While I can't defend Batman, which I got tired of back in 1967, and feel it's just about been milked to death in the modern era, I'll tell you what I think is really not very interesting and that's repeated viewings of Tarantino movies. After just a couple viewings of any Tarantino picture, the shallowness starts to reveal itself. Siskel and Ebert pegged this guy as one note way back when. Nothing's changed. He's how old now and he still makes the same movie he did twenty years ago?
While I can't defend Batman, which I got tired of back in 1967, and feel it's just about been milked to death in the modern era, I'll tell you what I think is really not very interesting and that's repeated viewings of Tarantino movies. After just a couple viewings of any Tarantino picture, the shallowness starts to reveal itself. Siskel and Ebert pegged this guy as one note way back when. Nothing's changed. He's how old now and he still makes the same movie he did twenty years ago?
When someone nails it on here - and in better words than wot i could writ - i love this forum.
And rory Ive just emailed your post to a film lecturer mate of mine who is particularly anti Taranfakino.
If it gave you a laugh, then I'm happy. We're just talking movies here. They can be watched, but also ignored. I've been ignoring Batman and all the other superhero stuff for years now because I long ago stopped being a ten-year-old, and going dark doesn't make it more mature. It's still fantasy of a basically juvenile nature (i.e. limited in scope), which brings me back to Tarantino and his juvenile fixations... but I got better things to think about, so BYE!
NONE of these cartoon characters are interesting. They're cartoon characters, for Christ's sake. Now I know, Superman, Batman and Thor are to the Americans what Shakespeare, Moliere and Tchechov are to the rest of the world, but still.
Tarantino was also correct in saying that Michael Keaton did a good job.
NONE of these cartoon characters are interesting. They're cartoon characters, for Christ's sake. Now I know, Superman, Batman and Thor are to the Americans what Shakespeare, Moliere and Tchechov are to the rest of the world, but still.
Tarantino was also correct in saying that Michael Keaton did a good job.
Just to set you straight:
(a) "Cartoon characters" are obviously very interesting to quite a lot of people, otherwise there would not be the continuing stream of movies, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows etc. based upon them.
(b) Generalizations about "the Americans", or any other group of 300 million people (or 30 million, or 3 million, or 30 for that matter) are meaningless horseshit.
(c) Keaton? He was okay as far as I was concerned, but that's just my opinion, which has equal weight in this world with your opinion, or Tarantino's opinion, or anyone else's. Tarantino was neither correct nor incorrect, merely expressing his subjective opinion on the matter. (Perhaps you mistakenly equated "was correct" to "agreed with your opinion".)
Hopefully you'll figure out one of these days that your opinion is not the final word on anything other than your opinion. People would probably give it (and you) more consideration if you were not always trying to pawn it off as some kind of divine revelation.
"Cartoon characters" are obviously very interesting to quite a lot of people, otherwise there would not be the continuing stream of movies, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows etc. based upon them.
(b) Generalizations about "the Americans", or any other group of 300 million people (or 30 million, or 3 million, or 30 for that matter) are meaningless horseshit.
Given the current state of the country and the 'general' mood of its people (of which I am one of the 300+ million), I'd say meaningless horseshit pretty much makes up what is "Americanism" today, and as for "cartoon characters," isn't this now more than ever before a nation of Homer Simpsons?
"Cartoon characters" are obviously very interesting to quite a lot of people, otherwise there would not be the continuing stream of movies, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows etc. based upon them.
(b) Generalizations about "the Americans", or any other group of 300 million people (or 30 million, or 3 million, or 30 for that matter) are meaningless horseshit.
Given the current state of the country and the 'general' mood of its people (of which I am one of the 300+ million), I'd say meaningless horseshit pretty much makes up what is "Americanism" today, and as for "cartoon characters," isn't this now more than ever before a nation of Homer Simpsons?
Considering your Avatar I think it's appropriate to say...
"Cartoon characters" are obviously very interesting to quite a lot of people, otherwise there would not be the continuing stream of movies, comic books, graphic novels, tv shows etc. based upon them.
(b) Generalizations about "the Americans", or any other group of 300 million people (or 30 million, or 3 million, or 30 for that matter) are meaningless horseshit.
