What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt2)

[foo]

Gremlins 2 - well fucking funny. Hadn't seen it before. Much cleverer than expected.

brilliant isn't it

i watched Run Lola Run. hadn't seen it for years, and it didn't disappoint.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

An under-rated classic

 

[El Jefe]

Sorry, do you have a point?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Sorry, do you have a point?

Yes: Gremlins is puerile crap.

Imo.

 

[El Jefe]

Yes: Gremlins is puerile crap.

Imo.

Not a point you expressed especially well in your initial post.
The first movie is fairly poor, yes. The second manages to fit in Buzby Burkeley and Susan Sonntag in the same sequence. Whatever it is, it's not puerile

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Not a point you expressed especially well in your initial post.
The first movie is fairly poor, yes. The second manages to fit in Buzby Burkeley and Susan Sonntag in the same sequence. Whatever it is, it's not puerile

I'll watch it again; maybe I missed something.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Gremlins 2 - well fucking funny. Hadn't seen it before. Much cleverer than expected.

An under-rated classic

Now here's an instance where I agree with both of you. Superb film.

Grandpa Fred: [interviewing Brain Gremlin] Creature what is it that you want?
Brain Gremlin: Fred, what we want is, I think, what everyone wants, and what you and your viewers have: civilization.
Grandpa Fred: Yes, but what sort of civilization are you speaking of?
Brain Gremlin: The niceties, Fred. The fine points: diplomacy, compassion, standards, manners, tradition... that's what we're reaching toward. Oh, we may stumble along the way, but civilization, yes. The Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag. Everything your society has worked so hard to accomplish over the centuries, that's what we aspire to; we want to be civilized.
[a Gremlin with a beanie cap acts goofy next to Brain]
Brain Gremlin: You take a look at this fellow here.
[Brain shoots the Gremlin in the head. The Gremlins in the bar laugh. Grandpa Fred and Kujitsu leave]
Brain Gremlin: Now, was that civilized? No, clearly not. Fun, but in no sense civilized. Now, bear in mind, none of us has been in New York before. There are the Broadway shows - we'll have to find out how to get tickets. There's also a lot of street crime, but I believe we can watch that for free. We want the essentials. Dinettes. Complete bedroom groups. Convenient credit, even though we've been turned down in the past.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I'll watch it again; maybe I missed something.

The first is an 80s classic. The 2nd is post modern genius.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Now here's an instance where I agree with both of you. Superb film.

I get it now: Bill Hicks, but green.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

This isn't funny: it's eighties, cocaine induced scriptwriting.

Grandpa Fred: [interviewing Brain Gremlin] Creature what is it that you want?
Brain Gremlin: Fred, what we want is, I think, what everyone wants, and what you and your viewers have: civilization.
Grandpa Fred: Yes, but what sort of civilization are you speaking of?
Brain Gremlin: The niceties, Fred. The fine points: diplomacy, compassion, standards, manners, tradition... that's what we're reaching toward. Oh, we may stumble along the way, but civilization, yes. The Geneva Convention, chamber music, Susan Sontag. Everything your society has worked so hard to accomplish over the centuries, that's what we aspire to; we want to be civilized.
[a Gremlin with a beanie cap acts goofy next to Brain]
Brain Gremlin: You take a look at this fellow here.
[Brain shoots the Gremlin in the head. The Gremlins in the bar laugh. Grandpa Fred and Kujitsu leave]
Brain Gremlin: Now, was that civilized? No, clearly not. Fun, but in no sense civilized. Now, bear in mind, none of us has been in New York before. There are the Broadway shows - we'll have to find out how to get tickets. There's also a lot of street crime, but I believe we can watch that for free. We want the essentials. Dinettes. Complete bedroom groups. Convenient credit, even though we've been turned down in the past.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

This isn't funny: it's eighties, cocaine induced scriptwriting.

I think it's hilarious.

 

[The Groke]

Juno.


It was great - charmed the pants off me.

 

[Augie March]

Hard Candy.

Spoiler

Juno in paedo-toturing, vigilante shocker!

