Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "The Drinker Recommends... 2010: The Year We Make Contact" video.

  1.  @VOXivero  : Dune has cult status these days. It’s a good-bad movie . . . Or a bad, good movie, if you prefer. It was a brave and bold attempt to do something really new and challenging, but you can practically see the moment when the budget ran out and they realised they would just have to wrap it up. Movie buffs tend admire the heroic failure of it (or, ones I know do), but what’s to explain? The good guys win; he becomes the prophesied Demi-God thingy, gets the girl and defeats the evil Harkonans . . . All rather abruptly, in the last 5 minutes of the movie, but it’s pretty straight forward, from a story point of view? Isn’t it? ✌️
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  2. I’m just gonna’ come right out and say it: Stanley Kubrick is overrated. His best movies are the least well known, these days, like Barry Lindon (which was too long) and Paths Of Glory. He’s credited as the director of Spartacus, even though the real director was its star and head producer, Kirk Douglas, so that brilliant epic doesn’t count. Clockwork Orange is unintentionally funny in parts, dated badly in others, and doesn’t do justice to the style or substance of Anthony Burgess’s original novel. Don’t get me wrong. Kubrick was clever and original in his time, and his cinematography was innovative and unique (but that was more to do with his, “cinematographer,” than him, surely?) and his stories and subject matter were always challenging and adult enough to be genuinely interesting and worthy. But, his movies were always pompous and overblown too, with style frequently coming at the cost of substance; seeming to rely on his audiences, looking on agog, at his wonderful set piece story telling, whilst forgetting whatever the F his story was meant to be about. He was good. But no, “genius.” It’s worth reflecting, that this guy considered himself to be such an influence upon our fragile little minds that he genuinely believed it was his responsibility to buy up all copies of Clockwork Orange, to effectively ban it from public viewing. Why? Because he believed his movie would make society more violent. Self belief is a wonderful thing, separating the boys from the men, so that some artists achieve extraordinary things. But, when it leads you to taking all your toys back indoors, because the children are not grown up enough to handle the epic mental influences of your genius, auteur visions, surely you just need to get over yourself? He believed he was a genius, and he convinced a lot of people that he was, by his unique style and by the smart choices he made in the variety of topics he picked to make movies about. But, honestly? In your heart of hearts? Was he a, “genius,” though? . . . Really? . . . Nah . . . ✌️
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  3.  @ScaryStoriesNYC  : Kubrick is overrated. There. I said it. You were all thinking it. His best known and best loved movie, after 2001? Spartacus. And he didn’t even direct it.
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  4.  @kyrozudesoya1829  : Really? So, what’s the Star Child all about then? Not even sure Clarke knew? 😵‍💫
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  5.  @aaronjustice9020  : Wow . . . I’d already forgotten that remake. Sank without trace . . . Good call. I’d love to see that. 👍
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  6.  @kumquatman  : I wound up watching that movie about five times in one month. I was so fascinated by the clever story, plotting, pacing and the ideas behind it. Such an original movie too. Telling a familiar story, with familiar themes, but in a real end of the 1970’s / early 1980’s vibe of bleakness and horror to it that made it look and feel completely new. Now THAT really is a great idea. Would love to know what Mr Drinker made of that? Surely it’s good enough for a drinker recommendation? ✌️👍
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