Movie Reviews 2.0

[Sxotty]

I liked Expandables a little because I'm a child of the 80s. Just seeing Arnold and Sylvester in one scene is enough, but no way I was interested in rewatching. In that sense, imho, the movie probably wasn't pure enough - although they did fine, there really was no need for the 'new' generation.

Not quite sure if I'd be interested a second one, but like John said, my brain does need a holiday sometimes.

Well the problem was in the first one Arnie and Willis did nothing. I think the second one they are in it a tiny bit longer. I will watch it eventually in life just to do so. I too am a child of the 80s and therefore have little choice, but I will be putting it off for a long long time

 

[Grall]

Haven't watched either of the Expendables, but I would like to see the first one, as I'm also an 80s kid. Just haven't gotten around to it, is all. I don't expect much, but on the other hand I don't think you should from this kind of movie...

On the other hand, some of the very finest action movies were made in the 80s, and they DID have depth, if you just bothered to look. Terminator, Predator, Aliens, Robocop - all classic 80s action flicks that went a bit more than just skin deep if you weren't prejudiced.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Which book - can you point me one that deals with this? Sure, it's been 25 years since I read all the books, but that sounds completely alien to me. My recollection from original Burroughs text is that the teleportation was _not_ explained, that it was more or less just 'magic'. Except maybe in the last story that wasn't really complete before Burroughs died, where they ended up in Jupiter and other weird stuff.

Sorry, I probably wasn't clear, when I said "that's the way the book is" I meant that "Carter is transported to Mars". I don't know how much the movie embellished this to add some kind of background.

 

[prolong]

hmm not a movie though. this is a tv series i have come across lately. name is Sherlcok.

i would give 10 out of 10 to this.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Sorry about getting back to the John Carter discussion, but I've just found this:

http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v/SCULPTURE/John+Carter+on+Mars-+Thark+Bust+crated.html

First, I like this sculpt a lot better (there are other images) - it's just that fine bit less humanized that makes it work IMHO.
Second, apparently Teves wasn't too happy with what has been changed, either. Looking at his bio you guys can all see that he's not exactly a beginner in creature work - I won't even start to list all the classic movies he contributed to...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Sorry about getting back to the John Carter discussion, but I've just found this:

http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v/SCULPTURE/John+Carter+on+Mars-+Thark+Bust+crated.html

First, I like this sculpt a lot better (there are other images) - it's just that fine bit less humanized that makes it work IMHO.
Second, apparently Teves wasn't too happy with what has been changed, either. Looking at his bio you guys can all see that he's not exactly a beginner in creature work - I won't even start to list all the classic movies he contributed to...

Yeah, those are much more serious and grown up. They are something from a proper adult sci-fi movie. Looks like Pixar "disneyfied" them with an eye to the lunchbox/plushie/merchandising. The differences are small and subtle, but there's lots of them that changes the character from a real one to one that has been "cartoonized".

 

[Arwin]

Sorry about getting back to the John Carter discussion, but I've just found this:

http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v/SCULPTURE/John+Carter+on+Mars-+Thark+Bust+crated.html

First, I like this sculpt a lot better (there are other images) - it's just that fine bit less humanized that makes it work IMHO.
Second, apparently Teves wasn't too happy with what has been changed, either. Looking at his bio you guys can all see that he's not exactly a beginner in creature work - I won't even start to list all the classic movies he contributed to...

Well, there are no eyes in these sculptures to begin with, and also, the leader's rival looks much more like that (the one with the broken tusk), so they've used it to give a little bit more expression and individuality. There's no denying that the 'good guys' (leader and his daughter) look more friendly (most of the time), but these sculptures are hard to compare if you don't take into account the full extent of animations etc.

I was fine with them anyway, like them the way they are, and the variation they had, and also really liked the animation.

 

[Grall]

Btw, been trying to slog through Battleship on bluray for the past couple days and it looks like an absolutely super crap movie. The disc doesn't support auto-resume either, so each time I start it up (3rd time now) I have to endure all the copyright warning screens, introductary animations and preview trailers and shit they stuffed onto the disc. GAHHH!

