As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

A Thread About Movies

1939495969799»

Posts

  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    Also I still really dig Back to the Future.

    Doesn't feel dated to me.

    The only thing that makes it slightly dated is it's connection to the 80s and the fact that we'll pass the Future in a couple years. But I think even with that it's fairly timeless.

    Lh96QHG.png
  • Mad King GeorgeMad King George Registered User regular
    Thirith wrote: »
    Some films that I'd consider pretty much perfect, that haven't been mentioned so far (as far as I can remember, at least):

    - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: yes, the film is very much a product of its time, especially in its Burt Bacharach soundtrack, but it works. It's perhaps the most charming film I've ever seen, and it transitions beautifully from being fun and frothy to something considerably more melancholy, while still being fun. And the ending is exactly right.
    - Jules et Jim: one of the first films I watched that made me realise just how predictable the structures of most Hollywood films are (e.g. character arcs, plot development). Even though the film was ~40 years old at the time when I saw it, it felt fresh, and it still does so on every rewatching. I like most of the other Truffaut films I've seen, but this is the one I love.
    - The Apartment and Sunset Boulevard: no one mixes wit, sweetness and cynicism as well as Billy Wilder at his best - and for me, those two films are his best. (I will have to rewatch Some Like It Hot at some point, but when I last saw it, probably as a teenager, it didn't resonate all that much with me, whereas The Apartment did.)

    Sunset Boulevard is a classic, even reaching out and becoming a classic noir. Wilder had a very decent run in the 50s/60s. I also get a kick out of Kiss Me Stupid and The Fortune Cookie. And have you ever seen his 70s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes? It's an odd one, a chopped down "roadshow" picture (a long feature type they used to make that had an intermission in the middle) but it deals with someinteresting ideas, has a good Holmes and Watson, and even a bit of what would become steampunk.

  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    Incest will always be timeless.

  • BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Robocop: Great movie, or greatest movie?

    Most Optimistic About Detroit Movie

    Robocop's future Detroit actually has people in it, plus there's a corporation that is genuinely interested in the town. It's downright Star Trek like in its optimism.

  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    Incest will always be timeless.

    There is no actual incest, merely the implication of.

    Lh96QHG.png
  • Mad King GeorgeMad King George Registered User regular
    And actually as far as I can tell everyone gets your point.

    To bad it isn't really supported by the film.

    8->

    Sorry, your interpretation doesn't really have much support in the film itself.

    Your point in your own words.

    My point was, as basic as I can make it: Bruce Wayne uses a Blackhawk for party drop offs. The city of Gotham has news-channel looking copters for doing police work in a city where their elevated train was destroyed. I think, personally, me, myself, and I think, maybe this works as an example of Nolan's opinion on how Bruce spends his money, putting more into gadgets that the civic side of Gotham. It was only one example that always stood out to me. I said all of this at this level of breakdown already, but obviously that wasn't enough. I don't know if this will be simple enough, but like Pandora's vagina, hope remains.



    But

    1)Bruce didn't pay a cent for most of his crap

    2)Bruce is shown to pay in support of charities, Politician he thinks will do good work and yes, police equipment.

    You keep citing the helicopter but the police having a normal helicopter instead of Millitary grade supports your POV but it doesn't because that isn't money well spent. Getting the Police a new helicopter would do shit to stop organized crime in Gotham. You know what might have helped? Irradiated dollar bills that would let the Police track mop activity and look, he did that!

    You say he hasn't spent money supporting the police or the general welfare but he has.

    So no your opinion is not very supported in the movie.

    What will placate you and get you to move on?

    Man just, my god. I pretty clearly wrote that while you were asking to move on.

    You make a point

    I make post countering your point.

    If you don't want to take part in this debate then don't fucking take part in this debate!

    I'm not forcing you, or constantly bringing it back up. You post about it then I post about it.

    But I'm not making points or counterpoints, I was clarifying the big ugly mess this turned into. The time for, y'know, discussing the topic, in my view, was back when everyone was grinding my nose in it like a bad dog.

