MicShazam Presents: That's Not Music

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-23-2018, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oriphiel

Beautiful Dreamer when?

Not this weekend, that's for sure! The planets may align themselves soon enough.

grindy · 02-23-2018, 05:07 PM

Whiplash is well done and at times entertaining but as a movie about music it's a failure and indeed ridiculous.

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-23-2018, 05:20 PM

The actors put in their all and definitely aren't the problem. But I want a movie about music to show me that it appreciates and understands music. Whiplash made music seem like a thoroughly miserable thing and I find that offensive. Plus some of the Full Metal Jacket style "teaching" scenes are so far out I could only ever have given them a pass if the movie was a comedy.

For all of it's faults, I think La La Land is a much more likeable film about music. It radiates a love of music and that's exactly what Whiplash is missing most of all.

Oh and while I'm writing an entry anyway: I forgot to add Tomb Raider to the movies that I got rid of. It's as bad as people say it is. At least I got it for free a while back, so nothing lost. Just an uninspired cash-in. Nothing more offensive than that. At least Jolie's bust looks great in the series of outfits they strategically selected for her. There's not much to say about a movie when I have to stoop to that level.

grindy · 02-23-2018, 05:29 PM

Yeah, I always say it's basically an army/sports movie, with music awkwardly shoehorned in.
Especially misplaced since it's supposed to be about jazz, where spontaneity, interaction and communication between the players are some of the most important things.

**Frownland** · 02-23-2018, 05:31 PM

Regarding La La Land, it made me laugh how ironic it was that lead male character loves jazz and how it evolves and invents despite only playing very traditional jazz. I did really like when he talked about improvisation though.

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-23-2018, 05:34 PM

It really is an army or sports type movie. That's spot on.

The "that's not my friggin' tempo!" scene is so off the mark in relation to how any music - not least jazz - works. I know they have to contrive things to get general audiences to follow along, but come on.

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-23-2018, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Regarding La La Land, it made me laugh how ironic it was that lead male character loves jazz and how it evolves and invents despite only playing very traditional jazz. I did really like when he talked about improvisation though.

Yeah it's assuming that the audience neither knows about the finer points of jazz history, nor cares. So it went with a very easy and immediate soltuion as far as the soundtrack goes. The movie is very populist, but not in a patronizing manner. It just knows it's audience. I'm fine with that, as long as the movie shows genuine respect for music, which I think it did.

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-26-2018, 01:53 PM

Cold Mountain

2004/Anthony Minghella
2 Hours, 28 minutes

I just finished watching this movie, then, like I usually do, I sat down to read some reviews. It's more fun/interesting to do after you've watched a film than before. Then, scanning what critics had to say on Rottentomatoes.com, I started feeling like reading about the movie would extend it's tedium more than I could bear.
You know what? I'm going to review the movie in stolen critic blurbs. That's how it's going to be.

"It evokes a backwater of the Civil War with rare beauty, and lights up with an assortment of colorful supporting characters."
- Roger Ebert
"While the film is handsome to look at and has its fair share of realism, it also gets plenty sappy along the way."
- John J. Puccio
"Something to mildly admire rather than embrace."
- Nick Schager
"Feels curiously put together - it jerks together from event to event without any real flow and the two leads display absolutely no chemistry when they are on-screen together."
- Peter Sobczynski
"Handsome and fast-moving, if a little hollow."
- Phil Villarreal
"That ancillary characters are played by big-name supporting actors, each of whom seems to be working in a different register, just underscores the choppy nature of the story."
- Bryant Frazer
"When all of your supporting characters are more compelling and charismatic than your leads, your movie is in trouble."
- Rob Blackwelder
"Whether we're watching the domestic struggles of Kidman or Law doing moody wandering, scenes run on randomly, and don't build into a structure with arc or emphasis."
- Ian Waldron-Mantgani
"A classically crafted Civil War epic with actions and ideas aplenty - but not enough to fill its excessive length."
- Anton Bitel

And that's my "review".

Here's a couple blurbs that I didn't agree with, but which instead triggered my "WTF" impulse.

