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Quint calls THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS unadulterated Terry Gilliam!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I’m hectically collecting myself for a last minute trip to Las Vegas for a chance to sit down with some of the folks behind THE HANGOVER. It’s a quick in and out trip, but I wanted to get this review of Terry Gilliam’s THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS finished before I am corrupted by Sin City.
I think hopeful is the best term to describe my state of being going into this film. I love Gilliam. Who my age doesn’t? TIME BANDITS, MUNCHAUSEN and his Python work as a kid and then BRAZIL coming in as my tastes in film matured as a young teen and FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS hitting just as I was undergoing my transition from teen to man.
I had faith that Gilliam’s interesting misfire THE BROTHERS GRIMM wasn’t indicative of his current abilities as a filmmaker, but rather of the constraints put upon him by the Weinstein overlords, but the dude is cursed. I don’t know what graveyard he trespassed in, what greek god he offended, how many cracks he has stepped on, what voodoo priest he stiffed, but something happened.
LOST IN LA MANCHA chronicles the death of one film and then his main star dies in the middle of filming his next.
We all know of Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepping in to fill out Heath Ledger’s work as Tony, the shady main character and I knew they would be great and respectful of Ledger’s mostly finished performance, but I didn’t know how much of a stretch Gilliam was having to make to cover up Ledger’s premature departure. I had nightmare visions of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.
In short, I wasn’t concerned about Gilliam’s skills as a filmmaker, but more about how hard fate screwed him again.
The greatest compliment I can give the movie is that if I had been told the final product was exactly what Terry Gilliam had intended from the beginning I’d believe it. Heath is in the movie for the great majority of his character’s screen-time. This time fate only threw down a gauntlet and challenged Terry to overcome a huge set-back, not Nancy Kerriganed him.
The only stuff they didn’t shoot with Ledger were the three different times he steps into the mirror of Doctor Parnassus, a magical portal that is part of a traveling vaudeville-esque stage show.
Parnassus himself is played by Christopher Plummer who is just awesome in the movie. Parnassus is essentially God with a gambling problem. He can’t keep from making bets with Mr. Nick, Tom Waits’ devil in a bowler hat and that leads to the dilemma of the movie.
Parnassus champions the power of imagination. Much like Stephen King’s beams in his Dark Tower books, storytelling is what keeps Gilliam’s world continuing, it’s the light that keeps the darkness at bay. Their battle is always over humanity’s innate goodness or corruption.
Over the centuries Parnassus has defeated Mr. Nick in this game, has used his Imaginarium to show people the most wondrous aspects of their own thoughts and dreams, but as we get to the modern day theatricality has run its course. It’s nearly impossible to compete with Mr. Nick now and this time Parnassus’ own daughter is on the line.
Parnassus had won her mother, the love of his life, but being cursed with immortality all that is good eventually leaves him and all he has left of his true love is their daughter, Valentina (played by the pixie-ish Lily Cole).
When Heath Ledger’s Tony enters the story it’s quite shocking, actually. You think there was a moment of awkwardness in THE DARK KNIGHT when The Joker is brought to Michael Jai White in a body bag, then wait until you see him hanging from his neck, clearly dead.
Or so you think. There’s something tricky about Tony, the hanging man. He is resuscitated and quickly becomes a part of the traveling band, helping Parnassus cover the distance in his competition with Mr. Nick out of sheer charm.
Listen, nothing Heath Ledger does in this movie tops the iconographic turn as The Joker. I’m willing to bet people will think that was his last movie forever. It’s a huge performance in an incredibly great popcorn tentpole picture. But what Parnassus has is the heart. There’s something tragically poetic about this being Ledger’s final performance.
The mere fact that it brought together Farrell, Depp and Law to pay tribute (and donate their salaries to Ledger’s family) by itself resonates on the screen, but that’s not all. Upon Tony’s crossing over into the fantasy land with a paying customer we see him as she does… as the ultimate charming dreamboat, Johnny Depp.
Depp has a speech that keeps her from the temptation of comfort and easiness enacted by Mr. Nick to draw her soul away from Parnassus, a beautiful speech that I would bet money was written for Heath, invoking the likes of Princess Diana and James Dean… I choked up. At this moment that scene transcends the screen. It’s an incredibly important moment for the characters and the plot, but more than that it comments about something that is on every audience member’s mind and will be for decades to come.
It’s such a beautiful moment that if the rest of the movie had been crap I’d still have something to hold on to.
But luckily the movie isn’t. It’s Terry Gilliam at his purist. He didn’t have the Weinsteins looming over him this time out, but he also had the means to fully indulge his fantastic imagination the likes of which we haven’t seen since MUNCHAUSEN, but to a great effect in BRAZIL.
That’s high praise, I know, but I won’t say the movie is flawless. There’s a giant slowdown in the middle of the movie that I think might shake a few viewers loose. This stumbling block isn’t bad, it’s just that there was a slow build to the world behind the two reflective mylar strips that act as Parnassus’ mirror and we finally get a glimpse at the incredible fantasy side of the film, just enough to get comfortable (or spoiled, if you will) and then we’re pulled back into the real world for an extended stretch.
And I’m not kidding about this imaginationland. We see many different versions, each inspired by the mind who enters. It is both terrifying and awe-inspiring, which I think is probably a true and honest reflection of most of our true psyches. There’s a kid, nose in a hand-held video game, that stumbles in and his world is filled with giant Christopher Plummer head hot-air balloons and a landscape that looks like how I imagine crackheads see Candyland as they play the boardgame with their crackbabies.
Each time we’re behind the mirror we get Gilliam off his leash, nothing but his sheer creativity displayed for us to take in. It’s humbling, actually. There’s a scene that isn’t a mirror scene, but a flashback showing the first meeting of Mr. Nick and Parnassus that has the same feel and gave me shivers. The detail of this world is remarkable and remarkably executed.
