'Rediculous' Customer & Critic Reviews

[Mr Sausage]

Well "miseribilist" is still not a word, and if anyone has used up his alloted liberties with the English language, it's Higson.

Yes, it is a word (miserabilistic and miserability, too). The OED definition is just one who "advocates or supports miserabilism," so it made more sense to define the noun rather than the adjective form in my post.

[domino harvey]

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!

In my defense, though I don't have the Oxford-English Dictionary at my fingertips (I don't yet own the proper oak pedestal), I checked my large physical dictionary as well as Meriam-Webster online and Dictionary.com and came up empty.

I forgot I have access to the online Oxford English Dictionary, here's the etymology on "miseribilism" for any curious parties:

[In early use < German Miserabilismus (E. Hartmann Zur Geschichte u. Begründung des Pessimismus (1880) 36) < classical Latin miser{amac}bilis MISERABLE a. + German -ismus -ISM. In quot. 1958 independently < French misérabilisme, as the name of an artistic tendency (1937). In quot. 1990 perh. representing an independent formation < MISERABLE a. + -ISM.
French misérabilisme also occurs as an unnaturalized loan from the second half of the 20th cent.:
1961 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Oct. 713/3 Form cannot be an end in itself. Dull themes, misérabilisme, mundane drawing-room patter, depth (when attained) are not enough. 1972 E. LUCIE-SMITH in C. B. Cox & A. E. Dyson 20th-cent. Mind III. xvi. 466 The thinness of these figures [in Giacometti's sculpture] also seemed to be an expression of existentialist misérabilisme.]

A tendency to take a pessimistic or negative view; pessimism, esp. of a self-indulgent kind; gloomy negativity.
1882 J. W. BARLOW Ultimatum of Pessimism 8 The third..of these unscientific species combines the characteristic evils of both wrathful and quietistic pessimism. It has been aptly termed Miserabilism (Miserabilismus). 1904 T. B. SAUNDERS tr. A. von Harnack What is Christianity? 45 A miserabilism which clings to the expectation of a miraculous interference on God's part. 1958 Yale French Stud. No. 21. 132 The comic spirit has not deserted the poets who are the contemporaries of Existentialism, miserabilism [etc.]. 1990 S. REYNOLDS Blissed Out (BNC) 32 A while back, somebody invented the term ‘miserabilism'. The people who used this vile slander seemed to believe that any kind of troubled, troubling music..was self-indulgent wallowing.

[Chull]

Well "miseribilist" is still not a word, and if anyone has used up his alloted liberties with the English language, it's Higson.

Yes, it is a word (miserabilistic and miserability, too). The OED definition is just one who "advocates or supports miserabilism," so it made more sense to define the noun rather than the adjective form in my post.

Sheesh. It seems "miserable" is one of those words to which people love to add the odd prefix/suffix. My personal favorite is "irregardless." I also like "orientated." You can make up all kinds - irregardlessness, ironical, etc. It's like Word Lego. Fun!

[fiddlesticks]

The fact that the story is told silent when exotic song, birds and the wash of waves could have enhanced the soundtrack, can be brought to bear on the film could have been improved. Less avoidable is the lack of colour that the film screams of, partly due to the absence of the occupying richnesses of sound.

I'm not sure that English is this fellow's native tongue. I think he may have written his review in another language and had it inexpertly translated into English, with this result.

So I tried guessing what the original language may have been, and giving freetranslation.com a crack at cleaning it up. The best result I've had so far is by turning it into Japanese and then "back" into English:

As there are the fact film and relation that are to the conversation that the washing of the exotic song, bird and also wave was when able to raise a/the sound track is and talks be quiet it able to be improved can be treated. The film [the movie] is the lack of the color that sounds for the lack of the occupation richness of sound, partially, without being avoided more.

I'm sure that's what he meant to say.

[Mr Sausage]

Well "miseribilist" is still not a word, and if anyone has used up his alloted liberties with the English language, it's Higson.

Yes, it is a word (miserabilistic and miserability, too). The OED definition is just one who "advocates or supports miserabilism," so it made more sense to define the noun rather than the adjective form in my post.

Sheesh. It seems "miserable" is one of those words to which people love to add the odd prefix/suffix. My personal favorite is "irregardless." I also like "orientated." You can make up all kinds - irregardlessness, ironical, etc. It's like Word Lego. Fun!

Actually, it appears that miserable and miserabilism have slightly different derivations. Miserable comes to us out of Middle-French (itself derived from the classical Latin miserablis). Miserabilism, as Domino's post shows, comes out of the German miserabilismus, which was also derived from the Latin root miserablis.

Although miserable is much older, it appears that it and miserabilism have nothing to do with each other beyond sharing the same Latin root, and have come into English independant of one another.

[HerrSchreck]

First of all

Who but a Frenchman could get away with a feature film about a man who almost has an affair?

is a masterpiece.

Second of all

Less avoidable is the lack of colour that the film screams of, partly due to the absence of the occupying richnesses of sound.

is indescribably sublime.

And THIS stuff--

Smith's claims that scenes of great sensuality and tenderness between Matahi and Reri were unrivalled and unthinkable in other Hollywood films of the day don't help. It denies the existence of exotic, erotic jungle gothics like Congo and Tarzan And His Mate in the pre-Hays Code sound years. Tarzan And His Mate suffered cuts on its release removing nudity but the sexuality and sensuality are categorical and surrounded by great comic humour, sets that grab and amaze, flora and fauna, shock deaths, high adventure, and if some of the lion attacks and elephant ears are resoundingly fake then they are no more bogus than Tabu's shark and mise en scène. In Tarzan And His Mate, sound brings the tropics expressway to us. In Tabu, the silence distances us.

is so good I want to subscribe to this guys feed. It's not how smart you are, furchrissakes... it's how great you are onstage. And jesus christ almighty, this guy KILLS! Can you all NOT see the incredible originality behind the end result of this guy's Language Contraption? It's a New Recipe, entirely and previously heretofore uncooked! And it's not just technical, like me smoking some schmat and writing "'John went house moist to feet', said the meat bubble, then motoguzzi'd the puff lotion," and flicking my eyes around the room with a long, significant, look. It is substantive as well, blending nonsequitors of concept with those of verbiage.

Hopefully some time from now, if all goes according to my brand new Plan, I'll be sitting in a different public posting from week to week (train stations, bus stops, etc) confidently hawking copies of HIGSONETICS from behind a splayed folding table... offering blood pressure checks, along with Consultations/Higsonometer Readings to deliver to true converts the results of full Higsonometric Mind Rape & Brain Palpation Profile. Of course the status of our Leader (photographed only with yacht cap in mysteriously grainy exposures) will remain shrouded in mystery. I suspect "Higson" is a composite persona anyhow... a group effort between MIT, Mensa, and the ghost of scatman crothers. There is already a splinter group which make him for dead awready and have broken off to worship Higson's "nephew" and have fuckin taken to wearing black turbans, signifying their submission before bloodline rather than Higsonometric Palposummary Status, but what do they know? A rank fuckin herd of bovine philistines if ever was...

[domino harvey]

Last line of the official Netflix write-up for the Clockmaker:

Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, co-scripted with New Wave alumni Aurenche and Bost.

#-o

[tavernier]

Last line of the official Netflix write-up for the Clockmaker:

Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, co-scripted with New Wave alumni Aurenche and Bost.

#-o

Don't tell Truffaut....

[Nihonophile]

Although I'm sure the Higson followers already know this but here's his Bio:

Paul Higson
- is returning to film writing after an absence of 10 years stockpiling the literary new for the big break. He was the editor of Bleeder's Digest and contributed to many other quaint paper-set small press publications. His abattoir play Swine was staged in Derby by No Half Measures Theatre Company of Derby, and a novel nears completion. Abuse and opprobrium is welcome via: [email protected]


Note: He has a novel forthcoming; I hear its working title is Higsonetics.

[domino harvey]

another classic from the Christopher Null vault:

Fine art's a funny thing that I barely pretend to understand. In this molasses-slow four-hour drama, Jacques Rivette proves that he's got an understanding of fine art, but a minimal one of the art of movies.

Just wow.

[Fidelio]

Incomprehension over old films being released on HD. A comment at Play.com on the upcoming Seventh Seal blu-ray UK release:

Its an ok film not amazing. But the thing i dont get is how can a film this old be in high defintion -- you could get the dvd for £5 and im pretty sure the picture would be exactly the same

[cdnchris]

Incomprehension over old films being released on HD. A comment at Play.com on the upcoming Seventh Seal blu-ray UK release:

Its an ok film not amazing. But the thing i dont get is how can a film this old be in high defintion -- you could get the dvd for £5 and im pretty sure the picture would be exactly the same

Apparently he loved Black Sheep (with Chris Farley,) though.

Prepare to change your underpants as you will be relieving yourself with laughter -- the films worth it just for the scene with the bat in the log cabin

I didn't think anybody actually liked that movie.

[domino harvey]

i am not now or have i ever been a racist but this movie takes "affirmative action" one step to far. it is set in 1962 not 1982, the views portraied in this film are 20yrs from acceptable. hearing Amanda Bynes say 'now I've tasted chocolate, and I'm never goin' back!' was more then ANY white male should be expected to handle!

