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The Fountain was good stuff. Not great, and probably Aronofsky's worst movie, but that's not saying much considering Pi and especially Requiem for a Dream.

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I'm kinda in between you two. I do agree that The Fountain was by far Aronofsky's worst movie, way below Pi and Requiem. But I do gotta give him props on making it just look so damned amazing, one of the more beautifully shot movies I've seen in a long time. Too bad the story was so incoherent and pretentious. And oh MAN could you tell that Weisz was the director's wife, it was definitely one of those cases where the guy making the movie is so in love with his star that he just assumes that everyone else will love her too and forgets to build up her character so that we'll care about her.

 

Actually, that reminds me of a pet peeve of mine: movies where they have people crying a lot. I mean, where they have the same characters crying all the damn time. Kevin Kline's Hamlet was real bad about that too, iirc. Yes, it's impressive that you can use the Method or whatever to produce real tears. But you don't need to remind us about it every five minutes. It's like if you had a wrestling show where every worker got busted open in every match. Overkill, and dilutes the impact for the high points where it would really help sell the emotion.

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So, my friends and I are having a contest to see who can see the most 2008 movies.

 

One of my friends saw Tell No One, a French thriller released in 2006 in France and across Europe in 07, that got released in the US in July 08.

 

He says it should count as a 2008 movie because it's a 2008 movie in the US since that when it came out in the US, my other friend is calling BS saying since it's a French film, released in France in 2006, it's a 2006 film and thus doesn't count

 

Besides the fact that we're all sad and pathetic for arguing this, who do you think is right?

 

I'd say that while it was a US Theatrical release in 2008, it does not count. If you look into it, it had been available on DVD in 2007. The DVD was not just a region 2 release, but there were releases in Canada to DVD in October 07, which means, although it would have taken some work, it could have been viewed in the US Pre-2008, therefore, IMO, does not count. Granted, that view could be argued too, but I would think that any movie that there was any opportunity to have seen pre-2008 should not count in that kind of contest.

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So, my friends and I are having a contest to see who can see the most 2008 movies.

 

One of my friends saw Tell No One, a French thriller released in 2006 in France and across Europe in 07, that got released in the US in July 08.

 

He says it should count as a 2008 movie because it's a 2008 movie in the US since that when it came out in the US, my other friend is calling BS saying since it's a French film, released in France in 2006, it's a 2006 film and thus doesn't count

 

Besides the fact that we're all sad and pathetic for arguing this, who do you think is right?

 

2006. Look at something like HATCHET. There are a lot of people that saw it in theaters in 2007, but it played the festival circuit in 2006, and a lot of people who made best of horror lists from 2007 didn't include it, even though they loved the film since it played the circuit in 2006.

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If they're going to be hardcore enough to debate whether a movie no one but them has heard of counts towards a contest to see who can watch the most 2008 releases, they're hardcore enough to track down Canadian DVDs. I say it does not count.

 

Festival circuits are a bit iffy. It's easy enough to order a product from Amazon.ca to be shipped to the US but it's an entirely different animal to trek to a festival.

 

I'm also only taking the 2006 stance because it certainly sounds like the geekiness of the competition would require such a strict technicality. If someone said to me, "Hey DrVenkman! What was a really fun movie you saw in theatres in 2001?" and my answer of "Iron Monkey" was rejected because it was made in 1993, well, tough, 2001 was it's North American theatrical release. If I was in the business of making "Theatrical Films I Saw in XXXX", it would go in 2001.

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Aronofsky's going to be fine. He's got The Wrestler coming out sometime later this year or early next year. Now if that's as big of a bomb as The Fountain then he has reason to worry.

 

And has there ever been a more jarring transition for a director then going from The Fountain to The Wrestler? Maybe Sidney Lumet going from Equus to The Wiz or William Friedkin going from the Al Pacino gay serial killer movie Cruising to the Chevy Chase comedy about arms dealers Deal of The Century

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Oh, Bob, you and your friends are faggots for taking part in such a contest, so you lose automatically.

 

Oh I know. It all started from me seeing a movie every week in theatres, and while most people laugh at me for it (justifiably so), two of my friends became inspired and a few weeks ago, when we found out how many movies we've seen this year, the shit was on.

