Disappointing Trends in Movies

[frankthedm]

I'm not one to be severly disappointed in a movie, however there is one trend in today's filmmaking that I really don't like. It's the trend of directors having the camera jerk around during a battle scene so that you feel like you're "in the middle" of the fight.

I'm sure some of you out there really like it, but I personally actually get motion sickness from the camera jerking around like that...


What are your movie pet peeves?

Be Very thankful you never say The Blair Witch Project. I actually liked the movie, but the whole movie triggers motion sickness in those overly vulnerable to it.

I get eyeball pounding headaches from movies like that and most First person shooter games.

 

[WayneLigon]

If TV shows that are in-your-face about homosexuality are a recipie for failure, explain the success of Will and Grace.

I think Jack is frickin hilarious but occasionally I do feel uncomfortable with the homosexual references, so I personally do not watch it very often, but it has a large following and is a very funny show.

I haven't seen many episodes of it, either, but they do a lot more than just dwell on WIll's sexuality. Very little of the show is actually about that or focused on it, so I'd say it's very much not 'in yor face'. Ellen went to the other extreme, practically yelling at the audience, 'Hey! Over here! Look at me! Gay, here!" So it seemed to me.

 

[Desdichado]

If TV shows that are in-your-face about homosexuality are a recipie for failure, explain the success of Will and Grace.

Will and Grace is a parody and a comedy. From the conversations I've had with gay men (and women) they don't necessarily think that it has "furthered their cause" any at all.

And like WayneLigon said, there's a huge difference between Will and Grace and Ellen post-closet-coming-out-of.

 

[Hijinks]

I disagree. Will isn't the only gay character; Jack is flamboyantly gay and very much in-your-face. Karen also makes sexual references about other women. The only character (in my opinion) on the show who doesn't make sexual references every other sentence is Grace.

 

[sniffles]

Pardon me for getting long-winded again here.
Nope. Just despise ingnorant and irresponsible parents, as well as the kind of stupidity that productes the ratings systems we have in this country.
Or is it that noone applies it because it's meaningless? What is the penalty for allowing a 16 year old into an NC-17 movie? There ISN'T one. It simply isn't up to the theatre to restrict your entry into the movie because of the ratings. The ratings don't work that way. The only way a situation like that can get you in legal trouble is letting underage kids into X-rated movies but that's not because of the ratings - it's because of providing minors access to pornography.

That's a very valid point. The rating system doesn't have any consequences, it's just an advisory. Personally I'd like to just see people barred from theatres more often. Kick that 16-year-old out of the NC-17 movie, take his ID or his picture and post it in the ticket booth, and don't let him in that theatre again for *any* movie until he's 18. But that'll never happen.

 

[mojo1701]

I disagree. Will isn't the only gay character; Jack is flamboyantly gay and very much in-your-face. Karen also makes sexual references about other women. The only character (in my opinion) on the show who doesn't make sexual references every other sentence is Grace.

That, and Jack and Karen are the Kramers of the show. They're there for (more) comic relief. Jack's flamboyant, but it's more of a parody, as he gets made fun of so much.

 

[Storm Raven]

If TV shows that are in-your-face about homosexuality are a recipie for failure, explain the success of Will and Grace.

Television viewing audiences are more fractured than ever, with fewer people watching network shows. It is likely that you can occasionally appeal to a very small demographic on television on one or two shows these days because nobody is getting a big audience to begin with.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Dubbing does not destroy the performance but it certainly does distract from it since so much of it is done badly with inappropriate voices. I like hearing the original voices since they often communicate emotion and more through tone and pacing. Some dubs are good. THe Studio Ghibli ones have been very, very good and they don't distract from the film. Some parts of Princess Mononoke might even be better for the dubbing, given the voices involved.

So much of it is done badly, though, and I think that the subbed copy is, in that case, indeed a superior product. It's still not as good as knowing the language, though, especially for the humor titles. A lot of anime humor stems from regional dialects, language play, the nuances of the various terms of respect, puns and other things that are almost impossible to translate. I live Neo-Ranga for having a translators notes add-on for the DVD where they explain the translation process more fully. It's totally fascinating.

Using the 'sub is superior because it is sub' is still foolish because of this very fact - even the sub you're getting is still chaning things because otherwise you'd need about thirty lines of text to put some parts in context. (OK, in this scene, Amiko's tone and use of the word 'X' indicates she's really playing up the distance between her and her sister since she's using a term of respect normally reserved for an older relative of a higher social status).

As a German, I know the drawbacks of dubbing*). But most the time, I don´t disagree with the voices, but more with the skill of the translation. I noticed in some movies I watched both on English and German, that something didn´t match entirely. Sometimes I notice it even if I watched the movie only in German.
The truth probably is, most the time it doesn´t matter much. But when it matters, you want the original version - but it makes only sense if you can actually understand it. I am limited to German and English, I am not really interested in learning further languages (or refreshing and improving my French). Luckily, English and German is sufficient most the time.


*) Though the worst example of bad dubbing wasn´t in a movie, but in a computer game. Command & Conquer - Tiberian Sun. There was a scene where the NOD soldiers would hail their leader, Kane - it was totally unemotional and unconvincing in German - the scene I saw in a trailer for the game was a lot more "inspiring"...

 

[Nellisir]

I fail to see how dubbed dialogue destroys the performance anymore than listening to a language you don't understand and having to read a translation at the bottom of the screen.

Watch what you like. Personally, I prefer subtitles -- I read quickly and after a few minutes, the whole process becomes automatic -- I no longer register the subtitles at all. And I get the intonation of the actual voice to supplement the translation.

I'm gonna have to get that "Ong Bak" movie. My wife is half-Thai and grew up in Bangkok; she'll probably recognize her house or school or something. She'll at least have fun picking apart the translation. And the martial arts look kick-butt.

Also -- she's the one that picks out the "frat party" movies with R-ratings for sexual innuendo and lots of (female) flesh.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Watch what you like. Personally, I prefer subtitles -- I read quickly and after a few minutes, the whole process becomes automatic -- I no longer register the subtitles at all. And I get the intonation of the actual voice to supplement the translation.

Now, what I'm about to say only refers to Japanese anime:

I used to prefer subtitles, because I thought the Japanese voices were more realistic and less "cartoony" than the dubbed ones, which were often completely overdone.

Then I lived in Japan for three years, and realized that the Japanese voices are just as overdone as anything dubbed into English. I just didn't recognize it, because I didn't--at the time--speak any Japanese. So I caught the emotion, but didn't realize just how over-the-top the voices were. As such, watching anime in Japanese cut out some of the childishness inherent in American voice acting (at least then--I think American dubbing has gotten better by leaps and bounds.)

So the next time you watch subtitled anime, remember that the voices that you're hearing are just as over-the-top in Japanese, as the old G.I. Joe voices are in English.


As an aside, I still prefer subtitles today, but for entirely different reasons.