  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    Incest will always be timeless.

    There is no actual incest, merely the implication of.

    Yes, I've seen the movie, thank you very much.

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    That wasn't what happened at all.

    But I'm not really interested in debating why we were having a debate so I'll do you a favor and just not respond again if you respond to this.

    Quire.jpg
  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    Incest will always be timeless.

    There is no actual incest, merely the implication of.

    Yes, I've seen the movie, thank you very much.

    I just felt it an important distinction to make.

    Lh96QHG.png
  • Mad King GeorgeMad King George Registered User regular
    Incest will always be timeless.

    There is no actual incest, merely the implication of.

    Hint of Incest, the new fragrance by Calvin Klein.

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Also I still really dig Back to the Future.

    Doesn't feel dated to me.

    The only thing that makes it slightly dated is it's connection to the 80s and the fact that we'll pass the Future in a couple years. But I think even with that it's fairly timeless.

    Yeah I guess the whole future becoming the present thing might hurt it but I don't know, so many movies are gonna start crossing that gap that I think we just have to collectively start accepting that older movies are always wrong about the future.

    And thank god they are since the stuff we end up getting tends to fall into the "never knew I wanted this but I love it category" and I wouldn't give up the internet for the world.

    Quire.jpg
  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    Also I still really dig Back to the Future.

    Doesn't feel dated to me.

    The only thing that makes it slightly dated is it's connection to the 80s and the fact that we'll pass the Future in a couple years. But I think even with that it's fairly timeless.

    Yeah I guess the whole future becoming the present thing might hurt it but I don't know, so many movies are gonna start crossing that gap that I think we just have to collectively start accepting that older movies are always wrong about the future.

    And thank god they are since the stuff we end up getting tends to fall into the "never knew I wanted this but I love it category" and I wouldn't give up the internet for the world.

    Indeed. I mean, 2001 is still pretty good, eh?

    Lh96QHG.png
  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    Computers in sci-fi movies always look really primitive. Like Mother in Alien. That thing looked like it was running on DOS.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    It's, I think, it's the humour or something that dates it. It's an 80s comedy. If they don't make you laugh, it's really obvious that it's an old movie. It's like watching an old sitcom or the like. (or, frankly, alot of new sitcoms)

    I mean, the way the movie is made and structured and such makes it obvious it's from the 80s, but that doesn't necessarily date it imo, in the sense that it doesn't quite work anymore.

  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    I think there is a difference between something being a product of its time and being dated. All movies on the various lists are, I feel, products of their time.

    Quire.jpg
  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Oh, hey, I watched Serpico the other day. It's an interesting movie--overlong, kind of repetitive (actually it reminds me of the Hurt Locker in that sense), and ultimately a bit pointless--but Pacino is fantastic, and it's directed so goddamn well I didn't really care about the script issues.

    It reminded me that Sidney Lumet's style is actually just "this movie is directed classically, with skill, patience, intelligence, and economy". I need to watch more of his movies--12 Angry Men is one of my all-time favorites (and another perfect movie, btw), and The Verdict is fantastic. Lumet jumped around in subject matter but his movies were political without being strident, realistic without being obnoxious (or documentarian), classical without being staid. Without really having anything to do with the Expressionism of noir, I feel like they fit into the genre, by virtue of looking at noble (and sometimes flawed) protagonists butting up against a corrupt system or simply the selfishness inherent in modern society. Watching a Lumet movie often feels like seeing a lost episode of The Wire, which is some of the highest praise I can give.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • GodfatherGodfather Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    It's, I think, it's the humour or something that dates it. It's an 80s comedy. If they don't make you laugh, it's really obvious that it's an old movie. It's like watching an old sitcom or the like. (or, frankly, alot of new sitcoms)

    I mean, the way the movie is made and structured and such makes it obvious it's from the 80s, but that doesn't necessarily date it imo, in the sense that it doesn't quite work anymore.

