Movie Record 2023 Edition - The Bear and Badger

ShabbyMcCrabby

Moot_Geeza wrote:

LivDiv wrote:

Weird one is Rocky.
It's a great film and the best story of the series that it spawned but also unique amongst them.

The other 7(?) Films in the Balboa universe plus the game and action figure of a side of beef have in time increasingly less to do with the grounded, gritty often quite depressing original. Paulie is probably the epitome of this, I totally forgot what a drink asshole he is, a long way from the secret robot shagger he becomes.

Yep, OG Paulie is a cunt. It's nice to have the sequels and I do enjoy all of them (even V, which is the fun kind of awful), but the first one is a genuinely great film.

So it does the same as Rambo where the first film is a completely different vibe to the rest? I've never actually watched Rocky either.

LivDiv

Yeah similar vibe if perhaps less of a whiplash inducing shift.

hylian_elf

Get on it! Rocky is a classic. Should've stopped there.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I remember being pretty surprised when I watched First Blood. Definitely not the film I thought it was going to be

LivDiv

Rambo is particularly ridiculous as the sequel is called "... Part 2", like it is the second half of a whole.

afgavinstan

Yeah I still haven't made sense of the ordering of the OG rambos. Never have, never will. Indecipherable.

b0r1s

LivDiv wrote:

4. Office Space
Mike Judge does anti corporate job porn. Hilariously cynical new American Dream.
[9]

Loved office space at the time. Concerned if I went back it would have aged.

LivDiv

Tragically the workplace bullshit feels just as fresh as when it came out.

b0r1s

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel - I wouldn’t call myself an Anderson fan. I enjoyed Royal Tenebaums, couldn’t get on with the life Aquatic, but I really enjoyed this exaggerated tale of a concierge and a bell boy living through troubled times.

Minkymu

The Fantastic Mr Fox is Andersons finest work imo. Absolutely pitch perfect voice cast and stunning animation.

i literally cannot wait till my kids are old enough to enjoy it

Dark Soldier

Fox is the only semi decent Anderson film

davyK

Wifey and I thoroughly enjoyed Grand Budapest.

I have found the few Anderson films I have watched to be confections. Enjoyable but without much substance beyond the craft involved in the making. The sets, casting, acting etc are exquisite but it melts in the mouth and leaves little behind to reflect upon.

Bit like a Faberge egg. Beautiful to look at but with little else to recommend them.

Moot_Geeza

The Life Aquatic is the only one I've seen that I didn't like. Seems like the coolest one to pretend you like the best though, so I'll have it as no.1 on my list, followed by Moonrise Kingdom.

hylian_elf

I don’t like any of his films.

Kow

Wookienopants

hylian_elf wrote:

I don’t like any of his films.

I'm almost in agreement here but do really enjoy The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The rest of his output seems to be arty wank

Gremill

Come on, The Royal Tenenbaums was great fun - Gene Hackman FFS!

Wookienopants

Mehhhh

LivDiv

Seems odd to like Grand Budapest Hotel and none of the others. Thought that was one of the most Anderson of the lot.

Im about 50-50.

Like:
Royal Tenenbaums
Darjeeling Limited
Fantastic Mr Fox

Dislike:
Rushmore
French Dispath

The others are fine.

djchump

Love the Life Aquatic, especially the soundtrack! Mothersbaum’s tunes are great but Seu Jorge’s Portuguese acoustic Bowie covers are phenomenal - bought the album immediately after seeing the film.

tin_robot

I like all of them - to the point that my wife and I hired the little local cinema for our joint 40th and showed a bunch of them. (It was fancy dress, with a themed party in the cinema's basement. I suspect it would be hell for many of you.)

There are some of his movies I certainly rate above others - Bottle Rocket, Isle of Dogs and Darjeeling Limited (Hotel Chevalier not withstanding) sit towards the bottom of the pile. Rushmore, Grand Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom probably sit near the top.

I think Davy's description of them as "confections" is probably fair - although I'd argue there's often more to them than is immediately obvious. I also get the Life Aquatic hate, despite personally really liking it. In a lot of Anderson's films the artificiality is part of the point, but Life Aquatic dials that up to 11. His films are already difficult to connect with, so Life Aquatic's decision to tell a story about a liar that is itself likely all an elaborate fraud anyway, just makes that remove feel even stronger.

But yeah - I've no argument with anyone who can't stand them, even whilst loving them all...

djchump

Well, i put Anderson in the same bucket as Jarmusch - films that are mostly about “life” rather than any specific, neatly book-ended, Jesus-proxy-Heroe’s-Journey narrative.
Sometimes I’m in the mood for that, sometimes I’m in the mood for a Jason Bourne.

davyK

Have seen Tenenbaum twice and liked it more on a rewatch.

Like the Budapest Hotel.

Saw bit of Mr. Fox - but it came across as a bit smug. I dislike smart arse characters no matter what the genre. But maybe I should give it a chance as it's well regarded.

No recollection of seeing any others.

davyK

tin_robot wrote:

I think Davy's description of them as "confections" is probably fair - although I'd argue there's often more to them than is immediately obvious.

They do have a certain quality and they linger in the memory after watching. I have a very jaded palate though when it comes to films. Unless something makes me feel uncomfortable I don't get much of it watching something now - so to call them confections is probably a tiny bit unfair.

b0r1s

I'm going to work through the rest and save Aquatic for the end, I'll be acclimatised by then.

EvilRedEye

1 - Strange World - ★★★☆☆

From Twitter: Finished Strange World. It reminded me of past animated adventure films like Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within except if anything I liked it slightly less than those. I have no idea why it was greenlit.

2 - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - ★★★★☆

Decided to rewatch this in 4K. The CGI is really starting to show its age now in terms of general image quality although the HDR peps it up a bit and according to reviews the picture is the best it's ever been compared to the Blu-ray. I can't help but like this, even though some of the writing is a bit wonky. It feels quite focused and pacy compared to Strange World, which was oddly listless in some ways. The environmental themes are actually more resonant now than they were at the time. Great soundtrack too. Not the best film ever but underrated.

Diluted Dante

I love Spirits Within, so that bodes well for me.

ShabbyMcCrabby

ERE coming in with fancy stars!

EvilRedEye

I loved Spirits Within when it first came out - I somehow managed to wear out the VHS and then I also loved the DVD - watching it with the isolated soundtrack was great. But then when I rewatched it on Blu-ray some of the magic had gone... Perhaps the 4K version will rekindle the love...?

Moot_Geeza

Men. Aside from a key element that tickled me more than perhaps it should have (see spoiler), and the fact that it leans slightly too hard into forced artsy weirdness at times, I thought this was excellent.

Spoiler:

I will now watch Annihilation.

Howdy, Stranger!

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