That didn’t happen for me. It’s a minor complaint but enough to take the edge of the film.

The Machinist: B
Once I got past Christian Bale’s grotesque appearance and the slow start, this is a pretty gripping psychological thriller, even if the final revelation is disappointing, given the impressive build up of mood and atmosphere and Bale’s brave performance.

But then again I’ve got a thing for non Hollywood flicks so I might be a bit biased but even if you don’t like it better than SPR I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it.

Cheers!

Also, the batshit craziness of Apocalypse Now is definitely going for the similar vibe to the 2nd half of Full Metal Jacket, and I like that in a war movie.

And I’m sure some (many) of American Soldiers are absolute Creeps. The same statistical portion of the population of any culture or sub-group. People tend to make movies out of the extremes, not the middle of the distribution!

Full Metal Jacket - you know me and Kubrick (we’re bed buddies), but that film relly goes downhill after we leave bootcamp.

Apocalypse Now - It’s been a while. I really need to see it again. Got a little too “out there” near the end with Brando. Far from realism in war.

Casualties of War - again, showing American soldiers as vicious creeps (which they are not). Hollywod loves to show our soldiers as either miscreants or crazy. They do it ALL the time. Knowing several American current soldiers and vets, I can tell you they’re pretty normal and have families etc. Sure there are one or two nutcases out there, but that’s far from the reality of who our tropps are.

Haven’t seen The Big Red One.

SPR is completely believable on a personal level. I can relate to the characters. I cannot relate to any of the characters in these other films. These other stories are just that… stories.

Though I would give a big shout out to Three Kings (not realy a war movie though) and Jarhead (even though it was boring as all hell).

Maybe stylisticly (opening and closing scene), but ‘the way people behave in war and the celebration/story of the guys who fought to save the world. The story has been done a thousand times over. So I’d hardly praise SPR on its originality in story/content (again, outside of the kinetic visual style). No it was too heavy on the ‘lets everyone feel good about the sacrifices made’ and not realistic enough in terms of how in general people get quite nasty in stressful situations…at least thats how I see it.

My types of war films are much more along the lines of The Thin Red Line (hundreds of times more interesting than SPR), Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War, and The Big Red One.

I don’t wanna hear meek consensus and dull reverance .

I WANT and and and !!!!

Not sure what you mean by “emotionally manipulative.” The film maker trying to get you feel a specific way? Yeah, don’t they all? The ways in which Spielberg does it here is completely believable and real.

The only scene that might be a bit ham-handed is the scene in the church where Ribisi talks about his mother. It’s completely irrelevant excpet for the fact that…

spoiler…

spoiler…

He dies in the next scene. I’m not sure what you’re looking for with SPR. I don’t think it’s supposed to be anything more than a realistic war story about the men who saved the world. It’s got messages about being a good person and comraderie and bravery and cowardice etc. But really, it’s just an incredibly well shot film about war and the realistic way in which people would behave in said war. It’s a film that has never been done before and every historic war movie from here on out will inevitably be compared to (i.e. Flags and Iwo Jima).

We should make a list of films we strongly disagree on and fight it out on a show some day.

Saving Private Ryan
Alien 3
Alien 4
Cars

Any more? I’m sure there is lots…
Always fun to disagree on things, it keeps things lively.

(And now, I’m off to see “P2″ despite (or in spite of) a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes)

Nope, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks do very little for me, and the overall story concept and much of the middle part of the film seem overly emotionally manipulative (something Spielberg is often guilty of). I’ve seen the film twice, and that was (unfortunately for me) one time too many.

I think the final battle at the bridge is better than the opening landing sequence. The movie achieves greatness at that point.

(SPOILER)The most shocking part of the knife fight is Goldberg, realising that he cannot overpower his opponent, cries out “No, wait..wait…” before he is stabbed. Heartbreaking.

The 30 minutes the characters spend in that village with Paul Giamatti and Ted Danson is terrific. The showdown with about 30 Nazis, the sniper, the little girl, the letters to loved ones back home.

