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Lando

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Posts posted by Lando

  1. Posted

     

    The witch of the West scarred her face by the tears the Wizard caused her to cry, so she was deformed well before the apple.

     

    The stuff with the wizard trumping the witches is kind of ingrained into the story anyway, though. No matter what angle the movie took, it would have involved three powerful women being duped by a male con artist, and that was Baum's original vision of events. The "prophesy" junk I think was actually an unsuccessful attempt to make the witches seem less stupid in comparison. If you didn't have that, it would have been three supremely powerful beings simply being chased away by card tricks and illusions. The reason why it was unsuccessful, however, is that it traded a little stupidity for a lot of superstition. And all their stupidity and superstition definitely carries over into the traditional Wizard of Oz story as we know it as well. All 3 of these characters are either easily dispatched or swayed by superstition when Dorothy gets there. They're also not doing much to actively improve their world or get rid of the Wizard, either. Not a lot of people know this, but not only is the original Witch of the West vulnerable to water...she is scared of the dark. Dorothy takes off the slippers to go to sleep, but the witch is too frightened of the dark to go and get them at that time. So while the Raimi movie is undeniably sexist, it's definitely in keeping with Baum's vision to portray the witches of Oz as lazy, superstitious, and gullible.

     

    What made the movie so problematic wasn't so much the prophesy as the way the Wizard treated women, and the way women treated him in return. Also, the idea that falling in love will turn a woman evil and possessive.

     

    I don't know if you're aware, but Baum's book was an allegory for a bi-metallic monetary standard. At the time he wrote it we were on the gold standard, and as a result there was slight deflation, which some believed was the cause of economic woes. At the time they thought that by adding silver-backed money to the economy they could improve the state of the economy. The symbolism is:

    OZ -> Ounces

    The Yellow Brick Rd. -> The Gold Standard

    The Silver slippers (in the book they're silver, not ruby) -> Silver standard

    The tin man -> Industrial workers

    The scarecrow -> The agricultural worker

    The cowardly lion -> William Jennings Bryan (who was also the lawyer who argued in favor of teaching creationism in the Scopes Monkey trial and thinly veiled as the prosecutor in Inherit the Wind)

    Dorothy -> The common person

  6. Posted

    I am being very kind to the movies and I admit that I'm probably not as objective with them if I had seen them for the first time today. The Rocky movies were a HUGE part of my childhood and it's difficult to separate emotional attachment to the characters from enjoyment of the films themselves (not true for all childhood movies, No Holds Barred holds up terribly). I'm not saying that they're masterpieces, just that if you are able to focus on that element of the series then it makes them enjoyable in another dimension than just for the fights at the end.

     

    I think that a lot of movies that deal with a rags-to-riches-to-rags story tend to do so in a grand fashion. The protagonist comes from humble beginnings, rises to the top of their profession where they experience a lavish lifestyle. Then at the peak of their fame, they express some fatal flaw which causes them to spiral down in a spectacular crash (often ending in death).

    Rocky on the other hand does it in a more modest fashion, which is what I like about it. And like I said, I think it's particularly relevant to athletes who very frequently have a hard time adjusting to life after their paychecks start to decrease.

     

    And for full disclosure, this is how I rated the movies on IMDB:

    Rocky - 9/10

    Rocky II - 7/10

    Rocky III - 7/10

    Rocky IV - 6/10

    Rocky V - 6/10

    Rocky Balboa - 7/10

  7. Posted

    It's very obvious when watching a Rocky marathon. But it makes the sequels better, you get emotionally invested in the characters, want to see how their story plays out, etc. Despite the flaws of 5 *cough*Tommy Gunn*cough*street fight*cough* the mismanagement of money that was once flowing in, followed by the humble return to his roots is an important piece of the Rocky puzzle. I also think that it's a fairly realistic portrayal of rise-and-fall fame in general, especially for an athlete.

     

    And I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up when Apollo Creed dies. That is really the only thing Rocky 4 contributes to the arc.

     

    Also:

    1mPq9Ok.jpg

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I think Doug Benson said it best when he said some of the stories are good and some are not so good. The one with Colin Firth is works for the first scene, but keeps going on far too long with the same gag and becomes tiresome quickly. The one with the English guy in America could have been played with a bit more subtlety, but some of the other stories are engaging and heartwarming (and that's said as a guy who generally doesn't like romance movies).

     

    Valentine's Day on the other hand copies many of the stories (a kid with a crush anyone?) and it's like watching several trains on a collision course.

  10. Posted

    Thestray's dinosaur analogy is perfect. In Jurrasic Park, the Velociraptor was an evolved killing machine and they didn't specialize in humans, we just happened to be within the spectrum of things that they were evolved to kill.

     

    Nobody is saying that it's a well written line, just that it's not as much of a contradiction as it seems. They probably have said "everything down there has evolved to be efficient killing machines" or something like that.

  11. Posted

    From what I remember, and it's been a long time since I saw it (like I rented it from blockbuster shortly after you could rent it) the whole time they had been telling us about how all of this horrible stuff had happend and then at the end they were like "sike none if it happened, who wants dinner?" Which was very anti-climactic.

  12. Posted

     

    Yeah, when I heard him say "everything on this planet has evolved to kill humans", I totally checked out. Not only for the reason you mentioned, but also because (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure) such extreme evolution doesn't really happen on a scale of 1,000 years.

     

    To me this isn't such a stretch. If they've evolved to kill each other it's not like weak and slow humans are harder to kill than anything else on earth. It is surely a poor choice in words, but it's not incorrect.

  13. Posted

    I actually liked this movie once I took a step back and realized what it was with multiple characters telling the same story from different POVs and the audience doesn't know who to believe. I actually was surprised by the ending, though there was a fairly large plot hole in concern to how one of the prisoners was just able to escape custody and meet up with Travolta.

     

    I remember liking this move until the ending. It was the most anti-climactic, limp dick of a twist ending prior to "Swing Away Merrill"

  16. Posted

    I was very disappointed with Drive. The dialog felt really awkward ("Hey kid want a toothpick?" for example) and people seemed to behave in ways that I felt made no sense what-so-ever (he's a psychopath, but he's the good guy kind of psychopath). I really wanted to like Drive, prior to it I really really liked the Pusher trilogy that Refn had done, and since I have enjoyed Bronson, but it just didn't sit well with me.

     

    That said I would not suggest this movie for the podcast, it just doesn't have the right pacing, it's too well received and there aren't enough weird moments to make for an interesting episode.

  23. Posted

    It feels sort of like if you were to call into a DJ and ask him if he can play a classic song from a band and instead he plays the new single from that band. You know that with the exception of for two-fer-tuesdays they space out the plays between band songs, so you know you're not going to hear the song you requested.

     

    Who knows though, maybe they're going through the top 3 from the poll working their way up it, but I think a lot of us are left confused.

  25. Posted

    Wow: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815862/trivia?item=tr1935547

     

    Although not credited on the finished film, co-writer/producer Will Smith was responsible for much of the movie's direction. While Shyamalan was primarily in charge of the blocking (composition of shots, placement of the camera) and the visual aspects of the film (color and design), it was Will Smith who personally coached Jaden Smith in his performance and dictated the development of the story and the way the on-screen action would unfold.
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