Motion Select: Film

Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts

1.10.2011

Movie Review: Tron Legacy

12.29.2010

Exit Through the Gift Shop, Real or Fake?

This is a total spoiler alert for those of you that haven't seen this documentary... so don't read unless you've seen the movie.

Exit Through the Gift Shop has been around for a while, but I've recently stumbled across it since it was hard to find in theaters. Immediately after watching this documentary, supposedly put together by renowned artist Banksy, one must wonder if this movie is all a hoax. I've been doing some research on the film to see what people say about it, trying to quench my thirst for the answer.

Whatever, the case, real or fake, I still thought this was an enjoyable film.

Banksy is known for pranks
This film would be the ultimate middle finger to the posh art community, who think they're cooler and better than everyone else. Ultimately, putting Banksy better than the art community. There is a line in the movie which Banksy says, "that we ignore things right in front of us - the elephant in the room." Maybe this movie is the elephant in the room.

Perhaps he's referring to MBW (Mr. Brain Wash) as the elephant in the room
Noting that they (Banksy and Shepard Fairey) didn't see that one coming.

Would Banksy and Shepard Fairey handily market MBW on their websites without ever seeing an once of MBW's artwork?
Shepard Fairey even DJs at MBW's gallery opening. In the film they thought the MBW (or Guetta) show would be a small quaint venue, instead of the massive show that premiered. However, don't they realize that Banksy and Shepard Fairey are the biggest artists today, and by listing a show on their websites would create a big following? Vanity Fair did a follow up question to Shepard Fairey on his endorsement: “You know,” he explains, “I was pretty much blackmailed into doing that, otherwise I’d never get the video footage of the last 10 years of my life back from the guy.”

Would Banksy really let someone film him putting up his work and let that person keep the tapes?
I question this motive, since Banksy is known for being unknown and keeping his identity secret. Guetta is almost a complete stranger to Banksy when they meet.

Would an unknown, artist, with no work that the world has ever seen be able to budget a gallery opening on that scale?
Unless he is rich, which in the film, he isn't. The film states that he bankrolled his entire savings into that one show. I mean, would his wife, your wife, allow you to do that without a single person in the world seeing your work?

Can MBW art be taken seriously?
It's just a rip on Andy Warhol... there's no unique style, nothing. Maybe this was an experiment. But apparently his art has been taken seriously, as MBW went on to do the cover of Madonna's greatest hit's album... and of course those prints selling hundreds of thousands each.

"Warhol repeated iconic images until they became meaningless, but there was still something iconic about them. Thierry really makes them meaningless." - Banksy

Can someone as aloof and idiotic as Guetta outsmart and outgross Banksy and Shepard Fairey?
Perhaps, idiot savant? Fluke?

"Maybe there’s something to be learned from it. Maybe it means that art is sort of a joke.” - Banksy referring to MBW's million dollar success.

Perhaps this film is one big joke from mastermind Banksy.

Banksy's interview seems a bit rehearsed.
Yes, it probably is, since it is an interview for a film. Documentaries usually interview more than one take. But Banksy's interview does come across a little different.

Is that even Banksy in the film?
I don't know.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Shepard Fairey responds about the supposed MBW hoax: “I swear to god that’s not the case,” he said. “Banksy may not want me to say that but no, it’s not.”

If Banksy and Shepard Fairey created MBW, then at the end of the film they pretty much discredit him.

"Yeah, I was faced with that terrible thing, when somebody shows you their work and everything about it is shit... so... you don't really know where to start. " - Banksy

I mean with a quote like that, people may be haste to realize that MBW's art really is crap and people will stop pursuing MBW and Banksy and Fairey can end their experiment, stop wasting their energy on creating a fake artist. Or maybe MBW is real and they want his work acknowledged to be crap.

So do you think Exit Through the Gift Shop is real or fake?

Vanity Fair Article
Truth Behind the Film

12.14.2010

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Amazing Compilation of 2010 Movies

12.08.2010

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Awesomely Funny Star Wars meets The Princess Bride - Lightsaber Duel

10.04.2010

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Movie Review: The Social Network

8.29.2010

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Last Exorcism overtakes Takers for Top Spot at the Box Office... Not!!!

8.16.2010

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Funny But True: Sound Mixer Hell Video

8.15.2010

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Stallone Isn't Yet Expendable at the Box Office

8.09.2010

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Alice in Wonderland 2010... Disappointed

I know I am a little late on reviewing Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but having just seen it, I felt the need to express my disappointment in a film that has made over $1 Billion worldwide.

