Arrogant Khan

First topic message reminder :

Just found a quick thread for all those Khan fans/haters. Amir is explaining why he thinks he isnt arrogant and that its all banter. What you guys think? I dont think he is as many of you are aware, i just feel he has a great sense of self belief and confidence.

http://www.boxingscene.com/amir-khan-hits-back-critics-who-call-him-arrogant--41957


Cheers, enjoy your day!

The Vengeance Trilogy that includes Oldboy are all worth watching, though Oldboy is the best for me. Kurosawa was a god and films like "High & Low" which is arguably the best police procedural film in existence and "Ikiru" which could be his best work are often never even mentioned when describing his work. There would be no Star Wars, Usual Suspects, The Killing, Spaghetti Westerns or many others without Kurosawa's films.

As you can tell I'm a fan.

Dass wrote:Tino its probably the 2nd best courtroom based film in existence behind the brilliant "12 Angry Men". Brilliant film and superb performance by Peck, the book is worth the read to.

Little cameo by Duvall at the end as well. Blink and you miss him though.

Indeed it is, that and Catcher in the Rye are the two books that got me into reading in the first place as a child.

I am getting all misty eyed now!

Have seen all three of the Vengence trilogy, was a little disappointed with Lady Vengence but the other two are outstanding, although as you rightly say Oldboy is the stand out.

[quote="HumanWindmill"][quote="Mind the windows Tino."][quote="HumanWindmill"]

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:My estimate would be that I'll be prodding you with the red pen around six o' clock this evening.

Watch this space.

Quite an admission.

[quote="razzaq"][quote="HumanWindmill"][quote="Mind the windows Tino."]

HumanWindmill wrote:

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:My estimate would be that I'll be prodding you with the red pen around six o' clock this evening.

Watch this space.

Quite an admission.

Just come back from confession, mate.

Ichi the Killer was a interesting piece of work from Takashi Miike though seems positively normal in comparison to another film of his in "Gozu" which is worth watching at least once for the bizarreness alone.

Miike is a good director and has some very good films like Audition and Dead or Alive (not the game) in his resume.

Can understand the HOF entrants being a sticky but think we'd get more people voting if the other thread was in the proper section

Dass must be getting old but Ichi the Killer put me off my tea, and for that I do not forgive.

The twist at the end of Old Boy put me off mine Jeff, they sure know how to make a good violent film in the far east.

Battle Royale is fairly brutal too.

Gozu is just plain weird, there's a guy with a cow's head who talks and thats not even the weirdest part. Ichi the Killer is not something I'd watch again with much enthusiasm but it was certainly something to behold as a first time watch.

If you like samurai movies then I'd seriously recommend Yōjirō Takita's film "When the last sword is drawn" or Yoji Yamada's trilogy "Twilight Samurai", "Hidden Blade" and "Love & Honour". All the films were directed in the past 10yrs and great additions to the genre.

Dear god Dass, I thought I knew my films! You seriously need to consider leaving the house occasionally mate.

What does it for me Ghosty is they don't conform to the must have a happy ending theme that Hollywood often seems stuck in.

Of course I leave the house, how else would I get to the pub

Edit: I've tended to concentrate more on world cinema in the last 10yrs, hence why I come across so many films, don't really pay much attention to Hollywood until it hits Sky and rarely buy anything thats not subtitled.

rowley wrote:Having seen none of those mentioned suspect when the missus sees my Amazon bill next month you will not be popular in my house. Another semi Gangster film worth working is the original Infernal Affairs, which as I'm sure you know Scorsese remade as the Departed, which avoids the happy ending Marty attached, which I considered most out of character for him.

I knew it was a remake, but...'happy ending'? Or was that sarcasm which I've missed?

Normally fairly ambiguous endings as well Dass which depending on what goes on before can be slightly irritating. You get the beauty and majesty of Chinese/Hong Kong film and the brutality of Japanese/Korean film which Hollywood can never effectively replicate.

Balti in the departed the bit where Marky Mark's character kills Matt Damon does not happen in the original. Appreciate everyone ending up dead is hardly happy but the villain of the piece getting his comeuppance is far cheerier than the original.

BALTIMORA wrote:

rowley wrote:Having seen none of those mentioned suspect when the missus sees my Amazon bill next month you will not be popular in my house. Another semi Gangster film worth working is the original Infernal Affairs, which as I'm sure you know Scorsese remade as the Departed, which avoids the happy ending Marty attached, which I considered most out of character for him.

