Movie you just bought/rented/whatever & comments

Happy Hamster · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:06 am Post subject:

I have to admit that i havent seen Dead Set yet.
Its got zombies in it so i took for granted that it was horror.
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jt-3d · Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:18 am Post subject:

Apollo 18. Frankly I should have spent the 2 hours playing the C=64 game instead. Aside from the fact that it is Red Planet except it's on the moon, it's a dumb movie. Red planet meets Blair Witch Project. Granted it's creepy but it's just blah.
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Troy · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:20 am Post subject:

I just saw Let Me In tonight. I found it impossible to judge the film in its own right as I constantly found myself comparing it to the Swedish film. As Rekrul said a couple of pages back, the American version is simply too rushed. Maybe it wouldn't feel like that if I hadn't seen the Swedish one. As far as I could see the credits didn't mention anything about the Swedish film, just that it was written and directed for the screen by blah blah based on the book so I don't really think you could call it a remake. It would be like saying all the film versions of Oliver Twist were remakes of earlier films, when of course they're just somebody's take on the book.

I'll definitely have to read the book one day, just to find out what these more 'controversial' aspects of it are.

If you want my advice, watch the Swedish version - the swimming pool scene in it is fantastically filmed.

(There is one really interesting section in the American version where a car reverses and tumbles down a slope and its all shot by a fixed camera from the back seat looking out the front windscreen. I don't think I've ever seen that done before.)

Also caught the last hour of Shutter Island before Let Me In came on. I've mentioned it here before when I said I thought the first forty-five minutes were brilliant but then it ran out of steam, well, this time I must have been in a different mood because I thought the last hour was brilliant this time. Maybe it was because I knew exactly what was going on having seen it before so I could appreciate it in a different way.

Prkl · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 1:18 pm Post subject:

I liked Shutter Island too, on my both viewings. I guess I'm one of the few who didn't figure out the "twist" until right at the end. Just because of that I had to see the whole thing again shortly afterwards.

DanSolo · Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:38 pm Post subject:

@Troy
Probably not as good as the Swedish original, but considering some of the complete butchery jobs Hollywood has inflicted on many fine foreign movies, I think Let Me In got off lightly.

Stationary · Newbie Joined: 11 Dec 2011 Posts: 0

Greetings,
For those who like tearjerkers, dogs, and scenery of far northwestern Australia. Well then, you best watch RED DOG.
Hit the spot in all three items - lol
Stationary Smile

Troy · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:23 pm Post subject:

The Jacket
Guy gets stuck in a straight jacket and as if that weren't claustrophobic enough then gets stuck in drawer. While in the drawer time travels fifteen years into the future to meet down-on-her-luck waitress Keira Knightlley.
Not bad at all. The film's entirely made by Adrien Brody's scenes with the little girl that'll grow up to be Keira Knightley - those scenes are very sweet.

Also caught two-thirds of The Chronicles Of Riddick. I've always liked this. Gives a great sense of a galactic empire. The set designers are geniuses. The tortured looking planet is awesome looking.

technoid · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:18 pm Post subject:

Troy wrote:

Also caught two-thirds of The Chronicles Of Riddick. I've always liked this. Gives a great sense of a galactic empire. The set designers are geniuses. The tortured looking planet is awesome looking.

I like Chronicles as well. I also felt the sense of an imperium, much like in Star Wars. And just like in Star Wars, Chronicles also had the fantasy points in there as well, not just pure sci-fi. So sort of sci-fan, though leaning towards sci-fi. You're also correct on the set designs. The overall design of that universe was different than most sci-fi films, although something like Dune is a good equal. Thematically and visually, Chronicles was kinda like the Roman Empire in space. The "prequel", Pitch Black, was also nice, as a sci-fi suspense/horror... although in some circles - or maybe officially - Chronicles is considered the sequel, whatever. It has been said though that Chronicles was a disappointing sequel to Pitch Black.
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Troy · Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject:

technoid wrote:

The overall design of that universe was different than most sci-fi films, although something like Dune is a good equal. Thematically and visually, Chronicles was kinda like the Roman Empire in space. The "prequel", Pitch Black, was also nice, as a sci-fi suspense/horror... although in some circles - or maybe officially - Chronicles is considered the sequel, whatever. It has been said though that Chronicles was a disappointing sequel to Pitch Black.

