Ultimate Dolph

Lucky you, a Maximum Potential video!

Some people seem embarassed to say they enjoy Dolph's movies...I never was, since nobody of my age know who Dolph is

Jox wrote:Well the thing is even in by action standards most people find Dolph movies to be so lame (even the best ones)... I took me some time to say I loved his films in the open but when I was a kid and a teenager i would hide it from anyone...

I got into some ugly brawls at school when I said I thought he was the most attractive man I'd ever seen and that I loved his movies.
Admit that to fans of Take That and suchlike and you're in trouble.

I love many kinds of Movies: Horror, Action, Thrillers but also Drama and "Girl"- stuff.
The V in DVD really stands for "versatile" in my collection.
Some may find it odd to see "The Punisher" standing comfortably next to "Pride and Prejudice" (BBC version) by Jane Austen - but what the heck, I know what I like and anyone else doesn't have to watch it.

Is Maximum Potential very rare?

Jekaterina wrote:

Jox wrote:Well the thing is even in by action standards most people find Dolph movies to be so lame (even the best ones)... I took me some time to say I loved his films in the open but when I was a kid and a teenager i would hide it from anyone...

I got into some very heated arguments at school when I said I thought he was the most attractive man I'd ever seen and that I loved his movies.
Admit that to fans of Take That and suchlike and you're in trouble.

I love many kinds of Movies: Horror, Action, Thrillers but also Drama and "Girl"- stuff.
The V in DVD really stands for versatile in my collection.
Some may find it odd to see "The Punisher" standing comfortably next to "Pride and Prejudice" (BBC version) by Jane Austen - but what the heck, I know what I like and anyone else doesn't have to watch it.

Is Maximum Potential very rare?

That sounds good, have at least a 1,000 movies at home so action is far from being my only interest and my tastes also include Jane Austen adaptations and what people call chick flicks...

Jox wrote: my tastes also include Jane Austen adaptations and what people call chick flicks...

...Wow!
I don´t even know what to say to that...
Except: "Welcome out of the closet!"

Jekaterina
PostPosted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:43 am

I got into some ugly brawls at school when I said I thought he was the most attractive man I'd ever seen

So did Jox! (And I)

dolphage wrote:

Jox wrote: my tastes also include Jane Austen adaptations and what people call chick flicks...

...Wow!
I don´t even know what to say to that...
Except: "Welcome out of the closet!"

Jekaterina
PostPosted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:43 am

I got into some ugly brawls at school when I said I thought he was the most attractive man I'd ever seen

So did Jox! (And I)

I don´t even know what to say to that...
Except: "Grow up!" or have an open mind and watch Curtis Hanson's (8 Miles, LA Confidential) "In Her Shoes" to see that chick flicks can be good, not necessarily gay or only for chicks...

Jox wrote:
I don´t even know what to say to that...
Except: "Grow up!" or have an open mind and watch Curtis Hanson's (8 Miles, LA Confidential) "In Her Shoes" to see that chick flicks can be good, not necessarily gay or only for chicks...

Dude, you know I´m just messing with you!
Having said that... About you recommendations.. "8 mile" is allright, "LA Confidential" is really good, but what the hell is "In her shoes"? Is that a real movie or did you make that up to confuse me?

I didn't make that up you can check it, it's a film with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette from a couple of years ago, and believe me it's better and smarter than you might think, starts off as the average chick flick and takes an unsuspected turn and even makes Diaz go from a shallow slut to becoming aware of herself as a deeper and smarter person...

Jox wrote:I didn't make that up you can check it, it's a film with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette from a couple of years ago, and believe me it's better and smarter than you might think, starts off as the average chick flick and takes an unsuspected turn and even makes Diaz go from a shallow slut to becoming aware of herself as a deeper and smarter person...

I found it. "In her shoes"
All right.
I haven´t seen it (and I probably won´t to be honest)
But, Cameron Diaz going from "shallow slut" to "becoming aware of herself as a deeper and smarter person" is just a classic "charachter arc".