Then you have everybody in the cast firing on all cylinders. Ledger, of course, even if his role is tainted by a sadness that he had no concept of as he constructed the character.
The other Tonys, Depp, Farrell and Law all pay apt tribute to Ledger in one form or another. Lily Cole is oddly beautiful with eyes you could fall into if you’re not careful. Plummer is the MVP of the film as far as I’m concerned. He’s quietly confident and brings all his years with him to show us an exhausted being who is driven to forever tell stories for the benefit of all humankind.
Verne Troyer is playing himself, as usual, but there’s an emotional resonance to his character here that is missing in everything else I’ve seen him in. Tom Waits as Mr. Nick is inspired casting. Harry mentioned that he stands up there with Walter Huston’s Mr. Scratch in The Devil and Daniel Webster and I agree wholeheartedly. Waits cuts his devil from the same giddy charmer cloth.
I fear one person who will be overlooked in this film is young Andrew Garfield (BOY A, LIONS FOR LAMBS) as Anton, the only person in the troupe who doubts Tony’s character. He’s a fairly average, normal character (well, as normal as someone who paints his face silver and dresses up like Mercury every night can be), but his character should have been the one audiences hate. He’s in love with Valentina and when Ledger joins the group she makes eyes for him.
The role of the jilted suitor isn’t exactly the audience favorite (except for Duckie and even though he still got Kristy Swanson I say he still got royally screwed), but Garfield gives Anton a real, humanly flawed and layered character, but it’s subtle. With so many great personalities running wild and Gilliam’s imagination being shot out of a cannon directly into our eyeballs at 24 frames a second I hope Garfield’s strong work here doesn’t get lost.
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS is pure, unadulterated, unhomogenized, unrestricted Terry Gilliam. You see the best of all of his past work, including a scene (involving cops) that could have pranced right out of Python sketch. A return to form? Yeah, I think you could say that. It’s certainly a welcome return to fantasy, especially when we’re given such a flawed character as Tony to be our lead.
I can see why Ledger was attracted to this role. Without giving anything away, you’ll think you know exactly where they’re going with him and his character about a quarter of the way through the movie and I’m telling you right now… You’re dead wrong. Let’s just say this character would not exist in a studio film.
I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of word about the movie out of Cannes. I’m sure you’ll see those passionately against the film and those passionately for it, like all of his best work. Love it or hate it, this is pure Terry Gilliam.
Alright, time to catch some sleep before my 30-ish hours in Las Vegas. Be back with a few really cool interviews very soon.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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This is gonna be kickass
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May 16, 2009 3:02:26 AM CDT
There's something Alejandro Jorodowski about this movie...
by asimovlives
... and that's not a bad thing at all. You go, Gilliam!|
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Damn typos!!!
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Obviously, you haven't watched "Tideland".
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I'm wondering if the interest generated in Heath's final performance will be a boon to Gilliam? A huge hit would do wonders for his output.
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See it before PARNASSUS if you haven't caught it yet.
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Don't want to have this one spoiled. I am really excited for all this Cannes stuff - Parnassus obviously, but also the new movies by Jan Kounen and Gaspar Noé. Ang Lees Woodstock thing could be interesting as well...
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so you are a big Gilliam fan?
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going to originally make Dune back in the 70s? Who is he? I ve only ever heard his name in connection with Dune, whats so interesting about him? Do you think his Dune would have been something good?
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... the same way thety did with JJ-Trek. That's quite contra-producent to the movie. Or maybe AICN will over-hype Gilliam's latest movie in atonement.
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Yes, it's the guy who wanted to make Dune in the 70s. Jodorowsky made "The Holy Mountain". Pretty much one of the best movies ever. He also wrote a lot of comic scenarios, most famously the Incal books drawn by Moebius.
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, and does he have a large filmography? What is the holy mountain about? Thanx for the info dude....
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, Anime etc...Are Jodorowsky's films sci-fi at all?
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dude, saw you having serious fights in the trek talkback. Geez that talkback was getting ugly. Just too much man...Some serious flame wars lol..Thought some people's heads were going to explode they were ranting so much...
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Shame...
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will bury us all.
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I had an idea for you that I wrote about in the Rian Johnson interview, but still...
I'm so excited for this film, my nose is bleeding!!! -
"so you are a big Gilliam fan?"You bet."is the jarodowski the dude that was going to originally make Dune back in the 70s?"Indeed he was. He hired Moebius and Giger to help design part of the movie for him, Also in the mix was Ban O'Bannon as well, and many people who later worked with Geroge Lucas for SW. Those guys who were responsible for SFX, they later told they incorporated some ideas from Jodorowski in their sdesign for the special effects for SW..Alexandro Jodorowski is a very interesting fellow. He started as carnie, basically, a part of his life which influenced his subsequent work. He became a filmmaker, and he made such classic surrealist movies like EL TOP, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and SANTA SANGRE, the type of movies which truly seperates the people with a will to experience anything related to cinema and the posseurs, like our friend MrBeaks at AICN.Later, Jodorowski made in collaboration with Moebius a french comic SF saga called The Incal. Really, Jodoroswki is the real deal. And the man himself is endelessly entertaining. His audio comentaries for the DVDs of El Topo and Holy Mountain are a hoot!!! And i'm sure the man is one of the major influences on the great Park Chan-wook.
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This is one of those actors i know of him since i can remember. He is utter quality.
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May 16, 2009 5:11:23 AM CDT
Tom Waits as the devil? In a Terry Gilliam film? I'm FUCKING THE
by diamondjoe
I really want this to be great, if only to make up for the pile of shite that was the Brothers Grimm. But any film with Tom Waits as the devil automatically goes up in my estimation.
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At least his partcipation in this will guarantee Gilliam a well deserved Box Office hit.
