If “A Sound of Thunder” is the movie I think it is (it’s the one where time traveler tourists go back in time and step on a baby dinosaur and destroy the future, right?) it’s worth watching if only to see the absolute worst CGI that has ever been created of two people walking down a futuristic street. That CGI is breathtaking in its horrendousness.
That’s the one. All the CGI was bad, so I don’t remember that scene in particular. Was it as bad as the car crash in “In Time”?
A Sound of Thunder has the distinction of being one of the movies that I’m interested in because the production was a complete train wreck. I love Hollywood hubris!
The movie pretty much killed Franchise Pictures, which was supposed to be Warner Bros. attempt at a Miramax-style production company. The studio was started in 1999 to finance indie films and award magnet movies, but wound up just being a sort of B-movie arm of Warner Bros. For example, in 2000 Franchise wound up financing Travolta’s Battlefield Earth because Warner Bros needed insurance distance on the financial liability.
Renny Harlin was originally supposed to direct the film in 2001, but he and Ray Bradbury disagreed over the direction of the script. (Reports are that Harlin wanted more hero action, while Bradbury wanted a more Twilight Zone presentation.) Harlin brought Pierce Brosnan to star, so when Harlin left, Brosnan dropped out as well. After this, Bradbury either became too sick or too disgusted by the process to care, so the studio brought in Peter Hyams to direct and Ed Burns to take the starring role.
Franchise went bankrupt leaving the film in the lurch despite financing the movie on the cheap. (It was originally supposed to be shot in Montreal, but wound up filming in Prague.) The producers were able to rustle up $30 million to finish the movie, which was less than half of what had originally been allocated for post-production. The effects companies were forced to use pre-vis software for some scenes due to the budget cuts, which is why so much of it looks so terrible.
In Order of Disappearance (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2675914/?ref_=nv_sr_1) A father goes on a killing spree when his son is killed by drug dealers.
Journey to Greenland (Le Voyage au Groenland) – couple of Parisian duders, Thomas and Thomas, decide to relocate to Kullorsuaq, Greenland to live with Thomas’ father Nathan. I’ll admit I’m only halfway through it at the moment, but it’s a fun little film. No multitasking on this one unless you’re fluent in French and Inuit.
Pink is the kind of Bollywood movie that seems designed to win awards. Feminism 101, right? Women shouldn’t be raped? Obviously Indian society still needs to learn that lesson but it will be boring for us here in the West, right?
Well, I gotta tell ya, the movie really drew me into its world. It’s a courtroom drama in its second half, but it works because I was already so drawn in by the first half. I loved it. Absolutely loved it.
A note on subtitles: even if you don’t understand hindi, the subtitles are pretty good. They do oversimplify some of the words and lose some of the poetry at points, but are pretty good for the most part. They do misspell “quite” once that I noticed and wrote “quiet” instead, which irritated me for the next 2 minutes and was very distracting.
So has anyone watched Girlfriend’s Day, the Netflix original with Bob Odenkirk, yet?
Never heard of it, but it’s going in my queue. Which means I’ll watch it in maybe 3 years.
It’s a list now, not a queue. I haven’t been able to figure out how they order the list either. Some stuff I add to the list, and it shows up at the end, like a queue. Other stuff I add, and it shows up right at the top. Other times it shows up in the middle somewhere. (I assume, since the list is so long, I can’t find it).
I never really treated it like an actual queue, anyway. More like a wishlist I could consult now and then to see what I was in the mood to watch.
Season three of Chef’s Table is now out. This series is a must watch for anyone who has a love of food and cooking. Plus, it is simply gorgeous.
What if I love food but hate cooking? Huh smart guy?
I almost put ‘or’, but it really is a show about food preparation so I think a love of cooking helps.
I lasted 18 minutes into Girlfriend’s Day before I just gave up in boredom. Just didn’t seem to be going anywhere interesting.
Abstract also looks good, sort of a Chef’s Table about artists.
I watched the first half of the documentary “13th” about mass incarceration. Really good documentary so far. Nothing really new as far as content so far, but they present the statistics and news clips and songs with a nice visual punch. Recommended.
Ok. It’s Amazon, not Netflix. But this also isn’t on the 360 so I guess it’s okay.
Patriot Season 1 is live on Amazon.
It’s full of absurd, deadpan humor. I thought it was going to be some action-packed spy thingy, but it’s a very different tone. I’m a few chapters in and really grooving it.
Tonight I watched I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, Macon Blair’s directorial debut. You might know Blair as Jeremy Saulnier’s number one guy in Blue Ruin and Green Room. IDFAHITWA is about a woman who feels violated after her home is robbed and goes deeper than you would expect over the indignancy of it. Melanie Lynskey is great as the disaffected woman. She was half of Beautiful Creatures back in the day; it’s great to see her again. Elijah Wood backs her up as the intense neighbor.
The movie has a little of the flavor of Blue Ruin, with the horror of watching good people descend into violence. There is also a black humor shot through it that may not work for some, but did for me.
I remember watching the pilot of Patriot a while back and liked it a lot. Watched the first three episodes so far and it is still great. Very different with a very quiet sense of humor - twisted in many ways, but never zany or in your face. I don’t trust the dad very much at all and I think that the brother will turn out to be a surprise as well.
I watched this as well. Much darker than I expected but a neat little film. Would recommend for fans of Blue Ruin for sure.