comment #1

James Leer says ...

Wait, is this the same Jeffrey Wells who praised films like Con Air and Gone in 60 Seconds as "sirloin steak" movies?

comment #2

JD says ...

I would argue that, in their more bombastic moments, films like Crash and Babel reach their own, emotional type of 11. In fact, I'd argue that Jeff generally prefers obvious movies in the 8-11 range, he just doens't realize it. It's very rare that he exhibits any affection or understanding of subtle movies in the 4-7 range.

In any case, I think this assumption that all movies need to strive for realism is extremely limiting and naive. As Snyder points out, there's a place for theatricality in movies. I'm all for realism in serious, dramatic films, but slavish realism has been sucking the imagination, inventiveness, and magic out of other areas of filmmaking for years.

comment #3

Rick22 says ...

Movies aren't obligated to replicate life, Wellsy. Yes, we love the Chekhovian intimacy of a slow-paced drama like "Sideways" or a "Lost in Translation," but movies are about dreams, too, about blasting the stereo speakers until they reach 11... and seeing something up on screen that we'd never experience in your own lives. Stanley Kubrick thought this was one of the movies' responsibilities -- to portray the unimaginable. While not a perfect movie, "300" is completely unique -- no tepid "Sin City" retread here -- and worthy of praise, for stirring the blood, for relishing the excitement of hearing a movie hero bellowing war cries at the top of his lungs, for its pure joy of the exuberance of cinema, of the movie-going experience.

comment #4

Rich S. says ...

Besides, Snyder can now boast that by cranking it to 11, he has pissed off an entire nation. It's not often anyone in Hollywood is accused of being a puppet of U.S. foreign policy. You're not going to get that with My Dinner with Andre.

comment #5

actionman says ...

Hey Wells--have u seen the movie yet?

comment #6

adorian says ...

Historically inaccurate, they say?

Well, for starters, aren't the characters speaking in English? You can't get much more historically inaccurate than that.

comment #7

NYCBusybody says ...

Pissing off Iran is awesome. Hollywood should do it more.

comment #8

ratskiwatski says ...

"300"... feh. Why do I have the feeling that most CGI that gets people all Depends-able is going to seem risible real soon, like crap matte painting?
Even the formidable "Zodiac" - damn, the God shots of traffic on the Golden Gate are just terrible - looks like "Sim City - Marin."

And "great hand-of-God sex?" Guess that's why I gave up on the church, Wells. Just ever got the cosmic reacharound...

comment #9

Alan Cerny says ...

It's nice that you edited out where you called Zach Snyder a "dickwad", Mr. Wells. Otherwise, I might be commpelled to call you an "asshole."

comment #10

jeffmcm says ...

So following on this trajectory, Wells hates Opera, Wagner, Puccini, Verdi, and the cinema of Welles, Fellini, and any other extravagant artist.

Keep up the good work!

comment #11

admiralmpj says ...

At the end of the day, my problem is more with Frank Miller than with Zack Synder. Synder pretty much followed the Graphic Novel to a tee, though (SPOILER ALERT) the rape subplot was not in the original. The material Synder added in was either weak (see above) or cribbed from better movies (The Rhinos ala Lord of the Rings...the wheatfield, ala Gladiator).

Reading up on the details of what really happened at the Hot Gates, one has to wonder what was Miller smoking. The Spartans were pretty much cruel bastards. They didn't just kill wolves as part of their initiation, they also killed the sharecropper/slave tribe who lived next door to keep them in line. The didn't go into battle in the leather speedos, they actually had armor. And as far as Athenian "boy lovers"...uhhh, Sparta was just as guilty as other Dorian tribes of this practice.

The idea that Sparta was at the forefront of spreading Democracy to the world (and not Athens) is a joke...but it's not Synder's doing. He did a faithful represenation of the Graphic Novel. He just needs to choose better material.

comment #12

le corbeau says ...

