50 for me
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4ā¦..obviously not much of a movie/ tv guy
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https://x.com/worldofreel/status/1993757162879832113?t=wDmek2Y5ZaAsjY4ngZ7IJw&s=19
Little surprised by some of these. I enjoy them, I just didnāt think theyād register in his list.
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You cinephiles may enjoy this video. Interesting stuff.
Has anyone else watched Train Dreams on Netflix?
I have. But Iām curious of what others thought of it.
We watched it over the holiday. It was well done, but it was one of those films that left me without a real opinion. My wife and I didnāt even talk about the movie at all afterward which is kinda weird for us.
I had to think about it for about a day. I think most people will disagree with me - but imo it was so understated in its thematic delivery that some of the weight doesnāt properly land. What saved it is that itās still fairly easy to follow except for one key scene, and the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous - despite the odd choice of a 4:3 ratio. Itās so well shot that the visuals supplement some of the missing weight from the understated story.
It still moved me. There are some excellent performances in this.
https://x.com/i/status/1997045206009753812
This is cashing in on Gen Xers who wanna take their kids / grandkids to see it the way they did.
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https://x.com/i/status/1997024838418907364
Not just the best trilogy ever, the very pinnacle of movie making. Wish I could do a memory wipe and experience them again for the first time. We will never ever get anything this well made again - the planning, location shooting, and craftsmanship in every aspect that went into these movies will never happen again.
Go see them in the theater in their full extended form, as they should have been released. The extra scenes like Boromir and Faramir in Osgiliath in Two Towers and Gandalf and Pippen facing off against the Witch King of Angmar atop Minas Tirith in ROTK are a feast for the soul.
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Advocate.
I take it you watched all the extra features on āthe making ofā on the extended DVD sets?
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At least a dozen times. In full. They are almost as good as the movies. You cannot watch them and not appreciate the love and care and pride of workmanship from the artisans of even the smallest details that went into making these movies.
The two guys who spent almost 2 years doing nothing but handcrafting chainmail rings for the soldiers; or the guy who stayed around through the holidays making sure the CGI shots of the fall of Barad Dur were perfect, instead of just mailing it in like so many effects studios would have. To the armorers, the costume makers, the prosthetics makers, and my favorite - the ābigaturesā makers:
They all loved what they were doing and wanted to make sure it turned out as perfect as they could manage. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices when they are interviewed.
Peter Jacksonās team spent almost 2 years storyboarding and planning out every shot before they ever turned a camera on, which is unheard of anymore. It gave the team so much time to prepare and location scout and build out the incredible sets, and it ensured that every shot was maximized for storytelling and cinematography.
The location shooting will never ever be done again. Everything these days is green screened in front of that awful āvolumeā screen. LOTR showed just how beautiful New Zealand is in widescan shot after breathtaking widescan shot - it makes the movies feel as epic as they are and itās another reason why they have barely aged in 25 years.
The craziest aspect though was the New Line exec who greenlit all 3 movies to be filmed as basically one continuous shoot with a massive budget to a guy who had only made a few niche horror flicks - when every other studio had either turned it down or ridiculously insisted that the story be condensed into one or two standard length movies at a fraction of the budget. That new line exec is an unsung hero of cinema, and the story of how it all came together is amazing.
Wanted to add - like most of Gen X, I loved the original Star Wars trilogy as much as anything else in my then young life. When I was 6 I told my parents I wanted to be a Jedi Knight like Luke Skywalkerā¦ A few years later I remember we recorded the making of SW special(s) on VHS. I watched that (in wide eyed amazement and joy) probably a dozen times as well. Seeing all of those crazy creatures and incredible locations and shoots come together with entirely practical effects left an impression on me that permanently cemented the opinion that movies should ALWAYS be made that way - that is the magic, the secret sauce of cinema, along with a great story that captures the hearts of the audienceā¦
What was kind of wonderful to watch in the making of SW was that when they were shooting Empire, and definitely by the time they shot ROTJ, the cast and the production team were well aware of the MASSIVE cultural impact of what they were making. Itās not a slight. They had to be feeling incredible pressure - but theyāre all so happy about what theyāre doing.
LOTRās principal photography was mostly complete before Fellowship was released (though pickups and reshoots went on for months and months right up to ROTKs release), and so the cast and crew didnāt know just how enormously beloved of a cinematic accomplishment what they were making wasā¦ But you can see just how much they loved doing it just for the sake of making somethingā¦ magic.
Just for funā¦
https://x.com/i/status/1997599463972409667
Havenāt seen:
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Schindlerās List, 1993
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La La Land, 2016
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Sinners, 2025
And at least one of the Harry Potters. I just didnāt care.
Have only seen part of / didnāt finish:
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12 Angry Men, 1957 (been meaning to rectify this)
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Casablanca, 1942 (pretty sure Iāve seen all of this just way out of order)
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Oppenheimer, 2023 (fell asleep)
So Iāve seen maybe 92 or 93 of that list.
Anyone see then all?
Only seen 87 of the. Iāve got work to do.
All of the ones I havenāt see are on my cinematic blind spot list.
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Havenāt see
Zero dark thirty
Warrior
Pianist
Prisoners
13 hours
Lone survivor
Sinners
La la land
Whiplash
Parasite
No country for old me. - seen half
You definitely need to see Pianist (itās a bit depressing but itās fantastic), Prisoners, 13 hours, Whiplash and Parasite.
89.5/100 is strong though. @NinerWupAss is a legit movie buff.
Yeah whatās funny is I am constantly fussing at my wife for movies she hasnāt seen. I tell her she doesnāt get into heaven without seeing some of these.
here is the odd thing - somehow I managed to miss Shawshank for years. I watched it for the first time this past summer. Given how much I love movies Iām ashamed of that.
Also How is 2001 and the shining not on this list. Or inception and interstellar? What about Ironman in addition to endgame? They are bookend of a something never done and did it well. What about the 6th sense? Som heavy weights not in this list.
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Well interstellar is on there (#3), but yeah, there are always going to be some questionable exclusions.
Iāve complained about how bad movies have gotten in the last 6 or 7 years but that list argues there still are some good ones.