Movies you've just watched

[njiska]

Seven Psychopaths

An interesting film, with a good plot, great cast and lots of randomness. Like McDonagh's previous film, In Bruges, the movie isn't exactly as it's portrayed in the trailer. Yes, it's still a black comedy, but it also takes a look at many different aspects of the human condition, such as friendship, vengeance and why some psychopathes do what they do. Throughly enjoyable, though there are some pacing issues in the third act. Definitely the kind of movie I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys interesting characters. Colin Farrell does a great job in the lead, once again proving that he's far better when handed a role that requires real acting and not a paycheque job, like Dare Devil. Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are also excellent and the interplay between them makes the movie a delight to watch. Really great dialog amongst all of them.

In addition, I also happened to see a trailer for an upcoming Hitchcock film that I had previously known nothing about. This one looks good.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2501551129/

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Blade Runner Factoid:

It's the world famous car designer, Gene Winfield, whom built all the futuristic "full-sized" vehicles shown in the cult sci-fi classic of Blade Runner (including the sleek Police Spinner anti-grav car). He used to have an auto body shop located in Modesto, CA back in the day. This is the very same city that gave rise to American Graffiti & Star Wars films with director George Lucas as well.

Millennium Falcon Factoid:

There are three seperate droid brains that comprise of the MF's unique computer...no wonder it "crashes" at the worst times when trying to attempt a hyperspace jump to get out of a jam. With three seperate brains all trying to control the various exotic technologies incorporated within the ship's inner frame, sure can be quite tempermental at times (with all that bickering amongst themselves). It's only in emergencies when everything works together as they should.

A second (or even a third) backup computer would be necessary just in case the main computer decides to bite the dust (but is there enough room/storage for such redundant systems?). Or could it be that the droid brains are advanced enough to do self-repairing of the source code (that negates the need for such backup systems in the first place)? Hmmm...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[DEL]

I went and saw LOOPER last Friday.
A trippy movie, but that was expected, seeing as it involves time travel like Twelve Monkeys.
My favourite scene in the movie involves Jeff Daniels of course:
"Go to China!"
"No France"
"Go to China!"
"No France"
"Look, I'm from the future. Go to China."

It has AURORA in a neon sign just like Skyfall.
------------------------
Seen all of Series 1&2 of Falling Skies. Not too bad. Themes of invasion and children being controlled.
One thing I noticed:- Series 1 is mostly daytime and Series 2 is mostly night time.

Starting on the Revolution series next.
Another thing to mention is the US collapse/revolution/chaos themes are being repeated over and over again at the moment -> The Red Dawn remake, Jericho Series, Falling Skies Series, Revolution Series.
Not to mention that every Sci-fi film recently features a Communist Collectivist future. For example, Total Recall 2012, Judge Dredd, The Hunger Games, The Dark Knight RISES, Looper.
Just sayin'

[xbl0x180]

Blade Runner Factoid:

It's the world famous car designer, Gene Winfield, whom built all the futuristic "full-sized" vehicles shown in the cult sci-fi classic of Blade Runner (including the sleek Police Spinner anti-grav car). He used to have an auto body shop located in Modesto, CA back in the day. This is the very same city that gave rise to American Graffiti & Star Wars films with director George Lucas as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I love those hover 'copter cars. Asamiya Kia did too when he used them for Silent Moebius

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Same could be said with the flying cars & overall borrowed stylized aestethics of BR in the classic PC Engine game of Konami's Snatcher.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Strider77]

Asamiya Kia did too when he used them for Silent Moebius

Love Silent Moebius...

[BIL]

Watched Prometheus again on DVD tonight. Event Horizon / Pandorum-tier. Okay horror-tinged extraterrestrial science fiction with nice production. Funny remembering all the hype beforehand, normally I don't get caught up in that stuff. Was nice to feel like a big kid again instead of a cynical ol' cunt.

Was Janek's line "I can't let any of that shit reach Earth and will do whatever it takes to stop it" in the theatrical cut? I don't recall it. Surprised some people still thought his actions at the end of the movie came out of the blue, if it was. One of the few self-endangering human acts in this movie that was born of rationality, not Spontaneous Horror Movie Retardation Cuz We Need a MONSTA MURDA™.

[Mortificator]

I got around to seeing Prometheus myself a few days ago and was going to reply in its thread until I saw your post.

The beginning didn't pull me in. The middle, for a while, had me think it was going somewhere. In the end, that turned out to be nowhere. The movie was basically Mission to Mars with Alien callbacks so heavy, I felt Ridley Scott was beside me, jabbing me with his elbow each time one popped up. "Remember that from Alien? Huh? Remember? It's back!"