"As Snyder points out, there's a place for theatricality in movies."

But to Jeff's point, take a movie like Excalibur. It's far from realistic, and it reaches the same kinds of stylized high points-- but it modulates up and down over the course of its running time. It doesn't stay at that bludgeoning level for 2-1/2 hours.

comment #13

Craig Kennedy says ...

Yeah, what Mgmax said. Full disclosure: I haven't seen 300 yet, but for me a movie that's all 11 all the time is about as much fun as a kick in the crotch. In order to fully appreciate the 11, I like it to be moderated with 3s or 4s or 5s. It's the tension between the two that's thrilling. The old Yin/Yang, Sweet/Sour, Left Hand/Right Hand thing.

comment #14

fnt says ...

But what do the hip, under-40 i-bankers think?

comment #15

Walter Sobchak says ...

I'm with you on this one, Wells. It can be soul-deadening. I first noticed this when I was dragged to see "The Rock". (okay, I went voluntarily). Anyway, friends of mine couldn't believe that my reaction to that film was that I found it boring. "Boring?! How can you say that? It was wall to wall action!" Exactly.

comment #16

ratskiwatski says ...

cj and Mgmax - Absolutely right - all chorus, no verse is tiresome as it gets... and getting meta on mgmax - that Des Moines Hyatt crack in the Trek thread made me spit-take my coffee laughing. And true to form, being a whiny, degenerate, weak-kneed little liberal bitch - the coffee was shade-grown.

fnt - the i-banker take, I imagine (borrowing from cj) consists of checking out Gerard Butler's six-pack - no! half-rack! - and pondering the question that plagued Man well before the Spartans were a glint in the Mountain God's third eye...

"Left Hand, or Right Hand?"

comment #17

Doug Pratt says ...

It struck me that the film was very similar in opportunity and conception to Excalibur.

comment #18

The Movie Man says ...

I have seen 300 so I can say with full right and certainty that it sucks, and for basically all the reasons everyone above is listing. I enjoyed Sin City the movie, and I liked Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but 300 the movie is preposterous, badly written, just plain boring horseshit. To be offended by it is to take the film more seriously than it deserves, its just a CG extension of all the beefcake cliches that have been around for yyears, but have become more popular lately with stuff like "Braveheart" and "Gladiator."

comment #19

giantman says ...

Good grief. Sure, if EVERY movie was cranked up to 11 I would agree, but that's what choice is all about. Don't go see 300 if you don't like that sorta thing, no one is forcing you. They certainly didn't trick anyone into seeing it, the trailers and promotion made it pretty clear what we were in for. Me, I like variety, I enjoy them all, the sublte, the deeply moving and the balls-to-the-wall, balance is what is important. Stay home whiners and let the real men go see 300.

comment #20

jeffmcm says ...

The real men who are into that hot homoerotic action.

comment #21

soap-and-water says ...

whether 300 is too noisy or not is really beside the point here - the original post is an extremely snappy piece of writing. the car crash bit, boogie nights, the sex angle - 'twas ace.
anyway, i'm hours behind the curve here, this thread is dead and no-one's even going to read this.

comment #22

le corbeau says ...

Thanks, ratski.

By the way, if you want to see a movie at 11 throughout, just for the sheer bejesus of it, I just watched about 20 minutes of Ultraviolet, Milla Jovovich as kickass superbabe with CGI weapons, and it's jawdropping-- every shot is a perfect encapsulation of all the cliches of c. 2006 action filmmaking, like the unholy lovechild of Michael Bay using John Woo's dick to impregnate the post-op Wachowski. Really, not since Road House have I been so completely transported by something that leaps past mediocrity to sublimity. It's as if God himself was reshooting a movie after previews from 200 pages of executive notes.

comment #23

christian says ...

"It's as if God himself was reshooting a movie after previews from 200 pages of executive notes."

brilliant and true.

comment #24

giantman says ...

Ultraviolet rocks ass!