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Nordling Loves Zack Snyder's Fever-Dream "Musical" SUCKER PUNCH!
Nordling here.
I already know I'm going to be in the minority on this one. Frankly, I don't care. I also know that this isn't going to be an even-split "love it or hate it" kind of movie. I'm fully aware that this film's advocates will be on the smaller side of that equation. So you can tune out now, if you wish. You probably already know where I'm going to come out on Zack Snyder's SUCKER PUNCH. I fully expect hoots of dirision, and I've already steeled myself for the cacophony.
"Kitchen sink" films rarely work. I define "kitchen sink" films as films that, for better or worse, are a filmmaker's intent to make the definitive work of their career (which almost never works intentionally - the audience decides a filmmaker's definitive work, not the filmmaker) or a film that the filmmaker makes to excise their influences and visions, throwing every influence and passion onto the screen, a kind of palate cleanser. Or both. GANGS OF NEW YORK is a "kitchen sink" movie, and I'd rank that film as an interesting failure. The KILL BILL movies are "kitchen sink" movies, for example, that work.
SUCKER PUNCH is, without a doubt, a "kitchen sink" movie. Its influences are as wide as the ocean - anime, Kurosawa, war films, comic books, science fiction, METROPOLIS, Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL, pick your genre - and the film's detractors will claim it's about as deep as a puddle. Logically, the film makes little narrative sense. It may be considered a cop-out to say that it's not supposed to. But this is not a film to be analyzed, picked over and examined. This is a film to be experienced, to be taken in as a whole, and it's a film where the journey is the point, and not the destination.
SUCKER PUNCH is structured like a fairy tale, with Babydoll (Emily Browning) and her younger sister mourning the death of their wealthy mother. Their evil stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) is there to collect the inheritance, but when their mother's will has all the money going to her daughters, he goes into a rage and attempts to rape Babydoll's sister. Babydoll grabs a gun and shoots, but misses the stepfather and kills her sister accidentally. This is all the stepfather needs to get Babydoll committed to Lennox House, a home for the insane. The stepfather pays an orderly, Blue (Oscar Isaacs), to falsify Dr. Vera Gorski's (Carla Gugino) paperwork to give permission for Babydoll to be lobotomized in five days by the visiting surgeon (Jon Hamm). All of this is told in a very free-flowing visual style that any person who has ever seen a Zack Snyder film will recognize. It's all there - green screen, speed ramping, CGI - but Snyder and the concept artists and crew are having such a fun time telling their story visually you go along with the ride. The whole opening sequence is practically silent before the title credits show up. Time in SUCKER PUNCH is as fluid as your drink spilling into your lap.
Once Jon Hamm, with his lobotomy nail ready, shows up, our perspective shifts into a fantasy in Babydoll's mind, as she sees the asylum as something called "the Theater," where the girls are playthings for the male clients who come to be served there; Blue as tyrannical boss and Gorski as caretaker of the trapped girls. We meet them all, inside Babydoll's fantasy - friendly Rocket (Jena Malone); wary, cynical Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish); very unblonde Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens); and handy with a mech Amber (Jamie Chung). The girls are there to entertain the men, and the first time Gorski instructs Babydoll to dance, she is transported to a dream within the fantasy as she fends off three giant mecha-samurai to gain the weapons and the knowledge of the Wise Man (Scott Glenn). In this fantasy, Babydoll figures out how to escape the facility. But she cannot do it alone, so she enlists the help of the other girls to gain the items she needs - a map, fire, a key, a knife, and a fifth, secret item. As fantasy layers upon fantasy, the film becomes an opportunity for Snyder to wear his influences on his sleeve - from a World War I trench warfare sequence where anime mech meets clockwork zombies to a medieval siege complete with orcs and a really big dragon - think Vermithrax, not REIGN OF FIRE - as our heroines do battle using a World War II Flying Fortress. I imagine everything Zack Snyder ever said "Cool!" at in passing is in this film in some way or another. Babydoll and the girls must break out of their prison before the High Roller (Jon Hamm) appears and takes Babydoll away forever without hope of escape. Each dance that Babydoll performs for the various male characters transports the audience to a new realm, and brings the girls closer to their freedom.
Flat out, if you can't suspend your disbelief in this movie, you're going to be in for an unpleasant time. The movie requires a lot of heavy lifting, and narrative logic goes out the window fairly early. Babydoll's dreams, especially - although it's not clear what time the film takes place (it seems to be in the 1960s), Babydoll's visions involve anime mechs, science fiction robots, high speed trains, and imagery that someone like Babydoll simply doesn't have access to. Although the film doesn't make logical sense, it does if you approach the film as a kind of visual "musical." In musicals we're expected to understand that people can break out into song as a part of the world, and in SUCKER PUNCH fantasy action sequences take the place of those songs. It's visual music, as it were. Snyder's imagery is playful; the camera swoops, shakes, soars, and catapults the audience through each amazing scene. If you try to pick at what you're seeing, though, the house of cards falls down. This isn't a movie for people who need realism in their films - you're missing the forest for the trees if you question why Babydoll has the fantasies that she does. Instead, you're basically watching Snyder riff on his guitar for two hours. That's okay if you like that sort of thing, because Snyder's one of the best in the business. But if you can't stomach the way Snyder spirals, jazzlike, through the film's setpieces, you're going to be fairly miserable.
I'd say that SUCKER PUNCH may be the first film to use videogame aesthetics and plotting successfully. Each sequence is like a level (some even have end bosses) as the girls move further along to their goal. Like a videogame, Babydoll puts herself inside her fantasy as the heroine. As each item is procured the stakes of the film go even higher. And this film has stakes - people die, and the threat is very real, even inside the fantasy. Like INCEPTION, each layer of fantasy touches on the one before, and also touches "reality." If you think this is all gloss and sparkle, it's not. SUCKER PUNCH has quite a bit of subtext to it - the gender roles of the girls, male dominance and subjugation, the subversion of the fairy tale - but it's only there if you want it. More intellectual viewers are free to engage with those subtexts while you can groove on the imagery if you want.
For many people, SUCKER PUNCH will simply be too much. For others, SUCKER PUNCH will just be silly, an indulgent male fantasy of hot chicks fighting dragons and such. I could nitpick SUCKER PUNCH to death, but that would be missing the point. I think Zack Snyder is using the geek imagery in the film to subvert and play with the very conventions of cinema. What is reality? Every film we watch is reality for the characters in them, so questioning what we're watching seems pointless - we're inside the movie with the characters. And at the same time, we're outside of what we are watching because the imagery Snyder uses touches on so many different genres and films it can't be helped when we're pulled outside of the movie to think about what we're seeing. It's a neat trick Snyder pulls off here, and I haven't seen very many filmmakers do that successfully. Christopher Nolan's done it; Quentin Tarantino's done it. Not many others. It's all very meta and for the more disciplined, structured mind it may be confusing. But if you trust where Zack Snyder is taking you, and set aside your misgivings, SUCKER PUNCH may take you places that you didn't expect for a film of this kind.
I'm not going to be one of those people who claims that people who don't like SUCKER PUNCH "don't get it." I'm also not going to claim that it's their fault if SUCKER PUNCH is too much for them. In a way, SUCKER PUNCH is Zack Snyder's most personal film, and what it tells me about him is this - he's not interested in conventional storytelling techniques. He uses larger themes and images - larger than life, and overwhelming at times - and SUCKER PUNCH could be viewed as Snyder's personal thesis on the art of film in general, and the power of stories and myths to transport us from reality. It could be Snyder's statement on gender and sexuality; a girl empowering film about the power of feminism and friendship to overcome adversity and subjugation. It could simply be seen as a vessel for cool images but hollow and empty. This will likely be viewed as a cop out when I say this, but much of what works for SUCKER PUNCH is what you bring into it. It's a bit like a Rorschach test that way (pun intended). I do think that SUCKER PUNCH is going to gain a small, fierce following, much like the following for SCOTT PILGRIM or even FIREFLY. We're probably going to see a ton of Babydolls or Sweet Peas this year at ComicCon. I don't know how this film is going to fall in my mind as time passes. Like I said, I know I'm going to be the minority on this one. Others will undoubtedly see SUCKER PUNCH as a self-indulgent mess. They may even be right, from their own perspective. All I can say is that I haven't stopped thinking about it, and the more I turn SUCKER PUNCH around in my head, the more I think that Zack Snyder's film is one of those rare "kitchen sink" films that works, on multiple levels - as sheer entertainment, as a deeper comment on film, and as Snyder's grand statement on the power of myth and storytelling. In short, I think it's one hell of a movie.
Nordling, out.
Readers Talkback
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take that firsters!
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For VH and JC alone.
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March 24, 2011, 1:47 p.m. CST
"...you're basically watching Snyder riff on his guitar for two hours..."
by WriteForTheEdit
That's the kind of comment that makes me very nervous about this film. I love Eddie Van Halen, but do I really want to sit and listen to him riff and noodle on his guitar for two hours? No, I really want to hear him play songs - well constructed and composed, with flights of improvisation here and there, but with real melodies, choruses, etc. So on the fence with this movie...
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Gangs of New York was great. Kill Bill one as good, but part two should have been 1/2 hour long.
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March 24, 2011, 1:49 p.m. CST
Derision! HOOT! HOOT! -- Actually really amped to see this.
by otakuoverlord
Kitchen sink movies are always awesome, even if they aren't the director's best work. I'm just fine with another Kill Bill Part 1 type experience!
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Scott Pilgrim wasn't terrible, but it definitely had bouts of too much on screen at once, to the point it was detracting from the story.
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I'm still looking fwd. to this!!!
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It's stupid, but it looks cool. That sure is becoming a familiar tagline. Think I'll sit this one out, thanks.
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March 24, 2011, 1:59 p.m. CST
This stuff is supposed to come out of a girls imagination?
by ltgalloway
It looks like pure adolescent male fantasy to me, which doesn't interest me very much. I don't know any girl that dreams about running around in mini skirts, but I suppose there's got to be some out there? My guess is it won't hold my interest past its running time, like the rest of Zach's films. I know I shouldn't judge before I see it. I know I'll probably get around to watching it once, if only for John Hamm and Scott Glenn. I have a feeling this will do good business though, so who cares what I think.
