ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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Damn, that's an ace double bill. Can't go, though. I'm seeing 3 or 4 other films that day.

Really? What are you seeing?

Recently seen:

Made in Dagenham (SO much better than the awful trailer made it look, REALLY good.)

Tamara Drewe (couldn't get past how smug everyone was, although it's certainly not badly made)

World's Greatest Dad (although I've already written extensively about it, it's suddenly come to my attention that of course it's a satire on the cult of suicide... I just don't think it's a very good one. Duh.)

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I'm covering the London Film Festival, and we're neck-deep in press previews at the moment. So I'm going to try and catch Blue Valentine and Upside Down: The Creation Records Story during the day. I'm also at a screening of The Exorcist in the evening, to tie in with the Blu-ray release. I've not seen it before, so I'm struggling to find my angle on it - surely it's the most over-exposed horror film ever made?

The LFF (and other film work) has taken over my life for the last couple of weeks, hence why I've not had the chance to write a rejoinder to your great post on World's Greatest Dad, Thunderpeel. Apologies.

Oh, and I hated Made in Dagenham (I thought it was very flippant and dumbed-down), and quite liked Tamara Drewe (there's a definite smugness there, but I think it's intentional).

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TV recommendation: An Idiot Abroad. If you're a fan of Karl Pilkington, or would like to see a real life Homer Simpsons travel to places he really doesn't want to go to and be an embittered ass while he's there, it's loads of fun. :yep:

Also: Glee. For obvious reasons. :clap:

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The auto-tuning really destroys Glee for me. That, and the kerning.

Yeah, the auto-tuning is a bit bad. Though it seems to me most of the auto-tuning is done on the male performers. Or maybe I'm just hearing it wrong.

Still enjoy Glee for the sheer fun it has with a fairly clichéd and trite premise. But that's just me.

Also: kerning?

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Yeah, unfortunately Rasheda Jones's character was a completely heavyhanded way to handle the ending. She didn't really need to be there at all.

Yeah that's unfortunate because I really like her. Oh well.

I guess I don't know what to say about that movie. I like David Fincher movies, but I really don't like to talk about it with people because it always turns into holier than thou film talk (at least in real life). Movie was entertaining, but after finding out the basic deal with the whole movie, that the guy couldn't keep a friend was pretty much not true in real life, it makes me wonder what the whole point was.

All that girlfriend stuff was completely made up. His assholisms towards the lawyers were inserted and not a part of the real court cases.

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Also: kerning?

Glee_title_card.svg

Oh, the horror.

For the record, I thought the first half of first season was really awesome, and then it went to shit when they tried to artificially recreate these melodramatic tensions that either didn't seem to exist in the first half, or were resolved.

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Glee_title_card.svg

Oh, the horror.

So basically, what you're saying is you avoid the show because of the spacing of the letters in the title card?

As well as the previously mentioned things, obviously.

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Yes, I also didn't watch Lost because they used typefaces inconsistently.

Actually, I do watch Glee, but it's one of those shows that have some good moments, but I wouldn't miss if were suddenly canceled, just like House. It's fun, but not exciting. Nothing really interesting goes on.

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It annoyed me to no end they never fixed the faulty 3D model they used for the Lost title screen. You could see the background through faults in the model :/

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I saw the first episode of State of Play a few weeks ago, and the second episode yesterday. I ended-up deciding to buy the DVD off Amazon UK (£3.44). I recommend it, based on the little I've seen. It's taut, suspenseful, intelligent. The casting is spot-on, the script is superb - and how could it not be with Paul Abbott on board? - and, based off the first five minutes of each, seems to be better directed than Hollywood's adaptation. (Fuck Hollywood, by the way, by which I mean all the ways you can fuck 'em. Can't they make ANY original movies these days? It's all remake, sequel or adaptation.)

I haven't yet gotten around to seeing The Wire, either, but I think I'll finally amend that particular sin soon.

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I just watched a movie called "Mr Nobody(2009)".

It was fantastic. It tells several stories which revolved around the choices in which a young boy made, and how they shape his future. The plot bounces between these 4/5 different possible "Futures", and ends in a magnicifcent finale.

The movie has a very strange and disjointed sense of narrative explaination, which I think makes the film very watchable. It reminded me of a movie I saw a while ago called "Wristcutters", although I suppose you could draw some parallels to Donnie Darko, and that kind of movie. A strange sense of muted surrealism makes the entire picture strangely entrancing. In essence, it plays with several philosophical themes, such as the reality and illusion of choice, and what it can or can't lead to in the end. For example, one of the futures he lives in revolves around the concept of the butterfly effect-in fact, the entire movie plays with this concept, and I really enjoyed it.

I would really recommend people check it out if you like sci-fi, drama, or a movie from a brilliant Belgian director. Or if you just like to have movies make you think a little.

