Entertainment For Lively Minds
Duncan Jones-Moon
Posted by bricameron on 9 July 2009 - 7:21pm.
Are you F*****' kidding me?
I just watched a bunch of clips of this on youtube.
He has a Talking Computer,An Actor doing his best "Bruce Dern" and he looks like "Kubrick", beard 'n' all.David Bowie's son.
Why would anyone want to watch this derivative Drivel?
Would he have managed to have gotten this made if he were not the Son of you know who? I doubt it.
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Well...as he's traded as...
...Duncan Jones, not Zowie Bowie, he's in his late 30's and hardly ever (never?) troubled the tabloids, I think you could cut him a little slack.
PLUS
he's hardly decided from nowhere to direct a movie and got it just like that... he has built a solid career as a pop video director first. You don't consistently get that amount of money thrown at you by record companies these days unless you have real skills.
also there's not alot he can about who
his Dad (or Mother)is much like the rest of us.
Regardless...
Whether he's known as Duncan or Zowie,the fact remains that he has an overwhelming advantage over anyone else without such parentage in getting his half baked stolen ideas of a film made in the first place.The backers know who he is.
I suppose Sean lennon is a genius too?
I fear you might say the same
if he was delivering milk. Understand if you didn't like the film but I fear Duncan is damned whatever he does by your line of argument.
I just want...
Something Original.Now if he could do that..?
Have you actually seen
the film or just some clips on You Tube?
I thought it looked rather good, actually...
-
Starman
I've seen it, and thought it was rather good. In fact, take the qualifier away, I thought it was good. Sam Rockwell is ace in it, too.
I don't think anyone can claim he has traded on his father's name: he has got into film the normal route, through directing ads and shorts.
Tomatometer
Haven't seen it yet but 88% on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest it might be worth catching...
http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009075-moon/
I'm with David and KDH
I think it looks very good and I've heard nothing but favourable reviews for it so far.
I've heard...
some good things about it and hope it might turn up at a local theatre. A 70's inspired thoughtful scifi movie that doesn't involve non stop explosions and aliens sounds just my sort of thing.
Then..
Why not just watch the films he's stolen from?
2001 (A Space Odyssey).
Silent Running.
Aliens.(All of them)
of course all of the above
sprung unbidden from their creators minds and aren't the least bit inspired by previous film makers, stories, artist musicians etc.
There's...
A difference between inspiration & lazy filching.C'mon! "Bruce Dern" has his very own HAL!!
Your review
is based on clips from youtube though.
That's True
Youtube clips of his film.
I will probably rent it when it goes out on DVD.The Masochist that I am.
Especially Space Odyssey
Which wasn't based on a short story by Arthur C Clarke at all, no way never.
Pedant writes:
Kubrick approached Clarke and they came up with the idea together so no "theft" involved.
Still an incredibly boring and pompous film nonetheless
I see your pedantry and raise you
Wasn't the original idea based on Clarke's story The Sentinel, with he & Kubrick working together on turning it into the Space Odyssey novel and film?
My point was agreeing with Chris's 'inspired by' comment. No mention of theft.
Yes
...but I thought you were making a point about 2001 not being entirely original which is true but Clarke nicked the idea from himself so....right I'll stop now.
On another note, so happy to see Silent Running getting its due in the Word pages. Couple of crackers from Joan Baez in the film as well.
Pedants corner slight return
Maybe as a general point we can all just agree that there's no such thing as an "original" work of art just degrees of theft, inspiration, influence some works just hide their origins better than others and some make such big leaps that their precursors are almost over the horizon.
or even the maxim "Good artists copy, great artists steal"
Though Googling this I see it's attributed to several people including Picassso & T S Eliot, haven't yet found Stravinsky who is the source I remembered ...
On the subject of unfair advantage, this amused me more than it did the reviewer whio quoted it:
"stolen:
I have seen them.
But if we don't watch movies that've "stolen" from others (or records, or books, or anything that's stolen) then we'll all be sitting in empty rooms not doing a whole lot.
Totally agree Inky
Like it or not we are all influenced by the past. Musically 'The Strokes' first album 'Is that It' is hardly brand new but it combined some fine influences into a tasty blend.
If you grew up as the son of David Bowie you could hardly not be influenced by what was going on - thank f**k he didn't breed horses like his mum. Bring it on Duncan I say!
Seen them all
And they're all great. As is Moon. As is Dark Star - the film that Alien stole from.
Looks a bit
silent running meets Android meets 2001
I'll watch it
what's happening with this?
That's just
a rip off of Tron.
Just seen it
at my local Belfast art house cinema, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst it is in parts reminiscent of some of the movies mentioned, and the movies it reminded me most of were Solaris and, weirdly, Midnight Cowboy, I was engrossed for it's running time - a perfectly judged 90 minutes.
A Large slice of humble pie for me
I've just finished watching Moon.I wish I could erase my earlier invective.Really good film.Loved every minute of it.Didn't want it to end. Sam Rockwell is superb.I felt for every Sam Bell & have developed a soft spot for Gerty too! So,sorry everyone.Especially you Zowie!
Whats crazy...
... is that you seem totally amazed by the idea of liking a film, just because you saw some youtube clips before.
World... gone... mad.
It is a pretty good film though.
Respect
It's a superb film IMO. Low-key, lean and emotionally energetic. It is undoubtedly an homage to that era of 60s and 70s 'intelligent' sci fi, but I don't think he ever claimed otherwise, quite the contrary.
I had the opportunity to interview Duncan Jones last year and found him extraordinarily down to earth and polite and honestly, reading the few cuttings about his life pre-Moon, I got the impression that he has consistently tried to avoid trading on his father's name as much as possible. He kindly indulged me a few great anecdotes about living with his old man in Berlin in the late 70s at the end of the interview, but there was a bit of a lively response when I asked a stupid, cringeworthy question along the lines of whether 'Space Oddity' had been an inspiration. Most certainly not. He got where he is now with a sincere love of film, his technique honed in London ad agencies and has certainly had his fair share of struggles which to paraphrase Jarvis Cocker - if he'd called his dad, he could have stopped them all!
So bricameron, I'd have to differ with you on the nepotism charge! Glad you enjoyed the film though
A flawed film
I think it runs that awkward thin line between "tribute" and "rip-off". I can see why some people would think it was derivative, but for me I was just glad to see this type of cinema back on the big screen again. All the 70s "head" sci-fi films mentioned above all undoubtedly fed off each other's ideas, and this is no different. With only this and the "Solaris" remake it's been slim pickings for sci-fi fans for the last decade or so.
Having said all that, I found the film itself to be disappointing. I thought it was a nice little idea that was stretched WAAAAY too far over 90 minutes.
Let me put forward a theory I came up with at the time:
(Not that it would ever happen, but...) "Moon" would work far better as a 30-minute section of a kind of three part portmanteau movie of twisty Twilight Zone type stories. Personally, I would take "Moon", "The Time Travellers Wife" and "Triangle", put them together into a 90 minute movie with three different directors and voila: a perfect little science fiction-y collection. All three of those movies would be immeasurably improved with a bit of trimming, and being cast into relief with other stories. What do you think?