What was the last movie you saw?

[dv]

V for Vendetta.

Not a bad movie. And now I finally know what all those Anonymous people imagine they look like.

[Pithecanthropus]

Dr. No and Goldfinger. 'Nuff said.

[Séamas]

Dr. No and Goldfinger. 'Nuff said.

Not so fast!

Honey Ryder or kitty Galore?

[Pithecanthropus]

Jill Masterson! That first look at her is the stuff of pure fantasy.

[Séamas]

Good call.

[user]

The Dude abides.

[user]

Shut the fiddlesticks up, Donnie.

[DEyncourt]

NOTE: spoiler alert!

I finally saw Prometheus (2012).

Sheesh! What an awful mess!

From the opening premise (c'mon! A two-dimensional pattern of stars on handmade artwork from cultures from around the Earth separated by distance AND time? While the stars move only slowly they still do move, so enough time will ruin any pattern. Since the ship Prometheus travels only about 36 light years and yet the pattern is supposedly not viewable from the Earth without instruments, the stars involved would likely be gravitationally bound to each other further complicating the preservation of that pattern)...

...to the end (Shaw wants to go look for the civilization that created the "alien" ship but how exactly will she do this? Even supposing that she can use the suspended animation tanks onboard since the (let me call them) Progenitors match humans in DNA and thus spend most of her travel time in stasis, she will need SOME human supplies unless the robot David can somehow reprogram the onboard food production units to provide usable food)...

...the movie does some really awful things with the supposed science, and the plot seems a mash of unrelated points partially suffering from a cast which--aside from Shaw, the robot David and Peter Weyland--are barely distinguishable from each other (for which I blame the script).

I can go on and on with the problems:

The "hill" is open to the atmosphere but yet within its structure there isn't a dangerously high level of carbon dioxide such that the human crew can go around inside without their helmets on, so warning: currently active equipment! Proceed with great caution.

Vickers (played by Charlize Theron) had installed an expensive medical/surgical autobot onboard Prometheus, and yet when Shaw uses it she gets a warning that this is an experimental device that is programmed for only male medical problems with nothing for abortions. You would think that the economically high-powered Vickers ("My company paid a trillion dollars to find this place and to bring you here") would have noticed THAT problem.

The fact that the Progenitors and humans have matching DNA should have raised all sorts of warning flags for the medical crew since any surviving bugs from a structure that was raised only about 2000 years ago might find humans palatable.

During the crash sequence of the Progenitors' ship I suppose that in a panic it might not have occured to Vickers and Shaw to run diagonally out of the rolling path.

After that crash why would the Progenitor pilot go after Shaw? Why not run to another ship and use its resources to track her down or at least determine that she was stuck on the planet and leave to complete his mission?

About the only good thing I can say about the movie was that I wasn't bored (and not because I was actively spotting problems--that comes naturally to me and hasn't prevented me from nodding off in boredom at other movies).

Hmm...there is an IMDB entry for Prometheus 2 with Rapace and Fastbender reprising their roles of Shaw and David, though as I type this there isn't much more than that info on that page.

[Metacell]

Prometheus was my favorite movie from 2012. Can't wait for the sequel. I've known since the first Alien movie that there was nothing scientifically realistic about it's fictional universe.

[DukeofNuke]

... lots of stuff ...

Dude, it's a MOVIE. I mean, did you hate Star Wars because the physics of Lightsabres is impossible ?





(disclamer: I have yet to watch Prometheus, but it IS on my list.)

[Séamas]

Toy Story and Toy Story 2


It's hard to believe that the first one is 18 years old --though it does have the look of those early digital animation shorts by Pixar.
We took notice to the references to the old shorts Tin Toy, Red's Dream and Geri's Game and other in the movies.

Good storytelling throughout.

[user]

I had a copy on VHS of Toy Story shortly after it came out and played it for a girlfriend, who kept exclaiming "Do you know how expensive it must have been to make this!!"

[Pithecanthropus]

Continuing on with the James Bond movies that have come up on Netflix, we watched Thunderball last night and I have a new favorite Bond girl: Domino.

[DEyncourt]

... lots of stuff ...

Dude, it's a MOVIE. I mean, did you hate Star Wars because the physics of Lightsabres is impossible ?





(disclamer: I have yet to watch Prometheus, but it IS on my list.)

The problem is that for science fiction and fantasy--and not just movies but for all versions--there is always a certain amount of suspended disbelief that is always allowed. Sure, there is nothing in current physics that would allow Star Wars light sabres to exist, but for the purposes Star Wars' science fantasy (a more appropriate term for Star Wars because of its blending of chivalric action in a pseudo-futuristic setting) such is only a very minor point in the overall movie. You grant that something allows light sabres to work the way they do and ignore that problem henceforth while reading/watching any part of the Star Wars universe.

Prometheus, on the other hand, is just a mess. From its opening sequence attempting to explain why the ship has gone to where it goes the movie simply fails and it goes down from there. The plot is incoherent with simple characters acting one way in one scene then the opposite in the next. There are plot elements which make no sense: a pair of the minor characters decide to bug out of mound structure but get lost inside despite having direct radio communication with the ship (the crew of which can track individuals who carry their own beacons) and floating drones which are mapping the structure's interior: "Hey, Prometheus--which way do we go now?" These guys are lost for hours (within the movie) so they can be sacrificed later only to advance the plot. This convenience and the others I've pointed out are problems with the script that have nothing to do with suspended disbelief.

