Pans: Todd Sweeney, the gore bankruptcy
Nathalie and I went to see Todd Sweeney the other day and both hated the movie. I just wanted to leave after an hour and couldn't watch for the rest of the time, literally, just didn't watch.
I just tired of the gore and extreme use of violence in mainstream movies. Ever since "Reservoir dogs", violence is the only thing "in" on screens. Call me french if you want but I just don't understand the fact that you will see endless disembowelment but will NEVER see a single breast in modern movies. I want the 70's and 80's back, someone travel back in time and shoot Tarantino in the head! Terminator style.
Plot is people are beheaded, continuously throughout the movie, turned into burgers in a meat grinder and then served in meat pies for people to eat, all of it served with over the top gushing blood and gore, and this for about 2 hours. It all attempts at being a comedy and a musical on top of it!
WHY DOES HOLLYWOOD THINK THIS IS MAINSTREAM???? and then the answer hit me like a train, people were applauding by the end of the movie, literally applauding!!! Sex is taboo, bad, ugly but gore is fine. Sign of the times?
I want More flesh and less blood!
Comments
I had to leave Pulp Fiction when I first saw it, disgusted w/ my generation, completely alienated, and, yes, wanting to see Quentin Tarantino dead for crimes against humanity.
Well, all I can guess is there is a concerted effort to keep people emotionally divided, eg distrustful of life and nature, so they can be turned into masses of isolated automatons that create wealth for others w/o question, w/o looking more deeply at their potential for love, connection, call it what you will. Sounds crazy, but that's all I can fathom, cultural censorship.
Oh, you forgot to mention the horrendous music/singing, ie it's a musical, and how the necessity to finish a song, especially the young lovers's one, requires some scenes to stretch on and on and on.
From one witty one-liner comments on my economic posts to lengthy written advocacy? Your view of the world is dark... Come on! we are not slave automatas working for the man! BTW the "isolated automatons" was the basis of Hannah Arendt's "Origins of Totalitarism" book. I remember it describing how societies needed to be broken down for the individual to be effectively controlled. I am going to venture you are female? Feel free to not answer :)
You know, for me, the goal of JBoss, the initial OSS project, was to connect with people I related with professionally. Silicon Valley was a very alienating place. Lack of professional connection. I always thought that company was run like an autoritarian regime. I had a bunch of friends there, social friends, but professionally I wanted to connect to developpers and I could only do that online. I guess what I am trying to say is that this urge is pretty universal, and present EVERYWHERE online. It is a balancing force. The very fact that you and 2500 other people read this blog every week is also a sign of this urge.
You know I actually don't think there is a conspiracy to scare people in the US. I just think this is the way politics in this country have developed out of political necessity. Agendas are basically the same, except for the religious fanatical base of course, and it is all marketing. The scare tactics are just an expression of who the current leaders are. They just are people that DO take the threats seriously. Me? I just think more people die on the roads EVERY WEEK than terrorist will ever kill in this country and that defining our priorities in response to this threat is a mistake, resulting from the power and the nature of the "fear" emotion.
I am still reading through Alan Greenspan's book. Funny that in it, even though he is a republican himself, his favorite presidents, because they did the right thing economically were Carter and Clinton. Carter because he committed political suicide to combat stagflation. He regrets that he got blamed with it when in fact he credits him for political courage in addressing stagflation. On the other hand he quickly condemns the "Reagan" legacy as a period of fiscal and budgetary irresponsibility, just mounting debts.
Perhaps its our Religious + Cowboy cultural roots. Guns good, Sex bad.
I don't know, I can only imagine. I only personally know one millionaire on vacation for life, a sibling. And I see a hell of a lot of people fine dining around Portland in places I can't afford to go. Not to mention all the gated communities I'll never see. I'd say the population is in the 100K range in this country.
Fine, everyone wants that, and the ones that have it definitely have a self-interest in keeping things going as they have been.
Getting on the train in San Francisco in the morning, for the commute to Niku in Redwood City, definitely gave me the herd mentality feel. I was young, and most of the people were middle aged, not looking too happy, suited up and ready to "make a living". A few "make it rich", if they got so lucky w/ the mix of timing and talent.
I do have an issue w/ moral hazard -- new vocabulary for me -- and the idea of investors skimming the cream off the milk, and the employees wait for their big break, all the while, the chances are vastly against them being anything by mediocre (see Amadeus).
Let's face it, by definition, most people are mediocre. So why the system the rewards the exceptionally talented? Natural history is fascinating. So many variables. And interpretations, aka opinions. Maybe Soros is right: those whose ideas most match reality win. That might be a healthy way to go. Personally, I am marrying a French girl for the free health care in my old age.
Any opinions on life in France?
Anyways, per endless growth to meet the growth of the money supply:
http://www.celsias.com/2007/12/16/the-mathematics-that-contemporary-economics-ignores/
You might like this series. Fascinating to me and a few friends. I like this guy, funny as h*ll, laugh out loud funny.
No, despite my mother's influence, am male. Definitely NOT alpha. Ya, a pushover, a softie. You need people like us around, think of it that way, heh. And watch out, we may show some fangs now and again when you least expect, har, har.
Strong influences are Murray Bookchin and Ken Wilber. Just to get started.
Recent interest, heh, in finances are probably the same kind that got Marx to fall asleep in the library every night while his children died of starvation. Dark? Heh.
I'd like to understand the system as well as possible. Call it a habit, a hobby, what's the difference? Maybe take advantage of it someday soon.
Moving to NYC next week. If I can make it there....
You're living in a culture that has wars about every 10 years. (In all fairness, Europe went through a long period like this and then smartened up after WWI AND WWII.) Anyway, our proclivity towards violence is no big surprise.
I'm with you that it's crazy we allow all sorts of gratuitous violence but don't allow nudity. Blowing someone up, not a problem; exposed genitalia, now you're a psychopath!