Movie Review continued..

Archived discussion from Toril-2.
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Movie Review continued..

Postby ssar » Tue Oct 28, 2003 11:06 pm

See the original thread by Turxx here:

http://www.torilmud.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2484

I'll use scores out of 10.


---

Castaway - Tom Hanks

Pretty good.
Overall very well done in most aspects.
A little slow in places, but a movie I have enjoyed watching more than once.
7/10

---

Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Uma Therman

Oustanding!
Saw it on the senstadium mega-screen, and was great. Though it was not suited to the mega-screen quite as much as big action/special effects movies like LOTR, Matrix etc.
One of Tarantino's best, I don't know if I would go so far as to say the best, as Pulp Fiction is pretty darn good.
The whole part of the movie in Japan was excellent, and most fight scenes were very good, with a few parts only being a bit monotonous.
I'll definitely watch it again and can't wait for the next Kill Bill(s)!
8.5/10

---
Last edited by ssar on Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby ssar » Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:03 am

The Lord of the Rings – Return of the King

Another outstanding movie in it’s own right.
Not quite the almost complete enthralling experience as the previous LOTR movies, but a very good culmination in the trilogy.
The undead hordes, and the scene where the lord of the Nazgul opened Minas Morgul and initiated the march were both highlights.
A bit slow in places, but a classic move to be watched again and again.
Can’t wait for the extended director’s cut of this one too.
9/10

---


The Passion of the Christ

Dodgy at best.
Well done in terms of cinematography, directing, producing, and the camera pans & angles in most scenes made them look quite good.
However the content and story of this movie is very poor and unenjoyable, and this one deserves, and only deserves, to be produced on a small budget and get put in the barrel with thousands of other b-grade or c-grade movies.
The extraordinary level of modern technology, movie making techniques, and special effects animation available in this day an age is simply grossly wasted on such a movie, and I can’t really believe Mel Gibson went ahead with it.
The best part was the crow picking the damned crucified guy’s eye out, but even that was shown in amazingly less detail than other bodily mutilation in other scenes.
A waste of a movie ticket, I’ll certainly never watch it again.
1/10
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Postby Yarash » Sat Apr 03, 2004 9:21 am

ssar wrote:The Passion of the Christ
...the content and story of this movie is very poor and unenjoyable


Isn't this a movie about part of the bible? I mean...c'mon, nobody would see this expecting to watch an exciting action flick.

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Postby Nilan » Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:25 am

Saw Passion twice already. Very good movie. Give it and all Stabby thumbs up rating.

Gonna see it again

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Postby Ragorn » Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:59 pm

It's ironic that the most ardent repeat viewers of The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre are often the ones protesting most loudly against violence in other media. I suppose that senseless violence and brutal cinematography is ok if you're flagellating the lord jesus christ, but it's not ok if you're playing Grand Theft Auto?
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Postby Salen » Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:02 pm

I liked the part where Judas and Paul crash through the bridge out sign and jump the river in their '72 Charger.
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Postby Ragorn » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:28 am

No no no, you're thinking of The Dukes of the Hazzard.
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Postby chandigar » Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:21 pm

ssar wrote:The Passion of the Christ
1/10


I object to this being called a movie. The minimal requirement for a movie is that it has to have a story or at least make a point. This does neither. At best, this film is just an illustration of a point that's made elsewhere, or a small segment of a much much larger movie. Basically, take a fight scene out of the Matrix or something, stretch it out to 2.5 hrs, then slap it up on the screen with no context. Technically its quite good, but it doesn't really have any place being compared to real movies.

0/10

(yes, I'm catholic, yes I still think its sucktastic)
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Postby Ambar » Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:50 pm

I totally agree, Chandy ... the movie was like a bad fight scene gone worse.
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Postby Altan » Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:13 pm

one of my favorites,

Clear the mechanism.


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Postby ssar » Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:24 pm

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – Uma Therman

Excellent.
One of the rare sequels that slightly outshines it’s predecessor, I believe Vol 2 not only equals Vol 1 in action, quality and entertainment, but slightly outdoes it in certain parts too.
The first movie of a series always has the advantage of freshness, so that evens it up a bit.
I love Daryl Hannah – good to see her cast and put in a good performance.
I’ll watch it (them) again for sure.
9/10

---

Spring 2004

---

The Bourne Supremacy - Matt Damon

Very good.
Somehow not quite as engaging as the first Bourne movie, but still a great story done well on the big screen. Matt Damon is great as Bourne.
I’ll probably watch it again on video one day.
7.5/10

