" versus how many cool, envy-making premieres we get to see. At all.
How does it feel to have gone to all this trouble - filling out the application, buying tickets, airfare, hotel, car rental, etc. - to have gone to what WeinerPenis so lovingly calls "the weakest BNAT yet"? Pretty fucking awesome. And I hope I get the chance to do it all again next year.
--ConnieLane -
And many moooooooooooore...
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I have now officially turned the corner on *ever* wanting to be a part of BNAT. Never had much more than a passing interest in it before though previous incarnations at least sounded semi-cool. But this lineup sounds mostly like torture for twenty-four hours plus all of that lame waiting in line. Ick. Probably smelled pretty rank in there by the end too... And newsflash to all you Harry-Heads- there are these things called "film festivals" where they actually tell you in advance which movies you're going to see. And you don't have to wait in line for days to get in. And there are drinks, parties and chances to get laid. Maybe even a free HD-DVD player for you. What a concept!
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And I thought it was an awesome show. I'll admit that I had hopes of going in and seeing Cloverfield or Rambo. And there were 2 movies in the lineup that I didn't care very much about. But other than those, it was a solid show. I think Harry meant for most of it to be about films examining human nature and its varying degrees of corruption. If that's what he was aiming for, he succeeded. By the way, "Feels So Good" may be one of the most evil things that I have witnessed in my entire life. That this was shown right as the Alamo staff was serving breakfast makes it all the more heinous!
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Watch Dr. Phibes and check her out. Can't believe she wasn't in more movies.
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Probably the best thing Jacopetti and Prosperi have done, or at least among their very best work. Sure it's brutal and highly disturbing but I don't think that there are any historical falsehoods in there.
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I don't think the success of BWP had anything to do with the production value...it was all the way it was marketed...just my opinion of course. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Harry.
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Dec 11, 2007 10:52:57 AM CST
What's That Fruity, Yet Moldy Smell Coming From You Guys?
by read and shut up
Oh - it's the pungent odor of sour grapes. Quit griping, you weeners. It sounded like a great lineup to me.
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Haven't even tried to go once- it's much more fun to read about stories of the lunatics who actually tried to get in. Or who still believe in Harry's brand of payola BS. HD-DVD anyone?
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What's the point of trashing BNAT? If you don't have any desire to go in the future, nobody else cares. Go shit on someone else's parade. Happy Birthday, Harry!
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Who cares if the HD-DVD people sponsored Harry? Swag is a fact of life in the entertainment biz. The cool thing is everybody there got one - which is a pretty nice reward for the "lunatics" who waited in line, bought tickets, traveled there, etc. So quit snivelling, you spineless bitch. And - if YOU don't "believe in Harry's brand of payola BS," I'd advise pulling your hypocritical head out of your hypocritical farthole and quit reading him.
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You disliked more movies than you liked.
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I could have bought a sweet setup with that money. And sat at home watching movies by myself instead of with a room full of people who share my love for movies. If you think that staying at home, watching a bunch of DVDs is preferable to going to a real theater, a theater that knows how movies are done, meeting a lot of cool people, and seeing all kinds of stuff you wouldn't normally have the chance to be exposed to ... that's your tragedy, not mine. -- ConnieLane
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Is that given my track record of not getting in through my various writings over the years, I will very likely have to start standing in standby to ever get into this, which is a terribly depressing thought.
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Between airfare, ticket price and hotel you are talking at about a grand. What exactly is your definition of a good setup. My receiver alone was 1400. Basically, you sound like the kind of douche who is always looking for something to bitch about.
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Directed Teen Lust???? I wish there was a list of all the movies shown at BNAT through the years. I guess maybe Wickepidia has one. Though a recap from Harry would be nice, seeing its his b-day party and all.
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I married a former homecoming queen from Auburn University, and I'm a doctor. But I guess you were close in a completely opposite kind of way. I wasn't bragging because 1400 is nothing compared to a top of the line receiver. 1400 is a mid-level receiver. That will basically get you the least expensive receiver that will play TrueHD and have three HDMI inputs. But I think the home theater forum is on another website. And I have only seen the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
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jesus to think I considered making a trip to the USA for that? I'd be mighty pissed.
