What about Wallace and Gromit. Those fuckers are charming as all hell.

The last 10 posts have all been so money. Watership Down is an incredible film and quite a scary one as well. All the points on modern animation are spot on. Doesn't matter who they get in to do them if the script isn't tight it's a wankfest.

Cutting different voices for minor parts in different terrortories is also one of the most cynical things I've seen in the movies. Shrek 2 was bollocks as well.

I didn't care for the movie. It had some swell moments, but there was just too much going on at once. Love the shorts, though. Everything is balanced so perfectly in those.

i loved both the book and the movie versions of "Watership Down." (perhaps you should have read it in 9th grade, rather than 5th.)

i watched "The Basketball Diaries" just a short hour or so ago. i guess it was OK as a movie (maybe), but the book was phenomenal. i'd recommend it to pretty much everyone.

i also saw "Teachers" tonight (on Encore, i think). what was once a cheesy, 80's movie...is still kind of a cheesy 80's movie. Ralph Macchio is just plain horrible in it. however, having been a teacher for a while there, i think the movie touches on plenty of the issues that the whole educational system is drowning in. in parts, the writing isn't half bad. though the teachers (and a few of the situations) were fairly caricaturish in the movie, they're not THAT far off.

i think it's worth watching ~ perhaps, if only, to see Morgan Freeman's hairstyle in it. there's also Laura Dern, Crispin Glover (in a pretty good performance, really), Jobeth Williams, Nick Nolte, Judd Hirsch, Richard Mulligan and a couple of other familiar faces in it. the music is horrible, Macchio is laughable and the message borders on sacchrine, but it's really not that bad.

I remember the shitty .38 Special theme song, and Nick Nolte complaining, "I got tenure!" Oh, and the gym teacher boffing one of his students.



What is most regrettable is that Disney, the company that was built on animation and set the standard for everyone else, has squandered their resources on uninspired scripts and cheap design. Disney used to take years to release a project, not every 6 months--the artistic difference shows.

Having said all that, I really am looking forward to Dreamworks' "Over The Hedge"...everything I've seen of it looks hilarious.

The reason they seem to have a new CGI movie out every 6 months is because Disney has been distributing basically any animated movie that isn't from Dreamworks or Sony in America. They do just enough to not put the Disney brand to close to it so when it flops no one thinks "No one went to see the new Disney movie." Hopefully with John Lasseter from Pixar pretty much being put in charge of all animation at Disney, they'll start to make good traditional animation again.

I forgot about that...he is a championer of trad. animation as well as CGI (note his endorsements on the Miyazaki DVDs). So it's a definite win-win situation.

Well let's hope he breaks out of the plucky-upstart-overcomes-loss-of-parent-and-discovers-inner-strength mode of 95% of Disney movies.

It seems that the films that DON'T use that theme turn out to be weaker efforts (Home on the Range, The Great Mouse Detective, The Aristocats for example). They've made films with that theme both good and bad. It's fine that they use the theme, it just depends on how well they tell the story.

yea this movie was pretty good.


Just watched this over the weekend. Not as good as I hoped it would be, but overall pretty laughworthy. Something I'll probably watch again seeing as I own it now.

I had a friend when I was a kid who's dad was just like that history teacher who'd dress the part of the people they studied. I think he still does it to this day.


I think the writing is on the wall for a shitty animated flick when the tie-in commericial/mini-doc about the flick comes on where the actors are explaining their character from the film. This is usually a sign of trash where the plot is so pathetic that they're trying to stall you from actually watching any scenes by having this one on one with David Spade or whoever the hell is working on the movie.

There's a pretty distinct difference between the quality material and that which the studio is just churning out for the marketing cross-promotional happy meal toys.

It's "Pammy"! That's all the reason in the world I'd rent it.

The references to "crooked fuckers" had me laughing pretty hard.

Ha, I haven't seen "Life Aquatic" since before Nick's car story thread. Perhaps I should view it again for the full experience.

Just watched this for my horror film class. It's so fucking ridiculous and bad that it becomes amazingly great. One of the best unintentional comedies I have ever seen in my life, I swear to you.

Kiss my rebel dick! you watched this for CLASS! man in 4 years of film school (even the sci/fi classes) I never got to see anything so low budget and bad. (but good bad) we did watch Demon Seed which is close, but damn! too cool man!
I just finished doing the Sleepaway Camp trilogy. good stuff.

