OpenWorldGames Server ONE

nice allusion there Charlton.  (irt DKM2s ref of planet of the apes from the fuel off topic post)

Are you're kids young enough so that you've seen the version of that scene done in Madagascar?  Was pretty funny to see.

dunno why that just popped into my head.  Seen (6/16) and had a minor moment....

but no, we've never seen it, he was old enough not to bother with Disney anymore.

Quote from: DKM2 on May 19, 2009, 11:03:49 AM
he was old enough not to bother with Disney anymore.

I had Madagascar 2 in my hands last week at the DVD rent store... what it makes me then?  ;D

Quote from: JRD on May 20, 2009, 01:26:51 PM

Quote from: DKM2 on May 19, 2009, 11:03:49 AM
he was old enough not to bother with Disney anymore.

I had Madagascar 2 in my hands last week at the DVD rent store... what it makes me then?  ;D

second childhood kinda old.... makes the wifes eyes do this  ::)        :)

Quote from: DKM2 on May 20, 2009, 01:59:33 PM

Quote from: JRD on May 20, 2009, 01:26:51 PM

Quote from: DKM2 on May 19, 2009, 11:03:49 AM
he was old enough not to bother with Disney anymore.

I had Madagascar 2 in my hands last week at the DVD rent store... what it makes me then?  ;D

second childhood kinda old.... makes the wifes eyes do this  ::)        :)

Hahahahaha... so I guess we are a couple of grown up kids... she was with me, choosing other kids movies... she's way more into it than me  ;D

There's normally a lot of good humor for the adults (not adult humor) in movies.  Definitely check out WALL-E.  A great movie with a message.

Good one spaceboy...
One of my all time favourite (Shrek is ors concours) is The Incredibles.......... what a great laugh.
I watched alone at home and had to stop and go back a few minutes cos I had tears in my eyes and couldn't watch any more.
Then my wife came home and we watched again and I just couldn't stop laughing all over again.
When Frozone have to go out and fight the monster but can't find his outfit and is asking his wife where is it is just hilarious... and Samuel Jackson is making his voice.... priceless  ;D

 good topic guys, (especially for us big kids)
remember some of the classics (pre CG days)
Clash of the Titans & Jason and the Aronauts are 2 of my all time faves.
all the Indiana Jones films are good and entertaining.
also if your a fan of 007 but got young ones check out Stormbreaker.
cant recall any more at moment, memory failing me again..

I bought Wall-E on recommendation of some old fart I know and was all excited about it, too :) By the way, Wall-E has a short film on DVD called Burn-E wich is kind of an addition to the main film, which made me laugh so hard and I had to skip back and watch over and over a couple of times, SO funny :) And also, TheIncredibles was so much fun to watch... Just love 'em if they're quality.

Watch IceAge, 1 better than 2 though. Classic!

Incredibles was great.  Remember the kid who watches Mr. Incredible on the driveway and then shouts "That was totally wicked!"?  Well, yeah I went to see the play "Wicked" with my wife et al and couldn't resist at the end to say the same line (not too loud, but loud enough for a glare from my wife).

Loved Shrek, 2 was good too but 3 went downhill. 

Also what about Monsters Inc.?  Great movie.  I just love the line when Randall is trying to get Mike to understand the scarefloor will be "empty" and Mike's finishes Randall's sentence.  "the scare floor will be....."      "Painted?".

Quote from: spaceboy on May 20, 2009, 03:51:48 PMet al

= ? probably a typo, but I can't decipher it. sorry, but what does that mean?

All you youngsters have just covered all of my faves too.  When we're in Texas we always try to see some movie with the grandkids ...just so we can see them. The kids movies have come so far with CG entertainment.  What is next?

Quote from: retiredgord on May 20, 2009, 04:17:00 PM
The kids movies have come so far with CG entertainment.  What is next?

Adult movies.  ;D ;D ;D

CG has come a long way, its true... but as DKM2 just posted a Yosemite Sam clip, I can't let the old school, hand drawn cartoons out of discussion...
Yosemite Sam, all Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck... (and Marty the Martian) some good Donald Duck and Goofy episodes...
Thankfully you can still find some of those to watch with kids. Not only that Dragon Ball crap or Pokemon stuff....

oh... and Tom and Jerry... perhaps the most violent cartoon ever, but worth watching every second of it ;)

Arts quote  " Adult Movies".  Am I the only one that remembers Felix the Cat  the adult cartoon?

No, I watched that too :)

Good adult stuff is very rare by the way, I really liked HeavyMetalF.A.K.K.2 :) (1was crappy)

 I too remember felix the cat!
bugs bunny rules. and Tom and Jerry - what can i say but the original Itchy and Scratchy, and better. (except the new ones in which they talk !?!?!)
in terms of adult animation Manga deserves a mention (not just the X-rated stuff either)
best has got to be Ghost in the Shell - the movies and the series. outstanding animation and good, often deep stories too.

oh yeah... Mangas, Ghost in a shell... was great! I liked 1 better than 2 though.

ah, it keeps coming... anyone seen Animatrix? was a series of short animated films around the Matrix. Extremely cool DVD.

Animatrix was cool... never saw Ghost in the shell, but heard good things about it. Will try to find it here, thanks for the tip ;)

And what about the Aeon Flux? Animation produced by MTV?

And more recently.. the Clone Wars?

Both are very cool in their own way!

I agree with you ART, Ghost in the Shell  is way better than 2
Also in some ways i prefer animatrix to the actual films.

only the first Matrix was real, the rest was a rip-off. A shame, really.

Aeon Flux, Clone Wars... the ones mentioned above...I got 'em all  :)

The first matrix was mind-blowing for me and my wife... we walked out the theater, had a sandwich and headed back in for another session...... excellent movie.
2 and 3 should never been made...  boring long fighting scenes and over usage of special FX

I can't count how many times I watched Matrix1... still, once in a while, I slap the DVD in and ahhhhhh goooood :) 2+3? once, never again. Only keep them for the sake of the trilogy.

I think you know Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. There is an animated flick about Pre-Chronicles of Riddic, called Dark Fury. Not so bad I'd say, not so bad at all :)

Riddick I know... but that Vin Disel guy is way too much posing and no truly interesting stories or characters...
Pitch Black I'm not familiar... but its about that same character (I just checked wiki ;) )

But we are out of topic now  ;D ;D ;D

Back on topic.. I love Harry Potter's books. Not too fan of the movies as they can't really get the universe, but its very funny... and it brought the kids something to read, which was something long forgotten... great one  :-X

I either read "the book" or watch "the film". Never mix those :)

I read all the books first hand... eventually, as the movies hit the rental store, I bring them home on a rainy sunday  ;)

Quote from: Art Blade on May 20, 2009, 04:03:58 PM

Quote from: spaceboy on May 20, 2009, 03:51:48 PMet al

= ? probably a typo, but I can't decipher it. sorry, but what does that mean?

"Et al.' is a scholarly abbreviation of the Latin phrase et alia, which means "and others." It is commonly used when you don't want to name all the people or things in a list, and works in roughly the same way as "etc."

Now I didn't know all that exactly, just the proper use (I ganked that description from http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/etal.html).

Anyways, way too many good movies listed above to comment on them all, but I've got to at least say something about Harry Potter.

Absolutely wonderful books, extra long lunch hours (and late nights) when HP books were out so I could find out what happened next.  I just love the universe. 

Of course the movies don't compare to the books but they are fun and wonderful for what they are.  They are beautiful to watch with decent acting (by the adults - what a great cast).  I think they did a good job with them.

However, I sat and read those books to my boy before he could see the movie for each book.

thanks for the help with "et al" - I think it is uncommon where I come from.

About HP - I had no reason to want to know about HP at all (not et al) (haha) because I don't have kids and I don't follow "hypes" or mega-trends just for the sake of hip-ness. However, after the hype had vanished and no one was talking about HP any more, they started to sell the vids in collectors editions. That's when I can't resist  ;D So I actually got the flicks at last, and watched them all in a row. Which was pure and utter fun. Remarkable was the fact that they kept hiring the same kid-actor whom you could watch grow old(er), litterally. Good job, I admit :)

I don't follow mega-trends either but my wife got the first book and was amazed (she works with kids) so I couldn't resist reading the first HP.
One thing led to another and soon enough I was completely addicted to the story. I was checking the net on a regular basis to see when the next book would be out (like I am now waiting for OFP2  ;D ).

spaceboy... its great to see a father reading a book to his son these days.. its something that seem to be outdated, but shouldn't be   :-X.  spacekid will grow to be a reader in addition to a gamer, which is excellent  ;)

JRD is sadly correct when he says

"its something that seem to be outdated, but shouldn't be"
and much kudos to spaceboy 8)

reading & understanding language is the best key to advancing yourself (if you can read and understand what your reading you can teach yourself ANYTHING)
my son is an avid reader of allsorts (Harry Potter thru to History)

its good to know that other parents value the ability to read :-X

Thanks guys.  Yeah he does like reading and even dropped $25 of his own to buy a couple books for himself the other week.  I always say I'm more concerned that the interest is there and keep that up, than exactly how good he is at reading - that'll come if the interest is there.

I've got a small library of classic literature that I've read, but my lunchtime reading has been diminished because of you lot! - OWG is too addictive.  :-[

On a somewhat on topic note that segways reading.  I highly recommend watching to the DVD "Here Comes the ABCs" by They Might Be Giants.  Yes it is for kids to learn, but even if you don't have little kids the music is fabulous, the lyrics ingenious, and a lot of fun.  The CD is good enough to just listen too, but you've got to see the videos as well to get the full vision of TMBG.  "Here comes the 123s" came after and is ok, but not as good as the ABCs.

I just know a lot of folks on this site would appreciate a kids song called "C is for conifers".  Just great.

Quote from: dke58 on May 21, 2009, 07:58:19 AMreading & understanding language is the best key to advancing yourself (if you can read and understand what your reading you can teach yourself ANYTHING)

basically I learned real English by reading and listening (Ok, I had English at school for starters). But I learned Spanish from scratch, reading only grammars (in the end like 20 grammar books, LOL). I was able to read newspapers and watch films after about three months. Of course it took a while to speak fluently due to the lack of specific words that I kept learning when needed.

I guess I am a stick in the mud - I cannot stand the anime stuff.  Since I have six year old however, we tend to watch a lot of the new Disney movies.  I actually prefer them over the stuff that came out between the late 80s and 90s.  I cannot stand musicals.  They sing about anything and everything, and with the stuff that's been turned into musicals, I am surprised they don't have a musical based on Fallout.  Okay, that would probably be funny, if they kept it sardonic like FO3

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not some uncultured caveman not open to new stuff.  I'll watch a Broadway show if it's in here town, and I have the time and cash to do so.  Like I wanted to see Avenue Q, but it was around Christmas.  As for the new stuff from Disney, most of it good.  My daughter didn't understand the message of Wall-E, but she has a better grasp of why not to trash the Earth.  However, Bolt, she loves that movie.

Quote from: JRD on May 21, 2009, 06:58:22 AM
spaceboy... its great to see a father reading a book to his son these days.. its something that seem to be outdated, but shouldn't be   :-X.  spacekid will grow to be a reader in addition to a gamer, which is excellent  ;)

I think it depends on the parents.  My sister, she doesn't read much to her kids, which is why their 7-year daughter's reading isn't as sharp as my 6-year old's.  Which is why we have always read to her, even when she was in the womb.  It is actually nice when go to a bookstore, and she wants to spend her allowance on a book.

Right now, my wife and her read the books, and I tell the stories.  I would like to keep in the area of my creations, Billy the Blue Jay and Captain Black-tail. (named after our beagle mix, who has a black tail and is loosely based of Ragnar Danneskjold.)  Unfortunately, she's obsessed with Rudolph and the Danger Rangers.  So at her request, the lovable reindeer has had all sorts of adventures... from running away from home, getting mauled by the Bumble, to getting arrested.  The funny thing about it, is that I try to steer away from that stuff.  It is all her dark sense of humor, which is a clone of myself.  LOL

Well my kids are weird, My little girs fave movie when she was 2, was Lord of the Rings! She could even tell me which part of the trilogy was which and could give a synopsis lol. Shes 4 now and likes BRATZ ! :-[

My other kids, two sons, 6 and 9 love reading, think they get it from me, I'm an avid reader, same as my dad.

A great kids movie I recommend, is The Princess Bride.

"As you wish"

I love Princess Bride.  If anyone doesn't know that movie, that sentence sounds strange coming from a grown man, but it is so damn funny.  "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!"

Definitely go rent this movie if you haven't seen it.  It is not really a "little" kids movie, it's not animated, Plus it's got Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, and the lovely Robin Wright Penn.

Although probably not entertaining for today's kids, The Wizard of Oz.  In the olden days, before there was color TV there was B/W TV in which you (i.e, me) had to change glass vacuum tubes when they burned out.  It is during that era that I first watched that fabulous movie, and every year in the spring time it was aired again.  I used to wait for weeks for the night it aired and got cozy and comfortable with a large pile of snacks to watch Dorothy and her zany friends w@&k their way through Oz.

Have you tried the Pink Floyd trick while watching the Wizard of Oz?
Try this if you haven't:
Have a Dark Side of the Moon CD (it's an acronym for Compact Disc PZ, your grandson should have one  ;D) at your player ready to start track #1.
Put the Wizard of Oz in your DVD player (again pops, ask your grandson to help you  ;D).
At the second roar of the MGM lion during the intro, press play on the CD player and watch the movie with the sound off.....
It's just amazing how the music goes with the movie!

 what a coincidence , some one was telling me about that couple of days ago.
and cheezy as it is Mary Poppins is a favorite from my youth, such a brilliant film ;D, not a big disney fan but good old Mary gets me singing along like child again.
and when you feel the need to be sad and emotional Watershipdown tops my list, :'(

Mary Poppins! "chim-chimney, chim-chimney, la lala lala..." <sings>  yeah, when I was a kid... good stuff :)

oh, and Robin Hood. Not the Costner character, the old stuff, haha

yeah... the cartoon with the animals, got that on DVD somewhere. quality family entertainment :-X

Wizard of Oz..Pink Floyd and  couple of Highball glasses of Rye n ginger...what a movie night   hehehhe

You are one funny guy JRD!  You just wait until you're old enough to be a gramps - oh wait... you're here on these forums just like the rest of us old geezers!

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Another old favorite is the original Parent Trap with Hailey Mills.  Newer favorites include Babe, Cars, and Ratatouille - spectacular in Blu-Ray

I was just thinking, what if we renamed this topic to "movie recommendations"?

• The already posted reviews or recommendations would still fit.
• We already have deviations towards adult movies
• We could add any movie rather than start many more topics

Waltz with Bashir

A few days ago I watched this film that is both animated and not exactly for kids, yet impressive. It is a documentation with interviews and scenes depicting memories of a man (the Israeli film maker himself) who doesn't remember where he was during a certain Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War in 1982. Step by step his memory returns... The first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar as "Best Foreign Language Film". With this film, the director was presented with an unexpected problem: He had to decide whether to go to Berlinale or Cannes film festivals! He was invited to both events LOL

A sidenote: Just to mention one thing that goes for all my recommendations: I always watch films undubbed, that means I read subtitles if I don't speak the language. I do that because I believe the sound and dialogue, specifically the voices of the actors, is part of the artwork and cannot be improved by dubbing. I mention this because I know some examples that are great in the original version and utter crap as dubbed versions. In one case I would never have recommended that one film if I had watched only the dubbed version.

I'm glad you suggested changing the topic name.
Now I can post a video from a guy from Argentina I found on youtube some time ago. I was about to post it somewhere here because I want you guys to see it. Now, here is the place  ;D
It's an animation with graphitti painted over the walls of Buenos Aires.. a real urban intervention and a great w@&k. Enjoy

[smg id=625 type=av]

that is very unique, cool  :-X thanks for that vid, JRD  :)

Wow, those little things crawling out of the mouth remind me of my wife's toy poodle...

not sure when its released in every bodies part of the world....
went to see TERMINATOR SALVATION last night,
really enjoyed it, if your a sci-fi fan its defo worth seeing on a big screen.
   a good addition to the story (makes up for T3 being crap i guess!)
at times felt like was watching a twisted Terminator/MadMax/FarCry/Matrix existence.

and American Psycho / Batman does a good job as John Conner. :-X ;D :-X

sounds good... will have to wait until it hits the shelves of my DVD seller (avoiding the German dubbed version)

Now watching "Where Eagles Dare" with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton.  An old WWII movie that is set in winter.  Clint and Richard are supposed to rescue a captured general, but there is mystery and intrigue in their quest.  This is a great example of the military genre of which I am quiet fond.  :-X

Other military movies I recall are:

• Von Ryans Express with Frank Sinatra
• The Train with Burt Lancaster,
• The Longest Day with John Wayne and a host of big names from the golden years of film production
• The Blue Max with George Peppard
• All Quiet on the Western Front with Lew Ayres
  
• The Great Escape with Steve McQueen
• The Battle of the Bulge with Henry Fonda
• The Heroes of Telemark with Kirk Douglas
• The Guns of Navarone also with an all star cast
  

I'm not much for war movies. I tend to avoid movies that I already know more or less how they are gong to end.  :P

Probably the movie that I have enjoyed the most over the last 10 years was Secondhand Lions with Robert Duvall, Michael Caine from 2003. How this movie ever flew in under the radar and eluded notice for so long baffles me and it's clear that the lack of promotion on the part of the production company was outright negligence.

I would have totally missed it if it hadn't popped up on TV that I had on for background noise one afternoon on a Saturday during the typical doldrums where almost nothing worthwhile is ever on.

Here over the last couple years I've picked up on Hayao Miyazaki's films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro among others that I've quite enjoyed.

I catch all my movies at home once they come out on DVD. I'm just not in that big of a rush to see anything that's been released recently and that way I don't have to make any life threats on idiots in the row behind me at the theater revealing how the movie's going to end or dealing with cellphone owners who think the whole world's more interested in their over loud phone conversations than the movie we all paid $8 to $10 dollars to get in to see.

I've not even set foot in a theater since 1999 for Star Wars episode I Phantom Menace where a woman tried to strike up a conversation via an incoming call on her cell about her friend's poodle puking on the carpet right during the explanation about the level of midi-chlorians and the infected person's ability to access to the Force, causing me to miss that bit.

Think mushroom cloud.   ::)

Quote from: mandru on October 11, 2009, 06:48:30 PM
I've not even set foot in a theater since 1999

I can relate, mandru. The last thing I saw was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and it was a most underwhelming experience. Not the movie, I love these films, but the viewing environment, which sucked.

When I was a young bloke, going to the movies was a big deal - well, actually, if you wanted to see a particular film you didn't have much choice as there were no DVDs or even VCR's then. I remember cavernous movie cinemas where there was an upstairs and a downstairs, and a screen so big that you actually had to turn your head to follow the action. Now you get herded into a space the size of a large lounge room, with small uncomfortable seats and a screen the size of a bedsheet on which the film always seems to be slightly out of focus, and with the sound turned up almost to distortion level. Mind you, you need it loud to drown out all the cretins blabbing away on their mobiles and scrunching chip bags, like you mentioned.

@PZ - One film I could add to your list is Tora Tora Tora. It's a long film, with not much action at all for most of its running time, but it's interesting in that it's extremely historically accurate in the way it details the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbour. When the attack does come, it's breathtakingly realistic, much more so than the more recent Pearl Harbour movie, which was a special effects-driven snoozefest. I hate it when they relegate history to the background for some soppy, chick-flicky love triangle, like Titanic, another soporific ordeal.

I heard once that Where Eagles Dare was the inspiration for the original Castle Wolfenstein game. Just thought of another WW2 film that I like - The Eagle Has Landed.

Incidently, I heard that there's a remake of The Dambusters under way, with Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame involved in some capacity (not directing). May be one to watch out for.

I sat down last night to watch a dvd (blueray, to check it out and see how great this new PS3 format was ..... a bit meh, truth be told :( ), and My Cousin Vinny was on TV.

I never watch TV, but I love that movie and settled in to watch it. After about 25 minutes the ad's came on ....... I didnt know what to do, its so long since I sat down and watched TV, I had forgotten all about these spawns of satan...... no more TV for me I reckon :)

Although I'm familiar with alot from that list and I did like Von Ryans Express, I can't for the life of me think of a WW movie that I particularly liked.

So for my war movie I'm going to choose Red Cliff.

Its set in China in, I guess, medieval times and is basically about two generals pitting their wits against each other, at a place called Red Cliff.

One a minister, trying to usurp control of China, the other an unorthodox general loyal to the young emperor.

The movie is epic in scope, having a runtime of maybe 4 hours, but never once dropping the ball and decending into boredom.

It has tactics, comedy, pathos, action and a great sense of scale, its really one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Highly recommended.

Similar experience for me in the movie theaters - I go to one perhaps once every 3-4 years or so, and then only a week day matinee to reduce the probability of over crowding.  I really do not like the movie room experience (can't really call it a theater, can we).  The sound volume is so high that I often feel the need to plug my ears, and try to anticipate volume increases.  Another annoyance I find in productions these days is the insatiable need for the directors to use frequent lightning-like strobe effects - I really despise the programs where there are so many flashes of light in predictable patterns that it makes one feel like they are going to suffer an epileptic seizure.

My favorite way to watch movies these days is to purchase the DVD from the used shelves of my local video store - can usually get reasonably new titles for less that $5 or so.  Then I pop them into the upscaler and enjoy in the peace and quiet of my home with my sweetie.  To simulate the movie theater atmosphere, I mounted a projector (the kind you use for business presentations) to my ceiling and project the movie onto a white wall above the fireplace.  A rather inexpensive solution to enjoy movies at home.

@fragger - thanks for the "Tora, Tora, Tora" reminder - another one I enjoyed.  That also brought to mind "Midway" also with an all-star cast.

Just thought of an old favorite, The 1965 production of Flight of the Phoenix.

I'll still drop everything I'm doing and watch if that one pops up on the classic movie channel.

FYI

I merged the topic "movies discussion" with this one to avoid multiple recommendations and a fragmentation of the subject.

Also, we still have a merc movie topic as a "stand alone"here (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=434.0)  ;)

Thanks Art - I looked for a movie thread but never did find one.

@mandru - Flight of the Phoenix is great - Jimmy Stewart played a great role - if I'm not mistaken, it recently was, or is soon to be on either FMC or one of the classic movie channels that does not have advertisements.

Yeah, Flight of the Phoenix is a top movie, I saw that not long ago for the third time. There's a remake, I haven't seen it but I've heard that it's crummy.

Some films I could watch more than once (in no particular order):

Citizen Kane
True Grit (best thing John Wayne ever did)
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Alien (the original, the sequels are pale)
Apollo 13
The Out of Towners (the old Jack Lemmon one)
Little Big Man
The Seven Samurai
The Battle of Britain (just for the WW2 aircraft - I love 'em)
Lawrence of Arabia

These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure I could fill a page. I love some of the old-time actors like Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart (forgot to mention African Queen), James Cagney ("I made it, Ma! Top of the world!")... Not enough space here :) Thinking of more already.
Just like to add that Cyd Charisse had the best legs ever :P

Thanks PZ, will keep an eye out for it

Quote from: fragger on October 13, 2009, 02:15:35 AM

Alien (the original, the sequels are pale)

I loved the original Alien movie.

I got a hold of the "Alien the movie tie-in" paperback that became available several months before the film was released and I must have read it about 12 times before the movie premiered. The paperback was adapted by Alan Dean Foster a very prolific and a top personal favorite author.

It was so accurate to the storyline that when I finally saw the movie I could do a 3, 2, 1, now for every time the Alien would strike. For me anyway, Foster's writing style is so smooth that I forget that I'm reading and experience something more like sensory submersion. The friend that I went to the movie with spent about six hours afterward asking me questions about things in the movie that he had missed because of how ground breaking a w@&k the movie really was. I ended up giving him the book just to get some peace for me and answers for him.

A better choice could not have been made for someone to do the write up and the few variances between the tie-in and the movie I am sure had more to do with script changes made on the fly during shooting, after the original script had been delivered to Foster, than his efforts to clarify and put into his own words what he was describing from the original text. I would bet that if you could get a hold of a copy of that paperback it would, even after all this time and probably many viewings, fill in details that couldn't be picked up in the movie.

The Alien was a perfect monster. From a psychological standpoint if you interviewed 1000 people and asked them to describe 5 attributes a monster could have, that in a confrontation, would absolutely terrify them. I'm sure that about 95 percent of the collected responses would precisely apply to what made the Alien so darn scary.

Even though the line "Come here little girl" was not in the movie those four words to this day cause me to relive the storage room scene. Whew!

I saw the second movie and from it I decided that for me it would be best to skip the rest.

fragger, should you want to see Cyd Charisse... check this out ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviMoycMg4s

mandru and fragger, re: Alien

I was at the cinema when the first Alien movie was released and until today I believe it is a milestone in the Sci-Fi Horror genre, and for some reason I admired Sigourney Weaver, hehe. I love that movie, and I got it on VHS back in the day and now on DVD, various releases.

The "sequels" should not be compared to each other because each and every one of those represent the w@&k of different directors (apart from different storylines, too). If you look at it this way, you'll notice those directors had different "signatures" and if you watch them more than once, you might change your bearing on them.

I did like the second one because it was quite a bit of an action movie, sort of Rambo in Space, but I didn't like the prison planet one at first and for quite some time, only when I watched it again without comparing it to the other movies, I started to like it. The last one was cool again because it combined a many characteristics of the previous three. However, the best will always be the "original" first Alien.

I remember when Alien was released, they had a "Making of Alien" on TV, which I saw before the movie. It showed this little model Alien being pulled by a string onto a camera lens, So I figured that, no way that scene would scare me ..... boy was I wrong! :)

I remember getting my first surround sound system and Aliens on DVD, there was a scene in a laboratory, where Sig and the wee girl are hiding. Then a test tube drops to the floor and rolls from side to side, with the surround sound it sounded so freaky and scary, it was amazing.

I actually liked Alien 3, but the monster at the end was so rubbish, it kinda tarnished the whole movie.

I liked the spin off Alien vs Predator movie, with Lance Henriksen making a cameo appearence. A good action movie for a saturday night in. I really like Lance in movies, check out Near Dark, one of the best vampire movies ever made, Its kinda like The Lost Boys, but with balls.

There is an Alien Vs Predator game due Q1 2010, if its successful, there will be a spin off called Colonial Marines released about 6 months later.

There are also two very good PC games AvP and AvP2, well worth checking out (both FPS games).

Quote from: Art Blade on October 13, 2009, 09:03:23 AM
The "sequels" should not be compared to each other

I guess that did sound a tad shallow and opinionated back there, just like to add that the last thing I would expect is for everyone to agree with me! :) These are just my own subjective impressions.

Actually, "Aliens" is a good film, it just doesn't send me the way the first one did.

Quote from: mandru on October 13, 2009, 08:23:53 AM
and the few variances between the tie-in and the movie

Have you seen the director's cut, mandru? There's not much extra, but there is one scene in particular that is in the novel but was cut from the original film release. I won't say what, don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but you'll know it when you see it. I don't know why they cut it, it's a kind of important scene.

@Art, thanks for that Cyd link mate, some very nice photos there!  :-X

Thanks fragger, I'll have to look that up.  8)

And as far as opinions go, I learned long ago that my preferences and opinions may have no foundation in anyone else's reality and have learned to be agreeable with someone else disagreeing with me.  :)

I did not want anyone to start to apologise for their oppinions. It was my oppinion that the alien movies should have a fair chance by treating them seperately :)

Quote from: fragger on October 13, 2009, 02:15:35 AM

The Battle of Britain (just for the WW2 aircraft - I love 'em)

A great movie, here is my little list of movies that get played alot (good job a DVD wont get worn out like VHS)


i like all the StarWars stuff but Empire has to be my Favorite, and never really used to rate Tom Cruise as an actor but Last Samurai changed that, reckon its his best w@&k.

there are many, many more war films that could add to the list, mostly WW2 or Modern settings and not just English ones, 9th Company  is a good Russian-made film set in 1980's Afghanistan. Worth checking out.

I think Tom Cruise did well in "Collateral"

True. Though was more impressed by Jamie Foxx (good in The Kingdom too). Very talented man, stand-up comedy & film, and music ! not sort of thing would usually listen too but heard some in a Taxi and liked his piano playing.

On a comedy note a film i didnt list but really should of is "Cannonball Run" every time i see it cant help but laugh at the gags and tongue-in-cheek way it pokes fun at its cast. Fantastic film for a sunday afternoon chill. ;D

Quote from: RedRaven on October 14, 2009, 05:52:29 PM
a film i didnt list but really should of is "Cannonball Run" every time i see it cant help but laugh at the gags and tongue-in-cheek way it pokes fun at its cast. Fantastic film for a sunday afternoon chill. ;D

I loved the way Roger Moore sent himself up in that! :-X

One funny film I love is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I saw that when it first came out, I was in stitches before the opening credits were even over ;D The "Swedish" subtitles are a hoot! :-X

I also enjoy movies that are innovative, off-beat or a bit "out there".
Some examples:

Steppenwolf (really out there)
Jacob's Ladder
The Number 23
12 Monkeys
2001: A Space Odyssey
Eraserhead
Brazil

The last one's not to be confused with "Boys from Brazil", which is not a weird film at all, but quite interesting all the same.

I know some of the aforementioned films, and Brazil is outstanding. I loved the film ever since it was released, and have watched it countless times. Robert DeNiro this time only supporting actor, yet splendid.

Another couple of films in that direction I think are

Blade Runner 1982 (seen it at the cinema, and I have the original 1997 remastered Director's cut, when it was first released on DVD hehe)
Dark City 1998
Franklyn 2008/2009
Den brysomme mannen 2007/2008 [(German title, which isn't even German: Anderland. Aka The Bothersome Man (Canada: English title: festival title) ... aka Vandræðamaðurinn (Iceland)]

There are more, but can't recall them all, right now... I have so many DVDs :)

Das Boot, good WW2 sub movie, quite likely the best.

Yeah, das Boot 1981 (149 min) was cool.

But if, by any chance, you come across the director's cut 1997 (209 min), go get it. Wolfgang Petersen (director) supervised the new cutting himself and rearranged the entire film, obviously adding scenes that didn't make it into the cinemas due to the already quite long runtime. Petersen felt that those re-inserted scenes as well as the (chronological) rearrangement of various scenes resulted in a film he originally had intended. It's like watching a different film :)

Geez, how did I overlook the director's cut of Das Boot, considering that I own a copy! Yeah, it's quite different to the original theatrical version, much better I think, and considerably longer, as Art mentioned. I have it in the original German, which I prefer, even if it means reading subtitles. Tremendous movie.

A recent film which really impressed me is Downfall, about Hitler's last days. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film in 2005. Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler, gives an amazing performance, and the film is, as far as can be established, utterly historically accurate. I highly recommend this one for WW2 history buffs, as well as for anyone who simply enjoys a superb production.

Indeed, a good film, and a good decision to watch it undubbed (I always do that with foreign films, and when I don't speak that language, I read subtitles :) )

Another production that I liked is called "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" (2003)

Tagline "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Starring: Robert Carlyle as Hitler (geez, I already liked that actor a lot, but that was tremendous), and some more: Peter Stormare (also a great actor) as Ernst Röhm, and geez... Peter O'Toole (what happened to him, uniform way too big and stuffed? lol) as old von Hindenburg. Many more actors in it, good film.

What makes that film so special is "the rise" - starting with young Hitler and his family, his notorious attempts of becoming a great artist, the foundation of NSDAP etc... As far as I can tell, it is not really accurate but illustrates some aspects of Hitler you don't see often in films. If you ignore a few flaws... Example, you only get to see the SA (Röhm) but never the SS (Himmler). Quite a list of things missing, and well, Hitler himself... I like how Carlyle acts, sort of over the top, and kind of making you hate Hitler which is obviously intended. And those eyes, heavy.

* * *

I'd like to add a few words. You know it's coming from a German and I am aware of that, so I want to be clear about one thing: I have no sympathies whatsoever for him or what he stands for and all that. I am looking at history I was not part of.

* * *

The real person was successful (until, obviously, towards the end of the war) not because he was insane, mad, angry, always yelling, unstable or agitating, but because he had charisma and charm and was well-spoken. He knew the right words for those people to whom he addressed his speaches. Unfortunately.

I talked to eye-witnesses and read biographies, basically they concur in how he was a charming and charismatic person. Like, you wouldn't know what a freak he was until you saw what he did. My grandma was around 30 when she saw him once in person and would still remember his blue eyes, and she told me he didn't have black hair as pictures or films suggested, but blond. It was both interesting and disturbing to interview my grandma about stuff like that, especially because she seemed to have some fond memories. When I confronted her with that, like how she could remember those times with a smile on her face, she was like zoned. That only shows what kind of charismatic person he must have been, that even knowing what had happened, to be able to remember the good (if only imaginary) and to ignore the horrible truth.

I was quite lucky I had a chance to talk to her about all that, in private, because she passed away shortly after. The strange thing was that I kind of had a sensation what was going to happen and I thought, ask her now, or never.

However, if you are interested and if you haven't thought about checking Wiki... here's the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler

Quote from: Art Blade on November 02, 2009, 05:16:52 PM
I'd like to add a few words. You know it's coming from a German and I am aware of that, so I want to be clear about one thing: I have no sympathies whatsoever for him or what he stands for and all that. I am looking at history I was not part of.

I absolutely understand that, Art. I think that those of us here who have gotten to know you realise that you're too intelligent and decent a guy to be a Fuhrer fan :)

For me, I believe that for all his charisma and charm, Hitler was still an essentially soulless and despicable creature who brought untold misery upon the world, but he's long gone and Germany, like the rest of the world, has moved on.

Hitler, and what he created, should be remembered, but only in the sense of as a warning from the past. He should never, ever be admired or idolized, and present-day Germans should never be judged by what happened in their history.

Moldy oldies that are favs of mine include:

• The Long Long Trailer - Lucy and Desi
  
• Forever Darling - Lucy and Desi
  
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
• The Great Race
• Duel (Spielberg's first) and my all time favorite movie - must have watched it over a hundred times.
• The Train - Burt Lancaster
• Emperor of the North - lee Marvin
• All the old Clint Eastwood Westerns
• Many of the Howard Hawks John Wayne westerns: Eldorado, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, McClintock, etc.
• Once Upon a Time in the West - Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda
  

Hey PZ... reading your post I rememberred and oldie I saw many moons ago and just loved it...
"The Savage Innocents" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053244/), filmed in 1959!
Starring Anthony Quinn and Peter O'Toole.
An eskimo accidentally kills a guy in a village and a police officer is sent into the snowy Alaska to arrest him... the thing is that is a white man in an eskimo's land and the cultural encounter is fascinating... a must see!!

Thanks for the recommenation, JRD - that movie reminds me of a similar one that I can't remember the name of - Charles Bronson is a guy in Alaska that is liiking for some insane trapper.

Yes, cheers, JRD, sounds like an interesting film :-X

I like Anthony Quinn, great actor. It's funny how many people think he's Greek, because of Zorba no doubt, but he was actually born in Mexico, and was of Irish and Mexican extraction.

Btw, I like your new avatar. He didn't eat Beetle, did he? ;D

@PZ, could that be Breakheart Pass?

Quote from: fragger on November 03, 2009, 03:51:08 PM
@PZ, could that be Breakheart Pass?

I was thinking the same, but I recalled something about a train in Breahheart Pass - just did a search on Charles Bronson and came up with the title: "Death Hunt"

Another good Charles Bronson movie was Chato's Land

I haven't heard of "Death Hunt", I thought I knew all his films. Must try and find.

"Chato's Land" is one of his best, I think, great movie :-X

I would like to recommend some irish films as they dont get around too much on the international scene.

I would suggect that all of these films are mature and excellent films in ther own right and wish everyone could get to see them.

The Quiet Man (John Wayne returns to Ireland from America)

The Field (Tom Berenger returns to Ireland from America, and gets embroiled in a land feud).

The Commitments (A great rock movie about setting up a band, incredibly funny).

Michael Collins (Dramatisation of Irelands fight for Independance).

Into the West (Two boys go in search of their dead mother, a road trip with a difference).

The Snapper (A teenage girl gets pregnant in Dublins Inner City and how she and her family cope with it, a very funny film).

Just caught the last half hour of "Forbidden Planet" the other day, the great-grand-daddy of awesome scifi films. Even now, it still holds up, mostly, and is not your typical shlocky 50's scifi film. One of the best.

Robby the robot - need I say more?

@Fiach, I've seen the Commitments twice, it's hilarious! That bouncer/drummer is hysterical. Cool flick :-X

I've heard of the Quiet Man and Michael Collins, but haven't seen either.
Thanks for the recommendations, mate. I'm always on the lookout for lesser-known, good movies :-X

@D_B, Forbidden Planet is a surprisingly intelligent film, as you say, not B-grade 50's drek. Very impressive and innovative, given the time when it was made.
Btw, I once had a book (since gone by the wayside) which contained all sorts of behind-the-scenes stuff re old sci-fi films, and it had a section on Robby. That suit was a bitch to w@&k in! It was really made of steel, not something lightweight that only looked like steel, so it weighed a ton. It was also packed full of motors and things to drive the twirly things on its head and some other stuff, so there wasn't much room left over for the operator. It got stinking hot inside, and if you were in it and fell over you could do yourself a serious injury. That's why you never see him walk very fast and only take small steps in films; the operator inside had to be VERY careful not to fall ;D

I'd be interested to find out where it is now, probably in the Smithsonian or some such place.

I found out - he (it) is currently owned by a film director named William Malone. I wonder if he's tried it on...

There's actually a wikipedia article about it, that suit has sure clocked up some mileage in filmdom! It's here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot

Yeah Alan Parker directed the Commitments, best line ....

What do you play?
Soccer.
I mean musical Instrument?
None
Why are you here?
I saw the queue, I thought you were selling drugs .....

:)

LOL  ;D

And nice wiki link to robby  :-X

Quote from: Fiach on November 05, 2009, 07:02:50 AM
the Commitments, best line ....

