Havah and I got to see the movie last Thursday night (Capone at Ain't It Cool News had 200 preview tickets, and we snagged two).
It's not really the kind of movie I generally like. I think I wanted to see it mostly because the idea of aging backwards intrigued me.
I think that if this movie doesn't win multiple Academy awards, I'll be stunned.
Posted by Elmer's Glue (Member # 9313) on :
Is it better than The Dark Knight?
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
When did The Dark Knight become the movie against which all other movies are judged?
*ahem*
Anyway, I haven't been sure how excited to get about Benjamin Button. It's a got a cast of actors I like, a director I like, and looks sure slick... But the story, I dunno. I'm not especially enticed. I just get this Forrest Gump kind of feeling from the previews. "Look what we can do. This is art. This is art that will warm your hearts."
Posted by Elmer's Glue (Member # 9313) on :
Only because it came out this year. I was curious because a review of the Dark Knight DVD said that it was probably the best movie of the year, and when asked why, they said they thought Benjamin Button might be better, and I like really long run on sentences apparently.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
I'm not at all interested in seeing this movie - like TL, I feel like it's trying a bit too hard. Plus I really doubt Hollywood has done anything special with the story.
I'm excited about Doubt, though.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Elmer's Glue: Is it better than The Dark Knight?
Dark Knight doesn't even deserve a best picture nomination this year. There's so much better.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
Note that I didn't really enjoy the movie. But it's the kind of thing that gets Oscars.
Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
It's based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
That's the only reason I want to see it. F. Scott is quality. Spins circles around Hemingway.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
I agree with TL and everyone who thinks the film looks like its trying too hard. It just seems very melodramatic and dull to me.
I'll probably end up seeing it with my dad at some point because that man cannot stand to miss any movie shot in New Orleans. He loves to play "spot that landmark."
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by Herblay: It's based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
That's the only reason I want to see it. F. Scott is quality. Spins circles around Hemingway.
Hemingway: "We went to the bar, and I asked for a drink. The waiter brought it to me, and the ice in it seemed to sparkle in time with the light from across the river."
Fitzgerald: "We went to the bar, and I asked for a drink. The waiter brought it to me, and the ice in it seemed to sparkle in time with the light from across the river, and it was glorious."
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Note that I didn't really enjoy the movie. But it's the kind of thing that gets Oscars.
I thought that was what you were saying at the first.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Hemingway: We went to the bar. She asked for gin, I asked for a drink. So the bartender brought me ice water in a glass. The lights from across the river shone in it.
Fitzgerald: They went to the bar, where Elsie topped up with her usual. She stirred the ice with the tip of one red fingernail, listening to it clink against the side of her glass and watching it sparkle in time with the lights from across the river.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Hemingway: We went to the bar. I asked for a gin, and the bartender brought me one with too much ice in it, and the lights from across the river danced in the windows, and in the ice, and I realized that I was very sleepy.
Salinger: So I sidled up to this bar see, and I asked for a gin. So anyway, the bartender brings me this glass with a thimble-full of gin and about a million ice cubes in it. It was pretty awful. So I was looking out across the river, and there's this light shining in it kind of like the ice that was in the glass with all the old ice cubes in there, and I was suddenly feeling pretty lousy, and a little depressed.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
I take it you haven't read much Salinger....
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
So I take it you haven't kissed my ass recently.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Wow, that was hostile. What gives?
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Were you being unaccountably snarky about my writing? I am hostile to that kind of thing.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Well, no. I didn't think you sounded much like Salinger. Sometimes we hit the submit button probably before we should. About a second after I posted that I began to edit it to take that out and reply with a different Salinger, join in on the fun, all that -- take a different approach. But saw your reply before I got very far.
As for the rest, I don't tend to snark unaccountably. There wasn't a lot of hostility on my part, if you want to know the truth.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Well, I think the contribution would have been better than the put down. For the record, I've only read The Catcher in the Rye, which accounts for the style.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Herblay: It's based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Very, very, very loosely.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
quote:I think the contribution would have been better than the put down. For the record, I've only read The Catcher in the Rye, which accounts for the style.
It wasn't a put down. But yeah.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
quote:Hemingway: We went to the bar. She asked for gin, I asked for a drink. So the bartender brought me ice water in a glass. The lights from across the river shone in it.
Fitzgerald: They went to the bar, where Elsie topped up with her usual. She stirred the ice with the tip of one red fingernail, listening to it clink against the side of her glass and watching it sparkle in time with the lights from across the river.
