FANTASTILICIOUS FUN FOR FILM FANS 089: your top 10's of 2020 and most anticipated films of 2021?

17810121359

Comments

  • REC was great and the sequels were good, but as a genre I really don't like found footage films. Like I said, REC was fantastic, but other than that, meh.

  • Generally speaking nigh on never a convincing narrative device. But with the right suspension of disbelief, it may occasionally be effective and in the case of a film like Cannibal Holocaust allow for some truly disturbing storytelling. I do find it a bit odd that the gimmick is mostly used in Horror films, as I think its ability to deliver actual scares is fairly weak to put it mildly.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I'm glad that it's relegated to a couple movies a year now. Few years ago, it seemed like there was one coming out every week. It seems to have some weird sort of marriage to the zombie genre, so I've been exposed to it a lot.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    *yawn*
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    edited September 2014 Posts: 13,978
    The found footage angle worked for The Blair Witch Project, back in 1999 before it had been done to death. On saying that, i'm not a fan, and I absolutely don't want found footage anywhere near the next Friday The 13th.
  • TokolosheTokoloshe Under your bed
    Posts: 2,667
    Saw BWP in the cinema in Paris in 1999 and almost left halfway through. Utterly tedious. Also mainly unimpressed with Paranormal Activity.

    Cloverfield is the only one that I thought was reasonable.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    Tokoloshe wrote: »
    Cloverfield is the only one that I thought was reasonable.
    Yeah, that was the ONLY one I ever liked.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,160
    FF destroyed Romero's Dead series. Diary Of The Dead was a poor experiment at best. And Romero didn't even manage to keep a straight face during it all; he gave the film a score and actually has one of the characters acknowledge the fact! The once so creative master of zombie satire had finally succumbed to hypes and trends. If he had been given a bigger budget, I bet Survival Of The Dead would have been a 3D film.

    The Blair Witch Project was my first foray into FF. It worked, though I never thought of the film as the brilliant masterpiece many made it out to be. In fact, I mostly respect TBWP because of how it practically discovered the costless marketing potential the Internet offered.

    Cloverfield is a film I like though I hardly watch it as often as I might. V/H/S is very good IMO and Rec. may very well be the only FF film so far that I have watched repeatedly. (Not Quarentine though. That film only exists because some people are not bright enough to read subtitles.)

    I don't take Paranormal Activity seriously at all. My contempt for these films is well documented. The FF angle is hardly fresh at this point and PA does nothing to make it interesting again.

    FF has become so easily accessible because of all the user generated junk that we can find on YouTube. People have forgotten to consider the framing of a shot, camera angles, editing, ... Voyeurism has become morally acceptable because every fool in town posts self-made movie clips of his vacation, house, garage, garden, dog, hamster, ... Nobody seems to worry about the consequences of such voluntary exposure anymore. And because such artless filth is constantly dropped on the Internet like bird dung, our quality standards for film have been reduced dramatically over the past few years. FF doesn't obey any rules; in a sense it's every uneducated wannabe filmmaker's wet dream. Just shoot some images and paste them together and you get away with it. Haunted houses and Exorcisms especially seem to be very popular in the FF microverse. Why? I suppose because those who don't worry too much about quality of film do not worry about quality of brain labour either. Rather than studying physics and psychology, 'weird' things can be lazily attributed to the presence of ghosts and demonic possessions. And if you use FF, it looks like a documentary, like something *real* and so then it must be real, right?

    A minor few FF films are worth our time but most of them target audiences who bring very limited quality demands to the game.

    Or so I think. ;-)
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Never particularly cared for it. It just feels like an excuse for lazy cinematography.
  • Posts: 2,341
    I have to confess:
    This "found footage" genre is getting kinda old. The shaky cam etc is just starting to grate on one's nerves. I liked "Cloverfield" but I think they have started to beat this dead horse to death.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,160
    <center><font color=#E9AB17 size=6><b>015</b>
    What's your favourite James Cameron movie?</font></center>
  • I have to say Terminator 2, with Aliens in a strong second place
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Titanic. :)
  • Posts: 7,507
    None...
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,160
    Excellent choice, @Crazysoul95! :-)

    T2, followed by Aliens and then by TT, followed by The Abyss and then True Lies, is what my top 5 Cameron films would look like.

