Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

afranca.com.br

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 138 posts

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#31

Post by phony-account »

kridsdale1 wrote: post #9

In my experience it’s that set lighting has changed enormously. Modern digital cinema cameras can capture dark scenes far better than the film stocks of the 90s and earlier. So set designers don’t need to blast light everywhere to have actors be visible. Now, we even have AI Denoising that can make ISO 12500 look like 800. Go watch a 90s movie and look at a night or interior scene. You’ll see that everyone is actuall…

> Modern digital cinema cameras can capture dark scenes far better than the film stocks of the 90s and earlier. So set designers don’t need to blast light everywhere to have actors be visible… > Go watch a 90s movie and look at a night or interior scene. You’ll see that everyone is actually lit by blue lights. Not natural darkness. That’s a major change.

Let me introduce you to some film history:

https://neiloseman.com/barry-lyndon-the-full-story-of-the-fa...

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#32

Post by quantummagic »

adzm wrote: post #10
dosinga wrote: post #3

Also: Recency & survival bias. We remember what became the classics from the 90s and also what came out this year and was available on our last flight

Notable also is that a lot of resources go into series rather than just movies, as well as movies that are not in the 'box office.' But I agree about the biases here; there is so much crap from the 90s that looked fake and awful, and there is so much stuff now that feels alive and real. Even more, I'd say, especially once you look away from the more mainstream sources. Also an interesting resource here is boxofficemo…

> Notable also is that a lot of resources go into series rather than just movies,

As a great example of this, is the His Dark Materials series. Where every episode is shot like a big-budget movie, and is pretty amazing compared to anything filmed in the 90s. Its subject matter skews toward the adolescent, but I enjoyed watching with the kids.

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#33

Post by dylanfw »

politelemon wrote: post #22
mandevil wrote: post #18

A big part of this is that modern movies are carefully calibrated so that you can follow along while sitting on your couch focused on your phone. Movies in the 1990's didn't need to have so much clanky dialog explaining, in careful detail, why we were someplace. The writers and directors could presume that the audience was actually paying attention to the movie, and so would make the necessary inferences. Modern movi…

> he just stopped walking with a limp Remind me where this is from, this sounds really familiar.

To avoid spoiling a 30 year old movie: ROT13 `Gur Hfhny Fhfcrpgf`

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#34

Post by wingmanjd »

mandevil wrote: post #18

A big part of this is that modern movies are carefully calibrated so that you can follow along while sitting on your couch focused on your phone. Movies in the 1990's didn't need to have so much clanky dialog explaining, in careful detail, why we were someplace. The writers and directors could presume that the audience was actually paying attention to the movie, and so would make the necessary inferences. Modern movi…

Not related to the main conversation, but I'm still mad that the DVD menu of that movie gave away the reveal before the movie even started (showed someone limping and then suddenly not limping anymore as they walked down the street). There was no real twist ending since I knew the guy was lying about something.

(Vagueness intended to avoid spoilers for that 1 in 10,000 someone who hasn't seen the movie)

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#35

Post by expedition32 »

There's that incredibly funny/sad clip of the old actor playing Gandalf getting frustrated with talking into thin air. Half of modern movies literally only exist on the special effects laptop.

But movies have always been about technology. I am sure Fritz Lang was considered a hack once.

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#37

Post by dubcanada »

mandevil wrote: post #18

A big part of this is that modern movies are carefully calibrated so that you can follow along while sitting on your couch focused on your phone. Movies in the 1990's didn't need to have so much clanky dialog explaining, in careful detail, why we were someplace. The writers and directors could presume that the audience was actually paying attention to the movie, and so would make the necessary inferences. Modern movi…

I don't particularly disagree with you, but do you have evidence that modern movies are calibrated and written to allow for someone to sit on their phones the entire time and understand?

Largely seems like some movies are written to be mass consumed and some are not. No different then a movie from the 90s. Our attention span is decreasing a lot obviously, but it's never been that long.

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#38

Post by snicky »

speedgoose wrote: post #11

> Maybe I'm just nostalgic. Maybe I'm romanticizing the past. But when I finish a good movie, I can sit there thinking about them for hours, even days depending on the movie. When I finish most modern blockbusters, I'm already thinking about dinner. And that difference, I think, says everything. I don’t watch modern most blockbusters because I don’t enjoy them in general. I watch a few that I know I will likely enjoy…

> The Netflix catalog is full of not so good movies, and the video rental shops in the 90s were too.

I subscribed to Netflix for a year or two when the platform became popular, but I quickly realized it resembles those old school rental shops too much. Yes, you could get some popular classics like The Godfather or Goodfellas, but apart from that you were stuck with another crime story or a comedy with Steve Martin or John Candy. Actually, my analogy may not be 100% fortunate, because I still have good memories about watching these comedies as a kid with my dad. Now I wouldn't have time and patience to go through movies of "that" quality. Anyhow, my point is that you were very unlikely to get there anything that wasn't already proved to be popular. Forget about anything more niche / arthouse. Netflix has produced plenty by itself, but how many of those movies are actually any good? I remember a handful of them: Marriage Story, Roma, Don't Look Up and a movie for kids called Okja.

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#39

Post by daseiner1 »

politelemon wrote: post #22
mandevil wrote: post #18

A big part of this is that modern movies are carefully calibrated so that you can follow along while sitting on your couch focused on your phone. Movies in the 1990's didn't need to have so much clanky dialog explaining, in careful detail, why we were someplace. The writers and directors could presume that the audience was actually paying attention to the movie, and so would make the necessary inferences. Modern movi…

> he just stopped walking with a limp Remind me where this is from, this sounds really familiar.

would you say that you’re feeling sort of… “spacey”?

Re: Why 90s Movies Feel More Alive Than Anything on Netflix

#40

Post by ggambetta »

wingmanjd wrote: post #34
mandevil wrote: post #18

A big part of this is that modern movies are carefully calibrated so that you can follow along while sitting on your couch focused on your phone. Movies in the 1990's didn't need to have so much clanky dialog explaining, in careful detail, why we were someplace. The writers and directors could presume that the audience was actually paying attention to the movie, and so would make the necessary inferences. Modern movi…

Not related to the main conversation, but I'm still mad that the DVD menu of that movie gave away the reveal before the movie even started (showed someone limping and then suddenly not limping anymore as they walked down the street). There was no real twist ending since I knew the guy was lying about something. (Vagueness intended to avoid spoilers for that 1 in 10,000 someone who hasn't seen the movie)

That spoiler should be a crime.
Post reply on HN