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

Just wasted 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life watching "Transformers".

It's not often that I see a movie that is so incredibly bad that I'm actually offended. I'm not going to rant on about it, but let me just say that you're not likely to enjoy this movie if you have an intellect higher than that of a 12 year old.
 
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I know what you mean Dt, I thought that Sam Elliot was going to help Blaze fight Blackheart myself, especially seeing as how Blackheart effortlessly snuffed out Blaze's first attack on him.

Just saw Transformers myself last night, and here's my thoughts-

As JDR said, the movie is clearly made for 12 year olds and people that enjoy comedy of that caliber. Masturbation and pee jokes, double entendres of the sort that had me rolling my eyes, while the rest of the crowd was roaring in delight. That's just me, perhaps I'm getting grumpy in my old age, but I just simply cannot for example find someone getting hit in the nuts or a dog peeing on someone funny anymore. It's like "cue laugh track", you know.

Stuff was drawn out and agonizingly overwrought. Bumblebee was the "cute" robot, so he was the designated heartstring-puller. It felt like at least 5 minutes of slow motion footage set to sappy synth music as he's taken captive. Poor Bumblebee *sniffle*

I truly loathe with all my heart the Michael Bay style of quick-cut, shaky-cam action sequences where it's practically impossible to focus on anything, it ruins the action for me. All I see is flashes of movement, an explosion, falling debris, and practically nondescript things whizzing by. Makes me yearn for the static camera angles of the old Godzilla creature fights, at least I could tell what the hell was going on. Adding to this confusion is the fact that most of the robots dont have the distinctive look and colors that they all used to have in the animation, thus it's quite difficult to tell who's-who in the midst of battle. What just happened? I have no clue!
Wait til the fight's over and see who's standing. Takes the thrill out of the thing for me and just gives me a headace, it's frustrating.

I'm suprised that a hip hop or rap style score and soundtrack wasnt present. The entire soundscape was suprisingly rock and metal based! I dont think overall it was a terrible movie, I mean, some of the sights were truly beautiful. The chase sequences were amazing, because they have focus, youre along for the ride and it's exciting. Starscream or Megatron in-flight transforming and hitting the ground or vice-versa, and some of the other mobile transformations were really unbelievable looking. Lots of nice explosions and flights into and thru buildings and such definitely were cool.

it was worth ten bucks to see it in a theatre with pals, but I just wouldnt buy the thing.
 
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Watched Cabin Fever last night. It wasn't bad... but I wasn't really that impressed.
 
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Took the Wild Dogs to see Ratatoie (however it's spelt, damn French). Typical kid fare with the requisite "Be Yourself" message. Reasonably fun, but certainly not world-shaking. The detail of the animation was exceptional, though. The various closeups on the principal bad guy are insane-good in their detail and realism.
 
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Apocalypto

Pretty freakin awesome, never seen a movie about the Mayans. Always been fascinated by early mesoamerican cultures, they were a trippy bunch. Some pretty mean dudes in this flick!
 
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This evening I watched Intacto on TV. The movie is the proof that Spain has more than just Almodovar. ;)
It´s a fascinating movie about addicted "luck hunters". Just look on IMDB, it´s hard to describe. Serious, entertaining, well made and acted (Max von Sydow is the only celeb in it). Intacto demands the viewer´s full attention though. Otherwise you could overlook details in the beautiful photography or gestures revealing what a person really thinks.
The movie has a bit of The Color of Money, some Memento and a little Final Destination - but without most commercial or funny elements.


edit: The same director is shooting 28 Weeks Later. Now I´m convinced the movie is in good hands. :)
 
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since Apocalypto got me all bent on the Mayans, I had to go ahead and download Maya from Cosmic Hex.

It was pretty cool, one of those "vengeful ancient deity" flicks, where the old superstitions wipe out the new school before they can say damn ignorant villagers. Fairly light on the Mayan temples and such unfortunately, we only get one pyramid, and the "legend" central to the story was created for the film, it doesnt seem to have any basis in actual Mayan lore that I have read.
 
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Jaws

Tcm is having a spielberg-fest lately, so I caught Jaws again tonight for like the fiftieth time tonight during my half-asleep post-work quiet time that I must have every night. I guess that qualifies as a nap, and I should be lamenting the fact that I now need a daily nap. It sure does feel nice tho ='.'= *yawns*

Jaws is not a movie that has any hidden meanings, any subtle hints of dimensions only unlocked after several viewings or anything like that. The characters dont get any deeper, you dont understand anyone further, nothing. At least I dont. I know everything now about the film that i knew the first time I saw it. The old skipper was on the Indianapolis. It was rough. Now roll out the shark again!
That's what i love about it, it's a monster movie, plain and simple. It does it well tho, and that's the reason that Ive been able to watch and enjoy it so many times.
 
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Mrs dte was pissed that she only caught the last 2 minutes of it. She's got the DVD, mind you, but that's irrelevant. She's better at quoting Jaws than I am quoting Sixteen Candles, and that's no mean feat.
 
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The Last Picture Show

Another one Ive seen countless times, but an altogether thoroughly depressing and bleak film, though I can never stop watching it once I start.
 
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The Prodigy
==========

Pretty nice movie, although not as good as i hoped. However it is still no small feat for a small budget feature film by dozen first time filmmakers.

It tells the story on gang rivalries between two underworld groups, but the opening fight quickly cut short when a mysterious guy show up (always wearing a dark trench coat and goggle) and start brutally kills almost everyone. A small-time enforcer named Truman from one of the gangs seems to became his main target, although at this stage no one know the cause for sure. Later it turn up the mysterious guy had pretty unusual background and pass history as an assassin.