At first I thought it was moving too slow, and was waiting impatiently for some kind of familiar emotional climax that comes with the territory of dysfunctional family films. But after realizing that wasn't the point I appreciated the film more. I'll give it a C+

Fuck yeah, my horror film class is amazing. We have possibly the coolest teacher in the world, this awesome lower 30 somethings southern woman who, if it wasn't completely unethical, i would probably ask her to marry me on the spot or something weird like that. Plus tommorrow she's showing us Battle Royale in class! I'm so fucking stoked!

Andyroo to thread on this one...bro's in my class.

Now that I occasionally get a little time off here + there, I've been catching up on a few things:


54
OK, I avoided this one for years because, well, I just didn't care much about the history of the disco culture. Well, I was cut from the industrial music cloth, which developed into the techno cloak, which mellowed into the house tuxedo. Now that I'm actually working in the disco culture (albiet a really swank one), I finally decided to check this out. And damn if I didn't think it was pretty good. Oh sure, it's quite predictable + cliche'd, but so is the culture. Many of the staff dialogue reminds me of the conversations I hear in the staff at pretty much every club I've ever worked in. And can I just say that Mike Meyers was brilliant in that role?


Josie and the Pussycats
This one I avoided for, well, pretty much the obvious reasons. But then my extremely intelligent sister-in-law recommended this to me years ago. Now, she knows my tastes in satire, which is why her advice on this stuck with me all these years. So, I watched it. Yeah, it flattens out near the end, but hey - it's based on characters from an Archie comic! Of course it's not going to get as serious as it should - but they did get a little more interesting of a premise than I would ever have bargained for. I just loved the assault on manufactured pop culture! Plus, some of the side gags with the so-called manager + his bizarre sister were inspired. And, uh... was that really Seth Green playin' in a boy band?

Hell yeah, Seth Green was hilarious in that! Not just him though, having Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison all together was inspired. They're all close friends and do a lot of stuff together (Can't Hardly Wait?) and do Robot Chicken now. Josie is one of my guilty pleasures, it's fun, surprisingly smart and I like that they used Kay Hanley from Letters to Cleo as Josie's voice, that was my favorite band as a pre-teen.

I've been on a documentary kick (more so than I usually am anyway) and have seen Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, New York Doll, The Clash: Westway to the World and re-watching The Last Waltz this past week. All are highly recommended. Next up: Born in Brothels.

Elvis - Speedway (1968) w/ Bill Bixby and Nancy Sinatra.

not really following the plot - I just grabbed the nearest DVD I could find to set up this capture card at work. I like the screen grab, though - nice product placement.

Have you watched anything I worked on: Nightmare on Elm St. 2, 3, 4; 976-EVIL, Out of the Dark?

Cool shot.

I watched something called "Bikini Chain Gang" last night on one of the five HBO channels we get.

It was good. Couple lesbo scenes, some simulated hetero sex, and even a three way.

Grade: Solid B. Would have fared better with some actual penetration shots and footage of genitalia.

So...these two are good, and Magnolia and Moulin Rouge suck?

Maybe what gets watched in Vegas should stay in Vegas.

Watch this movie and you'll laugh like a bastard.

I seem to watch this every time it comes on Turner Classic Movies, but it's just so good that I can't help it.


This was on afterwards. I thought it was pretty good. It's low-key, but still pretty entertaining.

Wait, you worked on those? Seriously? That's crazy shit! Do tell me what you've done in relation. And no, we havent watched any of them. We've made mention of the Nightmare series here and there, but never watched 'em.
I watched Slumber Party for my "women directed horror film" paper that was due this week. Odds are she probably wouldn't show us this one in class because there's not tons to talk about with it, at least so I thought, with the exception of that whole 'final girl' concept.

This movie gets better with every viewing. It's fucking incredible. I never noticed how much it references 2001, and yet it's practically the opposite in terms of production design (GOD! Those sets! That alien design!) and theme. Why can't they make movies like this anymore?

I'm watching this too only for the first time.

'Scuse me while I tell you to get stuffed.

