28 Film Discussion Threads Later

[Watashi]

The conceit, which I otherwise don't mind, lacks imagination. I'm saying that the scene where it is discovered is a not good scene.

It's just a goofy scene really. It's one of Ratatouille's least offensive moments to be singled out by a hard-nosed curmudgeon like you.

[Spinal]

This criticism ranks up there with the guy I knew who hated Superman Returns because "it's physically impossible for a human body to take flight! IMPOSSIBLE!"

But ... but ... but ... Superman isn't human ....

[Sven]

It's just a goofy scene really. It's one of Ratatouille's least offensive moments to be singled out by a hard-nosed curmudgeon like you.

I'd say it's pretty critical scene to the point of the movie, actually. Narratively and, given how it establishes the communication between the brain and the hands, thematically.

[Winston*]

I think that guy could have thought of a better reason to hate Superman Returns. Like because it was really boring.

[Spun Lepton]

You know that bit in Tom and Jerry where Jerry throws the anvil at Tom, and when it hits Tom, he shatters like glass, and in the very next scene he's fine? God, I just couldn't keep watching after that. So unbelievable. The talking duck was cute, though.

[Spinal]

Oh, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. When someone criticizes a film's lapses in internal logic and someone else is all like 'movies aren't always realistic!'

[Winston*]

Is any of Tom and Jerry actually good, like how Bugs Bunny cartoons can be actually good? Or is it all the same?

[Spun Lepton]

I loved Tom and Jerry as a kid, and I still enjoy it. So, I might not be the right one to ask. That said, the earlier cartoons were definitely superior to the ones that were made in, say, the 50s and beyond.

Spinal, just calm down, brah, take a chill pill. I'm just kidding around.

[Spinal]

Is any of Tom and Jerry actually good, like how Bugs Bunny cartoons can be actually good? Or is it all the same?

It's kind of a poor man's Tweety and Sylvester, which aren't the greatest of Looney Tunes characters to begin with.

[Raiders]

It's kind of a poor man's Tweety and Sylvester, which aren't the greatest of Looney Tunes characters to begin with.

And Sylvester and Tweety were a poor man's Puss N' Booty.

[Winston*]

And Sylvester and Tweety were a poor man's Puss N' Booty.

NSFW?

[balmakboor]

Every once in a while I'll see a movie for the first time and then I'll watch it over and over and become obsessed by it because it just seems so damn perfect to me in every frame. That's happening to me right now with Vivre sa vie.

[Sven]

Every once in a while I'll see a movie for the first time and then I'll watch it over and over and become obsessed by it because it just seems so damn perfect to me in every frame. That's happening to me right now with Vivre sa vie.

Seems that your top ten is much different now than when I last noted it. Playtime really is untouchably great.

[balmakboor]

Seems that your top ten is much different now than when I last noted it. Playtime really is untouchably great.

A top 10 is starting to seem ridiculously small nowadays. I've had to lose some films that've been on my list for ages like Gimme Shelter and Slacker. And I'm still playing around with Dillinger and Salo, trying to decide where or if they belong. Now I have to fit Vivre sa vie in somewhere and I plan to re-watch The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie this weekend. I have very fond memories of that one.

But yes, Playtime is pretty much in a league of its own.

[Raiders]

While only running 68 minutes and essentially a youth buddy comedy, Shane Meadows' superb Somers Town likely has a more resonant picture of disenfranchised youth and immigrant life than his previous This Is England (still excellent). Turgoose is a damn fine comedic presence and some of the little scenes in this film (the wheelchair chauffeuring, the laundry raid, the rocking horse moping) are damn pitch-perfect. With the exception of the overlong reverie at the end (though Meadows smartly colorizes it, owning up to his own rose-colored glasses), it is an immaculately constructed film; a short and sweet story far funnier than I expected and every bit as folksy and gritty as his previous efforts.

[B-side]

Turgoose

Heh. This name makes me smile.

[Yxklyx]

A top 10 is starting to seem ridiculously small nowadays. I've had to lose some films that've been on my list for ages like Gimme Shelter and Slacker...

Not a fan of Linklater but Slacker was pretty awesome.

[Skitch]

Catching up on the last few pages...

8, I don't think you're joking when you say Freddy Got Fingered is brilliant. I just think its the wrongest opinion I've ever heard.

Cars is barely passable. It would be the bottom of my Pixar list. Didn't we do this about a year ago?

Ratatoiulle is one of the best. Pixar movies are based on nonsense...and a mouse puppateer is too much? C'mon.

[B-side]

So my first experience with Sirk was a very good one, possibly even great one. Where to next, my fellow film fans (alliteration ftw)?

[Sven]

Pixar movies are based on nonsense

I will accept that Pixar movies are motivated by and frequently exemplify nonsense.

[Yxklyx]

So my first experience with Sirk was a very good one, possibly even great one. Where to next, my fellow film fans (alliteration ftw)?

Well, I prefer Magnificent Obsession. Mind, you just have to go with the plot no matter how crazy it gets. The movie borders the absurd and the sublime.

[baby doll]

After Imitation of Life, my favorite Sirks are The Tarnished Angels, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, All I Desire, and A Time to Love and a Time to Die in that order. Magnificent Obsession and There's Always Tomorrow not so much.

[Raiders]

The Tarnished Angels is my favorite Sirk, and like baby doll I too don't care for Magnificent Obsession.

[Sven]

Showed Miller's Crossing to the missus a couple of nights ago. Now that's a movie! Byrnes's eyes at the end send a positive chill. The stagey tableaus seem a little out of place, but there are only a couple of those (the shot of the boy taking Rug's toupee with the dog in the background and the Danny Boy scene, both of which are finely executed, but are too adamant on emphasizing the film's film-ness). Strange, lovely movie, with an enticing emotional life. I love the question at its center: what is Tommy's motivation? The manner in which the film comments on and clarifies that question is not like any other film I've seen.

[Wryan]

The House of the Devil builds magnificently but ends a little silly. Would rather watch stuff like this than current shit, though.