Pratchett: The pre-luncheon drinks were going quite well, Mr Bucket thought. Everyone was making polite conversation and absolutely no one had been killed up to the present moment.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Adams: Along the shores of the quaxi-megalon alpha river, where the quinscragulon mega sharks killed their pray with bolts of lightning from their eyeballs, Ford prefect walked up to a floating bar. More precisely, he fell up to the bar, getting his foot hung up on the bottom of the bar's artificial gravity well. He ordered a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, and the electric waiter brought it to him, as bolts of lightning shot alarmingly from the eyes of the mega sharks.
Ford was drunk. He mulled this fact over in his mind. The thought swirled around, bumped into some people it thought it might know at the end of the bar, didn't know them, and lazily fell asleep. Ford was very drunk indeed- this much was true.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
(Can't believe I'm going to attempt this) OSC:
"Well, we came to the bar. Let the debauchery begin."
"You're just jealous that I can enjoy my drink while your religious superstitions prevent you from having any fun."
"On the contrary, it's great fun to watch people pay a premium to become stupid and clumsy and hide their shame in faux pity for those of us with clear minds."
She retrieved her drink, and gulped half of it down. "Aah. Sweet faux fun." He couldn't help but chuckle, and then they turned to the menu. One thing they could both agree on was that the nachos were fantastic.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: I think that if this movie doesn't win multiple Academy awards, I'll be stunned.
Looks like, according to IMDB, it has already been nominated for quite a few awards (mainly Golden Globe)
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Didn't Robert Heinlein write a story about a man who lived his life backwards? There was a similar theme in an episode of Fringe a few weeks back. It is not a totally unique idea.
The idea does imply a lifetime lived in violation of entropy. Telomeres steadily lengthening, and all. In the stories I have seen, the mother died in childbirth, which you would expect if she gave birth to an old man.
In one of the stories, the man is a renowned freshman college football star, but becomes so mediocre by his senior year that he winds up being thrown off the team.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: It is not a totally unique idea.
*blink*
One word: Merlin.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: Didn't Robert Heinlein write a story about a man who lived his life backwards?
No.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by scifibum: (Can't believe I'm going to attempt this) OSC:
OSC: Ender knew that in this situation, there could be only course of action. You have forced my hand Graff, but you will not defeat me. He walked up to the bar, and ordered a drink. Without sensing it consciously, Ender took account of the light filtering into the glass from across the river. He had seen this kind of light before, but where? I have seen so many things, he thought, I wonder if I am still capable of feeling surprised by anything. The ice danced in the glass, like children bouncing around in the null-G of the battle room. It was not a conscious thought that alerted Ender to the woman sitting next to him- he had not heard her sit down. But instead he had recognized the perfume she was wearing, and he searched his memory for a clue as to who this woman might be. How do I know you? he thought, how can you be a part of a memory I am not aware of?
"What are your thoughts on the 2008 Presidential elections of the United States of America on Earth 3,000 years ago?" the woman coyly asked. Historians had long agreed, wrongly, that John McCain had lost the election because he had been unable appeal to his base, when in fact, Ender knew, Barack Obama had always been an elitist academic snob with no interest in the values of ordinary Americans, and he had unfairly painted John McCain as a relic of a past age. I know better, Ender said to himself, but to the woman he only smiled.
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa:
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: Didn't Robert Heinlein write a story about a man who lived his life backwards?
No.
Damon Knight wrote one.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Not sure who that is, Orincoro, but it's definitely not OSC. Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Well, it's me, if you want to get technical. Still, it's superficially OSCish. You have the "said silentlys" and the self questioning and the out of left field political statements, and, of course, the ennui.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Still, it's superficially OSCish.
Sez you.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro:
quote:Originally posted by scifibum: (Can't believe I'm going to attempt this) OSC:
OSC: Ender knew that in this situation, there could be only course of action. You have forced my hand Graff, but you will not defeat me. He walked up to the bar, and ordered a drink. Without sensing it consciously, Ender took account of the light filtering into the glass from across the river. He had seen this kind of light before, but where? I have seen so many things, he thought, I wonder if I am still capable of feeling surprised by anything. The ice danced in the glass, like children bouncing around in the null-G of the battle room. It was not a conscious thought that alerted Ender to the woman sitting next to him- he had not heard her sit down. But instead he had recognized the perfume she was wearing, and he searched his memory for a clue as to who this woman might be. How do I know you? he thought, how can you be a part of a memory I am not aware of?
"What are your thoughts on the 2008 Presidential elections of the United States of America on Earth 3,000 years ago?" the woman coyly asked. Historians had long agreed, wrongly, that John McCain had lost the election because he had been unable appeal to his base, when in fact, Ender knew, Barack Obama had always been an elitist academic snob with no interest in the values of ordinary Americans, and he had unfairly painted John McCain as a relic of a past age. I know better, Ender said to himself, but to the woman he only smiled.
