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Nico how do you find Pulp Fiction overated that is my all time favorite movie every second every line is mind blowing that movie is mezmerizing i have never seen action dialouge,humor and style mixed that flawlessly before. Anyways my top 20 most anticpated films of 2008

1.Harold and Kumar 2
2.The Dark Knight
3.Iron Man
4.The Brazilian Job
5.The Incredible Hulk
6.Indaina Jones IV
7. Hellboy 2
8.10,000 BC
9.Get Smart
10.Vantage Point
11.The Mummy 3
12.Tropic Thunder
13.John Rambo
14.1-18-08
15.The Forbidden Kingdom
16.Semi-Pro
17.Speed Racer
18.Drillbit Taylor
19.Babolyn A.D
20.Bond 22
Looking forward to a lot more but whatever i dont care to list them

transformers: As far as Pulp Fiction goes, the one word I've always used to describe it is the same as that I used for the Iron Man "teaser" (which, seriously, is a misnomer -- or else it must be the longest, most revealing "teaser" ever): to wit, Meh.

Maybe it's because I waited too long to see PF. I was still in the military at the time it first came out, and it was months and months before I finally caught it at a discount theater. By that time, I'd been saturated by all the hype and supposed "coolness" of the film, and perhaps my expectations were so out-of-bounds that no entertainment could possibly have satisfied them. Whatever, I went in to Pulp Fiction expecting the Second Coming... but came out feeling like I'd just been forced to read The Book of Malachi, out-of-order no less.

And I say this with all affection and respect for QT, though I must admit I think he's seriously and somewhat inexplicably overrated, too; I treasure Reservoir Dogs and consider it the modern resurrection of the entire genre of film noir; and I thought True Romance (which Tarantino cowrote) was Van Sant-brilliant. (Why on earth DOESN'T Christian Slater have a career anymore, by the way? Does anyone else desperately wish he'd be cast as Dr. Leonard McCoy in Star Trek?) In the mid-'90s Sam Jackson was still the very quintessence of cinematic cool, before he wore out his welcome playing every damn mediocre piece of fetid bantha poodu his agent read, from Sphere to Deep Blue Sea to The 51st State to xXx, to even (dare I say it?) the Star Wars prequels. Travolta was a revelation, at the start of a modest four-year (but, again, overrated) career resurgence that culminated in A Civil Action; and this was the third film in a row I'd seen Tim Roth in (after Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and, of course, Reservoir Dogs) cementing his place in my own personal cinematic pantheon as one of Hollywood's most over-achieving, under-respected, poorly-utilized actors (I still feel that way). Moreover, Pulp Fiction introduced me to the majesty that is Ving Rhames (who I'd barely noticed in Dave); convinced me that the subtle, nuanced, brooding, tragic, underappreciated Bruce Willis I'd seen in Billy Bathgate and The Last Boy Scout was no fluke; and even made Uma Thurman, who I despised at the time, (barely) watchable for a few moments.

But -- to me -- Pulp Fiction ended up being far, far less than the sum of its parts. This is a complaint I frequently have of QT, that -- with a couple of truly remarkable exceptions -- he ought to stick to one role on each project, fulfill it to perfection, and let someone else handle the rest. He is, sporadically, a breathtaking cinematographer, a groundbreaking director, an effortlessly phenomenal writer, a superlative assembler of music, and an inspired editor -- even, in the right role, a halfway decent actor. Any action-oriented thriller, crime drama, horror film or even dark comedy should be honored to obtain his services. He just can't do it all at once to the level of achievement he's capable of -- with the notable exceptions of Kill Bill: Vol. I and Reservoir Dogs. I think too many people have mistaken his ambition, his work ethic, his singular stylistic choices, and, for lack of a better term, his cajones, for his actual achievements. He's a visionary, no doubt, and has influenced an entire generation of filmmakers, and has perhaps fundamentally altered the way many modern films are written, shot, cut and scored; but he's more Oliver Stone than Orson Welles, more George Lucas than Steven Spielberg: an occasional phenomenon, a part-time wunderkind, a sometime savant.

Pulp Fiction just didn't do it for me; it's watchable, certainly, but not wonderful. Put it another way: The Usual Suspects was my Pulp Fiction.

It's jus' my opinion, though. I can't deny the man's talent. But for me, at least, his career zenith (which I cannot dispute the importance or originality of) happened nearly a full decade after Pulp Fiction, with the first Kill Bill.

I remain, as always...

Nico.

ETA: And what this has to do with the Iron Man trailer, even I will be hard-pressed to explain. [Grin]

ETA2: Hey, how about that! Another The Brazilian Job fan! "One of us... One of us..." LOL.

Very well said, Nico, as always.

I had a friend named Larry (who sadly, passed away in 2000 at the age of 42) who was a tremendous fan of Tarantino, of spaghetti westerns, of martial arts flicks, of David Carradine, and of Uma Thurman (though not necessarily in that order). I know that he very much liked Pulp Fiction, though he didn't go gaga over it like some people did... I myself was 25 years old when I saw it for the first time, and I had never experienced a director who probed the dark underbelly of society with such verve and panache before.

The one thing that breaks my heart, and will for the rest of my life, was that my friend passed before he had a chance to see the Kill Bill series. (Both of them, but especially Vol 1.) If you had thrown Godzilla into the mix, it would have been his perfect film. (Grin.)

Despite QT's trademark out-of-order sequences, the movie worked just as much for me. It never dragged, it never slowed down, and The RZA's score was simply unparalleled.

But we were talking about PF, weren't we? I guess I need to do some digressing...

What started with Reservoir Dogs, continued with Pulp Fiction and culminated in the Kill Bill series, QT cemented his place as a cutting-edge director on top of his game. He is truly an actor's director, and for a time I thought that he could do no wrong.

But then.

Much like M. Night Shyamalan, who blew me away with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable before taking the escalator to the basement with progressively disappointing fare Signs, The Village, and the incomprehensible Lady in the Water, QT got too clever for his own good. Case in point, his half of the Grindhouse feature, Death Proof.

It's like he took his tried and true formula (snappy dialogue, vintage action-movie fight scenes and vehicle chases, and a fair amount of pornographic sin) and he puffed it out so far that it diluted the quality to an unforgivable level. The dialogue was boring, the characters were unengaging, and the bad guy? Kurt Russell, while a fine actor who I will always love for his roles in The Thing (to me, still the scariest freakin' movie of all time), Big Trouble in Little China and Executive Decision, hit about a 5.7 on the "menacing" scale, and the fact that he turned into a whining little p*ssy at the end capped off a truly awful cinematic experience for me.

That being said, I'm hoping that Inglorious Bastards (or whatever ends up being QT's next directorial project), will redeem himself somewhat in my eyes. (Ditto for The Happening, in M. Night's case.)

I remain, as always...

Icon.

(Oh, damn, that's gonna cost me...)

ETA: I'm also looking forward to The Brazilian Job, though I think it would have been better had it come out a year or two ago. Mark Wahlberg's star has risen, Charlize Theron's has fallen (a little), and Jason Statham has ridden his Transporter and Italian Job high right into a freakin' wall, as far as I'm concerned... I mean, Crank sucked, WAR pretty much sucked, and I don't even have to see him in Uwe "End of Civilization As We Know It" Boll's next film to know that it sucked.

ETA2: Don't get me started on The Usual Suspects, which, as far as I'm concerned, will never, ever be replaced on my list of the top crime dramas of all time. Tightly edited, brilliantly acted, beautifully scored, and just frickin' cool to boot, it's awesomeness will never wane in my eyes, ever. The fact that Chris McQuarrie is producing AND writing the screenplay for Tom Cruise's SS drama Valkyrie makes me want to see it ten times more.

But how about that Iron Man? (See how I seamlessly segued back to the topic at hand? Eh? Eh?)

Shrykey: Well said! I agree with pretty much everything you had to say about QT... I think you're pretty much on-target. Again, I'm reminded of the similarities between Tarantino and Oliver Stone (and, for that matter, David Lynch and John Carpenter); they were hailed relatively early on in their careers as cinematic phenoms (Tarantino for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction; Stone for Platoon and Wall Street; Lynch for Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet; and Carpenter for Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape from New York and The Thing); they set early benchmarks for success they've had difficulty living up to consistently (QT's really only had two bona fide hits, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill: Vol. I; Stone went fifteen years between JFK and World Trade Center, with lots of publicity but, really, only one great film, U-Turn, between -- though I think Natural Born Killers was diabolically brilliant; Lynch stumbled through the '90s for the most part, finally redeeming himself in 2001 with Mulholland Dr.; and Carpenter... well, his last watchable film, the unremittingly syrupy, frying-pan-to-the-side-of-the-head-subtle Starman, was released in Reagan's first term -- he's like cinema's Jerry Garcia, a burnout who was only ever, to be honest, marginally good); they became very well-known, very quickly, for pioneering particular styles of writing, directing and editing they've been famous for their whole careers; and they've all, to some extent, been riding their own coattails for decades, through miles and miles of self-referential, self-cannibalizing, self-important, mediocre crap (I could cite examples, but their aggregate disappointment quotient might very well inspire me to throw myself off a very tall building).

However, I digress.

As far as M. Night goes, to quote Bill Lumbergh, "Yeeaaaahhhhhh... Ya know, I'm gonnna have t' just disagreeee with you a little, there, mmmkay? Greeeaaaaaattttt, thaaaaannnnkssss..." I friggin' LOVE "The Twist"! I think Sanjaya... erm, I mean, Shyamalan improved with each picture, right up through The Village, and although Lady in the Water was way, way too unconventional, too bizarre, too cerebral, too... SOMETHING... to succeed, I really, really, really admire what it was that he tried to do, there. In his own way, I thought he very nearly created a mythology as original, discomfiting and unquantifiable as Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal... he just failed at it. And, with the exception of its last thirty seconds or so, I think Unbreakable may well be the greatest 'superhero' film ever made. (But, then, you must remember, I thought Hulk was nigh-brilliant.) But, there too, I must admit it's possible Shyamalan belongs in that not-unholy, but not-perfect-either quadrangle (pentagon?) of Tarantino, Stone, Lynch and Carpenter, as a filmmaker who courted massive success and filmic superstardom far too early, and got stuck in the rut of his own initial success. Time will tell.

Btw, Signs is still the creepiest damn thing I've seen since 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hitchcock would have hid under the coffee table and wailed miserably for his mommy.

I remain, as always...

Nico.

ETA: And sorry to hear about your friend. I like to believe, however, that those who precede our own entry to Heaven get to see all the great movies, ever, even those that haven't been released, shot, written or even conceived of yet, on a 100-story IMAX screen with eight billion db's and forty-dimensional Surround Sound. THX can kiss my ass, God's own Regal Cinema is the BEST. THEATRICAL. EXPERIENCE. EVER, you know what I mean? And no dippy Fanta commercials or incredibly underwhelming Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker ads, no lines, no screaming babies, and no cell phones. Oh, no mouthy teenagers, either... They go somewhere else, my friend Bob Diamond tells me. Like Purgatory, or Hell, or the Universe's own Dumpster. The best all-beef frankfurters, ever, ones that make Dodger Dogs look like cocktail weenies and smell like Purina Dog Chow; thick, rich mustard with seeds that stick between your teeth and irritate 'em all day long, in the most mouth-watering way possible; sauteed onions that make your knees buckle; and a double feature, all day, every day, with classic Warner Bros. cartoons and the most kick-ass trailers, ever, separating each film -- like Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, The Return of the King, The Fifth Element, Superman Returns, Batman Begins and Independence Day. Oh, and reclining bucket seats that make the very best Brookstone massage chairs feel like the back seat of a 1974 Dodge Dart.

Every seat's on the center line, and The Godfather trilogy plays every Friday night. (Truly, God is merciful, benevolent and wise!) And Close Encounters of the Third Kind is every Sunday's matinee. That's what I hope, pray and, in fact, believe your friend's experiencing. He already knows how Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ends. He's seen Watchmen, with the "Black Freighter" footage, about fifty times, and it gets better each showing. He was there on opening night to view Avatar, and the only reason he doesn't lean across the celestial aisle between his favorite seat and yours and whisper to you what happens, is that he can't wait to see your reaction to it, in your own time. You see, there are no spoilers in Heaven.

Oh, and that "Icon" bit? You're forgiven. [Grin] If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right about now, I'm all flatterned out.

--Nico.

