HelloMovies Blog

Hi all,

For those of you who happen to be strolling around Palo Alto from May 21st to the 23rd, go check out the 2009 Stanford Student Film Festival, presented by the Stanford Film Society!  The event is free and open to the public, and will start at 8:00 pm each night in Cubberley Auditorium (on the Stanford campus).  Several local independent film projects will be featured each night, in the categories of drama, comedy, art house, documentary, music video, and interstitial. The films will be critiqued by a panel of judges comprised of Stanford faculty and local movie critics, as well as by the audience! The Grand Jury Prize Winner will be flown down to Los Angeles for a one-on-one lunch meeting with Warner Brothers Executive VP of Production Greg Silverman (10 Things I Hate About You, 300, The One, Get Smart, Yes Man, The Dark Knight, Poseidon, and The Lake House).

We’ll have a booth at the event to tell people more about HelloMovies and chat with any of our lovely users.  We look forward to seeing everyone!

On the eve of one of the biggest events in geekdom, behold, we present our list of the most anticipated films for Spring 2009. We’ll be first in line for the premier of Star Trek, decked out with our Vulcan ears and Start Fleet uni’s.

Star Trek
May 8, 2009

Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his trusted team on the starship USS Enterprise boldly go where no man has gone before in this installment of Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi franchise that follows the early days of the intergalactic adventurers. The crew includes Spock (Zachary Quinto), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg) and Sulu (John Cho). Eric Bana co-stars, and Leonard Nimoy appears as an older version of Spock.

Angels & Demons
May 15, 2009

After the murder of Italian physicist Leonardo Vetra, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon’s (Tom Hanks) investigation with Vetra’s daughter (Ayelet Zurer) leads to a secret society, the Illuminati, and a quest for the world’s most potent — and deadly — energy source. Ron Howard directed the crime thriller, which is based on The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s novel and co-stars Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård.

Terminator Salvation
May 21, 2009

All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale) must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating militaristic robots in this fourth installment of the popular action-packed Terminator series. But when Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) appears, his existence confuses the mission as Connor tries to determine whether Wright has come from the future or the past — and whether he’s friend or foe.

The Brothers Bloom
May 29, 2009

The Brothers Bloom made a name for themselves as the world’s best con men. Now, the younger (Adrien Brody) is ready to retire on the millions the pair has swindled. But when his brother (Mark Ruffalo) lures him into one last job, he reluctantly agrees. What he hasn’t counted on, though, is falling for their mark, an adventure-seeking heiress (Rachel Weisz). Robbie Coltrane and Babel’s Rinko Kikuchi co-star.

Up
May 29, 2009

After a lifetime of dreaming of traveling the world, 78-year-old homebody Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) is lured into an unbelievable adventure, thanks in part to the persistence of Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer (Jordan Nagai). Together, the unlikely pair embarks on a thrilling odyssey full of jungle beasts and rough terrain. Other voices include the renowned Christopher Plummer as the villain and Pixar stalwart John Ratzenberger.

The Year One
June 19, 2009

Banished from their primitive village after the tribe elders deem them too lazy, Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) leave everything they’ve ever known behind and embark upon an adventure-filled journey through the ancient world. Co-starring Hank Azaria, Oliver Platt, Olivia Wilde and David Cross, this epic-sized laffer is a collaborative effort from comedy giants Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up).

So, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) recently released a list called “Most Influential Classic Movies.”  There are some flicks that you’ve probably heard of, such as Star Wars and Gone with the Wind, and some you’ve probably never seen, like Battleship Potemkin.  It’s damn near impossible to limit the movie influence universe to just 15 movies, but we all think the list is fairly decent. Though The Passion of Joan of Arc didn’t make the cut, and that gave us pause.  Some of the most beautiful and influential acting / cinematography ever.

How did these movies make the list?  The list makers are “movies that shaped the cinema and the audiences that viewed them.”  In other words, films that knocked young directors out of the ballpark when they were young, and influenced their later movies.  These are films that Francis Ford Coppola loved, movies that Spielberg loved, that Peter Jackson loved.  In their youth.  Interesting.

Our hypothesis is, then, that it takes about 20 years before we can consider a movie influential.  THAT is the average length of the feedback loop for younger people to actually make movies influenced by the films they saw when they were younger.  Yes, we’re eyeballing that estimate.

Let’s try a little thought experiment, then, shall we?  Imagine that the year is 2029.  Think of all the people that were, in 2009, between the ages of 10 and 20 (give or take), and are now 30-40.  Now imagine that those 10-20 year olds are by 2029 film directors.  What “recent” movies (between the release of Star Wars and today) did they see that transformed the way they thought about movies?  In other words, what will make the list of most influential movies of the past 30 years for future directors?  Or, if you think there hasn’t been a movie in the past 30 years that will later be considered influential, what the heck happened to film???

Post responses in the comments!  We look forward to hearing from you.

- Mr. Fluffy

Hat tip to Film School Rejects, who seemed to COMPLETELY miss the point of the TCM list.  We love you guys anyway.