"Although there were some good moments in the film, mostly due to Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Cold Mountain" never rises above the average."
The dear Mr. Hoffman overplayed every second of screen time he had to the max and his character felt pasted in already.
"Minghella's detail-rich film is like a beautiful piece of fabric, lovingly crafted by hand. And Zellweger is like a big ol' stain, right in the middle of it."
She was by far the most entertaining aspect of the film, believeable character or not.

And then a well-spotted but curiously irrelevant critic blurb.

"Is Nicole Kidman contractually obligated to interact with birds in all her films?"
I don't know. I can't even think of one other such movie, but I've watched far from all Nicole Kidman movies.
I'm gonna need an expert opinion on this one.

~~MicShazam~~ · 02-28-2018, 01:12 PM

This is a list of every single DVD currently enjoying a place at the shelves where I keep my favorite movies. The barrier of entry isn't amazingly high, since how demanding I want to be is pretty much dictated by the amount of movies these shelves can hold.
Ideally, I'd review/write about every single one of these sooner or later, but making this post had me realize just how many movies there are here. Writing about them all would take forever! Still, it's nice to have something to aspire towards, I guess.
Also note that several of these; I haven't watched in years. I might not even agree with myself on many of these choices!

1492: Conquest of Paradise
3096 Days
Agora
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien resurrection
Alien covenant
All the President's Men
American Beauty
American Hustle
American Psycho
Annie Hall
Arachnophobia
Argo
Babel
Barbara
Barney's Version
Ben-Hur
Berserk (the original anime series)
Big Eyes
the Big O (anime series)
Birdman
Black Book
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Blind
Blue Jasmine
Broken Flowers
Burma VJ
Café Society
Camp X-Ray
Carnage
Charlotte Gray
Chinatown
Citizenfour
Cleopatra (1963 ver.)
Clouds of Sils Maria
Collateral
the Corpse Bride
Cosmopolis
the Counselor
Cowboy Bebop the Movie
Crying Freeman (the 1995 live action movie)
Dallas Buyer's Club
A Dangerous Method
Don Jon
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Elegy
Elle
Eastern Promises
Easy A
Exodus: Gods and Kings
Existenz
Eyes Wide Shut
the Fly
Frank
Frida
Full Metal Jacket
W.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (anime series)
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Ghost World
Ginger and Rosa
Good Kill
the Grand Budapest Hotel
the Golden Compass
Hannah and Her Sisters
Happy-Go-Lucky
Deconstructing Harry
Heat
A History of Violence
Inherent Vice
the Insider
Interstellar
Jarhead
Jesus of Nazareth
Killer Joe
the Kingdom
Kingdom of Heaven
Kriger (aka Kriegerin/aka Combat Girls)
A Woman in Berlin
Labyrinth
La La Land
the Last Temptation of Christ
A Late Quartet
Legend
Leon
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Lost in Translation
Magic in the Moonlight
Malice@Doll
Manhattan
Map to the Stars
the Martian
Mary and Max
Melinda and Melinda
El método
Miami Vice
Midnight in Paris
A Mighty Heart
Mighty Aphrodite
Moonrise Kingdom
Much Ado About Nothing
My Best Friend
Husbands and Wives
Copie Conforme (aka Certified Copy)
Naked lunch
Nightcrawler
The Nightmare Before Christmas
No Country For Old Men
Nocturnal Animals
the Shining
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Oslo, August 31st
Out of the Furnace
Paprika
Paranoia Agent (anime series)
Paris, je t'aime (aka Paris, I Love You)
Passion
Platoon
Polisse
Prometheus
Radio Days
Ran
Robin Hood (Ridley Scott ver.)
To Rome With Love
Samurai Champloo (anime series)
Secretary
Shame
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Snow White and the Huntsman
Sophie Scholl
Spartacus
The Pianist
Spider
Spotlight
Spring Breakers
La grande bellezza (aka The Great Beauty)
Take Shelter
Sucker Punch
Talk Radio
the Ten Commandments
the Thing
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Tokyo Decadence
Tokyo Godfathers
Towelhead
the Town
Ruang rak noi nid mahasan (aka Last Life in the Universe)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Videodrome
Volver
Wall Street
wall street 2: Money Never Sleeps
Watchmen
Welcome to the NHK (anime series)
Wolf
the Wrestler
X-Men
Young Adult
Zero Dark Thirty
Zodiac

