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

[Jimmy Higgins]

Jack the Giant Slayer
5/10

Fairy tale of Jack and the beanstalk, nothign particularly good about it but I suppose it's an ok film to watch with your kids who don't know any better. What's odd though is that right in the beginning there is a really, really bad stylized computer animation of the giants that is supposed to be woodcarvings or something, but it falls flat and ends up looking like five year old 3D game CGI or something.

If it is your bag, you should check out the Rifftrax version of the original Jack the Giant Killer.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Arnoldo,

Could you give a more detailed response to these movies?

Thanks,

Brad

The Man in the High Castle is based on Philip K Dick's novel by the same title. Amazon is currently making the pilot episode which is available via prime instant video. Basically it's premise is that Germany and Japan were the victors in WWII and have taken over the United States.

Did you miss the thread title?

 

[angelo]

Hawking a biography/pic of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Boring as watching paint dry, and bas acting to boot. 4/10

 

[Arctish]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I finally got around to watching this one and I'm glad I did. Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer play off each other very well as a small time thief and a Hollywood P.I. thrown together by chance, and the more absurd the situation becomes the more you can believe these two guys would find themselves in it.

A very enjoyable 8/10.

 

[angelo]

Collateral Starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. An unsuspecting taxi driver [Foxx] picks up a contract killer [Cruise]. Stylish and taut crime drama. 8/10

 

[KeepTalking]

Jack the Giant Slayer
5/10

Fairy tale of Jack and the beanstalk, nothign particularly good about it but I suppose it's an ok film to watch with your kids who don't know any better. What's odd though is that right in the beginning there is a really, really bad stylized computer animation of the giants that is supposed to be woodcarvings or something, but it falls flat and ends up looking like five year old 3D game CGI or something.

If it is your bag, you should check out the Rifftrax version of the original Jack the Giant Killer.

While the original Jack the Giant Killer (as well as the musical version of the same movie) was actually worse than Jack the Giant Slayer, the Rifftrax version is absolutely hilarious. Other than the main characters bearing the same names, however, Jack the Giant Killer and Jack the Giant Slayer really have very little in common. There isn't even a beanstalk in the "original" version.

 

[MarkW]

Training Day

7/10

An attempt at a gritty, realistic drama about police work that only partly succeeds. The story has too many implausibilities; screenwriter David Ayer would hit the mark much more closely when he wrote and directed End of Watch. However, the cast is strong, featuring Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, Oscar-nominee Ethan Hawke, and a supporting cast headed by the ever-excellent Scott Glenn.

 

[bradw]

The Time Machine (1960)

A man travels to the year 802,701 and finds true love and Morlocks.

It's one of those movies that was more fun to watch when I was ten years old.

6/10

 

[angelo]

Female Perversions *warning* Gay lesbian sex with a fairly weak plot. I think this film aimed to shock more than tell a story. Rated R and I think I'm been generous by giving it 6.5/10

 

[Underseer]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes 9/10

Finally got around to seeing this. Amazing movie, and tragic.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

First 45 minutes of The Hobbit - An Extraordinary stretching of the book.

I'll try again after a little bit, but the pace of the movie was extraordinarily slow and seemed obviously stretched out to aid in expanding a one or two movie serial into three films. The fact there was a gratuitous 3D scene so early in the film pissed me off for some reason (I wasn't watching it in 3d).

 

[DrZoidberg]

First 45 minutes of The Hobbit - An Extraordinary stretching of the book.

I'll try again after a little bit, but the pace of the movie was extraordinarily slow and seemed obviously stretched out to aid in expanding a one or two movie serial into three films. The fact there was a gratuitous 3D scene so early in the film pissed me off for some reason (I wasn't watching it in 3d).

I think you've got the wrong mindset. This is a film for children. It's a children's book. Children like stuff popping out and things being colourful and pretty for no reason. They can't follow the story anyway. ,

For all the charming qualities of the Hobbit it is a rather flat story. It doesn't really have a story. It's mostly just one thing happening after another. The main character of the Hobbit is the world. It's written for a reader who hasn't been spoonfed fantasy the last 40 years. It's written for a reader for whom this world is completely novel. Telling the story straight would be boring. Also, the narrator is personal. It's written as an oral story. It has an informal style where we are led to believe that it might have been embellished somewhat. Impossible to get across to the viewer. I'd say it's unfilmable.

The entire stretch of the book between when the dwarves first meet Bilbo and them coming to Laketown can be removed without the story being affected in any way. That is not a sign of quality story telling.

The Hobbit is quite different from LOTR. When Tolkien first conceived LOTR and started sketching on (what became) Silmarillion he thought of the Hobbit and LOTR as separate universes. It wasn't until quite late in the process of writing LOTR that he changed his mind and integrated them. Which is why they feel so different. Both in weight and scope.

Sure, I might have made a different Hobbit if I had gotten to decide. But I think he caught the spirit of the book just fine. I think the changes were necessary. No, the story is still boring. But then again... it always was. It's the world that is fascinating.

I love the films. And I love to hate them. But mostly I love them.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Kung Fu Hustle 8/10.
A very stupid movie. Pretty, hilarious, original, but pretty fucking stupid.
My son said he stopped paying attention to the plot pretty quickly and just enjoyed the jokes and the physical comedy.

