http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365737/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/syriana/

I really liked Traffic so I have high expectations with this film. And the trailer has that Moby song from the end of Heat so its setting that bar pretty high.

11/21/2005 1:27:15 AM

Quote :

"George Clooney gained 35 pounds on a pasta-heavy diet to play CIA operative Robert Barnes. However, the actor refused to shave his head for fear of it not growing back"

WOW WHAT A SELFLESS ACTOR

[Edited on November 21, 2005 at 1:30 AM. Reason : FAG]

11/21/2005 1:29:52 AM

you cant win them all

11/21/2005 1:33:01 AM

WTF

is his character going to be lessened any by having a full head of hair?

i think he looks AWESOME with the full beard and chunk factor

like Orson Welles

of course, i think clooney is beginning to see himself as a modern orson welles

11/21/2005 8:59:51 AM

I'm excited about it. The poster is badass.

11/21/2005 10:09:34 AM

are ya'll getting it? or is it going to the "mainstream" megaplexes?

11/21/2005 10:11:53 AM

Oh hell naw.

That shit is Crossroads all the way.

I mean, fuck, they took Good Night and Good Luck from us. They're sons of bitches.

11/21/2005 10:20:36 AM

so, when you say they take it

do they literally take the print from you?

or do they just let you know they're going to be showing it, so it'd prolly be in your best intrests to not show it?

11/21/2005 10:23:35 AM

More the second than the first, although that's not really how it works.

More like, we had it booked, but then Crossroads asked for it later, and the distributor's only going to give it to one theater.

Then you get down to who has more pull, a single theater independent or one of the biggest chains in the nation.

And then, because it doesn't fit their audience, it doesn't do nearly as well as it would do at any independent theater and they get pissed and the distributor gets pissed, but of course six months down the road when it happens again they'll have forgotten it.

11/21/2005 10:27:19 AM

The trailer looks amazing. I've been meaning to see Traffic, caught a little bit of it on USA the other day but I was studying at the same time so I missed a lot of stuff.

11/21/2005 11:25:23 AM

So is it supposed to be a sequel to Oceans 12? The preview really confused me.

11/21/2005 3:37:27 PM

looks like a propaganda movie

11/21/2005 3:48:45 PM

Quote :

"looks like a propaganda movie"

11/21/2005 3:54:49 PM

11/21/2005 4:00:44 PM

Quote :

"So is it supposed to be a sequel to Oceans 12? The preview really confused me."

Are you joking or retarded?

11/21/2005 7:05:01 PM

^ little column A little column B?

Also I really want to see this movie. Release date? I am too lazy to click on the links

[Edited on November 21, 2005 at 8:00 PM. Reason : f]

11/21/2005 7:59:56 PM

yeah i was wondering too when it'll be released in NC. All I've seen is that it will be in the big citiies (NY, Chicago, LA, etc) starting friday.

11/21/2005 8:02:06 PM

imdb link -> release dates

11/22/2005 11:11:42 AM

USA 23 November 2005 (limited)
USA 9 December 2005

11/22/2005 2:18:14 PM

the movie drops today, I'm thinking about going
Traffic was good, hopefully this one wont be so political it puts the ladyfriend to sleep

12/9/2005 3:57:14 PM

Quote :

"looks like a propaganda movie"

since when was America against propaganda?

[Edited on December 9, 2005 at 7:20 PM. Reason : ]

12/9/2005 7:20:24 PM

^^ this is one movie ill probably go see with the parents

12/9/2005 7:21:43 PM

Quote :

"like Orson Welles"

haha interesting thought... but i feel like none of the contemporary director/actors have that kind of personality, ya know? (to be remembered like he was)

-ZiP!-

12/9/2005 9:00:15 PM

just saw this tonight. i thought it was a great movie, the story can be a little confusing though. there's a lot going on, and you don't really get a good feel for who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist. i think my favorite part is very interesting side story that is somewhat sympathetic to the islamic fundamentalists cause. not that i support their actions at all, but it gives you a sense of thier point of view.

