ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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The Top Gear Bolivian special - that's well worth a watch. :tup:

Top Gear challenges are the reason I watch the show.

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I absolutely loved the Top Gear Vietnam challenge on motorbikes. At one point they start giving each other these ridiculously cumbersome presents that decency dictates they continue carrying around as best as they can. A fragile, giant wooden replica of a ship is involved. Must see.

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I absolutely loved the Top Gear Vietnam challenge on motorbikes. At one point they start giving each other these ridiculously cumbersome presents that decency dictates they continue carrying around as best as they can. A fragile, giant wooden replica of a ship is involved. Must see.

I think my favourite so far is the Botswana one. Hiding meat in the air intakes in lion country, and scaring each other with tales of the honey-badger.

But they are all good. They are surprisingly educational, as they actually manage to show you a foreign country as a real place, in a way you can relate to - as a traveller. This while instilling a sense of adventure and love of great scenery and human ingenuity, with a dash or juvenile jokes and arsing around.

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They are also the most unscripted progs, as they have to ad-lib a lot more. Really shows the good chemistry. I was genuinely worried for them in America in that redneck town. Events were triggered by Hammond having 'Man love rules OK' painted on his truck.

Only just saw the Arctic one recently... That was top too!

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Oh come on now, you don't think that America episode was really real do you.

I thought they were legit before, but when redneck gangs piled in pickups are just summoned out of the ether, I have to call bullshit.

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I always wonder how much of it is real, how much planned in advance and how much crafted in the editing room afterwards. In the trek through Africa there's the narrative thread of the Volkswagen Beatle following them around constantly, and there's just no way that one always just happens to pop up whenever one of their cars threatens to break down.

Nevertheless, narrative planning aside, I love the genuine slice of the country you get. And, again in the Vietnam example, it's authentically touching. It felt like a real adventure, something that movies could only hope to ever instil.

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Yeh sure, that did stretch it and break credulity. Just before that bit there's the woman shouting at them across the forecourt which made me a bit concerned.

Then there's the eating of the squirrel. The point I was trying to make though was that there is always a lot more scope for them in the overseas challenges, whereas the normal episodes are very tightly scripted and often a little forced. Still damn good teevee though! :)

The Beetle in Africa was provided by the producers in case one of the main cars broke down, as a threat as they don't like them, rather like the USA liveried motorbike in 'Nam.

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Yeah, it's very well crafted entertainment. The point that made me realise is how close each and every one of their races is, i.e. mountain bike/runner/skidoo against car.

I find even if I try to put my cynical hat on and spot whatever's been edited or set up, it's still enormously entertaining. Thanks for recommending the Bolivia episode, I'd missed that there was a new series, and hearing James May utter "I'll cut your fucking head off" was a treat :)

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Oh come on now, you don't think that America episode was really real do you.

I thought they were legit before, but when redneck gangs piled in pickups are just summoned out of the ether, I have to call bullshit.

It's weird because the only American response I've seen to that episode was along the lines of: "Oh right! And how would YOU react if we came to London and started yelling 'Limey' at YOU?!"

To which any British person would tell you: Laugh.

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I can't deny that Top Gear is good entertainment, its just that things like the America episode, and the one with the camper strain credulity to the point where I have difficulty suspending my disbelief.

It's weird because the only American response I've seen to that episode was along the lines of: "Oh right! And how would YOU react if we came to London and started yelling 'Limey' at YOU?!"

To which any British person would tell you: Laugh.

It seems like the closest thing you'd have to rednecks in London would be soccer hooligans, but I don't think any American could be persuaded to learn enough about soccer to figure out how to enrage those guys.

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I saw A Serious Man with my girlfriend a couple of days ago and I loved it. Really Coen-like humour with great sets and characters. If you liked their previous stuff you'll love this.

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Just wanted to stop in and mention 8 1/2. It's in Italian and in B & W, but wow. A refreshing, light-hearted story with heavy symbolism and dreamlike sequences that are handled very deftly. I started watching it out of a sense of obligation but got hooked very quickly.

"8 1/2" refers to this being film number 8 1/2 that Fellini had directed (counting his shorts as "half a film"). It's a semi-autobiographical story about a movie director who is stuck with writer's block and is looking for inspiration.

It's on Netflix watch instantly FWIW.

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I can vouch for 8 1/2, too. I like that film a lot.

Me, I've been watching a shedload of French films, tenuously tied to an essay I've been writing. This means that all 8 films I've seen so far in 2010 have been French.

One I would completely recommend is A Christmas Tale (un conte de noel), which is a film about an idiosyncratic family that come together for Christmas. It got a lot of attention when it was released internationally at the start of 2009 - and it's very good! Nicely complex, bittersweet, melancholic, odd and charming without being saccharine or arrogantly ironic.