[Metacell]

I loved that whole sequence. It's also a horror movie, which means people have to do really stupid things that result in the worst possible outcome. It happens in Alien and Aliens as well. In each movie there's two or three sensible people surrounded by villains and idiots (just like at YOUR JOB). Watch them again if you don't believe me. Overall, I found an extremely well done economy of pacing and plot development with very little lag time.

[Metacell]

Anyway, last film I saw was the Evil Dead remake. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but I did, though as Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell both helped produce it, I shouldn't have had such low expectations. It's nowhere near as creative as the crazily low-budget original, but it is glossy and well-directed. There is some occasionally beautiful supernatural imagery. It's also brutally violent and gory like the original, and less like the slapsticky sequels. There are a lot of cringe-inspiring moments.

I am thankful they chose not to include a new Ash character, the guy assigned more-or-less to his place in the story was kind of a drippy pretty boy, but they went a different direction with the characters. I was OK with it.

[user]

I loved that whole sequence. It's also a horror movie, which means people have to do really stupid things that result in the worst possible outcome. It happens in Alien and Aliens as well.

Forget the damn cat!

[cyclops]

Olympus Has Fallen. Quite a good movie. I ask though - is it just me, or between this and GI Joe, does it seem that movies about the US and North Korea blowing each other up seem to be becoming a trend?

[DukeofNuke]

In USSR, this might be an ominous omen;
In Hollywood, it's just the Black Hat of the day ...

[dv]

In USSR, this might be an ominous omen;
In Hollywood, it's just the Black Hat of the day ...

Pretty much. It's been "terrorists" of one stripe or another since the USSR fell. They got bored and NK attracted media attention to themselves, so... new face, old story.

[Metacell]

Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror (2006)

I won't try to convince anyone this a good movie. But I enjoyed it immensely. It's basically a remake of 1995's Tales From the Hood, one of the finest blaxploitation movie's ever made from the postmodern era. All of the stories are different, but it's essentially the same kind of EC comics horror morality tale anthology, but with Snoop Dogg as host.

And despite all the 40oz through the skull, rednecks impaled on their own bullhorn car ornament, rappers facing the wrath of God, vampire ho' suckoff frenzy, I found an underlying old-fashioned sweetness to this movie that convinces me that Snoop Dogg's whole "Ghetto-Godfather" schtick is just theater and that he's just a down to Earth ordinary fellow (as if we hadn't already learned that from Bones.)

A perfect movie after a couple of Brew's (and a spliff in my younger days) after a hard week's work.

[obvs]

Django Unchained.

I liked it very much. I didn't really think Inglourious Basterds was good compared to other Quentin Tarantino movies I'd seen, but this one was very entertaining.

[Freakout Jackson]

Trouble with the Curve.
Whole family loved it

[dv]

Iron Man: Technovore is horrible.

But maybe I just don't appreciate the culture baggage that comes with watching anime.

Oh well, in 45 minutes, I can watch Django.

[dv]

Django is stick fiddling hilarious.

[rjprice]

Seven Psychopaths

I'm not sure what I expected but I don't think this was it. Still, not bad. A few decent laughs. Tries a bit too hard to be cute.

[dv]

Iron Man 3...

not bad.

[rjprice]

Metal Tornado

Ladies and gentlemen, Greg Evigan is back - without question, his finest work since Barnaby Jones.

[justine]

Pineapple Express. Again. This is my top 10 all time favs.

[Freakout Jackson]

Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries & Mentors of Ricky Jay
Was introduced to RJ by the 1993 article that inspired the movie. Go see it if you can. The guy is a national treasure.

[DEyncourt]

Oooh, thanks for the reminder. Somehow I forgot about that Ricky Jay movie.

[Colonel Panic]

Safety Not Guaranteed.
Loved it.

[Lombo]

Django Unchained !

Off the hook

[j_tso]

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I liked it. It's got lots of humor and action, plus many references to the old shows/movies.

[DukeofNuke]

any Klingons ?

[justine]

I watched Blind Date last night. It's old, but it's still pretty funny.

[j_tso]

any Klingons ?

yep.

[TOS]

"monsters," caught it on netflix

went into it expecting pulpy silliness but actually i really enjoyed it ... surprisingly it's quite soulful and pretty

[TOS]

the 9th company

russian flick about the war in afghanistan ... really excellent and interesting

not being a hollywood movie [spoiler]they're not afraid to waste half the cast[/spoiler]

but it follows the familiar story ... from civilians to recruits to green soldiers to veterans

really interesting to see the russian version, though, with often brutal training (drill sergeant beating the crap out of recruits for instance, or forcing recruits to punch each other's lights out)

anyway a good flick, worth watching .... i know you were sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for my opinion

[jkahless]

Watched the recent Andromeda Strain miniseries. Utter dreck. It was about as subtle as a .45 to the brainpan. It's ok to have a moral, it's not ok to have one of the characters say "You know what the moral of this story is?" and then explain what had already been so heavy handedly put across.

I can forgive a lot of cheese and ham if it's well done, but it's not even well executed cheese, I was actually bored during the climax. Pity, the book was so good. I'll have to track down the earlier film adaptation and give that a try.