I'd read praise of the visuals, but ended up being dissappointed on that front as well. The interior of the Prometheus was kind of cool, but the planet surface, the cave, and the jockey ship interior were unremarkable. The big head made by the possible architects of humanity was less weird than a Moai.

Surprised some people still thought his actions at the end of the movie came out of the blue

It does come out of the blue. For the majority of the movie, the captain couldn't sound more bored. When the first expedition is rushing back with a fatal storm on their tails and when dumb & dumber are trapped in the ruins with murderous extraterrestrials, he's less interested in their survival than Charlize Theron's vagina. Near the end, cap's suddenly become willing to die to protect other people and drops the line you mentioned. It can't even be argued that the experience there caused an unlikely change of heart, since he never set foot outside the ship.

In fact, based on what he'd seen, how does the captain even reach the conclusion that they're at a military staging ground for Earth's destruction? The plot is scripted so he's right, but it doesn't logically follow. If the jockey was so hell-bent on wiping homo sapiens out - and he sure seemed to be, since seconds after waking up he's all MUST CRUSH HUMANITY - there's no reason for him not to have done it thousands of years ago. The ship was perfectly fine, the jockey was in no danger, the black goo was ready to go. He's all set to annihilate the species he's been planning to annihilate, then suddenly decides to sleep on it. For millennia.

[BIL]

Near the end, cap's suddenly become willing to die to protect other people and drops the line you mentioned.

Prior to that he argued, forcefully, for Holloway to be brought back onboard for treatment despite him being hideously afflicted by an unknown pathogen. Unlike Shaw we've no reason to believe Stringer has any personal attachment to him whatsoever. He also went down to the cargo bay personally to attack Fifield-zombie despite it audibly slaughtering several armed men singlehandedly. He's obviously got at least some altruism in his character. When he says he'll "do anything" to stop the bioweaponry reaching Earth, guess what? He does! Not without obvious consternation, either. It's not like Vickers suddenly deciding to go kamikaze, as some people seem to think.

It can't even be argued that the experience there caused an unlikely change of heart, since he never set foot outside the ship.

lolwut, he's in the pyramid with everyone else when Milburn's horribly infested corpse is found, making his subsequent endorsing of treating Holloway all the more significant. This is also where he sees the array of jars with black shit pouring out, supporting his later hypothesis that they've stumbled into a bioweapons storage of some kind.

re: fucking and getting drunk (like Holloway and Shaw) while the two retards are in the cave getting stoned and petting cockvipers - Stringer had no idea there were "murderous extraterrestrials" in there with them. He'd probably concluded everything in there was long dead, like a few other characters did. Inconsiderate and dumb of him, I guess, but this movie is full of characters being inconsiderate and/or dumb. Judging by his handling of Fifield Ragezombie he certainly wouldn't have been so blase if it weren't for Horror Movie Retardation kicking in. And Zero Suit Charlize Theron wandering in.

In fact, based on what he'd seen, how does the captain even reach the conclusion that they're at a military staging ground for Earth's destruction?

He doesn't. He hypothesised that it was some sort of bioweapons r & d facility overrun by its own project, and concluded he didn't want anything from the place reaching Earth. That doesn't require the Engineers' involvement, a search party is heading in there as he speaks. He only concludes the Engineer is heading for Earth when Shaw makes that argument as the croissant is lifting off.

If the jockey was so hell-bent on wiping homo sapiens out - and he sure seemed to be, since seconds after waking up he's all MUST CRUSH HUMANITY - there's no reason for him not to have done it thousands of years ago. The ship was perfectly fine, the jockey was in no danger, the black goo was ready to go. He's all set to annihilate the species he's been planning to annihilate, then suddenly decides to sleep on it. For millennia.

It's pretty clear things went horribly wrong aboard the ship at some point, and it's useless to speculate how or why the survivor was in cold sleep. Maybe he was in stasis for some other reason. Maybe he's a lone militant the others had restrained. We don't even know he intended to destroy humanity in the first place. The circumstances just suggest that as a possibility, one Shaw and Stringer evidently aren't willing to risk with no time to investigate.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Makes me wonder what becomes of planet LV-223 a mere 29 years later during the same timeframe of the Nostromo crew answering a distress call?

And the fact that planet LV-426 hasn't been visited yet by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. It's a given fact that between the events that take place in Prometheus leading into Alien, both seperate corporations of Weyland & Yutani decide to join forces.

I realize that the Engineers have vast knowledge of other planets as shown with the holographic galaxy map in Prometheus -- so LV-426 should be listed somewhere in there.

The next two Prometheus sequels, hopefully, will answer some unsolved questions. Should be interesting to visit the Engineers' home planet referred to as "Paradise".

