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Movie/TV recommendations

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Last night I watched WarGames. It was fine, but hard for me to take seriously as an adult. Still, I can imagine why it resonated with people of a certain age and disposition when it was a current film; maybe it would have for me too if I had seen it when all the people I know did!

I hate that. I think I've passed so many barriers now for films that I never saw when I was a kid: Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, Flight of the Navigator, Neverending Story, etc. I got around to watching Escape from New York and it just blowed... much to the annoyance of some friends of mine. I don't think it can be helped... once you missed them, you've missed them, I think. (Unless you suddenly find yourself in precisely the right frame of mind for some silliness - 2am maybe?)

WarGames was caught at the right time, though: I love that movie!

Fun fact: Some people watching the film in 1983 felt it was far too unrealistic... that computers could ever be able to talk over the phone line. Kind of puts the film into perspective!

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I regularly watch moves from the 80s and early 90s which I never saw before; but I usually don't have the problem that problem. Maybe I'm blessed. Or maybe I get put the movies better in perspective.

Then again, I often also watch new movies which suck big time, but might have been ok when they were made in the 80s or early 90s. I blame crappy CGI in modern B movies.They should simply stick to the special effects techniques from the 80s. The results would be much better. I think.

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Seppuku (1962)

dir. Masaki Kobayashi

Tatsuya Nakadai

Rentarô Mikuni

seppuku2.jpg

This was a dark, angry, bitter film about Samurai honor culture and the people that are left behind when society undergoes an economic shift. It's not a film I'd want to see every day, but I really did appreciate it as a masterpiece of storytelling. The premise: in the early 17th century Japan, samurai are becoming outmoded. Many are now unemployed in this time of peace and wander the streets trying to survive. There have been a series of incidents of these ronin appearing at the gates of the remaining houses and threatening seppuku (ritual suicide), in hope that they will be given some money to go away.

It is in this climate that a mysterious older samurai appears in front of the Iyi House, requesting use of the courtyard for seppuku. Eventually, we realize that Hanshiro Tsugumo, the ronin, and Kageyu Saito, the proud lord of the Iyi House, have very different conceptions of the good life, a man's duty, and the nature of honor. I hesitate to say too much about the film, as the plot is revealed slowly to change our perspective on events.

I found it extremely powerful and accessible, with story as tragic and beautiful as nearly anything in Classical Greek literature. Both thumbs up on my end!

PSA: I actually wrote this on the Filmspotting forum first, but I liked this movie so much that I wanted to share with the Idle Thumbs guys, too.

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Hermie attended a film festival! Here's a short round-up:

En helt Vanlig Dag På Jobben [An Average Day's Work] (Norway, 2010) - This is a movie about a journalist that begins in a renowned Norwegian gossip magazine, and gets pressured into using their unethical practices, like paying celebrities for getting to print rumors about them. He's not very successful, until he becomes friends with the father of the Norwegian Prince's new girlfriend. While the old man thinks of it as a true friendship, the journalist has to keep exploiting him. It's based on a true story, this journalist wrote the book with the same name, in which he layed out all the shady methods the magazine was using, cause quite a stir. The movie appears softened at first, to adapt it more into the "naive journalist gets thrown into the big bad world" trope, but the writer makes a couple of clever twists to elevate it above that.

The movie is good, but very Norwegian, I doubt anyone outside of the country will appreciate it much, since it has plenty of in-jokes. So this recommendation is for Toblix only, I guess. :tup:

Sergio (USA, 2009) - This is a documentary about Sergio, one of the most successful diplomats in UNs history. It details his work in Africa, Cambodia and East-Timor, while parallel telling the story about how he reluctantly had to go to Iraq, only to have the UN base attacked, and detailing the mission to rescue him from under the rubble.

