movie recommendations

[Art Blade]

yes, indeed. +1 :-X for that, JRD :)

[JRD]

Thanks guys.

I always liked physics. It was one of the subjects I used to get better grades when I was in school. Although once it becomes too advanced, my mathematical understanding of all formulas gets severely crippled  ::)

Many years ago I read Hawking's "A Brief History of TIme - from the Big Bang to Black Holes". I remember being absolutely puzzled by all ideas Hawking describes in that book. Funny trivia: the editor told him he would only publish the book if he, the editor, could understand the book.  ;D

It is amazing how Mankind managed to formulate so many theories and ideas simply by looking at the sky. If I do the same on a starry night I'd be just "Wow... dude, that's awesome"  :-()

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[mandru]

I watched the 2 hour animated feature film The Wind Rises on Blu-ray disc last night and it did not fail to meet my expectations of being the kind of quality production I've come to anticipate from its director Hayao Miyazaki.

Being a more mature film than his previous offerings The Wind Rises comes out of Studio Ghibli and is Hayao Miyazaki's final feature presentation.  He has stated his intent to go into retirement which is somewhat disappointing as we have come to enjoy and own most of the works that have his name on them.

The attention to detail in the animation throughout this film is always impressive.  There's barely a scene throughout the movie where pausing the screen and examining it doesn't reveal some painstaking little touch that adds to the feel of the scene but wouldn't normally be spotted as the viewer's attention is firmly anchored on the richly developed main characters.  Even the extra characters who have no part in the scene (other than filing in the ambiance of being warm body props for a crowd) have amusing quirks and traits giving the feeling that they each have lives (their own personal stories worth investigating) widely separate and apart from the main storyline.

The Wind Rises is a fictionalization of the real life aeronautics figure Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982). He was a Japanese dreamer who becomes a maker and shaper but the pre-WWII politics surrounding his dream and paying for his aircraft designing efforts dictate a nature for his creations other than his sole will to see his planes (a Japanese plane) fly as no plane has ever flown before.

The sociopolitical climate impact the events of the main character's life but those circumstances are held largely out of the theme of focus for the film by holding the range of scope closely to Jiro Horikoshi's aspirations, failures and hard earned triumphs.

Even at two hours long it I didn't feel that there were any points that dragged out or slowed down the film's pace and found it to be a very satisfying film.

[Art Blade]

that sounds cool.

Long ago I recommended The Animatrix, a separate disc with various animated short films around The Matrix; one of which, Beyond, was a manga-style piece by Kôji Morimoto that you just reminded me of. It was very nice. Morimoto went to the trouble of finding one particular type of old-fashioned traffic lights for a pedestrian crossing that would still play a weird old tune which added to the total experience of his film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372764/?ref_=nm_knf_t4

here's just a clip of the film
Beyond (The dove)

[fragger]

Red Dog

I hadn't even heard of this one, but saw it in the DVD rentals and gave it a go. It's an Aussie film from 2011, based on true events about a red cattle dog who finds his way into a remote mining community, subsequently having major effects on several peoples' lives and giving rise to a local legend. A bit like The Littlest Hobo but without the schmaltz (well, there's a little bit of schmaltz but it's not too stomach-turning).

Some of it was filmed in the Pilbara region of NW Oz, where the real story took place. I've always thought that some parts of this region would make a good familiarisation area for anyone thinking of colonizing Mars. There's some arresting photography and interesting landscapes.

The story is endearing but would probably appeal more to Aussies (especially those of my generation, as it is set during the 1970s). If you're not an Aussie you may need to enable subtitles to understand some of the dialogue :-D Even then, some of the vernacular and references may go over your head.

No big names, or rather nobody well known outside of Australia except for maybe Rachael Taylor (from Grey's Anatomy). There is one American actor, Josh Lucas, who plays an ex-pat Yank, who I've seen in a couple of non-Aussie things.

Funny, moving, deliberately over-the-top in places, I really enjoyed it. It's aimed at families so don't expect any language, sex or violence, but I didn't find it too cutesy or treacly. Also features some classic Aussie pop songs from the period which took me back :-X

Mainly I liked it for being just a simple yet original kind of film, which is becoming a rarity nowadays - something a bit different from the mass-produced SFX-driven vampire, zombie and superhero offerings that spew out of Hollywood these days ::)

[Art Blade]

 :)

[fragger]

The Martian

I really enjoyed this. It's been a while since somebody made a solid piece of scientific fiction, with none of the usual BS that Hollywood usually brings to such things - no aliens or monsters, no ridiculous pseudo-science, no super-villains, no mindless violence, and no silly deus ex machinas (well, maybe one or two little ones). The suspense is provided solely by the situation, and the writers really did their homework.

If you haven't seen it, the basic gist is that one astronaut (Matt Damon) of a team of six on Mars is left behind after being mistakenly assumed to have been killed in a violent, blinding sandstorm (and yes, these do happen on Mars, and quite commonly). The team had already been on Mars for some time, but this particularly violent storm comes upon them suddenly and is threatening to tip their ascent vehicle over, so they have to abort their mission and evacuate the surface without being 100% certain of their colleague's demise (they couldn't find him in the storm and there was no time to search thoroughly). But of course he wasn't killed - he survives (just) and must find ways to exist for as long as he can, possibly until the next mission arrives in a few years' time. There is no chance of any earlier rescue - or is there...?

