[John Reynolds]

Ledger's performance was so off-the-charts good that I can no longer watch Nicholson's Joker in Burton's 1989 Batman. And I used to like that movie, despite its many flaws.

[RobertR1]

Terminator: Salvation. 7/10. Likely because I was expecting it to be Wolverine bad but it actually was pretty entertaining.

The New Moon. 2/10. GF owes me a guy movie viewing for sitting through this crap. Even she agreed it was crap.

[suryad]

I would really like to know about the glaring inconsistencies in TDK because I thought that movie was awesome. And the joker rocked.

Watched Layer Cake 8.5/10

Watched Rock n Rolla 9/10

Re-Watched Tropic Thunder 8/10

[Dooby]

Originally Posted by RobertR1

The New Moon. 2/10. GF owes me a guy movie viewing for sitting through this crap. Even she agreed it was crap.

You're gonna waste a New Moon viewing on another "guy movie"? I'd be demanding a month of unedited filthy sex from my woman. Thankfully, she's not a girly girl, and prefers District 9 over Teen Angst.

And, like L233, I thought TDK was utter shite. Batman Begins was a far superior movie, both in a "superhero" vibe, and entertainment overall.

Things that were (very) wrong with TDK include:

• The awesome gothic Gotham setting of BB was totally discarded for "faceless city inc."
• Batman used even less of his toys than in the first movie.
• The Batmobile which was pimp in BB, was made of papier mache and the Batbike looked ass and defied the laws of physics
• New Rachel was 100x worse than old Rachel.
• Suffered from Spiderman 3s trouble of having too many baddies. It didn't make a complex storyline, it made too much of it unfocused.
• The "Bat Voice".
• Introduced nonsense technology at the end to make the end of the Joker a complete "WTF" moment. He'd have been better off from the get go using HIS OWN EYES.

These are just a few of its crimes. But! The very worse crime it committed for me was the sound levels being utterly bollixed. I watched it at IMAX with a gazillion watt sound system that in TF1&2, during the shooting parts, knocked your ears off (in a good way). Now, the visually awesome chase scene in TDK, with guns, rocket launchers, cars exploding, helicopters crashing and a huge truck 180'ing... The sound at this point is so flat and weedy and unemotional, it completely robs the air of tension and excitement out of the scene. And I've watched the Bluray version at home, on my not-that-small sound system, and its still uber flat. I don't feel a part of the action, and it completely removes me from the film and it falls apart from there.

Batman Begins was on TV last night, and while it's a bit more camp than TDK, it's more than just a mafia film with a couple of people in costumes, which is all TDK really is. It's a real Batman film.

[Silent_Buddha]

Finally got around to seeing some films courtesy of friends saying, "you've worked enough, we're forcing you to take a break..."

Star Trek - 4.0/10 (8.0/10 if it had been called anything other than Star Trek). So many inconsistencies, so much of it screams Teen Movie, so much of it makes no sense. And WTF is up with changing the entire principle of how Phasers work? This is most patently NOT a Star Trek movie... It's something else with the Star Trek franchise bastardized to to get a larger initial interest. Horrible horrible Star Trek film... Kirk was crap. Spock (new) was crap. Sulu (absolute worst casting in the history of films) was INCREDIBLY crap. Chekov was crap. McCoy was almost not crap. Scotty was the most tolerable of them all.

IF I could wipe the entire Star Trek name from this, as well as Star Trek characters, I probably would have found it an enjoyable, if entirely vapid, action flick. Something like calling it Space Opera or Teens in Space or anything other than Star Trek... How about scriptwriters and studios stop "re-inventing" good franchises and stop turning them into crap? And just make a new franchise with the material?

Transformers 2 - 2.0/10 (only because the robot fights were vaguely well done in an epileptic sorta way). There was a story? There was a plot? Certainly hard to tell. Along those lines, there was acting? Primes are now metaphysical, spirtual, everlasting entities? And somehow despite all the primes other than the big bad evil guy sacrificing themselves to prevent him from destroying the sun of a planet with sentient beings...somehow, Optimus Prime was sired from a line of Primes? Yeah, Swiss cheese doesn't have as many holes... Another horrible movie.