ETA2: Oh, very well. God screens that teaser for Iron Man on occasion, too. Sheesh. [Grin]

Nico, I had the misfortune of joining Fantasy Moguls after your departure, and have since heard echoes throughout the message boards and Shryke/Steve's columns about this mysterious former columnist named "Nicodemus". Egads! I must say you more than deserve the hype heaped upon you! I love your analysis, love your style, and only wish I could ever write as well as you do.
Question: how long does it take you to write posts like you've done here? I'd imagine it'd take me at least a couple hours of thought to fashion anything remotely resembling what you've written, yet you seem to knock it out so effortlessly...

Bless you Michael Bay. Armageddon is a masterpiece.

la_resistance, welcome to the Nicodemus Mutual Appreciation Club, of which I am the self-appointed President and founder. I am happy to say, there are no dues to pay, no forms to sign, parking is always ample and the vending machines always have your favorite flavor of granola bar. You'll have to provide your own blazer and cuff-links, though. (Grin.)

I know that he is a modest rat (hmmm... modest rat... sounds like a good name for a band, dunnit?), so I'll try to keep this brief (though I'll probably fail).

I mentioned my friend Larry in my last post, and with the anniversary of his death approaching, I feel I need to tell someone about him, as he had no family of his own, save a brother that he was estranged from. I met him in, of all things, a bowling league, and I was amazed how much we had in common as far as musical, film and television goes, even though he was twelve years my senior. He was an ex-army veteran who had fallen of very hard times, and was living in this tiny little studio apartment with no electricity. But he never let his situation get him down, and he always had something to say about anything at all, and after a time, I asked if he would be my roommate (as I was often strapped for cash myself).

And so it went, for nine years... he would move in, move out, move back in again. And we saw hundreds of movies together, on TV and in the theater. He had a mind like a steel trap and a champion-level trivia quotient. Unfortunately, he also smoked like a chimney and didn't take particularly good care of himself, and as I mentioned, he passed away in 2000, one month to the day before he was to serve as best man at my wedding.

Even now, seven years later, scarcely a day goes by that I don't think of him, and every time I see a monster flick, or a martial-arts flick, or a raunchy comedy, I think to myself, "I wonder if Larry would have like this film." Force of habit. (For those interested: his all-time favorite films were The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, Big Trouble in Little China, Total Recall, Predator, Lawrence of Arabia, every Godzilla flick ever made, and his all-time favorite, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

When I "met" Nico, a mere six months ago, all those happy memories that I thought I had lost came back. Never, ever underestimate the power and comfort of intelligent discourse with like-minded colleagues, people, there really is no substitute. I feel my life is more enriched from having gotten to know him, and I mean on a personal level, not just a professional one. The events that prompted his three-month absence, well, I know I may only scratch the surface of his mindset during that period, but I daresay if I had had to go through what he did, the pavement of my psyche would have cracked too.

I love reading his columns, his posts, whatever. I have printed them out and read them to friends, they're so awesome. I, like you, la_resistance hope one day to reach a level of acumen that he possesses. (Though I like to think I'm slightly 'bove average.)

Of course, that being said, as much as I love nothing more than to pick his brain, I know that if I had to spend ten damn minutes inside his head, I would be driven stark raving mad by all of its labyrinthine recesses, recursive occlusions, and giant stuffed battery-powered cymbal-clanging monkeys, a landscape that even Tim Burton would take one look at and go "Holy sh*t, dude."

And tuan? Good luck on that screenplay. Having gotten to know you a little over these last few months, I think you too possess a first-rate creative mind.

I remain, as always,

Curious Yellow.

Not to add to Nicos growing Flatterers.(if thats a word.) But I agree with pretty much everything you said about QT. I also find him to be severly overated along with most of his movies. He seems like a really cool guy. He's in my top list of famous dudes I'd like to chill with. Unfortunatley for him I don't like watching my movies in shuffle mode. I wonder if you put one of his movies in shuffle, would it play in a realistic time line. I'll have to try that. Although Pulp Fiction was the same as all his others. I definately enjoyed that one above the rest. Especially kill bill. My opinion. His most overated movie.

All: Er, wow.

I have to say, I'm really, truly, thoroughly humbled by the inspiring, continuing (in fact, I think, increasing), über-positive reception I'm getting from the Fantaverse (most emphatically not one inhabited by Kiki, Lola, Sohpia, and/or Capri -- perhaps I should dub this the Mogulverse, instead, except for the fact that I suspect some folks might insist upon speaking Urdu), welcoming me back to DryLand following my three-month, self-imposed sabbatical.

