Miracle Mile

Started by Kal, March 21, 2004, 12:47:49 AM

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Kal

anyone seen this movie?

I think its really crazy but I liked it a lot... it was never too popular but the story is very cool and keeps you guessing til the very end...

grand theft sparrow

I count this as one of the 5 worst movies I've ever seen.  Good idea, bad script, directing, and performances.



SPOILERS (for anyone who cares)







That ending was a misfire.  It plays like there's going to be a last minute happy ending, or even a twist ending but it doubles back on itself instead and we get the end of the world.  What the hell's the point of that?  To tell us that nukes are bad?  No shit.  We already saw Dr. Strangelove.  If it had had a twist ending where it turned out to be an exercise that somehow got leaked by some dumbass new guy at NORAD or something, then it could have made a point about (as cliche as it is to say this) society.  But why should we give a shit about these people if they're going to die and there's nothing they can do to stop it?  That's not a movie; that's a very expensive soapbox.


Sorry to piss on your thread here but I really hated this movie, and I'm tired so I feel surlier than usual.  Just curious, is your enjoyment of the movie genuine or is it one of those "I know it's bad but I like it anyway" kind of things?

Kal

I agree with you especially on the end... but I do think its a very entertaining movie and the Anthony Edwards was very good... we also have to consider it was rather an independent flick and didnt have millions of dollars behind or so well known stars... what I hated was the girl, as she was damn ugly so he cannot fall inlove at first sight with her...

I do think the ending sucks and it has no message and no point... but up until that moment I think the movie is very good

El Duderino

IMO, the only good thing about the movie was Anthony Edwards
Did I just get cock-blocked by Bob Saget?

Find Your Magali

I thought it was a fine little movie. Pessimistic endings don't bother me. You can't have EVERY apocalypse averted at the last moment.

grand theft sparrow

Pessimistic endings don't bother me either but poor storytelling does.  The ending robs the movie of merit.  It becomes an arms-race version of Reefer Madness.

jenkins



Surprisingly terrific intro topic here at Xixax, nice.

Quote from: grand theft sparrow on March 21, 2004, 01:26:44 AM
I count this as one of the 5 worst movies I've ever seen.  Good idea, bad script, directing, and performances.

Laughing because I'm going to hunt for the positive angles here, but I think an interesting question is whether to blame the script the direction or the performances.

I could blame all of them or none of them. I want to blame the director alone, I want to be nice to the actors, but he's not to blame so much as my taste for his decisions are to blame.

A friend of mine compared this to Repo Man and I agree, and Repo Man is a movie I don't like very much. What this perspective is called I forget, I think it has a simple and basic name it's embarrassing I'm forgetting, but basically the movie knows it's make-believe bullshit and alleviates its own anxiety through deadpan fantasy. Which to me means the movie suffers from the problem of both overthinking itself and not trying hard enough.

So like, ok, that's a statement and now what does that statement mean and how can it be illustrated. Another form of this style is used by Hal Hartley. In a Hal Hartley movie, would I blame my problems with the movie on the script the actors or the direction? All of them and none of them, because I believe Hal Hartley intends to make the movies he does, and I don't know why he has that intention.

The frustrations I feel while watching Miracle Mile, who's able to break that problem? Tarantino of fucking course. This is from 1988, Reservoir Dogs is 1992, and the name that'll lock their link with each other is: Edward Bunker.

One could easily say concern and care for cinema are equally provided by Miracle Mile and Reservoir Dogs, and my interests rotate based on how that concern and care are expressed. In the recent QT Vulture interview, which I now thought of to quote for like the eighth time, he says:

QuoteNow it's all about my characters. I actually think my characters are going to be one of my biggest legacies after I'm gone.

Don't trip QT, I know Grindhouse still makes you trip, and I know you trip not from ego but from what you think cinema is capable of and what you want to share through it, and what I'm appreciating is QT's characters from the beginning. Getting inside your characters gets me inside your movie, and that's where I want to be.

I don't think Miracle Mile gets inside its characters so much as gets inside its script. And these characters to me would be wonderful to be inside. Reminder trailer:



He takes me so close to his characters on occasion, but sometimes I think he has such trouble breaking his own ice. Trouble forgetting himself and giving the movie to his characters.

Such wonderful things occur when you give your cinema to the characters! Miracle Mile at least twice does this, btw, when two old people kiss (I became teary eyed) and when the lead pushes a girl in a shopping cart (through LACMA?).

Here (next) is a scene where I think he has trouble breaking his ice, and he's close to being great. Another friend of mine said he feels like this movie tends to be one step off. This is full frame and a spoiled video of this shot, but the qualities being discussed are digestable (there's a brief glimpse at a nude woman fyi):



This is the same problem I had through Steve De Jarnatt's Cherry 2000. To me it's easily solvable, he in fact solves the problem now and then, so I know it's a matter of personal choice and taste. The prototypical artworld description for what I want is The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and for some reason with which I don't agree there's sometimes the opinion that "sharp" and "decisive" writing works better than lightness, but I launch into thinking "that's fucked" because it points me back toward the writer and I want to be pointed toward the character.

Either way cinema is firing, but my emotions work best when cinema fires from the character and not the script.

jenkins

oh i did a whole thing about this movie, i'd forgotten