Movies Watch anything recently? 1119 replies to this topic Started by Tallgeese , Feb 08 2009 09:05 AM ·

[Petit Melon]

Wolverine, IMHO, was pure unadulterated shit.
BTW, is anyone interested in UP? It seems like the most random whacky ass Pixar movie, ever! A little Asian kid boyscout, and and grumpy old man...in a floating house... going around the world. How the fuck did they even pitch that movie?! Regardless, I think it will be good. I think the "weakness" of the last few Pixar movies was that they were sedate and not "adventures" where the characters went places and did cool things. The last Pixar "adventure" movie was Nemo. Uncoincidentally, that was also their box office peak.

What I hated most about Wolverine (the only good parts were Jackman's nude shots, rrrowl) was the Deadpool situation. I never really liked superhero comics much until I started reading Deadpool's runs, and then I expanded from there. Still don't like them much, but at least I don't hate them like I used to. The best part of Wolverine was listening to the mr and his friends conversation afterwards wherin they convinced themselves it wasn't pure shit, lmao. There were heavy fanboy delusions involved and I ate it up like a good ice cream!

And I am SUPER EXCITED for UP. I've been hit or miss with the Pixar movies, but this one looks funny and charming. You can never go wrong with a cranky old man. Old men are always hilarious. Pixar films are always great, but this one looks so awesome I'm going to brave the crowd of little runts and go opening night. I AM AS TALL AS YOU BRATS BUT I AM WISER AND I WILL PREVAIL! Or something. I hate movies with lots of children though. Why can't there be a midnight opening for that film?! D:

[Suika]

Wolverine was terrible. My favorite X-man Gambit was a completely useless addition with 5 minutes of screen time and a half-assed accent. Sucked sucked sucked.

Star Trek was pretty awesome though, I was very surprised. It's amazing how much of classic Trek has become ingrained in pop culture. I've never seen a single ep yet I knew all the characters and some of the famous quotes. Bones was the absolute greatest. I still don't want to catch any of the TV series but I'll definitely be seeing the next prequel-sequel.

[Ap2000]

Finally saw Star Trek.
I had really high hopes and for the most part they were fullfilled.
I guess if you didn't expect anything, you were pretty much blown away.
However, the last 20 Minutes were REALLY awesome and I constantly had a smile on.

[vanillacat]

Star Trek was just absolutely fantastic. I had my misgivings, as I was going with my "nerd friends" who actually watch old episodes and know canon and such, but the sheer awesome of the movie blew it away.

It helps that Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine are Very, Very Fine. (And a little gay... I mean come on, their pairing name is Spork! That's so precious!) I'm not kidding, though - the humor was top-notch by being neither too cheesy nor too far-reaching, the plot made sense if you didn't think about the time warping too hard, Kirk gets beat up A LOT, yet still manages to reek of manly cocky charm, the effects were bitchin', aaaahh. I want to go watch it again. And again and again.

Am I a Trekkie? No. Was that a damn good movie? Heeeeell yes.

---

Antique, a Korean live-action movie adaption of the Antique Bakery manga, was really good as well. It came out maybe half a year ago and has been sitting on my harddrive for a few months, and I finally got around to watching it. There were a few WTF moments regarding some of the subtler points of the whole kidnapped little boy childhood... but I really enjoyed it. Sweet and fluffy with some plot substance to back it up, A Gay Of Demonic Charm, pretty boys, a Very Pretty French Boyfriend, a scene entirely in French, random musical interludes...

And food porn. Oh my god, this movie was nothing but food porn. See, they work at a pastry shop... I imagine Phlegm's job is something like this (although probably unfortunately without the fabulously attractive gay men), and there were just so many close-ups of delicious amazing desserts that gleam and glisten... Do Not Watch This Movie If You Are Hungry, Or Watching Your Blood Sugar.