Up! - 9.5/10. If the first part of the movie with Ellie was released as a short and none of the other stuff that followed was ever made, I'd still give it a 9.5/10. Slowed down a bit after that, but the gradual buildup and eventual climax was well done, slowly getting the watcher involved with the characters. Odd sequence of getting to love the main character, then a bit of dislike seeing him turn sour, then back to loving the main character as they refound themselves. Dogs were well done and well acted. Bird had charming character. What's not to like?

Julie & Julia - 8.0/10. I'm thinking of picking up a Julia Childs cookbook now even though I'm not a fan of French cooking. The Julie character was a bit overdone and narcissistic at times, but was endearing over all. And the Julia character was absolutely fascinating. Amazing to think there's so many good movies involving cooking (Loved Ratatoille also).

Regards,
SB

[suryad]

Oh yeah District 9. That was an epic movie. 9/10 Not 10 ever because I dont think there is a perfect movie according to my revised standards.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by suryad

Oh yeah District 9. That was an epic movie. 9/10 Not 10 ever because I dont think there is a perfect movie according to my revised standards.

Oh forgot about District 9. 8.0/10 for this one. Good flick, even if the main character was a whiney backstabbing bitch that through the hand of god suddenly found the goodness withing himself in time to save someone that was better than him. Other than the main character however, a pretty decent action flick that attempts (and mostly fails) to be something else. Or perhaps I'm just jaded and am just imagining that it's trying to preach a certain message. Either way, an overall enjoyable movie. And that combat suit at the end was badass...

Regards,
SB

[rpg.314]

The wrestler

7.5/10

500 days of summer

8.5/10

cute movie, nice time-pass, somewhat off the beaten track

[WhiningKhan]

Originally Posted by Ink

Star Trek- 9.6/10

Eric Bana deserves to win an award for playing one of the best villains in Star Trek history. I'm not a huge Trekkie, but I love Shatner, and was pleased this entire movie revolves around his character. Well written, intriguing story and awesome visuals make this movie a must see for any floundering Star Trek fan. Even if you're not a large Trekkie, Abrams made it very inviting and understanding to people who didn't exactly follow the series.

I liked it in theatre, not that much on second viewing at home. Quite a lot of silliness in the plot, but that's pretty much inevitable given that this is supposed to be (1) Star Trek (2) for the masses.

I actually thought the Bana's villain was one of the worst aspects of the movie. Ledger's so called overacting was OK for me in TDK since Joker's supposed to be lunatic, but this badass-tattooed Romulan with vibrating nostrils and voice (badly) overdubbed was just accidental comedy. Right on par with the Mini-Me-Picard -villain of Nemesis, just played by a 'bigger' actor.

[L233]

What bothered me most about Star Trek were the action scenes. They were cut in this utterly frantic and confusing style that seems to be so popular with action movies nowadays and it's pissing me off.

One thing I always thought was cool about (old) Star Trek was that space combat is shown in a way that you actually get an idea of what's going on. You see ships maneuvering, shooting at each other and so on. In the new Star Trek movie you see phaser turrets firing --cut--- some explosion ---cut--- some more turrets firing ---cut--- more explosions ---cut--- people yelling ---cut--- explosions- --cut-- and so on and I had no idea what was going on half the time.

That, plus the fact that Vulcan is destroyed? WTF? I can only hope that they pull some more time travel shenanigans in the next movie to undo it.

Also: more Trek Tech Babble pls.

[L233]

Originally Posted by John Reynolds

Ledger's performance was so off-the-charts good that I can no longer watch Nicholson's Joker in Burton's 1989 Batman. And I used to like that movie, despite its many flaws.

I still think Nicholson's Joker is far more credible, plus more entertaining, than that wild-eyed, lip-smacking and annoying twat in bad scary clown make-up and a greased-up fright wig that we got in TDK. I actually like Burton's Batman movies, though Batman Begins is a very close third.

[Mize]

ok, not a movie review but a review of a book that is now a movie...
The Road is, perhaps, one of the best books I have ever read. It is poetry and epic and amazing. I can't see how they can do justice to it with a movie, but I'll go see it.

[Scott_Arm]

Transformers 2 - 5/10 It was pretty hilarious though. Somewhere in there, there was a great 30 minute action movie.

