Movie/TV recommendations

[syntheticgerbil]

Has anyobe seen The Illusionist (2010) yet? S'posed to be pretty fine.

Woo! I forgot to say I had seen this movie about a week ago.

A guy from the Lucasforums took me to a far side of town and paid for my ticket despite being broke. I owe him big.

It was wonderful and very beautiful. Honestly, I can see where people say it might be boring or long despite it only being around 90 minutes. I think seeing it in a theatre makes the film much more engaging because a lot of the movies relies heavily on atmosphere and surround sound. When you are forced to take it all in, it's quite magical. I can see when I get to the point of watching it at home, it's just not going to be the same.

Despite hearing all the talk about the film's history and that somehow Chomet stole the script or that the interpretation of the script is disingenuous, I agree with Ebert's (who did a lot in spreading the original controversy) viewpoint that whatever was going on with the rights to the script and who was right, it is in no detriment to the movie itself.

Anyway, what a sad and beautiful movie. I don't know if I quite understood the photograph, but I would probably figure it out upon viewing it again.

I wish we lived in a world where more animated films tried *something.* People seem to think it all ends with Pixar, but as far as I'm concerned, those guys have a lot of work to do still as far as engaging story and characters that last a lifetime. I'm just absolutely annoyed that there are so many movies I like with great storytelling or memorable scenes (and on and on) when the majority of animated films have completely failed to be anything like anyone's favorite movies despite animation being as old as film itself. I guess video games sort of fill this gap in a way. Grim Fandango ranks as one of my favorite animated things despite it being a game.

I really shouldn't leave great animated movies frustrated and only thirsting for more though, that's a very pessimistic viewpoint.

Edited April 8, 2011 by syntheticgerbil

[Roderick]

Three seasons of Ryomaden watched now. Amazing show, I had no idea that NHK's taiga dramas can be this good.

Masaharu Fukuyama is a great actor, the range of emotions he is displaying throughout the series is so wide.

Three seasons already? I thought the taiga dramas ran for exactly one year (about 50 episodes), not in seasons. Ryomaden might be different of course...

I'm hauling in the series, but it's a slow process unfortunately.

[Kolzig]

Well... they divided the whole series into four seasons as these seasons tell of different periods of Sakamoto Ryoma's life.

First one has 12 episodes, second one 16 and then third and fourth have 10 each.

So basically it's one season, but still "four".

And it was on tv for exactly about one year from january to december as usually for taiga dramas.

[Orv]

For some reason, despite not being a huge comics-interested person, I've seen pretty much every comic movie to come out in the last. . .when was Spiderman 1? A few years, anyway. That said, the assorted Lantern Corps have always kept my interest.

So yeah, I'm excited/intrigued/definitely going to see this.

FbyJSbimX0Y

[elmuerte]

looks cool

[MrHoatzin]

The illusionist was quite lovely. It managed to capture that Jacques Tati tone unexpectedly well.

As for the photograph he has with him,

I took it to be an estranged daughter, for example. After all, Tati wrote the screenplay as a present for his own estranged daughter.

I want to see more movies that use that weird language cocktail thing that is simultaneously impenetrable, confusing and obvious. Tati's own Trafic does that really well.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Kingzjester
wuh... forgot to end the last sentence...

[syntheticgerbil]

I was also thinking it was supposed to be

his estranged daughter based on my knowledge of the script controversy but not on my knowledge of Tati, which there is none. Also it doesn't help that a lot of the script controversy seems to be an argument over which daughter the movie was written for, if I'm not mistaken (I had a really hard time reading all those letters a year ago and figuring out exactly what was foul, if anything at all).

But leaving the theatre, the movie itself seemed so disconnected from any kind of backstory and just came off as its own thing so I was decided to look at it as someone who had not read gossipy blogs about the movie beforehand and feel like I wouldn't have made much of

an estranged daughter connection.

I'm not sure knowing exactly what the photo meant or the truthfulness of the script rights problem would make any impact on my enjoyment either way. I do think Chomet probably did sort of make the movie more targeted toward his own feelings towards his daughter(s).

[MrHoatzin]

If you've never seen any Jacques Tati movies you should get right on it. I would start with Mon Oncle (1958) which is the beginning of the crystallization of his main themes, then Play Time (1967) which is their apex of polish, and then Trafic (1971) which at first seems to take it back a notch from where Play Time left off, but in some ways ups the ante by making a more rough, grungy movie that sometimes seems like it has documentary footage edited in throughout.

If at this point you haven't had enough, I'd suggest going back to Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953), and then rewatching all of them in chronological order. Personally, I can watch any of these movies over and over. There is always so much going on in in every shot that you're bound to see something new.

[Erkki]

I finally watched Firefly. Am I now an official citizen of the Internet?

Watched it over a couple of nights when I couldn't sleep because of this everlasting jetlag. I really loved it and already miss it. Maybe I'll watch it again. So sad that they cancelled it, but at least there's Serenity which sums up some of the loose ends.

Is there anything similar to Firefly? Not necessarily sci-fi, I liked it most because of the characters and their interactions.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I finally watched Firefly. Am I now an official citizen of the Internet?

