Recently watched movies!

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

The Road Warrior

This is a really awesome movie, but I kinda wish I'd watched it a few weeks ago, before Fury Road. I'm mean, at the beginning of this month this movie was the highlight of the franchise, and now it's #2.

The thing that stands out with the Mad Max films is the real sense of danger during the action sequences. In most films, even ones where a hero gets injured or even killed, you still feel a kind of distance between the movie danger and the part of your brain that registers actual danger. Not so with the Mad Max films.

[lhb412]

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

This one is pretty divisive, huh? I thought it was good, I mean, it was a lot of fun. Nowhere near a masterpiece like Road Warrior and Fury Road, but very entertaining on it's own. You can see the seeds of George Miller becoming a maker of family films what with the child characters, animals (Babe?), and gentle whimsy. What's very interesting is how when viewed as a whole the series sees a primary creator exploring a few themes over and over, as well as developing a style.

- Mad Max is a zero budget, nihilistic action movie.
- The Road Warrior is an epic action masterpiece (what a difference two years and a bigger budget makes!) and more emotionally intelligent than it's predecessor.
- Beyond Thunderdome is a more concerned with worldbuilding, mythology, and has a hard edge softened by that aforementioned gentle whimsy.
- Fury Road takes all the lessons learned in making the three previous movies to go back to the hard edge, actioneer roots of the series, but with the worldbuiling and mythology we saw in Thunderdome and the wisdom of an older, less bloodthirsty artist - I mean, it's incredibly violent, but it's a film that always makes it clear why this violence is happening, what the cost of that violence is, ect. That's something missing in, like, 99% of action films.

The end result is a very satisfying franchise. I proclaim that it is both shiny and chrome.

[lhb412]

Rear Window

My favorite Hitchcock? Maybe. I rate it pretty much equal with Vertigo (and Northwest just below them).

[MekaGojira3k]

Finished the Andromeda Strain.
I vaguely remember this thing, but I really love this movie. It's not perfect, but damn is it good.
I still wanted the place to blow up. It would have been a better ending. For me.
BECAUSE I LIKE DOWNERS

[lhb412]

Mad Max: Fury Road

I LIVE. I DIE. I LIVE AGAIN!

[lhb412]

Brainstorm

Interesting, if not entirely successful '80s sci-fi flick with a great cast. It's about scientists who create a technology to record emotional experiences, which can then be played back to users, allowing them to relive what the recorded person went through. Natalie Wood died during production after completing most of her scenes, and that casts a sad shadow over the thing.

The most interesting thing is the technique of the film, with the real world in small, 35 mm picture with mono sound and for the sequences where people experience the recorded emotional experiences the screen expands to this huge, 65 mm picture with surround sound. I imagine the effect in the theater was rather awesome.

[XvGojira]

Tomorrowland - A really fun film. Not Bard Bird's best work, but a great little adventure film. The "message" is a bit heavy handed, especially with Hugh Laurie's character's monologue in the final act. But it's not enough to detract for the movie for me. But yeah the marketing on this should have been more of a quest/adventure and less "whimsical mystery".

[Psycho Soldier]

Fire and Ice - Not exactly substantial, but enjoyable. Mostly it suffers for lack of characterization, some plot contrivances, and some awkward pacing (especially at the start). But it's visually appealing, and the action scenes are decently handled. I also appreciate that Teegra is somewhat more than a damsel in distress - she does know how to handle herself every now and then. I only lament that Bakshi didn't adapt a Conan the Barbarian story. The movie was co-written by Roy Thomas, so they had the right man for the job.

[Dr Kain]

Double Indemnity - My second time seeing it and I loved it just as much as the first time a year ago. Excellent movie with great characters and a woman you can't help but hate. I give it a fantastic 9/10 as it does drag a bit in a few places.

