Well, if that isn't a recommendation for a film, I don't know what is.
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Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?
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credoconsolans
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MarkW
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Blackhat
7.5/10
Michael Mann's first film in about six years is not quite at the level of his best work, and it's a slow-paced at times, but overall it's another solid, suspenseful crime thriller from the director who has given us some of the best genre films of the last 2-3 decades. I liked how this film about hacking presented the technical elements in a much more believable way than most techno-thrillers (Mann, of course, is known for his dedication to realism). Some reviewers found it hard to swallow hunky Chris Hemsworth as a hacking genius, but I had no real difficulty suspending my disbelief (as his character had been in prison, I assumed that he'd simply been pumping a lot of iron while he was in stir). While the romantic subplot is not absolutely essential, Hemsworth and Tang Wei have more than enough onscreen chemistry to make it work.
7.5/10
Michael Mann's first film in about six years is not quite at the level of his best work, and it's a slow-paced at times, but overall it's another solid, suspenseful crime thriller from the director who has given us some of the best genre films of the last 2-3 decades. I liked how this film about hacking presented the technical elements in a much more believable way than most techno-thrillers (Mann, of course, is known for his dedication to realism). Some reviewers found it hard to swallow hunky Chris Hemsworth as a hacking genius, but I had no real difficulty suspending my disbelief (as his character had been in prison, I assumed that he'd simply been pumping a lot of iron while he was in stir). While the romantic subplot is not absolutely essential, Hemsworth and Tang Wei have more than enough onscreen chemistry to make it work.
angelo
Deleted
Monty Pythons Holy Grail. I had forgotten how corny these type of movies were. Couldn't watch more than an hour of it.
3.5/10.
3.5/10.
Jimmy Higgins
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Story about how two known criminals get chased, go to South America, and get what is coming to them. First off, on-site shooting was fantastic. The 60s pop music, Raindrops Falling on My Head, are you fucking kidding me?! That scene felt like I was watching a Zucker Brothers parody! My main complaint is that Newman and Redford seemed to be playing Newman and Redford, not the two criminals who's film title shares their name. But the film was shot well, on location (often). Ups and downs with this typically well liked classic. It is worth watching, but only if you have already seen The Sting.
2.5 of 4
2.5 of 4
What you suffer from brain trauma? That was typical Monty Python.
Veritass
Member
Careful, there. I am going to be Sir Galahad (the Dashingly Handsome) in an upcoming presentation of Spamalot. Don't you be dissin' Monty Python.
MarkW
Senior Member
The Merchant of Venice
7.5/10
Michael Radford's 2004 film, the first feature film of Shakespeare's play, has some weaknesses. There are some inadequate supporting cast members, and Radford nearly ruins the dramatic climax, during the trial scene (if you know the play, you know what I mean) with his interminably slow pacing. However, Al Pacino, not normally thought of as a Shakespearean, gives a powerful performance as Shylock; this is worth seeing once for that reason alone.
7.5/10
Michael Radford's 2004 film, the first feature film of Shakespeare's play, has some weaknesses. There are some inadequate supporting cast members, and Radford nearly ruins the dramatic climax, during the trial scene (if you know the play, you know what I mean) with his interminably slow pacing. However, Al Pacino, not normally thought of as a Shakespearean, gives a powerful performance as Shylock; this is worth seeing once for that reason alone.
spikepipsqueak
My Brane Hertz
I am currently watching The Croods for the 3rd time in 48 hours. Fortunately I love it, too.
I keep catching details I missed the first 24 times I saw it.
8/10 if you are under 9.
I keep catching details I missed the first 24 times I saw it.
8/10 if you are under 9.
KeepTalking
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The MST3K Kickstarter was the most successful video & film Kickstarter ever, and took in 6.3 million. They are doing a full season of 14 episodes, and are in talks to extend the series beyond that. Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt have signed on to be the new Mad Doctors, but the face in the jumpsuit will be Jonah Ray, who is relatively unknown comedian (he hosts The Nerdist podcast). The voices of Crow and Tom Servo are relative unknowns as well. With MST3K, though, that's the way it should be. A lot of the charm was the awkwardness and low production values of the host segments, just like the cheesy movies they were riffing on.
Rifftrax is done by Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, but for a while there was also Cinematic Titanic, which was done by Joel, TV's Frank, J. Elvis, Mary Jo Pehl, and Trace Beaulieu. They were mostly about doing live shows, but released a dozen or so DVDs as well. Most should still be available on Amazon. Their riff of the blacksploitation kung fu film East v Watts is one of the best movie riffs ever.
Jimmy Higgins
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I wasn't aware of that. Should be interesting. Who is in charge of this? Joel Hodgson?
A number of the Cinematic Titanic are available on Amazon Prime. East v Watts was very good. In fact, they were all great, in my opinion, except Dr. Frankenstein (or something to that effect). I couldn't sit through it. Sharknado from Rifftrax (the live event) is also available on Amazon Prime. That was a great riff, but one of the hardest to sit through just based on how utterly bad the editing was.
