Outrageous Prices For Food and Entertainment! (The Movie Reviews Thread)

[Reply #160 on:]

Prometheus is really good.

I agree, however, the IMDb message boards don't seem best pleased with it...

And they've gone on a 'plot-hole-finding' frenzy...

But fuck them, it was epic. EPIC. EPIC!!!

[Reply #161 on:]

EDIT: Fail by me.

[Reply #162 on:]

But there is so much more than just the first book which is all the movie was. There are 5 other books and a short story and so much more.

[Reply #163 on:]

EDIT: Continued fail by me.

[Reply #164 on:]

Is it just me, or is one of you is talking about this...

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

...while the other is talking about this?

Lord Of The Rings

[Reply #165 on:]

* Unreal squints

D'oh.

[Reply #166 on:]

No wonder I was confused. I was talking about Hitchhikers.. >.<

Please no more fucking with my head. It can't take it.

[Reply #167 on:]

LOL!!!

[Reply #168 on:]

Put the posts back! They were hilarious!

[Reply #169 on:]

   Beanoz: read the books and watch the 80's tv show both are so much better than the movies.

I was lucky enough to catch the radio play (?) of THGttG (back in the early 80's) which predates the books and I still prefer it to the books.

[Reply #170 on:]

I have to agree with the boy hobbit there. The order goes radio > books > tv series >>>> film.

Put the posts back! They were hilarious!

As one who didn't see them, I wholeheartedly agree. Can't think of much funnier than confusing those two works of fiction.

[Reply #171 on:]

I do prefer the HHGTTG books to any other medium, but that's probably because I didn't hear the radio plays until much, much later. The TV series, I prefer vastly to the film because... well... the film's very obviously not the one that Adams would have made. The TV series bears his fingerprints in much the same way that bricks don't.

The books shine because they're pretty much all Adams. No meddling, no censorship, no cuts made for time or any other deviations from what he was thinking at the time. The man was brilliant, and his writing is the purest form of his brilliance - because there's the least interference in that medium between what he wants to say and your brain. The radio plays are very good. They're brilliantly crafted, and absolutely hilarious. But for me, they don't quite have the same impact as Adams' (at times completely insane) narrative asides and the little bits of storytelling that sort of get left out of the audio and visual media. Which often go nowhere in HHGTTG, but are still somehow absolutely vital to the sense of the whole thing. Which is exactly what happens if you listen to Adams in an interview or monologue. You get the sense that Adams was very much writing in the same way that he'd have sat down and told you about Arthur and Ford and Trillian and the rest.

It's a tone that the movie manages to subdue almost entirely. It's very much there in the books, noticeably there in the radio plays and the TV series. That, for me, is what makes the Hitchhiker's Guide so fantastic. Adams is quite evident behind the scenes as a very playful narrator who manages to make some quite excellent points even with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

As for a crossover between HHGTTG and LotR, I would pay to see that at the cinema. If it were done right.

[Reply #172 on:]

As for a crossover between HHGTTG and LotR, I would pay to see that at the cinema. If it were done right.

A Terry Pratchett movie is probably the closest you will ever get to that wish

[Reply #173 on:]

Prometheus is really good.

I agree, however, the IMDb message boards don't seem best pleased with it...

And they've gone on a 'plot-hole-finding' frenzy...

But fuck them, it was epic. EPIC. EPIC!!!

The first 45 minutes or so were outstanding but then it descended into absolute nonsense. The best thing about it was Michael Fassbender as David Bowie.

[Reply #174 on:]

Prometheus is really good.

I agree, however, the IMDb message boards don't seem best pleased with it...

And they've gone on a 'plot-hole-finding' frenzy...

But fuck them, it was epic. EPIC. EPIC!!!

It was good. Not epic, but good. Yes, there were holes and inconsistencies. Not many, not big ones, but they're there. They're also easy to ignore for the sake of the story.

Neither was it "absolute nonsense". It was an enjoyable, suspenseful, and thoroughly entertaining film that made liberal use of science-fiction tropes in order to create a story (and story environment) peppered with the sort of nonsense that helps to remind you you're meant to be having fun as you watch it.

