Last movie watched...

[radiator]

I really didn't like Super 8 for precisely that reason. Felt like a very deliberate, calculated, and as a result charmless pastiche of 1980s Amblin movies.

[Richmond Clements]

I really didn't like Super 8 for precisely that reason. Felt like a very deliberate, calculated, and as a result charmless pastiche of 1980s Amblin movies.

Heh. Fair dos.
I can't wait to make my boys sit down and watch it - I'm hoping it'll be a gateway drug into E.T., Flight of the Navigator and The Goonies.

[radiator]

But is it a strong enough film without the added appeal of nostalgia for those very films?

If you ask me it'd be better to cut out the middle man and go straight to ET. Do kids really distinguish between old films and period films anyway?

[Richmond Clements]

But is it a strong enough film without the added appeal of nostalgia for those very films?

Very good question, and one I cannot answer, as the nostalgia was good enough for me.

If you ask me it'd be better to cut out the middle man and go straight to ET. Do kids really distinguish between old films and period films anyway?

My two do. It's a struggle to get them to watch anything they would call 'old'! Of course, when they do, they usually love it, but getting them to watch it is a task.

[judda fett]

There's always Stand By Me, It and Threads to fall back on at least. Never did me any harm.

[Richmond Clements]

There's always Stand By Me, It and Threads to fall back on at least. Never did me any harm.

Stand by Me is a fucking good call. Threads... be interesting to see their reaction to it - I doubt they'd be as terrified by it as our generation was.

[judda fett]

Threads followed by a few episodes of Sapphire And Steel. Or The Snowman and then Any Way The Wind Blows. Happy carefree days during the Cold War.

[Richmond Clements]

"What, you were scared of nuclear war? Seriously dad? That kept you awake at night? HAHAAHAHAAAAA! ... you're old."

[judda fett]

We'd all love to go back to the good old cold war days, especially in the current economic climate. You could by your kids a tin of beans for their shelf in the family bunker and it'd say more than any fancy ps box or i yamewotsit.

Last movie watched was Beats, Rhymes And Life, the excellent Tribe Called Quest documentary. Again.

[Richmond Clements]

We'd all love to go back to the good old cold war days, especially in the current economic climate. You could by your kids a tin of beans for their shelf in the family bunker and it'd say more than any fancy ps box or i yamewotsit.

Tru dat... tru dat...

[Professor Bear]

Hilariously, we now know that Threads was a bit optimistic if anything, because of the lack of cannibal rape gangs.

Surely ease young 'uns in with kiddie fare like War Games?  The biggest giveaway about its age is the computers and a character at one point using the tab off a soft drink can (remember those?) to fool a coin-operated payphone (remember those?), but apart from that it stands up well and explains the fears of a nuclear exchange at several points in the film so you don't have to.  Or you could osmosis it into their young minds with some Roger Moore Bond movies, as those were steeped in the culture of the Cold War even if, watching them nowadays, you realise they weren't as thick-eared about it as the Connery Bonds and there was this clear subtext that the Soviets were not actually our enemies that I don't recall picking up on at the time, with most movie stories essentially an attempt by the characters to maintain balance rather than give outright tactical advantage.

[El Chivo]

Dredd

Arsom! as expected


Chi

[judgefloyd]

Dredd was good, but not genius - no doubt it's discussed at great length elsewhere here.

I just finished 'Tomorrow when the War Began', a kind of Australian Red Dawn, but with racist overtones.  A group of lovable stereotype teens go camping in the hills near the country town where they live.  There's a Chinese Australian kid who studies hard and who lives in a restaurant where his parents - hilarity alert!- don't speak good English.  There's an attractive bimbo who brings loads of cosmetics and provides the movie's gratuituous underwear scene.  There's a religious girl who is so mousy I expected her to start growning large round ears and a tail.  Her dad speaks to her with a gigantic cross in the background because, you know, that's what religious people are like.  There is a lovable Greek Australian tearaway who isn't good at school.  The idyll is disturbed by an invasion of asian (I think you'd say oriental in the UK) dudes.  Nobody at any stage of the movie shows any curiosity as to where they're from, although one of the kids trots out the recieved bogan wisdom that asians covet Australia because where they live is really crowded and where we live is awesome.  WHerever it is (certainly not New Zealand, probably Indonesia) they are cruel and crap at invasions since they ignore the major ports and cities and only take over a few inland country towns.  Red underpants scene aside, I didn't really enjoy it. 

On a brighter note, I just finished Thunderball, which was just as cool as ever.  It ocurred to me that the modern tattoo craze has spoiled this part of the Bond movies.  In Thunderball, Bond cleverly notces a Chinese Tong tattoo on one of the evildoers and phones Moneypenny to describe it.  These days he' be on the phone for hours and she'd just tell him that tatts are ubiquitous on everyone under forty anyway. 

[Tiplodocus]

Tiny Tips (12) really enjoyed Super 8 and he hasn't seen ET etc.

He's downstairs playing with a camcorder...

[blackest]

watched american mary.not blown away by it as lots of people seem to be.maybe a 2nd viewing will help.just seemed a little muddled and uninteresting on 1st viewing.