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OneSizeFitzpatrick
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:56 pm
Posts: 1288
Location: Bog of eternal stench
PostPosted: Sat May 18, 2013 12:19 pm 
 

I haven't been to a movie in at least 2 years, so when a couple friends asked if I wanted to go see Iron man 3 last night, after reminding them how little I think of superhero movies, I said sure since I haven't done anything besides work in the last week... It was awful, and cost me nearly $25 total. Don Cheadle went from rescuing thousands of Rwandan Tutsis to saving big oil companies. That's basically what I got out of the film with out giving away much of the plot. Big oil (and America, as always) wins... I hate the west.
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severzhavnost
Something Stupid

Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:16 pm
Posts: 2952
Location: Ottawa
PostPosted: Sun May 19, 2013 1:55 am 
 

New Star Trek's pretty friggin great! Quite a reversal from the 2009 movie. That one i found had a plot that was too out-of-nowhere, fir one thing there was no need to make the Romulans look different.
This time around the story was much more familiar, even bringing in a Tribble :D The Khan dude was convincing, with nicely melodramatic flair that compared to Montalban pretty well. And that flipping of the engine room heroics scene was awesome. Here's hoping this sets up a Klingon War in the third movie!

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BasqueStorm
The Wettest Blanket

Joined: Wed May 26, 2010 2:21 pm
Posts: 4793
Location: Turks and Caicos Islands
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 3:29 pm 
 

viewtopic.php?p=2263126#p2263126

Quote:
I just saw Pura Vida (The Ridge) and I'm in need of something for introspection.
P.S: NICE documentary!
You can see it online (and support the institution) here:
-Filmin: http://www.filmin.es/pelicula/pura-vida
-Filmotech: http://www.filmotech.com/V2/ES/FX_FichaPelicula.asp?ID=9076


More info:
http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film301482.html

Quote:
On the south face of Annapurna, at 7,400 metres, Iñaki Ochoa de Olza is dying. His rope companion sounds the alarm. And, from the other side of the world, the biggest rescue attempt in the history of the Himalayas gets underway. For four days a dozen men including some of the best mountaineers in the world, from ten countries, set out to try to rescue their stricken comrade. Even beyond his peaks Iñaki is an exceptional man. As exceptional as the rescue attempt itself and the men who risked their lives to save him. Exceptional because their one driving rule is to live. To live in the only way possible: with pure intensity and honesty.


Last edited by BasqueStorm on Wed May 22, 2013 6:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35177
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 3:49 pm 
 

Silver Linings Playbook - 4.75/5

Great blend of romance, comedy and just general chaos and dysfunction. The loud, abrasive nature of a lot of this movie should make it unbearable, but strong writing and very good characters pull it together, plus the added bonus of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as the leads. Cooper in particular is just outstandingly good, and I single him out because usually he doesn't get the chance to show off his chops nearly this much. Lawrence is, as usual, superb, one of today's best actors, with a lot of charm as she pours her whole soul into this performance. The story is a simple, quirky tale of two mentally unstable people who come together and sort of help each other cope. Robert DeNiro guest stars and surprisingly doesn't do too bad, actually coming out as fairly convincing for once. Overall I found this to be a heartwarming and oft-hilarious trip, and I'd watch it again any time. Just a killer, entertaining flick.

The Dead Zone - 4/5

Christopher Walken teams up with director David Cronenberg to produce this adaptation of one of Stephen King's more interesting stories...overall I enjoyed this, as it keeps pretty well to the tale of a young man who becomes clairvoyant after a horrible car accident, but I found it played pretty safe. Cronenberg, usually famous for his eccentricities, could have made this a way more psychedelic and harrowing experience, but instead he kept things pretty simple and lighthearted for the most part. But on the other hand, it was a good adaptation, managing to keep the essentials of the book there, while also making the changes seem plausible enough so not to alienate fans. Walken is good, and Martin Sheen as his nemesis Greg Stillson is a riot. It's not as good as the book, but it's solid.

