It's a bit late but Filmic 5 has arrived. Hope you all enjoy it, its jumped from around 20 pages to a huge 34 pages! Pretty proud of this one. Read it below or follow this link to boost our views on the host site and maybe even download your own copy!
In other news, I'm back at uni now so I can start work on my IMDB Top 250 challenge. I have a print out of the top 250 from around the 5th of Jan so I'll work from that and attempt to do it roughly in order from 250 downwards. Look out for my first post some time in the next week :-)
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Friday, 7 January 2011
It Begins...
Here we go then. Just to be clear, I'm starting a quest to watch all of the films on the IMDb Top 250 list, even if I've seen them before or own them on DVD or whatever. I'll be keeping track of how many I've watched in the various posts I make and I'll also include the ranking number of the film before the name so y'all know how popular it supposedly is. I wasn't gonna start this for a week or so yet but I noticed this film was on Disney Cinemagic HD and couldn't pass up the opportunity. So, let the epic (read: crazy) journey begin!
Film 1: #149 Toy Story
Firstly, this film is criminally low on the list. But that's more than made up for with the ranking of Toy Story 3 which we will of course come to at a later date. For now though, I'll look at one of an impressive seven Pixar films on the list, and fittingly it's Pixar's first feature length film. I've discussed my love for Toy Story a few times on this site and in Filmic, so I don't really need to express my feelings again. What I will do though is examine more closely why this first film is so fucking awesome and cinematically important.
The characters are definitely some of the most interesting and funny characters ever animated, and the character development of both Woody and Buzz throughout the film is highly engrossing. I never really thought about it when I was a kid, but Woody becomes a real dick when Buzz turns up. Jealous, abusive and turning on the other toys, his supposed friends, just for liking Buzz. Then he tries to knock Buzz down the side of the cabinet, it goes horribly wrong, and still all he can think about is pretending he didn't do it and defending himself! Thankfully, he softens a lot as he gets to know Buzz better and starts to become the selfless, caring leader we get to see a lot more of later on. Buzz on the other hand goes from thinking he's a real space ranger to spiralling down into mass depression when he realises he's just a toy, and then later regains his confidence when Woody convinces him that being a toy is actually pretty cool. For a film of just 80 minutes this packs in a whole lot of story and some very compelling character archs.
Potato Head, Hamm, Rex and Slinky all stand out as well of course, but it wouldn't be until Toy Story 2 (which for some reason isn't on the list at all, despite every fan knowing it is very close in quality to this first film) that they really got to join in the adventures and shine as well as they can. Still, there's some classic stuff from them here and we become familiar enough with each of their distinct personalities in the short time we have with them. Sid's mutant toys are also interesting additions, and even though he's an evil son of a bitch I always liked the character of Sid. The showdown with the toys breaking the rules for the one and only time across the 3 films and 'coming to life' in front of Sid is truly gratifying and rewarding after watching him destroy toys for the whole film. I always wanted to know if Sid was scarred for life by what happens here, though his little cameo in Toy Story 3 as a binman would suggest otherwise. Maybe he mentally blocked the whole thing out. Poor guy.
Being the first completely computer animated film, Toy Story broke new ground and was very revolutionary at the time. It will always be down in film history as being a landmark achievement. Today these kinds of films appear all the time, but it still looks great and I had no complaints at all when I went to see it in 3-D at the cinema just over a year ago. Now Toy Story 3 has been released though, and after watching that film about 4 times over the Christmas period, I really noticed how much the technology has advanced in the 15 years between the two films. It was like watching the original through new eyes and served to make me even more impressed with what Pixar acheived in animating Toy Story 3. You just need to compare Buster the dog in the newer film with Scud the dog from the original as a perfect example of how the animation has come on so much. Still, you can't deny there are some truly stunning shots and sequences in this film and it deserves to be remembered as being an influential and important example of what can be done through this method of animating.
As usually happens when I get talking about a film I adore, I've gone on for longer than I intended here. Not all of the 'meant to be small' review pieces for the 250 films will be quite this long but whatever. I've written it now. Basically Toy Story is awesome but should be rated higher. 1 down, 249 to go!