I knew it was a remake, but...'happy ending'? Or was that sarcasm which I've missed?

Well in comparison to the original film the ending to the Departed was rounded of more to suit the Hollywood taste that the Matt Damon character needs to be killed. Would have been better to stick with the original script and let Damon live.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Normally fairly ambiguous endings as well Dass which depending on what goes on before can be slightly irritating. You get the beauty and majesty of Chinese/Hong Kong film and the brutality of Japanese/Korean film which Hollywood can never effectively replicate.

I must admit (probably at risk of much backlash) that I've never been overly-awed by much of what's classed as Asian Cinema. Could be to do with a couple mates who were far, FAR too into it. I find that too often the Asian stuff just seems to be a tad disjointed or pointless. Oldboy was a very good film, but not THAT awesome. Likewise directors like Jon Woo & Ang Lee are praised for their Asian language films, when some (in Woo's case, most) of their English-language contributions are toss.

Dass wrote:Gozu is just plain weird, there's a guy with a cow's head who talks and thats not even the weirdest part. Ichi the Killer is not something I'd watch again with much enthusiasm but it was certainly something to behold as a first time watch.

If you like samurai movies then I'd seriously recommend Yōjirō Takita's film "When the last sword is drawn" or Yoji Yamada's trilogy "Twilight Samurai", "Hidden Blade" and "Love & Honour". All the films were directed in the past 10yrs and great additions to the genre.

Where is Coxy? He needs to step in here and talk about Crank or Green Street.

rowley wrote:Balti in the departed the bit where Marky Mark's character kills Matt Damon does not happen in the original. Appreciate everyone ending up dead is hardly happy but the villain of the piece getting his comeuppance is far cheerier than the original.

Ah. See, I interpreted that as a 'sad' ending, because EVERYONE bar Marky 'I'm never gonna shake this nickname' Mark dies. For bleak endings it's gotta be Clint Eastwood. Million Dollar Baby is a film I just can't bring myself to watch twice, knowing how soul-sapped it left me the first time.

Ghosty I'm still amazed how the Chinese/Hong Kong can do films on budgets of £10m dollars that look out of this world in terms of beauty. Yet Hollywood with the same budget looks like its been done on the cheap.

Did a piece some time ago about symbolism in Hollywood and world cinema so had to watch a lot of Asian films, watching a film like House of Flying Daggers the symbolism gets lost in translation very easily, in the western world colours mean completely different things to colours in Asia. You start to see things in films that you wouldn't have noticed before which gives them an added depth Hollywood film is normally lacking in.

Dass wrote:Ghosty I'm still amazed how the Chinese/Hong Kong can do films on budgets of £10m dollars that look out of this world in terms of beauty. Yet Hollywood with the same budget looks like its been done on the cheap.

They're less reliant on CGI than Hollywood which plays a massive part in that

Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

Best Vietnam film - Casualties of War.

Apocolypse Now is over rated in my opinion.

Crossover of Vietnam and John Woo - A bullet in the Head is brilliant.

John Woo films that are brilliant - A better Tomorrow 2, Once a Thief, The killer.
Hong Kong movie is the God of gamblers with Chow Yun Fat.

Dass wrote:Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

Terminator 1 holds up well, and T2 is a great example of a director knowing the limits of the technology available. Many later films have CG scenes which have dated much worse.

Which was the CGI scene in Aliens?

Dass wrote:Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

I can understand a film like Spiderman needing CGI and it's films like that that only Hollywood could pull off but even then they over do it with pointless scenes that cost a bomb yet add nothing to the spectacle of the film, biggest problem with Hollywood is the fact it's all been done before and there's so little thats new coming or has come out recently.

These days directors (Michael Bay) are too happy to be complacent and simply spunk 50 or 100 million dollars on pointless CGI stuff, because it's an easy alternative to plot. The Matrix films are a fine example.

As far as Vietnam films go then I'd probably say "Full Metal Jacket" is my favourite.

There's a definite need for CGI in films at times just not on every part of a film especially when CGI can often look completely fake within a movie. Remember watching the Blade sequel and thinking the CGI during some fight scenes was so bad it was laughable at times.

It's laziness a lot of the time, look at District nine, cost about 30p to make and to my mind looks as good as films that cost 100's of million.