Are you Derren Brown? You just read my mind. That's exactly what I thought - Dune and Roman Empire. I think it's a cracking sequel. I wasn't convinced that lass was supposed to be 'Jack' from Pitch Black though. Not for a second.

Rekrul · Master of C64 Joined: 05 Aug 2009 Posts: 1113

DanSolo wrote:

Didn't even know Charlie Brooker did horror, though this isn't exactly the zombie/vampire type of horror at all.
Now, to try to find a copy of it...

Four letters: EZTV Smile

Happy Hamster wrote:

I have to admit that i havent seen Dead Set yet.
Its got zombies in it so i took for granted that it was horror.

I watched Dead Set a while ago and thought it was pretty good. When I first heard that it was about Big Brother contestants getting trapped on the set during a zombie apocalypse, I imagined it would be a stupid comedy, but it was actually quite serious and gruesome.

technoid wrote:

It has been said though that Chronicles was a disappointing sequel to Pitch Black.

I'm one of the people who feel that way. Pitch Black was, for the most part, a realistic looking film. All the technology and situations looked plausible to me. Chronicles just seemed like pure space fantasy. Now that it's been mentioned, I agree that it sort of has a Dune vibe to it. I didn't particularly care for Dune either, for the same reasons.

technoid · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:51 pm Post subject:

Troy wrote:

Are you Derren Brown? You just read my mind. That's exactly what I thought - Dune and Roman Empire. I think it's a cracking sequel. I wasn't convinced that lass was supposed to be 'Jack' from Pitch Black though. Not for a second.

Rekrul wrote:

I'm one of the people who feel that way. Pitch Black was, for the most part, a realistic looking film. All the technology and situations looked plausible to me. Chronicles just seemed like pure space fantasy. Now that it's been mentioned, I agree that it sort of has a Dune vibe to it. I didn't particularly care for Dune either, for the same reasons.

There is hearsay that Diesel and company have already written two more sequels, the last one only starting a few months ago this year. Whether it comes to fruition I don't know, but if they do, it will probably be unfortunate that since Chronicles kinda bombed, these two sequels may unlikely get a heads up by major film production. Apart from a good storyline, good SFX is a requirement in these sort of films, or else it's not going to look 'blockbustery'. Going straight to DVD sucks.

It's correct, I didn't see any sort of fantasy in Pitch Black either. From what I know about the Riddick franchise, it's all made up to be for film. It is not a book adaption afaik. Let me know if it is not, I don't care to research atm. Therefore, the difference between Pitch Black and Chronicles is like night and day, i.e. the storyline of Chronicles was just an add-on, not particularly planned and panned out from beginning to end as a set of novels are. Pitch Black did not look like a epic film either, it was pretty linear, no other major subplots, just get the hell outta there from start to finish before you get eaten sort of thing.

I liked Dune for what it was. I do like space fantasies on screen, i.e. the spiritual aspects thereof. No other franchise has done that better than Star Wars, afaik. But adapting a novel such as Dune to screen doesn't help when you rush 400+ pages into 2-3 hours. That's understandable. Would it have been better if they were split into sequels? That really depends on how attractive the story is to non-fans and regular film viewing audiences. I have watched the other Dune films (straight to DVD) and they were ok. No actors from the original Dune film, afaik. Perhaps those DVD-only productions are the evidence that no one really cares to have the Dune franchise back on the big screen. I've only read the first book back in high school. And only once, heh. I'm not sure nor remember if G. Herbert was satisfied with the film. Probably not fully. As the saying goes, "the book was better than the film". And a book's author usually knows and feels that better than anyone else. I also liked Dune for the many popular (or popular thereafter) actors/celebs that were in it. I have not read much about the Dune remake, but I hope they better do a good job, that's if it finally gets a green light at all, heh.

I didn't know who Derren Brown was until I wiki'd him. Smile

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Troy · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject:

Check out his 'Messiah' episode where he went to America and pretended to be a practitioner of certain 'new wave' (for want of a better phrase) .. eh, practices. Really, really, interesting. Really.

Rekrul · Master of C64 Joined: 05 Aug 2009 Posts: 1113

technoid wrote:

I liked Dune for what it was.

