5-31-02 Yeah...........yeahhhhh...I agree. That's all that need be said on my part
5-29-02 Snrrrk! I had no idea Holly was saving shit like this until recently. She so sneaky.
5-28-02 My mind is screaming again. It needs very passionately the chance to be utilized. I am a free-floating entity of response a la Waking Life. And if I was surrounded by the rotoscoped descendents of Socrates and Dostoevsky, I wouldn't complain about being a passive observer. I'm passively observing minds and actions greater than my own, but unlike the Wiley Wiggins protagonist in Life, I may be beyond improvement. I need action. And I believe I've belabored the point this month, in more ways than one. So I'll be updating sunny stuff henceforth. No more of this bitching, if you could call it that. And I'm sure some of you have. Today was just another unproductive day.
5-27-02 So as not to be cryptic, that last comment about being under the aegis of parents, etc, was merely referring to the fact that we aren't really able to move as freely here. That's all. I'm perfectly happy being at home. I have time to read and do the number of things I love to do around the house. My life isn't as socially applicable here because I have to make plans to go out with more complicity to family time and daily affairs, which are few enough, so that's not a complaint, even though it is a slight constraint. My mom has been great to me. I'm glad I have a home here.
5-27-02 Funky
5-27-02 In response to Charlie's sphiel: We whould be more creative with our time, but we won't. We're not at a stage where socializing is as important as working. I'm not talking about the job at Wendy's, I'm talking about our lives, here. Right now, the only people we know who are doing anything conducive to their careers are Rhys, Erin, and Holly. And Nick probably doesn't want to come back. Things are dissipating here. I want to see everyone as much as I can before we all stop coming back to Oak Ridge regularly. I want to hang out with you guys, and the monkeys, but I'm lazy, and I get a little anxious about calling people up because there literally is nothing to do in this town. What we need is to much more loosely base our social situations than we do. There needn't be a movie playing. We should simply entertain ourselves with our words as we often do. What we need is some congregative environment that doesn't need to be buttressed by any planning. It simply need be a place we meet each other at, or not. And the chances of that happening are as likely as the bunch of us rock climbing or duck hunting, or whatever Charlie proposes we do. I'm sorry if we're all bored, but it's quite simply because we are living under the aegis of our parents again, at least to some degree, and that just don't fly anymore.
5-27-02 Rhys updated. Have a good summer, man. See you in August.
5-20-02 Yay! I'm glad to hear All About My Mother is worth the rent. They have the dvd at Hollywood. They have a lot of dvds at hollywood now. Fuck. I wish they were hiring.
5-20-02 Rhys, I hope you made it safely. You should update so we know for sure. Pleaaaaase........We miss you, man.
5-20-02 I just watched a beauty of a film. Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout is a revered story about two Aussie kids lost in the outback who befriend an aborigine to survive the harsh environment and make it back to civilization. But that's not all, by any means. It's as absorbing in its own way as The Black Stallion, and it has a much deeper, more Hemingwayesque message than the simple, getting-back-to-nature-look-at-these-noble-savages-message. Once you've seen it, you'll know immediately what Disney ripped off in their tepid A Far Off Place. And there's titty.
5-19-02 They have Pimps Up, Hos Down on dvd at Hollywood! It's in the special interest section along with some cool documentaries, among them being Crumb the absorbing and crisply shot film about R. Crumb, the creator of Fritz The Cat and the Keep On Truckin' artwork. Go rent that. And rent the aforementioned Pimps only for novelty purposes, please. Thank you. (I haven't actually seen it)
5-18-02 It's officially official, our web kingdom is the best thing on the internet. Everyone sign Holly's guestbook. Have a laugh, dance around the place! Masturbate!. Or not. Either way, We rule the fuckin' internet. Indeed.
5-17-02 Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about B.L.I.M. I enjoyed the show. I, of course, was totally prepared for the emerging minimalism. I half saw it coming. Breaks are in a weird flux right now. Most techno has gone the way of the boring at this point, and it's starting to influence breakbeat production values. Well, I don't think the production values themselves coming from the likes of Meat Katie, B.L.I.M. Rennie Pilgrem, Koma & Bones, Future Funk Squad, etc, are boring at all. They are, in fact, top of the line, state of the art. Each song is like a new toy or car. You marvel at its sleakness. And everything is getting slow, tribal, and dark. B.L.I.M. has done some of the most amazing music I've ever heard in my life. From the set I heard last night, any relative newbies to his music would never get an impression of his greatness, and that's the only thing that bothered me about his set. It's filled with the latest, state-of-the-art technologically loaded beats and grooves. Now it's time for the scene to move back towards musicality as well. Even if it means slipping close the stigma-stricken trance. I, however, will watch with the same excitement and fervor, for I am a techno head,and believe me, as minimal as breaks are getting, they're not boring at all compared to the rest.