---


Wimbledon - Kirsten Dunst

Pretty good, considering the kind of movie it is.
Certainly a relatively light-hearted, family, “feel good” movie, and done fairly well as such.
Kirsten Dunst has her moments, but also comes across as a bit plastic and not really “there” for the big screen sometimes, and thus is over-rated for now I believe. She’ll probably improve lots over the next stage of her career.
A nice movie to see, but it’s unlikely I’ll ever watch it again.
7/10

---

Alien vs Predator

Very good.
Certainly in the context of a sci-fi action type movie it did well.
A bit loose in places, and also too short in my opinion.
I would have liked to see some more detail on some of the Predator’s armaments, but then again the mystery of them may suffer a tad if that were so.
A great idea produced pretty well, except those shaky camera battle scenes kinda suck.
I’d like to see a no-holds-barred full-blown gore-fest R-rated director’s cut extended version of it or something.
I’ll definitely watch it again at least a couple of times.
8.5/10

---


The Chronacles of Riddick (Vin Deisel)

Pretty good.
I found myself pleasantly engaged in it most of the time, but it certainly had its loose aspects.
Vin Deisel is good in big action roles, and I quite like him really, but there’s something about his acting that just adds a weird sense of cheese, for mine.
Still, a nice idea with some cool battle scenes, that could have been done a bit better in certain areas.
I’ll watch it again sometime.
7.5/10

---


Collateral Damage (Arnold Swazenegger)

Pretty good.
Seen it a couple of times now, and that’s enough.
Arnie just looks too old in it really, but he’s still good.
Not up there with the best action flicks, but not too bad.
7/10

---


Mean Girls

Similar yank teen school stuff that is seen in lots of movies over the years, hardly a movie you would associate the word “substance” with except in the context of “Even under the influence of some highly illegal substance, the reviewer couldn’t find many good things to say about this movie.
Some ok scenery I guess, but pretty much full of cheese.
I’ll never watch it again.
3/10

---


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Good, but disappointing.
I was expecting more from this film, after hearing various references to it and good reviews etc.
Though they appear to try and maintain an ongoing and consistent element of mystery woven though old chinese culture and landscapes, it fails to do it well.
Some of the fight scenes were good, but some just had something missing at the same time – be it too short, or too long, or too fast, or too slow.
A good idea still.
Glad to have finally watched it, but I’m not at all drawn to ever watch it again.
6/10
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Postby Sarvis » Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:01 am

Alexander

Boring.
In a 3 hour movie about one of the greatest warrior kings in history they only show two battles. Much of the rest of the movie involves Alexander declaring his love for his childhood friend Hephastis(sp?), or arguing with his generals about something. There is a lot of monologue, which is unfortunately not memorable or interesting and they deal with many of the actual deeds of Alexander by simply having the narrator, who opens and closes the movie, explain that Alexander conquered this, that and the other place then cutting back to see him do everything I stated above. The cinematography was sometimes good, and the scenery excellent through most of the movie. They spent about as much time on showing the argument and planning for the first battle as actually showing the battle itself, and unfortunately they chose to obscure much of what was going on with dust. The second, and last, battle was better but had a very choppy and chaotic feel to it. I've noticed a sort of trend for that in action movies at times though, and I think it's supposed to add a sense of chaos to the battle... which it does, but it sucks if you enjoy watching the combat choreography and such like I do!

One thing that was interesting at some points is that this almost seemed to be a propaganda film at times. When invading Babylon the first time Alexander was declaring their cause as Freedom, and saying they would be welcomed as heros in Babylon, which is in Iraq, to educate the barbarians and such. (They find that the Babylonians are hardly uneducated by the way!) Then as he actually enters Babylon the narrator is talking and says something like, "I felt as if Babylon would be easy to enter, but she would be very hard to leave." Which goes along with much of what is believed by certain people, such as former Pres. George HW Bush, that there is no valid exit strategy for Iraq.

