Movies you've just watched

[spadgy]

I hope you're into rats too.

I'm not sure why you hope that... but I do love rats. Lovely and intelligent.

Rats, squirrels (of course!), mice, rabbits - I really like 'em all a lot. Give me rodents any day. [EDIT: I do realise rabbits are 'lagomorpha' these days, and not rodents, but they have a place in the part of my heart devoted to rodents.]

Except hamsters. They're a bit wet, I reckon.

Just watched Guardians Of The Galaxy, that's a big bundle of fun - Marvel really seem to know what they're doing at the moment.

I just watched this too, and I think 'bundle of fun' is about perfect. And similarly, it struck me how on it Marvel are these days (though I'm only a very mild fan of just a bit of their super hero IP. Pretty shmup-like ship design in Guardian's of the Galaxy too, I thought.

[DEL]

So, searching for Sci fi's and watched Predestination and The Signal. Turned out they were both about the sick Transhumanism agenda, like TRANScendence

[Ixmucane2]

Wer
A werewolf B-movie that's good enough to be taken seriously, despite some obvious problems.

• The main characters are a team of three expatriated USA citizens in France, where they find a surprising number of good English speakers. By the way, the film was shot in Romania with mostly Romanian actors.
• American #1: an exceptionally useless "protagonist" in the person of the werewolf's defense lawyer (AJ Cook, with only a marginal shift of hairstyle and wardrobe from her Criminal Minds character), whose main accomplishments are causing the werewolf to escape and getting shot. However, a more heroic character would have diminished the importance and fearsomeness of the werewolf, who's entirely on another level.
• American #2: the douchebag ex of the above, a supposed expert of animal-related forensic medicine who very usefully identifies wounds as caused by "some large animal" and "definitely not a human".
• American #3: a somewhat competent investigator who, as his Indian ethnicity and other obvious character features suggest, gets killed.
• Several good scenes: the one in which the feeling of going into the woods in the middle of the night to do something stupid and dangerous is overwhelming, a number of werewolf fights (although more special effects would have underlined the superhuman strength of the monster), the epilogue ("about one month later...")

The story avoids a number of traps and, accepting the rather extreme type of lycanthropy it depicts, it makes sense; probably there was a deliberate choice to be less fancy to be less cheesy. The main plot quasi-twist is extremely predictable, but the ending surprised me a little. Hints of conspiracies and hidden plans are planted and completely ignored, leaving some enigmas (for example, the bear).

[Vexorg]

Big Hero 6: ***1/2

Went out this afternoon to see this one with some friends. In a nutshell, it's Disney Studios trying to do a Marvel movie, with results similar to what happens when Disney Studios tried to do a Pixar movie not long after Disney bought Pixar. All in all it's a perfectly reasonable family-friendly movie, but on the whole it doesn't really seem like anything special. It follows basically the same formula as any other Disney animated movie (minus the Princesses, of course) and most of the major "plot twists" were entirely predictable well in advance. Strangely enough, I thought that a lot of the characters were more interesting in the "filler" portions of the movie than they were in the action sequences. I also found it interesting that a lot of the major plot points involved technologies that are actively being worked on in the real world (although nowhere near the level shown in the movie.)

All in all it's a decent popcorn movie, but it's probably a renter in the grand scheme of things.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

It slays me how many people nowadays say Ghostbusters was a kid's movie just because their parents let them watch it when they were kids.

My parents rented Watership Down for us when we were kids based on the VHS cover alone. I must have been 6 or 7. We watched it alone while they were doing something else. A movie I wasn't to forget... Criterion released the Blu-ray version of this recently, so it might be time for me to go back to it.

I'm a rabbit lover, so Watership Down is a tough watch.

And Ghostbusters in 1984 was my first ever trip to the cinema. I think anything on a screen that big would have scared me... the woman in the library was far too much! I leapt up in the cinema and shouted 'let's get out of here!', and then just ran and ran. By the time my dad had gathered his stuff and caught up with me, I was out on the high street. I barely remember it, but that's how the story is told in my family.

Ghostbusters was my first trip to a theatre as well. I was a fetus. I then, after being born, loved Ghostbusters passionately. I had a proton pack and I would spend lots of time in my basement catching ghosts.
If they ever remake Ghostbusters I will be forced to take my own life. In Valhalla they don't know the meaning of reboot.

