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

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  • @boldfinger hit it right on the nose. In theory, you could beef up The Hobbit with new characters, more backstory, thoughtful explorations of other parts of Middle-earth, and to some extent, they tried to do that, but ultimately those first two Hobbit films have felt like one very simple and very short story stretched out across a mammoth running time chock-full of gratuitous, sleep-inducing action sequences. Really they share more in common with Jackson's King Kong than they do with his LOTR.

    That said, I did like Desolation of Smaug more than An Unexpected Journey and I'm still going to watch The Battle of the Five Armies, hoping for the best. But two films, as originally planned, would have suited their vision for The Hobbit just fine.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    The strength of the Hobbit films, IMO, comes with how they look and sound and also with great talents like Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch and others.

    The story is something else entirely...
    I've never read the books but I have heard a lot about them. I've also watched the animated films and I know the LOTR films well enough from multiple viewings.
    The Hobbit started as a difficult test for me. Given that it's a kids' story, ultimately, I feel much less invested in the tale of a collection of dwarfs, their gold stock and a dragon. However, Jackson brings just enough Sauron material into the mix to keep me focused. Smaug has a couple of scary moments to offer but much of the effect is lost because of...

    ... many, lengthy scenes. Let's face it, it's hard not to look at certain scenes and judge them to be just filler material. But because everything in this world looks amazing and because we know many of the characters, Jackson more or less gets away with it. Still, I can't shake off the feeling that Hobbit is too small in scope to succeed the epic LOTR trilogy.

    Now obviously one can argue that such a judgement is unfair. After all, Hobbit is a totally different book too. BUT, because Jackson eventually insisted on making not one or two but three films, of 3 hours each no less, it's almost impossible not to compare them to Rings. And then, I'm afraid, I can't but conclude that Hobbit, while overall good and looking great, is the weaker of the two series. Now to be fair, I have yet to watch the third film. It may blow me away. I'm curious though, since it's built on only a couple of pages from the book. But we'll see. Nevertheless, even if the last Hobbit film gets me all jazzed up, the first two simply cannot compete with Fellowship or The Two Towers.
  • Posts: 2,081
    Oh yes, definitely. I saw the first 2 on tv only, and found both boring (not totally useless, but definitely not exciting or magical or particularly interesting), so I'm not exactly looking forward to part 3. While there was more material in LOTR books than could fit into 3 movies, there is nowhere near enough in 1 Hobbit book to make 3 movies out of it. Yet they did. Money...
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Yep, I was bored more often than not with the first two. And not in a good way.
  • Yes.

    What , you want more? Okay: Mordor, yes!
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    <center><font color=#E9AB17 size=6><b>036
    </b>How do you feel about Jim Carrey when he doesn't play comedic parts?</font>
  • MayDayDiVicenzoMayDayDiVicenzo Here and there
    edited December 2014 Posts: 5,080
    My favourite Jim Carrey performance is The Truman Show, which is an all round fantastic film.

    It is quite strange, after seeing him in loads of comedies, to actually watch him give a straight-faced, serious performance. Sure, there are moments in The Truman Show where the goofiness shows ("let's go for a drive!") but on the whole, it's quite a brilliant performance, to be honest.
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 2,081
    Yep, I was bored more often than not with the first two. And not in a good way.

    Is it possible to be bored in a good way? *confused*


    As for Jim Carrey, oh, he's much better in those. I liked The Truman Show as well, and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and Man On The Moon. I can't remember if I've seen him in anything else where he didn't irritate me - I don't find him funny at all overacting in his regular comedic parts. But I must say that I haven't seen him in anything for years, so my memories of his performance even in those movies I mentioned isn't very fresh.

  • Posts: 3,336
    The Truman Show and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind are good choices
  • SirHilaryBraySirHilaryBray Scotland
    Posts: 2,138
    I like him in Man on the Moon and The Number 23. Man on the moon is genius potryal of Andy Kaufman.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    The Number 23 is my all-time favorite Jim Carrey movie.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    @Agent007391, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who enjoys The Number 23. I think that Carrey is marvellous in it and that the movie looks very nice. There may be some flaws in the plot but if there are, I simply don't care about them. Numerology isn't my thing but this whole 23 enigma thing is kind of fun! :-)
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    It could just be because I love the movie, but I saw very few flaws in The Number 23. I haven't seen in a couple of years, I might pop it in the DVD player tomorrow.

    Read the IMDB trivia page for a whole bunch of 23s you probably missed (I know I did).
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    Yeah, it's great fun. ;-)

    I can add one more:

    The 23rd element on the periodic table is vanadium. Its chemical symbol is V. The Roman number 'V' is of course 5, which is 2+3. ;-)
  • SirHilaryBraySirHilaryBray Scotland
    Posts: 2,138
    So glad you guys got that movie too. Off topic I also love the movie Moon with Sam Rockwell You seen it direct by David Bowies son. Love clostraphobic movies.
  • Jim Carrey is really versatile as an actor. I haven't seen him reach the depths of the late Robin Williams as far as his darker roles, but it's mostly because he hasn't gotten that kind of material. I'd say his darkest material to date has been Man On The Moon.

    As far as the non comedic movies I enjoy him in, I'd say The Majestic, The Number 23, and terrific voice work in Robert Zemeckis's 2009 adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I know many criticize the animation style in the film but the voice cast and music alone carry the film incredibly well.
  • Posts: 2,081
    Hmm. I haven't seen The Number 23, need to check it out...
  • Posts: 5,767
    I haven´t seen too much of serious Jim Carrey beside The Tuman show, in which he was fantastic.
    I´m not sure if it counts as serious, but the way he played that crazy magician in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (bah what a terrible film) made me think Carrey could be really scary as a psycho killer.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    <center><font color=#E9AB17 size=6><b>037
    </b>Avengers, X-Men, ... Which Marvel movie franchise do you like best?</font>

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Marvel Cinematic Universe. Pure and simple. I watch them all, though.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited December 2014 Posts: 23,883
    My favourite, unquestionably, is Iron Man, due primarily to Robert Downey's amazing performance. He truly is something else.....Iron Man isn't their most popular comic book, but his performances have made it the most popular of their movies (outside the Ensemble piece).

    I did like Captain America Winter Soldier a lot too, but may be because it was somewhat spy oriented. I wasn't that much of a fan of the first one, mainly because I don't really like WW2 period pieces..

    I have never really got into XMen either for some reason. I've seen them all, but they do nothing for me. Not sure why and I'm at a loss to explain it. I always come out of the theatre underwhelmed.

    What I'm waiting for, and waiting for.......is a really good Hulk movie. I hope they make one soon with Mark Ruffalo. Should be great.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    Captain America (both films). And non Marvelverse, The Punisher (more in favour of 'War Zone')
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    In these days of Marvel everything, people tend to forget the poor output we got from Marvel before Iron Man. From the worst television movies in the 70s and 80s (Captain America, some Hulks, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man), to even more terrible attempts in the 90s (Nick Fury, Corman's Fantastic Four, Generation X, more Captain America), to some serious failures in the early 2000s (Daredevil, Electra, Ghostrider, more Fantastic Four), it didn't seem like Marvel would ever find the right tone. Now I will admit that some of these films are so deliciously "off" (Dr. Strange, Nick Fury) that I tend to revisit them often. But seriously: not good!

    The first stable properties that I thought had promise were Blade and X-Men. Blade obviously slowed down - so did Wesley Snipes - but X-Men kept going. However, even X-Men lost a lot of its charm once Brian Singer decided to put Tom Cruise in a Nazi uniform. And for a while, things didn't go so well.

    But you had your Hulk and your Incredible Hulk. And then you had your Iron Man, the chicken with the golden eggs. And Marvel was back in business. "Business" is indeed the right word because who would have thought they'd ever be so bold as to plan ahead and aim towards that superb Avengers event? Iron Man 2 wasn't quite the film that Iron Man had been, but it was still infinitely better than FF, Daredevil or Ghostrider, to name but a few. Cap and Thor did pretty well. Meanwhile, X-Men showed up again with a quality film, First Class, after The Last Stand and X-Men: Origins had nearly hammered the final nail in the mutants' coffin. Avengers went big and its successors almost as big. The Wolverine disappointed some but this year's Days Of Future Past was a stunner. Yet so was Cap 2...

    And now I guess I must choose. Though it very much enjoyed Neveldine & Taylor's high-caffeine take on Ghostrider, it really comes down to Avengers or X-Men. I will choose... X-Men. Can't help it. The Mutants are my favourites. So much potential is still hidden in that property. I enjoy the comic books, the characters and most of the films. I can even partially forgive the flaws in The Last Stand and Origins.
  • Posts: 12,526
    I would go with Avengers but would love to see a cross over of the two?!!!
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,183
    @RogueAgent, me too. It's happened successfully in the comics. For the movies, however, it could be difficult. Disney and Fox would have to work closely together. And who will deliver Quicksilver? ;-)
  • Posts: 3,336
    Im going with a very unpopular choice i quess, and that is Thor.
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Guardians of the Galaxy, by a country mile.
  • I enjoy the Avengers movies more or less, but I don't usually feel the need to see them each more than once. The Captain America films have definitely been my favorites so far. (Still need to see both of Thor's though.) RDJ is fantastic as Tony Stark/Ironman, but there really isn't much that interests me about any of his three films beyond his performance.

    The X-Men films are kind of a mixed bunch. I've seen them all except Days of Future Past (meaning to see that any day now) and X2: X-Men United still stands at the top for me. First Class was pretty good, too.

    At the end of the day, I must agree with @RC7: Guardians of the Galaxy wins by leaps and bounds.
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    edited December 2014 Posts: 7,314
    I still love the X-Men series even though they have produced a couple of duds. The first two will always hold a special place in my heart. First Class and The Wolverine were surprisingly good. DOFP was just about everything I could have hoped for and will probably be the peak of the franchise, unfortunately. I do look forward to the next one but I can't see them outdoing the awesomeness that was DOFP.

    Anyway, I have enjoyed Iron Man, Avengers and GotG just like everyone else has but I don't feel a special connection to them like I do the X-Men. At the end of the day I just love these characters. Stewart, McKellen, Jackman, Fassbender and McAvoy have all been outstanding. Just imagine if Singer had never left.

    I do sympathize with those who are sick of Marvel or who are insulted by their assembly line attitude regarding these films. We have been absolutely bombarded by Marvel with no end in sight any time soon. It does feel extremely watered down at this point. I understand that it's a business but I think they've gone too far. At what point will the masses stop shelling out money for all of these releases?
  • Posts: 3,336
    I would also choose X-Men if we are only counting First Class and Days of future past, as some kinda reboot franchise
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