    Titanic, I'm sorry to say, isn't my bag. I watched it many years ago, I think it's certainly not bad, but it drowns - no pun intended - in spectacle and leaves me fairly uninterested in the characters and their story. Avatar is also not a bad film, but I struggled with seeing the brilliance apart from the obvious technical achievements. Then still, I predicted that said achievements would be matched and even surpassed by other films in a very near future, and IMO the very same thing has indeed happened. Fortunately there's still a story left in Avatar but unfortunately not one to boast of. Unoriginal, almost dull even.

    So I know why I keep going back to Cameron's first couple of films, I bitterly leave the last two decades (and last two films) of his career alone for most of the time. I'm simply not interested in returning to Titanic and Avatar.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,713
    Aliens, followed by T2 :)
  • The Terminator. After that, an endless series of staggering disappointments and defeats ;)

    But seriously, quite a brilliant filmmaker and craftsman. While not exactly my cup of tea, I'm not surprised by the gargantuan success of Titanic and Avatar. It would be interesting to see him working with a lower budget again some day, as I do think The Terminator in hindsight benefits from its lack of spectacular action sequences and breathtaking special effects. But though I may find his latter output slightly less compelling, he does sport a remarkable filmography. Just yesterday I was hoping to watch The Abyss again for the first time in some 20 years, but was voted down by my wife. Better luck tonight, maybe.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited September 2014 Posts: 12,480
    Oh I do like Titanic. The Abyss? Not at all. Terminator, yes;esp. 2.
    I guess my short list would be:

    Titanic
    Terminator 2
    Terminator
    Aliens/TrueLies (tie)

    I actually have not seen Avatar yet. In general, Cameron is not a favorite of mine.
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,129
    Might be a bit of a shock, but I'd choose True Lies.
    After near five years sans Bond, this was welcome action viewing in 1994.
    After that, T2 and The Abyss would be my pics.
    Titanic is well made, but the length and characters bring it down. Avatar is just painfull. Massively over rated.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    I thought part of True Lies was fun. Mainly Jamie Lee Curtis and Bill Paxton.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    True Lies
  • Posts: 12,526
    Has to be Aliens for me! Have watched that film so many times that i have lost count!
  • Posts: 2,341
    I would go Aliens as #1 with The first Terminator a close second.
  • Posts: 7,653
    The name as director of a movie is enough to get me to the cinema!

    Titanic & Avatar are both despised by quite a few but reign the BO together easily, JC seems to know how to make a spectacle movie with great appeal to both sexes. And his movies always push the technological borders ahead. The man knows how to make and deliver a movie better than most so called experts do.

    I am still most in awe of Terminator & The Abyss. As spectacle T2, Aliens, Avatar & Titanic are quite impressive. True Lies is a hoot and a half.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    True Lies and T2.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    "Somebody wake up Hicks."
    (hint)
  • Alliens first with The Terminator a close second.
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    edited November 2014 Posts: 4,399
    (deleted)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    While I like his 'Aliens' the most, I'd have to say 'Terminator' is his best movie. Just fierce, forceful film-making.
  • The Terminator, followed closely by The Abyss.

    As others have stated, The Terminator is just raw, powerful, streamlined filmmaking. A very simple premise perfectly executed by Cameron's gritty shooting and editing and elevated by Fiedel's atmospheric '80s synth music and the committed performances of Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and Biehn.

    The Abyss, in addition to being beautifully filmed and scored, is anchored by its central story of rediscovered love between estranged husband and wife, Bud (Harris) and Lindsey (Mastrantonio). An excellent sci-fi undersea adventure with thrilling action sequences and a warm, uplifting resolution.

    Terminator 2 and Aliens are both highly entertaining sequels that upped the scope and the action from their predecessors, while yet missing something of the tone/atmosphere/energy that made the originals (Cameron's The Terminator and Ridley Scott's Alien) so great. I like them both; they just stand in long shadows.

    Beyond those four, my interest in James Cameron's filmography really drops off. The common link between all these films? Michael Biehn. Hmmm. Maybe Cameron should consider casting Biehn again... ;)
Sign In or Register to comment.