That's the line that stayed with me! ;D ;D

Yeah, well the same guy wrote The Snapper, so you should enjoy that too if you decide to check it out :)

Cheers Fiach :)

Just back to Robby for a moment, I found out I was wrong about him being made of steel (just goes to show, you should never accept unsubstantiated hearsay). He was rubber and plastic, but still heavy due to the sheer amount of stuff that made him up.
When I thought some more after writing that post, it occurred to me that if he was steel, he would literally weigh a ton and nobody would be able to budge him from inside, so I checked it out further. I can't remember where I heard that originally, obviously it was BS.
Just wanted to clear that up. :-[

cheers mate, saved me the trouble of checking it out myself :)

A couple of members (not naming names, but it was mmosu and Fiach) mentioned Mad Max in the Borderlands thread, so this gave me a flaccid excuse to bring up the leather-clad one here.

The original Mad Max movie is, in my view, a pretty terrible movie - apart from some of the hurtling action, which can be quite spectacular. The acting is terrible, the music is terrible, and the characterization is terrible.

Then there's Mad Max 2 (known in the US as "The Road Warrior"). The acting is terrible (mostly) and the dialogue is terrible (mostly).

Then came Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. This had terrible acting (mostly) and terrible dialogue (mostly) and was generally a pretty lousy movie.

But out of the three, for various reasons, I really like Mad Max 2 (Road Warrior). What it lacks in thespian ability and writing prowess, it more than makes up for in imagination and raw action. It also has what I consider to be one of the longest and most breathtaking vehicular chase sequences ever filmed. The characterization may seem pretty silly, and some of it is, but actually many of the characters are not so far-fetched, given the premise and an understanding of the Aussie character. Should the world ever go to war over oil shortages (if it isn't already), I can really see a situation like the one depicted in the film coming about in outback Oz. The over-the-top depiction of the bad guys notwithstanding, if you are at all familiar with the Australian character, and its people in general, some of the characters in the film come across as quite familiar, i.e. like normal domestic neighbours suddenly finding themselves in an apocalyptic situation. This film, to me as an Aussie, manages to be both brilliant and pretty crappy at the same time – no mean feat.

The best version is the original Aussie one. When it was released in America, it was overdubbed as it was thought that most Americans wouldn't be able to understand Aussie accents. To be brutally honest about this, I think that as long as they continue to do that, Americans will never know what we really sound like – hence all the abominable "Aussie" accents that I hear in American movies and TV shows. They sound nothing whatsoever like Aussies, more like a cross between Cockneys and South Africans. It's an accent that exists nowhere on Earth. I've seen the dubbed version, and in my opinion, it sounded atrocious, and it stank. The original Aussie version is the way to go – just listen carefully, you'll get us. Especially the introductory and closing narration by New Zealand actor Harold Baigent. For the US "Road Warrior" version, this was replaced with a voiceover by an actor with a southern US accent. Baigent's original narration is tremendous, he has an amazingly resonant, character-filled voice, and it really leads into the film well.

I highly recommend any members who liked the Road Warrior to try and see the original Aussie version, if they haven't already – and try to get the R-rated one with extra footage. I believe it's worlds apart from the US version. It's not world-shattering film-making, but it's got something going for it. What that is, I'm not too sure exactly, but I find it oddly riveting.

Yeah, some americans think Mel Gibsons accent is aussie :)

I liked all three for different reasons;

1. The car
2. The chase
3. Tinas outfit.

I only have the US version, my mate who lives in NZ, said basically the same thing as you Fragger, I think you use a diff region code to here for DVD's, otherwise I would get to post me a copy.

Nice read there though :)

English version dubbed with another English version...  :D

Cheers guys :)

Tina's outfit is a big plus, I must admit, Fiach :-X Plus that lady really knows how to strut around in heels :-X

Btw, there's a Mad Max 4 just gotten underway, no Mel though. Considering his mucking around with young floosies and verbally bitch-slapping Jews lately, that's probably not a bad thing ;D I think that guy's lost the plot, personally - it's about time he hung up his leathers and took a reality pill. Anyway, he's a bit long in the tooth for the whole revenge-seeking revhead thing.

@Art, English is a nutso language sometimes, at least between English-speaking countries. Aren't you glad you're Deutsch? At least with German films, there's a valid reason for subtitling, for the benefit of us English-speaking dummkopfs who can't understand one another ;D

Heh, you wouldn't believe how many strong dialects we have, and we don't understand one another, either, if we're confronted with a dialect from a far-away region of this country  ;D

Yeah, maybe Mel just wants to direct, I prefer him doing that than acting tbh, all his own movies are exceptionally good.

Beyond the Thunderdome, yeah it's a favorite.   :-X

While more polished than it's two predecessors it still had bits that were rough as a dried corncobs for toilet tissue. But there were some concepts that come through that were astounding.

I am devastated by the think w@&k that went into scripting the Lost Children's daily lessons scene where they recited "the way it was and what they were anticipating" when Max first came into their oasis.

"I tell the "tell"" the eldest girl, Savannah Nix, starts out and while she talks there's a frame w@&k on a pole made of tree limbs held together with bits of vine and sinew that is exactly the proportions of a television screen and while she recites that grammatically broken but earnest story of their abandonment and hope for coming rescue the frame focuses her audience's attention on each significant section of the the wall drawings that illustrate her words.


The words tell, tale and television had all been blended into a single concept.

In that scene when the wind came up and the children, leading Gibson's character, all ran out to the airliner downed by either an empty fuel tank or from being slapped by an Electric Magnetic Pulse smashing it's control systems. I couldn't help but see that small tribe as a restless message in a bottle. Had they been a group of children loaded onto a flight evacuated towards a safe haven while parents remained behind to an uncertain fate?

Though they lived in a virtual Eden they couldn't wait for the restoration of the promises their dim and imperfect memories told them were awaiting them on the other side of an ocean of sand.

The final words of the movie:

"Time counts and keeps countin', and we knows now finding the trick of what's been and lost ain't no easy ride. But that's our trek, we gotta' travel it. And there ain't nobody knows where it's gonna' lead.

Still in all, every night we does the tell, so that we 'member who we was and where we came from... but most of all we 'members the man that finded us, him that came the salvage.

And we lights the city, not just for him, but for all of them that are still out there. 'Cause we knows there come a night, when they sees the distant light, and they'll be comin' home."

(Whew!) It gives me the shivers.

Reminds me of FallOut3, the Lamplight Cavern. It's a post-nuclear world, and in that cavern live children, they have a mayor, a cook, a doctor etc, all children. And they have a teacher, teaching knowledge from old books. When they've grown up, they get kicked out to go to Big City, that's where the older children live. The promised land. Until they get caught by some slavers or similar unpleasant beings. All that reminds me of The Last Man Alive, a novel by Scottish author Alexander Sutherland Neill, and of The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

There was dialog in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior? Seriously, I bet if you typed it all out it wouldn't fill a page. I think it's about 15-20 minutes into the movie before anybody says anything, except for the voice-over. One of my all-time favorites, though. I do have the first one on DVD and one of the alternate audio tracks is the original Aussie-speak dialogue, though I can't say for sure if I've even watched it.

As for the third one, I was also more interested in the situation of the kids in the oasis than the whole bartertown scenario, if they are making a fourth film, I hope they fill out that story of what those kids are doing in the ruins of Sydney than any other story they might come up with.

And, of course, there's the wet rip-off version that Kevin Costner made, called "Waterworld" but it's essentially The Road Warrior on water. There are even some shots that are almost exact copies of ones in The Road Warrior. Still, not as bad a movie as some people make it out to be, especially the longer version which makes a little more sense. Sometimes when they trim for running time, they cut too much and just leave it confusing, like that awful wreck The Avengers. Bleccch.

I agree, D_B, the part of Beyond Thunderdome that I found most interesting was the story concerning the kids. I thought they handled that extremely well, the way the kids spoke, the unspoken inferences about how they came to be there, and so on. And I agree with mandru, it was quite moving and thought-provoking when you thought about it.

With all MM films, I often find the concepts and background ideas more interesting than the actual on-screen stories. The attention to detail in them is great, there's lots to look at and to take notice of.

I do know that at least part of MM4 is being filmed in an abandoned warehouse in, I think, Sydney, so maybe we will learn a bit more about what happened to the kids after they reached what was left of the city.

Bit of trivia: Bruce Spence, who played the gryo-captain in MM2 and the pilot in MM3 was the man behind the mask in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, as the Mouth of Sauron, who comes out of the Black Gates to parley with Aragorn and the others. You can't see him behind the mask of course, and they CG'd his mouth to make it look hideous, but that was him.

@Art, Lord of the Flies is a fascinating book, a great treatise on how rapidly people (or kids) can revert to a primitive state once the trappings of a civilized community have been removed. I must read that again soon, it's been ages since I did. It's now been filmed twice, the first time I think in the 60s, in B&W. That was quite good. I haven't seen the later version.

Well hello Mad Max fans. I love Mad Max. IMHO they are the best movies. Ever. Period.

:-X

I was thinking of the old movie "West World" (with Yul Brynner playing a robot gunslinger).  The reason that this movie popped into mind is that I'm currently playing FarCry 2, Fallout 3, and the new Assassin's Creed 2, each game completely different from the other - kind of like moving from one fantasy area to another in West World - each attractive, but for completely different reasons.

Oh man, WestWorld! I loved it when it was on TV about 30 years ago and, for sentimental reasons, I bought it on DVD not long ago. Still good  ;D

Not to mention the sequal, Futureworld. Westworld was better though.

For those of you who like to watch something totally and utterly away from mainstream cinema:


Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman

It's about a man whose life slowly degrades, he loses his wife (she walks away with his four-year-old daughter) and turns him into someone who starts blending fantasies with reality. Hoffman plays a man who is professionally settled around theater, and decides to buy a large compound somewhat resembling a hangar to rebuild his life on stage. Creating appartments, houses, streets, and casting actors who play roles of people of his life, he transfers his life to a stage play. Slowly, the movie erases the borders of reality, and you start to immerse yourself into that wondrous piece of the unknown... Intermitting sequences that demonstrate he lost his sense of time, thinking his wife left him last week, while she left him a year ago... his so-believed little daughter has turned into a teenager... Following the stages of decay, hope, fear and borderline to madness, everything being somehow lovely and calm, no violence, yet strange as can be, you are dragged into the world of this film and it will stick with you, at least a little, after you have switched off your screen.

Give it a try :)

Sounds good, cheers Art :-X

in ref to Westworld, cant think of Yul Brynner without it bringing to mind Bill Hicks and his sketch about Yul's bald noggin. Very funny.

Started to watch a Russian film called "Night Watch" last night, what I saw before falling asleep was really good. Its the old story of Good VS Evil / Light VS Dark. But with some interesting ideas and special effects. Set in modern day Moscow, and mostly in Russian although the intro/narration was in English.
Its native title is Nochnoy Dozor, here is the IMDB link.

iirc there is a sequel/prequel clled Daywatch, maybe a videogame too if I'm not mistaken, never played it, though I seem t remember less than favourable reviews.

sweet, cheers :-X

This one goes for Red (and everybody else, of course...)
A russian film named STALKER... yes, STALKER... from 1979 (7 years before the disaster), about a zone of exclusion in the soviet union created after some kind of accident!!
Sounds familiar?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(movie)

Didn`t see it, but sparkled something in my mind  ;)

Cheers JRD, saw it a few years ago, its on odd film but good (as far as my brain can recall).  The game is very loosely based on the film, more like inspired by. Cant recall off top of my head which, but one of the bigger mods for stalker adds pages from the book into your PDA so you can read it whilst in the Zone (which I think is a cool idea).


Have heard that a film called "The Hurt Locker". going to watch it this weekend.

Geez... and I thought I was being original...  ;D

you are THE original JRD, JRD.  :)

Book of Eli this weekend.... anyone else going? I am.

Looks really good. Denzel Washington, Gary Oldham & Michael Gambon are first rate actors.
Oh and Tom Waits too :) .

Quote from: RedRaven on January 15, 2010, 02:15:06 AM
Looks really good. Denzel Washington, Gary Oldham & Michael Gambon are first rate actors.
Oh and Tom Waits too :) .

Man... Tom Waits... he's great... singing, playing and also acting  :-X

Tom Waits is a real crazy man, his music is clever and surreal. And he always tends to play complete Basket-cases in movies too.  :-X

Tom Waits for no man!

Sorry, couldn't resist...

took me a split second thinking "wth" and then I got it ;D ;D ;D

 ;D ;D

Just wondering if anyone else has seen this movie Glorious Basterds .  I watched it the other night, and it was very interesting as it contains a significant re-write of WWII history - a "what if it had gone this way" type of scenario.  Overall I found it very entertaining and thought provoking if only in a hypothetical way (I don't want to give too much away for those who haven't seen it).  It also had lots of interesting dialogue and banter between the characters (who were themselves equally interesting).  Any other opinions out there?

Topic started here and has been merged with movie recommendations. /Art

I am still waiting for it to be released on DVD. Friends of mine who watched it at the cinema thought it was good :)

Man... as I arrived at the movie theatre it was sold out (I should've got it online  :D ) so I watched Julie and Julia instead... nice movie, made me hungry  ;D ;D

i liked the gestapo guy , he was awesome, pretty good film, but i was expecting a dirty dozen movie with more action, but once i got into it i really enjoyed it alot.

Yeah, agreed on that actor Fiach, I don't recall his name but he played the part extremely well.  In fact I felt the acting was very strong overall, especially with the number of fake accents some of the characters went through.  It was believable, and that's what good acting is all about at the end of the day.  My favorite character was the one they called the "Bear Jew" - I loved the scene where he used the Nazi officers head for batting practice, that would be a nasty way to go but he deserved it  ;D

Yeah, great flick, and as usual with Tarantino's stuff, a long build up to some very intense action, then another long build up. Lots of talking and subtitles, so if that turns you off, you might want to think again about seeing it.

Now, moving up a couple wars, there's "Hurt Locker" which is IMO a must see for EVERYONE.

cheers, will keep my eyes peeled for that one, D_B  :)

I heard Hurt Locker is intense.

was going to see Hurt Locker at the weekend but things changed so will be next weekend, read and heard some really good reviews about it, also unusually for a war film its directed by a woman too.  Looking forward to it.

Yeah, I think it's one of the best films I've seen in a few years.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers: The Comedy of Errors.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2702592702804198144#  pt.#1 1:01:51

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2702592702804198144#docid=8492497755937114017  pt.#2 1:08:56

I'm going to apologize in advance for a few reasons.

1. What I'm gong to put forward isn't exactly a movie.

2. While funny it is corny. When I say corny I mean it's whole kernel corn dipped into a batter of corn meal and corn whiskey and deep fried in corn oil corny.

3. Only part of its corniness is how old it is. It was taped in 1987 and while the video quality suffers it is passable.

4. Bad news: It's not exactly a movie and it's Shakespeare. Good news it's available as a free download so if the overload of corniness pushes you into anaphylactic shock you can shut it off, seek emergency medical attention and you are not out the price of a movie ticket!

5. Did I mention it is corny?

OK, now that I've probably scared you completely away I have try to win you back.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers are a comedy juggling troupe that got their start as street performers and worked their way up through Renaissance Fairs, TV variety shows, some commercials and even played the band of desert nomads that captured actor Danny DeVito and taught him to fire walk in the Michael Douglass' movie The Jewel of the Nile.

These irreverent, irrelevant pranksters get inside this classic Shakespearean play and stretch it so far out of shape that you wouldn't recognize it except for the persistence of that quick paced pun riddled archaic dialect it was written in.

There were parts of this that struck me as being so funny I almost split a gut laughing.

One sight gag that was paired up with the line "Behold a man much maligned" and when I recognized the person who was standing on the balcony instead of the innocent brother, who in any other production would have been there, caused me to laugh so hard I missed several of the following lines of dialog.

It may not be your cup of tea and you may have to shut it off without reaching the end but I am willing to bet that you will get a couple good laughs if only in the first 5 minutes of pt #1.

Oh by the way, the clown with the broom in that first 5 minutes, for those of you that saw Jewel of the Nile, you may recognize him as the Jewel.   ;)

I saw this when it first aired on one of the PBS channels (Public Broadcasting Stations sponsored in part by the U.S. government) and thought it was lost forever. I only stumbled back across it two nights ago while trying to describe a performance I'd seen in the early '80s by the Flying Karamazov Brothers at a street fair in Seattle. When I tried to Google them I hit the jackpot!

Hey! If Shakespeare had known about cream pies you can bet he would have included them into many of his scripts.  ;D

Phew :)

I've just finished watching Part1. "Hey, where're you going, this is my monologue!" :)
And "on doomsday, she'd burn a week longer than the rest of the world." omg  ;D 

Quite artistic, flawless, funny (It didn't make me laugh out loud, but it kept me smiling most of the time) and a strange mixture of circus with stage play.

I liked the clown the most :)

Quote from: Art Blade on January 22, 2010, 07:24:54 PM

Quite artistic, flawless, funny (It didn't make me laugh out loud, but it kept me smiling most of the time)

People are more likely to laugh out loud in a group than they are when they see the same thing alone.

That group dynamic was something I hadn't considered when posting this. These guys were street performers and having been to several of their live shows where the audience was a spontaneous flash crowd, I've probably been infected and preconditioned by contagious laughter syndrome.

If I see them do something silly I laugh because I've experienced them while being part of a crowd. I guess I have that auto response already programmed into me. That reaction may not be transmittable through video. Pity, out loud laughter is a great exercise for the heart.   ;D

In the first five minutes of the start that I mentioned in my post above, where the clown puts his hat on and it seemingly disappears, his startled reaction when he finds the hat again almost caused me to pitch over backwards in my chair I was laughing so hard.

Having already been exposed to their over the top silliness I have no auto-immune protection against it. Live contact contamination etched my threshold of resistance away long ago.  ;)

At least I've watched the entire first part (one hour) to get an idea, but I couldn't motivate myself to go for the second part in a row. Probably a thing to remember, you know, for rainy days :)

I've just watched Inglorious Basterds on DVD.

Beforehand, especially to RedRaven: This might be something for you as there is a lot of German involved, with subtitles. The German is authentic, apart from strong accents imitating Hitler and Goebbels way of speaking and the fact that they used language spoken back then (avoiding fashion words and modern expressions). They really used real German actors (finally someone did)! So for me it was fun to watch, language-wise, and I thought the French at the beginning and sometime in between sounded rather accurate, but I can't tell if it really was.

The film itself made me feel uncomfortable most of the time, for two reasons. In general, that is good because I believe it was intentional.

1) The way the movie presented the inhumanly evil, insidious and sadistic Nazi called "Jew Hunter," Col. Hans Landa (Austrian -- not German-- actor Christoph Waltz) with his great rethorical ability and at the same time great mimic and acting was a complete success.

2) The way they set it up was, well, outrageous. But that is Tarantino style, and I can live with it. I never felt uncomfortable with his style before, but the mixture of using his own style along with that kind of subject and of course the way he presented it was not comedy. It was a tragedy, a drama. There were a couple of moments that bore some dark humor, but it really is not a comedy. Something new in Tarantino. Usually he's so over the top (and under, as well) that you expect nothing less, but hey, here he treated a sensible theme and a historic subject. Weird, crazy, outrageous, but not funny.

Like that, this movie actually made me feel something again, which had gone lost with all those cliché movies out there. So, I am thankful, he managed to show less horror (the brutal scenes were over-the-top and almost a welcome relief) but make the audience feel more of the horror of Nazi-Deutschland than most of the flicks out there do.

Kudos, Tarantino  :-X

Cheers Art, been wanting to see it for a while now. My first exposure to Tarantino was Pulp Fiction, went to see it at the cinema and when the end credits started to roll I went straight back to the ticket booth for the next showing, then went again the day after with a few friends who had not seen it. Since then I've been waiting for him to tackle a war film. Now just need to see it.

Finally got to see The Hurt Locker at the weekend, very good film. Not like any other war film I've seen. Dont want to say too much about it so as not to spoil it for those who have not seen it. I do recommend it to anyone who enjoys films of that genre. If for no other reason than is set in a current and on-going conflict, unlike the vast majority of war films which are 'after the fact'. There has been a few films made and released set within the second Iraq conflict but would say this is the best one yet. Director Kathryn Bigelow also directed Strange Days & K-19 Widowmaker. Both good films too.
Will certainly be getting the DVD as soon as its released. :-X

did you just mention strange days?! I love that film!  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on January 26, 2010, 05:17:08 PM
did you just mention strange days?! I love that film!  :-X

Sure did, was first film saw Tom Sizemore in, he is a good and under-rated actor I reckon. Think he is really good in Saving Private Ryan & Black Hawk Down as well as Strange Days. And speaking of Strange Days, wonder how long it will be until the 'wet-ware' technology in it will become THE way to play games ???
If any of you like Sci-fi films that are dark, mature story based as opposed to fancy effects and expensive sets then you should check it out. It is a very good example of 'near-future' possibilities (although a little out of date as its set on new years eve 1999, but it was made way back in 1995).

And as a bonus its got Vincent D`Onofrio in it too :-X

(ps- cheers for merging topics Art, meant to suggest it yesterday but forgot!)

I've meant to merge it earlier, but as long as we kept to that particular film, I let it go on, and now that we started deviating, it really was about time  ;D

The film Strange Days is so, so cool. Still is! Absolutely must-see. A film of near equal qualities regarding dark future springs to mind, called Blade Runner. 1982, and still cool (cult) :)

Quote from: Art Blade on January 26, 2010, 05:54:19 PM
The film Strange Days is so, so cool. Still is! Absolutely must-see. A film of near equal qualities regarding dark future springs to mind, called Blade Runner. 1982, and still cool (cult) :)

Some great recommendations guys, I haven't seen Strange Days, The Hurt Locker or Inglorious Basterds, but I've been encouraged by your comments here to do so.

Art mentioned Blade Runner, that's a film I really like too, although I can't see L.A. looking like that  just 9 years from now ;D There's a Director's cut of it, but as far as I can recall it doesn't add a great deal to the film's running time. Still worth checking out though.

It's funny how time catches up with films set in the future, only to reveal how far off the mark they end up being. Nobody can predict the future of course, but sometimes I feel that they don't set these films far enough in the future. But then, I remember when 2001: A Space Odyssey came out around 1968. I was just a kid, but the "Space Race" was in top gear, the moon landings were imminent and at the time the idea didn't seem unreasonable at all that by 2001 there's be moon bases, Pan-Am space shuttles and orbital Hiltons. In fact, at that time I fully expected that by this  time I'd be able to take a holiday on the moon. Now it's 2010, and there's no moon bases, no orbital Hiltons, no Pan-Am space shuttles, and no Pan-Am. Alas... another childhood dream shattered...

Quote from: fragger on January 27, 2010, 02:22:10 AM
although I can't see L.A. looking like that  just 9 years from now ;D 

Probably look more like Waterworld !


Seriously though, if you enjoy Bladerunner then I reckon you will like Strange Days. As its set in 1999 its not filled with hover cars and laser blasters.


When the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" came out watched the original with a friend before we went to see it. The original is brilliant, as for the remake - well, I fell asleep in the cinema :-\ . Have since attempted to sit and watch it 3 times but ended up doing other things as it played in the background. Shame really as Jennifer Connelly is a really good actress, right back to Labrynth with David Bowie.


Another good film with a twist is "Requiem for a Dream" by Darren Aronofsky. His earlier film "Pi" (as in 3.14159.....). Its black and white, but don't let that put you off. Its an interesting piece of film.

Quote from: RedRaven on January 27, 2010, 04:09:41 AM
Probably look more like Waterworld !

;D ;D

I've heard the same critiques as yours of the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. A real snoozefest, evidently. I don't know why they bother.

I've heard of Pi, that's one I just haven't gotten around to yet, but want to.

I foresee a trip to the DVD rentals tomorrow. Or rather, the day after tomorrow, when I don't have to get up for w**k the next day.

Hmmm... "The Day After Tomorrow"... good name for a film ;D

I've got "Pi" for quite some time now and it is an interesting film. Nice reminder, Red :)

fragger, lol, someone in the past must have snuck up right behind you posting it, returned to the past, and made a bloody film called just that  ;D

Heh, I've just watched "Doghouse" on DVD (British horror comedy). Although I usually understand spoken English well, that was once again an example of how strong accents can be, a few of those lines were beyond me  ;D (London cockney and, if I'm not mistaken, scouse (Liverpool) accents) I like these accents, funny to listen to, but geez, if they're really on it... Especially Danny Dyer and Stephen Graham, love them!

Many films with either one or both of them, and more "lads" (Jason Statham and others) make me rub my hands in anticipation when I see "the gang" had been casted for yet another film. Some of those British films that I liked:

Snatch
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Human Traffic
Layer Cake
RocknRolla
This Is England
Severance
Revolver
The Bank Job
High Heels and Low Lifes

Out of that list have to say Layer cake is my favourite, some truely hilarious moments and an excellent cast. Colm Meaney is a much under-rated actor (probably better known as Chief O'brien in StarTrek TNG and DS9) but has done so much other stuff, very funny in Con Air too.

A couple of other British films you may want to check out are

Doomsday - Scifi / near future film with Rhona Mitra and Bob Hoskins.
Dog Soldiers - Small Army squad vs Werewolves in the Scottish highlands.

Both not as serious as the one as Art listed, but good fun.

I don't know if those are "serious" (apart from This Is England) -- they just sprung to mind. I've got that Doomsday, too :) But I don't think I've seen Dog Soldier.

Ahh, finally remembered this here (funny film)

Death at a Funeral

Quote from: Dweller_Benthos on January 18, 2010, 12:04:26 PMthere's "Hurt Locker" which is IMO a must see for EVERYONE.

Although I don't know why everyone must see it, I agree that it is a very good non-WWII/non-vietnam war film. As RedRaven already mentioned, it's a very good film based around an ongoing conflict. I think it's probably the best anti-war film based on Iraq conflict. Mmosu alreay used a single word about it, and I think it's the first one I could think of to describe it: "intense."

What I very much like about it is the absence of the genre-typical "we are heroes (but we deny to say so)" cliché. Disturbingly close to what I wouldn't like to witness or live through myself, presented in a way that reminds me of blank bones freed from glorious flesh. Nice  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on February 09, 2010, 12:17:14 PM

Quote from: Dweller_Benthos on January 18, 2010, 12:04:26 PMthere's "Hurt Locker" which is IMO a must see for EVERYONE.

Although I don't know why everyone must see it

I would say it is a must see for fans of war films, really enjoyed it and will get the DVD at some point. It has 9 oscar nominations (picture, director, actor, screenplay and others) which says something. Unfortunately it is up against Avatar for picture & director.

Invictus looks to be a good film too, Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman are both good actors, Clint Eastwood is proving to be a good director too. Films about sport don't generally interest me but this one has.

Who remembers "TRON" ?  Tron Legacy is due out in december and is getting the 3d treatment too. Both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner (always be Captain Sheridan for me ;D ) are both in it too. Official trailer at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HcsDc_9LX8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HcsDc_9LX8)

fingers crossed for a good film and not just a cash-cow for Disney.

Quote from: RedRaven on February 09, 2010, 02:33:59 PM

Quote from: Art Blade on February 09, 2010, 12:17:14 PM

Quote from: Dweller_Benthos on January 18, 2010, 12:04:26 PMthere's "Hurt Locker" which is IMO a must see for EVERYONE.

Although I don't know why everyone must see it

Who remembers "TRON" ?  Tron Legacy is due out in december and is getting the 3d treatment too. Both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner (always be Captain Sheridan for me ;D ) are both in it too. Official trailer at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HcsDc_9LX8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HcsDc_9LX8)

fingers crossed for a good film and not just a cash-cow for Disney.

I knew it was just a matter of time untill they decide to re-shoot TRON... an outstanding sci-fi movie, ages ahead of its time. Dictated how many movies would depict the future and how people would see it...

Too bad I lost faith in the movie industry.

Producers seems to lack whatever was around during the 60s-70s and 80s... recycling ideas has a limit and that limit was reached long ago.

First decade of our milennium is just a potpourri of the last three or four decades of the XX century.

Just so you don't say I'm over reacting, I admit there are a few good and new ideas out there, but you can count them in your fingers...

Agreed JRD, very few original ideas being hatched in Hollywood these days...

mmosu just beat me to it :) Was going to say about the exact same thing. So many films are so derivative these days, remakes, sequels, etc.

I watched TRON at the cinema, back then  ;D ;D ;D One of the masterpieces of sci-fi  :-X

Right now I've finished watching a Swedish film (hello deadman  :) ) which was really nicely done.

Män som hatar kvinnor (English Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

A cool thriller based on a novel by Stieg Larsson. An unlike couple, a mid-aged journalist and a young lady punk who got to know each other coincidentally, try to solve a missing person case: An old patriarch of a big company wants to know the truth about his long lost favourite family member. He believes it to be a murder case, closed unsolved some forty years ago. A lot of very dark secrets... I'd say "that's some crazy sh!$!"  :-X :-X :-X

Tron Legacy is a sequel, so there is at least a small chance it will be good.
In general totally agree with JRD/mmosu/fragger. To that end here is a short list of Films, TV shows, Computer games and Stories that some ignoramus Producers/Directors/Studio exec's have decided to throw obscene amounts of money at coming out in the near future.

> Clash of the Titans
> Conan
> A team
> Robin Hood
> A Nightmare on Elm Street
> The Karate kid
> Tekken
> Bioshock
> Gulliver's Travels
> Red Sonja

And there are, and no doubt will continue to be vast amounts of dross all trying to part us with our hard earned cash.

All this got me thinking, Films, TV shows and Songs all get re-done. But I cant think of any books that suffer the same fate!

Good point about books, Red. Who's ever heard of a rewrite?

That list of upcoming movies is pretty depressing. No wonder I don't go to the movies much anymore. Cor... I can't believe they keep churning out the same old formularic drivel. What's next - a remake of Santa Claus Conquers The Martians?

Oops, I shouldn't have said that - I'll be giving them ideas. Unfortunately, not original ones ;D




...The A-Team???  (shakes head in disbelief)... I wish there was an emoticon for "puke"

Hey... what`s wrong with th A team? It turned Mr. T into a celebrity... you can`t belittle that!  ;D ;D ;D ;D

I used to watch the A team and loved it... of course, I was nine!!!  ::)

Agree that it doesn`t deserve a movie... AT ALL!!!

And Conan? Who`s gonna play the main character? They can`t beat Arnie....  ;D
Thats a movie I really love... for its own brute, rough nature... Arnie barely speaks, Conan doesn`t need words, only blood 8)

Quote from: JRD on February 10, 2010, 04:01:15 AM
Hey... what`s wrong with th A team? It turned Mr. T into a celebrity... you can`t belittle that!

Now he does the adverts for Snickers bars, oh and one for World of Warcraft :P .

Conan is rumoured to be played by a guy called Jason Momoa , he was in stargate atlantis, the tall guy with dreadlocks. No one can ever take Arnie's place as the true Conan.

Think its lazy of the movie powers that be to redo Clash of the Titans too, its not like there is a shortage of Greek heroes to write about. And no matter how much cash they throw into it CGI versions of Medusa, The Kraken and little old Bubo will never have the magic of Ray Harryhausen's animations.
And surprise surprise its coming out as a computer game too! Its not like Warner Bros haven't got the funds or people to do something new and interesting. God damned corporate whore mongering sons fo £%*$%*"£(*^"(*^£(&^)("& :D :D .

Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong had a pre-release teaser "The making of Peter Jackson's King Kong" that was longer than the original (and still best) release of King Kong.

Quote from: Art Blade on February 09, 2010, 05:24:19 PM
I watched TRON at the cinema, back then  ;D ;D ;D One of the masterpieces of sci-fi  :-X

Right now I've finished watching a Swedish film (hello deadman  :) ) which was really nicely done.

Män som hatar kvinnor (English Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

A cool thriller based on a novel by Stieg Larsson. An unlike couple, a mid-aged journalist and a young lady punk who got to know each other coincidentally, try to solve a missing person case: An old patriarch of a big company wants to know the truth about his long lost favourite family member. He believes it to be a murder case, closed unsolved some forty years ago. A lot of very dark secrets... I'd say "that's some crazy sh!$!"  :-X :-X :-X

You do know yhat it´s a trilogy don´t you? the third movie just opened here in sweden a few weeks ago.

I wasn't sure, thanks for the info. So I need to find the other films. Any idea which is which, like 1,2,3? :) And, did you watch them/your opinion? ;D

The one you saw are the first one, the next one is called " The girl who played with fire" and the last one is called "The girl who kicked the hornet´s nest". No I haven´t senn them or read the books, they are called "the millenium trilogy" btw.

thank you very much  :)

on a sidenote, I have to add, I enjoyed the film subtitled. It was actually so much fun to read German and hear Swedish, because with the aid of the text, I often felt like saying "of course!" to a lot of words, even sentences, they were amazingly close to German and English. I remember the conversation we had some time ago about the roots of our languages, and again it was quite unbelievable how closely related a lot of our words are. I wouldn't have understood half of it without subtitles, but while reading them, I almost felt like I didn't need them  ;D

I wish I could say the same about german for me  ;D without subtitles I´m hopelessly lost  :P

yes, without them I'd be lost too. But, if listening AND reading the translation, it became quite clear for me what meant what. Something that worked quite well was to listen and to read, then "rewind" (jump back and repeat), and do it again, and again but only listen. Like that, I was able to understand a sentence or two  ;D

I watched "Inglorious Basterds" – and I'd have to say that for me, personally, it was one of the worst films I've ever had to force myself to sit through (I paid for it, so I was gonna watch it, squirm-inducing though I found it to be). It just confirmed my own opinion that Quentin Tarantino is one of the most grossly overrated film makers in history, and he has all the finesse and artistic flair of a demolition ball being swung by an insane gorilla on ice. Why this guy gets such kudos as he does is totally beyond me, unless mindlessness and a sledgehammer approach to film-making is synonymous with "artistic vision". He also evidently has an extremely tenuous grasp of history - Hitler asking a guard for chewing gum!? Since when did he ever chew gum? And what was with those reactions while watching that film in the cinema? It was one of the worst portrayals of that loathsome individual that I've ever seen. Not to mention the depiction of his face being riddled with Schmeisser rounds – very astute there, Quentin, very insightful  – the aesthetic world trembles before your brilliance.

The story was totally unbelievable and ludicrous to the point of stupefaction, its two and a half hour running time was about two hours and twenty minutes too long (with Tarantino's stock-in-trade interminable scenes of people sitting around a table talking irrelevant crap), the music choices were ridiculous and totally inappropriate (a David Bowie song in a WW2 film? Yeah, right), not to mention the way the music would just "chop off" at the end of a scene - very adroit. Brad Pitt's performance was abysmal and excruciating to watch, the dialogue was stilted and amateurish, as it is in all of Tarantino's films, and he employed all his usual infantile, cartoonish trademarks  – such as the animated, "chalk-drawn" arrow pointing to Hermann Goering as he entered the cinema. This crass, heavy-handed "director" makes Ed Wood look like Hitchcock.

And of course, there was his usual psychotic violence-for-violence-sake bloodlust showing through, as per normal. I get the feeling that if this guy wasn't getting it out of his system in films, he'd be out there doing it for real. He comes across as a borderline psychopath to me and quite honestly, I think he's a rather sick man, judging by his movie content and his "style".

That's the last of his schlocky, comic-booky films I'll ever insult my own intelligence with. I can't believe it got nominated for an Academy Award. Yet another of my suspicions confirmed – the Oscars are an absolute farce, if they consider celluloidal sceptic-tank scrapings like that to be worthy of a statuette.

I know some of you liked this film, and I don't dispute your right to like it, but I'm sorry - I detested every minute of it (as you've probably gathered). To me, Tarantino's films are just B-grade bile with big budgets, and everyone fawns all over him simply because they're told he's a great film maker. Sorry, I don't see it, but that's just my own subjectiveness, as is all of the above.

"Inglorious Basterds". I call it, "Ted Bundy Does History".

Hahahaha, refreshing review  ;D :-X

Although I like the film in a fashion, I think I understand what drives you. Simply put, it's not a history film. It's grotesque, comic-book style, violent where you don't need it, silly when you least expect it, overall inaccurate. Indeed, another Quentin Tarantino.

Due to the subject of this film, I call it disturbing. Playing around with a serious theme that way made my guts churn, yet I managed to see something in it: Basically I only focussed on the Jew Hunter and his performance, which I think was disturbingly great.

I think you're not far from the truth describing Q.T. as a psychopath who probably would do things he shouldn't if he weren't allowed to make films. There are a couple of film makers that deal with their psyche by living them on celluloid, take Woody Allen for example. To me, he's the one who makes me react like you do with Q.T.  ;D

I agree that the Jew Hunter's performance was excellent. In fact I found the opening scene to be quite rivetting and I was thinking, "Has Tarantino finally grown up?" But alas, he quickly resorted to his usual style. I never know whether to interpret his films as laughable dramas or unfunny comedies :-\

that one, laughable drama.

The best laugh I had in ages...

CLASSIC MOVIES IN 5 SECONDS

TITANIC  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuSdU8tbcHY)

SHREK (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJF5uOYvNc)

THE MATRIX (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ5iFQv1KaE)

STAR WARS ep IV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9yMZPAz2s&feature=related)

Another great laugh...

KILL BILL IN ONE MINUTE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex0ANhZ1Y6o)

FORREST GUMP IN ONE MINUTE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOvgJ0TxdfI&feature=related)

hehehe, amazing what kind of stuff there is on youtube. I liked Forrest, KillBill, and StarWars. Matrix and Titanic were a little too short, but I admit, it is kicking in only after I watched those, so Matrix in hindsight was funny, too  ;D

I think Titanic is the best of all... a single punch line  8)

- This ship can never sink
- Glubglubglubglub

The end

Muahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahxsuhsdufhrothqepotqwrgqwjf[i'kbnsgujr  ;D ;D ;D

Matrix was funny too: "Whoa..." THE END  ;D

For all you Lord Of The Rings fans out there... I don't know if you've seen this, but it's a hoot. Apparently there's an Easter Egg of it on one of the extended versions of the Fellowship Of The Ring DVD, but I've never been able to find it, so I resorted to YouTube for it.

