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Eric the Minion

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    CoolEric's Cool 25: My Most Meaningful Films

    in Archived Lists and Countdowns

    Posted

    #3

    Wall-E

    Directed by Andrew Stanton

    "I can't just sit here and do nothing. That's all I've ever done! Nothing!"

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    Box Office: $223.8M Domestic, $521.3M WW

    IMDB Summary: In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

    Why it's So Meaningful to Me: For Pixar enthusiasts, what is considered to be the crown jewel of the company varies from person to person. For some, it's Toy Story. For others, it's The Incredibles. For others, it's Inside Out. But for me, the studio's absolute best is the sci-fi romance adventure epic, Wall-E. I watched this feature when I was about 10 or 11, and since then, I knew it was an important movie. A movie that will be an instant classic and featured some of the most painfully true commentary about life.

     

    Of course, I could go on and on about Wall-E's hilarious comedy, clear influences from the likes of silent comedy, its endearingly likable lead characters, who exude so much personality and life in every little action they do, its absolutely gorgeous animation, and its heartwarming love story that explains how incredible and powerful true love can really be, but I feel that the strongest element of the film that should be discussed far more is its look at society, corruption, and who we really are as people. In our continuing push for new technology and industrialization, and our obsession in having things easier and easier to the point where everything we could do must be done by some complicated machinery, instead of our own actions, we indirectly destroy our own world and ourselves. The humans become overlords to the gigantic conglomerate of Buy 'n Large. They've created an entire monopoly and have infested the minds of people obsessed with consumerism and material wants, which had lead to the earth infested with nothing but trash and garbage as far as the eye can see. Why bother with that old junk, when the new shiny thing is on the market, and is faster and easier? It is because of BnL's infestation that humanity is forced to leave their only home, and embark on an endless cruise ride. But within a few hundred years, humanity has come to its absolute worst. We stick ourselves in hovering chairs, and are tended to our every need like young babies. Better yet, humanity has become so morbidly obese due to their lack of activity, that we now have the shape of babies. Instead of evolving, we are devolving to the point that we are just hollow shells with no personality or understanding about the world. The machines take over, and we just accept it, finding no need to mature or develop ourselves, and instead be slaves to technology.

     

    It seems that all is hopeless, but here comes Wall-E, a machine unlike the others, who is almost like a messiah that indirectly enlightens the lives of these passengers. John and Mary realize that there's so much more to the world they inhabit in their ginormous spaceship that hi-speed tech could never provide in the same way. M-O and EVE move past their programming, and earn human characteristics thanks to their interactions with this outsider. And the members aboard the ship are transported back to Earth to begin a new life on the planet, with an optimistic and hopeful ending that always warms my heart whenever I watch it, and gives people an important message to stray away from buying the new shiny thing their TV tells them to get, and maybe try to take care the Earth and the world around them for a change.

     

    Wall-E is quite frankly an absolute gem, and I dare to say a perfect movie, with one of the most beautiful love stories ever told and a fantastic message that should be shared to everyone, all done in a clever and unique family feature, that is the holy grail of the Pixar canon.

    • Like 2

    Weekend Thread | Bourne 60M, Trek 24M, Bad Moms 23.4M, Pets 18.2M

    in Numbers and Data

    Posted

    10 hours ago, ThatOneTrek said:

    Okay, I'm gonna do a very awful attempt at incorporating the titles of all summer movies into a very idiotic story:

     

