Quoted from Dreamscale W...T...F???????????

What?

Your comment about this being a "great movie".  I'm shocked.  It's an interesting movie, based on Cage's crazy performance, but it's so far from anything remotely close to great.

Rick, yous and mes seem to have very, very different tastes in movies.

Quoted from Dreamscale Your comment about this being a "great movie".  I'm shocked.  It's an interesting movie, based on Cage's crazy performance, but it's so far from anything remotely close to great. Rick, yous and mes seem to have very, very different tastes in movies.

Warner Herzog is one of the best directors around and this was a great film IMO.

Looking on Rotten Tomatoes it has an 87% approval rating...so the critics thought it was top notch as well.

Looking at your review you focus a lot on "realism"...which is a bit weird to be honest when the film is an exercise in surrealism.

It's a bit like saying this isn't a very good painting because it doesn't look much like Dali:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres.....&tx=90&ty=59


Realism is a 19th Art Movement, and is very commonly used in films, but there have been many, many more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_movement

The "Shoot him again, his soul's still dancing" is one of the best movie moments in a long, long time.

Rick

Well, I'll say the "Shoot him again" scene is one of the most bizarre scenes, but that's about as far as I can go.

Herzog was once called the most important director alive and he is much loved in the art-house world and amongst film buffs....his films, both narrative and documentary, are almost always outstanding.

His films are extremely thematically heavy, so I'd understand why you don't really "get" them because that's not really your thing...although I noticed you said you enjoyed it...so subconsciously it was working on you, you're perhaps just not sure how to interpret it.

Quoted from Dreamscale Rick, yous and mes seem to have very, very different tastes in movies.

Hahaha....as Rick takes a huge sigh of relief.  Even Jeff would have to concede that for many this equates to a great, big seal of approval.

I did not think this was a great film, but it was good, and I am not ashamed to say that about 7 times out of 10 I enjoy Cage's work -- this was one of them.

If you did not find it hysterical when he was interrogating that old lady, the film just wasn't for you.

Rick, I'm not an "arthouse" guy..never have been, never will be, never want to be.

I'm familiar with Werner, but far from a fan.

I'll take Eli, you can have Werner.

Bert, I'm with you on Cage...I like him and think he brings something unique to the vast majority of his films, and because of him, I did "semi" enjoy this, but it's so far from a good or great film, IMO.

Quoted from Dreamscale Rick, I'm not an "arthouse" guy..never have been, never will be, never want to be. I'm familiar with Werner, but far from a fan. I'll take Eli, you can have Werner.

You do make me laugh. Comparing one of the greatest directors who ever lived who has an output of cinematic masterpieces going back decades to someone who has made Cabin Fever, Hostel and Hostel 2!  

I enjoyed Cabin Fever, but we're talking an altogether different level of filmmaking!

Rick, I wasn't making any comparisons, whatsoever.  BUT, you have to understand that the vast, VAST majority of Werner's films, are films no one other than film students will see...or want to see.

My point is that I like what I like and you like what you like.  And that's cool, right?

BTW, Cabin Fever is by far Eli's weakest film.  I can't really even say I liked it.  Too goofy.  But, the Hostel films?  Oh yeah, baby, now we're talking.

Awesome movie. I love how we really see the weakness and the strength of this character, the bad and the good. Very original, at least in my limited experience. And funny. I recommend it.

The Abel Ferrera film w/ Harvey Keitel? Yes. That was riveting stuff. Can't recall much humor in it though.

I liked Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans, but that's due to Werner Herzog getting Nic Cage's best acting in years. It's neither remake or sequel to the NC-17 rated '92 film, but, as Herzog put it "a rethought'.

I love the scene when they're raiding the house in the ghetto to nab a suspect, and sneaking through the house next door, he spies a bag of weed(I think it was weed), sniffs it lustily, and pockets it. That was funny.

Quoted from leitskev Awesome movie... the weakness and the strength of (t)his character, the bad and the good.

There was no good & there was no strength - I though that was the whole point of it - the blatant honesty about how seedy he was - that he had no redeeming features but the film was clear on it - I thought that was the whole point.

When I first watched this, and I had picked the story up some where in the middle, that was my impression as well. I later had the chance to watch this from close to the beginning, and saw it in a very different light. Look at the way he pursues the murderers of the kid. He wants to solve the crime, he cares about the victim, he is just also overcome by his own needs and flaws, which he no longer has any control over. So he is a very compromised man, but there is good in him. That's why they go out of their way to show him in his childhood home, give a sense of where he is from and why he is the way he is.

They don't sugarcoat his flaws, and there is no redemption. He remains flawed at the end. Which is a nice change from the paint by the numbers formula.

That was my view of things, anyway.