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Author Topic: What are you watching now?/Favourite Movie of the Moment  (Read 443360 times)
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RangeRoverA1
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« Reply #500 on: April 04, 2017, 08:03:29 AM »

As you know, everybody's definition of "funny" differs. I'm curious why people find it funny/ good. That's the question. Before KDS chimes in, would be good if you answered too.
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« Reply #501 on: April 04, 2017, 08:40:44 AM »

I can't really explain why I find something funny. Although I do find people in awkward situations to be very funny and that's all throughout Spinal Tap: people who think they know exactly what's going on but are, in fact, completely oblivious.
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« Reply #502 on: April 04, 2017, 08:44:48 AM »

While I couldn't even begin to explain why I think something is funny, I think what is funny can differ on generations. 

I'm 36 years old.  Some of my father's favorite comedies (ie. The Pink Panther / It's a Mad Mad World) don't do much for me.  And likewise, he doesn't think Will Ferrell is funny at all, while I tend to like most of his movies. 

There's also a lot of modern comedy I don't find funny at all - ie, 2000s SNL or anything with Melissa McCarthy, Andy Samburg, Jimmy Fallon, etc.  It's all quite popular, but I don't get it.
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« Reply #503 on: April 04, 2017, 08:53:30 AM »

2 KDS: Why not quote my question directly? It was general, not just funny aspect. What's about that film that people like? There gotta be sth. besides being funny.

2Chocolate Shake: I'd seen Spinal Tap. So it brings back to the point what's funny to smb., unfunny to others. Backpage you said didn't like some Hitchcock films. It leads - which universally acclaimed director you don't find much appeal in their work? Steven Spielberg, who else?
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« Reply #504 on: April 04, 2017, 09:07:25 AM »

2 KDS: Why not quote my question directly? It was general, not just funny aspect. What's about that film that people like? There gotta be sth. besides being funny.

2Chocolate Shake: I'd seen Spinal Tap. So it brings back to the point what's funny to smb., unfunny to others. Backpage you said didn't like some Hitchcock films. It leads - which universally acclaimed director you don't find much appeal in their work? Steven Spielberg, who else?

The first person that springs to mind is Christopher Nolan. A lot of more contemporary people probably: David Fincher, Baz Luhrman. I don't know if I'd call them universally acclaimed, though. I remember hating the one Douglas Sirk movie I watched, but maybe I'd feel differently about it now.

There are some positions that I take that are somewhat unconventional. I prefer Antonioni over Fellini, even though I love three Fellini films. I prefer Truffaut over Godard, even though I love a bunch of Godard's movies, but I find his superficial politics masked as subversive politics to be annoying.

EDIT: If these count, I also don't like Oliver Stone and, really, anything Tim Burton has done since Sleepy Hollow. Spielberg, I don't mind, but, no, he's not a favourite.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2017, 09:11:58 AM by Chocolate Shake Man » Logged
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« Reply #505 on: April 04, 2017, 09:37:09 AM »

2 KDS: What's it about Spinal Tap film that many like it? Did I miss sth.? It seems very stupid & boring.

I honestly didn't see your question. 

I think the comedy works so well in this movie because the situations are comedic, but they're played straight.  Plus, it pokes fun at some of the foibles of rock and roll, which can be quite entertaining. 

Also, for a fake band, the songs hold up very well.  I can probably count on both hands the amount of bands that came out after 2000 that I'd listen to before Spinal Tap. 
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« Reply #506 on: April 04, 2017, 05:33:05 PM »

Sure, you didn't see question. Must be real tough to go back & check. & I mentioned your name in the very 1st post of this new page.

As you know, everybody's definition of "funny" differs. I'm curious why people find it funny/ good. That's the question. Before KDS chimes in, would be good if you answered too.
Bet if it was some other poster, you'd see it no problem. It's annoying & bizarre to see people ignore my questions. That schtick "I didn't notice", "Didn't see your question" etc. doesn't work with me. I ask question, you answer. Don't people go to board to discuss things? I ask questions to talk about lots of things. Question is good way to start conversation. I like asking questions to know what people think about this & that. It's fun, you know.

