| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| benj clews |
Posted - 05/29/2009 : 14:29:16
Looks fantastic, but sadly everyone outside the US has a 5-6 month wait before it arrives in their country- unbelievable!
Are Disney trying to punish those of us who avoid the many illegal ways to see films?
Anyway, am looking forward to hearing what those of you lucky enough to be able to see this from today think. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| silly |
Posted - 11/19/2009 : 15:01:56
Great review, Randall.
It's out on DVD so my wife and daughter finally watched this last week. A little distracting at home, but they really liked it, and my daughter (who is six, by the way) keeps asking when we can rent it again, because "it's really really funny."
I managed to cry less during the marriage montage this time around  I can relate to this couple a lot. |
| randall |
Posted - 11/19/2009 : 03:57:05
FSLC screened it tonight and director Pete Docter [MONSTERS, INC.] was there for a Q&A afterwards with Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum. I also had low expectations, having heard the uninspiring setup. However...
...this is my second favorite Pixar pic after WALL-E. Howls of screaming laughter nearly the whole way through, but that was after a heart-tugging sequence showing an entire happy marriage with nothing but music. That's in order to get the kid we meet at the top up to Ed Asner's age. If they'd just gone to black and rolled credits after this sequence alone, you'd have an Oscar nominee, and I submit winner, for Best Short Film. But there's more!
The film is about escape, both psychological and physical. There is a tenderness which shines throughout, along with the type of clever humor that only smart, funny people can achieve, and even then only by going over the premise a hundred times. Asner's beloved wife has predeceased him [before they could get to their dream adventure, a trip to South America's remote Paradise Falls] and now he's a curmudgeon, the last residential holdout holding up a corporate makeover. When he's finally forced out over a technicality, the Shady Oaks Retirement Home comes to pick him up, but he has a surprise in store, the effect everybody already knows about, thrillingly depicted to a glorious musical score.
He will make it to South America, and pick up some unwanted baggage along the way -- and the story's just getting started. Tremendous humanity, hilarious timing and wordplay, and the typical Pixar attention to detail. My highest compliment: I want to see it again, right now.
Regarding 2-D and 3-D, Docter told us that nothing was specifically crafted for 3-D during development, but once the 3-D team joined them, the animators decided early on that they didn't want any cheesy "reaching-out" effects [c.f., SCTV's "Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses"], so this conceit was observed:
You're looking at a window, a pane. Nothing can jump out of the pane, but anything can reach way, way back in depth.
Thus Pixar's 3-D philosophy, at least for this picture. |
| [matt] |
Posted - 10/25/2009 : 14:04:03
Just saw this last night and absolutely LOVED it. It was in parts very mature and very silly; it really had emotional weight as well as utter hilarity and had me crying tears of both sadness and laughter.
As for the 3D-ness, I think it's actually a great strength of the film that it doesn't overuse it, like some others have done. It enhances the story and drama and sucks you into the film without making the effects more noticeable than what's actually happening.
After this, I love writer/director Pete Docter even more, as he also wrote and co-directed Monsters, Inc. which is one of my favourite Pixar movies.
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| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 10/12/2009 : 20:13:24
You know, the more I think about this one, the better it looks in the rearview. I think maybe I was too harsh on it. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 10/11/2009 : 22:04:45
quote:
Originally posted by Chris C
Finally, it's opened in the UK. Loved it.
Ditto! Absolutely charming.
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| Chris C |
Posted - 10/11/2009 : 19:53:28
Finally, it's opened in the UK. Loved it. |
| silly |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 22:27:46
I finally watched this over the weekend, my kids "took" me to the movies for Father's day, and let me drive and pay for everything.
I thought it was fantastic. I loved Carl, which I guess is the whole point of the movie, and laughed hard at many of the gags (lots of dog related ones).
We watched it in 3D (they are showing it both ways at our theater), and maybe I'm just getting more used to it, but I didn't feel that it added much to the film. I'll have to watch it the other way and see, I guess.
I notice Toy Story will be in 3D, and that was my least favorite trailer before this film - it seemed just a quick "hey, everybody come out and do your gag - Mr Potato says something about his back, the slinky dog gets slunked, Buzz and Woody have an ego match, etc. Didn't do anything for me that a simple poster wouldn't have done.
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| damalc |
Posted - 06/15/2009 : 17:30:30
apparently, MBI, there's very little overlap in our tastes. and for the record, i've played it pretty safe this summer. i was including "Star Trek" and "Drag Me to Hell," which i know you didn't like.
it may help that i've consciously avoided "Wolverine," "Terminator" and "Transformers," but i'll probably catch them all when they hit the discount theater. maybe my evaluation of summer 2009 will fall some then. |
| MguyXXV |
Posted - 06/14/2009 : 22:52:48
quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
... I can't really say I think it measures up.
heh, heh: irony ... heh, heh ... |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 06/14/2009 : 17:05:20
"this summer is coming together very well. 'Up' was at least the third good movie i've seen this year, when i'm usually galactically disappointed by flashy-but-lacking-substance summer fare."