Given the current state of the country and the 'general' mood of its people (of which I am one of the 300+ million), I'd say meaningless horseshit pretty much makes up what is "Americanism" today, and as for "cartoon characters," isn't this now more than ever before a nation of Homer Simpsons?
Without straying too far into verboten territory, I think there is considerable diversity of opinion on both topics. I also believe that if you look into what was being said and written about the state of affairs in the USA 50 or 100 or 150 years ago, you'll find pretty much the same sorts of dire pronouncements about the shamefulness of it all. (Probably no reference to Homer Simpson, though.)
Given the current state of the country and the 'general' mood of its people (of which I am one of the 300+ million), I'd say meaningless horseshit pretty much makes up what is "Americanism" today, and as for "cartoon characters," isn't this now more than ever before a nation of Homer Simpsons?
Given the current state of your posts in this thread, I can say with complete certainty that, no, its just you.
Coming from a director who has spent his entire career making some of the most boring, uninteresting films ever made, I couldn't really care less about what Tarantino has to say about anything.
Given the current state of your posts in this thread, I can say with complete certainty that, no, its just you.
I'm Homer Simpson?!!!! Given the state of American culture, I'm not sure that's an insult.
Sometimes I wonder just how bad things need to get before most people will finally concede that this beloved country of ours is no longer "Number One," but more accurately "Number Two" -- if you know what I mean.
And to try and pull this thread back to its subject... Tarantino's script for DJANGO UNCHAINED (entertaining, but as a "good" movie, a mess) won Best Original Screenplay at this year's Oscars.
I think that pretty much makes my case for the state of American culture -- we don't know shit from Shinola.
(And just so you know, they haven't made Shinola since 1960.)
I think that pretty much makes my case for the state of American culture -- we don't know shit from Shinola.
Much like a boat without a bow, your case does not move forward toward a meaningful point as much as lurch in a vague direction as it sinks to the bottom, forgotten and best left amongst the crabs.
To THIS American, the worthwhile pursuit of making a film of a cartoon character is to meet the challenge of instilling it with some of the dramatic heft which is already inherent in "Shakespeare, Moliere and Tchechov." When a director and his cast/crew can pull that off, the result (however rare) can be really magical. There's a small (and getting smaller, percentage-wise) pantheon of cartoon character movies that are worth seeing as films (or listening to as scores, for that matter), but the filmmaking challenge, like Everest, remains "there."
This is what makes all cartoon character/superhero stuff eventually uninteresting -- you always know how the story is going to turn out. You may not know how the story will get there, but you know that in the end good will triumph over evil. After a while, unless you have some kind of attention deficit disorder, this gets "not very interesting," as our foot-fetish friend says.
Anyone who wants to make an interesting Batman movie (or any other superhero movie) needs at this point in Hollywood history to do just one simple thing -- MAKE THE LAST, FINAL, THIS-IS-THE-END (because he dies!) DAMN BATMAN MOVIE!
Unless you want to re-make "El Cid," I don't think "Will he/she live or die?" is what makes for great drama, and I don't believe you really think that either. That's what makes for great cage-fighting. Truly boring stuff, IMHO. Great drama is "How will he/she resolve this monumental life-changing decision?"
That's true of "Batman," "Star Trek" or Shakespeare, Moliere, and the rest. All else is just a matter of talent and technique.
This is what makes all cartoon character/superhero stuff eventually uninteresting -- you always know how the story is going to turn out. You may not know how the story will get there, but you know that in the end good will triumph over evil. After a while, unless you have some kind of attention deficit disorder, this gets "not very interesting," as our foot-fetish friend says.
And this differs from 99% of "human character" films how? Shall we have every hero die in every film, just to surprise people and make the films "interesting"? But then, catastrophic downer endings would become boring pretty soon, wouldn't they? So..er, wtf are you talking about, anyway?
Remember when there was speculation Harry Potter might meet his maker in the last installment? Would that have made for a better story?
Killing Spock is regarded by some to have been a film-series-crippling mistake to this day.
So d'ya suppose RoryR is actually The Joker?
As regards killing off cartoon superheroes: What's the point? Nobody would really believe it anyway, and sure as hell some screenwriter would find a way to explain how he really wasn't killed off after all, and bring back the hero in a new megabucks movie starring Ricky Gervais in the title role, and Miley Cyrus as Cat-in-Heat-Woman.
