Let's all go to the movies~

[Thad]

Finally caught Fury Road.

Man, sometimes you see a movie and it is just the platonic ideal of what that type of movie should be. As far as films in the "post-apocalyptic/death race" subgenre goes, I can really only think of one other movie that's in the same league, and it happens to also have the words "Mad", "Max", and "Road" in its title.

(Actually it's kind of interesting to look at Fury Road as an inversion of Road Warrior. In Road Warrior, Max helps defend a settlement against invaders; in Fury Road, he helps an invader who has made a raid against a settlement.)

I can't think of any other case where a sequel took thirty years to get made but was totally worth the wait.

[kashan]

Jurassic world is bad. It has one of those scripts that requires everyone in it to be as stupid as possible for the plot to progress

[Friday]

Fury Road was as rad as a movie can be made.

[Friday]

Well, ok. It didn't have Kurt Russell and Keith David. Nobody's perfect. Except The Thing.

[Lottel]

Looking forward to a wolfgame based on Fury Road.


WITNESS ME

[Thad]

Animated Chew film to feature Stephen Yeun as Tony Chu, Felicia Day as Amelia Mintz, and David Tennant as Mason Savoy.

Yeun's an obvious but excellent choice. Tennant...I hadn't thought of him but he's actually not too far off from the voice I hear in my head, now that I think about it. Hell, have I been reading Mason in a Scottish accent this whole time? I think I have.

Needs to add a bit of heft to his voice but I'm sure he doesn't need to be told that; he's seen a picture of the character he's playing.

Felicia Day...well, she's really not what I had in mind for Amelia at all; I always thought of Amelia as a lot more confident and socially adept than the hapless character Day usually plays. (Also always heard her with a slight Minnesota accent.) But I think Day's great and I'm sure she'll do a great job -- maybe she'll play the character the way I've always thought of her and maybe she won't, but I'm sure either way it'll turn out just fine.

[Lottel]

So either Inside-Out was bad or I've seen so many good movies lately that a mediocre one falls so flat.

[Lottel]

That can't be it. JW was mediocre.

I guess Inside Out was just kinda bad.

[Mothra]

What was bad about it? I'll admit the premise seemed kinda boring.

[Mongrel]

I haven't gone to see it, but every clip or preview I saw for Inside-Out just made it look kind of uninspired and boring.

[Brantly B.]

Just watch reruns of Herman's Head instead.

[Lottel]

My overall experience was boredom and disappointment. I know what they were trying to do (show the importance of being well rounded emotionally, understand sadness) but they failed on that.

They always seemed to stop too short or not explain something they should have.


They did a lot of small, subtle things well. Joy was actually annoying and overbearing but since see stressed the idea everyone should be happy all the time, people went along. Anger being more defensive than outright attacking

[Mongrel]

I think that part of the problem is that even if you do them well, the characters have to be reductive stereotypes by their very nature.

[Lottel]

Here's a good insight into the movie:
At one point in time a character is pointing at different parts of the brain on the landscape.

"There's the language center! And there's Deja Vu! And there's your senses! And there's Deja Vu! And there's logic! And there's Deja Vu! And there's artistry! And there's Deja Vu!"

[Lottel]

I think that part of the problem is that even if you do them well, the characters have to be reductive stereotypes by their very nature.

That actually wasn't the problem! I liked the emotions! It was story, lack of emotional weight to everything, and bland writing that was the problem!

[Thad]

I feel like there was some really good stuff there but it never quite cohered into a satisfying narrative. It was a movie that valued high concept and cartooning over narrative and character; I feel like, in a lot of ways, it was a throwback to cartoons of the 1930's. (Look, guys, Pete Docter really, really likes Porky in Wackyland.)

I think Mongrel's right that they kinda boxed themselves in by making a movie whose characters are, by necessity, one-note tropes. (Although they're all impeccably cast.) It doesn't help that the plot itself is essentially shorthand -- you guys like Pixar movies, right? Here's the plot of every Pixar movie. It's all real broad-strokes stuff. And the result, as you note, is ironically a movie about emotions that just doesn't have much emotional resonance.

But the high concept is good (and making a children's film that's essentially about what depression is like is pretty ballsy), and the animation shows some of the best work Pixar's ever done; my favorite scene was the Abstract Thought sequence (even though Futurama did it better), and in general there's a lot more play with elasticity here than in most Pixar movies; the characters stretch and contort like, well, 1930's cartoon characters. (And make an excellent contrast to the humans in the film.)

I feel like it would have made a really good 15- or 30-minute short, but there's just not enough to hold together a 90-minute movie.

Still, I don't think it's bad; it's just not up to the high standards Pixar's set for itself over the years.

[Newbie]

Meanwhile, I just read a long exchange on reddit between people who couldn't get over how heartbreaking they found Inside Out.

Tonight we're doing our semi-annual drive in patronage. Probably won't stick around for Pitch Perfect 2, but Jurassic World is a decent middle film choice, I think. Unfortunately, we'll have to sit through Ted 2 first. I am aggressively disinterested in watching or supporting this movie.

[Grath]

Meanwhile, I just read a long exchange on reddit between people who couldn't get over how heartbreaking they found Inside Out.

Tonight we're doing our semi-annual drive in patronage. Probably won't stick around for Pitch Perfect 2, but Jurassic World is a decent middle film choice, I think. Unfortunately, we'll have to sit through Ted 2 first. I am aggressively disinterested in watching or supporting this movie.

Pitch Perfect 2 was... pretty aggressively mediocre, and I say this as someone that liked the first one.

[Mothra]

I saw Ted 1 with my dad on TV a while back and it was decently funny.

[Blossom]