Movies you're stunned that people haven't seen....

[Atomic Age]

The Matrix.

One of my friends (much younger than me) is an aspiring actor who has never seen The Matrix. I tried to explain he needs to see it, since almost every movie since which contains sci-fi or action elements has been fundamentally effected by that movie.

The fundamental effect of the Matrix was that for almost 10 years after, every movie made was tinted green. Case in point, the Bourne films, which other wise bare no relationship to The Matrix at all. Yet they are green! Beyond that the Matrix has truly not aged well, and for the most part filmmakers have stopped emulating it.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

^ Apparently I blinked too long during the laser disc phase. Either that or they just didn't come to Texas. lol

Laserdisc was introduced in 1978. Among the first movies released on the format was Jaws. The last new movie released was Bringing Out The Dead in 2000.

20 years is hardly a blink and you miss it.

Doug

 

[Edward]

Imelda May's Psycho - looking forward to seeing her in the Albert Hall tonight.

Never mind..... obviously posted this in the wrong thread!

 

[Edward]

The fundamental effect of the Matrix was that for almost 10 years after, every movie made was tinted green. Case in point, the Bourne films, which other wise bare no relationship to The Matrix at all. Yet they are green! Beyond that the Matrix has truly not aged well, and for the most part filmmakers have stopped emulating it.

Doug

It's funny how something so groundbreaking can age badly. I saw the first Matrix again recently, and while looking dated it still holds up as a film. Such a shame it was damaged in retrospect by two sequels, as wholly unnecessary as they were awful.

 

[Formeruser012523]

20 years is hardly a blink and you miss it.

Guess in DFW they weren't regarded so highly. Plus, I was 1 when they were introduced.

It's funny how something so groundbreaking can age badly. I saw the first Matrix again recently, and while looking dated it still holds up as a film. Such a shame it was damaged in retrospect by two sequels, as wholly unnecessary as they were awful.

Agreed. Mostly beginning to believe modern sequels ruin a good film.

 

[MisterCairo]

Guess in DFW they weren't regarded so highly. Plus, I was 1 when they were introduced.




Agreed. Mostly beginning to believe modern sequels ruin a good film.

Don't feel too badly. Contrary to the othe post, laserdisks were never hugely popular. If they were technically invented in 1978, I didn't see one until the 1990s. Never sold in mass numbers, they were mainly a rental novelty. The disks were pretty much as big as LPs. In law school, 1994-97, we occasionally rented a machine to project movies on our apartment wall. Never laid eyes on the device after that.

You did miss it by blinking, and didn't really miss much...

 

[Edward]

Don't feel too badly. Contrary to the othe post, laserdisks were never hugely popular. If they were technically invented in 1978, I didn't see one until the 1990s. Never sold in mass numbers, they were mainly a rental novelty. The disks were pretty much as big as LPs. In law school, 1994-97, we occasionally rented a machine to project movies on our apartment wall. Never laid eyes on the device after that.

You did miss it by blinking, and didn't really miss much...

I remember seeing them on sale in Belfast during my undergraduate days - that would have been the mid nineties. Most films were about GBP25.00 - this at a time when a new release on VHS was about GBP15.00. (Funny how the price comes down - just last week I was marvelling at the fact that as recently as ten years ago I was raving about the "bargain" I got on a DVD for which I had paid "only" GBP9.99. lol ). I also remember hearing it said that Phillips or Sony were working on a disc that was the size of an Audio CD. Don;t know if that was the early DVD or the VCD that preceded it, but being as at around this time the CD-ROM was coming to be the standard for computers, with diskettes still very much around but an end in sight, I do recall saying that if someone could create a video disc that worked like a laser disk but was the size of a CD, it'd be a real winner... ha. I got that right at least. As I recall, LDs were pretty good, but what stopped them catching on was really that they just weren't around long enough to come down in price to the point where the mass market would adopt them before they were superceded by DVD. Similar to Minidiscs and MP3 players, I suppose.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Agreed. Mostly beginning to believe modern sequels ruin a good film.

A perfect example can be found in the Rocky movies. It's now hard to believe that the first one won an Oscar for Best Picture.

