Movies (recently seen)

[End Master]

So I saw the new Mummy movie today.

It was meh. Though I really wasn't expecting a masterpiece in the first place.

I felt that they sort of borrowed a little bit from Last Crusade in this one, but that wasn't really an issue since the series already was in the "Indiana style" to begin with.

One of the problems was that they put a little too much sappy stuff in it. The second problem is the series' continual failure of pulling off their "humorous" bits. I don't know what it is with the Mummy movies, but most of their humor falls flat or comes off as akward.

I suppose the action stuff was alright, but nothing really spectacular. Which was the whole point of the movie. The beginning of the movie was cool since it went into a little back story of the Dragon Emperor. And the last mass battle scene was nice.

It was just all the stuff inbetween that was rather ho-hum.

In other news:

I saw the previews of The Spirit. Doesn't look very interesting.

Saw the previews of Death Race. Looks like another crappy remake. All visual eye candy and nothing deeper than that. Which is pretty hard to do considering Death Race 2000 was considered a B-movie to begin with. I'm having Rollerball flashbacks. (Man, did that remake suck.)

[End Master]

Finally saw No Country for Old Men.

That one was pretty good.

This seems to be one of those movies where a lot of Indy Snobs loved it (Maybe a little excessively so) while a lot the Popcorn Movie Crowd were like "Huh? There was no resolution and the ending sucked."

I can sort of see where some would complain about the ending, since it is sort of abrupt and there really isn't some big climax in the movie (or there's a minor one, but it isn't near the end). But I liked it, since it seemed more realistic somehow.

Though I've noticed some of the other Cohen Brothers movies are like that. Big Lebowski was more or less a series of events that just happened mainly due to no fault of "The Dude" himself or Fargo doesn't end with some big shoot out with the criminals. Even Miller's Crossing is fairly lowkey for a gangster movie. (Again, no grand tommy gun shoot out between the main characters) and the movies just end with the main characters (The surviving ones anyway) going back to their "regular" lives, not really worse or better off.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

No Country was brilliant in certain aspects.

I like films with endings that leave the mindless masses scratching their heads.

Much like life, there are no clear cut endings to ANYTHING. Everything is in a constant state of change, for better or worse.

I liked the way No Country was filmed. I liked the murder scenes. I liked it. Texas, Arizona / Mexico border. Unique place where a lot of fucked up shit goes down.

What I'd like to see is a film chronicling the life of one of America's many sick and twisted serial killers. We have so many.

Not glamorizing the violence, but merely portraying it for what it is. I think we as Americans are savvy enough to know the difference between glamorization and factual portrayals.

[Usoki]

I like films with endings that leave the mindless masses scratching their heads.

I think we as Americans are savvy enough to know the difference between glamorization and factual portrayals.

...? Seriously?

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Yes. Americans, especially those born 1975 onwards, are pretty savvy when it comes to senseless violence.

At the same time, most people are brainwashed into this mindset that movies should have clear cut endings.

Or even T.V. shows. Look at the Sopranos. I thought the series ending was brilliant. Most people hated it. Yet I daresay most everyone who watched that show knew that Tony Soprano was a sociopath with not one redeeming feature, other than the fact that he wasn't a rat and he didn't squeal like a rat.

It really isn't black and white. Shades of gray is what it is. It is the 21st century and it's about time we start behaving like adults, not fucking 16th century dolts who believe in Satan and the bible.

I'm pretty hopeful though in the new generation. It's just time we grow up.

[End Master]

What I'd like to see is a film chronicling the life of one of America's many sick and twisted serial killers. We have so many.

Not glamorizing the violence, but merely portraying it for what it is. I think we as Americans are savvy enough to know the difference between glamorization and factual portrayals.

They have a lot of straight to video/DVD ones, but unfortunately most of them suck and usually get all the facts wrong. They might have some gory bits (and you’d be surprised to learn that some even manage to fail at this), but given that most of the movies are so badly done, you'd be better off watching a movie like Hostel if you were just going to watch it for the violence aspect.

So far the one that managed to succeed the most I think was "Ed Gein: In the Light of the Moon" which more or less stayed true to what I've read about him. But then Ed's had a crapload of movies based on him, so one of them was bound to get it somewhat right.

[Usoki]

I'm pretty hopeful though in the new generation. It's just time we grow up.

XD You're certainly on fire tonight. I like to think of our generation as a bunch of feel-good morons who will let everything fall to shit. Then the next generation will come along, go rule-gestapo, and make everything so orderly that the system will suffocate happiness. The next generation will loosen it up, and it'll all fall to shit.

