Sunday 21 March 2010

Shorts


Rodriguez channels The Goonies (albeit an episodic, non-linear, origin story version of The Goonies) and creates possibly the most awesome kids movie I've seen since being a grown up.

4 comments:

  1. I know I'll probably get blasted from all sides for this, but I never actually saw The Goonies as a kid. Is it something you can watch now and still enjoy? Or does it have to be tied into your memories of watching it as a kid?

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  2. Watch it and find out.

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  3. Noise only saw Goonies for the first time in the last couple of years. He said he liked it, but didn't think it was that special. I think that makes sense. When I watch it as an adult I still love it, but I can see that really their adventure is pretty short. Whereas as a kid it was this insane trip in actuality they go down a couple of passages, avoid 3 traps and they're there. But it's still BRILLIANT!!! Watching it is the only way to realise that.

    Shorts highlighted everything great and poor about Rodriguez. The great... There is an abundance of ideas, style and ambition. It looks about 4 times as expensive as it probably was. It has moments of pure genius; the first short (about a brother and sister having a staring competition) in particular is quite brilliant. Everyone seems to be having a ball and that feeling bleeds through into the viewing experience.
    The bad... There is an over abdundance of ideas, style and ambition. At times he seems to get bored of an idea quickly and doesn't fulfil the potential, usually rushing an illogical, out of character conclusion. This has less impact on the enjoyment of his kids movies, but does tend to lead to the overall conclusion being muddled. The final chapter of Shorts really has no logic to it whatsoever; characters tend to "learn" because it's what the end requires, not because of anything we've actually seen them learn.

    Overall Shorts was still a highly enjoyable kids romp. The excessive Rodriguez-ness fits the genre well. It does also suffer from the same problem all anthology films do. Some segments are just much better than others.

    Here's the best.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo78vsU1h7Y

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  4. Finally saw The Goonies. I'm sure it would have been great as a kid, but watching it now it just seems like a Disneyworld ride turned into a movie.

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