The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

For the 2nd time in a month, I traveled to the East Bay to see a movie, at a theater I'd never been to. Saw the terrific little indie Middle of Nowhere at the Shattuck in Berkeley -- for some odd reason this acclaimed film (a 76 on Metacritic) is not playing anywhere in SF, despite a plethora of arthouse/indie-friendly screens. 

The Shattuck is owned by Landmatrk but they use the Alamo Drafthouse model; comfy couches in some of the smaller auditoriums and they sell alcoholic bevs. Very cool.

[ggould]

We went to Skyfall last night. I really liked it.  Yes, there were formulaic Bond plot devices aplenty, but it was visually sumptuous.  Some of the re-imagined roles reminded me of the new Star Trek universe as well!  There are a few surprises, so I won't talk details either.  Did anyone else think Javier Bardem did kind of a Gary Busey madman kind of shtick?

[radical347]

I'm "meh" on Lincoln.  Yes, the acting was good, but I felt like I was watching a history channel marathon.

[RGMike]

I'm "meh" on Lincoln.  Yes, the acting was good, but I felt like I was watching a history channel marathon.

I can understand that, tho' for me, esp after War Horse, it seemed pretty restrained for Spielberg, and that's a *good* thing. Despite being 2-1/2 hrs I was never bored.

OTOH, I saw Life of Pi today. Gorgeous cinematography, first-rate 3-D. but boy was it a loooong sit -- like a beautifully illustrated lecture rather than an interesting story (there's no suspense, since we know the guy telling the tale survived his ordeal).  And it didn't make me "believe" in anything (except maybe James Cameron, whose company did the effects).

But I really liked Silver Linings Playbook, Anna Karenina and Holy Motors -- that last one is pretty weird.

[RGMike]

Opening paragraph of AO Scott's NY Times review of The Hobbit...

"In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth fantasy novel, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sets out with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a posse of dwarfs to battle a fearsome dragon. [Spoiler alert] they do not kill the dragon, although [spoiler alert] they eventually will, within the next 18 months or so, because [spoiler alert] this “Hobbit,” which is [migraine alert] 170 minutes long, is the opening installment in [film critic suicide-watch alert] a trilogy..."

He was not impressed.  It might be time to re-read National lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

[Lightnin' Rod]

Opening paragraph of AO Scott's NY Times review of The Hobbit...

"In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth fantasy novel, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sets out with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a posse of dwarfs to battle a fearsome dragon. [Spoiler alert] they do not kill the dragon, although [spoiler alert] they eventually will, within the next 18 months or so, because [spoiler alert] this “Hobbit,” which is [migraine alert] 170 minutes long, is the opening installment in [film critic suicide-watch alert] a trilogy..."

He was not impressed.  It might be time to re-read National lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

It's a freakin' trilogy?!?!?!?     I had not heard that.  Maybe they are adding sharks to this version and Bilbo can jump one.

[RGMike]

Opening paragraph of AO Scott's NY Times review of The Hobbit...

"In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth fantasy novel, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sets out with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a posse of dwarfs to battle a fearsome dragon. [Spoiler alert] they do not kill the dragon, although [spoiler alert] they eventually will, within the next 18 months or so, because [spoiler alert] this “Hobbit,” which is [migraine alert] 170 minutes long, is the opening installment in [film critic suicide-watch alert] a trilogy..."

He was not impressed.  It might be time to re-read National lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

It's a freakin' trilogy?!?!?!?     I had not heard that.  Maybe they are adding sharks to this version and Bilbo can jump one.

Oh yes. It's known in the business as "monetizing a property"   They've basically taken a small book and LOTR-ized it by adding more battles and rescues and a swordfight every 20 minutes or so. The better to utilize 3-D CGI, my dear.  I'll see it of course (I'm interested in what the 48-frames-per-second version looks like, at least) but apparently it's quite a long slog.

[Lightnin' Rod]

Opening paragraph of AO Scott's NY Times review of The Hobbit...

"In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth fantasy novel, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sets out with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a posse of dwarfs to battle a fearsome dragon. [Spoiler alert] they do not kill the dragon, although [spoiler alert] they eventually will, within the next 18 months or so, because [spoiler alert] this “Hobbit,” which is [migraine alert] 170 minutes long, is the opening installment in [film critic suicide-watch alert] a trilogy..."

He was not impressed.  It might be time to re-read National lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

It's a freakin' trilogy?!?!?!?     I had not heard that.  Maybe they are adding sharks to this version and Bilbo can jump one.

Oh yes. It's known in the business as "monetizing a property"   They've basically taken a small book and LOTR-ized it by adding more battles and rescues and a swordfight every 20 minutes or so. The better to utilize 3-D CGI, my dear.  I'll see it of course (I'm interested in what the 48-frames-per-second version looks like, at least) but apparently it's quite a long slog.

