Film Review & Discussion

[polerberr]

@Carpe Diem - Oh yeah, the actual awards themselves are super biased. We're all aware.

Still, they're really enjoyable to watch, and like Leopardnight said, it's fun to predict who's gonna win what.

The hosts are generally really great (wasn't a fan of last year because it was the same "joke" over and over, but when Ellen hosted it was fantastic). It's a pretty fun "who's who" kind of thing to wach, and if a film or actor or director or whatever that you're a big fan of is nominated, it's always great if you see them win. I stayed up to watch the Academy Awards live last year (GMT +1 here) and it was a treat to see Ennio Morricone accept his very first Academy Award live only a week after having seen him in person at a concert I went to (and he conducted his winning soundtrack at that concert, too). Sometimes there are funny speeches, or touching ones, or just the ones that are so bad, they're entertaining. I like spotting which celebrity looks the most uncomfortable/drunk/bored/way too into it.

I agree with Captain Peregrin that the films that do get nominated are generally amazing films, whether they're your cup of tea or not. Yeah, loads of equally great films get snubbed, that's true. I was really upset that The LEGO Movie wasn't nominated that one year, when I thought it should have won.

Still, this is the film thread, and this is one of the biggest yearly occasions in the film industry. It's a great way to keep up with what actors are relevant and what movies you should watch, etc.

I haven't yet seen La La Land but I intend to. I'm a sucker for musicals so I'll probably really enjoy it, if it's as good as so many people are saying. It's not unusual for one film to garner loads of nominees. There's usually one ever year. What I've noticed is that the film won't win the three main categories (picture and actors), but it will win a lot of the little ones. The Grand Budapest Hotel and Gravity are good examples of that.

Anyway, Secret Life of Pets wasn't nominated. I'd say that's a good thing. It was fun, but nothing new or particularily special. Trolls was nominated. Is that bad? I never saw it, but the trailer made it look pretty interesting.

[WHEN'DHEGO?!?!]

I've mixed things about Trolls, I don't think Id like it

Yeah, wasb't sayibg dont talk about the Oscars, thats not even for me to say, i was just voicing my opinion
And hi again!

[polerberr]

You say you don't think you'd like it, as in you haven't seen it?

I admit, the first time I saw the trailer I thought it looked pretty annoying, but it kinda grew on me. I think I'll watch it at some stage to really be able to make up my mind about it.

The Little Prince never became elligble for an Oscar due to confusion with it's official release date. The studio that made the film are to blame for that, since they ended up dropping the film. The only reason it's out now is because Netflix decided to pick it up.

[Captain Peregrin]

Trolls is just nominated for the Justin Timberlake song, and since the song has brought me so much joy this year, it totally deserves that one xD

[polerberr]

Trolls is just nominated for the Justin Timberlake song, and since the song has brought me so much joy this year, it totally deserves that one xD

Oh just the song, right. Usually I love the Disney songs that get nominated, but I don't think How Far I'll Go will win. It was good, but it didn't catch on like Let It Go did. I prefer most of the other songs from Moana anyway, even Shiny. I think I know all the lyrics from that movie.

[Rabbit]

Trolls is just nominated for the Justin Timberlake song, and since the song has brought me so much joy this year, it totally deserves that one xD

Oh just the song, right. Usually I love the Disney songs that get nominated, but I don't think How Far I'll Go will win. It was good, but it didn't catch on like Let It Go did. I prefer most of the other songs from Moana anyway, even Shiny. I think I know all the lyrics from that movie.

I honestly love How Far I'll Go
I'm not sure exactly what it is about the Moana soundtrack, but they're different somehow, in the way they're written :0

Also, a little off-topic but

Does anyone here know when the next episode for The Series of Unfortunate Events will be released on Netflix?

[autumnal.]

Kubo counts as an animated movie? Well I guess it definitely deserved to be nominated and stop-motion isn't a category so...it gets a pass.

I haven't seen My Life as a Courgette or The Red Turtle but now I'm interested. 2016 had some really amazing animated movies.

