Heffie's Top Ten... er, I mean, TEN films of 2008! Part 3: Bonus Round!

[thehefner]

And here, we're left with the two films of 2008 that I--for one reason or another--could not objectively rank in the previous top ten. Yet they merit discussion and attention nonetheless, and I'm exceedingly pleased to be able to count them among the film's I've seen this year.





Reviewing this movie would be entirely besides the point.

All one needs to do is look at that poster to gauge if they'll enjoy RAMBO or not. It's a forgone conclusion before the ticket's even bought. This is a film that set out to accomplish specific goals, and achieved them perfectly. How many other films can you say that about?

Speaking as someone who never really cared for any of the three films (I might have enjoyed FIRST BLOOD more if I hadn't read the awesome, morally complex book first), this was probably the best Rambo ever. This shit's hardcore, man, and the Burmese setting tempers the action with real-life horror, much in the way "The Slavers" storyline did with THE PUNISHER.

Between this and ROCKY BALBOA, I'm really excited to follow the latter-day work of Old Man Stallone. He seems to have learned a great deal of humility and perspective over the years, very much "in on the joke" that he's become and working with it in grand ways.

Also, RAMBO may feature the best explosion I've ever seen in a movie. Maybe.

As a special bonus, here's CHUD.com's THE TEN FACES OF JOHN RAMBO (A STUDY IN FACIAL FREEDOM).



And then, of course, there's this:



My thoughts on THE DARK KNIGHT in general and Harvey in particular have not changed six months and five viewings later. Ultimately, I cannot view this objectively because I've spent the past two and a half years living in Harvey's brain--my novel's Harvey Dent, I mean, my ideal Harvey--exploring all the angles of Gotham from his perspective, and I cannot help but think about all the ways THE DARK KNIGHT could have been handled better, excellent as it was. Furthermore, I feel like I can see what the movie set out to accomplish, and how it failed in that regard.

And yet, for all my criticisms, TDK is a film I find I can rewatch endlessly, one that provides remarkable fodder for conversation in ways that no other blockbuster film has in recent memory. Maybe ever! But I put that blame on both the audiences who avoid seeing smart movies and the producers who think audiences can't handle intelligence in stories. There's plenty of both to keep the industry of crap churning, and now I fear what kind of watered-down, over-serious gritty wannabes we'll see in the years to come.

So while I think Nolan and company could not achieve their ambitions (which if accomplished, in my view, truly *would* have resulted in the greatest superhero movie ever. Fuck, maybe one of the greatest movies ever! That's what I feel was lost here. A great movie instead of a brilliant one.), the result was still far superior to the usual blockbuster Hollywood fare.

Ultimately, we got the movie we deserved. But not the one we needed.




Or maybe it's the other way around. I still haven't decided.



Also, for the sake of completeness, I should mention that I recently saw WANTED. But I don't want that poster stinking up my LJ. A loud, vapid movie that threw out even the novel aspects of its loud, vapid comic book source material.

Die in a fire, Mark Millar. And take your magic fucking loom with you.

Comments

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

I'll be 2nd or 3rd in line to buy your Harvey Dent novel, you've got me very curious!

[bagelofdeath.livejournal.com]

Whatever, man. WANTED may have been a piss-poor adaptation, but it's honestly worlds better than the graphic novel.

WANTED as a comic is probably the most desperate, masturbatory drivel I've ever forced myself through. It reads like the 'edgy' nighttime scribblings of a friendless neckbeard who threatens dissenting forum users with pictures of himself holding the katana he got in Chinatown or his father's gun.

God, I hate that book so much.


(But as an aside: Can Mr. Rictus be read without a lazy Southern accent?)

[musyc]

Oh, lord, Wanted. I have a serious girlcrush on Angelina Jolie. Give her loads of weaponry, and I usually have to have a cigarette and a knickers-change by the end of the movie, but this one? I was happy she ended things like that. Because I'd honestly wanted it to happen about an hour before. *shakes head*

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I agree with you. Had I never read the book, I might have been able to enjoy the movie as an enjoyably empty time. But the stain of Millar's Millarness permeated the entire affair. That said, I would have loved somebody to have taken the concept of WANTED (the supervillains one) and done something cool with that, rather than throwing it out to essentially stick to the loud, vapid spirit of Mark Millar's work.

