When feeling demotivated or simply in need of a gentle kick in the ass, watching a good inspirational/feel-good movie can never hurt. Which movies did you find inspirational? Bonus point for business related movies.
One of my favorite movies that I watch quite often and belongs in that category is "The Shawshank Redemption" from 1994. Persist in adverse environments, make lifetime friends, resist to cruel authorities, develop side projects ;), use your skills in a good and moral way.
"Small Time Crooks" 2000 by Woody Allen.
A movie about naive accidental lovable millionaires. Funny and sometimes bitter.
I would say the appeal of Iron Man in that sense is the montage effect. I love montage sequences in movies, and movies that use them right are totally energizing. There's nothing like seeing the trip from obscurity to success without coffee breaks, writers block, tooth-brushing etc.
I couldn't agree more. It's the only movie I've ever seen that references "wget", and the entire time as I sat there watching the early Facebook geeks write code, I kept thinking about how I should be at home working on my startup instead of sitting at the movies.
Am I the only one who found the film a bit disappointing given all the hype? While the first half was pretty cool and I really enjoyed the Facemash hacking scene, the second half felt like it was just endless squabbling over who owns what. Not exactly inspiring.
I've found that it's generally best to ignore hype for any film. If you go into a reasonably good film with low expectations, you'll like it. Walk into an incredible film with low expectations and you'll love it.
Yes you can. If you see reviews you should take them with a pinch of salt - there's a world of difference between Mark Kermode saying something's good and Nuts Magazine saying something's good.
You can avoid reviews, get a rough idea based on the actors and crew members' other work and a synopsis then decide if it warrants a visit to the cinema. You can go out and read the book the film might be based on.
For example, Black Swan is a film coming out by Darren Aronofsky that's coming out later this year. It stars Natalie Portman as a promising young ballet dancer that's slowly turning into a swan. It's an interesting premise, Aronofsky did Requiem for a Dream, the Fountain and more recently The Wrestler.
As well as Natalie Portman it has Vincent Cassel, both of whom I've loved in films before. This tells me that the film is probably worth seeing at the cinema - it may or may not be good but I can go in regardless of expectations. Unless I hear it's pretty awful then that's what I'm likely to do.
sound like an idea for a movie site.gives relatively negative reviews to sites , but still recommends you movies according to your taste , that you'll probably like.
we don't now 'what it is' or 'what it will be' or 'whether is makes any business at all', we are sure of just one thing that 'it is cool to use', lets code,test and enhance it - Inspired by The Social Network
The best movie on startups I've ever seen. I've watched it at least 20 times and appreciate it more each time. Woz has said that it's fairly accurate, which makes it that much more awesome.
This was my favorite startup/silicon valley-based movie until The Social Network came out. Great acting, very accurate storytelling (considering it's a made-for-tv movie from 1999), and pretty damn motivational.
uh, its a great movie, but I don't remember it being very feel good. I mostly remember it being depressing. That scene toward the end where one of the kids is playing ball with his father is heartbreaking.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Classic story of the underdog battling the perennial favorite told through the real-life struggle for the world's highest Donkey Kong score. Seriously, watch it now.
Star Trek, the first movie with Shatner, Nimoy, etc. Also Wrath of Khan.
The Matrix
300 probably will become one
The Social Network was surprisingly motivational. Fairly realistic portrayal of programming and programmers and startup life, and I loved many of Sean Parker's motivational speeches, and some of the Zuckerberg character's speeches as well.
One one level, it's something kind of simple: Buster's character is under-qualified & frequently failing, but he's also determined, unrelenting, and ultimately gets the job done.
He's taken the title job, but he doesn't really know how to operate a camera, so he accidentally double and quadruple exposes the film. He's ridiculed, since he obviously failed to do what he was trying to do (gather news footage), but the images he does create seem on another level sublime, magical.
I'm reluctant to map it directly to startups/HN, but let me try anyway: People talk about failing frequently, learning from failure; they say that startupers need to allow specific projects/ideas/initiatives to fail. That's correct, but failures still can hurt and sometimes demotivate; it's tempting also to move on before we've learned from the failure so as to put the failure as far behind as possible. These movies remind me that there can be great stuff to see and learn during a failure; I think they make failures less taxing emotionally and sometimes joyful.
I was impressed with Die Hard (1988) when I first saw it; so well engineered, as a movie and story and visual spectacle. Now that's the way action movies should be made, I thought, and hoped there'd be more like it -- even while wary of formulaic recombinations, like 'Die Hard on a boat', etc.
Years later, I saw The General (1927), and it blew my mind. There, 60+ years earlier, was 'Die Hard on rails'. There were so many action-movie scenes and stunts and plot points that have been repeated over and over in the decades since.