Bear with it, the fun starts after about half a minute or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUNYCGZMtI8

LOL now wasn't that fucking refreshing  ;D ;D ;D :-X

Quality, nice find. :-X

Brilliant  :-X

Love it!!  ;D

On a more somber note, we watched "The Road" yesterday. Im not sure if its already been mentioned in this thread, as i couldnt bring myself to look thru every page, but just in case no one has seen it, you may want to, especially if you have played Fallout 3, since it does bring that game to mind either unintenionally or by design.

It looks as if it was made on a shoestring budget, and has enough plot holes, and unanswered questions to fill a book, which the flick was based on. Still the post apocaliptic genre for me, is quite compelling.

SPOILERS...

The story revolves around a man and his son, rather like FO3 which revolves around a man and his dog, although the dog would be about 10 times more useful than that whiny little girly boy of a son, but that's just my opinion. ;) They pile all their worldly possesions into an old shopping cart(sound familiar?) and head off thru the mostly deserted and decaying U.S.A scrounging for food and anything else that might be useful.

In one rather scary scene they explore a dark locked basement that is filled with starving naked prisoners who are raving mad with fear, really bringing feral ghouls to mind. ;D

It is a truely miserable film, with  rampant canibalism and the skeletons of dead people in every house, some in their beds. The  skies are perpetually dull and overcast and nothing is growing because of no sunlight and ash everywhere, although we arent told whether it was a result of a nuclear war, or a meteor strike, or perhaps a massive supervolcano.

I'd give it a 6/10 but be prepared for a depressing 2 hours. Definately not for kids.

hehe, that was an interesting recommendation  :) I'll keep it in mind, should I happen upon it  ;)

Quote from: Art Blade on May 05, 2010, 01:24:45 PM
hehe, that was an interesting recommendation  :) I'll keep it in mind, should I happen upon it  ;)

Well, if you're a fan of the genre, its a must see, that is, if you can find it. from what i understand, the studio had no clue what to do with it, or how to market it, so it's theatrical release was severely limited, so for obvious reasons, it made little money, so DVD's may be scarce as rentals as well. ???

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/

:)

Release Date: 7 October 2010 (Germany)  :-\

It certainly doesn't sound like a Hope and Crosby style "road" movie. Hehe, "The Road to Dystopia" ;D

Thanks for the info, Ricamundo :-X It does sound a lot like FO3. I'll look out for it next time I'm in the mood for a dark, post-apocalyptic tale - which I do enjoy from time to time, as long as I follow it with a comedy or something to cheer myself back up ;D

Hey guys, finally a really enjoyable Sci-Fi again:

DISTRICT 9 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/

With participation of South Africa (Johannesburg) Canada, New Zealand... great mix  :-X

It reminded me of a couple of other movies, like

28 Days Later...
Enemy Mine
Independence Day

and all of them blended nicely. Some funny idea: A giant spaceship like the one of Independence Day does not happen to hang out over some American city but Johannesburg, South Africa. It appears to have stranded, humans decide to cut their way in because nothing has happened for a long time. Inside, they find nearly starved aliens that remind of a mixture of Oscar the Grouch (of good old Sesame Street) and a prawn (that's what they're called in the movie) and maybe some kind of robot. You may already get the idea that there is some kind of dark humour involved as well as a couple of movie/music/book/pop culture references. The film isn't a comedy, though, but as in Enemy Mine a strange friendship between a human who started to mutate (now being chased by humans) and a smart prawn who wants to escape and get back home. Funny thing, those aliens found on the hovering ship were transferred down to earth and locked up in a slum close to Johannesburg. Oh, and they love cat food. Sorry, it does sound funny, and it is, but the film really is more into society and their problems and a not so voluntary friendship between two outsiders who learn to trust each other (not so voluntarily).

If you can, give it a shot... I think it is a very refreshing way of creating a Sci-Fi movie, and despite of the strange mixture it will keep you locked on :)

Sounds like a movie I'd like - thanks for the mini-review  :-X

Funny you should mention that film, Art - I watched that just a couple of days ago and was going to do a reco, but you beat me to it :)

Definitely an innovative approach. Art encapsulated it very well, but I'd just like to add a comment or two. The first half of the film is handled in a pseudo-documentary fashion, with "live" news footage, interviews with people involved (with some nice, very natural-sounding acting) and a fair bit of hand-held "on the spot" style camera w@&k. At first it seems almost a bit amateurish, but it soon picks up and becomes very watchable. Visuals are terrific, btw.

Peter Jackson was involved in some capacity, I can't remember what as - producer maybe (not director). It was made by Wingnut Films which I think is Jackson's NZ-based production company.

As Art said, it's worth a look if you want something a bit different.

I won't give anything away, but I felt that it left itself open to a sequel.


EDIT: Forgot to mention, that shanty-town outside Johannesburg really made me think of Mokuba ;D

I also watched Sherlock Holmes, which I really enjoyed. A lot more mainstream than District 9, but quite a fun and clever movie, even though it is, shall we say, far-fetched. I found it very entertaining though. And if you're into period stuff, the depiction of late-19th century London is superb.

I've never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels, but I've heard that the way Holmes is portrayed in this movie is far closer to the original character than any of the Basil Rathbone-style film portrayals, ie. he's brilliant, but a total eccentric. Quite funny at times.

I too watched D9 recently and was about to post my impressions here... but I didn`t!  :P :-[ ::)

The punch is that the story goes on a country that holds a recent story of strong racism and prejudice... a slap on the face for sure!

Without giving too much away... there`s no good vs evil, only survival and the conflict of sharing the same space with someone (or something) different than you!!

Excellent special effects too, the ones that blend with reality very well!

Great movie


28 days later - one of my favorites zombie movies ever! The opening scene of a deserted London while the main character strolls wearing a hospital PJ is amazing! Again, the "hero" is just an ordinary guy trying to live, no super-soldier/hero/scientist as in "I am legend"
28 weeks later went downhill though, a clear attempt to catch a few more bucks creating a sequel! Avoid this one, check the first only!

Enemy mine - an all time classic, much more than an action packed sci-fi!

Independence day - CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP... Bill Pullman as the president of the USA? C`mon... flying an airplane to fight enemies? Spare me... and a computer virus ruins the system on the alien mothership? C`mon... do aliens run Windows 98 by any chance?!?!?!?! I read they`re making a sequel though... count me out, please!!!
Don`t take me wrong Art... I can watch independence day if I see it as a high budget comedy, but I prefer Mars Attack in that sense!!!

Funny how there are already a couple of people who watched and liked D9  :) By the way, picking up on fraggers additional info, the end credits of D9 mention

Guillermo del Toro

in the first place of the special thanks. He is a great Mexican director

Quotemostly known for his acclaimed films, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy  film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Del_Toro) :)

Alright, JRD, I mentioned I.D. because of the spaceships hovering over a city and the only funny scene when Will Smith beats the crap out of one alien and drags him across the desert. I didn't recommend Independence Day. Mars Attacks also crossed my mind but that is too much over the top comedy in comparison, yet I loved that film!

Thanks for the additional infos you guys provided :)

Fragger, I'll keep an eye out for Sherlock ;)

JRD, re: your comments on:

1) 28 days
2) Enemy Mine
3) Independence Day

1) Haven't seen yet but want to
2) Agree - Favourite bit: Lou Gossett's alien character singing "Midnight Special"
3) Agree - Most cringe-inducing line: "Good shot, Mr. President!" (after he clobbers an alien fighter in his F-18)

Quote from: JRD on May 13, 2010, 03:36:37 AM
... and a computer virus ruins the system on the alien mothership? C`mon... do aliens run Windows 98 by any chance?!?!?!?!

What they should have done was upload Windows 98 into the alien system - that would have royally screwed them ;D

lol ;D

Quote from: Art Blade on May 13, 2010, 03:47:54 AM
Guillermo del Toro

in the first place of the special thanks. He is a great Mexican director

Quotemostly known for his acclaimed films, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy  film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.

I also really enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies (mainly the first one). Guillermo del Toro is certainly an imaginative director. I love innovative types like him :-X

Pan's Labyrinth sure was different, and I enjoyed it because my DVD offers the original language track Spanish   ;D (Not too many films out there in that language)

Hellboy1 was good mainstream entertainment, but not good enough to get me to watch HB2.

Quote from: Art Blade on May 13, 2010, 04:04:17 AM
Pan's Labyrinth sure was different, and I enjoyed it because my DVD offers the original language track Spanish   ;D (Not too many films out there in that language)

Hellboy1 was good mainstream entertainment, but not good enough to get me to watch HB2.

You're not missing much with HB2.

I too managed to see the Spanish version of Pan's Labyrinth, with subtitles. Much better than dubbed, even if I don't speak the language :-X

I don't enjoy the mob scene and rudeness of others inherent in movie theaters so I grabbed a copy of the recent DVD release of Avatar and finally got to see it.  I found the movie very enjoyable if I looked past the inescapable "Humans are filthy vermin and should be snuffed" mentality that accompanies any eco-message film offering these days.

As a long established Sci-Fi fan and wannabe writer I saw that there were elements that were fresh and innovative but I also tend to see loose ends that easily could have been connected back into the story line turning several "Huh?"s into "Oh Wow!" moments.

I've not seen discussion about this film here so I'm going to leave plot discussion alone and allow anyone that hasn't seen it to take it in at face value without dropping spoilers to distract from the film.

Well, I saw Avatar and didn't like it... as some people over the net said: it's Pocahontas!

Great effects but a story told zillions of times.

I'm sorry you guys, but when it comes to the big outsider hero defending the weak and naive while learning a valuable lesson about life, I've seen it before... Dance with wolves did it, Pocahontas did it, Samurai did it... the list goes on and on!

You know how the movie ends as soon as it begins. There are many loose ends as well.

And the worst part is to stand James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver going around the world delivering an eco-friendly message as if they are fulfiling their role in fighting for a better world...... I can't stand actors when they start an environmental cruzade pretending they know what they are talking about only because they did some research prior to writing the screenplay. If you listen to it, it's the same bullshit we are being fed by Greenpeace and WWF and many other eco-terrorist organizations... screw them...  >:( >:(

Sorry for the rant...... I watched it knowing I wouldn't like it, but did it anyway to be sure!

It's great fun though if, like mmosu said, you overlook the message behind it. Maybe for kids it would be a great movie, but as a grown up man, no thanks!

I skipped that flick, mainly for the hype about (argh) it and because of the weak story.

Not too bad a film, if you can overlook the usual formula, the usual predictable storyline, the usual character depictions, and the usual whizz-bang visuals. The usual Hollywood blockbuster, in other words.

As for similarities to other films, I was thinking A Man Called Horse myself.

What I find annoying about movies like this is the way the film makers essentially treat the viewing audience as dummies, ie. that the viewers are too dumb to see what's going to happen later, or that they won't recognize the same old done-to-death plot devices when they see them. I've seen so many films where I can tell in the first few minutes exactly where the story is going to go, yet as events unfold apparently I'm supposed to think, "Wow! Didn't see that coming!" Yeah, right. What do they think we are, goldfish?

And special effects should never be the star of the show, no matter how good they may be.

well said, fragger... SFX should be the icing on top, rather  :)

Has anyone seen the new Robin Hood film ? ? ?

Is it 'Must see at the Cinema' film or a 'Wait for the Dvd' kind of movie ?

Not really a fan of Russell Crow's w@&k to date, although Cate Blanchett is a very good actress, and Ridley Scott has directed some of my favourite films. The 'Robin Hood' story has been told so many times in so many different styles & genres on both Big and Small screen I wonder if yet another version is going to add to it.

  The animated Disney version with animals as the characters is my fave, and one of the funniest too ;D

The new RH? Is it the one when they bury him on top of his warderobe?

Lol, Art ;D ;D ;D

No Red, haven't seen that one as yet, I think I might wait for the DVD, if I see it at all. I agree, Ridley Scott has made some terrific films, some of his are my faves too. I also am not a huge Crowe fan, although I didn't mind him too much in Gladiator. Robin Hood, though...:-\ you're right, he's been done to death.

Quote from: fragger on May 13, 2010, 03:31:40 AM
I also watched Sherlock Holmes, which I really enjoyed. A lot more mainstream than District 9, but quite a fun and clever movie, even though it is, shall we say, far-fetched. I found it very entertaining though. And if you're into period stuff, the depiction of late-19th century London is superb.

I've never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels, but I've heard that the way Holmes is portrayed in this movie is far closer to the original character than any of the Basil Rathbone-style film portrayals, ie. he's brilliant, but a total eccentric. Quite funny at times.

I watched Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law was funny and very British, while Robert Downey jr. in my opinion was a bad choice for one of the most English characters there are... why cast an American actor for that role? Don't get me wrong, the way he acts is great, I always liked him, but for crying out loud... he didn't even try to sound British. For example, in A Knight's Tale , Alan Tudyk (from Texas, USA) did a splendid job mimicking an English accent. Then I didn't know he was American, and imagine my surprise when I learned he was. And that was only a bit part. Mr Downey is a good actor no doubt (anyone seen him in The Soloist ?) but heck, Sherlock Holmes? Alright, that aside, the flick was a good show and entertaining, if you ignored everything you knew about the original. I liked the film as such, although or because it was sometimes a little over the top :)

I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes... it's a reboot of the old Sherlock created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A 21th century concept of "hero" applied to a 19th century character.

What I liked in that movie is that the way his mind works, how he finds out what happened, how the mistery is solved... all of that remais the way it is in the books. They didn't came up with a new character and simply named it Sherlock Holmes, they made it faithfull to the original one.

Ok, the original one would never fight like Downey Jr does, but hey... it's an action movie in 2010, what did you expected?  ;)

And Jude Law is great in that movie... usually, the side character is created such as it enhances the qualities of the main character... a dumb assistant to show how clever the hero is, a coward companion to show how brave is the knight and so on. Watson, in this sense, brings balance to the duo... he has his feet on the ground whereas Sherlock is a twisted person, without him, Sherlock is screwed!

Those were a couple of hours well spent for me... great fun!! :-X :-X

Glad you guys liked Sherlock, I thought it was a bit of fun as long as you don't take it seriously, which you're not supposed to anyway.

Quote from: Ricamundo on May 05, 2010, 12:12:04 PM
On a more somber note, we watched "The Road" yesterday...
...I'd give it a 6/10 but be prepared for a depressing 2 hours. Definately not for kids.

You got that right Rica, I watched this the other night. Certainly not a "feel-good" movie ;D I thought it was a very good production technically, but yeah, one of the most depressing films I've seen. I had to watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" again afterwards to get myself back up out of the dumps ;D I did enjoy it though, morose as it was.

One thing about The Road, and I'm finding this with a lot of films these days - the actors mumble a lot. I could only catch about every third word. At one point I actually yelled, "Speak up, dammit!" at the screen in exasperation. Top name actors often get paid fortunes to play these roles, so the least they could do is open their gobs a bit more, exercise their tongues and enunciate properly. They don't have to speak like Lawrence Olivier, just be coherent.

I also watched a sci-fi movie called "Moon". My advice - don't bother (zzz). One of the most dumbass movies I've seen lately. Even the visuals were crap, and that's saying something in these days of whizbang CG potential.

lol, I once watched "dark side of the moon" (careful, there are at least three films with that title, I mean this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099364/ )

...and after several attempts trying to convince myself not to quit watching, I quit watching. Like, after 50% of the film, max. OH MY GOD was that a crap movie  ;D

I watched Avatar in 3D at the theater, and discovered that it was not overdone as so many of the other 3D movies.  I actually enjoyed the 3D effects in high definitionsso the video was OK for me despite the weak plot.

When Inglorious Basterds was mentioned on this topic, I rushed and got a copy of two great Tarantino movies I really enjoy. One is, of course, Pulp Fiction.

The other one I watched yesterday - Reservoir Dogs

Man, what a movie... everything rely on actors performance and dialogs... low budget movie with great names and a crude story!

That`s Tarantino in great shape doing what he does best!

Pulp Fiction is classic...  :-X Reservoir Dogs is just brutal. Not bad, but rather brutal as in mindless insane brutal.  :)

Quote from: deadman on February 10, 2010, 01:44:24 PM

Quote from: Art Blade on February 09, 2010, 05:24:19 PM
Right now I've finished watching a Swedish film (hello deadman  :) ) which was really nicely done. Män som hatar kvinnor (English Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

You do know yhat it´s a trilogy don´t you? the third movie just opened here in sweden a few weeks ago.

Only now I got the second part (going to watch it), and the third part will be out in late 2010 (as in q4)... they do take their time  >:(

Quote from: Art Blade on June 01, 2010, 02:07:10 PM
Pulp Fiction is classic...  :-X Reservoir Dogs is just brutal. Not bad, but rather brutal as in mindless insane brutal.  :)

Yes, it`s violent, I agree. But it`s not the violence that makes me think this is a great movie. What I like about it is that you get to know what`s going on as the dialog goes on along with the movie. You know the characters and the story little by little and almost all scenes are indoors in that shed, an office or the restaurant at the opening scene. It could even be a theater play! No special effects, no fancy location to create an atmosphere, only dialogue and actors performance!

Pulp fiction is even more violent, but again... it`s a classic!  8)

Haha yeah. Despite it's ridiculous amounts of cheesiness I still kinda liked Waterworld :P, hasn't really been any other movie like it, but that's probably a good thing too lol.

Same, not too bad, really. Kind of a mixture of Mad Max and The Abyss  ;D

Hah yeah exactly, it's funny Dennis Hopper was in the Abyss too, good actor, he will be missed.

I can't remember - who did Dennis Hopper play in The Abyss?

Btw - and I guess this is veering towards the topic "Movie Recommendations", - has anyone seen the Director's Cut of that movie? There's quite a lot of extra footage, and there is a lot more to the final scenes as there was in the theatrical release. It's well worth checking out if you liked the "vanilla" version of the film.

Good tip, will keep my eyes peeled :)

Quote from: fragger on June 12, 2010, 04:53:58 AMI guess this is veering towards the topic "Movie Recommendations"

Good point, I just merged those topics  ;) :-X

Cheers :) You know how it is with us meandering old fogeys

my pleasure :) Yeah, I know that perfectly well  8)

I don't remember Dennis Hopper in The Abyss either...

I know Ed Harris plays the main character - a hell of an actor this Ed Harris fellow, btw.

Wait... I don't remember Dennis Hopper because I guess he's not in the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096754/)  ???

After that movie (Abyss) I always discussed with some friends about the diving vest he wear in the end, the one that fill his lungs with a liquid so he can stand the enormous pressure down in the abyss. I was diving very often back then and always wondered if it was really possible.

Anyway, if a sci-fi movie can come up with such an elaborated gimmick, then it ought to be good!  :-X :-X :-X

Quote from: JRD on June 13, 2010, 03:27:11 AM
I know Ed Harris plays the main character - a hell of an actor this Ed Harris fellow, btw.

Totally agree, he's one of my faves.

Quote from: JRD on June 13, 2010, 03:27:11 AM
After that movie (Abyss) I always discussed with some friends about the diving vest he wear in the end, the one that fill his lungs with a liquid so he can stand the enormous pressure down in the abyss. I was diving very often back then and always wondered if it was really possible.

Remember the scene where the Navy Seal demonstrates the breathing fluid on that guy's pet rat? That was for real, the rat - actually, one of 5 rats used in various takes - really was breathing the "oxygenated flurocarbon emulsion" in that scene (the real stuff is called "perfluorocarbon"). After they filmed the scene, they even went to the trouble of having a vet examine the rat to make sure it was OK. In fact, all 5 rats survived the takes.

So theoretically, it is possible for a human diver to breathe the fluid, but whether it would really aid in high-pressure dives is arguable and probably just a movie device.

Here's some info:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1028001

geez.. thanks for the info, fragger  :)

Just watched a movie during a flight last weekend!

GREEN ZONE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947810/)

With Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass - both from the Bourne series!

I was bored so I chose an action movie to make time goes faster. At first it seemed like just another war movie where you don`t have to think. Turns out it`s a great thriller and full of good action sequences!

Matt Damon plays a US Sargent whose mission is to find weapons of mass destruction in occupied Iraq in 2003. His task proves to be a tough one as we all know - no WMD there at all! It all starts to get better when he decides to find out what is going on and why are they being lied to by their own government. Journalists, CIA agents and Iraqi leaders play key characters as the flick goes on!

As I saw it on a tiny screen at the plane, I`m looking forward to get my hands on a proper DVD and watch it in good wide screen with good surround!  8)

Sounds good, mate, will keep an eye out for it :-X Matt Damon's a cool actor.

On the subject of political thrillers, I wonder if anyone can help me with this. I saw the first ten minutes of a film on TV some years ago when it came on at a friend's house just as I was leaving and I can't remember the title, but it looked quite intriguing. The only actor I can remember being in it was Nicole Kidman as some sort of American government official or something. In one of the scenes I saw, some Russian special forces types are on a troop train in Russia at night. They wipe out all the soldiers on board while they're asleep, then rig the train with a nuke which they later set off. At the time I thought it looked like a very interesting film and that I'd like to see it all, but of course I've since forgotten the flipping name of it. Does anyone know what this movie may be called, by any chance?

May be The Interpreter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373926/plotsummary)

Its old enough to be on TV now. I saw the movie and it`s quite good... can`t remember anything about it though  ::)

The scene you described seem familiar but I can`t tie it to a specific movie

Isn't it amazing? I've been racking my brain on and off for about a month trying to remember that movie's title, and as soon as I ask, it comes to me - The Peacemaker :D

But hey, thanks for the suggestion, JRD. The Interpreter is another film I've wanted to see but haven't gotten around to. You've given me another movie idea to look for at the DVD rental next time :-X

Hehehe... as soon as you stop thinking about it, it hits you! Our brain works in mysterious ways!  :-()

Now I too have good suggestions of movies to entertain me during rainy weekends!

good reads and recommendations, guys.

Fragger? I think you were looking for "The Peacemaker."

Spoiler

LOL  ;D ;D ;D

Was I? Thanks ;D

HAHAHA! ^+-+

Just came back from the movie theater.

I was going to the gym when a friend asked me if I wanted to join him and his girlfriend at the movies this wednesday for half price. Since it was to see a movie I was wanting to see and today was the last day showing, I imediately said yes!

INCEPTION

Man, I'm so happy I saw this movie on a big screen... the movie is FANTASTIC!

I remember when I saw Matrix on the cinema with my then girlfriend. I was really impressed with the story and walked out of the movies looking around me and thinking "is this true or the Matrix?". Well... INCEPTION had the same effect... I walked out of the movies today looking around me to make sure it was all real!

A great, great plot, nice actors, a great direction (Christopher Nolan from the last two Batman movies).

Guys... if you still have time to see it... do it! 8)

just checked it on IMDB, looks great  :-X

It is... I went to bed yesterday thinking about the movie and woke up today also thinking about it!  8)

You know when you sleep for a short time, like an hour or so, and you dream that lots of thing happened? They explore that concept of time being stretched when you dream very well!

To say more would spoil the movie, hence...

Spoiler

There are dreams within a dream.

In the first level dream, they sleep and go to another (2nd) level of dreaming (a dream within a dream). They are in a van in the first level and it falls off a bridge, in the second level, they are doing things for days in the time it takes for the van to hit the water. A great deal of the movie takes place in those few seconds between the van going off the bridge and hitting the water... and the special effects are outstanding

Thanks for the spoiler, JRD - I always like to know about things in advance, that goes for movies, games, just about everything.  :-X

Quote from: JRD on September 02, 2010, 02:01:36 AM
You know when you sleep for a short time, like an hour or so, and you dream that lots of thing happened?

I saw a study about how subjective personal time is perceived.  Sometimes time seems to go fast and sometimes it crawls, right?  It works out that is more true than previously realized.

The testing consisted of a digital read out that cycled between three different random 2 digit numbers, so fast, that normally a person viewing it would only see a blur of the number 88 (where all of the LED elements are engaged).  The test subject was outfitted in something like a parachute harness with a clip ring at their center of gravity as they were suspended 100 feet over a pressurized air bag that would safely absorb their fall.

As the test subject was suspended and ready to drop (the poor guy was scared out of his wits), they verified that he could not read the three random numbers so adrenaline did not directly play into his subjective perception of time dilation.  The drop came, he landed safely and he was immediately asked what were the three numbers and he had successfully read them off the readout getting all three numbers correct.  From the test subject's recollection he had time to read them several times, that is after his initial scream at the point of drop and he remembered what he was supposed to be doing wanting to avoid having to go through it again.

That reminds me of an early coke "ad":

QuoteIn 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising  and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test. Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat popcorn" for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57.8% and 18.1% respectively

But

QuoteSubsequent scientific research, however, has been unable to replicate most of these marketing claims beyond a mere placebo effect.

quote source: Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_stimuli)

:)

Perception of time is something extremely subjective indeed and must be something scientists cannot properly explain. I for one find myself struggling against boredom at the office sometimes and also, when running and listening to a nice selection of music I like on my iPod I can barely feel one hour has passed!  :-D

I remember dreaming I was somewhere at sea and helicopters would come near me carrying large containers hanging from a cable and they would drop the container close to me and I could listen to the loud thud it made when hitting the water. Turns out I was working on a ship and every 10 seconds we had a pressurized airgun in the water firing. Since we were in shallow water at night, the gun shot was reverberating the whole ship and one could actually hear the boom, but only the last couple shots before we turn and head back to deep water. The thing is, in my dream I could see the container being dropped from the helo and coming all the way down untill it hit the water, but the time during which my brain was actually processing the real thud was just a split second!

Not really a movie, but ROME by HBO was really good.
When I got my tax refund, I picked up the complete (season 1&2) on Bluray.

The wife and I have watched it 4 times already in the last 4 months.

Definitely R rated though.

I've got both seasons or parts of Rome, too -- it is great :)

JRD, nice post about your dream sequence :)

I just watched Zombieland and really liked it  :-X
I love zombie movies anyway but this is actually one of the best I've ever seen with it's gross-out splat-fest moments and dry, awkward, ironic sense of humor.  It had me laughing out loud at several points and is really just as much a comedy as it is a zombie flick.  Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson make a really good odd couple, and Bill Murray does one of the strangest cameos I've ever seen.  Plus the main character is from my home town of Columbus Ohio, so that hooked me in too  :-()  If you like zombie movies at all I highly recommend!   

Inception is very good, also The Town, I enjoyed that too.

If you like rugby, I really recommend Invictus. :)

I need to see Inception, thanks for reminding me.. :-X

going to fetch a copy at my local vendor on Monday, I just saw that it's out on BlueRay here and I hope that they've got it on DVD as well :)

I just bought How to Train Your Dragon.

Yes it is computer graphics generated and was made for kids but I still added it to my collection as I want to reward production companies that create decent wholesome family entertainment (that doesn't suck) and don't care what anyone else thinks.

I liked it.  Anyone who doesn't dig that can talk to the knuckles.   >:((  (  ;)  >:D )

 Finally got round to watching Inception last night, really enjoyed it, well put together. Good acting and direction.


Worth seeing it Art when you get chance.




Also watched remake of Karate kid and really enjoyed that too, much better and a whole lot less cheesy than the original.


Really really itching to see the new Tron film soon too.....

Art, the Blue Ray version is awesome, it has the movie as Blue Ray, it has a DVD version and a version you can download to your PC and watch on that as well.

Trying to get the missus to take me to Tron maybe tomorrow :)

cheers, guys :)

Wow, TRON2! Oh man, I remember the day when I was at the cinema back then for the first one - what a blast it was! I got that one on DVD.. I think it is still nice :)

Mandru.. "Anyone who doesn't dig that can talk to the knuckles"  ^+-+ :-X

Saw Unstoppable, I think it was really rubbish, I was surprised Denzel was associated with this movie. Basically a train loses its driver and has a deadly cargo, some really asinine back story for the two lead characters, so there would be someone to "cut to" for dramatic reaction to their heroism.

if you want to see a good runaway train movie, I recommend Runaway Train, Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, two escaped convicts on a train, when the driver has a heart attack and they are left to fend for themselves on the train.

Saw a trailer for Unstoppable, looked like the same sort of premise as Speed, which was not that good either apart from Sandra Bullock.


Still watching my weekly doses of Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoons, about half way through season 3 now ;D


Back to Tron - a game has also0 come out, Tron Evolution. It bridges the story gap between films. Still need to get a copy so will let you all know what its like soon as I do.

Fiach, lol, that was one of the best critics I've read which made me grin: involving two flicks, a summary, names of lead characters and a rating, 51 and 43 words = less than 100 words.  ;D :-X

And there comes Red, as I'm writing, and slips in a critic just as crisp, LOL  ^+-+

Cheers Art :)

The Tron game is getting bad reviews here, so maybe if you tried a demo or read some reviews before committing to it mate, I was tempted, but took a pass on it and got Star Wars TFU2, its short but sweet. :)

Went to Tron, its very good, especially if you are a fan :)

It looks great too, although the 3D effects were disappointing, they are nowhere near the same league as Avatar.

The storyline is well presented and all the Tron icons are there, the discs and bikes are very well done, with top notch special effects.

Jeff Bridges is very good but quite restrained and the main character (his son) looks uncannily like him in some scenes.

The evil Jeff looks like a young Jeff Bridges, due of course to CGI, but in all fairness, I was expecting something like Polar Express imagery, its not like that at all, its very natural looking.

This movie will be a must buy as a Blue Ray disc  :-X

Cheers for the review Fiach. Good to hear its not a complete lemon.


The only 3D movie I have seen is Despicable Me, and that was great but I have heard mixed reports about 3D films that are not cartoons.


Its good that both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner are back for the new film. Really want to go see it now, it was due out on 26th December but seems its out early.

I f you can get to see Avatar in 3D grab the opportunity mate, its the first 3D film I saw and it was stunning! :)

Watched a bit of Avatar but it didn't grab me so turned it off. Reckon I'll get round to watching it all at some point. Too much hype around it when it came out put me off.

Well I imagine that when you say you turned it off, you weren't in a 3D cinema, it uses 3D in a really awesome way.  :)

Lol.


No, a borrowed DVD copy. When in the cinema I do have a tendency to fall asleep and snore if a film is not to my liking. Doesn't happen often, tends to annoy people for some reason?  ????

:)

Well the film is 3 hours long iirc, maybe you could have a wee nap before the movie? :)

I personally liked Avatar as I commented earlier this thread (right before I got thrashed for saying that  ;D ).

I can't help but see plot improvements and play "What comes next in my head" when I get new concepts to kick around.

Beyond the fact that this next bit is concealed in a Spoiler button, some core concepts are hidden here and if you might go on to see the movie I'd suggest leaving it alone.  I don't want to "Spoil" someone else's first time viewing perception of the film by tainting the actual movie as intended with my twist on how I saw it.

Spoiler

If nothing else the flights of imagination and pondering potential Avatar afforded me by introducing the new concept of a worldwide eco-system (including the Planet its self ) all connected by something akin to USB-4^∞, carried a lot of personal entertainment value.

For instance, when the girl's battle cat is killed five more of them should have burst snarling out of the forest for a seriously tense moment at a point where the storyline is already edge of the seat (these buggers are genuinely BadA$$) and then each of them to show submission and that the planetary eco-truce was still in effect they peacefully lower their heads close to the ground and extend their connection stalk as if to say "Pick Me!"

Mandru, have you played the Avatar game?

I quite liked it, you get to use the horses and panther type things as mounts in the game, also the bird things.

If you play the soldier campaign, you get to use jeeps boats and choppers to get around, its a great looking game too. It is also 3D if you have a 3D TV.

The flying does take some getting used to, but other than that its a good shooter, probably cheap as chips now.

I like how they used the jungle too, you aren't just ground based, you can take to the tree tops as well. giving a nice sense of verticality thats missing in most games.

As you can play as Navi and Human, you have two different weapon sets as well.

It's funny you would mention the Avatar game Fiach.  Well maybe not since mention of the film is still warm on this thread.   :)

FC2 was the first game I'd played in several years and now after about 3 years of playing that exclusively I cracked open a copy of Assassin's Creed 2 just two days ago.  It was there in the "Extras" section of the menu that pops up when the AC2 disc is loaded that last night I first even heard that there was an Avatar game and watched the included trailer.

It looks interesting as most trailers tend to pump the connected product do.   ;)

I might have to check it out eventually after thoroughly wearing out AC2.  My graphics card is able to drive 3D glasses through a USB connection so the game Avatar is a possible strong contender if nothing else with more compelling 3D comes up down the road.   :-X

Quote from: mandru on December 20, 2010, 08:31:55 AMearlier this thread (right before I got thrashed for saying that  ;D ).

^+-+

By the way, I just bought Inception and that new Karate Kid. Going to watch them soon, right now I hope to save them for around xmas. :)

Quote from: mandru on December 20, 2010, 10:46:41 AM

I might have to check it out eventually after thoroughly wearing out AC2.  My graphics card is able to drive 3D glasses through a USB connection so the game Avatar is a possible strong contender if nothing else with more compelling 3D comes up down the road.   :-X

I think there was an armour code in each game, for the other game, if you catch my drift, a code for Avatar armour in the AC box and vice versa.

Call of Duty Black Ops is a fine game that supports 3D, it may be worth a looksee for ya :)

Hope you like Inception Art, I watched it three times (in different states of sobriety lol :)) and thoroughly enjoyed it :)

different states of sobriety.. hehehe.. reminds me of the Chronicles of Riddick. Watched it in England with some mates when it was just released and I was so st..ed and pi..ed at that time that when I got home all I knew was that I had thoroughly enjoyed the flick. I then bought it on DVD and what shall I say, it was completely new and surprising -- hadn't remembered a thing -- and again I thought what a nice film it was and that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it  :-()

@Art - that sounds like a familiar state of being, even happens with games sometimes. Still, its always fun ;D

Doesn't usually happen to me.. but back then, it was quite a surprising experience. :)

Quote from: RedRaven on December 18, 2010, 02:14:42 PMAlso watched remake of Karate kid and really enjoyed that too, much better and a whole lot less cheesy than the original.

Just finished watching it -- great  :-X

Basically the same elements as the original, this film is interesting, entertaining and at times emotional. All a good film needs. Jackie Chan as the teacher, nice.. and what I found particularly interesting was that "Karate Kid" apparently is Will Smith's son  ??? :-X Best line of the film (maybe not an exact quote): "you taught me a great lesson. Life can knock you down, but it is your decision whether or not you want to get back up again."


Oh, almost forgot, Inception was also interesting and entertaining.  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on December 24, 2010, 09:02:15 PM
Oh, almost forgot, Inception was also interesting and entertaining.  :-X

First time I saw Inception it was mind blowing, second time around I felt it could be so much better. Some loose ends and some simplifications to make it a blockbuster action movie could be avoided resulting in a much better movie.

But the story overall is excelent!

Spoiler

The ending when you don't know if the pivot will or will not fall (but it flinched) was great!!! :-X

My thoughts exactly, including the spoiler :)

Only watched it once and already realised that.. that's why I wasn't exceedingly praising the film. They kind of got trapped and wedged in the story-making just like the characters in different layers of dreams/unconsciousness.

If you are a Beatles fan like me you probably saw this one (I haven`t till yesterday  :-[ )

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/acrosstheuniverse/)

A wonderful production featuring some of the greatest songs from the boys from Liverpool!

If you are not a fan, well, I`m sure you are familiar with their w@&k and I seriously suggest you watch this movie... I`m so glad I did it!!

I came across The Lathe of Heaven, an old favorite in Veoh's listings (a site I use to search for anime).

I'm not sure if this will play for every one straight out of the box as I have an account with the site and have downloaded a Veoh player to be able to view high def content but here's the link though the image quality is fairly low:

The Lathe of Heaven (http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/scifi_and_fantasy/watch/v20117727ep8NtG8a)

It was very time significant to the 70's which shows in a lot of the dialog.

The movie was based on Ursula k. Le Guin's science fiction novel of the same title and was produced by a public television station so it's pretty much going to come across with about the same special effects quality as an old Dr Who episode.   ::)

What if the world ended and all that's left is a dream.

The Lathe of Heaven is about the dreamer and the psychiatrist who can't resist tampering with the Dream in his lust for power thinly veiled under the veneer of "in the name of science and for the good of mankind". 

Yeah it's pretty lame but I love it.  :-D

There was a remake produced by the A&E Network in 2002 that I've not seen so I'm not able to comment on its production quality of adherence to the original story.

hehe, so the 70s, eh?   :) "Portland, Oregon, the near future"   ??? ^-^

This evening I felt like watching a sci-fi flick again called Equilibrium (check IMDb) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/) starring Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Emily Watson.

QuoteIn a Fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

A nice mixture of "Matrix 1", George Orwell's novel (and film) "1984" and Aldous Huxley's novel "Brave New World" ( ->"where totalitarian government manipulates people's lives by eliminating individual freedom, family, art, literature, religions and cultural diversity. Totalitarian government controls humans from their conception and regulates assisted reproduction, as well, as education, indoctrination, and also enforces the medical drug use for pacification."  )

I liked it when I first watched it and watching it again was just as nice  :) :-X

John Voight plays a great role in the movie Runaway Train (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089941/), in which he is a convict escaping a prison in Alaska.  He ends up on a runaway train (conductor dies of a heart attack) which continues to pick up speed as it races through the Alaskan wilderness.

I just saw the preview of a very similar movie - Unstoppable (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477080/), which promises to be just as much a thrill-packed adventure.

Two other railroad-based movies I'm particularly fond of are The Train (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059825/) with Burt Lancaster, and Emperor of the North (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070030/) with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

I've always had a fondness for anything rails, from HO scale model railroads to movies.  ;)

How about Von Ryan's Express? Not sure if that one's been mentioned, but another good train-based movie.

I always wanted to have a model train railroad as a kid, but that fat bearded guy in the red suit never brought me one. I'm starting to think he doesn't really exist. Or maybe I was just never good enough to get one...

Next time I see that fat bearded guy in the red suit I'll punch his lights out. When he wakes up, I'll tell him to buy you one and if not, that I'll beat him up so bad that by the time he wakes up people will think that he doesn't exist any more.  >:D

Quote from: fragger on February 06, 2011, 08:52:47 PM
How about Von Ryan's Express? Not sure if that one's been mentioned, but another good train-based movie...

