I Just Bought Popcorn and a Drink and Now I Have No Money - (movie reviews)

[Reply #160 on:]

Am I the only person who thinks that the second Back to the Future is the weakest? I mean, they're all pretty damn good, but I dunno, I just had some serious problems with the structure of that one.

And the serious contradictions with regard to the film's own internal logic about how time travel works.

Also, not enough incest.

[Reply #161 on:]

Inception Borrowed this from my aunt back at Halloween and am glad I did. I'd wanted to see it for a while but with all the video rental shops closed and only crappy recent releases available through RedBox it didn't seem likely.

This is a case of a good movie being elevated to great by way of the score. I felt the same way about The Bourne Identity; a masterful composer amplifies the finest features of a film. A crappy score/mismatched soundtrack underscores the weaknesses in a scene (which is why I felt like The Great Gatsby was a mediocre movie made barely tolerable with the outrageously anachronistic music). Back to Inception. Before the first scene even opens we get a blast of sound that sets the swelling, haunting tone of the movie.

I enjoyed the film's focus on the absurdity of dreams and the raw state of the sleeping mind. The plot wasn't difficult to follow and the characters were well-developed enough to feel that each one was necessary to advance the story in a meaningful way. Marion Cotillard excelled in her role as the foil to the inception team. Ever since seeing her in "A Very Long Engagement" I've been a fan and seeing her in English-speaking roles just means more exposure for a fine French actress. I liked seeing Ellen Page play a character whose dialogue wasn't all trendy witticisms. The only minor character bone to pick was Leonardo DiCaprio's relationship with his children. I was utterly convinced by the chemistry he had with Cotillard, but I found his fatherhood role a little less convincing. Maybe if there had been one memory shown of him interacting with his children (it still could have been from behind so that the allure of seeing their faces again would have motivating), I'd have felt there really was that paternal interest in them. Maybe it's a good stand-in for the general feeling the men of a certain age have, that they never really spent enough time with their kids, but with such a moving (if false) exhibition of the father-son dynamic between the Fischers in the hospital scene I really think they could have included a little of that in the Cobb family. 

The special effects used in the movie really did feel special. That's one quibble I have with a lot of movies employing heavy doses of CGI is that the special effects don't feel necessary for the film, just superfluous eye candy. When the special effects in Inception literally go over the top, it's to demonstrate manipulation of the dream landscape. The movie edition I borrowed had some additional features that included how the production team created the endless staircase in Ariadne's subconscious and I was really astonished to find they had built a physical set and used CAD to do it and to figure out the camera drop placement for the reveal of the paradox. That's just cool.

10/10 for me and I'll definitely ask to borrow this one again sometime. When I have two+ hours to watch it all in one sitting, that is. It took me two evenings to get all the way through it and then I let it play non-stop one afternoon I had off while MiniBasket napped so I could get the uninterrupted immersion.

[Reply #162 on:]

I really liked it, if was to judge it with the others I might tie it with the third, but it had a really good plot.

[Reply #163 on:]

The first Back to the Future is almost universally considered to be the best of the bunch (and with good cause).

It's a surprise to see so many people batting for the second one, here.

I mean, I think that they're all great and the 2nd is my 2nd favourite of the three, but still...

[Reply #164 on:]

Watched the "new" Danny Boyle movie Trance yesterday. It started..alright. Its basically about an art picture heist but the painting is missing and people try to find it. As it goes on, it gets more and more willfully confusing, and you get more and more annoyed. Quite honestly this movie is kind of awful. There is a scene where two people are going to have sex but the girl goes into the bathroom and shaves her vag, because you can hear the buzzing, but she comes out in like 10 seconds fully smooth! And yes, its fully shown! Anybody knows shaving that takes like an hour!
But anyway, it was funny-bad because that happened for no reason at all. Even if I liked all the confusing hypnosis stuff, the plot and characters weren't interesting enough anyway. This is a swing and a miss by Mr Boyle and its no wonder you probably haven't heard of this
4/10

[Reply #165 on:]

Watched Scream with ShinyMetal*** last night. I'd give it a 7.9/10. It was a bit too cheesy and corny for my liking, but there definently are some parts that had me a little scared. I've never been super into horror movies anyway, so this was a pretty pleasant suprise.

