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[Movies] When Dinosaurs Ruled the Box Office

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Posts

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    And why did half the cast have a New York accent in the Republic of Zubrowka?

    The same reason the other half of the cast had accents from all around the globe. And the same reason Zubrowka doesn't exist. It's not about immersion into a believable historical setting, it's a magical realism caper.

    Well then it didn't accomplish that. It spent so much time trying to be a undefined Central European country threatened by the not-Nazis and came very close and then the New York accents destroyed it.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Such a lovely place

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    also it isn't CGI, they're puppets.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2015
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    which bits? A lot of the special effects were deliberately cheap.

    We'll have to disagree on what failed, I thought it was marvellous.

    Many of the backdrops stood out horribly and the skiing chase was just groaningly awful.
    Langly wrote: »
    anderson's stuff always looks like that, it is a deliberate choice.

    Yeah that's definitely an entirely deliberate component of the overall aesthetic. Anderson's films are very stage-y in a lot of ways, in this one I felt he was playing up the theatrical element. The accents, the cardboard sets for the funicular and hotel long-shots, the backdrops - all evoke the suspension of disbelief we are expected to engage in for a stage play, and something we have gotten out of the habit of expecting in a movie.

    Anderson often invites you to notice the artifice of his movies, and I think that's a really interesting approach, but it's perhaps not for everyone.

    tynic on
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    which bits? A lot of the special effects were deliberately cheap.

    We'll have to disagree on what failed, I thought it was marvellous.

    Many of the backdrops stood out horribly and the skiing chase was just groaningly awful.
    Langly wrote: »
    anderson's stuff always looks like that, it is a deliberate choice.

    Yeah that's definitely an entirely deliberate component of the overall aesthetic. Anderson's films are very stage-y in a lot of ways, in this one I felt he was playing up the theatrical element. The accents, the cardboard sets for the funicular and hotel long-shots, the backdrops - all evoke the suspension of disbelief we are expected to engage in for a stage play, and something we have gotten out of the habit of expecting in a movie.

    Anderson often invites you to notice the artifice of his movies, and I think that's a really interesting approach, but it's perhaps not for everyone.
    audiences “tend to recognize what is artificial, whether in computer-generated effects or otherwise. The particular brand of artificiality that I like to use is an old-fashioned one”.

    The only green screen effects in the GBH were the backgrounds. Everything else is a practical miniature or puppet, and you're supposed to be able to note all of that. That's just his jam. His movies are like Tynic said either very much stage performances or like the GBH, very evocative of early film-making and isn't trying to trick the audience at all. The trick is most effective, in my opinion, when he lays it all out for you and then you still get emotionally invested in the characters.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    And why did half the cast have a New York accent in the Republic of Zubrowka?

    The same reason the other half of the cast had accents from all around the globe. And the same reason Zubrowka doesn't exist. It's not about immersion into a believable historical setting, it's a magical realism caper.

    Well then it didn't accomplish that. It spent so much time trying to be a undefined Central European country threatened by the not-Nazis and came very close and then the New York accents destroyed it.

    But it didn't try to do that, it was an invented and clearly ridiculously illogical locale with a total parody of Nazis! And what accents should they have used? I mean really it should have been subtitled and they should have been speaking a mishmash of languages, at least one of which would have had to be invented wholesale.

    Noting that to me the New York accent is a foreign accent anyway.

    I feel like you didn't like the movie because you wanted a different movie, which is definitely valid! I'm not saying you need to like this film, but I don't think Anderson failed at all in what he set out to do.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    man now i'm all jazzed about GBH again and I want to watch it tonight.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    I mean we always have these kind of arguments when Wes Anderson comes up because he's a completely polarizing filmmaker and some people hate him altogether and some people love everything he does, and most people love some stuff and hate other stuff, and it's always different stuff (I canNOT understand/get behind the love of Rushmore, to me it's baffling).

    So I'm not trying to jump on you for not liking GBH just because I love it, and I think there are a lot of really valid critiques to be made of Anderson's films, and I'm sorry if I'm coming off as aggressive. It's more that a lot of the reasons you didn't like the movie are exactly why I love it, and I think that's interesting.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    GBH is probably my second favorite Anderson movie behind The Life Aquatic, but I think GBH is probably a better overall movie than Aquatic.

    the final sea sequence in aquatic however will never not devastate me.

    Langly on
  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    final seaquence

    i apologize, continue

    6F32U1X.png
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    I didn't dislike The Life Aquatic but it didn't grab me - however I should probably give it another go, I might not have been in the right mood.
    My mother loves The Darjeeling Limited, which left me kind of cold in a similar way, apart from the cinematography.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Wes Anderson movies are always gorgeous bit sometimes I get bored watching them.