5-17-02 Also, I must say, anytime someone spouts the attitude, "I don't like critics. They always piss on the ones I love" I immediately am hearing from a person who has never once bothered to read up on the critics, who in fact believes that Betsy Pickle is an accurate reflection of common critical professionalism. True, most criticism is a bore. And the past is fading quickly. Kael - Dead Truffaut - Dead Bazin - Way fuckin' Dead. We only have a few influential American critics that remember the golden age and reflect the critical faculties of that time. They're the ones with some sense of film-history too. They didn't grow up in an age of Star Wars style marketing, and actually had to seek the great movies out. They got involved. And when some of them have the temerity to suggest that Starship Troopers or Gladiator isn't even a blip on the artistic radar we get indignant, and act like they don't know shit. Seems like a repeat of earlier arguments here, but let me be frank; I'm just reporting what I see here. I don't care if Chuck or anybody else doesn't like this or that flick. I just find it funny that most people have so little faculty with which to organize their opinions. Critics can give you fifty different reasons why Star Wars Rocks/blows. Can you say more than wow, ooh, or fuck that?
5-17-02 heh. No offense, I just really liked Training Day, and the C3P0 head-grafting.
5-17-02 I doubt much that Charlie's irrational dislike for him can change the fact that Denzel Washington is a great actor. Most films are a monumental waste of time, while a film like Training Day earns your full attention and delivers a truly hard-edged and accurate reflection of our times (The over-the-top finale would undermine that if it wasn't internally consistant to the riveting pacing and tone of the film). I didn't overrate the film, Charlie, you underrated it. And as for the C3P0 head grafting, I think it's fair to say that if a Star Wars film can do it, it will, within the PG range. If someone had told Lucas to take that out because it was 'superfluous' Lucas would've rightly fired them on the spot. Aside from it being the first funny thing I've seen the droids get involved in in the latest films, it doesn't distract from anything (What exactly could it distract us from? The hundreds of other details that hide in the background, that are totally superfluous, and yet part of the appeal of Star Wars in the first fuckin' place?) Ah well. Sometime's people are wrong, and heavens, it appears poor Chuck was this time around.
5-16-02 There are times when you just wanna be all Harvey Keitel and shit and put your hand in the flame. And a few minutes ago, I just couldn't resist. I had to see what Capalert thought of Episode II. I won't allow you to give them another hit. I'm sure I've had my morbid curiosity sated for at least a year. But I can't get over how humorous this is. And of course, I heartily bellow at the realization that the Inquisition will happen again if we're not careful. Here are some of the citations:
Impudence/Hate (I)(1):
arrogance toward fair authority
a single use of the three/four letter word vocabulary
denial of the truth
Sex/Homosexuality (S):
brief rear female nudity through transparent clothing
man/woman rolling over each other, clothed
excessive breast exposure
ghosting of female anatomy through thin clothing, repeatedly
.And for ET, it gets really funny.
Wanton Violence/Crime (W):
brother holding sister to shut her up
leaving a seven year old girl alone in the house
riding a bike off the edge of a cliff
breaking and entering
boy out all night alone
adolescent trespassing
home invasion by science team
car theft with endangerment
running from police
Heh.
5-16-02 I now have a second favorite Star Wars flick. Move over Jedi, you're not the middle child no moe. This one excited me more than I could ever hope it would. I have no earthly idea what terrible crack Ebert has sniffed out. It's made him very, very cranky. How he could believe that Phantom Menace warrants 3 and 1/2 stars, whereas Clones only recieves 2(!), is beyond my imagination. But half of his review is a lament on digital projection, so I suppose I understand his problem. Hey, I loved this movie so much it may draw me into the darkside of the force. I'll get over it and fight for my cinema. Digital can't wipe out celluloid, because only 2 films in my mind are ready made for it. Episode I and II(Pixar works notwithstanding). Dude. To qoute Holly: "Pass me my lightsaber....it's the one that says Bad Motherfucker....."
5-15-02 Click here. Hehehhehehheheh...sucker.....
5-15-02 I just downloaded Moby's new one, and it sounds like Play Redux. And you know what? What more could you want? This is beautiful stuff. Play has yet to get old, and now here's an album with new variations on its inspiration. Fuckin' excellent.