Even though this was made as a pretty standard talking heads-documentary, it became powerful simply from the testimonies from the people around him, and how much they have been affected by Sergio. Well worth a watch. :tup:

Kanikosen (Japan, 2009) - Kanikosen is based on a proletarian novel from the 1920s, detailing workers on a crab fishing ship who have to toil away under almost slavish conditions. That's basically all I have to say to let you know if you're interested in this movie or not. The movie, and I assume the original book as well, takes a very pro-labor standpoint, and it's not shy about it. So if you're not frightened by this, I say you should watch it if you have the chance. The crew is very likable, and in addition to succeeding dramatically, it surprises you with the trademark Japanese goofiness from time to time. :tup:

Dang, this is getting long. Guess I'll break it off here and write up more later. ^^

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I want to encourage any old school scrubs fans to give the new season a shot. All they lost was JD and Carla, but all the old regulars are back plus the new kids. It's just as funny as it ever was

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I want to encourage any old school scrubs fans to give the new season a shot. All they lost was JD and Carla, but all the old regulars are back plus the new kids. It's just as funny as it ever was

I don't think it's AS funny as top-of-the-game old Scrubs, but it's still good. Way better than seasons 6 and 7. <.<

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I saw Alice in Wonderland.

I expected horrible things, so, not taking into account any preconceptions that it 'should' be this or that, I found it quite enjoyable on the basis of itself. Apart from the worst ending in recent film history. Crazy bad. The Mad Hatter was pretty fun, though also just weird, with his Scottish accent.

Yeah.

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The trailer for Scott Pilgrim is out! http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/scottpilgrimvstheworld/

It will punch you in the face so hard you orgasm (-ign.com)

Now, I might be a raving fanboy of both Scott Pilgrim and Edgar Wright, but I found this trailer to be pretty much amazing.

Alternately, watch this trailer if you want to see Captain America hammerthrow Michael Cera into a castle.

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That was pretty sweet. I think they'll capture the tone of the comic pretty well! And I'm very happy to see that they're condensing the story, so that it won't be 'one movie per pocket', but a tighter experience. I was wondering how they'd solve that.

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I have not watched any movies in two weeks.

I feel sad and miserable because of that.

I even missed all the movie possibilities during my flights from France to Canada and back because I was too tired.

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Oh man, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were soooo gooood.
It's weird, Shaun of the dead was an instant classic in my book, but i hated hot fuzz the first time I saw it, but it holds up even better then shaun does on repeated viewings, and now I enjoy watching it.

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Finally got back to the movie train.

Watched two movies during the weekend.

First I watched Detroit Metal City with my wife on her request. That was so weird and still extremely funny movie. It tells a story about a japanese guy who wants to sing corny pop songs and become famous, but ends up as the singer of a death metal band against his own will.

Second we watched The Producers by Mel Brooks. I had never seen this before and it was quite late in the evening so my wife actually started sleeping in the middle of it as she was really tired.

The movie was really great comedy. It started slowly but as it progressed further I started noticing all those great Mel Brooks moments everywhere. I even saw him pop up in the screen to say a few sentences in the scene where the theatre play starts.

I'm really happy that I finally saw the movie, I didn't actually know that the production company originally didn't want to release this at all. Only after Peter Sellers told the production company boss that this is a great comedy movie they released the movie, with a changed name, heh.

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Coincidentally, I also saw the original Producers last night. It had been on my list for a while because a few months back I became infatuated with the remade version of Springtime for Hitler.

What a surprising funny. It really grew on me. At first I was lukewarm toward it, but especially afterward I really appreciated Wilder's amazing, hysterical performance. I also like how extremely simple the characters and the plot are, yet it works great. I'm curious what the remake feels like. I did feel that some of the more obvious jokes in the old one felt a little stale and drawn out (you can easily imagine more effective, modern ways to play out the 'secretary dancing in a skimpy dress'). Great stuff nonetheless.

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I love The Producers. The "remake"/"filmed stage adaptation" is ok, but not as good as the original in my book. Gene Wilder was amazing (heck, everyone was really good), but the new cast wasn't as good. I was lucky enough to catch the stage version in London, which was also very entertaining, especially for a fan ("Springtime for Hitler" on stage, right in front of you!).

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Last night we watched Alien.

I'm a bit shamed to admit but I had never seen it before. I have seen all the sequels many times in the past years. This movie was really great, I'm a fan of John Hurt and he really was great in this one, also Ian Holm was really good as Ash.

It's clearly my favourite of the four, but I still like Cameron's Aliens also which is next on my list to rewatch. "Game over man!"

There was one weird scene in the movie, this was the director's cut version that we watched so I don't know how it looks in the original version.

The scene were Ripley is plugging Ash body with the severed head back to online mode. The scene clearly first shows a puppet head and then completely roughly cuts to showing Ian Holm's head. It looks really amateurish and stupid. They don't even do a view change so it could look even a little bit better.

