›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

In this Discussion

Movies

LelandLeland
edited November 2011
Weird, there's no thread for this.

Do we like movies?

I don't usually, but sometimes.

I saw a movie I liked. It was surprisingly alright. It was called Captain America. Not as much smashing as I expected. This was good.

It was about America, about how we feel about it and stuff, but it was set in the 1940's during the war that Indiana Jones fought.

There was a superhuman Nazi and Jewish people who were smart.

The costumes were great and there was a lot of talking. But I liked it!

It was pretty sly.
«1345

Comments

  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    You don't like movies generally?
  • Loose_ThreadLoose_Thread
    edited November 2011
    "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is in the theater and it is entertaining.

    It's basically like a jail movie. So just imagine a jail movie with great apes. Impressed?
  • MirandaJulyMirandaJuly
    RotPotA felt super weird to me. Like... almost nothing happened in that movie. It felt like the whole thing was made in one dude's iMac. It was pretty funny tho, so overall worth the cheapie theater price.
  • LelandLeland
    edited November 2011
    In theory I like movies. I like the idea. But it seems like 75% of the time I'm watching a movie (usually on a screen in my home mind you) I seem to want to do something else after about half an hour. About half the time this something else is sleep. The other half of the time it is something related to typing on a computer.

    Then there is the situation at a Redbox or Netflix scanning through hundreds of movie packages looking for something that I want to watch. This evidence supports the argument that I generally don't like movies.

    I love a good movie. Good movies have made me more human. Just seems like they are pretty rare.

    Good movie I saw this year: Bio-Dome starring Pauly Shore. Made me so much more human I could scarcely recognize myself.

    Seriously!
  • LelandLeland
    I think I liked Captain America because it was so much like so many other movies. It was a cool mixtape.

    RotPotA looked pretty good but I started typing or sleeping after about half an hour. (See above.)
  • DeathDeath
    edited November 2011
    Saw Muppets. It was solidly OK. Not really deserving of the ridiculously positive reviews it's getting in my opinion, but not deserving of a panning either. There was one new solid Muppet song, and one really bad one. Why is there no solid woman muppet? I'm going to stick my neck out here and say MISS PIGGY IS KIND OF A LAME JERK.
  • MatthewMatthew
    I thought the ape movie was dumb. I did like that Hanna movie though.
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    edited December 2011
    kung fu
  • 12341234
    I had a GoslingFest at my house and watched Lars and Real Girl and Blue Valentine and I liked them both!

    Also saw Drive and Ides of March in the theater and I liked those too!

    In LA Josh and I got stuck in traffic and pulled over and went to a movie.



    Probably wouldn't have seen this otherwise but I enjoyed it. When we got out of the movie, the traffic was still really bad.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    I generally deeply mistrust people who say they "don't like movies."

    How can you "not like movies?" That's not a real thing. "Movies" is almost not even a real category, there are so many vastly-differing types, genres, vibes, eras, nationalities, etc.

    "I don't like music"
    "I don't like art"
    "I don't like food"
    "Yeah, I don't really like things or stuff."

    MR. JENSEN I CHALLENGE THEE
    I WILL GIVE YOU A WATCHING LIST AND I CHALLENGE YOU TO WATCH THE THINGS ON IT


    "'TV' is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and television...IS NOT MY FRIEND"

  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    I loved that new Muppet movie so much.

    I don't know if I have to perspective to say "it was a great film" but I was SO HAPPY watching it.

    I thought all the new songs and old songs were pretty great.
  • MirandaJulyMirandaJuly
    2nd time today someone has mentioned "Stalker". Guess it's a sign.
  • 12341234
    Anyone want to see The Skin I Live In? I might go this week.

  • LelandLeland
    edited November 2011
    I am no fool. I will watch whatever YoursTruly tells me to watch. No problem. Like I say, I love good movies. I accept that cinema is an artistic and commercial form with considerable potential.

    But really, there are so many things that can go wrong with a movie. Who has time to weed through the dreck?

    I think all the bad movies have the cumulative effect of lowering the standards of the audience.

    Movie: You pay a couple of cast members to talk to journalists: Somebody old and somebody from a TV show. Then you take a gimmick big enough to split into sections. That's the story. First we meet 'people like us' in a 'strange situation'. Then there's a problem that's going to take a while to work out. But then something surprising happens. Everyone yells over the special effects for awhile. There are a couple of pop songlets and, when the female lead walks in the dark or when the camera flies over a landscape, something with strings or an electronic pulse. Finally, a baby-boom tune plays ironically under the closing credits.

    I'm tired of this. Maybe there is an awesome new tweet from MacKenzie Wark.
  • LelandLeland
    edited November 2011
    O, and yes. Zoe and Prairie Dawn are pretty much the only right-on female muppets.