5-15-02 Ain't gonna do it. Ain't gonna rest my emotional security on the quality of a Star Wars flick. Ain't gonna do it. I didn't do it last time, and I got more out of Episode I than cynical Jar-Jar haters ever could have. And I was a better person for it. I don't believe anything can match the thrills of the first three (last three) episodes. After 25 years, we've been jaded by this kind of filmmaking. Star Wars is the holy grail in Hollywood, and since it came out, everyone has been looking for that kind of business. Even after ripping it off went out of style, there was still the manic fervor in Hollywood to pull off the impossible, and I laugh at them, because they never will. They will never come close. They have neither the understanding of myth and legend, nor the sense of wonder and fun that the first three had. And now we have new Star Wars films of staggering beauty, grace, and amazing invention. And we get cynical about it, because we're jaded by what Lucas hath wrought. And it's our own damn fault for looking for nothing more than a fix close to it. At least, that's the rabid fault of the rabid SW fan. Not me. I look very forward to the brilliant sights and sounds of this film. Like Phantom Menace, it'll be a visual delight. To quote Ebert from his review of Phantom Menace: "We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen." (Now, it appears Roger didn't much care for this sequel(prequel, cum-quel), but hey, it has a much cooler color-scheme, so I can't wait!)My eyes'll be open, and my heart'll be ready to drink in this movie. And if the story is lackluster, if the acting is off-key, I'll be hard-pressed to get upset about it. Afterall, the only truly brilliant Star Wars film that can stand on its own alongside the great works of film as both a technological wunderkind and thrilling piece of storytelling is Empire, with Jedi coming in at a close second. The new Star Wars movies are something different, and kind of an anomoly. They will inevitably be among the biggest blockbusters of all time; but those who made them and the legions who demanded them may be trapped in disappointment. The miracle came 25 yars ago. We're watching the logical conclusion to it. I for one, am astonished that we can make films like this, and will enjoy it as it is, not as what it couldn't be. (Unless of course Lawrence Kasdan directed it)
5-15-02 Nick, I take it back (and I was kinda joking when I said it). Solzhenitzen just leaves out what needs to be left out. The Cancer Ward is the most oddly absorbing thing I've read in months. Gives me the impression that I could stand to read both Gulag Archipelagos, and of course A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich. Man, Alexander I. Solzhenitzen....bonnnnng.....
5-15-02 SpiderMan Wasn't Believable
5-13-02 Yep. I'll be adding to that where necessary. Two days til Star Wars! I love you, Holly! Midnight show! Fuckin' Woohoo nooge! Tell em' Steve-Dave.
5-11-02 Snrrrk! I laughed til I stopped.
5-11-02 A side note; Charlie's Post on September 11th:
Tuesday 09/11/2001 1:45:48pm Name: Chuck (FUCKIN RAT-ASSED BASTARDS!!!!!!) Fuck the : terrorist/hijackin mother fuckers. Do I come off as gay?: You're a fag 'How'd Ya Find Me? : Dick caught in USB port ; Woah Kittens on: Fuck Do You Know What I Look Like : Kickable Comments: ? Mindlessly ramble for a few : FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! Say something Pious: HOLY FUCKIN SHIT! What Are They Saying In The Picture?: Fuck the picture turn on the news you fucks!!!!!
Now, notice, he called me a fag. That was, of course a drop down option. In the midst of that shitty day, he still found the time to scroll down and select that I looked kickable. I find that endlessly amusing. Imagine a frantic angry person signing a guestbook, and stopping his tyrade just to carefully select "kickable" simply because along with the bastard asides, he's always said I look kickable. That is very funny to me. We now return you to your regularly schedule web-surf.
5-11-02 Ya know, this was totally his obsession. I think I'll compile it once I year. Just fer shits and giggles. He just kept goin' with this. There hasn't been a single post in my guestbook from him without some Rhapsody On the Theme of Bastard-inni:
Chuck (Sobbing Bastard)
Chuck (Savage Bastard)
Chuck (Bastard on Ginseng)
Chuck (FUCKIN RAT-ASSED BASTARDS!)
Chuck (Patriotic Bastard)
Chuck (Bastard Gone Missing)
Chuck (Board Bastard...yes, it's a pun)
Chuck (Paul Van Dykian Bastard #5)
Chuck (Non-Paranoid Bastard)
(Sneaky Bastard)
Chuck (Excite.Google.Bastard.YAHOO!)
