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Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

Rifftrax: Miami Connection

As I've said before, a good Rifftrax/MST3K episode contains a bad movie that's funny even without the commentary. This is one of those films. It's full of horribly choreographed karate/fighting, epically bad acting, 80s cheese, just enough coherence to be an actual movie, and the Rifftrax crew kills it. It falls a little shy of Samurai Cop, but such wretched perfection is hard to duplicate.

8/10
UCF's biggest claim to fame. Saw that "live" and for some reason live is better. Very funny, because rock songs about being friends is so awesome.
 
Australia's attempt at creating a comedic movie. Muriel's Wedding. It stars Toni Collette as Muriel. Made way back in 1994 with a smashing ABBA soundtrack. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the 2 hours of your life it takes to watch it.

The plot is something about a young woman leaves small town to find romance in the big city.

8/10
 
Bird Box ,9/10 Not a fan of horror movies, ghost, demons, gore. So this one falls more in the sci-fie, action genre. I like how the story unfolds with pretty good characters doing every thing sensible. Worth a watch.
 
Bird Box ,9/10 Not a fan of horror movies, ghost, demons, gore. So this one falls more in the sci-fie, action genre. I like how the story unfolds with pretty good characters doing every thing sensible. Worth a watch.

My money that the next gimmick horror is that only people in a three legged race can beat the monsters
 
I just saw the Last Jedi. It's just a remake of Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi. But lamer. The force awakens was just a re-make of a New Hope. That was another disappointment.

It's like Star Wars is the new Star Trek. Every second film blows.

What makes it doubly annoying is that any sequel to the Return of the Jedi pretty much writes itself. Since RotJ set it up so perfectly. But nope.

But then again I'm an old person. It's not written for me
 
The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen.

Rare double feature at the cinema today. Both frivolous fun, but oddly the first one feels less serious. Tidy number of cameos from the League, and the end credit of the second movie hints at an interesting third movie - even if the League doesn't want it to be.
 
I just saw the Last Jedi. It's just a remake of Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi. But lamer. The force awakens was just a re-make of a New Hope. That was another disappointment.

It's like Star Wars is the new Star Trek. Every second film blows.

What makes it doubly annoying is that any sequel to the Return of the Jedi pretty much writes itself. Since RotJ set it up so perfectly. But nope.

But then again I'm an old person. It's not written for me

It's not because you're old, it's because they're terrible movies that are poorly written, with lame characters.
 
I just saw the Last Jedi. It's just a remake of Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi. But lamer. The force awakens was just a re-make of a New Hope. That was another disappointment.

It's like Star Wars is the new Star Trek. Every second film blows.

What makes it doubly annoying is that any sequel to the Return of the Jedi pretty much writes itself. Since RotJ set it up so perfectly. But nope.

But then again I'm an old person. It's not written for me

It's not because you're old, it's because they're terrible movies that are poorly written, with lame characters.

I think (and I'm old, saw the originals in the theater, and had Star Wars bed sheets) that The Force Awakens and to a lesser extent Last Jedi were absolutely made to pander to older fans like myself. People who were disappointed by the prequels and wanted something that looked and felt like the originals. They got the look and feel right, but as you said the writing and character development was terrible.

IMO, the prequels were bad because there was nobody around who was able to tell George Lucas "that's a terrible idea...let's try something else," while the sequels were made by Disney's Patented Perfect Movie Committee, which makes a product as opposed to a work of art. The Phantom Menace etc. were made with the artist's (flawed) vision as the foundation, while these new movies were made with commerce as the driving - pardon the pun - force.

The Last Jedi actually made me look more fondly on the prequels.
 
To me Star Wars is like the Terminator franchise, where you need to pick and choose what you like. I enjoy T1, T2 and the Sarah Connor Chronicles. For me Star Wars is the original Trilogy, anything written by Timothy Zahn, the Yuzhan Vong War and the Legacy of the Force series.

Pick what you like, discard the rest. You can do the same for Alien and Predator as well, but I suspect there is more of a concensus with those two franchises.
 
I do not understand people who hate the new ones and like the (in my opinion patently unwatchable) prequel series.

I touched on my reasons a bit in the above post, but let me say that "hate" is too strong a word when it comes to the new films.

I liked Rogue One very much. It told the story of how the rebels came to be in possession of the Death Star plans almost perfectly. It gave us all the character development we needed, and like the title said was a "Star Wars Story." A story about people you didn't know, but fit within the universe and larger story.