[Reply #166 on:]

It was a bit too cheesy and corny for my liking...

You realise it was a satire on the slasher movie genre, right?

[Reply #167 on:]

The second "Back to the Future" was certainly the most complicated, detailed, and ambitioned one. Yet, this came at a price:

- Part 1 had to introduce the setting, the characters, etc... . Which forced a stable plot flow upon the story.
- Part 2 could spare that time, and jumped between present, past and future. Yet, this lead to a more bumpy ride than in part I.
- Part II was the only open ended one (I'll count Part I's ending rather as a throwaway gag than a real cliffhanger). Letting the movie end on a somewhat unsatisfactory note.

All in all: As standalone movie, Part II is imhO the weakest one.
Yet, as the means to link the trilogy together, it takes a deserved place as the central piece, with the most complex time travel interactions.

[Reply #168 on:]

Watched Scream with ShinyMetal*** last night. I'd give it a 7.9/10. It was a bit too cheesy and corny for my liking, but there definently are some parts that had me a little scared. I've never been super into horror movies anyway, so this was a pretty pleasant suprise.

Are you kidding me, I looked to the side and your face was burried in your hands. I personally thought it was good because it was corny. 

[Reply #169 on:]

BTTF's inconsistent temporal rules annoy me.
The most annoying thing was when they left Jennifer on her porch in the alternate 1985 and when they fixed the divergent timeline she somehow phases through timespace to appear in the same spot in the original timeline. This is inexplicable.
Don't get me started on the slowly-fading body parts and photographs and changing newsprint resulting from alterations to the past.

[Reply #170 on:]

Watched the "new" Danny Boyle movie Trance yesterday. It started..alright. Its basically about an art picture heist but the painting is missing and people try to find it. As it goes on, it gets more and more willfully confusing, and you get more and more annoyed. Quite honestly this movie is kind of awful. There is a scene where two people are going to have sex but the girl goes into the bathroom and shaves her vag, because you can hear the buzzing, but she comes out in like 10 seconds fully smooth! And yes, its fully shown! Anybody knows shaving that takes like an hour!
But anyway, it was funny-bad because that happened for no reason at all. Even if I liked all the confusing hypnosis stuff, the plot and characters weren't interesting enough anyway. This is a swing and a miss by Mr Boyle and its no wonder you probably haven't heard of this
4/10

That was a really weird deliberately confusing movie.  I think at some point the movie was deliberately trying to emulate the painting which was being stolen, thus turning a meta movie about itself into an abstract meta movie about its meta self.

[Reply #171 on:]

BTTF's inconsistent temporal rules annoy me.
The most annoying thing was when they left Jennifer on her porch in the alternate 1985 and when they fixed the divergent timeline she somehow phases through timespace to appear in the same spot in the original timeline.

The official explanation is that in the "fixed" timeline, Jennifer is still on the porch after previous events that led to her being on the porch. The events of the first movie happened, but the events of the second movie didn't happen, due to Marty having foreknowledge of (and thereby avoiding) the accident which led to his life as he would have known it by 2015.

There isn't an official explanation for how Old Biff was able to come back to an unchanged 2015 after delivering the almanac in BTTF II though. That one's the goof that breaks the trilogy.

[Reply #172 on:]

Jennifer has a recollection of her journey through time at the end of part III, so it has to be the same Jennifer they left in the alternate universe.

Also, I never thought about old Biff's return trip before.

Yeah, I can never watch those movies again.

[Reply #173 on:]

Yeah, the official explanation doesn't really work. But my point was that the creators at least acknowledge there's a discontinuous leap there, and have attempted to address it.

Whereas the issue with Biff is something that breaks the entire plot arc of the second two movies, and there's not even a sniff of an attempt to explain it.

Still, I can forgive the logical and temporal paradoxes, because they really are very entertaining films. Plus, I'm waiting for the hoverboard to be invented at some point within the next year or so.

[Reply #174 on:]

Still, I can forgive the logical and temporal paradoxes, because they really are very entertaining films. Plus, I'm waiting for the hoverboard to be invented at some point within the next year or so.

They make a non-hovering replica of it, actually. It usually costs around $100 or so, as it's more of a collector's item than a toy. I actually saw a few in person earlier today at this convention I'm at. They're very on model, so they'd be worth the high selling point.

