December 29, 2008
A chart of all the top ten movie lists for 2008.
Here. I've been catching up on a lot of movies these last 2 weeks. "Slumdog Millionaire" (twice), "Australia," "Rachel Getting Married," "The Reader" ... and, coming up: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Doubt," "Milk." After seeing all these movies, will I keep up my movie-going or will I max out and go back to resisting this strange practice of sitting in the dark having my emotions manipulated for 2 hours?
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I would bet that once the Oscar-bait movies are done in theaters and the industry goes back to its usual practice of filling the first few months of the year by dumping the things that it decided couldn't cut it as either winter Oscar bait or summer blockbusters, yes, you will find the movies much more resistible than they are now. Good time to catch up on the Murnau-Borzage box set or something.
Movies are a funny habit. When I was in grad school and free for matinees I saw everything. Everything. Friends would call me up on Thursday to ask what they should see that weekend and I'd give them 3 options.
Then one year I gave movies up for Lent. Strange, but it's the only habit I've never gone back to like a shot on Easter day. I probably see 3-5 a year in theaters now. I do watch more on DVD, but somehow that's so entirely not the same thing that I don't think it fits in the same category.
sitting in the dark having my emotions manipulated for 2 hours
If you're a kid you go out to buy popcorn at those points.
If you're a guy you're bored but wondering if you will get lucky on the date after the movie.
I remember when my best friend worked at a local theater; I once went an entire year without paying for a single movie (despite seeing over a dozen).
Granted none of it was Oscar-bait (as Michael called it), and some were so bad I wanted them scrubbed from my mind; but still, those were some good times.
Since then I've seen roughly one or two movies a year. This year was the Hulk and The Dark Knight (go ahead and take a wild stab at my demographic).
No need to go; or at least no need to blog about it!
I saw a few movies this summer: "Iron Man," "Dark Knight," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," "Bigger, Faster, Stronger." Not sure what motivated me. Time on my hands? The movies were enjoyable enough, but once the semester started, I only at most contemplated going to the movies.
…go back to resisting this strange practice of sitting in the dark having my emotions manipulated for 2 hours?
The movies were enjoyable enough, but once the semester started, I only at most contemplated going to the movies.
I enjoy it – part escape, part entertainment – to leave my life for a few hours to watch and listen to someone else tell a story. I’m not in control for a while - and I find it refreshing - when I let myself do it. This only tends to happen when I have larger chunks of time on my hands - holidays, mostly.
I just remembered some other movies I saw this year: "The Fall," "The Children of Huang Shih," and "Sex and the City." (I'm sure I spelled the name of the Chinese city wrong. Sorry. I also slept through part of the movie.)
The purpose of the movies is to kill the dead time between 1 and 4 PM.
I thought of another movie I saw this year: "Standard Operating Procedure."
I try to recall a movie I saw in the theater this year. I fail.
I'll probably see the next Harry Potter movie in the theater, with my kids. I think I've seen all of them that way. Then we get the DVDs and see that at home too.
I pretty much only go to see movies my wife wants to see. This year that was Iron Man and the Dark Knight. I love my wife.
"... strange practice of sitting in the dark having my emotions manipulated for 2 hours?"
Light, dark, sitting, standing... see, if you'd only marry me you could have your emotions manipulated all day and all night. And not just in the dark either.
When, oh when, will Althouse stop hating Pixar?
The last movie I saw was The Cane Toad: An Unnatural History, which somebody at work rented because it was supposed to be amusing, which it was. I don't know that I'd buy it though. It was probably in the late 80s.
Instead, sit at your computer thinking of math.
"Instead, sit at your computer thinking of math."
But sitting at a computer thinking of math has never actually gotten anyone laid, has it?
I just hope Trooper York doesn't see your comment, RH. It will freak. him. out.
January is the dumpster of movie-going.
This actually can work out pretty well, since smaller/foreign films have a chance to bubble up at this time.
I am, of course, an unrepentant worshipper at the temple of flickering lights (24 fps, not one of those 30fps heretics!), more than ever because of the huge number of distractions in my day-to-day life.
I've probably seen 70-80 movies in the theater this year. (Compare and contrast to former decades where one simply couldn't see 70-80 movies in a year, because there weren't that many made and exhibited.) That's without going to any film festivals, of which there are many.
Not to freak Trooper out but I probably would sit in front of a computer screen, thinking about math, if I could get the alone time.
Oh, and weirdly enough, this January we get a horror movie--not unusual, since horror movies are often very bad and so end up released in January--from Michael Bay.
Michael Bay doing a horror movie seems about as scary as Billy Mays reading poetry.
"ONCEUPONAMIDNIGHTDREARYWHILEIPONDEREDWEAKANDWEARY! (SOOTHINGSLEEPLIGHT$29.95PLUSHIPPINGANDHANDLINE!)
I plan to take my kids to that mouse one that just came out.
I went to Dark Knight and Iron Man. Saw the Hulk on DVD. Great movies.
I'd seriously wanted to go see the newest Mummy movie... just bought the DVD...
It was so bad it hurt.
Meade is such a tummler.
Darcy--
Dunno how old your kids are, but what I've heard about Desperaux is that it's rather dark.
Desperaux is dark?
My teenager said that Wall-E was freaky-scary. I think because she was old enough to notice things that a small kid wouldn't notice.
My kids are now from 11 to 17. When they were very small, though, theater movies were tough because they were so *large*. Loud, too. Going to a theater to see Lion King was a trauma (and if a kid movie is dark that one is!) but for some reason the same thing on a "small screen" was far less threatening.
I've heard it's dark.
Wall-E is actually pretty optimistic but is it in the rarely seen "family friendly post-apocalyptic" movie genre. (That was bigger in the '70s.)
Absolutely, the big screen makes a difference. Horror movies lose a lot on the small screen.
I am so in love with Slumdog Millionaire, and I can't quite explain why. The detractors have a point: it's gimmicky, it's glossy, the main character is drippily good with no indie irony to him at all!
And, yet.
It just worked for me. Since everyone is comparing the film to Dickens (I like John Podhoretz's review, especially, because of his riff on 'cinematic' Dickens), I suppose it makes sense that I would love the film because I love Dickens, too. Great Expectations, anyway.
Two, maybe three years ago I saw all the movies up for major Oscars or which had actors nominated. I haven't wanted to see an "important" movie since. I had the habit of Sunday morning cinema at the local art house where soon to be released movies were screened with discussions following. Too much BDS and its like by narrowly informed filmmakers, finally drove me away.
Yes, well, perhaps with Obama in office, we can see some movies that aren't about the evils of AmeriKKKa and Boosh.
why are some critics names in red, others in blue?
red means conservative? blue, liberals?
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