Oriphiel · 02-28-2018, 02:10 PM

*cough* Beautiful Dreamer *cough*

02-23-2018, 05:07 PM	#32 (permalink)
grindy . Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: . Posts: 7,201	Whiplash is well done and at times entertaining but as a movie about music it's a failure and indeed ridiculous. __________________ *A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.*

02-23-2018, 05:20 PM	#33 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	The actors put in their all and definitely aren't the problem. But I want a movie about music to show me that it appreciates and understands music. Whiplash made music seem like a thoroughly miserable thing and I find that offensive. Plus some of the Full Metal Jacket style "teaching" scenes are so far out I could only ever have given them a pass if the movie was a comedy. For all of it's faults, I think La La Land is a much more likeable film about music. It radiates a love of music and that's exactly what Whiplash is missing most of all. Oh and while I'm writing an entry anyway: I forgot to add Tomb Raider to the movies that I got rid of. It's as bad as people say it is. At least I got it for free a while back, so nothing lost. Just an uninspired cash-in. Nothing more offensive than that. At least Jolie's bust looks great in the series of outfits they strategically selected for her. There's not much to say about a movie when I have to stoop to that level. Last edited by MicShazam; 02-23-2018 at 05:29 PM.

02-23-2018, 05:29 PM	#34 (permalink)
grindy . Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: . Posts: 7,201	Yeah, I always say it's basically an army/sports movie, with music awkwardly shoehorned in. Especially misplaced since it's supposed to be about jazz, where spontaneity, interaction and communication between the players are some of the most important things. __________________ *A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.*

02-23-2018, 05:31 PM	#35 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Regarding La La Land, it made me laugh how ironic it was that lead male character loves jazz and how it evolves and invents despite only playing very traditional jazz. I did really like when he talked about improvisation though. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

02-26-2018, 01:53 PM	#38 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	Cold Mountain 2004/Anthony Minghella 2 Hours, 28 minutes I just finished watching this movie, then, like I usually do, I sat down to read some reviews. It's more fun/interesting to do after you've watched a film than before. Then, scanning what critics had to say on Rottentomatoes.com, I started feeling like reading about the movie would extend it's tedium more than I could bear. You know what? I'm going to review the movie in stolen critic blurbs. That's how it's going to be. "It evokes a backwater of the Civil War with rare beauty, and lights up with an assortment of colorful supporting characters." - Roger Ebert "While the film is handsome to look at and has its fair share of realism, it also gets plenty sappy along the way." - John J. Puccio "Something to mildly admire rather than embrace." - Nick Schager "Feels curiously put together - it jerks together from event to event without any real flow and the two leads display absolutely no chemistry when they are on-screen together." - Peter Sobczynski "Handsome and fast-moving, if a little hollow." - Phil Villarreal "That ancillary characters are played by big-name supporting actors, each of whom seems to be working in a different register, just underscores the choppy nature of the story." - Bryant Frazer "When all of your supporting characters are more compelling and charismatic than your leads, your movie is in trouble." - Rob Blackwelder "Whether we're watching the domestic struggles of Kidman or Law doing moody wandering, scenes run on randomly, and don't build into a structure with arc or emphasis." - Ian Waldron-Mantgani "A classically crafted Civil War epic with actions and ideas aplenty - but not enough to fill its excessive length." - Anton Bitel And that's my "review". Here's a couple blurbs that I didn't agree with, but which instead triggered my "WTF" impulse. "Although there were some good moments in the film, mostly due to Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Cold Mountain" never rises above the average." The dear Mr. Hoffman overplayed every second of screen time he had to the max and his character felt pasted in already. "Minghella's detail-rich film is like a beautiful piece of fabric, lovingly crafted by hand. And Zellweger is like a big ol' stain, right in the middle of it." She was by far the most entertaining aspect of the film, believeable character or not. And then a well-spotted but curiously irrelevant critic blurb. "Is Nicole Kidman contractually obligated to interact with birds in all her films?" I don't know. I can't even think of one other such movie, but I've watched far from all Nicole Kidman movies. I'm gonna need an expert opinion on this one. Last edited by MicShazam; 02-26-2018 at 02:12 PM.