To me, Dune felt dated, like when the emperor said he wanted "telepathy" during a meeting, or calling nuclear weapons "atomics". Also, there were apparently a lot of plot elements left out of the film to reduce its running time.

Then there are weird little things that have always made me go "huh? Most of them are in Paul's first encounter with the Fremen. Paul runs into the rocks, meets Chani and she blurts out "I would not have permitted you to harm my tribe." Kind of a weird first line, especially spoken in the past tense. Then Stilgar states "I will take the boy-man, uhhh." Yes, for some reason, he grunts at the end of the sentence. When asked to choose a public name for himself, Paul asks what they call the mouse shadow in the second moon. Why would he think that they even have a nam for a shadow on one of the moons? Of course they did, leading to the exchange;

Stilgar: We call that one More-Deeb.

Paul: Can I be known as Paul Mo-Ab-Deeb?

Stilgar: You are Paul More-Deeb.

technoid wrote:

I have watched the other Dune films (straight to DVD) and they were ok. No actors from the original Dune film, afaik.

You mean the SciFi Channel mini-series, Dune and Children of Dune?

I liked them slightly better than the movie since they made more of an effort to make the Dune universe believable.

technoid wrote:

I've only read the first book back in high school. And only once, heh.

I had planned to read Dune at some point, but then I found out that there are like 10-15 books in the series and that kind of put me off. I can be a little OCD about some things and one of them is that I hate only reading/watching part of a series and not the rest.

technoid · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:18 am Post subject:

Rekrul wrote:

technoid wrote:

I liked Dune for what it was.

To me, Dune felt dated, like when the emperor said he wanted "telepathy" during a meeting, or calling nuclear weapons "atomics". Also, there were apparently a lot of plot elements left out of the film to reduce its running time.

That to me is understandable seeing that the book was done and published by 1965, so things like telepathy and atomics were still quite intriguing at the time. I'm proud to know that Herbert got the idea of the book from his time looking at the sand dunes here in Oregon. The books really are about ecological and environmental issues, things we still worry about today.

Rekrul wrote:

technoid wrote:

I have watched the other Dune films (straight to DVD) and they were ok. No actors from the original Dune film, afaik.

You mean the SciFi Channel mini-series, Dune and Children of Dune?
I liked them slightly better than the movie since they made more of an effort to make the Dune universe believable.

I suppose so. I don't have cable so I wouldn't have known they were produced for that. I only spotted them at Blockbuster. I didn't know they existed before then. Yes they were fine by me, but since again I've only read the first novel, I just took for granted what was shown.

Rekrul wrote:

technoid wrote:

I've only read the first book back in high school. And only once, heh.

I had planned to read Dune at some point, but then I found out that there are like 10-15 books in the series and that kind of put me off. I can be a little OCD about some things and one of them is that I hate only reading/watching part of a series and not the rest.

Well, you have to start somewhere and the first book should be that start. I believe I read it before the Dune movie came out. It really was for a book report. I do recall kind of falling asleep near the end of the book, so that part is a little more hazy, although now that it's been 25 years, the entire book is all hazy now and the only concrete references I have are from the 1984 film, heh. You kinda have to realize that all those weird little things are fundamentally from the book and that the movie used them more or less. You could say that since he was a foretold Messiah, then all those intricacies and confusion were meant to come and he was just there to complete the "sentence", and everything clicked into place, as it were.
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Fiery Phoenix · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:32 am Post subject:

Race With The Devil

Great 1970's flick with Peter Fonda, where two couples on a camping trip encounter a group of Devil worshippers. Most enjoyable film I have seen in a while - was gripped all the way through.

9/10

Catch Me If You Can

The true story with Di Caprio playing the con man. First time I have seen this - recommended.

9/10

Source Code

After enjoying his first film Moon, Duncan Jones has come up trumps again - I enjoyed this even more.

9/10

Four Christmas's

Average comedy film with Vince Vaughn - don't go out of your way to see it.

4/10

The Innocents

Had high hopes for this 1960's ghost stroy but was'nt as great as I expected it to be - slightly disappointing.

