Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

Back to the Future  (1985)

Die Hard  (1988)

Ghostbusters  (1984)

The Godfather  (1972)

Raiders of the Lost Ark  (1981)

The Silence of the Lambs  (1991)

Star Wars  (1977)

Pulp Fiction  (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption  (1994)

The Usual Suspects  (1995)

Seven  (1995)

The Matrix  (1999)

Fight Club  (1999)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring  (2001)

The Dark Knight  (2008)

Friends,

I have decided to stop using Spout.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped contribute to the site in the past.  I have had a wonderful time getting to know many of you.  We have had some terrific discussions, and you have introduced me to countless new films and filmmakers.

My reason for leaving is that it is clear that the people originally responsible for creating and maintaining the website have now virtually abandoned the site.  I’m sure most of you also noticed this starting just about a year ago.  Although the initial indicator of their ceasing further investment in the site was the sudden lack of the usual advertisements, games, and other officially sponsored content updates, it soon became clear that they were no longer making any effort to fix or update any of the problems with bugs, formatting, and function of the site.  This would not have been such a big problem if the most recent site update had not broke so many things that had previously worked just fine in the past.  As the site stands now with all of the bugs it is too annoying to use, and the knowledge that it will not be fixed has dissuaded me from adding any more content to it.  I am also too embarrassed by it to attempt to invite any other potential new users to view it.

Many of you have had discussions with me about why I think this abandonment might have happened.  Although I do not have any definitive answers I do know that the company that created Spout called Pomegranate Studios also started an endeavor around the same time called ArtPrize.  ArtPrize has been highly successful in its efforts which include putting on a contest in which artists create and display different works of art around Spout’s native city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  My guess is that the people behind Pomegranate Studios became more interested in ArtPrize than in Spout at some point, and when ArtPrize began turning out to be more of a success by their own measurement than Spout, they decided to put all of their efforts into ArtPrize instead of Spout.  Paul, one of the creators of Spout told me in one of his correspondences to me that Spout was not achieving certain goals so they "cut back the burn rate."  If my speculation is correct, it is sad to me that the administration abandoned an endeavor that they had originally put so much care and work into, but I can understand how their affinity may have shifted over time without the users knowing about it.  What I cannot understand is why the administration has been so remiss in communicating their decisions to their loyal users.  There are even still many links on the website requesting users to submit question, problems, and feedback.  But I’m sure many of you have found that any inquiries made via these avenues over the past year do not get addressed.  Although I used to feel as though as a user I was cared about as a person.  Now I am feeling a bit more like just a component of a business model.  Although the most confusing thing to me was the question of how Spout ever made any money for its creators.  Maybe it never did.  I know that one of the owners of Pomegranate Studios is Rick DeVos, grandson of billionaire Rich DeVos, the co-founder of Amway and well known philanthropist in Grand Rapids.  Reflecting on this, maybe I should be glad that Spout lasted as long as it did.

The last correspondence I received from Paul indicated that Spout is currently in a “holding pattern” and that they are planning on making an official announcement about the future of Spout at some point.  I will be curious to see what the announcement is if and when it comes, but in the meantime I will no longer be using the site, except minimally if anyone still attempts to communicate with me through it.

As an alternative, some of you have also had discussions with me about what other good movie sites are out there.  Here are some other movie sites that I use that provide some similar features as Spout:

Discussion sites:
The Auteurs
MovieLens

Rate movies and get recommendations:
MovieLens
FilmAffinity
Criticker

Make movie lists:
The Auteurs
FilmAffinity
Criticker Lists

Compare and rank movies:
Flickchart

Here is where you can find me at these other sites.  Please join some if not all of them and become friends with me there.  I would love to keep in contact with some of the friends I have made here:
http://www.theauteurs.com/users/25528
http://www.movielens.org/profile?memberName=Risselada
http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/userlastratings.php?user_id=741007
http://www.criticker.com/profile/Risselada
http://www.flickchart.com/Risselada
http://www.netflix.com/StrangerProfile?prid=126541948
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=695135011

See you around the web fellow film lovers!

--Brian Risselada

Under discussion:

Trick 'r Treat  (2009)

On the day before Halloween a friend of mine had a horror movie marathon at his place.  He does this every year. This was one of the films we watched that day.

Trick 'r Treat

This movie has high production value and really creates the whole atmosphere of Halloween well, at least the idealized atmosphere of Halloween.

Otherwise the stories are kind of half-formed, inconsistent, and rushed.  There are about four different interweaving stories, but the number of different ideas in this film is even more.  Even within a single story the film ends up going in several different directions and doesn't find much resolution.  As an atmosphere piece, you could argue that there isn't supposed to be any resolution, but it would be nice if the stories tied together better than the forced coincidences that exist here.

Some people did say it was their favorite film of the night though, so if you find that you enjoy it, I wouldn't want to argue with you.

Rating: 5/10

Under discussion:

Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys  (2004)

Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus  (2009)

On the day before Halloween a friend of mine had a horror movie marathon at his place.  He does this every year. This was one of the films we watched that day.

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

This had to be the worst of all the films we watched that day.  I think they usually try to pick a "vs." movie.  These usually turn out to be the very worst.  For instance, a couple of years ago we watched the equally horrible Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys.