[Ap2000]

What I totally forgot about Star Trek;
The shitload of flashes were very annoying.
I'm sure I would have liked the movie a lot better without the distracting flashes. It's not like in Fringe where there are maybe 3 in a whole episode, but at times there were so many flashes in one scene, it got really annoying.

[Geof]

What I totally forgot about Star Trek;
The shitload of flashes were very annoying.
I'm sure I would have liked the movie a lot better without the distracting flashes. It's not like in Fringe where there are maybe 3 in a whole episode, but at times there were so many flashes in one scene, it got really annoying.

Lens flares are your friend!

[Liana]

Just got back from Drag Me To Hell and I really liked it! Sure, wasn't much more than your average stupid horror film, but it didn't take itself too seriously (I was cracking up when this big scare moment was happening while a "Hang in there!" kitten poster was in the background. Why!) and had some really fun jump moments. Good way to waste an evening. I mostly saw it just because of the movie poster that boasted "Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell." You. You can't NOT see the movie after that slogan. I mean. That's pure brilliance people, right there. It's STILL hilarious.

[Geof]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Fucking hell, I'm exhausted! This was a LONG movie with just insane action scenes & a lot of funny stuff thrown in. Yeah, The Twins are a pair of fools in every sense, but how many Transformers can you name that'd say "That's cuz you're a little pussy" to a kid crying "why me?" I can already hear the OH EM GEE WUN hardliners bitching about all the humor & silliness (and believe me, there's a LOT) but y'know what? I've been watching the just-released DVD set of the G1 first season & there's a whole lot of silly shit in there too. Sam's mom rocks it, yo.

And those action scenes, hoooooooly shit are they something else. For one, you can actually SEE what's happening this time. There's still some shots that seem cut too quick, but for the most part it's a big improvement over the 1st movie's action. Optimus's battle in the forest is just epic & shows exactly why he's THE hero in the Transformers universe. Bumblebee hasn't softened either, and the way he dispatches a particular Decepticon elicited gasps in my theater! Newcomers Sideswipe & the Arcee units (yes, all 3 cycle-bots are referred to as Arcee in the movie) aren't really that integral, but they do get to pull off some damn impressive stunts. And I was personally overjoyed to see Ironhide as the 1st modern day Transformer to appear onscreen. Gotta respect a bot that gets EIGHT mpg in bigass truck mode.

As for the Decepticons, there's a shitload of them here. Granted, a lot of them are nameless protoforms with no vehicle modes, and there's a bunch of small ones early on that don't last long. But there's plenty of established ones later on, and when it all comes together in Egypt, it comes down HARD. One of the biggest improvements over the 1st movie is the relationship between Megatron & Starscream, which is given the necessary amount of scenes to come across as it's always been portrayed: Ruthless master & undermining servant. And wow, they actually SPEAK this time too! The vocal talent's actually called for haha!

Anyway, you will love this movie if you want to (1) see giant robots fight, (2) have some laughs, and (3) have fun for a couple hours. If you're looking for more, you're probably more of a fall/winter movies season type person I guess.

[Falcon]

Transformers: Revenge of Michael Bay

Sorry Geof but this was an inexcusable mess of a film from EXPLOSIONS EXPLOSIONS EXPLODING to painfully fucking stupid.

The one liners and humour for the most part weren't really the problem (some of them were even funny).

The action scenes involving close combat with the Transformers were almost unwatchable. I couldn't even tell what was happening because they shot everything so damn close and it became a mess of indistinguishable robo-parts. Great plan having epic battles shot so close that you can't see the scale of them. Cool! The camera cuts were EVERYWHERE! What the hell was going on! I (cut) don't (cut) know (cut-cut-cut). In short Michael Bay should be barred from movie making.

The writing! OH god the writing. These two clowns Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman have quite the rap sheet (maybe they should stick to the ADD addled TV masses). Yes I hated Star Trek and guess who wrote it.

FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY FOR RUINING MY TRANSFORMERS!


sorry.