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There's nothing wrong with going to the movies a lot, I see at least one a week too. The problem is making a contest of it. Solution: cheat and say you went to movies you really didn't go to. That will balance it out.

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I'd never do that and it'd be obvious if I did anyway. I have a list of every movie I've seen in theatres starting with 2004. I also only see movies that remotely look interesting to me, I don't just pad the list by seeing any and all movies. I'm six movies behind at the moment counting Tell No One, so hello limited releases!

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"The Fountain" is a movie I really wanted to like. It had so much going for it-good acting, a great score, a great director, great imagery-that it seemed it was going to be like a home run. Thing is, it's also so fucking pretentious, it's infuriating. The movie beats you over the head with symbolism and a sense of importance so much, it drove me crazy. It's really the kind of movie that annoying internet film critics, obnoxious film majors, and arthouse mavens love to embrace, when in reality it's just a huge mess.

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I thought the Fountain was alright. It was really bizarre though. I think Requiem for a Dream was Aronofsky's best movie, but damn that movie is a downer. Pretty much every character in it ended up with a horrible future.

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The Fountain was amazing until Tom became a tree hugging monk flying in space.

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I thought the Fountain was alright. It was really bizarre though. I think Requiem for a Dream was Aronofsky's best movie, but damn that movie is a downer. Pretty much every character in it ended up with a horrible future.

 

Dude, I'm with you on Requiem. It was a great movie, but fuck if it doesn't kill your mood. I'm not gonna go into detail so nobody cries SPOILER!!! but the ending to Jennifer Connolly's character is so god damn heartbreaking that it'll probably stick with me for the rest of my life.

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Why? If anything I thought Connelly had the brightest future of the 4 in that movie. I'll go ahead and use spoiler tags:

 

Ellen Burstyn was seemingly screwed and out of her mind, though maybe the shock treatments could help. But the way it left things she seemed screwed. Jared Leto literally lost an arm due to his addictions, maybe he gets off drugs and maybe he doesn't. Marlon Wayans likely had a life of being a drug addict and being in and out of jail to look forward to. So really Jennifer Connelly ending up as a potentially high priced hooker (with her looks she could be in demand) isn't as bad.

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Yeah, Ellen Burstyn's ending (specifically the reveal shot when her friends come to visit) is the one that got me crying- which I never do with movies.

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Ass to ass... best quote in the history of quotes. The perfect answer to "So what do you want to do tonight?"

 

I think the only one that could be better is Patrick Bateman's "Don't just stare at it, eat it."

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Why? If anything I thought Connelly had the brightest future of the 4 in that movie. I'll go ahead and use spoiler tags:

 

Ellen Burstyn was seemingly screwed and out of her mind, though maybe the shock treatments could help. But the way it left things she seemed screwed. Jared Leto literally lost an arm due to his addictions, maybe he gets off drugs and maybe he doesn't. Marlon Wayans likely had a life of being a drug addict and being in and out of jail to look forward to. So really Jennifer Connelly ending up as a potentially high priced hooker (with her looks she could be in demand) isn't as bad.

 

I guess it was the end with her curling up on the couch with the look of happiness on her face that got to me. Like, she would be perfectly fine whoring herself out for the rest of her life, so long as she got her fix.

 

To reply to Nighthawk, I enjoyed the crowd chanting "Come come come". When the scene changed, the first thing that ran through my mind was "So...did she come?"

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Everybody knows the best critically panned space resurrection movie to come out in recent years was Steven Soderbergh's version of Solaris.

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I did like that one a lot. Of course, I'm a fan of Tarkovsky's original too, so I'm biased. Soderbergh changed just enough stuff to make it different and not a xerox of the original, but left enough alone that the basic story was still intact. One of the better-done remakes of this depressingly remake-filled decade.

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I thought the Fountain was alright. It was really bizarre though. I think Requiem for a Dream was Aronofsky's best movie, but damn that movie is a downer. Pretty much every character in it ended up with a horrible future.

 

Dude, I'm with you on Requiem. It was a great movie, but fuck if it doesn't kill your mood. I'm not gonna go into detail so nobody cries SPOILER!!! but the ending to Jennifer Connolly's character is so god damn heartbreaking that it'll probably stick with me for the rest of my life.

 

When Marlon Wayans had flashbacks of his mom, I cried like a little baby. KOAB should burn in hell for thinking this movie was funny.

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