I love that movie - good one, fragger   :-X

In fact, I have it in my DVD collection, but my wife doesn't like war movies of any kind.   :'( Frank Sinatra plays an excellent role  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on February 06, 2011, 09:30:45 PM
Next time I see that fat bearded guy in the red suit I'll punch his lights out. When he wakes up, I'll tell him to buy you one and if not, that I'll beat him up so bad that by the time he wakes up people will think that he doesn't exist any more.  >:D

^+-+ :-X

Thanks mate! While you're at it, remind him that he also stiffed me on the telescope and the air rifle. He has it coming, if you ask me...

Quote from: PZ on February 06, 2011, 09:42:25 PM
I love that movie - good one, fragger   :-X

In fact, I have it in my DVD collection, but my wife doesn't like war movies of any kind.   :'( Frank Sinatra plays an excellent role  :-X

Cheers PZ :) I agree, I think it's about the best acting performance that Frank Sinatra ever gave.

Apart from his divorces. Brilliant acts as they say. ;D

I have a simple mind that needs simple entertainment, and here are a couple of goofy spy spoofs that I really like:  In Like Flint (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061810/) and Our Man Flint (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059557/) starring James Coburn.  If you want over the top ridiculous spy entertainment (ala Austin Powers style out of the '60s) these may be your cup of tea.

Quote from: Art Blade on February 04, 2011, 05:33:37 PM
This evening I felt like watching a sci-fi flick again called Equilibrium (check IMDb) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/) starring Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Emily Watson.

Quality film, I'm a big fan of Sean Bean (and not just because we have same home town). He is now in a new TV show called Game of Thrones that started in the USA on Sunday 17th, UK on Monday 18th. Have a long standing argument with my son as I keep telling him some of the best actors come from my town or county, Brian Blessed being a childhood hero of mine from 2 towns up the road. And Patrick Stuart is from a little further north too.

  Sean Pertwee is good in Equilibrium too, very under-rated actor and son of Dr Who star John Pertwee.

Too keep this post short here is a quick list of some of the films I've seen and enjoyed during my hibernation from OWG.

Inception (Good performance by Dicaprio, Page and Gordon-Levitt)
Shutter Island (Nice to see Scorsese branch out and Dicaprio just gets better with age)
The Blind Side (Sandra Bullock on top form)
Whip It (Ellen Page being quirky as usual)
Ultramarines (CGI film set in the Warhammer 40k universe - DVD only)
Battle: Los Angeles (better than expected it to be)
Paul (Big fan of Simon Pegg since his first TV show Spaced)
Tron Legacy (Jeff Bridges rules)
The Social Network (as a non face book member didn't expect much from it but found it to be a fantastic film, kind of reminds me of Rashomon. And Jesse Eisenberg has been good ever since The Hunting Party, another good film)
Zombieland (Eisenberg AND Woody Harrelson AND Emma Stone, not to mention very very funny)


Still to see / looking forward to-

True Grit (Jeff Bridges rules - again! )
J.Edgar (Dicaprio as J.Edgar Hoover)
Black Swan (liked everything Darren Aronofsky has done since Pi)
127 Hours (James Franco is good and a few friends have highly recommended it so got to see what's what)


There is more as always but I did intend to keep this post short - Errm FAILED....."

nice list.. I need to buy (and watch) Tron Legacy.

The recent (well for me anyway) Alice in Wonderland I think was pretty well done without too much damage to Lewis Carroll's original story.  Depp was an excellent Mad Hatter.

Forgot about Green Zone, which is excellent.


Alice in Wonderland was good although I find Helena Bonham Carter a little annoying at times, but Depp is a great actor.


@Art hope you enjoy Tron Legacy. watched it about 5-6 times so far and now want to watch it again.

Quote from: RedRaven on April 19, 2011, 06:30:05 PM
Alice in Wonderland was good although I find Helena Bonham Carter a little annoying at times...

I think her part in the movie was to be a total annoying git... Err, or do you mean outside of her role in Alice?   ????

To be honest I watch so few movies I've no idea who Helena Bonham Carter is or anything about any other roles she's played if any.   :-D

Nine out of the last ten movies I've watched have been animated.

Yeah sad, I know but there has been so little that has interested me coming out of Hollywood for the last 15 years I'm not going to throw money at them by watching because that says to the movie makers "Please, Sir, may I have some more gruel?"

Inception the only non-animated movie I've seen out of the last ten fortunately was worthy.

Though when I've discussed it with several friends I've come to the conclusion that most people aren't catching the real subtle twist established by the way the movie itself begins with no opening credits other than the production company as if to say "How did we get here?"

^-^ (<-- Closest emoticon we have to a smirk)

Quote from: mandru  on April 19, 2011, 08:05:06 PM


I think her part in the movie was to be a total annoying git... Err, or do you mean outside of her role in Alice?   ????

To be honest I watch so few movies I've no idea who Helena Bonham Carter is or anything about any other roles she's played if any.   :-D

In most things, she was in Fight club, some of Harry Potter films but cant think of others, usually try to blank her out.


Animated films are great, watch Ghost in the Shell again last week - AWESOME film. Going to w@&k through the 2 series as well next.


Have you seen Despicable Me ? was really funny in 3D, as was Gomeo and Juliet.


(like the smirk idea too)

Quote from: mandru  on April 19, 2011, 08:05:06 PM
Yeah sad, I know but there has been so little that has interested me coming out of Hollywood for the last 15 years I'm not going to throw money at them by watching because that says to the movie makers "Please, Sir, may I have some more gruel?"

^+-+

Boy, can I relate to that comment 8) It must be too much to ask that movie makers produce films for intelligent people to watch. The lowest common denominator accounts for the most bums on seats, apparently.

Despicable Me was good we enjoyed it.  I'd not heard of Gnomeo and Juliet but after checking out the trailer for it it's on the list of movies to check out.  Thanks for the heads up on that one.  :-X

Anime like Ghost In the Shell (a classic) is one of my secret pleasures.  Well not so secret seeing as how I start prattling  on about them any time some one mentions anime.  ::)  At least I don't open conversations with strangers with "Hey! did you hear that Gosick was extended to a second season?" like a total Otaku   :-D


:-X @ fragger

If I want to sit down and watch something light, funny or silly the animated movie makers at least had to have some though and effort put into assembling them and occasionally you get one that really shines.  Most live action humor movies end up feeling like they are trying to out stupid Dumb and Dumber.   ???

I actually was talked into watching Inception by a friend that for twenty+ years has used me as his Sci/Fi goto guy.  He had really liked the film and had watched it 3 times but wanted someone he could question about some of the fine details he wasn't getting his head around.  It worked out good for both of us.   ;D

CUBE by a chap named Vincenzo Natali

All this talk about Portals brought a movie to my mind. I can see a connection between this movie and Portal, not the sharp humor though... this movie is disturbing, rather wicked but I lik it... P1&2 is more easy to cope with but the whole test subject in a maze thing...

http://www.totaleclips.com/Player/Bounce.aspx?eclipid=e10074&bitrateid=471&vendorid=102&type=.mp4/ (http://www.totaleclips.com/Player/Bounce.aspx?eclipid=e10074&bitrateid=471&vendorid=102&type=.mp4/)

I remember CUBE, awesome film, sequels not so good (as usual).
Watched LEON the Professional again yesterday, not seen it for years, was my first exposure to Jean Reno and Luc Besson as well as being Natalie Portman's first role.

Reno is also ace in RONIN.

Agree about CUBE, got both the first and second film. "Disturbing" kind of sums it up.

LEON is a great film, watched that DVD more than once :)

Same with RONIN, Robert DeNiro and the guys did a splendid job  :)

I've seen CUBE but not the sequel. I like how it was never explained who or what was responsible for the cubes, why they existed or how the people came to be there. It just added to the scary alieness of the whole thing :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on April 27, 2011, 02:05:03 AM
Same with RONIN, Robert DeNiro and the guys did a splendid job  :)

Love the scene where DeNiro ambushes Sean Bean, excellent move.

This is about the movie Crossroads but I'll get to that in a bit.   ;)

I've come across a web site called Crackle ( http://www.crackle.com/ (http://www.crackle.com/) ) which is a media service providing free access to movies and some TV shows.

Last night my wife and I had an evening together with no demands which is unusual for us for a Thursday.  While we have 250 channels on satellite TV there was nothing on we wanted to watch so I went in to look at the movies available on Crackle and came across the Crossroads which is an old favorite of mine but my wife had never seen.

I'm not sure if Crackle will allow users to access it from outside the U.S. but to find this movie on the site (if you can) click the Browse link that's right under the page's search window and then with the very handy Refine tool (on the next page's left side) Select "Movie" and under Genre Select "Music" it will be one of the 8 selections that come up.  Because of the language (less offensive than FC2's) it has been rated R so unless you set up a free membership and are logged in it will ask that you enter your date of birth to verify age appropriateness.

I should also mention that because Crackle is a Commercial site the movies have commercials embedded in them that you have to put up with.  However, it seems that there's a bonus with Crossroads being as old as it is (1986) when we watched it last night it would reach a commercial break and then go straight back into the movie with no ad ( :-D :-X) and other than a small non-obstructive pop-up just above the video control that goes away on its own after a few seconds leaving no 30 second gaps in the storyline while marketers try to sell you feminine hygiene products ( :D) which is often more offensive than FC2's language.

I think the free membership removes the ads completely but the trade off is probably personal info I'd prefer to not share with them.

*Getting all of that technical crapola out of the way*    Now about the movie.   :-D

In some aspects I think that this story is a modern adaptation in the nature of other literary allegorical pilgrimages like Dante's trilogy Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.  Crossroads is an interesting blend of myth, legend and a Siren's musical call that once heeded allows no turning back.

Sheltered and privileged a talented young musician being schooled in the finest tradition of classical guitar has earnestly absorbed his lessons from classical instruction but the raw living edge and powerful draw of the Blues and the mystery of a missing unrecorded song by an early Bluesman at the dawn of recorded vinyl whose haunting style shaped modern music leaves him entangled in a struggle for self realization and destiny at the Crossroads.

I'm not a big fan of the Blues being more of a heavy metal rocker or even more drawn to driving techno instrumentation and beats but the Blues numbers presented in this movie were seriously compelling.  The music selected for this film added to the appeal of this movie for me probably more than the thin acting skills of Ralph Macchio (Karate Kid, yes yes a formula feel good movie  ??? ) but adding the intriguing story line it's made this a movie that I've watched several times over the years and happy to get to share it with someone that had never seen it.

And who can resist a character named Scratch?   >:D

yes it was a great movie, the devils guitarist was none other than a budding Steve Vai, being a metaller meself, I imagine that you would like his stuff, he made a great album (or two?) with Dave Lee Roth of Van Halen fame.

Ralph was a pretty decent actor, with a few great movies under his belt, The Karate Kid and one of the funniest movies ever, My Cousin Vinny, featuring Joe Pesci, if you have not seen this movie, get it now, buy it if you have to, but it is awesome, with a great Marissa Tomei as Vinnys long suffering girlfriend :)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/)

And Steve Vai plays both guitar solos on that movie... Ralph just moves his fingers  8)

Interesting JRD.  :)  I figured he was coached to look like he was playing but didn't realize Vai had played both the parts in the duel.   :-X


Fiach I'll have to look up My Cousin Vinny.   :-X

Well I kinda figured Vai would play his own parts, he's pretty awesome on guitar, Man, immagine someone claiming that they did Vais Guitar stunts in Crossroads lol :). I never knew that about Ralph, I wonder who played his stuff then?

Mandru, really, check it out, its funny and Marissa is absolutely stunning in it, she plays a really "noo york-ish"  italian girlfriend, the kind that grew up in a house full of brothers and knows exactly how much torque to apply when changing a tap washer, she really makes the movie shine, but the rest of the cast are no slouches either, honestly if you havent seen it, try to make it your next movie :).

I guess Ralph actually plays the guitar and in many parts of the movie he is playing his own parts. Someone wrote and taught him maybe.

What I know is that Vai wrote and played both guitar in the duel, Ralph would never beat Stevie  ;)

Thanks for clearing that up JRD, he's pretty good then.  :-X

The credits on Crossroads listed a guitar coach for Ralph Macchio and as to whether that was a playing coach or a looking good while faking it coach, I simply don't know.  What I do know is that playing the way he was represented in the movie is one skill set and being able to play that precisely while jumping around and dancing and mugging it up with an audience is a different level of difficulty.

I'm new to this topic. I allways had a snese of checking it out once, but damn; 301 replies WOW
But... I have two recommendations to add, so here we go:

The first is like a shot for open goal: Fast & Furious 5.

I've seen it yesterday in Cine and it ROCKS!!!

Anybody who likes fast cars, action, incredible stunts and amazing robberies: You must view thisone. I won't tell much about the story to be sure not to give too much away but here's an introduction:

Dom (Vin Diesel) has just recieved 25 to life and is being transported to jail. His family helps him escape with some... furious cars. They go to Rio Brasil and there they sign for one last job: stealing some fast cars from a train. What will happen next is marvellous, let me just tell that there's a June Truck (the ones they use in Paris-Dakar) involved.

Doing the job they find out that it's not about the cars... It's about an entire bussiness... And if they take over, they'll be free forever.

So they call in a crew from their street-racing-family and plan their goal; this is all much like Ocean's Eleven. Same striking personalities and humor, same way of planning. Oh, and it's not personal this time... it's just a 100 million dollar job  :o

That's is about the review, or I will give too much away. One last thing; meanwhile they're huntied by a DEA elite-group lead by the infamous Dwayne Johnson.

Check for yourself. After watching this movie you'll walk out of the theatre feeling god ;)

The second recommendation is the Movie "The Way Back".

This story takes place in 1940 and starts in a Siberian prison-camp. Most of you'll know about these working camps where the Russians used to keep their enemies of the state.
A bunch of guys plans an escape: They know that escaping the prison-ground is just the beginning, and they are prepared. But THEN: They have to make their way through the siberian toundra, the mongolian desert and the tibetan mountains. They start with 7, only 3 make it to tibet.
The movie is about grief, drift (don't want to use the word passion, anybody could use that word in a review), cruelty, the power of nature and forgiveness.
When you follow this group through this queeste you will feel the power of nature, allthough you're on your cough. You'll feel the point of giving up, and the relief of that moment, allthopugh you're in your comfortable chair with a good glass of wine next to you and whatever more confort around.
And in the end you'll feel forgiveness.

Somehow this movie grabs you, and won't take loose. You are just there.

That's it. Hope I convinced you to watch them. And when you did, let me know what you think of it  ;)

Because of the early games of Need For Speed (starting with "1" and I also played many sequels) I was interested in The Fast And The Furious and watched all sequels ever since. I'm already looking forward to F&F5, cheers  :) :-X

If you like humour, great actors, action and espionage all in the mix, then you're going to like RED (IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/)) (Retired, Extremely Dangerous), starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren, Ernest Borgnine (minor role) and many more. The story? Who cares  :-() It's major entertainment  :-X

FF5 is supposed to be great, I'm waiting for the Blue Ray version :)

The Way back, I didnt really like it, I think Colin Farrell is a great actor, who was very good in that film too, but I only made it about halfway through before I got bored. Maybe I should check it out again, seeing as you rate it so highly :)

Quote from: Art Blade on June 03, 2011, 02:38:10 PM
Because of the early games of Need For Speed (starting with "1" and I also played many sequels) I was interested in The Fast And The Furious and watched all sequels ever since. I'm already looking forward to F&F5, cheers  :) :-X

If you like humour, great actors, action and espionage all in the mix, then you're going to like RED (IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/)) (Retired, Extremely Dangerous), starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Karl Urban, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Helen Mirren, Ernest Borgnine (minor role) and many more. The story? Who cares  :-() It's major entertainment  :-X

Helen Mirren is awesome in everything, my first screen crush  8-X :o :-[

your first screen crush?

I fancied the arse off her in a big way .......*cough* erm I found her quite attractive, when I was quite young  >:D

 ^+-+

 ^+-+ :-X

 ^+-+

I think I first saw her in Excalibur. She was something of a hottie in those days! I have a great admiration for Mirren, I think she's a tremendously talented performer :-X I watched her in the title role as The Queen not long ago, and I was very impressed by the production and especially by Mirren's performance.

Ahhh yes, the Queen! I got that DVD and was really amazed at how great she was. :) :-X

Yes, Excalibur was the first time I saw her, it was shot in Ireland.

If you can be bothered to check it out, she had a TV series called Prime Suspect, back in the 80's/90's, it was really well produced, great stories/acting. Each series had maybe 4 x  1.5 hour episodes, I think there were maybe six series all together, but yes she is/was a class act. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Suspect_%28UK_TV_series%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Suspect_%28UK_TV_series%29)

If you search for it you should be able to find the series easily enough, its about 10 gigs.

Having bought a new BD player and in need of recent films I hadn't watched before I finally decided to give Avatar a shot. I bought a special edition that contains three versions of the film, I watched the "extended collector's edition" which is 16 minutes longer than the original cine version which is 8 minutes shorter than the extended cine version. Hehe, yes. In this collector's BD box there are three discs with all kinds of stuff around the film and its production but I just wanted to watch a film.

Although I don't have any 3D devices, the images of the film were still impressive. It had been said before, the film reminds of Pocahontas, and I'd add that it also reminds me of Enemy Mine, Eragon, Starship Troopers and perhaps because of Sigourney Weaver along with military forces, of Alien. Regarding the avatar itself, it reminds of The Matrix (get wired up on board of the Nebuchadnezzar and control your alter ego in the matrix) or The 13th Floor (because of the same principle). Maybe even more films but hey, that's already enough  :)

I read through the scattered previous posts about Avatar and apart from praising its 3D effects there were two criticisms regarding "evil humans" and phoney "eco" messages as in protect and save the environment.

Plot:

Spoiler

The film basically describes how a young ex-marine in a wheel chair is offered to take on the job of his recently deceased twin brother, who was a scientist, because the project he was working on involved his genome which was basically identical to his own. The genome was needed to establish a remote control linked to an artificially created humanoid alien life form, the avatar, on a far-away planet, Pandorra. His job is to physically get onto the planet and persuade the natives within three months time to leave their home ground because it sits on the biggest resource of a rare and extremely valuable mineral the company which employed him wants to mine. Our handicapped soldier simply slips into some hightech sarcophagus and transfers his mind to control a vital non-handicapped alien, his avatar. Tall, strong, inexperienced, he has to stand his man in a hostile sort of pre-historical environment in which the humanoid aliens live like Stone Age hunters who are spiritually and physically linked to the ecosystem. He happens upon the daughter of a tribe chief who orders her to teach the avatar everything. Of course they quickly fall in love and of course he learns everything perfectly well, ranging from language to riding dragons. He learns that the humans are about to destroy the alien culture and people. So he goes rogue and becomes a well-respected alien warlord who unites all clans of the planet to fight the humans back, marries his teacher and, after voluntarily and irrevocably transferring his mind into his avatar, becomes one of them to stay forever.

All in all I am surprised, if I say so myself, that I liked the film. I don't care about hidden messages and regard it as a very colourful sci-fi / fantasy version of Pocahontas (which is a film that I liked, too).  ;D

I loved Avatar, I also liked the game too :)

Inception is pretty awesome on Blueray mate, also The Expendables. Not only as films in their own right, but the extras on the disc are quite engrossing :)

On my STEAM version of AC2 there's a video of Avatar, the game... how do you like it Fiach? It looks really cool on that vid and I never thought about it, but it can do a very nice game as well!!

We watched Avatar in 3D at the theater, and it was quite enjoyable  :-X

Well Avatar scored an average of 7 upon release, so opinions are quite subjective, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary :)

The games format follows the movie story pretty accurately, except you are a different person. Its a third person shooter in an open world environment. This open world (rainforest) is very well presented, with both the usual ground based areas, plus the upper canopy, which is accessed by vines that can be climbed.

You navigate this area by several means, jeep, boat helicopter, or on beasts that you have to capture and tame, like 6 legged zebra looking things (horse-like) giant black panther types of things and also the weird bird-like things from the movie.

The game is a third person shooter, but you can also use melee weapons too, depending on which faction you choose, Na'vi or human, decides what your weapon load out is going to be, bows and swords, or machine guns.

As you move through the jungle on missions, you will come accross firefights with your faction engaging the enemy, but you dont have to take part i these skirmishes, you can just follow your mission parameters.

As the game progresses, you have to decide at key points, which side you will choose to aid, while the game autosaves, at these choice junctures, the game makes a "hard" save, so you can return to these junctures and replay as the other side, if you want to just try different strategies, or you find that tyhe choice you made has unpalatable consequences. The choices are pretty hard hitting.

The gfx are very good, not quite Far Cry 2, but the game has to render alot of stuff, not just open veldt, but two tiers of a jungle, with alot of pretty visual effects (eg the pink glowing trees etc). It also accomodates 3D TV's, which is accesed via the options menu.

If you liked the movie, I think you would like the game too :)

Here are some excerpts from my review, to save you scrolling through a bunch of pages :)

Well, kinda by default, I got this game as nobody else wanted it, I've only been playing a few hours, so here are my first impressions.

Firstly, it seems every reviewer and their dog, dislikes this game, so bear that in mind, before rushing out to buy it after reading this.

When you start the game, you hit the character creation screen, you dont have any real control, I think there are about 12 male and female preset characters to choose from. They all look pretty similar too, mostly different hairstyles and skin tines.

You start off as a grunt marine type, just landed on the planet Pandora after 5 years in a cryo sleep for the journey. Its hinted that alot has happened in those five years.

You are sent on a couple of missions, to aquaint yourself with movement, combat, vehicles etc.

Once you exit the compound and enter the jungle type surrounding area, you will be pretty amazed at the visuals, there is no point in comparing them to FC2 as this has more dense vegetation, rivers, waterfalls etc. Whereas FC2 is beautiful, but quite barren in comparison.

There are times, in some of the higher areas, that the game even seems "majestic", in the grandeur of its environment. The plant life is quite unique, even scary! I was in an area at the start and I walked towards some plants that actually looked like they had razor sharp "fan-like" leaves, I walked slowly, because they looked vicious, as I drew adjacent to them, the disappeared, I thought it was a clipping bug, but no, it wasn't. I was afraid to go through, incase they reappeared and locked me into the area!

The wildlife is also quite unique and vicious, when you play as a marine type, everything hates you, but when you play as a native (Na'Vi), only about half the fauna hates you :)

The marines use guns and can call in airstrikes, the Na'Vi use more primitve weapons, well they look primitive, but the bow is one of the best bows I have ever used in a game, as you level up, you get more weapons and skills made available, you dont have to purchase them, they just become available and you assign them to different buttons.

The types of skills are quite varied, Self heal, Call an animal to fight at your side, an AoE stun skill if you are getting mobbed, turn Invisible, move faster, have stronger attacks etc.


The vehicles for the army are jeep/boat  types, but thats all I have seen as I have only played as Na'Vi.
The Na'Vi have a nice selection, Notably a weird horse type creature and eventually an awesome eagle/dragon type arial vehicle.

Combat takes some getting used to, the monsters are pretty fast and the game is TPS, so getting accurate shots takes some getting used to, the Bow is quite awesome, pull and hold the trigger and the bow kinda locks on to the target, but doesnt hold the lock if the target is moving, the arrows provide incredible damage, alot of one-hit kills. You also get two swords (dual wield) or a club, or a kind of Darth Maul staff melee weapon, you gather arrows by interacting, with the plant life, you aquire bullets by killing marines, wheras the marine characters have types of vending (but free) machines that replenish all your ammo, if you interact with them.

At a certain point in the game you must choose whether you play as a native or a marine, I chose native, but they are two very diverse play styles, that the game will have plenty of length, a single play is supposed to be about 15 hours, so I guess 15X2.

The quests so far are pretty varied, and seem intended to make you explore, even though your compass is pointing in a certain direction, there are many trails and paths that entice you away from your current goal.

Alot of effort has been made to create a "lore" for the world of Pandora, you can "scan" many items like flora and fauna and machines, similar to Metroid Prime, to fill up a kind of in-game encyclopaedia.

I'm currently enjoying the game I cant understand so much hate for it, my mate Dan hated it for example (hence my copy), but its a very deep game that is very immersive and though there is alot of (mostly) combat, the world in which it happens is very immersive, I would nearly say its more of an experience than just a game.

Anyway, so far so good.


I forgot to mention that the Na'Vi also get a machine gun, which upgrades as you level, you cannot use the human weapons as the Na'Vi are about 12 foot tall, which makes spotting camoflaged tiny humans a little difficult at times.

I dont know why Dan hated the vehicls controls, I find them OK, I had problems with the flying dragon thing, but it was a combination of me flying too fast and not realising that there was a "reverse" control too, for tight spots.

I must say that the view of the planet rom the air, is quite a spectacle, also the height to which you can climb (I havent hit the ceiling yet), is quite impressive.

Interesting video on the Banshee creature (flying mount)

Avatar (http://www.traileraddict.com/emb/16347)

Well I made a new character and went marine this time, (I havent finished the Na'Vi one yet), to get a more rounded view of the game.

I can see why people complain about the vehicle controls, there is a slight issue with the marine helicopter gunship you get.

I use reversed controls for flying (eg pull back for up and push forward for down), The game uses the opposit of my preference, but, you cannot change this control, which takes a little getting used to, especially when shooting stuff with the chopper, you have to remember to aim with the left stick, not the right one, which is odd as the on foot aiming is done with the right stick, it just seems like a weird oversight.

Also with the buggys and boats, you steer with the left stick, let the camera take care of itself, but I tended to use the camera stick initially. Now I have no problems.

The human campaign is pure evil though, from what I have played, so is quite different from the Na'Vi campaign. Its interesting how the plants and animals attack you as a human, as opposed to when you are a Na'Vi.

Marine weapons are standard fare, Assault rifles, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, dual pistols, Nailguns, these all upgrade in quality, as you gain levels too, which is nice.

Na'Vi weapons are primitive fare, Dual swords, Clubs, Staves (like darth maul) and of course the bow.

Anyway, bottom line is, this is a really good game, excellent visuals (there is a 3D mode for 3D televisions, which I believe makes Crysis look like crap), a very immersive world, a good story to drive you along, lots of exploration, the weapons are cool for both sides and each get different skill sets, Humans can call in an air strike, which never gets old :), plus the vehicles are really cool too.

8/10 (would have been 9/10 but for the chopper controls).

LOL still finding new stuff.

As you play you gain experience (XP), this translates into upgrades of skills/gear......BUT....

At teleporters, your experience accumulates as "credits", these credits can be spent in a "Risk" style game, where you have a globe of the planet Pandora, divided into countries and continents.

You spend the credits on creating troops (grunts, Banshees etc.) and use them to invade and take over neutral countries and enemy countries as you battle to control the planet. This is totally seperate to the standard campaign game.

Its like a simplified Command and Conquer game, but success transleates back into the campaign in XP and gear as well. So a very nice synergy going on there.

Well at this stage, I have both my characters up to the same level and its quite interesting, so heres a few points.

1. The Na'vi can sort of "live off the land", he gets his ammo by interacting with trees, this also allows him to collect "cells", every ten cells gives him one life, so, although health regenerates and he has a heal spell, if he dies, he gets a chance to "recover". He can have 5 "recovers" before he has to resurrect at a checkpoint.
The check points are always near each other, so its no biggie, any damage done to enemies, or if any are killed, they stay damaged or dead. This adds a certain easiness to the game, but bear in mind the Na'Vi have no armour and use primitive weapons, this does provide a sense of balance.

The Human is similar, but gets ammo from dispensers that are about 100 yards/meters apart, so its never a problem running out of ammo. The human can only collect cells for recovery, from random drops, by killed enemies, so they have access to less recovery items, but they have better weapons and armour.

2. Its interesting playing as both species as you can see how the skills w%&k in combat from the other sides point of view. For example, there is a Na'vi skill that makes you run faster and phase in and out of visibility, I never bothered with it, until I played as a human and saw the Na'vi do it..... its bloody effective, they keep disappearing as they run at you with these massive clubs, so combat really keeps yu on your toes.

3. The humans get more toys, like mech suits, mobile missile vehicles, buggies, choppers. The Na'vi are all beast riders, the manual only mentions two forms of transport, Direhorses and Banshees, but there are more, they all look really cool and handle well, but the flying takes a little getting used to for both races.

4. The plants HATE humans and have interesting and exotic methods of killing them :), I was in a battle today as a human, I was being attacked by Viperwolves (kinda like Skags that can go invisible), Navi ranged and melee, plus two different types of plants, one that fired poison gas and one that lobbed pineapple sized explosives, it was utter chaos, because I  had marine units helping me, using guns and grenades, the ragdoll physics were very impressive, with people and animals (me included), being blown all over the place.

5. Frequently you will encounter skirmishes between groups of Na'vi and marines, you can help or not as desired, but it reinforces the feeling that you are in a warzone, I have also been in firefights with Na'Vi and suddenly a chopper will come in and drop a platoon of marines to help me out (without being asked for by me), also, you will sometimes come across marines or Na'vi fighting with the local wild life, which makes the world seem more alive.

I checked the metacritic score for this game and it only scored 5.5/10, that is totally bonkers for this game, I can only assume that its utter morons that need games to hold their hands, that are voting scores like that.

It is a really good game, although I know some dont like the TPS view.

It has great graphics, a really good two sided storyline, very diverse gameplay and very imaginitive vehicles. It may not have 87 bazillion guns, but the ones you have get upgraded every level or so, to make them more effective.


The vegetation is so lush, sometimes when the combat gets hectic, with the physics, you can get thrown into the foliage and cannot see your targets, because the camera is over your head.

Now this is no big deal, I would prefer to have the lush foliage than FPS really and getting out of the foiage is just a jump button away, which is what you would use in FPS anyway.

I wish there was a demo available, because the environment is really nice to look at.

Wow... that`s a great review... thanks a lot, mate!  :-X

It sounds pretty interesting. Open world, TPS - which I enjoy, by the way - two sides to choose from and two stories to play... I`ll take a closer look at this game for sure!

Allow me a few more questions
- Are there a day/night cycle or weather changes?
- Too many scripted events or random encounters with enemies / local fauna?
- you mentioned 15 hours x 2 and lots of things to do but are there side missions, quests or room for fooling around that can extend those 15 hours?

*************************************************************************************

Just a quick check.... STEAM have it for US$19,99 and I found this video on the Na`Vi gameplay... pretty impressive!  8)

james camerons avatar - the game - navi gameplay trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuueCdWvKPg#ws)

I liked the brief summary of the game, Fiach :-D

Quote from: JRD on June 06, 2011, 10:25:52 AM

Allow me a few more questions
- Are there a day/night cycle or weather changes?
- Too many scripted events or random encounters with enemies / local fauna?
- you mentioned 15 hours x 2 and lots of things to do but are there side missions, quests or room for fooling around that can extend those 15 hours?

I dont actually remember about day/night or weather mate sorry, but I dont think there are.

There are quests, you will be direced to where you wish to go, you can travel most places with a vehicle, iirc there is a teleport system too. Random encounters are just firefights. You can definately fool around in vehicles and on mounts, the jungle is very immersive so you can go exploring, so you arent confined to plot, you can go pretty much where you want, as the game opens up, I dont think its as big as JC 2, if thats any help.

Wow, great mini-review, and the visuals are very detailed and colorful, just like the movie.  :-X

That`s a game to have on my list to one of those STEAM fire sales for sure... not getting it now as I have too many games to play with me and a few more to come, but thanks again for all the info Fiach... much appreciated, mate!  :-X

Jest doin' mah job suh :) .... (That was supposed to sound like a US police officer, but I dont think I quite pulled it off :))

I'm revisiting old classics like Baldurs Gate and Arcanum (isometric RPG's), may do a retrospective post on old games on new machines someday soon, but they are severely eating up my playtime, so I cant get near new stuff as quickly as I would like.

Quote from: Fiach on June 04, 2011, 02:16:37 AM

Helen Mirren is awesome in everything, my first screen crush  8-X :o :-[

Got to agree with you there, and Princess Aura from the Flash Gordon film.

Blood Diamond was on free-to-air late last night, and as I was in lazy blob-out mode I thought I'd watch it again, even though I usually won't watch movies on TV because of the commercials. But I'd forgotten just how riveting a film it was and put up with the mind-numbing ads to watch it. Superb if highly confronting movie, and while DiCaprio was excellent I thought Djimon Hounsou's performance was the show-stealer.

It certainly increased my motivation when I had a FC2 session the next morning...

 :)

Quote from: fragger on July 10, 2011, 04:42:57 AM
Blood Diamond was on free-to-air late last night, and as I was in lazy blob-out mode I thought I'd watch it again, even though I usually won't watch movies on TV because of the commercials. But I'd forgotten just how riveting a film it was and put up with the mind-numbing ads to watch it. Superb if highly confronting movie, and while DiCaprio was excellent I thought Djimon Hounsou's performance was the show-stealer.

It certainly increased my motivation when I had a FC2 session the next morning...

Definately one of my favourite movies, DiCaprio was in fine form, with a great SA accent.

I think there was some scandal recently about some top models, I think Naomi Cambell was grassed up for receiving Blood Diamonds, yeah here it is :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/7927869/Naomi-Campbell-admits-she-was-given-blood-diamonds.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/7927869/Naomi-Campbell-admits-she-was-given-blood-diamonds.html)

Yeah, I remember hearing about that. Shameful business.

Indeed an ace film. Leonardo DiCaprio seems to go from strength to strength with each new movie they do.
As does Matt Damon too.
As for Naomi Campbell, I'm pretty sure she was also once the subject of an incident with an animal rights activist who threw a bucket of blood on her due to Campbell's support of the fashion industry still using animal furs, though at the moment don't seem to be able to find the story about it.

I remember that incident, too. She does seem to bring a lot of strife down on herself - something akin to foot-in-mouth disease ::)

Dunno if this one's been mentioned here already, but another Leo film I saw recently was Shutter Island. Well worth a look for those who enjoy a twisted tale, with DiCaprio in fine form :-X

Quote from: fragger on July 13, 2011, 01:28:54 AM
I remember that incident, too. She does seem to bring a lot of strife down on herself - something akin to foot-in-mouth disease ::)

Dunno if this one's been mentioned here already, but another Leo film I saw recently was Shutter Island. Well worth a look for those who enjoy a twisted tale, with DiCaprio in fine form :-X

I really liked that movie! I think the only one of his movies I have never seen, is The Aviator, its supposed to be very good, but the subject matter didn't appeal to me.

Inception was pretty awesome to me, but alot of people hated it. I have it on Blueray and between watching the movie 3 times and devouring all the extras and commentaries, I have received hours of entertainment from that movie.

I think Aviator is worth a look if you like Leonardo. It's not what you'd call an exciting film, but not boring either, a well-made period piece featuring a quite revealing look at what Howard Hughes was really like - brilliant but mentally flawed. Cate Blanchett turns in quite a commendable performance as Katherine Hepburn.

the Aviator is just fine entertainment  :) :-X

I liked the movie a lot as well. They manage to show you how a man is able to 'take over the world' just by being mad enough and hunt his dreams. The guy WAS mad indeed, how he locked himself up with tons of milk like that  :o

I liked Aviator a lot, great movie! Shutter Island, on the other hand, was very predictable imo... I knew what was going on since the beginning. The movie is very good nonetheless with nice direction and acting from DiCaprio and co.

Not seen Aviator (at least can't recall it!) so will check it out.
Agree with JRD about Shutter Island, kind of expected more from Dicaprio and Scorsese, but it was well produced and really well shot.

Recently saw Transformers 3 - Dark side of the moon. Better than expected, great cast too on some of the robots. Wont spoil it here but if you want to know check out IMDB.


Another remake looming on the horizon for this year is 'The Thing' will hold my scorn and condemnation till I see it but initial thoughts are Oh bleeeep - not another bleeping remake!


Also Fiach mentions Inception, really liked that film, like a psychological Matrix. Adjustment Bureau was ok, but kept reminding me of Fringe.


Other recent film was The Tourist - basically 100 minutes of my life wasted that I will never get back.

the tourist (Johnny Depp) at least exuberantly demonstrated how to use that fancy electric cig  ;D

Thanks for the heads up, I was going to buy Tourist on Blueray at the weekend, as I like Depp and Jolie.

Jolie's movie Salt, was pretty good, got it on BD awhile back, Basically she is a CIA operative, a KGB operative names her as a double agent, so she escapes to try to rectify the problem. It would have maybe been better with a male lead, as some of the fight sequences arent quite believeable with a female character, but I guess tbh, Jolie is the only real female "action" choice around.... not a bad thing imo :)

Quote from: Fiach on July 18, 2011, 10:34:43 AM
(...)she is a CIA operative, a KGB operative names her as a double agent, so she escapes to try to rectify the problem. It would have maybe been better with a male lead, as some of the fight sequences arent quite believeable with a female character, but I guess tbh, Jolie is the only real female "action" choice around.... not a bad thing imo :)

It`d be Jason Bourne all over again, maybe that`s why they picked a woman to be the main character.

On a related note, another movie with Jolie is WANTED (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493464/)

WARNING: AVOID THAT CRAP!

...or never say I didn`t warn you lot...  >:((

I saw that movie on a flight. Thanks god I didn`t rent it or saw in the movie theater... it is so full of crap, inexplicable events and lousy, over the top physics

Loved it, especially the OTT stuff, they were supposed to be able to do OTT stuff due to their powers, guess its a love it or hate it movie, but it looks awesome on Blueray, especially the car chase at the start, awesome stuff (I think :)).

I admit that watching this movie on those little foldable screens on airplanes didn`t help in setting the mood for an action movie and the first few sequences are indeed good.

I got really bored after all explanations begins... you are the son of a very skilled assassin and we belong to an order that receive instructions through a loom from mysterious forces beyond our comprehension...  ????

Guess you are right: it`s a love it or hate it movie and I`m not on the love it side  ;)

Quote from: JRD on July 18, 2011, 12:49:56 PM
... you are the son of a very skilled assassin and we belong to an order that receive instructions through a loom from mysterious forces beyond our comprehension...  ????

