300 (ways to waste your saturday afternoon)

[lookingland]

today's lesson is "style and no substance" and our "what not to do" example comes to us from the wondermaker who also brought us that astonishing lump of corpolite, Sin City. i'm just not sure how many slow-motion beheadings one ought to endure in a movie and war was simply never made so dull. what thin plot is here is negligible, the acting painfully stiff, and the direction is just a lot of posturing for the cgi backgrounds.

who cares if you make a beautiful movie if you say absolutely nothing with it?

the same must be true for writing.

point. well. taken.



this...is...BORING!
in other news, i'll finish Westways tonight and plan to settle in to work on the book.

it's a gorgeously rainy day, made all the more sweet by finding parker's history of the 51st Pennsylvania in the internet archive. that saves me photocopying and a trip to the library tomorrow.

i don't have much else to say. i thought i would write a birthday post as i have in past years, but i guess this will have to do.

: D

Comments

[sparowe]

I think you're the first person I've heard give a negative review... which I'm not sure says anything good about how people view films these days. Being "pretty" tends to carry an awful lot of weight. I like that, of course, but it's not all I want. (Kinda like video games.) Mind you, the movie in question, I haven't seen... too bloody for me to handle. *twitch*

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i just don't understand why something like this should garner more than: gee, nice scenery. i mean, i can appreciate the complexity of the palette, but there's no real story, the dialog is really lame, and the rest is just gratuitous.

meh.

i'm definitely not a fan of miller.

: o p

Happy Birthday!

[christastrophe.livejournal.com]

I'm baffled as well. It's basically a video game, so I don't understand any praise directed towards it. And pretty much every aspect of it was laughable.

Spring and I saw it in IMAX. I liked the satisfaction of leaving the theatre and having spontaneous, intelligent gripe sessions on the sidewalk with random other movie-goers. Seriously, one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen.

Totally unrelated: I had a dream this weekend that I was house-sitting for you and I got in trouble for having this huge party. I just basically opened the door and let random people come in. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for doing that.

Re: Happy Birthday!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

aww, thankie for the b-day wishes!

no problem about the party ~ any time! ~ but i do want to know what it is that got left breeding in the bathroom tub.

: D

Re: Happy Birthday!

[christastrophe.livejournal.com]

Actually, the really funny thing is that it wasn't even a wild party or anything. It was like a steady stream of people walking through your house. But there were thousands of them. Ruining your carpet.

Re: Happy Birthday!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

well that proves it was all a dream ~ i would never live in a house with carpeting!

hahahahahahaha ~

: D

[ephignia.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the film yet, but I've been sort of embarassed to admit to people that I thought the 300 comics were pretty Zzzz-full as well.

I just stumbled onto this (http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2202&pageid=1) funny article which hits 300.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha ~ that link is hilarious!

thank you for the laugh!

: D

[keesa-renee.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! Another August birthday!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awww, thanks ~ !

: D

[siltjade.livejournal.com]

I liked 300, but I've got a problem that I like pretty much anything involving Ancient Greece, as I am absolutely in love with the mythology and lifestyle of that time. Weak, barely there plot, definitely gratuitous in both violence and sex, though I felt that kind of captured the essence of Sparta. . .and yeah, the movie didn't really say anything. But I'm a sucker for Greece.

Also, happy belated birthday to us!

--Brian

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awww, happy b-day to you too! you so rarely post these days, but it's nice to see you're still kicking around!

visually the movie definitely has a lot to offer ~ lots and lots of eye candy. but yeah, i wish it had been spent on an actual plot.

: D

[siltjade.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm still around! Reading daily. . .I suppose I'm what they call, in the industry, a "lurker."

And come on. . .a movie have a plot? What? In today's day and age? You must be loony. This is why I stick to books.

--Brian

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahaha ~ yes, i suppose my expectations were totally unreasonable.

lurk on!

: D

[ryan-howse.livejournal.com]

Frank Miller tends to be incredibly creepy with anything involving two X chromosomes, too.

I also found it tedious and dull. The problem with the plot (such as it was) was that it didn't change. They fought dudes, they fought elephants, whatever, it was all the exact same thing. There was no forward momentum.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

and don't forget the bejeweled cgi rhinoceros with no knees! they fought that too! hahahahaha ~

yes, totally redundant and plotless ~ ah well.