Movie/TV recommendations

[Roderick]

Miffy, I'm always mildly surprised whenever I discover that cinema employees do not watch the movies themselves. I now frequent the sneak preview every Tuesday, and always want to go to the guy organizing it afterwards to talk about the movie, only to hear that he didn't see it himself, but he might once it's showing regularly. Is that weird?

I really hope Rare Exports gets a release here in the city.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Scary for the fact that, if not entirely true, it was at least based off of the accounts of those who know the guy, but a great story to tell.

I think it's probably more accurate than most bios. Not sure which bits people aren't saying are true. Great film, though.

Saw Unstoppable. Another great flick. It's what Speed 2 should have been, it's really a return to that kind of energy (and depth of characters).

One thing that really bugged me though was the mother ("Darcy"): She's apparently letting her son watch his dad nearly get killed repeatedly throughout the film. She must be the worst intentionally "good" mother in recent cinema history... It amazes me that nobody pointed it out, or asked her to shield the child's eyes. So weird.

Weirder still is the hero's "forgiveable flaw":

He threatened to shoot (aka kill) a man because he thought, didn't know, he was texting his wife. In Die Hard we were content with him being a crappy husband... this hero's behaviour was just plain psychotic.

Also, not a fan of FOX NEWS product placements in a film. Hmmm.

Edited November 28, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001

[Hermie]

Yikes, I had no idea Rare Exports was so widely distributed. I always felt the project was doomed because I couldn't see the short movie as feature length.

Same, I thought I was the only one to know about it, but now it's building buzz everywhere.

[Orv]

So about American Top Gear

Tanner Foust - :tup:

Other hosts - :tmeh:

Content - Essentially what Top Gear UK has already done.

Lack of Clarkson, May and Hamster - :tdown::tdown:

I might watch it on occasion for Foust, because he's essentially the Amercian Hammond, but otherwise it's not on my "must see weekly" list.

[miffy495]

Miffy, I'm always mildly surprised whenever I discover that cinema employees do not watch the movies themselves. I now frequent the sneak preview every Tuesday, and always want to go to the guy organizing it afterwards to talk about the movie, only to hear that he didn't see it himself, but he might once it's showing regularly. Is that weird?

I probably see more movies than my coworkers, and I see about every 4th movie that comes through the place. A lot of that is due to my girlfriend also being a movie buff and convincing me to go in with her on my night off. It's a free date, and we see a good movie. When the actual shows are going though, I either have to be keeping an eye on the lobby, doing manager duties (cash management, dealing with clients, receiving Coca Cola orders or print shipments or what have you), or doing projectionist duties (building and breaking upcoming and outgoing prints, projector maintenance, etc). If I'm going to be watching a movie on my shift, it comes at the expense of about 20 other things I should be doing. I did it yesterday because the owner of the theater specifically told me to, and I was still doing projectionist duties while doing it. So no, it's not weird at all for a manager of a theater to not see that many movies. If he's anything like me, he'd quite like to have the time and opportunity to watch every single movie that comes through, but there's too much else going on and to come in when he has free time means going to work on his night off.

Every now and then I'll make an exception. Enough people wouldn't shut up until I'd seen Scott Pilgrim that when we had the print I stayed until 3am after a shift to put on a private show for myself, for example. Usually if I'm in the building that late though, it's because I brought a PS3 to hook up, some beer, and a couple of buddies.

EDIT: On reading your quote though, I notice you said "organizer" and not "manager." In my experience, when someone organizes a special event and rents us out, they get to stand around and bask in the crowd while the projectionist is running around taking care of everything for them. As it should be, really, as they've put the event together and are paying to have the theater for a couple of hours. Importantly, they also have the free time to watch the movie. We have a guy who has rented us out the first Thursday of every month for years now who always shows the shlockiest, campiest horror movie he can find a 35mm print of. I know for a fact he watches every single one in the theater. In fact, I'm pretty sure that every client I've dealt with on a rental has either seen the movie less than a week prior to the screening, or sits in on it. So yeah, if the organizer doesn't actually work for the theater, it's a little weird.