But: when Keaton did it, he wasn't cribbing anyone else. These weren't old familiar cliches (yet). He was risking his health with dangerous stunts. He didn't have the help of later special effects. He didn't even have sound or spoken dialogue. But still it all worked: the humor, the story, the stunts, the tension.
It was like discovering the common ancestor of hundreds of later movie and TV tropes, the very first action flick that crawled out of the oceans of text and imagination to walk on the dry land of motion pictures.
To have created that, with the limited tools of the era, prefiguring so much of what came later -- well, we can only hope to do something similar with the still-young digital and network media of our age.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 33.3 ms ] threadNot all are 'hacking' or 'enterprising' but something about them that does the trick.
"Small Time Crooks" 2000 by Woody Allen. A movie about naive accidental lovable millionaires. Funny and sometimes bitter.
Apollo 13. When engineering had heroic scope.
Sometimes 300 is stirring and brings a sort of you're-not-alone feeling when I'm stuck at the office. Also the RiffTrax commentary is hilarious.
"The water under the Golden Gate bridge is cold, Mark."
You can avoid reviews, get a rough idea based on the actors and crew members' other work and a synopsis then decide if it warrants a visit to the cinema. You can go out and read the book the film might be based on.
For example, Black Swan is a film coming out by Darren Aronofsky that's coming out later this year. It stars Natalie Portman as a promising young ballet dancer that's slowly turning into a swan. It's an interesting premise, Aronofsky did Requiem for a Dream, the Fountain and more recently The Wrestler.
As well as Natalie Portman it has Vincent Cassel, both of whom I've loved in films before. This tells me that the film is probably worth seeing at the cinema - it may or may not be good but I can go in regardless of expectations. Unless I hear it's pretty awful then that's what I'm likely to do.
Sounds like a typical startup. The funny part is this often happens while the company is quickly spiraling down to zero value.
You won't believe the number of times I've had this exact conversation with people! (Although most people are too nice to call me unemployed outright)
The movie was very good, and the book, was, like, written, really badly. (and I was a fan of Mezrich's Bringing Down the House)
The Shawshank Redemption
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Pirates of Silicon Valley
The Bourne Identity.
From IMDB: In an afterlife resembling the present-day US, people must prove their worth by showing in court how they have demonstrated courage.
Albert Brooks dies and has to prove that he has conquered his fears in order to "move on" or get smarter.
He looks back on his life and sees how things could have been better if he'd just had more courage.
Also, Angelina Jolie in vinyl.
Superman, the original movie
Star Trek, the first movie with Shatner, Nimoy, etc. Also Wrath of Khan.
The Matrix
300 probably will become one
The Social Network was surprisingly motivational. Fairly realistic portrayal of programming and programmers and startup life, and I loved many of Sean Parker's motivational speeches, and some of the Zuckerberg character's speeches as well.
Also: Primer, Amadeus, Ratatouille
Older movies: The General and other Buster Keaton movies, Trouble in Paradise and other Lubitsch movies.
But he is special because he's a genius at failure: his disasters are beautiful, cinematic, and spectacular. Here's a simple but representative example from the Cameraman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgS55PvjXHM&feature=relat...
He's taken the title job, but he doesn't really know how to operate a camera, so he accidentally double and quadruple exposes the film. He's ridiculed, since he obviously failed to do what he was trying to do (gather news footage), but the images he does create seem on another level sublime, magical.
I'm reluctant to map it directly to startups/HN, but let me try anyway: People talk about failing frequently, learning from failure; they say that startupers need to allow specific projects/ideas/initiatives to fail. That's correct, but failures still can hurt and sometimes demotivate; it's tempting also to move on before we've learned from the failure so as to put the failure as far behind as possible. These movies remind me that there can be great stuff to see and learn during a failure; I think they make failures less taxing emotionally and sometimes joyful.
Years later, I saw The General (1927), and it blew my mind. There, 60+ years earlier, was 'Die Hard on rails'. There were so many action-movie scenes and stunts and plot points that have been repeated over and over in the decades since.
But: when Keaton did it, he wasn't cribbing anyone else. These weren't old familiar cliches (yet). He was risking his health with dangerous stunts. He didn't have the help of later special effects. He didn't even have sound or spoken dialogue. But still it all worked: the humor, the story, the stunts, the tension.
It was like discovering the common ancestor of hundreds of later movie and TV tropes, the very first action flick that crawled out of the oceans of text and imagination to walk on the dry land of motion pictures.
To have created that, with the limited tools of the era, prefiguring so much of what came later -- well, we can only hope to do something similar with the still-young digital and network media of our age.