Movie/TV recommendations

[Kolzig]

Saw King's Speech yesterday, my wife didn't say much about it, but I liked it a lot! Helena Bonham-Carter was mediocre like always, but Colin Firth was

This morning I woke up to see the three last awards given and yes after seeing King's Speech I agree that Colin deserved his award. If I have time on thursday then I should finally see True Grit. Black Swan is coming to my town on friday so that's up for next weekend.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Must seen 2011 movies!

National Treasure 3

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows pt.2

The Hangover 2

Kung Fu Panda 2

Pirates of the caribbean: On stranger tides

Thank god you're a bot.

[Orv]

The breakdancing was your only complaint about this piece of... not-so-good film?

Like I said, I think I'm starting to get to the point where I enjoy cinema simply for the effect of not experiencing the world for an hour or two. There are few movies where I really have anything bad to say about them, or anything that genuinely annoys me about them, or I thought was bad. (Though there are also few movies where I go "**** THAT WAS AWESOME")

I just sort of mildly enjoyed Alice, so if you'd be so kind as to tell me what was wrong with it? I'd heard not-so-good things about it and kept my eye out, but didn't really find anything note worthy. What'd I miss?

[Roderick]

I guess the biggest complaint about it is when you make the wholly justified comparison to the original Alice in Wonderland story. What was timeless and charming and hallucinatory and perennially fabulistic there, in Tim Burton's version becomes a rather run-of-the-mill, trite fantasy epic completely missing the point of the tale.

If you regard it as a stand-alone thing, it might be slightly more forgiveable, though it still doesn't have an ounce of the charm that, say, a Stardust had. Even in this case, though, you must admit that the ending, when

Alice's big destiny is to become the head of an East India Company is a disappointing thing. She came out of a magical war between tyrants and oppressed people, only to go and colonize and suppress other cultures? That's the obvious allusion here, though they try to package it in an esprit of adventure, and it fucking stinks.

[Orv]

Fair enough. I wasn't fond of the "I've just experienced a magical world, let's go fuck ours over!" but to be honest, I just didn't care. And your point about this versus the actual Alice story is a good point, but not having read the original in a great many years, I just let it go by on its own merits. And I haven't seen Stardust, because I'm a bad person.

Suffice to say, I enjoyed it enough to sit through it and ignore the bad points, but I do like it a little less now that YOU'VE RUINED MY WHOLE EXPERIENCE, RODI.

Not really, it's still just there, and like most movies I watch will be forgotten in anywhere from a week to a month. Meh.

[Roderick]

Don't let a critique detract you from the enjoyment of a piece. I am incredibly fond of many, many horrible movies

It reminds me that I find the standard hero's journey ending generally kind of a bummer. After going through their magical quest, they must always return to the world whence they came, and find that it's now horribly stuffy and degenerate. I understand why that is, it's the transformation and everything, but part of me always cherishes the juvenile wish for the character to stay in the magic realm and have his rule there.

[Thyroid]

I was going through a local cinema's listings and found something that was potentially interesting - Unknown, with Liam Neeson - and quickly took a glance at the trailer (something I never do).

line [from trailer]: "I don't know who this man is but you have to arrest him or many people will die!"

I shut off the trailer. Reviews indicated it wasn't worth seeing anyways.

Guys, is it just me or are truly great movies few and far in-between nowadays? I mean, even the indie circuit - once a reliable friend - is being swarmed with ultra hipster artsy movies that make me want to throw a knife at a screen. I don't mind depth. I don't mind art. I don't mind anything good or even attempting to be good, so long as it's genuine. I just hate it when the movie screams HOKEY, HOKEY at me and I'm sitting there thinking I'm supposed to swallow this bullshit after I'm done swilling it. Fuck that.

Anyways, that's my rant for now. Blah blah blah. I haven't seen any movies this year, but it also seems like there's nothing interesting. Maybe I'm getting old. 21 is a ripe old age after all.

I remembered that I have a copy of Blade Runner lying around, so I'm going to watch that on Friday. I also have Glengarry Glen Ross somewhere, so I'm going to watch that too.

[JonCole]

To be fair, that was a terribly cut trailer... and reviews have been mixed at worst. I've read a fair amount of favorable reviews that didn't sound totally crazy, so I'm actually mildly interested in Unknown.

