It was bound to happen eventually. After
a quarter-century,
26 Academy Awards, and an unparalleled streak of
eleven artistic and commercial triumphs, Pixar's latest project,
Cars 2, is
Certified Rotten. Critics have
assailed the film as a slick but hollow vehicle for Disney's
$10 billion-dollar Cars merchandising industry "lifestyle brand," replacing the original's serviceable tale of small-town redemption with
zany spy games,
hyperactive chase sequences, and even more
lowbrow aww-shucks potty humor from
Larry the Cable Guy. But it's not all bad news! Along with
a fun new Toy Story 3 short, preceding today's (3-D) premiere showings is a first look at next year's
Brave --
a darkly magical original story set in ancient Scotland featuring the studio's first female lead (and
director).
Evocative high-res concept art [mirror] is available at the official website, and
character sketches have leaked to the web, with the apparently striking teaser trailer sure to follow. Also, be sure not to miss the sneak peak of
Brave's associated short,
"La Luna"!
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 24, 2011 -
263 comments
It's a simple concept: Given a choice between two random movies, which one do you like best? That's the driving force behind
Flickchart, an
addictive review site for movie lovers. Faced with two posters, click the one for the title you prefer (weeding out the ones you haven't seen). Good! Now do it again. And again. And again. With each new face-off, Flickchart perfects a growing list of your favorite films -- and there can be no ties. This leads to some
difficult dilemmas:
Star Wars or
Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Citizen Kane or
The Godfather?
WALL-E or
Spirited Away? But you needn't struggle alone -- Flickchart is also social. By drawing on
the data of tens of thousands of fellow users, you can create
remarkably specific lists:
Martin Scorsese's Best Period Films.
The Best Road Movies of the 1980s.
The Worst Movies of All Time. If you rank enough films, you can generate interesting personalized charts, like "Your Favorite Musicals" or "The Best Movies You Haven't Seen." These filters carry over to the ranking system, letting you judge nothing but Horror movies or 1960s movies or unranked movies or movies from your top 100. You can also comment on
popular match-ups, lending your voice to contentious debates like
Ghostbusters vs.
Back to the Future or
Jaws vs.
Predator. Not a movie fan? Don't worry. Flickchart will be expanding into books, games, and music soon. Until then, you can give your own data sets the Flickchart treatment using
this tool from CNN.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 3, 2010 -
202 comments
"In Japan, animation is not seen as the exclusive realm of children's and family films, but is often used for adult, science fiction and action stories, where it allows a kind of freedom impossible in real life. Some Hollywood films strain so desperately against the constraints of the possible that you wish they'd just caved in and gone with animation." --
Roger Ebert on anime, with this excerpt being related to
Tokyo Godfathers. Ebert has been a fan of anime for a while, especially the works of
Hayao Miyazaki. Ebert has reviewed 6 of the 18
Studio Ghibli films released to date, and
even interviewed Miyazaki with a bit of fanboy glee.
More reviews and videos inside. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 30, 2010 -
92 comments
In 2008, Gabe Delahaye, senior editor of
Videogum (
previously), began the
Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time. From
A.I. to
Zardoz, over 70 films have so far been surveyed, including
Crash,
Caligula (nsfw),
Kangaroo Jack,
Gigli,
The Notebook, and
Closer.
[more inside]
posted by rollick
on Feb 18, 2010 -
140 comments
Blindspots is a continually-updated collection of movie reviews based around one very interesting concept -- how accessible they are to the visually impaired.
[more inside]
posted by flatluigi
on Nov 22, 2008 -
25 comments
It is acceptable, but rarely, to join in a general audience uproar, as at the first Cannes press screening of "The Brown Bunny." Even then, no cupping your hand under your armpit and producing fart noises. Roger Ebert's little rule book.
posted by Knappster
on Nov 2, 2008 -
39 comments
Kids-in-mind "provides parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids." Informative AND unintentionally hilarious! From the somewhat kid-friendly
Ratatouille (
A rat smokes a mushroom over a chimney, and with another rat they are struck by lightning, thrown from the roof and to the ground (they have electrified fur but are otherwise OK).) to
more decidedly non-
kid-
friendly fare,
and everything in between.
[more inside]
posted by (bb|[^b]{2})
on Apr 21, 2008 -
81 comments
Have a region free DVD player? Just love movies?
DVD Beaver reviews DVDs and compares releases from different countries so you can be sure you're getting the best print/audio available.
posted by dobbs
on Feb 8, 2004 -
10 comments
Broog: Alien Film Critic
Likes:
Cuckoo
"Broog will not seek to interpret this film on your behalf, but he will come round to your feeble dwelling and sow your fields with salt, stampede your tiny offspring, and wear your housepets as slippers if you do not avail yourself of the opportunity to see the movie."
Dislikes:
Matrix Revolutions
"By the same point in “Revolutions”, Broog was designing a new annex to the Chamber of Oiled Hedgehogs for the special use of Andy and Larry when Broog is able to get his grasping organs on them.
posted by thatwhichfalls
on Jan 3, 2004 -
6 comments
If you like movies, and you like to watch them on DVD, and appreciate in-depth, thoughtful analysis of various features on a particular DVD, then you need
The DVD Journal. And nothing else.
posted by WolfDaddy
on Feb 17, 2003 -
22 comments
As to be expected the dumb critics are ripping Lara Croft to shreds; I mean
really tearing it a new orifice. Which means of course I must see
this film. Major argument against? A hack plot designed only to engender scenes of mindless violence. Duh. It's not supposed to have
emotional impact. It's just supposed to be fun. Did any of these critics actually play the game? What frightens me though is that
Roger Ebert enjoyed it...
I'm so torn...
posted by ZachsMind
on Jun 16, 2001 -
50 comments