Maybe that's just me though... heh.
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Postby ssar » Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:43 am

Hero (Jet Li)

Very good.
Some great martial arts scenes and ideas, done quite well through most of it – hows your parry and riposte skill with hundreds of heavy arrows hurtling toward you at high speed?
A little slow in places.
Some excellent use of stark and contrasting colours to really add to the feel of some scenes – in some cases so simple and obvious yet effective.
Loses half a point for being a bit slow in places and leaving me slightly disappointed overall from what I was expecting.
Loses half a point for not really making me want to watch it again more than perhaps once.
And the worst thing about the entire movie, it loses a point for failing to display most subtitles for a long enough duration! This I find absolutely amazing, that some modern day movie producer can fail in such a simple and important aspect – I am darn good at embracing the flow of a movie and reading subtitles, and several of them disappeared way too fast – so annoying, I still can’t believe it.
Still glad to see it on the big screen, and Jet Li is pretty good!
8/10
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Postby Arilin Nydelahar » Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:56 pm

ssar wrote:Hero (Jet Li)

Very good.
Some great martial arts scenes and ideas, done quite well through most of it – hows your parry and riposte skill with hundreds of heavy arrows hurtling toward you at high speed?
A little slow in places.
Some excellent use of stark and contrasting colours to really add to the feel of some scenes – in some cases so simple and obvious yet effective.
Loses half a point for being a bit slow in places and leaving me slightly disappointed overall from what I was expecting.
Loses half a point for not really making me want to watch it again more than perhaps once.
And the worst thing about the entire movie, it loses a point for failing to display most subtitles for a long enough duration! This I find absolutely amazing, that some modern day movie producer can fail in such a simple and important aspect – I am darn good at embracing the flow of a movie and reading subtitles, and several of them disappeared way too fast – so annoying, I still can’t believe it.
Still glad to see it on the big screen, and Jet Li is pretty good!
8/10


I went to go see it with Jennifer when I flew down to VA. She made fun of it during the movie! I liked it. I tell you, no class.
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Postby Iaiken Toransier » Mon Nov 29, 2004 3:50 pm

Arilin Nydelahar wrote:
ssar wrote:Hero (Jet Li)


I went to go see it with Jennifer when I flew down to VA. She made fun of it during the movie! I liked it. I tell you, no class.


Girl-gamers: You can dress them up, but you can't take them out...

Just kidding momma... you're great.

Anyway, I thought hero was simply awesome. I would have given it a 9/10 simply because I speed-read so to me that wasn't a problem. It did slow down to a crawl sometimes, which was bad after the very high energy scenes...

My girlfriend didn't like it as much simply because she wanted them to, and I quote: "Stop killing the people who love each other... over and over." She was holding back tears most of the film...

The good:
Jet-Li 's world class Wushu.
Beautiful fight scenes.
Compelling story that unfolds in front of you.

The bad:
Very slow in places.
Over-explainations of nearly everything.

I reccomend it to any Wushu (Kung Fu) lover.
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Postby Sarvis » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:01 pm

I'm glad Hero's coming to DVD so soon, because I missed it in the theatres due to being flat broke!

Can't wait to see it!
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Postby Ashiwi » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:05 pm

Chronicles of Riddick:

Maybe it's because I didn't read the book, but I thought the movie was terribly disjointed and horribly edited. I'll give it points on artistry, and I'll even give it points just because I find Vin Diesel's monotone, emotionless good/bad guy characterization (which is exactly like Vin Diesel's characterization in every other movie I've seen him in) endearing, but overall I found the movie to be only slightly less boring than "Dune."

And before all you Dune lovers start your spice-induced hi-fiving and run out to buy it, I'll just say that there are very few movies I can't watch all the way through, or even force myself to plod through a good majority of, in the hopes of finding something redeeming in it... but Dune was one of the very few that I would classify as "wrist-slashing boring" ... as in "I would chew my own leg off if I were chained to the theater seat during this movie."

So yeah... I guess compared to "Dune," "Chronicles of Riddick" was a pretty good flick.
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Postby Sesexe » Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:44 pm

Ashiwi wrote:Chronicles of Riddick:

Maybe it's because I didn't read the book, but I thought the movie was terribly disjointed and horribly edited.


Because it was. Did you see it at the theatre or on the newly released DVD? The theatrical version was edited. The DVD director's cut has all the scenes that were supposed to be there seamlessly as initially intended. These added scenes give a lot more development to the story and the character of Riddick, AND most importantly, the HUGE sub-plot between the 2nd in command and his VERY sinister wife that was entirely cut out of the theatrical release. When you see the DVD version, the movie is more like a future version of Julius Caeser (sp?).

I really liked Pitch Black, the 1st movie in this series because of the character development of the OTHER characters, and then finally Riddick himself. One of the obvious downsides was the unbelievable monsters, but wutever. I own this movie and re-watch it from time to time. I give this movie 8/10

When I saw Chronicles in the theatre, I thought it was.. Ok. 6/10, but when I just saw the extended version on DVD, I gave it 8.5/10. Slightly better then the original. The Sub-plot was a great addition more then anything.