[Captain Peregrin]

Yeah, I want to see Red Turtle...I'll probably see Kubo at some point, since everyone seemed to be raving about it, but then people seemed to say the same things about Boxtrolls, and I honestly didn't like that movie. I figure I'll give Kubo a shot, and if I don't like that one, I think it's safe to assume that that studio just doesn't have much to offer me.

[Silverhart]

Kubo counts as an animated movie? Well I guess it definitely deserved to be nominated and stop-motion isn't a category so...it gets a pass.

I haven't seen My Life as a Courgette or The Red Turtle but now I'm interested. 2016 had some really amazing animated movies.

Yes - Stop-motion is animation. In fact, it's the exact same technique as computer animation, just one is with real puppets and sets, and the other is with digital puppets and sets. I've even seen people take hand drawn animation, print each frame out onto little stands, put them on a physical set and film it like a stop-motion film. The result was something that looked like traditional hand drawn animation moving across a real set. It's pretty neat.

But yes, animation is a technique of filming where something is given the illusion of movement and life through a successive series of frames or photographs. Zoopraxicropes and Zoetropes are technically animation. Animation can be drawings, it can be paper cut outs, it can be photographs, it can be puppets, it can be some old fruit you have lying around, it can be a digital model someone moves in a digital space. It can pretty much be anything as long as you film it frame by frame so that it creates an illusion of movement.

Also I will point out 'Kubo' is fantastic. I thought 'Boxtrolls' was alright, but 'Kubo' blows it out of the water. The animation looks so polished I genuinely questioned if some or all of it was done digitally. I'm not used to such complex puppets moving so fluidly. Not only that but the story was quite beautiful. Maybe the slightest bit predictable, but it's story unfolds so nicely that you don't even mind. It's got a lot of heart. Not gonna lie - I was holding back the tears.

Likely Disney will win the Oscars again, because they've got the big money to throw around. I know there's some outcry from the animation community because Disney has won almost every single year, and no single company has ever dominated a category so throughly. It's definitely prejudiced. These past few years have seen many films that have surpassed Disney's nominations in quality, story telling, and technical achievement. Many of the judges don't watch all of the films, know nothing about animation, and just don't care (to this day I still fume over the judge who disqualified all of the foreign films in the category in very rude terms simply because they were foreign).

Buuut - I've complained enough about this topic. ^^ 'Kubo' is worth a watch, and it probably deserves the win more then the Disney nominations, but I'm just happy it got a nod at all. The company behind 'Kubo', Laika, deserves a lot more credit then it gets. They've been putting out high quality films - and getting better with each release, but getting less and less attention for it. 'Coraline' was fabulous. 'Paranorman' didn't even seem to register with people - despite it's marketing as a silly scary kid's movie it actually had a powerful message that was expertly delivered. I had to watch it twice I was so blown away by how unexpectedly good it was. And while 'Boxtrolls' might not be the strongest in their lineup, the animation is unmistakably top-knotch. And of course 'Kubo' is just phenomenal. Personally, I really want to see more from them.

I've talked enough about that - speaking of animation - anyone here a Warrior cats fan, and here about the news that they're finally making a film based on the books? I haven't actually read the books in years - think I lost interest somewhere in the second series. It's still in pre-production so who knows if it will even be finished - but I'm still excited. I'm probably one of the few people who loved the 'Guardians of Ga'Hoole' books growing up and then also loved the movie. (And you know they did that same stupid thing when they released the news - claiming it will be "live action CGI cats". That is literally an impossible sentence. Seriously - you work in the movie industry and you don't know the difference between a camera and a computer. -_- No wonder movies have been so terrible nowadays - people in the industry apparently don't even know how filmmaking physically works anymore.)

[Nitro Indigo]

I've watched Legend of the Guardians a couple of times.

By "live-action CGI cats", I think they mean there's going to be CGI characters against live-action backgrounds, like Disney's Dinosaur.