Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[brawndolicious]

I don't know, it didn't seem that dark.  The general concept didn't seem lend itself too well to actual character building (toys wandering around after an apocalypse) but the inventive visual style definitely kept me entertained for the two hours or whatever.  They might have been able to do more with it, but I'm still happy with what they were aiming for.

I'm shocked that you'd pull the Avatar Defense on this one.
And it was 79 minutes [71 if you don't count the credits].

Well Avatar had a boring visual style to me.  I didn't care about anything that happened until Hometree died and actual action started up.

[CajoleJuice]

(500) Days of Summer
The funniest movie of last year.

Wrong.

[Great Rumbler]

I don't know, it didn't seem that dark.  The general concept didn't seem lend itself too well to actual character building (toys wandering around after an apocalypse) but the inventive visual style definitely kept me entertained for the two hours or whatever.  They might have been able to do more with it, but I'm still happy with what they were aiming for.

I'm shocked that you'd pull the Avatar Defense on this one.
And it was 79 minutes [71 if you don't count the credits].

Well Avatar had a boring visual style to me.  I didn't care about anything that happened until Hometree died and actual action started up.

Well, I found 9 to be a boring movie. I didn't care about anything that happened.

[brawndolicious]

There is so much potential depth and philosophical questioning to be found in a concept like the one that served as the basis for 9. I'm disappointed to hear that the final product ended up being so shallow.

like what?

[EmCeeGrammar]

Man, I would hate to be the guy who comes out of the movies with Green Shinobi.

[Great Rumbler]

9 didn't really explore anything, except a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

[brawndolicious]

Well, as I understand it, the premise is that the main characters are these artificial beings that have very human thoughts and emotions. So the potential is there to delve quite deeply into the question of what it means to be human, particularly if some of the robot adversaries possessed self-awareness and intelligence, but were lacking in some other fundamental area of human existence. You could examine both the good and bad aspects of human nature. There's a lot you could do, particularly if you posed some tough questions for the audience and didn't really provide real answers one way or the other, but left it up to the audience to think about and discuss.

no, the B.R.A.I.N. had artificial intelligence and somehow the stitchpunks had pieces of the scientist's soul, this was just a fantasy world showing a computer vs. a soul, so you can't really get any deep meanings from that since it's too separated from reality.  What you're suggesting would be something like Ghost in the Shell but my problem with movies that try and define the limits of a human vs a machine is that they all end up too baseless or derivative and end up pointing everything out to you (eg: every second of the Matrix trilogy).

otoh, I liked the design of the wasteland and stitchpunk is a really funny name and so the movie exceeded my expectations.

[Great Rumbler]

Well, as I understand it, the premise is that the main characters are these artificial beings that have very human thoughts and emotions. So the potential is there to delve quite deeply into the question of what it means to be human, particularly if some of the robot adversaries possessed self-awareness and intelligence, but were lacking in some other fundamental area of human existence. You could examine both the good and bad aspects of human nature. There's a lot you could do, particularly if you posed some tough questions for the audience and didn't really provide real answers one way or the other, but left it up to the audience to think about and discuss.

otoh, I liked the design of the wasteland and stitchpunk is a really funny name and so the movie exceeded my expectations.

Your expectations must have been in the negative range then. 

[Bildi]

Definitely, Maybe - holy shit this movie caught me off guard.  Far, far better than the average romantic comedy, not really fair to lump it in that category.  That kid is a bit annoying but that's probably just me and I can look past it.

The Wrestler - depressing, but awesome.  The way it was done made me even more sad because it reminded me of real-life stories.

[Eric P]

watched Tekkon Kinkreet

it looked good, but the story was horrible

[EmCeeGrammar]

A Serious Man

Man, they make it seem like everything is gonna work out more or less, and then he gets that damn phone call
 
 

The other thing I took from this is that being a observing jew sounds like a headache.  Good lord at the second rabbi.