[///]

That style of shooting battles/fights/shootoffs/etc. has been around since I think Batman Begins, and I can't stand it. I can't even watch any modern action movie because they all do it, even action flicks that only have the awesome stuntwork and fighting going for them. Really pisses me off.

Haven't seen Transformers so I don't know if I agree in this particular case, but I probably won't go to see it anyway. Just sayin'.

But speaking of action movies that don't suck ass, I recently (re)watched Big Trouble in Little Chinatown. John Carpenter could not do anything wrong in the 70s and the 80s, as far as I'm concerned. This is a classic that truly stood the test of time and I think it may even have improved a bit over time! Superb stuff.

[Ap2000]

Big Trouble in Little Chinatown

I loved that movie when I was a kid and I still watch it everytime I see it's on TV.

[neshcom]

I saw Transformers 2 tonight. I probably enjoyed it more than T1. I actually felt like the humans were good for something by the end and some of the characters actually had a sense of personality and character. I didn't much care for the roommate or the twins. The roommate felt like a character from the first movie and the twins came across as some sort of character designed for an advertisement for the cars they played. The story made sense and I enjoyed the sprinkling of humor, but I felt the pacing was a little wonky. 60 minutes to revive Optimus Prime and 5 for him to save fucking EVERYTHING? Also, a plot hole I noticed was that even though the Autobots and human army had a pact, the humans were never once helpful in defeating ANY Decepticons.

The theater we went to gave out mini-comics about the movie, but they just ended up being an illustration of the first 30 minutes

Did anyone else think "if they get rid of the sun, Michael Bay won't get to use any more sunflares?"

[Snowman]

I saw Transformers 2 on the last day of my trip to L.A. I really liked it better than the first one. It had me crackin' up while I waited to see those amazing fight scenes and they were really amazing. The twins I actually liked because they were pretty spot on with their personalities. Reminded me of the people I live around (not that I'm saying it's a good thing). Although some things were a bit too overdone. Like Putting Megan Fox in incredibly sexy poses, although I wasn't complaining, I feel they tried a bit too hard with her this time. Optimus Prime was just amazing. Like it was already stated by Geof they did good in showing exactly how HE is the hero in the transformers. As far as the pacing being a bit wonky, 60 minutes to revive Optimus and 5 for him to save everyone only made sense imo. You look at his fight in the forest, then you wonder what would it be like if he somehow had upgrades? No one would stand a chance right? well that's why it went so quickly All in all I loved this movie a lot. I would definitely go see it again if my other friends wanted to go see it.

[Petit Melon]

The first recent movie I've seen is Hangover. Three times, in fact. Not because it was OMFG so good (though it is the best comedy I've seen all year) but because people kept inviting me to go see it. Funny movie, perfectly balances grossout humor, fratboy humor, intelligent humor.

The second was Bruno. I went in expecting lots of penis, and I got it. It's not as funny as Borat, but the funniest segments were the talk show (nearly all of it is in the trailer), Straight Dave's Man Cages (or something like that), the "swingers" female scene and umm... the part where he talks to the stage parents. Well, that part was creepy. Cohen works best when he's revealing other people's stupidity and racism, not when he's being an ass to everyone. From what I've heard, if you understand german there's more inside jokes thrown in. Meh. Oh, as a warning/spoiler, there's a minute(?) long meatspin segment. The theater I was in had a boy start crying at that segment. :/ I did yell "what retard brought their child to this movie" when I heard that and the people got up and walked out. Good riddance. Don't bring your young child to an R rated film at 10PM at night! The only other funny moments came AFTER the movie, when some super rednecks started complaining about how it was practically a porno and they hated seeing penis b/c they're not gay. WTF? I'm sure their wank material has plenty of penis. :| Personally I'm amazed it got the "R" rating. It's the raunchiest film I've ever seen. Err... to sum it up, Bruno isn't that great, but it has its moments. Probably better as a rental.