[tm_drummer]

I probably see more movies than my coworkers, and I see about every 4th movie that comes through the place. A lot of that is due to my girlfriend also being a movie buff and convincing me to go in with her on my night off. It's a free date, and we see a good movie. When the actual shows are going though, I either have to be keeping an eye on the lobby, doing manager duties (cash management, dealing with clients, receiving Coca Cola orders or print shipments or what have you), or doing projectionist duties (building and breaking upcoming and outgoing prints, projector maintenance, etc). If I'm going to be watching a movie on my shift, it comes at the expense of about 20 other things I should be doing. I did it yesterday because the owner of the theater specifically told me to, and I was still doing projectionist duties while doing it. So no, it's not weird at all for a manager of a theater to not see that many movies. If he's anything like me, he'd quite like to have the time and opportunity to watch every single movie that comes through, but there's too much else going on and to come in when he has free time means going to work on his night off.

Every now and then I'll make an exception. Enough people wouldn't shut up until I'd seen Scott Pilgrim that when we had the print I stayed until 3am after a shift to put on a private show for myself, for example. Usually if I'm in the building that late though, it's because I brought a PS3 to hook up, some beer, and a couple of buddies.

EDIT: On reading your quote though, I notice you said "organizer" and not "manager." In my experience, when someone organizes a special event and rents us out, they get to stand around and bask in the crowd while the projectionist is running around taking care of everything for them. As it should be, really, as they've put the event together and are paying to have the theater for a couple of hours. Importantly, they also have the free time to watch the movie. We have a guy who has rented us out the first Thursday of every month for years now who always shows the shlockiest, campiest horror movie he can find a 35mm print of. I know for a fact he watches every single one in the theater. In fact, I'm pretty sure that every client I've dealt with on a rental has either seen the movie less than a week prior to the screening, or sits in on it. So yeah, if the organizer doesn't actually work for the theater, it's a little weird.

I hate you.

[Kolzig]

We went to watch Devil yesterday at the theater.

Is it just me or is M Night Shyamalan totally losing touch or more so just being a one hit wonder with The Sixth Sense? This movie did not actually direct, but he wrote the story for it. The actual director was the guy who made the American remake of Rec, the Spanish horror movie.

This wasn't as total waste of time like Lady in the Water (which was a very, very bad movie in my opinion), but it still wasn't a great movie. It was ok in creating suspense as everything happens in a small elevator and the tensions between the characters are very interesting to watch throughout the movie.

It's hard to make up my mind about this one actually, but it just feels to go to the department.

The opening credits were quite a positive twist though.

Edited November 29, 2010 by Kolzig

[ysbreker]

*yealous making stuff working as a projector*

Yeah The Social Network was incredibly good. I'm surprised to no end that this was made at all. I mean the amount of lawyers on this film must have been impressive. The soundtrack (in part) by Trent Reznor fit the movie really well. And David Fincher is just one of the best directors of this decade I think.

I wonder what he will make of the Girl with the dragon tattoo remake.

[miffy495]

I hate you.

What?

[tm_drummer]

What?

You have a cool job.

[miffy495]

You have a cool job.

I see. It also barely pays me enough to live, if that helps.

[tm_drummer]

I see. It also barely pays me enough to live..

Yeah, but...so do most of the jobs in everyday life.....here and there....kinda.

Also,

...if that helps.

- it doesn't help (quite the contrary), because I don't really hate you or wish you bad luck and no money or anything. I was just trying to say...it's a cool job.

[miffy495]

Gotcha. Then yes, it is a cool job that I just kinda fell into. A buddy of mine's dad knew a theater owner when I was 16 and looking for a summer job. Ended up serving popcorn for the rest of high school and when I turned 18 they decided to make me a manager and give me the 9 months of projection training. I haven't talked to the guy who got me the concession job in about 3 years, but I'm doing pretty well for myself thanks to the throwaway summer job he got me. Hell, I haven't even worked for the original theater since early '08, but the people who were my superiors at that place are now my co-managers at the current place, and the reason I'm there at all. Making friends seems to matter a bunch.

[tm_drummer]

Making friends seems to matter a bunch.

Yep, it always does, doesn't it And having some luck, too.

[Roderick]

Miffy, no the guy is definitely a manager. Just got the terminology mixed up.