Chuck (Bastardological Anthropologist)
Chuck (The ONE Bastard)
Chuck (The Bastard Of Panama)
Chuck (Monty Bastard and The Holy Crap)
Chuck (Froin-Laden........bastard)
Chuck (Meh.......Bastard)
Chuck (OMFG YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!
Chuck (Less of a Bastard than AOL)
Chuck (Poor Bastard....)
Chuck (Sanctimonious Bastard)
Chuck (This Bastard's Got Style)
Chuck (Bastard.....STAT!)
Chuck (Bastard with a burner today)
Chuck (Bastard On Bored)
Chuck (HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA Bastard)
Chuck (Brrrrrrrr.......bastard)
Chuck (Bastard so cold)
Chuck (I'mBastard,andIain'ttakinitnomore)
Chuck (Jurassic Bastard)
Chuck (Nature's Own Bastard)
Chuck (Bastard with a MAMMOTH COCK!)
Chuck (That's right, Bastard)
Chuck (The Reasonable Bastard.....for once)
Chuck (Holly's Only Real Friend/Bastard)
Chuck (Always-Righticus Bastardus)
5-10-02 I love dvds. Don't you? Aren't they the coolinest thing in the world. Damn right they are, until the next thing comes out. Anyways, decided I'd add content no one cares about! Yay! My collection.
5-10-02 Criticism is bullshit. That thought has been nagging me lately. Most criticism, if it comes from an educated, self-important, cold analysis of the material is boring an ineffectual. That's literary criticism for you. I've always been thwarted by literary criticism and discourse on the subject. Here I am, just 20 years on this planet, plunked down in the middle of a culture that has educated me to take in images, not words, and I'm expected to blindly agree with the suppositions as regards Joyce, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Hemingway, etc. Of course, I appreciate being taught the evolutions of the various artistic epochs over the course of the centuries, I prefer to look at all art from two standpoints: Either emotional, or cumulative impact, or both. There are inbetweens. But for those of you who have wondered where I come from when I decide that this or that is my favorite book or film (on a given day), it's from those criteria. That's why my favorite authors are Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, and Fritz Leiber. My favorite film right now? Waking Life or Element Of Crime. Heist is cool. This is transient. Best of lists and critical acclaim should come from an emotional response, and are best unsullied by hype. Just say your piece, fair critics. If you have the urge to praise endlessly something that has given you new flights of happiness, then do so. But don't overhype it. Please. Ocean's 11 is more fun than Traffic.
5-10-02 Nick, I'm reading The Cancer Ward right now, and it's so concise it's 500+ pages long. I haven't read A Day In The Life yet, or any other Solzhenitzen. I'll get back to you on that. But I like The Cancer Ward. I wouldn't call it concise, necessarily. Just very clear, which is what most writing isn't, most of the time. As fer PTA outranking Griffith. Well, time will tell, but that is a very bold statement. I for one, am no Griffith enthusiast. Intolerance is the only one I've seen. I have no desire to see Birth Of A Nation. I'm much more of an Eisenstein fan.
5-10-02 I swear I don't intentionally set myself up for this shit, so I'll cut off all possible blows at this juncture: "Yum! But I really do like the hard-stuff" I look forward not to the obvious berating and gayjoking heneforth expected. But let the record show that I've difused the situation here and now. Good. And I don't jerk off. Honest.