The Ring - 2.5/5

Pretty droll and unimpressive on the whole, with a pretty confusing storyline, but some nice settings and a good atmosphere make it passable enough. As a horror movie, this is average and sometimes suspenseful, but unfortunately it kicked off a lot of dire trends, so that also has to be taken into account.

The Ring 2 - 0.5/5

Just total shit. There is only so much I can take, but this, which revels in utterly boring and asinine plot elements and can't even keep its own stupid story straight, just goes beyond any kind of tolerance. It's boring, really boring, and can't even hold your interest for ten minutes with how poor the pacing is and how much time the movie wastes simply trying to hit its desired full length film runtime. Absolute swill.

Shark Night 3D - 3.25/5

A pretty stupid horror movie, but not without its charms. I like how energetic this is, and how seriously it takes itself, with very little 'whoo, let's party' frat boy moments at all. There is very little plausible about this, and at times I wish it even went further in the over the top goofiness, but Shark Night is fun for a beer and chips night with the guys.

Midnight Cowboy - 5/5

An excellent film, which chronicles a sort of 'loss of innocence,' as well as a huge culture shock as a male prostitute moves from Texas to New York City hoping to find opportunity and glory. He can't hack it, and his naivete gets him into dire straits really fast. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman make a really memorable pair as the leads, and the film just does an excellent job at portraying their desperation and plight. It talks a lot about opportunity and how it's a two-way street. The world isn't fair, and it is a cruel place, and Midnight Cowboy shows that, very well in fact. The jarring and spastic nature of the first act quickly turns into a sort of dreary, slow trudge, mirroring the characters' worsening situations. I found this film affecting, tragic in its cynical way, and realistic - a humbling experience.
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 4:45 pm 
 

That's funny, I just watched Midnight Cowboy two nights ago and enjoyed it, but I'm not sure how much. Seeing Jon Voigts character going from wide eyed optimism to despair was crushing.
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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:
So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

http://halberddoom.bandcamp.com/releases

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 4:53 pm 
 

The first half hour or so I had no idea what to think, but then when I got to the end I thought it was very, very well done. Some of the best directing I've ever seen too, just crazy at times. Like an emotional journey more than a mechanical experience, ya know.
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 12:40 am 
 

He Died with a Felafel in His Hand: A series of darkly funny and slightly absurd vignettes concerning loneliness and human nature. Extremely Australian and fairly enjoyable. It doesn't exactly have a plot, per say as much as it chronicles a few different nights in a man's life.
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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:
So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

http://halberddoom.bandcamp.com/releases

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AppleQueso
Veteran

Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:02 am
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 11:11 am 
 

Empyreal wrote:
The Ring 2 - 0.5/5

Just total shit. There is only so much I can take, but this, which revels in utterly boring and asinine plot elements and can't even keep its own stupid story straight, just goes beyond any kind of tolerance. It's boring, really boring, and can't even hold your interest for ten minutes with how poor the pacing is and how much time the movie wastes simply trying to hit its desired full length film runtime. Absolute swill.


You know, I did like The Ring a lot when it came out, even if it's true that it opened the doors for some pretty awful things. Yeah not really a great movie, but like you said it had nice atmosphere going for it. Ring 2 was so bad though. That ending is the best/worst part of it. All the evil girl wanted was a hug! Happy ending!

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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

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Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 11:20 am 
 

AppleQueso wrote:
Ring 2 was so bad though. That ending is the best/worst part of it. All the evil girl wanted was a hug! Happy ending!


Yeah, and the whole movie, all Naomi Watts does is neglect her son and make all the wrong choices. It's like it was just trying to be totally despicable.
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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:55 am
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Location: Tyrn Gorthad
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 11:32 am 
 

I haven't seen any of those movies in forever. I can't for the life of me remember why people didn't just stop watching that goddamn tape. Most easily beatable movie villain ever!
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Varth
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:18 pm
Posts: 117
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 7:32 pm 
 

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning has been the best movie I've seen so far this year, a bleak ultra brutal violent action flick about mind control and lots of shirtless men and women getting chunks blown out of them with a shotgun. It was fucking excellent and has a sinister dark psychedelic vibe and really fucking grim soundtrack.