[Ap2000]

From what I've heard, if you understand german there's more inside jokes thrown in.

Definitely, however, they dubbed it with a completely normal voice, which pretty much eliminates at least half of the fun in the movie... one more movie that you just have to to watch in it's original version.

[Tallgeese]

This summer really underwhelmed. Nothing lived up to expectations except for Star Trek, and probably UP. I hear Harry Potter is supposed to be good, but I never watched any of the movies, and I don't have the time or patience to "invest" into the 6 movies or the books.

[Genji]

Lately I saw Transformers 2 and Terminator Salvation. Not bad, I like all that 'clang clang' and shattering metal crashes, but... I expected something more, expecially from Transformers. The plot is somehow confused and a little repetitive, and some parts of dialogues are coarse with no reason... And about Terminator, well, I have to say it was inconclusive, but the ambience was interesting. It somehow reminded me Mad Max 2, even though they're very different...

Anyway, that's not the kind of movies I go mad about. Few days ago I saw a japanese movie, "Heavenly Forest" (originally "Tada, kimi wo aishiteru" if I'm not mistaken), and that was really a good movie, perhaps a bit sad. It made smiling, and laughing, and then deleted my smile little by little. I liked it though.
At the moment, I did not even recognised Aoi Miyazaki with those great big glasses!!

Edited by Genji, 18 July 2009 - 09:08 PM.

[Ap2000]

Wall-E and WOW what a beautiful movie.
Probably the best CGi film I've ever seen. I wasn't expecting much and was completely blown away. Everything is perfect about this movie.

[Geof]

Saw Transformers 2 for the 3rd time today, since I was desperate to get away from real life & G.I. Joe wasn't out yet.

Funny thing happened while watching. Aside from the fact that the movie was in the smallest of my local theater's 22 screens, it was still a full house over a month later! Anyway, I hit on some sort of unwritten rule that probably states: "If you're seeing a movie in the theater for the 3rd time, you've finally hit upon the exact strengths & weaknesses of said movie." I saw it opening day, then a 2nd time on an IMAX screen a couple weeks later, and that 2nd viewing really left me underwhelmed, and I was wondering why there were so damn many scenes with Sam & his family that didn't really need to be there. On some level, I'm kinda afraid to suggest that this movie needed 3 viewings to take everything in, since that's something that the 1st viewing should've taken care of.

But then today I heard my mom say something to my dad as they watched the 1st movie on DVD. No idea why, haha.

"Lynn,'" cos yes my Dad has a girl's name, SHUT UP. "Lynn, the reason they make these movies with all the shaky cameras & rapidfire cuts is so the kids have to go back to the theaters 4 or 5 times to get it all." And by god, the woman's right! IT'S A TRAP! I always figured the director cuts things so fast cos he's used to the footage & knows what's happening, so he trims everything HE doesn't need to get the point. But yaywoojasicecreambonbonsavailableattheconcessionstand, it's more intentional than that!

Motivations aside, I still stand by my initial assessment of Revenge Of The Fallen. The only thing I'd change about it is I'd cut out most of the college scene where Sam's mom is running around under the influence of "green for the environment" brownies. I -might- also make Optimus a shade less psycho killer, but hey, the guy bites it halfway through, I'm sure that's gotta piss you off enough to send you into a bloodlust for your enemy's face. Oh, and all those dozens of little continuity errors like night-into-day, etc. Oh! And a common complaint I hear is that during Megatron's resurrection, the sub commander reports 5 hostiles going down, then 6 coming up (after one Decepticon's killed for parts & Megatron's resurrected.) The way I saw it, the little Dr. robot (Scalpel, I believe,) is the 6th hostile on the return, since he was inside Ravage on the way down. This of course doesn't excuse all the other little errors, but hey, your momma's an ugly skank whore anyway.

[Ap2000]

"Lynn, the reason they make these movies with all the shaky cameras & rapidfire cuts is so the kids have to go back to the theaters 4 or 5 times to get it all."

