Film Fanatics Society - Chat Thread

How sporting of you.

....in response to your PM no, Phalanges, I won't vote for your review in return for rep

Notes on a Scandal has been fantastic.

I've never understood walking out of anything. For even the most offensively bad film, you've still paid to be there so you might as well hang around and see what happens at the end of it. One of the worst films I've ever seen at the cinema was The Invention of Lying, and I stayed during that as a punishment for being so ******* stupid as to go and watch it.

On Chuck Palahniuk's book tours, he often gives a reading of a short story that has made tens of people faint over the years. On one occasion a guy was so offended he got up, went to leave, fainted and collapsed to the floor mid-exit. Since hearing this I've always been too afraid I'll look like an idiot to leave early.

Which raises the important point: which reason is it that stops you leaving films early; that you don't see the point because you've paid, or because you're afraid of looking like an idiot?

I know exactly what you mean on The Invention of Lying. Couple of mates (flatmates) were ardent Gervais fans, so wanted to see it. As nothing else was happening, I went as well. Waste of the entrance fee, tbh. Not in the least bit funny, and descended into one of the worst rom-coms I've ever seen.

Both; I'm a tight coward, tbh.

I really like Gervais - Extras is one of the best TV shows out there (I'm less keen on the Office, but it's better than 90% of British TV), I always have listened to his podcasts and I find his stand up really funny. But in films he is just god-awful. I had completely blacked out Invention of Lying from my mind and a couple of months ago had to be convinced by my friends that I had watched it with them at the cinema as I was adamant I had never seen it.

take that back.

I really don't understand his appeal, tbh. Extras is alright, but made into some comical genius by all its fans that I really cannot comprehend, likewise his stand-up is mildly amusing, but not enough to make him this incredible comic, as he's always billed.

90% of British TV is made up of talent shows, trashy gameshows, mind-numbing sitcoms and godawful sketch shows. Anything which has even the slightest spark of either artistic integrity or innovation is better than 90% of British TV.

Ah, Extras is brilliant. It takes these stars who usually live their lives in such a scripted fashion and makes them look insane. It's probably the best acting Orlando Bloom has ever done in his life.

I haven't watched his stand-up in a couple of years, but from what I remember I'd definitely put him towards the top end of comics. I mean, he's no Stewart Lee (funniest man ever ), but he's a damn sight better than the likes of catchphrase-ridden Peter Kay, the posh-everyman Michael Macintyre, the mainstream-indie Russell Howard and the one-funny-joke-which-he-repeats-forever Rhod Gilbert. At least his jokes are fresh and funny.

87% of made-up statistics are unreliable, don't forget.

There are still a lot of good British comedy programmes, such as Mongrels and Peep Show. I'd also class the likes of The Inbetweeners and various panel shows (Mock the Week, Would I like to You?, 8 out of 10 cats etc) as funny, with programmes like Q.I providing a decent mix of the interesting and informative, with a comic twist. Even Gavin & Stacey and How Not to Live Your Life are funnier, tbh. That's without mentioning the multitude of decent British tv that doesn't fall into the 'comedy' category. It's not that I think The Office is a bad thing, just that it gets so much undeserved praise and credit as being some sort of 'genius' comedic concept.

Fair enough, Extras can be good, but I wouldn't say that's really for Gervais' as much as for the supporting cast. Obviously, kudos to him with his involvement in the development and scripting of it all, of course, and in that role he shines. It's just that he's not as funny in front of the camera as both he and his ardent fans would like to believe.

I'd put him as a middle-of-the-road comic, despite agreeing with you that he's better than all of the comedians mentioned. Comedians like Dara O'brian and Frankie Boyle are very amusing, imo, and much better than Gervais, yet I still wouldn't call them 'top flight' comedians.

Source?

Oh yeah, I'm not denying there aren't good comedy shows. It's just that there is a huge volume of shows on TV which are lowest common denominator turds. Peep Show is in my eyes the best British TV out there. I watch a fair few of the panel shows you mentioned, and while I find them occasionally funny they aren't anything very special. There's only two panel shows I love (and which you haven't mentioned, incidentally) - Have I got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Most other comedy shows, like Gavin and Stacey, are alright but again nothing special. There are a lot of great british shows, but in terms of comedy considering the amount of output (and the amount of viewers shows like Little Britain and Catherine Tate get) there is very little quality to show for it. The thing about the Office is that it was unique at the time, and had enough quality to influence TV for years to come. I'm pretty sure shows like How Not to Live Your Life won't influence much.

I would agree with you there. His scriptwriting and directing skills are obviously very good, especially when you consider that even though Extras is supposed to sound improvised (and does) it is really rigorously scripted. I do think he has more arrogance and hype than he necessarily deserves, but at the same time there's a lot of famous people with a lot more of both and nowhere near the talent (*cough* Chris Moyles).

Dara O'Briain is funnier than him. My problem with Frankie Boyle is that while he's funny on panel shows, his stand-up is very disappointing - pretty much all of it is recycled jokes from the shows you see him on. And as someone whose main job is a stand-up comedian, this is just disrespectful to both the audiences that pay to see him and his trade.

I guess I'll bump this considering noone has even tried to guess.

Baby Geniuses or Jawbreaker.

Neither.

It does, I just assumed it was one of the two I chose.

None of the above.

I didn't mention Have I Got News For You simply because I don't find it as funny, and it's the same with Buzzcocks. The difference being that I think, in general, Buzzcocks is amusing, but can be hit and miss. It's suffering without Amstel, tbh.

One of the most disappointing things for me, possibly ever, was seeing 'That Mitchell and Webb Look'. While I'm aware that Peep Show wasn't written by them, it almost could've been, i.e the scripting suits David Mitchell and Robert Webb's characters to a tee, even to that point that they seem to have captured their real life personalities well. I'd love to see the writers of Peep Show creating more similar stuff. The aforementioned sketch show is woeful, except literally a handful of one-off sketches that were fairly amusing, and that pretty much summarises most British sketch shows, except the majority don't even have the funny scenes.

You can't argue with his ability, or the effect The Office has had on tv, I just feel it's helped influence a lot of things to be like it. As an example, I use things like 30 Rock and, obviously, The American Office, both of which are very similar, and neither of which I find particularly fantastic. True, but people like Chris Moyles don't really get 'undeserved hype', other than (perhaps) that he's seen as some sort of 'celebrity' and it doesn't influence much as a result. Gervais' hype on the other hand influences people to go out and watch things like The Invention of Lying, which isn't a good thing, imo.

I've read both O'Brian and Boyle's books, and Boyle's was immense. I get what you're saying, but Boyle's 'break' was through Mock the Week. Russell Howard is in a similar position, although I don't even find him slightly amusing. Because of this, their Mock the Week material is what they tend to use and recycle. Boyle has a lot of original stand-up material as well, but if you're an avid watcher of MTW, it's hard to tell which jokes are written for his stand-up circuits and which were for the panel show.