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What are you fucking?
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Unlike many art-house dudes, Jodoroswki really loves SF. He also loves those old Zorro movies and many kind of stuff that us geeks also love. He might be an art-house mystical guy, but he really has a good head on his shoulders, a keen sense of self-criticism and the man is just too funny for words. Darn talented as well.Many think he's mexican, but that's not truth. In trugh, he's chilean sonof emigrated jews from poland, i believe. He deosn't declare himself jewish much, though, he prefers to call himself openly spiritualist. He's so partially in response to his father's deep secularism, and also because he was very influenced by the mysticism of the East which started to invade the western world in the late 50s, 60s and 70s. As an atheist myself, i don't buy into none of that stuff but in jodoroswki, there's a true sense of honesty about him, that he is not some mumbo-jumbo crap pusher, but he really is seeking enlightment. Well, given the situation of the time when he was young, i cn't fault him for that. Truly, in those days you were either an atheist or you grooved with the eastern mysticism to escape the time's bullshit.About his movies, man, they are a dozzy!!!El Topo could be described as a psycadelic mexican western on acid. Part western, part recreation of old and new testement, part hero journey, part eastern mysticism lesson, the mvoie is wholesome original. The movie also has the best descrition ever of John Wayne: "if you join one leg-less drawf with an armless giant, you have a John Wayne". and that's not jsut metaphor, the movie really is has an legless dwarf riding on the shouldes of a armless giant. You got to see it to believe it.Holy Mountain is partically undescriable. It's a whole narrative that serves as a mystical jorney of self-discovery. Funny thing is, despiste the movie being chocked full of eastern mysticism and tarot stuff, in the end the movie does pokes fun as most of those type of cults. Actually, the movie pokes fun at EVERY under the sky. It's darn psycadelic as well, and you just can't even guess what will came next from scene to scene. But one thing most have forgotten to mention about HM is that it's also a very funny movie, and deliberatly so.
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Well spotted, AsimovLives, Jodoroswki came into my head immediately when I saw the first picture of Christopher Plummer. El topo and the Holy Mountain are friggin amazing films, and Alejandro, like you say, is a really funny, entertaining guy.
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They donated their salaries to his family who are already wealthier than 90% of us instead of giving it to charity?!? A nice gesture but a tad shallow and self serving. Unless their intent was to insult Michelle William's career prospects with their handouts.
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Dune would have been pretty mental. Hows it going southafricanguy and Asimov? Did you see Trek southafricanguy?
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Terry Gilliam's films seem to be an aquired taste. I, for one, have liked several of them, but then there are those that I found to be not as good as I expected. I'm not in any way dissing Terry GIlliam or his talents. Because I ALWAYS go to see his films. It's just that some of them would be better appreciatedd undetr the influence of hallucinogenics.
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Bravo, Terry! I just watched one of my "Monty Python's Flying Circus" DVDs the other day, and couldn't help but laugh my ass off. Gilliam's animations are as quirky and insane and dreamlike as they come. Wonderful stuff.
I'm really looking forward to "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." It seems like a return to what made Gilliam great. Can't wait! -
sorry, couldn't resist...anyway I like 12 Monkeys but that's about it, so I'll stay away from this.
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Time Bandits, Munchausen, Fisher King and 12 Monkeys are all brilliant films.
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He's come a long way since John Cleese exploded at him during the filming (he was the co-director) of Holy Grail. Brazil's definitely my favorite, and I have a soft spot for Munchhausen. Finally, everyone should see La Jetee before rewatching 12 Monkeys, although it will be kind of a spoiler if you haven't seen it before, which if you haven't shame on you.
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REPENT NOW SINNERS, HIS SECOND (or is is third now?) COMING HAS ARRIVED!!!!
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right after AVATAR, for me, that is.
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If this movie is as creative as you say, then it's guaranteed to fail. Quint, Gilliam isn't cursed by any abstract concept like fate. He is an artist with a clear vision of what he is doing - and therefore he runs into the throng, the mass, the horde, the mob, the general public - who has such an unclear vision they can't figure out which cat food to buy without staring at the cans for a minute or two to try to tax their brains by figuring out of "Chunky Kitty Stew" is more appopriate than "Seafood Medley" for the tabby who doesn't really care one way or another. Once you figure that out, you see why Gilliam has trouble.
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I'm pretty sure they gave their salaries to Heath's kid in like a bond or something that she can't access till she's 18. At least that was what I read while it was all going down.
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I have an Arrakean sandworm boner for this movie so goddamn big right now Paul Atreides is on top of it riding it screaming "I am the Kwizatz Haderach" and behind him is a congo line of happy film geeks stretching 400 miles long and it's so goddamn joyous the idea of this movie that the sandworm has caused rain to fall on the barren planet.
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if you go to the cannes website they have like a 30 min clip of every film and there is like a 30 second scene with heath. it's at like the 21st minute of it
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http://festival-cannes.direct.canalplus.fr/video/ceremonie-d-ouverture
And it's at 21:30 -
So remember kids, if you're cast on a Terry Gilliam film, make sure you have insurance!
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And people remember Being There as his last role. I believe this is Ledger's Fu Manchu, then...
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I was much better before i watched Star Trek, to tell you the truth.
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That was awesome!!!You are the guy who reviewed MOON, isn't it? You do seem to know your SF, and to boot, you are quite the writer. You should be on this site's staff. And really, after the Star Trek disaster, i need some good proper SF to get the horrible taste out of my mouth. Moon and The Road will do that fine, i hope.
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... The Grim Brothers, and it's easy tos ee that al the wrong stuff in that movie is not due to Gilliam himself but from outside forces, if you get my meaning. Besides, evne in his weakest effort, there's still some brillant moments in The Brothers Grims, which means that even at his worst Gilliam is a far better, stronger and more interesting filmmaker then any hack at his prime. I don't even want to imagine cinema without Terry Gilliam. The man is a treasure.