The premise sounds preposterous on the face of it and I was highly dubious about it, but there are in fact quite feasible steps he takes to survive. The team had a habitat already set up, and a rover, so it's not like he has to wander around on the surface in an environment suit for months on end, even if that were possible. The challenges he faces are in finding ways to extend and build upon his limited food and resources, and it's pretty darned clever how these problems are dealt with - through proper science and physics, albeit requiring a bit of belief suspension, but not unreasonably so. Even the method he thinks up to establish a crude form of communication with with Earth is clever - essentially far-fetched yet in fact not entirely outside the bounds of possibility (he can't just call them up on some kind of magic radio like he would do in just about any other space movie).

It's all handled in a very intelligent and believable way, which is refreshing. There are still flaws -  a biggie being the fact that a sandstorm on Mars would in fact be incapable of pushing much of anything over, let alone a large launch vehicle. Even if the velocity of the storm was in the hundreds of kph, due to the extremely low density of the Martian atmosphere it would have no more strength than that of a slight breeze. It wouldn't look anything like it did in the movie either. This is one of the few things they got seriously wrong, but this apparently is acknowledged by the author of the original novel. With so much else in the movie that they got right, I feel that one can slide.

Very good performances from everyone all round. Damon is his usual highly competent self, and a couple more of my faves, Jeff Daniels and Sean Bean, handle their roles very intelligently. Even though some belief needs to be suspended, it's enlightened far-fetchedness, if that makes sense. Good level of suspense for much of the film, reminds me of classic "pragmatic" space catastrophe films like Marooned and Apollo 13.

Highly recommended if you like some real science in your science fiction.

[Art Blade]

Nice, I might give it a shot :)

those "real science in your science fiction" types are called hard science fiction as far as I know. Like the novel by Poul Anderson, "Tau Zero," which you might enjoy :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero

[fragger]

I've read some of Poul Anderson's w@&k, he's a pretty cool writer of the hard stuff :-X Haven't read Tau Zero though, thanks for the pointer :)

[Art Blade]

that one was hard -- quite a bit to chew on for me  :-()

[fragger]

Dr. Robert L. Forward is another writer of extremely hard sci-fi :-D mandru mentioned him somewhere on the forum once, we had a bit of a discussion.

I do like the hard stuff :-X I like some of Forward's novels, but there were one or two I wasn't keen on. I liked Dragon's Egg best. Pretty heavy on the science - Forward himself described the story as "a textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel".

[Art Blade]

 :)

[nexor]

fragger, the movie Red Dog sounds a lot like the one Richard Gere made, "A Dog's Tale" also a true story

Mrs Nex and I watched it twice during a weekend and both times she bawled her eyes out,
must admit, just mentioning it here I still get lump in my throat
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachi:_A_Dog%27s_Tale

[PZ]

We watched Red Dog the other day, and have watched Hachi in the past - both excellent movies and are highly recommended.  :-X

[fragger]

I'm glad you enjoyed Red Dog, PZ. Very appealing film I thought, not kiddie enough to insult an adult intelligence but still a movie that the kids can watch as well, if there should happen to be any around :-()

Nex, I haven't seen A Dog's Tale but I'm familiar with the true events that it's based on. I'll keep an eye out for that one, cheers :)

[fragger]

In The Heart Of The Sea

A Ron Howard movie, this is an account of the real-life story that inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It's a treat for anyone who loves old sailing ships, a period piece beautifully filmed and nicely acted.

Cast is of mostly unknowns (to me anyway) except for Chris Hemsworth who plays the ship's First Mate, Owen Chase. The premise is that aspiring author Herman Melville tracks down the last living survivor of the whaler Essex, who has long kept silent about what happened to the ship and its crew. Melville convinces this ageing survivor to open up, decades after the incident, and is taken back to the harrowing events that took place. The old fellow's account of a giant "demon white whale" would inspire Melville to go on to create Moby Dick.

The events surrounding the fate of the Essex are all based on fact. Moby Dick is fiction, but the story of the Essex isn't.

The second half of the film drags a tiny bit compared to the first half, but it's still a very worthwhile watch.

[Binnatics]

Choose life...:

! No longer available

Definitely gonna watch that one next year ;)

[Art Blade]

Trainspotting is quite a unique film. I didn't know there were more than the first one. So cheers  :-X :)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, Trainspotting was so out there, and weird and .... indescribable, I tried telling people about it when it came out and the only thing I could think of was to say "I'm glad I saw it, but I definitely wouldn't want to see it again". Interesting they've made a follow up, and with what looks like the original cast for the most part.

[Art Blade]

heh, I had/have the same "problem" with that film. Outstanding, outlandish and get me out of there, QUICKLY. :-D But with the same cast.. going back in  :-()

[Binnatics]

You remember that scene where the main character dives into the dirtiest toilet ever seen in Great Britain to find a lost capsule of some kind?

I get the shivers if I think of it again ;D ;D

[Art Blade]

 :-D

I could help you, though.

Careful, coming up is a real spoiler.

the toilet scene

They used chocolate sauce of all kinds to create the illusion of the dirtiest toilet ever. Now, knowing it was chocolate, I find it a lot less menacing. :-D

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah that toilet scene was pretty disturbing, but still amusing sort of, but the most disturbing one for me was the baby crawling on the ceiling, only afterwards when they all come out of their drug stupor to find the child had actually died..... yeesh.

[Binnatics]

Ye I remember these... indeed.

The girl explaining how it felt to get juiced the first time; the best dick she ever had... Quite embarrassing :-D