N'Al on 12/12/2007 at 19:01
Turn his career around?
Fair enough, he did do (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095989/) Return of the Killer Tomatoes, but it seemed to me that his career went only one way - up, that is - after ER.
Ulukai on 12/12/2007 at 19:16
1. Hot Fuzz - Simon Pegg. Nick Frost. Timothy Dalton. Bill Nighy. Bill Bailey. A whole squad car full of references to other cop movies. Mr P I Staker.
Swaaan! Genius.
2. Die Hard 4 - Gay for this
3. The Last King of Scotland - Gripping stuff.
4. Ratatouille - Don't know who the hell Brad Bird is but this was great fun.
Passed the timePirates of the Carribean: The Third One - Pirates are awesome. In this case, they could have been a lot better but still - Pirates. Did go on too long though.
MehShrek the Third - Shrek is still lovable, grumpy old Shrek, but he's being milked. Badly.
Spiderman 3 - GTFO, Spidey.
WTFBourne Ultimatium - Loved the first two. What the hell is going on in this one?
Good Luck Chuck - We were the oldest ones in the theatre by a good ten years. There was a reason for this. I was going to walk out but it's not like we had anything better to do - which is why we were there in the first place. Dire.
Quote Posted by Scots_Taffer
Little bit early, sure, but my main man Stitch prompted me about this and I didn't want to get beaten to the punch like last year.
I did wait until January for you to make your move! :D
Tonamel on 12/12/2007 at 20:36
Quote Posted by Ulukai
Don't know who the hell Brad Bird is
See also: The Iron Giant, The Incredibles
Kuuso on 12/12/2007 at 21:42
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Little bit early, sure, but my main man Stitch prompted me about this and I didn't want to get beaten to the punch like last year. :(
It’s been a very interesting year for movies but due to release dates being what they are in Australia and being a busy working parent what it is, I’ve not seen many of the films that qualify as being highest up my list as having the potential for being my favourite picks of the year so I’ll cross those off before I even start.
My Top Three:1. The Fountain *It’s not often I see a movie that moves me in a profound way and this one did. The weaving of three stories into one here uses beautiful imagery and allegory to tell a story that isn’t so much about characters as it is about a simple yet incredibly complex facet of psychology: acceptance. All the actors do outstanding work here, Aranofsky does admiral work at the helm, the visuals and audio are sublime. This was an easy pick for first, to be honest, in any year.
I have been really lazy with movies this year and I can't really compile a list, but I can say that The Fountain was the movie experience of the year. The three stories are amazing, but the atmosphere with the space one is just magnificent. Hugh Jackman was incredible in his acting; His role was hardly easy. I was a bit dissapointed with Rachel Weisz, she seemed to overact a bit.
It's one of the best films I've ever seen.
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
I'm only going to give you one. All the other contenders are going to be covered in this thread anyway.
If you want to be technical, it came out last year: after sitting on a shelf for two years, being mutilated by the studio, and then being quashed with a limited release of about ... oh 5 theaters. So, nobody saw it until DVD and cable this year. If at all. So it definitely gets a waiver on the date limit.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuvK1NenUQ4) Idiocracy As much as Office Space skewers office politics, Idiocracy takes on all of American culture, where the stupid people are breeding, and the most average man in the country wakes up 500 years in the future as the smartest man alive.
Even with the bad editing, the soul of the movie survives. It works on pretty much all levels, cheap slapstick and social commentary, and, most importantly for a ridiculous comedy, it's inherently quotable ("I like money"). Just like Office Space, this is one that's just got to find it's audience.
No way. Idiocracy might have had a good idea, but it was absolutely horrible. It wasn't satire or parody of american life style, it was just ramming in the stereotypes so much that they lose the last inch of their funnyness, if they had any of that to begin with. The movie was just idiotic.
Even Transformers was better than it.
Rug Burn Junky on 12/12/2007 at 22:28
We should hang out.
Scots Taffer on 12/12/2007 at 23:53
Quote Posted by Stitch
Black Sheep was actually incredible, although not all have a refined enough cinematic palette to appreciate its myriad levels.
Hahahahah, I realise you're more than likely taking the piss but it tried to straddle this uncomfortable half-way house between modern-day parody and slapstick farce, it wore the direct influences of
Evil Dead and
League of Gentlemen on its sleeve but that still couldn't save it from being completely lacking in the comedy department (largely due to a leading duo who can't act) and too much focus on the ridiculous plot. I personally thought this could've been great... but yeah, what I got wasn't even approaching watchable - whereas a movie like
Blades of Glory I caught again last night with my wife and family and enjoyed it all over again.
