So I stumbled upon an article recently about how Crash is still the number one most rented movie on Netflix. I thought that was kind of surprising, since Crash is an older film. I suppose you have to factor in the fact that it’s a popular choice for teachers to show in sociology and social studies classes, due to the racial matter, so that’s another demographic that’s renting. But still. It got me thinking, so I looked up what the top ten most rented movies are on Netflix. I was thinking there’d be some new releases on there, but was surprised to find a list of films a couple of years or so old, seeing that it takes a while for the entire country to catch on and get to see buzzed about films.
1. Crash
2. The Departed
3. The Bucket List
4. The Pursuit of Happyness
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Casino Royale
7. Little Miss Sunshine
8. Blood Diamond
9. The Notebook
10. The Devil Wears Prada
This list raises the question: are these the new classics? It seems that even the way we define our classic movies has evolved with our new technologies. With a new, super convenient, do-it-from-home, universal rental site, we can easily gauge what our country’s most popular movies are. A classic should be defined by what is most widely beloved by its audience as well as what lives on and proves to be timeless. Look at the top ten and you’ll realize some of America’s favorite stars appear in these films. They are some of the most buzzed about films, there are some underdogs on there that really came from nowhere and no money to become acclaimed hits. And even with new releases hitting Netflix every week, these are the films people are most excited to get their hands on. Academies and experts used to decide what made a classic. But this is the age of user control and content. This is the era of social networking news. So isn’t it fitting that we the audience deem what we will always want to watch again and again, and what should be considered one damn good film? Take a look at the list and see what you haven’t seen. It seems that whatever movies you’re missing are worth checking out, according to the Netflix customer base.
July 2nd, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in General | Comments (1)
Pixar's UP hit theaters in 2-D and 3-D.
Let’s face it, filmmakers are running out of ideas. And you can’t blame them. With today’s technology, everything has been done. And done some more. CGI, special effects, blue screens, green screens, what can be done now in a film to really make people say wow? Well, it’s not like we haven’t see 3-D before, it’s not something brand new and amazing. But, films are starting to feature the 3-D option in droves, now. Because even though we’ve seen 3-D, we’re not yet used to it being available for the average movie we go to see. So for now, it is something kinda’ new and cool.
The trend has been working its way in recently with movies like Chicken Little and Monster House. It’s a trend mostly geared toward the little ones, since they, unlike us, are still not jaded and look at things with childlike wonder. But as this trend grows it spreads into other genres, into films that are so NOT for the kiddies, like the upcoming Final Destination series installment. The 3-D horror movie is a newer film trick that is a bit more exciting and fresh. And terrifying, I imagine. Like, great, the last thing I need is that chainsaw I’m cringing at to come flying at my face. Awesome. But, impressive.
Other than horror, the trend remains family friendly, since it’s an option best served with animation. (A 3-D Drew Barrymore film would be awkward at best.) Pixar’s latest, beloved picture Up was offered in 3-D, and a vibrant visual treat that was. 3-D might be gimmicky in genres like horror, but in these animated films, it’s pretty cute. I hear the 2010 Toy Story 3 will be 3-D…if anyone can confim that, I’d love to know. That is something I’d be first on line for. Call me a bit of a loser, I do not care. I have been waiting for another Toy Story for like, what? Ten years now? Bring it on, and bring it on in 3-D!
June 25th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in General | Comments (0)
In tough times like these, you’re not going to spend the twelve friggin’ bucks for just any old movie. And the sheer volume of films released in the summer can prove harrowing and overwhelming. Here I come, to the rescue. In Part One, I will tell you what movies to skip, and -guess what-in Part Two, I’ll tell you what to see. Of course, this is all my film snob opinion, so you can go ahead and defy this advice.
Today (June 19th), the latest Judd Apatow film will fall off of his assembly line: Year One with Jack Black and bird-like Michael Cera (I don’t get the hype, the kid creeps me out). Here, Black and Cera will dance around dressed (shoddily) like cavemen as they tumble through a thin plot of, like, trying to propel society forward and stuff. Leave this kind of thing to Monty Python, please. You know how they put all the funniest parts in the previews? Not even the previews for this are funny.
Photo Credit: www.impawards.com/2009/posters/year_one.jpg
Uh oh, Year One has competition! June 19 will also see the opening of the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds crappedy, The Proposal. The preview makes me want to rip my own eyes out and use them to plug my ears. This kind of work romance film has been done - with Bullock herself, too. Two Weeks Notice anyone? Nope, I didn’t think so.