It is weird, its like part 6 of an awful series and most people will stay away, but I liked it better than The Raid if that helps.

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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
Posts: 11852
Location: In the Arena
PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2013 1:48 am 
 

Empyreal wrote:
AppleQueso wrote:
Ring 2 was so bad though. That ending is the best/worst part of it. All the evil girl wanted was a hug! Happy ending!

Yeah, and the whole movie, all Naomi Watts does is neglect her son and make all the wrong choices. It's like it was just trying to be totally despicable.

I saw Ring 2 back in high school and I don't remember it being THAT bad, just not as good as the first one. I do remember the parts where they actually look in the well being pretty shocking. Anyway, it's most likely 27-year-old me would not approve of 17-year-old me's evaluation of Ring 2.
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Metalfuckingrules
The Ralph Wiggum Monologue

Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:25 pm
Posts: 380
Location: Buried somewhere....
PostPosted: Fri May 24, 2013 10:16 pm 
 

Did anyone see the documentaries called Race to Nowhere and The Wars on Kids? I'm wondering if there good to watch.


Last edited by Metalfuckingrules on Sat May 25, 2013 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 12:05 am 
 

I saw Fast and Furious 6 tonight. It's actually really, really entertaining. It's big, stupid, and completely unbelievable, but it's entertaining as hell. A big thing for me was that all the action scenes were done practically, a fact made explicit with the first title card before the credits stating so. Plus the post-credits scene pretty much guarantees that I will be seeing the next one. For those that aren't gonna see the movie,
Spoiler: show
Jason Statham shows up to be the next movie's bad guy.
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The_Orphanizer
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:13 am
Posts: 1473
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 1:27 am 
 

I just bought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Cloud Atlas on blu-ray. I absolutely love both of these movies; it's a damn shame that the latter did so poorly.
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aaronmb666
Veteran

Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:37 am
Posts: 2837
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 5:46 am 
 

Subrick wrote:
I saw Fast and Furious 6 tonight. It's actually really, really entertaining. It's big, stupid, and completely unbelievable, but it's entertaining as hell. A big thing for me was that all the action scenes were done practically, a fact made explicit with the first title card before the credits stating so. Plus the post-credits scene pretty much guarantees that I will be seeing the next one. For those that aren't gonna see the movie,
Spoiler: show
Jason Statham shows up to be the next movie's bad guy.


Loved it too. Lots of applauses too. Glad the end credit scene was actually before the credits. That got a huge reaction.

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Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 9:50 am 
 

The crowd I think was a little too eager to laugh at Tyrese Gibson's dialogue though. There were some zingers in this movie, but they were laughing at everything that was being said like it was the funniest thing ever.

Also, when it comes to the post-credits scene, the crowd before that were cheering, but not too loudly. The moment that he walked out of that car, the crowd broke into absolutely thunderous applause. The theater I saw it in was packed to capacity, so being in the same room as 100 people going completely bonkers like that was kind of a cool experience.
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Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
Posts: 5352
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 6:09 pm 
 

I'm guessing it doesn't happen at your band's concerts :p
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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:
So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

http://halberddoom.bandcamp.com/releases

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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 8:23 pm 
 

Blue Velvet is overrated. Pretty boring movie. Besides Dennis Hopper'performance and that one lip-synching scene, it doesn't have much going for it. I don't know, maybe I'm not the target audience.
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theposaga about a Moonblood rehearsal wrote:
So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

http://halberddoom.bandcamp.com/releases

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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
Posts: 5576
PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 9:23 pm 
 

Yeah...Blue Velvet kinda sucks, tbh.