It was a very entertaining, clever two-handed thriller with one wince-inducing scene, that brought a slight tear to my when watching it.

 

[braindancer]

Seven Samurai...

My god it was long!

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Have ordered all of the above, but most of them were either not available at all, or I really didn't fancy them

Ta la

You really should watch the bird people in China. Make sure you get young thugs nostalga and not innocent blood (not that it's a bad film, just not as amazing).

I got a free copy of Ichi many years ago. It took me years to get round to watching it (didn't sound like my thing at all), but afterwards I was an instant Miike fan.
Just to add a bit of a name drop to the tale, it was Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) that told me to bloody get on and watch it.

 

[sojourner]

You really should watch the bird people in China. Make sure you get young thugs nostalga and not innocent blood (not that it's a bad film, just not as amazing).

I got a free copy of Ichi many years ago. It took me years to get round to watching it (didn't sound like my thing at all), but afterwards I was an instant Miike fan.
Just to add a bit of a name drop to the tale, it was Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) that told me to bloody get on and watch it.

I ordered both, but Nostalgia looked the better one


Namedropper

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I think it's hilarious.

Cultural differences, I guess.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Cultural differences, I guess.

Except you're north american and I'm not.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Except you're north american and I'm not.

Exactly. Your naivete re NA culture allows you to like something like Gremlins 2.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900615/REVIEWS/6150302/1023

 

[CharlieAddict]

Tell no one - pretty good french film. fuckin' impressive writing.

 

[El Jefe]

Exactly. Your naivete re NA culture allows you to like something like Gremlins 2.

But I've seen you hold forth on UK culture all the time. With occasionally risible results.

I watched Superbad - like the others from the same stable, lots of fun, very funny, but a real sweetness to it too

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

But I've seen you hold forth on UK culture all the time. With occasionally risible results.

I watched Superbad - like the others from the same stable, lots of fun, very funny, but a real sweetness to it too

You liked something!

Risible is a good word, I suppose, if there's not a reason to say it simply: laughable.

This isn't about holding forth. It's about unfamiliarity with a culture, such that one might be amused by something that those better versed in said culture, will tend to take a pass on.

 

[El Jefe]

You liked something!

I'm sorry? I like lots of things, as even a cursory glance at my posts on this and many other threads will show.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

This isn't about holding forth. It's about unfamiliarity with a culture, such that one might be amused by something that those better versed in said culture, will tend to take a pass on.

What a load of cobblers. I suspect it's more that you simply didn't like something that El Jefe/Orang Utan and I liked.

Plenty of British people thought Gremlins 2 was utter shash. I loved it at the time and remember being roundly reprimanded by pretty much all my friends and schoolmates.

To my mind it still holds up today as a genuinely funny, witty piece of Hollywood, as does Joe Dante's other much-underrated more recent film "Small Soldiers". Nothing to do with British unfamiliarity with a culture.

Give us some fucking credit.

 

[Reno]

Yes: Gremlins is puerile crap.

Imo.

I'll take Pauline Kael's opinion over yours (or Roger Ebert's) any day. The most respected and influential film critic of all time loved Gremlin's and was a great supporter of Joe Dante work in general.

