Green Hornet 7/10- An okay movie, pretty good all round, some cool camera effects. 127 hours-8/10- I really enjoyed this movie, I thought the pacing was really good and I was never bored watching what is essentially a guy stuck in a canyon. Also made me want to run and bike around in the desert. Also James Franco is really great in this movie, dude is probably one of my favourite actors right now.
Mean Streets- 5/10. I love Scorcese but I never understood Taxi Driver and I understand this one even less. I think its a generational thing because I talk to people who were around when those movies came out and they think they're brilliant. Theres something there that isn't speaking to me.
Mean Streets and Pulp Fiction both getting no love on here. Even though both are some of the more influential films of their decade. Especially Pulp Fiction as you could say it's the most influential movie of the past 17 years.
Adaptation - 9.5/10 Adaptation is the one of the most brilliant films I have seen. This, the second Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman pairing is basically as brilliant as their first, Being John Malkovich; if possible, it is even more innovative, but they are different films. This film is about Charlie Kauffman but it's also about other things, which all emanate from his own issues. It is written by the real Charlie Kaufman, however there is a co-writing credit going to the non-existent Donald Kaufman, a creation of Charlie's for this film. Nicholas Cage brilliantly plays twins Charlie and (the made up) Donald. Donald is obviously a part of the real Charlie, extracted and made into a separate person for this film. Donald is like the flip side to Charlie; whereas Charlie is locked in his own psyche and perfectionism to the point of madness, Donald learns to write at a screenwriting seminar from an angle of classic structure, and is open to all established ideas, something which is like the equivalent of conformity to Charlie. This is the battle which rages for the real Charlie, I presume, as he plays tug-of-war between artistic integrity and mainstream commercialism. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is a masterful play on self-reflexivity, and that the characters are twins reinforces that notion of the dualistic nature of not only the screenwriting process, but life in general. This is like a Pirandellian play in 21st century cinematic form, and Kaufman truly makes himself a formidable screenwriting figure with this film, in my opinion. The film is about Adaptation in all of its forms; from evolutionary adaptation, to literary screenwriting adaptation, to relationship adaptation, to adapting to the changes in the surrounding modern world, adapting based on past events and memories. Adapting is a premise for all of the films ideas, really, because in the mind of Charlie Kaufman, all ideas, no matter how small (or how big we can make them) must be adapted to. I think Adaptation is the most profound, original film in all of its complex facets. It is also one of the greatest character studies you will see, as well as a great film about the writing process. The film is so anomalous in how it is directly about multiple things, while at the same time indirectly depicting them at multiple levels, both at the level of the story and as a self-reflexive commentary on the decisions made within the story. Think about what happens to the twins at the end, and you will see how, truly, Charlie has become whole again at the films end; his adaptation of the novel is done, and so to has the fragmentation of his psyche been remedied. But that is by no means the only thing we learn at the end; the film works at various levels in its duration. This is a Masterpiece of 21st century cinema; see it, see it now, if you haven't already
And FWIW DeNiro is the shit in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Both great performances. But that doesn't mean the movie is any good IMO. Daniel Day Lewis was phenomenal in There Will Be Blood but the movie itself was crappy. I recognize that DeNiro has a great performance in both movies and Scorcese created two great roles. I'd still give Taxi Driver a solid 7-7.5/10 but like I said I think there's something that went over my head about that movie because I just don't see anything great about it. I'm sure it was influential or a big deal when it came out. The main character was a Vietnam War veteran and I'm guessing it was politically more loaded back then and meant more to that generation. Mean Streets, though, isn't even a good movie. Perhaps stylistically I can see how it was ahead of its' time but as far as content it doesn't even strike me as revolutionary even for its' day. DeNiro was great and the character Johnny Boy is great but I wasn't impressed by any of the other characters, performances, storyline, etc. Raging Bull and Goodfellas >>>>>>>>>>>> Taxi Driver and Mean Streets. If you say they were revolutionary or influential I'll believe you (I was born in 1990 so I have no fucking clue) but from a person detached from that era I don't think either one is as good as it is given credit for. Pulp Fiction is the fucking shit though. FWIW when I first watched Tarantino movies I wasn't that into them. Somewhere after I'd already seen many of them something clicked and I really dig his stuff now. Pulp Fiction is fuckin awesome, Kill Bills are pretty dope (they're coming out with Volume 3 according to IMDB?!?!), True Romance is solid, Inglorious Basterds was pretty dope.
Yes, Tarentino wants to do another Kill Bill. He also wanted to do a James Bond film but the dopes at broke-ass MGM weren't trying to hear that.
From what I've heard a Kill Bill 3 will not happen and Tarantino has started pre-production of an unnamed Western film. Rumors are Keith Carradine, Treat Williams, and Christoph Waltz will co-star.
