Domino 2005 is Tony-Scott-hem!

  Blender Dumbass
👁 6 💬 1


Tony Scott appeared to be trying to outgrow Michael Bay in the 2000s. In 2001 he does Spy Game which is a kind of slightly bayhem-ish movie. Where Tony Scott is no longer trying to make pretty pictures, but is trying to go for ultimate intensity. His Enemy of the State before that, is still more of a classic Tony Scott. While making Spy Game his brother Ridley Scott was making Black Hawk Down while Michael Bay was making Pearl Harbor. While Pearl Harbor has the Bay's explosions and stuff, the colors of the film still look relatively normal. Only his next film ( 2003 Bay Boys II ) go crazy with colors. Spy Game, while being more energetic in directing and editing department, than even Enemy of the State still looks like a normal movie, albeit it is a little desaturated. But Black Hawk Down ( probably in attempt of messing with Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan ) is super moody, with extreme contrast and intense colors. A thing that Michael Bay tries to replicate right away for Bad Boys II and then Tony Scott also replicated for Man on Fire in 2004. And then on Domino in 2005, Tony Scott goes even harder with the style. While Bay is doing roughly the same thing in his own way in The Island.


#Domino #TonyScott #MichaelBay #movies #film #review #cinemastodon

Piranha II 1982 taught James Cameron how not to make sequels

  Blender Dumbass
👁 4 💬 1


We all know that James Cameron is a master when it comes to making sequels. His films like Terminator 2, Avatar 2 and Aliens are extremely good examples of how to make a sequel right. Unlike Steven Spielberg that avoids sequels. Steven avoided doing the second Jaws movie. James Cameron goes for it and wins. Speaking of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, not only sequels from that film were produced. Rip-offs, like the 1978 Piranha by Joe Dante also were produced. Those were parody material B-movie exploitation films. And so writer / director James Cameron decided to take the project of making a sequel to that Jaws rip-off, with his 1982 Piranha II: The Spawning.


#Piranha2 #JamesCameron #horror #movies #review #film #cinemastodon

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

  Blender Dumbass
👁 46 💬 0


During the making of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Steven Spielberg was already kind of a big man in Hollywood. But from the other side he was still young. Technically speaking this was his third theatrical film. He did work for television from the late 60s. At that time he already directed a number of feature length TV movies. One of them was the famous Duel. And then he did only 2 theatrical pictures: the 1972's The Sugarland Express and the 1974's Jaws. And now there is this movie.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence is the best film ever

  Blender Dumbass
👁 62 💬 2


This was the first time I've ever cried from a film. And that experience made me addicted, both to Steven Spielberg and A.I. and also to watching films seriously. Taking in what the directors is trying to do. Letting the film overwhelm you. Letting it break you. And perhaps made me a better filmmaker myself.


#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #StevenSpielberg #StanleyKubrick #Film #Review #Movies #Cinemastodon

Babylon

  Blender Dumbass
👁 56 💬 0


I would say that Babylon, the 2022 film directed by Damien Chazelle is Damien Chazelle's 1941. I wrote an article describing how 1941 is the ultimate Steven Spielberg movie and how there is a certain type of over the top insanity you can expect from a good filmmaker going completely unhinged. 1941 wasn't received well. People in the cinema were reportedly closing their ears from the shier amount of loud explosions that happened in the movie. Babylon is the lowest rated movie from Damien Chazelle. But it doesn't mean that the movie is dull, or badly made. Both 1941 and Babylon are explosive insanity-fests showcasing the ability of a good director to maintain focus in an absolute chaos. Both films are incredibly well directed. There are complex shots and interesting cuts all through out. But perhaps they had injected so much energy into the movies that the movies overdosed the audience. And therefor received worse reviews.

Super 8

  Blender Dumbass
👁 37 💬 0


People accuse me of many bad things for making a movie where kids go against their parents into dangerous situations. Apparently they never seen Super 8. One criticism I hear often about Super 8 is that the kids in this film are way too brave! No wonder Steven Spielberg is attached to this project. He made and produced a fair share of anti-ageism films in his career.

An American Pickle

  Blender Dumbass
👁 58 💬 0


Seth Rogen is an interesting filmmaker. Sometimes I feel like he is a manifestation of me when I will be older. But to be honest it's just wishful thinking. Wait for my review on The Fablemans to understand why. Seth Rogen is Jewish. He looks kind of big. Sometimes directs movies. He has Ukrainian ancestry. And he is a fighter for Freedom. Basically me. No... Wishful thinking. I don't think I will get anywhere near as popular. Basically Spielberg. Yeah that's better.

The Inherent Instability Of Euphemisms

  Blender Dumbass
👁 53 💬 0


Often it is required of a storyteller to say less in order to say more. Steven Spielberg had to censor the most gruesome parts of the holocaust in order to make a movie that was actually watchable, and his intuition was arguably right. The movie ended up being a hit, exposing millions upon millions of people to the the holocaust. But it wasn't the horror. It was a watered down version, made so people would not be too upset watching it. The reality of the situation was so much worse that Spielberg didn't even think a movie showing the actual truth was possible. Nobody would be brave or masochistic enough, he thought, to actually see it. A similar story happened to Dunkirk, another World War II movie, this time by Christopher Nolan, who deliberately avoided the worst aspects of a war film to make a film which the audience could watch without taking their eyes from the screen, and as a result, a film that is arguably scarier because of that. Nolan's masterful management of tension is so good that the movie doesn't need violence and blood to be visceral. And yet, to some extent the movie is a watered down version of what war supposed to be. And some argue it is a lesser film because of it.

