Some Stuff Here Is
1st off, for those of you who have the new Radiohead album "Hail to the Thief" and are finding yourselves dissatisfied, I have a listening guide that will guarantee your listening enjoyment. Well, it will at least give you a different impression of the album, I hope. Here it is:
For the first nine tracks of the album listen only to the odd tracks (track: 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9). From nine on you may let it play through.With this listening scheme the listener avoids what might well be considered the "artsy" stuff, while enjoying the jewels of the album-- one may also notice the definite continuity between the songs and their strength. With this scheme employed I have found Hail to the Thief to be one of my favorite Radiohead discs.
Pirates of the Caribbean sucks. I'm sorry. If not for the interesting performance of Johnny Depp, and the good looks of Orlando Bloom (liked him much better as Legolas) the plot would have sunk into the darkest abyss of contrivance and cliché. Is this what Hollywood considers to be a "blockbuster"? Godspeed the release of Return of the King and The Matrix III.
I had more to say, but I must go eat salmon before it gets cold.
Posted by jeremy stock at July 20, 2003 05:02 PMcontrivance and cliché
I'm not sure if I can read that to mean "nothing original, it was rather like an old movie only in color." But that's exactly what I liked about it: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, girl is captured, girl is recued, boy and girl kiss. And there was a sword fight.
Although some in Disney would hate for me to say it quite like this: it was a movie - with no aspirations (or pretensions) at being a film. There was art but no ART. No sex, no blood until the very end, the violence was mostly off screen. I knew how it would end before I even got my ticket. But it was a fun ride. It was a common movie.
Loved it!
I'm also looking forward to RoTK. But of course, we know how that ends too :-)
Posted by: Huw Raphael at July 21, 2003 08:05 AM~~~~I'm not sure if I can read that to mean "nothing original, it was rather like an old movie only in color."~~~
~~~ But that's exactly what I liked about it: boy meets girl,~~~
I think they could have gone lighter on the fight scenes to spend more time developing the longing between the two. I think the best parts (and they are far too few) are the initial scenes that set up their desire for one another, yet without either knowing it.
~~~boy gets girl, girl is captured,~~~
girl is captured, and it takes a politically correct crew to come rescue her, complete with a strong black female (pirate mind you) who "mans" the boat, and a midget for comedy relief(?).
~~~girl is recued, boy and girl kiss.~~~
In true feminist-hollywood fashion she was nearly as instrumental in her "rescue" as was her hero. (boring).
And the kiss was sanitized. After waiting a whole movie to see it, the kiss was shot from a wide shot...let down. ;-)
~~~And there was a sword fight.~~~
Too many in my opinion. And it seemed every couple seconds in EVERY sword fight there were the ubiquitous one-liners....snore.
My thought was, "enough already with the comedy bits while you're supposedly in the throws of utter peril."
I'm sorry, but LOTR can hardly be put in the same sentence as POTC.
that's my opinion at least. good day! :-)
Posted by: jeremy at July 22, 2003 06:06 AMI thought POTC was a lot like a pirate version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a crazy plot, some great one-liners, some spooky, some effects, but no over-the-top gore or below-the-neck smoochie.
I was very surprised at how good the movie was, and I think it was much (MUCH) better at plot and dialogue than Matrix II was.
Sure, not the serious epic that LOTR is, but a great (family (finally!)) movie just the same.
Posted by: dave shackelford at August 4, 2003 01:50 PM