Smashbomb

"We always recommend it to our students. We both teach high school classes a lot, and most of them aren’t aware of this movie, even though it’s the most honest and accurate depiction of that age. I guess they’re early high school or middle school, they’re about fourteen or fifteen. There’s almost a documentary feel to it. At the time, the [kids] weren’t professional actors, though a lot of them have gone on to acting. [Director] Peter Sollett did such a beautiful job. It’s so loose and warm and real and naturalistic and funny and unexpected. So much of it wasn’t rehearsed, and they let a lot of that process unfold while they made the movie. The kids sort of do their own dialogue. But I remember seeing it and thinking, “I’ve never seen it done that well before.” Usually I think teenagers are overwritten, written by much older people. Sort of reinventing."

Source

Kudos

Jon Savage recommended A Hard Day's Night (1964) in Movies (curated)

A Hard Day's Night (1964)

1964 | Classics, Comedy, Musical

8.0

(9 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"A classic musical exploitation film, only with a good script, a good director and The Beatles at the height of their first flush of fame. It's got a slightly bullshitty plot, but it rolls along at a fantastic lick and obviously you get a lot of great musical performances. But it's those scenes where they're chased through Marylebone station that are the most amazing. The phenomenon of public youth hysteria is really interesting. The book documents three historical moments of it. The first was August 1926, when Rudolph Valentino died and tens of thousands of kids came on the streets, there's a brief snippet of it in the film, we actually found some footage. Then in 1939, when The Wizard Of Oz opened in Manhattan - Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland arrived in grand central and were mobbed by kids. And then obviously Sinatra at the Paramount which is the climax of the movie."

Source

Kudos

Jon Savage recommended Rebel Without a Cause (1955) in Movies (curated)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

1955 | Classics, Drama

8.2

(6 Ratings)

Movie Favorite Watch

"It's about the quality of the star, those people who the camera just loves, and James Dean is really amazing. He's moody, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface. He doesn't go with the crowd which is always very attractive. When you're dealing with adolescence you've always got the kids with that strength of character. I think that's very important. I watched Rebel Without A Cause in the eighties with a group of kids and they thought it was really funny and old fashioned. When you look at it it now it is obviously a bit melodramatic, but that's partly because it's influenced so many films since. It's also a very strange film, a fated film, because the three main juvenile leads, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood and James Dean, died prematurely. Sal Mineo was murdered in the late seventies, Natalie Wood drowned in an accident, and of course JD was too fast too young."

Source

Kudos

Daniel Bowman (5 KP) rated Forbidden Island in Tabletop Games

Jun 28, 2019

Forbidden Island

2010 | Adventure, Card Game, Fantasy

7.0

(14 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Easy to learn. Good character choices. Clear objectives. Decent replay value. Promotes cooperation to win. (0 more)

Can be frustrating for younger or newer players. (0 more)

Race time and a booby-trapped island to find lost treasures!

I bought this game as an intro to strategy tabletop gaming for my kids. Our first game was a win, but the second ended in tears as the island defeated us.
It didn't stop us though. We still play it and have learned how to apply strategies to help each character meet objectives quickly.
We are considering other games in the franchise, but now the kids are hooked on gaming and we're trying new types.
Well worth the money for adventure and strategy for even seasoned players. The scaled difficulty and multiple characters make strategy and replay a must. The more people playing, the more the game seems to adapt.
Maybe not the best intro to new gamers, but it worked for us!

Kudos

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Early Man (2018) in Movies

Sep 25, 2019

Early Man (2018)

2018 | Animation

7.0

(20 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures and woolly mammoths roamed the earth, Early Man tells the story of Dug, along with sidekick Hognob as they unite his tribe against a mighty enemy Lord Nooth and his Bronze Age City to save their home.

There's always cracking fun to have with an Aardman film, and Early Man certainly didn't break that tradition. Laughs and shocks, and trying to decipher voices because you forgot to look at the cast list before going to see it! It doesn't matter how hard I try, I can't reconcile Tom Hiddleston as Lord Nooth... at this point it actually hurts my brain to think about it.

Quite a few of the kids at the film didn't seem to understand what was going on, so every time the adults laughed there was a slight pause and then the kids would laugh instinctively. Always entertaining for everyone though, no matter the reason for the laughter.