It may seem a mite pretentious -- certainly, it does to yours truly -- to acknowledge such generous comments as those I've been so lucky as to receive here, but I find it difficult to merely continue on my merry way without pausing for a moment to reflect on compliments like those above... When someone says something nice about you, I feel, it's just rude not to at least stop a sec and say, Gosh, guys, thanks.

And, I have to say, as much as I appreciate the consistent support of my friends -- people who've come to know me on these boards and on this site since its infancy, before AND during my all-too-brief tenure as a FM columnist -- it's actually even more remarkable to hear, from relative newcomers to this community, that they don't get the impression that it was all just a bunch of overzealous hype. You know what I mean? It's just nice to hear that, for once, something in this world might just have a chance of living up to its billing. (Imagine my surprise that I might not disappoint!)

Anyway, I don't mean to make too much of this -- I just wanted to say, I appreciate your kind, generous words and hugely impactful encouragement more than you can know. "Coming back" is only a thought that's seriously crossed this rat's craisin-sized brain in the last few weeks, but I'm giving it more and more consideration, and I think I might even have an idea. (More on that in a minute.)

First, though, let me respond to a few of my colleagues...

la_resistance28: You're too kind. Thank you, my friend. My writing "style," if it can be termed so optimistically with a straight face, was hugely influenced by George Carlin, Dennis Miller, Art Buchwald, Douglas Adams, and, perhaps most of all, Dave Barry... But also by Terry Gilliam, John Barth, William Goldman (particularly, his The Princess Bride) and, most tragically, John Kennedy Toole. (Though I wasn't inspired by either, I find Dave Eggers' and Neil Peart's voices very, very familiar, also.) My writing is very casual and spontaneous, intimate, even (I hope), while incorporating the occasional hifalutin turn of phrase; I try to strike a balance between informal coffee-house conversation, pseudo-academic verbiage, and flat-out, marginally inspired lunacy, as if (I flatter myself to think) Léon Foucault, Ernest Hemingway and John Cleese were having it out over nine-dollar Venti Café mochas and stale biscottis. It's almost stream-of-(dubious) consciousness, incorporating many of the tangents and detours and intellectual cul-de-sacs actual spoken dialogue tends to comprise, and so it requires a bit more attention from readers and, I suspect, patience than the works of more conventional, straightforward writers. Certainly my editors, all of them, have become alcoholics in the midst of my abuses; all of them, I should say, except for my FM compatriot, who merely went incoherently, irretrievably, barking mad.

Or, as my wife frequently chimes in, I'm an acquired tastelessness. [Grin]

As far as "wish[ing]" you "could ever write as well," well, my friend, you want to know what 95% of successful writing is? You guessed it... WRITING. Writing for fun, writing for profit, writing love letters, or Dear John letters, or Dear Jane letters, or responses to your OWN Dear John or Dear Jane letters. Writing your autobiography, or the autobiography you'd write if your life was more insteresting and populated by someone 900% cooler than you. Writing screenplays for the movie that's constantly playing in your head (everybody has one; mine's called One Flew Over the Rat's Nest, I think), writing acceptance speeches, eulogies, personals ads, parking tickets. Writing fanfic. Writing scenes left out of your favorite movies, or (even more fun!) your least favorite films. Writing dialogue for your friends, as if they were characters in a sitcom that's just like YOUR life, only, you know, funny. Write a one-act play about your parents. Adapt Winnie the Pooh stories by way of Shakespeare. (Piglet?) Write your own obituary, twice; one from the perspective of your loving family, the other from the point of view of the kid you stuffed in a gym locker in sixth grade. The point is, WRITE. Write for YOURSELF, and figure our what tickles YOU, what makes YOU go, "Ain't [that] cool?" what makes YOU want to read your OWN stuff. Get to the point where you can do that pretty consistently, and you've found YOUR "voice." Then, all you have to do is browbeat some poor schmuck into letting you get published on their Website. (Whups, perhaps that was too much honesty, there.)

