Just my opinion.

[avelanchefan]

Watched Seven today and I must say it is an excellent movie on DTS. I could have sworn it was raining in my house.

As much as I love this movie it is still a fairly disturbing picture to watch. How true on some of the stuff John Doe talks about in the car during the final scenes of the movie. Maybe that is what disturbes me the most.

Anyone have the Usual Suspects on DVD? If so how is it?

[juice21]

usual suspects is a great movie! i wouldn't say the DVD is remarkable or anything, not a demo disc, but it is good. good transfer and good sound. definitely an owner IMO...

[avelanchefan]

Yeah I hve it on VHS but I am trying to keep my DVD collection down to newer movies and trying less to duplicate my VHS collection.

But Usual Suspects is one of those movies that if it is better than average when transferred to DVD then I should probably pick it up.:)

[scottvamp]

What is a VHS?

[Micah Cohen]

Really. Time to ditch the VHS stuff. Why own the movie if you're only owning less than half of it (owing to bad sound and P&S cutting on VHS)?

The new DVD of THE USUAL SUSPECTS (a "special edition" with a new print of the film and more extras) is due out very soon, if it's not out already. That's the one you need.

SE7EN is an excellent film, disturbing and intense. My one beef with it is Brad Pitt's overacting at the end -- "What's in the box?! Aw, what's in the bo-ox?!" Fincher has consistently proven himself an able, Ridley Scott-eyed director. All of his stuff is exciting and interesting (unlike Ridley of late).

Does anyone know anything about his new film, the Jodie Foster thing called PANIC ROOM? Previews look cool but I can't figure out what it is about. Jodie even looks good.

MC

[juice21]

Originally posted by Micah
All of his stuff is exciting and interesting (unlike Ridley of late).



MC

didn't enjoy black hawk down or gladiator???

[juice21]

the previews do make it look like a pretty exciting movie. i don't know if i fully get it either. chick buys an apt. with a secret 'panic room' in it, people break in, she refuges to the panic room with her daughter, turns out what the robbers? want is in the panic room? looks interesting to say the least, hopefully it will be a good thriller...

[Micah Cohen]

I'm over Ridley.

GLADIATOR sucked. It just wasn't very good.

I'm not interested in BLACK HAWK DOWN (altho the book is on my reading list). Seems too jingoistic for me, flat and shallow.

Ridley has an amazing eye. He's a visual genius. His images are often astonishing. But he hasn't made a really great film -- where the image integrates with the story -- since 1982.

I'm also over Soderberg.

Who will be my new favorite director?

MC

[johnnyamerika]

I wouldn't compare Ridley to Fincher...two very different styles, although I think that Ridley has 'picked up' a couple things from good ol finch....quick camera work...gritty, dark cinematography...using different films for artistic effect. Fincher has made two of my favorite movies ever. Fight Club, and Se7en. He really knows how to create believable characters. Ridley...well he's had good movies, and some great movies...Gladiator, it was good for me, not best picture by far...but good. Ridley is just more of an imitator to me...I feel that's why he didn't win best director even though his picture did win.

The other great thing about Fincher is he experiments with sound...not just blockbuster type, booming scores....but he uses subtle ambient noises, gives you bit by bit in each channel, enticing you to listen, drawing you in. I love Fincher :D

[Micah Cohen]

Actually, you have it backwards.

ALIEN has influenced everything young Fincher has done; it was the major reason he signed on to direct ALIEN 3, so he could showcase all that he had learned from the master -- Ridley Scott.

Fincher is incredible, and I believe he has used his Scott-influenced eye (and ear -- Scott also does the subtle ambient sound thing) to make some tremendously beautiful and well-made films, including even little films like THE GAME (where, in the interview room, you hear the VO quote from BLADE RUNNER as Michael Douglas takes the test: "Response time is a factor, so answer as quickly as you can...")

There's no question that Scott is one of the most visually influential filmmakers of the late 20th century. ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER are everywhere, you can't make a film today without "quoting" from them. Among the more obvious Scott-ripoff artists, like Cameron, Fincher is the best hands down. His visual style is astonishing.

Scott has fallen back on easy pickings. He isn't challenging me any more, the way Fincher does. Watch ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER, or even 1492, again and you'll see how ****ty GLADIATOR is. IMHO, of course.

MC

[avelanchefan]

Micah your over Soderberg?

While I have a feeling he will be over commercialized (after Brokovich) I just was inthralled with Traffic. Man Benicio Del Toro was just fantastic in that movie.

[Micah Cohen]

Benicio is great in everything he does. I really like him. TRAFFIC would have been a better film if it had concentrated on just Benicio and on Don Cheadle, who I also really like.

Soderberg is a really good director. Altho I really hated SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, I liked OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY and even ERIN BROCKOVICH. His style is cool and different. He really made OUT OF SIGHT a great movie, much better than I expected when I first saw it. But... First of all, Clooney with his histrionics about the "star-studded charity" fiasco really turned me off -- so I'm over him, excepting in THREE KINGS, which is a small masterpiece even on his part. And I'm turned off by Soderberg, an otherwise original thinker, REMAKING a dog like OCEAN'S 11. (Even after remaking a dog like THE UNDERNEATH and making it sort of interesting.)

It just makes me BLAH about his so-called talent.

BLAH BLAH BLAH.

MC

[johnnyamerika]

Ok, I can dig that. I'd still take Fincher films over most of Scott's, Alien excluded. I do like Cameron better than Scott too, but that's just me. As for Soderberg Out of Sight was great, and I did like Traffic. I even found some good points to Oceans 11.