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March 24, 2011, 2:01 p.m. CST
This is the dialogue happening in my head right now:
by WriteForTheEdit
"See? Even a positive review of this film recognizes that it will likely be perceived as a jumbled mess, all style and no substance, the work of a craftsman, not an artist." "Yeah,... but... SUPER HOT CHICKS! And, GIANT MECHA! SCOTT GLENN! DRAGONS! 'SPLOSIANS!! SUPER HOT CHICKS!!!" Aaarrrgh!
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Nothing about Suckerpunch works. It's wholly awful. You could feel the silent tension in the audience, as they just wanted it to end. <p> It reminded me of The Spirit as a movie made for an audience of one, namely the director. I didn't think any other human being could enjoy Suckerpunch. I guess I was wrong. I can group Nordling with Zach Snyder as 2 people with no taste in film or storytelling. <p> The basic problems with Suckerpunch are: the characters suck (terrible, campy acting across the board), the action scenes are all in someone's head (therefore there's no tension), and there's a music video every 5 minutes (for the entire movie's length). It feels like something a 12 year old with ADD would make. <p> I can't imagine WB execs seeing this film and giving Snyder the Superman job. He must have some incriminating evidence on one of them. It's the only possible answer.
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March 24, 2011, 2:03 p.m. CST
writefortheedit, about watching Eddie Van Halen
by Inexplicable_Nuclear_Balls
I'd be thrilled to listen to "Prime Of His Life Late 70s/Early 80s Eddie" riff for hours. The current "Crazy Meth Head And Angry Guy Eddie", not so much.
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or The Movie, whatever they'd both look the same. And by the sound's of it would both have as much substance.
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March 24, 2011, 2:04 p.m. CST
Everything in this movie is something I should want to see
by schadenfreudian
so how come i don't wanna go see it?
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I think that was one of the most intuitive reviews yet...Love the riffing line! keep it up! gonna see it now with those things in mind!
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March 24, 2011, 2:05 p.m. CST
I questioned the samurai with a mini-gun...but after awhile, the movie 'worked' for me!
by Kamaji
It's hard for me to find a story that allows me to have some 'fun' with the material. I'm generally a very serious person, and it takes alot to get me to enjoy a film. I'm sure that Ebert will rail against this with another 'I'm not a big video game fan, and maybe why I didn't quite gel with the Director's frenetic visions.' Personally, it felt like Moulin Rouge kicked up a notch. Theatrical setting with a period piece interspersed with mish-mashed imagery and modern-day song interpretations. Though I was moreso able to go along with Snyder's fever-dream this time than with '300' or 'Watchmen.' Given his own material to develop, it really seems to work better. Though people called Scott Pilgrim a 'Stupid Hipster Film,' does this make Suckerpunch a 'Stupid Nerd Film?'
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Just tell me this: does When the Levee Breaks and Panic Switch play in the movie too?
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We all know-how bad it will be.
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March 24, 2011, 2:06 p.m. CST
Sorry, I just don't buy that Snyder has any interest at all in subtext
by subtlety
Nothing in his filmography shows even an awareness of subtext, let alone an interest in it. In fact, his history of remakes and adaptations seem to aggressively ignore and even remove the subtexts found in the original work. Which doesn't mean I don't think this film looks like a very fun trip -- it just means I seriously doubt Snyder's intention is some kind of postmodern commentary on nerd iconography. Haven't seen the film yet, of course, so maybe it will change my mind.
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I haven't seen it, nor will I but reading that review, it truly sounds like the worst film ever made. Those 'B' movies, SYFY movies and direct to DVD movies that are horrible are meant to be bad, I imagine this is meant to be great.
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March 24, 2011, 2:07 p.m. CST
Countdown till Snyder is kicked off Superman: T-minus three days ...
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 2:12 p.m. CST
"...he's not interested in conventional storytelling techniques."
by Astronut
Great. This guy is just too overwhelming, too unrestrained to make a film that has class, integrity or any sense of timelessness. I hate to say this kiddies but Superman is F - - - ED.
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I want to see this because it looks cool. Maybe it has a dumb story, fuck it. I play Call Of Duty because it's fun, not because of its cohesive, gripping narrative structure & layered, realized characterization. Sounds like I could get into this movie in similar fashion. Seems that movies like Scott Pilgrim & Sucker Punch really bring out the worst in movie nerds. You have to be rather small to put so much energy into lambasting a movie, its creators, & its fans. It's movies, not fantasy fucking football; nobody's keeping score, & everything's relative. Mother fuckers acting like they have this guilded taste in movies, an unwavering critical mind for all things film. You don't know shit! You spend all this time on fucking movies, MOVIES man. It's all recreational. OMG get a life.
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Move to Miami, you'll find plenty of girls who wear nothing but mini-skirts, thongs to the beach, and extremely low cut shirts.
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I hoped it would be. I loved 300. I loved Watchmen. I could sit and watch Snyder riff on his guitar for 2 hours. This movie sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think I will be wondering if girls really dream about this sort of thing, because the point of the movie seems to be that Zack Snyder dreams that girls dream about this sort of thing. I'm on board with that. However, this does make me a little nervous about Superman. Lots of great scenes and beautiful images are wonderful, but I want a story from Superman that is more than that.
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I saw it last night, and nordling is right. I assume everyone hates synder and are just hating, but will go see it anyway. FUCK YEAH , SUCKER PUNCH!!!
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March 24, 2011, 2:21 p.m. CST
SUPERMAN THE MOVIE IS TO CAREY GRANT AS SNYDER'S SUPERMAN WILL BE TO ANDREW DICE CLAY
by Astronut
That would be my guess.
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Sometimes you just like what you like. This probably won't get theatre money from me -- but then, I avoided SPEED RACER when it was in theatres because of all the bad reviews and when I finally caught it I was blown back by how great it was in every possible way. I don't mind when directors make deeply idiosyncratic films. I can dig that. I try not to demand of the movies I watch -- I ask them to show.
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March 24, 2011, 2:26 p.m. CST
All special effects and zero plot.I didn't know Avatar 2 was out yet.
by JohnWayneWasGay
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It's one of those things that you really have to suspend disbelief with and can't ask "why is such and such happening?" Hopefully it won't fall to the same fate as those two box office wise.
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Who is Nordling?
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I think, judging by the commercials and relating promotional materials, that there are 3 or 4 colors featured in this: yellow, blue, orange and some red. Even my 16 year-old kid scoffed at this when he saw the trailer on TV recently.
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March 24, 2011, 2:28 p.m. CST
Big suprise! AICN sucks the jock cock of Zack The HackS nyder!
by AssyMuffJizz
Zack the fraternity boy HACK IS PRETENTIOUS. His dumb bullshit in Watchmen is oneof the most pretentious nonsense i ever saw in a movie in all my life. A dumb cliché ridden movie with pretentious of a social and global message about power an polictis. Giveme a fuckign break!You know what pretentiousness really is? Is to try to pull some intelelctual thing and not have the talent and the balls to do it competently. Thus, Zack the Not Sack Hack is pretentous. The fuck thinks his movies are so smart! What a douche!
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you're a fucking idiot and like sparklies. Get a grip on yourself, bro. You're not seven, you're intelligent enough to write a semi-coherent review, yet "IT LOOKED REAL PURTY" is enough for you to recommend a movie? Do you also spend Friday night looking through a kaleidescope? Christ, our society is shit.
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I guess what some see as objectifying, others find empowering. I still don't think I get it, but to those that do I hope they enjoy it.
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Since she was in the Real World, which nobody really pays attention to anymore, she got this high profile role? She's not even that pretty...what am I missing? Was she an actress before she was on MTV?
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Which is a lot like saying "it felt like American Idol dumbed down a bit." Die.
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March 24, 2011, 2:34 p.m. CST
Liked 300 and Watchmen, hate, Hate, HATED Guardians, I have 0 expectations with this would so I should enjoy it
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 2:34 p.m. CST
I've wanted to watch it since I saw the first trailer
by david starling
And I really don't care if it isn't going to appeal to everyone - I'll see it for myself!!
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March 24, 2011, 2:34 p.m. CST
Could there be anywronger guy for SUPERMAN than Zack TheHACK?
by AssyMuffJizz
I'm suprised that you fanboys is so easy on him. That guy all kinds of wrong for a Supermanmovie, as much as Tony Scott. As i see it,. there's only two really interesting choices right now: Duncan Jones and Darren Aronofski. And if people are worried that Jones is not enough experience,d well, he's currently about the start a medium budget movie, so he's raising in the ladder. And Darren never made a big budget movie either. But so it was with Christopher Nolan with BATMAN BEGINS. There’s always a first time for everything.
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that movie was an asshole.
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March 24, 2011, 2:36 p.m. CST
DEVIN, I MEAN NORDLING, DON'T BE SO APOLOGETIC, YOU LIKED THE FILM, HATERZ GOTTA HATE!
by THE_CHOPPAH
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Cue Asi to rant about how terrible this movie is bc a girl in the 50s wouldn't dream about dragons, samurai, and mech robots.
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March 24, 2011, 2:40 p.m. CST
Tit feeders will hate it and shit eaters will love it
by BoRock_A_Boomer
Unfortunately for the the movie, the world is over run with tit feeders right now.
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You suck. Signed, Me.
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March 24, 2011, 2:43 p.m. CST
"Robert Zemeckis... knows how to get good actor performances and not overshadow them with cheap visuals." - braindrain
by THE_CHOPPAH
I know you're being facetious.
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March 24, 2011, 2:43 p.m. CST
Yes, Emily Browning is hot, i don't need Zack The Hack to tell me that, i can see that for myself, thank you very much.
by AssyMuffJizz
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March 24, 2011, 2:44 p.m. CST
d.vader, my friend, if you don't seen how that is fuckign retarded, you cant' be helped.
by AssyMuffJizz
You used to be sucha reasonnable chap. Whatever happend to you, friend?
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I loved all of Zack Snyder's films up until this one. This is his first original film, not one based on an existing properties, and I think that plays an important role on why this movie isn't good. He's not much of a writer. It seems he has these great action set pieces thought out in his mind but no movie to put it in. So he writes his own movie where all these action set pieces can be realized. This is what the movie feels like. An excuse for a few actions scenes. I have to admit Snyder knows how to direct action, but for some reason, when it comes to this movie he seems to lose his touch. Even though there is no shaky camera, there's another thing that dampens the action scenes, it's the fast-panning. For this movie, he wants the audience to get close to the action, so there's a lot of close ups, but to compensate, there's a lot of fast panning to show what's going on. There isn't enough wide shots. It's the wide shots that are the highlights of the action scenes. And another downer is that the story in itself contributes to the weightlessness of the action. It is supposed to take place inside Baby Doll's imagination. So I never really felt as if the girls were in real danger. It is very easy for the girls to defeat those monster/robot bad guys. The only time when there was really any sense of danger was the fight scene in the trenches. The other scenes, the bad guys were just walk-overs. The acting wasn't that good either. As a fan of Zack Snyder, I'm disappointed. I hope his Superman is better.
