Movie Review Thread: The Remake

[Reply #440 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
 I saw them and I thought, "That's nice, the ID4 aliens are getting jobs again."

I hear George Lucas wanted them for Episode 1, but Fox already had them busy doing a sitcom pilot, so Lucas had to bring in the Jar-Jar Binks.  True story.

[Reply #441 on:]

Something tells me I'll end up watching that FOX sitcom...

[Reply #442 on:]

War Of The Worlds
Saw this yesterday because everyone had already seen Batman. Pretty average, I thought. The tripods looked pretty nasty and the dirty vein things looked pretty neat, but as everyone knows, it was really disjointed, especially the ending. His son basically goes to fight the aliens with the army, we see that same army getting pulverized and massacred seconds later, and somehow he survived and made it to Boston with no explanation? Also, the aliens looked retarded. They looked like lemurs crossed with frogs with a bit of squid thrown in for good measure. Really scary. The biggest problem I had with it was that the aliens lost. Not from rocket launchers or laser superweapons or something cool but from seagulls carrying the flu.
B

spacepilot3000: How much did Spielberg pay you for that review?

[Reply #443 on:]

Germs were what killed the aliens in the original story.  I believe there was also a wife character who disappears and then shows up at the end with no explanation as well.  Haven't read the original yet.

Anyway, also saw War of the Worlds, thought it was pretty good.  Not excellent, but worth a viewing.  The effects are good and it was pretty suspenseful, but the storyline with Ray and his kids tended to be a little uneven.

So, pretty good, and while not great, probably the only movie out now that I'd want to see.

[Reply #444 on:]

War Of The Worlds

War of The Worlds is one of my favourite stories of all time. I have already read 2 versions of the story, (The original book, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2), before seeing the movie, and I must admit, I overreacted upon first discoverinbg that it would not be a peroid piece. The moive would have been truer to the book, but it wouldn't have been as suspensful, so I respect the decesion of Mr. Speilberg.

Spoilers in the main review:

Show spoiler

First off, the good.
-The overall story did stay fairly true to the original book. Many things were changed, but many events were based on the events in the book.

-The special effects were off the charts. The heat ray was had a really cool and scary effect, and the tripods still were organic looking, rather than being all computerized.

-The splinter metaphor at the beginning of the film was cool, but obvious. The scene where everyone was after Ray and his family in the car was also very well done, very good take on people going crazy under panic.

-I was glad that the guy in the basement with Ray went crazy and Ray had to kill him. This event happened to the unnamed main character in the novel, though the guy in the movie was actually two characters from the novel combined.

-The ending stayed the same, thank the fuck christ. I love H. G. Wells' anti climatic endings.

Now on to the bad.

-Many cool events which happened in the novel were missing. The aliens didn't use posionous gas to kill people, and they didn't boil a river, (it was hinted at with the dead bodies, but we didn't see it).

-The entire tripod lifted out of the ground before the heat ray was used eliminating another cool scene where a small eye type thing poked up out of the ground and fried everyone in the book.

-Robbie surviving and making it to Boston was a bit much. In fact, the wole subplot about Ray and his family was weak. It would have been better if the kids were eith his wife in Boston and he was trying to make his way there himself.

-When the tripod was first climbing out of the ground there were people using cameras and video cameras. I'm sure there's some explaination, but I thought they weren't supposed to be working.

Overall a good movie, see it for the mood that's set in it if nothing else. B+

[Reply #445 on:]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
seagulls carrying the flu.

They didn't get the flu from seagulls. The ending narrorater said 'as soon as they ate or drank they were done for.' The point of the birds was to allow the people to see that the alien's force fields were down. Otherwise the birds wouldn't have been able to land on the craft.

Anyway, i loved the movie. And one of the main reasons is because instead of doing what every alien movie does and have the main character be some military person or the president or whatever it was just some random family. It made it seem much more real because if something like that ever did happen for real the position Ray and his kids were in would be the same position we would all be in. The movie doesn't show anything that Ray himself didn't see which i thought was an awesome way to go, yeah that means we don't know how Robbie survived, but oh well. I don't understand why Robbie felt he had to take off to begin with or why Ray decided to let him but that's pretty much the only bit about the movie that i didn't like.

