Movie/TV recommendations

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow... You'd just conjured weird images in my head: Imagining Roger Moore as a baddie in the next movie... Could they pull it off? Hmm. He'd have to play some slippery pedophile or something.

[ysbreker]

I just saw The girl who leapt through time. A really nice anime most definitely worth watching.

[ThunderPeel2001]

[LOPcagney]

Just saw

yesterday. Absolutely unbelievable.

It was suspenseful, cute, depressing, romantic all at once. Amazing.

[Ben X]

Knowing - I really enjoyed it. It was exciting and clever and scary, and I genuinely had no idea where it was going next. It's difficult not to associate Nic Cage with shit films these days and subconsciously decide the film is shit just because he's in it, but I managed to fight that urge. Cage is fine, and the film is a good choice on his part as far as goofy thrillers go. It goes completely mad towards the end, which a lot of people will hate. Don't let anyone spoil it for you, and get it on DVD for a fiver (or see it in the cinema for cheap if you can).

Monsters Vs Aliens 3D - the film is okay, a few good gags but mostly predictable. The 3D tech is really interesting. It works very well these days, and gives a really nice sense of scale and depth. The trade-off is that it works a bit like parallax scrolling, so the actual layers, or fields of vision, are noticeably flat. That is: obviously a cinema screen is flat, but your brain ignores that and sees it as having depth; however, when they start to move different bits of it around seperately, your brain remembers that it's flat. It's still cool, and I can't wait to see what James Cameron, Peter Jackson et al do with it in live-action (I've only seen the horror film Scar 3D so far, and that didn't make use of it at all), but I can't imagine watching In The Bedroom or something in 3D without it being a distraction rather than a subtle enhancement.

The Boat That Rocked - awful. Simply not funny, quite mean-hearted and with absolutely no plot. Richard Curtis having a wank.

The Damned United - typical (and typically brilliant) Peter Morgan fare. Very well written and structured, great characterisation and performances. It even managed to make football exciting. But it's not terrifically cinematic despite being well-directed, and, focusing as it does on a short period of time in the characters' lives, it doesn't reach for the epic drama of a full-blown biopic.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Ben X

[DanJW]

I wasn't all that impressed with Knowing. Perhaps because all the marketing implied that it was somehow about chaos theory (all the numbers and whatnot). It wasn't.

By the end of the film you wonder what the point of these numbers was. The people who were saved could have been saved without them

Or maybe it was because of the awful science-babble. Within the first few minutes Cage has described the deterministic viewpoint as being "everything happens for a reason" (ie fate, with religious overtones, ie bullshit. What he is actually describing is more like the anthropic principle). The opposite, he tells us, is the theory that everything happens by chance.

The science only gets worse from there. Oh yes, his scientist friend, on learning that the prophecies are coming true, says "my scientific mind tells me to leave this the hell alone". Excuse me? What? What kind of scientific mind backs away from a mystery, especially such an incredible yet testable one. Worst. Scientist. Ever.

Then it all turns into yet another apocalyptic disaster movie. With a scifi/religious ambiguity/pick-your-own-meaning so as not to offend anybody.

Big meh

[Nachimir]

described the deterministic viewpoint as being "everything happens for a reason" (ie fate, with religious overtones, ie bullshit. What he is actually describing is more like the anthropic principle).

I've always been really annoyed whenever some hippy comes at me with "everything happens for a reason", when what they actually mean is "everything happens for a reason that centres on my existence. Mine. The universe really cares about me even though it does move in mysterious ways. Me, me, me, me".

They're two very different outlooks

[Ben X]

By the end of the film you wonder what the point of these numbers was. The people who were saved could have been saved without them

I suppose it's because

the aliens wanted to lead the kids to understanding what was going on and saying goodbye to their parents (whom they also led to realise and understand what was going on) rather than just space-nap them without warning - as Caleb says, 'they could have just taken us'.

I wasn't too annoyed about the bad science. It's only there because the studio think they have to explain and dumb down stuff for the audience, but at least they got it out of the way quickly.

Then it all turns into yet another apocalyptic disaster movie. With a scifi/religious ambiguity/pick-your-own-meaning so as not to offend anybody.

I thought it had a pretty specific meaning

(there is no God, only aliens that show up to give information/help Noah build an ark etc through human history)

, but maybe that's just me!

[DanJW]

I quite enjoyed Monsters Vs Aliens (so I guess my taste is utterly different to bbX1138 ).

As with most Dreamworls productions it is not as layered as a Pixar movie, but it is was an easy watch. I really liked the character design and animation (on the humans even more than on the monsters in fact), the 50's B-movie references were appreciated and there were a fair number of decent gags and funny lines ("Have fun exploooowwwding!").

Good voice cast too: Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Stephen Colbert, Seth Rogan, Kiefer Sutherland etc

[Ben X]

I quite enjoyed Monsters Vs Aliens (so I guess my taste is utterly different to bbX1138 ).