Well, thats the story up to a point, then the twists begin, just in case you didnt finish the movie :)

But, yes, I dont think its a great medium to watch a movie tbh :)

Quote from: Fiach on July 18, 2011, 10:34:43 AMI guess tbh, Jolie is the only real female "action" choice around.... not a bad thing imo :)

Hehe, I do like her in some films, too. For the film The Tourist, what do you reckon her salary was ($US)?

Spoiler

$20,000,000  ??? :D

By the way, impressive if bordering frightening biography. Takes probably more than half an hour to read it all  ???? :) Check it here. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio)

The e-cigs Art Blade mentions are fantastic, got one myself, as have a few friends and relatives. So much better than real tobacco and cheaper too.


As for the film it came across as a lame spy film with none of the flair and humour of Bond or the dark and gritty realism of Bourne. 

Each to their own as regards Jolie. Personally never been keen on her, and there are a fair few actresses who get over-shadowed by her. Not that I dislike her, more a general disinterest.
Her current fella, Brad Pitt is another story altogether, excellent actor in many character roles and if you ever feel like a well told 3 hour long story I would recommend  'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' great example of a story turned into a great film, based on a short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald (going to track it down for a real compare and contrast).


Still waiting on Conan in late August, yet another remake but fingers, toes and big bloody swords crossed that its a good one.

Quote from: RedRaven on July 18, 2011, 02:47:53 PM
Still waiting on Conan in late August, yet another remake but fingers, toes and big bloody swords crossed that its a good one.

They'll never find another Arnie....  :-(

Quote from: Art Blade on July 18, 2011, 02:10:16 PM

Quote from: Fiach on July 18, 2011, 10:34:43 AMI guess tbh, Jolie is the only real female "action" choice around.... not a bad thing imo :)

Hehe, I do like her in some films, too. For the film The Tourist, what do you reckon her salary was ($US)?

$20,000,000  ??? :D

By the way, impressive if bordering frightening biography. Takes probably more than half an hour to read it all  ???? :) Check it here. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio)

According to her bio, 7 mill of that fee went to charity :)

indeed :)  and again: impressive if bordering frightening.  :-D

$7 million to charity is great, good on her. But all these $15-$20 million per movie pay-checks along with movie's grossing higher and higher incomes seems to contradict the studio exec's cries of internet downloads killing the industry.


There is also still a big difference between the salaries of Actors and Actresses, think this shows 2010 figures - http://www.expensivepoint.com/entertainment/celebrity/highest-earning-celebrities-in-hollywood/ (http://www.expensivepoint.com/entertainment/celebrity/highest-earning-celebrities-in-hollywood/)



I'm no economist but I reckon if you looked back  at the earnings, costs and profits of 20 and 50 years ago compared today, even after taking into account the rate of inflation and such they are making more now than ever. Add to that the increasing popularity and quality of 3D film, which most people will not have as household tech for a few years and they are still raking it in. Lets face it, you cant download a 3D cam version of a film as it just will not w@&k!


What would be very enlightening is to actors real thoughts and opinions on such subjects but no doubt there are many, many legalities and contract clauses that do not allow them to be frank and honest to the public. I could be very wrong but it would still be good to hear it from them not agents, lawyers and studio exec's.


Some of the most enjoyable or interesting films I've seen have been very low budget when compared to most block-busters. Or have been made by independent or 'foreign' (non Hollywood) studios and directors.
In some cases this opens the doors for those involved to the top end of the industry and they bring a breath of fresh air with them.


Thats enough for now ;)

I think the quality of movies is degrading significantly as time goes on, its been pretty hit and miss on my visits to the cinema as to what I percieve as a great movie.

I guess in the 70's/80's people harked back to the golden age of Casablanca et al, but where are the Taxi Drivers, Deerhunters, The Sting, Papillon, Bullitt, Tootsies of this centuary, 11 years in and no movies to rival the elder greats.

Sure you have the technically advanced Avatar's etc, but something that looks great, with great acting and top notch storylines ..... they are few and far between.

As regards Piracy, its well documented that people that d/l movies were more than likely never going to buy them any way.

I d/l movies, if I like them, I will then buy them on Blueray Disc, but they are too expensive to buy on a whim, hence I check them out first. When I get the BD, then I will watch it a few times, with/without commentary and then watch all the Extras, Thus getting my moneys worth. :)

Things started to degrade when films begun to be addressed as franchises, made as trilogies and having the box offices figures published as a score to see which one is the biggest hit of the summer  :-(

Back in the day of those movies you mentioned, a film was an art w@&k, a bet made on actor`s performance and script depth, now it has a success formula repeated extensively and made at assembly lines  :D

I guess another reason they have so much more money is tech advances, We went to the cinema, we bought the movie on VHS, then in Widescreen VHS, then DVD, then Blueray, then the direcors cut versions, between regurgitating all of these, plus the franchises JRD mentioned, I guess they can afford to pay La Jolie the fee she commands :)

Also, if a movie doesnt make money, its a tax write off!

If you havent seen Entourage (a TV series), I highly recommend it to you, its about a fledgling actor and his friends trying to navigate their way to success in Hollywood. It gives some facinating insights into the movie business, its as funny as hell and the characters are so believeable, its nearly like a Reality Show.

The last episode is quite emotional in a very ironic way, your heart will actually go out to what happens to their manager, one of the most heartless managers in Hollywood, but with a hidden softness that he covers with harshness and bigotry. Awesome TV entertainment! :)

Boxset is about €10 (euro) per season in Tesco here , well worth the investment. :)

Inspired by Wings of Prey (read more here (http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=1320.msg42244#msg42244)), here`s another movie I really enjoy!

Memphis Belle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Belle_%28film%29)

A B-17 crew is about to perform theier 25th - and last - bombing missions over Europe when all personal aspects of it`s members are brought to the surface while dealing with both fear of war and friendship aspects!

A great movie, if you haven`t seen it yet, it`s a must have... pretty entertaining!  :-X

If thats the one where they are in bombers and in one scene a plane flies through another plane, yup a great movie! :)

Actually theres a very good PC game called B17 The Mighty 8th :


http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/sim/b17flyingfortressthem8/index.html (http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/sim/b17flyingfortressthem8/index.html)

Quote from: Fiach on July 19, 2011, 08:34:03 AM
If thats the one where they are in bombers and in one scene a plane flies through another plane, yup a great movie! :)

Yeap, that`s the one

Spoiler

The co-pilot wants to shoot down an enemy before the war is over for  him. So in one scene he grabs a MG and finally hits an enemy fighter which falls on the tail of a friendly B-17, bringing it down  :D

Quote from: Fiach on July 19, 2011, 05:54:14 AM
I think the quality of movies is degrading significantly as time goes on

Have to kind of agree with you there, although its also probably got much to do with quantity over quality in way too many cases.


As for truly great films - have recently been working through my war film collection chronologically from those set at the beginning of WW2 through to the end (including both Band of Brothers and The Pacific). At the end of it found that one of the most interesting and enjoyable was 'The Longest Day' which is a whopping 168 minute long black and white film from 1962. What still sets it apart from many other D-Day films is how it endeavours to show the events from the perspective of the English, French, American and German forces. Which for a film made around just 18 years after the event was a brave move considering the lingering hostilities that carried on, even decades after its production. Nearest thing I've ever seen come close to it is the 'Flags of our Fathers' & 'Letters from Iwo Jima' directed by Clint Eastwood from 2006 / 2007.
As much a drama-documentary as a story.

Quote from: Fiach on July 19, 2011, 05:54:14 AM
As regards Piracy, its well documented that people that d/l movies were more than likely never going to buy them any way.

I d/l movies, if I like them, I will then buy them on Blueray Disc, but they are too expensive to buy on a whim, hence I check them out first. When I get the BD, then I will watch it a few times, with/without commentary and then watch all the Extras, Thus getting my moneys worth. :)

Its something I have done in the past but these days most are unbearable to watch due to either bad audio or video quality. { A cunning conspiracy by the studios perhaps ? ;) lol} Yet even then it did not stop me buying DVD's or going to the Cinema as much as the huge rise in ticket costs.


As for Franchises and the endless merchandising that accompanies almost everything these days it has become part of 'The Norm' which is good and bad. Back in my youth I loved having Star Wars figures. And in some way it has helped some companies to survive, Lego was in trouble as a company then deals are made with Lucas Arts or who ever and now its booming again. Sadly even this seems to have now fallen prey to over-commercialism as they have a Pirates of the Caribbean range instead of just regular pirates.


Its a strange circle involving Books, Comics, Toys, Video games and Film. An easy example is Spiderman, starting as a comic followed by cartoons and toys then onto Film and Video games. And coming from the other way round are titles such as Resident Evil or Doom which started in the gaming world then transposed to the big screen.


Soon enough with the advancement of the various media technologies these distinctions are likely to diminish more and more, then before you know it we will all be plugged into the Matrix as power cells for the Technocratic elite!


As Fiach says we have progressed from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray with basic releases followed by directors cuts, special editions, box sets and such following each other. Reckon each release stage is most likely based on the decline in sales figures of the preceding version.  Got to admit that I do like the inclusion of some special features and commentaries found in digital media, good way to fill spare disc space in most cases but as always there are the odd few that are that half-hearted they should not of bothered.


Lastly, to follow my previous comments on remakes - The recent plague of film's from the past 40 years or so is becoming somewhat offensive. Authors and Screen writers should be on the endangered species list at this rate. Its got to be one of the sneakiest ways to cut costs.


Here's how it is done, step by cynical step ;)


STEP 1 - Simply take a film you enjoyed as a child and use someone else cash to get the ball rolling.


STEP 2 -  Take the original screenplay or script and butcher it according to current your sycophantic trends and whims, usually depends on where your funding came from.


STEP 3 - Hire all your friends and anyone your owe a favour too


STEP 4 - Supplement your funds with various Franchises, Sponsorships and Marketing schemes in order to hire a high profile cast.


STEP 5 - To maximise your cash return forget about looking for skilled artist's and craftsmen for all your sets and pre-production needs and hire eager, naive computer programmers to make as much as possible in CGI for as little cost as possible.


STEP 6 - Instantly sack anyone who gets in the way or has better ideas and replace them with cheaper staff.


STEP 7 - Ensure everyone else works 18 or more hours a day so you can spend most the time brown-nosing the Distributors and other Agencies you need to get it on screen. (this will often include spending chunks on the film budget on getting other rich people fed, drunk and intoxicated, failing that a good old fashion bribe should do the trick).


STEP 8 - Cling on long enough to avoid a mental breakdown or heart attack and hope that the hard w@&k done by those you have hired is good enough to make you look good.


STEP 9 - If all goes wrong in the land of the Big Screen blame the staff you do not like any more then hope that a straight to DVD release will salvage at least some of the money you owe people.


STEP 10 - If all goes well, and all the politicking, sucking-up and marketing goes well you can live the life of a very fat cat indeed. Basking in glory, maybe picking up an award or two along the way as you look toward your next project / victim.




@Fiach - have seen half an episode of 'Entourage' and it looked funny, Jeremy Piven is another in a long list of actors who can play many roles but are often over-looked by people. He was really good in 'Black Hawk Down' as one of the pilots, that's where first saw him, then saw him in 'Smokin Aces'.
As for it costing you only 10 euro at Tesco! Thats well cheap, bet its almost double that here in the UK! But will keep my eyes out for it.


Lastly (no, I mean it this time) Memphis Belle, as far as can recall was a good film, not seen it in years. Will hunt that down too. Usually go for Tanks over Planes in war films which is probably why it's not amongst my collection.


Oops, went on a bit there it seems, please take in to consideration that my bitter and withering cynicism is mostly, though not entirely tongue-in-cheek. Not ALL people in the movie industry across the globe are that bad. The 2% or 3% that are good natured, hard working, genuine creative visionaries deserve everything they w@&k so hard and long for.

Quote from: RedRaven on July 19, 2011, 10:51:43 AM

  Usually go for Tanks over Planes in war films which is probably why it's not amongst my collection.

You probably saw this movie, if not, check it out :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(1988_film) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(1988_film))

Quote from: RedRaven on July 19, 2011, 01:11:32 AM
Some of the most enjoyable or interesting films I've seen have been very low budget when compared to most block-busters.

I couldn't help but think of Duel  when I read that. It was Steven Spielberg's first mainstream movie and was made on a relatively meagre budget of around $100,000 dollars (which was quite paltry even in those days) and it still holds its own today :-X

I agree that movies these days generally suck. I went to the DVD rentals the other day and there was absolutely nothing in the new releases section that appealed to me, and I ended up coming home with a clutch of oldies.

Funny to think that back before the days of home entertainment systems, major movies like Jaws and the first Star Wars would run at the cinemas for years. Over here, the original Poseidon Adventure ran for over two years at the same cinema in Sydney, so did Star Wars. If you wanted to see a particular movie that was no longer playing at the cinemas, you had to wait until it was shown on television - unless you had your own film projector and could get hold of a cut-down, twenty-minute Super-8 version of the film, as a friend of mine used to do.

@Fiach - looks and sounds familiar, no recollection of seeing it though.  Another great film 9TH Company. Set in 1988 during the same conflict. Its a Russian production and next to Black Hawk Down it has to be one of the best 'modern era' war films made. Both being a dramatisation of real events as opposed to a fiction story set in a real war.


@fragger - Not seen Duel for ages, thanks for reminding me of it. I vaguely recall some films from my youth being on for ages, now its a case of Blink and miss it! Yet in the world of theatre and musicals some have been going for years and years. Phantom of the Opera has been running on Broadway since 1988, with over 9500 performances. Les Miserable has ran fro 21 years in London's West end with almost 9000 shows.
Just found out that the longest running play ever is 'The Mousetrap' by Agatha Christie. Translated into more than 20 languages, performed in over 40 countries with an estimated 10 million people having seen it.


Bit of useless yet interesting trivia there for you.

Never heard of 9th company, I'll keep an eye out for it though, is it in english or dubbed or just subtitled do you remember?

As you mention Mousetrap, here is a murder mystery movie that everyone would enjoy, Sleuth :



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069281/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069281/)

9TH Company is Russian dialogue with English subtitles, as are the extra's (making of and 20 years later). Not sure if it has been subtitled into other languages for other countries. Have become so used to extras being done in English, was pleasantly surprise to find them in the Actors native tongue.


Not watched any murder mystery films for many years, since all the old Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot was on the TV in the 80's. Big fan of Peter Ustinov but my grandfather hated his portrayal of the character because he did not fir the authors description.


Was not that taken by the Sherlock Holmes film with Robert Downey Junior from couple years ago. BBC recently did a short series of 3 90 minute Holmes stories but set in modern London. They are really, really well done and a second set should be out soon.

Sleuth is a classic, great entertainment :-X

For a really wacky murder mystery spoof, there's Murder By Death, if you can imagine a murder mystery film with the flavour of a Goon Show episode (Peter Sellers is in fact in it as a Chinese detective). Not wildly hilarious, but there are some pretty funny moments.

I loved MbD, check out Peter Falk (died recently :() in The Cheap Detective, also a nice slant on the genre.

Red, Sleuth is quite different to other murder mysteries as there are only two people in it, its brilliantky acted and well worth checking out even if you dont like the genre :)

Thought the name was familiar, just looked it up - its Columbo! That was an amazing show. Way better than Quincy!


Gutted that he is dead, 83 is good going though.

Seeing as it was mentioned the other day decided to watch Memphis Belle tonight.


Another good Air based film is 'FLY BOYS'. Its set in WW1 so you get to see some nice original, old-school dog-fighting. Jean Reno and James Franco both star in it.


Its always good to see Bi-planes. Always reminds me of Snoopy cartoons with the goggles and scarf, sat on his dog house :)

Memphis Belle is not a bad film, but the degree of departure from historical reality is enormous and bears practically no resemblance to the career of the real Belle and its crew.

One of my favourite air war films is Battle of Britain, which apart from a couple of rather pointless "human interest" side stories was very accurate historically. I'm a bit of a stickler for that as you may have gathered. I think if someone's going to make a movie about historical events they should try to stick to historical reality.

I enjoyed Fly Boys too, despite a tendency to overuse clever CG camera angles :-X

If you enjoyed Fly Boys, don't be tempted to watch the recent Red Baron film if you're looking for more of the same. Too little flying (hardly any), too much love-story soppiness. Dull, dull, dull... I give it 5 Zs ::)

Memphis belle is what we call afternoon session movie, tyhe kind of films that are aired during the afternoon on week days... almost as inocent as Disney classics  :-\

Not a bad movie though... good action and nice effects...  :-X ... I enjoy an easy movie like that to spend a couple hours not thinking or worrying  ;)

After moaning about the current state of the movie industry, over the last couple of nights, I pigged out on the following classics.

Papillon : Prisoner on a french penal colony and his escape attempts, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

Sea of Love : Al Pacino as a cop trying to catch a serial killer, unforgettable scene, when Al is alone in the bedroom of someone he thinks is the killer and has a panic attack.

Dog Day Afternoon : Pacino in top form again as a bank robber caught in the act and the subsequent bank siege situation.

Zulu : Michael Caine in Africa, caught in a siege, where the british soldiers are surrounded and continually attacked by the Zulu population, the movie Space troopers was based loosely on this movie.

The Man Who Would be King : Sean Connery and Michael Caine are two british soldiers who become rulers of an imaginary country adjacent to India, two top actors on top form, before they became caricatures of themselves.

They dont make them like these any more.

Quote from: JRD on July 21, 2011, 07:25:59 PM
Memphis belle is what we call afternoon session movie, tyhe kind of films that are aired during the afternoon on week days.

Funny you should say that as I ended up watching 'The Grey Zone' last night. Got it over a year ago but never got round to watching it, was still in the shrink wrap!


Its is about an uprising in Auschwitz and is based on the diary of Jewish pathologist chosen by Mengele to w@&k in a high position there. Very good film, certainly not light entertainment.  Great performance by Harvey Keitel and the rest of the cast.




So now going to watch Memphis belle this afternoon while waiting for the kid to finish his last day at school for the year.

Quote from: fragger on July 21, 2011, 07:18:41 PMMemphis Belle is not a bad film, but the degree of departure from historical reality is enormous and bears practically no resemblance to the career of the real Belle and its crew.

One of my favourite air war films is Battle of Britain, which apart from a couple of rather pointless "human interest" side stories was very accurate historically. I'm a bit of a stickler for that as you may have gathered. I think if someone's going to make a movie about historical events they should try to stick to historical reality.

I enjoyed Fly Boys too, despite a tendency to overuse clever CG camera angles :-X

I agree with you about films based on actual events, they are always better when presented as a properly researched and well written drama-documentary kind of thing. Otherwise its just fiction or even worse propaganda. I found that Pearl Harbour to be an example of the latter.


Dam Busters is an old favourite of mine. I live about half hour's drive from where they were tested and have spent many hours walking in that part of the countryside (fantastic steaks at one of the pubs there too :) )


Not seen the recent Red Baron so cheers for the warning.


@Fiach - Zulu is a great film, reckon that will be my Sunday film after watching the F1 race.

Quote from: RedRaven on July 22, 2011, 03:53:39 AM
I agree with you about films based on actual events, they are always better when presented as a properly researched and well written drama-documentary kind of thing. Otherwise its just fiction or even worse propaganda. I found that Pearl Harbour to be an example of the latter.


Dam Busters is an old favourite of mine. I live about half hour's drive from where they were tested and have spent many hours walking in that part of the countryside (fantastic steaks at one of the pubs there too :) )

Pearl Harbour and Titanic are classic examples of what I don't like, when the whole historical significance of the event is relegated to the backdrop for some schmaltzy love triangle (insert "puke" emotie here).

Dambusters is a perfect example of what I really do like, when great fidelity to the historical record is maintained. I heard that Peter Jackson was doing a remake and that they went to the trouble of building at least one full-scale model of a Lancaster bomber for it, but I haven't heard anything more about it for quite some time. It may have been scrapped. And, given the way remakes are produced these days, may be just as well.

@Fiach, great films there :-X Saw Zulu again not that long ago, actually. You're right, they don't make them like that anymore.

Anyone curious about the coming movie of Tintin? The secret of the unicorn.
I checked the trailer and some pics, even captain Haddock will be presented  ^-^
And the Johnsson brothers  ^+-+

I did read a couple of comic books among which was Tintin but I never liked "follow-ups" with regard to animated films (thinking about Asterix). Kind of destroyed my mental image of all (particularly the voice acting disturbed me).

Watched 55 Days at Peking this afternoon, which I haven't seen since I was a kid. Very impressive production, I really enjoyed it :-X

I never got into Tintin, but I did like the Asterix comics. Haven't seen the movie, but I don't think I particularly want to.

I learn to read with Asterix... I must have read all books at least 6-7 times... and I always laugh at the same jokes as if it was the first time  I read it ;D

Never liked any other kind of media where Asterix is at... movies, animated cartoon, whatever... hate it... I agree with Art, the voice acting is very disturbing. It seems that all movement, sound and acting is restraining the characters to what a director and the guys doing the voice over can see, its insulting  >:((  :D

Tintin, on the other hand, had an animated cartoon at one TV channel here, long ago, that coincided with the time I was back from school at my parent's house. After a shower, I would eat a snack and watch TV (we didn't have cable back then), always having Tintin as the best option.  The episodes I saw, and I saw plenty, were very nice.... I think they were a bit old, at least they seemed a bit old with a vintage look not like modern computer fuelled cartoons. The adventure and humor was great and very well voiced... cool...  :-X 8)

I tried a few times to go through a Tintin book but never felt really into the comics though  ????

I'm mad about the comics books of Tintin, and also Asterix. I think I read them all at least 20 or 30 times. My parents didn't have a TV so I filled my childhood with comics books. Lucky Luke was one of my other favorites.
Tintin I like the most with his friend, captain haddock. The way he swears, and does his stuff. I remember when Prof. Sunflower brew special pills which would prevent him from liking alcoholic drinks, man that's hillarious.
I just hope that the film will be like an extra comicbook, in movieformat. Including more fun with the main characters. It seems to be a new story, so if the directors do their w@&k great, it should w@&k out to be very nice  ^-^

Maybe I'm just dreaming of another comic book. I agree that most movies made of comic books lose their shine.

Never read any of the Tintin or Asterix books as a kid, but saw the occasional cartoon back in the day.
Just checked it out on IMDB and there is a pretty strong cast of actors for the voices. Jamie Bell as Tintin should be good, a very good actor for a guy in his mid 20's. Good to Simon Pegg's name up there too!


Despite my cynical rant about the movie industry the other day I must admit that animated films are often some of the better films coming out these days. Sat and watched cars on Sunday and was laughing more than not. Looking forward to seeing Cars 2 now but will be waiting for DVD as cinemas now will be rammed full of kids for the summer.


Got a surprise yesterday watching 'The Eagle has Landed' when I recognised a much younger looking Jeff Conaway - plays Zack Allan in Babylon 5, when I checked it out on IMDB was sad to see that he died a couple of months ago, was also surprised by how many other things he has been in over the years.

Babylon5 was ace  ;D :-X

OK, I have to ask - who are all those people whose names are in your signature, Red? ????

Great new avatar, btw :-X

Cheers fragger, it's taken my original name avatar I had a while back. Its great what 5 minutes with GIMP can produce. The signature is from a song by Neurosis called 'From Where Its Roots Run' and it is a runic poem. There are plenty of sites that give the meaning of each Rune. As far as can recall they are all Futhark runes, from Germanic and Scandinavian tribes.


Song is awesome and thought it would look better than a string of prime numbers, which is my default email signature.

Was at Neurosis a couple of nights ago, second time seeing them live, think the last time was in the 90's ... wow .... back in the 90's???  It was on the Silver in Blood tour, it was awesome!


Dublin 25/Jul/2011

Neurosis - A Season in the Sky - Live Dublin 25.07.2011 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Hz6uTs50Y#)

You jammy @"£$"£$@"£@$!"£@ not yet been able to see them yet as they hardly ever play the UK. good to hear they good live though.

More great news from Hollywood - Total Recall is being made again! Due out next year.
Not sure how much it will copy the original but it is based on the same Philip K Dick story.
Colin Farrell takes the place of good 'ol Arnie.


On a lighter note recently watched Ironclad and Limitless. Both entertaining. Was impressed by the lighting in Limitless, as well as an extremely long zooming shot that seems to go along several city blocks, looked good.

Hey Red... a question for you (at the perfect spot for that  ;) )

I read that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is due to 2012 and it will be linked to a movie of the franchise. I saw that on a not-so-trustworthy Brazilian site so I won`t post the link here (it`s in Portuguese too, so...  ::) )

Do you know anything about it?  ????

Stalker 2 is due out in 2012 but I have not heard anything about a movie. Still next to no news on the TV series either, keep looking for info every few weeks and so far zip. :(


If you have not read the book that started it all 'Roadside Picnic' by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky from 1977, or the Russian film 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky (made in 1979, DVD came out in 2002) which is based on the book I highly recommend them.


I was able to get them both together as a package deal from Amazon though having just looked it appears to no longer be available. The book is around £5 where as it now lists the DVD anywhere from £13 to £80 !
There is also a listing for Stalker DVD available to pre order, due August 8th in 2012 but this is just a re-issue and is only £9.


Have also just signed up to a Russian language Stalker site which may give more info than some of English based ones (fingers crossed)


One thing that has always intrigued me is the decision to set the games around Chernobyl as the book and film are both before the time of the disaster in 1986. What ever the reason I think it was a great move by the developers.

Quote from: RedRaven on August 09, 2011, 10:31:23 AM
More great news from Hollywood - Total Recall is being made again! Due out next year.
Not sure how much it will copy the original but it is based on the same Philip K Dick story.
Colin Farrell takes the place of good 'ol Arnie.


On a lighter note recently watched Ironclad and Limitless. Both entertaining. Was impressed by the lighting in Limitless, as well as an extremely long zooming shot that seems to go along several city blocks, looked good.

I would have loved TR if Arnie wasnt in it, so I'm looking forward to that! :)

I saw those other two movies last week and enjoyed them alot, IC was quite gory, Limitless was great too, well worth checking out.

Quote from: Fiach on August 09, 2011, 12:53:45 PM
I would have loved TR if Arnie wasnt in it, so I'm looking forward to that! :)

How can you not like Arnie ? Bet your a Stallone fan instead. :(

Yes I love Sly, apart from the movies he has acted in, he is an awesome scriptwriter and director.

They dont calle arnie " The Austrian Oak" for nothing mate :)

Not heard 'Austrian Oak' before, quality nickname :)


Been an avid movie watcher from before starting school thanks to Disney classics like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs & Broomsticks and Star Wars (of course) and more cartoons than I can remember. Around the early 80's I wanted more from films than the simple, light-hearted stories that enthralled me a few years earlier. During weekends at my grandparents I would watch any film that came on TV, from Alfred Hitchcock to Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin and many, many others kept me entertained for hour after hour, every film was like an adventure, across all genre's and themes.

During the second half of the 80's whilst baby-sitting my brother Friday and Saturday evenings I would get 2 or 3 videos from the local rental shop. The films shown on TV were from anywhere between the 30's and 70's, more recent films usually shown at christmas time. The video shop had films as little as 6 to 12 months old. Able to now choose what to watch meant renting films I'd heard about or seen impressive posters for. This is when I first saw Sylvestor Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Patrick Stewart, Rutger Hauer, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eddie Murphy and Bruce Willis. And a hell of a lot more too, almost all unkown to me except Eddie Murphy as I'd seen some of his stand-up comedy and Bruce Willis from the TV show Moonlighting.


Looking back I preferred Arnie over Sly then. Sly had done Rocky which I wasn't taken by, never been into boxing. And Rambo, cant recall why didn't like it back then and not watched them since so will have to try them again.
Arnie, on the other hand had done Conan - still one of my all time favourite films, along with Terminator, Red Sonja and Commando. Being interested in sci-fi and fantasy stuff back then also made Arnie more appealing at the time.
All that said I think in some ways Bruce Willis is a better actor than both of them. All 3 of them have been excellent in some films and terrible in others.


Although I never watched all the old Rambo films I did watch the 'Rambo' film from a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, The Expendables was good too.


Whilst writting this post had to check IMDB to spell the names correctly and I read the following on Sly's bio -


"The Expendables (2010) opened at number one at the U.S. box office with a first weekend gross of $35 million. This makes Sylvester Stallone the only person in Hollywood history to have starred in films that have opened atop the box office charts over five consecutive decades."


Good on him I say, lets hope he is still around in 2020 to make it 6 decades.
 

Bruce is the one I'd prefer over the other two, Sly coming 2nd and Arnie last. Arnie has never been a good actor but the films he starred in were mostly entertaining  :)

Well, I hate boxing too, but Rocky written by and starred in by sly is an incredible film, its subsequent sequels are of varying quality.

if you liked Rambo, then you should check Rambo First Blood and Rambo Two as they are much better. Cobra is a good action movie and I think used to hold the record for the most people killed in the shortest amount of time in a movie (or something like that).

Cliff Hanger is quite an excellent movie, with an awesome opening scene with Sly climbing a mountain.

Tango and Cash with Kurt Russel is a great 80's buddy movie.

Nighthawks was a good cop movie.

I wouldnt recommend much more tbh.

One Arnie movie I really liked was with Jim Belushi was Red Heat, a russian cop comes to the US and teams up with a US cop, very entertaining :)

Quote from: Art Blade on August 10, 2011, 09:06:49 AM
Bruce is the one I'd prefer over the other two, Sly coming 2nd and Arnie last. Arnie has never been a good actor but the films he starred in were mostly entertaining  :)

I really like Bruce, there is a cool scene in Expendables with the three guys in a church.

(Embarassing moment  :-[) I actually liked Hudson Hawk :)

But he has a great repertoire, Last Boy Scout and the Die Hard movies are great action movies.

Grindhouse Planet Terror was cool.

Armageddon was pretty awesome.

12 Monkeys I really enjoyed, a great scifi flick.

Too many to mention tbh :)

I saw First blood in my early teens but can not remember any of it. There is one Sly movie I do like - Demolition Man (no, don't laugh!) though its more due to Sandra Bullock and Dennis Leary than Sly or Snipes.


Looking back over the films that Arnie, Sly and Bruce have made through out the years I'd have to say that Bruce is the better Actor in an all round sense. All 3 of them do action flicks well yet Bruce is much better at comedy than the others, and is also able to play more serious characters or take on more obscure and challenging roles, such as 12 monkeys.


Got to admit that I also liked Hudson Hawk too ;)

You all forgot about Arnie at Predator... one of my favorite sci-fi alien crap movie  >:D

You all wish to forget that movie where Arnie is pregnant or the one with DeVito as his twin brother  :D

Also the first two Terminator were amazing, 2 being one of the best sequels ever written or shot (considering T1 wasn`t meant to have a sequel when it was originally written)

Oh, and Red, thumbs up for mentioning Conan  :-X ... Arnie fresh out of Mr Universe... wow.. maybe two lines over the entire movie... his cooked peanut brain wouldn`t process more than that back then  ^+-+

Tango & Cash is great, so is Cobra  :-X but the reason why I`d put Sly on third over those guys is his abandoned-hero-who-is-not-comprehended-but-will-die-for-you face  ;D

Bruce is more of an actor, at least he has a few different expressions as opposed to a single-faced action hero both Arnie and Sly use to play... actually, that`s why Terminator fits so well in Arnie  ;D

Oh yeah, Predator !!! Ace film.


New Conan film is out end of this month too :)


I wonder if Jason Mamoa can knock a camel out in one punch ???

Quote from: JRD on August 10, 2011, 01:15:35 PMhis cooked peanut brain wouldn`t process more than that back then  ^+-+

^+-+ ^+-+ ^+-+

Now you know what qualified him as Governor of California  ^+-+

Quote from: Art Blade on August 10, 2011, 01:55:27 PM
Now you know what qualified him as Governor of California  ^+-+

Judging by the dire state of affairs politically and economically in most of the so called '1st world' nations of Europe and the USA caused by two-faced scum-bag politicians and the big-business power elite seeking to maintain the status quo at the expense of the majority of the populace I reckon they got Arnie in the governors office to teach them how to act dumb in public and K.O. the occasional democrat senator or two when they needed to get things done.


At least with an actor for a politician you know they are all about lying and pitching an ideal life scenario as they over tax peoples hard earned cash and erode what little real freedoms we still have. Bet it works well as a get out clause too!


As the late, great George Carlin used to say -
"Here's a list of people who should be taken deep into the forest and disembowelled with wooden spoons"

Actors and some such as politicians.. reminds me of Ronald Reagan's era (and Italy even tried a porn star Ilona Staller aka Cicciolina) :-D The only thing they couldn't do is put Mickey Mouse into office.  :-()

Check out Sandra Bullocks movie The Proposal.

It has a great old fashioned feel to its direction, with both main actors displaying a charm and understanding of the movie itself.

I have watched a couple of "rom-com's" lately (Romantic Comedy), all they are made up of, are a series of embarassing situations that are more squirm inducing than laugh inducing, with some downright embarassing to watch, "sexual liasons" that actually caused a significant number of my brain cells to lay down and die in disgust.

One movie to avoid at all costs, Hall Pass, Christ!? Owen Wilson, wtf were you thinking???

Well they did get pretty close to having Mickey Mouse in the white house, in the end he couldn't make it so they sent in Goofy and Pluto Bush instead :)


Saw The Proposal a few months ago, funny. Another very good Sandra Bullock film is The Blind Side, based on a true story. A heart-warming story that had me and my son in tears. She won an Oscar for that role too.
Always found her to be an interesting actress, certainly not the typical Hollywood prima-Donna.


I agree with you about Hall Pass, Owen Wilson is good in Marley and Me, which is also based on a true story / real person.

That presidential talk reminded me of a line from an old Creedence Clearwater Revival song called "Ramble Tamble": "There's actors in the White House..." that was written many years before Ronnie Raygun became president. They must have known something... :-()

About Arnie, I can't ever see him winning any oscars but he definitely has appeal. I thought he displayed a pretty good comedic talent on the odd occasions when he's done comedy films.

Sandra Bullock is one of my favourite female actors, I've always thought she was a solid pro who can be relied upon to deliver the goods :-X She seems real, very bright and grounded, judging by interviews with her that I've seen.

agree about Arnie and comical roles.  :)

Sandra Bullock, well, I have to think hard to even come up with one title she's playing in (apart from Speed) and at the time worth watching. I like her in a way but wouldn't go as far as to say I thought she was a good actress.

I went to see Rise of Planet of the Apes.

It was really good, its amazing how well it is made, in the hands of a different director, or, if Andy Serkis wasn't in it, then it would probably be something that SyFy channel would churn out. The Special Effects, the ape choreography and animations, facial expressions etc. are out of this world.

The story concerns a lab technician working on a cure for Alzheimers for his father, testing the chemical on apes in their labs goes pretty awry at show n tell for the stockholders, resulting in the project being terminated and all the apes killed ..... except one, Caesar, a baby chimp, that they didnt realise had just been born to the ape from the show n tell mentioned above.

The baby grows up and for the final segment of the film Caesar is 8 years old.

The movie has a great storyline involving the lab technicians dad and his condition, which improves dramatically, causing the project to be restarted, then the poo hits the fan, culminating in a face off on the Golden Gate bridge.

I'm not quite sure about the connection to the original PotA movies, well I can see the genesis of the story, with the apes getting intelligent, but with the ending of this movie, it would nearly be crass to make a sequel, conforming to Pierre Boulles series of novels as this has a happy(-ish) ending.

Anyway, open your wallets and let the moths flutter around in the cinema lobby for 106 mins as you watch the movie. :)

Fiach : Watching movies that you should watch too.

Hehehe, nice.  :) I watched all prequels and was just thinking about Charlton Heston who unfortunately died in 2008.

I didnt know he died mate :( first movie I saw him in was Ben Hur, but one of my favourite movies of all time was El Cid, check it out if you ever get a chance.

 ;) :-X @ Fiach

Ben Hur?  El Cid?  Now you're talking about movies from a time where I actually know the actors, actresses, musicians and other celebs and could put names to their faces which is something I've not been able to do for a long time.

Somewhere around the time when Donald Southerland's son (Reefer or something like that) got grandfathered into the Biz I pretty much stopped caring about trying to keep track of that kind of inconsequential detail.  Unplug one actor plug in another and it makes no difference to me.  If a story line's good enough it will survive even the most intolerable schlub's efforts and might catch my attention but I'll wait for it to show up on DVD either way.

I honestly don't think I could pick 10 of today's hottest actors/actresses or musicians out of a line up and match them to their names.   8-X

"schlub" ?  ^+-+ Man, I keep gathering your expressions ^+-+

I think I know what you're on about. When you, I, and the rest of the more mature people here read names like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, maybe Jerry Lewis, Rita Hayworth, Gina Lollobrigida and god knows whose names we could come up with, we can come up with some of those without hesitating or thinking too much. Today's actors.. well.. not as easy.  :-D

Kiefer Southerland, check out 24 (seven seasons, plus an offshoot called 24 Redemption), or The Confession, each episode is only about 10 minutes long and its pretty rivetting TV,  he is a great actor imo.

but yes, the current chinless wonders do tend to blur into each other :)

nice, Fiach ^+-+ :-X

Spent all weekend away from the PC watching films. Here is what I saw -


MAX MANUS - MAN OF WAR. Very good WW2 film about the Norwegian resistance Hero. An area of the war that has had very little coverage, was familiar with the name but knew little about him. well worth seeing.


COLLATERAL DAMAGE - An Arnie film from 2002 had not seen before. The usual Arnie action stuff.


LOST IN SPACE - My son had not seen it so sat and watched it Friday night. I used to watch the old TV show as a kid and saw the film when it came out. Funnier than I remembered but nothing too special. Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith is probably best part in it.


THE SCORE - Robert DeNiro, Marlon Brandon and Edward Norton all on good form. A good heist film but not as good as Heat.


THE LAST BOY SCOUT - Bruce Willis as a dead-beat P.I. Typical action stuff, some good action shots and enough humour to balance it out.


WEDLOCK - Rutger Hauer in one of his cheap and cheerful scifi films, not his best but not too bad.


DEJA VU - Denzel Washington in a time travelling detective role, not his best w@&k but a pretty well put together story.


INNER SPACE - Cheesy and funny scifi, the remake with Dennis Quaid not the original. Good for a laugh.



