Movie/TV recommendations

[itsamoose]

Has anyone see the movie Her yet?  I went to go see it last night and absolutely loved it.  It is one of those rare instances of science fiction not focusing on some kind of dystopia or military conflict, and does so beautifully.  If you haven't seen it yet,

is an illustration of the overall tone of the film (NSFW).  It has a way of being romantic, funny, and serious all at the same time.

[Brannigan]

Has anyone see the movie Her yet?  I went to go see it last night and absolutely loved it.  It is one of those rare instances of science fiction not focusing on some kind of dystopia or military conflict, and does so beautifully.  If you haven't seen it yet,

is an illustration of the overall tone of the film (NSFW).  It has a way of being romantic, funny, and serious all at the same time.

I for one cannot wait for high waisted pants to be cool.

[prettyunsmart]

Has anyone see the movie Her yet?  I went to go see it last night and absolutely loved it.  It is one of those rare instances of science fiction not focusing on some kind of dystopia or military conflict, and does so beautifully.  If you haven't seen it yet,

is an illustration of the overall tone of the film (NSFW).  It has a way of being romantic, funny, and serious all at the same time.

 

I really enjoyed about 85% of the film, but the ending felt a bit hollow to me. Is that strange?

 

I figured that Sam was going to continue to grow and move beyond her relationship with Theodore, but the whole "now the OSs have all disappeared into the ether" thing just felt a little sudden to me. It's nice to see a version of the singularity take place in a film that doesn't culminate in a Boston Dynamics-style-killer-robot apocalypse, but it felt somewhat contrived. I'm not sure how else the film could have resolved, but it left me feeling uneasy.

[feelthedarkness]

I really enjoyed Her. In a way it reminded me of a bit easier Upstream Color, particularly in the color co-ordination of the cinematography, modern composition of the ambient music, as well as the emerging

singularity

theme. 

[tegan]

I watched The Whisperer in Darkness, a 2011 film cleverly disguised as 1931 film based on the story of the same name by HP Lovecraft.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A_ee9K9hXtw

 

Outside of the somewhat jarring CG, it's actually really good! It's an expansion on the original story that stays mostly consistent with its tone and mood, and it does an acceptable job of never breaking from the idea that it's really a 1930s monster movie.

[Frobitz]

I recently made a decision to try Blu Ray rather than streaming or downloads. Tonight I'm revisiting the film that blew my 13 year old mind, Eraserhead.

Holy crap David Lynch. You have a lot to answer for

 

Blu-Ray's been pretty fun for me, especially when the format is used wisely for neat bonus features.

 

Hey, not sure why this isn't quoting my quote too when replying to this, so I've tried to do it manually? Forgive me for my forum fail, I've struggled to do right Anyway...

 

I was thinking about this recently, as it's been my habit to revisit old Eraserhead a couple of times since I got the BR of it back when I originally posted, trying to figure out the magical position it's held for me. Something was missing and I've come to the odd position that I preferred it in the following way.

 

It's one of those films that I think is tied to a particular way of viewing it, as I saw it first on a tiny black and white Mitsubishi television I had in my room as a teenager. - it must have been all of 13" screen if that and the curvature of a fish bowl. 

 

It had a dial rather than buttons, and you tuned it in to the channel you wanted to watch. So mostly everything was filtered through a grainy, staticky picture and image that had to be adjusted depending on the weather and foibles of the aerial on top of it. At worst you'd have to adjust as you watched.

 

Kind of the opposite of HD and 3D, I think it actually lent something special to the films I watched on it, not being entirely sure you'd get a good enough image and sound to see the whole thing. Super nostalgia vision perhaps? 

 

But for Eraserhead, I think it lent a special kind of grainy effect I actually miss with the HD version. 

 

Yeah, so contrary like that I guess, but I think it suited the film

 

TL:DR: Watch the film through a fine filter of cosmic background radiation, it kinda looks and sounds better?

[itsamoose]

 

I really enjoyed about 85% of the film, but the ending felt a bit hollow to me. Is that strange?

 

No, the ending was quite abrupt, but since the movie had been so weird up until that point it didn't seem too far off base.

[tegan]

TL:DR: Watch the film through a fine filter of cosmic background radiation, it kinda looks and sounds better?

 

I understand. And nostalgia aside, sometimes movies are just cleaned up pretty badly. There's an infamous 2010 HD release of Predator that has waaaay too much digital noise reduction, making everyone look like a creepy wax dummy.

 

[Brannigan]

I want to rub my everything on Carl Weathers' digitally improved face. SO SMOOTH

[Frobitz]

@brannigan: Do that? Baby, you've got a stew going.

 

God. Arnie's eyes! :-S

[Brannigan]

Oh and Her.

 

I kind of like that it ended fairly suddenly, trying to explain the OS' evolution into the beyond would have proven more problematic I think.  Trying to answer something we don't really know the outcome of might have broken the reality.

[BigJKO]

Holy shit, that Predator clean-up job. That's how Arnie looks like in my nightmares..