To me, it's usually about how well the supporting actors and characters do.
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Postby Shevarash » Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:47 pm

The Incredibles:

I didn't think I'd like this, but turned out to truly enjoy it. Hilariously funny and strangely enough, some very well done action sequences. Its not apparent at first, but several of the action set pieces are highly reminscient of parts of the Star Wars trilogy. Anyhow, highly reccommended to, well, just about anyone.

9/10

"Is that...rubble..?"

Saw:

Mildly entertaining, but mostly just a one-trick pony. There were some shocking and gross out parts, but you never really cared enough about the characters to be all that interested in what was happening to them. Also, a pretty good ending ruined by a couple horribly delivered lines of dialogue (if you see it you'll know what I mean).

6/10

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Postby Sonon » Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:13 pm

Shevarash wrote:The Incredibles:

I didn't think I'd like this, but turned out to truly enjoy it. Hilariously funny and strangely enough, some very well done action sequences. Its not apparent at first, but several of the action set pieces are highly reminscient of parts of the Star Wars trilogy. Anyhow, highly reccommended to, well, just about anyone.


I loved this movie it was very funny i am going to buy it when it comes to dvd.
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Postby Ambar » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:28 pm

Guess we all have opinions, eh? :P Thats why we don't get paid to review movies

why didnt I like Hero? The whole running thru the air in slow mo turned me off

the fights in general were decent, I guess I didnt like the campiness ..
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Postby Kifle » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:10 am

Ambar wrote:Guess we all have opinions, eh? :P Thats why we don't get paid to review movies

why didnt I like Hero? The whole running thru the air in slow mo turned me off

the fights in general were decent, I guess I didnt like the campiness ..


I kinda get annoyed, no offense ambar, at people that get upset at the slowmo through air, fighting on tree limbs, use of ropes, etc... in oriental aciton movies. This is what these movies are and they pull it off very well. They aren't supposed to be real stories, but more of folk lore stories of legendary people in oriental mythology...i.e. once upon a time in china, fist of legend, chinese connection. These people are revered highly among the people and they make movies giving these people super-human attributes. If you don't like stories about people that can fly, don't go see super man if the flying will make you go, 'wtf, people can't fly'.

Hero had great cinematography, dialogue, storyline, and directing. The acting was really good in parts, only decent in others, but overall good. The fight scenes could have been better, but you can't expect much from action movies made these days with their, 'omg, we need to make it FEEL chaotic too by making the audience nausious and get headaches from extreme closeups and shaky camera movments!! omg, we are geniuses.'
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Postby Tasan » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:54 am

Sarvis wrote:Alexander

Boring.


Seconded.

Sarvis wrote:In a 3 hour movie about one of the greatest warrior kings in history they only show two battles. Much of the rest of the movie involves Alexander declaring his love for his childhood friend Hephastis(sp?), or arguing with his generals about something. There is a lot of monologue, which is unfortunately not memorable or interesting and they deal with many of the actual deeds of Alexander by simply having the narrator, who opens and closes the movie, explain that Alexander conquered this, that and the other place then cutting back to see him do everything I stated above. The cinematography was sometimes good, and the scenery excellent through most of the movie. They spent about as much time on showing the argument and planning for the first battle as actually showing the battle itself, and unfortunately they chose to obscure much of what was going on with dust. The second, and last, battle was better but had a very choppy and chaotic feel to it. I've noticed a sort of trend for that in action movies at times though, and I think it's supposed to add a sense of chaos to the battle... which it does, but it sucks if you enjoy watching the combat choreography and such like I do!


Choppy? It bordered on "camera rolling down a rocky hill".

Sarvis wrote:...Maybe that's just me though... heh.


Man, talk about reading all you can into shit...


This movie was the worst film I've seen in a theatre in my life. I would have walked out, but there was a lot of people in the way. The 3 guys behind me did leave and one of them dropped a ...sexual slur I guess, as they left. There were parts in black and white and strange colors for whatever reason, I didn't think that added to the movie whatsoever. They also jumped back and forth in time a lot, which detracted from what little storyline there was. As far as a "biopic" goes, there was far too much overacting to pay attention to anything else. The only actor in the entire movie who didn't really seem over-the-top was Jared Leto(Hephaestion).

I found myself wondering when the movie was going to end at 2 hours in, then it droned on and on and on and finally ended totally lamely, after 3 total hours. The entire audience was visibly disturbed by the interaction between Alexander and some of the men around him. The single sex scene... wth was that? I mean seriously... wtf. I've told everyone I know not to see this, even when it's on video. I've had better dentist appointments. Do not waste your time with this crap. Oliver stone for shame.

