Remember how I said I was done with Hulu because they changed their parameters and you needed to update your Flash Drive to watch their programs? And me being a techno non geek I was not going to do it, after all there was YouTube. Joke’s on me, YouTube did the same thing. So after agonizing over it for a couple of weeks, I caved and asked my wife to help me upload a new Flash Drive. Here’s the funny part, she turned on my computer, opened a box that contained new updates I was unaware existed, clicked one button and it was done.
Archive for February, 2010
Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen Shutter Island ( or have not read the book) and don’t wnat to know what happened at the end, skip this rant.
There has been a lot of back and forth over the twist ending the Shutter Island, many, like Roger Ebert, think it is brilliant and fits well with the dark tone of the film, while others dislike it’s coming completely out of left field.
Personally it pissed me off. I don’t mind a twist ending that you don’t see coming, like in The Sixth Sense, Memento or The Book of Eli, but it does have to play fair to a certain extent, and having it revealed at the end that everything you saw before wasn’t real, like in Jacob’s Ladder, is a cheat. Now I know that some of you out there will argue that if you go back over what happened in Shutter Island, the clues are there.
Maybe, but I don’t feel like rehashing such a depressing and aggravating film. For me, when you invest time and interest in a film you want a better resolution than the one given here.
I was over reading Jim Emerson’s blog, Scanners, this weekend and he had an interesting article on Quinten Tarantino where he stated he wanted to get Inglorious Basterds out quickly because he wanted to have a masterpiece out before the end of the decade. That got me thinking, is Basterds a masterpiece? I’m not sure. To be honest I’m not even sure it is best picture Oscar worthy. Not to say Basterds isn’t enjoyable to watch, because it is. But rewatching the film recently I’ve come to opinion that I am completely at odds with film critics and fans alike. Tarantino doesn’t make great films, he makes great scenes. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds are collections of great scenes with wonderfully quotable dialog, but they lack a cohesiveness that allows the scenes to flow together into a whole. His movies tend to be disjointed with scenes all being stand alone and jumbled together out of linear time line for their kinetic impact. Visually exciting but I prefer Steven Spielberg and Kevin Smith.