There were a couple of other but its been a long weekend and my memory is not as good as once was.
Out of all of them have to say Max Manus was the best of the bunch.

 ??? Did you sleep, Red?

I love the old series Lost in Space!  I still remember watching the first episode in the family room with my brother and parents when I was just a kid - my most memorable one was the episode with the cyclops.

Oh, and I wanted the chariot as my first car.  :-()

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! :) The movie remake with Joey from Friends was pretty cool :)

Apocalypto, what an astounding movie directed by Mel Gibson. Set in an early civilisation in South America, just prior to the Conquistadores arrival, it is both beautiful and terrifying, I saw it on Blueray and it is a visual treat, havent checked the Special Features, but it is a great looking movie, the jungle is so alive and vibrant. It is fully subtitled, but the acting is so superb, no subtitles are needed as the actors expressions convey everything you need to know.  :-X

Apocalypto did a great job in the jungle and all ancient languages setting the mood. The story, however, is pretty shallow: good guy goes on a dangerous journey to save family from bad guy and uses all his hunter skills to do so. You've seen this movie several times, only with different clothes, background and actors speaking other languages.

Still, I enjoyed the movie.  8)

hehe, agree with both of you  ;D

Same here - enjoyed the movie but is not one that I would watch repeatedly like Duel, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Shooter, It (Stephen King in general), and many others that I can watch again and again.

Quote from: PZ on September 10, 2011, 02:53:44 PM
Same here - enjoyed the movie but is not one that I would watch repeatedly like Duel, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Shooter, It (Stephen King in general), and many others that I can watch again and again.

Loved Duel and the Duke, man I love his movies, The Sons of Katie Elder, Big Jake are two of my favourites, the Rio's are awesome too, I have about 12 of his movies under my TV as I always return to them. The Quiet Man set in Ireland was shot near where I grew up in the west of Ireland, so I have a particular fondness for that, I actually get a bit teary eyed when the lake isle of inishfree is played.

An irish movie you should check out is The Field, its a very serious movie, nothing like TQM, but it paints a more realistic picture of rural life in Ireland, It stars Richard Harris and John Hurt, both in top form :)

King movies have been hit and miss with me, I love his books, so when the film comes around, I already have the characters in my head from the book and the movies kind of jar with that. The Shining and Carrie I love though.

All w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boyAll w%&k and no play makes Jack a dull boy.... :)

 ^+-+ :-X

The movie you mentioned in another thread "Canyon" was an interesting flick about stupid people.  I enjoyed watching the movie, but it is hard to believe that people are actually that stupid.  ^+-+

Probably my favorite movie is Duel - Dennis Weaver plays a perfect idiot; my favorite line of his in the movie is "...how can he go so fast!" as he is trying to unsuccessfully outrun an old Peterbuilt gasoline semi.

Another favorite Duke movie is Eldorado - favorite line: "...can't miss with that!"

... and Big Jake - favorite line: "...hey fatty!..."

I have to admit that our house grinds to a halt any time The Quiet Man is discovered on one of the classic movie channels.   ;)

Big Jake .... I thought you were dead. :)

Ooops forgot Eldorado, mixed it up with Rio  :-[

Eldorado: "hey fancy vest!..."

Once Upon a Time in the West - those dusters on the bad guys are cool.  Jack Elam traps a fly in the barrel of his revolver.

Favourite movie quote of all times? Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Juliet Forrest: What are you doing?
Rigby Reardon: Adjusting your breasts. You fainted and they... shifted all outta whack. There.
Juliet Forrest: Thank you.
Rigby Reardon: You're Welcome.

  ^+-+

 ^+-+

Dunno if this movie has been covered here already (I don't feel like slogging through 60 pages of posts to find out :-\\ )

I watched The Mothman Prophecies last night, and I found it a most intriguing and thought-provoking movie. It's not a flashy, special effects driven affair - well, except toward the end where there's quite a remarkable sequence - instead the emphasis is more on how ordinary people try to deal with something that's totally beyond their normal range of experiences. The photography is innovative and fascinating to watch at times, and the cast is solid. Richard Gere turns in a pretty commendable performance, I usually find him a bit wooden.

But what fascinated me more than the film itself was the content of a Special Features disk which was included, in particular an hour-long documentary about the real events in and around Point Pleasant, WV in 1966-67 that the film was based on. The real story was even more bizarre and scarier than the actual movie was, with not only accounts of numerous unnerving encounters with the so-called "mothmen" but also nightly UFO sightings witnessed by scores of townfolk, cattle mutilations, strange lesions, burns and nightmares afflicting some witnesses, bizarre anonymous phone calls, harassment of people by mysterious unblinking "Men in Black" - just about the whole paranormal spectrum, which went on for exactly thirteen months before the horrible culmination. It contained interviews with many of the folks who were affected, and they certainly don't come across as kooks – they are all very bright and together people who have clearly been distressed and traumatized by the whole experience. Even today, fear drives some of them to refuse to discuss it. There were also interviews with investigators, one of whom, John Keel, is the author of the original non-fiction Mothman Prophecies book (his fictitious counterpart in the film is surnamed "Leek", played by Alan Bates).

What struck me was how many people were affected. If just one or two individuals report something eerie it may be permissible to diss it, but when you're dealing with a whole town and surrounding countryside seeing fearful anomalies and living on a knife-edge of apprehension for over a year - well.

The name "Mothman" was coined by some reporter at the time, which he borrowed from a character in the Batman comics, but of course the reported creatures looked nothing like moths - more like gargoyles (and I wonder what the inspiration for those were?) These weird cryptozoological creatures ("Mothman", "Garuda", "Thunderbird" - different cultures have different names for them) seem to have appeared to and been depicted by peoples all over the world throughout history and are often considered harbingers of catastrophe – apparently they were seen in spades around the Chernobyl area just before the disaster.

It's a strange world we live in.

Another one I watched was Black Swan with Natalie Portman. Strange and surreal film (must have been my night for picking out-there movies) with a great performance by Portman as a young ballerina gradually descending into madness. Not a fast-paced film and probably not everyone's cup of char, but I found it somehow compelling.

A third film I rented was The Shaft. And that's exactly what this B-grade stinkeroo of a movie should have gotten before they wasted perfectly good celluloid filming it. It's about a killer elevator (yes). What can I say - I neglected to take my specs to the shop so I couldn't read the blurb properly and got the wrong idea about it. God knows what sad Hitchcock wannabe chundered up that drivel. If you have any respect for your own intelligence, don't go near it >:((

Quote from: fragger on September 23, 2011, 08:57:07 AM


A third film I rented was The Shaft. And that's exactly what this B-grade stinkeroo of a movie should have gotten before they wasted perfectly good celluloid filming it. It's about a killer elevator (yes). What can I say - I neglected to take my specs to the shop so I couldn't read the blurb properly and got the wrong idea about it. God knows what sad Hitchcock wannabe chundered up that drivel. If you have any respect for your own intelligence, don't go near it >:((

LOL  :-D

 ^+-+ :-X

Saw a good movie last night, Rounders, starring Matt Damon, it centers around the world of poker and hustling, a well made and well acted movie with a good story.

Once I find sufficient time again, I'll be checking this topic out once again and see if I can get to watch some of those films recently mentioned.  :)


Apart from The Shaft, perhaps.  :-D

fragger, The Shaft sounds almost as bad as the 1983 stinkeroo called The Lift.  What's with all these killer elevator movies?   ????

Poor old Elisha Otis must be spinning in his grave.   ;D

 ;D

I've mentioned it before but this is one of my favorite movies: Duel - found an original 1971 trailer

Duel (1971) Theatrical Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtAMc4i8OA#)

A very tense movie, it had a coulple of really bad remakes, still as usual the original is always the best. To me its one of the few Stephen King stories that transferred well to film.

I remember having seen that movie.... Indeed a very intense story. You can feel the doubt and the fear in that car. Somehow from the start you feel it's getting worse until the unevitable, but the whole movie you hope that it won't.

Hey, by the way, we should have a smiley expressing fear

Quote from: Binnatics on October 21, 2011, 07:52:52 AM
Hey, by the way, we should have a smiley expressing fear

Good idea  :-X

Quote from: Fiach on October 21, 2011, 12:12:14 AM
A very tense movie, it had a coulple of really bad remakes, still as usual the original is always the best. To me its one of the few Stephen King stories that transferred well to film.

That might be because Stephen King did not do the original story, which was written by a chap named Richard Matheson, who also converted it to screen.  :cheesy:

Evidently one of the original Duel trucks still survives - see a photo in this Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_%281971_film%29)

My bad, Brain Fart madness, I was thinking of Throttle  :D  8-X  :-()

are you kidding?  I have those all the time  :cheesy:

Going to the movies today; Tintin! I'll let you know how it was!!  ^-^

Hehehe... I'm going to the movies too... "La piel que habito" , the new Almodóvar movie. I'll let you know how it was!  ^-^

Quote from: Binnatics on November 13, 2011, 04:39:19 AM
Going to the movies today; Tintin! I'll let you know how it was!!  ^-^

Went to it yesterday, I never heard of the character before, the kids really enjoyed it, I was a bit bored with it myself, from a tech point of view, the characters were VERY lifelike for he most part, the twins were obviously caricatures though and not intended to be lifelike.

Hope you enjoy it mate :)

Wow, this time Fiach slipped in a message before I could hit "submit"  :-()

Alright, Binnatics and JRD, all that is really moving  :-() Have fun, guys  ^-^

Tintin was great fun!!! I agree with you Fiach, the characters are extremely lifelike. I was shocked by that. Wonder what type of processors and gfx cards they've used to create stuff like that ^-^

I enjoyed the movie because it was a 'nostalgic moment' for me. I wasn't the only one: the cine was full of "comic-book reading fathers" who were taken to the movies by their kids, just like me  ^-^

The story is a mix-up of 3 of the books; "The secret of the unicorn", "The treasure of Scharlaken Rackham" and "The Crab with the golden scissors". They made one smooth rolling story out of these 3 books, and took quite some literary freedom to make it a good movie-story. They als 'invented' some new parts in the story to show off with their 3D-Animatical powers. They invented a falcon that had a great role in stealing the paper clues to the treasure --> Spectacular cat 'n mouse game through a Maroc city.

A great part of this movie was the well known humor around Captain Haddock and, of course, both special detectives Johnson and Johnsson. I like Haddocks humor best: He's the clown that makes the Tintin books worth reading again and again, and again. They used some exact copies of the comicbook-jokes in the movie. Very nice to see them again in moving 3D this time. I remember the laughs I've had because of cap. Haddock when he tells the story of his ancestor, fighting the pirates. Every few minutes this ancestor took a break in his heroic fight against the pirates to take a zip of whiskey :laugh: until Tintin thought it was enough and prevented the cap. to drink anymore during his story ^-^ :-X

All together it was a well spent afternoon and to all Tintin nostalgics I'd recommend it strongly. And... there will be a sequel ;)

good to know you had some fun :)  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on November 13, 2011, 06:49:39 AM
Wow, this time Fiach slipped in a message before I could hit "submit"  :-()

Alright, Binnatics and JRD, all that is really moving  :-() Have fun, guys  ^-^

BEWARE THE NINJA SPAMMER!

:angel: >:D

yeah, yeah, mate. Once in a lifetime.



:-D ;) :-()

Ah, but you have to be lucky all the time, I just have to be lucky once  >:D :angel: :laugh:

 :laugh:

By the way, nice use of  :angel: >:D and  >:D :angel: hehe  :-D :-X

Watched a couple of films earlier tonight:

First was Sucker Punch. I had my trepidations about this going by the promotional material for it as it looked pretty ridiculous, like an S&M fetishist's wet dream caught on film, and in some ways it was, but even so it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I was mostly curious to see it for the lead actress Emily Browning as I remember her from an Aussie cop show called Blue Heelers some years before. Supposedly a psychological trip about a young female mental asylum inmate escaping into alternate realities and ostensibly an exploration of female empowerment, in reality I felt that the whole thing was just an excuse to film a bunch of male fantasy scenarios (no doubt the film maker's). It was a kind of interesting idea and definitely had some originality to it, and the fantasy sequences were pretty cool, like watching someone playing an out-there computer game, but the soundtrack got on my nerves after a while – the usual cacophonic mix of headbanging metal and rap-crap that all too often passes for a soundtrack these days (enough of that stuff already!) Still, I kind of enjoyed it once - I wouldn't bother watching it a second time. If you're into butt-kicking hotties the fantasy scenes may appeal to you (and some of you seem to like this kind of thing from what I've seen in the Saints Row 3 thread 8-X) but you'll have to suffer through a lot of silly melodrama to get to them. I will say this for it though, there was some innovative photography in it, which I always appreciate. And it was certainly imaginative. And it had Scott Glenn, who I've always liked.

I followed that up with Super 8. The implausibly precocious kids at the beginning bugged me, then the movie got intriguing for a while, then the implausibly precocious kids really began to bug me before the whole thing degenerated into a typically formularic Spielbergian schmaltzfest. Actually, J. J. Abrams wrote and directed and Spielberg produced, but it had Spielberg's fingerprints all over it. I wouldn't watch this one a second time either, and kind of wished I hadn't bothered the first time. Honestly, what is it with Spielberg and his treacly kiddie worship? He should have scotched that formula after the stomach-turningly sickly ET - which this was, revisited, yet again, after a fashion, for the umpteenth time, sorta kinda.

Not a terribly satisfying night of movie watching all round. I should have gotten into some serious gaming instead... ::)

I was quite disappointed by Suckerpunch the first time I saw it, but it was better second time 'round, the action sequences were total BS and I think did a great dis-service to what could have been a great story, but hot chicks are hot chicks, so it wasnt a total bust :)

I had a chance to screen a 10 minute preview of Tintin which I hadn't too keen on checking out when I heard some of you discussing it here on OWG.

It turned out the segment I was able to see appeared to be well done so this evening after checking the local Best Buy online I found the DVD on sale for $14.  It was a movie that both of us enjoyed and was well worth the purchase.

Thanks for the tip guys.  :-X

Thanks for the feedback, mandru - the Tintin story is familiar to me from when I was a child almost 5 decades ago.  There was a series that ran for a short time as well as a movie or two, and I loved them.  I still have PDF versions of the comic series on my PC.  :-X

Sorry if that seemed a bit tight lipped of a review but I didn't want to give too away for anyone who hasn't seen it.  ;)

I've never before said to Mrs. mandru go buy this movie so we can watch it tonight and it was fortunate that my suggestion fit perfectly into her plans of a nice evening home together.

There was no need for an understanding of the movie's characters previous histories required to to be able to jump right into the action and action is definitely a key word here.  I was concerned that coming from an unfamiliar comic strip the pace of the movie might turn out to be a bit ponderous and stodgy but there was none of that.

Motion capture animation and brilliant scenery graphics along with fluid character interaction showed that the production company cared enough about the project to do it right.  Lots of eye candy and enough loose clues to give the viewer a chance to build their own theories on the fly and anticipate how they will eventually come into play in the story line.

 :-X  I'm sold - will get the DVD the next time I'm at Costco

My wife and her good friend managed to convince their husbands to go to the theater for [imdb]The Hunger Games[/imdb], and I didn't even fall asleep!

Glad you enjoyed Tintin Mandru. I'm looking forward to the sequel.  :-X :)

I went to rent Tintin from my local DVD rental but all their copies were out already, and it was only just released that day :D

Picked up Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes instead as I was curious to see how they'd handled it. It was surprisingly good for the most part until it got far-fetched in the latter stages before settling into a typical formularic action affair towards the end. But excellent CGing and intelligently handled, for the most part.

Also got Puss In Boots for a laugh, which was quite funny and entertaining. I love some of those Pixar-style things. Humpty Dumpty talks Puss into stealing the magic beans from the villains of the piece, Jack and Jill (they're hilarious) and using them to grow a beanstalk to get into the clouds and rip off a few of the goose's golden eggs from the Giant's castle (Humpty: "Don't worry, the Giant's been dead for years - he fell off the beanstalk and took a giant dirtnap"). Antonio Banderas' voice acting as Puss is great, he can be a pretty funny guy :-X

Watched Tintin the other night and found it delightful - so much so that I checked my video rental place and found a couple volumes of the old Tintin cartoon.

Avengers Assemble.

Bloody good movie, good story, good acting, great SFX. It was interesting to see so many superheroes in one movie and each one was given their chance to strut their stuff. The Thor guy (imo) has been watching too many Kenneth Brannagh movies for his own good, but he still carried off the character pretty well, The hulk was the best representation I have seen so far other than that, a great ensemble cast.

Some nice subtle humour, like Tony Stark wearing a Black Sabbath T-Shirt, shows that a fair degree of thought went into this movie.

You know when you have seen a good movie, when you walk out of the cinema, wondering how they will top it all in the next movie.

I saw that one advertised - looks good  :-X

Isn't the character that plays Thor the same one who played the character in the relatively recent movie, Thor?

Yes same guy, that movie was directed by Kenneth Brannagh, best known for his Shakespearian movies.

I watched Tintin earlier tonight, it was a barrel of fun :-X Superb CG, some great laughs, terrific entertainment. An added bonus for me was that the Captain Haddock character was a perfect caricature of one of my best mates - he could have been modelled on him :-()

For sure there's gonna be some piss taken next time I see him >:D

Grabs an RPG - doesn't notice the sight is on the wrong side of the tube when he fires it.   :laugh:

Captain Haddock is priceless :-X :-X :laugh:

If you decide to make fun of that friend of yours, you could sure make him happy with an original Loch Lomond whisky (Haddocks fav.):

[smg id=4380]

Somewhere in one of the Tintin stories, I believe it's the one called The Black Island, Snowy shows his love for that particular whisky as well. He finds a wagon of whisky that has a leak:

[smg id=4381]

Before Captain Haddock was introduced to the series, Snowy was the big jokemaker ;)

 :laugh: :-X

Great thread - okay, I'm still working my way through it but had to post concerning a recent film I saw last night.

On page one or two there was talk of the HP films and how good it was to see the same actor growing up throughout. Well, Daniel Radcliffe has definitely grown up now.

The Woman in Black is a very Edgar Allan Poe type story and Daniel Radcliffe did a good job. What I didn't know beforehand was that Hammer was making this film. It was like taking a trip back to the 70s as the film made me feel exactly like the old Hammer films did at the time, but was better at it. There were some seriously good fright moments in there, plus it was full of Japaese style horror subtleties that make you question if you had in fact just seen what you thought you had.

As a side-note, it's interesting how a few actors involved in prolonged portrayals of goody-good characters do something at the polar opposite, straight after - just think of Elijah Wood (Sin City, Green Street) Mr Radcliffe suits the dark and moody, so hopefully there will be other tales like this in future.

(Now back to reading the rest of this thread... :))

Haven't seen that yet so I looked it up in Netflix - turns out it is already in my queue!  :laugh:

Green Street was good and I dont even like soccer....well there is no soccer I suppose, but yes, a good movie. I think there was a sequel and I'm pretty sure I saw it, but I think the main characters from the first were not in it.

My brain has melted from reading this thread - well, okay it melted last night when I'd reached the end of page 8!

So many good films I agree with, others I don't - but hey  :) I've never heard anyone mention The Bothersome Man before - nice one Art  :-X

So I suppose I should add to this discussion by dropping in a few that (I don't think) haven't been mentioned yet.

Moon - David Bowie's boy wrote and directed this because he loved Silent Running and felt that SF had gone too glitzy. It's no good looking up Zowie Bowie though as he uses Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell is superb in this and it's definitely a lovingly created 70s style space-is-weird type drama. It really surprised a lot of people I think. The clip looks pretty much business as usual until right at the end. Kevin Spacey does a great computer voice  :) and the emoticons are a great touch.

Moon trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twuScTcDP_Q#ws)

Nightwatch was mentioned briefly, there has been one of the two sequels released now Daywatch, though I think the director Timur Bekmambetov has been distracted a lot by Hollywood offers and producing other worthy projects - the third still hasn't been released outside of Russia. I seem to remember mention of a screening in Moscow around 2006, but still no film; it's also not mentioned on imdb. These are really quite unique stories in their treatment of traditional tales - I like his stuff, the man has vision.

The Thing it was mentioned also briefly - this isn't a remake but a prequel, following what went on at the Norwegian camp before the original - they did a fine job and even used the same compelling theme elements in the music  :) It was also good that the Norwegians spoke Norwegian and so subtitles were used for about half of the film - for the rest it was English because of the American scientist and supply chopper crew.

Desperado - Antonio Banderas was mention due to Puss in Boots which does look like fun. I'm sure you all know he has been in quite a few other films, including an Almodovar and also quite a few of Robert Rodriguez' films - look into Spy Kids for more humour and you also get to see Steve Buscemi in a comedy role too  :) Even Danny Trejo is in it, scary as he looks, and of course Cheech Marin  :-X But yeah, Desperado is a glorious B-movie, cheesy gore-fest that has some serious cult credibility behind it - plus all of the above actors and Tarantino even acted in it - then of course there's Salma Hayek. It is the sequel to El Mariachi, possibly one of the cheapest production budget films made ($7000) Once Upon a Time in Mexico being the third film in the trilogy was even more over the top and Johnny Depp seemed to really love his role in that - puts me in mind of an FC2 buddy, retrospectively.

Clerks anyone? Kevin Smith's first, also very cheap and a heap of fun - but I'm sure you all know this  :)

Unleashed aka Danny the Dog proves that Jet Li can act. Again, not a new film but some fine visual w@&k in there alongside Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins.

Vexille A solid CGI SF story with absolutely glorious visuals and atmosphere - it's pretty much the usual Japanese eco-lesson plot but this one really stands out.

A Scanner Darkly Another PK Dick adaption Richard Linklater's second rotoscope animation - probably a love hate film for most but I thought it was great. Robert Downey was brilliant.

Tropic Thunder Talking of Robert Downey Jr he got an oscar nomination for this one, not bad considering it was the same year as Iron Man. Having thoroughly enjoyed Zoolander I wanted to see Ben Stiller do his stuff again. Okay it wasn't as good as Z but it was still a very good comedy of errors and like I say, RD Jr was brilliant as a method actor in extremis - quote: I only come out of character after the DVD extras have been cut.

As there are too many more to mention: Eden Log, .Rec plus sequel, K20 The Legend of the Black Mask, One Missed Call the original Japanese film and Sky Crawlers a figher plane anime - I'll leave it there for now; otherwise you'll all be having a brain melt moment too...

EDIT: actually, talking of brain melting, I forgot to close with Troll Hunter (says it all) and Rare Exports the truth behind Santa Claus...

Rare Exports trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pH9IyqTk1E#ws)

Excellent post :-D :-X

I like A Scanner Darkly a lot, by the way ^-^ and I'll check out Moon, thanks Jim  :-X

A pleasure - judging by you stated film preferences and the types of SF you like, Moon should satisfy.

I've another to add, just finished watching it  :): A Prophet is French about a young muslim arriving in prison and his involvement with the Corsican Mafia inside. It's long, extremely gritty and gripping. I would have added it to the European film thread but most of it takes place inside the prison...so no point really  ;)

It really is an excellent character study and Tahar Rahim, the main actor does a really excellent job of portraying that development over a six year period. Luckily there is also humour and some thought provoking elements in there to even out the pace.

After your recommendation, I got my BR disc of Moon today and I am already rubbing my hands in anticipation  :-() :-X

Alright, just finished watching the film and I still have a smile on my face :)

Reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/) only this time H.A.L. 9000 is replaced with GERTY and instead of a red eye the computer has a little screen the size of a saucer that displays his emotions with smiley emoticons (very nice touch). It also reminds me of Mission to Mars (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183523/) but just a little.

Something they always get wrong is.. sound. Sound in the vacuum of space. There is none  ^-^

At first I thought, oh no.. this might going to be cheesy at best and boring at worst. Kind of takes a bit to speed up but hey.. eventually it does  :) Clever story and basically a show-off for Sam Rockwell's acting skills as he plays several roles at once. Not action type but subtle :-X

Overall.. slow-paced but interesting enough to keep you watching it in a single go without really feeling the need to get up to fetch a snack. I did that after the film  :-()

Moon was just to slow moving for me, but I do like the directors movie Source Code, its kind of a groundhog day movie, but each replay is different enough to maintain interest.

Absolutely, Source Code (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/) is brilliant and worth watching twice in a row because after you watched it you really may want to see it again with that knowledge  :-X

That's another one I forgot to mention - that was a surprising film - again, quite an old feel to the plot, something akin to an Outer Limits episode I thought. Mind you, Jake Gyllenhall has rarely disappointed - even Prince of Persia was a pleasing bit of fun  :)

Has anyone seen John Carter? I didn't get around to it when it was in the cinemas (well, I almost never go to the movies these days anyway) and am waiting for it to come to my local rentals. I am curious to see it as I read some of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Carter stories as an adolescent (he was also the creator of Tarzan, but I was never a big fan of the yodelling loin-clothed one).

I saw it in the cinemas mate, I didnt particularly like it, but I never read the books, so maybe i would have liked it more, if I had read them.

The main character used to be in Friday Night Lights, a tv series about a high school football team and he was brilliant in that, its well worth checking out.

Cheers mate. Knowing the way filmdom mangles novels I fully expect to not like it either, but I may be pleasantly surprised (astounded would be more like it). That's why I'm waiting for a rental release, so I can not like it for less money and in the comfort of my own home :-()

Quote from: fragger on June 27, 2012, 01:02:12 AM
...so I can not like it for less money and in the comfort of my own home :-()

:laugh:
A wise choice - anyway, if it turns out to be great, there'll always be a cult status 'big screen' re-showing of it at some point.

True, if you can find a truly big screen... The "big screen" nowadays doesn't look much bigger than a picnic blanket tacked to the wall. Plus the cinemas are tiny, the sound is turned up way too loud and the picture always seems to be slightly out of focus - and in this country you pay through the nose for your film-going experience (about twelve Aussie dollars for an adult the last time I went, which was about five years ago now, and that was sans drinks, snacks, etc). So I prefer to watch at home these days. I can drink beer while I watch, go to the loo without missing anything, and if I really hate the film I can slash the seats with complete legality :-()

 :-()

Maybe bigger cities have bigger screens so if you call that tent which will already be maxed out with 50 people a theatre then it is indeed a big screen when it is close to the size of a picnic blanket. We have theatres containing more than 10 cinemas that can hold thousands of people at the time with screens that, if laid out in the open and tacked to the ground, could serve as a parking lot for the residents of a suburb. Of course you do pay through your nose for tickets and the same amount for an additional snack like a small bowl of nachos with a pint of soda pop. But then again, the chairs are the size of a Buick, too :-()

We're pretty lucky here, most cities have an old run-down cinema tucked away somewhere where they show cult films - being an old cinema it still has a proper size screen  :-X

Good point Art :) Us yokels don't gennerly get to the movin' wall pitchers much :-()

Actually there still are some of the old-style cinemas in the big cities, but the more recently built suburban and small town multiplexes and so forth seem to be designed along the lines I described. I haven't been to the movies since before I moved up here from Sydney. There's a multiplex in the nearby town which has four cinemas in it but judging by the size of the building they're in I don't see how they could be very large. There are in fact a couple of places in town that clearly were cinemas once upon a time but now contain shops of various sorts, but you can tell that they would have been decent-sized cinemas in their day. The town has a population of around 40,000, not tiny but certainly not a big enough place to warrant sprawling cinema complexes.

@Jim, there are a couple of those types of cinemas in Sydney (or were - to the best of my knowledge, they're still going). My fave was a charming old inner-city one called the Valhalla which would show a different film every night, from all different countries and decades. One night you might get something like Metropolis and the next night you might get A Clockwork Orange, then next night it might be The Birds, and so on. You name it and they'd be showing it at some point. They would put out a big poster-type advert every six months or so listing what movies would be coming up and when.

There's certainly nothing like that in my current neck of the woods :-()

One of the trailers for A Prophet was for Perrier's Bounty yet another fun outing to the Dublin underbelly with Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson - plus Jim Broadbent doing a very credible Dublin accent and a great role.

Perrier's Bounty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB04mcrllmw#ws)

Also, I found the opening scene for Intermission which is possibly the best film opening scene for a long time: Intermission - opening (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8EGCC9NNvo#) The worrying thing is, I knew exactly what he was about to do...

when I watched that, I thought he was quite a pu$$y for not doing her face in with a proper headbutt which was what I expected him to do.   >:D  ??? 8-X :-D

I have both films and they're great  :) :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on June 30, 2012, 08:03:13 AM
when I watched that, I thought he was quite a pu$$y for not doing her face in with a proper headbutt which was what I expected him to do.   >:D  ??? 8-X :-D

:laugh: Probably worried about not being able to get far enough over the counter  :)

On another (but similar) topic - just saw Repo Men - not the Harry Dean Stanton one: Repo Man - which is also a fine film for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Jude Law does his stuff again, along with Forrest Whittaker in yet another completely different role from all the others he's done recently. I thought he was great in The Last King of Scotland but he's equally believable in this; a cold eyed killer working under the motto: "A job is a job."

It's a near futuristic film where artificial organs are freely available for most body parts - trouble is, if you can't make the repayments, they come and reposess them.

It had a beautiful nod to the corridor scene in Oldboy right near the end - made doubly enjoyable by firing up Burn My Shadow Away by Unkle - the opening theme to Fuel. It felt so weird hearing that in such a different context.

The end wasn't your typical film ending either - I like films that do this.

I got both Repo Man films :) I like Jude Law a lot, can't name any film he wasn't great in.

Just watched the BR version of the Sci-Fi film Hirokin (the fallen empire) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1693679/) which was crap. Julian Sands and Wes Bentley and the rest of the cast played quite well but the story was wanting. Like a mixture of Dune (oh man, do I love Dune) because of the desert environment and several other elements, the last samurai because of sword fight and one gaijin being the star, star wars because of a few desert outlets, some vehicles and particularly because of Bobafett probably being the source of inspiration regarding some of the outfits. The story lacked proper character introduction and background stories as well as convincing concepts as to why people did what they did.

In other words: 105 minutes of nice colourful pics but a story that doesn't last long enough to make you want to watch it again.

Quote from: Art Blade on June 25, 2012, 10:36:06 AM
Alright, just finished watching the film and I still have a smile on my face :)...

Overall.. slow-paced but interesting enough to keep you watching it in a single go without really feeling the need to get up to fetch a snack. I did that after the film  :-()

Ah, good - at least you enjoyed it - not sure how I missed this post though...or maybe it was my other self that read it?

I get really nervous recommending stuff, just in case it falls flat.

Don't worry :) If you keep commenting what you like and dislike it will be easy to risk watching or to avoid a film once people understand and appreciate your taste. In my case it is likely to follow a recommendation of yours, others will probably avoid what you recommend, depending on how similar one's taste is compared to yours  ^-^

By the way, DUNE is out on Blue Ray (get the extended cine version rather than the cheap TV version) and boy, did they improve the quality. I have already got two different versions on DVD which are so old I can't turn the German subtitles off when I want to watch (of course) the English version. It was mainly my hope to get a modern version which allowed me to turn off the subtitles that made me buy the BR and I was utterly surprised what a digital remastering on BR did to it. Excellent  :-X

You sound like my brother-in-law  :) he has every version of Blade Runner.

I enjoyed Dune, despite the curious warp-effect when the ships jumped...

I'll definitely look out for that on BR - cheers. The remastering techniques seem to have come into their own now as I saw some of the Star Trek: TOS clips that have been remastered, really nice.

 :-() I've got the first DVD of Blade Runner when it was released (very old now hehe) and a director's cut or whatever they called it. Great film, one of my favourites :)

Kind of reminds me, check out Strange Days (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114558/) with Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis -- another one of my favourites :) :-X

Blade Runner is one of my faves too - even though I can't see L.A. looking like that in just seven years' time :-()

I really liked Rutger Hauer's performance in that, I always thought he was quite a talented guy :-X

Definitely one of Rutger Hauer's strongest roles - he is good but has equally done some terrible films. I know that can be down to the script and director too...

Blind Fury, Salute of the Jugger, Ladyhawk all are quite good too and of course The Hitcher. Recently he did Hobo with a shotgun in which he appears to parody himself a bit - definitely a b-movie parody of the b-movie genre. I do think he's become something of a Chuck Norris figure nowadays  :)

Cheers Art - I'll keep an eye out for Strange Days as that does look interesting.

Say this during the Olympics last night:

Wreck-It Ralph Teaser Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPSQOomMWro#ws)

Definitely going to see that!

Yeah, me too!

There's going to be some major nerd name-dropping in that one - in that little therapy session we've got a who's who - Zangief, M. Bison, Bowser and Dr. Robotnik in one room!

On the flight back home I got to see Battleship which I fancied seeing for some time based on the trailers coming out

Battleship Official Trailer #2 - Rihanna Movie (2012) HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp3646Zf8rg#ws)

As you can see from the one above, it's SF and promises an all action ride with big alien ships against the usual human, state of the art war machinery.

In truth the film came in with something different. For a start it slipped off into a chunk of backstory that seemed like its was only going to get worse - I stuck with it though because something in there reminded me of The Final Countdown from so many years ago (modern day aircraft carrier gets sucked through a vortex and appears off Pearl Harbour in 1942 - guess what happens next...) Perhaps it was just the Pearl Harbour setting  ;)

It's not that the film's opening half-hour or so was bad - it's just that the story seemed to be veering off into another direction entirely, one that was doing little except get in the way. By the time the action started, I wasn't expecting too much to be honest. I appreciate that film hype can be dangerous, as it can very easily portray things out of context; yet that proved to be the perfect standpoint from which to to be viewing what followed.

I was expecting a power-romp, all big guns vs bigger alien ships in something that could be a mighty powerful film. The story once it settled down came in with a left-field surprise that made the last half a really good bit of action story telling. Without giving too much away, none of the set piece solutions were handled in a predictable manner: well, okay, there was a bit of blind, taking-it-on-the-chin heroism going on in the background, but that didn't spoil the overall feel.

The turn around in the struggle was fresh, unusual and when the last part came around - it truly did feel like The Final Countdown with that heart-swelling 'hell-yeah' gut response to what I'd just seen. Maybe we won't all share that emotion - I did thoroughly enjoy the film as a consequence and will definitely be getting it on DVD.

I hope others enjoy it too.

The Final Countdown used to be my fave film back in the day, along with The Black Hole. I got both of them on DVD, of course  :-D

I like The Final Countdown, particularly the intelligent fashion in which it was handled. If it was made today, it would probably be full of all the usual cliche-ridden, over-the-top CG'd nonsense.

The parts of TFC that I liked best were the sequences where you got to see some of the machinery on board a modern aircraft carrier in operation. Some of that hardware is amazing, even if it is a few decades old now.

Thanks for the report on Battleship Jim, that sounds interesting. I knew of the movie but had no idea what it was all about :)

The main character in BS, his name escapes me at the moment, was the main character in Friday Night Lights a brilliant TV series based on a college football team, I dont like american footbal, but its one of the best TV series I ever watched (didnt like the FNL film so much though, but it had mostly different actors), but he really held the show together in an ensemble of great characters (his mate in BS...looks like a fugly Matt Damon... was also in FNL, his character developed really well as the series progressed).

Anyone interested in the upcoming remake of Total Recall?

I'm a big fan of that movie... truly mind bending. Arnie in one of his best movies with state-of-the-art special FX from early 90s!  8)

There's a moment where you have no idea if he is just having a nervous breakdown due to an unsuccessful memory implantation or if that really happened!  :-X

The scene with the fat lady's head opening to reveal Arnie's CG face is priiceless! And the alien chick with three boobies? I remember the cab driver saying "I whish I had three arms"  :laugh:

I'm really not fond of that Colin Farrel chap... just don't like his bad boy aura.  I still remember him from Phone Booth as an arrogant a$$... think this role was taylored for him! I just don't get the lack of imagination from part of today's screenwriters... can't they come up with something actually new? Is it really necessary to dig in the last decade or so for a potential remake? As if people wanted to see a good movie all over again with different actors and directors etc........  :-(

That is unfortunately the way of the media industry (no caps) - they haven't a clue so go with what appears to be succesful and that is true of the publishing industry too and has been for almost as long - trust me on that.

Give Colin Farrel a second chance though - sure he's survived on the bad-boy image for a while, try In Bruges, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or The New World where he plays entirely a different sort of character. I think he has the legs to make a top grade actor for all seasons.

As for the remake - I'm down for that. Excellent film which might well be made better with hindsight - or not. I suppose we will have to wait and see though.

I like Colin Farrel

Some movies to check out, he made a LOT of mvies and sure, some stink (Alexander), but I really liked phonebooth, he reminded me of a young Al pacino (my favourite actor).

Horrible Bosses awesome cameo
The way back, awesome actin from Colin, pretty crap movie (imo).
Miami Vice crockett with actual acting skills
Daredevil In all fairness one of the best "human" bad guys in a superhero movie.
American Outlaws, first movie I ever saw him in, It put him on my radar.
Tigerland reminded me of Biloxi Blues, great movie and great acting (imo)

Sorry about the spellings above but sometimes this site laggs like hell for me and makes posing awkward at times.

Saw two movies tonight.

Lockout, great blokes movie, Max Sec prison in space, presidents daughter is there on a visit and the inmates escape, so a guy is sent to rescue her, black humour and decent action raises it above the norm.

The Dictator, normally I dont tend to watch these movies, I only know (vaguely) his Ali G persona, so bear that in mind regarding my opinion. It's humerous, sometimes bellylaugh inducing with a good denouement at the end, vis a vis democracy vs dictatorship, but the pedophillia jokes left a VERY sour taste in my mouth, I dont really espouse censorship, but, self censorship is arguably worth thinking about in this case, it adds nothing to the message and imo actually detracts significantly from the movie as a whole....how the f@#k can you make a joke about pedophilia and expect anybody to think its funny?....

Oh I like Phone Booth too... I just think the main role fits Colin Farrel perfectly, the arrogant a$$hole who thinks too much of himself!

The writers and directors really milked every last drop of a guy being held hostage over the phone on a public booth!!  ???

In Daredevil he is good too. Haven't seen Miami Vice but I recall him from SWAT and man, that movie sucks!

