Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Robo]

I don't get the inconsistency with the lengths of final cuts.  It's fine that a Pirates of the Caribbean movie needs nearly 3 hours to make a modicum of sense, but a blockbuster with an ensemble cast from an established filmmaker gets strangled at two hours.  Why?

[Mupepe]

I don't get the inconsistency with the lengths of final cuts.  It's fine that a Pirates of the Caribbean movie needs nearly 3 hours to make a modicum of sense, but a blockbuster with an ensemble cast from an established filmmaker gets strangled at two hours.  Why?

Target audiences tend to have a lower attention span when it comes to sci fi from what I've seen.  If it doesn't have non stop action and SFX then it's boring.  Basically it comes down to the shitty taste of general audiences.

[Great Rumbler]

I don't get the inconsistency with the lengths of final cuts.  It's fine that a Pirates of the Caribbean movie needs nearly 3 hours to make a modicum of sense, but a blockbuster with an ensemble cast from an established filmmaker gets strangled at two hours.  Why?

Pirates = Established franchise with guaranteed bank, PG-13, bankable stars with broad appeal, broad appeal in general [swashbuckling adventure vs. high-minded science fiction with some horror], not released by 20th Century Fox.

[Eric P]

i think "not released by 20th Century Fox" is the highlight of that statement

[Great Rumbler]

i think "not released by 20th Century Fox" is the highlight of that statement

Indeed.

[Mupepe]

20th Century Fox

[Great Rumbler]

It's a miracle that Scott managed to squeeze an R rating out of them, or, really, to get them to make the movie at all.

[Joe Molotov]

Just look what they did Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. 

[BlueTsunami]

I don't get the inconsistency with the lengths of final cuts.  It's fine that a Pirates of the Caribbean movie needs nearly 3 hours to make a modicum of sense, but a blockbuster with an ensemble cast from an established filmmaker gets strangled at two hours.  Why?

And Scott has a history of this shit. Its crazy. And he's obviously not rolling over on other aspects but why is he allowing his vision to be whittled down?

[Verdigris Murder]

Jew-hammers made of money.

[Mupepe]

He's also sort of spotty on his record for producing real profits it seems.  Checking out BOM it seems like it's a 50/50 chance with him.

[Atramental]

Saw Prometheus tonight. Thought it was pretty coo'.

My expectations for this film were moderately low so I didn't feel totally buggered by it like some people.

[Himu]

PROMETHEUS!!!

[The Sceneman]

Jew-hammers made of money.

I read that Hollywood is controlled by a homosexual Jewish Mafia. You need to lick some ass to make millions and get famous.

[Diunx]

Double Viggo and in spanish!

[Bebpo]

Moonrise Kingdom

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wasn't sure what to expect going in since I felt Anderson's been down from his A game for a few years now.  Darjeeling felt like a step down from his top era and Mr. Fox was cute but not as good as his live action.  But DAMN, this was SO GOOD.  Everything about it was perfect.  Great script, acting, directing, cinematography, wonderful music, consistently funny, great coming of age story.  Might be his best film yet.  Would need to re-watch Rushmore/Tenabaum/Life Aquatic and give this a 2nd watch as well to compare.  But just the fact that it's up there with his best is the biggest praise I can give.

Pretty sure this will be the best film I see in 2012.  Going to be real hard to beat this.  The entire audience stuck through the whole credits just out of appreciation for such a GREAT movie it was.

[Bebpo]

Picked up the soundtrack and it had an interesting detail about the origin of the movie in the liner notes:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Already can't wait for the Blu-ray.  This is a movie I definitely want to watch again.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I dont remember any songs from it :/

[Eric P]

The Caller.  This is a pretty original concept for modern horror.  It kind of feels like an old Twilight Zone episode until the end when the film gets a bit too "modern horror movie" compared to the rest of the film. 

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Caller/70181729?trkid=2361637

Good concept, pretty good execution of that concept, a few missteps here and there (I didn't like the husband character at all) and though the end goes over the top, i think that's mostly a failure in execution rather than in concept.

Worth a watch if you're a horror fan.

