saw a talkie at the picture show: new film thread

[Greg Nog]

Pretty excited about John Carter of Mars, mainly because if it does well, I bet someone's gonna try to make a high-budget Doc Savage movie.

[coldforge]

My dad wrote the first drafts of a John Carter movie, that got bought and shelved, then that came out. My dad's been in arbitration about credit for this movie for years, apparently.

[Greg Nog]

THAT IS RIGHTEOUS

I mean the writing, not the arbitration and shelving.

[Thermofusion]

Your pops is a screenwriter, cf?

Pretty excited about John Carter of Mars, mainly because if it does well, I bet someone's gonna try to make a high-budget Doc Savage movie.

They're making a Bran Mak Morn movie! But the problem with these old pulp genre adaptations is: they're usually not very good.

[Greg Nog]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed by Conan, but the more they make, the better the odds that at least one of them will be solid.

[coldforge]

Your pops is a screenwriter, cf?

Since old times. He's a novelist now but for my whole childhood he was a screenwriter. Spent a whole lot of time with McTiernan.

[Thermofusion]

Whoa. He didn't, like, write Die Hard did he?

[coldforge]

Nah son. The amount of shit that actually got made was really small. Which, considering the money he was making at his peak, will tell you an awful lot about Hollywood.

[Thermofusion]

Man, yeah, I've heard tales. A classmate of mine from college had a script bought for somewhere around half a million right after we graduated, and it's pretty likely it won't ever get made. He did end up writing the Clash of the Titans remake though (...)

[milly balgeary]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727261/

Someone watch this trailer. I don't want to be the only one.

[auto-da-fey]

should I see A Separation? there's a matinee a few blocks away in an hour, and I'm not really accomplishing that much today. I know Ebert picked it as film of the year, but he also gave that Leaves of Grass movie that nearly made me renounce narrative cinema four stars. I'd rather see We Need to Talk About Kevin, but for some reason that has yet to reach Philly. there's not much else to see, and I suspect if I don't go, I'm mostly going to piss this day away anyway.

[auto-da-fey]

in other words: somebody validate my procrastination in the next 60 minutes, plz

[elpollodiablo]

I have screeners of both of those. All three, actually! But let's never speak of Leaves of Grass ever again

[jm]

I wish I had something to tell you, adf, except that everyone I know who has seen it recommends it highly.

[hannah]

You should see A Separation

[auto-da-fey]

I went. I am glad I did, though every time I see current films in theaters, the previews make me wish for the actual, as opposed to theoretical, death of cinema*, and the audience makes me hate humanity even more. People who check their cell phones without regard for the obnoxious light it emits, in particular, should be clubbed like baby seals.

Anyway, A Separation is not my film of the year, though it's a pretty safe bet for top-ten list once I finally draw one up. It moves with deliberation through various configurations of moral ambiguity, and I appreciated the way it did so with no sense of narrative urgency. That said, it did drag a little.

So, yay for afternoon matinees, even if I am fast on my way to accomplishing precisely nothing today.

[auto-da-fey]

oh man, and that asterisk: have you guys seen this preview? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYYoaspzzlg

it's like lawrence kasdan's bourgeois boomer angst has collapsed into itself to the point of becoming some surrealist bunuel parody, except . . . it's not. it appears to be a heartwarming tale of self-restoration through searching for a lost dog. I would rather watch Leaves of Grass a second time.

[auto-da-fey]

though I will pause from my parade of hate to note that I also finally caught Essential Killing, and thought it was pretty great. it is further evidence of the fundamental injustice of the universe that Vincent Gallo is such a goddamn mesmerizing screen presence, but the fact is, I would watch him in just about anything.

[elpollodiablo]

Screening City of God for the kids as part of our cultural/historical interrogation assignment. Going to use it to set up discussions about violence, journalism, and ideology ahead of the Charles Bowden book on Juarez. I know opinion is divided on this film, but I really like it.

[monkeypants]

Saw a bunch of animation yesterday.  Started with "The Cat Of Paris," a French feature about a mother and daughter, a burglar, and the cat who splits his time between them.  I found it charming and enjoyable, and a fun way to spend a bitter February afternoon.  I went out to grab a sandwich and then returned to the same theater to see this year's crop of Oscar-nominated animated shorts.  Probably overall not quite as strong a collection of these as I've seen in the past, but still some good stuff.  "Skylight" was the highlight for me (which is apparently in the "highly commended" category and not actually nominated.)  I like drawings that move!

[peacocks]

I saw woman in black the other night. It was as dumb as you'd expect but SCARY. It worked for me, lots of jumpy jumpy moments, I definitely screamed once. There was bleeding from the mouth which I didn't appreciate. Why are dead children so damn creepy? Actually why are children so creepy in general!? It had sort of a happy ending. No lessons were learned, however. Ok one lesson: oh shoot it's kind of a spoiler. Nevermind.

[elpollodiablo]

Ha! We just came from that. The plot was the most generic PG-13 horror/thriller archetype imaginable, but there were a couple of moody/eerie parts. I sort of resent the horror movie convention of quiet-silence-STRINGS&SCARE-quiet-silence, etc., so it's not a genre I enjoy much, though.

[peacocks]

Hahaha yeah everything you said is true. It was a bit too long. I understand your resentment but don't share it mostly because I am easy to scare and yelling out silly things is a huge part of enjoying most horror movies for me. Most of my friends are in our mid to late 20's and still act like 16 year olds in theaters during stuff like this. I was probably more mature about it back then actually, because I gave a shit about looking/being cool.

[milly balgeary]

I heard good things about woman in black. I mean, not like it's amazing, but that it's fairly well done.

Absentia. This was created via a Kickstarter project. Cool huh. Guy missing 7 years comes back, just after he's been declared dead in absentia, and talks cryptically about a "thing" in a tunnel. Uh oh.

Low, low budget. Sweet fucking movie.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa1UJLqYeBU

[milly balgeary]

this friend of mine wanted a human centipede 2, and so I downloaded it. I sampled it to make sure it was working when I burned it onto a dvd.

From my sampling I conclude that this is the fucking worst imaginable film. I'm absolutely horrified. Whit, please come wrap me in a blankie. I mean, we've both been down less travelled paths, but don't watch this.