[Reply #175 on:]

Yeah, I'm not interested in paying that much for a board that doesn't hover. I can just stand on a plank if that's the experience I'm after.

[Reply #176 on:]

With the amount of talk BTTF gets on this website, a whole BTTF thread should just be made...GET ON WITH IT

Heavy Metal: This movie was super rad! Its a weird crazy sci fi animated from 1982. A series of really imaginative and just damn cool vignettes tied together through this evil green sphere that permutates itself though all of time. Futurama fans would definitely like this. The character of Zap Brannigan is partially inspired from a character in this. Its unmistakable. 9/10

Slap Shot: Probably the most well known hockey movie. It was alright. Kind of weird though. Sometimes its funny, not that memorable though. Mystery Alaska is the best hockey movie I've seen. 7/10

[Reply #177 on:]

This is probably the best Man of Steel review-that's-not-packaged-as-a-review, and is quite a bit more entertaining than the film itself ended up being:

Clicky.

[Reply #178 on:]

There isn't an official explanation for how Old Biff was able to come back to an unchanged 2015 after delivering the almanac in BTTF II though. That one's the goof that breaks the trilogy.

If I'm recalling it correctly, aren't Doc and Marty--with the fainted Jennifer in tow--just making it out of the 2015 McFly home in Hilldale as Old Biff is returning with the DeLorean? If so, then I think this would just barely be able to keep this part of the movie from being a plot hole. Since we see that the universe changed around Jennifer once the timeline was "corrected," the universe could have changed around Doc and Marty in 2015 as well (meaning that their brief walk back to where they--and Old Biff--left the DeLorean would have been taking place in Alternate 2015) and it might not have been perceptible to them if they were already out of the house and on their way. Downtown Hill Valley is certainly transformed, but even though the McFly family naturally wasn't in what should have been their house in Alternate 1985, Marty's neighborhood doesn't look too different beyond the window bars that he notices (dinginess and neglect aside); as such, it is possible that the Hilldale development still looks pretty much the same in Alternate 2015 as it would have otherwise (the policewomen did describe it as a rather lowlife place even in the normal 2015, so it doesn't seem too unlikely that it wouldn't still be that way in the rougher alternate timeline), and Doc and Marty would have just missed encountering whatever non-McFly would have been now living in that house.

Furthermore, there is a deleted scene at this point in which Old Biff, after parking the DeLorean and breaking his cane as he gets out, hobbles away in pain before falling over and vanishing (this is why he looks so sweaty and unwell when he exits the car). If it had been kept in (and I recall reading that it was deleted because of concerns that the audience wouldn't understand what happened), then this would have been the movie's acknowledgment that something had changed, and that Old Biff inadvertently erased himself from existing in 2015 in the process (this means he must have died sometime prior, or else there would just be an original and altered Old Biff at the same time, the way there were two of Marty, Doc, etc.; whether this means Alternate Biff prior to the 2015 date had a heart attack, got murdered, or whatever else, is up to the imagination, I suppose).

[Reply #179 on:]

There isn't an official explanation for how Old Biff was able to come back to an unchanged 2015 after delivering the almanac in BTTF II though. That one's the goof that breaks the trilogy.

If I'm recalling it correctly, aren't Doc and Marty--with the fainted Jennifer in tow--just making it out of the 2015 McFly home in Hilldale as Old Biff is returning with the DeLorean? If so, then I think this would just barely be able to keep this part of the movie from being a plot hole. Since we see that the universe changed around Jennifer once the timeline was "corrected," the universe could have changed around Doc and Marty in 2015 as well (meaning that their brief walk back to where they--and Old Biff--left the DeLorean would have been taking place in Alternate 2015) and it might not have been perceptible to them if they were already out of the house and on their way. Downtown Hill Valley is certainly transformed, but even though the McFly family naturally wasn't in what should have been their house in Alternate 1985, Marty's neighborhood doesn't look too different beyond the window bars that he notices (dinginess and neglect aside); as such, it is possible that the Hilldale development still looks pretty much the same in Alternate 2015 as it would have otherwise, and Doc and Marty would have just missed encountering whatever non-McFly would have been now living in that house.