Also actually the scene were Dallas is taken by the Alien in the air vent, the Alien looks a bit weird, you can see really clearly that it's a guy in a rubber suit, but it's ok as that scene just flashes by when the Alien comes from the darkness.

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Last night we watched Alien.

There was one weird scene in the movie, this was the director's cut version that we watched so I don't know how it looks in the original version.

Also actually the scene were Dallas is taken by the Alien in the air vent, the Alien looks a bit weird, you can see really clearly that it's a guy in a rubber suit, but it's ok as that scene just flashes by when the Alien comes from the darkness.

I rewatched Alien recently as well, for the first time in aaaages. First time I saw it was in French, which somehow made it scarier.

You are right about the rough cut - horrible, and one of the few scenes where the film has aged badly. I didn't mind the air-vent flash so much but for absolutely gut-splitting laughs go to the extras menu and watch the deleted cut of

the alien approaching Lambert

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It's clearly my favourite of the four, but I still like Cameron's Aliens also which is next on my list to rewatch. "Game over man!"

Seriously? I think that's the worst Alien movie ever, maybe outside of Resurrection and the Vs. movies. Resurrection I have a softer spot for, but I just can stand the characters, the forced relations, and ham fisted dialogue in Cameron's movie. Everything looks so cheap and not scary as well.

There was one weird scene in the movie, this was the director's cut version that we watched so I don't know how it looks in the original version.

The scene were Ripley is plugging Ash body with the severed head back to online mode. The scene clearly first shows a puppet head and then completely roughly cuts to showing Ian Holm's head. It looks really amateurish and stupid. They don't even do a view change so it could look even a little bit better.

Also actually the scene were Dallas is taken by the Alien in the air vent, the Alien looks a bit weird, you can see really clearly that it's a guy in a rubber suit, but it's ok as that scene just flashes by when the Alien comes from the darkness.

The director's cut is actually shorter by a few minutes from what I remember. It extends some scenes and adds a major one near the end, but it also trims a lot of scenes that sort of lagged at the same time, or so I hear (since I couldn't really distinguish the differences).

Your first spoiler I think was just Ridley Scott not knowing how to properly cut to a real head from what I remember in the commentary. The second I also think was done really bad, as I remember

the actor that plays Dallas saying in the cast commentary that it looks like the alien is singing opera to him on that part.

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Well, the reason I like Aliens is that it's actually very typical 80's action movie and I love 80's cheesy action movies.

Also now that I actually watched Aliens again last night with my wife, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities how Cameron handled the army soldiers in this one and in Avatar. I think the last time I saw Aliens was propably 10 years ago.

Cameron uses the robot suit in this one and he used similar kind of mech suits in Avatar.

Aliens is a really campy comedic take on the Alien franchise. I like it because of the very cheesy dialogue and that he basically upped the amount of the Aliens so in this they become cannon fodder. "Game over man, game over!" Bill Paxton is such a whiny grunt in this movie. :)

It's true that Aliens is not really scary at all, when compared to all the other Alien movies, one big factor is that there are so many Aliens in this one that it loses the scary factor. Basically the only scary bit for me when I watched this as a teen for the first time was

the scene were Lance Henriksen gets ripped in half by the Alien Queen.

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Seriously? I think that's the worst Alien movie ever, maybe outside of Resurrection and the Vs. movies.

I'm pretty much with you there, but from what I can tell the rest of the world disagrees. I guess Aliens has been a significant influence on a lot of stuff I like and it has a lot of iconic scenes I remember from when I was young and shouldn't have been watching it, but it doesn't really do what I want from an Alien film, and isn't really to my taste in general. It's vastly better than the AvP movies, though.

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I guess I did know that. Some people even seem to like it more than the first one.

I also have a few issues of Commodore User magazine from 1988 for non video game reasons, and every game seems to have taken cues from Aliens.

Even the video game versions of Alien 3, a movie in which they had no guns they could use, just seems like it was based off Aliens but with a different setting.

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As terrible as the pilot was, SPartacus Blood and Sand has actually turned into a worthwhile show. Initially I scoffed and wrote it off as 300 without a budget, but they tone down the cheesy looking blood, and start introducing some real storylines eventually. It's no Rome, but it's worth watching.

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