0/10

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Postby Ambar » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:00 am

once again .. we all have opinions .... mine isnt wrong, nor is yours ... *shrug*
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Postby Ashiwi » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:04 pm

Horror Movies:

The last two movies that actually did a decent job of scaring me were "Thirteen Ghosts" and "HellRaiser II - Hellbound." I'm pretty sure the pseudo-subliminals in "Thirteen Ghosts" was what put me on edge, but whatever it was, it worked for me. Other than those two movies, the best horror flicks can be written off in my book as mildly shocking to boringly laughable.

The Ring - interesting movie, kept me entertained, nothing scary about it until the very last scene when the chick crawled out of the tv, and then it was only because of the non-standard character movement and that single eye shot.

House of 1000 Corpses - I'm not really sure if it was supposed to be scary or not... but it wasn't. It was just a splatterfest from a really twisted imagination. Disturbing, yes... scary... not really.

Thirteen Ghosts - I was sitting in my living room in the middle of the afternoon with sunlight streaming through my windows and a friend sitting on the couch next to me, and several times I came close to just turning off the TV and saying "no more."

This weekend everything got bumped back one, because I had the misfortune to believe that "The Grudge" had been released on DVD and I went to pick it up at Wal-Mart. When I asked the clerk about it, she informed me that it hadn't been released yet, but if I was looking for something really scary, she knew of one that had done a real number on her... then she introduced me to the movie "Wrong Turn," which I had never heard of. Apparently it didn't do very well in the box office out here.

I think I was twenty minutes into the movie, or so, when I reached over the friend who was sitting next to me on the couch, picked up the DVD remote, and turned off the player. He came back over for coffee the next morning, and after a bit of discussion, we sat down to try again from the beginning... with the curtains open and the lights on. The DVD player got turned off for short breaks about three more times throughout the length of the movie. I don't know what it was about it, but this movie scared the hell out of me, to the point where I fascinated over it for the rest of the day... shaking hands, tense muscles, queasy, the desire to just bolt away from the object of my fear, the whole thing. It had the same effect on my friend, although not as intense as it was with me. If you like horror flicks, you should see this one, and I'd love to hear what the effect was on you.

In the meantime, I'm going to go hunt down that Wal-Mart clerk and let her know she's doing her job way too well.
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Postby Kifle » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:37 pm

Don't really waste your time withe "the grudge". It was a good premise, and there are a few "jump" moments, but the acting isn't done well enough to elicit any type of fear :( Although I thought the ending was pretty sweet...actually I'd say "darkness" (I think that's the new movie) was the same way...not really scary, but good ending.
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Postby Yasden » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:55 pm

Wrong Turn just demonstrates what happens in the south when people like Maxler are allowed to reproduce. The whole concept behind the three "villains" was that genetic mutation had been caused by extensive inbreeding over generations.

STOP THE INBREEDING!

:P
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Postby sok » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:28 pm

i saw house of the dead. the one made frm the video game. it was awesomes!!

horror movie goes 0/10

unintentional comedy 11/10

i was busting up. everything was so over the top. the lack of acting skills, the nekkid extras, the world famous rave of about 10 people, an arsenel from a smuggler who just happen to be there, the lack of a storyline & plot, the overuse of the matrix 360 degree camera shot, i can go on and on. but just writing about this movie has got me cracking up. i highly recomment this movie for any party viewing. will get everyone in a good mood.

i consider buying it, cuz it was so funny.
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Postby rer » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:58 pm

Army of Darkness, 11/10 on the unintentional humor scale also.

Bruce Campbell has some of the best one-liners EVAR!

Hail to the King, baby!
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Postby Sarvis » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:56 am

rer wrote:Army of Darkness, 11/10 on the unintentional humor scale also.

Bruce Campbell has some of the best one-liners EVAR!

Hail to the King, baby!


That wasn't unintentional... heh.
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Postby Tasan » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:27 am

Malevolence: For an independant film it was fairly decent. Definately a return to 80's horror as per it's advertising. Used many of the same techniques as the old films and the music is horribly great ;) It is extremely predictable, but that's part of the fun i guess.

6/10
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Postby ssar » Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:50 am

Why do you watch some movies with the windows/blinds open to let lots of sunlight in during the daytime, Ashiwi?

Curious.