On June 24, the new Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will come out. Oh, I’m just too bored to even write about this one. The first was all right but more than enough to quench my thirst for the Transformers. Plus, Shia LaBeefcake is boring and, ladies, NOT hot.
Disney will give us the third installment of Ice Age with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Here’s the pattern, if you don’t see it. The summer of sequels equals the summer suckfest. Look, Ice Age is cute, and with a lack of other strong kids movies out at this time, this new 3-D version will do well. But Disney needs some new ideas badly. This is tired.
On July 24, G-Force comes out. It’s a CGI movie. About guinea pigs. ‘Nuff said. Oh, except that they somehow got Nick Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Penelope Cruz to do the voices. Cruz really has to learn English better so she can read fully what the scripts are about before she signs on.
August 7 will see the release of the much (though less than I would have expected) anticipated G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra. Besides Channing Tatum, I can’t find anything here to get excited about. This is one of those movies that sounded cool when it was first announced, but it’s been so long since then it’s really lost its steam. Now, I think it will just be cool for the die hard G.I. Joe fans and little boys, though I don’t even know if it’s kid-friendly, and the presence of Sienna Miller makes me lean toward no.
Clearly the poster for the G.I. Joe movie is a poster from a late eighties movies with the actors' faces Photoshopped in. Just like the whole movie itself.
Photo Credit: i39.tinypic.com/jsy0qp.jpg
On August 28, there’s going to be a fourth Final Destination, and it’s going to be 3-D. This is a fateful day for me, because it is the day I give up on movies forever. It is, in a sense, my final destination.
June 19th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in General, Hollywood, Movie News, Stars | Comments (0)
Once again, there are only enough animated movies eligible for Best Animated Feature to have three nominees. If there are at least 16 eligible films, there can be 5 nominees. There are 14 this year, though.
The 14 contenders are “Bolt,” “Delgo,” “Dragon Hunters,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Igor,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” “$9.99,” “The Sky Crawlers,” “Sword of the Stranger,” “The Tale of Despereaux,” “Waltz With Bashir” “Wall-E” and “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.”
“The Sky Crawlers” and “Sword of the Stranger” are anime, distributed by Sony and Bandai, respectively. Most of the others are computer-animated American films, including Disney’s “Bolt,” Fathom Studios’ “Delgo” (which already won awards at the Rome International, Seoul International, Annecy International and the Red Stick Animation Festivals), Exodus Productions’ “Igor,” Dreamworks’ “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” Universal Pictures’ “The Tale of Despereaux,” Pixar’s “Wall-E” and Blue Sky Studios’ “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.”
As for the others, “Dragon Hunters” is a French computer-animated film, “Fly Me to the Moon” is a Belgian computer-animated film, “$9.99″ is Australian stop-motion and “Waltz With Bashir” is a hand-animated feature produced cooperatively by Israel, Germany and France and directed by Ari Folman.
I actually haven’t seen any of these. However, here are my predictions, if previous Oscars are any indication: “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” “Wall-E” and one of the foreign films will be nominated. Neither of the Japanese anime flicks will get it. “Wall-E” will probably win.
What would I like to see happen? One of the Japanese movies gets nominated, along with “Waltz With Bashir” and maybe “Wall-E.”Overall, I’ve become very disenchanted with the Best Animated Feature category. As I wrote about way back in March, anime is always snubbed. The only anime films to ever reach nomination status were “Spirited Away,” which, miraculously, won in 2002, and “Howl’s Moving Castle,” which lost to “Wallace And Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” in 2005. So what are the odds that a non-Disney anime will finally be nominated this year?
I’ve also had enough of these cookie cutter computer-animated movies that get nominated every year. “Bolt”? “Kung Fu Panda?” Enough already. All these American CGI films are the same: Non-human stuff (zoo animals, cars, rats, etc) acting like people. Sprinkle in some gross-out humor and a few “adult” jokes, and there you have it. Entertaining as these movies may be (and I’m not denying that I enjoy a lot of them–I love “Toy Story” and “Ratatouille,” for example), most of them just aren’t what I would consider Oscar-worthy.
(photo credit: w-ode)
April 13th, 2009 by admin | Posted in General | Comments (0)
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