Children of men.

January 7, 2007 9:37 PM

Is there a good site for discussing movies? One that doesn't degenerate into stupid flame wars? [possible SPOILERS]

I hate using my askme question on this, but I just saw Children of Men and had a few questions.

Is there a good site for movie discussion? The Ain't it Cool board may actually be the worst message board on the internet, and IMDB isn't much better. I'd like to check out a board with better spelling and less use of CAPS.

I'd like a recommendation for a board that keeps things pretty cordial, not too many trolls.

posted by Telf to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (19 answers total)

Tough question..maybe JoBlo. I've just been reading through a couple of the threads and it seems pretty cordial and fairly focused on discussion rather than trolling or flaming.
posted by tetsuo at 10:29 PM on January 7, 2007

Notcoming.com is a nice little film site I visit once in a while. Sometimes a good discussion evolves in the comments on the reviews—it is not a "forum" site really, but it is ALWAYS civilized.
posted by lovejones at 10:38 PM on January 7, 2007

Belated Spoiler alert for MadamM!

This will not answer your question directly, but I find most intelligent film discussion on blogs such as Hollywood-Elsewhere (here is a recent HE post about Children Of Men), The Hot Blog and The House Next Door (though THND isn't regularly updated with new movies articles, here's still an insightful COM review). They have no forum to speak of, and the comments react to the respective blogger's original article, but I would still define these three blogs as my personal MovieFilter. There is also the less regularly-updated Scanners blog, which sometimes offers fresh critical analysis and insights on recent movies.

If you want to discuss a specific point about a movie, I think you need to get down and dirty and dive into IMDB. If write an intelligent enough post and can ignore the trolls and the idiots, you will receive an intelligent reply eventually. And it will submerged in pools of trash within minutes. I got on the IMDB boards after seeing The Prestige and Babel, and got to discuss my questions and points with a few interesting people.

I haven't tried the Rotten Tomatoes boards, perhaps they are better than IMDB.
posted by jchgf at 10:57 PM on January 7, 2007

Telf, it was not necessary to mention the movie in question, as this was sure to elicit at least some spoilerifcation. And to others considering elaborating on the film: let's keep the topic focused on forums, please. Thanks.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:37 PM on January 7, 2007

Sorry, misspelled spoilerification.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:38 PM on January 7, 2007

Mod note: added spoiler warning
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:05 AM on January 8, 2007

The boards at Filmspotting are an intelligent alternative to a lot of the rubbish out there. It's also a great movie talk podcast.
posted by viama at 12:55 AM on January 8, 2007

Xixax used to be good. Not so much anymore.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:59 AM on January 8, 2007

Barbelith is a general forum that has a film section. There is lots of intelligent discussion on there and you could do well to post a thread up there. However, your membership has to be approved, which can take a few weeks.
posted by pollystark at 3:38 AM on January 8, 2007

For movie talk, I think I learned about criterionforum.org from another askme question.
posted by starman at 5:31 AM on January 8, 2007

Something Awful dot com has a great film discussion sub-forum.
posted by vkxmai at 7:46 AM on January 8, 2007

Response by poster: Sorry, about the phrasing of the question. I was trying to get a "two-fer". I had a more detailed question as my first comment, which may have been deleted. I did give a potential spoiler warning in my first comment, but I guess that is moot now.

I was torn between asking a specific question about the movie and asking a more general question that would be of use to later mefites.

Thanks for the advice so far. I don't frequent any movie blogs, but that seems like a good resource.

Also any site that requires an approved membership seems to reduce the chaff. I will check these out.
posted by Telf at 8:10 AM on January 8, 2007

I second FilmSpotting. Usually very intelligent conversations, although there is always the occasional troll. And the podcast is excellent as well.

Side note: Excellent movie. I highly recommend it.
posted by coolin86 at 9:14 AM on January 8, 2007

I think we have great discussion of movies over on Listology.
posted by dgeiser13 at 9:58 AM on January 8, 2007

Try the message boards at Chud. The site's packed with knowledgeable and interesting film geeks and usually differences in opinion don't degenerate into childish name-calling or ad hominem attacks.
posted by Bromius at 11:23 AM on January 8, 2007

I Love Film is a board with plenty of intelligent and wide-raging discussions.
posted by holojames at 12:19 PM on January 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Green Cine has a pretty good movie discussion board.
posted by General Zubon at 1:00 PM on January 8, 2007

Cinemarati has some smart people, and they have a thread going for Children of Men right now.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 3:46 PM on January 8, 2007

I'd like a recommendation for a board that keeps things pretty cordial, not too many trolls.

The Epinions boards are generally super-friendly. Here's the Movies area.
posted by scarabic at 5:26 PM on January 8, 2007