12/10/2005 1:18:31 AM

man, the drunk father is like the thing that puts this movie over the top from "pretentious" to "meaningful" to me

and he is the only thing that saves Jeffery Wright's performance for me...

and yes
george clooney = orson welles
Good Night & Good Luck was his Citizen Kane
this was his touch of evil
i can't wait to see his Third Man

of course, orson welles made citizen kane when he was TWENTY FUCKING SIX

oh holy shit, looking up clooneys next films
he is making a film called "the good german"
with this as a synopsis

Quote :

" In post-war Berlin to find his former mistress, an American journalist is lured into a murder mystery"

[Edited on December 10, 2005 at 1:41 AM. Reason : you're not orson welles george, i'm sorry]

12/10/2005 1:38:52 AM

I saw it last night, the movie was awesome and it kicked ASS......

12/10/2005 7:56:59 AM

Quote :

"not that i support their actions at all, but it gives you a sense of thier point of view. "

You mean the point of view of, kill infidels, no matter who/where they are?

I don't need a fucking left-wing "war for oil" Moore-esque piece of shit movie to give me a sense of that.

12/10/2005 8:17:25 AM

movie was good

but im going to have to read up on a few spots

well maybe a handful of spots

it was tough to follow at times...coupled with the fact that i was there with like 5 friends

but i enjoyed myself

12/10/2005 9:11:26 AM

^^yeah, thats exactly what this is

its probably best if you stay the fuck out of the theater

we wouldn't want your nice little "world" view challenged

12/10/2005 11:11:26 AM

^^yeah, thats exactly what this is

its probably best if you stay the fuck out of the theater

we wouldn't want your nice little "world" view challenged

12/10/2005 11:12:29 AM

12/10/2005 11:33:43 AM

i read that the movie was supposed to be confusing...can't remember if the screenwriter of the director said that, but it was supposed to be disjointed and hard to follow.

12/10/2005 11:53:22 AM

sometime i feel thats a copout hacks use

but i think there is probably some truth in this one
along the lines of suggesting how hard it is to follow how the actual oil business runs

12/10/2005 12:07:30 PM

i saw it yesterday

plot was very complicated and a bit confusing- the ironic twist at the end was okay, albeit anti-climatic

the cinematography was excellent

overall, id say wait till it comes out on DVD so you can pause, rewind and fast forward

ps. traffic was better

12/10/2005 2:52:52 PM

i'd agree traffic was probably better, but with that cast - how could it not be
i mean, i love george clooney, and am growing to respect matt damon as more than just a one-hit-wonder (i always thought GWH was the fluke, and the shit films were really him, now i'm not so sure)

but i think syriana is much more relevant

sure we all know Drugs are baddd mmmk (even though that wasn't the point), very few people are willing to look into the problems with being a nation addicted and dependant to oil

including how we have to meddle into the other nations, overtly and covertly...

but yes, if i had to pick one to watch based on the movie itself, not the message - it'd be traffic

12/10/2005 3:18:41 PM

Definitely going to see this.

Cause you know, I just couldn't form an opinion without some help from Hollywood.

12/10/2005 3:50:17 PM

it really wasnt all that political

but i love how close minded conservatives assume it's nothing but an attack on the bush administration without even going to see the fucking movie themselves

12/10/2005 4:51:09 PM

yeah just like everyone else said it's a great movie but sometimes hard to follow. That torture scene was pretty brutal though.

12/10/2005 5:08:13 PM

^some fucker in the theater was CRACKING UP LAUGHING OUT LOUD during the torture scene

it was the most surreal thing i'd ever seen

i wanted to just yell "SHUT THE FUCK UP"

but he probably had a gun

12/10/2005 5:16:02 PM

^^^ What do you expect? They listen to people like Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, and O'Reilly who routinely use the line "Now I haven't seen the movie, but it's clearly about..."

