Movies

[Mad78]

Double post to quickly talk about a few movies I saw in the last few days.

 

The Black Cauldron: I kind of remembered hearing of this movie when i was in primary school but its only now that I finally got to see it. I must say i was rather disappointed for a disney.

The movie had the perfect ingredients: a young heroic wannabe knight, a maiden, a very evil wizard, ... And yet it just felt shallow. I don't really know what it was but it all seemed rushed and unfinished. Maybe they just bit of more than they could chew and spat it out half-finished but I think the span of the story would have allowed two films and maybe also a more interesting epic.

 

Citizen Kane: The name says it all. Voted several times best movie of all times I can, now that I've seen it, fully agree. Its perfect balance between humor and drama, the amazing photography, brilliant acting,... You can't describe Citizen Kane. You just NEED to see it.

 

Star Trek (2009): I heard alot about this and was really waiting to see it. Now I have and I can only say one thing:

I LOVED IT! At last a Star Trek movie which can appeal to the masses and isn't a side product off one the multiple series. The movie manages to catch the essence of what was good in ST and present it in a brilliant form along with good acting and effects. Alot of the things I liked were actually little details such as the presence of turrets on the ships. At last the audience could actually see where phasers were coming from instead of just seeing a laser appearing out of nowhere on the hull. I also liked the general overhaul of the look of the ships. They feel right and much less "it needs to look modern without it costing money".

All in all a brilliant movie and one i woiuld recommend to anyone.

 

The Mad: I noticed this little film while surfing about Wikipedia and decided to give it a look. The premise is a Zombie invasion due to bad meat. Strange, i agree. But you don't watch this movie for a story but for the most amusing acts of the main cast which included Billy Zane. I won't say much more. this is an amusing horror comedy which is quite worth a rent if you looking for a good laugh and a bit of originality in the Z-movie genre.

[Mad78]

BUMP!

 

Got to see Transformers: the Return of the Fallen the other day. It has all the ingredients of a summer blockbuster. Hot women, cars, expensive sfx and Shia Leboeuf. All in all it was fun though I still don't like the main actor. The story was okay but pretty far fetched but in the end who cares!?`The only reason you go and see these movies are for the actions scenes which I must say were impressive but not that different from the first one.

So if you liked the first one it may be worth renting this but otherwise I don't consider you obsolutely need to see it.

[DarthTofu]

Foreign film time: I watched two recently.

 

The first is a Chinese film, To Live, written and directed by the same guy who did the Chinese Olympics. While not bad, it wasn't exactly what I'd call a great film. It's sort of like a Chinese Forest Gump, except that the main character stays in the same province of China for pretty much the entire movie. It covers from the Communist Revolution into some of Mao Ze Dong's programs, including the Great Leap Forward, and the 100 Flowers Movement. It portrays communism negatively at times, and for that it was apparently banned in mainland China, despite the overall positive outlook on communism.

 

The second film is Korean, called Welcome to Dongmakgol. I think this may be my favorite foreign film ever. Even watching it with subtitles, I found myself moved and stirred by it all over the place. It takes place in the 50s, during the Korean War, and follows three North Korean soldiers, two South Korean soldiers, and a US Airman who was shot down. All three groups come to a small village, Dongmakgol, which has never known war, or much of the outside world at all. It's a happy, innocent place, and it manages to infect them all, to the point where they put aside all of their differences. There's a heck of a lot more to it than that, but it really does get pretty serious and wonderful; I'd compare it a bit to Crash, in those high tension moments followed by moments where you just feel such joy for the characters.

[Mad78]

So Yesterday i got to see "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and I can say that was one the most challenging movies for my suspension of disbelief I have ever seen. The amount of top secret gigantic underground facilities is just so immense that in the end its just not believable.

The plot is mild and not all that interesting. More of an excuse to get the main characters from one fight to the next lair and then to the next fight.

The Acting wasn't tremendous either though i did like Damon (sp?) Wayans performance. It seemed to be the only one which was "in place" since all the other ones were terribly serious and just didn't go well with the ridiculous backdrop.

But the big selling point of this film were the special effects and i must say they are good. Not the best ever but certainly a very good effort.

