Seen any good films lately? [3]

IIRC I saw Interstellar in LieMAX but it's definitely the kind of movie that would would benefit from the real deal.

Liemax.    

I watched Leviathan the other night. Has anyone else seen it? It was a doozy. Not since the film The Edge (the 2010something film, not the Alaskan bear-attack movie of the 90s) have I seen a Russian film with such an air of gloom and futility. There were brief glimpses of something that might have been redemption here and there, but for the most part the film is just heavy and oppressive. (In a good way, as I liked it.)

"Russian Ark" is a good film

Is that the single-shot film? I never watched more than a little bit of the beginning of it for my film class.

The past two years I've been put on a regimen of various famous Christmas movies to make up for me not having seen many of them growing up.  There have been plenty that I've enjoyed, but I just have to say that all the Rankin/Bass ones I've seen so far (including and especially Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) have been awful.  Like, even worse than their versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King.  Well ... there might have been a few that were better than ROTK, but not by much.  The only redeeming quality of Rudolph was that it explained a bunch of the jokes and references in Will Ferrell's Elf, which is an actual good movie.

</rant>

Wait, you're calling Rudolph awful?! That's such a classic!

By the standards of it's time it was magical. Those that were loved early on should get some kind of pass. Unlike their Hobbit, which was greeted with indifference then and still is now.

I'm with Halfy. Rudolph was the very first. He deserves a pass. It's like saying that Lucile Ball's acting is awful, but a whole genre stands on her shoulders.  

Nobody in the United States had ever seen Japanese stop animation before, and before Rudolf there'd never been any Christmas specials for kids at all AFAIK.  Also remember that most viewers were watching it crowded around 12 inch black and white screens with a lot of snow and static.

And speaking of the sound, what did you think of the soundtrack? It's probably hard to imagine now when those were all new and fresh.

Edit: Let me throw a theory out here. Without Rudolf there'd never have been "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
True or false, it's something to think about...

I really like Elf too. and Bad Santa with Billy Bob Thornton is a howler.

Mrs Figg wrote: Bad Santa with Billy Bob Thornton is a howler.

I always tear up at the bloody pink elephant part.

Eldorion wrote:The past two years I've been put on a regimen of various famous Christmas movies to make up for me not having seen many of them growing up.  There have been plenty that I've enjoyed, but I just have to say that all the Rankin/Bass ones I've seen so far (including and especially Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) have been awful.

whaa whhaaaaa whaaaaaat the fuuuuuuuck?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

what is wrong with you?!

you young, cynical kids! next you're gonna tell me you don't like It's a Wonderful Life or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I still haven't seen A Charlie Brown Christmas or It's a Wonderful Life.  The animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas was okay.  It's been a long time since I read the book but it felt like a very literal adaptation.  That's not necessarily a bad thing but I didn't feel that the music or animation really added anything to the already strong story and visuals of the original.

Rudolph though ... I'm sorry guys, it's bad.  I'm not qualified to speak about its influence, though I know it's a staple of many people's childhoods.  But that's the thing; the only defense for it is nostalgia.  In that respect it's in the same boat as Rankin/Bass' The Hobbit, which has a similarly devoted though much smaller defense force of people who saw it when their age was still in the single digits.  All of the Rankin/Bass' specials have paper-thin stories and characters and come to a screeching halt every time there's a musical number, which are for the most part boring as songs and never do anything to advance the plot or flesh out the characters more than the narration does.  I might not be a huge musicals guy but I've seen enough to know when songs are put to good use, and R/B did not do that.

It's not that I don't like Christmas stuff on principle, or that I'm opposed to kids stuff.  I've enjoyed every version of A Christmas Carol that I've seen so far because it's a fantastic story, and the Muppet one was one of my favorites.  It's not that I'm biased against older stuff either.  Olive the Other Reindeer was just as bizarre and inept as any of the Rankin/Bass ones, and that came out in the late '90s.

Thanks a lot, Ebeneezer Scrooge.