I much prefer as dark an environment as possible for any movie viewing (also preferrably with a vnice home theatre/audio system - but that's another story).
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Postby Ashiwi » Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:57 pm

"Thirteen Ghosts" I didn't intentionally watch with bright sunlight; it's just better that I did. "Wrong Turn" was watched like that because I tried watching it at night and couldn't get all the way through it. I have a great surround sound system and my TV has a beautiful picture. I enjoy watching movies and tend to become very immersed in them, and prefer watching them in darkness with friends who know how to shut up while the movie's in progress. I enjoy horror movies with their little jumps of adrenaline, but the majority don't really scare me.

"Wrong Turn" scared me, and it scared me in ways that I'm not comfortable with, as I haven't felt that kind of tension since I was a kid and scared of the dark because I had night terrors. I did the natural thing to do... I checked out the corners of it when the lights came on.
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Postby Sesexe » Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:11 pm

Yasden wrote:Wrong Turn just demonstrates what happens in the south when people like Maxler are allowed to reproduce. The whole concept behind the three "villains" was that genetic mutation had been caused by extensive inbreeding over generations.

STOP THE INBREEDING!

:P


You mean like that episode of the X-files? :P



King Arthur 2 out of 4 stars.
-This movie was well done, and very believable version of the classic myth, but one fundamental aspect of the story made the movie take a bit hit to me.
(SPOILER) The Knights go on a heroic rescue mission, not because they want to, or choose to, but because they have to. If they don't, they'll be 'hunting down like dogs." This is a huge difference in character motivation to me, and one that destroys the story. One technicality that just killed it for me.
When the Roman Biship shows up and informs Arthur that his men will not be free men unless they go on a suicide mission, Arthur argues with him about how he's going to convince his men to go with him.

In my opinion, Arthur would have been dramatically more noble, and the stuff of upstanding legend, if he had convinced the Biship to free his men now, by pledging himself to the mission, and leaving it up to them as free men to decide to go with him or not. Thereby, the knights would choose on their own accord to accompany Arthur in his dangerous mission, because they are noble and honorable men.

Not because they have to.
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Postby Sarvis » Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:05 pm

Sesexe wrote:
Yasden wrote:Wrong Turn just demonstrates what happens in the south when people like Maxler are allowed to reproduce. The whole concept behind the three "villains" was that genetic mutation had been caused by extensive inbreeding over generations.

STOP THE INBREEDING!

:P


You mean like that episode of the X-files? :P



King Arthur 2 out of 4 stars.
-This movie was well done, and very believable version of the classic myth, but one fundamental aspect of the story made the movie take a bit hit to me.
(SPOILER) The Knights go on a heroic rescue mission, not because they want to, or choose to, but because they have to. If they don't, they'll be 'hunting down like dogs." This is a huge difference in character motivation to me, and one that destroys the story. One technicality that just killed it for me.
When the Roman Biship shows up and informs Arthur that his men will not be free men unless they go on a suicide mission, Arthur argues with him about how he's going to convince his men to go with him.

In my opinion, Arthur would have been dramatically more noble, and the stuff of upstanding legend, if he had convinced the Biship to free his men now, by pledging himself to the mission, and leaving it up to them as free men to decide to go with him or not. Thereby, the knights would choose on their own accord to accompany Arthur in his dangerous mission, because they are noble and honorable men.

Not because they have to.


I feel pretty sure that Arthur would have gone on the mission alone, but didn't want his men forced into it. At least that was the feeling I got.

Also I think they were remembered as heroes for that final battle rather than for the rescue mission. The rescue mission was a purely Roman thing, whereas the Arthurian Legend is almost entirely a British myth... so it makes sense that he is remembered as a hero for defending Britain rather than for rescuing some dumbass Roman kid.

My problem with the movie was that it felt a little rushed. The exact antithesis of Alexander actually. This time I was interested in the characters and they had good battles, but the movie was too short... heh.
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Postby Ashiwi » Mon Mar 07, 2005 2:53 pm

I watched a couple of older movies over the weekend, that I hadn't had the chance to see yet.

"Dark City" - Great movie with amazing atmosphere. If this movie wasn't SOME kind of inspiration for "The Matrix," I'll eat Rer's undershorts.