[Mortificator]

I didn't see Ghostbusters in a theater until the re-release some months ago. The audience seemed to really enjoy it.

[Stompp]

Galaxy Quest (1999), not the most intelligent of plots but totally enjoyable and sufficiently satiric

[emphatic]

Galaxy Quest (1999), not the most intelligent of plots but totally enjoyable and sufficiently satiric

I love it.

[Lord Satori]

Just saw Big Hero 6.

I thought it was really good. Though I recall one scene that was in the first trailer that wasn't in the actual film. That's really the only thing that could be called negative about this movie.

[KindGrind]

The Maze Runner (2014).

Cool setting, pretty Cubey. Nonsensical bullshit inside and out.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Had never watched this. Thought it was overlong, but I found it was an extremely well-crafted movie for the time. It bugged me a lot that Bailey took so long to realize the angel had granted him the wish.... It really, really threw me off. Capra, do you really need to show us the main character seek everybody he knew?! I know this is one of the most beloved movies of all time, but a few more hours in the editing room would have made it even better. Ending is very effective, though, and a timeless message.

[GaijinPunch]

That's really the only thing that could be called negative about this movie.

The horribly, cheesy script at times. They should have spent another $100k and gotten a better writer.

[Skykid]

That's really the only thing that could be called negative about this movie.

The horribly, cheesy script at times. They should have spent another $100k and gotten a better writer.

I was going to say. Without even watching it I can call bullshit Disney scripting drivel. Wreck it Ralph was the last I dared to watch and it was victim to the same old tired cliche and intelligence insulting 'cartoon' wankery despite its obvious potential.

I'm reminded why I don't really brave typical animated CG movies these days, they're just a series of check boxes. I think Despicable Me was the last I saw that had an ounce of originality - not Disney of course.

[GaijinPunch]

Wreck it Ralph was a work of art in comparison. As I stated earlier in this thread, it was borderline after school cartoons bullshit. People that changed their mine at the drop of a hat... just generally unconvincing. There's a lot of creativity in the movie, but it's hardly the same caliber as the Toy Story series.

[Xyga]

Krull - was curious after reading the comments.
Well, it sure got the aesthetics right even though the visual effects show their age.
The story is, well, a nice fantasy-sci-fi mix, with a slightly dark atmosphere, overall really textbook with no big surprises.
Acting is lol but heh, who can speak those few simplistic lines and play a convincing character at the same time ?
Sure wish I had seen this as a kid, since it's got that 'vibe' from and era when filmmakers actually did try to show 'fantastic' worlds and stories.
Now I feel like watching stuff like Dark Crystal again.

[Skykid]

Wreck it Ralph was a work of art in comparison. As I stated earlier in this thread, it was borderline after school cartoons bullshit. People that changed their mine at the drop of a hat... just generally unconvincing. There's a lot of creativity in the movie, but it's hardly the same caliber as the Toy Story series.

Comparing Disney to Pixar is futile, even if Pixar piqued at Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

Ralph was simply passable. Its premise was great and it seemed ok initially... (oh fuck it, I'll just find my original post:)

Wreck it Ralph

Nah. Suffers from too much Disney.

The first 20 minutes are nice because that's where all the references are, as soon as it reaches Candy Land it begins to sink into classic Disney cliché. Irritating character expressions and really inane scripting full of name calling, it just doesn't have the adult-palatable intelligence of a Pixar screenplay. It spent 90% of the time in a crappy fictional racer losing much of its ties to real world gaming bar a superficial Mario Kart-esque track.

There were some neat ideas and nice tributes, but by the end they started to really play second fiddle to all the crap. Rhianna numbers? Really?

And the end credits were the best bit apart from fucking Owl City being the backing track.

Had potential and was mildly entertaining, but... Disney.

Maleficent was better.

[Mischief Maker]

I guess I gotta be the killjoy. Even as a kid I thought Krull was less than the sum of its parts. Lots and lots of scenes that sound GREAT on paper, but never gelled together into a cohesive whole.