I've never seen a movie more than once at the cinema, I don't see the point of watching a movie twice in a short (aka less than ~2 years) timespan.

[Tallgeese]

Saw GI Joe yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought. About as good as Transformers 1, which means it kicked the shit out of Transformers 2, Wolverine also, for that matter. It was basically one big ass action scene followed by another. The Duke/Baroness subplot is retarded and drags on way too long, though. But it kind of serves another purpose at the end. However, this must be put out there - the last 30 minutes is ripped off nearly "frame for frame" from Star Wars Episode IV.

[fpd]

Saw GI Joe yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought. About as good as Transformers 1, which means it kicked the shit out of Transformers 2, Wolverine also, for that matter. It was basically one big ass action scene followed by another. The Duke/Baroness subplot is retarded and drags on way too long, though. But it kind of serves another purpose at the end. However, this must be put out there - the last 30 minutes is ripped off nearly "frame for frame" from Star Wars Episode IV.

Pre Lucas fucking with it or Post?

Regardless, there are not pork chop sandwiches mentioned in the movie I assume, so it's not as good as it could be.

[Tallgeese]

I haven't seen the remixed version of Episode IV. By the last 30 mins I mean the "attack on the Death Star." GI Joe's "attack on the Cobra underwater base" is basically the same damn thing.

[fpd]

I haven't seen the remixed version of Episode IV. By the last 30 mins I mean the "attack on the Death Star." GI Joe's "attack on the Cobra underwater base" is basically the same damn thing.

I was just bein a dick, I don't think anything was even changed that affected anything in the last 30 minutes of IV.

[Tallgeese]

I haven't seen the remixed version of Episode IV. By the last 30 mins I mean the "attack on the Death Star." GI Joe's "attack on the Cobra underwater base" is basically the same damn thing.

I was just bein a dick, I don't think anything was even changed that affected anything in the last 30 minutes of IV.

They probably just CG'ed the shit out of it. More CG extra tie fighters and x wings and of course CG explosions!

[Tallgeese]

Watched District 9 on Friday. It pretty much delivered on the hype. The SFX, done by Peter Jackson's effects studio in NZ, was as good as the stuff in LOTR, which is great considering this movie was for "only" $30M. It's a pseudo-documentary, and from the way it's told, you can already guess what happens to the lead character. I thought this was the best movie of the summer, period.

In a complete change of pace, I watched two Japanese DVDs over the weekend. It's funny, because if they were in English, I wouldn't be caught dead watching these chick flicks. First up, "10 Promises to My Dog." It's kind of your typical pet and master movie where you see the dog and the people around it grow old, go through changes, etc. I thought it was a cut above the rest, because it weaved in the stories about the humans with the story about the dog pretty well. BTW, I never realized how much Fukuda Mayuko (L, Bayukyakou, Japan Sinks) looks like Tanaka Reina (the actress, not the MM one). This was one of the better "use a different actress when the character gets older" switches in a movie I've seen. I actually believed they were the same character.

Next, I watched "Heavenly Forest" (Japanese title: Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru) starring Aoi Miyazaki. OMG, this teased at least a semi-happy ending before absolutely crushing you at the end. I should have expected it since it's from the same writer as "Ima Ai ni Yukimasu" Still, Aoi Miyazaki (NANA, Virgin Snow) and Tamaki Hiroshi make for a wonderful nerds-in-love couple.

[Ap2000]

District 9

A really really really good movie.
Intense, intelligent and shocking.

I had high hopes for this one and they were fulfilled.

Now I need to see Moon, the other movie this year I've been waiting for.

[///]

I seem to be the only one who thinks so, but District 9 was somewhat disappointing to me. Perhaps I had built it up too much in my mind, but I thought it was really predictable and boring. In something like five minutes I had predicted the events of the entire movie, and that would be fine but I was also completely right, and I was hoping I wouldn't be because that would be so lame and obvious.