Ok, that's a bit rude. Let me just say that 54 and Josie don't have any pretentions to being great art, and that frees up the filmmakers to have more play with the material. There's an energy and freshness to the films that is sorely lacking in the overblown, overrated and overpretentious Moulin Rouge and Magnolia. Plus, I don't think I ever said those films sucked per se - I just stated that I, personally, never liked them.

But then, I prefer comedies vs. dramas. There are a few dramatic films I get into, but rarely do I find myself watching them more than once. And a good 90-minute satire can teach you more about human nature than a 2+ hour drama.

Calling Moulin Rouge overblown makes no sense at all. That was part of the joke.

AWESOME FUCKING AWESOME

"Three stars"
— Video Movie Guide.

This is one of my all time favorite movies. Everyone who was in it later became famous.

"Fenwick's in the manger."

"I'll hit you so hard I'll kill your whole family."

And the lines included in the intro. to the Sound Opinions show.



Teachers was part of my inspiration to become a teacher. And I totally agree that "the movie touches on plenty of the issues that the whole educational system is (still) drowning in."

Yeah, well, I didn't think it was a good enough joke to be stretched across a whole film. My wife + I made it about 1/2 way thru Ewan M's take on "Your Song" and thought OK, that's enough! and hit the eject button.

Well...it's a little bit funny...

I disagree you'll laugh like a bastard, but it's a nice movie anyways. It's a Farrelly Bros. production, but you wouldn't know it if you weren't told beforehand...a close to normal, low-key "coming of age" comedy/drama.




This feeling inside?

Oooooh... keep it up and I'll have you guys shot.

MY GIFT IS MY SONG...



AND THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, AFTERSHOCK

How it was my saturday night turned into a Nicole Kidman fest is beyond me but hey that's what was on... 'Bewitched' was about as unfunny as I could've gandered..

'Interpreter' was like so by the numbers it hurt. There was a time when I thought Sydney Pollock actually made some worthy flicks. This however isn't one of them. It was stiff and dull. I kept thinking. Didn't he learn anything after making 'Random Hearts'? Apparently not.

I swear, some people's kids.....


Sorry that you suffered thru not one, but two of her films. "Stiff and Dull" is the most accurate description of Kidman I've ever heard. I'll never waste any more time watching anything with her (or her ex, ol' Tommy-boy). She comes off like the Acting honors student who gets all the good roles 'cause she's brown-nosing the teachers. I saw enough people like her running thru the drama departments of every school I ever attended. Pfft.

The problem with Pollack's movies is that he maintains the same high level of craftsmanship and tone no matter how ass-rapingly awful the material is. It's really disconcerting how oblivious he is to good and bad scripts.

Hi, Tony! Haven't seen you in a while. How've you been?

Good thanks. How are your piano going?

Very very true. I think he's honestly is a great actor as well. Probably the best performer in his own film.

i've never seen it all the way through... and for that i am ashamed.


watching this in my cinema class right now, might take a few viewings to really appreciate it.

Watch carefully as we jack this thread from its intended purpose....


Pretty cool, actually. I'm having it re-tuned next week, and the piano doctah is going to try to fix some of the minor mechanical issues with the instrument. All that should be moot in a year or so, as I've begun saving money to purchase a new one. Any suggestions on that?

Now that I'm back in the nightlife hours, I find myself using the piano more and more. I usually get home at around 5:30am, change into PJs, then sit and play around with the major scales and chord progression. (Now that I think about it, I really need to start playing around with minor scales more often. But hey... everyone learns at their own pace, eh?) I thought about taking lessons, but I really don't want to learn any songs right now. Instead, I'm more interested in the actual music theory so I can ultimately compose my own little sonic doodles into something palatable. So, the fake books stay in the bench, and I simply select the root note that appeals to the mood of the moment and begin exploring various combinations of tone + rhythm. Of course, it helps that I run my lightshow with MIDI keyboards, so after 8 hours of work, my fingers get all warmed up for my sunrise practice sessions.

See? Not a mention of a movie at all. Aren't there rules about this sort of thing?

Trust me--no one's going to complain if you or Tony stop weighing in on movies.



[j/k, obv.]

Now, how did I know Slackmo would be the first person to jump on this particular bandwagon?

If you want to learn something that isn't terribly difficult and will still impress your friends try Joplin's 'The Maple Leaf Rag'. The first two sections are fun to play and sound great when played well.