To start off I just want to acknowledge that I didn't hate this movie at all, I was just expecting more from it. If I had to rate this film, I'd give it a "blah" rating... I actually thought (going into this film) it would be something that I'd enjoy because Tim Burton directing an Alice in Wonderland movie seemed like the perfect blend.

Well, maybe on paper.

So here goes it... I know Alice in Wonderland is a dream, well the original one anyway, and it kinda of lends itself to random events and a skewed visual aspect. However, since this is a live action movie with Alice as 19, I really wished the story could have been stronger and a bit darker. I can only compare this to the Harry Potter series, which deals with similar "growing into adulthood" themes that also locates itself in a different world of weird and crazy creatures.

With that being said, Alice in Wonderland seems to be short on really getting to the inner nature of its characters, which probably could have made the film more interesting. Some might say this is a PG movie for kids, so being too dark would not a good film make... However, Harry Potter has always been a bit dark, but yet proves to yield more depth in its characters.

The other thing that made me icky about this film is the abundant use of CGI. I wasn't too thrilled because it made everything look weird; the filmmakers decided to create a world that's somewhat of a cartoon, but not really a cartoon (the Red Queen's bigger than average head, the talking CGI rabbit, the Mad Hatter's random Beetlejuice dance at the end of the film... i could go on).

Maybe I should have seen this movie in 3D, because of all the colors and the weird characters in the film would have made it more enjoyable. However, I was still expecting more from the master Tim Burton, who brought us Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and even Sleepy Hollow. His last few movies, it seems, I couldn't really get into.

I remember watching the animated Disney version of Alice in Wonderland as a kid, and it did indeed have wonder. This live action version of Alice in Wonderland, however, has left the wonder out. Maybe, I've grown out of wonderland, perhaps?

What are your thoughts on this years Alice in Wonderland? Did you enjoy it?

8.08.2010

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The Other Guys Step Up the Box Office

8.04.2010

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Inception VS UP Mash-Up Trailer

8.01.2010

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Inception Dreams up a Third Weekend

7.30.2010

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Leaked Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Music Score Fake?

7.28.2010

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12 Reasons why Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is a Good/Bad Idea

Yo, ho! With the release of the teaser (or announcement clip) for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at Comic-Con, one can wonder how long Disney is going to milk this franchise. Is it a mistake for Disney? Are they running out of ideas? Here are the reasons, the Pros and Cons, of making another Pirates of the Caribbean movie:

5 Reasons why Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is a good idea:

Johnny Depp is back (albeit reportedly being paid over $55 million to return as Jack Sparrow).
Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley said they will not return.
Based off of the book On Stranger Tides, so the story might be better than the last two since it's a book, right?
Budget scaled down to $200 million instead of the $300 million of At World's End and even the $225 million of Dead Man's Chest (So if On Stranger Tides does less than expected, Disney won't be gambling as much).
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has made almost $2.7 billion worldwide.

7 Reasons why we don't need another Pirates of the Caribbean movie:

It's the Fourth in the series, when three was enough.
Another fourth in a major film series, Shrek Forever After, did much less than expected at the box office this year.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was an expensive mess of visual effects, and I couldn't even tell you what it was about.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's latest movies (The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia, and G-Force) were big budget misfires.
Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of Geisha, and that box office flop Nine) is directing instead of Gore Verbinski.
Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley said they will not return (Hey! Some people like them in the movie, and I remember when they were the main characters in the first film).
The only reason Pirates of the Caribbean works is because of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. How long they can go without plot and story is an enigma left to the audience.

What do you think? Will you go see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides when it hits theaters in 2011?

7.26.2010

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Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch Movie Trailer

7.25.2010

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Inception shakes up some Salt Over the Weekend

7.22.2010

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New TRON LEGACY Trailer

7.20.2010

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Inception: Deconstructed

Why it's not that confusing... really...well at first. Explaining and Understanding Inception... from what I've gathered so far.
Oh BTW, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT... So continue reading IF you've seen the movie.

What is Inception?
The creation of an idea in the mind of the target whom believes is solely his own idea

Basic Plot:
Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is the best at extracting secrets from the dreams of the target, to create the act of inception instead, in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who is the son of Saito's dying corporate rival.

Inception is basically Mission: Impossible of the brain; instead of breaking into high-tech defense facilities to steal information, they are breaking into a person's dreams to extract information. And instead of stealing information they are incepting information. (this is all you really need to know)

The Team:
Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - the pointman.
Eames (Tom Hardy) - a forger capable of changing identities within a dream as he is also good at forging documents and identifications in real life.
Ariadne (Ellen Page) - a brilliant new architect brought onto the team to design dream levels because of the failure of previous architect Nash (Lukas Haas).
Yusuf, (Dileep Rao)- a chemist who creates powerful sedatives for very deep dreaming.