Before I watched it, I noticed a lot of (not unfounded) similarities with The Royal Tenenbaums. I like Wes Anderson a lot, but this film was better - as the dysfunctional, at times psychotic elements of the family weren't overly quirky at all, it was all very grounded.

The performances are great as well, with a handful of very strong French actors in there, including Catherine Deneuve as the matriarch and Mathieu Amalric as the estranged, alcoholic elder son (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and I believe he was a Bond villain in Quantum of Solace). And also Chiara Mastroianni, who is awesome and beautiful - which is a little unsettling because she looks so much like her dad.

Her dad being Marcello Mastroianni, the Italian actor who starred in, among other things, 8 1/2, which is a film I can vouch for. I like that film a lot.

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The theater I work at is having a "French New Wave at 50" thing right now, showing 50th anniversary screenings of things like The 400 Blows and Elevator to the Gallows, so I've been watching a bunch of French cinema lately as well. Good times. It's also the theater's 75th birthday, being one of the oldest building in Calgary (stop laughing, Europeans.) so we're wrangling some prints from 1935 to show in conjunction with that. Lots of weird stuff came out that year. So far we're looking at things like Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood, and Bride of Frankenstein. We do semi-regular 16mm screenings, so we have the really old equipment necessary to do it and it's the kind of thing other movie houses couldn't get away with, so its pretty exciting. It would also be Elvis' 75th birthday this year, so we might do a marathon of his movies as well. It's a weird thing to ask, but I'll put it to you guys anyway: What movies from 1935 would motivate you to get into a theater today? In addition, what Elvis movie would you most like to have a chance to see on the big screen?

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Wow, if I ever find myself in Calgary, I know where I'd go...

Films from 1935? I'd say that this one would be a no-brainer, maybe around February.

Seriously, though. I really like Captain Blood, and Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. I would love to see those films in a cinema. Beyond that, nothing huge, but I could be swayed into seeing Bride of Frankenstein and A Night at the Opera.

I'm not the person to ask about Elvis films. I've only seen one (Love Me Tender) and I didn't like it much at all.

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I'll second BoF and NatO.

You're the projectionist, right? How is it going with the old prints?

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Depends on the print. Back for halloween, we had one of Nosferatu that had been kept in excellent condition and was actually a joy to put on. Sometimes we'll be lucky enough that they'll reprint something as well. Tuesday night we showed Vivre Sa Vie (technically only 48 years old, but we made it part of the series) and the print was only a year old. It was completely beautiful. The worst prints I've ever dealt with have been from the 70s and 80s, where the movie is old enough to be classic but not old enough to have been reprinted. Midnight screenings of things like Wrath of Khan and (of course) Rocky Horror have had terrible quality prints. Wrath of Khan was so bad the entire film had been tinged orange from age. You could never tell if the Enterprise was on red alert or if it was just the print.

I don't know if Harold Lloyd's stuff was ever reprinted due to him hiding all his films in a vault in his house until his granddaughter decided to release them. As a result of his neuroses, the prints are still in remarkable condition, but I think they may actually be originals. For old timey stuff, the worst one I ran was actually my first silent show. It was an old Chaplin short (about 30mins) where he played a stage hand. Can't remember the title. It broke 4 times during the screening, but crowds for shows like that are usually pretty understanding so it was not a big deal.

As for 39 Steps and Night at the Opera, they're on the shortlist too. Good to hear interest. I'm with Nevsky on having only seen one Elvis movie (mine was CLAMBAKE! which I posted a trailer for somewhere on the forum due to hilarity) but I actually quite liked it. It was dumb as hell, but so fun.

And Nevsky, if you do happen into Calgary and stop in, say who you are. Due to restoration cinema not being the most lucrative business, we only have 2 people on staff at a time, one who runs the concession and cleans the theater between shows, and one who handles the box office and does all the projection work. I am the latter, so I'd be selling tickets as well. Thumbs in good standing get a free pass in my books.

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I greatly enjoyed Avatar, although I won't bother watching it on DVD, I shouldn't think.

Sherlock Holmes, however, was rubbish. Infantile and boring; Shanghai Knights with all the fun and invention sapped out.

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I watched Avatar again, this time in IMAX 3D. Having seen it in Real-D last time, I think I can say that it's worth the extra $3 or so for the IMAX if you have a theater near you. In a film so heavily invested in visual and aural effects rather than plot or dialogue, you want to put your money in the right place.

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I don't know if Harold Lloyd's stuff was ever reprinted due to him hiding all his films in a vault in his house until his granddaughter decided to release them.

Wikipedia begs to differ :erm:

Interesting stuff, though!

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