Movie/TV recommendations

[syntheticgerbil]

Well, I guess bloated was the wrong term, I really wasn't trying to say anyone is getting paid too much, because that seems hardly the case from many of the horror stories I've heard.

I meant taking a more modest pay cut from what you usually get paid to do something you really believe in. I don't want to say my salary, but I make way more than a lot of my friends drawing and animating, and while I'm not asking for some pay cut, I feel sort of like I get paid incongruously for work that is not really special and I don't necessarily like making half the time. I would gladly get paid almost half of what I make just to work full time on something I really care about with individuals I respect.

Maybe like Don Bluth and his friends spending their time after work on Disney making a short that ultimately formed the studio? I'm not really a Don Bluth fan at all though, and they didn't have an investor outside of themselves. I just hope for more startups like that in the near future.

[Garple]

Too bad while they once were good at pushing the envelope, they've halted and even have gone backwards.

What did they do before that they're not doing now? I'm honestly just asking. Maybe I'm missing some information, but I saw Wall-E as progress for the most part.

Synth, Have you seen Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and if so, what'd you think, that's one CG movie (non-pixar) that blew me away (ign.com).

[syntheticgerbil]

I actually feel like their glory days sort of ended after Monsters Inc. I liked pretty much everything up until then. Since then, while I like The Iron Giant and Brad Bird to an extent, there's been way too much for me to dislike about the movies in terms of story and where they were going with it. Also it's annoying to see them retread the same animation techniques and principles each movie. I know there's the CalArts/Disney set everyone follows, but I would love to see them get mixed up. Ratatouille had an amazing look though, I don't think their humans have ever looked as good as in that movie.

Wall-E was major progress, I agree. When the humans started coming in and the tired hackneyed jokes and jerky shift in tone of the second half of the movie happened, I feel like they lost what they were building up to, like they were too unsure of the initial concept presented. I guess it would have been nuts to do a full near silent film with robots, but hardly any critic ever gives Pixar bad reviews, so why not, I think? Such great atmosphere and story was built up and they could have done all of the fate of the human stuff without knocking me over the head with it in the end.

I guess I'm hoping they would take that sort of experimentation further, but I get the feeling they already had a hard time getting behind Wall-E, hence the promos first giving their creds so that maybe you wouldn't walk away? Add that to Lassarter promoting the 3D Tinkerbell movies with the ol' smug grin plus the Disney buyout and Toy Story 3, my hunch is the spark is gone.

I just think it's someone else's turn to try stuff with 3D in feature length form, Disney already has unbound ubiquity anyway. I want more stuff like this in long form:

http://vimeo.com/2251254/

http://vimeo.com/12184342/

http://vimeo.com/9882509/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cphlttuT2g/

I really need to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I really like the look of a lot of what I've seen actually. The characters are simple and neat, and weirdly remind me of the people in Coraline. I don't have any affinity with the book it's based on, so I probably wouldn't be upset about that. I guess what's keeping me from seeing it is just I figure the story and characters are just going to suck. Either way, that's not really an excuse, so maybe I should get on it...

[Garple]

I don't have any affinity with the book it's based on, so I probably wouldn't be upset about that. I guess what's keeping me from seeing it is just I figure the story and characters are just going to suck. Either way, that's not really an excuse, so maybe I should get on it...

The book was a kind of a thing for me as a little kid, but I don't care that the movie is totally different, because it was like a 20 page picture book, obviously to translate that into a movie, it's got to be changed and adapted. In my very much non-expert opinion the characters were very good. The main characters were fairly nuanced and the humor was top notch (I've compared it to early Simpsons). What's your opinion on Fantastic Mr. Fox? Because I think it's the greatest animated film I've ever seen by a long shot.

[syntheticgerbil]

The main characters were fairly nuanced and the humor was top notch (I've compared it to early Simpsons).

Sounds good, I love The Simpsons before Season 8 or 9! I'll see if I can rent it or something,

And Fantastic Mr. Fox is great too! It even has that Jarvis Cocker cameo. I was hoping both Mr. Fox and Coraline would start a new trend in stop motion films, so maybe something will come of that in a few years.

[MrHoatzin]

I liked Coraline, it was quite nice. A caveat: the 3D didn't add anything to the experience, just made the relatively dark movie more headache-inducing.