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March 24, 2011, 2:46 p.m. CST
Maybe the dreams are being beamed to her from the future or by aliens like Nikola Tesla
by THE_CHOPPAH
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Did Asi really get banned and change names?
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March 24, 2011, 2:47 p.m. CST
snyder has proved himself to be a shitty hack. And an imbecille.
by AssyMuffJizz
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March 24, 2011, 2:48 p.m. CST
braindrain, Zemeckis' films are all "cheap visuals" and "cardboard characters"
by THE_CHOPPAH
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Snyder has one OKAY movie, "Dawn of the Dead". The rest is just embarrassing.
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...Warner decides to put Superman: Man of Steel on "hiatus"? Sucker Punch looks great! ...for a trailer, or music video, but 2 hours of that crap must be annoying. I still have a little hope for S:MOS, the casting news has been decent-to-good so far.
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Im the one accepting a crazy unrealistic fantasy film for being a crazy unrealistic fantasy film. Faulting it for its "realism" is the definition of unreasonable.
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March 24, 2011, 2:50 p.m. CST
Zack the HACK's SUCK PUNCH is a precourser to his SUPERMAN IN NAME ONLY. Be warned!
by AssyMuffJizz
At least Donner's SUPERMAN had ambition to make the movie the most plausible possible to reality. Of course the movie is still very goofy in many parts, specially compared to many comic book movies made today. but back then it was a big departure, considering that comic book movies and TV shows were kid infantille stuff like the Batman TV show. When Donner made SUPERMAN, he had this board always present in the set with the word VEROSSIMILITUDE writen on it. It set the tone. Mostly. Zack the Hack probable has never herd the term "verosimilitude"
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March 24, 2011, 2:53 p.m. CST
brain, I know you're all about the status symbols: Oscars and the almighty Box Office
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 2:54 p.m. CST
But, I'm talking about Zemeckis' post-Forrest Gump garbage
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 2:55 p.m. CST
Thsi is my ony one and only issue with Christopher Nolan, that he sellected Zack the Hack to direct SUPERMNA
by AssyMuffJizz
I was never EVER disapointed with Christopher Nolan before. Until i learned that it was anounced that Zack The Hack Snyder was hired to direct. Worst news of the decad bar none. And i’m not even much of a Superman fan.
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A bunch of young actresses in mini-skirts and Wonder Bras playing characters with stripper names who perform underwear-flashing acrobatics for the camera? That sounds empowering all right. Empowering in the way Hustler is empowering.
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March 24, 2011, 2:56 p.m. CST
So basically, I should get high as hell before seeing this.
by The Real McClane
Sounds terrible; thanks for the heads-up with a great review, Nord Man. Really well written piece. If I see this, I'm gonna get blown out of my mind first.
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I can see an allusion (albeit a very weak one) to another Snyder movie, but no pun there. Sorry.
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Nice--though unusual--new screen name. Funny! Which films by Snyder have you actually seen? Just curious. I rather enjoyed the idiocy of 300. Couldn't stomach seeing WATCHMEN, but I will one day.
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he just promoted it with the interview and "art of the film" book contest. the guy shilling for the movie he's reviewing is not a reviewer. This site continues to be a joke.
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March 24, 2011, 2:57 p.m. CST
Yeah, because movies with no subtext but great FX never work out in the theaters...
by Patrick Allen
Just ask James Cameron...Douchebags...
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I'm going to see it
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March 24, 2011, 2:59 p.m. CST
I cant believe Nolan chose this clown to make Superman
by Billy_D_Williams
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March 24, 2011, 2:59 p.m. CST
j.b.m.a., lighten up dude; actually I think the costumes look too conservative
by THE_CHOPPAH
I want thongs under those school girl skirts and wet t-shirts or pasties for the tops.
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This new handel should come as no suprise. As ive said before, my sense of humour is pretty evil. Fucking GAYIcn bannign me! Fucks' sake!
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"If so, you'll love this pureed, embargoed horseshit!"
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"An un-erotic unthrilling erotic thriller in the video game mold, 'Sucker Punch' is 'Last Airbender' with bustiers." Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel
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March 24, 2011, 3:03 p.m. CST
AsimovLives, if you did get banned and would like to take my username I'm sure we can make a deal
by Asimov_Lives
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No--check out the Cap talkback. That's Asi alright. No one else writes (or could write) like that (I mean that fondly, Asi)!
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March 24, 2011, 3:04 p.m. CST
They wouldn't pull him off Superman people. Shut up already.
by knowthyself
They'll just be weary about letting him shoot his own scripts next time.
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Again wit this shit??? My grammer? My spelling again??? Stupid Americans are quick to trash foreigners for mistakes in English, while you write in very poor english yourself. Fuck off, friend.
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How old are you and where do you live? What do you do for a living? I'm not being insulting. I'm just curious.
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March 24, 2011, 3:06 p.m. CST
So Sucker Punch is not much Seventh Seal, but more like Doomsday?
by Stereotypical Evil Archer
I can live with that. I watch dumb movies from time to time and I enjoy it.
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Thats verykind and genneros of you, friend. Even thought you often make fun of me i know its in jest. Thank you you can keep your name. I lek this one as a way to thum nmy nose at GAYicn.
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It's a very American word.
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How many times do these Bayboys and Zack the Hack fanbosy use that world? Many a time I reckon, friend.
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i guess you are one of the better writers on here along with Massawyrm.
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And then tonight, gin and tonic in hand, the CEO at WB will be shitting himself behind his big oak desk as he stares at Superman: Man of Steel storyboards while saying, "Jesus Christ what have I done?"
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So if it's not Asi, someone really did their Homework and paid attention.
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So when a movie is suppose to be fun you trash it? Then if a movie is dissed you come out in droves defending it because "it's fun". I don't get it. The Zack Synder hate comes from haters prepared for Watchmen to suck, and then it didn't. And people still resenting 300. Reading these boards is starting to feel like reading posts from a high school. Lots a jealous hate coming out because they can't get a girl friend. You idiots rant and moan about Twilight movies and pg-13 shitfests and no real movies. But then every nerd movie that comes out you guys hate and hate on. The Captain America boards were giving me hope until mindless trolls just had to hate for no reason. It's pathetic. Also about Superman you can't just hate on everything. You guys hate on Singer over and over. So they went in another direction. Now you guys hate on the person they chose to go in the other direction. Jesus pick a side, hating on everything just gets boring after a while. These "Drop him from Superman" posts make me sad because it wouldn't matter who is making it you would make the same post.
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Only bitches and whores obsess over shit like this, regardles of al other qualities, or lack of therefor. Stop being a bitch and grow up.
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I remember reading on another film site about a month ago that there were rumors of a director switch on The Nolan produced Superman, and one of the reasons was Sucker Punch probably flopping and that owl animated film that did. Maybe Aronofsky leaving The Wolverine makes a little more sense now.
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how can you call gangs of new york an iteresting failure? it was a great film one of scorsese's best
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Dont even acknoledge that bitch whore mr ahole ramirz. Only reasonble cahps need apply to an adult coversation, friend.
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March 24, 2011, 3:20 p.m. CST
"The Zack Synder hate comes from haters prepared for Watchmen to suck, and then it didn't."
by Astronut
Um. Yes it did.
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This is the worst kind of pretentious hipster crap review. To sum it all up, "I get the movie...you won't".
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...just sayin'. Yeah, starting the summer season in march was a brainstorm, Hollywood. BTW: Watchmen DID suck... and hard!
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I thought that it was more or less Scorsese trying to do an old school histrical epic like those that were in vogue during the 50's and 60's. The biggest problem for me was the script and some severe miscasting (DiCaprio and Diaz who had zero chemistry and whose accents were laughable). I don't think one could really watch it and play count the film references like you can with something like Shutter Island.
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Gangs of New York was an excellent flick. Kill Bill was pulpy schlock fun, but I think GONY was better than KB1 & 2, combined.
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I enjoy a deep, thoughtful movie....but I am perfectly able to enjoy a brainless special effects explosion such as this. Not all movies are the Godfather. Sometimes they're Joe Dirt...both enjoyable on the level they were meant to be. This movie looks exactly like what it was meant to be. Just eye candy. if you don't like thatm, fine, don't go see it.
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I thought Dawn of the Dead was good for a remake (but not anywhere near as good as the original/it just falls apart for me around the zombie baby scene), and Watchmen did a good job of putting the comic into film form. 300 just got annoying after the first few fights (and this is coming from someone who loves slow motion as a film tool), and I never saw the Legend of the Guardians.
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I'm going to hate the people who refuse to admit this movie is horrible.
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Natural Born Killers Machete Bram Stroker's Dracula Can anyone think of some more?
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Is this film for those who eat red meat and drive muscle cars.
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It's a tough, tough sell. Honestly, don't even bother trying next time
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Snyder may be a frat-boy-type, but he's a pretty cool one. Yeah, I liked "Watchmen."
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It's not a hipster movie, it's a hipster review...I like the movie because I get how cool it is, but you won't.
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Hipster-80's hair bands really are good, because they're so bad!!!! Tardster-80's hair band really are good!!! Capcom-Hadouken!!
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Sucker Punch 2: Suck Harder. Actually, I'm looking forward to seeing this, but I thought the joke was worthy.
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It's not being advertised for what it really is. I was interested in the movie they're promoting, but the movie I'm apparently getting is one I'll probably skip.
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"1. he wouldnt mispell reasonable AND chaps in one sentence. hell, he wouldnt mispell two words in an entire post. are you telling me he is in a rush?" How long have you been around AICN? The "real" Asi is prone to multiple misspellings in a sentence, let alone entire posts. "2. he does end every post with friend. hell, he does not even say friend THAT much" Hmmm. Maybe. But when he's directly spoken to me in the past, he sure used "friend" a whole bunch. "3. Im sure he is referring to me in this sentence, and he would not say I am not "reasonble"... we have many disagreements but he always said I am "reasonble", even before he realized I was once another TBer who he thought of as a "friend"" I'm not sure what post you're talking about here, so I'll take you at your word. My verdict, based on a cursory reading in this and some other recent threads, especially considering the absence of asimovlives, even in that "Star Trek" charity talkback, that it is the "real" Asi. If it isn't, that's one hell of an imitation, and whoever's doing it is fucked in the head and has too much goddamn spare time on their hands.