2Chocolate Shake: Agree about Burton. His trying to be original, eccentric just falls flat & the films end up looking samey. But maybe I mistake it with signature Tim Burton style, i.e. he paves way to make films with the same cinematographic pattern, for want of better word. This is my stance, yours might differ.

You mentioned Italian & French directors - what about Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, other foreign filmmakers?
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« Reply #507 on: April 04, 2017, 06:58:34 PM »

2Chocolate Shake: Agree about Burton. His trying to be original, eccentric just falls flat & the films end up looking samey. But maybe I mistake it with signature Tim Burton style, i.e. he paves way to make films with the same cinematographic pattern, for want of better word. This is my stance, yours might differ.

You mentioned Italian & French directors - what about Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, other foreign filmmakers?

Well, I should say that I do quite like the auteur aspects of filmmakers where they have a definable style. But I do think that at a certain point with Burton, it became less about an individual style and more about a brand. And just in general, I found his films to be less interesting. The Planet of the Apes movie seemed pointless, I thought Big Fish was mawkish, Alice in Wonderland appeared to be unironically reinforcing British Empire tropes. Worst of all was the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake. There Burton did what I see a lot of movies doing now which is to provide a pointless backstory to explain Wonka's bizarreness. It was not enough for him to just be bizarre, we had to have his characteristics rooted some childhood event. To me, the best art leaves a lot up to the viewer's imagination and here Burton seemed intent on explaining everything so that there was no room for interpretation.

I love Bergman. At times I think of him as my favourite filmmaker. He's pure poetry and, consequently, I see him belonging to a school of filmmaking that includes Tarkovsky and Altman who, I think, were Bergman disciples. Just about every movie I've seen of his I love: Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, the Silence trilogy, Persona, Cries and Whispers. All of them absolutely stunning pieces of film.

Herzog is a blind spot for me. I've only seen Grizzly Man and I didn't particularly like it. But documentaries are a hard sell for me. I would like to see some of his fictional work, in particular Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. Unfortunately, though, I can't really comment on his work.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2017, 06:59:30 PM by Chocolate Shake Man » Logged
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« Reply #508 on: April 04, 2017, 08:08:43 PM »

Sure, you didn't see question. Must be real tough to go back & check. & I mentioned your name in the very 1st post of this new page.

As you know, everybody's definition of "funny" differs. I'm curious why people find it funny/ good. That's the question. Before KDS chimes in, would be good if you answered too.
Bet if it was some other poster, you'd see it no problem. It's annoying & bizarre to see people ignore my questions. That schtick "I didn't notice", "Didn't see your question" etc. doesn't work with me. I ask question, you answer. Don't people go to board to discuss things? I ask questions to talk about lots of things. Question is good way to start conversation. I like asking questions to know what people think about this & that. It's fun, you know.

2Chocolate Shake: Agree about Burton. His trying to be original, eccentric just falls flat & the films end up looking samey. But maybe I mistake it with signature Tim Burton style, i.e. he paves way to make films with the same cinematographic pattern, for want of better word. This is my stance, yours might differ.

You mentioned Italian & French directors - what about Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, other foreign filmmakers?

Your question was one the previous page.  Thats why I didnt see it. Its not schtick or an act.
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« Reply #509 on: April 04, 2017, 10:52:19 PM »

Well, I should say that I do quite like the auteur aspects of filmmakers where they have a definable style. But I do think that at a certain point with Burton, it became less about an individual style and more about a brand. And just in general, I found his films to be less interesting. The Planet of the Apes movie seemed pointless, I thought Big Fish was mawkish, Alice in Wonderland appeared to be unironically reinforcing British Empire tropes. Worst of all was the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake. There Burton did what I see a lot of movies doing now which is to provide a pointless backstory to explain Wonka's bizarreness. It was not enough for him to just be bizarre, we had to have his characteristics rooted some childhood event. To me, the best art leaves a lot up to the viewer's imagination and here Burton seemed intent on explaining everything so that there was no room for interpretation.

I love Bergman. At times I think of him as my favourite filmmaker. He's pure poetry and, consequently, I see him belonging to a school of filmmaking that includes Tarkovsky and Altman who, I think, were Bergman disciples. Just about every movie I've seen of his I love: Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, the Silence trilogy, Persona, Cries and Whispers. All of them absolutely stunning pieces of film.