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I hate both his old and new stuff. It's like he just slaps a bunch of crap together and says "OK, I'm done" He's like so many other directors where he can craft a great scene but not an entire movie.
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He did a concert in my home town not to long ago. Alot of stories going around about him being a real prick behind the scenes. I wonder if thats true. I know he refuses to give interviews, instead he interviews himself and sends it to what ever media outlet requests one. Kind of weird.
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At least he tries.
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At least not all of it.And everyone knows why 'fate' seems to conspire against him, God is still pissed about Life of Brian.
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Eh, zfisk?
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... overrrated? The retards, that's why. The pure enemies of cinema.
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Pompous much?
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Not soon enough.
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May 16, 2009 3:29:11 PM CDT
The people over at Nuke The Fridge are assholes like HARRY!
by creepythinman_parttwo
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May 16, 2009 3:29:15 PM CDT
The people over at Nuke The Fridge are assholes like HARRY!
by creepythinman_parttwo
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come on guys! Get your act together. Nikkie Finke is scooping you on your turf. You'll lose visitors if you're not up to date!
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I've forgotten about it already. It had a 61% BO drop from last Friday so looks like the general audience has forgotten it too.
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May 16, 2009 4:36:30 PM CDT
Can't ever think of a time when Gilliam wasn't allowed to be Gil
by knowthyself
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...is at best criminally uneducated in the English language and at worst a fucking dunce.
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Gilliam is pretentious. That doesn't mean one can't like some of his stuff from time to time.Got it? Good.
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I've never been a Gilliam fan, but that's probably just because I haven't watched more than one of his movies (Fisher King). I do read how you guys perceive him, the reviews of his films, or at least the more "creative" ones, and it brings a question to mind. If most of you got what I suspect you want - a world that wasn't quite so anal, repressed or conservative as it's often made out to be here - what would you do then? Would any of this stuff mean anything if, all of the sudden, it was popular with more people and wasn't so rare? 'Ever consider that the things that make you mad in the world also make this stuff so valuable, particularly to you? It's staggering to think how many people make their entire livings commenting on the bad things of the world, the so-called injustices, etc. Supposedly, the ideal is a world in which everyone works not for money but to better themselves, right? Well, if that's the goal, and it's reached, then how does one better themselves from then on? Where is the value in knowledge if everyone has it and there is no competition? In the version of a just world or universe that I suspect is desired on boards like this, you could literally know EVERYTHING and still have as little or as much as the person that knows nothing, and you'd probably be twice as miserable and parnoid. After all, people lie to one another to save each other's feelings - that's intentionally withholding knowledge from someone for their sake, often on the part of people that bemoan the lack or inaccessibility of other forms of knowledge in the world today. If you don't have greed, bigotry, repression, censorship or any of those things to overcome anymore, what then? I think maybe that's why I'm not drawn to these things - the sort of idealism it promotes is ultimately self-defeating. We have our own ideas of what a perfect world should be, albeit different ones, because we know there's no such thing. In our minds, we can compare and contrast. There's what we want versus what we get. Those ideas and desires drive creativity and discussion - they keep us occupied a great deal and, for some that make their livings trying to promote some form of social or economic justice, the fact that such an ideal is currently, seemingly unattainable is actually quite profitable. You can try to make it seem like I'm against the efforts, which I'm not, but you can't say it's not profitable considering how wealthy people, those propagating the more so-called liberal ideals like, say, Jesse Jackson and the Kennedys are, or people like Limbaugh propagating the conservative ideals. As long as there's something to work towards, these guys have a job, an audience, etc. I, personally, have no illusions - the world will never be exactly how I THINK I want it to be, but then again, I hope it never is because the challenges and even the small, momentary successes give my life meaning and make everything worthwhile. Just out of curiosity, could one of you address this without childish vulgarity and derrogatory namecalling - maybe in halfway proper sentence structure with correct spelling? This movie is all about imagination, right? Is there an imaginative AND civilized response to this somewhere on this board?
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I gotta say Quint, unlike Harry, you've really matured into a good reviewer. Thanks for the peek into a film I'm really looking forward to.
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The Fall was my favorite movie of last year, because of it's devotion (and adherence) to imagination. I'm getting the same vibe from this movie.
I'd expect this to be Gilliam's highest grossing movie to date, due to the curiosity factor over Ledger's performance.
Just don't expect $500 million. -
has he made something truly great, compared to the likes of Kubrik, Hitchcock, Bergman et cetera. He's also made stuff that's seriously crappy, like the Brothers Grimm. I hope this Parnassus' thing with Heath is better, dare i hope, even great. Call me a posseur or whatever, but i really think Jodorowski makes horribly overrated movies, just weird for the sake of weird. His movies are not for everyone that's for sure. It's for people love to interpret and look for deeper meaning in the symbolisms. I'm a simple man, I prefer two sheets of paper with the deep meaning written on them instead. Much easier than wasting my time decyphering. Alas, some people take pleasure in decyphering, and well... It's good that people like that exist, specially for Alejandro, so he can ear money and feed his family. By now, I'm sure you know I'm one of those ungodly creatures that enjoyed Michael Bay's Transformers, so... Also... Jodorowski's Dune would have sucked! I mean, didn't the guy want to cast Dali as the Emperor ffs?! Hey, Alejandro, how about casting someone who, you know, can act? Ridley Scott in his prime, now there's a guy who would have done Dune justice. And ok, so Incal is good, mainly thanks to Giraud's impeccable style, but Metabarons... utter crap. JORSON28: Bettering yourself is an attainable goal, but you can always improve. Once you attain some knowledge you immediately find out there is so much more to know. In my opinion, there will always be a better microscope that will let us see smaller stuff, then a better one to let us see even smaller stuff... ad infinitum. So, complete knowledge can never be reached. And in reference to satisfaction, when someone who lacks the knowledge comes to you for advice, the feeling of satisfaction that being useful gives you is something to be experienced: it's pure bliss that ignorance can't even begin to touch. My 2c (sorry for my atrocious English btw)
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12 Monkeys is as good as sci-fi film making gets. And The Fisher King has so many amazing moments. But particularly 12 Monkeys is a flawless work of genius. Coming from something starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe and Brad Pitt, that's saying something.
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If you are talking about JJ-Trek, then that's the best movie news i got this week.
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Don't forget "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas", which is also a 90s Gilliam movie, on account it was released in 1998. Yes, that along ago. How time flies!As for great movies in Giliam's career, i think that at the very least "Brazil" can be classified as a great movie in his curriculum.
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is absolutely correct
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is perhaps the most overrated movie of all time.
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FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS?? I mean I love Terry but I fucking hate that movie. Like I saw it in middle school it bored me and I feel asleep. Have watched it sense but that was after every stoner I've ever meet had to tell me that it was the best movie ever and no that they had never heard of the movie Brazil/Time Bandits/Baron Munch......which are all better films then Fear.
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I agree about Fear and Loating, I also think Brazil is interesting, just not particularly worth revisiting. Baron and Time bandits are great though.
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Agree with your assessment of the general public vs. Gilliam, but you don't know cats -- I'm a crazy cat person. They are picky as all fuck, like genre fans. Though it's true that zombie minded people do ponder in the cat food aisle, because they don't know cats, either.
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seriously, what a fucked up movie. Terry's got balls to make a movie like that
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Love T.G. Have yet to see Tideland. And I think Fisher King is a little overrated (I know. But I don't like Robin "The Annoying Genie and Patch Adams and Bicentennial Man suck ass." Williams too much. And I honestly thought The Brothers Grimm was fun but a missed opportunity given the talent involved. (I guess if you're not RR or QT, you got problems with the WSteins from the get go.) But this movie really does look like it's the shit (in a good way). I whole-heartedly look forward to finally getting to see this film. Plus LaMancha. Why do studios have a problem with giving the guy $, when they spend millions and millions on crappy movies by Richie Cunningham? Oh, well...
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Some meaning may seem to have been lost when something becomes popular. A little-known movie, or themes or a style common to a particular genre of movies, previously only in common between you and a small number of people, is now shared by all sorts of people, of varying degrees of intelligence and taste, with enthusiasm similar to yours. Any hostility is exclusive and ridiculous, but most people are that way until they (hopefully) come to their senses and are glad that their circle has broadened.
Terry Gilliam is a gifted and captivating filmmaker; however, his relative obscurity, at least where box offices are concerned, is largely due to the odd nature of his films, their uniqueness, and the vivid imagination reflected, which are all rarities and not the products of some outside force making him its victim. He could easily, if he wanted, make more marketable movies: he simply doesn't want to. Such characteristics, if they're exhibited by a sincere individual, generally don't make much money anyway, and while a person can rail against the situation, it's certainly not a new one.
If you're saying you don't care for movies that reflect idealism, because life is never ideal, then I suppose I don't know what else besides documentaries--and then only the ones that don't address the more buoyant aspects of the human spirit--you can ever watch. You can make fiction as realistic as you like, its characters as caustic and petty and banal as people can be at times, and anything magical as absent and foolish as some people believe, but at some point you might as well just research exhaustively something unfortunate or horrifying in reality and think really hard about it for ninety minutes. Imaginative work, even if it hardly makes any money, in the derivative, imitative year of Star Trek XI, Terminator 4, Angels & Demons, and Transformers 2, is welcome, as far as I'm concerned. -
Heath will always be remembered as the guy that was the top to the more afeminate Gyllenhaal. I've already forget TDK but I wish I could quit Brokeback Mountain. Actual Brokeback was just fucking long and boring as shit, as is all of Ang Lee's movies. I'm sorry that guy is overrated as fuck as well.
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Some old director will make a movie or write a book/script about working with the Weinsteins and what there fucking deal is. Why a director like TG gets fucked over but QT and Kevin Smith get full creative control? I bet it all comes down to sucking up, I like Kevin and QT but they seem like spineless a hole when it comes to sucking up, which is fine because they get to do what they want. I bet the Weinsteins make directors jump through hoops and TG doesn't seem like a guy who wants to deal with that crap. Anyone see TG on that episode of Trigger Happy TV?
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Web site and you wouldn't even have any idea that Outlander AND Fanboys comes out on DVD this Tuesday? You'd have more a clue if you came here (though for some reason AICN gave up on Outlander?????). Go check out the Weinsteins site and all they are doing is fucking pimping QT's new awful looking Nazi movie? I mean that guy just made them loose a shit load of money with his last flick? Does QT have some pictures of the Weinsteins in some sort of compromising position?
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The Weinsteins are making this? By the Haute Tension guy. Its further along then I thought. Here is the cast: Elisabeth Shue, Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Szohr, Dina Meyer, Ving Rhames, Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell Thats a pretty decent cast for a B-movie remake.
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Farrah Fawcett having cancer? WHOOPIE. Yeah it sucks and all, but ummmmmmmmm lots of fucking people get cancer (including famous people) what makes her so special. Why didn't she just make a deal with NBC to make the last year of her life a reality show, and at the end of every episode you don't know if she dies or not. And her family and friends can then go on talk shows and have the host try to get them to slip which episode she is going to die in. It will all be a lot more fun, like we can have Farrah doing crazy things like swimming with Whales, going to Disney Lang, meeting a B-list actor, going sky diving, having a sports star dedicate a point to her, getting a star named after her, appearing as a guest judges in some crappy reality show, going to church, talking about how bad hospital food is, yelling at her assistants, kill a small child. You know the whole Make a Wish Foundation List.
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Wrong thread. That was meant for the Lost thread.
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but i ve been busy lately. Anyway....im good dude, thanks for asking. Yes I have seen the new trek. Unlike my good friend Asimov (btw thanks for all the info on jaradowsky asimov..you have convinced me to check his stuff) i did nt despise it. Let me just state up front that without question the script was really dumb (but then what else were we expecting from the brain trust of orci and kurtzman lol) But for me it was quite fun. I thought the effects were very good, the cast were excellent for the most part (except Pegg, who i thought was very miscast, and not funny imho). I liked the depiction of the ship's engineering sections, the no sound in space moment...basically i thought it re-invented trek fairly well. Simply put it entertained me, but it is also a flawed movie with some real weaknesses. However it had enough moments that were pure trek, and as someone that grew up on trek, it just tickled my geek senses....
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Wrong. It is one of the most UNDERRATED.
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I detested the engine room of JJ-Trek's Enterprise. The place looked like a mixture between a brewry and a early 20th century diesel ferry engine ship. It was dumb. And it's totally inconsistent with the look from the rest of the movie's ship. If the atempt was to turnthe engine room into a sort of "retro-cool", the result was merely a "retro-dumb". The rest of the ship looks like a Apple Store, and the engine looks like a burbon brewry? Give me a break!! People can blame the old Star Trek movies of all things, but design inconsistency is not one of their faults. And of course. with a engine room looking like a brewry and with Scotty in it, the scotch whisky cliché is now complete. Maybe the new JJ-Trek's Enterprise, the ship is powered by destilled alchoolic beverages. Certainly the script and directing was.
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that's quality. good on em
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interiors of the Kelvin in the begining. I have to actually agree with you about the engine room being comletely inconsistent with the rest of the design. Well, fair enough Asimov it clearly did not work for you on any level, i can respect that even if it was nt the same for me...
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? the south african sci-fi movie?
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Distric 9 ---- Bloody hell, what did i just saw?? This is the coolest thing i have seen all year as a trailer!! This is the stuff!! Can't wait to see this one! Man, maybe Sf is salvagable this year after all. The Road, Moon and District 9? Hell yeah!! All this stuff is very welcom to conter-ballance the complete retarded shittiness of Jay Jay's Shit Trek.Dude, as a south african i have to congratulate you in behalf of your country on a one hell of a kick ass trailer for a very well possible kickass SF movie to be. Maybe south african SF is in good hands after all. Trust me on this when i say, that trailer alone is far far far far much better then all the Jay Jay Shit Trek bullshit combined. that's a fact! Right on!!
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I couldn't check out much of the USS Kelvin interiors on account of the shaky-cam and the fucking lens flares. This Jay Jay Abrams is such a retard, he spends other's peoples money making million dollars worth sets, and then he shots the whole thing with shaky-cam and lens flares that completly obfustate them. If i was Paramount's head boss, i would throw an industrial copper hammer at Jay Jay's head and had him shackeled at Paramount's door for everybody to see and use him as an example for all future hacks who think it's cute to pull such stunts. In the words of Lord Bale, "fuckin' ass!"
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Ledger's last film, Tom Freaking Waits as the Devil, and Gilliam's stuff looking like his Time Bandits/Brazil/Munchausen glory days? I'm so there!!
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Hopefully this'll be as entertaining as it seems...
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Stellan Skarsgård said in some interview that Dan Brown was a shitty writer. That is funny, Stellan probably did the movie because he knew it would make bank.
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Almost got its ass kicked by Star Trek in the BO.
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Yeah, great, two bad idiotic retard hack job movies are eating each other at the box office. I hope both kill each other and go to box office failure hell.
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There's a short film on YouTube/Google Video by Blomkamp (director of District 9) called "Alive in Joburg". It's the same premise with a fraction of the production costs, and it still holds up pretty well. The short received some attention on AICN a while back, when Blomkamp was announced to direct Halo.
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Does it have Terry Gilliam's trademark fisheye lens and awkward batman-villian camera angles?
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yes it does
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Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.
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year ultimatly. District 9 does look really interesting, and its actually about somehting. Agree with you about the Road, that looks very interesting indeed. But lets not also forget the big one at the end of the year dude..Avatar. Imho I think that will be big budget sci-fi on an epic scale that will act as a counter balance to stuff Transformers, trek et al...
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do you like? My personal favourites are the undiscovered country, love the whodunnit murder mystery, and imho its a good analogy of the collapse of the Soviet empire and the resulting change in the world order. Imho one of the things good sci-fi does..make comments on whats happening in the here and now. Also WOK, Montblans performance, the great cat and mouse between Khan and Kirk...just good ol fashioned good writing and dialouge. Oh..also like the director's cut of TMP, far superior to the theatrical cut imho..
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set in the trek universe. The only good TNG movie imho..
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now thats a stunningly bad film dude. Geez, i really just wanted it to end...so bad..just so bad..
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no probably not me, but Jacknancerenge and chromedome and that other guy
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I can't be bothered with Angels & Demons. After The DaVinci Travestry, i can't be arsed with Oppie's movies anymore. As i have said many time,s only thing really good the guy had made his whole life was his daughter. I still can't beleive that lovely and talented lady came out of his groins. I begs belief!My fave Star Trek movies are ST:TMP (both versions, actually), ST2, ST3 and ST6. Those are the ones i really dig through and through. I partially like First Contact, but only in all the stuff relatig to the Borgs. The stuff outside the Enterprise and not related to the Borgs i can't give a shit. And it's great to see shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart kicking ass in action hero mode. I always love to see shakespearean actors like him kicking ass, it's always loads of fun. I think Nemesis had a good idea at it's core, but got screwed in execution. Same with ST5. ST Geenratins is one of thsoe nice try but no cigar kind of deal to me. I despise ST4, and all other ST movies, for that matter. ST4 might have been the movie that made me completly turn against eviromentalism, and i was an enviromentalist back then. No small task that. I like some stuff in the movie, mostly the character interactions between the 3 leads - Kirk, Spock, bones -, but the movie is a disgrace. That movie got very watchable to me because some friedns of mine did a MST3K version of it, and it's one of the most hillarious thing i ever seen.As for District 9, i can't wait for it to be released. Could it be this year's Stander, a kick ass south african movie of the year?
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And about District 9, i loved that in those mockumentary interviews, we see blacks and indians talk about the aliens as once the white people did to the blacks and the emmigrants. Nice reversal! This is what SF can provide that no other genre can, you can have real life issues being projected into a different light and force people to reconsider their prespectives. Well, good SF, anyway. Old time Star Trek used to be like that. Not anymore, i'm affraid.
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thats one of the problems I have with Gilliens movies ,his sense of pacing is just so off.Even his most enjoyable films , have massive lulls that seem to drag for ages.The guy has made some classics though, Brazil , Time Bandits 12 monkeys.It's hard to judge if his movie making style or fucking awful bad luck ..wreck most of his projects.He comes across as a dangerous melding of Tim Burtons style, with Wernor Herzogs directorial approach..!
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May 18, 2009 7:41:41 AM CDT
Gilliam is hit or miss for me, but when I heard
by grammaton cleric binks
Plummer was in the title role I knew I had to see it. I tried reading his autobiography, but only ended up skimming it. I need to tackle that again, but it's got some good stuff. He's in his what 80s now, so it will suck when he goes. I liked 12 Monkeys. I saw a little of Brazil, and turned it off. Time Bandits kind of the same, but this looks like a great premise with the ususal eccentric visual treatment.
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You'll get there eventually.
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At least visually. Besides, it's about time he got a break!
I can't think of many film-makers of his calibre who've had so so much bad luck with their films. -
assessment of the trek movies. Though im sorry dude, but the theatrical cut of TMP is not a good movie. The pace is glacial, and the long shots of people reacting and basically making googly eyes gets ridiculous after a while imho. Also, the characters dont act like the characters in the show, they are really stiff and lifeless too....but thats just me dude.
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you realize that Stander wasnt all that South African? The director was Canadian, the main actor was American, his wife was played by a Canadian, and the crew was only about half South African. As much as I would love for SA to be able to take all credit for it, im afraid its argumentative wether it is in fact a South African film. But im right there with you about the things district 9 is saying, and the way sci-fi comments on real world events...
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wrong with its enviromental message? Why is promoting the humane treatment and saving of whales a bad thing dude? Just curious Asimov....dont mean any offence by it...
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Aside from classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, I love everything by Mizyaki (the man's a fucking genius as far as im concerned). I also really love the mecha sub genre (robotech, gundam etc..)
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What a waste of my time. I loved Time Bandits, Munchausen, and 12 Monkeys, but my god, what a turd Brazil was. All this "brilliant filmmaking" talk for Brazil sounds a bit pompous and yes, pretentious. It had a unique style, yes. but. that's. about. it.
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The glaciar pacing of ST:TMP (which, by the way, i never found as slow as many do) is part of it's charms. and it also perfectly shows the true approach to a completly unknow mystery. This type of great unknowns, you do not go in rushing head-on, no, you go into it step by step. Whatever you might think of the movie, the truth of the mater is that Robert Wise knew what he was doing when he made the movie like he did in both versions. Also remember, back in the day audiences were more pacient then today's. I rewatched Wrath Of Khan yesterday, andlet me tell you, i fear most of the people here like the movie more out of nosltalgia or as in adesire to be in the in-crowd, because compared to today's movies, WOK is pretty slow paced and takes it sweet time to go from one action scene to another. I don't complain, in many ways, i prefer movies to be this way, a lul inbetween the action sceens gives a breeder, and makes the action scenes even more spectacular and exciting. When everything runs at breakneck speed, then what's the diference? Where's the excitement? It gets boring and noninvolving. This is why i keep on championing ST:TMP until kingdom come. When i talk about ST:TMP, i'm not even bothering distinguishing between the original cut or the DC, that's the very least in my mind about it.
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And the acting is there, alright. Yes, you could say, it's more subtle. Robert Wise prefered that kind of acting. And you know why? This is kinda old school type of filmmaking from Wise, of cours,e but Wise reckoned, with reason, that for TV, actors needed to be nearly hystrionic because they had to sell a lot of drama with acting alone, to compensate for the lower production values and also with the constant break for commercials. You had to grab the public with merely a big face onscreen. In a big epic movie like ST:TMP, you had many other alies beside the actors: you had a synmphonic score playing on all instrument,s you had widescreen vistas, you had millionaire special efects, you had state of the art sound effects delivered on dolby stereo (at a time when 95% of the TVs were mono), you had massive sets. Big acting like on Tv would be over-the-top for a movie that didn't required it. Wise reckoned, with right, that he could afford more subtlery with the acting. In fact, with that decision, he forced the Star Trek actors to act better. I rewatched ST:TMP again recently (i had a small ST binge), and contrary to popular belief, there's far more acting going on inthe movie then many claim. but it's subtle. It's the kind of subtle stuff that Wise prefered to had his actors pull off, like he did with his cast in "The Sand Pebbles". In some ways, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a bit like "The Sand Pebbles" in space, only far more optimistic.And i love The Sand Pebbles.
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My problem with Star Trek 4 is the same i have with anything that takes an hammer and decides to hammer it's point home until the audiences are fucking dead. And that's the kind of approach i don't particulary find enticing. Look, the movie could had it's message, but for Bale's sake, was it need to be this bloody obvious and sledge-hammered? And what about the fact the whole movie is build opon one of the biggest deux ex machina ever created for the movies? How convinient it is that there's this big unstopable threat from who knows where (and which is a budget repetition of V'Ger from ST:TMP), the ultimate galactical enviromental ass kicker, and the only nes to stop it just so happesn to be Kirk an Co, and what a great oportunity for them to get back into the good graces of the Federation after they had completly trashed and torn the regulations book in Search For Spock? How convinient is that? I think even the ancient greek would had though that Deux Ex Machina a bit too much and over-the-top.Saying that, and regardless of my dislike of the movie, the Federation in it still acts like the military, and despiste the crew had saved Earth, they still had to be trialed and punished for the criminal acts they did in the movie before. And punished they wee, but with amnesties thrown at the sentense due to special mitigated circunstances in their favour. Unlike the high school bullshit that passes as The Federation that is found in that Teen Trek abortion of a movie, where everything is pardoned no sweat, and the kid even gets the dad's car keys. For fuck's sake!!
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I have to say my knowledge of anime is pretty limited. I loved the classics you aforementioned, Akira and Ghost In The Shell. The later is not just my fave anime, it's one of my all time fave movies. That movie is very close to what i consider a perfect film.Other animes i dig a lot are perfect Blue, Wings of Honneamise, Ghost In The Shell 2 and the wrist-cutter Graveyard Of Fireflies. I also quite liked Blood The Last Vampyre. As i said before, i'm not too well versed in anime, i'm affraid.But i could not finish by making a special mention to 3 unusual and very good anime TV shows which i really loved: "Future Boy Conan", "Serial Experiments: Lain" and "Cowboy Bebop". I can't say much of Furykuri and Trigun because i oly saw some episodes of those shows, but they looked completly insane, in a good way.
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thats the way it oughta be, yeah, yeah... thats the way it oughta staaay, yeah, yeaaahhh...
*pinky pinky plonk plonk* -
The others leave me in a depressive state. He's a real artist, in my opinion. As such, he makes stuff I love and stuff I hate.
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and i agree with them, i just think all those elements you mention (subtle acting, deliberate pace etc..) work much better in the director's cut. Just tightens the pace where it needs to be, and adds lots of great little scenes imho...
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its true that the messeage is hammered home quite bluntly, but at least its a message thats hard to dislike imho..
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shell...sheer brilliance. Watched it 2 nights ago with my girlfriend. An absolute masterpiece. All the anime you mentioned is good (i would say you have good taste in anime Asimov) but you might want to check out Patlabor, and especially neon genesis evangelion. Do yourself a favour my friend...
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Bloated over-done productions, mish-mash of styles/themes/over-reach of director vs. what winds up being produced. Really enjoyed Time Bandits and etc. but I agree w/ MrGeyser-this guys track record ISN'T that great-and this will piss many of you off-he's the reason why guys like BRETT RATNER continue to get opps because the Suits KNOW-they're gonna get a hit and he'll deliver(more or less) what they're paying for. W/ Gilliam-you just Never know. And that's a shame.
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Brazil has both a happy and an unhappy ending at the same time. Happy from the perspective of the main characte,r unhapy from the perspective of the audiece, i guess. So, where you stay on that one?
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Not all stories worth telling are an "easy watch". Tideland is one of those. But it's great that Gilliam chosed to tell it, and i thank him for having the guts to tell it anyway. If anything, that movie recharged his artistic batteries, after the pain and the dispirited discontent that was the making of The Brothers Grimm. Gilliam felt so depressed and demoralized after making the leter, that he nearly decided to stop making movies althogether. And he really meant that.I'm very happy that tideland exists. not just for the sake of Gilliam's artisitic mojo, but also because it's a mvoei that should exist. It's a story that should had been told. and if it's not easy, well, the whole situation of the story is not easy either. And while the movie has a whimsical nature, it tells a type of story which is unfortunatly all too common. Tideland might be Gilliam's movie which is closest to what Werner Herzog calls "the extactic truth", in which with fiction you expose and tell truths which could not be effectively told by other means. News might give us the facts, but drama can also deliver and expose the emotions, the feelings and the mind behind the truths.Tideland is a great movie. It's not easy to watch, yes, but that's part of it's own nature. It's designed to be that way, and as it should.
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As if! Small wonder there's so many Jay Jay Abram's Crap Trek groupies, with opinions like this.
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Pure Gilliam - it's over used. It's like saying the work of David Lynch is "Lynchian."
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But it's still right.
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'emperor has no clothes' deal should go back and re-watch 12 Monkeys, imo the finest film ever crafted on the subject of temporal causality and transceivers in dental fillings.
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....ANOTHER OVERBLOWN WIND FILLED TRAINWRECK INCOMPRHENSIBLE MESS THAT IS A GILLIAM FILM.
IT'S THE SAME OLD TIRED M.O. : DOUCHEBAG AICN REVIEWERS GET THEIR PANTIES ALL IN A BUNCH ABOUT A NEW GILLIAM FILM, TAKE A 5SEC LOOK AT A CUMSTAINED GRAINY FUCKING WORKPRINT, THEN DECLARE THAT GILLIAM IS 'BACK'.
OMFG. KILL ME NOW.
LATER ON, WHEN THE REAL THING IS FINALLY RELEASED, IT'S GIVEN THE USUAL MASTURBATORY 'NEAR MISS' LABEL AND 'BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME'.
WE'LL PROBABLY ALSO HAVE TO SUFFER THROUGH THE ENDLESS 'I HATED 6 MONKEYS' POSTS ALSO. -
May be my favorite Gilliam film. So glad to see him return to fantasy as well. It was fantastic, and knowing what happened with Heath, the 'sit in' scenes were seemless and felt completely appropriate.
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IVfplDY PhkyqN
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OmOcksbC eJhAAALW
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