Starring Debbie Gibson, pop teen singing sensation of two decades ago, a rare Japanese leading man, and Lorenzo Lamas.  The wildest thing that happens is a gigantic shark jumping out of the ocean so high that it takes down a passenger jet plane.  Look for the clip on youtube.  It's pretty outrageous.

The rest of the film is completely boring.  There are only like two minutes of actual footage of the shark or the octopus and most of that is just the same animation shown over and over, sometimes with the screen flipped to make it look like it's happening from the opposite angle.

The quintessence of straight-to-video crap.

Rating: 1/10

Under discussion:

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama  (1987)

On the day before Halloween a friend of mine had a horror movie marathon at his place.  He does this every year. This was one of the films we watched that day.

Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama

This is one that I provided.  Director David DeCoteau was a name I'd heard as a prolific maker of bad movies.  And the title of the film itself was almost enough to make the sell.  Also I read there was a rubber imp puppet involved.

Some of my fellow viewers realized they had seen another movie by the same director when they recognized the name of the music composer Guy Moon.

We took bets on how many breasts would be seen in the movie, but it turned out to be a much lower number than most people guessed.

The guy who put on the party said it was the worst movie of the night.  It was supposed to be silly and stupid though.  It was pretty much what I expected.  Which isn't as disappointing as a few of the horror movies we've seen which seem to take themselves a bit too seriously but are just as laughable.

Rating: 3/10

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

Feast 3: The Happy Finish  (2008)

On the day before Halloween a friend of mine had a horror movie marathon at his place.  He does this every year. This was one of the films we watched that day.

Feast 3: The Happy Finish

It may not be fair for me to even rate this one since it's the third in a series of which I have not seen either of the first two.  The film begins in the middle of a bunch of action with all kinds of strange characters in strange situations.  The film offers a brief but mostly uninformative recap of some of the characters.  Most of them die right away anyways.

However as the movie progresses, it's clear that most of what happens turns out to be absurd or temporary or unexplained anyways, so in that case maybe it doesn't matter that I hadn't seen the first two.  The ending of the film is completely absurd and reveals how pointless any of the questions you may have had about any plot points really were.

Kind of funny in a few places, but mostly stupid and sick kind of gross out and crass horror.  Not exactly my favorite thing, but then again watching mostly bad movies is what this marathon is for.

This film also includes an actor named Clu Gulager who looks remarkably like the love child of Mickey Rooney and David Carradine.

Rating: 3/10

Under discussion:

The Diary of a Country Priest  (1950)

A Man Escaped  (1956)

Le Trou  (1960)

Pickpocket  (1959)

This is the fourth feature length film I've seen by director Robert Bresson.  I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing.

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)

Made between the wonderful Diary of a Country Priest and Pickpocket, the style is all consistent.  Although the subject matter may be just a bit more intrinsically intense.

I've seen a lot of great prison escape movies now, and I'm not sure I can say this one is the best film, but as far as the depiction of the actual process of escape itself, this might be the best.  The meticulousness of showing all of the steps of preparation might be rivaled by Le Trou, but the outcomes are different.  Still there is much similar about them, and it's hard not to feel like Le Trou was rehashing a lot of what was put out in this film.  Yet both films have some intangible elements about the characters that allow you to wonder and read different things into them.

Robert Bresson:
Total feature length films seen: 4
Previous average film score: 9.3333
New average film score: 9.25

Rating: 9/10

Under discussion:

My Best Fiend  (1999)

This is the thirteenth feature length film I've seen by director Werner Herzog.  I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing.

Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski (My Best Fiend)

Herzog is not just my favorite director to hear talk, he is one of my favorite people to listen to altogether.  So I was excited to watch was appeared to be his most personal documentary.  About his most famous leading man Klaus Kinski, this is mostly about Herzog's interactions and relationship with the man.  If you know even a little bit about Herzog or Kinski or have seen either of their movies and have been fascinated, then I can wholeheartedly recommend this film.  My only real disappointment was that I had seen most of the footage in this film already through other sources.  So there wasn't quite enough new here to satisfy what I was hoping for.  Nevertheless, it should be fantastic for anyone with the right sensibilities discovering this for the first time.  If you are fascinated by a man with incredible acting talent but also with wild emotional swings between gentleness and the most egotistical hate filled violent fits along with other unusual psychosis, then that's what I'm talking about.

Werner Herzog:
Total feature length films seen: 13
Previous average film score: 8.75
New average film score: 8.7692

Rating: 9/10

Moral Tales, Filmic Issues

This one isn't in the Spout database but I thought I'd mention it because I enjoyed it.  You can see this on disc one of the Criterion Collection set of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales.  The first film in the set The Bakery Girl of Monceau is so short at 23 minutes that it would have seemed kind of wasteful to have nothing else on the disc.  So we get this fantastic 84 minute long dialogue with Eric Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder.  These guys are as wonderful to hear talking to each other as it is to hear the characters in Rohmer's films talking to each other.  Even though I had not hardly any of the films he was referring  to I found it fascinating.  I will have to revisit this interview some day after I have seen more of his oeuvre.

Rating: 9/10