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they get what past film it's referencing, but the actual film itself is terrible. Just because a filmmaker references another film that you know about, doesn't make a bad film good. If you read Harry's reviews, he does that a lot.
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March 24, 2011, 3:40 p.m. CST
Avatar is Kitchen Sink; before that Aliens was Cameron's KS
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 3:40 p.m. CST
assymuffjizz - Donner had a misspelt sign hanging on the set of SUPERMAN?
by GET_TO_THE_HELICOPTER_GENTLEMEN
VEROSSIMILITUDE????
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Apparently all the girls are killed except BabyDoll, who is lobotimized and left brain-dead. That's what the Art Book says. So apparently the movie about using unleashing your imagination and discovering inner freedom and living out fantasies is actually about how attempting to do any of that will result in total fucking failure - there is no freedom, "the man" will always win.
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Sort of going for the idiosyncratic remark to make themselves stand out and maybe somehow convice others that they are smart because they are individualistic and aren't swayed by mass critical opinion.
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I'll look into that, but any clues for me? braindrain? CHOPPAH? I'm not really up on all of the talkback squabbles. Mostly, I like to debate on my own terms and "Asi watch."
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may be the first mainstream movie to use videogame aesthetics and plotting successfully, and in that way it was something new and in parts brilliant. the older japanese movie resurrection of the little match girl could hold a little candle to the aesthetics of that, but sucker punch ? na i don't think i will find something new in it, but at least will be visually stimulating for me.
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March 24, 2011, 3:48 p.m. CST
"Last Action Hero." I'd call that one a "Kitchen Sink" movie
by WriteForTheEdit
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...the cartoon inspired tragedy of a teenage-ish girl in the 1960's who is locked away at a stripper school for the criminally insane." Somebody get organized, quick. This weekend, we can get rid of all of our nation's young male idiots. They'll all be in one place.
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an emo without the depression.
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Come on now, man.
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March 24, 2011, 3:50 p.m. CST
Also, just for shits and giggles, I'm going to call "hinky" on assymuffjizz.
by WriteForTheEdit
It's almost too perfect of an imitation.
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March 24, 2011, 3:50 p.m. CST
JAMIE CHUNG IS ORDERED TO SIT ON MY DICK WITH NO PANTS ON!
by AzulTool
I won't be wearing pants, nor will she...nor will my dick.
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March 24, 2011, 3:51 p.m. CST
subtitles: I don't know about you, but I've run into my fair share of criminally insane strippers.
by D Ropaela
Realism, baby!
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I think, and it seems like Nordling would agree, that anyone looking for a ton of substance in Suckerpunch is missing the point. If every movie I saw was weighed down with a ton of substance, going to the movies would be exhausting. If Snyder is making a "personal film" like Nordling says, that's fine, we don't have to see it if we don't like his style. I for one DO like Snyder's visual style, even if I hated some of his previous movies (really only 300 was terrible). If Snyder can successfully blend the aesthetics of all these other movies, that is probably worth watching. Why? For the same reason everyone likes Kill Bill part 1. It is an over the top violent tribute to classic kung fu/samurai films. There's not a whole lot of substance to that movie (its a revenge film told out of order), its just really cool and really well made. If Snyder is paying tribute to what he has enjoyed or what has influenced him, then that is totally fine. I still haven't seen the film, so I don't know if he'll do it well, but I think it will be worth a shot.
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if SUCKER PUNCH is too much for them." Whose fault is it if the thing is just stupid garbage, and you're an idiot apologist? Obama's?
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Not only does it include Pong, but each scene where he has to get a big star to be in his movie feels like something out of a later day video game. Once he gets someone, the level is over, and the next one begins, in a different location with a different set of circumstances.
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Yes, in musicals the audience suspends their disbelief enough to accept people breaking out in song. But here's the thing: THE SONG HAS TO MAKE SENSE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE STORY. In a good musical, songs advance the story. They reveal character, create/extend/resolve conflicts and hopefully invest the audience emotionally. If they don't do that, you get SPIDERMAN: TURN OFF THE DARK. Do the fantasy sequences in this film accomplish this in the way that songs in a musical do? From what Nordling is saying, it seems there's very little coherent narrative going on, so there's nothing much to advance. I think Snyder is brilliant visually but his storytelling is only so-so. Before he starts reinventing the wheel with film narrative, he should try and master the basics.
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March 24, 2011, 3:55 p.m. CST
They think I'm one of those two people, but they're wrong.
by Subtitles_Off
Vis-a-vis, your ass.
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to run into them before they get locked away.
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He is about the visuals and not much else! It's ok if you like that sort of thing!
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March 24, 2011, 3:59 p.m. CST
True. I'd LOVE to see what conjugal visits in this prison look like.
by D Ropaela
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March 24, 2011, 3:59 p.m. CST
subtitles, maybe Faraci, I mean Nordling, actually liked the movie
by THE_CHOPPAH
We all have our guilty pleasures!
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Zack The Hack Snyder is not showing any creativity with SUCKER PUNCH whatsoever. He's pulling shit out of his ass, and putting it in a context that makes it retard beyond description. Retard. Stupid, Imbecillic. Very fucking dumb. If Snyder ha a signature, that's it, total stupidity for the sake of a demented idiotic notion of "cool". If Zack The Hack Snyder was truly creativ,e he would pull a Terry Gilliam like in TIME BANDITS, and created a fantasy world which ahd some contract and made sinse to the reality of the character as she lived in the real world. Mech Samurai and p+sycadelic WWI trench warfare scenarions is not the stuff that a young girl in the 1960s would had inher minagiotory allucinations. That's just a whhole pile of bulshit. In case youn hjaven0't learn this yet, even fantasies have to have a logic them them other then just a dumb interpretation of rule of cool.
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March 24, 2011, 4 p.m. CST
If choppah was locked away in a stripper school for the criminally insane he'd eat his way out
by THE_CHOPPAH
No carpet would go unmunched!
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The issue that I have with QT is when he weighs the movie down with characters actually talking about the films that are being homaged within the film (see Death Proof). Otherwise I don't really have a problem with it, just like I don't with Lucas. And I think with Lucas the big problem with the prequels was that he really wasn't being influenced by past films, as he was with more recent films of the time (1990's Disney films, Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, instead of old serials and Hidden Fortress with the originals).
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This is the same Nordling that said Battle for L.A was a masterpiece. I think I'm going to pass until it hits the Redbox.
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MAXIM models with no panties pretending to be criminally insane strippers, are you... 1.) Gonna sweat the smaller details 2.) Man-up for the real deal or 3.) Just throw some shit on your dick and think you're the biggest boy in school?
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fact.
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I think he did a good job with Watchmen. It was incredibly faithful to the source (save the squid) and it was fairly easy to understand where the characters were coming from. With his version of Dawn of the Dead, I think the big problem in the last part of the film is character motivation. In the original film you seemed to understand who the characters were and why they did what they did. It never really seemed clear in Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. When the characters decide to leave the mall the impact is nowhere the same as in Romero's original.
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Huh? Why would he write here under an assumed name when he has his own goddamn website?
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Hope you guys appreciate that Nordling was kind enough to say "YES - I liked this film" but at the same time to say WHY he liked it, and to warn the readers of his review why they might not like it - without mocking them for lack of "understanding of narrative subtext" or poor taste or sexist blah blah blah. THIS WAS A GOOD REVIEW. Even if you don't like the movie - I bet Nordling was probably dead-on-target for the reasons every one of you haters hated this movie. But for you folks hating it before you see it, I feel sorry for you for not giving new things a chance before you spew your vitriol about it. What a sad existence. Thanks to those directors who put what they love on screen for us to decide.
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responding to being accused of being a Choppah.
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March 24, 2011, 4:06 p.m. CST
We're probably going to see a ton of Babydolls or Sweet Peas this year at ComicCon.
by mr teaspoon
shudder.
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So we should pat Nordling (Faraci??) on the back for giving reasons for liking a movie in his review? As opposed to the other movie reviewers who leave their reasons out of their reviews? Wha?
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I think it comes more from characters in a film performing acts of random CGI destruction with zero motivation. It's like when someone plays Grand Theft Auto for the first time and decides to just spend their time being chased by the cops and running over pedestriens instead of doing the missions.
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Oh, thanks Zack Snyder for all your awesome newness. I was incomplete before you arrived with your brilliant vision of shit you read in a comic book. Where were the world be with all of its boring old art that made sense in subtle ways without being obnoxious, loud and stupid? Thank you, thank you, thank you. You make the world better.
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..the demo reel of a 3D animation student who is technically proficient but has ZERO story to tell. The first bad sign is clockwork ANYTHING. It's like shorthand for "I want to look creative but I have nothing new to add to the world so I throw in steampunk garbage because look, Oh how whimsically twee!" Fuck, I hate clockwork stuff. And I have a hard time believing this movie or the director were being influenced by anything other than the same tired shit that's been dragged out and beaten like a dead horse in video games for a decade now. Not exactly pulling from a golden well there, Snyder. And this is from someone who enjoys 300 and to some degree Watchman. Look, 300 is what it is and on that level it works, but at this point in his career I would hope that Snyder would actually have something to SAY instead of piling onto his demo reel.
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March 24, 2011, 4:11 p.m. CST
Whoa! Hold on there! Nordling is Devin Faraci???
by Der Aggravated Piscine
That makes too much sense.
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March 24, 2011, 4:12 p.m. CST
Watch it ahole. People are going to start calling you Flickapoo.
by Subtitles_Off
Nobody calls me "Subs" except for the Choppah bunch.
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March 24, 2011, 4:13 p.m. CST
Is subtitles_off trying to reverse-insinuate that he's me?
by THE_CHOPPAH
What DEƒUCK®?
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Sue me.
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I mean, I can see the similarities in their writing, but I thought all of these geek bloggers wrote like that. Well, except Harry. He has his own, erm, "language" ...
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Ah, quit yer trolling.
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March 24, 2011, 4:14 p.m. CST
Well, I'm going to see it because now I don't have to feel guilty for liking Browning in A Series of Unfortunate Events
by THE_CHOPPAH
Suck the Chop slop!