[RobertR1]

Thanks for the reminder Mize.

The Road: 8/10. Amazing performance by Viggo Mortensen. The best post apocolyptic settings and atmosphere I've seen in a movie. The pacing was a bit slow at times but that's about it. Go see this!

question for those who read the book in the movie they never explain how the world became like it did. natural disaster or nuclear fallout. Do they touch on it in the book?

[Mize]

Originally Posted by RobertR1

Thanks for the reminder Mize.

The Road: 8/10. Amazing performance by Viggo Mortensen. The best post apocolyptic settings and atmosphere I've seen in a movie. The pacing was a bit slow at times but that's about it. Go see this!

question for those who read the book in the movie they never explain how the world became like it did. natural disaster or nuclear fallout. Do they touch on it in the book?

No. The why is irrelevant to the story of course. I'm very curious how they end the movie. The last paragraph in the book is one of the best ever written.

[John Reynolds]

No, it's not explained in the book either, but I believe McCarthy in an interview stated it was a meteor hit. Obviously a very large meteor.

Try having a small son and reading the book. I couldn't help but impose my little boy's face onto the fictional character's and read the entire book in one sitting. Very moving, my body was so tense during those final few pages and I ended up staying awake until around 4am that night. Just couldn't sleep afterwards. Not sure I want to see the movie.

[Mize]

As bleak as the story of The Road is, it really is about fostering humanity through love (first from the father to the son and then from the son to the father), which makes it, ultimately, uplifting in spite of the horrors. I loved the book. I read that last paragraph like five times. It was perfect. FYI, my son is 10.

[Mize]

Here is what McCarthy has to say on that question:

It’s interesting to note that Cormac McCarthy doesn’t have an opinion on many of the parts that he intentionally left void, such as the disaster that preceded the events of the book:

[RobertR1]

Thanks Mize. I agree, it doesn't matter. I was just curious.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by RobertR1

Thanks for the reminder Mize.

The Road: 8/10. Amazing performance by Viggo Mortensen. The best post apocolyptic settings and atmosphere I've seen in a movie. The pacing was a bit slow at times but that's about it. Go see this!

question for those who read the book in the movie they never explain how the world became like it did. natural disaster or nuclear fallout. Do they touch on it in the book?

It's post apocalyptic? I think I'm going to have to look this up, don't think I've ever heard of the movie.

Regards,
SB

[suryad]

I have seen trailers for this movie but it seemed liek the movie died an early death at least amongst audiences? I think I am still going to watch it though. I like Viggo Mortensen and the movies he usually does so after watching it I may go and buy the bluray version of it when it gets released.

[Moloch]

Re:TDK You guys dont know what you're talking about I'm afraid. I won't hold it against you though, not all of us can have good taste in movies.

[Arwin]

Stuff I re(watched) while down with a cold:

28 dresses: romcom that holds up very well after repeated viewing. solid 8/10
Peaceful Warrior: 8.5/10 ... contains valid life lessons while still being very funny. Explains the value of hype in the process.
The Women: 4/10 ... while as a gimmick well worked out, the story sucks.
PS I Love You: 8/10 ... another decent romcom, liking of Hillary Swank required for enjoyment

@radeonic2: right back at ya!

[Moloch]

Originally Posted by Arwin

Stuff I re(watched) while down with a cold:

28 dresses: romcom that holds up very well after repeated viewing. solid 8/10
Peaceful Warrior: 8.5/10 ... contains valid life lessons while still being very funny. Explains the value of hype in the process.
The Women: 4/10 ... while as a gimmick well worked out, the story sucks.
PS I Love You: 8/10 ... another decent romcom, liking of Hillary Swank required for enjoyment

@radeonic2: right back at ya!

Except my taste in movies hasn't been defined
TDK is factually awesome and I feel sorry that you and a few others don't realize that.

[Mariner]

TDK? Didn't they used to make audio tapes?

The Dark Knight, on the other hand, was a decent enough film though hugely overrated by many.

The fact that some people apparently seem to read deep and meaningful stuff into a pretty straightforward comic-book actioner is just one of those odd things in life.

Wouldn't it be dull if we all thought the same, eh?