[Edited on December 10, 2005 at 5:19 PM. Reason : ...]

12/10/2005 5:16:13 PM

yeah, its not political in the idea of partisan politics

its more political in the idea of good people vs bad people

12/10/2005 5:17:21 PM

NO IT WAS LIBERAL HOLLYWOOD PROPOGANDA

12/10/2005 5:33:05 PM

can someone please tell me whether SYRIA has anything to do with the movie??

12/10/2005 6:00:52 PM

it has nothing to do with the movie actually

12/10/2005 6:39:59 PM

i think traffic is one of the better movies to be released in the past 6 or 7 years

12/10/2005 6:54:17 PM

does anyone know why hte movie is called Syriana?

i read next-to-nothing about the movie before seeing it, and would like to know

ah, got it:

Quote :

"For those wondering what the word Syriana means, G & M explains that Syriana takes its title from a term used by certain Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical Middle East reshaped by their ideas of democracy. Stephen Gaghan the writer- director of the movie says he began contemplating on the plot--the global oil industry--while researching Traffic, which uses multiple storylines to explore the human cost of the U.S. anti-drug wars. He then makes a very insightful analogy between the user-dealer paradigm of Traffic and the context of the oil business in the Middle East: "If you're a user standing in the kitchen of a drug dealer, you might see handguns lying on the coffee table and his kids sitting close by watching TV and think to yourself, 'This is not good parenting.' But as a user, you're not about to comment on this," he explains. "Similarly, for many years the dynamic between oil-producing and oil-consuming nations essentially involved a tacit support of the status quo in the Middle East.Now, of course, America is involved in a massive democracy deportation exercise." (Listen to Stephen Gaghan speaking about he movie here.)"

[Edited on December 10, 2005 at 7:27 PM. Reason : `]

12/10/2005 7:16:47 PM

again

i must mention how awesome the cinematography for this movie is

i know people these days dont give a shit, but the camera angles and stage direction in this movie is absolutely on point

the restaraunt scene in princeton comes to mind

its very subtle, but poweful nonetheless

now that i sound like a fag for bringing this up, ill bow out of this thread

12/10/2005 9:16:04 PM

Of course the movie is anti-bush. it's out of step with the rhetoric that the white house pushes when it isn't showing our folly outright:

1. Politicians are ignorant and out of touch with what is going on in the region
2. What is good long term for the region is bad short term for the US
3. US meddling has done more harm than good
4. Terrorists aren't the ultimate enemy -- there is, in fact, no concrete enemy we can shoot to make all our troubles go away

All of this runs contrary to the sentiment and the mood the administration would like to create, and that's why all the conservative talking heads are bristling.

They would much rather project a simple picture of the problem, the illusion of competency, and deterministic policy. Anything that threatens this portrayal is necessarily anti-bush.

12/10/2005 10:30:12 PM

I just got back and thought it was excellent. For the first half-hour I thought I'd made a mistake -- it wasn't really pulling me in and I didn't really understand what was going on. Then I got a handle on it in the middle, and the last half hour was incredible.

Quote :

" i think my favorite part is very interesting side story that is somewhat sympathetic to the islamic fundamentalists cause."

YES

Far and away the movie's greatest acheivement, if you ask me. By the end I was rooting for the two "fundamentalist" characters in spite of myself. Then again, the things they were doing differ somewhat from what we normally associate that type of person with, but the point stands. When I walked out and realized that I'd sort of been pulling for them, I knew it was an incredibly powerful movie.

Quote :

"it really wasnt all that political"

Also true. At least, it wasn't political in the sense of "right vs. left," but it pretty clearly had some commentary about huge corporations and the sway they have with government.

12/11/2005 1:19:21 AM

Yeh it was a great movie. It was political and then it wasn't. It gave you all sides and definitely left me thinking. There are many victims, winners, and unknowing people on both sides.

12/11/2005 1:25:44 AM