Jason Maeda

miss you john. jk

just saw it. a couple great action scenes (the fight with desh was very well directed, shot and edited) and some nice sequences counterpointing bourne vs. the cia, but mediocre otherwise. really looked like video to me, and not in a good way, and didnt have any of the romantic, globetrotting feel found in the first one or in, say,"ronin" or "the talented mr ripley". as far as the jitter-cam, i felt it worked in precious few scenes, but elsewhere felt unmotivated. jk :ph34r:

yeah that's a nice film...from a better time for hollywood. jk :ph34r:

brad, of course you are correct; it does take a lot of people and hard work to put together a big hollywood film. i for one share your empathy with and respect for these craftsmen and women. on the other hand, we are here to critique these films honestly, so - without calling for people to die, or otherwise being unnecessarily rude - we must be allowed the opportunity to voice our opinions, negative as well as positive. jk :ph34r:

"is it just me, or are all the ?assets? just Zoolander male model assassins?" that's really funny! btw max, that's so weird you said that because that's always the scene i think about when i remember that film. some of the better samurai films share this same discipline and well-crafted artistry. jk :ph34r:

"M. David Mullens hands down!Northfork and The Astronaut Farmer are f*cking brilliant pieces of cinematic art and by his posts here, I know he would actually take the time to teach me the many things I needed to know rather than merely let me bask in his genius. I'd like to do it now before he becomes so well known, he won't have the time to deal with anyone but the most upper echelon of the film making community which is bound to happen very soon. There are very few people I have a deep, abiding respect for, Peter Bogdanovich in one of them and David Mullens is another. I'm sorry if this embarrasses you Dave, but I gotta be honest. At some point, I hope I will be able to raise enough money to hire you on as DoP just so we get the chance to work together. I think I would benefit greatly from the experience as would any project we might work together on. You have my undying respect, man, seriously." hey psycho, if you love and respect him so much maybe you should learn how to spell his name correctly. jk :ph34r:

"...a filmmaker needs an army" really? check out stan brakhage. poop he made films without a camera. jk :ph34r:

filmed in reverse? jk :ph34r:

the bourne supremecy, or whatever #2 was called, suffered from the same thing. when a director and dp dont know where to put the camera they tend to move it around like crazy. cheap cop-outs like this will never change and will never be effective. bourne identity (#1) was a really great action film and it was very confident in its direction and shot selection. im sorry to hear that this latest film is yet another failed attempt to capture the great modernist simplicity of the original. jk :ph34r:

that's four words.

"When I said, "I am not a believer in Cinema Verite" ... what I mean is that I don't believe in a "cinema of truth"" no i understood what you meant, and it's a valid point. i just thought it sounded funny! jk :ph34r:

I really enjoy his films as well. that camera pushing in on details and back out during lateral moves following the action is ripped right out of scorsese! scorcese? how do you spell that? jk :ph34r:

god don't you people smoke weed? i thought it was great for what it was...a zombie genre exploitation film with a really obvious political message. jk :ph34r:

Nolan is a great director. I'm so happy to have him continue doing these blockbusters so he can keep making films like "memento" and "the prestige", both of which had fantastic cinemtatography to support their great scripts. jk :ph34r:

"they rarely have the courage to show bits of people/women/children blown all over the place as actually happens." perhaps they have decided upon a minimum level of decency to which they feel they must try to adhere. jk :ph34r:

i can't remember. did we agree to discuss animation? we should, imo. this film is supposed to be the poop. i can't wait to get back to manhattan and check it out. jk :ph34r:

i'm pretty sure lucas had intended for luke to be vader's son the whole time. hence: aunt em (or whatever) "he's just got too much of his father in him" uncle ben "thats what i'm afraid of" etc. plus wasn't "darth vader" supposed to be a substitute for "dark father"? i'm a huge fan of samurai films and the star wars series has a lot in common with the genre. especially yoda (which is just a normal japanese name) who is clearly modeled after some of the aging samurai masters and even speaks english with japanese grammatical structure. as far as i'm concerned, "the empire strikes back" is a masterpiece of the hollywood tradition. jk :ph34r:

don't forget john ford. "good poets borrow, great poets steal". jk :ph34r:

wow http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0720,lee,76632,20.html

and i think there is a much higher standard for some films than there is for others. In one breath the same critics who are ridiculing "flanders" will go on to express their appreciation for "28 weeks later" as a deft political commentary. i'm just saying i'll bet a flawed "flanders" (if it is) has more to offer than a good zombie movie (and it was very good). jk :ph34r:

"Flanders" is getting savaged by the critics here. jk :ph34r:

"I'm generally not a believer in cinema verite" ha ha ha oh my god i have to get this made into a t-shirt. jk :ph34r:

David, what do you think? Does this sound like something that could really be happening? jk :ph34r:

I was going to start writing my thoughts until I read Max's reply, which pretty much encapsulates my opinion. I would add, though, that - cinematographically speaking - I got a little tired of the blatant rip off of "All The President's Men" whenever they were in the offices of the San Fransisco Chronicle (or whatever that paper's name is). Still, it had a nice tone to it despite what's his name (bad actor) and his ridiculously characterized wife (mannered actress), but Downey Jr. and the cop were great. Oh yeah the zodiac actor was really good as well. jk :ph34r:

Very nice. Please keep us updated. jk