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March 24, 2011, 4:14 p.m. CST
Here's one for you, Choppah. You might remember this.
by Subtitles_Off
Pfft.uck you™
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Why is such a good handle wasted on such a doof?
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You truly see the director putting what they love on the screen for better or worse. This is one of the reasons I love Southland Tales. Its absurd but hot damn its everything Richard Kelly loves rolled into one film.
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Again, i'll say that the stuff in SUCKER PUNCH about a 1960s GIRL dreaming uop about robot samurai mechas is complete stupid nonsense.Ther eis absolutly no way that a middle class girl in the 1960s subusbia americs would had a fantasy world with rabot samurai giant mechas. No fucking way! That's modern fantasy shit stuff, not the 1960s! Again, allow me to stress this poing: 1960S GIRL! Are you understanding it hnow? If not yet, go read about how was live in the 1960s, and how things were regaring the culture of boys and girls and how COMPLETLY DIFFERENT they were, with the only thing in common being a liking for Rock'N'Roll. When they say a wholenew generation was born from rock'n'Roll, that's not figurative, that's literally, because how many guys and gals got laid due to that music. but in everything else, the fantasy world of guys were completly different and alien from the gals. Culturally, girls and boys migth as well been form different planets. Qwhy you think the exprssion "Men are from mars, women from venus" came about? Snyder's girl fighting giant samurai robot mechas is just bulslhit he pulled out of his ass without any rhyme of reason. It's just complete dumb shit pulled about of the ass. And makes a huge difference. I enjoy movies that entertain more then you can imagine. More then can you. I'm the guy who loved CASSHERN an TOKYO GORE POLICE. In theory, SUCKER PUNCH would be a movie totally made for me. But there is one level that fails completly to entertain, and that's the level of retard fucking stupid ass bullshit. A level which, it seems, is now cool for the AICN and it's geeks to indulge in and make unphamtomable excuses to justify. Since the blind gushing acceptance of Jar Jar Abram's SHIT TREK that this place has made a turn for the retard that's beyond compreention. Aparently dumb shit is the new black in here.
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Are you accusing me of being a confederacy of dunces?
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Except for a few of us other trolls. We aren't pussies that hide behind a password. We just come on and say what we will. At least you know who you're dealing with.
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March 24, 2011, 4:19 p.m. CST
Assymuff is trying to hard, now. His mis-spellings aren't natural
by Subtitles_Off
at all. Not the real Asi. Most likely one of the Choppahs.
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I got a real bad start with THE_CHOPPAH, but i'm loving everything he writes nowdays. This place would not be the same without him. You heard that, CHOPPAH?
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Let's just start naming these bad boys. Peter Jackson's King Kong.
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March 24, 2011, 4:21 p.m. CST
subtitles_off, the vertically stacked short sentences you've been doing...
by THE_CHOPPAH
it's like free verse. Very fancy.
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I will still see this; I love what Snyder can do visually.
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Danny Glover's Dickblood. Didn't one appear after the other vanished?
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This one will run off to "The Shelter" and get that one to come on in and start fucking with you. And then they'll laugh and laugh and tell each other how great they are.
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March 24, 2011, 4:22 p.m. CST
assymuff is Asimov! And we are boys, so all you haterz can suck it!
by THE_CHOPPAH
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March 24, 2011, 4:23 p.m. CST
Once upon a time you could discuss movies in the talkback....
by knowthyself
Now it just belongs to these fuckin trolls.
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so yeah, my farts smell like him sometimes.
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...exactly what the trailer suggests it is? That's fine: caveat emptor to everyone who goes to see it. Generally like what Snyder does, though I kinda, sorta, forgot to see the one about the ninja owls, and I will kinda, sorta, forget to see this one too.
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This is something else.
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If Snyder strings the action in playland back to what's happening in the asylum with any fluidity or if it's just a huge eyesore. The review doesn't really address how well or poorly the story hangs together, even with all the impressionistic gobldygook that it's obviously trading in.
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March 24, 2011, 4:26 p.m. CST
Feraci's review is up on TOMATOES. It'd be easy enough to compare.
by Subtitles_Off
If Nordling uses the expression "next-level" or Feraci uses "kitchen sink," I'd say you got something. If not, it's just two guys with the same bad taste in movies.
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Pshaw! Who needs things like "story" these days?
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March 24, 2011, 4:28 p.m. CST
Nah. But the Choppahs all have Dickblood's poster on their walls.
by Subtitles_Off
Right between Bale and GaGa.
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March 24, 2011, 4:29 p.m. CST
I nominated "Big Trouble in Little China" as a kitchen sink movie.
by D Ropaela
One that works tremendously well, too.
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March 24, 2011, 4:29 p.m. CST
Rumor: Samuel fulmer to release Hipsters Vs. Tardsters Vs. Nintendo post this fall
by blunted666
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really ....
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March 24, 2011, 4:30 p.m. CST
the_choppah and subtitles_off, c'mon, cool off, please
by AssyMuffJizz
I haet to see two people i sympathise with going at each other throats. Ease on the agressiveeness, will you? Please? For me? : -)
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If everyone's a troll, then no troll can be special. We're gonna have to settle for the trolls we deserve, if nobody will cop to being the troll we need.
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I really like watchmen. Moderately optimistic about superman, but sucker punch sounds terrible. Even the title sounds bad, as if Snyder thought it was a cool buzz phrase. Would work fine for a noirish Jim Thompson style thriller, but not a whorefest like this.
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INLAND EMPIRE
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March 24, 2011, 4:39 p.m. CST
This "positive" review just makes the movie sound even worse than it looks.
by Elgyn6655321
Let's see a review from someone who gets laid on a semi-regular basis. Just sayin'.
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That is what happens when you don't have a moderator with some balls. The movie looks out there and depending on the mood, I might enjoy it. Watchmen was 90% on target especially the director's cut. I actually prefer the movie since that makes sense as opposed to a vagina monster. Still, the "Nothing ever ends." line needed to given by Dr.Manhattan not Specter II.
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I don't really care where you fit in the troll-scheme. Anymore than it matters to me what your handle used to be, if it ever were anything else. Truth, I only know "three" trolls. Are you applying for #4?
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Your dislike of me isn't something that's likely to fester.
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Gotta admit that
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March 24, 2011, 4:52 p.m. CST
Waitaminute. I just read where Nordling mis-used Kurosawa as
by Subtitles_Off
an influence for SUCKER PUNCH. I've never wished a brain hemorrhage on a movie reviewer until now. I'm sure that makes me a lesser person. I don't care.
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Those days are long gone.
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March 24, 2011, 4:57 p.m. CST
Aw, braindrain. Just be thankful they're not poking you for once.
by Subtitles_Off
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March 24, 2011, 4:58 p.m. CST
I didn't much care for "Brotherhood of the Wolf" the only time I watched it.
by D Ropaela
However, since it's been a while, I can't remember much so it would wouldn't be fair to discuss it. Well, I can't remember much other than the Bellucci boob dissolve, that is ...
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with that opening scene explaining the movie aint gonna make sense.
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Face it folks, we've officially bottomed out.
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FUNNIEST MST3K EPISODE EVAR!!!1!!1!!!
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March 24, 2011, 5 p.m. CST
"SUCKER PUNCH may be the first film to use videogame aesthetics and plotting successfully"
by Flip63Hole
after Scott Pilgrim, of course!
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Still kind of makes sense, haha.
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March 24, 2011, 5 p.m. CST
I havent seen it but I already figured out the worst offense
by ClaireRedfield
And thats that the actresses really and truly do not give a shit. Look at the posters. Really close up. Those bitches look half asleep. Seriously, they are firing automatic weapons and they look like they are wondering if they set the DVR to record House that night. The trailers are just as bad. They just are emotionless. If you are going to rip off anime, you might want to get some emotion on the faces of your actors. Cause say what you will about it, anime has a lot of emotion going on during action scenes (unless that character is purposely emotionless). I'm curious. Somebody tell me if I'm wrong.
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But ... what happens when the mashups start mashing up the mashups?
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March 24, 2011, 5 p.m. CST
And "Brotherhood..." is a pretty wild ride, no doubt...
by WriteForTheEdit
...but the end, with that bone... sword... thing... whatever the hell it is that Cassel's character whips out... it was all too much for me.
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What he said about Watchmen and why it's a failure as a movie is the very reason why he eventually gave up making the movie and went to greener pastures. Gilliam really understood the approches it was needed to make Watchmen A MOVIE, instead of thata nonsensical mastubation that we ended up with. This is why Gilliam is a good filmmake,r and Zack The Hack Snyder isn't. Terry Gilliam is the visionary director, not Zack!
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March 24, 2011, 5:03 p.m. CST
And didn't video games basically steal their structure --
by MooseMalloy
-- from every Martial Arts/Kung-Fu movie ever made?
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BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF will never get old, as long Monica Bellucci still looks hot in that movie, which she does... for eternity.
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March 24, 2011, 5:06 p.m. CST
This will likely give people a glimpse of Superman in the hands of Zack!
by HollywoodHellraiser
Be afraid!! BE VERY, VERY AFRAID!!!!!
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BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF kicks ungodly amounts of ass, and not only is it a great action movie, it's aslo pretty smart and clever. And it has female nudity, cortesy of a very naked Monica Bellucci. She is not the only pretty hot babe in the movie, though. But is the one that gets constantly naked. Are youi possibly gay braindead?
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I am thinking assymuffjizz must be asimovlives. Otherwise where is the real asimov? Is there any nudity in this movie?
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"Hey everybody, let's MASH-UP THE JAM!"
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And Dickblood. And Beaks.
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The idea that'this might be his 'most personal film' couldn't be further from the truth to me. I was getting a throw away film vibe from him, like he couldn't give two shits. Talkin about how his original vision was a hard R with tons of blood and gore but then he realized "Lets go for the PG 13 and see where we can push it" See where we can push it in PG 13? Dude, get the fuck outa here
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You are refering to the souless imitating bastard Asimov_Lives. My screen name has alwys been AsimovLives.
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Gangs of New York "didn't work", but Kill BIll did? Gangs of New York was great. Kill Bill is forgettable. I see zero value in your opinion Nordling. Zero.
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March 24, 2011, 5:28 p.m. CST
I stopped reading at "Snyder's one of the best in the business"
by Fievel
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"it's everything the director loves", blah blah blah...some people like vomit painting, it doesn't make it good cinema.