    When I'm in the right mood they click and I absolutely love them but if I'm not in the right mood I'll fall asleep.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    I didn't dislike The Life Aquatic but it didn't grab me - however I should probably give it another go, I might not have been in the right mood.
    My mother loves The Darjeeling Limited, which left me kind of cold in a similar way, apart from the cinematography.

    I was a freshman in college with a burgeoning group of friends who were kind of in general social outcasts grouped around a charismatic and broken person, so it was basically primed to kill me, yeah.

  • VicVic Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Asharad wrote: »
    Kwoaru wrote: »
    I saw Jurassic World yesterday, it was very good

    I feel like I am the only person in the world who hated Jurassic World. I wanted to love it and just couldn't.

    There is hardly a scene in the movie where the movie remembers any of the scenes that came before it.

    You are not alone, though it might not be exactly correct to say that I hated the movie. I hated the Kingsman, and that was mostly because of the last ten minutes (though the rest was thoroughly mediocre).

    Jurassic park only managed to annoy me, but it was a relentless, persistent annoyance that somehow didn't stop me from being bored at the same time. It did get a couple of laughs out of me, the helicopter crash scene in particular is just astonishing in its glorious stupidity, but mostly I was just miserable.

    Vic on
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    Like, one thing that I think is incredibly effective about The Life Aquatic and what makes the final sequence so emotionally stirring (and effectively manipulative) is that the whole movie is peppered with things that the audience won't immediately understand as an english speaking audience. There's a member of the crew who is singing david bowie during the whole trip, but he's singing in Portuguese, so you will recognize it, but it's still alien. And then the pirates are speaking in a different language and need a translator, which again the audience is going to be at least told what the pirates are saying and also it's pretty clear through inference what's going on.

    And at the same time, the movie is overtly about Owen Wilson's character trying to understand his father, and their inability to communicate, and Murray's inability to emotionally communicate with anyone. The movie as a whole is about language and understanding, and even on a surface level it's about Murray's failure to communicate his research to an audience at this point in his career.

    And then the movie ends with a nearly wordless sequence with a song in an entirely alien language, and the entire cast communicates with each other on an fundamental emotional level without saying anything, and so does the audience. You don't need to understand Sigur Ros to get the emotional context of the scene, your heart swells anyway. And the crew doesn't need to talk to Murray to be with him in that moment, they just all reach out and connect with him physically. The movie has been preparing the audience to be receptive to that kind of moment the entire time.

    And then that transitions immediately to the release of their new documentary which has won him an award (to the extent that it matters to him anymore), because he's finally broken through that inability to resonate with the people around him.

  • ChincymcchillaChincymcchilla Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Vic wrote: »
    Asharad wrote: »
    Kwoaru wrote: »
    I saw Jurassic World yesterday, it was very good

    I feel like I am the only person in the world who hated Jurassic World. I wanted to love it and just couldn't.

    There is hardly a scene in the movie where the movie remembers any of the scenes that came before it.

    You are not alone, though it might not be exactly correct to say that I hated the movie. I hated the Kingsman, and that was mostly because of the last ten minutes (though the rest was thoroughly mediocre).

    Jurassic park only managed to annoy me, but it was a relentless, persistent annoyance that somehow didn't stop me from being bored at the same time. It did get a couple of laughs out of me, the helicopter crash scene in particular is just astonishing in its glorious stupidity, but mostly I was just miserable.

    See I'm pretty sure the prevailing dialogue around here is of not liking Jurassic world

    I've seen it 3 times in theaters which is the most of any movie since avengers 2 and loved the absolute shit out of it but there definitely are not an overabundance of people in this thread to talk positively about it

    In fact everytime someone says they liked it someone seems to drop in and say it was shit or gross torture porn or insanely sexist etc etc

    So no I don't think you're the only person who didn't like it

    Chincymcchilla on
    I have a podcast about Power Rangers:Teenagers With Attitude | TWA Facebook Group
  • FawstFawst The road to awe.Registered User regular
    I can never, ever watch The Royal Tenenbaums without tearing up at
    Royal, Chas, Ari and Uzi on the garbage truck, then cutting to Royal having a heart attack.

    I don't know exactly why that scene hits me so hard, but god damn.

    Regarding accents in movies, I get far more annoyed by a film using a shitty accent to say "these people are speaking a foreign language!" than people just straight-up speaking English with no accent (or whatever their natural accent is) and we are expected to understand that they are just conversing. For instance, take Goldeneye, the intro of Boris and Natalya. They're clearly not going to be speaking English, yet they are. And they're doing it with really heavy Russian (or whatever) accents. It never fails to take me out of a movie.

  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Vic wrote: »
    Asharad wrote: »
    Kwoaru wrote: »
    I saw Jurassic World yesterday, it was very good

    I feel like I am the only person in the world who hated Jurassic World. I wanted to love it and just couldn't.