[syntheticgerbil]

I actually have never seen it in 3D, even when I saw it in the theatre. I have it in home video form and it came with the glasses, but it makes everything blue and red and it just looks awful on a home LCD TV. I heard it was different 3D type than what was used for the movie screens, but I feel like I'm not missing much either way by watching the flat version.

[Murdoc]

Agreed about 3D.

Yeah, to be fair as much as I praise Pixar, last years best animated films were stop motion so that makes me pretty happy too. I love both Fox and Coraline in different ways, they are just god damn fantastic.

[Garple]

I watched Coraline at home in 3D in its entirety on bluray, just to check it out, and I'll say that I first tried on a sunday afternoon and had intense eye-strain, but then I tried again at night and it was quite nice. I never saw it in theaters (it was the first bluray I bought when I got an HD tv because I figured a film involving Tim Burton would do well in showcasing what my hardware was capable of) so I can't comment on how well it stands up against theater 3D, but I found it to be a fun little gimmick (which was the best I ever hoped for from 3D anyway). I wouldn't say you MUST watch it in 3D at home, but it's pretty pleasant if you happen to be in the mood. Because it's a small-scale story the 3D doesn't feel hindered by the smaller screen the way I imagine something like Avatar might.

[miffy495]

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is fantastic. For those unsure about the writing, it's done by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote the amazing TV series Clone High. As adult and graphic as that show could get, their writing translated incredibly well to a children's movie. It's a bit tamer, but still fantastically sharp and witty and has enough dark undertones to keep those adults in the audience with a slightly twisted sense of humour laughing all the way through. I saw it with my girlfriend in the theater and we spent the entire time cracking up. It was the first time I ever convinced her to get a Blu Ray, as otherwise she'd just kept on buying DVDs. Great movie.

[Chris]

Just saw The Apartment. WOW. What a movie

Hell yeah. That's one of my favorite movies ever.

[JonCole]

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is fantastic. For those unsure about the writing, it's done by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote the amazing TV series Clone High. As adult and graphic as that show could get, their writing translated incredibly well to a children's movie. It's a bit tamer, but still fantastically sharp and witty and has enough dark undertones to keep those adults in the audience with a slightly twisted sense of humour laughing all the way through. I saw it with my girlfriend in the theater and we spent the entire time cracking up. It was the first time I ever convinced her to get a Blu Ray, as otherwise she'd just kept on buying DVDs. Great movie.

I believe it's on Netflix Instant View as well, to those of you who find that relevant.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Hell yeah. That's one of my favorite movies ever.

And then I watch All About Eve. Also awesome

[Thyroid]

I saw Family Plot earlier tonight. It's not Hitchcock's finest hour (well, two), but it's fun.

[brkl]

Just saw Darkman. It's terrific, watch it. Maybe I should watch... that new Raimi film with the long name.

Also, earlier today, I Love Philip Morris. With a pretty girl, thankfully, though I can't blame her for the selection. All my fault. It's not as bad as some recent Jim Carrey films, but it's also nowhere near as good as his better ones. Jim Carrey gets more slack from me than he really deserves because I was such a big fan as a kid. I still adore Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Man on the Moon, but he hasn't really made anything worthwhile in a long time. Probably he can shine if he gets properly directed, but I'm guessing most directors allow him to just goof off.

What else... Breaking Bad started out good but it's simply stellar now. This new season took some time to take off but it's the best thing in television right now. I think the next episode will be the last one.

[Garple]

And then I watch All About Eve. Also awesome

YES YES YES! Next: Sullivan's Travels and The Big Sleep...Also...if you haven't seen Dial M for Murder and/or Rope...get on it.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Watched The Seventh Seal. Was quite unlike anything I'd seen before, in fact, if I didn't know better, I swear it was a piece of art. It really wasn't what I'd call a "film", at least by my usual understanding of the definition -- it's obviously technically a movie, but did something I'd never really seen before.

It was moving in places, profound in places, and well, annoying in places.

Overall experience: Shocked. But a recommended experience.

[ThunderPeel2001]

YES YES YES! Next: Sullivan's Travels and The Big Sleep...Also...if you haven't seen Dial M for Murder and/or Rope...get on it.

Ooh, thanks for the recommendations!