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Movies are so puritanical these days. We need more seventies style sexploitation movies. Why could they get away with that stuff then but not now? This movie sounds not only stupid but also really, really annoying. I like the idea that the girl gets lobotomized at the end, though.
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March 24, 2011, 5:30 p.m. CST
i could have told you Superman was doomed as soon as Snyder blackmailed his way into the job
by Billy_D_Williams
b/c thats the only way he could have been hired over genuine talents like aronofsky and jones...either that or Nolan's taste is worse than i thought
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-- coming soon from director Jared Hess.
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March 24, 2011, 5:31 p.m. CST
This is one of the weirder talkbacks I've ever read through...
by WriteForTheEdit
Multiple identities... A mysterious "Shelter" from which characters emerge and then retire to... Conspiratorial references to clues in other locations... Sounds like the next "Lost" is brewing up in here.
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It's pretty rare to see it on AICN (I didn't even look at the talkback yet, but I'm pretty sure the word SHIT will appear in the firt four posts.) I'm seeing this tomorrow lightly stoned. Can't wait.
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--and I'm certain I'll have many a spank to this on disc--but this shit is killing skiffy/fantasy film, comics, toons, conventions, and spec fic in general. Grant Morrison predicted this in The Bulleteer.
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I try to cut back on the weed (I only smoke once every two weeks) but some movies are just incredible with it... Fucking 2001 and Total Recall are already my faverouie sci-fi movies , but you appreciate them a lot more with some light smoke. It also help to make mediocre stuff like the Demolition Man or a Boy and his Dog extremely entertaining. (It also made my gf freak the fuck out when watching Cube. It was scary.)
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"Cool" is one way to describe it. Also adds that odd flavor to what keeps this site unique among movie geek sites. Noticed recently that Dark Horizons has finally added comment functionality... Can't imagine that really taking off at all...
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I'm getting out now before I'm disappointed in the ending.
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March 24, 2011, 5:53 p.m. CST
".. basically listening to Snyder riff..
by Professor.Heinrich.Von.Squawkencluck
<p>..for 2 and a half hours." To the TB who said " I love EVH but I couldn't listen to him noodle for..." I could</P> <p>Eddie, when he was still drinking, was an absolute God. "Fair Warning" is a work of unbridled genius imho ( and, apocryphally speaking, EVH remembers naught about that album) I would listen to the Edward van Halen of that era noodling a laundry list ( should such a thing be possible)</p> <p> Sometimes a self indulgent mess can throw up shards of real beauty.. I would warrant that Snyder has achieved this in some part. I love rambling nonsense. I am an elite practitioner of the art after all. </p>
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March 24, 2011, 5:57 p.m. CST
Sounds like the next "Lost" is brewing up in here.
by Professor.Heinrich.Von.Squawkencluck
<p>@ writefortheedit... if , indeed, the next Lost is fomenting in this TB then we are all due a generous serving of the "Blue Balls Of Bitter Disappointment" sooner or later.</P> <p> My limited intellect still smarts from that particular bout of rough bum love</p>
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In the end, it turns out that Dickblood, Choppah, AsimovLives, Braindrain, D.Vader, Cobra--Kai, et al are just studio execs wasting time in their offices, yanking each other's chains. And they're also all dead.
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March 24, 2011, 6:07 p.m. CST
Also, professor.heinrich.von.squawkencluck, and inexplicable_nuclear_balls
by WriteForTheEdit
I agree that "Fair Warning" is a classic VH album. So is "Diver Down." So are the first two. Really, I could listen to Eddie shredding it up for a long, long time. But I love their songs. That's what makes them truly great. Anyway, I did finally get to see the latest incarnation of VH live a couple of years ago. Sweet to see DLR back on stage with Eddie. And Wolfgang is a pretty solid bass player. Great night.
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Well if Nordling LOVESSSSSS IT then there is some thing BADDDDD of a movie
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March 24, 2011, 6:13 p.m. CST
Maybe it's just the Transgressive Sexuality film scholar in me talking
by mukhtabi
But I entirely disagree with Nordling on the subject of parsing this film. Having watched the trailers and The Trenches, I suspect this film is worthy of many fine papers. Of particular interest is understanding whether or not Babydoll actually IS mentally ill. For reference, btw, Lennox House is a real place, historically the worst and most torturous Mental hospitals ever in the mid 20th century. It has since been reformed, obviously. Here's a link for proof: http://www.innbrattleboro.com/lennox-house/ Further, Nordling, I disagree with you in terms of Baby Doll's imagination. Astounding Fiction, Galaxy and other such science fiction-fantasy magazines were all the rage from the golden age of science fiction through the 60's. It's quite conceivable that she read these things, and those stories and the fantastical images of high speed trains, dragons and robot samurai have been littered in her potentially diseased imagination. And if anyone reading this thinks I'm already planning a research paper devoted to this film, they're totally right! Can't Wait!!!
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Nothing escapes the eye of the dojo. It's a bit like the eye of sauron but in a nicer part of town. ahole, you cryptically mentioned being attacked by someone under the guise of cobra-kai? If you're referring to me then I can tell you it wasn't. If you're referring to that twit viggeo that keeps spamming up talkbacks and dropping dojo in the subject line then it probably was. He's just white noise to me. Also asimov_lives and assymuffjizz are fakers too. The real guy happily suffers the slings and arrows of tb every week so why would he change his name now? He wouldn't.
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And sucker punch looks terrible. I'm skipping this crap.
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.....in the sense that it's devolved into mindless eye-candy. We all deserve Crap-Sculpters like Snyder, I guess. He's perfect for his time in the medium, which consists of a creative and artistic black hole.
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I don't know about that. Not in terms of whether I agree or disagree with what he/she is saying, I just felt while reading it that a lot of what was being said was being repeated. Could stand to lose a couple of paragraphs without losing much.
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"by AICN standards." No lenghty story of how he got to see the movie. Actual analysis and useful recommendation. Good pro and con arguments. No chocolate covered pussy-juice. No hyperbole. No "It's a good movie if you watch it as a ..." nonsense. Even if it could use some trimming, it doesn't have much competition.
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doesnt change the fact that this movie is being review gang raped
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March 24, 2011, 6:32 p.m. CST
Maybe... just maybe when this tanks abysmally...
by HarryKnowlesNonExistentInceptionReview
...someone at WB with half a brain will call in Sandman to yank Hack Snyder off Superman with a giant shepherd's staff. I don't think Nolan was responsible for putting Hack in there in the first place, that was obviously a studio decision. I think Nolan thought he could keep a lid on Hack's excesses and feed him a steady diet of gravitas. But, after this fiasco and that godawful owl thing, no way are nervous suits going to leave WB's potential cash cow in the crayon-stained fingers of Hack Snyder. Hopefully Hack will suddenly discover scheduling conflicts or something and Nolan will get an adult to work with. Maybe Aronofsky got a scent of this whole situation and that's why he suddenly skipped out on Wolverine. After all, if you're going to do a superhero movie, it might as be one about the first, and greatest superhero.
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March 24, 2011, 6:47 p.m. CST
"...he's not interested in conventional storytelling techniques."
by PhineasFlynn
Neither was Grant Morrison when he did "Final Crisis". How'd that turn out?
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that the talkback for a film dealing with different levels of fantasy has, in itself, turned into a discussion of different levels of talkbacker identity. Give me a few moments, and I'll post a scathing retort to myself as someone else.
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he destroyed it...thank fucking christ
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Raped Kobe with everything including the kitchen sink in the Beaverback. Didn't even put up a fight.
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I'd be happy with that
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Repost from Massa's thread... I love a lot of things, but at last night's screener for it, I was let down tremendously. The point is that the fanatasies get tiresome. I feel asleep in the third and fourth, realizing that what's going on doesn't matter whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. As well, the resolution of the "real life" events is terrible. Prophecies about nothing. Lastly, there is a musical number over the end credits that is so cut-and-paste that it sickened me. I found it completely pointless given the result of the plot, and actually was an insult to anyone paying attention to the story elements. It seems they had an extra scene from the middle of the film that they felt had to be tacked on to justify the budget. I know this was made in Vancouver and I do try to support our industry, but it's crap. This man should never have so much creative control ever again.
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March 24, 2011, 7:34 p.m. CST
Don't believe it for one second. THIS MOVIE IS HORRIBLE...
by Executor
...nothing compelling about it whatsoever. The movie is a dream/fantasy world with the action a fantasy within that fantasy world. Yawn. And the stakes are....? What? It's like watching a video game. There are no rules, it's just a fantasy in the girl's head, so there is no death in the fantasy, nothing matters. (The only exception is later in the movie when what is REALLY happening affects the fantasy world. One scene only. They needed more of this.) Boring. Predictable. From the second you see Jon Hamm with the lobotomy hammer you know how this is going to end.
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...but he has become my favorite writer on this site after Massawyrm.
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I was saving the kitchen sink for next month when I get the spray hose and garbage disposal fixed.
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thats not saying much, is it?
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March 24, 2011, 8:10 p.m. CST
"snyder's one of the best in the business." - nordling
by RedHorseVector
his movies are glossy turds. there's never been one i had an urge to revisit. the first few minutes of watchmen were great but i ended up walking out of it in the middle. i never thought his movie would be TOO loyal to source material, but it was. i found the "motion comic" that came out before the flick more entertaining on the whole (except for the part where the male narrator also does the voices of the female characters in a whiny high-pitched voice, that was somewhat disturbing). he's not as bad as a uwe boll, paul anderson, or brett ratner... but he's closer to them than the good ones, that much is for sure.
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Nordling, Just to clarify from a historical perspective, the 'Flying Fortress' was the B-17 which has the single tail. The B-24, which is used by the girls in the movie was known as 'The Liberator' as has the distinctive dual tail look. I've got one of the art of sucker punch books and I'll admit that I'm looking forward to it. I'm not expecting something with deep character development. I'm looking for visual eye candy for a pop corn munching good time.
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March 24, 2011, 9:35 p.m. CST
Yourahole, if we're each other, you want to switch for the weekend?
by FlickaPoo
I'm pretty athletic, bookish, and relatively quiet by nature. At worst, on Monday morning you'll have had a little too much red wine and be sore from the gym. It'll be like a little vacation!
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I respectfully disagree.
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And asks if you could stay out of the shots.
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He eats up everything with the same geek enthusiasm as Harry but without the sexual metaphors.
