TheWorkingDead

Member since 7/18/2007, last signed in awhile ago.

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Re:Who Watches the Watchmen?
By TheWorkingDead in The Film Library
"[quote user="Risselada"] Anyways this was my first graphic novel and it has made me more interested in the medium for sure. Thanks! [/quote] The absurdity of the ending(I'm assuming you mean the catastrophic event) is something that makes sense, in the scheme of Moore's plan with the book, but definitely seems a little tonally off. It's something that I don't quite view as a hindrance, because I think the premise was at fairly adequately explained, although it's easy to miss. Did you read all of the backmatter? The excerpts from Under The Hood and that article about birdwatching? They can be hard to get through, and certainly I skimmed through them the first couple times I read the book, but they have some pretty good background information, concerning Hooded Justice(still only get rumors, he's supposed to be a mystery), the writer of the pirate comic, and in fact details(or at least foreshadows) how Veidt accomplished his world-changing plan. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm a min ... " [More]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Re:This Is Interesting..
By TheWorkingDead in HORROR MOVIES 101
"quote user="seely"] Indeed... I think that its become to really easy to create a successful variation on a theme. Audiences don't seem to mind paying to see something they have seen ten times before in different guise... until people stop watching it, I think we're going to see more of the same. And I agree with your point about technology--there seems to be a trend to make a movie bigger and better rather than more original. Just look at all the unnecessary remakes in theatres now. There's actually a slew of b-flick horor movies being remade slated for release this Halloween. Why? Its cheap, easy and people will watch it. [/quote] Actually, I thought of a pretty good example of using cliches while also subverting them. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you go back and watch it, notice how Leatherface enters the frame each time. He always pops up right BEFORE you expect it. Tobe Hooper sets it up so that normally you'd expect a drawn out, tense sequence, maybe a fals ... " [More]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Re:This Is Interesting..
By TheWorkingDead in HORROR MOVIES 101
"[quote user="seely"] Thats a good list... sparked me to think... what horror movie doesn't play off of tired cliches? Even the really good ones I've seen seem to borrow from age-old horror cliches in some way... [/quote] There's the constant argument about whether or not we've run out of TRULY original ideas, and I think it has some merit. Maybe we have run out, but only for now. We're way overdue for some groundbreaking new genre or form of entertainment. Right now it's the technology that keeps changing, and we keep fitting our entertainment to that technology instead of really changing what the entertainment is. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. Because I dont really mind that horror movies are playing off of those stereotypes. For one, I'm sometimes comforted by a really bad horror movie that hits all those stereotypes and is blissfully clueless as to how unoriginal it is. And for another, it's given way to some really good twists on those cliches. look at Scream for a ... " [More]

Re:Kurt Vonnegut
By TheWorkingDead in sci-fi
"[quote user="Risselada"] [quote user="SkyPilot"] [quote user="Risselada"] It wasn't a brilliant example of the kind of expert meta narrative that I crave... [/quote] What are some examples? [/quote] I'm not sure if I've read any really good examples. Any suggestions? [/quote] I can't believe I missed these in my last response. In Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake, he introduces a few recurring characters(most notably Kilgore Trout), and is written in the first person by Vonnegut himself. He's the main character in the book, where the universe hiccups, and everyone has to repeat the past 10 years of their lives. They have to do everything the same, completely aware of what will happen because of their choices, but unable to stop it. And also, Stephen King's Dark Tower series eventually introduces King himself as a very important part of the story. " [More]

Re:This WILL be a movie...
By TheWorkingDead in The Film Library
"[quote user="TheWorkingDead"] An almost impossible to film book, but has the possibility of being very cool, is The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. After the discovery of wormholes, which brought upon almost light speed travel, humanity discovers a race of aliens and enters a war with them. At such speeds, the human soldiers that get drafted may experience only 2 years of combat, but come home to an earth centuries past when they were born. Basically a metaphor for the Vietnam war(it was written in the 70s), the book is full of cool techno-babble, sociological musings and, maybe least expected, some emotion. Really, a book I can't recommend enough to anyone who is reading. [/quote] I guess all it needed was an endorsement from Me, The Working Dead. Approximately two weeks after saying that The Forever War should be a movie, Variety announces that Fox 2000 has acquired the rights to the book, and has Ridley Scott attached to direct. Ridley Scott has had some misses, but his two ... " [More]

