ok, i by no means said that PTA was anywhere near as good as scorsese,
tarantino, or many other directors who i love. the way they made deniro
look in the end of raging bull was a stroke of genius...look at the
similarities to him in the end of the movie, and in "analize this". its
crazy how much they look alike and how acurate he was in making the
character to future scale. but then again, deniro is a brilian actor. and
that is a different story.
about perfect storm...that movie made me wanna live in communist russia
where artistic expression is prohibited. that movie sucked! but the
special effects were rad, and mark whalberg can go wrong, except in in
taking the role.
~blake
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 2:19 PM
Subject: RE: [MMouse]: magnolia
> This is not to Blake in particular, but to everyone concerning the
blooming
> Magnolia thread...
>
> I should probably not let my film geek side show in public, but I can't
help
> it.
>
> I love watching boogie nights and I've seen it half a dozen times, and I
> have seen Magnolia
> twice and was not at all bored during it's 3 hour running time....
>
> HOWEVER, I think Paul Thomas Anderson is a big, overrated, hack!
>
> When Boogie Nights came out, Ent. Weekly and Premier and all these other
> mags kept saying..
> "Move over Tarantino AND Scorsese..." and then I see Boogie Nights and I
> can't believe how much
> this movie is just a conglomeration of Scorsese and Tarantinoesque things
> wrapped up in a story
> about Porn. The last scene is pure Raging Bull except there was a dong.
> Granted, that's a great thing to have a story about, but his whole style
to
> me is so much aped from QT, Scorsese, and Robert Altman. People say the
> same about QT for taking so much from other directors, but he spreads it
> around to dozens of films from all time periods, not just make such a
clear
> take on Scorsese films... PTA has violence, and blood splatter, and long
> takes, and dialogue..so Scorsese it puts me off. Again, I like watching
his
> films.. the performances are so good and the actors he uses are the best
> around.. the stories are fun... and he can tell a good story.. but I guess
> the film geek in me just can't take it when he tries to go toe to toe with
> QT or Scorsese because he comes up short and his films, while
entertaining,
> are no Mean Streets, Taxi Drivers, Raging Bulls, Reservoir Dogs or Pulp
> Fictions.
>
> Oh yeah, on Magnolia.. some things I didn't like were the stories at the
> begining... as far as I know, 2 or 3 of those are urban legends, although
I
> think I read the one about the kid jumping off the building was actually
the
> true one. Anyways, I expected the actual movie to have some sort of
bizzare
> tie in also, but in the end the story only has loose connections in the
same
> style as Short Cuts or
> Nashville. I was expecting the stories to have some cause and effect like
> the short tales at the begining would have you think would happen. It was
> like PTA touched me in the morning and walked away.
> I think the movie would have been as good or better without the little
> stories, as good as they were. Save them for the DVD. And the numbers..
> the numbers are the bible versus that tell about the frogs and what not
and
> you can see them here and there in the movie.. however, they are just
there
> and fun to look for. There is no deep symbolism to be read in to it
all...
> nothing compared to Pulp Fiction which has so much heaped on in so many
> layers.
>
> Good things - the musical number in Magnolia was very ballsy and
original..
> I liked it. Soundtrack
> by aimee mann is great. I love, uhm, what's his name, John C. Riley..
he's
> the average guy that you don't see in films much anymore.. he's so good..
> him losing his gun is my favorite part of Magnolia.
> I went and saw Perfect Storm because A. it was at the Mann Chinese, and B.
> he was in it. I regret that now, but I still like John C. Riley. Check
out
> Hard Eight, PTA's first film as it's damned good and doesn't rub me the
> wrong way like his other movies when he became the newest 'genious' on the
> block.
>
> Oh yeah, PTA does write really strong female characters which is really
rare
> these days. So props
> to him for that. I say really strong, maybe just strong. Hal Hartley and
> John Sayles write them stronger (if we are talking about men writing
female
> characters).
>
> ------
>
> From: "Blake" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: [MMouse]: magnolia
>
>
> if you liked magnolia, check out the movie that magnolia ripped off. its
> called "short cuts" and if you watch it...you will totally notice the
> blatent simalarities. dont get me wrong, i loved magnolia, but its a rip
> off of 1992's "short cuts". also highly recomended.
>
>