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I like his work. He has a vision. Which is beter than having none at all. Which a lot of films do.
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Go fuck yourself.
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...if you can't close the deal.
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But Im going in, if its bad then fuck, if its as you say then, shit I hope I can see pass the butterflies and see the women being torn ..... lol idk
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March 25, 2011, 1:05 a.m. CST
But Porn in soft or hard is just great, either way you swing ;/
by NoMotivatioN
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March 25, 2011, 1:06 a.m. CST
Were talkin about porno xxx rated hot chics with fake tits ?right?
by NoMotivatioN
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I think what a lot of you missed is that he basically said that this is one of those movies that he loved despite fully realizing its flaws and fully acknowledging that most everyone will probably hate it. I think we all have a movie or two like that.
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You're becoming one of the most entertaining tbers on the site. Always enjoy reading your posts.
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Dear lord, can we not ever talk about Final Crisis ever ever EVER again? I hate that it took me til the final issue to admit that it was shit. Fanboy denial....I get mad every time I'm in Barnes and Noble and see the trade.
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WHY DOES NOT ONE OF THESE REVIEWS TELL US IF WE SEE BOOBIES??????????? I WANT GIANT SCREEN SIZE BOOBIES zack isnt a good director yet....that was pretty obvious from watchmen he has the visual stuff down...he just doesnt like people very muc
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Zaphod, while you're right that the plane in the movie is NOT a Flying Fortress (the B-17), you're wrong about it being a B-24. The B-24 wasn't the only twin tailed bomber... The bomber in Sucker Punch is the B-25 Mitchell, of Doolittle Raid fame.
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March 25, 2011, 3:15 a.m. CST
Basically all these negative Suckerpunch reviews could be said also about Scot Pilgrim
by paralyser-pro
I did not give a shit about the characters in SPvtW and the only bit I liked was the music. The poster above that said Suckerpunch is the work of a craftsman and not an artist.... how the fuck would you know, what's your film background? Artists take uncompromising risks AND SOMETIMES THEY FAIL. Jackson Pollock's paintings are just globs of paint with cigarettes and pubes mixed in, but should he come out and apologize for it? Should all art be like so much that is sacrificed in the Robert McKey mold of "crafting"STORY that all has the same predictable beats, so idiots (like the readers of this site) can easily digest. Well, fuck you. I don't give a shit about Zack Snyder because I'll never forgive him for excising the Purple Squid, but I'm interested to see what this magnum opus is all about... I'm m expecting something stylistically along the lines of Stardust (a masterpiece) or perhaps a disaster like Brothers Grimm, but do we geeks really want to bite the hands that feed us? Do you really want all genre films to be handed to the makers of pablum like (500) Days of Summer in perpetuity? I hope Zack Snyder responds to the negative reviews by saying the truth: Fuck you haters; you'll never make a film, so FUCK YOU!
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Are you fucking crazy dude?
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I saw THRONE OF BLOOD for the first time last week. Great movie (how did he accomplish all those arrows being fired at the king in the climax without risking the life of the actor?!)... But i'm struggling to see how Kurosawa is an influence on SUCKER PUNCH? Nordling, please don't tell me you consider Kurosawa an influence because of those giant samurai demons with gatling guns. Please don't tell me that... Someone go exhume Kurosawa's corpse so he can turn more comfortably in his grave.
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March 25, 2011, 6:09 a.m. CST
Nord - heard of kitchen sink dramas? Think of something else
by zapano
Says it all really. Never rated your taste in films
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With 2 of the 3 reviews using the word 'mess' I'd have to say this sounds like a dvd purchase at best so far but I've not seen it so can't give a full judgement. But it does worry me for Superman, listening to Zach talking of this project concerns me, he talks of 'just knocking Superman out' as in doing the project quickly. That comes across as very crass, this man is holding a beloved icon in his hands, he's in charge of giving us a Superman on the levels of Chris Reeve's awesome-ness. Yet he sounds like its just another film before he does something he likes better. I have no doubt it will look stunning but will it have a proper story, will it give us characters we care about, will it give us the power we need. Judging by the man speaking I have to wonder..
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You are right, I forgot about the B-25's. I've only seen the B-17's and B-24's at the local county airport. I went back through the Art Of Sucker Punch that I picked up and the book says it's supposed to be a heavily modified B-24. This wouldn't be the first time that movie folks misname or confuse historical items in their films. I just know it ain't no Flying Fortress. ;-) Thanks for the correction.
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Even if you can deal with him riffing off his guitar for two hours (bleh) then the ending kills EVERYTHING ELSE
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He thinks "Gangs of New York" is a failure, but he loves Sucker Punch.
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DragonCon is where it's at.
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Saw it last night. big Snyder fan. enjoyed Watchmen, 300. I walked out on this and thats something i've never done. I even stayed til the end of Sound of Thunder.
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Yeah you're seriously in the Minority on this one. Especially with your Gangs Of New York reference! Failure!? Perfect movie no Scorsese's best no, but Failure hell no. Also comparing this to Kill Bill I can understand but I think the differences are night and day.
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Wow you so Sound of Thunder in theatres I didn't even think that movie lasted beyond a few days in the theater LOL.
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If this is her fantasy world, why do all of the elements seem to be from men's action and war fantasies? Not that women can't have them - and honestly that would be a good loophole for the script ("she's a girl so she wouldn't know why this gun does such and such") to use on some of the ("that could never happen") moments. ---------------------------- I have to admit, I've not been motivated by any of the noisy action sequences and cuties toting firearms to want to plunk down $10.00. Maybe, I will pick it up used at Blockbuster for $5.00 later this year. Sorry Zack... And Nordling, if you actually read this comment - I have no issue with you. Part of what a lot of movie geeks lose sight of is that we LOVE movies, and not all of them have to be great or even critically good movies. When someone reviews the scripts that I've written, I'm much happier hearing "this sounds like a blast, I wanna' see that!" as opposed to "that was tight and well-written". A lot of non-fiction is well written, but would make a lousy movie (Fast Food Nation for example)
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March 25, 2011, 12:21 p.m. CST
*YAWN*...............................................................................
by blackflowerX
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SUCKER PUNCH is conceptually alluring but laborious and visionless. And it is a nightmare for audiences looking for coherent fiction. It's hard to connect with a movie when it tries so hard to fool you; is this a dream, is it not, is it a dream within a dream? Who cares? Just commit to something and get on with it. A crushing bore. Snyder's latest is so slow and so confusing that you may actually fall asleep. Or wish you were really dreaming and could wake up and dream another movie. If you had to explain it to someone--and I'd wish you luck in doing so--you might say it's sort of like Charlie's Angels, but with Nazi zombies, airplane-eating dragons, and whole cities in flame. Only someone who never saw--or appreciated--Dark City would be able to call it visionary. What is the point of having an imagination, I ask you, if the only thing that can be imagined is mayhem, perpetrated without regard for even the appearance of human life? The story--about girls in a mental institution who detach from reality--often sidetracks in favor of cool visuals that don't necessarily make sense. None of this prattling drivel adds up to one iota of cogent or convincing logic. You never know who anyone is, what their goals are, who they work for or what they're doing. By convoluting the various planes of experience, by overlapping and obscuring ostensible realities and ostensible dreams, Snyder deprives us the opportunity of investing emotionally in any of it. If you recall the scene in DAHMER where Jeremy Renner as the deranged killer drills holes into his victims' heads, you'll know what watching this Freudian claptrap of a thriller is like. SUCKER PUNCH is a rather juvenile brain-teaser lacking an effective emotional core but bursting with cool visuals. Unlike the most powerful dreams it doesn't stick with you. If the career of Zack Snyder is any indication, we've entered an era in which movies can no longer be great. They can only be awesome, which isn't nearly the same thing. A false dawn.
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...i'm not a hater, nordling, but...a rorschach test? that IS a cop-out, 'cause it smacks of exactly what you said you wouldn't do, namely telling people who disliked the movie that they didn't get it. you can't have it both ways. i brought a genuine love of snyder (okay, "watchmen" didn't do it for me), but i found this to be an insanely self-indulgent mess. snyder's becoming tim burton: a first-rate production designer pretending to be a director.
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back when I assumed, based on your thankfully few posts, you were a 14 year old girl.
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Zach Snyder’s SUCKERPUNCH burst forth onto the screen like so much of my spunk onto the face of an Asian prostitute. 60 caliber loads skeeting her up proper. For all you ‘mo’s out there who adored 300.…just stay the fuck home. Snyder got it right this time by putting a whole shit ton of poon on the screen. The only thing missing was Malin Ackermans bare titties classing up the place. All the triumph of WATCHMEN, DotD, 300 and that owl movie are group sexed together into one mighty soft core wet dream. Emily Browning plays Babydoll. A luscious little bit, that battles dragons (penis), ninja swords (penis), samurai with mini guns (big penis) and never struggles to keep it sexy in the process. Will she make her escape? Will she win in the end? Will she be able to take all of Scott Glenn’s manhood? All these questions keep the plot ticking like a clock. It fluffs, squeezes and strokes the audience to full release. Another paragon of the industry. Hollywood should be throwing coke, hookers, money and any project he wants at the feet of Snyder. Thank God he is at the helm of SUPERMAN. With any luck Cavill will “Oedipus” Diane Lane and then Snyder should work in all these SUCKandorPUNCH bitches into Kal-El’s harem. Well done Zack. Full fledged Choppahood granted. 1,000,000 out of 10 stars. SEE THIS MOVIE.
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are about worthy of notice of reviewers remarking that audiences seeing this movie get "sucker punched" or "lobotomized." People that lazy don't have the right to have their opinions, which they spent no time forming, considered.
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Isn't that like saying 'the sun rises'? Of course he does...after all this is the same guy liked sommers' "GI Joe"...which should make anything he writes null and void.
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A review for each hemisphere of my brain.
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March 25, 2011, 1:56 p.m. CST
Imagining David Fincher directing something like SUCKER PUNCH is like
by THE_CHOPPAH
imagining Beaks or Harold not liking movies with extended, exploitive rape scenes.
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CHOPPAH knows.
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I haven't even seen the flick, and don't know if I will, so that makes me an apologist? You clearly don't even understand the terminology in my post, and thus are not even qualified to comment.... and yet you consider yourself lucky to associate yourself with my insight.... I'd say that makes you the queerboy. Bumsex with me would break you, fagboy. Bring it on!