Herzog is a blind spot for me. I've only seen Grizzly Man and I didn't particularly like it. But documentaries are a hard sell for me. I would like to see some of his fictional work, in particular Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. Unfortunately, though, I can't really comment on his work.
You raised good points about Burton. He makes sure Johnny Depp stars in every other film when it could be totally random face. & going back to "Rebecca", the fact that we don't know the antagonist's past ("Mrs." Danvers means she was married before or still) is big plus. I think what you said applies to the ending too. For example "The Birds" ends abruptly as they take the car to drive away amid the birds' invasion. We don't know what'll be next - if they'll get thru or be attacked by birds again.

By "pure poetry", do you mean the way Bergman shoots his pictures, showing conventional themes within unusual story/ setting? Is there any filmmaker who worked in the 1920-40s you admire? Or do you mainly "sit" in the 1950s-80s timeframe? What do you consider the best decade for films? Emily said it's the 1970s.
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« Reply #510 on: April 04, 2017, 10:59:29 PM »

Your question was one the previous page.  Thats why I didnt see it. Its not schtick or an act.
Usually, if the thread got to the next page, people check back to see what people posted in previous page. I mean it's logical. Don't tell me you don't do that. & once again, I mentioned your name in the 1st post of this new page. Reply #500. "Before KDS chimes in". You couldn't *not* see it.
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« Reply #511 on: April 05, 2017, 05:18:13 AM »

Your question was one the previous page.  Thats why I didnt see it. Its not schtick or an act.
Usually, if the thread got to the next page, people check back to see what people posted in previous page. I mean it's logical. Don't tell me you don't do that. & once again, I mentioned your name in the 1st post of this new page. Reply #500. "Before KDS chimes in". You couldn't *not* see it.

I thought you were making a general comment. 

For somebody who says you wish to have friendly back and forth conversations, you can be quite condescending. 
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« Reply #512 on: April 05, 2017, 05:55:27 AM »

Okey-doke, KDS. The same question as to Chocolate Shake - you said before that the 80s featured the best comedy. What decade is the best for films generally? & what's the exceptionally good film from the worst decade (I presume it's the 2000s right?).
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« Reply #513 on: April 05, 2017, 12:39:12 PM »

Okey-doke, KDS. The same question as to Chocolate Shake - you said before that the 80s featured the best comedy. What decade is the best for films generally? & what's the exceptionally good film from the worst decade (I presume it's the 2000s right?).

Well, I don't really consider myself a film buff, so I don't really think I'm qualified to say which decade had the best films, especially since I've seen relatively few movies from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. 

My personal favorite is probably the 1980s. 

A good film from the 2000s.  Well, there's a really good biopic I like - Love and Mercy, although that's 2010s, right?  I'll go Shaun of the Dead. 
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« Reply #514 on: April 05, 2017, 06:55:34 PM »

To narrow down to the films you'd seen, & to rephrase the question, which decade seems to you the best, interesting historically, rife with many good cinematic ideas etc? Seems you're not alone to be stumped by question, KDS. Chocolate Shake seems too.

By 2000s I meant films made in 21st century.
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« Reply #515 on: April 05, 2017, 07:03:37 PM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.
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« Reply #516 on: April 06, 2017, 12:44:59 AM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.
Do you like some vintage 20s-50s movies?
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« Reply #517 on: April 06, 2017, 05:39:03 AM »

By "pure poetry", do you mean the way Bergman shoots his pictures, showing conventional themes within unusual story/ setting?

I confess this isn't my idea, but there is the position that there are poetry filmmakers and prose filmmakers. The distinction is that the poetic filmmakers deal with abstract concepts and convey them through a style that is not realistic (in the literary sense) but is, instead, highly personal and stylized. Prose filmmakers deal with a gritty reality and convey it with a kind of realism. In that sense, Bergman, Kurosawa, and Fellini have a poetic style while people like Scorsese and Truffaut have a prose style. It's not necessarily meant to say that one is better than the other, but it is merely a way to consider the different approaches to filmmaking.

I do recognize the fallacy here - that in literature, there can be realistic and gritty poetry and there can be abstract prose. However, I might also characterize abstract prose - like that of Faulkner, Woolf, Joyce, etc. - as being poetic in its nature.