The Force Awakens was in part a service to the fans (making the look and feel just like the original) but was also an attempt to "pass the torch" to the new cast/characters.

Rey was the new Luke. Poe was the new Solo. BB8 was the new R2. Kylo was the new Vader, etc. Rather than create new characters (like in Rogue One) they basically made new versions of the old ones. Then threw in Han and Chewie as painfully obvious (but welcome) fan service. It was a product aimed at an audience, and while it was very well done as far as production values go, it was missing something. It was a movie that Disney thought the audience wanted to see.

The prequels were, in a way, aimed at an audience of one. They were the movies that George Lucas wanted to see. I remember watching an interview with him where he really doubted whether or not the audience would go to see Revenge of the Sith. Because it was his vision, and not what the fans necessarily wanted. He was right. I was lucky enough to see all of them at press screenings. The theater for Phantom Menace was packed with anyone who had a connection to someone who knew someone who was a movie critic. Clone Wars was a much smaller event. Some friends and family of film critics on a weekday afternoon. The last movie was almost a sad affair. Bored critics waiting to pan the film.

What The Last Jedi did for me - as I said - was lead me to reevaluate the much-hated prequels. Do I want a Star Wars movie that's written by committee and screen-tested and focus-grouped to death? Or one that's a flawed film driven by the singular vision of an out of touch mogul?
 
I'm not much for the director-as-auteur mythos. Even good directors need good crews to reign in their excesses and leaps of logic. The original series would have been unwatchable if Lucas had been in exclusive charge of it. I mean, the original title was Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. If we had to abbreviate the fandom to AOLSJWSTSW, I for one would quit!
 
The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen.

Rare double feature at the cinema today. Both frivolous fun, but oddly the first one feels less serious. Tidy number of cameos from the League, and the end credit of the second movie hints at an interesting third movie - even if the League doesn't want it to be.

I didn't realize that came out today. I'm waiting for it on DC Universe, which is going to be the 29th.
 
Last Vegas. One of many shithousen movies Robert De Niro was in which failed miserably at the box office. The only, and i do mean THE only redeeming feature about this lemon was that Morgan Freeman was in it. [ I wonder what possessed him to agree to be in this crappola]

3/10
 
Bird Box ,9/10 Not a fan of horror movies, ghost, demons, gore. So this one falls more in the sci-fie, action genre. I like how the story unfolds with pretty good characters doing every thing sensible. Worth a watch.

My money that the next gimmick horror is that only people in a three legged race can beat the monsters

We've had "speak no evil" and "see no evil", so I would expect only people with noise-canceling headphones to survive in the next one.
 
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[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BS27ngZtxg[/YOUTUBE]

10/10. Imo. Slow-paced and subtle. Beautiful monochrome cinematography.
 
I just saw the Last Jedi. It's just a remake of Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi. But lamer. The force awakens was just a re-make of a New Hope. That was another disappointment.

It's like Star Wars is the new Star Trek. Every second film blows.

What makes it doubly annoying is that any sequel to the Return of the Jedi pretty much writes itself. Since RotJ set it up so perfectly. But nope.

But then again I'm an old person. It's not written for me

It's not because you're old, it's because they're terrible movies that are poorly written, with lame characters.

I think (and I'm old, saw the originals in the theater, and had Star Wars bed sheets) that The Force Awakens and to a lesser extent Last Jedi were absolutely made to pander to older fans like myself. People who were disappointed by the prequels and wanted something that looked and felt like the originals. They got the look and feel right, but as you said the writing and character development was terrible.
I disagree. I think Star Wars is written specifically for the young. It is funny, that so many people have so many problems with the new movies. Some are upset at character development, some are upset at the generalized plot (raises hand), some are racist and misogynistic (or Russian BOT's), and others are upset at the lifting of previous plots.

IMO, the prequels were bad because there was nobody around who was able to tell George Lucas "that's a terrible idea...let's try something else," while the sequels were made by Disney's Patented Perfect Movie Committee, which makes a product as opposed to a work of art. The Phantom Menace etc. were made with the artist's (flawed) vision as the foundation, while these new movies were made with commerce as the driving - pardon the pun - force.
The Prequels suffered from Lucas and his inability to work with human beings. Natalie Portman is a great actor. You couldn't tell in the Prequels. Also, Lucas didn't have any fully fleshed out ideas for the prequels. And finally, when you watch the films, you start realizing that Lucas is pretty good at the beginning and ending of a movie... but often falls flat in between.

