Movie/TV recommendations

[James]

Actually, the troll designs are mostly based on Theodor Kittelsen's troll illustrations.

I'm pretty sure I must have had a book illustrated by him or something when I was little, because that style rings such a bell. SUCH A BELL.

[brkl]

[Nachimir]

I'm pretty sure I must have had a book illustrated by him or something when I was little, because that style rings such a bell. SUCH A BELL.

Argh! It's on the tip of my brain!

I can remember an illustration of some very similar creatures with greenish yellow fur, goofy teeth and possibly wearing aprons and chefs hats. I can't remember the title of the book though. I think it might even have been a pop-up book.

[Gwardinen]

I can remember an illustration of some very similar creatures with greenish yellow fur, goofy teeth and possibly wearing aprons and chefs hats. I can't remember the title of the book though. I think it might even have been a pop-up book.

I don't think you're thinking of this, but it reminds me of Muzzy, the mascot for BBC's language learning programmes:

(He's the green one.)

[elmuerte]

I just saw Super 8. What a great movie. I really enjoyed the pacing. It felt much more like a scifi movie from 20 years ago than a movie from this era. It was also very unlike JJ Abrams usual work. The only thing that could make this movie better is some color. The amount of shitty camera effects isn't as terrible as with Star Trek. Anyway,...

[Chris]

I saw a Norwegian film called Troll Hunter the other day and want to recommend it. It's all Blair Witch/found footage style camera work and going in I was expecting a horror film. It's actually more of a mocumentary with a great script and sense of humour. I had a smile on my face the entire time and the atmosphere in the small independent cinema I was in was amazing. It's subtitled which I mention only because getting a seat with a clear view of the bottom of the screen is essential! I had to peer over some guys massive mess of hair.

I don't want to link to the trailer because I feel it give's too much away (I didn't see the trailer before going), but here's a review from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/08/troll-hunter-film-review

The trolls themselves look just like scandiavian trolls should too. Obviously inspired by the classic John Bauer, they also reminded me of Paul Bonner's take on them.

I had no clue this film had anything remotely interesting about it. I saw a bunch of posters and cardboard cutouts in movie theatres when it was screening, and I just assumed it was a bunch of dumb fantasy bullshit, like that Dragon Wars movie that came out a few years ago.

[Chris]

I don't think you're thinking of this, but it reminds me of Muzzy, the mascot for BBC's language learning programmes:

(He's the green one.)

I had a complete set of French Muzzy VHS tapes and I watched all of them multiple times. I loved it when I was a kid.

Je suis le grand Muzzy.

[Roderick]

ooh la la

[Lu]

I used to watch that all the time as a kid when I was sick at home! Which was quite a lot! At some point I'd hope I would get rapid regeneration abilities and boneclaws, but no such luck.

hoh hoh hohn!

[MrHoatzin]

The Muzzy of my childhood was in English. The live action segments that the cartoon happened around featured two of the most ginger people I had ever seen.

[Orv]

One Mans Journey Through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows;

(This kind of got away from me somewhere. . .I'd be happy to remove it if anyone objects.)

FAIR WARNING: SPOILERTH

Part 1

Hermione Granger, actually more dangerous than most of the main cast put together.

Why am I watching this again?

No, I won't shed a single indian tear for your stupid CGI gnome-elf.

Part 2

WHY IS THERE A WIZARD GESTAPO?!

Oh cool, that offhand mention of a dragon in Gringots was brought back.

A whole hour of crazy wizard fight? That you probably skimped on the VFX budget of the last three films for? Okay, you're forgiven the two-parter.

Oh no, freaky, screaming, angry ghost. Fuck off.

I'm kind of saddened by the fact that the Room of Requirement has gone from "magically appearing bathroom" to "magical shit storage". Wait. . .

Really? This kid, 18 years old, most important good guy in the magical world, not only gets to go fight the biggest bad guy of the magical world, he also has to deal with his childhood nemesis before hand. What's the plural of nemesis, nemesi?

