The Big Lebowski will be preserved as a historical piece of American culture
19 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, movies Tags: The Big Lebowski
A great movie about a bunch of losers and misfits.
Film review: Mr Turner
11 Dec 2014 1 Comment
in movies Tags: Mr Turner, Timothy Spall
We watched the British bio epic Mr Turner last night. At 150 minutes long, it had to grow when you, but it was a good movie in the end.
It stars Timothy Spall in his best performance to date as a gruff eccentric artist who often spoke in grunts and snorts and who was somehow still something of a ladies man.
The notion of Timothy Spall as a ladies man is a bit of a shock. Timothy Spall is a great character actor but in appearance, he is very much a face for radio.
Turner was a brilliant 19th century artist. The picture captures that superbly through the colour, lighting and scene setting of the Mike Leigh film and through Timothy Spall’s two years to learn how to paint so that he carried off the painting though he was a natural.
As I said, it’s a long movie that takes time to grow on you in part because of the setting up the the life of Turner and the era in which he lived.
We got the tickets as a last-minute gift that someone else won on the radio for a pre-screening.
As we did not pay, it is hard to give a recommendation about a film you largely get for free.
I find something significant in passing over the $16 in terms of focusing your attention on the value for money from a film. I had that view before I studied economics.
Shooting the MGM logo, 1924.
27 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, movies, technological progress Tags: movies
Shooting the MGM logo, 1924. http://t.co/wp5LCwSUhe—
History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) June 30, 2014
Are you wearing a wire?
25 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, movies, TV shows Tags: movies, TV shows all
One of the oldest dramatic devices in a TV show or movie drama is to have the hero or police spy go into a meeting with the criminal desperados wearing a wire.
There has been zero technological progress in the size of these listening devices ever since I started watching TV.
When undercover agents record conversations., they use a bulky tape recorder strapped around their waists, and wires — connected to a microphone — secured to their chests with an adhesive.
When the criminals look for the wire, they tear off the shirt of the suspected police spy to look for the wire. They never check his mobile phone.
Today, eavesdropping equipment is sophisticated enough to record high-definition video and sound, and stream it live to a remote computer. Devices no bigger than a pen cap can be slipped into a coat pocket and easily record through the person’s clothing.
Scriptwriters are really going to have to look for a substitute dramatic device. Pretty soon, a large part of the audience simply will not recognise an old-fashioned tape recorder.
Sinatra police mug-shot from 1938
23 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in movies, Music, televison, TV shows Tags: Frank Sinatra
The Economics of Elysium
16 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, F.A. Hayek, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, law and economics, Marxist economics, movies, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Cuba, Elysium
Bluto’s inspirational speech – Animal House
02 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in movies Tags: Animal House
Film review: Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck
14 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in movies Tags: Alec Guinness, Ben Affleck, Gone Girl, Leftover Left, Meryl Streep, movies, Old Left, Sean Penn
This thriller is surprisingly good. I did not particularly want to go because it was foreshadowed to include graphic violence, which it does include.
Gone Girl passes the key test of good thrillers, great thrillers. It is pointless watching this movie a second time because you know how it finishes and all the plot turns. The movie really grows on you and you don’t notice it is 149 minutes long. Not a scene is wasted.
Silence of the Lambs is a similar movie in the sense of it is pointless watching that movie the second time. Silence of the Lambs is plain boring if you try and watch it a second time .
Gone Girl is about the disappearance of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) on her wedding anniversary, and the whodunit investigation that followed. Support cast is made up of unknowns who fill out their roles excellently.
Oddly enough, on the morning before going to the movie, I was thinking about who are the great actors and actresses.
The obvious is Meryl Streep to she dissolves into any role. You don’t remember the movies that Meryl Streep appeared in because she was such a part of the movie that you don’t remember the movie because Meryl Streep was in it.
Alec Guinness is another brilliant actor who dissolved into any role he was cast. Sean Penn is his modern match, although Penn spends too much time in art house movies trying to persuade you to like Fidel Castro and his philosophy and outlook on life.
When I was drawing up this list, Ben Affleck got a mention as someone who can just appear in the movie and you pay no attention to what his previous roles were or even remember what they were. Ben Affleck is rising actor these days
Film review: Rocky (1976) starring Sylvester Stallone & Talia Shire
07 Oct 2014 1 Comment
in economics of media and culture, movies Tags: Rocky
By chance, I caught Rocky on late-night TV the other week. I must have never seen it before. I have seen the other Rocky movies, for my sins.
Not a single thing came back about the movie as I watched it: not a single scene, not the plot, nothing. Either I am fading away or I’ve never seen the film.
It’s actually quite a good film. Stands up well to time as well.
The fight scenes are excellent. So good that I could not actually work out how they filmed them in such a short period of time on a small budget. Rocky was the 3rd film to use the Steadicam, after Bound for Glory and Marathon Man. The movie was shot in 28 days. The production budget was $1,075,000, with a further $100,000 spent on producer’s fees and $4.2 million of advertising costs.
The famous scene of Rocky running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a cultural icon as is its anthem Gonna Fly Now.
Blade runner (1982) : a complete analysis
07 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in movies Tags: Blade Runner
For those who don’t know and appreciate one of the great cult films of the 1980s, and one of the great films of the 1980s.
No one particularly liked Blade Runner when it came out, but that’s rather common with great films. They grow on you.
A.CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL & OVERVIEW
November 2019. Los Angeles. In a post-apocalyptic future, the pyramids owned by the Tyrell corporation dominates the view of the metropolis city. Under an almost total obsurity, and a plethora of rain, an abundant crowd, wishes to leaves for the space colonies, a much better place than the desolate and decadent planet Earth. The planet itself has been under nuclear wars and rain constantly pours its surface: animals cease to exists, which makes them quite pricey and in demand. In fact, Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by nuclear war during World War Terminus. Most types of animals are endangered or extinct due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status, but what is emphasized more here is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal.
This futuristic vision was first imagined by the…
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Mega-cities are the most beautiful sight in the world: Shinjuku train station by night
07 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, liberalism, movies Tags: Blade Runner, Shinjuku, The Great Enrichment, Tokyo
The first time I walked out of the gate of Shinjuku train station the night I arrived in Tokyo in 1993, I thought I had walked into a scene from Blade Runner.
Tokyo is one of the most beautiful cities the world. It’s full of people doing the most amazing things, producing an immense amount of wealth and prosperity. Cities are as beautiful as any natural beauty, more so because they are man-made.
This isn't an outtake from Blade Runner—it's Beijing today. via @punodraws @TomHoltzPaleo @b0yle http://t.co/QHMxSunUAL—
Amos Zeeberg (@settostun) January 14, 2015
Dead Poets Society – Mr. Keating’s Walt Whitman Speech
11 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in movies Tags: Robin Williams
Robin Williams – What Dreams May Come – eulogy scene
10 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in movies Tags: Robin Williams
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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