What are you watching? (TV/Movies)

[Starfe]

This just in: Skyfall had some of the best cinematography I've seen in any action oriented movie. Ever.

[PLA]

[noodles]

[Starfe]

I was referring mostly to the non-action sequences, which were framed and colored beautifully. The DOP has an amazing sense of field depth that you don't often get in blockbuster films, which are usually filmed so much on green screen that the photography doesn't really matter.

But yeah, I prefer sparse action as well. The Daniel Craig films have been a bit better than the Brosnan ones in that regard. The poker scenes in Casino Royale are among the most tense scenes in that film, and the torture scene is certainly more visceral than many of the action sequences. Even the action sequences tend to be more demure than the Brosnan films. Craig does wrack up some serious property damage, but he never drives a tank through Russian city streets. Quantum of Solace was a little more troubled in matching action to exposition, but for a movie written during the writers strike, you can't really complain. Skyfall is VERY muted in its action. Just like many Bond films it opens with a big action set piece, but even then its just Bond vs one man. The movie might wrap up with a large action sequence, but it feels calculated, and not as random and lucky as Brosnan's hip shooting.

Being a big Bond fan I would group the Bonds into two groups, Moore/Brosnan as the comedy/action hero/gadgety Bonds and Connery/Dalton/Craig as more serious/brutal/depressed. The sparse violence and brutality that you get in the latter group, as well as the genuine loathing they seem to feel for the job, is more in line with the Bond of the novels. The Moore/Brosnan Bond is certainly more of a mass market item, and does have its own appeal, but my theory is that the style of Bond shifts with the time period. Connery's Bond certainly made sense in the 60's, but as the Cold War waned and proxy battles started to fade in the late 70's, Moore's Bond became more comedic, a tongue in cheek reference to the Cold War gone by. Dalton's Bond at the end of the 80's was referential to a period of distrust in politicians, and the role of espionage becoming blurred as the Cold War ended. Brosnan's Bond is, like Moore's Bond, the Bond of an optimistic period. The 90's were nothing if not optimistic, and it wouldn't make sense to have had a brutal secret agent ruminating over the ills of modern espionage. Craig's Bond reflects the current state of things, the distrust of the public in government espionage organizations, the disgust with a job that, in an age of small time terrorists and little international conflict, is more of wetwork than espionage. Craig's Bond reflects the exhaustion with the work that the Bond of the source material has, and that puts him more in line with Dalton and Connery (though Connery doesn't appear exhausted, hes certainly more cynical than Moore/Brosnan).

I find Bond movies very interesting from a film history perspective. Its a 50 year long series that takes cues from contemporary politics and has been constantly successful. Thats unique, and so the way the series has evolved and been perceived can really tell us something about the viewing public.

(I am of course ignoring outliers like George Lazenby from OHMSS)

[Weeaboolits]

Just finished the second season of Transformers Prime. Finale was crazy, need season 3 right now.

[Weeaboolits]

Karate-Robo Zaborgar.

Would recommend.

[PLA]

Gentlemen, are you ready to Chang the world?

[zamisk]

No until October 19th, I'm not.

[Ninten]

I'm still busy walking the dead. :V

[Ninten]

Daryl Dixon is the coolest mofo in TWD, imo.

[zamisk]

Carl Grimes is the coolest mofo from any series ever, so that can't be right. Especially in the comics, you have no idea. (Yet.)

[zamisk]

Urpdate (It's funny because I'm about to puke)

Dexter is awesome. Especially at night.

[PLA]

Swedish humourous, heartwarming movies with child-actors are still awkward, yelling, crestfallen, undignified tragedies with the silver lining that life goes on - for some, but not for everybody. Age comes with decay, old grudges, old despairs, reluctant acceptance, fading memories, merciless memories, sudden death and impermanence.

[SirthOsiris]

Saw The Hobbit part 1.

I loved it, but that might be because I'm a fanboy. Although I probably would have meticulously torn it apart if I was a big fanboy, so it's probably still great.

[Ninten]

I saw The Hobbit too, it was pretty good. Too bad they covered like 3/4th of the book in the first movie, so have really no idea how are they planning to do this in 3 parts.

Also saw The Chorus (gift from girlfriend).