I actually downloaded it to my Kindle at the beginning of the year to get one last unsullied experience.  It would make a very fine 2 hour adventure.  Or maybe an hour and a half.  Sheesh and yeesh.

[RGMike]

Opening paragraph of AO Scott's NY Times review of The Hobbit...

"In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s first Middle-earth fantasy novel, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) sets out with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a posse of dwarfs to battle a fearsome dragon. [Spoiler alert] they do not kill the dragon, although [spoiler alert] they eventually will, within the next 18 months or so, because [spoiler alert] this “Hobbit,” which is [migraine alert] 170 minutes long, is the opening installment in [film critic suicide-watch alert] a trilogy..."

He was not impressed.  It might be time to re-read National lampoon's Bored of the Rings.

It's a freakin' trilogy?!?!?!?     I had not heard that.  Maybe they are adding sharks to this version and Bilbo can jump one.

Oh yes. It's known in the business as "monetizing a property"   They've basically taken a small book and LOTR-ized it by adding more battles and rescues and a swordfight every 20 minutes or so. The better to utilize 3-D CGI, my dear.  I'll see it of course (I'm interested in what the 48-frames-per-second version looks like, at least) but apparently it's quite a long slog.

I actually downloaded it to my Kindle at the beginning of the year to get one last unsullied experience.  It would make a very fine 2 hour adventure.  Or maybe an hour and a half.  Sheesh and yeesh.

Headline on Mick LaSalle's little-man-asleep-in-his-chair review: "Chore of the Rings". Heh.

[RGMike]

And for those wondering what all this 48-frames-per-second stuff is about (The Hobbit is being shown in this new process at some theaters; others are showing the usual 24-fps version)  Here's a good explanation from the Boston Globe:

It’s a hard thing to describe, but I’ll try. Instead of film’s burnished textures — the subtle gradations of lighting and color that have sustained the medium for over a century, even into an age when most “films” are shot on digital equipment — the 48 fps Hobbit has the hot, live presence we associate with television shows. More than anything, it resembles an insanely high-end Masterpiece Theatre production: I, Claudius with a big budget and endless banks of computers. This may be the future of movies. We may all have to adjust. I still don’t like it. That’s partly because I’m a stick in the mud (I don’t think I’m alone), but partly because something genuinely seems to have been lost in the translation — a visual depth, a quality of mystery, that soaks into the very experience of watching a movie and the meanings we take away from it. There are sights to make your jaw hit the floor in The Hobbit but there’s hardly any mystery. That hurts more than you’d think.

[Lightnin' Rod]

So Mike, did you ever get out to see The Hobbit?  I'm curious to read your reaction.  I enjoyed it much more than I had expected to.

[RGMike]

So Mike, did you ever get out to see The Hobbit?  I'm curious to read your reaction.  I enjoyed it much more than I had expected to.

I thought it was .... long. Not bad, but definitely unnecessarily stretched. I don't know that I want to see 2 more 3-hour movies. The party at Bilbo's house sequence seemed to go on forever, I thought.  It certainly *looked* good, tho' I'm not a fan of the High-Frame-rate thing -- it was like watching high-end video, rather than film. I slipped into the "regular" version on my way out and thought it looked better that way.

[Lightnin' Rod]

This should probably go in the Mick LaSalle thread, but it works here to - Mick speaks out agains media violence.  Very well said.

http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Violent-media-poisoning-nation-s-soul-4160035.php

[Lightnin' Rod]

So Mike, did you ever get out to see The Hobbit?  I'm curious to read your reaction.  I enjoyed it much more than I had expected to.

I thought it was .... long. Not bad, but definitely unnecessarily stretched. I don't know that I want to see 2 more 3-hour movies. The party at Bilbo's house sequence seemed to go on forever, I thought.  It certainly *looked* good, tho' I'm not a fan of the High-Frame-rate thing -- it was like watching high-end video, rather than film. I slipped into the "regular" version on my way out and thought it looked better that way.

I didn't see the high-frame-rate version.  Instead, I went to the El Cerrito Rialto with comfy couches and food and beverage service.  I liked the atmoshere. 

One thing that saved the movie was the casting, from Martin Freeman as Bilbo (could not have done better) to whoever that is playing Thorin Oakenshield. 

[RGMike]

This should probably go in the Mick LaSalle thread, but it works here to - Mick speaks out agains media violence.  Very well said.

http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Violent-media-poisoning-nation-s-soul-4160035.php

He's right, tho' I don't think Dark Knight Rises is in anything approaching the same category as first-person shooter video games. I see ads for those every night on cable and I'm dumbfounded that people spend hours on end playing them.  Interesting that he thought DKR was "anti-life" and a "wallow in cruelty & destruction"... yet called Django Unchained the most entertaining movie of the year. Django has gallons more blood than DKR.