Furthermore, there is a deleted scene at this point in which Old Biff, after parking the DeLorean and breaking his cane as he gets out, hobbles away in pain before falling over and vanishing (this is why he looks so sweaty and unwell when he exits the car). If it had been kept in (and I recall reading that it was deleted because of concerns that the audience wouldn't understand what happened), then this would have been the movie's acknowledgment that something had changed, and that Old Biff inadvertently erased himself from existing in 2015 in the process (this means he must have died sometime prior, or else there would just be an original and altered Old Biff at the same time, the way there were two of Marty, Doc, etc.; whether this means Alternate Biff prior to the 2015 date had a heart attack, got murdered, or whatever else, is up to the imagination, I suppose).

That makes sense to me.  And according IMDB Loraine shot and killed Biff in 1996A.

[Reply #180 on:]

Has anyone listened to the audio commentaries on the BTTF DVDs by one of the screenwriters Bob Gale? They're actually incredibly dry and boring, comically so. strange considering the type of movies they are.

[Reply #181 on:]

Furthermore, there is a deleted scene at this point in which Old Biff, after parking the DeLorean and breaking his cane as he gets out, hobbles away in pain before falling over and vanishing (this is why he looks so sweaty and unwell when he exits the car).

If they'd kept this in, I'd have been able to enjoy the film a whole lot more the first time I saw it. It's a small thing, but acknowledging that he'd actually changed something, and then erasing him from existence as a consequence of those changes would have at least shown that the ramifications of Old Biff's trip had been thought through. Cursorily.

However, by the rules set out in the first movie, Old Biff should not have been able to return to the 2015 that he left at all. The 2015 we saw, with Doc and Marty in that place, wouldn't have existed. With Doc never even built the time machine - he was committed before he could do it (once Old Biff changed things by taking the Almanac back to 1955, this change should have propagated forward through the timeline, and if Old Biff were not immediately erased, he should have arrived in a 2015 that was the product of the events of the first movie never having happened).

Not only should the events of the first movie not have happened, but without the time machine ever having been invented, then of course Young Biff would never have ended up receiving the Almanac anyway, presumably leaving the original timeline intact, and now we're going around in a circle.

However you look at it, there's something not-quite-right about Old Biff's trip (within the established rules of the BTTF universe, at least).

Now I need to go find that deleted scene and watch it. Since I have the DVDs somewhere, I'm assuming it's on one of them. Now all I need to do is locate them...

[Reply #182 on:]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=speklkNVHXk

Here ya go.

The scene with old Biff disappearing starts at the 1:00 minute mark.

[Reply #183 on:]

Part II was the only open ended one (I'll count Part I's ending rather as a throwaway gag than a real cliffhanger). Letting the movie end on a somewhat unsatisfactory note.

Fair enough. The Empire Strikes Back also has an open-ended downer ending, though, and most people seem to think that movie is pretty okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=speklkNVHXk

Here ya go.

The scene with old Biff disappearing starts at the 1:00 minute mark.

Ah, how convenient! Thanks.

However, by the rules set out in the first movie, Old Biff should not have been able to return to the 2015 that he left at all. The 2015 we saw, with Doc and Marty in that place, wouldn't have existed. With Doc never even built the time machine - he was committed before he could do it (once Old Biff changed things by taking the Almanac back to 1955, this change should have propagated forward through the timeline, and if Old Biff were not immediately erased, he should have arrived in a 2015 that was the product of the events of the first movie never having happened).

Not only should the events of the first movie not have happened, but without the time machine ever having been invented, then of course Young Biff would never have ended up receiving the Almanac anyway, presumably leaving the original timeline intact, and now we're going around in a circle.

However you look at it, there's something not-quite-right about Old Biff's trip (within the established rules of the BTTF universe, at least).

Hmm...those are good points, and troubling ones at that. The only attempt at explanation I can come up with at this time would be this, ass-pull as it may be: as the first movie shows, there is (conveniently enough) a bit of lag before full erasure as a result of time alteration; Marty is still existing well enough for most of his time in 1955 (and it seems that the erasure has to ripple through his older siblings before it gets to him), and Old Biff at least is able to get back to whichever 2015 before his own deleted scene, er, deletion. Perhaps Doc, Marty, and even the DeLorean itself would have begun vanishing for the very reason you said if they had lingered for longer in 2015. Of course, they'd be having the same problem in Alternate 1985, but again, they at least aren't there for too long, and maybe their impending erasure hasn't caught up with them as they continue to travel back in time (which could be why Old Biff's erasure was quicker; he went forward into an altered time where he should no longer exist, whereas Doc and Marty kept going back towards the point in 1955 at which the universe-altering skewing began to occur, and at which the almanac-retrieving correction that would ensure their continued existence could be made).

