What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

Watched Terror Train (Jamie Lee Curtis, circa 1980) last night for Halloween.
 
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Did 30 Days of Night last night

I thought it was a pretty fun movie, the girls were scared and grossed outta their wits tho. I guess my tolerance is growing because not even any of the jump parts got me. I think it was cool for a vampire flick, nothin I'd buy tho unless it was 5.00 bargain bin.

I think that overall it was a pretty cool movie as I said, but I think the vampires were a little overdone in their evil. What I mean was, pretty much every time you see them, they are "blaring evil": heads back, mouths open, roaring evil. It's just overkill. I know theyre trying to make them like "feral" and all that, but even pissed-off animals that are in combat mode (ears back, jaws open and menacing all around them) chill out after a few mins and wet their teeth again. They dont just walk around hissing and baring their teeth constantly. I'm exaggerating a little, they werent ALWAYS like that, it just seemed to me like they were too much tho, and it started looking corny.

Again, like I said, I know I'm jaded. It scared the girls, so it worked. It just left me saying "yeah yeah I know, youre so scawwy. Brush your teeth, will ya?"

Nice gore tho, and you gotta love when that big guy goes all apeshit on them with that huge tractor with the saw on front or whatever (forgive me I have no clue what that particular piece of equipment is called)
 
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That's a trencher, Sammy. Thinking back, that was one of the better scenes in the show.
 
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Crappy weather this weekend ...

Flags of Our Fathers (5/5) - very well done and OK for all of the family - my wife hates war movies and my kids are still young. This was really nicely done.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (5/5) - I refuse to acknowledge the 'Indiana Jones' added to the front in true Lucas style ... this was my kids' first time seeing it and they LOVED it. Still a true classic!

Fahrenheit 451 (1.5 / 5) - the book is always better, but this one is an extreme case. On the good side it was the first time the whole family watched a 'play now' title on Netflix, and I think we'll do more of it.
 
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Watched 1408 and Elisabeth: The golden age at the (pathetic) local cinema of this godforsaken small town.

1408 is a competent horror flick that does its thing well and that I give 4/5.

Elisabeth OTOH was a disappointment (I enjoyed the first one about her early reign). I can live with ahistoricity, but the whole plot is soapified and told in an incoherent and disjointed way, with way too much exaggerated and overtly transparent symbolism. 2/5...
 
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Thanks for the tip on Elizabeth, Zaleukos--I had thought about it. Will stick w/#1.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably my favorite Lucas flick--It ages well, too.

We finally got around to watching Ghost Ship and it was decent--a better cast would have helped, but it was competent and had some originality to the supernatural element--maybe a 3/5. Tomorrow it's slapstick horror with Pirates of the Caribbean:Black Pearl. :)
 
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We finally got around to watching Ghost Ship and it was decent--a better cast would have helped, but it was competent and had some originality to the supernatural element--maybe a 3/5.
I'll agree pretty much across the board. I guess I just gave more "bonus points" for the originality angle.

You might want to skip my "Thirteen Ghosts" rec. It falls under that same class--average cast (slightly better known than "Ghost Ship", but no Oscar performances), average script, but novel concept. That one's quite a bit more gory, which may or may not appeal.

I think one of the best parts of "Raiders" was where Indy shoots the scimitar guy. The funny thing is that the script called for a wild sword fight but Harrison Ford got some funky bug and could barely stand up when that scene was supposed to be filmed. Lucas rewrote the scene to minimize Ford's activity and you end up with one of the better scenes in the movie, IMO.
 
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if you're in the mood for thirteens i would recommend thirteenth floor. it came out before the matrix i think, though i might be remembering wrong.

actually without getting into a philosophical political discussion, seeing that indy clip in studio promos recently has made me almost upset with it. he has the honour to fight demon worshipers and nazis hand to hand, but when there is a turban wearing arab there is somehow a convienient excuse to just gun the guy down. sometimes laziness can still be a racial insult even if there was no intention in its action. like i said it may be reading a bit into it to much, but that moment in the movie is for me at least soiled. good thing the rest of the movie is a gem. personally my favourite work of lucas's is willow--probably my favourite fantasy movie ever made.