EDIT: I have discovered a possible (definite) flaw in my plan - the Top 250 list has changed already. Does it get updated daily? I'll have to look into it. If it does, it means that by the time I actually get round to watching all of the films the list will have changed and there'll be new films in there that I haven't watched. I may do a print out of the list as it is now and just watch all of those. Watch this space.
Film 1: #149 Toy Story
Firstly, this film is criminally low on the list. But that's more than made up for with the ranking of Toy Story 3 which we will of course come to at a later date. For now though, I'll look at one of an impressive seven Pixar films on the list, and fittingly it's Pixar's first feature length film. I've discussed my love for Toy Story a few times on this site and in Filmic, so I don't really need to express my feelings again. What I will do though is examine more closely why this first film is so fucking awesome and cinematically important.
The characters are definitely some of the most interesting and funny characters ever animated, and the character development of both Woody and Buzz throughout the film is highly engrossing. I never really thought about it when I was a kid, but Woody becomes a real dick when Buzz turns up. Jealous, abusive and turning on the other toys, his supposed friends, just for liking Buzz. Then he tries to knock Buzz down the side of the cabinet, it goes horribly wrong, and still all he can think about is pretending he didn't do it and defending himself! Thankfully, he softens a lot as he gets to know Buzz better and starts to become the selfless, caring leader we get to see a lot more of later on. Buzz on the other hand goes from thinking he's a real space ranger to spiralling down into mass depression when he realises he's just a toy, and then later regains his confidence when Woody convinces him that being a toy is actually pretty cool. For a film of just 80 minutes this packs in a whole lot of story and some very compelling character archs.
Potato Head, Hamm, Rex and Slinky all stand out as well of course, but it wouldn't be until Toy Story 2 (which for some reason isn't on the list at all, despite every fan knowing it is very close in quality to this first film) that they really got to join in the adventures and shine as well as they can. Still, there's some classic stuff from them here and we become familiar enough with each of their distinct personalities in the short time we have with them. Sid's mutant toys are also interesting additions, and even though he's an evil son of a bitch I always liked the character of Sid. The showdown with the toys breaking the rules for the one and only time across the 3 films and 'coming to life' in front of Sid is truly gratifying and rewarding after watching him destroy toys for the whole film. I always wanted to know if Sid was scarred for life by what happens here, though his little cameo in Toy Story 3 as a binman would suggest otherwise. Maybe he mentally blocked the whole thing out. Poor guy.
Being the first completely computer animated film, Toy Story broke new ground and was very revolutionary at the time. It will always be down in film history as being a landmark achievement. Today these kinds of films appear all the time, but it still looks great and I had no complaints at all when I went to see it in 3-D at the cinema just over a year ago. Now Toy Story 3 has been released though, and after watching that film about 4 times over the Christmas period, I really noticed how much the technology has advanced in the 15 years between the two films. It was like watching the original through new eyes and served to make me even more impressed with what Pixar acheived in animating Toy Story 3. You just need to compare Buster the dog in the newer film with Scud the dog from the original as a perfect example of how the animation has come on so much. Still, you can't deny there are some truly stunning shots and sequences in this film and it deserves to be remembered as being an influential and important example of what can be done through this method of animating.
As usually happens when I get talking about a film I adore, I've gone on for longer than I intended here. Not all of the 'meant to be small' review pieces for the 250 films will be quite this long but whatever. I've written it now. Basically Toy Story is awesome but should be rated higher. 1 down, 249 to go!
EDIT: I have discovered a possible (definite) flaw in my plan - the Top 250 list has changed already. Does it get updated daily? I'll have to look into it. If it does, it means that by the time I actually get round to watching all of the films the list will have changed and there'll be new films in there that I haven't watched. I may do a print out of the list as it is now and just watch all of those. Watch this space.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Filmic Update and Recompense
Hello everyone. Did you enjoy Christmas? Sorry I couldn't bring you the gift of a Christmas Filmic but I got ill and the planned release didn't happen. We'll still put out the feature looking at Christmas films but we're kind of combining last issue with the next one to make a bumper one now. Additionally due to my dissertation and essays and crap we're gonna make Filmic bi-monthly for a bit (that's once every two months rather than twice a month - it is THE stupidest word to have two meanings isn't it?). That will give me extra free time that I should use to do uni work.