Oh, to answer your question: Stuff like I post here in the Forum, usually takes me only about as long as it takes to type it out, and I'm a pretty fair typist, or at least I was the last time I got tested. I usually go back a time or three after hitting [Submit] (which, seriously, is a button with fairly massive Orwellian overtones, don'tchathink?) to correct spelning and the like, or add something I intended to say but didn't the first time around. So far, I've been working on this about 12 minutes. Columns, however, are hardly effortless, since they're far more polished and even planned-out than the opinions I post here. Although, in all honesty, preparing for ONE MONTH OUT took the most time; 10 to 12 hours, usually, in research and fact-checking and collating, more when I did (overly) exhaustive number-crunching. I think the "Low 5" Special Report took me, like, thirty hours, because I was analyzing historical trends going back to 1989. Much good it did me; I guaranteed that Spider-Man 3 would top out short of $300M. Nice one, huh? [Grin]

Anyway, thanks again. Perhaps you'll get to experience me as a columnist soon... If not, well, in the immortal words of The Mole:

You may get stabbed in the head /
With a dagger or sword. /
You may be burned to death, /
Or skinned alive or worse. /
But when they torture you, /
You will not feel you need to run, /
For though you die, La Resistance lives on.

tuan69: Again, man, thanks. (Yer still not getting my Bud Light -- whups, sorry, for a moment there I thought I was talking to Shryke42.) [Grin] I actually had a lot of fun typing that up, all the more because I mean(t) it. (Satan may have some kick-ass hot tubs, but his movie theater's that overgrown, dilpidated drive-in from Lone Star, or, worse, Spies Like Us.)

As far as Wall-E goes, yeah, I hope you're right. Perhaps it's because I'm the parent of a young child, or because of my personal opinions / biases / pecadillos (Austrian armadillos), or because of this year's events, and, as you say, I'm simply a little more cynical, a shade more brittle. [Shrug] It could well be. Certainly I became much more sensitive to what I consider to be the dishonest packaging of political rhetoric in children's entertainment after being subjected to the closing minutes of Happy Feet. It could also be because, one afternoon this past Spring, my first-grader ebulliently announced that we needed to get rid of our minivan and buy a smaller car, because we were melting the ice and drowning families of polar bears. (I kid you not.)

It's fair to say, then, I come to this issue packing some baggage. And it's also fair to say that I wasn't nearly so critical of, say, Over the Hedge, which one could argue was a decidely anti-consumerist film that denigrated, in particular, Americans for their rampant and wasteful spending, eating, building, destroying, and Verminating. Because, you see, I agreed with those sentiments. Given all that, perhaps you should take my opinion on this matter with a grain of salt or two, or, more likely, a whole margarita glass' worth. Still, you asked me what my reservations were, so... [Grin]

Oh, and as for "even though the aliens ended up looking like the clay-monsters-brought-to-life from Power Rangers"? Priceless, dude. Though I actually at first thought they were using stock footage of Leona Helmsley.

Shryke: Are there REALLY no dues? Damn, man, my DirecTV bill's over $300! [Grumbling]

Beware the lawsuit from the attorneys for Modest Mouse, btw. [Grin]

..."intelligent discourse"... [snort] Watch where you step 'round here, la_resistance, it's gettin' deep. Besides, I provide more like "embellishment" discourse...

Christ, Shryke's distributing Nico tracts, of all things. He couldn't have picked someone less controversial, like, say, Leon Trotsky, or Ted Kaczynski, or Ann Coulter, could he? Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. [Grin]

cRAzY: I disagree with you about Kill Bill, but it's all six of one. I also think QT's a helluva talent, and probably a helluva guy. I'd love to have a beer with him (though, not in any bar tended by Cheech Marin), I'm just not sure I'd like to give him $80M to write / executive produce / direct / score / edit / sweep the floor of a movie.

Oh, so, here's my idea. (Shryke, do me a favor and pass this along to The Powers That Be, if you would, please.) What do you think about you guys -- the citizens of this, the Fantaverse -- coming up with the idea for my new column? What sort of writing do YOU want me to do for FM? Previews? Predictions? All-encompassing overviews? Fortune cookies? You tell me (them!) My old "beat" is pretty well covered, I need a new challenge, a new direction. What do YOU want to see coming out of the rat hole? (And, if it's "merciful, prayer-answering silence," well, tell 'em that, too!)

If you like the notion, just say so, and I'll ask Shryke to pass it on and initiate some sort of poll or something, assuming the concept passes muster. What do you think? Call it, Choose Nico's Next Column, or something. (Gee, this sounds suspiciously like Big Brother 8, with me as Eric...)