    One day, a group of friends were talking about the Civil War while in The Darkness, when one guy had an idea to do a reenactment of one of the battles for money.  One of the other friends said "God, you really are a Money Monster."  He then responds with "Don't be such an Angry Bird, we can invite all of our Neighbors and they'll pay money for our crappy reenactment!"  He then responds with "I don't want to rip off our neighbors, they seem like such Nice Guys."  He walked out of the room while everyone else exchanged ideas, before someone decided to do an exaggeration of a battle.  "Maybe we can come up with a fake Civil War battle that took place during the Apocalypse and follows a girl named Alice!  She can also be a Popstar."  Everyone acknowledged him as a fucking idiot and they kicked him out just as he was about to pitch his idea for them to be attacked by Mutant Turtles.  There were now 3 people left.  Two of the three people left kept talking at the same time when one of them said "It should be Me Before You..."  Reluctantly, he let him talk first.  Realizing that no one could see him giving that they were in the dark, he turned on the lights and said "okay, Now You See Me."  As he was walking back to where everyone was sitting, he tripped over his copy of World of Warcraft and decided to run out of there to play the game.  "Okay, I need help Conjuring up ideas now that it's just me and you." Just then, their friend named Dory walked into the room and said "IM BEING CHASED BY CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, HELP ME RUN THE FUCK AWAY."  One of the guys said "Why did you say Central Inteligence instead of CIA?"  "BECAUSE THE PERSON WHO WROTE THIS HAD TO HAVE THE WORD CENTRAL INTELIGENCE SHOEHORNED IN THERE SOMEWHERE SO HE CAN MAKE HIS GOAL COME TRUE."  As they all were trying to find a way to escape the room, they decided to jump out the window into a lake.  Once they swam to the Shallows of the water, they heard fireworks going off nearby.  "Why are they going off when it's not even Independence Day?"  Dory said "Fuck that shit, we gotta run and find a USB drive called The Neon Demon.  Basically, I stole a copy of that movie from theaters and distributed illegal copies of it online.  I also have kind of a bad track record of doing this, but this is the first time I've been caught."  One of the guys asked "Do you have a copy of Free State of Jones?"  Dory replied "No, but I have a copy of The Legend of Tarzan!"  The other guy said "Aren't you on the run from cops trying to Purge you?" Dory responded "Fine, we'll do a double feature of Tarzan and The BFG after we outrun the cops."  (Also the two main characters are called Mike and Dave because I had to shoehorn this movie in here at this moment and I couldn't figure out how so here you go).  After they run through a nearby forest, they emerge into a local city and hide in a Pets store.  Unfortunately, the pet store worker used to be a manager at a theater that Dory stole movies from.  He said "there's the person that Infiltrated a whole lot of my movies!"  As this happened, a swarm of Ghosts emerged from the back storage closet and began attaching the trio.  However, Mike turned all the Lights Out.  These ghosts were not made to be exposed to darkness however, and as such, the darkness caused the ghosts to create a portal, and they were sucked Beyond another dimension into another galaxy and another solar system, and landed on another planet in the middle of an Ice Age, with the only other person there being Jason Bourne.  Dave said "JESUS CHRIST THATS JASON BOURNE."  Dory said "I just realized I had kids at home.  Damn I'm such a Bad Mom."  Mike said "you really had a Nerve to go on this adventure with your kids at home."  As Jason Bourne committed Suicide for unknown reasons, they realized that everything on this planet had Nine Lives, including them, for unknown reasons.  Dory used up all of hers quickly, but found a way to reemerge under the name Florence.  Mike and Dave decided to throw a party with all the other males on this planet and have a Sausage Party.  While they were there, they met a guy named Pete who had a dragon, someone named Kubo, and someone else named Ben-Hur.  They decided to try and help them return home.  They decided to recruit a couple of Dogs that helped out in this planet's War.  They used Pete's dragon to ride their way to the edge of the planet, where Ben-Hur and Kubo used their Hands of Stone to open the portal.  Before they left, Pete had one word of advice: "While going through the portal, just Don't Breathe."  As such, Mike and Dave were able to return home...200 years in the future from where the first left.

     

    THE END

     

    Epilogue: Florence still lives in the planet working as a successful Mechanic.

     

    Post credits scene: Mike looks across an ocean and says "Look!  I see a Light Between Oceans!"

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    • Like 1

    CoolEric's Cool 25: My Most Meaningful Films

    in Archived Lists and Countdowns

    Posted

    #4

    Cinema Paradiso

    Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

    "Life isn't like in the movies. Life is...much harder"

    Cinema-Paradiso-Poster.jpg

    Box Office: $12.4M Domestic Lifetime

    IMDB Summary: A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

    Why it's So Meaningful to Me: I don't know if most people nowadays know about this movie or not, but for anyone that calls themselves a cinephile, this is a movie that is necessary to view, as it is the perfect explanation for why we love movies, and why they are cherished in our hearts so strongly. It's a charming film that explains how a person's life, ideas, and feelings are impacted by movies, and as someone whose grown up in a culture that treats movies like they are an important function of life, this is a film that really touches the heart.