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Is there any filmmaker who worked in the 1920-40s you admire? Or do you mainly "sit" in the 1950s-80s timeframe? What do you consider the best decade for films? Emily said it's the 1970s.

I must say I do like the 50s-70s the best but I would like to watch more from the 1920s-1940s. I do love Chaplin's films and Citizen Kane from the 40s is a favourite. Rules of the Game from 1939 is one that I love. I love Battleship Potemkin from your neck of the woods. I like a lot of early comedies from the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope. Entering into the 40s, I'd say, beyond Kane, that I really like the Hitchcock movies from that era and also Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Shoeshine are two of my favourites.

For me, it's probably a toss up between the 1960s and 1970s. I think the 70s were great for American films but the 60s was, to me, the height of European cinema and also, later in the decade, the beginning of the American film revolution. Maybe I'd say the 60s then: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, Persona, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, L'avventura, Red Desert, Blow Up, Breathless, Band of Outsiders, Contempt, Masculin Feminin, Shoot the Piano Player, Jules et Jim, Harakiri, High and Low, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Hard Day's Night, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Wild Bunch,The Graduate, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, Bonnie and Clyde. That's a pretty great collection.
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« Reply #518 on: April 06, 2017, 05:51:58 AM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.

And it's sad to me that many of the 80s classics are being remade.
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« Reply #519 on: April 06, 2017, 06:07:32 AM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.

And it's sad to me that many of the 80s classics are being remade.

For me, that's not the sad thing. Remakes have always been part of cinema. Indeed,the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol (a remake of an adaptation) is my go-to version of the story. The Coen Brothers have done some good re-makes, as has Scorsese. I think most of the field's strongest artists consider the remake to be a valid form of the art. In fact, go back a long distance and you'll find that most of Shakespeare's plays were re-makes of earlier works. What I don't particularly like is seeing the theatres dominated by sequels and remakes that are done just to cash in but you have to take that on a case by case basis.
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« Reply #520 on: April 06, 2017, 06:55:44 AM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.
Do you like some vintage 20s-50s movies?

Definitely. I love the old Universal monster movies. I love the old musicals. I also love movies like It Happened One Night,  Our Town, and things like that. I am big Old Time Radio buff too.
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« Reply #521 on: April 06, 2017, 07:42:24 AM »

The 80's were the best. The Empire  Strikes Back. Goonies. Back to the Future. Superman. So many good ORIGINAL movies.

Even geek films aside, we had Amadeus, Stand By Me, The Wall, The Mission, Big etc...

The 80's were the best for movies.

And it's sad to me that many of the 80s classics are being remade.

For me, that's not the sad thing. Remakes have always been part of cinema. Indeed,the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol (a remake of an adaptation) is my go-to version of the story. The Coen Brothers have done some good re-makes, as has Scorsese. I think most of the field's strongest artists consider the remake to be a valid form of the art. In fact, go back a long distance and you'll find that most of Shakespeare's plays were re-makes of earlier works. What I don't particularly like is seeing the theatres dominated by sequels and remakes that are done just to cash in but you have to take that on a case by case basis.

Remakes in moderation can be a good thing.  I'll agree with you about the 1951 Christmas Carol, some of the Hammer monster movies, and even some of the early 2000s horror remakes. 

But, in the last five years, it's just become a lazy way to put a familiar name on a mediocre movie. 
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« Reply #522 on: April 25, 2017, 11:37:25 AM »

I watched The Life Aquatic for the first time a few days ago. I enjoyed the effects as well as the soundtrack. A solid Wes Anderson film, for sure.
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« Reply #523 on: April 25, 2017, 06:21:47 PM »

Bubby Waves get the official Steve Zisou adidas sneakers? Wink
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« Reply #524 on: April 25, 2017, 09:38:45 PM »

Bubby Waves get the official Steve Zisou adidas sneakers? Wink
Not yet... besides, he's not so much of a sneaker guy. Tongue

Currently watching The Office* with him. We're like a better version of Jim & Pam.

*U.S. version
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"We are pushed to the wall as the heap fills the room to its limits. The window breaks. The house bursts. A heartbreakingly fine Scotch plaid passes before our eyes. Pinstripes carry us into Manhasset Bay."
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