[Barry Egan]

The counsel with the second rabbi is my favorite scene in the movie.  And I only wish actual rabbi's were like that.  If you went to an actual Rabbi for advice they'd just recite various passages from the Torah.  The Serious Man rabbi's were more or less up front about their complete lack of authority.  If Synagogue's were that relaxed with their self-image I might show up every once in a while.

[EmCeeGrammar]

Yeah, that phone call at the end is really the knockout punch. But you don't really know

spoiler (click to show/hide)

what the prognosis is, so maybe it isn't that bad.

[close]

Stop being so obtuse.  They make it pretty damn clear he is fuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. 

About the second rabbi: I kind of found that scene funny, but at the same time its really excruciating to see lawrence flounder around and getting modern day parables providing no practical use for him. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was actually happy for him when I thought he was getting laid, but nope, nightmare sequence

[close]

Nice touch how we get a perspective of a 'parking lot' at the end, too.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I really dug A Serious Man. It felt like an amalgamation of the Coen brothers's black comedy and the suburbian weirdness of David Lynch - right up my alley.  Much better than Burn After Reading, imo.

And thanks to Instant Watch on Netflix, I finally saw 400 Blows.  It's one of those films that I've always intended on watching for years now but never got around to it until now.  Not a life changer or anything, but I'm glad I saw it.  Scratch that one off my list.

[Great Rumbler]

I really dug A Serious Man. It felt like an amalgamation of the Coen brothers's black comedy and the suburbian weirdness of David Lynch - right up my alley.  Much better than Burn After Reading, imo.

I liked Burn After Reading, but A Serious Man is way above it in terms of quality.

[brawndolicious]

I really dug A Serious Man. It felt like an amalgamation of the Coen brothers's black comedy and the suburbian weirdness of David Lynch - right up my alley.  Much better than Burn After Reading, imo.

I liked Burn After Reading

WAT

[EmCeeGrammar]

Burn after Reading is good, it just wasn't a comedy like the commercials  portrayed it. 

[Great Rumbler]

I really dug A Serious Man. It felt like an amalgamation of the Coen brothers's black comedy and the suburbian weirdness of David Lynch - right up my alley.  Much better than Burn After Reading, imo.

I liked Burn After Reading

WAT

Hey, you liked 9, so we'll call it even.

Burn After Reading is a goofy little movie about idiots taking things too seriously. You laugh, the movie ends, then you move on with your life.

TBL, OBWAT and NCFOM > other CB flicks, IMO.

This is my Coen Brother's God Tier:

-Blood Simple.
-Raising Arizona
-Fargo
-The Big Lebowski
-No Country for Old Men
-A Serious Man

[Mupepe]

What the fuck am nintenho?

500 days of summer was fucking horrible. Garbage. I just. Fuck. I hate that movie with every fiber of my being. It wasn't unique. It wasn't funny. It was a pathetic mishmash of emo Indie garbage. So much eye rolling to be had. Its no wonder internet nerds love it.  Oh and as someone else said what kind of taco gets emotional at the end of the graduate.

[Mupepe]

Oh and burn after reading rocks.

[CajoleJuice]

I expected to hate 500 Days of Summer for the reasons Mupepe just said, but I actually enjoyed it in spite of myself, I guess. Or maybe I secretly like The Smiths. I thought Burn After Reading got better as it went along. It was fucking awful for the first 20 minutes or so. In the end I felt it was ok.

[Raban]

Mupepe hitting every nail on the head ITT.

Burn After Reading was a fun movie.

I think No Country sweeping at the Oscars made people forget that the Coens made The Big Lebowski, and have a taste for really random, dry humor. imo Coen Bros. movies have the worst trailers in terms of representing the final product.

Also I can't insert the quote because it's too far up, but whoever said Definitely, Maybe was a good film, I agree. It was very entertaining. I disagree about Abigail Breslin's performance, though. I always enjoy her in the movies she's in. Amazing in Little Miss Sunshine.

[Raban]

It's a travesty that The Big Lebowski wans't nominated for Oscars in Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Few movies in any genre are as well-written or beautifully shot as that movie was.