The biggest letdown was the Glaive itself. The hero gets his cool ultimate weapon at the film's start, then he doesn't use it for 80% of the movie, then he uses it to drop a couple more faceless goons, then it's useless against the big bad. The weapon to defeat the beast was inside you the whole time. Just click your ruby red slippers together!

To put it in perspective, I thought it was an inferior film to Ladyhawke in everything but score.

However, Krull and Defcon 4 are both formative films for me as a child because their posters hanging in the rental shop ignited my young imagination, only to disappoint me when I watched the actual film.

[Xyga]

The biggest letdown was the Glaive itself.

Yeah it's useless, but I have to admit thanks to that I wasn't expecting the powered-up Firaga that can even blast through walls !
And I laughed at how cruel the beast bbq scene is. Poor baddie.
Anyway yes, it's definitely not 'great' and might not deserve its 'cult movie' status, again the good part for me was essentially the aesthetics.
Ladyhawke ? -> will ckeck.

[iconoclast]

Alien 3 - I watched this for the first time last night. It was not good. The setup is contrived and doesn't make sense, the CG Xenomorph looks awful, the cast is full of generic bald British dudes, and the third act is way too long and not even remotely interesting. I think I'll skip Alien: Resurrection.

[Stevens]

Alien 3 - I watched this for the first time last night. It was not good. The setup is contrived and doesn't make sense, the CG Xenomorph looks awful, the cast is full of generic bald British dudes, and the third act is way too long and not even remotely interesting. I think I'll skip Alien: Resurrection.

Some people seem to love the director's cut, but the film was doomed before it started. The script went through various rewrites. Originally the prison planet was supposed to be a monastery and the prisoners were to be monks. The sets were finished and then they decided to change it to a prison. Many of the sets used in the final film were converted from the original script.

It could have been great, but yeah...it was a mess.

[Skykid]

Alien 3 is good.

[nasty_wolverine]

Finally watched Interstellar, for what its worth, it was good.

Though i felt the plot was like a mediocre blend between 2001 and contact. They should have just kept with the science and human spirit for exploration, and cut out the "love transcends all, even space and time" crap. dialogue was too expositional at times. Also, even though it claims to be scientifically accurate as much as possible there were some glaring things that stood out to me.

Spoiler

- how the fuck were they covering so much space so fast? with out FTL some sequences dont make any sense at all. even with subluminal speeds, they would be loosing alot of time, thats still not considering how are they getting to those speeds, also accelerating and decelerating from those speeds too fast will kill you, if you are not using inertial dampers.

- they were pulling fuel out of a magic bag or something, unless they were using either nuclear or anti matter drive. if they have the tech to use anti-matter or nuclear drives, they wouldnt have much problem with moving the rest of humanity, that being the main plot of the film

- also, Coop drives straight down to the supermassive blackhole, and would have lost a great deal more time getting to the event horizon. And, would have been several hundred years, if not thousands, older than the rest of the characters. lets disregard the fact that he exited the black hole, even with the magical tesseract allowing him communication from inside the black hole, he shouldnt have been able to leave, i mean thats what a black hole is supposed to do, you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave. Also, considering its a black hole, internal temperatures should be close to that of a star, he should have been vaporized way before he reached the tesseract (but that is just my speculation, i dont know, like the rest of us, what happens inside a black hole.)

- if they were loosing so much time on the first planet, objectively there shouldnt have been any reason to consider it hospitable.

but apart from that, it was a good watch. i dont think its worth a rewatch, for me atleast, maybe once its out in HD and i am mildly drunk. it was visually spectacular, but the too much hans zimmer, everywhere... would have done better with a more subtle score like 2001. also, matt damon's character was a real dick.

[BIL]

Hollywood Mortuary (1998, video) Fun no-budget black horror/comedy with artful mockumentary framing. Fading silent film auteur Pierce Jackson-Dawn's reflection commands him to kickstart a horror renaissance in cynical 1940s Hollywood. Fat Elvis / White MJ addiction-fuelled crash and burn (with a zombie twist zomg) ensues. Shmuppers will enjoy a certain resonance in Jackson-Dawn's futile rages. Is be on youtoob in full.

[drauch]

Alien 3 isn't perfect by any stretch, but I dig it because prison and space are both awesome settings, and when you combine those into space penal colonies I'm in heaven. I basically like any fiction with people stuck in space hell and getting screwed.