KeepTalking
Code Monkey
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Joel is producing, and is the man in charge, but the head writer is Community and Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon. They have hinted at some of the old writers/cast returning as writers, guest writers, or to just do cameos, but I haven't heard anything solid on who those returning writers might be. I think that Mike, Kevin, and Bill are probably out, at least as far as full time writers, as Rifftrax is still going strong, but I would be surprised to see Frank, Trace, or Mary Jo being a significant part of it.
James Brown
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I have no familiarity with MSTK3 (Is that the right acronym?) I've never seen one.
Is there a consensus on which one would be the best-in-series? A must watch? And are these available on Netflix?
Is there a consensus on which one would be the best-in-series? A must watch? And are these available on Netflix?
DrZoidberg
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There's almost 200 episodes. I've seen all of them (I think). I think a better bet is to start watching any episode and if it isn't to your liking jump to the next one. Or go for a b-film/genre that you like. Personally I think the best b-movies are 70'ies sci-fi. Also 80'ies are pretty golden. There's quite a few good ones.
My personal theory is that these were made to smoke weed to. Just a suggestion.
KeepTalking
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It is MST3k (Mystery Science Theater 3000).
There is some consensus on the very best of the crop, but a lot of times it has a bit more to do with how terrible the movie they are riffing was. Many episodes are available on Netflix, there should be a couple dozen at any given time, but they seem to rotate which episodes are available. You will also find some episodes on the MST3K YouTube channel. One of the fan favorites is "Manos" The Hands of Fate, which was a particularly terrible mess of a movie.
At the end of the recent kickstarter, Joel ran his two favorite riffs (one that he riffed, and one that Mike Nelson, who replaced him on the show, riffed). Those were Mitchell and Final Sacrifice respectively. Final Sacrifice has always been my personal favorite as well. If you can't find any of those, Teenagers from Outer Space, and I Accuse My Parents stand out as well. You can also look through what is on offer, and see if there is a movie that you remember having seen previously, which was probably one of the worst movies you have ever seen, and then see how good it can be once it is given the MST3K treatment.
Shadowy Man
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When the script wasn't coming together after several months of work by the original screen play writer, JJ Abrams, under pressure to begin shooting because he had a release deadline, took over the script writing and churned this thing out in two months. What was arguably the most anticipated movie script of all time was done essentially at the last minute and it exhibits multiple examples of lazy writing.
blastula
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The master would not approve.
Tars Tarkus
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The bits that they do in breaks during the movie are particularly good in Manos the Hands of Fate. I can still hear that 4 note 'Torgo's Theme' playing in my head.
credoconsolans
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It wasn't even lazy writing, it was just JJ Abrams doing what he does best - insert entire storylines from original movies and change character names but make them essentially identical to characters in the original movie. That's how he churns out money-making shiny bits of movies. By duplicating old movies but putting a shiny veneer on them to make it "new".
DrZoidberg
Contributor
How dare you say that about my hero. He didn't do it at all in Star Trek. Darth Vader, I mean, Darth Maul - Sorry, I meant Nero - has this huge, gigantic awesome Death Star - err, I mean Mining Ship, that can destroy entire planets. So Nero blows up Alderaan - umm, I mean Vulcan, killing Princess Leia's father - I mean, Spock's mother. And then the Death Star homes in on the Rebel Base - Umm, I mean the mining ship homes in on Starfleet headquarters, and only Luke Skywalker can stop it by ignoring orders and turning off his targeting computer and trusting the Force - no, I mean only Jim Kirk can stop it by ignoring Starfleet's orders and trusting his instincts. It's a good thing Old Ben Kenobi was there to give Kirk that fatherly advice earlier - no, wait, that was Captain Pike.
Completely different
Jimmy Higgins
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The Gamera movies were particularly good. I think Fugitive Alien was the first one I stumbled upon with my Dad back when we flipped to the Comedy Network (this was before Ha! and Comedy Network merged to become Comedy Central), and were confused, but quickly fell into it. They cover all sorts of things, horror, sci-fi, monster films, and usually the best bits were the shorts (Home Ec. video from the 50's/60's like stuff).
I remember liking the skits in the middle of the movie more when I was younger than I do these days. But the movies themselves, many of them are priceless with ROFL moments.
These days MST3k has evolved.
- MST3k (films/shorts)
1.5 hr studio program with little skits thrown in the middle of the movie. Movies are generally 70's or older. Mostly terrible, mostly stuff you've never heard of. Odd, when a James Earl Jones pops into one.
That begot
- Cinematic Titanic
1.5 hr program live/studio. They pause the film for maybe a minute for something, but generally just do the movie. This was a limited project, with only 8 or 12 movies done, but for the most part real good. Of course, the live stuff is best. These movies were generally from the same movie studio, and terrible, never heard of.
- Rifftrax
Originally just a MP3 track to play while watching a movie. They riff blockbuster films, which is why it is an MP3 and not attached to the movie, as the rights cost too much. They also do VOD of older short videos. Some of the stuff is gold, other not as much. My favorite short is the one about teaching children how to play with boxes.
Then they started live events shown in the theater, riffing garbage (Including Plan 9 From Outer Space), but also did a Kickstarter to try to live riff Twillight, but ended up only being able to riff the Best Picture Oscar winning Starship Troopers.
You can pay to download the MP3s, VOD, buy DVD's / blu-rays.