Why are movies like this being made? So fucking stupid. Neflix on demand has so many movies like this. Check out Moby Dick 2010 and Giant Octopus Vs Crocosaurus. They need to bring back MST3K for all these turkeys!
I knew this was going to be bad when you both utterly failed to take in the information in a two-minute trailer for what looks to be an awful movie. "Where did these sharks come from?" you sputtered and mocked. And that's pretty much the second half of the trailer. You know, after one of the characters asks the same question. And then we see someone intentionally releasing sharks into the salt water lake. Why would they do such a thing? My goodness! You'd think they were crazy or something. In a horror film? Who'd a thunk it?
After that, how could you possibly wrap your noggins around Taxi Driver?
Obviously, you couldn't. Why is Taxi Driver a great movie? Try Googling "why is taxi driver a great movie" and you'll find a couple dozen essays explaining it better than I can. So, by all means, do so. You'll even find a pretty good essay about why the music is to be admired.
There's no way I'm going to do a point by point rebuttal of a vapid review made by the two guys who couldn't handle Shark Night. But I'll drop a few thoughts. Try to keep up. 1) It's sad beyond belief that you started whining like bitches that the character of Travis was not spoon-fed to you. Or would you prefer color by numbers? Connect the dots? The character is a cipher, guys. We don't know anything about him for sure. We don't know how he snapped or when. We don't know if he was in the military. We don't know if his parents are alive or dead. Because he snapped before the movie starts. We're watching a portrait of a guy who already lost it. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer picks up on this later in another excellent film. Which you'd probably hate. Because his character is also never explained. The story of how and why Travis snaps is not the story of Taxi Driver. Instead, we watch his last desperate attempts to connect with humanity before he loses it completely. You can't understand why he would fixate on someone, stalk them, and decide the best thing to do is kill someone close to the object of his fixation? Fine. Don't understand it. But please understand that's exactly what stalkers actually do. The movie gives a very real depiction of stalker behavior. You don't like that? Not rational enough for you? By all means explain it to the stalkers out there, get them to act more rationally. We'll all be thankful. 2) The music repeats endlessly. Like Travis' thoughts. Like his taxi trips. It's the soundtrack of someone circling the drain. Takes us right into his frame of mind as only music can. You don't like that sort of manipulation? Fine. But you might make some sort of effort to understand it. 3) There are endless arguments about whether or not Travis survives his incompetent bloody rampage. If he doesn't, the newspaper clippings are all in his head. If he does, the newspaper clippings are not too far from realistic. The media loves a good eye-catching story - facts be damned. Whether they're covering a subway vigilante or a golden-throated homeless dude, they create a narrative and run with it for as long as that sells papers. It really doesn't matter to them if the narrative is true. I suppose you imagine that the newspapers would check with the Secret Service before running the story. Or that the Secret Service would contact the papers to explain the situation. I don't think so.
Enough.
I usually enjoy your podcast gents. You're usually entertaining. This Taxi Driver episode? Painful.
Good show, guys. I happen to agree that both movies were balls.
With regards to Taxi Driver - The dialogue: repetitive. The music: repetitive.
Turns out that not EVERYTHING Scorsese shits out is good.
Why do directors assume that the audience needs constant repetition to drill home points and themes (and the same dialogue)? I guess to the simpleton who doesn't "get it" on the first pass it might be appreciated, but it isn't avant garde, it's Student Film 101.
I'm gonna kill her. There's nothing else. I'm gonna kill her. What do you think of that? I said, what do you think of that? Don't answer. You don't have to answer everything. I'm gonna kill her with a . Magnum pistol. I have a . Magnum pistol. I'm gonna kill her with that gun. Did you ever see what a . Magnum would do to a woman's face? It'll fucking destroy it. Just blow it right apart. That's what it can do to her face. Did you ever see what it can do to a woman's pussy? That you should see. You should see what a . Magnum's gonna do to a woman's pussy. What's that? I know you must think I'm, you know-- You must think I'm pretty sick or something. Right? You must think I'm pretty sick? Right? I bet you really think I'm sick, right? You think I'm sick? You think I'm sick? You don't have to answer that. I'm paying for the ride.
Hi guys. I haven't even listened to the podcast yet, but I thought you might like this. A piece of action that Tom might appreciate (it has nothing to do with movies but everything to do with fucking awesome) Those crazy Frenchies! http://motionographer.com/2011/05/27/megaforce-is-tropical-the-greeks/
Certainly Travis' dialogue in the film is juvenile, but that's because we're dealing with a juvenile character. That doesn't make it a bad film. In my view, the Bickle character epitomizes naive opposition to societal corruption. His naivety culminates in the end sequence, when he deludes himself into believing he made a difference. There's no doubt in my mind that it is in fact his delusion and not a direct continuation of the preceding narrative.