 

[scottyrocks]

I think someone should do a remake/reboot, or sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Instant classic!

 

[Formeruser012523]

A perfect example can be found in the Rocky movies. It's now hard to believe that the first one won an Oscar for Best Picture.

It did? :rofl:

I think someone should do a remake/reboot, or sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Instant classic!

:eeek: Uhmm...No. Not sure I could stomach that again.

I remember seeing them on sale in Belfast during my undergraduate days - that would have been the mid nineties. Most films were about GBP25.00 - this at a time when a new release on VHS was about GBP15.00. (Funny how the price comes down - just last week I was marvelling at the fact that as recently as ten years ago I was raving about the "bargain" I got on a DVD for which I had paid "only" GBP9.99. lol ). I also remember hearing it said that Phillips or Sony were working on a disc that was the size of an Audio CD. Don;t know if that was the early DVD or the VCD that preceded it, but being as at around this time the CD-ROM was coming to be the standard for computers, with diskettes still very much around but an end in sight, I do recall saying that if someone could create a video disc that worked like a laser disk but was the size of a CD, it'd be a real winner... ha. I got that right at least. As I recall, LDs were pretty good, but what stopped them catching on was really that they just weren't around long enough to come down in price to the point where the mass market would adopt them before they were superceded by DVD. Similar to Minidiscs and MP3 players, I suppose.

Yeah, thanks. Now, I do remember minidiscs. But, then I blinked again.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Don't feel too badly. Contrary to the othe post, laserdisks were never hugely popular. If they were technically invented in 1978, I didn't see one until the 1990s. Never sold in mass numbers, they were mainly a rental novelty. The disks were pretty much as big as LPs. In law school, 1994-97, we occasionally rented a machine to project movies on our apartment wall. Never laid eyes on the device after that.

You did miss it by blinking, and didn't really miss much...

Thanks for that info. I couldn't tell you what the device looked like, either.

 

[Feraud]

The fundamental effect of the Matrix was that for almost 10 years after, every movie made was tinted green. Case in point, the Bourne films, which other wise bare no relationship to The Matrix at all. Yet they are green! Beyond that the Matrix has truly not aged well, and for the most part filmmakers have stopped emulating it.

Doug

Just curious to know what elements of the film you find have not aged well? Are you talking technical or storyline? Thanks.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I think someone should do a remake/reboot, or sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Instant classic!

That could be very interesting. Who would you cast?

It did? :rofl:

Yes indeed. Best Picture of 1976 lol

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men. Two of my favorites and some people look at me like I'm from outer space when I mention them!

 

[Metatron]

I'm generally not shocked, but rather disappointed at how few people venture outside of their Hollywoodian comfort zones... Lately I've developed an obsession with the work of the German director Werner Herzog.

 

[Atomic Age]

Just curious to know what elements of the film you find have not aged well? Are you talking technical or storyline? Thanks.

Well I wasn't thrilled with the first film out of the gate. I think that that point I was pretty tired of sci-fi as Christian allegory, of which the Matrix was the most obvious.

But beyond that, the whole Bullet time effect became old very fast. (In fact it didn't originate in The Matrix as I saw it in tv commercials, and the feature film version of Lost in Space, 2 years before) Again the green tinting, and the speed ramping (going from normal speed to slow motion and back again in the same shot). All of these things became cliches of movies made in the late 90's and early 2000's, and seem horribly dated now. In fact most of it is so ridiculous that I can't help but laugh when I see it now. For me they are kind of like seeing bell bottom jeans in a 70's cop film.

Doug

 

[Worf]

I'm generally not shocked, but rather disappointed at how few people venture outside of their Hollywoodian comfort zones... Lately I've developed an obsession with the work of the German director Werner Herzog.

Great director but whew... a mind perhaps only a mother could love! He has a LOOOONG way to go to match the level of mental cocern I have about the sanity of certian Directors like John Waters or David Lynch but he's not far off. When Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski get together wild, wonderful things happen. I remember seeing "Aguirre - Wrath of God" after college and being profoundly moved. One scene has stayed with me forever. Aguirre is rafting his fellow Conquistadors down a river in Latin America. As they drift by a village, children excitedly begin shouting to their parents and pointing at Aguirre's party. Curious, Aguirre asks his translator what the children are saying.

