ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

Recommended Posts

I really like Casablanca, but I think it's way too overrated. I especially get annoyed by it being the #2 or #3 movie on the Top 100 AFI list. Even the screenplay is praised too often and too much. Don't get me wrong, the writing is top-notch (the part where

Ilsa decides to betray Laszlo and all of Europe for a taste of Humphrey Bogart's dick

aside, I mean), but there's only so much praise you can give something without it seeming you're just saying it because fucking Ebert said it too. The Big Sleep, which came out one year later, was just as well-written and probably just as good a movie (I haven't seen it in ages), but you don't hear people talking about that because no sweaty film critic is rubbing his dick all over it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
false

That film is for everyone with a god damn heart pumping in their chest.

true

I own fewer than 20 DVDs, and Amelie is right in there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just saw Delicatessen. For some reason I haven't gotten around to it before now, having seen and loved many of Jeunet's later films. Just the intro credits sequence in this film has more care put into it than Surrogates, Transformers (both of them) and Avatar (all three dimensions) put together.

Oh man, do I love Delicatessen. Such a heartwarming film about cannibals.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I really like Casablanca, but I think it's way too overrated. I especially get annoyed by it being the #2 or #3 movie on the Top 100 AFI list. Even the screenplay is praised too often and too much. Don't get me wrong, the writing is top-notch (the part where

Ilsa decides to betray Laszlo and all of Europe for a taste of Humphrey Bogart's dick

aside, I mean), but there's only so much praise you can give something without it seeming you're just saying it because fucking Ebert said it too. The Big Sleep, which came out one year later, was just as well-written and probably just as good a movie (I haven't seen it in ages), but you don't hear people talking about that because no sweaty film critic is rubbing his dick all over it.

I don't give a bleeding fuck about film critics. The glowing praise of the multitudes is more often than not reason for me to approach a movie with skepticism. I especially not care for Ebert, since he didn't even get The Dark Knight when he watched it (when he retold some bits in his review, it became painfully clear he was missing some of the major points).

Don't write my opinion off as some sheepish 'I have to like this because it's a classic' :( Now, if you wish to recommend The Big Sleep, you are more than welcome to. I just wish you did it in a bit more of a friendly way, instead of getting all in our faces like that. It's hurting your recommendation.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, I wasn't intentionally maligning your opinion or implying you were a sheep. I was just responding to the joke about Casablanca being the last movie humans should have made, which implies that it's as close to perfect movies will get you. It's a great movie, but way overrated; The Big Sleep is just as good but doesn't receive the same amount of praise. I finally vented out about people following movie critics around like sheep. I wasn't thinking about you at all. I'm sorry I came off that way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Batman: The Brave and the Bold is delightful. It uses elements of the old Adam West Batman and adds in a bunch of crazy fun. The first episode has a wormhole and aliens, the second has dinosaurs and the fifth has Merlin. It's well written, well animated and just a lot of fun.

Two weeks ago they ran a new episode on Cartoon Network that was about Aquaman RVing across America (the DC version of it) with his wife and son.

At one point Aquaman actually stumbles upon a fist fight between The Atom and some tiny super villain when they hit the windshield of his camper!

So yeah, it's awesome.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
false

That film is for everyone with a god damn heart pumping in their chest.

false = !true

I loved Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children... but Amelie. Sorry, I found it to be far too sentimental and forced. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I don't think so.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
false = !true

I loved Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children... but Amelie. Sorry, I found it to be far too sentimental and forced. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I don't think so.

Gasp!

I like Amelie, but prefer Delicatessen. In fact, that French essay I rabbited on about the other week was in part about those films.

In other news: Casablanca and The Big Sleep must suck, because they're both in black and white. Urgh.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Gasp!

In other news: Casablanca and The Big Sleep must suck, because they're both in black and white. Urgh.

In the horrible brainwashing job I was doing in December, a manager giving one one of the 'morning meetings' (actually just pep talks and sales pitches aimed at the reps) was talking about progress or some rubbish. He actually used film as a metaphor (they loved their metaphors) saying "no-one watches black and white films any more right?".

The levels of ignorance and cultural desolation routinely displayed was just one reason why I had to get out.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
In the horrible brainwashing job I was doing in December, a manager giving one one of the 'morning meetings' (actually just pep talks and sales pitches aimed at the reps) was talking about progress or some rubbish. He actually used film as a metaphor (they loved their metaphors) saying "no-one watches black and white films any more right?".

The levels of ignorance and cultural desolation routinely displayed was just one reason why I had to get out.

Yeah, I was once in a screening for a Film Studies Course, and I heard someone mutter, seemingly without a hint of self-awareness, 'Aw, it's a black and white film?' and sigh broadly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A tangentially related anecdote: the printmaking department at my alma mater has had some sort of friendly relationship with the printmaking department of Brigham Young University, and there are always one or two very practicing Mormon graduate students who were suggested our school for their graduate studies by the BYU faculty. They are a weird addition to the contemporary art scene comprised mostly of cynical desert bums and urban Chicanos.

They are not inept artists (technically or conceptually), although they tend to be somewhat cut off from the culture at large in the world they live in. They think Napoleon Dynamite is the greatest film ever made, have never heard of Orson Welles, and every time a professor would put up, say, a Fellini movie, they would watch it until boobs appeared on screen, whereupon they would excuse themselves and wait outside until the scene, or the whole movie, was over. They would never go out of their way to explore the culture around them. :deranged:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Eh :) It'd be awesome to see their reaction to The Grande Bouffe.

edit : on the other hand, if they don't actually prevent others from watching those movies, I don't see what's wrong with them leaving; I mean it's a shame for them, but well, it's not less rational than watching Ichi the Killer from beginning to end.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You know, I should be respectful of their decisions not to proselytize. But I can't. Their quiet leaving the room I find more oppressive than voicing their mind. They are isolating themselves from the society they live in, never try to understand it and keep going on as if their way of doing things is beyond reproach. But they vote. And affect things. I find that hypocritical.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
it's not less rational than watching Ichi the Killer from beginning to end.