    Pretty much this. It's just dated comedy is all.

    Like that Three Stooges movie that came out recently. That might have been a real gut-buster back in the 1930's, but today it's a primitive and easy scapegoat for tired comedy routines. Remember the tv show Married with Children? Back in the day it was considered outrageous and raunchy, but watch it anytime the reruns play and you'll lose track of the number of times you'll groan as the writing favors "shocking" watered-down sex jokes, toilet humor and the most abusive use of canned laughter in any sitcom to date.

    Back To The Future just seems so hokey in it's humor (yes this is totally my opinion, not passing it off as fact). Something like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express or Superbad just flattens it in humor. If we're just sticking to action blockbusters, The Avengers humor both in timing and delivery just about crushes a lot of 80's comedies, BTTF included.

  • Mad King GeorgeMad King George Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Oh, hey, I watched Serpico the other day. It's an interesting movie--overlong, kind of repetitive (actually it reminds me of the Hurt Locker in that sense), and ultimately a bit pointless--but Pacino is fantastic, and it's directed so goddamn well I didn't really care about the script issues.

    It reminded me that Sidney Lumet's style is actually just "this movie is directed classically, with skill, patience, intelligence, and economy". I need to watch more of his movies--12 Angry Men is one of my all-time favorites (and another perfect movie, btw), and The Verdict is fantastic. Lumet jumped around in subject matter but his movies were political without being strident, realistic without being obnoxious (or documentarian), classical without being staid. Without really having anything to do with the Expressionism of noir, I feel like they fit into the genre, by virtue of looking at noble (and sometimes flawed) protagonists butting up against a corrupt system or simply the selfishness inherent in modern society. Watching a Lumet movie often feels like seeing a lost episode of The Wire, which is some of the highest praise I can give.

    Don't forget that in a noir, the victory is pretty much always a pyrrhic one.

    12 Angry Men
    is another great movie, though, and more amazing for being set in the same room for an hour and a half. The sense of worn nerves, of the heat, of the hideously pedestrian oppression of it, all very palpable. And of course the cast, assembling character actors like Ed Begley, Jack Klugman, Martin Balsam (who was having a very good run at this time) and Lee J. Cobb--they very much do not make them like this anymore.

    Mad King George on
  • LucidLucid Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    It's not like Back to the Future wasn't aware of the nature of how things become dated. That was kind of the point of a lot of it, no? Like the scene where he's in the future playing an old nintendo game, and the children call it a babies game.

    Lucid on
  • nightmarennynightmarenny Registered User regular
    Because you had to use your hands.

    And anyway people love 8-bit games.

    Quire.jpg
  • Giggles_FunsworthGiggles_Funsworth Blight on Discourse Bay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
    You see guys Prometheus totally makes sense because Space Jesus!

    Spoilers, obviously.

    http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html

  • GodfatherGodfather Registered User regular
    Oh my dear lord, what is up with that livejournal profile picture

  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Sunset Boulevard is a classic, even reaching out and becoming a classic noir. Wilder had a very decent run in the 50s/60s. I also get a kick out of Kiss Me Stupid and The Fortune Cookie. And have you ever seen his 70s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes? It's an odd one, a chopped down "roadshow" picture (a long feature type they used to make that had an intermission in the middle) but it deals with someinteresting ideas, has a good Holmes and Watson, and even a bit of what would become steampunk.
    I like Irma La Douce, but I think that's also because it's the first Wilder I saw as a kid; I probably had a ten year old's crush on Shirley MacLaine. When I saw The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes a few years ago, I thought it was a fun enough film with some nice moments, but it also felt very much like minor Wilde. There's little of the bite that Sunset Boulevard has, nor of the genuine sweetness of The Apartment. It's the kind of film I would probably watch again if it was on on a rainy afternoon, but I wouldn't actively say, "Hey, let's watch that one again! I'll get the DVD!"