Whoa fuck, we agreed on something! :o
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Expedience
Metal freak

Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:22 am
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 12:27 am 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
Blue Velvet is overrated. Pretty boring movie. Besides Dennis Hopper'performance and that one lip-synching scene, it doesn't have much going for it. I don't know, maybe I'm not the target audience.


Besides maybe Dune it's Lynch's weakest, I would say. It always baffled me why it is often considered his best.

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Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
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Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 12:31 am 
 

Dune blows! I watched the 2000 adaptation recently and it's much better. The costumes are pretty cool and it's with William Hurt. It's not amazing but it's entertaining, it's like 4,5 hours.
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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 12:59 am 
 

Yeah, Dune is also crap. Neat in some aspects, terribly bungled in lots of others. And funny that you mention the 2000 version, Tony, I watched it a couple years ago for laughs and it didn't disappoint ;). So fucking bad. One of the only shows I've ever seen where the cinematographer intentionally mis-framed shots just to fit in people's massive, retarded hats.
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Metantoine
Slave to Santa

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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 1:07 am 
 

I liked the silliness of it all. It was cheesy in a good way.
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darkeningday
xXdArKenIngDayXx

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 1:13 am 
 

Vittorio Storaro, possibly the greatest cinematographer who has ever lived, doesn't know how to frame shots? What The Actual Fuck, U_S.
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Aurone
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:17 pm
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 12:27 pm 
 

Metantoine wrote:
Dune blows! I watched the 2000 adaptation recently and it's much better. The costumes are pretty cool and it's with William Hurt. It's not amazing but it's entertaining, it's like 4,5 hours.


As a die hard fan of the books, I feel that the 2000 version captured the true spirit of what the books where trying to tell. The 84 version was more preoccupied with wanting to make it as faithful as possible to the book and that I feel hurt it in the end, it lacked the spirit of the book. I'll admit, the 2000 isn't perfect either, I'd say there's some underwhelming performances on numerous occasions, but you can feel the impact of religion, politics and inner plotting in it far more.
Spoiler: show
I still find it ironic that the TV version had the guts to show the death of Paul's 1 year old son, something the film version kept out.

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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 12:34 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Vittorio Storaro, possibly the greatest cinematographer who has ever lived, doesn't know how to frame shots? What The Actual Fuck, U_S.


Have you seen the 2000 Dune? If not, do so, then we'll talk :P. Note the phraseology "Intentionally mis-framed." As in framing that runs suspiciously counter to intuitive good sense. Since a lot of his other work is beautifully shot, I wouldn't know how to account for some of the cinemafuckery the miniseries contains except to assume that a) the director was insane and demanded headgear worship, or b) Vittorio was sleeping with the costume designer.
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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 2:50 pm 
 

Can we be real here for a second? The original Dune books aren't that good in the first place. An amazing setting, explored through a lame plot with cardboard characters using loads of poor writing. I mean it was cool when I was a teenager and the idea of a teenage boy becoming the Messiah of some alien planet was a great fantasy, but really it's just absurd wish-fulfillment and basically "Gary Stu" self-insert crap. Paul's life is handed to him on a plate, he becomes the Messiah of an entire alien planet that he's never been to simply because of genetics, and everyone is always telling him that he's FUCKING AWESOME. Oh yeah, and he can do all these unique and awesome things that NO OTHER MAN IN THE UNIVERSE CAN DO. And he doesn't even have to work hard or sacrifice anything to achieve those awesome things, it's all because of genetics. Really, I think the setting is cool, I really like the different flavors he gives the cultures (especially the Harkonnens), but the books would have been way, WAY better if they'd just been about more regular human beings instead of these genetic supermen and superwomen who can control every muscle in their body and who can read your thoughts from just the tiniest twitch of your eyebrow.
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inhumanist
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:09 pm
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:12 pm 
 

Wait, not to disagree with you per se, but can you really criticize a book for the topic it chooses to deal with? Science fiction is kinda about exploring unusual ideas outside the constraints of our normal reality. You can't really say that writing books about a godlike magic übermensch is categorically a bad idea. It can only be a bad idea if it's done in a bad way (or the message is stupid), but I don't see any criticism in your post about the execution (or the philosophy). You are only criticizing the premise of the book.