As to Vietnam films, realise it has taken something of a shellacking on here but am going to stick up for Apocolypse Now.

BALTIMORA wrote:

Dass wrote:Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

Terminator 1 holds up well, and T2 is a great example of a director knowing the limits of the technology available. Many later films have CG scenes which have dated much worse.

Which was the CGI scene in Aliens?

Was the first film which used a tiny bit of CGI for the navigation monitors during the landing scene.

Edit: Shame Cameron lost his way during the 90's and then eventually made the horrific "Avatar", seemed to think the more CGI the better in that movie and forgot all about giving a good story.

Did really enjoy Apocalypse Now even if Coppola did get a right bollocking for slaughtering that Buffalo.

Saw a trailer for the new Transformers film and just looks like a mess of nonstop CGI, takes away from the plot too much, Gran Torino was a great recent film that cost little but had a good story and was well acted, give me that kind of film any day.

rowley wrote:It's laziness a lot of the time, look at District nine, cost about 30p to make and to my mind looks as good as films that cost 100's of million.

As to Vietnam films, realise it has taken something of a shellacking on here but am going to stick up for Apocolypse Now.

You know the story behind District 9? The director had done some trailers for the Halo games, and was due to direct the movie of said franchise. Due to various legal issues it fell through, so Peter Jackson kinda turned around and said "well, here's some money; make a movie". If you watch the Halo ads you'll see the similarities.

Dass, you really are a movie geek, in the nicest possible sense.

Bit of boring trivia for you, I live about 5 minutes from the barracks that the first half (training) of Full Metal Jacket was filmed.

Anyone else got any tenuous links to movie stardom?

I'm still not sure Michael Bay even included a story in the first Transformers movie.

Dass wrote:

BALTIMORA wrote:

Dass wrote:Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

Terminator 1 holds up well, and T2 is a great example of a director knowing the limits of the technology available. Many later films have CG scenes which have dated much worse.

Which was the CGI scene in Aliens?

Was the first film which used a tiny bit of CGI for the navigation monitors during the landing scene.

Edit: Shame Cameron lost his way during the 90's and then eventually made the horrific "Avatar", seemed to think the more CGI the better in that movie and forgot all about giving a good story.

I remember the part, but it wasn't the first film to use CGI. There are so many cleverly-done effects shots in that film though, it's brilliant. Can't agree about Avatar either. The story's pretty much a stock plot. It's 'Dances With Wolves', in space. With aliens.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:Dass, you really are a movie geek, in the nicest possible sense.

Bit of boring trivia for you, I live about 5 minutes from the barracks that the first half (training) of Full Metal Jacket was filmed.

Anyone else got any tenuous links to movie stardom?

The film Kes was based on my childhood

BALTIMORA wrote:

I remember the part, but it wasn't the first film to use CGI. There are so many cleverly-done effects shots in that film though, it's brilliant. Can't agree about Avatar either. The story's pretty much a stock plot. It's 'Dances With Wolves', in space. With aliens.

Dances with Smurfs?

BALTIMORA wrote:

rowley wrote:It's laziness a lot of the time, look at District nine, cost about 30p to make and to my mind looks as good as films that cost 100's of million.

As to Vietnam films, realise it has taken something of a shellacking on here but am going to stick up for Apocolypse Now.

You know the story behind District 9? The director had done some trailers for the Halo games, and was due to direct the movie of said franchise. Due to various legal issues it fell through, so Peter Jackson kinda turned around and said "well, here's some money; make a movie". If you watch the Halo ads you'll see the similarities.

Another little note on D9 is its a fully fleshed out adaptation of the directors short story "Alive in Joburg" which he had made years earlier.

I'm the same with gaming and music Tino, its not just films.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:Dass, you really are a movie geek, in the nicest possible sense.

Bit of boring trivia for you, I live about 5 minutes from the barracks that the first half (training) of Full Metal Jacket was filmed.

Anyone else got any tenuous links to movie stardom?

My ex Mrs used to apparently live near to where 'Band of Brothers' was filmed... Although that's technically a series, not a feature film...

Actually, now I think about it; there was a guy used to work in a takeaway shop here who did bits of work as an extra. He'd been in one of the new Star Wars films, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and a few others. I remember seeing him in some TV drama, playing an illegal immigrant. Ironic really, as he was Turkish.

