Movies (recently seen)

[End Master]

Saw The Thing remake er... I mean "prequel".

Okay so it was a legitimate prequel, but it really did feel like a remake of Carpenter's movie, though I suppose part of that was inevitable given the setting of the film.

It's okay, though really it doesn't capture the paranoia feeling of the other movie, they kill way too many people so damn fast in the movie and while normally I don't mind seeing a blood bath of bodies, here it just doesn't work and the pacing of the film seems a bit rushed at times and then it drags towards the end because they killed just about everyone off too damn quickly.

I also thought it would've been better had everyone at the station had been Norwegian rather than having the clumsy explanation of having Americans at the base, would've simplified other things as well. I mean they could've still gotten over the audience language barrier thing like they do in most movies with non-English speakers: Just have them all speak English anyway and imply that they're all speaking they own language. Or if they wanted to get fancy they could've had them all speaking Norwegian and had the entire movie in subtitles.

Anyway like I said, it's okay, but Carpenter's movie was a lot better.

[Usoki]

There's this tire and it somehow comes to life and starts killing people. Though its not killing in the traditional way you've expect a sentient tire to kill people.

I know this is from an old post, but I can't but laugh hysterically whenever I see it. As if there are so many movies featuring people-killing sentient tires, that there is clearly a traditional way that these living tires kill. In fact, there are so many people-killing sentient tire movies, we need a movie like this to subvert the trend. We salute you, Rubber, for taking the tired old people-killing sentient tire trope and breathing new life into it.

I'm trying to think of any movie, new or old, that I watched in the past few months, but I'm coming up blank. I did snag some comedies at the local Blockbuster's closing sale a few months back. The Gods Must Be Crazy, Pleasantville, and Spaceballs. I haven't seen any of them before, but I hear they're all really good.

[End Master]

I thought Spaceballs was funny, never saw the other two though.

I meant to mention I also saw Paranormal Activity 3 yesterday as well. Basically if you're into the series, you'll probably like this one as well. If not, well you can continue not watching the series since it's basically more of the same. I thought the movie was okay, though like with most prequels it left a few plot holes open, though that could've been intentional so they can do another movie which fills in some gaps.

While I can appreciate the movies on an entertainment level, I'm still not sure what is supposed to be so scary about these movies that's causing the audiences to scream their heads off though. I suppose there is a certain element of creepiness factor in them, but I don't think it's really jumping out your seat scary. Plus it's the third movie, you sort of know what to expect by this point.

The audience I saw it with was ridiculous though. They were getting scared over the smallest things. Even stuff where you pretty much knew something was going to jump out and try to scare you. Some of their screaming and yelling was sort of amusing though.

[Dragavan]

I did snag some comedies at the local Blockbuster's closing sale a few months back. The Gods Must Be Crazy, Pleasantville, and Spaceballs. I haven't seen any of them before, but I hear they're all really good.

They are all good for what they are. I really enjoyed The Gods Must Be Crazy and think it's the strongest of the three, but it's also the one that I think will be dismissed by the largest number of people because it's not at all a typical movie in any sense of the word. Spaceballs is just classic silly Mel Brooks comedy taking on Sci-Fi movies and I still quote the movie from time to time. Pleasantville is the most "mainstream" of the three, but it was good for what it was. Not great, but good.

As for things I've watched recently... umm... Other than the original The Thing (to get ready to see the new one, mostly to watch the scenes in the Norwegian camp to see how they will line up), I mostly have been watching TV series' on Netflix. I have now officially seen everything officially put out as Star Trek (since the animated series was added a couple months ago) and slowly going through DS9 again, since I haven't watched it since it originally aired. The only other movie I've watched was Memento, but that's just because it's my all time favorite movie and I love to watch it again every once and a while. Brilliant filmmaking. Hopefully I will see the new The Thing soon.

[JJJ-thebanisher]

Saw Paranormal Activity 3. Apparently they had all this awesome stuff in the trailer that wasn't in the movie (why the fuck does Google Chrome think movie isn't a word?) but I haven't seen the trailer and thus was not disappointed. In fact, I'd say that it was the only movie (!?) I've ever seen that's legitimately freaked me right out. It's not the kind of scared that leaves you thinking about it for any time once you leave the theatre, but while I was watching it, I was delightfully scared. Really well done, especially the scene with the oscillating camera.

But yeah, don't watch the trailer first.

(Also, I thought the first one was decent and the second one was shit. I'm no fan of the series as a whole, but this instalment was really, really good.)

[dreamshell]

Since 'The Thing' is being discussed so much recently, I'd like to recommend this great short story based on the Carpenter movie I came across the other day:

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

[Locke]

Actually read that awhile back and really liked it. Since you're pulling from Clarkesworld, do you read a lot of contemporary SF? Any authors to recommend?


A couple of mine:
Ted Kosmatka
Ted Chiang
Greg Egan

EDIT: The last line seemed really forced in "The Things." But I love that shift in perspective, and the rest of the story came off nicely.

I watched "Chronos" recently, and it's definitely one of the best I've seen. This copy is of surprising quality at 1080p. It's art film, though, and if that's not your thing, you'll probably be bored. The director (Fricke) came out with a movie called Samsara several months ago, which took something like five years just to film. One of very few I've looked forward to (the forthcoming - and last - of the Batman trilogy is also up there).

[dreamshell]

Actually read that awhile back and really liked it. Since you're pulling from Clarkesworld, do you read a lot of contemporary SF? Any authors to recommend?