[Ben X]

A film that I always remember with a pan-and-scan VHS fuzz over it is John Carpenter's The Thing.

[tegan]

I just watched Frankenweenie. I had nearly forgotten that Tim Burton is sometimes capable of making decent films.

 

The Asian kid ventured into kind of uncomfortable stereotype territory at times though.

[BusbyBerkeley]

Everyone ought to watch The Act of Killing like right now. It's a documentary about some of the people who killed thousands of "communists" in state sanctioned genocide in Indonesia in the 1960s. The filmmaker approached these people and essentially offered to let them make their own movie about the killings, which are still regarded as heroic by many. It's totally insane and really strange and meta and holy fuck it's an uncomfortable thing to watch sometimes. I'll most likely never watch it again, but its easily the best movie of last year for me.

I can't recommend it highly enough. It's streaming on Netflix right now. Watch it.

[jmbossy]

I just re-watched The Raid: Redemption in preparation for the sequel. It may not be a popular suggestion, but I absolutely love the execution. Even though Gareth Evans (Writer, Director) hasn't done much else of appreciable quality he managed to handle the subject matter with actual maturity; which is only something I can say about a handful of action movies. Yes, it's a martial arts movie from Indonesia. Yes, there is a lot of gore. In fact, it made me squeamish. And being that I'm pretty damned desensitized (action movies are my equivalent to feel good movies) I consider that to be a testament to how well done this movie was.

 

An example: The traditional sounds of controlled breathing were replaced with agonizing grunts, which lasted even after fights ended. You never feel the participants in the action are in control, it is almost always survivalist, dirty, and intense. 

 

Obviously, it isn't for every one. My tastes are weird, I like the Coens and Bay (No, not Transformers). Though if you're not immediately repelled by action or martial arts movies, give this one a shot, it does a good job of meeting people like me somewhere in the middle.

 

 

Edit: Also, Music by Mike Shinoda, who is great.

[Ben X]

The Act of Killing is available on US Netflix Instant now and hooooooly shit it is the craziest movie I have ever seen. It starts out interesting and just gets weirder and more affecting as it goes on. Amazing documentary, maybe my favorite that I've ever seen. If it doesn't win the Oscar this year I will riot.

The premise is Joshua Oppenheimer, the director, goes to Indonesia and talks to two of the organizers of the mid-60s genocide against "Communists." He asks them to help make a film re-enacting their killings, and the movie just gets crazier from there. Best if you go in not knowing more than that.

 

I really enjoyed The Raid. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

[jmbossy]

 

I'm looking forward to the sequel.

 

Wikipedia says it comes out March 28th. 

But none of the trailers (or any other place on the internet) can confirm this.

[Zeusthecat]

I just discovered this series on Netflix called "Moving Art". Each one is about 25 minutes of nature footage with incredible music accompanying the whole thing. The whole series is just so goddamn beautiful.

[syntheticgerbil]

More like Moving FART!

[Ucantalas]

More like Moving FART!

...I'm confused. Isn't Zeus the one who usually makes jokes like that? Did you guys switch accounts for the day or something?

[Frenetic Pony]

I just re-watched The Raid: Redemption in preparation for the sequel. It may not be a popular suggestion, but I absolutely love the execution. Even though Gareth Evans (Writer, Director) hasn't done much else of appreciable quality he managed to handle the subject matter with actual maturity; which is only something I can say about a handful of action movies. Yes, it's a martial arts movie from Indonesia. Yes, there is a lot of gore. In fact, it made me squeamish. And being that I'm pretty damned desensitized (action movies are my equivalent to feel good movies) I consider that to be a testament to how well done this movie was.

 

An example: The traditional sounds of controlled breathing were replaced with agonizing grunts, which lasted even after fights ended. You never feel the participants in the action are in control, it is almost always survivalist, dirty, and intense. 

 

Obviously, it isn't for every one. My tastes are weird, I like the Coens and Bay (No, not Transformers). Though if you're not immediately repelled by action or martial arts movies, give this one a shot, it does a good job of meeting people like me somewhere in the middle.

 

 

Edit: Also, Music by Mike Shinoda, who is great.

 

Loved the beginning of that movie, but it kinda lost me as it went on. One of the final big fight scenes, where they're double teaming the big crazy dude in the concrete room, just kind of dragged for me. "Oh look he's been kicked in the head like twelve times, but there's no blood and he seems fine! Wonder if he's hacking or something." Shame since there are a lot of kickass scenes in the beginning and middle. Hope the second one keeps it with the faster paced, less dragged out fights all the way through.

[syntheticgerbil]

I had to do Zeus' job since he refused!

[BadHat]

I really liked the Raid but yeah that fight scene at the end went on for far too goddamn long. Funny to see that guy has a part in the sequel. Trailers look so good.

[Zeusthecat]

I had to do Zeus' job since he refused!

 

You caught me. I was just trying to get everyone on here to go watch this new series where people's farts are recorded and played back in slow motion to a Clint Mansell soundtrack. (Now that I think about it I would totally watch that. I think I'm broken.)