Originally posted by exanda kane
I saw Alien again tonight and couldn't stop meself giggling at how wonderful it is. Where has Ridley Scott's creativity gone?? Screw American Gangster.
i have to disagree with you there, partner. I think Scott has become one of the finest refined craftsmen in his industry. His creativity is found in his ability to adapt his epic vision into a coherent and tight package. He has become quite a technical Director...,but not afraid to take risks. There are quite a few movies of his i dislike, but i still acknowledge them to be very well made movies. Why is it that you say he has lost his creativity? Dont you think brought a creative perspective to Black hawk down, matchstick men and kingdom of heaven?
Still not sure why Kingdom of heaven bombed. I thought the theatrical cut was aces and the Directors cut belongs in his master collection.
There was a reason why I didn't say "screw Gladiator" 😬
Kingdom of Heaven and Black Hawk Down are a mixed bag but at least you can see his directorial mark on them, even if one is a stock historical epic and the other a showcase for Orlando Bloom and Josh Hartnett pretending to act.
Considering his artistic talents, of which I was reminded of when I watched Alien, I feel his work has deteriorated pretty badly if you take American Gangster (I haven't seen Good Year). It looked slick enough, but the grungy palette used just didn't help the film rise out of mediocrity, and in my eyes makes it look like a drab version of Blow (which is an incredibly awful film by the way).
This is the guy who made Blade Runner for christs sake! American Gangster? Just not cricket.
It's his first very sober looking film. I thought it was interesting, lots of focus on character and story.
First time I saw BHD I got lost in the commotion and identically looking soldiers. But seeing it again I found out that THAT was it's strength, taht's what war's all about: lots of nasty sh!t with soldiers that are numbers. There is no identity in an army, but when the sh!t hits the fan, there suddenly is. I thought that was clever and authentic Scott 'layering'.
But if you think AG sucks, don't even go near A Good Year. Just steer clear.
I didn't think it sucked admittedly, that was hyperbole on my behalf. It was a mediocre crime film, but its strengths were the good performances (Josh Brolin the best in my opinion)and a good pot of source material in there. It suffers from alot more, but I don't want to derail the topic completely.
But there were only a few moments in the entire film when I could have guessed I was watching a film by a director (supposedly) at the top of his game: the point of the film when Frank is having lunch with his brothers in the Harlem café, walks out and shoots a rival in the head, then walks back in. Credit to Denzel Washington too, but it didn't feel like a Ridley Scott moment.
Alien, on the other hand, is the nuts. Although I prefer Blade Runner.
Yes, but in that sense, I think it definitely lacks something, perhaps you might disagree but I think it does. And it isn't even the fact that I am expecting a Ridley Scott film at all.
Instead, when I try and look at it simply as a film itself it feels drab and empty. If Ridley Scott was trying to attain to the level of Scorsese or DePalma or Coppola he failed. I think even Mike Newell got a better angle than what was seen in AG with Donnie Brasco. In American Gangster, there is no directorial imprint and the film suffers for it.
Hopefully Scott tries to pretend to be George Lucas in a few months and announces a Directors Cut that puts me thoughts to shame though. I would like to like American Gangster, but I don't.
Originally posted by queeq
AVP2 is out and apparantly even worse than AVP. I don't even dare watch it, too painful as AVP1 was quite a terrible experience.
AvP was horrible because they tried to tie it in with the original Alien movies. It would have been a better movie if they had stuck with the original Dark Horse story.
I haven't seen AvP:2 yet but I've heard it was awful, so I may just wait till it hits the movie channels.