I quite enjoyed it too! I didn't really like the character design that much, though, except the Missing Link and perhaps the President. It all felt a bit... Jimmy Neutron. I can't explain it any further than that!

On the tv front, Charlie Brooker's Newswipe has been really good (ep 3 is on bbc iplayer right now, although it's the least strong so far). Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle is dreadful, which is a real shame as his stand-up is normally fantastic. Heroes continues to suck balls.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Have to disagree re: Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. Admittedly some haven't been as strong as Lee's best (Stand-Up Comedian is absolutely brilliant) but it's far from dreadful, IMHO. In fact I'm loving that he's back on my TV screen!

[Ginger]

Have to disagree re: Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. Admittedly some haven't been as strong as Lee's best (Stand-Up Comedian is absolutely brilliant) but it's far from dreadful, IMHO. In fact I'm loving that he's back on my TV screen!

I stopped watching it very quickly, it just didn't make me laugh, like much on TV these days, I feel I'm getting out of sync with TV comedy.

Saw the first 10 mins of the new Red dwarf, after not laughing I decided to leave the room.

Also Watched the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist season 2, I don't see how it fits into the universe it doesn't seem to have it's own identity, hopefully it will develop one.

[Ben X]

Yeah, new Red Dwarf was predictably, heart-breakingly awful. Still going to watch the next two parts, though!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, new Red Dwarf was predictably, heart-breakingly awful. Still going to watch the next two parts, though!

Agreed. Woo, there was better special effects. Ugh, it was horrendously written.

Doug Naylor 'Dwarf has always been like this, though. Without Rob Grant to help with structure and story, he's always floundered around with one-liners.

Ah, well.

Edited April 12, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[Nachimir]

Yeah, new Red Dwarf was predictably, heart-breakingly awful. Still going to watch the next two parts, though!

Yeah. It's like eating really shitty chocolate or something, you don't want more but you can't resist. The lack of canned laughter is a really big change compared to the old Red Dwarf, and I didn't notice until one of my housemates mentioned it.

I didn't realise until recently that Dave is part owned by BBC Worldwide. Makes sense though, given that more or less everything they show is BBC reruns.

[Roderick]

Canned laughter is a weird thing. I had grown used to its absence by watching exclusively series like The Office, Arrested Development and Reno 911. So when I began to watch How I Met Your Mother, it took some time to adjust to it again. But I have to say... you get used to it quickly. I hardly notice it anymore, and HIMYM turned out to be a great comedy show full of heart.

At the moment I'm watching The Big Bang Theory, which is proving nice, but it lacks HIMYM's heart and often cunning insights into what makes people tick.

[Ben X]

The thing is, it was never 'canned' laughter with Red Dwarf - it was either filmed before a live studio audience, or filmed then edited then played before a live studio audience. This one did not dare play itself before a live studio audience, hence the lack of laughter.

The general fan consensus was that Grant did the funny, Naylor did the sci-fi concepts. It's pretty obvious from series 7 onwards that Grant did everything except the spellchecking.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The general fan consensus was that Grant did the funny, Naylor did the sci-fi concepts. It's pretty obvious from series 7 onwards that Grant did everything except the spellchecking.

It's definitely true that that's the general consensus, but it's absolute horseshit. Naylor did the one-liners, and his attempts at sci-fi are amazingly pathetic. I tried re-reading Last Human a while back and keeerrist if it wasn't filled with stomach churningly bad sci-fi. Did you know, for example, that StarBug was fitted with a "Hubble Telescope"? No, that's because it makes zero sense... except in the mind of Doug Naylor.

Grant did the sci-fi, plot, structure and characterization. He even wrote a chunk of his Red Dwarf novel where all the events occur backwards... carefully writing it so it all makes sense (apparently). That's exploring a sci-fi concept (living in a world where time is reversed) - not just bunging a bit of half-assed research into a sentence and hoping it sounds sufficiently impressive.

I really have no idea how the idea that Naylor was the "sci-fi man" came about... Everything is secondary to laughs to him (which is fine, providing he's got someone to figure out all the "heavy stuff").

Edited April 12, 2009 by ThunderPeel2001

[brkl]

I've been watching them from the beginning (for the first time), and I don't know about the book, but the episode where everything is reversed was horribleterrible.

God I miss the opening music from the first and second series. The one from series three onwards makes me queasy. But the actual episodes are good.

[ThunderPeel2001]

The episode Backwards (which is considered very good -- much better than say, Meltdown) was co-written by Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. In fact all episodes from Series 1 through 6 were written by both of them.

Series 7, 8 and this new "mini-series" was written by Doug Naylor on his own (or sometimes with help from other writers) but Rob Grant was not involved at all.