Double Indemnity 1973 TV Remake - I'll be honest, I couldn't actually sit through all of this. I started fast forwarding through parts because it was painful to watch. There conversations that were there only because they were in the original even though they did not make sense with what was going on here. The acting was so damn wooden, but the worst was the sudden cuts in the film. It was like there were scenes that were cut for commercials and they never bothered to insert them back into the movie later. Not to mention the scene transitions were pretty bad too. Oh yeah, and the lighting was pretty bad. Even in what was supposed to be the dark everything was bright looking. I give this awful remake a 2/10.

[lhb412]

^I had no idea there was a remake! A few days ago I discovered that Rear Window also received a TV movie remake. I suppose when it's TV there's a greater chance of a film slipping through the cracks of history.

[Dr Kain]

[MekaGojira3k]

Watched Dinosaur 13 - Really cool documentary. Highly recommended for people who are interested in paleontology. Some cool info about the story of finding the Sue T-Rex skeleton.

[MekaGojira3k]

Jurassic Park - Still amazing. Some of the CG is beginning to age for me, but mostly everything is great. Love this film.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park - Eh. Wow, I dunno. I remember watching the VHS of this religiously, but I just really don't care for it. I think some people hate the rampage at the end, but that's the most interesting part of the film for me. I think it does help that I like Malcolm.

Watching JP3 tomorrow, we'll see what this mess is like then.

[jellydonut25]

I never got around to seeing John Carter during its theatrical run, or when it was released on home video, or when it aired on television or any time really until today.

It sucked. I was glad when it was over. The end.

[lhb412]

^I enjoyed it a lot. Liked the swashbuckling feel, liked the creatures, liked the framing story. The negatives to me were all the sequel set-up (which is like a corrosive gunk clinging to the film) and Dejah Thoris needed some more heroic moments.

[XvGojira]

[Psycho Soldier]

I'm on the pro-Carter side of things as well. I didn't feel it was spectacular, but it did justice to Burroughs and entertained me. I do wonder how the character and world would be regarded nowadays if Bob Clampett had finished his animated version. Between the 1930s and '50s, I feel, would have been the right time for them in mainstream cinema.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Man, Robert Wise is such an underrated director. He helmed one of the greatest musicals ever in West Side Story (as well as popular favorite The Sound of Music), directed the ultimate haunted house movie in The Haunting, and here he delivers one of the best science fiction movies!

Interesting stuff to chew on, too. It's anti-war, but does Klatuu actually have any moral high ground? A society based on a benevolent fascism with the power freely given to unfeeling machines instead of corruptible mortals? And then there's the entire Christ metaphor, now played-out in sci-fi and fantasy but probably never done as well as in here.

Some great performances, the film looks gorgeous, the design of the alien stuff is simple and iconic - and who doesn't love Gort? Gort is awesome!

[MekaGojira3k]

Jurassic Park 3 - I think it's the weakest of the trilogy, but I'd rather watch this than the Lost World. Probably because it felt as though while the raptors were still a focus, the Pteranodons and Spinosaurus sort of change things up enough to keep me interested.

The T-Rex/Spino fight sucks though.

[jellydonut25]

I have a hard time defending The Lost World, or explaining why I like it as much as I do, but I just like it is all.

JP3 is just so...EMPTY, to me.

[XvGojira]

I, Frankenstein - This looked like the biggest budgeted Scy-Fy movie I have ever seen. The movie starts and doesn't really stop for anything. In a dumb mindless way it's entertaining, but such a crappy crappy film.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Wolfcop - This is a movie that i watched. It has a werewolf, that is a cop.

Nightcrawler - I heard some award worthy buzz about this movie before it came out, then it came out and i didn't hear much about it after. I do have to say that for the better half of the movie Jake Gyllenhall is almost unrecognizable. He completely becomes this very odd character. It is definitely a testament to his acting ability. Worth checking out if you're into dramatic crime thrillers. It also makes me curious to see what Dan Gilroy can do behind the camera in the future