Gremlins
US (1984): Horror
106 min, Rated PG, Color, Available on videocassette and laserdisc
The director Joe Dante has the sensibility of a freaked-out greeting-card poet. This whimsical pop shocker is set in a sleepy small town at Christmastime. The hero Billy (Zach Galligan), a young bank teller, is given a mogwai-a tiny creature who nests in a box and makes gentle cooing sounds; when the instructions that Billy is given for its care are inadvertently disobeyed, the mogwai multiplies, and its progeny turn into greedy, demonic little gargoyles. The picture is a black humorist's parody of Steven Spielberg's E.T.-a demonstration that the underside of E.T. is like the monster in Ridley Scott's ALIEN. Billy's mogwai is a good child; the other mogwai are its aggressively vulgar, beer-guzzling brothers-children of the night. When one of them blows his snout on a drape, he's like Jean Renoir's Boudu expressing his contempt for bourgeois life by wiping his shoes on a bedspread. These demons are like bad pets making messes. The movie never comes together, but Dante is a genuine eccentric talent with a flair for malice, and it's certainly clear why Spielberg, whose production company made the film, believes in him-there are some crack sequences. At one point the lewd hipster dragons take over the town movie theatre, where SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS is playing; they pad up and down the aisles, eating, laughing, tearing up the place. And when the Seven Dwarfs on the screen start to sing "Heigh-Ho," they join in the singing. In their enthusiasm, they spin around on the projectors, and rip the screen to shreds. It's a delirious, kitschy travesty-a kiddy matinée in Hell. With Frances Lee McCain as Billy's mother, Polly Holliday as the town's Wicked Witch-Scrooge, Dick Miller as the town drunk, and Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Glynn Turman, Judge Reinhold, Edward Andrews, and Chuck Jones as Mr. Jones. Written by Chris Columbus; the critters were designed by Chris Walas. (A sequel, GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, was released in 1990.) Warners.
For a more extended discussion, see Pauline Kael's book State of the Art.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Exactly. Your naivete re NA culture allows you to like something like Gremlins 2.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900615/REVIEWS/6150302/1023

I can't believe you've dredged up a review of the time to 'prove' your point

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I'll take Pauline Kael's opinion over yours (or Roger Ebert's) any day. The most respected and influential film critic of all time loved Gremlin's and was a great supporter of Joe Dante work in general.

But what about Gremlins 2? That's the more pressing question at hand...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Just checked. I hadn't realised that Joe Dante also made Innerspace (great film) and Explorers (first half fantastic, second half, it must be said, pure crap)

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'll take Pauline Kael's opinion over yours (or Roger Ebert's) any day. The most respected and influential film critic of all time loved Gremlin's and was a great supporter of Joe Dante work in general.

Gremlins
US (1984): Horror
106 min, Rated PG, Color, Available on videocassette and laserdisc
The director Joe Dante has the sensibility of a freaked-out greeting-card poet. This whimsical pop shocker is set in a sleepy small town at Christmastime. The hero Billy (Zach Galligan), a young bank teller, is given a mogwai-a tiny creature who nests in a box and makes gentle cooing sounds; when the instructions that Billy is given for its care are inadvertently disobeyed, the mogwai multiplies, and its progeny turn into greedy, demonic little gargoyles. The picture is a black humorist's parody of Steven Spielberg's E.T.-a demonstration that the underside of E.T. is like the monster in Ridley Scott's ALIEN. Billy's mogwai is a good child; the other mogwai are its aggressively vulgar, beer-guzzling brothers-children of the night. When one of them blows his snout on a drape, he's like Jean Renoir's Boudu expressing his contempt for bourgeois life by wiping his shoes on a bedspread. These demons are like bad pets making messes. The movie never comes together, but Dante is a genuine eccentric talent with a flair for malice, and it's certainly clear why Spielberg, whose production company made the film, believes in him-there are some crack sequences. At one point the lewd hipster dragons take over the town movie theatre, where SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS is playing; they pad up and down the aisles, eating, laughing, tearing up the place. And when the Seven Dwarfs on the screen start to sing "Heigh-Ho," they join in the singing. In their enthusiasm, they spin around on the projectors, and rip the screen to shreds. It's a delirious, kitschy travesty-a kiddy matinée in Hell. With Frances Lee McCain as Billy's mother, Polly Holliday as the town's Wicked Witch-Scrooge, Dick Miller as the town drunk, and Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Keye Luke, Glynn Turman, Judge Reinhold, Edward Andrews, and Chuck Jones as Mr. Jones. Written by Chris Columbus; the critters were designed by Chris Walas. (A sequel, GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, was released in 1990.) Warners.
For a more extended discussion, see Pauline Kael's book State of the Art.

She liked Dante, and did her best to say something good with this review.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I can't believe you've dredged up a review of the time to 'prove' your point

What's wrong with a review at the time?