Film Thread

I think the only Cary Grant movie I've seen is North By Northwest but I have To Catch A Thief on DVD on the table right next to me, I was going to watch it soon.

Today I watched Now You See Me and Starship Troopers: Invasion

Now You See Me was pretty good
It was almost very good
I would say the direction was a weakness and also the fucking story at the end there wow can you fit in any more annoying tropes there buddy huh

Spoiler:

Starship Troopers: Invasion was actually fantastic
The only thing I think it was lacking was the energy of the original Starship Troopers and maybe a more intricate story
The fight scenes with the bugs was OK I mean it was all technically fine
but there was a lot of standing around and steady cameras (and this is literally the only time i will ever advocate this) but it wouldve been perfect to shake up that cam to make it feel more involving
Story yeah I mean it's Starship Troopers but the whole love thing with Bugspray and Trig was just ugh come on you can do better

Hollyღ wrote:*The perks of being a Wallflower

reading over your list again
I don't know if I talked about Perks when I saw it, but that is actually a fantastic movie and I just have to mention this. I don't really remember judging it much on anything visual so I'm not sure if that was good or bad, but the acting is about as real as it gets for a coming-of-age movie. It's very relatable if you had a less-than-stellar high school experience.

although, while I say that, it's pretty much the epitome of that
"I was born in the wrong generation"
whiny teen bullshit, and not in a self-aware way. I think that does make it so much more real and relatable though.

Have you guys seen Gasland?
It's a documentary by John Fox about oil and gas companies and the effect of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on people's lives. His narration is pretty mesmerizing.

It's an important and enjoyable movie! The implications of this shit are pretty fucking severe.

If only a lot of it weren't based on junk science and bad reporting. For example, the town where they showed lighting a tap....that was a well-known phenomenon in that area, dating back well before the advent of fracking, yet they misrepresent it to make people think it didn't start until people started drilling. It's been pretty much debunked by actual science. [ ]

Hmmm yes. I read Energy in Depth's report on the issue and it looks kind of conclusive on a lot of the information presented as fact in Gasland.
However, Energy in Depth was started by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, so I'm not entirely certain that I can trust their word as gospel any more than Josh Fox's. There's a clear bias in their statements.

Goddamnit, I come into this thread wanting to talk about Disney movies and the last post is on bloody fracking. I feel about five years old.

Well, fracking *is* a funny word.
Disney movies? I love Aladdin, myself. And the Jungle Book. I think the biggest deciding factor in quality, for me, is soundtrack. A good soundtrack can just crystallize a film in my brain, so obviously, films like Lilo and Stitch and the like are way up there for me.

I hate to say it but I think each Brother Bear film was pretty heart-wrenching for me.

I only remember those for being rather forgettable...

Oh it was, but I thought the ending was pretty interesting regardless.

My Brother the Devil is one of those films I'm sure is good, but the thick accents and slang makes it too difficult to follow.

We watched The Incredibles in my classe de francais aujordhui! I kept hearing all the voices of the original voice actors rather than the ones dubbing it in French.
I think that it is one of those movies that is made really amazing by the voice actors. They were all just so wonderful and on point, perfect for the roles. It makes me happy on the inside. :3
Also that movie came out in 2004, holy balls.

In true Halloween spirit, I watched The Nightmare before Christmas. It's a wonderfully imaginative film, but I think I like Corpse Bride better.

I like both a lot, but it's actually a briliant idea to watch one of those right now! Belgian TV has decided not to broadcast any Halloweenish movies at all.

Well, I think Nightmare defaults to being a Christmas film in most cases.

On a totally unrelated note, I want to see this film. Like, really badly.

Came back from seeing Ender's Game, and I have to say, they remained true to the spirit of the book and made an awesome movie.

Moltenfield wrote:Came back from seeing Ender's Game, and I have to say, they remained true to the spirit of the book and made an awesome movie.

I want to be able to see it, but I'm not giving Orson Scott Card any of my monies. >:(

I just re-read the book over the weekend...will probably see it on Wednesday or sometime next weekend (got a pass to VIP night on Wednesday for the new theater opening on Thursday...just in time for THOR!). [ ]

The Emperor's New Groove is basically an episode of a TV show that outstays its welcome, but at no point is that a bad thing.

Oh I agree. I rewatched it and I was like 'wow at what point did this stop making sense'. Then I rewound a bit and I was like 'There, right there.'
I dig it.

Me too. Kronk (Patrick Warburton) just steals the show.

Okay, I just watched the Nostalgia Critic's Top 12 Santas video and unless someone can explain it to me…The Nightmare before Christmas makes no goddamn sense as a story.

To recap, Jack Skellington is a man sick to death of Halloween, and is pleased as punch when he stumbles across Christmas Town and all the novelty it offers. He brings back various toys and items from the town to show his friends, but they misinterpret the items as simply a new way of scaring people. Jack acquiesces to this idea in the end, presenting Santa Claus as a giant monster, but he's still annoyed that the townsfolk don't understand what makes Christmas so magical and that it's about positive feelings as opposed to negative ones.

Jack goes away to study Christmas in more detail, eventually resorting to the scientific method to analyse the Christmas toys and draw out what the essence of Christmas really is. He concludes that over-analysing Christmas is not the answer, and simply believing in the good feelings Christmas brings is an adequate level of understanding. Taken by his new epiphany, Jack vows to improve Christmas by kidnapping Santa and taking his place delivering presents on Christmas Eve.

Now, the problem I have with the film is this. Why, having professed a weariness for Halloween and a love for Christmas, does Jack work to combine the two?

I can understand why Jack wants to appropriate Christmas, but I don't get why he appropriates it in the way that he does. He professes early on in the film he's tired of scaring people and how he's entranced by Christmas Town's joyful nature. He seems to have a pretty solid understanding of what Christmas tries to do (all his experiments are meant to aid his EXPLANATION of Christmas, presumably to the townsfolk) so why does he twist and pervert it in a way he's happily admitted to being totally fed up with? Why not simply try and mimic the existing Christmas rather than putting a Halloween Town stamp on it? What does he gain by giving children shrunken heads, predatory ducks and tree-eating snakes?

Again, this is probably very obvious, but I don't get why the film takes such an abrupt U-turn in ideology.

Jonny wrote:Now, the problem I have with the film is this. Why, having professed a weariness for Halloween and a love for Christmas, does Jack work to combine the two?

He is weary of it, but the others in Halloween town are still in love with it and he wants to make them happy as well, or at least that is how I envision it.

But Jack is the town's biggest (and only) celebrity: he's practically a god to these people. Could he not talk them round to his idea of Christmas? And is Jack necessarily so altruistic he'll put everyone else's happiness before his own? What supports that in the film?

Because Tim Burton said so. [ ]

The townspeople aren't broad-minded enough to be able to handle things that aren't Halloween. He can't explain Christmas even to himself fully, but does his best to appropriate it and make it his own. He becomes so enamored with the idea of his own Christmas- a superior Christmas- that he goes way too far and screws everything up. He's the pumpkin king, so it's no surprise that he puts a spin on his Christmas.
I think the point is that Jack mistakes the trappings of Christmas for what Christmas actually is.