Movie/TV recommendations

[ThunderPeel2001]

Back to the Future is still freaking awesome! Forget DVD, it's just as good as it ever was in the cinema. Well worth seeing it on this new run

[toblix]

Back to the Future defines the upper limit of quality.

So, anyone see Machete and like it? I really like how it's pronounced in Mexicanese. Also, if you put dark yellow text on your film it totally looks like it came from the 70s!

[tm_drummer]

So, anyone see Machete and like it? I really like how it's pronounced in Mexicanese. Also, if you put dark yellow text on your film it totally looks like it came from the 70s!

Yep, I liked Machete too. Gave me a good laugh really. As the movie progresses, the trash cliché bullshit gets worse and worse but the movie doesn't fail miserably at that; the stuff actually turns out to be really acceptable and funnier by each minute.

[JonCole]

I enjoyed Machete pretty thoroughly, myself. I guess the only distinctly negative thing I can say about it is that the style began to wear on me at the very end... it could have benefited from a little bit of fat trimming.

[miffy495]

In almost exactly the same manner as we decided to see the Expendables, my girlfriend proposed seeing Machete on Monday afternoon. Holy shit that movie is fantastic. Everyone needs to see it. The both of us have huge hard-ons for Danny Trejo, and seeing him star in such a bat-shit over-the-top movie was fantastic. It was better than Planet Terror, if that helps anyone. Given how much I loved Planet Terror, that was a ridiculous fucking treat. At one point,

he rappels down the side of a building using a man's intestines for rope. While the man is still attached.

I was doubled over with astonishment and glee for about 10 minutes. It was so crazy and wonderfully violent I couldn't do anything but laugh. Most fun I've had in a movie theater since the sold-out preview screening of Grindhouse I went to years ago. Goddamn it was excellent.

So yeah, there's that.

[Grufff]

Back to the Future is still freaking awesome! Forget DVD, it's just as good as it ever was in the cinema. Well worth seeing it on this new run

If you wanted to start a communal fund, I'm sure we could eventually afford these

[tm_drummer]

Seriuosly??? Fuckin $12000???

[Thyroid]

Am I the only one that thinks movies like Back to the Future, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones are vastly overrated, completely forgettable, liquid-thin time wasters? I know these movies aren't made to natch-up your IQ level, but they've never been memorable to me, either, except for how oddly popular they are.

[Roderick]

You might be!

You'd be wrong to look at their popcorn appeal and overlook the incredible storytelling craft that went into these movies.

[Nachimir]

Seriuosly??? Fuckin $12000???

They're not a reproduction, they're a prop for the film. Pretty common for things like this to go for silly money at auction.

What I really like is those photos of them now: Pretty weird to see an 80's vision of future shoes decaying 20 years after they were made.

(I'm glad we don't wear shoes that remind me of 80s bathrooms and the artwork from the credits to Saved by the Bell).

[Thyroid]

You'd be wrong to look at their popcorn appeal and overlook the incredible storytelling craft that went into these movies.

That's the thing: I don't think a lot of storytelling craft went into these movies. I like Empire Strikes Back and, though I haven't seen it in well over ten years, loved Last Crusade as a kid. Yet I have to disagree with anyone who says BttF or Star Wars did anything very memorable, original, or particularly well.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Kroms

[elmuerte]

Screw those shoes. This: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/items/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-42/prop-future-usa-today-newspaper-gang-jailed-hoverboard-rampage-destroys-courthouse-headline-from-back-to-the-future-ii.html or this: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/items/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-42/prop-hill-valley-telegraph-newspaper-featuring-emmett-brown-committed-from-back-to-the-future-ii.html

This thing is useless now: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/items/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-42/screen-used-grays-sports-almanac-1950-2000-from-back-to-the-future-ii.html

[ThunderPeel2001]

What I really like is those photos of them now: Pretty weird to see an 80's vision of future shoes decaying 20 years after they were made.

Yeah, not only that but they look terrible... It's amazing what they can get away with on camera. When I was at Universal Studios this year they had some of the hoverboard props and they looked equally as bad -- I mean REALLY bad. Just a block of wood with some paint on them. But in the film they look great. So weird.