"The Suicide Kings" - A really great ride. It keeps you thinking until the end, even after you've considered every scenario, figured out the right one, and then discarded it. I watched it with a friend, told him who did it and why a quarter of the way into the movie, turned out to be right, then at the very end found out I was wrong. Another thing... Christopher Walken as a really likable mobster... nuff said.
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Postby sok » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:53 pm

saw 'Hero' again. and it made more sense and was more enjoyable than the first time i saw it. The fighting scenes was good, the intrigue was good and it was just beautiful visually. 8.5/10

after that i went out and got House of Flying Daggers. another great movie of the same genre. visually mesmorizing and it's had an unexpected love triangle. I didn't care much for the ending, it felt to comical and it took the characters too long to die. i mean come on, they are dead then come back to live to save their loves one, die again, wake up long enough to say i love you and finally dies for good, maybe? if you die just die already, dont be so dramatic. 8/10
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Postby Crumar » Thu Mar 24, 2005 7:28 am

Don't watch Exorcist part 3 waste of your time.
Click on the links below and vote for this mud!

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Postby Sarvis » Sat Mar 26, 2005 1:23 am

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Not as good as the first movie. The action scenes were generally good, fast and shot better than they have been in many movies lately. There were only a few occasions where the camera angle or quick cuts made it a little hard to tell what was happening.

The biggest problem for the movie was that there were too many seperated characters. Much of the movie was spent with each group of protagonists getting a short scene where they were fighitng zombies or whatever, before the story tried to pick things up with one of the other groups. Overall this left the movie feeling choppy, and hindered any growing attachment or interest in the characters. You don't even learn the name of some of the characters who were important enough to <i>survive</i>. Once the disparate groups get together and start working as a whole the movie tends to get a bit better.

NEXT PARAGRAPH WILL CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS!!!












My only other disappointment with the movie is how little background and info we gained about Alice and her new powers. It quickly becomes clear that she is stronger and faster than any of the other humans, and eventually they set up that she'd been injected with T-Virus and the antidote. This apparently can create regenerative effects, or even make someone stronger. I feel like this had some good potential, but it ends up being explained away rather glibly that she had bonded with the T-Virus. To me the whole setup had much greater potential... but maybe they are saving that for the third movie.
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Postby Botef » Sat Mar 26, 2005 1:40 am

Shevarash wrote:The Incredibles:

I didn't think I'd like this, but turned out to truly enjoy it. Hilariously funny and strangely enough, some very well done action sequences. Its not apparent at first, but several of the action set pieces are highly reminscient of parts of the Star Wars trilogy. Anyhow, highly reccommended to, well, just about anyone.



Dont forget that scene thats near identical to the opening of Goldfinger, music an all. I got a kick out of this one, but then most pixar films tend to keep my attention at least the first time through.
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Postby ssar » Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:28 pm

July 2005

---

Star Wars Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith
Very good.
Lucas was faced with several difficulties doing this movie, not the least of which were associated with the span of years between this and the 1st Star Wars (Ep. 4) and subsequent different technologies in movie-making etc. Considering that, he did a great job I think.
Some kinda cheesy slower parts, but overall, pretty good.
Enjoyed Obe-wan riding the lizard around the place, and some of the jedi fight scenes, especially.
I’ll watch it again as with all Star Wars movies.
8.5/10


---

Mr & Mrs Smith (Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt)
Pretty good. Actually better than I had heard from various reports.
A couple of nice instances when Angelina was driving trying to escape the bmws chasing them, and Brad climbs out the back holding a metal wood golf club, swings just in time to donk the guy coming thru the bmw sunroof – classic! Then soon after one of the bmw guys opens the door to brad’s car, Brad sees him, and as he climbs in he grabs him and shoves him straight out thru the open door on the other side, to get run over by his mates in another bmw on that side. Nice!
You can’t go too wrong with Angelina, especially when she’s not wearing a great deal in some scenes.
A few cheesy and vague bits, but overall not bad.
I’ll watch it again perhaps once someday.
7.5/10
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Postby moritheil » Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:05 pm

Sesexe wrote:King Arthur 2 out of 4 stars.
-This movie was well done, and very believable version of the classic myth, but one fundamental aspect of the story made the movie take a bit hit to me.


Personally, I found the random application of Arthur's beliefs mixed with disregard for them a bit jarring. I mean . . . I'd prefer that either there is a motif centered around the power of his faith and how it motivates him, or there isn't. I dislike the half-hearted "well, there's sorta this faith thing, but we'll totally ignore the less-politically correct aspects of it."

It seemed to me that one of the reasons he was so eager to please the religious authorities was his faith, which was tested, and which was different from everyone else's . . . and yet it didn't really bring him into conflict with his fellows at all, except for maybe one scene. That strained believability a bit too much.
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Postby Ashiwi » Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:06 pm

War of the Worlds

If you're like me and you enjoy the special effects roller coaster ride, then you'll love this one. Independence Day? Armageddon? I spent the first half of War of the Worlds flattened against the back of my seat thinking "Oh damn, that's a VERY bad day."