5/10
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English Invader · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 2:15 am Post subject:

Fiery Phoenix wrote:

Catch Me If You Can

The true story with Di Caprio playing the con man. First time I have seen this - recommended.

9/10

I saw this in the cinema when it first came out and bought the book it was based on a week later (great read BTW). Nine years on, the film remains a personal favourite.
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Canute · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:21 am Post subject:

Some were discussing the grandness, the epical nature of the science fantasy movies: Star Wars series; Dune; Chronicles of Riddick; etc.

I didn't realise that the following term has changed it's acceptance and meaning over the last century, but I always considered the grand science fiction/fantasy epics to be termed as "space opera". (Indeed, the term "Space Opera" was once a derisory term for bad sci-fi movies up until the 1970s. Didn't know this until today).

Anyway, in recent times, ".....Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as "colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes."....."

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

I'd also like to add deep (perhaps interstellar?) political intrigues, a romantic emphasis, civilisational conflict (obviously) + often a spiritual dimension, to being at the heart of this sub-genre.

Star Wars was and is still probably the best example of successful space opera. It's first three movies released were an astounding epic - 30-odd years ago. This grand adventure in space still not surpassed (obviously).

However, reverting from movies to TV series, thought the new and old Battlestar Galactica; my childhood love Starblazers (not seen for 28 years); and even older particular Dr Who stories such as The Caves of Androzani and Frontier in Space were excellent stories - examples of "space opera."

Not being pedantic in this post, just adding input to a very interesting niche of science fantasy. We need more such grand movie epics. Smile

technoid · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:45 am Post subject:

I have no problem with that. I just happened to use "sci-fan" rather than the term "space opera", because "space opera" happened to not be in my thoughts at the time of my writing, even though I am very aware of that term. Indeed, "space opera" is the better term for those movies. "Sci-fan", while very universal and can be switched around with "space opera", can sometimes have a rigid definition depending on usage. One of the earliest movies that I know of that adapted the sci-fan term to it by others was "Quest for Fire", about early man (the proverbial caveman) discovering and using extreme kinetic energy which we know as fire, heh. No one really exactly knows how and when we discovered fire, but it is still one of those scientific curiosities we still wonder about today. The movie, obviously fictional, is just one dramatic and humorous way to depicting it. Hence, science fantasy. Sci-fi and sci-fan can also be interchanged, but the noticeable difference is that sci-fi stories normally use fictional high technology, as in our distant future, to define the term. Sci-fan may not necessarily mean advanced technology, but depending on who uses the term, it sometimes may. Star Wars is also considered sci-fan as much as sci-fi. Overall, the meanings can be pretty loose, so use them any way you want, I don't care, heh.

Btw, I also loved both the classic and reimagined BSG, a nice space opera in of itself. Obviously it was a copy of Star Wars on TV. Even Dykstra, the special effects supervisor on the first Star Wars came onboard the original BSG in 1978 to lead their SFX, notably for the miniature model stuff. I was a little sad that the new BSG only lasted 4 seasons, rather than 5. I thought 5 years would've been an "even" number, but I suppose they didn't have enough storyline filler to pan out to 5. I also liked Galactica 1980, only because it kept the story going, until everything finally got cancelled, heh.

Another notable TV space opera I liked was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (with Gil Gerard). Erin Gray was hot in those tight space suits.

Because of their epic grandeur, the Star Trek films were more akin to space opera than the TV counterpart, at least compared with the original series (TOS). Stargate (film and TV) and Babylon 5 are also good examples of the space op franchise.

Also, using a huge instrumental orchestra for that symphonic classical-type backing sound track helps strengthen that grandeur of these flicks, imo.
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Canute · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:34 am Post subject:

Good points. Haven't got into Babylon 5 yet. Something I will have to do. Smile

Fixed my above post - typos and key point omissions.

Sorry about hijacking the main purpose of this thread. Smile

Anyway, another Riddick movie wouldn't be bad. However, not exactly the best (sort of) series ever. But, good enough.

Now, back to ancient 200-odd BC:

Wonder how Vin Diesel ended up with his planned Hannibal the Conqueror remake ? You know, Hannibal of Carthage, the bane of Rome. Diesel's been trying to get this project funded for years (with him in the lead role). Looks like the project is still floundering. Sigh....

