The spirit of Zundert, Bronkhorst, Tomata with all its emotion is clearly visible during the period of 99-01 with 2000 anchoring the cloud for the golden era of Zundert with “Heavens to Betsy” painting the picture filled with plundered gold in contrast to what Mark Fischer described as the feeling and vision of belatedness with an air to making a quick buck. Simply put, The US equates to artistic decline while the range from late studio period to 84’s “lost hope era” believes in the result driven mantra with executives and presidents pushing for a proof of a great picture still standing after a few decades.
Fischer’s works with all its intricacy cant overshadow the fact that big movie studios completely abandon the concept of anything they produce having to possess any alchemy to meaning, and due to the burning of the billion dollar focus they clearly handed off Philip k Dick’s democracy.
After watching Deadpool & Wolverine, which I will not be critiquing, I find myself wrestling with a sense of heaviness. The films that are hogging the most screens these days simply are offering a feeble remake of the yesteryears. Sometimes, it is done with a kind of ludicrous deference and sometimes, with a coy ironic wink. When it comes to the end product, in either case, the connection to a person is missing. The highlight is simply a commodity designed to collect dust before being inevitably discounted and buried along with the other junk in a bin at Wal-Mart.
Sergio Leone has reinterpreted the fond images he holds for the American Western movie by transforming them into epic visuals that are epic in their own right. Leone, like many other western directors, has borrowed a good portion of ideas from Kurosawa films reconstructing cowboys into samurais. And throughout all that they really believed in what they were telling. This is not a mercenary ploy to earn money on some trendy theme, but a real outpouring of love for the narratives that captured them. This is wonderful, the never-ending dialogue of cinema, how other movies listen to other movies through imagery, rather than dialogue. This is why movies are dear to me.
Another fusion that blends kung-Fu and Hong Kong action film with an American Western, Shanghai Noon was one of the highlights in Hollywood right at the turn of the millennium. This is on paper a great idea, but as is always the case there is a pronounced problem: it is bitterly obvious that this production was made in Hollywood rather than Hong Kong. Every single aspect was approached from the laziest perspective. Trainers, bars, brothels, and missions are just a few examples of set pieces that can be found in almost every Western movie. In fact, Owen Wilson’s Roy O’Bannon interrupts every moment to provide ironic commentary on it. Western is perhaps the most unoriginal genre in the sense that it simply borrows some elements of kung fu slapstick.
The movie has no shortage of clichés it uses furtively so the story can move forward. As per the movie, this was bound to occur, after all, Chan secretly overhears an out of context discourse between Owen and someone resulting into a distance building for an anticipated period until both happen to come to their senses and are close friends again. The first example that comes to mind is one such cliched concept that revolves around the characters of a movie which makes watching it a daunting task.
Eddies of potential can be seen but are put on hold due to disgusting scripting, this is a flaw that the movie reputably faces. Movie tropes are rehashed in the old westerns but for a different reason, which was to tell a story but in a new perspective. But then again, the problem isn’t the movie, it’s the editing and pacing of the movie. So that audiences will always feel comfortable, that’s the idea behind such cherry picked elements in Shanghai Noon.
Jackie Chan was supposed to be the main reason this film worked but it seems as tho the director had issues with filming chan making it easy to understand why a Hong Kong filmmaker would have done a better job. The action was surprisingly slow. Chan had the strength and speed of momentum needed to have a ‘go-go-go’ kind of feeling and pace for orderly movement through a complex encounter, but this wasn’t possible. I was rooted to the spot in disbelief at how incredibly tedious it was watching Chan fight. It seemed impossible.
If you consider Shanghai Noon in a very favorable light, then I assume this is something you watched in your childhood as well which for me is a bit too far off. Until I recently turned into an adult, I adored shows like G.I. Joe and Transformers, but once my fondness was set, I was utterly disgusted by how badly written they were. It is like the same feeling, an enjoyable movie but the nostalgia is all that this situation offers. The funniest part of this film is making an effort to be a comedy. I watched this movie with very reasonable expectations and not a single time did I laugh.
The only consolation is the cast legacy which is acceptable. These actors are worth a much more competent director and script than they are given. Their acting shows that, barely any better than Power Rangers. I can only imagine a different dimension in which this film tried a little harder and had a better cameraman who knew how to film messengers and they are also able Written by Wolfgang. Petersen and Herman Weigel Directed by Wolfgang peter. This film is part of the formative history of many of my contemporaries childhood. I think in my childhood I watched it twice. Some of it I remembered almost frame by frame, but The Never Ending Story, for instance, was never a film I saw or have been particularly fond of. That is odd because I was also a kid who had to stay by himself for long durations and read a lot of books. You would think much of the story would resonate with me, but it did not. I think watching the movie as an adult again made me like it better, although I could also see its weak points rather more plainly now.
