Ghost in the Shell

What is in store for humanity's future? Virtual connectivity... Robots... A stream of data... In a day and age where the most powerful nation's election can be swayed by the simulated means of hacking or the entire east coast of that said nation be virtually shutdown (think Amazon etc.) by tens of millions of gadgets engaged in a DOS attack, our (artificial) future might seemingly appear to slip away from us...





Where will lie our humanity in such an imminent robotic era... In a realm where data (memory) is swiped away, replaced, hacked... Where our actions are programmed, monitored...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEDctELIm3I


I must say, ScarJo is graduating from a sophisticated/distinguished lady to a full pledge gangsta, yo This said, in a movie where the concept of humanity is exhaustively scanned, the characters paradoxically lack humanity and hence can leave a dry narative spell. Remains a solid/must see film.

The major and kuze lack humanity?

I could not disagree more... in fact, that is the basis for the entire story.

Peter Chung (creator of Aeon Flux) had some great thoughts on the 1995 Ghost in the Shell. He quotes some long bad expository dialogue sequences, then writes:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelec...hreadid=103302

Agree that it was weak overall and that the non leads were not remotely impressive. The special effects were fine. It's not a movie about special effects, and they would distract from the story.

I dislike Amy Adams and was surprised to find I was OK with her here.



How did you not know that just from the trailer?

oh I assumed as much but my wife wanted to check it out since we both love cranston.

Wait, someone actually dislikes Amy Adams??

Needs moar question marks and some exclamation points.

Bear in mind that this is the same guy who dislikes Jeff Bridges, and yes even as The Dude.

Considering that I can't say it's surprising he also doesn't like Amy Adams.

Finally saw Arrival since everyone had been raving about it so.

Count me in squarely in the small minority camp that just doesn't see why this is movie gets the praise it does, or even qualifies as a good movie.

I like heady, make you think, philosophical movies just fine, in fact most of the best movies are... but they still have to draw you in and engage or entertain you somewhat. Nothing about the presentation or the characters was remotely interesting to me at all and as such the movie was frustrating. It was like 2 hours of waiting and slow build up to absolutely nothing.

Perhaps the average movie these days is just so freaking stupid that any movie that isn't stupid some people just respond to? It's definitely a 'smart' movie, but I don't think that alone makes it good.

I've seen far more informative and entertaining Youtube videos on the complexities of time and attempting to overcome our limitations of perceiving it as we do, etc.

Episode of PBS's Nova called "The Illusion of Time", not only will you actually learn more than Arrival, but you'll be way more interested and have a lot more to think about. It's also just 60 minutes. Maybe they should have given it all the awards.

My sister showed up last night with every Steve McQueen movie ever made. I chose to watch The Cincinnati Kid.

By comparison, Rounders is a poorly-written piece of rubbish. Blasphemy, I know.

Edward G. Robinson is sorely underrated. He ranks up there with Robert Duvall as an all-time great actor. Not just a movie star. A GREAT actor.

Steve McQueen's arctic blue eyes were on display for the ladies to see. I think he is somewhat overrated, but he did a solid job as the protagonist.

The cockfighting scene reminded me of the ugliness George Bellows captured in his boxing paintings.

The cards in the movie were a little fishy, with a Jack-high call-down in stud.

The set design was excellent.

The lighting was a bit bright for my taste, and the editing was heavy-handed at times.

Great movie: 4.5/5

ITT - thank you for keeping track. Can you please update your list to include:

Beau Bridges
Matthew McConaughey
Shia LaBeouf
Billy Crystal
Jaden Smith
Jeff Daniels
Vince Vaughn
Steve Carell
Michael Cera
Jesse Eisenberg
Jerry O'Connell
Ben Foster

in addition to Jeff Bridges and Amy Adams? You may already have Beau Bridges on there.

Don't remember if I mentioned this or not before but I did watch Fearless (1993) per the recommendations from the Jeff Bridges lovers in this thread who wanted to see if that would change my opinion. Was not swayed. Crazy Heart remains the only thing he's done that I've enjoyed his work in.

Open to changing my mind on any of the above. Should probably note that I enjoyed Adams in Her.


Here are some people that really dislike Amy Adams.

And here's someone who even made a FB page devoted to their hatred of Amy Adams. Looks like they updated it after creation to also include Amy Schumer.

I have never played a hand of Stud poker in my life, but if it works the way I think it does a lot of those hands seemed pretty cringeworthy. The final hand obviously, as well as Pigs 'bust out,' hand. They make it look like Edward G. Robinson savagely outplays Pig whereas it looked to me like it was nearer a cooler in a hand that pretty much played itself.

Still a good movie over all though, yes.

just watched a hand from Cincinnati Kid, lol. Straight flush vs. aces full in 5 card stud. Well, them's the breaks. Also they're playing some sort of no limit 5 card stud? lol? Also table stakes aren't a thing? COME ON.

@Chopstick, LOL not trying to call you out man, just giving some context for Dominic and Microbet so they can understand where you're coming from a little bit.

As for taste being subjective, I'm right there with you on that and I defend that stance often in this thread.