Half Nelson

Spout Mavens Review #13(Part Tw ...
By TheWorkingDead in TheWorkingDead Blog
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"It's going to be almost impossible for me to really, fairly review Gowanus, Brooklyn. As a short film, a visual short story with beginning, middle and end, it's a horrible failure. And yet it's also a complete success, as a compelling piece of drama, a showcase for some good acting on the half of some previously unknown talent, and as a glimpse into the abilities of a talented young filmmaker trying to show the world what he can do. I'm sorry, that last bit might seem hyperbolic, but it's also true, and it needs to be noted because of the success he has with his attempts. Director Ryan Fleck intended this film as the feature-length it would eventually become, 'Half Nelson', and filmed a 25 minute short film/segment to drum up interest and financing. That he eventually succeeded, to critical acclaim, needs to be considered before judging the merits of this film alone.Stranded at school when her brother fails to pick her up, Drey heads back inside to use the gym's restroom facilities ... " [More]

Stephen King's N [Animated Web Series]

"N" Is Here
By TheWorkingDead in HORROR MOVIES 101
"There's a new Stephen King project available for your viewing pleasure. Nishere.com. I figured anyone here who hasn't seen it yet would like it. I did. I posted some of my thoughts over in my Movie Library group. And yes, that was a shameless plug. What of it? " [More]

Stephen King's N [Animated Web Series]

Stephen King's "N" Is Here
By TheWorkingDead in The Film Library
"Well, technically, N is over here, if you want to follow the link(Nishere.com). Stephen King is an author I've had a kinda tangled relationship with over the years. I used to deny my love of his books, even though I would read every single one, because as an author he's not very subtle or insightful, and he has trouble writing an ending. Usually he just stops writing and throws in some ridiculous Deus Ex Machina. But then, Stephen King is what I grew up reading. I first read It when I was about the age of the characters in that story(the school-age versions, I'm not aging backwards, like Benjamin Button, or Mork). Nowadays I admit it. Stephen King may not be the best author in the world, but he is the author that I feel the closest connection with. Reading a King novel, even a bad one, is comforting. So, N. If you haven't heard of it, it's an original web-series(based on a short story that will be published in his new collection next month), made up of 25 episodes. Originally relea ... " [More]

Re:Shorts! Volume 3
By TheWorkingDead in Spout Mavens
"My review for the first short film in this collection, Hyper, can be found over here, at my spoutblog. " [More]

Shorts! Volume 3

Spout Review #13(Part One): Hyp ...
By TheWorkingDead in TheWorkingDead Blog
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. [What do you think?]
"The disc I'm reviewing this time is a collection of short films, 13 to be exact. I didn't plan on writing individual reviews for each film, and I still don't. My friend and fellow Spout Maven Rik did that far more impressively than I could hope to do here. I'm leaving it up in the air right now, some posts may have only one short film, others may include a few, or I may just burn through the final dozen in the next post(that last one is highly unlikely). I do plan on treating each of these shorts as an individual film, however, and will be taking time to review all of the special features they may have(each includes at least one commentary). To many of these filmmakers, this short film they've produced represents just as much passion, sweat and ingenuity as a feature length film, and maybe more of that stuff than many features. I've also decided that the best way of reviewing these films, the best criteria, is a single question I'll ask myself at the end of every viewing; would I p ... " [More]

Azumanga Daioh [Anime Series]

Anime-niacs
By TheWorkingDead in The Film Library
"So, I know there's already a few anime groups, and I don't want to step on their toes, but it just occured to me that Anime and other Manga-inspired films have been completely ignored by me in this group. I'm not the world's largest anime fan, but I've probably seen more than most. I've also read my share of manga, due to working at a store where I got a 40% discount, and a second night job where I was encouraged to read books all night. So let's say I have a fairly decent grounding in both forms. Right now I'm reintroducing myself to anime, after a few years of not really following the genre. I'm watching Azumanga Daioh, based on the manga of the same name. I've read a couple volumes of the manga, and so far it seems almost word for word accurate to the source material. That's a good thing, actually. The manga(and anime) is a bit unlike what most casual watchers would expect, if they're mostly familiar with the ever popular giant robots, big eyed scantily clad girls, or wacky sci- ... " [More]

Re:This SHOULD be a movie...
By TheWorkingDead in The Film Library
"I'll have to come out as a loser and say that the only stories I've read off of your list are the E.A. Poe stories. It's obvious where my tastes lie. My normal assumption is that all adaptations are going to be inferior, but ocassionally that isn't the case(No Country For Old Men, of course). So, why did I start this group about movies based off of books? Well, because I can't help but read a novel these days and imagine how that film would look up on a big screen somewhere. Plus I tend to find new books more often from a movie I liked than from reviews in a magazine somewhere. So, here's a short list. Oh, Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet, about Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard, at the exact instant the first atomic bomb goes off, finding themselves in modern day Arizona, where they each react negatively to what their invention wrought. It sounds high concept, but it's an incredibly thoughtful, melancholy and hopeful book, full of some incredibly beautiful language. Gentlemen o ... " [More]