movies

[Michael]

I watched the horror film It Follows on Netflix last night. The premise is fantasic, but the film isn't quite the revelation it was hailed as by some critics. That said, It Follows was pretty darn fun and I recommend it. You can tell the budget was super low, but I think they made the most of it with the overall look of the film. I liked how they mixed timeframes with the sets and props. I also thought the music was dope.

[Michael]

By the way, I got an OLED HDTV and if you enjoy movies you gotta get one. LG is discontinuing the 2016 models so there's some killer deals out there right now. I got a 55 inch from a reputable dealer for 1400 and that included tax and shipping. The upgrade over my old panny plasma is more significant than I had anticipated. My video games look mind blowing too. My wife who is hardly ever interested in tech stuff was impressed as well.

[thrill]

I need to get one. The difference between my 8 year old LCD is so jarring that I feel like the new ones almost look too distractingly realistic until I get used to them, at which point they're way better.

[Michael]

TVs shouldn't look distractingly realistic. The "soap oprea effect" that you're refering to is often a function of the tv settings, which can be resolved by tweaking it. Before I tweaked my OLED I was watching Deadwood and it looked like a low rent production.

[go birds]

i think im in the minority that didnt really care for It Follows and yall know i am a horror fan.

maybe i need to give it a re-watch...but i found it rather boring.

[Swirls]

By the way, I got an OLED HDTV and if you enjoy movies you gotta get one. LG is discontinuing the 2016 models so there's some killer deals out there right now. I got a 55 inch from a reputable dealer for 1400 and that included tax and shipping. The upgrade over my old panny plasma is more significant than I had anticipated. My video games look mind blowing too. My wife who is hardly ever interested in tech stuff was impressed as well.

I have a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma that I bought in January 2008. It weighs a ton, and I am dying to get rid of it and buy something newer and bigger** and lighter, but I can't justify it yet because the TV is [expletive] bulletproof and is still going strong. It's survived moves from Iowa to New York to South Carolina to Minnesota, with multiple residences at some of those states no less. I suspect I could "accidentally" drop it off the entertainment center in hopes of it breaking so I could buy a new one, only to find out that the glass is still in perfect condition afterwards.

**I could probably get a 55" TV and still take up the same overall envelope dimensions (and about half the weight) - the thing is so old I have about 3" of plastic surrounding the screen on all sides

[Michael]

I think I had the exact same Panny TV, but the 46 inch version. If you include the huge black plastic rim around the Pany the 55 inch LG OLED almost physically the same circumference. I think the OLED is like 1/2 inch bigger. Obviously, the OLED is way lighter and thinner. More energy efficient too.

Honestly, I didn't really have a great reason to upgrade. 4K gaming, maybe? Still, I'm really happy with my purchase. Other than travel I rarely splurge on stuff.

[The Third Man]

I got to see Brazil on the big screen last Saturday.

I'd been meaning to rewatch it for years - I hadn't seen it since the first time, as a junior in college - and even own the blu-ray from Criterion, but it took it finally showing at the KC Drafthouse for me to jump back in.

Good lord. I mean, I'd loved it when I first saw it, but I mostly remembered it in broad strokes, and if anything, with the benefit of another 7-8 years of film education, life experience, yada yada, I loved it even more. I think it might've jumped into my top ten.

It feels like a film that, in order to work, required every one of about eight million different things going exactly right, and miraculously, they somehow all do. It's like watching somebody ride a motorcycle over a wire across the Grand Canyon. It really is one of the best directing jobs I can imagine, because every aspect of the production is perfectly attuned to a unique, wildly singular vision and operates in service of it at all times. The production design is totally phenomenal, and is utterly enhanced by the cinematography, which - with its constant use of canted angles, claustrophobic close-ups, wide lenses, etc. - feels alternately nightmarish and comedic. The screenplay is just the right balance of mystery and intrigue, bureaucratic and social satire, science fiction, Hitchcock-ian wrong man suspense, and even eventually action film and noir thriller, and it manages to veer back and forth between tones without ever detracting from the overall aesthetic. The cast is phenomenal. The ending is pitch-perfect.

I may watch it again this weekend. If nothing else, I'm going to watch The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits, neither of which I've yet seen.

[Fat Strat]

Showed my 12 year old son The Matrix last weekend. It's been fun to bring back older movies for him to watch. He was blown away by it; great movie for a kid that age who is transitioning out of cartoons, superheros and PG's and into stuff that's a little heavier. It still holds up surprisingly well.

Need some more suggestions. What other older movies are must watches for a 12/13 year old?

[The Third Man]

Showed my 12 year old son The Matrix last weekend. It's been fun to bring back older movies for him to watch. He was blown away by it; great movie for a kid that age who is transitioning out of cartoons, superheros and PG's and into stuff that's a little heavier. It still holds up surprisingly well.

Need some more suggestions. What other older movies are must watches for a 12/13 year old?

Hah...we just had this discussion on another forum I frequent. We came up with a lot but if I had to suggest five of my favorites:

Alien/Aliens
Goodfellas
Unforgiven
Amadeus (if he can deal with the length)
Blade Runner