An open letter to Vin Diesel

The original Matrix was cool, the sequels sucked though. I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Vin Diesel was going to be in a move about Hannibal (Think Romans, not cannibals).

It'll wreck your mind. Especially the last two episodes. The two movie sequels will put your mind back together, but make you hate yourself. Just to quadruple the length of your queue, here are some series I've been really enjoying:Witch Hunter Robin
Great Teacher Onizuka
Noir
.hack//sign (that's "dot-hack-sign")
Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex

Van Helsing is undoubtably one of the finest example of artistically refined cinema produced in the last decade.No, I'm not joking.

Just started getting into anime. I really liked Spirited Away. So far only one person has mentioned Cowboy Bebop -- I'm sort of rationing it out, so I only got through the third episode so far. But I'm impressed with it.I have a few more on my list to check out:Hellsing
Princess Monomoke
Witch Hunter Robin
The Last ExileAny opinions on the ones no one has mentioned yet? Any more I should add to my list?

I think Crashfrog mentioned the D Vampire hunter movies.I liked the second one best, but I thought both of them were pretty good. Especially if you liked Van Helsing and like vampire stuff.I've only seen cowboy bebop the movie. Is the series better?

From what little I've seen of that, it wasn't very good.But let me say something now, as I've just noticed this thread. Your refs over this thread and others have impressed me so much that I feel like apologizing for anything I might have said meanly to you. Not that I will, but I certainly feel like it.You are at the very least a very cultured and classy person.Especially surprising (and cool) were to see Urotsekidoju and Spirited Away on your list together with Excalibur and Highlander.Although it is old and sci-fi I also liked Akira (which no one has mentioned yet). It is slow to start, but I still think the movie was technically brilliant.Parts of Spirited Away reminded me of Akira. Then again parts of it reminded me of Harry Potter too, only better.

---

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

quote:

---

I've only seen cowboy bebop the movie. Is the series better?

---

Never saw the movie. So far I have only seen the first three episodes of the series -- I'll make a point of watching the fourth this week-end. But from what I've seen, I'm impressed. The second episode was a fairly generic everybody-let's-catch-the-cute-fluffy-dog story, but the first and third I found quite good. The animation if pretty good for a weekly series, and there's enough plot to keep me interested.Since I'm stubbornly watching the series slowly, it'll be a while before I have seen enough of it to give a good recommendation.Edited to add:
As I said, I have only begun to take an interest in anime (it's related to retaking up an interest in comic books -- I was in college when Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns appeared). I was going to wait to indulge in this until after I take up residence at my new job in a couple of months. I only began watching CB because I was in a video store one day, and made an impulse i=purchase....This message has been edited by Chiroptera, 06-30-2004 07:03 PM

On the whole, way better. Not every episode is amazing but it's a hell of a good time to watch.

Loudmouth writes:

quote:

---

I haven't seen a decent fantasy pic since The Neverending Story (don't laugh, I still like it).

---

The first one, yes. The second and the third...oy.That said, as others have pointed out a few...Harry Potter? Or are we going to get into another discussion about whether or not "magic" counts as "fantasy." This latest one is the best of the bunch, in my opinion.

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Duh... I can't believe nobody mentioned that before. This last one is definately the best of em, so far.

Arachnophilia writes:

quote:

---

that movie [AI] would have done better by dropping the last 45 minutes, and ending on down note of the kid saying "mommy" and jumping off the building.

---

No, that's too much. Instead, it should have ended when it ended the first time (Kubrick's ending): Him being frozen in the ocean, staring at the Blue Fairy, forever saying, "Make me a real boy. Make me a real boy. Make me a real boy...."But between The Sixth Sense and AI, I am absolutely amazed at Osment's acting ability. I didn't see Pay It Forward or Secondhand Lions (both of which looked silly), but I can see all the work he put into creating the character and motivating the through-line in those two movies. He truly deserved his Oscar nomination.

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

HmmDoes Big Trouble in Little China count as fantasy? Think about it. Swords, magic, demons, elemental gods, undead, magic potions?If we count Ninja Scrolls as fantasy, what about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

custard writes:

quote:

---

If we count Ninja Scrolls as fantasy, what about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

---

Definitely. CT/HD is most decidedly a fantasy. The books that they're based on are fantasy. As IMDB classifies it:Adventure/Drama/Action/Fantasy/RomanceAnd it's all of the above.

---

Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

assuming kubrick would have ended bleakly (cause, well, he liked to do stuff like that) i was outraged at the thought of speilberg adding the fairytale crap on the end to make it a happy, more convoluted family friendly movie.after doing some reading on the matter, i lost a lot of faith in kubrick. apparently, that bit was in his original draft. almost all of it.

quote:

---

As work on special effects got under way, Kubrick reached out to one last author, the English novelist Sara Maitland. She was the only nonscience-fiction writer to work on the project. He wanted, he told her, a story-teller. ''By the time I came to the project it had become enormous, unwieldy, unfocused,'' said Ms. Maitland. She quickly concluded that the story needed to make emotional sense as a myth or fairy tale, and believes that Kubrick realized this.

​

Kubrick was fascinated by artificial intelligence and fond of robots, which he regarded as a more environmentally adaptable form of human being.

​

''He decided to make this film because he wanted people to shift to a more positive view of A.I.,'' Ms. Maitland said. ''He was quite open to me about that. He said, 'I think of them as I'd like to think of my great-grandchildren.' And he's very fond of his grandchildren.''

​

Kubrick also was adamant that the story work in terms of myth. ''He never referred to the film as 'A.I.'; he always called it 'Pinocchio,' '' Ms. Maitland said.

​

It was the relationship between David and his mother that most occupied Kubrick and Ms. Maitland. An alcoholic whose Bloody Marys David would mix for her in a vain attempt to win her affection, the mother was the emotional center of the film.

​

At the story's conclusion, the robots that have inherited the Earth use David's memories to reconstruct, in virtual form, the apartment where he had lived with his parents. Because his memories are subjective, the mother is much more vividly realized than the father, and his stepsister's room is not there at all; it is just a hole in the wall.

​

For Ms. Maitland, the film would end with David preparing a Bloody Mary for his mother, the juice a brighter red than in real life: ''He hears her voice, and that's it. We don't see him turn to see her.'' Kubrick, however, wanted a coda in which the new race of robots, because of a technological limitation, cannot keep the the mother alive after reviving her. The movie would end with David in his mother's bedroom, watching her slowly disappear.

​

Ms. Maitland hated this, and was furious with Kubrick for insisting on it. ''It must have been a very strong visual thing for him,'' she says, ''because he wasn't usually stupid about story. He hired me because I knew about fairy stories, but would not listen when I told him, 'You can have a failed quest, but you can't have an achieved quest and no reward.' ''

---

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/...otes/990718.NYT.Kubrick.AI.htmlsee? this was in 1995, speilberg didn't get involved until 1999, and had nothing to do with the craptacular ending. it was all kubrick. i hate his acting in the sixth sense and ai. althoug, pay it forward and secondhand lions are really good movies, i thoroughly recommend both.

Hmm, although the script and even actual film are only part of the process - the film isn't actually complete until the director has edited it. Who knows what Kubrick would have left in the final edit?I like the bloody mary/alcoholic angle better than the coffee.