     

    For those who don't know, the Italian comedy-drama is about a young boy named Salvatore who spends all of his free time at the local movie theater, Cinema Paradiso, and the film follows him in a coming-of-age story, as he befriends the fatherly projectionist, becomes the projectionist himself, falls in love, leaves to join the military, and then is forced to leave his home in order to chase his dreams, and explore what the world has to offer. And throughout the film, we see how Salvatore's life is impacted due to what Cinema Paradiso. It makes him cope with the struggle of his family, it gives him a role model to look up to, and his moral code and way of thinking is inspired by the likes of Henry Fonda and James Stewart.

     

    This alone gives the perfect explanation to why so many of us hold films to our hearts. They are not just pieces of entertainment, but rather parts of our lives, whether it be childhood or adulthood. It's how we understand ideas and how the world works. It tells us tales of adventure, romance, horror, and so much more in entertaining or thought-provoking ways. The characters that are upon the screen are like family to us; we love their bravery, their charm, or their intellect, as they become more human and relatable than actual people. The stories that are shown are ones that relate to our own struggles, or are adventures that we wish to embark. The themes and ideas they share, ranging from multiple facets and ideals that soon become our own personal moral codes.

     

    What I'm really trying to say is that film is a humongous touchstone that impacts us in multiple ways, and for many of us, we would be completely different people without them. And Cinema Pardiso explains it in a way that's funny, sweet, cute, clever, sad, uplifting, heart-breaking, and majestic. If you haven't heard of it, or just haven't bothered to see it, please do. It's a magnificent film that is great for all walks of life, but to us cinephiles in particular.

    • Like 1

    CoolEric's Cool 25: My Most Meaningful Films

    in Archived Lists and Countdowns

    Posted

    #5

    The Anti-War Genre

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    Why it's so Meaningful to Me:

    So I decided to cheat on this one. While making the list, I was going to put Saving Private Ryan, but then my mind changed to Platoon...then it changed to Deer Hunter...then it changed to Pan's Labyrinth...and then I just decided to put this unique genre together in one spot, as all of those moves I've listed fit into something that is near and dear to my heart: a call for peace and a battle against warfare.

     

    Ever since I was young, one of the most important things that my parents have told me was that violence lead to nothing. It may fix things in the short-term, but violence only creates more violence, which in turn creates more conflict than before. And while some fights can be done for good causes, using guns and grenades to defend yourself doesn't lead to peace or victory. Many may not realize this, but warfare on the battlefield creates a massive impact to the lives of the people in the home countries. Families are forced to grieve for the loss of lives and homes, kids are forced to grow up seeing guns and corpses around the areas they play, and drones are high up in the sky, striking down and bombing places filled with innocents, making people hate seeing sunshine and blue skies, because they see the things that killed their loved ones. To say nothing of the soldiers that have to come back home, forced to remember the terrible acts they were forced to commit under the guidelines of the military system that really just want to protect their own hide instead of creating a bond and peaces

     

    As a strong pacifist, and someone who is against war in all forms unless it is absolutely necessary, I'm happy to know that most, if not all filmmakers, have my back. The stories found in Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, The Hurt Locker, Fury, Schindler's List, and other films about soldiers or films that take place in a time of war, all bring up a painful truth: war is hell. It's nothing more than the greed of government officials, trying to gain power, save their hide, or prove that their way of living is the most righteous, and doing so by destroying everything else around them, including the very people that are supporting such endeavors. These artists are aware about these intentions and take the inherent flaws and their own personal experiences, and share them on the screen, telling the world why we shouldn't drink the Kool-Aid given to us, and to actually stand up and say, "do we have to go to war? Can't we possibly talk it out and come to an agreement?" There's a real bravery to stand up like that, and it's another reason why I love filmmakers so much; they have something they want to say, and they'll say it, no matter who objects to them.

    • Like 4
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