I love TBL but...

[Cormacaroni]

Some things are self-evident, GS.

[brawndolicious]

What the fuck am nintenho?

500 days of summer was fucking horrible. Garbage. I just. Fuck. I hate that movie with every fiber of my being. It wasn't unique. It wasn't funny. It was a pathetic mishmash of emo Indie garbage. So much eye rolling to be had. Its no wonder internet nerds love it.  Oh and as someone else said what kind of distinguished effete fellow gets emotional at the end of the graduate.

really?  It was basically all about mocking the love-at-first-sight-lets-listen-to-the-smiths-together bullshit.  That wasn't just witty stock jokes thrown in there, that's entirely what the movie was about.  It shows you the type of people who are too stupid to have real relationships and so this is a great training film.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also awesome so there.

oh and I have absofuckinglutely no idea what the graduate is.  are you talking about the movie the girl teared up in?

[Green Shinobi]

oh and I have absofuckinglutely no idea what the graduate is.

Dude...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graduate

The film that launched Dustin Hoffman's career. You're missing out on at least a few pop culture references if you haven't seen the film. There's one line in particular that has been spoofed to no end. If you haven't seen the film, I know you've at least heard the soundtrack.

Rent it, man.

[Mupepe]

What the fuck am nintenho?

500 days of summer was fucking horrible. Garbage. I just. Fuck. I hate that movie with every fiber of my being. It wasn't unique. It wasn't funny. It was a pathetic mishmash of emo Indie garbage. So much eye rolling to be had. Its no wonder internet nerds love it.  Oh and as someone else said what kind of distinguished effete fellow gets emotional at the end of the graduate.

really?  It was basically all about mocking the love-at-first-sight-lets-listen-to-the-smiths-together bullshit.  That wasn't just witty stock jokes thrown in there, that's entirely what the movie was about.  It shows you the type of people who are too stupid to have real relationships and so this is a great training film.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also awesome so there.

oh and I have absofuckinglutely no idea what the graduate is.  are you talking about the movie the girl teared up in?

yes.  that movie.  This is a great training film?  i'm sorry.  this movie is the cliche for all those conformists of non comformity.  there is nothing new in there.  it's not deep or realistic.  anyone that says so is on fucking crack or hasn't been in a real relationship.  He's Just Not That Into You did pretty much the exact same scenario with like 5 other stories going on as well.  and it left out all the whining shit that didn't matter.

fuck i'll say it.  it was even a better movie.  it wasn't so stuck up its own ass.

[Raban]

Wait a second, an nintenho is supposed to be a trusted opinion on movies and he hasn't seen The Graduate?

[Robo]

Wait a second, an nintenho is supposed to be a trusted opinion on movies and he hasn't seen The Graduate?

Whoever gave you the impression that am nintenho knows what he's talking about should be banned.

[The Fake Shemp]

People read am nintenho's posts

[Raban]

I had it all wrong

[Mupepe]

I'm surprised he's talking about what the movie is "about" when he missed the pretty big emphasis on The Graduate.

[Barry Egan]

am nintenhos posts are brilliant, but only if you find the codec that translates them in to english. 

[Mandark]

am nintenhos posts are brilliant, but only if you find the codec that translates them in to english.

This would be one of those "codecs" that Green Shinobi wants legalized.

[Green Shinobi]

To be honest, I've never seen Firefly or Serenity or Dollhouse, or any Whedon creation aside from a few episodes of Buffy.

But in his defense, apparently the final version of Alien: Resurrection was miles away from his original vision. According to him:

"It wasn't a question of doing everything differently, although they changed the ending; it was mostly a matter of doing everything wrong. They said the lines...mostly...but they said them all wrong. And they cast it wrong. And they designed it wrong. And they scored it wrong. They did everything wrong that they could possibly do. There's actually a fascinating lesson in filmmaking, because everything that they did reflects back to the script or looks like something from the script, and people assume that, if I hated it, then they’d changed the script...but it wasn’t so much that they’d changed the script; it’s that they just executed it in such a ghastly fashion as to render it almost unwatchable."