I would normally link the trailer, but the trailer gives way too much away.  Go in cold.

[fistfulofmetal]

reading stuff about Prometheus. sounds like a really polarizing movie. not something that literally everyone will find enjoyment in. that actually sounds pretty cool to me because that means the people that will like it will really like it.

[Bebpo]

16 year old guy in avatar = loli?   


But I won't deny that if you like anime you will enjoy Moonrise Kingdom even more.  I was thinking afterwards about how Moonrise Kingdom really feels like what would happen if you took one of the more down to earth Ghibli films like Whispers of the Heart and combined it with Rushmore.  It's that same kind of charming coming of age comedy/drama that Ghibli does with the eccentricities, quirkiness, and great style of a Wes Anderson film.  I wonder if Wes Anderson likes Ghibli and has taken some influence from their films.  It's probably the closest to a live-action Ghibli film we'll ever get.

[Eric P]

Zoolander: still fucking awesome.  Though the list of celebrities who made cameos in this and then went on to embarrass themselves is long long long...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoolander#Cameos

[Trurl]

To be honest I think a lot of people are unfairly holding it up to Alien and even romanticizing certain aspects of Alien.  Sorry.  I didn't really give a shit about any of the characters in Alien.  They're not particularly developed.  They still make absurdly stupid decisions.  But the movie itself is great for other reasons.  And I think so much has changed in the film industry that Fox was not going to let something like Alien come out now.  They definitely widened the audience by quickening the pacing and there are obviously complete scenes missing from the film.  The ball gets rolling way too quickly IMO.  But with a production budget of $130 million or so for an R rated sci fi movie I'd imagine they fought pretty hard against any risks.  I guarantee Fox demanded bigger and more epic.  Not the claustrophobic sci fi thriller Aien was.  And if most of those gaffers applied that much nitpicking to any sci fi movie they could tear it to pieces.  *shrug*  It definitely has its issues but internet warriors are applying typical nerd backlash to it IMO.  It's not a classic (maybe with a Director's Cut) but it's solid and a breath of fresh air in a world of PG-13 quasi sci fi movies.

Thank you.  So many movies get a pass these days for being utterly mindless roller coaster rides and I don't get why Prometheus is being held to such unreasonable standards.  It managed to be scary, thought provoking, exciting, beautiful, disturbing and be the kind of movie that people debate the entire way back from the theater.  How many other major movies in any given year accomplish all of that?

This backlash is the last thing I expected after seeing the movie Thursday night.  Granted, the "backlash" is probably confined to little more than the nerdiest parts of the internet.

[Verdigris Murder]

The Divide - I thought this was actually really cool, dark, character drama/thriller from the director of Frontier(s). It kind of plays out like one of those stories you would read when hunting through abandoned vaults in Fallout 3. Basically the story takes place during a nuclear fallout in New York where a group of survivors hold up in their superintendent's bomb shelter (the super being played by Michael Biehn). As time passes some of the group began suffering from radioactive poisoning and things begin to slip into madness. I could easily see this film not being for everyone as it get into some really dark and uncomfortable territory towards the end with barely any moments of levity, but I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way to the very end. Definitely worth a watch if you're into small scale character dramas where everything slowly descends into chaos.


I watched this, the beginning is great. But the rest is unrealistic. 5/10.

[ManaByte]

To put it succinctly, Prometheus is a $200 million remake of Galaxy of Terror. Which I don't have a problem with.

It's At the Mountains of Madness. So much so that Del Toro says that's why he's not going to try to do that movie anymore.

[Himu]

People are complaining about the characters or lack of characterization, but are the characters in Alien really that much better? I can't remember any of them except the Captain, Ripley, and the android. If anything, Prometheus' problem is that it never escalates in action; it builds up to extremely interesting scenes, but never really turns into anything flat out awesome that blows me away.

For example:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ending section where the Engineer thrusts inside the building as Elizabeth checks out her "baby" is short and anti-climatic. Shaw struggles for a few moments, but then conveniently unleashes the hentai tentacle monster on him. No chase, no fight, just a short 15 second struggle and he's out of her hair.