02-23-2018, 05:34 PM	#36 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	It really is an army or sports type movie. That's spot on. The "that's not my friggin' tempo!" scene is so off the mark in relation to how any music - not least jazz - works. I know they have to contrive things to get general audiences to follow along, but come on.

02-28-2018, 01:12 PM	#39 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	This is a list of every single DVD currently enjoying a place at the shelves where I keep my favorite movies. The barrier of entry isn't amazingly high, since how demanding I want to be is pretty much dictated by the amount of movies these shelves can hold. Ideally, I'd review/write about every single one of these sooner or later, but making this post had me realize just how many movies there are here. Writing about them all would take forever! Still, it's nice to have something to aspire towards, I guess. Also note that several of these; I haven't watched in years. I might not even agree with myself on many of these choices! 1492: Conquest of Paradise 3096 Days Agora Alien Aliens Alien 3 Alien resurrection Alien covenant All the President's Men American Beauty American Hustle American Psycho Annie Hall Arachnophobia Argo Babel Barbara Barney's Version Ben-Hur Berserk (the original anime series) Big Eyes the Big O (anime series) Birdman Black Book Black Hawk Down Blade Runner Blind Blue Jasmine Broken Flowers Burma VJ Café Society Camp X-Ray Carnage Charlotte Gray Chinatown Citizenfour Cleopatra (1963 ver.) Clouds of Sils Maria Collateral the Corpse Bride Cosmopolis the Counselor Cowboy Bebop the Movie Crying Freeman (the 1995 live action movie) Dallas Buyer's Club A Dangerous Method Don Jon Bram Stoker's Dracula Elegy Elle Eastern Promises Easy A Exodus: Gods and Kings Existenz Eyes Wide Shut the Fly Frank Frida Full Metal Jacket W. Ghost in the Shell (1995) Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (anime series) Ghost in the Shell (2017) Ghost World Ginger and Rosa Good Kill the Grand Budapest Hotel the Golden Compass Hannah and Her Sisters Happy-Go-Lucky Deconstructing Harry Heat A History of Violence Inherent Vice the Insider Interstellar Jarhead Jesus of Nazareth Killer Joe the Kingdom Kingdom of Heaven Kriger (aka Kriegerin/aka Combat Girls) A Woman in Berlin Labyrinth La La Land the Last Temptation of Christ A Late Quartet Legend Leon The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Lost in Translation Magic in the Moonlight Malice@Doll Manhattan Map to the Stars the Martian Mary and Max Melinda and Melinda El método Miami Vice Midnight in Paris A Mighty Heart Mighty Aphrodite Moonrise Kingdom Much Ado About Nothing My Best Friend Husbands and Wives Copie Conforme (aka Certified Copy) Naked lunch Nightcrawler The Nightmare Before Christmas No Country For Old Men Nocturnal Animals the Shining One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Oslo, August 31st Out of the Furnace Paprika Paranoia Agent (anime series) Paris, je t'aime (aka Paris, I Love You) Passion Platoon Polisse Prometheus Radio Days Ran Robin Hood (Ridley Scott ver.) To Rome With Love Samurai Champloo (anime series) Secretary Shame Crimes and Misdemeanors Snow White and the Huntsman Sophie Scholl Spartacus The Pianist Spider Spotlight Spring Breakers La grande bellezza (aka The Great Beauty) Take Shelter Sucker Punch Talk Radio the Ten Commandments the Thing Thirteen Conversations About One Thing Tokyo Decadence Tokyo Godfathers Towelhead the Town Ruang rak noi nid mahasan (aka Last Life in the Universe) Vicky Cristina Barcelona Videodrome Volver Wall Street wall street 2: Money Never Sleeps Watchmen Welcome to the NHK (anime series) Wolf the Wrestler X-Men Young Adult Zero Dark Thirty Zodiac Last edited by MicShazam; 03-01-2018 at 12:17 AM.

02-28-2018, 02:10 PM	#40 (permalink)
Oriphiel Ask me how! Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: The States Posts: 5,355	cough Beautiful Dreamer cough __________________ ---------------------- \|---Mic's Albums---\| ---------------------- ----------------------------- \|---Deafbox Industries---\| -----------------------------