That bit of script wasn't Travis Bickle, it was the cameo of Scorsese's crazed cab character. So it seems like EVERYONE repeats repeats repeats repeats repeats repeats...until I lose interest.
I wonder if this movie is a commentary on the pathology of PTSD since Bickle's character was a newly released vet.
Anyway, I wanted to add that I laughed heartily at Tom's impression of Bella as the buck-toothed gaping mouth girl. Love it.
Take that, critics! My Man in Japan, Andy 3.0 laying out ALL THREE barrels...
My wife and I caught up on some old issues of EaC recently, including the Up in the Air review. As we were talking about your review, we realized that you two should avoid character sketches. Not so much because you tend not to enjoy them (though, you DO tend not to enjoy character sketches), but because (by your own admissions) you tend not to *understand* them.
You two are some plot-driven dudes, is what I'm saying. Movies that are about a character, rather than about a story, tend to piss you both off. And as Andy has explained, Taxi Driver is an exploration of a fractured psyche-- it isn't at all about the crazy thinks that Travis *does*, it's about the crazy person that he *is*. The fact that it explores his insanity *through* his actions makes that less clear... but ultimately, Taxi Driver is a character sketch, and you boys just don't get down with character sketches...
And, yeah, Shark Night had me slightly confused, for a moment, when I thought "Okay, now that the token black dude got ett, we just all stay out of the fucking water, right?" until I realized that it's not at all a man-vs-nature film, but a psycho-slasher film. It's less Anaconda, and more Friday the 13th. Clearly, some murderer is actively forcing people to deal with the sharks... Still not great stuff, but it fits its own genre, and the conventions of that genre. That bad, bad genre... (For clarity, I once spent an entire night, in the company of Andy "3.0" Utech, watching Friday the 13th part 1 - 8, in a non-stop festival... so, clearly I can appreciate me a wretched lousy horror flick, but I recognize that they're not for everyone...)
11 comments:
Why are movies like this being made? So fucking stupid. Neflix on demand has so many movies like this. Check out Moby Dick 2010 and Giant Octopus Vs Crocosaurus. They need to bring back MST3K for all these turkeys!
I knew this was going to be bad when you both utterly failed to take in the information in a two-minute trailer for what looks to be an awful movie. "Where did these sharks come from?" you sputtered and mocked. And that's pretty much the second half of the trailer. You know, after one of the characters asks the same question. And then we see someone intentionally releasing sharks into the salt water lake. Why would they do such a thing? My goodness! You'd think they were crazy or something. In a horror film? Who'd a thunk it?
After that, how could you possibly wrap your noggins around Taxi Driver?
Obviously, you couldn't. Why is Taxi Driver a great movie? Try Googling "why is taxi driver a great movie" and you'll find a couple dozen essays explaining it better than I can. So, by all means, do so. You'll even find a pretty good essay about why the music is to be admired.
There's no way I'm going to do a point by point rebuttal of a vapid review made by the two guys who couldn't handle Shark Night. But I'll drop a few thoughts. Try to keep up.
1) It's sad beyond belief that you started whining like bitches that the character of Travis was not spoon-fed to you. Or would you prefer color by numbers? Connect the dots? The character is a cipher, guys. We don't know anything about him for sure. We don't know how he snapped or when. We don't know if he was in the military. We don't know if his parents are alive or dead. Because he snapped before the movie starts. We're watching a portrait of a guy who already lost it. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer picks up on this later in another excellent film. Which you'd probably hate. Because his character is also never explained. The story of how and why Travis snaps is not the story of Taxi Driver. Instead, we watch his last desperate attempts to connect with humanity before he loses it completely. You can't understand why he would fixate on someone, stalk them, and decide the best thing to do is kill someone close to the object of his fixation? Fine. Don't understand it. But please understand that's exactly what stalkers actually do. The movie gives a very real depiction of stalker behavior. You don't like that? Not rational enough for you? By all means explain it to the stalkers out there, get them to act more rationally. We'll all be thankful.
2) The music repeats endlessly. Like Travis' thoughts. Like his taxi trips. It's the soundtrack of someone circling the drain. Takes us right into his frame of mind as only music can. You don't like that sort of manipulation? Fine. But you might make some sort of effort to understand it.