You enjoy saying capitalism isn't perfect, but it's the best we've got? I prefer to say it doesn't matter what the hell we got, entropy says it's all falling to hell anyway.

...damn, I'm pessimistic tonight. And off topic.

So, apparently a bunch of old people at my dad's workplace hated Heath Ledger's performance in Dark Knight because it made Joker "too dark". The Joker is a "happy villain". Because, you know, the tone of the first movie was obviously sunshine, rainbows, and adorable marshmellow-pooping kittens. It boggles the mind.

[Dragavan]

So, apparently a bunch of old people at my dad's workplace hated Heath Ledger's performance in Dark Knight because it made Joker "too dark". The Joker is a "happy villain". Because, you know, the tone of the first movie was obviously sunshine, rainbows, and adorable marshmellow-pooping kittens. It boggles the mind.

This always confuses me. The Joke has never been a "happy villain". Even on the campy old TV show he was twisted and creepy. In the comics he is a complete sociopath. In the '90s Batman cartoon he was too. Hell, even within the crap treatment of the character within the '80s Batman movie Nicholson kept him rather twisted and nuts, with no regard for human life or anything.

The whole clown theme was just part of it. He took something normally thought of as happy and used it in his twisted actions to create chaos and destruction. All of this is exactly what Ledger and Nolan did with the character. I don't see how people can say he's supposed to be happy and silly and light.

[End Master]

Here's a movie I won't be seeing: Disaster Movie

Christ why the fuck do they keep making these retarded parody movies? Epic movie, Date movie, Scary movie 24, Meet the fuckin' Spartans... (Yes, I'm aware people are stupid and they like them, it's a rhetorical question)

Granted I do think parody stuff is funny, and there have been a few amusing movies of this genre that come to mind, but I mean just looking at the damn previews of the ones that have come out recently and you can see how incredibly unfunny they are.

The older parody movies tended to at least put some extra effort into it and not just string together a bunch of pop culture references and call it a movie.

[Dragavan]

The older parody movies tended to at least put some extra effort into it and not just string together a bunch of pop culture references and call it a movie.

Amen Brotha'

If you look at Airplane!, Young Frankenstein, Top Secret, or even Scary Movie (the first one), they had a single plot and parody that carried through and the references and jokes were tied to that along the way where they fit. Now they just throw them out randomly like a shotgun method and hope some of them stick. They don't even try to have a story that really works holding it all together. It annoys the hell out of me.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Here, here.

Also; saw Juno. Hated it.

Not too many movies I'm digging right now other than the recent Batman flick. Ironman and Hellboy were pretty decent, too. But I've mostly been downloading older movies on my iPod. Having a great time with that.

BitTorrent is a wonderful thing.

Please, if anyone has any recommendations on a low key movie, do share. Or ANYTHING worth a pile of cow excrement.

The new Harold and Kumar had me laughing. SO stupid. And yet so funny.

[apotheosis]

My girlfriend wanted me to take her to go see Step Brothers. I did. I recently broke up with her. I think that sums up my feelings about the movie.

Actually the break up was completely unrelated but it was a horrible horrible movie.

[End Master]

Speaking of comedies, did anyone see Tropic Thunder? I didn't see it and it was relatively low on my radar until I heard a bunch of PC fanatics were whining about it, just because "retard" is used in it. Given that they were claiming that the word is now hate speech, I'm sort of surprised there weren't more protests about Robert Downey in blackface.

[Dragavan]

Speaking of comedies, did anyone see Tropic Thunder? I didn't see it and it was relatively low on my radar until I heard a bunch of PC fanatics were whining about it, just because "retard" is used in it. Given that they were claiming that the word is now hate speech, I'm sort of surprised there weren't more protests about Robert Downey in blackface.

I saw it. I laughed my ass off. I thought it was brilliant stupid comedy that really got the lampooning of the Hollywood process down perfect. They had all the stereotypes down, they had some really good direct shots at certain people and events, and they actually had a story that carried through the whole thing. It was one of the best well thought out comedies I have seen in a long time.

I say this even though I hate nearly everything that Ben Stiller, and I think Jack Black is usually not enjoyable in movies (although I love his musical stand up). Downy was amazing, but what really sold me on it completely was the surprise performance by Tom Cruise.

I think the movie is a little too inside baseball and smart for the average fan of modern dumb comedies and too stupid for those who hate dumb comedies. For people like me who are movie fans in the middle, it was a perfect combination.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

So, um ... ya.

Juno. Like it. Gave it a second chance. Made it past the first 20 minutes.

I like it.

Just thought I'd put that out there. On the record as it were.

Ok. Bye.