Anywho, think about it. Until next time, then, I'm making certain to lay in stores of flaming ink for my enchanted quill... I remain, as always...

Nico.

ETA: 52 minutes, with revisions. And, yes, "flatterers" is indeed a word: It means, 'People who make pancakes.' [Grin]

Wow. Now thats a post.
In my opinion I wouldn't mind reading your reviews. You seem like more of a people person and not one of those paper writing stuck up critic biggots we always have to hear from. Just me thinking aloud though.

P.S. I think I probably should've just used fans huh.
P.S.S. I bet your killer with the crossword puzzles.

Nico, king of the word and of the argumented reflexion, it is nice to see that you're still verbal in the best possible way (I couldn't resist the Usual Suspects reference)

I'm boarding this thread a bit late, but a little someone told me it was worth checking it out. Of course that little someone was right and I'm glad I entered this thread that didn't look all that interesting at first (sorry Iron Man fans, but if it wasn't for Downey Jr, Terrence Howard and The Dude, I wouldn't be very much excited...)...

As I feel I'm a bit late to catch up your discussions (especially since I would need a dictionnary Nico to understand every word you're saying, excuse the french boy inside of me...) , I'll just allow myslef a few remarks after reading one or two things that made me jump off my seat...

First, although The Village and Lady in the Water left me a bit sceptical in Shyamalan's strings of narration, the man with the N. is still one of the best storyteller working in Hollywood today, creating some of the most fascinating and chilling stories for the screen.

Second, the aforementionned french boy inside of me cannot let pass such lack of respect towards Mister John Carpenter... It's a tradition in french cinéphilie to consider John Carpenter one of the most underrated contemporary auteur of American cinema. Yes, the man has been remaking Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo for the last 30 years. But I'll be damn if he doesn't do it with panache, style, and a total lack of respect for conventions. Vampires ? Ghosts of Mars ? Succulent B movies if you ask me...

Third, David Lynch. Nico, I must say that you left out of the picture the most important film of the man, and that is Lost Highway, a film much less seen that Mulholland Drive, but it is the film that cemented Lynch's art of narration and creepiness that is the mark of Mulholland Drive. The truth is, I strongly believe Lost Highway is darker, crazier, and much more frightening and fascinating than his (yet) excellent follow up. I mean, Robert Blake ? The man is almost terrifying, Freddy Krueger is as creepy as a lamb compared to his Mysterious stranger.
I must say though that Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE is probably the worst film I've seen this year, a total mess and caricature of the filmmaker's work. A big boring joke. Too bad.

Finally, I will close this little catch up by citing, maybe not THE, but one of the films I'm most eagerly ancipating for 2008, in the english-spoken, already dated, 2008 cuvée. (I think no one mentionned it, that's why I correct this omission)
That film is Be Kind Rewind. I have to say I was disappointed with The Science of Sleep, but this one, man this one... It's the coolest pitch of the year, the coolest pairing of the year, and the coolest trailer of the year. Michel Gondry my fellow french man, you are a genius !!!!

Thanks for listening to my humble remarks, chers amis...

Chien despite my hatered of Michel Gondry Be Kind Rewind looks great.

Ahhhh, mon frère, it has been awhile since we've had a petit tête à tête, n'est pas? [Grin]

As far as M. Night goes, I'm pretty much in agreement with you, although I don't think his narrative "style" is any more suspect than, say, Martin Scorcese's (I mean, even Jack Nicholson famously said of The Departed: "This is the first film of his that's had a plot." Like Shyamalamadingdong, Marty tends to thread together thinly related vignettes in chronological order and call it a film -- consider Goodfellas, for example, or Casino, or Gangs of New York, or The Aviator, or After Hours, or The King of Comedy, or, even, The Age of Innocence. Now, I think Jack exaggerated a bit... Mean Streets, Raging Bull, The Color of Money, Cape Fear, and, of course, Taxi Driver all were pretty tight, narratively... but there's no question that his latter work is more contemplative, evoking -- in my opinion -- stylistic comparisons to Terrence Malick, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Altman and, oddly enough, Woody Allen.)

