Movies

[Mad78]

Have you seen Grease, Tofu.

[Darth_Rob]

I dont mind Broadway musicals, especially since the misses enjoys them very much. We generally see at least one a year in NYC, and we watch a few movies here and there.

[Eagle]

Saw "Singing in the Rain" about a year ago again. The last time when I saw it was in my childhood. It´s just a good classic movie and I still like it. But I don´t like singing in movies all too much in general.

 

 

Edit:

Saw another part of BSG yesterday and they had a HumVee in it! A Hummer on Caprica?? Hey, this should have been some kind of alternate universe where two kinds of humanity grow up devided from each other on different planets in different systems. They are even in search for Earth, which they are even not sure if it really exists. So why do they have a car from Earth on Caprica??? That´s just impossible! Why couldn´t they just use a futuristic car for those scenes. Or did they have spent all their budget for silly CGI?! That just sucked!

[DarthTex]

Saw "Singing in the Rain" about a year ago again. The last time when I saw it was in my childhood. It´s just a good classic movie and I still like it. But I don´t like singing in movies all too much in general.

My "classic musical" favorite ... Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. And yes, Clint did his own singing I would have preferred Elvis dubbed in, but you gotta go with what the director shows It's actually a good movie

[Darth_Rob]

I saw the Simpsons parody "Paint Your Wagon" many episodes ago. I found the idea of Eastwood and Marvin singing quite ridiculous. Then some time last year, I was flipping through channels, and saw "Paint Your Wagon". I was shocked. I had to watch to confirm that Eastwood and Marvin were there, and they were! It was hilarious!!!

[Mad78]

I watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer yesterday. i quite enjoyed it. I find it didn't try to be a classic but it was fun to watch.

[Darth_Rob]

Did you feel it was better than the first? I did.

[Sinister]

I took my wife to see Juno (chick-flick alert). It wasn't so bad, but I much rather would have seen Walk Hard or Sweeney Todd.

 

Such are the sacrifices one makes when reaching marriagehood...

 

(Yes, I know that's probably not a real word.)

[Darth_Rob]

I saw Walk Hard. It was pretty funny. I was expecting a lot worse. He poked fun at a lot of musicians, like Elvis, the Beatles, Phil Ochs, and Bob Dylan. The Bob Dylan thing was hilarious!!!

[Mad78]

Did you feel it was better than the first? I did.

Yes it was better than first but that didn't take much work.

[Krytos]

Saw I am Legend last night, and I'm jumping aboard the bandwagon on this one. It's not bad, a decent flick (albeit, the cinema plays the sound so bloody loud which added to my annoyance). Acting was ... so so - but then, that was hardly a point of interest. There were a lot of plot holes and stupid coincidences in the movie, and the ending still felt hollow rather than touching like it was meant to be.

Maybe

it was because his sacrifice seemed rather pointless. Hide in the hidey hole, wait to day, drive away to fight another day.

The whole ... creature thing was a bit lame. Yes, I was glad it wasn't another butchered and cliché zombie or vampire fest ... but still, the "things" seemed rather lame and overly feral and too much like a rabid dog mixed with .. some .. climbing .. animal thingy that has super human strength, ignores pain, bites a hell of a lot and likes to break crap by climbing on it.

Which then begs the question how

they moved the mannequin and set a complex trap with a car. Even if the "alpha male" was responsible, why could he then only think of breaking through glass with his HEAD. They're dumb, vicious animals until it serves the plot a little extra credit

Now, I had a friend there who'd read the original novel - she was reaaaaaallllllyyyyyy disappointed in the movie. And after her brief synopsis, I can see why. The novel's "legend" concept and juxtaposition of who's right and wrong sounded like a much more fulfilling ending - which then lead to the argument over which film should have been made, and that we won't see the good ending in a film now rant rant rant.

[Mad78]

Your friend should see The last man on Earth. Its the first adaptation of the novel they made and I'm told its also the one that stays the closest to the book.

[Eagle]

I definately will watch that movie, Mad! I´m sure it will have more atmosphere than the remake has. Allthough the first remake with Charlton Heston is also a very good movie, which I really enjoyed to watch.

 

The reason why nowadays movies mostly suck is quite easy to answer. Thus I will post some quotes by former SW producer Gary Kurtz (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes back), which will explain, why we now have more SFX and action than plot, like in the prequells.

 

KURTZ: ... I've felt that what's happened is that the working producer's job – basically, of being the director's partner and being his mirror and sounding bound – has disappeared and the producer's job has primarily turned to deal making. Most of the people whose names you see up on the screen don't have anything to do with the making of the film, which is a shame, really, because it leaves the director kind of totally on his own – and it means also that there's no one to say "Wait a minute, that's terrible, don't do that!"

 

Reporter: There're no 'no-men' anymore.

 

KURTZ: There're no 'no-men'. Yes, exactly.

 

Reporter: The irony is that a good deal of major directors nowadays have become those type of producers as well, bringing on other directors as hired hands.