Rules:
You can feel pain in a dream.
Death causes the individual to awaken.
Death in a dream under heavy sedatives causes you to go to Limbo.
Characters in the dream are projections of the mind of the dreamer.
Changing someone else's dream causes the dreamer's projections to attack the invader, like white blood cells attacking a virus.
Dream architecture is always shifting.
Must never recreate from your memories or you'll get lost in your dream.

My Questions:

Is Cobb dreaming at the end?
Okay, so Christopher Nolan decides to cut to black while the top wobbles and is about to fall. But we never see it fall. So is he dreaming or is this reality? I found this to be a rather cheap ending because it leaves it open ended... or does it? Well, for one thing even if we did see the top fall, one could argue that Cobb (since he has reconciled with his subconscious wife) is still dreaming because he has let that part of him go and moved on to his memories with his children. Thus, releasing any conscious thought of a top that always spins, and making it fall. It's like he's letting that part of his life go, and moving on with the next. Also, maybe more of a clue, is that this end scene shows the same shot, the same angle and exactly how Cobb has remembered his children. I think they're even wearing the same clothes, but I have to re-watch the film to confirm that. Thus, again leading the audience to believe he is still in a dream. And addition to this, is that wouldn't Cobb meet his children at their grandma's house, not his house?

Another theory is that since we don't actually see Saito actually kill himself; he has the gun in his hand, but the next shot is him awaking on the airplane. So one can conclude that actually Cobb goes into one dream level deeper. So Cobb will still be dreaming.

And Yet another theory is that Cobb only wears his wedding ring during his supposed dreams. In the last scene Cobb isn't wearing his wedding ring, concluding that it is not a dream.

Does Cobb really awake from his dream when he first meets the Chemist?
I don't know. In the scene where we are first introduced to the Chemist Yusuf, Cobb decided to try the new tranquilizer drug. Does he fully awake from that? Well, Cobb supposedly awakes but is still disoriented, still seeing things. He goes to the bathroom and spins the top, the top falls to the ground, but before Cobb can check the top and be reassured he's in real life, he gets interrupted. Thus, concluding that he could be dreaming from this point on till the end of the film and they still haven't done the mission.

Why is the Forger the only person that can change identities?
Perhaps, they can all do it... but since Eams is the best at forging identities in real life, his ability is also the best in the dream world.

If the Forger can change identities then why can't Saito learn to heal himself?
If it is possible, then it probably must take a lot of training to figure that out, and Saito wasn't really an expert dreamer. Also, this isn't The Matrix.

If Ariadne is the architect, then how does her design become apart of the minds of her team, when she apparently wasn't going to be part of the inception in the first place?
Apparently, she teaches her designs to the team for each level of dream. I think there was a montage sequence somewhere in the film that showed this.

Why does Cobb believe he's responsible for Mal's death, even though he didn't really kill her?
Because when they were in Limbo, he created the act of inception on her to kill herself, which would force her to wake up in real life. It worked. However, Mal also thought she was still dreaming in real life, so she convinced herself that killing herself again would wake her up.

Why does Cobb never see the faces of his children till the very end?
Because that was the last moment he saw his children and it replayed in his mind over and over again. Cobb had to instantly flee the country or whilst be arrested for the murder of his wife.

While on the airplane, why doesn't Fischer recognize Saito since he is his father's great rival?
Perhaps, Fischer doesn't have a big interest in his father's work, so he doesn't know his rivals.

If you are killed in the dream and go to Limbo, then how did Mal and Cobb go to Limbo in the first place?
Cobb wanted to push their dreams further, by going to dreams within dreams until they got lost in Limbo.

Special Notes:
Ariadne is also the name of a woman in Greek mythology who helped Theseus escape from the Minatour's Labyrinth.
Christopher Nolan took ten years to finish the script for Inception.
They actually built a fiberglass train and ran it through the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
They built a 100 foot hallway corridor that was suspended on large rings so that it could tilt the set 360 degrees.
The song Non, je ne regrette rien by Edith Piaf, used as the audio cue to awake the crew from their dream, sounds non-coincidentally like Hans Zimmer's score for the film.
Marion Cotillard, who played Mal, also played Edith Piaf in the movie La Vie En Rose.

Anyways, those were some of the questions I had about the film. What are YOURS? And do you have any more answers or theories to the questions above?

CinemaBlend has an even more in-depth geeky article about Inception. They also have an awesome graphic of the 5 dream levels of Inception.

Inception TOO SMART for Audiences? Puh-lease.
Inception Movie Review
Inception VS Up Mash Up Trailer
SOUTH PARK Inception