And the HD-DVD gift on par with Harry's post about HD-DVD has just driven me out of this site forever.
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...theres people saying the line up sucked.... i thought this site was for people who loved the idea of being introduced to great films they didnt know about/have the chance to see yet. I will watch anything once, because until you see it, you just don't know how great it could be. a Line up of 10 terrible film i havent seen would still be a line up worth watching.
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300, Rocky, Black Snake Moan, Knocked Up, and more
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Maybe you'll watch it once?
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WEAK line up its just not a line up a yet to come out movies. Granted this site is dedicated to talking about movies yet to be released, so it would only make sense to have a marathon of movies yet to come out. But Harry's been busy this year. Plus I think Hollywood is mad at him for supporting the likes of Melvin Gibson and Sly.
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but it would have been worth it to get the hd dvd player. Anyone know what model it is?
http://tinyurl.com/pv8do -
You know, after reading more about each film, I do think it sounded like a solid lineup, just disappointing to those expecting more exclusives. I've already added three of the older movies to my Netflix queue and can't wait to get a hold of Mongol. I'll be seeing Trick R' Treat whenever it comes out (what are the chances it will play Fantestic Fest '08?) Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd already have my money, but that's coming in less than two weeks. Glad I didn't have to sit through the Poughkeepsie Tapes though.
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Glad everyone that went had a good time. Seems like the only ones complaining are the people who didn't get in.
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You are going to hurt yourself calling everyone a winger! It isn't worth it man, trust me, it isn't worth it.
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Will you give me fair warning then?
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...Did suck. But Mongol and Trick R Treat sound cool, and would have been worth seeing.
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... that we disagree a lot. Why the fuck people still get mad? How can someone possibly give a fuck if people liked the lineup or not? Of course people that spend money to go there will defend it, it's a natural reaction Anyway, I don't know what all the fuss about Gamespot being a sellout site, look at Harry and HD-DVD!
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They gave us A3's complete with 2 movies - 300 and Bourne Identity. And I assume this list might suck if you don't get a charge out of watching vintage film on the big screen. Sometimes you just haven't seen a movie until you've seen it the way it was meant to be seen.
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(posted this in another TB too)
Mori reviewed this back in May. http://www.aintitcool.com/?q= node/32746 His review, as usual, makes compelling points. Most interesting are Mori's statements that, even though he knew it was a fake, he found himself being drawn in as if it were a real documentary and this affected him. I think poor Mori was just trying to enhance that feeling for the BNAT audience, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, by announcing the movie as a documentary. Apparently this fun idea kinda backfired. Oh well, I think his heart was in the right place. I'm sure he'll be posting his full explanation soon.
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Wr/Dir of Pick Up on South Street, Steel Helmet, Crimson Kimono, White Dog, Motherfucking Shock Corridor, etcetera. Damn you kids need to learn your history.
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Sturges wasn't screwed over. he asked for ONE DOLLAR and ended up getting ten. It wasn't common practice to let screenwriters direct their own material back then, and nobody wanted to let Sturges do it. He worked that cheap just to get the shot. Learn something about film history before yapping about it.
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My sincere apologies that I happened to hear a different development story about McGinty than you did. Do you win a medal or something for being right about that? -- ConnieLane
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Because Toshiba *loves* the cock...
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My favorite line from "Pickup on South Street". Thanks for the write up. Wish I'd-a been there.
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I saw this last week and sent a review in to AICN. Maybe they'll run it, maybe not...
Short version - aside from Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance and the freshness of the material, there wasn't much happening. It was more good than bad, but it could have been much better, and was a real wasted opportunity to do a great political satire using a dramatic and under-represented corner of history. This is definitely not Sorkin in preachy or "I'm so clever" mode - this is more like a Lifetime movie of the week (but with a few tits).
CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR is one to rent or see on cable. -
Bored the absolute living shit out of me during TIFF.