 

[pcchen]

Btw, been trying to slog through Battleship on bluray for the past couple days and it looks like an absolutely super crap movie. The disc doesn't support auto-resume either, so each time I start it up (3rd time now) I have to endure all the copyright warning screens, introductary animations and preview trailers and shit they stuffed onto the disc. GAHHH!

I recently bought The Avengers Blu-ray and while it supports resume it still goes through the previews (skip-able though, I think this should be mandatory for all DVD/Blu-ray), and only ask you to "resume" when you press "Play the movie."

 

[fellix]

Btw, been trying to slog through Battleship on bluray for the past couple days and it looks like an absolutely super crap movie. The disc doesn't support auto-resume either, so each time I start it up (3rd time now) I have to endure all the copyright warning screens, introductary animations and preview trailers and shit they stuffed onto the disc. GAHHH!

That's why: Piracy - the better choice™

Seriously, if you already bought/rented a legit BD copy and it pisses you like this, just find a decent HD rip from... you know where, and enjoy the movie properly.

 

[green.pixel]

Btw, been trying to slog through Battleship on bluray for the past couple days and it looks like an absolutely super crap movie. The disc doesn't support auto-resume either, so each time I start it up (3rd time now) I have to endure all the copyright warning screens, introductary animations and preview trailers and shit they stuffed onto the disc. GAHHH!

http://i.imgur.com/60rgp.jpg

 

[Arwin]

http://i.imgur.com/60rgp.jpg

If you think about it though, it truly is a home cinema experience ...

 

[Grall]

That's why: Piracy - the better choice™

Aye, and it's both so wrong, and so sad. Those who pay should get the superior experience - not those who steal. I don't get these stupid movie studio shitheads who force me to skip past - if I'm LUCKY - or have to watch upwards of seven, eight static text screens, animated logos, trailers and so on before I can even start the movie itself.

Who WANTS all that shit? When I put on a movie I want to watch THE MOVIE. Don't these crapheads understand that?!

Btw, Battleship was reeeeally bad, seen as a whole. There were some cool action and stuff, but so much of it was just bullshit, and so many of the characters were whiny, annoying and/or douchy. All of the science bits and much of the physics was just wrong (powersliding a battleship, wtf? lol... That anchor would have just dragged or the chain would have snapped).

Also, a lot of the CGI looked bad. Avatar near-realism...not so much!

I just can't turn off my brain to the extent needed to make this a decent action movie. It's like a 3/10 or something like that. Maybe I'm being generous, but some of the action bits really were quite good, so I can't honestly sink this ship completely with a 1/10.

Btw thank you PCChen for reminding me about The Avengers. Need to go down to the city and make a purchase.

 

[Malo]

Isn't that kinda ridiculous complaining about a bunch of unskipable components that mostly wouldn't be there if there was no piracy? Rather circular argument from both sides.

 

[green.pixel]

Why don't you just rent bad to average movies if that's an option? I would feel bad if I wasted money like that.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Isn't that kinda ridiculous complaining about a bunch of unskipable components that mostly wouldn't be there if there was no piracy? Rather circular argument from both sides.

They would be there, because the media companies would still see it as an opportunity to "upsell" to a captive audience. Why let the consumer skip an ad/trailer for another product you want to sell? Why not make them watch two or three, ads? Why not make them watch fifteen minutes of ads like the have to at the cinema?

Instead of giving the customer what they want, and getting them to pay for it, media companies try to nickel and dime their customers to make more money, point at "piracy" as an excuse, even though by having the DVD/BR the customer has already proved to have paid for the product.

This is what is driving customers towards non-legitimate sources that give a better, more customer-centric experience than the official product - the disregard of the customer by the media companies who are squeezing their fists so hard for excessive profit, that they are losing customers through their fingers.

And despite their claims of poverty to get anti-customer laws enacted, these companies are making obscene amounts of money - they just want more.

 

[pcchen]

Isn't that kinda ridiculous complaining about a bunch of unskipable components that mostly wouldn't be there if there was no piracy? Rather circular argument from both sides.