[Reply #184 on:]

That is indeed an ass-pull. A rather impressive one though. Your ass could work in Hollywood.

[Reply #185 on:]

I put as much credence in Back To The Future's internal time travel logic as I do in Doctor Who's. As far as I'm concerned it's just meant to be fun.

[Reply #186 on:]

And to think I've never actually seen Back to the Future. As a kid I was too terrified of Christopher Lloyd having been Judge Doom in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" so I never wanted to watch Back to the Future.

[Reply #187 on:]

Jurassic Park 3
I thought this movie was really good. Everything looked so realistic and the acting was great. 9/10

 The Amazing Spiderman
I thought this movie was alright. I didn't thin Andrew Garfield played the best role as Spiderman, he's no Toby Mcguire, but Emma Stone did pretty good. It defidently wasn't as great as the originals. 7/10

 Scary Movie
This movie was pretty funny. I think it defidently hit the mark it was going for(funny yet corny) . 6.5

 GhostbustersI don't have enough words to describe this movie. It's so nerdy and corny, which isn't a bad thing. 7.5/10
 
Men In Black
This was a good movie. The plot was great and the acting was great. 8/10

Men In Black 3
I thought this MIB was a lot better than the first, Will Smith of course had amazing acting, the lines were better and the story was great. 8.5/10

 After Earth
Like father like son. Jaden Smith's acting was fantastic as well as Will Smith's. The plot was phenominal and it was just a great movie. 9/10

The karate Kid
jaden Smith had some great moments in this movie. And Jackie Chan did amazing. The story was put together alright and I found it really cool that the movie took place in China. 8/10

Bruce Almighty
It was just hilarious, Jim Carrey's facial expressions are so damn funny and Jennifer Aniston was funny in a comical way. I like the fact that they finally make a funny religeous movie. 9/10

 Spaceballs
I thought this was very corny , but that was the point so imma give it an 8/10

 Grown Ups
A lot better than the second one. Adam Sandler was amazing and the plot made sense. I think it was overall a good movie. 8.5/10

 The Avengers
A really great action movie. It was funny while being action packed and interesting for all ages. I think adding some humor to the movie was a pretty dangerous move because it could have made the movie crappy, but luckily they pulled it off. 8/10

 Iron Man 3
Alright but kinda corny. It did have lots of action but it was just to unrealistic. 6/10

 Man of Steel
I thought this movie was great, of course it might of been because of the fact I saw it at a drive-in movie. 8.5/10

 Parental Guidence
This movie was funny and had a good plot. Some of the material tried to be funny but wasn't. 8/10

[Reply #188 on:]

You use the word "corny" a lot.

Also, you automatically lose points for saying any of the MIB sequels were better than the original. And giving Scary Movie a score higher than 0/10.

[Reply #189 on:]

 I'm sorry but MIB 3 was better than the original. I only gave Scary Movie the score I did because it , like I said, hit the mark it was going for. 

[Reply #190 on:]

I don't know, Beamer, MIB3 was actually pretty good. I saw MIB at the cinema when I was 11 and I thought it was the best thing ever, so MIB3 had a lot of nostalgia to contend with and it didn't disappoint. That's often not the case, like new Futurama over old Futurama. Pfft. But MIB3 is at least equal or very close to equal with the first. I don't remember anything from the second movie and I'm told that's a good thing.

Scary Movie was good when it came out... I also like Scary Movie 3, if only for the line "Cindy...the TV is leaking!" because after however many years after seeing all the versions of The Ring and of being an adult, deep down I'm still afraid that the girl from the well really will come out of the TV, and laughing at her makes her seem less of a threat.

()

[Reply #191 on:]

 I never saw the second MIB, does anyone know if it's worth watching?

[Reply #192 on:]

Ghostbusters
7.5/10

Grown Ups
8.5/10

Dead to me.

[Reply #193 on:]

  Ghostbusters was pretty fucked up.