And while I was leery of the casting of Tom Cruise in this role, I have to say he really surprised me. He did a great job of being really unlikable in the beginning of the movie, but becoming the person who makes the most of what he has to offer.
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Postby vallis » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:51 am

Dead Alive Unrated

10/10 stars

This movie doesn't attempt to lend you any flattery about its content.

Its cheesy, its gory, its low budget.

And its awesome.

Dead Alive is the first production movie of the same director that did the LOTR trilogy, Peter Jackson.

This was a movie filmed in New Zealand, and I swear the budget couldn't have been more then $10-15 bucks, at most.

If you like the gory, horror slasher movies that basically make no sense, go grab this one. Make SURE you get the unrated version, otherwise you miss a taste of the incredible splatter the movie was made for.
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Postby Kifle » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:35 pm

Unleased

9/10

For a chop-socky film, this one actually has quite a good plot and screen-play. The fight scenes aren't quite as bad as most of the newer ones (close, shakey camera) so you get to see a lot of the moves. Suprisingly enough, Jet Li is a really good actor when given the chance and a good supporting actor (morgan freeman). While the story was good enough on it's own to be a nice drama, the kung-fu makes it all the better.


The Longest Yard

9/10

One word: Hillarious! I don't think I'll ever get tired of Adam Sandler movies. After he had a streak of mediocre releases, he proves he's still the king with help from Chris Rock. It has enough one liners to make three of the comedies we've been fed for the last five or so years, and the premise is kinda funny too. It has a few cheesy moments, but this movie is definately gonna end up in my DVD collection.
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Postby Ashiwi » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:01 pm

Carl, you should go watch the original "The Longest Yard" if you haven't gotten the chance, yet.
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Postby Kifle » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:08 pm

Ashiwi wrote:Carl, you should go watch the original "The Longest Yard" if you haven't gotten the chance, yet.


Eh? There's an original? Does it star Paul Newman by anychance? As soon as I read your thread I had this picture of Cool Hand Luke playing football with a bunch of fat rednecks :) I'll have to check it out now :)

Lol, I put Randy Newman instead of Paul Newman. I could just see Randy Newman now downing tons of eggs and runing from the prison guards. Lol! Now that is comedy!
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Postby Pril » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:14 pm

Kifle wrote:
Ashiwi wrote:Carl, you should go watch the original "The Longest Yard" if you haven't gotten the chance, yet.


Eh? There's an original? Does it star Paul Newman by anychance? As soon as I read your thread I had this picture of Cool Hand Luke playing football with a bunch of fat rednecks :) I'll have to check it out now :)

Lol, I put Randy Newman instead of Paul Newman. I could just see Randy Newman now downing tons of eggs and runing from the prison guards. Lol! Now that is comedy!


Actually Kif it stars Burt Reynolds (SP?) in the role that Adam Sandler played in the new one.

Pril
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Postby Kifle » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:51 pm

Pril wrote:
Kifle wrote:
Ashiwi wrote:Carl, you should go watch the original "The Longest Yard" if you haven't gotten the chance, yet.


Eh? There's an original? Does it star Paul Newman by anychance? As soon as I read your thread I had this picture of Cool Hand Luke playing football with a bunch of fat rednecks :) I'll have to check it out now :)

Lol, I put Randy Newman instead of Paul Newman. I could just see Randy Newman now downing tons of eggs and runing from the prison guards. Lol! Now that is comedy!


Actually Kif it stars Burt Reynolds (SP?) in the role that Adam Sandler played in the new one.

Pril


Yeah, my wife just told me after I told her about Randy Newman playing football. She didn't let that slide w/o taking a few cheapshots :(
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Postby Pril » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:20 pm

Kifle wrote:
Pril wrote:
Kifle wrote:
Ashiwi wrote:Carl, you should go watch the original "The Longest Yard" if you haven't gotten the chance, yet.


Eh? There's an original? Does it star Paul Newman by anychance? As soon as I read your thread I had this picture of Cool Hand Luke playing football with a bunch of fat rednecks :) I'll have to check it out now :)

Lol, I put Randy Newman instead of Paul Newman. I could just see Randy Newman now downing tons of eggs and runing from the prison guards. Lol! Now that is comedy!


Actually Kif it stars Burt Reynolds (SP?) in the role that Adam Sandler played in the new one.

Pril


Yeah, my wife just told me after I told her about Randy Newman playing football. She didn't let that slide w/o taking a few cheapshots :(


Good for her! tell her she gets an atagirl from me! :p

Pril

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