    --

    And I like seeing the names of movies that appear in this thread. It gives me hope.
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    For me, the problem with movies (and I guess television) is that they take up so much time and attention for not much payoff (usually). I'd rather watch a skate video (to get me excited to go skating) or read a blog post about JavaScript. Exception: COMEDIES. I LIKE TO LAUGH.
  • the_owlsthe_owls
    edited December 2011
    Try watching a movie on a movie screen?

    Sometimes I think Netflix +laptop is a really awful thing that happened to film... you can't see the details right, you can't hear the sound so good, and you definitely can't resist the siren song of "other things to do like check the internet or make some toast".

    In the theater! Big, loud, wrapped around, immersive, a thing to pay attention to. Amen.
  • DeathDeath
    edited December 2011
    Sometimes the payoff is escaping from sadness/anger/despair/constant unsatisfied longing, for a long enough time to not have those things become overwhelming. When there is no other support and the source of a sadness is real life people, sometimes being hypnotized into a Star Trek world (or a comedy or whatever) helps a person stay a little more optimistic. Sometimes that is the only payoff. Escaping for a little bit to gain some composure when dealing with one of the hundreds of horrible things real life, even the first world, has to offer.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    I agree with Owly. Tiny screen with bad sound = can be hard to enjoy a film!

    There are so many films I'm so grateful I saw on the big screen.

    One thing we often forget about cinema is that it initially was a SPECTACLE, like going to the circus. It was a crazy amazing exhibit event. I think laptop screen + toast making leeches all the cool spectacle from it. Try a dark room and nice speakers!

    RJ here is as varied a list of Great Movies as I can think of off the top of my head. Lets try to hit a genre that really resonates with you! Watch these in a dark room with no distractions and really pay attention to them. Give them the attention you'd give a book! Look at details and editing and shot angles and think about music and sound!!!

    RANDO LIST OF GREAT FILMS I MADE IN 2 MINUTES:

    Jaws (excellent 70's "Classy Horror" genre)
    The Saddest Music in the World (I don't know what genre this is)
    Inglorious Basterds (badass movie about movies about movies + great dialogue)
    Trouble in Paradise (Golden Age Hollywood Screwball Comedy)
    Children of Men (Sad Dystopian Sci-Fi Future With A Lesson)
    Southland Tales (maybe goes with Saddest Music--crazy no-genre brilliance)
    Night of the Hunter (1950's Robert Mitchum terror genre with Shelley Winters)
    Spirited Away (beautiful Japanese animation)
    F for Fake (Orson Welles documentary about art forgery)
    Metropolis (Fritz Lang silent film with unbelievable set design and synchronous score by Gottfried Huppertz that's really good)
    Wet Hot American Summer (duh)

    I am so moved by a well-made film, or by an incredible performance. We just watched Anchorman last night and the scene where Ferrell is screaming in the phone booth is so virtuosic and gives me so much pleasure. There are good performances to be found EVERYWHERE, even within the stupidest movie!

    There are lots of crap movies but there are lots of crap EVERYTHING. It's like saying you don't like books because there's so many Dean Koontz books out there so why bother? Movies are amazing. I am so grateful to live in a cinematic age! There are so many amazing people out there for whom cinema is their CRAFT and they are SO GOOD at whatever it is they do within that craft. Acting, directing, editing, whatever. The old lady who edited Jaws is such a crazy genius, sitting in her house filled with film reels and Spielberg coming over and talking about internal development or whatever.

    Oh yeah that reminds me: THX1138!!!!!!! Walter Murch did the sound design and that guy is like the Beethoven of sound design. Once you start noticing it you will just be floored.

    So much goes into what makes a film what it is, and like 90% of it is shit most people never think about once. Like sound design!

    GO DEEP!
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    edited December 2011
    the future
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    edited December 2011
    movies
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    I like your list!
    I haven't seen The Good Bad Weird, what is that??????/

    Isn't F for Fake so amazing? It's like it's surprising how good it is. "Oh a documentary about art forgery, that sounds interesting" but then you watch it and you're like "THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD"
  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    something that is really satisfying to do is pick up a copy of Roger Ebert's "The Great Movies" and then read his essay on a film just before you watch it. you can't really miss with any of the movies he lists in that book, and considering his insights before you watch it makes you a much more active viewer. good stuff.

    ALSO (echoing above comments) - watching movies on a laptop should be illegal. unless it's a film you have already seen and you are on an airplane. David Lynch would punch you in the face if you watched one of his movies on a laptop and then said "I have seen that movie." YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE IF YOU JUST WATCHED IT ON A LAPTOP.