Yes, I recognise that I probably enjoyed what a lot of people thought of as flaws, and perhaps even "plot holes". But I saw them more as affectionate jokes at the expense of the genre, with more than a couple aimed squarely at Alien and all in good humour (without being obvious comedy like you'd find in something along the lines of Airplane!).

As for a crossover between HHGTTG and LotR, I would pay to see that at the cinema. If it were done right.

A Terry Pratchett movie is probably the closest you will ever get to that wish

Yeah, I've wondered before how Arthur Dent would fare on the Discworld. I know that's not precisely what you were talking about, but I'd love to read a standalone from Arthur's years of galactic voyaging in which he (and maybe Ford) spend some time on the Discworld.

[Reply #175 on:]

   Beanoz: read the books and watch the 80's tv show both are so much better than the movies.

I was lucky enough to catch the radio play (?) of THGttG (back in the early 80's) which predates the books and I still prefer it to the books.

I actually found the radio plays on CD in my parent's closet. I just couldn't grab it to get to my room. To the internet! Wait...

Hmm H2G2 meets Discworld. Would be interesting.

[Reply #176 on:]

The reviews on Prometheus intrigue me greatly; this was already my guessed must-see movie, but the miixup of emotions is tantalizing and vexing at the same time.

As for the Hitchhiker's... wasn't the movie's script essentially written by Adams?  Clearly a large majority of the film direction is all somebody else, but the broad strokes, even the added love interest in the movie (which I kind of enjoyed) were technically from Adams himself.  With the rest of the elements though, I can see exactly where you're coming from tnuk... it's just not really Adams... more of Adams ideas pushed through the Hollywood meat grinding machine.  I guess that movie tanked though, since I've never heard anything about plans for sequels.  Too bad really, because it wasn't a bad film, even if it managed to alienate its fan audience and a new audience all at the same time; I thought they did a good job with the cast selection; I also enjoyed the modernized art direction.... Zaphod's head was wrong though (although that may have been another Adams change, like the cellphones that weren't digital watches).

Fun fact: I've never read any of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books.

[Reply #177 on:]

As for the Hitchhiker's... wasn't the movie's script essentially written by Adams?  Clearly a large majority of the film direction is all somebody else, but the broad strokes, even the added love interest in the movie (which I kind of enjoyed) were technically from Adams himself.

Adams wrote most of a script, some years ago. After many years of it sitting on a shelf, somebody dusted it off and made a bunch of changes. Whilst much of it is based on Adams' notes and the film's script was touted as being the closest to Adams' work of any potential adaptation, those broad strokes were interpreted by a secondary writer following Adams' death.

The look and feel of the universe suggests that concept art wasn't based on any of Adams' notes, and that Adams died before most of the work on the film was actually begun. It's worth noting that Adams' final script draft was structurally revised by the second writer in 2002, after he (Adams) died, and the film wasn't even shot until 2004. During that period, I think it's safe to say that a lot went into the film's final incarnation that didn't come from Douglas Adams. It's a perfect example of what you get when one person's ideas are handed to another who is not a product of quite the same environment or era. There's a lot that's quite obviously inspired by the original HHG material, but has been re-interpreted. It never manages to capture that subtle and hard-to-define feel that the radio plays passed onto the books, which passed it on to the TV series. The main place I noticed the divergence is with the characters themselves. Characterisations, mannerisms, and even the motivations of the characters were altered. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It's all noticeable, and adds up to a relative dissonance between the universe that Adams created and the universe that the production team ended up operating within.

That said, it's not entirely without merit. It's just... lacking. It lacks something, and what I think it's mainly lacking is that magic spark that Adams himself tended to give to things.

[Reply #178 on:]

It was good. Not epic, but good. Yes, there were holes and inconsistencies. Not many, not big ones, but they're there. They're also easy to ignore for the sake of the story.

Neither was it "absolute nonsense". It was an enjoyable, suspenseful, and thoroughly entertaining film that made liberal use of science-fiction tropes in order to create a story (and story environment) peppered with the sort of nonsense that helps to remind you you're meant to be having fun as you watch it.