Sure, you say they are cardboard characters and it's poorly written, but that's just a general opinion without anything in your post to back it up.
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Grave_Wyrm
Metal Sloth

Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:55 pm
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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:48 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
What The Actual Fuck, U_S.

No, he's right. The movie is balls and the mini-series is atrocious. Hurt is absolutely laughable as Leto. And yeah .. the rest is just total toilet paper.

I liked the books a hell of a lot, but like FSM that was when I was a lot younger. I'd probably still like them well enough, but not take them quite as seriously as I did then. I mean .. I was sure they were THE shit. I have a hard time imagining my opinion doing a full 180 or anything, but the more glaring parts would be more obvious. I remember FSM posted a "take that!" excerpt a while ago that made his point pretty well. Like most any movie that as a kid is just the epitome of cool, but later on it's clearly not as tight. Herbert definitely isn't the most concise writer (or the least, for that matter). Just started Whipping Star last night and already I feel that's more along the lines of what FSM is talking about. Maybe too contrived for its own good, and with not particularly good jokes. At least Dune had atmosphere .. and tension. Maybe I was just a youngling, but I'm willing to bet Dune is still better than most, even if it's not the zenith of sci-fi.
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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

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PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 3:56 pm 
 

inhumanist wrote:
can you really criticize a book for the topic it chooses to deal with?

Um, duh? Even more so when it's this super high-concept sci-fi stuff.

inhumanist wrote:
I don't see any criticism in your post about the execution
inhumanist wrote:
Sure, you say they are cardboard characters and it's poorly written

Wow, you contradicted yourself in record time, there.

I made a bunch of brief but specific criticisms because this is the movie thread. Since your fanbutt is obviously hurting I'll go into a little more depth. It's one thing to write about a Space Messiah, it's another to write about a Space Messiah whose Messiah-dom is unearned and largely handed to him. Plenty of Messiahs throughout history, hell, probably most, have had to work REALLY HARD to get people to believe them and faced tons of opposition (and I'm not just talking about Harkonnens and Emperors who are easily defeated by Paul's horde of ready-made fanatic warriors). There are essentially no meaningful obstacles for Paul to overcome; he fairly easily handles every challenge he faces and is never really forced to work hard at all to achieve his Messiah-dom. Yeah his dad is murdered and he has to run around in the desert for a while, but the Fremen have this really convenient prophecy that means all the important ones (except some chumps he deals with easily) believe he's their Messiah right away and then GREAT he has this awesome ready-made army that's super loyal and EVEN BETTER than the Emperor's best crack troops a whole 5 minutes later!!! Wasn't that convenient?? Oh and of course he just has tons of nukes which conveniently render the Emperor's best defenses worthless. And the Emperor stupidly lands on Dune rather than just shooting Paul from space, so the dumb nuke suicide bomb plan has a chance to work.

Compare that to, say, Luke Skywalker, who nearly gets killed tons of times, fucks up his training by facing Vader prematurely, gets his hand chopped off and nearly dies, gets captured by Jabba the Hutt and then the Emperor, nearly turns to the Dark Side, and finally renounces it only to get nearly killed by the Emperor and is only saved through Vader's timely redemption. Not to say Star Wars is the pinnacle of sci-fi or anything, but it features similar heroes (adolescents with great destinies who grow into men and save the galaxy) and it's something most people here are probably familiar with.

As for the writing, I'm not going to quote huge chunks of the book but there are just tons of problems. Interior monologues drone on and on, there's way too much omniscient narration that knows what EVERY character in an exchange is thinking, such that a lot of exchanges that might otherwise be tense really aren't, and there's a nice big fat one in that the stupid chapter introductions give away a lot of major plot points. Is Paul really the Messiah? Will he succeed? Yes, because you find that out right at the beginning thanks to a future history book. Obviously he's the hero and that sort of thing nearly always happens regardless, but there's such a thing as allowing the reader enough uncertainty that it can be exciting.