Speaking of which, it's also a French cinéphilie tradition to consider Mr. Soon-Yi an auteur of Carpenterian proportions, non? ...I rest my case. And, imho, any culture that worships Jerry Lewis the way the French do is clearly hors à déjeuner, if you'll forgive the imprecision of my trans-continental colloquialisms. ...No, really, I'm only breaking your balls a little bit. I live in Texas, you in France. We have to throw down every so often, otherwise everybody else will be disappointed... Although, in all frankness [heh] and honesty -- my adolescent love for Dark Star, The Exorcist, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing and, of course, Big Trouble in Little China aside -- I must consider Mssr. Charpentier far more cinematic idiot savant, than savior.

(Good call on Rio Bravo, btw... And you could also argue that Young Guns II, Open Range, and even 3:10 to Yuma -- both versions -- share a similar thematic pedigree.)

However, I digress.

And good call on Lost Highway -- funny, I was going to mention that film as well, but didn't get around to it. I haven't seen Inland Empire, though I can't imagine it could be worse than Fire Walk With Me. The Straight Story gave me hope that Lynch could follow Sam Raimi and David Cronenberg into new genres, as they broadened their résumés with, respectively, A Simple Plan and M. Butterfly (as well as 1996's Crash). Time has, frustratingly, so far proved that hope to be in vain.

Be Kind Rewind looks very, very interesting, sort of a nouveau psychedelic cross between Powder, Dreamscape, Sphere and Being John Malkovich... As well as, perhaps, the last film to incorporate VCRs without being a "period piece," sort of how High Fidelity was in all likelihood the last contemporary film about record stores, soon to go the way of malt shoppes, apothecaries, glassblowers, coopers and smithies... (Hey, trivia question for y'all: What was the absolute last major-studio title to be released on VHS?) Here's a hint: I've mentioned its director in this post. [Swipe for the answer] A History of Violence. Now, for a pink (Entertainment) pie... What was the VHS format's FIRST film? South Korea's The Young Teacher. No wiki'ing!)

However... I digress from my digression.

...And you're welcome, and thank you. Er, what? Keep up the good work on the columns, btw... You FM columnists are gods, I say, GODS!!! Dieux, je dis, DIEUX!!![Grin]

As always, mon petit fromage, I remain...

Nico.

P.S. The greatest trick I ever pulled, apparently, was convincing the world I didn't exist, either. Like, for three whole months, there.

P.P.S. Fetché la vache, s'il vous plait. (Quoi?)

ETA: This thread now officially has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Iron Man.

ETA2: Michel Gondry... [shrugging of shoulders in approximation of infinite apathy] Meh.

Nico, I'm not completely sure of your cinematic depth and range, but if you or someone could occasionally post articles about classic films or films beyond Star Wars and The Godfather (you know, the usual stuff that everyone will write about) so that people who post could expand their cinematic experience beyond the year they were born and forward (comment intended towards me also).

I just think it would be cool if there was a way that people could slowly expand their film experience with someone to guide them genre or eras they weren't as comfortable with.

As for Quentin T, any conversation you have with him and a beer will probably be a lot about the QT show. I have read and seen enough interviews and I don't think he would be as cool as most people assume. If you want someone cool to hang with, everything I have seen shows that the other half of Grindhouse is the guy to have a beer with- Robert Rodriguez.

One Director/ performer I would like to sit down to talk with is Rob Zombie. His knowledge of film, especially horror, is legendary and would be fascinating to tap into.

jameydunne, that's an intriguing idea. Um, I think I'm probably a little better-versed, cinematically, than the average American, but I'd be lying if I told you that I'd seen more than half of the films I've wanted to see. There are some fairly large gaps in my file, most especially from the era of Hollywood's "golden age"; I'm not big on pre-1960 films, unless they're war films or Westerns, for instance. I've probably seen only a few dozen silent films, ever. I'm shockingly behind-the-times in terms of anime. And I've seen far fewer comedies than dramas. Recently, though, I have been attempting to become knowledgeable about filmed musicals. There are far, far more than I ever could have guessed.

I have no idea if QT's a prima donna; you could be right. I will say that several years ago I got the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes and talk with Kiss' Gene Simmons; he was probably the coolest famous person I've ever met, disarmingly down-to-earth, incredibly intelligent, and so supremely self-assured that he didn't need to be a jerk. I hope Rob Zombie's more like Mr. Simmons than, say, Oliver Stone, who looked at my outstretched appendage like it contained a week-old dead fish when I tried to shake hand some years ago.

Thanks for the input!

I remain, as always...

Nico.

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