In a Hollywood production each main character is required to go through a "personal journey" and wind up in a different place than they started (you´re not the only one who studied film in college, Jox) and you can rest assured that the "wimpy" charcter will "find his courage" by the end of the picture and that the "emotionless tough" guy will find a "sensitve side" and so fourth.
It hardly constitutes good cinema. Rather, formulaic, boring, old Hollywood thinking.
A much more intriguing carachter study is one you can find in the 70´s/Filme noir "antiheroes".
Why not: " The Mechanik", where Nick Chernenko goes on no personal journey whatsoever. He just kills his famillies killer and then leaves.
That is a more interesting character!
In my opinion.

Thanks for the course but I've been to film school, read books...

The way I wrote it maybe wasn't the best, but this is made in a subtle way that I had not seen in any other Hollywood movie and is just one thing (not even the story actually) of the movie that has other levels... anyway...

And talking character study I LOVE antiheroes, but also love ALL kinds of character studies, and when you study something you're actually brought to wider your range and interest yourself to a variety of other things... like I've started to be hooked to MOTU when I was 8, got look for MOTU stuff, Dolph stuff, getting to read about movies, watching movies, more movies, other movies, more and more and more which lead me to go to film school in LA and that's where I saw "In her shoes" in a special screening with Hanson and the writer... so there you go...

It was not a course, I am just stating my opinion, my friend.

Again, I have no idea about the movie to wich you are referencing ("In her shoes".
I was just saying that, in general, a character arc is nothing to get excited about, it is part of every new Hollywood (and, more or or less, every European) film to be released over the past fifteen years.
And, to me, there are more interesting character developments than, the "polar opposite" one, meaning: "The Tough Guy goes Soft", or "The Wimpy Guy Toughens Up" or the "Pretty Girl Becomes a Big Fat, Hairy Feminist", or whatever.
I find a character like Nick Chernenko more intriguing.

BTW Who is Hanson?

Director Curtis Hanson...

Yes Cherenko is very intriguing indeed but if we go that route, his character is yet pretty formulaic too maybe not by Hollywood's standards but all the revenge movies that came before. And btw he does go on a personal journey in my opinion...

And I'll drop this bit of trivia info I found out recently: in the original script Sasha was really killed in the beginning, and then Nick was just to go after Russian mobsters that kidnapped Julia.

Yes Cherenko is very intriguing indeed but if we go that route, his character is yet pretty formulaic too maybe not by Hollywood's standards but all the revenge movies that came before.

Absolutely. They are very one dimensional in everything they do, but the interesting part is the emotions/motivations that the viewer adds to the character in his/her own mind. That is when a character like that comes to life (if a revenge character HAS to have more depth/ emotional motivation at all).

in the original script Sasha was really killed in the beginning, and then Nick was just to go after Russian mobsters that kidnapped Julia.

I´m glad they changed that.

Nick Cherenko was indeed very interesting character who really seemed to have a personal journey, but never very clearly defined in my view, as it was rather open to individual interpretations. To me the movie seems to suggest a certain redemption in Nicks revenge-driven journey. In the first 10 minutes, he wastes no time to kill all of them and then walk away. What changes his revengeful act in the following minutes is his willingness to save people, that in my eyes quite strangely seem to be symbolically signifying his own family. Its as if he wanted to change his past in a way.
Thats what is so interesting about this subtle character development that is not so formulaic as it would seem so. Its a movie about the revenge that for a change is not so blinded, shallow and one-dimensional. IMO, The Mechanik is one of the best "revenge" movies ever made for this reason.

Cherenko was an interesting character, he reminded me a bit of the Punisher (ok he was less lunatic...). My favorite part about him was in the end, once the big bad guy is dead, he just walks away...

The idea of him was just pure class. However where do you think he went at the end??