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Yes, I also didn't watch Lost because they used typefaces inconsistently.

Actually, I do watch Glee, but it's one of those shows that have some good moments, but I wouldn't miss if were suddenly canceled, just like House. It's fun, but not exciting. Nothing really interesting goes on.

It annoyed me to no end they never fixed the faulty 3D model they used for the Lost title screen. You could see the background through faults in the model :/

:eek: And I thought I was a big nerd. It appears I am outmatched. :getmecoat

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It annoyed me to no end they never fixed the faulty 3D model they used for the Lost title screen. You could see the background through faults in the model :/

Yeah, it's such bullshit. It's obviously a mockup with some low-rent DOF applied, intended to be fixed before airing. Every season they didn't fix it I entered a blinding rage. I could make a better version of that fucking piece of shit in 3dsmax in half an hour.

Anyway, movies and television.

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I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World on saturday. I had no idea Brandon Routh was in the movie so that was a surprise. It's not that common to see so stylized movie like this, it was like a comic book had became alive.

All in all it was quite enjoyable and it was funny to watch my wife's reactions regarding this funny geeky movie and she approved it and had fun watching it! :tup:

Cool to hear Zelda/Mario/Donkey Kong musics in the background on some scenes.

I watched Robin Hood during the weekend and just could get in the movie, it was such a strange story somehow. Not that I really know the history of the Robin Hood legend, but Robin Longstride? Russell Crowe was his normal mumbling self, I had a hard time understanding what he was saying when he was speaking. The cinematography was well done as can be expected in Ridley Scott movies. The movie was rather long, too long actually as it was dragging forward too slowly in some scenes.

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I watched A Serious Man this weekend. A really good movie, as most all the Coen Brothers movies are. The Coens are masters at making the audience feel what they're supposed to, which is almost always 'what the fuck just happened?'. It's basically The Book

of Job

in movie form.

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So basically, what you're saying is you avoid the show because of the spacing of the letters in the title card?

Glee is just a Gee with a finger in it.

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So, I just watched A-Team. Well, I watched the first two thirds, and then I couldn't be bothered. I guess it goes without saying, since the target audience is obviously young bras, but I'm getting too old for this shit. I can't even remember the last action movie I enjoyed. It's just so predictable and unfunny and dumb and boring. Oh, a cameo by one of the guys from the TV show, how incredibly cool. Who thought the flying tank think was cool? Ten year old boys?

No wait, Splice was pretty cool. And the Polanski stuff I was watching. That reminds me, I have to see The Tenant.

I hope Jurassic Park comes out on bluray soon. I have to show my younger sister what a real popcorn movie is like. What the hell, how hard is it to transfer this dinosaur movie, people?!

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Yeah, it's such bullshit. It's obviously a mockup with some low-rent DOF applied, intended to be fixed before airing. Every season they didn't fix it I entered a blinding rage. I could make a better version of that fucking piece of shit in 3dsmax in half an hour.

I think there's some story on the special features of Season 1 about how JJ just whipped that up on his Mac laptop in 2 minutes during the edit.

Chinatown vs Roger Rabbit was amazing.

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Glee is just a Gee with a finger in it.

Yes, and? I really fail to see how that can influence your opinion of a TV series. Shouldn't things like characterisation, content, plot, music and direction be more important than topography?

Or am I missing something?

So, I just watched A-Team. Well, I watched the first two thirds, and then I couldn't be bothered. I guess it goes without saying, since the target audience is obviously young bras, but I'm getting too old for this shit. I can't even remember the last action movie I enjoyed. It's just so predictable and unfunny and dumb and boring. Oh, a cameo by one of the guys from the TV show, how incredibly cool. Who thought the flying tank think was cool? Ten year old boys?

What? The A-Team movie was great. Great acting, cool action scenes and good music. Not only that, the film took time to breathe, and let its heroes have fun. I loved that. It was basically a Michael Bay movie if Michael Bay was good at his job. Which he isn't. Michael Bay that is.

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Yes, and? I really fail to see how that can influence your opinion of a TV series. Shouldn't things like characterisation, content, plot, music and direction be more important than topography?

Or am I missing something?

A joke? :blink:

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Watched The Sixth Sense again tonight, and had forgotten how good it is. That kid really nailed it.

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Not sure if anyone else in the UK bothered to watch this but Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Crooked House, Sherlock etc) has got a new show that started on Monday of this week.

It's called A History of Horror and the first part is still currently available on the BBC iPlayer.

To quote the iPlayer info:

"A lifelong fan of the genre, Mark begins by exploring the golden age of Hollywood horror. From the late 1920s until the 1940s, a succession of classic pictures and unforgettable actors defined the horror genre - including The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, Dracula with Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff."

EDIT: Whilst I think about it, he's also done an adaptation of HG Wells The First Men in the Moon which is due to be shown next Tuesday (19th Oct)

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