Last movie watched...

[Jim_Campbell]

If it were Luke, C3PO and Obi Wan singing the song then sure it'd be the same. But it's not.

That's a stretch. Sauchie provides more examples in his post directly below yours.

Look, I'm not arguing that The Hobbit is intrinsically a good film. I enjoyed it, but I could probably watch two hours of New Zealand helicopter shots so I'm not claiming to be a representative member of the audience.

I do think some of the criticisms are a little odd. Fellowship caught a lot of flak on here for shonky effects work and yet The Hobbit gets a pasting for having effects that are too good, for example. Criticising it for having a different look or tone from the LotR movies when it's entirely appropriate that it does is also a touch unfair. Being 'tonally all over the place' doesn't wash with me for reasons already cited.

None of which is intended to suggest that you're entirely justified in not enjoying it. (Other than to refer you my previous post about life being easier once everyone realises that I'm always right.)

Cheers

Jim

[Professor Bear]

The belief that films have to focus on doing one thing, belonging to a single genre at the exclusion of all others is a relatively new one and only really obtains in Anglo Saxon cinema.

Well, that's one opinion, but I for one thought they got the mix of comedy and horror all wrong in Carry On Screaming to the point it wasn't scary at all.  I thought Bridge To Teribithia didn't need that wee kid to die halfway through, either, and if Bambi thought his mum was dead, did we really need to know either way and bring the whole show down? Clearly Disney didn't have a clue what he was at.

[Buttonman]

Burt and Audrey try to save her from her Indian roots in The Unforgiven followed by the chick flick bonanza that is What to Expect When You're Expecting.

[JamesC]

Isn't the Internet great? It's been bugging me for a while what film Kevin Bacon starred in with Michael Keaton - as Mr Bacon states on one of his EE adverts.

I had a quick look at IMDB before but couldn't see it.

Turns out it's She's Having A Baby and Michael Keaton plays himself and is uncredited - as such it doesn't show up on his filmography or on the cast list for the film.

How the hell would I have found that out in the pre-Internet days?



Anyway, I'm about to watch Shoot Em Up which I remember thinking was good fun when I saw it at the cinema.

[radiator]

That's a stretch.

No it isn't. The Cantina song isn't a 'musical number'. There's a bar band playing music - it's in context.

Look, perhaps what I really meant when I said 'tonally all over the place' is more of a Phantom Menace alike 'loads of boring scenes of people sitting around having meetings' being a bit at odds with what should really be a kids film. You know that great children's book - The Hobbit? I imagine most kids who went to see the film were bored utterly shitless.

The Hobbit gets a pasting for having effects that are too good

What? I said the effects overall were a lot worse and less convincing due to the overreliance on cgi. Some of the cgi was superb - like Gollum - but my abiding memory of the film is videogamelike scenes of Dwarves swinging swords at obviously cgi orcs in obviously fake cgi environments. It seemed far more soundstagey/greenscreeny than LotR did to me.

Criticising it for having a different look or tone from the LotR movies when it's entirely appropriate that it does

If you read my posts I'm actually criticising it for trying to be tonally too similar to the original films, to its detriment.

[Jim_Campbell]

That's a stretch.

No it isn't. The Cantina song isn't a 'musical number'. There's a bar band playing music - it's in context.

And Sauchie's other examples?

Actually, look, I'm only playing devil's advocate here because I think some of the criticism — not necessarily all of yours — has been a little harsh. I'm not invested enough in the movie to try to mount a spirited defence of it: I certainly think it lacked a lot of the heart that endeared Fellowship to me the first time I saw it; it doesn't feel like (as someone on the Fellowship DVD extras described it) "the biggest low budget film in the world."

Some stuff — too many CG monsters — I agree with. Other stuff, not so much.

Cheers

Jim

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I imagine most kids who went to see the film were bored utterly shitless...
...my abiding memory of the film is videogamelike scenes

Kids fuckin' love videogames.

It's 2013, at this stage basically all pre-teens weren't even born in the same millenium as you. They've never known a world without the internet or videogames. Your inner-child probably has very little in common with kids these days.