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    Astaereth wrote: »
    Oh, hey, I watched Serpico the other day. It's an interesting movie--overlong, kind of repetitive (actually it reminds me of the Hurt Locker in that sense), and ultimately a bit pointless--but Pacino is fantastic, and it's directed so goddamn well I didn't really care about the script issues.

    It reminded me that Sidney Lumet's style is actually just "this movie is directed classically, with skill, patience, intelligence, and economy". I need to watch more of his movies--12 Angry Men is one of my all-time favorites (and another perfect movie, btw), and The Verdict is fantastic. Lumet jumped around in subject matter but his movies were political without being strident, realistic without being obnoxious (or documentarian), classical without being staid. Without really having anything to do with the Expressionism of noir, I feel like they fit into the genre, by virtue of looking at noble (and sometimes flawed) protagonists butting up against a corrupt system or simply the selfishness inherent in modern society. Watching a Lumet movie often feels like seeing a lost episode of The Wire, which is some of the highest praise I can give.

    Don't forget that in a noir, the victory is pretty much always a pyrrhic one.

    12 Angry Men
    is another great movie, though, and more amazing for being set in the same room for an hour and a half. The sense of worn nerves, of the heat, of the hideously pedestrian oppression of it, all very palpable. And of course the cast, assembling character actors like Ed Begley, Jack Klugman, Martin Balsam (who was having a very good run at this time) and Lee J. Cobb--they very much do not make them like this anymore.

    I need to watch more Lee J. Cobb movies. Between 12 Angry Men and his performance in On the Waterfront--the man was fucking electric.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    Also I still really dig Back to the Future.

    Doesn't feel dated to me.

    I think the fact that it's so blatantly a product of its time (how many times does the movie remind you it's set in 1985?) is what allows it to be transcendent. It's not a spoof on 1985, it IS 1985, and will always be so.


    One of the key criteria for films on my "perfect" list is their editorial efficiency, and BTTF is a Swiss watch in that department. Much like L. A. Confidential, which in my opinion is the best editing/pacing job in cinema history.

  • OakeyOakey UKRegistered User regular
    Can you fucks go see Prometheus so we can discuss that?

  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    Oakey wrote: »
    Can you fucks go see Prometheus so we can discuss that?

    Working on it, boss.

  • AstaerethAstaereth In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
    My one complaint about LA Confidential's pacing is that
    a hugely key plot point, the murders of multiple mob figures over the missing heroin, is only briefly mentioned and during a breezy montage (narrated by De Vito's "Hush Hush" character). It's kind of cheating, mystery-wise, I think, because the sequence is deliberately presented as unimportant (and not just assumed as such, as with a lot of other clues).

    By the way, if you like the film, you might enjoy the novel it's based on, as well as the other two in Elroy's loose trilogy about LA cops in the 40s/50s (The Big Nowhere and The Black Dalhia).
    Oakey wrote: »
    Can you fucks go see Prometheus so we can discuss that?

    The bitching in this thread has actually taken Prometheus from my "oh my god so excited" tier to my "watch it when it comes out on DVD and hope for the best" tier. So... no.

    ACsTqqK.jpg
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    Sad story: I've owned a dvd of Black Dahlia for about five years. Still in the wrapper. I've just heard too many people talk about how bad it is, and I'm not a fan of De Palma to begin with.


    I'll be seeing Prometheus tomorrow. Right now I'm pulling seven shifts in eight days. No fun.

    Atomika on
  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Sad story: I've owned a dvd of Black Dahlia for about five years. Still in the wrapper. I've just heard too many people talk about how bad it is, and I'm not a fan of De Palma to begin with.
    I went to see that one thinking, "It's got a great cast. It's based on a good novel. De Palma's done some very watchable films. How bad can it be?"

    Answer: Very bad. Laughably bad. Being embarrassed for the actors in it bad.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • MelksterMelkster Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    Oakey wrote: »
    Can you fucks go see Prometheus so we can discuss that?

    The bitching in this thread has actually taken Prometheus from my "oh my god so excited" tier to my "watch it when it comes out on DVD and hope for the best" tier. So... no.