5-10-02 Lots of editions to The Onion Interview section. Hella-good, that. Gonna go watch either Akira or From Dusk Til Dawn, or read Imajica some more, or maybe more of Enderby, or well I'm a little behind on the Solzhenitzen, why the fuck am I reading that? Oh yeah, because he was oppressed, thereby making the plight of his fiction all the more poignant. Or I could jerk off. But Solzhenitzen ain't that exciting. Sorta dry. Wait. I have Imajica. There's a lot of fuck scenes in that. But I have to endure the silly shit inbetwixt. Hmmm..maybe I need porn....no..too seedy, and this is my mom's gateway. That would be nasty! Should I write the screenplays that'll make me famous tonight? No, too vacuous at this hour. Dude, you could jerk off! Dude, stop saying that, you already proffered that suggestion and it's both too personal and disconcerting a thing for you to be writing here. Maybe you should watch the commentary on Ocean's 11. It wasn't me that bought that movie the day after we saw it in the dollar theatre the day after the very day it was put out on dvd you silly twit, that was Holly! And boy howdy does she have fun taste in movies. It's so refreshing to watch smart-ass slick fluff to level off the stuff you watch to make people think you're cool. Wow, you're such a shmuck! That's been a recurring theme of recent discourse! Yum! But I really do like all the hard-stuff. Then keep at it. But I want to watch Ocean's 11 again. Well, the van broke down, you're fucked. Ok then, what do I do? Watch Akira! But From Dusk Til Dawn takes less emotional involvement. Dude....shut the fuck up, jerk off, go home that's all you're gonna do. I am home. Make this post end. I can't. Why not? I'm not writing it, you are. Is there a difference? No. Ok. Good. Going now. Doing something. It's late. Read the Russ Meyer interview. Roger Ebert's not as innocent as he'd have us believe. Right
5-9-02 For those who want my latest tape, I've canned the original side 2 and replaced it with a more upbeat, more up-to-date mix. It's fresh and funky and every song on it was released this year with the excpetion of the Dark Globe track. Andy, you're the only one with the original side 2, and I'm gonna put this new side 2 on a future tape for you. Here's the tracklist: Side B:
Smoldering Funk
01. Unseen Force - 2 B Your 1 (Evil Nine mix)
02. Dark Globe - Bug On The Lens
03. Bill Hamel - Phazon Phrequency (B.L.I.M. Mix)
04. Namtrax- What You Need (Meat Katie mix)
05. Andy Page - Oblivias Newton Bomb
06. Uberzone & Pilgrem - Black Widow (VIP mix)
07. DB+ - That Thing (Koma & Bones mix)
08. Blue Light Fever - DJ (B.L.I.M.'s Burglar Mix)
5-9-02 It appears I've been slacking off on my Woody Allen. And is it a little demented that I had the chance to put him next to Bergman, but instead I put him next to Riefenstahl? I honestly didn't plan it that way.
5-9-02 I started this a few days ago, and believe me, just compiling a rental movie list and keeping up with current shit is hard enough. God bless IMDB. Go look up John Ford, Howard Hawks, and D.W. Griffith real quick. Have a laugh. Or do what I did, have a cavort and a sigh that could break into another dimension.
5-8-02 A word or two about Stan Lee, though I wasn't going to clear this up: Obviously he's not dead. He was on The Simpsons a week or two ago. I knew that even before I typed what I thought would be interpreted as an amusing statement. Ah well. As for his credit on Spider Man, he produced it, but had nothing to do with the script process. That's a shame. He's clearly a better writer than David Koepp. But I guess it's easier to look at a computer screen and go 'cool.....' than it is to bother with superfluous materials like suspense, surprise, or human interest. I don't blame him, though. He's fuckin' 79 years old and he's well earned his legacy. And by the way, Stepheny, I'm home for the summer in the Oak Ridge. Thanks for droppin' a line!
5-7-02 Happy Birthday, Rhys! My condolences to your computer, though.
5-6-02 I've discovered a new use for my webpage. Seeing as how this page serves as a task to assign myself to, I should use it as a place to mark all the things I have yet to consume. It'll be quite a large list, ever growing and ever shrinking, depending on the day. It'll include books I haven't read, things I haven't studied in full, things I just haven't fucking retained. My 'education' gave me little, and I took little from it. What I know, I'm proud to say I've learned much of on my own. I'll continue to do so. Of course, for my lack of knowledge, I can only blame myself. I refuse to believe, and were it to be proven otherwise I'd beat against the truth, that I have no aptitude for comprehensive information absorption. And if that is the case, believe me, in the years to come, I'll have earned it. Not that I'm an ignoramus. But I'm astonished at how much I haven't been taught. And my webpage, being conducive to my thoughts and actions, seems an adequate motivator.
5-6-02 From Ebert's Answer Man Column:
Q. You didn't acquit yourself very well in your article on "Amadeus." You are presumably a film critic and quite evidently not a literary critic. Anyone who thinks Thomas Mann is not a great writer, worse still, that P. G. Wodehouse is, doesn't know much about literature.
Frank Schulze, Department of Art, Lake Forest College
A. The kind of person who thinks Mann a great writer and Wodehouse not a great writer is precisely the kind of person who would believe that professional credentials are necessary to make such judgments.
5-6-02 Oh yeah, and I adamently maintain that I was the champion in the Pearl Harbor brawl.