I can't wait for the dvd extras. 

[Reply #446 on:]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
War Of The Worlds
was that the aliens lost. Not from rocket launchers or laser superweapons or something cool but from seagulls carrying the flu.

Obvisoly you don't know much about the the book itself

[Reply #447 on:]

The ending in the book sucked too.

[Reply #448 on:]

It might lack a big explosion, but it's the most realistic outcome.

[Reply #449 on:]

I love the ending. It's unexpected, because it's so realistic after you've just sat through a fantastic Sci Fi adventure. The world ends in The Time Machine in a similar anti climatic fashion. Besides, without the ending that's in the film, the entire point of Mr. Wells' novel would be lost.

[Reply #450 on:]

 

Originally posted by newhook_1:
The world ends in The Time Machine in a similar anti climatic fashion.

Is that the one with Guy pearce your talking about ???

that one is crap compared to the original one mainly because it has a much better story

[Reply #451 on:]

I'm talking about the original novel.

*Edited to remove novel spoilers*

[Reply #452 on:]

Was it just me, or did the aliens use orangeade as a fuel source?

And I still haven't figured out what that people sphincter was for.

The sound the aliens make kinda freaks me out, just because the one elevator at my theater MAKES THE SAME EXACT SOUND.

[Reply #453 on:]

Yeah, I didn't understand why they were cutting the people open.

I liked when Ray Lastnamehere killed Tim Robbins' character, it isn't something you see a lot.

[Reply #454 on:]

I'm proud! I saw War of the Worlds today! And not 4 weeks later. Anyway, good movie. Some effects could have been better. Dakota Fanning stole the show though. Great.

A-

[Reply #455 on:]

I saw it as well. Is Dakota Fanning the only child actress in hollywood? Or just the only good one? Why would aliens choose such an innefficient way of destroying humanity? Were they going to check i[]every[/i] basement by hand? I never read the booe, but I intend to soon. When I first saw the lightning thing, I came up with a completely different explanation. Nanites. Billions of tiny particles beamed down through the plasma to be assembled under ground. It didn't happen that way, but it makes just as much sense. Also, Why the hell did the aliens wait until we had tanks to attack? Why does getting sick shut down shields? So many questions. I'll as Orson. Does anyone have an ouija board I could borrow?

[Reply #456 on:]

 

Originally posted by Wooter:
I'll as Orson.

Why would you ask Orson Welles about a book written by H. G. Wells the century before?

[Reply #457 on:]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
spacepilot3000: How much did Spielberg pay you for that review?

Why, 50,000 dollars, why do you ask?(SARCASM!!!)

Seriously though, what's wrong with raving about a movie?   

[Reply #458 on:]

 

Why would you ask Orson Welles about a book written by H. G. Wells the century before?

Well, he DID read the radio play, so he probably knows something about it. I hear that the dead have total recall.

[Reply #459 on:]

 

Obvisoly you don't know much about the the book itself

I've read the original book by HG Wells, I've heard a recording of the Orson Welles broadcast and I saw the 1952 version before I saw the new one. I've always liked the idea that aliens lose because it turns out they're just as stupid as us. I just had to complain about it.

Nix + Roy: It looked like their machines ran on blood or something. Hence the 20 metre needles.

[Reply #460 on:]

Apparantly that Fantastic four movie is crap,  I know they've stuffed up Dr Dooms character

[Reply #461 on:]

Dakota Fanning is like Shirley Temple, without the singing and dancing. She can come off as a naive innocent little girl (which fills for most child roles) and not an annoying selfish kid that people would like to see die.

Fantastic Four never really caught my interest, though I'm sure there is a slim chance my family might see it.

[Reply #462 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
Doesn't Breakfast Club end with those teenagers deciding that they would never acknowledge each other outside of detention because it would be social suicide? It's been a while since i saw the movie but i remember hating the ending.

I'm pretty sure at least two of them decided they were going to have sex and smoke pot together later.  Also... I liked the nympho..... I dunno what turns me on about those kind of chicks.....   

[Reply #463 on:]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I heard this movie was good. I thought it was great. The art direction was excellent. Some points in the movie you kinda wonder what's going on, but all and all, it's a great movie. It gets a B+.