Quote Posted by ercles
Although I liked a whole bunch of films this year, I honestly can't go past Michael Clayton.
It's on my list, but I tend to dislike courtroom intrigue unless it's especially well done. George Clooney has always been a solid actor though, even from his
Three Kings days though it's true he was more or less playing off his generic heart-throb personality rather than really acting. I was super-impressed by him since
O' Brother Where Art Thou and I even thought his directorial debut was very good.
Quote Posted by Ulukai
I did wait until January for you to make your move! :D
As I said at the time, it was completely fair. I had hardly seen any movies.
Quote Posted by Kuuso
The Fountain was the movie experience of the year.
It's one of the best films I've ever seen.
I strongly agree.
Quote Posted by Kuuso
No way. Idiocracy might have had a good idea, but it was absolutely horrible. It wasn't satire or parody of american life style, it was just ramming in the stereotypes so much that they lose the last inch of their funnyness, if they had any of that to begin with. The movie was just idiotic.
I strongly disagree. It seems you've been unable to pick apart from how closely it panders to its target audience entirely how
scathing it is. This film gets up cuddly and cosy with the morons and then just starts tearing them apart. It's a very, very angry film. It suffers as a movie due to the editing process and the actors they have involved, but the writing is pretty clearly funny and satirical.
Rug Burn Junky on 13/12/2007 at 00:42
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
the actors they have involved
That settles it, when I finally get my screenplay made into a movie, I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure that the starring roles are filled by Luke Wilson and Robert Carlyle. ;)
Stitch on 13/12/2007 at 00:56
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Hahahahah, I realise you're more than likely taking the piss
I'm actually not. It's no Slither, but I had a blast.
st.patrick on 13/12/2007 at 01:22
No. 1: Pan's Labyrinth (yeah 2006 but arrived here this year)
Utter shite: Beowulf - ffs cut down on the crappy WoW graphics and make a gritty, hardcore, full-of-monsters, blood-runs-everywhere, no-happy-ending adaptation of a legendary myth you fuckers
Shug on 13/12/2007 at 05:51
After reading over the first page I realized I couldn't really list any movies I saw this year that I thought were truly great.
Stardust was fun, employed a number of quality British actors (woohoo) and was well-crafted. There was, remarkably, genuine chemistry between Claire Danes and another human being.
Hot Fuzz was semi-ruined by watching it in a dodgy cinema where the sound levels made the British slang hard for me to catch properly (although this was later corrected by the magic of Scots and DVD) - but even so a number of their underlying piss-takes were over my head due to a general lack of watching movies. Dalton was brilliant though, and there were some riotously funny moments such as the confrontation with grandma. Hell, even the completely absurd trailer nicknaming all of his weapons was worthwhile.
The Kingdom's introduction was really impressive both from a cinematic perspective as well as a general knowledge vehicle, but the movie itself spent too long trying to cover a few different things and as a result rushed into the action sequences with a couple of fairly contrived plot points allowing the team to suddenly take the correct path (lol American special forces).
Beowulf was disappointing. The style really jarred at the beginning; the first time a horse galloped across the screen it was ridiculous, along with a fight scene reminiscent of The Simpsons naked-Bart sequence it never really picked up. I'd steer clear unless you're particularly keen to see a naked CGI Angelina Jolie playing a demon.
300? I felt it mismanaged the fight scenes. Apart from the iconic guy-getting-kicked-into-pit scene there was something lacking very sorely in the slow motion head chopping. Also David Wenham is great but dear god don't give him a narration role with that voice you IDIOTS.
Bourne Ultimatum: I actually thought it was a decent movie, all things considered. I don't mind the shakeycam action and so forth, but was it really necessary to bob the camera up and down when it's two guys talking to each other whilst sitting down? Bourne's inner ear must be utterly fucked. Still, some intense fight scenes and general action which is basically what the punters wanted.
The Simpsons Movie: pretty damn good, actually. There were always going to be those annoying moments where they slip in required jokes for the under 16 US demographic, but the overall plot worked quite well and I still have to stop myself giggling like a schoolgirl thinking about the Greenday theme off the autocue. I don't even know why that's funny
That's not so much a 'top 10 list' as a running critique of the movies I can remember seeing this year