[radiator]

Kids fuckin' love videogames.

It's 2013, at this stage basically all pre-teens weren't even born in the same millenium as you. They've never known a world without the internet or videogames. Your inner-child probably has very little in common with kids these days.

What on Earth are you on about?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

What I was trying to say in a really obtuse way was:

You should never presume to know what appeals to kids these days.

Admittedly, I should really complete a thought before committing it to the internet. Especially since I asserted that kids love videogames while pointing out that it's difficult to say what they like.

Look, I would agree with most of what you said about The Hobbit. There are too many scenes where people are sitting around having a meeting. That scene with Saruman and Galadriel just recapped what we already knew and didn't really serve a purpose. But I suppose my point was, you can't just assume kids would be bored by that. After all, it's a couple of wizards and a fairy queen discussing ancient yet foreboding evil. Kids might dig that. They're not as familiar with fantasy tropes as we might be.

[sheldipez]

Kids fuckin' love videogames.

It's 2013, at this stage basically all pre-teens weren't even born in the same millenium as you. They've never known a world without the internet or videogames. Your inner-child probably has very little in common with kids these days.

What on Earth are you on about?

Apparently you're old and don't like videogames.

[Richmond Clements]

What I was trying to say in a really obtuse way was:

You should never presume to know what appeals to kids these days.

Admittedly, I should really complete a thought before committing it to the internet. Especially since I asserted that kids love videogames while pointing out that it's difficult to say what they like.

Look, I would agree with most of what you said about The Hobbit. There are too many scenes where people are sitting around having a meeting. That scene with Saruman and Galadriel just recapped what we already knew and didn't really serve a purpose. But I suppose my point was, you can't just assume kids would be bored by that. After all, it's a couple of wizards and a fairy queen discussing ancient yet foreboding evil. Kids might dig that. They're not as familiar with fantasy tropes as we might be.

My two love video games and loved the Hobbit movie.
They loved the songs and in fact downloaded them onto their iphones.
But then, they're not cynical middle-ages men on the internet...

[JamesC]

Shoot Em Up was really good fun just as I'd remembered.

There are probably a million things wrong with it but I can forgive a lot from a film in which, in the first five minutes, a baddie is killed by having a carrot put into his mouth and then shoved through the back of his head and told 'Eat Your vegetables'!

The scenes of gunplay are really innovative and over the top. I'd compare this to the Crank films. Good 'have a beer and a laugh' entertainment.

[sheldipez]

What I was trying to say in a really obtuse way was:

You should never presume to know what appeals to kids these days.

Admittedly, I should really complete a thought before committing it to the internet. Especially since I asserted that kids love videogames while pointing out that it's difficult to say what they like.

Look, I would agree with most of what you said about The Hobbit. There are too many scenes where people are sitting around having a meeting. That scene with Saruman and Galadriel just recapped what we already knew and didn't really serve a purpose. But I suppose my point was, you can't just assume kids would be bored by that. After all, it's a couple of wizards and a fairy queen discussing ancient yet foreboding evil. Kids might dig that. They're not as familiar with fantasy tropes as we might be.

My two love video games and loved the Hobbit movie.
They loved the songs and in fact downloaded them onto their iphones.
But then, they're not cynical middle-ages men on the internet...

My kids will sit and enjoy any old crap. The next Smurfs move could literally be 90mins of them blowing raspberries and farting with no dialogue at all and it would be the best thing ever. Add in a Justin Beeber cameo and you've got my daughter's new favourite movie.

[Frank]

There's a bit in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Fincher) where Lisbeth rams a dildo into the arse of her rapist with the sole of her boot. The squelching noise on the soundtrack is very cartoony, but the rest of the film is in the solidly functional mode of the director's other potboiler work (The Game, Panic Room), making it entertaining but hardly essential viewing.

I liked the character and I'd quite like to see how the story plays out, so I'm trying to decide whether to rent the second and third instalments of the Swedish language film series or just read the novels. Any advice?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Any advice?

Werewolves and cheese