Then you’ve got the next battle out in the field - the one they could’ve avoided. Capt Miller chooses to attack and then the question of whether that was a mistake or not.

Of course the entire ending battle is nearly as interesting as the first. The editing and choreography of that 35 minutes or so is ridiculously cool. The knife slowly entering Goldberg’s chest was thrilling. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of movie have the two guys fighting over a knife like an arm wrestling contest. Nothing ever happens because inevitably one guy kicks the other or whatever and I alwasy thought those scenes were stupid. Here, I realized that wow, if that were to really happen, this is how it might play out.

But again, the main point of the movie for me was that it was the first movie to make war real. It shook my senses and it was Spielberg saying, “Look, war is hell. It is not Robert Mitchum and John Wayne looking cool and guys falling into the water when they get shot. It is hell and we’re gonna show you why.” I could picture myself there and it frightened me to death. It is soul shattering through and through to the end.

And Goon, I’m a big fan of The Red Violin (great small role for Colm Feore in that one (and Mr. Sam Jackson too). François Girard’s new film “SILK” which stars Michael Pitt, Alfred Molina and Kiera Knightly apparently stinks though (It was not well received at TIFF). That’s a shame.

also of Canadian note to me that isnt obvious stuff like Hard Core Logo, FUBAR or Its All Gone Pete Tong would be The Red Violin, a pretty arty movie if there ever was one, but it has a good pace that changes stories fast enough that even those put off by arty movies should be able to follow pretty easy.

I’m a massive booster of WAYDOWNTOWN which is a minor Canadian Masterpiece and should have gotten way more exposure and such. I’m sure the folks from Calgary like the love-in the film has for its +15 connection system! I’ve somehow never managed never to catch Kitchen Party (The film with launched Scott Speedman’s so-so career, see Wierdsville though, it’s not bad).

Disagree on Johnny Nmenonic, it’s a guilty pleasure full of tasty treats from start to finish.

Despite Andrew hounding me, I’ve still not managed to catch LADY IN THE WATER, part of me wants to for the Shadenfraude of the thing…

Watched Ratatouille DVD. The ‘history lesson’ short film on the disc is absolutely fabulous and almost worth buying the disc for alone! It’s great! Check it out.

Thanks for the tidbit on Fat Girl. I’m not a Brelliat fan, but its good to see one fewer banned film in Canada.

notes from listening to the show (still only about an hour and change in) -
a friend of mine worked on Cube 2, and i havent seen that or the original

Last Night is fantastic, Ginger Snaps is great (i thought the second was forced crap), Johnny Mnemonic is actually kind of boring save a few crazy moments (”I WANT ROOM SERVICE!”).. i have some of my own guilty pleasure with Canadian movies, specifically Burns’ “Kitchen Party” and “Waydowntown” - two movies with shitty dvd releases that dont have much with production values that overall i found entertaining and watched on VHS back in the day quite a bit during college.

re: banned Canadian movies, I was just at Blockbuster and they have “Fat Girl” there to rent. I remember the problems when it got released but i dont think its an issue anymore.

I dont think theres anything on the Pixar shorts dvd that isnt out already. I’m not a fan of “cars” either but would buy it for less than 10 bucks for the sake of the excellent One Man Band short on there. and actually the “cars” extra short is not that bad.

I bought too much stuff on DVD this week - Ratatouille, the Colbert Report DVD, Flight of the Conchords s1, Sicko (decent special features - all deleted scenes) and today I noticed the Sesame Street Old School vol 2 set was out. I’m kind of a Jim Henson geek, I dont buy the dozens of Sesame releases obviously but good work went into these “old school” sets which are a good combo of retro memories and genuine appreciation of the heights children television can reach.

I’m one of the few defenders of Lady in the Water, its complicated, and you’d have to dive into the film junk archives to hear why, or listen to Jays’ ‘film junk defense force’ segment.

Cheers.

The Definitive WWII film is easily THE BIG RED ONE from Sam Fuller (which stars the really oddball cast of Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine and Lee Marvin). It doesn’t have 1/50th of the budget of Spielberg’s film, but it’s got 10 times the grit.