[DanJW]

Things started getting a bit shaky in series 6, when they lost Red Dwarf and Holly and the whole thing became more gimmicky special-fx based. The wild west episode, although well written, is sometimes marked as the exact point where the ideas ran out.

They tried to take it back to the bunk-bed dialogue a bit in series 8 (which was always the best stuff), which brought it back from the brink a smidgen. But probably not enough.

The first few series really are very well written. The middle series have the best scenarios and ideas (Back to Reality won an award if I'm not mistaken?).

It was interesting reading the two parrelel books written by Grant and Naylor seperately. Backwards was much better in terms of writing, but was so dark as to be almost miserable. The Last Human was a lot more easy going, sillier and maybe funnier in places, but was trashy and lacked characterisation.

[Ben X]

I loved series 6, it's one of my favourites! I don't see how Gunmen Of The Apocalypse was where the ideas ran out - it's a fantastic idea! You could say that the use of AR is a repeat of Better Than Life, but you could also point out that it's no more gimmicky than that episode.

I also re-read the RD novels a while back, and reported on it in this zombie-cow thread. Here's what I said:

So, I bought IWCD (or 'Red Dwarf' as the inside cover refers to it) for 40p from a charity shop on Sunday, and have read half of it already. It's still great, and stands up as a sci-fi novel without knowledge of the tv show. It's a shame Grant Naylor couldn't have stuck together and kept on writing novels that loosely followed the continuing show past series 2.

I'm now reading 'Better Than Life'. It's pretty cool, but it's spending a bit too long in the game at the start. I'm looking forward to the bit where Lister makes friends with giant cockroaches.

Not enjoying the second novel as much - it's starting to feel a bit too much like lazy transcripts of various episodes.

BTL has got to the cockroaches bit, and it's brilliant - all the trash planet stuff is genius - really clever, exciting, hilarious Adams-esque sci-fi-com that they couldn't have done in telly.

I've also got the two next novels, 'The Last Human' and 'Backwards', which I can't remember anything about except one of them having some stupid pink anti-grav prison in it.

I'm reading Backwards now. As usual, the new bits are really good, the transcripts a bit rubbish. The other problem is that it takes too long over each section, doesn't have an overarching plot so it feels aimless, and it's forgotten to do character/comedy stuff as well as plot (perhaps with plot-man Naylor not supporting him, Grant overcompensated). It even has Rimmer being a bit too heroic and likeable quite often.

Finished all the novels. Backwards and The Last Human are okay, but suffer from similar problems - the episode-transcript thing, just starting to not feel like Red Dwarf anymore - especially as both take the series 6 'chasing RD' route - and not really having a very strong narrative drive. Neither novel seems to be going anywhere - Lister's quest to find Earth/tow it back to our solar system is forgotten, in place of a series of events that take them so far away from the original premise that Backwards resorts to going to an alternate reality where all that stuff in the past couple of novels didn't happen. Also, both get rather too dark - lots of death, sex and sadism.

They're both good enough writers to keep it interesting, but they do only have one or two literary devices each, which they use repeatedly, and the books just never feel as satisfying as the first (and to an extent the second).

[Thrik]

I've gone mental for films this weekend and caught up with a load that've been long since discussed:

• Death Proof :tup:
  
• Gangs of New York :tup:
  
• In Bruges
  
• No Country for Old Men :tup:
  
• Rambo
  
• There Will Be Blood :tup:
  

[Roderick]

Yeah, I had a great time with Rambo a couple of months back. There was just nothing wrong with that movie.

[DanJW]

I loved series 6, it's one of my favourites! I don't see how Gunmen Of The Apocalypse was where the ideas ran out - it's a fantastic idea!

It is well done, as I said. But as Terry Pratchett pointed out, all sci-fi shows feel compelled, should they go on long enough, to do a wild west episode. It's like evil twin plots - it's a bizarre trope that gets repeated over and over.

edit: Anyway, new episodes. I thought the higher production values and lack of laugh track worked strangely well. It made it seem a lot sadder, much like the books were, in fact.

Then the whole fourth-wall breaking stuff happened and ruined it all

---

Oh yeah, I also got around to seeing Death Race recently. It's good car-based fun. But compared to the original Death Race 2000, it is almost laughably tame. The original has a corrupt government, a successful plot against the president, the general public being killed - and deserving it, sex and nudity and all kind of excellent biting satire.

The new one... it paints itself as being big and tough and sexy and badass. But then for instance, when an inmate in a prison full of murderers and rapists sees the women navigators arrive (who aren't even nearly as sexy as their 1960's predecessors) he makes a comment along the lines of "I'd like them to suck peanut butter off my toes". You'd what? Really? In prison for X years and that's what you'd like? I guess you don't want to be too crude in front of all these murderers or something.

That kind of fallen-short machismo pervades the entire film. Like I said, it's laughable when compared to cojones of the original.

Besides that it's good.

Edited April 12, 2009 by DanJW