Villains try to prey upon a slum that turns out to hide several masters of kung fu which leads to ever-more-outrageous martial arts duels, meant to honor and parody pretty much every martial arts movie ever made.

 

[marc]

Kung Fu Hustle 8/10.
A very stupid movie. Pretty, hilarious, original, but pretty fucking stupid.
My son said he stopped paying attention to the plot pretty quickly and just enjoyed the jokes and the physical comedy.

Villains try to prey upon a slum that turns out to hide several masters of kung fu which leads to ever-more-outrageous martial arts duels, meant to honor and parody pretty much every martial arts movie ever made.

The guy who made that also made Shaolin Soccer. Martial artist wants to promote the Shaolin way, a washed up soccer coach sees him kicking a ball (breaking steel pole with it), convinces him to gather a team of his former monks. But they are up against Team Evil, made up of drug enhanced cyborgs. Another stupid/fun movie.

 

[Daioh]

Bruce Almighty
6/10
So this isn't one of Jim Carreys best movies ever
But it is not one of his worst
And this movie does kinda ride on Carrey and also Morgan Freeman with every other character just kinda there
But I think this movie is entertaining enough to merit a watch

Uncle Buck
8/10
John Candy really was a great actor
And this movie has some great moments from him
It does also help that the rest of the cast puts in solid performances around him
The result is a pretty awesome movie


The Eagle Has Landed
8/10
Another of those older war movies with an absolutely amazing cast turning in some great performances
Add to that a good script and just overall well presented
And think this movie is definitely worth seeing

 

[bradw]

Sahara (1943)

WWII movie starring Humphrey Bogart.

It seemed to be a propaganda movie supposedly based on an actual event.

Stereotypes abound.

5/10

 

[DrZoidberg]

Defiance 2/10

New sci-fi series. Aliens have landed on Earth and have terraformed the planet somewhat and triggering a war. Now it's peace and the alien races have now intermingled with humans and live in peaceful co-existence. I love science fiction. I require very little to developed a sizeable nerdgasm. Didn't happen here. Good science fiction is about bringing attention to contemporary issues. By exaggerating them or initially masking them they fool the viewer into getting a fresh perspective and challenge earlier held beliefs. This is just stupid. As far as I can tell it's a sci-fi world to promote Christian conservative tea party dumbness. We really don't need science fiction to help us sell that world view. It's everywhere anyway. And if the metaphor is stupidly blatant, then why bother calling it a metaphor? Riddick has Muslims. If you're going to talk about Muslims, why not just have Muslims in the show? It's doable in sci-fi. Also, the Muslims are of course evil and backward and need good Christians to teach them good morals. I mean Castithans. The Muslims in the show are called Castithans. They have a hodge podge religion that includes every other religion Christians have historically frowned upon. Another thing about metaphors. If the metaphors are blatant and stupid, it just becomes a long set of new names for me to learn about normal stuff I already know. Its just tedious to have to be put through.

The alien races are very well developed and thought through. They have their own languages, cultures and all. It's really well done. The problem is, that it is irrelevant for any of the stories. It's just flavour. LOTR does it right. The ancient cultures and races are interesting and relevant to the story. They created immersion. These don't. The difference is that Tolkien introduces his alien components cleverly, woven into the story. In Defiance we get long boring and pointless speeches that have no impact on the story.

Characters are unoriginal. The main character has impeccable morals and is a through and through good guy. His adopted alien daughter is basically a Klingon. I never started caring about any of the characters. I couldn't spot a single thing in this show that is even slightly original or interesting. The world and story is extraordinarly convoluted for no reason. if you want to create a fictional world, change as little as possible please. It makes it makes the story easier to follow. This is just overly complicated and boring to follow. The individual episodes have almost no depth to them. Other than that we should treat each other with respect and not be racist, the series seems to have nothing to say. And if the solution to every problem is "hey, look at this new alien concept I'm introducing that you haven't heard of" then I stop giving a shit.

The CGI is very well done. I love the battle scenes between big armies. That's where the positive points come from.

Overall. I'm not impressed. Too bad. I was looking forward to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(TV_series)

 

[Jayjay]

Speaking of LOTR, I just watched "Hobbit - The Unexpected Journey", thereby concluding the tiresome prequel trilogy. What annoys me there that the goblins and orcs and whatever else are relevant to the story, but I can't say that I find them compelling because their societies are utterly two-dimensional and only serve to either obstruct or assist the heroic adventurers.

Score: "meh" out of ten.

I think the best scifi and fantasy manages to have the alien cultures presented in a way that both satisfies the story and makes intrinsic sense from sociological point of view.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Senn 1.5/10

I usually don't bother posting the bad movies I watched but in this case, I don't want anyone to make the same mistake I made.
There is the outline of a fairly good story here and the movie comes across like it was made from that outline. I don't think a story was ever written. To say it's underdeveloped is an understatement.
The acting is atrocious.
The cinematography is on par with Logan's Run. And they filmed bugs here and there for some unknown reason.
Even the gratuitous nudity is jacked up. Penises outnumber vaginas two to one.
The movie is 80 minutes long. I made it through 61 minutes of it.

 

[angelo]

Once Upon A time In Mexico A terrific cast is wasted on this hard to follow plot of a hit man becoming involved in an assassination plot involving a psychotic CIA agent and corrupt Mexican general. I only watched it to get a glimpse of the very delicious Salma Hayek. 5/10 only rated it that high because of my Salma!