Carrie 1976 ... the psycho-sexual analysis

  Blender Dumbass
👁 31 💬 2


The 1970s are an interesting time when it comes to cinema history. It is the time after the code was changed into the MPAA rating system ( allowing more violence, nudity and harsh language on the screen ) and yet before new blog-baster Hollywood was born. 1976's Carrie by Brian De Palma was already released after the 1974 Steven Spielberg sensation Jaws. But still before George Lucas broke the planet with his Star Wars. Everybody knew the movies were intense at that time. Some of the most depressing shit came out at the 1970s. And with it, there was also Carrie. A psycho-sexual revenge-tale about child-abuse.


#Carrie #BrianDePalma #StephenKing #film #review #horror #cinemastodon

Something Evil

  Blender Dumbass
👁 77 💬 0


Conceptually the film is very much like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shinning". It deals with a parent going slowly insane and becoming a threat to the children. Both movies suggest a possibility of a supernatural explanation of the insanity. But the movies are made in such a smart way where there is enough doubt in those supernatural occurrences that you can read it as psychological deterioration only. Which is a very interesting challenge to a filmmaker. And young Spielberg pulled it off.

What is the meaning of "The Lovely Bones" 2009 by Peter Jackson?

  Blender Dumbass
👁 2 💬 4


In my review of Transformers 4 I touched upon the uncanny resemblance of it to Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. I have not seen the movie when I did that. I knew it existed. I knew what it was about. I've only seen it now, for the first time. And the uncanny resemblance ( as in, the father is played once again by Mark Wahlberg and the villain is played once again by Stanley Tucci and we have Steven Spielberg's involvement ) is rather strange. It begs a rather profound question, what was the point to make the movie?


#TheLovelyBones #PeterJackson #SaoirseRonan #film #review #movies #cinemastodon

The Island 2005 is Michael Bay's Minority Report

  Blender Dumbass
👁 5 💬 1


As far as my speculation goes, I think, it is safe to assume, the following happened: In 1994 ( before doing Bad Boys ) Michael Bay signed a 10 year contract with Jerry Bruckheimer which expired in 2004 ( after Bad Boys 2 ). Knowing that the contract is about to expire, 2 years prior ( in 2002 ) Steven Spielberg, in an attempt to get on good terms with Michael Bay, added a small reference to Bad Boys into his film Minority Report. And then took Bay under his supervision for the next 10 years. Starting with the 2005 film The Island. And through the Transformers franchise. Bay returned the favor by showing a concept car designed for Minority Report ( Lexus 2054 aka Lexus Minority ) multiple times in the background of The Island. Still that's just a theory. I don't actually know what happened. But it seems plausible.


#theIsland #MichaelBay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon

Don't Look Up 2021 is Melancholia, but a comedy

  Blender Dumbass
👁 10 💬 4


A lot of people see the 2021 Adam McKay film Don't Look Up as something that fails to communicate the message of climate change well enough. McKay stated that the movie was written specifically to point people at the absurdity of the "climate crisis". And yet the film's allegorical comet / asteroid doomsday plot seems to fail at giving it justice. For once an asteroid that is about to destroy the planet is nobody's fault. While the climate change is somebody's fault. But if you look at the movie relatively to other disaster flicks of the same type ( like Armageddon and Melancholia ) you see something rather interesting.


#dontlookup #climatechange #adammckay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon

Transformers 3 has only 1 flaw

  Blender Dumbass
👁 8 💬 0


Megan Fox. Megan Fox is the only flaw of Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The script by Ehren Kruger ( who wrote Top Gun: Maverick and F1 ) was written with Mikaela Banes ( Megan Fox ) as the girlfriend of Shia LaBeouf's character Sam. But because of some drama behind the scenes ( which involved Steven Spielberg for some reason ), she ultimately dropped out of the project, in very late stages of pre-production. Forcing the team to quickly patch her character out in a very forced and obvious way, replacing her with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley who worked with Bay on Victoria Secret commercials. That ultimately made the film very confusing, emotionally.


#transformers #transformersdarkofthemoon #michaelbay #film #review #cinemastodon #movies

Buzzy Lee - Strange Town is a Music Video we need more of

  Blender Dumbass
👁 39 💬 1


It is strange to review a music video, but Buzzy Lee's masterpiece Strange Town deserves some praise. I think Buzzy Lee, who co-directed the music video with Jeff Leeds Cohn knew that they didn't know what they were doing. So the whole thing, spoiler alert, is poking fun at their own directing.


#music #musicvideo #buzzylee #strangetown #film #movies #review #spielberg

Spaceballs takes the Jews vs Nazis theme to a whole new sexual climax

  Blender Dumbass
👁 15 💬 1


Jewish filmmakers like to poke fun at Nazis. Spielberg did that with Indiana Jones and Mel Brooks does it here with Spaceballs. But unlike the original Star Wars for which Spaceballs is almost direct parody, Brooks goes onto another level to measure pipis with the Nazis.


#spaceballs #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #comedy #starwars #melbrooks