Go home and be a family man...
You know what's annoying? Things that are good, but not good enough. I mean, things that suck are annoying, too, but if something sucks you just turn it off. If something is almost good, you suffer through it. You strain and stretch and try to love it... But it just doesn't get there.
Music-wise, I recently listened to both of Aesop Rocks discs. He's a hip-hop artist from New York, I think. He's connected with El-P and Mr. Lif and some artists I like, and he's got a decent track on a compilation I have. So I listened to both discs in the store, and man, I listened to the entire disc. I went back and listened to tracks again, but it just never got there. I mean, there were some nice beats, and a sample from the Bladerunner soundtrack, which is nice. But I just didn't like it enough to buy it. I've had similar problems with Elliot Smith, Common, K-os. There'll be like one great track, and the rest of the album won't cut it. That's very frustrating.
Movies are especially bad with this; last night I saw Casualties of War, with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox. Now I wouldn't say I enjoyed the movie, as it was about a group of solders in Vietnam who kidnap, rape and murder a Vietnamese girl, and it kind of falls apart structurally. That being said, there's a great scene in the middle where Michael J. Fox, as the lone moral soldier, tries to save the girl. The music is great, it's shot really interestingly, it's really intense. It's a great scene, but you have to sit through a pretty mediocre movie to enjoy it (after the murder of the girl the film doesn't really go anywhere).
In another Vietnam related film, Heaven and Earth, we have a similar problem. It's an Oliver Stone movie about the experiences of a Vietnamese peasant girl during the war. It is, by contrast, an excellent film; it is also very long and, as you might expect, really depressing (apparently the Vietnam war was pretty rough on peasant girls). It's punishing to watch, so I wouldn't quite recommend it, but there's this fucking amazing scene towards the end. Tommy Lee Jones plays this soldier who marries the Vietnamese girl and brings her to the US, and there's this scene where he breaks down and confesses all the fucked up things he did during the war. The music stops and there's just this howling wind on the soundtrack, and the lighting starts throbbing white and red and Tommy Lee Jones is fucking incredible. And then his wife confesses all the fucked up things that happened to her during the war and the music swells up and it's this wonderful scene. But you have to sit through a tough movie to get to it.
The Matrix movies are a great example of this. The first one is cohesive enough, but the other two? Come onnnnnn... Now, if you watch reloaded with a finger on the remote controls it's half an hour of great stunts and special effects, with no first-year philosophy lectures. Same with Revolutions; skip the first half hour and the last half hour, and enjoy the battle for zion sequence. Incidentally, not to step on any toes here, but the first half hour of Revolutions is some of the worst fucking cinema I have ever seen. We watch Neo stand around in a train station, while the others have an anemic pointless fight to get Neo out of the train station. If we are devoting so much fucking screen time to getting Neo out of the fucking train station, why did we put him in the fucking train station to begin with? What did it fucking accomplish? Huh? Asshole.
What else? Oh yeah, Casino Royale; have you ever seen this? It's this James Bond satire from like the 60's man. It stars David Niven and Peter Sellers, and it's pretty campy, as one might expect. But partway through, there's this scene where James Bond meets Mata Hari's daughter, and it's this amazing dance number. The music and lighting are really terrific, and it's shot in a really cool way. Is this ridiculous film worth it for a five minute sequence?
It's just a pain in the ass, because you would like to lovw these things. I would like Casualties of War to be better overall, or for Aesop Rock to have just one really great track. But they're not and they don't, and I can't justify adding these things to my library. But that one scene is so fucking great...
Music-wise, I recently listened to both of Aesop Rocks discs. He's a hip-hop artist from New York, I think. He's connected with El-P and Mr. Lif and some artists I like, and he's got a decent track on a compilation I have. So I listened to both discs in the store, and man, I listened to the entire disc. I went back and listened to tracks again, but it just never got there. I mean, there were some nice beats, and a sample from the Bladerunner soundtrack, which is nice. But I just didn't like it enough to buy it. I've had similar problems with Elliot Smith, Common, K-os. There'll be like one great track, and the rest of the album won't cut it. That's very frustrating.
Movies are especially bad with this; last night I saw Casualties of War, with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox. Now I wouldn't say I enjoyed the movie, as it was about a group of solders in Vietnam who kidnap, rape and murder a Vietnamese girl, and it kind of falls apart structurally. That being said, there's a great scene in the middle where Michael J. Fox, as the lone moral soldier, tries to save the girl. The music is great, it's shot really interestingly, it's really intense. It's a great scene, but you have to sit through a pretty mediocre movie to enjoy it (after the murder of the girl the film doesn't really go anywhere).
In another Vietnam related film, Heaven and Earth, we have a similar problem. It's an Oliver Stone movie about the experiences of a Vietnamese peasant girl during the war. It is, by contrast, an excellent film; it is also very long and, as you might expect, really depressing (apparently the Vietnam war was pretty rough on peasant girls). It's punishing to watch, so I wouldn't quite recommend it, but there's this fucking amazing scene towards the end. Tommy Lee Jones plays this soldier who marries the Vietnamese girl and brings her to the US, and there's this scene where he breaks down and confesses all the fucked up things he did during the war. The music stops and there's just this howling wind on the soundtrack, and the lighting starts throbbing white and red and Tommy Lee Jones is fucking incredible. And then his wife confesses all the fucked up things that happened to her during the war and the music swells up and it's this wonderful scene. But you have to sit through a tough movie to get to it.
The Matrix movies are a great example of this. The first one is cohesive enough, but the other two? Come onnnnnn... Now, if you watch reloaded with a finger on the remote controls it's half an hour of great stunts and special effects, with no first-year philosophy lectures. Same with Revolutions; skip the first half hour and the last half hour, and enjoy the battle for zion sequence. Incidentally, not to step on any toes here, but the first half hour of Revolutions is some of the worst fucking cinema I have ever seen. We watch Neo stand around in a train station, while the others have an anemic pointless fight to get Neo out of the train station. If we are devoting so much fucking screen time to getting Neo out of the fucking train station, why did we put him in the fucking train station to begin with? What did it fucking accomplish? Huh? Asshole.
What else? Oh yeah, Casino Royale; have you ever seen this? It's this James Bond satire from like the 60's man. It stars David Niven and Peter Sellers, and it's pretty campy, as one might expect. But partway through, there's this scene where James Bond meets Mata Hari's daughter, and it's this amazing dance number. The music and lighting are really terrific, and it's shot in a really cool way. Is this ridiculous film worth it for a five minute sequence?
It's just a pain in the ass, because you would like to lovw these things. I would like Casualties of War to be better overall, or for Aesop Rock to have just one really great track. But they're not and they don't, and I can't justify adding these things to my library. But that one scene is so fucking great...
posted by Dash Bradley at 6:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home