h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Slightly but Stone Aart, what was the last film/computer game tie-in you saw? What was the last *successful* one you saw?

Gamers aren't idiots and we know that, with one exception (and that wasn't really a tie-in) games based on films *suck*. Like massively, massively suck. They are a black hole of awfulness.

Guillermo del Toro didn't do Pacific Rim because he wants to make computer games, he's one of the few directors where the work 'visionary' is actually accurate. Plus all this stuff about American cultural imperialism might have some truth to it were it not for the fact del Toro is Mexican.

But, hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good, ill-informed rant.

And it certainly isn't true of Pacific Rim. There is *an* American lead in it. I repeat *an* American lead.

FB

Out of interest Stone Aart, have you actually seen the film or are you basing your opinion on reviews, or trailers/posters?

FB

Not seen it yet but isn't the American lead actually British (Charlie Hunnam)?

I recently went to go see "We steal secrets: the story of wikileaks."

A rather good documentary with a definite slant to it's narrative. Assange is shown as the noble failure, with an 'all power corrupts' kind of theme to his arc, how idealism turns to demagoguery and ultimately that-which-it-originally-faught-against.

We also get talking heads with the journalists wikileaks partnered with such as The Guardian, giving us extra insight into the shambles and the scramble to process the biggest leaks in the history of information into a coherent story - and therein the story of what worked and where it started to go wrong.


Meanwhile the real hero of the documentary is Bradley Manning, the now incarcerated private (charged with aiding the enemy (who?) who leaked the information to wikileaks including the infamous killing of the Reuters news journalist and camerman by helicopter and the gloating of the US airforce crew at the carnage they just caused including the indiscriminate murder of two dead children, and with a moving interview with the person who betrayed him, leading to his arrest.

"collateral murder"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0

Manning's course through the movie is re-told through clips of the message he sent to Assange, detailing his own personal descent into frustration and questioning of different identities, namely sexual (as the movie focuses on his transgender issues) and political as he wrestles with seeing the brutality he opposes on screens he has free access to, which he thinks deserves to be made public not kept secret.

Obama features briefly as a disinterested and distant commander in chief and the most telling stuff comes from the interviews with the members of the security services such as the he "we steal secrets" line isn't from Assange or any of the wikileaks members interviews, but the former head of the CIA! However in light of the recent revelations vis a via Edward Snowdon, that is all the more telling.

The film was directed by Alex Gibney who also won an Oscar for Taxi to the darkside" - another documentary about the murder of afghani taxi-driver at baghram airbase by US Military soldiers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0MPcN08Zc

And was director of Enron: The smartest guys in the room, essentially a sotry if corporate crime on a scale that beggared belief before the bank crash, the film was nominated but lost to "march of the Penguins"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dNZaKLjYbc

See this one if you can.

Is that the one with Bandersnatch Cummerbund as Assange?


Geggs

Ah, don't mind me. I've just checked, the Cumberbatch starring 'The Fifth Estate' is due later in the year.


Geggs

"Now You See Me" (2013) - Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Woody Harrelson...excellent film.

GB

I just watched Cronos by Guillermo Del Toro, one of his early films. I'd been led to believe it was some unknown masterpiece. Instead it was a rather nonsensical horror, no better than what you'd find in a bargain bin.

I got back from an eight-day concert tour of Saint Petersburg and the Baltics yesterday [http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F69196?thread=8303392], so I've been away from moviegoing for a long time. Okay, the "Lone Ranger" was being advertised in Saint Petersburg, but chances are it would have been dubbed into Russian, which would not have helped. :-/

Just got back from Pacific Rim. Don't know what version of the film Stone Aart watched because, whilst being quite conventionally structured, the film was a long way from a standard Hollywood blockbuster. It's certainly not "America yeah!" Stone Aart seems to imply it is - if it celebrates America, it's the America that has won more Nobel Prizes than any other country, that put a nuclear-powered hover crane on the surface of Mars and takes photos of Earth from a billion miles away.

I liked how scientists and mathematicians were given a major role in the film: both explicitly and implicitly. Two character names are homages to major mathematicians (Newton and Liebniz) and, just when I was wondering if it was intentional, there's a scene of a Newton's cradle that makes it clear it was very intentional.

So there was a cast of heroes that included a couple of Americans, a quartet of Chinese, a couple of Russians and Australians and a Brit. Yeah - that's so American. Interestingly, 4 of the major roles were played by Brits.

I thought it was very conventional by Guillermo del Toro's standards but it still had fun action scenes, beautiful visuals, soulful moments and some great gags.

Top film

I respect Guillermo Del Toro enough that I may go see "Pacific Rim."

I'm listening to the original cast recording of the musical "Titanic" now. It was hideously expensive to mount because the sets. At the premier, there was a snafu: the Titanic refused to sink!

Watched Cloud Atlas last night. I really liked it! Some of the make up was extraordinary. Also probably the best thing I've seen Ben Wishaw do since Perfume: Story of a Murderer.

Saw At Worlds End this arvo.

I really liked it, though on first viewing I'd say it is probably my least favourite of the Cornetto trilogy. Though given the great standard of Shaun and Fuzz that cannot be seen as a criticism.

FB

Strangely, I understood that post after only 3 re-readings

I just got back from seeing "Red 2." Helen Mirren is never more elegant than when she's pumping bullets from machine guns.

I agree with every word about World's End FB.

I've been trying to put my finger on why it was my least favourite of the three; I'm wondering if it has anything at all to do with Pegg's character being so fundamentally unlike-able. Affable but hopeless boyfriend Shaun and Sgt. Nick Angel for their flaws were heroes and likeable. Gary King is all flaws and superficial deceits and we get a bid for sympathy at the end but it leers over into over-acting and a -yeah shouty end, that I guess you either loved or hated, and I was in the the 'this is uncomfortable' group. It's not a patch on leaving Ed to succumb to his zombiism in the burning basement of The Winchester, despite the superficial similarity of location.

The night before last I saw "Turbo," an animated feature about a snail who undergoes a freak accident and becomes the fastest snail on the planet -- fast enough to win the Indianapolis 500. The title character is voiced by Ryan Reynolds. It's a fun movie. I'm no fan of car racing, so it's fine with me if something other than a car wins one of the world's greatest races.

Plus, there's the underdog effect. What could be more humble than a snail?

Oblivion, the Tom Cruise vehicle.

Actually surprisingly good. I really rather enjoyed it.

FB

The Day After Tomorrow. Because we had flooding here today so we felt we ought to remind ourselves of how bad it could have been.

And oh my, that film is sooooo bad ... I don't care about any of the characters in it, but it doesn't manage to be so nonsensical it's funny (cf Volcano). Ho hum.

Mol