Anyways, the beginning of this year in film has been totally atrocious. But I don't feel like that's a "nowadays" kinda thing... maybe it's just the frequency that I visit the movie theater to thank, but I barely ever come out of a movie feeling unsatisfied.

[Lu]

I saw Unknown and it was almost interesting. Did not care for it.

[DanJW]

Worst line from a trailer I have seen recently: "we were given these powers for a reason!". (From I Am Number Four)

Anything that uses that line or a simialr sentiment is a total write-off for me. It's been so over-used as a cheap and meaningless way to give a situation gravitas. Not that afforementioned movie looks any good anyway.

[MrHoatzin]

Ron Gilbert tweeted this interesting article about the state of Hollywood. He suggested replacing the word 'movie' for 'game' to be depressed in yet another direction. :tup:

[Roderick]

Returned from Rango. I had some hopes for this movie not to be just another vapid 3D animation, and it somewhat delivered!

A nagging feeling of weirdness pervades after seeing it though, as Rango consists of two opposites. Western on the one side (an almost purely character-driven genre following mostly bastard leads with unfriendly thoughts on the mind) and 3D animated film on the other (usually very plot-driven, with sympathetic leads going through a pauper-to-prince narrative). Their marriage is a little strange. I loved every scene that focused on desert imagery and Western stereotypes, and was a little bored and distracted whenever the simplistic plot took to the fore. Ultimately the movie is quite enjoyable because it has great design, a fun protagonist and generally good jokes.

Most notably the nods and references to other genre classics are very well done.

[Kolzig]

Ron Gilbert tweeted this interesting article about the state of Hollywood. He suggested replacing the word 'movie' for 'game' to be depressed in yet another direction. :tup:

I just read yesterday on hmm maybe it was io9 that Blade Runner will get a sequel or a prequel.

Wtf.

[Patters]

I just read yesterday on hmm maybe it was io9 that Blade Runner will get a sequel or a prequel.

Wtf.

Blade Runner has 3 sequels, all novels though.

[Kolzig]

I have no faith in Hollywood to make a decent prequel/sequel to Blade Runner.

That movie should forever be sequel free, no matter if there were K.W. Jeter sequel books to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" existing or not.

[brkl]

I have no faith in Hollywood to make a decent prequel/sequel to Blade Runner.

That movie should forever be sequel free, no matter if there were K.W. Jeter sequel books to "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" existing or not.

Those books must be dreadful fan service... DADoES is a one-off if there ever was one.

MOBY DICK 2: Call Me Ishmaeler

[Roderick]

What a completely idiotic thing to do, sequelizing that world/story. The Westwood game took the right approach, offering a parallel story. More is wholly unnecessary.

I don't look at things being quite as bad as that article purported. Sure, a lot of drivel is being made, but history is being seen through rose-colored glasses. There have always been shitty movies (I almost automatically wrote 'games' there, just so you know) and Hollywood has never been particularly reckless with its money. It might be a little worse nowadays, but look at the end product: there's still a lot of interesting and awesome movies coming out. Isn't that ultimately what's the most important?

[Nevsky]

MOBY DICK 2: Call Me Ishmaeler

How about Age of the Dragons?

'The film will be a loose retelling of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, but with a dragon instead of a whale.'

5sjMdYnOZ_k

[MrHoatzin]

Because they couldn't sell a whale? Maybe they should've made a tie-in with Sea World.

[Roderick]

I take back what I said, movies are fucked.

Excuse me, Ishmael is going to stop Ahab? Moby Dick like I've never seen it before, indeed

[Nappi]

Ahaha.. "The world is lit by dragon oil."

Skillful adaptation.

[Orv]

. . .I could post a twenty paragraph rant about how destroying the story of Moby Dick should be a capitol crime.

I could rant far and wide about how much I hate Danny Glover.

I could tell you how very little I want another dragon movie.

Instead, I'm just going to go crawl under my sheets and weep for the death of cinema and literature.

/dramatic.

[Thyroid]

Moby Dick 2: this one's bigger, harder to kill, stronger, more firm, etc.

[Roderick]

I think there's a fundamental flaw in the thinking of a lot of people. Whales are scarier than dragons.

Gigantic, goddamn whales that you can't see and can't track except by extreme cunning, that can destroy your ship at a whim, are infinitely more terrifying than a firebreathing reptile that you see coming, and you have the whole world to hide from.

Also:

[Nachimir]

Whales on a Plane.