    Aw, I missed the bitching. I want to join in, after seeing it last night.

    My one-paragraph review:

    Prometheus: Reaches for both Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and ends up feeling mostly like a lame monster thriller -- with the exception of Fassberg's character and performance, which is awesome. I'm glad that movies like Prometheus are still being made, but sci-fi can and should be better than this.

    Melkster on
  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    Thoughts on Prometheus.
    I think the movie was schizophrenic, and the soundtrack didn't help. It was a combination of the attempt to solicit a childlike wonder as to what was going on - mainly with David, the 'discovery' scenes, the talking about faith and meeting our creators - and body horror. What with all the insane amount of body horror going on. The script also felt kind of piecemeal. There were some scenes that were incredibly strong, like when David is talking to Charlie at the pool table, and then there were some scenes where I questioned their part in the movie. Like, when, I don't know, David is talking to Shaw near the end and they prattle on about faith. A couple of scenes also ran too long.

    I wasn't bothered that the movie didn't answer a ton of questions, but that might be because I never thought it was going to.

    I do think there's a lot of fodder for discussion.

    Mainly, the main thing I want to know, not why the Engineers gave us life, or the Engineers wanted to destroy Earth, but I want to know what David fucking said to Ivory Murderous Sad Eyes before IMSE went apeshit and wholesale killed the rest of the supporting cast. The entire film, we see David grow more and more dissatisfied with Peter Weyland; in the beginning of the film, he almost seems proud to be called 'the closest thing to a son I'll ever have' in the holovid, whereas, at the end of the movie, he seems thoroughly disgusted by Peter, going so far as to admit to Shaw that he now believes it is everyone's desire to kill their parents. And he starts calling Peter, 'Mr. Weyland.'

    The audience I went with virually hated the movie because it answered few questions. As I was walking out, I heard them talk about how nothing makes sense and how nothing was answered, and how it wasn't the movie they wanted it to be. But that's not the movie's fault. I thought the movie was fine. Very good, even. A little on the nose, at points, but I can't fault Prometheus for not being Alien, because, from Day One, Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof both have been very emphatic about the movie not being a true prequel to Alien.

    In fact, I believe the exact phrase they used was, "The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien's DNA..."

    Which, having seen the film, is both clever and hilarious.

    My brother and I spent a good half hour after the movie discussing the implications of what went on, on LV 226 before Shaw and co. got there, what David's intentions were, what he might have said to Ivory Murderous Sad Eyes. The movie provoked discussion and speculation, which the audience I saw it with clearly weren't ready for.

    They didn't want to think or bother with the film when they left the theater.

    They kind of went to the wrong movie for that.

    EDIT: There were two parts that bothered me whole cloth:

    Fiefield and his buddy were acting smart inside the IMSE superstructure, heading away from danger constantly, but as soon as they spy a mutated space worm, they try to touch it. That felt contrived and forced. What happened after, though, was awesome horrific.

    And when Shaw and Vickers were running from the crashing spaceship, they ran in a straight line. Which was stupid.

    DOUBLE EDIT: And despite there not being answers, I'd be fine with this being the only movie in the series. I thought it wrapped up nicely. There doesn't need to be an extended universe for this movie. It doesn't need to be franchised out. The ending, with Shaw flying off to find answers, is perfectly fine. It may not be satisfying to some, but not everything needs everything else spelled out. We don't need to know everything to enjoy what we watched. We don't need all the answers.

    And sometimes the mystery is better than the reality.

    MalReynolds on
    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
    "Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
    My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited June 2012
    If someone else doesn't do it first, I'll start an OP for a new Prometheus thread tomorrow after seeing it. Seems like a lot of people want to talk about it freely, enough to have its own thread.

    If someone else is feeling more industrious and wants to start it, be my guest.

    Atomika on
  • JacobkoshJacobkosh Gamble a stamp. I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
    a new movie thread is incoming. please do not jump the gun.

    rRwz9.gif
This discussion has been closed.