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Chaos

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  1. Chaos
    I have reached that time of the year where I am trying to see more films so I can have a semi-competent best of the year list at year's end. I have quite a few movies that I am trying to knock out this weekend. Here are the first two from my letterboxd account: Begin Again - 6/10 John Carney's first film since 2007's wonderful film, Once, tries to capture the magic of that film on a grander scale. Begin Again is hit and miss on this goal. The strength of Begin again exists when it captures the beauty and grandeur of New York City. At times, I found myself reminiscing to some of the beautiful shots in Woody Allen's Manhattan. While this film does live up to the artistic means of Allen's masterpiece, it reminds you why New York City is a great on-site location for cinema. As a film, Begin Again plays a lot of familiar beats that rarely surprises its audience, but some of the more "feel good" moments will find the viewer smiling at its earnest attempts. Knightley's performance carries this film in a big way and even makes up for Adam Levine's first attempt at acting in a feature film. Neighbors - 8/10 Given the recent track record of comedies starring Seth Rogen, Neighbors proves to be Stoller's best and (maybe) most earnest film since 2008's tremendous Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Efron, Byrne and Dave Franco all deliver tremendous, gut busting performances. Given the usual over the top nature of these heavily improvised comedies, Neighbors surprises this viewer by exploring two generations experiencing transitional periods in their lives and how the fears of that transition lead to both groups acting out in funny, self-destructive ways. Do your best to see Neighbors, as it will probably be the best big budget comedy that is released in 2014.
  2. Chaos
    I completely forgot about Django. It seems to be the one Tarantino film I never think about.
  3. Chaos
    Why would they want someone who failed as Wonder Woman?
  4. Chaos
    The other problem with ASM 2 was that it was one of the more blatant Jamie Foxx "I am just collecting a paycheck" performances of all time. Foxx has steadily been doing that since he had his banner year with Ray and Collateral. The only performance of his that maybe didn't fall under that category was The Soloist. I also am not sure that Mark Webb is the guy you want filming a big tent movie with big action set pieces. His stronger films are not ones that hint him displaying that gift.
  5. Chaos
    This is why nothing about Gotham works for me. It's an interesting sound premise but it does not work in execution. Just like Smallville, the creators didn't know where to take the show after a few seasons and abandoned the series. Smallville really lost itself after its fifth season. That is one of the problems that Network TV tends to expose. They just run something into the ground until the carcass just flails around enough to make you think its still active come the actual series finale.
  6. Chaos
    Yes, you are taking me a bit too literally. The Nolan formula has been applied to concepts that don't need it for the sake of "what worked before will work now." I can see The Watchmen or V For Vendetta (two comic book movies you forgot) needing a certain air of darkness and certainly TDK did if you want to show the true menace of The Joker, but SUPERMAN NEEDED TO BE DARK AND BROODING~? REALLY~? I guess you can throw Sin City into that equation as well. Yep. Hollywood had the Only Serious Comic Book Stories Need Apply bug so bad that studios and audiences were reticent to give stories with a lighter spirit much of a chance. Fortunately for us, Guardians of the Galaxy finally cracked that code. I think the problem exists more in a need for everything to be a great social commentary for our times. I would prefer that big tent films stayed away from sharing any sort of political agenda within them. Hollywood went through a period (and is kind of still there) where they want to obsess over a post 9/11, criticizing our many efforts at war or militarized actions, and the economic collapse that it spilled over into making these films dark, gritty, and hyper-realized. I am fine with dark, gritty, and hyper-realized when the source material calls for that kind of a film. Batman is always going to be a more interesting character when Batman explores its dark side. Superman is not going to be as interesting of an exploration through that prism.
  7. Chaos
    Yes, you are taking me a bit too literally. The Nolan formula has been applied to concepts that don't need it for the sake of "what worked before will work now." I can see The Watchmen or V For Vendetta (two comic book movies you forgot) needing a certain air of darkness and certainly TDK did if you want to show the true menace of The Joker, but SUPERMAN NEEDED TO BE DARK AND BROODING~? REALLY~? I guess you can throw Sin City into that equation as well.
  8. Chaos
    This is why I have hesitated on revisiting Memento. I list it among my favorite films of the oughts, but it has been probably seven or eight years since I've seen it, and I am afraid that it will not hold up at all for me.
  9. Chaos
    I think my favorite part of Comic Con this year was James Spader and Paul Bettany showing up and making it *quite* clear that they know they're better than this and are only doing it for the cash. Granted, I'm not sure Bettany's recent filmography backs him up on that, but I appreciate the lack of false sincerity about the subject matter, nonetheless. Isn't Bettany's career essentially centered around delivering good performances in not good movies? There's a lot more misses than hits in that filmography. I believe everyone read the script for Firewall and accepted it was garbage except Paul Bettany. This was the movie that I automatically thought about. Harrison Ford went beyond collecting a paycheck in that movie. He acted the entire film in the same voice with zero inflection for the whole thing.