That being said you surely realize with a list like that, you have people like Shia LaBeouf and JadenSmith who likely would make everyone elses 'actors I hate,' list as well, alongside people like Jeff Bridges, Amy Adams and Ben Foster who are, near universally, hailed as all being excellent at their craft.

You may personally dislike Amy Adams and Jeff Bridges as much as you do Shia LaBeouf and Jaden Smith, but when everyone else puts the first two amoung their top actors in the game and the later two amoung the dregs of the acting world do you think just maybe there might be a huge gap in acting talent between the two groups?

With everyone talking about the Ghost in the Shell remake, I thought I'd rewatch the often-overlooked sequel Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

This doesn't quite pack the punch of the first movie and maybe has a few too many lines with characters quoting philosophers*, but there are still some great, poignant moments, making this a solid recommendation for anyone who enjoyed GitS and wants to spend more time in that sci-fi universe.

The sequel supplements traditional 2D anime with 3D CGI animation that looks a bit dated at times, but is still impressively lush and detailed:


* -- From Wiki:
If you absolutely have to see more of the Ghost in the Shell universe, there's also a third movie and a couple of TV shows. My impression is that they're watchable but not especially noteworthy.

Freefire - gun deal goes wrong so a cast of fairly ridiculous characters spend the next hour shooting each other while making quips. Not much to say other than it's quite a lot of fun. Good performances all round, particularly from the slickly bearded Armie Hammer.

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Fences

Since Denzel Washington falls into the overly-hyped-celebrity-actors category for me, it did come as a (refreshing) surprise to witness his great performance in the critically acclaimed Fences (93% on RT).




Set in Pittsburgh's 1950s, Fences follows the tribulations of a black family exposed to the (oppressive) social conventions of the times. The screenplay is punctuated by time ellipses (4 in total, I believe), jumping from a decade to another, while exposing the obvious generational cultural gaps in between the children and the father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj-ZYPVRQbc

A must-see powerful and moving film

ITT - who said anything about their acting talent? I just dislike them. Obviously some of them are top notch actors, otherwise they wouldn't have such near universal acclaim! Definitely dislike Shia & Jaden more than Amy & Jeff, tho.

I can't actually think of any actor I actively dislike...I mean, I'm sure some are *******s, but I don't care about that when I see a movie. Tom Cruise is a shill for a fraudulent religion, but I still like MI movies.

My wife refuses to watch anything with Tom Cruise because of his beliefs. He may be a corn flake at home, but the dude is good at his job. We don't boycott our pharmacist* because he's a brony at home, why does this make more sense?

*Our pharmacist may or may not actually be a brony. The point was used for illustrative purposes only.

Comparing being one of the most important Scientologists to being a brony is one of the worst analogies I have ever read. Well done.

I wouldn't see a Roman Polanski movie in the theater.

Mel Gibson and Woody Allen are potential boycotts.

I haven't really been wanting to see any of their movies for a while anyway so it's not much of a burden.

Have you ever been a brony? Do you have any idea what we go through every day?

This is something I struggle with when it comes to artists and the person behind the art. It is easy to hate Mel Gibson, Woody Allen, Polanski, Michael Jackson, etc... for what they do behind closed doors.

There's an interesting comedy bit (I can't find it) on Michael Jackson, and how 'Thriller,' 'Bad,' 'Man in the Mirror,' etc...Is worth a few kids getting touched. It's an incredibly offensive joke obviously, but the point was that for many of these artists, having these demons was part of the reason they were able to create such amazing art.

There is a fine line between genius and insanity, and if you cross that line, sometimes demons end up surfacing. Can we really dismiss all of their art because of what they do when the cameras stop rolling, or when the music stops?

JD Salinger was a supposed pedophile. TS Eliot was an antisemite. So was Virginia Woolf, who is also quoted as supporting the 'leisure class,' stating that only the rich should be educated and books shouldn't be wasted on the working class . Dr. Seuss has a bunch of racist artwork available. Dickens was a womanizer who divorced his wife and then publicly shamed her for the rest of his life.

Charlie Chaplin married 2 girls under the age of 17, and his final wife was 18 when they were married (he was 54). Mozart was known to have slept with prepubescent boys. Gandhi after becoming celebate, would sleep naked next to his young nieces just to test his faith. John Wayne is quoted as saying "I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."

One of these stories I completely made up btw (I'll let you try and figure out which one). The point is, at some point, we can choose to separate the man (or woman) from the artist. I for one, have learned to accept this, and will therefore still watch a Woody Allen or a Mel Gibson movie with relatively unbiased eyes.

Go watch Apocalypto or Midnight in Paris. Tell me these aren't superb films, even if the man behind the camera might not be such a superb person.

I saw Apocalypto and liked it. I really lost interest in Woody Allen more from seeing the same movie 10 times in a row before I would have considered boycotting him for marrying his daughter.

Polanski is the only hard boycott I can think of. JD Salinger, TS Elliott, Charlie Chaplin, Mozart, Gandhi, Virginia Wolfe and John Wayne are all dead. My buying a movie ticket or a book never puts money in their pocket.