Film forum off topic/random chat thread

pixelburp

I feel some sympathy for the smaller players. The VOD era, a bit like the e-book era, is a double-edged sword in many way: on the one hand it has never been 'easier' to get your production pushed out to a wider potential audience in glorious HD; on the other hand, it has become a swollen market, full of rival services across regions that could arguably result in a film being utterly lost that might have otherwise made some splash in the smaller & niche cinemas of yesteryear.

vidor

This year's top earners. Depressingly enough, superhero/talking animals dominating the list.

FunLover18

Is it just me or is "slapstick" in comedy films getting ridiculously over the top. I've just watched the trailer for Office Christmas Party which features a man attempting to swing from a balcony on Christmas lights and crashing to the floor below. You've also got Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates which has a woman being caught in the face by the wheel of a quad-bike mid-jump, and then there was Bad Neighbours 2 which had a girl being flung through the windscreen of a car, not to mention the whole airbag thing from those movies. This sort of OTT slapstick might work well in cartoons but in live action they just look horrendous and in really bad taste.

pixelburp

FunLover18 wrote: »

Is it just me or is "slapstick" in comedy films getting ridiculously over the top. I've just watched the trailer for Office Christmas Party which features a man attempting to swing from a balcony on Christmas lights and crashing to the floor below. You've also got Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates which has a woman being caught in the face by the wheel of a quad-bike mid-jump, and then there was Bad Neighbours 2 which had a girl being flung through the windscreen of a car, not to mention the whole airbag thing from those movies. This sort of OTT slapstick might work well in cartoons but in live action they just look horrendous and in really bad taste.

Mainstream comedy feels like it has become incredibly lazy & reliant on punchline humour; be it through blunt physical humour or crude language for the sake of it. I watched the trailer for 'Sausage Party' and most of the gags seemed to resolve around the 'hilarity' of CGI cartoons swearing. There's no set-up, no escalation, misdirection, whatever; just the joke hitting you over the head.

I do consider myself to have a fairly broad taste in humour too; I love most forms from slapstick to abstract & so on, but it's as if nobody's actually trying to write decent mainstream comedy with good pay-offs anymore. Though oddly enough I think the best comedy writing in Hollywood ATM is probably coming from the Marvel films; the patter in those is pretty good.

Though the problem can be seen in more than just the writing; feels like most direction is too lazy to try and assemble good visual comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

pixelburp wrote: »

I watched the trailer for 'Sausage Party' and most of the gags seemed to resolve around the 'hilarity' of CGI cartoons swearing. There's no set-up, no escalation, misdirection, whatever; just the joke hitting you over the head.

Funnily enough the first trailer I saw for Sausage Party didn't have any swearing in it I was vaguely amused by some of it. I watched a second one a few days after that where nearly every second word was a swear and it made it put me right off.

Not that I mind swearing but there's a time and a place where it's funny. They occasionally have the mother on The Golbergs swear and even though they bleep it out it's hilarious every time because it just comes out of the blue.

johnny_ultimate

Picked up A Brighter Summer Day Blu-Ray in the Barnes and Noble sale to check if my PC drive was region free.

Turns out it is (or can be made so), but holy hell getting even a standard BR to play in Windows 10 is a goddamn nightmare. Was actually baffled at how much hassle you have to go through for what I'd have imagined was fairly basic functionality. Couldn't even get VLC to play it after plenty of tinkering and downloads.

Eventually the Criterion logo popped up with the assistance of a cocktail of third-party programmes, but the whole process was a shambles and makes me think just importing a region A player would be an easier option

The Black Oil

Have watched some of her videos before. Never heard of the devices she mentioned. Would the same sort of ones be used here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJCXBRqStbI

mikhail

The Black Oil wrote: »

...Never heard of the devices she mentioned. Would the same sort of ones be used here?...