Yes, I recognise that I probably enjoyed what a lot of people thought of as flaws, and perhaps even "plot holes". But I saw them more as affectionate jokes at the expense of the genre, with more than a couple aimed squarely at Alien and all in good humour (without being obvious comedy like you'd find in something along the lines of Airplane!).

I'd say it was a fairly solid 6/10 but it should have been an 8, 9 or 10/10. I respect it for being as ambitious as it was but it was poorly plotted with lots of lazy work around the board and asked more questions than it answered.

I wanted a worthy successor to Alien and Blade Runner but all I got was a film better than Alien 3 onwards.

[Reply #179 on:]

Why don't we write the next sci-fi masterpiece?  I can look fiercely determined and poutily vunerable at the same time, so I can be the main character.  Just design me a spacesuit that accents my fantastic bottom.  

[Reply #180 on:]

Alien and Blade Runner are great movies all by themselves; they don't need successors, just accept them as masterpieces.  I suspect I'll enjoy Prometheus for whatever it is, but I'm trying to keep all of my expectations (except the secret ones) pretty low.

Umm as an interesting sidenote, I think Predator got an excellent successor in the movie Predators.  It's not perfect, but I prefer that sequel to everything else in the franchise, especially with the subplot concerning the main characters... and Oooo the creepy ambiance through out the film.

[Reply #181 on:]

I don't understand why people argue about what movies are "objectively good" and "objectively bad". Because really, it just descends into an argument that goes nowhere. Some things that could be considered a flaw by one person might be the movie's highlight for another.

[Reply #182 on:]

I agree about Predators - I thought it was great fun.

[Reply #183 on:]

Casting was perfect!

[Reply #184 on:]

I don't understand why people argue about what movies are "objectively good" and "objectively bad". Because really, it just descends into an argument that goes nowhere. Some things that could be considered a flaw by one person might be the movie's highlight for another.

Everything like that is subjective.  But there are some things that are universal.   No one can argue that "Jennifer Anniston in Romantic Comedy 23321 where she plays a single eccentric girl who does irrational things and falls over a lot who subsequently can't get a boyfriend despite being Jennifer Anniston" can be a masterpiece. 

[Reply #185 on:]

I'd say it was a fairly solid 6/10 but it should have been an 8, 9 or 10/10. I respect it for being as ambitious as it was but it was poorly plotted with lots of lazy work around the board and asked more questions than it answered.

^This.
Also, I think the movie tried to give answers that were not really necessary.
The "Space Jockey" in the first Alien movie was immediatelly surrounded by an aura of mystery: A bizarre, never before seen creature. Who...erm..WHAT is it? What is that for a spaceship? Is the Jockey part of the ship? What lifeform is it? How did it get there? Etc, etc, etc...
Be just being present for a short time, it already posed LOTS of questions.

The Space Jockey's fasciniation/cult status was heavily based on those unanswered questions, the surrounding aura of mistery. And I suspected no real answer could live up to the expectations.

[Reply #186 on:]

I don't understand why people argue about what movies are "objectively good" and "objectively bad". Because really, it just descends into an argument that goes nowhere. Some things that could be considered a flaw by one person might be the movie's highlight for another.

Everything like that is subjective.  But there are some things that are universal.   No one can argue that "Jennifer Anniston in Romantic Comedy 23321 where she plays a single eccentric girl who does irrational things and falls over a lot who subsequently can't get a boyfriend despite being Jennifer Anniston" can be a masterpiece. 

Office Space

[Reply #187 on:]

I don't understand why people argue about what movies are "objectively good" and "objectively bad". Because really, it just descends into an argument that goes nowhere. Some things that could be considered a flaw by one person might be the movie's highlight for another.

Everything like that is subjective.  But there are some things that are universal.   No one can argue that "Jennifer Anniston in Romantic Comedy 23321 where she plays a single eccentric girl who does irrational things and falls over a lot who subsequently can't get a boyfriend despite being Jennifer Anniston" can be a masterpiece.  

I'd say they still have a right to consider it such if they truly believed it though. A lot of people have terrible tastes, but their opinions are still valid.