[Ben X]

I thought Machete was terrible. I'm so over the B-movie retro joke now, and the film itself was boring, meandering, badly directed. It was Once Upon A Time In Mexico again, with an overwrought political plot and no good action sequences. I saw and enjoyed Planet Terror, although that also could have been trimmed a lot, and I don't need to see another, tamer version of it.

But then I think Back To The Future is excellent, so what do I know?

[Roderick]

Yeah, not only that but they look terrible... It's amazing what they can get away with on camera. When I was at Universal Studios this year they had some of the hoverboard props and they looked equally as bad -- I mean REALLY bad. Just a block of wood with some paint on them. But in the film they look great. So weird.

This is 100% true. It's astounding how film can make things look great that in real life look so flimsy and stupid. Especially costumes never cease to amaze me. Case in point: the wizard outfit Gary Oldman wears in the wizard topic. In broad daylight, with a normal camera, (even though it's not even half bad) it looks pretty gaudy. On film it'll drop your jaw.

[tm_drummer]

They're not a reproduction, they're a prop for the film. Pretty common for things like this to go for silly money at auction.[/size]

Yes, I know, that's what makes it even worse, because other than that, it's just a horrible shoe.

Screw those shoes. This: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/items/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-42/prop-future-usa-today-newspaper-gang-jailed-hoverboard-rampage-destroys-courthouse-headline-from-back-to-the-future-ii.html

"Thumb bandits strike" - a group of Idle Thumbs fans finally goes crazy in 2015, killing everyone around due to the lack of pods cast into their face.

[toblix]

Watched The Tenant last night, and it was great. I was quite embarrassed to realize who played the main part first when I looked it up after. I was sure I'd seen him somewhere before...

Also watched Knight & Day, which started off not horribly, but turned into boring modern action romp shit all too soon.

[JonCole]

Apparently my review of It's Kind of a Funny Story was actually featured on Screened.com's weekly community showcase.

TL;DR - I liked it!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Congrats Mr. Cole!

Those BTTF headlines are great to read... not sure what their obsession with "Queen Diana" was, though, she was never ever ever going to be Queen.

[Thyroid]

So! I'm going to do a Kromsy Movie Year, where I see at least (and probably at most) one movie every week for all year.

This week's movie was Life of Brian, which was silly, intelligent, weird, lame, funny - everything and nothing. Not THE GREATEST COMEDY OF ALL TIME AND SPACE that some people make it out to be, buttt it does have this exchange:

Brian:

I'm NOT the Messiah!

Arthur:

I say you are Lord, and I should know: I've followed a few.

There are some others on the same level

("You are all individuals!")

. SO I recommend it, if a little cautiously.

Edited October 17, 2010 by Kroms

[DanJW]

This week's movie was Life of Brian, SO I recommend it, if a little cautiously.

I've never met anyone who disliked it. It actually bears repeated viewings - there's some very clever stuff in there that is often missed first time. I'd say it has more depth than any other Python production.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Kroms, you definitely have some weird movie taste! That's cool, though. Life of Brian, while not flawless, has so much great stuff in it that it transcends its flaws very easily. I wouldn't so much recommend it, as to say it's ESSENTIAL.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I thought Machete was terrible. I'm so over the B-movie retro joke now, and the film itself was boring, meandering, badly directed. It was Once Upon A Time In Mexico again, with an overwrought political plot and no good action sequences. I saw and enjoyed Planet Terror, although that also could have been trimmed a lot, and I don't need to see another, tamer version of it.

But then I think Back To The Future is excellent, so what do I know?

Hey Ben, did you this see this?

[toblix]

Watched A Serbian Film earlier today, and while I wasn't really shocked by the contents, it was slightly disturbing to see it in such a well-produced film. I always expect "shocking" films to have low production values and be slightly dodgy, but this could've been any thriller or drama from anywhere, but then (and this is a spoiler →)

newborn porn!

Anyway, also saw Repo Men, which ended disappointingly, but had some good violence, by which I mean it showed most of the murders as being gruesome, not just anonymous men falling, grabbing their vests. Also, did anyone else have problems sympathizing with the main characters, who were depicted as huge assholes at the start?

[MrHoatzin]

I can't force myself to watch A Serbian Film. I am afraid of it on so many levels—is it snuff, is it good, is it watchable?. Should I try at least?