But many Blu-ray/DVD these days actually do not have these "DO NOT PIRATE" warnings (or at least not that much), but with insane amount of "previews" advertising their upcoming movies. Worse, you can't skip these "previews" on many Blu-ray or DVD.

It's probably better now, as the Avengers Blu-ray has only one preview (the zombie dog movie), and it has a button to tell you how to skip this preview. I think this should be the standard.

 

[Dresden]

My girlfriend is a huge fan of the Paranormal Activity series, so her and I sat down and watched 1 through 3. Straight. It was almost 7 hours of movies and my eyes still hurt from it. I had never seen them before, and being a huge horror movie buff, I figured I should probably see them to see what the hype was about. They're decent, the first is the best and the third left me wondering what the hell I just saw, due to it's absurd ending. The second I have mixed emotions about. There's a lot of instances where the acting is absolutely terrible. And it seemed to me a lot of the scare tactics were your average run-of-the-mill person shouting "boo!" or loud noises amidst silence, which personally I don't find to be elements of great horror movies.

All in all, the series was pretty decent, but in reality all you need to see is the first.


Drive- 9.8/10

Fucking fantastic movie, as I suspected it would be. Nicolas Winding Refn is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. I love Valhalla Rising and thought Bronson was equally amazing. If you're a cinematography buff, definitely see Valhalla Rising. It has some of the most gorgeous camera work I've seen in a long time. Gosling's character in Drive is the embodiment of James Dean-esque classic cool. The car chases are stunning, the violence is almost shocking and the intensity is thick. The cast is incredible and the soundtrack is a phenomenal nod to a lot of 80's action flicks. It's a great story that's definitely worth checking out.

Antichrist- 1/10

I have no idea what the hell I just watched, aside from the fact that this may be one of the most disturbing movies of all time. I don't recommend this at all. It's saving grace is it's cinematography. It's beautifully shot. Other than that, the movie is utterly disgusting and profoundly uncomfortable to watch.


There's a lot on the horizon I'm looking forward too, mainly "Killing Them Softly" and the video release of "Prometheus," which I missed in the theater.

 

[fellix]

There's a lot of instances where the acting is absolutely terrible. And it seemed to me a lot of the scare tactics were your average run-of-the-mill person shouting "boo!" or loud noises amidst silence, which personally I don't find to be elements of great horror movies.

Yup, the good horror flicks died more than 20 years ago. It wasn't until the Scream series that the genre was taken again "seriously", but it quickly progressed to the stereotypical teen-scary movie machine we all know, that had nothing in common with the true concept of horror.

Here is one of the last gems of the genre, that still manages to hold on me -

Spoiler

 

[Grall]

It's probably better now, as the Avengers Blu-ray has only one preview (the zombie dog movie), and it has a button to tell you how to skip this preview.

European/Scandinavian Avengers have NO previews at all! YAAAAH!

It's just a language selection screen, a Marvel logo animation, a Paramount logo animation, and then the title screen and that's it; not a single copyright or piracy warning in sight. You get to enjoy the movie "almost immediately", and FUCKIN WOW! What a movie! It was GREAT, I totally loved it; it was (almost) as cool as I thought Thor was. It's like, a few percent less of a movie than Thor - because the progenitor had more of Thor himself of course, whom is just awesomely portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, and more of Stellan Skarsgård, and then Anthony Hopkins. But seriously, this is clearly one of the all-time best action movies ever.

The production values are so incredibly high, there's Sam Jackson being a cool cat as always, the image quality is so sharp and fabulous in 3D on a 16:9 TV screen (which incidentally is the aspect the movie seems to be shot for... HMM! ), and... Well, just "WOW", really.

I really liked this movie, it was everything Battleship wasn't and then some. Even with the criticism that some of the action is overexaggerated and visual overload it's still an easy 9/10. Also could have been more Loki in it, seeing as he's the big badguy and all, but at least there wasn't as big a badguy-deficit in this movie as there was in MI4: Ghost Protocol. He did have a number of good scenes, and Tom Hiddleston (had to look up his name on IMDB) is also a really cool cat. So, a thoroughly enjoyable romp of a movie, if you're a guy who likes action movies that is.