[Reply #464 on:]

 

Originally posted by winna:
 I'm pretty sure at least two of them decided they were going to have sex and smoke pot together later.  Also... I liked the nympho..... I dunno what turns me on about those kind of chicks.....      

Yeah, I agree with you, Venus...I don't really know what I think of the ending. It's sort of ambiguous, y'know? I think they sort of decide that they're gonna see what happens on Monday. And winna's right: two of them (Claire and Bender (the bitch and the bad-boy, to put it more clearly  )) end up together, and Andrew and Allison (the sports star and the compulsive liar (or, hell, the nymphomaniac, why not?)) do the same. The ending does sort of suck, now that you mention it. *Weeps*

[Reply #465 on:]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
I've always liked the idea that aliens lose because it turns out they're just as stupid as us.

What about because their OS was compatible with ours?

 

Nix + Roy: It looked like their machines ran on blood or something. Hence the 20 metre needles.

So why did it look like orangeade?

[Reply #466 on:]

@Nix : Sounds like someone else read this particular list (I particularly like #37)  .

[Reply #467 on:]

@ Nix: Umm... Amnesia dust! *throws talcum powder*
And what slacky said, too, why not.

[Reply #468 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
 So why did it look like orangeade?

orangeade is made of blood

[Reply #469 on:]

B-b-b...blood?

Ewww...

*Spits out orangeade. Throws it down on the table in disgust, but then contemplates it for a moment afterwards.*

Eh, what the hell?

*Drinks remaining orangeade*

Also...

 

Originally posted by M0le:
I've always liked the idea that aliens lose because it turns out they're just as stupid as us.

I like that, sooner or later, almost all alien movies return to the concept that everyone in the universe is a moron. It is an idea that transcends time. Which is kind of sad, when you think about it...

[Reply #470 on:]

I think the blood was used in terraforming. They sprayed it around and then the next day those little roots were everywhere.

[Reply #471 on:]

 

Originally posted by CyberKnight:
@Nix : Sounds like someone else read this particular list (I particularly like #37)    .

Wasn't me.  I think I picked it up from the Evil Overlord list.

But #39 is always true.

[Reply #472 on:]

 

Originally posted by VelourFog:
 orangeade is made of blood

It's people! Soylent Orangeade is made out of people.  They're making our beverages out of people.  Next thing they'll be squeezing us like oranges for breakfast.

[Reply #473 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
I think the blood was used in terraforming. They sprayed it around and then the next day those little roots were everywhere.

That was actually red weed that they brought with them from Mars.

In the novel they didn't have digestive tracts, and injected human blood directly into their veins. They were drinking water in the basement scene, so it may be different in the movie.

[Reply #474 on:]

Land of the Dead

Lacking orginality and is pretty much the average Zombie movie.

Nothing special.

4.8/10

[Reply #475 on:]

Warning, this movie is not in theaters. It's almost 10 years old.

The Craft (1996)

Ok so ever since Scream, I knew that Neve Campbell was in this movie. Only thing is she was a bad girl instead of the good girl. Don't you hate it when you watch a movie with a actor you know from another movie but in this one they're the opposite? Good movie, weird as hell but very interesting.

B+

[Reply #476 on:]

I saw bits of the newer Stepord Wives this evening.  Pretty great/hilarious, and the first time in a while I've called the Big Twist more than 5 minutes before it happened.

Now I need to see the original, since it's likely better.

Oh, and Spacedal, I had the same issue with What Lies Beneath.  Damn, now I gave away the ending.

[Reply #477 on:]

Christmas With The Kranks
It wasn't quite what I thought It was gonna be but it was okay. It had a few funny moments but nothing to really laugh about.
C+

[Reply #478 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nerd-o-rama:
Oh, and Spacedal, I had the same issue with What Lies Beneath.  Damn, now I gave away the ending.

Psst, I've seen the end of What Lies Beneath. You didn't ruin it for me. Everyone else is on their own.

[Reply #479 on:]

Fantastic Four

Went and saw this movie last night and i'm going to take back what i said about Dr doom this movie was actually good

B+