I'll check In Bruges, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus and The New World when next time I check a rental store!

Oh yes, SWAT was really bad, I didnt particularly like the last three you mentioned either tbh :)

Quote from: Fiach on August 14, 2012, 05:45:00 PM
...Lockout, great blokes movie, Max Sec prison in space, presidents daughter is there on a visit and the inmates escape, so a guy is sent to rescue her, black humour and decent action raises it above the norm...

Sounds like a job for Snake Plisskin  ;)

Actually I was thinking of EFNY while watching it :)

Meeting Evil

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1810697/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1810697/)

Great to see Sammy Jackson in a decent movie again, its kinda like The Hitcher, so you can guess which character Samuel plays.

The acting is top notch and also, something I dont pay much attention to in movies, the lighting, was very well done, from the bleak wide open landscapes, to more intimate indoor settings.

Mr average real estate salesman just got canned, gets picked up by a total stranger in a souped up GTO and the movie continues with never a dull moment until the "twist" ending.

One of the best movies I've seen this year.

Putting that on the LoveFilm list  :-X

Lighting, when done well can transcend a film. Cheers Fiach.

cheers, Fiach, might check that one out myself when I get the chance   :)

I don't know why, but reading this thread reminded me of a couple of spy spoofs:

[imdb]In Like Flint[/imdb]

[imdb]Our Man Flint[/imdb]

The Expendables 2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764651/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764651/)


Does exactly what it says on the tin, great movie, the only way it could be improved is by getting free popcorn hand fed to you by Angelina Jolie as you watched the movie  >:D

if she does that, you might have Brad Pitt sitting on your other side squeezing your hands so your eyeballs start to pop out of their sockets.  :-D

By the way, "hands" is just a place holder, a replacement for something else Brad might actually be squeezing.  8-X

Hahahaha :)

I saw a trailer for his new movie, Killing Them Softly, looks good :)

Was just looking at the cast for the Expendables 2. Holey moley! Think of any iconic action movie actor and he's in it :-()

I've seen the first and the second does look good too. Oddly enough, I watched RED (Retired: Extremely Dangerous) at about the same time Fiach was probably watching Expendables 2.

While the first has all of the action-heads imaginable in it, RED has only the one, Bruce Willis...but the rest are the most unlikely action heroes around: John Malkovitch; Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren See her in the clip on iMDb. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245526/)

Lots of fun in that quiet way that only Bruce Willis can bring - John Malkovitch is superb and Morgan Freeman is...himself. If you want lots of grins, this will do the job - especially the car exiting moment Bruce pulls to deal with some pursuit.

I think Bruce Willis is a very underrated actor, he's not exactly Al Pacino quality sure, but when he gets a role that suits him, you realise nobody else could play the part as well. I enjoyed RED, big Helen Mirren fan here :)

Agreed Breakfast of Champions is perhaps my favourite Indy film of his and of course 16 Blocks.

RED was hysterical  :-X

I watched Battleship, not bad but it had a bit too much of the gung-ho, formularic, way-over-the-top colouring for my taste. Like Independence Day and the recent War of the Worlds, it was never explained why the aliens were invading Earth. To provide us with an action film, I guess. Great effects and everything but the characters really grated on me - I was kind of hoping that the aliens would use a smartarse-disintegrator to take them all out.

Coincidentally, I also rented John Carter, blissfully unaware when I picked up the two movies that the same actor had the lead in both of them (Taylor Kitsch). I quite enjoyed this one, even though it too was a suspend-all-belief affair. I think the difference is that the viewer isn't expected to take this one seriously - it's an unashamed fantasy romp that's all just for fun. A nice touch was the portrayal of the author of the John Carter On Mars novels, Edgar Rice Burroughs, as a character during the beginning and end parts of the movie (he turns out to be Carter's nephew) and there was a nice twist at the end. As far as I can remember from the first book in Burrough's John Carter series, A Princess Of Mars (which is the only Carter novel I've read and which the movie was based on according to the credits), the film doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to it. In the portrayal and appearance of the alien races it does, and does so very well, but in the storyline it doesn't. Still, it's imaginative and great to look at, despite the ludicrous "jumping" scenes - apparently Carter can leap like the Hulk on Mars. Dunno where they got that from - Mars' gravity is less than ours but not that less, and Burroughs knew it. Carter certainly didn't do that in the books.

I guess it's a fun movie if you've read any of the novel series :-X

today I bought and watched Battleship on BR. Amazing effects, I think only those alien ships rising from the sea looked CGI but all the other stuff that just had to be CGI was done so well you can't tell the difference any more.

The story, I do agree with fragger there, reminded me of Independence Day and OK, War of the Worlds, too. The main characters only lacked a line imprinted on their foreheads, "I'll make it!" Additionally, it reminded me of Pearl Harbour (with Ben Affleck) not only because it too played on O'ahu, Hawaii, and not only because they too used the USS Missouri :-D Some sort of awkward attempt on redemption/rectification of what went on between Japan and the United States regarding WWII, first having a Japanese and an American soldier hate each other and beat themselves up occasionally but later they come to respect the opponent, then w@&k together and even start to admire each other. A proposal would have been just what I needed, then  :laugh: And I agree with Jim di Griz, there were hints of The Final Countdown as well, particularly when the aliens set up that barrier which kept a few ships inside without means of communication with the outside world.

However. Overall, very nice entertainment, not boring at all, and a few chuckles in between.

In case you have missed it: After like three hours of credits there is a last bit of film (I do love films with those "secret" bits at the VERY end) which takes place in Scotland.. so there actually might be a sequel.  :-()

Quote from: Art Blade on September 07, 2012, 03:06:18 PM
...In case you have missed it: After like three hours of credits there is a last bit of film (I do love films with those "secret" bits at the VERY end) which takes place in Scotland.. so there actually might be a sequel.  :-()

Definitely missed that  :-X nice find and I'll definitely ned to look at that.

It was a fun film - maybe not the effect the director wanted  ;) but it was enjoyable nonetheless and great

Spoiler

when the USS Missouri hove into sight and joined the fight.

Reminded me of the pilot for the new Battlestar Galactica

Oh yes, indeed, the "old" Battlestar Galactica also was (about to be) decommissioned yet became the key and flagship in the new war. Nice observation, Jim  :)

What I liked about Battleship was how they used the Missouri in a way you drift cars: rip on the handbrake and slide around a corner..  :laugh:

Saw The Road to Perdition on TV last night , I hadn't seen it in years, quality movie making at its finest, they just dont make films like this any more.

Set in the US gangsters era, a hitman and his son go on the run from mafia boss Paul Newman.

Agree, great movie, must watch again soon :-X Funny to see Tom Hanks as a mobster. That was a bit of a departure for him, he usually plays Mr. Nice Guy.

Indeed.. been a while. However, all I need to do is to walk over to my film collection, grab it and slap it into my player to watch it  :-()

Yesterday I watched a film on BR that I found in the bargain bin (only 5.--€ for a BR  ??? :) ) which is called [imdb]Valhalla Rising[/imdb], a Danish/UK production with Mads Mikkelsen (you may have seen him as a bad guy in Bond "Casino Royale" but he was MUCH better in Adams Äpplen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418455/)).

The film Valhalla Rising is different from most films. It is basically a Viking tale told by showing six chapters that all have their own headline (Part I Wrath, Part II Silent Warrior, Part III Men of God, Part IV The Holy Land, Part V Hell, Part VI The Sacrifice) yet the entire film has no more than probably 100 lines of spoken text. Most of the time you follow silent men and watch what they do. The music score is very unique, mostly some sort of heartbeat with very low massive drums, or uncomfortably arranged and threatening synth layers -- more a sound than actual music).

Basically the suspension comes from within a mixture of something you don't have words for, you keep thinking and are on your tiptoes in expectancy of something bad or horrible to happen. Fights, slaughter, exploration.. all without words or pop music.

If you're up for a "silent" film that narrates through images, you're in for something that is not bad at all.

Jim, you recommended "Moon" and I was thinking this here is in a way similar, even less words in it, maybe you in particular should give this one a try :)

Oh, I will  :) that does sound very interesting indeed  :-X

Finally got to see Tintin. It was far better than I'd expected, so prompted by the various reviews here I saw it and it was a great romp.

For those who have played the Uncharted games, especially the last, there was a definite feel of that about, whilst keeping a strong feel for the original comic about it. That chase sequence from the palace was just breathtaking.

I love the Uncharted games - have v2 and v3, and enjoyed both quite a bit.  In fact, may need to play them again.  ;)

Oh dear, you're the second person I've started back on those games this weekend  :) Have fun...and do try the first also. I'm still stuck on the crushing difficulty playthrough for that one.

Warhorse. Formulaic and typically Spielbergian at times, it's nonetheless a beautifully photographed period piece shot against some striking locations. Once you get past the first schmaltzy and somewhat Disneyesque half-hour or so it becomes quite watchable. What I found surprising was how it kept - well, surprising me. Just when I thought I knew where things were going, or I'd be thinking that the whole affair was like watching a barely-more-than-cutesy My Friend Flicka, something unexpected would happen, especially during the second half.

It's obvious that CG was employed to depict the horse of the title in some scenes only because horses aren't that good at acting - in addition to which the film makers would have been hauled over the coals by the SPCA if a real horse had been subjected to some of the action, especially a sequence involving it getting entangled in rather a lot of barbed wire. But a surprising amount of the horse action is in fact real (actually, in the aforementioned sequence the horse and it's movements were real while the barbed wire was CGed onto it). I've read elsewhere about how much trouble was gone to in order to use real horses as much as possible while the CGing was kept to the barest minimum. Even so, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tell where the real horse ends and the CG horse begins - it's a brilliant job. The only real giveaway is in what the horse is doing and how well he acts :-()

The cast consists of unknowns - at least they're unknown to me. I'd never seen any of them before, but they all turn in very competent performances.

Some of the WWI action is superb - not that there's a huge amount of it - especially a quite arresting sequence involving the battle of the Somme. Ostensibly this is a family film so the action isn't as graphic and gory as in something like Saving Private Ryan, but it's very informed, convincing and well executed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime in the future, even though I'm not really a horse guy :-X

nice review :) Oh I like horses. In fact, anything you can eat with a lot of mustard.  :-()

 :-D

Apparently Billy Connolly once went into one of Roy Rogers' restaurants in the US and asked for a Triggerburger. The staff weren't amused... :-()

Hehe, I'd have loved to watch someone ask for a Montecore Burger at The Mirage, Las Vegas.

Spoiler

The Hotel hosted Siegfried & Roy's show starring white tigers, Montecore being the tiger that ended their career with a bite on Roy's neck.

Thanks for the review fragger - I probably wouldn't have bothered even looking at it...but now I just might.

Spaceboy just watched a film I recommended a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, which led me to realise that I haven't mentioned it here.

Dale & Tucker vs Evil is a curious title and an even more curious film. It's all about prejudice, or at least judging a book by it's cover and nothing else.

I'm sure a few of you will have seen the trailer - if not, here it is: Tucker And Dale Vs Evil - Official Trailer [HD] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOZHEYhVtU#ws)

The freak accidents combined with the kids preconceptions make this into a truly fun film. Of course with Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine in the mix, it's going to be good.

Have fun - there may even be a sequel yet  :)

Reminds me of Severance  :)

Severance - trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwBVm7yVE4#ws)

Severance - "You FOUND a PIE!?" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51aKVqmlWNI#)

Severance US Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuz0-iqKf74#ws)

Yes indeed, very much like Severance except a bit more comedy and it's sunnier  :) That was a great film.

Shock horror...I actually went to the cinema last night!  :o

Been a bit wrapped up with the move and as I've been super efficient, I've packed all of the DvDs...

Anyway, we had wanted to watch Looper since the trailers started coming out on FirstShowing.net and as it came out on Friday, it was mooted to go out and see that. We actually aimed for Friday but the cinema server had a wobbly and couldn't play the film. Which in itself was educational, as I didn't know they were all digital these days - makes sense I suppose.

So, if you like time paradox films, Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Bruce Willis then Looper will fit the bill sweetly. For those wonder what the hell I'm whittering on about, here's the trailer.

Looper - Official Teaser Trailer (HD) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kGFyVKmqA0#ws)

In short, loopers are hitmen who take care of targets sent back from the future where hits can't be carried out due to body part tagging...so they're sent back to be executed, already bound and hooded. Then one day a hit comes through without a bag over his head and not cuffed - it's JG-L's future self, BW.

There's plenty in there to keep you wondering afterwards, once the main story has been resolved; which is I suppose the purpose of a film with time paradoxes in it. There are definitely a few subtle clues in there to tug at your memory and help slot things into place later. I'm usually fairly sceptical about time paradox themes in film and books; but this one seems to have it pretty much covered.

There is plenty of action, paced evenly by storyline and character development. A good job in making JG-L look different enough to be a believeable younger Mr Willis.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LtWfuf5pctU/UGYEi4oH1TI/AAAAAAABfRM/53_WrqUVpBw/s1600/jgl+willis.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LtWfuf5pctU/UGYEi4oH1TI/AAAAAAABfRM/53_WrqUVpBw/s1600/jgl+willis.jpg)

Just a bit harder in the face, as his background in the film was grimmer than Bruce's own youth. Definitely a fine young actor there and he even had a few Di Niroesque moments in there too  :)

For those interested, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks a lot :-X  going to get it on BR once it's available.  :)

Back to the normality of films already out on DvD.

The Raid: Redemption is about a police SWAT unit during a raid on a drug overlord's HQ which happens to be a derelict tenement block in Jakarta. As you can imagine, things get a little hectic when half-way up, things go wrong :)

The Raid: Redemption - Official Trailer HD (2012) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My02wp9fsho#ws)

I've started watchting more Indonesian films since seeing Chocolate a few years ago and there aren't many that get distributed. They tend to be action heavy and have their own flavour. This one is no exception - lots of action with plenty of martial arts and some wonderfully shot moments too. Aparently the fighting style they're using is pencak silat, and it's bloody frantic.

The thing that sets this film apart from any other is that the writer/director is Welsh - Gareth Huw Evans who lives in Jakarta - oh, and he's written and directed another film before this Merantau using quite a few of the same cast.

Anyway, all of that aside, it's a tense, tight film and if you like martial arts films or SWAT situations, then give this one a look.

Heh, nice one  :) :-X Going to check it out if possible  :)

The hammer scene reminded me of Oldboy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/) by  Korean director Chan-wook Park. Looks like there are more similarities.

Old Boy Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLn1y9v6yno#)

Absolutely - there is a lot of the same feeling from Oldboy and there is also one definite corridor scene that nods to Mr Park's w@&k...though no hammer...umm...hammer.

Forgot to say when I mentioned the writer/director being Welsh: he does a damn fine job of nailing the genre feel. I doubt anyone could tell that someone not Indonesian had created the film otherwise.

I liked The Raid alot, I watched it dubbed, then watched it subbed which thought was better, not a dialogue heavy movie, so it was no effort.

Sling Blade is an old film, but a great one all the same, superb acting all around, especially Billy Bob

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117666/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117666/)

Jim: nice choice of words there, "nailed"  :-D

Fiach, thanks. Just checked the slingblade trailer on IMdB. I didn't recognise Billy Bob Thornton (quality acting, hehe) but the boy who played the lead in The Fast And The Furious, Tokyo Drift. The trailer reminded me a lot of a scene in Forrest Gump.

I never saw F/Gump, or Tokyo Drift, but, as regards Fast/Furious movies, check out 5, its really quite good. :)

Quote from: Art Blade on October 03, 2012, 01:07:52 PM
Jim: nice choice of words there, "nailed"  :-D

:-() well, it was the day after Punday, so I had no other choice...

Jim:  :-()

Fiach, cheers mate -- I've got all five of 'em  :-D And agree, 5 is not bad at all.
Forrest Gump, despite being a hype back in the day actually wasn't bad. Kind of a parody of all sorts of characters. Tokyo Drift: Best drift scenes in a film, ever.  :)

I too enjoyed all of the Fast and Furious versions.  My sons introduced me to them; they were quite fond of the small Japanese cars.

Quote from: Art Blade on October 04, 2012, 08:30:26 AM
Jim:  :-()

Fiach, cheers mate -- I've got all five of 'em  :-D And agree, 5 is not bad at all.
Forrest Gump, despite being a hype back in the day actually wasn't bad. Kind of a parody of all sorts of characters. Tokyo Drift: Best drift scenes in a film, ever.  :)

Should try Need for Speed Carbon if you havent already then mate, it's drift heaven :)

Yeah, NFS: Carbon is pretty much all about drifting. I quite enjoyed it and those films are fun too.

alright, cheers :)

Internet now connected in the new place, so I can plague ye all with more stuff  ^-^

Haven't been able to do much more than watch films lately as a result. One outstanding film that cropped up was The Cabin in the Woods.

The title and trailer both scream 'teen slash-flick' that is until about half way through said trailer - like it says: "You think you know the story..."


It has to be one of the best homage films I've seen for a while, and it doesn't just stop at horror. It'll keep you guessing for quite some time as to what is going on.

Oh, and the stoner, he's by far the best character in it.

looks like The Cube meets The 13th Floor with a tad of Severance ^-^

That's about the size of it...and there's some Ninth Gate and Wicker Man in there too... ;) and a certain South Park episode might be said to have had a bit of influence, maybe.

 ^-^ Wicker Man doesn't ring a bell here.. what's it like?

Saw Rock of Ages and was really disappointed, so to wipe the taste from my mouth (ears?), I hit the attic for some VHS rock musical goodness.

Shock Treatment, based on a twon that lives as a series of TV shows.

Shock Treatment- Bitchin' In The Kitchen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ZVa_fvs9Y#)

Shock Treatment - Me of Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQywVJeRFVc#ws)

Shock Treatment - Little Black Dress (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq3EU-jEwrg#)

Streets of Fire, rock singer gets kidnapped and her exboyfriend has to rescue from a rather young Willem Dafoe.

Streets Of Fire Theatrical Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJGo2rvfSuA#)

While I was there I picked up some other 80's goodness.

The Warriors - Trailer - (1979) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAUMri0mv8M#)

Southern Comfort-Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLDsv5Pk40c#)

The Wanderers (trailer) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M57qoZycnNY#)

This is from 1994

Natural Born Killers diner scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCTtY96B_iw#)

Nice, Fiach  :-X

Quote from: Art Blade on October 17, 2012, 02:22:30 PM
^-^ Wicker Man doesn't ring a bell here.. what's it like?

It's a really old one with Christopher Lee doing a very odd dance in it. All pagan rites on a Western Scottish island where a firm jawed Edward Woodward as the Police Officer is sent to investigate. Full of highly experimental acting and quite cringe-worthy nowadays. They even remade it a few years ago.

Southern Comfort looks good Fiach - I'll have to give the other clips a look at too - nice one.

Quote from: Jim di Griz on October 18, 2012, 11:31:25 AM

Southern Comfort looks good Fiach - I'll have to give the other clips a look at too - nice one.

Wicker Man....all I remember is some chick dancing naked and banging on a wall and some naked chick in a bath....probably says more about me than the movie I guess :)

SC is kinda like Deliverance, The National Guard go on manoeuvres in the Louisiana Swamps, but all they have is fake ammo (blanks). They get lost, so, to make up time, they steal some hillbilly boats. The hillbillys just make it to the shore in time to see the "soldiers" sailing off in their boats and one of the soldiers fires a hail of blanks at the hillbillys as a joke ......

Warriors is about a Convention of NY gangs, a guy tries to unite them all, to take on the cops, the guy gets assassinated and a gang called The Warriors gets blamed in error, so they have to run a gauntlet of different gangs as they make their way through each borrough in NY, to get to their turf in Cony Island.

The Wanderers is kinda like a tragi-comic version of The Warriors, probably Lemon Popsicle/Warriors mix, set in the 50's, mostly about the conflict between two gangs, the Wanderers (greasers) and The Baldys (erm ...baldys :)).

Natural Born Killers is about two americans called Micky and Mallory that go on a killing spree across the US, the story has probably been done before, but I dont think you will ever have seen a movie like this one, its like Tarantino on speed.

Thanks, Jim :)

I've got The Warriors because of the original 70's flavour (I like the funky music from that era which reminds me of the score by Isaac Hayes's Shaft and of course Rose Royce's theme of Car Wash, hehe, and I've got those two films, too)

I too got Natural Born Killers.. tough stuff, the original one. Not the soap opera stuff of today. :)

And I've got Deliverance which is one of my fave films, also proper 70's and man, the "duelling banjos" is the best piece of music in a film I can recall :) I'll never forget when it was first aired back in the day.. what a thriller  ^-^ Also, probably the best act of Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty that I can recall  :)

God, they all look so young!

I'll never forget that scene with Burt raising his bow to kill the hillbilly, very iconic.
approx the 13 second mark :

deliverance purty mouth boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWqkVhlY-5A#)

 :-D :-X

Still haven't got around to checking the other clips - but Natural Born Killers is a solid favourite of mine  :-X Didn't even realise it was there...

Yeah, Wicker man was a lot of naked chicks which is pretty unbelieveable in Scotland, at any time of the year.

This kid sure knows how to play a banjo in Deliverance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhnAZFR1po#ws (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhnAZFR1po#ws)

Saw Killer Joe at the weekend, very good movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1726669/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1726669/)

Oddly enough, that very film is staring at me from the PlayStation Store screen...there again so is A very Harold and Kumar Christmas  ^-^

On a completely different note - for the zombie lovers, one we picked up cheap today Cockneys vs Zombies

COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES-RED BAND TRAILER (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0hap9XRg6o#ws)

I think the title gives it away that this won't be a serious film in the slightest. When on the back they describe the plot and the main characters' need to save their Grandad from hordes of 'undead nutters' it clinches the deal  :)

It's cheap, fun and manages to do the usual nods to all of the zombie films that have gone before it. I particularly liked the scene where a mob of Millwall and West Ham zombies clashed  :-()

Quote from: Jim di Griz on November 08, 2012, 01:13:31 PM
Oddly enough, that very film is staring at me from the PlayStation Store screen...there again so is A very Harold and Kumar Christmas  ^-^

Is that H+K movie any good?I only saw HK in Guantanamo (sp?) and it was pretty funny :)

I got a new copy of Resident Evil 6 for €22 (RESULT! :)), so I'll play that instead of watching Cockneys vs Zombies I think :)

The new one? I've no idea yet - the second wasa lot of fun, as you say and the first even better.

Good price on the RE6.

Oh looky - okay the film isn't actually out yet but based on Mr Pitt's recent performances and on this trailer, I'm going to go all out and recommend it now.

World War Z - Official Trailer (HD) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwTxRuq-uk#ws)

I'll let you folks know what it's like on release.

 :-X Me likee!!!! Cant wait for that, I never heard of it, so thanks for the heads up :)

Those people look like ants!

The 1963 classic with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  This is the hauntingly beautiful theme by Alex North

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWf68TKcGs&feature=related#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWf68TKcGs&feature=related#ws)

Quote from: Jim di Griz on November 09, 2012, 11:33:39 AM
Oh looky - okay the film isn't actually out yet but based on Mr Pitt's recent performances and on this trailer, I'm going to go all out and recommend it now.

World War Z - Official Trailer (HD) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwTxRuq-uk#ws)

I'll let you folks know what it's like on release.

Zombie apocalypse strikes again?

Me like it!  :-X

I still have to watch the new Resident Evil... big fan of the movies here. I only played RD up to RE3 and then the game lost it's appeal to me... maybe due to it's non open world nature. I might get back to one of them eventually.

Thanks for the heads up Jim  :-X

JRD, I am a big Resi fan and love the movies, the current one is a heap of shite, I doubt if you will like it, basically its a retread of all the previous movies.

Spoiler

Apparently the previous movies were computerised "what if" scenarios populated by "clones", not actual people. They use this as an excuse to traverse the CGI sets of the previous movies, so it was cheap as chips to make I guess.

That sounds like crap indeed!  ????

A lame excuse not to go on with the devastated earth plot. There were so many scenarios they could've chosen like "defend the last human fortress" or "there might be a cure but it is hidden in an zombie infested facility" or "Alice in zombieland"...  :-\\

Anyway... I'll check it... it's always nice to see Mila Jovovic splattering zombie's brains all over the place ;D

Quote from: JRD on November 10, 2012, 06:45:07 AM

Anyway... I'll check it... it's always nice to see Mila Jovovic splattering zombie's brains all over the place ;D

Pffft...its not like anybody watches them for the acting ot writing quality :)

Check out The Underworld movie series if you havent already, I like them, also Ultraviolet (movie not TV series), is a very good action movie.

Don't like that Underworld franchise (I do like Kate Backinsale though  8) ) and all that vampires versus lycans thing...

I saw Ultraviolet but didn't like it either... Mila is gorgeous but I got tired of seeing her doing her supermodel walk, her supermodel look, her supermodel superkick and all after like 10 minutes into the movie.

The RE series is great though... she pulls all her supermodel s#!t over and over but I don't know... maybe is the videogame background that makes me like it better  ;D

Started reading the WWZ book, its pretty good.

Saw Battleship yesterday. Great effects but I agree with fragger: too much gung-ho, over the top with a very poor storyline. Why are they here again? ???? . Characters are just too predictable and all the naval warfare, specially when they do a handbrake turn by dropping the anchor..... ouch!  ????

Couldn't help but to compare it with another recent alien invasion movie, Battle: Los Angeles where a bunch of aliens get their a$$ kicked by a drill sargeant and his squad. Great action, great effects and good storyline. It is told from a personal perspective so what you know is what the squad knows and there's little information but you figure everything out. It features Michelle Rodrigues though... big let down on the movie (hate her....  :D )

My pleasure folks.

I'd heard that the book was a good one alright - it was on sale everywhere in Falmouth during the summer before last, as a few scenes from the film were shot there (out at sea mostly.) Still haven't started it though.

EDIT: I actually liked Battle: Los Angeles precisely because it was shot from the perspective of troops on the ground with no intel as to what was happening further out. Aren't all military characters gung-ho? I thought it was a part of their training  ;)

Soldier

A great movie; I appreciate the absolutism of the soldier's discipline.  The music is by Loreena McKennitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86bt6D_UFKI#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86bt6D_UFKI#ws)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCjxZHGHL4Y#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCjxZHGHL4Y#ws)

Long, Long, Trailer

with Lucy and Desi - if you like RV-ing, you'll love this movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQMsGjrwiA#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQMsGjrwiA#ws)

Man's Favorite Sport

Another classic with Rock Hudson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKAVEyrgNYc#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKAVEyrgNYc#ws)

... and who can forget Elvis Presley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_xG9wpioaQ#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_xG9wpioaQ#ws)

This KISS movie was goofy but lots of fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDrf1Ndcy7w#ws (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDrf1Ndcy7w#ws)

13 Assassins is a film we've had sitting there for a while but haven't got around to watching. If I had known it was a Takasha Miike film (Ichi the Killer) I would have done it sooner.

The film is set at the end of the feudal era in Japan (in 1844) and is very classically japanese in style, about twelve samurai and a woodsman who take it upon themselves to assassinate a cruel warlord en route to Edo, where he would be under the protection of the Shogun and so become too powerful to stop.

If you like a good Samurai film then this one is it - starting with ritual hara-kiri it builds toward a forty minute frantic battle where the thirteen battle through two hundred Samurai to kill the warlord. Okay, the first part is a bit confusing as we get about twenty five major characters paraded before us in quick succession. Once it gets going though, it is very atmospheric and a solid depiction of what life must have been like for all of the people involved.

13 Assassins (2011) - Official Trailer [HD] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgPC74-Tde8#ws)

Oh, and the guy who plays the 13th, the woodsman is brilliant!

 ???

Perfect setting for an Assassins Creed game!  :-()

 :-X

 :laugh: I hadn't thought of that - good idea  :-X

Excellent recommendation, Jim  :-() :-X

In case you haven't come across Zatoichi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363226/) by and with Takeshi Kitano, you should  :-()

Grew up and still is a Elvis fan, have all his movies locked up in a safe place.
Now I just gave my age away... :-D

Quote from: nexor on November 26, 2012, 02:10:53 AM
locked up in a safe place.

Is that so you dont have to watch them again? :)

I like Elvis alot and I think he was under-rated as an actor because of the shite movies they stuck him in.

Flaming Star and King Creole were very good performances and Jailhouse Rock was just so "on the nail" for the time, another cracker of a movie.

Quote from: Fiach on November 26, 2012, 08:46:14 AM
Is that so you dont have to watch them again? :)

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

No, so nobody can lay their grubby paws on them  :-D

 :laugh:

Quote from: Art Blade on November 21, 2012, 10:56:28 AM
...In case you haven't come across Zatoichi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363226/) by and with Takeshi Kitano, you should  :-()

Zatoichi is an excellent film, another bit of excellent taste on your own part  :-X

cheers, mate  :-D I guess we'd enjoy about 80% or more of each other's video collection :)

Quote from: Fiach on November 08, 2012, 01:40:00 PM
Is that H+K movie any good?I only saw HK in Guantanamo (sp?) and it was pretty funny :)

Just seen the A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas and it's even more insane than the Guantanamo Bay one. It was originally set for 3-D but they released it as a normal film and boy did they go over the top with 3-D opportunities and even 3-D jokes. I think they were making a point about 3-D movies that have maybe two or possibly three scenes in them that use the effect to full advantage and then forget about it.

If you liked 1 or 2 then 3 is right up there with them and there are some real laugh-out-loud moments which catch you off guard, plus it has Danny Trejo in it and that is never bad, plus there are some good nods to other, completely unrelated films in there (well, what do you expect with a film about stoners...?)

Quote from: Art Blade on November 27, 2012, 09:39:17 PM
cheers, mate  :-D I guess we'd enjoy about 80% or more of each other's video collection :)

I totally agree  :)

Thanks for the heads up, I'll try to check it out this week :)

No worries Fiach - I hope you enjoy.

And now for something completely different...The Raven.

It's a film about Edgar Allan Poe's last days, very well played by John Cusack. I don't think it'd be classed as a spoiler to say that he gets involved in helping the police solve a string of murders based upon his own w@&k.

It's a very atmospheric film, though I did get annoyed at the occasional use of modern phrases; luckily these were very few, but it still annoyed me.

Good to see Mr Cusack doing something strong again.

I've always liked him as an actor :)

Quote from: Fiach on April 27, 2012, 09:43:46 AM
Avengers Assemble.

Bloody good movie, good story, good acting, great SFX. It was interesting to see so many superheroes in one movie and each one was given their chance to strut their stuff. The Thor guy (imo) has been watching too many Kenneth Brannagh movies for his own good, but he still carried off the character pretty well, The hulk was the best representation I have seen so far other than that, a great ensemble cast.

Some nice subtle humour, like Tony Stark wearing a Black Sabbath T-Shirt, shows that a fair degree of thought went into this movie.

You know when you have seen a good movie, when you walk out of the cinema, wondering how they will top it all in the next movie.

Fully agree - saw it last night and it seemed like Joss Whedon must have conferred with the script writers from the previous films as each character stayed as they had previously been portrayed. The Hulk was by far the best representation so far with some absolutely hilarious moments...especially the one where Loki tries to belittle the Hulk's ability to stop him; a demi-god. I was crying with laughter for much of the rest of the big fight.

There is also a beautiful little bit after the credits where they are all eating Shoarma.

Joss Whedon did good.

A bit of a double post, hopefully for a good reason  :)

Just been to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and had a good time. It has plenty of solid atmospere and the additional story thread woven in there was well done, keeping the pace high for the last half of the film.

Smaug is going to be spectacular. The recounting of how the Dwarves were driven from the mountain only showed brief glimpses and bits...just enough to whet the appetite  :-X

Also some of the set pieces such as the Dwarvish realm inside the mountain were stupendous and there was a glorious 'legolas moment' (without Legolas, of course) where belief needs to be suspended during the escape from the Goblin halls under the Misty Mountains - also providing an amazing set piece and a great escape sequence.

The only thing I didn't really like

Spoiler

was the revisting of such cheesy scenes as how the ring tumbled through the air in The Prancing Pony in LOTR I to land on Frodo's finger - yes, the same thing happens to Bilbo. There were a few but that was the one that stuck in my mind.

Otherwise a good film - not as epic as The Fellowship of the Ring but there again it isn't meant to be. Plenty of funny moments and the Dwarves are a right bunch of feisty characters, which is pretty much the way I remember them from the book. I'm glad Aiden Turner (Being Human) and James Nesbitt (amongst others, Jekyl) were added to the mix  :) which did add an element of Time Bandits to the proceedings...no, not because they were Dwarves, but the way they dressed and carried on amongst themselves, always fighting and being rambunctious. One or two looked like Ferengi, which was a bit disconcerting...

The Gollum sequence was sublime and to be relished, which was exactly what Mr Serkis did.

nice review, Jim :)

Oh, I'll give you a slap for knowing and (I assume) liking Time Bandits :) :-X

Absolutely love Time Bandits...waiter, plenty of ice!

Cheers Art  :)

nice, Jim, I've seen the advertisement for the Hobbit film and have wondered if it would worth it.  The LOTR series was actually the first film during which I haven't fallen asleep.  I'm ashamed to say that on my very first date with my wife (then sweetheart) I fell asleep in the movie theater.

and when you woke up you were married to her? :-()

 :laugh:

 :laugh:

Bourne's Legacy

I've just watched the BR version of the film which I originally did not intend to buy as it doesn't feature Jason Bourne at all but someone told me it was worth it.

It bloody is worth it. First time in a long while I watched such an intense and action-packed film. I was immediately immersed and taken away, from start to end. There were only very few "oh no, that is SO unrealistic" moments but hey, in the end it only helped to keep the pace at a top level.

GREAT action theatre  :) :-X

Quote from: Jim di Griz on November 19, 2012, 11:36:54 AM
13 Assassins ... builds toward a forty minute frantic battle where the thirteen battle through two hundred Samurai to kill the warlord ... Oh, and the guy who plays the 13th, the woodsman is brilliant!

What an epic battle. The film is fantastic, and agree about the woodsman. What made me go "WHOA!!" was when they sent burning bulls through the village!!  ??? :-X

Glad you enjoyed  :) it was rather special and over the top in a casual kind of way.

I've yet to try the new Bourne film - will be doing that soon  :-X

I'm willing to bet that you're going to like that one, mate  :-D

Well, similar tastes and all that... ^-^ I loved the first, it was tight and fresh. The second was a lot of fun too, but more in a revengey kind of way  ;)

sounds as if you were in for two more films rather than one. There are four. :-D

That's right, I forgot about three...must be getting older than I remember  ^-^

Guys, it's been a while. I watched quite a few films in the meantime, none of them bad, but not one of them was worth it to be mentioned here. Until now -- past weekend I watched a film that enthralled me. I even watched it a second time just to see what I could only know by having seen it before without knowing then. Doesn't make sense? Well, let me explain:

During 170+ minutes, there are six different episodes with six different main characters (well, there are more characters than just those six) per time line in six different time lines ranging from 1849 to 2346 and the genres range from drama to fantasy to science fiction. And best of all: the main actors who play up to six different characters but usually more than two or three. That's not all. Several actors had roles that included different ethnic groups and opposite genders. Yes, indeed -- amazing. I watched it a second time to identify the actors whom I did not recognise the first time through and I was amazed  :-D

The cast is equally amazing: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Doona Bae, Ben Wishaw and more. The producers and screenwriters are also big names: Andy Wachowski ("Matrix") and Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell who wrote the novel the film is based on. And Tom Tykwer, a German producer, composer and writer (Run Lola Run, Perfume). Surprising fact: It is a German film that premiered in Berlin.

It is CLOUD ATLAS (2012) -- one of the best films I've ever watched, this is going to be a cult/classic film :)  :-X

QuoteAn exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

QuoteEverything is connected: an 1849 diary of an ocean voyage across the Pacific; letters from a composer to his friend; a thriller about a murder at a nuclear power plant; a farce about a publisher in a nursing home; a rebellious clone in futuristic Korea; and the tale of a tribe living in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, far in the future.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

A friend of mine raved about the book, so I tried it and only got to about the third character (nuclear power plant bit) and gave up, I thought it was incredibly boring, my mate said it starts to pick up after that, but tbh, that was a third of the way through the book, if it takes that long to get good, I just cant be bothered with it.

On saying that, I will definately take Art's advice and check out the movie, it sounds great.  :-X

I think in this case, the film is probably easier to digest than the book.  :-D

I saw the short trailer for this some time agao and we'll definitely be watching it. Thanks for the reminder  :)

Quote from: Art Blade on November 02, 2009, 01:30:00 PM
Yeah, das Boot 1981 (149 min) was cool.

But if, by any chance, you come across the director's cut 1997 (209 min), go get it. Wolfgang Petersen (director) supervised the new cutting himself and rearranged the entire film, obviously adding scenes that didn't make it into the cinemas due to the already quite long runtime. Petersen felt that those re-inserted scenes as well as the (chronological) rearrangement of various scenes resulted in a film he originally had intended. It's like watching a different film :)

After my holiday in Bayern (Southern Germany) and München (Munich) I decided to enjoy the small present I gave myself when we visited the Bavaria Film Studios. We got a tour there through, inter alia, the original filmset of Das Boot. That's a special way of experiencing the 'making off' of a movie ^-^
In the local souvenir shop I bought the 'uncut' version of Das Boot, called "Die TV-Erfolgsserie von Wolfgang Petersen". The film is burnt on 2 DVD's and consists of 282 mins of pure film material.
I don't know how this version relates to the above-mentioned, but I guess there are even more scenes left in than the director's cut. Before I've only seen the cinema version, and maybe not even with original (German) script, and since this one had no Dutch subtitles I decided to leave subtitles away completely and hope for my German to be enough to understand the basics of the story.
After a short while already I found out that my German is far too poor to really enjoy the intense dialogues that make this film so great and I decided that I'd miss too much on those, and the personalities of the characters of course, that I had to turn on English subtitles. Glad it had that language as a  subtitle choice; the rest of the languages were all Scandinavian and Slavic where I don't understand a word from, lol
This was enough to enjoy the film to the max, although I still regret that my German is so poor ::)
Almost 5 hours of playtime gives you a very good impression of what it is to be on a U-Boat in the Atlantic, awaiting orders, sitting out a 3 week storm or pray for the depth charges not to destroy your boat ???

