Movies Thread

[DededeMan202]

I searched and saw there wasn't a topic about movies, or at least one that wasn't old.

Basically, the idea of the thread is to talk about movies, either ones you just saw or upcoming movies. Talk about why you saw them, which ones you like, or movies you want to see.

I wanted to start this topic because I just saw a movie and I wanted to find a topic to talk about it, but since there wasn't one, I'll start one. It'd be awkward to talk about the movie on my first post though, so I'll wait for a reply.

[ajnrules]

Um...yey! Movies are one of my favorite topics of discussion outside of Nintendo. I guess you could say I'm a film buff of sorts. At the very least I've seen a whole lot of them. I've watched every film that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and all of the movies that were on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list from both 1998 and 2007. My most recent project is to complete the IMDb top 250 list. To that end, in the past week alone I've seen Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, Stalag 17, The Celebration, Black Swan, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Of course, you've piqued my curiosity with which movie it was that you saw. Now that there is a reply, maybe you could share it with the rest of us.

[TheMightyBox]

I just saw that new Disney Christmas Carol.
Holy crap!
That thing was terrifying.

[DededeMan202]

I just saw that new Disney Christmas Carol.
Holy crap!
That thing was terrifying.

You want to talk terrifying? Just saw Black Swan with my sisters. It's definitely freaky, I'll give it that. It also left me with a bad feeling, though... Still, great movie, but not one I'll be watching again anytime soon.

[ajnrules]

Heh. Had a suspicion that Black Swan was what you saw. I never imagined that one can make a psychological thriller about ballet, but I'm not surprised that Darren Aronofsky is the one to do it. He's made some trippy movies in his day, like Requiem for a Dream and Pi. It definitely set my sympathetic nervous system active at points, but I can't help but think that the thriller elements that Aronofsky used wouldn't be quite as scary the second time around. Nevertheless, it's a worthy look into the world of psychosis, and I think it can probably pick up a Best Picture and Best Director nomination at the Oscars. Natalie Portman is at the very least the front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar.

[TheMightyBox]

I meant scary for a Disney movie.

[DededeMan202]

I meant scary for a Disney movie.

Oh yeah? What about The Nightmare Before Christmas? I think what makes the newest Christmas Carol so scary is the use of motion capture. It can get pretty creepy sometimes.

And it's funny, I remember hearing that the Black Swan and Nathalie Portman being sure-ins for Oscar nominations, but part of me is skeptical. I guess it kind of has to do with the fact that this is, technically, a horror movie, and horror movies, much like comedies, are looked down upon by the academy. Then again, the movie is so well done and wonderfully played that it DOES indeed deserve all the nominations you suggested.

Speaking of Oxcars, I'm hoping they'll still do the 10 nominees for Best Picture thing this year, so that Toy Story 3 and Inception will be guaranteed a spot.

[ajnrules]

Speaking of Oxcars, I'm hoping they'll still do the 10 nominees for Best Picture thing this year, so that Toy Story 3 and Inception will be guaranteed a spot.

Yeah. I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I'm sure last year having Up and Avatar among the nominated films helped with ratings, even though The Hurt Locker won it all. Ah well, that was my favorite Best Picture winning film since Platoon. Alas, even if Toy Story 3 and Inception do get nominated, the Best Picture race is still likely to come down to The Social Network and The King's Speech.

[Jacio]

So I've been hearing that Inception is good.
What are your opinions on it?

[ajnrules]

I liked Inception. It was very thought-provoking for an action movie, and vice versa. The storytelling is top notch, and the exploration of the tangible nature of one's dreams is quite interesting to be, as a psych major. And of course, fight scene with shifting gravity is straight out of Super Mario Galaxy, and that makes it one of the best I've seen all year. It's definitely worth a viewing, especially if you like Nolan's other works like Memento, The Prestige, and the revamped Batman series.

[DededeMan202]

Yeah. I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I'm sure last year having Up and Avatar among the nominated films helped with ratings, even though The Hurt Locker won it all. Ah well, that was my favorite Best Picture winning film since Platoon. Alas, even if Toy Story 3 and Inception do get nominated, the Best Picture race is still likely to come down to The Social Network and The King's Speech.

The Social Network was pretty good. I remember seeing a commercial for The King's Speech. My mom told me it was based on a true story about the King of England who had a stuttering problem so they hired someone to help him speak better. Sound like a pretty neat movie!

And Inception, I really like it! Great idea, a little complicated at the beginning, but still awesome all the way through, if you pay attention.

[TheMightyBox]

Oh yeah? What about The Nightmare Before Christmas? I think what makes the newest Christmas Carol so scary is the use of motion capture. It can get pretty creepy sometimes.

And it's funny, I remember hearing that the Black Swan and Nathalie Portman being sure-ins for Oscar nominations, but part of me is skeptical. I guess it kind of has to do with the fact that this is, technically, a horror movie, and horror movies, much like comedies, are looked down upon by the academy. Then again, the movie is so well done and wonderfully played that it DOES indeed deserve all the nominations you suggested.

Speaking of Oxcars, I'm hoping they'll still do the 10 nominees for Best Picture thing this year, so that Toy Story 3 and Inception will be guaranteed a spot.

Sorry for being late in saying this, but Nightmare wasn't a Disney movie.

[DededeMan202]

Sorry for being late in saying this, but Nightmare wasn't a Disney movie.

Not technically, no, but the company that made it is now owned by Disney, and it's been heavily associated with Disney for the past few years, so I just consider it a Disney movie.

And even if that doesn't count, remember Night on Bald Mountain? Remember Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dome? Remember the Headless Horseman, Heffalumps and Woozles, and that fireman clown scene from Brave Little Toaster, which also is not directly Disney, but partially associated...

Point is, Disney's no stranger to freaking the audience out.

[TheMightyBox]

True, but with a movie so heavily associated to Christmas, I wasn't expecting that kind of freak out. Nightmare before Christmas always stood on its own in that aspect, and none of the other Christmas carol movies were really that scary.

I've been meaning to get into movies more. I'm getting Netflix to help me with this, so what are some films you guys would recommend for me?

[Mkan]

TRON.

Oh yes it was amazing. Go see it if you get the chance, but make sure you can watch it in 3D. The special effects are spectacular.

I'm not going to spoil anything about the plot though.

Although the end was kind of "wut" IMO but it was still pretty good I guess.

[Dinosaurshotgun]

I've been meaning to get into movies more. I'm getting Netflix to help me with this, so what are some films you guys would recommend for me?

Have you seen Citizen Kain yet? A very good movie and groundbreaking for the time.

Have you seen Citizen Kain yet? A very good movie and groundbreaking for the time.

I have not, but that's high on my list of movies I need to see.

[Meteora]

I have not, but that's high on my list of movies I need to see.

Have you seen Inception yet?

If you haven't, I highly suggest you do so.

[ajnrules]

What I did to really get into movie watching was to find a list of movies, like say all of the Best Picture winners, or all of the films on the AFI lists, and I'd watch those. I like the AFI lists, the IMDb lists, and Academy Award winners because you know that those would be good. After I'd watch them, I'd look for movies that are similar and watch those as well. Netflix has a section for award winners, so those are good to start with.

Here are the lists I've seen:
-Academy Award Best Picture winners: A decent list that spans most of the history of movies. However, they've had a few years where they made some pretty egregious choices. I mean, How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane? The Greatest Show on Earth over High Noon? Ordinary People over Raging Bull? Come on! But you get a good diversity of genres, and a couple of classics
-AFI 100 Years...100 Movies: Another list that will get you good diversity of genres, and pretty much all of them are classics. Unfortunately, Netflix only has the 2007 list, but I prefer the 1998 list. I mean, what's up with Raging Bull at 4. Sure, it was better than Ordinary People, but better than Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain? I don't think so.
-IMDb top 250: The populist choice. The one thing about this list is that it is user generated, which depending on your point of view is a good thing or a bad thing. The movies on the list are ones that appeal to a large crowd, but considering the size of the list there's bound to be lots of movies that you may not enjoy. And there's a lot of foreign films or more art house films as well. Another problem is that it's constantly changing, so you may think that you're caught up, but the list has changed considerably, and there's a lot of films that you haven't seen.
-IMDb top 50 Animation: This is the list for you if you're a fan of animated movies. There's a lot of good selections, but the list is heavy biased towards foreign films, both anime and non-anime. But you might find some hidden gems that you may not know about otherwise.

[DededeMan202]

True, but with a movie so heavily associated to Christmas, I wasn't expecting that kind of freak out. Nightmare before Christmas always stood on its own in that aspect, and none of the other Christmas carol movies were really that scary.

I saw this one Christmas Carol where Strooge was literally in Hell being tortured. That was pretty scary. But yeah, I think I can understand why this particular Christmas Carol was scary, and it was for completely different reasons.

BTW, I remember making a list of movies I should see this past summer that I never got around to seeing before. I only got around to seeing two of them: District 9 and Casablanca. I can see why they're both good movies, but as much as I liked they, they're not some of my favorites. Now, Citizen Kane, THAT was a good movie! One of my all-time favorites now. And not really because of the camerawork or anything of that stuff that was groundbreaking back in the day. I loved it because of the central character, Charles Foster Kane, is just such a fascinating individual, and his character study is one I can really get into. Everyone now knows what the "big twist" of the movie was, since it's been referenced and parodied so many times, but for those of you lucky enough not to know, I won't spoil it.

Also, The Godfather. Never saw it, really want tod.

A while back I saw Citizen Kane, but I ended up being kind of eh on it. Maybe I was overhyped for it or I missed something.

I did love the scene where

he writes the bad review of his wife

though.

Also, I saw 12 Angry Men last night.

Hot damn that was an incredible movie.

[Villerar]

Would you recommend watching it, though, SNF, if only for the educational value?

[DededeMan202]

Guess what, people, the nominations for this year's Oscars were announced! ...Surprised no one mentioned this sooner. Anyway, here's a full list of the nominees:

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academy.../nominees.html

I'm glad Inception and Toy Story 3 were nominated for best picture, even though they won't win. As it seems, it looks like the two main movies to look at are The King's Speech and The Social Network. Still, a funny story occurred after the announcement. I told a friend of mine about it, and she said that Toy Story 3 shouldn't be nominated for best picture, because it's an animated movie, and should only go up against other animated movies. She argued that you can express a number of emotions and do a number of things with animated pictures that you can't do with real-life actors. But to me, it seems like not including a movie just because of how it's made or it's supposed genre is narrow-minded... or something, not sure what the right word for it is. Point is, the movie is definitely one of the best movies of 2010, and thus, deserves a shot at best picture.

Speaking of animated pictures, only 3 nominations? I never even heard of The Illusionist! Well, if someone else HAD to go against Toy Story 3, at least it was How to Train Your Dragon. Too bad it doesn't stand a chance, but at least it was good, and one of the better movies Dreamworks has made.

The awards will take place February 27th, with future Catwoman-to-be (The Dark Knight Rises) Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosting. Mark your calenders!

[ARC Trooper CX-7529]

Star Wars is the Greatest series of movies ever. I mean it made Sci-Fi a respected and popular genre of film and revolutionized the sequal and, heck, INVENTED the prequil! Now, Avatar and Halo and all this other may be great but it all stems from Star Wars and I think it should DEFINATELY stop being bashed by idiots that only think movies made from 2005 on are worth even watching