{{{To each their own, I guess. }}}

Eldorion wrote: All of the Rankin/Bass' specials have paper-thin stories and characters and come to a screeching halt every time there's a musical number, which are for the most part boring as songs and never do anything to advance the plot or flesh out the characters more than the narration does.  I might not be a huge musicals guy but I've seen enough to know when songs are put to good use, and R/B did not do that.

Another thing to remember is that at the time all such TV specials were engineered to meet the primary sponsor's needs, typically something like 5 commercial breaks per half hour.  I bet I can google who Rudolph's first sponsor was.  Anyway, the musical numbers usually came just before a pair of commercials, then after the commercials there'd usually be some kind of recap to remind you what had just been going on. I can see how that would be hard to watch without commercials, but it doesn't mean the songs weren't useful in the original format. Also, try to imagine when all holiday commercials were as interesting as Superbowl commercials today. It was just a different experience.

I guess I can't argue that Rudolf is good storytelling by modern standards or that there's any reason why you should like it.  I'm just a little surprised at your lack of respect for a creative cornerstone.

Edit:

It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour.

Rudolph only airs on CBS. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest running Christmas TV special in history. 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the television special and a series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014.

Eldorion wrote:I still haven't seen It's a Wonderful Life.

 oh my gawd  ELDO!!!!! watch it at once!  its the best film ever!

I bet he won't like it.

I was being a little flippant in my earlier posts.  I don't want to tell anyone they're wrong for liking Rudolph or anything else, but I don't see the appeal at all (outside of nostalgia).

David H wrote:Another thing to remember is that at the time all such TV specials were engineered to meet the primary sponsor's needs, typically something like 5 commercial breaks per half hour.  I bet I can google who Rudolph's first sponsor was.  Anyway, the musical numbers usually came just before a pair of commercials, then after the commercials there'd usually be some kind of recap to remind you what had just been going on. I can see how that would be hard to watch without commercials, but it doesn't mean the songs weren't useful in the original format. Also, try to imagine when all holiday commercials were as interesting as Superbowl commercials today. It was just a different experience.

That definitely explains some things, though it doesn't make me feel differently about the film.

I guess I can't argue that Rudolf is good storytelling by modern standards or that there's any reason why you should like it.  I'm just a little surprised at your lack of respect for a creative cornerstone.

I dunno, maybe it's me being an uncouth youngster, but I just didn't find it enjoyable. Like, I respect Le voyage dans la lune as an all-time classic, an artistic masterpiece of its time, a milestone in the history of science fiction, and one of the most influential movies ever made.  But it's not something I engage with on an emotional level or that I'd put on just for enjoyment.  Not that I'd put Rudolph on that same level though.  I do recognize that it's a product of its time ... the misogyny alone reminds one of that.  But what bothered me more than that was all the characters in Christmas Town being complete assholes, with Santa the worst of them all.  You can't pin that one at when it was made because the whole point of the film is "misfits aren't so bad after all", but there are less heavy-handed ways to express that point (even in children's media) than "all adults are douchebags until you can do offer them something, and then suddenly they aren't".  Which when you stop to think about it actually undercuts the main message and is a potentially harmful thing to say to real kids who might be in a similar position to Rudolph in terms of bullying or abuse.

Mrs Figg wrote: oh my gawd  ELDO!!!!! watch it at once!  its the best film ever!

I probably won't watch any Christmas movies until next year (other than Die Hard which we're planning on watching tonight), but it's on my list for sure.

Don't get me started.

The animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas was okay. It's been a long time since I read the book but it felt like a very literal adaptation. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I didn't feel that the music or animation really added anything to the already strong story and visuals of the original.

Wait. Hold it - STOP.

--- --- ----

(Really?)

Well like I said it's been a long time.  Maybe the book was a lot shorter?  If so, the new material blended with the original pretty much perfectly, in which case the animated Grinch deserves much greater praise than I had given it.

I haven't seen it either...


But the animated Grinch is awesome!
How can there be misogyny in Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer? 

The book is quite a bit shorter. More than that, I find it's almost impossible to read it aloud now without comparing myself to Boris Karloff. That was an inspired bit of voice casting!