Comments on: Headache a Hurt-Hurt

By: Jason Farrell

Jason Farrell — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:09:40 +0000

By my watch, I’m on the sixth hour of STALKER.

I’ve never known a movie before wherein the characters seem as bored as I am.

I wish the director had inserted little items to break-up the monotony, like MAGILLA GORILLA episodes. Or something.

By: Jason Farrell

Jason Farrell — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:23:36 +0000

Borrowed STALKER from my highbrow brother. Obvious mistake.

Watching it right now, in twenty minute increments.

Senses transfigured, far is near and near is far…

It’s like being in an alternate universe.

An alternate universe where nothing, ever, happens.

By: Read MacGuirtose

Read MacGuirtose — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:11:14 +0000

I don't have any opinion on Stalker, per se, since I've never seen it... I was just assuming from the other posts here that it was the same kind of movie as Mindwalk (though for all I know it's not). So it's really Mindwalk the description of "tedious, uneventful banality" was aimed at.

By: lyzard

lyzard — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:04:53 +0000

Um…I kinda like Stalker…

By: Read MacGuirtose

Read MacGuirtose — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:49:13 +0000

Whoa, hold on now, saying that not every movie necessarily has to be full of action isn’t the same as saying that I’d necessarily like any movie that doesn’t have action. After all, I’ve already expressed my negative opinion of Mindwalk, and you can’t get more action-free than that. (Although it’s only 112 minutes, so I guess it only has 70% the tedious, uneventful banality that Stalker apparently contains…)

By: Jason Farrell

Jason Farrell — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:00:07 +0000

Well, Read, if you’re “definitely not the sort of moviegoer that insists that every movie must be full of action” then perhaps you ought to test that core belief…against Tarkovski’s STALKER.

Go on, dig in. At 160 minutes, there’s plenty for everyone.

By: Read MacGuirtose

Read MacGuirtose — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:58:39 +0000

Actually, yeah, I’ve seen Mindwalk. Now, I’m definitely not the sort of moviegoer that insists that every movie must be full of action. In principle, I don’t see anything necessarily wrong with a movie that consists entirely of people talking, as long as it advances the plot and involves interesting characters. But since Mindwalk doesn’t really have any plot to advance, and the characters aren’t much developed… yeah. It’s like overhearing a long, rambling conversation by pretentious strangers. Every once in a while they touch briefly on a subject that sounds like it might be sort of interesting, but since you don’t have any context for it and don’t know anything about these people, there’s never any compelling reason to pay attention or care.

By: Chris S.

Chris S. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:54:35 +0000

They’re knocking around Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. It’s a tidal island covered in some truly staggering medieval architecture. But, I guess that really sums up the film. It’s so boring you can’t even appreciate the beautiful setting. Everything’s lost in a thick yellow fog of smugness.

By: jason farrell

jason farrell — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:14:41 +0000

Chris S: In a weird turn of events, I saw MINDWALK in the last sixty days or so on Showtime Beyond. And, fine sir, it is certainly in the upper tier.

Was that set in a French city? I didn’t catch that; I was too busy bleeding out of my ears.

By: jason farrell

jason farrell — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:08:20 +0000

Tarkovski. I’d forgotten about him. My brother (a knee-jerk arthouse aesthete) once tried to chloroform me with Tarkovski.

(soft whimpering, only auidible in the far background).

Still, I thank you for your suggestion. I thrive on tedium, it’s true…but we’ll see how much grit I have left
after Tarkovski.