But who knows, there might not have been the potential for a good movie with that script.

[Green Shinobi]

I haven't even seen Resurrection since the year after it came out, when I was in 9th grade.

Would you say it's worse than Alien 3?

[Green Shinobi]

I thought that AvP actually could have been pretty decent with a few changes.

They should have never showed the Predators before the first time that a human character sees one. They could have built up a real sense of mystery and suspense with that huge, precise tunnel that was drilled through the ice before the humans arrived, but the audience knows exactly what's going on, since everything is telegraphed so far in advance. I know they included the scenes where the Predators come to Earth as fan service, but honestly, they made the movie weaker.

Also, the moment where the humans activate the machinery that starts the Alien breeding process could have been a huge "FUUUUUUUU" moment had it been foreshadowed and executed a little better, but it wasn't.

And of course, all the scenes before the humans get to Antarctica were completely terrible. They really needed a script doctor for those ones.

The movie had so little suspense compared to the first two films. Such a disappointment.

[The Fake Shemp]

Newsflash: Every film is not the way the writer intended, unless he also directed it.

[Great Rumbler]

AvP should have been about Aliens and Predator and Space Marines, instead of some loser archeologists.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Aliens: Resurrection is one of those sequels that isn't fantastic, but looks a lot better over time.

There's the fucking amazing practical effects, there's Juenet's beautiful visuals, there's some fun supporting parts.  Sure the movie as a whole ain't grand, but its like how its easier to appreciate bland 80's pop music over crappy 00's pop music.  It may not be great, but its a lot more competent then the shit we got now.

Not to mention it looks way better compared to its even more craptastic sequels (also known as Predator 2 syndrome).

[Great Rumbler]

Doesn't change the fact that Predator, in every conceivable way, blows Predator 2 completely out of the water and then rapes its corpse. Much in the same way that Alien/Aliens do to Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

[Robo]

I just learned via Wikipedia that apparently there's a new Predator movie slated for this year, titled "Predators" (get it?), where the Predator people capture and dump humans onto an alien planet and reinact "Surviving the Game" with them.  Adrian Brody plays Ice-T.

[Great Rumbler]

Predators could be interesting, but I'm not going to hold my breath or anything.

[Robo]

I'm going to hold my breath until I don't have to hear anything else about it.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm going to hold my breath until I don't have to hear anything else about it.

Probably the correct course of action.

[Diunx]

Saw like 20 minutes of Superman Returns on the telly yesterday, forgot that Kumar was one of Luthor evil henchmen, smh.

[Joe Molotov]

I just learned via Wikipedia that apparently there's a new Predator movie slated for this year, titled "Predators" (get it?), where the Predator people capture and dump humans onto an alien planet and reinact "Surviving the Game" with them.  Adrian Brody plays Ice-T.

where they are hunted by creatures known as "Black Super Predators"

"Black Super Predator" sounds like a blaxplotation film about a child molester.

[Raban]

Saw like 20 minutes of Superman Returns on the telly yesterday, forgot that Kumar was one of Luthor evil henchmen, smh.

Now he's the president's henchman.

[Great Rumbler]

Insomnia vs. Insomnia:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Watched the remake a few ago and the original a few minutes ago. First, some observations: the original feels more raw and ambiguous, while the remake feels much clearer and "produced". Not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, just an observation. In the original, the characters come across more like real people, rather than in the remake where there feel more like characters from a movie. It's kind of hard to explain, but you'll notice it when you watch both of them.

The detective in the remake is quite a bit different from in the original, in the remake he has a big reason why he might have wanted to kill his partner and is much more hesitant about helping the killer cover everything up. Meanwhile, in the original it comes across as just an accident that he could have easily explained, but didn't want to because it might've tarnished his reputation. This isn't really gone into with any depth. In the original, he takes the initiative with helping the killer finger the boyfriend and cover everything up.