[close]

I can't be the only one who had severe blue balls from that confrontation, but like I said, I think this is just one flaw that detracts from a very great film.

[Bebpo]

Mirror, Mirror

The other half of the Tarsem less-than-stellar movie double feature that was Immortals/Mirror, Mirror.  On one side you got a just sort of average movie with fantastic visual design for guys who want to see Olympian Gods smashing dudes faces in with a hammer, on the other side you got a just sort of average movie with fantastic visual design for teenage girls who want to see a cutsey romance with a strong female lead and a half-naked prince.


The first 30 mins are terrrrible.  But once she gets to the Dwarves, it's an alright movie thanks to the dwarves being good, fun actors.  The visuals in the movie are awesome as expected from Tarsem, though you can tell he made this on the cheap and quick as there's only like 5-7 sets in the whole film.  The story isn't even bad in itself, it's a neat spin on the Snow White tale with some neat 4th wall breaking, such as:

"I've read too many tales of princesses who get saved by the handsome young prince in the end.  It's time to change things around"
"No, you can't mess with the story!  It's true and proven, focus-tested, and it works!"

The problem is that the dialogue in most of the script is AWFUL and the acting is some of the worst I've seen in decades.  It's soooo poorly acted that the tone is all over the place and it never really hits that Terry Gilliam's Munchausen meets Snow White that it's aiming for. 

It's...ok, but unlike Immortals which I can recommend to my buddies for the visuals despite weak script, I can't really recommend Mirror, Mirror to them in the same way.  Probably because they aren't teenage girls and I think that's the only audience that would really enjoy Mirror, Mirror.


They also break into a bad pop song for the ending credits  :'(

[Mupepe]

To be honest I think a lot of people are unfairly holding it up to Alien and even romanticizing certain aspects of Alien.  Sorry.  I didn't really give a shit about any of the characters in Alien.  They're not particularly developed.  They still make absurdly stupid decisions.  But the movie itself is great for other reasons.  And I think so much has changed in the film industry that Fox was not going to let something like Alien come out now.  They definitely widened the audience by quickening the pacing and there are obviously complete scenes missing from the film.  The ball gets rolling way too quickly IMO.  But with a production budget of $130 million or so for an R rated sci fi movie I'd imagine they fought pretty hard against any risks.  I guarantee Fox demanded bigger and more epic.  Not the claustrophobic sci fi thriller Aien was.  And if most of those gaffers applied that much nitpicking to any sci fi movie they could tear it to pieces.  *shrug*  It definitely has its issues but internet warriors are applying typical nerd backlash to it IMO.  It's not a classic (maybe with a Director's Cut) but it's solid and a breath of fresh air in a world of PG-13 quasi sci fi movies.

Thank you.  So many movies get a pass these days for being utterly mindless roller coaster rides and I don't get why Prometheus is being held to such unreasonable standards.  It managed to be scary, thought provoking, exciting, beautiful, disturbing and be the kind of movie that people debate the entire way back from the theater.  How many other major movies in any given year accomplish all of that?

This backlash is the last thing I expected after seeing the movie Thursday night.  Granted, the "backlash" is probably confined to little more than the nerdiest parts of the internet.

People are complaining about the characters or lack of characterization, but are the characters in Alien really that much better? I can't remember any of them except the Captain, Ripley, and the android. If anything, Prometheus' problem is that it never escalates in action; it builds up to extremely interesting scenes, but never really turns into anything flat out awesome that blows me away.

For example:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ending section where the Engineer thrusts inside the building as Elizabeth checks out her "baby" is short and anti-climatic. Shaw struggles for a few moments, but then conveniently unleashes the hentai tentacle monster on him. No chase, no fight, just a short 15 second struggle and he's out of her hair.

[close]

I can't be the only one who had severe blue balls from that confrontation, but like I said, I think this is just one flaw that detracts from a very great film.

Completely agreed on both.  The nitpicking going on is insane.  No doubt it has its issues.  But to act like it's garbage with no redeeming value is crazy.  It's definitely one of the better blockbusters to come out in recent memory. 