"What are they saying?"
"'Look look at all the meat floating down the river.''

Herzog is not my fave director but he NEVER leaves me bored.

Worf

 

[rue]

Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men. Two of my favorites and some people look at me like I'm from outer space when I mention them!

I love those two movies!

 

[Edward]

Well I wasn't thrilled with the first film out of the gate. I think that that point I was pretty tired of sci-fi as Christian allegory, of which the Matrix was the most obvious.

But beyond that, the whole Bullet time effect became old very fast. (In fact it didn't originate in The Matrix as I saw it in tv commercials, and the feature film version of Lost in Space, 2 years before) Again the green tinting, and the speed ramping (going from normal speed to slow motion and back again in the same shot). All of these things became cliches of movies made in the late 90's and early 2000's, and seem horribly dated now. In fact most of it is so ridiculous that I can't help but laugh when I see it now. For me they are kind of like seeing bell bottom jeans in a 70's cop film.

Doug

This is the fate of any film that has too much self-consciously cutting edge stuff to it. I remember finding the product placement (especially Duracell) clumsy. Overall I liked it, but felt it was nowhere near as deep or profound as many critics (or, indeed it itself) seemed to think. The visual techniques did become much copied and thus clichéd very quickly - not sure to what extent it is fair to blame that on The Matrix, but it does happen. The bit of the film that dated most quickly and painfully for me was those Nokia handsets, which were already very dated looking by the time the film hit the cinema screens in the UK.

I think someone should do a remake/reboot, or sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Instant classic!

Fox tried that in 1981 with a project that eventually became Shock Treatment. It's a nice little quasi-sequel in and of itself, and about half of the RHPS fanbase loves it, while the other half hates it, or has never seen it. Just like the original it bombed on release, and while it retains something of a cult following this is only as a curio, an adjunct to the cult of the original. Fox thought they could make lightening strike twice - thought they could manufacture a cult, with a ready made audience. Didn't happen. Great, quirky little film - I think it might have done much better had it come along twenty years later when the reality TV wave had really hit saturation point. One of its key difficulties was it was just ahead of its time. Richard O'Brien was never happy with Shocky. He has been claiming to have "almost finished" a real sequel to RHPS for about twenty years now, though I have long suspected this to be more his own little running joke with the fanbase, I don't see it ever happening.

As to a remake, well.... imagine how folks would feel in these parts if you said you were going to remake Casablanca. Set in NYC. As a modern day, Rap-musical, and cut out all that old fashioned nonsense like wearing monkey suits and hats. Multiply that by ten, and you still wouldn't have an ounce of the hostility towards the idea of a remake that exists within the RHPS fanbase. It's been mooted several times - Lou Adler talks it up every time there is a significant anniversary of the film due. Nothing ever comes of it, except a lot of free publicity for the original, which shortly appears in a New! Anniversary! Edition! (The Blu-Ray release for the fortieth anniversary even included some Irish twit being interviewed about what the fandom meant to him.... ) Adler and Fox know where their money comes from in the main... seems to me that the closest we're going to see to a remake in the foreseeable future is that Glee episode (itself widely hated in the fan community, though to be fair to brought a lot of (for once, positive) media attention to the fandom).

 

[1961MJS]

Hi Edward

Casablanca would be a TOUGH movie to more in time. You have the whole French Nationalism, German Nationalism, Nazi police tactics, French colonial police tactics and American neutrality. We don't have any of those things together anywhere that I know of, even if you swap countries around. There are darn few neutrals left, no Nazi's that leave home anymore, no real colonies, and nationalism is considered to be embarrassing. The whole romance part could be easily moved to Vegas (all year), New Orleans (Mardi-Gras), or Rio (Carnivale). Moving the whole "us versus them" part of the movie is much harder to keep in it's original context.

Just watched it two nights ago.

On the remake front, my absolute favorite re-make set is "The Longest Yard". The entire plot is exactly the same, everything that happens in the first movie, happens in the second move, but in a different way or to a different person. Of course prison is prison at some level.

later