What kind of music you into then Dass?

BALTIMORA wrote:

Dass wrote:

BALTIMORA wrote:

Dass wrote:Once had a discussion regarding the use of puppets/models over CGI when creating for the big screen. I still hold that Alien/Aliens still stand up well today with almost zero CGI (one scene, not the aliens) against any film thats used CGI to instead. It seems the industry has got to reliant on CGI even in areas where they don't need to.

Terminator 1 holds up well, and T2 is a great example of a director knowing the limits of the technology available. Many later films have CG scenes which have dated much worse.

Which was the CGI scene in Aliens?

Was the first film which used a tiny bit of CGI for the navigation monitors during the landing scene.

Edit: Shame Cameron lost his way during the 90's and then eventually made the horrific "Avatar", seemed to think the more CGI the better in that movie and forgot all about giving a good story.

I remember the part, but it wasn't the first film to use CGI. There are so many cleverly-done effects shots in that film though, it's brilliant. Can't agree about Avatar either. The story's pretty much a stock plot. It's 'Dances With Wolves', in space. With aliens.

When I said "first film" I meant the first Alien movie and not the sequel "Aliens" which used no CGI at all. Thats the problem with "Avatar" its such a stock plot inclusion that it enters the Michael Bay category of just using standard template story telling, if your going to spend all that money making a film at least attempt some creative story telling while your at it. Even stock story telling can be done well in film something Cameron failed to do with "Avatar" which was just a mess all round.

I didn't think it was a mess all round. In a whole number of ways it pushed the envelope. Design-wise it was impeccable. The fact that the story was nothing new or original was no bad thing. There are a slew of films which have tried to be clever but failed. Inception for example has to be one of the most bloated, over-rated, hyped turds I've seen. It's not even that the film was bad, because it wasn't. It's the fact that it was touted as being a 10/10 flick, and it was a solid 7/10, no more. It was the hype and consequent anticipation which left me feeling short-changed. All these reviews talking about it being a 'thinking man's blockbuster', and the people saying how "you HAVE to watch it twice to understand it". I understood it fine, I just thought it was self-indulgent, and with a pretty pap ending. Sure, the effects were nice, but that's to be expected nowadays.

Read a comment on Inception which for me summed it up perfectly, it was a film that allowed thick people to feel clever.

Prob be classed in the Rock sort of genre Ghosty though I like other stuff. Anything really from Ottis Redding/Robert Johnson to Kinks/Crosby Stills & Nash. Then you have a soft spot for Kansas/Boston and other bands of that ilk, scoop in Smashing Pumpkins and many others from the 90's. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of music coming out of Europe and Japan.

Yet I would barely say I've touched the surface of what I like, its harder with music than films.

rowley wrote:Read a comment on Inception which for me summed it up perfectly, it was a film that allowed thick people to feel clever.

It didn't leave you to work anything out, just tried to overcomplicate a simple concept. Gave you the ending very early on too.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:
Dass, you really are a movie geek, in the nicest possible sense.

Bit of boring trivia for you, I live about 5 minutes from the barracks that the first half (training) of Full Metal Jacket was filmed.

Anyone else got any tenuous links to movie stardom?

-------------------------------------------

Often walks the missus's dogs at Bourne Woods near Farnham. Do the cricket pitches just down the road so drive past everyday. The location is probably most famous for the opening scene in Gladiator, but other movies include Robin Hood (Russell Crowe one), War Horse, and they are currently filming Dark Shadow there. Rumour has it that Johnny Depp was seen at the local Sainsbury's a few weeks back.

I agree about "Inception" being nowhere near as good as the Hype suggested, some people were saying it was a cinema masterpiece on release. I'd still put "Avatar" in that category, it was a film basically living of the CGI which wasn't even that great and looked over used within the concept of the film. At times while watching it I could imagine the green background as the CGI was used that often as a crux. The fact there is sequel's planned makes me want to cry.

BALTIMORA wrote:I didn't think it was a mess all round. In a whole number of ways it pushed the envelope. Design-wise it was impeccable. The fact that the story was nothing new or original was no bad thing.

The hippy, tree hugging message of Avatar made me want to damage the environment. We are destroying the planet, thanks for ramming that message down our throats Cameron you condescending douchebag. The cliche, gun toting marine lunatic was awful as well.

Rubbish, I get annoyed just thinking about that film.