It would seem so.
http://www.odeoncinemas.ie/accessibility/hearing-impaired-guests/
http://www.cineworld.ie/disability-access

pixelburp

Holy sh*t; I had read about this ages ago, but had just assumed it'd be thrown out of court. Nope, I guess not! I've seen both films and Carpenter's own is a classic in my eyes (albeit one that has not aged that well), but Lockout? It was a fun Z-movie definitely, and one that wore its influences pretty openly on its sleeve without coming across as a blatant 'rip-off'. Seems the courts disagreed, and I wonder if this'll cause a ripple effect with other accusations popping up.

Paris (AFP) - French filmmaker Luc Besson has been ordered to pay Hollywood's self-styled "Master of Horror" John Carpenter nearly half a million dollars for plagiarising his classic 1981 movie "Escape from New York", according to a report Friday.

The director of "The Fifth Element" and "Nikita" had denied that his 2012 film "Lockout" copied the cult futuristic thriller in which New York's Manhattan island is a giant prison that has been overrun by its inmates.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/french-filmmaker-besson-guilty-plagiarising-action-classic-141823009.html

Sad Professor

Guardian:

Last year the court found in his favour and ordered Besson, his Europacorp production company and his co-writers to pay a total of €85,000 to Carpenter, his co-writer Nick Castle and StudioCanal, which holds the rights to Escape from New York.

Besson appealed, with his spokesman saying the judgment was a block on artistic freedom…

The appeal court disagreed, however, and increased the damages more than five-fold [from €85,000 to €450,000].

Ouch!

French judges obviously don't watch many movies. However, this ruling isn't as potentially significant as if had happened in the UK/US or here. France has a civil rather than common law legal system, so no judicial precedent is set by this ruling and another judge could rule completely differently if faced with a similar case. But it will be interesting to see what happens. If more cases pop up in response, it may prompt French production companies to leave the country.

I assume Carpenter is having financial troubles. Why doesn't he just start directing tv episodes or something like everyone else?

The Black Oil

Women fainting in films on hearing bad news, older films. Was this simply the done thing at the time? Don't really see it now.

ancapailldorcha

For anyone living near one, PictureHouse Cinemas are having a 50% off membership sale today. UK only but you get 4 tickets as part of it effectively for the price of 2 as well as various discounts and 3 months Mubi membership.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Anyone been watching Gerard Barrett's Smalltown on TV3 the past 2 weeks?

Really beautiful slice of Irish family life, easily the best drama I've seen made for Irish TV.

Some folk in the TV thread don't seem to appreciate it as much as I do, complaints about pacing and various issues with plot that boil down to them not paying attention or needing everything explained in expository conversation to them.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

The new Blu Ray of The Iron Giant is out soon and I'm having a dilemma.

Amazon currently have it available for pre order for £7.99. Even with conversion and P&P that's only about €15, if even. The problem is it doesn't specify if it's got both versions of the film on it.

Zavii have the special collector's edition available for pre order too, at a reduced price of €60 (about 70 with P&P). It specifies both versions are on the disc and you get a book, a little Iron Giant figure, a letter from Brad Bird and a few art cards or something.



On JBHiFi, which is an Australian site, they've got the Blu Ray alone and with P&P it comes to €15. It also specifies both versions are on the disc.

I don't mind shelling out the €60 for the collectors edition if I thought it was worth it. I'd basically be paying €45 for a letter from Brad Bird, an action figure, a book and a nice box to keep them all in. That doesn't sound do bad when I write it down....

Thoughts?

pixelburp

Another love-in for Edgar Wright / his Scott Pilgrim adaptation; seems like a popular subject for film blogs and 'Pilgrim' feels like a film that's getting some belated praise.