Well, I'm thoroughly disappointed by the fare this year (especially after last year's excellent season), and I would count Up and Star Trek the only good summer movies I've seen this year, and they're good but not great.
I would say that Up strikes me as the LEAST coherent of Pixar's films. It feels more cobbled together, the strings more obvious. The villain never really justified, the gags maybe a little too goofy (dogs in planes?). The wordless opening sequence is, of course, thoroughly amazing and heartrending, and Carl is not only an amazing character but a brave one to put in a kid's film. But compared with Ratatouille, Wall-E or the Toy Story films, I can't really say I think it measures up. |
| damalc |
Posted - 06/14/2009 : 13:08:47
this summer is coming together very well. 'Up' was at least the third good movie i've seen this year, when i'm usually galactically disappointed by flashy-but-lacking-substance summer fare.
i thought the beginning and end were very strong, but it got a little slow in the middle. what i found amazing was that in a theater full of kids, when they weren't roaring with laughter, it was almost totally silent. they were positively hypnotized. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 22:06:13
quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
If it's any consolation, and I don't expect it will be, many cinema managers are furious about this experience charge. They know it alienates customers and everyone's more and more aware that the whole thing is a way to discourage piracy.
Is this seriously the case? I always assumed it was the same situation as with automated payment (you know- the system where you book your tickets and they charge you extra for saving them the cost of employing a human being to do the job much quicker)- it's just another way to charge you for something on top of the ticket cost.
How exactly are cinema managers being forced to charge extra for 3D? And by who? If it's the film distributers saying it'll cost cinemas more to show films in 3D, then why on earth don't they just stick to 2D?
They don't stick to 2D because the industry has blown its wad on 3D as the best way to deter pirates, since the films need to be projected differently. Cine-chains have bit the investment bullet on condition they can recoup costs with the "experience" shit. It's all prob'ly gonna backfire at some point I betcha. I dunno if it's online but tiny Jeffrey Katzenberg gave an interview on this sometime last year I think. Up apparently had one of the costliest Cannes promos, and there wasn't a duff report about the film itself. Which is what the industry is going to need - 3D alone will NOT bring punters into the cinema.
On a completely different note -- when I was an aspiring actress of the 17-year-old variety, I won a scholarship to the Shakespeare Academy in Connecticut, known as Stratford on the Housatonic. Our days were filled with fencing lessons, voice projection, and verse comedy. During the performances we were extras and sometimes were awarded lines. One of the stalwarts of the company was Ed Asner. Turned out he'd acted with my dad. He was kind and generous, and a bloody marvellous actor - Asner that is.Flash forward when I was a development executive for BBC Drama Series and when I learned Asner was in town I set up a meeting with him and the Head of Series to see whether we could tempt him into doing a project with us. Sadly, it didn't happen. But it was amazing seeing him after all those decades. Teeny-tiny world, eh!
I can't wait to see the film. Bring it on! 
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| benj clews |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 16:15:46
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
If it's any consolation, and I don't expect it will be, many cinema managers are furious about this experience charge. They know it alienates customers and everyone's more and more aware that the whole thing is a way to discourage piracy.
Is this seriously the case? I always assumed it was the same situation as with automated payment (you know- the system where you book your tickets and they charge you extra for saving them the cost of employing a human being to do the job much quicker)- it's just another way to charge you for something on top of the ticket cost.
How exactly are cinema managers being forced to charge extra for 3D? And by who? If it's the film distributers saying it'll cost cinemas more to show films in 3D, then why on earth don't they just stick to 2D? |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 14:37:09
If it's any consolation, and I don't expect it will be, many cinema managers are furious about this experience charge. They know it alienates customers and everyone's more and more aware that the whole thing is a way to discourage piracy.
Of course, you could ask to see the manager, punch him/her in the nose, and demand 2 bucks for his/her experience  
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| silly |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 14:03:00
When the latest generation of 3D came around (not red/blue, but the funny lenses on oversized glasses method), the first movie or two our theater charged you for the glasses separately, and if you took care of them you could just bring them the next time around and save the $2 or whatever it was.
Then one time I scrounged up six pair of glasses so I could take a bunch of kids to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (the one with George of the Jungle in it) and they explained that now there is a $2 charge per ticket for the "experience," whether you took the glasses or not. So of course I picked up six new pair of glasses that day and have grumbled about it ever since. They even have a recycling box for you to toss your little investments in after you leave the theater, and all I can picture is them wrapping them back up in plastic and selling them for another $2.
Remember when Earthquake came out in "Sensaround"? I don't remember getting charged extra for the "experience" of having a few massive subwoofers in the theater.
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