Why do nerds want to hate the things that they get so excited for?  Is it because they build up such ridiculous expectations that they can never be met?  If this movie were left to the people in the GAF thread it'd be one boring fucking movie watching a bunch of people who "realistically" over analyze every little thing and avoid anything of excitement.  It's like they didn't actually want to watch a movie at all.

[Bebpo]

When I see Prometheus sometime in the next week or so I'm going into the movie expecting the worst fucking movie to ever exist that chops your cock off if you are an alien fan going by all the impressions from everyone.

If it's better than that and I still have my cock when it's over, I will be impressed.

[Himu]

I honestly don't see how ANY sci-fi film nerd like myself could take issue with Prometheus even WITH its issues. I haven't seen a sci-fi film in theaters in whoever knows how long.

I"m still trying to figure out the significance of the Lawrence of Arabia clip. Someone help me.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is it supposed to show that David's knowledge of humanity comes directly from cinema or is it supposed to say much more than that?

[close]

[Himu]

To be honest I think a lot of people are unfairly holding it up to Alien and even romanticizing certain aspects of Alien.  Sorry.  I didn't really give a shit about any of the characters in Alien.  They're not particularly developed.  They still make absurdly stupid decisions.  But the movie itself is great for other reasons.  And I think so much has changed in the film industry that Fox was not going to let something like Alien come out now.  They definitely widened the audience by quickening the pacing and there are obviously complete scenes missing from the film.  The ball gets rolling way too quickly IMO.  But with a production budget of $130 million or so for an R rated sci fi movie I'd imagine they fought pretty hard against any risks.  I guarantee Fox demanded bigger and more epic.  Not the claustrophobic sci fi thriller Aien was.  And if most of those gaffers applied that much nitpicking to any sci fi movie they could tear it to pieces.  *shrug*  It definitely has its issues but internet warriors are applying typical nerd backlash to it IMO.  It's not a classic (maybe with a Director's Cut) but it's solid and a breath of fresh air in a world of PG-13 quasi sci fi movies.

Thank you.  So many movies get a pass these days for being utterly mindless roller coaster rides and I don't get why Prometheus is being held to such unreasonable standards.  It managed to be scary, thought provoking, exciting, beautiful, disturbing and be the kind of movie that people debate the entire way back from the theater.  How many other major movies in any given year accomplish all of that?

This backlash is the last thing I expected after seeing the movie Thursday night.  Granted, the "backlash" is probably confined to little more than the nerdiest parts of the internet.

People are complaining about the characters or lack of characterization, but are the characters in Alien really that much better? I can't remember any of them except the Captain, Ripley, and the android. If anything, Prometheus' problem is that it never escalates in action; it builds up to extremely interesting scenes, but never really turns into anything flat out awesome that blows me away.

For example:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ending section where the Engineer thrusts inside the building as Elizabeth checks out her "baby" is short and anti-climatic. Shaw struggles for a few moments, but then conveniently unleashes the hentai tentacle monster on him. No chase, no fight, just a short 15 second struggle and he's out of her hair.

[close]

I can't be the only one who had severe blue balls from that confrontation, but like I said, I think this is just one flaw that detracts from a very great film.

Completely agreed on both.  The nitpicking going on is insane.  No doubt it has its issues.  But to act like it's garbage with no redeeming value is crazy.  It's definitely one of the better blockbusters to come out in recent memory. 

Why do nerds want to hate the things that they get so excited for?  Is it because they build up such ridiculous expectations that they can never be met?  If this movie were left to the people in the GAF thread it'd be one boring fucking movie watching a bunch of people who "realistically" over analyze every little thing and avoid anything of excitement.  It's like they didn't actually want to watch a movie at all.

because nerds are good at sperging and picking holes. It's what we do.

[Great Rumbler]

I haven't seen a sci-fi film in theaters in whoever knows how long.

Probably the last scifi movie [as in outerspace, big ideas scifi movie] I saw in theaters was Moon and that's been nearly 3 years ago.

[Himu]

Same. Time to bitch out the only film of its genre in the past few years because of a flawed script like assholes!