In the end though, the film never build up enough interesting story or the depth of characters, nor the lingering disturbing emotions to generate a catharsis. I'm sure in the hand of directors like David Fincher or David Lynch, the film could be far more better, but hey, it's unfair to compare to them!.
 
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DieHard 4: Just what you'd expect. I enjoyed it a fair bit as did the Mrs. Not as good as the original, but certainly holds up to the second and surpasses the third. Only one scene made me want to "call bullsh!t".

Captivity: This is a Sammy special. Hostel-grade nasty puke puke. The "twist" isn't terribly hard to see coming. It isn't until you start predicting the twist that the movie has any point whatsoever- it's just nasty for nasty's sake until then. I'd save this one for video, but probably worth the rental if you enjoyed Hostel.
 
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wow, sounds grody.

I watched Sorry, Wrong Number this last weekend. My woman Babs plays a meanspirited rich bitch, and she does it well. Walks all over Burt Lancaster!

That is, until she gets hers.....
 
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Well, I am in the Bustling Metropolis of God-fearin' rednecks, but the movie was gross enough to get one couple to walk out. I'm not sure the two teenie-bopper couples came up for air long enough to notice the movie was playing, so really Mrs dte and I were the only ones that stuck it out.
 
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poor Mrs Dt!

I'm not really a fan of just all-out gore for gore's sake. I'm finding this out as I see such films as the asian gore sensation "guinea pig". Theyre pointless, gross, and I just dont find myself enjoying it. Evil Dead and Dead Alive are tremendously gory films, yet they also in my opinion can stand on their own without it. Slashers are fun, just because it's kinda funny to watch various stupid stereotypes die in various stupid ways. Lots of stupid crap to laugh at, lots of jump scares, it's a date movie for the deranged. Hostel was a weird film, and I dont think that while gore was part of it, was all the film had going for it. Films that just throw guts in your face as their mean feature arent even worth the rental imho.
 
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Well, the point of walkout was when Ms. Cuthbert was forced to drink a smoothie made of blood, an ear, and an eyeball complete with optic nerve. Now I'll admit that during her stints on 24, I begged for Cuthbert to die an agonizing death, but this was a bit, umm, vivid. Although there was no way I was walking out of $7.50 tickets, I did give the Mrs one of those "What the #$^@#$% have we signed up for?" looks.
 
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Recent stuff ...

Music & Lyrics (2007): what an uninspired piece of mediocrity! The whole thing depended on the on-screen chemistry between Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, but there wasn't any and the entire movie collapsed around that fact.

Arthur and the Invisibles(Minimoys) (2007): quite charming and fun! Very much better than the scathing reviews would have led me to expect.

The Mask (1994): first time for the kids. It is a fun romp for Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz does pretty well also.

Transformers (2007): took the boys to this while my wife was away. Just as well, she wouldn't have liked it much. It was action packed, switch off your brain fun and not much else.
 
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We went to see Arthur and the Minimoys when it was in the cinema, and I fully agree, Mike, iot wasn't as bad as the critics made it out to be. We enjoyed it a lot, and so did our 7-year-old.

last movie I watched was X-men 3, and I wasn't too impressed. Especially the deaths of certain main characters were underplayed in favor of big implosions and special effects... I kept thinking they would return in the end or weren't really dead due to the lack of impact their deaths had.
 
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Night of the Howling Beast or released to American audiences as Werewolf vs the Yeti.

In either case, it's Paul Naschy reprising his role as the lycanthrope Waldimar Daninsky once again, this time as a researcher headed to Tibet in search of the fabled Abominable Snowman. This one plays out more like an adventure movie than a horror film, with oppressive Khans in a stronghold who kidnap some of the researchers in one of their countryside rampages, after the scientists survive a Yeti attack. Waldimar barely escapes, gets attacked by a wolf, and ends up in the care of two bisexual witches in some cave, who nurse him back to health. He stumbles upon them munching on a human arm one night and freaks out, then kills them both and takes off. I dont see why he freaked so hard, because soon he's munching down on mankind himself, werewolf style! He wipes out the Khans (did I mention they had an evil Khan queen?), frees what's left of the researchers, and basically walks off into the sunset with the Final Girl.

But with that sunset comes nightfall......

As the movie wore on to almost finished, I was getting worried that I wasnt going to get my Wolfman vs Yeti brawl. Maybe it was just marketing, you know. Thankfully, in the final minutes, the moon rises, Waldimar gets wolfy, and to my delight, who shows up but a wandering yeti who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their eyes meet, fangs are bared, and it was obvious that some serious fur was gonna fly under the light of the full moon!

The yeti had a strength advantage, but the big oaf had none of the agility of the werewolf. Also, the human-like hands and dull teeth were no match for the sharp claws and fangs of a raging werewolf. When the dust settled, the legendary snow beast lay in a pool of blood, awaiting some researcher, cult, or maybe even Leonard Nimoy.

I can say that I prolly liked this one the least so far in my journey thru the Spanish horror of Paul Naschy films. He's best when he sticks to pure horror, this almost reminds me of Satanic Rites of Dracula or something in a way, there's just too much wakka wakka guitar and crazy tom toms going for me. There's too much action, and not enough dread. It was the 70's and they had to try and update the formula I guess. I say stick to the castles, dames in flowing nightgowns, rubber bats flapping around, canned howls, burning witches spewing final curses, and a classical score. That's where it's at.

Even tho I must give them credit for busting out a Yeti vs Werewolf showdown ='.'=
 
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