    ALSO ALSO- there is a small little known wonderful film from Sweden available on Netflix instant view called 'As It Is In Heaven' that I recommend you go watch right now. such good stuff- we should have a thread all about that film. please watch it.
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    edited December 2011
    punk
  • MatthewMatthew
    I watched that movie In Bruges last night and I thought it was going to be mostly face-punch-y but it was more emo than that.
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    Austin Powers (The Spy Who Shagged Me)
    Anchorman
    Arrested Development
    Billy Madison
    any Tim and Eric episode
    Mr. Show
    Wet Hot American Summer
    Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    Bridesmaids
    True Grit
    The Office (UK)
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    Oh, I generally like a good documentary! Didn't really feel Cave of Forgotten Dreams, but the alligators at the end were pretty funny!
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    In Bruges is such a wonderful little surprise. It seemed like nobody knew anything about it---everyone I know, including me, watched it somehow on accident--and then was utterly charmed.

    "Well maybe if I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, I would be, but I didn't, and I'm not, so, I'm not"

    BRENDAN GLEESON

    Oh dudes and lets talk Classic Cinema, like

    All About Eve!!!!
    The Women?!????

    Or like a Douglas Sirk tearjerk like "Imitation of Life," oh man. The crazy colors and the melodrama that is truly only possible in cinema! "THAT'S MY MOMMA!!!!!!!!"

    I love the call of reading an essay and then immediately watching the film the essay is about. That's an awesome way to become an engaged viewer.



  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    Alex- I find it interesting that you list several TV shows in your movie thread. THAT IS CRAZY TALK IN MY BOOK! but I want to hear your thoughts on if there is a difference/separation (or not) of the two mediums.

    (also, FYI TO ALL- i am not really as much of a movie curmudgeon as i appear to be in these UHX discussions. this is my opportunity to mock the hard core movie curmudgeons i find myself often dealing with IRL. though maybe i am a little bit of a movie curmudgeon.)
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    TV shows are usually much shorter than movies! #troll
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    edited December 2011
    We live in the Golden Age of Television, another thing I am grateful for.

    TV is fucking amazing in the modern era. Again, there is dreck to wade through. But there are shows of such caliber on TV right now that they might as well be movies.

    Breaking Bad
    Mad Men
    Arrested Development
    The UK Office and much of the US Office even
    Deadwood
    Lots of others

    Totally. Cinema-caliber craftmanship in every way.
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    I watched the first episode of Breaking Bad once!
    I also watched the whole first season of Lost a few years ago!
    Couldn't commit! Neither have any skateboarding monkeys.
  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    GUYS! we already have a TV thread. THIS IS THE MOVIE THREAD.

    GTFO
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    but YOU'RE the one who BROUGHT IT UP!!!!!!!!!

    OMG!
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    I thought we established that they are the same thing, just tv episodes are shorter and easier to digest.

    OMG, what if TREE OF LIFE was a multiple season TV show? I'd be BORED TO DEATH, if you know what I'm saying. ;) :P
  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    we can discuss the differences/similarities of movies and tv shows, but none of this "Golden Age of Television" crap!
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    edited December 2011
    Well if you disagree with what I said, please present your evidence!
    Do you even watch any television? I have gotten the vibe that you do not. If this is the case, then perhaps you do not know what you are talking about, sir.

    "Golden Age" is totally accurate. Compare all these shows we just listed to basically anything on television for the past 20 years. GOLDEN AGE.

    Shouldn't hate on an entire medium simply because it's misused /abused by lots of people! See: alcohol
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    cameras-directors-actors-scripts-editing-cinematography-music-sound design

    What did I just describe? A movie or a TV show? YOU CAN'T TELL. Because they both have all those things. Why is it so crazy to compare them?
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    In conclusion HOW DARE YOU SIR and I SAID GOOD DAY!
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    or how about fucking Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage"? TELEVISION
    David Lynch's "Twin Peaks"

    TV makes cool things possible. Super long-form shit you couldn't do in a movie-theater-type context. Scenes from a Marriage is like 12 hours long or something.

  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    Leonard Bernstein's "Concerts for Young People" with the New York Philharmonic

    "You hear that? Beautiful! But what does it mean? Nothing!"

    Oh Lenny, put a sock in it

  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    Or that crazy cable channel that's just gorgeous HD footage of sunrises from all over the world. That is some next-level art shit
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    or THE KARDASHIANS
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    or BURGER KING COMMERCIALS FEATURING FOOTBALL PLAYERS
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    JANET JACKSON'S WARDROBE MALFUNCTION
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    Sometimes there are tv shows that turn into a movie, and sometimes there are movies that turn into tv shows! Like Jackass. Jackass 3d was so good, btw. So full of joy and hazing. #hazing
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    or like "Night at the Roxbury"
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    edited December 2011
    omg Friday Night Lights!!!

    real life-book-movie-tv show!

    And tv show is THE BEST VERSION!
  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    The Friday Night Lights book is really great and was first so maybe that is the best version.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    you know, now I'm the one who has to eat crow / my hat, because I haven't read the book!

    What a jerk (me)

    (also to be fair I did not live through the real life version so maybe that one is best too. However, how could any real life experience not be made better by the insertion of Connie Britton?)
Sign In or Register to comment.