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I've seen all of these exploitation movies, (and much better ones) at my local Grindhouse film festival which happens once a month and is 12 hours, sorry, not 24. But here is the kicker, I show up when I want, and I pay only $24 dollars for the entire thing.
Whoever described the lineup as "pedestrian" hit it dead on. Totally unimpressive lineup. As for the print, unless you are a pompous and L337 (read: laughable) fan boi you don't question or criticize the print of a fucking grindhouse flick. Because for one, the shittier the better. And two, the prints of these movies more or less sucked back when they were new.That is the joy of grindhouse flicks, you enjoy them BECAUSE they suck, you don't try and justify some non-existent or imagined hidden genius, because a good 75% of the exploitation genre is utterly uninspired. You are supposed to enjoy it BECAUSE it is hit. I'm so tired of going to these festivals and hearing the fan bois around me espouse the genius of the director or screenwriter, or actors through trivia that they looked up on the internet right before going to festival. Seriously. Especially when I watched most of these movies at home, on video, by myself, and don't try and act all hifalutin considering them, Just enjoy them for what they were/are.Too bad direct to video killed the grindhouse experience.Ah, went off on a tangent there. What was I getting at, ah yes. The monthly grindhouse film fest in my city is definitely one of the less impressive fests in the nation, so I'm really surprised at this BNAT lineup. Nothing rare or impressive there at all really, unless you are a connoisseur of penile plastic surgery I guess. -
I'm rooting for you.
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It is a bit of a shame that one of the more exciting aspects that came out of Butnumathon this year was the residules of the format war. Great marketing opp for the HDDVD people, missed opportunity for the Bluray camp, then again the Bluray group could have been quite snarky and added a text scroll to the start of the 'Wall-E' footage stating something like 'From the creators of Ratatouille....comes the film you'll never see on HDDVD'. Makes me wonder what sort of player you might get at a Moriarity film festival? I don't have either format and would love to start buying stuff in HD, but not until a clear winner emerges, unfortunately for the studios, they've given me a glimpse of an uncertain but better future so while I wait I've also stopped buying regular dvd releases. Now I find myself with more money AND the realisation that I don't actually need all the DVD's I have been caught up buying in the past, so thanks Hollywood, I now have more money for beer, Holidays and a renewed appreciation for time outside in the sun, Who could've predicted that would be the result of the format war?!!!. For all the bitching and moaning everyone seems to have for either format you all seem to forget that when watching Hi-Def films, both formats use films encoded in the exact same codecs, so good luck finding a real difference. Outside the high def film market, however there are valid arguments, The area of computer data storage is one that immediately springs to mind. In hindsight, with standard def dvd sales now dropping as a result of the format war, you can't help but think the studios are probably regretting having released films on either hi-def format. Guess I'll just continue sitting around now waiting on hi-def, if the past is anything to go by, the rules of probability tell me that sometime soon a free HDDVD and a free BLURAY player will miraculously arrive in the mail without me having to sit in a crowded smelly cinema for 24hrs, but hey whatever floats your boat. (of course I am a little envious)
Before I get abused below for my views above, I should point out that from an outsiders point of view, (and shameless but beneficial HDDVD pimping aside), it sounds like this year, just as in previous years, fun was had by all, so congrats on that Harry! -
It was Tim and Moriarty that added the awful Teen Lust and Poughkeepsie Tapes. If only Farewell Uncle Tom played the last half wouldn't have been as painful.
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Gee Harry it sure sucks that you had to pay for your Toshiba HD DVD player when it turns out you could have gotten one for free just like all the people at BNAT.
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which movies pulled out of the lineup?
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It would be sooo much easier to scan articles if the body text was a normal weight. We also don't need more than one exclamation point ... and ALL CAPS is stupid and annoying too. When you CONSTANTLY over-use something ... it loses all impact and meaning as a signifier. Get it?
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Dec 18, 2007 2:52:04 AM CST
Hey poster Darthnoodle The Two Films That Pulled Out Of BNAT9
by red dawn don
I read in another thread that the two films that pulled out of BNAT9 were NATIONAL TREASURE 2 and LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Anyone know why they bolted? Anyone? Is this thing on? Hello?
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