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

Dragon Wars was one of the most terrible movies I've ever seen. And it wasn't the type of bad movie that's fun to watch.

Any time a movie starts with a flashback that has a flashback within it you know you're in trouble.

Waste of time in my opinion...
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
532
Location
Ohio
finally watched empire of the sun yesterday. read the book about a year ago finally and j g ballard is one of my favourite authors (read nearly everything) and speilberg a fave director so it was only a matter of time. the movie was excellent and probably in my top 10 with ease. i knew christian bale played the kid but i had no idea ben stiller, john malcovich, and joe pantelione were in it. i had no idea ben stiller was that old! hes one of my least favourite actors but i do like him when he plays supporting and lecherous roles like in happy gilmore. i remember the part after the war seeming a lot longer in the book, but this was definately a good showcase of speilberg's magic. i'd love someday if dreamworks made a theme park, it would be awesome. can't wait for indy 4.
 
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
812
Location
standing under everyone
FREAKS!

TCM is having a Todd Browning fest tonight. Mark of the Vampire, Freaks, Devil Doll, and a restored version of London After Midnight. Going to a party in a little while, so I'm going to have to tape "London" and watch it tomorrow. I'm wondering what it's going to be like, supposedly it's in such bad shape that a lot of it is only stills.

Freaks never gets old, love it.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
Took Mrs dte to see 30 Days of Night last night. Our experience was dampened by a couple talkers (a couple dweebs that felt the need to discuss -inaccurately- vampire lore thru much of the show), but we still managed to enjoy the show. I thought the movie failed to capture the sense of 720 straight hours of darkness. I'm not sure how you do it in a two hour movie, but I know that's not it. There are a few plot holes that you've got to overlook, but none so gaping that it disrupts the experience. I haven't seen the graphic novel, so I can't speak to the relationship between the two.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
me and tigress are looking forward to this one. I havent read any reviews yet tho. Is it very gory? I know blood is a major aspect of any vampire film, but I'm finding her suprisingly to be actually kinda squeamish. She likes horror but is actually quite a lightweight when it comes to the grue. It's kinda cute in a way, but also can be a problem at times if she's not enjoying herself
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
Watched Halloween 2 last night. I like how you can watch 1 and 2 side by side and it's really like watching one big movie. They connect seamlessly.

Good stuff...
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
532
Location
Ohio
While there's quite a bit of blood, there's not as much nasty-puke-puke as you might expect, Sammy. You see a few ugly "aftermaths" and a whole lot of "vampire hickey givin", but not much of the actual destruction. I would guess there will be 3 scenes the tigress might hide her eyes for.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
The Wild Dogs went thru a similar countdown, so I was part of the record 17 million viewers (which knocked a Cowboys game out of all-time first place for a basic cable program).
As a matter of pride, I'd like to share that the Cowboys/Bills game a few weeks ago knocked HSM2 back into 2nd place on the all-time list. Back to the captain's chair we go! ;)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
Well, the first DVD I snatched up off the Connoisseur's List of Horror and Mayhem provided so thoughtfully to me by Sammy, c.u. and dte, was The Descent(Sammy's rec, I believe) and we watched it Thursday.

Ye gods, man! O_O Thank god I don't have a heart condition. That was one of *the* scariest movies I've ever seen--and my spouse--who isn't fazed by Clive Barker or Hannibal Lector and ...giggled..twice during Saw--was sweating blood on the sofa--oh, he pretended to be cool, but we who have lived with the testosterone endowed learn to recognize the rigid, masklike look of concealed terror. I actually found the earlier, pre-CHUD moments as they traversed the tiny tunnels scariest, but the prize goes to the ending, for avoiding the horror cliches. I woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday and stuck my head under the covers cuz I was visualizing a little girl handing me a birthday cake!

Thanks, Sammy. You done good.:cool:
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
yeah, Descent is destined to be a classic imo. Glad you enjoyed it!

I watched Dawn of the Dead remake w/ some friends last night, that was pretty fun. While shirking the old-school shamblers for the new age "track star zombies" ruffles some feathers, overall I'd wager that nobody who watches the film can deny that it's not an entirely bad change. It's a well done film, with everything from new zombie lore (running undead, the "twitcher" epileptic zombii) to great effects, to cool anti-zombie weaponry, it's just a fun movie all around to watch with friends. And I'll stick to my guns when declaring the credit sequence both before and after are the best.credits.ever. PERIOD!

I also started Silent Hill last night and got about halfway thru, but was sleepy tiger and have to finish it up later today. I liked what I saw so far tho, while not really scary it was definitely a cool movie. I like ghost town stuff, I'm really big on abandoned structures and such, and I was in heaven with the central locale of the film. With a weird subterannean thing going on below, and an alternate-reality that turns the town into some kind of industrial hell, man this is something that has me sitting up and taking notice. Until I fell asleep of course, that zombie walk wore me out!

Halloween in general always wears me out, it's all starting to catch up w/ me now.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
Saw Casanova on DvD last night. Fun, without being great.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
Watched The Descent myself yesterday. Mrs dte is mildly claustrophobic. I think she held her breath thru the entire first hour of the movie when we watched it together. Glad you liked it, magerette. So what's next up?
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
I held my breath also-except when I was screaming. ;) Next up in the horror genre is Ghost Ship. Probably be a week or so. Netflix is working out well so far.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
The first scene is pretty gross. Stick with it--the rest of the movie isn't that gory.

I think you'll like the rest of Silent Hill, Sammy. Nothing world-changing, but good solid entertainment.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
13,535
Location
Illinois, USA
Watched The Last Mimzy this weekend as a family. I had watched it with the boys a couple of weeks ago and they wanted to keep it to watch with my wife as well. It was quite enjoyable - not quite 'this generation's ET' as some of the promo stuff said, but a nice solid fun movie.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Watched :

1) 30 Days of night : boring.

2) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Close to the book but I feel that everything has been rushed. Everybody look like their running all the time. Some parts, quite a few, were not like the book. Final answer : Disapointed.

I'm off to the Transformers... *crosses his fingers*
 
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
573
Location
Icewind Dale.
Watched Toxic Avenger again the other night ... I remembered the camp humor and all, but forgot how brutal it was at times. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderfully bad ... :D
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
For Halloween, we curled up at home and with frequent pausing to answer the doorbell and dispense goodies to the neighboring kids, watched two classic Vincent Price flicks--Theatre of Blood, where Vinnie and Diana Rigg execute a series of Shakespearean murders of drama critics, and Madhouse. Madhouse, with Peter Cushing giving a pretty good performance as the villain, is by far the better of the two. I really think Vincent Price is playing himself in this one and with a minimum of ham. (It also has one of my favorite horror movie lines of all time--"There is always room in the coffin of time!") They're both pretty solid American International "B" horror fare and worth a watch for the nostalgia factor anyway, if nothing else.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
I have that double dvd too, it's pretty good. Theatre of Blood is a good Dr Phibes-like flick, lots of outrageously wild murders, but I found it far funnier than Phibes. I love the hair salon one, that's classic Price there!

Madhouse is cool too, Cushing/Quarry/Price/DR DEATH are a good time ='.'=

I finished up Silent Hill, and was kinda suprised by how the flick turned out. I thought it was going to be more Lovecraftian "old gods/beings discovered underground in mines wreak havoc after cultists rile them up", when in fact that wasnt it at all. Still a cool flick nonetheless, some of it definitely reminded me of Hellraiser, the "industrial demonic" theme and all.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
Back
Top Bottom