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

The Spy Who Loved Me because sometimes you just want to see Roger Bond get mad pussy while killing foreigners and the disabled. Much better than I recalled actually. Sexy locales, Stromberg is a particularly odious creep it was gratifying to see get shot in the dick, and Jaws is a great proto-Terminator. Moore was quite sexy for his age too and played his usual jolly self well. Love the shit-eating grin when he makes the crack about women drivers, you can see him struggling to not LOL IRL.

For Your Eyes Only there's a decent Roger Bond film in here along with tons of useless bloat. The finale's location with its rock climbing is spectacular and Carol Bouquet is both utterly beautiful and one of the more competent, compellingly motivated Bond girls. It needed everything taking place in Switzerland and/or underwater chopped the mother-fuck out, though, and unfortunately that's a big, stultifying chunk of the movie.

[CMoon]

I'm gonna go out there and say 'spy who loved me' is probably the best moore film, and if I was going to rewatch one, that would be my choice. As much as I recall the Moore era, Spy, Eyes and Octopussy are by far the best of that run, while Spy is certainly the best of those three. While folks out there are taking pot shots at Skyfall, what I think they forget is how many Bond films are complete trash.

Seriously needs to be a bond thread where we all sound off on each of the movies, but I'm too drunk to type up that shit now (especially on this goddamn blue tooth keyboard!!!!)

[GaijinPunch]

Hell yeah! Mad Max shaped my life more than most things..

You would jizz in your pants at Burning Man then.

[GaijinPunch]

The next two Prometheus sequels, hopefully, will answer some unsolved questions. Should be interesting to visit the Engineers' home planet referred to as "Paradise".

You should auction off a date with yourself on Ebay to each of these sequels... complete with post commentary, and maybe even a catch up sequence on the way to the theater. I'd throw in a bid.

[trap15]

You should auction off a date with yourself on Ebay to each of these sequels... complete with post commentary, and maybe even a catch up sequence on the way to the theater. I'd throw in a bid.

[mesh control]

Hell yeah! Mad Max shaped my life more than most things..

You would jizz in your pants at Burning Man then.

It happens so close to where I live, but I never pulled the trigger to go. Plus too many people I hate go, so there's that.



Watched Mad Max 2 today and it was as good as expected.

Mad Max 3 on the other hand I turned off after 20 minutes. bleh

[Skykid]

Watched Mad Max 2 today and it was as good as expected.

Mad Max 3 on the other hand I turned off after 20 minutes. bleh

Actually, the first 20 minutes is probably better than the Disney-esque nonsense in the watered down middle. The final sequence isn't bad, however, but the film lacks the grit of its predecessors.

[GaijinPunch]

It happens so close to where I live, but I never pulled the trigger to go. Plus too many people I hate go, so there's that.

Well, there's a 95% chance you won't meet people you don't go with even if you try to, so that always helps. Really the only way is if you like the same music, and wind up going to the same parties. I met friends (randomly) from Tokyo there... small fucking world. BUT... other than that, there's 53,000 other people to blend in with. You can easily hide behind someone's cock.

[EmperorIng]

Everything after Thunderdome in Mad Max 3 is awful.

It's like they tried their hardest to turn Mad Max into a Saturday-morning cartoon hero. It's stupid. All that stupid pg-13 not-killing nonsense... it doesn't fit in a Mad Max movie! The problem is that by that time, Mel Gibson was such a star, probably with the kids, that they didn't want any more "gritty" Mad Max movies. Just a hunch. Well, all the same, they fucked up hard.

Mad Max is probably the best of the bunch, followed hotly and closely by the sheer craziness and inventiveness of Road Warrior. Road Warrior more or less codified the aesthetics of post-Apocalyptic earth that would be reiterated time and time again, in film, book, and anime (Fist of the North star is practically Mad Max: The Anime).

[njiska]

Lawrence of Arabia - New Restoration

I've been waiting years for this restoration to be completed and it does not disappoint. Never before has the film ever looked so clear, with just the right amount of grain in each scene and fantastic colour reproduction. The only down side is that the "night time" scenes that were originally filmed during the day with a filter REALLY look like day time scenes filmed with a filter. I do not remember it being as glaring in the 1989 restoration.

As for the film itself, I still love it. Beautifully shot, expertly directed and career defining for Peter O'Toole. One of my all time favourite epic films. The first half is a touch on the slow side, but it's more than balanced out by the pace and chaos of the post-intermission section. Now I really need to get around to reading my copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

As for the BD release, I grabbed the $60 Collectors edition and it's fantastic. All of the extras are quite nice, with particular attention given to the hardcover coffee table book.