And he saves him. Christ, I need to reread book 7 again, I don't remember any of this shit.

It's nice to actually see a wizards war. They're talked about all the time in backstories for video games this, and worlds that. Never get to see one with the force of a multi-million dollar VFX budget behind it.

Oh yes, Voldemort (stupid godsdamned name, always has been) is degenerating because his soul is being destroyed. Star Trek Nemesis (ah-ha!) did it first! It wasn't a good movie, but you fucking cribbed it! How subtle.

YOU'VE PLAYED DIRECTLY INTO MY TRAP!

HANS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Well shit, I actually liked Snape. Though I imagine you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't.

Casualty list:

Remus?! Shit!

The unfunny twin

Still not remembering any of this.

Right, right, right, you've been lying all along, both must die. Wrap up the sequence.

Poignant.

Wizard battle, ENGAGE!

Proof positive: Nukes are magic.

No. . .no, you're not actually going to do this, are you? Oh (pardon my French) Jesus fucking Christ. Alright Gandalf, lets get this over with.

"On." Alright, I know Rowling isn't that deep. Who wrote this screenplay? Oh, apparently the same guy who wrote the rest of them. Well done Steve.

Bad guy is an enormous asshole. Check.

I love the choreography of these movies. Are you angry? Do you have a wand? Imagine you're in the worlds most overrought free-throw competition. Or you're a really enthusiastic nazi with cerebral palsy.

This is more like it!

I never did understand why the Death Eater flying fog trick destroys shit so well.

Holy shit Molly. Doting housewife no more.

Complimentary murder-rounds for everybody!

Oh, now we do the wizard battle. Fine. I don't even care anymore.

Jeeze, what is this rated?

Was Hogwarts always on a giant rock?

Oh right, she actually wrote this part. The beard. Oh gods the beard.

8.5/10. Either way, I didn't hate it.

[Roderick]

Yeah, I loved it and it was chock full of good stuff!

[toblix]

Just to confirm that I still hate everything, I thought Super 8 was a huge disappointment. There was some great acting, particuarly by the younger actors/actresses, parts of it looked really nice, but the plot, the story... come on!

[Thyroid]

"On." Alright, I know Rowling isn't that deep. Who wrote this screenplay? Oh, apparently the same guy who wrote the rest of them. Well done Steve.

It's kind of impressive how badly adapted the novels are. None of the ones I've seen gets it right. The first and third movies are especially atrocious, screenplay-wise.

[MrHoatzin]

It's kind of impressive how badly adapted the novels are. None of the ones I've seen gets it right. The first and third movies are especially atrocious, screenplay-wise.

Yet the third one is probably the best movie of the whole bunch. I also liked the first part of the finale.

[Roderick]

Kroms, are you saying movie 1 and 3 are awful? The general consensus is that the third movie is really good. I'm actually surprised at how awesome this entire series has been, despite a few lulls here and there.

[Thyroid]

Movie 1 is dreadful. I hated it as a kid, and can't even make it past the first fifteen minutes as an adult. The casting is great in parts, but the movie has little else going for it. The main theme pisses me off more than you imagine.

Movie 3 is OK, but it's saved by stellar direction. The screenplay is shit, though. I don't get why this guy removes fun or interesting scenes or subplots (like who created the Marauder's Map and why Lupin and co. can work it so well) and adds in silly ones like

Peter Pettigrew appearing inside Hogwarts on a map

.

To me, what made the first five books so great (and to a lesser extent the seventh) was the abundance of fun and interesting detail coupled with wonderful characters and (what seemed at the time; I'll have to re-read to assess) a great plot. They obviously have to lose some of that in adapting a 700 page monster to a 100 minute multiplex-lovin' blockbuster designed to bring casual fan ass to cinema seat, but I don't see the point in adding scenes like (Potter 6 spoilers)

Ginny, amazing heroine and love interest, being the only one who runs out of a circle of fire and catching up to Harry in a swamp full of psychotic serial killers, and the scene ending with the serial killers all going "Ahhhh" and "ohhhh" and "Woooo"

in place of, you know, something good.