Watching this does make me upset he never got to finish Ant-Man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pij5lihbC6k

johnny_ultimate

Wes Anderson directs a Christmas ad. Obviously it's an ad so approach with required cynicism, but it's also pure Wes Anderson in form and design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDinoNRC49c

johnny_ultimate

The Sight & Sound top 10 of the year: http://www.bfi.org.uk/best-films-2016

The number one deserve its spot anyway, and a nice mix overall.

pixelburp

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Wes Anderson directs a Christmas ad. Obviously it's an ad so approach with required cynicism, but it's also pure Wes Anderson in form and design.

It's incredibly Wes Anderson; he has a style there's no doubt about it & you can tell his work a mile off, though a little surprised / disappointed he figured on making a Xmas ad for a clothing store.

Nervous Wreck

Anyone tell me if screen 9, row F in Cineworld is the one with the massive amount of legroom? Can't remember...

Dair76

Yeah, it is. My favourite spot there too!

Decuc500

Row E in screen 9 in Cineworld is the row I always go for. Close to the screen with no row directly behind you so nobody to kick your seat.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I thought this was the Every Frame a Painting guy at first. Interesting thoughts on "Passable Movies"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukk5TJL27pE

pixelburp

Ah the 'aul "Eureka moment written on glass / a mirror". I think I get the point of the video, it does seem like a lot of Hollywood beats are fairly cannibalistic at this stage, cribbing off each other.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

pixelburp wrote: »

Ah the 'aul "Eureka moment written on glass / a mirror". I think I get the point of the video, it does seem like a lot of Hollywood beats are fairly cannibalistic at this stage, cribbing off each other.

I saw a thing on twitter recently where the writers of some show had a whiteboard with phrases/jokes they're not allowed use anymore. There's loads of videos on YouTube too that are super cuts of people doing or saying the same thing taken from various films over the years.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Another good one from the same guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZ_ZyzCO24

Personally the 3rd Harry Potter film has always been my favourite but it was just personal taste, this video looks into it in much more detail. You can agree or disagree on his opinion of PoA, but I love the idea that a film like this educates kids on what good film making is. In so far as live action kids/family films go there's been a serious lack of anything decent for quite some time.

pixelburp

Director de jour, Denis Villeneuve is being eyed for a new crack at the Dune universe:

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/denis-villeneuve-dune-reboot-legendary-pictures-1201929280/

I'm both excited and a little cautious about this; stands to reason every popular property is being eyed up as a prospective 'Shared Universe' franchise, but Dune is a very delicate property to get right & isn't really that Blockbuster-friendly. If anything, its less-than-subtle allusions to the Middle East would make it better suited to a Game of Thrones'esque adaptation for TV; and given how cinematic TV is slowly becoming, the idea of Villeneuve in charge an adaptation would be pretty cool.

David Lynch's version remains the better attempt at adapting Dune, and is still a wonderful, baroque, bizarre piece: I would defend it to my dying day

The Black Oil

Roundtable season again.

Directors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtB8YhsUkkg

They're all pretty good storytellers in this (context of the video at least), I reckon.

Cinematographers, couple of non-American voices in there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iFVM319WRg

Joeface

Ah random of topic Thread , just what I was looking for .

Some how ended up watching Die Another Day last night on what ever channel, 5* i think . despite be awful I found it very funny where Pierce Brosnan is running , Pretty sure in some places he is not. To me it looked like he stood up ,Camera zooms in and shows him from waste up and he pumps his arms ...and then the platform he is standing on is rolled across the stage .

FunLover18

I couldn't find a thread on the Denzel Washington directed, Oscar nominated Fences, does anyone know if this is getting an Irish release? It's out in the UK already and I've seen posters in Cineworld but I can't find any cinemas showing it on entertainment.ie and I can't even find it in there coming soon section.

EDIT: The IFCO says it's out on Friday.

Sad Professor

FunLover18 wrote: »

I couldn't find a thread on the Denzel Washington directed, Oscar nominated Fences, does anyone know if this is getting an Irish release? It's out in the UK already and I've seen posters in Cineworld but I can't find any cinemas showing it on entertainment.ie and I can't even find it in there coming soon section.

This Friday I think.