[Magic Hate Ball]

i am not now or have i ever been a racist but this movie takes "affirmative action" one step to far. it is set in 1962 not 1982, the views portraied in this film are 20yrs from acceptable. hearing Amanda Bynes say 'now I've tasted chocolate, and I'm never goin' back!' was more then ANY white male should be expected to handle!

What movie is this?

[Cold Bishop]

i am not now or have i ever been a racist but this movie takes "affirmative action" one step to far. it is set in 1962 not 1982, the views portraied in this film are 20yrs from acceptable. hearing Amanda Bynes say 'now I've tasted chocolate, and I'm never goin' back!' was more then ANY white male should be expected to handle!

What movie is this?

The terrible Hairspray musical.

[Lemmy Caution]

From an otherwise good IMDb review of Berlin Alexanderplatz:

All this turmoil and potential for explosive change are seen by the audience of "Berlin Alexanderplatz" through the eyes of one guy, Hans Bieberkopf. Walk, ride, rob, love, drink and despair with Hans Bieberkopf. Best bring along a case or two of good lager while you're immersing yourself in the prelude to "Gotterdamerung".

Sure it's a small mistake, but after spending 15 1/2 hours with Franz Biberkopf, with everyone saying his name many many times (including Mieze's "liebe Franz, liebe, liebe Franz" refrain), and even the main character referring to himself as "Franz Biberkopf" numerous times throughout. And someone who liked the movie calls him "Hans Biberkopf?" "Hans?!?"
I mean, you could play a drinking game -- knocking back a shot of schnapps every time the name Franz is spoken, and you'd conclude the film drunk and believing you spoke fluent German.

[colinr0380]

"Hansel...Hansel?...Hansel?!" (sorry I'm working my way though the Looney Tunes set and couldn't resist the opportunity!)

[HerrSchreck]

From an otherwise good IMDb review of Berlin Alexanderplatz:

All this turmoil and potential for explosive change are seen by the audience of "Berlin Alexanderplatz" through the eyes of one guy, Hans Bieberkopf. Walk, ride, rob, love, drink and despair with Hans Bieberkopf. Best bring along a case or two of good lager while you're immersing yourself in the prelude to "Gotterdamerung".

Sure it's a small mistake, but after spending 15 1/2 hours with Franz Biberkopf, with everyone saying his name many many times (including Mieze's "liebe Franz, liebe, liebe Franz" refrain), and even the main character referring to himself as "Franz Biberkopf" numerous times throughout. And someone who liked the movie calls him "Hans Biberkopf?" "Hans?!?"
I mean, you could play a drinking game -- knocking back a shot of schnapps every time the name Franz is spoken, and you'd conclude the film drunk and believing you spoke fluent German.

Still doesn't better All Quiet On The Waterfront, by Elia Milestone.

[patrick]

Hans is so hot right now.

[Robert de la Cheyniest]

More from Yunda Eddie Feng:

Beaver readers know that I'm a big fan of director Paul Greengrass. I feel that Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy, and United 93 indicate that Greengrass is possibly the future of Western cinema.

[domino harvey]

[domino harvey]

Talk about a rhetorical question

[patrick]

"Musicians Hangin' With Movie Stars"? What is the world coming to? Next you're going to tell me that football players hang out with baseball players!

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

While checking prices for Yellow Submarine on Amazon, I stumbled onto this beauty.

I was forced to watch this horrible movie in my art class. I felt like I was in that class for 60 years while this movie was playing. I don't understand how anybody, who is not high on drugs, could possibly like this movie. Pokemon has far more intelligence. The characters look like they've been drawn by six year olds, the story seems like it was written by a two year old, and the music is the same old abstract garbage that the Beatles are known for. I don't think they were the great legends people portray them to be. Their music is a result of what music sounds like when you're so high that you can't tell what in the world you're doing. Their popularity is the result of the bubble gum teenagers, in the past, who would love absolutely anything you throw at them. At least in the future, when people look back on Backstreet Boys, they will look back on people who actually had halfway decent voices.

This guy is loaded with priceless reviews. Check out his profile pic, too. He fits the category of Douche Bag pretty well.

This man has also given Big Momma's House 2, Saw III, and Into the Blue 5 stars.

He also rants about how middle America is stupid because they haven't realized the realities of T.V. all because they haven't seen Network. He also assumes he's smarter than everyone because he's read an Al Franken book.

[cdnchris]

Wrong Turn 2 is apparently "not as good as the first," according to him, only giving it 4 stars. Well, there go all my hopes for that one. His come backs in his "comments" portion for The Fountain are also well thought out.