[Great Rumbler]

Same. Time to bitch out the only film of its genre in the past few years because of a flawed script like assholes!

I bet the same people slobbered all over Avatar.

[Himu]

To be fair, I LIKE Avatar. Because as said before, I am a sci-fi geek, and I have a HARD ON for that shit. And to Cameron's credit, at least Avatar didn't have plot holes or anything. It was simple, sure. But entertaining and straightforward. I can appreciate that, but I like a sci-fi film like Prometheus more. In fact, I'd go as to say that Prometheus reactions are PROOF it's a great sci-fi film, because only a great sci-fi film bring out nerds picking that shit to death in an attempt to understand its story. That's not to say it's not flawed, because it is, but it certainly had impact, which is what I think every great sci-fi film should set out to do.

[Great Rumbler]

To be fair, I LIKE Avatar.

I do too, but Avatar often feels like it never really embraces its scifi nature, if that makes sense. It's less a tale of the future, exploration of what it means to be human in a brand new world, and so on, and more of a very clear allegory for colonial expansion and defense of native peoples [with scifi trappings]. Like I would probably enjoy it more if it dealt more with the main character slowly losing sight of who he really is and becoming consumed by his new life and less about a huge war between the military and natives. Prometheus leans more towards what I want from my scifi movies.

[Himu]

Completely agreed.

[cool breeze]

Prometheus

Nice looking, badly written.   

[Himu]

The editing is worse than the script. Surprised people are so offended by the writing and not confused by some of the editing around the middle.

[cool breeze]

I was going to, but that's something that might be fixed in a director's cut.  Long term thinking here. 

also, it is the best 3D movie.

[Himu]

Man, I can only hope this gets a directors cut

[Spurgeon]

I enjoyed Prometheus as well. It met my expectations, but they were realistic in the first place. I just hope it has box-office legs to prove to the studios that R-rated sci-fi is viable.

[Shaka Khan]

Saw Moonrise Kingdom. It's good if you like Wes Anderson. Not my favorite, but good. I admit the 12 year old girl in make up and her underwear made me a bit uncomfortable but Wes broke the tension well.

I haven't seen a single Wes movie, and while the Internet is abuzz by how good it is, the bore's reaction so far has been kinda lukewarm. Everyone agrees that it's well-made, but in order to understand the pitfalls, you have to watch his other movies.

I'm going to see tomorrow with someone, I really hope it's right up our allies.

[Great Rumbler]

I want a 3-hour director's cut. Make it happen, Ridley Scott.

[Shaka Khan]

Moonrise Kingdom

A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wasn't sure what to expect going in since I felt Anderson's been down from his A game for a few years now.  Darjeeling felt like a step down from his top era and Mr. Fox was cute but not as good as his live action.  But DAMN, this was SO GOOD.  Everything about it was perfect.  Great script, acting, directing, cinematography, wonderful music, consistently funny, great coming of age story.  Might be his best film yet.  Would need to re-watch Rushmore/Tenabaum/Life Aquatic and give this a 2nd watch as well to compare.  But just the fact that it's up there with his best is the biggest praise I can give.

Pretty sure this will be the best film I see in 2012.  Going to be real hard to beat this.  The entire audience stuck through the whole credits just out of appreciation for such a GREAT movie it was.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[Himu]

I enjoyed Prometheus as well. It met my expectations, but they were realistic in the first place. I just hope it has box-office legs to prove to the studios that R-rated sci-fi is viable.

good lord yes

if this bombs because homos are complaining about its flaws, driving away potential viewers, i will rage

[Joe Molotov]

Estimates are putting it at around $21.5 million for Friday, which puts it's a scoach ahead of Madagascar 3 at least. (although M3 will probably hold up better through Saturday and Sunday)

[Bebpo]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

If you like it you should check out his other films.  Some great ones in there.  Life Aquatic is kind of messy as a film and not his best, but it's absolutely hilarious movie with incredible characters from William Dafoe and Bill Murray that I would recommend.  Rushmore/Royal Tenenbaums are his classics though.  Darjeeling is mixed like Life Aquatic; I didn't like it that much but I should give it a second watch.  Bottle Rocket kind of sucks though, you can skip that one.