5-6-02 mumblefuckmumblfuck.....Cocks the shotgun cocks the shotgun. Ok ok. In order for that post to make any sense in year (and honestly, Rhys, I think Cofer is more verbose than I am. Either that or he's bored and thesaurus crazy), Rhys pointed out in my guestbook that in my Training Day review that I spelled Cock caulk. Well, I wrote the review at 4:00 AM and the fuck up stands. But I hate it when I do shit like that. I must have subconsciously desired not to have to type cock in any form or fashion. Go figure. As for the interpretation of the Latinos being paid off to whack Ethan Hawke, well...that's never said flat out, merely implied. It sounds like the most reasonable explanation, but keep in mind, they may have only been paid to scare the living fuck out of him. In certain situations, that's Alonso's style. They only really get ready to blow him away when he trys to escape and punches the man of the house. That's how I read it. Of course they were paid off to set him straight, either living or dead. But you're probably right, Rhys. Anyway, I decided after watching Training Day that I'll write something, even if it's just a little about the movies. It'll depend on whatever mindset I'm in, but sometimes it'll be a gushing review, sometimes it'll be an attempt to codify something I felt I've learned about technique, whether that technique is used by the director of a film or an opportunity to use said technique was not taken by a given director. And I have no favorite film, Nick. But I've been having this ongoing conversation with Holly about the importance of schlock films. Her dvd collection is a foil to mine. I go out to find Apocalypse Now Redux, and she goes out to find Starship Troopers. I love both of those movies. If I were to decide which one to keep in a time capsul, I'd keep Redux, and perhaps so would she, because the both of us recognize the immediate importance of that work. But I don't know how I can convince people that I've seen the same great schlock that they have, and I make room for it in my life just as much as they do. I'm not a pretentious movie-goer fuck and there's little I can do to prove that. Not that it's something that keeps me up at night, being that I'd take the risk of being labeled such to afford myself the pleasure of watching 8 1/2 millions of times over for the next 50 or 60 years. But I honestly get puzzled when people think I'm not gonna like a well made big budget picture. Folks, here's how it goes: I'll like it if it's well-made, intelligent and earnest. I grew up on Stars Wars, Superman, and Ghostbusters. Those movies may be closer to my heart twenty years from now than any other. And that be that.
5-5-02 Go rent Training Day. And if you haven't seen it, don't read this.
5-4-02 A few thoughts on Spider Man : Hmmmm....dammit...dammit...It seems sort of sad that they couldn't give such great actors anything even remotely worth saying. The filmmakers should at least pat themselves on the back for making good casting choices, because if they hadn't picked Maguire, Dafoe,and Dunst, the main characters would've been monumentally uninteresting. And isn't that incredibly sad? Considering the source material? The best scenes are the ones that quickly (way too quickly) elaborate on Peter Parker's self-discovery. And there is a muted, inept attempt to show the denizens of New York reacting to the new vigilante. How sad. What do we want from superhero movies? Incredibly boring dialogue establishing relationships that are anathema in a superhero movie to establish as perfunctory? This is fucking Spider Man! The relationships of these characters have been successfully laid out for over thirty fuckin' years! Any self-respecting human being can read through the comics and inspire themselves to write interesting dialogue and concoct interesting situations for these characters to enact. But no, Sam Raimi, a genius director on both a dramatic and technical level (i.e., Evil Dead, Darkman, on the technical side, and A Simple Plan on the dramatic side), put all of his stock in the effects sequences and constructed all of the interesting shots and movements in the film towards those particular scenes. Dammit! The problem is the screenplay. David Koepp. You'll know him as the Stoppardian wordsmith who penned the genius Lost World script. Riiight..Stan Lee must be rolling around in his grave. And a word or two on the special effects: Though they are distracting in that ultra-digital sense of non realism, they are a breath of fresh air after slogging trough the mostly boring handling of the expository detail(The exposition fairy has iritable bowel syndrome in this version of the story). They are totally fake, and yet they are breathtaking from time to time. I look forward to the advances in digital effects within the next twenty years, but I still maintain that without an organic compound of some kind to coalesce with the digital additive, computer generated imagery will not look real. It will simply look sleak. In the end, is Spider Man a bad film? No. It succeeds in inspiring excitement, and the lead actors are always interesting (And J. Jonah Jameson nearly steals the show. He's a perfect embodiment). But after the incredible success of X-Men, on both a technical and melodramatic level, Spider Man is sort of a limp outing. Sorry.
5-1-02 Wheeee!Happy birthday to me! And the mail came, and I thought maybe it'd be a birthday card or somethin....and it turned out to be AOL 7.0, 1000 hour trial. They don't know when to fuckin' quit.
