[mcbane89]

It helped that Herzog and Kinski were batshit insane, (I believe at one point Herzog had to threaten Kinski with a gun to get him back on set) filming a movie about a character who was batshit insane. Penn is...well, Penn. He protests for banning guns yet then has an unregistered gun in his car, and says something to the effect "I'm a celebrity, I'm different". He just a tad clueless, condescending, and is very heavy handed and self righteous. I doubt you were the only person who was put off by him, I know I was. But then you take a guy like David O Russel who is a notorious jackass (I think his rant at Lilly Taylor while filming I Heart Huckabees was played by Keith) and I love his movies. I don't know. And that was the thing to me about Into The Wild - the guy made the most arrogant mistake possible, that he could just survive with nothing. No training, no maps, no food, no clue. It completely took me out of the story, and made the point Penn was trying to get across to me invalid. It's just not something I could suspend my disbelief for.

And as for Cameron, I totally agree. Aliens and T2 are two of my favorite movies ever (my top 10 is very action heavy). It's just too bad he went full blown into his messiah complex, and while Avatar was amazing to look at, and he's probably the best at directing epic stuff, the actual story was just what the fuck. I think I would have liked to see Cameron do Saving Private Ryan, it probably would have been the same movie but minus some of the sentimental Spielberg stuff that didn't fit.

And I am remiss as I haven't made this clear earlier:

Count me in for Chemda's new show. I can't wait to hear this.