I don’t read as much as I’d like, but some writers/stories I’m a fan of are;

Charles Stross (Accelerando, The Atrocity Archives & its sequels)

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom & Little Brother by Cory Doctorow:
http://craphound.com/down/
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/

The Ray-Gun: A Love Story by James Alan Gardner:
http://www.thinkage.ca/~jim/raygun.htm

The Gentle Seduction by Marc Stiegler:
http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html

Three Worlds Collide by Eliezer Yudkowsky:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/

[Locke]

I like Doctorow, too. I'll definitely check out the others.

[End Master]

Since RPGs have been a topic lately, I figured I'd mention this movie.

Recently saw a movie called Wild Hunt. The basic premise surrounds this medieval fantasy LARPing community and this guy who got out of it to take care of his sick dad, but his girlfriend and brother are still into it. His brother is so into it he's practically delusional and his girlfriend dumped him for some wizard.

He goes back to the LARPer hang out to try to convince his girlfriend to get back with him and he gets caught up in the in-game faction power struggle. Pretty much gets worse from there since some are taking the game really seriously and he's RUINING IT FOREVER.

Now I imagine a lot of real LARPers would look at this movie and say it was making them look bad (Like Mazes & Monsters with D&D Players) but I think the movie was done well. It didn't really come off as "LARPing is evil!" propaganda. It was more like an examination of a mob mentality when things get really out of hand.

If anything the documentary I saw called Monster Camp painted LARPers in a worse light than this movie did.

[Vesnic]

That reminds me of watching Darkon, which was a documentary that followed the lives of a few LARPers in the Baltimore area. I don't remember if this came up before in the movies thread, but it's been quite a while now since I saw it and it's really stuck with me. It seems like each of these movies takes a sort of different "slant" on the whole scene. Darkon made an interesting point about how some people turn to LARPing out of a sense of dissatisfaction or alienation. Unfortunately, the guy who really seemed to need his alternate reality the most and who was getting kicked around the most in real life came out underneath in the game world too, under this rather smug guy who'd just gotten a promotion at work. The movie teetered just on the edge of making an almost "survival of the fittest" kind of argument, but it had a great deal of compassion for its subjects and didn't fall into too many stereotypes. It actually sort of provoked my interest in that whole scene for awhile.

[Dragavan]

Just watched Red State, by Kevin Smith. I knew very little about it going in, other than he based the main bad guy on Fred Phelps of the Wetborrough Baptist Church (the "God Hates Fags" people), so I wasn't expecting it to be a horror/political movie at all, but it was amazing. Probably his best film to date.

Now, I admit that I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's usual style, with the long string of "View Askewnaverse" movies he made (starting with Clerks). Sometimes he tries to have a basic message of some kind, but mostly they are witty, raunchy, and just plain fun. That's kind of what I was expecting with Red State, only with him making fun of Fred Phelps' skewed take on religion. Instead I got an amazingly well paced slow horror film about a group of sex crazed teen boys trying to get laid that are lured into a trap, where they are going to be killed in the name of god... and eventually the AFT gets involved in a Waco style stand off.

Even the way he has the credits broken down tells you that this movie was made to make a statement. He has the actor lists broken into three categories: Sex, Religion, and Politics. The three topics you avoid when in polite conversation.

If you want gore in your horror, this doesn't have much for you. It's not that kind of horror movie. If you want something that's just really well done and might make you a little uncomfortable as you watch it (possibly even depending on where you stand politically), with great realistic dialog and good pacing, this is a movie you should see.

[JJJ-thebanisher]

Just watched Red State, by Kevin Smith. I knew very little about it going in, other than he based the main bad guy on Fred Phelps of the Wetborrough Baptist Church (the "God Hates Fags" people), so I wasn't expecting it to be a horror/political movie at all, but it was amazing. Probably his best film to date.

Now, I admit that I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's usual style, with the long string of "View Askewnaverse" movies he made (starting with Clerks). Sometimes he tries to have a basic message of some kind, but mostly they are witty, raunchy, and just plain fun. That's kind of what I was expecting with Red State, only with him making fun of Fred Phelps' skewed take on religion. Instead I got an amazingly well paced slow horror film about a group of sex crazed teen boys trying to get laid that are lured into a trap, where they are going to be killed in the name of god... and eventually the AFT gets involved in a Waco style stand off.

Even the way he has the credits broken down tells you that this movie was made to make a statement. He has the actor lists broken into three categories: Sex, Religion, and Politics. The three topics you avoid when in polite conversation.

If you want gore in your horror, this doesn't have much for you. It's not that kind of horror movie. If you want something that's just really well done and might make you a little uncomfortable as you watch it (possibly even depending on where you stand politically), with great realistic dialog and good pacing, this is a movie you should see.

Hahahahhaa, my mum watched that accidentally (was led to believe it was a comedy) and I went to visit her a few days afterwards and she couldn't stop ranting about how evil the movie was and how she regretted watching it so much and that due to the nature of it; her life was now less good.

Needless to say, I can't wait to see it.

[Dragavan]

Hahahahhaa, my mum watched that accidentally (was led to believe it was a comedy) and I went to visit her a few days afterwards and she couldn't stop ranting about how evil the movie was and how she regretted watching it so much and that due to the nature of it; her life was now less good.

Is she a fundamentalist Christian and/or a super right wing FOX News watching republican? Because I can see how those groups might have that strong of a response to it, but most people who wouldn't like it would just not like it.

[JJJ-thebanisher]

Is she a fundamentalist Christian and/or a super right wing FOX News watching republican? Because I can see how those groups might have that strong of a response to it, but most people who wouldn't like it would just not like it.

No, luckily she's not either of those things. I think she's just hypersensitive to violence; one of those people who can't sit back and realize that she's watching a movie and that's it.