What a great film!!! 5 hours seem long when you first start, but when the movie came to its end, it did not at all have become boring for a single moment.

Before I forget; Thank you Art for recommending München as a possible location and of course for pointing out the Bavaria Film Studios as a good spot to spend the day :-X :) +1 well earned!!

Glad you enjoyed that Binn. Das Boot is probably the best thing Wolfgang Petersen ever did, and the Director's Cut is far and away the best version of it :-X

I don't mind a long film if it holds my attention. Another longie I like is Gettysburg (four hours), but mainly because I've had a long-standing interested in the American Civil War and I appreciate the historical faithfulness of that movie. It's not a perfect film and is a tad uneven in that it seems to switch between being a big-screen epic and looking like something that was made for television (which it wasn't). Made before the CG era, it literally has a cast of thousands - no clever editing tricks but full armies of "extras" largely composed of just about every CW re-enactor in the country. The scale of the film is quite impressive at times, particularly towards the climax which is quite something. Terrific musical score too.

My main gripe with the movie was the casting of Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, not because I don't like Sheen - I think he's a very capable actor - but because he was so, so wrong for the role. I felt that his Lee was totally unconvincing. Sheen didn't have the commanding bearing or the dignified austerity of Lee, and he gave him a high-pitched, almost girly, twangy Southern accent, which Lee didn't possess - that is quite well documented. Plus Sheen is way too short - Lee was six feet tall while Sheen is a relatively short man. Everyone else in the film is taller than him! I had to keep reminding myself of who he was supposed to be :-() Most of the rest of the main casting was excellent, especially Sam Elliott as Union Cavalry Commander John Buford and Jeff Daniels as Union Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, both perfect choices for their respective roles.

The attention to detail is fantastic, the film makers really did their homework for it. Stuff like correct unit insignia and their regimental flags, the locations of the various units on the field at the proper times, weapons and equipment, the military paraphernalia of the day, the look of the characters and their manner of addressing one another is all very authentic. If you're a Civil War buff there is a great deal of authenticity to be spotted, and there are many outdoor scenes where there is a lot of interesting activity going on in the background. Every time I see it I spot something I hadn't noticed before. Much of the film was shot on location at the real Gettysburg battleground (they had to be very careful with their camera angles to exclude the dozens of monuments at the site and to keep the modern urban sprawl from intruding on their scenes). At four hours' length it's definitely a viewing commitment, but despite it's relatively minor flaws it's a film I can happily revisit from time to time.

Oddly enough, the same production team who made Gettysburg later filmed Gods And Generals, another long Civil War film which just plain stank - essentially a dull, 3½ hour hammy stage play on film which had me microsleeping throughout its interminable length. Even Robert Duvall as Lee - the right choice this time - couldn't save that dog's breakfast of a movie. Never again, unless I'm in need of an effective insomnia treatment.

thank you, Binnatics, glad you enjoyed both München and the film :)

fragger, heh heh heh  nice post  :-()

Yes Fragger, that one is now in my wishlist! Thank you. Sounds interesting.  :)

Speaking of long movies, here's definitely one that makes its share. It's a 180 min movie called Blood In, Blood Out or Bound by Honor. [imdb]Blood In, Blood Out[/imdb]
I think you could rank this movie in the Gang-category, but imho it reaches far beyond. It's a three hour journey into the life of 3 Mexican-American youngsters in the rough Californian gang-life.  It's a wonderful pastel of the charming gang called the Vatos Locos somewhere in East-LA. You'll become part of their life and experience their way of living. Their struggles, the way they try to make their way out, or into the criminal scene, is fascinating. This story, together with great sounds and excellent camera w@&k makes it to one of my all time favourite movies.

that film is one of my earliest DVDs in my collection and a must-see  :) :-X

Lincoln

If you're not into wordy, historically accurate political period pieces it'll probably bore you to tears, but if you are, as I am, it's a treat. From everything I've read and learned about Abraham Lincoln I think Daniel Day-Lewis portrayed him perfectly, and even managed to look a lot like him - in certain shots, anyway. Sally Field, one of my favourite actresses, is a perfect Mary Todd Lincoln. The film is all about the political manoeuvrings that went on in order to get the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - the abolishment of slavery - passed. It's such a meticulously detailed depiction of the period that it's almost like looking through a time portal. Whatever you might say about Spielberg, there's no doubt that when he goes for the authentic historical look he does it superbly. It's certainly not an action film, but as a historical testament it's up there with the best of them.


The Hobbit

More Lord of the Rings spectacle from Peter Jackson and company. There is a great deal of license taken with Tolkein's story, and an awful lot of embellishment of same, but it's on a par with the LOTR movies in terms of action and visual whizzbangery. WETA proves again that they're the Lords of CG - the movie is a terrific thing to look at, as are some of the breathtaking New Zealand locations. But as with LOTR, this is the first instalment of a trilogy of movies, and since the book of The Hobbit was a relatively slim volume compared to Lord of the Rings, the extra embellishment to the story has been necessary in order to stretch the original tale into a three-part movie experience. Still, I enjoyed it and look forward to the next instalments. Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood and Ian Holm all reprise their LOTR roles (some quite briefly however), and Martin Freeman as the young Bilbo really does look like a younger version of Holm. Quite entertaining, if you can overlook the original Hobbit story being stretched and twisted like a cheap rubber band...

I have got Lincoln on BR, was a bit lengthy but indeed interesting.

I read The Hobbit a long time ago and liked it in a way but wasn't exactly an enthusiast. I've got and watched the LOTR trilogy when it was in the bargain bin and can't say I'm exactly an enthusiast, either.  :-D

I've seen the first part of the LOTR trilogy, and it was too much noise for my ears. Maybe because of the Spanish cinema where I watched it, but it was damn annoying. The eye candy was the same noisy appearance (if you can say that of visuals :-D) and the way they cut the story was horrible to me.
Oh, and the hobbits weren't round enough. Except Sam maybe. I always had a great image of a hobbit as being a funny dwarfish creature with a long pipe and stumbling stupidity as well as sudden, self-surprising bravery in it. I didn't like the movie character of Frodo, with his big, speaking eyes, showing human fright instead of Tookish Stubbornness.

I've read all the story and most enjoyed reading The Hobbit to my daughter recently. My father read it to me when I was like 7 or 8 years old. Great story. The fact that they cut that story in three :o for a film makes me curious. That can w@&k in both ways....

Well, I'll stick to the books anyway ^-^

Just watched three films on BR. Two were really good and one was average. Not going to give a full summary but a few comments

NOW YOU SEE ME
Magic. Very nice story telling, no lame dialogues, no cheesy love stories. Unpredictable twists and turns. Believable characters, good acting. Finally a film worth mentioning :) Woody Harrelson finally in a role that really suits him, funny, charming, weird. Michael Caine in a nice small side role, as usual impressive presence. Morgan Freeman in a nice side role, not too self-aggrandising -- just a tad which was just OK. Story: An unlikely couple, a grumpy FBI agent and a dreamy female French Interpol detective, always a couple of steps behind tracking down a team of four magicians who pull off coups among which a bank robbery during their spectacular performances and always give away the money to their audiences. Freeman plays a side role who is a former magician set out to disclose the tricks and illusions of other magicians and tries to help solving the case. Caine plays a millionaire who sponsors the four magicians and wants Freeman to shut up. The rest is basically about pulling off crazy shows and heists and escaping the authorities. I hadn't had such a nice entertainment in a long time. Definitely something to watch again :)

PACIFIC RIM
By Guillermo del Toro whom I remember by several of his works. This film is like a blend of Godzilla, Transformers, Iron Man, The Abyss, Star Ship Troopers and Pitch Black. Huge, massive, dinosaur-like aliens called KAIJUNS have been waiting for us since the days of the dinosaurs, hiding in a parallel universe with a portal under water between two tectonic plates to slip through to our world once we finished "terraforming" the earth for them (by polluting everything just enough). Massive, huge, humanoid-looking metal JAEGERS which each require two pilots who also have to connect their minds in order to drive such a thing are humanity's answer to the problem but the enemy adapt and keep throwing bigger and bigger KAJUNS at them.. There has to be put an end to it, of course. Very nice sci-fi/horror and tech adventure, action, grand graphics and animation, very believable imagery. Acting is good, although due to the plot at times a bit shallow. All in all a film I wouldn't have wanted to miss -- actually one I will watch again. :-D

R.I.P.D.
Basically Men In Black meets Ghost Busters. This film isn't really worth watching. You won't miss an awful lot. It is about a special unit of deceased policemen who fight against naughty guys who died but wouldn't accept it, trying to stay in the world of the living. Also some monsters that threaten the living are targets of our Rest In Peace Department. Doomsday is coming, which we can't allow, now can we. Jeff Bridges mumbles even worse than in any other film before. :-D

Nice mini-reviews Art. I was curious about Pacific Rim (the only one of the three films I've heard of) but was wary of it, thinking it was yet another mindless CG effects-driven spectacular of the sort that gets churned out like blocks of butter nowadays. Will keep that, and Now You See Me, in mind. The latter sounds like an interesting and entertaining movie :)

Speaking of films about magicians, I quite liked The Prestige. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play illusionists, once friends and now bitter rivals, with Jackman trying to discover the secret behind a seemingly impossible feat of stage illusion performed by Bale. David Bowie turns in a surprisingly competent performance as Nikola Tesla, and the movie has a few neat twists. Michael Caine also appears in this one. Something a bit different and original - proof that there still are some outside-the-box thinkers in filmdom :-X

Thank you :)

Hehe, and I was wary of The Prestige, I might take a look now thanks to your recommendation, cheers mate :)

 :-X

The Pianist (2002)

A true story based on the experiences of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and an exceptionally gifted pianist who along with his family are caught up in the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. There are no heroes and there is no sentimentalism or pathos, just a brutally honest and realistic depiction of the events. Possibly Roman Polanski's finest film to date, and a story he could relate to having been caught up in very similar circumstances himself as a youngster (his mother died in Auschwitz concentration camp, however his father narrowly survived in another camp and was reunited with Roman after the war). There actually isn't a great deal of piano-playing in the film as it's more a tale of survival, but what there is, especially during the end credits, is very impressive. Adrien Brody plays the role of Szpilman and was the youngest actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor at the ripe old age of 29, and it was well deserved. The movie also won Best Director for Polanski and another for Writing Adapted Screenplay.

I don't know if it could be called entertainment as it's pretty stark, but I was riveted during every minute of it.

interesting, thanks for that mini-review  :)

Captain Phillips

I hadn't even heard of this film, but picked it up from the DVD rentals when I saw that it had Tom Hanks in it, an actor for whom I have much respect. He plays the title character, the captain of an American container ship which was boarded by Somali pirates in 2009. I'll say no more, but it was very suspenseful and proves that you don't need flashy special effects and gung-ho action to make an edge-of-the-seat movie. Based on a true story.

I actually went to the shop to pick up Gravity, which I did, but found it rather disappointing - but then I'm a pretty demanding customer when it comes to space movies. Great eye-candy but rather silly performances from George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It bagged 7 Oscars, which simply demonstrates to me that: 1) The Oscars don't count for much, and; 2) a lot of people don't know jack about space. Some of the physics the filmakers got right, and were even quite commendable for their realism at times, but the principles of orbital mechanics were apparently a bit beyond their ken (in Earth orbit you can't just point yourself at a target object, accelerate towards it and hope to rendezvous with it - it doesn't w@&k that way at all). I found the movie unbelievable and surprisingly dull.

Although I'm not an expert, I already knew about Gravity's flaws regarding said mechanics and other things and I suspect that I might recognise those and then keep face-palming a lot and I just don't want that, I don't need that. On top, Clooney isn't cut out for that type of roles in my opinion. I remember another space film with him (Solaris) which was so annoying to watch that I really don't want to repeat that. In other words, I won't bloody touch Gravity at all or any space film with that actor involved :-()

I like Hanks and his utter dedication to his characters (for me, one of the most impressing films regarding his dedication was Cast Away) and I came across Captain Phillips in my local film shop a few times but it's not really something I'm interested in so I just let it sit on the shelf.

I watched Captain Phillips, and enjoyed it as I do most drama/adventure movies.

I just watched The Eagle

-- a great film about a young ambitious Roman soldier whose father led the 9th Legion, some 5,000 men, towards the outer limit of the Roman empire around 120CE. They never returned. 20 years later, his son wants to find out what happened and more importantly, bring back the golden eagle, symbol of Rome, and restore the honour of his family. It so happens that he prevents a Briton from getting killed in a circus and his uncle (side role played by Donald Sutherland) endows him with said Briton as his slave who in return for sparing his life vows obedience to the Roman soldier which for him is a matter of honour. Now that unlikely pair takes on the adventure and travel across the border and beyond into the unknown in search of the lost eagle.

Most of the details are researched meticulously and displayed as authentically as possible, real craftsmanship as opposed to plastic and CGI, and epic vistas of the Scottish highlands as well as a really nice story about friendship make watching this film worthwhile.

I saw that one as well, and fully agree with your excellent mini-review  :-X

thank you :)

It's one of those films that, for reasons completely unknown, only got a mediocre rating on IMDb. It is epic, 114 minutes, and shines with stunning visual impressions all the time due to the fantastic research and craftsmanship of all of the gear, the fighting styles, virtually everything. It was a bit short at times regarding certain relations and characters but it already amounted to roughly two hours. I understand that they had to save some time but in my opinion the whole film was really nice and definitely one of the finest "Roman" films that I've come across. :)

We bought the blu-ray for Life of Pi (rated 8.1/10 by IMDb) and found it to be very enjoyable.

It's hard for me to sit in one place for longer than 30 to 40 minutes but the whole last hour of this movie was so engrossing that it flew by without me realizing that I hadn't needed a break.  :)


Also an animated film we'd grabbed a couple months ago called The Croods (made by DreamWorks Animation) was a hoot.  I had to roll back and watch one part of the movie several times that related to the inception of the shoe fetish in women and another part that (having studied photography) made me giggle at a cave painter's concept of the instant snapshot.

As a former caveman (who's had that basic nature beaten out of him over and over with a largish stick  ;) ) there were many parts of this movie where I could identify with the father of the cave family as they dealt with the day to day problems of their world.

I recently watched Noah (2014), merely out of curiosity to see how the story would be put across. I wasn't expecting to be impressed by it, and I wasn't. It was sort of interesting at times, but overall I thought it was pretty ridiculous.

However, there was one sequence late in the film that did get my attention both as an amateur astronomer and equally amateur cosmologist, and was probably the most noteworthy scene in the movie. Noah (Russell Crowe) and his family are in the Ark and Noah is recounting the Creation story. The way it's presented is an interesting take on both the scientific and mythological accounts of creation, a kind of marriage of both.

If you're of a religious nature you probably won't like the scientific aspects of it, and if you're of a scientific nature you probably won't like the religious aspects of it. I have no intention of starting any kind of theological debate here as such discussions are nearly always pointless, plus I believe that everybody has a right to their own convictions, but here's the scene anyway. Make of it what you will - I just like the way it was done.

Noah Movie - "Creation" Clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwSWRdbSQK0#ws)

I like that film snippet. :)

Aaaahhhh Gravity!!

I was hoping to watch this movie on 3D on a big screen but couldn't convince the wife to come along... we ended up watching a Woody Allen flick instead.

I guess this is the kind of movie to watch without counting the flaws in physics but rather trying to embark on the sensation of no gravity. I believe the whole idea of this movie is to make you feel like you are about to die in a realistic environment (our orbit instead of an alien planet). It is a movie about survival and keeping hope despite being stuck in the most inhospitable environment Mankind has ever gotten, not an accurate sci-fi movie. The director, Alfonso Cuarón, also directed Children of Men, one great movie. He has a trademark. He creates very, very long and uncut sequences, making the audience flow along with the situations as if you were part of it all. The way he used sound effects in the movie was great in my opinion. You cannot hear explosions as the sound waves woun't propagate in space but when the astronauts are using their power tools on the Hubble telescope you can hear the "vrrrrrrrr" sound as it would propagate through their  space suits and into the comm system. nice touch!  :-X

He used the soundtrack to create a great atmosphere for the movie. Nothing majestic, rather minimalist actually and it helped create the right mood. He got one oscar for soundtrack wich I believe was well deserved.

Yes, there's Sandra Bullock and her character's personal drama to thicken the story. Clooney being the hero in his annoying nice guy role but try and keep it out of the main frame and just enjoy the visual and smoothness of the movie... it's a nice movie. I'd like to watch it again in 3D, big screen, pop corn and soda!

As for the pysical flaws... come on, we all watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Battle Star Gallatica, Alien, and whatnot and never complain about how innacurate those movies are... and that's just because we ignore that in order to enjoy the fun. It's not a documentary and movies should not always portray the world as it is... otherwise it'd be boredom all over.

Guys, if you ever watch it, let go of all criticism and just enjoy the ride... but make sure you are watching a good high definition copy on a nice TV set, with good sound and no interruptions. This is a movie to plunge into, not a Sunday afternoon flcik while the wife cooks lunch  :)

my home theatre setup meets your criteria. I might actually try it, JRD.. :)

Give it a try. Nice eye candy, great special effects... can't be that bad after all!  ^-^

well, it can. You know, when "bad" is spelled c-l-o-o-n-e-y.

If he is the problem...

Spoiler

He has a small role and dies half way through the flick, then it's Sandra Bullock all by herself

REALLY?!  ??? Man, that's fantastic!! Now I'll get it. :-D

 :-D

Quote from: JRD on November 10, 2014, 09:10:58 AM
As for the pysical flaws... come on, we all watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Battle Star Gallatica, Alien, and whatnot and never complain about how innacurate those movies are... and that's just because we ignore that in order to enjoy the fun. It's not a documentary and movies should not always portray the world as it is... otherwise it'd be boredom all over.

That is true. One of the things I did admire about the film was the fact that unlike so many space movies, a good dollop of attention was paid to real physics. A few liberties were taken (like Clooney zooming around the shuttle almost aerobatically in his backpack) and a bit of belief suspension was required in other places, but otherwise it was very commendable regarding attention to the way things actually behave in freefall.

I've certainly seen a lot worse (Armageddon springs to mind...)

Interstellar (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast)

Just came out of the theater. Really enjoyed it. Directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Inception and the recent Batman trilogy. He has a talent to tell mind blowing stories and this is one of them. Ok, you may not like Batman but he did a great job on the three movies.

This is a near future sci-fi centered not just on special effects but on a thick story line. Without spoiling it, I can say that fans of time traveling and advanced physics will like it. The theoretical background is dimmed down just enough to allow the audience to follow what's going on without making it an over-the-top movie. A couple scenes are there to hold your hand and drive you while quantum physics is explained but not too much to make you feel dumb. The soundtrack also helps in setting the mood by NOT being heroic and some attention to details such as no sound in space is also observed.

Typical haters will always bitch about this and that but again, this is sci-fi and is there to entertain not to be 100% faithful to the real world so chew on your pop corn and enjoy the flick!  8)

one more on my to-watch list. :-X

That one's on my radar as well.

fragger, as a time travel afficionado, I believe you are going to flip a double somersault pike for this movie  ;D

Yes, I quite enjoyed Interstellar, and even Matthew McConaghey's (sp?) best efforts didn't ruin it. He was actually the least Matthew McConaghey-ish that I've seen him in a while, so there's that.

Also, at the end of the film, someone at the end of the row I was sitting in was audibly sobbing. I heard a few sniffles in the row behind me, and when the lights came up after the movie was over, the one woman behind me asked her friend if she was crying at the end. So yeah, it's that kind of movie.

Just make sure to visit the restroom before you see it, almost 3 hours is a while to hold it.

Quote from: Dweller_Benthos on November 24, 2014, 07:54:03 AM
... even Matthew McConaghey's (sp?) best efforts didn't ruin it...

:laugh:

 :-D

Quote from: JRD on November 24, 2014, 06:59:29 AM
fragger, as a time travel afficionado, I believe you are going to flip a double somersault pike for this movie  ;D

Cool :-X I'm also a quantum physics freak - not that I can get my head around a lot of it. I certainly don't profess to be any kind of authority on it, but I can get to a certain point of understanding until my brain simply boggles out. But then some of the best quantum researchers on the planet get boggled out too, so I don't feel too clueless :-()

I won't be a stickler for it though come movie time, however. I promise not to let my scientific pedantry get in the way of a good yarn :angel:

Quote from: fragger on November 24, 2014, 10:06:04 PM
Cool :-X I'm also a quantum physics freak

As I was reading about the movie after I left the theater, I learned that Kip Thorne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Thorne) is the executive producer and physics advisor for this movie. I saw an YT movie where he is actually writing all equations on a chalk board you see during the movie. He explained to the CGI specialists how light would behave around a black hole and a worm hole so the effects you see in the movie are as close to reality as physics and math can explain.  8)

I don't want to spoil the movie but there is more than just physics and CGI to this flick, there's also a, let's say, human factor, that seems to be the focal point of all bad critics. I actually went to the movie expecting to see some strong emotionally appealing scenes, the kind of cheesy scene made to bring tears to your eyes, but what I saw wasn't too exagerated, a little bit maybe but fit to the movie  :-X

I'm very interested to see that Thorne was on board for the production :-X That guy is brilliant.

Quote from: Art Blade on November 10, 2014, 11:44:32 AM
REALLY?!  ??? Man, that's fantastic!! Now I'll get it. :-D

Got it today, watched it today, ignored the nonsense, and I'm ready to have forgot it by tomorrow. :-D

What I found truly remarkable is something you might not expect: Gravity is one of a handful of about perhaps 1,600 films that I've got that actually feature more than one scene that makes extensive use of surround sound. The start of this film is particularly intense with loads of sound effects that gyrate all around you. :-X

Quote from: Binnatics on August 18, 2013, 03:49:29 AMIn the local souvenir shop I bought the 'uncut' version of Das Boot, called "Die TV-Erfolgsserie von Wolfgang Petersen". The film is burnt on 2 DVD's and consists of 282 mins of pure film material

I think I used to have it on VHS back in the day. I then got a director's cut on DVD (which is actually a completely different experience as it was cut differently and scenes added, really a lot better than the theatrical version) and then one extended version on BR.

Now, today I found (and bought) the original "successful TV series" (Die TV-Erfolgsserie von Wolfgang Petersen in HD-Qualität) which is likely the same that you got on 2 DVD, only mine is on 2 BR and 308 minutes long and in HD.  :-()

<rubbing hands in anticipation>   :-D

Excellent ^-^ :-X

I just watched the first two out of six episodes. It is indeed so that there are scenes that I hadn't seen before. Just to clarify, when I said that..

Quote from: Art Blade on November 25, 2014, 11:56:10 AM
I think I used to have it on VHS back in the day

.. I meant the theatrical version, the normal film, not the series. This is for the first time that I'm actually watching it. Which is nice. :) Das Boot is one of my all-time favourites and likely the only German film that I can stand, including German audio. To me, we have the worst actors in the whole bloody world. They open their mouth and I can virtually see the script they're reading from, even if learned by heart, it still sounds like, "now I have to act. I have to recite this. I am on a cheap theater stage and nobody will notice how bad I'm at acting, anyway." The difference with Das Boot is that basically every single actor in it would become famous and at that time, they weren't quite yet. They were fresh, and more importantly, they acted nicely and talked naturally. Not like wooden puppets with a language disorder. So that film really is good and the cast was splendid. Most notable is Jürgen Prochnow, even to a non-German audience. That film was a launch pad for careers and Wolfgang Petersen made a name for himself with it. I really enjoy watching Das Boot repeatedly, in any version available, which by now I think I've got all of. :-D

I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Das Boot is an excellent movie and I do have the director's cut on DVD, but haven't heard of the serialised version :-X

I'm away for a day or two and a whole favorite topic slips right past me.  :(

Quote from: fragger on November 24, 2014, 10:06:04 PM
Cool :-X I'm also a quantum physics freak - not that I can get my head around a lot of it. I certainly don't profess to be any kind of authority on it, but I can get to a certain point of understanding until my brain simply boggles out. But then some of the best quantum researchers on the planet get boggled out too, so I don't feel too clueless :-()

I won't be a stickler for it though come movie time, however. I promise not to let my scientific pedantry get in the way of a good yarn :angel:

Tech and science has always been fascinating for me.  My earliest memory is of a black wall plate pearl push-buttoned light switch next to a doorway beside a kitchen stove that had a very old portrait of a bearded man hanging above it.  I also remember the frustration of not being able to convince either of my parents to stand there and hold me close enough to reach it long enough sate my curiosity.  Recounting that memory with my mom (a few years ago) from my description of the stove and portrait she recalled the setting and said that I was 18 months old when we'd moved out of that apartment.

When I was 14 the scout troop I was in had an evening where a physicist from Seattle's University of Washington come and spoke to our group.  One of the other guys had tossed out the standard question about somehow sneaking past the speed of light which was met with the stock answer to shut down that line of questioning.  But how often do you get a chance to pump a real scientist for information?

I pushed on by first phasing my understanding of our situation of existence "So each of the natural laws including the speed of light became set in place as the initial heat and turmoil of the Big Bang dissipated for the bubble that is our universe."

His eyebrows raised, he nodded and responded "That's a very good description of the way most of us in this field of study would explain how the natural laws were formed."

Then I tagged him with "So in our bubble (our universe) nothing travels faster than light but what about the next bubble over?  Is it possible that there are universes where everything is moving faster than the speed of light?"

He blinked several times and quietly said "I can't say it's not possible."

As I recall he seemed somewhat distracted for the rest of his time with us.



On Kip Thorne.  At one point I was spending probably five hours a day commuting by bus to w@&k and back so I would spend the time reading.  One of my favorite books through that time period was Thorne's Black Holes and Time Warps.  After buying it Mrs. mandru spotted it on my bookshelf and said that she had gone to college with Kip's younger brother who had been part of a circle of friends at that time.  She had recognized the name Kip from times that the younger brother had spoken of him.

There is one issue I have with a model that he establishes (and frequently later repeats it adding detail to demonstrate his expanded understanding) in explaining the conditions of a collapsing super massive star into black hole state.  It's a 4 dimensional representation in 2D (on the printed page) so I recognize the difficulty in achieving that for the purposes of the book.  But his model persists in showing the size of the event horizon as being established before all of the matter from the collapsing star has been gathered within the event horizon!

Wow! That bugged me every time I came across it.  I don't think mass outside the horizon can be counted in as mass inside the horizon even if it's headed in that direction.  Yes, later in the book the model was correctly used to show the merging of two singularities as they became one but the representation of the initial collapse is still part of the model.  :-\\

I may not be able to get my head around the numbers involved in the science of it all but I'm pretty good at that old puzzle book game "What's wrong with this picture?"  :-D

I'll need to check out Interstellar once it becomes available on Blu Ray.  :-X

Entertaining read, mate ^-^ I wish I could have been in your scout troop! But I was never a boy scout - in any sense...

Quote from: mandru on November 26, 2014, 09:14:03 AM
...But his model persists in showing the size of the event horizon as being established before all of the matter from the collapsing star has been gathered within the event horizon!

That's just one of those aspects of quantum physics that brings my mind to the boggling point. Not being a mathematician of the calibre of some of these researchers I have to take their word for their assertions, but according to them the behaviour of things at the sub-sub-atomic level involves principles that tend to rub a "rational" mind the wrong way, one of those behaviours being that in effect, events can precede causes. A particle may not have the energy level required to get through a particular barrier, but can use the energy from a future, more energetic state of itself to get through the barrier and kind of get away with it on the principle that "A future version of myself is on the other side, ergo that future version of myself has had the energy to get through the barrier, ergo I must in fact have the energy to get through even though I don't, but since I apparently do because my future self is on the other side, I'll use that energy now to get through". It's a bit like flying internationally on an aircraft by using a ticket that has been bought in the future and applying it retroactively - I live in Australia, I can't afford a ticket to fly to the U.S., but I know I'll be in the U.S. tomorrow, so I must have the money to buy the ticket, so I'll go because I know I will be there and thus I am able to afford it. How or whether this type of principle actually does operate in the quantum realm I can't confirm for myself since my brain can't crunch advanced numbers the way the boffins can, but those who are proficient at what I think of as esoteric math claim that said math indicates this possibility - or maybe I should say probability, since they also claim that the quantum-level universe operates largely on probabilities, e.g. a particle moves from point A to point B not because the laws of physics dictate it's movements but because its arrival at point B is simply the most probable outcome. This sort of thing was what bugged Einstein and drove him to comment, "God does not play dice".

Whether that kind of apparent violation of what we consider normal causality relates to an event horizon forming before all the mass is in to form it, and whether that has anything to do with Thorne's model, I don't know, but it generates the same level of bogglement in my head ???

There were lots of elegant formulas in the book provided to support his arguments.  I simply adopted the attitude "Sure, I'll take your word for it" and hopped over them to get to the good stuff.  ^-^

That's pretty much my approach too :-D

Indeed an interesting read guys!  :-X

fragger, you may be referring to the principle of uncertainty described by Heisenberg. According to his ideas, one can tell, with a high level of confidence, either the momentum (the product of mass times velocity) or the position of a given particle - either or - given the dual behaviour of quantum particles that possess both characteristics of matter and energy at the same time. Heisenberg postulates that the more confidence you have in one measurement, the less confidence you have on the other, so if you want to know where a given particle is, you cannot describe how it is moving and if you want to determine it's velocity you will never know where it is.

Mind boggling as you say since our understanding of the world around us is based on our observation of said world and we can only see the physical world described by Isaac Newton many years before quantum physics was born. In our observations we instinctively assume a simple example: if you want to know the speed of a moving car you just measure the time it takes from one point to another where you klnow the distance between those points. Knowing the variation of space over time gives you the velocity of the car. In that sense we know where the object is and how fast it is going at the same time. It so happens because in our scale of events, we cannot see quantum events so mater behaves like matter and energy behaves like energy. This is where Eisntein proved to be a genius. He simply refused that idea when observing events in the sub atomic scale. Once his assumption was made he managed to understand light as a string of energetic particles - photons - that could behave as energy and as matter, depending on the experiment designed to measure it's characteristics. It enabled him to describe several events otherwise unexplainable by Newtonian physics and promote a major breakthough in modern physics. A huge leap forward in science.

Guys like Thorne and Hawkings have Einstein's papers for breakfast and are now expanding his ideas to an universal scale using latest technolgy is astrophysics. It is indeed something that seems to come from science fiction and that was (to get back to the start of this discussion) one of the reasons I enjoyed watching Intertellar. Knowing that Thone is behind the science portrayed in the movie only makes it more atractive... pretty advanced physics turned into entertainment!!! I whish my physics teachers could be so entertaining back in the days!  ;D

Cool post JRD :-X I love some of the discussions we get into here 8)

yes, indeed. +1 :-X for that, JRD :)

Thanks guys.

I always liked physics. It was one of the subjects I used to get better grades when I was in school. Although once it becomes too advanced, my mathematical understanding of all formulas gets severely crippled  ::)

Many years ago I read Hawking's "A Brief History of TIme - from the Big Bang to Black Holes". I remember being absolutely puzzled by all ideas Hawking describes in that book. Funny trivia: the editor told him he would only publish the book if he, the editor, could understand the book.  ;D

It is amazing how Mankind managed to formulate so many theories and ideas simply by looking at the sky. If I do the same on a starry night I'd be just "Wow... dude, that's awesome"  :-()

 :-D

I watched the 2 hour animated feature film The Wind Rises on Blu-ray disc last night and it did not fail to meet my expectations of being the kind of quality production I've come to anticipate from its director Hayao Miyazaki.

Being a more mature film than his previous offerings The Wind Rises comes out of Studio Ghibli and is Hayao Miyazaki's final feature presentation.  He has stated his intent to go into retirement which is somewhat disappointing as we have come to enjoy and own most of the works that have his name on them.

The attention to detail in the animation throughout this film is always impressive.  There's barely a scene throughout the movie where pausing the screen and examining it doesn't reveal some painstaking little touch that adds to the feel of the scene but wouldn't normally be spotted as the viewer's attention is firmly anchored on the richly developed main characters.  Even the extra characters who have no part in the scene (other than filing in the ambiance of being warm body props for a crowd) have amusing quirks and traits giving the feeling that they each have lives (their own personal stories worth investigating) widely separate and apart from the main storyline.

The Wind Rises is a fictionalization of the real life aeronautics figure Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982). He was a Japanese dreamer who becomes a maker and shaper but the pre-WWII politics surrounding his dream and paying for his aircraft designing efforts dictate a nature for his creations other than his sole will to see his planes (a Japanese plane) fly as no plane has ever flown before.

The sociopolitical climate impact the events of the main character's life but those circumstances are held largely out of the theme of focus for the film by holding the range of scope closely to Jiro Horikoshi's aspirations, failures and hard earned triumphs.

Even at two hours long it I didn't feel that there were any points that dragged out or slowed down the film's pace and found it to be a very satisfying film.

that sounds cool.

Long ago I recommended The Animatrix, a separate disc with various animated short films around The Matrix; one of which, Beyond, was a manga-style piece by Kôji Morimoto that you just reminded me of. It was very nice. Morimoto went to the trouble of finding one particular type of old-fashioned traffic lights for a pedestrian crossing that would still play a weird old tune which added to the total experience of his film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372764/?ref_=nm_knf_t4 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372764/?ref_=nm_knf_t4)

here's just a clip of the film
Beyond (The dove) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaVB1fjjMw#ws)

Red Dog

I hadn't even heard of this one, but saw it in the DVD rentals and gave it a go. It's an Aussie film from 2011, based on true events about a red cattle dog who finds his way into a remote mining community, subsequently having major effects on several peoples' lives and giving rise to a local legend. A bit like The Littlest Hobo but without the schmaltz (well, there's a little bit of schmaltz but it's not too stomach-turning).

Some of it was filmed in the Pilbara region of NW Oz, where the real story took place. I've always thought that some parts of this region would make a good familiarisation area for anyone thinking of colonizing Mars. There's some arresting photography and interesting landscapes.

The story is endearing but would probably appeal more to Aussies (especially those of my generation, as it is set during the 1970s). If you're not an Aussie you may need to enable subtitles to understand some of the dialogue :-D Even then, some of the vernacular and references may go over your head.

No big names, or rather nobody well known outside of Australia except for maybe Rachael Taylor (from Grey's Anatomy). There is one American actor, Josh Lucas, who plays an ex-pat Yank, who I've seen in a couple of non-Aussie things.

Funny, moving, deliberately over-the-top in places, I really enjoyed it. It's aimed at families so don't expect any language, sex or violence, but I didn't find it too cutesy or treacly. Also features some classic Aussie pop songs from the period which took me back :-X

Mainly I liked it for being just a simple yet original kind of film, which is becoming a rarity nowadays - something a bit different from the mass-produced SFX-driven vampire, zombie and superhero offerings that spew out of Hollywood these days ::)

 :)

The Martian

I really enjoyed this. It's been a while since somebody made a solid piece of scientific fiction, with none of the usual BS that Hollywood usually brings to such things - no aliens or monsters, no ridiculous pseudo-science, no super-villains, no mindless violence, and no silly deus ex machinas (well, maybe one or two little ones). The suspense is provided solely by the situation, and the writers really did their homework.

If you haven't seen it, the basic gist is that one astronaut (Matt Damon) of a team of six on Mars is left behind after being mistakenly assumed to have been killed in a violent, blinding sandstorm (and yes, these do happen on Mars, and quite commonly). The team had already been on Mars for some time, but this particularly violent storm comes upon them suddenly and is threatening to tip their ascent vehicle over, so they have to abort their mission and evacuate the surface without being 100% certain of their colleague's demise (they couldn't find him in the storm and there was no time to search thoroughly). But of course he wasn't killed - he survives (just) and must find ways to exist for as long as he can, possibly until the next mission arrives in a few years' time. There is no chance of any earlier rescue - or is there...?

The premise sounds preposterous on the face of it and I was highly dubious about it, but there are in fact quite feasible steps he takes to survive. The team had a habitat already set up, and a rover, so it's not like he has to wander around on the surface in an environment suit for months on end, even if that were possible. The challenges he faces are in finding ways to extend and build upon his limited food and resources, and it's pretty darned clever how these problems are dealt with - through proper science and physics, albeit requiring a bit of belief suspension, but not unreasonably so. Even the method he thinks up to establish a crude form of communication with with Earth is clever - essentially far-fetched yet in fact not entirely outside the bounds of possibility (he can't just call them up on some kind of magic radio like he would do in just about any other space movie).

It's all handled in a very intelligent and believable way, which is refreshing. There are still flaws -  a biggie being the fact that a sandstorm on Mars would in fact be incapable of pushing much of anything over, let alone a large launch vehicle. Even if the velocity of the storm was in the hundreds of kph, due to the extremely low density of the Martian atmosphere it would have no more strength than that of a slight breeze. It wouldn't look anything like it did in the movie either. This is one of the few things they got seriously wrong, but this apparently is acknowledged by the author of the original novel. With so much else in the movie that they got right, I feel that one can slide.

Very good performances from everyone all round. Damon is his usual highly competent self, and a couple more of my faves, Jeff Daniels and Sean Bean, handle their roles very intelligently. Even though some belief needs to be suspended, it's enlightened far-fetchedness, if that makes sense. Good level of suspense for much of the film, reminds me of classic "pragmatic" space catastrophe films like Marooned and Apollo 13.

Highly recommended if you like some real science in your science fiction.

Nice, I might give it a shot :)

those "real science in your science fiction" types are called hard science fiction as far as I know. Like the novel by Poul Anderson, "Tau Zero," which you might enjoy :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero

I've read some of Poul Anderson's w@&k, he's a pretty cool writer of the hard stuff :-X Haven't read Tau Zero though, thanks for the pointer :)

that one was hard -- quite a bit to chew on for me  :-()

Dr. Robert L. Forward is another writer of extremely hard sci-fi :-D mandru mentioned him somewhere on the forum once, we had a bit of a discussion.

I do like the hard stuff :-X I like some of Forward's novels, but there were one or two I wasn't keen on. I liked Dragon's Egg best. Pretty heavy on the science - Forward himself described the story as "a textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel".