RealityChuck

Brad Bird's first live-action film, where a young woman discovers a pin from the 1964 World's Fair, that takes her on an adventure to a World of Tomorrow (and George Clooney).

Better than I had thought it would be. Clearly the second best animated film of the year.

I don't suppose anyone has seen this (it was never released into US theaters, though it's on Netflix), but is is a wonderful stop-motion animated film about a girl from Australia who starts up as a penpal to a random New Yorker. It is certainly one of the best animated films of the past ten years, filled with some very funny (and adult) humor and with a poignant ending. Definitely not aimed at kids, which is probably why it no US distributor wanted to handle it. The voice cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana, and Barry ("Dame Edna") Humphries. [youtube:2n6zgp3d]MgRjB8PEDkM[/youtube:2n6zgp3d]

Likeable, but it's mostly John Ford highlighting his roots, and it's all very slight.

Well, this is clearly the Oscar favorite (if he leaves the garbage can to vote for it). http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/02/20/big_bird_actor_carroll_spinney_spoofs_the_movie_birdman_video.html

The first time in each time period, the year was clearly indicated with a title. From then on, the characters (and, I think, the cinematography and lighting) kept it all straight.

MFS62 wrote: In addition to Academy Award nominations for Best picture, best actor, best actress and score*, it was nominated for Best Editing. Editing is one of those things I always thought was like Umpiring - if you noticed it, it was bad. But when I walked out of the movie, I told my wife that I thought the editing was good, and its probably the first time I ever said that about any movie. And I can't explain why.I think it was the way they were able to keep the parallel stories separate; you always knew which time period was being portrayed, even when there was no subtitle to point it out. I did think it was an excellent film; I've seen a lot of good ones this year.

I don't think I've seen ten new movies this year, but from those I have: 1. Birdman 2. The Grand Budapest Hotel 3. The Book of Life 4. St. Vincent 5. Interstellar It came out in 2012, but I didn't see it until this year: 6. Blancanieves

Animated film produced by Guillermo del Toro about two Mexican boys/men who become entangled in a bet made by the rulers of the afterlife, set on the Day of the Dead. Personally, I think this was the best non-Aardman animated film in years. The style is eye-popping, the characters well drawn, and the plot continually serves up surprises.

Saw this -- hard to say which performance was better, Murray or Keaton in Birdman. A more traditional story, but played to the hilt. Murray is excellent, as is the actor playing the kid. Noted that Naomi Watts was in both this and Birdman.

Nominated for seven Golden Globes (the most of any movie), including best actor, best supporting actress, and best comedy/musical. The Golden Globes is a bit of a bogus award, but it's a nice honor.

The characters from the original reprise their roles. My wife (who's going through a Kevin Spacey kick) insisted we see this for her birthday. Spacey was great in his three minutes of screen time. The funniest thing in the movie were the closing credits, and I spent the entire film hoping they'd arrive soon.

Keaton and Norton deserve Oscars and Emma Stone was pretty damn good, too. The movie went into all sorts of unexpected places and dealt with a bunch of fascinaing issues. It's funny, dramatic, and fascinating from start to finish. I discovered that the cinematographer also did Gavity. That should give you a real "oh, yes" moment. A great film from start to finish.

Michael Keaton as a washed up actor from a superhero franchise, who tries to revive his career by directing and writing a Broadway play. Edward Norton as the unpredictable star and Emma Stone as Keaton's daughter.

I saw it this weekend and was very impressed. People talk about the science (which, while good in cosmology and physics, is so-so in biology), but the real strength is the human story, which is very touching and effective.

It's risky. If a movie flops, it can cause a chain reaction of flops. Also, there's the risk that the entire superhero genre becomes oversaturated. It's not risky at all. They're not making the films simultaneously; its a planned schedule. Just because they announced those films doesn't mean they have to make them. If the genre starts to tank, they can just stop. .But if a film tanks, it's gonna tank big, and that's going to effect anything that is in production. Remember, these take years to make; if film A tanks, films B and C are in production. Do you keep on track? Do you call it a loss and stop? The latter seems very unlikely: Marvel depends on these films to make profits. No one will be thinking sunk costs. So they continue with B and C, hoping the A was a fluke. If B flops, then do you complete C and continue on D? Maybe C will be a blockbuster . . . If the genre has run its course, then billions could be lost. It already growing very tired from a storytelling point of view. There hasn't been an original superhero film since . . . Burton's Batman, maybe. Maybe even Superman vs. the Mole Men. It's always the same story: eeeeeevillll villain shows up and goes head to head with the hero(s) in hours of fight scenes (which always bore me). The genre is an artistic dead end, and eventually, Marvel is going to hit the brick wall at the end of it. The only question is whether they can hit the brakes before they crash into it.

It's risky. If a movie flops, it can cause a chain reaction of flops. Also, there's the risk that the entire superhero genre becomes oversaturated.

Dull and cliched. I am sorely tired of superhero films, but watched this because my wife still likes them. This did nothing to change my opinion. Also, I've come to the conclusion is that Marvel villains are fundamentally stupid and the heroes aren't much better.

DeGrom Duda Lagares Murphy Familia Wheeler Mejia Granderson D'Arnaud Wright Colon Niese Black Gee Flores Torres Recker Carlyle den Dekker Campbell Tejada Nieuwenhuis E. Young Matsuzaka Edgin Everland Herrera Abreu C. Young Montero

Just got a chance to see it this weekend. This is one of Disney's best, partly because they way it subverted Disney tropes. It one of the few where the main antagonist wasn't a villain, and where the "true love's kiss" didn't resolve everything. The ending was very emotionally powerful, especially since it showed that the Disney ideal of true love didn't matter.

I first saw him when he was on Laugh-In. Not the Rowan and Martin version, but the reboot in the late 70s. What I remember best was that in his official bio, he claimed to be a Scottish lord with his own castle. Here's a clip. Williams shows up at about 1:40. dtIx3RguLaw

The problem with Williams is separating him from his films. I don't think he had a fully satisfying starring role in a first-class movie (other than The Fisher King and Aladdin). Of those I've seen, his starring vehicles were usually flawed in one way or another (sometimes terribly so); the first-class movies he was in all had him in a supporting role, and he was a far better supporting actor -- where he could be controlled -- than a lead.

The Fisher King Aladdin Good Will Hunting Moscow on the Hudson Good Morning Vietnam Popeye Baron Munchausen Dead Again Hook Williams had his misfires (including some of his best-known films, though the fault was usually due to the scripts, not Williams) and could go too deeply into pathos, but when given the right role and a good director, he was wonderful.

Saw it this weekend. I think that Anderson just gets better and better. This may have been his best (though Moonrise Kingdom was also great). His earlier films consisted of quirky moments, but never really combined into a whole movie; these last two did.

Vic Sage wrote: After all, the vessel with the pestle has the pellet with the poison...No. As Angela Lansbury pointed out, "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true."