OLDBOY and Beer. A winning combo!

[thehefner]

Hey film fans, what's your favorite single long shot from a movie?

Mine has to be this:

In other news, it seems I've somehow lost about fifteen pounds. As I have a totally skewed body image, I hadn't noticed. But yeah, I'm back down to 160, which is ten pounds more than what I was in the months after the Tammy Meltdown.* My doctor looked alarmed and a couple friends think I'm starting to verge on looking sickly again (although Mom thinks that they're just shocked to actually see me skinny). I've just been parsing out my meals to smaller increments over every couple hours, making one of those meals a smoothie, things like that. Also, my decreased diet post-nose-surgery helped.

Regardless, my new physique shall likely be shot to shit. For you see, I have discovered that a beer and wine store in Potomac stocks Schneider Aventinus:



lonebear introduced me to this German wheat doppelbock at the International House of Beer (aka Regional Food and Drink), describing it as a "chewy beer." Ohhhhhh my god, it's magnificent. Perhaps the best beer I've ever had, although it's so different from any of the ales and lagers I usually have that it probably shouldn't qualify. Even the snobs at Beer Advocate adore it, and nine bottles are mine, all mine!

At what's probably 400 calories a bottle, or something ridiculous (he said "chewy" and he means "chewy"), it's probably a matter of time before y'all get your chubby Heffie back. If it happens, I will be sad, but I will have no regrets. Save only that I regret not having any more of this beer.



*the fact that there are those of you who don't know what that means just indicates how far I've come.

By the way, going to Tammy's wedding? As predictably a bad idea as going to Misty's wedding should have been, but wasn't because that one ended up being miserable for whole other reasons.

Comments

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

Definitely a cut above the usual "bunch of glass-jawed guys come at the hero one at a time", but the hero still takes about a zillion times more beating than any six of his opponents.

It's nice, but it's no TOUCH OF EVIL.

My sentimental favorite has to be the opening of SERENITY. Not my favorite film by a long shot (I'm not crazy about the film at all, really) but it was exactly the shot I wanted to see.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

As I've just read an analysis of OLDBOY on the A.V. Club today, examining it as a modern cult masterpiece, I can't help but wonder if this being taken out of context hurts the impact. Almost certainly it must; until I read the essay, I hadn't realized just how the film's hyper-stylization was integral to enhancing the substance of the film as a whole.

You absolutely should see OLDBOY. I'd love your thoughts. It came dangerously close to browncoated when I finally saw it, but now I must see it again.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I can see that it would probably be a great scene in the context of whole film shot this way. Great style tends to make it easier to skip over the Physics Major Reality Check.

I wouldn't even have noted it except that the glass jaw/unbreakable hero is a common trope in martial arts movies. The most interesting thing about this was when he gets knocked down, though actual human beings stop moving when kicked repeatedly, and don't stop kicking down people until they're pretty sure he's not getting up again.

Off to read that article...

[dhairya.livejournal.com]

Doooooood. Aventinus is like my next favorite beer EVAR. First being Rauchbier.

Whole Foods stocks Aventinus as well, just FYI. :)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! Someone else who knows its awesomeness! Rauchbier? Where can I get this Rauchbier of which you speak? Not Whole Foods, unless I go to VA or DC where they can sell booze at Whole Foods. Man, Maryland sucks in this respect.

That one was pretty good...

[american-arcane.livejournal.com]

Or, at least good enough to get Oldboy added to my list of movies to catch eventually. :)

As tompurdue mentioned, Touch of Evil set an early standard for awesome long shots.

Off the top of my head right now, I can't come up with any long shots that top it.

Of course, this also got me thinking of tracking shots without cuts... and the Oldboy martial arts bit immediately brought to mind The Protector which has a fantastic track of the hero bustin' bad guys left and right as he heads up a staircase to save his elephant. There's also Strange Days with all the POV shots from the killer wearing the squid.

Oh! Long shot awesomeness just popped in. Exorcist III. There's one scene with a demon possessed patient crawling across the ceiling while other stuff goes on beneath them. Then there's also this scene from the movie which I had totally forgotten about. Need to watch those films again...

Re: That one was pretty good...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

EXORCIST III, hell yes. Jesus, when will they put out a Director's Cut? I think they wanted to, but Blatty lost the footage! Ugh! Probably blew it all on coke, ala the stories Tom Atkins told me from the set of THE NINTH CONFIGURATION.

That clip... damn it, why are there no clips on YouTube of the whole sequence?! The way it's paced is like good sex. Brilliant scene.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

So it's my fault, eh? Since it is a beer, though, I will not put you on my enemies list .

Now I need to get more of Aventinus. Where is this shop that carries it? The nearest to my work or home will have a Palin-esque blank look if I ask them for it by name.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I forget the store's name, but it's in Cabin John Mall. I've bought all ten bottles they have in stock, but it's $5.99 a bottle (as opposed to about 9 bucks at RFD) plus 10% for every ten bottles you buy.

Otherwise, I hear Whole Foods in VA sells it. Maybe DC too, but I dunno.

[jcsbimp.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite single long shot from a movie has to be one I've not even seen yet: the opening shot to "Boogie Nights," which is a tribute to the opening shot of "Touch of Evil." I read about it in The New Yorker last night and I can't wait to see that film.

No, seriously, of the films I've seen? That final shot in "Silence of the Lambs."

And you did, in fact, look kinda skinny and pale when we saw you at the par-tay. Please take good care of yourself, my friend.

The cat helped type this.

[adaptor.livejournal.com]

"Hey film fans, what's your favorite single long shot from a movie?"

Rope.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I meant to put a disclaimer on that one, smart-arse. ;)

[lairdofdarkness.livejournal.com]

By weird cosmic coincidence I was thinking about that scene last night (mainly because someone had called me an "Old Boy" in a rather polite but condescending way)
Personally I thought the whole movie was ok but that scene is just fantastic.
It's not my favourite scene in a movie though, although it's close. I would have to go for the opening shot of Star Wars where the little spaceship flies overhead and then the Star Destroyer appears
at that point my 7 year old self was totally in the film. I remember being convinced that stormtroopers would suddenly appear in the cinema after the initial attack run. Brilliant stuff.
Of course I may not have been 7 when I saw it (born in 1972 as I was) but thats the number that stuck in my head

[cyberghostface.livejournal.com]

I loved Oldboy.

[cyberghostface.livejournal.com]

Although I just recently saw a really freaky French film called Calvaire, which had a long shot near the end of the film in a particularly bizarre scene.