Re: Seamaster and Iago's endless rehashing Bond thread

**Iago** Fri Feb 10, 2012 5:32 am

No doubt! Did you ever watch House of the Devil, either?

**Seamaster** Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:51 am

That I did. What a fantastic job they did. I almost believed I was watching an 80s-era horror. I know the film only had a lukewarm reception, but I think some critics missed the point of what Ti West and the production crew were aiming to achieve. It was good fun.

**Iago** Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:34 pm

Glad you liked it! The thing about it is that you really need to be familiar with the films and especially the VHS tapes of the era to appreciate what he achieved with House. It is no accident that they released a DVD/VHS combo pack for the movie when it first came out, and the VHS was in one of the oversize boxes like MPI videos came in (a label that released mostly low budget horror/exploitation stuff.) The way that the main character crosses the street at the beginning and it freeze-frames with that perfect Seventies/Eighties font literally made me smile while I was watching it. (To say nothing of the vintage synthesizers that they used in the credits music.) The movie looked EXACTLY like the VHS tapes that I watched all during the Eighties (except for the aspect ratio, of course.) I am still ambivalent about the finale, since the movie did such a fantastic job of slow-burn suspense that the payoff almost inevitably seems like a let-down. But I understand the need for a modern horror movie to have its cake and eat it as well.

Ti West has a new movie out called The Inkeepers, but it is only playing in 25 theatres right now. I hope that it comes to the Twin Cities. He is going for the haunted house (hotel, in this case) investigation. Should be good. (By the way, did you ever see The Legend of Hell House?

**Seamaster** Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:57 pm

I have not seen Legend of Hell House. I gather you'd recommend giving it a watch?

**Iago** Mon Feb 13, 2012 3:21 am

It is a Seventies-era (for real, this time) haunted house movie that relies more on atmosphere than cheap shocks. It was written by Richard Matheson, based on his novel. I have never read the book, but from what I understand he toned down the sex and violence that was in the book to make the movie rely more on atmosphere. Interesting choice, especially given the author himself being the one who made the decision.

I got into a similar discussion with someone over The Cider House Rules. This person was complaining that the movie version left out the final third of the book. I pointed out that it was John Irving himself who wrote the screenplay (and won an Oscar for it.) Unlike everyone else who had adapted his novels up to that point, he realized that it was a mistake to try to squeeze the entire narrative into a two-hour run time, and rather than stripping everything to the bone to do so he focused on a part of the narrative, so he was able to provide more detail. Interestingly, someone else caught on to that idea pretty quickly; the movie The Door in the Floor, which came out a few years later, only covered one section of his novel A Widow for One Year -- less than a third of the book! And it worked, too.

**Seamaster** Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:04 am

I never saw The Cider House Rules. I read the book and loved it, as I do with most Irving novels (he is one of my contemporary favourites). I didn't want to ruin the experience as I'm generally disappointed with book-to-big-screen adaptations.

**Iago** Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:29 am

Irving posted on his Facebook page (yes, he does have one, and it appears actually to be him posting on it) that he has a new novel coming out called In One Person. I still have not read his previous one yet, but it is sitting patiently on my shelf.

**Seamaster** Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:52 am

I also have an Irving novel in waiting. I like to ensure I'm focussed enough when reading Irving, otherwise I find a lot of the subtleties are lost.

Did you ever get around to reading The Raw Shark Texts?

**Iago** Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:00 am

Whoops! Another forgotten book. I need to take a few weeks off just to read . . .

**Seamaster** Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:03 am

Well, I really do think you'd enjoy that book. I was pleasantly surprised. I've been trying to forget much of the plot points so that I can go back and reread!

**Iago** Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:20 am

I am sure that I would. Honestly, I have been reading much less lately since I have been dealing with all of the issues with the Village and the Library in Osceola. I read reams of paperwork for that, and am very busy at work as well, so when I get home I tend to not have enough concentration for a book and settle for Blu-Rays instead, or sometimes just a few cryptic crosswords. For some reason puzzles like that seem to take less concentration, maybe because you can pick them up and put them down repeatedly without losing your momentum like you do with a book.

**Seamaster** Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:42 am

I'm not a psychologist or a neurologist, nor do I pretend to know much about either, but I think it has something to do with using different parts of our brain. Critical reading uses one part of our brain and problem solving uses another. Maybe your work and volunteering taxes the critical-thinking part of your brain, leaving you starved for other kinds of brain stimulation.

**Iago** Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:54 am

Could be. It certainly seems counter-intuitive that puzzles like cryptic crosswords (which are pretty hardcore) require less concentration than reading, but there you go. Your explanation makes as much sense as any I can think of.

**Seamaster** Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:22 pm

It's not that it requires less concentration, just a different kind of concentration.

**Iago** Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:04 pm

Well, you do not have to focus the same way. You can solve one clue and be distracted before moving on to the next one. That does not work quite as well with a book.

**Seamaster** Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:35 pm

Unless we're talking about the kind of books mrblur reads!

**Iago** Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:42 pm

Hey now!

**Seamaster** Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:23 pm

Don't dream it's over?

**Iago** Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:48 am

No link to the performance, but this would have been interesting to see:

http://www.007.com/bond-at-bafta/

I have to admit that Tom Jones is a guilty pleasure. I bought his album Reloaded which has some interesting versions of him singing "Kiss," "Burning Down the House" and even "Motherless Child" with none other than Portishead. Plus, he was absolutely awesome in Mars Attacks!.

**Seamaster** Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:32 pm

Nothing wrong with guilty pleasures, so long as they don't hurt others.

**Iago** Wed Feb 29, 2012 6:30 pm

The Blu-Ray set briefly shot up to $269 on Amazon, but has since dropped back to $199. I have not pre-ordered yet, but I probably should so that if it briefly dips lower than that I will have the price locked in.

**Seamaster** Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:21 am

I haven't preordered either. Suppose I should.

**Iago** Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:42 pm

The advantage is that if they do a one-day price drop, your price will lock in at the cheaper price.

In the mean time, I have this tasty little treat on the way from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Critical-History-Filmography-Tohos-Godzilla/dp/0786447494/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330641593&sr=1-7

Kalat did both commentary tracks on the new Criterion Godzilla Blu-Ray, and he was a treat to listen to. He mentioned at the beginning of the track that he was the author of this book and I only had to listen to him for ten minutes or so to decide that I needed to pick up that book. Not cheap, but Eve had a couple of $10 Amazon gift cards that lessened the sting.

**Seamaster** Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:21 pm

At least they gave you 5% off! You will have to let us know what you think of the book.

pssst: While you were at it, you could have spent $10 more and picked up The Raw Shark Texts.

**Iago** Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:36 am

I could have but forgot. I will get it done!

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