Couch Surfing with John Pavlich Part 2Submitted by Paul Elard Cooley on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 09:26 |
Here it is, folks. Part 2 of the Couch Surfing podcast I did with John Pavlich. Thanks again, John, for having me on.
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Here it is, folks. Part 2 of the Couch Surfing podcast I did with John Pavlich. Thanks again, John, for having me on. Share |
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Copyright 2013 Paul Elard Cooley
Again, I find myself agreeing
Again, I find myself agreeing very strongly with both of you at different times. I was really glad to hear you say Diary of the Dead was good. I loved it, but all I heard was people talking about how bad it was. Like yourself, I'll admit that my tastes often involve some pretty bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, but I thought Diary was great.
And yeah, 2012 looks like the dumbest fucking thing. Hopefully Cusack is banking some serious dough.
I'm always surprised when I hear people say they liked the first Transformers movie. That thing is almost a textbook example of how many times the wrong decision can be made in a movie.
"Hey, I know... let's have this douchebag kid star try to beg his teacher for a good grade by saying 'what would jesus do'!"
"Hell yeah, that's HYSTERICAL!!!"
"Hey, I know... let's have the Autobots do a bunch of really, really unbelievably dumb stuff, like "hide" on people's lawns and say stuff like 'oops, my bad'!"
"Golden!"
That whole movie was such a bummer, because the opening bit, with the soldiers and the huge Decepticon was fantastic. About the time that stupid kid showed up, it just kinda took a nose dive.
The Problem
George Romero faces is that every movie has to somehow go further over the top than the last. Since "Diary of the Dead" is shot in shaky cam style, the story has to be a little more fluid and you're obviously constrained to a single point of view--that of the camera. Some people dig this, some don't. But I think people were expecting Romero to make another Land of the Dead or something similar. Instead, they got yet another movie that took place during the beginning of the outbreak rather than long after the outbreak. So that might be what the problem was.
What I really loved about Diary of the Dead is that it was shot as things were happening, and therefore the reactions of the characters was much more immediate. And you had to imagine what was going on off camera rather than relying on sweeping camera shots. It gave the film a claustrophobic atmosphere that was difficult to beat. So yeah, I loved it.
I'm not even going to address Michael Bay's continuing efforts to waste money and celluloid (or bytes) in order to make money by duping people into going to see 15 minutes worth of special effects over 2 and a half hours. As far as something like 2012 goes...um, nuff said.
Cheers.
I'm a big sucker for the
I'm a big sucker for the shaky cam stuff, like Diary, Blair Witch, and Cloverfield. Part of the reason I like them so much is there haven't really been a slew of shitty movies like that. And yeah, you get a really intimate relationship with the characters, and end up feeling like you're there. My stomach still lurches every time I think of the end of Blair Witch.
In a previous discussion, I think I said that Rob Zombie hasn't done anything good since White Zombie broke up. Just for giggles, I dug out Hellbilly Deluxe and Sinister Urge last night, and man... I must've been in a bad mood last time I listened to them or something, because they're both pretty kickass.
You guys also talked about Drag Me To Hell. I watched the director's cut, and it kinda went from extremely entertaining to kinda boring. I really wanted to love it, and was all about the Evil Dead-isms like the fight in the car, but by the time they were having the seance, it sure felt like they were stretching it to get a full length movie.
Drag me to hell...or my boyfriend
The only real problem I had with Drag Me To Hell was the ending. I would have found the movie much more poignant if the boyfriend had been taken into hell as a result of having become the owner of the trinket. Her living with the guilt of that would have been a perfect way to end the film. But, oh well. I enjoyed it even if it was a bit long. The talking goat thing was way over the top and too damned funny. Hopefully we'll see something else by Raimi that's a bit more fun.