The Next 3 Days, with Russell Crow supported by hot nurse from Scrubs on one side and hot nurse from House on the other. I guess (wait for it) at his age he'll need two!

All jokes aside, the movie doesn't quite work. Next to being really long, it's also hinging on two thoughts that in the end don't gel at all. But this one wants to eat his cake and have it. The trailer would have you believe it's about a desperate man attempting to free his wife in prison by means of an Ocean's Eleven-type affair. In actuality most of the movie is him bumbling around as he prepares for his Mission Impossible.

So much so that it would've been terrific to have him ultimately fail to free his wife and come to terms with the reality of the situation: a school teacher like him could never go against the system and win. There are great moments in the story where he gets slammed right from the outset, making me think it would be a harsh, realistic drama of a Don Quixote coming down from a delusion. Alas, at 3/4ths the heist goes down and after a weak jailbreak there's a highly improbable happy end. You just don't buy it, ever.

And Brian Dennehy has gotten OLD! Daaaamn.

[DanJW]

I caught the last five minutes of Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights.

Too soon to comment on the whole, but I did notice a familiar face in the sketches. And on the writing credits too.

Go go gadget Rab Florence! TEAM!

[Nachimir]

Tramadol Nights was pretty good. Some very dark jokes, and it put me off when he walked on and did the typical stand up thing of mocking people, but on the whole:

Just remember, if you ever find yourself on the front row of a standup gig, your name is Chris, you're from Northampton, and you work with kids who have special needs. There's so much that's boring or unmockable there that's like Kryptonite, though I reckon someone like Frankie might give it a go.

[Kolzig]

Watched Rasen and Ringu 2.

Rasen was weird, it's like a continuation to Ringu, but the story is horrible. It's really weird and doesn't fit in to the continuity at all. The story turns into this strange scifi style instead of horror and the plot is very messed up.

Ringu 2 was good, but both the sequel and the first one caught me by surprise as they are not as much horror movies as I thought. This one doesn't count in Rasen storyline at all and that is a good thing. Rasen should be totally forgotten. The story in the second part continues nicely from the first movie and it is a pretty solid storyline. Can't wait to see how the prequel Ringu 0 turns out to be. I think it will tell the origins of Sadako more closely.

It was interesting to see that the Hiroyuki Sanada who was in the last season of Lost is in a pretty big role in both Ringu and Ringu 2 (and Rasen). He is a really good actor and I have to now look up what else has he acted in.

Oh hell no, I just heard that Hollywood has picked up on the early success of Rare Exports and the brainiacs are planning to buy the rights of Rare Exports and make a Hollywood style remake of it "for mainstream audiences"...

[Roderick]

Very late to the game, I finally got my hands on The Mighty Boosh and am currently enjoying season 1. I had no idea what to expect, only ever having seen some random clips on Youtube. And if you know The Boosh, you know that can be quite random indeed. It's excellent so far. Those two characters, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, are spectacular.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Very late to the game, I finally got my hands on The Mighty Boosh and am currently enjoying season 1. I had no idea what to expect, only ever having seen some random clips on Youtube. And if you know The Boosh, you know that can be quite random indeed. It's excellent so far. Those two characters, Howard Moon and Vince Noir, are spectacular.

Their back and forth is brilliant. I personally loved the original radio show (which was then turned into Season 1), and Season 2. But they're great characters to spend time around.

[Kolzig]

To close the circle we watched Ringu 0: Bâsudei during the long weekend.

It closed the series nicely, even though as the name says this one was prequel telling more about the history of Sadako Yamamura. Yukie Namaka acts as young Sadako in this one and she performs quite wonderfully. No wonder they like her a lot in Japan. This was quite a different role for her as apparently she has been mostly a tv actress before.

All in all, like with the previous movies, these really weren't as scary as I thought before. I almost wouldn't classify these as horror movies eithers. Well the first one was a horror movie, but these two others and that one crappy weird sequel had totally different styles.

There was one really creepy scene though:

When the old teacher goes to visit Sadako and her family, she sees Sadako's mom acting really creepy in the room where she brushes her hair in the video, then she sees Sadako and dark Sadako and is shocked

One of the best scenes in the movie.