    There is hardly a scene in the movie where the movie remembers any of the scenes that came before it.

    You are not alone, though it might not be exactly correct to say that I hated the movie. I hated the Kingsman, and that was mostly because of the last ten minutes (though the rest was thoroughly mediocre).

    No, I'm with you on that. Colin Firth did a stunning job of making Kingsman watchable, but it was not a good movie.

  • VicVic Registered User regular
    Vic wrote: »
    Asharad wrote: »
    Kwoaru wrote: »
    I saw Jurassic World yesterday, it was very good

    I feel like I am the only person in the world who hated Jurassic World. I wanted to love it and just couldn't.

    There is hardly a scene in the movie where the movie remembers any of the scenes that came before it.

    You are not alone, though it might not be exactly correct to say that I hated the movie. I hated the Kingsman, and that was mostly because of the last ten minutes (though the rest was thoroughly mediocre).

    Jurassic park only managed to annoy me, but it was a relentless, persistent annoyance that somehow didn't stop me from being bored at the same time. It did get a couple of laughs out of me, the helicopter crash scene in particular is just astonishing in its glorious stupidity, but mostly I was just miserable.

    See I'm pretty sure the prevailing dialogue around here is of not liking Jurassic world

    I've seen it 3 times in theaters which is the most of any movie since avengers 2 and loved the absolute shit out of it but there definitely are not an overabundance of people in this thread to talk positively about it

    In fact everytime someone says they liked it someone seems to drop in and say it was shit or gross torture porn or insanely sexist etc etc

    So no I don't think you're the only person who didn't like it

    It is a very divisive movie though. I'm beginning to fear that I am becoming something of a film grump, but the contrast between my opinion, that of my friends and the IMDB score is larger for this than basically any movie I can remember.

    I suppose that could have something to do with the fact that by far the largest flaws in the movie lie in the script. If you can get around the story structure and writing I can see how the action scenes and character interactions make it an enjoyable movie.

  • FawstFawst The road to awe.Registered User regular
    Like my wife said, she went to see Jurassic World expecting a big, dumb, fun action movie with dinosaurs eating people. She got exactly what she expected and wanted, so she loved it. I had a fun time, so I enjoyed myself.

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    It doesn't feel that divisive to me, considering I think the over riding opinion is that it is fine and then there are people who are on either side of the extremes.

  • Diablo FettDiablo Fett Registered User regular
    it's divisive in internet talking circles where people have the need for their opinions to be heard

    if one were to judge the general public's reception, considering all the factors that led to the movie's gigantic success, namely repeat viewings and really really good word of mouth, it's a little more than just fine

  • Bad-BeatBad-Beat Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    It's made $1.5bn so far. As far as Hollywood is concerned, that makes Jurassic World one of the greatest films of all time.

    Bad-Beat on
  • TransporterTransporter Registered User regular
    I watched Kingsman over the weekend.

    I wouldn't have known it was based on a Mark Miller thing until the end.

    And if I didn't know it was based on a Mark Miller thing, I would have ABSOLUTLY, WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT known it was a Mark Millar thing.

  • VicVic Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    And because I'm bored to death at work, here's how I'd attempt to fix the Jurassic World script:
    1. Cut all the family sequences. The mom and dad add nothing to the movie that could not be achieved through the main characters. Make Bryce a distant mom rather than an aunt, further reinforcing her character arc of realising how important her family is.
    2. Combine Masrani and Hoskins into an immoral CEO with ties to the military. His incompetence has brought the company to the brink of ruin, only kept from going over the edge by Bryce's tireless work (at the cost of her family)
    3. Indominus Rex was a secret project. The business of showing regular dinosaurs is failing for the reasons mentioned in the movie, but rather than publicly inviting investors to sponsor new modified dinos this is something that happens behind the scenes.
    4. The reason Bryce's character is neglecting her children when they visit is that she has found out about the secret project. She confronts the CEO, is shown the paddock, then demands to bring in Chris Pratt when she realises how poor the security is.
    5. When Indominus Rex escapes the CEO is desperate to keep it secret and puts the control room on lockdown, preventing any attempt to start an evacuation. He then sends out the nonlethal troops, despite protestations from both Bryce and Chris.
    6. When this fails the CEO goes out with the chopper. Bryce and Chris takes this opportunity to instigate a mutiny, starting the evacuation and arming the remaining (good) guards
    7. The CEO survives the encounter with indominus, calling in reinforcements from his military allies. Bryce and Chris manage to flee when he reasserts control, deciding to go after her kids and do what they can to help with the evacuation

    Then the rest of the movie proceeds pretty much as in the original script. For bonus point the big brother could be replaced by a big sister, possibly keeping the hitting on girls subplot, for some slightly better women and LGBT representation.