What? That movie was awesome.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movies are quite awesome. I've seen all his five long movies and two of the short movies. I own all long movies on dvd except Alien 4 which was a brave attempt at a different kind of Alien movie, too bad it was butchered by bad production and a Joss Whedon script that was changed too much from what it was when Joss wrote the text. (No wonder he will never go back to Hollywood after that "experience.")

I've seen Foutaises and Le bunker de la dernière rafale from his old short movies and pretty much all of Foutaises is clearly used in Amelie 12 years later. :tup:

The latest movie Micmacs à tire-larigot is apparently coming to Finland in March so I'll propably see it then. I didn't really know that there is a new movie coming, this great news!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wish more of Jeunet's short films were on DVD (AND IN ENGLISH). They aren't as good as his movies, but a nice complete collection would save me a lot of headaches. He has a few music videos he's directed too.

I have a Japanese DVD that has Bunker of the Last Gunshots, Foutasies, Le Manege, and another one (I'd have to check, I want to say it's Billy Brakko). But I was only able to see the silent ones (Bunker and Le Manege). The rest only had Japanese subtitles. I do have a downloaded version of Foutasies with English subtitles which was wrongfully left off of international versions of Amelie for whatever reason.

But France put out a great DVD for Marc Caro called Made in Caro that collects most of his short films varying in quality from terrible and amatuerish to visionary and experimental. It has no subtitles, but pretty much no reading is required. It comes with a booklet that's half French/half English describing the multitude of shorts, which is odd since most French DVDs don't seem to cater to any language outside of France.

I'm guessing I won't be able to see Micmacs until there's some kind of English version DVD or Blu-ray. I see it's already out on those formats in France, but I'm guess there will be no sign of English anywhere.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Anyone ever see Becker? It's not a ground-breaking sitcom by any means, but the writing is just so damn good. The show's setting and characters could be set in any run-of-the-mill drama, or even a subpar sitcom, but what I've seen of it so far (the first season and a good chunk of the second) has been of a consistently high quality. Check it out. It's got Ted Danson as the titular character, if that's incentive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The long awaited Chris Morris film 4 Lions has recieved it's first review. Armando Iannucci just tweeted:

seen 4 Lions. Yes. Very yes.

I know it's not much to get excited about, but I'm easily excited when it comes to Morris.

EDIT: Oh, and this has been released on youtube

dZVfyQyu9RY

Edited by SignorSuperdouche

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Anyone ever see Becker? It's not a ground-breaking sitcom by any means, but the writing is just so damn good. The show's setting and characters could be set in any run-of-the-mill drama, or even a subpar sitcom, but what I've seen of it so far (the first season and a good chunk of the second) has been of a consistently high quality. Check it out. It's got Ted Danson as the titular character, if that's incentive.

I watched the whole show some years ago when they ran the all the episodes in Finnish tv. It was pretty good, I've always been a fan of Ted Danson.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just saw Sherlock Holmes. It's not as bad as I expected (thank goodness they at least tried to

make the magic parts make logical sense

). On the one hand, Victorian London looks neat. On the other, it's essentially a dumbing-down of the source material. I'd recommend renting it instead of going to the theatre.

We went to see Avatar yesterday, but it was sold out (for two showings). We ended up flipping a coin between Princess and the Frog and Ninja Assassin (yeah yeah, we were bored). We ended up with the latter. It was incredibly dumb, but at least entertaining. Gory, though. There was this kid sitting in front of me, maybe six years old, who got upset and had to leave halfway through. I wanted to call his mum an idiot for bringing him into an R rated movie, but I refrained. Stupid cow.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I saw The Big Sleep. I wasn't so taken with it, really, probably because of the high expectations I had going in after Kroms' praise. It's a clever detective movie pretty much like The Maltese Falcon, but it's no Casablanca. And I can't believe you complained about Ilsa and then praised The Big Sleep considering there isn't a single woman in the movie who doesn't start spouting porn movie dialogue as soon as Bogart enters the room.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmm. I'm surprised. The writing is bloody brilliant in that film, though I do remember thinking the females were a little bit...Oh, objectified, I suppose. Maybe you should try again at not-very-close point in the future, after my praise wears off a little. I'll have to watch it again myself.

The dialogue in that movie's very intelligent. That's what I remember most about it: how the dialogue always had one on you. It's the kind of thing that made Casablanca so good.

I wonder if you didn't like the movie so much because it's a little misognystic. There's a lot of people who hate an all-man or all-woman movie.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I just saw Sherlock Holmes. It's not as bad as I expected (thank goodness they at least tried to

make the magic parts make logical sense

). On the one hand, Victorian London looks neat. On the other, it's essentially a dumbing-down of the source material. I'd recommend renting it instead of going to the theatre.

I've really dislike Richies last couple movies that I had seen and at one point in life my mind just switched off from like jude law; but I took the chance to see it after a friend said it was alright and I really enjoyed it.

I'm no huge sherlock holmes fan, so I can see how it may piss off actual fans, but I really liked this take on it more then the original. To me, they retained his character, only took a realistic approach to it, where anyone that insightful would be a socially maladjusted.

I liked old timey london, the themes of logic vs magic, and the mild commentary on using fear for control. The set up was a little dark knightish, actually, which isn't really a bad thing.

The only thing I have to say against it is the over use of underbudgeted cg near the end; I know it's hard to keep it authenthic considering the period, but they really didn't have to do this huge epic, cartoonish ending where everything had to be on a greenscreen.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now