After the death of his mother, the 10-year-old Bastian (Barret Oliver) becomes a shadow of his former self. Disinterested in life, and even worse, an uncaring father (Gerald McRaney) punishes him for his love of fantasy. One day Bastian runs from a gang of bullies while on his way to school, and finds himself in a used bookstore. There, he discovers a tome The Neverending Story. Despite the warning from the shop’s owner, Bastian lends the book and days away in the attic of his school, where he starts reading the story. It turns out, the world of Fantasia has been destroyed by an evil force Nothing. Only a boy, Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), can save it from total annihilation.
There is nostalgia in the never ending story, with its careful use of fantasy elements. The interplay between the effects and the world unfolds interestingly. There is less surrealism than ILM’s work for Lucasfilm and the other productions of the time or even the puppet work of Jim Henson, but it is still a valiant try. The Rockbiter, the Luck Dragon, and the Childlike Empress were awesome. Some locations left a mark, such as the Palace of the Empress, the Swamp of Sadness and the Southern Oracle.
No argument here, this movie is easy to love as a kid, it has certain moments that are emotionally intense and touches on uncomfortable fantasies.
The picture has so many storytelling & technical issues, not the least of which is that it is without an ending. As the movie moves along it gradually unfolds these inevitable aimless drudgery. Sure, there is some witty meta-commentary on the borderline between fiction & real life, but the movie does not elaborate on this at all. It is a phenomenon that takes place. I do not think that the two leads are all that great. I am able to say this since there were plenty of child actors in the 1980s and many did not have a leaden sense of charisma like these two. And I understand that Hathaway was cast as a man because of the looks, but his acting was rather subpar.
There’s been a debate about what an AI-generated movie will look like. This film is about as close as it gets to that in terms of the best approximation. The movie does not even possess that genuine grasp on the unity of the imaginary realm, as it indulges in traversing several locations and doing various activities. This could explain why it is such a huge let down that Bastian inexplicably becomes part of the narrative. The seemingly original fantasy quest has been dormant. It is better, however, than the attempted surrealism, that comes to barely anything up. I have read that this film and this one were both taken from the book and so I would be interested in the book to try to understand how better all of this is done on paper.
Considering the fact that Lucas, Spielberg and Henson all exist within the same plane, ‘The Never Ending Story’ does look like it has been built from lesser resources. For one, the universes created by all these cinematographers culminate into a rich multi layered setting in all their films. You quickly comprehend the dimension and the risks of that world alongside learning about the characters. However in the case of The Never Ending Story, the first thing that I have to say is that Atreus is not character I understand very well. He is far too broadly archetypal to be of any concern to me. To me he comes across as an underdeveloped character in a book which, in the context of the movie, it seems as if the movie is trying to break free from. The focus and passion that Bastian demonstrates in the story is clear but as an audience, I was unable to develop that with the film.
The storyline itself does not offer anything plausible, which makes the idea of the ‘Freeze Frame’ ending all the more stupid and absurd, because it seeks to provide the message “Bastin had a lot more fun and exciting things to do. Maybe we will conceive another one”. The wasteland of that concept is Bastian because he thinks that the movie makes any sense. It’s a shame because it’s a film trying to survive on pure looks and fails miserably. I found the editing very frustrating but the results , as I said is sheer awkwardness.
I’m assuming many of the characters dubbed their voices over due to the fact that they already had heavy German accents, but I do think it quite cumbersome that every other character seems to make use of ADR.
There was a crucial theme in The Never Ending Story that dealt with the idea of grief, unfortunately I have not seen any emphasis paved for explaining it. The Nothing is appropriate in some regard as a way to address depression or hope and imagination that are lost. What is the resolution to the film with regard to this hope? Since Bastian and his father never have another interaction, the issue remains unresolved, and there are loose ends to tie up.
Neither does the bully issue seem entirely settled. After Bastian flies through the town as a Luck Dragon and begins assaulting his bullies, there is a freeze frame. The desire to tell a good tale for children is evident in the creators of this film. But why make a lot of pretty looking sequences without substance to support them in the first place. If you’re looking to look back at the good old days, then definitely revisit this film. All it does is remind you of better films that you could be watching instead.
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