[Reply #188 on:]

Ghostbusters

 Life before Ghostbusters was a sad existence for me. Ok, maybe not really but I'm sorta shocked I never got around to watching it until just the other night. For shame... The first film follows Ray, Egon, Peter and Winston as they go around New York fighting ghosties. It's not scary so much as it's comical, and I did enjoy the comedy. Some of the effects are pretty dated, but I like that they used real props back in those times instead of obvious CGI. In a way it's more realistic. I enjoyed how everyone had their own personality in this, and they stuck to it. Except for the cliched ending for Peter of course. But hey, I can't fault them for doing that in a comedic setting. The ending felt a bit anti-climatic but I've been drilled with over-the-top jargon for half my life so it's understandable that the ending didn't feel "epic" by today's steroid-injected madness. If you've lived under a rock like me and haven't seen this, do so. It's worth watching at least once in your life. I mean, c'mon. Sigourney Weaver is in this. Doesn't that alone entice people to watch?

90/100 trapped ghosts

Ghostbusters 2

And of course I caught the sequel. I owed it to myself to view it at least once. Rick Moranis had an even more prominent role this outing, and I hated it. I didn't much care for his subplot in the first film, but at least he was relevant to the plot line then. Here, he could've been left out entirely and nothing ill would've come of the movie. I didn't care for Janine in this either. In GB1, she came across as an outwardly uncaring person, a bit vicious towards Peter and his womanizing ways but to everyone else she was nice (especially Egon, who she was shown to be admiring in GB1 in a couple short scenes). In this film she's got a radically new look, a new wardrobe and it feels out of place that she suddenly becomes so into Louis on top of all that. She might as well have been Hot-Blooded Red-Headed Bimbo #5 or something. I know the supposed reasoning behind her shift in love interests but that doesn't mean I liked it or that it worked better. Long-winded complaint about those two aside, the rest of the film was ok. Nothing was rolling with the punches quite like the first one did in terms of comedy but it got a few laughs out of me when it did have comical moments (I loved the pretty low-brow "Do-Ray-Egon" bit. Raimis's expression sold the joke for me amongst a few others, oddly enough most of my laughs going to Ray/Egon and not Peter this time). Overall this film wasn't as great as the first one, a commonplace with sequels. I'd still say check it out though, especially if you're a completionist.

70/100 ghosts

[Reply #189 on:]

I haven't posted a review here in ages:

Chocolate

I hadn't watched all that many martial arts films and had never seen a film from Thailand before so when I saw this advertised I was intrigued to see what it would be like... I was not disappointed.

Show spoiler

The story follows an autistic girl named Zen whose mother Zin left 'Number Eight', the head of a local gang for a member of the Yakuza many years before. They were forced to separate however and Zin was forced to raise Zen alone. While at home Zen learnt martial arts from watching the television and by watching people training in the kickboxing school next door. When Zin gets ill and needs treatment, Moom, a boy she has unofficially adopted, finds a book listing people who owe her money. Moom and Zen set about retrieving the owed money but as none of the people want to pay up Zen will have to fight them and their many employees to get it! Ultimately Number Eight learns about them and if Zen is to save Moom and her mother she will have to fight more people than she has before!

This is a proper action film; only the briefest amount of time is wasted on explaining what is going on and introducing the characters before we are thrown into a spectacular series of stunningly choreographed martial arts fights; each one more impressive than the one before. The final fight which took place on the outside of a building was particularly thrilling as the number of bodies in the pavement below mounted! During each of these many scenes I thought 'that has got to hurt'... and the out takes shown at the end of the credits showed that they really did as the cast sustained very real injuries! JeeJa Yanin did a great job in the leading role; I'd be very surprised if we don't see more of her in the future and Taphon Phopwandee was fun to watch as the slightly tubby Moom. While most of the cast are just there to be beaten up by Zen; they do a good job making the fights look great. Having watched this I'll certainly be keeping an eye open for further films from Thailand!

8/10

[Reply #190 on:]

Spoiler-free review of:
Prometheus

I saw a midnight showing at an IMAX 3D theater last night. It. Twas. Amazing. Visually stunning, and the entire cast gives fantastic performances. The plot's mythology is a little dense (you need to watch Alien to understand this movie fully), and the film seems slow moving for the first half, but overall a good story. Although it does answer a few questions from Alien, it poses so many more unanswered questions and sets itself up for a sequel in two different ways (the second-to-last scene of the film, plus a post-credits image [note: not a scene] promising to continue the viral marketing into the fall). It'll also pose many philosophical questions that will keep you thinking well after the movie's over.