[trap15]

FDR: American Badass

Holy shit hilarious. That had no business being that funny.

I don't think I'll ever see another movie where FDR and Lincoln get stoned together and discuss politics.

[drauch]

Beyond Thunderdome has always been a remake of Road Warrior in my opinion. It's all there: Max finds a group of loners with a problem; Max has an animal sidekick; the film ends in a long car chase, etc. It's the same goddamn movie made for kids. I still like it, yeah, but it certainly isn't the same.

[njiska]

Gyakuten Saiban

This was a positively surreal experience. Unfortunately is was also a pretty shitty movie. I like that they tried to remain strictly faithful to the absurdity of the games, but they ended up ruining the entire picture by trying to cram far to much into far too little running time. The first three cases of the game are compressed into about 30 minutes, with the remainder going to the final case, Turnabout Goodbyes. Because of this a lot of character development is lost, Mayoi (Maya) becomes a background character with less screen time than Masashi (Larry) and the entire experience becomes completely non-sensical if you've never played the game. There's also major pacing issues with the final case where a moment of crucial investigation is glossed over in favour of a long courtroom scene where nothing happens.

In short it's a nice curiosity for fans, but far from a good movie.

[system11]

Absolute Zero - 3/10

Scientific nonsense, acting was ok in places but the script was awful. Some of the effects showed the budget badly - in one scene a tree lands on a car, you see a comedy spinning palm tree against the sky (spinning like a top as it falls), then we cut to the inside of the car and it looks like someone just threw a prop at the window. If you want a return of the ice age disaster film, stick with The Day After Tomorrow.

[BIL]

Baaaa hahahaha. I know what I'm keeping in my boot now.

Finished off Moore's run with Octopunani and A View To A Kill. If only for Sir Roger, I can't dislike the first. It goes through with aplomb the usual Roger Bond motions of the great man visiting exotic locales, having a zany fight or two, getting mad pussy, averting world crisis and then murdering a foreign baddy. He also pulls off a couple of seriously brutal kills in this one, reminding everyone that he's not just a mad shagger and will put a bullet in your skull / knife in your liver if you fuck with him! This is also a weirdly nostalgic movie for me, since it was the first Bond released in my lifetime and I recall seeing snippets of the VHS with my parents as a kid. Apparently I used to refer to it as "Mister Pussy," an apt description for the supremely randy Roger Bond. I was a smart kid.

The second doesn't fare quite as well, lacking interesting locations (racetrack, city hall, coal mine, wooo!) and with a more vapid plot than usual, but it's not the atrocity I was expecting either, given its reputation. Walken plays a great Bond villain and Moore can still get it up for a somewhat unsettling banging of Grace Jones while her BF Walken chuckles away in the background. The elevator setpiece was pretty good. Easily a bottom-rung Bond but it's hard for me to truly hate any of the Moore ones with the exception of Moonraker. Mostly for that fucking stupid gonodola scene.

And how did I forget to mention FYEO's supremely gratifying CAR KICK, one of the best Bond kills ever? Won't mean much if you've not seen it, but that Swiss cunt deserved it! For England Roger! Sure made up for him getting chased up and down the ski slope like an OAP with a shat nappy earlier.

[EmperorIng]

Beyond Thunderdome has always been a remake of Road Warrior in my opinion. It's all there: Max finds a group of loners with a problem; Max has an animal sidekick; the film ends in a long car chase, etc. It's the same goddamn movie made for kids. I still like it, yeah, but it certainly isn't the same.

Eh, without the excessive, nihilistic violence, it just isn't Mad Max!

[RGC]

I recall seeing A View To A Kill at the cinema, then being bought the speccy game at a local garden centre shortly afterwards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJKIFxwsn64 <--See jolly Roger negotiate the shafts like a mad shagger denied his oats in the CPC release.

[BIL]

Fuuuuck, the Duran Duran theme choon sounds especially awesome when combined with that guy's smooth voiceover and super randy pixel Rog!

With that technology at their disposal, it makes you wonder why they didn't include a Flicky-style minigame where Sir Roger has to run around Moscow meeting fit birds and taking them back to his MI6 safehouse for a right good seeing to. Four in a bed combo bonus available (five if sprite limit allows). Bash the "CMD" button to power 007's mighty Anglo todger. Knock out the Stasi femme fatales chasing Rog using his special handkerchief and roger them at his flat too for temporary diplomatic immunity.

[neorichieb1971]

God Bless America
Zombieland

And half of Aprils fool day. Which is such an awesome film.

[njiska]

And half of Aprils fool day. Which is such an awesome film.

The original film? Because that is a great movie with an awesome ending.