Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Jul 9, 2016 3:11:18 GMT
I'm surprised we still hadn't made this thread! Considering we already have playing and listening ones... I'm going through all the Terminator movies this week. I have already watched 1-4, will watch Genisys (what a dumb title) today. I decided to do it because I only watched 1 as a kid, so I remembered very little of it, and had never watched 4 or 5. Quick impressions: As soon as Terminator 1 ended, it instantly became one of my favourite movies ever. It nails down everything I love about 80s' cyberpunk movies: the atmosphere, the story, the characters, everything. It's right up there with Alien, Blade Runner and Robocop. As with Alien, it uses the sci-fi plot to create a horror movie, which is awesome - the terminators should be feared, so horror is the right genre to show them. And the way that the terminator is slowly degraded through the movie (but still keeps going) just shows how much attention to detail James Cameron had while filming it: I love how, after going through a fire, the terminator loses his eyebrows and his hair gets slightly burned; this is visually consistent through the scenes after it. Most of the visual effects hold up amazingly well, except for a few scenes with an obvious rubber head replacing Schwarznegger's one. To give a good idea of the atmosphere of the movie, just watch this Perturbator / Noir Deco video for the music TechNoir - the music is featured in Hotline Miami 2 and the video (and name of the music) comes from a Terminator scene: Terminator 2 is a damn good sequel and certainly one of the finest action movies ever made. I don't like it as much as the first one, but that's mostly because of the change in genres (it's also why I prefer Alien over Aliens; I always go for horror over action). By the way, my wife, for some obscure reason, hadn't watched it until now (and didn't knew anything about the movie), and she was surprised when it was revealed who was the good and the bad guy - when you come to it right after the first one, you can see how the movie does keep its twist well enough. I also remember being surprised when I watched it as a kid (as I had already watched the first one before the sequel). It's too bad that this twist is lost on almost anyone who watches the movie nowadays and knows anything about the series. The visual effects are still perfect - I can't think of anything that looked visually "dated" in this respect, as even the 90s CGI was used in a good enough way to make it stand the test of time. What certainly is dated is John Connor's characterization: it just screams "90s movie kid" through every pore, with all its rebelious (but not too much) attitude and his hacking abilities. Just think of the Jurassic Park kids to have an idea. The movie closes the story in a great way. T3 is a fanfiction. There's no other way to describe it: I felt like I was watching a fanfiction with all the crazy and amauterish stuff that you would expect from an unexperienced fan. And I don't mean it in the bad sense: the movie is fun when you consider what it is. It doesn't add anything to the series: as any fanfiction, its only purpose is to bring the characters back and have fun with them while making references/parodies to classic scenes. It makes absolutely no sense, and I like it. Also, Kristanna Loken.  Salvation, on the other hand, tries to be too serious and relevant but only manages to be forgettable. I thought the story was generally stupid and the things it introduces are terrible; but, unlike T3, it takes itself so seriously that, instead of the stupidity looking fun, it just becomes boring. It's a very standard Hollywood big-budget movie: it looks good but feeld completely empty. Also, while I usually like Christian Bale's work, he doesn't fit here at all. They probably cast him to have a big name on the movie, but he certainly feels out of place - both the actor and the character (most of Connor's scenes feel like padding). I don't have many expectations for Genisys. Let's hope it at least is bad enough to be fun!  |
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lukefonfabre388
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Jul 10, 2016 5:10:02 GMT
I watched part of the movie yamato (2005). I saw the battle scene and its REALLY brutal and bloody. 50 caliber machine guns were just absolutely devastating to the AA gunners. War movies aren't my favorite movie genre by any means but my favorite would probably be comedies. They may have been the enemy at the time but they were still human.
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fsfsxii
Space Striker
What to believe...
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Post by fsfsxii on Jul 12, 2016 7:09:13 GMT
Re-watching Community for the 100th time or so, along with some Jackie Chan movies. Its summer time and i should be out.
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dschult3
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The true heir to the Monado.
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Post by dschult3 on Jul 12, 2016 15:44:19 GMT
I have been binge watching Norm MacDonald's Video Podcasts. The man is just so damn funny.
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Balder
Supreme Overlord
Trying to cut down the amount of movies I watch
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Post by Balder on Jul 12, 2016 22:51:09 GMT
I watch so many movies, I would spam the hell out of this thread. But I will only take the highlights. I watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly today. It's the 4th time I see it, and it's close to perfection of a movie.
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Post by spidershinobi on Jul 17, 2016 4:17:28 GMT
Just came back from Ghostbusters (2016)! Guys, I'm going to say this because it's important to get it out of the way: saying this is a bad movie probably means you aren't fun at parties (or anywhere else, really). I know that Ghostbusters is responsible for one of the most disliked trailers on Youtube, I know that fans got incredibly pissed for no reason following the first 2 trailers, and I know that their PR was amazingly shitty. But none of those were by my side while I watched the movie. What I watched on the big screen was a fun ride that contained a plot, many attempts at jokes and lots of action or just fun time. The ghosts were great in this movie, I think they were well developed in terms of behaviour and what they could do. What could get the movie in a bad spot in terms of plot was making it too random, as in "hey! We made a movie with the name Ghostbusters on it", luckly that's not the case, and the cause to move the plot forward was well developed. The jokes unfortunately weren't super smart, and Cervantes, watch out for the brazilian dub is horrible and almost no joke made the transition safely. The action and special effects were acceptable, I honestly expected much less out of it. The actors in general were great, the "5" ghostbusters performed very well. So... It's just not the turd people are saying it is, and now I'm just going to assume the Ghostbusters franchise suffers from a case of bad fanbase. |
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Jul 17, 2016 8:46:11 GMT
spidershinobi - Good to know the movie doesn't suck. As I understand, most of the reviews are considering it an average movie - not even close to be a classic as the first, but also not as disappointing as the second. I was personally in doubt not just because the trailer seemed so cheap and unfunny, but also because it was being directed by Paul Feig: people talked so much about Bridesmaids that I watched it and found it to be one of the worst comedies I watched in the latest decade. That movie was just a rom-com with some toilet humour and stereotypes. I don't get it. It's like The Hangover, another supposedly funny movie that, to me, is just embarrasing. Maybe the current style of comedy in american cinema just isn't for me. In conclusion, I had no faith in Ghostbusters because of the director. And, in part, because I also think Melissa McCarthy is not funny at all - but then, the other actresses seemed ok, so there's that. Your post brings me some faith in the movie. I probably won't watch it in the cinema, as my town's cinema has this terrible habit of bringing only dubbed versions for PG-13 and lower movies, and I usually can't stand most dubs. And since you pointed out that the dub is terrible... Going on with the thread, yep, I watched Genisys. There's so much wrong in that movie, especially the casting. Kyle Reese was a great character in the first movie because it was built as a survivor, physically and mentally; in Genisys, they cast someone who looked and acted like your standard muscular, bland soldier. Emilia Clarke isn't terrible here, but she sure as hell doesn't get close to do a good Sarah Connor. And man, John Connor is just embarrassing all the way through the movie. Well, at least it seems Schwarzenegger is still having fun playing the terminator, and that's cool with me. Some of the visual effects were nice to look at (I'm thinking of the hospital scene), while others were somehow much weaker than those seen in T2, which was made 25 years ago. How is that even possible? Also, the story makes no sense. Yes, I know people will come up with all sorts of explanations, but see, the original movies did the entire time travel thing really well without overcomplicating it.
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scipioafricanus
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Post by scipioafricanus on Jul 17, 2016 13:12:34 GMT
You... as you are reading this...
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centipede
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Post by centipede on Jul 18, 2016 13:25:32 GMT
I've been watching Return to Nuke 'Em High...which is only one step above watching a Uwe Boll movie.
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centipede
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It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Jul 18, 2016 13:37:53 GMT
spidershinobi People hate it also because it's been associated with feminism and all that 'girl power' crap (because that kind of 'empowered' usually translates to 'bitchy and self-absorbed'). And because the trailers are plain unfunny. I'm not going to see it because it's another cash-in remake of something that didn't need to be remade - but I would accept a live-action version of Extreme Ghostbusters from 2003, which is what it should have been, if anything at all. Damn it, they've even remade Ben Hur! Why?! "Remake of Big Trouble in Little China?! They can't remake that!" - Mark Bussler, during a Q & A
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scipioafricanus
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Post by scipioafricanus on Jul 18, 2016 23:02:56 GMT
It is associated with feminism because if you ask "why is it being remade? (since the first one is a film masterpiece)" the response was "SEXIST, WHY DO YOU HATE WOMEN!?" If you said "Nah, I don't really care to see it" the response was "SEXIST, WHY DO YOU HATE WOMEN?!"
Just ask the AVGN after this video:
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Jul 18, 2016 23:36:51 GMT
As I understand, most of the hate was about it being another unnecessary reboot/remake (after the likes of Robocop and Total Recall), which is especially valid after Mad Max has proven that it is possible to do a good sequel to an 80s series instead of rebooting it blandly. But, as the movie was going to star women as Ghostbusters, some people considered any of that criticism as if it was misogyny. I'm not saying there were no sexist comments on the internet (it's the internet after all), but it certainly wasn't why the movie was being criticized. So yeah, in some cases it was pretty much as scipioafricanus said. EDIT: Going on a tangent here: Robocop was a particularly egregious reboot because it was directed by José Padilha. If anyone knows his work, the guy directed Elite Squad, which is an awesome, hyper-violent movie that shares a lot of its atmosphere and themes with the original Robocop. It was the right director; I think the problem was probably executive meddling trying to make a PG-13 Robocop. |
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Jul 19, 2016 0:11:48 GMT
"Remake of Big Trouble in Little China?! They can't remake that!" - Mark Bussler, during a Q & A As usual, Mark is right. That movie does not need a remake or a reboot. |
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Post by spidershinobi on Jul 19, 2016 1:48:32 GMT
I think that blaming the association with the current feminist movement on the hate that the movie got, even from the beginning, isn't fully on point. Let's face it: people saw the Ghostbusters were all women, and suddenly all the jokes aren't funny, this trailer sucks, and they already messed up from the moment someone approved the production. The association came after the fact, and Sony's PR people started fires everywhere, which raised popularity for the movie and offended a bunch of fans at the same time. In response a lot of people went to the movies, watched what is pretty much a "Force Awakens" take on Ghostbusters and came with the exact opposite reaction to Force Awakens; that due to the marketing campaign. When I went to the movies, I had no nerds, feminists, jornalists, PR managers, or any other stereotyped individual to ruin my fun. Was it as funny as the first Ghostbusters movie? No, neither of the movies were super funny, and the original wasn't that good to begin with - I completely disagree on it being a classic. Was it sexist as some people claim? Not really, if you're going to feel insecure for your gender it won't matter which one, both are mocked. I'm sorry that most fans are going to see this movie for the marketing it got, but then... Isn't it what the whole FPS videogame market is all about anyway? When it comes to remakes and reboots (and even sequels), it depends on how much potential exists in a product. Can it sell great? Then make another movie! It's very simple the way how it works. As for the hate they get, people are so high and almighty these days that they barely notice their 5-stars rarity Nostalgia Glasses in front of their eyes. Was the Robocop remake a good movie? No. Of course the original Robocop was better, not! People's expectation that a mediocre movie would have been remade into a great movie is nuts! As for Genisys, I find it weird you had an issue with the casting, but it's ok if you think other actors would be better. To me that movie isn't the sequel we deserved, it's the sequel we needed. The first Terminator movie pretty much carries the series, it wasn't an action movie, it was a thriller, and the setting was fresh by then. The second movie, the first one I watched, was crap, nothing else of importance there. The third movie was like the second, but the self-awareness and the interesting casting of Kristanna Loken saved it from being bland. What came after that (including that weird series) was some incredibly unaware material, like, it looked like the producers didn't realize they were making schlock. Then Genisys came, and somehow the writer(s) realized they should twist the story, with all that time travel they could very well reason that Skynet should be able to learn from its past and future mistakes, and the consequences shown represent one of the smartest decisions I've seen taken in a long running series - that one is probably responsible for this movie not being another Salvation. I loved John Connor there, I liked Sarah too since she's a more likeable character in this one (but then I thought Skynet was pretty charismatic too). But unfortunately the meta in the movie doesn't justify some issues (kinda like how BvS was super bad while being super relevant) such as pacing: during the session I took Diet Coke as americans call it, and had to rush to the bathroom, when I came back my dad said " nothing happened", and I swear I spent at least 4 minutes out of the room. Another problem was that the straight terminator fights during present day aren't exactly thrilling to watch even though old movie Schwarzenegger and Schwarzenegger were there at the same time. So, yeah, there are problems, but at least the "meta" aspect was never this good in this series. |
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Jul 19, 2016 2:24:25 GMT
spidershinobi - About Robocop, to me it was more disappointing for being a Padilha movie than for being a Robocop one. Padilha has proven he is more than capable of producing a very competent movie about a violent police force. About Genisys, I did like the ideas in the beginning, when they were showing a different take on T1 events - it had its fair share of amusing surprises. But I coudn't care for anything that came later. Changing the subject: In the last two days I've been re-watching a few David Lynch movies - Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. I really like them, especially Eraserhead, just for how strange it is - it's a case in which, instead of having style over substance, you do actually have a style that is an expression of substance, that is, when all the visual experiments have a meaning to support them. If any of you like surrealist horror movies, go watch Eraserhead, it's great; if any of you like noir movies, then the other two are also a good watch. Mulholland Drive may look bad at first, but it turns great after some things happen to the characters later in the movie.
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