Watched it over a couple of nights when I couldn't sleep because of this everlasting jetlag. I really loved it and already miss it. Maybe I'll watch it again. So sad that they cancelled it, but at least there's Serenity which sums up some of the loose ends.

Is there anything similar to Firefly? Not necessarily sci-fi, I liked it most because of the characters and their interactions.

Another lose end has finally been tied up, too: The Shepherd's Tale.

Also: Welcome to the internet.

[Sully907]

Make sure you watch the movie Serenity erick. It's actually really good and provides some semblence of closure to a series killed before it's time

[Kolzig]

I watched during the weekend once again Office Space, that's just so funny movie every time I see it and like a coworker told me today, it's like scenes from my working place. This movie is one of the best works of Mike Judge, maybe even the best. I rank it even higher than B&B or King of the Hill.

Also happened to waste time to watch most likely the worst movie ever made, and that was Double Dragon. Why oh why did Robert Patrick go and waste himself on a crappy movie like this one...

After a year or so ago since I was supposed to watch one movie, I finally did watch it yesterday. Torrente 2: Mision en Marbella. Such a funny movie, Santiago Segura is a great guy, and he made really a lot of funny scenes to the second one. This movie might actually be my favourite out of all the three movies, or actually four since apparently the fourth movie came out in March 2011 in Spain. Has been also a big success so far according to what I read. I wonder if any Thumbs have seen it yet?

[Roderick]

Still want to watch Torrente. After the infamous Consolevaniareview of the game, it's practically a must.

[Ben X]

Another lose end has finally been tied up, too: The Shepherd's Tale.

Also: Welcome to the internet.

And there's another one that bridges the series with the film, Those Left Behind

(the stuff with Dobson is pretty cheesy and unecessary, but it covers the transition from Hands Of Blue to The Operative nicely).

[ThunderPeel2001]

And there's another one that bridges the series with the film, Those Left Behind

(the stuff with Dobson is pretty cheesy and unecessary, but it covers the transition from Hands Of Blue to The Operative nicely).

Very true. I personally thought the transition was unnecessary though (and the story itself so... meh). The Shepherd's Tale was actually an interesting part of the mythology (imagine it being played out over a season or two... *sigh*).

There's also: Better Days. And the one shots: Downtime, Float-Out and The Other Half, for those desperate for more.

[Erkki]

Meh... I don't really care to read the comics. It would probably be like playing a Harry Potter video game just for the license.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Meh... I don't really care to read the comics. It would probably be like playing a Harry Potter video game just for the license.

Not at all. The Shepherd's Tale is really the one worth reading, though. (The story is by Joss Whedon and it's written by his (surprisingly talented) brother Zack.) The other two comics were written by one of the writers of the original show, and were all based on stories by Joss. They're not cheap knock-offs and can be considered "canon". (Geek? Moi?)

The one exception is the one-shot written by Patton Oswald, set after Serenity. There was no Joss Whedon involvement that time, I don't think.

[syntheticgerbil]

If you've never seen any Jacques Tati movies you should get right on it. I would start with Mon Oncle (1958) which is the beginning of the crystallization of his main themes, then Play Time (1967) which is their apex of polish, and then Trafic (1971) which at first seems to take it back a notch from where Play Time left off, but in some ways ups the ante by making a more rough, grungy movie that sometimes seems like it has documentary footage edited in throughout.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll go the order you suggest since I'm always for silent or mime type comedy (I'm assuming this stuff is in the vein of Chaplin or any older time players?). If I don't join up to Netflix soon with my girlfriend and the Tati films are readily available on domestic DVD, then I'll download them I suppose.

I watched during the weekend once again Office Space, that's just so funny movie every time I see it and like a coworker told me today, it's like scenes from my working place. This movie is one of the best works of Mike Judge, maybe even the best. I rank it even higher than B&B or King of the Hill.

I've seen this movie way too much and I'm still not completely sick of it. That's good, I think.

[Ben X]

The one exception is the one-shot written by Patton Oswalt, set after Serenity. There was no Joss Whedon involvement that time, I don't think.

I think I read that Oswalt pitched a few ideas and Whedon picked one, and then consulted/finetuned a bit.

What did you guys think of Idiocracy? I thought it was inspired in parts, but did a lot of telling instead of showing, and needed streamlining.

[Lu]

Yea, Office Space is a movie I keep watching every once in a while and is still funny. I love it!

[Kolzig]

What did you guys think of Idiocracy? I thought it was inspired in parts, but did a lot of telling instead of showing, and needed streamlining.

Idiocracy's base idea was really great, but the final product did not really do what it could've done. Mostly I want to believe that this was because of the budget and producing difficulties that Mike Judge ran into during the making of the movie.

[Lu]

I thought it was depressing and I generally did not really enjoy it.

[Nachimir]

Likewise, I loved the idea then watched and didn't enjoy.

[syntheticgerbil]

I think Idiocracy just turned way too ridiculous halfway through it and just fell apart near the end. Mike Judge's stuff seems to work better when grounded and less extravagant. I thought Extract was a lot of fun, even though I found it very depressing.

[brkl]

I really liked Idiocracy! Extract was ok.