Canute · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:17 pm Post subject:

Wow

Link

Remake movie of the epical 80s' Japanese anime series - "Star Blazers" (yes, at least the series was epical for a kid). The only anime series I ever followed. The soundtrack still gives me goosebumps after 28 years. Smile

The was the old Star Blazers series' opening theme:

Link

The second season of the old series, Star Blazers: The Comet Empire was also great (for it's time)

Link

Jolly_Roger · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:45 pm Post subject:

Canute wrote:

(yes, at least the series was epical for a kid)

I rewatched the first season this summer and while the animation shows its age the story holds up very well and the soundtrack is still as powerful as it was in the seventies (IIRC the first season was aired in Japan back in 1974,while the other two season were made in 1978 and 1981).

Now,I wish I could mount a wave motion gun on my car...

Rekrul · Master of C64 Joined: 05 Aug 2009 Posts: 1113

Actually, while the Americanized version of the live action "Star Blazers" movie may be "coming soon", the Japanese version came out last year under the name "Space Battleship Yamato". It's already available on DVD. I plan to watch it soon.

As for what I've watched recently;

I watched the three episodes of Black Mirror. They were very well made, although they seemed to be missing something. I didn't dislike them, but I can't say I really liked them either.

The last movie I watched in its entirety was an absolute turd of a "movie" called Curse of the Mummy Cat. The only reason I didn't turn it off after the first couple of minutes is that a user on a private torrent was offering credits to anyone who watched it and posted a review.

It is, without a doubt, the stupidest piece of crap I've ever seen. Think of the worse piece of garbage you've ever watched. I mean something with special effects that look like they were done in crayon and actors reading their lines off cue cards, kind of bad. Whatever movie you're thinking of, Curse of the Mummy Cat will make that movie look like a Hollywood blockbuster. This is a movie that would even Ed Wood wouldn't have wanted to be associated with! Try to imagine if the people behind the short Hardware Wars thought that they were making a serious SciFi movie, and that still wouldn't come close to how bad this movie was.

I really and truly hope that the director intended it as a deadpan comedy, because the idea that there could be someone in the world who would actually think that this was a serious film is too disturbing to even consider.

Zaz_cag · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:24 am Post subject:

War Horse

Another really good movie.

technoid · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:48 am Post subject:

Canute wrote:

Good points. Haven't got into Babylon 5 yet. Something I will have to do. Smile

If you consider yourself a nerd, similar to Star Trek and Star Wars nerds/geeks, then watching B5 is a must as it has/had its own community of fanatics. I have only watched the entire series pretty much only once. The CGI graphics were made using Amiga, Newtek Video Toasters and Lightwave 3D. They used Pentiums later on. I have Lightwave, but haven't learned it yet as I still use Caligari trueSpace. The show was heralded for being one of the first to use CGI. It lasted for 5 years, which I suppose made it longer than the new BSG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5

Canute wrote:

Anyway, another Riddick movie wouldn't be bad. However, not exactly the best (sort of) series ever. But, good enough.

Yeah that would be nice. I guess it really depended on how the last movie did... and it only did fair, afaik. As was aforementioned, scripts for more sequels have been processed or are in process. Whether they make it to screen is another matter.

Canute wrote:

Now, back to ancient 200-odd BC:

Wonder how Vin Diesel ended up with his planned Hannibal the Conqueror remake ? You know, Hannibal of Carthage, the bane of Rome. Diesel's been trying to get this project funded for years (with him in the lead role). Looks like the project is still floundering. Sigh....

Had no idea he was making it. Good luck to him. Something like this would probably need a big budget, but it shouldn't be too Hollywoodized or else it might turn into another Alexander or Troy (both films from 2004). Imho, they might need to focus a little more on Hannibal's strategy(s) in the movie as his strategy is what made Hannibal a legendary and historical figure. They have been used by Patton and other military personnel I believe. His tactics/strategems are part of the courses in military schools. But again, don't make it too Hollywoodish and try to be historically accurate as possible but without all the borish details.
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Fiery Phoenix · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 12:52 pm Post subject:

The Skin I Live In

Great Spanish film with Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon working on a new type of synthetic skin. To say more would spoil the surprise of the storyline as you watch. Had me gripped all the way though.

9/10
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