[Vexorg]

I think the main problem most people had with Wreck-it Ralph was that they sold it as something different than it ended up being. The commercials tried to make it look like something of a Toy Story for video games, but that aspect of it pretty much got thrown out about 30 minutes in. If they were going to take that concept and not run with it, they probably would have made a better film if they had just left the video game characters out in the first place.

[Vexorg]

Alien 3 isn't perfect by any stretch, but I dig it because prison and space are both awesome settings, and when you combine those into space penal colonies I'm in heaven. I basically like any fiction with people stuck in space hell and getting screwed.

So you'd probably like Lockout (the Luc Beeson movie from a couple of years ago) then. I didn't care for it much myself, but it fits your description perfectly.

[jonny5]

Lockout was great fun!! Really liked Guy Pearce in it. It's become one of those movies I throw on late at night when I can't be bothered to find something new to watch on netflix.

[JBC]

Interstellar. I suspended my disbelief & quite enjoyed it. Slow to start but there's some great payoff.

[Skykid]

Finally watched Interstellar, for what its worth, it was good.

Though i felt the plot was like a mediocre blend between 2001 and contact. They should have just kept with the science and human spirit for exploration, and cut out the "love transcends all, even space and time" crap. dialogue was too expositional at times. Also, even though it claims to be scientifically accurate as much as possible there were some glaring things that stood out to me.

Spoiler

- how the fuck were they covering so much space so fast? with out FTL some sequences dont make any sense at all. even with subluminal speeds, they would be loosing alot of time, thats still not considering how are they getting to those speeds, also accelerating and decelerating from those speeds too fast will kill you, if you are not using inertial dampers.

- they were pulling fuel out of a magic bag or something, unless they were using either nuclear or anti matter drive. if they have the tech to use anti-matter or nuclear drives, they wouldnt have much problem with moving the rest of humanity, that being the main plot of the film

- also, Coop drives straight down to the supermassive blackhole, and would have lost a great deal more time getting to the event horizon. And, would have been several hundred years, if not thousands, older than the rest of the characters. lets disregard the fact that he exited the black hole, even with the magical tesseract allowing him communication from inside the black hole, he shouldnt have been able to leave, i mean thats what a black hole is supposed to do, you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave. Also, considering its a black hole, internal temperatures should be close to that of a star, he should have been vaporized way before he reached the tesseract (but that is just my speculation, i dont know, like the rest of us, what happens inside a black hole.)

- if they were loosing so much time on the first planet, objectively there shouldnt have been any reason to consider it hospitable.

but apart from that, it was a good watch. i dont think its worth a rewatch, for me atleast, maybe once its out in HD and i am mildly drunk. it was visually spectacular, but the too much hans zimmer, everywhere... would have done better with a more subtle score like 2001. also, matt damon's character was a real dick.

Absolutely accurate. You can add your list of implausibilities and errors to my own (which was extensive and several pages ago).

A medicore blend of 2001 and Contact is apt. I personally thought all that transcendent love guff was a bit of a killer.

[GaijinPunch]

Nolan has pretty much said that the time dilation is very skewed. If they lost 23 years or whatever on the water planet, he'd have been exponentially hurled into the future while he was in the tesseract. Well, probably. So yeah, you have to suspend some belief but it's indeed pretty ambitious and entertaining.

Alien 3

Chalk me up in the good crowd - either cut. I also had a "work print" on VHS WAY back in the day. No score, and a lot of effects missing, but it had the scene where they captured the Alien which was cut from the theatrical print.

[Stevens]

Nolan has pretty much said that the time dilation is very skewed. If they lost 23 years or whatever on the water planet, he'd have been exponentially hurled into the future while he was in the tesseract. Well, probably. So yeah, you have to suspend some belief but it's indeed pretty ambitious and entertaining.

Alien 3

Chalk me up in the good crowd - either cut. I also had a "work print" on VHS WAY back in the day. No score, and a lot of effects missing, but it had the scene where they captured the Alien which was cut from the theatrical print.

When I was in college (96-01) I found an early Alien 3 script, one in which Hicks and Bishop survive. It is probably still on the internets somewhere...

And here it is - http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/alien3_gibson.html