 

KURTZ: Yes, exactly... Because they had the power to do that. But there're so few good movies made today, it's difficult for me to believe that it's all because the directors don't have any vision in what they want to see. I think it's primarily due to the fact that the studios are now all owned by big conglomerates who are interested in making money to the exclusion of everything else. Now, the studios always wanted to make money – that was one of their reasons for being in existence – but the men who ran the studios, no matter how difficult they were, they had some sense of what being a showman was like.

...When you just look at the list of the elements that the studios wanted, you know it wouldn't work that way. But it's a security blanket to have it be a Tom Cruise picture, or a Jack Nicholson picture, or whoever. Whether they're right for the project or not, the studio executive is not going to get fired if the picture fails if they have A-list talent.

 

Reporter: Right – and then they complain about the audience, for not accepting it.

 

KURTZ: Yes.

 

Reporter: I'm interested... when you talk about the Golden Age of Hollywood, as opposed to now, there seemed to be a better balance between "Okay, these are our A pictures, and then these are our B pictures, the experimental ones that we'll toss money towards, but ... we're going to bank on the A ones, if the B ones hit – fine." Now it seems that everything has to be a blockbuster.

 

KURTZ: Yes, that's exactly right. ...

 

Reporter: It seems like the industry depends solely upon initiative, nowadays, rather than taking any risks.

 

Reporter: At the time we were doing American Graffiti at Universal – which was not a picture made on the lot, although we had an office there – it was made in San Francisco, and we were very rarely at the studio. But some of the times when I was at the studio for meetings and various things, I realized in talking to some of the story department people that they had probably 100 projects in various stages of development – script development – that they were paying someone to develop. They don't do much of that anymore at all. I suppose the idea is now that the scripts will somehow be generated. Either the independent producers or the writers themselves will spend the time and energy to develop them to the point where they can be seen. I think one of the reasons that there're so few good movies is that that process has been truncated so much. Too many films go into production before they're ready.

 

Reporter: With the belief that it can be fixed on set?

 

KURTZ: Well, yes, I'm sure that some people would say that, but I think that they're looking at them as some sort of cannon fodder, really. They don't really care. If everybody gets their fees and they make enough money to pay the mortgage, then that's the end of it. There's not much passion involved in the concept of the film.

You can read the full interview here. It´s really very interesting.

 

The thing is, don´t complain about that you´ve just saw a bad movie in cinema. Read some reviews before going to see the movie itself. At least that´s what I´m allways doing and it helps me much to differ the good ones from the bad. If your girlfriend wants to see that movie, try to convince her to not do it. If that doesn´t work, than you´re doomed.

[Darth_Rob]

If your girlfriend wants to see that movie, try to convince her to not do it. If that doesn´t work, than you´re doomed.

 

I can vouch for that in the case of Alvin and the Chipmunks...

[Eagle]

Forgot to mention that I´ve watched King Kong on swiss television a week ago. It seems that everybody liked the remake so I thought I also shall watch it. It´s clear that it´s very difficult to top a movie which is legendary, but this movie is the worst remake imo, really. When I just think back of that scene, where they discover some sort of brontosaurus-herd or whatever, you soon see something moving in the bushes around them. And I just thought: "Oh, raptors! How original! Nobody had that in a movie up till now." Just because people liked the veloci-raptors in jurrasic park doesn´t mean you should put them in every movie which has dinosaurs in it. After that scenes I thought that I´ve seen enough and switched off tv.

[Mad78]

I never watched the end of the King Kong remake. Maybe its because i don't like monkeys but I found it highly boring.

[Evaders99]

I avoid it because its a Jack Black movie

[Darth_Rob]

We saw Juno last weekend. It was really good. It was a really good story, and I could tell that the director was influenced by my favorite comedy film ever, Napoleon Dynamite.

[Mad78]

I watched 30 Day of Night this afternoon. I found it was pretty good. A nice change from the usual Vampire flicks.

[Eagle]

Watched "the island" a couple of days ago. It started very interesting, but ended in an action-orgy. It´s really sad, because the story had lots of potentional. First Obi Wan as a clone! What an ironie. Than the fact that all the clones really had to be alive, to feel, to learn, or they couldn´t use their organs. Another thing which should have been more in touch was when McGregor met that guy of whoms clone he is and has to discover that they are entirely different. That aspect would have been very interesting, why their personalities developed that different to each other. Really lots of potential in that story which was left abandoned just for the sake of an intense "rollercoaster-ride".

[Mad78]

I enjoyed The Island. I found it fun and pretty well made though some of the action was OT.

[Sinister]

I'm going to see Cloverfield tomorrow. I'll let you all know how it goes.

[DarthTofu]

Please do. It looks bloody awesome- the whole thing is filled with camcorders, though unlike Road Trip from Hell it uses multiple camcorders. High-budget bastards at Hollywood...

[Krytos]

I'm going to see Cloverfield tomorrow. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Please do, and don't forget spoilers in black for those of use who want to know what happens

[SOCL]

Yes, hide the spoilers or suffer at the hands of the Moderator--because he really wants to see it.