However, in a bid to make up for this I had the idea to watch the IMDb top 250 films (which you can see here) and do little capsule review/opinion things on each of them for the blog. Which, if comitted to fully, WOULD take up the extra time I gained from not doing Filmic and therefore completely negate not doing Filmic to help my dissertation. So, I am going to watch the films, but it's not going to be one of these things where I put a time limit on it or watch one a day or so many in a week. I'll just see what I can fit in and post when I can. I'm not even going to watch them in strict order! That way if I can't get hold of something at a precise moment I can just watch something available to me. It's not the best way of doing it tbh but I'll be helped a lot by my uni's library of DVD's so I wanna start now. Seriously, they have pretty much everything. I'm pretty sure there'll only be like 3 or 4 things on the entire list that they don't have anyway so if I get started now it'll be much easier to see the films.
So I'll work on finishing up Filmic in the next few days and then make a start. Filmic won't be out until after The Green Hornet by the way as I'm putting a review of that in. So look out for it some time after the 14th Jan. I'm going to go home and re-think my life now. Adios and wish me luck!
However, in a bid to make up for this I had the idea to watch the IMDb top 250 films (which you can see here) and do little capsule review/opinion things on each of them for the blog. Which, if comitted to fully, WOULD take up the extra time I gained from not doing Filmic and therefore completely negate not doing Filmic to help my dissertation. So, I am going to watch the films, but it's not going to be one of these things where I put a time limit on it or watch one a day or so many in a week. I'll just see what I can fit in and post when I can. I'm not even going to watch them in strict order! That way if I can't get hold of something at a precise moment I can just watch something available to me. It's not the best way of doing it tbh but I'll be helped a lot by my uni's library of DVD's so I wanna start now. Seriously, they have pretty much everything. I'm pretty sure there'll only be like 3 or 4 things on the entire list that they don't have anyway so if I get started now it'll be much easier to see the films.
So I'll work on finishing up Filmic in the next few days and then make a start. Filmic won't be out until after The Green Hornet by the way as I'm putting a review of that in. So look out for it some time after the 14th Jan. I'm going to go home and re-think my life now. Adios and wish me luck!
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Fantastic Filmic 4
It's time to put everyone out of their misery and announce that Filmic 4 has arrived! There's some good stuff this month including an in depth look at 23 minutes of next months Tron: Legacy and a review of the simply awesome The Social Network. Read it below or follow the link underneath for a downloadable copy and links to our back issues. Cheers!
http://issuu.com/filmic/docs/filmic_04
http://issuu.com/filmic/docs/filmic_04
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Filmic 3 and The Social Network
Just checking in to say that Filmic 3 was put online yesterday so as usual you can either view it below or link directly to it here. Hitting the link puts our numbers up so that would be nice ;-)
In other news The Social Network is bloody brilliant and you should all go to see it NOW. Obviously I'll keep any in depth impressions until I review it in next months Filmic but it has gained a place in my top 5 films of 2010 so that should give you some impression how much I enjoyed it. Also it'll give you a chance to see the new Spiderman, Andrew Garfield, in action! Unfortunately there's no Spidey suit in this film. Or web-swinging. And not even a sniff of a radioactive spider. But y'know. You can always pretend.
In other news The Social Network is bloody brilliant and you should all go to see it NOW. Obviously I'll keep any in depth impressions until I review it in next months Filmic but it has gained a place in my top 5 films of 2010 so that should give you some impression how much I enjoyed it. Also it'll give you a chance to see the new Spiderman, Andrew Garfield, in action! Unfortunately there's no Spidey suit in this film. Or web-swinging. And not even a sniff of a radioactive spider. But y'know. You can always pretend.
Monday, 4 October 2010
My Latest Acquisitions
Popped down to Odeon today. Look what I happened across...
Yes, they are on top of my bed.
No, I have no idea where I'm going to put them.
...
They're friggin' cool though right?!
Yes, they are on top of my bed.
No, I have no idea where I'm going to put them.
...
They're friggin' cool though right?!
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Filmic Issue 2
Yes, I know you've all been waiting on tenterhooks for it so here it finally is - issue 2 of Filmic. Plenty of content this month so I hope it's an enjoyable read. There it is down there or you can click on the link underneath that to download onto your computer. Have fun.
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