Part of me wishes someone would adapt the books into a TV series or animated series. As is, I don't like how intertwined the movies have become with the (far superior) books in canon. It kind of pisses me off, actually.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I've read all the books, and only seen some of the films, but I always had issue with the start of Book 5. It was so freaking tedious and boring. I guess JK thought she was being "dark", but it didn't work for me. The film version did a better job of that bit, while also making Delores Umbridge a little more three dimensional, and as a result scarier, than her book version.

Otherwise, it's book versions all the way, if you ask me.

[Thyroid]

Maybe it's because I was 13 when Potter 5 came out, but Umbridge felt really realistic to me. God knows I had a teacher exactly like her (minus denying Voldemort, etc).

And I loved the opening. It was different to the others and really captured what I was feeling at the time - that general boredom with summer (it was the summer between my more younger self and the year I kind of started dating a lot of girls, etc), and the year I noticed people hanging in gangs and generally becoming more teenage like the way Dudley does. I loved how that one thing changed Dudley for the better in Potter 7. His last appearance in the books didn't entirely redeem the character, but it gave him a nicer, more positive side.

That's just me, though. Prince was my least favourite of the series (by far) because it lost so much of that and became too involved in its own mythology. Other people differ. Eh.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Delores just seemed very 2D in the books. I remember thinking how Imelda Staunton added a lot by making her much more nasty: She really believed in what she was doing. She really thought she was on the side of "right" and, as such, even absurdly evil things like making students write lines on their skin seemed all the more sinister: She really believed it was for their own good. I remember thinking that in the books she was just evil for the sake of it.

I may be misremembering, though.

[Orv]

Having been 14 when the first book was released in the US, I'm just kind of happy to be done with the whole thing. I didn't viciously hate any of the movies (6 was rather shit for a number of reasons, not least simply axing the fight in the last couple of chapters) and I always liked the books. It'll always be a thing I sort of fondly remember, but it's been 13 years and finally I can say I never have to watch/read Harry Potter again.

[Thyroid]

I may be misremembering.

I vaguely remember realizing that Umbridge both believed what she was doing was right, and kissing ass. But I was 13. I'm going to re-read the books someday anyway, so I'll found out for sure then.

Having been 14 when the first book was released in the US, I'm just kind of happy to be done with the whole thing. I didn't viciously hate any of the movies (6 was rather shit for a number of reasons, not least simply axing the fight in the last couple of chapters) and I always liked the books. It'll always be a thing I sort of fondly remember, but it's been 13 years and finally I can say I never have to watch/read Harry Potter again.

My experience is slightly more interesting. I read the first one when I was eight - this is just after it got published in the States - and I read each when I could get ahold of it (two and three I read in one sitting on the same day; I got them as soon as I found a way to, which was soon after three came out, and promptly got lost in them for that entire Tuesday. That day was one of the best of my life...). It's kind of silly now, but I always half-hoped to get that letter when I turned ten and go to Hogwarts (Harry's line about math being boring in Stone being the kicker).

Harry was always older than I was at any given time, until Deathly Hallows came out and I was, finally, older than him. By two months, sure, but I was older. It was a month after I finished high school, and it was as perfect a goodbye to childhood as I could have ever hoped for, saying goodbye to my childhood favourite character like that.

So maybe someday I'll go back and read them and re-live days that have gone by.

Anyway, blah. Movies. Err...

A Study in Terror is a decent and occasionally scary little dittie. Worth seeing.

[elmuerte]

I wonder if this will freak out Jake:

51x_owzUkqE

[MrHoatzin]

I kindof made peace with the movies being shit at some point and watched them just for the amazing acting craft that every single shot drips with. There is so much professionalism in that movie, it can distract you enough.

[Erkki]

That bell rings such a bell. It's in Moscow, right? I somehow remember it being in different surroundings, though.