In the end you are entertained and that is the point of th film. Stuff the dumb story and cheesy acting. If you are going to see the movie you want to see fights and action and i can certainly say that on that point "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" delivers the goods.

[Darth_Rob]

I watched GI Joe last week, and I didnt think it was half bad. It is important to note that I never watched the series or had the toys growing up (I was into other franchises, and for some reason never got into it) so its not like I had expectations or hopes for it. While I agree that it was ridiculously over the top in terms of technology, that didnt bother me so much. I felt that the story was decent, making the movie itself "decent". Its not a movie I would want to watch again anytime soon, or that I want to go out and buy it on DVD now, but I dont regret watching it.

[Darth_Rob]

I snagged Fanboys for $3.99 from Amazon on Cyber Monday. What a great movie!

[DarthTofu]

"What if the movie sucks?"

[DarthTofu]

D-d-d-double post!

 

I saw 2012 today, and I absolutely loved it... for all of the wrong reasons. It was the single silliest, stupidest film I think I've seen all year, at least for the first half... slash, one of the main characters was played by the same actor who portrayed the Operative in Serenity, and he made some line about how "We can't kill children!" and I burst out laughing.

 

At any rate, the screen is constantly occupied by people running from a wall of death in the forms of (though by no means limited to) massive fissures opening in the earth, flaming balls of lava flying out of a super volcano, more massive fissures, walls of snow, walls of water, and Chinese people.

 

Oh, and I think at least 25 items on the National Register of Historic Places show up and/or are destroyed. All in all, don't go to see it expecting a good movie. Go to see it expecting to MST3K the living hell out of it, and you will enjoy it tremendously. One of my friends started a "My God!" counter, and hit twelve before he forgot to keep track... half an hour into the film. I highly recommend it to people with a sense of humor; it's so bad, it's amazing.

[Darth_Rob]

Sounds like my kind of flick. Im gonna try to see it with my buddy later this week so we can mock the heck out of it.

[Mad78]

I may end up seeing it too.

 

I saw "Gamer" yesterday. Was a rather entertaining flick and has some interesting ideas. Sadly the plot is a bit confused and all in all unoriginal. Its another "we are all going to loose our freewill!" plots except that the medium of loosing it is different. But the action and the acting is solid (except for Terry Crews who's only idea of how to act the role is to just look very angry all the time). An decent enough rental movie.

[Darth_Rob]

Saw Avatar last week. I enjoyed it, though I despised the "original thought" they put behind naming "unobtainium." I definitely recommend it.

[DarthTofu]

lol- I remember unobtainium from Journey to the Center of the Earth.

 

I saw Avatar a while back, too, and really enjoyed it. I expected it to be an extremely silly special effects film full of stuff that I would want to poke fun at. While it wasn't the world's most original concept (think "Dances with Wolves" in space), it was done solidly, and didn't try to explain too much of the magic science away with actual jargon that you could see through plain as day. Some stuff was a tad silly, such as the mechas, but they still ultimately added to the experience. The rendering of the characters and creatures is solidly done, and looked realistic, and you got wrapped up in the storyline. I was surprised to find myself feeling sorry for the characters as they lost their land, seeing as what was going to happen was obvious from the onset of the film.

 

All in all, I recommend it. Though I don't think you need to see it in 3D. I think that was a waste of money given the general lack of changes 3D made to the experience. Imax, maybe. 3D, no.

[Mad78]

Yesterday I saw "The Boat The Rocked" very amusing movie. I highly recommend it to anybody wanting to see some light comedy. IE a good rental.

[Evaders99]

Mortal Kombat teaser

Please let this one be real. It looks incredible. Always a fan of Mortal Kombat, there needs to be a movie to do justice to it.

Although I was more a fan of Subzero, I can see Scorpion as the anti-hero protagonist here.

[Mad78]

I saw "The Crazies" the other day. Wasn't too bad actually. A good remake with a good mix of horror and action. Worth a rent I'd say for those who like the genre.

[Evaders99]

George Lucas Plans to Resuscitate Dead Movie Stars... umm what??

[Evaders99]

Mortal Kombat: Legacy - why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner???