movies

[Darkweasel]

I know its shit because anything that wins so many awards after the public hype over it generally means its been made to be commercialistic, and intended for the sole purpose of simply selling the product rather than telling a actual story.
I only have a care for contemporary films such as Garage or Breakfast on Pluto. Movies that make you think, not mass-produced to appeal to 70 million people by having explosions every 5 seconds, a weak storyline (or a remake/trilogy) aswell as having to endure all that crap for 2 hours without ever using a single brain cell or be inspired by it.

Interesting.

I wonder how AVATAR will turn out in the awards, for being basically Pocahontas with CGI added.

It'll win everything it's nominated for just like Titanic did. With that much money spent on it, Hollywood will be terrified it will be seen as a complete waste of money if it doesn't sweep the boards.
Any films out there with real value or artistic merit will be swept under the carpet to make way for the cash guzzling monster that is Avatar.
Lucikly at least, that will not include any awards for best actor/actress.

[Darkweasel]

I know its shit because anything that wins so many awards after the public hype over it generally means its been made to be commercialistic, and intended for the sole purpose of simply selling the product rather than telling a actual story.

LORD OF THE RINGS - All three films together landed a total 17 of Oscars and had a massive amount of hype. Were they intended for the sole purpose of selling a product rather than telling a story?

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - Another film with massive hype (you couldn't keep Anthony Hopkins or the name Hannibal out of the media for months) landed the five most prestigious Oscars in 1991. Did you see that film merely as a money making exercise?

GLADIATOR - 5 of the big Oscars, massive hype and is still credited as a great film with artistic merit 10 years after it's release.

THE ENGLISH PATIENT - Not much hype but it won 9 Oscars and is hardly blockbuster material designed for mass consumption.

Going back further into the past, GHANDI won 8 Oscars and dominated the media for ages. Are you going to accuse that film of deliberate commerciality?



Now, as it happens, I do actually agree that Slumdog Millionaire is rubbish, but not for those reasons. For all of it's many, many, many faults, it's not a commercialised film. In fact, a lot of people came out of it saying it was quite depressing and virtually the opposite of what they thought they were going to see.
To make generalisations about films that win lots of awards and get hyped up for the same thing is a bit silly, and I'm sorry for any disrespect here, but to use films like Garage and Breakfast on Pluto makes you come across a little pretentious and most likely missing out on some excellent films because of your ideals.

In recent history the only films I can honestly look at and think they won Oscars etc because of hype are Slumdog (although I disagree it was a commercial film, it was deliberately marketed as one), Titanic and possibly Chicago.
There have been many other films which probably don't deserve to have won awards over other films (Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction for one) but not because they were designed for greed. More because America likes a nice feelgood film occasionally rather than a brutal thriller.
And while on the subject of deserving, As another example, I firmly believe that when Martin Scorsese won Best Director for The Departed, he wasn't winning purely for that film rather than winning an award almost as an apology for being overlooked so many times in the past.

[Applecore]

Couple of classmates are watching Blair Witch Project. One's taking the piss and the other's suspiciously quiet. Methinks she's getting into it. Poor girl.

[Amelia]

It'll win everything it's nominated for just like Titanic did. With that much money spent on it, Hollywood will be terrified it will be seen as a complete waste of money if it doesn't sweep the boards.
Any films out there with real value or artistic merit will be swept under the carpet to make way for the cash guzzling monster that is Avatar.
Lucikly at least, that will not include any awards for best actor/actress.

to be honest, it does deserve at least one for how pretty it is. not for anything involving acting or plot of course, but surely for visual effects?

[Darkweasel]

to be honest, it does deserve at least one for how pretty it is. not for anything involving acting or plot of course, but surely for visual effects?

First of all, if I may be a total sexist bastard for a moment and say the "it does deserve at least one for how pretty it is" comment made me laugh like a snorting pig.

But seriously - You're right actually. The visual effects department do deserve something. The forest scenes looked especially good.
Not so sure about the designs for the indgenous lifeforms though. A multicoloured monkey, a customised unicorn/anteater thing, Draco from Dragonheart if he was on a gay night out, a hammerhead rhino and the not-so-alien bioluminescent plantlife which we have here on little old earth anyway.

From an artistic standpoint, I'd look at the set design for Where the Wild Things Are or The Lovely Bones, myself.

[ANDREWHALL28]

It'll win everything it's nominated for just like Titanic did. With that much money spent on it, Hollywood will be terrified it will be seen as a complete waste of money if it doesn't sweep the boards.
Any films out there with real value or artistic merit will be swept under the carpet to make way for the cash guzzling monster that is Avatar.
Lucikly at least, that will not include any awards for best actor/actress.

to be honest, it does deserve at least one for how pretty it is. not for anything involving acting or plot of course, but surely for visual effects?

From a tecnical perspective, for its time Titanic is a massive achievement, as a film it did nothing for me, still saw it in the cinema mind you , but after you've seen it once, it's not a film i would sit down to see again, it's no Gladiator or The Last Samurai ( one of my all time fav movies )

[Soze]

There`s nothing quite so silly as someone slagging off a film when they haven`t even seen it...nor appear to know anything at all about it. I really enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire...and I`d very much disagree that it`s a deliberately commercial film. Indeed I`m quite surprised it became as popular as it did...for the vast majority of it it`s a pretty dark and depressing affair. I don`t think a film that features scenes of child kidnapping / torture, implied rape and religious gang murders set to the backdrop of life in the Indian underground can be said to be `commercial`. At it`s heart it`s a love story though, a film very much about people rather than one with `explosions every 5 minutes` and the whole quiz show aspect is to be taken with a pinch of salt.

I think to be so snobbish about film is ridiculous personally, I can enjoy both Iron Man and Mulholland Drive, Hellboy and Downfall, Star Wars and There Will Be Blood, Aliens and The Motorcycle Diarys. Sometimes I`m in the mood for something I can just kick back with, other times I want something with more meat on the bones.

[Trollman]

The proxemic patterns in Amelie are just unreal, It makes a really good film . A film that can communicate its story without much dialogue or you not being able to understand the language really becomes one of the greats of cinematography for sure, perfect example is Wall-E .
Pan's Labyrinth, Ratatouille ( for its genius animation) & LOTR would also be my most top rated .

[ANDREWHALL28]

The proxemic patterns in Amelie are just unreal, It makes a really good film . A film that can communicate its story without much dialogue or you not being able to understand the language really becomes one of the greats of cinematography for sure, perfect example is Wall-E .
Pan's Labyrinth, Ratatouille ( for its genius animation) & LOTR would also be my most top rated .

kingdom of Heaven has some very swish CGI aswell , I love that film aswell

[Darkweasel]

kingdom of Heaven has some very swish CGI aswell , I love that film aswell

I must admit I have never watched Kingdom of Heaven. I post on the Terrorizer forum and for about a year or so there was another forummer whose sig was "Kingdom of Heaven is shit". After seeing that for so long on so many posts I just kind of got put off ever watching it.

[ANDREWHALL28]

kingdom of Heaven has some very swish CGI aswell , I love that film aswell

I must admit I have never watched Kingdom of Heaven. I post on the Terrorizer forum and for about a year or so there was another forummer whose sig was "Kingdom of Heaven is shit". After seeing that for so long on so many posts I just kind of got put off ever watching it.

It is very story driven, and the story is a good one, the battle scenes are epic

But like most films of this type, it is along one, the directors cut is over 3 hours, but well worth it, definately worth a rent

I have the Bluray, but i love it

[Darkweasel]

I have the Bluray, but i love it

I'm not Bluray equipped.
Yet.

[clare-l]

Saw Slumdog Millionaire at the cinema today, on a special "best of 2009" thing with 3€ tickets. Did NOT expect it to start out with torture. It was tense and well-told, colourful and gripping. Thumbs way up.


Plus, just for the record, I don't believe it wasn't made to be a commercial film, considering the company that made it, the fact that there was a decent proportion not in English (as soon as you do that you cut out a lot of your intended audience if you're going for commercial success) and the fact that it initally was only on limited release and only got a full release after a lot of critical praise. Commercial films, such as Avatar, get a full worldwide release straight away with release dates within days of each other. Not limited release It only achieved massive success after the worldwide release, which was after the limited release and the critical acclaim. Your facts, get them right.

Also watch it as it was fucking awesome.

eta: googled production history for it and it was supposed to go direct to DVD originally haha. commercial? doesn't sound it.

[Fjar]

Watching 'Lola Rennt' now. One of my favourite foreign films ever. So captivating and entertaining, but really low-budget.

EDIT: Wait, no I'm not. The DVD drive on this laptop's fucked.

[ANDREWHALL28]

Watched Ichi yesterday, the follow on from zatoichi, and it does the original justice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC3Qu0UvGX0