Granted, Dune still had a lot of cool stuff going for it and I'm not saying it was just a 100% horrible book. But it's one of those seminal sci-fi "classics" from the 60s/70s that just doesn't hold up to the staggering amount of praise it receives. The subsequent books just get worse and worse as the novelty of the setting wears off and Herbert's negative qualities come to the fore.

Also, this is a movie thread on an internet forum about metal. If you want a serious in-depth analysis of why Dune ain't that great, people all across the internet have written tons of articles why.
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inhumanist
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:09 pm
Posts: 5634
PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2013 5:10 pm 
 

Hey, your previous post was essentially "the book is bad because the protagonist has it too easy" which is really not a good argument, so you can't blame me if I point that out. Not every book has to be about a struggling hero (even though Paul does have his struggles, even if they are not of a physical nature). Suspense created through uncertainty about the ending is just a convention of literature and not a value in itself (maybe a value of entertainment, but does everything have to be about entertainment?). But whatever, that's probably just the "fanboy" speaking. I can't tell you why I think the book is great because I don't - I actually haven't made up my mind about it yet, I just don't find most of your criticism to hold much weight.

Regarding my "contradiction", yeah, I wrote that last part after realizing that I wasn't entirely right, so fuck me I guess.

Regarding entertainment: There is some entertaining stuff in this book and there is some boring stuff. Some chapters really drag on and others I find rather compelling. But no, talking entertainment value I've definitely read better books. A big one is how convoluted a lot of it is. Maybe I'm a dumb boy or not paying attention but I had a feeling that much of the talk involving prescience and the political games and all that shit went partly over my head, aka I didn't get the point of much what was going on even though the book seemed to imply that certain things were super important. So that may be something to criticize, that Herbert created a faux sense of complexity by essentially writing nonsense that he later stitched together to make sense.

In the case though that I'm not paying enough attention, the question of message/philosophy comes up, because that's one way to create artistic value, by presenting ideas in a meaningful way. The books obviously dabble in philosophy but I wouldn't say any of it was a revelation or eye opening or made me think "wow, I never thought about it that way" or something, but I want to give this whole thing some time before I judge it prematurely. You see, I'm only through maybe three quarters of the trilogy. Maybe Herbert was just a hack who could skillfully create an illusion of being all deep and over your head and stuff, and maybe people who are smarter than me see through that guise easily (damn, I'm really making myself look like the idiot here, don't I?) but I can't decide that at this point.

Yeah, this whole discussion doesn't really belong here, I agree. Especially considering there is a literature thread where I haven't made a noteworthy post in ages. But then again I wasn't the one who started talking extensively about books in the Movie Thread.
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LanceCriminal
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:25 am
Posts: 75
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 9:05 am 
 

I saw Lords of Salem the other day...I'm a huge Rob Zombie fan so I was expecting to LOVE it but honestly it was sorta boring. Most of the crazy flashback/dream scenes are just really silly...I get that it's surrealism but it's like it's trying too hard to be over the top.

Worth a watch for sure, but don't expect anything along the lines of House of 1000 corpses or Devil's Rejects....

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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:17 am 
 

Furious 6, or whatever the hell it was called, was pretty chill. I expected ridiculous car chases and testosterone wrapped in a high stakes story and I got it. Cool hand to hand combat, and some ridiculous stunts make it fun. Also the fact that my buddy said the bad guy looked like Freddie Mercury.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35177
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2013 9:55 am 
 

Gigli - 1/5

Pretty much just as bad as everyone says - awful acting and annoying characters from stars Affleck and Lopez, a ludicrous story and writing about as bad as you can get, this is simply indefensible. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but there's also not really anything about it that would make me pipe up to defend it in an argument. Without any semblance of good filmmaking, Gigli is an idiotic and insipid experience.