Wally Pfister does an amazing job on the cinematography with lots of wide vistas of the Alaskan wilderness and with quick edits that show how the detective begins to lose touch with reality due to a lack of sleep. The cinematography in the original is by means bad, but it's zoomed in a lot more and lacks that "snap" of the remake.

Which acting and characters are better depends on which type of acting and characterizing you prefer. The original feels like it's populated with normal people and it's acted as such. The remake feels more like it's populated with characters from a movie and some of the acting is infused with more emotions than in the original.

[close]

Overall, the original feels stranger and much more ambiguous, while the remake is more like a well-made Hollywood thriller. Both have their strong points, but I think I'd give the edge to the remake.

[Bildi]

I'll have to check out the original one day, it sounds interesting.  The remake didn't blow me away, but it was enjoyable.

[Mupepe]

They need to make Stephen King's Insomnia. 

[Bildi]

Also I can't insert the quote because it's too far up, but whoever said Definitely, Maybe was a good film, I agree. It was very entertaining. I disagree about Abigail Breslin's performance, though. I always enjoy her in the movies she's in. Amazing in Little Miss Sunshine.

Abigail Breslin is a great actress, it just doesn't take much for a kid to annoy me a bit.  It didn't detract from the film for me.

I'm going to be a really grumpy old man one day.

[Eric P]

They need to make Stephen King's Insomnia. 

hours of an old dude on a bench

[Mupepe]

did you forget about the short dudes in lab coats?  and him wanting to fuck random old chicks and young chicks alike?

[The Fake Shemp]

Or the stupid balloons.

[Mupepe]

yeah, but the doctors cut the strings when people died and they had auras.  King

[brawndolicious]

yes.  that movie.  This is a great training film?  i'm sorry.  this movie is the cliche for all those conformists of non comformity.  there is nothing new in there.  it's not deep or realistic.  anyone that says so is on fucking crack or hasn't been in a real relationship.  He's Just Not That Into You did pretty much the exact same scenario with like 5 other stories going on as well.  and it left out all the whining shit that didn't matter.
fuck i'll say it.  it was even a better movie.  it wasn't so stuck up its own ass.

I don't know, I think it meant to show everybody as a caricature since there is no real "end" to the movie because you already know the relationship fails.  I also really didin't pick up a lot cliches (that weren't meant to be ridiculous).  The point of the movie was to show why the boy was obsessed with the girl while she never had any really romantic feelings towards him, and then to show how they never even had an honest or deep relationship despite all the "drama" that went on in it.

plus it has Joseph Gordon-Levitt, also.

[Great Rumbler]

Stephen King's Insomnia 2: Stupid Balloons and Short Dudes in Lab Coats.
~A James Cameron Production~
Written By: William B. Federman

[Mupepe]

yes.  that movie.  This is a great training film?  i'm sorry.  this movie is the cliche for all those conformists of non comformity.  there is nothing new in there.  it's not deep or realistic.  anyone that says so is on fucking crack or hasn't been in a real relationship.  He's Just Not That Into You did pretty much the exact same scenario with like 5 other stories going on as well.  and it left out all the whining shit that didn't matter.
fuck i'll say it.  it was even a better movie.  it wasn't so stuck up its own ass.

I don't know, I think it meant to show everybody as a caricature since there is no real "end" to the movie because you already know the relationship fails.  I also really didin't pick up a lot cliches (that weren't meant to be ridiculous).  The point of the movie was to show why the boy was obsessed with the girl while she never had any really romantic feelings towards him, and then to show how they never even had an honest or deep relationship despite all the "drama" that went on in it.

plus it has Joseph Gordon-Levitt, also.

He's the reason I saw the movie.  So damn cute

To be honest, what I hate the most is the people on GAF who act like it's the deepest relationship movie ever and that it's so unique and original when it's really not.  And then how the movie thought it was so damn clever with the little sister giving advice and shit like I've never seen that before and it's so cute and original i should be saying this movie is so cute and original right now.  That's what bothered me.

Different strokes, different folks.

[brawndolicious]

well that's overrating it, yeah.