“Hollywood makes shitty movies.” -Ron Meyer, NBC Universal Studios COO
Avatar made $2,782,275,172 in international ticket sales. Its budget was about $237 million. I’d be happy to give you a minute to let that settle in. Read more
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Voting at the Movies
Netflix Streaming Suggestions: Round 3
1. Duck Soup- Often referred to as the Marx Brothers best film, Duck Soup is also one of the best military satires ever made. Personally, I love the Marx Brothers. I find their humor brilliant. I think this is a film that everyone should give a chance and you might just find that the wit of old Hollywood is just as good if not better as the wit of Hollywood today. Oh and it just so happens to be number 5 in AFI’s Top 100 Laughs of All-Time if you don’t want to take my word for it. Also, the entire film can be viewed on YouTube below if you don’t have Netflix! Read more
Suggested Netflix Views – Week 2
Welcome back! Last week I gave you your first five suggestions of things instantly streaming on Netflix. Let me reiterate since there was some confusion, these are not a part of any ranking or in any particular order. I have made a big list and these are just selections from my list. I hope you enjoy these and find something you haven’t seen! If you watch something from one of these lists let me know what you think! Read more
Movie Review: The Hunger Games
Everyone hates the typical “book is better” guy. Everyone loves to get to be the “book is better” guy. I’m glad to be able to report after seeing the movie, I don’t have to be that guy.
I certainly don’t mean that as a knock on the book. I mean that more so to give the movie props. Look, they are going to cut things. They are going to change things. If you haven’t figured it out by now, that’s how they make movies out of novels.
I read the book a while ago when I found out there was a movie in the works. However, from the very first chapter I felt like I was reading a movie script. I felt like The Hunger Games was a book basically written to be a hit movie. It was like Suzanne Collins read Harry Potter and Twilight and saw the dollar signs and set off on her mission to make the next big thing. And she did.
For the most part it’s impossible to poorly turn an epic book set in its own world into a hit movie. The Hunger Games is basically unofficially set in the United States in the future, but it’s got enough dsytopian 1984 in it to make the setting its own entity for the purpose of the argument. Take the prior two examples given, throw in The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Blade Runner, Lord of the Flies, The Princess Bride, Children of Men, Planet of the Apes, The Chronicles of Narnia, Minority Report, etc. Not that it has never happened, but it’s unlikely to not turn a book like this into a successful film. Read more
Suggested Netflix Instant Streams
Hmmm how to follow up my Noteworthy Films of 2012 post…
Okay so over the weekend I went through my Netflix queue and swapped out a bunch of movies and shows. Embarrassingly enough I always have the maximum number (500) of things allowed in my instant queue. As I looked through some of the things I had rated, I got to thinking that there were a good number of things that would be good to share and suggest to our readers. I’ll likely make a little series of this, giving you about 5 options per week of things that are on the instant streaming list that I would suggest.
Here are your first five. Some you may have seen. Some you may have not seen, but been given the ever so obnoxious “YOU HAVEN’T SEEN…”. Others you will hopefully have never heard of but will take a chance and trust me. These are not in any particular order. Read more
Top 5 Oscar Surprises
Well…I lost. Again. To Joseph. Sad face.
The Oscars always seem to hold a few surprises. No matter how confident I am in my heavily researched picks, I always end the night with a “huh” look on my face.
Here is my selection process: First, I make a concerted effort to see every film nominated in every category. I follow up all my viewings with reading what every “expert” under the sun thinks will happen and their rationale and all that jazz. I then do my best to deduct their assured biases. And alas I come up with my picks.
Joseph and I only differed on two categories out of 24 this year. These were Best Makeup and Best Sound Editing. Logic originally told me The Iron Lady would win for makeup. But then there was the buzz for Harry Potter getting undeservedly shunned by The Academy. I figured they might throw them a bone in the visual section. The other difference was Sound Editing, which my gut told me would be Hugo. I again figured The Academy wouldn’t want to give Spielberg a sad face like mine and would throw him one bone for War Horse. I took two calculated risks and both backfired. I figured I’d at least get a split! So I finished getting 17/24 picks correct and Joseph got 19/24 correct. Congrats to Mr. Williams.
Now for what I would consider to be the Top 5 Oscar Surprises. Read more
2011 Movie Rankings (1-10)
“Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that’s why we’re all interested in movies- those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it’s actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.” -Tim Burton
Welcome to Part 2 of my 2011 movie rankings. If you need to catch up on 11-25 here is a link. As some of you know I absolutely love ranking things, so I’m sure ranking various film related topics will become a bit of a recurring theme. Also be sure to check back on Saturday for a special edition of The Imaginarium featuring Joseph Williams as we make our Oscar picks. This is a tradition we have done for many years on Facebook and I’m excited to have a new platform to display who is truly more knowledgable than who. If you would like to submit your picks feel free to do so to thewiseguiseblog@gmail.com. Here is a list of all nominees and, for your submissions, just predict the first 9 on that page and then Best Documentary to make 10 total. Anyone that beats me on those 10 will be recognized in next week’s post. Submissions must be in by noon on Saturday (or before my picks are posted). May the odds be ever in your favor.
Now let’s get down to the top 10… Read more
2011 Movie Rankings (11-25)
“Movies entertain us, and often they are nothing more than grab bags of gimmicks, gags, and gab. But those that continue to appeal to audiences over time and to lodge in our individual and collective memories do so because they reveal patterns of how we live our lives. Our hopes and fears, our aspirations and our failures, our longings and our frustrations, our loves and our hates are all embodied in the memorable popular films.”
I’m a big quote guy. And so as I sit here in my CTU Bauer shirt, pondering how to kick off “The Imaginarium” portion of this blog, I found this quote ever so relevant. I am admittedly one of those occasionally obnoxious people who views films as more than just a fun entertainment medium. Like Joseph said in his profile, “I’m not one of those guys that gets all jacked up to see Transformers 3 at midnight.”
I think of my boy Jack Bauer and his dedication to preserving all that is good. I like to think that I am dedicated to the same, just in a far less badass way. For me, a well-made film is a very powerful thing. Well-made films embody something in each of us that either forces us to confront something or stirs up an emotional inner response. I’m not implying that every movie made has to be some deep, cerebral melodrama. One of my all-time favorite movies is Sullivan’s Travels, which argues that there is the most power in comedies. (And yes the entire movie is on YouTube). I just think too many people tend to see movies that were made for a very specific purpose and they view them with a different agenda and are disappointed. A lot of the movies on my list have to be viewed with an open mind and with the understanding that they weren’t necessarily made for your enjoyment. But alas I will step down from my soapbox and save that post for another day.
So before we get too far into things here on The Imaginarium, I thought we should first recap what I considered to be my top movies of 2011. There is no specific set of criteria for ranking these. It’s basically just a combination of equal parts what I consider quality, combined with how much I enjoyed it. Also I have to admit I’ve only seen one movie nominated for Best Foreign Film and none of the Best Documentary nominees. Those are usually viewed the week leading up to the Oscars. I would love your feedback and we’ll go through 1-10 next week leading up to my Oscar picks.
So without further adieu, let’s do this thing! Read more