Definitely smacks of Empire, and is still reminiscent of most of his recent work, particularly that last sentence. I almost feel as if the last sentence is copied.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
And Ender, of course, is a pivotal character in Empire.
[ December 24, 2008, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: rivka ]
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
Okay, I cheated. I used a real Terry Pratchett quote instead of trying to come up with one on my own.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
How is that relevant? I thought the point was to emulate things like diction and cadence, which it succeeds at. Would it really make a difference if he replaced Ender's name?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Empire is, IMO, stylistically and substantially very different than OSC's other work. Including in such things as diction and cadence.
If this was meant to be an Empire reference, Ender is an odd choice. And if it's not, then I disagree that it is particularly like OSC's fiction. Including in such things as diction and cadence.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
Yes, there is a lot of variance in OSC's work, but Orincoro's emulation highlighted some things which, as of late, have stuck out like a sore thumb, not the least of which his tendency to be didactic. Which does happen in the Shadow series.
I will concede that it's the second paragraph that works a lot more than the first, though.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Actually, the first wasn't bad. The second was way off in OSC-is-a-nut-ville. Maybe y'all live there, but I don't. Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
No, rivka you're absolutely right. The second paragraph I added as more a joke than a serious attempt at emulating the style.
Emp: The last sentence is not copied, but it appears in different forms throughout OSC's books. "But to the... he(she) only smiled. He says things like that all the time. "he only nodded," "he only bowed," etc.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I saw the movie tonight. It was okay.
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
Ender doesn't drink. To be authentically OSC, the paragraphs would have to note that the drink was not actually alcoholic, or, if alcoholic, that it was not actually consumed. So OSC would've avoided such an awkward contrivance by not ever having Ender hang out in a bar.
Posted by Darth_Mauve (Member # 4709) on :
I prefer the Red Dwarf take on the backwards living thing.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by twinky: I saw the movie tonight. It was okay.
There's a ringing endorsement!
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
My mother liked it quite a bit more than I did, as with Australia.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:So OSC would've avoided such an awkward contrivance...
I call. Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Why the hell am I getting so much heat for off the cuff impressions of other writers? I don't see a lot of you guys making the attempt, yet you catcall from the peanut gallery as if your contributions would be so much better. So let's see em'!
quote:
quote: So OSC would've avoided such an awkward contrivance...
I call. [Wink]
I'll put you all in.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Orincoro: the peanut gallery can be a pretty inhospitable place. But remember those of us who abide there don't have to perform, discussing others' performances is the whole of our job description.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Nice work if you can get it.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
The teenager and I saw this tonight.
I admit to being a little confused at first when Daisy was talking about the clockmaker, and didn't quite understand what that had to do with Benjamin besides the fact that they both ran backwards. That part felt forced, and maybe I could have accepted it better if Benjamin and the clock were more inextricably linked.
The special effects used to adjust for Benjamin's age were done subtly enough (IMO) that if it weren't for his physical size at that point in the movie, I'd think they were just using prosthetics. I think it was most apparent that it wasn't a makeup job with 1981 Benjamin.
Of course I have complaints as well - I don't think I've ever seen a movie that generated absolutely no negative comments - but I don't think I can discuss them without potential spoilers.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Nice work if you can get it.
And you can get if you try!
Posted by Danlo the Wild (Member # 5378) on :
I thought the movie was gorgeous, awesome and it made me cry often. I don't think this movie 'was' trying to hard, it's fincher and pitt, not exactly 2 guys who sell their moms for oscars.
I loved the Clock story...
And, Brad Pitt's line when he walks out of the brothel "Now I know why men work so hard." was hilarious.
Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
Robert Jordan: ........
Nevermind. I don't have the time that it would take. I've got to go to work in a few hours.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
I'm bumping this because I just saw the movie. I didn't expect to love it but the varying reviews intrigued me. At first I was put off by the moment others have (rightfully so I think) called forced. I couldn't tell what story it was trying to tell or why. Yet for once the length of a movie worked for it. As I kept watching it a meaningful narrative began to emerge. I don't know what the filmmakers were trying to say but the movie was, to me, about aging. Button served as the perfect foil to the process, revealing what is common-place as astounding. I was quite touched by several moments in the films and thought that there were many points on which the film could have tipped over and ran off the road and never did. Yet at the same time the lives lived by all seemed more like faux-lives than real flesh-and-blood people going through their days. It was too bad, it kept me from ever really fully connecting, yet it was still powerful enough to make me feel for the people it showed.
Hobbes Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :
I've never seen the movie, but I did read the story. I honestly thought it was "ok" but it didn't really stand out as anything special to me.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
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