Reservoir Dogs - 3.75/5

The first Quentin Tarantino movie, and a pretty good one. I like the energy of it and the fast pace. The characters, while not really likable, work well enough for the story, which is quick and snappy. If this has a flaw, it's just that it feels a bit sloppy and uneven, typical for a first effort by any director really - the monologues go on too long and sometimes it gets a bit dull. But there's a lot of energy and verve to Reservoir Dogs that a lot of Tarantino's later work is missing entirely. I had fun with this, even if it wasn't really anything substantial.
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ChineseDownhill
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:19 am
Posts: 1113
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:17 pm 
 

Is it really worth bumping this thread after a week to tell you all I saw Warm Bodies?

Oh well, I just did.

"It's like Twilight, but she falls in love with a zombie instead of a vampire!" Blah. I've actually seen two or three of the Twilight movies (I'm a guy BTW) and Warm Bodies was worse. I'm surprised it currently has a solid 7.0 user rating at imdb.com; maybe the movie made people feel good about themselves if they understood why the young lovers were named R and Julie? Well I tried to pay attention during high school English too, but I have a tough time believing a relationship in which one party is lucky if he can put together a 3-word sentence.

I'd also complain that John Malkovich was underused, but considering the movie was barely an hour and a half and his role was 'Kristen Stewart look-alike's father' I didn't expect to see much of him.
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~Guest 171512
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:18 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:52 pm 
 

Silver Linings Playbook - Ugh, this movie did my head in. Basically everything I dislike about modern movies in a two-hour package. I felt completely disconnected from this movie from the moment it started, and by the time I was 40 minutes in, I couldn't believe that it wasn't even halfway over. By around the hour-and-a-half mark I really wanted to turn it off, but I pressed on till the end. I couldn't stand how fucking contrived the whole thing was. Everybody seemed to go out of their way to be as annoying as possible, the plot was inane, and I just hated it. Jennifer Lawrence is certainly attractive, but why everyone thinks she's such a good actress is beyond me. (She was terrible in The Hunger Games too, but of course everyone in that movie was terrible.) But I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy. Everyone else on the planet seemed to think this movie was the greatest thing, so if you're curious, then watch it, I guess. But don't be too surprised to find that it's not all it was cracked up to be.

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Evil_Johnny_666
Reigning king of the night

Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:54 pm
Posts: 4008
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:53 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Vittorio Storaro, possibly the greatest cinematographer who has ever lived, doesn't know how to frame shots? What The Actual Fuck, U_S.


Though he turned senile. Maybe he saw a remastered version? Storaro has now the bad habbit of shitting on his own movies, well shitting on the movies he worked on regardless of what the director would have thought about that. To be more precise, it seems that now, every time someone wants to reissue one of the movies he worked on, he wants to reframe the whole thing so it can be in ''The Last Supper'' aspect ratio. So he just cuts the picture until it fits this unconventional aspect ration. ''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' had this treatment for the Arrow blu-ray and it looks disgusting. There's even a shot where you see through a camera with the pathfinders on each corner, but then you can see how he just obviously cut the left side until he had his goddamn ratio because the pathfinders on that side are missing... He's really turned nuts, cropping the picture from masterpieces without the director's approval for the ridiculous reason that the ''The Last Supper'' aspect ratio is the perfect one...

Just compare:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/dvdrevie ... mmage4.jpg
with
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_ ... -ray_4.jpg

or
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/dvdrevie ... mmage6.jpg
with
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_ ... -ray_6.jpg


Last edited by Evil_Johnny_666 on Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:28 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:14 pm 
 

They all look the same. Broken links usually are like that.
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Evil_Johnny_666
Reigning king of the night

Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:54 pm
Posts: 4008
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:26 pm 
 

Oh man, just right-click copy adress link. They can't seem to work when just clinking them... The cropping is particularly obvious in the last two. You can see he cut a bit of the right side and a big portion of the left side. That poster is totally gone!

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