I'll give it an A.

And, let me repeat: watch Alien now if you plan on seeing Prometheus.

[Reply #191 on:]

God Bless America
Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait (that comedian with the mad voice), a dark comedy about a middle aged loser disillusioned with the "society of celebrity" goes on a killing spree with a young girl who shares his hate of My Sweet 16 stars, TV talent show hosts, Westboro Baptist Church protesters, people who talk in the cinema, and in a quite hilariously shocking opening dream sequence, noisy neighbors and their wailing baby!
It's ok, has a Falling Down kind of vibe about it, but falls flat in some places.
C

[Reply #192 on:]

I saw Prometheus yesterday...

Show spoiler

...it was decent but I felt like I was watching one 2 hour Star Trek planet episode lol with the reuse of just a handful of background scenery. But that style brought about that old school feeling where you capture the story and danger within one basic location, like in the horror flicks.

[Reply #193 on:]

Spoilers for Madagascar 3 and Men in Black 3! Don't click unless you want to be spoiled.

Show spoiler

Madagascar 3
Saw this tonight at the drive-in. I went in acknowledging this was a movie made to amuse children (and adults), so I was ready to accept the slapstick and whatnot. It was a fun ride, and occasionally quite funny. The circus performance with the song Firework was visually spectacular, and my favorite scene in the movie. If you've never seen anything like Cirque du Soleil, you'll be even more impressed by how the movie producers reimagined the traditional circus act.

Men in Black 3
The second half of the drive-in's doubleheader, and not a bad movie. Wasn't amazing, wasn't awful either. Favorite scene - the Andy Warhol party. I also enjoyed the twist at the end in which we find out how far back Kay and Jay actually go. Nitpicks - "It's Just" Boris used nothing but his hand-spikes to kill people all movie long... it felt out of character when he chose not to and went into hand-to-hand combat with Will Smith. Also, they flew from NYC to Cape Canaveral in 5 hours... without anything to protect them from the wind? That's over 200 miles an hour, or "too fast to tolerate having your face exposed to the elements for 15 minutes, let alone 5 hours". And the whole premise of the escape of "It's Just" Boris was contrived. They have a prisoner so dangerous he is kept chained up under armed guard on the moon (and the moon makes no sense for a place to keep him anyhow, since the environment is no deterrent for his species), and they allow him to receive visitors? Bearing gifts? And the safety plan for scanning gifts for said villain is to only allow organic gifts, when his preferred method of killing is with an organic weapon? Who sent the visitor anyway? Where did she get the organic weapon she brought to him?

[Reply #194 on:]

Prometheus

I saw it in IMAX 3D for the hell of it because I heard people like it or didn't like it. I would have to be one of the people that didn't like it. There was parts where you kind question things but the last 10 or 20 mins. It killed the movie for me. Sorry.

[Reply #195 on:]

Red Letter media talks about Prometheus - SPOILERS

I think this is pretty much everyone after the movie. The guy on the left being a nerd/Alien fan, the guy on the right being a casual viewer. Or maybe we're all both of them.

Either way, hilarious.

[Reply #196 on:]

Just watched "Vampire Nation".
The plot read like the typical Post-Zombie-Apocalypse-Roadmovie, which it basically also was.

The movie lived by a really unique atmosphere:
A sad journey, focusing on the main character's loneliness and sadness in an nearly empty world. Meeting people, leaving them behing, even the fights against "Vampires" (who rather resembled Zombies) were random details to be left and forgotten on the road.

Not really a movie to for action oriented entertainment, or extremely scary, but something for a quite, peaceful evening.

[Reply #197 on:]

That sounds awesome.

[Reply #198 on:]

Red Letter media talks about Prometheus - SPOILERS

I think this is pretty much everyone after the movie. The guy on the left being a nerd/Alien fan, the guy on the right being a casual viewer. Or maybe we're all both of them.

Either way, hilarious.

[Reply #199 on:]

Love it!