    The key point is that the incredibly poor security around Indominus would be slightly more believable if it was an off the books project, and the unbroken chain of godawful, dangerous decisions made after it broke loose would be easier to swallow if they were offloaded from Bryce's character to an evil, cocksure buffoon like Masraskins.

    Vic on
  • VicVic Registered User regular
    Blake T wrote: »
    It doesn't feel that divisive to me, considering I think the over riding opinion is that it is fine and then there are people who are on either side of the extremes.

    Yeah, you guys are probably right. I guess I'm just not used to being on this side of the argument.

  • Blake TBlake T Do you have enemies then? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered User regular
    I would have just liked it a lot more if they skipped the pteranodon and came up with a better reason to get people to run away. It was just too gauche and ridiculous considering all of them supposedly had dermal implants to knock them out.

  • Andy JoeAndy Joe We claim the land for the highlord! The AdirondacksRegistered User regular
    edited July 2015
    The set design of The Grand Budapest Hotel made me want a fancy cake.

    Andy Joe on
    XBL: Stealth Crane PSN: ajpet12 3DS: 1160-9999-5810 NNID: StealthCrane Pokemon Scarlet Name: Carmen
  • YaYaYaYa Decent. Registered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    "it wasn't about the hotel" is the strangest critique of the movie that I have yet seen.

    The back of the DVD case said it was about the hotel, the concierge and the guests he meets there. What the movie delivered, a half baked prison story, was not that.

    ...umm

    I

    ...

    how is this the movie's fault?

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    YaYa wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    "it wasn't about the hotel" is the strangest critique of the movie that I have yet seen.

    The back of the DVD case said it was about the hotel, the concierge and the guests he meets there. What the movie delivered, a half baked prison story, was not that.

    ...umm

    I

    ...

    how is this the movie's fault?

    How is it not? The case said it was one thing, the movie was completely different and was bad at it to boot.

  • DHS OdiumDHS Odium Registered User regular
    Oddly enough GBH is the only Wes Anderson movie I like. I absolutely loathe Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic. I place them in the same group as other unwatchable movies like X-Men 3 and Blade 3.

    Wii U: DHS-Odium // Live: DHS Odium // PSN: DHSOdium // Steam: dhsykes // 3DS: 0318-6615-5294
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    DHS Odium wrote: »
    Oddly enough GBH is the only Wes Anderson movie I like. I absolutely loathe Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic. I place them in the same group as other unwatchable movies like X-Men 3 and Blade 3.

    I sort of liked The Life Aquatic. It didn't really make any sense and I don't really enjoy Bill Murray but it was an interesting little trip. The CGI weird fishes were pretty awesome.

  • Bluedude152Bluedude152 Registered User regular
    The movie spends like 10 minutes in the prison

    The entire film is about saving the hotel

    p0a2ody6sqnt.jpg
  • DJ EebsDJ Eebs Moderator, Administrator admin
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    YaYa wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    "it wasn't about the hotel" is the strangest critique of the movie that I have yet seen.

    The back of the DVD case said it was about the hotel, the concierge and the guests he meets there. What the movie delivered, a half baked prison story, was not that.

    ...umm

    I

    ...

    how is this the movie's fault?

    How is it not? The case said it was one thing, the movie was completely different and was bad at it to boot.

    I don't think you can hold a movie's marketing against the movie itself. Or, I guess you can, but I don't know why?

  • ChincymcchillaChincymcchilla Registered User regular
    I think MP is being a little silly but at the same time when a movie is marketed as one thing and its not that at all it absolutely can change your opinion

    Go to fucking hell, bridge to tarabithia

    I have a podcast about Power Rangers:Teenagers With Attitude | TWA Facebook Group
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    hahah oh man bridge to tarabithia, I read that book when I was a kid and then I saw the trailer whenever it came out and my thought was "hahahaha oh shit some parents are going to be fucking pissed"

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    It took me a long time to realise I was looking at Harvey Keitel in Grand Budapest

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

    https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
  • Bluedude152Bluedude152 Registered User regular
    Did you guys know that the creator of the super Mario movie made a sequel comic to it

    You can read it online for free!!!!!

    It terrible!

    p0a2ody6sqnt.jpg
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Bridge to Tarabithia is an extremely, extremely, famous book about helping young children cope with death.

    It was literally written by the author as a way to explain death to her kid after he lost his best friend.

    I never saw the marketing for it, but I don't know how you could either be old enough to not have some familiarity with it or young enough where the marketing of what happens in the story wouldn't ruin a lot of its importance.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • Bluedude152Bluedude152 Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    hahah oh man bridge to tarabithia, I read that book when I was a kid and then I saw the trailer whenever it came out and my thought was "hahahaha oh shit some parents are going to be fucking pissed"

    Is the relationship between the kid and teacher as creepy in the book

    p0a2ody6sqnt.jpg
This discussion has been closed.