  10. Chaos
    I think my favorite part of Comic Con this year was James Spader and Paul Bettany showing up and making it *quite* clear that they know they're better than this and are only doing it for the cash. Granted, I'm not sure Bettany's recent filmography backs him up on that, but I appreciate the lack of false sincerity about the subject matter, nonetheless. Isn't Bettany's career essentially centered around delivering good performances in not good movies? There's a lot more misses than hits in that filmography.
  11. Chaos
    I have never been great with titles, and I thought aping a line from the end of TDK was a fun bad pun because "The Director We Deserve..." works regardless if you like/dislike Nolan.
  12. Chaos
    This is a variation of my opinions on most of his output. I fall in the "I liked it. It's fun to talk about, but I doubt it's too high on my end of the year list. There' s no need for you to freak out or overreact."
  13. Chaos
    With the Interstellar review embargo being lifted today and already creating division among critics, I thought Nolan is a director who may deserve his own thread. I'm at work, so I can offer thoughts/input as the discussion unfolds.
  14. Chaos
    I tried to get on yesterday afternoon, but the server kept kicking me out of matches. I may play for a few hours tonight instead of RAW. It depends on how I feel after getting no sleep last night.
  15. Chaos
    Now you guys are going to make me pick it back up and actually watch it this time. I had it for like four days from Red Box before I realized I was never getting around to seeing it.
  16. Chaos
    I have now seen all but this past Monday's episode of Gotham. While there are some frustrating elements to the show, I think their attempts at building season-long arcs like this perceived war among the American's underground is enough to keep me interested for a few more episode. Jada Pinkett Smith is just chewing up scenery with her version of villainy mustache twirling. Also, I really wonder if they're not doing enough to make Jim Gordon interesting. I like McKenzie as an actor, but he seems to be playing the character as a single note thus far and as a boy scout. I think the audience knows and needs for there to be something more there.
  17. Chaos
    I have now seen all but this past Monday's episode of Gotham. While there are some frustrating elements to the show, I think their attempts at building season-long arcs like this perceived war among the American's underground is enough to keep me interested for a few more episode. Jada Pinkett Smith is just chewing up scenery with her version of villainy mustache twirling. Also, I really wonder if they're not doing enough to make Jim Gordon interesting. I like McKenzie as an actor, but he seems to be playing the character as a single note thus far and as a boy scout. I think the audience knows and needs for there to be something more there. EDIT: I didn't realize that this was being discussed in the DC thread.
  18. Chaos
    I will hopefully log in a couple of hours tonight. I need people to help me on this post-20 guide. I haven't put a lot of emphasis on improving rank or earning marks, so I tried to join a faction to discover that I need to fix that problem. Dead Orbit seems to be the way to go. Quicker cooldowns on melee and grenades seem necessary. The only debate I'm having is if it's more valuable to replace the melee with cool down super.
  19. Chaos
    I did one Clash match last night, and this was the map I was placed. It's horrible. I hate maps that have too much open space and spawn you where you have to run to get into the action. I find my deaths multiply threefold whenever this happens. Plus, my eyesight was being weird last night and would blur a little as I tried to play. I need to learn to never play without my glasses.
  20. Chaos
    This is terrible. I played through the Summoning Pits Strike again to get the bounty for defeating Phogoth. I only died twice through this playthrough as the two other guys with me were Level 20 as well, and we were able to take care of business without being swarmed too much; however, my second death was right before they finished Phogoth off, and I spawned right after it happened. Much to my dismay, I did not get the bounty.
  21. Chaos
    ... Goodhelmet... what was that about one free ban? Anyway, Percy Harvin was apparently a horrible person in a previous life. He's just been traded from Seattle to the Jets. Harvin played for the Urban Meyer Florida Gators. The Urban Meyer stink alone earned him this one.
  22. Chaos
    I played the first two Venus missions last night, and I am beyond happy that I am playing this as a level 19 at the moment. The Vex would annoy the hell out of me otherwise.
  23. Chaos
    It's free on PC if you have an origin account. I have the extended version or whatever it's called on 360 in my backlog pile.
  24. Chaos
    I still need to play through Origins, and I have faith that I can get this for cheap in a few months due to the EA/Bioware connection.
  25. Chaos
    Grats, man! Keep up that fitness! Tonight is judo night for me, so I won't be online until around 6PM or so. Yeah, I am training for a half marathon on December, so it's exciting that I can run four miles and not feel like the living dead afterwards now. I have 6 this weekend, so I am running a breast cancer 10k to get that in for the weekend. I also hit the level 19 mark last night and turned in 3 bounties in the process. I may try to finish the story tonight or at least get further in it (I haven't even started the Venus section yet)
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