I was juvenile, but really forced to be based on Anakin's age. The Clone Wars isn't a bad movie as long as you take out any scene with both Anakin and Padame. The third should have been epic... but the absolutely crucial moment in the film (Anakin's ultimate transition) was ham handed and poorly executed.

The Last Jedi actually made me look more fondly on the prequels.
Star Wars is running into some troubles with vision... and poor scripting. The generalized plots have been nonsensical. The Force Awakens was a remix/reboot of A New Hope, and had the same type of overall weapon, and important climactic moments ended up being incredibly dull and stupid (I don't know, if that paying homage to the end of III?). The Last Jedi was convoluted. The two main characters seem to develop well, but the rest of the film is an absolute mess. And to make matters worse, there is all this needless noise about the gender and race of actors in the films. The only decent thing going on is that the final movie has a generally open slate, but the people in charge have very little in the way of trust of using it effectively.
 
The Prequels suffered from Lucas and his inability to work with human beings. Natalie Portman is a great actor. You couldn't tell in the Prequels.

I've heard in many interviews how George Lucas has a clear vision in his head how the actor should deliver the lines, rather than letting an actor... well... act. In the original trilogy the actors just steamrolled him whenever they thought his dialogue was unactable. Lucas wasn't famous enough to put up any resistance. In the prequells he had fully dressed himself in a godlike garb and would never back down.

Also, Lucas didn't have any fully fleshed out ideas for the prequels. And finally, when you watch the films, you start realizing that Lucas is pretty good at the beginning and ending of a movie... but often falls flat in between.

Really? He had worked on them a lot. I think they were pretty fleshed out. It's just that his ideas sucked. They were unfilmable. Which is why they suck.

I was juvenile, but really forced to be based on Anakin's age. The Clone Wars isn't a bad movie as long as you take out any scene with both Anakin and Padame. The third should have been epic... but the absolutely crucial moment in the film (Anakin's ultimate transition) was ham handed and poorly executed.

The tone of Phantom Menace was off. Where was the menace? It came off as nothing but a Disney movie.

The love relationship between Padme and Anakin in the Clone Wars was just badly written. Any shitty Hollywood writer could have come up with something with a million times more tension and drama. She's a princess, and senator, and he's a scrappy nothing Jedi apprentice. Not to mention the age difference, him being younger. That script writes itself. But nope... she falls in love with him instantly making the story arc dead. The rest of the film was a mess. Nothing really mattered. Anakin was an over-reacting child to everything. His anger and underlying flirt with the dark side could have been showed so much better. The film tells, but doesn't show. Cardinal error.

But... I have a friend who had kids who were 9 and ten when Clone Wars was out and they thought it was the best thing ever. So I guess Lucas did something right.

Revenge of the Sith was just boring to watch. Again... zero tension. Zero drama. Nothing mattered. His turn to the dark side isn't because of anything that actually happens. Nope. It's because of a dream he has about Padme. Ehe... dumbest idea to a story ever. His mutilation and ending up in the Darth Vader suit was a snoozefest. When he accidentally killed Padme because of his turn to the dark side, then why didn't he realize that the dark side was bad? Instead: "Noooooooo". Would have been way more effective if Padme left him and joined the rebellion. Now that's a story line.

The entire count Dooku story line was dumb. A confusing mess. If I don't get it, I'm guess a ten year old child won't either.

The only thing I liked about the films was Palpatine's palace coup. That was the only story line that actually worked.


The Last Jedi actually made me look more fondly on the prequels.
Star Wars is running into some troubles with vision... and poor scripting. The generalized plots have been nonsensical. The Force Awakens was a remix/reboot of A New Hope, and had the same type of overall weapon, and important climactic moments ended up being incredibly dull and stupid (I don't know, if that paying homage to the end of III?). The Last Jedi was convoluted. The two main characters seem to develop well, but the rest of the film is an absolute mess. And to make matters worse, there is all this needless noise about the gender and race of actors in the films. The only decent thing going on is that the final movie has a generally open slate, but the people in charge have very little in the way of trust of using it effectively.

So you don't think the Last Jedi was just a remix/reboot of Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi?
 
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