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I don't wanna get further behind. My review? Aaron Eckhart would make an EXCELLENT Captain America.
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March 25, 2011, 4:18 p.m. CST
Maybe you should see the movie before making assumptions, bd
by THE_CHOPPAH
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A little German film that does video game aesthetics and plotting beautifully and brilliantly. One of the best simple action films ever made.
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Yopu know what Akira Kuriosawa said about cinema when he was in his 80s? That he was still learning about how to make movies. It's a never ending process. And you learn by not long looking to waht will came ahead, but by what went before. Your muse, your inspiration, you can't guess where it will come from. It might just be there, in some old part of cinema history, and you might never find her if all you care is for the enw stuff. The whoel history of cinema is made of new stuff that was new back then. And many times, the old is new. You have no idea how much you can learn from the old stuff. Much of what exists today is a continuation of what existed before. Direct continuations. A true filmmaker, never gets tired of learning, not just form the enw stuff, but from what went before, even a long time ago. And your voice, you will only find it with knowledge. Zack the Hackj Snyder is a hack because he doesn;'t stand on the shoulders of giants. He is lazy and lacks subtlelty. His films are just a collection of "cool shots" one after the other. Small wonder this new "filmamkers2 who came from this type of comemrcial and music videos make the type of movies that hacks like Snyder, Jar Jar Abrams and Michael Bay make, movies made without any understandign of coherent narrative and storytelling. It's jsut a bunch of stuff happening one after the other, with little rhyme or reason. for them, as long the visuls are prett and comign fast, that's a movie. How wrong they are. I hate to be the prophet of doom, but i really don't bode too well about the new batch of filmmakers to come, specilly those from commercials and music videos.
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Regadring SHIT TREK. A used cars salesman sold you a Ford Pinto...... and called it a Ferrari, and you believed.
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Agreed about Throne of Blood. I saw it for the first time a couple years back and remember thinking: "How the holy fuck did they do that?". Your comment inspired me to finally look it up. <p> "Washizu's famous death scene, in which his own archers turn upon him and fill his body with arrows, was in fact performed with real arrows, a choice made to help Mifune produce realistic facial expressions of fear. The arrows seen to impact the wooden walls were not superimposed or faked by special effects, but instead shot by choreographed archers. During filming, Mifune waved his arms, ostensibly because his character was trying to brush away the arrows embedded in the planks; this indicated to the archers the direction in which Mifune wanted to move."<p> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throne_of_Blood
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not really but words to that effect
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It invalidates what you have to say when you're busy catering to the unavoidable wrath of those who will inevitably disagree.
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Are hilarious!
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Sucker Punch takes everything that I hold dear as a both a warrior and as a human man — working hard, contributing to society, not being an entitled cunt like it’s my job — and rapes it to death with a stiletto that costs more than my car. It is 109 minutes long, which means that I entered the theater in the bloom of youth and emerged with a family of field mice living in my long, white mustache. It’s a pity Sucker Punch isn’t a sequel, the number two would describe it in its totality, if you get my drift. Weak though the ordeal has left me, the film has considerably enlarged my turgid dream-life; it has broadened now to admit that scene in which I tell Mussolini, 'And what's more, you can't make a movie that anyone would watch. You old Duce, you.' You can see for yourself how flat that would leave him. Like all of Snyder’s films, Sucker Punch is muddled, derivative, his much-touted compassion strikes me as false (he makes his characters suffer in order to solicit your pity, his highly praised visual acumen — "rhythmic" and "evocative" are the tags that you see most often — comes only at the expense of precision, which is to say, of truth. It would have been more merciful for Snyder to have rented Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, Rocket and Blondie out to the Saw franchise, or to Rob Zombie, so we could watch them get shot in the head or skinned alive by Arkansas rednecks. Everything else in this deadly, brainless exercise in pointless tedium is dedicated to the screeching audacity of delusional self-importance that convinces people the whole world is waiting desperately to watch two hours of platform heels, preposterous clothes and disabused notions. It is to movies what fried dough is to nutrition.
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Using phrases like: "It r lik PG-13 CGI Pr0n. The chiks r hot!" "Dis moviez suxx0rs donkey ballz" "teh plotz is the lulzness, but the action pwn'd" It's what the movie deserves.
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...and I'll say it again: Vanessa Hudgens' hair in the movie makes her look like like that useless, fat, stupid whore Snooki. Am I still alone in this?
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The guy who says OUUTTTTLAWWWWW from Robin Hood sings Love is the Drug (at least on the soundtrack and it's a good cover. If that doesn't happen in the film, I'll be disappointed
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Thanks good doctor - most appreciated! So they did actually have marksmen volley firing genuine arrows just inches from the lead actors head? Brilliant! Not sure how health & safety in the workplace, would feel about that today...
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I was surprised to find what I think, as a child prodigy who endured a childhood of accolades, is one of the most honest and raw meditations on compliments I've ever seen in a film. I went into the movie thinking it was going to be a beautiful looking but ultimately hollow film. I know that it probably goes over the heads of most people. I certainly understand why Scott Glenn was in this movie. which i could not understand before watching it. I really have to wonder what kind of experiences Snyder has had in his life to have created this. After watching it and the heart that the girls put into this movie I have to say that they all got what Snyder was trying to do with this movie. This movie had me choking up at the end. Something I am actually happy about considering the fact that I honestly think that a lot of this movie won't make sense to anyone who hasn't suffered adulation or at least some kind of major lauding as a child.
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Oscar Isaac & Carla Gugino perform it but you have to stay for the end credits. You'll see a montage of musical sequences that were cut from the film
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As in all of Zack Snyder's films, soundtrack plays a big part with sound and image. (ie: Opening credits of Watchmen one of the best opening credits IMO) It was stunning to witness the big action set pieces with the bad ass songs playing in the background. My favorites were WHITE RABBIT (Originally Jefferson Airplane, here Emiliana Torrini) and TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (Originally The Beatles but here Alison Mosshart and Carla Azar) As for the message I got from the film, I think it's all about IMAGINATION. If you have it you can "set yourself free". I fucking LOVED this film and I'm seeing it again today. Looking forward to the inevitable Blu-Ray director's cut.
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March 26, 2011, 3:43 p.m. CST
For "personal" reasons, Zack Synder has decided that he can't direct SUPERMAN!
by Arafel
Zack Synder has told the producers for the new SUPERMAN movie that due to personal reasons, he can no longer continue working on the film as it's director. He mentioned that he could not commit the 1-2 years needed to direct the film, and he wanted to spend more time with his family. He said that the recent box office disaster of his film SUCKER PUNCH had nothing to do with his decision.
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i loved it
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totally rad
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I loved that film!
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March 26, 2011, 5:52 p.m. CST
Give Superman CGI muscles! Snyder sure loves his CGI enhancements...
by AssyMuffJizz
... and he will inflate the films budget by 100 millions dollars more. Because that's what hacks do, they throw into the movies useless CGI SFX shit that serves little to no porpose to the story other then make boring uninvolving SFX sequences that stop dead and ever hurt the story for the sake of "cool explosions fast shit happening" bullshit crap.
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An indisputable classic. The Snyder family will soon have five new mouths to feed--all named Oscar. Ooof!
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Anybody who comes to this site is supposedly a film geek. How anyone can consider themselves as such, and not love "Sucker Punch boggles the mind. Honestly, what's not to love? Any one of the short fantasy sequences has more action, better special effects, and cooler moves than any other fantasy movie does IN IT'S ENTIRETY, EVER. All of you fake ass, impostor "geeks" who are bashing this film should be ashamed of yourselves. This movie represents everything you have ever asked for, or wanted to see. And it is absolutely incredible.
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March 29, 2011, 10:55 a.m. CST
3 of the last 4 respondents are Zack Snyder's best friends
by golden tribw
You're fucking idiots and this movie is an insult to anyone with a positive IQ. Your stupidity is obviously terminal, I just wish it would hurry up.
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I just got home from seeing Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" (a.k.a. the most expensive fetish film ever made) and I gotta say I'm not really understanding all of the hate. The story may not be the greatest ever told and the characters may be underdeveloped, but no one ever confused Snyder for Martin Scorsese. If you've seen any of the trailers and don't know going in that this is a visually-driven film, then you haven't been paying attention to the marketing. "Sucker Punch" is the cinematic equivalent of a mixtape. What results is a mishmash that, much like Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films, takes everything Snyder loves -- fantasy, zombie films, World War II films, steampunk, Japanese samurai films, Star Wars, action films, Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, heroic bloodshed films, kung fu films, anime & videogames -- and makes it his own by adjusting each individual piece to fit his vision of the end product. For everything it does wrong, it does a lot right. For the most part, the casting is pretty damn good: Carla Gugino, Jena Malone, Scott Glenn and especially Oscar Isaac as the slimy, morally corrupt warden are all terrific. Jon Hamm even does pretty well in the small amount of screen time he's given. The special effects and fight scenes are amazing. I also dug the little visual touches (the mother dragon nudging the body of her dead baby, the long ash on the Mayor's cigar after he watches Baby Doll dance) that give depth to the world. I also liked how the filmmakers carried over elements from one level to the next -- i.e., the fire was from the dragon on the Mayor's lighter, the bomb on the train was the exposed wire in the radio cord, Rocket dying onboard the train in the fantasy as she was being stabbed in reality by the cook -- to provide a sense of cohesion. I really enjoyed this film. I consider myself a Zack Snyder fan and would rank this #2 overall on his short resume (not as good as Watchmen, but better than 300 & Dawn of the Dead). I have seen this film called everything: hollow, mindless, unbearable, self-indulgent, the end of mankind as we know it. I have seen a shit-ton of movies in my 32 years on this planet, and this is far from the worse thing ever made. This film never once pretends to be anything more than what it is: a loud, fun, visually-amazing cinematic rollercoaster. One thing is for certain, this movie is going to be absolutely beautiful-looking & -sounding on Blu-ray. Trash "Sucker Punch" all you want, but what are you gonna watch instead, "Hop"? "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"? "Red Riding Hood"? "Mars Needs Moms"? Yes, I know "Rango," "Source Code," and "The Adjustment Bureau" (all superior films, by the way) are still in theaters. Everyone always complains that all studios put out are remakes, comic book & videogame adaptations and sequels. Well, now there's an original property that tries something new and unique playing at your local theater. And even if "Sucker Punch" is a failure, at least it's an interesting failure and not another movie that plays it safe and cares only for how much money it will make.
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