3) There are endless arguments about whether or not Travis survives his incompetent bloody rampage. If he doesn't, the newspaper clippings are all in his head. If he does, the newspaper clippings are not too far from realistic. The media loves a good eye-catching story - facts be damned. Whether they're covering a subway vigilante or a golden-throated homeless dude, they create a narrative and run with it for as long as that sells papers. It really doesn't matter to them if the narrative is true. I suppose you imagine that the newspapers would check with the Secret Service before running the story. Or that the Secret Service would contact the papers to explain the situation. I don't think so.
Enough.
I usually enjoy your podcast gents. You're usually entertaining. This Taxi Driver episode? Painful.
Good show, guys. I happen to agree that both movies were balls.
With regards to Taxi Driver -
The dialogue: repetitive.
The music: repetitive.
Turns out that not EVERYTHING Scorsese shits out is good.
Why do directors assume that the audience needs constant repetition to drill home points and themes (and the same dialogue)? I guess to the simpleton who doesn't "get it" on the first pass it might be appreciated, but it isn't avant garde, it's Student Film 101.
From the Taxi Driver script:
I'm gonna kill her.
There's nothing else. I'm gonna kill her.
What do you think of that?
I said, what do you think of that?
Don't answer.
You don't have to answer everything.
I'm gonna kill her with a . Magnum pistol.
I have a . Magnum pistol. I'm gonna kill her with that gun.
Did you ever see what a . Magnum would do to a woman's face?
It'll fucking destroy it. Just blow it right apart.
That's what it can do to her face.
Did you ever see what it can do to a woman's pussy? That you should see.
You should see what a . Magnum's gonna do to a woman's pussy.
What's that?
I know you must think I'm, you know--
You must think I'm pretty sick or something.
Right? You must think I'm pretty sick?
Right? I bet you really think I'm sick, right? You think I'm sick?
You think I'm sick?
You don't have to answer that. I'm paying for the ride.
Hi guys.
I haven't even listened to the podcast yet, but I thought you might like this. A piece of action that Tom might appreciate (it has nothing to do with movies but everything to do with fucking awesome)
Those crazy Frenchies!
http://motionographer.com/2011/05/27/megaforce-is-tropical-the-greeks/
btw it's me, British Andy.....stupid fucking blogger.com
(stupid fucking blogger.com is NOT the name of my new url by the way)
SM,
Certainly Travis' dialogue in the film is juvenile, but that's because we're dealing with a juvenile character. That doesn't make it a bad film. In my view, the Bickle character epitomizes naive opposition to societal corruption. His naivety culminates in the end sequence, when he deludes himself into believing he made a difference. There's no doubt in my mind that it is in fact his delusion and not a direct continuation of the preceding narrative.
My votes go to Black Swan and Vertigo.
Hi vulpix,
That bit of script wasn't Travis Bickle, it was the cameo of Scorsese's crazed cab character. So it seems like EVERYONE repeats repeats repeats repeats repeats repeats...until I lose interest.
I wonder if this movie is a commentary on the pathology of PTSD since Bickle's character was a newly released vet.
Anyway, I wanted to add that I laughed heartily at Tom's impression of Bella as the buck-toothed gaping mouth girl. Love it.
How about No Strings Attached and Black Swan. I'd like a full dose of Natalie Portman action!
Take that, critics! My Man in Japan, Andy 3.0 laying out ALL THREE barrels...
My wife and I caught up on some old issues of EaC recently, including the Up in the Air review. As we were talking about your review, we realized that you two should avoid character sketches. Not so much because you tend not to enjoy them (though, you DO tend not to enjoy character sketches), but because (by your own admissions) you tend not to *understand* them.
You two are some plot-driven dudes, is what I'm saying. Movies that are about a character, rather than about a story, tend to piss you both off. And as Andy has explained, Taxi Driver is an exploration of a fractured psyche-- it isn't at all about the crazy thinks that Travis *does*, it's about the crazy person that he *is*. The fact that it explores his insanity *through* his actions makes that less clear... but ultimately, Taxi Driver is a character sketch, and you boys just don't get down with character sketches...
And, yeah, Shark Night had me slightly confused, for a moment, when I thought "Okay, now that the token black dude got ett, we just all stay out of the fucking water, right?" until I realized that it's not at all a man-vs-nature film, but a psycho-slasher film. It's less Anaconda, and more Friday the 13th. Clearly, some murderer is actively forcing people to deal with the sharks... Still not great stuff, but it fits its own genre, and the conventions of that genre. That bad, bad genre... (For clarity, I once spent an entire night, in the company of Andy "3.0" Utech, watching Friday the 13th part 1 - 8, in a non-stop festival... so, clearly I can appreciate me a wretched lousy horror flick, but I recognize that they're not for everyone...)
I vote for Vertigo and Black Swan.
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