Show spoiler

That's why I liked it. 

[Reply #194 on:]

I never saw the second MIB, does anyone know if it's worth watching?

It's basically just re-hashing the first one for the most part, and the plot is completely unmemorable. I fucking hated MIB 2. I'll concede MIB 3 was actually pretty decent, but it still lacks the unique creativity of the first installment.

And Scary Movie is the worst kind of parody movie. Just scene-for-scene rehashes lifted straight from existing films, with a few shitty jokes thrown in. Any idiot can write that shit. Not to mention how stupidly juvenile it is - in the worst possible way - and any lack of cohesiveness or anything to invest in as a viewer. Which would be forgivable if it actually induced a single laugh. Which it does not.

The right way to do such parodies is to go for genre instead of specific films (sure, reference a few specific films here and there, but don't just copy them verbatim); make fun of all the tropes/cliches and still keep it accessible for those who haven't seen each and every film you choose to mock. And if you are going to do specific film parodies, pick the timeless classics - the landmarks - as opposed to the "flavour of the month" or whatever's popular at the time. The fact that Scary Movie was primarily making fun of Scream doesn't even work - Scream was already a tongue-in-cheek parody in itself.

Ghostbusters
7.5/10

Grown Ups
8.5/10

Dead to me.

Haha, wooooow, I didn't even see Grown Ups in that list. Ugh. And no way does Ghostbusters deserve a score that low. That film is classic, and - alongside maybe Back to the Future - pretty much the template of how a fun "popcorn flick" should go.

[Reply #195 on:]

8/10 for Spaceballs.  Really?

That movie gets a 10/10.

[Reply #196 on:]

Now see for me, as someone who loves Scream, I actually have to hand it to the Scary Movie guys; depending on who I'm watching Scream with and whether or not they've also seen Scary Movie, sometimes it makes re-watching Scream a hysterical experience. A few times I've tried to show Scream to people who haven't seen it but I end up cracking up because I can't help but think about something from Scary Movie. Not matter how juvenile and low-brow the humor is in Scary Movie, when you try to go back and take the subject of Scream seriously again it's really hard.

I like Scary Movie 1, 2, and 3. The third one was taken in the hands of the fellas behind Airplane! and it shows. I'm not saying these are good movies, they're so damn stupid but I can admit to liking them.

Men In Black 2 sucked from what I remember.

And is Parental Guidance that movie with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler that inexplicably was released in the past year and not in 1989?

[Reply #197 on:]

I like Scary Movie 1, 2, and 3. The third one was taken in the hands of the fellas behind Airplane! and it shows. I'm not saying these are good movies, they're so damn stupid but I can admit to liking them.

And The Naked Gun.

The third one was at least tolerable for me. It still had all the same awful flaws as the rest of the franchise, but there were at least a few chuckles to be had. I don't think I laughed once during the first two.

[Reply #198 on:]

I agree Spacedal, I caught some of Scream on TV a while back and it was so much more hilarious. I watched Scream so excitedly when I was 11 or 12 recording things off TV, because it was rated 15+ but I was allowed to watch whatever the hell I chose, so I chose to watch lame teen horror movies. So when Scary Movie came out I was a lame teen and it was awesome. It was also the first dvd I ever bought so there's that as well. It wasn't the first dvd I ever owned, since when we first bought a computer with a dvd player and they were giving away a free dvd with the purchase, my mum decided A Knight's Tale was a good family-friendly idea, whereas I wanted to get the South Park movie. To this day I can't watch a Knight's Tale with any kind of enthusiasm.

I think things like the Scary Movies are great just from the value of having watched them with my friends and thinking about how only one of us thought a particular scene was so much funnier than the rest of us did, and from then on that scene makes you laugh like crazy thinking about how much it made your friend laugh. You know? ....yeah? Or am I weird? Maybe it's just that my friends have weird laughs.

[Reply #199 on:]

It wasn't the first dvd I ever owned, since when we first bought a computer with a dvd player and they were giving away a free dvd with the purchase, my mum decided A Knight's Tale was a good family-friendly idea, whereas I wanted to get the South Park movie. To this day I can't watch a Knight's Tale with any kind of enthusiasm.

First DVD I ever owned was Futurama season 1. Woooo!