I really fancy Sunset Blvd., actually. I saw it a while back, but All About Eve has really made me want to watch it again (interesting that they were contemporary movies). I'll definitely add the ones you recommended to my list, though... Aside from Rope (which I didn't think was all that gripping, to be honest, but I didn't see all of it) I've not seen the others, and I'm sure I should.

[Garple]

Aside from Rope (which I didn't think was all that gripping, to be honest, but I didn't see all of it) I've not seen the others, and I'm sure I should.

The premise by it self was juicy enough to give me a huge thrill watching that film...probably the most twisted, perverse film made during its time...for some reason, also, I love movies where it feels like a lot of crazy stuff has happened, but then you stop and think about it and realize most of it is not happening on the screen, but in the dialogue and atmosphere, which is why I was so damn impressed by Terminator.

[Wrestlevania]

Watched The Wolfman earlier in the week; really quite disappointing, mostly because of the completely unconvincing use of CGI for anything other than creature faces.

The acting seemed remarkably lazy and rote from all involved, too, with no memorable lines of dialogue or particularly interesting exchanges between any of the characters.

However, I have to mention the incredible cinematography throughout the first half of the film. The larger still shots in places are literally breath-taking, so full credit to Shelly Johnson for making something at least worth seeing the film for.

Seriously, I'd watch it just for these shots--especially if you've got Blu-ray and a big screen to view it on.

[Ben X]

The larger still shots in places are literally breath-taking

Man, and they say 3D is gimmicky.

[Roderick]

I watched Youth in Revolt yesterday.

It was great! Finally, a teenage romance that is neither stupid and awkward (Kick-Ass particularly springs to mind as a recent, horrible example) nor stupid and jockish like so many guffawing American Pie rip-offs. Instead it's believable, funny and sympathetic. That's a great foundation for any movie. What makes Youth in Revolt special is that on top of that there's a rollicking comedy. Michael Cera proves he is by no means running out of steam. What a great role! His alter ego, François Dillinger, is hilarious

It's a smart, funny little movie with genuine heart.

Edited June 13, 2010 by Rodi

[Murdoc]

Watched The Wolfman earlier in the week; really quite disappointing, mostly because of the completely unconvincing use of CGI for anything other than creature faces.

Agree, except about the cinematography, I didn't really note anything overly special about it. I was more impressed with the set designs and costumes; they really screamed budget.

I think that was the most disappointing thing of them all, a set of actors that can be decent, a competent enough director, a really interesting time period that was executed convincingly by the art direction/production budget but then you have a lame ass script, an over done concept(at least that means it had potential to do something new with it), and schizophrenic approach to what this film was trying to convey. It went from classic horror, to slasher, to adventure, to cheesy something or other(superhero? or something like that, I know that type of plot twist was used way before the super hero movies, but most of them do it now so I'm calling it that).

The cg was exceptionally poor in parts where it had to match the makeup fx. I heard the production of the movie had a lot of problems so now I'm currently wondering if they different vfx houses changed at some point because the were-wolf at the start of the movie looked nothing like the ones near the end, it was weird.

It was just odd that at the start there was "sightseeings" of the wolf man, but had a totally different proportions/structure to the one we see later on, then when we see the actors in makeup switch between cg, it was like two different creatures, so poorly handled on that part to say the least.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I watched Youth in Revolt yesterday.

It was great! Finally, a teenage romance that is neither stupid and awkward (Kick-Ass particularly springs to mind as a recent, horrible example) nor stupid and jockish like so many guffawing American Pie rip-offs. Instead it's believable, funny and sympathetic. That's a great foundation for any movie. What makes Youth in Revolt special is that on top of that there's a rollicking comedy. Michael Cera proves he is by no means running out of steam. What a great role! His alter ego, François Dillinger, is hilarious

It's a smart, funny little movie with genuine heart.

Why did you spoilerise your review? Spoiler tags are to discuss things with people who have already seen the movie (or don't care about it being spoiled). I'm glad I clicked on it to see what you wrote... I think I'll check it out now, thanks!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Watched Sunset Blvd. and I feel somewhat conflicted about it. On the one hand Norma Desmond is a raving lunatic, on the other, everyone feels sorry for her and treats her like a child... making her insanity worse.

Edited June 13, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001