[Bebpo]

21 Jump Street (2011 version)

Pretty funny.  Was less funny towards the end where it got more focused on action/plot, but was an enjoyable comedy with some really clever humor spread throughout. 

[Mr. Gundam]

I enjoyed Prometheus, not really understanding the hate aside from it's the duty of internet fanboys to hate things.

[brob]

It's an enjoyable film, but (unfairly) compared to Alien it does feel a bit limp in the writing department. particularly with regards to how many story threads there are and how well these are developed. Also characters acting dumb in order to advance the plot, but that's pretty much a non-issue in a action film for me.

In other news, Under Siege is probably Steven Segal's best film. Such a fine work.

[fistfulofmetal]

Chronicle

pretty good

[patrickula]

I liked Prometheus too, very enjoyable with some really great bits (and a few bad ones).
My thoughts aren't really that spoilery buuut...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I went in with lowered expectations and right from the first scene I knew not to expect realistic or believable sci-fi (if that even exists in big budget movies). It's not like The Thing or Alien really 100% make any sense either, but they're great "sci-fi" horror movies in their own way.
I think the problem with this movie for some viewers (aside from insane expectations) is that the script kept begging for people to ask "Why?", but the script also had sections that said "Who cares" or, more through implication, "don't ask" which may be the ultimate point.

I definitely got the Lovecraft vibe that's been mentioned. I've been reading some of that stuff (which nerds of course don't have the same problems with) and from what I've read none of that shit really makes sense either, and characters do stupid stuff for no real reason... but it's fun! And the scenes that work really worked for me.

Fassbender was great and I think the gimmick with his performance was great. There are definitely parts of the script that seemed way smarter than others. I thought all of the acting was at least pretty good.

I'm not sure I like where the possible sequel may be going but I'm definitely curious. Hopefully it will be made.

If there is a director's cut out there, I do wonder if that could address some of the complaints and flesh out the movie in a good way. Kingdom of Heaven wasn't bad as a director's cut (though it was certainly long). The inclusion of Lawrence of Arabia is interesting in that light (though it went unmentioned so I'm probably reaching). Imagine if they'd cut that movie down to two hours... it would certainly be more exciting but you'd miss a lot of of what makes that movie great.

I've been known to nitpick movies that I don't really enjoy (like Inception) but this was better executed and more successfully pushed my buttons than most of those other hyped movies that receive nerd hype (and varying amounts of backlash). In the wrong hands this script could have made a truly atrocious movie.

[close]

[Mr. Gundam]

Anyone else think that

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the engineers decided to wipe out humanity cause we killed Jesus? Things were going good, then we start to get out of hand so they send a dude down to try to get us back on track, but he gets crucified and that's the final straw. Seemed pretty obvious, what with the carbon dating going back 2,000 years (roughly 80 AD). Wife and I were talking about this theory on the drive home. I haven't read anything about the film online, so I have no idea if others are thinking this, but I'm guessing so.

[close]

[brob]

Scott or the writer has basically said as much in a interview from what I gather.

[Mr. Gundam]

Scott or the writer has basically said as much in a interview from what I gather.

I just went into the GAF thread and saw that that's pretty much the case. People are totally pissed about it, too. Oh teh noes you got religion in my sci-fi.

[brob]

gaf thread for popular nerd thing is hella shitty. surprise.

[Eric P]

Ganja and Hess.  This was just released on Blu Ray after MoMA did a restoration on the "uncut" version (film spliced back together restoring 17 minutes or so).  Film is really experimental and to be honest was kind of hard to follow.  I was only able to grasp the barest of plot, because it was kind of a like the film equivalent of a shoegaze album; simple ideas driven in through repetition but with resonance and reverberation to open it up and explore itself a bit.  I loved it, but want to give it a few more viewings to make certain that I got everything.



spoiler: there's hella male nudity in this.

[Dickie Dee]

http://disney.go.com/wreck-it-ralph/#/fixitfelix

Can't play it at the moment though

[Great Rumbler]

It worked for me.