watched the first ~15 minutes (opening scene) of 28 weeks later last weekend and left the room. i enjoyed 28 days later immensely dispite being turned off by the last quarter of it. this movie however was horrible. came back in a bit later and my s.o. finally had enough with it as well. she recounted what happened and i was glad i hadn't continued. i like horror, but i prefer mine to be either non-human "bad guys" or "camp style" rather than shaking camera and ultra grotesque like the majority of modern horror ala saw 1 thru 500. i hate sufferening and i don't like movie that push that voyeristic button.

on a good note i saw a trailer for sunshine which is being directed by danny boyle, director of 28 days later, and that looks pretty awesome. i'm much more forgiving with space movies, even though many i've watched leave something to be desired they still entertain. we don't get treated to to many "stylistic" rather than formulaic space sci-fi movies but i'm hoping this is one of them.
 
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Ah, 13th Floor was great. It was based on a book b Daniel F. Galouye, and it had this ONE chilling scene which had me cry out in disbelief (woke up hubby... I watched this one at 6 in the morning when working out).

The best thing about 13 Ghosts (the remake of a 3D picture IIRC) was the special about the ghosts on the DVD. My favorite ghost was the Jackal. The movie itself was nothing special, though, and had an atmosphere similar to that of Haunted Hill. The latter had Geoffrey Rush as a Vincent Price carbon copy (playing VPs role in the original movie) which was good... otherwise it was pretty mediocre IMO.

The last flick I saw and really enjoyed was the horrible, horrible, produced-for-TV SS Doomtrooper. The title! The script! The bad CGI!
For me, every Wolfenstein ripoff is a must see, and I love cheap, badly made Z-class movies. I found myself both laughing out loud and scratching my head more than just once. Bad, bad, BAD script consisting of bad, bad BAD one-liners exclusively.
SS Doomtroopers is definitely on a par with Shockwaves, the 70's SS Zombie movie starring Peter Cushing.
 
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And, did you watch it? I want to rent it, but I think there's a large chance I won't like it and feel ... dissapointed.

Didn't cross my fingers hard enough...

The beginning was awesome.
The more the movie whent on, the more the thrill, the hype, faded...

It's a movie you watch only once in your life.

Sorry man. Don't put your hopes up. It just an ok movie. Nothing more.
 
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I'm prolly being a bad tiger for sharing this link a friend showed me, but you can pretty much watch that and just about everything else here for free. Legally. Just ask em ;)
http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/movies.html

heheheheeheheh

That's where I watched it.

And it was because of you that I did so.
You gave this info a while back in this thread.

Thanks. :devilish:

Now, I'm of to Heroes s02e01. Later guys!
 
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The best thing about 13 Ghosts (the remake of a 3D picture IIRC) was the special about the ghosts on the DVD. My favorite ghost was the Jackal. The movie itself was nothing special, though, and had an atmosphere similar to that of Haunted Hill. The latter had Geoffrey Rush as a Vincent Price carbon copy (playing VPs role in the original movie) which was good... otherwise it was pretty mediocre IMO.
Yep, that was one of the few DVD "special features" I've seen that was very much worth the time. I gave the movie "points" for the original take on the use of ghosts and the semi-novel spin on the haunted house concept, but I think I'll still retract the recommendation.
 
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It's hard to do ghosts convincingly. They seem to need a lot more and better story than other horror "bad guys". AFA Ghost Ship, we did both enjoy it , dte--and I for one didn't mind not clutching my seat in terror the whole time.
As curiously undead says, a lot of movies in the horror genre push the blood and gore over everything else, which just leaves you with shock value. This movie did try to use the story and plot to scare you as much as the special effects, and I thought the actor playing the villain did an excellent job. Some of the others gave a decent performance, but for some reason the whole team dynamic didn't quite gel. You could clearly see the influence of my favorite ghost/horror movie, The Shining, but that's a tough one to equal.
Unfortunately I kind of killed that movie for myself by watching the remake--talk about bad casting....that guy from Wings was no Jack Nicholson.
 
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It takes a few 2 yard runs to set up the play action pass...

So what's next up? With the added datapoint on your taste, I'd go with Skeleton Key or Pulse from the choices on my list. You've got a bunch of good ones from Sammy, too.
 
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