Film Review & Discussion

[Silverhart]

I'm specifically speaking about slapstick scenes. Modern animations don't have scenes dedicated just to slapstick comedy because people are more into word play and verbal jokes now. You might get a 3 year old to laugh at a man falling down the stairs, but everyone else is just going to roll their eyes and hope the story gets going again soon.

I love slapstick though. XD I mean I adore wordplay too, and on a certain level I probably enjoy a good joke or pun better then someone falling over. But the wonderful thing about slapstick is it's universal and timeless.

I remember years ago I was in a classroom of students, I wanna say they were about fourteen to sixteen years old, all from different backgrounds. And the teacher put on a Charlie Chaplin film (pretty certain it was 'Modern Times') and everyone in that class, teachers and students were laughing hysterically. And this after several of the kids had complained about having to watch a silent film. I could show that same film to people who don't speak English and they would laugh just as much as we did.

Physical comedy is funny, but I don't known of any modern comedians who do it, at least not with the level of seriousness and dedication that the masters like Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd did. And it does show up in a lot in modern animation today. 'Tangled' has some great physical comedy.

As for those animated films, I'm dying to see 'Your Name'. I had an opportunity to see it in theaters but it was unfortunately sold out. 'Boy and the Beast' and 'Long Way North' have also been on my Watchlist for a long time. Honestly, I'd love to see any one of them. It's so hard to keep up with a lot of foreign animation because they don't typically get theatrical releases where I live, and unfortunately a lot of them don't get American DVD releases either (I only know of 'Boy and the Beast', and 'Long Way North' because they have US DVD releases). I mean I guess I could find a lot of them online, but I'm old fashioned. XP

I have seen 'Steamboy' a few times, albeit it was years ago. I remember being very impressed by the animation and world building, but for the life of me I couldn't tell you the story. My dad actually really enjoyed it to, which was surprising. Will have to give it a rewatch sometime soon.

Speaking of animated films, I recently watched 'The Wild Life' (the 2016 film about a bunch of animals helping Robinson Crusoe), and was pleasantly surprised. I mean, the writing is pretty awful, but not so bad that it detracted from the animation which is actually really good. It felt a lot like a student film that they stretched out into a film. I loved all the character designs (even if there were far too many of them), and a lot of the animated sequences were executed wonderfully. Even the story probably would have been fine with better writing (and the cutting of a lot the superfluous fluff).

[polerberr]

Yeah actually you're right about slapstick. I just remembered how much I love Ryan Stiles and his more physical humor (like his animal impressions), plus, Modern Times is pretty great.

I think there's something much more special about live action slapstick because there's an element of talent to it. Not anyone can perform that type of comedy, so you're not only laughing, but you're also being impressed.

I'd argue that slapstick probably just doesn't work in animations, since the element of talent is gone, but then... shows like Tom and Jerry and The Animaniacs exist. I think those shows' excuses are that the slapstick is brought to the extreme, and it's the extreme that's funny. If Tom and Jerry had tame slapstick like in the Aristocats, it probably wouldn't have been so succesful.

So I suppose the real problem is that the slapstick in The Aristocats is that the animators limited themselves to more a "realistic" slapstick, instead of utilising the fact that it's animated to make it ridiculous. I just don't find the middle ground between impressive live action slapstick and ridiculous animated slapstick very funny.

[Silverhart]

Yeah actually you're right about slapstick. I just remembered how much I love Ryan Stiles and his more physical humor (like his animal impressions), plus, Modern Times is pretty great.

I think there's something much more special about live action slapstick because there's an element of talent to it. Not anyone can perform that type of comedy, so you're not only laughing, but you're also being impressed.

I'd argue that slapstick probably just doesn't work in animations, since the element of talent is gone, but then... shows like Tom and Jerry and The Animaniacs exist. I think those shows' excuses are that the slapstick is brought to the extreme, and it's the extreme that's funny. If Tom and Jerry had tame slapstick like in the Aristocats, it probably wouldn't have been so succesful.

So I suppose the real problem is that the slapstick in The Aristocats is that the animators limited themselves to more a "realistic" slapstick, instead of utilising the fact that it's animated to make it ridiculous. I just don't find the middle ground between impressive live action slapstick and ridiculous animated slapstick very funny.

It's probably just a matter of taste, and as you say, the style of the animation. Animation is pretty much made for physical humor (I mean just look at some of the very early animated shorts - they're nothing but physical humor, and I would argue many of them are still quite funny), but there's a lot of different types of physical humor, and of course, different animators and directors will execute it differently, with some being better at it, and others being worse. I think it also has a lot to do with how a film is presented. In the old days, people went to a theater, and being in a theater surrounded by people laughing, chances are you're going to laugh too. I've been in theaters and something funny happens and I and the rest of the audience will burst out laughing. Whereas watching the same film at home the same scene will only get a mild chuckle from me. I'm not an except, and I don't watch many modern comedies, so I can't say "comedy is changing because the way we watch comedy is changing", but that could very well be part of the reason some old films aren't funny. It's not the jokes aren't funny, it's just the way they're presented. I remember being so excited to finally see 'Some Like It Hot', which is toted as one of the greatest comedies ever. I didn't laugh at any joke save one, at the very end. I believe the reason I didn't laugh was simple: when 'Some Like it Hot' came out, every joke was a new joke, but by the time I watched it about 50 years later, every joke had been done to death. Not a single joke was one I hadn't heard or seen before. I could even predict the plot down to the beats. I honestly felt as if I'd seen the exact same movie before but with different actors. I'm certain if I'd watched it is a different setting with a group of people, or without being exposed to those old jokes, I would have found it a lot more funny. That said, I still think it's a good movie, and well worth a watch.