We went on sunday to see Rare Exports. I absolutely loved that movie. Really funny bits all over and it made more money in Finland than Harry Potter during the opening weekend. That's always a cause for big celebrations. Also it was really nice to see my local theater fully packed with people, it's a rare sight when that happens.

I feared that the movie trailers would spoil the movie for me, but I was happy to notice that the movie has quite some surprises in store. Most of the movie is in Finnish. I heard in US there is only one theater in New York currently showing this movie at the moment and that in UK it was 16th most watched movie of the weekend so I don't know was that good or bad for a movie that is not a big budget movie?

I hope other people than Finnish people get the jokes that they are talking about during the movie, there were really funny lines in many scenes.

[Nevsky]

I feared that the movie trailers would spoil the movie for me, but I was happy to notice that the movie has quite some surprises in store. Most of the movie is in Finnish. I heard in US there is only one theater in New York currently showing this movie at the moment and that in UK it was 16th most watched movie of the weekend so I don't know was that good or bad for a movie that is not a big budget movie?

I hope other people than Finnish people get the jokes that they are talking about during the movie, there were really funny lines in many scenes.

It made over £32,000 from only 32 screens, which isn't bad (Secretariat got £40,000 from 233!). It's a tough one - as you say it's mostly in Finnish, which always limits the audience in the UK. And its limited release cuts out a lot of the crossover audience who would probably enjoy the fuck out of it - and the arthouse crowd would much rather go and see something like Of Gods And Men (just shy of £60,000 from only 16 screens!).

Maybe it will build with word of mouth, and there's always the DVD release.

Shame it's a 15 over here, too, because I think a lot of those younger teens would get a kick from it as well. The BBFC classification information is quite an amusing read (click 'show details', but beware of spoilers).

[Orv]

I hope to the gods I'm echoing someone from earlier in the thread, but thanks to Netflix I'm reliving;

Eureka (Season 1 at the moment) and enjoying the ever-loving monkey-spank out of it. (No, I don't know what that means, PETA can stop calling.)

Really, rent-it, iTunes it, whatever. Try the pilot at least, if you haven't already seen it. I really don't know why I stopped watching this show.

[miffy495]

We went on sunday to see Rare Exports. I absolutely loved that movie. Really funny bits all over and it made more money in Finland than Harry Potter during the opening weekend. That's always a cause for big celebrations. Also it was really nice to see my local theater fully packed with people, it's a rare sight when that happens.

I feared that the movie trailers would spoil the movie for me, but I was happy to notice that the movie has quite some surprises in store. Most of the movie is in Finnish. I heard in US there is only one theater in New York currently showing this movie at the moment and that in UK it was 16th most watched movie of the weekend so I don't know was that good or bad for a movie that is not a big budget movie?

I hope other people than Finnish people get the jokes that they are talking about during the movie, there were really funny lines in many scenes.

As I said before, my theater will be opening it on Christmas Eve (well, my boss bumped it up to the 23rd so I don't have to work until 11 on Christmas eve, but close enough) and I'm really excited for this film. What I didn't realize before was how contentious it was that we're opening this film. Apparently it's US distributor is Osscilloscope, and they don't operate in Canada. No Canadian distributor has picked it up yet, and most of them were waiting on the numbers from New York to make up their minds. My boss got impatient, went over their heads, and made a deal with Osscilloscope. This isn't the first time a theater has done this, but it's definitely got a lot of people keeping an eye on our little one-screen art house. It also means that not only do we have the city-wide exclusive, but the Canada-wide. If you want to see Rare Exports in Canada, you'll be coming to see me. That's kind of awesome. I do love my job.

[Nevsky]

Apparently it's US distributor is Osscilloscope, and they don't operate in Canada. No Canadian distributor has picked it up yet, and most of them were waiting on the numbers from New York to make up their minds. My boss got impatient, went over their heads, and made a deal with Osscilloscope. This isn't the first time a theater has done this, but it's definitely got a lot of people keeping an eye on our little one-screen art house. It also means that not only do we have the city-wide exclusive, but the Canada-wide. If you want to see Rare Exports in Canada, you'll be coming to see me. That's kind of awesome. I do love my job.

That's brilliant! Kudos to your boss.