"Friendless neckbeard"...?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

hahaha, how gloriously close to TMI, I love it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Hell, pally, if you'd like to check it out by the next draft, it's all yours! I'd love your thoughts!

[musyc]

She's my Sapphic temptation, no lie. I'll freely admit to that >:D

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

Awesome, I'd love to. I'm not as well versed in Two Face-scribe as you, but I'll add my two cents as a fellow (trying to be) writer ;)

[bagelofdeath.livejournal.com]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neckbeard

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

No, no, that's absolutely perfect! That's exactly why I'd want your thoughts! If it were only read by Two-Face fanboys and fangirls, I wouldn't get very far! Yours will be a fresh and much-appreciated perspective!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yes, WANTED felt like it was written by someone just like that, quite apt. Tee hee hee. I'm glad you hate it too. It was still a popular book when I was working at the store, so it's always gratifying to meet someone else with whom I can hate freely. See icon.

[gnort.livejournal.com]

I don't want to sound like I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, but I've become rather curious about the book myself. I know you've got a crew of editors and I'm not really sure what I could say that you haven't already heard. I can however, at the very least, read it and tell you that it's good.

I feel odd asking, like it's an inconvenience somehow which makes little sense as you're emailing it to everybody. It does take like two seconds to enter the address and that's two seconds you're not getting back. So, sorry about that?

I also wanted to christen this icon as I am rather proud of it, even if the text is a bit tiny.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

What a gloriously dorktastic icon. Worth the eye-strain.

Oh hell, pally, *more* than happily shall I send you the next draft as well! Having it read and being told if it's good or not is all I ask, really!

[gnort.livejournal.com]

Huzzah, thankee.

Tweaked the text size, much easier to read now. No squinting needed! I knew you would appreciate the dorktasticness of it.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I never read the book. For my money, Wanted was fabulously pretty in a way that entirely defied logic and reason, and I enjoyed every ridiculous second of it.

I now wonder what I missed in my blissful ignorance.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

If I might ask, are worlds tiny, and are you the Lady Musyc that I knew from a.c and/or #c?

[musyc]

My, my, worlds are indeed tiny. That would be me. XD

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Whaaaaa, you two know each other?

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Aye. We used to frequent the same virtual pub some years back.

And where do _you_ two know each other from, if I might ask?

[musyc]

Haven't been in #c in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages. Still keep in vague touch with a couple people from there, here and there.

As for Hef, there, I ... uhhhhhh. I believe I stalked him from metaquotes. *dramatic gesture*

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years for me to go back on any sort of regular basis. I have made it a couple of times in the past couple of years, for what can be called special occasions.

I can see how Heffie would be highly meta-stalkable! :)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Was it the Burt's Bees debacle that I was metaquoted on? I don't follow metaquotes, but I've been quoted once or twice. Yet you're the second person I met from there! How'd that work out!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

By the way, belated Happy Birthday!

*goes to conk out in a sketchy motel room in Where The Hell Am I, Oregon*

[musyc]

I honestly don't remember! It was under your prior username, and I remember following back to your journal because the name itself was intriguing. Then read a few posts and "whoa, this fellow, he's funny and geeky, let us friend him in secret!"

Or something like that, it's been a while.

[musyc]

I think I'd only go back if it was "my crowd", y'know? Specific names that I'd be looking for. It's changed too much, too many new people, but still, fond fond memories.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I found myself coming back to visit when Patrons passed away. It seemed right to remember them with others who do. Unfortunately, there's been a couple of occasions, one all too recently. And since it seems things like that make many of us ol'timers crawl out from under our rocks, one gets to see a few of the fellow no-longer-regulars.

I tried going back to a.c a couple years ago, and that was very much not my crowd anymore.