Personally, I was never a fan of the 'Tom and Jerry''s humor, though I certainly can enjoy their animation. But I love Buster Keaton's comedies, or physical humor in animated films. Again, 'Tangled' is the only recent animated film I can think off of the top of my head, that I think does physical humor very well over long scenes (I can think of plenty that have great moments of physical humor, but they don't really get dragged out into whole scenes). The short 'Get A Horse!' and 'Tangled Ever After' are other great examples.

[polerberr]

Been a while since anyone posted, and I watched a film recently. John Wick.

I was expecting mindless action, but I was happily surprised, because what I got instead was stylized mindless action. I really appreciated the cinematography! What I particularily liked about John Wick were the subtitles. They were dressed up and placed on the screen in fancy ways that fitted the scene and the genre of the movie.

Honestly I don't have any complaints. The action scenes were well chorographed, you could actually see who was hitting who, the actors suited their roles excellently, the music was great. It was flawless. That doesn't mean I'm ranking it up with my all time favorite movies, but, I just think that for what it was, it couldn't have been better.

It's still a mindless action movie. At the end of the day, you don't need to be paying much attention to understand what's going on. There's no underlying plot twist or anything. It's very simple and straightforward, but it's fun.

I also enjoyed the world that was built around the characters. The few bits of exposition that were needed to explain some aspects of the film were entertaining and natural, so there's no boring dialogue or pointless character building. It stays interesting.

So yeah, if you like action movies, or if you just like Keanu Reeves, I'd recommend giving this one a watch.

[holmes221B]

I have heard of John Wick, but I'm not sure where. In what year was the movie made in?

[polerberr]

I have heard of John Wick, but I'm not sure where. In what year was the movie made in?

2014 according to Google. Yeah it isn't super old. There's a sequel, too, but I haven't watched that one yet. I think the sequel came out this year?

[Captain Peregrin]

Well, I've been catching up on some movies recently!

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: I've never been a big fan of the Harry Potter movies, and this one didn't do anything to change that. Would've probably liked it better if they had actually focused on the beasts. And John Williams would have helped.
Doctor Strange: I liked it! Pretty rote in the plot/character department, but it had some neat ideas that it played with in interesting ways.
La La Land: I loved the way it updated the classic movie musical formula, and the characters were surprisingly relatable. The songs themselves aren't particularly memorable, but it sure looks amazing!

[holmes221B]

Well, I've been catching up on some movies recently!

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: I've never been a big fan of the Harry Potter movies, and this one didn't do anything to change that. Would've probably liked it better if they had actually focused on the beasts. And John Williams would have helped.
Doctor Strange: I liked it! Pretty rote in the plot/character department, but it had some neat ideas that it played with in interesting ways.
La La Land: I loved the way it updated the classic movie musical formula, and the characters were surprisingly relatable. The songs themselves aren't particularly memorable, but it sure looks amazing!

Yeah, I already watched Fantastic Beasts twice already. I liked it a lot, though I do agree on the fact that they could've focused on the beasts more.

For La La Land, I have seen snippets of it, but I didn't really like it. I understand that you like it though. It just isn't my type of movie, maybe.

I think Doctor Strange looks really cool. I have only watched a bit of it, but when I watched those snippets, the graphics looked cool.

2014 according to Google. Yeah it isn't super old. There's a sequel, too, but I haven't watched that one yet. I think the sequel came out this year?

I actually don't know. I think it did since I saw a trailer on TV. It was called John Wick 2, I think.

[mothlight]

@Olicat
I love Shutter Island! Leonardo DiCaprio was incredible (as he always is) and the mystery always really grabbed me. I also really liked the character of Teddy Daniels, and just the suspenseful tone it carries. Recently I was able to do a report on the book, which was very interesting! I'm glad I found another person who really enjoyed it, I thought it was a really well made and wholly epic mystery film.

Just looking through recent posts and saw this.

I loved Shutter Island. I only watched it after my English teacher recommended me to watch it. It's one of Martin Scorsese's less popular films. Along with Hugo. I loved both of these movies, but a lot of people didn't becuase it was different from what most of his movies were.

[Leopardnight]

It's been a while since I posted on here, so I wanted to ask...

Did any of you guys see The Wall that came out this year? (Not Matt Damon's The Great Wall)
I believe it's still in theatres. I was just wondering if anyone else had the chance to see it, because I was able to watch it recently and really enjoyed it.
This may just be my inner John Cena fan talking (who I wish had a bit more screen time), but I thought the film was really well done on a pretty cheap budget.
There are only three actors shooting in one location. The movie is all about suspense.
The movie is about two rangers being pinned by a sniper behind a wall. Somehow, it was able to keep my attention throughout the entire film. There were a lot of cool elements to it, and I'm glad I saw it. There was a bold move at the end that I did not at all expect.
So I just felt like recommending this one because I thought it was very enjoyable and really interesting.