They also didn't stick to their premise (and I am choosing my words carefully here to avoid spoilers), which I thought was rather weak. I didn't care for anybody and spent a lot of time simply hoping for the next gory thing/awesome special effect to happen.

I didn't think it was terrible, but I also didn't think it was a work of art or incredibly amazing or anything. I wonder what Ebert thinks...

I'm really looking forward to Extract (Mike Judge hasn't made a truly bad movie yet, and they say this one is on the level of Office Space) and I also want to see Moon. I'm just gonna try to not build up my expectations too much I guess.

[Petit Melon]

Watched Ponyo last weekend. It's a very cute movie and a nice spin on the Hans Christian Anderson story. I'll say I prefer Disney's version more, simply because that's probably my favorite animated movie of all time, but the animation techniques used on this are AMAZING. I want to see it again so I can sit and bask in the animated glory...if it's still in theatres this weekend, that is. I think it only made 3 million? But anyway, Miyazaki always makes good films. It's not as good as Spirited Away, and I personally liked Howl's Moving Castle, but some other people have said it's better than Howl's. Howl's gets no love. That movie quieted 75 children on a small standard sized television for its entirety. ALL 75. It's the only movie that all the children got into. Oh wait, back to Ponyo. It's very cute, absolutely beautiful, the environmentalism isn't as heavy handed as say, Mononoke or Spirited Away, even though it's aimed primarily at children there's still some story parts that only adults would understand. And did I mention that it's absolutely beautiful? The only bad thing I have to say is FUCK YOU DISNEY AND YOUR FUCKING TWEEN AUTOTUNE CRAP. Turning a perfectly cute song into some auto tune GET UP PUT YER HANDS UP bullshit. It completely ruined the feel of the credits with the autotune "rock" bullshit. I don't care if it has younger cyrus and jonas, you even used autotune ON THE FIRST HALF (straight cover of original). WHYYYYYYYYYYY If I ever get around to building that time machine I'm BOMBING the facility that created autotune. That song was a bitter ending to an otherwise great film. I know Lasseter wasn't a part of this, I hope he at least tried to fight it (like I hope he fought Disney sequel bombing their earlier films)

So the main question now is "UP or PONYO for Best Animated Film Oscar?" Story wise, the first twenty minutes of UP were BRILLIANT (every upcoming animator needs to study this), the rest wasn't as brilliant, but it was still great. PONYO's story never really hits as many major points as UP, but the soundtrack and animation techniques far outclassed UP. I can't decide, I really liked them both. Pixar has hit their plateau on 3D, I can't really see them improving it any further. How far can you go? It's children's movies, they're never going to have SUPER REALISM LOOK I CAN SEE THEIR PORES. And that's fine. But when I see the credits to their movies with the 2D art, I can't help but wish it was done in 2D. Personally 2D>3D in my heart, always will be. Cell shading is my compromise. Ooo, a cell shaded Pixar film would be interesting. What a wonderful year for animated films. A new Pixar film AND Miyazaki. Damn. Aaaaaannnddd....

2D DISNEY IS BAAAAAAAAACK. I don't know if this film will be as good as their past ones, but IT'S 2D Disney, they're back! When I was a child I would've given my left arm to be a disney animator. I hope this is the beginning of a great return (like the Little Mermaid->Rescuers Down Under->Aladdin->The Lion King), and not end up banished into obscurity like The Black Cauldron, Emperor's New Groove or the Hunchback of Notre Dame. But it looks like it'll be another musical, so I hope the songs are good. Some of their films would work better without the songs. Hopefully no pop culture references so they can keep it timeless.

Pixar, Miyazaki AND the return of classic Disney. What a year, what a year!

[Al Kusanagi]

Inglorious Basterds. Garbage. 30 minutes of gold from Brad Pitt, and then 2 hours of Tarantino jerking himself off.