What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching? ARCHIVE

Citadel wrote:

Thanks for recommending this. What I saw of it was great. However, I was watching this on TV on demand down my broadband connection. About an hour in, during the street fight, a message flicked up on the screen, "Your rental has expired." and the movie stopped. BT will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

See my post above, the movie has been completely uploaded to youtube.

Big Man Japan. Featuring some very bizarre kaiju. Strange but fun.

EDIT- Forgot to mention, like District 9 it's documentary style.

In the Loop is totally hilarious. Really good flick. 9/10. As smart a satire as you can get. You'll either laugh a ton or you won't at all.

I'm taking a long movie break now. There is nothing playing worth watching that I haven't seen. I think I'll wait until December for another movie-watching blitz. I already have a decent top ten list for the year and tons of honourable mentions. It's been a great year for movies thus far.

Black Barney wrote:

I'm taking a long movie break now. There is nothing playing worth watching that I haven't seen. I think I'll wait until December for another movie-watching blitz. I already have a decent top ten list for the year and tons of honourable mentions. It's been a great year for movies thus far.

You don't want to see 9? The visuals look amazing. What about the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus? Gilliam is a touchy subject with some film goers but I'm a fan... even of Tideland. I can't think of a director who makes better looking movies and this one looks amazing.

if the reviews are stellar, I'll make an effort to see it. 9 doesn't interest me that much, surprisingly. As stupid as it sounds, i'm more interested to see it for the soundtrack than the film itself.

Thanks for mentioning The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus JonJacob, I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
Alice in Wonderland also looks like it might have potential.

Gilliam is at Dragon Con this weekend, hopefully they'll premiere DR. PARNASSUS there.

TIDELAND...what a mess. Is it brilliant or terrible? Heartbreaking and sweet or disgusting and foul? Regardless, I think the picture is VERY underrated...there's a lot going on in it that is really rather singular in cinema...there's a tone there that no other picture really has. I've seen it twice and I'm still not sure if it's any good or not. I think it is...or is it?

BROTHERS GRIMM though...yeesh...what an awkward movie.

9...meh. It looks like a 1999 Slipknot album cover or something. I'd rather see Bembabektov do something more deserving of his talent.

And I'm tired of Tim Burton making the same mistakes movie after movie...I miss the Tim Burton that made PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, and BEETLEJUICE. It's like the more budget he has, the less control he he shows and the result is this charmless mess of visual ideas and crap story. When he steps back and gets control under more limited production means, we get a SWEENEY TODD or ED WOOD. When he loses it, we get over the top and garish nonsense like PLANET OF THE APES, MARS ATTACKS, or CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

ALICE looks to fit into this latter category, sadly.

agree/disagree

I agree that he dropped off after The Nightmare Before christmas

BUT

since Planet of the Apes, his movies have STEADILY and CONSISTENTLY been getting better and better.

Charlie & Chocolate Factory (decent)
Corpse Bride (same)
Sweeney Todd (getting better!)

9 (who knows but just for the hell of it, I'll predict a 9/10)


Brothers Grimm was such a pile

I liked BROTHERS GRIMM! Is it because I'm German?

Damn it Barney! Don't confuse Burton's directorial projects with his productions!

He didn't direct NBX, he produced and wrote it. And he did the design work. But he didn't direct it and the bulk of the actual execution was Henry Selick. Likewise with CORPSE BRIDE (which was great except for the New Orleans skeleton crap). And likewise with 9, which is not written by him or Bembabektov.

Of course, all of those pictures are regularly advertised as "Tim Burton" films but it's just not true. I don't think 9 even looks like Tim Burton...it looks like baggy pants goth ("graver", if you will) artwork from the early 2000s. It seems really dated, and I find it hard to be awed by CGI animation anymore short of anything that Pixar does.

CHARLIE...I don't know. There's things about that are brilliant (Christopher Lee- "my son will not grow up to be a chocolatier!" but there's a lot that is really, really bad. I don't really like Depp in it, and I think that's weird since he's probably the best actor of our generation- he almost has a Lon Chaney quality about him. I also HATE anything to do with the Oompa Loompas.

SWEENEY TODD is the best film he's made since ED WOOD. It was one of my picks for best of '08. Great songs, great performances, great production design.

I have to agree, that despite my love for Gilliam, Brothers Grimm was a HUGE dissapointment. The only thing I even remotely enjoyed in that film was Jonathan Price's awful french accent. That was funny. I have pretty much erased it from my brain.

But I will defend Tideland. I think it is a crime that it went by completly unnoticed. There is a scene early on when he is driding with his daugther out to the farm and the bus goes under a overpass and you see the bus enter it in day and leave in night, sort of. It was one of the most thematic and exciting shots I've seen and I had to hand it to Gilliam immediately. He knows how to make me think with just an image. That takes talent. It did remind me of Time Bandits an awful lot, especailly the ending where the woman appears to be taking our heorine in similar to how Shawn Connery took in the hero at the end of time bandits and the train crash reminded me of the destroyed house.

I have to agree though that I wish that Bembabektov was given a better project but to be truthful he's never really been given a great project. Even Daywatch/Nightwatch are mediocre. They look great, even revolutionary, but they are pretty simple and pedestrian. 9 looks about as good as anything he's been given and certainly better then wanted.

I'll watch Alice in wonderland on the off chance that it's as good as Sweeny Todd.

My biggest problem with Burton is that he normally has caricatures of people... not people. I want characters, not caricatures. But his set designer is brilliant. The best alice in wonderland movie is certainly Dream Child with Ian Holm in the role of Lewis Carrol. Anyone see that one? It's fuckin brilliant. Minus this irritating side story that is. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it. It unfolds beautifully.

Well, the Oompa Loompas hate you too Barnes....




Sweeney Todd was one of my favorites of '08 as well.

Man, that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake was fucking horrible.

I'm not one of those people who cry "oh they raped my childhood", but sweet hopping Jesus that was bad. It was more like Baz Lurhman than Tim Burton in most places.

Sweeney Todd was quite good, so there's hope in the guy yet. However, without some serious scrutiny, "Tim Burton" attached to a film these days goes on the "Con" side of the paper. The retro-wanks like Planet of the Apes I now just refuse to see. C+CF I wish I could unsee.

Hmm I liked the Charlie remake. Maybe I'm just a Burton fanboy. I don't like it as much as the original, but it did feel a little closer to the spirit of the books. In a way. I did like that they took Wonka in such a completely different direction.

Sweeney I have refused to see because I love love the musical and I don't think I can handle anyone other than Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury playing those characters.

But my favorite Burton movie is Big Fish. What a great movie about fathers and sons. Beautifully shot, of course, and really hit home with me.

Big Fish is fantastic. I forgot about that one in my blind rage, but that really might be my favorite Burton movie.

The Burton Charlie gets a lot of "closer to the book" love, but I don't really think its there. I've read the book many times (and an awful lot of other Roald Dahl, what a great writer) and while I'm not sure Gene Wilder is doing a perfect Willy Wonka, I'm pretty sure Johnny Depp playing Michael Jackson isn't quite what Dahl had in mind. Don't get me started on the CG-replicated Oompa-Loompas and their techno dance craze.

The whole damn thing was just tacky, and not in a good way. Burton can do better than that, even when he's knee-deep in visual styling. Big Fish, Scissorhands, and more all show that. Just keep him away from licensed stuff. I thought that should have been the lesson of Batman.

I think you should check out Sweeney Todd. It's quite well done, and you know I'm not a Burton fanboy...

(to be somewhat on topic, my DVD player has been spinning Mad Men from Netflix. TV is a rare treat these days. No large blocks of time.)